Neptune retrograde begins on Tuesday morning, and as the planet of dreams and illusion moves backward (it won’t station direct until early December), it becomes easier for you to understand situations clearly and to see people for who they actually are — for better or for worse. Fantasies can be comforting, but this is a time to work with reality. The communication planet Mercury also moves into warm and confident Leo on Tuesday morning. Over the next three weeks, do your best to assume good intentions of those around you. The more you approach others with a spirit of generosity, the more they’ll do the same for you. Finally, on Friday evening, a new moon in Cancer offers you a chance to move forward. The dramas, confusing relationships, or emotional ruts that have shaped your life recently won’t define it forever. You get to choose what comes next. In the meantime, find the weekly horoscope for each zodiac sign, below.

When the world around you is grand and exciting, full of so many new places to visit and people to meet, your home life can sometimes become an afterthought. Why sit around inside when you could be out doing things? Try to pay a bit more attention to your home this week, whether that means tidying up, rearranging the furniture, or having an overdue talk about chores with the people you live with. Your living space is important to your happiness, and if you take some time to tend to it, you’ll be surprised how much brighter life seems.

You’re likely to forge new connections this week just by getting out into the world and being yourself. Chatting with strangers, attending events where you don’t know anybody, meeting your friends’ friends — there are so many opportunities for new people to enter your life. The key is to temper your expectations, not pinning all of your hopes on any one person. Don’t think too far into the future, don’t worry about whether the people you meet now will end up being important in your life. Stay open and see what develops.

You’re a champ at laughing off your problems, turning every heartbreak and embarrassment into a joke. On the one hand, your sense of humor makes you incredibly resilient; on the other, it also makes it difficult to let yourself be truly vulnerable. As annoying or painful as it is, you have to deeply feel your emotions, not shrug them off or hold them at an ironic distance. Spend time with people who won’t be put off by sincerity this week. You can get back to the jokes later. For now, you need space to be soft.

It’s good to have supportive friends to turn to when you don’t believe in yourself, people who encourage you and lift you up, who are vocal about how wonderful they think you are. There’s nothing wrong with leaning on others when you need a boost — this mutual care is one of the sweetest parts of being human. But this week, you may find that you don’t need so much external validation. Your confidence is coming back. You know that you’re smart and powerful and cool, and you’re going to make the most of it.

You’ve felt like you’re spinning your wheels lately. No matter how hard you work, you’re not making as much progress as you’d like; no matter how many different ways you try to demonstrate your abilities, you’re not being recognized like you want. In times like this, you tend to respond by pushing yourself even harder. But this week, it will be more effective to ease off the gas instead. If you do the bare minimum for now, and focus instead on resting and recharging, you’ll emerge on the other side stronger and happier.

Lately, you’ve felt out of step with the people around you. Maybe you worry that you’re outgrowing your friends — or that they’re outgrowing you. Maybe it seems like none of them understand what you’re going through. It’s easy to feel like you’re better off holding them at arm’s length this week, keeping your thoughts and emotions to yourself. But that’s the worst thing you can do right now. Nobody can show up for you if you don’t give them the chance. Keeping an open heart feels unbearably vulnerable, but it’s the only way to find and maintain the relationships and community you need.

You might be feeling uncharacteristically insecure, even if you’re normally confident and self-assured. Maybe you worry that you’re not as smart as you want to be, or not as successful as you “should” be, or that others don’t see you the way you see yourself. The key is not to take your fears too seriously this week. Sometimes self-doubt is useful, but more often, it holds you back. Don’t shrink from your ambitious goals, and don’t accept less than you deserve from the people in your life. Keep asking for what you need.

You understand other people well because you know how to pay attention to the small stuff — their body language, the things that go unspoken. You’re tuned in not just to what they say, but also the way they choose to express themselves. This makes you powerfully perceptive, but it can also distract from the big picture. Sometimes, it’s better not to devote so much brain space to all the little details, and instead simply pay attention to how the people around you make you feel. You’re allowed to want relationships with people who make you feel good about yourself, and it doesn’t have to be any deeper than that.

You’re easygoing and well-liked, able to make new friends wherever you go. But you might begin to feel that your social energies have been spread too thin. When you’re dividing your time between too many acquaintances, you never get a chance to go deeper, to build genuine intimacy, to let others see beneath the surface of your personality. Keeping things light is easier, to be sure — it demands less work of you, and there’s less risk of getting hurt — but this week, prioritize quality over quantity in your relationships. You won’t regret it.

If you want anything to get done, you’ve learned that you need to do it yourself. As much as you want to be able to rely on other people, you’ve been burned one too many times. At this point, you’d rather just work independently than risk the stress and disappointment of your friends or colleagues dropping the ball. But this week, there’s too much that has to be done; it’s impossible for you to take it all on your own shoulders. Try to figure out how you can share the load. You’ve grown accustomed to standing alone, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be different.

When you feel like you’re lost, drifting through life and wasting your time, a solid daily routine can make all the difference, offering you the support you need. The trouble is that it needs to be a routine that genuinely works for you; the wrong one will only leave you frustrated and feeling trapped. If the habits and structures you have in place now aren’t working for you, this is a perfect opportunity to change them. Figuring out how you want to spend your days, and then putting plans into place that’ll help you actually do that, is one of the best ways you can care for yourself in this moment.

When it comes to your work, your relationships, even your life choices in general, you imagine you must pick: You can feel safe or you can feel excited, but never both. It seems like if you want to do work that’s stimulating and fulfilling, you’ll never have any security; if you want a love that’s supportive and steady, you’ll have to give up on that extra spark. But just because it’s harder to find both doesn’t mean it’s impossible, no matter what anybody else tells you. Assume that it’s possible to find everything you need, and don’t settle for less.

Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of June 23. The weekly horoscopes for the week of July 7 will be online next Sunday.

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