Astrologer and Cut columnist Claire Comstock-Gay reads the stars as Madame Clairevoyant.
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
There’s plenty of positive energy to go around today, with the moon (currently moving through Aries) picking up support from Jupiter and the sun (both in Leo) in the first part of the day. It’s a good time for socializing, working on creative projects, and doing what feels right without overthinking it. In the evening, Saturn could bring the mood down a little — but it’ll also give you the strength and good judgment needed to face what comes your way next. Backing down from challenges now will only make you feel worse about yourself in the long run. Facing them, even if it’s scary, will help your confidence grow.
Desire can be a strangely stressful thing. The more powerfully you want something, the more acutely you feel your current lack of it. The more clearly you envision the life of your dreams, the more drab your actual existence might seem in comparison. Sometimes, that tension is enough to convince you that you should stop wanting altogether. But today, let yourself feel your desires fully. It’s likely to be more invigorating than depressing, and you can find real joy in the pursuit of something more.
If your goal is to meaningfully change your life, you need to be willing to develop new skills and address some of your weaknesses. Perhaps you’ve convinced yourself that this means you need to become an entirely different person before you can find any happiness. But this mind-set will only hold you back. Today, operate from the assumption that you’re already good enough, and you already have the tools you need — you just need to figure out how to put them to use.
The world is so chaotic that you sometimes convince yourself there’s no point in preparing for the future. If even the best, most careful plans are sure to be disrupted, then why bother making them at all? It might feel like this kind of fatalism will protect you from disappointment. In reality, it’s more likely to prevent you from living fully. Today, make your plans for the future, even as you understand you’ll probably have to change them as you go. Time keeps passing anyway, so do your best to use it well.
You care deeply about living up to your ideals and being a good person, but lately it’s been easy to get discouraged. Nothing you do seems to make a difference — at least not in the grand scheme of things. You’ve started wondering: Are you foolish for trying so hard to do the right thing? Today, the best thing you can do is double down. Even if your actions don’t seem to make any tangible difference, you should stick to your principles anyway. If nothing else, the people around you will respect you for it.
Some people seem to float through life powered by confidence alone — and these are the people you tend to avoid. This might be because you get the sense that they’re capricious and unreliable … but there’s probably also a part of you that is jealous. Their self-esteem seems so sturdy in comparison to yours. Remember: Even the people who seem outwardly confident have their moments of fragility and self-doubt. Go easy on them and focus on bolstering your belief in yourself instead.
You aren’t the sort of person who navigates life based on instinct alone — you’re too practical for that, too aware of how easy it is for humans to lie to ourselves. But right now, leaning too far into your rational side will only cause you to overanalyze everything. You risk missing obvious emotional truths because you’re too focused on the objective facts. Today, the most important thing you can do is accept that while you might not be able to explain all of your emotions, they’re worth listening to anyway.
When you try to live up to others’ expectations, you’re virtually guaranteed to fall short. When you play according to rules someone else made up, you’re always at a disadvantage. So today, see what happens if you start focusing on living up to your own standards instead. Other people might be disappointed in you, or they might not understand what you’re going for — and that won’t feel great, particularly if you struggle with people-pleasing tendencies — but the increase in your own satisfaction will make the sacrifice worth it.
Unless you’re constantly improving and continually breaking new ground, you worry that others will lose interest in you. You feel a tremendous amount of pressure to always be on, because you don’t want to become irrelevant. But you’re asking the impossible of yourself. Life isn’t that linear; nobody can grow without pausing to rest. Today, give yourself permission to relax, have an off day, and let your lazy side take over every once in a while. The people who actually matter won’t forget about you while you’re recovering.
You might not have much of a plan for your life at the moment. You’re figuring it out as you go. Your more organized, driven friends might try to convince you there’s something wrong with this approach — that your spontaneity is a bad, even dangerous thing, and you need to sit down and figure out your future as soon as possible. They’re only trying to help, but you’re probably better off not listening to their advice. What you need at this juncture is the freedom to explore your options before you commit to one specific path.
You recognize that it’s important to do things that scare you sometimes — to try new things, to put yourself out there, to risk failing and embarrassing yourself. But just because you know risk is necessary doesn’t mean you have to like it. You’re courageous when you have to be, but when you can avoid extra stress, you do. Today, though, it’s worth pushing your limits. Doing so could prove to be unexpectedly thrilling! Taking on challenges won’t just be something you appreciate in retrospect: You can have fun in the moment, too.
When you’re working through an interpersonal conflict, it’s easy to get stuck in black-and-white, binary thinking. You imagine that one person gets their way and the other is disappointed; one will win, the other will lose. But great things will happen if you can break free from that mind-set. There might be other options that you haven’t considered yet. Think creatively about the problem: If you assume there might be ways for everyone to come away happy, chances are, you’ll find them.
The more you feel pressured to work quickly and efficiently, the worse your output tends to be. Today, especially, trying to rush will only stress you out and lead to avoidable mistakes. It’s not always possible to slow down — if there are hard deadlines or unreasonable demands being placed on you, there’s only so much you can do to push back. But if you can insist on a more reasonable pace, then do so. You’ll get better results and enjoy yourself more if you can move at a speed that’s more comfortable for you.
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