We are pleased to announce that we’ve teamed up with one of our favorite astrologists (and talented yoga pro), Chani Nicholas, to bring you weekly horoscope readings. Check back each Monday to see what’s in the stars for your week! “It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke Aries & Aries Rising Then chaos ensued. But it was felt first like an inner chaos; like hints and premonitions one receives before they are going into labor. Something is happening but on a very deep level. Perhaps it’s only my head though, you think. No, you say, this is happening, but who knows what “this” is? Who knows indeed, but we know it has begun. With this week’s movement of the sun back into your sign there is also the beginning of the solar calendar year (who needs the Gregorian calendar when we have a lunar and a solar one?). This isn’t just any old birthday/annual solar trip round the sun, my friend. All bets are off this year, especially if your birthday is before April 1. This doesn’t mean that the sky will fall (though some of you will experience that optical illusion) or the earth will open up and swallow you whole (though for some of you this is what it may feel like). It does mean that the menu contains many versions of the same meal. It’s time to shake things up with a side of Oh my, I hardly recognize myself anymore. Your needs change, your tastes change. It’s all part of a natural growth cycle that is seemingly sped up at the moment. Chaos is creative and different is delightful as long as it doesn’t completely destabilize us and knock us completely off kilter. Pace yourselves, April is a marathon; this is merely the first moments of the race. Taurus & Taurus Rising While many around you may be running around like their cheap wig is on fire, the turmoil is on the inside when it comes to your astrology, Taurus. Not that things in your outer life aren’t transitioning right now. However, with the sun’s entry into your Twelfth House of A Wrinkle in Time, (oh that book! Please tell me you read it? Anything by Octavia Butler, is perfect for now) everything is happening for you on a very subterranean level-at least at first. This week’s spring equinox is a mere precursor to the events that April will bring. In fact you may even feel the distinct need for downtime, or time to go within to process what is happening there. You know what they say: meditate, meditate, meditate. Your ruling planet, Venus, is gaining some good ground in your Tenth House of Power Suits with Shoulder Pads (career), refusing to let you hide completely though. Venus builds up to a tense square to Saturn in your Seventh House of Partnerships on March 29th. It will become ever more imperative that you keep your relationship boundaries intact, especially at work. Gemini & Gemini Rising Can I get a Wauooohooo!? Yes, your ruling planet, Mercury, is finally moving out of the shadow of its last retrograde cycle. I don’t know about you, but everything technical that I needed to work just decided to not work during this entire retrograde cycle. It feels like it was the longest one we’ve ever had. EVER (they are always the same length of time). Just to recap, it was mostly contained within your Ninth House of But What Does It All Mean??!! Plus there was a little sliver in your Tenth House of Career. This makes me wonder if the detour only served to confuse you, or if you feel you found that little nugget of meaning that you had been missing. Mars is still retrograde in your Fifth House of Love Affairs, Children and Self Expression. So consider, my friend, what you are currently learning in regards to these areas. Can you work the lessons in some very realistic ways? For example, try chanting: I am no longer attracted to folks that aren’t healthy for me. Not only that but I am attracted to folks that ARE healthy for me. The others just fall off like dead skin at the spa when I’m getting one of those super intense scrubs. The equinox takes place in your Eleventh House of Oh My Goddess Why Are There So Many People Around Me? Yes, Gemini, I have noticed that the more of you I read for and the more of you that I know, you are surprisingly, deceivingly, reclusive at times. I must admit, I totally adore that. No time for that now, the next six-weeks are full of folks. Get your down time when you can because there isn’t much of it in sight. Cancer & Cancer Rising “And so we begin!” she exclaimed to all the parts of her personality. Some of which still coward in the corners of her story, not fully trusting this tea party she was throwing. “I have been fortified by the invisible powers of persistence. Even though I may not have everything figured out, I do have one thing straight; my desire to let myself cha-cha-cha through this big, beautiful ballroom called Life!” Not everyone trusted her, mind you. The young boy that lived tucked behind her left ear whispered wants and pondered precautions. He wasn’t yet sold on the idea, but she’d work with him. She’d also have to spend time coaxing the grumpy, harrumphing old man who lived in her right knee. Then there was the scouring teenage punk that lived behind her left lung. Never mind the incorrigible class clown who occupying her mouth most days to join in on the journey. No matter, they would all be putty in her hands by the time she got done with what she knew she needed to do. She is on a mission and she has quite a stellar lineup backing her. Forces above and beyond what are normally working on one’s side are now with her. The best part is she knows it and she is prepared to use it to her advantage. “This is a moment of pure creative chaos, where anything is possible and nothing is certain. I may as well kiss the earth beneath my twinkle toes and declare this spot I stand on sacred ground (because it is). I will lay down every doubt I have ever had as a sacrifice to the Goddess Of Fortune. The wheel has been spun and I must use my energies to visualize the best possible outcome.” She chanted to herself, all day, every day, “I sacrifice my doubt and I open to the possibility of living the life of my dreams.” As she repeated this, she smiled. She smiled that sweet, secret smile that only contentment can bring for she knew her work, for this moment, had been done. Leo & Leo Rising “There is nothing like a new adventure,” he thought to himself. As he yawned and stretched the cobwebs and clouds out of his body, “nothing quite like it.” He had a long forgotten spring back in his step and an unusual feeling in his belly. He wasn’t sure if it was hunger or nerves, but at least it was something different. For a while now the only thing that had lived there was a kind of trepidation due in part to the unrelenting tutorial in Transforming Ones Relationship to Trauma he had been enrolled in over the past month. Needless to say he was ready for some new terrain to traverse. And traverse he will, for in front of the courageous kitty lays a rocky road that will demand ingenuity; an unshakable nervous system and a desire to reach the known limits of his experience and go further. On his way out he will have to be extra mindful, thoughtful and communicative with his intimate partners for they will need the kind of clarity that only rigorous honesty can provide. This will not be much of a problem now that Black Moon Lilith is occupying his sign. Black Moon Lilith can’t but tell the truth; she is a wild, untamable and formidable BFF to entertain. One could say that our fine feline friends are about to change their attire (black stilettos and fishnets or a little number that could have come straight out of Luke Skywalker’s closet?).They’ll utter words that aren’t supposed to be spoken to people that aren’t supposed to be spoken to, and venture off into lands that everyone else deems too dangerous to be divine. Meeee-ow. Virgo & Virgo Rising Untethered but perhaps not unscathed, your ruling planet, Mercury, is moving on up. Or out. Or onward, definitely past the ground it has covered for the past million years (okay, 5 weeks and bit) of its latest retrograde cycle. This is good news and will generally help you sort a few things out by means of them sorting themselves out. Mercury will move onto join Neptune (the great dissolver) in your Seventh House of Pretty Projections. It is subtle news that could bring about some sweet, if not completely unclear, complicated and especially arousing conversations. Hint: don’t buy the snake oil or the swampland just yet. Consult a trusted friend, like your gut. Wait out the weekend before jumping to any major conclusions about what that special someone is telling you. Sweet nothings are sometimes just nothing. Now, none of this really compares to what coming round the mountain. This week the sun moves across what Western astrologers refer to as the Aries Point; a fiery rest button and a demarcation on the beginning of the solar year. For you this falls in the domain of your chart that handles your very complex complexes — fears of failing, dying, losing and intimacy live here. Like an inkling of an underwater tornado that is bound to blow everything out of the water, the sun’s movement here signals only the very beginning of this stirring. Yup, time to call your therapist/healer/witch/medicine person/therapist and set up some appointments. They’ve been saving a seat for you. This is the kind of astrology that can give you quite a lot of opportunities for healing. Get some. Libra & Libra Rising I mean….it’s hard to say. It’s hard to say whether some of you will be Put. Through. The. Ringer. in terms of romantic relationships, business partnerships or just the process of dealing with others on the daily. Or will you fall madly in love with the most unlikely of people (perhaps only for 5 minutes)? Or if every single person you meet will be a reflection like you would meet in a fun house on Halloween. One thing is for sure: We are trying to get your attention! Yes, I have been babbling on about creating firm boundaries. Yes, I have been asking you to deal with your anger issues, identity issues and your need to discover and go after what you want. Now it appears that I am not the only one. The stage is being set for a drama so daring with a plot so twisted that it threatens to reveal more about you than you may be comfortable with. This time will also be wildly exciting for some of you. Remember not to get too caught up in the clouds; success is only as good for us as our container is strong enough to hold it. There can be quite a tremendous well-spring of creativity between you and another; the kind of out-of-the-blue, juicy, unforeseen chaos that comes but once in a lifetime. Dylan has written extensively on how all those songs of freedom, resistance and rebellion just came to him, for years, like snowflakes from the clouds, like rain to the ground. They weren’t his, they were gifts that he heard first and so he caught them and gave them to us. Then one day the river dried up to a trickle. Then he did a Chrysler commercial for the 2014 Superbowl. So now that we know the apocalypse is here… you may as well take the well spring of ingenuity that you have access to and run with it. If you need an affirmation to work with this week, try this one: Dear Universe, I am ready and I am willing to go through whatever it takes to open me up to greater love, to a truer understanding of union and to a real partnership. But be warned, those words are some strong medicine; use them at your own risk. Scorpio & Scorpio Rising Before the beautiful and talented magician opened their fortune cookie (which contained a very lengthy fortune, because that’s how magician fortune cookies roll), they closed their eyes and asked a question that had been burning in their heart for some time. Then the magician opened the crumbly, golden case and read: Like you have nothing to lose, like you’re a rebel with a cause. Like you’ve been given only one life to live and your time is tick-tick-ticking away. Like chaos is part of the deal. Most things don’t work out how we think they should, so whatever. Like your hands are thrown up to the sky in a sacred moment of “fuck it” and “how important is it anyway?!” Like your actions have reverberations. The freer you get, so does everyone else around you. Like your Elaine dancing, Phoebe running or Oprah singing in the audience; like you are sitting at the table with the Big Girls. You are ready to bet all you have on the talent that you posses both known and unrealized. Like you could not care less about what other people think of you. You live up to your own expectations of yourself and no one else’s. Like you’re worth it. Like you mean it. Like it’s precious. Like you are fabulous. Like you are afraid of nothing. Like you have the fierce fuel of righteous rage and the calming antidote of compassion when you need it. Like you’re ready. Like you’re set. To which the magician replied, “Go.” Sagittarius & Sagittarius Rising Like the first 2 minutes of Beyonce at the Superbowl. Like a child with her first set of paints and nothing but a lonely naked wall in front of her begging to be decorated. Like an open dance floor with the baddest beats bumping, this spring is beckoning you to be bolder in your self expression and truer in your telling of the story. This week ushers us into a time that will shatter the structures that were voted most likely to succeed and open doors that didn’t exist before. The trick will be to gracefully let go of what has gone and be open to what is. It’s most likely not what you thought but nevermind that. Instead focus on this moment of complete possibility. You see there is no way to tell how the astrology will start to shake down, tear down or take down the walls that confine you. For some this will be exciting and enriching for others it will be jarring and not completely welcome. It all depends on what your recipe of self-discovery is calling for to create the perfect reflective surface. Now, I’m not saying that everything will go boom this week, but all the dancers are secretly moving into place for the next flash mob. Places, please! And 5, 6, 7, 8…. Capricorn & Capricorn Rising I’m out of here, said Avery to no one in particular. This house can no longer contain me, my roots feel like wandering tumble weeds. I must roam! Avery knew however that this didn’t have to mean a change in physical housing (though it was tempting). It was more of an uprooting, change and shift in how home was being related to. It was one of those times in life where you can hear the rumblings of discontent and feel the onset of rambling fever. Something is different. Yet nothing has really changed and we aren’t sure how we feel about it yet. Avery knew enough to know that usually these life cycles come in waves with an intensity building and eventually fading away. Avery knew the best thing that one could do during such an occasion was to note the disease and try to refuse ultimate solutions or steady conclusions to attach oneself to. Ultimately Avery knew that if we are to live life we must learn how to live gracefully with unresolved problems. And so Avery made that the #1 goal of this week and was quite happy with the results. Aquarius & Aquarius Rising If I could be a fly on the wall, I would be on yours. Lightning strikes through the words that you speak. Considering you are known for your no holds barred swagger, I am dying to see what kind of insights you might reveal with the slip of the tongue and a tip of the hat. If I was kind, I would perhaps caution you about saying things nicely or not saying them at all. However, it is looking like it’s time for some Truth Talk right here on Break It Down. It’s cool, don’t sweat it too much. If folks can’t hang with your realness then they aren’t friends; they are just people you know. The same goes for you, though. You gotta take it if you give it. The other deal with this astrology is that you have access to some pretty rad (as in radical) energy moving through your mind. I know that your life is about to get biz-ay. I would be remiss if I didn’t offer you this advice: write down all those wild ideas that you get and put ‘em in your pocket for later. Your mind is on a freedom train right now and your sights are most likely set on the open road. However this kind of energy can also be used to further your creative pursuits and launch life on a new path. To be continued… Pisces & Pisces Rising It’s pretty clear from here that the one thing you need to get clear on is your finances. As part of your ongoing self-development, I want you to write down every single cent you make and every single cent you spend. Write down how you made it (possibly also how you felt while making it), and what exactly you spent it on (lunch, eyeliner, astrology reading, donation to favorite org). At the end of the month, tally up the two columns. Notice how much came in compared to went out. Realize how many of the things you bought you actually needed and felt like you wish you hadn’t. This is an exercise in bringing awareness to how you feel about making and spending money. This is not a critique on capitalism (that’s for another time). I want you to get in touch with your relationship to the stuff because there is a whole lot of truth coming down the pike in terms of your cash-flow. I want you to handle it like a grown up. Keep your eyes on it like you would a small child. The other interesting facet of this week is a very creative and imaginative one. I want you to use it in terms of how you relate to your finances. Imagine what it feels like to have enough, imagine what it feels like to be mindful but not stressed about spending money on the things you need and value. Use your powers of creative visualization to see yourself in right relationship to your check book. No guilt, no fear, no shame and no secrets. *Edited by Laurence Joseph Jones For more information please visit Chani’s personal blog, UntilTheStarsFallFromTheSky, or for personal astrology readings please contact Chani directly at chani [at] chaninicholas.com.