Welcome to the Witches Astronomy Journal for Wednesday, April 4th
I, Witch
I am many things,
I am a Daughter, a Lover, and a Friend.
I am a Teacher, a Student, and a Woman.
I am many things,
Wear many costumes,
And act in many ways.
Yet beneath each mask I wear,
I am a Witch.
I am a Priestess,
I follow the Path,
I follow the Old Tradition,
I follow the Ways of the Wise Ones.
I seek to know the God,
I seek to know the Goddess,
I seek to know myself.
I am a Witch.
Though I may only dress up,
For eight sabbats a year,
And thirteen esbats in turn,
I am always a Witch.
Though I may not always dress in black,
Or leave my hair wild and free,
I am still a Witch.
I do not worship Satan,
I’ve never even met him,
Yet many see me as evil,
And magick as a sin.
I do what comes natural,
What the Gods have taught me,
And although it does not conform,
I am still a Witch.
The Goddess shows me beauty,
The God has shown me life,
And Earth, and Air,
And Fire, and Water,
Teach me what is right.
And Spirit in its mystic ways,
Teaches me about myself.
That I am a Witch.
—Lady Amhranai, Author
Originally published on Pagan Library
Your Daily Sun & Moon Data for Wednesday, April 4
The Sun
Sun Direction: ↑ 85.85° E
Sun Altitude: 4.28°
Sun Distance: 92.968 million mi
Next Solstice: Jun 21, 2018 5:07 am (Summer)
Sunrise Today: 6:35 am↑ 82° East
Sunset Today: 7:19 pm↑ 278° West
Length of Daylight: 12 hours, 43 minutes
The Moon
Moon Direction: ↑ 225.67° SW
Moon Altitude: 22.32°
Moon Distance: 246011 mi
Next New Moon: Apr 15, 20188:57 pm
Next Full Moon: Apr 29, 20187:58 pm
Next Moonset: Today9:22 am
Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous
Illumination: 83.4%
Source
timeanddate.com
Astrology of Today – Wednesday, April 4, 2018
The Moon is in Scorpio until 2:54 AM, after which the Moon is in Sagittarius.
The Moon is void until 2:54 AM (since 12:05 PM yesterday).
The Moon is waning and in its Full Moon phase until 1:46 AM, after which the Moon is in its Waning Gibbous phase.
The Full Moon occurred on March 31st in the sign of Libra. The Last Quarter Moon will occur on April 8th.
Mercury is retrograde (Mercury is retrograde from March 22nd to April 15th).
Moon in Sagittarius
The Moon is traveling through Sagittarius. The grass looks greener on the other side during this time. Jump ship. Learn a new language. Tell it like it is. Make people laugh.
The Moon is at her most optimistic and upbeat in Sagittarius. We are motivated by a need to seek the truth, and we are ready to pursue a new vision. We are not interested in details just now. Instead, we focus on the big picture. New experiences and adventures satisfy a deep emotional need. Spontaneity is the key. We may also be inclined toward overdoing and overstating. We don’t want to plan ahead, and prefer to “wing it”.
The Moon in Sagittarius generally favors the following activities: Adventurous activities that involve “winging it”, travel, higher education, starting publishing projects, advertising, sports, physical activity.
Daily Overview of Your Sky for Wednesday, April 4th
The Moon’s entry into Sagittarius shortly into the day can pull us out of our shells and inspire new visions of the future, although we can also feel a little restless until we have a mission of some kind. This Moon transit stimulates a desire for more than ordinary experiences.
Even so, we may need to deal with the mundane now due to Mercury’s challenging aspects. Early today, retrograde Mercury perfects its square to Mars and then heads towards a square to Saturn, exact early in the day tomorrow. We can be temperamental and sensitive, yet also given to criticizing. Communication blocks or challenges are possible. Competitions are unlikely to be friendly for long. We may be dealing with the consequences of guarded, delayed, or contrary communications, especially as the day advances. It’s difficult to trust our instincts, and our thoughts or conversations don’t flow very naturally under this influence. Past problems may crop up for review or further attention.
The Moon is void until it enters Sagittarius today at 2:56 AM EDT.
The sky this week for April 4 to April 8
The Full Moon returns, Mercury reaches inferior conjunction, and Mars and Saturn rise together, all in the sky this week.
By Richard Talcott
Wednesday, April 4
Although the calendar may say it is spring, the so-called Winter Hexagon remains prominent on April evenings. One of the sky’s largest asterisms — a recognizable pattern of stars separate from a constellation’s form — the hexagon stands out in the western sky after darkness falls. To trace the asterism, start with southern Orion’s luminary, Rigel. From there, the hexagon makes a clockwise loop. The second stop is brilliant Sirius in Canis Major. Next, pick up Procyon in the faint constellation Canis Minor, then the twins Castor and Pollux in Gemini, followed by Capella in Auriga, Aldebaran in Taurus, and finally back to Rigel.
Thursday, April 5
Brilliant Venus appears low in evening twilight all week. Look for the blazing point of light about 10° above the western horizon 45 minutes after sunset. The planet shines at magnitude –3.9 and is by far the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. A look at Venus through a telescope shows an almost fully illuminated disk that spans 11″.
Friday, April 6
One of the spring sky’s finest deep-sky objects, the Beehive star cluster (M44) in the constellation Cancer the Crab, lies high in the south after darkness falls. With naked eyes under a dark sky, you should be able to spot this star group as a faint cloud. But the Beehive explodes into dozens of stars through binoculars or a small telescope.
Saturday, April 7
The waning gibbous Moon joins forces with Mars and Saturn this morning. From mid-northern latitudes, the Moon rises first, at around 1:40 a.m. local daylight time. Saturn follows about 15 minutes behind Luna and Mars 15 minutes after the ringed planet. All three lie against the backdrop of northern Sagittarius, though the Moon’s bright light drowns out most of the constellation’s deep-sky wonders. Notice how the gap between the two planets has grown in the five days since their conjunction. This morning, Mars lies 3° east of Saturn.
Sunday, April 8
Last Quarter Moon occurs at 3:18 a.m. EDT. You can find the half-lit orb rising in the east with the background stars of northeastern Sagittarius around 2:30 a.m. local daylight time; it hangs relatively low in the southeast as twilight begins. The Moon also reaches apogee today, at 1:31 a.m. EDT, when its orbit carries it farthest from Earth for the month. It then lies 251,123 miles (404,144 kilometers) from us.
Source
The Astronomy Magazine
Your Cosmic Calendar for Wednesday, April 14th
The arrival of the moon’s presence in Sagittarius each month is often a major boost for reaching important goals on the literary, educational, publishing and athletic horizons.
While the Sun parallel Mercury (8:38am), the moon trine productivity-maven Ceres (10:54am), the moon parallel King of the Gods Jupiter (3:12pm), and the moon trine to Mercury (5:52pm) can be feathered arrows in your quiver, Mercury squaring off with Mars (12:06am) has the ability to send you to the back of the class with a dunce cap on your head.
Do your best to tweak a square between Venus and Ceres (12:43pm) away from exacerbating emotional tensions and in the direction of nurturing elders and children in your family circle.
[Note to readers: All times are now calculated for Pacific Daylight Time. Be sure to adjust all times according to your own local time so the alignments noted above will be exact for your location.]
Source
Astrology.com
The Witches Current Moon Phase for Wednesday, April 4th
Waning Gibbous
Illumination: 83%
The Moon today is in a Waning Gibbous Phase. This is the first phase after the Full Moon occurs. It lasts roughly 7 days with the Moon’s illumination growing smaller each day until the Moon becomes a Last Quarter Moon with a illumination of 50%. The average Moon rise for this phase is between 9am and Midnight depending on the age of the phase. The moon rises later and later each night setting after sunrise in the morning. During this phase the Moon can also be seen in the early morning daylight hours on the western horizon.
PHASE DETAILS FOR – WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018
Phase: Waning Gibbous
Illumination: 83%
Moon Age: 18.70 days
Moon Angle: 0.50
Moon Distance: 398,898.14 km
Sun Angle: 0.53
Sun Distance: 149,647,536.68 km
Source
MoonGiant.com
April–The Month of Venus
This month of April has only thirty days, which is the number said to have been given to it by Romulus. The king who came after him gave it only twenty-nine, but Caesar, when he altered the calendar, gave it thirty again.
The name April comes from the Latin word aperire, which means “to open”, and the month was no doubt so named because it is during April that the earth, which has been bound by the sharp frosts of winter, once again opens beneath the warm rays of the sun; the withered sheaths fall away from the ripened buds, which, opening out, disclose to our eyes their long hidden treasures of beautiful colour.
We find that the month was sacred to Venus, the Roman Goddess of Beauty, and some people think for this reason that the name April comes not from aperire, but from Aphrilis, which in turn comes from Aphrodite, the name given to the Goddess of Beauty by the Greeks.
Venus is said to have sprung from the foam of the sea, and to have made her way to Mount Olympus, the home of the gods, where, because of her wonderful beauty and grace, she was welcomed as the Goddess of Love and Beauty. All the gods fell in love with her, but she scorned them all, and Jupiter, to punish her for her pride, ordered her to marry Vulcan, the God of Fire, who was deformed and very rough in his manner. He had been thrown from the top of Mount Olympus by Jupiter in a fit of anger. Had he not been a god, he would, of course, have been killed by the fall, but he escaped with a broken leg which made him lame for the rest of his life. He now lived on the earth, and spent his time at the forge making many wonderful and useful things from the metals which he found buried in the mountains. He built gorgeous palaces of gold for the gods, which he decorated with precious stones, forged the terrible thunderbolts used by Jupiter, and also made the arrows used by Venus’s son, Cupid. Vulcan was naturally worshiped by all blacksmiths and workers in metal, and a great festival called the Vulcanalia was held in his honour.
Cupid, whom we have just mentioned, was the God of Love; he never grew up, but remained a little chubby boy, with beautiful wings. He always carried a bow, and with his arrows pierced the hearts of young men and maidens in order to make them fall in love with one another.
Another son of Venus was Aeneas, the great hero who was supposed to have been the founder of the Roman race. He escaped from Troy, when at the end of ten years’ siege it fell into the hands of the Greeks, and after many adventures reached a part of Italy, called Latium, where in later times his descendants, Romulus and Remus, founded the city of Rome.
The story of Aeneas has been wonderfully told by the Roman poet Virgil in his great work called the Aeneid. In this book Virgil wishes to show that Augustus, the emperor of his time, being a descendant of Aeneas, was also descended from the gods, since Aeneas was said to be the son of Venus.
Part of the story of Troy, or Ilium, is told in the Iliad of Homer, the great Greek poet. We read there of the fierce struggles which took place before the walls of the city, of deeds of strength and valour, and particularly of the final combat between the great heroes Hector the Trojan and Achilles the Greek, in which the Trojan was killed. In spite of many successes in the field, the Greeks were unable to gain an entry into the city, nor were the Trojans able to drive the Greeks from the shore, and it seemed as if neither side would ever secure the victory.
At last Ulysses, a Greek prince who was renowned for his cunning, formed a plan for entering the city and thus finally bringing to an end the war that had lasted for ten years. The Greeks built a wooden horse of such size that a number of men could be hidden within its hollow sides. This horse, filled with fighting men led by Ulysses, was left on the shore, while the army embarked in their ships and sailed away as if tired of the endless struggle. The Greeks also left behind a cunning slave, named Sinon, who was to play an important part in the plot. The Trojans, overjoyed at the departure of the Greeks, flocked down to the shore and crowded round the enormous wooden horse, full of wonderment at its strangeness. Many wished to drag it into the city at once, while some were filled with suspicion and urged their companions to distrust anything made by their enemies. Sinon, when questioned by the Trojans, pretended that he had been ill-treated by the Greeks, and spoke with hatred and anger against them. He explained that the horse was an offering to the sea god, Neptune, whose help the Greeks would need on their journey home, and he advised the Trojans to seize it and take it into the city. In spite even of those who suggested that armed men might be hidden in the horse, the Trojans dragged it into the city with great triumph, pulling down part of the wall to admit it, since it was too large to go through the gates.
Then followed a night of feast and revelry; the Trojans in their excitement laid aside their armour and their weapons, and gave themselves up to wild merrymaking. The smoky flare of the torches lit up a scene of mad delight. Suddenly shouts of alarm arose on every side, followed by the clash of weapons. Armed men poured in on the astonished Trojans, and in a short time Troy was in the hands of the Greeks. Under cover of the darkness and the noise Ulysses and his companions had crept from their hiding-place, had overpowered the careless sentries, and opened the gates for the Greek army, whose ships had returned in the night. Thus, through the help of the clever Ulysses, the Greeks overcame the army that had so often beaten them in the field, and by a trick brought to a victorious end the great Trojan war, for which the Goddess Venus had been responsible, as we shall read in a later chapter.
The Old English name for the month of April was Oster-monath or Easter-monath, because it was the month sacred to Eastre, or Ostara, the Goddess of Spring; the same name is still kept by the Germans, who call it Ostermonath. The time of year known as Easter is named after this goddess, and though Easter is now a Christian festival, it was in the first place a feast held by the Saxons in honour of their goddess Eastre. It was the custom for the people to give one another presents of coloured eggs, because the egg is supposed to represent the beginning of life, and the feast was held in the spring-time, when Nature awakes to a new life from the death of winter. The custom, which we still have, of sending Easter eggs to our friends, is therefore a very, very old one indeed.
April In History
Light the Signal!
In April 1775, it became apparent that the British in Boston were planning a campaign to seize arms, ammunition, and other stores stockpiled by American patriots in Concord, Massachusetts, and possibly, to arrest members of the illegal Provincial Congress. The question was, Which route would the British take from Boston to Concord?
In mid-April, Paul Revere, as a member of the Sons of Liberty Committee of Safety, arranged with the sexton of Boston’s Old North Church, Robert Newman, for a simple system of signals: the number of lanterns lit in the belfry would indicate how the British would be advancing toward Concord. One lantern would signify that the British would come by land, via Boston Neck; two lanterns, that they would come by water, by first crossing the Charles River to Cambridge.
On the evening of April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren summoned Revere and told him that the British planned to move that night, going by way of the Charles River. He asked Revere to travel to Lexington to warn leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock that their imminent arrest was likely.
After the meeting, Revere set plans in motion for two lanterns to be lit in the Old North Church. (Robert Newman and vestryman Captain John Pulling carried the lanterns to the steeple while Thomas Bernard stood watch outside.) Then, after a brief stop at home to dress appropriately, Revere was rowed across the Charles River, after which he traveled to Charlestown to meet with the Sons of Liberty to ensure that they saw the signal. He next borrowed a horse and headed off to Lexington, on his famous “midnight ride.”
Other patriots, including William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, spread the news along other routes.
Paul Revere’s Ride
The 1861 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which begins with Listen, my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, contains historical inaccuracies. For example, Revere did not cry out his alarm through the nighttime ride, but spread the news as quietly as possible. He was on a secret mission and had to avoid British patrols.
Although he narrowly avoided several encounters, his luck ran out when he, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott traveled to Concord to ensure that the military stores there had been hidden. Along the way, they were stopped by a patrol. Dawes, and later Prescott, escaped, but Revere was recaptured and questioned, often at gunpoint, for hours; he never made it to Concord. Prescott did, however, alerting the militia there.
On April 19, in the wee hours of the morning, Revere, along with a few other prisoners, was returned to Lexington and released. He then went over to another part of town to assist Adams and Hancock in their relocation. He was helping to move a trunk of Hancock’s that contained papers when the sound of gunshots between British troops and minutemen came from the town green. He did not know who had fired first.
Source
The Old Farmers Almanac
Ten Facts You Didn’t Know About the Month of April
Does April Make You Feel Foolish?
In the northern hemisphere April is a most confusing month; rainy and wet one day, the next full of a warm promise of green growth to come. Besides the weather, the month is full of surprises and contradictions, prized for rebirth and endings, and a birth month to amazing geniuses and crazed despots both, making fun of astrological predictions.
You must love April. It is just like life.
1. April Is Named for Aphrodite
April is named after the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. In the Roman calendar, the fourth month April is spelled Aprilis, meaning “to open.” Festivals which were planned for April included Parrilla, a day celebrating the founding of Rome.
The name Aprilis, then, fits April, because in so many places in the northern hemisphere April is the month when trees and flowers begin to bloom and go on to flower.
2. April’s Zodiac Signs Are Four-Legged Hooved Creatures
Two signs in the traditional Zodiac calendar fall in April, both of which are domestic animals, quadrupeds with cloven hoofs. People born in the first part of the month between March 21st and April 19th are said to be born under the sign of Aries the Ram, a Sun sign which is ruled by the planet and the Roman god of War, Mars. Those born from April 20th to May 20th are born under Taurus the Bull, an Earth sign who is ruled by the planet and the Roman goddess of love, Venus. No wonder people born on the cusp (between April 19th and 20th) are just confused.
3. April’s Honorary Flowers are Daisies and Sweet Peas
Two flowers signify the month of April: the daisy and the sweet pea. The daisy symbolizes innocence, loyal love, and purity; but it also means “I’ll never tell!” The oldest daisy on record is the Bellis perennis, known as Daeges eage (or Day’s eye) in the Middle Ages because its petals close at night to cover the yellow center.
Today there are more than 90 varieties of flowers that are called daisies and they come in red, yellow, purple, orange, blue, and pink colored petals, and vary widely in size. But they are, as director/writer Nora Ephron once wrote, “the friendliest flower.”
The sweat pea signifies blissful pleasure, and are used to say goodbye. Sweet peas may be a pretty flower, but they are also one of the oldest food crops on our planet, domesticated by humans about 11,000 years ago.
4. The Diamond Is April’s Birth Stone
The birthstone for people born in April is the diamond, one of the hardest substances on earth, and one that formed deep in the earth, even if we don’t know how long ago that happened. The word diamond comes from the early Greek word adamas, meaning untamable and related to our word adamant. That’s because the Greeks knew a tough customer when they saw one. Among the earliest historical mentions of diamonds is found in the book of Exodus, where diamond (jahalom in Hebrew) is mentioned as one of twelve engraved precious stones set in the breastplate of the high priest.
Diamonds are said to bring all kinds of benefits to their owners, supposedly leading the wearer to experience better relationships and an increase in inner strength. They are supposed to bring balance, clarity, and abundance, and it is symbolic of eternal love and the bringer of wealth to six centuries of the diamond trade.
5. Poet William Wordsworth Was Born in April
The English poet William Wordsworth was born April 7, 1770, and one of his best-known poems is perfect for April in the northern hemisphere: “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” which he first published in 1807. Here’s a little snippet for an April day:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
6. Noah Webster Copyrighted the First Edition of His Dictionary in April
The famous language expert Noah Webster was a bit of an April fool: one of his dearest wishes was to reform English spelling for Americans, to make it simpler and more obvious. While millions of school children could definitely go for that; Webster’s proposals included removing all double vowels. Bread would be spelled bred, friend would become frend; tuf for tuf, laf for laugh, kee for key, and speek for speak. He also wanted us to spell machine masheen and pique peek.
His successes included changing plough for plow and draught for draft; but if you’re a poor speller, you might just peek your frends and attribute that to your fondness for April’s Noah Webster.
7. Leonardo da Vinci Was Born in April
What can you possibly say about Leonardo in 100 words? He was a painter, a scientist who painted many pieces of religious art, he was fascinated by the flight of birds and the mechanisms of guns. He was a Renaissance genius for his and any other time, capable of turning his hand to anything. And he was born in April.
8. William Shakespeare Born and Died in April
The Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare was another April genius, born on April 23, 1564, and died on or about his April birthday at the age of 52 in England in 1616. He may have stolen whole plots and plot twists from his fellow playwrights and ancient history, but his prose and poetic output is unmatched for originality and complexity, and still revered today.
9. Adolf Hitler Was Born in April
The Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names now contains 4.5 million names of Holocaust
Just in case you were thinking that only marvelously talented people and gifted people were born in April, Adolf Hitler, surely one of the most depraved leaders ever, was born in Austria on April 20th, 1889. His brand of crazy involved world domination and extreme mass murder that makes you wish there was a better word than “mass murder.” Maybe it was that “cusp” thing.
10. A Snippet of a Poem for April by Sara Teasdale
There are so many different poems written for April that it’s hard to pick. Here’s one from Sara Teasdale, called April Song.
Willow, in your April gown
Delicate and gleaming,
Do you mind in years gone by
All my dreaming?
Spring was like a call to me
That I could not answer,
I was chained to loneliness,
I, the dancer.
Willow, twinkling in the sun,
Still your leaves and hear me,
I can answer spring at last,
Love is near me!
Source
Dixie Allan
Published on ThoughtCo
The witches are firm believers in reincarnation, and they say that ‘once a witch always a witch.’
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