May 2024 Horoscope: This Month, Travel Will Be Joyful
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.
Your May 2024 horoscope is dessert—a sweet treat, well-deserved after eating our eclipse-season vegetables (let’s be real, for some of us it was more like eating glass). May and June are serving us some of the nicest astro weather of the entire year, making this a choice time for travel. A pileup of planets in Taurus this month greases the wheels for anyone who likes to eat well, art well, and hike well on vacation. Whether you save your splurges for restaurants or camping gear, nature’s beauty will be heightened this month. This is a great time to explore foodie capitals, go to music festivals, decamp to gardens of all kinds, and hit up some of the obligatory museums you were tempted to skip. Venus, the patron planet of artists, is in top form throughout the first three weeks of May, so it’s best to watch when the goddess is showing off.
There are two dates that stand out as extra-special this month; the March 18 and 23. On the 18th, we get a double feature of a Venus-Uranus and a Jupiter-Sun conjunction in Taurus—you might find yourself enjoying the most unexpected flavors, and receiving unexpected blessings. If your cup is already full, you can get on the side of the planets by blessing someone who’s struggling. The vibe here is that we all eat better when we eat together. On the 23rd, Venus conjoins Jupiter during the Full Moon in Sagittarius. This is genuinely fun astrology for a party or celebration of some kind—just be wary of the resulting hangover or cleanup that might follow when the Moon squares Saturn.
On May 25, Jupiter enters Gemini, initiating us into a year-long discovery journey of multitudes. Curiosity will send us down a variety of rabbit holes, and even if we don’t emerge wiser, we’ll probably emerge more saturated. We might not be satisfied with traveling for the sake of relaxation during this time—if anything, we won’t be able to turn our brains off on vacation, and might spend a week restlessly looking up historical facts about that one king with the weird eating habits. We’re moving from a sensory playground to a cerebral one, and in the spirit of changing gears, it’s time to prioritize mentally stimulating adventures of all kinds.
Below, your complete May 2024 horoscope, for every sign.
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
What would “having it all” mean to you at this point in your life? Better yet, what would “having enough” mean? As a bouquet of (mostly pleasant) surprises blooms in your second house of resources this month, you, too, might be coming into a newfound sense of being satiated or supported by your material circumstances. Whether that means money in the bank, a lucky haul from your sister’s closet, or something as simple as a strong crop emerging in your garden, you are being resourced in new ways in May—and perhaps finding that you finally have everything you need to make your dreams a reality. Of course, the question then becomes: what are you waiting for? The distance between where you are and where you want to be might be smaller than you thought, and that is both exciting and terrifying.
Women Who Travel Book Club: 14 New Books to Add to Your Spring Reading List
Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley
$21.00, Amazon
Worry by Alexandra Tanner
$22.00, Amazon
Funny Story by Emily Henry
$19.00, Amazon
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
$18.00, Amazon
I’lll Just Be Five More Minutes: and Other Tales from My ADHD Brain by Emily Farris
$20.00, Amazon
How to Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon by Lyn Slater
$24.00, Amazon
The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim
$23.00, Amazon
Friends in Napa by Sheila Yasmin Marikar
$11.00, Amazon
No Judgment: On Being Critical by Lauren Oyler
$23.00, Amazon
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkle
$25.00, Amazon
Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon
$25.00, Amazon
Piglet by Lottie Hazell
$21.00, Amazon
The Limits by Nell Freudenberger
$23.00, Amazon
Death Valley by Melissa Broder
$14.00, Amazon
Of course, there’s also the very real possibility that you’ll be burning as quickly as you earn this month, because the temptation to ball out will be there with the combined influence of Venus and Jupiter in your second house, plus Mars conjoining the North Node in Aries. Whether you’re motivated by ambition or simply outsized hunger, there might not be much of a difference where your wallet is concerned. If you were looking for a time to take yourself to that one spendy hotel you’ve been saving up for, this would be one way to scratch that itch, because it does look like “treat yourself” o’clock. But if you’re not in a position to splurge quite like that, throw some caution to the wind before you order bottomless mimosas and then play fast and loose with your credit card. Whether you go for it or go for broke, this influence peaks mid-month, particularly between the 18th and 23rd.
On the 25th, Jupiter enters Gemini, plunging you into a year-long road trip of sorts. Expect many pit stops along this experiential journey, and bring a lot of podcasts and audiobooks to keep you company. More than likely, this will be a year of reading and discovering and writing in an attempt to weave multiple threads together, but don’t be surprised if there’s a literal component of taking more weekend trips out of town, or getting to know the local lore of your city or town better.
Taurus Rising
You’ve been having a meaningful old time generating your perspective and attuning to your own priorities and needs. Now, get ready to harvest your crops as your garden bursts into full bloom. You’ve got plenty of output you’re ready to share with the world this month, and beyond that, this will probably be a really nice few weeks to enjoy yourself. Even if you’re not launching a literal work of genius into the world, you are still contributing your brilliance by showing up as your most inspired self. So yes, you’ve got divine permission to play in May.
The opulence of this mood peaks mid-month, but two especially fortuitous days include the 18th and the 23rd. You might be blessed with a gift or endowment of some kind that opens new doors for you. At the very least, you’ll probably have an amazing couple of days, full of eye-opening realizations and a sweet sense of being celebrated and favored. This is a nice time to reward yourself for all your hard work (or for merely surviving something difficult), so whether you’re on a bucket list trip or taking yourself out for ice cream six minutes from your house, enjoy—you’ve earned it.
Beyond the sound of clinking glasses and enjoying where you’re at, May is just as much a time to set yourself up for further growth. The Taurus New Moon on the May 7 asks for a renewal of your commitment to patient cultivation, to the consistent effort required day in and day out to sustain your progress over the long haul. After Jupiter enters Gemini on the May 25, you’ll be in for a year-long process of bringing in more yield after enjoying the fruits of your initial crop. Starting something is one thing—keeping it going is another. Your growth strategies may need to change and adapt to the weather, and you may need to gain more financial or agricultural literacy to keep up.
Gemini Rising
If ever there was a month to look for the silver linings, May would be it. There’s a lot that had to go wrong in order for things to go right, and as a result, you’re now able to free yourself from limiting beliefs and patterns of self-sabotage that contributed to your stuckness. Maybe it’s partially your own stubbornness, maybe it’s your unacknowledged addiction to comfort and predictability that drives you into these ruts from time to time. Whatever it is, you’re getting a little bit of a new lease on life, and perhaps an opportunity to accept and integrate the parts of yourself you’ve rejected for far too long.
If therapeutic inquiry is where you’re going with this, expect to really get somewhere between the 15th and the 17th, when Mercury enters your twelfth house of self-undoing and runs into a square with Pluto. Maybe it’s too much navel-gazing, maybe it’s digging in forbidden sandboxes, but either way you’re in a position to investigate the matter several layers deeper. And you might strike gold, or at least feel rewarded for all this self-examination, pretty soon after. As a full moon reaches its pinnacle in your seventh house of others on May 23, an important relationship takes a decisive turn as well, and you might feel called to change gears in your approach to partnership, or in your professional focus. The lingering effects of the Jupiter-Sun conjunction on the 18th might find you more inclined going forward to serve those who are marginalized, suffering, or otherwise cast aside by the system.
All of this internal work is going to serve as a stepping stone into a much more active and busy cycle for you. Late in the month is when you really start to wake up and come out to play: the Sun enters Gemini on the 20th, followed by Venus on the 23rd, and most significantly, Jupiter on the 25th. Jupiter will remain in your rising sign for a year, encouraging lots of personal growth and stimulating more output from you than usual. Prepare for a year of sharing the fruits of your knowledge with the world, and perhaps branching out in all kinds of exciting new directions.
Cancer Rising
If teamwork has made the dream work for you over the last year or so, you’re really going to like what comes next. In May, a collective effort you’ve been a part of recently bears fruit, and you might be attending more parties and celebrations than usual—whether as a result of all you’ve achieved together lately, or separately, as a bonus perk for your social calendar. Maybe you’re finally getting your flowers as your orchestra wraps up its season finale show, or maybe you’ll be celebrating a shared victory with a social movement you’ve been a part of. Maybe this moment amounts to something small and sweet, like a long-awaited friend reunion in a beautiful part of the country you’ve always wanted to visit. Whatever it is, expect the wine to flow and the hors d'oeuvres to hit. Good vibes and good food are all on the menu.
You might not be content to merely rest on your laurels, though. While this month promises to be fun, you’re also on a pretty ambitious streak professionally. As Mars hulks out with its conjunction to the North Node on the 19th, your drive to succeed intensifies, and might even turn you into a controversial figure. If you haven’t been seeing eye to eye with your boss, conflict could reach a boil around this time, but perhaps sticking it to the man is the initiation you’re meant to have around this time. Either way, it’s possible that everything that’s currently popping off with your team is the result of your brave leadership. Where are you being called to step up?
After Jupiter slips into Gemini on the 25th, you’ll be pulled into a new year-long quest for growth and knowledge, but this one looks more like a hermit’s solitary journey through a stack of books. Excuse you while you hole up in your room and don’t come out until you’ve caught up on your reading list, or disappear to study for your certification exams. It seems like you’ll have a lot of material to dig through, and it seems like you might be busy in reading purgatory for some time. At least it’ll be an interesting time out? This could also be an insightful time to gain more self-knowledge and pause in quiet contemplation, so this is the year to save your PTO days for a monastery retreat.
Leo Rising
‘Tis the season of your big debut, or at least getting your deserved flowers at your annual performance review. Your career and/or public life is hitting a sustained high note in May, and you might be celebrating some recent successes and milestones. More than likely, you’re not the kind of person who needs to be told twice to bask in the praise and enjoy your cake. But if others are gushing to you about the impact your work has had on them, or the skies are opening up and dropping a plum opportunity into your lap, know that you did that, and that the payoff for your efforts should absolutely taste this sweet. Watch for sudden openings and advancements materializing around the 18th, and some festive energy coming your way during the full moon on the 23rd. If you have a launch party to throw, or even a retirement celebration, this would be a great day for that.
At the same time, you might be leaving smoke trails behind you on the moving walkways of the airports of the world. As Mars hits an amplified conjunction to the North Node on the 19th, your frequent flier activity speeds up, and perhaps reaches a fever pitch. Maybe all the activity at work these days is resulting in an intensity of travel, or maybe your engagement with the international arena hits a critical high note without you having to leave your home. This is not only a burst of activity, but also an opportunity for you to lean into potential disagreements that may arise, and to learn from the school of conflict.
Jupiter enters Gemini on the 25th, setting you up for a year of teach-ins, conventions, heady online discourse, and a generally more active social calendar. You might be mingling with disparate groups you belong to (and gaining lots of inspiration from this cross-pollination), or perhaps attending more conferences where cool ideas are being shared. The temptation to binge on all the variety on offer to you will be strong, and it’ll be easy to lose the thread a little as you chase the intellectual thrill of “learning and experiencing it all.” In the meantime, allow the initial buzz to wake up your brain cells and encourage more sharing. There are no doubt more people out there who could benefit from your brilliance.
Virgo Rising
May is set to bring you various kinds of peak experiences. Whether they’re of the travel variety or not, this could easily become one of your favorite months of the year to explore beyond the zone of what you’re already familiar with. Trips to faraway places are poised to delight you, and learning pursuits of all kinds will trigger all the right dopamine buttons. You might be experiencing a blossoming, so to speak, regarding your own philosophical and spiritual orientation toward the world—a fructification of thought and belief, or maybe enjoying the rewards of all those hours you’ve spent hitting the books lately. If you’re lucky enough to be able to get away this month, get your fill of desserts, music, and sensory experiences of all kinds. It’s one thing to research the place you’re visiting, and yet another to drink in the embodied sensations of a place.
Even if you’re homebound, your palette will be craving the flavors and artistic influences of foreign cultures, so why not use that as an excuse to patronize more international restaurants, or mow through a lineup of foreign films in your streaming queue?
If you’ve been weighing a relocation, it’s very possible that May’s astrology will greenlight your plans. Between a way-opening Jupiter-Sun conjunction on the 18th and a Venus-Jupiter conjunction on the 23rd (which just so happens to coincide with a full moon in your fourth house of home), you might be celebrating both the completion of milestones and the making of new possibilities.
On the 25th, Jupiter enters Gemini for the next year, stimulating all kinds of professional growth for you along the way. You may be juggling various roles and responsibilities in this next leg of your journey, or attempting to fuse several threads together into a multimedia work of brilliance. Although you’ll likely be excited by all the advancement, it’ll also be an interesting challenge to keep all the plates in the air, or manage all those moving pieces. If there’s anyone who can pull it off, though, it’s probably you.
Libra Rising
Did tax season leave you with an unexpectedly plump check to help subsidize your spring travels? Are resources flowing your way in the form of generous benefactors, bull markets, and the various forms of tangible and emotional assistance that make up your support network? Regardless of the shape your blessings take this May, consider that some forms of abundance can only reach you when the proverbial stuff hits the fan. Having help available to you when you need it is its own form of wealth, and having your own giving energy reciprocated is more satisfying than never having given at all.
Including spots in Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.
There could definitely be some financial wins coming your way this month (think: taxes, debts, investments, grants, inheritances, mortgages, insurance, money you’re owed, or even a partner’s income becoming the tide that lifts your boat), but barring some sort of spectacular windfall, you’ll probably gain a lot more sustenance from noticing the everyday forms of generosity people are extending your way—the kind you could easily take for granted. Still, look for pleasant surprises, and even changes to your material circumstances, that could arrive around the 18th. On the 23rd, you may also feel like celebrating some recent wins, or maybe spreading the good vibes by dropping some honey into someone else’s pot.
You probably don’t need to be reminded or encouraged to save a little for your own treat or reward, but in case you need the extra incentive, Jupiter is entering Gemini on May 25th, which probably means lots of travel in the year ahead. For the next 12 months, your appetite for learning and new experiences will balloon, and you might be blessed with more opportunities to scratch that itch. With all the places still left on your bucket list, you might be eager to take a tapas approach to travel this year, blowing through an entire continent by train. You will need to find a way to rein it in somehow, and it’s possible that if you’re testing a remote work arrangement, your job will serve as both an enabler and a hindrance to all the adventuring you want to do. For now, just be ready to fly at the first opportunity.
Catch the northern lights from your coach, or get up to Machu Picchu without a trek aboard these trains.
Scorpio Rising
Sometimes you’re the prize, sometimes the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is made up of the people you met along the way. Right now, there’s a lot to be grateful for, and it probably has something to do with one or more of the Very Important Relationships in your life. Whether your partner is experiencing a glow-up that’s reflecting well on you, whether you’re enjoying a honeymoon phase after some hard-won trials together, or whether there’s a professional collaboration that’s taking hold at the moment and promising lots of mutual wins, things are looking pretty good between you and yours. If you’re single and looking, this is definitely the kind of astro weather that could serve as your wing person. If you’re not feeling the profound heart opening yet, try extending grace to others this month, and leading with the benefit of the doubt. People might surprise you, but you have to let them first.
Speaking of honeymoon, this wouldn’t be a bad time to go on a romantic couple’s retreat, but any kind of dynamic duo adventuring will satisfy the cosmos. If you’re flying solo on vacation in May, opening up the apps for a spin could tilt the dating wheel of fortune in your favor. However, with Mars approaching a conjunction to the North Node on the 19th, it’s also very likely that you might have trouble pulling yourself away from the #grindset. This could provide you with a powerful burst of energy to chew through your tasks if you need it, and might make sense if you’re hard at work on a business collab. However, try not to work so hard that you fizzle out and play soft.
On the 25th, Jupiter sails into Gemini, blessing your eighth house of finances and other people’s resources for the next year. Collaborations could continue delivering wins for you, and resourced partners and benefactors could pull through for you in the year ahead. However, not all of that potential is likely to be realized—the impact of this growth will likely be lessened through the diversification of your portfolio (metaphorically speaking). Too many cooks in the kitchen could very much be a thing, and this may be an unavoidable aspect of the entanglements you’re forming. It might not pay to get overly fixated on the minutiae of who owes what. Trust that the math will all come out in the wash more or less okay.
Sagittarius Rising
You’ve been patiently cultivating the garden of your daily habits and professional life, and now, you’re getting ready to whistle while you work. As a bouquet of planets convenes in Taurus this month, your sixth house of work, routines, and health, you’ll probably be enjoying the fruits of all your recent labors in some way, or benefiting from a real sense of “things finally coming together to make your life easier in some way.” Will there be cake at the office celebrating a recent win? A wellness goal reached, and easily surmounted? An adorable new pet making your heart grow two sizes? New hires finally stepping in to take over part of your workload? Or will you possibly even be vacationing somewhere with your coworkers on a team-building retreat?
Big wins and small wins are all worth celebrating, and together, they all add up to something larger. Mid-month is when a lot culminates. There’s a full moon in Sagittarius on the 23rd, signaling some sort of personal milestone being reached. As your ruling planet, Jupiter, renews itself in the heart of the Sun on May 18th, your perspective goggles may widen to notice even more opportunity, abundance, and possibility around you. As much as you’ve accomplished recently, you may have other hills you want to climb, or more satisfaction you’d like to gain from your work. Possibility is just possibility, but awareness is almost always necessary for the realization of it.
After Jupiter enters Gemini on the 25th, your focus shifts toward the expanding sightlines of your relationships for the next year. There’s progress to be made in partnerships of all kinds, and much to be learned from one another. Maybe you’ll be working on your relationship with your significant other, and making slow, but incremental progress, toward ideating a future together. Maybe you’ll be going all-in on a collaboration of some kind, expanding your client practice, or engaging in some sort of counseling relationship or mentorship. Expect lots of curiosity, lots of questions, and lots of exchange—maybe even an exhausting amount of talking in circles at times—in your pursuit of understanding.
Capricorn Rising
There are seasons for toil, and seasons for pleasure. Even those of us who live our lives in a state of constant accountability can also find ourselves in a position to play, and May looks like a pretty delightful time to do so. This month could represent the culmination of a creative or artistic growth process, the payoff moment in a hobby you’ve devoted a lot of time to lately, or just an especially enjoyable month after a year of trying to make more space for fun in your life. You might also be spending more time with children in May (and getting a lot of joy out of finger painting and imagination games). Dinner dates might consume your calendar, and if you’re not literally on vacation, you’ll probably be in somewhat of a vacation mindset. Of course, this will probably be less the case if you’re on a family trip with the kids, but even the chaos of Disney World won’t harsh your vibe too much right now.
There are two especially fun days this month that stand out from the rest: on May 18, there’s a Jupiter-Sun and a Venus-Uranus conjunction coinciding in Taurus. You might pleasantly surprise yourself by taking your creative direction in an unexpected direction, or by enjoying something you didn’t think would be your cup of tea. On the 23rd, Venus and Jupiter conjoin, and there’s a full moon in Sagittarius. You might be in the mood to throw a party, but may also, at the very same time, be having lots of realizations around the kinds of secrets you keep from yourself. Do you struggle to hold the capacity for so much goodness in your life? Do you secretly crave more of this kind of thing, but feel you can’t acknowledge how important it is to give yourself things to look forward to?
Anyway, you’ll be more focused on work again pretty soon. If not work, then on making progress in your health journey, or on troubleshooting your life in some way. On the 25th, Jupiter enters Gemini for a year, sending you on a learning path of watching life hack TikToks, reading medical studies, branching out into different supplements and healing modalities, and getting extra busy at work—busy because you’re juggling a bunch of projects, or wearing a lot of hats. Remember that even if you’re oriented toward a result or a solution, the learning process is half the point.
Aquarius Rising
Maybe slowing your travel roll wasn’t your first choice, but if in the meantime, you’ve been able to pour more energy into making your home into a true sanctuary, was it really that bad of a jail sentence? For the last year or so, you’ve been on a mission to upgrade your living situation and/or build a cozier nest to serve as your home base. And this month, it looks like you’ll be enjoying the culmination of those efforts—maybe even popping the champagne at your housewarming party.
Alternatively, May could be a rewarding month for those of you who’ve been tunneling deeper into your heritage lately, or trying to improve your relationship with your family. It’s tempting to overlook your own roots when there are so many cultures and histories to learn about, but your various ancestral lineages are your personal tethers to great wells of abundance. Whether you’ve been working on mapping your family tree, schooling yourself in historical knowledge, learning the family recipes, or receiving other forms of knowledge transmission from your elders, this is the month for enjoying the garden you’ve cultivated—or maybe even taking a trip to an ancestral land.
Wherever you end up this month, it’s not unlikely that you’re going to be racking up some mileage on your car (or hitting those buses and trains with some amount of added intensity). Mars is pummeling toward the North Node, exact on the 19th, and for you, this could correspond to more time commuting, more short trips, and more steps pounding the pavement around town. There’s lots to do, and people you gotta see—or maybe just too many good day and weekend trips you don’t want to miss out on. Just try not to bicker with the sister or BFF you’re visiting.
The big news this month is Jupiter entering Gemini on the 25th, which plunges all of us into new year-long chapters of discovery. For you, this may take the form of increased opportunities to play and experiment, to create interesting works of multimedia expression, to dabble in even more hobbies than you already do, and to generally make more space for fun in your life. Not a hard sell, no?
Pisces Rising
Roll out the picnic blankets and put together those playlists meant for aimless strolls, because this May is set to be a walk in the park—literally. As a host of planets congregates in your third house of local space, mingling in both pleasant and unexpected ways, you’re on track to have a grand old time exploring the best of what your city has to offer in May (or even exercising your flâneur muscles in a place you’ve never been before). Paradise exists in what’s immediately accessible this month: think public green spaces, bustling streets, live music that reaches you at your spot beneath the cafe awning. If you do happen to be traveling, you’ll get a lot out of people watching, and simply soaking up the local ambiance. Music, art, and food will all pop with extra flavor.
This is also a great month to gather with the besties and round up the cousins for a mini family reunion. Potlucks, weddings, and stoop hangouts alike can fill your cup in the best ways. If you’re geographically scattered, FaceTiming with the old crew is more than called for. But yes, this is also the perfect time to all go in on a house together for an extended weekend.
You could also be celebrating some professional milestones during the Sagittarius Full Moon on the 23rd. You might be on a roll with some writing, content creation, or workshops you’ve been creating lately, and if you’re not actually publishing that material around this time, you might be hitting a high water mark with your creative process.
Even bigger news: your ruling planet, Jupiter, changes signs on the 25th. Landing in Gemini, your fourth house of roots, Jupiter will spend the next year complicating your relationship to home in order to ultimately help you understand it better. An upgrade to your living situation could also be in the works, but there’s a strong possibility you’ll try to have your cake and eat it, too, only to come up against your own limits in some way. Part of this may involve attempting to split your time between more than one home base. Is this the year you attempt to make your bicoastal dreams a reality? There’s a journey in attempting to have it all, but be prepared to have to make some concessions.
Enjoyed your May 2024 horoscope? Look back on April to see how things lined up.
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler
