Friday, February 27, 2009

Sleeping under Venus and the Crescent Moon


My own picture was awful. I looked through stock images to find this one, roughly the same orientation as I saw it on my way home from the hospital. Our moon, though, is a slender sliver and not tilted. We also can't see the dark of the moon as distinctly.
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The hospital's parking garage is color- and fruit-coded. G is green, the ground floor and grapes. Red is 2 and apples. Yellow is 3 and bananas. Each time I leave my truck, I make note of my parking position and the route I take to the elevator. Under stress and fatigue, I know my head is not working so well, so I do this as a precaution. I even thought about writing it down, but so far my method has been sufficient. I worry anyway.
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Tonight, as usual, I noted that I was on red (apple) level, and I parked in a beeline toward the elevator, noted I had to go up one flight of stairs and down another before reaching it. After a tumultuous night, I was especially concerned that I wouldn't find the truck again. As it was, as I drove round and round, following the exit lights, I answered my internal question, "I must have found the truck, because here I am driving it. That's proof enough, yes?" I agreed it was.
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My wise uncle, Daykeeper of the Mayan calendar and magus of labyrinths, sent me some information on the cosmic phenomenon occurring tonight. He was right about one thing, it had distracted me last night, and it distracted me again as I was driving home tonight.
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Dear Friends, [writes my uncle]
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This evening--towards the end of this 2 Manik day, as the 3 Lamat energies are stirring--if your skies are clear, you will be able to look up in the southwest to see a magnificent pairing of the crescent Moon immediately adjacent to outrageously brilliant Venus. No doubt, the Maya will be having a festival tonight, on the eve of their Lamat (Venus) day!!
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All this, while, in the eastern sky (but visible only with binoculars), is the comet Lulin, fast working its way past us on its course through the Solar System in a path opposite-in-direction to Earth's orbit. Its distinctly greenish hue makes it seem like an errant leprechaun prancing for our amusement in anticipation of St. Patrick's day. It is in Cancer right now, but by St. Paddy's Day, it'll be in Gemini (yea for us Geminis!). With its reverse orbit and greenish tail(s), it is a present reminder of Heyoka energy in our midst.
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In Lak'esh (I am another you), [Uncle]
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On Friday evening, February 27, 2009: Be careful, this sort of thing can cause an accident!
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Feb. 27th, the 10% crescent Moon will glide by Venus, forming a gorgeous and mesmerizing pair of lights in the sunset sky. Moon-Venus conjunctions are not unusual, but this conjunction has some special qualities:(1) Venus is at maximum brightness: magnitude -4.6. The planet is twenty times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. It is so luminous that it can actually shine through thin clouds and cast subtle shadows on the ground.(2) As seen from North America, the Moon-Venus separation is only a little more than 1-degree. Stick up your thumb and hold it out at arm's length. Venus and the Moon will fit comfortably behind the thumb-tip. Tight conjunctions like this are the most beautiful of all.(3) Not only is the Moon a crescent, but so is Venus. A small telescope pointed at the glittering planet will reveal a slender 20%-illuminated disk.
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Add it all together and you've got a major distraction. Evening drivers should pull to the verge. Staring at Venus and the Moon could be riskier than texting!
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My view of the conjunction was of a point of light in the lead of an arcing vessel, as though the light was pulling a craft along through the sky. I will take it as a sign of a journey and pray for a safe one.
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Good night, friends, relatives and lovers. Sleep well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi there MorningAngel! Thank you for the thoughtful responses to my blog! I am glad you came by to read my rantings lol. I liked this post quite a bit. I was once very fascinated by astrology, but sadly have fallen out of practice. . .hope to get back into it one day soon.

RE: your comments, I agree that Westerners are still very Pagan at their core, but the Christians I have grown up with - despite, or perhaps because of, their Pagan core values - are extremely hard headed and philosophically violent towards "other" faiths. A little background, I live in Colorado Springs CO, USA a town known in America as being an Evangelical Christian Mecca, the infamous Focus on the Family has it's headquarters here, the megachurch New Life of Ted Haggard infamy is located here, Moody Publishing, Compassion International, The Navigators Publishing House, Dr. Nobel's ministry camp, Camp Eagle Lake (a christian youth summer camp) and hundreds of other orgs. all have laid down roots here in this beautiful sanctuary where First Nation's people used to worship atop awe-inspiring mesas and in deep canyons. Here the climate is one of a pot about to boil over. There is so much spiritual energy, and the Pagans and the Christians are both trying to channel it towards their own goals, which causes a "disturbance in the Force" (lol) which is sometimes quite palpable. Thus my posts directed against Christians. I don't believe we should accept Christianity in any way, shape or form, especially from a Heathen perspective. The Celtic Recons have a little more leeway to accept Christian teachings or onlays because theirs was a voluntary and bloodless conversion. Heathens on the other hand fought tooth and nail and had many martyrs for the Forn Sedr (Old Way). I will be posting a blog on this subject soon, I hope you will pass by again and read it : )

Anyway, always glad to meet another Heathen. I also understand your sentiment about neopagans. I personally don't much like them either, however Woden seems to have chosen me to "lead his people out of Egypt (ie ignorant Christianity)". The UU church does something similar of course, but theirs is an unfocused mob of spiritual practitioners whose beliefs have no relevance to each others' and in the past have even warred against each other. Lol I have never attended a UU meeting, but I can imagine, and I have read their liturgy and hymnals. I seek to form a pan-pagan orthodoxy that is focused on Earth-Spirit-Consciousness and the Pagan ideals. . .but in a more non-sectarian way. In a way I will not be combining vast and varied traditions, but rather creating a new "umbrella" tradition that all pagans can assemble under without feeling a loss of intellectual freedom or autonomy. Seperate, Heathens, Diaspora, Pagans, Indigenous, Shamans, Shintoists, and Taoists (to name a few) are weak. We are a small minority on our own but if we combined beneath an orthodoxy, society wouldn't know what had hit them. If the Pagan community can set aside their differences and share a belief or set of beliefs amongst all trads, then we have some power behind us. That is my goal :)

Whew. . .sorry this is so long. I am excited to have found another Heathen to talk to. I hope to continue the correspondence!

Frith,
Bjorn (aka NakedWoadWarrior)