This isn’t going to be a horoscope. Instead, here in the Dark Time at the end of the year, let’s take a moment to look at what astrology is good at, what it’s not, and one witch’s approach to working with it. 

I’ve been a witch much longer than an astrologer. If my getting in trouble for teaching witchcraft to other children on the playground in Catholic school kindergarten is any indication, I was born this way and have always seen the world through heretical eyes. Astrology is a language that I learned in my 30s to help me be a better dance partner for Fate and give some structure to my often slightly out of sync relationship with Time.

I’ve always had a knack for Knowing how certain things will play out if not exactly when. Astrology is very good at when. In fact it’s much better at When than exactly What or How. The planets move in predictable patterns, they create relationships between themselves at any given moment, and relationships between their positions in moments past (like at the moment of our birth in our natal chart).  

A relationship is by its very nature a mutable thing. It’s a conversation, an interaction, a chance for change as two forces impact each other. Think about it, when are you most likely to change? When you’re walking along alone minding your own business or when you’re in conversation with someone else? Even if you’re walking alone and processing, that thing you’re processing almost certainly came from an interaction with an outside force. It’s basic physics, right? An object in motion or at rest remains that way until acted upon by an outside force. So Aspects (the technical term for geometric relationships between planets in astrology) are planets being pulled into dynamic relationship with each other as outside forces. Thus they create opportunities for change. 

I’ll pause for a second to remind you that we’re speaking subjectively here. Do I think that Mars being at a 90 degree angle from Jupiter from the earth’s perspective has a literal gravitational impact that changes the planets’ essential nature in some way? I do not. (Or maybe it does, I’m an astrologer, not an astrophysicist, but my point is it doesn’t matter). Just as I don’t think that the literal positions of the planets literally has an objective impact on our personalities or decisions. I think the celestial seasons of planetary motion are more complex than the solar seasons of earth, but still something we can see patterns in and develop a relationship with the spirit and soul of if we know where and how to look. 

So what does all this serve? Well, Griffin taught in a recent Witchblood class on misrule that “you can’t change something that’s fixed. You need to get things into a state of motion in order to change them”.  Personally, in my practice, I have found astrology to be helpful in identifying the moments when motion and change can be most effective; when motion or change may feel harder than usual; and when bigger forces of chaos are at work and we should maybe just hold on and let it play out. To paraphrase a bit more from Griffin: “Mischief is throwing things into motion, misrule is the motion, chaos is when that motion takes on a life of its own.” 

Think of it this way: You’re out past the breakers trying to swim ashore. You can do that in a calm sea; you can work much harder swimming against a rip tide pulling the opposite direction; you can catch a wave going your way and ride; or you can get tossed about in a hurricane. The way I work with astrology, the hope is that if you knew there was a hurricane coming, you might decide not to go swimming in the first place. 

So how do we spot a hurricane if astrology is better at When than What? Well that’s where the patterns come in.  All these relationships between planets (Aspects) and movements through the signs and houses of the zodiac (Transits) have happened before and will happen again.  What happened last time can give us some clues about what might happen next time. So as much as we think of Astrology as a tool of looking ahead, to really work with it, especially as a witch rather than just someone reading horoscopes, you have to spend just as much time (if not more so) looking back.  

I keep detailed notes on how certain astrological patterns play out in my own chart and life. As an example, I’m a Mars ruled Scorpio so I’ve found that Mars retrogrades make me feel particularly stuck whereas Mars passing through Scorpio every two years is my favorite wave to ride! All of the planets have their own patterns. Venus repeats its cycle almost exactly every 8 years. Eclipses repeat every 9. So if you pay attention or look back through old journals (or even social media posts!) sometimes the last version of a transit or aspect can give you a hint about the next one. For outer planet transits, which often only happen 1-3 times in our lives, we can look for hints in what folks with similar charts experienced. For world events, we can look at history. That’s actually the reason I love studying “mundane astrology” (the astrology of current and historical events) because the big stuff is always really well documented and the longer term patterns are easier to see.  

Now, it’s way more complicated than that makes it sound because there are a LOT of things happening in the sky at any given time, so it’s rare that you’re going to get EXACTLY the same combination.  But again, astrology is a language, and like any language you combine different elements in different ways but meaning still emerges. At the end of the day, knowing that Mercury retrograde means communications are going to go haywire isn’t THAT different than knowing people may want to get frisky at Beltane or mourn at Samhain. There are just a lot more elements at play at any given time and their schedules may seem unpredictable until you learn their patterns. 

And I’m not saying everyone should!  Trust me, I know that I learned astrology so that a lot of you don’t have to. But even within my own coven, there’s often a feeling that astrology is more math or ceremonialism than witchcraft. And it certainly can be! One of the signs I was probably falling in love with my (now) fiancé was that I drove up to Van Nuys from the Westside to do a 5am ritual with him at the exact moment of an astrological aspect. (It did not occur to me when I agreed to this ritual that he would take the timing that seriously, but he would like me to point out that it was a hell of a working). A language is a tool, and a tool can be used in a variety of different ways. 

Our Sight can also help us identify the patterns or otherwise fill in some of the What might be about to happen. But Sight is not great at When. Spirit is not great with time, and I have often found myself agonizing about something I Know is going to happen but without a When it’s easy to get paralyzed into waiting for something that could be years away. In moments like that, I find astrology a useful tool to help put that Sight in the context of Time. It might be a year and a half before the best possible window of opportunity for something opens. Do I want to try to push that or make the most of the time in between?

My point in all of this (and I do have one!) is that rather than being something that controls my Fate, I look at astrology as a tool for figuring out when my efforts can be most effective. I try not to go swimming during hurricanes, but honestly I kind of love the rain. More importantly for me personally, I try not to go crazy when the sea is becalmed or exhaust myself swimming against the tide. I prefer, if I have the luxury to do so, to wait until I see a wave going my way. 

I mention that waiting is a luxury because ultimately magic comes down to what is necessary. Sometimes we have to swim through a hurricane. Sometimes we have to expend the extra energy to change direction when titanic forces are pulling against us. Sometimes we have to just swim like hell toward a shore we can’t see and hope it’s the right way. That’s all part of being a witch and taking ownership over our own path. But so is having the cunning to work smarter, not harder, when we can. And when the tides are bigger than us, we can still exercise free will by preparing to weather the storm. 

2025 had a lot of Retrograde riptides especially at the beginning of the year. There was chaos, but very often it felt like it was moving us backwards or locking us in place. 2026 is going to be a lot more hurricane (we got a preview of some of that this summer). So now is a good time to buy your milk and bread (I grew up in the South, can you tell?) and tape up your windows. But there are also going to be some great new waves to ride. More about that next time.