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MARCH, 2008
March 1 - 12:
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3/1 (Sat):
In
the ancient Roman calendar - that is, the calendar in use before
Julius Caesar -- March 1 is the first day of the New Year, and the
festival of Matronalia, in honor of the goddess Juno Lucina. Prayers
for successful birth are offered on this day, and it is customary
for men to give presents to women.
The Order of the Golden Dawn is founded on
March 1, 1888.
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First day of an 18-day Baha'i feast honoring the Deity as Ala, loftiness. Fasting and other purifications are practiced now, just as Winter is about to yield to Spring. |
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3/3 (Mon):
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In the Japanese solar calendar, this day is Hina-matsuri, the Doll Festival, in honor of each family's daughters. The families display dolls dressed in Heian period court costumes -- often priceless heirlooms that are centuries old -- all arranged in an elaborate hierarchy of tiers that affirms the crucial role of women in the order of the realm. The families visit Shinto shrines and prepare elegant meals, as beautifully presented as the dolls, from time-honored recipes. |
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3/4 (Tue):
In the Khemitian calendar, the feast of Ra, Neter of the Sun, is held at Heliopolis ("City of the Sun"), the original center of Ra worship. This festival honors in particular the life-giving properties of the Sun, and his role in marking the order of time (Month of Parmuti, day 19).
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In the Roman Catholic calendar, this is the
feast of St. Casimir (born 1458), king of Poland.
Given a choice between certain death from the austerities
in which he sought mortification of the flesh,
or a cure by food and marriage, Casimir chose a
bony death at 25. His relics have long been especially
efficacious; and when his tomb was opened in 1595,
his body was incorrupt, and emitted the sweet
odor of sanctity.
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Mars enters Cancer, where he is said to be "in fall," so the most insecure and fear-driven elements in his nature can impel him now to make himself appear impossibly, impressively big and tough, like a man trying to inflate a pair of iron pants by blowing through a drinking straw. At best, the warrior must endure for over two months (until 5/9) the discomfort of being cooped up in a feminine, domestic environment. The mythic type of this placement is the hero Achilles wearing women's clothes at King Lycomedes' court, where his mother Thetis has placed him in a vain attempt to save him from the glorious death he craves. This month and next are likely to be a season of random male rage, especially when the Sun enters Aries at the Spring Equinox. Women looking to escape from abusive men had best make their move when Venus is exalted in Pisces, 3/12 - 4/6. |
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3/4 - 7 (four days):
In the ancient Greek lunar calendar, these days leading up to the Pisces New Moon are celebrated as the Anthesteria, honoring Dionysus as Plouton, Lord of the Dead. On these days, when the Sun has recently entered Pisces and is in the month of preparation for the New Earth Year on March 21, the virtuous dead may visit from Elysium to witness and sanctify the rite of the New Wine, when the first libations are poured in the god's honor, thus marking the passing away of the old vine and the fruition of the new.
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3/5 (Wed):
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One of the main annual festivals of Isis in the Khemitian calendar, honoring Queen Aset ("Isis") as the Ocean Star - or Stella Maris, as Mary would later be called in Latin -- the guide and protector of navigators. As the Khemitians identify Aset with the great star Sopdet (aka Sirius), she is the main beacon point in the sky for Khemitian sailors. And as in ancient times her heliacal rising - that is, the moment each year when Sopdet can first be seen rising in the east just before the rising of the Sun - always fell each year on July 26, the day that heralded the annual Nile flood, Aset in her star role embodies the boundless and eternal loam and fecundity of the river. On the evening of this festival, there are ceremonies and songs on boats that blaze with lamps and colors. This day is also an important time marker. It is now 140 days, or 14 decans (10-day "weeks") until a new flow of red water should begin the next Nile flood on July 26.
This day also commemorates the birthday of Lao Tzu (300 BC?).
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In the Greco-Roman calendar, 3/6 is the festival of Ares,
or Mars, in his beneficent role as protector of the home. The
Romans also honor their household gods on this day.
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3/6 - 14 (nine days):
The great annual Spring festival of Navaratri, also called Gangaur because it celebrates the Great Mother (Maha Devi) in her aspect as Gauri, the nurturer, the source of all vitality, fruition and increase. Each of the festival's nine days -- the number symbolizing the months in a human gestation cycle -- venerates a different emanation of the goddess.
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3/7 (Fri), 7:15am HT, 5:15pm UT:
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New Moon conjunct Sun in Pisces. The trickiest New Moon of all in the sense that while the New Moon normally favors beginnings, it's located this time in the mystical cloud of Pisces, which favors the holding of deep secrets over clarity of expression, and receptivity over assertive action. This is not the time to launch a new enterprise, but more a time for meditation and visualization to attract inspiration about what the new enterprise will be -- and the inspiration will come, though in quick and often empty flashes and magical mirages, as Uranus in Pisces is conjunct the Sun-Moon combination at this New Moon. Best make sure that someone in your mastermind or brainstorm group is writing all those good ideas down. |
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In the Beth-Luis-Nion Celtic tree calendar used by devotees of the faerie path, this third New Moon following the Winter Solstice begins Nion, or ash month. The ash is remarkable for being easily workable, yet strong enough to serve in everything from walking sticks to baseball bats. |
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In the Celtic/Druidic and Wiccan calendars, this late winter New Moon is called Crow Moon, as food is still so scarce that crows, as well as wolves, are loud and insistent. |
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Honen Memorial Day, honoring the founder of one of
Japan's major Buddhist communities.
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Also the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas (born
1226), the celebrated Angelic Doctor whose Summa
Theologiae is the ultimate product of scholastic
philosophy, and its effort to construct an intellectual
foundation for the Roman Catholic faith. |
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3/11 (Sun):
In the Greco-Roman calendar, this day is sacred to the greatest of heroes, Herakles, demigod son of Zeus and Alcmene, also said to be son of Zeus and Hera, hence his name. Alice A. Bailey wrote particularly well about the symbolism of Herakles' 12 labors.
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This day is the
birthday of Marduk, king of the gods, in the ancient Mesopotamian
calendar.
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Venus enters Pisces, where she is "exalted." All Venus-ruled activities of love, art and beauty are favored; and women, and for that matter all people who know how to work their will through the subtle heat of attaction, will be at the irresistible peak of their beauty and power until 4/6. The coming weeks will be one of the year's most encouraging times to practice the alchemy of manifestation |
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Also the feast of St. Gregory the Great, revered
as one of the four Great Doctors of the Roman Catholic
church, and also as one of the truly great popes,
whose reign was notable for the healing of schisms
with other Christian communities; for the conversion
of heretics and "pagans" in Spain, France
and England; and for saving the church, and all
of Italy, from the fury of the Lombards.
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One of the great festival cycles in the Khemitian calendar, marking the cycle of cosmic death and rebirth, and the transition from the Spring season of sowing (Peret) to the summer harvest season (Shemu). The events of the cycle:
3/12 Admonitory rites supplicating Sekhmet, "the most powerful one", in her terrifying role as the punitive neter who purifies the world by fire (Month of Parmuti, day 27).
3/14 Feast of Unnefer--that is, Ausar ("Osiris") in his aspect as the Lord of the Underworld and neter of fertility, who drives the vegetable energy up through the Earth and maintains the vitality of all green things (Parmuti, day 29).
3/15 Day of transition from spring to summer. Ceremonies of renewal and abundance are held in honor of Atum and Ptah, the primeval neters of creation, and also for other important male neters such as Ra, Ausar and Hor, aka Horus (Parmuti, day 30).
3/16 The summer harvest season, and the month of Pachons, begin with the Festival of Hor and his Companions--that is, the celebration of Light as winter is about to yield to spring. |
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The Chiron - Neptune Conjunction of 2009 - 2012:
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Copyright 2008 Dan Furst. All Rights Reserved.
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