Simone Biles, a Pisces.
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images
On Sunday night, the sun enters Pisces. Late Thursday night, Mercury joins it there. With these two planets — plus Saturn and Neptune — in the zodiac’s dreamiest and most compassionate sign, human connection is key. If you work only to benefit yourself right now, you’re unlikely to get far, but if you remember that you’re part of a community and work to help everyone, you’ll reap the benefits too. Finally, on Saturday, a full moon in analytical Virgo may offer the insight you’ve needed to solve a thorny problem in your life. But the key is that you can’t only talk about making a change: You have to act, too. In the meantime, you’ll find the weekly horoscope for each zodiac sign below.
Solutions to some issues are cut-and-dried, and some choices are unquestionably right or wrong. Most of the time, though, life is more complicated than that. Seeing the world in black-and-white makes things simpler for you; the problem is that it’s not true to reality. Humans are messy, filled with contradictory impulses and desires, and everyone has different ideas of what it means to be a good person. Even the noblest of actions won’t garner praise from everyone. What’s right for someone else may not be right for you, and vice versa. This week, your challenge is to get comfortable with ambiguity.
You’re not easily pressured into doing anything you don’t want to. No matter how easygoing you seem on the surface, underneath is a backbone of steel. The more anybody tries to push you, the more satisfaction you get from digging in your heels. If they try to lead you in one direction, you’re likely to move in the opposite. But this week, remember there can be pleasure, too, in going with the flow. If you let those you trust guide you, at least for now, you’ll end up somewhere wonderful that you wouldn’t have reached on your own.
You enjoy connecting with people, and you’re good at it. You know how to find common ground, put others at ease, and turn on the charm when necessary. Because of this, people sometimes think they know you much better than they really do, imagining there’s nothing more to you than the mask you wear in public. This week may be the time to show others — at least those you care about — a bit more of your true self. Genuine intimacy requires genuine vulnerability, and though it means opening yourself up to possible judgment and pain, you’ll also be opening yourself up to love.
It’s almost impossible to communicate honestly when you’re preoccupied with how others will perceive you: Will they engage in bad faith? Will they twist your words? Will they even listen at all? While you can do your best to choose your words carefully, ultimately you can’t control how they’ll be received. This week, do your best to put that fear aside and speak up anyway. You don’t have to be loud or dramatic or confrontational about it; you have the quiet power of your own convictions, and right now, that’s enough.
Lately, there’s a small, persistent voice in your head telling you everyone’s out to get you. Even if you know in your rational mind that it isn’t true, you still feel like the people around you keep picking fights, zeroing in on your faults, or being contrary just for the sake of it. Maybe it has made you defensive; maybe you’ve been anxious and withdrawn. This week, some of that tension should soften. Others will be more generous with you, and it will help you to be more understanding in return. You’ve made it through a strange period, and life should get easier now.
One of the surest ways for a person to get under your skin is for them to have no sense of perspective: to act as though they’re the first and only person who ever suffered in this world, to treat their problems like the worst anyone ever experienced. Just remember this week that it’s possible to overcorrect. Your own desires don’t trump everyone else’s, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve consideration. You’re allowed to take yourself (and your struggles) seriously, to assert yourself and treat your feelings like they matter — because they do.
Even when it’s exactly what you want, change can be intensely destabilizing. To make room for new experiences and people and ambitions in your life, you have to let go of old ones. If you want to open yourself up to fresh ideas, you have to set aside others that no longer fit. Growth probably won’t be easy this week — you’re in the heart of it right now, when the work feels burdensome and unending. Be gentle with yourself. It won’t be this difficult forever. Before long, you’ll emerge into a new phase, joyful and transformed.
Though you may seem tough with your unbending high standards, it’s only because you want the world to be less bleak for everyone. You want people to be kinder, more honest, less careless; you wish everyone took their responsibilities toward one another more seriously. So you do your best to push the people in your orbit to be better, imagining that if you could only find the perfect line of reasoning or the right emotional appeal, they’d see the light. This week, just be careful not to get bogged down in unwinnable arguments. Some people won’t ever agree with you: Focus on those who might.
There’s very little that you’re afraid of, but there’s plenty you would simply prefer not to deal with, from the emotional conversations you’d rather not initiate to the opportunities that seem like more work than you’re willing to take on. This week, though, you may not have a choice about stepping up. You don’t get to ignore big challenges just because the timing isn’t ideal for you. You have the abilities and the courage to rise to the occasion, so don’t back down. You’ll make progress if you embrace whatever the universe throws your way.
Some people constantly blame their unhappiness on others, never considering that their own actions might have played a part. Not you, though. If anything, you go too far in the other direction, holding yourself responsible for everything that has ever happened to you — even events and circumstances you had no control over. Sometimes, people act unkindly for reasons that have nothing to do with you; sometimes, the universe is simply unfair. This doesn’t mean you’re powerless but rather that you could stand to be a little less hard on yourself.
As much as possible, you try to avoid basing important choices on your feelings. It’s too easy to go wrong that way, to overlook important pieces of information, or to make decisions that don’t line up with your long-term plans or values. This week, though, your emotions are likely to be hard to ignore. For now at least, try letting them into your decision-making process. Yes, your brain is clear and reliable, but try listening to your gut, too.
You would do such wonderful things if you didn’t have to deal with the pressures and the tedium of everyday life. Showing up for your job, paying your bills, doing the laundry — these all take time and energy you wish you could put into your creative pursuits or your relationships instead. It feels unfair. This week, though, it should get a bit easier to carve out time for what you really care about. Maybe you wish it could be more, but even so, in the moments between all of your responsibilities, you’ll find time for the beauty and excitement you want.
Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of February 11. The weekly horoscopes for the week of February 25 will be online next Sunday.
Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.
