Cancer weekly horoscope

This week the Sun is in Scorpio, in the same element as yours. You read the room before you read the agenda, and you remember what people said long after they have forgotten saying it.

At the middle of the week the Moon is in Virgo, which runs tidy and faintly critical, soothed by sorting one real thing out. The Moon is a thin waning crescent, the end of the cycle. Rest is the productive choice here, which is a sentence you are allowed to believe. It is 14 per cent lit and shrinking. The Moon crosses into Libra on 5 November, and the mood turns over with it.

Cancer is ruled by the Moon, which governs your mood and what you need in order to feel settled. It is currently in Virgo, which turns that part of life into a list of small fixes and quietly raises the standard.

Mercury is retrograde, which means Earth has overtaken it and from here it appears to track backwards against the stars. The old advice holds up better than the superstition around it: reread before you send, confirm the time and the address, and expect conversations you thought were finished to come back round. Venus is retrograde, which happens far less often than Mercury doing it. It is a reviewing stretch for what you value and who you want near you. Old names tend to resurface. Hold off on the big purchase and the big promise, and just notice what you actually want. Saturn is retrograde, so the deadline pressure eases off a little. The work does not go away, it comes back for a second look when Saturn turns direct, which is the argument for doing it properly now.

Protect your evenings this week. You give out all day and you need somewhere to refill, and it is not your phone.