Wednesday, Mercury’s day.
A lot of thoughts offered today. Many levels.
Thinking of what’s to come.
Thinking of creating something.
Baking & thinking of the upcoming festivals.
And so….
Today is April 10, 2024 – Mercury’s day.
Mercury rules Gemini & Virgo & Scorpio.
Writing, talking, thinking, preparing, & a vision of teaching the Mysteries – to develop individuals into Disciples.

Lots to read today.

Each day my day goes somewhat like this.
Writing, cooking, clients (counseling, readings, therapy w/ clients, consultations), cooking, gardening, cooking, shopping, cooking, talkng w/ Matthew, cooking. Preparing foods for the next day.

So one can see that in between all the other daily activities, preparing food is primary for me. As I have written before – I want a large kiosk on the road above the house where I can put food for people to buy, take, use, eat, share.
Remember the article about the grocery store?
That is my dream too. In the community.
In the rooms adjacent to the grocery store we will have a book store & an art gallery & rooms for classes – especially on astrology the wisdom teaching. Outside will be our garden.

Thinking of things today.
On gardens, the trees leafing out, apples and pears & blueberries and the upcoming festivals (Wesak, Buddha Full Moon Festival, Passover, etc) – the rituals (Ray 7) that keep humanity connected, alive, hopeful and in a festive playful mood.

And so…looking out the large window in front of my desk – there is a large woodsy back yard (about an acre). Beyond that is a meadow that used to have cattle. The deer have taken over the meadow now. Last week we saw a mother boar w/ six brown bear like babies in the meadow. Beyond the meadow is a river. We cannot see it but we can hear it when it’s flooding. Sometimes the river’s flooding rises up and covers the meadow. Then we see and hear the river’s swft waters – brown & rushing & a bit dangerous.

So looking out the window, what I see.
Leaves in the form of buds have burst out on the trees, and now they are unfolding. They look like silk and have the color of pale chartreuse. The last one to leaf is the sycamore tree, which stands tall and wide like the unfolded wings of an archangel, protecting our home as we live in between a river and a mountain, on a rock shelf. Only baby ferns grow out of the crevices of the rock shelf. We have to garden in giant whiskey barrels as there is only the rock shelf, miles & miles of it.
We have planted edible flowers for our salads and cakes, parsley, cilantro and thyme, spinach, mesculin, lettuces, arugula. In small pots are tomatos, banana peppers, basil and zucchini. We still need to plant long beans, cucumbers and the tall sunflowers.

The meditation group told a friend they were missing the foods I often send to them. I have not sent anything for several weeks. I have lots of apples and blueberries. So I will make an apple, pear & blueberry crisp. And send it off tomorrow. I will make it in a sheet pan instead of a regular baking dish.

Thinking of this w/ apples & cinnamon I am also thinking of the upcoming Passover (Jewish Festival, celebrating the leaving of Egypt & slavery/Taurus Age, etc.).
There is an apple dish called Haroset – a condiment that is always on the Passover (Ritual of Rememberance) table – apples, cinnamon, honey, walnuts, etc.
Haroset is a mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon, and wine used during the Passover or Seder meal and symbolic of the clay from which the Israelites made bricks during their Egyptian slavery.

Upcoming:
Passover begins at sunset Monday April 22nd. The evening before our next full moon – the Wesak Buddha Full Moon Festival on Tuesday, April 23rd.

The Sun enters Taurus, Friday, April 19th.
Monday, April 22 – Passover.
Tuesday, April 23 – Wesak Full moon.
Saturday, April 27 – Aquarian Salon.

Baking
Baking Today for the Saturday Meditation Group.
This is what I will do today, making the apple pear blueberry crisp.

Ingredients & amounts:
Multiple apples, pears (both sliced), blueberries.
Juice of large lemon.
1 cup (2 sticks) butter.
1/2 – 3/4 – 1 cup brown or turbinado or coconut sugar (I always use less sugar, the recipe calls for 1 cup).
3/4 tsp. salt.
1 cup of old fashioned rolled oats (organic).
1 cup flour (I use einkorn flour).
2/3 tsp. cinnamon (I just shake it in).
1/2 tsp. cardamom (optional)
1 cup roasted chopped pecans (optional)

Vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

Directions:
Oven at 375.
Butter a long rimmed sheet pan.
Melt 1 cube of butter for apples.
(cut the other cube into small 1/2 inch pieces)

Two Bowls
In one large bowl place blueberries & sliced apples & pears.
Drizzle w/ melted butter. Add lemon juice.
Sprinkle w/ 1/3 – 1/2 sugar (more or less – the topping needs the rest of the sugar).
Add 1/4 tsp salt (again I just shake it in).
Toss till combined.
Spread on baking sheet.

In another bowl, add 2nd cut up cube of butter, oats, flour, cinnamon, cardamom & remaining sugar along with 1/2 tsp salt.
Add chopped roasted pecans. Mix w/ hand, incorporating butter into flour mixture (alternately use food processor, mix butter into flour. Then add the rest of the ingredients.

Scatter oat flour butter mixture evenly over fruit in pan.
Bake 55 – 60 minutes till topping is golden & crisp.
Let cool before eating w/ vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Intention, Dedication, Manifestation, Vision.
There is a place, north of us, piece of land up north.
It was used as a Theosophical Education Center & Camp since 1971.
It has not been used now for several years.
it’s just sitting there.
It has everything one needs for a Center of Astrology, Esotericism, Theosophy & the Wisdom Teachings.
It has a place for people to sleep, a kitchen to prepare foods.
It has a building to teach in and it’s in the woods & very protected.
I want that land & those buildings.
I want to open a Midwest Astrological Esoteric Theosophical School – where we combine Theosophy & the Alice Bailey (both are from the mind of the Tibetan) Teachings.
And prepare for the Coming One.
It is located at three state – Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma.
I want that land, place, buildings, etc.
To teach in.
The energies of our last school, a building at New & Center Sts. in Santa Cruz, CA – at the eclipse – the energy of our Work there at the eclipse slipped out & away. It is not dissolve. It is in the ethers now….seeking the next place.

As in the keynote for Aries – the light of life itself, a point of light at the center of the New cycle of manifestation – that point of light at the center of a circle – seeking that which can be used for Divine Expression.
Let us & let that land up north “be used for Divine Expression.”
I turn to the Hierarchy & say to them….”Let me & our Esoteric Group have that land & buildings. I will make it into a Center of Divine Livingness – a center of Education & Teaching & Beauty for Humanity to learn & bring forth their gifts. Let me & our Esoteric Group have that land. We will dedicate it to the Work of the Hierarchy & to Shamballa & to the Coming One.”
love, Risa

Art: Community unfolding….eating pie together….

I took notes during the eclipse.
It lasted a long time – in all 4 hours, 28 minutes.
We sat in the garden and watched the light fade.
There was a bird, like a sentry, flying around the trees in all directions, calling calling as if to summon everyone in the forest to this cosmic event called the total solar eclipse.
There was a bird calling at the beginning.
Then another bird that trilled at the end of the eclipse.
Frogs came out a bit too, to see what was happening.
The light darkened very slowly – we didn’t have eclipse glasses.
We had two pieces of paper, one with the pinhole.
Next time I would like to have the glasses.
Our area didn’t achieve total darkness. The light to dark was like a quiet evening falling. The wind came up often, whipping around the trees that surrounded our property. It too was like a sentry, calling everyone to attention.
We could feel in the air something was occurring.
A quiet cosmic heavenly fiery mysterious something happening.
The wind came up at the beginning & continued thru the eclipse hours. At first the air was hot, even with the wind. Then…as the light darkened we felt the cold arriving. The lack of the Sun’s warming light equaled the cold descending.
The air was cold. The wind was cold. We were cold.
It was an experience of the senses.
Seeing, feeling, hearing, listening, watching, waiting.
All in a kind of silence.
The characters – the wind, air, sky, birds, light, dark, sun, moon.
Dark. Then the light again.
At the in-between-moment of light & dark, a sparkly sort of light appeared. It touched the leaves of the trees. The sycamore that began to leaf. The apple, the peach, the cedar.
It sparkled like an unearthly light on everything.
A liminal unusual light, like starlight.
Then it was over.
The moon slid over the Sun and kept moving forward.
It was a new moon at the eclipse.
That reality was hidden by the total eclipse of the Sun.
New moon in Aries. I almost forgot about that until this morning.

And so, today, the day after the eclipse.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 – Sun has remained in Aries.
But the moon has left Aries & moved on into Taurus.
We stabilize the experience of the eclipse.
We integrate its purpose.
It is not over….
The eclipse effects will last for the next three months.
In that area of life where the eclipse happened for each of us.
A new sense of self in that area of life.
What was the eclipse like for you?
love, Risa

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