Thor's Day - Waxing Crescent Moon in Pisces

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


6th Day of the 1st Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Artemis
Lunar Tree Cycle of Beith/Birch
6th Day of the Celtic Tree
Month of Beith/Birch
Moon Phase: waxing Crescent
Moon rises: 10:35AM EST
Moon sets: 10:38PM EST
Moon in the Mutable Water
Sign of Pisces
Blodeuwedd's Cycle of the Moon
Lunar Meditation: Music of your choice
Sun in Capricorn
Sunrise: 7:42AM EST
Sunset: 5:01PM EST
Solar Question for the Day: "Which
fear is keeping you in prison?"
Samhain (Calan Gaeaf) Quarter
of the Year
December 29th, 2011

Thor's Day - Jupiter Day - the Day of Vision, Spiritual Insight and Expansion - Expansion Day.... there are minor magickal energies today for business success....

The Birch Tree - The Birch was the first tree to colonize Europe and North America after the Last Age some 13,000 years ago, so it is fitting that it should be the first consonant of the Tree Alphabet. The birch remains as much at home in the northern hemisphere today as it did in the past and there 60 species still be found . Despite its very delicate appearance, the birch is a pioneer tree which will find a foothold where most other trees will not grow. It is one of the main trees that is able to grow in inhospitable regions of the Arctic tundra and also in the ancient wild wood to be found in the highlands of Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
     The birch is fast growing and acts as a nurse tree by offering protection to slower-growing trees like the oak and pine, which follow in its wake. It is easily recognized by the tracery of its delicate twigs and branches. Because the leaves are small and cast a light shadow other plants are easily able to grow in its shelter and this in turn encourages insects, birds and animals into the woods. Ironically, as more tender trees flourish under the protective birch, they ofter over-reach and smother the tree that has helped them.
   Birch leaves are light and easily carried by the wind. They also rot easily, bringing nutrition to the earth and allowing other plants to establish themselves where they might not otherwise have been able to grow. A single birch produces millions of tiny seeds held in pendulous catkins which dangle in the wind, allowing the seeds to be dispersed far and wide. Its timber is white, tough and straight-grained with the unusual trait of showing no difference between the inner heartwood and the outer sapwood.
    Relatively short-lived, the birch seldom lives longer than 80 years, going through youth, maturity and senility in much the same time as we do. When young, its twigs are supple and bendy, growing harder and more brittle as the tree itself grows older.  The trunk of the Silver Birch sheds its bark in papery strips and when the tree dies, the bark often remains standing s a delicate hollow tube, long after the inner wood has dies and rotted away.
    Fertile and prolific, graceful and nurturing, the Silver Birch was seen by our ancestors as the embodiment of the feminine principle. Wherever it had its stronghold it was the mainstay of human settlement.
[From The Wisdom of Trees by Jane Gifford ]

What Magick Is - what it does and what it should and should not be used for......

    This comes from a book by Isobel Bird - it is an excerpt from a part of the book regarding an beginning class about explaining Witchcraft.
    "Anya picked up a pot that had a small plant growing in it, 'This is a lavender plant,' she said. 'I grew it from seeds that started indoors about a month ago. When it's warm enough, I'm going to plant in my garden.'   Kate didn't under stand what Anya was getting at. Sure, a lavender would be pretty, but it was hardly magick.  'It took a lot for that little seed to become this plant,' Anya continued. 'The seed contained everything it needed to make the plant, but without the help of water and the light, it would have stayed dormant. And without more of it, the plant won't bloom and fill my garden with its fragrance. In a way magick is like the water and the light. We have the potential to make all kinds of things happen. But if we don't find ways to use that potential - to nourish it - then nothing happens.'
  'You mean the magick is already in us?' asked a woman in the back.  'That's right,' Anya said. 'Many people mistakenly think of magick as something mysterious or supernatural. It is, in a way, because it's something extraordinary. But true magick is simply finding ways to make the things happen that we already have the ability to make happen.'
   'Can you give us an example?' asked Lea.  Anya thought for moment, 'Suppose I need money,' she said. 'Maybe I need six hundred dollars to pay for repairs on my car. I might do a spell in which I ask for money to come my way. A few days later, I might get  raise at work, or someone who owes me money might pay me back. I might even get a tax refund I didn't know was coming.'
   'But that's not magick,' the first woman said. 'That's just luck.'
   'Is it?' asked Anya. 'What is magick? It's removing the obstacles that are preventing you from getting what you want or need. When I do a ritual or cast a spell, I'm really asking for help in finding ways around the obstacles that are in my way. If I need money, I look for ways that I can get that money. I don't expect it to just fall out of the sky.' 
    'But if you just want something?' Sasha asked. 'I mean, like what if you see a really great leather jacket, but you can't afford it. Shouldn't you be able to do magick and just get it?'  'Thast's a good question.,' Anya said. 'Do you think you should?'
   'Sure,' said Sasha... 'If I can do magick, I should be able to get what I want out of it.'  'What do the rest of you think?' Anya asked. 
   "I don't think you should use magick like a credit cad,' Annie said carefully, breaking the silence. 'If all you do is take, take, take, then what's the point?' 
   'The point is that you have what you want' Sasha said. 'Why should you have to work so hard for everything when there's magick?' "
   So the members in the class discussed various ways using spells could 'fix' or 'get' things you want or need in your life.  One of the statements made that I thought was something to keep in mind is 'magick should be used for removing obstacles, not for plowing through things like a bulldozer.'  Maybe this excerpt can give us a better insight into how magick is really suppose to be used and how it works.
Plant seeds during this winter days and meditate on how they grow - how they make things happen and make changes in our lives.