The Witches Correspondences for Wednesday, May 4th

GOTHIC

WEDNESDAY CORRESPONDENCES

Mercury/Neptune/Air/North/West/Southwest/Female/Male/Gemini/Virgo

 

Magickal Intentions: Communication, Divination, Writing, Knowledge, Business Transactions, Debt, Fear, Loss, Travel, Money Matters

Color: black, light blue, brown, gray, green, magenta, orange, peach, purple, red, silver, turquoise, violet, white, yellow; orange is the primary color

Number: 3, 5

Metal: mercury

Charm: distaff, rod, runes, staff, iridescent garments

Stone: moss agate, amethyst, bloodstone, emerald, hematite, lapis lazuli, lodestone, pearl, ruby, sapphire, sodalite, all blue stones

Animal: bear, dog, fox, magpie, swan, weasel

Plant: almond, bayberry, chamomile, cherry, cinnamon, cinquefoil, clove, coltsfoot, ginger, hazel, hazelnut, jasmine, lavender, millet, oak, peppermint, periwinkle, rosemary, sage, St. John’s wort, sweet pea, tamarind, lemon verbena, violet

Incense: cassia, cedar, cinnamon, clove, frankincense, jasmine, lavender, mastic, mint, rosemary, sage, sandalwood, storax, dried and powdered citrus peel, and all incense made from aromatic bark, wood, and seeds

Goddess: Carmenta, Hecate (Queen of Crossroads), Hel, Ishtar, Ma’at, the Morrigan, Nike

God: Anubis, Bragi, Elath-Iahu. Enki, Garuda, Hermes, Maximon (Black Magician), Mercury, Nebo (Wise God of Wednesday), Odin, Shango, Ullr, Vishnu, Wayland, Woden

Evocation: Agrat Bat Mahalat, Michael, Miel, Raphael, Seraphiel, Tiriel

Source

Moonlight Musings

The Witches Almanac for Wednesday, May 4th

Trapped for the Craft
The Witches Almanac for Wednesday, May 4th

Wednesday (Mercury): The conscious mind, study, travel, divination, and wisdom.

Bona Dea (Roman)

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).

Moon phase: Fourth Quarter

Moon Sign: Aries
Aries: Good for starting things, but lacks staying power. Things occur rapidly, but quickly pass. People tend to be argumentative and assertive.

Incense: Marjoram

Color: White

Wednesday’s Witchery

Wiccan Practice

Wednesday’s Witchery

Be bold and daring today! Expand your knowledge of the Craft by working with the planetary energies of Mercury on this multifaceted day of the week. Consider the Greco-Roman gods Mercury and Hermes and all of the many lessons they have for you. Embrace change and movement, and work on your communication techniques. Conjure up a little good luck for yourself with that Mercury dime spell. Call on Athena to inspire you to try magickal arts and crafts and to be more creative in your own spellwork and witchery.

 
Meditate on Odin and see what you can discover about him. I wonder what sort of fabulous and fascinating magickal wisdom you will uncover? Odin is a shaman, after all; he may appear in many guises and faces. I guarantee that he will make you laugh at yourself before he is through with you, but you will learn. It’s up to you what you do with that knowledge. Will you let it shapeshift into wisdom?
Wednesday is the wild and wily day of the week, so try to go with the flow; don’t fight the quirky energies of the day. Most importantly, follow your heart, and always keep a good sense of humor, because of Wednesdays you will really need it.

 

Source

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

 

Wednesday’s Conjuring

Harm None
Wednesday’s Conjuring

Wednesday – is associated with Mercury

Candle colors – Purple

Magickal Conjuring for the Day: Mastery, Domination Work, Wisdom, Healing, Dealing with Legal problems.

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

Wednesday, May 4

Wiccan
Wednesday, May 4

Wednesday is the day of the Teutonic deity known as Wodin or Odin, an aspect of the Allfather, god of knowledge, wisdom, enlightenment and combat, the parallel of Hermes, the planet Mercury.

Deity: Woden

Zodiac Sign: Gemini & Virgo

Planet: Mercury

Tree: Ash

Herb: Cinquefoil

Stone: Emerald & Sardonyx

Animal: Raven & Cat

Element: Air

Color: Red & Blue

Number: 6

Rune: Odal(O)

Celtic Tree Month of Saille (Willow) – April 15th thru May 12. The Willow tree is associated with healing and growth. During this phase, work on rituals, involving healing, growth of knowledge, nurturing, and women’s mysteries.

Runic Half Month of Lagu (April 29 – May 13)

Goddess of the Month of Maia April 18 thru May 15

Source

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

The Sky This Week: May 4 – May 8

Wiccan Priestess

The Sky This Week: May 4 – May 8

 

Wednesday, May 4
Another comet in the growing throng of such objects discovered by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii makes its appearance in May’s morning sky. Comet PANSTARRS (C/2013 X1) currently glows at 7th magnitude near the border between Pisces and Aquarius. From most of the United States, you’ll need a clear, flat eastern horizon to spot the comet through a telescope just before dawn breaks.

 
Thursday, May 5
One of this year’s best meteor showers reaches its peak today. The Eta Aquariid shower derives from bits of debris ejected by Comet 1P/Halley during its many trips around the Sun. When Earth crosses this debris stream, our planet’s atmosphere incinerates the tiny dust particles and we see the streaks of light called meteors, or “shooting stars.” With New Moon arriving tomorrow, conditions are ideal. Shortly before dawn today and tomorrow, an observer at a dark site can expect to see up to 20 meteors per hour — an average of one every 3 minutes. Viewers in the Southern Hemisphere, where the shower’s radiant (in the constellation Aquarius) passes nearly overhead, should see twice as many.

 

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

 

Your Daily Sun & Moon Data for Wednesday, May 4th

Wiccan Priestess

Your Daily Sun & Moon Data for Wednesday, May 4th

Sun
Sun Direction: ↑ 119.42° ESE
Sun Altitude: 55.88°
Sun Distance: 93.750 million mi
Next Solstice: Jun 20, 2016 5:34 PM (Summer)
Sunrise Today: 5:56 AM↑ 69° East
Sunset Today: 7:47 PM↑ 291° Northwest
Length of Daylight: 13 hours, 50 minutes

 

Moon
Moon Direction: ↑ 176.61° S
Moon Altitude: 55.97°
Moon Distance: 223660 mi
Next New Moon: May 6, 20162:29 PM
Next Full Moon: May 21, 20164:14 PM
Next Moonset: Today5:26 PM
Current Moon Phase: Waning Crescent
Illumination: 6.9%

 

Source

timeandate.com

 

A Very Good Wednesday Morning To All! May The Goddess Bless You & Yours On This Beautiful Day!

Blessed Be ...
(I know most of you have seen this poem several times but it is one of my favorites. Hope you don’t mind!)

Amazing Grace

Amazing grace, how sweet the Earth
that bore a witch like me!
I once was burned, now I survive,
was hung and now I sing.

T’was grace that drew down the moon
and grace that raised the seas.
The magic in the people’s will
will set our Mother free.

We face the East and breathe the winds
that move across this earth.
From gentle breeze to hurricane
our breath will bring forth the change.

Turn towards the South and feel the fire
that burns in you and me.
The spirit’s flame will rise again
and burn eternally.

We greet the West, our souls awash
in tides of primal birth.
Our tears and blood, our pain and love
will cleanse and heal the earth.

Reach into the North and know your roots
down deep ancestral caves.
We find the wisdom of the Crone,
Of circles we are made.

Amazing earth, enduring life,
from death into rebirth.
T’is earth I am and earth I love
and earth I’ll always be.

Amazing grace, how sweet the Earth
that bore witches like we.
We once were burned, now we survive,
were hung and now we sing.

Goddess bless, so mote it be,
Our magic spirals on.
Merry meet and merry part
and merry meet again.

—-Verna Knapp

Published on Pagan Library

Chinese skullcap herb

More ethnobotany at work!

Scientists have recently unravelled one of the secrets of a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine.  The Chinese skullcap – known as Huang-Qin – is traditionally used for fever, liver, and lung problems.They have discovered that the plant uses a special pathway to make chemicals with potential cancer-fighting properties.

They say it is a step towards being able to scale up production to make new drugs.

Prof Cathie Martin, of the John Innes Centre in Norwich, is lead researcher of the study, published in Science Advances.

Working in collaboration with Chinese scientists, her team deduced how the plant, Scutellaria baicalensi, synthesises the chemicals, known as flavones.

Flavones are found widely in the plant kingdom, giving some plants vivid blue flowers.

The root is thought to have anti-viral properties
Image copyright: Qing Zhao, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Image caption: The root is thought to have anti-viral properties

“Understanding the pathway should help us to produce these special flavones in large quantities, which will enable further research into their potential medicinal uses,” said Prof Martin.

“It’s exciting to consider that the plants which have been used as traditional Chinese remedies for thousands of years may lead to effective modern medicines.”

Ancient remedy

Previous lab research suggests that flavones have anti-cancer properties, offering hope that they may one day lead to effective cancer treatments.

Commenting on the study, Dr Alan Worsley of Cancer Research UK, said: “This paper answers a very interesting biological question about how these plants are able to make particular molecules, but the study doesn’t look at whether the molecules can be used to treat cancer.

“Instead it looks at how this compound is made in nature, which may allow scientists to make more of it in the lab and be able to research its potential uses.”

This herb is a member of the mint family and native to China.

In traditional Chinese medicine, the root was used in combination with other plants to treat fever and other ailments.

With more concern being had for conventional medicine, there is increasing scientific interest in ancient medicinal plants and their traditional remedies.

A good example of this – in 2015, Tu Youyou was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for her work on artemisinin, an antimalarial drug derived from the sweet wormwood plant, Artemisia annua.  The fever-reducing properties of the plant were first recognised in the 4th Century by Chinese physicians.

For the original article, go here.

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for May 2nd

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There must be a great many persons who have questioned their own wisdom in having fought for a principle. To so many, it seems all they gleaned from it was the title “different”. Isn’t this why so many refuse to stand up for what they believe? We look at them in disbelief, the idea that someone is trying to attract attention. If they are not twitted about their actions they are treated with cold indifference which can be even worse.

It seems that if person have the strength to say they will fight for a certain truth, they must also have the strength to fight alone without depending on those around them to tell them how they should conform. They must not be embarrassed to be counted as unusual in the pursuit of their particular belief.

But the individuals who find themselves alone in the stand they take must remember that if it is truth they are following it will eventually win and at least they can live with themselves. Not everyone can say that.

H. W. Beecher has written, “It is often said it is no matter what a man believes if he is only sincere. But let a man sincerely believe that seed planted without ploughing is as good as with; that January is as favorable for seed-sowing as April; and that cockle seed will produce as good a harvest as wheat, and it is so?”

Sincerity, like trust, must be rooted in those basic truths that are for the good of everyone. If that which we sincerely believe in and live by is truly good, then the results will speak so loudly that all who really want to will see. Until we sincerely want to know good and do good, we will never know it. And until we do, we only half live.

__________________________________

Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Visit her web site to purchase the wonderful books by Joyce as gifts for yourself or for loved ones……and also for those who don’t have access to the Internet: http://www.hifler.com
Click Here to Buy her books at Amazon.com

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

Elder’s Meditation of the Day – May 2

Elder’s Meditation of the Day – May 2

“Think only about what is holy. Empty your mind.”

–Archie Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA

If we let our minds wander, we will come up with a lot of junk: maybe bad thoughts about a brother or sister, maybe angry thoughts, maybe self-pity thoughts. Our minds are not the boss. We can instruct our mind to think about whatever we want to think about. We cannot stop thinking, be we can choose what to think about. The Elders say we move towards what we think about. That’s why they say, “Think about what is holy, think about the Grandfathers, think about culture, think about values, think about ceremonies, and think about good.”

Great Spirit, today, empty my mind and let me experience what it would be like to think about what is holy.

May 2 – Daily Feast

May 2 – Daily Feast

Gramps spoke lovingly of the “fellows” that swam up to the dock where his fishing lines were dropped over the side. He talked to them as though they understood every word – and they took the hook. It is said of the fishermen that never catches anything that he never will. He keeps going but he keeps saying he is not lucky, and his spirit leads him to where there are no fish. He believes in chance, which all people believe when they don’t know their own spirits. Not only does it work this way when he is fishing but in all he tries to do.

~ In order to honor Him I must honor His works in nature. ~

BRAVE BUFFALO – SIOUX

“A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II” by Joyce Sequichie Hifler