Your Weekly Horoscopes by Madame Clairevoyant: December 15–21

It’s a busy week astrologically. Early Sunday morning, the Gemini full moon activates everybody’s restless side. Don’t be surprised if the people around you start making impulsive decisions; you may be tempted to shake up your own life, too. Then Sunday afternoon, Mercury retrograde ends. If the past few weeks have clarified your purpose, it’s time now to put those insights into action. Finally, on Saturday, the sun enters practical Capricorn. If your energy and inspiration seem to flag over the next month, you can still count on your resourcefulness and self-discipline to carry you to your goals.

This week, expect to be busy — probably not with big, long-term projects, but with all the little chores and dramas that make up everyday life. Your phone keeps buzzing, your inbox is full, and everything seems to demand your attention immediately. Don’t ignore the work that needs to be done — but be careful not to get swept up in somebody else’s sense of urgency. Your challenge is to discern what can wait. Chances are, you have more time than you think.

As a rule, you work hard to stay open to the world around you. There are so many interesting people to talk to, so much beauty to admire, so much to learn. The more you pay attention, the richer your life becomes. But this week, remember that you don’t always need to look outside yourself for answers to your emotional problems. It’s likely that you already have what you need. At this point, reflecting and listening to what your gut has to say might be more useful than collecting even more information.

Everyone has their own communication styles and daily rhythms. None are inherently better or worse — people are just different from one another. Sometimes, though, you get the sense that in order to belong, you need to cater to everyone else’s preferences and work at their pace. Adapting to others’ needs can make for happy and productive relationships, but it needs to be mutual. Your friends should accommodate you sometimes too. And if they’re not, then this week, it might be time to say something about it.

As much as you love to connect with others, you’re probably not an oversharer. It takes time to peel back the layers and get to know the real you. Deep down, you probably worry that people would think less of you if they could see the parts of yourself that are needy or strange. But this week, letting your true self show will probably feel like a huge relief. You don’t need to curate your image so carefully; you can just be you.

If you’re not careful, it’s easy for you to take on too great an emotional load. You start trying to be everything to everyone, and while you might manage it for a while, it quickly becomes unsustainable. This week, if you feel burned out, it could be tempting to swing far in the opposite direction, refusing to lift a finger for anyone else. Try to find a happy medium. The point of boundaries isn’t to keep everyone out but to allow yourself to give in a way that doesn’t deplete you.

People don’t always notice your sense of humor. Maybe they imagine that someone as thoughtful as you can’t also be funny, or maybe louder, more demanding voices tend to drown yours out. Whatever the reason, it’s frustrating. This week, though, you could get a chance to correct others’ perceptions by letting your funny side show. Don’t imagine that you have to play to everyone else’s expectations; make a point of being your full self.

Most of the time, your analytical mind and good judgment ensures that you make strong choices. But when faced with too many options, your thoughts tend to go in circles, keeping you stuck in place. This week, though, inaction is likely to feel intolerable; it’ll seem better to make a questionable decision than no decision. Sometimes, just doing something — even if it’s not ideal — is better than doing nothing. Don’t make any binding commitments, but don’t worry about making the perfect choice either.

Lately, it feels like the people in your life are demanding too much of you. Your friends expect that you’ll be available 24/7 to listen to their problems — without seeming to realize that you have problems of your own to deal with. Your job wants you to take on an impossible amount of responsibility without taking into account that you have a life outside of work too. Instead of silently bearing it all this week, remember that you’re allowed to say no.

You don’t tend to wait around for other people. If friends aren’t on board with your plans, you’ll charge ahead on your own; if nobody seems to like your ideas, you’ll implement them yourself. Most of the time, this turns out for the best, but this week, don’t get too far ahead of the group. You’ll find that you need their help or you simply want their company. While you could do all the work alone, you’ll enjoy yourself much more if you can bring others along — even if it slows you down a bit.

Sometimes, it feels like all of life’s little annoyances are inescapable. Trying to actually fix them seems to only end in frustration; all you can do is adapt. But while it’s impossible to live a life free of any inconvenience, that doesn’t mean you’re totally helpless either. This week, you might find that it’s simpler than you think to simply say no to many of the social expectations that stress you out. Even the smallest adjustments to your routines could prove life-changing.

You recognize that human beings shouldn’t have to be productive all the time, that we all need and deserve time for leisure too. Yet, a part of you imagines that this only applies to other people, while you should be an impeccable model of hard work and productivity. But the harder you try to embody unrealistic ideals, the more exhausted you get. This week, recharge your battery by finding time to enjoy yourself. A bit of fun now will make you more capable in the long run — and even if it doesn’t, you deserve it anyway.

It can be difficult to know when a project is truly finished — there’s always the temptation to keep tinkering and revising; the more you look, the more areas for improvement you find. If you put your mind to it, you could probably keep working and reworking things forever. But this week, consider that it might finally be time to let go. It isn’t easy, but to keep growing, you’ll have to accept that nothing will ever be completely perfect and allow yourself to move on.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of December 8th. The weekly horoscopes for the week of December 22nd will be online next Sunday.

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