astrology

Madame Clairevoyant: Horoscopes for the Week of May 17

Naomi Campbell, a Gemini. Photo-Illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos: Getty Images

On Thursday afternoon, the sun joins Mercury and Venus in curious, outgoing Gemini. After the firm steadiness of Taurus season, the sun in Gemini creates an atmosphere of movement and playfulness. It offers a badly needed sense of fun. Gemini season also invites you to prioritize movement over permanence and the process of learning over any false sense of certainty. During this time, being human doesn’t have to feel so hard.

Weekly Horoscope Aries

Aries Weekly Horoscope

It’s so important to be able to rely on yourself — to know that no matter how impossible life feels, your strength will carry you through, and your confidence will light the way. But sometimes that makes it easy to rely too much on yourself and too little on other people. This week, while there are plenty of real victories you can achieve on your own, the best magic will only happen when you gather together with others. On your own, you can survive, but with other people, you can bring the impossible within reach.

Weekly Horoscope Taurus

Taurus Weekly Horoscope

Life’s many contradictions can begin to feel burdensome when you think about them too much. Everything would be so much easier if the world was just a little simpler and your own opinions and desires just a little more orderly. Right now, though, you have the chance to to stop worrying about what a mess it all is. You can change your mind as many times as you need to: It’s one of the great joys of being alive. It reminds you that you aren’t stuck and that you’re still capable of being moved by this vast and beautiful world.

Weekly Horoscope Gemini

Gemini Weekly Horoscope

This week will offer you the sweet and simple reminder that no matter how bad things have been, the world still hasn’t gotten the better of you. You haven’t been defeated, your spirit hasn’t been crushed, and your humanity still shines bright and true. It’s almost unbearable to contemplate everything that you’ve been through and all the cruelties and injustices that have tried and failed to break you. This week, though, give yourself a moment to recognize everything that you’ve already endured. You’ve made it this far, and better days are coming.

Weekly Horoscope Cancer

Cancer Weekly Horoscope

It can feel as though the only way to honor all the suffering that happens in this world is to act at all times with seriousness. This can make you feel weirdly guilty during the small moments when you’re able to have a good time, to experience a bit of levity or fun. This week, though, you don’t have to feel shame for being fully human. Do what you can to recharge your depleted reserves of pleasure and enjoyment. Right now, the world needs your playfulness just as much as it needs your sincerity. You deserve some lightness, too.

Weekly Horoscope Leo

Leo Weekly Horoscope

It’s a challenge to maintain your confidence when there are so few opportunities to flex it. It starts to wither and fade, to seem more like a memory than something real you can tap into. This week, though, offers a chance to rebuild your courage and power. The future will open up, and the possibilities you thought had vanished will begin to reappear. You can expand again, move again, experience the whole world anew. You can stretch your muscles and remind yourself how powerful you can be when you’re just given the chance.

Weekly Horoscope Virgo

Virgo Weekly Horoscope

It’s normal to feel like you’ve fallen behind in life somehow: Your knowledge base isn’t what it should be, your skills are weak, and everyone else has formed lasting commitments, while you’re still out here wandering. The truth, though, is that wandering brings its own kind of expertise. A commitment to curiosity and change is no less real, no less deep, than a commitment to steadiness. Your knowledge and experience are more substantive and valuable than you think. You’re right on track; you’re right where you should be.

Weekly Horoscope Libra

Libra Weekly Horoscope

Lately, you’ve felt more pessimistic than usual about the value of the work that you do. What good is caring for other people when the injustice runs so deep? What good are your small attempts at solidarity in a world this badly fractured? But this week will renew your sense of hope and purpose. Your belief in others will be rewarded: They’ll surprise you with their generosity, their kindness, and their willingness to become better. Your continued expressions of love — flawed but courageous and real — are slowly remaking the world.

Weekly Horoscope Scorpio

Scorpio Weekly Horoscope

Even on the best and sunniest days, even when the world’s being gentle to you personally, it’s tough not to wonder what the point of it all is. There’s a sense of futility that lingers in the air, a notion that the evils in the world are too wide and too deep ever to be contained. But this week, you can fight that feeling of hopelessness and you can win. Right now, you can believe in magic, you can believe in solidarity, you can believe in courage — whatever you believe in, your faith will be answered. Change is possible.

Weekly Horoscope Sagittarius

Sagittarius Weekly Horoscope

This week, you should expect to have more difficulty focusing than usual. Just when you think you know exactly what you want, some new idea will arrive to distract you. Right when you’ve decided on a course of action, some beautiful new possibility will emerge to tempt you. You may take this as some kind of flaw in your brain or a sign that you need to make more of an effort to concentrate. But really, all this is just a sign that the world is full of wonders and that you’re alive to them all.

Weekly Horoscope Capricorn

Capricorn Weekly Horoscope

It can be weirdly challenging to accept it when good things happen. You’ve seen so many kind acts prove to be hollow and so many lucky breaks that end up carrying unwelcome consequences. It’s safer not to rely on good fortune or magic, wiser to depend on the straightforward rewards of hard work. But this week, the world has blessings to offer you. So, you don’t need to refuse all softness and grace. You can keep your feet on the ground and accept the gifts you’re offered, too.

Weekly Horoscope Aquarius

Aquarius Weekly Horoscope

This week, as the world keeps turning, and as the people around you keep growing, expect your own ideas and opinions to shift, too. This can be startling and uncomfortable. It’s hard to have your mind changed, to face that perfect, enduring understanding keeps eluding you. Remind yourself that this isn’t a problem with you or your mind, which is clear and sharp and good. It isn’t your job to reach some final grand conclusion from which you can never be moved. The world is in flux and so are your thoughts, and right now, this is exactly how it should be.

Weekly Horoscope Pisces

Pisces Weekly Horoscope

This week, it becomes possible to break free from all the worst and heaviest feelings that have burdened you. You’ve seen so much sorrow in the world, and you’ve traveled down into the darkest parts of your mind, but now you’re returning to the surface — full of power, full of wisdom, full of a wild, unruly hope. Even though the world is still encased in shadow and uncertainty, you don’t have to be held captive by fear. The days are getting longer, and the stars shine bright up above, and right now, you’re ready for anything.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of May 10. The weekly horoscopes for the week of May 24 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 May 17