astrology

Madame Clairevoyant: Horoscopes for the Week of January 24

Angel Olsen, an Aquarius. Photo-Illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos Getty

On Monday morning, Mars enters Capricorn. Mars is the planet of action, of drive and lust, but it’s also the planet of anger, and its time in level-headed Capricorn offers you a chance to take your anger seriously. It’s not irrational to resent the people who have treated you poorly, or to rage against injustices you’re expected to live with. Right now, this fury won’t devour you — in fact, it can serve as a steady source of fuel. Then on Tuesday night, Mercury (which is still retrograde) joins Mars and Venus in Capricorn. Your thought processes become more reasonable and realistic, though that doesn’t mean they must be joyless. Finally, in the early hours of Saturday, Venus retrograde ends. During the last six weeks of this retrograde, you’ve likely learned something important about the kinds of relationships you really need. Now, let that knowledge inform your next steps.

Weekly Horoscope Aries

Aries Weekly Horoscope

Everybody’s courage ebbs and flows, and it’s important that you remember this. A moment of doubt doesn’t mean you don’t believe in yourself. Even longer periods of uncertainty don’t indicate that you’ve taken a wrong turn. Sometimes you experience confidence so bright that it could light up a whole city block, but nobody can feel that way all the time (even if, from the outside, they appear to). You don’t need wild optimism, or a belief that everything will be easy from now on. This week, you’ll have the quiet understanding that you’re here for a reason, that you have the skills you need, and that you will keep going, and that’s bravery enough.

Weekly Horoscope Taurus

Taurus Weekly Horoscope

Most projects that are worthwhile take  much longer to complete than you want them to. Healing wounds, nurturing relationships, living authentically — it all sounds straightforward, but never really is. There are rarely sudden epiphanies; growth requires repetition, habit, a stubborn unwillingness to give up. And still, it’s hard not to wonder sometimes whether all this work is actually getting you anywhere. So this week, look around, and you’ll recognize the results of your efforts. You can’t build a new world overnight, but you don’t need to. Even when you don’t notice it happening, you’re already creating change, every single day.

Weekly Horoscope Gemini

Gemini Weekly Horoscope

Most of the time, there’s plenty to keep you occupied: people to talk to, projects to tinker with, all manner of tasks that demand your attention. But on occasion, you lift your head and look around you and wonder what you’ve actually been doing with all of your time. Is this all leading somewhere, or have you just been filling your days with trivialities? But you don’t have to doubt yourself. What can feel in the moment like aimless wandering or idle socializing might lead to something more: to your bigger purpose, to connections and community that will sustain you.

Weekly Horoscope Cancer

Cancer Weekly Horoscope

There are times that call for action and times that call for waiting, and usually, you have an instinctive sense for the difference. You can’t always will yourself out of a slump; sometimes, the only thing to do is to adjust your rhythm, to rest up until conditions change. This is different from giving up. It’s different, too, from waiting for someone else to come and rescue you, or inspire you, or give you permission to get moving again. This isn’t about anybody else at all — it’s about trusting your own ebb and flow.

Weekly Horoscope Leo

Leo Weekly Horoscope

When you’re focused on making it through a strange situation or getting to the end of a difficult day, you may hardly have energy to spare for reflection. In the heat of the moment, it’s difficult to stop and think, or to be conscious of learning anything. So this week, don’t be too hard on yourself if it feels like your growth hasn’t been as consistent or as steady as you’d like. You’re learning all the time, growing into the person you want to be, and just because the process isn’t always graceful and serene, that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

Weekly Horoscope Virgo

Virgo Weekly Horoscope

Figuring out who you can count on is not nearly as easy as some would have you believe. Nobody is perfect, or sees the world precisely as you do, or shows up in exactly the way you need every time you need them. Sometimes, you wonder whether it wouldn’t be simpler just to give up, to rely only on yourself. But this week, it’s important to keep building trust with others, fallible as they are. This is how you make relationships and communities stronger, and it makes your heart stronger, too.

Weekly Horoscope Libra

Libra Weekly Horoscope

With enough practice, you can convince yourself to ignore all your fears about the future — about potential loneliness or scarcity or loss. You can teach yourself to look away, to change the subject, to focus only on the bright, the good, the hopeful. Sometimes it’s the only way to get through the day. This week, though, you’ll be better served acknowledging the terror, sitting with it. It won’t destroy you. You’ll keep making moves in spite of your fear — which is the closest any of us can get to not having any fear at all.

Weekly Horoscope Scorpio

Scorpio Weekly Horoscope

It’s important to you to stay true to your word — to fulfill all your promises, to follow through on all that you’ve agreed to. But sometimes, the full weight of what you’ve agreed to do isn’t readily apparent. This week, remember that you’re allowed to say no. When others use your integrity to exert pressure on you, as a weapon to make you stick around, they aren’t really respecting your principles at all. You’re allowed to turn back, to retract your permission, to decide at the last minute to walk away, if it’s what’s best for you.

Weekly Horoscope Sagittarius

Sagittarius Weekly Horoscope

Some people like to plan out their future in painstaking detail, but that doesn’t mean you have to. It’s okay not to know what you’ll want in five years, or even in five weeks. It’s okay to want to leave the door open to fate, to surprise. Just be sure that you’re not also leaving the door open for other people to make your big choices for you. You can take their preferences and needs into consideration, but when it comes time to make a decision, make sure that you’re the one who’s choosing.

Weekly Horoscope Capricorn

Capricorn Weekly Horoscope

Sometimes you get stuck, stewing over the unfair fact that the people who should feel deeply ashamed of their behavior — the ones who are cruel, careless, greedy — never appear to. There’s some small, unconscious part of you that imagines that you can make up for it by being harder than ever on yourself, by shouldering unearned guilt. This week, remind yourself that it isn’t your duty to carry all that extra weight, and it won’t help anyone, least of all you.

Weekly Horoscope Aquarius

Aquarius Weekly Horoscope

You can’t start the work of creating a better world without first imagining one: without daring to believe in the possibility that life doesn’t have to be dull and difficult. Envisioning the dazzling life you truly want is a first step toward making it happen. Eventually, though, you reach a point where imagination alone isn’t enough. This week, if you find yourself unsatisfied with dreaming, then begin to think about how to act. You don’t have to move mountains right away, you just have to remember that you’re more than just your mind: you have a voice, a physical form, and you should use them.

Weekly Horoscope Pisces

Pisces Weekly Horoscope

During times when happiness and success seem to be in short supply, it’s easy to believe that you must say yes to every well-meaning proposition that comes your way. You fear that each professional opportunity might be the final one you’re offered, that every person who expresses interest in you might be your last real chance for connection. In actuality, it isn’t true. You don’t have to accept every offer; if it isn’t right, don’t force it. When you turn down the possibilities that are wrong for you, others will follow, and eventually the right one will arrive.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of January 17 The weekly horoscopes for the week of January 31 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 January 24