NEW YORK, NY – The Christmas tree was originally banned by the Christian church  because it was linked to the pagan Winter Solstice!

“In ancient times pagans brought live trees into their homes and decorated them in honor of old Roman and Persian gods,” said a spokesman for the National Christmas Tree Association.

“The Romans celebrated the pagan ritual of Saturnalia by trimming various types of trees with trinkets and topping them off with an image of their sun god.”

Druid sorcerers hung golden apples to represent plentiful foods to come, and lit candles on oak trees to symbolize the warmth of the sun, soon to return. After January 1, the Pagans would burn the tree, or Yule log, in remembrance of the past year.

“So the Christians banned the use of these decorated trees for a time because they symbolized the celebration of false gods.”

More than 36 million live Christmas trees will be sold this holiday season. But no one knows for sure when the Christmas tree first became popular in Christian households.

Some historians think it evolved from the Paradise tree, a fir tree hung with apples and wafers, which represented the Garden of Eden in a medieval miracle play often performed on December 24. By the 1700s, most Germans decorated small trees in their homes at Christmas.

The first Christmas trees in America appeared during and shortly after the Revolutionary War, when German mercenaries fighting for the British hauled trees into their barracks. The custom slowly spread throughout America. And the first recorded Christmas tree lot was set up on a New York City sidewalk in 1851.

Five years later, Franklin Pierce became the first President to decorate a Christmas tree in the White House.

But by the time Theodore Roosevelt became President, he was so concerned about the number of trees being chopped down that he banned all Christmas trees in the White House!

“But Adonai laughed, and played more languidly.”

- Liber LXV, IV:16

Crowley’s comment:

“Adonai replies to the passage, vv. 11-14, by simply changing the rhythm of his music to a more languid measure. In this way he implies that there is no need for haste or anxiety.”

Kien, Moon of Earth.

“Incompetence and lameness; time for the great man to aid thee in the climb.”

Third and fifth line moving:

“Advance not; seek again thine ancient clan! … Struggle! Friends come to prosecute thy plan.”

Khwăn, Yoni of Yoni.

“Great, originating, right and fair, piercing and helpful, firm as in the mare. If the true man should move, his feet will stray; for him to follow is his proper way.”

Third and fifth line moving:

“Maintain, but boast not virtue’s majesty. … Behold the yellow skirt; ill fortune fly.”

Today marks the day of equal light and dark, the first day of autumn, the passing of the long days of summer into the sleep time/renewal time of winter. Those who are aware of seasonal changes have already noticed a ever so slight chill in the air that wasn’t there last week. The leaves are just beginning to hint at changing to their gorgeous fall show.

Even though the Autumnal Equinox is not a Hunian Holiday, I think I will light a candle and have a cup of Awa.

The ancient people who lived on this planet were much more in tune with nature than most westerners are today. Maybe that’s part of the problem with society now – the spiritual starvation, the disconnection. We seem to have lost our ‘roots’. Nature waits patiently for our return.

Hunian Makahiki (new year) is celebrated on the Vernal/Spring Equinox, the return of the Light. Even as a child I felt Spring was the actual start of the new year, not January 1st, the middle of winter! But there are some good beliefs associated with that – Dec 21, being the shortest day means the return of the light, even if it is imperceptible to a child (it was COLD and DARK as I remember). But Spring has always always always been my favorite time of year and since everything is new a fresh, seemed like a wise choice to this child

Gen 1:14  And God said, Let luminaries be in the expanse of the heavens, to divide between the day and the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.
for signs-constellations  Psa 19:1
(oth-H225 (in the sense of appearing); a signal (literally or figuratively), as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence, etc.: – mark, miracle, (en-) sign, token.,

and for seasons—moon, Psa 104:19
Psa 104:19  He made the moon for seasons {moedim}; the sun knows its going down.
mô‛êd  /  mô‛êd  /  mô‛âdâh
BDB Definition:
1) appointed place, appointed time, meeting
1a) appointed time
1a1) appointed time (general)
1a2) sacred season, set feast, appointed season

and for days–sun,

and years–stars: procession of equinoxes

Beginning of the year

The year begins in the month of Nisan which occurs in the Spring at the tekufah or the turn of the year when the sun has completed its orbit back to the constellation of Aries.

Job 38:32  Can you bring out the constellations in their season; or can you guide the Bear with its sons?

Precession of the equinoxes

Modern astronomers have classified every fixed star in the heavens into groups called Constellations. Those groups, however, which lie close to the plane of the ecliptic, were arranged into Constellations in very ancient times, and were considered to form the belt of the natural and actual Zodiac, through which the Sun appeared to travel in its yearly pilgrimage around our earth. This was the Zodiac of the Constellations, and the ancients divided it into 360° or 12 signs of 30° each.

Exo 12:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
Exo 12:2  This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Deu 16:1  Observe {H8104 shâmar} the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.

In the time of Josephus the vernal equinox was in Pisces, same today.  In Moshe’s time the Vernal Equinox was in Aries.  Yet Josephus still considered the beginning of the year as when the sun was in Aries.  Therefore, the vernal equinox isn’t the tekufah.  The tekufah is when the sun has went through its cycle.

Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 3.10.5
5. In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians,)

Psa 19:6  his (the sun) going forth from the end of the heavens, and his orbit (tekufah) to their ends; and nothing is hidden from his heat.
Exo 34:22  And you shall observe a Feast of Weeks for yourself, the firstfruits of the harvest of wheat; also the Feast of Ingathering at the turn (tekufah) of the year.
2Ch 24:23  And it happened, at the turn (tekufah) of the year, that the army of Syria came up against him; and they came into Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the leaders of the people from among the people; and they sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus.

Should the Tekufah (equinox) of Tammuz extend till after the Succoth Festival, or the Tekufah(equinox) of Tebeth till the sixteenth of Nisan, the year would be intercalated, so that the festivals might fall in their due seasons, viz., Passover in Spring, Succoth in Autumn.(Sanh 11b)

Works of Philo
ON THE LIFE OF MOSES, II – Part 4*

*Yonge’s title, A Treatise on the Life of Moses, that is to say, On the Theology and Prophetic Office of Moses, Book II.

(222) Moses puts down the beginning of the vernal equinox as the first month of the year

Extracts from the Canons of Anatolius on the Paschal Festival

But this segment they generally call the first dodecatomorium, and the equinox, and the beginning of the month, and the head of the cycle, and the head of the planetary course. But that segment, and the last dodecatemorium, and the end of the planetary revolution. Hence, also, those that place the first month in it, and that fix the fourteenth of the month by it, commit, as we think, no little and no common blunder. (16) But neither is this our opinion only, but it was also known to the Jews anciently, and before Christ, and was chiefly observed by them, as we may learn from Philo, Josephus, and Musaeus, and not only from these, but also from those still more ancient, i.e., the two Agathobuli, commonly called the masters, and of Aristobulus, that most distinguished scholar, who was one of the seventy that translated the holy Scriptures from the Hebrew for Ptolemy Philadelphus, and his father, and dedicated his exposition of the law of Moses to the same kings. (17) These, when they resolve inquiries on Exodus, say that all ought to sacrifice the Passover alike after the vernal equinox, in the middle of the first month. But this is found to be when the sun passes through the first segment of the solar, or, as some call it, the zodiac circle. But this Aristobulus also adds, it was requisite that not only the sun should have passed the equinoctial segment for the feast of the Passover, but the moon also.  But that the first month of the Hebrews must occur after the equinox may be gathered also from the book of Enoch.”
“’Peter, the Bishop of Alexandria, mentions that the Jews had kept the Passover properly up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. But after the destruction of the city they ‘err in reckoning the beginning of the month, which is first amongst the months of the year, on the fourteenth day of which, being accurately observed, AFTER the equinox, the ancients celebrated the Passover according to the Divine Command: whereas the men of the present day now celebrate it BEFORE the equinox, and that altogether through negligence and error, being ignorant how they celebrate it in their season…” Anti-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI, p. 280.

…it is stated in Jack Finegan’s handbook of biblical chronology that when Solomon built the temple of Yahweh at Jerusalem that it was made specifically so that the sun would shine directly through the Eastern Gate on both the vernal and autumn equinoxes so that they could never get the calendar and Holy days incorrect.

Also, during the some 175 years of the Elephantine letters of the Jews in Diaspora in Egypt, never once did they start the year before either the precession of the equinoxes or the vernal equinox. Look at the following quoted Excerpt from: Kenneth F. Doig, New Testament Chronology, (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990).

“Many of these legal documents include the required Egyptian civil year date. Double-dated documents including the Hebrew dates of the Elephantine Jews cover the period 471 to 402 BCE. This included evening to evening days and a New Year beginning in Nisan (Aviv) only after the Vernal Equinox. Almost all of the datable documents can be referred back to a Nisan (Aviv) beginning only after the Vernal Equinox each year.”

Beginning of the Month

New Moon
H2320
chôdesh
1) the new moon, month, monthly
1a) the first day of the month
1b) the lunar month
from H2318

H2318
חדשׁ châdash
BDB Definition:
1) to be new, renew, repair

Chet – wall, separation

vav- connecting
dalet- door, path
Shin- consume

Literally new moon-chodesh means the separation, and connecting together of the cycle/pathway of the consuming (moon).

Chodesh comes from the parent root

The moon is only be united at two points.  When it is completely dark, or when it is completely full of light.

New moon conjunction occurs ever 29 days 12 hours 33 min 2.8 sec -moon phases are similar to a watch, in constant motion.

The precedent of Scriptural beginnings occur in the dark.

Creation began in darkness
Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth;
Gen 1:2  and the earth being without form and empty, and darkness on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moving gently on the face of the waters,
Gen 1:3  then God said, Let light be! And there was light.

Day begins in dark
Gen 1:5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Sabbath begins in the dark
Neh 13:19  And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath:

Life starts in the dark
Psa 139:13  For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 81 is the only biblical basis for establishing when the new moon occurs.  There is no Scripture reference of sighting a the crescent.

Psa 81:3 (81:4) תקעו בחדשׁ שׁופר בכסה ליום חגנו׃

Psa 81:3  Blow in the month a trumpet, In the new moon (keseh), at the day of our festival,

Targum Psalm 81
4. Blow the horn in the month of Tishri, in the month in which the day of our festivals is concealed.

In the apocryphal book of Enoch this concept is spoken of as well.

Enoc 78:1 And now, my son Mathusala, I have shown you everything; and the account of every ordinance of the stars of heaven is finished.
2 He showed me every ordinance respecting these, which takes place at all times and in all seasons under every influence, in all years, at the arrival and under the rule of each, during every month and every week. He showed me also the decrease of the moon, which is effected in the sixth gate; for in that sixth gate is its light consumed.
3 From this is the beginning of the month; and its decrease is effected in the sixth gate in its period, until a hundred and seventy-seven days are completed; according to the mode of calculation by weeks, twenty-five weeks and two days.

KJV version

Psa 81:3  Blow up the trumpet in the new moon (chodesh),

in the time appointed,

H3677
כּסה    כּסא
kese’  keseh
keh’-seh, keh’-seh
Apparently from H3680; properly fulness or the full moon, that is, its festival: – (time) appointed.
H3680
כּסה
kâsâh
kaw-saw’
A primitive root; properly to plump, that is, fill up hollows; by implication to cover (for clothing or secrecy): – clad self, close, clothe, conceal, cover (self), (flee to) hide, overwhelm. Compare H3780
H3780
כּשׂה
kâśâh
kaw-saw’
A primitive root; to grow fat (that is, be covered with flesh): – be covered

The Talmud, Sanhedrin 11b, indicates about Tehillim (Psalm) 81:3-4:

Tehillim (Psalm) 81:3 Blow the horn at the new moon, at the covering of the moon our feast day.

Now on which feast is the moon covered? We must say on the New Year (Rosh HaShana – Yom Teruah – Feast of Trumpets). And it is thereupon written:

Tehillim (Psalm) 81:4 For this is a statute for Israel, a judgment of the God of Jacob.

on our solemn feast day.

The only other time keseh is used in the Scriptures

Pro 7:20  He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed (keseh).

John Gill’s Commentary on Proverbs 7:20
and will come home at the day appointed; and not before: Aben Ezra interprets it, at the beginning of the month, at the new moon, when the moon is covered (b),
Targum calls it the day of the congregation; some fixed festival day, when the congregation meets together; and at such a festival, or appointed time, this good man had fixed for his return, and when, and not before, he would.

(b) ליום הכסא “in die plenae lunae”, V. L. Michaelis; “novilunii”, so some in Vatablus, Piscator; “ad diem interlunii”, Cocceius, Schultens.

Keil and Delitzsch on Psalm 81:3

K&D
Concerning כּסה (Pro_7:20 כּסא) tradition is uncertain. The Talmudic interpretation (B. Rosh ha-Shana 8b, Betza 16a, and the Targum which is taken from it), according to which it is the day of the new moon (the first of the month), on which the moon hides itself,

John Gill commentary on Psalm 81:3
Psa 81:3 – Blow up the trumpet in the new moon,…. Either in every new moon, or first day of the month, which was religiously observed by the Jews, 2Ki_4:23 or rather the new moon, or first day of the seventh month, the month Tisri, which day was a memorial of blowing of trumpets, Lev_23:34, and so the Targum,

“blow the trumpet in the month of Tisri,”

in the time appointed; so Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret the word of a set fixed time; see Pro_7:20, the word (a) used has the signification of covering; and the former of these understand it of the time just before the change of the moon, when it is covered, which falls in with the former phrase; and so the Targum,

“in the moon that is covered;”

though the Latin interpreter renders it,

“in the month which is covered with the days of our solemnities,”

there being many festivals in the month of Tisri; the blowing of trumpets on the first day of it, the atonement on the tenth, and the feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth. But De Dieu has made it appear, from the use of the word in the Syriac language, that it should be rendered “in the full moon”, and so directs to the right understanding of the feast next mentioned;
(a) בכסה “quum tegitur luna”, Piscator; “ad verbum in obtectione”, i. e. “eum obtegatur luna a sole”, Amama.

כסהKasah is the exact same Hebrew word as Keseh, only with different vowel pointings.  It is translated as concealed, hidden, covered etc.

Pro 12:23  A wise man conceals (kasah) knowledge, but the heart of fools calls out their folly.

The Targum on Numbers 28:14 and the New Moon
This burnt sacrifice shall be offered at the beginning of every month in the time of the removal of the beginning of every month in the year; and one kid of the goats, for a sin offering before the Lord at the disappearing (failure) of the moon, with the perpetual burnt sacrifice shalt thou perform with its libation.

Rashi

The beginning of the lunar month occurs at the moment of conjunction between the sun and the moon; i.e. at the moment when the position of the moon is exactly between the earth and the sun. At this point, termed as the molad, or “birth”, the moon is not visible from the earth. At least six hours must pass before a very small portion of the moon will reappear. The day on which this occurs is regarded as the first day of the new month. (Rashi)

Hillel the Elder

Hillel the elder 10 bc reinstituted conjunction observance

It is a well-known fact, for instance, that the First Mikdash was destroyed in 586 BCE and the Second Mikdash was consecrated in 516 BCE, and destroyed in 70 CE. The Second Mikdash, therefore, stood 585 years (not 586), while according to Jewish chronology, it stood only 420 years (See Yoma 9a and Yerushalmi Megilah I, 12).
After the Babylonian captivity the Jews carried back with them the Babylonian solar/lunar calendar and used it to determine the dates for high Holy Days.
But at the time when the Messiah was born a man came on the scene and later started a school. His name was Hillel the Elder. Not to be confused with Hillel II who changed the calendar to what we have now with all the postponments.
A study of this man is enlightening. His writing is very much like the Messiah in many ways. In particular the scriptures about the Beatitudes. His views were very much like the Messiah.

The decree of establishing the Rosh Hodesh on the basis of calculations which are unconnected to the appearance of the moon was enacted by the Rabbanite, Hillel the Elder. The method was guarded as a secret to keep the people from knowing about the change and therefore was called by our brothers the Rabbinites “The Secret of Intercalation” (this is testified to in many Rabbinite works, for example “Magid Harakia`” p.35).

Twinkling of an eye

Psa 72:7  In His days the righteous shall flourish (bud, fly)*, and plenty of peace, till the moon is not (when there is no moon).

*Pointing to the resurrection…Yom Teruahclick here
1Co 15:52  In a moment, in a glance of an eye, at the last trumpet; for a trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed.
Rabbi Eliezer describes the molad(conjunction) as a “twinkling of an eye” in Rabbi Eliezer-The Course of the Moon p55

Molad

Rosh Hashana 20b
Samuel said: I am quite able to make a calendar for the whole of the Diaspora.  Said Abbat the father of R. Simlai to Samuel:  Does the Master know [the meaning] of this remark which occurs in [the Baraitha known as] the secret of the Calendar?  ‘If the new moon is born before midday or after midday’?  –  He replied: I do not.  He then said to him:  Since the Master does not know this, there must also be other things which the Master does not know.  When R. Zera went up [to Palestine], he sent back word to them [in Babylon]:  It is necessary that there should be [on New Moon] a night and a day of the new moon.  This is what Abba the father of R. Simlai meant:  ‘We calculate [according to] the new moon’s birth. If it is born before midday, then certainly it will have been seen shortly before sunset.  If it was not born before midday, certainly it will not have been seen shortly before sunset’.  What is the practical value of this remark? —-R. Ashi said:  To [help us in] confuting the witnesses.

The molad emtzai (average molad, used for the traditional Hebrew calendar) is based on a constant interval cycle that is widely but incorrectly regarded as an approximation of the time in Jerusalem of the mean lunar conjunction. Each molad moment occurs exactly 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 3+1/3 seconds after the previous molad moment. This interval is numerically exactly the same as the length of the mean synodic month that was published by Ptolemy in the Almagest. Although this interval quite closely approximates the average time between lunar conjunctions, in the present era it is about 3/5 second too long.

The traditional epoch of the cycle was 5 hours 11 minutes and 20 seconds after the mean sunset (considered to be 6 hours before midnight) at the epoch of the Hebrew calendar (first eve of Tishrei of Hebrew year 1).
The molad amiti (true molad), which has no relevance to the Hebrew calendar, is the time at which the actual astronomical lunar conjunction occurs, often expressed either as the mean solar time in Jerusalem (Universal Time + 2h 20m 56s or simply + 2h 21m) or as the clock time in Israel. If the moment is desired for ritual or social purposes then it may be best to express it in terms of the local clock time.

“Môlêd is a Hebrew word meaning renewal, rejuvenescence. It would be properly applied to the phase of the moon at the instant of time when her Conjunction with the Sun takes place. It is, however, commonly used not for the actual time of New Moon, but for the computed time, which governs the commencement of each year and of each Cycle…The length of a Lunation, as adopted by the founders of the present permanent calendar, is a constant quantity, whereas the Lunations of the true Moon are variable in their duration. The Moon of the Jewish Calendar is a mean or average Moon moving uniformly, in the same way as the artificial Moon of Hilarius [i.e., the “moon” (molad) of the CRC is likewise artificial], which is used in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars.” (S.B. Burnaby, “Elements of the Jewish and Muhammadan Calendars”, London: George Bell & Sons, 1901, p.40)

“The moment that the moon passes between the Earth and the sun is called the Molad – the birth of the moon. It is the theoretical beginning of the new month” [10] (Understanding the Jewish Calendar, Rabbi Nathan Bushwick, pp.39-40 –emphasis mine)

Calculating the new moon

How could David make these statements with such certainty?
1Sa 20:5 And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow [is] the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third [day] at even.
Jonathan also, knew with certainty that tomorrow is the New Moon? How?
1Sa 20:18 Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow [is] the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.

The book of Enoch describes calculations of the heavenly bodies

Enoc 78:1 And now, my son Mathusala, I have shown you everything; and the account of every ordinance of the stars of heaven is finished.
2 He showed me every ordinance respecting these, which takes place at all times and in all seasons under every influence, in all years, at the arrival and under the rule of each, during every month and every week. He showed me also the decrease of the moon, which is effected in the sixth gate; for in that sixth gate is its light consumed.
3 From this is the beginning of the month; and its decrease is effected in the sixth gate in its period, until a hundred and seventy-seven days are completed; according to the mode of calculation by weeks, twenty-five weeks and two days.

Wis 7:14  For she is a treasure unto men that never faileth: which they that use become the friends of God, being commended for the gifts that come from learning.
Wis 7:17  For he hath given me {Solomon} certain knowledge of the things that are, namely, to know how the world was made, and the operation of the elements:
Wis 7:18  The beginning, ending, and midst of the times: the alterations of the turning of the sun, and the change of seasons:
Wis 7:19  The circuits of years, and the positions of stars:

Gemara Rosh HaShana 25a:
“Our rabbis taught: Once the heavens were covered with clouds and the likeness of the moon was seen on the 29th day of the month. The public mistakenly thought to declare the New Moon and the Sanhedrin wanted to sanctify it. Rabban Gamliel, however, said to them: I have it on the authority of my father’s father house (Hillel) that THE RENEWAL OF THE MOON TAKES PLACE NO LESS THAN EVERY TWENTY-NINE DAYS, TWELVE HOURS, TWO-THIRDS OF AN HOUR AND
SEVENTY-THREE PARTS(*).”

(*) The hour is divided into 1080 parts for easy calculation without fraction. Thus, two-thirds of an hour = 720 parts plus 73 parts = 793. In rabbinical literature the calculation is therefore given as 29 days, 12 hours and 793 parts of an hour.

8. Maimonides (Rambam) codified the Oral Tradition as recorded in the Talmud.
Rambam, Laws of Sanctification of the Month 6:2-3:

“2. The day and the night consists of 24 hours, 12 for the day and 12 for the night, in any season. THE HOUR IS DIVIDED INTO 1,080 PARTS. The reason for dividing the hour into this number of parts is that this number may be divided without a remainder by two, four, eight, three, six, nine, five, and ten, and with these denominators the fractions may again be divided into many other parts.

3. By these figures, the interval between two conjunctions of moon and sun according to their mean motion is 29 DAYS AND 12 HOURS OF THE 30th DAY, BEGINNING WITH THE NIGHT OF THIS DAY, AND 793 PARTS OF THE 13th HOUR. THAT IS THE TIME WHICH ELAPSES BETWEEN OME (MEAN) CONJUNCTION AND THE OTHER, AND THAT IS THE DURATION OF THE LUNAR MOON.”

9. According to the Oral Torah which was handed by the Sages, the time between one New Moon and the next is 29 days, 12 hours and 793 parts of an hour.

793
—- = (0.734259) = (0.03059)
1080—–Hours———Days

If we add 29.5 days, we receive a total of 29.53059 days.

10. According to NASA, the length of the “synodic month”, i.e. The time between one New Moon and the next, is 29.530588 days. The difference between this figure and that used by the Sages is .0000006, or sixth millionth of a day.

To achieve that astronomical accuracy NASA had to fly very
sophisticated instruments to the space, free of
atmospheric interference.

“…the present Jewish calendar originated in Babylon during the period of the Gaons—the religious leaders who dominated academia as heads of various Babylonian academies (Ency. of Religion and Ethics, s.v. “Calendar”). One of the Gaons asserted that the existing calendar system was of great antiquity and the new moons and festivals had always been established by calculation. His view was that the observation of the moon had not been put to use until the third century BC, its purpose to demonstrate the accuracy of calculation, this, in order to refute dissenters. His view was that calculation and observation had always agreed. His arguments were soundly repudiated by both Karaites and Talmudists on the basis of Talmudic records (ibid).” (The Hebrew Calendar: Is It Reliable?, Bethel Church of GOD 1999; slightly reworded from: Church of God, The Eternal’s article of the same title from 1994)

30 AD

In 30 A.D. the Conjunction and the V.E. both occured on the same day!
Equinox was on March 22 at 1:a.m. and the Conjunction was at 8 P.M.

Messiah Yahshua was crucified in 30 AD

March 22, 30 AD = Nisan/Aviv 1
March 29 John 12:1 six days before Pesach Yahshua comes to Bethany to have supper
March 30 John 12:12 Yahshua makes His triumphal entry
March 31 Mark 11:12-17 Yahshua curses the fig tree, casts out the money changers

April 2 Olivet discourse
April 4th sunset Pesach (last supper) Mtt 26:17; Mk 14:12; Lk 22:7
April 5th Preparation day for High Sabbath
April 6th 1st day of Unleavened Bread High Sabbath
April 7th Preparation of spices
April 8th Sabbath, at sunset Messiah arises
April 9th Messiah appears to disciples

The only way of getting a Wednesday crucifixion is by counting the from the conjunction.  Scripture & history show that Messiah was crucified on Wednesday.

“For they began to hold a council against the Lord on the second day of the week, in the first month, which is Xanthicus; and the deliberation continued on the third day of the week; but on the fourth day (Wednesday) they determined to take away His life by crucifixion” (Apostolic Constitutions-Didascalia Apostolorum, book V, section 1, paragraph xiv).

“Jesus’ Passion began on a Wednesday”
Hans Lietzmann. A History of the Early Church. The World Publishing Company:Cleveland, 1963
It is interesting that the tradition of a Wednesday crucifixion has an ancient origin. Philip Schaff, in his monumental History of the Christian Church, reports that a number of the early Christian congregations observed “the weekly commemoration of the sufferings and death of the Lord” on Wednesdays — even while others observed Fridays. Gradually, however, the Wednesday tradition disappeared.
The Didascalia, an early Christian work, also supports the Wednesday commemoration of the Messiah’s death. In this work the apostles are quoted as saying that it was on Tuesday that they ate the final supper with the Messiah, and that on Wednesday he was taken captive and held in custody in the house of Caiaphas. However, this account is highly suspect due to the fact that the apostles were not aware of the Roman names for the days of the week — these came along after their deaths.
Also, Epiphanius, a post-Nicene writer, protests that Yeshua could not have been arrested on the night of Thursday-Friday; the false tradition for him is that which puts the Last Supper on Thursday evening. The correct one, according to Epiphanius, is that which places it on Tuesday. Moreover, an early chronology worked out by Victorinus of Pettau came to the conclusion that Yeshua must have been put to death on a Wednesday.
Finally, there is a certain amount of evidence found in the writings of the early church fathers for the Last Supper having taken place on Tuesday. And, according to the way the Jews reckoned time, Nisan 14 began at sundown that day — supposedly falling on a Wednesday that year.

Wednesday April 5th….Preparation Day…Passover… Abib 14…Lev 23:5
Messiah died at 3 pm
Mar 15:34  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Mar 15:35  And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias.
Mar 15:36  And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.
Mar 15:37  And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
Mar 15:38  And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
Mar 15:39  And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

He was placed in a tomb before the first day of Unleavened bread (a High Sabbath)
Mat 27:57  When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:
Mat 27:58  He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
Mat 27:59  And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
Mat 27:60  And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
Mat 27:61  And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.
Joh 19:40  Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
Joh 19:41  Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
Joh 19:42  There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

Thursday April 6th…. Abib 15 High Sabbath Lev 23:6-7; John 19:31
Joh 19:31  The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

Mat 27:62  And on the morrow, which is after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees were assembled to Pilate,
Mat 27:63  saying, Sir, we have recalled that that deceiver while living said, After three days I will rise.
Mat 27:64  Therefore, command that the grave be secured until the third day, that His disciples may not come by night and steal Him away, and may say to the people, He is raised from the dead. And the last deception will be worse than the first.
Mat 27:65  And Pilate said to them, You have a guard, go away, make it as secure as you know how.
Mat 27:66  And going along with the guard, they made the grave secure, sealing the stone

Friday April 7th…. Abib 16
Luk 23:56  And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.   mk 16:1

Saturday Sabbath April 8th…Abib 17 Exo 20:8-11
Luk 23:56  And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

End of the sabbath “dawning/beginning”{Lk 23:54} of 1st day
Mat 28:1  In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

The word for dawn here is G2020 ἐπιφώσκω epiphōskō which means dawn. However, this word is also used for the beginning of Shabbat.

Luk 23:54  And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.

and the sabbath drew on, or “shone out”; which is so said, though it was evening, on account of the lights, which were every where, in every house, lighted up at this time, and which they were, by their traditions, obliged to: for so run their canons (c);

“three things a man is obliged to say in the midst of his house on the evening of the sabbath, when it is near dark, have ye tithed? have ye mixed? (i.e. the borders of the sabbath, the courts and food) הדליקו הנר, “light the lamp”.”

This was what could by no means be dispensed with; for so they say (d),

“the lighting of the lamp on the sabbath is not in a man’s power, (or at his liberty,) if he pleases he may light, and if not, he may not light.—-But it is what he is obliged to, and every man and woman are bound to have in their houses a lamp lighted up on the sabbath; and though he has nothing to eat, he must beg, and get oil, and light a lamp; for this is included in the delight of the sabbath.—-And he that lights, ought to light within the day, before the setting of the sun.”

So that when these lamps were every where lighting, before the sun was set, and the sabbath properly come, it might be said to draw on, or to be shining forth. Besides, it was usual to call the evening of any day by the name of “light”: thus it is said (e),

אור לארבע עשר, on the light (i.e. the night) of the fourteenth (of the month “Nisan”), they search for leaven, &c.”

So that the evangelist might, very agreeably to the way of speaking with the Jews, say, that the sabbath was enlightening, or growing light, though the evening was coming on.

(c) Misn. Sabbat, c. 2. sect. 7. (d) Maimon. Hilch. Sabbat, c. 5. sect. 1, 3. (e) Misn. Pesachim, c. 1. sect. 1.

Late Saturday-Sunday Abib 18
Early yet dark
Joh 20:1  The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

Sunday April 9th…Abib 18
Mar 16:2  And very early in the morning **** the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
Mar 16:3  And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
Mar 16:4  And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.
Mar 16:5  And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.
Mar 16:6  And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen(He was already risen on Saturday afternoon); he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
Luk 24:1  Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
Luk 24:2  And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
Luk 24:3  And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
Luk 24:4  And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
Luk 24:5  And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
Luk 24:6  He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
Mar 16:9  Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
Mar 16:10  And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.
Mar 16:11  And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.
Mar 16:12  After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.
Mar 16:13  And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.
Mar 16:14  Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

*****λίαν πρωῒ The phrase used here in Mk 16:2 for very early is similar to Mark 1:35  πρωΐ ἔννυχα λίαν

Mar 1:35  And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

Yahshua the Messiah died on Wednesday April 5 AD 30 and arose Saturday April 8 AD 30

Messiah said He would be in the heart of the earth 3 days and 3 nights. It was the only sign He would give that proved He was the Messiah
Mat 12:38  Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
Mat 12:39  But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
Mat 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Daniel’s prophecy lines up with 30 AD

A day of prophetic fulfillment is a year in actual time (Ezek 4.4-6) & (Num 14.34). The total number of years from the decree to restore Jerusalem until the ministry of Messiah is figured this way: 69 (weeks) X 7 (days a week) equals 483 prophetic days, or 483 years of actual time.
The decree was issued to Ezra by King Artaxerxes of Persia (Ezra 7.8 -11). This decree officially established Jerusalem as a provincial capital city, under its own governor, within the Persian Realm. The seventh year of Artaxerxes was the calendar year from September 458 BC to September 457 BC.
The 483 years of the 69 week prophecy extended from that time forward to AD 27. That was the time Yahshua the Messiah began His ministry. 69 X 7 = 483 years – 457 BC the year the decree was issued This leaves a subtotal of 26 years, or AD 26 The prophecy of Daniel 9 contains another prophetic week, making a total of 70 weeks.
Since AD 26 -adding 3 1/2 half years of the ministry of Yahshua would bring us to the Spring AD 30, the time of His death. Yahshua was about 30 in the Autumn of AD 26.
Three decrees concerning Jerusalem are recorded, that of Cyrus, B.C. 536 (Ussher), for the restoration of the “house of the Lord God of Israel” (2Chr. 36.22.23; Ezra 1.1-3); that of Darius (Ez. 6.3-8, B.C. 521-486), and that of Artaxerxes in his seventh year (Ez. 7.7, say, B.C. 458). Artaxerxes in his twentieth year, B.C. 444 (Hales, Jahn), 446 (A.V.), 454 (Ussher, Hengstenberg), gave permission for the rebuilding of the “city,” i.e., “Jerusalem” (Neh. 2.1-8). The latter decree is obviously, that from which the “seven weeks” (49 years) run, unless by “the commandment to restore,” etc. is meant the divine decree (Dan. 9.23).
In the present state of biblical chronology the date of the decree of Artaxerxes cannot be unanswerably fixed farther than to say that it was issued between 454 and 444 B.C. In either case we are brought to the time of Christ. Prophetic time is invariably so near as to give full warning, so indeterminate as to give no satisfaction to mere curiosity (cf. Mat. 24.36; Acts 1.7). The 434 years reckon, of course, from the end of the seven weeks so that the whole time from “the going forth of the commandment to restore,” etc., “unto the Messiah” is sixty-nine weeks of years, or 483 years.

Miracles that happened in 30 AD

“Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the western light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson, and the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand. They would close the gates of the Temple by night and get up in the morning and find them wide open” (Jacob Neusner, The Yerushalmi, p.156-157). [the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE]
“Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot ['For the Lord'] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the western most light shine; and the doors of the Hekel [Temple] would open by themselves” (Soncino version, Yoma 39b).
The Jerusalem Talmud states:
”Said Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai to the Temple, ‘O Temple, why do you frighten us? We know that you will end up destroyed. For it has been said, ‘Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars’ ” (Zechariah 11:1)’ (Sota 6:3).

1st Century disagreements over the Calendar

Sadducces, who had rule during temple times opposed the Pharisaic/Talmudic reckoning of new moon

Decline of Sadduceeism.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=40&letter=S#224
Whether the Sadducees were less strict in regard to the state of impurity of woman in her periods (Niddah iv. 2), and what object they had in opposing the determination by the Pharisees of the appearance of the new moon (R. H. ii. 1, 22b; Tos. R. H. i. 15), are not clear.
Essenes also had a problem with the calendar in use at that time

Vanderkam, J.C., “2 Maccabees 6, 7a and Calendrical Change in Jerusalem Vol. XII No.1, 7/81, pp.52-74
“Yoma 19b The Qumran community, for their own reasons, also rejected the leadership of the Jerusalem priesthood.  “The priestly establishment, headed by the Wicked Priest, and the people who accepted their spiritual leadership worshipped according to a differing calendrical system, and on this account the Essenes from Qumran considered them sinners, willing violators of divine instructions”

“As for the exact determination of their times to which Israel turns a blind eye, behold it is strictly defined in the Book of the Divisions of the Times into their Jubilees and Weeks.”  CD xvi, 2-4

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English pg 78-79
The Essenes followed a solar calendar of 364 days, 52 weeks precisely.  Each of its four seasons was thirteen weeks long divided into three months of theiry days each, plus an additional ‘remembrance’ day (1QS x, 5) linking one season to another (13 x 7=91=3 x 30 + 1).  In tune in this way with the ‘laws of the Great Light of heaven’ (1QH xii, 5) and not with the ‘festivals of the nations’ )4QpHos=4Q171 ii, 16).  Its unbroken rhythm meant that the first day of the year and of each subsequent season always fell on the same day of the week.  For the Essenes this was Wednesday, since according to Genesis 1:14-19 it was on the fourth day that the sun and moon were created.  Passover was always celebrated on Wed., the Feast of Weeks on Sun., the Day of Atonement on Fri., Feast of Tabernacles on Wed. etc..

The Essenes also divided the year into 7 fifty day periods (pentecontad calendar) each marked by an agricultural festival (Feast of New Wine, Feast of Oil etc) The Feast of New Wheat coincided with the Feast of Shavuot and was the principal holy day of the year, the Renewal of the Covenant.  The Book of Jubilees agrees with the Essene calendar where the Feast of Shavuot is together with the Feast of the Renewal of the Covenant, celebrated on the 15th day of the 3rd month. (Jub. 6, 17-19; 4Q266 fr. 11 ii, 270 fr. 7 ii)
Jubilees Chapter 6
15 it and not be rooted out. And He gave to Noah and his sons a sign that there should not again
16 be a flood on the earth. He set His bow in the cloud for a sign of the eternal covenant that there
17 should not again be a flood on the earth to destroy it all the days of the earth. For this reason it is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets, that they should celebrate the feast of weeks in this
18 month once a year, to renew the covenant every year. And this whole festival was celebrated in heaven from the day of creation till the days of Noah -twenty-six jubilees and five weeks of years [1309-1659 A.M.]: and Noah and his sons observed it for seven jubilees and one week of years, till the day of Noah’s death, and from the day of Noah’s death his sons did away with (it) until the days of Abraham, and
19 they eat blood. But Abraham observed it, and Isaac and Jacob and his children observed it up to thy days, and in thy days the children of Israel forgot it until ye celebrated it anew on this mountain.
20 And do thou command the children of Israel to observe this festival in all their generations for a
21 commandment unto them: one day in the year in this month they shall celebrate the festival. For it is the feast of weeks and the feast of first fruits: this feast is twofold and of a double nature:
22 according to what is written and engraven concerning it, celebrate it. For I have written in the book of the first law, in that which I have written for thee, that thou shouldst celebrate it in its season, one day in the year, and I explained to thee its sacrifices that the children of Israel should remember and should celebrate it throughout their generations in this month, one day in every year.
23 And on the new moon of the first month, and on the new moon of the fourth month, and on the new moon of the seventh month, and on the new moon of the tenth month are the days of remembrance, and the days of the seasons in the four divisions of the year. These are written and ordained
24 as a testimony for ever. And Noah ordained them for himself as feasts for the generations for ever,

Even Rabbis bickered amongst themselves about the calendar
Rabbi Gamaliel II, who endeavoured to humiliate Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah sent him the following instruction: ‘I charge you that you come to me with you staff and your money on the Day o fAtonement according to your reckoning’ (Rosh Hashanah ii, 9)

Rabbi’s believe they have the right to make incorrect calendars
Rabbi Akiba’s Messiah pp102-103
The text says, ‘you’, ‘you’, ‘you’, three times, to indicate that ‘you’ (may fix the festivals) even if you err inadvertently, ‘you’, even if you err deliberately, ‘you’, even if you are misled.’ Rabbi Akiva Rosh Hashana 25a

Daniel Gruber “Rabbi Akiba’s Messiah” pg 82
“According to the Rabbis, God Himself would obey whatever they decided. Related to the issue of the inaccurate announcement of the new moon which we looked at earlier is the claim that, “Heaven itself yields to the authority of the earthly court of justice as to the fixing of the calendar and the festival days.”

Incorrect Calendar and Yom Kippur
http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Crash_Course_in_Jewish_History_Part_25_The_Second_Temple.asp
According to the Talmud, during the First Temple period of about 410 years, there were only 18 High Priests. During the Second Temple period of 420 years, there were 300 High Priests! We know (from the Talmud, Yoma 9a) that Yochanan was High Priest for 80 years, Shimon was High Priest for 40 years, and Yishmael was High Priest for 10 years. That means in the remaining 290 years there were 298 priests – one ever year or so. What accounts for that?
The Talmud tells us that the Holy of Holies was forbidden ground, except for Yom Kippur. On that one day only, the High Priests entered to perform special rites before God. But if he himself was not spiritually pure and unable to focus, he would not be able to stand the intense encounter with God and would die on the spot. We know that during the Second Temple Period a rope had to be tied to the High Priest, so that in case he died, he could be pulled out of the Holy of Holies.
Because the whole High Priesthood was a corrupted institution for most of the Second Temple period, the High Priests died every year. And yet people clamored for the job, which went to the highest bidder. So the question has to be asked: If he was going to die on Yom Kippur, who would want the position? One possible answer is that the candidates had such huge egos that they thought they were the ones who were going to make it. That is how bad things got.
According to jewish writings 420 years from building of temple of Zerubabel to the destruction of the temple in 70 AD
Shimeon righteous 40 years
Yochanan 80 years
Eliezer 10 years
290 priests only lasted one year and died on Yom Kippur; needed to go in on right day
Lev 10:1  And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.
Lev 16:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died;
Lev 16:2  And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.

The Encyclopedia Judaica informs us that the name Pharisee is derived from the Hebrew word “perushim”; which means “cast out”.  Originally the Sadducees cast the perushim out of the Sanhedrin for their heretical ideas.  These “cast out” Perushim, usurped the Zadokite Dynasty with the Hasmonean Dynasty — and only 35% of the time did they come out of the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, alive.

The Gemara (Yoma 9a) states that the first Holy Mikdash where the Dynasty of Zadok served and which stood for 410 years, only had 18 High Priests who served in it.  Tosafot state that Divrei Hayamim (I Chronicles 5:36) itemizes only eight High Priests who served.

In the second Holy Mikdash, which abided for 420 years, more than 300 Pharisee priests served.  If you subtract the 40 years which Shimeon the Righteous served, the 80 years which Yochanan the High Priest served, the 10 years which Yishmael b. Fabi served or, as some say, the 11 years of Rabbi Eleazar b. Charsum, and then count the number of High Priests from then on — you will find that none of them completed his year in office.  The Jewish Press, Friday, May 9, 1997 states: “They all died when they entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur to pray for a good year for all Jews.  This happened because they were corrupt.  They bought the high priestly office for money and also accepted bribes.”

The people were so accustomed to see the priests die that they tied a rope around them and, when they didn’t walk out from the Holy of Holies, the people knew they had died and they were then pulled out, for no one else was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies.

Crescent Moon Sighting

The crescent sighting can occur anywhere from 6 hours to 72 hours after the conjunction.  YHWH is not the author of confusion.

The new moon sighting in Jerusalem has only been able to be observed in the last decade/century due to the advancement in communications.  Does this mean that every generation of believers since the times of the second Temple have not been keeping the Feasts on the right days?

Psalm 81:3 is written in Hebrew syntax (just ask Nehemia Gordon). Feasts on the 15th are exactly half a month after the conjunction of the new moon.  If the crescent sighting is the beginning of the month then the full moon is never half a month later.

YHWH created the heavenly bodies for times and seasons.  The crescent puts the times and seasons into our hands.  Man has to sight the first sliver of the new moon, man announces when the month starts.  The conjunction leaves the calendar in the hands of the Almighty.  He is the one that created the heavenly bodies and He is the One that ordained how they move about in the heavens.

What happens when the sky is cloudy?  The new moon is pushed off another day or man just decides that the crescent would have appeared that night so the new month is announced.  This is confusion.  YHWH is not the author of confusion.

There is a specific word for crescent in Hebrew which is never used in connection with the new moons.

H7720
שׂהרן
śahărôn
BDB Definition:
1) moon, crescent
1a) as ornament
Part of Speech: noun masculine
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from the same as H5469

You can find in the book “The Secret Language Of Symbols” written by David Fontana, ISBN 0-818-0462-3 (with index) or ISBN 0-8118-0489-5 (without index). There are many references to the Queen of Heaven in Scripture, that being one of the “trinity” godhead of the christian religions.
You can find on page 121 shown with the icon, “A symbol of ascent from the underworld (the three days of the dark moon). The crescent moon is an attribute of Isis, the Great Mother of the Egyptians, and in Christian iconography, of the Virgin Mary”.

YHWH commanded us not to worship the heavenly bodies…given mankind’s affinity with idolatry, would He really tempt us by having us star at the sky looking for a crescent moon to start the month?
Deu 17:2  If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
Deu 17:3  And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

Deu 4:15  Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
Deu 4:16  Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
Deu 4:17  The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
Deu 4:18  The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:
Deu 4:19  And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

Usage of the word saharon in Scripture
Jdg 8:21 Then Zeḇaḥ and Tsalmunna said, “Rise yourself, and fall on us. For as a man is, so is his might.” So Giḏʽon arose and slew Zeḇaḥ and Tsalmunna, and took the crescent ornaments which were on their camels’ necks.

Isa 3:18 In that day יהוה  takes away the finery of the anklets, and the headbands, and the crescents,

Some say that in Psalm 81:3, the word keseh does not mean the dark moon Psalm 81 but keseh means covered w/ light?  If this were the case, the word atah, not keseh would have been used.

Here is an example Albert Barnes
In the time appointed – The word used here – כסה  keseh – means properly the full moon; the time of the full moon. In Syriac the word means either “the first day of the full moon,” or “the whole time of the full moon.” (Isa Bar Ali, as quoted by Gesenius, Lexicon) Thus, the word means, not as in our translation, in the time appointed, but at the full moon, and would refer to the time of the Passover, which was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the lunar month; that is, when the moon was at the full. Exo_12:6.

However it is clear that the word keseh means to cover and conceal.  If the Holy Spirit was trying to convey a covering of light, as the full moon would be, the word atah would have been used as it is in the following verses:

Psa 104:2  covering Yourself with light like a cloak, and stretching out the heavens like a curtain;
Psa 84:6  Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

H5844
עטה
‛âṭâh
BDB Definition:
1) to cover, enwrap, wrap oneself, envelop oneself
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to wrap, envelop oneself
1a2) to cover (the beard in mourning)
1a3) mourner, one who covers (participle)
1b) (Hiphil) to cover, enwrap, envelop
2) to grasp
2a) (Qal) to grasp
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root

Crescent sighting
The Talmud says that during the 2nd Temple period the new moon was proclaimed by the crescent sighting, however the rabbis in the Talmud are not passed lying in order to attain, or keep power.  The Sadducees did not agree w/ the Pharisees on the calendar but because only the writings of the Pharisees have been preserved we can not be sure what the point of dissension was.  The Essene sect also disagreed on the calendar, probably disagreeing with both Sadducees and Pharisees.  It is not impossible to imagine that much of what has been written in the Oral Law about the calendar is purely fantasy in order for the Pharisees/Rabbis to keep power over the Jewish people.

Secondly, the only source of the crescent sighting being the Biblical start of the month comes from the Talmud.  There is absolutely no Scriptural evidence to support this.

Can the Talmud be trusted as historical fact?
“It [the Mishnah] purports to describe how things are. But it tells us more about a fantasy than about the real palpable world, the world concretely known to the people who wrote about it.”3
3 Jacob Neusner, Messiah, 24.

If a person heard a ruling and it seems to him that the law is thus, he is permitted to say it in the name of a great person so that the people will accept it from him. -Magan Avraham, Orach Chayim 156b (canonical commentary on the 17th century Shulchan Aruch)

Georges Batault in his 1921 book Le Probläme Juif confirms this tendency of “the Jews” to falsify history to suite the contemporary and future Jewish Agenda:

“The exegesis which consists in distorting texts in order to bring out of them what they desired is the only ’science’ which can be traced to the Jews. It became in the hands of the Judaeo-Alexandrians, a formidable arm that, by the perfidious force of their veiled lies, enrolled Hellenism, in spite of itself, into the service of the exclusivism and the religious proselytism of the Israelites. The attempt to ‘Judaise’ Hellenism, which today appears to us so perfectly absurd and disastrous, has had, nevertheless, the result of obscuring the intelligence of humanity for hundreds of years.”

The Rabbis could sanctify the month whether or not a crescent was seen or not
Rosh Hashana 24a
The head of the beth din says, sanctified’, and all the people repeat after him, sanctified, sanctified. Whether the new moon is seen at its proper time or not at its proper time, in either case [the new moon] is sanctified. R. Eleazar B. Zadok, however, says that if it is not seen as [at] its proper time [the new moon] is not [formally] sanctified, because heaven has already sanctified it

Here is the ‘evidence’ for the crescent sighting being the start of the month

Sacred Books of the East vol. 4 pg 75  Exodus Rabba
The rite of proclaiming and sanctifying the month at the
appearance of the new moon is traced back to the time of the
Exodus, when Nisson was placed at the head of the months.
The ceremony was of the same importance as are dates in
legal documents and in evidence, and the month only began
when it had been proclaimed by the representative of the
community.

“The beginning of the months were determined by direct observation of the new moon. Then those beginning of months (Rosh Hodesh) were sanctified and announced by the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, after witnesses testified that they had seen the new crescent and after their testimony had been thoroughly examined, confirmed by calculation and duly accepted.” (Arthur Spier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, p.1, section: HISTORICAL REMARKS ON THE JEWISH CALENDAR)

“But unless all indications are deceitful, they did not in the time of Jesus Christ possess as yet any fixed calendar, but on the basis of a purely empirical observation, on each occasion they began a new month with the appearing of the new moon…” [5] (Emil Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, p.366)

“…Rejecting the fixed calendar as a heretic innovation, the Karaites held that by law of Scripture the beginning of the months must be determined by the appearance of the new crescent and no other means, and that this had been the practice of ancient Israel at all times. Rabbanite refutation of this extreme assertion found its most outspoken exponent in Saadia Gaon, who went to the opposite extreme in ‘demonstrating’ that the fixed calendar, computation of molad and tekufah, has the force of a Mosaic-Sinaitic law that had been followed at all ages of the past [like some in the CoGs proclaim], while observation of the new crescent was merely a passing episode in the history of the Jews, introduced at the time of the Sadducees to show that it confirmed the correctness of the prescribed calendaric regulation by calculation. Although this contention could easily be refuted by the Karaites as fanciful to the point of ridicule, Saadia’s prestige was so great that his theory was accepted even by leading scholars…..Maimonides [12th century A.D] is one of the few medieval Rabbanite authorities known to have taken issue with Saadia’s and his followers’ contention, and his refutation amounts to unmitigated reproach, indeed to expression of intellectual as well as religious indignation. [Maimonides commented:] ‘I am truly astonished over a personage who rejects clear evidence, asserting that the religion of Israel was based, not on observation of the new moon, but on calculation alone–and yet he [Saadia] affirms the authority of all these (just mentioned) Talmudic passages! I think indeed that he did not believe his own assertions, but he merely wished to repel his [Karaite] adversary by any notion that just occurred to him, be it true or false, when he had found himself unable to escape the force of (his adversary’s) argument.’” (The Code of Maimonides, book II, treatise 8, translated by Solomon Gandz, Yale Judaica Series, Volume XI, pp.lii-liii)

“The Talmudic Rabbis [ca. first half of the third century C.E. (i.e., prior to 250 C.E.) to the end of the fifth century C.E.] recognised the variation in length of the synodic month…and hence they determined the beginning of every month separately by observation of the new moon as well as by calculation.” (W.M. Feldman, Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy, Hermon Press, 1965, p.123)

“In mishnaic times [the Mishnah was completed ca. 200 C.E.], though the authorities were familiar with astronomical calculations, the new moon was fixed on the basis of observation, which meant that, as a rule, the bet din formally proclaimed the New Month only after it had heard evidence of witnesses who had actually seen the new moon.” (Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 14, article: Rosh Ha-Shanah, p.311)

Midrash Shemot Rabbah 15:24

When the Sanhedrin sanctified a new month, what blessing did they make? Some Rabbis say that the blessing recited was “Blessed are You Hashem, Who renews the months.” Other Rabbis say that the blessing recited was “Blessed are You Hashem, Who makes the months holy.” Other Rabbis say that the blessing recited was “Blessed are You Hashem, Who makes the Children of Israel holy.”

Because if the Children of Israel do not sanctify the moon, it does not become holy at all!

Don’t be surprised by this, because Hashem made Israel holy, as it says “And you shall be holy to Me, for I, Hashem, am holy…” (Leviticus 20:26). And since the Children of Israel are holy and special to heaven, whatever they make holy is truly holy.

Do you want to understand this? Take a lesson from the Serving Vessels in the Holy Sanctuary. Moses sanctified the Tabernacle. Who sanctified all the Tabernacle’s Vessels? You might think that Moses did. But actually, what happened was that a priest would bring a simple mundane cup or other vessel, and put something holy in it, and the cup would automatically become holy. It worked the same way as when Moses sprinkled sacrificial blood on the Altar, and it became holy; or when he poured a wine libation, or performed any aspect of the Holy Temple Service with any mundane vessel, and it thereby became holy.

Now, if a simple, mundane cup becomes holy when it is filled with something holy, all the more so the Children of Israel, who are themselves holy, should have the ability to make the month holy!

The Holy One, blessed is He, said, “I am holy. I Myself make things holy. I will make Israel holy, and they will fill the world with holiness by declaring Me holy. Therefore, the Torah says, “And you will be holy to Me, for I, Hashem, am holy…(ibid),” and “I am Hashem Who makes you holy” (Leviticus 20:8).

That is what King David means when he says “You are holy; You are enthroned by the praises of Israel” (Psalms 22:4)

And when did Israel begin to sanctify the months? In Egypt, as it says “This month shall be the first month for you…” (Exodus 12:2).

In the following passage the crescent moon was sighted, but because the Rabbis didn’t sanctify the month, the new month didn’t start.  This passage also shows the rabbis knew how to calculate the months
Rosh HaShana 25a Our Rabbis taught: Once the heavens were covered with clouds and the likeness of the moon was seen on the twenty-ninth of the month. The public were minded to declare New Moon, and the Beth din wanted to sanctify it, but Rabban Gamaliel said to them: I have it on the authority of the house of my father’s father that the renewal of the moon takes place after not less than twenty-nine days and a half and two-thirds of an hour and seventy-three halakin.[6] On that day the mother of Ben Zaza died, and Rabban Gamaliel made a great funeral oration over her, not because she had merited it, but so that the public should know that the Beth din had not sanctified the month.[7]
[6] Lit., ‘parts’ (sc. of one hour), 73/1080 X 60 m == 4 m 3 1/3 sec. The new moon, therefore, could not be seen on the twenty-ninth day.

“WHEN THE TEMPLE WAS STANDING THEY USED TO PROFANE SABBATH FOR ALL THE MONTHS, IN ORDER THAT THE SACRIFICE [OF NEW MOON] MIGHT BE OFFERED ON THE RIGHT DAY…. WHETHER [THE NEW MOON] HAS BEEN SEEN CLEARLY OR HAS NOT BEEN SEEN CLEARLY, SABBATH MAY BE PROFANED ON ACCOUNT OF IT.” (Mas. Rosh HaShana 21b)

“HOW DO THEY TEST THE WITNESSES? THE PAIR WHO ARRIVE FIRST ARE TESTED FIRST. THE SENIOR OF THEM IS BROUGHT IN AND THEY SAY TO HIM, TELL US HOW YOU SAW THE MOON — IN FRONT OF THE SUN OR BEHIND THE SUN? TO THE NORTH OF IT OR THE SOUTH? HOW BIG WAS IT, AND IN WHICH DIRECTION WAS IT INCLINED? AND HOW BROAD WAS IT? IF HE SAYS [HE SAW IT] IN FRONT OF THE SUN, HIS EVIDENCE IS REJECTED. AFTER THAT THEY WOULD BRING IN THE SECOND AND TEST HIM. IF THEIR ACCOUNTS TALLIED, THEIR EVIDENCE WAS ACCEPTED, AND THE OTHER PAIRS WERE ONLY QUESTIONED BRIEFLY, NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE REQUIRED AT ALL, BUT SO THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE DISAPPOINTED, [AND] SO THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE DISSUADED FROM COMING.”  (Mas. Rosh HaShana 23b)

“R. GAMALIEL USED TO HAVE A DIAGRAM OF PHASES OF THE MOON ON A TABLET [HUNG] ON THE WALL OF HIS UPPER CHAMBER, AND HE USED TO SHOW THEM TO THE UNLEARNED AND SAY, DID IT LOOK LIKE THIS OR THIS?”  (Mas. Rosh HaShana 24a)[21]

Either way, the Scripture does not make absolutely clear how we are to observe the new moon.  Some people believe the calendar that the ancients Hebrews followed was a solar calendar which is known as the Jubilees calendar today.  This was the calendar the Essenes followed.  There are some today that follow a lunar calendar where the sabbath can fall on different days of the week.  In the end, the most important thing is that we are seeking to follow His Torah to the best of our understanding.  Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.

Rom 14:5  One indeed judges a day above another day; and another one judges every day alike. Let each one be fully assured in his own mind.

Babylonian Calendar

Crescent and Babylonian calendar

http://www.friesian.com/calendar.htm

The Babylonian Calendar
after R.A. Parker & W.H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology
[Providence, Rhode Island, 1956]

The beginning of the month in the Babylonian calendar was determined by the direct observation by priests of the young crescent moon at sunset after the astronomical New Moon. This custom is remembered in Judaism and Islâm with the principle that the new calendar day begins at sunset. In Islâm, months whose commencement is of religious significance, like the month after the Fast of Ramadân, still depend on the actual observation of the crescent moon by a respected religious authority

If weather prevented the observation of the crescent, the Babylonians would begin the new month anyway after 30 days. In the Jewish and Islâmic calendars, each month is given a conventional length, alternating 30 days and 29 days. For convenience, the table at left applies that device for the Babylonian months, which will enable us to construct a working model of the Babylonian calendar without the priests of Marduk.

From wikipedia.org
The Babylonian calendar was a lunisolar calendar with years consisting of 12 lunar months, each beginning when a new crescent moon was first sighted low on the western horizon at sunset, plus an intercalary month inserted as needed by decree. The calendar is based on a Sumerian (Ur III) precedecessor preserved in the Umma calendar of Shulgi (ca. 21st century BC).

Counting from the new moon, the Babylonians celebrated every seventh day as a “holy-day”, also called an “evil day” (meaning “unsuitable” for prohibited activities). On these days officials were prohibited from various activities and common men were forbidden to “make a wish”, and at least the 28th was known as a “rest-day”**.

**Origin of lunar sabbath?

On each of them, offerings were made to a different god and goddess, apparently at nightfall to avoid the prohibitions: Merodach and Ishtar on the 7th, Ninlil and Nergal on the 14th, Sin and Shamash on the 21st, and Enki and Mah on the 28th. Tablets from the sixth-century B.C. reigns of Cyrus the Great and Cambyses indicate these dates were sometimes approximate. The lunation of 29 or 30 days basically contained three seven-day weeks, and a final week of nine or ten days inclusive, breaking the continuous seven-day cycle.
Pinches, T.G. (2003). “Sabbath (Babylonian)”. in Hastings, James. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. 20. Selbie, John A., contrib. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 889-891. ISBN 9780766136984. http://books.google.com/books?id=qVNqXDz4CE8C. Retrieved 2009-03-17.

Did Israel begin observing the crescent moon as the start of the month after they came out of Babylon?  In the time of David when the Psalms were penned, Psalm 81 makes it clear that the new moon was the conjunction/concealed moon.

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Why is January 1st New Year’s Day?

It’s not the summer or winter solstice.

It’s not the vernal or autumnal equinox.

It’s not a big religiously important day … as far as I know.

It’s a regular day with no special significance.

Do you know why it was picked as the start of the New Year?

It’s because some Pope just decided it.

… I bet it was the bastard’s birthday!

Does New Year’s Day really have to start on the first of any month?

What’s the difference?

note: I’d pick the first day of spring like it was in the Middle Ages … or my birthday.

double note: The Chinese New Year makes a lot more sense to me now … except for that dragon stuff.

triple note: people could have 2 New Year’s Days: one for the Northern Hemisphere and one for the Southern Hemisphere. Who cares really? … extra days off of work too!

quadruple note: If you think I’m picking on the Catholic Church, I’ll pick on Science instead: one word  … “Pluto“.

quintuple note: It’s amazing what people accept as “the way it is” because that’s just “the way it has been” for a while.

sextuple note: People living way way up North would probably vote against the summer solstice as New Year’s Day because … they wouldn’t be able to see their fireworks.

septuple note: 

… and don’t get me started on what the first day of the week is!!!

octuple note: from ask jeeves or ask … as it likes to be known now.

Among the ancient peoples, New Year’s Day was traditionally celebrated in conjunction with the vernal or autumnal equinox or the summer or winter solstice. In the Middle Ages it was set at the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere, usually on March 25.

The Gregorian calendar, which is widely in use throughout the western world today, was initially decreed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. January 1 was declared as the first day of the new year on 1 January 1622.

http://humor-blogs.com/

ze nnews im mbrief

-> I have a cold, I have a sore throat, I have a headache, I have dry lips, I have a red nose, I have red eyes and they are running. I have a dribbling mouth. I have a lot of toilet paper and the waste paper basket is by my side. I empty it every 4 hours. The content will be good fertilizer for the garden.

-> I don’t have fever. I don’t have cramps. I don’t have stomachache. I don’t have diarrhoea. I don’t have bird flu. I don’t have malaria. I don’t have two red hot iron bars in my nostrils (I’ve checked it in the mirror).

ozer mnews im mbrief

-> I can write & I can think too -very hard, slowly and exclusively about my nose, but I can think.

-> I can’t smoke. I can’t have coffee. I can’t eat. I can’t remember what french fries (Ikarian style -my favorite) taste like.

here iz zome mbore mnews

-> I delivered the final draft of something and it was well received.

-> I went out to see a piece of land (a cliff actually). I liked that piece of land.

-> I met the man with the earth mover (bulldozer) who is going to make a road to the land I liked.

He is going to destroy at least half of the beauty of that land (not to mention that the road will be very risky and probably slide down and disappear alltogether), however the price of the land will rise because it will be ‘accesible’ then.

-> I liked that man. !!!

These 4 factors combined together undermined and weakened my (overloaded) system, so I caught a virus (as it usually happens with me) and now I’m running on “safety mode” tzzz krk krk bzizk apstchou !…

+ zome goodz mnews

-> today waz ze firzt day of zpring. “Earini Isimeria” = equal day-equal night. Εαρινή Ισημερία.

-> many ozers too, not only me, are ill, the zame az me.

-> I got rid of the idea that I am harming the tourism of Ikaria with my pictures in Flickr.

-> Someone is coming tonight to rub my back with warm alcohol. I will be allowed (and I’ll allow myself) to groan, sigh & moan during the process. I’ll be allowed (and allow myself) to be ill.

more zome other day

iz enybody interezted in reading ze story ov my life?

I feel like writing ze story ov my life rightz now. Or maybe it’z becauze I’m ill.

I’ll thimk amboud it ndomorrow.

kisses viruses

El

P.S. did you know? I was going to post that photo of the sea here anyway but then as I opened my blog I saw the last of Jimmy P’s comments. I dedicate this photo to him. No one should deprive anyone of such a view of the sea. It must remain public.

No mostruous buildings on the waterfronts of this world. Venice let be only one!

Tags: aegean, froid, equinox, vernal-equinox, squall, ραγάνι, venice, tourism, υπομονή, my-nose, winter, πόνος, earthmover, dig-dig-dig, οικοπεδοποίηση, preservation, story-of-my-life, real-estate | Edit Tags Tuesday March 21, 2006 – 01:04pm (PST) Edit | Delete

Next Post: “Ze Sntory Ov My Live” (Episode 1) Previous Post: “Leni in Ikaria with Galanthi”

• Jimmy P
• Offline

Grazie 1000 per la dedica, sono onorato.

Wednesday March 22, 2006 – 01:41am (CET) Remove Comment

• Ψαλακ…
• Offline

Get well soon, El! It’s difficult to read the blog when you type with a stuffy nose

Telling your life story, eh? That sounds like it has a bit more soul-stealing potential than a photograph to me.

Tuesday March 21, 2006 – 10:22pm (EST) Remove Comment

• greg
• Offline

The sea is endless, life is not, that’s what it means.

Tuesday March 21, 2006 – 07:39pm (PST) Remove Comment

• AKK
• Offline

μπερασντικά !
Είμαι γκι εγκώ γκρυωμένος γκαι η μπύντη μου είναι μπουλωμμένη.
We look forward for spring and here’s what we get… hahaha

Wednesday March 22, 2006 – 01:04pm (EET) Remove Comment

• elle
• Offline

there is terrific tempest of the equinox blowing right now right here. I won’t go out to take pictures. I’m staying in drinking tsipouro (like ‘grapa’ hey Jimmy?) in warm water with honey. Good medicine… Felicia, my cat, sings me her songs. She is pregnant.

Thursday March 23, 2006 – 03:49am (PST) Remove Comment

• Lambr…
• Offline

iv it heppns agen, edd sam sinnamon barrk & a fiu cloves 2 ze hottt tsipouromelo… “u uil rimembrr mi”

Wednesday May 13, 2009 – 10:03pm (EEST) Remove Comment

• elle
• Offline

copied that -:) tanx

Wednesday May 13, 2009 – 12:38pm (PDT)

Vernal Equinox: 2007

Sean Briskey – guitar, backing vocals

Victor Vieira-Branco – percussion

Colin Peterik – vocals, organ, keys

Will Gumbiner – bass guitar

Lobster Newberg made their debut in 2007 with “Vernal Equinox.” I was working for Progressive Archives at the time, and was asked to evaluate the band for possible inclusion. Let me tell you, I was immediately impressed. What was even more impressive was how young these guys were (high school age). This album sounds as if it was done by a group of seasoned veterans. The professional aspect could have something to do with the fact that vocalist / keyboardist Colin Peterik is the son of Jim Peterik (Ides of March, Survivor), but the raw talent involved here is the real key.

The music is definitely retro, with an emphasis on organ. You can tell these guys spent a lot of time with their parents’ music collections. However, it is still original and fresh. There is also a jam band feel, but there is decidedly more structure than that. So, pinning these guys down was not an easy task. This is why Lobster Newberg eventually ended up in the Eclectic sub-genre at Prog Archives (after much discussion I can assure you).

 It would also seem that this is primarily Colin’s project (this view is upheld by the fact that none of the other band members appear on the next album). He must have a good network with which to find musicians, because all of these guys can play, and play well.

 ”Equinox” begins with a decidedly psychedelic intro, and then the organs kick in. The tome is a bit menacing, and the band decides to flex its muscle right away. Strength is the vibe I get. The song itself is actually more of an intro to “Paradox.” Once here, things are much more mellow and haunting. It is also the first time Peterik sings. He has an excellent rock voice, and there is a definite familiarity (I was trying to peg who he sounds like, and closest comparison I could come up with is Gary Brooker from Procol Harum). About halfway through, the pace picks up. The tone even changes as they go into a boogie blues. Then it goes into full prog exhibition, and finishes back at the main theme.

 ”Lloyd” is a rock out in the grand style of Deep Purple, and others like them. Once again, these guys prove they are worthy of banner they carry.

 ”Tobasco > Sauce” is a little odd. It starts out sounding like cheese (but loveable) horror movie music. You may think they were trying to pen a new them for “Tales from the Crypt.” When the melody and vocals kick in, it puts me in the mind of “Secret Agent Man.” Maybe that’s because a few of the lryics are similar, but there is also something else. The mid break gets Latin, and has a great trumpet part. One thing is certain, Lobster Newberg never lets you get too comfortable in any song.

 From the intro of the next track, you would never guess what’s coming. It sounds like another big prog blast is coming. All of a sudden you are snapped back, and say to yourself, “What? Is that … The Turtles?” Yep, it’s a cover of “Happy Together.” I bet you never thought something like this could be prog, but remember, Yes did it with The Beatles. They jam it for all it’s worth too.

 ”Flaunch” is the one that will have you bobbing your head, and singing along. Here is a tune that the Black Crows only wish they could have done.

 ”Woods” is the softer side of the Lobster (well, at the beginning and end anyway). In a way it puts me in the mind of R.E.M.. However, the jam out is nothing like the aforementioned alternative rockers. Versatility, and the ability to pull of poignant beauty is demonstrated, if only briefly.

 ”Irwin” is a more jazz influenced version of the Deep Purple sound.

 ”African Bridesmaid” is really just another excuse to jam.

 ”Wentworth” is an attempt at a little more depth and diversity, and the longer “epic” of the album. They do pull it off, but there are some problems. The piece is constructed around a theme, but it tends to get lost. It is still a good track, and contains many good ideas. I think it just could have used more time in development. I view this one as a preview of possibilities for the future.

 ”Solstice” brings back that poignant beauty I mentioned earlier. In the end it falls apart into the psychedelic aspect of the beginning, thus making it an apt closing. There is also “Hidden Track,” which just continues the psychedelic musings, and adds backward tape (very Beatle-esque in my opinion).

Here is a solid album, and even more impressive considering the source, and that it is a debut. Sure, it’s not perfect, and very derivative, but it’s still very good. It’s also the first time out, so there is plenty of room for growth. The music is bold, exciting, and full of hooks. Even if prog isn’t your bag, you should have no problem rocking out with this.

On the Spring or Vernal Equinox, also known as Ostara, named for the lunar Goddess Eostre, night and day stand in perfect balance with the powers of light on the ascendancy.  The Sun is halfway through its journey from Imbolc to Beltane.  The Goddess is clad in all Her finery and the God, as He moves through Nature, leaves trails of green in his wake.  At this time the Maiden Goddess & young God are aware of one another and Their ability to procreate through union, an awareness that culminates in consummation at Beltane.

On this day we celebrate renewed life and fertility by boiling and decorating eggs, the universal symbol of fertility and creation.  Another common theme is the bunny.  This is also a symbol of fertility and was sacred to the Goddess Eostre. 

Renewal isn’t reserved just for the plants, animals and deities, though.  As above so below; our physical, emotional and spiritual lives follow this cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth also.

During the Yule season, we set goals for a more positive future.  At Imbolc we cleared away stagnant energy and banished bad habits and unproductive attitudes to make way for a happier life.  Spring has arrived and the Goddess has provided a grand opportunity to make good on those goals.  Spring is all about Fresh Beginnings.  Start making new, more positive habits.  If you haven’t already, start your spring cleaning, but remember that de-cluttering basements and washing windows is only the physical aspect.  Take time to do some spiritual spring cleaning, also.  Any bad habits that have survived the Imbolc Clearing should be taken to the curb with last week’s trash.

Now is the time to bless seeds for growth.  It’s time to plant the seeds of our desires, both physically and spiritually.  Start seeds indoors or begin purchasing seedlings to nurture until after the last frost when they’ll be presented to Mother Earth.  It’s time to sign up for that class or learn that skill that’s been put off for too long.  It’s time to take action, any action that will make a positive change in your life.

Make time to meditate daily and connect with the Goddess. Go outside and welcome Spring with open arms, an open mind and an open heart.

Mike Klay 'Vernal Equinox' Edition of 200 Size: 38 x 12 Inches $40 Each

I just got the update from Mike Klay about his latest releases. Here is a stunner called ‘Vernal Equinox’ it is as ususal, an over sized horizontal beauty. This 2 color screen print is 12 inches high and 38 inches wide on French Speckletone True White with an edition size of 200 for only $40 each. Mike has 3 other concert posters going online as well. All 3 of these concert posters are great but the Bloc Party and the Mates Of State posters are banging! I wish there was no font version of these artworks! Maybe that will be a later release!

My peeps

In the Roman Catholic Church there are two days/celebrations/observances that are often misconstrued with the Vernal Equinox.

The first mistaken day is The Annunciation of Blessed Mother Virgin or as I like to call her the, BMV.   The annunciation of BMV simply put is the natural announcement and conception of BMV with the solar God.  At this time, we must remember that BMV is a virgin, which in those days meant, Unmarried.  I am just going to let that speak for itself and hang for a minute.

Virgin=Unmarried…..hhhmmm…..

The other mistaken day is Easter.  Which understandably is focused on the rising of Jesus and his ability to rise above death, the darkest of all dark.  However,  what we know to be Easter Sunday, may be very different to it’s origin.  Easter comes from a lunar Goddess named, Eostre, whose two main icons were a bunny and an egg.

You ask, why a bunny and an egg?  Well, they both symbolize fertility, while the bunny is believed to be seen during the full moon.   What is more interesting, is that based on Roman Catholic views, celebrations do not take place on full moons, therefor Easter is celebrated the first Sunday after the first full moon, which is after the Vernal Equinox.

I bring these facts to you because I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter, Happy Passover and a Happy Vernal Equinox!

It’s been a bit of a rough go in the theatre community lately; too many stories of inoperable brain tumours, incurable cancer, and inescapable car crashes. One colleague was wise enough to re-schedule his flight and go to the hospital. He later learned that had he gotten on that airplane, he would almost certainly have died.

It’s made the world feel very dangerous suddenly.

• Buckle your seat belts
• Come to a full stop at all the stop signs
• Go to the doctor when that voice says “Thing here aren’t right.”
• Tape bubble wrap around your body
• Put on  a helmet 
• Look both ways before you cross the street.
• Don’t swim alone
• Exercise caution
• Trust your instincts
• Wear socks without holes so people don’t think I’m a bad mother.  

DD2’s Birthday pics

Cake! Om nom nom

hey! that's my present!

What you looking at?

Nanny Rose and DD2

The Celtic festival of Ostara/Eostre/Spring Equinox/Vernal Equinox follows about 6 weeks after Imbolc.Celebrated by Pagans as the festival of balance, awakening, new life and the first day of Spring.This when day and night are of equal length but this when days become longer and the days warmer.Later Christianised as Easter, Oestre, the Goddess of light, brings fertility.This is the root of the word ‘oestrus’, the time in an animal’s sexual cycle when it is fertile, and oestrogen is the hormone stimulating ovulation.I attended the free and open Gorsedd at Avebury with lots of my friends.It was nearly a 200 strong circle that was formed.I had to sit out most of the celebration as DD2 was teething and very unsettled.
Afterward we attended Sarah and Martin’s handfasting.Handfasting is a traditional ceremony of (temporary or permanent) betrothal or wedding.
The term is derived from the verb to handfast, used in Middle to Early Modern English for the making of a contract of marriage.
The term is originally a loan from Old Norse hand-festa “to strike a bargain by joining hands”.
The Council of Trent changed Roman Catholic marriage laws to require the presence of a priest. This change did not extend to the regions affected by the Protestant Reformation, and in Scotland, marriage by consent remained in effect.
By the 18th century, the Kirk of Scotland no longer recognized marriages formed by mutual consent and subsequent sexual intercourse, even though the Scottish civil authorities did. This situation persisted until 1940, when Scottish marriage laws were reformed.
In the 18th century, well after the term handfasting had passed out of usage, there arose a popular usage.
Pagan handfasting
In the present day, some Pagans practice this ritual. The marriage vows taken may be for “a year and a day”, a lifetime, “for all of eternity” or “for as long as love shall last”. Whether the ceremony is legal, or a private spiritual commitment, is up to the couple. Depending on the state where the handfasting is performed, and whether or not the officiant is a legally recognized minister, the ceremony itself may be legally binding, or couples may choose to make it legal by also having a civil ceremony. Modern handfastings are performed for heterosexual or homosexual couples, as well as for larger groups in the case of polyamorous relationships. Currently, handfasting is a legal Pagan wedding ceremony in Scotland, but not in England, Wales or Ireland.
As with many Pagan rituals, some groups may use historically attested forms of the ceremony, striving to be as traditional as possible, while others may use only the basic idea of handfasting and largely create a new ceremony.
As many different traditions of Paganism use some variation on the handfasting ceremony, there is no universal ritual form that is followed, and the elements included are generally up to the couple being handfasted. In cases where the couple belong to a specific religious or cultural tradition, there may be a specific form of the ritual used by all or most members of that particular tradition. The couple may conduct the ceremony themselves or may have an officiant perform the ceremony. In some traditions, the couple may jump over a broom at the end of the ceremony. Some may instead leap over a small fire together. Today, some couples opt for a handfasting ceremony in place of, or incorporated into, their public wedding. As summer is the traditional time for handfastings, they are often held outdoors.
A corresponding divorce ceremony called a handparting is sometimes practiced. In a Wiccan handparting, the couple may jump backwards over the broom before parting hands.
As with more conventional marriage ceremonies, couples often exchange rings during a handfasting, symbolising their commitment to each other. Many couples choose rings that reflect their spiritual and cultural traditions, while others choose plainer, more conventional wedding rings.

For more photos and reports on Pagan ceremonies held in Wiltshire please visit my friend’s website
]]> http://theabysmal.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/ye-oldde-new-year/ Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:22:42 +0000 TheAbysmal http://theabysmal.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/ye-oldde-new-year/ http://molz.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/of-moons-and-spring/ Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:48:25 +0000 molz http://molz.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/of-moons-and-spring/

On the way back home from badminton tonight I saw the moon in the sky. It looked like a moon straight out of a children’s book – a small crescent wedge in the inky blue sky,  silvery and with a curiously radiant yellow tinge, a mysterious and unexplainable luminous arc.  Looking at the moon caused me to recall images from my childhood, memories of long road trips around the interior of Pahang, for reasons long forgotten and of no consequence to a 5 year old. It would be late at night, my parents quietly chatting at the front of the car, and I would be lying on my back and stretching across the length of the backseat (if I was alone), and through the side window would be the moon, silently keeping pace with the car.  I was fascinated by how it always seemed to be above me, moving with perfect coordination, never faster, never slower, as the car hummed and whirred across the quiet highways. My head, resting on the backseat, bobbed with the vibrations of the car, lulling me into a fitful sleep until I arrived at my destination.

The vernal equinox has come and passed, causing a great deal of celebration around the world. British Summer Time has also come into effect, and sunset is suddenly, finally, at an acceptable time. Growing up in a equatorial country, I could never fathom the anticipation for and the delight spring brings to residents of the northern/southern hemispheres. After last year, I finally did, and now, spring is here…

]]> http://revpawelek.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/thoughts-in-preparation-for-easter/ Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:30:59 +0000 revjmason http://revpawelek.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/thoughts-in-preparation-for-easter/

Easter is a rich and multi-layered holy time, with roots reaching far back into human history. The story of the resurrection of Jesus is but one, fairly recent branch emerging from these roots—one, potent expression of the hope that arises in the human heart each year at this time as winter ends and “Lo, the Earth Awakes Again.”

Yes, Easter is the story of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem on a donkey, palm leaves in the road keeping down dust, shouts of “Hosanna,” turning over tables in the temple, washing feet, sharing bread and wine, prayerful struggle in the garden, betrayal, arrest, torture, the cross, weeping, taunting, “forgive them for they know not what they do,” “it is done,” death, tomb, stone rolled away, new life proclaimed.

And Easter is more. Easter is the land shifting from grey, frozen and barren, to brown, wet and muddy, to green, moist and growing. Easter is faint red buds dotting New England trees; crocus tips breaking through muddy earth; robins yanking earthworms from the muck; earthworms tilling and softening the dirt; field mice waking from winter slumbers and bouncing about meadows and lawns; brooks and streams, ponds and lakes swollen with melting snow. Easter is the thawing of the earth inspiring a thawing in our hearts.

Easter is the first planting; the farmer turning over soil; removing rocks brought forth from winter frost heaves; sowing seeds; tending crops; living not by the clock but by the rising and setting of sun and moon.

Easter is the ancient symbols of fertility—the egg, the rabbit—reminding us of birth and rebirth; reminding us of nature’s generative and creative capacity; reminding us of our own generative and creative capacity; reminding us of the persistence and  resilience of life; reminding us of our own persistence and resilience through even our most troubling and despairing moments in the depths of our darkest tombs; reminding us that stones can be rolled away and we can come back to lives of meaning and purpose.

Easter is the same spirit at the heart of the myth of Persephone, the grain maiden, renewer of the dead—the story of her return from her underworld journey through a ring of purple crocuses, into the embrace of her mother, Demeter.

Easter is the same spirit at the heart of Norwuz, the ancient Persian New Year celebration linked to the vernal equinox, a celebration of rebirth and renewal.

Easter is the same spirit at the heart of Ostara, the Neo-Pagan and Wiccan celebration of spring, looking back to the ancient and only dimly remembered Germanic goddess Eostre, Goddess of spring and fertility, Easter’s namesake.

Easter is the same spirit at the heart of the Passover Seder, the telling of the archetypal story of the movement from bondage to freedom, the movement from slavery to self-determination, the movement from death to life; the movement from a barren wilderness to a land flowing with milk and honey.

Easter is the same spirit of the child who senses the contradiction and asks, innocently, yet with that wisdom all children possess, “If they killed him, how can it be good?”

Easter is the spirit of those who engage in civil disobedience out of a conviction that wars founded on lies, motivated by revenge, and seeking petty, personal profit are atrocities and ought to be challenged in every way we can challenge them.

Easter is the spirit which transcends theology and doctrine and prays for peace, justice, reconciliation, and healing.

Easter is the hope—that idealistic, naïve hope—that human beings can come together in the midst of all that divides us and actually create peace, justice, reconciliation, and healing. Easter is the belief—that idealistic, naïve belief—that, as president Obama has said, “We are not irrevocably bound to a tragic past,” that we can indeed come together in the midst of all that divides us, in the midst of war and violence, and actually create peace, justice, reconciliation, and healing. Easter is the firm conviction, reborn and rekindled in our hearts with the coming of spring—that idealistic and naïve conviction—that we can come together and turn this world around for the better, turn this world around for the sake of peace, justice, reconciliation, and healing; turn this world around by bringing love to bear as the earth awakes again.

Happy Easter my friends. Amen and Blessed Be.

]]> http://apirateslifeforus.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/vernal-equinox-a-week-late/ Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:35:18 +0000 Diana http://apirateslifeforus.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/vernal-equinox-a-week-late/

So we I am running a little behind.

We’ve almost finished unpacking–I think I’ll say that for a few more weeks before it will really be true–but really we are….close.  We’ve also been busy catching up with friends and exciting times in their lives, on Thursday we  got to meet Felecia and Armando new twins–so beautiful and sweet–we are so excited for you guys!  Of course I forgot my camera but there WILL be pictures here….later.  As soon as I find my camera   KIDDING, just kidding.   Its here….somewhere.

Last Saturday was Keith’s birthday.  Fortunately for me we have friends who host a yearly “Vernal Equinox” party coinciding, of course with Spring and this year it fell ON Keith’s birthday–we had a fun, chili filled good time ending with the yearly bonfire.  A highlight is always Mike Stone and his legendary fire juggling act.  

Let’s get this fire started!

Sara, Keith and Hannah



Fire juggling and “jokes” a yearly adventure!





]]> http://tentativeequinox.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/world-theatre-day-message-2009/ Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:01:25 +0000 Tentative Equinox North http://tentativeequinox.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/world-theatre-day-message-2009/

Today is World Theatre Day. On this day, I traditionally give over my bjournal to the writer of the International World Theatre Day Message. This year’s writer is Augusto Boal. You can see the original here.

All human societies are “spectacular” in their daily life and produce “spectacles” at special moments. They are “spectacular” as a form of social organization and produce “spectacles” like the one you have come to see.

Even if one is unaware of it, human relationships are structured in a theatrical way. The use of space, body language, choice of words and voice modulation, the confrontation of ideas and passions, everything that we demonstrate on the stage, we live in our lives. We are theatre!

Weddings and funerals are “spectacles”, but so, also, are daily rituals so familiar that we are not conscious of this. Occasions of pomp and circumstance, but also the morning coffee, the exchanged good-mornings, timid love and storms of passion, a senate session or a diplomatic meeting – all is theatre.

One of the main functions of our art is to make people sensitive to the “spectacles” of daily life in which the actors are their own spectators, performances in which the stage and the stalls coincide. We are all artists. By doing theatre, we learn to see what is obvious but what we usually can’t see because we are only used to looking at it. What is familiar to us becomes unseen: doing theatre throws light on the stage of daily life.

Last September, we were surprised by a theatrical revelation: we, who thought that we were living in a safe world, despite wars, genocide, slaughter and torture which certainly exist, but far from us in remote and wild places. We, who were living in security with our money invested in some respectable bank or in some honest trader’s hands in the stock exchange were told that this money did not exist, that it was virtual, a fictitious invention by some economists who were not fictitious at all and neither reliable nor respectable. Everything was just bad theatre, a dark plot in which a few people won a lot and many people lost all. Some politicians from rich countries held secret meetings in which they found some magic solutions. And we, the victims of their decisions, have remained spectators in the last row of the balcony.

Twenty years ago, I staged Racine’s Phèdre in Rio de Janeiro. The stage setting was poor: cow skins on the ground, bamboos around. Before each presentation, I used to say to my actors: “The fiction we created day by day is over. When you cross those bamboos, none of you will have the right to lie. Theatre is the Hidden Truth”.

When we look beyond appearances, we see oppressors and oppressed people, in all societies, ethnic groups, genders, social classes and casts; we see an unfair and cruel world. We have to create another world because we know it is possible. But it is up to us to build this other world with our hands and by acting on the stage and in our own life.

Participate in the “spectacle” which is about to begin and once you are back home, with your friends act your own plays and look at what you were never able to see: that which is obvious. Theatre is not just an event; it is a way of life!

We are all actors: being a citizen is not living in society, it is changing it.

~ Augusto Boal

I will further be celebrating by going to a theatre trade show (not an oxymoron) this afternoon, and then going to see a show tonight. What are you doing to celebrate World Theatre Day?

]]> http://katiemakesart.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/dances-of-vice-vernal-equinox-ball/ Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:28:41 +0000 kszczypinski http://katiemakesart.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/dances-of-vice-vernal-equinox-ball/

Hello Chickadees,

Just back from another short journey to the city of New York…

This time around, I attended the Dances of Vice Vernal Equinox Ball-”Le Sacre du Printemps” (in French, so you know it’s classy) at the fabulous Montauk Club in Brooklyn.

It was wonderful to see all of the crazy fashions (especially the crazy Red Riding hood themed gowns*drool*) and “swim in the see of want” (as Sarah would put it.) I also of course enjoyed music by Melora Creager (big huge fan) and Fern Knight (never heard before that night, love it.)

{on the Melora note, she performed with current and past Rasputina comrade Daniel de Jesus and performed a heart-wrenching Stephen Sondheim medley of “Green Finch and Linnet Bird”/”Johanna” from Sweeney Todd. Sigh. Found a youtube rendition of old because I couldn’t get it out of my head…}

PS: Had no idea Daniel’s voice was so wonderful! ahh!

PPS: They also fulfilled my dream of hearing them play their cover of American Girl again. They made me like a Tom Petty song! Damn it all! They’re good!

I was utterly dazzled by everyone’s ardor and costume! I’m actually having a hard time writing coherently while thinking about this! So I might as well just show you rather that babble about it…

I took lots of photos, which are posted conveniently here, and some of which were featured in the most recent Dresden Dolls blog entry by my friend,  a one Mr. Brian Viglione (returning the blog love here, of course.)

Gander!



{please go and view the rest with the above link, much more to see…and read the rest of Brian’s blog! valuable music and art information. Eat off of his plate! It’s really full, as you will read…go see WIFS…watch the Marx Brothers, remember your favorite Golden Books from when you were a kid…I could go on.}

Now that your mouth is watering, and I have your attention-

Allow me to take a time out right here to personally plug Dances of Vice.

Seriously, Just…GO. If you’re any bit curious after any of this, it’s totally worth the money, the time to get ready (because obviously you are going to be wearing a powdered wig with antlers in it) and the trek to the city if you don’t live nearby. The entire concept of bringing back class, beauty, art, and formal dress to the modern party is genius. I think it’s exactly what everyone is looking for right now; A place where all of your senses are on overload and you experience a night-long feeling something akin to getting a backrub from an orgasm.

Call it escapism, if you want, but once you go, you’ll be hooked and marking your calendar months ahead to go again. C’est merveilleux.

th-th-the-thee-theet-

That’s all, folks!

Love K

pee ess: In my musical life, I’m in process of preparing audibles for public consumption. Will keep you posted…

]]> http://rootbeerandmilk.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/%e4%b8%89%e6%88%b8%e3%81%ae%e3%81%a9%e3%82%93%e3%81%b9%e3%82%8a/ Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:58:40 +0000 rootbeerandmilk http://rootbeerandmilk.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/%e4%b8%89%e6%88%b8%e3%81%ae%e3%81%a9%e3%82%93%e3%81%b9%e3%82%8a/

Winter officially ended last Friday, on a day recognized as important enough to merit a national holiday.   But don’t tell that to Aomori.  Vernal equinox or not, it won’t stop snowing until it’s ready to stop snowing, so you can quit asking “are we there yet?!”.

As long as the weather’s in denial, I thought I might as well avoid getting my hopes up.  We’ve had a few days of wonderful-smelling rain and some cruel hints of sunshine, but blizzards still loomed in the forecast.  This week saw yet another extension of white-grey skies and grey-white ground, so it couldn’t have been too inappropriate to drink some heavy, wintery-looking sake.

Sannohe no Donberi is, according to the bottle, a limited edition junmai-shu from a brewery in Hachinohe, on the eastern side of Aomori prefecture.  Sannohe is a town nearby, probably the sleepy snow-covered village pictured in the label’s artwork.  I have no photo of the bottle, but the milk-like sake looked pretty charming in my new pitcher and choko, I do think.

After a light shake, the reside from the bottom mixed around and, for the duration of the evening, never resettled.  This being nigori-zake, it’s more or less unfiltered (or filtered through something with a lot of holes).  The difference between this and a regular sake is a whole lot of rice mush.

So, how was it?  Well… it’s not for me.  My drinking partner loved it, more so than most sakes he’s tried, but I couldn’t finish even a single glass.  Despite a rather light aroma, the first sip had a bitter kick to it, and the texture was thick enough to feel like lotion going down.  A few gasps of floweriness bubbled up before being smothered back down into the muck, but it wasn’t enough to keep me sipping.

I’m not giving up on nigori-zake just yet, but maybe tonight I’ll pick a more reliable winter drink instead.

]]> http://sibyleyes.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/nowruz-annunciation-and-the-aries-new-moon/ Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:50:19 +0000 sibyleyes http://sibyleyes.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/nowruz-annunciation-and-the-aries-new-moon/

Spring is finally here!!! NOWruz officially kicked off on the vernal equinox of March 20th, ushering in a 13 day period of new year festivities celebrated by those of Persian descent all over the world. Nowruz or “New Day” is THE original new year as it signaled the rebirth of the earth after the death of winter. The origins of Nowruz predate all major religions and have its roots in Zoroastrianism, the worlds oldest religion.

Today is also the Feast of Annunciation which falls each year on my birthday. In Christianity, the Annunciation is the revelation to Mary by the angel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born the Son of God. The Son or S-U-N of God is another Christian tradition that has roots in Paganism. Those who are savvy in religious studies are aware that Emperor Constantine combined elements from both the Christian religion and the Pagan beliefs of the time to unite the people in a strategic political move.

We have all heard the story that after Jesus was crucified and dead in the tomb for three days, he arose anew. This is marked by the Sun’s “birthday” on Dec 25th after its lowest point in the sky where it was considered “dead” by the ancient sun worshipers. Therefore the Annunciation is really the announcement of the rebirth of the Sun.

Now the connection becomes clear between the Winter Solstice (birth of the Sun as it begins to grow in light) and the Annunciation on March 25, as it is exactly nine months earlier, nine months being the natural period of gestation of the baby in the womb. So hidden beneath the shroud of Catholicism is an event that actually celebrates the Vernal Equinox, when the buds of spring burst into bloom, just as Christmas is a celebration of the Winter Solstice, when the Sun ascends from darkness. This gnostic knowledge is the astrological key that opens the mind to a deeper understanding of the nature of religion and the religion of nature.



Today is the beginning of our salvation,
And the revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos:
“Rejoice, O Full of Grace, The Lord is with You!”

Another more personal synchronicity is that the Annunciation falling on the same day as my birthday correlates perfectly with my rising sign. I’ve just recently discovered the world of Sabian symbols for astrology, which has a unique symbol for every degree of each astrological sign. My rising sign is in 22° of Leo for which the Sabian symbol is- A Carrier Pigeon Fulfilling Its Mission!

This synchronizes with the dove that is depicted in paintings of the Annunciation. The rising sign is the sign that was ascending on the horizon at the time you were born and can be found only if you know your exact birth time/location. It is just as important if not more so than the sun sign for it is the face you present to the world and your role in the grand scheme of things.

Now it makes sense why I am compelled to take on the role of the Sibyl, for she IS a carrier dove spreading the good news of the coming of the Golden Age!

If you’d like to find your own Sabian symbols, you can look in your astrological chart and note the degrees of your sign in the major aspects of Sun, Moon and Ascendant. Here are mine:

Sun in Aries 5: A White Triangle is seen; it has Golden Wings!
Ascendant in Leo 22: A carrier pigeon fulfilling its mission!
Moon in Aquarius 12: A magnificent allegorical painting of life as a broad stairway with the landings various grades of life…

If you don’t have a chart, you can get a free one here:

Now, tomorrow is also a powerful new moon in Aries, a time for new beginnings! If you’ve been meaning to let go of anything from the past and embrace new changes, NOW is THE time to do it! Create a ritual, join the gym, improve your diet, start a new project, whatever it is you do will have the super charged Aries energy behind it so go on, JUST DO IT!

Every end is a new beginning,

Sibyl

]]> http://sambissell.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/equinox-image-a-few-days-late/ Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:05:12 +0000 sambissell http://sambissell.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/equinox-image-a-few-days-late/


Crocus Forest

I shot these on the morning of the Vernal Equinox. Opening to a new season after another season,which really didn’t have much presence. Quite apropos, I think.



They Leapt Up



Opening to A Clear Blue Sky



Taking Hold



Glowing From Within



The Opening and The Opened

By the way, this post is for Frankie, who knows about the silver linings in all things and has a heart of gold.

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