Since late December, Mercury has been approaching its retrograde period. And this week, on Friday morning, Mercury retrograde officially begins. As the planet of thought and communication moves backwards through Aquarius, your primary task — and your biggest challenge — is to slow down. Hastily reached conclusions are unlikely to be on target; rushing your plans will only set you back in the long run. This is a time for reflection, for considering the possibility that you’ve erred. During this retrograde period, which lasts until early February, there are no shortcuts, no easy paths out of your confusion. But when you take the long route, you’ll find the clarity you seek.
Aries Weekly Horoscope
Everyone’s thinking gets muddled sometimes, even yours. It happens when you’re forced to juggle too many different ideas at once, to evaluate too many conflicting opinions, to weigh an impossibly complicated set of choices. It’s frustrating, to be sure, but you aren’t as lost or as helpless as you may fear. Even when your thoughts are disorganized, your emotions remain clear. You don’t have to know all the ins and outs of different arguments, you just have to know what — and who — matters most to you. When you can’t think your way forward, you can still trust your gut to guide you.
Taurus Weekly Horoscope
People in your life often believe that they’re acting in your best interests, when actually they’re not helping at all. What they think is encouragement can appear, to you, like interference. What they consider practical assistance in achieving your goals can end up feeling like unbearable pressure. Sometimes, all you need is the space and support to figure things out on your own. This week, when you assert your boundaries and tell others what you really need from them, some might take offense, but it’s worth standing up for yourself anyway. The ones who truly care about you will understand.
Gemini Weekly Horoscope
Often, you do your best thinking out loud, talking things through with others. It’s through writing and long conversations that you feel most intellectually stimulated. Even arguments can be clarifying. At a certain point, though, you start to experience pressure to have an opinion about every single event, idea, and person whose name comes up. So this week, consider taking a break from all the noise. Let your busy mind have a moment of rest. You don’t always have to know what you think about a certain subject. You can also find satisfaction in simply listening, reading, keeping your eyes open — in letting the world speak to you.
Cancer Weekly Horoscope
You’re likely to encounter a new sense of urgency bearing down on you as you move through the week, doing your work, caring for those who need you, and trying, in spite of the odds, to find time for yourself, too. Whenever you look at the clock, at the calendar, you’re reminded of how thin you’re spread, how little opportunity there is for ease. Right now, instead of trying to do the impossible, to do everything that’s being asked of you, see if you can let some balls drop. It’s not about failing, but about fighting to reclaim your time.
Leo Weekly Horoscope
Relationships don’t stay the same over the course of a lifetime. Friendships go through their own seasons; your feelings towards the people in your life ebb and flow. Sometimes, even with those you love most, you go through periods of distance. It’s easy to take this as the sign of some permanent breakdown, but it’s just a natural cycle. If some seem less present, don’t assume that they’re lost to you forever. The intimacy you’re grieving will return, if you keep the door open: Relationships are more durable than you think. Their love for you won’t just vanish.
Virgo Weekly Horoscope
Lately, so much of deep importance is going on in the world that it seems irresponsible not to keep up with all of it. You feel a duty to pay attention to every new development, to refuse to look away. It’s a worthy impulse, and there’s much to be gained from steady observation. But it’s impossible to stay up to date with everything going on in the news. There’s simply too much for one person’s brain to hold. This week, try to accept that you can’t do the work of more than one person. And happily, you don’t need to: others will do their parts, so that you can do yours.
Libra Weekly Horoscope
It’s a precious gift, to see the best in everyone you meet. But there are some who will never share the same goals as you, or the same values, no matter how eloquently you state your case. There are those who will simply never understand where you’re coming from — not because you haven’t spoken plainly enough, but because they do not care to listen. This week, your task is to forget about the people who won’t let themselves be reached. You have so much love to give; focus on sharing it with those who are willing to accept it.
Scorpio Weekly Horoscope
There’s a bittersweet kind of comfort in telling yourself that it’s already too late — too late to live your life more authentically, to heal the emotional wounds you’ve sustained, to make this world better for everyone who lives in it. Because if it’s too late, if there’s no hope, that means you’re off the hook. It means you have no responsibility to do the difficult, painful work of caring. But this week, your job is to behave as though your efforts do matter. Because they do, but only as long as you keep trying.
Sagittarius Weekly Horoscope
You have this notion that after enough soul-searching and reflection, you should finally come to the one “real” truth about what kind of person you are. As if beneath all your past experiences, there’s a single meaning that it’s your job to uncover; that once you figure out the core truth of your personality, you can move on with your life. But the truth is that as your knowledge expands over time, your perspective evolves. Don’t cling too hard to ideas or identities that no longer make sense. It’s your right to change your mind about anything, even yourself.
Capricorn Weekly Horoscope
Our society is set up in such a way that you’re expected to do practically everything on your own. You’re required not just to provide for all your material needs — to keep yourself fed and clothed and sheltered — but also to sift through the constant deluge of information, to figure out how to navigate the complexities of contemporary living. But it’s impossible to do it all on your own and thrive, no matter what those in power say. So this week, make a point of gathering trusted people around you, of drawing close to your community. You shouldn’t have to be wholly self-sufficient, and if you work collectively, you won’t.
Aquarius Weekly Horoscope
The truth is that no amount of vision or drive or sheer hard work will make it possible for you to keep moving forward all the time. No matter how doggedly you fight to keep up your momentum, it eventually becomes necessary to rest. So this week, if your mind is craving stillness, if your body simply won’t keep pressing on, make it your goal to slow down as much as you possibly can. Rest isn’t rest if you’re still thinking of work, if you’re trying to use the time “productively.” Instead, accept that moments of slowness and relaxation are necessary.
Pisces Weekly Horoscope
Other people often talk about creativity in a way that makes it sound like a floaty, wispy little distraction — something admirable but insubstantial, fun but ultimately frivolous. In difficult times, it’s easy to internalize this view, to imagine that creativity is a luxury for the privileged, and that you must focus, instead, on “real” work. But your imagination is beautiful and free, and it can do so much more than just play — although play, too, is worthwhile. This week, don’t underestimate your capacity for creation: you can devise new kinds of relationships, new forms of community, new ways of living in our changed world.
Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of January 3. The weekly horoscopes for the week of January 17 will be online next Sunday.
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