Aries: It isn’t easy to be gentle when the world requires so much toughness from you, so much heavy armor, so many hard glinting surfaces and finely-tuned defenses. Still, it’s worth trying. It’s worth nurturing the quiet love that lives in your bones. It’s worth the hard work of building a life that honors your sweetness. This shouldn’t feel as hard as it sometimes does. The world is a strange hard place, but this won’t stop you. You deserve warm afternoons with the windows open. You deserve a house full of light.
Taurus: Living in this world can take so many different shapes; it can ask so much of you. Think of the plants that need sun and the ones that need shade and the ones that can survive on nearly nothing. Think of the bright green that store water inside their own selves. Like them, you don’t need to explain how you came to be the way that you are. Like them, you don’t need to know why you need what you need. It’s enough just to be alive. It’s enough just to grow toward the light.
Gemini: Sometimes, you’re more than the world wants you to be. Sometimes, you need more from the world than it wants to give. And maybe you’ve tried containing yourself, maybe you’ve tried shrinking your desires down to nothing, but this isn’t how it works. You are who you are and you need what you need. You can stretch out your limbs and you can stretch out your voice. This isn’t the only way you’ve ever lived, and it isn’t the only way you ever will. Your mind is vast and strange, and it’s okay to change it, again and again.
Cancer: It can be hard sometimes to remember, in this noisy world, how solid and real your own thoughts can be. You know your own life, you know your skin and hands and face, you know what it feels like to live in your own body. Give yourself some credit: what you feel to be love is love. What you know to be pain is pain. You don’t have to prove the contents of your own heart. This is a knowledge that is heavy, and it’s real, and it’s yours.
Leo: Think how wonderful it is to live this one life you’re living, to stake a claim to your own space in the world. Think how lucky we are: life is vast, on a scale we cannot imagine, but it isn’t infinite. These summer days might stretch out as far as you can see, but you don’t have to do everything there is to do in this world. You don’t have to be everything to everyone; you don’t even have to be everything to yourself. You can only live your own life, strange and specific and sweet.
Virgo: Even in the sweetest blue nights, even on the brightest green days, old sorrows still live somewhere in you. Sometimes, even when the sky is warm and clear, you might find that old anger is not yet done with you. There are memories that live a long time in a human body. There are feelings that we digest slowly and strangely, and ones that we hold in our hair and our skin. This is okay. You can honor these feelings, and you can keep living. You’ve gotten so strong.
Libra: This month, try to pay attention to the desires that overwhelm you, the ones that keep you up at night, the ones that feel electric on your skin. There are dreams that won’t let go of you, and these are the ones with the power to move you, the power to move oceans. Wanting so deeply and so much isn’t easy, but it’s strong and it’s strange and it’s yours. Your desires aren’t the only answer, but they can light up the whole sky. They can lead you to the questions you need the most.
Scorpio: This month, your life might feel like it’s moving outside of your control, maybe more than usual, maybe more than you think you can bear. This isn’t a bad thing, though it can feel that way if you aren’t prepared. At its best, the world can surprise you. At your best, you can surprise yourself. There are months for setting your own course and months for moving with the tides. There are months that give you what you ask for, and months that give more even than that.
Sagittarius: Even in the middle of every long tough day, even in the middle of a city made of stone, don’t forget your beating heart full of love, your bright and tender core. Think: what will you do with so much love? What will you ask for in return? The world is full of things you never thought you’d find, things you never dreamed might be yours. You live in a world full of gentleness and full of ferocity, and it has so much to show you. It can make you brave. It can make you kind.
Capricorn: When the world outside becomes overwhelming, when the narrative threads of your life become tangled and strange to you, try not to be afraid. You don’t need to know the meaning of the world to walk outside and feel the sun on your skin. You don’t need to see into the future. Your home is full of solid things that you can touch, cotton and plaster, water and wood. Your days are full of moments, one after the other, like beads on a string, and these can be enough.
Aquarius: It can feel like it shouldn’t be possible to keep living after being treated so wrong, after knowing such sorrow, but it is, and you are here. The trees glow green and the stars shine gold, and the things you’ve been through might make your future different, but never smaller. How could they? Even if you don’t yet feel it, you’re wiser now than you’ve ever been before. Your thoughts keep moving and the planet keeps moving and your dreams hum with energy, bright and alive.
Pisces: There are questions whose answers need work and time, and there are questions whose answers just appear, sudden and sweet. There are questions whose answers are in front of you already, you just can’t see them quite yet. Knowledge comes in so many different forms, and the important thing is to keep moving with your eyes open. The important thing is to honor your strange brave quest for truth. The point is that the world is full, and so is your heart, and you’ll find the things you need.
“This month, your life might feel like it’s moving outside of your control, maybe more than usual, maybe more than you think you can bear.”
YOU DON’T SAY
Me too!!
Me three, dammit. How is it always so right!?
It’s worth nurturing the quiet love that lives in your bones. It’s worth the hard work of building a life that honors your sweetness. This shouldn’t feel as hard as it sometimes does. The world is a strange hard place, but this won’t stop you.
thank you.
x2. The electronic sticky note where I copy/paste these quotes is taking over my whole screen.
The important thing is to honor your strange brave quest for truth. The point is that the world is full, and so is your heart, and you’ll find the things you need.
deep, contented sigh. <3 <3 <3
Wanting so deeply and so much isn’t easy, but it’s strong and it’s strange and it’s yours.
Oh.
What am I going to do without these to start off the month???
It’s enough just to grow toward the light.
*muffled sobs*
My baby is turning one in a week. I feel like the Cancer horoscope is so on point for a little one learning to exist in the world (and aren’t we all still working on that to some extent?).
Mine is turning one in three weeks and I felt soo much the same when reading this, too. Happy birthday to your little one!
My baby is a Cancer, I was thinking the same thing.
Sometimes, even when the sky is warm and clear, you might find that old anger is not yet done with you.
Yep.
This is okay. You can honor these feelings, and you can keep living.
….and exhale.
“You’ve gotten so strong.” And all the Virgos sit and sniffle…
I was NOT prepared for that one today.
You don’t have to prove the contents of your own heart.
<3
“You deserve warm afternoons with the windows open. You deserve a house full of light.”
Who will tell me I deserve warm afternoons after the toast is gone? Look forward to this every month. 🙁
“There are dreams that won’t let go of you, and these are the ones with the power to move you, the power to move oceans.”
I’ve been feeling unmoored these days, thinking about my desires will help, I think. Thank you.
(Will these publish somewhere else after The Toast closes?)
You can stretch out your limbs and you can stretch out your voice. This isn’t the only way you’ve ever lived, and it isn’t the only way you ever will. Your mind is vast and strange, and it’s okay to change it, again and again.
I am just preparing for class, we are doing Buffy today, and it is a make-it-or-fade-into-irrelevance type of situation. I am horribly-excitedly-tearfully nervous about many things, and this is exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks.
This month, your life might feel like it’s moving outside of your control, maybe more than usual, maybe more than you think you can bear. This isn’t a bad thing, though it can feel that way if you aren’t prepared.
I’ve had full forewarning of The Toast’s imminent journey to the West and actually it is still very much a bad thing. Doom and grief hang heavily over this June and that just ain’t ok.
Welp, this Virgo is certainly ugly-crying at her desk now.
These have brought me so much wisdom and strength every month, and I also dearly hope they’ll continue on in some other home after The Toast has closed.
” You don’t need to see into the future. Your home is full of solid things that you can touch, cotton and plaster, water and wood. Your days are full of moments, one after the other, like beads on a string, and these can be enough.”
Thank you. I still don’t know where I will love this fall, or if I will have to re-establish contact with an ex who makes me feel shitty about myself but who promised, back when we broke up, that he would give six months of financial assistance of I asked. I’ve been painfully uncertain about how to balance the needs of my body against the needs of my spirit.
Thank you for the permission to focus for now on the tangible world around me.
Does Madame Clairvoyant have a post-toast home??
I would like to know this, too.
Um, yes please, I think there are many of us who want to follow Madame Clairvoyant to her new home, if it should exist.
It isn’t easy to be gentle when the world requires so much toughness from you, so much heavy armor, so many hard glinting surfaces and finely-tuned defenses. Still, it’s worth trying.
*drops the sword and shield* Dang. That is Too Real. Thanks, Madame Clairevoyant.
Huh. I’m a Leo and I’ve been trying to work on internalizing that exact thing for quite some time now.
Thank you for the lovely reminder – I’m cutting it out and keeping it with me until I succeed.
*hugs*
Another Virgo here, pretending my desk allergies are acting up.
“Give yourself some credit: what you feel to be love is love. What you know to be pain is pain. You don’t have to prove the contents of your own heart.”
Thank you thank you thank you.
Just the most beautiful sentiment.
“When the world outside becomes overwhelming, when the narrative threads of your life become tangled and strange to you, try not to be afraid. You don’t need to know the meaning of the world to walk outside and feel the sun on your skin.”
Ugh I really needed this today of all days. I hope there is a way for these to continue after the Toast is done–they’re such a lovely hope spot at the beginning of each month.
Every Virgo is crying, right?
Virgo rising and yes, yes I am.
My recent ex is a Virgo, and I did not need another reason to envy him right now. That is some beautiful advice.
*sending good thoughts your way, because feeling emotionally overwhelmed sucks*
the things you’ve been through might make your future different, but never smaller
Like the Toast’s closing finally pushing me to make my own blog, and my health problems encouraging me toward finding a way to make a living that isn’t eight hours in front of a computer? sigh
I love your horoscopes! Will you be publishing elsewhere after the closure of the Toast??
Every month I put this on the background of my phone and reading it every time i pick up my phone has been wonderful. My Sagittarius soul thanks you.
What will I do with all this love??!!
idk…fret over the fact that my man friend’s parents are coming to town in two weeks and while there’s 20% of me that wants him to ask if I’ll meet them, there’s also that 80% of me that’s terrified and thinks it’s too soon.
I will really miss these posts. Please let us know if/where they will carry on post-Toast!
It isn’t easy to be gentle when the world requires so much toughness from you, so much heavy armor, so many hard glinting surfaces and finely-tuned defenses.
How did you know I want to eventually leave my job because it’s turning me into a hardened bitch?
Iiiiit’s a weeping morning.
Wellllll, this Aries just had to give herself a dose of the good ole Gollum-Sméagol self-shoulder pat to cope with her Madame Clairevoyant horoscope, so there’s that
I have never read horoscopes before this column, but it means a lot to me to come hear and read the Taurus ‘scope and feel better about my life somewhere. Or sometimes just a bit of permission to feel bad.
I’m Cancer with Aquarius rising and Virgo moon and that is why I’m crying right now.
“Wanting so deeply and so much isn’t easy, but it’s strong and it’s strange and it’s yours. ”
Right in the feeeeeels
These are always so beautiful and I will miss them. Unless MC is moving her sage wisdom somewhere else (plz??).
I don’t exactly know where I stand on astrology, but I do love having gotten my full chart done and getting to look the combined forces of sun, rising & moon sign horoscopes. TRIPLE THE FUN/SOBS.
“This month, try to pay attention to”
Oooh look a mosquito’s chasing another mosquito…
Yes, my heart is very full of love.
What shall I do with it?
I don’t know, it’s like having a piece of cake leftover in the fridge.
Yeah it’s wonderful, but it’s probably a bad idea and should be thrown into the garbage.
“At its best, the world can surprise you. At your best, you can surprise yourself.”
boom. needed that.
There are months that give you what you ask for, and months that give more even than that.
oh.
So…so reading this while in the middle of my second round of fertility drugs was either the BEST IDEA or the WORST idea and either way I can’t stop crying.
Just millionthing the hope that these will continue under another banner in the great post-Toast regatta to come. (We ARE all taking to the sea, right?) They never fail to make me both cry and also think much bigger about what so often feels like a very confined and confining life.
Ow…my Aries heart…
Oh boy, that cancer one is just…scarily relevant to my thoughts right now!
Oh boy, that cancer one is just…scarily relevant to my thoughts right now!
thank you for posting so early in the month!! starting my june off right 🙂
I will miss these posts so very, very much. Oof, that Capricorn horoscope. Major Eliza Hamilton vibes which, accurate for where I am right now, emotionally. That would be enough.
“maybe you’ve tried shrinking your desires down to nothing” How did you know? And yes, of course it’s not working.
I am yet another who fervently hopes that Madame Clairevoyant’s horoscopes will find a new home. I screencap them and turn them into laptop backgrounds so that my soul doesn’t die while I apply for jobs.
This Aquarius is crying with relief, not knowing until now how much comfort kind, direct acknowledgement of hard times and mistreatment would bring. Thank you, Madame Clairvoyant.