Solange, Cancer. Photo illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Getty Images
Late Monday evening, action planet Mars enters Taurus and invites us all to settle in for the long haul. For the next six weeks, don’t lose heart. Victories will not come quickly, but through persistence and a willingness to keep going, no matter how long it takes. Amazing change is made possible not by miracles or luck, but rather by the slow, transformative magic of persistence. Later Monday evening, communication planet Mercury moves into intuitive Cancer, where it will remain for the next two weeks. As you try to make sense of the world during this time, logic and grand theories may fail, but you can find clarity in the emotions and warm light of your relationships with others.
You have enough of an optimistic streak to hold out hope that people can change—that those who have always ignored your feelings will finally realize how wrong they were, that those who hurt you will make amends. While belief in people’s capacity for growth is beautiful and generous, it can also leave you broken. This week, give yourself permission to stop waiting for the people who were never on your side. This is not an act of desperation. In fact, it is a belief that in doing so you are making room for people who will welcome you with solidarity and open arms.
There’s a part of you that apologizes for the smallest pleasures these days. It’s not that you believe self-denial is virtuous or that you don’t deserve it, it’s just that it seems unfair to experience happiness when so much around us is falling apart. Consciously or not, you may be trying to balance the scales and ease your guilt by avoiding comfort, stubbornly resisting invitations to have fun. What the world needs now, however, is not less enjoyment, but more. It’s good to have fun when you can, to fill your cup, to create more beauty and goodness in a universe that badly needs it.
When you’re honest with yourself about how much change is needed, how much better life can be—whether in your life, your community, or the wider world—you may feel like you don’t have much to contribute. Your dreams are big, but your resources are limited. You are only one person and your life is full of ordinary needs like sleeping, eating and going to work. The key this week is not to feel ashamed for not doing “more”. Every day you have the power to do something good, however small. And all those little actions will add up if you let them.
Despite the disappointments you’ve faced in recent years, despite the many injustices you’ve witnessed, a small part of you harbored hope that if the going got really dark enough, those in power would finally step in and help . But now even that illusion has been shattered. This week there is grief and anger in the reminder that there are strong people who could fight for you but won’t. In place of that old hope, you’ll find a new resolve—and an understanding that when no one else will step up, you can still fight for your community, and they’ll fight for you, too.
Even the deepest grief is easier to bear when you know you are not alone in it. The most heart-wrenching anxiety about the future eases when you know you’ll have friends by your side to face it. You won’t be able to fix the whole world, but you can make things better this week by building community. Build new connections, mend relationships that have failed. Commit to making someone else’s life a little sweeter today. Love is not all that matters, but we cannot do without it.
You know that—at least in theory—things could be different: there’s no inherent reason why society can’t be freer, more generous, less violent, no cosmic master plan that says we can’t choose another way of life. In practice, however, it is easy to convince yourself that these alternatives exist only in the realm of the imagination, not in reality. This week, you’ll discover that you don’t have to hold on to dreams—you can also act as if a better world is possible. And every time you choose to break unjust or limiting norms, you lay the groundwork for the new existence you’ve longed for.
This week you may worry that you have suddenly become invisible. No one pays attention to your sharp observations and helpful ideas, or notices the vital contribution you continually make to your community. You can raise your voice, ask to be seen, but you have other options. Consider the benefits of doing your work for its own sake, at least for a while. It’s an opportunity to take big steps forward without the pressure of others’ expectations or the dangers of overexposure. Trust that eventually you will be recognized in the way you desire.
You’re a strategic thinker by nature—you can read a room, plan several steps ahead, and maneuver your way through the toughest problems. But there are circumstances in life that instead require simple, dogged determination. You may find this type of action less rewarding, but that doesn’t make it any less important. This week, the important thing is to just hang on. Go ahead and stay committed to your humanity, your people, your principles. You don’t have to be smart or analyze your way through this. For now, just keep showing up.
You have the capacity for incredible bravery. You may take beautiful, astonishing risks on behalf of others to do what is right in the face of opposition or even danger. However, to reach your full potential here, you need to practice. Courage is like a muscle: it atrophies if you never use it. So this week your task is to take care of your nerves and keep them in shape. Every little chance you take, every time you put yourself out there, you ensure that you remain strong, principled and ready to take action when the world calls you to do more.
Right now it’s tempting to bury yourself in work. Whether it’s paid or voluntary, the goal is the same: to fill your days so you don’t have time to suffocate in panic, uncertainty, or painful emotions. And there’s something to be said for channeling your feelings into useful, concrete action. This week it’s important not to overcommit. Taking on too many responsibilities sets you up for burnout, which won’t help you or anyone else. Action is necessary, but make sure it’s at a sustainable pace.
When you consider the ongoing disaster we are living through, you see no room, no justification for being anything less than heroic. You yearn for a sense of purpose, for grand gestures and actions; it’s almost unbearable to keep getting bogged down in the daily banalities of life. But this week, what the world needs from you is not to pursue something “better” than the life of an ordinary person. Rather, everyday life is your big mission right now. There is value in understanding how to live with others with courage and love in the face of greed and cruelty.
You’ve been stressed and unsure of your place in the world lately, and that’s only been made worse by the many people—probably in your life, as well as on social media and the news—who are working to convince you that you’re helpless. They say that all you can do is wait and beg to be rescued, that the wisest course of action you can take is to politely ask for better treatment. But they’re wrong, of course, and it’s your job this week to remember that. You don’t need permission to care for your community and make other people’s lives better. You already have all the power you need.
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