I have a question, one that has perplexed me for several years.
Tomorrow is the first day of February, marking the festival of Imbolc. The days are lengthening, the night time grows shorter. We're halfway through winter. Or are we?
I know that 21st of December is supposed to be the first day of winter, but this makes absolutely no sense to me. If we look at the year as half of it where the nights are longer than the days and half of it when the days are longer than the nights, then surely, the date that the nights get shorter can't be the mid point?
…… (Luna) stepped onto the center mark of the stage, picked up the scales and waited in the darkness as a hush fell over the theater. Luna heard the familiar first notes of the prelude coming from the pit played masterfully by the Planetary Orchestra, and carried on the otherworldly sounds, she slid easily into her role as the beauty of the harmonies flowed through her. The curtain opened and the stage was pitch black, save for the starlit diamonds on Luna’s gown……
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware that there's a solar eclipse set to cross over the US on August 21st, right in the last degrees of Leo. Yes, this is a major astrological event (and a pretty cool astronomical one, too), but it also has some connections with the tarot too. The strength of those connections lies in the artist's interpretation of the decks, and some have more than others. When I teach the tarot, I always default to the RWS deck, and it's got some interesting imagery when it comes to eclipses, especially the Moon card.
Now, I'm sure that some will say that the face on the Moon card in the RWS deck is just that; the face of the Moon. I want to take that further though. Some of the interpretations of the Moon card include
Donald Trump's chart is quite typical of the man and his behavior. To begin with, he has Leo Rising. In my experience this means that he is not interested in ever being told what to do. I never knew a Leo rising who was. One acquaintance with that configuration used to occasionally give me a ride. When she did not know the directions, I would need to tell her via suggestion only where to turn. If any directions were put as a direct statement she would sail right by instead of turning where I said.
In addition Trump has Mars in fiery Leo in the 12th house just three degrees from his Leo ascendant. His impulsiveness is well known. This again is unsurprising because not only is he impulsive but he is also forceful. However one nickname for the 12th house is the house of self undoing. Another is the house of karma, the house of "what goes around comes around." As Mars represents the POTUS's actions, so it also means that whatever he does, good or bad will sooner or later return to him.
Over the last several years, I have noticed more people expressing that they are encountering a thinning of the veils, openings between the worlds, crossings to and from the neighboring realms, and so on. These reports have been increasing in number and the intervals between reports have been decreasing. Significantly, these encounters and observations are less linked to the times and places that are traditionally thought of as naturally liminal or during the times in the changes of the seasons of the Sun and Moon when these passages are expected. I have read and heard a variety of suggestions to explain this phenomenon, and many of them are reasonable and plausible. I’d like to propose that there is also a slow and steady shift in the Astrological tides that is also one of the root causes of this change. There will be just enough Astrology in this post to offer an explanation without bogging down in a lesson in Astrology.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
Janet Boyer
I love the idea of green burials! I first heard of Recompose right before it launched. I wish there were more here on the East Coast; that's how I'd l...