Refuse to be Cocooned! Moving Out of the Piscean Era Tendency of Giving Till it Hurts

The river looking like an abstract painting 

Photos: Willow 

Does anyone remember the 1985 movie Cocoon where the old people find alien pods in a swimming pool? The pods emit an energy that makes the old people feel like a million bucks. At first, only a few oldsters know about the pods and use the pool on the downlow. They visit once in a while, swim around, feel good, and then go back to their regular lives with renewed energy and vigour, end of story. 

But before long, the other oldsters in the seniors community want to know why those guys are feeling so good. Soon, everyone finds out about the swimming pool full of alien pods, and all hell breaks loose. Hordes of seniors jump in the pool, practically dry humping the pods. They're all having a heck of a time, swimming around, laughing, doing cannon balls, trying to break the pods open to see what's inside. But unknowingly, their antics drain the pods of all their energy, spoiling the fun for both the aliens and themselves. 

(Energy healing + aliens = a strong Pisces-to-Aquarius themed film)

This is why I'm using the phrase "being cocooned" to describe some Old Pisces dynamics. 

"Being cocooned" happens when someone in your vicinity is attracted to your spiritual energy and then tries to get closer and closer to the source of it through you. They might sense in you a calmness, a peaceful groundedness, an inner knowing or strength, and they desire to be in that place, too. To try to get to the source of this and to understand it for themselves, people will create situations where you are in a tight dynamic of energetic interaction with them. 

For example, they might ask you one question after another to keep you talking, putting you under the microscope and examining you in an intense way.

They might lock you into a one-sided conversation where they do almost all the talking, requiring you to listen and process the word-energy they're downloading into you. 

They might delve into their personal problems in inappropriate ways, pushing the emotional energy or trauma of their situations onto you in an attempt for you to process it - or maybe just to relieve themselves of the burden for a few moments. This is the classic over-share, and it can happen even with people you've just met. 

People might find flimsy excuses to come into repeated contact with you.  

Or they might try to set the dynamics up in an attempt to make you feel as if they have something you need. (The opposite of what's really going on.)

People might be curious about the spiritual energy or healing energy they feel coming from you, especially in times of uncertainty or crisis. They might want to know what you know and how you've gotten to that place. They want that spiritual peace and that calm sense of knowing, and these dynamics allow them to take it in as if by osmosis. 

To a small extent, depending on personal tolerance levels, this can be OK. The problem comes when people start dry humping your pod!

Hexagon Astrology Magazine: A Blazing, Shooting Star of an Astrological Publication (2015 - 2016)

 

Hexagon Astrology Magazine: Smart. Sharp. Subversive. 

Hexagon Astrology Magazine was a blazing, shooting star of a publication that ran for three white-hot issues (Summer 2015, Spring 2016, and Summer 2016). Hexagon burned brilliantly and brightly for a short time and left a lasting impression. I can't even express the Herculean effort that went into this publication by its creator, Editor, and contributing writer Matt Savinar. It was a near-otherwordly feat, and I don't use that phrase lightly. Epic effort by Matt and secondarily, by others who contributed to the making of this magazine. 

Hexagon Astrology Magazine was available by subscription or at Barnes and Noble bookstores across the United States. My copies of Hexagon are among my most cherished possessions!

A lot of the articles I contributed to Hexagon are available (in pre-edited form) on the blog, linked below for your perusal: 

 Hexagon Issue #1 - Summer 2015

Hexagon #1, Summer 2015 - Ladies of the Zodiac...It's Showtime! by Willow

Hexagon #1, Summer 2015 - Sagittarius Season Storytime and Tales from the Fascist Police State by Willow (Updated to "Tales from the Police State" in the magazine.)  

Hexagon #1, Summer 2015 - Saturn in Libra and Beauty at Every Age - AKA Society (Libra) Makes Me Tired (Saturn) by Willow (Updated to "Saturn in Scorpio and Beauty at Any Age" to reflect the Saturn in Scorpio transit at the time of the magazine's publication.) 

 

Hexagon Issue #2 - Spring 2016

Hexagon #2, Spring 2016 - Saturn in Sagittarius: Freeing Suppressed Truths With Our Blazing Arrows of Righteousness by Willow (This was a patron article, available in full only to patrons or in this issue of Hex Mag!)

 

 Hexagon Issue #3 - Summer 2016

Hexagon #3, Summer 2016 - Pluto in Capricorn and the Plutonic Sociological Imagination by Willow 

Hexagon #3, Summer 2016 - The Astrology of the Punk Movement by Willow

 

Hexagon was first published with transiting Mars in Leo and Venus retrograde in Leo. Lots of style, lots of fun and funky expression, and lots of creative mojo. Creative mojo with an edge!

Mars in Leo Forms a Challenging Fixed T-square with Saturn and Uranus: Timeless Love and Beauty Carry Us Through

  

"Mars in Leo Forms a Challenging Fixed T-square with Saturn and Uranus: Timeless Love and Beauty Carry Us Through" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.  

Dehydrating Garden Produce to Preserve It

I harvested these berries on June 9, 2021 and dehydrated them in the oven. This was the first time I've dehydrated strawberries, and they turned out nicely.  

The finished product - minus a few that I couldn't help but pop in my mouth, of course! Delicious.

If you're looking for an easy plant to grow, look no further than strawberries. They're a hardy perennial plant, which means that if they like where they're living, they will come back year after year without replanting. The plants also spread out considerably, sending out runners that make new plants at the end of each growing season.

I started out with three or four strawberry plants, and in three years, they have spread out into a very nice bed.

If you don't have actual gardening space, strawberries also do well in containers, so they can be grown on a patio or balcony.  

The strawberry patch:

 

 

I dehydrated one full cookie sheet and one small, square baking pan of halved strawberries in the oven. I don't have a dehydrator, but you can obviously also do them in an actual dehydrator.

I washed the berries, hulled them (took off the green tops), and cut them in half.

I lined the cookie sheet and baking pan with parchment paper and dehydrated the halved berries in the oven at 200 degrees. The berries should be placed on the parchment paper cut side up, and there should be a little space around each of the berry pieces. None of the berry pieces should be touching each other. It took about five hours for them all to dehydrate. I flipped the berries over once halfway through. 

I cut my berries in half, but they would dehydrate faster if you cut them into quarters or slices.

The smaller pieces dried faster, and I took them out of the oven at various intervals, leaving the bigger pieces to continue drying.

If you do start this process, make sure you do it on a day when you are going to be home for the duration. You will have to check on the berries at various times. 

Conversations About Town During the Dark of the Moon in Gemini

I was running errands this afternoon and noted that we were in the Dark of the Moon in Gemini. The Sun and Moon will come together in a New Moon annular ("ring of fire") solar eclipse at 19 degrees Gemini on June 10 (3:52 a.m. Pacific). This eclipse forms a conjunction to Mercury Rx in Gemini and a square to Neptune in Pisces.

 

Dark of the Moon periods can be very potent as far as fated events. In the sign of Gemini, this could involve a fated crossing of paths, fated connections, and fated conversations or interactions, particularly involving "dark" subject matter or suppressed or hidden perspectives. In Gemini, these events could be relatively quick and light, occurring as we go about our daily business. The backdrop of the local neighbourhood or local businesses would be fitting. And since we're in the midst of eclipse season, this Dark of the Moon period in Gemini could produce more potent or meaningful contacts than usual. 

 

This is an illustration of the themes as I experienced them under the Balsamic Moon in Gemini: 

 

I was the only person in Safeway grocery store without a mask today. A woman (masked) who was in the checkout line ahead of me with her elderly mother (also masked) said, "Good for you!" and tugged at her mask to indicate what she was referring to as she walked out. I laughed and thanked her. (Then I mumbled that it was a medical exemption lest the  masked cashier disapprove of our exchange.) 

As I was sitting at the bus stop (more Gemini) with my groceries, an elderly woman walked up to the bus bench with her own bags. I asked if she minded me sitting beside her (unmasked). She didn't. She asked if I minded if she kept her mask off. I didn't. She said she had been vaccinated and asked if I was going to get it. I said no.

She asked me how it was to go into stores without a mask, whether I had to show documentation of my medical exemption. I told her people don't have to show documentation to prove a medical exemption but that I had some just in case. I said some stores accept the exemptions and others do not (this is actually discrimination). Her son doesn't wear a mask and hasn't been going anywhere because of the mask mandate. (How terrible.) I told her that if he has severe anxiety from wearing a mask, he has a legitimate medical exemption. She said he was not aware of that and that wearing a mask would definitely cause severe anxiety for him. She said she'd pass that information on to him.

After I dropped my groceries off at home, I went to the second hand bookstore. I asked if I could shop with my medical exemption, and the owner said I could. When I was paying for my books, she asked me if I was going to get the shot. I said no. She said she didn't want to get it either but that she'd been getting a lot of flak from her loved ones because of it. Her doctor also told her she should really get it "because she's aboriginal." (???)

She said she didn't realize there were a lot of people who weren't getting the shot. I said there were a lot of us and that only a little over 50% of Americans had gotten it so far. She said she thinks it's a personal choice.