Bodyscopes

March & April 2025

Nicola van Straaten
artist, dancer and consulting astrologer

Aries: It’s all happening. And might be that you simply need to let it happen. This time brings many beginnings and endings for you and many comings and goings. If you’re feeling mildly but constantly explosive, don’t worry. This energy is on time and the best you can do is ride it out with your values intact. Try to observe your surroundings as various bodies move towards and away from you. Remember that moving towards is not always an attack and moving away is not always a retreat. Remember that directionality is always tied to positionality. Keep your heart beating with Galab by Haykal ft. Big Murk.

Taurus: Is it possible to drift backwards? Maybe you can try. As we move into the next season try to carve out moments to reflect, look back, dive underground or into your archives. Think back to 2009 and 2017. What was happening all those years ago at this time of the year? Do you sense an echo? Heartbreak and confusion are necessary undercurrents of how Love moves. Don’t punish yourself for what is happening in relationships right now, instead get curious about what’s underneath. Sometimes spending time on the floor is the only way to truly assess your foundations. Trust that you’ll emerge again and soothe yourself by listening to Nadini by Maii and Zeid on repeat.

Gemini: Sometimes we cannot assign language to certain types of tensions or shifts and that’s ok. Dramatic events can open up new plot twists that you maybe didn’t know you were interested in. Remember to rely on your curiosity. You are so weirdly equipped right now to deal with whatever life is throwing at you. And life is most likely throwing quite a lot at you. Don’t panic, trust your adaptability. Sometimes we can only slow down by speeding up. Assign yourself the task of intentionally spinning out a couple times this season - twirl and shake and turn as long as you need to. Let energy speeding through you also cleanse you. Your system will feel calmer afterwards. Listen to Taraddud by Farah Kaddour.

Cancer: You are slowly coming to the end of a challenging time of reassessing your relationship to conflict. While in some ways you could feel like you’re moving forward again, in other ways you could feel like you’re moving backwards. The trick to this particular type of energy is to let sensations of push and pull reveal to you where your center is and remind you of your anchor. Make a practice of visualizing your feet as anchors, as you let the rest of your body sway. Imagine the upper half of your body is a ship moving on the choppy waters of our world, but your lower half is firmly anchored in the ground. Do this whenever you need, let it remind you that you and your grief belong to this earth. Play I’ll Sing You Lillabies (Bahallellak) by Rim Banna and let it move you.

Leo: Somewhere in this time of the grief and fear you are finding your power. It may feel slow or fast, clear or confusing but it is here and I know you can feel it. Throughout this season there is a warming heat available to you. Keep an eye out for a spark of vitality in unlikely places, be it through friendships, teachers or books. Although things might feel like they’re not going as you planned, try to improvise alongside the universe and trust that the cosmos is as good a dancer as you are. You are more agile than you think. You can move at different speeds and change with the rhythm. Practice fancy footwork to Taht El Wared by Bedouin Burger.

Virgo: There seems to be so much pulling you away from yourself during this time. You might feel like you’re in a dream where maths becomes intimacy becomes reality and it all boils down to timing. It’s okay to feel spaced out even in the most mundane moments. Your system is getting a reboot this season which sounds great in theory but remember that reboots usually happen when a system has stopped working. Now is a good time to ask yourself what is not working. Don’t look for answers, just observe. Invite yourself to stare into the distance or to contemplate the horizon. You are ready to both let go and start anew. Try to levitate with Other World by Maya Al Khaldi.

Libra: You are so very tired because justice is so very important to you. And in such an impressively unjust world, this imbalance weighs deeply on your soul. But this special part of you is also very valuable and we need it to stay alive, so remember to rest and nourish yourself. Honour your grief by moving your body in a way where it can drift, where it can get lost for a little while and where it can have a good cry. Now is not the time to charge forward, but to acknowledge loss. And although we cannot fully know the best next step, we can understand how to be disciplined about hope. Give yourself pep talks in the mirror and dance tragically to On Man by Sabreen.

Scorpio: Try to take a deep and pleasurable dive into the games that sustain you. How does playfulness and healthy competition feed not only your vitality, but also your creativity? This season brings a lot of supportive (but possibly odd) energy. It may not always look supportive, but remember that looks can be deceiving. Give things time. Try to allow support to encircle you by paying close attention to the people and situations that orbit you. Make a point of perceiving how your environment inspires you to move in response. Remember that things can be bad and good at the same time. Invite sensual play into your daily routines with Kalma by Julmud.

Sagittarius: This season brings sensations of challenge and ease into some kind of duet for you, so figure out how you tend to dance in the space between tension and joy. Remember to never be ashamed of your capacity to find hope and your ability to remain committed to resilience. This aspect of yourself may not feel fully accessible to you right now, but it is a fundamental part of you. The second of half of 2025 will reconnect you with a sense of guidance in ways that you might have been missing this past year. Recharge your batteries by listening to Jazirat AlKanz by Makimakkuk.

Capricorn: How can you make something soft? Can anger be soft? Can strength be soft? Can grief be soft? Without assigning value judgements to anything that might be considered ‘hard’, try to explore softness during this tumultuous period. Whether it’s through gesture, colour, fabric, stuffed animals or the tone of your voice, allow yourself to become curious about the creative questions that open up when you attune yourself to a gooey and responsive type of tender softness. Let your heart melt with Malak by Racha Rizk.

Aquarius: As you breathe into certain subtle but structural shifts in your life, it’s important to remain open to any kind of repair. Get curious about all the different ways that repair functions in your life. Consider your injuries, objects and clothes - what is radical about the act of mending? What does repair look like? What does it feel like? Make a list, write a poem, google the etymology behind this word. While you do so, think about the actions, both big and small that seem to repair your soul. Perhaps one of those actions include dancing in the kitchen to Randomness of Beauty Spots by Ruba Shamshoum.

Pisces: Your life (or your body) might be feeling so incredibly full right now - full of joy, full of sorrow, full of change. It could be that you feel like you are just spilling over. Spillage is actually a great way to take stock of both the contents and the container, so try not to judge yourself during this time. If you feel a little bit “collapse-y” look at your biography and background. How many times have you collapsed in the past? And how many times have you somehow, through some sort of magical current, managed to pull yourself back towards your joy? Remember that collapse, like a low tide, is an integral part of the process. Ride the waves with Garage Al Qahera by Ma-Beyn and Karim Serry.
 

For more information about my astrology work, visit nicolavanstraaten.com/astrology