On Tuesday, we had a New Moon in Scorpio (the Moon will be in Scorpio until 6:41 pm EDT today). With this New Moon, Mercury's retrograde energy subsides at last and, as with all New Moon cycles, we have the opportunity to grow. I like Waxing Moon energy - the period of time leading up to a Full Moon always feels the best for me, being the cockeyed optimist that I am.

Cafe Astrology had this to say about this New Moon cycle:

A time of new beginnings, this New Moon is a rather "challenged" one, as it forms hard aspects to Saturn and Uranus. This lunation emphasizes a new beginning in the fixed water sign of Scorpio. It's a time when we can focus on some of the constructive traits of the sign of the Scorpion--passionate, resourceful, focused, probing, deep, and perceptive--and consider how to positively incorporate these qualities into our lives. Scorpio New Moons are generally good for working on our self-mastery skills. We may want to pinpoint the things in our lives that make us feel out of control, such as addictions and debts, and work on freeing ourselves of these emotional burdens. This New Moon cycle is also an opportune one in which to explore what is missing in our lives that leads us to engage in these self-destructive behaviors.

One of Scorpio's "lessons" involve learning to dig deeper into the mysteries around us instead of always being content with status quo. Taking the time to understand others' motives can enrich our feelings of intimacy, forgiveness, and sense of meaning. Scorpio also teaches us that dedication to one meaningful relationship or undertaking can be significantly more satisfying than spreading ourselves around. Here, "quality over quantity" applies. We might want to use this cycle to work on focusing on and developing one special project or relationship in order to help add purposefulness and depth to our lives.

Some very good advice indeed! You can read more here: This Week in Astrology.

Perhaps it is because tomorrow is Samhain that I am feeling particularly introspective. The lessons of this New Moon resonate particularly powerfully right now and I want to immerse myself in the Scorpionic mystery and magick.

There is an energy of Samhain that is palpable and has caught my attention over the past few days. Enough to shake me out of my busy, new-job intensity so that I am noticing the magick all around me. The air has turned very cold here in Boston, it's dark when I wake up, the wind blows and leaves fly around like eerie little phantoms. It will be a good Samhain this year, I can feel it.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 7:39 AM | Comments (3)

Hahahaha!

Jon Stewart is awesome.

I'm sorry that I've been so absent. A new job does have a way of sucking up ALL YOUR TIME. But thankfully there is so much material out there. I hope that I have been able to offer some entertaining and thoughtful tidbits. Eventually I'll find my brain and my wand and start doing and writing about more matters magickal.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:21 PM | Comments (1)

While there were many reasons to dislike John McCain's performance in Wednesday night's debate, this one was the worst, in my opinion. And apparently in the opinion of lots of other women, expressed with pitch-perfect outrage in this diary at the Daily Kos:

So, let's get this correct: John McCain believes that the consideration of the state of a woman's health when it comes to an abortion is an extreme position of the pro-abortion gang? That a woman's health is just some kind of a loophole so all those abortion-loving females will be able to shower themselves with lots and lots more pregnancy terminations? Does John McCain think women treat the decision to have an abortion as some sort of elective cosmetic surgery ("Oh dear, I don't know what to do at the spa today.... should I have a cucumber wrap, a couple of shots of Botox or just pop in for a little womb scraping?")

John McCain, your record on women's health is abysmal as is your position on equal pay for women. By your own admission, you are a shameless womanizer and adulterer, with a despicable history of chauvinistic behavior and crude put-downs. The most telling evidence that you hold women in contempt came when you picked Sarah Palin as your running mate. You wanted to peel away the Hillary voters so you chose a woman who is the very antithesis of everything Hillary Clinton ever stood for (But I guess in John McCain world, one set of boobs and ovaries is as good as any other.)

Anyone who is aware of how much women have fought and suffered and sacrificed to insure freedoms for all of us can appreciate just how horrible having someone like this as President would be. If you are reading this, you probably are already voting for Barack Obama. But there is still lots of work to do to insure an Obama presidency. As Joe Biden said in a recent email: "The surest way to lose a race is to slow down with the finish line in sight."

Participate in GOTV. Go to www.barackobama.com to see how you can volunteer in your area. Make calls to swing voters and to let people know that they can vote early. Give money to the campaign so that they can continue to fight John McCain's nasty smear campaign.

Because women's "health" is not a radical notion.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 7:36 AM | Comments (3)

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:54 PM | Comments (1)

. . . to Barack Obama for each person who can tell me what this is:

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 7:33 PM | Comments (7)

At the risk of sounding like a goggle-eyed groupie, which of course I am, I just love Mark Morford. In his latest column he comments on Sarah Palin's "de-witching," and, to be fair, most of the Pagan blogosphere has been quoting from this article and singing about what a friend we have in Mark.

As I've said on many previous occasions, Mark Morford's writing is very funny. He's very liberal both politically and socially, and if I were a guy with a column in San Francisco, this is the way I would be writing.

Read the whole article, I urge you, and then delight yourself with the archives of his column. But here is my favorite part:

Is it worth setting the record straight? Pointing out how true 'n' deep witchcraftery has nothing to do with evil or Satan or excessive black eyeliner or sacrificing newborn babies while listening to Ministry and smoking cloves? That those who've taken up this most ancient and potent of callings actually study their enchanted craft for years and know more about, say, the cycles of the moon and the body and the rhythms of the planet than Sarah Palin's most secretest pagan fever dream could ever conjure?

Really, the irony of this whole affair is just too tasty to pass up. Because real witches are, of course, all about self-determination, complete spiritual freedom, and are often practiced in the innate magic of the earth, the body, the self. Most follow no particular deity or dogma, though that's entirely optional (you can be a witch and a Christian, for example). Truth is, it's too bad Palin's not a witch herself. She'd be so much more interesting. And, you know, useful.

Hell, I know a number of happy, accomplished, practicing witches at work and play in the normal world right this very minute, running errands and playing with their kids and texting their boyfriends, not a single one of whom is currently indulging in a ritualistic blood-drenched sex orgy at the feet of Lucifer. Wait, let me check Facebook ... nope, all normal.

As for the Wiccans, well, those witches are, of course, even more about nature and fertility and earthly ritual, a deep, life-affirming reverence for the cycles of life, for protecting the environment and celebrating the body, and it's all wrapped in a rather limitless chthonic self-determination and therapeutic ritual magick that's essentially the ideological opposite of what evangelical Christianity often wallows in. I mean, is it any wonder they're so terrified?

I couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you, Mark.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:58 AM | Comments (1)