Moon Con 21

February 19, 2021

Mark your calendar! Moon Books will be sponsoring a conference featuring its Pagan authors June 5-6. The conference, live on Facebook, will feature talks, panels, and Q&A sessions. It will be free!

Photo: Ryan Hagerty, USFWS

Yours truly will be speaking at the online conference on Sunday, June 6th at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Below is a description of the talk, which is open to everyone.

Staring Back at the Deer

The deer is an emissary from the world of fey, a shapeshifter who watches from a distant place and brings messages which touch our spirit. This session will examine the deer from a material and cultural point of view, with the aim of interpreting deer signs and courting the deer to enhance our magic.

Hearth Moon Rising pursues an animistic practice of Witchcraft in the Adirondack Mountains. She is the author of Invoking Animal Magic: A guide for the pagan priestess and Divining with Animal Guides: Answers from the world at hand. She is ordained in the Dianic Tradition and the Fellowship of Isis.

The Dianic Tradition: Who is it for?

February 12, 2021

A question arises frequently on social media regarding who is eligible to become a Dianic priestess. I wrote a longish essay on Dianic Witchcraft in Witchcraft Today: 60 years on. Here is a short answer to that question.

In the feminist Dianic Tradition founded by Z Budapest, who belongs in a particular coven/ritual is the prerogative of the Dianic coven and its High Priestess. That used to be the way of all Witchcraft traditions, until 1970s feminism threatened male domination. The Dianic Tradition as a whole is for all women (defined by biology, not feelings or sex stereotypes). Some covens are lesbian only. If that’s what the coven wants, we’re fine with that; we respect women’s boundaries. Sometimes an odd Dianic ritual will include men or transwomen, though I doubt any coven from Z’s line would initiate someone who wasn’t born-female. (Strange term that, but trans activists have muddied the language so that these convoluted terms have become necessary.) Dianics from Z’s line who have found themselves more inclusive of trans women have broken off from the tradition and given themselves new names (with our blessing).

There are some who have formed their own “Dianic” traditions which are completely in line with transgender ideology regarding who prescribes (those born with a penis) and who obeys (now known, in the parlance of gender ideology, as uterites, menstruators, vagina havers, people with a cervix). The practitioners of these new traditions deliberately try to confuse outsiders, to the point of naming their covens after older Dianic covens. The problem here is the deliberate attempt to sow confusion, not the deities or practices of the new groups per se. Being a priestess in the Dianic Tradition is not necessarily the same as being a worshipper of the goddess Diana. Veneration of Diana, and her Greek counterpart Artemis, goes back a long long way, and she has always had males among her acolytes. None of us own our gods. Legend in the Greco-Roman canon cautions, however, that a man who crashes a women-only ritual may incur the wrath of the goddess.

I don’t know much about the McFarland Dianics. Their founder, Morgan McFarland, did not court attention beyond her close-knit community. The McFarland Dianics, as they came to be called, received widespread publicity as a foil to Z Budapest’s overtly feminist Dianic tradition. Patriarchy always needs “good” women to oppose the uppity women they frame as “bad,” and McFarland, being neither lesbian nor emphatically feminist, fit the bill. McFarland is now in the Summerland, and her tradition has undergone many changes, as we all have, but their unsought role of “good Dianics,” as opposed to the bad ones, remains their popular distinction. No doubt, if Z’s lineage were to fade away (extremely unlikely), the Pagan “community” would go after the McFarlands, creating invidious comparisons among those women.

[Comments for this post are closed. If you have further questions, please read the essay in Witchcraft Today.]

A Perpetual Feast

February 5, 2021

It’s been four years since I put up this present website, which is a very good one, if I do say so myself. This was my fifth site–my first was around 2002.

Since I started so early, I don’t use the web building programs much. This present website required a fair bit of experience with WordPress, plus knowledge of HTML, CSS, and PHP. I also used a bit of Java, but I took that code (legally) from somewhere else. 

I spent my Sunday working on a program to show the date in Munsee Delaware. Doing so drove home for me how language becomes attenuated when it isn’t used. I had to get books out of the library to refresh my understanding, especially with PHP. It took some effort to figure this out, since I wanted to use this website to publish the calendar but I didn’t dare mess with my style sheet for fear of messing things up.

It seems to be working.

Another Look at Biden’s Inauguration

January 29, 2021

I promised to compare my analysis of Joe Biden’s inauguration with other astrologers. No particular endorsement of these astrologers. I picked them at random on the internet, the sole criteria being a set of predictions based on the time and place of the inauguration, not on the USA’s chart or Joe Biden’s birth chart (both perfectly acceptable ways of examining Biden’s presidency).

All of these charts were drawn for noon on January 20th, the official time of the inauguration. One astrologer expressed reservations that the inauguration might be postponed for violence, the prediction based partly on void-of-course Moon (more on this below). I waited to see when the oath of office would actually occur before drawing the chart, giving the time as 11:50 a.m. This gave a Tenth House placement for Pluto, as opposed to the Ninth in charts which used the official time.

The void-of-course Moon was the item that stood out the most for astrologers. Lisa Stardust with Oprah Magazine noted that in the past hundred years there have been four inaugurations which took place with Moon void-of-course: Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945), John F. Kennedy (1960), Richard M. Nixon (1973), and Barack Obama (2009). Three of these presidents did not serve out their terms. The fourth, Obama, faced unusually harsh challenges from Congress passing legislation (although, to be contraire, The Affordable Healthcare Act was pretty significant).

Wendell C. Perry at Good Golly Astrology points out that Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed his lines at Obama’s swearing in, forcing him to take the oath again the next day, when the Moon was not void-of-course. So perhaps that’s how Obama escaped. Good job, Roberts!

The Uranus-Mars conjunction in the Twelfth House was another thing that was picked out of this chart. Molly Gauthier at Molly’s Astrology thought there might be violence at the inauguration. There wasn’t, but there was extremely high military presence at the Capitol. Astrology with Andy also saw violence during Biden’s term, though he cautioned that Uranus transits are unpredictable. Andy saw the square between this conjunction and Saturn manifesting in struggles between status quo and new ideas.

Pluto on the Midheaven was remarked upon by several astrologers (and completely ignored by others). Despite the high-profile placement, Pluto’s affinity was secrets was seen as significant to Andy. Carol Duhart wondered about hidden foreign influence in this administration. She saw an autocratic tendency in the busy Tenth House, which has four or five planets, depending on the time the chart is drawn.

Venus has significance in typical US presidential inauguration charts, since the specified date, time and place bring a predictable Taurus rising (and Venus rules Taurus). Elizabeth Grace saw the Ninth House Venus as auspicious for the arts and humanities.

You can compare these insights with my own post here.

The Biden Presidency: A hasty astrological impression

January 20, 2021

Here is the chart for President Joe Biden’s assumption of office.

I drew this chart for 11:50 a.m., Eastern Standard Time. Determining time in an event chart can present a challenge. What incident along the timeline marks the event? The official time of the inauguration, according to the White House, was 12:00 p.m. Biden and Vice President Kamal Harris took their oaths some minutes before that. Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced the 46th President of the United State shortly before noon, and Biden then spoke those honored words from the podium, “My fellow Americans…” only a few minutes before the official time.

In this case, it doesn’t matter whether we time the event at 11:45 or 12:00. The essential features are the same. A beginning with Moon void-of-course, signifying a presidency going much different than expected for anyone. Biden will see his plans stymied by persons and events, probably unforeseen, reflected again in the stellium of planets in the Tenth House squaring the Mars-Uranus conjunction in the Twelfth.

That Mars-Uranus conjunction, nearly exact in the chart, speaks to revolutionary change of a far-reaching nature. The attempted coup springs immediately to mind, suggesting Biden’s administration may be dealing with violent plots to undermine the government. The Twelfth House placement of this conjunction speaks to subversive acts done in secret, outside the awareness of most Americans. But secret revolutions can also be nonviolent, taking the form of hidden but intense jostling for power within an administration. Look for Harris, whose background as a prosecutor makes her comfortable in adversarial dealings, to wield more power, albeit behind the scenes, than a typical Vice President. As the first woman Vice President, her assertion of power will be challenged. Biden himself took a more active role than former Vice Presidents in the Obama administration, which could make him inclined to allow Harris to spread her wings.

The Twelfth House placement of the Mars-Uranus conjunction might suggest far reaching changes that are implemented subversively, through administrative rule and policy changes that sneak through unnoticed (or ignored) by the media. Harris, a talented tactician, is primed for this kind of strategy. Who these stealth changes will benefit cannot be predicted. (This is the nature of Uranus changes; if you could predict what happens, it wouldn’t be Uranus.) Despite touting his working class roots, Biden has throughout his career been as pro-corporation as you would expect a Senator from the State of Delaware to be. On the other hand, even he must be aware that distrust of corporations (especially the tech corporations that form Harris’s base) has been fueling Trump’s popular appeal. Democrats like to pretend that Trump’s appeal is limited to his White Supremacist base. Are they as dense as they appear? This active Twelfth House, squaring the public Tenth, will provoke that question repeatedly. Underscoring the intense grab for power behind the scenes is Pluto squarely on the midheaven squaring that Twelfth House Moon. Pluto is associated with inexorable power, while the Moon influences emotions, making this a highly charged conflict.

The cluster of planets in the Tenth House shows this presidency will be focused on getting business done. It will be ostensibly, even flamboyantly, transparent while conducting real business in secret. That legal Ninth House Venus might be a female former prosecutor with a significant role (Harris) or it might speak to laws or court rulings of significance to women. We may get another female Supreme Court justice. These are my initial thoughts. No doubt I’m overlooking something obvious. I’ll be examining analyses from people with more astrological insight than I in the coming weeks.

Wasn’t Expecting That!

January 7, 2021

2021 is already shaping up to be a strange year.

Yesterday a mob, incited by the outgoing President, assaulted the US Capitol to disrupt the transfer of power to a duly elected Democratic president. The events leading up to the assault were a faint background noise in my mind, but early news sources are saying that the seditious plan wasn’t exactly a secret, leading everyone to scratch their head over the apparent poor preparedness of law enforcement.

At no point in the insurrection did I think I was watching our democracy fall. We have an imperfect democracy, being one that does not work hard enough to overcome (or in some cases even creates) obstacles to voting for Native and African Americans as well as poor people of all races and the disabled. But I was reminded that we do, at least today, have a strong enough democracy to easily deflate a violent coup. For that I am grateful.

What I mostly felt yesterday was embarrassment. The American people should never have elected as their president the kind of man who refused to leave office after a clear defeat, to the point of directing his minions and supporters to subvert the democratic process. I found myself partially agreeing with the statements of the Iranian foreign minister on the subject, and wholeheartedly agreeing with the comments of Congresswoman Liz Cheney, daughter of the evil Dick. I even thought Mitt Romney gave an exemplary speech on the insurrection. Wasn’t expecting that.

Adding to my embarrassment yesterday was the fact that I live in Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s district. Yes, that one. The Republican who actually objected to counting election results after the attempted coup. While most Republican members of Congress abandoned their shameful plan to challenge the will of the American people to Donald Trump’s advantage, Stefanik formally challenged the results when Congress reconvened late yesterday. She did denounce the violence of the attacks, but her continued objection to accepting the results of a lawful election, in the face of all that had happened, was a clear affirmation of Trump’s violent conspiracy campaign.

Stefanik is not a steadfast soldier to the nutwing cause. She occasionally breaks ranks and votes with Democrats, reflecting the mixed political leanings of her district, which is increasingly leaning Democratic. This is the district that sent Kirsten Gillibrand to Congress. Stefanik needs a lot of support from outside this district to maintain her seat, and Trump threatened to wreak his revenge on Republicans who did not raise a formal objection in Congress to Joe Biden’s victory. Following the violent insurrection, most Republicans decided to abandon their symbolic objections designed to curry favor with an outgoing president, who will still have political influence when he leaves office. They said the President went too far. Stefanik, feeling weak, followed through with her objections. She certainly demonstrated the failings of her moral character, but I think she made a political miscalculation as well. Time will tell.

What Wednesday’s insurrection demonstrates most clearly is that people in a democracy don’t resort to violence when they are strong. Violence is the path of weakness. Trump is weak. He may even be removed from office with less than two weeks left in his presidency. It’s seriously being discussed. Stefanik is weak. The rebels who stormed the Capitol, even the bare-chested Heathen with the ripped bod, are weak. Our democracy, though certainly troubled, is strong.

Solstice Again

December 18, 2020

I spent most of yesterday working on the Solstice video, and then it didn’t survive publication. Here it is again.

I’m taking the rest of the year off. See you at the New Year.