First Quarter Moon phase

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

8th Day of the 11th Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Kore
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Gort/Ivy
Moon Phase: First Quarter - 8:42PM EDST
Moon rises: 2:22PM EDST
Moon sets: 11:54PM EDST
Moon in Capricorn v/c 2:14PM EDST
Moon enters the Fixed Air Sign of Aquarius at 3:07PM EDST
Blodeuwedd's Cycle of the Moon
Lunar Meditation: The courage to change
Sun in Scorpio
Sunrsie: 7:41AM EDST
Sunset: 6:26PM EDST
Solar Question for the Day: "What excites your soul?"
Lughnasadh (Gwyl Awst) Quarter of the Year.
October 25th, 2009

The First Quarter Moon -

   The first quarter phase is a time of balance, dynamic balance in fact, but it is fleeting. Once the dark half of the moon begins to fill out with light, the moment will have passed and energies of the waxing moon return. At the first quarter there is a pause in upward surge of lunar energies. During the waxing crescent phase there a feeling purpose and movtivation prevails and it seems easier to get things done. People are usually more cheerful and relaxed in a way, but enthusiastic for enjoyment, activity, partying. Then in the middle of all this everything seems to stop but yet it is a very quiet and brief sensation.  But this brief pause can be one of the most enchanted stages in the moon's cycle, and it can be used in a positive way to help magickal goals along or to breathe some accord into relationships, both with oneself and with others.
   The First Quarter is also a very good time to infuse extra power into the magickal project begun at the new Moon. If extra effort can ben directed toward this purpose, then a satisfactory result is even more likely. The other factor that may reveal itself is that of the workability of some of our goals. If something is unlikely to succed, then that may become apparent now, if we take the time to listen and observe. A quiet turning in of focus, maybe while infusing power into a spell in progress, may nudge us into altering something.... there may simply be a gut feeling that the emphasis needs to shift slightly for a project to be really effective. It's perfectly okay to work ritual on this part of the moon's cycle, but often it's better to use the special power it brings to review work already in progress, or to gain insights into the way your spells unfolding. If you are lighting a spell candle daily, pause in the process of igniting the wick and tune in to how the spell if forming. Does the energy feel right? Do any new factors occur to you that might improve the end result. 
     Another beneficial use for the first quarter is to quietly go within in contemplation or meditation and see what needs to be done when the full moon arrives, what magick might be appropriate then, or which areas of your life could benefit from focus and attention.
[Excerpts from Elen Hawke's "Praise to the Moon"]

Witch Terms:


Witch's Broom

A Witch's broom is a disease or deformity in a woody plant, typically a tree, where the natural structure of the plant is changed. A dense mass of shoots grows from a single point, with the resulting structure resembling a broom or a bird's nest.


One example of this would be cytokinin, a phytohormone, interfering with an auxin-regulated bud. Usually auxin would keep the secondary, tertiary, and so on apexes from growing too much, but cytokinin releases them from this control, causing these apexes to grow into witch's brooms.

Witch's broom growths last for many years and can be caused by many different types of organisms, such as fungi, insects, mistletoe, dwarf mistletoes, mites, nematodes, phytoplasmas and viruses. Human activity is sometimes behind the introduction of these organisms; for example when a person prunes a tree improperly, leaving the tree susceptible to disease.

Witch's brooms occasionally result in desirable changes. Some cultivars of trees, such as Picea orientalis 'Tom Thumb Gold', were discovered as witch's brooms. If twigs of witches' brooms are grafted onto normal rootstocks, freak trees result, showing that the attacking organism has changed the inherited growth pattern of the twigs.

And there is this other type of witches' brooms:
 

Witches' garage

LOL

Witches' Butter: 
 

 Tremella mesenterica (common names include yellow brain fungus, golden jelly fungus and Witch's butter) is a jelly fungus that is commonly found on rotting wood, especially gorse, as a parasite of wood decay fungi such as Stereum, Aleurodiscus and Peniophora.[1] This fungus occurs widely in locations including North America, Australia, Japan and Taiwan.[2] The species is not considered edible. This fungus is also known in Scotland as a Shot Star, the substance of a shooting star.[3]


Its close relative, snow fungus, T. fuciformis, is commonly used in Chinese cuisine, and Witch's butter is also used as a substitute for snow fungus.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWWDqi-OfGg
 
 
 
Witches' Hair:
 

Cuscuta indecora Choisy


Family : Cuscutaceae

Longevity : Annual

Origin : Native

Season : Warm

Dodder is a parasitic vine that can be found in the Edwards Plateau and South Texas Plains areas. It lives on several different hosts, such as woody or herbaceous plants. This leafless, rootless parasite has orangish-yellow stems that twine around it's host plant. Small disks help it to attach itself to the host so that it can get nutrients for survival, sometimes killing small herbaceous hosts. It flowers in April and May with small, white fleshy flowers less than 1/8 inch long.