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Occasionally I wandered in where I was not wanted and gave truthful answers.
Sometimes I even did it deliberately. A little disruption now can prevent disaster later.

“The Calendar Act of 1750 and eleven lost days”


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Added to the lexicon & timetable


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Tuesday - November 27, 2018

Just some folks having fun.

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Monday - November 26, 2018

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Friday - November 23, 2018

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Monday - November 19, 2018

Big ole huge monster flakes coming down

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Do you believe

doesn't touch tomorrow's promise

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Maiden

Ranting

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My Earth Day

Individuals have rights. Groups have power plays.
— NeoWayland, On Pagan Rights
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Friday - November 16, 2018

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Thursday - November 15, 2018

“Pain can be a self-fulfilling prophecy”

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Wednesday - November 14, 2018

Grumpy

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Tuesday - Novemember 13, 2018

Ireland

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Monday - November 12, 2018

Behold moodINQ

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Archaeoastronomy

A statement is close to the final version

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Mark time

You can tell she's a witch by her pendant.

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Saturday - November 10, 2018


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Friday - November 9, 2018

The demand that we always wear clothing while in society causes at least four kinds of alienation: it alienates us from ourselves, from others, from nature, and from the Divine.
— Mark Storey
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Thursday - November 8, 2018

Moon and Liberty.

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Tuesday - November 6, 2018 - election day

Not about problem solving, just about getting the job done

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Monday - November 5, 2018

If you behave AS IF…

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Saturday - November 3, 2018

I'd be remiss if I didn't throw in the occasional naked man.

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Wednesday - October 31, 2018

That's because I keep having the same conversations again and again.

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Tuesay - October 30, 2018

Reconsidering the answer to an old post

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Monday - October 29, 2018

The lady is having way too much fun.

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Saturday - October 27, 2018

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Friday - October 26, 2018

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
— Margaret Mead
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Thursday - October 25, 2018

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Wednesday - October 24, 2018

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Tuesday - October 23, 2018

How's that for an autumn morning?

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Monday - October 22, 2018

What is remembered, lives.
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Saturday - October 20, 2018

One of my best teachers about magick was my Baptist deacon grandfather.

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Friday - October 19, 2018

“the Earth has music for those who listen”

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Thursday - October 18, 2018

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Wednesday - October 17, 2018

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Tuesday - October 16, 2018

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Monday - October 15, 2018


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Saturday - October 13, 2018

Thinking by blogging
I think it's a mistake to suppress our biology in the name of politics.
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Friday - October 12, 2018

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.
— Bob Marley
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Thursday - October 11, 2018

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Wednesday - October 10, 2018

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Tuesday - October 9, 2018

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Monday - October 8, 2018

I played hooky and climbed up on the roof, just so I could enjoy the moon peeking through the trees on the greenbelt in my desert.

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Sunday - October 7, 2018

More notes concerning my personal tradition path

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Friday - October 5, 2018

Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
— Hans Christian Andersen
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Thursday - October 4, 2018

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Wednesday - October 3, 2018

Granpa was a letter writer. He had a well-used old Royal and he would write letters all the time. Getting a letter from him was special. It just felt wonderful. Every time I got one I could just picture him at his typewriter hunting and pecking out the letters.

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Tuesday - October 2, 2018

Religions are not created by the Divine.

Religions are created by people claiming to speak for the Divine.
— NeoWayland
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Monday - October 1, 2018

Library stuff - feel free to skip

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Celebrate

I don't turn on the bathroom lights.

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Encyclopædia Brittanica gets it wrong

Not once, but twice.

I've been working on version 3 of my lexicon. It's steady work, and helps calm me. I don't write all the definitions, I take clips if I can find well written ones.

So I was looking at Brittanica's Quarter Day page, which actually refers to the Lammas page.

The Quarter Days—Candlemas (February 2), May Day (May 1), Lammas, and All Saints’ Day (November 1)—marked the four quarters of the calendar as observed in the British Isles and elsewhere in northern Europe.
     — Encyclopædia Brittanica, Lammas
Every single reference I've ever seen from Valiente forward calls these the cross quarter days, they mark the transitions between the season. The actual quarter days are the solstices and the equinoxes. It helps if you visualize the year as a wheel.

The second mistake is about May Day, and I am pretty sure it's a translation error and misunderstanding about agriculture. I'll just quote my own note here.

Enclyclopædia Britannica has it wrong here, it's a very common mistake. In some European countries especially further north, there were two seasons, winter and summer. May Day traditionally marks the beginning of the growing season, not the beginning of spring. If the summer solstice is midsummer, that makes May Day the beginning of summer.
— NeoWayland, May Day
I doubt that anyone except a calendar geek or a pagan would have caught it. But when you're both at once, you have to tell people.
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In the spirt of the season

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.
— John Lennon
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NeoNotes — the middle

Thinking by blogging

Rain in my desert always makes me think.

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Today

🌙 waning crescent moon
light rain early AM

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Today

The second coming of the Goddess has proved of inestimable value to people everywhere, for it has provided them with a new mythic pattern, a saving story to live by.
— Caitlin Matthews, from "Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom," Gnosis № 13, Fall 1989
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Today

Playtime

Never bet Neo when the stakes are sexplay

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Today

Playtime

Very interesting question.

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Today

Juliaki told me one of her continuing adventures

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Today

The Return of the Playgans

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Today

An old favorite

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Today

Lady in the Court of Stars - Midnight to midnight. A WebTree three day celebration from midnight to midnight marking the full Moon or bright Moon and honoring the magick.

Twelvetide - Christmastide
Circumcision of Christ
Mercury at Greatest Western Elongation
🌝 bright moon - supermoon

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Today


Word of the day - dominionism


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Today


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Today

A great seasonal song

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Today

🌙 waxing crescent moon       ≠ Christmas Day       ≠ Twelvetide - Christmastide

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Today

Calendar & geekery

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Today

Advent       Mercury retrograde       🌙 waxing crescent moon
first known working transistor       ≠ Saturnalia



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Today

Every moral absolute I’ve ever encountered depends on cultural or religious assumptions that probably aren’t shared by all people present.
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Today

Calendar and personal ramble

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Today

Entries for the calendar.

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Today

Gods, there are times I love the planet of ours.

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Saturnalia begins

It's from my neck of the desert.

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◊ Wayfaring Day

A pagan take on another holiday classic.

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Migration noise

In which I enjoy the weather, the birdsong, and the plants

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Journal 11Aug2017

I have no higher authority. I have to persuade.
— NeoWayland
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Jounal 04Aug2017

My companion pointed out to me last night that I've never shown a a picture of my raven pendant on the site.

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☥ ✰ ❝The spiritual world is not unlike the natural world …❞ 

Margot AdlerBefore passing day

Lived 16Apr1946 to 28July2014 (68)
American author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan priestess and radio journalist

The spiritual world is not unlike the natural world: only diversity will save it.
— Margot Adler
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☥ ▽ ❝…without being bound by them.❞

Alex Sanders • deceased birthday

Lived 06Jun1926 to 30Apr1988 (58)
Self-proclaimed "King of Witches," founder of the Alexanderian tradition of witchcraft. Plagiarist and publicity addict.

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≠ ✰ Gardner Day

If we're not recognizing and honoring the cycles, what are we doing?

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≠ ✰ Sanders Day

Alex Sanders • deceased birthday

Lived 06Jun1926 to 30Apr1988 (58)
Self-proclaimed "King of Witches," founder of the Alexanderian tradition of witchcraft. Plagiarist and publicity addict.

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≠ ✰ Farrar Day

Stewart Farrar * deceased birthday

Lived 28Jun1916 to 07Feb2000 (83)
Witch, author, novelist. May have encouraged the sexual initiation of minor girls.

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≠ ✰ Cunningham Day

Sunbathing with friends is even better.

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☥ ▽ ❝I never learned from a man who agreed with me.❞

She's just doing everyday things

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☥ ❝You saw a hurting you could help…❞

Thinking by blogging

Last night I wrapped myself in the blanket and spent a long time watching the flames in my small fire.

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🚀 Seven

Summergate isn't exactly Beltaine, but it's reasonably close.

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🚀 Goddard's Rocket

21Mar1970 San Francisco

My entry on
Earth Day and politics.

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★ Arbor Day (Arizona observance)

We have to laugh at ourselves. No one else would take us seriously enough.
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≠ Earth Day - customary

This is not the Earth Day I celebrate.

My entry on
Earth Day and politics.

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★ Earth Day (original) as “the first day of spring”

21Mar1970 San Francisco

My entry on
Earth Day and politics.

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Dating obsessively

Donald Michael Kraig • deceased birthday

Lived 28March1951 to 07March2014
American occult author and practitioner of ceremonial magic
Author, lecturer, hypnotherapist, Magician, Tantric

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☥ ✰ Adler Day

Margot Adler • Before birthday

Lived 16Apr1946 to 28July2014 (68)
American author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan priestess and radio journalist

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≠ ✰ ❝Magick is not something you do…❞

1st human in space

Yuri Gagarin - 12Apr1961

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≠ ✰ Kraig Day

Donald Michael Kraig • deceased birthday

Lived 28March1951 to 07March2014
American occult author and practitioner of ceremonial magic
Author, lecturer, hypnotherapist, Magician, Tantric

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≠ ✰ ❝Any and all religions are real…❞

Thinking by blogging

I've been up all night with the sound of the night in my ears. Also aroused. And no companion around.

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🚀 Rocketman

It's actually part of my Summergate celebration.

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Journal 10Apr2017

We pretty much agreed that women sometimes lie about rape and the code needed to take that into account. We added one small paragraph that said accusations of rape didn't necessarily mean rape.
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Journal 07Apr2017

Freedom of religion does not mean deferring to Christianity.
— NeoWayland
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NeoNotes — 10th anniversary of “Pentacle Quest”

If you don't like gambling or shows, there's not much that sets Las Vegas apart.

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What does that have to do with greeting the sun?

I'm winter-born, so a good snow always touches my soul in a quiet joyful way. I could watch it for hours. I did watch it for hours.

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Point of view

We define the labels, the labels should not define us.
     — from the journal of NeoWayland

I don’t believe I should use this blog to teach.

I think the best teachers are the ones you see face to face. That personal relationship helps you learn faster.

But we live in an age of wonders connected digitally across the planet. Even if it’s not my place to teach, maybe sometimes I can tell beginners where to start looking for their own answers and their own path.

So I’m answering my email again, indirectly.

I’m using ideas that I work with most. My
WebTree path (not a tradition) draws heavily on Celtic Reconstructionism and modern Druidry with just a smidge more Wiccanism than I am comfortable admitting.

Yule - around December 21
Imbolc - February 2
Ostera - around March 21
Beltane - April 30
Litha - around June 21
Lughnasad - August 1
Mabon - around September 21
Samhain - October 31

You’ve probably seen that list a few hundred times before. It’s obviously the neopagan sabbats. But what the list doesn’t tell you is how those dates interrelate. For that, you need an eight pointed star. I just happen to have one on file.

Concentrate on the list alone and you can miss the relationships. The power isn’t in the list. The power is in how the ideas weave together.

Put Yule at the top point of the star.

Technically you don’t need the star, but it sure helps you see the connections. You can see that the winter solstice is opposite the summer solstice and that the equinoxes are opposite each other.

Yes, I’ve covered this
before. Please bear with me.

You can also see that the cross quarter days are really the gateways between seasons. And you can see that the solstices and the equinoxes are really the peak moments
and middle of the seasons.

Cross quarter days are High Holidays for my path. The equinoxes and solstices are Solar Festivals.

Now I could explain that in three or four pages. Or I can show you with a single picture and a few sentences.

It’s not enough to know the seasons, you have to know the connections and the relationships.

This isn’t something that is commonly taught in paganism these days. Absolutely I am not teaching it. I’m just telling you where you might begin.

I will point out that the eight-pointed star is just a start. Before the digital age, many traditions would expect you to draw something like this.


That’s a lot more complex.

Notice the
relationships.

You just couldn’t draw that right at first.You’d have to start over and over again. You’d frustrate yourself because it should be easy for you. You’re passionate about your faith and you WANT to learn. You’d make many tries. Some of the hardest attempts would be with your teacher watching closely over your shoulder while you got it almost perfect. The slightest flaw means the whole picture has to be destroyed. You’d have to start over
again until you could draw it on demand. By the time you were done, you could visualize the connections without the diagram.

You’d
understand.

The power is not the drawing. The power is
you understanding the connections.

Sure, you could get that from a list, but it would take much longer.

The tools we use shape our thought.

This isn't one of mine. But think about the work that went into this even if you don't agree with the assumptions.

Let me give you another example.


Before WWII and quick mix boxes, recipes were usually by ratios. Sure, you can memorize individual recipies that use 1 cup of that mixed with 2/3 cups of this, but it won’t teach you the relationships.

If you stood in a kitchen full of ingredients but without the pre-measured portions and the oh so precise instuctions, you’d be stuck. You wouldn’t
know the relationships.

You wouldn’t
know what separated a bread from a cake.

You wouldn’t
know what made a soup or a sauce.

One look at a grocery store tells you that there are entire industries devoted to your ignorance and willing to sell you easy to use products so you don’t have to think about it too hard.

Someone doesn’t
want you thinking about it too hard. Someone profits from you not thinking hard.

Something really simple looks enormously complicated because you’re
stuck with one perspective.

Hmm, that sounds
familiar. Somebody out to impress you with what they know and what they can show. Like one of Shaw’s experts.

But the way of the master means do more with less. To do that you need to understand how things interrelate. It’s not about one cup of
that mixed with 2/3 cup of this, it’s about three parts of that mixed with two parts of this. The measure isn’t what you need, the ratio is.

It’s about the relationships and the connections. Think in those terms and you’ve expanded what you can do. Do more with less complication.

One last bit.

Environmentalism is about control. Control of the surroundings, control of human behavior, control of the lifeforms, everything carefully monitored and measured.

But that is not the way the world works.

Ecology is about the relationships and tradeoffs.

Guess which works better longer.

Understanding is the key. You can’t go poking around with the primal forces of the universe without understanding.

Well, you could, but it’s much safer if you understand the connections.

Change your perspective, change the world.

Change youself.

As above, so below.

Change.


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Black & Blue

… taking a separate name shows dedication to your faith when you are initiated.

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Flexing your calendar

Today is the first day of The Lady in the Court of Stars.

One of these days I really should tell that story. But not today.


No, today I’m going to talk about calendars.

This is a partial list of dates from my Lore and Wyrd calendars. The exact dates don’t matter in this example.

Pay attention to the symbols before the title in each listing.

The
ankh symbol is my shorthand for a Before. Before are those who’ve inspired me and those who I choose to honor by living their example.

The
shadowed star is my shorthand for a pagan.

The
inverted triangle is a symbol for philosophy, I use this to designate philosophers.

The ≠ not equals sign means that I acknowledge but do not celebrate (ABNC). Just because the day is important to other people doesn’t mean that I have to celebrate it. And if you think I have a lot of these days in my Lore and Wyrd calendars, you should see the birthdays and anniversaries in my Kinship calendar.

The
solid star shows that this day that while not distinctively pagan is still important to my practice.

Okay, the
circled times symbol. I don’t want to use the circled cross because of it’s association with the KKK (and yes, my feelings on that go back years). This is a good alternative that maintains the same elemental associations. Of course someone who takes a title based on Wayland is going to celebrate The Firing of the Anvil. Especially someone with strong ties to the American South.

Let’s see how that actually works. As you can see, this is an event from 1971.

The ankh and the inverted triangle tell us that this man is one of my Befores and he’s a philosopher. I’ve used the location field to give more expand the information a bit. This field will also show in the day list view of the iOS calendar or in my preferred option Fantastical.

I’ve included a quick URL so I can call up in-depth information.

I’ve unchecked the “Busy” box so I still show available.

My notes show his lifespan and how old he was when he died.

And I’ve listed some of the things he was known for WITHOUT giving specific works. Otherwise the entry would be way too long and clunky.

The whole purpose of this exercise is that I have a calendar in the palm of my hand that will quickly show me what I need to know for that day.

I haven’t even mentioned my Sky calendar with the astronomical events and symbols.

Have I mentioned that I have a calendar obsession?

Here’s the most important bit.

After the initial setup (and the once a year update on my Sky calendar), I don’t have to worry about it. It’s there. If I absolutely have to I can print it up (and I still do for some events and rituals).

A little bit of work, a little bit of planning, and I’m ready.

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Earth Day & politics

And part of it is just because three is a magick number.

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Pangere

Rambling on time & calendars

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Sunfell Tech Mage Rede Nine Words Serve The Tech Mage Best Keep What Works Fix What’s Broke Ditch The Rest

A narrow slice of life, but now and again pondering American neopaganism, modern adult pagans & the World.

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