Alicia Keys, an Aquarius.
Photo: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
Throughout the week, the moon wanes as it moves through Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio. On Friday evening, the last quarter moon in Scorpio marks a moment of inner tension: Contradictory desires tug at you; you feel resentful of your obligations; the discrepancy between your actions and your ideals becomes clear. It’s a potentially frustrating time but also a unique opportunity to be honest with yourself, to revise your plans, to change your mind. In the meantime, find the weekly horoscope for each zodiac sign, below.
You’re not the type to be overly concerned about preparing for the future. It isn’t that you don’t care, only that you understand it’s impossible to be ready for every possible scenario. The universe is unpredictable; all you can control is your own behavior, how you respond. While generally a useful outlook, this week you’ll benefit from looking ahead and planning. If you’re intentional about the work you do now, and clear about where you hope it’ll lead, you’ll be setting yourself up for future happiness and success.
This week, tensions in your close relationships might seem catastrophic. You worry that an argument could shatter your happiness, that a faux pas might signal the beginning of an irreparable breach. You fear that if communication becomes strained now, it might never get back on track. Take comfort in the fact that the situation almost definitely feels much more fraught than it actually is, and you’re reading too much into awkward interactions. People care about you more than you believe, and your bonds are strong enough to withstand a disagreement or two.
It can be surprisingly difficult for you to step outside your comfort zone — not because you’re scared but because so little scares you. You’re at ease in so many varied situations and contexts that it’s rare you find a setting that genuinely challenges you. Even so, this week, try to stretch yourself and be brave. Have hard conversations, take on demanding projects, talk to people who intimidate you if you can find them. It’ll help you grow, but more importantly, you’ll probably enjoy the experience. At the very least, it’ll ensure that you aren’t bored.
When you disagree with others, it often seems simplest to keep it to yourself, so that’s what you do. Maybe you’re hesitant to get drawn into a contentious debate; maybe you don’t want the attention or simply don’t think the other person is worth engaging with. There are plenty of valid reasons for staying quiet. This week, though, it’s better to open up, to say what you’re really thinking and get into an argument if necessary. You deserve to be heard, and people around you would benefit from your point of view. Don’t bottle it up.
Sometimes, other people’s high expectations spur you to be the best possible version of yourself. Other times, like right now, they’re burdensome. Your friends and family seem to have strong opinions about what you “should” be doing and achieving, and they aren’t shy about expressing them. Problem is, their judgments don’t match up with your own. This week, you have to be brave enough to defy expectations. It isn’t easy to risk disappointing the people who love you, but sometimes it’s necessary in order to be true to yourself.
It’s important to you to be useful. You want to do work that matters in the world, to make people’s lives — or just their days — better. This can make it hard for you to indulge your imagination. You struggle to make the case that creativity is “useful” or necessary. Put your doubts to the side this week. It’s a chance for you to shine, to give in to your creative impulses. This work matters, too. Telling stories, creating art, making people laugh — it’s human. It’s also what makes the world worth living in.
You have definite ideas about how the world should be and how people, yourself included, should behave. You’re not fussy about it; you just know what you value and you’re clear on what’s right and wrong. This week, though, your principles are likely to come crashing into conflict with the realities of your daily life. The more demands there are on you, and the more draining life gets, the more of a challenge it is to be good. Do your best, and have some compassion for yourself. Your job isn’t to be perfect every second but to move through the weird times with integrity and courage.
You’re perceptive, and rarely wrong about people. In new groups, you can pick up on the dynamics practically instantly; with a new person, you can quickly determine whether or not they’re trustworthy. You rarely doubt your first impressions, and when you do, you often come to regret it. This week, continue to trust your instincts, but remember that people can grow. Dramatic change may be rare, but it’s not impossible. You’ve grown wiser and more mature. Allow others to do the same.
You may find that you’re uncharacteristically reclusive this week, as though your adventurous spirit is in hibernation, your curiosity on pause. Normally you’re open to new experiences, ready to say yes to every invitation, no matter how unexpected. Right now, though, the mere thought of putting yourself out there makes you tired. Your impulse might be to power through it, to will yourself to be social. But don’t force it. If your energy levels are low, rest. If you feel like staying in, do. You don’t owe it to anyone (not even yourself) to be lively and fun all the time.
Usually, you know exactly what you want and the only question is how you’ll go about getting it. These days, though, your desires have been muddled and contradictory, and you haven’t known quite how to move forward. This week, it might help to worry less about what you’d like to achieve, and focus instead on what you care about. What really matters to you? What kind of life do you want to live, and what kind of person do you want to be? If you stop thinking about the results and start thinking about the process instead, you might find the clarity you’ve been missing.
Recently you’ve been feeling a lot of pressure to get it right — to hold the correct opinions, to make ambitious career moves, to avoid relationship drama. Bad or silly choices were acceptable when you were younger, but you’re too old for all that now. You should know better. This week, cut yourself some slack. Nobody ages out of making mistakes. Best case scenario, you start making more interesting ones. Don’t worry so much that you’re failing to meet arbitrary expectations. You’re doing just fine.
Lately, you’ve been struggling to strike a balance between your competing desires for a big, exciting life and for a sense of security. Some say that as you get older you inevitably have to give up on adventure, but you want it all: the passion and the soft place to land. The comfort of the familiar, but also the thrill of the unknown. Truth is you can have both, but probably not all the time. Sometimes the pendulum swings one way, sometimes the other. Instead of fighting it, trust that it’ll balance out over time.
Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of January 21. The weekly horoscopes for the week of February 4 will be online next Sunday.
Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.
