Reed – introduction to Ogham

From Ireland Calling

It is widely believed in academic circles that reed is a modern, neo-pagan introduction to the Ogham, much like the tree calendar itself.

It was first promoted as an Ogham by Robert Graves in his book The White Goddess. However, the reed’s importance to Celtic life and folklore are indisputable.

Reed gained a reputation as a protective tree from its use as thatch for the rooftops homes.

For this reason it was also made into talismans and charms believed to protect the wearer from evil. Mats were often woven out of reeds which gave the house a sweet smell, associating the reed with cleansing the home.

Scholarship

The Druids also used reeds to make writing implements and paper, thus associating the reed with knowledge, scholarship and wisdom.

Physicians would use reeds as tools for administering treatments but arrows, the weapons of death, were also made out of reeds. Because of these two contrasting uses the reed gained an association with both death and healing.

Souls of the ‘otherworld’ join the living…

28 October Daily Correspondence Digest for the Southern Hemisphere’s Moon Phase and Planetary Positions

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.

From Moongiant.com

The Moon’s current phase for today and tonight is a Third Quarter phase. Sometimes called a Last Quarter Moon, this phase occurs roughly 3 weeks after the New Moon when the Moon is three quarter of the way through it’s orbit around the earth. If you live in the northern hemisphere the Moons left side will be illuminated and the right side will be dark. For those of you in the southern hemisphere it will be the opposite with the right side illuminated. On the day of the Third Quarter phase the Moon will rise around midnight on the eastern horizon and set in the west around noon the next day. In the days following the Third Quarter Phase the Moon’s illumination will decrees each day until the New Moon.

Visit the October 2021 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Last Quarter Phase

The Last Quarter on October 28 has an illumination of 53%. 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 October 28 the Moon is 21.85 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.

The 8 Lunar 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.

Phase Details

Phase: Last Quarter
Illumination: 53%
Moon Age: 21.85 days
Moon Angle: 0.50
Moon Distance: 397,159.80 km
Sun Angle: 0.54
Sun Distance: 148,597,775.81 km

Useful Moon Resources

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

Currentplanetarypositions.com

To figure out GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to your local time use this link

For Your Local Time and Date

Southeastern Hemisphere

The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

28 October 2021
06:00 am GMT 5:00 PM AEDT
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:05 Scorpio 02
Moon:28 Cancer 25
Mercury:17 Libra 12
Venus:21 Sagittarius 58
Mars:28 Libra 26
Jupiter:22 Aquarius 30
Saturn:07 Aquarius 08
Uranus:13 Taurus 06 Rx
Neptune:20 Pisces 43 Rx
Pluto:24 Capricorn 26

True Lunar Node:02 Gemini 00

Mean Lunar Node:02 Gemini 58 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):11 Gemini 17
Chiron:09 Aries 35 Rx
Ceres:10 Gemini 56 Rx
Pallas:09 Pisces 27 Rx
Juno:24 Sagittarius 14
Vesta:19 Scorpio 38
Eris:24 Aries 08 Rx

Fire:4
Earth:2
Air:8
Water:5

Cardinal:6
Fixed:5
Mutable:8

Southwestern Hemisphere

The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Sao Paulo, Brazil, South America

28 October 2021
08:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM BRT
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:05 Scorpio 37
Moon:05 Leo 34
Mercury:17 Libra 57
Venus:22 Sagittarius 33
Mars:28 Libra 49
Jupiter:22 Aquarius 31
Saturn:07 Aquarius 09
Uranus:13 Taurus 05 Rx
Neptune:20 Pisces 43 Rx
Pluto:24 Capricorn 26
True Lunar Node:02 Gemini 00
Mean Lunar Node:02 Gemini 56 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):11 Gemini 21
Chiron:09 Aries 34 Rx
Ceres:10 Gemini 52 Rx
Pallas:09 Pisces 24 Rx
Juno:24 Sagittarius 24
Vesta:19 Scorpio 56
Eris:24 Aries 07 Rx

Fire:5
Earth:2
Air:8
Water:4

Cardinal:5
Fixed:6
Mutable:8

October 27 On This Day in History

Important Events

312 Roman Emperor Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross

1795 Pinckney’s Treaty [Treaty of San Lorenzo] signed by Spain and US, establishing the southern boundary of the US and giving Americans right to navigate the Mississippi River

1962 Black Saturday during the Cuban Missile Crisis: An American spy plane is shot down over Cuba and the navy drops warning depth charges on Soviet submarines

1982 China announces its population has reached 1 billion plus people

1986 British government deregulates financial markets in a “Big Bang”, enhancing London’s status as a financial capital while increasing income inequality

Today’s Historical Events

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV

Today’s Historical Events in Music

Today’s Historical Events in Sports

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula

Image Credit: Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri (Observatoire de Paris) et al., ESA, NASA

Explanation: Halloween’s origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With a modern calendar however, even though Halloween occurs next week, the real cross-quarter day will occur the week after. Another cross-quarter day is Groundhog Day . Halloween’s modern celebration retains historic roots in dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead. Perhaps a fitting tribute to this ancient holiday is this view of the Ghost Head Nebula taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Similar to the icon of a fictional ghost, NGC 2080 is actually a star forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The Ghost Head Nebula (NGC 2080) spans about 50 light-years and is shown in representative colors.

October 27 Daily Correspondence Digest for the Northern Hemisphere’s Moon Phase and Planetary Positions

From Moongiant.com

Tomorrow the Moon will be 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 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 October 2021 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today’s Waning Gibbous Phase

The Waning Gibbous on October 27 has an illumination of 63%. 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 October 27 the Moon is 20.94 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.

The 8 Lunar Phases

Phase Details

Phase: Waning Gibbous
Illumination: 63%
Moon Age: 20.94 days
Moon Angle: 0.50
Moon Distance: 400,549.81 km
Sun Angle: 0.54
Sun Distance: 148,637,613.73 km