September 27th, 2015

It's the lunar eclipse tonight, everyone! Tonight is the Harvest Moon, "Super Moon", and Blood Moon eclipse all at the same time. It is also the end of a four-year astronomical cycle, called a tetrad. You may have noticed we've been having a lot of eclipses recently; two last year, and tonight will be the second this year. These four eclipses happen about every 11 years, and are significant to different groups for different reasons. 

Some Christians, who take the Bible more literally, consider it a sign of the Apocalypse, as noted in the New Testament. Apparently, there's also a pastor who's claiming that they represent the fulfillment of a prophecy in his denomination. 

The Inca believed that a jaguar attacked the moon during this time, staining it red, while the Mesopotamians believed that it was a sign their king was in danger of demonic attack, and so they would install a surrogate king for the length of the eclipse to bear the brunt of any injury. To the Hupa Native American tribe, of northern California, the belief was that the moon had forgotten to feed his pet mountain lions, and so they attacked him.  

On the Pagan side of things, eclipses can be considered an entire lunar month compressed into one evening, as the moon waxes, reaches full, and wanes as the eclipse occurs. Therefore, magick done during this time can really pack a punch, although one should be certain that one knows what one wants, as the effects can really be far-reaching. 

At this time, as this is the end of a moon cycle, and also of the summer season, magick is best centered around banishing and letting go. I know I'm planning to continue the work I began at Mabon, releasing old energies and moving past some things. I'm hoping to go out tonight and actually see the eclipse, but it's supposed to be cloudy all day, so I don't know if I'll be able to.

It should also be noted that while lunar eclipses are often called "Blood Moons" for the reddish color they turn as light refracts through the atmosphere, the general name of the October full moon is also the Blood Moon, and these events are not the same thing. 

September 16th, 2015

I'm very excited - I'm hoping to go to a group Mabon ritual this weekend with some community members and other students on campus!

The ritual is this Saturday at a nearby state park, and we'll also be enjoying a potluck dinner and maybe camping, although that will depend on site availability. I volunteered to help distribute food for the Cakes and Ale ceremony, and we also were asked to bring a piece of produce to put on the altar besides our potluck dish.

I'm planning to bring this red bell pepper; originally, I had just been going to get an apple or something, but the campus' sustainable garden was selling these today for $0.25 each! 

As for dinner, water signs (I'm a Pisces) are supposed to bring a vegetable/side dish, so I'm going to go to Walmart tomorrow to get some things for a salad. I'll keep you all posted!

August 24th, 2015

I had my first round of classes today, and on the whole, they went pretty well. I did spend a couple of hours doing homework this afternoon, but it luckily wasn't anything too stressful. I was able yesterday to read my new book from the thrift store, but by the time I finished it, I didn't get the chance to do a review. Hopefully I can bang one out in short order here.

Once again, the title of this was We'Moon '07: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn. The 2007 theme was "On Purpose".

This was a datebook and sort of almanac for the year 2007, but it also contained a lot of general astrological information, poetry, short stories, information on the sabbats, and lots of gorgeous illustrations. Interestingly, the calendar component also followed the lunar calendar, so there was that element of femininity to it.

Parts of this book were really great, and parts I was less interested in. The spelling of "women" as "womyn" threw me off a bit. I do have grapheme > color synesthesia, and any time the spelling of something is altered, it also changes the color of the word, so that was weird. They did it, they explained, to create a word etymologically separate from the word "men"; "women", "female", and etcetera are all obviously derived from words referring to the male gender, which the authors apparently found too patriarchal. I sympathize with the sentiment, but found their solution to read as rather contrived.

Besides that small linguistic criticism, I found it to be very readable, and actually more inclusive than I had been afraid it would be. Obviously the calendar was eight years out of date, but if this sounds like the sort of thing you'd want to look into, they are offering a 2016 datebook on their website here.

The message of this book, On Purpose, was really about intention, and using one's energies to focus on the future. A lot of the works asked, what can I, as a person, do to make the world a better place for future generations, and I think that's a message which still bears relevance eight years later. Much of the discussion was about the environment and climate change, but social justice was also a prevalent theme.

There was a poem about being gender-nonconforming, some art and a story by disabled women, works which crossed racial lines... In general, it struck me as being one of the more intersectional books I've come across.

I'd originally bought the book thinking maybe I'd cut out the artwork and do a collage or something, but now that I've read it... Yeah, I think that's just going to stay intact on my bookshelf.

A few other things from today...

That's my "back to school" picture outside the design building.

And then, I was able to pick some sage today!

I only got a couple of leaves, but remember that spiral garden I helped build last spring? Sage and kale were about the only things that grew, and there's a lot of them! I'll probably harvest more gradually, but I need to clean out another jar first.

Astrology, Party-Style

I was at my friend's graduation party last night talking to her sister and her sister's parents when I found out that her stepdad, Bob, is a huge astrology buff. It was really interesting to sit and talk with someone who had taken chart-drawing classes and owns ephemeris and everything. We had a fascinating conversation about it, and it was really cool to meet someone knowledgeable on the subject! I only dabble a bit myself; I can draw a basic chart, but nothing especially fancy. He, on the other hand, was clearly an expert and could tell all sorts of things about me even just as I told him what signs my planets are in.
I never expected to get drawn into a discussion of metaphysics at a grad party, but it definitely made an otherwise lacklustre evening memorable!

February 19th, 2012

I learned something quite interesting today. Apparently, Mars went into retrograde on January 24th, and will continue passing through this phase until June 19th. For those of you not particularly familiar with astrology, "retrograde" is when a planet appears to be moving backwards through the zodiac. When this happens, that planet exerts a particularly strong force on earth, and tends to create intense situations in areas that the planet rules. Mars dictates male relationships, physical challenges, and risk-taking inclinations, so during a period of retrograde, these may become more pronounced in one way or another, for good or for bad.

Currently, Mars is moving through Virgo, and will therefore increase introspective thought. Since we are also currently in the Tree Month of Ash, this is the ideal time to work on deciphering hidden motivations and inner truths. People with a mutable sign, including (obviously) Virgo, as well as Sagittarius, Pisces and Gemini, will be most affected by this period. This retrograde will also cause worries over weight, nutrition and healthcare. Therefore, people with jobs relating to the former may experience a period of instability.