6th / 7th May 2016: New Moon in Taurus

a message from Sarah Varcas

To view more of Sarah’s insight, please visit her website, Astro-Awakenings

Absolutely Relative

The Moon is new in the 17^th degree of Taurus on 6^th May at 7:31 p.m. U.T. In its darkness we encounter the creative tension between relative and absolute truths.

For those walking a spiritual path, realisation of absolute truth is key. Enlightenment, ascension, oneness with God, are all expressions of the quest to know intimately the ever-present, unchanging unified field of being. But we pursue this quest in a world replete with relativity. All things are conditioned by everything around it and little stands complete in and of itself. Whilst it may well be absolutely true that We Are All One, relative truth is rooted in egoic consciousness which experiences separation and individuality.

To live the spiritual life in the mundane world we must navigate these various levels of truth, knowing when and how to relate to them from the heart as well as the mind. Dismissing loneliness or pain as an egoic illusion overlooks the essential truth that all emotion is experienced at a relative level, where it needs to be honoured before it can be transmuted into the peace of the absolute. To claim that a desire to be treated with respect is ‘just ego’ ignores the fact that ego is the arbiter of relative truth and proportionally acts to protect us from harm and threat when operating in a healthy way.

This New Moon asks us to embrace absolute truth (that we are united as one in the divine/goddess/life/the unified field) whilst honouring the relative kind (that we owe each other compassion and consideration because we are all emotional beings vulnerable to pain). Striking this balance is key to living an embodied spirituality, fully engaged with the challenges and triumphs of the human realm. If we retreat prematurely into the realm of absolute truth avoiding the relative, we become detached from the humanity that connects us all. If, on the other hand, we deny the absolute and live only from a place of ego we will fail to recognise the bigger picture within which the ups and downs of everyday life occur, a recognition which can sustain us when all else falls apart.

Taurus, the sign of this New Moon, loves truths of the factual kind: certain, provable, demonstrable facts. It does less well with mysteries, paradoxes and the unknown. But to live in the world we encounter both: certainties and mysteries, facts and fictions. When it comes to truth Taurus may pick a side and stay there: absolute or relative and never the twain shall meet. But this New Moon weaves the two into a beautiful design, connecting the relative with the absolute so we can live it all and discern with clarity what to honour and when. And it need not be an ‘either/or’, for we can respond at a relative level with our eye on the sacred just as we can affirm the bigger picture whilst acknowledging subjective truths.

We always have a choice about where and how to focus. This Moon simply reminds us that truth is multifaceted with numerous layers. As such, many things and countless different perspectives can be simultaneously true. Allowing ourselves to shift between relative and absolute, relinquishing the security of black and white, right and wrong, may just reveal a whole new perspective now, to those with eyes to see.

The Witches Almanac for Friday, May 6th

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

Martyrs’ Day (Lebanese)

Waning Moon
The Waning Moon (from the Full Moon to the New) is a time for study, meditation, and little magical work (except magic designed to banish harmful energies).

New Moon 3: 30 pm

Moon Sign: Taurus
Taurus: Things begun now last the longest, tend to increase in value, and become hard to alter. Brings out appreciation for beauty and sensory experience.

Incense: Yarrow

Color: White

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.

Source

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

Friday’s Conjuring

Friday – is associated with Venus

Candle colors – Green, Red, Blue, White, Purple

Spellwork – Love, Marriage, Money, Attraction, Luck, Healing, Prosperity, Change, Road Opening work, Bring Peace, Relationships, Power and Success
 

—Starr Casas, Old Style Conjure Wisdoms, Workings and Remedies

The Pagan Book of Days for Friday, May 8th

Eyvind Kelve/ Enlightenment of the Buddha/Egyptian Day

The Norwegian Pagan martyr, Eyvind Kelve, was killed on the orders of King Olaf Trygvason for refusing to give his faith in the Pagan gods. The enlightenment of Buddha is celebrated in many Buddhist traditions on the day of the full moon in May.

Source

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

Friday, May 6th

Friday is the day of Venus. It takes it name from Frigg, the Goddess of love and transformation. She rules the spiritual side of a person that manifests in the physical. Because of this, Friday is often thought of as dangerously unpredictable. This is expressed in an old East Anglian adage:

Friday’s day will have its trick
The fairest or foulest day of the week.

Deity: Frigg

Zodiac Sign: Taurus/Libra

Planet: Venus

Tree: Apple

Herb: Vervain

Stone: Sapphire/Chrsolite

Animal: Bull/Serpent

Element: Earth

Color: Yellow/Violet

Number: 7

Rune: Peorth(P)

Celtic Tree Month of Saille (Willow) – April 15th and runs through May 12

Runic Half Month of Lagu (flowing water) – April 29th -May 13

Goddess of the Month for April 18 to May 15 is Maia

Source
The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

Watch the Transit of Mercury Across the Sun, Monday, May 9th

On Monday, a rare event will take place: Mercury will transit across the face of the sun. Similar to the way we see exoplanets, Earth observers will be able to see dips in light as the tiny planet makes its way across the face of the sun, blotting out just a fraction of starlight.

Slooh Observatory, a group of remote operated telescopes, will be livestreaming the event online. The event starts at 7 a.m. EDT Monday and will run for an astounding seven hours. Observing a Mercury transit from Earth only happens a few times per century, and requires specialized equipment to capture in order not to damage either your eyes or the telescope. Slooh will also feature expert guests in its coverage of the event.

The observatory is encouraging viewers to submit their own pictures of the event, though we caution that staring directly at the sun, especially through a telescope, can damage your eyes or even lead to blindness. Check out this 2006 article from Phil Harrington on observing the bright stuff. Erika Rix also gave a rundown on observing the transit in our March issue.

The Mercury transit is rare. The last one was in 2006, and the next one won’t be until 2019. NASA has a schedule up of other dates, past and present. You can tune in Monday at the video below.

 
You can go to Slooh.com to join and watch this live broadcast, snap and share your own photos during the event, chat with audience members and interact with the hosts, and personally control Slooh’s telescopes.

Source

Astronomy Magazine

The Sky This Week: May 6 – May 8

Mars heads toward peak visibility, a young Moon shines faintly, and the Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks.

Friday, May 6
New Moon occurs at 3:30 p.m. EDT. At its New phase, the Moon crosses the sky with the Sun and so remains hidden by our star. Because the Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, only 15 hours earlier (at 12:13 a.m. EDT), residents in coastal areas can expect higher than normal tides for the next few days. At perigee, the center of the Moon lies 222,344 miles (357,827 kilometers) from Earth’s center.

Mars passes 1.2° north of the 7th-magnitude globular star cluster M80 tonight. The view through binoculars or a telescope at low power should be impressive.

Jupiter sports a pair of “black eyes” tonight as the shadows of two of its large moons cross the jovian cloud tops. The shadow of outermost Callisto treks across the planet’s north polar region from 11:18 p.m. until 1:42 a.m. EDT. Innermost Io’s shadow crosses the gas giant from 12:39 a.m. to 2:53 a.m. EDT. It’s easy to tell the two shadows apart because Io’s will appear much closer to Jupiter’s equator.

Saturday, May 7
With an age of 4.5 billion years, “young” might not seem an appropriate word to describe our Moon. But tonight, you have an exceptional opportunity to see what astronomers call a “young Moon” — a slender crescent visible low in the west some 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. With New Moon having occurred yesterday afternoon, only 2 percent of our satellite’s disk appears illuminated this evening. You should notice an ashen light faintly illuminating the Moon’s dark side. This is “earthshine,” sunlight reflected by Earth that reaches the Moon and then reflects back to our waiting eyes. Use binoculars for the best view. The young Moon will be much easier to see tomorrow evening, when it appears significantly higher and some 7 percent illuminated.

Sunday, May 8
Although the calendar says May, the sky’s Summer Triangle returns to prominence this month. The asterism’s three bright stars — Vega in Lyra, Deneb in Cygnus, and Altair in Aquila — all clear the horizon by midnight local daylight time. An hour later, they rule the eastern sky. Vega shines brightest and appears at the apex of the triangular asterism. Look for Deneb to Vega’s lower left and Altair to the lower right of the other two. The Summer Triangle will grace the Northern Hemisphere’s evening sky from now through the end of the year.

Source

Astronomy Magazine