Illustration by Ishita Dharap.

Love is ethereal, all-encompassing, and intense. Love is poetry, she is art. Part logic, all emotion, part creation, all destruction. February is here, and with it the 14. It may rush past our art school this spring-semester, with food and drinks named after Cupid’s gift and new beauties all around us. We may or may not realize it, but each of us will yearn for some authentic, slow, pleasure-filled romance this month. Although it is the zodiac month of the water-bearer (Aquarius, an air sign), a lot of the outer planets are in water signs. The water signs correspond to the water in our bodies: tears, sweat, blood, cum – the physical manifestations of passion and compassion, pain and joy. Water is the element that connects us to our inner worlds. Water is emotion, and hence, water is love. How will you hold yours this month? How will you relate it?

“I know a lake
where the fish are warm
And the water barely moves,
There’s no weed to get tangled in,

It’s something you’ve never done,
It’s something you’d like to do,
Let’s go swimming in the dark.”
“Swimming in the Dark,” – David Cale

Read these loves-copes according to your sun sign placement:

Aries
“Because you don’t live in the depths of the oceans, you are an exception.”, says my favorite art astrologer, Corina Dross. You are fire-breath and dragon wings generally, Aries, preferring to soar into the skies with the least turbulence. You rile people up the way you sweep them off their feet with your instant electricity and then, you leave. Ashes are your footsteps and you’re often proud of that. But this month is a bit different, my dears. You can’t ignore the ocean inside of you. Your feelings are real. With Uranus (the planet of eccentric change) leaving your side, you no longer have it in you to compromise with instability in relationships you may have had for a few years. Feel that urge to want grounding, expect your roots to strengthen their ends into the soil you stand on. Accept that you may meet someone who gives you reason to find home, to swim within the intense saltwater inside of you. Or take the side of the one who stood beside you, and commit to some lightness with them. It is bound to pay off.

Taurus
Cement-like boundaries, the sand, rock and earth — you love your7 solid material, Taurus. The more concrete love is, the better it is for you. Usually. But 2019 is different. You must have heard that the “only constant in life is change?” This month, the currents are pulling you toward the sea. You’re going to have to learn, swiftly, that love isn’t linear, and co-dependency doesn’t guarantee forever. Allow the water to flow through those walls you build, to keep love either firmly in or all the way out. Uranus is yours for another few chunks of time. She needs you to let go, just a little bit. Let Cupid do their thing and meet someone a bit out-of-the-box, not your style. If you’re with a lover already, walk a new path consciously. Uranus likes crisis, so don’t let her get ahead of you.

Gemini
Water and air are interconnected elements. The way rain evaporates, leaving little traces of itself, is similar to how you relate to your feelings as an air sign —the moment you may try to catch them, they seem to be gone. You can be so in your head, you can swim far away from any deep water, floating in a shallow pool of little puddles, wondering where the deep divers went. This month is about seeking joy in your closest relationships, instead of running after transient ones, as you may have done last year. The universe wants to help, for she will send those messengers of rain by your side when you least expect them. Something is being reborn in you; every morning, that vaporizes in the light of the day’s ordinary tasks. Try to remember that connection is a two way street – the more you connect to your authentic, deep and possibly buried residues of emotional needs, the more you will understand that people are waiting to fill your cup too. You don’t have to chase anymore, nature is blessing you right now.

Cancer
How does a poet describe language? How does a musician explain a note? That is how you relate to emotion. Being one of the most feeling-oriented water signs, you relate to yours and others’ feelings deeply, becoming one with them, sometimes preferring to drown yourself into the deep sea without caring for how you may resurface. This month, will be the starting of those months, where you’ll see that you have people waiting for you to resurface with a raft, food, clothes and cuddles! Saturn (the planet of lessons in responsibility) in Capricorn is your partnership sector ruler, and is bringing some older, more mature, more logically-oriented folks in your life who want to share these deep-sea adventures with you, but possibly from a distance. Allow yourself to receive the care you so long for. Expect big shifts in your love life this month, and for many more to come. Plan for dates if you’re single, meeting people is crucial right now. If partnered, continue to manifest abundance by connecting to your higher self. You just have to put it out there. It’s all yours to take this fantastic February!

Leo
Yours is a crowded ocean this month, full of entangled seaweed, David Cale’s warm fish, coral reef and possibly some toxic plastic polluting the seascape. Jupiter (the planet of abundance) is in focus for you, when it comes to romance. Expect a plethora of options for casual intimacies. Perhaps you will feel like diving underwater for just a second this month. Don’t expect your heart to be pulled into any big commitments this February. Date multiple people if you have the time, keep coming back to the surface for air! Last year you were forced to spend lots of time under the ocean, in the deepest receptacles of your saltwater; this year, the universe is steering you towards her delicious sunlight. Don’t push for anything deeper, rather, enjoy the romantic break!

Virgo
You are earth itself. You are the foundation upon which water is able to flow. But have you thought about who provides care to the bottom of structures? Who provides structure to the very structure of things? This February, try imagining yourself as rock, stone or soil that stands tall, instead of the base rock that supports. Think mountain rather than container. When large, wise mountains open their mouths, streams of fresh, life-giving sources of liquids flow. There are also hidden receptacles of beauty within the seemingly strong forts we build. Virgos, you out of all the signs have magic written in your charts this month. Saturn is comfortable sitting in its home sign of Capricorn, your partner Earth sign. Neptune (the planet of illusion and fantasy) is in beautiful geometry with your house of partnerships. Expect a combination of stability and eccentricity in the partner that literally lands on your doorstep. You may find that your past concerns of meeting mismatches may not be as acute this February, and for many months to come in 2019 — as long as you can discern between joyous illusion and manipulative deception. Stay in the shallow area of the ocean until you can trust your partner to walk the path they talk. Then, swim on and cross the open seas!

Libra
If others are thinking up how best they should cross the ocean in turbulent weather, you’re the one thinking about who else is crossing with you and how they’re going to do it. You like connection and shared goals, but sometimes struggle with putting yourself first. That ocean can be deep, dark and scary, and while it used to be nice to think of others, life has been asking you to focus on yourself first for a few years now. This February, you’re going to want to go at it alone, in ways that you haven’t explored before. And that is okay! Uranus is weeding out what you don’t want in your 8th house of sex and sexuality. You may want to experiment with solo-polyamory or become a relationship anarchist this month. Whatever it is, remember that all water bodies need replenishment and movement to clear out dead weeds and old grime. Without looking into the past, you won’t move very far. Good luck with these changes, you got this!\

Scorpio
Still waters run deep, and you’re the first sign to live by that truth. You’re suspicious of seas that are too quiet, too calm, too together. But you’re also drawn to them, mysteriously. Neptune rules Pisces, and Pisces symbolize water-bodies all over the Earth. Neptune is truly being a magical mermaid for you, in your area of love and intimacy this month. Expect people who are more fantasy-oriented, less adept at setting boundaries and more illusionary, to be attracted to you like bees to honey. You get a major boost in your self-confidence this month with Saturn gifting you a tinge of inner-stability, but be careful before going out to rescue those beautifully melancholic fish. And trust me, you will want to. All the romantic pain in the world will come by to be soothed by your strength. You deserve magic, yes, but you also deserve structure, containment and joy in the mundane, for the everyday is where reside. Journal about the word “safety” and “love”. Whatever emerges at this time is important to tune into —unlike Leos, who have a blessing of too much a good thing situation going on this February, the same may not be true for you.

Sagittarius
No more underwater adventures for a while, for you, my dear fire people! Saturn leaving your sign has meant a lot of weight has been lifted off, and while tough love had a time and a place, abundant and unconditional Jupiterian love is now at your doorstep. This very well could mean a rebirth of the self, of the self in partnership, and of the self in relationship with the world. Have you done enough Saturnian work to enjoy the present and the future, without getting stuck in the currents of the unresolved parts of your past? Are you ready to welcome those that are more independent and joyful than you have been, to partner up with you and seek new adventures for a new 28 year cycle? That is really the question of the month for you: without inner work, every step of the way, every arrow you release outwards in your traditional archer-like style may just fly back towards you. Enjoy the gifts and continue your own healing — true balance awaits you.

Capricorn
Oh, wise old captain of the sea,; oh, dear mountain goat, sage of the zodiac, ruler of rulers — there’s a majestic ship at sail in your inner-world and its has a big red sign spelling the word, “Change!”.Saturn entered your sign last year and continues this year, in full focus this month. You are functioning at your very best at work, your boundaries are up and alive, keeping everything you term ‘messy’ out. But life has different plans. The nature of water is to flow through the cracks. Water changes shape, takes form as it suits its ways and pushes dead things upwards. Ensure you’re not so serious this month that you’re keeping yourself imprisoned by your own walls, dear Capricorn! Expect some interesting, possibly eccentric prospects knocking at your doors (think Aquarius or Scorpio) this month. They will want to open the floodgates inside you, and deep down, you will want to too. It is time to navigate the seas a bit differently — it is time for romantic change.

Aquarius
Happy birthday season, dearest Aquarius! You have plenty to gain from your Capricorn playmates this month in terms of stability and structure. Gone are the days where you had to expect sudden ends or beginnings to romances. After the Jan 21st lunar eclipse, whatever debris accumulates, it is bound to settle organically. Now, your waters are abundant and light, clear and blue — just as you want them to be. With no large planetary shifts in your sign, expect to be more in control of your love life, that went through hell and beyond in the past. Spend time near the water, or even walk through a bit of snow each morning this month, to remind yourself of the time you were born. You are special and you help raise everyone else’s consciousness —even if you feel misunderstood most times of the day. Continue to expect more for yourself this month. The universe wants to gift you her romantic joys too.

Pisces
“Water, water, everywhere, and all the boards did shrink; water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”- Samuel Taylor Coleridge in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Does this resonate for you, Pisces? You love to immerse in the waves around you, sometimes floating slightly upwards towards the sun — sometimes, submerging yourself into the depths of feeling without an end. You are probably the only water sign that can be connected and disconnected from emotion simultaneously. This makes you difficult to understand. You can cry your salty tears one second, and laugh in ecstasy the very next, chuckling at the absurd nature of humanity. This month, you will want to quench your own thirst. You’ll find yourself seeking connections that are on similar vibrations as you are. People who can sink and float just as easily as you. You won’t want to invest in those that are emotionally unavailable, and you’ll finally see what it means to be in equal partnerships and friendships. Invest in energies that have good boundaries, so you have something to learn from as well, rather than always being the savior in your romances. Look in your friends circle, Jupiter is giving you something to look forward to there.