Whitney Houston, a lion. Photo Illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos Getty
On Friday, the communication planet Mercury enters Virgo, where it will remain until October. During this period, it is worth making an extra effort and saying exactly what you mean. Don’t rely on buzzwords or vague platitudes. Instead, try to be specific: the clearer you are about what you want, the faster you’ll find it, and the more specific you are about your goals to others, the better they can help you along the way. Right now, the details matter more than ever, but don’t assume the pieces will fall into place. Take the extra time to make sure you are understood.
When you have an idea that excites you, you want to implement it immediately. Instead of getting bogged down in planning conversations and debates, you want to start when you find inspiration. This means that you are sometimes reluctant to let others in on your plans because they are trying to interfere, dissuade you, or slow you down. This week, however, it’s better at the end if you talk about it with people you trust. They can help you strategize and may spot challenges or opportunities that you don’t see. You can also make the whole process more fun.
If you’ve been trying to plan your future lately, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It’s stressful enough trying to figure out what you’re going to be doing in a month’s time. It seems impossible to make decisions with which one will still be satisfied years later. So this week, stop planning everything a dozen steps ahead. Life is far too unpredictable for that to work anyway. Focus today on doing what is best for you. Say yes to the opportunities and invitations that feel right and no to those that don’t. For now, it doesn’t need to be more complicated.
Sometimes you think of the people in your life as if they were puzzles to be solved. If you could find out what drives them or find the key to their personality, your relationship would be transformed. Most of the time, this genuine willingness to learn about people is a wonderful quality. However, from time to time you need to be reminded that people are inconsistent and that even when you think you’ve figured someone out, they can still surprise you. This week, people (including yourself) may turn out to be smarter, funnier, or more interesting than you gave them credit for.
You want to be a good person, someone who treats others with care. But no one is perfect, no matter how hard they try—not even you. Even if you know it intellectually, in your heart you are still ashamed of all the times you made the right choice over the right one, let down a friend, or spoke too harshly. This week your challenge is to let go of your regrets about mistakes. Perfection is asking too much. If you feel guilty about something you’ve done, it’s never too late to make amends. Otherwise, give yourself permission to continue.
It’s hard not to feel resentment for all the things you wish were different for you: the way you should have been looked after, the opportunities you deserved but never got, the difficult situations you wish someone had protected you from. This week, however, it’s possible to stop thinking about what could have been and instead turn to the future. When you stop thinking about what can’t be changed, you have the energy to fix the things you can change. You have more power than you realize. You can still create the life you dreamed of.
They do what needs to be done without complaining, even when the tasks at hand are repetitive, uninspiring, or thankless. Even if you’ve met people who seem to feel above the tedious work, you’re still willing to do your part. Just don’t be too self-sacrificing this week. When those around you seem to have forgotten, remind them that they too have a role to play and that you have more to offer. You have your own interests, ambitions and goals in life and you deserve time and energy to devote to them.
You’re not usually prone to jealousy, but this week you might be struggling. All around you, people are boasting about careers, relationships, and social lives that are better, more impressive, or more fulfilling than yours. No matter how well you know your life is good, you wonder if there might be something lacking. The key is not to ignore the green-eyed monster when it appears, but to pay attention to what it might be showing you. If you’ve been suppressing your true desires, this is a chance to finally acknowledge them.
You’ve convinced yourself that your worries are productive, that stressing about the future is a way to protect yourself from danger, and that brooding over everything that seems wrong with you is a good way to improve. However, this week you will find that all the torment has come to naught. It just exhausted you. So take a break from all the critical analysis and existential questions for now. Focus on smaller, more practical problems in your life: those you can manage, those you can actually solve.
When certain items on your to-do list are challenging, you know you can always do the easy tasks first. It’s not the best habit (most people agree that you should eat the frog in the morning), but at least you’re doing something. That way you’re not completely stuck. Still, you can’t put off the hard parts forever. Ultimately, you must tackle everything you have previously avoided. If you take on the chores or conversations this week that you’re not particularly looking forward to, you’ll likely find that they aren’t nearly as bad as you thought. You’ll also feel renewed self-confidence and the exhilaration of facing your fears and emerging victorious.
You’ve been worrying about wasting time lately because you know full well that life doesn’t last forever and that you only have a limited amount of time to make a name for yourself. But while this sense of urgency can be motivating, it quickly becomes overwhelming. You’re so afraid of using your time “wrongly” that you end up paralyzed. Remember this week that your job as a human being is not to optimize your time, but simply to use it – sometimes in a productive way, sometimes in a lazy or silly way. All are necessary.
There are times when you feel out of place, like you weren’t cut out for the world as it is. In those moments you sometimes wish you could become a completely different person – someone who is simple and uncomplicated, someone who fits in easily. You know that changing your core self is not possible; This week, keep in mind that it’s not really what you want either. You can only be who you are, and who you are is great. There is always room to grow and learn, but that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.
One of the best things about you is your willingness to dream big. Some people hesitate to explain that things could turn out differently because they fear it will leave them vulnerable to embarrassment and disappointment, but you don’t. They know that change is possible and worth working toward. However, sometimes one gets so caught up in the imagination that one forgets to act. So make it practical this week. Think about the tangible, concrete steps you could take to make the world a little better. You don’t have to do everything at once, but you’ll be glad you did.
Get Madame Clairevoyant every week.
Vox Media, LLC Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of July 17th. The weekly horoscopes for the week of July 31st will be online next Sunday.
Get Claire Comstock-Gay’s book Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars now.