Weekly Horoscopes for the Week of October 9 by the Cut

Angela Lansbury, a Libra.
Photo-Illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos: Getty

This is a big astrological week! To start off, love planet Venus enters thoughtful Virgo. For the next month, the most effective way to express your love is by being reliable — remembering the small details and showing up when you’re needed. Late Wednesday night, Mars, planet of action, enters Scorpio, where it’ll stay until late November. During this time, the best way to get what you want is with fearlessness, persistence, and focus. If you refuse to be intimidated, you’ll be successful in the end. Finally, we end with a solar eclipse in Libra on Saturday. This event brings unexpected new beginnings and an opportunity to rebalance the parts of your life that have gone off kilter. The changes on the way might not be what you expected (or even wanted); it’s up to you to make the most of them anyway.

Sometimes it feels like you have to do everything yourself, like it’s up to you to be your own cheerleader, advocate, and protector. Your life is full of people who care for you, but when it comes down to it, you suspect that you can only really count on yourself. It’s good to be self-reliant, none of us is really an island. It’s lonely, living that way. So this week, ask for the help you need, and accept the support you’re offered. Other people won’t fix all of your problems, but they will show up for you.

You beat yourself up, sometimes, for not having all of the answers. You look around and see people who appear confident in their decisions and certain of their purpose in life. In comparison, you feel like you’re lagging behind. You’d never expect a friend to have their life totally figured out, but you expect this of yourself. Frustrating as it can be, you hold yourself to a high standard. But this week, it’s possible to find the clarity you’ve been looking for. If you keep searching for answers with a curious, open mind, then the world (and your place in it) will begin making sense again.

There are people who won’t speak up until they’re sure of what they want to say. You’re the opposite: you tend to do your best thinking out loud, in conversation with others. You float ideas to see how they’re received; you enter arguments as a way to figure out what your position is. In other words, you sometimes treat your words lightly, like they don’t count. This week, though, they’ll have more power than you realize. Conversations about your feelings can lead to new relationships. Voicing your dreams could result in unexpected opportunities. Expressing yourself can change your life.

You’re constantly being told to prioritize “success,” which is to say, wealth, career growth, recognition. Everywhere you turn, it seems like somebody is offering advice on how to hustle or network or negotiate. This week, though, the universe will remind you that you have other (perhaps greater) priorities — the people you love, maybe an art practice or political cause, maybe just enjoying some peace and quiet. The key is to decide what actually matters most to you, and to make your decisions with that in mind.

You can sometimes come across as a little picky, but really, you just like what you like. When you know what works for you, you stick with it. Sometimes, though, branching out becomes unavoidable. This week, your routines will be disrupted — probably not in major ways, but enough that you’ll have to respond, rethink your strategy. If you hold too tight to your expectations you’ll end up stressed and frustrated, but if you follow the path where it leads, if you’re brave enough to change your plans and your mind, you’ll ultimately be happy you did.

You try to be practical, mindful of the tasks and deadlines that are constantly piling up. Maybe you do this because you take great satisfaction in being organized; maybe you feel that you can’t rely on anyone else to take care of business. Whatever the reason, this week, you might find you want more than the pleasure of hard work completed. You want comfort and pleasure and beauty, too. You want time to stretch out and relax. As you make plans and take on projects, don’t forget to leave time to enjoy yourself.

When you disagree with your boss’s ideas, you’ve learned that it’s often best to smile politely and keep your thoughts to yourself. When you think a friend is making all the wrong moves in their relationship, you keep your mouth shut, thinking it isn’t your place to pass judgment. This week, though, you’ll likely feel compelled to get louder, more opinionated. It might surprise certain people in your life — it might surprise you — but it’s not a bad thing. Letting your genuine reaction shine through is freeing. Right now, being authentic is every bit as important as being diplomatic.

You’re tough and strong and you know how to take care of yourself. But this week, you can expect to be more sensitive than usual, to feel more deeply. Thoughtless comments you’d normally brush off will cut deep; conversely, kind words will be enough to keep you afloat for weeks. You’ll feel like you need to to pretend everything’s fine, but that’s not your job, and it probably won’t help. Make a point of spending time with the people you trust to treat you gently. If your emotions are all over the place, cut yourself some slack.

You’re independent enough not to mind doing things on your own; if you can’t find someone to come along to an event, you’re not scared to show up by yourself. If nobody is free to travel with you, you’re happy flying solo. This week, though, put the extra effort into finding people to join you on your adventures. It isn’t that you need the company, exactly, only that friends will make your experiences more fun and interesting. They’ll point out the things you wouldn’t have noticed. They’ll help you see yourself more clearly, too.

You get the sense, sometimes, that you’re supposed to be putting more energy towards chasing money or prestige or power. You worry that if you’re not striving for more, you’re falling behind. Growth is necessary and healthy for any person, of course, but it’s easy to get so caught up in the desire for more that you forget how to rest, to appreciate when you’re happy and recognize what’s actually enough This week, as you weigh the projects you might take on, be careful not to overcommit. You don’t need to do everything, or keep reaching. You might find that you’re content right where you are.

You think you know what the future will bring. By paying close attention to the world around you, you believe you can get a decent picture of what’s going to happen next. The pain or fear or stress you’re feeling now will last forever, you tell yourself, so you might as well settle in. But this week, the universe will surprise you. You’ll find that your life is stranger and more expansive than you thought possible. An unexpected new path is opening up to you now. Follow it.

Lately, life has seemed hopelessly unfair. Maybe you’ve been noticing other people (seemingly) effortlessly reaching milestones you’ve been working toward; maybe you’ve been dealing with more hardship than any one person should have to deal with; or you’re simply experiencing a string of random bad luck. This week, the challenge is to find a way to move forward anyway. You can’t make the universe perfect or more “fair,” and you can’t change the past, but you can pick yourself up and keep going. Don’t give up hope: you’re through the worst of it, and things will get brighter from here.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of October 2. The weekly horoscopes for the week of October 16 will be online next Sunday.

Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.