Namaste and Blessed be dear Sisters, Brothers, and Honored Guests.
Namaste can be used to say ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’. This is because it does not mean either ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ but ‘I bow to the divine in you’. So, it is a respectful and positive thing to say both in greeting and in parting.
(I am sorry I did not get this up on December 24 the day it started)
The Birch was seen by the Druids as the tree of birth – a symbol of new beginnings. Beth, meaning birch, is the first letter in the Ogham alphabet and the first month in the Celtic Tree Calendar.
The birch tree has many uses both medicinal and practical.
Birch wood is durable but quick to rot, making it a good home for insects and birdlife.
It was often used to make May poles and start the fires at Beltane, the festival of new beginnings, due to a highly combustible tar in its bark.
This tar is furthermore believed to be good for the skin and can be used to treat eczema.
Birch is also associated with purification and protection. The leaves of the birch can be brewed into a tea that treats infection, stimulates the gall bladder and kidneys and is said to dissolve gravel and kidney stones.
In Scandinavia birch is used in saunas to stimulate the purification process and in Russia birch branches are beaten against the skin at steam rooms for the same purpose. This practice was also used as a punishment in old England to purify a criminal of evil.
You can use this link to go forward or backward in time for Moon phase information. If you are curious you can even find out what phase the Moon was in when you or anyone else, you know was on the date the person was born.
The Moon’s current phase for today and tonight is 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 an illumination of 50%. The average Moon rise for this phase is between 9pm 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.
Visit the December 2021 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.
The Waning Gibbous on December 26 has an illumination of 56%. This is the percentage of the Moon illuminated by the Sun. The illumination is constantly changing and can vary up to 10% a day. On December 26 the Moon is 21.54 days old. This refers to how many days it has been since the last New Moon. It takes 29.53 days for the Moon to orbit the Earth and go through the lunar cycle of all 8 Moon phases.
There are 8 lunar phases the Moon goes through in its 29.53 days lunar cycle. The 4 major Moon phases are Full Moon, New Moon, First Quarter and Last Quarter. Between these major phases, there are 4 minor ones: the Waxing Crescent, Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous and Waning Crescent. For more info on the Moon Cycle and on each phase check out Wikipedia Lunar Phase page.
Check the weather before a night of Moon gazing at weather.com
For a list of all the current meteor showers visit American Meteor Society
If you need to calculate the planetary positions for a specific use and time, click on this link
To figure out GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to your local time use this link
The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Frankfurt, Germany, Europe
26 December 2021
04:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM CEST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)
The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Chicago, Illinois, USA
December 26, 2021
11:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM CST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)
Ceres:29 Taurus 12 Rx
Pallas:15 Pisces 15
Juno:15 Capricorn 26
Vesta:21 Sagittarius 49
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.
2021 December 26
Explanation: There’s a big new telescope in space. This one, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), not only has a mirror over five times larger than Hubble‘s in area, but can see better in infrared light. The featured picture shows JWST high above the Earth just after being released by the upper stage of an Ariane V rocket, launched yesterday from French Guiana. Over the next month, JWST will move out near the Sun-Earth L2 point where it will co-orbit the Sun with the Earth. During this time and for the next five months, JWST will unravel its segmented mirror and an array of sophisticated scientific instruments — and test them. If all goes well, JWST will start examining galaxies across the universe and planets orbiting stars across our Milky Way Galaxy in the summer of 2022.
APOD Gallery: Webb Space Telescope Launch
1492 1st Spanish settlement La Navidad in the New World is founded by Christopher Columbus (modern Môle-Saint-Nicolas in Haiti)
1792 Trial of French King Louis XVI, court hears the kings defense brought by Raymond Desèze
1825 Decembrist uprising in Russia against Tsar Nicholas I begins [O.S. 14 December]
2004 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and edges of the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people
268 Saint Dionysius, Roman Pope (259-260), dies
795 Leo III is elected to serve as Pope on the day his predecessor was buried and is consecrated the following day
1198 French bishop Odo van Sully condemns Zottenfeest
1481 Battle at Westbroek: Dutch army beats Utrecht
1492 1st Spanish settlement La Navidad in the New World is founded by Christopher Columbus (modern Môle-Saint-Nicolas in Haiti)
1568 Uprising of Morisco’s against suppression in Granada
1606 First known performance of William Shakespeare‘s tragedy “King Lear” before the court of King James I at Whitehall, London
1659 Long Parliament reforms in Westminster
1924 Frances Gumm (later Judy Garland), age 2½, billed as ‘Baby Frances’, makes her show business debut
1928 Johnny Weissmuller announces his retirement from amateur swimming
1940 “The Philadelphia Story” film directed by George Cukor, based on the Broadway play of the same name, starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart, is released (Academy Awards Best Actor 1941)
1951 “The African Queen”, directed by John Huston and based on the 1935 novel of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, is released in LA, California (Academy Awards Best Actor 1952)
1960 Musical “Do re mi” with Phil Silvers premieres St James Theater in NYC
1967 BBC broadcasts The Beatles psychedelic travelogue “Magical Mystery Tour”
1973 Horror film “The Exorcist” based on book and screenplay by William Peter Blatty, starring Linda Blair, rated X, premieres – 1st horror film to be nominated for Best Picture
1830 Gaetano Donizetti’s opera “Anna Bolena” premieres in Milan
1831 Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “Norma” premieres in Milan
1871 Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years.
1879 Johannes Brahms‘ “Tragic Ouverture” premieres
1892 Opera “Cristoforo Colombo” is produced (La Scala)
1931 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical play “Of Thee I Sing” by George and Ira Gershwin premieres on Broadway, New York City
1936 Israel’s Philarmonic Orchestra forms
1946 “Beggar’s Holiday” opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 111 performances
1860 First ever inter-club football match between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at Sandygate Road ground in Sheffield, England
1908 African-American boxer Jack Johnson stops Canadian defending champion Tommy Burns in the 14th round in Sydney, Australia, to become the first black man to win world heavyweight title; Burns is favourite in 12th title defence but Johnson dominates before police stop the bout
1917 1st NHL defensemen to score a goal: Toronto Maple Leaf Harry Cameron
1918 1st day of 1st-class cricket in Aust after WW I (Vic v NSW)
1919 Yankees and Boston Red Sox reach agreement to move future Baseball Hall of Fame pitching slugger Babe Ruth to New York
1925 1st East-West Shrine Bowl game of college football ‘all-stars’ played before 25,000 fans at Ewing Park, San Francisco. Proceeds continue to benefit Shriners Hospitals for Children.
1925 NY Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates set an NHL record by recording a combined 141 shots on goal in Americans’ 3-1 win; Roy Worters makes incredible 70 saves for Pittsburgh and Jake Forbes has 67 for NY
1928 Johnny Weissmuller announces his retirement from amateur swimming
Witches Of The Craft® 
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