*Eleditor’s note: Astrology isn’t a religion. We’re not sure it’s a science, either. It’s magic, maybe. But, as with feng shui, say, things affect things. So as long as we don’t go blaming our problems on the stars, as long as we assume responsibility for our own actions…well, hell, a little auspicious coincidence and applicable wisdom can’t hurt. And so, with that grain of salt…enjoy!

“Sometimes you have to stop thinking so much & go where your heart takes you.” ~Unknown

On February 17^th, Venus entered the sign of Aquarius, pushing us all to decide if we are going to follow our hearts or live with the regret of love not taken.

Venus is a delectable, sensual planet ruling all matters of love and relationships.

She is the beautiful goddess that reminds us that without love, life is meaningless.

And right now this is precisely the aide-mémoire that we all need.

This year started off with some heavy planetary aspects pushing us to uncover what we have previously tried to throw the towel over, and the recent Mercury Retrograde was enough to make all of us want to run for the hills.

The really amazing thing is that the more scared we are and the more uncomfortable the emotions that arise, the more clearly we see what truly matters.

Because anything that is not deeply meaningful won’t ask us to push beyond our comfort zone to the world that lay just beyond.

Sometimes when the planets change signs, their aspects aren’t strong enough to fully impact our lives; however because of the strength of the Uranus-Pluto configuration, we are going to feel this planetary transition more so than usual.

The heavens are literally planting us all at a fork in our journey.

Choosing left would take us around back the way we’ve been before—it’s comfortable, and safe.

Even if we know deep down that this path won’t encourage any growth, it is still tempting to take because sometimes it’s easier to choose the safe zone.

But, if we choose right—all bets are off.

If we choose the path we’ve never been down, we have no idea what lays beyond the first hill, let alone around the bend.

It’s nerve wracking, and we can’t for the life of us figure out why we want to do something that is filled with so much uncertainty.

However, we still find ourselves drawn to this new aspect of our journey.

We are being directed by our hearts to listen to them, possibly for the first time and to just go.

Take that first step in a new direction and see what happens when we believe that anything is possible.

But the thing is that nothing eats us up like chances not taken.

No matter how far away we may move away from them, regrets seem to come as alive as the wolves under the full moon howling and taunting us with their memories of all that we have chosen to pass up on.

Venus in Aquarius is a gentle hand on our backs reminding us that we feel things for a reason, and that the most beautiful and courageous thing that we can do is to follow whatever pulls on our heartstrings.

It’s not childish or immature—in fact there is no greater sign of an awakened authentic individual than having the confidence to simply just follow our heart.

Venus will be in Aquarius until March 12^th; just past the solar eclipse and new moon at the beginning of the month.

Eclipses are like the points at which we would fold over the pages in our favorite novel so that we don’t ever lose our place.

Our last eclipse was in September 2015—what was happening in your love life at that point? Whom were you being pulled toward?

We can spend time saying that we didn’t take the chance then, so we might as well not take it now.

But that just isn’t so.

This is all part of the cycle of eclipses. We needed to experience the past six months in precisely the way that we have in order to be brought to this present moment.

Here is where our challenge lays.

Are we going to follow our heart?

Will we defy logic and rationale instead of choosing to take the chance to find out why no matter how many times we hang up, that magical call still goes right to our heart every time?

Or will we once again let it go to voicemail?

The truth is that it wasn’t supposed to work out before.

We weren’t supposed to have a happy ending because we weren’t ready.

We all needed the past eclipse cycle to process our own inner demons and souls, we needed to make the wrong choices so that when once again we found our hearts sitting in our lap waiting to be unwrapped, we would finally want to know what was inside all along.

Aquarius is the innovator, the one who can break from the pattern of seeking others’ approval. Therefore, it’s no surprise that we may find ourselves realizing that in terms of romance, there truly aren’t any rules.

Every love is different and anything worth having is also worth taking the time to discover.

It’s not about making tightly woven plans or formulas—but just letting things happen naturally.

Love is about leaving room for life to happen.

We have approximately two weeks, with the energies climaxing on the 28^th of February, just ahead of the leap year, to decide if we’d rather take a chance and follow our hearts, or spend the rest of our life wishing we had.

Nothing is random in this great big beautiful world.

There is no coincidence that Venus will be peaking around the time of the 29^th—a day that in itself only comes once every four years.

The chance we have now won’t come back around for some time—if ever again.

Now is the time to decide if not listening to our hearts is worth wishing someday that we had.

The truth is there really is no reason not to anymore.

We need to run not walk in the direction of whatever makes our hearts pound and our blood race knowing that it’s all for a reason.

Because loves sweet possibility is sitting in our lap ripe for the picking—all we have to do is make the choice to go for it.

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Relephant:

Where is the Moon & Why We Should Care.

Relephant bonus:

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Author: Kate Rose

Editor: Caitlin Oriel

Image: katmary/Flickr