Hi, folks!
45F and a bit drippy at times. We got about a tenth of an inch yesterday, but only dribbles today. Yesterday’s intermittent sunshine made the little water drops sparkle so there were flashed of yellow, red and purple. Tempus is looking forward to having some dry days so he can work on the car. He thinks it may be simple corrosion.
Yesterday was long but very productive. On our way to the shop there was a lovely rainbow, which was a good omen! Robyne and Tempus worked on the little wooden animals and I sewed. Sounds very simple, but it wasn’t. There’s going to be a full set of pictures here: http://wp.me/p6tYq4-Cd but I’m going to put just one pic of Tempus with the outfit that I just finished.
We had a number of shoppers in and some really good sales for the week.
You’ll start seeing daily announcements, but we’ve decided on our yearly “vacation” days. January is usually our slowest month, so we’re going to close from the 5th to the 14th. We’re not going to be idle! We’re heading for 12th Night which is an historical re-creation event, this year in the Portland area. We need the time to pack and unpack, to finish getting stuff ready for sale, travel to and from the event and so on.
Today Robyne is heading home on the bus. Tempus is going to drive him in to Newport in a couple of hours, but right now he’s making a big, awesome omelet breakfast. He’ll be heading back into Newport around 6pm for Metal Night. I’m going to be working on newsletters all day, I think. I want to get ahead of things again instead of putting them together day-to-day. Honestly, this note at the beginning is usually 10-15 minutes around coffee and other things, but the rest of the newsletter takes some doing! 🙂 I’m hoping I’m going to get a little time at my pincushions pamphlet, too. I’d *love* to get the done for 12th Night!
This is a Ken Gagne photo from 11/28/14 of pelicans flying over the surf in Yachats and a fishing boat in the background.
Today’s Plant is Nodding Onion, Allium cernuum. This is sometimes called Lady’s Leek. It’s an edible plant in the Allium family, but not particularly choice. (Yeah, personal experience…) It’s called “Nodding” because the inflorescences, the “flower”, tend to droop, unlike a lot of the alliums that end up with a ball on a stick. Most of the plants in this family are edible, but be careful! There are a few that are either disgusting or at least mildly poisonous and there are bulbs that *are* poisonous that are easy to mistake. Onions have been very important as a food/nutrition source for a long while and have even been worshiped at times. These are grown as ornamentals, mostly, but are found wild here on the coast. – Masculine, Mars, Fire, Isis – Cut and dry the flowers and add to a grapevine or rosemary wreath for a house protection spell. These are great for house blessings. Grown in pots indoors or in the garden they protect against evil and particularly against poisonous snakes. When you harvest in the fall, make a decorative braid of onions and hang over bedroom doors to prevent infections. Nodding onions are great for this purpose because, not being particularly great as food, you won’t mind replanting them in the spring as they start to sprout! Purify swords and athames after particularly heavy magicks, by rubbing the blade with a cut bulb, then wash with clear water and oil with rosemary-infused almond oil. Place the dried flowers in a vase at the head of the bed, or pack into a pillow sachet to help clarify prophetic dreams. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_cernuum and on Alliums here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium
Today’s feast is the day of Thomas a Becket. He was Archbishop of Canterbury when he was assassinated in the cathedral. It was a deed that shocked even the violent medieval world. There is some of the history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Becket Senista heather, Erica genistopha, is the plant associated with this Saint.
The shop is closed on Tuesday/Wednesday! Winter hours are 11am-5pm, Thursday through Monday. Please note that the shop will be closed on 1/1 for New Years. 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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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 1/8. Waning Gibbous Moon – Best time for draining the energy behind illness, habits or addictions. Magicks of this sort, started now, should be ended before the phase change to the New Moon. – Associated God/dess: Hera/Hero, Cybele, Zeus the Conqueror, Mars/Martius, Anansi, Prometheus. Phase ends at the Waning Quarter on 1/1 at 9:30pm.
Mercury at greatest eastern elongation – Tuesday, Dec. 29, dusk – Mercury will be well placed for observation in the western sky about half an hour after sunset.
Sirius and Procyon in the balance: Sirius, the Dog Star, sparkles low in the east-southeast after dinnertime. Procyon, the Little Dog Star, shines in the east about two fist-widths at arm’s length to Sirius’s left. If you live around latitude 30° (Tijuana, New Orleans, Jacksonville), these two canine stars will be at the same height above your horizon soon after they rise. If you’re north of that latitude, Procyon will be higher. If you’re south of there, Sirius will be the higher one. 
Uranus (magnitude +5.8, in Pisces) is still in fine view high in the south right after dark.
Goddess Month of Hestia runs from 12/26 – 1/22
Celtic Tree Month of Beth/Birch, Dec 24 – Jan 20, Beith – (BEH), birch
Runic half-month of Eihwaz/Eoh 12/28-1/11 Represents the dead, and the yew tree, sacred to Winter shamanism. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books
Sun in Capricorn
Moon in Leo enters Virgo at 10:58am
Color: Black
Harvest 12/29/29
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©2015 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright.
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Celtic Tree Month of Beth/Birch, Dec 24 – Jan 20, Beith – (BEH), birch – The silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) is the most common tree birch in much of Europe. It grows up to 30 m (100 feet) high, but is more often found in spreading clumps on sandy soils. It is one of the first trees to colonize an area after a mature forest is cut; this is probably a large part of its symbolic connection with new beginnings. It is cultivated in North America, often under the name of weeping birch. The three trees in my front yard form root sprouts that would take over the bed where they are planted if I didn’t cut them back. The common birch (B. pubescens Ehrh.) is almost as widespread as the silver birch, but grows primarily on acid or peaty soils. It can reach 20 m (65 feet) in height. Birches are members of the Birch family (Betulaceae). Curtis Clark
Beth – Birch – Ogam letter correspondences
Month: November
Color: White
Class: Peasant
Letter: B
Meaning: New Beginnings; Changes; Purification.
Phagos – Beech Ogam letter correspondences to study this month
Month: None
Color: Orange-brown
Class: Chieftain
Letter: PH, IO
Meaning: New experiences and information coming
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Tides for Alsea Bay
Day High Tide Height Sunrise Moon Time % Moon
~ /Low Time Feet Sunset Visible
Tu 29 High 3:18 AM 7.4 7:52 AM Set 10:26 AM 87
~ 29 Low 9:01 AM 2.8 4:45 PM Rise 9:38 PM
~ 29 High 2:37 PM 7.6
~ 29 Low 9:24 PM 0.2
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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – I create a safe and protective environment in which to transform my fears.
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Journal Prompt – I wish… – I wish there really was….. If there really was, then…..
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Quotes
~ One advantage of marriage, it seems to me, is that when you fall out of love with him, or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until you maybe fall in again. – Judith Viorst
~ A friend is one who sees through you and still enjoys the view. – Wilma Askinas (1926- ) American Author
~ Novelists do not write as birds sing, by the push of nature. It is part of the job that there should be much routine and some daily stuff on the level of carpentry. – William Golding (1911-1993) English writer
~ All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer. – Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish novelist, poet
CRYING, MY LITTLE ONE
Crying, my little one, footsore and weary?
Fall asleep, pretty one, warm on my shoulder:
I must tramp on through the winter night dreary,
While the snow falls on me colder and colder.
You are my one, and I have not another;
Sleep soft, my darling, my trouble and treasure;
Sleep warm and soft in the arms of your mother,
Dreaming of pretty things, dreaming of pleasure. – Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), English poet
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New Year’s Magick – Bring in the New Spell – December 31st, 2006
Color of the Day: Orange – Incense of the Day: Poplar
Invite your family and close friends for a late night feast tonight. Have everybody bring a worn item of clothing. Make a scarecrow by stuffing the clothing with pieces of paper on which each person at the party has written old habits or sad memories they wish to rid themselves of. In some cultures, people add a few firecrackers to add more excitement to the spell. Carry the scarecrow out of doors and burn it. Visualize the old habits and memories going up in smoke. At the stroke of midnight, eat twelve grapes to symbolize the twelve months of the new year, then make twelve wishes. When this is done, the youngest person at the party should stand in the front door and ring in the new year, and the oldest person in the group should stand at the back door and ring out the old year. By: Lily Gardner-Butts
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Silliness –
Ancient Light's Daily Stuff 
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