April 16th

A Sacred Supplication

Some say that it was on this day that the Greek hero Theseus approached the God Apollo in supplication at Delphi for help in slaying the half-man, half-bull known as the Minotaur that roamed the Labyrinth on Crete. Theseus was advised, through the Delphic Oracle, to make a sacrifce to the Goddess Aprhodite (known as Venus in Rome) before setting sail. According to Greek tradition, supplicants like Theseus carried a ritual olive branch wound with white wool called the hiketeria, for it was said that this ensured that their please would not go unanswered.

The Seed Moon

Many Wiccans dedicate the April esbat to the “growing moon” or the “seed moon” (referring to the burgeoning natural growth at this time of year). Place some seeds on your altar, ask the Goddess to bless them, and then plant them in the earth by moonlight.
 

Source

The Wicca Book of Days
Observances, Traditions and Lore for Every Day of the Year
Selene Eilidh Ash

The Pagan Book of Days for Saturday, April 16th

 

Cerealia/St. Padarn/Egyptian Day

Known by its Celtic dedication as St. Padarn’s Day. On this day it was customary to begin weeding the growing crops.

 

Source

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

Saturday, April 16th

Saturday is dedicated to the shadowy Anglo-Saxon God Saetere or Seater, equivalent to the God Saturn. It is a day also associated with the Norns, the Norse equivalent of Three Fates, and the trickster God Loki. It is connected generally with apprehension, austerity, caution, and excessive self-limitation.

Deity: Saetere

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Planet: Saturn

Tree: Alder

Herb: Daffodil

Stone: Amethyst

Animal: Eagle

Element: Earth

Color: Dark Blue

Number: 4

Rune: Dag(D)

Celtic Tree Month of Saille (Willow) – April 15th to May 12th. Willow is a tree of healing and protection. It can help us to connect with our emotions and bring us inner strength.

Runic Half Month of Man (human being) – April 14th to April 28th

Goddess of the Month for March 20 to April 17th is Columbina

The Goddess Month of Maia starts April 18th and runs through May 15th
 

Source

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

Magical Days Of the Week – Saturday

It’s the end of the week for many of us, so Saturday – named for the god Saturn – is a good time to wrap things up. Associated with the colors black and dark purple, and the metal lead, this day is also connected to the goddess Hecate. Gemstones like Apache tear, obsidian, and hematite are all connected to Saturday’s magic, as are plants such as thyme, mullein, and the cypress tree.

When it comes to magical workings, focus on agriculture and creativity, fortune and hope, protection and banishment of negativity.

Put up a barrier to keep the unwelcome out, eliminate the things that make you miserable, and wash your hands of anything other than your hopes, dreams and goals.
 

Author

Patti Wigington, Paganism/Wicca Expert
Article published on & owned by About.com

The Witches Musts for Saturday

Feel the need for a psychic cleansing in the house? Light up some patchouli- or myrrh-scented incense, and wave the smoke around your house or apartment. It will help to break up any lingering negativity or bad feelings. Crumble up a few dried mullein leaves and create a circle around your home, or scatter it across the thresholds, to keep prowlers away.

Burn a few black candles to repel manipulative intentions or unwanted advances. Add a few protective herbs to your dinner such as thyme or basil. Try growing a blooming cyclamen plant in your kitchen to ward the family and to encourage Hecate’s blessings. Grow deep purple and black pansies in window boxes to encourage the planetary vibrations of Saturn. Let ivy grow up the walls of your home for even more bewitching security.

Saturdays are the particular day of the week for protection and for dealing with more serious magickal matters. Go back over the at-a-glance list and see what components you can add to your spells for today for a little more oomph.

Meditate on Hecate to learn her lessons and include some dark goddess wisdom into your Craft. As a Witch, you already know that you have power-the power to effect real change in your life. Working with Hecate can teach you how and when to best use this power for the greater good.

If you want to expand your magickal skills, then start learning how to incorporate all of this information on the days of witchery in a whole new way. This includes the knowledge you already have and the new day-by-day correspondences and witchcraft that were presented in this Book of Shadows. Put your own unique spin on things. Decide what your enchanting specialties are, then apply them to your Craft each and every day with wisdom and style.
 

Source

 

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

 

Saturday’s Witchery

Saturday is a day filled with opportunities to clean up and clear out. So if you are wondering why Hecate is assigned to this day, take another look at what she symbolizes and the magick that is associated with her. That should answer the question.

Hecate was the oldest form of the Greek Triple Goddess, as she presided over heaven, the underworld, and earth. Crossroads where three roads met were especially sacred to Hecate, earning her the title of Hekate of the Three Ways. It’s interesting to note that even after the worship of other goddesses waned, ancient people still worshiped Hecate as the Queen of the Underworld and the Guardian of the Three-Way Crossroad. It was also believed that if you left her an offering of food there, she would grant you her favors. As Hecate Trivia, her triple images were often displayed at these crossroads, where she was petitioned on the full moon for positive magick and on the dark of the moon for cursing and dark magick.

While this last bit of information sounds a little ominous, keep in mind that Hecate/Hekate was known by many titles and is a shapeshifter. Her appearance could and did change often. As a dark moon goddess, her faces are many. To some she may appear as a old crone, hunched over a smoking cauldron and draped in a midnight cape. To others she may appear as a dark beautiful, mysterious, and mature woman wearing a shimmering crown. To some she may be perceived as a maiden priestess. She was called the “most lovely one,” the Great Goddess of Nature, and the Queen of the World of Spirits. This dark goddess knows her way around the earth and the underworld. All the powers of nature, life, and death are at her command.
 

Source

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

Saturday

The planetary correspondence for Saturday is Saturn. Matters dealing with the public, farming, family ties, legal matters (such as wills and estates), taking care of debts, dealing with lawyers, financing, joint money matters, real estate, older people, banishing or binding negativity, and getting rid of bad habits all fall under the charge of Saturn. It’s easy to see why “Saturday’s child works hard for his living.”

Saturday’s angels are Cassiel, Machatan, Uriel, and Orifiel. Cassiel is the angel of solitudes and tears. He is one of the rulers of the planet Saturn and occasionally appears as the angel of patience. Cassiel links himself to dragon energy. Regarding Machatan, the only information we get is that he works well with Cassiel and is also a power of Saturn. Orifiel is an angel of the wilderness, a ruler of the second hour of the day, and also associated with Saturn.

On Saturday, the hour of sunrise and every eight hours after that are also ruled by Saturn, 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.

Source

Gypsy Magic

The Sky This Week: April 16 – 17

Saturday, April 16

Mars pokes above the eastern horizon just after 11 p.m. local daylight time this week and remains prominent until morning twilight is well underway. The Red Planet’s eastward motion relative to the background stars of southern Ophiuchus comes to a halt today; it then starts moving westward at the start of its so-called retrograde loop. This is a sure sign that Mars is approaching peak visibility, which it will reach at opposition in late May. Our neighboring world currently shines at magnitude–1.0, trailing only the Moon, Jupiter, and Sirius. When viewed through a telescope, Mars appears 14″ across and should display a prominent north polar cap as well as subtle dark markings.

Sunday, April 17

The waxing gibbous Moon’s motion through the night sky carries it near Jupiter tonight. The night sky’s two brightest objects appear only 2° apart, or about four times the Moon’s diameter.

Source

Astronomy Magazine

Your Sun & Moon Data for Saturday, April 16th

Sun
Current Time: Apr 16, 2016 at 9:43:36 AM
Sun Direction: ↑ 109.38° ESE
Sun Altitude: 39.65°
Sun Distance: 93.303 million mi
Next Solstice: Jun 20, 2016 5:34 PM (Summer)
Sunrise Today: 6:18 AM↑ 76° East
Sunset Today: 7:31 PM↑ 284° West
Length of Day: 13 hours, 12 minutes

 

Moon
Current Time: Apr 16, 2016 at 9:45:06 AM
Moon Direction: ↑ 14.07° NNE
Moon Altitude: -41.70°
Moon Distance: 246579 mi
Next Full Moon: Apr 22, 201612:23 AM
Next New Moon: May 6, 20162:29 PM
Next Moonrise: Today2:40 PM
Current Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous
Illumination: 74.0%

 

Source

timeanddate.com

 

Good morning, my dear brothers & sisters! I hope you are having a glorious Saturday morning. I thought I would give you a quick up-date on our fight with the site who was stealing us blind. I haven’t said anything because it did look like we were going to have to take legal action against them. Our lawyers advised me not to make any public statements in regards to the situation, so I haven’t. As of yesterday morning, I did think we would be in court with them.

 

I had filed two complaints against them through the DMCA. The first complaint was in regards to the use of our name. After receiving that complaint, they did remove our name from the menu. In their category section our name was still there. To avoid being caught using our name they added an “s” to the end of it. They had turned us into witchesofthecrafts. I followed the link and there was 11 pages of our material on their site. When I saw what extremes this site would go too just to keep our name on their site, I decided if they wanted to go courting then we would go.

 

Yesterday, I filed my final complaint through the DMCA before we took legal action. We could not only bring suit against the site but also the site’s host. The last DMCA complaint that was sent to the site was returned because the individual who owned the site had closed out their email. The complaint was also sent to the host of the site. The host went into the site and removed our name from the side bar and also all 11 pages of our material there. Finally, we had our victory.

 

I have a lot of people to thank for helping us accomplish this. The DMCA, Google, Yahoo, Bing, all the sites we pull material from on a daily basis, our members, and the individuals who offered to buy me plane tickets to Pakistan. The DMCA is great to say the least. We should have joined them a long time ago. Google, if you ever had a problem with a site no matter where it is located, contact them. Yahoo and Bing were kind enough to remove all links from their search engines in regards to this site. The sites we pull our information from daily, we have signed contracts and agreements with them. Once they found out the information was being stolen, they banded together and stood behind us in this fight. Our members, I can’t say enough about you or thank you enough. The Korean site crashed every day last week because of the massive amount of comments that were being left by you. Thank you so much. I have found that you are as passionate about this site as we are, again thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

This is one thing I want to clear up. The information that we put out every day is for our members to use. We have always operated this way and will continue to do so. We want you to use whatever you want on your site. You have our permission to do so. I know I came down very hard on the Korean site but it was because they used our name. We have had our name registered for 13 years. I have never seen the need to place the little encircled “r” behind our name until here recently. When they stole our name, they slapped me in the face. I guarantee you this old witch doesn’t take kindly to being slapped. But our information remains as always, free for our members to use on their sites. We do this every day for you and your sites. We don’t do it for people who steal our name.

Thank you again, my sweet, precious family,

Love ya,

Lady A

See ya’ in a bit!