Cookbook Astrology

It dawned on me what was wrong with many approaches to astrology. Too much of it relies on the “cookbook astrology” teaching/preaching modality. No two astrology charts are created equal.

I’ve been doing much shopping at the grocery store and fixing (cooking) “paleo-heart healthy” meals. Typically, I’ll start with whatever looks good. Doctor suggested less red meat and more chicken, more green, leafy things. Sure.

Some place in Austin, that’s years behind me, but someplace had the killer spinach salad, think it was laced with hot bacon dressing.

Anything with bacon is better. Am I right?

I don’t like Brussel Sprouts. Other than that, whatever looks good. Kale, spinach, carrots, squash, cukes, etc. I found terrific organic cherry tomatoes, and those get sliced up into just about everything. I prefer the cherry tomatoes from New Braunfels, but in the middle of the winter, I’ll take what I can get.

One thing the local market does (may the gods smile favorably on HEB)(1) is mark the place of origin. So lately, the spinach is California Organic. For a few days, there was this excellent “Poteet” spinach, with Poteet a famous San Antonio suburb. Next county over, kind of place. Down yonder. 20 minutes south and west.

“Organic” is preferred, not because it’s organic, which launches into a whole different discussion, but because the absence of pesticides is probably healthier.

I have no set recipe I follow. A little this and smidgen of that. The spinach and kale require a dash of something, and I tend towards cayenne as a “go to” spice. Use it on almost everything but dessert. That and “pink salt,” which is, supposedly, according to the label and the health experts, salt mined from the sea beds in the Himalaya Mountains. For all I know, it’s just regular salt with a coloring agent. I don’t care.

So there’s no set “recipe,” and the list of ingredients is what looks good. I was shopping one day, and the spinach, that good, Poteet spinach, looked wonderful. Two days later? All gone, and no more. Sort of depends.

Which is the problem with cookbook astrology. What’s available, what’s on the table, what tastes good, and what’s in season?

A Sagittarius astrologer reading a chart when the Sun is in Aries will be different from a cranky Capricorn reading the same chart while the Sun is in Aries.

Stoves are different. Each of the burners on this stove are different. I have to adjust cooking styles for the varying burners.(2)

Since I don’t follow a recipe when I cook, although, one of my “recipes” has been featured as a weight watchers special, I was looking for a similarity between my cooking and my lack of cookbook astrology.

Mars Hotel &c.

What prompted my train-wreck of thought patterns had nothing to do with astrology, although, it’s what I do, no, I was walking in the spring-like sun, and some Grateful Dead spooled up. One of my favorite albums is Live From The Mars Hotel, which is an ironic title, as it’s not a live album but a studio set. What I got, someplace, somehow, I’ve got some old Dead “live,” from the sound of the one song, it was seventies “off the board” recording, and what I heard, that afternoon, in the sun?

Bass line, Phil Lesh? It was one of the mp3’s I (legally) downloaded, and the bass line in that one version, it was alive and strong, adding depth and bottom to the song in a way I’d never heard it before. I’m listening to music on a phone, not like it’s a high end audio device.

I am, by no means whatsoever, a Dead Head. Furthest thing possible, from that definition, although, appearances might be disconcerting. My interest, other than the one “not live” album, is purely academic. Sometimes the myth is better than the music — they were, at the time, serious stoners(3).

The Dead were famous for improvisation. Like my cooking. Same applies to the astrology that I practice, teasing out meaning where technicians and cooks fail to grasp the nuanced and subtle music of the spheres.

It’s why my BareFoot Astrology is better as a video than a book, and even better, in person.

“Cookbook Astrology” is what I learned about, how I learned it, and now? It’s what I work against.

I also figured out, there is a dessert or two with cayenne in it, think, pineapple sprinkled with red flakes, or Mexican Hot-Hot Chocolate, infused with capiscum.

Kramer’s BareFoot Astrology: the answer to cookbooks

(1) Local chain, with me currently almost in the corporate headquarters backyard.

(2) That’s why people like gas stoves. Now I get it.

(3) I’ve suffered with a similar accusation, but I’m like this with no chemical assistance, which, in and of itself, should be a little frightening.

Sneak Peak:
Another First 2nd Beta test.