The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The date in ( ) is because of us posting this from the Northern Hemisphere. So this post goes live at 8:00 AM AEDT on the date before the month. The date inside the ( ) is the date we have to use to get the timing right for you. That is also why the GMT time that shows at 9:00 PM.
Today the Moon will be in 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.
The Waxing Crescent on May 13 has an illumination of 3%. 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 May 13 the Moon is 1.52 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.
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.
The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The date in ( ) is because of us posting this from the Northern Hemisphere. So this post goes live at 8:00 AM AEST on the date before the month. The date inside the ( ) is the date we have to use to get the timing right for you. That is also why the GMT time that shows at 10:00 PM.
13 May (12) 2021
10:00 pm GMT 8:00 AM AEST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)
It’s Elemental, My Dear Watson Author: BellaDonna Saberhagen
In most modern neo-Pagan paths, there are four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. When I first started out, these were unquestionable facts. All the books I bought broke up the elements this way, ascribed certain tools to certain elements (though whether the athame and wand were air or fire often changed with the writer) , assigned the same directions for the elements and even gave their times of year. It even kind of makes sense from a scientific standpoint: the four states of matter are solid (earth) , liquid (water) , gas (air) and plasma (fire –ok, not quite, but lightning, which is plasma, often gave birth to fire) . It wasn’t until I left neo-Wicca and began researching ancient cultural religions that I even considered the ‘whys’ of the elements.
The elements as we know them now, are an ancient Greek construct. Around 500 BCE, Empedocles wrote Tetrasomia, or Doctrine of the Four Elements. It is doubtful he came up with the idea, but he was the first to write down all four elements as the foundation of the universe. When looking at a map of Greece and Europe, it’s easy to see why the elements were assigned the directions they were given.
In the Northern Hemisphere, as you travel south, it gets warmer; hence the realm of fire must lie to the south (Summer being assigned to fire also makes sense due to the warmth of the weather) . The Olympus Range is to the north of most of Greece (it separates Thessaly from Macedonia) , thus the home of earth being in the north makes sense; as does earth being assigned to winter, as when you travel north it gets colder, as it does when you travel high enough in mountains.
Most of the Mediterranean Sea is to the west of Greece. If you travel far enough west, you reach the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean; so the home of water should be to the west (though why it is assigned to Autumn, I really don’t know other than to make the transition from fiery southern summer to earthy northern winter flow nicely) . Air is more ambiguous; perhaps wind is more easterly than usual in Greece, or perhaps it was the only direction that elemental association wasn’t obvious.
Most books I’ve read say it is because the sun rises in the east, but that makes very little sense to me as the sun is a bringer of warmth and should thus be associated with fire. After all, the sun is in the sky longest in the summer, the month of fire. Aristotle added the fifth element, which he called ‘quintessence’, but is often referred to as Akasha, Ether, or Spirit by the modern Pagan community. And thus we have the five points of the pentacle. (A point which I find very interesting: If you wear a pentacle, you might state that it is a sign of protection, each point is an element and they are connected by the circle. However, according to elemental tool assignment and tarot cards, the pentacle is assigned to earth.)
Taken out of Greece, the directional associations we are so comfortable with start to break down. In the Southern Hemisphere, it gets warmer as you travel north and colder as you travel south (I have heard that some practitioners in those regions flip directions as they also flip the Sabbats) . How about in the northeastern USA? The closest ocean is to the east, not the west; the closest mountain range to me is to the west; the wind can blow from any direction, though the sun still rises east-ish (it only rises in the true east all year at the equator) ; it does still get warmer if I travel south. It would almost make more sense to me to put earth to the west, water to the east and air to the north… almost, if it weren’t for the power behind the belief in the traditional associations.
So that’s where our traditional elemental associations come from. How about other cultures? Let’s first look at two other major European cultures for comparison: the Celts and the Norse.
In Celtic cosmology, there are three realms: Land, Sea, and Sky. We can associate Land with earth, but it is more than that. The Land isn’t just the dirt and rocks, it’s the trees and plants and animals that live there, it’s where humans live and beneath which the dead reside. Sea is water, but it is also the gateway to the Otherworld from which the gods came and the way to travel to unknown lands. Sky can be associated with both air and fire. Wind moves the clouds in the sky; but the sun is also of the sky and fire first touched the land as a gift from the sky (lightning) ; the sky is also how time is reckoned by movements of the sun and moon. There were no directional associations as the Land was the land around them, the Sky was the sky above, and the Sea was the sea wherever it was found.
There were also three elements according to the Norse: Earth, Fire and Ice. If you look at places such as Iceland, this makes a lot of sense. Northern Europe is very cold and there are places in the northern most reaches of Norway and Sweden where the sun does not rise at Yule and does not set on Litha. Snow and ice have a greater grip and impact than they do elsewhere, frost giants were a very real threat to winter survival. You can perhaps associate ice with water and air, but it was more than that, it was something to respect and fear. The powers of ice were not called upon lightly. Earth was closer to the Land of Celtic beliefs than earth of Greek beliefs. It was the earth that sustained them, but it also suffered at the hands of the frost and fire giants. Fire for the Norse was trapped within the Earth. Iceland was (and is) very seismically active. Fire could be friendly to those in the cold north, but it could just as easily overwhelm towns and destroy all they had worked to survive on.
Let’s move further east now, to India and China. They also each have elemental systems that differ from our most common cosmology.
In Hindu belief, there were once only three elements: fire, water and earth. Air and Akasha were added later. The elemental health system of Ayurveda uses all five elements but breaks people down into three health types (or doshas) . The doshas are air-space (vata) , fire (pitta) and earth-water (kapha) . Each has their own strengths and weaknesses and each have their own rules about how to bring the other elements into balance within your body.
Similarly, the Chinese elemental system is used in Feng Shui. Contrary to western belief, Feng Shui is more than just a decorating guide; for example, one of the Feng Shui masters (known as The Living Treasure of China) has a restaurant, which serves food based on the elemental balance of Feng Shui his patrons need to maintain optimum health. There are five elements within the Feng Shui system: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. What we would refer to as earth is divided into three separate elements. Wood is associated with trees and plants. Earth is associated with stone, clay and mud. Metal is associated with all metals, both the ore that is mined and the finished pieces. Fire is associated with the sun and flames. Water is associated with bodies of water. There is no air element and no conglomeration of elements that one can extrapolate air from.
The Chinese and Hindu systems are older than the Greek system; at least based on dates they were recorded. Since the Celts and Norse did not have their own writing (use of ogham and runes aside) , it is impossible to date their ideas. My books do not cover Egyptian and Sumerian sources, so I do not know if they had elemental associations or what they might have been. However, having studied what I have, it does make me consider the whys of what I use in my spiritual and magickal practices. It’s important to understand why you use something or do something a certain way beyond “it’s what the book/my teacher said.”
Understanding the ‘whys’ of your practice will make your path deeper and your magick more effective. If you find that the Grecian elemental assignments do not work for you, you can always adapt them to your own geographical location or you can use another system altogether; just try to be mindful of mixing cultures in ritual. (I’m a bit uneasy about doing it. Others might be fine with it.)
Footnotes:
Aveda Rituals by Horst Rechelbacher (he has a great section of Ayurveda)
Feng Shui by Gale Hale and Mark Evans
Mind, Body, and KickA** Moves (a BBC martial arts show that interviewed “The Living Treasure of China”
Today the Moon will be in 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.
The Waxing Crescent on May 12 has an illumination of 0%. 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 May 12 the Moon is 0.63 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.
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.
The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The date in ( ) is because of us posting this from the Northern Hemisphere. So this post goes live at 8:00 AM AEDT on the date before the month. The date inside the ( ) is the date we have to use to get the timing right for you. That is also why the GMT time that shows at 9:00 PM.
Today the Moon will be in a New Moon phase. During this phase the Moon is too close to the sun in the sky to be visible. The moon rises and sets with the sun and is not present in the night sky. Because of this the night sky is darker and an excellent time to view other celestial objects. Like the Full Moon, a New Moon happens at a very specific time when the sun and moon have the same ecliptic longitude and it can be measured down to the second it occurs.
The New Moon on May 11 has an illumination of 0%. 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 May 11 the Moon is 29.26 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.
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.
The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The date in ( ) is because of us posting this from the Northern Hemisphere. So this post goes live at 8:00 AM AEDT on the date before the month. The date inside the ( ) is the date we have to use to get the timing right for you. That is also why the GMT time that shows at 9:00 PM.
Tuesday is the day to work any magick that falls in the category of increasing strength, courage, bravery, and passion. All of these intense emotions are linked to this day’s energies, and spells designed around these themes will have extra punch when performed on this magickal day.
So, let’s add a little passion and conviction into your life! Break out the daring red pieces of your wardrobe, and put a little pizzazz into your day. Work with Lilith, and see what she has to teach you about personal power and sexuality. Meditate on Tiw/Tyr and Mars, and see what those ancient warrior gods will show you about new tactics, strategies, and claiming personal victories in your life. Practice conjuring up that astral weapon from the meditation and use it wisely for protection and for courage.
Create a philter for courage and protection or handcraft your own Witch’s jar to remove negativity from your home. See what other Witch crafts you can conjure up with Tuesday’s magick. Create some kitchen magick on this Tuesday by whipping up a spicy stew-add in a few Mars-associated ingredients such as carrots, peppers, and garlic. Empower the stew for success, and then treat yourself and your family to a good, hearty meal. Try working with a little aromatherapy and burn some spicy or coffee-scented candles to increase your energy level.
Check the sky at night, and see if you can find the reddish planet Mars up in the heavens. Not sure where to look? Check an astronomy magazine or search the Web for more information. Become a magickal warrior and move forward in your life with strength, courage, and compassion. Embrace the side of yourself that loves a good challenge and that is passionate and daring! Banish fear, and face your future with strength and conviction. Believe in yourself and in your dreams, work hard, and you will win every time.
Source
Book of Witchery: Spells, Charms & Correspondences for Every Day of the Week Ellen Dugan
There’s very little moonlight and some great fainter targets in the sky from May 7 to 14.By Alison Klesman | Published: Friday, May 7, 2021RELATED TOPICS: OBSERVING
M106M106 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation Canes Venatici the Hunting Dogs. It lies some 25 million light-years from Earth. Some astronomers think emissions from M106 indicate a vast quantity of material is falling into a supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s core.Bill Snyder
Friday, May 7 Canes Venatici the Hunting Dogs is a northern constellation drawn from just two bright stars: magnitude 3 Alpha (α) and magnitude 4 Beta (β) Canum Venaticorum. They sit below the curve of the Big Dipper’s handle, parallel to Alkaid and Mizar but about 15° southwest of that pair.
The constellation is home to several relatively bright galaxies, including magnitude 8.4 M106. Measuring 20.0′ by 8.4′, many consider it one of the best galaxies in Messier’s list, but it’s also one of the least observed. You’ll find this spiral in the constellation’s northwest corner, about 6.5° northwest of Beta Canum Venaticorum and 7.5° southeast of magnitude 2.4 Phecda (Gamma [γ] Ursae Majoris). You’ll want to pull out your best scope for M106, which is tilted to our line of sight much like the more famous Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and resembles that object as well. With larger apertures, you’ll be able to make out the galaxy’s dust lanes and spiral structure.
Canes Venatici is home to several other Messier objects: galaxies M94, M51, and M63, as well as the globular cluster M3.Sunrise: 5:53 A.M. Sunset: 8:01 P.M. Moonrise: 4:19 A.M. Moonset: 4:12 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (15%) *Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.
C/2020 R4 (ATLAS)You’ll find numerous galaxies scattered along Comet ATLAS’ path this month.Astronomy: Roen Kelly
euSaturday, May 8 May is your last chance to see Comet C/2020 R4 (ATLAS) before it streaks too far from the Sun and loses its glow. It won’t return for another 1,000 years, so get your comet watching on before midmonth, when the Moon’s bright light drowns it out.about:blank
ATLAS is currently gliding through Coma Berenices, just south of Canes Venatici (where we turned our gaze last night). This evening, you’ll find the magnitude 10 comet about 2.5° north of Gamma Comae Berenices; nearby are several galaxies around the same magnitude: NGC 4559, NGC 4565, NGC 4494, NGC 4631, and NGC 4395.
The comet will continue toward Leo night by night, heading nearly straight for Zosma in the great cat’s haunches.Sunrise: 5:52 A.M. Sunset: 8:02 P.M. Moonrise: 4:42 A.M. Moonset: 5:12 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (9%)
Sunday, May 9 Let’s return to Coma Berenices tonight to enjoy NGC 4565, one of the sky’s best edge-on galaxies. Even a small telescope (4 inches) will show this magnitude 9.5 galaxy, also known as the Needle Galaxy for its exceedingly thin appearance. If we could step outside the Milky Way and view it edge on, it would likely look quite similar. Although it sits some 30 million light-years away, thanks to projection effects NGC 4565 appears to sit near the edge of the much closer Coma Star Cluster (Melotte 111).
Melotte 111 itself is an excellent binocular object that can be found just south of Gamma Comae Berenices, which Comet ATLAS passed last night. The cluster’s 40-odd members form a loose v shape visible to the naked eye in a dark sky. It spans about 275′ and sits a little less than 300 light-years away.Sunrise: 5:51 A.M. Sunset: 8:03 P.M. Moonrise: 5:04 A.M. Moonset: 6:10 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (4%)
Monday, May 10 Mercury passes 8° north of Aldebaran at 11 P.M. EDT. Although they will have set by then, you can catch the pair sinking in the west just after sunset. Closest to the horizon is bright Venus, blazing at magnitude –3.9 and roughly 10″ in diameter. About 9° northeast of Venus is Mercury, a much dimmer –0.3 and spanning 7″. The red giant star Aldebaran, which marks the eye of Taurus the Bull, is south of the tiny planet.
Northwest of Venus (and roughly the same height above the horizon) is the Pleiades. See if you can spot any of the cluster’s bright stars popping out as dusk falls and the cluster quickly sets. You’ll definitely need a clear view of the horizon.
Much higher in the sky, now sitting near the knees of Gemini the Twins, is ruddy Mars, shining at magnitude 1.6. It will take longer for the Red Planet to show up against the darkening sky, but it will also remain above the horizon longer, setting around local midnight.Sunrise: 5:20 A.M. Sunset: 8:04 P.M. Moonrise: 5:28 A.M. Moonset: 7:10 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (1%)
Tuesday, May 11 Dedicated predawn observers can catch a mutual event between two of Jupiter’s Galilean moons this morning. First, find the bright magnitude –2.3 planet in the southeast before dawn. Jupiter currently sits in Aquarius, while Saturn (magnitude 0.5) hangs nearby in Capricornus, to Jupiter’s upper right. Neptune, not visible without binoculars or a telescope at magnitude 7.8, lies about 23° east-northeast of Jupiter, near the eastern edge of Aquarius and below the Circlet of Pisces.
Next, zoom in with a telescope on the solar system’s largest planet to catch the action: Beginning at 5:06 A.M. EDT, Europa’s shadow will eclipse the larger Ganymede. The event will only last a few minutes, ending by 5:15 A.M. EDT. Even if you aren’t able to catch the eclipse itself, you can still enjoy the scene: Io (closest) and Callisto (farthest) are on Jupiter’s west, while Ganymede (closest) and Europa (farthest) sit to the planet’s east.
New Moon occurs at today 3 P.M. EDT. Nearly three hours later, the Moon reaches apogee — the farthest point from our planet in its orbit around Earth — at 5:53 P.M. EDT. At that time, it will be 252,595 miles (406,512 kilometers) away.Sunrise: 5:49 A.M. Sunset: 8:05 P.M. Moonrise: 5:53 A.M. Moonset: 8:09 P.M. Moon Phase: New
Wednesday, May 12 There’s action in the west again around sunset: The Moon passes 0.7° south of Venus at 6 P.M. EDT, but you’ll need to wait for sunset to easily and safely view the scene. Twenty minutes after the Sun disappears, see if you can find the delicate crescent Moon, now sitting just over 1° southeast of the planet. A Moon this thin (roughly 1.4 percent lit) can be a major challenge, so take your time and use binoculars or a telescope — once the Sun is safely out of the picture.
The planet Mercury sits about 9° above the pair, which will set just after 9 P.M. local time. Mercury remains visible about 50 minutes longer.Sunrise: 5:48 A.M. Sunset: 8:06 P.M. Moonrise: 6:21 A.M. Moonset: 9:10 P.M. Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (1%)
Heart attackAsteroid 29 Amphitrite appears to nearly block out Cor Leonis, also known as Regulus, on May 13.Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)
Thursday, May 13 The Moon passes 2° south of Mercury at 2 P.M. EDT. Look west after sunset again this evening to find our satellite, now nearly 5 percent lit, a little over 3° southeast of the planet, still hanging in Taurus.
Then, once it’s dark, turn your gaze to Leo the Lion, still relatively high in the southwest. Leo’s brightest star, Regulus, is the one you’ll want to zoom in on with binoculars or, better yet, a small scope. Tonight, asteroid 29 Amphitrite is skimming just north of the magnitude 1.4 star. For reference, look northwest of Regulus to spot a magnitude 8 field star; Amphitrite is three times closer to Regulus than this star is. After passing, the asteroid will continue to move southeast through the constellation, as if making a beeline for Rho (ρ) Leonis.
Although this is a near miss, not all such events are — asteroidoccultations.com hosts a list of upcoming occultations and their visibility.Sunrise: 5:47 A.M. Sunset: 8:07 P.M. Moonrise: 6:54 A.M. Moonset: 10:09 P.M. Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (3%)
Friday, May 14 With such a slim Moon in the sky, tonight is a great night for hunting down the heart of a famous cluster of galaxies. The Virgo Cluster is located (predictably) in the constellation Virgo, which you’ll find in the south after sunset. Look for the constellation’s brightest star, magnitude 1 Spica, and draw a line to the northwest, connecting Spica and magnitude 3.4 Auva (Delta [δ] Virginis). Follow that like further northwest and you’ll reach the center of the Virgo Cluster, which is dominated by several large elliptical galaxies: M49, M60, M84, M86, and M87. (If that last galaxy sounds familiar, it’s likely because M87’s supermassive black hole was the first one caught on “film” when the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released an image of the shadow around the black hole in 2019.)
You can spot any of these bright ellipticals, which sit roughly 50 million light-years away, in a 3-inch (or larger) scope. They cover a relatively large field, so you’ll want to choose an eyepiece with a wide field of view. Alternatively, you can pump up the magnification and switch from target to target.Sunrise: 5:46 A.M. Sunset: 8:08 P.M. Moonrise: 7:33 A.M. Moonset: 11:06 P.M. Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (7%)
(YOU CAN COPY AND PASTE ANY CORRESPONDENCES POSTED TO A DOCUMENT TO PRINT AND/OR SAVE ON YOUR COMPUTER FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY)
Monday is named after the moon. The Latin term for Monday is Dies Lunae (“moon’s day”); in the Old English language, this day was Monandaeg; in Greek, it was Hermera Selenes. All of these different names and languages translate to the same thing: the “day of the moon.”
Working with the different phases of the moon is an important skill that takes a bit of time for Witches to learn. So why not cut to the chase and experiment with the day of the week that is dedicated to the moon in all of its magickal energies and aspects?
Magickally, Monday encourages the lunar energies of inspiration, illusion, prophetic dreams, emotions, psychic abilities, travel, women’s mysteries, and fertility.
Source
Book of Witchery: Spells, Charms & Correspondences for Every Day of the Week Ellen Dugan
The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The date in ( ) is because of us posting this from the Northern Hemisphere. So this post goes live at 8:00 AM AEST on the date before the month. The date inside the ( ) is the date we have to use to get the timing right for you. That is also why the GMT time that shows at 10:00 PM.
10 May (09) 2021
10:00 pm GMT 8:00 AM AEST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)
The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The date in ( ) is because of us posting this from the Northern Hemisphere. So this post goes live at 8:00 AM AEDT on the date before the month. The date inside the ( ) is the date we have to use to get the timing right for you. That is also why the GMT time that shows at 10:00 PM.
Today the Moon will be in a Waning Crescent phase. In this phase the Moon’s illumination is growing smaller each day until the New Moon. During this part of the Moon cycle, the Moon is getting closer to the Sun as viewed from Earth and the night side of the Moon is facing the Earth with only a small edge of the Moon being illuminated. This phase is best viewed an hour or 2 before the sunrise and can be quite beautiful if you’re willing to get up early. It can also be a great time to see the features of the Moon’s surface. Along the edge where the illuminated portion meets the dark side, the craters and mountains cast long shadows making them easier to observe with a telescope or binoculars.
The Waning Crescent on May 9 has an illumination of 5%. 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 May 9 the Moon is 27.47 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.
From Moongiant.com 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.
Witches Of The Craft® 
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