RITUALS and CIRCLE NIGHTS
(Calgary)
March 20 - Ostara Ritual - Grove of Mysteries
March 22 - Dionysius Party - Calgary Circle of Pagans
April 5 - Circle Night - Calgary Circle of Pagans
April 19 - Lunar Ritual - Twilight Mysteries
April 26 - Circle Night - Calgary Circle of Pagans
May 6 - Beltaine Ritual - Grove of Mysteries
contributed by RavenDreamer
When you get the dates and times on Calendars, they are in Grenwich mean time, so it is off by at least 7 hours.
Please note that the new and full moons are considered
full for three days with the date given as the fullest (or newest) time.
Vernal Equinox/Ostara March 20 2003 5:44 PM
Last Quarter March 24 2003 6:55 PM
New Moon April 1 2003 12:20 PM
First Quarter April 9 2003 4:37 PM
Full Moon April 16 2003 12:35 PM
Last Quarter April 23 2003 5:22 AM
New Moon May 1 2003 5:14 AM
Beltaine (Calculated) May 06 2003 3:06:00 AM
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LOCAL NEWS
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Congratulations Kiera on your Liana Initiation within the Grove of Mysteries. We look forward to embarking on this new journey with you!
AND Announcing Sora Nalani performing in the play "Vinegar Tom" at The New Community Arts Centre (Building A3, 2633 Hochwald Ave SW). The production runs from April 1-12, tickets are $15 for Adults and $12 for students (pay what you can night is April 1). To order tickets or for more information call: 216-0808.
Come out and show her your support!
contributed by Mayda
HOT CROSS BUNS
1/2 cup Warm water
1 tsp. Granulated sugar
1 Envelope active dry yeast
1/4 Butter or margarine, softened
1/4 Granulated sugar
1 Egg, room temperature
3/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
3/4 Warm milk
1 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 cups Currants or raisins
2 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
Stir water and sugar together to dissolve. Sprinkle yeast over water. Stir. Let stand 10 minutes. Stir.
Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in egg until fluffy. Mix in salt, cinnamon, and milk. Beat in first amount of flour. Mix in yeast mixture.
Mix in currants. Add remaining flour. Mix well, adding a bit more flour if necessary to make a soft dough. Let dough rest 10 minutes, then knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl turning to bring greased part to top of bowl. Cover. Let rise in a warm place to double in size, about 1 hour.
Punch dough down. Shape into about 18 balls. Place on greased baking sheet or 2 pans 8X8 allowing room for expansion. But a deep cross in each bun with a sharp knife. Cover and let rise until almost doubled in size. Baking in 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Brush with butter and cool on rack. Ice crosses when cool.
GLAZE
1/2 cup Icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp. Water
1/4 tsp. Vanilla
Mix all together adding a few more drops of water if need to make a barely pourable glaze. Pipe or drizzle into crosses.
contributed by Sora
TO THE THAWING WIND
Robert Frost
Bring the singer, bring the nester;
Give the buried flower a dream;
Make the settled snow-bank steam;
Find the brown beneath the white;
But whate'er you do to-night,
Bathe my window, make it flow,
Melt it as the ice will go;
Melt the glass and leave the sticks
Like a hermit's crucifix;
Burst into my narrow stall;
Swing the picture on the wall;
Run the rattling pages o'er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out of door.
contributed by Mayda
SPRING EQUINOX EGGS
What to do:
Boil a handful of an herb or flower until the water is well colored. Place the water into a heat-resistant cup or bowl. Stir in a teaspoon of vinegar and a pinch of salt and soak the eggs in it. If you don't want to waste food, you can use empty shells and use the yolk for cooking. With a needle, poke a small hole at the top, and a slightly larger hole at the bottom of a raw egg (make sure you puncture the membrane inside the shell). Hold the egg over a bowl and blow into the top hole until the egg is empty. Gently wash the inside of the shell. You now can decorate the empty shell.
To get the different colours use the following:
Yellow: Carrots, white grape juice, turmeric
Orange: Onion Skins, Madder Root, Cayenne
Red: Red onion skins, madder root, cayenne
Red-Violet: purple grape juice, red rasberries
Green: Carrot tops, bracken
Blue: Blueberries, Red Cabbage
Black: rasberries
Blue-violet: Blackberries, Beet juice, Mulberries
Pink: Heather
What the colours symbolize:
White: Purity, birth, and virginity.
Yellow: Youth, light, purity, happiness and wisdom
Red: passion, love, enthusiasm
Orange: Endurance, strength, power
Green: Renewal, freshness, and hope
Brown: earth
Blue: Sky, good health derived from air
Purple: patience, trust and power
Black: remeberance, eternity, constancy, death
The vernal equinox is one of two points in the wheel of the year where the day and the night are of equal length. It is the point where light conquers darkness. This festival is called by many names including Ostara, The Vernal Equinox, The Spring Equinox, Easter, Lady Day, etc. Within Spira we refer to it either as the vernal equinox or Ostara. Ostara is the second spring festival, a time when the day and the night are equal. It falls anywhere between March 19th and the 22nd. Ostara is a time of fertility and of balance. It is a time for conception, a time for ideas to take root. Ostara is a time for the balance of dark and light, the balance between winter and summer, the balance between youth and adulthood. At this point, we can take stock, looking back on what we were and looking forward to what we will become, teetered on the edge of change. It is a time to reflect on what is required for change and transformation and yet a time to celebrate and have fun, forgetting what is to come, if just for a little while. The lesson is that balance is always a struggle of opposites. Balance requires duality.
- The Essence of Spira by RavenDreamer and Sora Nalani
contributed by Aurora
APHRODITE
Goddess of Love
She is one of the twelve Olympians, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Some legends say she was brought forth from ocean foam after her father Uranus was castrated by Kronos; others say that she was the daughter of Zeus. One of the most celebrated deities of the ancients, she was known as the goddess of love, beauty, sexuality.
Zeus was refused by her and for her obstinacy gave her in marriage to his deformed son Hephaestus. He made her a girdle of finely wrought gold and wove magic into the filigree work. That was not very wise of him, for when she wore her magic girdle no one could resist her. She was notoriously unfaithful; her intrigue with the god of war Ares, is the most widely known.
Spring is the traditional time of year to celebrate and worship Aphrodite, as she represents fertility, life, love, and pleasure. Her ability to bring beauty to the lands and people, resulting in exciting lust, instilling love, and rekindling ardors is why she is so well known and worshipped. Where she graces, she can bring beauty and new life.