innocence Archives - the Numinous

Hello Aries Season! Explore the current cosmic energies with Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising… Artwork: Paulius Zakarauskas

Aries season conjures the scent of gasoline, the sound of tires screeching, and the full-throttle feeling of all-or-nothing, pedal to the metal, ferocious selfhood. Yet under the hood of this badass muscle car momma is a curious kind of fuel: innocence. It’s the wide-eyed, open-hearted belief that we have the right to be exactly as we are and that every damn moment is a moment to begin again. We simply cannot stop our own becoming.

Keyword: Collision.

Lyrics: “Being is believing/Take your passion/And make it happen/I can have it all/Now I’m dancing through my life.”

Check out our full Aries Season playlist here, complete with unapologetic cock rock, pure guileless pop, and relentless disco beats.

Color palette: Emboldened, saturated hues that mix Mexico City with Nascar primaries. Explode into a technicolor spring bloom, as you find yourself at the starting line once again.

Style: A rugged, kinetic beauty that pairs motorcycle boots with chrome and solid gold accessories, and fashion that walks the line between in-your-face antics and stripped down minimalism: disco-fied jumpsuits, coral unitards, bare nails, and sun-streaked hair.

Scents: Clean, direct, and spicy sweet. Scorching summer sidewalk pavement after a thunderstorm, cedarwood meets pungent jasmine, classic men’s “fougère” barber shop scents, fresh cut grass, dirt, and matches.

Healing: Sweat-drenched body movement. Try a high-intensity hip-hop or pole class. Dance until you sweat and then dance some more. Or strap on your most comfortably sexy kicks and hit the city streets for some serious strutting set to your own soundtrack. Walk and walk and walk until you can feel every muscle in your body alive and electric. Buy yourself a coco helado along the way.

ARIES SEASON BY SIGN :: FLAVOR PAIRINGS

During this Aries season, the heavy hitting survival trio of Pluto, Saturn, and Mars are all stationing retrograde and with this comes a sweet, float-like-a-butterfly feeling of absolutely nothing more to prove. It’s a soul survival moment where we each stand so fiercely and earnestly in our disco dancefloor essence, that we begin to collide gently with one-another.

This makes it a month for fusion cuisine that celebrates singularly wild flavors as they collide and cross-pollinate on cutting boards, in ovens, and along sumptuous Vegas buffet tables. So leap into the frying pan and light a match.

Aries :: Aries Rising
Sink your teeth into flavors that feel good as they burn. Think chili pepper dark chocolate, salted caramel, sweet and smoky mesquite, and red hot candies. Or, visit your local ice cream truck, and celebrate your birthday month with open-hearted sprinkle combinations and badass bomb pops.

Taurus :: Taurus Rising
Turn up the heat with slow-roasted vegetables or pair bitter dandelion greens with sweet balsamic glaze as you infuse your earthbound sensibilities with a little tangy sharpness. Take your picnic on the road as you explore the concept of being nourished as you travel through life.

Gemini :: Taurus Rising
Visit your local farmer’s market or spice shop and experiment with choosing one special ingredient or spice variation to build a meal around. Or blend your own spice combo as you honor each distinctive element of a home-made curry paste or za’atar.

Cancer :: Cancer Rising
Think fresh bread with rosemary infused olive oil and sea salt. Or plan a progressive dinner party with friends where you sample a new dish at each house as you explore the notion of mobile shelters and the internal emotional landscape of each other’s homes.

Leo :: Leo Rising
Celebrate the sun-drenched, succulent flavors of ripe, roasted tomatoes and peppers, contrasted with the sensation of biting into the slightly tough skin. Think guacamole, sun-dried tomatoes, and nopales street tacos.

Virgo :: Virgo Rising
Dive into wild collisions of ingredients as you abandon your measuring cups and prepare a stew without even tasting it along the way. Or go back to basics with three ingredient meals. Trust in flour, water, salt, and your own immeasurable worth.

Libra :: Libra Rising
Practice dining alone and savoring the sensation of solitary feasting. Move into messiness as you leave the dishes for tomorrow or dig into difficult food like sloppy joes and chili cheese fries.

Scorpio :: Scorpio Rising
Sample creamy, fluffy flavors as you relax into a brand of power that feels exuberant and delicious. Think fresh, warm milk infused with punchy cardamom and rosewater, and the scrumptious sensations of cotton candy, flavored foam, and bubble gum.

Sagittarius :: Sagittarius Rising
Contrast your wildfire in a backyard barbecue, and fuse exploratory urges with committed pragmatism as you chop, drink, and eat the entire contents of a coconut. Search out “on-the-go” snacks that are also protein-rich and grounding; think primal strips or Vietnamese bahn mi.

Capricorn :: Capricorn Rising
Experiment with a long, slow, proper mirepoix as the foundation for a nourishing meal. Infuse potent flavors of the natural world like garlic, onions, and ginger, that blend these cardinal signs’ self-sufficiency with Aries’ vigorous joy. Push against limitation and celebrate a little healthy excess with a chocolate box or sumptuous buffet.

Aquarius :: Aquarius Rising
Sink your teeth into stick to flavors that pair unexpected Aquarian tastes with hearty Aries foodstuffs. Think a falafel sandwich with tahini sauce and pickled turnips, or a grilling party with your tribe complete with exotic veggies.

Pisces :: Pisces Rising
This month’s energy speaks to fresh translucence and herbaceous flavors that blend Piscean fusion with Aries particularity. Think cucumber water, flavored honeys, or rose kombucha. Or enjoy a lime and chili paleta as you celebrate mutable melting and the self-contained strength to savor it all on the way down.

Elyssa Jakim’s monthly Temple of Venus column returns with some crafting inspiration to connect to your inner child this Pisces season. PLUS: a bonus video featuring a love potion!

It’s Spring! Well, almost. And I don’t know about you, but with the current swell of deep Pisces feelings I’m ready for creative play – and all I want to do is craft.

Over the last year, I have crafted more than since I was a scrap-booking sixteen-year-old. Teaching at Fairy School (an after school program for connecting children to their magic), I found myself making magic wands, fairy houses, bird-feeders, magic necklaces, and it was wondrous. Even cuter was how many of the parents exhibited a desire to craft too. “I want to go to Fairy School!” they’d say.

This is a perfect illustration of how crafting helps you connect to your inner child; to a sense of play and wonder. Crafting slows us down, asking us to consider just how sparkly that bead is, just how cuddlesome this fabric feels. It’s a meditative mindful practice that’s also easy and fun. Crafting invites us to re-enter our childhood mindset and to view each moment through innocent eyes.

This summer, Numinous founder Ruby Warrington and I created the Temple of Venus, a space that created room to explore the feminine. An essential component of this space was craft. We held flower crown and silk dying workshops that were full of giggles, music, sharing, and sisterhood. These events filled up, and I saw the women who attended leave with a sense of vigor and playfulness.

Healer Camilla Blossom Bishop pointed out to me that when we do craft projects, we nurture a deep feminine part of ourselves – our womb space, which is the seat of creativity in the body. Venus loves this approach to connecting to the unadulterated feminine essence, but it’s wonderful for men too, because we all hold feminine and masculine polarities inside of us. Even better, crafting is also a great way to get to know others, because you bond on a deep and innate level.

With that said, here are some easy-peasy, aesthetically pleasing, joyful and invigorating craft projects for you to try at home!

:: MAGIC WANDS ::

You will need:

Sticks (small pieces of driftwood are nice)
Glitter
Wood glue
Paintbrush
Thick paper such as cardstock

The magic wand is a Fairy School staple. This technique was invented by Maha Rose founder and Fairy School Teacher Lisa Levine and these wands will have you connected to your inner elemental in no time (the photo below is of the beautiful wands she makes).

Put the wood glue in an easy-access container like a glass jar (this way you can save and reuse it easily). Brush glue onto your stick in a stripe around the wood, starting at one end of the stick. Fold your cardstock in half and hold it underneath the stick you as a glitter catcher. Pick a color of glitter and sprinkle the glitter on the glued portion. Pick up your folded paper, gathering up the glitter that has fallen onto it, and siphon it back into the container. This saves a lot of glitter and keeps the colors from mixing. Repeat with another stripe. Repeat. Repeat. If you’d rather go off the grid and not do stripes, you certainly may. You can get extra creative and add strands of beads, feathers, flower petals, or anything else you fancy to your wand.

Note: stray glitter often abounds, so it’s a nice idea to do this craft on a tablecloth or newspaper and to follow up with a vacuum.

:: VISION BOARD ::

You will need:

Stack of magazines
Scissors
Glue
Poster board

Vision boarding is the ultimate girl time activity and a powerful manifestation exercise that gets you in touch with your desires – especially following a New Moon! But whenever I do it, I’m surprised by what my board reveals to me, and I exclaim (inwardly or outwardly): “Oh wow, that’s what I’m desiring right now.” For the vision board is a visual representation of your dreams — the things you want to achieve, obtain, and experience. It’s great to do this with a group of pals and let the love flow.

Start by flipping through the magazines and pulling images you feel drawn to. Then cut these into pleasing shapes and glue them down to your poster board. As I learned from Sara Goff who runs a group called Vision Board Soiree, there are two ways to do this:

1. Pull intuitively whatever images make you feel really good.
2. Know what you want on your board and look for those images.

Most people will find themselves tending toward 1 or 2 (1 Is more Ying, 2 Is more Yang). Make a conscious effort to mix up these two techniques and see what happens. You can also announce to your friends what you’re looking for – “I want a yacht!” – and have them help find it (this asks you to speak your desires aloud). You can also suggest an image to someone if you feel like it’s for them. This way, everyone interacts with each other’s boards.

If you get an image that’s almost right but you’re not sure, dump it. You gotta LOVE it like those perfect jeans. When your boards are completed, share them with one another, discussing your experiences and discoveries. I once did this with a bunch of art students and it was like a mini art history critique, but the most positive, supportive crit in history!

A Vision Board Elyssa made Last Year — *A Vision Board Elyssa made last year*

:: MERMAID RATTLE ::

You will need:

Small glass container with lid
Little bells
Yarn
Beads, shells, crystals, glitter, and any other things that you find pretty

Nature spirits (mermaids, unicorns, angels, fairies, dragons, gnomes) love when we sing to them, and this rattle will give your song an extra dose of magic. I just made one of these babies last week in a water healing gathering held by Camilla Blossom Bishop. Ours were mermaid themed, but you can use them for any element or elemental.

You can get creative with your container. Light blue and clear are nice, but even a salt shaker will do. Open the container you chose. Put beautiful tiny objects like beads, shells, crystals, glitter, feathers, and any other pretty things inside, but leave some space for them to move around. Shake as you go to assess the sound it creates, and adjust to your liking. Now close the lid tight. Tie a piece of yarn around the shaker at lid level and tie bells onto the ends. Send a loving intention to connect with nature spirits into your shaker. Behold, you are ready to rattle and roll!

:: MORE CRAFTY RESOURCES ::

If you’re looking to make a professional Flower Crown, check out my girl Rawan Rihani, founder of Aurora Botanica. She led a workshop at the Temple of Venus, teaching us that nothing feels more luxurious than a bed of fresh flowers in your hair—and it smells so good too! Okay I’m gushing.

Cara Marie Piazza is a genius of silk and dye-ing materials, and her workshop at the Temple of Venus knocked our socks off too. Silk and flowers together spell sensual feminine paradise and Cara’s joy for the art is infectious. Plus, the things she creates and teaches us to make are unspeakably beautiful.

And for something even more delicious, Alexandra Roxo and I give you two very simple recipes for love with this Valentines Video: featuring a love potion and raw chocolates.

Need more Venus inspiration? Check out Elyssa’s last Temple of Venus column on a Meditation for Manifesting True Love.

innocence

A SENSORY EXPLORATION OF ARIES SEASON

TEMPLE OF VENUS: CRAFTS TO CONNECT TO YOUR INNER CHILD

@NUMINOUS_BOOKS