New Moon enters Pisces - Valentine's Day

"I'm one with the Goddess
and open to Her Wisdom."

2nd Day of the 3rd Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Persephone
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Nion/Ash
25th Day of the Celtic Tree Cycle ~ Luis/Rowan
Moon Phase: New
Moon rises: 7:15AM EST
Moon sets: 6:43PM EST
Moon enters the Mutable Water Sign of
Pisces at 7:23AM EST
Blodeuwedd's Cycle of the Moon
Lunar Meditation: The things that inspire you.
Sun in Aquarius
Sunrise: 7:15AM EST
Sunset: 5:52PM EST
Solar Question for the Day: "What enslaves you and
how can you be free?"
Imbolc (Gwyl Mair) Quarter of the Year
February 14th, 2010

     Busy in the heavens over us this morning - the Moon and Sun rose at the same time 7:15AM and then the void of course moon entered the sign of Pisces 8 minutes later.  There are minor magickal energies today for rite and spells of Self-Improvement. 

    As Kate West says in her book "The Real Witches' Year" "Whilst in  no way a Wiccan festival Valentine's Day has become so much a part of our modern calendar that it seems unreasonable to omit it here."  I suppose someone somewhere could dig up a connection between Witchcraft/Wiccan/Pagan practices that can be connected to Valentine's Day - but does it matter?  After all us witches must live in the real world as well.  And so Kate continues on:  "Having said that, whilst this day is named after one of two Christian Martyrs of the same name, there have been fertility festivals around this time far longer.

    15 February is the Roman festival of Faunus, also known to the ancient Greeks as Lupercalia or the festival of Pan. Both woodland deities, Faunus and Pan are closely linked at this time to Priapus who originated in Asia, definitely a fertility God. Images of the God were decorated and displayed through the streets, and the Priests would whip members of the crowd, especially women, to bring about fertility.
    In addition to the Gods and festivals of fertility there are a great number of Gods and Goddesses who are linked to love, like Ros, Venus, Aphrodite and Hathor, and these are perhaps more appropriate deities to honor if you are seeking love and romance. Light a pink candle to your chosen deities and ask them to bring you a true love. Resist the temptation to work magick to make someone love you; not only is it unethical but it also invariably results in problems and disappointment.
   While today it is customary for us to send a greeting card, whether romantic or humorous, to those we love, this only originated in the Victorian era. Before this it was a country custom, which still exists in some parts, for unattached girls and boys to draw names from which to choose their partner for the day."

Exercise 10 - Basic Visualization - From "The Inner Temple of Witchcraft" by Penczak

1. Start exercise 9: Counting Down to a Meditative State to get into your magickal mindset.

2. Again, call up the screen of your mind. Imagine that it is like a board where you can control all the drawings. You can use any color to draw this set of shapes. You might find it helpful to physicaly riase your hand and 'draw' the shapes in the air in from of you with your finger.

3. Draw a triangle on the screen of your mind. Hold this image for a few moments. Then wipe it away, like wiping away chalk dust. Again, you can physically move your hand with a wiping motion.

4. Draw a rectangle on the screen of your mind. Hold the image for a few moments. Then wipe it away.

5. Draw a circle on the screen of your mind. Hold the image a few moments. Then wipe it away.

6. Draw variations of the triangle, rectangle and circle. If you are comfortable with these three shapes, then move on to other, more complex shapes, like a diamond, parallelogram, pentagon, hexagon, and octagon.

7. If you feel confident with these two-dimensional shapes, try working with three-dimensional shapes, starting with the cube, box, and pyramid. Later try more complex three-dimensional shapes, like the Platonic solids, such as a tetrahedron, octahedron, dodechedron, or iconsohedron.  Do not be intimiated by them. Allow them to appear on the screen of your mind and hold the images as best you can.

8. Wipe all the shapes off the screen of your mind and clear it. Then ask for the energy and images of an orange to appear on the screen of your mind. See the orange before you, as if a real piece of fruit is hanging on an invisible tree. Take note of the color, and variations of color. Is it completely ripe?

9. Notice the texture of the orange's skin, the curves and bumps. Reach out with your physical hands and pretend to grab it. The orange is now in your hands. How does it feel? Can you smell it? Peel back the skin. Can you feel the wetness of the juice on your hands? Can you taste it? Use all your senses.

10. Experience the orange fully. Then magickally visualize yourself puttingit all back together, perfect and unbroken. Hang it back on the tree on the screen of your mind.

11. Thank the orange, and wipe the image a way, erasing it.

12. Return yourself to normal consciousness, counting up, giving yourself clearance and balance, and do any necessary grounding.

   If you practice this meditation often, you can skip the shapes, if you'd like, and start with the orange. Replace it. Use any fruit you like, or substitute other objects, like an egg, leaf, or crystal.  Although you think you are visualizing an object, you are doing more than that. It's like playing pretend, but you are not playing, you are actually connecting to the energy of an orange from somewhere in space and time. The orange was not physical, but it was real. You were reaching out to it and your mind made a little simulation of it before you, so you could observe it. If you try this exercise twenty times, you will probably get twenty different oranges, unless you have the intention to get the same one each time. Little blemishes and details you might not think to include if you were completely making it up will be there.