Spell for Today – Printable

May 17 Astronomy Picture of the Day

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.

2022 May 17

NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide

Image Credit & Copyright: Capture: Greg Turgeon; Processing: Kiko Fairbairn

Explanation: Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of startling sights like NGC 1316. Investigations indicate that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy that started, about 100 million years ago, to devour a smaller spiral galaxy neighbor, NGC 1317, just on the upper right. Supporting evidence includes the dark dust lanes characteristic of a spiral galaxy, and faint swirls and shells of stars and gas visible in this wide and deep image. One thing that >remains unexplained is the unusually small globular star clusters, seen as faint dots on the image. Most elliptical galaxies have more and brighter globular clusters than NGC 1316. Yet the observed globulars are too old to have been created by the recent spiral collision. One hypothesis is that these globulars survive from an even earlier galaxy that was subsumed into NGC 1316. Another surprising attribute of NGC 1316, also known as Fornax A, is its giant lobes of gas that glow brightly in radio waves.

Greek Temples of Sicily

There are at least a thousand reasons to visit Sicily, the great island – indeed the largest in the Mediterranean – that forms the triangular football to the boot that is the Italian peninsula. They are all very good reasons, including amazing landscapes, a uniquely complex and delicious cuisine, a history that is diverse and multifaceted beyond belief, excellent wines, a vast array of archaeological sites, an even vaster one of historical towns and villages. But one key reason to visit the island is missing from the list above: Greek temples!

Greek temples are one of the earliest well-defined expressions of what we now recognise as the Western tradition in architecture, and one of the most influential ones by a vast margin to this day. They go back to the 8th or 7th centuries BCE, and, as the name entails, they are indeed a key achievement of the Archaic Greeks. They originated in what is the south of modern Greece, namely the Peloponnese and Central Greece, where Greek temple architecture appears to have its main roots, probably derived from local wooden predecessors.

The Greek mainland’s architectural style is the Doric one, considered to be the most austere and ‘male’ in character. The eastern Aegean and Asia Minor were famous for their own development, the more elegant and ‘female’ Ionic style, conceived about a century after the Doric one. Its most prominent examples at Samos, Ephesus, and Didyma (much better preserved than the other two) are also marked by their …

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A Laugh for Today

Wishing you a fantastic Tuesday!

A Thought for Today

Until we meet again dear sisters, brothers, and honored guests may you blessed be.

Spell for Today – Ringing in the Muses Spell

Ringing in the Muses Spell

Materials
5 small bells
1 yard each yellow, red, blue, green, and purple ribbon

Thread a bell on each length of ribbon, then tie the first four ribbons to tree branches in the order listed above, saying with each:

To ring these bells,
all breezes blow
Carry their sounds
both high and low
To wake the Muses from
Their rest
Heed ye now this firm request

Then tie the purple ribbon to a branch, saying something like:

From East and South and
West and North
Muses hear me: now come forth
From South and West and
North and East
Inspiration now release
From West and North and
East and South
Creative powers bud and sprout
From North and East
and South and West
Heed my call and this request
As these bells ring in the breeze
Let ideas flow forth with ease
Bring inspiration with the wind—
In constant stream without an end—

Unleash Your creativity
Muses, bring it now to me

Creative blocks will begin to dissipate within twenty-four hours.

Everyday Moon Magic: Spells & Rituals for Abundant Living (Everyday Series)
Dorothy Morrison

May 16 Astronomy Picture of the Day

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.

2022 May 16

Milky Way over French Alp Hoodoos

Image Credit & Copyright: Benjamin Barakat

Explanation: Real castles aren’t this old. And the background galaxy is even older. Looking a bit like an alien castle, the pictured rock spires are called hoodoos and are likely millions of years old. Rare, but found around the world, hoodoos form when dense rocks slow the erosion of softer rock underneath. The pictured hoodoos survive in the French Alps and are named Demoiselles Coiffées — which translates to English as “Ladies with Hairdos“. The background galaxy is part of the central disk of our own Milky Way galaxy and contains stars that are typically billions of years old. The photogenic Cygnus sky region — rich in dusty dark clouds and red glowing nebulas — appears just above and behind the hoodoos. The featured image was taken in two stages: the foreground was captured during the evening blue hour, while the background was acquired from the same location later that night.

A Laugh for Today

Wishing you a mundane Monday!

A Thought for Today

Until we meet again dear sisters, brothers, and honored guests may you blessed be.

Spell for Today – Printable

May 15 Astronomy Picture of the Day

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.

2022 May 15

Colors of the Moon

Image Credit & Copyright: Marcella Giulia Pace

Explanation: What color is the Moon? It depends on the night. Outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, the dark Moon, which shines by reflected sunlight, appears a magnificently brown-tinged gray. Viewed from inside the Earth’s atmosphere, though, the moon can appear quite different. The featured image highlights a collection of apparent colors of the full moon documented by one astrophotographer over 10 years from different locations across Italy. A red or yellow colored moon usually indicates a moon seen near the horizon. There, some of the blue light has been scattered away by a long path through the Earth’s atmosphere, sometimes laden with fine dust. A blue-colored moon is more rare and can indicate a moon seen through an atmosphere carrying larger dust particles. What created the purple moon is unclear — it may be a combination of several effects. The last image captures the total lunar eclipse of 2018 July — where the moon, in Earth’s shadow, appeared a faint red — due to light refracted through air around the Earth. Today there is not only another full moon but a total lunar eclipse visible to observers in North and South America — an occurrence that may lead to some unexpected lunar colorings.

May 15 Today in History and the Word of the Day

Today’s Important Historical Events

1252 Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition

1618 German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws his “harmonics law”

1869 National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1940 Richard and Maurice McDonald open the 1st McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California

1951 AT&T becomes the 1st US corporation to have a million stockholders after young car salesman Brady Denton purchases 7 shares worth $1,078

1988 USSR begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan

Today’s Historical Events

756 Abd-al-Rahman I becomes emir of Cordova, Spain

884 Marinus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope

1004 Henry II the Saint crowned King of Italy

1213 King John of England names Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury

1222 Mongolian leader Genghis Khan meets the leader of the Taoist Dragon Gate sect Chang Chun at his camp in Parwan (Afghanistan)

1248 Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden lays cornerstone for Cologne Cathedral

1252 Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition

1492 Cheese & Bread rebellion: German mercenaries kill 232 residents of Alkmaar, Netherlands

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV

1928 Mickey Mouse makes his 1st ever appearance in silent film “Plane Crazy”

1954 KGLO (now KIMT) TV channel 3 in Mason City, IA (CBS) 1st broadcast

1955 KPUA (now KGMD) TV channel 9 in Hilo, HI (CBS) begins broadcasting

1958 “Gigi” based on the story by Colette, directed by Vincent Minnelli and starring Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier premieres in New York (Best Picture 1959)

1959 12th Cannes Film Festival: “Black Orpheus” directed by Marcel Camus wins the Palme d’Or

1960 KHVO TV channel 13 in Hilo, HI (ABC) begins broadcasting

1960 “L’Avventura”, Italian film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, starring Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti. premieres at Cannes

1961 “Bonanza” by Al Caiola Orchestra hits #19

Today’s Historical Events in Music

1858 Royal Italian Opera opens in Covent Garden, London

1891 Jules Massenet‘s opera “Grisélidis” premieres in Paris

1914 Henri Rabaud’s opera “Marouf, savetier de Caire” premieres in Paris

1941 Nazi occupiers in Netherlands forbid Jewish music

1960 Dmitri Shostakovich‘s 7th String quartet premieres in Leningrad

1967 Paul McCartney meets his future wife Linda Eastman

1971 “70, Girls, 70” closes at Broadhurst Theater, NYC, after 35 performances

1972 “Hard Job Being God” opens at Edison Theater, NYC; runs for 6 performances

Today’s Historical Events in Sports

1862 First baseball enclosure opens at Union Grounds, Brooklyn

1876 2nd Kentucky Derby: Bobby Swim aboard Vagrant wins in 2:38.25

1894 20th Kentucky Derby: Frank Goodale aboard Chant wins in 2:41

1906 NY Giants’ Hooks Wiltse strikes out 4 batters in 1 inning

1912 37th Preakness: Clarnence Turner on Colonel Holloway wins in 1:56.6

1912 Ty Cobb rushes a heckler at a NY Highlander game & is suspended

1918 43rd Preakness: Johnny Loftus aboard War Cloud wins in 1:53.6

1918 Washington Senator Walter Johnson pitches 1-0, 18 inning game

Today’s Word is

Majestic

Brought to you by wordoftheday.net

Majestic / adjective / muh·jeh·stuhk

We use the word “majestic” in the English language to represent people, places, and things that have an elegant or stately quality. “Majestic” is a term that describes otherworldly greatness, grace, style, and outstanding beauty or form. English speakers often use the word “majestic” to describe things related to royalty and regality. Familiar terminology uses the word “majestic” to address royal kings and Queens as his or her “majesty.”

In a Sentence

It surprised them to see the “majestic” looking yacht emerge from the ocean.

The King and Queen of the palace always dress in a “majestic” fashion.

The Taj Mahal is one of the most “majestic” buildings in existence.

Etymology

English-speakers find the first instance of the word “majestic” showing up around the end of the late-15th century. Etymologists say the word “majestic” has Latin origins and first entered language around 1570. The original definition of “majestic” refers to outstanding and out-of-this world characteristics or behavior synonymous with exceptionality, dignity, and grace. “Majestic” still carries the original definition assigned in the 1500s.

Synonym

Classy, Courtly

Antonym

Dowdy, Graceless

A Laugh for Today

I hope you can enjoy a kicked back Sunday! I will be when I am done posting for today.

A Thought for Today

Until we meet again dear sisters, brothers, and honored guests may you blessed be.

May 14 I Ching, Numerology, Angel Number, Animal Spirit Guide or Helper

I thought instead of doing specific numbers for I Ching, numerology, and angel number today I would post something with a wider meaning for each. Also, a variety of animal spirit meanings.

I Ching

Numerology

Angel Number

Animal Spirit Guide or Helper

Spell for Today – Printable