Kiernan Shipka, a Scorpio.
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images
Your life is full of love — but with Venus and Mars at odds today, it might not feel that way to you. Even if you do recognize that people care about you, you might grow frustrated that they aren’t expressing their affection clearly. It’s easy to start to spiral, convincing yourself that you’ll never get what you truly need — but don’t give up on people just yet. Sometimes they need some time to understand what you need; it doesn’t mean they don’t care.
Today, it might be easy to give too much importance to any individual moment, losing sight of the big picture. A big success now can convince you that you’ll be happy forever, or a painful disappointment can feel like a sign that everything is permanently ruined. But neither one is really true. The world will keep spinning, and you’ll continue to move through good times and bad times alike. Try not to get too stuck in your own head, and keep moving.
By now you’re probably sick of conflict. You’re tired of arguments, of being forced to advocate for yourself so tirelessly, of needing to deal with so much drama. You want an opportunity to rest. But even though you feel done with conflict, it might come for you anyway. And today, avoidance is the worst strategy you could take. Don’t let unhappiness fester. You don’t need to go out of your way to stir up trouble, but if problems arise, try to deal with them directly and immediately.
It might sound silly, but your challenge today is to remember how to share, whether its your time or resources. You won’t be happy if you trample everyone else to get what you need, nor will you save the world by letting everyone else have their way. Being part of a community means sharing in the good and the bad, and if you’ve forgotten how, or gotten tied up in your individual concerns, you have the opportunity now to reconnect with the group.
You might need to remind yourself, today, that bending over backwards to please other people isn’t the way to make them love you. Much as it seems that giving others exactly what they want is the quickest way to endear yourself, it doesn’t really work that way. The more you betray yourself or abandon your own needs, the more you’ll teach others to treat you that way, too. Standing up for yourself is the best way to garner respect.
What you need most, today, is an outlet for all your energy. You need projects to work on or mysteries to investigate. Whatever you throw yourself into doesn’t need to be productive in anybody else’s eyes — you don’t need to make a case for why you’re doing this, or limit yourself to activities that you think will benefit you tangibly in the future — it only needs to matter to you. As long as you’re challenging yourself or learning or simply having fun with the process — it’s enough.
Sometimes, when the future seems particularly bleak or the people you love are suffering, it can feel like a betrayal to feel even a moment of happiness. Enjoying yourself feels wrong, like a betrayal of the people who need you. But simply feeling stressed or panicked won’t make you more useful — if anything, it’ll leave you feeling stuck. If you want to make the world a better place, figure out a way to act, and don’t beat yourself up about whatever you’re feeling, good or bad.
Part of you feels more compassionate than ever lately — all you want to do is be gentle with yourself and the people around you. But there’s another part of you that’s raging, ready to breathe fire and make others listen. It’s easy to wonder which part is your “true” self, or which one is “better” — but that’s the wrong question. Both of these sides of yourself are equally you. You need your compassion and also your fury, so tend to and honor them both.
You’re not likely to succumb to peer pressure. You’re strong-willed and brave enough to do what you believe is right, regardless of what everyone else is up to. But today, it’s important to remember that you don’t always have to go it alone. Being part of the crowd isn’t always a bad thing: The people around you are smart and strong-willed, too. Don’t work so hard to be special and unique that you forget that there’s power in being part of a community.
You’ll have the opportunity to learn so much today. Whether you’re reading deeply or having wide-ranging conversations with smart people, you’re opening doors and broadening your perspective. You’re equipping yourself with ever more ways of dealing with a strange and challenging world. The key, right now, is not to let all the new information make you forget everything you already know. New ideas aren’t necessarily better ones — stay open to the new, but don’t throw away the old just because the novelty has worn off.
Sometimes you long for intimacy, and other times you fear it — today, confusingly, you might do both. Part of you worries that if you can’t find the close connections you’re longing for, it means there’s something wrong with you, while another part of you does your best to push away anyone who tries to get close. Stop worrying that you’re somehow failing to do relationships “right.”. The key is to be brave — even if you can only open up and build trust little by little, those little bits will add up.
You might feel oddly invisible today. On the one hand, you might worry that nobody notices your hard work, but on the other, it seems like maybe nobody is noticing your awkward moments or your missteps, either. If you do want to be seen right now, you may have to put in some extra work to put yourself out there and connect with others. But consider that there might be something nice about being able to fade into the background, just for now, and be left in peace.
It could be harder than ever to work productively with the people around you today. There are too many contradictory ideas flying around the room, and everyone has different, competing ways of doing things. There might not be any easy way to smooth things over, but sometimes, it’s only by working through these little clashes and frustrations that new, better ideas come into being. And even if the misunderstandings don’t seem to lead anywhere useful, they’ll be resolved soon enough.
Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.