Lammastide/Lughnasadh LightFest, Lionsgate, Two Full Moons in August +Tropical Cyclones & Hurricanes
LAMMASTIDE/LUGHNASADH LIGHTFEST, LIONSGATE, TWO FULL MOONS in AUGUST plus TROPICAL CYCLONES and HURRICANES
AUGUST EMERGING FROM SUBTERRANEAN (WATER-FILLED)WRITING CAVERN 2 GREET HEAT & then DIVE BACK DOWN BELOW SURFACE for MUSE-DIRECTED COOL
Euro Heatwave Hits All-time High, Ocean ‘HotTub’ temps in Florida
While tourists dive into Rome’s famed Trevi Fountain to keep cool, and Florida residents stay indoors w/ air conditioning on full blast, rather than take a dip in the Ocean at their local beach, then you know something weird is controlling our weather.
So, what’s up in Paradise?
Even Paradise Island resort-a short boat trip across the Florida Straits in Bahamian waters, connected by bridge from Nassau-reports their young honeymooners-along with older patrons-are hogging the indoor bar, rather than luxury poolside deckchairs on the lanai outside.
Music festival-goers are struggling to hear performers on stage from their ice-filled coolers set as a barricade under umbrellas to ward off (mosquitoes &) heat!
“June too soon; July stand by; August come it must; September remember; October all over”
Old Bahamian hurricane rhyme, now outdated
Helping Wildlife in the Heat
Meanwhile Europeans are struggling with triple digit [Fahrenheit]temperatures in a summer where many have agreed to conserve/enhance natural wildlife in farmland & natural parks-pix top middle: wilderness Glenfeshie rewilding preserve & lower l. Aberdeenshire private Scots pine replanting, w/protected 1826 Douglas Fir, upper rt brought as seedling from Pacific NW by David Douglas, given as gift to Moderator Church of Scotland whose residence it was at that time. Other pix top include protected species-wren; honey bee, w/ local shared beehive within same garden; Kirkton of Bourtie, ABD. Harvest, usually the domain of combine harvesters end August/September top lower rt, in full swing before end July 2023.
Irish god of Light, Lugh—from whom derives August fire festival of Lammas [Lughnasadh] is celebrated still, albeit camouflaged as Nevada desert’s Burning Man; but in ancient times the last handful of grain/sheaf of barley, oats, wheat was woven into a ‘corn dolly’ and hung on doorways & celebrated with bonfires after a field was cleared. The Lammas fire festival is still held by some communities in Scotland’s Northern Isles: it lasts for six weeks— from 3 weeks before>3 weeks after August 1st.
Lammas is happening NOW.
Unst in Shetland holds both the record for longest-lasting Lammas fire festival AND Hermaness, most northerly cherished headland of protected sea-birds, including puffin, greater & lesser kittywake, cormorant, black-backed gull, herring gull and guillemot.
The Gertrude Jekyll rose, top centre, bred by David Austin to commemorate the British horticultural genius & garden creator in her work with architect/life-long partner Edwin Lutyens. Together they designed English formal gardens, including Lindisfarne Castle, N.umberland, the Cenotaph,London.
Harvest this year progresses a month ahead of schedule in Scotland—c.f. winter solstice pic from 2002-20yr ago humour-farmer only just finished baling November, rolled them into position round RSC Kirkton of Bourtie ABD in lieu of missing megaliths -author photo aligned SSW to midwinter sunset viewed from Manse Glebe
Two Full Supermoons, August 1 & 30, 2023 Bright as Daylight
First supermoon of August—the full “Sturgeon” moon, according to Native American lore, is August 1st full moon, with its sister full Blue Moon (two occurring in one month) on August 30th, after the sun moves out of summery Leo into autumnal Virgo. A supermoon is one which nearly coincides with perigee—or, the closest the (full or new) Moon comes to the Earth along its elliptical orbit.
During Lionsgate-8/8 starting July 28 thru August 12, this year’s full Sturgeon Moon coincides w/ Delta Aquarid meteor shower which, because of the moon’s brilliance, may only be visible as sparkles in the sky, or completely outshone altogether.
Our Oversoul Shining thru 8/8 Lionsgate
Those who believe in the opportunity given by the Universal Consciousness to us hoomans in opening the Lionsgate on August 8th each year call themselves followers of Telosians—invisible beings who live in a subterranean cavern inside Mt. Shasta, accessible from a pool in central Mt. Shasta City-itself the source of the Sacramento River; and from snow-lined slopes of the great peak herself near Weed, CA.
Lionsgate 2023 is open between July 28-August 12th, with its peak on 8/8/23. Astro chart 11:11a.m. EST/03:11p.m. UT 08:11a.m. PDT/05a.m. Hawai’i ST Hilo,HI
Astrotheme chart shows detailed focus at midHeaven/MC Cancer with potent cluster round Sun, Venus retrograde in Leo. Grand trine of planets Mercury/Mars in earth sign Virgo with Jupiter, Moon & Uranus in Taurus & Pluto R in Aquarius-sign of ‘Great Awareness’ aka ‘big picture’ ❤
Saturn Retrograde awash in watery Pisces can inflict no harm in his solitude rocked by fellow Uranus R in its topsy turvy orbit.
This year Hawai’i & mid-Pacific islands e.g. Midway, Guam, French Frigate Shoals (pix below top & bottom rt) receive 8/8 energy first, with California, Oregon, WA, Alaska & Mexico next in line.
Significantly, Lionsgate opens end July, strengthening until its climax 8/8 & then diminishes until it closes on “Glorious Twelfth”.
Oldies from Scotland [‘Olde Countrie] may recall this was a day when lairds & their visitors to estates from Aberdeenshire thru Banffshire, to Moray & Inverness [also Argyll, Perthshire & thru Devil’s Elbow by way of Braemar & Cabrach in Highlands, to Caithness & Sutherland] took elaborate picnics-carried by servants-to remote shooting grouse moors; men of the party supplied with guns/women champagne while they wantonly massacred every flying creature in sight—from black grouse, to ptarmigan, even accidental crows, buzzards, eagle & blackbirds if they got in their line of fire. Subsequently, rich purple heather moorland [food source for grouse] was burned to ‘encourage’ a new crop for next year’s sport.
Polynesians & Hawai’ians Celebrate British Return of Sovereignty- mid-Pacific ‘Independence Day’ Festival La Ho’iho’i Ea
Seafaring Polynesians discovered Hawaii as early as A.D.200 by paddling double-hulled canoes across thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean, pic below rt. When in 1778 British explorer James Cook became the first European to arrive, several chiefs ruled over different parts of the archipelago. Yet by 1810, King Kamehameha I had united Hawai’i’s eight-island chain as one kingdom.
During first half 19thC, British missionaries arrived & began to convert a population seen by them as heathen savages. American and European businessmen, hearing that the islands’ climate & landscape were perfect for growing sugar cane, began buying up plots of land.
La Ho’iho’ai Ea‘s origin links to King Kama-hameha III who on July 31,1843 succeeded in reclaiming his Hawai’ian kingdom after the British had occupied the Hawai’ian Islands for a period of five months. King Kamahameha III achievement is celebrated as Hawai’ian ‘Independence’ Day ❤
Queen Lili’uokalani took the throne in 1891 & attempted to restore rights of her people solely without interference from U.S. business interests, which her brother had allowed under duress, along with a free trade agreement that greatly favoured the islands’ Brit/U.S.sugar planters who by then controlled four-fifths of all farmable land.
In 1894 U.S. Minister to Hawai’i, John Stevens headed a conspiracy to overthrow her, ordered a nearby naval vessel to land troops ostensibly to protect U.S. residents, but surrounded the palace & told U.S.
“The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it”
John L. Stevens 1893 leading white militia Honolulu Rifles to depose Queen Lili’uokalani
The Queen agreed to step down so long as the U.S. recognized her sovereignty under law. Instead, President Grover Cleveland opposed the coup after learning she had been overthrown, and as most Hawai’ians opposed the coup, Cleveland’s administration urged for restoration of the monarchy. Instead the provisional government dug in its heels, establishing a Republic of Hawaii in July 1894.
The British did not go along with U.S. annexation, but the Queen agreed to abdicate in 1895.
When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, the islands became strategically important for U.S. troops fighting in the Philippines. Annexation of the islands happened August that year. Statehood was the next step.
There are 4,000 Polynesian residents currently in Hawai’i & both nationals celebrate La Ho’iho’ai Ea together.
Hawai’ians’ Abandon Ohana/Home for Las Vegas NV ‘Ninth Island’
Thus it is no giant leap for [Polynesian/Hawai’ian] Mankind that between 2011 & 2021, the mid-Pacific population of Clark County, NV grew by 40% to 22,000 people.
Since Covid passed, both Spring & Fall Pure Aloha Festivals have resumed at the Craig Ranch in N.Las Vegas, with authentic Hawaii’an music & dance, ukulele ‘slack key’ [open tuning in D], hula contests & more.
2023’s 17th Annual Pure Aloha Fall Festival will happen September 29th-October 2nd
Many native Hawai’ians-who grew up in the islands in simple outdoor-lifestyle homes akin to shacks at the bottom of grandpa’s garden on Oahu-have returned to their ancestral homes to visit, but have found economics of their Las Vegas life more achievable. Many now have bought homes, where ownership would have been out of reach in native Oahu or Maui, Hawai’i.
While Hawai’i governor Josh Green works hard to encourage local landowners, farming, & homegrown fruit/vegetable homesteading, Hawai’i is still considered the U.S.’s most expensive state to live in, as economics dictate importation of common household items-—from toilet rolls to automobiles—a luxury.
Dragons & Monsters—Hiding out for Centuries Waiting…Waiting…
A little light fantasy before we creative writers, Insecure scribblers, penwielders, pencil scratchers head back down our personal [rabbit hole] subterranean hideout for another session with our Muse.
Reflections of the gleaming sacred monstah icon above midpage,top l.& here, bottom rt. kept by anonymous warlock spellcaster in undisclosed [secret] location, or exposed for all to see on an historic dragon-shaped headland on 21stC Moray Firth at entrance to famed Loch Ness, above middle l., the dragon is a potent & intriguing symbol we are all drawn to.
Dutchsinse—see his Youtube channel—is an amateur volcanologist, with years of experience finding surprise geological events (& now surprise geographical ones) where the professionals forgot to look. In his latest discovery, he focuses on position of 18thC military Fort George sticking out like a #dragon’s head at the point where Loch Ness spills into the Moray Firth. On the ground it’s famed for its Garrison kirk & its founder King George IV [“fat Geordie”] who is traditionally credited with being wheeled to hunting grounds in Scotland [too hard for him to hike] & killing the nation’s last wolf.
Lying a stone’s throw across the Moray Firth at the mouth of Loch Ness-N of Inverness & the spit stretching out from Roseisle on the Black Isle across the water, the stark outline of a dragon/monster stands for all to see. Only we didn’t-until young Dutchsinse, above pic middle l. pointed it out. He elaborates how close to being the real Loch Ness Monster it is—with examples!
From my perspective, as a Pictish fanatic & believer in genealogy of the Pictish Chronicles & their Anglo-Saxon copies, it might well be the site of Pictish King Brideii whom Saint Columba [521-597] visited to try to convert to Iona version of Christianity. But the king’s chief Druid, Broichan dissuaded the king from listening and chastised Columba because in his exalted position, he should have had the [heavenly] power ‘to raise & still storms’. Columba was sent on his way without achieving his goal.
But there’s another hint for dragon-monster fans.
No modern historian has ever been able to identify Pictish king Brideii’s fortress. Urquhart Castle mound, on the W shore of Loch Ness is suggested, because of its extreme antiquity and proximity to [the monster &] Inverness; that’s in the Chronicles.
Nobody so far had proposed Fort George.
In Garrison kirk where military battalions guarding an 18thC fort gathered to worship, a miraculous stained glass window shows St.George piercing his angelic staff into his defeated opponent-a [dead] dragon. St.G is England’s patron & any six-year old can recite he killed a dragon. But how cosmic to find them here, hidden within a private chapel on a dragon-faced promontory on the edge of Monster territory.
Wildlife…and Wolves
In 1999, Dr Martyn Gorman, senior zoology lecturer at University of Aberdeen & vice chair of Mammal Society called for reintroduction of wolves to the Highlands and northern English countryside because at that time 350,000 young trees in commercial forests were being damaged by red deer.
Recently philanthropist & rewilding laird Paul Lister who bought Alladale Caledonian Forest in Sutherland North Scotland in 2003, has plans to reintroduce large carnivores into his wildlife reserve, such as wolves, lynx, and bear. He says farming interests [sheep farmers not keen] are not affected, as there is little agricultural activity in this far Northern county; and he affirms his type of reintroductions would be beneficial both to Scots tourism & economy-as it has been in the U.S.
Yellowstone Park recently reintroduced wolf into its forests.
Elk, CA is famous for its free-roaming Elk, above. One guy breathed heavily into my nostrils when I opened the car window ❤
Before we Submerge2 WritingCave, Moon Message from Dragons
Reminder: last night’s full Leo/Aquarius Moon is still 99% full tonight, only beginning to wane over the next few nights. High tides feature more than ever because Earth’s companion is so close & aligned to stir strong ocean movement. Surfers-enjoy! Beachgoers don’t bathe without proper equipment. Nature always wins.
Post scriptum
A Hawai’ian bumblebee stumbled into my medical bedchamber—its dimensions unbelievable: minimum cupcake size. But then it demonstrated that Mother Nature pairs intelligence with size. It flew [heavily-it was a hot day] towards the light of my [screen] window, put on the brakes as it got near enough to see no bee exit. Then, curving in best NASCAR style, it circled, found a gap in my cubicle curtains big enuff to buzz thru; kept on humming, aimed for the corridor with its outside glass sliding door &—clearly a highly bright boy—hovered. Could almost hear him thinking: “hoomans come in & out here”.
Sure enough, within two seconds, a nurse appeared from another ward with a bag of rubbish for the outdoor bin, punched her code into the door & yanked it sideways. Monsieur cupcake bee took off like a jet. Did I imagine it or did he turn & give me a black & gold blink from his huge eyes? Bless his little pollen socks ❤
p.p.s.
With gratitude to my much-appreciated followers<3
Bees & wolves & monstah thoughts preyed on my efforts earlier [last week’s draft prep4 blog] & my Firefox itchy finger pressed the publish button by mistake. Some of you will have read an opening title with several enormous unedited images before I managed to delete & do this one instead. Thanks for your attention-and patience. Hope this one makes up for it. Happy Lammas summer. Stay cool. ©2023MarianC.Youngblood
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August Musical Express: Insecure Jazz-Jamboree to Nirvana
MONTHLY INSECURE WRITERS’ MIRACLE MANIFESTATION CORNER or
Sounding One’s Own Trumpet
Glorious summer skies: our parent Milky Way galaxy, colliding slowly with Andromeda, fires off Perseid meteor showers every August
What in the world is happening? you may ask.
Is it a bird, a plane, a super cloud?
No, Batman. It’s called ignoring/misleading public/human condition, in the final horse race to the political gate.
Bread and Circuses—Fodder for U.S. ‘uninformed’ Masses
U.S. adds four new Parks to conservation list, as last glacial ice melts in Glacier National Park
Political press liken both parties’ cavalier attitude to the American Constitution to Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Do American politicians still remotely believe the public is listening to their rhetoric?
We in Ninja Cap’n.Alex‘s IWSGers stalwart group of writers know when it’s time to throw in the towel—allow Nature to take over the reins.. After all, we are INSECURE. And it’s summer—festival season. This is no time for intellectual—or intellect-less mind games. Carpe diem—seize the (day) moment. Time to look to the skies and aim heavenward—or hole up and w-r-i-t-e—or even go into permanent meditational mode: achieve mental freedom of Nirvana—or something even more (insecurely) celestial.
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy
What did you do in the War, Daddy? Jeb Bush worldview
Every Gun made
Every Warship launched
Every Rocket fired
signifies a Theft from the Hungry not fed, the Cold not clothed, and the Homeless left unhoused
Dwight D.Eisenhower, U.S. President 1953-61
Analogies with the Roman Colisseum are not totally inappropriate, in 2015-2016 election fever. The so-called uninformed public is now—courtesy of the Internet and the Cloud—hugely well-informed. Where gladiators and gore, pythons and phalluses were customary fodder for ignorant pre-Christian masses, two thousand years down the line, we’d hope we might have learned a little sophistry in leading humanity along a more enlightened path.
Music—Food of Love—Live Transmission
Music heals and regenerates human cells. With recent research confirming what Galileo discovered about acoustics, when he devised the first western scale.
Summer music festivals, it seems, are not just mindless, letting off steam—they are, since the times of Lughnasadh, Bacchanalia, Lupercalia and Saturnalia, an essential release mechanism for the human psyche from the shackles of (cold, winter, drudgery) ‘responsibility’.
Trumpet High-notes Only a Dog Could Hear
Three nights live music under Douglas Fir canopy
As a bandleader, his virtuoso arrangements and seminal trumpet playing earned him the moniker Satchelmouth. Among other predominately black musicians like Duke Ellington and fellow horn player Cat Anderson, we have him to thank for freedom expressed through music, preserved for posterity in this digital age. Louis and Cat were reputed to reach high notes only a dog could hear.
Tribute bands to those former icons—including Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, the Beatles—provide substitute Nirvana for live festival attendees. And August is jamboree month in the Pacific Northwest.
If Burning Man in Nevada isn’t your style, maybe you should go for down-home 31st Annual Reggae-on-the-River in Mendocino; or Oregon’s Jamboree.
Whatever your summer addiction—in this group, it HAS to be writing-related—even the hardest taskmaster will allow you a little time off. Thanks, Taskmaster Alex.
#IamWriting.
©2015 Marian Youngblood
2011 Year of the Leap: all the ONES: 01:01:11
Ice follies 2010-2011
Two more winter solstices to go and we shall again coincide with Galactic Center on December 21, 2012, when the Great Cycle calendar of the Maya comes to full rest; pause; restart.
This year’s solstitial preparation for the New is a good time for pausing. For all of us:
To contemplate how much we shall change in the coming year — because the Human Race is changing fast and we have changed radically in the past year —
To give thanks for the road that brought us here to this point in space and time and for this moment — before plunging into the maelstrom once more —
To bless all those immediately around us NOW — as well as our loved ones far afield — “absent friends” — and family gone to fresher fields —
A time to remember and a time to look forward —
[Refrain of Auld Lang Syne here optional]
New Beginnings
ღ♥ღ *♥- ҈ -*※ HAPPY DAKINI DAY ღ♥ღ *♥- ҈ -*※
Yesterday (December 30) was also, by good fortune, a pan-Buddhist Dakini Day: the eleventh moon of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar of Metal Tiger Year.
Time to wish the Buddhist prayer to all —
Having reached the ultimate wisdom of the spontaneously accomplished four visions, may we be enlightened in the primordially-pure Youthful Vase Body.
OM MANI PADME HUM
May we dedicate all positive words to the enlightenment of all sentient beings in Six Realms of Cyclic Existence
To attain pure awareness which is displayed in the Skull of the Absolute Expanse, may we invoke the variegated desirable qualities of rainbow rays and may the Orbs of the Six Lights shine.
Return of the Dinosaurs -- or was that Minneapolis?
Astral Weather Vane, a division of the excellent Humanity Healing voluntary organization, gives this prognostication for solstice 2010 and oncoming year of 2011:
The festivities begin with a Full Moon (activating 30 degrees of Sagittarius and Gemini at 12:15AM PST 21 December).
Adding more significance and potential turbulence to this start of a season is Mercury in Sagittarius square to Jupiter in Pisces (5:00PM PST).
Astral Weather Vane says:
If this sounds familiar, the reason is Mercury and Jupiter already made this square pattern in the heavens on November 25 and they will do so again on January 11, 2011 [close to the time of another lunar eclipse Ed.] This is all due to Mercury’s current retrograde cycle from December 12th to 29th.
Mercury 90-degrees to Jupiter can equate with tensions in communications and disruptions to travel schedules.*
For the solstitial and New Year period, Humanity Healing recommends sending out healing thoughts and prayers to people in need, humanity and the kingdoms of nature. “Uplifting and enlightening our entire home planet is a keynote of every solar-lunar, monthly high-cycle. Individual and group meditations are advised.”
World weather Hogmanay 2010/2011, courtesy weather.org
In the coldest December for a century (since records began in 1890) Great Britain made a series of unprecedented individual payments of GBP25 per week to residents for the whole month of December. The ‘cold-weather payment’ was paid by the British Government to needy elderly frozen residents — over five million of them — for four weeks of December 2010 ‘when the temperature averaged 32ºF or below for six successive days and nights’.
Britain remained in the Big Freeze until only a brief brush with the Atlantic Gulf Stream’s northwesterly drift (December 28-29) through Cornwall, Wales and western Scotland allowed the coastline to hold the shores (and airports) open over Hogmanay.
Hogmanay
This last night of the Old Year — in case the strange tradition of the emergence of male Scot inadequately clad in freezing temperatures is an unfamiliar one — is traditional but freezing time for Scots to emerge from hovels/caves/pubs/boozers to booze some more in the freezing streets while singing a jolly Hogmanay blast of song. Once again re-entering the cave/pub/drinking establishment for the rest of the wee hours until January 1st is well and truly ‘welcomed in’.
While a temporary temperature reprieve has set in for a few days — Edinburgh streets are still paved with snow — the storm moved (again uncharacteristically) west. The northerly airflow hit the northern Atlantic waters and Northeastern Seaboard of the USA was next to receive the Nordic blast – storms and temperatures plummetting in high jet stream shivers across the Atlantic and freezing in the northerly states of Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where only a dusting is usual.
Of course Minneapolis/St Paul is having its usual subzero delight of Northern Winter. We’ll temporarily ignore Minneapolis/St Paul. The Pacific NW continues balmy.
Asterisk Saga explanation
Capt. Robert Falcon Scott's ship the 'Terra Nova" waiting for his return from the South Pole January 12, 1911. He never returned.
— only to be turned back at the airport — by officious and insensitive airline officials who seemed unaware that Aberdeen was the only airport operational in Scotland at the time — and I was three minutes late for the gate —
— to be re-routed (at great expense) to Minneapolis/St Paul — which was the very last place on the planet I wished to go to — only to be carefully mismanaged by the same officious staff, I take it, to arrive too late in Amsterdam to make a Mineapolis/St Paul connection. Thank you, Snow Angels.
To be cossetted and carefully and gently and kindly assisted by KLM staff (endless compliments here) and rerouted to my correct destination, San Francisco, one day late, but hotel, sustenance and accommodation/internet efficiently and freely given, while making very little drama out of a crisis.
And not — at that time — being aware that Schiphol Amsterdam was the ONLY OTHER airport open in Europe.
Two days and several continents later, I arrive to relative balmy winter of rainy northern California and am grateful to leave Europe and its frozen Angst behind.
Thank you Jupiter square Mercury.
Runup to solstice.
Silence.
Run up to New Year and the January 4th partial lunar eclipse which will serve as a signal that some of the Angst may be over… but don’t hold your breath.
wild snow wolves... or just wild snow...
Time for hibernation: or meditation: or both. To prepare for what’s to come:
The leap into 2011: all the ONES: 01:01:11.
This year of 2011 may be the year we as a species make that quantum leap. Are you ready? I think we’re in for a wild ride.
Equinox Signals Powerful Changes
part of the Featured Writers’ Corner
powerful chart for September Equinox 2010
I wrote an Equinox blog on my other site about the changes, the current planetary alignments and influences, and the following came as a response from Rodney Fitzgerald.
As you know, here I’m promoting my writerly friends in this current series of GuestBlogs — see 18 Steps to Becoming a Writer — and Fitzy’s commentary is so great, so gentle with the vibration of the turning season, that it deserves a corner of its own. So, here goes, Fitzy — thank you. The first of what I hope will be a few guest blogs from you.
Vitality, vigour, joie de vivre…
Dante wrote in his inferno, Canto 1;
“Midway through the journey of our life, I found
myself in a dark wood, for I had strayed
from the straight pathway to this tangled ground.”
Here we find ourselves, in 2010, striding in the opposite direction, back up the twisting stair, to the Spring time of the soul.
Like the freeway, when you’re heading out of town and everyone is heading in, open road speeds now apply.
“Where are they going?” asks the kid in the back seat, all leather interior, only two hundred more repayments to go.
Silence from the harried parents, the city looming ahead filled with mortgages, cold envy and doubt, chills and terror at 3am.
The kid shrinks back into his seat, eats his Big Mac and imagines having super powers, as the green turns to grey and asphalt.
I have my foot down hard, there is nothing behind me, more compelling now than the open road, I look for the turn off…
..And the exit, is well lit.
Sidereal, you are right, Pluto is coughing up the dregs of his passing reign. That old Tyrant Holdfast is loosing his grip. The death rattle is terrible to behold.
The passing spirit of the fading epoch, does not go gently into that good night however, its mind of domination and cruelty is sold to the masses as entertainment in the form of the Vampyre drama. Novels, Films and TV shows run amock, selling dark desire to a well-groomed flock of children.
What the empty and fading dark wants most, is the energy it can never produce itself – the Divine spark. It does not hide now, it’s desperate. It sells the idea its epoch is in ascension, and this is a lie. Its way is broken, it stumbles where it treads, the grasp too weak to hold.
All politics and policies are the same, all politicians and frontmen look the same, actors all look alike – the rictus wide grin, the arched and frozen eyebrows, animated mannequins, mimic life. Like all parasites, these faux forms are getting an epic dose of that old curative – strong sunlight.
As the contrast in this realm is turned way up, the profane is revealed, its sham mimicry dissolving, as the Profound laughs gladly with a full heart, at the usurping mockery, that would hold all life in thrall.
The craven shape breaks apart, the spell is fizzer, sorcery pops like a cheap firework, the record skips and the DJ slips.
Horus pins Set.
As Autumn brings a dying season, Spring in the southern hemisphere is just beginning
This realm rebukes the interloping shades, the Ancestors hold firm ground. Our song is their song mingled with our own. We sing in an age of Ages, four colours on the wheel, the Universe pivots as it should.
The fire of life, invigorates the eternal spark in all benevolent beings, now free of the gloom of a passing, savage age.
Blessings!
©2010 RFitzgerald
Rodney Fitzgerald is a New Zealander, a Kiwi. This guest blog is part of our series of guest-writerly blogs.
Others in the series to be featured here (along with those already featured) include:
Cathy Evans
Hart Johnson
Pete Madstone (May 2010)
Natasha Ramarathnam
Genie Rayner (October 2010)
Rob Read
Mehal Rockefeller (April 2010)
Catrien Ross of Energy Doorways
Tara Smith (September 2010)
Jim Vires (October 2010)
And the following delight from Chris OneFeather at BlogTalkRadio:
Balancing Eggs on Equinox
Dust from the Comet’s Tail
OneFeatherBlogTalkRadio
The Autumnal Equinox is the point during the second half of the year, when the sun is directly shining on the Equator. This day is known for marking the first day of Fall in the northern hemisphere. The reason why is all due to the position of the sun. When the sun shines at 90 degrees at the Equator, the entire Earth will experience 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night (This skews a few minutes around the Equator and North/South Poles, but it’s still pretty close). In fact, Equinox literally means “equal night.” Beyond that, for us in the Northern Hemisphere, our days will continue to get shorter.
On Equinox, September 23rd, the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south at 03:09 UT. This astronomical event marks the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in the south, Full 'harvest' moon occurs just six hours later at 9:11 UT
So, why the egg trick? This myth originated in China attached to the beginning of Spring. It relates to eggs representing new life, as does springtime for many agricultural areas. Over the years, the myth became famous at both equinoxes and is now more of a fun parlor trick for your friends. The assumption with this myth is that during equinox, a special balance of gravitational forces exists across the Earth. Although scientists have tried to bust this myth for years, the popular urban legend lives on. The actual truth is that the main gravitational force acting on the egg is the Earth’s gravitational force; which determines the weight of the egg. In fact, the moon is responsible for more changes in gravitational forces (i.e. tides) than the sun is.
So, can you balance an egg on an equinox? The answer is Yes. However, with a little patience, you can balance an egg any day of the year.
If the scientist in you is not quite ready to bust this myth so quickly, try your own experiment at home. Today, take a break and hold an egg with its wider part on a flat surface. Give the egg a minute or so to allow the liquid to settle in the bottom. Then, start carefully trying to achieve equilibrium, and therefore a free standing egg. Once you’ve mastered this, try it off and on throughout the year and see what happens!
Despite scientific inaccuracies with this myth, it is still a fun trick to try with your family and friends. After the Autumnal Equinox, the days will start getting shorter and the officially Fall will begin.
Ed: I want to thank Fitzy and Chris OneFeather for their contributions. We need to share more thoughts like these around this time of year. Thank you both.
Cosmic Crossroads: All Change
Jupiter and Uranus line up in Aries in preparation for June's Grand Cross
June promises an intense and powerful experience: something maybe none of us has ever felt in our lives before. During this time, already presaged by the Sagittarian full moon on May 27th, certainly between June 8th and the 26th lunar eclipse Grand Cross stations, old formats are falling away, bringing in new ways of being, beyond the realm of anything we have ever dreamed.
Uranus in Aries is the signature of a wild, rebellious nature. Its T-square with Pluto and Saturn indicates dramatic clashes between the interests of established economic power and the democratic impulse (Uranus, the spontaneous voice of the people ) that those interests seek (via Saturn) to suppress.
To get through this transformative time we’ll have to try to embrace the new energies wholeheartedly and surrender to the new version of ourselves that has been incubating since 1987. This new identity – the self of the heart – knows instinctively how to navigate energy shifts by anchoring one’s heart and highest visions into the present moment.
As Richard Alpert – Baba Ram Dass – has been saying since 1969:
Be Here Now.
I described on another blog recently the Harmonic Convergence of 1987 as a watershed summer. In August that year the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury and Venus stood in exact conjunction in early degrees of Virgo/cusp Leo while, according to astrologers and New Age pundits, they formed a Grand Trine with the other large planets: Jupiter in the last (anaretic) degree of Aries/cusp Taurus, Saturn and Uranus in Sagittarius/cusp Capricorn. This Grand Trine – full of enormous benevolence for humanity – was seen as both a Fire and an Earth Trine – a door in the heavens opening to bless humankind.
We have been building and strengthening our cosmic consciousness since that time.
This summer we are entering the last spiral arm of the penultimate bend on the cosmic rollercoaster ride which will catapult us towards the end-date of the ancient calendar of the Maya on winter solstice, December 21st, 2012.
Butterfly of Transformation, Mayan symbol of humankind's evolution
This new human Self, teaching itself to meditate rather than make war; soaking up solar electromagnetic energy raining in on us right now from the Sun’s most recent coronal mass ejection (CME), opening itself to new ways of thinking, being and interacting with others, is preparing itself to receive humanity’s latest wave of consciousness-upgrades: the June energies will allow the New Human to face his/her first test as s/he learns to ride the phenomenal energetic tides of Summer 2010.
Dr Calleman believes we were given another stepping stone on this journey last weekend. He calls the most recent Sagittarius full moon nights of May 27/28 (Maya 1 Imix and 2 Ik) the ‘second Harmonic Convergence’.
‘This is when, for the first time, standing on the balance that the Galactic Underworld has brought, we will begin to sense the supramental consciousness that the Universal Underworld will bring. For all those seeking to become part of the new species of human beings endowed with an unlimited consciousness, this is a time to absorb the new energies of universality. These dates are placed in relation to the Universal Underworld in the same way as the original Harmonic Convergence, August 16-17, 1987 might be seen to have been a preparation for the Galactic Underworld. May 27/28 2010 (1 Imix and 2 Ik) are the dates for Phoenix to rise from the ashes and for an enlightened world to arise from chaos. A sort of resurrection to the New Jerusalem where life is lived totally in the present moment, with no limits and no separation.’
The Phoenix of Humankind will rise from the ashes of the old regimes and shine
Astrological Summer of 2010
Mid May’s cosmic energies sneakily slipped transformer-like upgrades into our human wiring, bringing long-buried feelings to the surface and challenging deeply-held beliefs that probably no longer serve us. We show no more trust in the State knowing best, nor believe that we’re better off letting others think for us. Saturn (old regimes) was given a shake-up by opposing benevolent Jupiter and free-thinking Uranus. Areas involving our purpose and our use of unique talents and resources were given a new look. As a mass, human outrage descended on old corrupt oil interests, questioned government manipulative legislation, and demanded responsible and sensitive clean-up of precious and irreplaceable environments in the Gulf of Mexico. In Westminster, two new young things chose to bring two opposing parliamentary parties together and chopped half the budget of the former draconian system.
Uranus threw in subconscious energies – possibilities, entities, worlds beyond the conscious realm entered into our daily lives. Think Crop Circles!
These energies are now being amplified by the full moon in Sagittarius and Uranus entering Aries. Shortly after this, Jupiter enters the 0° Aries position. Pluto in Capricorn and Saturn in Virgo will form a T-square with the Moon, Jupiter and Uranus. This configuration will set into motion even more change both on the world’s stage and at the personal level.
Astrological giants line up to take earth through her changes
We’ve been feeling lightheaded and slightly ungrounded lately: this stepping into the unknown is a little daunting. We better get accustomed to it. It’s going to be a way of life in the next few months. June 21 solstice will genuinely rock our socks and open up a doorway of initiation into new realms. Between now and then, we have a little time to practice stripping away old veneers, pretences: time to fine-tune our inner listening; put on our cloak of authenticity.
Uranus, planet of change, imagination, herald of the New Age
New paradigm here we come!
It is through our intuition, listening to our heart, and by walking through the doorway of our imagination that we will navigate these new energies best of all. We all know how this is. We practice it with our family and loved ones. Time now to practise it with the world at large.
Old road maps are no longer any help. But our resourcefulness, our presence of mind will serve us. We’ll be able to call on our Uranian ability to ‘think out of the box’ to stay ‘awake’ and watch for daily guidance. The new energies bring out the New Human in us, encouraging us to allow a higher power – higher intelligence, love – to show us the way.
Many have likened the ‘mastermind’ behind the formation of crop circles to a higher intelligence. In my opinion we are being presented with a glimpse into a different dimension. We’re ready for it as a species. We’ve tried everything else.
We now stand on the threshold of a magical doorway which – used carefully and with loving intent – may lead us into a world we have only even seen in dreams.
We have become set in our ways. And, without doubt, as a race we have achieved massively, even in the last decade. it is time to step into our own future: to make that quantum leap. To walk through the door into our cosmic future.
This summer provides the fireworks and momentum to facilitate that leap in consciousness.
This is one of the most exciting times to be alive. The energies unfolding this week offer a glimpse into what crystallizes on the horizon of this summer of change. This is the portal into everything that comes after. Alll we need to do is put that first tentative foot on the step and walk right through.
Fire Festivals & Persistence of Pasche
Carnival in Rio before Lent
‘First come Candlemas
Syne the New Meen
The niest Tiseday efter that
Is Festern’s E’en.
That Meen oot
An’ anither at its hicht
The niest Sunday efter that
Is aye Pasche richt.’
Ancient Scots Easter calculation. Anon.
The Calendar according to the Moon was regular as clockwork. It was reliable, you could see it in the sky and you could set your life rhythms by it. The old Scots rhyme above spoken slowly will make sense even to the least son of the soil of Ultima Thule. But non-Scots may need a little help in translation.
Festern’s E’en – as Hallowe’en – was an ancient calendar fire festival celebrated, like all pre-Christian revelry, at night. And, like Hallowe’en, it still is. Only we call it by another name: Carnival.
Translated simply, it is the evening before the ‘Feast/Festival’. With a capital F, this celebration was one of the greatest fire festivals in the Celtic Year. When it became absorbed into the Christian calendar, its importance and significance to the populace was so great, that it was deemed necessary to give it a place of prominence second only to Christmas. As such it has remained. The festival that precedes Easter is throughout the world celebrated with fire and puppetry,processional and masqued balls, dance and music and food and drink.
If you ask a South American about Carnival, ‘Carnaval’ in Portuguese, he will tell you they prepare for it all year round. In some cultures it has become almost more important than Christmas – a reversion to type, backtracking to pre-Christian times.
In Brazil, it makes complete sense to hold Carnaval precisely on its February moon date in the ancient calendar because in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires it is full-blown summer. By contrast, German Fasching, held similarly in February, is pretty chilly dancing in the noctural streets of northern Hamburg!
Terence Young's 'Thunderball' James Bond in 1965
Carnival used to be held in the Bahamas in February too, when spring is at its height and the casuarinas blow carefree along Nassau Beach. But in the summer of 1965, Chubby Broccoli and Sean Connery made a James Bond film set on Paradise Island and commissioned the Carnival Committee to stage an ‘extra’ Carnival, so they could weave festive fiery scenes into ‘Thunderball’; since then Bahamian Carnival has been a summertime festival.
London's Notting Hill Carnival
But originally, before the Gregorian calendar took over calculation and reckoning by the moon in 1582, Carnival was high festive season in that ancient stream of festivities used by Man to celebrate the return of the Light to a dark winter world.
Candlemas, as I’ve mentioned before, is the first glimpse of light waxing and adding grace to the darkest days of winter. On February 2nd – or Bride’s Day, before solar months took over as calendrical norm – the measure of light from the heavens increases to such a degree that birds begin to mate, petals on spring flowers open and the Earth softens its frozen grip.
In lunar terms, the first New Moon of the second month (Gregorian) was celebrated in every northern hemisphere culture planet-wide from prehistoric times. From Buddhist to Inuit culture the return of light to nurture the earth’s crucial growing plants was a calendar custom worth celebrating.
When Christian calendar calculators were devising Roman Church high and holy days, they took care to incorporate these ancient fire rites as an integral part of Christian culture and ‘lore’. it did not do to lose a single ‘soul’ in the transition from a pre-Christian to a Christian world.
And, as it was a long-standing tradition for local people to mark ancient quarter days – the solstices and the equinoxes – with festivals of fire, it seemed right that they should transit unaltered into the Christian calendar: marked instead with candlelight inside church buildings.
Christmas was chosen at the time of (northern) winter solstice when the ‘ignorant’ (pagan) desperately needed to celebrate the return of ‘light to the world’. Christ was called the ‘Light of the World’. The Son of the Sun.
Midsummer was fully taken up with a light celebration of its own – in northern latitudes the longest days of the year brought bountiful harvest and genuine thanksgiving by a rural population for the gifts of the earth continuously provided from midsummer through to Lammas, an August ‘cross-quarter’ day. No Church overlay was necessary; nevertheless Roman Catholicism superimposed the feast of John the Baptist on midsummer’s day and frowned heavily on pagan corn dollies and such Celtic fripperies perpetuated by an agricultural society.
The Equinoxes, however, required more serious contemplation.
Most rural (so-called ignorant) converts were aware of the movement of both sun and moon. While that may appear to us today to be rather sophisticated intellectual knowledge, it was commonplace then to note changing seasons, hours of light and dark and the phases of the moon. When equinox arrived it was – in the human mind at least – a miracle that every place on earth had exactly the same number of hours of light and dark for one earth period of 24 hours. The sun rose at 6 and set at 6 on every man, woman, child and beast on earth. The phenomenon was in itself worth celebrating. In astronomical terms, the event occurs precisely at the moment the Sun (traveling along the ecliptic) appears to cross the celestial equator, and while ancient Man may not have known that added sophistication, his life was changed by its occurrence twice in every year. In addition, he celebrated the spring (cross-quarter) festivals of Wesak, Beltane, May Day, along with any events providing an excuse for Morris and maypole dancing, The Church allowed these to continue, so long as the requisite saints were also remembered and offerings given.
While Archangel Michael was given dominion over autumnal equinox, Easter was chosen as a fitting ‘high’ celebration to take over the vernal equinoctial light-and-dark balance.
What put a spanner in the works was that – late in the seventh century – when two contemporary Christian systems were running alongside in mutual cooperation, the internal systems within the Celtic and Roman Churches came to a clash; an impasse.
Venerable Bede's 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People'
While the Synod changed lives, split families and royal houses, even intra-kingdom alliances, thereafter church festivities centred on Easter were standardized throughout the land and celebrated in accordance with Roman custom.
Easter remained the highest festival of the Christian church until the Scots Reformation when (after 1660) presbyterian austerity superimposed simplicity, reduced dogma and a return to ‘speaking to God’ directly.
For the rest of the British Isles, however, and for descendants and dependents the world over, Easter remains one of the great festivals of the Christian calendar.
Curiously, for a celebration washed, ironed and folded so neatly by successive synthesized systems – prehistoric, early-historic, pre-Christian, Celtic and Roman Christian – Easter emerges as a supreme highlight in the Church year.
Its one concession to its pagan past is that is remains to this day a date fixed according to the Moon.
And, in order not to offend other faiths which, like Anglian Eanfled, might take offence at the bulldozing approach (e.g. Spanish Inquisition, Salem witch trials), there is a built-in mechanism of calculation which ensures that Easter and Passover never collide and that the Christian High Festival should never occur BEFORE equinox.
Mardi Gras in New Orleans, bead capital of the world
The modern gesture to Pancake or Shrove or Fat Tuesday (Festern’s E’en) is not lost on marketers for supermarket chains who do a roaring trade in maple syrup and readymix batter. It’s the ‘stock up while the going’s good’ mentality, because the body must endure the subsequent fast of Lent for a regulation 40 days. Once more the Roman Church succeeded in condensing multiple events in Christ’s life into one festival: this fast represents the period of time He spent without food while meditating in the desert.
Nowadays, nobody questions that its immediate successor in the calendar is representational of His death and resurrection, when historically the two events happened years apart. Once again, ancient symbolism is used to gloss over detail.
‘First arrives Candlemas (Feast of Bride); Then the New Moon
The following Tuesday will be ‘Fastnacht’/Fasching or Shrove Tuesday
Allow that ‘moon’ to wax and wane
And watch till the next moon is full
The Sunday thereafter will be Easter Day.’
translation by Scots descendant, non-AnonIt worked for King Oswiu in 664. I can assure you, the calculation works still!
©2010 Marian Youngblood
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