Jeff Russell

Hi Jeff,

Here's an interesting yearly boast experience you might appreciate. I've been doing them for the past few years, very effective. Texas has (as of this morning possibly had) this odd loophole which made THC-A and derivatives legal; the low cost and ease-of-access proved too much, I become a complete lotus-eater when stoned, so my boast heading into calendar year 2024 was no more. That worked out great, and was quite effortless as well, something about "no, I'm under a vow" made it trivial not to indulge.

Fast forward to late Jan: "ah it's not a big deal, I can handle it, plus I'm no longer under a vow", which had an entirely predictable result. (I wish I could attach images because my rolling average weight tracking graph shows a neat 10lbs gain through mid-Feb, when I injured myself lifting.) And thanks to the magic of modern e-commerce, I got the astrological chart for the precise time I first bought myself a gram.

That matches my natal ascendant within about 10° but the really fascinating part is the Moon is transiting my natal Saturn: with Cancer on the 12th, the Moon accidentally signifies self-undoing, quite sensible that her own difficulty (fallen in Scorpio in the chart) and in the via combusta (15 Libra-15 Scorpio) would damage an already fraught natal Saturn placement, leading to the dissolution of bonds which should be in place (natural signification of Saturn) and eventual physical injury (Saturn's rulership of my natal 6th, house of illness and injury). Plus the very malignant Mars (afflicted in my nativity) there in the chart's 12th. Pretty cool (at least in retrospect).

Anyway I made a similar boast/vow at the start of the astrological new year and things have been going quite well in this domain since. So I like this practice, even for those who aren't technically heathens or are just heathen-adjacent.

Best,
Andrew