Monday, March 23, 2015

Good Morning Readers: 

The April moon is known by many names indicative of the season. Spring is upon us and with it the hopes and dreams of abundance. Today the moon remains in the Waxing Crescent phase at 14% of full. As the moon builds its  fullness we also see our intentions build coming to their height on the full moon. Today, though we are void of course from 10:25 am to tomorrow at 9:23 when the moon enters Gemini. Light and lover dear readers and until tomorrow, Blessed Be.

Egg Moon 

The full moon of April. Also known as the pink moon. Both names indicate the sprouting of seed and the explosion of bright beauty found in the phlox (pink) and other flowers rising for the spring debut.

Waxing Crescent

The word crescent refers to the phases where the moon is less than half illuminated. The word gibbous refers to phases where the moon is more than half illuminated. Waxingessentially means “growing” or expanding in illumination, and waning means “shrinking” or decreasing in illumination.

Void of Course

A planet is said to be void of course when it is not aspecting any other planet. The term void of course is usually applied to the moon and refers to the period of time when the moon is no longer aspecting any planets in the last sign it was in but has not aspected any planets in the sign it will go into next. This void of course period may last only a few minutes or it may last several hours to a day. During this time the moon is still technically in the previous sign, but its effect is muted.

According to the definition of Void of Course which has been used since Medieval times, the void of course period begins as soon as the moon completes its final aspect with any planet in the sign it is passing through and ends the moment the moon aspects a new planet.

Sunday, March 22nd, 2015

Good Morning Readers:

It is a bit of a chilly this morning in the midwest. note I did not say it was cold.. after all we passed the Sping Equinox, therefore in my mind unless there is fluffy white stuff on the ground it is not cold but simply chilly.My daughter and I had quite a debate about this very thing over our morning coffee. At any rate the Pink Moon continues to travel through the Waning Crescent phase encouraging us to make plans for warmer weather, Today at 6:40 am the moon entered Taurus giving us a sense of stability and lending power to long term projects. Light and love dear readers and until tomorrow Blessed Be.

Pink Moon:

The early Native Americans did not record time by using the months of the Julian or Gregorian calendar. Many tribes kept track of time by observing the seasons and lunar months, although there was much variability. For some tribes, the year contained 4 seasons and started at a certain season, such as spring or fall. Others counted 5 seasons to a year. Some tribes defined a year as 12 Moons while others assigned it 13. Certain tribes that used the lunar calendar added an extra Moon every few years, to keep it in sync with the seasons.

Each tribe that did name the full Moons (and/or lunar months) had its own naming preferences. Some would use 12 names for the year while others might use 5, 6, or 7; also, certain names might change the next year. A full Moon name used by one tribe might differ from one used by another tribe for the same time period, or be the same name but represent a different time period. The name itself was often a description relating to a particular activity/event that usually occurred during that time in their location.

Colonial Americans adopted some of the Native American full Moon names and applied them to their own calendar system (primarily Julian, and later, Gregorian).

Waxing Crescent:

When the moon is waxing, the sunlit part we can see is growing. During a waxing crescent, we can see only a small section on the right that is shaped like a crescent.  You can remember which is waxing and which is waning becausewaxing rhymes with relaxing, and the first letter of relaxing is R, which starts the word right, the lit up side.Three and a half days after to seventh day. The Moon appears to be partly but less than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon’s disk that is illuminated is increasing.
Positive activities:
Gathering information; Making plans; Laying a Foundation; Emotions; Start of change. This is a time of regeneration. Anything you do to strengthen your body, to fortify yourself, is much more effective that when the moon is waxing. The body absorbs more easily…both good and bad.
Goals:
Gathering resources / information needed for your goals. Relates to the gathering of food by the seeds, so initial plans and actions, starting small, are now happening.

Moon in Taurus: 

With the Moon in the sign of Taurus, you are likely to have an innate need for security and comfort. Taurus is an Earth sign, and so pertains to the tangible, material aspects of life. You are likely to find that you relate easily to the physical plane, and find much comfort in what you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste. Taurus is also a Fixed sign, implying constancy, patience, and perseverance. This suggests that you will by drawn to circumstances which are predictable, concrete and well-established. Preferring to know the ground upon which you stand, you are likely to seek the comfort of tangible outcomes, as well as the security of knowing what can or cannot be maintained.

Saturday, March 21st, 2015

Good Morning Readers:

The time of the Pink Moon is upon us, the official start of Spring, with the Waxing Crescent mirroring the expectant excitement and energy  of these days. In addition, the moons zodiac gives power to new beginnings. while in Aries, finish up any planning by 6:51 pm when we will be void-of-course. Tomorrow at 6:40 am the moon will enter Taurus giving a stable power to our intentions. Light and Love Dear Readers & Blessed Be

Pink Moon:

April’s Moon, the Pink Moon embodies  the appearance of the moss pink or wild ground phlox—one of the first spring flowers. It is also known as the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and the Fish Moon.

Waxing Crescent:

A waxing crescent moon – sometimes called a young moon – is always seen in the west after sunset.

At this moon phase, the Earth, moon and sun are located nearly on a line in space. If they were more precisely on a line, as they are at new moon, we wouldn’t see the moon. The moon would travel across the sky during the day, lost in the sun’s glare.

Moon in Aries:

a New Moon in Aries heralding in a powerful new start. This is also the start of a new year in Astrology, the zodiac always begins with Aries.

This New Moon is truly a new birth of life, inspiration and ideas. It is energetically connected to the womb of evolution, like a butterfly coming out of its chrysalis. The earth is changing now all around us as it wakes for the Spring, we are also waking up to what we need to do to grow and move on in our lives.

The energy of transformation is being seeded within each of us. Aries is the warrior so find your inner spiritual warrior who will guard your back and help keep you focused on your destiny. And don’t be afraid to step in and defend people, places or anyone who can’t help themselves. Find the kind of warrior energy you carry and bring it to the surface.

Void-of-Course: 

The Moon makes no aspects while in transition of changing signs. The occult energies are “open” to any conditions. A Void Of Course Moon is often active during restored scenes, residual playbacks or time warps.

Spring Symbology in Pagan and Christian Cultures

Religious traditions across the globe prove that what is old is new again,Spiritual practices, traditions and symbology of the Northern hemisphere reflect  broad themes  of rebirth and renewal reinvented from the ancient  Spring festivals to modern Christian practices borrowing heavily from the same myths, traditions and symbology.

Gilbert Murray in Five Stages of Greek Religion writes about the passion behind the Greek celebration of Easter:

Anyone who has been in Greece at Easter time, especially among the more remote peasants, must have been struck by the emotion of suspense and excitement, with which they wait for the announcement, “Christos aneste,” “Christ is risen!” and the response “Alethos aneste,” “He has really risen!” [An old peasant woman] explained her anxiety: “If Christ does not rise tomorrow we shall have no harvest this year.” We are evidently in the presence of an emotion and a fear which, beneath its Christian colouring and, so to speak, transfiguration, is in its essence — a relic from a very remote pre-Christian past.

The common themes of rebirth and resurrection countlessly reinvented for new generations.

In ancient Rome, the 10-day rite in honor of Attis, son of the great goddess Cybele, began on March 15th. A pine tree, which represented Attis, was chopped down, wrapped in a linen shroud, decorated with violets and placed in a sepulchre in the temple. On the Day of Blood or Black Friday, the priests of the cult gashed themselves with knives as they danced ecstatically, sympathizing with Cybele in her grief and helping to restore Attis to life. Two days later, a priest opened the sepulchre at dawn, revealing that it was empty and announcing that the god was saved. This day was known as Hilaria or the Day of Joy, a time of feasting and merriment.

In Contrast the Christian Good Friday rite focuses on Christ as a crucified and  willing sacrifice. Altars are stripped, candles extinguished to represent the darkness of the grave. But on Easter, light springs from  the darkness, Christ rises from the tomb. If you’ve never attended an Easter vigil, I highly recommend it. (I usually go to a Russian or Greek Orthodox church, so I don’t know what the ceremony is like in other Christian churches.) Shortly before midnight all the lights are extinguished and the thronged church is dark and silent. Everyone is holding an unlit candle. The priest lights the Paschal candle, which has been ritually blessed and inscribed with the year. He then lights the candles of those nearby, who light the candles of their neighbors, until the church is ablaze with light and filled with song.

Spring Equinox 2015

Today is the Spring Equinox of 2015. An equinox occurs when the Sun shines directly over the earth's equator. This  makes night and day almost equal in  length There are two equinoxes every year, in  March and September.The Spring equinox occurs on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of March, the Fall equinox on  September 22nd, 23rd and 24th.

 

Equinox and solstice.

Equinoxes and solstices are points in contrast  on either side of the equator, and the March equinox or spring / vernal equinox of the northern hemisphere is the autumnal /fall equinox of the southern hemisphere. The equinoxes are by definition those days in which night and dare are nearly 12 hours long all over the world. Hence the word equinox which means equal night in Latin. Keep in mind however that the equinoxes are not a time of exactly 12 hours daylight or 12 hours night, instead, the equinox is based on the earth's tilt and that time when the Earth is neither tilted toward or away from the Sun but is perpendicular to the rays of the Sun.

The equinox is not exactly the same as the day when period of daytime and night are of equal length for two reasons. Sunrise, which begins daytime, occurs when the top of the Sund's disk rises above the eastern horizon. At that time, the disk's center is still below the horizon. Secondly, Earth's atmosphere refracts sunlight. As a result, an observer sees daylight before the first glimpse of the Sun's disk above the horizon. To avoid this ambiguity, the word equilux is sometimes used to mean a day on which the periods of daylight and night are equal.Times of sunset  and sunrise vary with an observer's location by longitude or latitude.

An Equinox may occur on any planet with a significant tilt to its rotational axis. Most dramatic of these is Saturn, where the equinox places its ring system edge-on facing the Sun. As a result, they are visible only as a thin line when seen from Earth. When seen from above – a view seen by humans during an equinox for the first time from the Cassini space probe in 2009 – they receive little sunshine and more "planetshine."

This lack of sunshine occurs once every 14.7 years. It can last a few weeks before and after the exact equinox. The most recent exact equinox for Saturn was on 11 August 2009. Its next equinox will take place on 30 April 2024.

One effect of equinoctial periods is the temporary disruption of  communications satellites.Geostationary satellites in particular are susceptible  there are a few days around the equinox when the sun goes directly behind the satellite relative to Earth (i.e. within the beam-width of the ground station antenna) for a short period each day. The Sun's immense power and broad radiation spectrum overload the Earth station's reception circuits with noise and, depending on antenna size and other factors, temporarily disrupt or degrade the circuit. The duration of those effects varies but can range from a few minutes to an hour depending on the frequency band since  a larger antenna has a narrower beamwidth and hence experiences shorter duration "Sun outage" windows.)

Friday, March 20th, 2015

Good Morning Readers:

This week a rare convergence brings us a unique series of lunar events, first the aurora borealis  on the 18th and now a solar eclipse —  on the Spring Equinox which just happens to be the Supermoon. In addition, the moon enters the 1st of the signs of the Zodiac, Aries, at 6:28 am. Today

This is the Earth's first — and only — total solar eclipse of the year and the first one since November 2013, NASA reports. The next total solar eclipse in the USA will be in August 2017.

The Spring Equinox is night and day are nearly exactly the same length – 12 hours – all over the world, the sun will shine directly on the equatator at 6:45 pm today.Today we will also experience a Supermoon.  The Supermoon is a full or new moon that occurs during the moon's closest approach to Earth on its elliptical orbit, according to AccuWeather. A Super Moon is a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit. Unfortunately, the eclipse will not be visible in the United States This is the Earth's first — and only — total solar eclipse of the year and the first one since November 2013, NASA reports

Those of us in the USA can watch the eclipse online starting at 4:30 a.m. ET Friday on Slooh.com.

Spring Equinox:

On the equinox, night and day are nearly exactly the same length – 12 hours – all over the world. This is the reason it's called an “equinox”, derived from Latin, meaning "equal night". However, in reality equinoxes don't have exactly 12 hours of daylight

New Moon:

We can’t see the new moon from Earth, except during the stirring moments of a solar eclipse. Then the moon passes in front of the sun, and the night portion of the moon becomes visible to us, surrounded by the sun’s fiery corona.

Once each month, the moon comes all the way around in its orbit so that it is more or less between us and the sun. If the moon always passed directly between the sun and Earth at new moon, a solar eclipse would take place every month. But that doesn’t happen every month. Instead, in most months, the moon passes above or below the sun as seen from our earthly vantage point.

On the day of  the new moon, the moon rises when the sun rises. It sets when the sun sets. It crosses the sky with the sun during the day. That’s why we can’t see the new moon in the sky. It is too close to the sun’s glare to be visible. Plus its lighted hemisphere is facing away from us.

Super Moon

What makes it super? It's when a full or new moon coincides with perigee — the moon's closest point to Earth in its orbit. Basically, the Supermoon, when full, appears a bit bigger and brighter than usual in the night sky.

Since this Supermoon is during a new moon, it will not be visible, but it will block out the sun during the solar eclipse.

Moon in Aries: 

Nothing quite happens soon enough with this position of the Moon. There is an inherent impatience with getting what they want. Life is a series of emergencies for Lunar Ariens. They live in the moment and have a hard time waiting for things to happen. Whims of the moment take absolute precedence in their lives.

Thursday, March 19th, 2015

Good Morning Readers. 

Welcome to the last day of the last moon of Winter. Today we say goodbye to the tempestuous March moon and officially say hello to Spring and all it's beauty and bounty. We have learned much about how different cultures commemorated this turn of the wheel. For many of us March is a transitional month as we languidly stretch and wake from the long  winter's sleep. Today the Waning Crescent moon is at 1% full making ready to phase into the New or Dark moon of April tomorrow, bringing with it a number of unique coincidences as we experience not only a New Moon but a Solar Eclipse as well . This feeling of things to come is also mirrored in the final aspect of the zodiac as the  moon  continues in Pisces. with its tendencies to renew and recharge in order to attend to coming tasks at hand. Light and love dear readers and until tomorrow Blessed Be. 

Last moon of Winter 

On Friday, March 20, the vernal equinox will occur once again, marking the gradual return to warmer days in the Northern Hemisphere and winter's official astronomical end.

Tomorrow's New Moon will carry more significance as  the spring equinox will transpire amidst two other celestial events: a total solar eclipse [for some areas] and a new supermoon."You could call it a cosmic coincidence," Slooh Observatory Manager Paul Cox said. 

Waning Crescent 

It is widely believed  the Moon is linked to the emotional make-up of a person. The phases of the Moon affect our unconscious habits, memories and moods. The waning crescent moon appears to be partly but less than half illuminated by direct sunlight. This Moon can be seen after the last quarter moon and right before the new Moon.

This is essentially the time to think about what has gone by and what has been done. This is a chance for you to tie up loose ends, and prepare yourself for a new beginning. During this phase, you may feel a dreamy and contemplative air come over you A peaceful and calming atmosphere in which you find yourself dreaming of times to come. .

Moon in Pisces 

Pisces is the 12th and final sign of the zodiac and thus carries with it a little of each sign of the zodiac. As a result, you may find yourself capable of reflected on the behavior of others,in a compassionate manner. Since the Moon represents our instinctive nature, Moon in Pisces seems to know how things feel without actual experience. When the moon is in Pisces  people often seem to  instinctively know when they're due for a much-needed recharge. It's at these times that they retreat from the world (and its harsh realities) if only to gather strength to face everything and everyone again.