Weekly Horoscopes for the Week of October 24 by the Cut – The Cut

At the very beginning of the week, on Sunday morning, the sun entered the most provocative and intense sign of the zodiac: Scorpio season has begun. (Venus also entered Scorpio on Sunday morning, and Mercury will join it on Saturday, heightening Scorpio’s influence in all areas of your life.) You can expect the weeks ahead to be exciting, even sexy, but also demanding. While you may have been content to keep relationships light and breezy during Libra season, Scorpio asks you to get serious, find out what’s beneath the surface, and connect on a deeper level. Intimacy can be frightening, but it’s rewarding, too, if you’re brave enough to take the plunge. Then, on Tuesday morning, a solar eclipse in Scorpio will amplify the week’s intensity and precipitate a change — possibly one you’ve been trying to avoid. You won’t be able to stop it from happening, no matter how hard you try, but you will have the courage to rise up to meet it. Then, late Thursday night, planet of fortune Jupiter (which is currently retrograde) moves backward into mystical Pisces. While Jupiter was in assertive Aries, boldness brought the most favorable results; now that it’s back in Pisces, you’ll find that the more compassionate you are toward yourself and others, the luckier you’ll be.

Though you normally wear your heart on your sleeve, there will still be times when you need to process your feelings before you’re ready to talk about them. The problem is that other people don’t always react well to your quieter moods. They want you to be completely forthcoming in every moment, to reveal every secret immediately. Even if their prying is rooted in love, this week, remember that you’re entitled to privacy. You don’t owe everyone access to your inner world. You can open up in your own time, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Hard as it can be for you to admit, the truth is that all relationships change over time — certainly the ones that last the course of your life. In some cases, longevity will deepen them, creating new closeness. In others, it will weaken them: You outgrow each other, travel in different directions, stop speaking the same emotional language. In still others, you’ll drift apart for a while only to reconnect later on, when you’re older and wiser. This week, the point is that you can’t predict the exact paths your friendships and romances will take, and it’s a waste of energy to try to control them. It’s enough to love the people in your life right now.

It’s normal to reexamine your life on occasion, to remember that everything could be different and wonder if it ought to be. Random chance, lucky opportunities, or your hunger for novel experiences could lead you to new careers, new relationships, new cities. If you really wanted, you could throw it all away and start again. Keep in mind the things in your life that you don’t want to change, too. There’s a lot you can be proud of, a lot worth holding onto, and while there’s pleasure in imagining thrilling potential futures and parallel-universe versions of yourself, there’s also happiness waiting for you this week in the here and now.

When you enter new spaces with people you don’t yet know well, it’s easy to get the impression that they’re dull and predictable, not worth your full attention. Not because this is true, but because other people don’t always display the full range of their personalities, interests, and gifts upon first meeting. This week, remember that you aren’t the only one with a rich inner life. Just as you sometimes hold your full self back, others do, too. Assume that everyone around you is brighter, weirder, more interesting than they seem, and give them space to express their hidden selves. Your whole world will become more exciting and more fun, too.

You pride yourself on your loyalty. You’re nobody’s fair-weather friend, not the type to run at the first sign of trouble. Once you’ve committed — to an artistic project, a political ideal, a relationship — you’re in it until the end. Yet sometimes, in spite of all that, it becomes clear that the best option for you is to abandon an undertaking, to pull away from a friend. If this happens for you this week, keep reminding yourself that you have nothing to feel guilty for. Loyalty is precious, but your happiness is too. If you know in your heart that it’s time to let go, trust that you’re right.

Everyone needs a skeptical side, a part of themselves that’s questioning, difficult to impress, hard to fool with smooth talk or beautiful appearances or shiny promises. It’s good not to believe everything you’re told, not to blindly trust everyone who shows you a little sweetness. Even so, be sure this week that you aren’t giving that cynical side too much power. Leave yourself some room to enjoy life, to love people in spite of their flaws, to take your friends at their word. Let yourself believe that, now and then, this world can be truly wonderful.

There are times when it’s easier to say things you don’t mean, to smooth over conflicts with white lies. At least, you do if you want a career and a community, if you simply want to make it through the day with a minimum of awkwardness. But after laughing at enough jokes that you don’t find funny, after smiling through enough conversations that you actually find mean-spirited or dull, you might need a reminder that you do not have to be so accommodating all the time. Take a break from soothing everyone else’s egos. If they want your genuine approval, you’re allowed to make them work for it.

There’s a part of you that hates, more than nearly anything, to admit you were wrong — probably because your powers of perception mean you so rarely are! You’d rather stubbornly cling to a misapprehension than be corrected, would sooner double down than consider changing your mind. But this week, especially, it’s important to leave room for revision. You’ll find that the world is bigger and more full of possibility than you know. Your friends love and believe in you more than you realize. Right now, amending your negative ideas about your life and the people in it might even feel good.

You try to approach the world with an open heart, with a belief that most people are kind or have something worthwhile to teach you. You have faith in people until they give you a good reason not to. But there are times when it’s okay to be guarded — not to view everyone you meet with suspicion, just to hold some of yourself back, reserve judgment. Trust can’t be rushed. True intimacy develops at its own pace. So this week, let relationships progress slowly if that’s what feels right. Don’t force anything or look for shortcuts. Take your time.

You’ve been considering a change in your life for a while now but have hesitated to make your move — not out of indecisiveness but because you want to be as organized and prepared as you can before taking the leap. But the truth is that it’s never possible to be fully prepped for the unknown. This week, external circumstances might force you to act earlier than you planned. Try not to worry too much; you’re strong and courageous and as ready as you’ll ever be. When you’re given an opportunity for transformation, seize it.

It’s difficult not to feel like a disappointment sometimes. You worry about letting down the people closest to you or failing to live up to your potential. You’ve got lofty ambitions and extraordinary ideas, yet you’re bound, as we all are, by limited resources, by reality. You can’t work miracles, be in multiple places at once or transcend the limits of your physical human existence. You can only be you. So for the time being, set aside everyone else’s expectations. Focus on what matters most to you. Fail or succeed, what counts is that you live on your own terms.

Right now, you might feel drawn to mystery. The more complicated a person appears, the more attracted you are; the more intricate or arcane a theory, the more it lights your mind up. A part of you might worry that this longing won’t ever be satisfied, that your life is too ordinary. You imagine that you’ve already figured your friends out, that you’ve learned all you can learn about yourself. Luckily, you’re wrong. Everyone has weird, hidden depths. There are infinite discoveries to be made out in the world. The world is stranger and more interesting than you think.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of October 17. The weekly horoscopes for the week of October 31 will be online next Sunday.

Get Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, out now.

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