Grace McGrade is an intuitive astrologer based in Los Angeles. She is the head astrologer of the app Stars Align. Her sessions include birth chart readings, transits, energetic clearings and psychic consultations. For more astrology, read her guide to rising signs and moon signs. Read an overview of what 2026 has coming up for us this year here.

Last month, a slew of new beginnings were incited, as we were led by the steadfast sign of Aries into brand new astrological terrain. If Aries begins things, the sign of Taurus finds the most fruitful field and stays put, developing powers of attraction, values and taste. Often dubbed the most sensual sign, Taurus, the Bull, is ruled by Venus, and amplifies our artistic sensibilities, as well as our appetite for pleasure. May grounds us and tunes us into our senses, helping us discern which timelines have the most value. Aries shows us what’s possible, Taurus introduces us to the principle of attraction. Sure, anything is possible, but what do you want? Only Taurus, a true romantic, has mastered this kind of patient discernment.

Uranus, patron saint of freaks, revolutionaries, tech and inconvenient epiphanies, has just left Taurus and entered Gemini, where it will stay for the next six and a half years. After nearly a decade of Uranus wreaking havoc over our bank accounts, redefining our relationship to our bodies and the material, Uranus now turns its weird, unblinking focus to information itself. Thought, language and technological advancements are about to accelerate. Expect information to mutate in real time, as the AI of it all gets stranger, gossip gets faster, and finding the truth feels more urgent. May is our baptism into this new current, and the voltage builds in the lead-up to Gemini season. 

While the Sun in Taurus may have us craving comfort and peace, a Full Moon in Scorpio on the 1st has us delving into much more complicated territory, the realm of sex, secrets and shared energy. This is where buried resentments surface with striking clarity, revealing where our values clash with our counterparts. It’s a moment where we may need to renegotiate what’s ours and what isn’t, as power dynamics, financial ties and emotional expectations all come into focus. What have you invested in, and what do you feel owed in return? Where have lines been blurred, and where do they need to be redrawn?

“A New Moon in Taurus on the 16th bodes well for setting intentions rooted in stability, beauty and long-term fulfilment. There is a pull toward luxury, indulgence and the quiet pleasure of earthly delights.”

Mercury enters Taurus on the 2nd, helping us to regroup and re-establish our roots. Decisions become more deliberate, and we opt for beautiful surroundings and simple routines, tending to the details of our daily lives with a little more intention. Pluto, power planet of transformation and the unconscious, stations retrograde on the 6th, backtracking through Aquarian terrain. The pace turns inward, drawing attention to what’s been happening beneath the surface, especially around technology, social spaces and the collective. It may be time to log off, or at least step back from social media overload. Hidden information may come to light, and subtle power dynamics become easier to recognise.

A New Moon in Taurus on the 16th bodes well for setting intentions rooted in stability, beauty and long-term fulfilment. There is a pull toward luxury, indulgence and the quiet pleasure of earthly delights. When Mars enters Taurus on the 18th, our energy follows suit, and we find ourselves more artistically inclined, romantic and occasionally a little slower to move, but only because we are learning to savour the moment. Taurus, an inherent curator, assembles a life worth living through detail, opting for fancy fabrics, flattering lighting and surroundings that enrich our experience of the physical. Venus enters Cancer on the 18th, and the temptation to hunker down at home is strong, as we gravitate towards what feels familiar, soft and emotionally safe.

But when Mercury and the Sun move into Gemini (17th and the 20th, respectively), all bets are off. Curiosity calls us out of bed and back into the wider world. Mercury immediately collides with Uranus, spurring lightning-strike insights, unsolicited downloads, and rebellious conversations. On the 22nd, the Sun meets Uranus at the same degree, and the mood shifts outward, curiosity takes over, and staying inside feels like a no-go. This is an entirely new era announcing itself, loud, electric and uninterested in your previous plans. Where Taurus season helped us cultivate and collect the outfits, Gemini season asks us to wear them out, to be seen, and to scurry through different rooms and conversations – avoiding boredom like the plague. 

The Full Moon in Sagittarius on the 31st concludes the month on a dramatic note, as a firework display of opinions brings everything out into the open. Honesty precedes pretence, and differing outlooks may be the subject of arguments, as we have a tendency to take things to extremes. Thankfully, grudges aren’t held for very long in Gemini season, as there are places to go, people to see, and things to find out.

ARIES / ARIES RISING

May is a money month for you, and with Mars active in your sign until the 17th, you’ve got the willpower at your disposal to accomplish anything and everything. The Full Moon on the 1st calls for a renegotiation of your worth. Joint projects, underlying tensions or intimacy issues may come to a head. This is a moment of clarity around what you give, what you receive, and whether the balance feels fair. Stay courageous, continue to assert yourself, and don’t downplay your needs. This year, every sign has something to learn from your bravery, honesty and ability to take action. Don’t allow yourself to be depleted by people or situations that take more than they give. 

The New Moon on the 16th may open up new avenues of revenue for you, so set your sights on abundance. If you can believe wholeheartedly in the power of your own magnetism, you’ll draw what you deserve towards you. Defeat imposter syndrome, call in material comforts and set high standards for the success that is your destiny. Action steps for these intentions become clear when Mars moves into Taurus on the 18th, helping you move in the direction of what you desire most. Gemini Season spurs sudden insights and strange ideas, starting on the 20th of May. The energy goes from somatic to cerebral, and you’re ready to get out there, chat, experiment, pry and poke at anyone who appears to be too rigid. Don’t let anyone interfere with your pursuit of fun. 

Aries Beauty Recommendation: Dermatica Restoring Ceramide Skin Balm

TAURUS / TAURUS RISING

Happy birthday, unbothered icon. After seven long years of Uranus wreaking havoc in your sign and turning your life into a series of unpredictable plot points, the planet has finally left the building. Now, as the Sun shines in your sector of self, it supplies an annual reminder that pleasure is a non-negotiable. Book the massage, buy the flowers, sleep in the expensive sheets. The Full Moon in Scorpio on the 1st illuminates your relationship sector, revealing a deep need for balance within relationships. Meanwhile, the New Moon in your sign on the 16th is your personal reset, one of the best days of your entire year for setting intentions around what you want to build, embody and attract. Visualise your upcoming year. 

Mars enters your sign on the 18th, giving you six weeks of steady, determined fuel to chase what you want without burning out. Mid-month, the Sun and Uranus make their presence felt in your sector of income and self-worth. This is changing your relationship to your finances, so expect a surprise windfall, a left-field opportunity, or a radical reassessment of your own value. New streams of revenue are on the horizon. The month culminates with a Full Moon in Sagittarius, lighting up your sector of intimacy and shared energy, helping you to evaluate your beliefs about closeness. While your focus is on finding stability, sometimes you have to risk getting hurt to find love. Try to be vulnerable without compromising your self-worth.

Taurus Beauty Recommendation: aequill Now Eau De Parfum

GEMINI / GEMINI RISING

May starts with the Sun radiating in your sector of the subconscious, emphasising a need for space and seclusion. Use this interval to let go of resentments, feel your feelings, and evict people from your headspace. Uranus has officially moved into your sign for the next seven years, and life as you know it is about to get significantly weirder, freer and more electrifying. You’re tuned in, and intuitive messages may arrive in dreams or in time spent alone, particularly in nature. 

Mercury, your ruling planet, slips into your sign on the 17th and immediately meets Uranus at the first degree, delivering a day of lightning-strike thinking, unsolicited downloads, and conversations that expand your outlook. On the 20th, the Sun follows suit, marking the start of a season of exploration and experimentation. You’re out and about, speaking your mind and enjoying the spotlight. The Full Moon in Sagittarius may bring relationship issues to a tipping point, as it falls in your sector of partners, inflating egos and sparking tempers. As this next phase of your journey promises to be a life-changing one, use this Full Moon to decipher who you want accompanying you on the ride.

Gemini Beauty Recommendation: ODE ONA Dawn Earth Eau de Parfum

CANCER / CANCER RISING

The Full Moon in Scorpio on the 1st detonates in your sector of romance, creativity and pleasure, exposing hidden motives about a love affair, a passion project, or a secret crush. You’re in high demand, as May turns the spotlight onto your social world, as your focus moves from personal to communal, and you find yourself craving the company of people who feed your spirit. Seek out the creatives, dreamers and fellow weirdos who move through the world with open hearts and a sense of purpose. Surface-level connections hold zero appeal right now. You want depth. 

Uranus in Gemini is activating a new form of spiritual intelligence within you for the next six and a half years, as it falls into your psychic sector, opening you up to higher realms of thought. From the 17th-20th, Mercury and the Sun line up with Uranus in Gemini, delivering strange dreams, intuitive pings and downloads from god-knows-where. This is clairvoyant territory, so take notes. The end of the month encourages an evaluation of your energy levels, when the Full Moon in Sagittarius on the 31st peaks in your sector of daily routines, demanding you cut a habit, a job, or a rhythm that’s been draining. Listen to your body. 

Cancer Beauty Recommendation: KIKO Smart Fusion Lipstick

LEO / LEO RISING

May puts your career on centre stage, as the Sun cruises through Taurus, moving through the most visible part of your chart. This is a month of recognition, as everything you’ve been grinding towards starts to gain public attention. Get clear on what you actually want professionally: not just the title, but the energy, the view from your office window, the way it feels to wake up inside your own life. Royal, rockstar or world-leader, whatever the fantasy, the Taurus season is training you to lean on your magnetism and believe in your worth, rather than chasing anything down. The New Moon on the 16th is one of the best days of your entire year for career intentions. Be obnoxious about what you want.

Gemini season begins on the 20th, and the pace picks up fast, as you are compelled to find weirder scenes and new networks, congregating with fellow rebels. With Uranus now in your sector of community for the next seven years, hierarchical or antiquated friendship dynamics begin to feel boring. In its place, something far more compelling emerges: unlikely allies, unhinged little covens, and newfound friendships with a higher purpose. The month ends with a Full Moon in Sagittarius, amplifying your appetite for romance and play. Just don’t overdo it!

Leo Beauty Recommendation: ILIA Soft Focus Blurring Blush

VIRGO / VIRGO RISING

This is a month to stop looking for everything that could go wrong and start thinking about everything that could go right. The higher your self-esteem, the more the world responds in kind. You’ve been micromanaging the details long enough; it’s time to change your outlook and look for the beauty in the world around you, adopting a more romantic worldview. May stretches your horizons, as the Sun in Taurus illuminates your sector of travel, higher learning and belief. Book the trip, enrol in the course, and cultivate greater faith in yourself. The Full Moon in Scorpio on the 1st may bring clarity to a conversation you’ve been putting off. Say the thing, even if it’s awkward. 

A lightning-strike insight about your career, a sudden opportunity, or a full-scale reroute of your professional life is on the table, especially when Mercury meets Uranus on the 17th. On the 22nd, the Sun meets Uranus in the same place, and the message is clear: your career is no longer meant to follow a linear path. The traditional ladder is starting to feel suffocating, and you’re being pushed to take the kind of public, professional risks you’ve historically talked yourself out of. Expect sudden opportunities, unconventional offers, and the urge to rebrand, rebel, and speak your mind without restraint. 

Virgo Beauty Recommendation: SALT & STONE Saffron & Cedar body cream

LIBRA / LIBRA RISING

As the Sun moves through Taurus, it enters the most sensual region of your chart. May is a journey through the region of sex, emotional inheritance, intimacy and the psychic entanglements you’ve formed with other people. First, the Full Moon in Scorpio on the 1st illuminates your 2nd house of earning and self-worth. These are the twin sectors of value: what belongs to you, and what doesn’t. Think about what you’ve learned about your own worth from those you’ve been intimate with. Whose beliefs about money, scarcity and desire are running the show? Whose emotions have you been mistaking for your own? May is an invitation to repossess what belongs to you, and to send the rest back where it came from. The New Moon on the 16th bodes well for calling in balanced intimacy and asking for what you deserve.

Venus, your ruling planet, glides into Cancer on the 18th, bestowing a softer magnetism on your professional life. Charm becomes a major source of power, and influential people begin to take notice. Mid-month, Mercury and the Sun meet Uranus in your 9th house of belief and expansion, cracking open your worldview in the most interesting way. A conversation, a journey, or a chance encounter has the potential to challenge what you thought you knew. The month ends in fireworks. On the 31st, the Full Moon in Sagittarius erupts in your 3rd house of communication, blowing the lid off something you’ve been keeping quiet. The truth you’ve been considering for months becomes clear. Send the message. Publish the post. Say the unsayable thing. 

Libra Beauty Recommendation: Rhode Pocket Blush Buildable Hydrating Cream Blush

SCORPIO / SCORPIO RISING

The Full Moon in your sign on the 1st of the month offers you a chance to let go of emotional baggage and reclaim your power, after a long period of change. After seven years of Uranus tearing through your house of partnership and rearranging your closest relationships in unpredictable, sometimes brutal ways, the great disruptor has finally moved on. Now, you’re craving the opposite of chaos. Taurus season rules over your sector of partnerships, and you are ready for stability, presence, comfort and the kind of connections that value you for exactly who you are. If you are looking for new love, call it in on the 16th, when the New Moon in Taurus opens the door for matches made in heaven. 

Then Gemini season hits on the 20th, and Uranus, now squatting in your sector of soul-binding intimacy for the next six and a half years, begins to rewire your entire approach to vulnerability. This upcoming cycle invites you to let people in, ending the month in strange and serendipitous liaisons. The Full Moon in Sagittarius on the 31st brings the month full circle, asking you to think critically about your finances and curb the urge to overspend, especially in the name of impressing the new people now entering your orbit. Look for collaborators, investors and creative partners who are generative.

Scorpio Beauty Recommendation: Starface Party Pack

SAGITTARIUS / SAGITTARIUS RISING

You may feel burnt out on the 1st of the month, when the Full Moon in Scorpio illuminates a deep need for rest. Taurus season calls for new, more grounded routines. Try out new beauty rituals, grounding exercises, and refine the small daily practices that keep you tethered to your body. This is where you inspect what you eat, how you sleep, and how you value yourself through self-care. If you can imbue your day-to-day with a sense of romance, you’ll find it easy to commit to a steady routine.

Uranus, that great cosmic agitator, has just slipped into your 7th house of partnership for the next seven years, and the era of predictable, well-behaved relationships is officially behind you. Suddenly, you’re drawn to strange, electric, freedom-loving counterparts who encourage the wildness in you. Expect sudden connections, abrupt fall-outs, and “aha” moments about the people who are meant for you. Mid-month, when Mercury and the Sun crash into Uranus in this sector, the plot thickens. Someone tells the truth, makes a move, or appears at your door without warning. Any changes that need to be made on your side of the street become clear on the 31st, during the Full Moon in Sagittarius. Staying in stagnant dynamics is no longer an option. The Full Moon in your own sign demands radical honesty about who you’ve outgrown, what you’ve been tolerating, and the necessary changes that need to be made.

Sagittarius Beauty Recommendation:  Genaura Levagen+ Smart Face Serum

CAPRICORN / CAPRICORN RISING

The planets are, with uncharacteristic firmness, ordering you to enjoy yourself. May is a month for matters of the heart, as Taurus season amplifies your appetite for pleasure and play. Cancel a meeting. Take the long lunch. Wear the impractical shoes. Flirt with someone you have no business flirting with. The Full Moon in Scorpio on the 1st lights up your 11th house of friendships and the future, bringing a relationship within your wider circle to a meaningful peak. This is where a friend reveals their true colours, a community shifts, or a long-held vision of where you’re headed crystallises overnight. 

The New Moon on the 16th is one of the most generous days of your year for setting intentions around love, creativity, and the parts of your life you’ve been quietly demoting to “extra”. Then everything pivots. As Gemini season begins on the 20th, the spotlight moves from pleasure to your body, your habits, and the architecture of your daily life. Uranus has just settled into your 6th house for the next seven years, which means the rigid structures you’ve built your routines on are about to feel obsolete. Expect a growing pull toward freelance rhythms, unconventional wellness practices, and ways of working that give you more freedom. 

Capricorn Beauty Recommendation: Saie Slip Tint Dewy Tinted Moisturiser

AQUARIUS / AQUARIUS RISING

The Full Moon in Scorpio on the 1st is revealing something about your career and reputation. A project drops, a title shifts, a long-running professional dynamic hits its breaking point. Running on cortisol or overworking is no longer an option; it’s time to get honest about what you want to be known for. But overall, May is a more inward month, as you look for safety and reprieve from the world at large, infusing your surroundings with more beauty. It’s time to make your home feel like less of a pitstop, and more of a sanctuary. Don’t be afraid to splurge on candles or bedsheets. This is how you can ground into your body, in order to attract what you want towards you. Prosperity will come more easily this way. 

On the 6th, Pluto stations retrograde in your sign, turning up the volume on your inner world. Suddenly, you have a clearer view of your emotions, desires and intuition. You may feel more introspective as a result, eager to inspect your unconscious. Then Gemini season hits on the 20th, immediately colliding with Uranus, creating a breakthrough moment in your sector of romance, art and self-expression. Expect a creative breakthrough, a plot twist in your love life, or a sudden urge to play. Inspiration strikes and complacency is no longer an option. Get a pen to paper and record all your unhinged ideas. 

Watch out for fiery attitudes from friends on the 31st, when the Full Moon in Sagittarius on the 31st lights up your sector of friendship and community. Differences in opinions and outlooks may cause fallouts. Speak up for yourself, and don’t shy away from the truth.

Aquarius Beauty Recommendation: Perfumer H Ink Candle

PISCES / PISCES RISING

The Sun moves through Taurus, heightening your perception of the world and encouraging you to communicate with intention. May highlights the small daily exchanges that quietly compose the texture of your life. Your spellwork is the words you offer the world, the stories you tell yourself in private, and the assumptions you make. Pisces tends to underestimate the weight of language because you live so much in atmosphere and image, but Taurus in this sector is here to teach you that words have texture, gravity and pull. Speak about your life like it’s already beautiful, and beauty starts arriving at your door. 

As Gemini season begins on the 20th, your attention drifts from the realm of language and ideas down into the soft, intimate territory of home. Uranus has just slipped into this territory for the next six and a half years, and the foundations of your life are entering a period of reinvention. You may feel a sudden desire to live somewhere else, redecorate or rebel against a narrative you inherited from family. Work beckons on the 31st, when the Full Moon in Sagittarius falls in your professional sector, encouraging you to share your talents with a wider audience.

Pisces Beauty Recommendation: Burberry Her Parfum