astrology

Madame Clairevoyant: Horoscopes for the Week of August 5

Lorna Simpson, a Leo. Photo-Illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos: Getty

On Sunday, one planet will end its retrograde, and another will begin. First, generous Jupiter stations direct after four months of retrograde motion; your luck, or your curiosity, or your inner growth might become simpler again, more straightforward than they have been. Later, rebellious and forward-thinking Uranus stations retrograde, giving you the chance to slow down and process all the ways your thoughts are changing and your imagination is expanding. On Sunday, Mercury moves into bold, confident Leo, and you might notice your thinking growing bolder and more confident to match.

Weekly Horoscope Aries

Aries

This week, don’t imagine that generosity only exists in tangible actions that a person could capture on film. Generosity can be physical, but it can also be activated in other, invisible ways. This week, think about how to be generous in the way you approach and interpret the world. If you assume that the people you love are generally trying their best, then maybe you can believe it of yourself too. It can be a great gift — to others, but also to yourself — not to expect anything of people other than open-hearted imperfection.

Weekly Horoscope Taurus

Taurus

It’s so easy to find yourself spending all your days waiting — for the end to come, or for the rain to stop, or for a perfect glimmering opportunity to present itself. It’s easier to wait to be recognized than to demand recognition, easier to wait to see how things will end than to strike out into the middle of the storm. Waiting can have its uses, of course, but this week it’s important to know that it isn’t the only option available to you. Certainty isn’t a prerequisite for making decisions; clarity isn’t required to be something great.

Weekly Horoscope Gemini

Gemini

Sometimes, other people have true and valid criticism to offer, and they can see your weaknesses more clearly than you can. Other times, though, they’re simply misunderstanding you, either unable or unwilling to appreciate goodness and magic in your unpredictable heart. Fair and unfair criticism can sting equally, but neither one can destroy you, so don’t spend your time this week trying to answer every single complaint. Don’t spend your time trying to fulfill every single person’s expectations. You’re so good at being well-liked, but sometimes it’s better to be a little stubborn — to risk being seen as difficult.

Weekly Horoscope Cancer

Cancer

This week, let something other than security be your highest priority. That isn’t to say that you need to seek out danger, only that stability isn’t always the thing you need most. The absence of any kind of disturbance won’t actually keep you safe. Sometimes, conflict can be generative, and strangeness can call you back to the world. This is a week for opening yourself up to experiences that aren’t going to be simple. It’s a week for walking headlong into places where you might lose your footing, into situations that’ll require you to be braver than you’ve had to be before.

Weekly Horoscope Leo

Leo

On the most basic level, this is a week for being fully, defiantly yourself — for standing up for your right to be exactly who you really are. But it’s always more complicated than that, too. How do you know who you really are, and how you’re supposed to live truthfully? This week, give yourself enough space to reflect. Give yourself enough space to change, if you need to change. Change doesn’t mean that you’ve given up, and movement doesn’t mean that you’ve surrendered something. Responding to a changing world can make you more like yourself, not less.

Weekly Horoscope Virgo

Virgo

Though we talk about them as though they’re synonyms, “performing” and “pretending” aren’t always the same thing. In other words, performing isn’t always the same as faking it. This week, you can live a little louder than you typically do. You can live in a way that invites other people to look at you, to see you, to recognize you. This doesn’t mean that you’re somehow doing it all falsely. Your truest self doesn’t only live in secret, waiting to be noticed — you can live on purpose, out loud, in public, too.

Weekly Horoscope Libra

Libra

Sometimes, it just feels as though nothing ever happens at the appropriate speed. Instead, it all happens at once — all the good feelings clumped together, and then later all the bad ones, never the right balance. This week, if it feels like you’re getting more sunlight, more energy, and more attention than you can use all at once, that doesn’t mean it’s wasted on you. You can store all the extra sunshine in your skin, and in your memory. You can store all the extra courage in your bones for the days to come.

Weekly Horoscope Scorpio

Scorpio

It’s frustrating to be reminded that not everybody is as willing as you are to dig for the truth. And as much as you already know that other people can’t read your mind, part of you might still believe that they’re trying to see into your unspoken depths. This week, though, remind yourself that some people really are taking your words at face value. When you tell them what you want, they believe you, and stop looking for anything deeper. Don’t count on other people to know how much more you want unless you tell them.

Weekly Horoscope Sagittarius

Sagittarius

You get the impression, sometimes, that it’s your job to say yes to every opportunity that presents itself to you — as though it would be irresponsible to pass up even one single chance to learn something new, or to see something you might otherwise miss. Opportunities can come to seem indistinguishable from imperatives. But this week, let yourself say no to some things. Don’t leave everything up to chance, or to other people. This week, take an active role in deciding what you’ll do with all your energy, and how to shape your own days.

Weekly Horoscope Capricorn

Capricorn

So much of the life you have now is built on things you’ve worked so hard for, but still, even now, you might get the nagging sense that some of this sweetness is unearned, or some of this joy is undeserved. Feelings like these can lead to the impulse to enact some kind of counterbalance — to add some kind of new hardness or austerity to your life. It’s better, though, to hold the joy and do your best to be worthy of it. Better to use this unearned sweetness to make more, enough to share.

Weekly Horoscope Aquarius

Aquarius

The closer you pay attention this week, the more you might notice the ways your own life and mind stand in sharp relief against the rest of the world around you. You might notice that your mind moves along strange curving paths, or that your desires point you in unexpected directions. As courageous as you are, the impulse can be to try to keep this a secret. Being noticed can seem like so much trouble. This week, though, don’t try to hide. The world needs your fullest weirdness.

Weekly Horoscope Pisces

Pisces

You’ve spent a long time cultivating your inner resources — feelings you can turn to, responses you can lean on, survival skills to bring you through these strange days. This week, think about how you use all the resources you’ve created, and how you can share them, and how you can keep growing stronger in a world as strange as this one. This week, you can refuse to turn cruel or greedy, even when you’re told it’s the only way to survive. Instead, remember all the good things you carry inside you, and remember all the better things waiting ahead.

Read last week’s horoscope here. Next week’s will be here.

Madame Clairevoyant: Horoscopes for the Week of August 5