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| Name: | Max |
Age: | Fifteen years old |
| Gender: | Male |
Kind: | Orange tabby |
| Home: | Braunlage, Germany |
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I‘m Johanna and I’m eleven years old. The name of my cat is Max and he’s fifteen years old, so he is even older than me. He is so sweet and I pet him every day. Sometimes I play with him and the other time he sleeps. He is getting pretty old for a cat, so that’s okay. Old people sleep a lot, too.
The special think about him, that makes him different from other cats is: He loves to eat Nutella and milk. As you can tell, he doesn’t mind getting picked up or carried around, and will even fall asleep there! But I love him most of all, because he is so sweet!!! |
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Tag: Germany
Dog-gone Doggie of the Day for March 3rd
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| Name: | Nelson |
Age: | Eight months old |
| Gender: | Male | Breed: | Toy Poodle |
| Home: | Rochester, New York, USA | ||
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After our eighteen year old poodle died I thought I could never love another dog. A few months later I was browsing on the internet and saw an ad for a Toy Poodle puppy. Even though I didn’t want another dog I kept looking at that ad. Finally I decided I had to meet this little puppy. Well I took one look at that adorable face and immediately fell in love. We’ve had Nelson for six months and he has brought so much joy into our lives. He loves to snuggle with me on the couch and there is never a shortage of kisses. When we come home he is always waiting at the door to greet us with a wagging tail and and a happy howl. Even though Nelson is only 5 1/2 pounds he’s a terrific watchdog and protects our yard from pesky squirrels. He has also become a wonderful big brother to our Dusky Conure Rocky. Nelson has proven that a house really is not a home without a Toy Poodle!
We have a web site at A Conure, A Poodle, and Two Parakeets! with more pictures! |
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Special Kitty of the Day for February 13th
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| Name: | Lucky |
Age: | Three years old |
| Gender: | Male |
Kind: | Tabby |
| Home: | Weisbach, Germany |
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Lucky is a very lovely cat, but three years ago Lucky has a bad time. When he was born, Lucky’s mum had left him and so I gave him potatoes and milk until we could get kitten food. Lucky is grey and black (he looks like a tiger). He loves to play with me, with other cats and to sleep in his basket. When I come home from school, Lucky waits for me and he picks me up from the bus. He is so special because he is simply unique and cuddly.
I love Lucky very much! |
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Dragon Magick
Dragon Magick
Western and Eastern European and Scandinavian dragons are the true fire dragons. They are primarily guardians of gold, described as the life blood of the earth, and live in caves. The Oriental dragons are mainly air and water dragons, associated with life-giving rain, with winds and storms and with gems and pearls, through there are the fiery kinds as well, as seen in processions.
Dragon magick uses the spiritual power associated with fire-breathing dragons to protect your own particular treasures. These treasures might be tangible ones like your home or your family. Less tangibly, treasure to you might represent speaking the truth or receiving honesty from others, the power to develop your career or heaing powers, or the ability to love or gain knowledge. Dragon magick is also good way of manifesting prosperity in your life, not for its own sake but in order to have the resources to do all the things you want to – and so that you don’t need to worry and can bring happiness to others.
For despite their bad press in Christian times as symbols of the earth mother, dragons are essentially wise and noble. Of course, physical dragons don’t exist. By means of visualization however, you can build up a connection the huge energy field of the dragon that exist spiritually, the same way the love and altruism are real.
Fire dragons are variously described as possessing all or some of the following: eagles’ feet, bat-like wings, the front legs of a lion, a reptile or dinosaur’s head with a huge mouth and teeth from which smoke and fire pours, huge scales, the horns of an antelope, a soft underbelly and a spade-like snake or lizard-like tail that may being close to the head.
Smaller fire drakes, found in the myths of France and Germany, don’t have wings, but are red and have fiery breath. They live in caves with their great hoards, the riches of the earth.
According to Bulgarian dragon lore, the male dragon is the fiery one and is a benign protector of humans and the crops, in contrast to his watery and less well-disposed sister. In this tradition, dragons have three heads and wings.
The ruler of the fire dragons is called Fafnir, whose name comes from the Norse and German culture. He was once a dwarf but was transformed into a dragon because of his love of the treasures he created and the metals he forged. He was killed by Sigrid Volsungr or Siegfried who burned himself, licked his fingers and so absorbed the dragon’s power to commune with the birds.
This isn’t a straightforward legend and has a lot to do with the overcoming of the earlier earth goddess power as typified by the dragons. Therefore, Fafnir shouldn’t be thought of as a greedy dwarf who became a dragon to be slain, as in the patriarchal, monk-recorded legends. Rather, Fafnir is lord of the dragons, who guards from the greedy and insensitive the power of the hidden treasures, whether these be of the goddess or your own potential. So if you do include Fafnir in your dragon chants recall his wonderful craftsmanship and how he conserves the minerals of the earth – not a bad lesson for modern times.
I couldn’t find a groundhog as “Pet Of The Day.” How ’bout a cute little bunny instead?
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| Name: | Rudi |
Age: | Unknown |
| Gender: | Male |
Kind: | German Giant Rabbit |
| Home: | Benneckenstein, Germany |
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This is my rabbit Rudi. He has this name because he is so big, like a little dog. He is a “Deutscher Riese” – a German Giant Rabbit.
We got Rudi in 2009. He came to us as a stray. One evening my dad said: “There is something white on the road.” And the next morning, my mum went into our garden and Rudi sat there! We knew that he came from our neighbours, but there he would have been slaughtered. Our neighbour told us: “You can keep him.” And so Rudi was and is still our rabbit. When it is warm, my sister and I let Rudi out in the garden and play with him. Then Rudi is very happy. He knocks with his feets and jumps into the sky. That is very funny and fun to watch. Rudi likes to eat very much and sometimes he grunts when we put some new food in his hutch. His favorite food is carrots. Sometimes he is impatient and so he nips but we know he is not bad tempered. I love Rudi very much!!! |
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Celebrations Around the World, Jan. 22
Erotic Festival Day
Festival of the Orgone
St. Vincent’s Day (patron of winegrowers, schoolgirls, vinegar makers)
Dance of the 7 Veils Day
Festival of Invoking & Banishing
Answer Your Cat’s Question Day
Ukranian Day
Saints Day
National Blond Brownie Day
St. Timothy’s Day (Greek)
Goddess Month of Hestia ends
Munich Ballet Festival begins
Hong Kong Arts Festival begins
Mayan Chronological Estimation: A Good Day For Those Who Walk In The Country.
Doggie of the Day for December 24th
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| Name: | William |
Age: | Four years old |
| Gender: | Male | Breed: | Toy Poodle |
| Home: | Perth, Australia | ||
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William is very special to us because he’s the first dog we’ve ever owned. He’s been so patient and understanding with us first-timers that it sometimes feels like he’s training us rather than the other way around.
He is very cheeky and energetic and loves nothing more than a good game with his squeaky ball. That ball is so precious to him and he’ll play with it for as long as we let him. Every day we have to find a new hiding place for it because William has a keen nose and an even keener memory, and he thinks it’s a terrific game to search every spot we’ve ever hidden it before. He remembers where it’s hidden better than we do! When we brought him home William was so small you could hold him in your cupped hands, but in hindsight every little quirk that made him special was already there. His personality is very endearing and he has a way of looking patiently at you when you talk, with his head cocked to the side, that makes you feel that he wants to understand. A few times he has even taught himself commands that we never set out to teach him. Saying “get it” and pointing means to get a toy and put it at our feet for throwing, but we never taught him that the way we did “sit” and “down”. He just picks up phrases if we use them often enough. We know he understands “get it” because if we point somewhere there’s no toy and tell him to get it, he’ll still run over and search in that area. I don’t know if all dogs do that, but as first time dog owners it was pretty amazing to us! It might sound like he’s got us wrapped around his little paw, but in truth William is a pretty well behaved little guy. He’s so smart and learns fast, especially if there are food rewards, but even if there’s just a kind word and a pat on offer. He loves to cuddle and it’s so funny to see him nodding off to sleep when you rub his little tummy. He can always make us laugh. We just plain love our little guy. William has become so special to us that we know we’ll never be without a dog again.  |
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Earth Science Photo of the Day for December 15th
Rainbow Over Nordlingen, Germany
December 15, 2011
Photographer: Jens Hackmann; Jens’ Web site
Summary Author: Jens Hackmann; Jim Foster
The panorama above shows a modest rainbow arching over Nordlingen, Germany as viewed late in the day on October 19, 2011. Regardless of how far or near a primary rainbow appears, its width is always approximately two degrees, and it always appears at an angle of about 42 degrees about the antisolar point.
Nordlingen is located in southern Germany, in the middle of the Nordlinger Ries, an impact meteor crater that’s estimated to be 50 million years old. In order to take this picture, I positioned myself at the top of the “Daniel,” a 230 ft (70 m) tall church steeple in the center of town. Note its shadow in the foreground.
Dragon Magick
Dragon Magick
Western and Eastern European and Scandinavian dragons are the true fire dragons. They are primarily guardians of gold, described as the life blood of the earth, and live in caves. The Oriental dragons are mainly air and water dragons, associated with life-giving rain, with winds and storms and with gems and pearls, through there are the fiery kinds as well, as seen in processions.
Dragon magick uses the spiritual power associated with fire-breathing dragons to protect your own particular treasures. These treasures might be tangible ones like your home or your family. Less tangibly, treasure to you might represent speaking the truth or receiving honesty from others, the power to develop your career or heaing powers, or the ability to love or gain knowledge. Dragon magick is also good way of manifesting prosperity in your life, not for its own sake but in order to have the resources to do all the things you want to – and so that you don’t need to worry and can bring happiness to others.
For despite their bad press in Christian times as symbols of the earth mother, dragons are essentially wise and noble. Of course, physical dragons don’t exist. By means of visualization however, you can build up a connection the huge energy field of the dragon that exist spiritually, the same way the love and altruism are real.
Fire dragons are variously described as possessing all or some of the following: eagles’ feet, bat-like wings, the front legs of a lion, a reptile or dinosaur’s head with a huge mouth and teeth from which smoke and fire pours, huge scales, the horns of an antelope, a soft underbelly and a spade-like snake or lizard-like tail that may being close to the head.
Smaller fire drakes, found in the myths of France and Germany, don’t have wings, but are red and have fiery breath. They live in caves with their great hoards, the riches of the earth.
According to Bulgarian dragon lore, the male dragon is the fiery one and is a benign protector of humans and the crops, in contrast to his watery and less well-disposed sister. In this tradition, dragons have three heads and wings.
The ruler of the fire dragons is called Fafnir, whose name comes from the Norse and German culture. He was once a dwarf but was transformed into a dragon because of his love of the treasures he created and the metals he forged. He was killed by Sigrid Volsungr or Siegfried who burned himself, licked his fingers and so absorbed the dragon’s power to commune with the birds.
This isn’t a straightforward legend and has a lot to do with the overcoming of the earlier earth goddess power as typified by the dragons. Therefore, Fafnir shouldn’t be thought of as a greedy dwarf who became a dragon to be slain, as in the patriarchal, monk-recorded legends. Rather, Fafnir is lord of the dragons, who guards from the greedy and insensitive the power of the hidden treasures, whether these be of the goddess or your own potential. So if you do include Fafnir in your dragon chants recall his wonderful craftsmanship and how he conserves the minerals of the earth – not a bad lesson for modern times.
Earth Science Pic of the Day for October 16th
Light Pollution and Moonlight Glint off of Langer See in Berlin, Germany
October 16, 2011
Photographers: Christopher Kyba and Thomas Ruhtz; Christopher’s Web site
Summary Author: Christopher Kyba
The above photo was taken while making light pollution measurements over Berlin, Germany as part of the Verlust der Nacht project. It nicely illustrates the differences between natural (moonlight) and artificial night lighting. It’s obvious that artificial street lights have different color spectra from that of moonlight; some street lamps emit discrete spectral lines rather than a continuous spectrum as produced by the Sun or Moon. Note the glint of moonlight off of Langer See, a part of Berlin’s Spree River system. The high reflectivity of water at large incident angles makes it very easy to distinguish the lake from the shoreline. Photo taken on July 14, 2011 — the Moon was one day shy of being fully illuminated.
A Tree Spell for Protection of Self and the Home
There are a number of variations of this traditional ritual. Especially in Scandinavia and Germany, red is a color of protection and was the color of Thor/Thunor, the thunder God whose magickal tree was the Oak.
Trees are believed to stand guardian over homes. If you don’t have one near your house, if you live in a potentially dangerous area or live alone and feel vulnerable indoors, you can use leaves to transfer tree power and as a portable symbol of protection. This spell is very effective for creating a psychic shield round yourself and your home.
Since the spell uses red leaves, it is easiest in Autumn, but copper beech and red Maple are just two tree with naturally red leaves. If you walk round an arboretum or ornamental garden, you will find a number of different species.
Timing: As the sky reddens at sunset
You will need: Three red leaves. Always remember to thank the tree even for a few leaves and do something small for nature, when you have time, in return for the power given. If you can’t find any red leaves, use three sprigs of any tree (oak is very effective) with a few leaves still on each stem. Tie the stems together with red wool or thread in three knots before you begin.
Any single tree essential or fragrance oil such as birch, cedarwood, cypress, laurel, pine or sandalwood.
A small red scarf or circle of fabric.
- Work in the open air, if possible close to the tree from which you take the leaves or if not where you can see the sunset. If you need to be indoors, light a red candle.
- Pick the red leaves, if possible close to or at the beginning of the spell.
- Set them on the red cloth and very carefully anoint each leaf or sprig with a drop of oil, saying as you do so, over each leaf:
- Fold the scarf of cloth round the leaves and knot the top three times to make a bag. Repeat the chant three more times as you make the bag.
- Hang the bag on the back of the main house door or your bedroom door if you sleep alone and are anxious.
- Repeat the spell when the leaves have crumbled or every three months, whichever is sooner.
Saint of the Day for September 28th is St. Wenceslaus
St. Wenceslaus
(907?-929)
He was born in 907 near Prague, son of the Duke of Bohemia. His saintly grandmother, Ludmilla, raised him and sought to promote him as ruler of Bohemia in place of his mother, who favored the anti-Christian factions. Ludmilla was eventually murdered, but rival Christian forces enabled Wenceslaus to assume leadership of the government.
His rule was marked by efforts toward unification within Bohemia, support of the Church and peace-making negotiations with Germany, a policy which caused him trouble with the anti-Christian opposition. His brother Boleslav joined in the plotting, and in September of 929 invited Wenceslaus to Alt Bunglou for the celebration of the feast of Sts. Cosmas and Damian (September 26). On the way to Mass, Boleslav attacked his brother, and in the struggle, Wenceslaus was killed by supporters of Boleslav.
Although his death resulted primarily from political upheaval, Wenceslaus was hailed as a martyr for the faith, and his tomb became a pilgrimage shrine. He is hailed as the patron of the Bohemian people and of former Czechoslovakia.
Comment:
“Good King Wenceslaus” was able to incarnate his Christianity in a world filled with political unrest. While we are often victims of violence of a different sort, we can easily identify with his struggle to bring harmony to society. The call to become involved in social change and in political activity is addressed to Christians; the values of the gospel are sorely needed today.
Quote:
“While recognizing the autonomy of the reality of politics, Christians who are invited to take up political activity should try to make their choices consistent with the gospel and, in the framework of a legitimate plurality, to give both personal and collective witness to the seriousness of their faith by effective and disinterested service of men” (Pope Paul VI, A Call to Action, 46).
Patron Saint of:
Bohemia
Today’s Goddess: Minne
Today’s Goddess: Minne
Linden Festival (Germany)
Themes:Protection; Love; Luck; Devotion; Unity
Symbols: Linden Tree; Cup; Beer
About Minne: Minne is a German goddess of love and fertility. Her name–meaning “remembrance”–was applied to a special cup for lovers in this part of the world. The cup was filled with specially prepared beer and raised between two people wishing to deepen their love. This gives Minne a strong association with devotion, unity, and fidelity.
To Do Today: During the second weekend in July, people in Geisenheim, Germany, gather around an ancient Linden Tree (six hundred plus years old) and celebrate the year’s new wine. All aspects of the festival take place beneath the Linden’s branches, which in magic terms represent safety and good fortune. The Linden flowers portray Minne’s spirit, having been used in all manner of love magic! To protect a relationship, two lovers should carry dried Linden flowers with them always.
When making a promise to each other, a couple may drink a wooden goblet of beer today, linking their destinies. Raise the glass to the sky first, saying, “Minne’s love upon our lips, devotion in each sip.”
Drink while looking deeply into each other’s eyes. Or, exchange pieces of Linden wood as a magical bonding that invokes Minne’s blessing. If Linden isn’t native to your area, other trees and bushes that promote Minne’s loving qualities include avens, elm, lemon, orange, peach, pear, primrose, rose, and willow.
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By Patricia Telesco
Did You Know . . . .
Did you know… |
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From Wikipedia’s newest content:
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