On Planets and Wandering Stars...

There are few people today that don't know the planets are not stars, that they are solid or gas bodies  that circle the same star as we do, that their light is the reflection of the sun's light, not light of their own.  But in ancient times, this wasn't known.  They looked like very bright stars, but they didn't move like stars, they changed location against the backdrop over time, giving them the name planetes in Greek, Wanderers.

There were five Wanderers, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.  Neptune and Uranus and the other bodies beyond Saturn are not easy to find if you don't know they're there, as they move against the stars so slowly and are so dim.  The sky was populated by the myriad stars, the Five Wanderers, the Moon, and the Sun.  Seven bodies that wander against a backdrop of stars.

There is a god in Greek mythology worth noting here, Astraeus.  He is the Dusk, and his wife is Eos (or, Aurora), the Dawn.  Their children are what is to note here.  The stars, the Wanderers, and the Winds.  And Eos' brother, Helios, is the Sun, and sister, Selena, is the Moon.  The connection of the winds to the Wanderers and stars is significant, but I won't address that here.

Astraeus was a Titan, god of astronomy and all things in the sky.  His either sun of Krios (the Ram, Aries, and the Pillar of the South, Aries rising in the South in Summer, beginning of the Greek year) and Eurybia (mastery of the sea, sailing, navigation), or of Tartaros (underworld) and Gaea (earth), depending on the source.

The Wanderers are often used in magic and workings in many traditions.  Anyone who has studied anything about Western Astrology will find quickly that the location of the planets against the backdrop of the Zodiac is very important in Western Astrology, both their current position and their position at the time you were born.  Ceremonial magic and much of modern witchcraft (heavily influenced by ceremonial magic and by the grimoire tradition) work with not just the location against the stars and the time of rising and setting, but with the days and hours they are said to rule.  This is the main discussion I'd like to address in this article.

Now, Grimr is founded on personal observation more than anything, so the position against the stars, and the position in the sky and rising and setting are of importance to me, but the days and hours they rule less so.  I will come back to this after we look at the details of the ruling planet system below.  Do note this is a brief summary, not exhaustive, and that I don't necessary know all the details so may misrepresent or misstate details.  So, as always, do your own research if this speaks to you, figure it out yourself and how to use it, and experiment to see how it works for you.  The below is a summary of concepts, not a reference for workings.

As I discussed above, there are seven moving objects against the backdrop of the stars, the Wanderers, the Moon, and the Sun.

The sun and moon are often focused on when looking back at ancient religions and traditions.  We often look at them as Solar Cults or Lunar Cults, and talk of the struggle between matriarchal Lunar cults and patriarchal Solar cults.  This of course breaks down, as there are plenty of cultures with solar goddesses and lunar gods.  It also breaks down as you begin to analyze the stellar elements of the "Solar" and "Lunar" cults.  But we won't go there now.

The remaining five objects, the Wanderers, are of course our subject.  We have what are today named Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.  These names are of course the Roman names, but the choices are a bit odd, as patterns between them are missing.  Saturn was the head of the Roman Titans, Kronos of the Greeks.  He was overthrown by the Olympians, led by Jupiter, Zeus of the Greeks.  But Venus and Mars, the goddess of beauty and love and the god of war are a different pattern from the first.  And finally, Mercury, Hermes of the Greeks, the messenger of the gods.

The above description of Saturn and Jupiter was translated onto the two from Greek myth.  Jupiter was Saturn's son, but the overthrow was missing in Etruscan and Roman myth before the bringing in of Greek myth.  There are two versions, one of Saturn ruling Rome or Italy and being overthrown by Janus, the other of Janus ruling and Saturn being overthrown by Jupiter in Greece and coming to Italy as a fugitive.  In the latter, he brought agriculture with him, introducing it to Italy.  He is a god of agriculture, and a law giver, bringing order to the fauns and nymphs of the hills of Italy.  Saturn had two consorts, Ops, Greek Rhea, goddess of wealth, abundance, and resources, and Lua, goddess of destruction, dissolution, and loosening.  These show Saturn's two sides, on one side, as god of agriculture, he creates and provides, on the other, he destroys.

Jupiter is also Jove.  He was the twin of Juno, his wife, Hera of the Greeks.  He was the god of the sky, or specifically of storms.  Numa Pompilius, born on the day of Rome's founding and elected King after Romulus' death, when bad weather threatened to ruin the harvest, got Picus and Faunus to assist him and evoked Jupiter.  He made a deal with Jupiter for a shield to protect from lightening, in exchange for sacrifices.  This is a basis for the sacrificial laws in Rome.  The Ides of each month, the midpoint, were sacred to him.  This is important, as the month was a lunar month originally, and the Ides are the Full Moons.  His consort, Juno, is protector and councilor of the Roman state.  The symbolism and a shield and of protector of Rome should not be ignored.

Mars, the god of war, does have a connection with Jupiter.  The earliest triad was Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, later changed to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.  Quirinus is the Wielder of the Spear, and was later used as an epithet for Janus.  Quirinus was probably the god of war of the Sabines, the people Numa was of, who joined with Romulus and Remes' people for the Roman state.  The month of March is named for Mars.  Minerva was born of Jupiter alone, from his forehead, but Mars was born of Juno alone, using a magic flower.  March was the first month in the Roman calendar, the the first of March, Mars' birthday, was the day for honouring childbirth.  Mars is not the destructive masculine force Ares is usually seen as, but a god of military strategy, of defending of agriculture, and of plant life.  Ares is said to be the father of Romulus and Remus.

Venus is not quite the same as Greek Aphrodite.  She is, as Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, sex, and fertility, but also of prosperity and victory.  There's a martial aspect to her, as with all of the above.  The connection to Roman is interesting, as myth says her son was Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and came to Italy.  Romulus and Remus claim descent from him, through their human mother.  She was born of sea foam, so had no parents, unless you argue Neptune to be the sea itself. Her month is April, and her day is April 1.  She is a goddess of vegetation, also a common thread above, in relation to fertility.  In some myths, Ares is her consort, in others Vulcan.  But it's interesting to note that early myths describe the planet Venus, the Morning and Evening Star, as Lucifer and Vesper.  But Lucifer was said to be as beautiful as Venus, and later, Venus is used for the Wanderer.

Mercury, the messenger of the gods, the god of travelers, boundaries, commerce, financial gain, poetry, eloquence, communication, divination, luck, trickery, and thieves.  He is the son of Jupiter and Maia.  He was mediator between man and the gods.  His feast was May 15th, the Ides of May.  The progression of March for Mars, April for Venus, and Mercury's day in May is interesting. It's easy to see his importance in Roman, as mediator.

Most of the world has a seven day week.  This becomes fairly logical when you look at older cultures.  Each Moon cycle is about 28 days.  If you measure from the Dark Moon to the First Half Moon, from the Half to the Full Moon, from the Full to the Second Half Moon, and from the Half to the Dark Moon, you find four periods of approximately seven days.  Seven becomes a natural division point within each Moon, each Month, four seven-day weeks.  There's no proof this is the origin, but there's logic to it based on observation.  Other cultures used five-day and ten-day weeks, but these have faded from use in most places.  But Western Astrology, and most Western Mystery, Esoteric, and Occult traditions, and most Western religions (including Middle Eastern) grew up in or evolved into a seven day week.  The correspondences we are discussing are within that system.

The number seven for the number of days in the week and the number seven for the seven moving objects is an easy connection. Each day became dedicated to one of these, or more accurately, named for the god behind it.  Sunday is dies Solis, day of the Sun.  Monday is dies Lunae, day of the Moon.  Tuesday is dies Martis, day of Mars.  Wednesday is dies Mercurii, day of Mercury.  Thursday is dies Jovis, day of Jove, or day of Jupiter.  Friday is dies Veneris, day of Venus.  And Saturday is dies Saturni, day of Saturn.

But our English names are based on the Northern gods, not the Southern.  Sunday is Sunnandaeg, Sunna's Day.  Monday is Monandaeg, Mani's Day.  Tuesday is Tiwesdaeg, Tiw's Day, Tyr's Day.  Wednesday is Wodnesdaeg, Woden's Day, Odin's Day.  Thurday is Thunresdaeg, Thunos's Day, Thor's Day.  Friday is Frigedaeg, Frige's Day, Frigg's Day.  Saturday retains its Roman name.  It was Saeturnesdaeg to the Anglo-Saxons.  It was Laugardagr, washing-day.

The connection is quite obvious, as the Romans looked at all cultures around them and said, this god is this one, and this god is this one.  Helios is Sunna, the goddess who pulls the sun.  Selena is Mani, Sunna's brother who pulls the moon.  Mars is Tyr, who isn't necessarily the god of war, but was seen by the Romans as Mars.  Mercury is Odin, because Odin is a god of boundaries and crossroads and passing between, of wisdom and knowledge, of poetry and speech.  He's the closest parallel to Mercury.  Jupiter is Thor, because Jupiter is the sky and storm and the wielder of the thunderbolt, and Thor is the storm and thunder.  And Frigg, we have a direct connection to the planet, as Venus was Friggjarstjarna, Frigg's Star.

Classic Astrology attributes certain aspects to the moving objects and the days they rule.

Mercury is easy.  Commerce and communication, thinking and reasoning, knowledge and wisdom.  As the god rules these things, so does the planet.  As the god moves swiftly, so does the planet.  And so Wednesday becomes the day for such activities, both in a mundane sense and a magical sense.  In relation to commerce, if we associate Wednesday with a vice, it would be Greed.

Venus is easy as well.  Love, sex, fertility, romance, relationships, beauty, pleasure.  Once again, as the goddess rules these things, so does the planet, and this translates in classic thought and much of Western magic to Friday.  Of the "Seven Vices", Friday is Lust in this way.

Mars is a bit less obvious.  It's seen as a day for force and protection, courage and aggression, productivity and determination, and the like.  The aspects related to war, not normally war itself.  The connection from god to planet to seeing Tuesday as this is obvious.  Tuesday is Wrath.

Jupiter diverges a more from what's seen as the realm of the god.  It is related to big undertakings.  Looking carefully, we can see this.  Jupiter never did anything half way.  He was showy and extravagant.  Any action was a big action.  The planet fits this well, being the largest planet.  Thursday is the day ascribed to this, and is Pride.

Saturn is seen as the start of slower, long-term things, things requiring patience and perseverance, things you can't rush.  From the planet, this is easy to see, as it is the slowest moving of the seven.  For the god, this is seen in imagery of him with his legs bound except during the festival of Saturnalia. He bides his time throughout the year until the time for his release.  We also see his consorts.  Ops, as the building of wealth takes time.  Lua, as time and waiting wears things down, leading to destruction. This is then ascribed to Saturday.  It's interesting that in much of the Western world, Saturday is a day of no work, and that it is the Sabbath in Jewish practice, a day of rest.  Saturday would be Sloth if it was one of the Seven Vices.

The Moon is seen in relation to emotions and dreams, female cycles and changes, and to domestic activities.  This is of course related to the tides that change with the moon, the change of the moon itself through its cycle, and the menstrual cycle, which is typically 28 days just as the moon's is.  This of course is the reason for the association of matriarchy and the feminine with lunar cults.  Because of the similar cycle, the association between the moon and these areas is common through much of the world.  Most moon goddesses have direct connection to these same areas, and Monday is seen as connected to them.

The Sun is seen as anything involving gaining influence over things.  The sun brings forth life from the ground in the form of plants, and is the main influence on life on earth.  Helios was very handsome and had a lot of influence on everyone because of his looks.  Sunday is seen as this day.  It's interesting to observe that Christianity sees Christ rising on Sunday, and that that is the day many dress up, as though they are attempting to impress God/Christ. I would associate it with envy, for it's a day to gain influence to get something we don't have.

I included the Seven Vices because they stuck out to me on several of the descriptions I was writing.  Moon and Gluttony are left, but I don't think they relate.  The Vices are a side point anyway.

The idea the planets could be associated with the seven days, gave rise to further division.  The day is seen as divided into two parts, the day and the night, Dawn to Dusk and Dusk to Dawn.  Remember that the planets are children of the Dusk and the Dawn.  The year is divided into twelve months (twelve moons, but the year is really closer to thirteen moons), relating to the twelve signs of the Zodiac.  Likewise the day and the night were divided into twelve hours.  The planets are mapped onto these, progressing from Saturn to Jupiter to Mars to the Sun to Venus to Mercury to the Moon.  This was seen as the distance from earth, with Saturn farthest and the Moon closest.  This rotates though, using the day as the first.  It could be seen in reverse, of the hours giving the order of the days.

So, Sunday starts at Dawn with the hour of the sun, progressing to the end of the hour of Saturn at Dusk, then the night starting with the hour of Jupiter and progressing to the hour of Mercury ending at Dawn.

Monday starts at Dawn with the hour of the moon, progressing to the end of the hour of the sun at Dusk, then the night starting with the hour of Venus and progressing to the hour of Jupiter ending at Dawn.

And so on.

These hours are seen as having the same aspects I described above for the days.  Each day (dawn to dusk) ends with the hour of the day before.

As I said, many people use these in magical workings, beginning workings or rituals or rites on an hour that relates to the purpose of the working, and on a day that relates.  These are combined when possible, either using the same planet's day and hour, or a different planet for the day and the year to combine the aspects.  This is likewise, when possible, combined with Zodiac signs, and the planets that rule them.

This has of course been used this way for a long time, and there is obviously power in it, or it would have been dropped.  Magic workers tend to be very pragmatic.  If it doesn't work, it doesn't survive.  Add to this that repetition adds power, so the more they are used, the more effective they will become.  The question, of course, is why were the days laid out in that order to begin with, an order that works perfectly with the progression of the hours.  The answer to that will give the origin of the power found in the practice.  I don't know the answer.

Back to Grimr, the main principle is observation.  I can observe that the system described above works, but I can't see the layout of it from observation at this point.  The planets don't rise and set based on that layout.  As such, I don't use this system in my practice.

But I can observe the visibility of the planets, and I've found that which planets are visible do change the flavour of the energy I work with.  Their effects are weaker than the sun and moon, and less constant than the stars.  They create tides, both physically due to gravity, and spiritually in the energies around us.  The Sun is large and pulls strong.  The Moon is close and has more direct effect.  But the Wanderers do pull, and they change the energy tides as they move.  They should not be ignored.  The stars are even weaker, but they are more constant, progressing slower, over millennia.

And these tides, the solar and lunar tides, the tides of the Wanderers, the stellar tides, all these tides and the Winds they bring, effect our lives in very real ways, they bind and loose the Threads of Fate, weaving as they go.  This can be used to create change, to step out of the direct effects of their tides.  The momentum they create can be used to strengthen and increase the effect of small changes we create. An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.  It's easier to create change if you work with the tides than against them.

This is a principle that can be observed.  And can be applied.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

The Fire Festivals: Stellar movements and the cross-quarter days

As we're now in the time of the year of the Bride, having just passed her day and Candlemas, it's interesting to take a look at the days modern pagans and many witches consider holy days, especially the cross-quarters, Samhain, Bride's Day, Beltaine, and Lugh's Day.  Much is made of Samhain and Beltaine, less of Bride's Day and Lugh's Day, as many modern pagans aren't quite sure what to do with them.

I'd like to go back to a discussion I started in my Year in Review post, about the timing of these four days.  These days fall roughly half way between the solstices and equinoxes, and while those are fairly easily observed, based on the length of the day and year, the cross quarters are not as easy, as they don't fall at a time the solar cycle would lend easy measurements, and the lunar cycles don't line up right to designate them every year.  Yet they seem to have been more important among what care called Celtic people than the ones easily measured by the sun.  This would imply something significant marking them, not a measuring from the solar points.  So, if not solar, and not lunar, yet marked by a sign, where do we look?

The answer lies in part of my discussion in the fore-mentioned post.  "Aldebaran is the brightest star in Taurus, the Bull, and becomes visible in the Northern Hemisphere around Samhain, sinking again around Beltaine, being highest around Bride's Day."  "Regulus is the brightest star in Leo, the Lion, and becomes most visible in the Northern Hemisphere around Bride's Day, and disappears around Lugh's Day, being highest around Beltaine."

So, Samhain comes when Aldebaran and Taurus rise.  Bride's Day comes when Regulus and Leo rise, and Aldebaran and Taurus are at their height.  Beltaine comes when Regulus and Leo hits it's height, and Aldebaran and Taurus sink.  Lugh's Day comes when Regulus and Leo sink.

We can look further.  Just before Leo is at it's height and Taurus is sinking, Scorpio is rising.  Antares is the bright star, and can be considered as opposite Taurus' Aldebaran.  It doesn't rise as high as the others, but is significant.  It sets after Lugh's Day.  When Leo is sinking around Lugh's Day, Aquarius and its neighbours are rising.  Though not in Aquarius, the brightest star in the area of the sky is Fomalhaut, in Piscis Austrinus.

Not exact, but we see the rise of Aldebaran and Taurus at Samhain, the rise of Regulus and Leo at Bride's Day, the rise of Antares and Scorpio at Beltaine, and the rise of Fomalhaut and Aquarius at Lugh's Day.  It's important to note that these four stars were considered the Royal Stars in Persia, the Watchers, Regulus watching in the North, Aldebaran in the East, Fomalhaut in the South, and Antares in the West.

These four holy days are seen as sun festivals, but they seem to be more stellar than solar.  Unless, of course, their celebration started far enough back to show a large enough shift to account for this.  The Zodiac, and these four star with them, move completely around in relation to earth every 25,920 years or so, the Platonic Year, or the Great Year.  Considering the current twelve signs, this means it shifts a complete constellation about every 2200 years give or take 100.  It wobbles in relation to the stars over this, which accounts for the Antares and Fomalhaut anomalies from the four holy days.  As the wobble occurs, some constellations are lower, so rising and sinking points change.

The cycle moves backwards from the annual seasons, so the Spring Equinox occurs a bit earlier in the zodiac each year, and every 2000 years or so, a full sign.  It currently sits in Pisces, almost to Aquarius when compared to the stars (at the border between Ares and Pisces in traditional Western astrology, for most western Astrology cares about the position of the sun in the sky rather than the exact location against the stars).  This is where the discussion of the Age of Pisces and the upcoming Age of Aquarius come from.

The Winter Solstice, which is more interesting for this discussion, occurs in Sagittarius currently, not on the border of Sagittarius and Capricorn. Over time, it will move further, into Scorpio.  This means that Antares is moving toward the Winter Solstice, and was once at the Autumn Equinox.  And before that at Lugh's Day, and before that as the Summer Solstice.  In the last 25,920 days, it's moved full circle back through the year.

This begs the question, when these four days were first observed but the people who would become called as Celts, where were these four stars, and what part of the year did they celebrate?  Samhain was a time of death and ending, Beltaine a time of birth and beginning.  It seems likely Samhain started out as a Winter Solstice celebration and Beltaine as a Summer Solstice celebration, just as Midsummer and Yule were celebrated by the Germanic people.  If this is so, the Germanic people marked it solarly, so it stayed at the Solstice, but the Celtic people marked it stellarly, causing a shift.  This would imply a beginning of the celebration around 23,000 years ago, or 48,000, or so on.

It also points to a stellar basis for religious and ritual use, something many archaeological investigations of things like the stone circles in the British Isles, the recent find up in the Orkneys, and other sites are also pointing to.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

2012 Myth Cycle: Year in Review

יד  וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי מְאֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם לְהַבְדִּיל בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת וּלְמוֹעֲדִים וּלְיָמִים וְשָׁנִים

טו  וְהָיוּ לִמְאוֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם לְהָאִיר עַל-הָאָרֶץ וַיְהִי-כֵן

14 And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;
15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so.

The year passes, day by day, week by week, month by month. Tides come in, tides go out.  Moons move to full and back to dark.  Time passes.

According to the current Gregorian Calendar, today is the first of the year, but as I've said many times, different cultures each have their own new year.  This year, the Chinese New Year lands on February 10th.  Depending on the purpose, September 4th, January 25th, or March 12th can be considered the beginning of the new year this coming year in the Jewish calendar.  In the Islamic calendar, it begins November 3rd this coming year.  Some cultures begin the year on Samhain or Beltaine, or on one of the Equinoxes or Solstices.  We celebrate it on January 1st in most of the Western world because of the use of the Gregorian calendar which is based on the Julian calendar, since January 1st, the Feast of Janus, was the Roman new year.  It should be noted that January 1st is the 8th day from Christmas (including both end points), so is seen as the day Christ was circumcised based on a December 25th birth.  However, Christmas was likely originally a Solstice celebration, December 25th being the original date given to the Solstice, before shifting moved it roughly four days back.  This would make January 1st, the Feast of Janus, the eighth day from the Solstice, so properly December 28th or 29th depending on the day.  We still celebrate the Feast of Janus, if you look carefully.  Janus is the two faced god, one looking back, the other forward, just as we do, celebrating what happened in the last year and making resolutions for the coming year.

Much of the pagan and occult community celebrates the eight (or nine) Knots of the year, the eight Fire Festivals, or whatever name each uses, sometimes poetically called the Wheel of the Year.  These are Bride's Day/Candlemas/Imbolc, the Spring Equinox/Ostara, May Day/Roodmas/Beltane, the Summer Solstice/Midsummer/Feast of John the Baptist/Litha, Lugh's Day/Lughnasadh/Lammas/August Eve/Feast of Augustus/Feast of Sofia, the Autumn Equinox/Michaelmas/Mabon, All Saint's Day/All Soul's Day/Hallowe'en/Samhain, and the Winter Solstice/Midwinter/Chistmas/Yule.

I don't always celebrate these, but I note their passing, or, more accurately, the passing of their Tides, as these are the high tides of energy cycles throughout the year.  The Tides don't always fall on those specific days.  This is because those days are pinpointed by the solar year, the solstices being the most northern and most southern movements of the sun through the sky or the shortest and longest day or night, the equinoxes being the days when day and night are equal in length, and the other four the midpoints between.  But the Tides are not solar, and they aren't lunar.  If they were solar, the cross-quarters (Bride's Day, Beltaine, Lugh's Day, and Samhain) would have no significance.  If they were lunar, there would be thirteen, not eight.  Even the months, despite the origin of the name, aren't lunar in Western calendars, for there are roughly 13 moons, but only twelve months, and originally only ten (you'll note the names January, Janus, February, Februum, March, Mars, April, Aperire, May, Maia, June, Juno, September, Seven, October, Eight, November, Nine, and December, Ten).  Neither twelve nor ten fit the moons.  But twelve does fit the Zodiac, which is of course stellar, not solar or lunar.  Libra was added late, with 11 constellations in the Zodiac before that, maybe ten previously at some point.  You'll also notice that the moon occults Aldebaran around the Autumn Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.  Aldebaran is the brightest star in Taurus, the Bull, and becomes visible in the Northern Hemisphere around Samhain, sinking again around Beltaine, being highest around Bride's Day.  Regulus is often occulted by the moon around the Summer Solstice.  Regulus is the brightest star in Leo, the Lion, and becomes most visible in the Northern Hemisphere around Bride's Day, and disappears around Lugh's Day, being highest around Beltaine.  Antares can be occulted by the moon during any month.  It is the brightest star in Scorpio, the Scorpion, and is roughly visible from around the spring equinox to the autumn equinox, highest closest to the summer solstice. There are other stars that point to various other of the eight Knots, but I'll leave that for a later post.

I note the passing of the Tides, and often how the solar cycles, lunar cycles, and stellar cycles land, sometimes celebrating or doing a working, sometimes just noting them.  But in noting them, I often find poetry and myth can capture the essence of the Tides.

The following are my ritual poems for the major Tides over the last year, from Samhain to Samhain, showing a cycle I saw grow up throughout the year.  Each poem fed the next and the next, creating a myth cycle.  The dates given are the most common modern dates, or there about.  Each actually spreads over three days, but the Tides of each grow before that date and fade after, and reach High Tide at different times in different places, and are also influenced by the shorter Tides of the moon and longer Tides of the sun, so the dates given are for reference only, to make the cycle more clear.  The names of the Tides given are not necessarily the names everyone uses, but the ones I most commonly use in my practice.

(The Year Draws Nigh - Samhain 10/31/2011)

As darkness fall, the veil thin,

The year is drawing nigh.

Shadows lengthen, gather strength,

The year is drawing nigh.

The dead they stir, and look around,

The year is drawing nigh.

Tonight they walk, tonight they dine,

The year is drawing nigh.

The sinks down, she’s dying now,

The year is drawing nigh.

Beneath the hills, the dying sun,

The year is drawing nigh.

Hollow hills, they open wide,

The year is drawing nigh.

Faerie folk, the mighty dead,

The year is drawing nigh.

Samhain’s fires, burning bright,

The year is drawing nigh.

To dance around, in death’s embrace,

The year is drawing nigh.

Ancestors dead, some long gone,

The year is drawing nigh.

We tip a glass, we place a plate,

The year is drawing nigh.

Death stands up, tonight he reigns,

The year is drawing nigh.

In darkness strong, the dying year,

The year is drawing nigh.

The revelers grow deathly quiet,

The year is drawing nigh.

All knees bend and all tongue stilled,

The year is drawing nigh.

For Death takes all and all will come,

The year is drawing nigh.

The Gates of Death, they open wide,

The year is drawing nigh.

His face you meet, at Death’s great doors,

The year is drawing nigh.

A friend, a judge, a lover, a blade,

The year is drawing nigh.

His embrace is sweet, but deathly cold,

The year is drawing nigh.

In love he strips you, bone from bone,

The year is drawing nigh.

Nothing left, you pass beyond,

The year is drawing nigh.

The veil it parts, the doors swing wide,

The year is drawing nigh.

Your last strong breath, last orgasm,

The year is drawing nigh.

And through you go, to what’s beyond,

The year is drawing nigh.

But Death’s great doors and Life’s fair doors,

The year is drawing nigh.

What’s dead and gone, will be reborn,

The year is drawing nigh.

A new breath breathed, a new day dawns,

The year is drawing nigh.

Death to Life, he takes your hand,

The year is drawing nigh.

All is gone, but all in new,

The year is drawing nigh.

The new dawn’s sun, in the east,

The year is drawing nigh.

The cold it flees, the shadows hide,

The year is drawing nigh.

Dark Samhain’s night to new year’s light,

The year is drawing nigh.

What was dead has come again.

(The Throne of Bone - Winter Solstice 12/22/2011)

Darkest night and shortest day,
Shadows reign and darkness calls,
The shadowy figure of Death stands by,
Patiently waiting for all to fall.

Each child born will surly die,
None is spared and all know why,
At Death’s bone throne each one will come,
He needn’t search for all will come.

The sun sets earlier for half the year,
Night grows longer, shadows strive,
The year he ages as do all,
Growing weaker, growing frail.

The time draws near when he will die,
The year we’ve loved so hard to watch,
The mourners all do gather round,
For letting go is the hardest task.

With the sun, the year does set,
Sinking down into the grave,
Like each man, he bows his knee,
And presents himself at the throne of bone.

In his birth we knew he’d die,
For every beginning contains the end,
We watched him grow like a new born lamb,
We watch him die at the Slaughterer’s hand.

Every beginning has it’s end,
But every ending is born again,
With Dawn’s first light like the Morning Star,
The new year rises and live once more.

Fresh and hopeful, full of life,
The year reborn begins his flight,
We watch him stretch and try his wings,
We glory that he lives again.

Forgetting the grief and sorrow past,
We pretend he didn’t see Death’s own face,
With the new year, we fly away,
Trying to forget our own mortality.

(The Call - Bride's Day 2/1/2012)

As the metal hare settles to sleep,
The water dragon stretches and stirs,
The world serpent around the world,
A curled serpent in a cave,
Slowly stirring, his coils spread,
In the underworld he's made his nest,
And waited through the coldest time,
Darkling serpent, shining snake,
His head he raises and starts to move,
Crawling forth on fair Bride's day,
Up the Well of Worlds he comes,
Across the Veil from world to world,
He hears the call of a thousand flames,
Candles lit and fires bright,
The heat, the light, it calls him forth,
Through deepest dark and waters cold,
Up he crawls, reborn from death,
Cthonic darkling, to worlds above,
Ravens dance the dance of death,
And flames the flicker, the spark of life,
The Bride she calls, the serpent comes,
Reborn and new, the strange Horned Child,
And a ring around the moon.

(Reborn from Down Below - Spring Equinox 3/20/2012)

Two months he swam,
Up through the well,
His scales flashing in the dark.

Twisting, turning,
Swimming, soaring,
Through the Veil of Worlds.

Into the light,
He pokes his head,
Sun flashing of his scales.

Reborn at least,
After Winter's grave,
Reborn from down below.

Two months ago,
He heard the call,
His Bride invoked his name.

And now he rises,
From the grave,
To live and love again.

Heat of sun,
In Spring's cold wind,
Coiled on a rock.

Prepare he does,
For May's fine feast,
And Marriage to his Bride.

(The Risen Lord and Laughing Queen - Beltaine 5/1/2012)

The wakened sleeper clothed in gold,
Warmed with Spring and rising sun,
Draped in green and newborn leaf,
Who once had died but rose again.

Golden scales and raven hair,
Skin of blue and feathers fair,
Who began a journey by candler's flame,
And rose in glory in first leaf's show.

In comes his Bride the fair Corn Maid,
Whose blackened veil now glowing white,
Grass stains on her small bare feet,
And bloodied sword upon her back.

The dancers dance and singers sing,
Risen lord and laughing queen,
The snow has melted and green grows strong,
Winter then Spring give way to sun.

Veil of white over golden hair,
A cotton dress with playful tears,
Small feet dance as if on air,
She laughs in joy at his peacock flair.

Round they spin just like the year,
Celebrating life and new found love,
Love reborn from past the grave,
Youth and Maiden, lust and joy.

The time has come to start again,
A marriage feast and strong bond hands,
New life, new love, all is born,
Eternal love, past Death's cold hand.

Around the pole the ribbons fly,
Dancing round in lustful fun,
In honor to the fair Corn Maid,
And Peacock Lord reborn again.

(From Blessed Womb and Serpent's Seed - Summer Solstice 6/20/2012)

Summer's heat has come again,
And with it a growing womb.
The union formed of May's young flowers,
Begins to start to show.
The risen lord's seed runs strong,
The laughing queen was ripe.
In summer's heat, her sweat is sweat,
The warmth that forms within.
She smiles sweetly in Solstice sun,
Spring's rain fades away.
The white veil gone, her golden hair,
Darkens to chestnut brown.
New moon's time, a darkened moon,
A bonfire burning high.
The dancers dance, round and round,
A fever burning high.
The Horned King sits close by her side,
His smile as big as hers.
The summer sun it rises bright,
Round like her growing womb.
The moon moves on and starts to grow,
Just like her unborn Child.
Summer's heat has come again,
And with it a growing womb.
The womb will grow to harvest time,
The Child that will be born.
From blessed womb and serpent's seed,
The Mother of all life.

(A Child of Blood - Lugh's Day 7/30/2012)

A child is born,
A child is given,
On the feast in fair Lugh's name.

A child of light,
A child of blood,
A Horned Child is given birth.

Well of the Womb,
Water and darkness,
Born into the bright light of day.

Shining fair,
A Hunter born,
Of starlight and mystic earth.

Hunter and hunted,
Herder and rancher,
An animal both wild and free.

Born for the sword,
Born for the bow,
Born to be the Winged Serpent's death.

A child is born,
A child is given,
On the feast in fair Lugh's name.

A child of light,
A child of blood,
A Horned Child is given birth.

(A Mortal Wound - Autumn Equinox 9/22/2012)

The Horned Child rises ever strong,
Like a mighty angel with a sword of steel,
He ventures forth in search of prey,
Looking for a Serpent with feathered wings,
He finds him then, near end of life,
The Winged Serpent weak, while the Child is strong,
He stalks his prey desiring the kill,
He takes his time for the hour is nigh,
In the early snow, he finds the trail,
The autumn's chill soon slows the snake,
The Child approached, so full of faith,
Of how this will end, of what's at stake,
He raises his sword and makes the blow,
A mortal wound that can't be healed,
But the time is short, and has not come,
The Wounded Serpent does get away,
The Child was wrong, the death wasn't sure,
But he trudges one, still on the trail.

(The Hunter's Lamb - Samhain 10/31/2012)

On a black altar on All Soul's Night,
The Wounded Serpent makes last call,
He will not go down without a fight,
But he knows not enough will be hid all,
He howls defiance to the coming night,
But the Gates are open, he can hear the call,
The Horned Child pauses, about to strike,
He wants this death, he wants this fight,
A raised high sword, like a lightning flash,
But he's still too slow for he missed the point,
A female figure all dressed in black,
A blood red veil, and a living knife,
With one fell slash, she takes a life,
Who was once her groom, now a sacrifice,
Blue blood runs from the Serpent's throat,
His time is down, it is time to rest,
And with a knife still wet and a heavy heart,
She takes the arm of the fair Horned Child,
She leads him off to be the light,
Through winter's darkness and the coldest night,
And the Serpent rests far beneath the Well,
A fitful slumber of dreams of spring,
He'll awake again, and swim the Well,
A groom once more to a fickle Bride,
But for now in darkness that is but a dream,
With the Horned Child the victor upon the throne,
Through winter's blanket and the barren land,
The Lord of Beasts and the Hunter's Lamb.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

Michaelmas: Time of Binding

Today, we stand at Michaelmas (though the original sate wasn't until October 11).  This is the day the Western Church traditionally honours all the Angels, but more specifically the Archangels, and most specifically the Archangel Michael.  It is traditionally the day Michael kicked Satan (or Lucifer) from Heaven.

This is a time of year for binding, for reducing, for constricting.  The days shrink, just as the moon shrinks following the full moon.  The spring, heading toward the Summer Solstice, as the days increase, is a time for loosing, for increasing, for expanding.  But now we bind, not loose.

Michaelmas (under the current Western calendar), falls one week after the Equinox.  It's significant that it falls at this point in the year, after harvest, heading toward Samhain.  At this point when the days are shortening, when winter is coming.

This year, the full moon lands on Michaelmas this moon.  Tonight is the height of the Tide of the current moon.  The energy flows strong, from that white mirror, that whole in the black sky.  A dark night full of light.

Half a moon has passed since the Sage Brush Moon ended.  Half way to the next Dark Moon.  This is a moon of changing, of turning.  The Moon of the Equinox, half way to darkness.  The Moon of Michaelmas, of Lucifer's fall from heaven, the Bright and Morning Star.  The leaves changing, the season changing.    This is truly the Changing Moon, a moon for bringing change into the world.

The main story of Michaelmas, of the Archangel Michael overcoming Lucifer and casting him from Heaven, is of course paralleled many places.  One such is Hera kicking Hephaestus, the smith of the gods, from Olympus, the fall giving him a limp the rest of his life.  Looking at that, we see Bran, wounded in the foot in the battle with Ireland, and eventually dying, but his head living on, speaking for a year.  We see the Fisher King in Arthurian Legend, wounded through the thighs, unable to walk, so spending his time fishing in a boat.  We find Odin, pierced through the side with his out spear, hanging upside on the Tree, then falling to the depths of the roots.  Jesus stabbed in the side, then descending to Sheol.  The Fall of the Watchers is also the Descent of the Watchers, also, the Descent of Inanna, of Ishtar.

We find this motif also in our myth cycle of the year.  At the equinox, the power was in the balance, but now it's tipped.  The Horned Child has grown in power, and he confronts the Winged Serpent, challenges him.  The Serpent has never know how to back down from a challenge.  He rises to that challenge, the two fight.

But the Serpent is weakening and the Horned Child is stronger.  The Serpent is God of the Vegetation, and with the harvest, his power waned.  The Horned Child is God of the Beast, and with the Hunt, he grows strong.  As the cold Northern Wind, he howls, the howls of wolves.  His is the call of ravens, gathering around the dead and dying.  He is strong and only getting stronger, heading toward his height at the time of the Wild Hunt.  He wounds the Serpent, but does not kill yet.  He casts him down, and this time of the year, he does not heal.

He who was once a vibrant young man, happy in love, without a care in the world, is now old, now weak, now wounded.  He walks with a limp, in old rags that were once royal robes.  He walks hunched over, a lantern in his hand, staring into the growing darkness with eyes that are failing him, unsure what the future holds where once he could see the path laid out before him.

And so Michaelmas passes and we rush towards Samhain.

FFF,

~Muninn's Kiss

Blue Moon Rising

Tomorrow is a full moon. Full and dark moons are always significant, but this one has a special signification. It is considered a blue moon. In this context, a blue moon is a second full moon within a month. It comes about because our months (despite the name which really means a moon period) are based on a solar year, which just over a week longer than twelve moon cycles (eleven days longer). Every few years, the moons land such that thirteen full moons occur within a solar year (and in between, thirteen dark or new moons occur). The extra moon in whichever month it occurs forms a second full moon within a solar month, a blue moon. Any rare event tends to have more power than common events, like a lunar eclipse has more power than a normal full moon, even though it occurs on a full moon, and a full solar eclipse is much more powerful than other dark moons.

How a blue moon is used, of course, depends a lot on how you practice. My practice focuses more on dark moons than full, though full are important, as the mid point of a lunar month (I determine moons as dark to dark), so the energetic high tide of the moon. Most important to my practice is that this is the full moon directly between the full moon closest to the cross quarter (Lugh's Day) and the one closest to the Autumn Equinox. Most years, that would make this the mid point of the first moon of Autumn, but this year it is the midpoint of the second moon, making it the mid point of Autumn. I suspect the shift and the occurrence of a blue moon are not unconnected or coincidence.

Typically, full moons are times of fulfillment in my practice. Waxing is increase, waning is decrease. A dark moon is chthonic, the underworld, death, things secret. The full moon is the fullness of time, the birth after a pregnancy, a time to reveal and proclaim. I've never done work on one, I would think a blue moon would be a time of unexpected revelation, of revealing of things that aren't normally revealed, a time of unexpected birth, a time for sudden unexpected proclamation. If I was going to do a working, it
would be for something I wouldn't normally try for, a wish I normally would let sleep. Or proclaim unexpected Change. If it rained, I'd gather water and use it later for those same things. Same if I gathered herbs or roots or other plants, or bones and other animal products. That unexpected and abnormal aspect, I think, is very important and useful.

So I sit here wondering, is there something I should do tomorrow under the light of the blue moon?

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

Of Blooms, Moons, Solstices, and Seasons

I've been composing this post for a fortnight, but keep getting distracted and not getting it down in writing.  As such, it keeps growing and growing, being stirred in all three Cauldrons.  It was intended to be an account of my observations around the middle of the moon following the Willow Moon, around the last full moon.  But time slithers on, twisting and turning in the coils of Fate, and Change comes as it always does here in the Cauldron.  The full moon came and went, as did the new moon and the Solstice, and though I acknowledged their passing, nothing was put down in words except a poem for the Solstice that I have yet to share.

Change.  That is the central experience of life in this world.  And of course it must be.  For the Cauldron is Her Womb, and a Womb has no purpose without change.  A Womb is always in flux, at least until menopause, the lining growing thicker and thicker, then being shed off in blood, only to grow thicker again.  The Egg passing into the Womb in hopes of finding the Seed, then shed out with the lining, only to be replaced by the next Egg.  Or it will find the Seed, but still there is no stillness, no changelessness.  Instead of shedding, the lining stays, changes, protects.  But the biggest change is the Egg, which is no longer an Egg but has changed, the Seed which is no longer the Seed but has changed, a new SEED, not like the Seed of a man no longer, but the SEED of a plant, a Tree, a SEED from which comes life, from which new life springs.  And Hers is no different.  A Womb of Darkness, a Womb of Night, an Egg, a Seed, a SEED, not from another but from Herself.  The Yod floating in the Darkness of Space, a Darkness that can be felt.  A SEED that is the SEED of the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the World Tree, the Centre of the World.  And that SEED has two nuclei, Twins, two Bright Spirits, the Divine Twins.  Herself is the Stillness outside the Cauldron, though the Cauldron is her.  "Be Still."  But the Twins are the movement, the dynamic, Change, pure Change.  They are the SEED and the fruit of the SEED.  They are the fruit of Her Womb.  They are Her Egg and Her Seed.  The SEED.  Change.  And the SEED sprouts, the Tree of the World.  Three Cowled figures, Three Mothers, Three Fathers, Time and Fate curling and moving, constant movemement, movement that moves time on, moves the Sun and Moon and Stars, moves the Years and Seasons and Months and Days and Hours and Minutes and Seconds ad infinium.  Constant Change, but Constant, set, predictable at least to a point.  Motion out of Stillness.  Change.  And Seven Builders, the Pillars.  Stable, set, but stellar, changing, moving.  Stillness out of Motion.  Change.  Here in the Cauldron, everything Changes, nothing stays the same, nothing is Still.

Change.  Many have heard of the Taoist I Ching, Yijing, the Book of Change.  Yi, Change, is two characters combined, as are many Chinese characters.  易  The upper character is 日 meaning Sun or Day or Japan (where the sun rises, and hence Dawn).  The lower character is no longer is use, so the meaning is obscure.  Some believe it meant Moon and implied an offering the the Moon.  Others that it meant dark or night, hence an offering given in the dark.  Yi also means Give, and implies an offering to the Sun, or an offering given during the light.  Regardless, Yi, Change, is either the Sun and Moon (constantly moving, constant Change), or Day and Night, Dawn and Dusk, also change, transition, liminality.

For the purposes here, Sun and Moon and Light and Dark are interesting meanings, as the New Moon, the Dark of the Moon, landed almost on the Summer Solstice, the Longest Day, close enough to connect the Darkness of the Dark of the Moon with the Light of the Longest Day.  Sun at its most active strength, its most Yang, Moon at its most passive, most Yin.  The middle high point of the Solar Year lining up with the end/beginning low point of the Lunar Month.  A very liminal time.  A time of Change, a time of Yi.  This is a time of Change, but, then, all times are.

I watched as the catkins formed on the aspens, declaring the moon following the Equinox and Passover as the Aspen Moon.  As the catkins fell and leaves replaced them, I watched the pussies form on the willows, declaring the next moon, the moon containing Beltaine, as the Willow Moon.  But what of the next moon, the moon ending right in from of the Summer Solstice?  Despite my argument that Spring starts on Candlemas and ends on Roodmas/Beltaine, Spring seldom comes to these elevations as early as February.  Often, it doesn't come until after Beltaine and doesn't end until July.  The seasons follow changes in the world around us, not set static divisions of the year.

The Aspen and Willow Moons aren't defined by when they happen, but by what is occurring.  Spring here starts when the first aspen catkins start to bud, not on a certain date.  And natural cycles like the budding of catkins and pussies tend to follow fairly closely on lunar cycles.  Whenever it occurs, the Aspen Moon lasts from new moon to new moon and is marked by the aspen catkins, and the first plants starting to sprout up leaves.  By the Willow Moon, the pussywillows are very evident, and many plants have put on at least some leaves, the land is half awake, half asleep.

Following the Willow Moon is the third and last moon of Spring.  By the end, of that third moon, everything is awake. In this third moon, there is so many things awakening, so many things changing, that naming it proved much harder than the previous two.

My first experience of it was the Russian hawthorn we planted in our yard.  When we first planted it, near the beginning of the moon, there were a few buds, but very soon after, it was blooming like crazy.  At the height of the blooming, it was more white than green, gorgeous, and with a flagrance that could be detected thirty feet away.  Which is notable since the tree is less than six feet tall and maybe two and a half across, not a big tree at all.  My first thought was to call it the Hawthorn Moon.  Which would have been a good name in Europe where Hawthorns are native and much more common, but they aren't native, and are very rare here, so I needed a name reflecting the Landscape I live in, not that of transplants (not just including non-native plants, but also humans).

I made several trips up into the mountains to observe the changes since the Willow Moon, observing all that changed.  I visited the Laramie Range up above Happy Jack, then up near Lake Owen in the Southeastern Snowy Range, then up above Centennial and up to the foot of Medicine Bow Peak in the Northern section of the Snowys.  Everywhere I went and everywhere I looked, there was change and new life, plants flourishing in the moisture of Spring.  In addition to general observation, I was looking for a specific plant to name the moon for, like aspen and willow.  I landed on wild chive, as I found them green and and in bloom everywhere I went.  Chive Moon sounded good, and was descriptive, but the more I thought about it, the more I released too much had changed to focus on one small plant.  It was an important indicator of the moon, but by itself didn't define it the way the aspen and willow had.

I began thinking about not just the blooming chives, but the wild orchids, the buttercups that were still blooming after starting in the Aspen Moon, the blooming clover, and all the other flowers.  Flowers were glowing everywhere in the mountains, and even out on the High Plains in the valley, the lupine was glowing like purple fire.   Flowers everywhere.  And the Aspen Moon wasn't marked by the leaves, but by the catkins, the bloom of the aspens, and the Willow Moon wasn't marked by the leaves, which actually forming under the Aspen Moon, but by the pussywillows, their flower.  Spring is a time of new leaves, but also of blooms, and that blooming reaches its peak during the third moon, ebbing off after that moon ends.  So I decided, the best name for the third moon is the Flower Moon.  And a fitting name it is.

The Flower Moon was beautiful time in this area, but time marches on, cycles change, moon phases pass.  The Flower Moon ended on June 19th, the day before the official Summer Solstice.  As with the Winter Solstice, though, the length doesn't change much between the day of the Summer Solstice and the day before and day after.  The Solstice is effectively three days, not one, placing the new moon and the end of the Flower Moon on the first day of the Solstice.  So Spring this year began right around Passover and ended right at the Summer Solstice.

We've now moved into Summer, and with it, the cool weather and the moisture is gone.  The river peaked around the full moon at the midpoint of the Flower Moon and has been dropping ever since.  It looks like late August levels, and it isn't even July yet.  We've had little rain in the last few weeks, though some yesterday.  The temperature has risen.  And there are major fires in Colorado in the beetle killed lodgepole pine.  There's one fire in Wyoming, but not near here, but it's prime conditions for huge fires across the Western United States and Canada in general, and in this area in particular.  The three moons of Spring are characterized by earth and water, but we've moved into Summer, into air and fire.  Wind and Sun.  But physical fire pushed by wind as well.  We'll see what the rest of the moon holds.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

Observation and Calculation: Laziness and the passage of time

 There are certain feasts and festivals that are considered "movable" in Christianity.  Easter is the most well known by the general public outside the churches.  But Easter is only movable because of laziness and an insistence on defining lunar feasts based a solar calendar.  As we talked about around that time earlier this year, Easter started out as the Sunday after Passover.  Passover is fixed, but obviously to the Hebrew calendar, not the Julian or Gregorian.  Passover is *always* the week of the 15th through 22nd of Nissan, which is sundown on the third Friday of Nissan until sundown of the next Friday.  So Easter was always 24th of Nissan.  But non-Jewish Christians didn't observe the moon, so they had to ask a Jew when it would occur, and, as relations got more and more strained between the two religions, the Christians wanted to know it themselves.  So they figured out a calculation, so they wouldn't have to observe.  And they did it based on a solar date, the equinox, and even that was set on the calendar by then, not observed.

Both the Hebrew and the Islamic calendar are based on observation and lunar cycles, not calculation and solar cycles.  The Jewish months aren't set, nor are the Islamic.  The Romans said, this month is this long and this month is this long.  The lengths are arbritary, not based on anything in nature.  Hence Julius Caesar was able to steal a day from February and put it in the month he renamed after himself, and Augustus did likewise.  But the Jewish months are based on observation and not arbitrary.  When the moon disappears from the final crescent into the dark of the moon, the new month starts.  And the Islamic, when the moon reappears after the new moon, in the first crescent.  But this varies.  First of all, because the moon isn't tied to the solar days.  Some lunar months are 29 days and some 30 days, or some people say 28 or 31, it's hard since the new moon doesn't last only one day, just as the Solstice is hard because there are three days real close.  So the length of the months are different from each other and based on observation, not the same, and not arbitrary.  The length of each month are pretty close to the same each year, day wise, but this isn't guarantied.  Even if it drifts, the Hebrew and Islamic calendar will still be consistant, because the exact length of each month doesn't matter and won't mess up other calculations.

That's the thing, we're lazy, so we prefer calculation to observation.  That's why the standing stones were more accurate.  As I said, nature isn't orderly and consistent.  We like to make laws and rules to define nature, to show its order and show it as static, but they always fall short, because nature is chaotic and dynamic, always changing.  Just look at the length of a year.  We have a nice calculation of 365.2425 days, but this is an average.  Each year is different in length.  It's pretty obvious it would vary, if you think about gravity.  When Jupiter or Mars are closer, earth is pulled out further, and when Venus or Mercury are closer, it's pulled closer to the sun.  These four planets aren't on a cycle relating at all to any of ours.  Depending on the timing of this, if the earth stays out further more of the year, the year is longer, but if it spends more time closer, the year is shorter.  The same thing happens with the lunar cycles, hence to the tides, and so on.

And even the "Law" of Gravity doesn't give the whole picture.  Even Newton saw that Mercury osculated in a way the Law couldn't account for, be he couldn't find a solution and no one else could, so they just kind of ignored it until Einstein looked at it and started from scratch and came up with the Specific Theory of Relativity, which he later expanded.  The point is that *everything* effects everything else, so the universe and nature is far too complex to calculate.

So calculation will only give averages, not specifics.  To really know the cycles, it takes observation.  In Genesis, G-d says, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth."  They are signs.  A sign is meaningless if it isn't observed.  The seasons, the days, and the years, are seen watching these signs, not calculated with an easy formula.  If the earth took an extra day to make it around the sun, or the moon an extra day to make it around the earth, how many people would even notice?  And if we noticed, would it be when it happened, or afterwards when the calculations start failing?  Would we change the calendar, or just pretend it didn't happen?  And if we changed it, would we just change the calculation and hope it happened again the next year, or watch and wait and observe and see what happens?

Do we as a modern people notice the signs and omens around us every day?

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

The True Meaning of Celebrations...

The issue with any calendar, the reason it will have issues, is because nature isn't exactly set patterns that can be predicted and set down in a mathematically defined calendar.  So we keep refining the calendar to try to better reflect nature, but never get there.  So we have many ancient calendars that were lunar based, 13 28 day months, so 364 days a year, and others that are solar based, but 12 30 day months, so 360 days, and some have an extra 5 days outside to get it closer.  Both of those  wander slowly over the decades.  So the Julian tried to fix this by having 365 days with a leap day every four years, but even that wandered by three days every four centuries, and got ahead, so the Gregorian tried to correct this by first resetting it to where it had wandered from, then taking out some leap days to avoid the wander.  And later we added a leap second, but it still doesn't exactly work.

Because the solar year is tied to the rotation around the sun, not the daily rotation of the earth.  The two aren't connected at all.  Just as the moon's monthly cycle isn't tied to either.  You can't define a solar year, a lunar month, or an earth day by each other.  So no calendar will ever work 100% the way intended.

All the calculator does is convert between the different calendars, not define exactly when the solstice or equinox or cross-quarter really occurs.

But the feast days were defined by the Julian calendar, not by the true dates of the event that earlier existed.  In the two examples you listed, more than likely, that was when the Solstice was thought to be at, because that was probably when the Solstice was when the Julian calendar was first created, so we kept that date, ie, December 25, even though we adjusted the calendar, so the Solstice lands on December 21 or 22 depending on the year, yet Christmas is three to four days off.  The Solstice hasn't moved, just the calendar day it lands on.

If we want to go by the calendar, we won't stay accurate to the astronomical event, and if we go by the astronomical event, we won't be consistent to the calendar.  But is it the calendar that truly matters?  And is it the astronomical event that really matters?

We say that the Autumn Equinox is the beginning of Autumn, the Winter Solstice is the beginning of Winter, the Spring Equinox is the beginning of Spring, and the Summer Solstice is the beginning of Summer.  But where is this true?  And when?

In Argos, there were two Horae, who represented Summer and Winter, but in Greece, there were three, basically bloom, growth, and harvest, Spring, Summer, and Autumn.  Later, the became four, from which our seasons come, before they became the hours, of which there were nine or ten, and later 12, which became our 24, 12 of night, 12 of day, at the Solstices.

In Wyoming, Winter begins some time between September and December, depending on the year, but always well before the Solstice, usually closer to the cross-quarter, Samhane or whatever name.  Spring usually doesn't come until May or June, so later than the Equinox, closer to the cross-quarter, Beltaine or whatever name.  Summer doesn't usually start until well into July, after the Summer Solstice, and Autumn starts early August to late September, depending on the year, usually well before the Equinox.  So the feasts, the Solstices, the equinoxes, the cross-quarters, Don't match too well.  And it varies from year to year.  Two years ago, Winter came mid September and snow fell and stayed until mid June, Spring was a month, then Summer lasted until late September.  Last year, Autumn went from late September until mid November, and Winter from then until a week after May Day.  But that was in the valley.  In the mountains, a half hour from town, all the roads were closed under twelve feet of snow until mid July this year.  And Autumn started around Labor Day, which was September 5 this year.  Snow came last Saturday, about a foot, but it's definitely still Autumn now.  It was back up to the 60s F the last two days.

So you can't match the seasons to a calendar, nor to astronomical events.

What are we actually celebrating at the Solstices?  The Equinoxes?  The Cross-Quarters?  The Feast Days?  The Saint Days?  Any other day?  That's what we really need to decide.  That's what will tell us when they should occur.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss