Friday is always guided & guarded by Venus.
Venus is Ray 5 – Science, true knowledge, truth.
So, today is a Ray 5 day.
The color is a golden orange.

Today is September 6, 2024 – Libra moon today – harmony.
Virgo Sun – purity & purification, order & organization.
Mercury in Leo – sharing about our gifts & talents, recognizing others’ gifts & talents, praising self & other.

Mercury (Leo) square Uranus (Taurus) tonight – on this Friday, first Friday of September evening.
Careful with communication today & tonight.
We may blurt out information, facts with irritations & impatientce. We might be shocked too!
Words can hurt others, or uplift them.
Words are our creative magical tool.

We have a 10 minute v/c tonight – so interesting.
From 10:08-10:18pm (PT), the moon sails through the sky making no contact with the personal planets. It is free.
And so we are too!
Then the moon enters the deep waters of Scorpio, and the night of harmony changes and shift. And the air darkens & we feel like we are preparing for autumn.
Everything stays the same most of the time.
Then something changes.
That happens tonight as the moon shifts from Libra to Scorpio.

Virgo – Pure Foods from the Ashram Kitchen to nourish & nurture self & others.
And so, Sun in Virgo – the purity of foods to serve to the self & others.

In the Ashram Kitchen today.
We live far away from a town, far away from access to organic foods (1 1/2 hours to a Whole Foods or Sprouts, etc.), far away from everything – (the reason our Mercedes mechanic is having such trouble finding parts).
Anyway…when there is a need we often look outside ourselves to see if that need can be fulfilled somewhere out there. When that need can’t be filled out there, we have to become the fulfillment of that need ourselves.
And so…
Along with aspiring to have an intentional community (Findhorn West), a book store, a pharmacopia of herbs & medicinals, a gallery, a Wisdom Astrology school (with real buildings, not only virtual), a cafe would round out the offerings in our village.

And so today in the “virtual” cafe of my mind & to meet the present needs of those around me as well as myself (in Virgo we tend to ourselves first, then to others), this is what I made in our Ashram kitchen today.

Vegetable Juice – organic
Celery, carrots, beets, parsley, kale, apple, lemon juice.
40 ounces in all.

Split Pea Soup – organic
The leaves on our sycamore are turning bron, & I see the leaves of the trees around the house have a veil of yellow – that means autumn is soon (22nd of Sept. in 16 days). So this is the first of the autumn soups, a welcoming warmth to welcome the soon to be autumn days.

Ingredients
Dried green peas, ham, onions, celery, carrots, parsley, squash (yellow or zucchini), potatoes, peas (fresh or frozen, stock, fresh lemon.

Soak peas in fresh water w/ 1/8 tsp baking soda (it softens peas & beans before cooking) for 1/2 or or simmer low on stove.
I use ham in this recipe, but soup can be made w/out the ham.

Recipe
In Cuisinart or by hand – chop veggies, slice ham.
Saute in ghee or grape seed oil till softened. Add soaked peas & stock, simmer for an hour.

Veggies:
Whole yellow onion, stalks of celery, several large carrots, bunches of parsley, yellow squash, 2 russet potatoes (this is the first time I used potatoes in the soup – I liked it as the potatoes made the soup creamy & filled w/ potassium).
Place veggies & ham in large pot, simmer

At the end, after simmering & blending, add fresh or frozen peas.

So…
Saute chopped veggies & ham, add salt & pepper, then add stock (home made or store bought chicken or veggie stock**). Simmer for an hour. At the end of an hour, use a wand blender to blend the ingredients. Add add fresh or frozen peas & simmer till peas are cooked. Taste. Add a squeeze of lemon juice at the end.

I usually serve this with cornbread.

**My stock is made several times a week from all the scraps of veggies & chicken bones & feet (for collagen). The veggie scraps are from lettuce, carrots, onion skins, celery bits, etc..
Note: I don’t put brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, kale, radish, cauliflower, etc) in my stock unless I am making a cabbage soup (when trying to copy Max’s Opera Cafe Russian Cabbage Soup!).

Recipes (& invitations) upcoming in the Ashram Kitchen
Stuffed cabbage, Beilers Broth, Layered Chicken Enchiladas, Curried Chicken, Lassi, Chicken Pot Pie, Veggie salad, Chile, Spaghetti Sauce, etc.
When I lived at Findhorn, we were up very early in the mornings to bake home made breads (set out later in the day at 1 & at 4, to workers in the fields, along with butter & home made jams) & to work together preparing in the kitchens of Findhorn to feed the hundreds who visited.

My dream then & now (as Findhorn in Scotland has closed its doors) to create the new Findhorn West in the United States.
A dream, a wish, an aspiration, a hope & a vision.
Everything seems the same every day.
And then one day everything changes.
And wishes & dreams come true.
It’s good to always articulate one’s hopes wishes & dreams.

Someday we will all cook & eat together in the Ashram (again).
We have done this before in other lifetimes.
We meet again in this one….love, Risa