Spring Cleaning

20 April 2013
Sun: 01' Taurus  Moon: 0'Virgo (Waxing Gibbous)

Spring cleaning - I have yet to meet anyone who actually enjoys this activity.  But from a magickal perspective, not only is it necessary, but this is a great time to do it and it can become a family activity as well.

Let's face it: there really is no "bad" time of year to get rid of clutter, though working by sun or moon phase can help keep it from building back up again.  By sun phase, I mean what time of year it is.  Starting at Yule, the Solar energy builds through Candlemas, Ostara and Beltane, reaching its peak at Litha.  At Litha, growth energy begins to fade, the cycle drops to resting phase through Lughnasadgh, Mabon and Samhain, ultimately reaching its lowest "peak" at Yule: a full sine wave is completed, one cycle finished.

The magick of business and mass movements

16 April 2013
Sun: 27' Aries  Moon: 14' Cancer

Psychologists and sociologists have been trying for decades to understand "the mob mentality."  Usually they study it in negative terms: preventing riots and so forth, but occasionally it gets applied to wider social movements.  It does not make sense, how one can get a handful, dozens, hundreds, millions, a whole nation, behind a concept that none would consider on an individual basis - and yet it can be done.  History has borne out the devastating consequences of the misuse of this power.  We see it daily in the insanity of the badly misnamed American "Tea Party," although to be fair there is also a good dose of schitzophrenia there that should be addressed in another post.  And yet, the problem of the "mob mind" might well be best understood as both elementary and elemental.

The Boston Marathon Bombing

15 April 2013  2105
Sun: 26'Aries  Moon: 2' Cancer

I would simply like to say that my heart goes out to all those who have been directly affected by the senseless carnage wrought today at the Boston Marathon: I will keep those injured, or who know someone who has been injured, in my prayers.  Santa Muerte, take those who are dead and dying into Your gentle hands, help them to let go and be at peace.  Isis, enfold the survivors and the loved ones of the dead and the injured in Your wings and help them come to terms with their losses, ease their pain and suffering.

I also do sincerely hope that Boston, which was once the cradle in which America's revolutionary ideals of freedom were born, will not now become the grave of those same ideals and the freedoms to which they gave rise in this new and horrifying Boston Massacre.  At this time my prayers also go out to those in power in America, that the twin lights of mercy for the victims and swift, uncompromising justice for the perpetrator(s) shine true and in unison as a double star to guide them.

Santa Muerte - "Saint Death"

Isis

April is the cruelest month

1605, 14APR2013
Sun: 25'Aries  Moon 17'Gemini

April is the cruelest month, they say, and I know it.  The Sun has entered Aries, bringing with it the hard-charging energies of the Ram and the gods of war (collectively called "Mars,") and in synchronicity the Northern Hemisphere's pursuit of new life and reproduction takes over in full force and flower, with all the beauty and mercy of a diamond.

Nothing is born, without something dying to make way for it.

The obligatory self-introduction

1455, 14APR2013
Sun: 25' Aries  Moon: 17'Gemini

First post on what is to become a public weblog devoted to the study of Witchcraft and astrology.  What to say first?

I could say that I am a Witch and a Thelemite, that I have looked to Athena for almost twenty years, that I have practiced witchcraft, astrology and tarot for almost as long. 

There is much that I could say, actually, all of which ties in with my magickal life in one way or another and takes up a lot of space, but which does not really mean anything.  I will not call myself a lightworker, though neither am I a black magickian.  I do not shy from the shadows, nor am I blinded by light: all must walk in balance.  It is said that a Witch who cannot hex, cannot heal: I have known truth in this statement.

I will let the mind and the heart and the spirit decide what needs to be said, though the topics may ramble.  For now, the most important thing I could say is that I go by Starlight, and I make the conscious choice now to follow the guidance I have been given by my Polaris.  What I know, I must teach, without forgetting that I too must always continue to learn.  This blog will serve as a training tool for myself as well.

 - Starlight