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.
Today, in the Pagan calendar, the north celebrate the coming of winter at Samhainn. And all the while the sun is peaking up from behind the lush vernal trees and dancing for us once more in the southern hemisphere, as we welcome Beltane on October 31st. Or as I like to refer to it Beltane of the underworld.
A pagan spiral formation in Faerie Glenn where everything is miniature and enchanted. Copyright Content Catnip 2010
Beltane is the Gaelic seasonal festival historically held to mark the midpoint between the spring equinox & summer solstice (Là Bealltainn in Scottish Gaelic; Lá Bealtaine in Irish). Fire is the traditional means of marking this spring festival of optimism & return.
So, I got a refurbished laptop and within a month it had a major problem. It went into sleep mode and would not come out of it. Yesterday WISH online shopping finally sent me the label to send it back. I went last evening and got it started on it way back to WISH. Which left me with either my desktop computer, which I can only sit at for about an hour until my back pain is so bad I have to lay down, or my Kindle tablet which takes me twice as long to post through. My wonderful fiancée took me to Rent-A-Center where he had coupons for a nice reduction in price for a brand new laptop, which I am using now. When we got home with it last evening I could not get on to use it. So, I put it aside very frustrated but I must have done something right because I did not have to take it back to the store to be able to use my own account on it. But as I was having a horrible morning I did not pick this laptop up to try to get on to it again until about 15 minutes ago and now here we are.
Now I have to take this one back because the Delete key doesn’t work. I give up for today. Looks like I will only be doing the daily and birthday horoscopes later today.
This is a gray magic spell. The intention of this spell is the person it is being cast on is for them to only suffer as much as you suffered. It is not done to cause any permanent damage to the person on the receiving end of it unless they caused permanent damage to the person casting it.
Be very careful if you write this type of spell that it does not cross over to being a black magick spell. Remember the Threefold Law a.k.a. The Law of Three. Another thing to remember is the Wicce Rede “Do as ye will, lest it harm none”
Justice Spell
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
A Piece of Paper 2 inch/5 cm by 2 inches/5 cm
A RED pen or pencil
A small jar with lid (like from baby food)
Crushed Egg Shells or Black Salt (enough to fill the jar with the piece of paper inside)
Candle – Whatever color you feel you should use to seal the lid onto the jar
Prepare the Jar for the Spell:
Write the persons full name onto the piece of paper as you think about the wrongs they have done to you then fold it in 3. Keeping thinking of your intention for the person to suffer only as much as what they did to you. Pour half of the egg shells or black salt into the jar, place the paper in the jar and pour the rest of the crushed egg shells or black salt over it, stop when the jar is full to just under the lid.
THE SPELL:
Remember to keep your intention in the fore front of your mind as you say the spell at 3 times. The more you repeat it the stronger it will be but be careful so it does not do more to the person than they did to you or you may wind up feeling everything done to you again.
May (Name Of person) feel, what I felt.
May what (Name of person) did to me,
go back to (Name of person) just as strong as (Name of person) did to me.
May this spell tighten around (Name of person) like a belt.
End the spell whatever way you usually end any spell after you have repeated this spell
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.
2021 October 17
The Einstein Cross Gravitational Lens
Image Credit & License: J. Rhoads (Arizona State U.) et al., WIYN, AURA, NOIRLab, NSFExplanation: Most galaxies have a single nucleus — does this galaxy have four? The strange answer leads astronomers to conclude that the nucleus of the surrounding galaxy is not even visible in this image. The central cloverleaf is rather light emitted from a background quasar. The gravitational field of the visible foreground galaxy breaks light from this distant quasar into four distinct images. The quasar must be properly aligned behind the center of a massive galaxy for a mirage like this to be evident. The general effect is known as gravitational lensing, and this specific case is known as the Einstein Cross. Stranger still, the images of the Einstein Cross vary in relative brightness, enhanced occasionally by the additional gravitational microlensing effect of specific stars in the foreground galaxy.
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.
NGC 289: Swirl in the Southern Sky
Image Credit & Copyright:Mike SelbyExplanation: About 70 million light-years distant, gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 289 is larger than our own Milky Way. Seen nearly face-on, its bright core and colorful central disk give way to remarkably faint, bluish spiral arms. The extensive arms sweep well over 100 thousand light-years from the galaxy’s center. At the lower right in this sharp, telescopic galaxy portrait the main spiral arm seems to encounter a small, fuzzy elliptical companion galaxy interacting with enormous NGC 289. Of course spiky stars are in the foreground of the scene. They lie within the Milky Way toward the southern constellation Sculptor.
The date for the Southern Hemispheric Beltane is October 31st and ‘May Day’ is November 1st. The climax of Spring!
Beltane is the peak of Spring, a celebration of fertility. In ancient times it was the Beltane Rites that recon- nected each year the King to the Goddess, the masculine to the feminine. It is a time for us to give thanks for our fertile lives, our creativity and our gender specific gifts and roles. Its a time to notice and honour the difference in the masculine and feminine. It is a time of increasing growth, building to almost full potential, of beauty and heightened passion.
Beltane Spiritual Practice
Your being, as part of the Earth, part of the cycle of the seasons, will be influenced by this energy whether you’re paying attention to it or not. If you pay some attention, you will feel it, and you can be in flow with it.
Think like the gardener, and align with the Earth energy of now, contemplate the growth that is peaking in your life, that is getting all the attention…
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.
NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright:Ignacio Diaz BobilloExplanation: A mere seven hundred light years from Earth, toward the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula, typical of this final phase of stellar evolution. A total of 90 hours of exposure time have gone in to creating this expansive view of the nebula. Combining narrow band image data from emission lines of hydrogen atoms in red and oxygen atoms in blue-green hues, it shows remarkable details of the Helix’s brighter inner region about 3 light-years across. The white dot at the Helix’s center is this Planetary Nebula’s hot, central star. A simple looking nebula at first glance, the Helix is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry.
View our recorded Event Planning Webinar, and join the virtual Global Moon Party on October 9, for resources and activities that can take your International Observe the Moon Night to the next level.
Image Credit & Copyright: Jari SaukkonenExplanation: Where do the dark streams of dust in the Orion Nebula originate? This part of the Orion Molecular CloudComplex, M43, is the often imaged but rarely mentioned neighbor of the more famous M42. M42, seen in part to the upper right, includes many bright stars from the Trapezium star cluster. M43 is itself a star forming region that displays intricately-laced streams of dark dust — although it is really composed mostly of glowing hydrogen gas. The entire Orion field is located about 1600 light years away. Opaque to visible light, the picturesque dark dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by strong outer winds of protons and electrons.
Angel is Raphael, ruler of Mercury. Raphael is the patron of healers and travellers. He will keep you safe on all of life’s journeys and help you to communicate in a way that promotes healing and peace.
The colours are green and yellow. Yellow calcite and green agate are crystals that can help you connect with this gentle angel. Some scents used to invoke archangel Raphael are chamomile, lemongrass and sandalwood.
Ivy has many superstitions and beliefs attached to it.
Because it had the ability to form dense thickets in woodland, grow where other plants could not and block out the light from even the mighty oak, ivy was believed to be very powerful by the Druids, more powerful than its enemy, the vine and quite sinister.
The ivy and the vine have been seen as enemies since ancient times. This seems odd since the same Greek and Roman gods are associated with each.
Bacchus, god of wine
In Greek mythology ivy was sacred to Osiris and also associated with Dionysus. In Roman mythology Ivy was connected to Bacchus, the god of wine as it grew over his home land.
Bacchus is often portrayed wearing an ivy crown, perhaps because this was once thought to prevent intoxication. The poisonous berries of the ivy, when ground into a powder were also once believed to be a hangover cure.
The link between Bacchus and ivy was taken over to England where old English Taverns would display ivy above their doors indicating the high quality of their drinks.
The proverb ‘Good wine needs no bush’, meaning good wine speaks for itself, comes from this practice.
Gort, G – Ivy, a symbol of strength and determination to the Druids, is the twelfth letter of the ogham alphabet, gort, and the eleventh month in the Celtic tree calendar, representing September 30th to October 27th.
Protection from evil
In old Ireland ivy was thought to provide protection from evil when growing on or near to a dwelling.
However, if it should die or fall down then misfortune would fall upon those therein.
Ivy was often carried by young women for good luck and fertility. Used at weddings intertwined with holly, the ivy would symbolise fidelity and at Yule-tide, would bring peace to the household.
Ivy was also linked to inspiration and worn by poets in the form of a crown.
I am not sure how large these will print out. I have found the easiest way to print them is to save them to my computer than print them out individually.
I am not sure how large these will print out. I have found the easiest way to print them is to save them to my computer than print them out individually.
[Revisions made September 25,2021 so a couple of dates might be wrong. The dates for my father’s and mother’s births and deaths are correct]
I have often wonder why it almost always rains and is cold on Samhain. Where I live, in the central United States, it usually nice the day before and the day after but rarely the day of.
This morning my Guides gave me an answer to this question that seems so right I have no idea why I never thought of it. It rains on Samhain because the veil between our world and the Summerlands is very thin allowing what the Spirits of our family and friends are feeling about residing in the Summerlands to come into our world and our feelings to go easier into their world. It also makes it easier to converse with them in many different ways (coming soon a post explaining this more)
Just as we weep for loved ones lost because we miss the person they were in this lifetime they weep because they miss us also so. The rain we experience is in reality their tears. The cold is because they do not need heat to keep a incarnated body warm like we do in this world.
When honoring your ancestors this Samhain remember to take into account their feelings and try to explain yours to them. Communication is not just important when we some someone face to face it is important when dealing with those who have crossed over too. Do not think the dialogue has to stop when Samhain is over, it may not be as easy to hear them but if they have something you really need to hear you will. Talk to them, ask them questions, tell them things. Just because they no longer have a physical body does not mean they are not interested in things going on in your life.
When helping those who passed away this past year cross into the Summerlands remind them of the happiness, rest, joy and love they will feel there instead of the cold uncertainty of roaming this world with no physical body. If you feel they are hanging on to something in this world or have unfinished business they want to take care before moving across the veil ask how you can help them let go or finish the unfinished business. It is important for us all to cross into the Summerlands after our physical bodies will no longer support life in this world, so we can rejuvenate and be reborn into our next life time.
Talking with my mom today and helping her to finish something she left undone (this I will not share as it was very personal between the two of us) after dreaming about her the other night (October 2015) for the first time since she passed (Born December 12, 1934 Died August 24, 2015) brought a calm to me I have not felt since the day before she passed. I knew the moment my mom passed as I felt a pull on both my heart and root charkas the two most connected thigs in our human body that connect us our to our parents and our children. She is happy and excited to be fully reunited with my dad, he refused rebirth until she and he could have some time together alone and with my eight siblings, who all passed away shortly before or after birth, in the Summerlands They both told me today that they will wait for me to join them in the future when it is my time to return to the Summerlands before they consider another lifetime in this world. Which made me feel very loved and special. It also makes me cry happy/sad tears every time I think about the sacrifice they choose to make for me. You see my dad (Born March 25, 1934) crossed over the veil exactly one month before my twelfth birthday on April 1, 1970. (Please NO April Fool’s jokes. Thank you)
I am sorry if this post seems to ramble some but I was typing as it came to me and had a couple of interruptions for trick-or-treater, all the kids in the neighborhood love to come to the Witch’s house because she gives out good treat if they do not trick her.
[Some of this paragraph maybe early while some of it could be what you needed to read today] May your Samhain be blessed,. May your time with your ancestors be joyful. My your New Year be filled with everything you need, a warm home, loving family and friends, enough food to keep hunger at bay, clothing to keep you comfortable and even bring you a way to get a couple of things you just want.
Witches Of The Craft® 
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