Astrologist Lilith Rocha looks to the cosmos to decipher what’s in store for your astrological sign in 2019.
After last year’s festival of retrogrades, 2019 sees tech-oriented Uranus bringing electrifying changes to the world of money, assets, possessions and natural resources.
And Jupiter in the sign of multiculturalism makes 12th-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen’s insight freshly relevant: “All things in the world have been made in consideration of everything else.”
CAPRICORN: December 22 – January 20
Big Picture: Authority, maturity and self-realisation are this year’s keywords, as you reap the rewards of past work through respect, recognition or awards. With three eclipses in Capricorn adding additional pivot points for growth, even more pieces of life’s puzzle fall into place. Icing on the cosmic cake arrives in December, when Jupiter joins Saturn and Pluto for a powerful outer-planetary conjunction in Capricorn, ushering in 2020.
Money Matters: In the lessons of Saturn, Capricorns could be considered teacher’s pet, and the celestial heavyweight in your sign this year favours specialisation in business, updating your image, doing a slow build and judicious restructuring so you’re fully prepped for take-off when Jupiter hits the jackpot in your sign next year.
Connections: As Uranus stops stirring up Capricorn’s domestic sector and checks into your house of pleasure, you get to know and show your relaxed and mischievous side. Uranus in your happy place invites you to have fun – to let your hair down, kick your hooves up and share that best of inner/outer health and beauty treatments: laughter.
The Inner You: Capricorns are thought to improve with age like fine wine, and Jupiter in your spirit house this year asks you to revisit the ancient wisdom dictum: Know Thyself. Which takes solitary time in quiet reflection, getting familiar with your inner landscape via whatever spiritual practice you follow, in voluntary (but comfortable) hibernation.
Food For Thought: “If we don’t sit down and shut up once in a while we’ll lose our minds even earlier than we had expected. Noise is an imposition on sanity, and we live in very noisy times.” Annie Lennox, Capricorn singer and political activist.
AQUARIUS: January 21 – February 19
Big Picture: The happy-go-lucky planet Jupiter visits your friendship sector only once every 12 years, and during 2019 its footloose, fancy-free influence offers a wide variety of enjoyable opportunities for organising community get-togethers to share your unconventional ideas with the collective. Expect productive collaborations and plenty of feel-good experiences before next year’s more settled emphasis on regrouping.
Money Matters: Though your mood might be optimistic and confident, new start-ups aren’t recommended for Aquarians this year, which is better suited to finalising financial avenues that aren’t performing, making long-term plans and strategies, and testing possible partnership options. Think marinate rather than microwave, and let economic initiatives stew and simmer.
Connections: Jupiter blesses you this year with generous friends and a busy social life, while Uranus in your home zone attracts unusual visitors. Love flourishes unexpectedly in social networks, online communities and common interest groups, and this year’s most rewarding connections are likely to be via humanitarian initiatives.
The Inner You: This year you’ll benefit immeasurably from an honest, eyes wide open look at yourself in relationship with others. What you have to offer. Where you blow it. How that might change. Beginning, perhaps, by trusting the organic unfolding of life, as Uranus in your home zone for the next seven-year cycle guides Aqua mavericks towards finding the place where you really feel you belong.
Food For Thought: “Activism is my rent for living on the planet. Her activity on behalf of children and the community resulted in making my mother a very happy, light-filled woman. She spent many years in heaven, long before she died.” Alice Walker, Aquarian writer.
PISCES: February 20 – March 20
Big Picture: Evolutionary Uranus zapping your learning sector this year stimulates unusually inspired ideas. If this disrupts your regular rhythms, shakes up routines and gives entrenched beliefs a turnaround, consider it a good thing. This is an exceptional period for sharing your thoughts about the future: keeping in mind the difference between knowledge and what you do with it – which is wisdom.
Money Matters: Auspicious Jupiter in your house of ambition and achievement suggests a promotion, bonus, award and/or influx of well-connected mentors and benefactors into your career sector. With the workplace looking like this year’s most rewarding address, is it time to invest in some techno-upgrades and give your professional wardrobe a fabulous revamp?
Connections: As Uranus and Saturn combine for a double-strength overhaul of your friends and colleagues, expect to be mixing with more influential people at the top of their game as new opportunities arise to engage with a creative collective. The major caution accompanying this year’s transits is to be very sensitive about not overstepping boundaries.
The Inner You: With Neptune downloading a treasury of poetic imagination and feeling, your biggest romance this year could be realising your dreams in the material world. If you’re wondering just how to go about that, start by hanging out with artists of atmosphere and studying the way Venusians do it – Librans in particular. And yes, daring’s definitely involved.
Food For Thought: “Life is so much bigger, grander, higher and wider than we allow ourselves to think. I decided early on that I was going to put on my crown and rule my world by acting right and treating myself like a queen. Trying things that scare the hell out of me and doing it anyway – that gives me a thrill.” Queen Latifah, Pisces singer, actor, producer.
ARIES: March 21 – April 21
Big Picture: Could there be a more inspiring start to the year than the dynamic duo of wildfire Mars and spontaneous Uranus in your sign for the first six weeks of 2019? You’re thinking positive, feeling confident and raring to get started on professional initiatives, creative experiments and most importantly of all, bold new steps on the love path.
Money Matters: Igniting your spirit of adventure, Jupiter beckons with more flexible office hours, working holidays, endless potential, as well as plenty of offers and opportunities, so no need for mad risks or gambles. In fact, your money mantra for 2019 is precisely what you’ve been refining over the past year: trust intuition over impulse.
Connections: As Jupiter’s luminous glow showcases the, happy-go-lucky side of the Aries persona, admirers flock like moths to your flame and uncoupled Aries aren’t likely to ride solo for long. Past conflicts dissolve, communications with colleagues improve, interpersonal feuds resolve more easily and connections with fellow fire signs Leo and Sagittarius are tipped to be especially successful.
The Inner You: Satisfaction isn’t necessarily achieved through hard yakka. For example, it’s easier to change an unwanted habit than you think. Here’s the secret: battling against ingrained patterns only reinforces them, while consistently substituting a preferred alternative forms a new habit. You may have to experiment a bit, but this still works faster than struggling, and what Aries doesn’t love a quick result?
Food For Thought: “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
TAURUS: April 22 – May 21
Big Picture: With Uranus the rearranger in your sign for the next seven years, rather than resist the waves of change, try reframing them as an exciting makeover you haven’t had to pay for. Staying curious, open and flexible will help you recognise and explore alternatives. One caution: Jupiter’s present placement broadens not only ideas and viewpoints, but appetites as well, making diet and exercise paramount.
Money Matters: The expansive influence of Jupiter has you thinking bigger picture, while the innovative vibration of Uranus invites you to consider new financial possibilities and different economic options. Rather than dig in with determination to make something work, this year’s riches are mined through adaptability: a willingness to shift position, respond to changing conditions and experiment with building new partnerships.
Connections: As exciting newbies enter your orbit, international connections made this year are likely to be valuable and lasting. A Venus alignment in your sign in May could deliver a love bomb packaged as a life-changing encounter or surprising team-up, while blessing long-term partners with new ways of engaging.
The Inner You: While Taureans tend to be impressed by size, this excessive year calls for embracing the concept that less is more because, face it, your personal pitfall is overdoing it: overworking, overindulging, overcommitting. Lavish this super-size energy instead on the greatest contribution you can make to your own and loved ones’ wellbeing by cultivating a peaceful mind, calm heart and relaxed body.
Food For Thought: “Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life.” Dr. Wayne Dyer, Taurean self-help author.
GEMINI: May 22 – June 22
Big Picture: Planetary emphasis in your astral house of equity makes it easier this year not to make either/or choices, but find instead a workable balance between yourself and others, the inner and outer you. Between what you want to do and what you need to …
Money Matters: Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is associated with size: think big business, mass media. Your financial balancing act this year is between spending and saving, what you own and what you owe. Improve financial management by curbing impulse shopping and letting practical, savvy outer-world twin take the lead in money matters.
Connections: You’re a people person, and with genial Jupiter in your zone of partnering up, expect a magnificent influx of new people in all areas of life. As the balance of giving and receiving increases its equilibrium, relationships sparkle with renewed intimacy in this glowing love cycle, with long-term commitments becoming less about surface dazzle and more focused on deepening affection, shared values, even enjoying compatible dysfunctions.
The Inner You: With outer twin craving more than the usual variety of new experiences this year, it’s important to recognise that rest, recovery and reflection are also essential parts of a successful and worthwhile life. Regularly nourishing inner twin’s need for muting the world’s noise will allow the serenity of mind necessary to tune into your soul guidance for making choices that bring greater happiness.
Food For Thought: “I know for me, the subject of how to be in a relationship is precious and complicated and challenging. The unlovable and unattractive parts of ourselves should be embraced. The only real currency between people is what happens when they’re not being cool.” Helen Hunt, Gemini actress.
CANCER: June 23 – July 23
Big Picture: As this year launches a seven-year cycle of letting go what’s no longer necessary, it calls for a big release of people and personal patterns you’ve outgrown – which means changing some of your routines and reassessing the company you keep. Think of this as investing in your future: preparation training in readiness for 2020’s grand entry into your “Big Relationship Year”.
Money Matters: Home is the Cancerian heart and soul zone, and it’s where your power source is greatest this year, so a home office could prosper. If necessity’s the mother of invention, Uranus is the father of reinvention, something that’s worth investigating in regard to increasing earnings.
Connections: You know the saying that people are in your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime? As this year makes it clear who’s who and what’s what, it’s time to cull the contact list of time vampires, space invaders, drama queens and frenemies. All this weeding will make your garden of friends blossom with inspiring allies, supporters and admirers.
The Inner You: The flip side of endings are beginnings. As soon as you make space something will occupy it, so as you purge possessions, habits and memories that drain your vitality, windows of opportunity spring open. Blue moods will be way less invasive this year if you’re kinder to your physical vehicle, replacing what you used to find satisfying with different ways to unwind, recharge and relate.
Food For Thought: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. When I work on a problem I never think about beauty, but when I’ve finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it’s wrong.” Buckminster Fuller, Cancerian architect and inventor.
LEO: July 24 – August 23
Big Picture: Jupiter in your house of play and entertainment alongside Uranus in your career sector clearly translates as:
if your job, home or relationships aren’t making you smile, the seven-year itch planet will propel you to fresh pastures where your personal artistry can flourish. This year’s mandate? Don’t do it unless it’s fun. If you have to do it, make it fun.
Money Matters: With Uranus ditching dead-end routines and offering new work perks, you could find yourself drawn to an unusual job offer, strike out in a freelance business or be part of an innovative eco project. You’ll make money, share it generously and enjoy doing both. But being the sign of big spenders, you’ll definitely need to keep an eye on the incomings/outgoings ratio, majesties.
Connections: Fire signs are about encouraging others to shine – to glow in the warmth of appreciative recognition and create something remarkable. With Jupiter in your house of children and young adults, this would be the ideal time for demonstrating those inspirational leadership and mentoring skills. Solo Leos will be the party everyone wants an invite to, while paired pussycats could experience a delightfully spicy reboot of second honeymoon magic.
The Inner You: Driving Saturn in your house of hard work could incline you to burn out this year. Set aside Venus time for whatever cultivates your inner goddess and maintains your outer radiance: think indulgent pamper packages of aromatic massage, buffing and polishing you to luminescence – because when you feel energised, you’ll shine like the star you are.
Food For Thought: “I’ve been popular and unpopular, successful and unsuccessful, loved and loathed and I know how meaningless it all is. Therefore I feel free to take whatever risks I want. I think the ultimate challenge is to have some kind of style and grace.” Madonna, Leo entertainer.
VIRGO: August 24 – September 23
Big Picture: Jupiter pitching his party marquee in Virgo’s home zone places your relationship to your base of operations and those in it into prime focus this year. Saturn in your pleasure zone is more inclined to lasting enjoyment than quick thrills, so Virgo poet Mary Oliver has your fridge post-it note for 2019: “I simply do not distinguish between work and play…”
Money Matters: Fiscally-savvy Virgo money managers like to be well prepped ahead of time, so with rapid economic change on the rise this year, reviewing terms and conditions for the best deals makes financial sense. Your most profitable ventures are likely to be local, with prospects looking good for property investment and home extensions.
Connections: Exacting Saturn is at his most comfortable in your sector of clan, tribe and family, which is likely to provide the most enriching moments of 2019. As this secure energy radiates out to others, they’ll naturally trust, respect and want to work with you. Relationships formed this year, whether personal or professional, are likely to be long-term and supportive, so you can relax knowing that someone has your back.
The Inner You: When you’re driven to complete the to-do list, try this reframe: rather than thinking “I’ve got to”, substitute “How lovely that I get to…” Create personal and social rituals: daily, weekly, monthly. Plus an oasis of calm, your own healing sanctuary somewhere at home with candles, incense, flowers (crystals are particularly in tune with your earth sign) – whatever nourishes your senses. Spend regular time there meditating, reading, listening to music, contemplating nature through the window or doing nothing at all.
Food For Thought: “You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” Mary Oliver, Virgo poet.
LIBRA: September 24 – October 23
Big Picture: Like sister air signs Gemini and Aquarius, Libra’s a social sign, with this year exercising your networking skills and diplomatic talents to Olympian proportions. You’ll find it easier to speak up and out without compromising your principles to make others comfortable, and your greatest challenge is likely to be distinguishing faux info from the real deal and sorting rascals from reliables.
Money Matters: Do a stocktake of what needs deleting and what needs tweaking in your economic sector. If you need to cut losses, make sure you at least gain the lesson. Other than that, you may as well relax because lucrative offers are likely to drop into your lap through having the right contacts and nurturing influential connections.
Connections: Jupiter spending a year in your communications sector couldn’t be better news, because on and offline, others will come to you. As you handle touchy subjects gracefully and pour Venusian oil on troubled waters the Libran way – through charm, not arguments – taskmaster Saturn in your home zone sees your personal love life stable and satisfying.
The Inner You: This mind-focused year needs the balance of physical activity and emotional nourishment, plus spiritual support and inspiration – whatever versions of these work for you. You already know that words and acts of kindness and beauty send ripples out into the world: is there a tactful way to convey to others that the opposite sets off a reverse cascade?
Food For Thought: Attributed to ancient Buddhist master Tu-Shun, the metaphor of the jewelled net envisages a vast network, with a jewel at each intersection which mirrors all the others. Each gem represents an interconnecting life form, so a change in one produces a change in all. Got your doubting face on? Then Tu-Shun says: put a dot on one jewel and watch it reflected back in all the rest.
SCORPIO: October 24 – November 22
Big Picture: Uranus, the planet of change and unexpected news, booking into your partnering department for the next seven years suggests quite a wild roller-coaster ride. But forewarned is forearmed and there’s serious astral support from Saturn stabilising your willpower, plus the back-up of Jupiter’s bounty providing extra helpings of whatever you want.
Money Matters: Wherever Jupiter lands it expands, and its arrival in your house of wealth looks set to bless your bank account and turn Scorpio money green this year via a variety of financial surprises: a pay raise, career upgrade, unexpected windfall or cash bonanza are all possible. In the meantime, check balance sheets, review your resources and hedge economic bets.
Connections: Scorpios are powerfully passionate persuaders, and this year, Saturn’s ongoing lessons in your communication sector give you the opportunity to reprogram and refine the way you interact with others in increasingly positive and rewarding ways. Depth connecting’s your thing, and as time management becomes increasingly precious, so will your selection of who and what you spend it on.
The Inner You: Jupiter doesn’t just shower you with stuff, it brings attention to what you value: whether that’s a partner loving you for who you are, supportive friends you can laugh with, work that makes a meaningful contribution or peace with the past. And this won’t simply happen by chance, but through sustained awareness and application on your part. Stamina and everyday euphoria are the gifts this year has for you.
Food For Thought: “When you breathe in you’ll lift like a balloon and your heart is light too and huge, beating with pure joy, pure helium. The sun’s white winds blow through you, there’s nothing above you, you see the earth now as an oval jewel, radiant and sea blue with love.”
SAGITTARIUS: November 23 – December 21
Big Picture: This year’s breaking astral news for Archers is Jupiter emerging from last year’s cocoon to make its once-every-12-years tour of the zodiac sign it most influences: yours. This ultimate carpe diem transit has your gypsy spirit rising like a fiery butterfly on incandescent wings – so have fun, go wild and enjoy your astrological gap year to the max before Jupiter starts sobering up again in November.
Money Matters: Though recognition and respect are more important to you than money this year, with the planet of good timing and auspicious synchronicity in Sagittarius you’re likely to be in the right place at the right time with precisely the right qualifications for jobs involving travel or well-funded projects to help others.
Connections: This year’s recipe for happy connections? Respect everyone’s right to an opinion, even if it’s the polar opposite of yours. Especially then. Notice when you’re on your soapbox, because you won’t want to diminish your cred just when it could be a major influence for good. Maintain a sense of humour concerning your most cherished opinions – be your fair and funny, wise and witty, generous and entertaining self.
The Inner You: Such a peak active year naturally needs the counter-balance of quiet contemplation time to integrate and distil, which ideally for Archers is outdoors, where the connection with nature restores you. So make it a regular thing to leave the phone somewhere else and let silence comb the thoughts out of your head into still, expanded space.
Food For Thought: “To love. To be loved. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try to understand. To never look away.”