This horoscope was written at the rebirth of the Zodiac, on Nowruz, and as the lock-down was imposed in Germany in response to the terrifying and novel COVID-19. We are now safely in Taurus season and expecting the Super Flower Moon in Scorpio tonight (May 7th). Super Moons appear when the full moon is within 90% of perigee, or the closest point to Earth in her orbit. Please read this guide to previous anxieties that you may now have adapted to, as one must do under ever-changing stars.
The Solar Hijri calendar differs from the Gregorian Calendar used throughout the “West” which is positioned around the incorrect time that Jesus was born. Though similarly structured, the Solar Hijri, used throughout Iran and Afghanistan, is calculated most attentively to the earth’s rotation around the sun. Thus the sun signs of the Zodiac, similarly ancient and determined by early mathematicians align, perfectly with the Solar Hijri and fit quite awkwardly inside the Gregorian (giving rise to the myth of “cusp” signs). Nigin Beck’s “My yellow is yours, your red is mine” is a playful collection of objects inspired by the traditions of the Persian New Year which in turn inspired and illustrates this horoscope. Astrology is an infinite logic of relationships and coincidences and what I love most about this field of knowledge is the animus in which Serious People dismiss these attempts at complexity and nuance. Once a Sagittarius told me he was in fact an American.
Nigin Beck, Ziegel Doppel, 2017
Widder/ Farvardīn / فروردین
On March 21st the sun crossed the celestial equator, equalizing night and day, a harmony we ignored as we scrambled to find shelter. The same day Nowruz, the Persian New Year, fell on silenced streets, Aries season, restless and hungry, found us in fresh exile, half mad from fear and quite literally demanded that we orient ourselves to action. You cannot stay here. Lean into your fire and the self is given to impetus.
Stier/ Ordībehešt / اُردیبهشت
The world has already changed. Like puberty, like falling in love, like dying, all things you have been waiting for shall come to pass. The world has already changed and without a choice, you along with it. The sun returns to Taurus, so loyal, so determined, as the days of quarantine grow long. These days you will be asked time and time again to provide comfort. Leave the cigarettes on the tray, the first life that you will save will be your own.
Nigin Beck, Zigarettenteller, 2017
Zwillinge / Khordād / خرداد
Gemini will spend their quarantine romancing every online friend they’ve made since the days of early internet. Lovers dial their exes during the last hours of sunlight searching for their twin or renewing effort into the many interactions that could have bloomed more significantly. Who knows the variant paths your life could have taken, bound by a compass which always ruled True to Love. Everyone will fall for you and this time it will be enough.
Krebs / Tīr / تیر
The period of house arrest demands adaptations of radical hospitality. It’s us, the rest of the world that now needs Cancerian genius, a wisdom that is untaught. Find ways to comfort your people without drawing them to you. And when you have grown tired of people, of the words and the world, as you often do— turn off your phone. Position closed eyelids under the sun. Enjoy as only you can the way early spring assails your hermitage.
Nigin Beck, Hände, 2017
Löwe /Mordād / مرداد
Of the pestilences that a foreign god sent to 2020, the Netflix offering of Tiger King has served as a reminder as to why the ancient ones believed disease was divine sanction for our collective sin. I fear Leo that your spirit remains the last wild thing in a world that welcomes domination. As you roam the range of your confinement, abandon the performative and embrace the authentic. The only way out— ask the escape artist— is to dig deeper.
Jungfrau / Shahrīvar / شهریور
The Revolution already happened, un-televised and honestly pretty unorganized. Now that we find ourselves in the aftermath, we survey our survival packs, who we deemed essential and that which we ruled unsustainable. Sometimes Berlin looks like someone threw a party or started a war and refused to clean it up. The spring brings us the wise Pink Moon and asks us to take only what we need and to leave the rest.
Nigin Beck, Äste schwarzes Porzellan, 2017
Waage / Mehr / مهر
When a political system routinely devalues oppressed and disabled bodies and in a healthcare crisis we are forced to make choices about who gets care according to Darwinian models; we flirt dangerously with eugenics. As Healers are gathering on the unfortunate horizon of speculating one quality of life over another, Libra!!! Teach us not to measure but to interrogate every factor that society considers detrimental to quality of life. Low-Income, Age, HIV status, Disability, Weight, Appearance, on which side of a border you were born. Hypatia of Alexandria (350- 415 BCE) wrote that the plagues of her time were caused by government corruption and inequality between people. Do not misunderstand: This sickness came from the belly of Capitalism. Dear America, do not let my people die.
Skorpion / Ābān / آبان
You cannot be abandoned. You must carry the others with you. On the landscaped moon we walk there are Scorpions and there are Doves, each thriving in maximum utility for a grieving world. Alone is always where I imagined myself and now that physical touch is gone, I’ve lost the borders of my own body and you, your’s. Recall the grand performance that is ripping your clothes off, drunk, in front of a new lover. Remember the way home. My Plague Daddy! Come dance with me for the living and when we find ourselves together again we will dance for the dead.
Nigin Beck, Knoblauchteller, Kunstwerke, 2017
Schütze / Āzar / آذر
Everyday I sit down and try to think of something to say. Writing gives order to the morning and on a grander scale helps inform history. Language being the lame tool at our disposal to separate the Before from the Now and then construct plans that we may not follow through on in the After. Whether you sit all day writing love letters Sagittarius, whether you sit all day writing lists, whether all you can do right now is grieve or you cannot sit still until you have a plan. May the story of this plague be written by every tired poet, and sung by all fallen saints.
Steinbock / Dey / دی
Yes, you can avoid yourself. With tasks and lists, with money and degrees, with no money and lovers and when your lover is asleep, with your phone. Yes, you can avoid yourself, with endless plans and ambitions, dreams from childhood and responsibilities that the passing years add. Yes, you can avoid yourself with theories on the construction of self, with that which you claim is your’s. Your armor is paper and a storm is here. Cling not to the Self but to the Rock, Capricorn. There’s only a room where you are until you are not.
Nigin Beck, Prügel, 2017
Wasserman / Bahman / بهمن
The bulk of celestial weight that cued our collective exile fell as Saturn entered Aquarius on March 21st. Saturn who is the ruler of limits, restrictions and challenges now sits in the eleventh house, your house Aquarius, of social groups and society. For what purpose do the stars demand social distance and re-ordering? Here is a moment to carefully consider how we may come together again. How can we be together after all the shit I put you through? Your gift is not atonement but visions. When Saturn releases you from his tyrannical discipline on July 1st, what have you to offer us? What are we going to do?
Fische / Esfand / اسفند
This crisis befalls this generation to whom world wars were history and Shakespeare’s plays homework in high school. The Jacobean dramas, country ballads, apocalyptic paintings and morality fables, we cast aside to passively consume whatever horror the internet was suggesting. Even if this is the worst thing that has ever happened to you Pisces— remember that the world has ended many times before. For the Mayans; for those counting the days to the Rapture; for the ones attempting to cross the river at night; for the last ones who speak their language. At the end of the world, we will find ourselves, however unwilling, compelled to carry on. The silent earth remains indifferent to our imagination.
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This Horoscope was featured in print Issue 11, "Old Cracks in New Mirrors".