Gemini Monthly Horoscope

January

  • Best Days Overall: 4, 5, 13, 14, 23, 24, 31
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 1, 6, 7, 21, 22, 27, 28
  • Best Days for Love: 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, 16, 21, 22, 27, 21, 25, 28, 29, 30
  • Best Days for Money: 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, 16, 17, 23, 25
  • Best Days for Career: 6, 7, 17, 26

All the planets, with the exception of the Moon (and that only temporarily) are in the day side of your chart. Your 10th house of career is very strong, while your 4th house of home and family is basically empty. (Only the Moon moves through here this month, on the 21st and 22nd.) So we have a very clear message. Focus on the career and let family matters go for a while.

The month ahead is very successful, and future months will bring even more success. You’re just getting started in your success track. You are elevated in your career and social status.

Jupiter, your love planet, is right at the top of your chart in your 10th house. This is wonderful for both the career and the romantic life. It shows focus. Love is high on your agenda, high on your list of priorities. Romantic opportunities happen as you pursue your career goals or with people involved in your career. Status and power are strong aphrodisiacs. A lot of your socializing involves the career. You are meeting important, influential people socially. Your social contacts boost the career.

Health is basically good this month. Pluto, your health planet, is receiving positive aspects. The 1st, 2nd, 27th and 28th seem especially good for health – and good for jobseekers as well. You can enhance the health further in the ways mentioned in the yearly report.

Finance is not a big deal this month. Your money house is empty. (Only the Moon will move through there, on the 16th and 17th.) This tends to the status quo. Career is more exciting and important than mere money. (Generally, if the career is going well, finances tend to go well too – but not always.) A prestigious position that pays less is more attractive to you than a non-prestigious position that pays more. In general, you will have more financial energy and enthusiasm from the 2nd to the 17th as the Moon waxes. This period is good for increasing earnings and making investments. After the 17th is a good period to use spare cash to reduce debt.

Mercury, the ruler of your Horoscope, makes a dynamic aspect with Uranus from the 12th to the 17th. Try to avoid long trips during that period. Be more careful driving and be more mindful on the physical level. You will have a tendency to test the limits of the body over this period. This is OK, but do it mindfully and not recklessly.

February

  • Best Days Overall: 1, 9, 10, 11, 19, 20, 28
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 2, 3, 17, 18, 24, 25
  • Best Days for Love: 2, 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27
  • Best Days for Money: 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23
  • Best Days for Career: 2, 3, 12, 13, 22, 23

A happy and successful month ahead, Gemini, enjoy. Your 9th house – a very beneficent house – remains powerful until the 18th. Like last month this favours higher studies – it is a wonderful period for college-level students and for those looking to enter college – foreign travel and religious and theological studies.

On the 18th the Sun will cross your Mid-heaven and enter your 10th house. You begin a yearly (and for many of you a lifetime) career peak. Much success is happening. There is success in the career and success in love as well.

Health will need more attention from the 18th onwards. There is nothing serious afoot, just short-term stress caused by the short-term planets. As always, make sure to get enough rest. Career demands are hard, but you can work on them steadily. Let go of the inessential in your life and focus on priorities. Enhance the health in the ways mentioned in the yearly report.

Mercury moves forward on the 4th and from then on all the planets are moving forward. So events are happening quickly. You have confidence and clarity.

Most of the planets are in the Western, social sector of your chart and your love planet, Jupiter, is still very prominent. So, self-assertion and self-will are not called for now. This is a time for developing your social skills and for getting things done by consensus rather than personal will. Allow your good to come to you rather than forcing it to happen.

The communication skills of Gemini are legendary. This month superiors take notice: they boosts the career. Social contacts continue to boost the career as well.

Finance is still not a big deal – the tendency will be to the status quo. Your money house remains empty, with only the Moon moving through there, on the 12th and 13th. Focus on the career and money will follow eventually. You are strongest financially from the 1st to the 16th as the Moon, your money planet, waxes. This is when you should save, invest and work to increase your income. After the 16th it will be good to use spare cash to reduce debt (something you want to get rid of).

March

  • Best Days Overall: 1, 9, 10, 18, 19, 27, 28
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 2, 3, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, 31
  • Best Days for Love: 2, 3, 9, 11, 12, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31
  • Best Days for Money: 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31
  • Best Days for Career: 2, 3, 11, 12, 21, 22, 30, 31

Continue to watch your health and energy until the 20th. As always, make sure to get enough rest and listen to the messages your body sends you. Enhance the health in the ways mentioned in the yearly report.

Mars will travel with Pluto from the 2nd to the 4th – a very dynamic aspect. Be more mindful on the material plane. Surgery can be suggested to friends or to you. There can be some disturbance at the workplace. Later this month, Mars will make dynamic aspects with Uranus, from the 20th to the 22nd. Again, be more mindful on the physical plane. Drive more carefully and watch the temper. This applies to your friends as well.

You are still in a strong success track this month. Mercury, the ruler of your Horoscope, will enter your 10th house on the 10th. This shows personal success. You are recognized for who you are as much as for your professional abilities. You seem on top – above everyone in your world. (Sometimes this indicates someone who aspires to be above everyone in their world.) Career is good all month but something really wonderful happens on the 27th or 28th. Mercury travels with Neptune, your career planet.

Love is also happy this month. The Sun travels with your love planet Jupiter from the 4th to the 6th. This brings happy romantic and social opportunities. Mercury will travel with your love planet on the 20th and 21st, which signals a happy romantic meeting for singles. Your social grace has seldom been stronger.

On the 29th and 30th, Mercury (a very important planet in your chart, as you know) has his solstice. He pauses in the heavens – in his latitudinal motion – and then changes direction. So it is with you. There is a pause in your personal affairs and then a change of direction. It is a good pause – a natural pause – not something enforced. You emerge from it refreshed and energetic.

Finances continue to be stable, with the career much more important than mere money. Your money house is still empty, with only the Moon moving through there on the 11th, 12th and 13th. Your financial power is strongest from the 2nd to the 18th as your financial planet waxes. This is a time to increase earning power, make deposits into your savings or investment accounts, and so on – to do things that increase your income. After the 18th use spare cash to pay down debt.

May

  • Best Days Overall: 2, 3, 4, 12, 13, 21, 30, 31
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 10, 11, 16, 17, 23, 24
  • Best Days for Love: 6, 7, 8, 15, 16, 17, 24
  • Best Days for Money: 5, 6, 10, 11, 16, 20, 25, 30
  • Best Days for Career: 6, 15, 23, 24

The month ahead is eventful – with some challenges – but basically happy. Jupiter, your love planet, makes a major move from Pisces to Aries on the 11th. The planetary power is now overwhelmingly in the Eastern sector of self: at least 70 per cent (and sometimes 80 per cent) of the planets are in the East this month. Your 1st house becomes very strong from the 21st onwards. Add to this a lunar eclipse on the 16th and you have a recipe for dramatic change.

You are now – this month and the next – in a period of maximum personal independence. So this is a time to exercise personal initiative and take responsibility for your own happiness. Make the changes that need to be made in your life. You don’t need to consult with others or have their approval – especially if the changes are non-destructive. (Even your love planet, Jupiter, is in the East, so others will more or less assent to your independence.)

The move of the love planet from Pisces to Aries, from your 10th house to the 11th, shows a major shift in love attitudes and needs. Now you seem a ‘love at first sight’ kind of person. You seem fearless in love. If you like someone, that person knows it. You go after what you want. You are proactive in love. And you’re attracted to people who are also like that. Where love was more spiritual over the past few months, now it is more physical. Love and social opportunities happen as you get involved with groups, organizations and group activities – also with social media and the online world.

The lunar eclipse of the 16th occurs in your 6th house of health and work, indicating job changes or changes in the conditions of work. Sometimes there is a health scare, but with health good this month it is probably no more than that – a scare. You will, however, be making important changes to the health regime in the coming months. If you employ others there can be staff turnover. This eclipse impacts on Saturn, and so there can be psychological encounters with death – or near-death kinds of experiences. Every lunar eclipse affects finances, of course. Such eclipses show you the need for a course correction – usually through some upheaval or disturbance. They happen twice a year and the end result is good (although not so pleasant while they’re in progress).

April

  • Best Days Overall: 5, 6, 15, 16, 23, 24
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 13, 14, 19, 20, 25, 26
  • Best Days for Love: 8, 9, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27
  • Best Days for Money: 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17, 18, 20, 21, 26, 27, 30
  • Best Days for Career: 9, 18, 25, 26, 27

Health still needs watching this month – especially from the 15th onwards. Give the heart more attention. Massage the reflex points (see p. 83) and also the chest. Enhance the health in the ways discussed in the yearly report.

The demands of the career are still very strong. Mars will cross the Mid-heaven and enter your 10th house on the 15th. This signals a need for aggressiveness in the career. You seem very combative. You’re dealing with competition. On the other hand, friends seem successful and are helping your career.

Jupiter travels with your career planet Neptune from the 1st to the 17th. This brings more career expansion and opportunity – very positive developments are happening here. It is also a good sign for love. Singles have love opportunities with bosses or high-status people now. The problem is that you need to be sure that it is love and not just a relationship of convenience.

The month ahead is socially active – both romantically and with friends. You seem very devoted to friends and they to you.

On the 20th the Sun enters your 12th house and you begin a strong spiritual period. This can be complicated as your career focus is strong and so is your spiritual focus. You need to integrate both. (This has been a life-long challenge, and especially so nowadays.)

A solar eclipse on the 30th occurs in your spiritual 12th house. Thus there are spiritual changes going on with you – changes of teachers, teachings and practice. There can be upheavals and shake-ups in spiritual or charitable organizations that you’re involved with and dramas in the lives of teachers or guru figures. This eclipse is relatively mild, but it’s probably a good idea to drive more carefully over the period. Cars and communication equipment can behave erratically. The good news is that your 12th house is very strong after the 20th, and spiritual activity and focus is the best way to deal with an eclipse.

Finance is stable this month. Earning power is strongest from the 1st to the 16th. Work to increase income during that period as the Moon is waxing. After the 16th use any spare cash to pay down debt.

June

  • Best Days Overall: 9, 10, 17, 18, 26, 27
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 6, 7, 13, 14, 19, 20
  • Best Days for Love: 4, 6, 7, 13, 14, 16, 21, 26
  • Best Days for Money: 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 13, 18, 21, 28, 29, 30
  • Best Days for Career: 2, 3, 12, 19, 20, 29, 30

A happy month ahead Gemini, enjoy.

Last month on the 21st the Sun entered your own sign and you began one of your yearly personal pleasure peaks. This remains the case until the 21st of this month, so this is a time for enjoying all the pleasures of the senses, for pampering the body and for getting it into the shape that you want. Self-esteem and self-confidence are good – especially from the 14th onwards as Mercury also enters your sign. You look good too. The personal appearance shines. The opposite sex takes notice.

You are still in the maximum period of personal independence this month – perhaps even more than last month. So make those changes that need to be made. Later on, when the planets shift to the West, it will be more difficult.

The month ahead seems very prosperous as well. On the 21st the Sun enters the money house and you begin a yearly financial peak. In addition, your financial planet, the Moon, moves through the money house for a much longer period than usual. She visits the money house twice (usually only once) and her stay is extended to boot. Instead of being in the 2nd house for two days during the month she will be there for six. This a plus for earnings. It shows focus.

The Sun in the money house from the 21st indicates earnings arising from your core strengths – communication, sales, marketing, writing, teaching, advertising, PR and trading. Your communication skills are the avenue to profits.

Health is good this month; if you want to enhance it further do so according to the ways mentioned in the yearly report.

Someone you considered a friend might want to be more than that. Children and children figures in your life are having a very strong social period. If they are of the appropriate age serious romance is happening.

July

  • Best Days Overall: 6, 7, 14, 15, 23, 24
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 4, 5, 10, 11, 16, 17, 31
  • Best Days for Love: 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 15, 18, 19, 26, 28, 29
  • Best Days for Money: 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17, 18, 19, 26, 27, 28, 29
  • Best Days for Career: 9, 16, 17, 27

Health and energy are excellent this month. Your challenge is to use the extra energy, which is like money in the bank, in positive ways.

Finance is the main headline this month. Your money house is the strongest in the Horoscope: 30 per cent (sometimes 40 per cent) of the planets are moving through there this month. You are still in the midst of your yearly financial peak, and you should be richer at the end of the month than you were at the beginning.

This month we see an interesting reversal. Early in the year – until May 11 – career was more important than money. You wanted prestige and status more than money. Now it is the reverse. Money is more important than career now. You would take a position of lesser status if it paid more. (Perhaps you have all the status you need and now want to enhance your bottom line.)

Love becomes more complicated as your love planet, Jupiter, starts to retrograde on the 28th. If you’re making important love decisions do so before the 28th. Venus in your sign until the 18th signals much social grace and physical beauty. This is a good time to buy clothing and accessories as your taste is excellent. Personal appearance is important financially – especially from the 5th to the 19th. You are dressing the part – expensively – projecting wealth.

Venus’s move into your 2nd money house on the 18th indicates good financial intuition. In addition, it shows happy money – money that is earned in enjoyable ways and which is spent on enjoyable things. Children and children figures in your life are supportive financially. If they are young, they inspire you to earn more and perhaps have profitable ideas. If they are older, they are supportive in more practical ways.

Mercury makes nice aspects to Neptune (your career planet) on the 16th and 17th – so there is something wonderful happening careerwise. Then on the 22nd and 23rd Mercury makes nice aspects to your love planet, Jupiter – this brings romantic opportunity for singles.

August

  • Best Days Overall: 2, 3, 11, 12, 20, 21, 29, 30
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 1, 7, 8, 13, 14, 27, 28
  • Best Days for Love: 4, 5, 7, 8, 15, 25, 26
  • Best Days for Money: 7, 8, 15, 16, 22, 23, 25
  • Best Days for Career: 5, 13, 14, 23

Though this month the night side of your Horoscope is as strong as it will ever be this year, it is still not dominant. However, it is a good time to shift your energy from the career to the home, family and your emotional wellness. Career is still very important, and you can’t ignore it, but you can shift some energy to the family. Indeed, with your career planet retrograde you might as well focus on the family. Career issues will need time to resolve and there’s not much you can do to hasten things.

Though retrograde activity is strong this month (with up to 50 per cent of the planets travelling backwards) the important planets in your chart – Mercury, the ruler of your Horoscope and the Moon, your financial planet – are moving forward. So you’re making personal and financial progress.

The month ahead seems happy. Health and energy are good until the 23rd – and even after the 23rd the stresses are coming from short-term planets and are temporary. After the 23rd make sure to get enough rest, and enhance the health in the ways mentioned in the yearly report.

The month ahead is happy in that your 3rd house – your favourite house – is ultra-powerful. The Cosmos impels you to do the things that you most love to do – read, write, study, teach and communicate. The mental faculties, always good, are even better this month. Students excel in their studies.

Venus remains in the money house until the 11th. This shows good financial intuition and a speculative kind of streak. You spend on the family and children and can earn from them as well. By the 12th, however, your short-term financial goals have been achieved and you can focus on what you love – communication and the pursuit of intellectual interests. (Even more than at the beginning of the month.)

Mercury, a very important planet in your chart, has his solstice from the 22nd to the 24th. He pauses in the heavens (in his latitudinal motion) and then changes direction (in latitude). So this brings a pause and change of direction in your personal life.

September

  • Best Days Overall: 7, 8, 16, 17, 26, 27
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 3, 4, 9, 10, 23, 24, 30
  • Best Days for Love: 3, 4, 5, 11, 13, 14, 15, 21, 30
  • Best Days for Money: 3, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 30
  • Best Days for Career: 2, 9, 10, 19, 20, 29

Mars moved into your sign on August 20 and will spend the rest of the year here. There are good points and bad points to this. The good points are more personal courage, a can-do spirit, an ability to get things done quickly. You will excel in sports and exercise regimes – achieving your personal best. The bad points are impatience (not a good thing when retrograde activity is hitting its maximum extent for the year this month), a combative spirit and temper. You do not suffer fools gladly these days. Rush and impatience can lead to accidents and injury. So make haste, but in a mindful way.

Health needs a little attention this month but this is a temporary thing caused by short-term planetary transits. There is nothing serious afoot. Those of you with pre-existing conditions can feel them more – but this will pass. Enhance the health with more rest and in the ways mentioned in the yearly report.

The planetary power this month is in your 4th house of home and family. Life is slowing down with all the retrograde activity going on so you might as well focus on the family and your emotional wellness. Those of you involved in formal psychological therapies will make much progress. You have greater insight into your moods, feelings and emotions these days. And even if you’re not involved in formal therapeutics, nature will therapize you. Old memories will surface for you to look at and re-interpret from your present state of consciousness. Many of you will enjoy researching your family history and lineage these days.

Heath and energy (and overall wellness) return on the 23rd. The Sun moves into your 5th house of creativity and you begin another of your personal pleasure peaks. Many Geminis are writers, and this is an excellent month for creative writing. Your taste in books will be more of the entertainment kind rather than educational ones. A good period to curl up with a good novel or romance and lose yourself in it.

Love is more complicated after the 23rd. Your love planet Jupiter is still retrograde and receiving stressful aspects. So love is bumpy. This might not be your fault; it is possible that the beloved is having a rough time and this is the cause of the problem. Also, you seem more distant with the beloved. You see things in opposite ways. The challenge will be to bridge your differences and find middle ground.

October

  • Best Days Overall: 4, 5, 13, 14, 23, 24
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 1, 7, 21, 22, 27, 28
  • Best Days for Love: 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18, 25, 26, 27, 28
  • Best Days for Money: 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 25, 26, 27
  • Best Days for Career: 7, 8, 17, 26

Health is good this month but a solar eclipse on the 25th can complicate things. It occurs in your 6th house of health and work and will bring changes to the health regime in the coming months. Sometimes there is a health scare. There can be job changes or changes in the conditions of work. If you employ others there can be employee turnover and dramas in the lives of employees. Every solar eclipse affects siblings and sibling figures in your life. It brings drama and crises into their lives. Often these are life-changing. It will also test cars and communication equipment – they can behave erratically and often repair or replacement is needed. Students experience disruptions at school and are changing educational plans. Sometimes they change schools.

Jupiter is still retrograde, but after the 23rd he receives better aspects. Love should improve after the 23rd. Jupiter will have his solstice from the 1st to the 16th. He pauses in the heavens (in latitude) and then changes direction (in latitude). So there is a pause in your love life and then a change of direction. (We see this change of direction in other ways too: Jupiter is changing signs again at the end of the month – moving out of Aries and back into Pisces.)

We will have a Grand Trine in the Air element all month. This is wonderful for you. Air is your native element. Your communication and intellectual faculties are very much enhanced. The problem can come from too much of a good thing – too much speech, too much thinking, too much intellectual activity. The mind gets overstimulated and consumes energy that the body needs for other things – cell repair, immunity, etc. Use your mind but don’t let it use you.

Mercury has another solstice from the 13th to the 16th. Don’t be alarmed if your personal life seems paused. It’s actually a good thing. The prelude to a change of direction.

Finance tends to the status quo this month. Your money house is mostly empty, with only the Moon moving through there on the 16th and 17th. From the 1st to the 9th and from the 25th onwards it is good to do things that build wealth. From the 9th to the 25th use spare cash to pay down debt and reduce expenses.

November

  • Best Days Overall: 1, 2, 10, 11, 19, 20, 28, 29
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 3, 4, 17, 18, 24, 25, 30
  • Best Days for Love: 3, 4, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25
  • Best Days for Money: 3, 4, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25
  • Best Days for Career: 3, 4, 13, 14, 23, 30

The main headline this month is the lunar eclipse of the 8th. Though it doesn’t hit you directly it impacts many important planets in your chart – Mercury, Uranus and Venus. Also it is a total eclipse, which adds more strength to it. So relax and take it nice and easy over that period.

The eclipse occurs in your 12th house of spirituality and brings disruptions in a spiritual or charitable organization that you’re involved with. There are dramas in the lives of guru figures. There are likely to be changes in your spiritual practice, teachings and teachers. Since the Moon is your financial planet there are likely to be financial disturbances and shake-ups. These can be severe. You have to make changes. Your financial planning was not realistic. The impact on Mercury shows that you need to redefine yourself and your self-concept – how you think of yourself and how you want others to think about you. This will lead to the creation of a new look – a new image – in the coming months. If you haven’t been careful in dietary matters this eclipse can bring a detox of the body. This is not sickness, it’s just the body getting rid of things that don’t belong there. Since Mercury is also your family planet, there can be dramas at home and in the lives of family members. Often repairs are needed in the home. The impact on Uranus suggests shake-ups in the educational plans of college students or those looking to enter college. Plans change. Courses can change. Sometimes there is a change of school. It is not a good time for a foreign trip over this period. If you must travel, try to schedule it around the eclipse. There are disruptions in your place of worship and in the lives of worship leaders.

All in all, a pretty eventful eclipse.

Health is basically good until the 22nd. You seem focused on it as well. Jobseekers have many opportunities to find positions. After the 22nd you need to rest and relax more. Enhance the health in the ways mentioned in the yearly report.

On the 22nd the Sun enters your 7th house of love and you begin a yearly love and social peak. There are plenty of love opportunities for singles, but Jupiter, your love planet, is still retrograde so don’t march down the aisle just yet.

Mercury will be in your 7th house from the 17th onwards. This shows personal popularity. You are there for your friends. You’re supportive and on their side. You put their interests ahead of your own, and this makes for popularity. (In addition, the planetary power is in the Western, social sector of your chart – so this is the right attitude. Put others first.)

Finance doesn’t seem a major focus this month. Your money house is basically empty – only the Moon will move through there on the 12th and 13th. This tends to the status quo. Earning power will be strongest from the 1st to the 8th and from 28th onwards – as the Moon waxes. As always, it is good to do things that expand income while the Moon waxes (make investments or save) and good to pay down debt when the Moon wanes from the 8th to the 28th.

December

  • Best Days Overall: 7, 8, 17, 18, 25, 26
  • Most Stressful Days Overall: 1, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 27, 28
  • Best Days for Love: 1, 2, 3, 11, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29
  • Best Days for Money: 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 29
  • Best Days for Career: 1, 10, 11, 20, 27, 28

The planetary power is still mostly in the Western social sector of your chart. Even Mercury, the ruler of your Horoscope, is in the West. So, like last month, the focus is on others and their needs. Personal independence is weaker than usual, but on the other hand it isn’t necessary now. Your job is to cultivate your social skills and attain objectives through consensus. Good comes to you through others and not so much by your own efforts.

You’re still in the midst of a yearly love and social cycle until the 22nd. Moreover, your love planet is moving forward again and changes signs on the 21st. Love should be much improved – it goes much more smoothly. Your love planet will be in your 11th house of friends well into next year. This shows romantic opportunities through friends – perhaps they play Cupid – through online activities and social media, and often through someone you consider a friend who becomes more than that.

Your 8th house of regeneration is powerful this month as well. Thus it is a more sexually active kind of month. Whatever your age or stage in life, libido is stronger than usual. But power in the 8th house shows other things too. Though your personal finances are stable, the spouse, partner or current love is having a banner financial month. He or she will be more generous with you. This is also a good month for tax and insurance planning. For those of you of an appropriate age it is good for estate planning.

With the 8th house powerful from the 7th onwards, this is a month for ‘getting rid’ of unneeded or unnecessary things from your life. It is a month for giving birth (or making progress) to the ideal ‘you’ – the ‘you’ that you want to be. But before this can happen a lot of effete material needs to go. This would include needless possessions, as well as thoughts and emotional patterns that are no longer useful. The Cosmos will show you how to do this.

Health improves dramatically after the 22nd.