**GEMINI**
*(May 21 to June 20)*
Happy birthday, Gemini! You already have plenty of air, and what I mean by that is you spend a lot of time in your mind. Give yourself some time off by getting in touch with the other three elements. If you don’t live near an ocean, lake, or river, take a lot of baths. If you don’t have access to a fireplace, fire pit, or campground, burn incense and candles. And if you can’t get to a mountain, forest, or garden, buy yourself one new plant, name it, and tell it everything that goes on in that mind.
**CANCER**
*(June 21 to July 22)*
Sometimes we get mad at people because we are genuinely mad at them. Other times we get mad at them because we think we are supposed to — not because they’ve done something that genuinely hurts or offends us, but because we feel we are supposed to be upset. In those cases, we often act in punishing ways that only really serve to punish ourselves. This month, when you perceive you have been wronged or harmed, ask yourself if you really care and how much.
**LEO**
*(July 23 to August 22)*
Sometimes it feels like we are afraid of 10,000 things, when in reality we are only afraid of one or two things that underlie the 10,000 things we think we are afraid of. This month, take a look at what scares you and ask yourself what it has in common with all of your other fears.
**VIRGO**
*(August 23 to September 22)*
As a Virgo, it’s important to get some alone time in the dirt. Getting messy, smelling the soil, and, if possible, growing something are really important for us. Every time I’m in the forest, I feel my best, but getting my ass there is hard. Going to the park sometimes just seems like, *What’s the point?,* and planting things can be tricky, because somehow I manage to kill everything green, but it’s good for us to get in that earthy mess so that the rest of life’s messes don’t affect us so deeply. It’s like an earth-sign-defense shield. So let’s get our asses in the grass as much as possible this month, and see how we feel.
**LIBRA**
*(September 23 to October 22)*
Beauty and truth don’t have to be separate. Sometimes it seems like a person or event is too good or lovely to be real or lasting. And in hardship, we can feel like we aren’t allowed to find any beauty. This month, try looking for beauty in truth and truth in beauty. And when you find it, trust that it’s safe to be there.
**SCORPIO**
*(October 23 to November 21)*
Love doesn’t have to be dramatic, difficult, or full of adrenaline to be love. As a Scorpio moon, I want love to look and feel like the heightened longing I see in poetry, music, and art. But songs end, poems end, and still our lives go on. This month, if love, or potential love in any form, doesn’t feel like a movie, remember that it might still be love.
**SAGITTARIUS**
*(November 22 to December 21)*
Nobody knows how to pray — but everybody knows how to pray. This month, ask the unseen forces that you do or don’t believe in for help. In 2017, when all the information we think we need is at our fingertips, it’s important to Google the universe directly sometimes and cultivate some mystery.
**CAPRICORN**
*(December 22 to January 19)*
Look for purple flowers this month. Why purple? I don’t know. I only know that it’s better than looking for trouble, slights, or things we think we need to have to be happy. Every time you see a purple flower — in nature, in a painting, online — see it as a wink from me to you that there are more delicious things to think about than whatever it was you were thinking about.
**AQUARIUS**
*(January 20 to February 18)*
Trying to convince people of things is really exhausting. Also, most of the time it doesn’t usually work. This month, take a look at why you are so invested in imparting what you feel you need to impart to others. Ask yourself whether it is about them and the world at large, or if it is really about you.
**PISCES**
*(February 19 to March 20)*
One cool thing to do is to ask someone you see frequently but never speak to how their day is going. Another cool thing to do is to just smile at a stranger on the street — even in New York (especially in New York). It can be scary at first and feel like a lot of exposure to put oneself out there like that, but doing little experiments like these remind us that humanity can have a soft underbelly — in spite of what’s going in the world — and that we can help expose it.
**ARIES**
*(March 21 to April 19)*
People say “Stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.” I’m not saying that isn’t true (maybe). But we also do a lot of falling for things in the name of ardent belief. This month, ask yourself why you believe what you believe and how you know it’s worth standing or falling for.
**TAURUS**
*(April 20 to May 20)*
A women’s magazine made its way to my house and I found myself reading it on the toilet. As usual, they informed me that the sexiest quality in a woman is self-confidence. Well, what if you just don’t have effortless self-confidence? Is there a self-confidence store? Personally I find honest and humorous self-deprecation more desirable than confidence (though perhaps it does take confidence to be open about one’s shortcomings). This month, think about the ways you perform desirability and whether they come from your core or from something outside yourself.
*Melissa Broder is the author of four collections of poems, including* Last Sext *(Tin House 2016), as well as* So Sad Today, *a book of essays from Grand Central.*
