astrology

Madame Clairevoyant: Horoscopes for the Week of August 2

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

All week long, the moon wanes as it moves through Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer, leading up to a new moon in Leo on Sunday, August 8. And as it wanes, you may feel some things winding down: wild emotions fading or turbulent cycles coming to an end. All of this is laying the groundwork for a fresh beginning. The external forces that have shaped your life may appear inescapable, but this week you’ll realize that you have within yourself access to power and solidarity and love that none of them have accounted for, that you’re only now beginning to tap into.

Weekly Horoscope Aries

Aries Weekly Horoscope

When you ponder what it would mean to live a brave and purposeful life, remember that there’s allowed to be fun in it, too. As your thinking shifts and deepens, as you become wiser and clearheaded about what you want from this world, let some of that clarity reflect that a good life should include play, too. It doesn’t have to be noble, straitlaced, totally unimpeachable and serious toiling all the time. Think about how you can also work toward a future with laughter and ease, and about how you can get started now.

Weekly Horoscope Taurus

Taurus Weekly Horoscope

Sometimes, it’s discouraging how easy it is for your thoughts to spiral. Anxiety seems to gather its own gravitational force; negative emotions spin and accelerate, like a whirlpool threatening to suck you under. It’s challenging to combat this when it feels like there’s nothing to be optimistic about. But fortunately, this week, you don’t need to be an optimist to change your thought patterns. You just have to keep your head above water, a much more achievable task. When you look around, you can find people helping each other. You can witness them stubbornly refusing to quit living, quit caring, quit trying. There are reasons all around you to keep fighting.

Weekly Horoscope Gemini

Gemini Weekly Horoscope

Lately, you’ve been hesitant to share your ideas. Everyone’s coming off so edgy and judgmental, and the rewards for openness meager. But while it’s wise to protect your ideas, expressing yourself is worth it too. Because when you share what’s on your mind, you create space for others to connect with you. When you give voice to your rage, your love, your fear, you forge an environment where others can give voice to their own. At first, this might not feel like much, but right now, even the smallest acts of support and togetherness can echo and grow.

Weekly Horoscope Cancer

Cancer Weekly Horoscope

For a long time, you’ve carried an idea in your head about how your life is supposed to go. Even if the plan wasn’t fully formed, you had at least basic ideas about what you were striving toward. But this week, you might be struck by the strange feeling that you’re being drawn to something altogether new, that what the world needs most from you might be utterly different than what you’ve been trying to give. It’s hard to relinquish your preconceived notions about how life should be, but try to be open. There are different possibilities out there, if you want to pursue them.

Weekly Horoscope Leo

Leo Weekly Horoscope

There are few things more appealing right now than reaching a point where it’s all okay: where you’ve achieved your goals, completed your healing, become, once and for all, someone who is happy, respected, adored. But life moves in cycles and nothing can stay the same forever. There’s frustration in this knowledge, but comfort, too. Because if no moment of joy is permanent, then no sorrow can be, either. The things that feel difficult in your life are not doomed to stay that way. The barriers before you will crack, and eventually crumble.

Weekly Horoscope Virgo

Virgo Weekly Horoscope

It isn’t shallow to want nice things — most everybody does. It doesn’t mean that you’re frivolous, or that you’re asking too much of the world, or that you’re unconcerned with deeper matters. This week, the key is to spend some time thinking about what “nice things” actually are to you. Other people have their own ideas of what a beautiful life would look like, but what would it look like to you? The trick is in the specificity, in turning away from the types of pleasure that mean nothing to you so that you may turn toward the ones that do.

Weekly Horoscope Libra

Libra Weekly Horoscope

You carry around with you a fierce obligation to others, and it impels you to try hard to make the people in your life feel welcome, cared for, and understood. The trouble is that you don’t always get recognition for it, because what you do looks so effortless. But work that comes naturally is still work. Sacrifices you make willingly, even gladly, are still sacrifices. This week, you might receive some recognition at last, and your job is to not shrug it off or pretend it doesn’t matter. Because it does, and it’s been a long time coming, and you deserve it.

Weekly Horoscope Scorpio

Scorpio Weekly Horoscope

It’s easy to feel as though it’s never quite the right time to focus on your own life, your own happiness. There’s always some crisis demanding to be dealt with first, always something more consequential, more urgent, calling out for your attention. But if you wait until every battle has been won and every evil vanquished, then you’ll never get the chance to take care of yourself at all. There’s bigger work to be done, but you matter too, and this is a week to remember that.

Weekly Horoscope Sagittarius

Sagittarius Weekly Horoscope

When your faith in the universe, or the future, or the people around you, has been damaged, it’s hard to rekindle a belief in a world of vast and endless possibilities. When your best efforts go unrewarded, it takes time to return to your old glowing confidence. Right now, you’re relearning how to use your powers, rediscovering your purpose, your place. This week, just keep going. None of your endeavors have been wasted. It may feel like you’re moving slowly, but really, you’re right on schedule.

Weekly Horoscope Capricorn

Capricorn Weekly Horoscope

Sometimes your negative thoughts about yourself serve a protective function. When you’re harder on yourself than anyone else could ever be, it insulates you — or so it seems — from the judgment and criticism of others. This week, though, is a good time for trying to shed some of those bad thoughts. Maybe they kept you safe before, but you don’t need them now. Instead, imagine what it would feel like if you could love even the small, shameful parts of yourself. There’s plenty of time for self-criticism later; right now, you could use a little self-compassion.

Weekly Horoscope Aquarius

Aquarius Weekly Horoscope

Every ending is also a beginning — it’s just hard to keep that in mind when you’re experiencing all the confusion and heartbreak an ending can bring. So this week, pay attention to the fresh starts, to the new possibilities that spring up around you. The future is murky, but you have the light to see by — you can trust your vision, your instincts, your inner compass. Beyond each ending, you find new places that are strange, sometimes frightening, but sometimes beautiful beyond anything you’ve known before.

Weekly Horoscope Pisces

Pisces Weekly Horoscope

Maybe you once felt like there was a grand and unending future before you, but now it’s as though all you can see are the setbacks, the limits, the scarcity surrounding you. The boundaries of your life appear starker and scarier the longer you look at them; the whole world feels too small, too stifling. This week, though, you can see past your initial panic. You can move ever closer to being the person you want to be: brave, enlightened, lit up with love. You can regain your sense of purpose, in spite of the roadblocks.

Correction: We erroneously wrote that this Sunday would be a full moon in Leo, when in fact it will be a new moon. The post has been updated.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of July 26. The weekly horoscopes for the week of August 9 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 2