astrology

Cosmic Cocktails | Leo | The Mane Event

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Who just walked into the room–regal, grand, with a gravitational pull second only to the sun?

The Mane Event cocktail

It’s your friendly neighborhood Leo, most likely.

I’ve known many Leos over the years and, as shallow as it may seem, most of them can be easily spotted by their attention to their hair. It doesn’t always resemble the mane of a lion (though it can), but their hair will be one of the first things you notice about them.

The second fire sign, they have a bright, outgoing personality that exudes confidence, even if they don’t always feel it. Definitely great at the bluff or the fake-it-til-you-make-it when necessary. Generally friendly, the lion can be aloof until you pass their tests, but when you do they will be a generous friend, willing to give you the shirt off their back–or at least one like it–if they think you need it. In fact, like a lioness caring for her cubs, she might smother you with her generosity.

Of course, a cat can be fickle, as many a feline caretaker can attest, and wants attention when he wants it and not a moment before or after. Leos have the ability to want everyone’s full attention while simultaneously unable to keep their focus on any one thing, themselves. They are fabulous at organizing and can easily keep everyone in line with their charm.

The Mane Event

2 oz Mango Nectar
1 oz Cointreau
.5 oz Peach Schnapps
.5 oz Grenadine

Combine mango, Cointreau and Schnapps in a shaker over ice and shake, throwing in some fancy spins and shakes to entertain your guests, then strain into a fancy cocktail glass. Pour the grenadine over the back of a bar spoon and let it settle in the bottom of the glass. Admire your handy-work and sip proudly.

The two-tone look of this drink pairs the hue of fire with the rays of the sun. It’s a somewhat tropical drink, nice for cooling off in the summer heat of Leo’s July to August reign.  You can stir the very center just a little to get the grenadine to mix in a bit before drinking or drink the layers as settled, either way it’s a very tasty drink.

Cosmic Cocktails | Cancer | The Sensitive Soul

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When researching this week’s sign and cocktail the immediate thought I got, reading about the Crab’s nurturing and protective nature, was of a lioness protecting her cub, or an angry momma-bear.

Sensitive Soul Astrological Cocktail

Maybe it should have been a little more Finding Nemo and less Jungle Book (we are dealing with a water sign, after all), but the comparison is still there. Cancerians are very protective of the siblings and friends. They sympathize and empathize with alacrity and are very intuitive beings. They’re not selfless, however, and feel their own emotions just as strongly as others (if not more so). Real or perceived slights are felt keenly and they can get into a righteous funk to end all funks and lay on the guilt trip with a single look or sigh.

Mood swings? Don’t mind if they do!

That said, they make great mentors or caregivers. I can see them being fabulous advocates for children or animal charities, very compassionate souls.

All this sensitivity wasn’t giving me much to go on, drink-wise, so I had to cast a wider-than-normal net for intel. That’s when I found Celestial Living Arts and their handful of articles about food and astrology (usually I just take my cues from Parker’s Encyclopedia of Astrology). For each sign they have a food avatar and Kataka (the Sanskrit name for Crab, whereas Cancer is the Latin) is represented by the watermelon.

Oh, hello, inspiration, how nice to see you again!

CLA related these two because of the high water content of the food. To me it screamed a “wave” of water-ocean-beach-sand-summer that is particularly fitting for our Crab friends, so watermelon would be a key flavor. But what else? For their delicate sensibilities, peach was another must-use (bruise like a peach?), either as nectar or schnapps, and then all we needed was a good base.

The Sensitive Soul

2 oz Green Tea
1 oz Watermelon Schnapps
1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
1/2 oz Simple Syrup

Combine all ingredients in a shaker over ice and shake, imagining yourself one of the ice cubes being tossed about violently, crashing into your fellow ice cubes. Feel terrible for the ice cubes and decide to make it as a stirred drink next time, explaining in detail why you’ve made the choice not to shake your cocktails  to anyone within earshot, because feelings can only be sufficiently felt if they are shared with others.

Either way, strain it into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a wedge of watermelon.

Tea, being mostly water, as well as a soothing drink on its own, seemed an appropriate base for this deep-feeling sign. When I drink it, I get the watermelon up front with a slight undercurrent of peach, while Todd tastes it just the opposite. In fact, this was one of Todd’s favorite cocktails to date. He’s a Pisces, maybe it’s a water-sign thing?

Cosmic Cocktails | Gemini | Twist of Fate

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Gemini's Twist of Fate cocktail

Depending on which lore you go with, the story of the Gemini is either based on the Greek twins Castor and Pollus or the Babylonian friends Gilgamesh and Enkidu–either way, you’re dealing with a mortal and an immortal, a pair of like-minded souls.

All mutable signs (signs that cover a change of seasons–in the case of Gemini from Spring to Summer) represent at least a little duality or element of change.

For The Twins, a common name for Gemini, the idea is very much in there being two, together, and sharing of their twin-ness. Gemini are adept at communication and learning, love to people watch, talk to new people and really listen if there’s half a chance of coming across an interesting stranger, but they also play peace-maker or go-between a lot.

Being an air sign, Geminis exhibit a bit of free spiritedness, relish spontaneity, and have a youthfulness that lasts throughout their lives. They love being in the know (which can lead to them being gossips), and can hold their own in any conversation. Many actors and actresses are Geminis, well suited by their desire to never be just 1 sort of person, and a career in journalism suits a Gemini quite well, too.

My mother is, in many ways, a typical Gemini. (Though the claims to be a “cusp” since she’s near the end of the sign, which would be fine if the concept of cusps had any real standing, astrologically–if you don’t fit your sun-sign profile, check your chart for “the rest of the story,” namely your Ascendant. Frankly I think it’s just her Geminian habit of not wanting to be pinned down exerting itself.)

This also explains why we butted heads more than the usual mother-daughter kerfuffles. I remember one summer, she had come to pick me up from Auburn (I was there for a Rotary Model UN) and on the way home she wanted to stop and do all these little road-side adventures (very Gemini) and all I wanted to do was get home, already (stubborn Taurus)! When I do road trips? Even my side-trips are planned.

But back to the Gemini.

Every sign has it’s “good” days and “bad.” On a good day the Gemini is flexible and go-with-the-flow personified. On a bad day? They are flighty and inconsistent. On a good day the don’t pin me down mantra contributes to an independent spirit, and on a bad day it shows up as disloyal or unfaithful. On a good day they’ll listen to your woes and offer sage counsel, on the other hand they can just as easily tell the stories of others–sometimes in painful or embarrassing detail–in the name of “communication.”

This sign is also associates with the color yellow, and the flavor of aniseed (as well as caraway and marjoram). And while true Geminis would bristle at being tied down to just one signature drink, I present this sunny-hued libation in their honor.

Twist of Fate

2 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Galliano
.5 oz Limoncello
garnish with a red licorice whip

Combine the Galliano, limoncello and pineapple juice in a shaker over ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a red licorice whip, just to be contrary.

The flavor of the Gemini cocktail is a study in sameness and contrast. The pineapple enhances the sweetness of the limoncello while the notes of anise from the Galliano pick up the tart, and yet together they make a most brilliant yellow cocktail. Still, for those not sure about a licorice-flavored cocktail, be a bit adventurous and give this one a whirl as this really is a well-balanced drink and no single note stands out over the others. In fact, each sip is a slightly different blend, kind of like the Gemini from day to day.

Cosmic Cocktails | Taurus | Creature Comforts

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Creature Comforts Cocktail

With the exception of having a green thumb (I’ve killed rosemary, folks, and that’s one of the easiest plants to grow, or so I’ve been told), I am pretty much the quintessential Taurean. Both the good and the not-so-good.

Methodical, creative, loyal and proper, I have had my moments of greed, possessiveness, control-freakishness and, above all, stubbornness, though as the years go by I’m getting better about those last ones. I’m still not all that great with change, though, unless it was my idea to begin with or I’ve had time, privately, to react (aka freak out) and review the situation.

But this isn’t just about *me*, the preening bull has to be reminded from time to time…

An excellent example is Ferdinand the Bull, that old Disney cartoon about the bull that would rather sit under his favorite tree and smell the flowers rather than be all rough and menacing with the bullfighters. Until we get a bee sting in an uncomfortable spot, yup, that about sums up the typical Bull.

Lovers of comfort, those born under a Taurus sun are often very hospitable, generous to those we love, and willing to splurge on the finer things. It’s that love of the creature comforts that can sometimes lead to excess, and that can lead to sloth and gluttony, but an enlightened Taurean can resist the siren song for long enough to keep some sort of equilibrium. After all, a dessert is even better after a fabulous day of exertion, right?!

In the spirit of such hospitality and indulgence, today’s cocktail serves two.

Creature Comforts

3 oz Whipped Cream-flavored Vodka
2 1/2 oz Godiva Liqueur
1 1/2 oz Kahlua
1 oz Spiced Sugar Syrup
splash Rosewater
garnish of sugar crystals, chocolate whipped cream, and edible gold leaf

Rim 2 cocktail glasses with sugar crystals and set aside. In a shaker over ice combine all of the liquid ingredients and shake until nice and icy cold. Strain into the prepared cocktail glasses, top with some whipped cream and a few flakes of edible gold. Share with a friend.

What’s the perfect gift for a (female) Taurus? Roses, chocolates and something sparkly. Could I be putting in my own birthday request? (*ahem* 17 days away *ahem*) Maaaaaybe.

You have heard the phrase ‘subtle as a bull in a china shop,’ yes?

Cosmic Cocktails | Aries | Competitive Streak

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Welcome to April, Spring and–thankfully–the end of a rather hellacious Mercury Retrograde!

Today kicks off our new series: Cosmic Cocktails.

I’ll be spending the next 3 months creating a cocktail for each of the sun signs of the Western zodiac (what most folks thing of when they look up their horoscope in the back of a magazine or newspaper), starting with Aries and ending with Pisces towards the end of June.

Now I know that not everyone is down with the idea of horoscopes or the notion that the planets and stars dictating our lives. That’s not how I look it, though. I once read something very profound (probably over on MysticMedusa.com, a great source for astrological info) that went something like this:

You are not who you are because of when and where you were born, 
you were born when and where you were because of who you are.

Isn’t that a fabulous way of looking at it?  Taking this position makes it a more introspective, reflective, meditative outlook, I think, making the information divined from the stars, etc. work for me instead of the other way around.

But enough about that, how about a cocktail?

Competitive Streak

Since the astrological calendar restarts at the Spring Equinox, we are just in the beginning of the time of Aries, the go-getting, competitive, and easily-bored ram. Though they’d probably never cop to boredom, per se, they’d just act out and find something far more interesting to do, the rest of the office/class/community be damned.

 The Competitive Streak

1 1/2 oz Absolut Peppar
1/2 oz Pomegranate Liqueur
2-3 oz Coca-Cola (or your preferred brand)

In a mixing glass half-filled with ice, combine the pepper vodka and pomegranate liqueur and stir to thoroughly chill. Place a handful of ice cubes into a lowball or rocks glass and strain the chilled alcohol over the fresh ice. Top with cola and stir once or twice around to combine. Garnish, if desired, with a dried red pepper.

Of course, the garnish might be a bit too fussy for their taste, but I’m a Taurus, sometimes I like the fussy.

This is a bold, yet uncomplicated, cocktail, quite appropriate for our first fire-sign. They may have tried it on a bet, the first time, but the peppery flavor speaks to them and now they dare others to be man enough to give it a try. No fussy martini glass, either, a simple presentation is best.  But make sure your ingredients are of recognizable brands–it’s a sign of achievement and competition that generic or bargain brands just can’t meet.