Daily Stuff 9-23-21 Discovery of Neptune

Posted on September 23, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

The shop opens at 1pm.Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. Featured photo by Walter Duvall. Herbs Workshop 7pm.

Foggy and mostly cloudy. 50F, winds are calm, AQI 20-34, UV4. Chance of rain 4% today and 6% tonight. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY from 2pm today through 2am on Friday. TOday through Saturday and next Wednesday should be dry, with possible showers Sunday through Tuesday. Highs, except for Friday’s 68F, should hover around 60. Air quality over almost the whole state is green! 4 firespots.

Large fires

Cougar Peak Fire – 52% – 91332 acres
Devils Knob Complex Fire – 51% – 69941.95 acres
Smith Fire – 33% – 49071 acres
Jack Fire – 55% – 24165 acres
Rough Patch Complex Fire – 42% – 50376 acres
Chaos Fire – 45% – 28823 acres
Middle Fork Complex Fire – 55% – 30928.35 acres
Gales Fire – 51% – 29356 acres
Janus Fire – 20% – 24740.8 acres
Bull Complex Fire – 20% – 24837 acres

Smaller

Near Minky Fire – 83% – 4868 acres
6 Rough Patch Tfr Fire – 16% – 7234 acres
Little Bend Creek Fire – 46% – 9408 acres

At or near containment

Big Meadow Fire – 95% – 2643 acres
Big Hamlin Fire – 100% – 19377 acres
Kwis Fire – 98% – 1485 acres

Rainbow carrots

Yesterday Tempus woke me when he got in…. still no tires! It was already pretty late, and I made us later by needing coffee and having a melt-down over (of all things) not being able to find my ergonomic vegetable peeler. It’s the only one I can use, anymore. The others leave horrible ridges on my hands and they *hurt* to use. Of course, it was in the dish drainer at home… <sigh>

Pears, asian pears and a peach

We stopped at the Farmer’s Market and I got a lot of summer squash, another batch of shallots and a whole bag of small white and red onions for pickling, a peck of green beans (I want dilly beans!) a couple of fennel bulbs, a batch of pears, cherry tomatoes, some jerusalem artichokes, and a couple of kinds of grapes!

Grapes

Once we got home and Tempus found my peeler, I spent a couple of happy hours sorting things out and prepping a couple of dishes for the week, plus noshing on grapes and cherry tomatoes. I pulled out the rainbow carrots that Tempus got for Sunday that didn’t get used and peeled and cut those, too.

At that point I made myself a cup of hot tea and a sandwich and sat in my chair and started watching the beautiful cumulus clouds that mostly covered the sky and I found myself dropping off! ….well, it was past 5 by then. I went in and curled up next to Tempus who had been sound asleep since about 10 minutes after we got home. From that point on I napped, got up and read or sewed, noshed, napped, lather, rinse repeat. 🙂 I got a couple of patchwork pouches made and some other small stuff, and a little embroidery, but nothing substantial.

Tempus didn’t wake until it was nearly time to come back into town. We got him a sandwich that he nibbled up until just a few minutes ago. I had the tote basket ready to go and the vegetables that I need to work on here. I still need to make pickling broth. Tempus is cooking my leftover bread bowl from the chowder the other night with cheese. I never got that far today.

….He’s heading out at a bit after 2am. I’m working on this and eating my bread bowl. I have to get the fennel taken care of, but else I’m going to turn in early. How can I still be tired?

The Candy Club order came in yesterday while we were still at the shop, so that’s going to be first on the list for today. I probably ought to get the pickling broth done, and then I need to start in on the incense resins. I want to get the headers done before Herbs Workshop and then tomorrow I can pack bags and get those ready. I’m hoping to do a batch of Clearing Incense during the workshop time.

A photo from 9/20/18 by Walter Duvall of Yaquina Bay on a quiet afternoon.

Today in 1846 – Discovery of Neptune by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams; verified by German astronomer Johann 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 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. For appointments contact us at 541-563-7154, anjasnihova@yahoo.com, on Facebook or here on the blog, or just leave a note on the door!

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

Moon in Aries enters Taurus at 5:38am.

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 10/6 at 4:05am. 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 9/28 at 6:57pm.

The big asteroid 2 Pallas, a little past opposition, stands high in the southeast by 10 p.m., in small-telescope reach at magnitude 8.4. This week it’s only 7° or 8° upper right of Neptune, magnitude 8.7. Which is also, necessarily, a little past opposition. Read about both and hunt them down using the finder charts in Asteroid Pallas Makes a Point in Pisces.

The MESSENGER spacecraft captured these views of the solar system’s innermost planet as it orbited between 2011 and 2015. – NASA

Mercury passes 1.7° south of Spica at 8 A.M. EDT; however, neither is visible at that time. Instead, try looking west as soon as the Sun sinks below the horizon, where Mercury and Spica, still roughly the same distance apart, are setting quickly. See how soon you can spot the pair in binoculars or a telescope, with slightly brighter Mercury sitting to Spica’s lower left. You’ll need a clear horizon to find them and if you can get to higher ground, there’s an even better chance you can catch the pair before first Mercury, then Spica, sets.

Spica, also known as Alpha (α) Virginis, is some 1,900 times brighter than the Sun, which is why it’s so bright in our sky, even at a distance of 250 light-years. It is also a tight binary system, with its two components separated by some one-tenth the distance between Earth and the Sun. Both are blue-white class B stars, and at least one of the two is massive enough to end its life as a supernova when its fuel has been exhausted.

Jupiter and Saturn continue to shine in the southeast to south during evening. They’re magnitudes –2.8 and +0.4, respectively, 16° apart on opposite sides of dim Capricornus. During twilight bright Jupiter, on the left, is slightly the lower of the two. They level out not long after dark, and later they tilt the other way, with Saturn now the lower one. Saturn sets around 2 or 3 a.m. daylight-saving time, followed down by Jupiter about an hour later. In the evening look for 1st-magnitude Fomalhaut some 22° (two fists) lower left of Jupiter. And less than 2° below or lower left of Jupiter is 3rd-magnitude Delta Capricorni, described in the caption above. Also, see Amateurs Spot New Impact Flash at Jupiter. With two videos of it taken by diligent, tireless amateur Jupiter-impact monitors!

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

NIGHT SKY MAP FOR SEPTEMBER 2021: PEGASUS & MEASURING THE SKY – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-september-pegasus-measuring-sky

Goddess Month of Mala runs from 9/6 – 10/2
Celtic Tree Month of Muin/Vine Sep 2 – 29
Pluto (10/6), Saturn (10/10), Jupiter (10/18), Neptune (12/1) Chiron (12/19), Uranus (1/18/22) Retrograde
Color – Green
Planting 9/23-5

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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
Th 23     High   2:32 AM     7.1   7:05 AM     Set 9:47 AM      96
~    23      Low   8:37 AM     1.1   7:11 PM    Rise 8:41 PM
~    23     High   2:40 PM     7.6
~    23      Low   9:09 PM     0.4

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

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Journal Prompt – What if? – If it were your job to decide what shows can be on t.v., how would you choose?

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Quotes

~   Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. – Abraham Lincoln
~   I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. – Claude Monet (1840-1926) French landscape painter
~   We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing. – Mother Teresa
~   Love is the Water of Life. – Rumi

The sunflower children
Nod to the sun.
Summer is over,
Fall has begun! – Anon.

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Magick – Crystals to keep out of water.

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Silliness – Catapult

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Update | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Catapult, Celtic Tree Month, Crystals to keep out of water., Fragaria chiloensis, Fragaria vesca, Garden Strawberry Fragaria ×ananassa, Goddess Month, Journal Prompt, Magick, Moon, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Runic Half Month, Silliness, the Coastal Strawberry, The sunflower children, Tides, Weather, Wicca, Wood’s Strawberry | Leave a comment

Daily Stuff 9-22-21 – Mabon

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Blessings of the season on you and yours!

The shop is closed on Tuesday/Wednesday. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. Featured photo by Josh Orkin.

Clear, 52F, wind at 0-2mph, AQI 28-52, UV4. Chance of rain 24% today and 10% tonight. After a tiny possibility of rain this morning, today should be partly cloudy/mostly sunny and stay that way until Sunday evening. Through Tuesday there’s a chance of light showers, then partly cloudy on Wednesday and a tiny chance of showers on Thursday. We’ll have to watch that….. The smoke plume is gone! There’s only one firespot.

Large fires

Cougar Peak Fire – 52% – 91339 acres
Devils Knob Complex Fire – 51% – 69937.95 acres
Smith Fire – 33% – 49067 acres
Jack Fire – 55% – 24165 acres
Rough Patch Complex Fire – 41% – 50376 acres
Chaos Fire – 45% – 28823 acres
Middle Fork Complex Fire – 54% – 30928.35 acres
Gales Fire – 50% – 29356 acres
Janus Fire – 15% – 24680.8 acres
Bull Complex Fire – 15% – 24777 acres

Smaller

Near Minky Fire – 83% – 4868 acres
6 Rough Patch Tfr Fire – 16% – 7234 acres
Little Bend Creek Fire – 46% – 9408 acres

At or near containment

Big Meadow Fire – 95% – 2643 acres
Big Hamlin Fire – 100% – 19377 acres
Kwis Fire – 98% – 1485 acres

I’m sorry about the short notice for a newsletter not going to appear. Tempus and I hadn’t thought through how our weekend was going to go until the middle of Monday.

So… Monday started well. We managed to get some good sleep in the morning and had the shop open on time. When I started opening messages and mail, I found that Tempus had taken a couple of minutes to post some Happy Anniversary stuff to me. ❤ ❤ ❤ We kept throwing messages and lovey-dovey bits at each other all day.

The shop wasn’t busy. Tempus worked in back and I managed to bit more inventory stuff…. Mostly I’m finding bits that got stashed in a wrong place and getting them taken care of, but there’s more to do… always more to do!

I found out late in the afternoon that Aurora, one of the young folks who went to Angell Job Corps had come adrift from her ladder while picking grapes and had a bunch of broken bits including ribs and pelvis (Tuesday evening I heard that she was out of surgery for the pelvis and doing ok). Sending good energy her way would be appreciated. Even as young as she is those kinds of injuries are no joke!

So Tempus and I got things together and closed around 6:30. We decided to have our anniversary dinner at the Salty Dawg and it was also our Full Moon ritual and our Mabon. We started with an Ace Pear Cider. Tempus was driving, so just two sips on his part) I got a chowder bread bowl and then a grilled turkey sandwich. Tempus got a Swiss burger. Nothing fancy, just tasty and suited for a couple of tired people. 🙂 …although originally I was going to get a crab melt, but not at $30 for a sandwich!

We watched sunset and twilight across the Bay, sitting at our usual table, as we were eating and chatting quietly. The shadow of sunset gently climbed the hills on the other side of the bay, the the Girdle of Venus (the pink at the edge of the earth’s shadow) lifted above them, followed by the deep blue of the shadow itself, and then faded into blue twilight. When we were done eating we spent a little while outside watching the bats flying overhead, gazing at the full Moon in the east and listening to seagulls.

We put our leftovers in the fridge and crawled into bed. I was up at midnight as usual and woke Tempus about 15 minutes early, so we could have our chocolate mousse cake dessert that we were too full for at the restaurant. We had brought my Ott light home, since the lamp I was planning to use for sewing has a broken switch. We worked for a couple of minutes to change those out. He got the phone call at just about the time we finished and he headed out. I sat down to sew for a bit.

So I alternated sewing, reading and sleeping for most of the night. I was actually awake to see the day start from pink twilight through the golden trees of early morning to full daylight… but then I went back to bed. 🙂 Tempus eventually got home, no tires still, and it’s getting to *really* be time as one of the tires is needing to be pumped up twice a week, now.

Photo from 10/1/18 by Thom Iverson of the bridge that crosses the Mckenzie river where it comes out of Clear Lake. Used with permission

I finally got up around 2, when it really got to be too warm in the bedroom for me and embroidered for a while, read, sewed (and finished another patchwork pouch), read some more and Tempus got up 4-ish. He went to make coffee and discovered that the propane tank was empty, so he went out to get that filled, then came back, made us coffee (plus we had some yum doughnuts that he bought earlier) and we chatted for awhile. He got the extra bracket into the bean trellis while I caught another nap, and then we puttered a bit before coming back in to the shop.

A picture from 10/3/16 of the Yachats Valley and some Oreo cows as weather was closing in by Ken Gagne.

Bulk route night, so he headed for Newport around 9pm and I’ve been catching up mail and such including a bit about child marriage in Nepal, which is a research topic that I’ve been following off and on for a couple of months. …and I have typing to do, and to catch up the to-do list for home. We have figured out some more things that need to be done before winter weather shows up.

So today we’re going to catch some more sleep. I’m going to work out in the garden, watering for one. I also found a box of succulent starts that need to be potted. I’m trying to find pots for them…. I may have to bit the bullet and make paper pots and work out regular pots later.

We’re hoping Tempus is going to get some tool time and catch up on a bunch of small chores, at the least, and maybe get a couple of the big pieces (like my step, or mending the tool drawer) also under his belt.

Chorus frog in fall camo gear up the Yachats River Valley – by Josh Orkin 9/18/2019 Used with permission

Yesterday was the 22nd 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 Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. For appointments contact us at 541-563-7154, anjasnihova@yahoo.com, on Facebook or here on the blog, or just leave a note on the door!

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

Moon in Aries

Full Moon – The day of, the day before, and day after the true Full Moon. “And better it be when the moon is full!”! Prime time for rituals for prophecy, for spells to come to fruition, infusing health and wholeness, etc. A good time for invoking deity. FRUITION Manifesting goals, nurturing, passion, healing, strength, power. Workings on this day are for protection, divination. “extra power”, job hunting, healing serious conditions Also, love, knowledge, legal undertakings, money and dreams. God/dess Aspect: Mother/Abundance/Kingship – – Associated God/desses: Danu, Cerridwen, Gaia, Aphrodite, Isis, Jupiter, Amon-Ra. Phase ends on 9/22 at 7:55am. 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 10/6 at 4:05am. 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 9/28 at 6:57pm.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21

Close pass – Io and Ganymede pass within 6″ of each other Sept. 12, as Europa and its shadow are traversing Jupiter’s disk. Callisto lies farther east.

Jupiter’s moon Europa reappears out of eclipse from Jupiter’s shadow around 9:58 p.m. EDT. A small telescope will show it gradually swelling into view just off Jupiter’s eastern limb. Then the Great Red Spot should cross Jupiter’s central meridian around 11:34 p.m. EDT (8:34 p.m. PDT). For timetables of all such goings-on at Jupiter this month, see the September Sky & Telescope, pages 50-51.

Blazing amid the still-invisible stars of Libra is a bright evening star that isn’t a star at all: It’s Venus, shining a brilliant magnitude –4.2 from 11° above the southwestern horizon. Through a telescope, Earth’s sister planet will appear 17″ across and 66 percent lit. Watch Venus over the next several nights. Rather than setting earlier and earlier, you’ll notice a different trend: The planet is instead hugging the horizon, appearing to scoot sideways toward the south. By the end of the month, it will be halfway through Libra on its way toward Scorpius.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

The autumnal equinox occurs at 3:21 P.M. EDT as the Sun crosses the celestial equator, heading south. The event also marks the first day of fall in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere. Those above the equator have likely already noticed the Sun setting earlier each day, as the long daylight hours of summer begin to give way to the shorter days and long, cold nights of winter.

Coincidentally, as if to mark this transition every year, Deneb is taking over from brighter Vega as the zenith star after nightfall (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes).

Summer Triangle – The Summer Triangle is an easy-to-find asterism in the summer skies, but as fall begins, it will start setting earlier each night. Giuseppe Donatiello (Flickr)

Let’s take the opportunity oday to start saying goodbye to a summertime friend: the Summer Triangle. This famous asterism, or unofficial star pattern, comprises three stars from three different constellations: Vega in Lyra, Deneb in Cygnus, and Altair in Aquila. (Remember them from last night? They’re bright and easy to find, appearing shortly after sunset.) The Summer Triangle is so named because it rides high in the summer nighttime skies, rising as the Sun sets and typically appearing overhead around midnight. Tonight after sunset, you’ll find this stellar triad still high in the southwest, but now heading toward the horizon as the night marches onward. The Summer Triangle will set a little earlier each night as fall stretches on, until its stars eventually disappear altogether from the night sky during winter.

By 30 minutes after sunset, magnitude 0.4 Mercury is nearly gone, hovering just 1° above the horizon. Its dim glow also makes it extra challenging to spot in the lingering twilight. Only the brightest stars are starting to pop out against the sky at this time: Arcturus, Antares, Deneb, Altair, and Vega.

NIGHT SKY MAP FOR SEPTEMBER 2021: PEGASUS & MEASURING THE SKY – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-september-pegasus-measuring-sky

Sun in Virgo enters Libra 12:21pm.

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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
Tu 21     High   1:08 AM     7.6   7:03 AM     Set 7:36 AM      99
~    21      Low   7:32 AM     0.0   7:15 PM    Rise 8:00 PM
~    21     High   1:42 PM     7.5
~    21      Low   7:53 PM     0.7

W   22     High   1:51 AM     7.4   7:04 AM     Set 8:42 AM      99
~    22      Low   8:05 AM     0.5   7:13 PM    Rise 8:20 PM
~    22     High   2:11 PM     7.6
~    22      Low   8:31 PM     0.5

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – May the Earth keep you safe.
The Sun keep you warm.
And the Moon help you to see any harm.
Till we meet again.

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Journal Prompt – What if? – What would you do if you had four math problems marked wrong that were right?

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Quotes

~   Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation. – Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) US Socialist Leader
~   If you want more joy, serve. If you want more money, solve problems. If you want more freedom, face your fears. – Sandy Diva
~   A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. – James A. Garfield (1831-1881) 20th US President
~   He is great enough that is his own master. – Joseph Hall

The mellow moon, the changing leaves,
The earlier setting Sun,
Proclaim at last, my merry boys,
The harvest-time begun. –Charles G. Eastman (1816–60)

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Mabon Magick – Lore

Mabon – Neopagan festival – Pip’s Almanac

Mabon is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of Neopaganism. It is celebrated on the autumn equinox, in the Northern Hemisphere circa September 22 – 24 and in the Southern Hemisphere around March 20.

Also sometimes called Harvest Home or Feast of the Ingathering (which is more commonly a Christian version; see September 24), 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.

At Wikipedia, see Wheel of the Year, and for the Celtic deity, Mapon.

Winter Finding, Second Station of the Year, Norse (Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 … maybe not solar calendar)

Autumnal Equinox tidbit – From: http://www.nmrising.com/public/28.htm

Autumnal Equinox – Jason Rath

The Autumnal Equinox represents a time of balance and rest. Night and day are equal. The sun enters the sign of Libra, symbol of balance. Venus, the ruling planet of Libra, symbolizes the conscious becoming aware of the Id, or Higher Self. Libra has evolved beyond the first sign, Aries’ “I am.” Now aware of itself, Libra says, “I am one with thee.” The Spring Equinox represents the initiation of the conscious self, beginning its quest, realizing its spiritual path. Now the harvest is gathered, the conscious self has experienced trials of a spiritual nature and now meditates on it’s “self” in dualistic terms.

At the Fall Equinox, the God is less aggressive and the Goddess is less consuming—they are equal. It is a harmonious time, good for alchemical exercises. I have found it is a good time to see my psychologist. In A Witches’ Bible Complete, Janet and Stewart Farrar say that the Equinoxes are “Times of balance, of suspended activity [they] are, by their nature, the times when the veil between the seen and unseen is thin. They are the seasons when human beings `change gear’ to a different phase, and are therefore times of psychological as well as psychic turbulence.” It is important to remember the reason Witches acknowledge these changes, whether as astrological phases or the seasons of the year. We realize that the changes around us parallel changes within us. It is a shame when the Sabbats become a chore. They represent very specific phases within our minds, spirits and bodies. We should remember the significance of all our symbols.

For instance, many Witches wear pentagrams (five pointed stars), why? The pentagram itself represents the Microcosm, which means little universe, or Man, or Woman. This should remind us that we are scale models of the universe around us, we are an intimate part of it. We are made up of the same materials—the four Elements and Spirit. The pentagram symbolizes the forces around us affecting the forces within us and vise versa. Use this symbol to remind you that the change of season reflects a change within you.

Many occultists and Witches today use the axiom, “as above so below, as within so without.” This reminds us of the holiness of all creations. Everything and everyone is intimately connected; we learn the how and why through our religious practices and mystical observations. Everything—weather, colors, sounds, animals, smells and even nothing at all—affects us physically, psychologically and spiritually. Again, let this help you to be aware of the changes within and without at this time.

Wicca is far from being blind. We observe these cycles of Mother Nature. Over thousands of years, people have searched for the answers to questions such as, “Why are we here?” “Is death the end of consciousness?”

“Is there a Supreme Being?” Many answered these questions through various religions and sciences. But science is limited to the objective, physical world and religion offers no rigorous tests. Many failed to satisfy their hunger for understanding. Witches of old used their knowledge of science and nature to organize a religion based on “common sense.” They observed the power of color on the mind, of the relationship between the stars and creation, of herbs and healing, etc. They formulated a religion of common sense, in which all could worship and learn. They used their observations of the physical world to explain the principles and laws of the spiritual world—much as ancient mathematicians used geometry to explain the nature of spiritual creatures and their movements. The symbols and rites of Wicca contain this ancient wisdom.

When we are aware, practice can reveal the wisdom hidden in a rite. If we lose track of the sacred meanings, the Holy Days become empty. Remember that when you practice the various Wiccan rites, you affirm your position as a spiritual creature on Earth. Learn to associate the underlying energies with the ritual at hand. Understand that your present state relates directly to changes in the outside world. Learn to look at the/your inner world and see how the two relate—as within so without. Hold these Sabbats as sacred times of worship and divine instruction. Learn more about the God and Goddess and your unique relationship with them.

******

Silliness – Stop – Q: When do you stop at GREEN and go at RED? A: When you’re eating a watermelon!

Posted in Newsletter | Tagged Achillea millefolium, Milk Miracle, nosebleed, Stop, Svarog’s Holiday, The mellow moon, woundwort, yarrow | Leave a comment

Daily Stuff 9-21-21 extra

Posted on September 21, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Sorry! No newsletter this morning. I’m trying to catch up on enough sleep so’s not to be a hopeless, non-productive zombie this week! You might look at new grandbaby pix over here: https://ancientlightshop.wordpress.com/calendar/psychic-fair-information/grandbaby-trip-2-28-to-3-6-19/grandbabys-third-year/ Newest at the bottom, as always. She’s trying to drive. 🙂

Love & Light,
Anja, Ancient Light

Posted in Update | Leave a comment

Daily Stuff 9-20-21 Telesterion

Posted on September 20, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Last Minus Tide of the cycle at 6:56 AM of -0.3 feet. The shop opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. Featured photo by Ken Gagne.

Partly cloudy, 53F, wind at 0-6mph and gusting, AQI 53, UV. Chance of rain 3% today and 4% tonight. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY through 5am Tuesday. We’re back to our same partly cloudy forecast with temps in the upper 60’s for Tuesday and Friday. No firespots? The smoke plume has vanished for our area. It looks like we’re whittling down the amount of fires, finally.

Large Fires

Cougar Peak Fire – 42% – 90614 acres
Devils Knob Complex Fire – 49% – 69301.95 acres
Smith Fire – 28% – 48443 acres
Jack Fire – 55% – 24165 acres
Rough Patch Complex Fire – 38% – 50212 acres
Chaos Fire – 45% – 28696 acres
Middle Fork Complex Fire – 49% – 30761.35 acres
Gales Fire – 43% – 29189 acres
Janus Fire – 15% – 22335.8 acres
Bull Complex Fire – 15% – 22432 acres

Smaller

6 Rough Patch Tfr Fire – 17% – 7223 acres
Little Bend Creek Fire – 29% – 9382 acres

At or near containment

Big Meadow Fire – 95% – 2643 acres
Big Hamlin Fire – 92% – 19363 acres
Near Minky Fire – 94% – 4868 acres
Kwis Fire – 98% – 1485 acres

Yesterday was busy and tiring….exhausting…. I was up late doing some cookery, then up early, and I still had 3 hours of work before sitting down to wait for things to cook.

We did have some people in shopping… all 5 of them. <sigh> I know it’s that time of year, but….

House members posted online and I worked on processing pictures. By the time we ate and then cleaned up I was wiped out, so we went home and went to bed, coming back here at about 1:30. I was so tired that I went and lay down on the nap bed and only woke at about 4:30, so this is a little later than usual for people who subscribe directly.

The Moon was bright, washing out most of the stars. The sky was a deep, slate-blue, with stripes of cirrus and lower cumulus, all luminous and edged with silver.

Today the shop will be open at 1pm. I need to write most of the day and I’m not sure what we’re going to be doing for our anniversary. We’ll see.

Wild Turkey, photo by Ken Gagne 2-8-17

Eleusinian_hydria_Antikensammlung_Berlin_1984.46_n2

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 millennia. 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 opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. For appointments contact us at 541-563-7154, anjasnihova@yahoo.com, on Facebook or here on the blog, or just leave a note on the door!

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Moon in Pisces enters Aries at 8:13pm

Waxing Moon Magick – The waxing moon is for constructive magick, such as love, wealth, success, courage, friendship, luck or healthy, protection, divination. Any working that needs extra power, such as help finding a new job or healings for serious conditions, can be done now. Also, love, knowledge, legal undertakings, money and dreams. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 9/20 at 4:55pm. Full Moon – The day of, the day before, and day after the true Full Moon. “And better it be when the moon is full!”! Prime time for rituals for prophecy, for spells to come to fruition, infusing health and wholeness, etc. A good time for invoking deity. FRUITION Manifesting goals, nurturing, passion, healing, strength, power. Workings on this day are for protection, divination. “extra power”, job hunting, healing serious conditions Also, love, knowledge, legal undertakings, money and dreams. God/dess Aspect: Mother/Abundance/Kingship – – Associated God/desses: Danu, Cerridwen, Gaia, Aphrodite, Isis, Jupiter, Amon-Ra. Phase ends on 9/22 at 7:55am. 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 10/6 at 4:05am.

Full Moon (exact at 7:55 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). Look a couple of fists to its upper left for the Great Square of Pegasus, emblem of fall, ever higher now. By midnight, when the Moon shines nearly at its highest, the Great Square stands above it.

Neptune astro nasa – Neptune, the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun, sports a dark vortex in its atmosphere, as seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image. – NASA/ESA/M.H. Wong/J. Tollefson (UC Berkeley)

The Moon passes 4° south of Neptune at 5 A.M. EDT. At that time, both are low in the southwest, setting in the constellation Aquarius. If you want a better view of the region, you’ll need to get up a bit earlier to catch them higher in the sky. However, the Moon’s bright light will largely drown out Neptune’s faint, magnitude 7.7 glow. Still, dedicated observers should certainly give spotting the planet a try. It will stand out from the background stars as a “flatter,” blue-gray disk just 2″ wide.

3-1-18- Martin Marthadinata, Surabaya Indonesia

But the real showstopper occurs later tonight: September’s Full Moon occurs at 7:55 P.M. EDT. Known as the Harvest Moon, this Full Moon has something unusual in store. Check out the times for moonrise over the past few days, as well as for the next several nights. You may notice they’re not terribly different. That’s because at this time of year, the angle between the orbit of the Moon around Earth and our eastern horizon is at a minimum. So, the Moon appears to rise at roughly the same time for several nights in a row, and may also appear fully illuminated for several subsequent nights. This is called, perhaps predictably, the Harvest Moon effect.

Venus, brilliant at magnitude –4.1, shines low in the west-southwest during twilight. And it still sets around twilight’s end.

NIGHT SKY MAP FOR SEPTEMBER 2021: PEGASUS & MEASURING THE SKY – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-september-pegasus-measuring-sky

Sun in Virgo

******

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
M   20     High 12:23 AM     7.7   7:02 AM     Set 6:28 AM      98
~    20      Low   6:56 AM    -0.3   7:17 PM    Rise 7:40 PM
~    20     High   1:12 PM     7.4
~    20      Low   7:13 PM     1.0

******

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Make the world a better place, one thought at a time..

******

Journal Prompt – What would you? – What would you do if you knew the answer to pollution of the earth?

******

Quotes

~   Wisdom outweighs any wealth. – Sophocles
~   All women’s dresses are merely variations on the eternal struggle between admitted desire to dress and the unadmitted desire to undress. – Lin Yutang (1895-1976) Chinese writer
~   Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken … – Abigail Adams; letter to John Adams, May 7, 1776
~   Don’t smother each other. No one can grow in the shade. – Leo Buscaglia

Now westlin winds and slaught’ring guns
Bring Autumn’s pleasant weather;
The moorcock springs on whirring wings
Amang the blooming heather:
Now waving grain, wide o’er the plain,
Delights the weary farmer:
And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night,
To muse upon my charmer. – Robert Burns (1759–96)

******

Mama’s Mulled Spiced Cider

Beverage – Hot

Party Recipe – Winter

8 servings – can be halved, doubled or more

Party perk recipe doubles this

½ gal or rough cider or apple juice

½ cup orange juice

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp grated nutmeg

1 tbsp grated orange peel

8 cinnamon sticks

8 orange wheels (see garnish – fruit)

1 star anise or ¼ tsp aniseed

Microwave-safe measuring cup (2-cup, at least) measuring spoons, strainer, something to keep the cider hot in (soup pot with lid, Party Perk) 8 mugs, sharp small knife

Put 1 cup of apple juice into measuring cup and add spices.
Zap in microwave for 4 minutes, stirring every minute. Don’t let it boil! If it does, just stop there and go on.
Let sit for 15 minutes, at least.
Pour apple and orange juices into pot (or Party Perk) and warm on medium for about 15 minutes, stirring every so often. (Party Perk takes 1 hour to warm)
Turn temperature to low. (Not on Party Perk, see above)
Put strainer over pot or Party perk and pour spiced juice from measuring cup through it. Stir and let finish warming, covered.
Set out the mugs.
Add a cinnamon stick to each.
Split each orange wheel from the center to one edge and push the split down over the rim of the mug until the slice stands up.
Add juice and serve. There will be seconds.

Mabon Wine Moon Cider
4 cups apple cider
4 cups grape juice
2 cinnamon sticks, 4 inches long
1 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. whole cloves
additional cinnamon sticks for cups, 6 inches long

In a 4 quart sauce pan, heat cider and grape juice. Add cinnamon,
allspice, and cloves. Bring it to a light boil, then lower heat, and
simmer for 5 minutes. serve with a ladle from a cauldron. makes 8 cups.
MOONCRAFTS online newsletter vol. 36

Harvest Ball Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

4 c flour
3 c Sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ Tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp cloves
¼ tsp ginger
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
2/3 c cold water
4 eggs

Directions

Sift together dry ingredients.
Make a well in the center and add the vegetable oil, pumpkin and cold water.
Blend well with beater.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
Fold in 1 cup pecans. (optional)
Pour batter into greased, floured loaf pans.
Bake one hour at 350 degrees. Makes 3 small loaves 45 minutes at 350 degrees or 2 large loaves, 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Cool on wire rack.
Wrap in plastic immediately upon cooling.
Serve with cream cheese if desired.

Tip: Bread may be frozen after cooling. – Borrowed From GrannyMoon’s Morning Feast Archives

******

Silliness – Truisms

1. Accept the fact that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue!
2. Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
3. Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
4. Drive carefully … It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.
5. If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
6. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
7. It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
8. Never buy a car you can’t push.
9. Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.
10. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
11. Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
12. The second mouse gets the cheese.
13. When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
14. Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
16. Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.
1.7 We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
18. A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
19. Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today.
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY
20. Save the earth….. It’s the only planet with chocolate!

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Update | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Autumnal Equinox, Celtic Tree Month, Delights the weary farmer: And the moon shines bright, Fall Equinox, Goddess Month, Journal Prompt, Mabon, Magick, Moon, Now westlin winds and slaught’ring guns Bring Autumn’s pleasant weather; The moorcock springs on whirring wings Amang the blooming heather: Now waving grain, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Runic Half Month, Silliness, Stinging Nettle, Tides, Urtica Dioica, Weather, when I rove at night, Wicca, wide o’er the plain | Leave a comment

Daily Stuff 9-19-21 Hippocrates

Posted on September 19, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Minus Tide at 6:17 AM of -0.5 feet. The shop opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. Featured photo by Josh Orkin. House Capuchin Project Day from 1-5pm. House Potluck (shop closed) from 6-8pm.

Overcast, 56F, wind at 0-11mph and gusting, AQI 3-39, UV5. Chance of rain 24% today and 23% tonight. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY until 5am on Monday. There’s still a tiny chance of rain today and then again in a week. This week is going to be a bit on the variable side…. Sunny on Monday and Friday, some clouds the rest of the time. High of 70 on Tuesday and Friday, low 60’s for the rest. Low ought to hover right about 50. 4 firespots, all around fires.

Large fires

Cougar Peak Fire – 41% – 89203 acres
Devils Knob Complex Fire – 49% – 69301.95 acres
Smith Fire – 28% – 48443 acres
Jack Fire – 55% – 24165 acres
Rough Patch Complex Fire – 37% – 50212 acres
Chaos Fire – 42% – 28696 acres
Middle Fork Complex Fire – 43% – 30761.35 acres
Gales Fire – 37% – 29189 acres
Janus Fire – 15% – 22335.8 acres
Bull Complex Fire – 15% – 22432 acres

Smaller

Big Meadow Fire – 85% – 2643 acres
6 Rough Patch Tfr Fire – 17% – 7223 acres
Little Bend Creek Fire – 29% – 9382 acres

At or nearing containment

Big Hamlin Fire – 92% – 19363 acres
Near Minky Fire – 94% – 4868 acres
Kwis Fire – 98% – 1485 acres

Yesterday nothing went as I had planned and I got *really* cranky about it by the end of the day. I hadn’t slept well and no coffee when I got up didn’t help (more on the “why” next paragraph). It was still raining, or rather threatening and spitting upon occasion when I opened up. We had 3 customers all day and Linda stopped by to drop a couple of things off. I had some starts that I was going to hand her but was just out of it enough that she had already headed back out by the time I thought of them! …and I can’t do cookery when Tempus isn’t there to mind the front. Not anything complicated, anyway….

Tempus went to Murphey’s for the tires and was still there when it was time for the shop to open, only to find out that the wrong size of tire was sent. Murphey was apparently chewing nails and spitting tacks…. So Tempus went and got the shopping taken care of and finally got back around 4pm.

By then I was wiped. He got us coffee and some lunch and before we knew it it was 6pm. I said to heck with the cooking and we headed home and went right to sleep. I was up and down (the diuretic hadn’t quite kicked in until 5pm…) and finally got up at 11 and got the borscht ready to cook. It’s all in a big jar, still, but it’ll hold until morning. After that I got some stuff ready to take back to the shop, (mostly stuff that needed the dishwasher) and we headed back just a touch early to take care of all that.

Tempus has already headed out (it’s not 2am, yet…) and I’m going to get this done and then do as much of the cookery as I can handle. I hope I have all the dishes and crockery that I need where I can find it…. Well, we’ll see.

Today we’ll have the shop open at 1. I’m going to have to do a lot of cookery to make up for yesterday. Urf…. Well, Tempus can mind the front and I’ll be there if there’s a question. It looks like we’re going to be the only ones for the potluck, again, complications for those who were hoping to attend. 😦 …but that means leftovers, so I’m not going to complain.

Green lace by Josh Orkin on 9/15/19 used with permission

120px-CZO05_Označení_vozidla_praktického_lékaře_ve_službě_-_2006

Hippocrates is credited with being the father of modern medicine. He is honored on this day, (which may be the 2478 anniversary of his birth) along with all doctors and medical practitioners. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates The picture is a Czech stamp with the symbol for a medical vehicle with a doctor on board. The image in the center is the Rod of Aesculapius, which is the proper symbol for the medical profession, unlike the usual Caduceus that we see in the US.

Carnations painted by Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Today’s Plant is the Carnation, Dianthus carophyllus, which has some medical uses, such as for upset stomach and fever. The fragrance was historically used for vinegar, beer, wine, sauces and salads. Carnation cultivars with no fragrance are often used by men as boutonnières or “button holes”. There are a lot of associations for different colors of the flowers here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianthus_caryophyllus#Symbolism –

Carnation buds

Masculine, Sun, Fire. – Attract love or friendship, improve or deepen relationships. Promotes feeling of security and confidence. Worn by witches for protection during the “Burning Times”, adds energy and power when used during a ritual as an incense. Use in all-purpose protection spells. Gives strength and energy to the sick. Place fresh carnation on the altar during healing spells and add dried flowers to healing sachets and incenses. Burn to enhance creativity or to achieve balance. Use in bath spells.

By Colors

Carnation, Pink – Unforgettable. Mother Love
Carnation, Purple – Whimsical and Changeable.
Carnation, Red – Admiration. Accomplishment
Carnation, White – Innocence and Pure Love.
Carnation, Green – Homosexuality
Carnation, Yellow – Good Cheer, Joy, “Just because….”

The shop opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. For appointments contact us at 541-563-7154, anjasnihova@yahoo.com, on Facebook or here on the blog, or just leave a note on the door!

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Moon in Pisces

Waxing Moon Magick – The waxing moon is for constructive magick, such as love, wealth, success, courage, friendship, luck or healthy, protection, divination. Any working that needs extra power, such as help finding a new job or healings for serious conditions, can be done now. Also, love, knowledge, legal undertakings, money and dreams. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 9/20 at 4:55pm. Waxing Gibbous Moon – From seven to fourteen days after the new moon. For spells that need concentrated work over a ¼ moon cycle this is the best time for constructive workings. Aim to do the last working on the day of the Full moon, before the turn. Keywords for the Gibbous phase are: analyze, prepare, trust. It is the time in a cycle to process the results of the actions taken during the First Quarter. During this phase you are gathering information. Give up making judgments; it will only lead to worry. Your knowledge is incomplete. Laugh. Analyze and filter. LOOK WITHIN. God/dess aspect: Maiden/Youth, but in the uncommitted phase, the Warriors – Associated God/desses: Dion, Dionysius, Venus, Thor. Phase ends at the Full on 9/19 at 7:55am. Full Moon – The day of, the day before, and day after the true Full Moon. “And better it be when the moon is full!”! Prime time for rituals for prophecy, for spells to come to fruition, infusing health and wholeness, etc. A good time for invoking deity. FRUITION Manifesting goals, nurturing, passion, healing, strength, power. Workings on this day are for protection, divination. “extra power”, job hunting, healing serious conditions Also, love, knowledge, legal undertakings, money and dreams. God/dess Aspect: Mother/Abundance/Kingship – – Associated God/desses: Danu, Cerridwen, Gaia, Aphrodite, Isis, Jupiter, Amon-Ra. Phase ends on 9/22 at 7:55am.

The bright moon this evening forms a long, gently curving arc with Jupiter and then Saturn to its upper right. That’s their order not only along the arc but in terms of brightness, and in terms of distance. The Moon is 1.3 light-seconds from Earth, Jupiter is currently 36 light-minutes away, and Saturn is 77 light-minutes away.

Sign of the changing season: The closing days of summer (the fall equinox comes on Wednesday the 22nd) always find the Sagittarius Teapot moving west of south during evening and tipping increasingly far over to the right, as if pouring out the last of summer through its spout.

Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko – The rubber duck-shaped Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko travels through crowded Taurus this month. You’ll need a larger telescope and a dark observing site to spot its glow.

Comet hunters will get a window of opportunity this morning to spot Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, currently skimming through Taurus the Bull. As soon as the Moon sets (around 5 A.M. local time), point your telescope up toward Taurus, some 70° high in the southwest. 67P is about two-thirds of the way between the Pleiades (M45) and the Hyades; the former is a tightly knit open cluster of stars, while the latter is a much looser open cluster sprinkled across the Bull’s nose. You’ll find 67P sitting just 3.2° west-northwest of magnitude 3.8 Delta (δ) Tauri. It’s glowing around magnitude 12 and currently sporting a tail about 3′ long.

Slightly brighter — around 11th magnitude — is Comet 4P/Faye, gliding through the other side of Taurus. To find this target, drop about 3.5° due south of Alheka (Zeta [ζ] Tauri). Although it has noticeable tail, Faye does sport a larger circular coma than 67P.

Mercury is hidden deep in the glow of sunset.

NIGHT SKY MAP FOR SEPTEMBER 2021: PEGASUS & MEASURING THE SKY – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-september-pegasus-measuring-sky

Sun in Virgo

******

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
Su 19      Low   6:17 AM    -0.5   7:01 AM     Set 5:18 AM      94
~    19     High 12:39 PM     7.1   7:19 PM    Rise 7:18 PM
~    19      Low   6:31 PM     1.4

******

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Love is in the air. Breathe it in.

******

Journal Prompt – Personal Interests and Experiences – Explain the advantages and disadvantages of being able to fly around like a bird.

******

Quotes

~   You can make an audience see nearly anything, if you yourself believe in it. – Mary Renault (1905-1983) English writer
~   There is no such thing as a wasted act of kindness.- James Robinson
~   Life always gives us lemons. A fool remains bitter & grows more lemons. A wise man borrows sugar & makes lemon meringue pie. – David Roppo
~   Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death. – Rosalind Russell as Aunty Mame

When the air is white with the down o’ the thistle,
And the sky is red with the Harvest Moon. –Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909)

******

Mabon Magick – Studies

Pagan Studies : Day of Harvest Spell 9/9

Today is the birthday of the Russian harvest Goddess, Berehynia. In her honor, make your own harvest incense. Combine two parts sweet grass, one part each cedar, sage, juniper, and rosemary essential oils. Mix them together in a glass bottle. Or you may use the dry herbs and grind them together in a blender or bowl. Once your incense has been mixed, chant:

Sacred herbs,
Children of the land,
Bring us the blessings of the harvest season.

Burn your incense on a charcoal disk, and wish Berehynia a very happy birthday.

~ Kristin Madden, from GrannyMoon’s Coventry of Healing Arts and Pagan Studies

Ancient Ones Harvest Spell – Pagan Studies

Harvest was a time for families, communities, and friends to come together. During harvest, special cakes were made in a ritual manner, and each person in the family or group would partake of this sacred meal.

Mix together one cup oat flour, one pinch baking soda, two pinches of salt, and one teaspoon of melted butter. Add hot water to form the dough, roll it on a board, and cut it into shapes. Cook the bread in the oven at 375 degrees until it is nicely toasted.

Share it with your tribe or family, reciting these words:

Consecrate the produce of our land.
Bestow prosperity and peace
In the names of the gods and goddesses,
And in the names of the ancient ones.

By: Sharynne NicMhacha,from GrannyMoon’s Coventry of Healing Arts and Pagan Studies

Reap the Harvest Spell

When we find ourselves repeatedly in situations that yield a grim emotional, spiritual, or physical harvest, we need to look inward to ascertain if the seeds that we are sowing will grow the crops that we desire. To do this, light a green or brown candle. Place malachite in front of the candle representing your heartfelt desire for change. Focusing on the candle, ask for guidance from your higher self in discovering your heart’s desires and ambitions. Script these desires in a visual present tense. State these or similar words:

The universe unfolds her abundant path for me.
Her fruitful harvest is mine,
So mote it be.

Focus the stream of your visualizations on the malachite. That is, visualize the malachite lending vibrations to your vision as it sends your energy out to the universe. Afterward, extinguish the candle. Hold onto the malachite as a reminder of your heart’s harvest. ~Karen Follet )0( From The Morning Feast Archives

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Silliness – Working Man Blues – Then I tried to be a chef — figured it would add a little spice to my life, but I just …didn’t have the thyme.

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Wiccan | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Autumnal Equinox, carnation, Celtic Tree Month, Dianthus carophyllus, Fall Equinox, Goddess Month, Journal Prompt, Mabon, Mabon Spells, Magick, Moon, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Runic Half Month, Silliness, Tides, Weather, When the air is white with the down o' the thistle, Wicca, Working Man Blues | Leave a comment

Daily Stuff 9-18-21 Samuel Johnson

Posted on September 18, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Minus Tide at 5:34 AM of -0.5 feet. The shop opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. Featured photo by Ken Gagne Walter Duvall. No Sewing Workshop this afternoon.

Rain (that feels so good to write!) 57F, wind at 1-7mph and gusting, AQI 4-34, UV5. Chance of rain 100% today and 99% tonight. Glorious rain today! Showers tomorrow morning, then sunny on Monday and Friday, and partly sunny/cloudy the rest of the forecast. It could get up to 70F on Tuesday and Wednesday night there’s a small chance of a shower or 3. Temps (other than Tuesday) in the low 60’s. 3 firespots. The smoke plume is heading NE from the fires and covered a bit under 1/2 the state, but the coast and Valley are mostly clear. The Medford area is mostly green and yellow. Bend, now…..

Large Fires

Cougar Peak Fire – 6% – 87755 acres
Devils Knob Complex Fire – 49% – 67710.95 acres
Big Hamlin Fire – 92% – 19350 acres
Smith Fire – 28% – 46865 acres
Jack Fire – 55% – 24164 acres
Rough Patch Complex Fire – 36% – 49060 acres
Chaos Fire – 45% – 27903 acres
Middle Fork Complex Fire – 43% – 30139.35 acres
Gales Fire – 37% – 28567 acres
Janus Fire – 15% – 22335.8 acres
Bull Complex Fire – 15% – 22432 acres

Smaller

Big Meadow Fire – 75% – 2636 acres
6 Rough Patch Tfr Fire – 6% – 6976 acres
Little Bend Creek Fire – 22% – 9269 acres

At or near containment

Near Minky Fire – 88% – 4869 acres
Kwis Fire – 98% – 1485 acres

Yesterday seemed to be all typing and typing.. I did get more than just that done, though. We had a few customers in, but it was fairly quiet, even more after the rain started around 4:30. I worked on candles, getting some of those headered and hung and some more of them inventoried and priced, although they don’t have stickers yet. Maybe on Monday…. I was still typing at 6….at 7pm…and which point I was pestering Tempus to go home because I had worn really thin.

We got home around 8 and it was nearly dark. I could hear the plants singing quietly about the rain. We got supper (some of the pork and veg stew) and went right to bed, waking just in time to come back to the shop, although I got a few minutes before Tempus woke to sit and listen to the rain. I’m still pretty tired and ready to go back to sleep, but I have to finish a shopping list for Tempus. He’s hoping to get the tires on the car and get back here in time to open.

Whether he’s back or not, I’ll have the shop open at 1pm. Once he’s back, though, I have some cooking to do, part of what the shopping list is about. Tomorrow is 3rd Saturday and we’re supposed to have some House members here for that potluck instead of it just being virtual the way we’ve done for 1 1/2 years, now…. So I have cheese to make and potted cheddar and borscht and set up some of the veg for tomorrow. ….pickling broth…. and decide which nibbles are going to be on the table…. hardboiled eggs for pickling….and pea flour and cracked barley…. Oof…. It’ll be fun, but a lot of work. I wonder how much I’ll be able for?

…and some sadness…. last weekend… and it looks like a real accident, not stupidity…. – Steve Allen, death at Devils Churn – https://yachatsnews.com/27124-2/

The beach on Monday morning, 9/15/19. Yachats, where the 804 drops to the beach, looking north. – Photo by Paul Pardi, used with permission

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Samuel Johnson (born 9/18/1709 d. 12/13/1784), English lexicographer (A Dictionary of the English Language). He was the son of a poor bookseller, and grew up in poverty (which haunted him the rest of his life). Despite his humble origins, after Shakespeare he is the most quoted person in the English language. More in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Samuel_Johnson .

Today’s Plant is the Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii, sometimes called Oregon Pine, since it’s actually a pine, not a fir at all. They are commonly used as Christmas trees, since they hold their needles better than many other trees, and are one of the better timber trees, growing quickly with a straight grain. Their main use, magickally, is in incense, since the resin has a good sweet scent. –Mars, Air/Fire – Attracting prosperity, purifying ritual areas and new homes, helping “stay the course” during difficult times. A wand or cone kept on the altar wards off evil influences. Carry cones to increase fertility and have a vigorous old age. Floor washes with the oil cleanse a space of negativity and ward off illness. Throw needles into winter fires for protection, or burn as incense for purification and divination. Place branches over the bed to keep sickness away, or to aid the ill. Hang a branch over the main door of your house to ensure continuous joy within.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudotsuga_menziesii

The shop opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. For appointments contact us at 541-563-7154, anjasnihova@yahoo.com, on Facebook or here on the blog, or just leave a note on the door!

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Moon in Aquarius enters Pisces at 1:22pm.

Wild Ducks Take Flight in Open Cluster
The Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile has taken this beautiful image, dappled with blue stars, of one of the most star-rich open clusters currently known — Messier 11, also known as NGC 6705 or the Wild Duck Cluster. Messier 11 is an open cluster, sometimes referred to as a galactic cluster, located around 6000 light-years away in the constellation of Scutum (The Shield). It was first discovered by German astronomer Gottfried Kirch in 1681 at the Berlin Observatory, appearing as nothing more than a fuzzy blob through the telescope. It wasn’t until 1733 that the blob was first resolved into separate stars by the Reverend William Derham in England, and Charles Messier added it to his famous catalogue in 1764. Messier was a comet hunter and the catalogue came into being as he was frustrated by constantly observing fixed, diffuse objects that looked like comets (for example, objects that we now know to be clusters, galaxies and nebulae). He wanted a record in order to avoid accidentally observing them again and confusing them with possible new comets. This particular stellar cluster was noted down as the eleventh such object — hence the name of Messier 11.
Open clusters are typically found lying in the arms of spiral galaxies or in the denser regions of irregular galaxies, where star formation is still common. Messier 11 is one of the most star-rich and compact of the open clusters, being almost 20 light-years across and home to close to 3000 stars. Open clusters are different to globular clusters, which tend to be very dense, tightly bound by gravity, and contain hundreds of thousands of very old stars — some of which are nearly as old as the Universe itself. Image: ESO

The Wild Duck Cluster (M11) is a great target this evening. Located in Scutum, it’s still relatively high in the south after sunset. You can find M11 by dropping 1.8° southeast of 4th-magnitude Beta (β) Scuti, also known as 6 Aquilae. M11 is a bright, rich cluster of nearly 3,000 young stars estimated to be between 220 million and 250 million years old. With a visual magnitude of about 6, a keen-eyed observer might just be able to see it from a dark location — although the Moon may interfere with any attempts to find it without optical aid this evening. However, with either binoculars or a wide-field telescope, this beautiful cluster is easy to find and a real crowd-pleaser. It stretches about 14′ across and its brightest stars form a rough v shape, which is how the cluster earned its name.

The Moon passes 4° south of Jupiter in eastern Capricornus at 3 A.M. EDT. Both are setting in the west at that time, about 11° above the horizon and still visible. But if you don’t want to get up early, they’ll be up again this evening, already climbing above the eastern horizon as the Sun sets and now almost 10° apart. That will actually make it easier to zoom in on Jupiter after dark to see some detail, such as its alternating light and dark bands of clouds and four Galilean moons.

Tonight, three moons (in order: Ganymede, Europa, and Io) stretch out to Jupiter’s east — Io is closest to the planet — and Europa sits to Jupiter’s west. If you keep watching long enough, you’ll see tiny Io approach the planet and slip onto the disk just after 11:15 P.M. EDT. It’s followed by its shadow, which appears as a dark spot on Jupiter’s face just after midnight EDT on the 19th (still late on the 18th in other time zones). Io will finish its transit an hour and a half later, and its shadow will finally disappear from the disk around 2:20 A.M. EDT on the 19th.

Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper with Polaris between.

You can see in the stars that the season is changing: We’ve reached the time of year when, just after nightfall, cold-weather Cassiopeia has already climbed a little higher in the northeast than the warm-weather Big Dipper has sunk in the northwest. Cassiopeia bedecks the high northern sky in early evening during the fall-winter half of the year. The Big Dipper takes over for the milder evenings of spring and summer. Almost midway between them stands Polaris. It’s currently a little above the midpoint between the two.

Jupiter and Saturn shine in the southeast to south these evenings. They’re magnitudes –2.8 and +0.4, respectively, on opposite sides of dim Capricornus. Jupiter starts the evening as slightly the lower of the two. Saturn glows 17° (almost two fists) to Jupiter’s upper right. They level out around 9 or 10 p.m. daylight-saving time. By then they’re about at their highest in the south at their telescopic best. After that they start to tilt the other way, with Saturn now the lower one.

NIGHT SKY MAP FOR SEPTEMBER 2021: PEGASUS & MEASURING THE SKY – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-september-pegasus-measuring-sky

Sun in Virgo

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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
Sa 18      Low   5:34 AM    -0.5   6:59 AM     Set 4:06 AM      88
~    18    High 12:03 PM     6.8   7:21 PM    Rise 6:54 PM
~    18      Low   5:44 PM     2.0
~    18    High 11:33 PM     7.7

******

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – I manifest all things in association with clarity. I breathe clarity into my body.

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Journal Prompt – Where? – Where would you prefer to be right now—mountains, desert, beach—and why?

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Quotes

~   Ah, well, then I suppose I shall have to die beyond my means. – Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish writer and wit
~   Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. – Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish artist
~   Hand out hope. – Kerr Cuhulain
~   I am burning. If anyone lacks tinder, let him set his rubbish ablaze with my fire. – Rumi

TO AUTUMN – John Keats (1795-1821)

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Harmon lists – To Autumn is the most anthologized poem in the English language. It was written on September 19, 1819

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Mabon Magick – Crafts

Laminated Window Hangings for Mabon

you will need:
– lined paper
– laminating paper
– crayons
– Mabon cookie cutters(the big ones)
– scissors & a single hole punch
– a pencil
what to do:

Lightly trace the shapes of vegetables or other Mabon figures with your pencil.
Cut out those shapes with scissors.
Colour in the shapes with your crayons lightly.
Laminate the shapes with laminate paper, and cut off the excess edges, leave about 3mm extra laminate paper.
Punch a hole through the top of the shape and hang it up in your window.

How to Make a Wine Cork Pumpkin – Posted by Erika Pitera – Wondering what to do with all those spare corks you have hanging around? Why not make a pumpkin to celebrate fall? You only need about 30 minutes and a few supplies and the result is an adorable table decoration you can enjoy year after year. http://www.mygourmetconnection.com/entertaining/party-ideas-decor/how-to-make-a-wine-cork-pumpkin.php

What You’ll Need To Make A Wine Cork Pumpkin

Materials:

25 recycled wine corks
Orange acrylic paint
Paint brush
Hot glue gun
Craft knife
Green felt
Scissors
Jute twine

Instructions:

Dilute the paint with a bit of water and paint both ends of all but one cork. Allow to dry.
Arrange the corks in rows (4 on the bottom, then 5, then 6, then 5 and 4 on the top row) and hot glue them together. For best results, try to match up the corks so they’re the same length in each row.
Take the one remaining cork and cut off part of it with the craft knife. Hot glue it on top as the stem.
Cut leaf shapes from the green felt and hot glue them on around the “stem.”
Tie a short length of twine around the stem to resemble the vine.

Finished project measures approximately 5″H x 5″W x 1-3/4″D

Pagan Studies – Harvest Necklace

The months of August, September and October are typically the time for harvest festivals, feasts and celebrations in the northern hemisphere. It is a time when many cultures and spiritual paths celebrate the bounty of the Earth, give thanks for the blessings of this bounty and honor their deities connected with Harvest and the plant spirits.

It is a good time for us to reconnect with the cycles of Nature and receive teachings from the nature spirits and plant spirits. Study some of the plant species in your area (foods, flowers, trees, etc) and then take a walk outdoors and try to identify these species. You will notice that some of these plants are beginning to set seed, and it is very interesting to look at all the different types of seed that exist in Nature!

You can create a necklace of seeds to wear during a Harvest celebration, or you may choose to use your “necklace” as an altar decoration or candle garland. You can collect seeds from outdoors that are large enough to string onto a necklace, or you can get seeds from the produce you buy at the grocery store. Apples, gourds, squash, and corn are all good sources for seeds. Always use uncooked seeds (for instance, never use cooked corn on the cob because the kernels will decompose on your necklace rather than drying). “Indian” corn can also be used, but since it is already dry you will need to soak the kernels in warm water until they are soft enough to string onto your necklace. Larger seeds, like buckeyes and acorns, can be used but they require the use of a thin drill bit to get a good hole in them.

Use a sturdy, sharp needle and a heavy string such as dental floss, beading string or hand quilting weight thread. I like to double my string so that the necklace is very sturdy. Once strung, the seeds will dry and they may shrink a bit so make your necklace longer than you would like to account for this shrinkage. Hang the strung seeds in a well ventilated room until the seeds are dry. You can make the necklace long enough to slip over your head or you can add a clasp on the ends of your necklace. You can also wear them wrapped around your wrists or ankles several times (bells can be added if you plan to dance at your festival). You may also wish to add bits of raffia or stripped, dry cornhusk by tying the bits around your string at different intervals. You can also add any type of charms or stones to your necklace that are used at autumn celebrations in your tradition…..perhaps half of a black walnut, to represent Owl/Wisdom/Goddess. – Written by ScryeWulf for the Magickal Crafts Newsletter

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Silliness –

Posted in Newsletter | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Autumnal Equinox, Celtic Tree Month, Douglas Fir, Fall Equinox, Goddess Month, Journal Prompt, Mabon, Mabon Crafts, Magick, Moon, Oregon Coast, Oregon Pine, Pagan, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Runic Half Month, Samuel Johnson, Silliness, Tides, To Autumn, TP, Weather, Wicca | Leave a comment

Daily Stuff 9-17-21 Hildegard von Bingen

Posted on September 17, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Minus Tide at 4:43 AM of -0.4 feet. The shop opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. Featured photo by Anja.

Clear, 47F, wind at 1-4mph and gusting, AQI 10-29, UV5. Chance of rain 50% today and 100% tonight. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY from 8am Friday to 5am Saturday Special Weather Statement for the weekend. 100% chance of rain both Friday and Saturday nights, but showers through Sunday and then a small chance of showers on Wednesday morning. The rest of the time it should be mostly sunny with temps going up to 70 on Tuesday. “Cold” is relative. Highs at worst in the low 60’s….. Most of the smoke is in the Cascades and smeared across the whole southern edge of the state. A lot is very light and the worst now is red, not purple. 9 firespots. C’mon rain!

Larger Fires

Cougar Peak Fire – 6% – 87349 acres
Devils Knob Complex Fire – 49% – 67159.95 acres
Smith Fire – 28% – 46334 acres
Jack Fire – 55% – 24164 acres
Rough Patch Complex Fire – 36% – 48237 acres
Chaos Fire – 40% – 27218 acres
Middle Fork Complex Fire – 37% – 30139.35 acres
Gales Fire – 31% – 28567 acres
Janus Fire – 15% – 21094.8 acres
Bull Complex Fire – 15% – 21191 acres

Smaller

Big Meadow Fire – 60% – 2633 acres
6 Rough Patch Tfr Fire – 6% – 6962 acres
Little Bend Creek Fire – 18% – 9145 acres

At or nearing containment

Little Applegate Fire – 100% – 128 acres
Wild Cat Fire – 100% – 215 acres
Big Hamlin Fire – 89% – 19330 acres
Mule Creek Fire – 100% – 1016 acres
Near Minky Fire – 88% – 4869 acres
Kwis Fire – 98% – 1485 acres

Tomatoes

Yesterday and the day before were both really full, but of different things. Wednesday was sleep…. Even after plenty of sleep on Tuesday I was tired enough that I kept going back to bed. Tempus didn’t really wake until 10pm, but that was at least in part because we didn’t get home until well past noon. Car stuff took that long and there’s at least one more repair to do this morning, but he has completely functioning headlights again despite the deer. We finally got supper/lunch with coffee that late at night. Weirdly, the coffee made me sleepy!

Ball carrots (thinned these out, more are left!)

I had been planning on staying home, but I found that I had a bunch of typing to do, so I came back into town with Tempus and typed nearly non-stop until about 5am. I have more to do, yet, but at least that’s a start…. All the way into town we watched a partly-nibbled green cheese Moon, very low, but very big and bright. It’s been lovely seeing the stars. I’m hoping that the predicted rain does a lot of good, but then leaves again off and on for a month or so.

Leaf lettuce

When he got in we went home and crawled into bed, which just felt really, really good. We got up in plenty of time, feeling rested for once, and I went out to harvest the things that might get messed up by the rain.

Green beans

Once we were back at the shop, I got back to work on my typing while Tempus got us coffee and the last of the pie and started the wax heating. I only got the candles done very late in the day, but I was dealing with an asthma attack by then. A customer came in reeking of smoke and insisted that I was the one that had to help him. I couldn’t get away from it and spent a couple of hours wheezing, even with a mask.

The whole harvest for the day.

The day had been pretty good up until then, although I didn’t get as far on my typing as I had been hoping. Tempus was working on back, mostly, trying to get ahead on some of the clean-up, so I was the one working with customers. One was the lady from Inspirations up in Lincoln City and we had a good chat.

The asthma cancelled Herbs. I was exhausted from wheezing and coughing and went to lie down as soon as my lungs would cooperate. I got back up around midnight and got back to work, mostly on this, but alternating with typing. What am I typing? Recipes and notes from a book, “An Early Meal”, which is all about Norse (Viking era) cooking! It’s for the House Feast next February. …and hunting online for some of the strange things like whole yellow peas or wheat seeds for cooking…and goosefoots….

Today we hope to have the tires for the car in the morning. We’ll have the shop open at 1pm and stay open probably a little after 6. I have some cooking to do, though, so I don’t want to stay too late. I’m going to try to get candles inventoried today.

Sunset on 8/16/18 looking out from the shop door…

Feast day of Hildegard von Bingen, virgin, abbess and Medieval Polymath. She was a mystic, who probably had migraines, at least the descriptions of her visions start with what sounds like migraines…. but where she took it and how she interpreted it is pretty darned amazing! She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, songs used in church ritual, and poems as well as a piece that is considered to be the oldest surviving morality play. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen

Today’s plant is Wild ginger, Asarum caudatum – This is a different plant from the one usually used in magick, but has only slightly different properties. This is related to black pepper, kava and birthwort. – Masculine, Mars, Fire – This is used for “heating up” spells. While standard ginger is used in money, love, success and power spells, Wild Ginger is mostly used to add power, rather than on its own. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asarum_caudatum

The shop opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. For appointments contact us at 541-563-7154, anjasnihova@yahoo.com, on Facebook or here on the blog, or just leave a note on the door!

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Moon in Aquarius

And now the gibbous Moon hangs lower right of the bright Jupiter at dusk, as shown above. Later in the night, as the sky turns, The Moon becomes directly below Jupiter. That’s how you’ll find them around midnight (daylight saving time).

The doubles

Bright Vega in Lyra is the sky’s fifth-brightest star, blazing high in the eastern sky after dark tonight. Part of its secret is that it’s so close — Vega is a mere 25 light-years from Earth. But it’s also a hot class A star, which also lends it some added oomph. But don’t let this single star outshine the constellation in which it resides. Lyra the Lyre contains several other stars, including the four — Zeta, Beta, Gamma, and Delta (δ) Lyrae — that make up its parallelogram shape. Beta Lyrae, also called Sheliak, is an eclipsing binary system with a period of 13 days. Over the course of about two weeks, Sheliak dims from magnitude 3.8 to 4.3, then brightens again. You can see this for yourself by comparing it nightly with steadier Gamma, also called Sulafat, which matches Sheliak in brightness when the latter is at its peak and shines brighter when Sheliak is dimmest.

If deep-sky observing is on your to-do list, Lyra is also home to M56, a globular cluster in the constellation’s southern region. At magnitude 8.3, binoculars or a small scope will reveal this ball of stars, which stretches about 9′ across. At its distance of more than 32,000 light-years, that corresponds to a physical diameter of about 85 light-years in space. You’ll find it 4.5° southeast of Sulafat, or 3.7° northwest of Albireo (Beta Cygni).

Mercury (about magnitude +0.2) is very deep down in the sunset, 16° lower right of Venus this week. You might have a chance at it with binoculars or a wide-field scope. About 15 or 20 minutes after sunset, scan for it just above your horizon due west. Good luck. Between Venus and Mercury is fainter Spica, magnitude +1.0.

NIGHT SKY MAP FOR SEPTEMBER 2021: PEGASUS & MEASURING THE SKY – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-september-pegasus-measuring-sky

Sun in Virgo

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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   17      Low   4:43 AM    -0.4   6:58 AM    Set 2:52 AM      80
~    17    High 11:21 AM     6.4   7:22 PM    Rise 6:24 PM
~    17      Low   4:50 PM     2.7
~    17    High 10:37 PM     7.6

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – There is no competition because nobody can be me.

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Journal Prompt – What do you think? – Why do you think almost everyone loves Charlie Brown and Snoopy?

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Quotes

Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress. – Mohandas Gandhi
~   They understand but a little who understand only what can be explained. – H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) US writer
~   The faith that moves mountains always carries a pick. – Anonymous
~   All of your characteristics are tools that you can use. – Kerr Cuhulain

There are flowers enough in the summertime,
More flowers than I can remember:
But none with the purple, gold, and red
That dyes the flowers of September! –Mary Howitt (1799–1888)

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Mabon Magick – Recipes

PASTA, SPICY TOMATO-VODKA SAUCE & MEATBALLS MY VERSION Serves 4 (double works, but you need a LARGE frying pan!)

INGREDIENTS

pound pasta Rotini
Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
tsp minced Jar garlic
28-oz can chopped tomatoes, plain
1/4 cup vodka
tsp Italian seasoning
16 oz precooked meatballs
¼ cup heavy cream
pint cherry tomatoes
½ cup Parmesan cheese
Tbsp jar basil
- Can black olives

Tip: Leftovers can be re-heated in the nuker, but before you refrigerate, stir the pasta into the sauce.

DIRECTIONS

Following the directions on the package, cook your pasta while the sauce is cooking and drain.
Start a large sauté pan on Medium High with the olive oil and garlic.
Heat this until it starts to sizzle.
As soon as it’s sizzling, add the tomatoes, vodka and Italian seasoning. Bring to a simmer.
Add the meatballs.
Turn the heat down to Medium until the meatballs are thawed and everything is hot, about 15 minutes.
Turn heat to Low. Add the cream, the pint of cherry tomatoes and olives, and when this starts to steam, the Parmesan. Stir thoroughly, then cover with a loose lid or foil.
Let simmer until the pasta is done and drained and dumped into a large serving bowl.
Stir in the basil at the last second, then pour over pasta and serve.

CUCUMBER TOMATO ONION SALAD – Arcamax 4-6 servings

INGREDIENTS

2-3 large cucumbers
2 Tomatoes
Small onion
¼ Cup fresh cilantro
¼ cup lemon juice
Tbsp olive oil
Tbsp grated fresh ginger root
¼ Tsp ground cumin
¼ Tsp coriander
½ tsp salt

DIRECTIONS
1.       Peel, ¼ and slice cukes.
2.       Chop tomatoes, cilantro & onion.
3.       Grate ginger
4.       Put in a bowl and toss.
5.       Combine remaining ingredients in a cruet and shake well.
6.       Pour over salad and toss.
7.       Chill for about 1 hour before serving.
The Skinny: Not much room for improvement here.

BAKED STUFFED SQUASH – MAIN DISH – SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

1 recipe Stovetop Stuffing Mix

? Water (check box)
? Butter (check box)
small onion
1 Large boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked
½ Cup sunflower seeds or crushed hazelnuts (opt.)
2 acorn squash
Chives (opt.)

DIRECTIONS
1.       In a large microwavable pot or bowl put spice mix (may be included with crumbs in some mixes), water and butter from stuffing.
2.       Chop onion and add to mixture.
3.       Chop chicken and add
4.       Zap in nuker for 5 minutes. Stir.
5.       Keep zapping, for two minutes at a time, stirring between.
6.       Add seeds or nuts. Stir. Add breadcrumbs from stuffing mix. Stir well and fluff with a fork.
7.       Chop squash in ½ longways. Scoop out seeds and discard.
8.       Pile stuffing mix into the centers of the squash. There will be leftovers.
9.       Put the 4 squash into an oven-safe dish, drizzle with melted butter and top with chopped fresh chives.
10.     Cover and bake at 350 for about an hour. Squash is done when a sharp knife or skewer goes down through the center to the pan with no resistance (feels like a done baked potato!)
11.     Serve hot. Store leftovers, covered. Can be reheated in the microwave if each serving is cut into ¼’s.

Tips This makes a good 8-serving side dish or 16-serving nosh.

Tart of cheese and eggs

8 oz Cheshire cheese or similar (We used a savory tvarog)
2 eggs
2 oz butter

Method

Measure your cheese into a medium mixing bowl.
Zap the butter until melted. (I use a coffee mug for 30 seconds. )
Pour the butter over the cheese.
Use a fork to attempt to mix (it’s going to be frustrating….)
Add your egg and keep going. As it comes closer to room temp it will start to mix.
Let stand for 10 minutes, covered, and mix again. This time it ought to mix pretty well.
Prepare crusts and fill as in the Jam Tarts above.
At 10 minutes, check the center temp of one tart with a thermometer. It needs to be over 165F.
Close the pie maker up and let bake a little longer. If the crusts were still pale, maybe 5 minutes. If they were already browning, no more than two.
The centers should not appear liquid when you shake the pie-maker.
Remove pies. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving warm, or refrigerate and serve cold.

Bibliography: A BOOK OF COOKRYE. Gathered by A. W., 1591 in https://jducoeur.org/Cookbook/Cookrye.html

Brears, Peter – Cooking and Dining in Tudor and Early Stuart England, Prospect Books, 2005.

Take good fine paste and drive it as thin as you can. Then take cheese, pare it, mince it, and braye it in a morter with the yolks of Egs til it be like paste, then put it in a faire dish with clarified butter, and then put it abroade into your paste and cover it with a faire cut cover, and so bake it: that doon, serve it forth.

******

Silliness – How to Play It

The composer Robert Schumann wrote at the beginning of one of his compositions: “To be played as fast as possible.” A few measures later he wrote: “Faster.”

Posted in Newsletter | Tagged Affirmation, Asarum caudatum, Astrology, Astronomy, Autumnal Equinox, birthwort, black pepper, Celtic Tree Month, Fall Equinox, Goddess Month, Hildegard von Bingen, How to Play It, Journal Prompt, kava, Mabon, Mabon Recipes, Magick, Moon, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Runic Half Month, Silliness, There are flowers enough, Tides, Weather, Wicca, Wild ginger | Leave a comment

Daily Stuff 9-15-21 Greater Eleusinian Mysteries

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

First Minus Tide of the cycle on Thurs 9/16 at 3:43 AM of -0.2 feet. The shop is closed on Tuesday/Wednesday, opens at 1pm on Thursday. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. Featured photo by Josh Orkin.

Overcast, 59F, wind at 2-12mph and gusting, AQI 33-61, UV5. Chance of rain 6% today and tonight. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FROM 8 AM WEDNESDAY TO 5 AM PDT THURSDAY. Today and Thursday should be dry. Friday through Sunday we could get 2 1/2 inches of rain. Ye gods! Clean your drains and gutters! After that, though, we’re back to the partly cloudy/partly sunny weather that’s more usual for September. 5 firespots. Some of the fires are back on the map, musta been a glitch. Most of the smoke has cleared off of the state. It’s only over the Cascade fires at the moment.

Large Fires

Cougar Peak Fire – 6% – 86412 acres
Devils Knob Complex Fire – 40% – 65766.45 acres
Big Hamlin Fire – 75% – 19181 acres
Smith Fire – 20% – 45090 acres
Jack Fire – 55% – 23990 acres
Rough Patch Complex Fire – 36% – 46135 acres
Chaos Fire – 38% – 25392 acres
Middle Fork Complex Fire – 30% – 29267.35 acres
Gales Fire – 24% – 27695 acres
Janus Fire – 14% – 19853.8 acres
Bull Complex Fire – 14% – 19950 acres

Smaller

Big Meadow Fire – 13% – 2631 acres
Near Minky Fire – 88% – 4869 acres
6 Rough Patch Tfr Fire – 6% – 6861 acres
Little Bend Creek Fire – 27% – 8970 acres

At or near containment

Little Applegate Fire – 100% – 128 acres (Yesterday was a glitch)
Wild Cat Fire – 100% – 215 acres
Mule Creek Fire – 100% – 1016 acres
Kwis Fire – 98% – 1485 acres

I woke yesterday and called Tempus to find out what he was going to do and he was just finishing up the paper route and going to be on his way home in just a couple of minutes. I got things together and when he pulled in we were on our way home in fairly good order. I got the stew boxed up. We each had a piece of pie before we turned in. I slept until about 3 and he slept a bit longer than that. I only got up because the bedroom was getting a bit too warm, but I got enough sleep to catch up a bit.

We had coffee and sat and talked for a couple of hours, just resting and finding out what all has been on each other’s minds. We never run out of stuff to talk about. I find it hard to imagine that other couples do, but that’s what I’ve been seeing all week.

We ran out to the spring before we came back into town and I picked some blackberries, just enough for a snack. Once here I sat down to get online for my meeting, which was interesting, being on medieval coinage. I showed off a couple of coins, myself. Partway through Tempus handed me some of the stew and a lovely toasted bread roll. I hope he actually ate, himself….

By the time the meeting was over Tempus had taken off for the paper run… bulk route night…and he wanted to try to get to Freddie’s before they closed. I got a nap after the meeting, but was back up by midnight, catching up on mail and working on this.

Today Tempus is going to stop at Murphy’s to see if the last of the car parts are in and get them installed, if so. I’m hoping he’s going to be done early enough to hit the farmer’s market on the way home. I know he’s going to sleep, but I’m hoping that I’ll have enough oomph to sew a bit, do some cleaning and some chores. I’m not going to come back into town tonight, to make sure that I’m caught up on sleep for the week. …and I need to make the borscht.

We’ll have the shop open at 1pm on Thursday. I have to get the new candles finished so I can put all that away and get the other candles inventoried and up on the rack. …and I think I’d better work on the plants in the window again, some of them look awful and they were fine a week ago.

Light rain mist and shadow on the firs at daybreak, Yachats River Valley – Photo by Josh Orkin, 9/10/2019, Used with permission.

Greater Eleusinian Mysteries – This day was the climax of the festival when initiates were shown an ear of wheat as the symbol of death/life/rebirth. The festival went on for many days with special events, sacrifices, rituals and processions. More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleusinian_Mysteries#Greater_Mysteries . The Mysteries were secret and initiates simply didn’t write about them, so all we know are the bits and scraps that were public. Eleusis was where the Oomphalos, the belly-button stone of the World. was situated.

Today’s plant is Red Elderberry, Sambucus racemosa. It’s a large shrub that has white flower clusters in the spring and red berry clusters late in the summer. Planet: Venus, Element: Water Deity: Hel, Holda, The White Lady, Magickal properties: Exorcism, Prosperity, Banishment and Healing The leaves and berries are used for protection and in breaking spells that were cast against you or to undo spells of evil intent. Growing an elder in your garden will protect your property from misfortune and harm. In Europe they planted elder in cemeteries to keep away the evil spirits. Elder wands can be used to drive out evil spirits or thought forms, and music on panpipes or flutes of elder have the same power as the wand. Elder should not be cut without first making a prayer, and don’t burn Elder in fear of bringing about ill-luck. “Elder is the Lady’s Tree, burn it not or cursed ye be.” More here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_racemosa and here:http://www.thegoddesstree.com/trees/Elder.htm

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Moon in Sagittarius enters Capricorn at 4:34am.

9/16 Moon enters Aquarius at 8:23am.

Wednesday

Jupiter, Saturn, and the waxing gibbous Moon form a gently curving line this evening, with the Moon on the lower right. Extend a line from Saturn through the Moon by the same amount onward, and you’re in the Sagittarius Teapot.

Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper with Polaris between.

Look north tonight after dark and you’ll see the Little Dipper just starting to swing downward, its cup upside-down and handle curving down toward Polaris, the North Star. Over the next several hours, the Dipper’s cup will continue to rotate toward the horizon, while Polaris stays fixed above Earth’s North Celestial Pole. The cup is formed by four stars: Beta, Gamma, Eta (η), and Zeta (ζ) Ursae Minoris. Of those, Beta (also called Kochab) is the brightest, shining at magnitude 2. Polaris, the constellation’s alpha star, is just a bit brighter. In addition to its place of honor as our current North Star, Polaris is also a Cepheid variable star, whose period — the time it takes to dim and brighten again — is linked to its intrinsic brightness. Thanks to this relationship, Cepheid variables serve as valuable standard candles that allow astronomers to measure precise distances.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16

Now the Moon shines about 5° under Saturn, as indicated above. (Actually, the “Harvest Moon effect” more often refers to the Moon continuing to light the early-evening landscape for several days after full near the September equinox. Before full the Moon lights the early evening every month, though it’s not necessarily low.)

Polaris crosses a line. Roger Sinnott, Sky & Telescope‘s longtime master of all things celestial-mechanical, writes, “I discovered a neat curiosity when working on the Skygazer’s Almanac for 2021. Owing to precession, on September 16th Polaris reaches right ascension 3h (equinox of date) for the first time in 26,000 years, after having crossed 2h in 1964 and 1h in 1828. “Of course, this doesn’t have any profound ramifications. But Polaris’s changing R.A. is very noticeable when you look it up in star charts or catalogues for equinox 2000.0 vs. 1950.0. It also shows up easily when you compare the 2021 Skygazer’s Almanac [our annual events-through-the-night chart, which comes with every January’s S&T ] with those from 10, 20, or 40 years ago. The nearer Polaris gets to the celestial pole, the more rapidly its R.A. changes.”

A saturnian interloper – Saturn reached opposition early on August 2. Those who catch the planet in the evening, however, will spot an interloping star between the planet and its moon Enceladus. The star and the moon are both roughly magnitude 12. – Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)

The Moon passes 4° south of Saturn at 11 P.M. EDT. You can enjoy the view much earlier, though — Saturn is already nearly 20° high at sunset, and another 5° higher an hour later. At that time, the Moon is just less than 5° south-southwest of the planet and will continue to inch closer in the coming hours. Both are located in southwestern Capricornus, west of where you found Jupiter the other night. Saturn itself glows at magnitude 0.3. That’s visible to the naked eye, but you’ll want some optical aid to see its stunning ring system, which stretches out on either side of the planet’s 18″-wide disk. Those rings are tilted 19° to our line of sight, which puts their northern face on view. See if you can differentiate the duskier outer ring, called A, from the brighter Ring B. The dark gap between them is the Cassini division.

Tonight, Saturn is wreathed in several of its small moons, although our own Moon’s light may make them more challenging to see. To the planet’s southeast are Dione and Tethys, while Mimas and Rhea stand to its northwest. Enceladus sits just off Saturn’s northeastern limb, while big, bright Titan — the easiest to see at magnitude 8.5 — is nearly 3′ west of the planet.

Neptune (magnitude 7.8, at the Aquarius-Pisces border) is high in the southeast by 10 p.m.

NIGHT SKY MAP FOR SEPTEMBER 2021: PEGASUS & MEASURING THE SKY – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-september-pegasus-measuring-sky

Sun in Virgo

******

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   15      Low   2:32 AM     0.0   6:56 AM     Set 12:35 AM      60
~    15     High   9:23 AM     5.7   7:26 PM    Rise 5:02 PM
~    15      Low   2:24 PM     3.5
~    15     High   8:19 PM     7.4

Th 16      Low   3:43 AM    -0.2   6:57 AM     Set 1:41 AM      71
~    16     High 10:30 AM     6.0   7:24 PM    Rise 5:48 PM
~    16      Low   3:45 PM     3.2
~    16     High   9:33 PM     7.4

******

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Let your day be filled with laughter and breaks of relaxing times too!

******

Journal Prompt – What is? – What words do you most overuse?

******

Quotes

~   Hard words break no bones. – Hen-Thorir’s Saga, c.13
~   RUN toward your fears! Embrace them. On the other side of your greatest fears lives your greatest life. – Robin Sharma
~   To him who is in fear, everything rustles. – Sophocles
~   The best words for resolving a disagreement are, ‘I could be wrong; I often am.’ It’s true. – Brian Tracy

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. – –Robert Frost (1874–1963

******

Mabon Magick – Mabon Meditation – http://sacredwicca.com/mabon-meditation

This meditation is appropriate for use on the Autumnal Equinox. Like Eostre, it is a time of balance-day and night being equal. You might want to study the astronomical consequences of this Sabbat and how they affect our planet.

I suggest using this meditation in a group setting, perhaps after a late afternoon feast. While dinner is dinner and people are in a quiet, mellow mood is a perfect time to have your guide lead you through this journey.

Relax and make yourself comfortable. Close your eyes and take three deep breaths.

Summer is over. The leaves on the trees burn brilliantly; shades of orange, yellow, and bronze emblazon the forest with colour. The nights are cooler, and there is a chill in the morning air when you wake.

You are standing at the edge of a vegetable garden. Today is Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox, and the first frost hit the ground last night. The sun is filtering through the trees, but you can still see the delicate lacings of white that glitter across the vines. You know that when the sunlight touches the vegetable garden, the frosted vines will wither and blacken. There is much work to be done today.

Carry a large basket into the tomato patch and begin picking the green tomatoes. As you pick each fruit, wrap it carefully in old newspaper and tuck it gently into your basket. The tomatoes will sit in a dark pantry where they will ripen slowly without rotting if you do not bruise them. When you have picked all the tomatoes that are left on the vines, it’s time to mulch the plot. You have been raking leaves the past few days, and now you have a huge pile of them that you covered with a light piece of plastic to protect them from the rain. Take large armfuls of the leaves and layer them across the tomato vines. With a garden fork, turn the soil and mulch the leaves under the fresh earth, spading up the plants as you go. The soil smells musty; almost sour, and you know that autumn is here. You have spent several weeks storing and pickling the fruits of your garden and now it is time to put the bed to rest.

LONG PAUSE

After you have finished, take the tomatoes to the pantry. There, on well-ventilated shelves, stand rows of squash and pumpkins, full and orange and waiting for Samhain.

Your pantry gleams with jar after jar of various fruits and vegetables. Bags of dried beans and sunflower seeds sit waiting for inclusion in casseroles and breads. Stand back and look at the bounty with pride. It has taken a lot of work to encourage the growth, but now you have a good stock put away for the winter, and you know hunger is not likely to knock at your door.

LONG PAUSE

This afternoon you will gather with your neighbors for a feast. Everyone is bringing a different dish, and you have agreed to make a hearty soup. Look through the different vegetables and choose several-corn and peas, the rich tomato stock you made earlier this summer, a few potatoes from the Hessian sack in the corner, an onion, a large squash, and a scoop of dried beans. When your basket is full, leave the pantry and go through the door that leads to your kitchen.

LONG PAUSE

First you need a big saucepan. It should be sturdy and solid, representing a centered, well-balanced you, and it should be big enough to hold all the ingredients that go into producing a fully balanced and enriching soup.

Now look at each vegetable that you are going to add to the soup. Each vegetable represents a challenge you have met and mastered, a goal that you set and were able to accomplish. As you prepare each vegetable and drop it into the pot, think about your goals this year and the successes you can count for yourself.

EXTENDED LONG PAUSE-ABOUT ONE MINUTE

Are there some vegetables that are missing? Remember that even with all our best intentions, sometimes things don’t work out the way we hoped or planned. Sometimes the universe has other ideas about our lives, and sometimes chaos intervenes.

Think now about those goals that you were not able to meet, that still have not come into fruition. have you allowed them enough time to grow? Does their season take longer than you thought? Do you still need to forge ahead and give your energy to them or should you let them quietly die and put them to rest in order to create new space in your life?

EXTENDED LONG PAUSE-ABOUT ONE MINUTE

When your vegetables are chopped and cleaned and in the pot, add enough vegetable stock to cover them and turn the burner to medium heat.

While the soup cooks, you have time to pay your private reverence to the Goddess. Go back to the pantry and get a large pumpkin and a small basket of apples. Then change into a warm ritual robe.

LONG PAUSE

return to the garden. The work you did this morning looks good, and when you look at the vegetable patch, a sense of pride in your honest labor wells up and fills up your heart. Next to the garden patch is a wide, flat stone. On this stone you placed an ear of corn at Lughnasadh; it has now thoroughly dried, and today you add that to the pumpkin and the basket of apples.

LONG PAUSE

Kneel by the stone and touch its smooth surface. The rock is warm to your fingertips, but not with the intense heat of summer, and you know that winter is coming soon.

Look at the food on the altar, then around at the fields standing barren and parched. The body of the Goddess is tired; she must rest. But out of her soil came food for the winter, wonderful fruits and tangy vegetables, grain for the cattle and sheep, berries for the birds and the wild creatures that live in the forest …

Author Unknown

******

Silliness – 9 Things you’ll never hear your Dad say….

9 – Well, how ’bout that? I’m lost! Looks like we’ll have to stop and ask for directions.

8 – I noticed that all your friends have a certain hostile attitude. I like that.

7 – Here’s a credit card and the keys to my new car. GO CRAZY!!

6 – What do you mean you wanna play football? Figure skating’s not good enough for you, son?

5 – Your Mother and I are going away for the weekend. You might want to consider throwing a party.

4 – Well, I don’t know what’s wrong with your car. Probably one of those doo-hickey thingies–ya know–that makes it run or something. Just have it towed to a mechanic and pay whatever he asks.

3 – Whaddya wanna go and get a job for? I make plenty of money for you to spend.

2 – No son of mine is going to live under this roof without an earring. Now quit your belly-aching, and let’s go to the mall.

1 – What do I want for my birthday? Aahh — don’t worry about that. It’s no big deal. (Okay, they might say it. But they don’t mean it)

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Update | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Autumnal Equinox, Celtic Tree Month, Fall Equinox, Goddess Month, Greater Eleusinian Mysteries, Journal Prompt, Mabon, Mabon Meditation, Magick, Moon, Nature’s first green is gold, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Red Elderberry, Runic Half Month, sambucus racemosa, Silliness, Tides, Weather, Wicca | Leave a comment

Daily Stuff 9-14-21 Cornelius Agrippa

Posted on September 14, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

The shop is closed on Tuesday/Wednesday. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. Featured photo by Larry Scott.

Clear and 48F, wind at 0-2mph and gusting, AQI 14-31, UV5. Chance of rain 4% today and 21% tonight. There’s a SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT for the early fall weather forecast for this weekend. Clean your gutters and drains! Also a SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY for 2pm to midnight on Wednesday. Sunny, or mostly through Thursday night, but then the weather is changing. The chance of rain over Thursday/Friday is nearing 100% and for an inch and a half over several days. By Monday we should be back to partly cloudy. The smoke plume has mostly cleared off! The smoke is mostly along the Cascades over those fires, but dang, Detroit Lake is at 202! 8 firespots…and there was a grassfire near Salem that prompted a level 3 evacuation. It’s out…. it was within a couple of hours, but wow…. They got out to check on some of the fires and a *lot* fell off the map! There are a couple of strange things. Cougar Peak is *also* off the map and that was big enough and uncontained enough to not make sense. … and Little Applegate was at 100%…now it’s at 7%? Well we’ll see what it says tomorrow.

Large Fires

Jack Fire – 55% – 23990 acres
Rough Patch Complex Fire – 36% – 46135 acres
Chaos Fire – 38% – 25392 acres
Middle Fork Complex Fire – 28% – 29267.35 acres
Gales Fire – 22% – 27695 acres

Smaller

Big Meadow Fire – 15% – 2448 acres
Little Applegate Fire – 7% – 749 acres

At or near containment

Kwis Fire – 98% – 1485 acres

Geranium, 1st year start $3

Yesterday I was still kinda draggy from the migraine and couldn’t think well. That made it hard to write and it really took all day and not much else got done. We had some shoppers and a few sales during the day. Between foggy-brain and a clogged-up ear (again!) I wasn’t much use….

Sedum, (outdoor ground cover, more available, $3

Linda (mandala Linda) was in and stopped to chat. I haven’t seen her for a couple of years and it’s good to know that she’s doing well. I hadn’t contacted her about OCPPG and she wanted some details.

Geranium, 1st year start $3

Tempus snoozed some, then ran around getting water together. I finished watering the plants and he refilled bottles, then got them into the car as he went. I put stuff together for the stew that’s going…. it’s a scraped icebox kind of thing, based on the pork roast from last week and some vegetables from the farmer’s market. I started it at home after we got the watering done and we brought it back here to finish. I’ll be boxing it up in the morning and most of it will get frozen. …speaking of which, I need to go check on it….

Geranium, 1st year start $3

So, that’s stirred and I have a sandwich. Lunch at 3am doesn’t feel odd, anymore. I’m not sure whether Tempus is going to Murphy’s this morning or not, but we’ll go home as soon as he’s back to sleep most of the day, probably. I have to be back in town at 7pm for a meeting, so I’m going to try to get a little sewing time in, if I can.

Berries

Thursday morning there won’t be a newsletter. I’ll try to get things like tides and astronomy doubled up in the Wednesday one….

Alsea Bay Bridge on 9-13-18 by Larry Scott Used with permission.

Today is the 535 anniversary of the birth of Cornelius Agrippa, (born 1489), author of De occulta philosophia libri tres, a seminal work of magic. There is more information about his life here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Agrippa , his famous book here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_occulta_philosophia_libri_tres

Today’s plant is Field or Scouring Rush Horsetail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_horsetail,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum
The darned things are next to impossible to get rid of, although they’re fascinating in construction and growth habit. In Oregon they’re a noxious weed, since, while the plants have been used as a poverty food (early spring) they can be toxic to grazing animals and are dangerous to people who retain fluid, although the Romans used it both as a tea and a thickening powder. It can be used as a polish and a dye. –Feminine, Saturn, Earth, This is best used in fertility mixtures, sachets, amulets, etc. Place in the bedroom for help in conception. Whistles made of horsetail stems are used in snake charming.

Love & Light,
Anja

******

Today’s Astro & Calendar

Moon in Sagittarius enters Capricorn at 4:34am.

Neptune’s slow slide – Neptune reaches opposition this month. It spends September in Aquarius, near a triangle of three 6th-magnitude field stars.

Neptune reaches opposition at 5 A.M. EDT this morning. If you happen to be up early, you can catch the solar system’s most distant planet as it slowly sets in the west amid the stars of Aquarius. The easiest way to locate Neptune is to first find 4th-magnitude Phi (ϕ) Aquarii, then skim 4° northeast of the star. Magnitude 7.7 Neptune sits near a triangle of 6th-magnitude field stars, closest to the triangle’s southwestern point. The planet’s bluish disk spans a mere 2″, but it’s visible in binoculars as a flat-looking star. If you’ve got a telescope and good seeing, you’ll likely discern some color. Because it’s at opposition, Neptune will again rise as the Sun sets and remain visible all night, so don’t worry about missing it if you prefer to observe in the evening. Wait an hour or two after sunset for the region to climb away from the horizon, where turbulent air often muddies the view.

Sagittarius above a Cape Cod beach house – The famous Teapot asterism in Sagittarius stands out to the upper right of this vacation home, while the central regions of the Milky Way arc through the top of the image. – John Chumack

Now the Moon shines in the lid of the Sagittarius Teapot. The Teapot is tilting and pouring to the right, like always in September. Binoculars will help you pick it out from moonlight and light pollution. (Remember that the Teapot spans some 13°, about twice the width of a typical binocular’s field of view.)

Atmospheric patterns in Jupiter’s Clouds – https://mymodernmet.com/junocam-jupiter-photo-northern-regions/

Uranus (magnitude 5.7, in southern Aries) gets high in the east after midnight.

NIGHT SKY MAP FOR SEPTEMBER 2021: PEGASUS & MEASURING THE SKY – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-september-pegasus-measuring-sky

Sun in Virgo

******

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 14      Low   1:16 AM     0.0   6:55 AM    Rise 4:05 PM      49
~    14     High   7:58 AM     5.5   7:28 PM
~    14      Low 12:56 PM     3.4
~    14    High   7:02 PM     7.5

******

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Enjoy today.

******

Journal Prompt – What does this quote say to you? – Children act in the village as they have learned at home. — Swedish proverb

******

Quotes

~   If you don’t invest much, then defeat doesn’t hurt very much and winning is not very exciting. – Dick Vermeil
~   All the experience of history confirms that sharing the same beliefs has been a preliminary to quarreling about their interpretation. – Theodore Zeldin
~   Mistakes……call them unexpected learning experiences. – Richard Bach
~   America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still. – e. e. cummings (1894-1962) u. s. poet

Now by the brook the maple leans
With all his glory spread,
And all the sumachs on the hills
Have turned their green to red. – –William Wilfred Campbell (1858–1918)

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Mabon Magick – Crafts

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Silliness – Working Man Blues – I wanted to be a barber, but …I just couldn’t cut it.

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Update | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Autumnal Equinox, Celtic Tree Month, Cornelius Agrippa, equisetum, Fall Equinox, Goddess Month, Journal Prompt, Mabon, Magick, Moon, Now by the brook the maple leans, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Runic Half Month, scouring rush horsetail, Silliness, Tides, Weather, Wicca, Working Man Blues | Leave a comment

Daily Stuff 9-13-21 Lectisternium

Posted on September 13, 2021 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

The shop opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. Featured photo by Walter Duvall.

Partly cloudy at the moment. We’ve been able to hear the ocean for a couple of nights, but tonight is quiet. 48F, wind at 0-2mph, AQI 10-33, UV5. Chance of rain 4% today and 10% tonight. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY 2-8pm today. The next 4 days should be more of what we’ve been seeing, but on Friday it really changes. There’s about a 60 percent of rain from Friday through Sunday, up to 1 1/2 inches… and then a break for one day and then more rain. Oh, it would be *nice* if we’re going into the rainy season early! The smoke plume leaves clear the NW 1/3 of Oregon and at least half is light or not there…. the SE 1/2 of the state isn’t too bad over most of it, unlike what we’ve had for awhile. 7 firespots.

Large fires

Cougar Peak Fire – 6% – 86170 acres
Devils Knob Complex Fire – 40% – 64940.45 acres
Big Hamlin Fire – 75% – 19035 acres
Jack Fire – 55% – 23990 acres
Rough Patch Complex Fire – 36% – 44476 acres
Chaos Fire – 36% – 24462 acres
Middle Fork Complex Fire – 24% – 28500.35 acres
Gales Fire – 19% – 26928 acres
Janus Fire – 14% – 19683.8 acres
Bull Complex Fire – 14% – 19780 acres

Smaller

Big Meadow Fire – 15% – 2448 acres
Near Minky Fire – 88% – 4867 acres
6 Rough Patch Tfr Fire – 6% – 6535 acres
Little Bend Creek Fire – 9% – 8569 acres

At or near containment

Little Applegate Fire – 100% – 128 acres
Wild Cat Fire – 100% – 215 acres
Mule Creek Fire – 100% – 1016 acres
Kwis Fire – 98% – 1485 acres

Gigantor succulent $5 The mother plant of this one is 12 inches across!

Yesterday was very busy, not so much with customers, although we had far more than last week, but we had a lot to do. We had gone home in the morning which makes for some solid sleep, which we both needed.

Jade plant. These can grow over the years to 2-3 feet tall and wide. 1st year start. $3

We got back to the shop in plenty. of time, got open, got coffee and breakfast and I got right into class. This was a class about cookbooks, “Good, Bad, Ugly”. Well, supposedly… It turned into a class on the history of cookbooks relevant to SCA use. Not all that helpful…. and no bibliography, which for a class on any kind of books was a little on the stupid side. So I listened while I worked on my sampler and got quite grumpy.

Geranium 2nd year start. Bright pink flower. $3

After that I talked with some of the House members and finally ended up with a chat open for about an hour. Various people were down with various ailments and the low-grade migraine that I was fighting didn’t help my “grumpy”.

Jade plant (mislabeled) being trained for a “tree”, 2nd year plant. $7

Tempus snoozed most of the day, as far as I could tell, although he made me a sandwich and got some other things done, including finding out how to fix the plumbing at home. I still need to fix my bamboo windchime. It has two tubes that are split now, so they’re going to have to be soaked soft, glued together, clamped and left to dry. He gave me a hand getting pix of the plants that we have for sale at the shop.

Late in the afternoon, after the House stuff was done, he headed home to try to get the plumbing working and got back, having triumphed, at about 7,

Random succulent 2nd year start. $7. These get pretty large 15-18 inches &5

At which point he helped me get stuff packed up, but we didn’t take water for the garden, since it was already getting dark.

Odd bulb plant, white flowers 2nd year start. $3

We got supper together, as quickly as was possible out of leftovers and crashed…. He woke me around midnight from a dream where I was talking with a friend while we watched the turkeys in her yard. He rolled over and bumped me which the dream interpreted as an attack by one of the turkeys. He’s been laughing that I turned him into a turkey….

Spider plant, vigorous grower, need repotting $3

He headed out on the paper run at about 1/4 past 2. I have to finish this, process some photos and try to sleep. This migraine is kicking my tukas…..

Odd bulb plant, white flowers 2nd year start. $

Today we’ll be open at 1pm. What I get done depends at least some on the migraine. If it stays as it was today I can work at my computer if I put on a hat to keep the light from the fluorescents out of my face. I hope so. I have a fair amount of writing to do. I missed a couple of photos, so they’re going to need to be re-done, as well. Tempus is going to water outside and then fill the water bottles and get them into the car. I’m hoping that we’ll get home in time to do the garden.

Spider plant, vigorous grower, need repotting $3

I’ve gotten some questions recently about why the Full, Quarter and New Moon times listed below are different from the calendar dates. The calendars have the exact center of the phase listed. The times I have listed are the beginnings of the phase when those magicks can be worked. Iow, Full Moon last for 3 days, 36 hours of Waxing Full and 36 hours of Waning Full.

Geranium, 1st year start $3

Pictures in today’s newsletter are the plants we have for sale. I will reserve a plant for you, if you comment below with the paragraph it is associated with and your name. (Won’t show in public space!)

These plants are living on the rolling table. …and please don’t fiddle with the pricing sticks like someone did with the jade plant that’s mislabeled above!

9/9/18 by Walter Duvall, “Morning has broken”, Yaquina Bridge

Today in the Roman Empire is the Feast of the Lectisternium. This is a sacrifice where images of the gods reclining and goddesses seated were served with feast foods as though they were the honored guests. The picture is of a carved stool of the sort used in dining. More info here: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Lectisternium.html

180px-Cow_parsnip_Heracleum_lanatum_buds

Today’s Plant is Cow parsnip, Heracleum lanatum, or Indian Celery. Growing in every damp place along the roads out here, this is easily confused with seacoast angelica, and other plants, and even dangerously with water hemlock, if you don’t look carefully, or dig it up to check the root. It’s a huge plant (over 6 feet tall) with leaves large enough to make a hat from! Local peoples used it as a poultice plant for bruises and sores. The young stems and leaf stalks can be peeled and eaten in spring. The root makes a nice yellow dye. – Feminine, Water, Moon, Hathor – The flowers glow in the moonlight and I have used this as a plant of sacrifice to Bona Dea or the Great Mother in one of her many aspects as it is a symbol of the plenty of spring. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_lanatum

The shop opens at 1pm. Summer hours are Thurs-Mon. 1-6pm. For appointments contact us at 541-563-7154, anjasnihova@yahoo.com, on Facebook or here on the blog, or just leave a note on the door!

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

Moon in Sagittarius

Sunday evening the Moon shines over Antares. Monday evening in the Americas finds the Moon just a few hours past its exact first-quarter phase.

First Quarter Moon occurs this afternoon at 4:39 P.M. EDT, about two hours after it rises, shining in the feet of Ophiuchus. The Moon is about midway between Antares to its lower right and the Sagittarius Teapot to its left (for North America). Look soon after twilight ends, before they sink lower. Our satellite is visible all evening, setting shortly before midnight. It’s a great night to get in some easy, enjoyable lunar observing.

“You can’t see detail on Mercury.” That’s been a truism for amateurs visually, but it’s not true for skilled astrophotographers, especially if they’re using the 1-meter (40-inch) Chilescope remotely. Damian Peach caught this richly detailed image of Mercury’s surface on the morning of April 8th 2019.

Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation (27°) at midnight EDT. It’s well below the horizon by then, though, so instead try looking for it just after sunset. It’s a bit of a challenge, because despite its position relatively far from the Sun, the ecliptic currently forms a shallow angle to the horizon. That means Mercury is not very high — by 30 minutes after sunset, the solar system’s smallest planet is only 3° high, shining at magnitude 0.2. If you’re able to turn a telescope its way, you’ll see its disk is 57 percent lit and stretches 7″ across. Mercury currently forms the base of a line linking it with Spica — Virgo’s magnitude 1 alpha star — and Venus, shining a bright magnitude –4. Half an hour after sunset, Venus remains 11° high, setting just before 9 P.M. local time. Its 16″-wide disk is 68 percent lit and will continue to slim down slightly, ending the month about 62 percent lit.

NIGHT SKY MAP FOR SEPTEMBER 2021: PEGASUS & MEASURING THE SKY – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-september-pegasus-measuring-sky

Sun in Virgo

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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
M   13      Low 12:05 AM     0.0   6:54 AM    Rise 2:57 PM      37
~    13     High   6:31 AM     5.6   7:30 PM     Set 11:38 PM
~    13      Low 11:42 AM     2.9
~    13     High   5:54 PM     7.7

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Listen to old People.

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Journal Prompt – Favorites – What’s your favorite part of being you?

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Quotes

~   Beauty is the greatest seducer of man. – Paulo Coelho
~   Open yourself to meditation then trust your natural responses; and everything will take its place. – Dharma
~   Why do grandparents and grandchildren get along so well together? Perhaps the best answer is the one I heard from a psychiatrist recently: “Because they have a common enemy–the parents”. – Sydney J. Harris
~   In avoiding the appearance of evil, I am not sure but I have sometimes unnecessarily deprived myself and others of innocent enjoyments. – Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) US President (19)

Here and yonder, high and low,
Goldenrod and sunflowers glow. – Robert Kelley Weeks (1840–86)

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Mabon Magick – Lore – Autumnal Equinox tidbit – From: http://www.nmrising.com/public/28.htm

Autumnal Equinox – Jason Rath

“Is there a Supreme Being?” Many answered these questions through various religions and sciences. But science is limited to the objective, physical world and religion offers no rigorous tests. Many failed to satisfy their hunger for understanding. Witches of old used their knowledge of science and nature to organize a religion based on “common sense.” They observed the power of color on the mind, of the relationship between the stars and creation, of herbs and healing, etc. They formulated a religion of common sense, in which all could worship and learn. They used their observations of the physical world to explain the principles and laws of the spiritual world—much as ancient mathematicians used geometry to explain the nature of spiritual creatures and their movements. The symbols and rites of Wicca contain this ancient wisdom.

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Silliness – Beachcomber clothes

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Update | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Autumnal Equinox, Celtic Tree Month, Cow parsnip, Fall Equinox, Goddess Month, Heracleum lanatum, Here and yonder, Indian Celery, Journal Prompt, Mabon, Magick, Moon, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Runic Half Month, Silliness, Tides, Weather, Wicca | Leave a comment

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