Hi, folks!
Wicca 101 at 6pm.
The catkins on the alder all have tiny droplets of water. The porch roof is dripping, slowly, in the growing light.
There’s a junco on the feeder, just looking at the morning.
I’m sorry that I really couldn’t write yesterday morning. I was so tired, still, that it took me longer to wake up enough the write that it was past time to leave for the shop! …and that was after 10 hours of sleep.
After a bunch of kerfluffles with printing and communications Saturday morning, I finally got on the road at about 9:15. Driving down the coast Saturday morning was just wonderful. When I started out there was only a little fog, but none at all at ground level. There was still quite a lot wisping up from the trees, but as I got farther south it clumped together more, finally making picture-pretty groupings of trees and clouds. Right around Cape Perpetua there was a bald eagle sitting in one of the trees.
Not long after that I had to stomp hard on the brakes because a deer that had started by jumping into the middle of the highway and then staying there for a moment, went on to trying to jump back across the left lane, then, seeing a car coming, he jumped back abruptly into *my* lane coming right at me! Luckily he aimed for the bank as I swerved left, but the brake light kept coming on for the rest of the drive. I’ve got to get Tempus to look at them.
During the abrupt maneuvers the basket with the various foodstuff dumped itself, flinging the mead bottle against the right-hand passenger door, so I had to stop and pick up the pieces of the bottle and then drive with the windows open because of the reek of the spilled mead. It’s a nice smell, thankfully. ..and yes, the deer had vanished up the bank. He took no hurt.
I watched quite a lot of other animals and birds along the highway, from sparrows on a wire to what might have been a moose peeking through the trees, to a flock of pelicans roller-coastering over the waves. On the mirror-smooth surface of Sutton Lake there were a lot of ducks and something swimming just at the waterline, making a v. Snake? Otter? I don’t know.
There was quite a lot of blooming broom on the side of the highway by the lookout above the long straight beach, as I was getting close to Florence. I sneezed all the way into town. I was startled to see rhododendrons blooming all over Florence. There were a lot of other early spring signs, but those were the most surprising. I haven’t seen any elsewhere blooming.
I stopped at a fast food place to use the bathroom and pick up a to-go snack and then got right back on the road. The rest of the drive was not nearly so interesting, especially once I got turned away from the Siuslaw in still-muddy Mapleton, but I did get to see a duck leaving their characteristic dot dash take-off signature in a lake on the way. It’s caused by the fact that they’re too heavy to get into flight without a lot of effort and take off at a shallow angle, with toes and wingtips alternately touching the water surface.
I waved hello to a horse in Walton and enjoyed all the ducks & geese in the last part of the drive, nearing Fern Ridge Reservoir. I pulled into the Grange parking lot and ran for the bathroom. Coffee!
Fawkes, Rowan and Marius were all there, so they fished things out of the car and we got set up. Mary had an altar of memorabilia, including two lovely pictures of KC. I think there were around 50 people, possibly more, but we had some that were ducking in and out and I wasn’t really counting.
It was a long ritual, because of the stories that we all told. KC’s brother Keith’s story of his broken leg and the fun they had with a wheelchair was a hoot and there were others about KC’s kindness, his willingness to talk endlessly, his acceptance and interest in other paths, the dogs, his brilliance and depth of knowledge and his love for Mary. At the end of the ritual the baskets of flowers were full to overflowing.
We made sure people had signed the book and everyone got a bit to eat and sat/stood around and talked for quite a while. We got to meet some of the folks from Eugene that I’ve heard about and made some new friends, then picked up, packed up, swept, hugged and went home.
I was getting pretty tired by that time, so the drive back didn’t register as much as the stories from the ritual that kept rattling around in my head, and I finally wept myself out to the point of stillness that you hope for.
I met up with Rowan, Marius and Fawkes in Florence and we had supper at the A&W, since I had been longing for a root beer float, then finished the drive into Waldport. I did manage to get Fawkes his Yule gift and he did get a laugh out of it! They headed north and Tempus and I closed up the shop and came home.
Then I slept for 10 hours….
Then I got up and it took forever to wake up and then I was at the shop.
Mary and her close family were going to head for Gold Beach yesterday with the flowers. I haven’t yet heard how that went.
I had to clean up the classroom, first, and we were trying to get things re-set, but that got complicated by Willow needing a ride up and then the young folks were there. We had our morning class, which went quite well, then cleaned up and set up for the Movie Party. People started coming in at 12:30 and we had massive problems with the player, so finally we sat around and talked. Tempus went up to the house to get our player and then no one was interested in the rest of the movie! There’s going to be another meeting in two weeks and we’ll see where that goes.
I learned some things from the documentary and laid out in one place it’s even more damning than I thought. With all the deregulation there just wasn’t any stopping cutting the dollar into smaller and smaller pieces, so that eventually there wasn’t any money left. It had all been drained into private pockets and now that the whole thing has crashed in on itself, it’s no wonder that things are so sluggish. You can’t redistribute things like that and have no consequences, nor can you make something out of nothing and all the pretending will *not* create anything real!
We didn’t really get anywhere with classes later in the afternoon. Tempus took the young folks back to the center while Willow and I watched the movie through, and he came back in and saw the end. We closed up and helped Willow run some errands (her car is still down) then ran one of our own into the bank in Newport and back. I was in bed asleep at 10:30 and never even got online.
There’ve been lots of birds on the feeder and the sun is shining brightly. The alder has shaken all the little droplets off, except for a few that are twinkling.
Today’s work at the shop is to do the next batch of inventory stuff.
The shop opens at 11am today, but we’ll open early for the class. Winter hours – Thursday through Monday, 11am-5pm. If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open!
Love & Light,
Anja
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Today
Moon is in Waning Gibbous phase. Waning Moon Magick - From the Full Moon to the New is a time for study, meditation, and magic designed to banish harmful energies and habits, for ridding oneself of addictions, illness or negativity. Waning Gibbous Moon - From three-and-a-half to ten-and-a-half days after the full moon. Best time for draining the energy behind illness, habits or addictions. Magicks of this sort, started now, should be ended before the phase change to the New Moon. (phase ends at 9:54 am on 2/14)
Action at Jupiter: Io reappears out of eclipse from Jupiter's shadow around 9:06 p.m. EST. A small telescope will show Io gradually swelling into view just off Jupiter's eastern limb. Four hours later, at 10:03 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, Europa emerges from eclipse at about the same location. Meanwhile, the Great Red Spot crosses Jupiter's central meridian around 10:21 p.m. EST (7:21 p.m. PST).
Celtic Tree Month of Luis Rowan Jan 21 - Feb 17
Celtic Tree Month of Nuin/Nion Ash Feb 18 - Mar 17 - (NEE-uhn), ash
Goddess Month of of Bridhe, runs from 1/23 - 2/19
Runic half-month of Sigel, 2/12-26 It represents the power of the force of good throughout the world and is the harbinger of victory and ascendancy over darkness.
Sun in Aquarius
Moon in Scorpio Mars Retrograde, Saturn retrograde
Color: Silver
Planting 2/13-14
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©2012 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright
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