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Early Monday morning, communication planet Mercury leaves compassionate—though sometimes muddled—Pisces and enters assertive Aries, where it’ll stay until the end of the month. The time for being timid and unadventurous is over — this is your chance to make things happen yourself. The more direct you are, and the more you say what you mean without worrying too much about the consequences, the more your life will feel like it truly belongs to you.
Sometimes you fear you’re too loud, too intense, too much. In order to fit in and be liked, you worry that you need to tone down your real personality, and only show others the watered down version of yourself. But while there are times when it’s necessary to read the room, hiding who you really are won’t work in the long term. This week, stop trying so hard to come across a certain way and just do what comes naturally. Some people might not like your authentic self, but plenty more will.
You’re likely to have big ideas and important personal revelations this week — but you might hesitate to share them with the people around you. It’s not that you’re trying to be secretive, you simply don’t want to deal with everyone else’s opinions and advice just yet. Don’t feel pressured to open up before you’re ready, or to share your innermost feelings with people you don’t fully trust. You deserve a chance to think things through on your own first.
You’re not a conformist by nature, but lately you’ve been doing your best to do what’s expected of you. Even if you don’t personally put much stock in the rules, you understand that adhering to them can make everyday interactions smoother. This week, though, following rules you don’t care about or believe in is likely to make you feel stifled and irritable. If you forget about trying to be “normal” and instead just follow your instincts, you’ll enjoy your life much more.
You’re often hesitant to share your opinions with others — you tell yourself that your ideas don’t have much value, or that people won’t really listen to you anyway. But the truth is that you have much more influence than you tend to give yourself credit for. The people in your life look up to you; they care deeply about what you think of them. While you might not feel powerful — if you were, you imagine that you wouldn’t feel so frazzled all the time — your voice carries real weight, so use it.
As much as you say you want to try new things, it’s not easy to make it happen: You have so many commitments, and it seems hard to justify making time for new friends you might never get truly close to, or new hobbies you might not be any good at. This week, though, try to remember that the ultimate outcome isn’t the point. Even if a new relationship goes nowhere, or an activity proves not to be for you, that doesn’t mean it was a waste of time.
Although you know that everyone makes mistakes, that doesn’t mean you can disregard and easily move on from your own. You tend to feel ashamed when you mess up, and you do your best to correct your missteps as quickly as possible. This week, though, try to view your errors with a bit more generosity. There’s rarely only one right way of doing things, and sometimes what seems like a “mistake” is really just your instincts prodding you to take an alternative path.
In general, you’re a nuanced thinker; instead of sharing a strong initial reaction to something, you try to give it serious consideration on your own. But remember that you can’t always come to the strongest conclusions by yourself — sometimes, you need others to bounce ideas off of, friends who will point out the gaps in your logic. Arguments don’t have to feel stressful and combative — this week, good-natured disagreements with people you trust can bring you closer together, and help both of you figure out what you really think.
Sometimes, it feels like the most important thing is to move through the world carefully and deliberately, avoiding all unwanted drama. While you’re not afraid to make a scene for the sake of a worthy cause, you want to do so in a controlled and thoughtful way. This week, though, it might be impossible to be as strategic as you’d like — if you want to change your life, you may have to risk making a mess. Follow your instincts in the moment, and trust that you can deal with the outcome.
You worry sometimes that your confidence will come across as annoying boastfulness — you’ve worked hard to accept yourself, and you’d hate for others to see your hard-won self-love as mere arrogance. It’s not a completely unreasonable concern, but this week, remember that other people’s perceptions aren’t your problem. You’re allowed to move through the world with self-assurance, and to take pride in how much you’ve grown.
You’re smart and resourceful, able to thrive in even the toughest environments. But that doesn’t mean you should constantly have to fight your way through harsh conditions. Some struggle may be inevitable in life, but you deserve your fair share of ease to balance it out. This week, try to find ways to make your daily life a bit more pleasant. Say no to the activities that stress you out; lean into the relationships that make you feel supported.
It might seem like your attention is all over the place this week, bouncing from one idea to another. With your focus split between all the disparate tasks on your plate, it’ll be hard to make a serious dent in any one of them, which can get frustrating: You worry you’re letting your brainpower go to waste. But if it’s possible to stop expecting yourself to be productive, adopting a broad and open-minded curiosity can be a lot of fun — and can open up possibilities you might never otherwise have discovered.
You recognize the power of planning and setting intentions. It’s hard to build the life you want if you can’t even visualize what it would look like. Sometimes, though, dreaming about the future becomes a way to avoid actually taking action. This week, the way to get what you want isn’t to hope and fantasize, or to scheme and maneuver, but to simply and straightforwardly ask for it. There’s no guarantee that people will say yes, but voicing your desires is a good start.
Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of February 23rd. The weekly horoscopes for the week of March 9th will be online next Sunday.
Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.