Madame Clairevoyant: Horoscopes for the Week of May 5–11

On Tuesday night, a new moon in stubborn Taurus offers a fresh start. If you’ve been distracted lately, pulled in too many directions at once, this is an opportunity to refocus your energies. You know what really matters to you, so consider how you can best put your care into action. Nobody expects you to be perfect or to have all the answers. What’s important is that you are resolute, willing to try and try again, to refuse to back down. In the meantime, find the weekly horoscope for each zodiac sign, below.

You understand better than most people that not everything you try is going to be a success, that there’s no shame in walking away from the jobs, relationships, or creative projects that turn out not to be right for you. It’s easier to take a risk on something new if you know that leaving is always an option. Still, try to take your commitments seriously this week. If you’re setting goals right now, make them ones you can actually stick with. Quitting has its place, but now is the time for whatever steadfastness you can muster.

When you’re facing real, material problems, it’s maddening to be told by a well-intentioned friend that simply changing your outlook is the solution — as though the world’s injustices would stop if only you had a more positive attitude, as though other people’s cruelty would fade away if only you were less pessimistic. You understand that your own personal mind-set can only take you so far. But this week, remember that it has its own real power, too. If you decide to believe that a better world genuinely is within reach, it gets easier to act that way, too, and suddenly, anything becomes possible.

Lately, you’ve been feeling guilty for not doing “enough”: Enough to change the world, enough to care for your friends, enough to live your life to the fullest. You know people who seem to be involved in everything, and you wish that could be you. But right now, you’re stretched thin. You’re exhausted, which means you can’t see a way to do any more than you already are. Cut yourself some slack. Don’t be ashamed to step back, to take time for yourself if that’s what you need for now. You’ll have plenty of time to jump back into the action after some rest.

You’ve been feeling more isolated than usual; it seems like nobody else cares about the same things you do, that if you want to make the world a better place, you’re on your own. While these feelings are understandable, they simply aren’t true. The world is full of people who care just as deeply and who are longing for community just as much as you are. It may take work to find or create the community you’ve been missing, but this week especially, any effort you put in will be rewarded.

It’s hard to know how you’ll behave in certain situations until they actually happen. You always hope you’ll remain calm in a crisis, stay bighearted when the going gets tough, but part of you worries you’ll fold under pressure. You’ll have the opportunity to prove what you’re made of this week, to show that you really are the leader you’ve always wanted to be. When challenges arise, you’ll rise to meet them. When you run into obstacles, you won’t back down. You’re strong enough to meet the moment — especially this one. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

You strive to set well-defined goals and to be clear about what you want your future to be. You can’t build the life you want if you don’t even know what it looks like. But the clearer your ideas are, the harder it is to diverge from them when circumstances change or unforeseen opportunities come your way. Remain open to the unexpected. Your life doesn’t have to look the way you always assumed it would. If you’re brave enough to risk venturing into the unknown this week, it might turn out even better.

The more overwhelming life becomes, the more tempting it is to dream about somebody else — a partner, a friend, a random benefactor — stepping in to take responsibility, to fix all the problems, to save you. There can be real sorrow in feeling like you’re on your own and can’t count on anybody’s protection. But there can also be a sense of possibility. You’re capable of much more than you realize, and you’re strong enough to fight for yourself. You don’t have to hope and wait for someone else to come along. You have power of your own, so use it.

Sometimes, you find yourself putting all your energy into your most challenging, most contentious relationships. You don’t necessarily mean to do it, but you get so caught up trying to fix what’s broken or to persuade others that you’re worthy of their love that you forget that human connection doesn’t have to be this difficult. You shouldn’t feel like you’re giving and giving without getting anything back. Focus on the relationships that are supportive and life-affirming this week. Genuine mutual care can be life-changing, and you don’t have to accept anything less.

You’ve got big ideas about how you want to live, to maintain strong relationships, to live up to your ideals. While it’s easy enough to know what you could or should be doing, it’s something else entirely to actually put those thoughts into action. Maybe you’ve let good habits lapse because you’re busy, maybe it’s hard to break out of the rut you’ve been stuck in, maybe you’re simply scared. No matter what the reason, it’s time to take action. For the sake of yourself, the people you love, and the world around you, be brave now.

This week, the quickest and surest way for you to fail would be to give up before you’ve really gotten started; to assess the situation, analyze the possible outcomes, and decide it’s hardly worth it to fight at all. Sometimes it is worth being pragmatic, keeping your head down and your expectations low, but not right now. It’s time to be bold and stubborn enough to keep going, even when the odds appear stacked against you. You may not get the exact results you hope for, but none of your efforts will be wasted.

You aren’t the sort of person to put your own comfort — physical or emotional — above all else. You’re willing to endure a lot if it’s in service of the greater good, and while the world would probably be a better place if more people shared this mind-set, it’s possible to take things too far. Your personal needs and desires don’t trump all else, but if you neglect them, you’ll only end up burned out and miserable. You’re allowed your comforts and small pleasures, so make a point of enjoying them this week.

It’s very easy right now to get drawn into meaningless arguments, to be distracted by minor quibbles over things that don’t really matter to you. Your job this week is to stay focused on what you actually care about. That might mean engaging in the debates you think are most important; it could also mean refusing to fight at all so that you can use your energy to care for others, to connect with the people in your neighborhood, to make the world beautiful. Your time is precious. Use it well.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of April 28. The weekly horoscopes for the week of May 12 will be online next Sunday.

Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.