The week ahead beckons,
and we need to be ready for it to feel right.

For our specially feminist horoscopes, this week our resident tarot reader Madam Zeenat reads the Next World Tarot deck, which envisions a world where justice relies on respect and revolutionary love. The tarot deck is by Cristy C Road, a Cuban-American artist, writer and musician, who says: ‘We want to find ourselves in our decks, and we want them to tell our story. My stories are about smashing systematic oppression, owning our truths, being accountable to the people and places that support us, and taking back a connection to your body that may have been lost through trauma or societal brainwashing.’

April 2-8, 2018

This week, Madam Zeenat draws the Queen, the High Priestess, the Hermit, the home of ideas, enjoying your despair
and more!

Aries

Mar 21 – Apr 20 

The Queen Of Wands is quite the co-pilot to have this week as the Sun is about to enter your sign. This is the week to let your your inner ram be less ba-ba-lamb and charge head-on at a long-standing or difficult goal.

The Queen Of Wands asks you to be yourself, use your own wisdom and experience. The chaos of nature that she brings with her makes all man-made (man-made, hee) obstacles irrelevant. With your own strengths doubled (the Sun in your sign) and all obstacles irrelevant, the task at hand will seem much easier than what your logic or your imagination have been telling you all this while.

This week, you’ll either catch a break or adapt beautifully. At work, if you have a project, assignment or role that you’ve been eyeing for a while, this is the week to make a go for it. In relationships, have you been trying to tell your loved ones something difficult? It could be an old traumatic memory, or a new desire/decision that you’re worried they won’t like. Plan an evening around it and tell them.

Taurus

Apr 21 – May 21

Are you totally, like totally and absolutely, done feeling persistently defeated by a horrible company policy or institutional rule, a ridiculous boss, a toxic friend in your group or an escalated misunderstanding?

Niggling problems like these eat at your strengths — stability and a strong immune system — from the inside. But it is not like if these problems were to vanish, you’d suddenly be happy. The change you seek is more long term.

The 9 Of Wands marks the beginning of exactly that durable change. The 9 Of Wands is resilience. With the power the 9 Of Wands gives you this week, you will attract others who want to fight this demon with you for personal or other gains. This is the week to start strengthening your immune system after its last fall from grace.

For Taureans who feel like they’re not at the best of their health: The 9 Of Wands is going to help you summon and gather all your strengths. Take full advantage of the situation. Start your new exercise plan, start therapy, start anything that will help you rebuild yourself. This is the week you build the resistance.

Gemini

May 22 – June 21

The Page Of Pentacles is here to hold your hand as you walk from comfort to growth. We grow when we take on a new idea, a new direction in our journey. The Page of Pentacles is The Home Of Ideas.

Any idea you chase will launch you right out of your comfort zone to places where you will see new things, do new things, meet new people that will be the cause of your growth. This week shouldn’t be a big deal for you, Gemini, because aap toh ho hi badchalan. You are used to bouncing between ideas and people (even if it has been in your own comfort zone).

This is a great week to enrich your mind. You must find time to read, watch, listen to different experiences and philosophies (and avoid that product manager fellow you met who told you Ayn Rand is his fav philosopher).

You can be unlike your Gemini self and try dodging it but The Page Of Pentacles is like a bird teaching its babies to fly. She’s just going to push you out of the nest. Fly, you fool! Or at least (as Douglas Adams has said,) throw yourself at the ground and try to miss.

Cancer

June 22 – July 22

Have you been feeling emotionally drained by your days? Stop ignoring your intuition! Allow yourself to feel what you truly feel. The High Priestess is your own, personal Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya! She is your most sacred and personal magic — YOUR INTUITION!

Cancerians are the most resilient of all the signs. You ride the waves of change pretty unscathed. This week is the time for you to be vulnerable. Allow yourself the luxury to feel every emotion and sensation. Express your feelings. Joy will beget joy. Pain will attract healing.

If you’re facing relationship troubles or heartbreak, talk about it. Don’t hide in your emotional closet. At work, if you’re usually the one people rely on to get stuff done, this will be a great week for you to take a step back and expect others to show up. Allow yourself to complain.

If this is a good time in your life and things are relatively smoother, don’t take it for granted. Find the time to be grateful without worrying that it will make you look vulnerable to attack. It will only show people your truth — you’re human just like them and if you manage to get through bad times unscathed, it is because you are resilient.

Leo

July 23 – Aug 23

Something big and powerful is hurtling your way this week, dear Leo. It can be a big life decision, a grand fight, an unexpected romance, and the likes. Or it could be a battery of many, many, many small things that will change the course of your life.

Of all the signs, Leos bank on their powers the most (even for mundane things, like if Wonder Woman used the lasso of truth to negotiate baigan ka bhaav). This also keeps their powers well-honed. In extreme situations, a calm-headed Leo can be an asset and a mad Leo can be an implosion.

So, the 2 Of Swords asks you to check your denials — about the upcoming situation and about how you use your powers. It is asking you to investigate the big and powerful before you choose whether to enter battle or to enter talks. Reference math—

Situation X (Calm Leo + Denial) = You lose.

Situation X (Mad Leo + Denial) = You lose + Other casualties.

Situation X (Calm Leo + Investigation) = You win.

Situation X (Mad Leo + Investigation) = Aapko dawaa ki nahin, duaa ki zaroorat hai.

All we’d like to tell you is, don’t cave into your instincts. Investigate. No knee-jerk reactions. Then decide whether to battle or to talk. Samjhe?

Virgo

Aug 24 – Sept 22

Dear Virgo, if things stop meeting your perfectionist standards and life’s feeling like a lonely struggle, maybe it’s time to look to a philistine for answers.

The World will enable you to see if you’re punishing yourself or others for not meeting your standards. Or using lies and sabotage to achieve the perfection you so desire or to uphold an ideal or a belief.

At work, if you’re not seeing desired results, don’t keep pushing yourself and others around you to make it happen. Take a step back. Listen to everybody on the team. Ask people from the outside too. Brainstorm, expand the scope if need be.

All of us have dream versions of the relationships we’re in. Sometimes, we’re deluded enough to believe that those are the real versions. Take this week to observe your behaviour with your friends, family, lovers and be open to loving them on some of their conditions too.

Basically, cut the people in your life some slack. Including yourself. Trust people. Almost all of them have their reasons for failing to meet your expectations. Understand them. You might not end up with the perfect world you had in mind but the world you’ll help build will damn sure be loving and beautiful.

Libra

Sept 23 – Oct 23

Have you been feeling like something is off lately? Like something isn’t adding up. It could be your work-life balance, or you may have ceded more territory in a work project or personal relationship than you’re comfortable with.

Suspension is a graceful dancer dangling upside down in the sky using a horseshoe as an aerial ring. You know how that is.

My art teacher asked us to turn our paintings upside down to spot what was off especially when we were drawing symmetrical objects in “Still Life” or symmetrical designs in “Geometrical Design”.

This is the week you have to find time to switch off all notifications. Embrace withdrawals from the world like you would embrace a moment of joy. You’ll start to regain the balance you lost.

Lovers, check if your relationship is stuck in a rut that is demanding more work from you or your partners. Break that cycle. If you’re a homely couple, go out. If you’re a dinner-and-a-movie couple, try an activity — can be an arts workshop, an escape room, or just an arcade. The ceded territories in the relationship will come to light.

Scorpio

Oct 24 – Nov 22

When burnt by people we love, we often tend to seek their attention, most times only to get burnt again or we hurt others in our path. The cycle repeats till we break it. It is only then that we begin to heal. Scorpions live for love. It’s your most powerful motivator. This makes you more vulnerable to that cycle.

The 8 Of Swords is here to protect you from your triggers, dear Scorpio. She’s going to give you the strength to choose your limits and focus on your healing. She’s going to help you break the cycle by stopping you from hurting yourself or others when triggered by your abuser.

This week, feel free to cancel any and all plans you’ve made with people who have hurt you, especially those you’re unable to forgive. Stay home, do chores, binge on TV shows. If home is where the root of trouble is, try and get out for the week. Find a trusted friend you can stay with. Or just use this opportunity to take a solo holiday. Make a safe haven, a cocoon for you to regroup and heal. You can always return and plot the downfall of your abuser. But you can’t execute a successful coup if you’re not healthy yourself.

Sagittarius

Nov 23 – Dec 21

You are on the verge of a breakthrough. Dear Sagittarius, your trademark optimism and enthusiasm are about to pay off. The 8 Of Pentacles marks the transition from diligence to fruition.

Now that you are the master of your tools and your creation, The 8 Of Pentacles wants you to shake up your conscience and analyse your creation. As a Sagittarian, you’re all about making it big. But are you getting carried away by your upcoming success and being unfair to those around you? Progress is great but is it really progress if it’s not inclusive?

At work, are you being the driven boss who is making sure that their underpaid underlings are running on hamster wheels to light up your yard? In your personal life, are you expecting all the emotional and moral support from your loved ones while repeating your job and your success as an excuse to not return the same?

We’ll repeat what all mothers in American TV shows tell young girls who really want to lose their virginity but aren’t sure of the boy they’re dating, “It’s okay to wait, sweetie.” It’s okay to wait and rethink your progress to include everybody around you.

Capricorn

Dec 22 – Jan 20

Dear Capricorn, your humility and modesty have led to you sometimes not getting credit for the work you’ve done. Sometimes, this hurts your self-worth. (Do a quick damage check.)

What’s worse? The half fish that you are makes sure you keep your emotions deeply submerged. This usually is an asset to your goat-like drive to reach the finish line but when your self-worth is disturbed, it hurts your creativity and productivity at work and makes your relationships complicated.

The Hermit is here to help you rebuild any self-worth that you’ve lost in the days leading to this week. She encourages healing in solitude. She wants you to perform your pain. Try shutting the world out and dance to your favourite track. Sing along to the songs on the radio. Paint something.

The Hermit is anti-excess. Don’t give in to retail therapy or binge drinking or binge eating in an attempt to fill the void in your self-worth. Nothing outside of you is going to help you heal.

Lovers, don’t let this phase push you into self-hate. Remember that you are loved and there may be a temporary gap in communication but your love will be returned one way or the other.

Aquarius

Jan 21 – Feb 18

You never let your strong opinions come in people’s way, dear Aquarius. That’s the reason people trust you enough to be their true selves around you. Sometimes, people’s true selves are ugly and manipulative. Have you let someone’s ugliness fuck with you off-late? It can be toxic groupthink. It can be an abusive person in power. The upshot is that you are being discouraged from showing your pain, from complaining. People have told you to “Stop acting hysterical!” or “Let it go, they’re like that only.”

The 9 Of Swords is here to make you enjoy your despair. She wants you to reclaim your hysteria to start healing. Explode in front of people if need be. File that complaint. Make that complaint heard.

As feminist writer Sara Ahmed writes, “If you would have to complain in order to stay in a situation you often have to leave the situation. We have to fight so complaints can be heard.”

Indulge in vices if they help you keep your head above water while you fight this monster. Fuck all motivational thoughts and let go. We recommend maintaining a journal during this time. It will help later.

Pisces

Feb 19 – Mar 20

Pisceans are most likely to get lost in the pursuit of making the world a better place. Their constant moopd swings don’t help. In doing all this, sometimes you forget yourself. You without you is like a fish without water.

Has your tendency to love unconditionally put you in a bind in your relationships? Perhaps, none of your love is coming back and you have not enough left for yourself. Use this week to make a self-pampering regiment to be carried forward. Make your own self-love kit.

If your heart’s been broken too many times, don’t chase romance this week. Explore your own sexuality. Learn how to make yourself orgasm if you haven’t already. If you’re good at it, explore and experiment. Get to know your body.

At work, this is the right time to start building an extra set of skills. You’re a natural swimmer, dear fish. So, don’t worry about finding time or the right course. Just learn by doing.

With The 9 Of Pentacles by your side and your own natural strength to swim even against the currents, you’re going to build self-sufficiency, which will be a great asset in the future.