
On Monday afternoon, Pluto retrograde begins. The faraway planet of destruction and rebirth spends nearly half of every year moving backwards, so it’s a less intense experience than, say, Mercury retrograde, but that doesn’t mean you should write it off. This is a valuable opportunity to reflect on what’s holding you back, whether external circumstances or habits that no longer serve you, and how you might get free. Then on Friday afternoon, a lunar eclipse in mysterious Scorpio creates ideal conditions for secrets to be revealed and truth to come to light. This could be juicy and fun, or it could be stressful and heavy — either way, your job for now isn’t to take dramatic action, but simply to be present and not to look away.

Aries Weekly Horoscope
Normally you’re resilient, but when you’re already stressed or sad, even minor setbacks can seem catastrophic. If you’re exhausted enough, it’s tempting to throw the whole idea, project, or relationship away rather than deal with the frustration of fixing what’s broken. But this is no time for impulsively quitting. It might not be clear to you yet, but you’ve been making amazing progress. You’re growing into yourself. You’re transforming your life into something beautiful. The breakthrough you’re longing for can’t materialize if you give up now. This week, keep pushing.

Taurus Weekly Horoscope
It can be hard for you to trust pep talks or positivity; to you, optimism often comes across as wishful thinking. While you appreciate it when your friends try to boost your confidence and lift your spirits, you don’t necessarily believe them. The naysayer in you is so loud and insistent. This week, though, consider that the people who love you aren’t just trying to massage your ego or paint a rosy picture. They can see the wonderful things about you that you don’t have the perspective to recognize. Listen to them.

Gemini Weekly Horoscope
You rarely let adversity keep you down. If a relationship doesn’t work out, well, that wasn’t the right person for you. If a plan falls through, you pivot. Life is unpredictable; that’s part of its appeal. This week, though, you might find yourself growing uncharacteristically weary of the surprises. You’re tired of being resilient, of falling and landing on your feet, again and again. Don’t take your anger out on the people close to you, but don’t suppress it, either. The more honest you are right now, the clearer your path forward will be.

Cancer Weekly Horoscope
One of the difficulties of having a heart as big as yours is that you feel responsible for everyone around you. From friends to acquaintances to total strangers, if you see someone hurting, your instinct is to help. It’s a beautiful impulse, and the world would be worse off without the love you put into it, but all that giving is draining. The world is enormous and you’re only one person; you can’t be everything to everyone. This week, cut yourself some slack. Trust that as long as you do what you can, it’s enough.

Leo Weekly Horoscope
The universe is chaos, but it doesn’t always have to feel like it is. Not for you, someone who’s capable of creating your own sense of order. You imagine that if you can sort people, works of art, even your own actions into good and bad, right and wrong, then the world will make more sense, you’ll know how to behave, and things won’t feel quite so unbalanced. Of course, it doesn’t really work that way. Everything is complicated; there are no simple answers. This week, embrace the beautiful complexity. Give yourself permission to be messy, uncategorizable, neither perfect nor terrible, only human.

Virgo Weekly Horoscope
You truly love the people in your life, but they can be so frustrating, so complicated. Just when you think you have them figured out, they surprise you. Things seem stable and comfortable, and something happens to throw it all out of whack again. Human relationships are always shifting and evolving. They need tending to. And while this can be a lot of work, it’s also a gift. It means you don’t have to resign yourself to a situation that’s not meeting your needs. There’s always, (and this week especially) an opportunity to rebalance a relationship, to make it work for both parties.

Libra Weekly Horoscope
This week, you might need a reminder that you cannot force anyone to change their behavior. You can’t make others be kinder, fairer or more interesting. Nor can you compel them to act rationally (or more precisely, what you consider to be rational). No matter how much kindness and support and good advice you give, ultimately, you cannot control other people’s lives or what they think of you. The more you internalize this, the easier it gets to focus on what you can do. You can let your friends be who they are, and you can invite them to see you for who you are. You can love each other with open hearts.

Scorpio Weekly Horoscope
Usually, your daily routines bolster you: they give your life structure, they create order in the chaos of the wider world. Eventually, though, your needs evolve. The habits that used to lift you up start holding you back; the patterns that once make you feel secure start feel suffocating. This week offers a chance to reassess. What do you want that you aren’t getting? Are you happy with how you’re spending your time? Changing your life doesn’t have to be a massive undertaking: small alterations to your daily routines can create meaningful results that seem almost like magic.

Sagittarius Weekly Horoscope
Your mind is powerful and vigorous. Lately, it’s also scattered. Work is demanding, and your social calendar is packed, and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for you to read all the books or see all the shows or dream all the dreams that have captured your interest. Time is limited, so this week, treat it like the precious resource it is. Do your best to stop scrolling or hate-reading or spending your free hours with people who don’t make you happy. Prioritize what leaves you fulfilled, instead.

Capricorn Weekly Horoscope
You’re good in a crisis.When everyone around you is falling apart, you keep your head. You’re capable and brave and hard to intimidate. You know how to best be there for the people who need you, and you do. This week, though, remember that you can’t expect yourself to be the strong one all the time. You care about protecting others, but you need support too. When life gets stressful, or scary, or plain weird, don’t try to handle it alone. Let your community help.

Aquarius Weekly Horoscope
When faced with a dilemma, you have a gift for coming up with creative, elegant solutions. You can see past easy answers and look at challenges from fresh, surprising angles. The trouble is that when your brain doesn’t have a puzzle to work over, you start overthinking. Situations that are in fact totally fine start looking like problems that need solving, and you overanalyze relationships that are perfectly healthy. This week, be careful that you’re not making things more complicated than they need to be.

Pisces Weekly Horoscope
The world being as dark and scary as it is, it would be easy to slide into fear or self-pity or numbness. It would be understandable, too: you deserve to live in a safer, fairer, happier world than this one. We all do. The important thing, this week, is to remember that you aren’t powerless, even if it feels that way. You have the chance to get out in the world, to build community, to treat the people in your life with love. You can tend to your corner of the world.
Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of April 24. The weekly horoscopes for the week of May 8 will be online next Sunday.
Get Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, out now.