Your Daily Horoscope, by Madame Clairevoyant: October 16, 2024

The moon spends all day in energetic and impulsive Aries as it builds to tomorrow’s full moon, and no matter how levelheaded you are most of the time, you could get caught up in its energy — which could be just what you need! Sometimes, a bit of spontaneity is necessary to break out of a rut. Trust your gut, and don’t be afraid of taking risks. Even your mistakes will ultimately propel you forward.

Your emotions will likely be close to the surface today; try as you might, it could be impossible to hide what you’re feeling. This can be inconvenient — sometimes, the rules of polite society require us all to paste on a smile regardless of what’s going on — but it can be refreshing, too. Keeping up appearances gets exhausting for everyone, not just you. Stop worrying about speaking out of turn or saying the “wrong” thing. For now, the best thing you can do is simply be real.

Others often encourage you to fight for what you want — but lately, it’s hard to know what that is. You get so tangled up in questions of what you “should” want, even what you “deserve” to want, that you lose touch with what you actually want. These higher-level questions are important, but they can complicate things unnecessarily. Today, let yourself remember what you want the most and decide where you’ll go from here.

Lately, it feels as if everything is happening too fast. You can hardly find a moment to catch your breath, let alone catch up on all the work that’s been piling up. It may seem the answer is to hole up on your own until the chaos dies down, but — today especially — that’s probably the last thing you need. Instead of trying to be emotionally self-sufficient, lean on the people around you. Your friends can help you process your emotions, lend practical support, and make life fun again too.

Sometimes when you’re feeling unappreciated or invisible, you would be willing to do practically anything for some positive feedback. It’s understandable to feel this way, but today, be careful not to betray your principles or long-term goals just for a fleeting moment of attention or approval from someone else. In any case, right now you’re more likely to get the response you want by going against the grain, not falling in line. If you take risks and stay true to your beliefs, you’ll be glad you did.

Everything about your life may feel too small or ordinary for you today. You would have a hard time explaining why you feel so cramped or what it is you do want; you only know it’s something else, something more. People can act as if it’s immature to want a big and exciting life, that maturity means giving up on your dreams, but let yourself push back against that idea. Maybe you can’t have everything, but that doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to boredom.

There’s plenty you would change about your life (or the world) if you could, and you’re doing your best. You recognize that change doesn’t come about just by wishing; it takes time, commitment, and hard work, which you’re more than willing to put in. But the results come slowly, and today it could be harder than usual to stay patient. Try to balance your long-term plans with some short-term excitement. The journey is long, and you need small victories to motivate you along the way.

Your friends can count on you to be supportive: You know how to set your own biases aside and really listen. But there are times when the best way to support the people you love isn’t to reinforce all their ideas or defend all their actions but to tell them — kindly — when they’re wrong. Today, be honest with others when you think their perspective is flawed. They need to hear it, and you may be the only one equipped to deliver the message in a way they can actually hear.

You’re not afraid of hard work — but you’re not one to put in more effort than you need to. If there’s a quicker way to achieve your goals, or an opportunity to avoid unnecessary struggle, you’ll jump at it. Sometimes, though, the difficult way really is the best (or even the only) way to do things right. There may be challenges in store for you today, but the sooner you stop looking for shortcuts and settle into the work, the sooner you’ll get through it.

Normally, you’re good at making decisions, and once you’ve made your choice, you don’t look back. But when all the options seem equally good or bad, it can feel almost impossible to choose between them and you end up doing nothing. Today, though, inaction is only going to make you feel stuck. You can’t explore every possibility, and it’s better to experience some of them than none at all.

You’re ambitious by nature, but even you sometimes get tired of constantly striving, taking big leaps, and putting yourself out there. It’s stressful to feel as if you’re always on the edge of failure and to be aware of how far you could fall. Today, what you want most may be security. You’re yearning to relax, to quit pushing yourself so hard all the time, to enjoy what you have. Just be careful not to retreat so far into your comfort zone that you forget — or let anyone else forget — that you’re courageous and willing to fight for yourself.

You’re not one to waste time learning about things just because others think they’re interesting or important. Nobody can know everything, and your mind is already full of projects and ideas that you care about. Today, though, try to have a little more curiosity about things that matter to the people in your life. Ask questions and genuinely listen to the answers. If you approach conversations with a real desire to learn, you may be surprised by how interesting the people around you can be.

Sometimes, you do things you know aren’t good for you — you go along with other people’s harebrained ideas, you spend time with people you don’t fully trust, you agree to plans you don’t think you’ll enjoy. Maybe it’s because you’re curious to see what happens; maybe it’s just simpler to go with the flow. Today, though, put your foot down. Remember how satisfying it can be to say “no.” Stop giving other people’s wants the priority: You’re the driver of your own life.

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