Preparation, Inspiration, and Hard Truths
Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.
Scones
It’s early one Saturday morning, and you’re watching a cooking show. A talented pastry chef is preparing blueberry scones, and they look so delicious you’d like to leap through the television screen and gobble them up. “That looks easy,” you think. “I can make those!” You find the recipe online and print it out, then race into the kitchen.
As you begin to assemble the ingredients, you realize that it’s been a pretty long time since you baked anything. You don’t have quite enough flour. The only baking soda you have is the open box in the back of the fridge, meant to keep odors at bay. You don’t have heavy cream; will 2% milk work? It calls for unsalted butter; yours has salt. The only blueberries you have are frozen, and this recipe demands fresh ones; what’s the worst that could happen if you use what you have?
You pause for a moment to decide whether you’re committed enough to make a run to the store for better ingredients, whether you’ll give it a try with what you’ve got on hand, or whether you’ll abandon the entire project because it suddenly feels too much like hard work.
The First Quarter Moon always wants to jumps in and try its hand at something. And this First Quarter Moon in Taurus (Feb. 8, 2022, 5:50 am PST) is conjunct unpredictable Uranus, so it begins with a sudden impulse: I want that, and I can make it happen! But it’s also square Saturn, which presents obstacles to be overcome. I don’t have the right materials. I’ll have to go to the store; what a bummer! Now, Uranus is going to argue that you can substitute some of the ingredients with other things, and you probably can. In fact, you might come up with a scone you like even better. But if it were me (and it definitely has been, from time to time), I’d at least put Saturn on the case first, to google around and see what others have done. It might slow you down a little – but it’s still easier than going to the store, and the end result will still be uniquely your own.
Preparation and inspiration
In my examination of the Taurus First Quarter Moon earlier on this day, I gave you a scenario. Would you and Uranus attempt to bake homemade scones without all the proper ingredients, or send Saturn to the store to get the right stuff? As Mars in Capricorn makes a fruitful trine to Uranus an hour later (Feb. 8, 2022, 6:57 am PST), we can rest assured that one way or another, you’re going to end up with some tasty scones. Here’s why.
Mars in Capricorn is generally well-prepared and organized, so it’s likely to have run off to the supermarket to get exactly what was called for in the recipe. But let’s say no stores nearby were open. Capricorn is also the king of resourcefulness, so this Mars will nail down every substitution on the internet, consult old high school chemistry textbooks, and in a pinch, run next door to borrow baking soda from a neighbor.
In the end, the basics will be covered. And once Mars is assured that there will be a credible baked good at the end of it all, he can relax a little and let Uranus have his fun. Scones that have turned purple from melting frozen blueberries? Lavender-infused sugar icing? Soy powder instead of an egg? Well… why not?
There are at least a couple of ways to invite inspiration into what you do. One is to back yourself into a corner and let the panic motivate you. Another is the way a world-class chef might do it: Prepare thoroughly, so that you know what rules you can break. Then, you can relax and innovate.
Hard Truths
Since just before the new year began, have you said some things you wish you could take back? Or were they things that had needed to be said for a very long time?
Mercury is making the last of three conjunctions to Pluto this week (Feb. 11, 2022, 6:04 am; the others were on Dec. 30 and Jan. 28), and while Venus’ conjunctions to Pluto during roughly the same time period have had profound consequences for our closest relationships, most of them have fallen or stayed upright on the basis of what was said – and that’s Mercury’s department.
Mercury is ordinarily the king of knowing how to say things in a clever way, to avoid being nailed down to a particular opinion or point of view. But when Mercury connects with Pluto, there’s no room for small talk, pretense, or equivocation. We say exactly what we mean and let the chips fall where they may.
We can tell ourselves that it’s better to know where we stand, and that telling the truth is always the best policy. And there are moments when we feel exhilarated as hard truth after hard truth hits the pavement and shatters. But if we’re honest – and after all, that’s what this is all about – the truth also hurts. And sometimes, it hurts as much to tell it as it does to hear it.
Follow it
On the heels of the Mercury/Pluto conjunction on the morning of the 11th, when we reflected on what brutal honesty may have cost us in recent weeks, Mercury’s trine to the North Node (Feb. 11, 2022, 10:38 pm PST) offers bright promise. Be on the lookout for a message, invitation, or piece of information that tells you you’re on the right track. The North Node is the symbol of the brass ring that, if we reach for it, almost invariably leads us in a gratifying direction.
This is a small, minor aspect in a light astrological news week – but pay attention. The message might appear in an email, a text, a social media post, something you hear on a podcast or watch on TV. And because you’ve come through Pluto’s fires, your focus is clear and your eyes and ears are open in a whole new way. Something you couldn’t recognize or imagine just a month ago is suddenly sticking out with blinding clarity. “Here’s the next thing,” it says. “Here’s the direction that leads to happiness.”
And so, follow it.
Writing and collages © 2020 – 2024 April Elliott Kent
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