Ancient Light's Daily Stuff

Daily Stuff 12-9-18 Belisarius

Posted on December 9, 2018 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Minus Tide at 8:05 PM of -0.5 feet. House Capuchin Project Day 1-5pm.

It’s raining steadily, but gently, even if we’ve gotten over 1/2 an inch since midnight. 49F, wind at 5mph, AQI 64? Wow…. There are several layers of clouds up there, each dumping into the next. We’re supposed to get a mostly dry day tomorrow and then more dripping on us on Tuesday.

Yesterday started with the Herbs Workshop. We got a lot done, mostly packing, talking about the poisonous herbs and why they’re poisonous and how to handle them. We went on with the variations on ferns (Sword, Deer Tongue, Maidenhair and Bracken) that we have around here and finished up packing frankincense and holly berries. Yes, we now have frankincense packets, $5 for an ounce. The new trees are starting to produce, so the price is coming down.

I was the only one for Sewing, so I concentrated on mine. Tempus eventually headed for Rayna’s to pick up another couple of the plant pots and then to stop at Ray’s for some of the specials.

We had burgers for supper, delicious, as always. I spent the evening alternately embroidering and reading and trying to check in more stock. There are more books on the used shelf and we have stone cages again! $3 each on a short cord.

Tempus has been trying to get his computer to take formulas for a sundial that we want to print out and it’s fighting. He’ll be working on that today while I’m embroidery and making bookmarkers.

About the comet – https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/news/erry-2018/12/1a9894a60f114/brightest-comet-of-the-year-wi.html

Today’s Plant is Cittim Bark (Cascara), Rhamnus purshiana. It is a potent laxative and has been used for that for centuries. –Masculine, Saturn, Earth – Sprinkle an infusion of this around the home before legal proceedings, to help you win your case. It is used in money spells and worn in a brown cloth amulet will protect again evil influences and hexes. It can be sewn into a poppet to attract those influences away from you, but place this outside at night, especially.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascara_Sagrada

In the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire, Rome itself was taken over by the Ostrogoths, one of the many sacks of the city that happened. On this day in 536, Belisarius, a brilliant general recaptured the city. He managed to depose the Pope during all this….. He also fought the Vandals earlier and helped keep the invasion of the Kutrigurs from taking over the Eastern Empire later in his career. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belisarius

The shop opens at 11am. Winter hours are 11am-5pm Thursday through Monday. Open Circle for Yule 12/21, 7pm. Holiday Hours – Open Late on 12/22 & 24 (Christmas Eve), Closed Christmas Day 12/25, Closed Saturday 12/29, Closing Early for New Year’s on 12/31 (probably by 4pm), And then we’ll be closed again on New Year’s Day! Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

The crescent Moon begins returning to the evening sky. After sunset on Saturday the 8th, use binoculars to pick it up with Saturn just above the southwest horizon. (The Moon in these scenes is always shown three times its actual apparent size.)

Now the crescent Moon is easy in twilight. If it were a bow, it would be aiming an arrow down at Saturn, as shown above.

Mars, Neptune, and their background stars on Friday evening Dec. 7 for the Americas. The 1° circle is the amount of the chart that fits into a typical 50- or 60-power telescope eyepiece. (Mars’s position may be slightly different depending on your longitude.) Stellarium

Head outside in early evening this week and you can see the Big Dipper scraping the northern horizon. For latitudes north of about 40°, this conspicuous asterism never sets (“circumpolar” in astronomical parlance), though December evenings find it at its lowest ebb. This means that the constellation on the opposite side of the North Celestial Pole, the familiar W-shaped Cassiopeia, currently rides highest in the sky.

Swing low, Big Dipper – The Big Dipper nearly scrapes the horizon from mid-northern latitudes on December evenings. Here, the bright asterism appears above Delinha Observatory, located on the eastern Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai province, China, the evening of October 4, 2013. – Jeff Dai

Mercury is beginning its best dawn apparition of 2018. Look for it low above the southeast horizon, 24° lower left of Venus, about 60 to 45 minutes before sunrise. Mercury brightens from magnitude 0.0 to –0.4 this week. By the morning of Friday Dec. 14, can you pick up Jupiter emerging 7° below or lower left of Mercury? Binoculars help!

Old Farmer’s Almanac Sky Map for December click here
Goddess Month of Astrea runs from 11/28 – 12/25
Celtic Tree Month of Ruis Elder Nov 25 – Dec 22 – (RWEESH)
Runic half-month of Isa/ Is November 28-12 Literally, ‘ice’: a static period. The time of waiting before birth. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992 Runic half month of Naudhiz/ Nyd – November 13- 27 – Need-fire – Time to prepare for winter. Consciousness is the Necessity. “That which does not destroy me makes me stronger.” – Nietzsche

Sun in Sagittarius
Moon in Capricorn
Juno (12/23), and Uranus (1/6/19) Retrograde
Color: Gold

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Celtic tree month of Ruis/Elder, Nov 25 – Dec 22 – Ruis – (RWEESH) – Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. The Celts divided the year into 13 lunar cycles (months or moons). These were linked to specific sacred trees which gave each moon its name. Today commences the Celtic tree month of Elder.
Elder or Elderberry (Sambucus) is a genus of fast-growing shrubs or small trees in the family Caprifoliaceae. They bear bunches of small white or cream coloured flowers in the Spring, that are followed by bunches of small red, bluish or black berries. The berries are a very valuable food resource for many birds. Common North American species include American Elder, Sambucus canadensis, in the east, and Blueberry Elder, Sambucus glauca, in the west; both have blue-black berries. The common European species is the Common or Black Elder, Sambucus nigra, with black berries.
The common elder (Sambucus nigra L.) is a shrub growing to 10 m (33 feet) in damp clearings, along the edge of woods, and especially near habitations. Elders are grown for their blackish berries, which are used for preserves and wine. The leaf scars have the shape of a crescent moon. Elder branches have a broad spongy pith in their centers, much like the marrow of long bones, and an elder branch stripped of its bark is very bone-like. The red elder (S. racemosa L.) is a similar plant at higher elevations; it grows to 5 m (15 feet).
Red elder extends its native range to northern North America, and it is cultivated along with other native species, but common elders are seldom seen in cultivation. Elders are in the Honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae).

Ruis – Elder Ogam letter correspondences
Month: Makeup days of the thirteenth Moon
Color: Red
Class: Shrub
Letter: R
Meaning: End of a cycle or problem.

to study this month – Straif – Blackthorn Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Purple
Class: Chieftain
Letter: SS, Z, ST
Meaning: Resentment; Confusion; Refusing to see the truth

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Tides for Alsea Bay

*
Day        High      Tide Height   Sunrise    Moon Time      % Moon
~ /Low      Time    Feet Sunset Visible
Su   9     High   2:03 AM     7.0   7:41 AM    Rise 9:39 AM      2
~ 9      Low   7:21 AM     3.3   4:37 PM     Set 6:55 PM
~ 9     High   1:01 PM     8.3
~ 9      Low   8:05 PM    -0.5

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Mastery, you are my friend. You are with me always.

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Journal Prompt – Schoolish Stuff – How would you improve the food in your school’s cafeteria?

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Quotes

~   Creatures whose mainspring is curiosity enjoy the accumulating of facts far more than the pausing at times to reflect on those facts. – Clarence Shepherd Day, Jr; attributed
~   I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable. I can’t help it. I was born sneering. – WS Gilbert, British dramatist and librettist born on November 18, 1836; from The Mikado
~   If your parents didn’t have any children, there’s a good chance that you won’t have any. – Clarence Shepherd Day, Jr; attributed
~   Christopher Columbus is a symbol, not of a man, but of imperialism. … Imperialism and colonialism are not something that happened decades ago or generations ago, but they are still happening now with the exploitation of people. … The kind of thing that took place long ago in which people were dispossessed from their land and forced out of subsistence economies and into market economies – those processes are still happening today. – John Mohawk, Seneca, 1992; Columbus stepped ashore at Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493

The hills look gaunt in russet garb:
Against the sky the leafless woods
Are dark, and in their solitudes
The chill wind pierces like a barb. – Clinton Scollard (1860–1932)

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Yule Magick – The Hidden History of Christmas Carols – for Celtic Guide December 2013 by Carolyn Emerick USA – https://www.academia.edu/5121941/The_Hidden_History_of_Christmas_Carols_-_by_Carolyn_Emerick_-_for_Celtic_Guide_December_2013

EDITOR’S NOTE: Short of the celebration of the dawning of a new year, Christmas is the last big holiday at the end of each year for many thousands of people around the world. We would be remiss in not presenting an interesting story on this perhaps most famous of holidays, and so our Celtic Guide Facebook guru, Carolyn Emerick, hereby presents a deeply researched report as a gift to our readers to help celebrate the end of 2013.

A note to the reader: Never has it been so evident that history can sometimes be murky and difficult to wade through than during my quest to discover the roots of Christmas caroling! Different sources give different information, conflicting dates, and varying histories. Ordinarily I would not open with a disclaimer. But, under the circumstances, if the reader were to look up this information on their own, they might find answers different than what I’ve written here. So, I will endeavor to weed through it all and give my own assessment of the material. And, I will try to be clear about where my information came from by citing all sources. – Carolyn

The story of Christmas caroling is full of unexpected surprises. The practice itself has gone through many changes over the centuries, and our perception of caroling today is based only on very recent history. We think of Christmas caroling as a wholesome, and even religious, activity. Caroling seems to speak of the beauty, innocence, and magic of the Christmas season. However, in researching this practice, I have discovered that caroling was not as innocent as we might think. In fact, the act of caroling was actively combatted by the Church for hundreds of years. Uncovering the origins of caroling has proven difficult. Some sources give the 14th or 15th centuries as the earliest known date of the practice. I believe the reason for this is because this is the period when caroling began to be adopted by the church, and therefore this is when carols first began to be written down. However, there is much evidence that caroling was around long before that. We don’t have written carols from the early periods, but what we do have are edicts from the Church and recorded sermons which make reference to caroling. In his book, The Book of Christmas Folklore, Tristram P. Cofn says that “For seven centuries a formidable series of denunciations and prohibitions was red forth by Catholic authorities, warning Everyman to ‘ee wicked and lecherous songs, dancings, and leapings’” (p98).

Apparently early carols could be quite lewd, and they were originally associated with dance as well as song. The caroling dancers often went around town in costume, and it is related to the custom of mumming.

Cofn mentions that this revelry was considered so offensive to the Church that they referred to caroling as “sinful traffic” and issued decrees against it in 1209 A.D. and 1435 A.D.

It must have been a ‘good time’, for clerics and priests who found themselves caught up in the fun received a stern scolding. In one document from 1338 A.D. they are accused of neglecting their clerical duties “while indulging in dances and masques; for prowling the city ‘streets and lanes’ ‘day and night’; as well as leading a riotous existence” (p99).

The Church viewed these activities as “very remnant of pagan custom” (p99). But, more than that, the street revelry could get out of control.

Alcohol was usually flowing during caroling festivities, and drunken singers could get rowdy and even violent. “When a fellow named Gilbert de Foxlee tried to break up the dancing, he was stabbed in the back with a dagger, cut in the right arm with a sword, and slashed on the left leg with an axe. He died after eight weeks of infection and pain” (Cofn, p 99). Evidently carolers were well armed!

Sandra M. Salla is a contributor to a fantastic resource called Medieval Folklore, an encyclopedia of folkloric terms. In her entry for “Carols,” Salla says that “between 600 and 1500 C.E. the Church formally banned the dancing of carols on church grounds” and that numerous informal “decrees, sermons, and exempla were written condemning the activity” (Salla, p61).

While some authors attribute caroling to purely Christian origins, and begin the history of caroling with those written down in a Christian context, this is contradicted by the evidence. We can see that the Church long considered it a pagan practice, as evidenced by the wording in the edicts condemning caroling. Also, that Salla mentions the edicts against caroling begin in the 6th century is telling. The 6th and 7th centuries were the period of conversion for the Anglo-Saxons in England. The fact that edicts against caroling begin to appear in the record at the same time as the conversion period is circumstantial evidence hinting that caroling had pagan roots and was in existence long before conversion. But, those records do not explain why caroling was considered to have pagan connotations.

Jacqueline Simpson, a scholar who specializes in medieval English and Scandinavian history, explores this in her wonderful book, European Mythology. Simpson explains that it can sometimes be difficult to determine which customs actually stem from pagan tradition because Church clerics were quick to condemn almost anything as pagan. She explains that customs involving drunkenness, cross dressing(usually in play acting and carnival type festivities), or elements that expressed sexuality were described as “devilish” even if there was no devil involved (Simpson, p118).

One example of a song and dance tradition similar to caroling that has an overt connection to paganism is in Romanian Căluş dance which has survived into modern times. Participants dress in costume, like modern mummers and early carolers, and go around the village singing and dancing. The Căluşari, members of the all-male dance troupe, were once a secret society which appears to have been openly associated with paganism, and their members were exempt from partaking in mass. This group of dancers had another purpose other than entertainment. They were said to possess secret charms of healing, and were known for banishing evil spirits. The Căluşari went door to door during mid-Winter offering their services and expected to be welcomed and generously compensated. I fa home refused them entry, a curse would befall the homeowner (Simpson, pp121-126).

If this reminds you of Halloween, there’s a good reason for that! The mid-Winter holiday we now call Christmas, but which was known as Yule in pre-Christian England and various other names in different cultures, was known to be a period of high spiritual activity – just as old Samhain was. This notion has faded away in our modern perception of Christmas, but it lingered on in Halloween. European folklore is full of references to spiritual activity during Yule-tide. In fact, it was regarded as a spiritually dangerous time in both Celtic and Germanic cultures.

So, it is not that far of a stretch to wonder if the Romanian Căluşari tradition (which lasted well into the 19th century and perhaps later)gives us a glimpse of the earlier mumming and caroling traditions and we may speculate on the long lost spiritual connotations.

Further, just as the Căluşari expect a reward or threaten a curse (literally trick or treat) early caroling traditions are almost always associated with demanding to be rewarded with food and drink or risk some kind of retribution.

Contemporary carolers still sing “Here we go a-wassailing” wherein there is a line requesting “now bring us some figgy pudding” and carolers threaten “we won’t go until we get some.” A survey of medieval carols will demonstrate that the request for food and drink is not unique to this song. Wassailing, a medieval synonym for caroling, is itself a reference to the alcoholic beverage wassail. The word derives from the Old English term “waes-heal” meaning “good health,” a greeting or toast (Baker, p83). Wassail is a medieval mulled wine (heated with spices)which was commonly served to carolers.

Another connection between trick-or-treat, caroling and Father Christmas is that caroling was done throughout the year, not simply at Christmas. This is mentioned in numerous sources, and there are accounts of caroling at other holidays in early folklore journals. One article of particular interest is The Celebration of Candlemas in Wales , by Trefor M. Owen. In this scholarly article about the Candlemas holiday the word “carol” is mentioned seventy-two times, emphasizing the overwhelming evidence of caroling during a holiday other than Christmas. Candlemas is another holiday with known pagan origins, being the Christianized version of the old Celtic pagan Imbolc. Owen shares one account of Welsh Candlemas caroling wherein the revelers go around town and sing outside of homes. This sounds innocent enough… at first. What ensues is the carolers sing bawdy songs about the Virgin Mary (no wonder the Church considering caroling sacrilegious!)and hurl insults at the home-owners! The home-owners are then obliged to return the insults to the carolers. Whichever group out-wits the other in verse would be declared the winner. If the revelers won, they must be allowed inside and given food and beverage (Owen pp242-243).

And, interestingly, Owen mentions that wassailing was done at Halloween as well as Christmas and Candlemas and other holidays (p247).So, we have a caroling tradition that involves costumes and demanding reward in the form of food or a risk threat. And, we also discover that caroling was done on Halloween in Britain. Could modern trick-or-treating and Christmas caroling have evolved from the same root practice many hundreds of years ago? The practice of caroling went through a transformation between the High Middle Ages(12th and 13th centuries) and the Renaissance period. As explained, the Church categorically rejected the practice due to the “close relationship between ‘heathen dancing’ and witchcraft” (Cofn, p99). Eventually, church leaders adopted an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join‘em” approach. St. Francis of Assisi was one of the major proponents of replacing the old “riotous carols with ones more appropriate” in Italy, which then spread through Europe (Cofn,pp99-100). Eventually, this led to a “great age of carol writing” between the years 1400 to 1650 (Baker, p81). But, during the same period caroling was actively suppressed by the Puritans (insert joke about Puritans always ruining all the fun here).A little known fact about the history of witch trials is that caroling came up in trial testimony.

Salla says “in witchcraft trials of the sixteenth century and later, accused witches often confessed to caroling” (p62). Interestingly, just as witches were accused of inverting Christian practices like the mass and Sabbath rituals, there was apparently some notion of a witch’s carol, which inverted the carol song and dance commonly practiced by the rest of the peasantry (Salla, p62).

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Silliness – Daffynitions – Celtics: What a parasite salesman does.

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Wiccan | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Belisarius, cascara, Celtic Tree Month, Cittim Bark, Daffynitions, Goddess Month, Journal Prompt, Magick, Moon, moon phase, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Rhamnus purshiana, Runic Half Month, Silliness, The Hidden History of Christmas Carols, The hills look gaunt, Tides, Today’s Feast, Today’s Plant, Weather, Wicca, Yule

Daily Stuff 12-8-18 Neith

Posted on December 8, 2018 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Christmas in Waldport, today! Featured photo by Ken Gagne/ Minus Tide at 7:28 PM of 0.7 feet. Herbs at 11am. Sewing Workshop at 3pm.

The computer says it’s overcast, but the sunshine is bright despite that….bright for winter, that is. The sun is low and it makes the light pinkish. 51F, wind at 8 and gusting into the teens, AQI 60. It stopped raining near sunrise and is supposed to stay dry today, but tomorrow and Tuesday are likely to be very wet. They’re talking about nearly an inch tomorrow!

Yesterday went by very quickly. I hadn’t had but one cup of coffee when I had a reading come in. I didn’t manage to get anything useful, so I didn’t charge her for it. <sigh>

I spent quite awhile on going through and discarding mail. The spam attack on the Ancient Light account seems to be finally over, so I’m trying to clear enough that I can make use of it again. …and that took hours.

Around 6pm I went in back and slept for quite awhile. Tempus snoozed on the sofa, but he wakes faster than I do if someone comes in and we did have some folks who stopped by. It had started to rain by that point. We got less the 1/10 of an inch, but it seemed like more.

Of course, a long nap meant I was up during the night, so I worked on some writing.

Tempus just chucked some leftover pizza into the parking lot and there’s feather pile all over it.

Today We have Herbs at 11am and then Sewing Workshop at 3pm. We hoping to make wood butter in this morning’s workshop, but may end up just packing herbs.

…and a lovely picture of terns over the surf from 12/6/15 by Ken Gagne

Today’s plant is Field or Scouring Rush Horsetail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_horsetail,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EquisetumThe 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. Horsetail –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.

Today’s Feast is that of Neith, creation goddess and mother in Egypt. She also was goddess of warriors and weaving and all kinds of other things…. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neith

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

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 12/22 at 9:49pm. New Moon – The beginning of a new cycle. Keywords for the New phase are: beginning, birth, emergence, projection, clarity. It is the time in a cycle that you are stimulated to take a new action. During this phase the new cycle is being seeded by your vision, inner and outer. Engage in physical activity. Spend time alone. VISUALIZE your goals for the 29.6-day cycle ahead. The new moon is for starting new ventures, new beginnings. Also love and romance, health or job hunting. God/dess aspect: Infancy, the Cosmic Egg, Eyes-Wide-Open – Associated God/dess: Inanna who was Ereshkigal. Phase ends at 11:20am on 12/8. Diana’s Bow – On the 3^rd day after the new moon you can (weather permitting) see the tiny crescent in the sky, the New Moon holding the Old Moon in her arms. Begin on your goals for the next month. A good time for job interviews or starting a project. Take a concrete step! God/dess aspect: Daughter/Son/Innocence – Associated God/dess: Vesta, Horus. Phase ends on 12/11 at 11:20am.

The crescent Moon begins returning to the evening sky. After sunset on Saturday the 8th, use binoculars to pick it up with Saturn just above the southwest horizon.

The days of viewing Saturn in the evening sky are just about over. In fact, tonight might be your last, best chance to see it this year. Although the magnitude 0.5 ringed world stands only 7° high in the southwest 45 minutes after sunset, a slender, two-day-old Moon serves as a guide. The two objects lie 3° apart and look beautiful through binoculars.
Orion >>> is coming into good view low in the east after dinnertime now. And that means <<< Gemini is also coming up to its left (for the world’s mid-northern latitudes). The head stars of the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, are at the left end of the Gemini constellation — one over the other, with Castor on top.
High above Orion is Aldebaran, at one tip of the V-shaped asterism made of the brightest stars of the Hyades cluster. And high above Aldebaran and the Hyades are the Pleiades, smaller but brighter. The Pleiades are about as big as your fingertip at arm’s length. Pleiades are about 440 light-years distant; the Hyades are 150.
Far to their left shines bright Capella.
Neptune, magnitude 7.9 in Aquarius, is very near Mars this week! See December 6 and 7 above. Finder chart (without Mars).

Old Farmer’s Almanac Sky Map for December (click to go there)
Goddess Month of Astrea runs from 11/28 – 12/25
Celtic Tree Month of Ruis Elder Nov 25 – Dec 22 – (RWEESH)
Runic half-month of Isa/ Is November 28-12 Literally, ‘ice’: a static period. The time of waiting before birth. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992 Runic half month of Naudhiz/ Nyd – November 13- 27 – Need-fire – Time to prepare for winter. Consciousness is the Necessity. “That which does not destroy me makes me stronger.” – Nietzsche

Sun in Sagittarius
Moon in Sagittarius enters Capricorn at 4:01am
Chiron Directs at 11:52pm.
Juno (12/23), and Uranus (1/6/19) Retrograde
Color: Black

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Ruis – Elder Ogam letter correspondences
Month: Makeup days of the thirteenth Moon
Color: Red
Class: Shrub
Letter: R
Meaning: End of a cycle or problem.

to study this month – Straif – Blackthorn Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Purple
Class: Chieftain
Letter: SS, Z, ST
Meaning: Resentment; Confusion; Refusing to see the truth

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Tides for Alsea Bay

*
Day        High      Tide Height   Sunrise    Moon Time      % Moon
~ /Low      Time    Feet Sunset Visible
Sa   8     High   1:22 AM     7.0   7:40 AM    Rise 8:48 AM      0
~ 8      Low   6:41 AM     3.1   4:37 PM     Set 6:04 PM
~ 8     High 12:26 PM     8.5
~ 8      Low   7:28 PM    -0.7

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – I am ready to live in empowered transformation.

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

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Quotes

~   Vocabulary enables us to interpret and to express. If you have a limited vocabulary, you will also have a limited vision and a limited future. – Jim Rohn
~   A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who cannot read. – Mark Twain
~   Everything must be made as simple as possible but not one bit simpler. – Albert Einstein
~   “Forty-two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm. – Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Old Christmastide – Sir Walter Scott

Heap on more wood! the wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will,
We’ll keep our Christmas merry still.
Each age has deem’d the new-born year
The fittest time for festal cheer:
Even, heathen yet, the savage Dane
At Iol more deep the mead did drain;
High on the beach his galleys drew,
And feasted all his pirate crew;
Then in his low and pine-built hall
Where shields and axes deck’d the wall
They gorged upon the half-dress’d steer;
Caroused in seas of sable beer;
While round, in brutal jest, were thrown
The half-gnaw’d rib, and marrow-bone:
Or listen?d all, in grim delight,
While Scalds yell’d out the joys of fight.
Then forth, in frenzy, would they hie,
While wildly loose their red locks fly,
And dancing round the blazing pile,
They make such barbarous mirth the while,
As best might to the mind recall
The boisterous joys of Odin’s hall.

And well our Christian sires of old
Loved when the year its course had roll’d,
And brought blithe Christmas back again,
With all his hospitable train.
Domestic and religious rite
Gave honour to the holy night;
On Christmas Eve the bells were rung;
On Christmas Eve the mass was sung:
That only night in all the year,
Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear.
The damsel donn’d her kirtle sheen;
The hall was dress’d with holly green;
Forth to the wood did merry-men go,
To gather in the mistletoe.
Then open’d wide the Baron’s hall
To vassal, tenant, serf and all;
Power laid his rod of rule aside
And Ceremony doff’d his pride.
The heir, with roses in his shoes,
That night might village partner choose;
The Lord, underogating, share
The vulgar game of ‘post and pair’.
All hail’d, with uncontroll’d delight,
And general voice, the happy night,
That to the cottage, as the crown,
Brought tidings of salvation down.

The fire, with well-dried logs supplied,
Went roaring up the chimney wide;
The huge hall-table’s oaken face,
Scrubb’d till it shone, the day to grace,
Bore then upon its massive board
No mark to part the squire and lord.
Then was brought in the lusty brawn,
By old blue-coated serving-man;
Then the grim boar’s head frown’d on high,
Crested with bays and rosemary.
Well can the green-garb’d ranger tell,
How, when, and where, the monster fell;
What dogs before his death to tore,
And all the baiting of the boar.
The wassel round, in good brown bowls,
Garnish’d with ribbons, blithely trowls.
There the huge sirloin reek’d; hard by
Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas pie;
Nor fail’d old Scotland to produce,
At such high tide, her savoury goose.
Then came the merry makers in,
And carols roar’d with blithesome din;
If unmelodious was the song,
It was a hearty note, and strong.
Who lists may in their mumming see
Traces of ancient mystery;
White shirts supplied the masquerade,
And smutted cheeks the visors made;
But, O! what maskers, richly dight,
Can boast of bosoms half so light!
England was merry England, when
Old Christmas brought his sports again.
‘Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale;
‘Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man’s heart through half the year. – Sir Walter Scott, from Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field

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Yule Magick – Recipes for Yule potlucksCold Tea Noodles
1 tablespoon Japanese Genmaicha green tea
½ pound Chinese water noodles or Japanese udon noodles
1 packages firm tofu, well drained
1 package enoki mushrooms
1 package radish sprouts, washed and drained
1 bunch of scallions, sliced into thin rounds
1 small bunch of cilantro leaves
light soy sauce, to taste
Japanese sesame oil, to taste
Shichimi togarashi (Japanese spice mixture, available at Asian markets) or
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Bring two quarts water to 180°F (85°C) and add tea. Steep for 3 minutes and pour through a sieve. Reserve liquid for cooking the noodles.
Bring the reserved tea to a boil and add noodles. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until noodles are al dente. Remove from heat and allow the noodles to remain in the liquid until it has cooled. Remove noodles from liquid and place in a bowl, covered, overnight in the refrigerator.
The next day, put tofu on a plate and cover it with several layers of paper towels. Press any excess moisture from it by placing a two-pound weight on top of the paper towels.
Remove weight and paper toweling after 15 minutes. Carefully slice the tofu into 1-inch (2.5cm) cubes and set aside.
Place noodles on four plates. Scatter tofu and remaining ingredients over all. Serve with soy sauce, sesame oil and seasoning.

Panzanella (Italian Bread Salad)
4 cups fresh tomatoes, diced into 1/2 in pieces
3/4 cup slivered onion (red, white or yellow)
1/2 cup water
1//3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
6 cup stale, dense, crusty bread cut or torn into 1 inch cubes
3 or 4 cloves garlic

Combine all ingredients except bread in large bowl and let stand for flavors
to develop, about ten or fifteen minutes. Add bread; Toss well to coat. If
bread seems dry, sprinkle with a tablespoon or two of water. Salad will hold
several hours at room temperature before serving. Do not make ‘ahead’ or
bread will get super soggy.

Oriental Chicken Slaw
½ cup salad oil
½ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 3-ounce packages chicken-flavoured ramen noodles
4 cups finely chopped chicken
4 cups packaged shredded cabbage with carrot (coleslaw mix)
¾ cup almonds, sliced and toasted
½ cup sliced green onions

For dressing, in a small bowl whisk together oil, vinegar, sugar, red pepper and contents of seasoning packets from ramen noodles. Set dressing aside.
In a large saucepan cook ramen noodles in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes or until just tender; drain.
Transfer noodles to a large bowl. Pour 1/4 cup of the dressing over the cooked noodles; toss to coat.
Add chicken, cabbage, almonds, and green onions to noodle mixture; mix well.
Pour the remaining dressing over the salad; toss to combine. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours.

Makes 8 servings
To Tote: Transport in an insulated cooler with ice packs.

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Silliness – Treetop Angel

When four of Santa’s elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk all the cider and hidden the liquor.. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, ‘Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn’t this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?’

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Not a lot of people know this!…….- Jonathan M Richards

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Wiccan | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Celtic Tree Month, field horsetail, Goddess Month, Journal Prompt, Magick, Moon, moon phase, Old Christmastide, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Runic Half Month, scouring rush horsetail, Silliness, Tides, Today’s Feast, Today’s Plant, Treetop Angel, Weather, Wicca, Yule

Daily Stuff 12-7-18 Pearl Harbor Day

Posted on December 7, 2018 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Featured photo by Ken Gagne. Minus Tide at 6:51 PM of -0.8 feet.

It was clear when we started out around 5, but it’s mostly clouded over, now, and kinda breezy, and chilly! 36F! Wind at 10 mph, gusting to 20. AQI 43. It should be dry most of the day, but there’s a 90% chance of rain tonight.

After yesterday’s newsletter went out, the catch-up class went on until about 4:30. After that I caught up on mail while Tempus was working in back. I got a few more things checked in and worked on sorting out some hardware for the bookmarkers and then found a set of necklace that I needed to get hung. In the evening I made a batch of pickled eggs.

Eventually Tempus headed for Newport and I went in back to get a nap. After that I made a batch of mustard. It’s a variety that Tempus and I like. I went up front and started working on newsletters. I had all the frames finished and feast and herbs and such entered about when he finished Makai. The papers had been late (stickers) but he only had to single bag.

I cooked up, peeled and sliced some potatoes for snacks, then started fishing out sewing projects that had gone over the back of the table. I got picked up at 5 and we were back by 7:30. We’ve got to get at least a nap before we open.

Today is mostly checking in things, but I’m hoping that Tempus will get a little farther in back again, so I can sew.

A photo from 10/22/15 by Ken Gagne of Pelicans near the mouth of the Yachats River

Today’s Plant is the Coast Willow, Salix hookeriana. I’ve been mistaking it for pussy willow ever since I moved out here! Pussy Willows are a subset of the willows which also include osiers (think “wicker” for their uses). They’re all Saliciae from which, salicylic acid, the medicine Aspirin, was derived. Willow magick is Feminine, Moon and Water. Willow wands can be used for healing, to sleep with for more vivid dreams, Drawing Down the Moon, or for protection in underworld journeying. The Willow will bring the blessings of the Moon upon those who plant it or have it on their property. Willows can be used to bind together witch’s brooms and a forked willow branch is widely used in water witching and dowsing. New Moon magick, creativity, fertility, female rights of passage, inspiration, emotion, binding. Love, Love divination, protection, healing. It is also known as the tree of immortality because of its ability to re grow from a fallen branch in moist ground. These properties apply to all forms of willow, but the Coast Willow has the properties of endurance, tolerance and stubbornness as well. There’s more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org

The remembrance of the “Day that will live in infamy”, Pearl Harbor Day, is observed annually in the United States on December 7, to remember and honor the 2,403 citizens of the United States who were killed in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. For more – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Pearl_Harbor_Remembrance_Day

Today is the Haloia of Demeter, the feast of the beginning of her long search for her daughter. More here: http://witchofstitches.blogspot.com/2009/12/haloia-of-demeter.html and on Demeter here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter#Demeter_and_Persephone

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

The crescent Moon begins returning to the evening sky. After sunset on Saturday the 8th, use binoculars to pick it up with Saturn just above the southwest horizon.

Now Neptune appears about 1/4° to Mars’s southwest.
Comet Wirtanen may or may not come within binocular, or even small-telescope, range as it passes unusually close by Earth for the next couple weeks. Start trying now while the evening sky is still moonless and dark! See Comet 46P/Wirtanen Approaches Earth, but as Joe Rao warns there, keep your expectations low.
New Moon (exact at 2:20 a.m. on this date EST). At its new phase, the Moon crosses the sky with the Sun and so remains hidden in our star’s glare.
Although people in the Northern Hemisphere won’t experience the shortest day of the year for another two weeks (at the winter solstice December 21), those at 40° north latitude will see the Sun set earlier today than at any other time this year. Tomorrow’s sunset will arrive about one second later than today’s. By the time of the solstice and longest night on December 21st, the Sun actually sets 3 minutes later than now. The date of earliest sunset depends on latitude — the farther north you live, the closer it occurs to the solstice. And the latest sunrisedoesn’t come until January 4th. These slight discrepancies arise from the tilt of Earth’s axis and the ellipticity of Earth’s orbit.
Uranus, near the Aries-Pisces border, is pretty easy to see in binoculars at magnitude 5.7 — with a good finder chart, if you know the constellations well enough to see where to start with the chart.

Old Farmer’s Almanac Sky Map for December
Goddess Month of Astrea runs from 11/28 – 12/25
Celtic Tree Month of Ruis Elder Nov 25 – Dec 22 – (RWEESH)
Runic half-month of Isa/ Is November 28-12 Literally, ‘ice’: a static period. The time of waiting before birth. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992 Runic half month of Naudhiz/ Nyd – November 13- 27 – Need-fire – Time to prepare for winter. Consciousness is the Necessity. “That which does not destroy me makes me stronger.” – Nietzsche

Sun in Sagittarius
Moon in Sagittarius
Mercury Directs at 1:22pm
Chiron (12/8), Juno (12/23), and Uranus (1/6/19) Retrograde
Color: Purple

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Ruis – Elder Ogam letter correspondences
Month: Makeup days of the thirteenth Moon
Color: Red
Class: Shrub
Letter: R
Meaning: End of a cycle or problem.

to study this month – Straif – Blackthorn Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Purple
Class: Chieftain
Letter: SS, Z, ST
Meaning: Resentment; Confusion; Refusing to see the truth

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Tides for Alsea Bay

*
Day        High      Tide Height   Sunrise    Moon Time      % Moon
~ /Low      Time    Feet Sunset Visible
F    7     High 12:39 AM     7.0   7:39 AM    Rise 7:51 AM      0
~ 7      Low   6:01 AM     2.9   4:37 PM     Set 5:19 PM
~ 7     High 11:50 AM     8.7
~ 7      Low   6:51 PM    -0.8

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.

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Journal Prompt – What does this quote say to you? – Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp’s nest. — Malabar proverb

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Quotes

~   And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. – Nietzsche
~   Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even. – Will Rogers (1879-1935) US actor, humorist
~   One of the dreariest spots on life’s road is the point of conviction that nothing will ever again happen to you. – Faith Baldwin (1893-1978) US writer
~   In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Now see stern Winter nearer draw,
Sol’s feeble rays refuse to thaw
What Winter’s frost congeal’d;
And lo! the flakey snows appear,
Proclaim the approach of Christmas near,
And deck in white the field. – William Cole (1824)

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Yule Magick – Studies

While Lighting the Yule Log

Goodbye Old King–hello, New
With this log we honor You
The old reign’s gone–the new has begun
We welcome now the newborn Sun. – Dorothy Morrison

Winter Solstice Meditation

I invite you to take time to visit your dark side in silence and observation and reverence dare to see yourself as you are

what would I do if there were no norms, values or laws to restrict me?
how would I act detrimentally if I didn’t care about the response from family or friends?
I invite you to take time to call out from the dark in words and unfettered prayer dare to call out for all you can become
what could I do if I dare followed my heart and revealed my higher Self?
how could I act beneficially if I didn’t shrink fearing the response from family or friends?

With these thoughts and prayers, relish all that you are – human incarnated.

Winter Solstice Chant

Note: This chant is set to be used in a solstice reading. It can also simply be set as a poem, eliminating the cues.

Chorus Chant:

New Year born, Old Year gone,
Time’s a wheel we ride upon.
Round and round, until at last
Our future has become our past.

Speaker 1:

At the end/beginning of the year
The light is born/dies into darkest night
Being personified and given a name by some, by others not.

Speaker 2:

The yin/yang sound of one hand clapping
Begins/ends the year that it may carry us forward
Into whatever day/night is there for us to experience.

Speaker 1:

Two sides of a coin to flip for “yes” or “no,”
One coin to pay the piper or the tax collector as the case may be.
That coin wheeling in the sky that shines by day, reflects by night.

Speaker 2:

There is beauty in the day; as well there is beauty in the night.
Neither can exist without the other. Nor is there any end
Without beginning, or beginning without end.

Speakers 1 & 2 in unison:

The wheel turns and turns, and we as spokes turn with it,
Returning to our source, whatever and wherever that may be,
Until we know that truth abides in every season of the heart.

Chorus Chant:

New Year born, Old Year gone,
Time’s a wheel we ride upon.
Round and round, until at last
Our future has become our past. Written and Submitted by Tasha Halpert

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Silliness – Yule Riddles – Q: What’s red and white and red and white and red and white? A: Santa Claus rolling down a hill.

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Wiccan | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Celtic Tree Month, Coast Willow, Goddess Month, Haloia of Demeter, Journal Prompt, Magick, Moon, moon phase, Now see stern Winter nearer draw, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Pearl Harbor Day, Runic Half Month, Salix hookeriana, Silliness, Tides, Today’s Feast, Today’s Plant, Weather, Wicca, Yule, Yule Riddles, Yule Studies

Daily Stuff 12-6-18 Old Nick and St. Nick

Posted on December 6, 2018 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Featured photo by Arthur Bartlett. Minus Tide at 6:13 PM of -0.7 feet. Wicca 101 catch-up at 2pm.

Sunny and dry. 54F, Wind at 7 gusting to 14, but we’re under a Small Craft Advisory for Hazardous Seas AQI down to 23. We still have a pretty solid chance of rain tomorrow night, so get your outdoor stuff done today!

Yesterday was pretty quiet. We did a lot of housekeeping, but more on the computers than around the shop, unfortunately. We did finish up some chores, at least.

In the later evening we had more energy and Tempus made a batch of bread and working on trying to get the work table clean. I priced a few more things and got them into inventory and then did embroidery.

Today I have a catch-up class for most of the afternoon. …and she’s here already! I’m hoping to get some bookmarks made after that since I have a lovely ribbon.

By Arthur Bartlett on 12/4/17 Harbor Island, Seattle, WA.

Today’s Plant is Rhubarb, Rheum rhabarbarum. Best known as “pie plant” or in strawberry and rhubarb jam this is a wonderful and nutritious stalk vegetable, that has been legally counted as a fruit, because of its uses. The roots have been used as a laxative for thousands of years, and the stalks, while strong-tasting when uncooked and with no sugar are delicious in sauces, pies, jellies, juice and so on, but the leaves are poisonous. It is very easy to grow since the roots will over-winter, even if the stalks die back and it’s one of the earliest vegetables to be harvestable. – Feminine, Venus Earth. – Wear a dried piece to help with stomach or gut pain and general protection. The pie served to a mate helps to maintain fidelity and is an aphrodisiac, especially when combined with strawberries.

If you ever wondered why Old Nick and St. Nick…. The bishop of Myra destroyed the temple of Artemis whose feast day was Dec. 6. He supposedly punched Arius in the face during the Council of Nicea**. Not the nicest guy… and quite a number of the Continental folklore of The Black Gentleman resembles the stories of this bishop. The Krampus, Cert or SwartPiet has taken on some of the punishment aspects of this guy. The orange in the toe of the stocking is the old Sun-symbol from the strenae, the green, gift-bearing branches of old Rome. Candy canes are the bishop’s crozier or shepherd’s crook.
**The “Arian Heresy” that Nicolas objected to is the contention that Jesus was created by God, not the same as God. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arian_heresy

The shop opens at 11am. Winter hours are 11am-5pm Thursday through Monday. Holiday Hours – Open Late on 12/24, Christmas Eve, Closed Christmas Day 12/25, Closed Saturday 12/29, Closing Early for New Year’s on 12/31 (probably by 4pm), And then we’ll be closed again on New Year’s Day! Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

Waning Moon Magick – From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Remember: what goes up must come down. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 12/6 at 11:20pm. Dark of the Moon, End of the cycle – In the time leading up to the “New Moon” you may do banishings and other baneful magicks and healings that require blasting a disease away, as well as using the time for introspection and self-work. Do scrying, now. Good for reversing circumstances. God/dess Aspect: The One Beyond, the Watchers in the Outer Dark, psychopomps – Associated God/desses: Hecate, Kali, Arianhrod, Anja, Kore in the Underworld, Ereshkigal who was Inanna, Set/Seth, Hades, Osiris. Phase ends on 12/6 at 11:20pm. 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 12/22 at 9:49pm. New Moon – The beginning of a new cycle. Keywords for the New phase are: beginning, birth, emergence, projection, clarity. It is the time in a cycle that you are stimulated to take a new action. During this phase the new cycle is being seeded by your vision, inner and outer. Engage in physical activity. Spend time alone. VISUALIZE your goals for the 29.6-day cycle ahead. The new moon is for starting new ventures, new beginnings. Also love and romance, health or job hunting. God/dess aspect: Infancy, the Cosmic Egg, Eyes-Wide-Open – Associated God/dess: Inanna who was Ereshkigal. Phase ends at 11:20am on 12/8.

Neptune very close to Mars. This evening, as seen from North America, Neptune appears only 1/3° from Mars — which is 1400 times brighter! Look for Neptune with your scope to Mars’s east-northeast, then use high power to check that it’s non-stellar.

Mars is dwindling into the distance — you’re doing well now even to detect the South Polar Cap with a small telescope. But using the 1-meter Chilescope remotely on November 29th during excellent seeing, Damian Peach caught this remarkably detailed image of the Chryse hemisphere. South is up. The much-shrunken South Polar Cap “looks decidedly irregular in shape,” he notes.

Mars continues to put on a nice show these December evenings. The Red Planet appears nearly halfway to the zenith in the southern sky as twilight fades to darkness. The ruddy world shines at magnitude 0.1, as bright as any other early evening object, against the faint backdrop of Aquarius the Water-bearer. As you gaze at Mars with your naked eye, you might assume it’s the only object of interest in the area. But target the planet through binoculars or a telescope and you’ll also see the much fainter glow of Neptune. The magnitude 7.9 ice giant lies 23′ east-northeast of Mars this evening. The two switch positions tomorrow night, with Neptune 16′ southwest of Mars. (The magnitude 6.1 star 81 Aquarii then stands 12′ north of Mars.) The actual conjunction between the two planets occurs at 9:08 a.m. EST on the 7th, when Mars passes 2.2′ north of Neptune, but both objects then lie below the horizon from North America. When viewed through a telescope, Mars appears 9″ while Neptune spans 2.3″. The two planets won’t pass closer to each other under a dark sky until October 19, 2210.
Saturn (magnitude +0.6, in Sagittarius) is sinking away very low in the southwest in twilight. You’ll find it nearly 40° below Altair and about 60° lower right of Mars.

Old Farmer’s Almanac Sky Map for December
Goddess Month of Astrea runs from 11/28 – 12/25
Celtic Tree Month of Ruis Elder Nov 25 – Dec 22 – (RWEESH)
Runic half-month of Isa/ Is November 28-12 Literally, ‘ice’: a static period. The time of waiting before birth. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992

Sun in Sagittarius
Moon in Scorpio enters Sagittarius at 6:49pm
Mercury Directs at 1:22pm
Chiron (12/8), Juno (12/23), and Uranus (1/6/19) Retrograde
Color: Turquoise

Harvest 12/6

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Ruis – Elder Ogam letter correspondences
Month: Makeup days of the thirteenth Moon
Color: Red
Class: Shrub
Letter: R
Meaning: End of a cycle or problem.

to study this month – Straif – Blackthorn Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Purple
Class: Chieftain
Letter: SS, Z, ST
Meaning: Resentment; Confusion; Refusing to see the truth

******

Tides for Alsea Bay

*
Day        High      Tide Height   Sunrise    Moon Time      % Moon
~ /Low      Time    Feet Sunset Visible
Th   6      Low   5:18 AM     2.6   7:38 AM    Rise 6:49 AM      2
~ 6     High 11:14 AM     8.8   4:37 PM     Set 4:38 PM
~ 6      Low   6:13 PM    -0.7

******

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – The best way to get even is to forget..

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Journal Prompt – What is? – What is something strange that happened in your neighborhood?

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Quotes

~   A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.” – Jorge Luis B..
~   A book should serve as an axe for the frozen sea within us. – Franz Kafka
~   Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things. – Theodore Levitt
~   You just have to decide if you are a Tigger or an Eeyore. – Ron Karr

As many mince pies as you taste at Christmas,
so many happy months will you have. – proverb

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Yule Magick – Recipes

Yule Time/Christmas Scent simmering potpourri

3 sticks cinnamon
3 bay leaves
1/4 cup whole cloves
1/2 lemon, sliced
1/2 orange, sliced
1 quart water

Combine ingredients and simmer in a teakettle or saucepan throughout the holidays! Just be careful to keep the heat turned low and the water topped up, else the house will smell like burned spices. Not a fun Yule scent!
You can also use this blend in a candle heated oil diffuser once it’s simmered for a bit.
Other spices can be used, such as allspice, star anise, nutmeg, ginger…. Use your imagination!
This is a good way to use up baking spices that are getting stale, or that have picked up codling moths during the summer.

Yule Oil – Put in soap or anoint candles

4 drops pine
3 drops cedarwood
3 drops cinnamon
2 drops frankincense
2 drops juniper

Add a pinch of dried pine needles from your tree with garnet, green tourmaline, and clear quartz crystals. A great Yule tree smell with the hint of log fires and spicy pomanders!

Yule Time/Christmas Scent simmering potpourri

3 sticks cinnamon
3 bay leaves
1/4 cup whole cloves
1/2 lemon, sliced
1/2 orange, sliced
1 quart water

Combine ingredients and simmer in a teakettle or saucepan throughout the holidays! Just be careful to keep the heat turned low and the water topped up, else the house will smell like burned spices. Not a fun Yule scent!
You can also use this blend in a candle heated oil diffuser once it’s simmered for a bit.
Other spices can be used, such as allspice, star anise, nutmeg, ginger…. Use your imagination!
This is a good way to use up baking spices that are getting stale, or that have picked up codling moths during the summer.

Winter Solstice Ritual Potpourri – Recipe by Gerina Dunwich

20 drops musk oil
25 drops pine oil
1 cup oak moss
2 cups dried mistletoe
1 cup dried poinsettia flowers
1 cup dried bayberries
1/2 cup dried rosemary
1/2 cup dried holly leaves and berries
3 crushed pinecones

Mix the musk and pine oils with the oak moss, and then add the remaining ingredients. Stir the potpourri well and store in a tightly covered ceramic or glass container.

(The above recipe for “Winter Solstice Ritual Potpourri” is quoted directly from Gerina Dunwich’s book “The Wicca Spellbook: A Witch’s Collection of Wiccan Spells, Potions and Recipes”, page 164, A Citadel Press Book, Carol Publishing Group, 1994/1995)

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Silliness – Brief Chase

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Wiccan | Tagged Affirmation, As many mince pies as you taste, Astrology, Astronomy, Brief Chase, Celtic Tree Month, Goddess Month, Journal Prompt, Magick, Moon, moon phase, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Rheum rhabarbarum, rhubarb, Runic Half Month, Silliness, Tides, Today’s Feast, Today’s Plant, Weather, Wicca, Yule, Yule Recipes

Daily Stuff 12-5-18 Mikulas Eve

Posted on December 5, 2018 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Featured photo by Ken Gagne. First Minus Tide of the cycle at 5:33 PM of -0.5 feet.

Venus is gorgeous out there! I couldn’t see the Moon, but it’s very low only up for 1/2 an hour, which means it’s still partly behind the Coast Range. 40F and clear as clear! Wind at 14mph. AQI is back up to 52. No rain in the forecast until Friday and that’s maybe 1/4 inch.

Yesterday we took it easy in the early part of the day. We didn’t actually eat breakfast until past noon. Eventually we started working on chores, putting together laundry, picking up and sorting around…. our usual Tuesday stuff. Eventually we were working at the shop, and talked over what things are most immediate to work on.

My make-up class came in at 4 and we worked until past 8pm. We’re going to try for another session on Thursday and then the class can go on together. Tempus headed out to do laundry not long after we got going and got back in just enough time before we were done to put together some supper for us both before heading out on the paper route.

I curled up for a nap after supper and then worked steadily on getting caught up on blog posts right up until 6am! Obviously, I didn’t go on the paper route with him. I think I have the pieces in the right places. 🙂 He got in at 6:15 and we went to sleep as soon as possible.

Today we have more chores to do. I really need to get some pickled eggs made, too. I’ve been trying to get that far for a couple of weeks and I don’t want the eggs to go bad on me! We’re probably going to haul some more stuff out of the closed off end of the shop to sort today, and with any luck, plant shelves…. Getting sick of hearing about ’em? Not as sick of it as I am, waiting to get those starts done!

I’ve had tried and tried to get a pic of this pond that we see twice a day on our way to and from the shop, but never managed it. Ken did! He even caught the Magic Circles of the rain!
Photo by Ken Gagne from 11/23/16

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

Mikulas Eve (MEE-coo-lahsh) is held the night before the Feast of St. Nicholas. In the Czech Republic, this is the equivalent of Halloween in the US. The Christmas Markets are up in every square, huge trees in front of hotels and municipal buildings and the shopping areas light up at night as bright as day. There are cookies and candies and candles in every shop window and greenery everywhere that it can be placed. On the night of December 5th, though, you will see small groups of children, about the same age as our trick-or-treat-ers, dressed up and going from door to door. Often “professionally” costumed groups show up in the hotels and markets for the tourists, but everywhere else, it’s whichever children decide to. One child is in a bishop’s robe, with a crook and miter and long white beard, usually of cotton wool. Another child is dressed all in white (called Andelicka, “Little Angel), sometimes with wings, but usually with a red sash and a wreath on her head, sometimes with lighted candles, who has a basket of dukati. A third child is dressed all in black or brown (the Sasak (SAH- shahk, the imp), is liberally smudged with soot and carries a sack, chains and either a whip or a bundle of switches. There are some other characters that occasionally show up, such as Death, the Turk, the Lost Knight, the Old Soldier, a violinist, the Miser, the Dancer, the Smart Little Maid (all characters from Czech folklore) but usually just the first three. They give goodies to small children, if “they’ve been good” and if the parents report that they have not been good, the Sasak will growl at them and threaten to pop them in his sack loaded with chains to drag them off to the “cold places”. One thing that struck me was that they collect money and goodies, not for themselves, (although they are often invited in for hot chocolate or cider and kolachki (pastries) but to pass on to other children, UNICEF, or to the food bank instead of the personal greed that our celebration gets into. More on other celebrations of this day here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas#Belgium.2C_the_Netherlands_and_the_Lower_Rhineland_.28Germany.29 plus the articles that follow on “German speaking countries” and “Central Europe”.

The shop opens at 11am. Winter hours are 11am-5pm Thursday through Monday. Holiday Hours – Open Late on 12/24, Christmas Eve, Closed Christmas Day 12/25, Close Saturday 12/29, Closing Early for New Year’s on 12/31 (probably by 4pm), And then we’ll be closed again on New Year’s Day! Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

Waning Moon Magick – From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Remember: what goes up must come down. Phase ends at the Tide Change on 12/6 at 11:20pm. Hecate’s Brooch – 3-5 days before New Moon – Best time for Releasing Rituals. It’s the last few days before the new moon, the time of Hecate’s Brooch. This is the time that if you’re going to throw something out, or sweep the floors, or take stuff to Good Will, do it! Rid yourself of negativity and work on the letting go process. Release the old, removing unwanted negative energies, addictions, or illness. Do physical and psychic cleansings. Good for wisdom & psychic ability. Goddess Aspect: Crone – Associated God/desses: Callieach, Banshee, Hecate, Baba Yaga, Ereshkigal, Thoth. Phase ends at the Dark on 12/5 at 11:20am. Dark of the Moon, End of the cycle – In the time leading up to the “New Moon” you may do banishings and other baneful magicks and healings that require blasting a disease away, as well as using the time for introspection and self-work. Do scrying, now. Good for reversing circumstances. God/dess Aspect: The One Beyond, the Watchers in the Outer Dark, psychopomps – Associated God/desses: Hecate, Kali, Arianhrod, Anja, Kore in the Underworld, Ereshkigal who was Inanna, Set/Seth, Hades, Osiris. Phase ends on 12/6 at 11:20pm.

The W of Cassiopeia now stands on end after dark, very high in the northeast. The bottom star of the W is Epsilon (ε) Cassiopeiae. That’s your starting point for hunting down the little-known star cluster Collinder 463, sparse and loose but visible in binoculars. It’s 8° to Epsilon’s north, surrounded by a nice quadrilateral of 4th- and 5th-magnitude stars about 3° wide. Use Chart 1 of the Pocket Sky Atlas.
Algol should be at minimum brightness for a couple hours centered on 6:42 p.m. EST.
Although Mercury passed between the Sun and Earth just last week, the innermost planet has already climbed into view during morning twilight. Look low in the southeast about 30 minutes before sunrise, when Mercury stands nearly 9° above the horizon. The planet shines at magnitude 0.7, so you’ll likely need binoculars to pick it out of the twilight this morning. Binoculars also will show a waning crescent Moon hanging 5° above the planet. When viewed through a telescope, Mercury appears 9″ across and sports a slender crescent phase. The inner world will grow brighter and climb higher as it approaches greatest elongation in mid-December.
Jupiter is hidden behind the glare of the Sun.

Old Farmer’s Almanac Sky Map for December not yet available
Goddess Month of Astrea runs from 11/28 – 12/25
Celtic Tree Month of Ruis Elder Nov 25 – Dec 22 – (RWEESH)
Runic half-month of Isa/ Is November 28-12 Literally, ‘ice’: a static period. The time of waiting before birth. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992

Sun in Sagittarius
Moon in Scorpio enters Sagittarius at 6:49pm
Mercury (12/6), Chiron (12/8), Juno (12/23), and Uranus (1/6/19) Retrograde
Color: White

Planting 12/4-5

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Ruis – Elder Ogam letter correspondences
Month: Makeup days of the thirteenth Moon
Color: Red
Class: Shrub
Letter: R
Meaning: End of a cycle or problem.

to study this month – Straif – Blackthorn Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Purple
Class: Chieftain
Letter: SS, Z, ST
Meaning: Resentment; Confusion; Refusing to see the truth

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Tides for Alsea Bay

*
Day        High      Tide Height   Sunrise    Moon Time      % Moon
~ /Low      Time    Feet Sunset Visible
W    5      Low   4:34 AM     2.3   7:37 AM    Rise 5:43 AM      6
~ 5     High 10:37 AM     8.8   4:37 PM     Set 4:03 PM
~ 5      Low   5:33 PM    -0.5
~ 5     High 11:54 PM     6.9

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Come what may, hold fast to love! Though men should rend your heart, let them not embitter or harden it. We win by tenderness; we conquer by forgiveness.

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Journal Prompt – Personal taste – Would you like to be famous? Why or why not? What would you like to be famous for?

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Quotes

~   Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English writer
~   Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought. – Napoleon Hill
~   About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation. – Will Rogers (1879-1935) US actor, humorist
~   Compassion is a verb. – Thich Nhat Hanh

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good. –Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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Yule Magick – Mistletoe Facts and Lore – by Jaime McLeod | Monday, December

Christmas mistletoe plant with berries tied in a bunch with a red bow over oak background.

13th, 2010 | From: Home and Garden – http://farmersalmanac.com/home-garden/2010/12/13/mistletoe-facts-and-lore/

Oh, ho, the mistletoe,
Hung where you can see.
Somebody waits for you;
Kiss her once for me!

From bringing trees inside to banging pots and pans at the turn of the New Year, the holiday season is full of colorful, storied, and sometimes strange, traditions. Kissing under the mistletoe is one of these.

Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that grows on, and attaches to, the branches of a tree or shrub. As it grows, it burrows into its host, and draws nutrients from the tree. To a healthy tree, mistletoe’s thievery is generally harmless. In fact, some describe the relationship between mistletoe plants and their host trees as somewhat symbiotic, because birds, attracted to a tree by mistletoe’s evergreen leaves, often spread the host tree’s seeds in winter, increasing the overall tree population.

Mistletoe features small, smooth, oval leaves paired up along a woody stem, with waxy white berries in clusters of up to six or ten, depending on the species. An important food source for many bird species, mistletoe can be mildly toxic to humans, causing diarrhea and gastrointestinal discomfort.

Decorating with mistletoe during winter is an ancient tradition, dating to the time before Christianity spread through Europe, when it was viewed as a symbol of fertility. The plant’s connection to the winter solstice probably originates in Norse mythology.

According to legend, Baldur, the god of light, began to have terrible nightmares that he would soon be killed. To ease his mind, Baldur’s mother, Frigga, undertook a journey to make everything in heaven or Earth — plants, animals, weapons, and so on — swear an oath not to harm Baldur. Because her son was so universally loved, everything she asked gladly made this promise. Unfortunately, the goddess overlooked the humble mistletoe. Realizing Frigga’s mistake, Loki, the god of mischief and fire, fashioned a spear of mistletoe and tricked Baldur’s blind twin brother, Hodur, into throwing it at the light god. The mistletoe pierced Baldur’s heart, killing him and bringing darkness to the world. Being magical, the gods were eventually able to resurrect Baldur. To celebrate his return, Frigga declared that mistletoe would be a symbol of love, and commanded gods and humans to kiss beneath its leaves in memory of her son. Some versions of the myth, though, say Loki foiled the gods’ attempt to restore Baldur to life. In this case, it is prophesied that the light god will return at Ragnarok, the destruction and rebirth of the world, and the mistletoe kiss is a foretaste of the joy that is yet to come.

Like many plants associated with rebirth myths, mistletoe began to be associated with fertility. People once placed it above babies’ cradles to protect them from evil or mischievous spirits, and young girls placed it under their pillows to dream of their future husbands.

According to some versions of the kissing lore, the proper etiquette for kissing under mistletoe requires a man to remove one berry when he kisses a woman. Once all of the berries are gone, it becomes bad luck to kiss beneath that particular sprig.

To cultivate mistletoe, simply squeeze the thick, sticky pulp out of several mistletoe berries and rub the seeds, spaced about an inch apart, on a young, thin tree branch. Unless they are eaten by birds, the seeds should grow on their own, without your help, taking nutrients from the host tree.

Jaime McLeod is a longtime journalist who has written for a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including MTV.com. She enjoys the outdoors, growing and eating organic food, and is interested in all aspects of natural wellness.

Comments

1jackie bailey { 12.04.15 at 10:42 am } – went yestarday an shot some out do it every year

2Micheal Sherrod { 12.09.14 at 10:08 am } – Mistletoe actually causes a growth on meskite trees. It’s growth causes the wood to make burly wood used in knife handles,gun grips, and exotic woodworking.

4S. Hollon { 12.08.14 at 9:19 am } – A Christmas Eve tradition in my neck of the woods was to shoot it out of the top of oaks…proving your skills with a .22 rifle and carrying it home for Christmas Eve kiss from your girl.
Roupes Valley Alabama

5Marty Swartz { 12.08.14 at 8:54 am } – Please do not tell people to “plant” mistletoe on their trees, It can kill them. It is a parasite and drains the tree of it’s energy. Once it is established, the seeds will fall on other branches and then the tree is full of it and it is ugly and like I said it will destroy the tree. SO Please do not plant it on any tree, cut it out and get rid of it, There is enough out there in the wild.

6KATHYB69 { 12.21.10 at 1:05 am } – It is sad that this family tradition is fading amongst the younger generation…Some children/teenagers to young adults, when asked what is a mistletoe, they simply do not know…

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Silliness – Daffynitions – Content: A fabric shelter for inmates.

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Wiccan | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Celtic Tree Month, Claytonia perfoliata, Daffynitions, Goddess Month, Indian lettuce, Journal Prompt, Magick, Miner's Lettuce, Mistletoe Facts and Lore, Moon, moon phase, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Ring out false pride, Runic Half Month, Silliness, Tides, Today’s Feast, Today’s Plant, Weather, Wicca, winter purslane, Yule

Daily Stuff 12-4-18 St. Barbara

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Featured photo by Ken Gagne.

More sun than cloud and the cloud is high and streaky. It’s pretty windy, even here in town. 52F, wind at 16mph, AQI 30, no rain in the past 24 hours. No rain in the forecast until Friday.

Yesterday flew past since there was so much to do. A lot of things were out of place or needed to be re-stocked. There was a lot of mail to catch up on. We had a lot of shoppers in, during the early afternoon. Then I went down with an asthma attack and that put paid to the rest of my day.

Tempus minded the front and didn’t close until 8pm. I curled up with books and embroidery in back and finally got my lungs working properly by late evening, but by then it was really too late to do much. The asthma was leftovers from the weekend. Smoke residue, pet dander, perfumes….and as I coughed I could tell which! At home the triggers are fewer and easier to avoid.

Today, once we’re actually up and moving, we’ll be cleaning at the shop. I have a 101 make-up class this afternoon and then this evening I’m hoping that my plant shelves may *finally* get put up. It’s been what, 3 months? If they do, then I have to do a whacking lot of plant starts this evening, but otherwise I’m going to be doing newsletter set-up and writing. Instead of just putting a whole write-up of last weekend out of place, I’m going to go back and edit the pieces into the appropriate newsletters. ..and tonight’s our paper run.

Yaquina Bay Fishing boats and bridge, Newport, OR – taken on 11/2/18 by Ken Gagne

A few years ago, as a Yule Gift to all of you, I wrote up a description of how I make ornaments out of small books. These are a fun craft. If you start with a small book that suits the person you’re making it for (try bookstores, but the pharmacy across the street from us has ’em in the gift section!) or one with special nostalgic significance, you can have an inexpensive gift (or 6!) in an afternoon. Go to this page: http://wp.me/P2xgQ8-H8 Look for this picture and click on the link below the picture (clicking the title will do nothing, clicking the pic will take you only to the pic!) …and there are a lot more tutorials on the page! Or go straight to the PDF https://ancientlightshop.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/yule-gift-2012-book-ornaments2.pdf

The local larkspurs, delphinium trollifolium, and delphinium pavonaceum (which the Wiki article says is confined to the Valley, but I’ve collected out here….) are pretty flowers in shade of white, blue and purple. They’re called delphiniums after the shape of the nectary. More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphinium_trolliifolium and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphinium_pavonaceum Other names are Larksheal and Staggerweed – Feminine, Venus, Water – The flowers frighten away venomous creatures and ghosts. Sprinkle between your eyes and a Litha fire to keep your sight clear. Use in rituals to call upon Dolphin energy.

Today is the feast of St. Barbara. This Virgin, & Martyr was Born in the mid third century somewhere in the Roman Empire and died in early fourth century to late third century, executed by her father for becoming a Christian. Her feast, on December 4 is no longer on Roman Catholic calendar, because they can’t prove she existed. Her symbols are a three-windowed tower, a palm branch, a chalice, or lightning. She is the Patron Saint of prisoners, architects, artillerymen and mathematicians. At various points in history her stories have probably been confused with pagan deities. In many of the Central European countries today, each family member will cut a twig from a tree that blooms and/or fruits. (My grandparents did this every year.) These are put in water in a warm place and the number of blossoms foretell the winter’s weather. The person whose twig blooms the most is said to be the favorite of the Goddess (usually listed as Mary….) More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Barbara

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

Ursa Major, Ursa Minor
Copyright 1995 Jerry Lodriguss
24mm f.2 Nikkor working at f/3.5
20 minute exposure
hypered Kodak Royal Gold 400
3:17 am May 27, 1995
Massai Point, AZ

At this time of year the Big Dipper lies down lowest soon after dark, due north. It’s entirely below the north horizon if you’re as far south as Miami. But by midnight, the Dipper is standing straight up on its handle in fine view in the northeast. Meanwhile, high above, the bowl of the Little Dipper is descending in the evening, lower left of Polaris. By 10 or 11 p.m. it hangs straight down from Polaris.

A Geminid meteor in 2004 by Alan Dyer

The Geminid meteor shower gets underway tonight. Although the shower won’t peak until the night of December 13/14, you should start to see a few Geminids during the overnight hours. And with the Moon showing only a slim crescent phase this week, conditions could hardly be better for a sneak peek at what is arguably the best annual meteor shower. To tell a Geminid meteor from a random dust particle burning up in Earth’s atmosphere, trace the streak of light’s path backward. A shower meteor will appear to originate from the constellation Gemini the Twins.
Mars (magnitude 0.0, in Aquarius) still shines highest in the south at nightfall and sets by midnight. In a telescope it’s gibbous and quite small: 9 arcseconds from pole to pole. For a Mars map that displays which side is facing Earth at your time and date, use our Mars Profiler.

Sun in Sagittarius
Moon in Scorpio
Mercury (12/6), Chiron (12/8), Juno (12/23), and Uranus (1/6/19) Retrograde
Color: Maroon

Planting 12/4-5

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Ruis – Elder Ogam letter correspondences
Month: Makeup days of the thirteenth Moon
Color: Red
Class: Shrub
Letter: R
Meaning: End of a cycle or problem.

to study this month – Straif – Blackthorn Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Purple
Class: Chieftain
Letter: SS, Z, ST
Meaning: Resentment; Confusion; Refusing to see the truth

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Tides for Alsea Bay

*
Day        High      Tide Height   Sunrise    Moon Time      % Moon
~ /Low      Time    Feet Sunset Visible
Tu   4      Low   3:46 AM     2.0   7:36 AM    Rise 4:36 AM      12
~ 4     High   9:57 AM     8.7   4:37 PM     Set 3:31 PM
~ 4      Low   4:50 PM     0.0
~ 4     High 11:03 PM     6.7

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – We can not help someone up the ladder unless he, himself, has a true willingness to try.

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Journal Prompt – What? – What profession would you have chosen, if not your current one?

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Quotes

~   The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
~   I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection. – Sigmund Freud
~   All great things are done for their own sake. – Robert Frost
~   I bind and revoke, any contract or agreement, entered into or retained, which was entered into or retained through fraud, deception or manipulation which interferes with my whole being integration or seeks to restrict my sovereignty. – Jim Fry

Heart-warm against the stormy white,
The Rose of Joy burns warmer yet. – Thomas Gold Appleton (1812–84)

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Yule Magick – Mr Pickwick’s Christmas Punch – Sophie Nussle

It’s the time of good cheer, parties and…hot spiced rum punch! Many years ago, when I read Dickens’ Pickwick Papers, I was captivated by the account of Mr Pickwick’s Christmas at Dingley Dell manor. Hot rum punch flowed and everyone was merry. There was no recipe, so I went looking for Victorian rum punch recipes. I found a few, and over the years, I have adapted my own, which is dead easy to make. It’s very alcoholic, very delicious, and will calm any tense family situation 😉 Here it is! Adapt quantities according to size.

For 6 people:

2/3 75 cl bottle Amber rum – preferably from small craft rumeries if you can find it.
2 75 cl German or Alsace white wine, very fruity – semi-sweet. (You need one part of rum for 3 parts of wine.)
Raw sugar cane, or sugar cane syrup, to taste.
1 orange, 1 lemon.
zest of 1 orange, zest of 1/2 lemon – make sure the zest is in fairly long curls
1 star anise (whole)
cinnamon (2-3 sticks)
vanilla pod, whole but sliced down the middle
a few cloves
a few cardamom
3-4 allspice berries – whole berries, slightly crushed
mace (in blades, whole) – small amount

Add everything to a large pan and warm slowly until it is smoking and piping hot, but don’t allow to boil. Warm the glasses and be careful when filling them (I put a teaspoon in), and serve. Feel free to adapt according to taste, inspiration and preferred ingredients. Enjoy and toast Mr Pickwick and the Squire of Dingley Dell Manor!

Ancient Light Note – There’s an adaptation of this that I use for making mulled wine or cider, as well, and makes a great gift if it can be refrigerated fairly soon (i.e. it can stand for hours, but I wouldn’t leave it under the tree for a week….) Take your sugar, zests and other spices and cook them slowly on the stove with an equal amount of water, tightly covered, stirring frequently. Let it cool a bit and mix in the juices of the citrus and add about a tablespoon of rosewater (if you have it) Store in the fridge. You can strain it, if you want, but it’s prettier if you don’t. Add to the alcohols after they begin to warm.

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Silliness – I WANT TO BE FIRST IN LINE.

—– Original Message —–
From: Dorothy Ewer
To: sheila posterick ; melva.childers@att.net ; shirleyKolb ; gapinski, mary jane ; FrankArthur
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 4:31 PM

Dear Santa,

I rarely ask for much. This year is no exception. I don’t need diamond earrings, handy slicer-dicers or comfy slippers. I only want one little thing, and I want it deeply.

I want to slap Martha Stewart. I get all cozy inside just thinking about it. Don’t grant this wish just for me, do it for the thousands of women across the country. Through sheer vicarious satisfaction, you’ll be giving a gift to us all.

Those of us leading average, garden variety lives aren’t concerned with gracious living. We feel pretty good about ourselves if our paper plates match when we stack them on the counter, buffet-style for dinner.

We’re tired of Martha’s showing us how to make centerpieces from holly hock dipped in 18 carat gold. We’re plumb out of liquid gold. Unless it’s of the furniture polish variety. We can’t whip up Martha’s creamy holiday sauce, spiced with turmeric. Most of us can’t even say turmeric, let alone figure out what to do with it.

Martha avoids take-out pizza (she’s only ordered it once), she refuses to eat it cold (No cold pizza? Is Martha Stewart living?) When it was pointed out that she could microwave it, she replied, “I don’t have a microwave.”

Martha has 40 sets of dishes adorning an entire wall in her home. Forty sets! Can you spell “overkill”? And neatly put away, no less. If my dishes make it to the dishwasher, that qualifies as “put away” in my house!

Martha tells us she’s already making homemade holiday gifts for friends. “Last year, I made amazing silk-lined scarves for everyone,” she boasts. Not just scarves, mind you, “Amazing scarves”. Martha’s obviously not shy about giving herself a little pat on the back. She goes on to tell us that ….”homemaking is glamour for the 90s”, and says her most glamorous friends are “interested in stain removal, how to iron a monogram, and how to fold a towel.” I have one piece of advice, “Martha, get new friends.”

There you have it, Santa. If there was ever someone who deserved a good smack, it’s Martha Stewart.

ho ho ho

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Wiccan | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Celtic Tree Month, delphinium pavonaceum, delphinium trollifolium, Goddess Month, I want to be first in line, Journal Prompt, larkspurs, Magick, Moon, moon phase, Mr Pickwick's Christmas Punch, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Rose of Joy, Runic Half Month, Silliness, St. Barbara, Tides, Today’s Feast, Today’s Plant, Weather, Wicca, Yule

Daily Stuff 12-3-18 Bona Dea Edited

Posted on December 3, 2018 by Anja Snihova'

Hi, folks!

Featured photo by Ken Gagne.

It’s sunny and lovely outside. 51F, wind at 15mph, AQI 26, no rain since midnight. We’re supposed to have a few dry days and that’s due to change on Friday.

I’m still trying to write up the weekend, so all I’ll say about yesterday was that we had a good trip home and I crashed early. 🙂

Today I ended up doing mail for several hours, crawling back into bed to get warm and then oversleeping! Tempus had the shop open on time, though, and we’ve been busy with customers since I got here. I *should* get time to finish the write-up today, I hope!

Added Section!

I’m not actually sure what time we left Arlys’, because when Wilhelm and the girls got there, we sat and talked and the girls played with the dogs for quite awhile. We had a good drive back in lovely weather. We stopped in Oregon City for coffee and then later somewhere along I-5, most of the way to our turn to the coast, at a DQ for burgers and ice cream.

We got to the shop well after dark, and then sat around talking about the differences between Eastern Rite and Roman Catholicism. Tempus was working on the cup that he’s been sanding when we got there. I pulled out some bookmarkers and eventually Wilhelm and the girls headed home to Alsea.

Yachats sunset on 11/30/15 by Ken Gagne

Today’s Plant is Cascade penstemon, or coast penstemon, Penstemon serrulatus. A member of the plantain family, this was used by the 1^stnations peoples as a medicinal remedy for toothache. It’s common name, “Beardtongue” is because the flower appears to be sticking out it’s hairy tongue! It has a lovely flower, and is a semi-deciduous shrub, which usually is very short, unlike many shrubs. The tender shoots that the flowers grow on often get frost-nipped so only survive for a year or so, with the rest of the plant surviving below the level of surrounding plants, acting as a perennial ground-cover. – Feminine, Venus, Earth – Use for headaches, particularly headaches coming from tooth pain or infection by binding the herb with red wool and/or putting it into a red cloth pouch and bind to the head, or even put into your pillowcase at bedtime. You can put a leaf in your shoes to help with the effects of standing on them too long. Roots protect from snakebite and a bunch of the flowers will chase negativity away, particularly that coming from outside. Iow, it won’t do much for a bad mood…. More on Penstemon here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penstemon

Today’s feast is to Bona Dea, the Good Goddess! This was an exclusively women’s religious festival. Men could be punished with blindness for profaning the rites. Bona Dea’s true name and face, due to her modesty, were unknown to men. She was the goddess of virtuous womanhood, venerated by everyone from emperors to slaves, but mostly by women, children and plebs. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_Dea

Day of Remembrance for Bogatir Svatogor – Studen (December) 3 – The date refers back to the time of the Great Barrow Gulbishe and the first fight with Pechenegs. Awesome were the honors at the funeral for this great noble warrior. His implements and armor were gigantic, twice as large as the ordinary in size. Today, say a toast to this great warrior. (Bogatir: “Greatest Hero” in Old Russian )

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

The waning Moon shines with Regulus in early dawn on Thursday the 29th, then steps farther east under Leo the next two mornings.

As dawn begins tomorrow morning the 4th, the crescent Moon, Venus, and Spica form a gently curving arc low in the east, in that order upper right from the Moon. High to their upper left is Arcturus.

A skygazer views Venus from the Giant’s Causeway near Bushmills, on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland. Giant’s Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption some 60 million years ago. – Miguel Claro

Dazzling Venus continues to dominate the morning sky, but it has some impressive, if temporary, company today. A slender crescent Moon hangs 5° above the planet, and the two will make a splendid sight with naked eyes or through binoculars. Look more closely and you also should pick up 1st-magnitude Spica — Virgo the Maiden’s brightest star — 7° to the right of the pair.
Venus (magnitude –4.8, in Virgo) rises as an eerie “UFO” above the east-southeast horizon a good two hours before the first light of dawn. As dawn arrives, Venus is the brilliant “Morning Star” dominating the southeast. Look for Spica, much fainter, to its right. In a telescope Venus is a shrinking and thickening crescent, waxing from 25% to 30% sunlit this week. For the sharpest telescopic views, follow it up higher all the way past sunrise and into the blue sky of day.

Old Farmer’s Almanac Sky Map for December – https://www.almanac.com/content/sky-map-star-chart-december-2018
Goddess Month of Astrea runs from 11/28 – 12/25
Celtic Tree Month of Ruis Elder Nov 25 – Dec 22 – (RWEESH)
Runic half-month of Isa/ Is November 28-12 Literally, ‘ice’: a static period. The time of waiting before birth. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992

Sun in Sagittarius
Moon in Libra enters Scorpio at 11:55am.
Mercury (12/6), Chiron (12/8), Juno (12/23), and Uranus (1/6/19) Retrograde
Color: Ivory

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Ruis – Elder Ogam letter correspondences
Month: Makeup days of the thirteenth Moon
Color: Red
Class: Shrub
Letter: R
Meaning: End of a cycle or problem.

to study this month – Straif – Blackthorn Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Purple
Class: Chieftain
Letter: SS, Z, ST
Meaning: Resentment; Confusion; Refusing to see the truth

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Tides for Alsea Bay

*
Day        High      Tide Height   Sunrise    Moon Time      % Moon
~ /Low      Time    Feet Sunset Visible
M    3      Low   2:54 AM     1.6   7:35 AM    Rise 3:28 AM      20
~ 3     High   9:15 AM     8.4   4:38 PM     Set 3:01 PM
~ 3      Low   4:02 PM     0.6
~ 3     High 10:06 PM     6.5

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Unless you can create the WHOLE universe in 5 days, perhaps giving advice to God, isn’t such a good idea!

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Journal Prompt – Wiki – What gives you confidence and why?

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Quotes

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

“We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,”
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December. – Oliver Herford (1863–1935)

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Yule Magick – Studies

Wake up, people! Open your eyes! Wake up!
Move quickly, like people of light!
Draw clouds forth from the sky’s quarters.
Draw clouds full of snow to us here!
Snow falling now means water in summer.
Come, ice, cover my fields!
In four days the festival starts, when we assemble
to call down snow in abundance. ~Pueblo Dawn Call To Winter Feast

Throughout the world, the darkest time is also the time of the greatest celebration. One reason is simple: busy people, bustling about to gather enough food to survive through the winter, have less time to tell stories and to feast and to sing. But there is another reason that is not so obvious: the belief that the activities of human beings during the winter somehow empower the earth to keep turning on its axis, progressing slowly toward the new seasons yet to come.

Stories have traditionally been vital in this quest for continued order in the universe. Each winter, people would gather to hear the old myths recited by the hearth-fire. This was the children’s school, the time to learn the rules by which humankind was expected to live. It was a continuing education program for adults, too, who each year heard the familiar stories anew, with deeper meaning. But the stories did more than just educate people. In a mysterious and magickal way, they also linked humans to the cosmos. Just as the sun set at the anticipated time, so we were to tell the right story on the right night. We thus were bound to the cycle of the seasons in a deep and meaningful way.

By Patricia Monaghan ~ From “The Goddess Companion” and GrannyMoon’s Morning Feast

Solstice Meditation and Visualization

Winter Solstice is an excellent time to undergo a vision quest to find your magickal name, a totem animal, a mantra, or other empowering insights. This meditation is meant to accent that quest by opening your awareness to the power within and without all things. Begin in a standing position. Center yourself and breathe deeply. Slowly take off your mundane clothes., likewise removing the “World” with each. Wrap a blanket around yourself for warmth, but remain naked for the meditation. You need no trappings to discover personal power.

Sit and close your eyes. Let any remaining tension drain away, then begin listening to the sound of silence. Smell the aromas of oak and herb. Feel the latent energy of everything around you and the magick you’ve placed there. Know it is your own. Listen to your breath and your heartbeat. Sense the pulse and bb within as the same energy without. Listen closely; does it whisper a message to you? Does it whisper a name? Do you hear the cry of an animal? Do you hear words that fill you with energy? Linger in this place between Earth and stars until you receive a message. Then return to normal levels of awareness, and write the experience in your journal.

Ritual Foods

Go with your traditional holiday foods, which for me include many that have solar symbolism. Cookies are round like the sun, eggnog is golden and fertile, gingerbread is hot and spicy, and fruitcake bears red and orange highlights. As a side, try a little flaming brandy to warm you up! – GrannyMoon’s Morning Feast Archives

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Silliness – Knock Knock! Who’s There?

Dot.
Dot who?
Dots for me to know, and you to find out.

Posted in Daily Stuff, Newsletter, Pagan, Wiccan | Tagged Affirmation, Astrology, Astronomy, Bogatir Svatogor, Bona Dea, Cascade penstemon, Celtic Tree Month, coast penstemon, Goddess Month, I heard a bird sing, Journal Prompt, Knock Knock, Magick, Moon, moon phase, Oregon Coast, Pagan, Penstemon serrulatus, Runic Half Month, Silliness, Tides, Today’s Feast, Today’s Plant, Weather, Wicca, Yule, Yule Studies

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