January 2025 Horoscope: Say Yes to Spontaneous Getaways This Month

Lin Chen

Meet your astrologer

Steph Koyfman is a writer and astrologer best known for her work as Lady Cazimi. She writes the monthly horoscope for Condé Nast Traveler's Women Who Travel.

From a quick glance at your January 2025 horoscope, we can tell you one thing: Don't expect this month to be the kickoff to 2025—expect it to feel more like a halftime show (but maybe one with considerably lower production value). We are still sputtering through the engine failure of Mars Retrograde this month, but are perhaps deeper into the troubleshooting process now. On top of that, Venus spends the month in Pisces, enhancing the aesthetic dimensions of this period of deep pause. You might not be ready to get back in the game just yet, but at least the sunsets are epic here.

Truly, this might be one of the better months of the year to take a break or get away from it all, and preferably somewhere beautiful. (See: this list of the best places to go in January for inspo.) With Mercury now direct and entering its more pragmatic expression in Capricorn on January 8, travel and commuting should be considerably less wonky than it was in November and December. Additionally, Venus exalted in Pisces will tempt us into pleasure-seeking mode, even if Saturn is there to deny or restrain the ideal version of the good time Venus is seeking. Halfway to perfect is still pretty good, and we might be receiving lessons around relational due diligence in place of simple fairytale endings or picture-perfect vacation postcards. This is the time to try to love the experience you’re having, not the one you thought you were going to get.

January also lends itself to “figuring things out” mode. In Capricorn, Mercury makes an excellent planner and project manager, and the Sun’s opposition to Mars on January 15 marks the midpoint of Mars’ retrograde—a time when built-up tension is liable to snap and release us from a path that may no longer be viable. It may be premature to act on anything we learn just yet, but we might have more information about what’s not working, what won’t work, and where we lack the will to proceed. It will feel easier to start organizing toward a solution and adjusting our sails once we sense where the wind is blowing. Until then, try to enjoy the island breeze.

Astrologer's note: Below we refer to your signs as “rising” signs, also known as your ascendant sign. Horoscopes are more accurate when read this way—using your birth time and location, you can quickly find your rising sign online (it takes less than 30 seconds).

Aries Rising

So much of what you’re learning right now is actually just a matter of experiencing the world from the passenger seat. You’re more comfortable at the wheel, and that’s kind of the entire point. When the armor of control falls away and you have less agency to call the shots, are you willing to soften into a flow state of surrender?

This month features the North Node departing your rising sign after a year and a half of accelerated growth, as well as your ruling planet, Mars, still frustrated by retrograde motion. This most recent season of your life was powered by your own self-determination, and you have yourself to thank for how far you’ve come. Right now, though, switching into a different gear might be necessary to avoid wearing down your transmission. With the North Node, Saturn, and Venus convening in Pisces this month, there’s simply more gravity pulling you down into the depths of the sorrows and vulnerabilities keeping you anchored in place. With Venus’ help, those stories may appear more seductive than ever, but also more malleable inside the crucible of your heart space. You might benefit from being in an unfamiliar environment this month to help you detach from some of your familiar conditioning, but try not to suffer in silence too much. You never know who might be able to actually meet you in those lonely places.

With its traditional houseboats and otherworldly beauty, Kashmir is an ideal backdrop to revisit for slowing down.

Meanwhile, Mars is still doing too much (or not enough). On January 3, Mars opposes Pluto for the second time since early November, intensifying the stakes of your current mission. Whether you’re facing an active threat of some kind or a less tangible radicalization in the face of impossible-feeling circumstances, this is the sort of tension that can nurture extreme reactions, especially if compounded by the loss of control you’re currently experiencing.

Then, between January 13 and 15, Mars opposes the Sun during a full moon in Cancer. Mid-month brings a lot of pent-up tension to a head and possibly offers some space for release, but not without some collateral. Watch for defensive, reactive behavior, both from yourself and from your closest of kin. A thorn that’s been digging into your side since early fall, particularly involving your current living situation or relationship with your parents, will officially be too sharp to ignore at this point. If you even have it in you to be reflective right now, try to see your discomfort as a catalyst. Without it, you may have never moved to make a change.

Taurus Rising

There is power in numbers no matter how you look at it, but you probably don’t need to be told that twice. The question of community, friendship, belonging, and exclusion has been shaping your trajectory for the past two years or so. And right now, you’re about to experience a good deal more buy-in from the squad than you probably have so far. With Venus spending the month in Pisces and the North Node also sliding in there for a new year-and-a-half-long journey of acceleration, there is an urge to merge constellating in your eleventh house of groups and communities, and it asks of all of you: how are you willing to commit to each other? Though you probably won’t arrive at a definitive answer until April, pay attention to these stirrings and bids for deeper connection, because they’re important, and they’ll likely play a pretty big role in how your 2025 unfurls.

Whether you’re feeling called to step up your devotion to your friends or to a cause you can rally around with other like-minded people, expect consensus to be complicated. There are likely obstacles to collective harmony that need to be heard and understood, and you’ll get a feel for what those are as Venus conjoins Saturn on January 18. Perhaps you’re the one who’s not feeling included at your own party? Either way, with Venus exalted, there might be more opportunities for repair than you think. It’ll be easier to listen to others with an open heart, and to be heard back.

Meanwhile, some of the people who are supposedly closer to you may be less understanding. Mars continues stirring things up within your family and inner circle, or perhaps intensifying a conflict with a neighbor or roommate. Between January 13 and 15, as a full moon accentuates the Sun’s opposition to Mars, some of that building tension may burst out into the open, and you may not be able to put that genie back in the bottle again. Additionally, with Uranus in Taurus getting ready to station direct at the end of January, your ongoing personal liberation saga is agitating for change again. You’ll find it difficult, to say the least, to go along to get along.

From Japan to Fogo Island to Greece (twice).

Mercury also spends most of the month in Capricorn taking a tour through your ninth house of long trips. Some increased travel activity may be in the cards for you in January, if not intellectual journeys of various kinds. Why not combine them and have a nerdy time on vacation? You might butt heads with others over ideas, but arguing can play a critical role in figuring out where you stand on an issue.

Gemini Rising

After an extended negotiation process that took longer than expected, it seems like you’re finally on the same page with a key player in your life. Perhaps you’ve gone back and forth with your partner a few times before you could come to agreement, or perhaps you’ve been working out the details of a contract. Either way, it does seem like you’ll be preoccupied with the logistics of compensation, your shared financial life, and various aspects of financial planning in January. When Mercury enters Capricorn on January 8 and immediately squares the lunar nodes, you turn a corner firmly as you enter into the material arrangements that were previously being discussed: perhaps a new employment contract, a merging of assets, or some maneuvers with debt or investments.

You’ll be in a more pragmatic mood generally this month, and capable of working out the math. However, money could remain a sticking point in spite of your best efforts. Mars retrogrades back into Cancer on January 6, and it’ll run into an opposition with Mercury on January 23. Our best-laid plans can be sidelined by Mars Retrograde, and there may be a deeper source of gridlock to contend with. Even with some potentially positive momentum happening for you career-wise this month, it appears as though the goalposts are still moving for you financially, and you may not be able to reap the harvest you’ve been cultivating just yet. If this feels frustrating, focus on what feels generative and inspiring. Venus’ square to Jupiter on January 14 may bring professional developments you’ll feel like celebrating.

As the Sun and Mercury enter Aquarius at the end of January, you’ll be gearing up for a heightened period of travel, potentially. If there are no itineraries in the cards for you, this could be a more studious period than usual, one that contributes to the body of work you’ve been developing this past year. Travel you embark on in late January through early February will be more affirming and world-opening than usual, and it’ll contribute to your readiness to spread your wings and fly again as some of the more sluggish transits of winter end next month.

Cancer Rising

Will we catch you living your best life on a cruise ship this month as your out of office responder works overtime? Perhaps, but don’t expect life to feel like a frictionless lazy river either. Mars backpedals into Cancer on January 6, and it gears up for its tense opposition to the Sun mid-month as the Full Moon in Cancer heightens the drama. After a power struggle over contested resources comes to a head early in January, you might find yourself feeling more agitated than usual over how powerless you feel in the midst of impossible circumstances. You might feel like you’re seething, even, or gathering momentum to strike like a hornet trapped in a jar.

This is definitely the time to be conserving your energetic resources while you wait for things to unfold, but that doesn’t mean it’ll feel easy or comfortable to exist in this time of in-between. Particularly between January 13 and 15, a conflict could reach a critical turning point, one that puts you on a path toward an actual decision. Still, be mindful of where your anger is leaking out the sides. You might benefit from things like exercise, sweating, or other forms of emotional catharsis. And sure, when can’t you benefit from a vacation?

With Venus spending the month in Pisces and the North Node sailing in to join on January 11, this is both a month where you might feel blissed out overseas and also the beginning of a longer odyssey that will span the next year and a half. The first eclipse in Pisces kickstarted this process back in September, and now, you’re entering more firmly into a chapter that will be defined by your appetite for adventures of all kinds. It’s not all fun and games for Venus, though—a conjunction to Saturn looms on January 18. Invariably, something will cramp your style, but it doesn’t have to be a complete buzzkill. Just because the open bar is out of liquor doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy more sober kinds of fun. Your current journey might have more to do with developing a code of ethics around love, and perhaps practicing due diligence toward the people around you. See if learning anything from other cultures, or from places you visit, can show you something important about this.

Leo Rising

What’s holding you back, truly? If you can’t see by now that you’re still acting out battles you never fully got closure around (or had a chance to play the victor in), you’re probably nursing your wounds without a great deal of clarity around what hurt you in the first place. Recent triggers may have rhymed a lot with past scenarios that left you feeling victimized, and that’s definitely the kind of thing that can lead to a trauma response. It turns out there’s more anger under there than you’ve previously acknowledged, and January’s astrology will create the right conditions to take a look at that stuff fully.

Pay attention especially to conflicts and resentments that boil under the Mars opposition to Pluto on January 3, and to straws that break the camel’s back around the Sun-Mars opposition on January 15. After Mars retreats back into Cancer on the sixth, there will be a heightened instinct to withdraw into a defensive crouch, but beware the temptation to stay in sulk mode for too long. This is just as important of a time for you to be planning your dark horse comeback strategy as it is a time for you to be protecting your energy from any real or perceived opps. If the option is available to you, creating some distance between yourself and your regular life (or at least, the aspects of your regular life that trigger you the most) can be a balm. There’s a cabin in the woods that’s probably calling your name.

The Sun enters Aquarius on January 19, which might contribute to you feeling out of sorts. This is not the time to demand or expect perfection from yourself, but rather to lean on other people who are capable of supporting you through this less-than-optimal time. Most of the sky will be collecting in the parts of your chart connected to important relationships and other people’s resources, and with Venus exalted in Pisces, love might reach you in the form of a care package or a helping hand. Still, it might feel complicated for you to receive what other people are offering, especially if you’re sensing that not all of it comes with the purest intentions. Just try not to let memories of past disappointments keep you closed off from the goodness that’s there.

Virgo Rising

With last month’s reconnaissance mission now behind you, you’re ready to deal with whatever the peanut gallery has to say next—or is it more like the Greek chorus of bad attitudes? After January 8, your ruling planet, Mercury, enters Capricorn, where it’ll spend most of the month attending to the details of your craft and penciling in more play dates in your calendar. However, it’ll also be building toward an opposition to Mars on January 23, which is now back to its old tricks in your eleventh house of groups. Some of the intra-communal tensions that you noticed earlier in the fall may return with a vengeance, and controversy may not be far behind them. There is some sort of fundamental disagreement brewing between your ideas and the broader audience they’re in dialogue with. Can the artist stay true to their art and avoid the temptation to constantly anticipate how other people are going to receive it?

To be clear, this tension can also find you wherever children are concerned (if you have any) or group adventures are planned. Assuming those PTA meetings are not a landmine and your parenting choices aren’t being picked apart on social media, this could also be the month to beware the friend vacation. Your idea of a good time might not match what the group had in mind, assuming the group can agree on anything to begin with. There are ways to navigate a tense time and still emerge on the other side as friends, but hopefully it’s just that—a tense time—and not your very own version of the Gossip Girl Thanksgiving episode.

At the same time, it does seem as though at least one of your significant relationships is starting to accelerate in a more constructive direction, but there are barriers to intimacy that must still be contended with. With Venus spending the month in Pisces and the lunar nodes settling into the Pisces-Virgo axis for the next year and a half, partnership will be an area of emphasis for you in this new chapter, and what happens in January might well set the tone for this. If you’re single, your emotional availability (or lack thereof) might soften in the right circumstances, but not without a good deal of hesitation. If you’re partnered, some impromptu couple’s therapy can be achieved under these skies, but don’t expect to have all your issues completely worked out right away. Love often looks like patience in practice.

Libra Rising

Your ambitions for 2025 may be sky-high, but there’s no gain without a little pain—at least initially. When Mars retrogrades back into Cancer on January 6, it starts showing you exactly where you lack the fight to rise to the occasion, and perhaps as a result, begins pointing you to truer ways of embodying your potential. This field-tilling will continue redirecting you away from professional objectives that are no longer viable through the first couple months of the year so that when opportunity does come knocking again (as it likely will once this summer gets going), you’ll be ready to move into this next stage of growth.

You’re no stranger at this point to shedding falsehoods either—the South Node Libra eclipses of 2023 and 2024 have already done their part to help you slough off an entire snakeskin or two. This next chapter of your becoming might have more to do with your worldly ambitions and your work, which is an area of your life that you’ve perhaps struggled to approach consistently over this same period of time. With Venus spending the month in Pisces, there are real opportunities in January to heal some of the disenchantment you’ve been feeling toward the drudgery of getting things done, but these two influences are not mutually exclusive. As you move toward the things that energize you, so, too, will you find more capacity within you to whistle while you work.

It’s possible that you may also be stepping into more controversial ways of taking up space in the world, and that the role you’re playing is contributing to some strain among your colleagues. Your teammates are likely more understanding than you give them credit for, and bridges to empathy and repair will be available. Still, the real test of how far this emotional generosity can stretch will occur in the middle of the month. Between January 13 and 15, the Full Moon in Cancer emphasizes the Sun-Mars opposition, and Venus conjoins Saturn on January 18. Whether you take one for the team in order to stick it to the man or pursue your own truth at the expense of solidarity, it’s very likely it’ll be impossible to make everyone happy. However, this will probably be the point at which the writing will be clearly on the wall.

In the midst of this commotion, you might also discover silver linings. Venus’ square to Jupiter on January 14 could present you with a plum opportunity to travel somewhere cool on the company’s dime, or perhaps work on a project that energizes you intellectually. Don’t let the drama distract you from what you’re really here to do, and what you’re most excited to learn.

Scorpio Rising

You’ve been tired since yesterday, and with the way people are counting on you to keep showing up regardless, it’s not about to get easier any time too soon, at least where your current sources of burnout and frustration are concerned. On top of that, you feel like you can’t let your guard down, and all that hyper-vigilance is really starting to wear on you. As Mars perfects an opposition to Pluto early in the month, January starts out on a tense note, and you might feel as though you have to defend your legacy or become a little more ruthless in order to prevail in a situation where your position feels threatened.

The question of whether you have the upper hand will not be a straightforward one to answer, and you might experience the full spectrum of victor to underdog a couple times over before the winter is through. In the meantime, there is also the very real matter of why you’re so over this in the first place. Whether it’s professional burnout, an ethical quandary, or a complete redirection of your purpose that has yet to fully play out, don’t underestimate the importance of what you’re feeling.

After Mars backtracks into Cancer on January 6, you might feel even more at the mercy of forces beyond your control, and perhaps more prone to “withdrawing” from the fight. As you transition into this more defensive position, you may also revisit some of the political and intellectual disagreements that put you here in the first place, or perhaps your increasingly fraught relationship with travel at the moment. Particularly between January 13 and 15, as the Full Moon in Cancer collides with the Sun-Mars opposition, this tension might reach a turning point, and in one way or another, you won’t be able to put that genie back in the bottle again. Principles are not just imaginary lines in the sand, and the ideas you’re defending have a real basis in what happens next. And on the slightly lesser off-chance that you’re just tired of traveling when your boss tells you to, expect to feel especially victimized by these arrangements mid-month.

There is some good news in January, though. Venus spends the month in Pisces, enhancing your ability to experience pleasure of all kinds. Saturn’s presence in this part of your chart for the last two years has been a bit of a buzzkill, and has probably made it harder to enjoy romance, fun, and spontaneity. If you’re a parent, perhaps your children have simply needed more from you. While Venus won’t completely make up for these conditions, it will help. Even if it’s not your ideal version of fun, see if you can let off steam this month by indulging in simple pleasures, returning to your hobbies, and not neglecting other people’s bids for connection.

Sagittarius Rising

Though the outside world vies for your attention, your own hearth has a stronger magnetic pull on you in January. Venus spends the month in Pisces, your fourth house of home and roots. And on January 11, the North Node also settles into the deep waters of this part of the sky, initiating a new year and a half long journey of homecoming and identifying more closely with your roots. Consider that you’ve already been in a process of seeking tether for the past two years, and now, there might be more opportunity to materially advance that script versus simply notice all the ways you feel alienated from your family, the land, and your origins. Perhaps all that boundary work you’ve been doing since 2023 has, by now, provided the sort of guardrails that will allow you to build intimacy within your home, to more deliberately love where you are and where you came from.

Yes, this is definitely part of a longer story that probably involves your long-term vision for family and partnership. And in the short-term, what happens in January also sets the stage for where you end up by April. For now, it’s probably enough to simply notice where you’re being invited into deeper connection, and where the barriers to intimacy still lie. Venus squares Jupiter on January 14, which contributes to a mood of celebration between you and yours in the days leading up to mid-month. Venus’ soon-after conjunction to Saturn on January 18 shows you where there’s still resistance.

If you can’t get the gang together for a family trip, you might be better off getting your quality time in at home anyway, especially early in the month. On January 3, Mars opposes Pluto in your travel-related houses, which could lend itself to a gnarly time away from home. Hopefully, this doesn’t signal a stressful end to your holiday vacation, but do be on the lookout for road rage or its equivalent—perhaps some bad attitudes from the people you encounter along the way. Mars then retrogrades back into Cancer on January 6, which clears the skies a bit for smoother travel in the first months of 2025, but some of the dust it kicked up in December will stick with you as you troubleshoot aspects of your financial life. If student loans aren’t giving you a hard time right now (or at least giving you some pause), then the debt you’ve accumulated on your travel credit cards might. Don’t jump to any immediate conclusions—let the situation unfold more completely before you cut your losses.

Capricorn Rising

Here you are in your annual season of waking up from your slumber, yet something (or someone) is actively confronting you into a confrontation with yourself. Perhaps you’ve recently been blindsided by someone’s greed or breach of trust, and now you’re in the thick of it—“it” being the power struggle, or perhaps the negotiation of whether you can find your way back to repair again.

Mars opposes Pluto from your eighth house of shared resources on January 3, starting the month off with an intensification around this turf war. On January 6, Mars sidles back into Cancer and revisits some of the interpersonal tensions that began brewing back in the fall. Yes, a lot of this boils down to another person’s actions being a reflection of where they are, and their passive aggression an inability on their part to engage in conflict with you responsibly. However, there’s also the part about you and what you’re willing to allow.

Even if nobody has done you too dirty—even if this is just a period of redoing your shared game plan around money and other shared aspects of your combined lives—you also need to make sure you’re not losing yourself in the process of trying to reach a compromise. Whether you’re dealing with intimate partner stuff or an impasse around a collaboration of some kind, it’ll be important to maintain your own sovereignty. That way, you not only advocate for yourself, but you also won’t take it more personally than you need to when other people are working out their issues against the stage setting you provide. Mid-month, between January 13 and 15, should be particularly climactic and revealing when it comes to this dynamic.

It’s not all relationship dramas and uncertainties this month, though. Venus spends the month in Pisces and will be joined by the North Node, intensifying your urge to merge with your local environment and connect more with friends and siblings. This could also kickstart your momentum around a novel or album you’ve been trying to write, or perhaps infuse more enjoyable content into your algorithms that will inspire your daily walks. With the lunar nodes entering the Pisces-Virgo axis on January 11, a new year-and-a-half-long journey begins—one that might deemphasize the role long-haul travel plays in your life as your weekender bag gets some long-awaited wear and tear. Though it will be difficult to have the ideal experience you’re trying to have in January—perhaps some tough love may even be needed—there are ways to make inroads into creativity, connection, and enchantment again.

Aquarius Rising

It’s no longer enough to merely react to the way others prod or trigger you. That sort of thing may have worked for you just fine in the past, but where you’re going, you’ll be needing a stronger sense of presence going forward. And your presence—your ability to inhabit your life versus remain on the outside looking in—grows stronger the more you water it with awareness and intention.

January begins with a test of your boundaries. As Mars grinds into an opposition with Pluto on January 3, a source of interpersonal tension intensifies. People might really be trying you, or else just pushing your buttons unintentionally. It’s important to make sure you’re not letting anyone get away with something that’s going to lead to resentment down the road. It’s also equally important to not let yourself get away with avoiding your own discomfort. “Accessing your true power” often looks much less like overexerting it, than being able to calmly and lucidly say what’s on your mind. After the Sun enters Aquarius on January 19, you might find it easier to feel less victimized by your circumstances, and more present and awake to what’s going on.

January also looks like a month where you’ll be preoccupied with hustle and grind mode, but not because work is going completely according to plan. Once Mars begins to retrograde through your sixth house of labor after January 6, you might really start to feel worn down by what feels like an increasingly impossible job. On top of that, there’s also an added focus on your second house of income this month that might lead you to question what this is all worth to you, as well as melt some of the frozenness you’ve been feeling around lack and scarcity. Is it time to ask for a raise, or maybe monetize some of your other talents? Either way, you’re probably not meant to carry on this way. Something’s gotta give, and you’re probably not being sufficiently compensated for the work that you do.

It seems likely that even if you’re away from home this month, you might end up burning more hours at the local co-working space than you planned for. It’s not the relaxing getaway you need, but it might show you a different side of the place you’re in—not to mention potentially hook you up with a lucrative opportunity. Just make sure it doesn’t come with too many strings attached.

Pisces Rising

Wherever you’ve been feeling stagnant, limited, or lacking in capacity, January’s skies seek to fill your cup back up somewhat and get those waters moving again. Venus enters Pisces on January 2, a form of relief you’ll welcome. You might feel some of your natural charm and whimsy return this month, as well as your openness and receptivity to life. Even if you’re still feeling somewhat guarded and unable to let your walls down completely, Venus endows you with magnetism and appeal, encouraging you to flirt with the world. Don’t be surprised if the world flirts back! This is the sort of mood that opens the door to having an extraordinary time on a trip, not just an ordinary one. Romanticize your life more. Post more selfies. Just don’t overthink it when you find yourself inevitably contracting again—Venus building up to a square with Jupiter on January 14 might make you feel abundantly blessed and at home in a given location, but its subsequent conjunction to Saturn on January 18 shows you where you’re still struggling to let love in—or maybe where you’re not feeling accepted.

The North Node also enters Pisces on January 11, but this is for a longer stay. For the next year and a half, the Pisces-Virgo eclipses will catapult you into a new league of your own, altering the course of your trajectory by encouraging you to bring more of yourself forth into the world. Relationships will also play a huge role in how this happens, perhaps with significant people entering and exiting your life as you evolve by leaps and bounds. One thing is for sure: if other people aren’t willing to join you for this ride, if they can’t hang with who you’re becoming, you might need to leave them behind. But that’s not something you need to know or have figured out just yet—for now, it’s enough to simply enjoy the inspiration you’re feeling, wherever it may be finding you.

Of course, the grind continues to frustrate you this month, and some of the central tensions of fall and winter will continue into the first part of 2025. Namely: what’s not working about your work life? And where are you feeling increasingly incapacitated by the demands of work and play, or the never-ending Sisyphean tasks associated with child rearing? These issues won’t go away just like that—not even if you’re able to get back into your beauty routines. A pedicure can feel absolutely life-changing when you’ve barely had a minute to yourself in months, and it also doesn’t alleviate the workload on your plate. For now, take the simple pleasures where you can get them. You might be surprised by how much more energized you feel.

Enjoyed your January 2025 horoscope? Look back on December 2024 to see how things lined up.

Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler