Tag: Online coven

April 12, 2022 Current Moon Phase

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 was born.

From Moongiant.com

The Moon’s current phase for today and tonight is a Waxing Gibbous phase. This phase is when the moon is more than 50% illuminated but not yet a Full Moon. The phase lasts about 7 days with the moon becoming more illuminated each day until the Full Moon. During a Waxing Gibbous the moon rises in the east in mid-afternoon and is high in the eastern sky at sunset. The moon is then visible through most of the night sky setting a few hours before sunrise. The word Gibbous first appeared in the 14th century and has its roots in the Latin word “gibbosus” meaning humpbacked.

Visit the April 2022 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today’s Waxing Gibbous Phase

The Waxing Gibbous on April 12 has an illumination of 80%. 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 April 12 the Moon is 10.35 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: Waxing Gibbous
Illumination: 80%
Moon Age: 10.35 days
Moon Angle: 0.50
Moon Distance: 394,396.80 km
Sun Angle: 0.53
Sun Distance: 149,990,935.53 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

Spell for Today

The Introduction Of Witches Tarot Deck

Click on the hyperlinks to learn more about the Witches Tarot Deck

Menu of Contents

I. Introduction and concept of Witches Tarot Deck

II. Origin of the Witches Tarot Deck

Major Arcana Witches Tarot Deck

III. The style of Witches Tarot Deck

IV. Who is the Witches Tarot for?

A Laugh for Today

Wishing you lots of laughter to make the day go by faster.

12 April 2022 Southern Hemisphere’s Planetary Positions

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

12 April 2022
08:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM BRT
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:22 Aries 53
Moon:03 Virgo 08
Mercury:03 Taurus 33
Venus:07 Pisces 48
Mars:28 Aquarius 16
Jupiter:24 Pisces 02
Saturn:23 Aquarius 03
Uranus:13 Taurus 31
Neptune:23 Pisces 59
Pluto:28 Capricorn 32

True Lunar Node:22 Taurus 52 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:24 Taurus 08 Rx

Lilith (Black Moon):29 Gemini 46

Chiron:12 Aries 59
Ceres:17 Gemini 24
Pallas:22 Aries 29
Juno:27 Aquarius 11
Vesta:15 Aquarius 02

Eris:24 Aries 19

Fire:4
Earth:6
Air:6
Water:3
Cardinal:5
Fixed:8
Mutable:6

 

Southern Hemisphere

The time for these Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Cape Town, South Africa

12 April 2022
03:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM SAST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:22 Aries 41
Moon:00 Virgo 28
Mercury:03 Taurus 08
Venus:07 Pisces 34
Mars:28 Aquarius 06
Jupiter:23 Pisces 59
Saturn:23 Aquarius 02
Uranus:13 Taurus 30
Neptune:23 Pisces 59
Pluto:28 Capricorn 32

True Lunar Node:22 Taurus 53 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:24 Taurus 09 Rx

Lilith (Black Moon):29 Gemini 45

Chiron:12 Aries 58
Ceres:17 Gemini 20
Pallas:22 Aries 24
Juno:27 Aquarius 06
Vesta:14 Aquarius 56

Eris:24 Aries 19

Fire:4
Earth:6
Air:6
Water:3
Cardinal:5
Fixed:8
Mutable:6

 

Southwestern Hemisphere

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

12 April 2022
07:00 am GMT 5:00 PM AEST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:22 Aries 22
Moon:26 Leo 14
Mercury:02 Taurus 27
Venus:07 Pisces 12
Mars:27 Aquarius 51
Jupiter:23 Pisces 54
Saturn:23 Aquarius 00
Uranus:13 Taurus 29
Neptune:23 Pisces 58
Pluto:28 Capricorn 32

True Lunar Node:22 Taurus 55 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:24 Taurus 10 Rx

Lilith (Black Moon):29 Gemini 42

Chiron:12 Aries 57
Ceres:17 Gemini 13
Pallas:22 Aries 16
Juno:26 Aquarius 59
Vesta:14 Aquarius 48

Eris:24 Aries 19

Fire:5
Earth:5
Air:6
Water:3
Cardinal:5
Fixed:9
Mutable:5

April 11, 2022 Current Moon Phase Digest

The Moon’s current phase for today and tonight is a Waxing Gibbous phase. This phase is when the moon is more than 50% illuminated but not yet a Full Moon. The phase lasts about 7 days with the moon becoming more illuminated each day until the Full Moon. During a Waxing Gibbous the moon rises in the east in mid-afternoon and is high in the eastern sky at sunset. The moon is then visible through most of the night sky setting a few hours before sunrise. The word Gibbous first appeared in the 14th century and has its roots in the Latin word “gibbosus” meaning humpbacked.

Visit the April 2022 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today’s Waxing Gibbous Phase

The Waxing Gibbous on April 11 has an illumination of 71%. 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 April 11 the Moon is 9.41 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: Waxing Gibbous
Illumination: 71%
Moon Age: 9.41 days
Moon Angle: 0.50
Moon Distance: 398,307.59 km
Sun Angle: 0.53
Sun Distance: 149,948,494.00 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

Spell for Today – Knot Healing Spell

 

Knot Healing Spell

This involves tying and untying the string.

 Tie seven knots in a string

 Visualize the illness and suffering as you tied the initial knots (you are not wishing the illness – in fact the opposite. You are transferring the illness into the knot)

 Make it into a bracelet for the patient

 Untie one knot each day – visualizing the relief as the knots are untied, as the illnesses negative energy is allowed to dissipate into the atmosphere.

 On the last day, unravel the thread and throw everything into running live water, flowing away from the patient’s location.

April 11 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 April 11

A Space Station Crosses a Busy Sun

Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night)

Explanation: Typically, the International Space Station is visible only at night. Slowly drifting across the night sky as it orbits the Earth, the International Space Station (ISS) can be seen as a bright spot several times a year from many locations. The ISS is then visible only just after sunset or just before sunrise because it shines by reflected sunlight — once the ISS enters the Earth’s shadow, it will drop out of sight. The only occasion when the ISS is visible during the day is when it passes right in front of the Sun. Then, it passes so quickly that only cameras taking short exposures can visually freeze the ISS’s silhouette onto the background Sun. The featured picture did exactly that — it is actually a series of images taken earlier this month from Beijing, China with perfect timing. This image series was later combined with separate images taken at nearly the same time but highlighting the texture and activity on the busy Sun. The solar activity included numerous gaseous prominences seen around the edge, highlighted in red, filaments seen against the Sun’s face, and a dark sunspot.

April 11 Today In History

Today’s Important Historical Events

1512 Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Holy League in a major battle of the Italian Wars

1783 Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War

1814 Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates unconditionally and he is exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean

1868 The Shogunate is abolished in Japan

1955 Chartered Air India plane the “Kashmir Princess” is bombed and crashes into the South China Sea in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by a Kuomintang secret agent

1968 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs 1968 Civil Rights Act

1979 Tanzanian army captures Kampala, the capital of Uganda forcing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin to flee into exile in Libya

2015 Barack Obama and Raúl Castro meet in Panama, the 1st meeting of US and Cuban heads of state since the Cuban Revolution

2019 Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir overthrown and arrested by the army in Khartoum after 29 years in power

Today’s Historical Events

491 Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, as Anastasius I – often called the first Byzantine Emperor

672 Deusdedit II begins his reign as Catholic Pope

1079 Bishop Stanislaus of Krakow is executed by order of Bolesław II of Poland

1471 Wars of the Roses: King Edward IV of England seizes London from Henry VI

1512 Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Holy League in a major battle of the Italian Wars

1551 English premier John Dudley appointed Duke of Northumberland

1564 England & France sign Peace of Troyes

1564 Liege prince-bishop Robert van Bergen resigns

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV

1955 “Marty” directed by Delbert Mann and starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair premieres in New York (Best Picture 1956)

1966 Frank Sinatra records “Strangers in the Night” single for his album of the same name. Later reaches #1 Billboard charts

1967 Tom Stoppard‘s play “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead” debuts in London at the Old Vic

1968 WHED TV channel 15 in Hanover, NH (PBS) begins broadcasting

1971 WBFF TV channel 45 in Baltimore, MD (IND) begins broadcasting

1983 3rd Golden Raspberry Awards: “Inchon!” wins

1983 55th Academy Awards: “Gandhi”, Ben Kingsley & Meryl Streep win

1988 60th Academy Awards: “The Last Emperor”, Michael Douglas & Cher win

Today’s Historical Events in Music

1830 Robert Schumann hears the violinist Paganini play in Frankfurt

1888 The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is inaugurated

1936 Rodgers & Hart’s musical “On Your Toes” premieres in NYC

1956 Singer Nat Cole attacked on stage of Birmingham theater in racial incident

1959 Yip Harburg, Fred Saidy, and Harold Arlen’s musical “Jamaica”, starring Lena Horne, closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 558 performances

1961 Bob Dylan makes his 1st appearance at Folk City, Greenwich Village, New York City

1964 Stephen Sondheim‘s musical “Anyone Can Whistle” closes at Majestic Theater, NYC, after 9 performances

1967 “Illya Darling” opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 320 performances

Today’s Historical Events in Sports

1750 Jack Slack retains Champion of England boxing title, beats Frenchman Jean Petit in 7 rounds in Harlston, England; acknowledged as first international prize fight

1831 The 12th century Lewis chess pieces are exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, shortly after their rediscovery in a sand bank on the Scottish Isle of Lewis

1896 Hungarian swimmer Alfréd Hajós beats Otto Herschmann of Austria by 0.6s to win the inaugural Olympic 100m freestyle final in 1:22.2 at the Athens Games; also takes out the 1,200m on the same day

1896 Irish tennis player John Boland, representing Great Britain wins both the men’s singles and doubles finals at the Athens Olympics; Dionysios Kasdaglis of Greece loses both matches

1907 New York Giants future Baseball Hall of Fame backstop Roger Bresnahan becomes first catcher to wear shin guards

1921 KDKA broadcast 1st radio sporting event, a boxing match (Ray-Dundee)

1924 1st men’s college swimming championships begin

1936 Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON: Detroit Red Wings beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 for a 3-1 series win; Red Wings first SC Championship

April 11, 2022 Southern Hemisphere’s Planetary Positions

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

11 April 2022
08:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM BRT
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:21 Aries 55
Moon:20 Leo 28
Mercury:01 Taurus 31
Venus:06 Pisces 42
Mars:27 Aquarius 31
Jupiter:23 Pisces 48
Saturn:22 Aquarius 58
Uranus:13 Taurus 28
Neptune:23 Pisces 57
Pluto:28 Capricorn 31

True Lunar Node:22 Taurus 56 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:24 Taurus 11 Rx

Lilith (Black Moon):29 Gemini 39

Chiron:12 Aries 55
Ceres:17 Gemini 03
Pallas:22 Aries 04
Juno:26 Aquarius 49
Vesta:14 Aquarius 36

Eris:24 Aries 19

Fire:5
Earth:5
Air:6
Water:3
Cardinal:5
Fixed:9
Mutable:5

 

Southern Hemisphere

The time for these Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Cape Town, South Africa

11 April 2022
03:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM SAST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:21 Aries 42
Moon:17 Leo 52
Mercury:01 Taurus 06
Venus:06 Pisces 28
Mars:27 Aquarius 21
Jupiter:23 Pisces 45
Saturn:22 Aquarius 57
Uranus:13 Taurus 27
Neptune:23 Pisces 57
Pluto:28 Capricorn 31

True Lunar Node:22 Taurus 57 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:24 Taurus 12 Rx

Lilith (Black Moon):29 Gemini 38

Chiron:12 Aries 55
Ceres:16 Gemini 58
Pallas:21 Aries 59
Juno:26 Aquarius 44
Vesta:14 Aquarius 31

Eris:24 Aries 18

Fire:5
Earth:5
Air:6
Water:3
Cardinal:5
Fixed:9
Mutable:5

 

Southwestern Hemisphere

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

11 April 2022
07:00 am GMT 5:00 PM AEST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:21 Aries 23
Moon:13 Leo 44
Mercury:00 Taurus 25
Venus:06 Pisces 07
Mars:27 Aquarius 06
Jupiter:23 Pisces 41
Saturn:22 Aquarius 56
Uranus:13 Taurus 26
Neptune:23 Pisces 56
Pluto:28 Capricorn 31

True Lunar Node:22 Taurus 58 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:24 Taurus 13 Rx

Lilith (Black Moon):29 Gemini 36

Chiron:12 Aries 53
Ceres:16 Gemini 51
Pallas:21 Aries 50
Juno:26 Aquarius 37
Vesta:14 Aquarius 23

Eris:24 Aries 18

Fire:5
Earth:5
Air:6
Water:3
Cardinal:5
Fixed:9
Mutable:5

Projects to Celebrate Samhain, the Witches’ New Year

As Samhain approaches, you can decorate your home with a number of easy craft projects. Start celebrating a bit early with these fun and simple ideas that honor the final harvest, and the cycle of life and death

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Pagan Treat Bags for Samhain

Do you have Pagan kids coming over for a Samhain event? You can have a kid-friendly celebration by putting together a goodie bag that’s representative of your Pagan spirituality. The key here is to do some creative, outside the box thinking. Sure, there are a ton of Halloween decorations in the store at this time of year, but not all of those are really connected with Pagan religious belief systems. They’re really more about the secular celebration of Halloween, which is fine, unless you’re looking for kid-friendly stuff that honors Pagan spirituality.

Here are a few things to try:

  • Decorate the bags themselves with symbols that are meaningful to you – depending on the pantheon your group honors, you might include designs that are associated with Greek, Roman, Celtic, or Norse mythology.
  • Small herbal sachets: sew herbs into a fabric pouch. Use lavender to help with dreams, or other appropriate plants.
  • Crystals and gemstones: As long as the kids attending your event are beyond the put-everything-in-your-mouth stage, you could include rose quartz for love, hematite for protection, and more.
  • A Portable Altar Kit: Depending on how old the kids are, think about making an altar box that fits in a backpack or pocket. This might not be useful or safe for really young children, but older tweens and teens could use it responsibly.
  • Divination tools: make a simple pendulum with a stone wrapped in wire and attached to the end of a chain. Add a simple divination set by painting symbols on stones or wooden discs.
  • Wands: Make a simple wand with a stick and a crystal wrapped in wire.
  • Deity symbols: Does your tradition honor a particular god or goddess? Consider adding representative symbols – owls for Athena, cats for Bastet, or an antler for Cernunnos. Try printing out a wallet-size image of the deity on heavy cardstock, add a prayer to your god/dess on the reverse side, and laminate it.

Finally, remember, Samhain is the same day as Halloween, so never underestimate the power of a few strategically placed pieces of delicious candy!

Click here for more craft ideas for Samhain from learnreligions.com

Printable Spell for Today

April 10 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 April 10

Shadows at the Moon’s South Pole

Image Credit: NASA, Arizona State U., Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Explanation: Was this image of the Moon’s surface taken with a microscope? No — it’s a multi-temporal illumination map made with a wide-angle camera. To create it, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft collected 1,700 images over a period of 6 lunar days (6 Earth months), repeatedly covering an area centered on the Moon’s south pole from different angles. The resulting images were stacked to produce the featured map — representing the percentage of time each spot on the surface was illuminated by the Sun. Remaining convincingly in shadow, the floor of the 19-kilometer diameter Shackleton crater is seen near the map’s center. The lunar south pole itself is at about 9 o’clock on the crater’s rim. Crater floors near the lunar south and north poles can remain in permanent shadow, while mountain tops can remain in nearly continuous sunlight. Useful for future outposts, the shadowed crater floors could offer reservoirs of water-ice, while the sunlit mountain tops offer good locations to collect solar power.

April 10 Today In History

Today’s Important Historical Events

1407 Lama Deshin Shekpa visits the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma

1516 1st Jewish ghetto established: Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area

1815 Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies experiences a cataclysmic eruption, one of the most powerful in history, killing around 71,000 people, causes global volcanic winter

1858 “Big Ben”, a 13.76 tonne bell, is recast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry

1972 US, USSR & 70 other nations agree to ban biological weapons

1998 The Good Friday Agreement [Belfast Agreement] for Northern Ireland is signed by the British and Irish governments

Today’s Historical Events

837 Comet 1P/837 F1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0334 AUs of Earth

847 St Leo IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope

879 Louis III becomes King of West Francia

1407 Lama Deshin Shekpa visits the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma

1500 France captures duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan

1516 1st Jewish ghetto established: Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area

1552 Henri II of France occupies Metz

1589 Spanish troops conquer Geertruidenberg

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV

1953 “House of Wax” 1st color 3-D movie, premieres in New York

1954 KRGV TV channel 5 in Weslaco, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting

1956 Philips broadcasts 1st Dutch color TV programs

1957 “12 Angry Men”, directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb, is released

1967 39th Academy Awards: “A Man For All Seasons,” Best Picture, Elizabeth Taylor & Paul Scofield best actress/actor

1968 Musical “George M!”, based on the life of Broadway star George M. Cohan, opens at Palace Theater NYC for 435 performances

1968 40th Academy Awards: “In the Heat of the Night”, Rod Steiger & Katherine Hepburn win

1972 44th Academy Awards: “The French Connection”, Gene Hackman & Jane Fonda win

Today’s Historical Events in Music

1868 1st performance of Johannes Brahms‘ “A German Requiem”

1935 Vaughan Williams’ 4th Symphony premieres in London

1970 Paul McCartney officially announces the split of The Beatles

1986 “Big Deal” opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 70 performances

1989 24th Academy of Country Music Awards: Hank Williams Jr, George Strait, and K.T. Oslin win

1994 “Les Miserables” opens at Hiten Theatre, Osaka

1995 “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” opens at Lyceum Theater NYC for 24 performances

2006 40th CMT Music Awards: Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood & Kenny Chesney win

Today’s Historical Events in Sports

1874 British Open Men’s Golf, Musselburgh Links: Mungo Park wins first title by 2 strokes from Tom Morris Jr

1887 Soccer team Be Quick forms in Hairs Groningen

1896 Spyridon Louis of Greece wins inaugural Olympic marathon (2:58:50) in Athens; runs last lap accompanied by Constantine I

1896 High jumper Ellery Clark leads an American sweep of the placings with a leap of 1.81m at the Athens Olympics; his 2nd victory of the Games after taking out the long jump

1896 American athlete Thomas Burke claims the sprint double at the Athens Olympics winning the 100m final in 12.0s; his 2nd victory of the Games after success in the 400m

1913 President Woodrow Wilson throws out 1st ball, Senators beat Yankees 2-1

1913 New York Highlanders play first MLB game as the New York Yankees; lose to the Washington Senators, 2-1 at Griffith Stadium

1916 The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) is founded in New York City

Crafts for the Beltane Sabbat

April’s showers have given way to rich and fertile earth, and as the land greens, there are few celebrations as representative of fertility as Beltane. Observed on May 1st (or October 31-November 1 for our Southern Hemisphere readers), festivities typically begin the evening before, on the last night of April. It’s a time to welcome the abundance of the fertile earth, and a day that has a long (and sometimes scandalous) history.

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Crafts for the Pagan Beltane Sabbat

As Beltane approaches, you can decorate your home (and keep your kids entertained) with a number of easy craft projects. Start celebrating a bit early with fun floral crowns and a Maypole altar centerpiece, do some meditative braiding, or even get to the know the Fae! A few simple seasonal crafts are a great way to celebrate the Beltane Sabbat. There’s more to this time of year than just plants and greenery, so be sure to check out these simple craft ideas!

Click here for more Beltane craft ideas from learnreligions.com

April 9 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 April 9

mars_saturn

Mars-Saturn Conjunction

Image Credit & Copyright: Damian Peach

Explanation: Fainter stars in the zodiacal constellation Capricornus are scattered near the plane of the ecliptic in this field of view. The two brightest ones at center aren’t stars at all though, but the planets Mars and Saturn. Taken on the morning of April 4, the telescopic snapshot captured their tantalizing close conjunction in a predawn sky, the pair of planets separated by only about 1/3 of a degree. That’s easily less than the apparent width of a Full Moon. Can you tell which planet is which? If you guessed Mars is the redder one , you’d be right. Above Mars, slightly fainter Saturn still shines with a paler yellowish tinge in reflected sunlight. Even at the low magnification, Saturn’s largest and brightest moon Titan can be spotted hugging the planet very closely on the left.

 

A Thought for Today

Until tomorrow I send you magickal blessings of love and light dear sisters, brothers, and honored guests.

April 8, 2022 Current Moon Phase Digest

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 was born.

From Moongiant.com

The Moon’s current phase for today and tonight is a Waxing Crescent Phase. A Waxing Crescent is the first Phase after the New Moon and is a great time to see the features of the moon’s surface. During this phase the Moon can be seen in the wester sky after the sun dips below the horizon at sunset. The moon is close to the sun in the sky and mostly dark except for the right edge of the moon which becomes brighter as the days get closer to the next phase which is a First Quarter with a 50% illumination.

Visit the April 2022 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today’s Waxing Crescent Phase

The Waxing Crescent on April 8 has an illumination of 43%. 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 April 8 the Moon is 6.69 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: Waxing Crescent
Illumination: 43%
Moon Age: 6.69 days
Moon Angle: 0.49
Moon Distance: 405,133.68 km
Sun Angle: 0.53
Sun Distance: 149,820,528.32 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

Spell to Empower Object for Protection

This spell is best done during the Moon’s waxing phase or on the full Moon to get the most Universal energy to help empower it.

This spell can be used on a black stone, a necklace or other jewelry you were all the time.

First cleanse the object of all energy besides your own and the objects internal energy.

Hold object in your power hand or if you are doing it while in a circle place it in the middle of your altar. Use your wand or atheme to direct the power you raise into the object. Repeat spell three or five times. Fill in the blankets with the object you are empowering.

This _____ is now mine,

I will wear (carry) it through out time.

To protect me from things I can see.

To protect me even more from things I can not see.

_____ call to me if I forget to take thee.

So Mote It Be.

Copyright Lady Beltane Sage 2008

April 8 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 April 8

Hale-Bopp: The Great Comet of 1997

Image Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip (TWAN)

Explanation: Only twenty-five years ago, Comet Hale-Bopp rounded the Sun and offered a dazzling spectacle in planet Earth’s night skies. Digitized from the original astrophoto on 35mm color slide film, this classic image of the Great Comet of 1997 was recorded a few days after its perihelion passage on April 1, 1997. Made with a camera and telephoto lens piggy-backed on a small telescope, the 10 minute long, hand-guided exposure features the memorable tails of Hale-Bopp, a whitish dust tail and blue ion tail. Here, the ion tail extends well over ten degrees across the northern sky. In all, Hale-Bopp was reported as visible to the naked eye from late May 1996 through September 1997. Also known as C/1995 O1, Hale-Bopp is recognized as one of the most compositionally pristine comets to pass through the inner Solar System. A visitor from the distant Oort cloud, the comet’s next perihelion passage should be around the year 4380 AD. Do you remember Hale-Bopp?