Shailene Woodley, a Scorpio.
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images
After moving back and forth between Capricorn and Aquarius since early last year, today Pluto exits traditional Capricorn for good and moves into forward-thinking Aquarius, where it’ll stay for the next two decades. It’s time now to get serious about the future: What kind of world do you want to live in, and what can you do to bring it into being?
Your social circle might place more demands on you than ever today. Everyone wants your time, your attention or help with their projects. As much as you want to be left in peace to deal with your own issues, your friends keep intruding with ideas and needs of their own. It’s not a bad thing, though it might be annoying in the moment — if you’re willing to tolerate small moments of unpredictability, other people can transform your life by surprising you.
You probably prefer a measured pace to a wild, headlong sprint. With ambitions as big as yours, you know you won’t accomplish them in one fell swoop. But your commitment to the slow and steady path means that you sometimes hold back more than necessary. Today, don’t worry so much about saving up your energy for later. Don’t sit on your best ideas in case you need them down the line. Use what you have now, and trust that you won’t run out.
While some people stubbornly cling to ideas even after it becomes clear that they don’t work, you’re open to having your mind changed. Instead of continuing down the wrong path, you’d rather adapt, even if it means admitting you were wrong before. Just be careful, today, not to assume others know more than you do simply because they express themselves more forcefully. You possess more wisdom and experience than you necessarily give yourself credit for: Don’t roll over just because someone else’s voice is louder.
Today, you might feel impossibly frustrated with everyone around you. You can see so clearly the mistakes your friends are making; they could improve their lives so easily if they only listened to your advice. But try to remember that you can’t force other people to be “better” — they’ll learn in their own time. Focus, instead, on your own journey, your own plans, your own potential to grow. You can’t control anyone else’s life, but you can take charge of your own.
You know that everyone gets jealous sometimes, but that doesn’t make it feel any better when the feeling creeps up on you. Lately, you’ve struggled to stop comparing yourself to others. Everybody seems to be happier or more productive. Intellectually, you understand that life isn’t a race, but emotionally, there’s still a part of you that worries you’re losing. Today, though, try to put all that out of your mind. Remind yourself as many times as it takes that you’re living your life, and your only competition is yourself.
Part of you is ready to test out different ways of doing things today. Maybe you’re tired of your old routines, or maybe you sense that they’ve taken you as far as they can — that if you want to continue to progress, you’ll need to leave the old habits behind and build new ones. The trouble is that this takes time, and you’re impatient. Your challenge now is to set reasonable expectations. You won’t change the world — or your life — overnight, but if you stay the course, you’ll get to where you want to be.
Passion projects can change your life for the better — but you have to go all in. Right now, it isn’t enough to dabble, to skim the surface, to tell yourself that you’ll give it a shot sometime in the future, when you have more confidence or time or support. If you have an idea, start working on it today. If you want to develop a new skill, start practicing. If you have something to say, let it out. Your project might not work the way you hoped, you might not get the acclaim and recognition you dreamed of, but you have to commit anyway.
Sometimes, your desire for security keeps you safe. It has stopped you from taking unnecessary risks, from opening up to people who haven’t earned your trust, from embarrassing yourself. Occasionally, though, your risk-averse nature doesn’t protect you. It can be hard to tell when you’re being wisely cautious, and when you’re simply giving in to fear — but do your best to approach the question thoughtfully, and to err on the side of courage.
When you notice something that strikes you as surprising or strange, other people often encourage you to brush it off, to stop getting distracted and stay focused on the “real” work of living. But today, it’s important to take heed of these small moments that snag your attention and spark your curiosity. You don’t have to launch a full-scale investigation of everything that interests you, but if you commit to truly noticing the world around you, you’ll learn so much, and life will be much more enjoyable.
Sometimes it’s easy to brush off your mistakes — after all, everyone makes them. Today, though, you feel a heavy sense of responsibility. Every time you fail to live up to your values, every time you make a choice you’re not proud of, it feels like a profound failure. Try not to beat yourself up too much — it can be incredibly hard to make the ethical choice instead of the easy one. Instead, notice when you feel this way, and let it spur you to be better next time.
You know yourself well — but that doesn’t mean your self-image is perfectly accurate. You’re probably overly hard on yourself in some areas, and overly permissive in others. You feel guilt over things that aren’t your fault, and you let yourself off the hook completely for things that are. All of this is normal — but today, you could see yourself more clearly than usual. Don’t block out this new knowledge — work with it.
Everybody has traits they’re not proud of, mistakes they regret, choices they wish they’d made differently. Today, you might start to fixate on all the things you’ve done wrong — and, even worse, all the things you imagine are irredeemably wrong with your personality. It could be tempting to create a program of self-improvement, as though you can rid yourself of every weakness and flaw. But a better way to use your energy might be to start thinking about how to make the most of your flawed, ordinary, wonderful human life.
Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.