December 2010 Sky Watch

Sky Watch for EST Virginia USA

December 2010 Moon Dates

New Moon 5
First Quarter 13
Full Moon 21
Last Quarter 27




Don't forget to visit SPACE.com to check out their calendar for more celestial events.


Acknowledgments:
Some date inferred from http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=904&month=1&year=2010&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1 and from http://www.tutiempo.net/en/moon/phases.htm

I just jumped off the deep end.

I think I’m officially nuts. I just signed up for NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write 50,000 words by Nov 30th, a novel. I feel like I just signed up to test drive a brand new roller coaster without a helmet. 1,700 words a day doesn’t seam like too much. I don’t think anyone is going to see me much online for the rest of the month, maybe.

Somebody, please rub Buddha’s belly for me!

November 2010 Sky Watch

Sky Watch for EST Virginia USA

November 2010 Moon Dates

New Moon 6
First Quarter 13
Full Moon 21
Last Quarter 28



Don't forget to visit SPACE.com to check out their calendar for more celestial events.


Acknowledgments:
Some date inferred from http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=904&month=1&year=2010&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1 and from http://www.tutiempo.net/en/moon/phases.htm

10 Ways to Turn Halloween to Samhain

 

1. Plan to stay up till midnight.  It is a New Year’s celebration after all.

2. Replace the spiders and cobwebs with black cloth and candles.

3. Give all the skeletons family names and attach a picture name tag.

4. Plan a family dinner and leave an extra place setting out and empty chair. Invite your dearly departed ones.

5. Replace all the spooky music with somber melodies or gentle drumming.

6. Go crazy with the candles, but don’t turn your home into a bonfire.

7. Use natural decorations. Like leaves, gourds, dried corn and pumpkins. Think last harvest.

8. Set up a seasonal altar or an ancestors altar. Decorate with pictures of loved ones that have passed the veil.

9. Tell the stories of the family and speak the names of your loved out loud.

10. Play some games. Do a little divination. Tell tall tales. Have some fun.

Have a Blessed Samhain everyone.

The witch is offensive

The green skinned old woman with warty nose and black pointy hat is ridding a broom across the sky cackling evilly. Watch out! It’s the witch! It’s an image that often comes out on Halloween festooning the decorations in silhouette, little figurines of witches, sometimes flatten on front doors, or even trees. But what does this image represent and why do so many self proclaimed witches get offended by this image? Every year, around Halloween someone raises a stink about the image of the witch and ends up in the media. And then the myth making begins again.

Out comes the claims that witchcraft is older than Christianity, that the witch trials killed nine million witches, that Christianity invented the evil witch as a way to persecute the peaceful witches. All of which is folklore based on bad historical research and repeated so much that many Pagans believe it to be true. The one failing the Pagan religious movement has is a lack of historical understanding and not requiring acclaimed authors to maintain historical accuracy and scholarship.

A woman who is Being In Total Control of Herself.

I understand the power of words and how powerful the reclamation of a word can be. The best example I feel is with the word ‘bitch’ as reclaimed by the Feminists. A bitch was once viewed as a woman who was bold, loud, argumentative, nagging, and controlling. All those traits are masculine in nature and any woman displaying those traits ran the risk of being labeled a bitch. With the feminist movement, and the fight for social equality in the home, workplace and politics; woman who chose career over home have been labeled a bitch. As such the label is inaccurate and thus the reclamation began.

But the reclamation of ‘witch’ wasn’t in response to changing social conditions. Instead a group decided to become witches as they conceived them. From that group, a split occurred as they grew. One kept ‘witch’ and ‘witchcraft’ and the other became ‘Wiccan’ and ‘Wicca.’ That is just a super short blurb on the history of Gardernian Wicca.  It’s effects on  Modern Paganism has been huge.

I like the Halloween witch. I view her as a mythological creature, an archetype of the darker aspects of the feminine nature. She is the dark image of the Crone. I value the lessons that she can teach;  old people are often crabby, beauty is only skin deep, actions speak louder than words, that the pursuit of power often leads to a bad ending, what looks too good to be true often is.

I don’t understand the offence that modern witches feel with the image of the Halloween witch. It’s one thing to claim that one isn’t evil and bad. But it’s another thing to take on an image and turn it on it’s head and to do so without any understanding of that image and it’s role within mythology. It’s akin to taking the image of the troll and forcing everyone to accept that trolls are good, nice bridge keepers who only ask for reasonable payment for crossing. Therein lies the mystery.

Modern witches are magic practitioners and that is the only similarity they have with the archetypical witch. Despite the views of the Only One God religions that all magic is evil and therefore any who practice magic is evil and the tendency to label magic users as witches, I do not feel that reclaiming the ‘witch’ is the proper way to go about carving acceptance in the mainstream mindset. Education is a better tool, not picking up a club and beating everyone in the head with it.

The witch belongs in mythology, not reality. Around the world there has been increased reports of witchcraft, abusing women and children for things that are beyond their control. The idea that the witch is real is having negative consequences. One that I wonder if the reclamation of the word had caused. It’s easy enough to do a web search and see that there are people who do claim to be a witch and that they practice magic.

I practice magic, but I don't claim to be a witch. The negative stereotypes don't bother me because I never accepted the reclamation of the word 'witch.' I understand the power gained from such reclamation but I feel the stereotype is useful and therefore should not be erased. The whole myth of the witch grew out of the the Middle Ages and the Inquisition and it's to the level of the boogeyman. These mythological creatures play an important part in myth making and in human psychology. What better represents the darker side of humanity; the power grasping, backstabbing, selfish, black hearted, sneaky, evil intentions like the image of the witch?

But that image is not what modern Pagans are or strive to be. We need a different a label for those who practice magic.

 

Don’t forget… Have a Happy Halloween and a Blessed Samhain!!
Be Safe.

October 2010 Sky Watch

Sky Watch for EST Virginia USA

October 2010 Moon Dates

New Moon 7
First Quarter 14
Full Moon 22
Last Quarter 30




Don't forget to visit SPACE.com to check out their calendar for more celestial events.


Acknowledgments:
Some date inferred from http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=904&month=1&year=2010&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1 and from http://www.tutiempo.net/en/moon/phases.htm

Where were you on 9/11?

I got a phone call from my husband to turn on the TV, right after the first plane hit. I watch the second plane hit and watched the buildings fall in horror. I remember screaming at the TV when the towers fell but there was nothing anyone could do but wail. I was on my knees crying and screaming. So much senseless death, for what? I ended up pulling my sisters out of school that day, one of which was in ROTC uniform. I was afraid that there would be more attacks and direct attacks on service personal. But the streets were just about deserted. I’ve never seen anything like that before. The schools was keeping all the kids in the dark, and it was both Middle and High School too! The nervousness everyone had was freaky. I had to prove I was the parent just to pull them out, ID check, full name and kid’s social check.  But none of the kids knew what as going on, just that kid after kid was being pulled out of school. The bases here in Virginia were on lockdown. There was no telling what was going to happen next. That's when I knew we were at war, but with who?

All anyone could do was watch the news for hours. Hoping some good would come out this tragedy, that maybe some survived that fall. I think I watched the news for a whole week before I had to turn it off and step away from it all just to gain some normalcy. Even after all this time, I cry when I think about this event. I saw the jumpers. I saw the plane impact the building. I knew death had happened right in front of my eyes. I knew it was murder, an act of war. Innocent people died that day for no damn good reason. I cried for them and their families. I grieve for them.

9/11 We will NEVER Forget!