JULY, 2008

July 22 - 31

July 22 (Tue):

Sun enters Leo, the Lion, sign of his own rulership and source of his greatest strength. The ensuing month has long been sacred to Helios/Apollo and other solar deities. Bold, forward movement is favored now as water yields to fire. The thrust of action shifts from introversion, and emphasis on domestic matters, to outer-directed aggression, considered in the most literal sense of the Latin root word: a determined movement toward the goal, an impulse to attack in the way that committed musicians, and all who pour their full passion into the creative moment, play with attack.

On this day the Maya celebrate their annual feast of the Sun, in honor of the god Ah Kin, on this day, and ritually enact in an elaborate circular procession the Sun's annual progress through the four quarters of the zodiac.

On this date the Greek Festival of Poseidon and the Roman Neptunalia are held to honor and placate the sea, and pray for protection from earthquakes.

In some Native American calendars, the month of the Sturgeon begins on this day.

 7/25 (Fri):

In the Roman Catholic Calendar, Feast of St. James the Greater, brother of Jesus, considered by some to be the leader designated by Jesus to carry on the work of the Christian movement until James' position was later overshadowed by the more assertive evangelism of St. Paul. James has also been identified as the Essene Teacher of Righteousness cited in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Among the ancient Khemitians, this is the most important day of the year because it begins with the Heliacal Rising of Sirius (Sothis) -- that is, the rising of the Sirius above the eastern horizon just before dawn -- and is therefore the day that normally began the annual Nile flood. Curiously, the Khemitians know that the flood will begin with three days of rust-red water, as the river washes away the red dust of the dry season, then flows blue-green as the riverbed clears and is ready for new teeming life. Thus it happens every year, not only at the time when Pharaoh suffers the seven plagues heralded by Moses, that the river runs red as blood for a few days.

Among the Norse peoples, the festival of Asatru is celebrated on this day. It commemorates Odin's ride on the shamanic horse Sleipnir, with whose help Odin is able to enter the three worlds of the gods, living mortals and the dead. This feast thus evokes and symbolizes the experience of shamanic, transhuman states of consciousness.

In the Islamic calendar, this day will probably be the 27th of the lunar month of Rajab. It's the holy day of Miraj Kandili, also called Laylat al-Mi'raj, commemorating the prophet Muhammad's miraculous night journey to heaven on the winged horse Buraq. The actual date, like that of all Muslim holy days, is keyed to the actual sighting of the New Moon.

Birthday (1831) of Madame Helena Blavatsky, author of Isis Unveiled and co-founder with Henry Steele Olcott of the Theosophical Society.

In the Norse calendar, feast of the trickster and fire god Loki and his consort Sigyn.

In the Roman Catholic calendar, feast of St. Joseph of Arimathea, guardian of the Holy Grail.

Finally, in calendars throughout the Earth, this day begins the season of midsummer festivals in the Northern hemisphere, midwinter festivals below the equator. These days have been celebrated in Europe since ancient times as the Celtic feast of Lughnasad and the Christian Lammastide cycle of the new bread and the first fruits of the harvest. As the Sun is now in high Summer, in the middle of the sign of Leo which the Sun rules, this time is sacred to solar and fire deities and energies of all kinds.

 Copyright 2008 Dan Furst. All Rights Reserved.