Daily Stuff 10-10-20 Tewkesbury Mop Fair

Hi, folks!

The shop is open 1-6pm, Thursday through Monday.

Rain, 60F, wind at 7-20mph and gusting, AQI7-23, UV3. 90% chance of rain today and 50% tonight. Rain, showers and wind through Tuesday.

Yesterday I overslept. When I finally woke I scrambled into my clothes and got to the shop to find that Tempus had been on time. It took me awhile to get my brain in gear. Before I was done with a 2nd cup of coffee, Tempus had headed out for his errands.

We had just two people through during the afternoon (at least after I got there, Tempus had one before) I tried to get to doing headers, but I spent the time instead sorting and putting away all kinds of stuff. How did it get that *bad* by the beading table and the small work table up front? Oof.

I did get some work done outside. I got the smaller garlics planted around the bay tree, but by then it was already getting dark. Tempus got in around 7pm and started making some salad. I got a nap and by the time I woke, he had the dehydrator washed, so that got started on a batch of zucchini.

It started to rain during the evening, but not nearly with the enthusiasm that had been predicted. I worked on some drawings, caught up on messages and then just dinked around getting this ready. Honestly, I was playing games more than finding things for this. I had something perking in the back of my head, though. I’ll probably sleep on it and actually write it in the next couple of days, if it’s worthwhile.

The rain picked up a bit after midnight. We got 1/10 of an inch between midnight and 1am!

Today is more of the same. Maybe I’ll get to the headers today…. At least the newsletter is looking a bit better.

…and since this is the month and time to call on the fates…

Today’s Feast is the Tewkesbury Mop Fair which had it’s 400th anniversary in 2010! This is a hiring fair where people go who are looking for work for the coming year. A Wikipedia article here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tewkesbury#Festivals_and_fairs and more info here: http://www.tewkesburyfairsociety.co.uk/

Today’s Plant is Sword fern, Polystichum munitum. It grows all winter on the coast, getting greener and lovelier every year as the new fiddles come up out of the center of the plant and develop into fronds. I’ve been enjoying those, watching them for months, now. they can get to be 6 feet tall and some of the ones down in the park where the stream crosses through are that size! The indigenes used the rhizome as a poverty food (baked and peeled), and the fronds are one of the best remedies for relieving the pain from the sting of a Stinging Nettle. It is also commonly used by florists as an ornamental plant. – Masculine, Air, The God, the Puck. –This is an herb of masculine power, protection and luck. Use in spells to guide to treasure. Burn to drive away pests.…and as any fern, burn for rain…. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_fern

The shop is open 1-6pm, Thursday through Monday. (generally we’re open until dark). Need something? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org

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 10/16 at 12:31pm. Waning Crescent Moon –Best time for beginning introspective magicks that are more long term (full year cycle) A good time for beginning knot magicks to “bind up” addictions and illness (finish just before the Tide Change of Dark to New) and “tying up loose ends” God/dess aspects – Demeter weeping for her Daughter, Mabon, Arachne Tyr. Phase ends on 10/12 at 12:31am.

The high waning Moon at dawn steps through Gemini.

Venus passes 2.7° south of the spiral galaxy M95 this morning. To see the cosmic meetup, look east with a telescope in the two hours before sunrise — the earlier the better, as M95’s dim, magnitude 11 glow will be harder to pick out as the sky grows lighter. Contrast that with Venus, whose 75-percent-lit disk rules the region at magnitude –4.1. Leo’s brightest star, Regulus, lies nearly 9° west-northwest of Venus and shines at magnitude 1.4. But M95 isn’t the only galaxy within the celestial lion’s domain. With a waning crescent Moon relatively far away in Gemini, keep your attention in Leo and look about halfway between Venus and the tip of the lion’s tail, Denebola. There you’ll find the famous Leo Triplet, also known as the M66 Group. It includes three galaxies: M65, M66, and NGC 3628. Although the best time to view galaxies is under a completely dark sky when they’re high above the horizon, your patience this morning may pay off with a glimpse of their fuzzy, bright cores. M66 is brightest (magnitude 9), so search it out first, then use averted vision to see if you can catch its two magnitude 10 companions as well.

Ignore the moon in this pic

The Great Square of Pegasus balances on its corner high in the east at nightfall. For your location, when it is exactly balanced? That is, when is the Square’s top corner exactly above its bottom corner? This will be sometime soon after the end of twilight, depending on your latitude. Try lining up the stars with the vertical edge of a building as a measuring tool. How accurately can you time this event?

Uranus (magnitude 5.7, in Aries) is fairly well up in the east by 10 p.m. daylight-saving time, about 16° east of Mars. Uranus is only 3.7 arcseconds wide, but that’s enough to appear as a tiny fuzzy ball, not a point, at high power in even a small telescope.

Old Farmer’s Almanac October Sky Map – https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-october

Runic half-month of Gebo/ Gyfu – Sept 28-Oct 12 – Gyfu represents the unity that a gift brings between the donor & recipient. It is a time of unification, both between members of society and between the human and divine.Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, p. 102

Goddess Month of Hathor runs from 10/3 – 10/30
Celtic Tree Month of Gort/Ivy  Sep 30 – Oct 27


Sun in Virgo

Moon enters Leo at 5:24pm
Mars (11/13), Neptune (11/28), Chiron (12/12) Uranus (1/14/21) Retrograde
Color: Indigo

Planting 10/8-10

©2020 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright

Gort/Ivy  Sep 30 – Oct 27 – Gort – (GORT), ivy – Ivy (Hedera helix L.) is also a vine, growing to 30 m (100 feet) long in beech woods and around human habitations, where it is widely planted as a ground cover. Ivy produces greenish flowers before Samhain on short, vertical shrubby branches. The leaves of these flowering branches lack the characteristic lobes of the leaves of the rest of the plant. Like holly, ivy is evergreen, its dark green leaves striking in the bare forests of midwinter. Ivy is widely cultivated in North America. It is a member of the Ginseng family (Araliaceae).

Gort – Ivy Ogam letter correspondences
Month: September
Color: Sky Blue
Class: Chieftain
Letter: G
Meaning: Take time to soul search or you will make a wrong decision.

to study this month Uilleand – Honeysuckle Ogam letter correspondences
Month: None
Color: Yellow-white
Class: Peasant
Letter: P, PE, UI
Meaning: Proceed with caution.

Tides for Alsea Bay *
*

Day        High      Tide  Height   Sunrise    Moon  Time      % Moon
~           /Low      Time    Feet      Sunset                                  Visible
Sa  10      Low   1:16 AM     0.9   7:26 AM     Set  3:44 PM      52
~    10     High   8:18 AM     5.6   6:40 PM
~    10      Low   1:17 PM     3.9
~    10     High   6:57 PM     6.5

Affirmation/Thought for the Day – It is not about reaching a goal and finally sitting back to rest. The point is experiencing the journey and drawing your own conclusions….

Journal Prompt – What is? – What is the best way to learn? Through lectures or by hands-on experiences? By discussing or by observing the concepts in action? Develop a plan for an ideal class, including your ideas about these questions.

Quotes –

~   Replace guilt with responsibility and honor. – Kerr Cuhulain
~   There are three central values in life – the experiential, that which happens to us; the creative, that which we bring into existence; and the attitudinal, our response in difficult circumstances. The highest of these is attitudinal. In other words, what matters most is how we respond to what we experience in life. – Be Proactive
~   We know all their gods; they ignore ours. What they call our sins are our gods, and what they call their gods, we name otherwise. – Natalie Clifford Barney (1876-1972) US writer
~   What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Red leaves and yellow leaves
Orange leaves and brown,
Leaves are dancing everywhere
Happily dancing down. – Anon.

Samhain Magick – Crafts

Harvest Knotwork – October 6th, 2007

Color of the day: Black – Incense of the day: Almond

Throughout the month of October, farmers worked hard to bring in the grain harvest during the good weather (and before the end of the year at Samhain). In Ireland, as part of the harvest celebration, small ornamental twists or knots of braided straw were created and worn as a sign that the harvest was completed. These were made throughout the harvest season, and were also worn at the “Harvest Home” supper. Women wore elaborately created knots with the grain ears still attached, and men wore simpler knots without the ears. Patterns for harvest knot-making are easy to find online. After soaking the straw, think about what prayers or magical work you would like to weave into the harvest knot. Repeat your charm or prayer as you make your magical autumn weaving. By: Sharynne NicMhacha

Laminated Window Hangings for Samhain

You will need:

• lined paper
• laminating paper
• crayons
• Samhain/Halloween cookie cutters(the big ones)
• scissors & a single hole punch
• a pencil

What to do:

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

Eldersprouts Samhain Crafts – Tissue Ghosts         

• You will need:
  tissues (the kind you blow your nose with)
• black felt tip pen
• white yarn

what to do:

1. Take two tissues and scrunch them up into a ball. This will be the head.
2. Take another tissue and put your other ball in the middle of the tissue.
3. Pick up all four corners and pinch your ghost just below the head.
4. Tie a piece of yarn around the neck, and draw eyes on with your pen.
5. Hang up your ghost.      

Silliness – Silly Q&A – Question: Why wasn’t the astronaut paying attention? Because he was spaced out.