If You're An Aquarius, Here's The Poetry Collection You Should Read
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Aquarius, we'll admit it: we wish we were as cool as you. Eccentric and ahead of their time no matter if it's their sun, moon, or rising sign falls that under the water bearer, Aquarians are calm, cool, and brilliant. Sometimes, though, this air sign finds their head too far in the clouds. "Aquarians are big thinkers," Allure explains, warning that they "mustn't forget their immediate surroundings."
Immediate surroundings and people close to you are hard to keep in focus when your mind is so busy. You're on a mission to either save the world or make a new one and nothing is going to stop you, notes Cosmopolitan. This dedication to forging new paths might be what helped James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, fellow Aquarians, stick to their stream-of-consciousness brand of modern writing (via Famous People).
Both Joyce and Woolf deal with true Aquarian struggles: the internal civil war between wanting to belong and needing space, per Co-Star Astrology. Sometimes, though, this isolation is self-imposed, warns the outlet, citing an Aquarian's perceived aloofness and contrarian nature as something that pushes people away.
But we know Aquarius is not a cold or aloof sign; they're just an incredibly stoic bunch. An Aquarian's biggest fear is being seen as illogical and emotional, so expressing emotions and feelings can feel like learning a foreign language. It's why if you're an Aquarius sun, moon, or rising, it's a good idea to take the time to read poetry.
If your sun is in Aquarius, you need to read Every Word You Cannot Say by Iain S. Thomas
Like fellow air signs Gemini and Libra, Aquarius is an intellectually-driven sign that has a massive rebellious streak and thrives on freedom. Allure points out that you only have to look at the symbol for Aquarius: the water bearer, nurturing a dry, cracked land back to good health.
But with so much focus on the best ways to make the world around them better, brighter, and more colorful, solar Aquarians often lose sight of themselves — especially their emotions. Co-Star Astrology explains this could be because of the fear of appearing too emotional or illogical, and the fear of losing the intellectual upper hand.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and you don't have to look any further than the work of Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, or J.M. Coetzee for examples of Aquarian writers using their emotion as a means of caring for their community (via Famous People).
If your sun is in Aquarius, reading Iain S. Thomas' "Every Word You Cannot Say" may help you get in touch with — and find language for expressing — your emotions. On his website, Thomas explains that he wrote the collection while working through the grief of a close friend's death and it grew into a bigger meditation about loneliness, emotion, and our fears of not just the truth, but the truth of our emotions.
Moon in Aquarius? Read Simone White's or, on being the other woman
A popular movement in therapy is focusing on healing your "inner child" so you can be a complete, emotionally mature adult. According to Allure, the zodiac sign the moon falls in on your astrological birth chart can give a deeper understanding of which emotional needs of yours aren't being met. Further, understanding your moon sign can help point you towards what's going to make you feel safe and secure.
For those born with their moon in Aquarius, safety comes from solitude. As compassionate as a sign as Aquarius is, Lunar Aquarians are what Live About calls "eccentric loners," who tend to feel the most nurtured by "bright minds, especially those with unusual ideas." AstroStyle adds that, while the moon sign does deal with emotion, Lunar Aquarians tend to be "more cerebral than emotional." It's why if your moon is in Aquarius, you should read the poetry collection "or, on being the other woman" by Simone White.
Publisher's Weekly, who gave the collection a starred review, explains that White's poems "challenges and embraces language on fresh terms as it explores motherhood, creativity, music, and Black feminism." One of the poems the review highlights focuses on solitude, and a working mother's inability to find solitude while another is a meditation on a class she taught on "the materiality of Black womanhood." Called an "intricate and intimate blueprint of White's electrifying mind," this collection is dripping with Lunar Aquarian energy.
If Aquarius is your rising sign, read Aphrodite Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer
Of the three major aspects of your astrological birth chart, your rising sign may have the biggest influence on the face you present to the world (via Allure). According to AstroStyle, those born with Aquarius as their rising or ascendant, ruling planet Uranus' sideways influence adds an eccentric spin to public personalities. Allure adds that Aquarius ascendants are often seen as "intellectual, innovative, and a humanitarian." It's this humanitarian streak, this focus on community and the collective rather than the self that makes your individualistic streak so baffling.
Sometimes, those with Aquarius as their rising sign can hide behind these big group projects, warns AstroStyle. It's easy to stay busy and not deal with your feelings, especially if it means never having to learn how to identify and talk about them. It's why you should read Trista Mateer's poetry collection, "Aphrodite Made Me Do It."
As The New Jersey Digest explains, Mateer's collection is an exploration of her personal trauma and touches on subjects like sexual assault in a way that "will trap your heart in the deep, raw reality of [Mateer's] world." Voted one of the best poetry collections of 2019 on Goodreads, Mateer's collection is described as "transform[ing] the mythology of the goddess into...modern poetry" and "a silent scream outside your window" (via Bookshop).
Read at your own risk: this collection may get you thinking about your own feelings and your own experiences.