Let’s talk about sex baby!

I want to give you something to look forward to. Not a new year, not a new you but the simple, animal pleasure of getting down and getting it on.

In terms of astrological weather, 2023 is big on change and challenge and these themes extend to the realms of sex and love. Notable transits include structured Saturn’s entrance into Pisces, Pluto’s revolutionary return to Aquarius and dice dealing, luck loving Jupiter’s move to pleasure seeking Taurus.

To learn more about the affect of these transits, read our 2023 Nostradamus world predictions here. 2023 will in all likelihood not start off with a bang as Mars, the planet that rules sex and initiative is retrograding, heralding a time to reflect upon our pursuit of pleasure and the role sex serves in our lives. This contemplative vibe is underlined by the fact that Mars is retrograding in never shuts the f**k up or steps off the merry go round of their minds Gemini.

All talk no orgasms? Not on my watch, folks.

Sex magic

Within this time of reflection and throughout the year ahead I recommend each and every one of you tune in and turn yourselves on to the practice of sex magic. Believers maintain that the most potent time for spell casting, manifesting, intention setting or power downloading is during, or on the edge of, orgasm. Whether you’re getting to that precipice with a pal or all on your own the key to a successful ceremony is to be direct about your desire and conduct the entirety of your embodied energy towards it. Immediate benefit guaranteed.

Masturbation as medicine and the self as a devotional object

To that same end, masturbation is medicine my friends and some of the safest, satisfying and most sacred sex you can have is with yourself. I hope you bear this in mind, heart and loin as you move through the year ahead. Cancer king, writer, red head enthusiast and professional weirdo Tom Robbins reminds us, “While a partner can add sweet dimension to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.” Let’s drop the delusion of a perfect other and reprogram ourselves to love ourselves without condition and to welcome worship, and only worship from others. Read on to learn more about what the stars have in store and what sex lies in wait for your zodiac sign.

ARIES (March 21 – April 19)

The beauty of you Aries, is that you remain blessedly instinctive in matters of love and sex. You don’t hesitate, a boldness that serves you in the moment but not always in the long run. As the first born sign in the zodiac, you never lose the novelty of firsts. And yet, what comes after the initial flush? Do you equate contentment with complacency? Your homework, or ho work, for the year ahead is to surrender the chase in favor of a pace that prioritizes your own needs and wants. If you can first and finally satisfy yourself you can stop seeking the unsustainable intensity of the newfound and fleeting.

TAURUS (April 20 – May 20)

Ruled by Venus, planet of love and beauty, you live and die by the pleasure principle, Taurus. Yet you may be harboring insecurities around your body and holding tight to shame related to who and how you want. This year offers you the chance to choose love instead of fear, release over repression. To help spur you, I offer a portion of poem and exalted smut by fellow bull Louise Glück, ‘You came to the side of the bed and sat staring at me….you must have known, then, how I wanted you. We will always know that, you and I. The proof will be my body.” We’re all going to die my bull babies and the lucky among us will greet that day having gone to the edge of the pasture and proven ourselves through the power of our bodies and our comfort within them. Take it off and let it go, Taurus.

GEMINI (May 21 – June 20)

For all your verbosity and word play Gemini you can be coy when it comes to detailing your desires. This year is a bit of a sexual slow burn for you but when the sun shines through your sign and coincides with power planet Pluto’s retrograding in Capricorn you will be ready to apply your innate curiosity to more carnal pursuits. How can you bridge the space between the cerebral and the physical? How can you sing to the hive of your mind and ask it to stand in still surrender to your animal body? Mutability is your birthright but what will you discover about yourself when you resist the urge to adapt to the fantasies of your partner and dare to design your own?

CANCER (June 21 – July 22)

Cancer, you have no fear of the emotional depth of others but often deflect your own needs by helping others meet theirs. Pluto will see fit to upend that imbalance and set you straight on a path of equitable vulnerability. To help you get there, get deep and get some, I offer you the poem “Desire” by Cancer moon and legendary man of lettters, Langston Hughes:

“Desire to us
Was like a double death,
Swift dying
Of our mingled breath,
Evaporation
Of an unknown strange perfume
Between us quickly
In a naked
Room.”

Cancer, your assignment is to die naked, often, coequally and with the solid determination to be reborn brighter and clearer through each encounter.

LEO (July 23 – August 22)

Shake your mane and shift your gears this year Leo. Venus, planet of love and attachment stations retrograde in your sign this summer, heralding a time to reflect on how you express and accept love in all its myriad forms. Do you prioritize adoration over intimacy? Do you view emotional unavailability as a challenge to meet rather than a quality to avoid? Consider this admission from fellow Leo Warsan Shire’s poem “Excuses For Why We Failed At Love,” “I was wandering the derelict car park of your heart looking for a ride home.” Can you relate? This retrograde and this year in general serve to remind you that every negative impulse and self sabotaging narrative you remove and every empty offer you resist leave you primed to receive the sexual communion you crave and the luxury model love that you deserve.

VIRGO (August 23 – September 22)

Commitment is at the forefront for you this year Virgo with several planetary influences turning your attention to long term partnerships. Yet, this narrowing of focus does not equate to settling down or standing still. Neigh, this cycle is about finding someone to support your wilderness of spirit. Dwarf death dealing planet Pluto is beginning its slow departure from your romantic sector, freeing you to make use of the fertile ground it leaves in its wake. Plant with patience, purpose and uninhibited optimism. In the words of Virgo poet Tonya Ingram, “Put a spell on your growth. Tell it to stay. To be the reminder of what you deserve. A love so damn good it could only be something you give yourself.”

LIBRA (September 23 – October 22)

Yours is a sign defined by partnerships and marked by diplomacy. You are willing to go to great lengths to keep the peace and maintain the status quo in your romantic entanglements, Libra. These accommodating acrobatics often come at the expense of your authentic self. How can you know what you want if you are preoccupied with providing whatever another person may need? Blessedly, the combined energy of Jupiter, Chiron and Venus are conspiring to help you define yourself free and clear. You are not an accessory to desire Libra, you are the embodiment of it. If you need a reminder of the difference, repeat the words of Libra moon Lucille Clifton in her poem “To A Dark Moses”

“You are the one
I am lit for.

Come with your rod
that twists
and is a serpent.

I am the bush.
I am burning
I am not consumed.”

Let your fires be lit but don’t lose yourself in the burning.

SCORPIO (October 23 – November 21)

2022 may have been a little rough on your heart meat Scorpio but all that pain was not without purpose. The major shift happing in the arenas of sex and love for you this year Scorpio is that Saturn, planet of form is moving into Pisces and into the area of your chart that governs creativity, pleasure and the inner child. Saturn gets a bad rap for being big on tough love but what it lacks in whimsy it makes up for in materialization. The influence of Saturn is a serious ballast to you Scorpio, emphasis on serious. Saturn invests when it is sure so flights of fancy and surface flings will seem even more frivolous than usual. You may find yourself drawn to an older partner and relationships that prioritizes long term sustainability over spontaneity and are marked more by communion than obsession.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 – December 21)

Through the first weeks of the new year, Mars retrograde linger like an anti-horny hangover, making you feel like your mojo has gone missing Sagittarius. I am happy to report it has been found playing strip poker off the shores of Madagascar, bartering a paisley shirt for warm beer and dibs on the next karaoke song. It is slated to return in February and really show you what it can do and who it can bed after the new-moon solar eclipse in Aries on April 20. Your conversations around sex and intimacy have the power to be directly in line with your desires and in service of your unconventional approach to commitment. Wild nights are guaranteed and if you manage to be true to you, you will inspire a similar abandon in everyone you exchange spit, winks and poetic sexts with this year.

CAPRICORN (December 22 – January 19)

You have a reputation for being a bit stodgy and a touch serious Capricorn, but I see you. You’re not represented by the devil card for nothing. As a discreet devotee of earthly pleasure, sexuality is your preferred method of release and revelry. Undressed is the space in which you truly unwind but you have to feel safe and you’ll need to surrender in order to have the kind of boundary pushing, ego dissolving, taste colors, smell shapes, question the fabric of time and reality type of sex you need. Luckily, the stars are aligning for you to take the first step towards trusting in the tender body of another human being, a journey that will lead you, if you are willing, to and through some other worldly sexual landscapes.

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Astrology 101: Your guide to the stars

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AQUARIUS (January 20 – February 18)

Your objectivity is among your greatest gifts Aquarius but to maintain that vantage you must keep a dangerous distance from the messy, vital pulse of sex and emotionality. To connect, you’re going to need to get close. Carnal transcendence requires that you come down to earth, fully into your body and to a certain extent muffle your mind. Take heed the wisdom of fellow water bearer and acclaimed playwright Bertolt Brecht, “You must try not to shirk the facts: mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.” Get to the source and your own animal heart, space cowboys.

PISCES (February 19 – March 20)

For too long you have confused pain for passion, Pisces and in the process forfeited your divine right to pleasure. You do not need to suffer, you do not need to beg or pine. You are perfect, your sex is medicine and anyone that doesn’t approach you with head bowed and heart open is not a challenge or a charge you need to accept. Tethered as you are to the idea of a an idealized, soul dissolving romantic entanglement, I give you this poem “On Thought in Harness,” by Pisces Edna St. Vincent Millay about the painful passage to getting free. May you cut loose and climb clean.

“My falcon to my wrist
Returns
From no high air.
I sent her toward the sun that burns
Above the mist;
But she has not been there.

Her talons are not cold; her beak
Is closed upon no wonder;
Her head stinks of its hood, her feathers reek
Of me, that quake at the thunder.

Degraded bird, I give you back your eyes forever, ascend now whither you are tossed;
Forsake this wrist, forsake this rhyme;
Soar, eat ether, see what has never been seen; depart, be lost,
But climb.”

Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.