Morning Star: Daily Astrology for September 12, 2014

I woke up yesterday morning to post my daily article on Facebook and was greeted with pictures of mozzarella floating in rich tomato sauce, cakes, cookies and various recipes. I had to laugh; because, the first thing I thought was...”Hey! Ya'll are early!” The Moon had not yet moved into Taurus.

 

However, today, we do wake up to the Moon in Taurus and many will be seeking the comfort that certain foods can bring. As a matter of fact, I think many of us are seeking comfort in one form or another these days. It has been just that elusive.

I'm glad to see the Moon in Taurus. That's nothing new. I'm always glad to see Moon in Taurus. And, lately, the Moon passing through Taurus has provided a nice reprieve following the ambition of the Aries Moon. I'm pretty Venusian. I appreciate a break now and then.

At 7:17 AM EDT, our cow moon meets the King of the Seas via sextile. This may make it hard to get moooving this morning. Our big cow tails may want to linger in bed a bit longer than usual. But, the aspect I'm waiting for is the Grand Earth Trine that the Moon will make with Venus in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn.

I know Venus is not well placed in Virgo. But, I happen to like her there. I have this placement. Plus, just about everything in my chart is placed in detriment or fall. I'm just lucky that way, I guess.

My Venus in Virgo is what keeps me grounded, saving me from completely floating off into the ethers during the 4 passes of Neptune to my Moon (one more to go!). Besides that, Venus in Virgo is the Queen of Practical Magic.

I've said that several times. I now have a solid example of how that works. Bear in mind that my Venus is currently barely within orb of a trine to transiting Pluto. Next year, I spend the entire year with Plutonic power backing the practical magic of Venus in Virgo. We will experience Venus in Virgo trine Pluto in Capricorn on September 14. If you have a solar return with these two planets in trine, you may want to pay attention. And, don't forget, there is opportunity to feel this earthy power today as the Moon links Venus and Pluto up a little early.

Last winter, I started trying to convince my husband to help me put a vegetable garden in our front yard. In the past, we had always grown a few tomato and pepper plants in our backyard. These plants did really well. However, in my backyard stands 4 very large oak trees which limit the amount of sunlight the plants receive. The front yard, however, receives brilliant unobstructed sunlight most of the day. I thought, if the plants do so well with such limited sunlight, imagine how well they could do in a nice sunny spot.

Ground breaking!

Well, it took a lot of convincing because my husband is one of those people that cares what the neighbors think. I don't really have that problem. Eventually, mainly due to his own love of gardening, he did agree to give it a shot. We scooped out an approximately 14 x 7 spot of our front yard in preparation for planting.

Then, when planting season arrived, we spent just over $20 on various heritage seed and vegetable plants. The eyes of the entire neighborhood fell upon this massive dirt hole in our front yard. Some people drove by and laughed at us. Some were curious. But, mostly, we received a lot of good hearted ribbing. All the while, I was grinning inside thinking, “Oh yeah, laugh it up. You'll see.”

So, we planted this stuff (when the Moon was waxing in Cancer sextile to the Taurus Sun)and tended to it all summer. Now, in the Virgo harvest, I have sat down to see just exactly what the yield has been. We planted green beans, various peppers, sweet corn, various herbs and tomatoes. The corn was beautiful. But, it didn't yield much because I planted the crops too close together. That's ok. I saved the seed that did yield; we will have $0 invested in said corn next year. What we did reap (and this does not include all that we have given away to neighbors and friends) is detailed below.

(random math factoid one gallon equals about 128 US Oz)

We bagged up 13 gallons of green beans. That is 1664 oz. A bag of frozen beans is usually about 16 oz. So, our yield was nearly 104 bags of what you can buy in the store. These cost, on average, $2.99 per 16 oz bag. Our 104 bags yielded a store price of about $311.

We stored 10 gallons of tomatoes. That is about 1280 ounces which equates to about 88 cans in a store. If I price these cans at $2 (which is about what I can buy them for at Kroger) that equals $176.

We put up 8 gallons of assorted peppers (sweet green, yellow, red and spicy hungarian wax). That is 1024 ounces or about 64 bags that you can buy at the store. At $2 per bag, that equals $128.

Where is the practical magic in that?
Well, we took $20 and in about 6 months we turned it into a value of $610.

And, that's not all. I saved every single pepper seed which, frankly, perplexed my husband. But, next year, I will plant these seeds (because they ARE NOT hybrid or GMO) meaning we will have a $0 investment in this crop next year. There will be WAY too many seed for us to use. So, I will also start plants in pods and take them to the local farmer's market in the spring to sell. This will further increase the profit yielded from this $20 investment.

Our garden produced many tangible results. But, of the most value are the results it produced that are not so tangible. Out of 10 houses on our street, after seeing how well our garden looked and performed this year, 3 of our neighboring families committed to growing their own front yard garden. They have their own seed already, because I shared some of our bounty with them. I have little doubt that by the time the total yield is counted, we will have turned a $20 investment into approximately $1000 (I've not estimated the yield from the foddershocks, marigold seed and gas savings from not having mowed this section of the lawn). How can you put value on empowering people? You certainly can't put a price tag on the amount of enjoyment my husband and I received from tending the garden in the first place. Not to mention the amount of satisfaction I got at the end of this season thinking, “Uh huh. Who's laughing now?”

Do you see? THAT is the practical magic of Venus in Virgo! No magic wand required.

Get a taste of this energy today. Moon in Taurus meets Venus in Virgo via trine at 12:10 PM EDT. Then, she meets up with the Lord of the Underworld (Pluto) at 4:22 PM. At 7:07 PM, Moon finds Jupiter in Leo by square. All the while, Mercury continues to wax into opposition with Uranus in Aries perfecting at 4:17 AM tomorrow. It's a solid and earthy day that is sparked by a slight whiff of possible genius under Mercury/Uranus. This could be just the energy you need to get your wheels moving in the right direction. Don't be afraid to go a bit against the grain and employ some practical magic of your own.