Aries: My new friend drew a sun for me recently. It’s a beautiful idea. I can look at this sun on a gloomy day and feel the sun shining anyway. Two of my closest gal pals are Aries, and they both love the sun. They thrive, they grow, they chase it, even. The sun kind of scares the crap out of me, but to each his own. If you are feeling like the gloom of the winter has you chasing the sun, go ahead and chase it. Find the sun shining on the days you feel the gloom. Draw a picture of it, look up a picture of it. Don’t let the gloom in your life get to you. The sun will always shine again.  The flowers will bloom, the waters will glisten, the shadows will move. And you will be right there to witness it all.

Taurus: I was house- and dog-sitting in Kensington a few weeks ago. I don’t mean the “hip” Kensington; I mean the real deal drug corner Kenzo. There are boarded-up houses and strung-out folk, prostitutes and dealers. It’s a strange place to be, coming from the places I do. I didn’t want to judge the environment I was in. Instead, I tried to accept it. I thought about these people’s lives, and I realized how similar I felt to the families in the neighborhood. I have been unemployed for a year, and I am currently on welfare. My bank account is dwindling, and my savings are gone. I hustle and struggle every waking moment. When I walked through the neighborhood with the dog, people were so friendly to me. Nearly every person said hello, and some even wanted to stop and chat. They told me about their dogs, their days, and they accepted me as a person. I felt terrible for even trying to judge these people, just because their environment is different than my usual. My usual, being a place where striking up a conversation with passersby or even just saying hello is normally followed by rejection or avoidance. Taurus, if you’re feeling like you’re being judgemental lately, I urge you to stop. Feel how you are connected to what it is you’re judging, and be one with us all in this world.

Gemimi: I wish sometimes that I could add photos to these horoscopes. I would like to take a picture of all of the trash that is blowing around in my neighborhood right now, and ask you your thoughts. Would you ignore it? Hate it? Try to pick it all up? Now that I’ve got you imagining trash blowing around and wondering how you’d handle it, I would like you to picture the trash in your life blowing around, and I want you to think what you’d do with it. Maybe you’ve been storing this trash in a trash can with a lid, but the wind is about to blow, my friend. This will have your trash blowing everywhere, and it is your choice what you will do with it. Pick it up and tuck it neatly back into your neat little can and hope someone comes and takes it away, or let it blow around. Remember, if you have a care at all in the world, if you see it blowing around, you’re most likely going to hate it.

Cancer: Over Labor Day weekend last year, my near and dear friend Sean Whisner came to visit me in Philadelphia. I was struggling and hurting and I felt like a bore to be around, because all I had was complaints. Wiz, as we call him, took me out for a few drinks, and he looked me in the eyes, and he said, “Curley, you need to keep a PMA”. The positive mental attitude he suggested I keep came so naturally to me after that. I have since kept my chin up, regarding my hardships. Cancer, get that PMA, dude. However you need to. Take a walk down Frankford Ave., stop in some places you have not yet visited, and talk to some strangers. Call a friend in need, and don’t tell them your troubles. Give them positive advice, and then take it yourself. A negative plus a negative equals a negative, a positive and a negative is lesser than the positive, but two positives always equals a positive.

Leo: A few years ago, when I was living in Tucson, AZ, I read an article online about a robbery at Capital Beer, that awesome Chinese/sushi/beer spot on Cumberland. The story talked about a man trying to rob the place with a knife, and the sushi chef coming out with a much larger knife and threatening the robber. I thought this was so badass. I wonder what I would do in a situation like that, even if I had the bigger knife? Take this as a metaphor in the coming weeks, Leo. Remember that the option of having the bigger knife in life can always be there. It’s whether or not you have the balls to use it that counts.

Virgo: On August 20, 1977, NASA launched the space probe Voyager 2. The Voyager 2 carries with it the Golden Record, on which includes a love story between Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. Druyan, who was the creative director of the mission, chose to add a song, “Flowing Stream,” a traditional Chinese folk song.  She spoke about this decision on a Radiolab episode that I recently heard. She also spoke of her memories of falling in love with Carl Sagan during their collaboration on this project. Afterwards, I listened to the song, and it touched me in such a way that I began falling in love with everything. I am listening to the song as I write this horoscope for you, and I want you to listen to it. I want you to feel the feeling of pure love. Of loving everything for just what it is. Accept the world around you only through the light and love it offers, Virgo. This outlook will help you release the stress you’ve been feeling and float along like a duck in a lake on a perfect spring morning.

Libra: Do you ever have terrifying dreams of waves crashing or a plane crashing or maybe of someone trying to hurt you? These anxiety-ridden dreams can really muck up a day in your waking life. This dream did not come to you; rather, you created it in your own subconscious. So, in your own consciousness, you are then left to control it again and create your own reality. It’s like an old, “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. Turn the page to where you think you want to end up. The Libra spends so much time taking care of others that they often forget they’ve got to take care of themselves as well. Turn the page to surfing that wave, instead of letting it drown you. That plane wasn’t crashing; it was just doing tricks. No one is going to hurt you unless you let them. Spring has been prematurely in the air lately, and you ought to be feeling that. Make way for the rebirth of you. The new you has the chance to learn to take care of yourself without getting hurt.

Scorpio: I have been feeling really positive lately, although times are hard. I spend my days trying to fill the time with excessive productivity. Literally doing mostly anything at all that I want to, but being sure that it is not wasteful. I have been working so hard every day, mentally and physically, and yet, this is not considered a job, and there’s no employer walking around paying people like me to work. Instead, there are rich people getting richer, and people like me barely making it through a week without shedding a tear in my hardship. Yet through that single tear I may shed, I see the reflection of what’s in front of me. Glistening there upon the tear, I see my family and my friends, and I see a lot of love out there for me. Scorpio, if you are in a position of hardship, don’t look out for what you don’t have; focus on what you do have. The latter can keep you afloat, so you don’t end up sinking in your tears.

Sagittarius: There is a line that stands out to me from one of my favorite Rilke poems, “I Am, You Anxious One.” The line I like so much is: “I am the dream you are dreaming”. I have found this sentence, these words coupled together, forms a sentiment that I embody. I do feel as though I have been the dream “you” have been dreaming. I have felt like I have put myself out on a limb over and over again. I have accepted and I have forgiven to a fault. I have been used and abused, and still I stand. I am here for those to depend on, to trust, to feel loved and special, because this is how I like to see people enjoying their lives. Lately, someone I know has not been remembering her dreams. If this is you, Sagi, take a nap after a nice cup of mugwort tea. Find the lucidity in your dreams, and control them. Remember what it is you love, and wake up loving it. Care for it, reach out to it. If you keep something you love at a distance for too long, it’s likely to disappear. Make the right choice, and do it with love.

Capricorn: Sometimes life keeps going on, and we find ourselves with some empty spaces. We lose a friend, we move to a new city, and there seems to be a void in the space between. We feel this as an emotional attachment to something that we feel to be no longer a part of us. This space can seem bigger than it needs to be. We call this space a void, otherwise known as a completely empty space. Yet this is not so, because life kept on moving, with us living in tow. What really took up that space? Well, it was you. Once on a day of feeling all the love from my love, he wrote to me, “Today, I think God is in the space between people”. I see this as true between us all, and also between ourselves. This void exists somehow. My old and dear friend Scott says to “be the void”. I have always loved this advice. Take this all in in the coming days, Capricorn. Revisit your empty spaces and be one with them, be them, find whatever God is to you in them. “Become complete, become destroyed, become nothing, be the void.”

Aquarius: In the early 2000s, Martin Short premiered his ever-loving character, Jiminy Glick. Glick hosted a TV Series entitled, “Primetime Glick,” in which he interviewed such celebrities as Jerry Seinfeld, Eugene Levy, Chevy Chase and many more. Although I loved the character Jiminy Glick no end, a part of me did always wonder: why the character? Why not just Short himself interviewing these celebrities? Glick just had a lovability about him unattached to Clifford the Big Red Dog, that’s for sure. Aquarius, hone in on the character you’d like to be and find out what makes you feel like the character might be better off in some cases. There’s no harm in living out fiction. This is no lie. This is a fantasy, or an inspiration. Don’t be afraid to be the poor little black child that Bob Dylan grew up as.

Pisces: I wish I could come up with one of these grand ideas that I come up with, and actually get paid for it, or even have the money to carry through with it. John Malkovich is now a fashion designer. A great actor, who is paid way more than anyone I know, got to just start his own fashion line. He’s beloved enough to have this excite people, and strange enough to make people want what he’s got for them. When, really, has anyone ever commented on his personal gear? Has anyone ever said, “Yo, did you see what John Malkovich was wearing last night? He looked amazing!” No, I am almost certain these words have yet to be uttered. And yet, here we are in the new world with Malkovich as a fashion designer. Call me jealous, but I make an effort to have others express their love for my fashion. I have created clothing, and sold it in boutiques. Fashion is my life. However, without the money to get me anywhere to show you what I am made of, I sit in my robe writing this charged horoscope with this advice to you: Pisces, whatever it is you’re capable of, do it anyway. Do as much as you can with what you’ve got. Maybe one day it will pay off as you wish, but you can’t succeed unless you try!