12. boiling

My mind is balanced at the edge of a boiling pot - scalding, steaming, utterly transformative. Rather than pull back to the safety of tepid waters, I'm preparing to dive right in.

Let me explain...

In 2025, my mind, communications, and intellect are going through a cosmic death and rebirth and power upgrade. 

This comes as no surprise. Often when I make big decisions or feel a strong pull to make a change, I later discover that the stars are conspiring with me for my evolution.

In astrology there’s something called ‘major lifetime transits,’ which refers to dynamics between the planets in the sky and the placements of our natal charts. When the slow-moving outer planets come into a specific geometric angle relative to our chart points, a theme unfolds - or you can think of it as a lesson, experience, or chapter. 

For the entirety of 2025, Pluto in Aquarius is squaring my natal Mercury in Scorpio. The square is a tense angle of friction - like two cars ‘squared off’ at a 4-way stop, unsure who is going to move first. It precipitates action because of the tension it holds. In other words, it’s something that agitates us until we change. 

Mercury in Scorpio swims in deep, dark, emotional waters. Scorpio has little interest in the surface, but finds itself enlivened in the Borderlands, Underworld, Otherworld and liminal realms. Mercury - the mind, thought patterns, how we speak and communicate - doesn’t give a fuck about small talk when it resides in Scorpio, as it does in my chart, and it gets even more erotic, esoteric, and shadow-eating when it cozies up to Pluto, God of Hades, forming a fusion of a mind that roams the depths and flirts with the darkest part of the psyche. 

For my whole life, Mercury and Pluto have merged their powers in my mental realm, but in the year to come, they are being agitated by Pluto in the sky, who has just arrived to liberation-minded Aquarius, and is now challenging them to EVOLVE OR DIE. 

Or rather, die to evolve - because that is Pluto’s way. One of my astrology teachers, Heidi Rose Robbins, shared a poem from Rumi to express the nature of Pluto as a transformer.

The poem is called “Chickpea to Cook.” 

A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot

where it’s being boiled.

‘Why are you doing this to me?’

The cook knocks him down with the ladle.

‘Don’t you try to jump out.
You think I’m torturing you.
I’m giving you flavor,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.

Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this.’

Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life begins,
and the Friend has something good to eat.

Eventually the chickpea will say to the cook,
‘Boil me some more.
Hit me with the skimming spoon.
I can’t do this by myself.

I’m like an elephant that dreams of gardens
back in Hindustan and doesn’t pay attention
to his driver. You’re my cook, my driver,
my way into existence. I love your cooking.’

The cook says,
‘I was once like you,
fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time,
and boiled in the body, two fierce boilings.

My animal soul grew powerful.
I controlled it with practices,
and boiled some more, and boiled
once beyond that,
and became your teacher.’

Pluto is the cook. It’s medicine is the boiling. Pluto doesn’t give a fuck about our little human lives - it’s here to evolve the collective soul. 

Over the year to come, my mind is getting boiled like the chickpea, and the way I think, speak, teach, write, and communicate will not be the same.

I observed a synchronicity today which feels meaningful to me. The day the Pluto-Mercury square transits ENDS is EXACTLY ONE YEAR from when I sent the first message of this project. The day I graduate the tri-phasic transformative process of Pluto boiling my mind through a death - underworld - rebirth process - marks the exact fulfillment of the agreement I made with myself to explore creativity and connection in a new way. 

Coincidence? Absolutely fucking not. 

So, I’m encouraged today. Because of course I’m going to hate this project sometimes - I think it’s torturing me, when it’s actually giving me flavor, so I can mix with spices and rice and be the lovely vitality of a human being.