Monday February 26, 2024
– Full Moon Phase – illumination, realization, fulfillment, shadow, relationships, experience
– Moon in VIRGO – Void of Course 2:15 AM – 9:29 AM Moving to Libra
– Best Days (from the Farmer’s Almanac) –
February 26 – Set Eggs, Host a Party, Entertain Friends, Slaughter, Mow to Slow Growth, Cut Hair to Slow Growth
– Planting Calendar (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – 26th – 27th Fine for sowing grains, hay, and forage crops. Plant flowers. Favorable days for planting root crops.
– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): – Kali – The Destroyer
– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Seth , God of the North
– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New Moon in Aquarius SUN/MOON – SUN/MOON – 21 AQUARIUS: a woman, disappointed and disillusioned, courageously facing a seemingly empty life (EARTH – 21 LEO: intoxicated chickens dizzily flap their wings tying to fly )
SUN – 08 PISCES: a girl blowing a bugle
EARTH – 08 VIRGO: a girl takes her first dancing instruction
Happy Monday! Find your happy rhythm in the dance of life.
Potter Nation
I have written at length about the Harry Potter series of books. I am an avid fan. I am presently reading the series for the 8th time. I am about 4 chapters in to Deathly Hallows and have been at it since October.
My family and others often comment (well to be honest make fun of me) for rereading books. Potter 8 times. LOTR 16 times. Wheel of Time 3 times. And that’s not to mention the number of times I have read Dune or Atlas Shrugged.
They ask how I can stand reading books where I know how they will end. I describe it as like going on vacation to the same place over and over again. Is it the same? Kind of. But it is always different. Because I am different. And I get something new from them every time I read them.
I think the most interesting thing I have noticed from this time reading Harry Potter is how many people notice that I am reading it when they see me in public.
We live in a world where everyone is attached and addicted to their phones and devices. I still prefer reading real, live books. Ink on paper.
I remember one time I was sitting in my car in line at Starbucks. When I arrived at the window, the cashier looked at me funny and asked what I was reading. They commented that the baristas saw me on the camera and were shocked that I was actually reading a book. Tells you something.
I like to have a book with me wherever I go. With as many kids as we have, I am often in Doctors’ offices or in line places where time is wasted. True, I could check my phone. But I prefer a good book.
In Good Company
As I stated before, over the past few months, I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have taken notice of the books I am reading.
For instance, A few days before Christmas I found myself at an Apple Store. My daughter had dropped her phone and cracked the face. It would be covered by warranty, luckily, after paying a $100 deductible. But being a Friday before Christmas, the store was mobbed. I showed up for the appointment (an hour away from home) and was told it would take about a hour and a half. Luckily, I had a good book (Goblet of Fire I believe).
While I sat there, 4 different Apple employees came over and asked me about it, or commented about it. It could have been just a ham-handed way of asking if I had been helped. Could have been. Then the manager came over to apologize for how long it was taking. He commented about the book as well. He then said that half the staff were commenting about it in the back. Apparently they were all rabid fans as well and thought it was cool that I was reading it.
In the end, they were unable to fix the phone (it would take too long) so they gave me a new one. Then comped the $100 for the inconvenience of sitting there so long. Many waves goodbye when I left as well.
This was not the only discount I received as a result of being in the Club. There was also a free drink while waiting for my order at Wingstop. I hadn’t ordered it. But the cashier had struck up a conversation about my book (Half Blood Prince at the time) and told the drink was on the house.
Then there was the take out guy at our favorite local restaurant where we pick up food (they do not use Door Dash or any of the other delivery services). He just noticed last Wednesday. “Hey, still reading Harry Potter?” Member of the club.
There are so many things about Harry Potter that inspire such fandom. It started with the books. Then morphed into a movie series that truly rivaled the books in entertainment value. Sure they missed some things. But as a whole kept the themes alive for a whole different set of fans – one’s who were not likely to turn the pages of a book.
For myself, I had not read the books until after the movies began coming out. After a few of them made it to cable, I picked up the first book, but was not pulled in. It wasn’t until watching Order of the Phoenix that I felt I had to know what came next. At the time, Half Blood Prince had just hit the bookstores. So I borrowed it from a friend. After that, I went back to book one and read them all the way through before Half Blood hit the big screen.
While the stories are pure fantasy and fantastic storytelling, they touch upon so many things that are part of our reality. And remind us of the battles between good and evil that we see today.
A few years back, I pointed a few of these things out in a series I called Defense Against the Dark Arts. They can be found here:
http://astrogardens.com/category/defense-against-the-dark-arts/
I am planning on revisiting some of these and pointing out things we are still seeing in the world around us that mirror life in the Wizarding world. Maybe with a little bit of magic, we may be able to devise good defenses against them.
UPDATE: I began writing this in the morning. For dinner I was out at Chick-fil-A for some nuggets. The young man taking my order looked over and asked which book I was on. I told him Deathly Hallows. He smiled and said he had been reading them since he was seven. Part of the Club.