JULY, 2008

July 13 - 22

Reed Dance Day in some of the African tribal Calendars.

In the Baha'i calendar, this day honors the Deity as Kalimat, or Sacred Words.

In ancient Khemt, one of the most sacred weeks in the Calendar, having the birthdays of Ra and the five neters who form the myths of Aset ("Isis") and Ausar ("Osiris"), and climaxing in the New Year Festival. The birth of the five "epagonal" neters is an epoch-making cosmic event that forces a sharing and realignment of Ra's power by expanding the Earth year from 360 to 365 days. This is the critical time shift that makes possible the later Greek, Julian and Gregorian solar calendars. The birthdays of the neters:

7/13 Birth of Ra (Month of Mesore, day 30)

7/14 Birth of Ausar, neter of vegetation, the male creative force

7/15 Birth of Hor ("Horus") as Light Being. He will later be born in a physical body as the son of Aset and Ausar, and will grow into the falcon-headed solar hero who saves Khemt from the next neter:

7/16 Birth of Set, lord of the red desert land, and force of chaos and destruction, brother and murderer of Ausar

7/17 Birthday of Aset, neter of female fertility, most widely revered and beloved of all ancient mother goddesses. Sister and wife of Ausar, she restores him to life through her powers as healer, lover and magician, and bears him the solar child Hor on Dec. 25.

7/18 Birthday of Nebt-Het ("Nephthys"), sister of these four neters, also wife of Set and lover of Ausar, to whom she bears Anup, aka Anubis. Nebt-Het is revered as the keeper of secrets, and also as the Khemitian counterpart of Venus/Aphrodite

7/19 New Year begins with festivals of Djehuti ("Thoth") and the Marriage of Aset and Ausar, parallel to the Greco-Roman feasts of Aphrodite/Venus and Adonis, held on the same day. This day begins the season of inundation, sacred to Hapi, neter of the Nile. Month of Thuthi, ruled by Djehuti, begins. It is now seven days to the annual Nile flood.

7/14 (Mon):

On this day in 1789, the Paris mob stormed the city prison in an act of liberation that the French have celebrated as Bastille Day ever since. And on July 14 in 1988, the first crop circle appeared near Silbury Hill in England.

New Year's day in the Olympian calendar of the ancient Greeks.

Among the Norse peoples, this day is sacred to Rowana, goddess of the rowan tree and keeper of the sacred knowledge of the runes.

This day is also St. Swithin's Day, the most celebrated -- and long considered the most reliable -- of all west European weather markers. For centuries people in Brittany and the British Isles chanted that if it rains on St. Swithin's Day, it will rain for forty days more; but if it's fair, we'll have forty days of sunshine.

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 7/16 (Wed):

On this day in 1251, Our Lady of Carmel was reported to have first appeared on Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land.

7/17 (Thu):

In the Japanese Calendar, this day marks the re-emergence of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu-O-Mikuni, who had plunged the world into darkness by retreating into her cave in fury after she was ridiculed by her brother, the trickster Susanoo-O-Mikuni. Her retreat and reappearance are the Japanese version of the universal myth of the departure and return of the Light, and along with it, the life force of the Earth.

7/17 (Thu), 10:00pm HT; 7/18 (Fri), 8:00am UT:

Full Moon in Capricorn, moving opposite Sun in Cancer.

Creative, dynamic, complementary opposition between female and male energies, more favorable for work and service relationships than for marriages. Role reversals apply, as masculine solar energy is most advantageous now 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, even more so this year with Uranus in Pisces at a 120° trine to the Sun and a 60° sextile to the Moon.

In the Hindu Calendar, this Full Moon in the month of Ashadh is traditionally celebrated as Guru Purnima. Also known as Vyas Purnima, the day commemorates and venerates the great sage Ved Vyas. He is the Adi Guru -- that is, the root teacher, the original master -- of the Hindu Dharma, who classified the Vedas and wrote the eighteen Puranas. He is also the author of The Mahabharata.

In the Wiccan calendar, this is the Blessing Moon.

7/18 is also the birthday of astrologer, alchemist and mathematician John Dee (1527), the most celebrated of all occult and magical adepts in the England of Elizabeth the Great and Shakespeare.

7/19 (Sat):

This day marks the central summer of Adonis' annual appearance on Earth during the warm months. His marriage to Aphrodite / Venus is celebrated on this day.

Roman Catholic feast of St. Victor, hero of a spectacular martyr scenario from the early history of Christianity. Victor was an army officer whose legion was stationed at Marsilia (Marseilles) when the emperor Maximian himself came to eradicate the Christian virus from the army of southern Gaul. On refusing to renounce his faith, Victor was dragged through the city streets, whipped and beaten by the mob, then tortured on the rack and thrown into prison, where he was visited by angels who sang so majestically and filled his cell with such a blaze of light that by morning, the three guards on the night watch had converted to the worship of the Christ. Maximian had the guards beheaded, handed Victor once again to the fury of the mob, then gave him another chance to spurn the "dead Jew" and honor Jupiter. Victor replied by kicking the god's image down the altar stairs, whereupon the emperor had the offending foot cut off. When Victor burst into a joyous song of gratitude, Maximian ordered him to be crushed under a mill stone, which cracked and broke apart as soon as it touched Victor's flesh. Then the order was given to behead what was left of Victor -- one can well appreciate the trepidation the executioner must have felt by now as he stepped toward his task -- but God evidently decided to waive further agony. The bodies of Victor and his guards were weighted and thrown into the depths of the sea, to prevent any veneration of their resting place, but the four saints washed ashore anyway and were enshrined in a grotto.

In the ancient Greek calendar, this day was sacred to the prophet and teacher Damo, who was said to have received all the secret wisdom of her father, Pythagoras.

7/22 (Tue):

In the Roman Catholic calendar, feast of St. Mary Magdalen, one of the most devoted disciples of Jesus. According to some ancient legends, Mary Magdalen was the bride of Jesus and mother of his children, and after Jesus' departure for India, was said to have sailed with her children and St. Joseph of Arimathea to Marsilia (now Marseilles), where devotion to the Madeleine has always been especially fervent.

7/22 - 28 (one week):

The ancient Greeks celebrate this week as the Panatheneia, or "All Athenes", honoring the beloved Goddess of Athens in her roles as giver of wisdom and sender of inspiration. Various cultural and academic competitions are held now, along with offerings and prayers for the Goddess's continued favor.