Happy Birthday Capricorns!

Capricorn is represented by a mountain goat or sea-goat. The sea-goat is linked to the Babylonian god, Ea, who brought the arts of civilization: agriculture, astronomy, mathematics, reading, writing, architecture and medicine to mankind from the depths of the ocean. Capricorn represents discipline, responsibility and practicality as seen in the mountain goat who scales the most difficult peaks. Capricorn can also be pessimistic, overly conventional, rigid and materialistic. Capricorn is an Earth sign and therefore has yin or feminine energy. 

Capricorn's time of year is Winter. This is when we celebrate our family and religious traditions by gathering with our family and friends. We collectively look back on the past year and forward to the New Year. Discovering more about our traditions and celebrating our own family heritage is very much a Capricorn activity. Go ahead and watch some Christmas shows together but take some time to tell your own family stories, too.

The monthly installment of The Great Astrological Light Bulb Joke:

Q: How many Capricorns does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Capricorn: I don't waste my time with these childish jokes.

Note: I have no idea who originally wrote this. Erika sent it to me years ago and I still think it’s as funny as it is insightful!
 

Inga's Celebration Calendar

The Sun enters Capricorn on the 22^nd of December

The Sun enters Capricorn on the Winter Solstice. This is the shortest day of the year as well as the traditional Yule Festival. This is the time when the people of the Northern Hemisphere celebrate birth and renewal. Egyptians celebrated the birth of Horus, the Greeks celebrated the birth of Apollo, the Persians celebrated the birth of Mithras, and the Romans celebrated the birth of Sol Invictus. The festival of Sol Invictus lasted until December 25th. Christianity eventually supplanted the Solar Cult and in the fourth century, the Christian Emperor, Constantine, issued a royal decree making December 25th the commemoration of the birth of Jesus the Christ.

January 3^rd is a Full Moon in Cancer: To learn more about actively using the Moon's energy in your life, see The Moon Through the Signs and Moon Phases. These guides are located in our Library.

January 5^th is the First Friday of the month and the Dunthor Open House: Please come join in the community that has been created over the years. You'll find insight, sharing, healing and fellowship. You are most welcome! 

• When: The 1st Friday of every month. Please join us for dinner. We start eating around 7 PM or join us for dessert later on. If you come earlier, we'll put you to work.
• Where: Our place (Click here for a map and driving directions)
• What to bring: Just your enthusiasm and love. There's a big pot of pasta on the stove, salad, bread, plenty of microbrews and red wine plus Inga's beloved brownies. If you have specific preferences, please bring whatever you'd like.
• How long: Until the good conversation ends. If you'd like, you can spend the night on one of the couches with the kitties or bring your sleeping bag and mat and camp out on the floor of Inga's office.
• RSVP: Just let us know in advance via e-mail or phone if you are coming and if you are bringing guests so we don't run out of food or beer.

January 16^th is Prohibition Remembrance Day: Here are a couple of websites devoted to America’s first “War on Drugs”:

"Prohibition" on the MSN Encarta website

"Alcohol Prohibition Was A Failure" on the Cato Institute website

January 19^th is a New Moon in Capricorn: To learn more about actively using the Moon's energy in your life, see The Moon Through the Signs and Moon Phases. These guides are located in our Library.

February 2^nd is a Full Moon in Leo 

February 17^th is a New Moon in Aquarius

February 19^th the Sun enters Pisces

Stone of the Sign - Vintage Intaglio

This is a vintage glass warrior intaglio set in a rolled gold wire setting. The glass is jet black and lustrous. Black stones resonate to Capricorn. Gold is a soft metal that has been used for adornment since antiquity. It is easy to form into complex jewelry. According to tradition, it can balance the body’s energy fields. Wearing gold is said to remove negative energy from the chakras. It will enhance the energy of the stones it is worn with. It brings wealth, happiness and positive energy into one’s life.

Sale this month: 25.00 USD

Click here to see this item and more in my Jewelry Catalog.

To learn more about how to use Gemstones in your daily life, see "What Gemstones Should I Wear?" guide in our Library.
 

Inga's Space

• I finished another quarter at Kepler College with excellent grades! Thank you all for your patience and support. A few of my papers from last year are posted in our library and if you want to read any of the newer ones, just ask!
   
• Karin suggested we try forming a knitting, crochet, craft group again! This was fun when Kindel and I did it a couple years ago so let me know if you are interested and we’ll agree on a night. We can meet once or twice a month or so. In the meantime, feel free to bring your knitting or other crafts to our regular monthly party.
   

• We survived the “Big Blow of 2006”. The power was out all over the Seattle area, including our house. It was fun camping for 2 nights but I sure feel sorry for those who were unprepared and didn’t have camp stoves, flashlights and candles like we had. Some of our neighbors didn't have power for the whole week. But the excellent part was the stars! We are so close to First Avenue that all we can see on an average night is the Moon, Sirius, Orion and the brighter planets like Jupiter and Venus. Well, with all the lights off all over town we had stars to rival Arizona. It was absolutely beautiful.
   

• Last month, we had a picture of Mom’s cat, Freddy, watching squirrels with our Malcolm. This month, Freddy is back home in Florida playing in his own Christmas snow!

Letters from our Readers

We think of this newsletter as a community forum. You, our friends, clients, and associates are welcome to participate. We celebrate diversity and we'll print whatever you send in be it Wiccan, Christian, Pagan, New Age, etc., as long as it reflects Love. You may choose a one-time holiday to write about or have a regular column. We'll give you space and a byline! Please send in your own book reviews, ideas for rituals, ideas about stones, your journal excerpts, your experiences and most of all, ask us questions. We love answering questions!

From Scott:

Check this out: Magic Gopher. It's lots of fun and quite mysterious as to how it works 100% of the time. After you've tried it a few times, you can see how it does work on Wikipedia.org. The mathematics behind it are impressive.

From John:

"It is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself.  Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.  It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society.  When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime." -- Thomas Paine

From Scott:

"The most important political office is that of the private citizen." -- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (1856 - 1941)

From Joe:

Listen to the Wombat! Joe sent this to cheer me up as I was lamenting the fact that the US now ranks 53rd in the World Press Freedom Index. It helped.

The Duncan Domain

As Inga mentioned above, we've weathered the latest in a string of bad storms this Winter: record rainfall, snow and ice storms, and lastly, a powerful windstorm that knocked out the power to one million homes in the Puget Sound area. The windstorm was preceded by monsoon strength rain that fell during the afternoon rush hour, causing all kinds of havoc. Where we normally get two inches of rain in a 24 hour period, on this particular day, that amount falls in only 45 minutes. Later that night, we are awakened when our power goes out at midnight but that isn't what keeps us up. It's the 69 mph racket being caused by the wind Elementals. During the height of the storm at 2 AM, I venture outside to investigate all the banging and crashing and to see if I can batten things down a little better. I find our normally, highly illuminated and noisy neighborhood pitch black, our lawn chairs strewn about the front yard and the trees whipping about wildly. The only sounds are those caused by Mother Nature and she has, at least temporarily, reclaimed dominion over the Puget Sound region. It is exhilarating! Our house and lot are holding up well to the pounding so I return to the warmth of my bed. Napping is the best we can achieve for the rest of the night and we awaken to a still darkened house and an abated storm. We make phone calls to ascertain our employers' status and Inga ends up going to work while I am granted the day off.

Freya and I drop Inga off in downtown Seattle after negotiating many offline traffic lights which makes for some very slow going. We leave downtown and head directly to Des Moines to check on our boat. Except for the lack of power, the marina and its boats look safe and sound so we head for home. I haven't had breakfast or a cup of coffee yet and I have little hope of finding an open restaurant but as I drive by the very dark QFC grocery store in Des Moines, I see a stream of people going in and out. Curious, I pull in the parking lot and investigate. As I walk in and my eyes adjust to the darkness, I find a throng of people. It turns out that the store has a very small generator which they are using to power the cash registers and quite rightly, the espresso stand. While some people are purchasing a few canned goods and gallons of bottled water, the bulk of the crowd are there for coffee and the conversation of those in line is lively and cheerful. From the sound of it, you'd never know the area has been absolutely hammered.

Freya and I return home and there is still no power. As I stand in the kitchen and start assessing my options, I feel the electricity withdrawal symptoms coming on but after awhile, I feel a sense of calm develop. Why? Well, life just became a lot simpler. Most of the tasks and diversions of both work and home that normally compete for my limited time and energy are now no longer possible. Cool. I feel liberated. Fourteen hours is the longest we've ever been without power during the thirteen years we've lived here but according to the radio reports, this was not just damage to local power lines but also to the feeder lines between the power dams and the Puget Sound area. So, thinking this could be an extended outage, Freya and I get busy inspecting our emergency supplies: flashlights, batteries, candles, camp stove and fuel, can goods, battery powered radio, etc. and find everything to be in order. While we are nibbling on the cold cuts and cheese from the refrigerator, I rig up the camp stove on the front porch and starting boiling water for Earl Grey for me and instant coffee for Grandma. All-in-all, it's a very pleasant way to spend the day.

We fetch Inga from work after sunset and as we are waiting to turn left on to our street, we notice a very faint glow within the Fred Meyer store across the street, amidst the blacked out neighborhood, and we decide to investigate after we eat. We have a delightful cold supper and red wine by candlelight while we listen to reports of the power restoration efforts on the AM radio. The weather forecast is calling for a high pressure system which means clear skies and freezing temperatures so we venture over to the store looking for faucet covers and some fairly cat proof candle holders for the living room. Without the Internet and our vast DVD collection, we find ourselves a tad bored so more to the point, it's a bit of an adventure to occupy our time. We walk into the usually bright, busy store and find a rather subdued environment. Every fourth ceiling light fixture is lit, there is no heat, the conveyor belts at the checkout stands are not working and yet people appear to be in good spirits as they gather supplies and share power outage stories. We walk back outside and the utter blackness is still a bit of a shock. I've been reading a lot lately about global warming, energy consumption and carbon emission budgets and I can't help but wonder if I'm seeing a preview of the future where the price of energy reflects its true cost of production and environmental impact and is expended on only the absolutely necessary services in our neighborhoods. Only time will tell but as we walk home, we discover a much more immediate and delightful outcome stemming from the power outage. One of Inga's Kepler College classes in 2006 included a fair amount of astronomy and as a result, we found ourselves watching stars and planets even more than usual. But due to the excessive light pollution in our neighborhood, there isn't much to be seen except the few celestial objects Inga mentions in her column above. We've been talking about visiting Eastern Washington or Arizona in order to do some real star watching but the clouds have cleared out tonight and we look up to find a magnificent sky filled with endless stars. We stand in our front yard marveling at the breathtaking sight of Nature revealed in all her splendor.

Indoor, we prepare for bed. The house is well insulated and the temperature inside is hovering at 59 degrees while it is in the low thirties outside. So extra blankets are issued all around and Inga rigs up a battery powered air pump to give the fish a shot of air before we retire. It's been a fun day and a neat change of pace. Nevertheless, we realize that if the power is still off tomorrow, it will take a great deal more work to stay comfortable and clean. We put on extra clothing and stocking caps and slide under the extra blankets. I awake in the middle of the night feeling a bit chilled and wondering if I should get up to put on more clothes but I decide to curl up and stay put. When I awake again at 7 AM, I find myself puzzled as to why I am sweating so profusely only to realize that the furnace is running once again and the house is back up to 70 degrees. So we've set a new record of 31 hours without power and we get off rather easily. Before it is all over, many others will go without power for five to six days during a week of freezing weather and many are talking about the long term implications of such intense weather becoming the norm. – Scott Bruce Duncan */:-)

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