Book Review ~ Lobster for Leos, Cookies for Capricorns

I love adding a new astrology-themed cookbook to my collection, especially one from a chef who says:

“…this book has little to do with watching your weight. It’s not my intention to tell you what you should or shouldn’t eat, but to present you with an array of options for eating naturally, healthfully, seasonally, and in accordance with the stars.”

I’ve got a strong feeling Sabra Ricci’s Lobster for Leos, Cookies for Capricorns will be my go-to cookbook when cooking with the stars.

With Sun in Cancer and Moon in Taurus, I want real food, but I don’t want to get involved with complicated cooking.  Ricci’s entertaining book offers recipes that are 1) easy to prepare and 2) teaches me about the health benefits of the food I’m cooking.

Ricci assures us that lobsters aren’t just for Leos, though, and cookies made with molasses aren’t just for Capricorns. There are health benefits for everyone. One of my favorite parts of each section is the list of featured foods that support the body function associated with its sign. It’s easy to see from the chapter headings which foods benefit specific parts of the body:

• Aries Brainiac Foods ~ brain
• Taurus Megametabolizing Foods ~ thyroid
• Gemini Easy Breathing Foods ~ lungs
• Cancer Tummy Soothing Foods ~ stomache

Tea Time ~ Going South with Aquarius

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

There’s a little problem with the outer planets that needs to be corrected. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto don’t own any kind of plants. By “own,” I mean that nothing falls directly under their rulership ~ at least traditionally they don’t. Rulership is reserved for the planets within Saturn’s boundaries.

Nicholas Culpepper wrote the bible on which plants fall under each planet’s domain and it usually serves quite well. After all, we don’t really “need” Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, do we? The original seven planets fill the bill quite well…don’t they?

Welllll. Maybe not.

Maybe it’s time to think outside the cup.

You won’t find kiwi, star fruit, or dragon fruit listed in Culpepper’s Herbal. And which planet “owns” kangaroo? There are some gaping holes in the rulership books that we may be able to fill.

Tea Time ~ In the Brambles with Capricorn

Here in the southern US, a severe storm has blown in. The Moon is in Pisces and Neptune has brought us lots of freezing rain and sleet ~ an unusual occurrence in this part of the south. It’s time to ready the wood for the fire, cozy up under a blanket, and wait till it melts away. Fortunately, these storms don’t last long in the south and most of the wintry debris is melted by early afternoon. In the meantime, it’s nice to relax with a cup of hot tea which has a knack for holding the cold at bay, even if only momentarily.

The Mighty Blackberry

Capricorn’s ruler, Saturn, arrives late in the year so he doesn’t have a lot of tea herbs in his garden. But the mighty bramble blackberry is one that he favors. I didn’t have any tea containing blackberry in my collection, so I checked the shelves at the local Hooterville grocery store and found a Lipton black tea that fills the bill ~ Bavarian Wild Berry. (The tea is packaged in those silky pyramid tea bags, which I love.) The tea is mild and not too fruity.

Let me digress for a second. Hooterville is the pet name I call my small town. We relocated from NY and live in a subdivision named Green Acres, which is pretty funny if you know that old tv show. The point is, if I can find it in Hooterville, you probably won’t have any trouble, either. You probably have more choices in your area and there are lots if you order online. And if you don’t have or want to buy a tea containing blackberry, don’t despair ~ blackberries are still on the menu in other forms.

Word of the Day ~ Sage

Thanksgiving is a few short days away in the US ~ and that means it’s time for our traditional turkey and dressing dinner. Some people call it stuffing; I grew up calling it dressing and it was always made with cornbread. Whichever word ~ or recipe ~ you prefer, a necessary ingredient has always been sage.

Sage is quite a timely word as we enter the period of Sagittarius and draw near Thanksgiving. It has several meanings and serves several purposes related to this particular period of the year.

Sages ~ wise men and women, whether religious or otherwise ~ fall under the rulership of Jupiter by way of Sagittarius and the 9th house of our natal charts.

A sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.
                             ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The herb, sage, falls under the rulership of who else? Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, of course. It has some interesting folklore attached to it, as well. Scott Cunningham in his Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs tells us that by eating a bit of the plant every day, we are guaranteed a long life, possibly immortality. (!!) Not surprisingly, he also mentions that carrying sage will bolster wisdom, that fine Sagittarian trait.

Mountain or white sage, used in ritual and some religious ceremonies, is the most common ingredient in smudge sticks. The smudging ceremony is considered sacred and is, therefore, another symbol of Sagittarius. Smudging is ceremoniously used to clear negativity and cleanse an area. Consider smudging your home if family gatherings during the holidays turn sour.

In Phythagorean numerology, “sage” reduces to the number 5, which I associate with the planet Mercury. However, in Chaldean numerology, it reduces to the number 3, the number of Jupiter. Using the Phythagorean system, the S and A both bring qualities of leadership, the G relates to withdrawal, research, and meditation (sage on the mountaintop?), and the E brings change and adaptability, something any good sage has plenty of.

Enjoy your holiday, and eat wisely.

How to Smudge with Sage