Daily Cosmic Calendar for June 21

There is no rest for the weary. Mercury makes a supportive, 60-degree link with feisty Mars (3:16AM PDT) and this can boost your adrenaline. Crafts, hobbies, games and sports are energized. The Moon uniting with Mercury in Cancer (9:49AM PDT) can improve communications in the hours preceding this alignment. However, once it happens, a void lunar cycle takes hold that lasts until 8:48PM PDT. It is wise to finish old business on a high note during this 11-hour twilight zone. This may be easier said than done since Vesta makes a caustic, 45-degree link with Pallas (1:40PM PDT) as well as an off-kilter, 150-degree tie to Saturn (3:34PM PDT). Add on a tempestuous, 135-degree contact between Mercury and Chiron (5:40PM PDT) and it may incline many souls to seek solace in yoga, meditation, contemplation, and esoteric studies. Trying to deal with practical work under this series of celestial vibrations is bound to be a chore. Just before the Moon ends its void cycle, a hopeful signal occurs as the Moon makes a supportive, 60-degree link to productivity-enhancer Ceres (7:26PM PDT). After the Moon leaves void status and enters Leo (8:48PM PDT), come from the heart in key discussions with dear ones. Nurturing vibrations are present to guide you along as the Moon parallels Ceres (10:44PM PDT). Be prepared for a raucous Friday as a Vesta-Juno polarity and Mars-Uranus parallel really shake up the status-quo.

Daily Cosmic Calendar for Tuesday, June 19th

While the dark-of-the-moon vibes are intense – suggesting the need to complete old business on a high note – Vesta forms an inspirational, 72-degree rapport with Chiron (3:08AM PDT). Thus, despite the strange morning atmosphere, you may be able to find ways to increase the value of your investments. The main event of the morning is the second New Moon of Gemini (following the previous one back on May 20) – this one energizing 29 degrees and happening at 8:03AM PDT. This would normally suggest the need to take a great leap forward immediately, but instead the Moon enters a void cycle that lasts until 10:35AM PDT when the lunar orb shifts into its natural abode of watery Cancer. This 10:35AM PDT shift of the Moon begins a 2+ day lunar cycle that places an emphasis on home and family matters. Nostalgic interests wax in power and you may have an urge to research your ancestral tree. Cooking, baking, gardening and water sports (weather-permitting) are back in vogue. Mercury shows off its strength by forming a parallel with the Sun (12:22PM PDT) and making a supportive, 60-degree rapport with Vesta (8:51PM PDT). Business opportunities are ripe for the picking. Love bonds receive a temporary, positive jolt as Mars makes a supportive, 60-degree link to Juno (9:57PM PDT). However, because tomorrow morning brings in a provocative Venus-Pluto aspect, it is best to keep a low profile overnight and be extra kind to dear ones on the ropes.

About Litha

a guide to the Sabbat’s symbolism

by Arwynn MacFeylynnd

Date: June 20-23 (usually, the date of the calendar Summer Solstice).

Alternative names: Summer Solstice, Midsummer, Midsummer’s Eve, Alban Heruin, Alban Hefin, Gathering Day, Vestalia, La Festa dell’Estate (Summer Fest), the Day of the Green Man.

Primary meanings: This Sabbat celebrates the abundance and beauty of the Earth. From this day on, the days will wane, growing shorter and shorter until Yule. It is a time to absorb the Sun’s warming rays, and to celebrate the ending of the waxing year and beginning of the waning year in preparation for the harvest to come. Midsummer is another fertility sabbat, not only for humans, but also for crops and animals. This is a time to celebrate work and leisure, to appreciate children and childlike play and to look internally at the seeds you’ve planted that should be at full bloom. Some people believe that at twilight on this day, the portals between worlds open and the faery folk pass into our world. Welcome them to receive their blessings.

Symbols: Fire, the Sun, blades, mistletoe, oak trees, balefires, Sun wheels, summertime flowers (especially sunflowers), summer fruits, seashells and faeries. If you made Sun wheels at Imbolc, display them now prominently, hanging from the ceiling or on trees in your yard. You may want to decorate them with yellow and gold ribbons and summer herbs.

Colors: White, red, maize yellow or golden yellow, green, blue and tan.

Gemstones: All green gemstones, especially emerald and jade, and also tiger’s eye, lapis lazuli and diamond.

Herbs: Chamomile, cinquefoil, copal, elder, fennel, fern, frankincense, galangal, heliotrope, hemp, larkspur, laurel, lavender, lemon, mistletoe, mugwort, oak, pine, roses, saffron, St. John’s wort, sandalwood, thyme, verbena, wisteria and ylang-ylang. Herbs gathered on this day are said to be extremely powerful.

Gods and goddesses: All father gods and mother goddesses, pregnant goddesses and sun deities. Particular emphasis might be placed on the goddesses Aphrodite, Astarte, Freya, Hathor, Ishtar and Venus and other goddesses who preside over love, passion and beauty. Other Litha deities include the goddesses Athena, Artemis, Dana, Kali, Isis and Juno and the gods Apollo, Ares, Dagda, Gwydion, Helios, Llew, Oak/Holly King, Lugh, Ra, Sol, Zeus, Prometheus and Thor.

Customs and myths: One way to express the cycle of the Earth’s fertility that has persisted from early pagan to modern times is the myth of the Oak King and the Holly King, gods respectively of the waxing and waning year. The Oak King rules from Midwinter to Midsummer, the period of fertility, expansion and growth, and the Holly King reigns from Midsummer to Midwinter, the period of harvest, withdrawal and wisdom. They are light and dark twins, each being the other’s alternate self, thus being one. Each represents a necessary phase in the natural rhythm; therefore, both are good. At the two changeover points, they symbolically meet in combat. The incoming twin — the Oak King at Midwinter, the Holly King at Midsummer — “slays” the outgoing one. But the defeated twin is not considered dead — he has merely withdrawn during the six months of his brother’s rule.

On Midsummer Night, it is said that field and forest elves, sprites and faeries abound in great numbers, making this a great time to commune with them. Litha is considered a time of great magickal power, one of the best times to perform magicks of all kinds. Spells and magick for love, healing and prosperity are especially effective now. Wreaths can be made for your door with yellow feathers for prosperity and red feathers for sexuality, intertwined and tied together with ivy. This is also a very good time to perform blessings and protection spells for pets or other animals.

Nurturing and love are key actions related to Midsummer. Litha is a good time to perform a ceremony of self-dedication or rededication to your spiritual path as a part of your sabbat celebration. Ritual actions for Litha include placing a flower-ringed cauldron on your altar, gathering and drying herbs, plunging the sword (or athamé) into the cauldron and leaping the balefire (bonfire) for purification and renewed energy. Giving away fire, sleeping away from home and neglecting animals are considered taboo on this holiday.

Seasons Of The Witch – Ancient Holidays (and some not so ancient!)

Fornax

The Romans celebrated the festival of Fornax, goddess of ovens, by hanging garlands of flowers on ovens and wreaths on the necks of the mules who turned the mills.

Field, Carol, The Italian Baker

Vestalia

– In ancient Rome, this was the day set aside for a public festival for the hearth goddess Vesta. Women walked barefoot around her round temple with offerings. The Vestal Virgins prepared the ritual food: mola salsa, a cake of salt and the first grain. The water came from vessels that could not be set down without spilling and the salt was pounded in a mortar, baked and sawn. It became a holiday for millers and bakers. Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc, Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Book of Days, Oxford University Press, 2000
Monaghan, Patricia, The Book of Goddesses and Heroines, Llewellyn 1981

St Columba*

Day of Colum Cille the beloved
Day to put the loom to use
Day to put sheep to pasture
Day to put coracle on the seas
Day to bear, day to die
Day to make prayer efficacious
Day of my beloved, the Thursday.

This is the luckiest day of the year when it falls on Thursday (alas! This year it falls on Monday). St Columba was one of the most beloved of Celtic saints. The magical herb, St John’s Wort, which flowers around summer solstice, was said to be his favorite herb. He wore it underneath his armpit to ward off all kinds of evil. If find some accidentally and you say this charm when you pick it, you can use it the same way:

Arm-pit package of Columba the kindly
Unsought by me, unlooked for
I shall not be carried away in my sleep
Neither shall I be pierced with iron
Better the reward of its virtues
Than a herd of white cattle.

In Norway, this is considered the day the salmon start leaping.

Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc, Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Book of Days, Oxford University Press, 2000
Carmichael, Alexander, Carmina Gadelica, Lindisfarne Press

Reference:

School of the Seasons

Remember the ancient ways and keep them sacred!

Calendar of the Moon for Tuesday, February 7th

Calendar of the Moon
7 Luis/Gamelion

Hearth Blessing

Color: Red
Element: Fire
Altar: On this day the altar is built in the kitchen, spread before the hearth with a red cloth and a single red candle on which is carved the Rune of Fire.
Offerings: Ashes smeared on the forehead. Kitchen cleaning and duty.
Daily Meal: Cooked all together as a group.

Invocation to the Hearth Goddess

Hertha of the warm hearthstone
Hestia of the naked flame
Vesta of the rising smoke
Lady who warms us
As you warmed our ancestors,
Lady whose touch cooks our food,
Lady around whom we gather
On the coldest nights,
Fire that draws us in,
Fire tamed, fire who is our friend,
Never let us forget your care
Lest you become wild and strike back.
Stay here in your hearth
And protect our home from your anger.
Speak truth to us
And let us bear your truth on our tongues.
Never leave us for long
Lest we forget to whom we owe
The next winter’s comfort
And salvation.

Chant: Ken Ken Ken

(As everyone chants, each steps forward and draws the rune of Fire, Ken, on the hearth with their finger. Then the hearth is ceremonially relit with the candle and dinner-making commences.)

Cosmic Calendar for Saturday, Jan. 28th

If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. This is another one of those old proverbs that connects to today’s Moon in fiery Aries – along with tempestuous energy-fields associated with the Sun moving into a frictional, 135-degree connection to Mars (4:06AM PST) just prior to Venus forming an abrasive, 45-degree link to giant Jupiter (4:38AM PST) and Mercury squaring sometimes hazy and chaotic Neptune (7:01AM PST). While golden opportunities outweighed nebulous situations yesterday, today is kind of the reverse. In addition to the fuzz balls mentioned just above, we also have to contend with the likes of Mars in contra-parallel formation with Ceres (11:22AM PST), Mercury making a caustic, 45-degree tie to Vesta (7:55PM PST) and squaring Jupiter (8:09PM PST) while Jupiter is also in a perturbing, 45-degree tie to Vesta (8:56PM PST). Signing papers, making long-term commitments, and dealing with legal matters are completely taboo right now. The key to moving through today relatively unscathed is to be fast on your feet and to tap into intuitive flashes guiding you upward and onward – courtesy of a supportive, 60-degree rapport from Mercury in Aquarius to Uranus in Aries (10:27AM PST). New ideas in science, metaphysics and kindred fields can help you leapfrog over erstwhile competitors. Get back on target with high-tech and computer-oriented enterprises. Overnight inspirations have a good feel to them as the Moon parallels Jupiter (exactly at 12:23AM PST tomorrow). Energize the power of positive thinking as Saturday night morphs into Sunday morning.

VESTA / HESTIA

VESTA / HESTIA

Vesta was the Roman Goddess of the hearth and home (Hestia was her Greek counterpart). Her six Vestal Virgins (virgin in the sense that they belonged to no man – they were “one within”) tended her sacred fire in a round temple in Rome and the Romans offered a prayer to her every day at their own hearths. On March 1st, every year, her priestesses extinguished the fire and relit it. Her worship was connected with fertility and to let her light go out would mean that civilization would also end. On June 9th, the Vestalia was held when her priestesses baked salt cakes and sacrificed them on Vesta’s fire for 8 days, after which the temple was closed, cleaned out and then reopened the next day. She holds an oil lamp from 1st century Pompeii and wears a Roman earring from the 3rd-4th centuries. The statues of Senior Vestal Virgins in the background are from the House of the Vestal Virgins in the Roman Forum (heads and hands restored ). On the wall is a Roman frieze from the College of Vestal Virgins.
.
http://www.goddessmyths.com/Vesta.JPG

Goddess Of The Day: VESTA

Goddess Of The Day: VESTA

Feast of Vesta (Rome)

Themes: Home; Love; Fertility; Peace

Symbols: Fire; Donkey; Veils

About Vesta: In Roman mythology, Vesta was part of every fire. As such, Vesta commands the sacred fires of the hearth, the heart of spiritual and emotional stability in your home. Today was one other festival days, Christianized as the Feast of the Ass, which is a sacred animal to her. Traditional offerings for Vesta include homemade bread and salt cakes.

In works of art, Vesta was never shown directly but always depicted her in veils, possibly to honor her importance in Roman society. The vestal priestess was one of the few people considered suited to negotiating peace during war threats.

To Do Today: The first month of the year is a good time to think about the spiritual warmth in your living space. Ask Vesta to kindle those fires anew. Do this by lighting any fire source you have handy-a match, a candle, the oven, a pilot light-or, alternatively, just turn on a light as a symbolic fire. Be sure to keep this lit all day. When a fire goes out on Vesta’s day, it’s considered a bad omen, indicative of love being lost. To encourage peace on any battleground you’re facing this year, light a white candle (the color of truce) and put it in a window to invite Vesta’s presence (being sure it’s safe to do so, of course). Then take a piece of bread outside, breaking it into small bits so the birds can carry your wish of harmony across the earth.

By Patricia Telesco

Cosmic Calendar for Sunday, Jan. 15th

Learning from esteemed mentors and teachers is one way to get moving this morning as the Moon is parallel Saturn (1:24AM PST) followed some 7+ hours later by an inspirational, 72-degree link from Mercury to Saturn (9:15AM PST). Focusing attention on key business or professional matters also makes sense. Money-making ventures could appear on the scene later on as Venus parallels Neptune (1:50PM PST), Mercury makes a supportive, 60-degree link with Vesta (2:26PM PST), and the Moon parallels Venus (6:00PM PST). The emphasis on Venus, Vesta and Neptune suggests that your highest ideals and dreams can come true with enough self-assurance. Working with the right artistic media is necessary since the Moon continues its march through creative and affable Libra. Some confusion on the partnership front may develop as the Moon parallels Neptune (6:24PM PST) followed by Mercury making a frictional, 45-degree tie to Juno (6:52PM PST). Be prepared for an intense day on Spaceship Earth tomorrow as several planetary pranksters try to mutiny and disrupt the proceedings.

FIRE

Direction: South.
Rules: Energy, spirit, heat, flame, blood, sap, life, will, healing and
destroying, purification, bonfires, hearth fires, candle flames,
sun, deserts, volcanoes, eruptions, explosions.
Time: Noon.
Season: Summer.
Colors: Red, gold, crimson, orange, white (the sun’s noon light).
Signs of the Zodiac: Aries, Leo, Saggitarius.
Tools: Censer, wand.
Spirits: Salamanders, ruled by King Djin.
Angel: Ariel.
Name of the South Wind: Notus.
Sense: Sight.
Jewel: Fire Opal.
Incense: Olibanum.
Plants: Garlic, hibiscus, mustard, nettle, onion, red peppers, red poppies.
Tree: Almond, in flower.
Animals: Fire-breathing dragons, lions, horses (when their hooves strike
sparks).
Goddesses: Brigit, Hestia, Pele, Vesta.
Gods: Agni, Hephaestus, Horus, Vulcan.

	Deborah on Protecting Yourself and Your H…
	ladyoftheabyss on Protecting Yourself and Your H…
	Deborah on Protecting Yourself and Your H…
	Lady Beltane on The Rise of Wicca and Neo–Paga…
	ladyoftheabyss on The Path Of The Water Wit…