6/3 (Thu) In the Roman Catholic calendar, Corpus Christi (body of
Christ) honors the divinity inherest in the grain of the sacred
host.
This feast superseded more ancient celebrations of the early
grain harvest.
6/4 (Fri) Birthday of Socrates (470 BCE)
6/5 (Sat) Baha'i Feast honoring the Deity as Nur, or Light.
6/6 (Sun) Venus enters Leo until 10/8, except for month in Virgo
mid-July
to mid-August. As Venus has an orbital period of less than
one
earth year, it is notable that she will spend most of the
next
four months in only one sign, and most promising that the
one
sign is Leo, the Lion. This will entail a major dose of
warm,
sincere, vigorous erotic love at a time when the planet
needs
it. 1999 brings several obvious signals that it is time to
make
love, not war, and Venus' steamy tour of Leo is one of the
most
blatant no-brainers. For the next few months, as Yunus Emre
wrote, the eight heavens are for the lovers.
6/7 (Mon) Vesta Aperit, the day when the sanctuary doors of Vesta's
temple
were opened at the onset of summer, and ancient Romans
celebrated for the next eight days the rites and values of
Vesta
(Greek Hestia), the goddess protector of virginal
womanhood. The
devotees of the goddess, the Vestal virgins, embodied the
unlimited creative power of the Triple Goddess at the moment
of
her first great rite of passage, from Virgin to Mother. The
main
events of the Vestalia:
6/9 The Feast of Vesta.
6/8 Festival of Mens, goddess of Mind. Celebrations of
intellectual
attainment were traditionally held on this day each
year
-- and in western cultures still are, at the end of
each
academic year.
6/15 The Ides of June, the climactic celebrations of the
first fruits of the early harvest. The doors of
Vesta's
temple are closed again.
6/11 (Fri) Mercury and Venus form a beautiful Double Evening Star
alignment
from now through the end of the month, with the clearest
viewing
at the Solstice on June 21. Mercury is visible above the
western
horizon half an hour after sunset, while Venus is at its
greatest eastern elongation, 45° east of the Sun, and will
set
nearly 2 hours after the Sun does. The mythic and esoteric
implications of this alignment, with the Day Star, the gods'
messenger and the spectacularly beautiful goddess of love
all
setting within a span of two hours, make this a superb time
for
ceremonies of great clarity and beauty.
6/12 (Sat) In the ancient Egyptian calendar, Festival of Mut, the
primal
mother goddess who, as wife of Amun the creator and mother
of
Khonsu the Moon, was the female figure in the great Theban
triad
of neters. Mut was represented by a vulture, said to be the
most
fiercely protective of all mothers and the most nurturing,
even
shedding her own blood to feed her young. On this day food
offerings from Mut were given to all the neters. (Month of
Epipi, day 29)
6/13 (Sun) New Moon conjunct Sun in Gemini. This favors mental
activity, 9:04am HT fluid plans, brainstorming and improvisation --
one reason why 7:04pm UT so many marriages occur during this season,
as it fosters
cooperative relations of equal partnership. Celestial
alignments
that make this season even more than usually favorable for
marriage in 1999: Mars in Libra is trine the Sun-Moon
conjunction, at a 120° angle on the sky wheel, and Jupiter
in
Aries is sextile, at 60°. This favors marriages in which
hard
work will bring prosperity and hearty good times. Other
partnerships enjoy the same prospect.
In the Greco-Roman calendar, this day was sacred to
Athene-Minerva, whose double aspect of warrior and healer
embodied the ideal combination of strength and wisdom.
In ancient Egypt, this day celebrated Horus the
Beloved,
that is, the heroic falcon-headed neter of light in his
mildest
aspect as divine child of Isis and Osiris. On this day
stories
of the birth and infancy of Horus, and how Isis protected
him
from his murderous uncle Set by enclosing her baby in a reed
cradle and hiding him in a papyrus swamp, were told in
poetry
and music ceremonies. (Epipi, day 30)
In the Roman Catholic calendar, feast of St.
Anthony,
guardian of the poor and oppressed and patron of social
justice
advocates.
6/14 (Mon) 200-day Countup point to the Millennium
In the ancient Egyptian calendar, the month of Mesore began
on
this day. Mesore is sacred to Heru-Khuiti, a Gemini-like
composite neter combining the solar qualities of Horus and
the
lunar qualities of Thoth into one figure who represents all
dualities. Mesore began the critically important time of
calculation and preparation for the annual Nile flood, and
began
with a week of mysteries leading to the major time marker
of the
Summer Solstice. Among the main ceremonies:
6/15 All the neters of sea, earth and sky gather in
heaven to
reaffirm their union with Ma'at, neter of Truth.
(Mesore, day 2)
6/16 Festival of Hathor/Isis in her role as mystic
way-shower, embodied in the star Sothis (Sirius).
This
day began the yearly 40-day countdown to July 26,
when
the rising of Sirius in the east just before dawn
heralded the coming of the flood. (Mesore, day 3)
6/18 Day of emergence of Min, the love neter, whose
headdress
of tall double plumes, like those of Amun the
creator,
and whose large erect phallus proclaimed his prowess
as
the principle of male generative energy. (Mesore 5)
6/20 Amid all this season's celebrations of male potency
and
female fertility, today's rite of the Journey of
Anubis
is most mysterious. On this day Anubis, the Opener
of
the Way who conducted souls through the Duat, or
land of
the dead, was said to visit every necropolis in
Egypt.
His ceremony, one of the Egyptian calendar's most
emphatic reminders of the presence of death even
amid
the late Spring surge of new life, is in some ways a
complement and opposite number to the middle
European
Mother Night, on 12/ 20. (Mesore. day 7)
6/21 Wadjet ceremony, honoring the cobra neter whose
protective power as destroyer of evil made her so
important to the nation's life that she appeared in
the
uraeus serpent on pharoah's crown and other
regalia. Her
placement at this point in the calendar marks the 35
days of purification before the next flood season.
6/15 (Tue) Day of annual Shinto ceremonies honoring the Kami, or divine
principle, of Water.
6/20 - 23 Among the Lakota and other Native Americans of the plains,
the
(Sun-Wed) time of the annual Sun Dance, a time of fasting and healing
ceremonies affirming the manifestation of the Creator
Takuskanskan in all things.
6/21(Mon) The Summer Solstice, one of the four major festivals of the
11:50am HT solar year, when the Sun reaches the quarter points on the
9:50pm UT zodiac wheel. It now reaches the cardinal ("hinge") point
of
90°, as the Sun enters the sign of Cancer, the Crab. For the
next month, the side-to-side moves of the Crab are favored
in
all things. This is more a time for organization of what has
been gained, and planning for what comes next, than it is
for
either starting new enterprises or dissolving old ones that
don't work. The Crab lives where it can jump sideways into
an
ocean wave when threats appear. Those who have the grace,
humility and aquatic skill to do this are favored now. The
sideways motion of the Crab is also that of the Farmer, who
works sideways in rows to preserve productive order. Among
the
countless Summer Solstice celebrations and ceremonies:
The Sonnenwende ("Sun's turning") of the Norse
calendar,
so named because at this point in the year, the Sun reaches
its
farthest northern sunset point on the horizon, and must now
begin moving south, and bringing with it the hotter, more
rapid
movement of Summer, and everything else that that the South
implies. The season of husbandry begins now in bonfires that
mark this day as the one when the Sun's light stays longest
in
the Sky.
In northern Russia, especially in St. Petersburg,
this
day begins the White Nights, which last for the next ten
days.
In this and other fire festivals that can get more raucous
than
most, fireworks and all, many people love the days of the
Long
Light because this is the best time to burn the chaff and
the
worry of the year gone by, and get ready to work the field
under
the waxing Sun, and care for children.
In the Celtic calendar, this day is called Litha,
and
honors the water goddess. Many European peoples also
honored the
Green Man, leafy symbol of nature's resurgence, counterpart
to
the Egyptian Osiris.
Taoist festival honoring the Heavenly Emperor
Shang-Ti
and celebrating the active presence of the Tao in all
things.
This is the time when the masculine Yang force is at its
peak,
and initiates the season of fire, south and Summer.
In the Islamic lunar calendar, first day of the New
Year.
In many ancient calendars, this is one of the best
times
to honor Wise Women. In the Greco-Roman calendar, this was
the
Day of All Heras (Roman counterpart Juno, for whom this
month is
named), when people gather to listen to women who have
achieved
spiritual Union with the Great Goddess. In ancient Britain
this
was the Day of Cerridwen, celebrating all Wise Women.
In some Native American calendars, this day begins
the
Month of the Flicker. Hunting is easier than it usually is.
6/22 (Tue) In the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, birthday of Padmasambhava
(Guru Rinpoche), the great teacher who founded the Old Sect
(Nyingma-pa) lineage, revealed the Bardo Thodol, or Tibetan
Book
of the Dead and the "direct path" method of enlightenment by
intuitive realization.
6/23 (Wed) Midsummer Eve, also St. John's Eve, sacred to St. John the
Baptist.
In 1999, one of the longest major celestial
alignments
of this year begins today, and will last through the early
months of 2000. Saturn in Taurus is moving into a 90° angle
with
Uranus in Aquarius. This tends to manifest earthquakes,
land-
slides, electrical storms and mechanical accidents in the
natural realm, stubborn argumentation and combative action
in
human societies and the perfect integration of wisdom and
electricity on the spiritual plane. The best thing one can
be at
this time is a combination of teacher and magician.
Tricksters
flourish. Saturn in Taurus is like a curmudgeon at a
convivial
party: he can dampen the mood--but it's more fun to liven
the
old guy up and turn him into Falstaff.
6/24 (Thu) Midsummer Day. Feast of St. John the Baptist. In ancient
times,
this day was as important in marking the year as its
opposite,
Christmas, on 12/25. Among the most ancient sky scientists,
who
made their calculations millennia before the oldest written
records that we have found so far from Ur and India, this
was
the actual day of the Summer Solstice, and thus it is still
celebrated throughout the world in fire festivals that
symbolically purify the fields to make the crop healthy.
The Aztec Festival of the Sun is another fire
ceremony
that fell on this day each year.
6/24 - 25 In the Islamic lunar calendar, this is one of the holiest
days (Thu-Fri) of the year: Mevlid-i Nebi, birthday of the prophet
Mohammed.
6/26 (Sat) In the Hindu calendar, this day is Rath Yatra, celebrating
Krishna's
miraculous journey to Mathura.
6/28 (Mon) Full Moon in Capricorn, moving opposite Sun in Cancer.
Creative,
11:38am HT dynamic, complementary opposition between female and male
9:38pm UT energies, more favorable for work and service relationships
than
for marriages. Role reversals apply, as masculine solar
energy
is now most advantageous in domestic work, and feminine
lunar
energy is in the domain of the spiritual master. Teaching
activities by Wise Women are favored now, in the season of
the
High Priestess.
6/29 Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. As Peter was the "rock" on
which
Jesus was said to have founded his church, this day was
considered auspicious for beginning the foundations of new
buildings, and praying for safe and smooth construction
throughout the Summer.
Jupiter enters Taurus, where it will remain for most of the
coming year. This sign position is conducive to prosperity,
liberality, pursuit of financial interests and gains, and
the
love of pleasure and comfort. As Jupiter is stressed this
Summer
in relation to ther planets, notably Mercury, Mars and
Neptune,
there is also a likelihood of financial surge and ebb, with
the
attendant risks of overextension, speculation, enthusiastic
hunches and self-indulgent bets, and over-spending on
luxury and
beauty: a rich combination in which the disease-prone will
incline to gout rather than colitis. The most recent
Jupiter-
in-Taurus year was March 1988 to March 1989, the last great
grasp and wallow of the Reagan Extravagance, followed by the
beginning of Bush, and with it the reassurance that for a
few
more years, feeding positions at the economic trough would
remain fundamentally unchanged. Another Jupiter-in-Taurus
year
was June 1928 to June 1929, when the American stock market
stock
market spiraled into a riot of gush and plunder that made
the
crash of October, 1929 inevitable. The watchwords at this
time
are prudence and caution, but they are likely to be ignored
again as the rich get rich and the poor get poorer, only
faster,
until next Spring.
The previous Universal Festival Calendar ended with a Coming
Attractions segment about the last solar eclipse of the Millennium, and the
Grand Cross planet-ary alignment, both in the week of 8/11 to 8/16; and the
Star of Jerusalem on 5/5/00. This material remains unchanged so far, and
need not be repeated here. It can be sent in a separate message to those
who request it.
When freedom is a struggle, it's solitary.
When it succeeds, it's inclusive, a communal action impelled
by love.
From The Play of Freedom
