Weekly Horoscopes for the week of July 18th from the Cut

On Sunday evening, July 17, Venus enters sensitive Cancer. While the love planet was in Gemini, you probably craved a change, experiences and relationships outside the confines of your usual routines. Now you’re drawn to intimacy and depth: The richness of your closest relationships promises more satisfaction than any affair, flirtation, or adventure could. Then, on Tuesday morning, Mercury enters Leo and asks you to stop inhibiting or holding back your ideas: Confident Leo invites you to say exactly what you mean – and say it with your chest. Finally, on Friday afternoon, the Sun enters Leo, the sign of warmth, pride and grandeur. You know you are not the center of the universe, but Leo time is the time to remember you are the main character in your own life story.

Today it’s clearer than ever how important your relationships are, and not just with romantic partners. Friends, neighbors, coworkers, even casual acquaintances in your community—these are the people who care about you, who protect you, who make your days fun and interesting. Just be careful not to set unrealistic expectations this week. Your friends make life worth living, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect or always exactly what you need them to be. People (even those who love and support you the most) will sometimes let you down, just as you will sometimes let them down, but the bond will remain.

Every once in a while you get the fear that deep down you are boring, and you begin to lose patience with yourself. This is a matter of perspective. You’ve focused on what seems dullest and most ordinary about you, losing sight of all your uniqueness, allure, and kindness. This week, deliberately celebrate your ability to be funny, charming and surprising. You might fear this is rampant or silly, but do it anyway. Others can clearly see how wonderful you are, and you should see them too.

After you’ve spent enough time analyzing your life, relationships, and true desires, you reach a point where returns begin to diminish. Self-reflection is necessary, but at some point you have to take the next step. As you think in circles this week, remember that you need a break from thinking and it’s time to use what you’ve learned to finally take action. You don’t have to know everything or have a perfect plan. You just have to start moving and see what happens.

Too often people act as if the hunger for attention is shameful or immature and should be suppressed. But the need to be seen and acknowledged – to recognize your presence in this lonely, confusing world – is human through and through. You don’t have to make yourself small, invisible, or self-denying. It’s not like you’re trying to take up all the space on Earth. You only need a little. Ask the people you love to focus on you this week and you can give them the same consideration in return.

It’s frustrating to feel that you can’t fully express yourself. Maybe you’ve been weighed down by grief or fear, hemmed in by all the demands on your time, or surrounded by people who don’t receive She. Whatever the reason, you felt suffocated. This week offers the possibility of relief. It’s not that everything magically begins to work its way, or that society’s problems will solve itself overnight, but the world may become a little more welcoming to you, your strengths and desires, your unique way of getting through to move them. You will finally feel like you belong again.

As a rule, you make sure to be realistic with yourself and others about your abilities. You’ve seen what a disaster it can be when people promise more than they can deliver, or commit too much and then burn out. Your conscientiousness is admirable, but this week remember that there’s a difference between carefree overconfidence and healthy risk-taking. In order to grow, it is necessary to stretch, to try things that you are not quite sure you are ready for. Give yourself permission to try. You may be surprised at how much you can eventually do.

You have an extraordinary ability to calm people down. You know how to behave and what to say to make those around you feel comfortable, that no one feels out of place or unsafe. However, sometimes it is impossible to remain true to oneself and one’s beliefs or to make progress towards one’s ambitions without causing inconvenience or discomfort someone. You try to avoid it as much as possible, but this week remember that a little awkwardness isn’t the worst thing. True, you must do your best to be kind. That doesn’t mean you have to constantly take care of others.

When your efforts haven’t gone the way you hoped, it’s easy to convince yourself that you haven’t worked hard enough. Instead, this week, think about playing with outdated guidelines, following the wrong instructions, or using a deck that was stacked against you from the start. The world is changing fast and the old rules don’t apply. It’s stressful trying to move forward without a proven plan. It also means you are free to experiment, play and let your wildest ideas run wild. The unknown brings fear, but don’t lose sight of the freedom it offers.

Even the most inconspicuous life has great value; You don’t have to go down in history as a hero or make an unprecedented achievement to live a wonderful, fulfilling, or purposeful life. By and large, taking care of the people around you is enough to live every day as well as possible. Still, your heart might be yearning for something grand this week, something more. Not you to have to be ambitious, but it’s not too late for that either. You can love with devotion, act with amazing courage, and refuse to settle for the expectations of others.

You may find it difficult to accept kindness that is offered willingly or relationships that develop too easily and don’t need constant nurturing. You are looking for the catch, the ulterior motive. And there’s nothing wrong with being on guard. You’ve experienced too much heartbreak to take everyone’s word for it. But try to remind yourself this week: just because certain people don’t deserve your trust doesn’t mean it does nobody does. There is simple open-hearted generosity. If it is offered to you, let yourself feel its warmth.

When people behave cruelly, they find all sorts of excuses to justify themselves. They can persuade themselves that their actions were right, inevitable, perhaps noble—even when that’s clearly not the case. And even though you know better than to believe them, you might still be tempted to argue, tire yourself out trying to prove you deserve respect. Don’t waste your time this week. There are people out there who will love you, who will work with you to make the world a better place, who will never treat you inhumanely.

You can imagine in vivid detail how you want to live, how you feel meant Life. But the world makes it so difficult to focus fully on your goal. Your energy is limited and there are always other tasks that need your attention, other people who need your care. You feel guilty for not making more of your time on Earth, but in reality you are doing the best you can (actually working miracles) with the resources at your disposal. Your life is full of beauty and people who love you. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

read this weekly horoscopes for the week of July 11th. the weekly horoscopes for the week of July 25 goes online next Sunday.

Get the book by Claire Comstock-Gay, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Starsnow outside.