Daily Stuff 9-26-16 Fall of Jerusalem

Hi, folks!

Wicca 101 at 7pm tonight!

When the sun hit the neighbor’s roof this morning, ouffs of mist curled up from it, billowing in the light breeze. Bright blue sky and plenty of sun and a good breeze. Enjoy it because at the end of the week things are likely to turn wet for awhile. Whether it’s the end of dry weather or just a warning we’ve likely several days of it coming. It’s 61F, but supposed to get quite warm today. It’s oddly humid, too, which is cutting down visibility, and we’re getting gusts in the teens.

Yesterday started a little frantic. I wanted to get the table cleared enough to use and spent several hours doing that and setting up the oats and greens pottage that was my big contribution to the potluck, yesterday. Tempus was whomping through cleaning and finding things and in between both of us worked on mail.

Pamela and John stopped by from the Valley yesterday. We haven’t seen them in quite some. They’re apparently selling duck eggs, now, and spent their “duck money” on some goodies!

The Project Day was mostly the Potluck which had borscht, along with the pottage and pickled eggs and cheese and such.

We stayed late into the evening. I was working on Championship stuff, since last night was the entry deadline. When we got home….10-ish, we both fell into bed.

So today we were *almost* late, but made it in by 11. I have clean-up in back and I’m going to try to add another batch of the oat pottage with less salt this time. I screwed up and added enough salt for a full pot when I actually did a 1/2! I want to get more harvest processed today, as well, and maybe some resins. We’re getting awfully low on the board. Of course Wicca 101 is tonight and Tempus is going to be working up at the house, too.

That’s some mint and nasturtiums from yesterday.

Photo by Ken Gagne on 9/25/16

Today is the anniversary of the day in 70CE when Jerusalem fell to Roman forces during the “Great Revolt”. The inhabitants were starving and had been for months, while the besieging armies crucified those who were tyring to escape, sometimes 500 in a day where the folks inside the city could see them. The walls were razed and the city burned to the ground. Some information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_War#Fall_of_Jerusalem

Today’s Plant is the Early Blue Violet, Viola adunca – Violet leaves contain more vitamin A than spinach, and a half-cup of leaves has more vitamin C than four oranges, but rhizomes, fruits and seeds are poisonous. Other common names include the hooked-spur violet, Cascade violet, sand violet and the western dog violet. Found on Wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_adunca or here:http://blogs.evergreen.edu/sustainableprisons/blog/2012/01/12/spp-plant-profile-early-blue-violet-viola-adunca/  Feminine, Venus, Water – Protects against malevolent spirits, brings changes in luck & fortune, wear to help with headaches, dizziness and to bring calm and sleep, wear in a green sachet to heal wounds.

The shop opens at 11am!  Summer hours are 11am-7pm Thursday through Monday, but as sunset is getting earlier and earlier pretty soon we’re going to shift to 6pm. Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

Waning Moon Magick – From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Remember: what goes up must come down. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 9/30 at 5:11pm. Waning Crescent Moon –Best time for beginning introspective magicks that are more long term (full year cycle) A good time for beginning knot magicks to “bind up” addictions and illness (finish just before the Tide Change of Dark to New) and “tying up loose ends” God/dess aspects – Demeter weeping for her Daughter, Mabon, Arachne Tyr. Phase ends on 9/26 at 5:11am. Hecate’s Brooch – 3-5 days before New Moon – Best time for Releasing Rituals. It’s the last few days before the new moon, the time of Hecate’s Brooch. This is the time that if you’re going to throw something out, or sweep the floors, or take stuff to Good Will, do it! Rid yourself of negativity and work on the letting go process. Release the old, removing unwanted negative energies, addictions, or illness. Do physical and psychic cleansings. Good for wisdom & psychic ability. Goddess Aspect: Crone – Associated God/desses: Callieach, Banshee, Hecate, Baba Yaga, Ereshkigal, Thoth. Phase ends at the Dark on 9/29 at 5:11am

As dawn brightens in the east, the crescent Moon wanes and steps lower past Regulus and Mercury on successive mornings. Early Tuesday morning the 27th, the waning crescent Moon is about 6° upper right of Regulus (for North America), as shown at right. Look 17° below or lower right of Regulus for Mercury.
Arcturus shines in the west these evenings as twilight fades out. Equally-bright Capella (they’re both magnitude 0) is barely rising in the north-northeast, depending on your latitude; the farther north you are, the higher it will be. Late in the evening, Arcturus and Capella shine at the same height in their respective compass directions. When will this happen? It depends on both your latitude and longitude.

Goddess Month of Mala runs from 9/6 – 10/2
Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – (MUHN, like “foot”)
Celtic Tree Month Gort/Ivy  Sep 30 – Oct 27 – (Hedera helix L.)
Runic half-month of Kenaz/Ken/Kebo – September 13-27 – Ken represents a flaming torch within the royal hall, so it’s the time of the creative fire – the forge where natural materials are transmuted by the force of the human will into a mystical third, an artifact that could not otherwise come into being. The positive aspects of sexuality that are immanent in Freya and Frey come into play at this time. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102 Runic half-month of Gebo/ Gyfu – Sept 28-Oct 12 – Gyfu represents the unity that a gift brings between the donor & recipient. It is a time of unification, both between members of society and between the human and divine. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Sun in Libra
Moon in Leo
Pluto Direct at 8:01am
Pallas (10/17), Neptune (11/19) Chiron (12/1), Ceres (12/9) and Uranus (12/29) Retrograde
Color: Silver

Harvest 9/25-27

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©2016 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright

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Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – Muin  – (MUHN, like “foot”), vine – The grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is a vine growing as long as 35 m (115 feet), in open woodlands and along the edges of forests, but most commonly seen today in cultivation, as the source of wine, grape juice, and the grape juice concentrate that is so widely used as a sweetener. European grapes are extensively cultivated in North America, especially in the southwest, and an industry and an agricultural discipline are devoted to their care and the production of wine. Grapes are in the Grape family (Vitaceae).

Muin – Vine Ogam letter correspondences
Month: August
Color: Variegated
Class: Chieftain
Letter: M
Meaning: Inner development occurring, but take time for relaxation

to study this month – Koad – Grove Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Many Shades of Green
Class: None
Letter: CH, KH, EA
Meaning: Wisdom gained by seeing past illusions.

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Tides for Alsea Bay
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Day        High      Tide    Height   Sunrise    Moon  Time      % Moon
~            /Low      Time       Feet    Sunset                                  Visible
M   26      Low   3:55 AM     0.3   7:09 AM    Rise  2:44 AM      25
~    26     High  10:28 AM     6.6   7:05 PM     Set  5:05 PM
~    26      Low   4:17 PM     2.3
~    26     High  10:06 PM     7.1

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – One does not learn by speaking.

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Journal Prompt – What does this quote say to you? – Not failure, but low aim, is crime. — James Russell Lowell

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Quotes  

~  To know that every moment — regardless of how it comes wrapped — is a gift greater than you can give yourself, is to be well on your way to a life without fear. – Guy Finley
~  Trouble is a part of your life, and if you don’t share it, you don’t give the person who loves you enough chance to love you enough. – Dinah Shore
~  Do your own useful work without regard to the honor or admiration your efforts might win from others. There is no such thing as vicarious merit. – Epictetus
~  Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing; do not stop, do not turn back, do not turn from the straight road. – St. Augustine

Let not mistaken mercy
Let not mistaken mercy
blind my fading sight,
no false euphoria lull me.
I would not unprepared
take this last journey.
Give me a light to guide me
through dark valleys,
a staff to lean upon,
bread to sustain me,
a blessing in my ear
that fear not assail me.
Then leaving, do not hold my hand,
I go to meet a friend –
that same who traced
compassion in the sand. – Nancy Hopkins

This is “National Volunteer Week.”   There are many ways to serve but this Bonus Track is dedicated to fellow hospice volunteers, though the poem is about the journey we will all make. There is a long story about the poem but this is the short version: I was called out one night to sit with a man who was dying.  There was a book of “Prayers and Meditations” on his nightstand.  I opened the book at random and this poem (by Nancy Hopkins) was what I found.  I have been unable to find the original source for it but I pass it to you as I found it. If you’re interested: http://www.panhala.net/Last_Journey.html

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Magick – Craft

MAGICKAL SACHETS – https://witchesofthecraft.com/category/magickal-sachets/

PROTECTION SACHET

Pulverize each of these herbs in a mortar:
• Lavender

• Red rose petals
• Bay leaves
• Marigold

Add 1 drop lotus oil

Place in a small black pouch and charge with magickal energy.

PROTECTION SACHET

Pulverize each of these herbs in a mortar:

• Lavender
• Red rose petals
• Bay leaves
• Marigold
  Add 1 drop lotus oil-

Place in a small black pouch and charge with magickal energy

Home Protection Sachet

3 parts Rosemary
3 parts Basil
2 parts Fennel seed
2 parts Dill seed
1 part Bay
1 part Fern
1 pinch Salt

Tie up in red cloth. Situate the sachet in the highest place inside the home.

Home Protection Sachet #2

1 part Fleabane
1 part St. John’s Wort
1 part Capers (dry them before using)
a few grains Whole Wheat

This formula, from ancient Middle Eastern magic, should be tied up in red cloth and hung over the front door

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Silliness – 

Daily Stuff 9-25-16 Pyanopsia

Hi, folks!

House Capuchin’s monthly Potluck is this afternoon. Be prepared for weird costumes and interesting smells!

The sky is beautifully blue! There aren’t nearly the number of small boats in the Bay this morning that there were yesterday. 56F and barely any wind. That might change this afternoon. They’re predicting a high of 77F, which is a little high for this time of year. Well, we’ll see. They’re also predicting a small chance of rain tomorrow evening and quite a good chance next weekend.

No one showed for Herbs, so Tempus and I just kept going with cleaning/tidying, putting back.

Carlie came in with her boys and I got to see the new fellow smile at me and try to hand me a foot (I love that thing that the little folks do!) The two older ones told me all about the new kitten and the school picture day yesterday. :-) We had another batch of folks in with some amazing ink, and a couple from Washington DC who are making a tour of the US over the course of this year and another set of young folks that have just moved to the area.

Tempus headed up to the house mid-afternoon and I kept going, working on embroidery patterns, talking with customers and finally sitting and reading once I ran out of spoons.

I’ve been up this morning, harvesting. I cut the beet greens, sorrel, parsley and salad greens, then harvested oregano, rosemary, basil, chives, thyme and sage. I’m intending to recreate an oat pottage that I saw on an episode of Secrets of the Castle.

Today’s feast is the Pyanopsia (Πυανόψια) or Pyanepsia (Πυανέψια) was an ancient Greek festival in honor of Apollo, held at Athens on the 7th of the month Pyanepsion (October). The name literally means “bean-boiling”. Various legumes were stewed and given to Apollo as a “ripener of fruits”.  A suppliant branch”, was also offered, that sounds almost like our Christmas trees, but it was left up for a year and then replaced. More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyanopsia

Today’s Plant is Salal, Gaultheria shallon. This is a shrub, an understory plant, that ranges all up and down the west coast, from Alaska to California. They’re an invasive in wild heathlands in Europe, having been introduced back in the 1800’s. There’s a big industry in Oregon, supplying the foliage to florists. The local peoples harvested the berries as a primary food source, drying them into cakes. They make a nice crunchy snack, dried this way or individually. The young leaves are edible, too. One, nearly forgotten use, is medicinally as an astringent. Mashed with some water, they’re a great soother for sunburn or insect bites, even working on yellow-jacket stings. It also works internally on an inflamed digestive tract from ulcers to diarrhea and a tea (simple infusion) will help with a dry cough. Eat the young leaves as an appetite suppressant.  – Feminine, Saturn, Juno – Use in spells as the medicinal uses, the appetite suppressant effect, particularly. This is an hardy herb, so it also can be added to spells for added duration. It also works in situations of emotional upset, particularly when there’s a sick stomach from stress. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salal

The shop opens at 11am!  Summer hours are 11am-7pm Thursday through Monday, but as sunset is getting earlier and earlier pretty soon we’re going to shift to 6pm. Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

Waning Moon Magick – From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Remember: what goes up must come down. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 9/30 at 5:11pm. Waning Crescent Moon –Best time for beginning introspective magicks that are more long term (full year cycle) A good time for beginning knot magicks to “bind up” addictions and illness (finish just before the Tide Change of Dark to New) and “tying up loose ends” God/dess aspects – Demeter weeping for her Daughter, Mabon, Arachne Tyr. Phase ends on 9/26 at 5:11am. 

Venus (magnitude –3.9) is low in the west-southwest in twilight. Look for it there starting about 25 or 30 minutes after sunset. About a half hour after sunset, you shouldn’t have much trouble spotting it very low in the west-southwest through the twilight, if you have a clear view down that low. But can you see twinkly little Spica >>>> 2½° beneath Venus, perhaps as twilight fades further? You’ll likely need binoculars or a telescope, the more so the farther north you live. Spica is only magnitude +1.0 compared to Venus’s –3.9. In other words, it’s only 1% as bright. (And that’s before the more severe atmospheric extinction for lower Spica.)

Goddess Month of Mala runs from 9/6 – 10/2
Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – (MUHN, like “foot”)
Celtic Tree Month Gort/Ivy  Sep 30 – Oct 27 – (Hedera helix L.)
Runic half-month of Kenaz/Ken/Kebo – September 13-27 – Ken represents a flaming torch within the royal hall, so it’s the time of the creative fire – the forge where natural materials are transmuted by the force of the human will into a mystical third, an artifact that could not otherwise come into being. The positive aspects of sexuality that are immanent in Freya and Frey come into play at this time. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102 Runic half-month of Gebo/ Gyfu – Sept 28-Oct 12 – Gyfu represents the unity that a gift brings between the donor & recipient. It is a time of unification, both between members of society and between the human and divine. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Sun in Libra
Moon in Cancer enters Leo at 6:48am
Pluto (9/26), Pallas (10/17), Neptune (11/19) Chiron (12/1), Ceres (12/9)  and Uranus (12/29) Retrograde
Color: Orange

Harvest 9/25-27

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©2016 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright

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Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – Muin  – (MUHN, like “foot”), vine – The grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is a vine growing as long as 35 m (115 feet), in open woodlands and along the edges of forests, but most commonly seen today in cultivation, as the source of wine, grape juice, and the grape juice concentrate that is so widely used as a sweetener. European grapes are extensively cultivated in North America, especially in the southwest, and an industry and an agricultural discipline are devoted to their care and the production of wine. Grapes are in the Grape family (Vitaceae).

Muin – Vine Ogam letter correspondences
Month: August
Color: Variegated
Class: Chieftain
Letter: M
Meaning: Inner development occurring, but take time for relaxation

to study this month – Koad – Grove Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Many Shades of Green
Class: None
Letter: CH, KH, EA
Meaning: Wisdom gained by seeing past illusions.

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Tides for Alsea Bay
*

Day        High      Tide    Height   Sunrise    Moon  Time      % Moon
~            /Low      Time       Feet    Sunset                                  Visible
Su  25      Low   2:52 AM     0.3   7:08 AM    Rise  1:42 AM      34
~    25     High   9:30 AM     6.3   7:07 PM     Set  4:27 PM
~    25      Low   3:10 PM     2.8
~    25     High   9:00 PM     7.0

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

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Journal Prompt – Auto-Biographical narrative – Tell about one of your parent/child activities.

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Quotes  

~  It’s a mistake to think we listen only with our ears.  It’s much more important to listen with the mind, the eyes, the body, and the heart.  Unless you truly want to understand the other person, you’ll never be able to listen. – Mark Herndon, Writer
~  And in the air are no streets, no channels, no point where one can say of an antagonist, “If he wants to reach my capital he must come by here.” In the air all directions lead everywhere. – H. G. Wells (1866-1946) English writer
~  Without danger you cannot get beyond danger. – George Herbert
~  Eschew surplusage. – Mark Twain

Listen to things more often than beings.
Listen to things more often than beings.
Hear the voice of the fire, hear the voice of the water,
Listen in the wind to the sighing of the bush:
This is the ancestors breathing.
Those who are dead are never gone;
The dead are not down in the earth:
They are in the trembling of the trees,
In the groaning of the woods,
In the water that runs, in the water that sleeps,
They are in the hut, they are in the crowd.
Those who are dead are not ever gone;
They are in the woman’s breast, they are in the wailing of a child,
They are in the burning log and in the moaning rock.
They are in the weeping grasses, in the forest and the home.
Listen to things more often than beings.
Hear the voice of fire, hear the voice of water.
Listen in the wind to the sighing of the bush.
This is the ancestors breathing. – traditional song from Senegal

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Magick – Heartwings Love Notes 177 Lessons In The Attic

Heartwings says, ” Being good to yourself means giving yourself the space to do what you need to do when you need to do it.”

In order to fill the days between when we sell the house and when we move, I have been spending time cleaning up the attic. Whenever I go there I am reminded of my mother and her accumulations. Once when I visited her I noticed six or seven irons bought at yard sales in her linen closet. When I asked her why she had so many, she said because they might just come in handy. I knew better than to try to argue. Now it is my turn to deal with the quantities of things that I have kept in case they might come in handy.

There are other things I would rather be doing. Yet because I am between homes, my life right now feels as though it is in limbo. I can’t pack up any more stuff because we are showing the house and it must not be disordered with boxes. I can’t move anything into the new house because we rented it back to the former owner for a couple of months while hers is being built. I have an unusual amount of free time with nothing special to do.

Normally I would use this free time to work on my creative efforts. However, whenever I think about writing a poem or working on my projected new cookbook I draw a blank. This is frustrating. With the exception of writing this column and Good Earthkeeping for our weekly newspaper, all my energy is focused into the moving process as well as on planning for the new house.

I am experiencing yet another lesson in being patient with myself. What is good is that as I give myself the space to do what I seem to need to do, I am able to relax more into what is happening without judging myself for it. In the past I might have tried to overcome my lack of creative effort. Now I let myself be and instead go clean the attic.

May you discover good ways to fill your time when you cannot do what you would prefer to do when you would prefer to do it.

Blessings and Best Regards, Tasha Halpert

Click here www.heartwingsandfriends.com/subscribe.htm  and receive your own free weekly Heartwings Love Notes by email or click here www.heartwingsandfriends.com  and follow the links to see Heartwings House, and see pictures of the interior and exterior as well as the gardens.

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Silliness – Light Bulbs – Q. How many Witches does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Into what?

Daily Stuff 9-24-16 In-Gathering

Hi, folks!

Herbs at 11am, Sewing at 3pm!

Sunshine poured into the sunroom from the east this morning. It hasn’t done that all summer, but the sun angle has changed just enough. I was out working on my herbs this morning for a bit and cut a lovely set of chives for baked potatoes later, noshed on some more raspberries and did a little weeding. Coming across the bridge there are dozens of little boats out in the bay, most having sprouted fishing poles. Fog is lifting from the hills and there are white puffies over the coast range, but the rest of the sky is clear except for some cirrus cloud. Only a little breeze ruffled my hair as we were going into the shop and it’s not enough to do more than notice, but it’s *chilly*! It’s only 52F and my dew-wet fingers got really cold.

Yesterday started in a haze of tired and didn’t get a whole lot better for me. Five hours of sleep after the paper run was *not* enough. I worked on my patterns as I had hoped. Tempus and I got the area for the Sabbat ready. I also tried working on the table in back so I could do Herbs today, but didn’t get very far so we’re in early today to deal with that.

I did a reading and we had some customers in. Nothing like summer numbers of course, but Tempus and I noted how many “landwhales” are migrating on the paper route, since they stay in some of the parks where we drop papers.

Later in the afternoon Tempus was doing some dishes while I was working on patterns again. I whomped through a bunch of the simple ones that I’ve done for years, turning them into vector art and then JPEG’s for use. I was alternating that with setting up newsletters, catching up.

The ritual started slowly. We were melting and tending fondues and then Tempus had to go pick up Lureya. We had fun. The foods were yummy, although we had to tend the fondues carefully and we finally all headed home around 10:30.

We’re early at the shop, so Tempus can make us a good breakfast and then we can work on clearing the work table and move the shelf unit that has been so much in the way. After Herbs he’s planning to work up at the house, probably getting some of the yard stuff shifted and maybe a load of boxes. I have a lot of herb work to do. The harvest is ready to be bagged and packed.

A Ken Gagne photo from 9/22/16 of Yachats Bay seagulls

Today is the Feast of In-Gathering in England. It is also known as Harvest-Home, Kirn-Supper or Mell-Supper. This is one of many feasts going on at this time of the year all across Europe and the US that celebrate the gathered harvest. The picture is a Polish Feast with a name that also translates as “Harvest Home”. The original link to this broke, but here is a Wiki article:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_festival

Today’s Plant is Miner’s Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata (aka winter purslane, or Indian lettuce). It’s a plant native to our area, growing and blooming in our soggy spring and drying out and dying back in the summer. I’ve seen in re-bloom in the fall. It’s a leaf vegetable that can be eaten raw or cooked like spinach. It’s really choice in salads and very high in vitamin C. It got the name because the Gold Rush miners ate it to prevent scurvy, since they really weren’t eating right. Like any lettuce or most of the salad greens it’s Feminine and Water, but as any high Vitamin C food, its planet correspondence is the Sun. – Sprinkling it inside the home brings happiness, so it’s good in floor washes or new home blessings. Carry it with you for luck and to protect from violence. Put it into sleep pillows or add to a dream catcher to keep away nightmares. I’ve actually slipped it between the mattress and sheets for this purpose. More here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miner%27s_lettuce More on the genus here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claytonia

The shop opens at 11am!  Summer hours are 11am-7pm Thursday through Monday, but as sunset is getting earlier and earlier pretty soon we’re going to shift to 6pm. Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

Waning Moon Magick – From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Remember: what goes up must come down. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 9/30 at 5:11pm. Waning Crescent Moon –Best time for beginning introspective magicks that are more long term (full year cycle) A good time for beginning knot magicks to “bind up” addictions and illness (finish just before the Tide Change of Dark to New) and “tying up loose ends” God/dess aspects – Demeter weeping for her Daughter, Mabon, Arachne Tyr. Phase ends on 9/26 at 5:11am. 

This is the time of year when the rich Cygnus Milky Way crosses the zenith in the hour after nightfall is complete (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes). The Milky Way rises straight up from the southwest horizon, passed overhead, and runs straight down to the northeast.
Mercury has jumped up to shine low as dawn brightens. Look due east about 45 minutes before your local sunrise time. Mercury triples in brightness from magnitude +0.4 on the morning of September 24th to – 0.8 a week later (October 1st). Don’t confuse it with Regulus 15° or 20° above it.

Goddess Month of Mala runs from 9/6 – 10/2
Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – (MUHN, like “foot”)
Celtic Tree Month Gort/Ivy  Sep 30 – Oct 27 – (Hedera helix L.)
Runic half-month of Kenaz/Ken/Kebo – September 13-27 – Ken represents a flaming torch within the royal hall, so it’s the time of the creative fire – the forge where natural materials are transmuted by the force of the human will into a mystical third, an artifact that could not otherwise come into being. The positive aspects of sexuality that are immanent in Freya and Frey come into play at this time. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102 Runic half-month of Gebo/ Gyfu – Sept 28-Oct 12 – Gyfu represents the unity that a gift brings between the donor & recipient. It is a time of unification, both between members of society and between the human and divine. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Sun in Libra
Moon in Cancer
Pluto (9/26), Pallas (10/17), Neptune (11/19) Chiron (12/1), Ceres (12/9)  and Uranus (12/29) Retrograde
Color: Black

Planting 9/23-24

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©2016 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright

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Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – Muin  – (MUHN, like “foot”), vine – The grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is a vine growing as long as 35 m (115 feet), in open woodlands and along the edges of forests, but most commonly seen today in cultivation, as the source of wine, grape juice, and the grape juice concentrate that is so widely used as a sweetener. European grapes are extensively cultivated in North America, especially in the southwest, and an industry and an agricultural discipline are devoted to their care and the production of wine. Grapes are in the Grape family (Vitaceae).

Muin – Vine Ogam letter correspondences
Month: August
Color: Variegated
Class: Chieftain
Letter: M
Meaning: Inner development occurring, but take time for relaxation

to study this month – Koad – Grove Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Many Shades of Green
Class: None
Letter: CH, KH, EA
Meaning: Wisdom gained by seeing past illusions.

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Tides for Alsea Bay
*

Day        High      Tide    Height   Sunrise    Moon  Time      % Moon
~            /Low      Time       Feet    Sunset                                  Visible
Sa  24      Low   1:41 AM     0.2   7:07 AM    Rise 12:42 AM      45
~    24     High   8:19 AM     6.1   7:09 PM     Set  3:42 PM
~    24      Low   1:51 PM     2.9
~    24     High   7:47 PM     7.1

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – To lie down and be discouraged is our temptation, but to hope and have faith is our wisdom.

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Journal Prompt – Wiki – If you were the ruler of the planet, how would you handle space exploration?

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Quotes  

~  Let your awareness flow around you, feeling out the shape of the world. – Kerr Cuhulain
~  Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its troubles…. it empties today of its strength. – Corrie Ten Boom
~  Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. – Einstein
~  Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish novelist, poet

Let the new heroes of the future not be the conquering, warlike, oppressors, but the farmers and growers who labor to provide food for everyone… who dare to lay down their swords to embrace forest food generation as an art, a gift and an intensely pleasurable occupation. ~ Pierre Soleil

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Magick – Recipes

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

• 1/2 c. wild rice
• 2 tbsp. margarine
  • minced leek (white part only)
• 1/3 c. minced celery
  • minced ginger root
  • diced mushrooms
• chicken broth
• Salt & Pepper

Cook rice; drain.  Meanwhile, heat margarine or butter in medium saucepan.  Add leek, celery and ginger and cook over medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and continue cooking until they get a bit soft and then add broth. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer, covered for 10 minutes.  Add rice and season soup to taste with salt and pepper.

French Cream of Mushroom Soup

• 1/4 c. butter or margarine
  • mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • shallots, finely chopped (about ¼ c.)
  • flour
• 1/2 tsp. each salt & dried savory
• Pinch white pepper
  • tomato paste
  • rich beef broth or 1 (14 ½ oz.) can regular strength beef broth
  • lemon juice
  • half and half
  • dry vermouth

1. In a 3 quart pan over moderately high heat, melt butter.
2. Add mushrooms and shallots and cook, stirring often, until mushrooms brown lightly and most of their liquid is gone.
3. Sprinkle with flour, salt, savory, and pepper.
4. Add tomato paste.
5. Stir mushrooms to coat with added ingredients.
6. Remove from heat and gradually blend in beef broth.
7. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.
8. Puree mushroom mixture in blender or food processor until smooth, mixing in lemon juice at end.
9. Return to cooking pan, blend in half and half and stir often over medium heat until steaming. Do not boil.
10. Taste and add salt if needed.
11. Add vermouth and serve at once.

Makes about 5 cups, 4 servings.

Mushroom Soup and Brie

• 1 1/2 lbs. fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 4 oz. butter
• 1 med. onion
• 1 minced shallot (if available)

Saute above ingredients.  Stir in:

• 1/4 c. flour
• 3 c. beef or chicken broth
• 1 c. port (or dry wine)

Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, cook 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups cream (or half and half).  Ladle into bowls.  Cover with slices of brie and run under broiler.  Serve with crusty French bread

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Silliness – Shit Happens – Home -> Humour -> Pagan Humour – By: Keitha (FireWind) Posted: March, 1999

Dianaic: Shit happens when men are around.
Norse: If shit happens, beat the crap out of it.
Feminist: Get in touch with your inner shit.
Solitary: If shit happens; Duck!
Eco-Feminist: We’ve got to clean up this shit.
Gardenarian: Shit happens in degrees.
Alexandrian: Shit happens because Gardner told us so.
Dabbler: We have ways of making shit happen.
Eclectic: We make our own shit.
Newbie: I don’t understand this shit. -OR- I like this shit.
Ceremonial Magician: No-one understands my shit.
Wiccan: You must balance your shit.
Witch: I can use this shit.
Druid: This is old shit.
Greek: Let’s drink to this shit.
Reconstructionist: This shit happened before.
Celtic: This shit keeps happening to us.
Modern Western: We’ll fight to keep our shit.
Fundamentalist: We know who to blame for this shit.
Priest: This shit happens every year.
Traditionalist: Don’t tell anyone about this shit.
Fam-Trad: I inherited this shit.
Visionary: Let’s smoke this shit.
Former Catholics: If shit happens, I’m not to blame, I’m not to blame…
Techno-Pagan: This shit always happens when I’m online.
Copyright Info: All articles by Keitha may be copied, posted, printed, distributed, reprinted, and linked to as long as the text is not changed, money is not earned, full credit is given to Keitha at www.glasstemple.com, and this notice is attached.
For all other uses, please contact me
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 2005 2006 Keitha. All Other Rights Reserved.

Daily Stuff 9-23-16 Neptune

Hi, folks!

Open Circle for Mabon this evening at 7pm! Witches’ Thanksgiving! Bring a dish that symbolizes your harvest!

As we came over the bridge this morning, clouds were tangling wispy veils through the trees in the Backbay and up-river. The sky is a blank grey and everything was shaking water droplets off onto me when I tried to go harvest some herbs. I decided to wait for tomorrow.🙂 It’s 56F and drippy. It should start clearing off tonight and we’ll have dry weather until the end of next week.

Yesterday was long. We spent time putting away stuff from the weekend. I caught up on paperwork and the Tempus had a drivers’ meeting for his paper route. He did a little shopping and napped before he started off.

Sewing was just two of us. Amy is working with a spool knitter, now, and I was embroidering. I kept on with that into the night, waiting for Tempus, but I was mostly setting up embroidery patterns on the computer.

Today we’re setting up for the Open Circle and the shop is open. I need to sort some herbs out and clear the work table so we can use it, but I want to get back to my embroidery patterns. Getting a little obsessed, maybe.🙂

Today in 1846 – Discovery of Neptune by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams; verified by German astronomerJohann Gottfried Galle. The planet was named for Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_%28planet%29

Today’s Plant is the Strawberry. We have two wild varieties out here, Wood’s Strawberry, Fragaria vesca, the Coastal Strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis, and of course the Garden Strawberry, Fragaria ×ananassa, which is a hybrid. The leaves of vesca have been used to make a tea to help with diarrhea and the whole plant is used as an anti-depressant, from flowers to leaves to fruit. – Feminine, Venus, Water, Freya (and many other deities) – Carry the leaves for luck, use them in love spells and sachets, sleep on them to dream of your love. Pregnant women should carry a sachet of the leaves during the last few months of pregnancy to ease labor. The berries themselves are simply an aphrodisiac, often combined with chocolate for this purpose. Yum! Wood’s Strawberry here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_vesca and Coastal Strawberry here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_chiloensis  Garden Strawberry here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_strawberry

The shop opens at 11am!  Summer hours are 11am-7pm Thursday through Monday, but as sunset is getting earlier and earlier pretty soon we’re going to shift to 6pm. Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Waning Moon Magick – From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Remember: what goes up must come down. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 9/30 at 5:11pm. Waning Gibbous Moon – Best time for draining the energy behind illness, habits or addictions. Magicks of this sort, started now, should be ended before the phase change to the New Moon. – Associated God/dess: Hera/Hero, Cybele, Zeus the Conqueror, Mars/Martius, Anansi, Prometheus. Phase ends at the Quarter on 9/23 at 2:56am. Waning Crescent Moon –Best time for beginning introspective magicks that are more long term (full year cycle) A good time for beginning knot magicks to “bind up” addictions and illness (finish just before the Tide Change of Dark to New) and “tying up loose ends” God/dess aspects – Demeter weeping for her Daughter, Mabon, Arachne Tyr. Phase ends on 9/26 at 5:11am. 

The W pattern of Cassiopeia stands high in the northeast after dark. The right-hand side of the W is tilted up. Look along the second segment of the W counting down from the top. It’s not quite horizontal. Notice the dim naked-eye stars along that segment (not counting its two ends). The one on the right is Eta Cassiopeiae, magnitude 3.4, a Sun-like star just 19 light-years away with an orange-dwarf companion — a lovely binary in a telescope. The “one” on the left is a wide naked-eye pair, Upsilon¹ and Upsilon² Cassiopeiae, 0.3° apart. They’re orange giants unrelated to each other, 200 and 400 light-years away.
Last-quarter Moon (exact at 5:56 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on this date). The Moon rises around midnight or 1 a.m. on the morning of Saturday the 24th. Once it’s fairly well up you’ll find that it’s in Gemini, with Castor and Pollux to its left. Orion is much farther to its right.
Algol is at its minimum light, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for about two hours centered on 11:19 p.m. EDT. Info and comparison-star chart.
Mars (magnitude 0.0) continues moving eastward away from Saturn (magnitude +0.5) and Antares (+1.0, below and a bit left of Saturn). Look south-southwest at nightfall. The triangle they make keeps lengthening. Mars crosses from Ophiuchus into Sagittarius this week. Look for the Sagittarius Teapot asterism to its left. In a telescope, Mars is barely 10 arcseconds in diameter — only about two thirds the size of Saturn’s globe, but much more brightly sunlit.

Goddess Month of Mala runs from 9/6 – 10/2
Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – (MUHN, like “foot”)
Celtic Tree Month Gort/Ivy  Sep 30 – Oct 27 – (Hedera helix L.)
Runic half-month of Kenaz/Ken/Kebo – September 13-27 – Ken represents a flaming torch within the royal hall, so it’s the time of the creative fire – the forge where natural materials are transmuted by the force of the human will into a mystical third, an artifact that could not otherwise come into being. The positive aspects of sexuality that are immanent in Freya and Frey come into play at this time. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102 Runic half-month of Gebo/ Gyfu – Sept 28-Oct 12 – Gyfu represents the unity that a gift brings between the donor & recipient. It is a time of unification, both between members of society and between the human and divine. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Sun in Libra
Moon in Gemini enters Cancer at 1:33am
4th Quarter at 2:56am.
Pluto (9/26), Pallas (10/17), Neptune (11/19) Chiron (12/1), Ceres (12/9)  and Uranus (12/29) Retrograde
Color: Rose

Planting 9/23-24

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©2016 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright

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Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – Muin  – (MUHN, like “foot”), vine – The grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is a vine growing as long as 35 m (115 feet), in open woodlands and along the edges of forests, but most commonly seen today in cultivation, as the source of wine, grape juice, and the grape juice concentrate that is so widely used as a sweetener. European grapes are extensively cultivated in North America, especially in the southwest, and an industry and an agricultural discipline are devoted to their care and the production of wine. Grapes are in the Grape family (Vitaceae).

Muin – Vine Ogam letter correspondences
Month: August
Color: Variegated
Class: Chieftain
Letter: M
Meaning: Inner development occurring, but take time for relaxation

to study this month – Koad – Grove Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Many Shades of Green
Class: None
Letter: CH, KH, EA
Meaning: Wisdom gained by seeing past illusions.

******

Tides for Alsea Bay
*

Day        High      Tide    Height   Sunrise    Moon  Time      % Moon
~            /Low      Time       Feet    Sunset                                  Visible
F   23      Low  12:29 AM     0.0   7:05 AM     Set  2:51 PM      56
~    23     High   7:01 AM     6.1   7:11 PM
~    23      Low  12:31 PM     2.8
~    23     High   6:33 PM     7.4

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.

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Journal Prompt – What would you? – What would it be like to be in a tornado?

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Quotes  

~  It’s surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you’re not comfortable within yourself, you can’t be comfortable with others.” ~ Sydney J. Harris
~  The greater part of progress is the desire to progress. – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
~  A man without wisdom is lacking in much. – Hamthesmal 29
~  While it is difficult to make absolute statements about right and wrong or good and evil, it is clear that if we are to progress spiritually there must be some general code of conduct that we can use to help us get started. When this code of conduct is broken, we may feel guilt or remorse and make efforts to amend our actions. – Mark Stavish

Lines For Winter

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself —
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon’s gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are. – ~ Mark Strand (Selected Poems)

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Mabon Magick – Crafts

Acorns! Chocolate Kiss, 2 cookies (small enough to fit the kiss as shown) a chocolate chip and icing to stick it all together!

Acorn Bells – Acorn caps, drilled to have a cord passed through, caps dusted with glitter in various colors. Thread a length of cord through the eye on a large jingle bell and tie. Keeping the knot between the bell and acorn cap, pull loop up through cap.

Mabon – Practical Craft: Weaving A Cornucopia – SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 – https://anoldpath.wordpress.com/category/mabon-2/ From:  The Wiccan Year By:  Judy Ann Nock Practical Craft

Weaving A Cornucopia

Mediterranean in origin, the symbol of the cornucopia was embraced by the Celts. An emblem of fertility, the cornucopia is associated with numerous deities in many pantheons. The Celtic horse goddess, Epona, is often depicted with the cornucopia. Her popularity and power is evidenced in how completely she was assimilated into Roman culture. She is also a goddess of grain and is frequently pictured with a dish of wheat. Embracing this goddess, who represented prestige, the Romans were quick to adopt her symbols, which are representative of abundance, and worship her.

Another Celtic deity who bears the emblem of the cornucopia is also one of the greatest and most ancient of the Celtic gods. He is Cernunnos, the horned one, the god of the wild woods. His horns link him to the agricultural cycle, for the horns of Cernunnos are the horns of the stag, and not the bull. The horns of the deer are shed in the autumn and sprout in the springtime. Cernunnos represents the forces of nature and prosperity. In sculptures, he is often seen accompanied by the cornucopia.

In the Roman pantheon, the cornucopia is the symbol of Flora and Fortuna. It represents the inexhaustible bounty of the fruits of the earth. In Greece, the horn of plenty was the horn of Amalthea, the foster mother of Zeus. The cornucopia is a perfect symbol of the harvest season. The craft of weaving also makes for a lovely meditation. The cornucopia will be a beautiful centerpiece for your harvest altar.

Most of the materials for weaving a cornucopia can be found in nature. You will need to collect three lengths of vine (wisteria, honeysuckle, grapevine, or any other woody vine would make a good choice), each about two feet long, and ten slender green twigs, about a quarter of an inch thick or less. The twigs should all be about twelve inches long and relatively straight or only slightly curved. You will also need basket reeds, which are available in most craft stores, usually sold by the coil. A single coil will be more than enough to complete this project. The width of the reed will depend on how thick the twigs are; select a reed size that is no more than half as thick as the twigs, or less. The reeds will need to be soaked prior to weaving or they will not be pliable and will snap. If basket reeds are unavailable, raffia is a good substitute. You can even use brightly colored yarn for a more festive and decorative final product. Whatever you choose, it is the intention behind the craft that will enhance its significance.

Gather your materials and spread them out in front of you. Hold your hands in the invoking gesture as you call to mind you successes and gains of the past year. Begin by tying the three equal lengths of vine together at one end using reeds or yarn, and then braid them. Bring the ends together to form a loop and tie them together.

Now make the frame for the cornucopia by wedging all the twigs through the center of the braid, far enough so that about an inch of each twig protrudes through the other side. The twigs should be equidistant around the circle. Bend the protruding ends over into a right angle. (This is why it is important to select green twigs so that they are supple; dried twigs will snap. You can also soak the twigs prior to assembly in order to make them more supple.) Gather the long ends into a point and lash them together with reed or yarn. You can pull the ends slightly off-center to give the frame a horn shape, or leave them as they are to form a cone.

Begin securing the frame by winding reeds or yarn in tight circles completely around the braid. When you come to each of the ten twigs, or “ribs,” wrap the reed or yarn twice around the twig where it meets the braid and then continue wrapping the circle. When you have completed lashing the circle, hide the end of the lasher reed by tucking it inside the rim. This will make the frame sturdier and the rim more attractive.

The reed or yarn that you choose to weave through the cone is called the weaver. Start near the rim with a long length of the weaver and hold it between your thumb and forefinger as you wind it tightly around the first rib, wrapping it in a complete circle. Move on to the next rib, pulling it tight, and circle the weaver around the second rib, and so on. When you have gone around all the ribs and are back at the beginning, tuck the starting end under the weave to hide it. Continue winding the weaver around the ribs, reciting a song to Adsagsona, the Celtic goddess of spells. Adsagsona is a powerful divinity of magic. Also called “she who seeks out,” she is reputed to be able to find the object of any blessing or any curse:

“Adsagsona, weaver of spells, who in all magic and mystery dwells, as I weave your cone of power, I call for your blessing in this hour! May our table ne’er be empty, but blessed by the horn of plenty.”

When you reach the tip of the cone, wrap the end of the weaver in a complete circle around the tip, making a loop. Thread the end of the weaver through the loop and pull it tight. Cut the final end to about a quarter inch and tuck it inside the weave. Place the finished cornucopia on your altar and fill it with offerings of the season: small gourds, vegetables, grains, dried herbs, or whatever you feel represents your devotion the best. Enjoy the beauty of the craft you have created and express gratitude for all of the gifts that the goddess has bestowed upon you.

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Silliness – Late Night Funny – In the debate in the House the other day on banning gay marriage, Democratic Tennessee Congressman Lincoln Davis said we should go one step further and outlaw adultery and make it a felony. Have an affair and you can go to prison. And you thought a lot of congressmen went to jail for bribery. How overcrowded it is going to be now?” –Jay Leno

Daily Stuff 9-22-16 Mabon

Hi, folks!

Blessed Mabon/Autumnal Equinox!

It’s pretty solidly clouded over. There were some sucker holes earlier, surrounded by white puffiness, but the clouds over the coast range looked ominous. There’s enough moisture in the air to limit visibility. 58F and only a light breeze, even down by the water.

Yesterday flew past. We didn’t get our anniversary dinner, just ran out of spoons in the early evening and gave up on the idea. We have the trip coming up in mid-October. We’ll celebrate then.

The shop’s open today and we have Sewing from 6-8pm. Tempus has his paper run after that and he’ll pick me up in the middle of the night, as usual.

My oldest boy posted this on Facebook. I’ve been giggling over it for two years, now! We need free-range salt!

Today is the Inuit festival for Sedna, the sea-goddess. She has many names across the Arctic cultures and much mythology, but in general she has strict rules for the harvest of her creatures and when hunting groups break her rules it is the job of the shamans to journey to her place beneath the sea. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedna_%28deity%29

Today’s plant is New Zealand Flax, Phormium Tenax. This is a very different plant from common flax or linseed, Linum usitatissimum. It is used mostly as an ornamental in the northern hemisphere, but at one time sustained a lively trade as a fiber. While the two plants are very different, they have similar magickal properties. These days the fiber is mostly used by paper artisans. – Masculine, Mercury, Fire, Hulda – Money spells, add to coins and carry, flax in the shoe averts poverty. For protection while asleep, add to mustard seed, put both opposite cold water. Protection from evil entering, scatter with red pepper by door. Health and healing rituals, sprinkle altar with flaxseed. More here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phormium For the traditional uses of the plant fiber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_flax

The shop opens at 11am!  Summer hours are 11am-7pm Thursday through Monday, but as sunset is getting earlier and earlier pretty soon we’re going to shift to 6pm. Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Waning Moon Magick – From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Remember: what goes up must come down. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 9/30 at 5:11pm. Waning Gibbous Moon – Best time for draining the energy behind illness, habits or addictions. Magicks of this sort, started now, should be ended before the phase change to the New Moon. – Associated God/dess: Hera/Hero, Cybele, Zeus the Conqueror, Mars/Martius, Anansi, Prometheus. Phase ends at the Quarter on 9/23 at 2:56am.

Autumn begins in the Northern Hemisphere, and spring in the Southern Hemisphere, at the equinox: 10:21 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (14:21 UT). This is when the Sun crosses the equator heading south for the season.
Coincidentally, every year when summer turns to fall, Deneb takes over from brighter Vega as the zenith star around the time when twilight fades into night (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes).
Uranus (magnitude 5.7, in Pisces) and Neptune (magnitude 7.8, in Aquarius) are well up by 11 p.m. in the east-southeast and south, respectively. Info and finder charts. Neptune was at opposition September 2nd. Uranus comes to opposition October 15th.

Goddess Month of Mala runs from 9/6 – 10/2
Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – (MUHN, like “foot”)
Celtic Tree Month Gort/Ivy  Sep 30 – Oct 27 – (Hedera helix L.)
Runic half-month of Kenaz/Ken/Kebo – September 13-27 – Ken represents a flaming torch within the royal hall, so it’s the time of the creative fire – the forge where natural materials are transmuted by the force of the human will into a mystical third, an artifact that could not otherwise come into being. The positive aspects of sexuality that are immanent in Freya and Frey come into play at this time. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Sun in Virgo enters Libra at 7:21am.
Moon in Gemini
Mercury Directs at 10:31am.
Pluto (9/26), Pallas (10/17), Neptune (11/19) Chiron (12/1), Ceres (12/9)  and Uranus (12/29) Retrograde
Color: Green

Harvest 9/21-22

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©2016 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright

******

Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – Muin  – (MUHN, like “foot”), vine – The grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is a vine growing as long as 35 m (115 feet), in open woodlands and along the edges of forests, but most commonly seen today in cultivation, as the source of wine, grape juice, and the grape juice concentrate that is so widely used as a sweetener. European grapes are extensively cultivated in North America, especially in the southwest, and an industry and an agricultural discipline are devoted to their care and the production of wine. Grapes are in the Grape family (Vitaceae).

Muin – Vine Ogam letter correspondences
Month: August
Color: Variegated
Class: Chieftain
Letter: M
Meaning: Inner development occurring, but take time for relaxation

to study this month – Koad – Grove Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Many Shades of Green
Class: None
Letter: CH, KH, EA
Meaning: Wisdom gained by seeing past illusions.

******

Tides for Alsea Bay
*

Day        High      Tide    Height   Sunrise    Moon  Time      % Moon
~            /Low      Time       Feet    Sunset                                  Visible
Th  22     High   5:47 AM     6.4   7:04 AM     Set  1:52 PM      68
~    22      Low  11:22 AM     2.3   7:13 PM    Rise 11:46 PM
~    22     High   5:27 PM     7.8

******

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – I forgive my mistakes and live on.

******

Journal Prompt – What does this quote say to you? – “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” — Albert Einstein

******

Quotes  

~  Character is much easier to be kept than recovered. – Thomas Paine
~  Do it big, do it right and do it with style – Fred Astaire
~  If there are two possible ways to spell a person’s name, you will pick the wrong one. – Second Law of Business Meetings, Corollary – If there is only one way to spell a name, you will spell it wrong anyway.
~  Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you. – Denis Waitley

LOST IN PARADISE

I think that the only way
I could have loving time with you
Would be if we were lost, alone
On a far island paradise
With no chance of escape.

And even then, cold one,
You’d find a way to isolate
Or view me as your servant only
Instead of the vibrant woman
That I am.

There’s a part of me
That will always care for you
Because we shared a long past.
But I certainly know you well,
And you disgust me. – © September 16, 2008, Beth Clare Johnson (Mystic Amazon)

******

Mabon Magick – Studies/Lore – Mabon – more at:  http://www.crystalinks.com/autumn.html

The Autumn Equinox is the time when Mabon is celebrated.

Mabon is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of American Neopaganism. It is celebrated on the autumn equinox, which in the northern hemisphere is circa September 21 and in the southern hemisphere is circa March 21. Also called Harvest Home, this holiday is a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the Earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and God during the winter months. Among the sabbats, it is the second of the three harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas and followed by Samhain.

Mabon was not an authentic ancient festival either in name or date. The autumn equinox was not celebrated in Celtic countries, while all that is known about Anglo-Saxon customs of that time was that September was known as haleg-monath or ‘holy month’.

The name Mabon has only been applied to the neopagan festival of the autumn equinox very recently; the term was invented by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s as part of a religious studies project.

Previously, in Gardnerian Wicca the festival was simply known as the Autumnal Equinox, and many neopagans still refer to it as such, or use alternative titles such as the neo-Druidical Aban Efed, a term invented by Iolo Morgannwg.

The name Mabon was chosen to impart a more authentic-sounding Celtic feel to the event, since all the other festivals either had names deriving from genuine tradition, or had had names grafted on to them. The Spring Equinox had already been misleadingly termed Ostara, and so only the Autumn Equinox was left with a technical rather than an evocative title. Accordingly, the name Mabon was given to it, having been drawn (seemingly at random) from Welsh mythology.

The use of the name Mabon is much more prevalent in America than Britain, where many neopagans are scornfully dismissive of it as a blatantly inauthentic practice. The increasing number of American Neopagan publications sold in Britain by such publishers as Llewellyn has however resulted in some British neopagans adopting the term.

The Druids call this celebration, Mea’n Fo’mhair, and honor the The Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering libations to trees. Offerings of ciders, wines, herbs and fertilizer are appropriate at this time. Wiccans celebrate the aging Goddess as she passes from Mother to Crone, and her consort the God as he prepares for death and re-birth.

Various other names for this Lesser Wiccan Sabbat are The Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Feast of Avalon, Equinozio di Autunno (Strega), Alben Elfed (Caledonii), or Cornucopia. The Teutonic name, Winter Finding, spans a period of time from the Sabbat to Oct. 15th, Winter’s Night, which is the Norse New Year.

At this festival it is appropriate to wear all of your finery and dine and celebrate in a lavish setting. It is the drawing to and of family as we prepare for the winding down of the year at Samhain. It is a time to finish old business as we ready for a period of rest, relaxation, and reflection.

Other names for this Lesser Wiccan Sabbat are The Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Feast of Avalon, Equinozio di Autunno (Strega), Alben Elfed (Caledonii), or Cornucopia. The Teutonic name, Winter Finding, spans a period of time from the Sabbat to Oct. 15th, Winter’s Night, which is the Norse New Year.

Symbolism of Mabon:
Second Harvest, the Mysteries, Equality and Balance.

Symbols of Mabon:
wine, gourds, pine cones, acorns, grains, corn, apples, pomegranates, vines such as ivy, dried seeds, and horns of plenty.

Herbs of Mabon:
Acorn, benzoin, ferns, grains, honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, myrrh, passion flower, rose, sage, solomon’s seal, tobacco, thistle, and vegetables.

Foods of Mabon:
Breads, nuts, apples, pomegranates, and vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and onions.

Incense of Mabon:
Autumn Blend-benzoin, myrrh, and sage.

Colors of Mabon:
Red, orange, russet, maroon, brown, and gold.

Stones of Mabon:
Sapphire, lapis lazuli, and yellow agates.

Activities of Mabon:
Making wine, gathering dried herbs, plants, seeds and seed pods, walking in the woods, scattering offerings in harvested fields, offering libations to trees, adorning burial sites with leaves, acorns, and pine cones to honor those who have passed over.

Spellworkings of Mabon:
Protection, prosperity, security, and self-confidence. Also those of harmony and balance.

Mabon is considered a time of the Mysteries. It is a time to honor Aging Deities and the Spirit World. Considered a time of balance, it is when we stop and relax and enjoy the fruits of our personal harvests, whether they be from toiling in our gardens, working at our jobs, raising our families, or just coping with the hussle-bussle of everyday life.

Deities of Mabon:
Goddesses: Modron, Morgan, Epona, Persephone, Demeter, Pamona and the Muses.
Gods: Thoth, Thor, Hermes, and The Green Man.

******

Silliness – 

Daily Stuff 9-21-16 Milk Miracle

Hi, folks!

Last Minus tide of the cycle at 11:24 PM of -0.3 feet.

It’s hazily sunny. 61F, very little breeze, but a lot of moisture in the air. It makes the sunshine not as bright and I think there’s a little cloud up there…more like lifted fog than cloud.

Yesterday went by in a blur. I had so much writing to do that it was 5pm before I even thought about lunch and it was past midnight before I was done enough to get by on! So here’s the link about the weekend – http://wp.me/p6tYq4-1t6 . I still need to get the pointers up for that. Most of the other writing was answering questions and making suggestions.

It was Tempus and my 28th anniversary, too, but we didn’t get our regular anniversary dinner due to timing, so we’re going to do that this afternoon as soon as I’m doing going through mail. Head back home, dress up and head out. Still no idea where we’re going!

I stayed at the shop until Tempus was done with his paper run. I usually go with him on the last part and we head straight home, but my back was giving me enough to think about that I decided to stay home and write and eventually start processing pictures.

Beautiful pic of a meditation spot. http://www.elephantjournal.com

Today is the 21st anniversary of the Milk Miracle, the day that statues of Ganesha and others of his family drank milk. There’s no consensus reality explanation for something like this. It’s just a ….miracle…. http://www.crystalinks.com/milkmiracle.html  I like the contention of many people that a miracle of this sort presages the coming of a new Teacher. That’s hopeful.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_milk_miracle

Svarog’s Holiday – Ruen (September) 21 – This is the Autumnal Equinox, the day of the God of Fire and the Sky. This is the day to drink mead and honor Svarog.

Today’s Plant is Yarrow, Achillea millefolium. This plant is often called woundwort or nosebleed because of its clotting properties and is used for fevers and infections because it has salicylates (aspirin) in it. The young leaves can be eaten and it becomes and aid to vision-work. It’s easy to grow and makes a great companion plant. We have mostly the pacifica and californica varieties out here. – Feminine, Venus, Water. Exorcism – Wear to protect – hold in hand to stop fear – hang over bed for lasting love – carry for love and bring friends and contact with relatives. Flower – Feminine, Venus, Water – flowers made into tea for psychic power, Exorcism, protection, stop fear, lasting love. More info here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarrow

The shop is closed on Tuesday/Wednesday. Summer hours are 11am-7pm Thursday through Monday, but as sunset is getting earlier and earlier pretty soon we’re going to shift to 6pm. Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Waning Moon Magick – From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Remember: what goes up must come down. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 9/30 at 5:11pm. Waning Gibbous Moon – Best time for draining the energy behind illness, habits or addictions. Magicks of this sort, started now, should be ended before the phase change to the New Moon. – Associated God/dess: Hera/Hero, Cybele, Zeus the Conqueror, Mars/Martius, Anansi, Prometheus. Phase ends at the Quarter on 9/23 at 2:56am.

As summer ends, the Sagittarius Teapot moves west of due south during evening and tips increasingly far over, as if pouring out the last of summer.
At Saturn, the Cassini mission has just begun its dramatic final year. See NASA press release.

Goddess Month of Mala runs from 9/6 – 10/2
Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – (MUHN, like “foot”),
Runic half-month of Kenaz/Ken/Kebo – September 13-27 – Ken represents a flaming torch within the royal hall, so it’s the time of the creative fire – the forge where natural materials are transmuted by the force of the human will into a mystical third, an artifact that could not otherwise come into being. The positive aspects of sexuality that are immanent in Freya and Frey come into play at this time. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Sun in Virgo
Moon in Gemini
Mercury (9/22), Pluto (9/26), Pallas (10/17), Neptune (11/19) Chiron (12/1), Ceres (12/9)  and Uranus (12/29) Retrograde
Color: White

Harvest 9/21-22

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©2016 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright

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Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – Muin  – (MUHN, like “foot”), vine – The grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is a vine growing as long as 35 m (115 feet), in open woodlands and along the edges of forests, but most commonly seen today in cultivation, as the source of wine, grape juice, and the grape juice concentrate that is so widely used as a sweetener. European grapes are extensively cultivated in North America, especially in the southwest, and an industry and an agricultural discipline are devoted to their care and the production of wine. Grapes are in the Grape family (Vitaceae).

Muin – Vine Ogam letter correspondences
Month: August
Color: Variegated
Class: Chieftain
Letter: M
Meaning: Inner development occurring, but take time for relaxation

to study this month – Koad – Grove Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Many Shades of Green
Class: None
Letter: CH, KH, EA
Meaning: Wisdom gained by seeing past illusions.

******

Tides for Alsea Bay
*

Day        High      Tide    Height   Sunrise    Moon  Time      % Moon
~            /Low      Time       Feet    Sunset                                  Visible
W   21     High   4:40 AM     6.8   7:03 AM     Set 12:47 PM      78
~    21      Low  10:25 AM     1.7   7:15 PM    Rise 10:54 PM
~    21     High   4:31 PM     8.1
~    21      Low  11:24 PM    -0.3

******

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – There are two classes of people–those who have ulcers and those who give them.

******

Journal Prompt – Personal Interests and Experiences – Who in your family is the biggest character?

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Quotes  

~  He was wrong to think he could now forget that the big, hard, oily, dirty, rainbow-hung Earth on which he lived was a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot lost in the unimaginable infinity of the Universe. – Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
~  Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn’t have to experience it. – Max Frisch
~  Self-respect is a product of doing difficult things, and doing them well. – George Bernard Shaw.
~  Difference is the normal state of affairs in the world, not conformity. – Kerr Cuhulain

Let nobody think that Americans are incapable of facing this foe and defeating him…. We shall rise to this. We shall take our revenge. We shall absorb these blows, and strike back a hundred times harder. Let America’s enemies crow today: Tomorrow they will tremble, and weep. – John Derbyshire

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Mabon Magick – Bringing Autumn Magic In – Granny’s Herbals – Adapted from Witch in the Kitchen, by Cait Johnson (Inner Traditions, 2001).

There’s nothing more luscious than inviting nature indoors in the Fall: the
brilliant colors of Autumn make our homes feel deliciously warm and cozy as
the weather turns cooler. Changing leaves, swags of grapevine, and
vibrantly-colored apples and squashes make gorgeous, inexpensive decorations.

Find out how to connect with the abundant bounty and beauty of this harvest
season with these fun, easy tips for decorating with nature.

1. Preserve some colorful leaves. You can iron them between sheets of waxed paper, microwave them for a few seconds, put them in a solution of glycerin, or press them between the pages of a heavy book. Then you can apply them to backsplashes, place them artfully in a vase, mound them around a pile of gourds or squashes, or even use them as coasters for your favorite beverages.
2. Food is art. Find a local Farmer’s Market or roadside stand and load up on apples, pears, pumpkins, decorative squashes, nuts, gourds, and Native American corn. A simple wooden bowl loaded with these treasures makes an abundant centerpiece. You can parade them in a line on a mantel-piece or pile them in a basket. What you don’t eat, you can enjoy looking at.
3. Other treasures. Bring in grapevines to twine along the countertops, or make wreaths for doors or cabinets (see our article on making your own Inner Harvest Wreath). If you live in an area where bittersweet is not a protected plant, harvest some to put in an earthen vase Corn shocks are traditional to stand beside a door, but broom corn makes a beautiful and less usual alternative with its graceful russet fronds.
4. Beeswax candles. The amber color and honey-sweet aroma of these safe, all-natural candles just evoke the golden glow of autumn. As the days get shorter, it can be a soothing ritual to burn a beeswax candle at dusk.
5. Echo Fall colors. Bring in the Autumn hues of russet-red, vibrant shades of orange, deep greens, mellow golds, wine-reds, and vivid scarlet with cushions, towels, scatter-rugs, or other decorative accents. My family has a brightly-colored autumn leaf potholder and a set of pumpkin-shaped mugs that we use with pleasure year after year. Find the simple treasures your family will enjoy.
6. Try this creative and relaxing Leaf Meditation. Find a perfect autumn leaf and spend some time really looking at it, noticing the variations in color and shape. Trace its outline on a piece of paper, then try your hand at coloring it in with colored pencils, markers, or paints. Slowing down and taking time to savor the beauty of something as simple and commonplace as a leaf opens our eyes and hearts to nature’s magical variety. You may want to cut your colored leaf out and glue it on the cover of a journal to keep you company throughout the autumn months. Or do several leaves to decorate your cabinets or walls!
7. Think water. Western European traditions often associate Autumn with the element of water, since it is a time of deep feeling and flowing away: birds migrate, trees shed their leaves. Honor this ancient idea with a bowl of water in a special place. Notice how water evaporates. As you refill your bowl throughout the autumn months, give a little thought to your own feelings, and the things that you are in the process of releasing from your life.

)0( Granny’s Herb Course http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GrannysHerbs/

******

Silliness – Light Bulbs – Q: How many atheists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: None, they are never in the dark

Daily Stuff 9-20-16 Eleusinian Mysteries

Hi, folks!

Minus tide at 10:25 PM of -0.5 feet.

It’s bright and sunny and *chilly* with the door open! …and it’s early afternoon! It’s supposed to be in the 40’s tonight and foggy. I think fall just might be trying to show up. 57F and a light breeze and clear, although there was mist earlier limiting visibility.

My day yesterday went completely sideways on me. I got no time at all the write. I actually had to set this newsletter up this morning, which is part of why it’s later than usually coming out. Mary Cedarwolf brought her brother for a visit, which was lovely, and we talked for several hours. A friend from the historical recreation group stopped on her way home from the event and that was another couple of hours of talking things over. I scrambled around getting ready for class and that was the rest of the evening and by then I was pooped enough that all I managed was catching up on mail.

Today is Tempus and my wedding anniversary. We’re supposed to go out to dinner tonight, but right now he’s working with a customer who came in when neither of us was paying attention, so he’s talking with him.🙂 …and I have a *ton* of mail, as well as the writing that needs to get done, yet. I have an interesting life!🙂

Love this pendant! No, not carrying it. <sigh>

Today’s Feast is the day when the initiates entered the Telesterion during the Eleusinian Mysteries. This was the climax of the rite where the triple ear of wheat was shown. The Mysteries endured for centuries only to be stamped out at the end of the 4th century CE.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleusinian_Mysteries

Today’s Plant is Stinging Nettle, Urtica Dioica,otherwise known as, “Ouch!!!!” Grab a handful of this plant and you will know it. There are lots of hollow “hairs” on this plant that act like tiny hypodermics, injecting histamine, among other stinging chemicals. There’s even a name for a type of allergic reaction called, “nettlerash”, that picked up the word from the characteristic pattern of itchy bumps. This plant has been used for food, medicine, fabric and magic for millenia. It is used as a pot herb and is one of the vegetables with the highest protein content. If you soak it in water or cook it the stings go away. In medicine it has been used to treat arthritis, dandruff and lack of milk in a nursing mother. The fibers are suitable for making fabric and a related species has been used for over 6000 years to make a silky-looking textile called ramie, even though the processing takes a lot of effort. They are even used to make beer and cordials! – Masculine, Mars, Fire, Thor – Exorcism – for getting rid of nasty-minded Fae, plant nettles around your garden and barn. Protection – nettles in a pocket will keep a person safe from lightning and bestow courage. Nettles kept in a room will protect anyone inside. Lust – Nettles are reputed to enhance fertility in men and nettle tea is an aphrodisiac. Healing – fever can be dispelled by plucking a nettle up by its roots while reciting the names of the sick person and family. …and shirts made of fabric spun and woven from nettles feature as a girl’s quest tale in the Twelve Wild Swans.

The shop is closed on Tuesday/Wednesday. Summer hours are 11am-7pm Thursday through Monday, but as sunset is getting earlier and earlier pretty soon we’re going to shift to 6pm. Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Waning Moon Magick – From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Remember: what goes up must come down. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 9/30 at 5:11pm. Waning Gibbous Moon – Best time for draining the energy behind illness, habits or addictions. Magicks of this sort, started now, should be ended before the phase change to the New Moon. – Associated God/dess: Hera/Hero, Cybele, Zeus the Conqueror, Mars/Martius, Anansi, Prometheus. Phase ends at the Quarter on 9/23 at 2:56am.

This is the time of year when, during the evening, the dim Little Dipper “dumps water” into the bowl of the Big Dipper way down below. The Big Dipper will dump it back in the evenings of spring.
Mars (magnitude 0.0) continues moving eastward away from Saturn (magnitude +0.5) and Antares (+1.0, below and a bit left of Saturn). Look south-southwest at nightfall. The triangle they make keeps lengthening. Mars crosses from Ophiuchus into Sagittarius this week. Look for the Sagittarius Teapot asterism to its left. In a telescope, Mars is barely 10 arcseconds in diameter — only about two thirds the size of Saturn’s globe, but much more brightly sunlit.

Goddess Month of Mala runs from 9/6 – 10/2
Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – (MUHN, like “foot”),
Runic half-month of Kenaz/Ken/Kebo – September 13-27 – Ken represents a flaming torch within the royal hall, so it’s the time of the creative fire – the forge where natural materials are transmuted by the force of the human will into a mystical third, an artifact that could not otherwise come into being. The positive aspects of sexuality that are immanent in Freya and Frey come into play at this time. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Sun in Virgo
Moon in Taurus enters Gemini at 10:53pm
Mercury (9/22), Pluto (9/26), Pallas (10/17), Neptune (11/19) Chiron (12/1), Ceres (12/9)  and Uranus (12/29) Retrograde
Color: Maroon

Planting 9/19-20

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©2016 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright

******

Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine  Sep 2 – 29 – Muin  – (MUHN, like “foot”), vine – The grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is a vine growing as long as 35 m (115 feet), in open woodlands and along the edges of forests, but most commonly seen today in cultivation, as the source of wine, grape juice, and the grape juice concentrate that is so widely used as a sweetener. European grapes are extensively cultivated in North America, especially in the southwest, and an industry and an agricultural discipline are devoted to their care and the production of wine. Grapes are in the Grape family (Vitaceae).

Muin – Vine Ogam letter correspondences
Month: August
Color: Variegated
Class: Chieftain
Letter: M
Meaning: Inner development occurring, but take time for relaxation

to study this month – Koad – Grove Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Many Shades of Green
Class: None
Letter: CH, KH, EA
Meaning: Wisdom gained by seeing past illusions.

******

Tides for Alsea Bay
*

Day        High      Tide    Height   Sunrise    Moon  Time      % Moon
~            /Low      Time       Feet    Sunset                                  Visible
Tu  20     High   3:42 AM     7.3   7:02 AM     Set 11:38 AM      87
~    20      Low   9:36 AM     1.1   7:16 PM    Rise 10:08 PM
~    20     High   3:42 PM     8.4
~    20      Low  10:25 PM    -0.5

******

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Count Your Blessings. Once You realize how valuable You are and how much You have going for You, the Smiles will return, the Sun will break out, the Music will play, and You will finally be able to move forward with Grace, Strength, Courage, and Confidence. So, Count Your Blessings,dear Friend. Make a Gratitude list. You have thousands of Reasons to be Thankful…

******

Journal Prompt – What would you? – What would you do to change the country and the world for the better if you were elected president?

******

Quotes  

~  One of the dreariest spots on life’s road is the point of conviction that nothing will ever again happen to you. – Faith Baldwin (1893-1978) US writer
~  We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
~  A poor surgeon hurts one person at a time. A poor teacher hurts 130. – Ernest Boyer
~  Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. – Helen Keller, American Blind/Deaf Author & Lecturer

Love Letter From Cernunnos
“You have given yourself to me…
Fully… You surrendered… You’re mine!
Your heart belongs to me, your soul,
Your body, your breath, your everything! Mine!
And you will run with me,
Scream with me, and rut with me,
Tremble in terror and desire of me,
Dance that wild, frenzied dance with me,
Journey to the dark, dank depths with me.
And you will know sheer ecstasy, utter agony,
And the intoxicating thrill of the hunt.
And we will meet at the Crossroads together, as we always have.
We will wander far and wide, with a fire raging in your head.
And I will show you the way on those crooked and hidden paths
I will tell you things no other could
I will take you to places unknown, and unseen
I will teach you. Guide you. Push you. Pull you. Rip you open.
I will show you what it means to be my devotee
I will break you and remake you,
Over and over…
And you will love me…
And when I’m not with you…

Remember… Remember…

…Remember” – (http://crookedways.wordpress.com/) — with Andrea Hensley and Kaz Witchie SpirytWolf.

******

Mabon Magick – Recipes

Harvest Soup
4 carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, diced
6-8 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped green pepper, optional
2 cans or 1 pint green beans, drained
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can baby peas, drained
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 quart V-8 juice
1 lb. diced ham or beef stew meat
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Combine all ingredients in crockpot.  Cover with lid and cook on high for 6-7 hours.
Recipe taken from “Crazy About Crockpots – 101 Soups & Stews for Less than $.75 a Serving”  by Penny E. Stone, published by Champion Press. “Crazy About Crockpots – 101 Soups & Stews for Less than $.75 a  Serving” is available for $12.00 from Parents & Teens at: https://www.wmsecure.com/%7Ehistoryg/specialbookorder.html

Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

• 3 Large Potatoes (peeled and Cubed)
• 1 lb frozen Corn
• 2 Large Onion (Cubed)
• 1 lb Bacon
• 2 Cup Milk
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 tsp caraway seed
• Salt

Directions:

1. Place potatoes and onions in a medium soup pot.
2. Boil in enough water to cover the tops of the cubed vegetables by an inch or two.
3. Drain off excess water.
4. In another pan, fry the bacon strips until curled and then drain off excess oil/fat.
5. Add bacon to the potatoes and onions along with additional ingredients.
6. Simmer over medium heat stirring frequently. Avoid boiling
7. Continue to heat until chowder is thoroughly heated.

Fried green tomatoes – Rain Redknife

People make a big mystery of these, but the best recipe is still the simple one my mom learned  from her mom  in  East Tennessee: no herbs, no garlic, no  truffle oil or other foofy yuppie stuff, and absolutely NO “dietarily correct” efforts to  make  ’em over into health food.  They aren’t.  They shouldn’t be. Get over it.🙂

1. Take green (unripe) tomatoes that are still firm but are starting to “give” a little to a gentle squeeze.  Slice about 3/8″ thick, and set aside.
2. In a soup bowl or other flat container, season a half-cup or so of plain (not self-rising!) flour to taste with salt and pepper.  Add a handful of plain white cornmeal if desired.  In another bowl, place  half a cup of milk .
3. Heat 1/4 to 1/3  cup vegetable oil very hot but not smoking in a large nonstick or very well seasoned cast-iron skillet.
4. Dip slices in milk, and shake off excess gently.  Then dip in flour mixture on both sides.  Leave a good coating, but tap off any real excess; this coating should be thin and crisp, not thick and bready!
5. Place a few slices at a time in skillet, and fry about one minute per side, turning _gently_ so coating stays on.  Then turn heat down to medium and fry till golden brown on both sides, turning only once more  (They go pretty quickly, so watch.)  Don’t do too many at once, and do let the oil get hot again between  batches.
6. Drain briefly on paper towels, and eat ’em hot if possible.  If not, re-warm briefly in the oven under the broiler, NOT in the microwave.

******

Silliness – A Pagan in Hell – Home -> Humour -> Pagan Humour By: Pendragon – Posted: Sept. 12th/00 Website: http://www.paganvillages.com/Goddess/pendragon/index0.html

A Pagan dies and heads for the SUmmerlands, and just as he gets there, to his great surprise, he finds himself standing before some pearly gates. St. Peter asks him, “May I help you?”

The Pagan asks, “Where am I?”

Peter says, “You’re at the gates of heaven.”

The Pagan says, “But I don’t believe in heaven.”

Peter frowns at him. “You’re one of those Pagans, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I believe I’m in the wrong place; I’m supposed to go to the Summerlands.”

Peter says, “Sorry. The Summerlands are temporarily closed for remodeling.”

“What should I do now?”

Peter says, “Well, since we don’t allow Pagans in heaven, you have to go to hell. Sorry. Just follow that path that leads downward and to the left.”

The Pagan walks down to hell, where the gates are standing open. He walks in and finds beautiful meadows, happy animals, and clear streams of water.

He walks on in and begins exploring, and after a few minutes a courtly gentleman walks up to him and bows politely. “Hello, I’m Satan. You must be the guy that St. Peter phoned me about. Are you a Pagan?”

“Yes, I am. What’s going to happen now?”

Satan says, “Well, the fishing’s pretty good, if you enjoy that sort of thing. There’s a little refreshment stand down the road. And I believe the Pagan meeting grounds are right over the next hill.”

Suddenly, a hole opens up in the sky above, and a yawning chasm opens directly underneath it. The stench of sulphur fills the air. Hundreds of screaming, tortured souls drop down into the flaming pit, which immediately closes up with a thud.

The Pagan, hardly believing what he just saw, asks Satan, “And what was THAT???”

Satan rolls his eyes. “Oh, just ignore them. They’re Christians; they wouldn’t have it any other way.”

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