Out of the bottle
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Starter
I’m taking another crack at baking my own sourdough bread from scratch. For a couple of weeks, I’ve nurtured my sourdough starter to a beautifully tangy, apple-ish aroma. Happy bubbles are forming in the jar, but not quite in the strength or numbers needed to really lift a loaf of bread. So far, all I have to show for my efforts are a couple of reasonably tasty but sort of flattish loafs.
Let’s just say that this week should have a lot more pizzazz than my sourdough starter. March 20 is the day to watch, beginning with a trine from Mars to Pluto (4:37 am). A pure and valiant heart is the best protection from Pluto’s fierce gaze. So, defend what you love and what is yours. Summon your courage and be guided by sincerity, and Pluto may let you saunter by with little more than a withering side-eye from him.
But, you know, he’s still Pluto. Get him on a bad day (and since he’s being dogged lately by Saturn, most days are not that great) and he’s likely to lash out unpredictably.
Later the same day, Autumn enters the Southern Hemisphere with deep sadness on the heels of March 15’s truly shocking mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. Here in U.S., this equinox marks the beginning of Spring (2:59 pm), and where I live flowers are erupting with almost obscene vigor. But beautiful days don’t fool us; we’ve seen a lot of shocking, violent death here in our own country in recent years—we know that the unspeakable lies just beneath the surface. We know what it is to feel shocked and heartsick and frightened at the perilous condition of the world. We feel that now for our friends in that gentle country. And we feel it a bit for ourselves, too, because when kind places erupt in horror, we lose one more corner of the world we imagined was safe.
The Full Moon at 0.09 Libra that evening (6:43 pm) falls on the Sabian Symbol, A butterfly made perfect by a dart through it. I’ve read some interpretations of this symbol and none of them made very much sense to me today; all I can see in it is something beautiful and dead, pinned to someone’s collection board. But from across the zodiac, the Sun in Aries shows its tender side on the symbol, A woman rises out the water, a seal embraces her. Something beautiful has died, but something new is rising. There’s always hope for an early Easter.
Out of the bottle
Put a Tasmanian devil in the middle of a verdant but not very exciting pasture, and you have a reasonable idea of how uncomfortable Uranus feels in Taurus. It reflects a big shift from the wild, unbridled nonconformity of Uranus in Aries, as though a very unpredictable genie has been let out of the bottle and must be shoved back in with all due haste.
There’s an expression that comes to mind about a cow already having left the barn; that is, that it’s too late to contain what’s already escaped to run havoc.
This week, look particularly to relationships, particularly on March 21, when Venus in Aquarius squares Mars in Taurus (1:07 am) and sextiles adventuresome Jupiter (7:16 am). Where is the desire for freedom coming into conflict with forces of conformity and habit? “I want to go somewhere new, by myself!” a woman tells her partner. Puzzled by the concept, he might say,“But that’s not something we do,” as though existing precedent were explanation enough. Or, just maybe… “Oh, good for you! That’s a great idea. I’ll hold down the fort while you’re away.” Because that’s also how Taurus can work.
All that’s needed, really, is to admit if you’re in a rut and that you’re ready for an experience that’s weird, thrilling, and completely novel. And it’s okay if you also feel a little freaked out about it; anything new is a little scary. But the cow, as they say, is already out the barn, so you might well follow it.
Jeopardy!
Has your head been fuzzy over the past couple of weeks? We’re not out of the woods yet. If anything, the rational mind is in even more rebellion this week, particularly as Mercury approaches its conjunction with Neptune (on March 24 at 10:26 am). Speaking as one who is not normally inclined to bitch about Mercury’s retrograde periods, this one has been particularly stressful. For me, it’s been an exercise in humility and compassion. I can’t remember anyone’s names, can’t concentrate, and I’m making so many mistakes that I’m past being embarrassed about it. Even my Jeopardy! game is suffering.
All I want to do is sleep, and dream. My mind is complaining that it hasn’t had enough time to just goof off, and it’s trying like hell to run away from home. I’m trying to follow the advice I might give to a client who’s going through a tough Neptune transit: get enough sleep, meditate a little, give my mind a rest. But duty calls, and the best I can do is learn to plan better moving forward from here. After all, we have to leave space in our lives for imagination to ferment, to create the heat and energy that will give our sourdough starter some oomph!
© 2019 April Elliott Kent
