Monday May 1, 2023

– Gibbous Moon Phase – trust, analyze, prepare, digest, alchemy

– Moon in VIRGO – Void of Course 7:53 PM – 5/2 2:09 AM moving to LIBRA

– Retrograde Plantets – Mercury, Pluto

– Best Days (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – April 25th – 26th – Hatch Eggs, Dig Holes, Buy a Home, Wax Floors, Mow to Increase Growth, Get Married, Cut Firewood, Cut Hair to Increase Growth, Bake, Start Diet to Gain Weight

– Planting Calendar (from the Farmer’s Almanac) –  April 24th – 26th – Plant seedbeds and start flower gardens. Plant tomatoes, beans, peppers, corn, cotton, and other aboveground crops on these most fruitful days.

– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): – Chinnamasta – Goddess Who Expands The Mind

– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Ian – God of the East, God of Wisdom

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New Moon in ARIES SUN/MOON – 30 ARIES: a duck pond and its brood     (EARTH –   30 LIBRA: three mounds of knowledge on a philosopher’s head )

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Year: – “a woman has risen out of the ocean, a seal is embracing her”

– SUN – 11 TAURUS: a woman sprinkling flowers

– EARTH – 11 SCORPIO: a drowning man is being rescued

Happy Monday! Seek the company of Happy people who believe in magic . . . and magical people who believe in Happy. Happy Beltane!

A confusing holiday here in the Western World. Its roots are pagan. With most Pagan festivals, the Chirtians tried to assimilate them into their followings. But seemingly not Beltane. It’s probably all the nature and bonfires and fertility that they just could not come to terms with. But that’s just a guess.

For my part, I did not even know the name “Beltane” until about 2009. And that was because I was reading a Fantasy book – The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (first book in the Wheel of Time series). Being fantasy, it had some loose connections to our reality. In it, they were celebrating the festival of Beltine. I thought it sounded weird, so I googled it. And lo and behold, learned about the existing celebration of Beltane.

I ignored this little piece of history for a few years until I began studying Astrology and the natural cycles of the planet – the equinoxes and solstices. And the more esoteric observances that time and the Catholic Church have tried to rewrite in the same way as the Ministry of Truth in the book 1984.

If you want to read more about Beltane, I wrote about it a few years ago. See it here:

http://astrogardens.com/2020/05/01/friday-may-1-2020-happy-beltane/

But I brought all this up today in search of another semi related subject. It was the schooling and what we did not learn in the education system that needs to be examined. At what point did history start changing and the thanks that we celebrate form what they are today? Was it a natural progression? Or was it planned?

The Education System is Broken!

Hello, My name is Joe

And I work in a button factory

I have a wife, and three kids

One day my boss comes up to me and says,

“Hey Joe, are you busy?” and I said “No?”

“Then Push this button with your right hand.”

If you believe that the education system in the US (for get around the world as I do not know nor care) is working, then please stop reading here. Go back to your place as a cog in the network. Keep on pushing the button. You have been trained to do what you were told.

But since you are here, you have obviously thought outside that box. The question I ask is how that box got built in the first place. And how we people found ourself hopelessly and helplessly in it.

I went through that system about 40 years ago. And the most valuable lessons I learned were in the area of how to get through it. I may have absorbed some facts and information while there. But that was pretty much secondary to the experience. We were left on our own to figure it out. I did not have councilors. No mentors given to help. Just pick your classes, make sure they add up to a degree and walk away.

I obviously was not at Yale, my roommate was not Al Gore and I did not have a whole crew of people wearing black robes and requiring blood sacrifices to be part of their clan. Maybe that is where I failed in the education system. Had I paid to rub elbows with the elite I might have found myself in higher places. Who can say.

But it gave me the required key to become a cog in the system. A Bachelor’s Degree. And I dutifully played that game for the next 20 years. Until the Obama recession killed that and made me a slave to the unemployment welfare system. Why not. There were no jobs and they were willing to pay.

And that is when my education really began. I had to strike out on my own. The recession pretty much killed the industry that was my specialty. I had to remake myself. And in so doing, had to start asking why the education system didn’t teach what I was learning now.

Books that I discovered, like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill or The Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol or The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. Doubtdul any will be finding themselves on any high school or college reading list. All older than me. All designed to challnge the mindset of being a cog in the network. All with questions and answers to questions that the present day education system has done its damndest to squelch.

As a parent I now continue to ask myself if there is any value in higher education. Given that the curriculum has been pretty much wholly taken over by Marxist Critical Theory, taught by 80-90% Marxists (or Marxist trained professors) the liklihood of value being derived from the educational process is not so good. And by Value, I mean the chance that a student will be able to recoup the value of the Money that they spend on college is low.

Consider this. I went to college in the Late 80’s/ I went to a California State Univesity. I did not spend over $492 for tuition in any semester I was there. Spent more on books and living expenses. I will admit that my education was cheap. My sisters went to University of California schools, which cost significantly more – Instead of $100/ year it was more like $10,000. And that was 30 years ago.

Today the lowest priced schools in Pennsylvania are about $25,000/year. The school my daughter attends in Florida is $75,000/year (full scholarship luckily).

Ask yourself how much you have to make after graduation to recoup $100,000 in student loans. Or in the case of must Private schools, more like $250,000.

Ask yourself if the major of study you might take would provide you with a job that will pay that kind of money. How long will you carry that debt?

There are more than a few reasons I laugh in the faces of dewey eyed kids who say they want to go to school to stuydy psychology and become a social worker – so they can help people. They have no idea that they will not even be able to help themselves.

A few years ago, I gave my signed copy of Think and Grow Rich to a friend’s son who was off to college to study business. He was headed for a Ivy League school that fit into that $250,000 bill. And though he was a model student, not one who would be commanding significant scholarships. Parents could afford it. I hope the book helped him.

And now, I have extended family members who are seeing their child graduate from High School. Both parents college educated. Have good jobs. But with their income, cannot afford to pay for a college education for their child and do not qualify for financial aid. Can’t afford it for the next two either. Bright children. But not outstanding. At best, they are looking at Community College. And even then, not sure what to study.

I bring these unfortunate circumstances up to point out that what qualifies for education today is not the same as I saw 35 years ago.

That it is time that we take a serious look at at it. And as individuals consider what oither choices are out there

Just some thoughts. I found magic education long after college. Maybe we need to impart some of this wisdom earlier. But do we know where to find it?