Month: December 2015

Now Is The Time To Make The Perfect Batch of Moon Water

WINTER ANIMALS
Now Is The Time To Make The Perfect Batch of Moon Water

Moon water is really simple to make and can be used for all sorts of spell work, rituals and anointing. It is useful to have in stock when you need to use the power of the Moon phase at a different time.

Using a dish, bowl or bottle, fill it with spring water and leave it outside (if it can be safely done) or on a windowsill so that it can soak up the power of the Full Moon. You can also do the same process of the New, Waxing, Waning or Dark Moon Phases too. Once the water has absorbed the power of the Moon, you can keep it in an airtight bottle for future use.

You can also add a pinch of sea salt to the water giving it extra cleansing and purifying oomph.

-Rachel Patterson, Pagan Portals – Moon Magic

The Full Moon

Winter Wonderland
The Full Moon

This is a good time to try out forms of divinations such as scrying or tarot. Reflect about your goals, feelings and matters that have to do with relationship and family. It is also good for transformations, psychic abilities, strength, love, power and fertility.

The Full Moon is also an excellent time to cleanse, purify and charge your crystals. Lay them out so that the moonlight can hit them; if you can do so safely, leave them outside. If not, find a windowsill that catches the moonlight. Don’t just stop at crystals though, your magical tools will also benefit from soaking up the power of the moonlight.

As the Full Moon just passes, the time arrives to put the finishing touches on what you have been doing and to get ready for the quieter time to come. Enjoy beauty and art, listen to music. If you have argued with someone but do not feel the issues are really vital, make up now.

If you live near the sea the Full Moon is a wonderful time to visit the shoreline and (if safe and legal to do so) build a small fire. Collect small pieces of driftwood to build your fire and, as you lay each piece onto the fire, add a wish. Once the fire is burning nicely, cast offerings into the flames as gifts to the Moon Goddess, such as herbs, flowers and leaves. Sit and watch as the fire burns. If you don’t live near the sea you could turn this into a visualization for a Full Moon meditation.

-Rachel Patterson, Pagan Portals – Moon Magic

The Witches Almanac for Friday, December 25th

Spirit Of The Winter Animals!
The Witches Almanac for Friday, December 25th

Friday (Venus): Love, friendship, reconciliation and beauty.

Christmas Day

Waxing Moon
The Waxing Moon (from the New Moon to the Full) is the ideal time for magic to draw things toward you.

Full Moon 6: 12 am
The Full Moon is the time of greatest power.

Moon Sign: Gemini
Gemini: Things begun now are easily changed by outside influence. Time for shortcuts, communication, games, and fun.

Moon enters Cancer 12: 27 am
Cancer: Stimulates emotional rapport between people. Pinpoints need, supports growth and nurturance. Tends to domestic concerns.

Incense: Vanilla

Color: White

The Pagan Calendar for Friday, December 25th

Winter Animals-1The Pagan Calendar for Friday, December 25th

Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (‘the birthday of the unconquered sun’) (Roman) – The title Sol Invictus had been applied to a number of solar deities. Many Oriental cults were practised informally among the Roman legions from the mid-second century, but only that of Sol Invictus was officially accepted. Sol Invictus was identified with the earlier Roman sun god Sol. This is the traditional birth date of sun gods and gods with solar attributes such as Pryderi, Frey, Saturn, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, Tammuz, Baalim, Quetzalcoatl, Mithra and Zeus.

Juvenalia – After the Saturnalia, the Romans celebrated the birth of new life with a festival honouring children, who were given talisman (like bells, shoes, warm clothese and toys) for good luck in the coming year.

Saint Anastasia’s Day – Yet another Christian virgin whose chastity was threatened by a Roman Pagan. This time the Roman prefect thought he was embracing Anastasia, when in face he was making love to the cooking pots and kitchen utensils. When he emerged from his imaginary amorous encounter he was covered with soot, and his servants thought him a demon, and chased him away with blows.

Anna Franklin, Yule (The Eight Sabbats)

Friday’s Witchery

Winter Animals
Friday’s Witchery

Love magick is a perennial popular topic. However, there is more to this topic than meets the eye. There are many enchanting layers here for us to explore on this day of the week. What about creating a loving home, or producing a loving and nurturing family? What about keeping your intimate relationships vital and on track? How about promoting happy, healthy, and enduring friendships? See, there is more to be considered than just the “You shall be mine…” type of fictional love spell.

Don’t forget that many of the deities associated with Fridays are also parents. So, yes, while this is the day to work on romance, sex, and love spells, there is additional magick to be considered here, which makes Fridays a more well-rounded and bigger opportunity for witchery than many folks ever truly realize. The truest, strongest magick always comes from the heart.

–Ellen Dugan, Book of Witchery – Spells, Charms & Correspondences For Every Day of the Week

Friday

WINTER ANIMALS

Friday

Ruler: Freya, Venus
Colors: Emerald green or pink
Power Hours: Sunrise and the 8th, 16th, and 24th hours following.
Key Words: Love, money, health

It is easy to spot the ruler of this day by its name. In the word Friday, we see the roots of the name of the Norse goddess Freya, a goddess of love and fertility, and the most beautiful and propitious of the goddesses thus the verse “Friday’s child is loving and giving.”

In Spanish this day of the week is called Viernes and is derived from the goddess Venus. Matters of love, human interaction, the fluidity of communication, sewing and the creation of artistic garments, household improvement, shopping, and party planning all fall under the aspects of Friday and its ruling planet, Venus.

Friday’s angels are Ariel/Uriel, Rachiel, and Sachiel. Rachiel also concerns himself with human sexuality and is a presiding spirit of the planet Venus.

On Fridays, the hour of sunrise and every eight hours after that are also ruled by Venus, and that makes these times of the day doubly blessed. These four hours are the strongest four hours for conducting ritual. Check the local newspaper, astrological calendar, or almanac to determine your local sunrise.

Gypsy Magic

A Very Beautiful & Blessed Friday Morn’ To All Our Family & Friends!

Good morning, my precious family & friends! I hope everyone is having a very beautiful day today. I have never lied to you and I don’t tend to start now. Today is one of those days that is complicated to deal with. Because it is one of those days I must walk a fine line. As we all know today is Christmas to the Christians, Catholics, Baptists and various other Religions. To us, unless we celebrate it with our children, it is just another day.

Our community is a very diverse family. We have Pagans, Witches, Wiccans, Druids, and we also have Christians, Baptists and Catholics with us. I know who these individuals are and I promised I would never point them out (and I won’t). They are here for one reason, to learn about us. We can never accomplish anything if we don’t let others know what we are really like. They even asked for permission to join us. I knew what their intent was and I said yes. I know today is a very special day for them, it is Christmas.

Since they are a part of our community, I feel it is only right that we do acknowledge this important day for them. I know they have been here time and time again during our celebrations. So I figure it is only right to say…..


Miscellaneous Christmas Comments

 

And to all our Pagan brothers & sisters….


Miscellaneous Christmas Comments

No matter what Path, Tradition or Religion you celebrate

may the peace, joy and love of this season be with you always,

Love,

Lady of the Abyss & The Entire WOTC Family

A Little Humor for Your Day – The Night Before Crisis

The Night Before Crisis

‘Twas the night before crisis, and all through the house,
Not a program was working, not even a browse.

The programmers were wrung out, too mindless to care,
knowing chances of cutover hadn’t a prayer.

The users were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of inquiries danced in their heads.

When out in the lobby there arose such a clatter,
that I sprang from my tube to see what was the matter.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a Super Programmer, oblivious to fear.

More rapid than eagles, his programs they came,
and he whistled and shouted and called them by name.

On Update! On Add! On Inquiry! On Delete!
On Batch Jobs! On Closing! On Functions Complete!

His eyes were glazed over, his fingers were lean,
from weekends and nights in front of a screen.

A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,
soon let me know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
turning specs into code, then turned with a jerk.

And laying his finger on the ENTER key,
the system came up and worked perfectly.

The system was finished, the tests were concluded.
The client’s last changes were even included!

And the client exclaimed with a snarl and a taunt,
“It’s just what I asked for, but not what I want.”

Astronomy Picture of the Day – Star Colors and Pinyon Pine

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.

2015 December 24

Star Colors and Pinyon Pine
Image Credit & Copyright: Stan Honda

 

Explanation: Beautiful, luminous decorations on this pinyon pine tree are actually bright stars in the constellation Scorpius and the faint glow of the central Milky Way. Captured in June from the north rim of the Grand Canyon of planet Earth, the shallow, close focus image has rendered pine needles on the tree branch sharp, but blurred the distant stars, their light smeared into remarkably colorful disks. Of course, temperature determines the color of a star. Most of the out-of-focus bright stars of Scorpius show a predominately blue hue, their surface temperatures much hotter than the Sun’s. Cooler and larger than the Sun, and noticeably redder on the scene, is giant star Antares at the heart of the scorpion. In focused, telescopic views the whitish disk at the upper right would be immediately recognizable though, reflecting the Sun’s light as ringed gas giant Saturn.

Earth Sky News for Dec. 24 – Latest images of Christmas Eve asteroid

Latest images of Christmas Eve asteroid

Near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 will pass safely, at more than 28 times the moon’s distance, on Christmas Eve. Will it cause earthquakes? Of course not.

This month, astronomers have been observing a large asteroid approaching the Earth-moon system. Near-Earth asteroid 163899 – also known as 2003 SD220 – will come closest to Earth on Christmas Eve (December 24, 2015). At that time, it’ll be about 28 times the distance to Earth’s moon; in other words, it’s not coming particularly close. Don’t believe any media suggesting that this space rock may cause earthquakes. Those assertions are misleading and incorrect. Even if 2003 SD220 were passing closer, it’s doubtful earthquakes would result. There’s no scientific evidence that an asteroid’s flyby can cause seismic activity, unless the asteroid collides with Earth. In this case, that clearly will not happen.

Asteroid 2003 SD220 closest pass on December 24 will occur at around 8:08 am ET (13:08 UTC). Translate to your time zone here.

This asteroid isn’t a newly discovered object. Its name – 2003 SD220 – indicates its discovery year. The Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search (LONEOS) program in Flagstaff, Arizona discovered the asteroid on September 29, 2003.

Scientists have been watching this asteroid this month because they knew about its Christmas Eve closest approach well in advance. Thus the asteroid was included in observing schedules for various observatories. The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Goldstone Solar System Radar and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope and Very Long Baseline Array conducted observations of 2003 SD220, as did the NASA-funded planetary radar system at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

A notable feature of this asteroid is its elongated shape and large size. Astronomer Edgar Rivera-Valentin from Arecibo Observatory – the largest and most sensitive single dish radio telescope in the world – told EarthSky:

We were able to observe this asteroid (with radar) for more days from Arecibo and we still estimate SD220 is about 1.25 miles (2 km) long.

Radar images obtained from Arecibo show some details including small craters on the irregularly shaped space rock.

The asteroid is now also known to rotate very slowly, taking more than 11 days to complete one full rotation.

Patrick Taylor, Group Lead for USRA for Planetary Radar at Arecibo Observatory, said:

Because it comes close to Earth, it is of interest to NASA as a possible future robotic or human mission target.

Data from all of the various observations are used to determine the asteroid’s shape, rotation, and surface properties as well as allow for refinement of the asteroid’s orbit, which can be used to better assess its future impact hazard. A December 23 statement from Arecibo pointed out:

This year’s close approach is the first of five predicted encounters between Earth and 2003 SD220 in the next 12 years. High-precision measurements now will help better prepare for future passes.

At the 2015 pass – at its closest – asteroid 2003 SD220 will be some 6,787,600 miles (11 million km) from our planet’s surface. That’s more than 28 times the Earth-moon distance. It’s so far away that only professional and advanced amateur astronomers are likely to capture optical images of this space rock.

That is unlike some other asteroids such as 2015 TB145 (the Halloween asteroid) and 2004 BL86 (January, 2015). Those asteroids were visible using 8″ telescopes.

The Christmas Eve asteroid will be much more difficult to see because of its distance.

This space rock – whose shape can be compared to a chicken tender – will make its approach to Earth on December 24, 2015 but will return again next in 2018.

NASA has verified that the space rock will not pass at any dangerous distance during the next two centuries.

By the way, asteroid 2003 SD220 is not the only big asteroid passing by Earth on this month. Asteroid 2008 CM, a space rock with a diameter of 1.5 km, will safely pass our planet on December 29 at more than 22 times the Earth-moon distance.

Bottom line: Asteroid 163899 – aka 2003 SD220 – will pass safely, at more than 28 times the Earth-moon distance, on December 24, 2015. This Christmas Eve asteroid will pass too far away to be visible in small amateur telescopes. Media reports suggesting that this space rock may cause earthquakes are misleading and incorrect.

Author

 

There are numerous photos of this asteroid, if you would like to view them, just follow this link, EarthSky

Your Daily Influences for December 24th

Your Daily Influences
December 24th, 2015

 

Ace of Pentacles
Prosperity, pleasure and beauty can be realized.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berkano
Berkano is the Rune of birth and rebirth. This may symbolize a time when you are capable of great personal growth. Love may be in the air as well.

 

 

 

Scorpio the Scorpion
This aspect of your life will be strongly influenced by a person who is determined, forceful, emotional, intuitive, powerful, passionate, exciting and magnetic. This person is probably an acquaintance you made at work.

 

 

 

 

 

Your Daily Influences represent events and challenges the current day will present for you. They may represent opportunities you should be ready to seize. Or they may forewarn you of problems you may be able to avoid or lessen. Generally it is best to use them as tips to help you manage your day and nothing more.

Your Charm for December 24th is The Hei Tiki

Your Charm for Today

Today’s Meaning:
Now is an ideal time to learn. Your mind is particularly keen at this time for the study of witchcraft, divination and esoteric subjects. Knowledge affects this aspect.

General Description:
The Hei Tiki amulet is used by the Maoris of New Zealand. It is carved in jade, the sacred stone of the natives. Worn as a neck ornament for good luck, and to protect from witchcraft and evil spirits. These charms are regarded as valuable heirlooms, and are carefully handed down from father to son, as the talisman was believed to possess all the good qualities and virtues of their forefathers. The Hei Tiki is a curious and distorted representation of the human figure in the attitude of listening, the head leaning on the shoulder.

 

Consulting The Ancient Symbol Cards for What The Past, Present & Future Hold

Consulting The Ancient Symbol Cards for What The Past, Present & Future Hold

 

Past Influence whose impact on your life is waning.

The Believer

The Believer represents Faith and the realization that you have an important place in the workings of the Universe. Although The Believer may not always understand why things are the way they are, they none-the-less feel an underlying cosmic rhythm which is moving events in a direction that is good. The Believer rejoices in their celestial role, because they realize their life has purpose on a grand scale.

 

 

 
Present Influence whose impact on your life is very strong.

Alturism

Altruism denotes the noble act of giving to those in need without the expectation of a return. The act of giving has been seen as one of humankind’s greatest attributes throughout history. It is honored in nearly every culture. To give is a gift to both those who receive and those who give. Giving is usually associated with addressing the material needs of others, but the gift given can take many forms such as wisdom or protection or simply a shoulder to cry on.

 

 

 

Future influence whose impact on your life is growing and will be very strong in the future.

Solitude

Solitude is represented by a single person standing at the end of a boardwalk staring out at a vast, empty panorama. They are truly alone, but may not feel loneliness. They are at a place in their life where the need to withdraw from the our secular world is strong, because their focus should be on their inner self, their morality, and their dreams. The view before them is empty, but it is a canvas on which they may paint their future–a future restricted only by the size of their imagination and courage. For them Solitude is a choice. They chose to take the walkway that distances them from the rest of us. It is also a choice that can be undone. Just as they chose to take a path that leads them away from us, they may choose to turn around and come back at anytime.

Your Ancient Symbol Card for December 24th is Wisdom

Your Ancient Symbol Card for Today

Wisdom


A very very few of us are fortunate to be born wise. For most of us our Wisdom evolves, grows as we move through life gathering experience and knowledge. Wisdom denotes your thoughts and feelings derived from the melding of your life experiences with all that you have learned. Our Wisdom can get us through the difficult moments in our lives as well as provide the mental and spiritual tools we need to succeed.

As a daily card, Wisdom indicates a time when you should rely heavily on past experiences and knowledge attained to make important decisions in your life. This is a time where reflection and planning should guide your actions. To act rashly, on impulse at this time may well cost you in the future. Go slow, think things out, weigh all of your options carefully and then proceed.