Happy Venus retrograde. Now until May, she is moving backwards. This is when we receive letters never sent, warnings against scheduled marriages, or clarity about what we want in love. And maybe kindly, the goddess Venus picked the week before Valentine’s day to start shedding her dust, priming us for an early spring cleaning. No more navel gazing or kissing elbows, it’s time to scalp the lint out of our bellies and suction the wax out of our ears. When babies’ get their ears cleaned, they fall asleep and teeter a little more evenly. The ears and tummy rule balance and posture. They’re the body’s equilibrium centers. And so is love, you know.

Meanwhile, Mercury is moving through Capricorn and into Aquarius, talking with Neptune and Mars along the way. Mercury rules media, and we are receiving calls to chisel within to better show up for others. But things get a little weird. Expect satire, snort-laughs, and your head melting like a candle, misshapen and glorious. Ideas transform us. There is a collective exchange that prompts us to action, and Neptune wills our deepest compassion, while Aquarius needs us to listen up and be the humanitarians we love to worship and kill. February is teaching us to stop destroying whom we desire to be.

In the latter half of the month, the orbit of Aquarian Mercury touches Neptune so that we can finally begin seeking answers in the fog, turning to art and poetry. It’s messy, but pay no mind. Class is good; authenticity is better. We perceive the outline of our faces in slabs of mud more than in the frost of clouds — those become more interesting in spring. So, for now, wait on the sky as we inspect our tangible world and demolish the furniture.

For inspiration, your horoscopes are supplemented with creative music videos. What, or more importantly, who do you see?

Aries

Venus is moving backwards in your sign while Mars rides forward. It’s a chafing between lovers and they’re flirting with other planets in the sky. It happens, sometimes. The longer we live, right-and-wrong gets plasticized and trysts can be OK. Your lover might leave sharp objects behind and they just might as well because you solder them to a soft tip to throw like saucers. Takes a sharper tool to soften. You are like a beetle clawing for clay. There is a crumbly, earthen mess around you. But in Spring, the ants will come to your rescue, pleased at what you accidentally made for them. You have a brand-new community to look forward to, Aries. And you are leading yourself to it, clawing. This kind of rabid initiative might give you a tiny fever but you don’t care much about that. It’s detoxifying, after all, readying you for your equally transformed lover. Neither of you will ask questions about the dumpsters you dove in or the people you engaged because you were never meant to be apart anyways — Venus and Mars.

Your creative music video: In Passion Pit’s “The Reeling,” a hand shears and paginates a kaleidoscopic collage as a woman walks by a wall.

Taurus

Many of Jupiter’s moons look like miniature Jupiters, striated by beige and ivory, dotting the aerial landscape like floating buds. This kind of otherworldly topography is like a haiku. It captures something quiet and clear, gathers a moment, then disseminates it to a broad periphery. You embody this, Taurus. Your perception of your surroundings continues to get clearer, something that has been happening since winter began. Your communication is cerebral as much as it is emotive. Much of what has been sorted inside of you is presenting itself to the outside now, further transformed by the elements. And you love that. Who said a Taurus wasn’t flexible? Even what is pliable needs structured fibers to move, and you are the one manufacturing those tiny foundations. More moons won’t bud off Jupiter unless a meteor hits it, but in your world, they’re budding, and you’re placing those toy moons in your friends’ pockets with joyous blessings. It is a soft month for you, Taurus. Venus might be moving backwards but you feel comfortable in her slow spin, as long as you know she’ll circle back.

Your creative music video: In Gordi’s “Can We Work It Out,” chromatic waves, gold-glossed flowers, and occult symbols enshroud the soft quiver of a pensive, defeated lover. She’s not really asking a question.

Gemini

Know all that emotional servitude you put in last month? The kind that made others feel desired and witnessed, the kind that sought to understand more than judge. The kind that protected and nurtured. The energy you gifted is filling you, now. It is attracting lots of new friends and lovers, and a couple old ones (act on your discretion). While you can easily tap into what other people need, steer clear of external projections. Use your social agility to voice what you really need from others. Knowing yourself will keep you from being whisked away in the chaos around you. You are popular right now, but it seems like you’ve got your eye on someone elusive. Maybe it’s a friend, colleague, lover, or boss. It is someone very different from you on the outside but similar at the core. Trust that you are going the right way about snagging them — softly, vigilantly, the way someone starts a garden. The relationships you build now are evergreen and will benefit you for life. Forever-plants (perennials) are the only kind that thrive in winter.

Your creative music video: In Majid Jordan’s “King City,” distant gazes draw lovers together and then apart as lights grade from red to blue. Majid overlooks a city from a glass window, looking for one lost connection.

Cancer

Grow a small plant in a pot, it doesn’t need to flower or bud. A couple centimeters of stem is fine. Come Pisces new moon on February 26th, burn it. Watch it die. This is your lesson, Cancer. Releasing. Nothing we nurture is permanent. Rather, it is transformative beyond what we can tangibly preserve. Can you begin to enjoy your process without feeling defeated by loss? Death doesn’t nullify a journey, but unconscious functioning does. It snatches you away from moments and erodes memories. Can you lift your ankles out of the mud a little? Doesn’t the air’s light suctioning feel good when you wriggle around? Sometimes, giving to others is a way of numbing your most intense desires. But giving to yourself is a way to come alive again. Enjoy a retreat into yourself no matter how much darkness you encounter. You have joints needing to be cracked, a heart that wants to scream, and something to say to whomever hurt you. Write it down. Then set it on fire.

Your creative music video: James Blake and Bon Iver’s “I Need A Forest Fire” is a play on perception and duality: spherical and square, soft and hard, dull and vibrant. How much of ourselves live between and inside binaries? How much of them do we project on others?

Leo

February 10th’s lunar eclipse is in your part of the sky, Leo, in the constellation Little Bear. Half of the moon will be aglow from the sun’s white light. This signifies the peak of learning in halves, in opposites and with two hands. You might become ambidextrous for a brief period as you alternate between cranial hemispheres, exploring your radiant duality. Like Gemini, you are an attractive sign this month. Others will be perceptive to your highs and lows, riding your energy without realizing it. Opposite energies don’t always pull you in two directions, though — they can suture you, and you are feeling secure in yourself and supported by your fans. You are February’s influencer. And with all this happening in Little Bear, you embody nurture-and-command. You are a provider and a fighter, a giver even when you very well know your recipients are undeserving. The dark side of the eclipse energy is that your strong will might cause a little tyranny, yet it is all in the name of a just cause. Embrace the eclipse as much as you channel it.

Your creative music video: In “The Boys,” Nicki Minaj and Cassie serve their cents dollhouse style, clear-sighted about the power they bring and what they definitely know about you.

Virgo

A lot is happening in your opposite sign, Pisces, this month. Venus, Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron, and the Sun are all involved with Pisces. But why should you care? Because whatever happens in your opposite sign is bounced straight back to you, Virgo. Venus teaches love, Neptune creates illusions, Chiron heals, and the Sun energizes. These combined influences are heavily transformative. You will feel some light stings and reverberations of the growing pains. While Pisces might be the tropical storm, you are the heavy rains that follow. An endless rain releases pressure, advising others to rest and retreat. Just as well, you are February’s soother. You are, after all, the zodiac’s token nurse. You are sending healing vibrations for the world’s suffering and chances are you will be feeling pain from far away, across lands and oceans. You have a remedial touch and in some way, it will be the collective you attend to. Others’ wounds are not an assault now. Rather, they help guide your true mastery in service. There are some tips and tricks others oughta know.

Your creative music video: In “River,” Bishop Briggs throws cartoon triangles and projects gyri from her specs, standing leg-deep in a river, becoming what she has grown to understand.

Libra

February 14th will be your most awakening day, Libra. Yup, Valentine’s Day. Fitting for the sign ruled by Venus. But this day won’t move you in the Hallmark-ish, red roses, bubble bath, commercial type of way. On this day, Jupiter in Libra will speak to Chiron in Pisces. Jupiter calls you to think through your darkest desires, ones that might urge a calling to a past lover or friend, maybe now an enemy. Chiron signifies healing in ulcerated Pisces, depleted from servitude to unrequited loves. This is your first push towards dressing a deep wound and attending to a past, unconscious coupling that may finally be closing. It’s a just-in-time enlightenment. All of the unspoken rage and indifference that was packaged along in this relationship is now abandoned. You are left with this stinging acknowledgment. You will be doing a lot of thinking from now into late March. And with Venus in shadow until May, it might be a period where you are acutely aware of the love you gave and the love you kept consciously hidden away.

Your creative music video: In Hozier’s “Work Song,” lovers express their most somber and passionate selves through mirrored, subtle movements. How many can you catch?

Scorpio

Earlier I said “class is good; authenticity is better.” This is your mantra, Scorpio. Your authenticity is especially detectable, and people who are otherwise mysteries are drawn to you, unraveling without a solicit. Among duller house guests, you are the usually the one to intuit and receive a con’s murderously sharp truth inside a well-crafted lie. The perpetrator knows this and trusts you with their confession. Your life is basically like a game of Clue. You’re the player, not the pawns. Venus might be moving backwards, Pisces might be having endless breakdowns, Gemini and Leo may be accruing fans, and Virgo might be healing the world but you are uncovering important and dangerous truths just by going about your day. Your surroundings may be busy and active, but you are the eye of the storm. You are gathering nuggets of truth that others are seeking heavy-handedly, uncovering them without crossing boundaries — that’s where your class and decorum comes in. Scorpio, you are attracting like-minded individuals — the acutely conscious among thousands of tail-chasers.

Your creative music video: Bear Hand’s “Giants” is an “F U” to anyone who calls webcam dancing and crop tops low-brow art. There is joy there. Some of the dancers are telling you stories in the shifting of their eyes and gait.

Sagittarius

Leo infects fans with its majesty and Aries leaves behind a trail of fire. But you, Sagittarius, are the one leading others to the greatness you see in yourself. When you hold your arms out for a hug, you’re conscious of the stretch of your heart strings and the upward tilt of your chin. That’s you facing the world: direct, conscious, embodied. You started 2017 like that and will continue this way into the year. You’re not one to coat your sharp criticisms because they are inherently well substantiated by the millions of journeys you have taken in and outside of yourself. Now, you’re radiating those inner travels to the world. You are February’s inspirer, completing the influential fire sign trifecta with an inclusive, buoyant creativity. People want to sit in your light; it’s the warmest thing they’ve come across all winter. But remember: keep moving so you’re not bogged down by others’ heaviness. Energize yourself by swimming, stretching, and telling people right to their face that you are in love with them.

Your creative music video: In “XXXO,” MIA recycles the animated graphics you probably left in your Myspace friends’ comment boxes. Scorpio is the only other sign that got a nod to dismantling perceptions around low-brow art. And you’re down for it, too. Cheers!

Capricorn

You are usually clear about what you want and when you want it, and February is no different. But you possess a gift of gab right now, Capricorn. With the kind of persuasive power you are harnessing, you could sway a prosecution lawyer. Yup, watch it happen. You should sleep in a business suit because you could almost control the stock market via a little lucid dreaming. That’s probably already happened, actually. This month, you’re the information epicenter that people need to mobilize themselves. Information is your currency, and there is no shortage of exchange. It may fatigue you a bit, though, so don’t forget to schedule in self-care. Drink some water while you draft a million-dollar grant or bestselling novel. That will help keep you grounded. You’re a quick one to dry out, and we can’t have that because there is work to do and faces to impress, so keep your eyes and tongue moist. It will be good for your lover(s), too. You are adored this month, and will feel physically attractive so long as you keep your beauty routine.

Your creative music video: In Kenna’s “Freetime,” the viewer sees only the feet of a dude as he bikes, shops, f*cks, and returns home — disheveled, desirable, and forgiven.

Aquarius

February has appointed you her enchanting truth-teller. You’re showing up in stiff crowds in tie-dye, velvet, and leopard-print. It’s truthful, so why hide? Now is not the time. People are fighting for justice and finally coming to understand what you have studied and known for so long. Now, it’s time to wear your awareness. On your body. And do not dare pick up that peacoat because we all know it’s reminiscent of a straight-jacket. You must pick up a flask and fill it with your favorite potion, and swig it right in front of people with a glimmer in your eye. This is who you have always been. Defiant. Whether your messages are superfluous or intentional, what matters is just that they come out now. “IDGAF” should be your internet tagline because it sure is your soul’s neon sign. Go on, show yourself. If the world isn’t ready, that is just one more reason to do it. As far as love, expect to revisit your past and engage in a fling or two. Only if you feel like it, though.

Your creative music video: In Snakehips’ “All My Friends,” purples, blues, and greens drive moods of a scene circling upside down and back up again. There is one word for the cinematography: gorgeous.

Pisces

Dear Pisces, just when you had thought last year’s growing pains had ended, they are coming back with intensity. You are in the thick of your emotional journey. Do not expect anyone to understand it but yourself. You are becoming whole, that’s why. You are strengthening the resources within yourself so you are no longer a product of others’ projections. There has never been a better time to eschew the idea of writing a letter to a past lover. You have that kind of will now. And Venus retrograde will only strengthen and reinforce your self-love. On February 26th, there will be a solar eclipse in Pisces. The sun’s flames will frame a new moon. I want you to think of that scene as your toe ring and power object. It is like the passion you wear, the jewelry that reveals your power in spite of the sweetness of your presence. And don’t worry about Valentine’s Day, this will be a time of healing and quiet acceptance of who’s to come, who has left, and who was never truly there.

Your creative music video: In Bon Iver’s “Holocene,” a boy wakes up and journeys out to find a vast, pristine land that situates him inside a beautiful world, teaching him a wisdom and instilling a wonder that too many people abandon as they gather an adulthood.