Shabana Azmi, a Virgo.
Photo-Illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos: Getty
Careful, analytical Virgo season wraps up this week, and in the small hours of Saturday morning the sun enters kind and fair-minded Libra. During Libra season, focus on returning balance to the areas of your life that have gotten out of whack. (It’s not for nothing that Libra is symbolized by scales.) This could mean reorganizing your workload so that you’re not too drained to enjoy a social life, figuring out a better way to divvy up household chores, or simply making time to relax and breathe. The point is that, for all its pain and unpredictability, life is beautiful, and you deserve energy and mental space enough to appreciate it. It’s up to you to make that happen.
You treasure your independence, and avoid doing anything that might compromise it. And as much as you cherish your loved ones, you never want to find yourself in a position where they’re making choices for you. You understand that everyone has their own wisdom and expertise to share, but you don’t let that override your instincts. This week, though, if you want to be happy, you’ll have to lean on others. Learn from them. Let yourself be changed — not mindlessly, but with eyes open. Don’t try to go it all alone.
You’ve been working hard the last few weeks, and you sense yourself drawing closer to the outcome you’ve dreamed of. In your head, you’re already writing your acceptance speech, spending that money, imagining your new life. Just don’t get ahead of yourself. This week, the key is to keep doing what you’ve been doing: taking the journey one step at a time. Focus on the process, not the results. There’s beauty in each small moment along the way. Try to slow down enough to enjoy it.
You’re a sponge for knowledge; wherever you go, you’re always learning, hungry for new information. You stumble across a strange factoid and disappear down a Wikipedia rabbit hole for hours. You catch the last bars of a catchy song on the radio and before long you’re an expert on that artist’s entire discography. Sometimes, you worry that nobody cares about your interests but you, or that you’d be better served putting your energies into more practical pursuits; this week, focus on what lights you up. You’ll be much happier than if you bend over backward trying to fit in.
You’ve been pushing yourself, lately — working on projects that test your skills, challenging yourself to meet new people, stepping outside your comfort zone whenever you can. This week, though, you may find that you’re ready to take your foot off the gas. Rather than chase adventure, you want to spend time with the friends you know best, where you’re most comfortable. So lean into ease and familiarity, if that’s what feels good It’s valuable to stretch yourself, but it’s just as important to come home to rest and regroup, too.
The people closest to you never have cause to doubt your affection: When you care about someone, your love and devotion are unmatched. This week, though, is a good opportunity for putting time and attention toward those who populate your days: the neighbors and acquaintances and co-workers whose company you enjoy, but who aren’t in your inner circle. Relationships don’t have to be deep and intense to add value or meaning to your life, and right now, you might find that lighter conversations and low stakes interactions are what you need.
You struggle to know how to parcel out your energy, these days. There aren’t enough hours in the day to give your job, relationships, and your community their due. How are you supposed to stand firm in your values when you’re struggling to make ends meet? How can you hope to achieve lasting happiness when it’s a challenge to achieve basic stability? Life is complicated, but this week, you can start to find a balance between all its competing demands on you. You aren’t powerless, and you can take control of how you spend your time.
You’re great at finding common ground. You can make conversation with practically anyone, find something to like about most everyone you meet. You understand that, by and large, we’re all just people. But that doesn’t mean that we’re all exactly the same, either. This week, lean into what makes you unique. Nurture your individuality. You have your own ideas, desires, talents. You weren’t put on this earth to disappear into the crowd, but to learn how to be wholly, undeniably you.
On an intellectual level, you know better. But in your heart, part of you believes you have to be (or at least, appear to be) perfect at all times. You worry that your friends won’t love you if they see your faults, that no one will support you in the future if they know you’ve made mistakes in the past, that you’ll jeopardize everything you’ve worked for if you own to any weakness. That’s too much pressure for anyone to bear, so this week, your assignment is to cut yourself some slack. The people in your life love you not because they think you’re flawless, but because you’re you.
It’s necessary to remind yourself, every so often, that you don’t have to want what everyone else seems to want: to buy a house, find a partner, climb the ranks in a high-paying career. Maybe, of course, you do want some (or all!) of these things — there’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t take it for granted. There are so many different shapes your life could take, so paths to happiness. This week, spend time with people who have made brave and unconventional choices. They might inspire you to do the same.
More than most people, you’re confident in your ability to get things done. You understand that innate talent is less important than drive, that commitment and discipline will almost always carry you farther than luck, so you work diligently toward your goals. Sometimes, though, you get so busy that you forget to ask yourself whether the future you’re pursuing is actually the one you want. This week, step back and reflect on where you are and where you’re headed. Maybe you’re right where you need to be, but if you’re not, it’s never too late to change course.
You’ve been worn down, recently, by your never-ending to-do list: Your job is demanding, your home requires constant tending and tidying, and the people around you ask for more attention than you have to give. This week, make a point of carving out time for yourself. Not to rest and do nothing, necessarily, but to engage with the world in ways that actually feel good. Pick up that book that’s been sitting on your nightstand for weeks. Visit a new neighborhood or city, even if you can’t find a friend to bring along for company. Remind yourself that daily life doesn’t have to be a chore. It can be a joy.
While you can adapt to just about anything the universe throws at you, it’s harder for you to proactively initiate change. Maybe you’re quick to second guess yourself and your desires, easily persuaded that your dreams aren’t worth the effort. It might be that you aren’t certain how to go about transforming your life. This week, though, you can overcome whatever fear has been holding you back. You can call on hidden reserves of strength and determination. You can decide once and for all that a lackluster existence isn’t going to satisfy you and get to doing something about it.
Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of September 11. The weekly horoscopes for the week of September 25 will be online next Sunday.
Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.
