by Robert Wilkinson
I was recently told that my use of the so-called “minor aspects” in a reading revealed a new dimension of understanding and attunement to a client. I told him it’s like making soup.
Cooking is known as an art for obvious reasons. Two people may start with the same ingredients, herbs, and spices, but inevitably will come up with two different soups, just as two artists with the same palette will come up with two different paintings. It’s the same with astrology as we live our lives.
You might say the key points in our cooking process are symbolized by the 12 classic aspects, those being the waxing and waning semisextile, sextile, square, trine, quincunx, and opposition. Those show us what “soup of life” we’re cooking in that period of time, and represent the points where we add the primary vegetables and turn the heat up or down, cover it or uncover it, as well as add other secondary vegetables to make it clear what type of soup we’re actually making.
The so-called "minor aspects," including the novile, octile, septile, and quintile series aspects, represent the points where other special vegetables, herbs, and spices are added into our “soup of life.” Added at key points in the process, they transform what was into something different and unique. Our life is more than just basic elements cooking over time. We do add micro-flavors, as well as things that are oily, pungent, sweet, sour, tart, or bitter at key points in our soup.
Here it’s good to remember that a spice like Turmeric, which may taste bitter, actually has major league anti-cancer powers, but also that a little bit goes a long way, like cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, or Garam Masala powder! Great for flavor, but too much and it’s overpowering.
Ginger is etheric, and too much can destroy the subtle flavor of a balanced soup. And yet I’ve found that garlic and onion, also etheric vegetables, make for an exquisite soup base when prepared in the right way and added at the right time. I suppose a lot of ginger is good when we’re making ginger soup or tomato soup, but we might not want it in a potato broccoli or creamed asparagus soup!
Life is like that. We don’t want to add too much of one thing to a soup we’ve been tending for a while, unless that soup is based in that thing. But we also don’t want to add something past its time, or it won’t cook in harmony with what’s already cooking.
Sometimes the soup isn’t turning out as we would like. A good soup takes a while to make, Getting in a hurry because it doesn’t smell or taste like you think you want is no reason to toss that soup!
Often it takes a little time for things to blend so the uniqueness of the synthesis takes over from the watery separate vegetable flavors. That’s when we don’t want to start adding things that will change the type of soup we’re making. Welcome to the value of the novile series, where something goes into gestation for a while!
The special points in the process where we add herbs and spices are the semisquares, septiles, and quintiles of life. These are where we make decisions about which direction to take it, and how to make it special in a way that matters to us, or those we are serving. Along the same line, waxing aspects are where we build the base, and waning aspects are how we take the base to fulfillment.
One thing to remember. Life is a continuum, and so we must have good vegetables to begin with, or we won't be able to do much with that soup. Of course, if it's time to make stone soup, then we make stone soup!
Then there are soups that began well, but either we or someone else dumped too much of something into the soup, and there’s no way it’s going to turn out as we like. A soup with too much salt or heat can only be diluted so much before it’s not a soup anymore. While you won’t taste them in excess anymore, you also won’t be able to taste much of anything else.
That's why all of us at one time and another have to decide whether the soup of life we’ve been cooking is actually worth saving and eating. That’s when we have to ask ourselves whether we really care to eat it at all, and if we do, how much and for how long.
As much as I hate to throw out perfectly good boiled vegetables, there’s a value in learning that every once in a while there may be no way to salvage that soup, for whatever reason. Understanding that helps us move past the frustration of a soup not tasting like we wanted, And of course, even if it’s the only thing we have to eat, eventually even the worst soup is finished, and we get to make another soup.
On a positive note, we can always take a soup that doesn’t work, and by diluting it and adding a different combination of vegetables and herbs, we can come up with something that tastes good and works in serving others. Those are usually unique creatures, since they begin in an apparent failure, and what’s there gets taken in a new direction, which over time may yield the most delicious unique soup ever tasted!
Up to now I’ve been mainly addressing worldly soups. When it comes to cooking the soups of life related to Dharma, we must fulfill cooking that soup whether we want to or not, and must give it our best effort in the highest best Way we can in this lifetime.
As we cook our Dharma soups, we must use the ingredients life has handed us and do the best we can with what we’ve got. Those sorts of soups cannot be compared with any other soup any other person is cooking. Dharma soups are our special recipes we share with few if any other cooks, except in the most general sense.
Ultimately, whether making the various lesser “soups of life” or making “Dharma soup” we must grow beyond old limitations based in perceptual traps. The art of cooking requires foresight, flexibility, preparation, and knowing what to do and when, in exactly the right proportion to create a blend that will turn out over time to be nourishing and taste good. Isn’t that what life is ultimately about?
Just make sure to keep your fingers out from under the knives as you chop, and you’ll do fine! And remember that since “too many cooks spoil the broth,” tend to your soups carefully, and don’t add things you don’t need to just because someone else thinks it might be a good idea. They have their soups to cook, and you have yours. Enjoy the creation!
© Copyright 2015 Robert Wilkinson
Thought some here might find this of interest!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/ancient-chinese-buddha-statue-has-a-mummy-with-surprises-inside-1.2967449
Posted by: JP | February 23, 2015 at 12:58 PM