St. Joan of Arc (patron of France)* (patron fance, martyrs, captives, military esp. women, people ridiculed for their faith)
St. Ferdinand III's Day (patron of engineers, governors, rulers)
St. Walston's Day (patron of farmers)
This Day in History
Joan of Arc burned In the year 1431, French heroine and military leader Joan of Arc was burned alive at the stake as punishment for the alleged crimes of Witchcraft, heresy, and “being given to the forbidden arts of magic and divination.”
St Joan is listed for three different dates in May: May 12, May 14 and May 30. This peasant girl heard the voices of St Michael, St Catherine and St Margaret, advising her to help the King of France recover his throne from the English. She led a small army which was successful at first. When she was captured by the English, she was tried and condemned to death as a witch. Facing her funeral pyre, she recanted and said that she had lied about the voices coming from God. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and told she must wear women's clothing from now on. A few days later, after suffering "great wrongs and violence," at the hands of her captors, she put on men's clothing again and shortly thereafter (on May 30) at the age of 19 was burned to death at Rouen.
Her story reminds us of the dangers of claiming direct revelation from God (although medieval women saints like Teresa of Avila and Hildegard of Bingen had done so earlier) in a time when all divine messages were supposed to be mediated through the hierarchy of the Church. She also violated the traditional sense of a woman's role, with her insistence on dressing as a man and leading an army. Although she would not have considered herself a witch, her death was the harbinger of the Burning Times which began a century later. Ironically, the Catholic church condemned the council that condemned her in 1456, at the same time women were being burnt as witches, although Joan was not canonized until 1920. In the Vodou tradition, Ogun, the God of Iron, a warrior deity, is celebrated on St Joan's day.
Tarasque - A massive sea dragon with fiery breath, sword-like teeth and iron-hard skin came to live in the river Rhone, in France, bringing terror and destruction whenever it arose. Its father was Leviathan and her mother the giant snake Onachus. Many heroes perished trying to kill her, and after fourteen years of torment, the Tarasque destroying houses and bridges and devouring everyone attempting to cross the river, the inhabitants set a trap. Animals were bound to trees as bait at a deep swamp near Avignon, but the lure failed.
After 21 years, Saint Martha arrived and went out to Nerluc where the Tarasque lived. With no weapon other than a vial of holy water, St Martha caught the dragoness which she lead into the village where the local people killed her.
The citizens erected a new church in honour of St. Martha, and the town changed its name to Tarascon. Every year at Pentecost there is a procession to celebrate the event.
Dakinis’ Day– Day Tantric Buddhists make offerings to Mother Tantra; day to unite will and power to manifest positive social change and environmental healing
Ma´at is taken to Ra in Heliopolis on the 16th day of Epipi.
Feast of Prosipina the Queen of the Underworld (Roman)
Einherjar (Norse/Teutonic) - In honour of fallen warriors who have ascended to the halls of Valhalla. (This seems clearly an adaptation of Memorial Day)
St. Bona's Day (patron of flight attendants, couriers, guides, pilgrims, and other travellers)
Maximin (invoked against Perjury, loss at see and destructive rains)
Oak Apple Day - Commemorating the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, after Charles II ís escape from the Roundheads on 6th September 1651, when he hid in an oak tree at Boscobel Hall, Staffordshire following the Battle of Worcester. People wear sprigs of oak, and many processions, tree worship and Green Man festivities take place. http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book/may29.html Nettle Day Anti-Monarchists display a bunch of nettle instead of a sprig of Oak on the 29th of May.
Ambarvalia was the Roman festival of purification in honor of Ceres and Dea Dia. People would ritually walk ploughed fields three times taking a bull, sheep and pig with them on their rounds. Then the animals were sacrificed. The word is derived from ab ambiendis arvis, “going round the fields.” Celebrants were crowned with oak leaves, singing hymns to Ceres, and entreating her to preserve their corn. A prayer was formerly addressed to Mars, and afterwards to Ceres and other deities of agriculture. There were two festivals of that name celebrated by the Romans. The other occurs in July. Libations were poured to Janus and Jupiter and a long invocation was addressed to Mars, who was a god of agriculture before he was a god of War. Ceres and Bacchus were also addressed. No work was done; the day was devoted to singing, dancing and feasting.
The runic half-month of Odal begins - The rune Odel signifies ancestral property.
Iroquois Strawberry Festival - Seasonal- celebrating the first fruits of the season. (presumably when the strawberries were actually fruiting).
15th day of Epipi - Horus hears prayer in the presence of the Netjers.
St. Bernard of Montjoux's Day (patron of mountain climbers, skiers)
The Ludi Saeculares continues. The Pythian Games were enacted every four years in ancient Greece. It honored the slain serpent-goddess Python, and was celebrated in Delphi, the most venerated shrine in all of Greece.
The Celestial Pomegranate - At a secret archaeological site in the former county of Calicshire, England, substantial remains have been uncovered of a great, medieval alchemical laboratory. Amongst the outstanding finds so far are a large, stone chest bearing an inscription referring to a monumental, and previously unknown work by Hermes Trismegistus called The Celestial Pomegranate. (can't find anything about this)
Purification of Python - The Pythian Games were enacted every four years in ancient Greece. It honored the slain serpent-goddess Python, and was celebrated in Delphi, the most venerated shrine in all of Greece.
Zerowork (according to the Daily Bleed) Every 50 years the Ancients observed the jubilee — a time of renewal when all slaves were freed, all debts were cancelled, all prisoners were released, all fields lay fallow, & all laborers observed feast days & festivals of zerowork! http://www.eskimo.com/~recall/bleed/0528.htm
Memorial Day– Decoration Day to contemplate all the horrors of war, mourn war’s victims, and support relief efforts for them. http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html
Paper Airplain Day, Natuibak
Sacred Well Day http://witchery.wordpress.com/2007/05/26/sacred-well-day/
The annual festival of Fontinalia was celebrated by the Romans. It is traditional for Pagans and Witches (especially in Ireland and Great Britain) to throw flowers into springs and wells decorated with wreaths.
The Ludi Saeculares, the Secular (Centennial) Games, were held in honor of Proserpine and Pluto/Dis, Diana, and the Moerae (Parcae). The games take their name from the word saeculum which originally meant a period stretching roughly a century. Devotees of the festival attributed the healing of epidemics, gangrenes and illnesses to its practice.
The 12th day of Epipi is the Holiday of the receiving of Ra.
Sacred Well Day (Europe) - By tradition Airmed tended a sacred well that the dead were placed in to be returned to life. On this day, it is traditional for to decorate sacred wells with wreaths and toss offerings of flowers into the water in honor of the deities and spirits of the well. If you don't have a well (and not many of us do) then toss some petals and a drop of floral essential oil into your fountain or bird bath.
St. Augustine of Canterbury's Day (patron of England)
St Bede - 673-735; Anglo-Saxon theologian, historian and monk of Jarow monastery, known as the Venerable Bede, and the ëFather of English Historyí. In 731 he completed the primary source work, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
This Day in History
1662 - Final confession of witchcraft without torture by Isobel Gowdie, Scotland.
1907 Birthday of Rachel Carson , biologist whose book Silent Spring is said to have initiated the environmental movement.
1948, Morning Glory Zell was born in Long Beach, California. She is a priestess and vice-president of the Church of All Worlds, and is a practitioner of Celtic Pagan Shamanism.
The 13th day of Epipi is the Ceremony of Horus the Beloved.
Whitsuntide - Seven weeks after Easter, the seven-day celebrations of the fullness of life take place. Named after the White goddess, the Earth Mother, when penitents and baptises wore white. Well dressing, morris dancing, cheese rolling and hobbyhorse festivities take place in local communities.
Whitsun Ales - These ancient festivals, or Church Ales, named after their customary drinking associations, were held especially at Whitsuntide, to raise money for the churches and offer a social gathering to the parishioners.
Pentecost or Whit Sunday - The first day of Whitsuntide and seventh Sunday after Easter, commemorating the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and their enlightenment. Also known as Whitsunday, meaning "white Sunday" because of the white baptismal robes worn on that day.
New, white clothes should be worn for the first time today to bring good luck.
Whit Babies: Babies born on Whit Sunday will die tragically early. A ceremony used to disenchant this fate is to wait until the following day or two, then put the newborn infant into a freshly dug shallow grave, sprinkle it with soil and cover it with twigs then take it out a minute later, giving the child a rebirth. This then becomes their new birthday, avoiding the tragedy of a Whit child.
Open Air Services are encouraged today when a prayer said at sunrise will grant a wish from God.
Pentecost, Whit Sunday - The holy day of Pentecost, also known as Whitsunday, is the Christian equivalent of Beltane. Churches are decorated with green boughs. Urlin describes the custom at Messina of dropping great quantities of roses from the ceiling of the church during the singing of the famous Come Holy Spirit. The sound of the wind was created by blowing trumpets. In England some churches let loose doves, while is old St Paul's Cathedral, a pigeon was released through an aperture in the roof together with a great censer full of incense. In every way, it seems the emphasis was on the marriage of spirit from above (symbolized by incense or birds) with the earth (symbolized by greens).
The royal marriage shows up as well in other English customs, for instance the famous Whitsun Ale at Woodstock, where a man and woman were chosen Lord and Lady and paraded around the town. In Koretzting in Bavaria, the royal couple were called the Whitsun Bride and Bridgeroom. The Hungarians have an expression, "As short as the kingdom of Whitsun," referring to the two-day reign of the Whitsun Queen who is taken from house to house accompanied by girls singing songs about her and her rose-red crown.
All across Europe, Whitsunday and Whitmonday are holidays which people plan to spend outside. They are occasions for picnics, visits to the country, walks in the park, excursions to fairs. Danes go out to parks and forests to gather armfuls of young beech trees which are just budding and bring them home to decorate their houses. The Germans decorate with branches of birch. In Poland, Pentecost is called Zielowe Swiatki, the Green Holiday. People cut down branches of the birch and bring them into the house to put around windows. According to Jane Yolen in Briar Rose, a novel which combines the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty with the story of the Holocaust, the Poles once believed that birch trees housed the souls of the dead. This brings up the connection between death and the summer holidays. Perhaps it has something to do with the opening between Heaven and Earth, conceptualized as the descent of the Holy Spirit in Christian mythology, with the Sacred Marriage in the older
traditions.
The Pennsylvania Dutch use this day for weather divination according to folklorist Don Yoder. If it rains on Whitsunday, it will rain for seven Sundays.
Secular Centennial Games - observed in ancient Rome. The Goddesses Diana, Prosperina, and the Three Fates were honored in nighttime healing ceremonies.
St. Aldhelm's Day (patron musicians; song writers)
St. Bede the Venerable's Day (patron of scholars and English historians)
St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi's Day (against bodily ills; against sexual temptation; against sickness; sick people)
St Sarah - The day following the feast of the Three Maries honors St Sarah, who is the matron of gypsies and many gypsies gather at Arles to honor her. She is regarded as a companion of the Maries, along with St Martha; they are sometimes three, sometimes five. The festival features games and horsemanship.
St Urban - Pope Urban I who died in 230 was supposedly martyred by having a nail driven through his head, thus becoming the patron saint of migraines (it does feel like that!). If you actually suffer from migraines, I recommend eating one to three fresh leaves of the feverfew plant when you first begin to wonder if you're getting a migraine. It's worked for me for the past five years and may be as efficacious as prayers to St. Urban. In Germany, Urban is the patron saint of wine growers (although I wonder if there is some connection here with headaches as well). His day is used to predict the success of the vintage. If it's fine, the wine will be too. In earlier times, his statue was sprinkled on this day with wine if the weather was good, but water if it was not.
This Day in History
1581 Famed occultist and alchemist John Dee first realized his natural gift for looking into the future through the art of crystal-gazing. He served for years as the royal astrologer of Queen Elizabeth and had a reputation as a powerful wizard.
The Meister Stoor Worm - In Orkney, off mainland Scotland, the Meister Stoor Worm menaced the local people but was finally overcome by a local man who threw a spear tipped with blazing pitch down the throat of the dragon. According to legend the huge corps of the dragon became Iceland and it's teeth turned into the Faros.
823 Third Finding of the precious Head of the Prophet, Precursor and Baptist John (Orthodox) - After being lost for many years, in 823, after divine revelation the venerable head of the Holy Precursor was discovered again, preserved in a silver receptacle incarcerated within a church in Comana.
In Europe (especially France), this day is sacred to Saint Sarah of the Gypsies and also to an ancient triple Goddess who rose from the waters of the ocean.
In ancient Greece, the birthday of Apollo, the twin brother of the goddess Artemis, was celebrated annually on this date.
This is a Japanese holy day in Celebration of the Tao.
Folklore
The weather oracle - If it rain on the 25th, wind shall do much hurt that year; If the sun shine, the contrary.
T'ai Shan - On the 17th day of the fourth lunar month, the Chinese honor the goddess of Midwifery, the Daughter of the god of the Sacred Mountain. She is invoked at births along with her four attendants: the Ladies of Posterity, Fecundity, She Who Activates Birth and She Who Brings the Child.
Kallynteria - The Greeks honored Athena on the 24th and 25th days of the lunar month of Thargelion. The first day was called Kallynteria which means "beautifying by sweeping and polishing." The second day was called "Plynteria," which means "washing." These ceremonies may have preceded a ceremonial re-lighting of the eternal olive-oil lamp which burned in Athena's shrine.
Happy Turtle Day! This week is kind of a blur- a green blur, because the with warmth and rain both ground and canopy are fully in leaf and everything seems to be growing as lush as it can. Down at the bottom of Pinnacle Road the pond has yellow waterlily buds emerging. Yards with more elegance than ours have azalea and other bushes with bright pink, red and white flowers. Dandelions continue to cheer me all over the place, and there are still some bleeding hearts on my plant out front (and in the carafe on the kitchen table, along with a few fading lilac clusters). The bush the kids got me was covered with blooms so I figured that taking several off would allow it to put its energy into the root system rather than blooms. I also planted pansies in the cinderblocks edging the driveway. I don't think I'm going to actually get a garden in this year, but hope to put a plant or two in the herb garden as a sop to my urge to dig in the soil. (After planting, I spent over an hour trying to repair my nails. I haven't gotten used to how breakable they are these days, remembering that I used to tighten screws with them when I was younger. I suppose I'll have to learn to wear gloves, but every time I do I end up taking them off for better dexterity and sensitivity, so I don't know that I ever will.) I'm amazed at how quickly it's gone from "Wow, it's so summery for the beginning of May!" to "OMG, it's the end of May!" Where did it go? I realize that part of that is that the Memorial Day weekend kind of scoops up as many days at the end of May as possible, it "feels like" it's the end of May because Memorial Day is SUPPOSED to be the 30th, whereas once we get home from the weekend there will still be three more days. (Good to put in the tomatoes and peppers and other frost sensitive plants...) Also we tend to think of the Friday driving there as part of the weekend, so that results in my thinking that the "end of the month" starts on the 25th, thus gutting the last third of the month. This is a strange time of year for me. We aren't safe from hard frosts until after Memorial Day, but we are getting as much daylight now as we will in late July, more than we get a Pennsic, which is when I tend to think of as "summer". It seems just a few weeks ago that we "sprang forward", and I was bugging John to do the goats in late afternoon when it was light rather than by the clock. I like the light, but don't really get out in it enough.
We really haven't done much this week. Willow has been making her blankets. As she's learned from past experience, rather than doing all the cutting, then all the stitching, then all the backing, she's doing a few at a time, so she doesn't get repetitive motion injuries. She is planning on getting a good pile of them made up in advance so that she can have plenty to stitch up at Panteria this coming weekend. While she's been doing that, she's been listening to Eddie Izzard, and QI (Quite interesting), a British Show that Kat found and was listening to. Willow says that the discussions there remind her of our dinner table conversations, and I've seen a few clips now and agree. Here's a clip for you to check it out: http://boingboing.net/2011/09/27/stephen-fry-and-brit-talk-show-participants-marvel-at-american-prison-systems-brutality.html So we are preparing to go to Panteria day after tomorrow. (yikes) Both because we feel as though we haven't done much SCA recently, and because this year Sue has decided that pagans need to take themselves less seriously, so the theme this year is rubber duckies. I'm not sure that it's going to work- although I expect they'll have fun. I think the way people take themselves too seriously is where fun activities are least likely to reach. Frankly, for things like maypoles, where it often ends up in tangles, because people don't get how it works, I keep thinking (with my history background) that back when they were the big event of the season, people actually practiced beforehand, and worked hard to get it right. (dammit) So I'm probably one of those who "takes myself too seriously". All I know is that if I'm not comfortable with the drumming and drinking and fairy wings normally (except on the kids- kids and glitter go together), I just don't even want to THINK about what it's going to be like when they are trying to be silly! And this gives me an opportunity to go to Panteria, where I haven't been in quite a while. In fact, last time I was at Panteria, I think they had a sort of "Wheel of Fortune" thing where they spun it so the fighters could find out what weapons form or who they were fighting, so they are what I think of as a "fun" barony, who doesn't take itself too seriously itself. I'm really looking forward to it. Kat has been spending a lot of her time concentrating on her art. She is so meticulous that it takes her a long time to get things done. She came up with the idea more than a year ago, and I think it would be popular in the SCA if she could produce the comic. We have this idea that it should only take a month to put out one story, but that's based on commercial comic companies where each issue is worked on by several artists. One may only take a month to do the pencils, but another does the inks, another does the lettering, and another does the coloring. She's doing it all herself. (I always fell down on the inking. It's not a discipline/skill I have.) She's posted the first five pages of KSCA (her sports- manga about the SCA) to the website deviant art, if you want to see it. http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=KSCA#/d4genj0 The first, or introductory page, I didn't get, and Willow pointed out that to me having a helm in a locker, or a cape hanging on the wall, or celtic shoes are NOT going to make me do a double-take, but for most people they seem out of place. Yes, having spent the last four decades in the SCA probably has warped my expectations a bit. My craft project this week is trying to finish the quilt I was inspired to start last year at the American Society of Dowser's con. At some point after I started we cleared it away to make room for something else and I didn't do anything on it for months, now I need to finish it before I head back at the beginning of June (same deadline as Willow's for her blankets), so I'm trying to get a bit done each day. It's a simple pattern (I thought), triangles about a foot across, with bands between them on which is written the principles of the dowsers- Truth, Balance, Honesty, Humility, Wisdom, Gratitude, Tolerance, Integrity, etc. Triangles go together easily, but at the corners where six meet, I've got six of those bars meeting- which creates sort of a star, and those aren't always perfectly even. I expect quilters understand that, but, others may be more innocent- I was. I am ending up having to hand stitch each carefully in place, and they aren't as even as I'd like. In theory every triangle is exactly like the others cut from the same pattern, but in real life, it's not quite that simple. Sigh. Oh well. I also had to replace one triangle. I was trying to rip out the stitching so I could shift it about a quarter of an inch over to make it fit right- and ended up ripping right into the fabric. I tried repairing it, but couldn't, so I had to go back to JoAnne's and buy another piece. It wasn't the exact fabric, but it fit into the theme. All the patterns are "nature" themed- the reds looking fire-like, there are rocks, lots of green and gold leaves and flowers, blue watery ones, and even one with butterflies, since I couldn't find one that looked like clouds. The new piece I got looks a bit snowy, so I'm not terribly unhappy with it. Willow also had to pick up more thread, having used up the last 6 spools she'd bought, and she found a new set of scissors that claims it can cut through 20 layers of denim. Last time she was doing a big batch of blankets, cutting through 4 layers of polar fleece (cutting the fringes), she ended up getting blisters on her scissor hands. Let's hope that between the new scissors and her spacing them out that that doesn't happen again. She's been wearing her snips (on a string) ALL the time, and even fell asleep wearing it once and woke up with a couple of nasty scratches from getting poked in her sleep. So yesterday she made herself a snip-scabbard to avoid doing that again. I'm also working on driving Willow's car (a "standard"). After seeing me stall out about six times in the JoAnnes parking lot while I was trying to go from reverse to forward, Willow's wondering if I can't borrow a standard from a friend. I'm pretty sure I'll get to where I need to be by the time I have to, but I will need to practice more.
I've finally read all the chapters for the "viking" book for which I'm doing the cover. Now I can send Lynn the concept sketches, and get to painting. I really couldn't until I'd read the book. I think I'm going to go with the Wolf Attack scene. Jane is also finishing up her folk medicine book and is eager to have me get that cover painting done as well. I want to concentrate on the things that I do that will actually make money. Back when Ælfwine died, I figured I'd try everything, and see what seemed to work best then concentrate on that. We discovered right away that I don't like selling, and the girls do and are good at it. One down. But nothing else seemed to make money, and I've been having a real hard time trying to figure out into what to put my energy. I thought teaching, but when I started looking at it, I knew I couldn't deal with the administrative (people) part. Another eliminated. (I am REALLY not good at dealing with people when I'm frustrated with them. Luckily, most of the people I deal with adore me.) Since I'm often where there are psychics, I've asked several if there was some indicator that would help. It actually got funny, six psychics and every single one said -in so many words- "Whatever you pick will be successful, but you have to pick ONE". I hate picking one! The last one gave me a bit of hope- told me that I could do everything- sequentially, but not at the same time. OK, that's easier to deal with. I still need to pick, and still want to figure out how to integrate all the things I love into a "perfect" job. A year or two ago I realized that I actually HAVE the life I'd described as what I'd want: studying fascinating things and sharing that knowledge with others. Sadly, I apparently forgot to include the "getting paid for it" part of the description. This week while I was thinking about the SCA I realized that at events I am no longer The Lady of Stormgard; people don't all come round to be with us. (They come to Cabochons to buy stuff, but that's not the same.) I have to go out to them, and wherever I go, I'm greeted as a sort of local celebrity, but I'm not PART of their group. I'm on the edge of lots of groups. I think that explains why one has to pick one. You can only be a part of one group. It's probably the same way with a career. Everyone else who works at a 40 (50,60...) hour a week job is probably thinking "well, DUH! of course you can't do two jobs at once!" But I don't have that background. My background is running the house- in which the goal is to watch the kids WHILE doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, planning upcoming stuff, garden and animal care, etc. and you do that by multi-tasking and combining activities. It works for that, although it does tend to become 24-7. But that's Life. You want to make a life where what you live is what you love. But just as I can't be singing with Guinness's group, nibbling at the bacon orgy, dancing at Stonemarche, telling stories with Anne of the Fuzzy Hat, and goofing with Strangeways or House Evil Ducky, I can't do everything at the same time. Many years ago I thought I could sing two parts at once, it turned out that I was actually just garbling bits of both while hearing them in my head at the same time. I think that is what I may have been doing with a lot of stuff. Being into many things at once is really great for discovering connections between different disciplines, but it's not very focused. If I have to concentrate on one (after I've fulfilled by immediate obligations), I think I'm going to try illustrating one of the children's books I've been planning. Of all the things I'd be really bummed not to have done if I did end up dying as young as my mother and grandmother did, that's probably one that would bug me most. Talented as I am at catching likenesses, my technique is not good enough to concentrate on portraits, but if I paint 6 hours a day for a few years, that will probably improve, and I can do that next. Or finish Subtle Pagans. We'll see. I know I'm excellent at soothsaying, but inasmuch as that requires selling, worse, selling myself, that's another thing I think I can put on hold. Also, most of the professional psychics I know got some sort of a "Sign" or calling that they were supposed to do that, and I haven't gotten one. I finished writing last week's letter before I did the New Normal (my pod cast radio show) last week. It's amazing how long ago it seems. (It really would be easier if it were a weekly show rather than every other week!) It was another near fiasco. When I signed in, the board wasn't set up to have a show in that hour. I had to contact the producers (which was harder than it should have been), and get them to reset it for starting at 8:30, while my guest, Ellen Evert Hopman, was waited. I am beginning to feel that perhaps this "station" or whatever the podcast groups call themselves is really not good enough for me to deal with. I know I'm not a big-name professional, but there is some unnecessary crisis almost every week. I suspect that as one can't really tell anything about a group from its website other than how good the website designer was, they may be a little wannabe "station" being run by a bunch of friends in their spare time- and they don't have enough spare time. I'd hoped that this would give some exposure for my CTCW speakers, but maybe there aren't that many people listening. Certainly the people on the "interactive chatroom" often don't seem to give a damn about what my speakers are saying. Perhaps I should just put this down as a failed experiment.
The big event this weekend was Saturday- I FINALLY got to do the Psychic party for the poor lady who got it on the NHPublic TV auction two or three years ago. Every time we scheduled it there was a blizzard, or a power outage, or a close relative would die.... It got kind of predictable. She was very apologetic and worried that I'd say it had been too long, but I got to feeling sorry for her. The last thing I wanted to do was add my annoyance to all the other misfortune heaped on her! Saturday however went off without a hitch. Ms. Leech lived over in Hudson, and I was there from 1 to 4:30, so she gave me a tip for staying late, which was nice- it covered the gas, so I wasn't out of pocket. Her friends (who I think came from farther than I did), all seemed to be impressed, and made the usual noises about wanting to have me read for them again. As usual, I didn't have any idea what I was reading about, but they seemed to understand perfectly, and as all the cards fit together, I was pretty secure that the readings were good. I'm glad it went well for her. I really was creeped out by the housing development where she lived. I think it was a condo complex, row houses grouped around a circle, with almost no lawns or space. The immediate result was that there really not enough room for 6 cars, four were on the "street", in front of neighbors houses. I wonder what it must be like to live like that. I think it was even tighter than back in Malden when we were living in the triple-decker. Of course, I've never lived in an apartment house, so I don't "get" that sort of life-style. I'm still concerned about driving. So much of our lifestyle has to do with going to events; we wouldn't be able to do that if we didn't have cars, and even aside from the gas, cars represent a huge investment in materials and labor. But out here, there isn't public transportation- I wonder what changes in culture will happen over the next generation or so? Either we need to change our expectations, or the technology is going to have to provide huge changes I am not anticipating. On the other hand, while I did anticipate in home movies 40 years ago, and Science Fiction posited our credit economy, I had not anticipated how home computers would change our lives and attitudes, so there are probably other huge yet unanticipated changes just beyond the horizon of my imagination. I expect that if my social life were confined to just the people in Lyndeboro', I would find just as many really good people, and a similar proportion of people I don't understand. For all I know there are people here who are into medieval history, and I just don't know it because I haven't bumped into them. Despite having Facebook and Live Journal and such, I haven't really developed any major relationships with people sharing my "passions". I'm not sure how that is supposed to work. I continue following my passions mostly through the library and buying used books through Amazon. If nothing else, at least Amazon keeps track of the books I buy (and I can often get them for not much over the cost of shipping), so I don't end up buying duplicates as much as I used to. Tonight we're going to try a new dinner one of Willow's friends told her about: pulled pork over french fries! Sounds really good. All I have to do is really overcook some pork loin, tease it apart, stir in some barbecue sauce, and serve it over the fries. Pork loins are always cheap (although I feel guilty eating them, because I know that those factory farms are almost certainly WHY they are cheap), and that sounds easy and delicious. I know it's usually put on buns, but this sounds better.
The diet continues ☠- I do miss some of the ease of prepared foods, but the scale read 265, that's down 10 pounds, so I guess even though I thought I wasn't using that many, the ones I used were enough to trigger weight-gain. So far the thing I really miss is ice cream on hot days. We cracked the plastic bottom of our blender, and had to wait a week (oh, the horror‽) for a replacement to arrive. (That is definitely a plus of modern life! We spotted the problem, I went over to the computer, and it was on its way, and here in about five days. I didn't have to drive around trying to find one.) Also, I have to work to keep track of which iced tea container contains the fresh brewed, and which is from powder- which includes sugar. Powdered tea is both tasty, and really easy, but out of my life now.
Sunday John and I went to the recycling center, where the exchange table is still closed. I may have to start taking my stuff to the Milford or Peterboro Recycling center. I am NOT willing to just throw out perfectly good stuff, just because I don't want it any more! Willow really finds that frustrating, because she (I think, in common with most people) just wants the stuff out! I have issues about throwing good things away, or worse, anything I don't recognize. What if it belongs to someone who'd lost it, and they come looking for it and I've tossed it out? The argument that they shouldn't have left it there doesn't hold because you don't leave things behind on purpose, often don't know where you left something (that's why they call it "lost"), and frequently what's got emotional value to someone looks like junk to someone else. So I don't throw things I don't recognize out... and they accumulate. Sigh. At least if I recognize them, I can put them on the "still good, take it if you want it" table. But with that gone, I'm in deeper trouble, and need to find someplace to get rid of them. (I've got a huge collection of VHS tapes of great movies that I've now got on DVD, but no one wants them anymore, and it's nearly impossible to just buy a player for them. How sad and wasteful!) On the way home from the dump I got pulled over. It seems I didn't have the right registration sticker on my plates. I was sure I had taken care of that in February, and even had things in my check register that reassured me that I had- but no, I'd gotten it inspected, but when I'd gone to the town offices (Willow remembered), they'd been closed, and then I'd forgotten to go back. I think it's like the times I print out the letters that are going out physically, stuff them in envelopes, address them, stamp them, then put them by the door... and forget to put them in the mail box. My brain has filed the job in the "done" section and forgets it. So Monday I checked with the town clerk and got the registration done, but now I'll have to pay a fine as well. Darn! Well, better a mile and a half from home than off at an event! If you love musical comedies, as I do, you may remember the line in My Fair Lady "Next week on the twentieth of Mai, I proclimes `Liza Doolittle Daie." I love holidays, so I tripped over a reminder that it was Eliza Doolittle Day (as well as Step-Mother Day, and several other , and celebrated by listening to My Fair Lady and I've been having the songs go through my head ever since. There's an advantage to the radio, at least you get some variety in the music in your head.
Speaking of strange things in your head, I came up with this theory this week: The 1920s seem "post-apocalyptic" to me. They have that combination of the lovely remnants of the "Fin de siècle" buildings and other artifacts- the beautifully crafted things of the wealthy that form the core of the appeal of Steampunk, combined with the wreckage of the "Great War" (with it's emotional wreckage as well, and the trauma of the Spanish Flu thrown in for good measure), creating the frantic scramble for new balance and new technology, and trying new cultural paradigms. It's a thought.
Another thought I had was about traditional higher education. This may come from finishing the political theory lectures, but I've been thinking that the point of education was so that you could compare the philosophies of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and Kant, Locke, Descartes, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Augustine, and Confucius and the other big names. Apparently unless you know that someone famous has already said something like the way you see the world, your perception is not supposed to be as valid as if someone famous had already come up with something similar. To be "educated" is to be able to show other people that you know what famous people said. In theory, this sets you up to be able to think about things yourself. I suppose it's like trying a dozen flavors of ice cream, so you can say- yes, I like those, and I don't like those. I like most flavors of ice cream, but then, most philosophers had great perspectives on the cultures that produced them. However, I feel that an idea can be just as smart and as valid if it is original and the product of observation of the world by someone who knows nothing of what other people have said, and it worries me that this is what education is about. An art teacher teaches how to "appreciate" famous paintings, but it is the artist inside each of us who appreciates the sunset, or face, or landscape before us. Tradition has much to teach us, but we must not let it hobble our minds.
I had a lot of fun on Facebook watching the people in the Southwest reporting on and sharing their views of the eclipse. From the map showing its path, I thought it would be pretty much over by the time it got to shore, but apparently it still put on quite a show. Wish I'd been in the area. Frankly, an annular eclipse sounds like it's more interesting than a total eclipse. I remember "watching" the total eclipse in 1963 at Grammies' house, but I don't remember it getting that dark, and mostly what I remember was the grown-ups telling us not to look at it without the smoked glass, and how I didn't like my cousins behavior. Since it's probably the only one I'm going to be in the right range, I wish I had a better memory of it.
Also on Facebook I've been enjoying Megan posting pictures of where their narrowboat is docked in "Little Venice", which I think is in the North of London. I love using the Google Maps satellite view to see where they are. The current picture shows their berth, but their boat isn't there. She's put up wonderful pictures of their boat and the paintings they done on it, and buckets, and the various gorgeous views they've seen, and Vito, the Wonder-Dog, who they took with them this time, and them- looking Oh so canal boat-y. She even posted the picture of a potato-leek torta, which is just like porn for some of us. During errands this week I finished the audio course "Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age". I've now heard so many of the courses on that period that I get a little confused. They're covering the same material, so I wonder if I've heard it before. Still, I'm hardly ready to stop, it's not like I've read all the suggestions for more reading that come with it. Not enough time.
I may be running down on the "death" theme literature, but each book does have a new perspective. This week I read Final Gifts, a book from the perspective of an hospice nurse. It was beautiful. Quite the antidote for all those stories about hospital deaths with questionable interventions. Of course, one turns to hospice after the doctors have given up on interventions, so that allows the natural process to move forward without the burden of constant decision-making. She talks about how much better the dying person generally does when they know what to expect, and how she explains it to them, and to their families. She talks about the wonderful things she's seen with deaths. I know some people just don't even want to think about it until they have to, but it's a marvelous book, and I can recommend it to anyone who has a loved one who's dying. I did watch a few more movies with death and funerals in them- Pushing Daisies is a TV show. I found it artistically pretty, but so silly that I'd have to be in the right mood to want to watch it. After Life was dark, I guess you'd call it horror- starring Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci. I enjoyed it, although it had some bits in it about laying out corpses that some would probably find disturbing. Death at a Funeral was just hilarious. It's basically a "family" movie, using a funeral rather than Christmas or some other excuse for getting together the people who really know how to push each other's buttons. Apparently it's a 2010 cover of a British 2007 movie by the same name, Chris Rock, who stars, said (in the extras) that they hardly changed the dialogue. The British version is due in tomorrow, and I'm so looking forward to it. I am, of course, still thinking about getting things organized for my own death- which I expect won't be soon, but still, it does surprise us doesn't it? Best to have all those forms done and stored somewhere intelligent. Most people put their advanced directives (what your preferences are about "heroic measures" etc.) and burial plans with their wills. Given that the Will is generally not read until after all that is done, that's not the right place to put it. I've got Willow as my designated Medical Power of Attorney, because she knows me best, but on the other hand, she totally hates hospitals and finds it hard to go into them, so I'd better not need anyone to run interference for me. Apparently Kitty was going to ask Trish to be her executor, but Trish told her she'd just have a dumpster brought to her house and toss everything in it, all the art she's made and collected, so Liz gets to do it. You really have to think about not just how responsible they are, but what they'll have to do. I would need everything written out- who to call, who gets what, what to do with the body, all that stuff. And I'm trying to figure that out to give that list to Willow. At the risk of being a nag, everyone (this means you) should have advance directive forms, will etc. ready, and FINDABLE, and whoever's going to be handling it should go over things with you well in advance. You can google forms on the internet. (If I can, anyone can.) I've now got a form in my purse granting permission for people to visit me if I become hospitalized, and to get medical information from the medical caretakers, if Willow isn't available to pass the information along to everyone. If you want to be put on that list of people that are not to be brushed off because they're not family, let me know (along with your legal name and place of residence), and I'll add you (unless I think you're going to be a total downer.) The basic ones I've got are my kids, father, sisters, and mother-in-law. As I'm also working on that list for Willow about what to do with all my SCHTUFF, let me know if there's anything you'd like to have if I were to die in the next few years as a memento, so I can tag it/put on the list. I figure Willow can send the pagan stuff to the various prison programs, but I'm not sure how to find someone who'd appreciate my collection of Anglo-Saxon books. It's not quite on a par with Yale's, but I've got stuff that I think a lot of college libraries would love to get their hands on (MUCH better than what BU had when I was there).
Other things I've watched this week. Mostly Bones, I got started and now I want to go through as far as our DVD collection will take me. I did (finally) get to watching A Very Long Engagement (I think it was Tamooj who recommended it). It's a love story from the first World War. My biggest problem was that I discovered that I couldn't quite follow it without subtitles, so I couldn't watch it while working- I think I did work on the quilt and had to keep backing up for the bits I missed. I've got Young Goethe in Love home, and am having the same problem with that. I hate that I can "almost" speak the language. I watched Ship of Fools, a depressing film, great characters, but only the Jewish salesman was appealing. I prefer films where I can like the characters. After he said "There are over a million Jews in Germany! What are they going to do, kill us all‽" I started thinking. We are all familiar with the "6 million" figure (that comes from the Nazi's own records, it may be more). But it does include those they brought by train (or foot) from Poland, France, Austria and elsewhere. I heard in some documentary or other how it broke down, but maybe it wasn't world/European domination Hitler was going for, but simply access to the Jews. Maybe he invaded just to facilitate killing the Jews. What an awful thought. But it's not really that bizarre. I've been reading a book on terrorism, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. (Talk about unlikeable characters!) The author talked to as many people as he could who are involved with the politically violent movements, not just Palestinians and Iraqis, but the Christians who bombed abortion clinics, the members of Aum Shinrikyo, and others. They really do feel that what they are doing is moral and the will of God. One thing I took from it was that some Christian fundamentalists believe that the second coming cannot take place until Christ has "ruled" in name for a thousand years. (I'm not sure where they got that one.) But that's why they feel it is imperative to make this a Christian Nation so that that watch can start. (I'm not sure how much of the world has to be Christian. Do they start around the year 1000, at which point most of Europe was converted? Of course Lithuania didn't convert nominally until the 14th century. Do they have to Christianize the world or do we just not worry about non-whites? Does it work like a "stop watch" and so if we stopped being a "Christian Nation" say at the time of Roe vs. Wade, can it start again if they get it repealed? It's a bit confusing. I remember reading that there's a farmer in South Carolina who's raising red cattle because the Kingdom of God can't begin until they sacrifice a certain number of red heifer's without blemish at the altar at the Temple in Jerusalem. He figured he couldn't pull down the Dome of the Rock, but he could have the cattle all ready for when the temple was rebuilt. Seriously. Considering what other people think of my religious beliefs, I've got no call doubting the sincerity of those of people with different ones. Other things I've seen include a documentary on the Hidden City of Petra, (I had no idea how much space the town actually took up, they usually only show you the facades dug into the face of the cliffs). Dolphin Tale was a lovely movie about dealing with difficulties- apparently based on a true story. I loved that it showed how good people are. And another sports movie Coach Carter which I liked because unlike most of the sports movies, the team we follow didn't win their big climactic game, but the coach did manage to get many of his "student athletes" to be students, not just athletes. I loved that at some point when they are talking about goals, and how much they want to win the championship, he asks them who won it last year, and no one knows. We can care SO much about things that no one else cares about. Most of the things that we work so hard for in this life whether it's winning a competition, writing a book, or getting an award in whatever group you're in, not only will make no difference when you're dead, but most of the people in the world wouldn't care one way or another whether you did it/got it or not. On one of the episodes of Bones they had the FBI agent giving his Silver Star to someone and it occurred to me that I had no idea exactly what a Silver Star was given for. Then a few hours ago, someone on Facebook mentioned that one of our friends had earned one in Viet Nam 40 years ago, but was going to finally have it presented THIS Memorial Day. The post included a description of what he'd done to earn it. Risking injury and death to help your fellows IS something worth remembering, and as they showed in the movie It's a Wonderful Life it's not just the heroic moments, it's the cumulative little things that we do, how we live our lives, that make differences to people our lives touch. I actually think that for the really great movies that are seen by millions with such uplifting messages, their makers may be more influential than Plato or Nietzsche. The ability to change people's lives through your message is far more important than what great scholars say about it in their ivy covered halls (or papers).
Well, that's it for this week. Make your will and other papers. Tchipakkan "When asked 'What is the difference between Religion and Spirituality?' a Jesuit replied: To explain that I have to tell you a little story. Spirituality is represented by the fresh spring water of God's love for all of creation that arises naturally at the top of a mountain. It trickles down the mountainside and refreshes and strengthens everything it touches. Religion, now that is something else again, it is the well-intentioned man-made plumbing that often tries to send the water uphill where it should not go and, as often as not, whistles it past your arse without the benefit of a tap. Being man-made it always pollutes the water. So, when in doubt, always go back to the spring." ~Tim Wallace-Murphy
St. David of Scotland’s Day - d. 1153; Christian warrior-king of Scotland.
St. Sara's Day (patron of Gypsies)
St. Cyril's Day
The birth of the Greek moon-goddess Artemis (who also presides over hunting and wild beasts) is remembered. As a lunar goddess, she has been an influential archetype for many Witches and worshipers of the contemporary Goddess religion. Artemis is equivalent to the Roman moon-goddess Diana and is identified with Luna, Hecate, and Selene.
Hermes Trismegistus (Roman) - A first century AD Egyptian priest/god, also known as The Mighty King Thoth, the Biblical Enoch and Hermes the Thrice Greatest, (the greatest philosopher, the greatest priest, and the greatest king). He was the reincarnation of Thoth, who taught the secrets of alchemy to man, and the author of The Emerald Tablet, one of the oldest, ancient and most profound documents known to man, from which came "As above, so below. As within, so without. As the Universe, so the soulî.
Alchemy is also known by the name of the ëHermetic Artí and amongst alchemists, Hermes is also the epithet for mercury, or quicksilver, one of the seven metals of alchemy.
"You shall separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross,
suavely, and with great ingenuity and skill. Your skillful work ascends from
earth to heaven and descends to earth again, and receives the power of the
superiors and of the inferiors. So thou hast the glory of the whole world--therefore let all obscurity flee from thee. This is the strong force of all forces, overcoming every subtle and penetrating every solid thing."
Gypsy May Festival - Gypsyís rituals to venerate the Three Marys and their Egyptian servant girl, Sara.
Death of Copernicus - Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer, died in 1543.
Feast of the Mothers - Celtic festival of the three mother goddesses (Goddess of the Moon and the Seasons), who bring prosperity and a full harvest and marking the transformation of the Virgin into the Mother.
Feast of the Holy Maries - Underlying the worship at Arles of the three Marys of Christian legend (also known as the Three Maries of the Sea) may be an earlier devotion to the Triple Goddess.
Sts Cyril & Methodius - A pair of ninth-century saints who were early missionaries to the Slavs, where they devised an alphabet to represent Slavonic, which had formally been strictly an oral language. Cyril's alphabet is still used to transcribe Russian, Bulgarian and other Slavic languages. They are considered patron saints of Bulgaria.
St. Julia's Day (patron of Corsica, Portugal, torture victims, pathologies of hands and feet)
La Abogada de ImpossiblesSt. Rita of Cascia's Day (patron of desperate cases; against bleeding, infertility, loneliness, tumors, unhappy marriages)
St Dympna - Matron saint of the mentally ill, this obscure 7th century Irish princess has a shrine in Gheel, just east of Antwerp in Belgium, where people have come for centuries seeking healing from mental illness. The whole town is a sort of mental hospital without walls. On Dympna's feast day, there is a procession to the saint's tomb.
St. Quiteria (against Rabies)
This Day in History
The Earth Religion Anti-Abuse Act was adopted in 1988.
Ethics: The Earth Religion Anti-Abuse Resolution (1988)
We, the undersigned, as adherents of Pagan and Neo-Pagan Earth Religions, including Wicca or Neo-Pagan Witchcraft, practice a variety of positive, life affirming faiths that are dedicated to healing, both of ourselves and of the Earth. As such, we do not advocate or condone any acts that victimize others, including those proscribed by law. As one of our most widely accepted precepts is the Wicca Rede's injunction to "harm none," we absolutely condemn the practices of child abuse, sexual abuse and any other form of abuse that does harm to the bodies, minds or spirits of the victims of such abuses. We recognize and revere the divinity of Nature in our Mother the Earth, and we conduct our rites of worship in a manner that is ethical, compassionate and constitutionally protected. We neither acknowledge or worship the Christian devil, "Satan," who is not in our Pagan pantheons. We will not tolerate slander or libel against our churches, clergy or congregations and we are prepared to defend our civil rights with such legal action as we deem necessary and appropriate.
Lag B'Omer - On Lag B'Omer, 33 days after Passover (which corresponds with spring equinox), American Jews celebrate with hikes in the woods, picnics and archery contests. It sounds quite a bit like the Robin Hood games held on May Day in medieval England; where the mythic character of Robin Hood, was a symbol of male fertility, like the Green Man Robin Hood and Maid Marian are one variation of the May King and Queen.
The Kabbalists celebrated the marriage between heaven and hell by lighting bonfires. Conservative and Orthodox Jews celebrate weddings and attend concerts on this day since these activities are otherwise forbidden during the solemn time of counting the Omer. http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayb.htm 2008
Ragnar Lodbrok, a Viking leader, was honored with this day. After being captured in Northumbria, he was tortured and killed by being thrown into a pit of poisonous snakes
Rosalia - A sacred rose festival, the Rosalia dedicated to the flower-Goddess Flora and to Venus was celebrated annually on this date in ancient
Tubilustrum - A Roman festival for purifying the trumpets which were carried in battle. Ovid said it honored Vulcan, the divine smith and fire god who had forged the original trumpets.
St. Bernadino of Siena's Day (patron of adverstising, communications personnel, publicity agents, uncontrolled gambling; against horseness, chest/lung problems)
St. Ethelbert's Day (patron against thieves) http://www.herefordwebpages.co.uk/ethel.shtml
Blessed Columba of Rieti (patron against sorcery, temptation)
This Day in History
325 First Council of Nicaea – Catholic church creating doctorine under the direction of a Lay leader, they developed the Nicean creed. 1800 bishops invited, 200-300 attended.
1996 Day the Supreme Court recognized that discrimination against lesbians and gays violates the U.S. Constitution
1873 On the night of the Full Moon in May, the petrified inhabitants of a village in the Bohmerwald, watched transfixed as a blood red-winged, man-sized creature crawled across the vertical face of the Burgemeesterís ìlandschlosî and vanished into the night.
Saga Dawa Duchen– Tibetan Buddhist festival celebrating the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 BCE). In the Buddhist tradition, the first Full Moon is celebrated in honor of the enlightenment of Buddha.(Ch B 5/12, Th B 5/20- this holiday migrates)
A sacred festival called the Plynteria was celebrated annually in ancient Greece in honor of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle, and the patroness of the city of Athens (which was named after her). It included the ritual cleansing of her statue, followed by prayers in the Parthenon and feasting.
Observance of the Cipher - Alchemistís ritual thanksgiving to The Creator and for His diligent guidance through their toils.
Rosalia - A sacred rose festival, the Rosalia dedicated to the flower-Goddess Flora and to Venus was celebrated annually on this date in ancient Rome. Indulge yourself in roses. Eat biscuits with rose-flavored honey. Decorate with bunches of roses. Perfume yourself or your bath water with rosewater or rose essential oil. Scatter rose petals in your bed.
Tubilustrum - A Roman festival for purifying the trumpets which were carried in battle. Ovid said it honored Vulcan, the divine smith and fire god who had forged the original trumpets.
Madb Dydd - the Day of the Dark Goddess, begins at sundown.
The 7th day of Epipi commemorates the Sailing of the netjers after Hathor.
In 1911, Peter Hurkos was born in the Netherlands. Developing astonishing psychic powers after recovering from a coma, he became world-famous for solving crimes though the divinatory art of psychometry. He passed away in Los Angeles on May 25, 1988.
Gwydion Pendderwen was born in Berkeley, California in 1946. He was a Celtic Bard, a cofounder of the Faery Tradition of Witchcraft, and the founder of a Neo-Pagan networking organization called Nemeton. He died in the Autumn of 1982 as a result of a tragic automobile accident.
This is the Egyptian holy day of Tefnut.
Day of Tefnut - This is the Egyptian holy day of Tefnut.
The 7th day of Epipi - commemorates the Sailing of the netjers after Hathor.
Anastenarides Feast - In certain villages in northern Greece, on the feast day of Saint Constantine, the Anastenarides (the groaners) dance barefoot on hot coals for hours at a time. It is said that the Saint protects those men who he summons to this dance.
After the dance, a black bull is sacrificed on the steps of the church and the raw, still-steaming meat is distributed to all. The strips of hide are given out as well to be made into sandals.
According to Blackburn, these rituals ìare opposed by the Church as survivals from the ancient worship of Dionysos, the god of wild nature in such manifestations as plant growth, wine, and ecstasy, but are stoutly defended by their practitioners as Christian defences against the Devil.î
St Elena - While discussing the link between bread and religion that runs so deep in Italy, Waverley Root comments on a ritual that takes place at Quartu Sant'Elena, near Cagliari in Sardinia on May 21st. The people dress in traditional costumes and make an offering to St. Elena of eight large loaves of bread, which contain wine and honey, and are sweetened with jam.
Hamster Memorial Day - This is a holiday declared in honor of all the beloved hamsters that have lived with all of us for too brief of a time. It is celebrated on the second to the last Saturday in May.
Feast of the Triple Scoop - While this probably came into being as an advertisement for the ice cream industry, this is actually a special dragon day on the calendar. After you've begun working with your dragon companions you will learn things that are completely unique to them. Many companion, love ice cream (preferably dragon sized in 5 gallon containers). You will need to discover your own unique rituals but you could ritually make an offering of ice cream on this day. (Please remember that the essence of ritual is the action you take. So you are not literally expecting a dragon to materialize and eat ice cream with you. You are offering something of value in this world to a being in the other world. It is the energy around your action that is in fact the gift)
St. Alcuin of York Minister of Education to Charles the Great- preserver of manuscripts
St. Dunstan's Day (patron of armourers; blacksmiths; blind people; goldsmiths; jewellers; lighthouse keepers; locksmiths; musicians; silversmiths; swordsmiths)
St. Peter Celestine's Day (patron of book-industry workers)*
St. Ivo of Kermartin's Day (patron ofabandoned people; advocates; attorneys; bailiffs; barristers; canon lawyers; canonists; judges; jurists; lawyers; notaries; orphans)
St. Joaquina de Vedruna (patron of abuse victims, death of children, exiles, widows)
This Day in History
May 19, 1780. At midday near-total darkness unaccountably descended on much of New England. Candles were lit, fowls went to roost and many fearful persons believed that doomsday had arrived. At New Haven, CT, Colonel Abraham Davenport opposed adjournment of the town council in these words: “I am against adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.” No scientifically verifiable cause for this widespread phenomenon was ever discovered.
The Dragon of Kingston - In ancient lore, as the dragon roared out its flames, a great boulder was rolled down the hill and into its mouth, choking it to death.
More on the starred holidays above:
Apollon was the sacred day of Apollo, god of music, poetry, divination, and sunlight. In the year 1780, a strange and unexplained darkness draped over most of New England, turning daytime into night. Many folks believed that a Salem Witch's curse was responsible for the day of darkness, since no other explanation for the phenomenon has ever been found.
On the 5th day of Epipi, Hathor returns to Punt, and the Netjers are saddened.
St Peter Celestine - This solitary hermit, who renounced the world at the age of twenty after a youth spent in piety and acquisition of learning, eventually became Pope but resigned after four months because he found his new office irksome. His successor put him in prison, where he died ten months later. For unclear reasons, perhaps because of his love of learning, he is the patron of bookbinders.
Festival of Bridgid - Old Celtic/Irish feast at which sacred healing wells and springs were adorned with flowers in honour of the Goddess Brigit, daughter of the Mother Goddess Danu and Father God Dagda.
Bendidea - Greek festival to Bendis/Bendini, Goddess of War & Hunting. Sacrifices and torch processions honour the Thracian Goddess of the Moon, Bendini on this day in Hellenic tradition. Bendini has been recognized by some as an aspect of Artemis and Hecate.
St. Venantius' Day (patron of leaping, against danger from falling)
Feast of Pan, who represents the masculine in Nature and protects men throughout their lives. Men recognized the transitions in their lives and honored male fertility.
5/18 eve to 5/20 eve: Feast of Divine Love and Compassion--source of beneficence--honoring Goddess as Isis (Old Egyptian), Oshun (Yoruba/Santeria), Aphrodite (Old Greek), Lakshmi (Hindu), Rahamin (Jewish Kabbalah) & Grace (Christian).
Apollon Day - Day of Apollo (Roman) the patron of archery, agriculture, animal husbandry, crops, cattle, farmers, shepherds, sheep, poetry, medicine, prophesy and ethics.
The Feast of Twins - On this day, festivals honoring twins are held annually in the African republic of Nigeria. It is widely believed among the Yoruba people that all twins are born with abundant magickal and supernatural powers. The Yoruba tribe of Nigeria revere twins who are honored with special dinners today. If one of the twins has died, a special doll is made to take its place so that the living twin is not drawn into death as well.
Enlightenment Day - At Cassel in Germany between 1614 and 1617, Johan Valentin Andre published the Rosicrucian Manifestoes, which was the foundation of the esoteric society known as the Rosicrucians, or the Brothers of the Rosy Cross. Claiming their origins to stem from ancient Egypt, their kabbalistic, hermetic and alchemical teachings, rich in occult symbolism, describe the travels of their spiritual leader, Christian Rosenkreuz. Many of the worldís great sages have been included in the brotherhood, which had much in common with Freemasonry.
Thargelion Noumenia - Old Greek festival honoring all the Gods and Goddesses. Flutes were played; prayers were said; offerings of barley, olive oil, incense, and food were burned in an offering hearth; and libations of water and wine were made.
The Goddess Month of Hera begins; it's Physiotherapy , Jewish American Heritage, and Lyme Disease Awareness Months, and Police Week, World Trade Week, and National Transportation Week.
The kids got me a pair of lilac bushes for Mother's Day- one white, one sort of pinkish. We've started the annual fool's errand of trying to pull all the knotweed out of the herb garden. (How did it get there? I don't think it travels by seed, so it must have crept under the road or a long way from where the nearest clump was growing. Poot!) I also have to find gloves and pull out the raspberry suckers. (for that matter, how'd they get there?) Some of the existing lilacs are fading, but some are still looking good. The "undergrowth" we should be trimming back from around the mailbox is mostly lilac suckers, but they never bloom; perhaps in a few years they will.
This week appears to be the Time of the Ice Saints, something like the spring equivalent of Indian Summer where tradition has it that there's five days of cold, wet (winter) weather in May. Willow doesn't mind since she's working with Polar Fleece, and the rest of us don't mind it being in the 50s and 60s rather than the 70s and 80s anyway.
The quince blossoms have passed, but the apple orchards are in blossom. I continue to be impressed at how long flowers from bulbs last- the tulip by the bleeding hearts lasted almost a month, and the bleeding hearts are fading now too. We're seeing wild strawberry flowers, and I am getting VERY full of gardening urges that I am trying to restrain to realistic levels. I have a book out from the library called the New Low-maintenance Garden which does have at least one chapter on gardens with food and herbs. In Europe a garden that combines all sorts of plants is called a potager. It's a kitchen garden that's arranged like a flower garden, for enjoyment, not just utility. I'd LIKE to get a real vegetable garden out in the back, I am going to try to put a few tomato, kale and beans into the perhaps 15x15 herb garden. (I think my biggest problem is weeds.) I have got some new herbs to put into the multi-herb pot by the front door, and am hoping to get some borage and nasturtium for the front strip.
I still haven't gotten rid of the goats, but am hoping to get to it soon.
Eliminating sugar and white flour from my diet does seem to be working. I checked the scale yesterday and it was 268, down from 275 a week or so ago. I'd rather expected some more dramatic form of "withdrawals", (such as described in a book I read back in the eighties about sugar addiction), but so far what I'm feeling is frustration about not being able to bake. I've picked up some whole wheat pastry flour and wheat germ and dug out a copy of the book of healthy cookies I used when Ælfwine was trying to live.
Last week Morgan wrote me that he'd heard an NPR story about exercise. "Turns out, if you walk 30 minutes a day for an average of 4 days a week, it increases your lifespan by 20%. On the other hand, if you really push yourself and run 90 minutes a day 4 days a week, it only increases your lifespan by another 4%. So most of the benefit comes in the first little bit of walking that you do. Since its basically what our skeletons are designed for above and beyond all else, there are very few injuries associated with walking, while 75% of runners suffer an injury per year."
Given that, I'm working harder to get out and walk at least four times a week. I got myself some gold star stickers, but I think I'm going to have to put them on the calendar on the back of the front door or I'll forget to use them.
Another project I'm working on is learning to drive a standard. When I head up to the American Society of Dowsers in Vermont, Kat and Willow are headed down to Anime Next in New Jersey, with two of their friends to split costs. This means they need the big car, so I get the "small" one, but Willow's car is a standard. Back when Ælfwine had one, we tried to get me comfortable with it, but the few times we went out, I'd get to one of those "uphill stops", stall, and since I was a beginner, I'd roll back while trying to get started again. Every time, someone would come up behind me, and then start yelling as I rolled backwards, threatening their bumper. They'd yell, then pull past me cursing, and I'd start crying, and Ælfwine would take over, and the lesson would be done. So I never got the hang of it. Since we KNOW I've got to be able to handle it in just a few weeks, we are practicing. I don't think it's good for Willow's nerves either, but she gets exasperated rather than sorry for me, so we are dealing, and I'm gradually getting better.
When they told Willow that she had been moved from the waiting list to Artist's Alley, Willow inventoried her accumulated polar fleece and made a list of the blankets she needed to do to have a good selection at the con, and a shopping list of what she had to buy. Mostly she keeps her costs down by buying off the discount rack, but while she often makes the blankets with 'what she's got', she often has to buy the backing to make it look good. As with the jewelry, the masks, and everything else she makes, she's really fussy about quality, both in materials and workmanship. Luckily, Joanne's was having a sale this week, so she was able to get the more-than-twenty yards of polar fleece for about an hundred dollars. She's also figured out that she can get all the ones she wants done in time IF she completes one and a half blankets each day. When I remarked that it's good to have a plan, she responded "I like my plans to have less whimpering."
I was thinking that I should probably do something similar to try to get everything in that I'm trying to accomplish. I'm back to working on the quilt I'd started for the dowsers (same deadline as Willow's). But I also have another book cover to do, and several projects to get done before Pennsic to create a display that will justify the support of those who are putting me up for Laurel. This probably means I'll be finally getting around to making and Anglo-Saxon Urn for Ælfwine's ashes, and finishing the gold-work collar on the gown I've been working on for two years, and several other projects. The problem with thinking in those terms is that it reminds me of all the other unfinished projects I've got on hold, which is kind of daunting. Obviously I can't do them all at once, but I've always had a hard time deciding that something I'm excited about is lower priority that other things I'm excited about. Usually I make that kind of decision by things with expiration dates, or other time constraints. I really need to come up with a better system. Kat is currently doing an hour of this, an hour of that- (her web comic, housework, exercise, etc.) and that's working for her. I'm more than a little jealous.
I REALLY have a hard time figuring out what my passion is, where my joy lies, or all those other things that you're supposed to center your life on. I want it all. I want to integrate art, history, healing, divination, and family life in some way. Every time I try to pick one, something pops up and reminds me that I don't want to stop doing the others. I know I can do them sequentially, but apparently not in very short bits. This week I watched the movie Hugo, and in it Hugo notices that everyone has different things they do with their life- his father fixed things, Melies made magical films, and Isabelle wishes she knew what her purpose in life was. Hugo, as a watchmaker's son, said that machines don't come with extra parts, so he was convinced that even when we don't know what our purpose is, we must have one, which I think is a very reassuring philosophy.
I finished up the course "Power over People" Classic and Modern Political Theory, which started with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and ended up with Machiavelli, Marx, Hitler and Ghandi. Mostly it was sequential, but I'm glad he put Ghandi at the end. I always prefer to end on a positive note. Political Theory is not my first choice of interesting topics, but at the same time, it does come down to, as the professor said what is the relationship of individuals to society? What is the right way for men to live? which are deeply interesting topics- especially in an election year. As he talked about how both Hitler and Ghandi played their audiences and inspired them, I look at Obama and Romney and what they offer their supporters. I don't subscribe to the "great man" view of history, I believe that the currents of history will toss up the right man to fulfill whatever role is needed at the time, rather than having a unique man shaping the path of history. Yes, Romney seems to think that the rights of the rich individual to self determination are far more important than the rights of a poor individual, but he wouldn't be a front runner if there weren't a lot of people supporting him. I want to figure out WHY they support him? What are they afraid of? What do they hope for?
A great deal of posts flowed around the internet this week about Romney back in private school hacking off another kids hair while his friends held him down. I hope that these days an incident like that would be considered assault and battery. (In Anglo-Saxon times, the payment of were-geld would have been about the same as for raping a woman.) He says he doesn't remember it, but if it happened, it was only a prank. I don't know which would be worse, forgetting it, or lying about it. I have always been a strong advocate of letting people live down their past mistakes, but to characterize assault as a "prank" is a dangerous perspective for a possible president (arguably the most powerful man in the world) to hold. I've just watched Judgement at Nuremberg which pretty much addresses the same question. (I sent for it after watching Imaginary Witness last week.) What happened wasn't the question, how and why it happened was the question. As Judge Haywood (Spencer Tracy) says, if the "defendants were all depraved perverts - if the leaders of the Third Reich were sadistic monsters and maniacs - these events would have no more moral significance than an earthquake or other natural catastrophes. But this trial has shown that under the stress of a national crisis, men - even able and extraordinary men - can delude themselves into the commission of crimes and atrocities so vast and heinous as to stagger the imagination." It is that Romney and his supporters don't seem to take the alleged action seriously that is worrisome. I'm all for letting someone leave his past behind if he (or she) has grown beyond his mistakes, but not dismiss it. More importantly, I wonder what is scaring his supporters. Yes, for many, economic times are bad, and the modern U.S. no longer claims to be "One Nation under God", the way it did fifty years ago. We acknowledge the diversity, and allow more definitions of acceptable. Like little children without parental forcing them to behave, they worry about where the limits are, and long for the certainty that the remember from their youth. But the people who used to be ground down and kept invisible under that "idyllic" imaginary golden post-war era are not going to put up with going back to the ghetto, the slums, or the reservation so that "Ozzie and Harriet" can claim, as the Germans did of the camps, that they didn't know. It's important to me not just to deplore a "defense of marriage" act, but to understand why that restricted view of marriage is so important to the (slight?) minority that support it.
As I said, I'm hoping that the no-sugar thing is working for me. I've been reviewing Nourishing Traditions, a combination book about food and cookbook, very big into the all-natural way. It's very pro-raw food, and fermented foods. When I first encountered it, I was amused to compare it to other health books I've read that recommend no fermented foods (based on people who have yeast problems). This time I'm struck by it's recommendations in contrast to another book I'm reading: Catching Fire- How Cooking Made Us Human. Catching Fire talks about how our bodies reflect the evolutionary changes that came about when our distant ancestors tamed fire and started cooking our food. To my surprise it says that even animals do better when eating cooked food. (Pottinger's experiments indicated that cooked food would render animals sterile and sickly.) I guess that it comes down to what the individual needs. Still, we have lost both jaws for chewing harder materials and a dozen or so feet of intestines to process it over the centuries. I think the thing that really surprised me most was that apparently it only takes about two thousand years to have changes create a new species. One season of stress will result in noticeable differences in an effected population (they gave, as an example, finches with heavier beaks surviving, and thus breeding better, in times of drought when the heavier beak gave them an advantage with tough seeds, but that if good/normal years followed, the tendency was for the species to return to the old mean size for beaks). I already knew that carrots give up more vitamins cooked than raw, but I hadn't realized that they aren't the only foods that we do better with processed than unprocessed. Still, apparently grinding is also a good way to make nutrients more available. I still haven't finished it but I'm really enjoying it.
Friday we went to see the Avenger's matinee. (We may be cheap, but not quite cheap enough to do the drive in, which is not as comfortable. Heck, the Avengers was two and a half hours, which is more than most bladders can deal with. I suppose that accounts for the long lines at the rest rooms at the drive in between movies.) I loved it. It's as good as Thor, and Iron Man and other adventure movies I've liked. Willow asked me what movies I remember from when I was young, and frankly there weren't that many. I really am enjoying the action adventures they're doing now. It may be that I just don't remember them.
Aside from that I cleaned the oven, which shouldn't be such a big deal, but I don't care for the caustic chemicals, the fumes, and leaning over into the oven. I SO love that my oven door comes off! That really helps. Still, I worry about the chemicals. Time after time we see that just because something is legal to sell, even common, it doesn't mean that it's not having a negative effect on our health and the environment. It used to be common to treat syphilis with mercury, and amputations with cautery. That doesn't mean it was a good idea.
Saturday Steve came up and we had fiesta chicken and watched Pirate Radio. He's still got a cough hanging on from winter, and I showed him some accupressure points- maybe that'll help. He's tried doctors and having tried antibiotics, they can't figure out anything to do about it. He's always been more interested in strange little films than action adventures, and it's nice to have someone to watch them with. Pirate Radio was theoretically based on the sixties when Britain (although exporting the Beatles and Rolling Stones) didn't want Rock and Roll being played over the air for some reason. There was a lot of good music, and a huge and talented cast, including Kenneth Brannaugh, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, and a pile of others. I spent a great deal of time looking for the ones I was expecting and only just recognizing them by their voices at the very end. A great deal of the humor is rather low, (a government agent is named Twatt, and they make a lot of jokes about that). My favorite line was when the minister who was trying to stop the Rock and Roll said (when Twatt pointed out that they weren't breaking any laws), "You see, that's the whole point of being the government. If you don't like something you simply make up a new law that makes it illegal."
I do like having someone to talk about a film after I've seen it, and I know I'm not the only one. Kat had me watch a creepy Spanish movie this week called The Orphanage (by the guy who did Pan's Labyrinth), which reminded me of The Haunting. It was about a woman who was about to open an orphanage that she'd grown up in again, when her own child disappears mysteriously. Geraldine Chaplin did an incredible job as the creepy medium who confirms for the mother the supernatural aspect of the disappearance. I tend to think of her in the 3 Musketeers, Hawaii, or Dr. Zhivago, so she was hauntingly familiar, but I couldn't place her until I looked her up; but all the acting was excellent. Most US "horror" movies these days are either psychologically creepy, or just teen-oriented movies with lots of body parts (either having sex or getting chopped up), or supernatural versions of that. Asian horror has a real creep factor, and they often, as in the Orphanage, pay a lot of attention to the cinematography, character and plot development, and they still have good special effects.
I think I've mentioned that once a month Lyrion has resurrected the old idea of salons- people come together to talk about some fascinating topic or other, and she had one Sunday. I'm always bummed when I miss one, but this week I was free. This week's topic was going to be the Grail, but no one but I showed up- (everyone else was probably visiting his or her mother). So Lyrion, Raven and I (motherless chicks that we are) instead talked about my recent passion- end of life care and funerals. Lyrion has presided over several funerals and memorial services and has an even bigger library than I do on the topic. I went home with five borrowed books on death and burial. The first one I jumped into was Never Say Goodbye, a lovely book by a medium who talks about how the dead are around us all the time. I tend to think they would have something better to do, but apparently according to his experience, they're keeping an eye on us almost all the time. Many of the "proofs" of their presence seem to be the kind of thing that I'd ascribe to fairies, but given what I've read about the relationships between fairies and ghosts, it may not be a big deal. There was a bit of that in the movie Photographing Fairies; I'm not sure, but it seemed that perhaps people who died morphed into fairies, or pixies, or some late Victorian version of them. Frankly, it wasn't as good as I'd hoped, although I must say special effects have gotten to where you don't have to think about them much.
Far more to my taste was Your Soul's Plan a book about how we plan many of the things that we have to deal with during this life, whether illness, loss of a loved one, poverty, handicaps, abuse, or other things that fall into that huge category of "bad things happening to good people". It makes a lot of sense to see them more as situations we've born ourselves into for what we can learn from them than trying to make them into some sort of punishment. I'm a bit weak on the whole punishment/sin concept anyway, so I may just like the book because it fits in with my pre-established world view.
I recommended to her a PBS documentary: A Family Undertaking: POV. Home funerals, as they say in the film, are not for everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if my father, having worked his butt off for so many years figures that paying someone else to do the "heavy lifting" after he dies is part of what he worked for. On the other hand, he probably would go for the least expensive version because he's frugal. On the other hand, I expect that my sister Liz, having preferred the packaged "fairytale" wedding, would probably prefer the packaged funeral. All the presents she's ever given me have been really classy. I expect she would want the polished, mahogany casket with brass fittings, and find a cardboard box with pretty pictures glued on, and people writing good wishes on it not classy enough. As they said- it's not that there's anything wrong with the standard funeral, but that often people don't know that there are options if it doesn't fulfill their emotional needs. It's good to know beforehand. I loved seeing the dead bodies as people got their relatives ready, it's one thing to read about it, but another thing to see them.
At any rate, I came home with some fill in the blank forms for setting up Durable Power of Attorney and Advance Directives, and such, and also several cuttings and plants from Lyrion's garden. She gave me some comfrey, and some bleeding hearts (I told her the Annie Fellows Johnson story of the bleeding heart from the Little Colonel series.), and a gold flowering bush of some sort that I've forgotten the name for, and a few other things. They are planted, and hope they live. She had purple, white, yellow, and even pink violets!
So long for now- there's a lovely thunderstorm coming in and in theory the computer should be turned off during.
Tchipakkan
A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand. - Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)
St Carantocís Day - A 6th or 7th century Welsh evangelist, who preached in Brittany, but also built a monastery in Somerset, where he was known for ìdestroying wormsî by the local peopleís well there. Seven parishes from seven churches in Cornwall came once a year to his dedicated church to place relics onto special stone alters there.
In Arthurian times, Saint Carantoc sailed to Somerset from Wales to seek his lost altar. King Arthur avowed to reveal the location of the altar if the saint would rid the area of a dragon (Saint Carnationís Dragon). Carantoc retired to pray and the dragon materialised. He placed his stole around the beastís neck and meekly led it to Camelot. When they arrived there the people were frightened and wanted to kill the dragon, but the saint resisted and instead, led it out through the gates and banished it. Carantoc was rewarded for this brave deed with an estate which is known today as Car Hampton.
Turn Beauty Inside Out Day May 16
St Honoratus - This sixth century Bishop of Amiens is the patron saint of French bakers. Parisian bakers used to honor him on the alleged anniversary of his death with a procession, a high Mass, a banquet and a dance.
Pay Homage to Fairy Gardians - On this night it is customary to pay homage to the fairy guardians of blackthorn trees. They are wizened little stick figures with long arms and fingers for climbing between the thorns. According to one legend, they only leave their trees during full moons.
Netjerts Feast - According to the ancient Egyptian Calendar, the Netjerts (Goddesses) feast in their temples.
The Savitu-Vrata - 'Savitu-Vrata' an Indian festival honouring Sarasvari (Queen of Heaven)
This Day in History
1918 The famous Italian spiritualist-medium, Eusapia Palladino passed away. She is most famous for her ability to enter a state of trance and levitate during seances.
The Goddess Month of Hera begins - Greek goddess, the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She is said to protect all women who have not slept with her husband Zeus.
Some times I think I'm only passing along BS from other sites. I do try to look up these holidays and see if they are correct, but sometimes even when they do appear on lots of other sites, no one seems to know anything more than the name. It's frustrating. Also some days change especially when tied to moon phase or day of the week. I thought it was Bike to Work Day, but seems like it was the 10th this year (the 17th next year). Oh well. I may give up checking. Does anyone actually read these or use the links?
St. Dympna's Day (patron of the insane, asylums, mental health workers; against epilepsy, insanity, sleepwalking)*
St. Isidore's Day (patron farmers, farm workers, ranchers)*
St. Hallvard's Day (patron of Oslo; defending innocence)
This Day in History
Day of Maia - Maiae inuict is a festival in honor of Maia. Maia is a daughter of Atlas and Pleione and one of the seven Pleiades. She is a goddess of the Full Moon. She is honored on the inauguration of his temple.
Festival of Mercury - The Mercuralia, the festival of Mercury, the Roman god of merchants and travellers.
Sacrifice day to the Tiber River - On this date in ancient times, the Romans performed an annual purification rite consisting of the "sacrifices" of twenty-seven straw puppets to the river god of the Tiber.
Day of Vesta - The Argei Rites of the Vestal virgins were held in the argeorum sacraria, twenty-seven shrines located through out the city. These shrines were consecrated by the early Roman king Numa. The procession to each shrine was led by the Vestal virgins, the Pontifex Maximus, and a few magistrates. At each Argei, paraders paused to pick up a straw puppet made to resemble an old man. All twenty-seven puppets were carried to the Pons Sublicus, Rome's oldest bridge, and thrown into the Tiber River. It is thought this rite regulated the water supply for the coming year.
The ancient Egyptian month of Epipi begins. The Netjer (Egyptian “deity”) of the month is Wadjet. There were festivals of Hathor and Bast and the great feast of the Southern heavens.
"Saint" Cold Sophie - is honored today and extra cold weather was expected.
St Isidore - This 11th century Spanish saint, who spent his whole life working in the fields, is the patron of farmers and Madrid. He is usually depicted wearing blue pants and a cape, a sack slung over one shoulder, kneeling in prayer while an angel plows the land behind him with a pair of white oxen. In the Vodou tradition, he is associated with Asaka, the "Minister of Agriculture," who wears a blue denim shirt and a broad-brimmed straw hat, and carries a straw satchel, the typical garb of a peasant farmer in Haiti. St Isidore is also the patron of plough-pulling animals. Filipinos honor their primary beast of burden, the water-buffalo, on this holiday by garlanding the animals with flower and marching them to church to be blessed. Afterward they race the animals across the fields, then gather for a feast. Every house features a pahiya, a lush arrangement of coconut, sugar cane, pineapple, banana, cookies and candies made of steamed, tinted and hardened rice shaped like leaves. At the end of the day, the pahiya is given away for good luck.
St. Matthias' Day (Western; patron against alcoholism)
For an Abundant Harvest:
Rogation Days, like their distant cousins the Ember Days, are days set aside to observe a change in the seasons. Rogation Days are tied to the spring planting. There are four Rogation Days: the Major Rogation, which falls on April 25, and three Minor Rogations, which are held on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday immediately before Ascension Thursday. 2012
The Festival of the Midnight Sun is celebrated annually by pagans in Norway. The festival, which pays homage to the ancient Norse goddess of the sun, begins at sunrise, marking the beginning of ten consecutive weeks without the darkness of night.
This is the 30th day of Payni in the Egyptian calendar. Thoth appears with Shu to bring back Tefnut. This is also the Panegyric of Isis. Osiris was found and Isis rejoiced.
Isis' day (Egyptian) - This is the 30th day of Payni in the Egyptian calendar. Thoth appears with Shu to bring back Tefnut. This is also the Panegyric of Isis. Osiris was found and Isis rejoiced.
Argei - The ancient Romans honored Mars Invictus on this day. Human effigies made of rushes and called Argei were thrown into the Tiber River. Although there are many details about the ritual, the meaning itself is obscure, although Plutarch calls it the greatest of purifications.
Mars was once an agricultural god and the throwing of a greenery-clad effigy into the river may be a symbolic sacrifice of the reborn spring god.
Sluggard's Feast - In the Netherlands, the day before Pentecost Sunday is the Sluggard's Feast. Boys and girls get up early and gather green boughs from the woods (sounds like May Day, doesn't it?). They dip them in water and fasten them over the doors of the sluggards, those who have slept in, those too stodgy to want to go roaming in the woods. When the late risers open their doors, the branches tumble down and drench them. Then the young people who are lurking nearby beat the lazy ones with branches and sing songs about the sluggard. Perhaps along the lines of these lines from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (The Knight's Tale):
For May wol have no slogardie anyght.
The sesoun priketh every gentil herte,
And maketh hym out of his slep to sterte.
In Czechoslovakia, the boys bring decorated tress (Maypoles?) into the village at night and set them up before the door or on the roof of the house of the girl they love.
The Runic Half Month of Ing begins - Ing is the male consort of the earth mother goddess. His rune is the symbol of light. This month embodies the energy and growth of midsummer.
Chinese honor the Mother of the Sea Dragon - the goddess of the sea who prevents disasters to children and calamities at sea. She rides across the sky on clouds, consulting the winds, who are her servants, to learn of sailors in trouble so she can rescue them.
In one myth, she is the deeply psychic sister of four fishermen. One day, she falls into a deep trance and becomes angry when her parents wake her. Shortly afterwards, three of her brothers return home and tell about how she appeared to them and saved them from drowning. She was just about to rescue the fourth brother when she disappeared. Another myth relates that she was a poor young woman, begging for a passage on a boat to an island. Everyone turned her down except one poor fisherman. During their journey, a storm sprang up which destroyed all the boats but his.
This Day in History
Widow Robinson of Kidderminster, England, and her two daughters arrested for using magic to try to prevent the return of Charles II from exile, 1660.
St. Pancras' Day (2nd Ice Saint; patron of children, oaths, treaties)
St. Francis Patrizi's Day (patron of reconcilliations)
Day the first woman was ordained a rabbi in Conservative Judaism (1985).
Aranya Shashti, a god of the woodlands, is honored in India with an annual festival.
Twilight Time - `Tis said that from the twelfth of May
to the twelfth of July all is day.
From the twelfth day of May
To the twelfth of July
Adieu to starlight
For all is twilight.
Damara: Throughout England, Damara is celebrated as being intimately connected with May and its abundant fertility for the fields, herds, and home. Through this productive energy, Damara brings well-being and improved fortune through out the month.
St. Servais' Day 3d Ice Saint (patron against rats, vermin, foot troubles)
St. Servatius' Day (3rd Ice Saint)
This Day in History
1933 Day the Humanist Manifesto was published. It exhorts people to affirm life, not deny it; engage life, not flee from it; and work towards the happiness of self and all
1917, the Goddess in the guise of the Virgin Mary appeared to three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal. The event, which was one of six divine appearances from May 13 to October 13, drew worldwide attention.
Three Mothers - The celebration of the Three Mothers was observed annually on or around this date each year in Celtic countries, which honored the Triple Goddess, who brought prosperity and a good harvest. The Three Mothers or Triple Goddess are known world round in many cultures, and represent the three stages of life. This triad also symbolizes the three phases of the Moon: Crescent, Full and Dark. The Goddesses are most often known by the titles of Maid, Mother and Crone. Carved in stone, they hold bounty on their laps: a basket of fruits and flowers, an infant, a foal.
Invocation to the Three Mothers
I am bowing my head
In the eye of the Mother who gave me birth,
In the eye of the Maiden who loves me,
In the eye of the Crone who guides me in wisdom,
In friendship and affection.
Through thy gift of nature, O Goddess,
Bestow upon us fullness in our need.
Love towards the Lady,
The affection of the Lady,
The laughter of the Lady,
The wisdom of the Lady,
The passion of the Lady,
The blessing of the Lady,
And the magic of the Lady
To do in the world of Midgard,
As the Ageless Ones do in Asgard;
Each shade and light,
Each day and night,
Each moment in kindness,
Grant us Thy Sight.
Cat Festival - On the second Sunday in May, the people of Ieper, Belgium celebrate cats, not mothers, with the Cat Festival (Kattestoet). The story goes that Baudoin III, the Count of Flanders, in 962, ordered the people of Ypres to throw live cats from the tower of his castle as a way of demonstrating that they were renouncing pagan superstitions. The festival was banned on and off. By 1817, the ceremony was conducted by a single citizen, dressed in a a jester’s costume of red jacket and white cap and ribbons, throwing a live cat from the tower (the cat often survived the fall—so much for those pagan superstitions!). During World War II, the festival was replaced by a concert of bells, but in 1938, it came back, with stuffed cats replacing the live ones. It now includes a Cat Parade with floats and costumes based on famous felines in myth and history, followed by skits in which cats are used to parody both current and historical events, and a mock trial. . Until 1958, the festival was celebrated on the second Sunday of Lent but since cats don’t like wet weather, it was moved to the second Sunday in May.
Garland Day - offering garlands to Neptune (extant in England)
St. Gengulf's Day (patron against husbands unhappy marriages, tanners, shoemakers, children and horses, invoked against knee pain, sicknesses of eyes and skin, and adultery)
St. Philip's Day (hatters, pastry chefs)
St. Mamertius' Day (1st of Ice Saints)
St. Cyril and Methodius' Day (Eastern patrons of ecumenism between eastern & western churchs)
This Day in History
330 - Constantine the Great, the most Christian King, after having chosen Byzantium as the capital, changed its name after his own, to Constantinople.
1602 - William Lilly, one of the greatest practitioners of Horary astrology of the age. His woodcut, published in 1648 of the Gemini Twins, (associated with London), hovering over a city in flames, caused the accusation of his starting the Great Fire of London in 1666, to fulfil his own prophecy.
1659, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony banned all celebrations of Christmas in the New World after declaring the event to be a Pagan festival of superstition and "a great dishonor [sic] of God." In England, Christmas festivities had been banned by the Puritans seven years earlier. It was one year later, when Charles II was restored to the throne, that the law banning the celebration of Christmas was repealed.
The Eisheilige, or "Ice Saints," are noted from May 11th through the 15th in southern Germany. These "Strong Lords" bring unseasonably cold and/or wet weather. Their names, Mamertius, Pancratius (or Pancras), Servatius, Bonifatius, and Cold Sophie, are Christianized forms of the Swabian presiding spirits of the days. "Saint" Mamertius is honored today. or Frost Saints - Those saints whose days fall in what is called "the blackthorn winter" - that is, the second week in May (between the 11th and the 14th). Some give only three days, but whether 11, 12, 13 or 12, 13, 14 is not agreed. May 11th is the day of St. Mamertus, May 12th of St. Pancratius, May 13th of St. Servatius, and May 14th of St. Boniface. 15th Cold Sophie's Day.
Today is the Guatemalan Rain Ceremony.
Lemuria - Today is the second day of the Roman festival of Lemuria, when the hungry spirits of dead family members might visit their former houses.
(Old) May Eve - On the Isle of Man, Witches and Fairies are considered especially active. In Ireland, the Lunantishees are the fairy tribes that guard the blackthorn trees or sloes. No stick may be cut on the eleventh of November or May. Blackthorn must not be picked on Old May Eve, as the Lunantishee faeries fiercely guard the bush today and misfortune, or even slow death will befall the harvester.
Mania - Sacred to Mania, a Goddess of Death and mother of the Lares. When a family was threatened with danger, they often hung effigies of Mania from the front door of the house. On this day she receives sacrifices of these images, characterized by small ugly faces.
Mugwort Day - On the fifth day of the fifth Chinese month, dolls made of mugwort, a symbol of felicity, are hung over doors. Mugwort, the silvery artemisia vulgaris, is sacred in the Western tradition to Artemis whose temples were often centers of healing. (I'm really insecure about what day this translates to here)
It's been raining off and on most of the week. I didn't get rained on Saturday, but it remained overcast. Sunday was gorgeous, but I really was hoping to enjoy the "Supermoon". The full moon was at perigee and was supposed to be more big and impressive than any other time this year. It seems like most nights there are eclipses, or meteor showers or the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights it's locally overcast. I can't dismiss the possibility that this may just be my perception, but it's annoying. There are a lot of flowers out right now. The lilac is blooming, and that's very early. Sadly, I think it's not going to survive- the maple that grew up next to it is taking the light and water and nutrients I think. To my delight the bleeding hearts are still blooming like crazy! The quince bush is still in blossom, and there are scattered bulbs- a painted tulip, a few scattered narcissus, still a blanket of violets. And there are a few blossoms on the apple trees when I drove past the orchards, so spring is coming. I do always worry when there's a lot of rain while the orchards are in blossom because it will make it hard for the bees. I mustn't neglect mentioning that the dandelions are making a gorgeous display everywhere. I even saw a patch where I wondered if there were early daisies because it was such a cluster of round, white dandelion heads- reminding that the Saxons called them "eggwort". But especially with all the rain, everything is incredibly green.
Monday was Kat's 25th birthday. We didn't do much- we had a nice roast beef dinner, I made a lemon cake and Kat made the boiled icing for it because that's her favorite- tinted it lavender. Her gifts are all in process of being shipped with estimated arrival dates from now until mid-June (most of the Dr. Who themed stuff is coming from England and I didn't pay for accelerated delivery). John's gift did arrive in time- he got her a usb hut shaped like a Tardis/blue police box- with flashing lights and sounds. I sent for a tea set, and did initially add special delivery- until I discovered that it was well over the cost of the set! Luckily I was able to put it back to normal delivery, and saved that money. Eeps! Willow and Kat were both pretty exhausted from the Karaoke party party the day before. This was the (what has become) traditional KatCon. Kat picks a theme- for 2012 this year it was apocalypses- and they bring food and go to Doremi, a karaoke bar where you can rent a private room for $50 an hour. As their friends are into cosplay, they come in costumes. Kat's was Global Warming, I think someone may have had Zombies, a couple of them were War (behind the camera) and Pestilence, and I think one was Alien invasion- at a wedding. War and Pestilence (played by the Parent twins) did a duet from the Jeckel and Hyde musical which was, apparently, awesome. They had a Twinkie for the centerpiece, which no one ate. However Raye brought each person their own pack of Pringles, and this year (you may remember that last year's theme was a tea party) they decided to have an ice cream cake which looked pretty apocalyptic before they finished it (in a warm room). When they arrived they were surprised by a late opening, thus all these parking lot pictures. At least the costumes show better than inside, where they enjoyed rocking out. (Willow was a 80s rock-opalypse, made for fun- but then, weren't they all‽)
While they did that, I went down to Beltaine: A Pagan Odyssey. I shall always have a tender spot in my heart for this event, as it was the first one where I as accepted as a speaker. I admit that one is always a bit less picky about "unknowns" when filling the Friday slots, but that was my start, and I will always be grateful. A couple of years ago, there was a certain amount of chaos- Alicia experimented with not allowing day-trippers, only weekend long attendees, and it was a huge failure. People got angry. Last year she gave up on trying to do it although it had 10 years of history. This year they tried it again, but only Saturday and Sunday. I got up at 6, and actually headed down Saturday morning, for an 11 o'clock workshop. I taught palmistry classes this weekend. As I arrived I was very pleased to discover Mockingbird being dropped off by his wife. (Elizabeth doesn't camp.) Many years ago I met Mockingbird when he was caught in a thorn-bush. Despite being blind, he enjoys camping, and generally gets around very well. However, like me, Mockingbird gets up earlier than those "party pagans" who stay up late drumming and dancing around the fire well past midnight. I was going to the privy, and he'd apparently gotten turned around after his trip there, so I was able to direct him back out. Mockingbird is absolutely incredible- he just deals with not being able to see without any comment, and is able to point out to us the calls of the many birds around there. This year he identified a robin, a catbird, and several others. I always come away wishing I could find a tape or disc so I could learn to recognize bird songs myself. He'd just brought a sleeping bag, and the tent I'd brought was a "three man" (8x8) tent, so I invited him to share it. We had a great time chatting before dropping off to sleep. I'd been planning on taking "Ketil", our big canvas tent, but when it turned out that this year Beltaine (Mayday) was going to be the weekend after rather than before the first, that ran into conflict with KatCon. The kids thought for a while about coming down with me Friday night, staying and helping sell on Saturday, and going up for Karaoke on Sunday. It would have taken two cars, but when I heard that no one would have been there on Friday, taking two cars seemed foolish. It occurred to me that instead I could just take the pop-ups, which I could put up by myself. (Although Elizabeth did help me put up my tents before she left. I was also helped break down by another lovely couple- who I've spoken to for years, but still don't remember their names, blush!) Beltaine a Pagan Odyssey, has always been famous for entertainment, but sadly, this year, both the acts Alicia had booked cancelled, so there wasn't as much going on in the evening. (This did give me the chance for more talking with Mockingbird.) There were only a few dozen die-hards there this year, although in the past there have been two to three hundred. Everything was smaller, so the corner of my pop-up was only about 10 feet from the single speaking tent. (usually there are three running at the same time). This meant that I got to speak and even go to classes by putting up a sign telling potential customers where to find me. There were only two other vendors there, and given the numbers involved, I did pretty well. At least I was able to make back the money I spent on gas. Thank goodness for the help packing in- the girls and I really have it down, but alone it would have taken me much longer. I got packed up and out by 4, and home before dark (indeed, I was asleep by the time the girls got home- but they did get lost getting out of the city).
Had I known that I was going to get so into the subject of Death/end of life studies, I'd have offered a workshop on that rather than the palmistry; you will correctly guess that I talked about it anyway with anyone who expressed any interest. I'm not yet done with my reading about death. This week I read Grave Matters by Mark Harris. This is a lot more recent (2008) than Caring For your own Dead (1987) and things have improved a great deal since then. There are many more options, including the green burial I mentioned last week. Far more people are getting cremated these days- it's up to fifty to seventy percent depending upon what area you live in. I expect a lot of it depends on what your cultural expectations are. (After all, yesterday North Carolina voted down gay marriage, and I don't know anyone who's worried about that around here. I feel sorry for the people who find it frightening enough for it to worry them. What are they afraid of? Losing the way we live now? That's going to happen no matter when or where you live. Change is the only constant.) I think it's at times of stress that people are most likely to fall back on the familiar, and things from childhood, and to be most willing to let other people tell them what to do (enter the "child" position), especially if they've never thought about it. Dealing with death, that final parting with loved ones, is intrinsically going to be hard; but it's an intrinsically spiritual activity. I really, really don't want to have my final interaction with the world I've loved so much be adding useless garbage and active toxins. I have finally now read several versions of modern embalming (as opposed to ancient forms). Did you know that while they pump the formalin (formaldehyde) into a corpse's, they are flushing the blood out- and into the drains? No kidding. Here we are in a culture that treats blood like hazardous waste, and undertakers are allowed to dump it down the sewers! (I am willing to bet that this changes when each municipality discovers it.) So on the one hand, we're supposed to seal up bodies in coffins to keep them from contaminating the groundwater, and on the other, the blood and liquids from the abdominal cavity get flushed into the city water treatment system. Pick one, are we contaminated/contaminators or not? They push the "vault" on you- the grave liner, because it's supposed to be an added layer of protection, but it's for the cemetery not the body. Wooden coffins rot (as do bodies), and without the modern vault, that means the dirt above it settles. Metal coffins do tend to last longer, but that just means the vault is redundant- an extra $2-5K expense. The real reason for the vaults is to make it easier for the cemeteries- to reduce the expense of manpower trimming around the graves. The same reason for flat memorial stones- so they can mow right over them. If the grave sinks, they'd have to fill it in. In my opinion, since it's for their convenience, they should pay for the vaults- but of course, they "sold" the grave to you, so they can't intrude. I was amused to read that while they suggest that they are to protect from water, at exhumations, about a third of the vaults need to be pumped out- the coffins (excuse me "caskets") are floating or underwater. I figure, whether or not you want to, you are going to biodegrade (rot), so why give your good money to the funeral industry? The whole embalming thing is only an American custom; timing suggests to me that the whole "open casket" custom that justifies the embalming (and since it's a temporary cosmetic utility, how can we justify poisoning the soil that way?), came about at the same time as the funeral industry "undertook" to relieve us of caring for our own dead, it probably is only psychologically necessary if you have given up your normal interaction with the body. I can see if you are old and your friends are all dead and you have no young relatives to carry the coffin hiring pall-bearers. Rich people throughout history have paid for mourners to make it look like they had more friends than they did. Now poor people spend money they don't have to affect the trappings of the rich to try to show respect for the dead that they wish they'd actually taken time to talk to while they were still alive. Have a clue people: talk to your family and friends before they die, then bury them yourselves! Laws have been changed so that next of kin or designated persons can legally do what only funeral directors used to be allowed to do, on the other hand, they don't make it easy. A death certificate must be completed in the city or town in which the death occurred, but Trish, our town clerk, had no idea how it was done. I find it hard to believe that no one has died in town; she suggests they are filing on line. With whom? the state? I can't find where to get forms for NH death certificates (although I have found MA forms), and you need a death certificate before you can get the permit to transport a body (unless you are burying it on your own land). They don't make it easy. Still there are a lot of options, and I think, expanding. I really recommend Grave Matters to anyone who wants to start thinking about this. He covers keeping vigil at home (wash the body yourself, and tuck packets of dry ice in pillow cases around it- since it goes straight to gas, doesn't get the bedding wet), burials at sea (mostly of ashes), mixing the ashes into "reef forms", so you help revive the health of the continental shelf, green burials, and more. I am going to repeat that preparing a list of your preferences and who to let know if you die is something people should have FINDABLE, even if you don't expect to die soon. I do think that most of us are surprised by death, one way or another. I also watched a National Geographic documentary: Moment of Death which was pretty good. I'm thinking that this is just the latest manifestation of "the pig in the python", the Baby Boom Generation aging and dealing with stuff. I am having a harder time than I expected dealing with being over 60. My mother and her mother both died at 63. That would leave me only three years to get done everything I hope to do. On the other hand, my father is 88, and Grammie lived to 94, which is the pattern I think I'm more likely to follow, which means that I've got as much time left as I had between birth and when I became pregnant with Kat (or backwards from here to before Willow was born), only I'm already losing capabilities, which is kind of depressing. (change that to challenging to make it a more positive statement). It's a long time. I suppose that like everyone else, I can only live as though each day was my last, and as though I'd live forever. When I think about death, I think about waving cardboard at the box Dad and Bob built for Mother's ashes because the varnish was still wet before we buried them out at Clearwater. I remember dumping Fitz's ashes here on our land, and wonder if I should let my body be cremated to match Ælfwine's, maybe make a few extra Anglo-Saxon pots in case the kids want to use them (seems unlikely). I think about seeing Grammie (and Jeanne's mother, and Dennis' mother) in her coffin- ick. That's like visiting a wax museum. If they added some sort of supporting framework, we could get our pictures taken with them. Sorry, not what I consider a great idea. In the old days, the people who could get there for the funeral probably lived close enough to have known he or she was sick, and the rest got a letter letting them know (like Jerusha finding out about her sister in Hawaii). I think about Cate who was with Bob through all the crap of his cancer and hospice and everything, but then at the funeral, everyone was with Nancy (his first wife), and she seemed ostracized. I think of ministers giving "fill in the blank" eulogies, and the mobs at Steve Morgan's funeral- buses full of the students he'd touched. For my first 13 years we lived next to the Adams' funeral home. I remember always resenting it when there was a funeral- we weren't allowed to go outside to play, and even worse, Mr. Adams put out signs in front of OUR HOUSE, reserving parking for the funeral. Not that we'd probably have had more visitors than could fit in our driveway, but still, it seemed like he was borrowing something that was ours without asking. One of Mother's funniest stories was about the time she was coming in after dark and noticed the light was on in the basement, where she knew he prepared the bodies. So she snuck over and peeked in. You know the little basement windows at ground level? She couldn't see much, but a corner of a table, and blood everywhere. She went back to the house and wished she hadn't looked. Later, she did admit it to Mrs. Adams, who laughed. It was hunting season, and Mrs. Adams had him clean his deer down there rather than in her kitchen! When I think of Ælfwine's death, I have guilt about people who came far to be supportive and I didn't speak to them, but mostly I was tired and while I wanted to help them with their grief, I didn't really want to spend much effort on it. I always wonder whether I should go to a funeral- will I be just one more guest to try to be host for, or will it help? I expect that depends entirely on the individual involved. A tangental thought I had, thinking about church, I wish that someone had told me when I was young that it is a natural thing to be able to recognize the cough of your mother or father even in a huge crowded church. Because of that phenomenon, I used to feel that my mother coughed more loudly and often than anyone else's parents. At this point I realize that the chances are good everyone else my age probably felt the same about their parents. We just didn't know. The saddest part is that probably our parents programed the "shame" response into us in an attempt to control our behavior. So maybe that's it for my examination of death, I'm sure I'll soon get into a new passion.
Before going down to Beltaine, I amused myself by re-watching The Wicker Man- the anniversary extended version with commentaries by Christopher Lee and the other actors and director. It was an incredible movie. I also watched a new movie- The Wicker Tree. I rather think they wanted us to see it as a sequel. In it a young American couple comes to be missionaries to the Scottish. I can imagine few things so insulting as to go into a Christian community and try to convince them that the way they worship Christ is wrong. They are SO annoying that by the time the scottish pagans (much like the folk of Summerisle) do sacrifice them, you are practically good with it. Christopher Lee did make a token appearance as an "Old Man" in this one, so apparently he didn't hate it as much as the Cage "remake" (which WAS vile). I've started reading Bones: A forensic Detective's Casebook, so while washing up yesterday I watched some of the TV show. Having been sensitized I now notice the funeral customs I see in the show and waste energy being bugged by it. I hope this passes soon, but suspect it will not. I still wince when I see what passes for "normal" birthing in modern media depictions.
It occurs to me that I want a mouse, or remote or some gadget that I can click and stop my thoughts, maybe rewind them, so I can catch the quick ones better. And preferably have a zoom in function as well. Computers have made information retrieval so easy, I want as much control over my brain. Funny, in theory in our brains all we need to do is to think about what we want to think about, or remember. But memory isn't perfect, and so we can compare what we can do mentally with what we can do with a computer. I resent when my brain isn't superior to a computer, even though it is most of the time. I guess mostly I want that gadget for my dreams which tend to be more ephemeral than most thoughts, but seem to have some really wonderful inspirations, if I could only hold onto them.
On the way up and down to Connecticut I listened to Alexander and the Hellenistic Age. I had a feeling I'd listened to some of it before, but it's hard to tell. Am I remembering hearing this or is the teacher covering information I've heard elsewhere because this is a topic in which I am interested? Do things sound familiar because I'm old and already know a lot, so I am only filling in corners, or am I old and forgetting things? I would so like to think it's the former. I love hearing about the widespread and interlocking cultures. Just how "Greek or Macedonian" was the Seleucid culture? How much trade was there? What were travel conditions like? (What shall I study next?) I did trip over a documentary: Ancient Mysteries: The Hidden City of Petra which had a lot more images than one usually has of the carven city. At home I'm listening to Power over People Classic and Modern Political Theory another Teaching Company course, which I had a hard time getting into because it started out with Plato's Republic. But after getting into it, it is really about people and the big questions- what is truth? What is justice? how can we know? Another documentary I tripped over was Imaginary Witness (2004), a documentary about how Hollywood has depicted the Holocaust/Shoah over the years. I have sent for some of them, they looked so good, but will be hard to watch. I do think, as was said in the first Diary of Anne Frank movie that people are essentially good. But we also have a capacity for self delusion, for not seeing things that make us feel even more helpless, that permits us to participate in the most horrible things "unwittingly". I'm sure that the majority of Germans didn't let themselves know what was going on, and the ones who had to see it were broken in some awful way. We wouldn't be doing the harm to the planet we do if we allowed ourselves to be aware of it. Doctors promoted treating amputations with boiling oil and hot irons, syphilis with mercury, and treat cancer with chemo. They don't want to do harm, and convince themselves they are doing good because it's the only way they can stay sane. Heck we wouldn't eat the food that we eat if we were aware with each bite of what it was doing to our bodies. But we don't let ourselves know. I expect that there's a perfectly good reason for it in the evolutionary scale of things. What's good for continuing the line may not be best for the individuals involved.
I suppose it's worth mentioning that I've decided to undertake a similar experiment to the one Willow did last month. She gave up wheat and dairy, I'm going to try to give up sugar and white flour for a month. We generally try to avoid the overly refined foods, but I do love to bake, and make a cake or pie if I'm feeling down. I figure that if I start feeling really crummy in the next few days, I'm probably going through withdrawals, and that will mean I'm actually addicted, so should give it up. The very first day I'm having problems because many of the things that I take for granted- like yogurt, do have sugar in them, and I have to look at things like Velvetta and figure that they are not real cheese. Frankly, I don't think it should be too hard, because I'm still allowed all real food- it just may be hard to find it. (I note that Vermont caved into Monsanto's blackmail. 90% of Vermonters wanted the GMO food out, but Monsanto threatened to cripple the state financially with lawsuits if they passed the law. In my opinion, American Civil Liberties or someone should slap a blackmailing a state official suit on Monsanto. Where's Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?) Anyway, I'll let you know how I do with this project. I'm hoping I'll lose weight, but either way, I'm sure I won't hurt my health.
If you would not force yourself upon another person, than you should not do so to forest, field, and fen. Sarah Lawless
St. Cathal's Day (patron against blindness, drought, epilepsy, hernias, paralysis, plague, storms)
St. Solangia's Day (patron of children, rape victims, shepherds; for rain)
St. Antoninus' Day (patron against fever)
This Day in History
1372 Abraham the Jew - “Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer and Philosopher”, whose mysterious gilded book Nicholas Flamel discovered and bought for two florins in Paris, beginning his great career in alchemy. The book was written in a mystical text and was painted with one of three strange icons on every seventh page: a caduceus with two serpents, a serpent crucified on a cross, and a snake infested desert with fountains. It was identified later as being a precious, lost work of the Cabala.
1860 Death day of Theodore Parker: Unitarian slavery abolitionist and social justice activist.
1872 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
1908 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States - in Grafton, West Virginia.
1933 - Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
1975 - Human Kindness Day Concert fiasco
The sacred marriage of the God Shiva to the goddess Meenakshi is celebrated by faithful followers in Madurai, India. Sacred hymns are sung and offerings of incense and white flower petals are made at all the temples dedicated to Shiva.
Sluggard's Feast - In the Netherlands, the day before Pentecost Sunday is the Sluggard's Feast. Boys and girls get up early and gather green boughs from the woods (sounds like May Day, doesn't it?). They dip them in water and fasten them over the doors of the sluggards, those who have slept in, those too stodgy to want to go roaming in the woods. When the late risers open their doors, the branches tumble down and drench them. Then the young people who are lurking nearby beat the lazy ones with branches and sing songs about the sluggard. Perhaps along the lines of these lines from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (The Knight's Tale):
For May wol have no slogardie anyght.
The sesoun priketh every gentil herte,
And maketh hym out of his slep to sterte.
In Czechoslovakia, the boys bring decorated tress (Maypoles?) into the village at night and set them up before the door or on the roof of the house of the girl they love.
Neith goes forth along the river on the 26th day of Payni.
Start of Bird Week/Tori no Mawari - In Japan, where rapid deforestation caused the loss of bird habitat and accordingly the birds, people are encouraged to spend this week getting to know birds. Ornithologists, bird-watchers and other experts give lectures and students work on bird-related projects, like planting pine trees.
Mania - According to a fragmentary inscription, the ancient Romans on this day made a sacrifice to a deity whose name began with MA, probably Mania, the mother of the Lares. She was probably a death goddess worshipped during the Lemuria. The same word was used for ugly effigies made from flour and to scare children (like a bogeyman).
Offerings made to her included garlic, poppy heads and sheep. It is alleged that in earlier times, children were the sacrificial offering. The interesting article on ancient Roman sacrifices published at the Nova Roma website cites Macrobius as one of the sources for this information.
Mother's Day eve: Vigil for lost mothers; night of mourning and healing.
Anahit (Artemis) - The daughter or wife of Aramazd. Anahit was the most loved and honored Armenian goddess. She was mother-goddess. Anahit was sculptured with the child on her hands` with specific hair style of Armenians mothers or women and was called "Great Lady Anahit". Ancient Armenians believed that Armenian world was existing by Anahit's will. Anahit was the cult of maternity and fertility. Anahit-worships were established in Eriza avan (region) and in Armavir, Artashat and Ashtishat cities . A mountain in Sophene district was known as Anahit's throne (Athor Anahta).
According to Plutarch, the temple of Eriza was the wealthiest and the noblest in Armenia. During the expedition of Mark Antony into Armenia (34 B.C), the statue was crushed into pieces by the Roman soldiers. Pliny the Elder gives us the following story about it: The Emperor Augustus, being invited to dinner by one of his generals, asked him if it was true that the wreckers of Anahit's statue had been punished by the wrathful goddess. "No"! answered the general, "on the contrary, I have to‑day the good fortune of treating you with one part of the hip of that gold statue".
Golden Spike Day. Golden Spike Day commemorates the completion of the world's first transcontinental railroad where the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads met on May 10, 1869.
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