astrology

Madame Clairevoyant: Horoscopes for the Week of August 9

Artist Hedda Sterne, a Leo. Photo-Illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos: Getty

On Wednesday, communication planet Mercury enters analytical Virgo, one of its two home signs. After the inflated confidence of Mercury in Leo, Mercury in Virgo will give you the tools to see things exactly as they are, down to the last detail. There’s a surprising feeling of relief in encountering the world not as you’d like it to be but as it is. You don’t need your confidence boosted with platitudes or empty praise; you don’t need to persuade yourself that sadness and uncertainty don’t exist. The joy of clarity is quiet but real.

Weekly Horoscope Aries

Aries Weekly Horoscope

Even when you don’t want to be self-reliant, the universe can make it difficult to see any other options. There are so few structures you can count on to protect you, and the people who love you all have troubles and anxieties of their own. Sometimes, it really is simplest to go it alone. But this week, open your heart back up to the idea that you can depend on others and that this isn’t a burden to them but a gift. None of us can survive on our own, but together, it’s possible to change everything.

Weekly Horoscope Taurus

Taurus Weekly Horoscope

There are times when the only way forward is through action, courage, the sheer, undeniable force of your conviction. When you’ve analyzed yourself into a corner, the only way out is to do, not think. But that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with your thoughts, or that they don’t have anything of value to offer. This week, you’ll find a new kind of balance, where you can trust your intellect without becoming tangled up in it, and trust your instincts without turning away from your rational mind. It makes it possible to keep going.

Weekly Horoscope Gemini

Gemini Weekly Horoscope

It’s all too easy to undervalue the way your own mind works. When everyone around you seems to prize certainty above all else, it’s hard to see the benefit of being fueled by curiosity. When society tends to reward bombast and bluster, it’s difficult to believe in the value of good faith exploration. It becomes tempting to try to change yourself, to take on the traits you imagine will bring respect. But this week, do your best to resist that temptation. The recognition you need is coming, and not for some altered, modified version of yourself, but for your weirdest, realest self.

Weekly Horoscope Cancer

Cancer Weekly Horoscope

Moments of grandiosity and dazzling self-confidence can sometimes be productive. They can light up an otherwise humdrum day, make an ordinary life feel special, even beautiful. The challenge is in knowing how far to take it: There’s a lingering fear that you’ll lose perspective, forget what you’re made of, lay claim to a dignity that’s not really yours. This week, though, you don’t need to worry. The world is filled with enough hardship, enough struggle. In the face of all this, there’s no risk of treating yourself with too much kindness, of loving yourself too much.

Weekly Horoscope Leo

Leo Weekly Horoscope

Just the act of living can be so alienating, and it’s not your fault. No matter how fiercely you love yourself or how steadfastly you care for others, the fact is that it’s impossible to avoid loneliness all the time. But if these emotions have grown tight and tangled in your heart, this week, they can ease up again. You can become aware of yourself not as a solitary individual, not as a galaxy unto yourself, but as one vital part of a larger ecosystem. Painful feelings don’t last forever, and you don’t have to bear them alone.

Weekly Horoscope Virgo

Virgo Weekly Horoscope

You aren’t one to run from unpleasant truths. Still, the more they pile up, the harder it gets to endure them all, to keep going. This week, do what you can to lighten the load that you carry. You don’t have to follow every upsetting news story that unfolds. You don’t have to bear witness to an entire planet’s worth of human sorrow: You’re only one person, and that’s too much to ask. Instead, narrow your focus. Put your energy into the community you live in, the places where both sorrow and hope feel tangible, real.

Weekly Horoscope Libra

Libra Weekly Horoscope

This week, the key to understanding the world is in knowing that you’re experiencing it through your body. You aren’t a being of pure knowledge, or pure language or vibes, but a physical being moving through meat-space, filled with needs that aren’t hypothetical but actual. The same is true for all the people around you: Everyone’s just doing their best to make it through each day with mind and body intact. The abstract matters, but the physical does, too, and when you let this understanding guide you, you’ll be surprised by the magic that becomes possible.

Weekly Horoscope Scorpio

Scorpio Weekly Horoscope

Emotional numbness can be protective, can insulate you from the worst that existence has to offer, but eventually, it breaks down. If you’ve been detached, holding your feelings at arm’s length, this week may offer small chances to feel again — not only the dark emotions but the wild and joyful ones too. You won’t be undone by them or pulled away from the work that you’re meant to do. You won’t lose yourself. It’s become a cliché to say that embracing emotions can make you stronger, but that’s because it really can.

Weekly Horoscope Sagittarius

Sagittarius Weekly Horoscope

It occasionally becomes necessary to take matters into your own hands without help from anyone around you. There are times when you have no choice but to charge ahead, alone. But really, none of us were ever meant to be able to do it all on our own. You deserve friendship and solidarity and much more support than you’ve been given. If you feel frustrated right now, consider that you might be expecting too much from yourself. Keep bravely doing what you can, but cut yourself some slack for the imperfect conditions that aren’t your fault.

Weekly Horoscope Capricorn

Capricorn Weekly Horoscope

There’s an understandable impulse to try to lessen the universe’s ability to surprise you, to neutralize the threat of the unknown. As bad as things get, the future always holds the potential for even worse. But the thing about unpredictability is that sometimes it means things turn out better than you thought. Every now and then, life offers solutions that you could never have dreamed up, love that you never realized could exist. This week, the surprises won’t all be bad, so try to remain open to the possibility of a world that is more generous than you expected.

Weekly Horoscope Aquarius

Aquarius Weekly Horoscope

Mental clarity and emotional clarity aren’t always the same. They don’t always arrive together, as much as you wish that they did. Right now, your intellect is sharp and your thinking is clear, and so many of the everyday problems of your life can be resolved if you try. Even so, your heart will remain wild. Your emotions won’t run along straight lines; your confusion won’t immediately resolve itself. This week, you can take advantage of your clearheadedness while letting love retain some of its mystery. It isn’t such a bad thing at all.

Weekly Horoscope Pisces

Pisces Weekly Horoscope

Your world only needs to be slightly out of alignment for you to start feeling the effects. If your connections with other people are off balance or your work is asking for too much from you or you’re putting your efforts into the wrong projects, this week, you’ll feel the strain of it. But you also already have the tools to begin setting things right: to recommit to reciprocity in your relationships, to recalibrate the ways you use your energy, to reevaluate your plan for your life. Small problems can have big effects on your life, but small changes can too.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of August 2. The weekly horoscopes for the week of August 16 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 9