astrology

Madame Clairevoyant: Horoscopes for the Week of August 10

Whitney Houston, a Leo. Photo-Illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos Getty

On Saturday, Uranus — planet of innovation and revolution — will station retrograde in stubborn, determined Taurus, where it will remain for the rest of the year. This is not necessarily a disruptive retrograde period; rather, it’s a time to reflect and process the radical changes in your life, both the ones you’ve been working toward, and the ones that have been thrust upon you. It’s a period to turn inward, develop your spirit of rebellion, and fortify your desire for freedom.

Weekly Horoscope Aries

Aries Weekly Horoscope

Right now, so much of your time is spent waiting to see what new ways the universe will find to crash through your life and to grind you into the ground. This week, your task is to remember that even if you can’t bring all of society back into alignment, even if you can’t end all cruelty and suffering and greed, you aren’t powerless. You can find new ways to feel like you’re alive and in motion, new ways to feel like an active presence in your life and the world around you.

Weekly Horoscope Taurus

Taurus Weekly Horoscope

It’s hard not to feel anxious these days—not just about the unknown future, but about survival right here in the present. The world demands so much, and offers so little in return. It can be tempting to believe that if you only work harder, if you only become smarter and more skilled, then you’ll finally be offered the comfort and sweetness you deserve. But this week, your job is to refuse, as much as you can, to work yourself into the ground. Your job is to draw boundaries where you need them, to reserve some of your energy just for yourself.

Weekly Horoscope Gemini

Gemini Weekly Horoscope

Even as the world seems to have shrunk to almost nothing—your social network narrowed, your activities limited, your travel curtailed—it’s still possible to expand your thinking. The pressures of daily life always influence the ways you’re able to dream and think, of course, but even as your choices have been reduced, it’s still possible to learn, to dream, to have thoughts that are large and unpredictable and free. This is a week to remind yourself of this. It’s a week to remember the thinkers before you who dreamed bigger worlds into being, and to rise up to meet them.

Weekly Horoscope Cancer

Cancer Weekly Horoscope

In times of trouble and sorrow and violence, it’s so easy to convince yourself that any joy or fun or bright creativity is a betrayal of those who are suffering. It’s so easy to convince yourself that any moment of lightness is uncouth and undeserved. But this week, try to give yourself permission to fully inhabit every moment of sweetness that you’re offered. Try to remember that creativity isn’t a luxury, but a life force. Renouncing all joy won’t make the world better—only your love and work and solidarity can do that. You can hold onto your joy.

Weekly Horoscope Leo

Leo Weekly Horoscope

This is a week for freeing yourself from some of the external pressures that have weighed heavy on you. Some of these pressures, of course, are inescapable and inextricably bound up with your survival, but others can be refused. You can decline to pursue certain relationships, even when there’s nothing exactly wrong with them. You can choose not to accept certain offers, even if the terms seem favorable, just because you want to. The opportunities available right now aren’t the only ones you’ll ever get, even if it seems that way right now. You’re allowed to wait for something truly right, something extraordinary.

Weekly Horoscope Virgo

Virgo Weekly Horoscope

It can feel important to keep a close eye on the constant buzzing on the news, important to watch and witness every story of cruelty and pain, important to follow each development as it arises. There’s a secret hope that if you pay close enough attention, you’ll find the key that makes it all make sense, and you’ll feel everything click into place. This week, though, give yourself permission to step away. Give yourself permission to focus on yourself—on your own pain and your own feelings, but also on your own magic, your own power, your own crucial path forward.

Weekly Horoscope Libra

Libra Weekly Horoscope

The loneliness of these days comes in waves—sometimes it’s overpowering, sometimes it’s only a whisper, but it never goes away completely. There’s always this aching desire for connection, for a world that isn’t so hostile to love. This is a week for accepting the fact of this loneliness, but for refusing to let it drag you under, either. You can find new ways to connect with other people—across pain, across difference, across the roiling chaos of the world. And you can find new ways, too, to open the door to a future where love can thrive.

Weekly Horoscope Scorpio

Scorpio Weekly Horoscope

This week, you might find yourself feeling a deeper pessimism than ever before. You might find yourself questioning what the point of it all is, when the world’s most powerful people display such bottomless appetites for violence. Pessimism is understandable, but this is a week to remember, in spite of the ugliness all around you, that there’s beauty in simply being alive right now. There’s a vital beauty in all of the people refusing to lie down, refusing to be destroyed. You don’t have to feel hope, exactly, but you can believe that the struggle is worth it, anyway.

Weekly Horoscope Sagittarius

Sagittarius Weekly Horoscope

Just because you have a true sense of urgency doesn’t mean you need to rush through every task, every day. Just because you can tell how high the stakes are doesn’t mean you’ll be able to address everything immediately. Rushing yourself to meet imagined deadlines won’t deliver the results you need. Some things can’t be done quickly. Some things require a little deliberation, a little extra time. This isn’t a week to panic about doing it all, it’s just a week to do as much as you can, as well as you can.

Weekly Horoscope Capricorn

Capricorn Weekly Horoscope

This week, your thoughts and desires might grow tangled and knotted as you try to figure out how to live in this damaged world. It’s so hard to balance your individual desires with your love for other people, so hard to balance your private ambitions with your longing for a better world. There’s no easy solution, no simple formula that can tell you how to resolve all your contradictions, how to live with the most integrity. This is just a week to live in this tension, to trust that your desires, even when they’re tangled and strange, can show you new ways to live.

Weekly Horoscope Aquarius

Aquarius Weekly Horoscope

Your ambitions tend toward the grand, the unpredictable, the world-altering; your dreams for the world are wild and revolutionary. This week, though, is for something different, something that might feel smaller than you’re used to. This isn’t a week for seeking out new universes or constructing entirely new ways of living. Rather, this is just a week for doing what you can to put care back into the world, a week for giving and receiving kindness and warmth.

Weekly Horoscope Pisces

Pisces Weekly Horoscope

Surviving in hostile conditions can make a person strange—it can bend your perception of time, it can shift your understanding of life itself. It can make you fearful, it can make you brave, it can make you both at once. You might still be holding onto the hope that you can make it through these days unchanged. But this is a week for accepting that it won’t just be the world that changes, it will be you who changes, too. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, and this is a week for thinking about how you want to come out of this.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of August 3. The weekly horoscopes for the week of August 17 will be online next Sunday.

Get Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, out now.

Madame Clairevoyant: Horoscopes for the Week of August 10