Category: Daily Posts

Elder’s Meditation of the Day – February 16

Elder’s Meditation of the Day – February 16

“One of the essential characteristics we need to learn as men was to be gentle, and to be gentle means to be serene, to enter meditation or a prayerful state in the morning and evening.”

–Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA

The most important talk we can do during any day, is to start the day with prayer and meditation. We need to ask the Creator to be in our lives. We ask Him to direct our thinking. We ask Him for the courage and the power to be gentle. In the morning quiet time, we make our request for guidance using our spiritual tools. We pray for the people and we pray for ourselves. In the evening we thank the Creator for the day, for the lessons and for the opportunity to be of service to others. Then we go to sleep.

Great Spirit, today, show me the power of being gentle.

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February 16 – Daily Feast

February 16 – Daily Feast

Once change begins it often comes in multiples, ranging from easily handled small changes to the great ones that can become unwieldy. When this is the case, it tends to scatter our forces. It is harder to achieve order and staying power when our attention is scattered. There is a calm center to everything. Even a tornado, which the Cherokee calls u no le, swirls around a calm eye. Most calm places are very small, but small cells of tranquility can be the seed of greater peace. We have to believe in peace – even though we cannot always feel it. It is within us and it will grow if we give it the opportunity. With peace of mind, doors open, the tide turns, and something good breaks for us. It is good enough reason to work towards solutions rather than dwelling on problems.

~ Stand fast and remain united and all will soon be well. ~

CHIEF JOHN ROSS

‘A Cherokee Feast of Days’, by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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The Daily Motivator for Feb. 16 – Look forward

Look forward

Don’t base your attitude on what you’ve already experienced in the past. Choose your attitude based on what you would most like to experience in the future.

The way you decide to see the world determines what kind of world you see. Decide to see, and to live in, the very best world you can imagine.

Don’t waste a lot of time complaining about what has already happened. Put your time and energy into envisioning and planning and acting to create the life you truly wish to live.

Look forward with eager anticipation, see life at its best, and smile about what you see. What’s ahead is what counts, because that’s what you have the opportunity to choose right now.

There’s never any reason to be discouraged. No matter where you are or where you’ve been, you can choose a positive future for yourself.

Look forward, and see the positive possibilities. Look forward, and step decisively toward the best of them.

— Ralph Marston

The Daily Motivator

Daily OM for February 16th – Thoughtful Conclusions about Commitment

Thoughtful Conclusions about Commitment
Deciding Whether to Marry

 

The decision to marry should not be based solely on having the feeling of love in your heart.

Though we may make many commitments throughout our time on earth, few have a lifelong impact on the path our lives will take. The decision to marry someone you love—to bond yourself to them completely—is unlike any other and can reshape your existence. When two people have similar goals, values, and needs, marriage can result in a lifetime partnership of love and respect, shared laughter and tears, friendship, and intimacy that is ultimately fulfilling. Love is often cited as the sole prerequisite of a strong and stable married life. However, the decision to get married should be made with the mind and the soul as well as with the heart. Carefully considering whether you truly want to get married, both individually and as a couple, can ensure that if you do choose to marry, your relationship can grow to unimaginable depths.

The decision-making process you employ to determine whether you should marry should be a thoughtful and honest one in which you appraise not only your partner but also yourself. Consider that love and attraction do not guarantee long-term compatibility. If your relationship is not secure, marriage will not make it so. Likewise, if your partner is not as attentive, loving, or kind as you would like, your becoming spouses will not change that. Marriage has no power to permanently fill any emotional or spiritual gaps in your life. Before you choose to marry, ask yourself whether you and your partner are adept at resolving conflict, can speak openly to one another, and fully respect one another. Your attitudes regarding the nature of marital commitment, children and child rearing, and marital roles may be the same or they may differ. It is your shared responsibility to discuss your similarities and come to agreements regarding your differences that will predict how successful your future marriage will be. Often times, younger couples rush into marriage just for the wedding dress, the ring, the party, and honeymoon. Would you still be willing to be married if you couldn’t have these things?

Remember that planning a wedding is simple when compared to the intricacies of nurturing a marriage. The honeymoon and nesting period will eventually wear off, and what you are left with is a partner for life. When you work together with your partner, reassure and support one another, and are honest about your feelings regarding marriage, you’ll come to the right decision.

Astronomy Picture of the Day for February 16th

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2012 February 16
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

NGC 5965 and NGC 5963 in Draco
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephen Leshin 

Explanation: These two spiral galaxies make a photogenic pair, found within the boundaries of the northern constellation Draco. Contrasting in color and orientation, NGC 5965 is nearly edge-on to our line of sight and dominated by yellow hues, while bluish NGC 5963 is closer to face-on. Of course, even in this well-framed cosmic snapshot the scene is invaded by other galaxies, including small elliptical NGC 5969 at the lower left. Brighter, spiky stars in our own Milky Way are scattered through the foreground. Though they seem to be close and of similar size, galaxies NGC 5965 and NGC 5963 are far apart and unrelated, by chance appearing close on the sky. NGC 5965 is about 150 million light-years distant and over 200,000 light-years across. Much smaller, NGC 5963 is a mere 40 million light-years away and so is not associated with the edge-on spiral. Difficult to follow, NGC 5963’s extraordinarily faint blue spiral arms mark it as a low surface brightness galaxy.

Thursday, February 16th is a terrific day for….

Witchy Comments 

February 16th

 

Cut Hair to Retard Growth, Mow to Retard Growth, Castrate Farm Animals, Harvest, Pick Apples and Pears, Wean, Quit Smoking, Potty Train, Perform Demolition, Wash Wooden Floors, Wash Windows, Start Diet to Lose Weight, Advertise to Sell, Buy a Car

~Magickal Graphics~

Daily Cosmic Calendar for Thursday, Feb. 16th

Put some of those recent challenges behind you as the cosmos gives you something to cheer about when Mercury unites with healing-master Chiron (6:15AM PST) shortly before Mercury teams up in a supportive, 60-degree link with King of the Gods Jupiter (8:08AM PST). Considering that the Moon is still having a joy-fest in adventuresome Sagittarius, this morning’s Mercury-Chiron and Mercury-Jupiter contacts are a pleasure-inducing duo. Give worries and tensions the old-heave. Enjoy your favorite games and sports for an exhilarating change of pace. Think more about pursuing mind-enhancing literary and educational projects especially as the Sun and Moon collaborate well during a supportive, 60-degree liaison (5:09PM PST) and as the largest two celestial bodies in our solar system – the Sun and Jupiter – forge an illuminating contra-parallel (9:02PM PST). However, this latter aspect actually happens right at the close of a void lunar uncertainty cycle in Sagittarius – running from 8:04PM PST until 9:04PM PST. Don’t overdo a good thing during the lunar twilight zone. Once the void time-span is over, Capricorn Moon is your lunar presence for the next 2+ days. Place a serious focus on climbing the ladder of success within your professional realm. You will have some celestial back-up to assist you on both Friday and Saturday.

Calendar of the Moon for Thursday, Feb. 16th

Calendar of the Moon
16 Luis/Gamelion

Day of the Sugar Maple

Color: Golden
Element: Earth
Altar: On a cloth of deep gold place a vase of forced and budded branches of the sugar maple, a large pottery bowl of maple sugar, a single golden candle, a pot of soil, seeds, a large bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds. Promise to look for sweetness in the natural order of things.
Daily Meal: Vegan. Serve maple sugar and maple syrup.

Invocation to the Green Man of the Sugar Maple

Hail, Green Man of the Winter!
Your secret blood rises
With the first teasing thaw,
Amid the chill winds and snow.
We drink of your blood,
And you give it willingly,
Sacrificing your life force
That we may have sweetness.
For happiness is no luxury,
It is our right and our delight.
You who bleed for our pleasure,
You who give us your innermost gift,
You who flame like a torch in the autumn
And warm our tongues in the spring,
Tree of beauty, tree of nourishment,
Fire of a hundred hills,
Wild turkey who gives of its flesh,
We hail you, sacred sugar maple,
Green Man of the Winter,
On this the time of your rising.

Chant:
I am flame on the hill
I am love on the tongue
I am words that flow forth
As the winter is sung.

(Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Maple sugar is passed around and shared. Ring bell and dismiss.)

Calendar of the Sun for Thursday, Feb. 16th

Calendar of the Sun
16 Solmonath

Victoria- Day of Nike

Color: Red
Element: Fire
Altar: On a red cloth sewn with outstretched wings lay a naked sword and a helmet, and one large red candle.
Offerings: Victories, personal or for the world.
Daily Meal: Red-colored food.

Invocation to Nike

Failure is a part of life.
It is an inevitability
That we shall fail
More often than we shall succeed.
Yet if this truth stops us in our tracks,
We will never triumph
And we will never break through.
It is these failures,
These errors and defeats,
That make the touch of Nike’s wings
Even more valuable to us.
Lady of Victory,
Winged one who flies high
In the throes of ecstasy,
Do not allow us to fall
Into discouragement,
For only through perseverance
Can we come to know you
And your most precious gift.

(The ritual ends in a loud drum circle.)