black bean moonday

I've got the blues -- purplish-blues, greenish-blues, dark blues and light blues -- the black-beans-in-the-dye-pot kind of blues.

Black beans soaked in plain water in a stainless steel pot for two days. The animal fibers, white-to-beige silk and wool, were mordanted in an aluminum pot in an alum solution for 18 hours. The plant fiber, white and blue/white cotton, was mordanted in soy milk for 12 hours (thank you, Deanna, I learned that from you). I used separate dye-pots for the different fibers. I ended up using mordant and am glad to have taken the extra steps -- this is the first time I've gotten good color onto cotton. No heat was used with the dye-pots, only room temperature. I included the already-blue cotton print to tone down the white and it looks great. The wool yarn is gorgeous as is the textured silk (the photos are unedited for true color). A success in my book.

And the beans went into the freezer for a nice Spring Equinox black & white meal next week. 

Today is a waning moonday in Scorpio, an auspicious time to let go, to end connections thoroughly. Scorpio is a psychic sign with an inward impulse. In general, this isn't an easy-going time and can be very intense.

As the moon travels through the zodiac each month, we experience the feelings and impulses of each particular sign. In the same way the earth and the moon travel creating seasons, we have inner seasons, each ripening into the next. We might feel closed off as we go inward with Scorpio now, but we will surely open outward again when the time is right. I experience this every month with the Scorpio moon -- early this morning I randomly opened a book to a page that led me down this trail of thought although it wasn't about Scorpio or even the moon. But it was perfect. Not weakness or over-sensitivity, just an inner season.

Scorpio rules the sexual organs and the urinary tract. As the moon is also waning, maybe problems in those areas can be healed once and for all. As an example, if I had chronic urinary infections, I would plan on beginning a healing course of treatment during a Scorpio moon.

It's all good.