Sagittarius is represented in the Zodiac by the Centaur, a creature half-human and half-horse. Centaurs were believed to be great wizards, healers and philosophers. This is because their knowledge spans both the human and the animal realm. They are the only sign having this bredth of knowledge. The constellation was historically linked to Epona, a celtic mare-goddess who was the bringer of prophetic dreams as well as night-mares.

The time of Sagittarius is when we look ahead to the Spring by storing away the harvest and preparing the fields for winter. The leaves turn their Fall colors and we begin to settle into indoor activities. It is no mistake that Thanksgiving takes place during this Zodiacal sign. We look around us to see what we have to get us through winter and what we can give to those who are not so well prepared. 

The monthly installment of The Great Astrological Light Bulb Joke:

Q. How many Sagittarians does it take to change a light bulb?

A. The sun is shining, the day is young, and we've got our whole lives ahead of us, and you're inside worrying about a stupid burned-out light bulb?

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!

Speaking of Calendars… there is no Infinite Loop Lunar Calendar this year. The picture is from last year just so any of you who aren’t aware of these can see what we’re missing. This is a bummer since it is part of my office décor as well as a useful item. You can see why it is not available here as well as sign up for an electronic version:

http://www.infiniteloopdesign.com/calendar.html

Nov 22 The Sun Moves into Sagittarius & National Stop the Violence Day

Nov 23 Repudiation Day

Nov 25 John F. Kennedy Day 

Nov 28 Thanksgiving: In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then, each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.

Jupiter rules Sagittarius so this is the time of year for prosperity rituals. An old rhyme declares "Burning a bayberry candle down to its socket puts food in the larder and gold in the pocket." Here are some more money traditions:  If you find money, spend it or give it away quickly and tell no one where it came from. If you find or drop a coin, always step on it before you pick it up. This insures that more will come to you. Fold your bills toward you rather than away from you.

Nov 29 International Computer Security Day

Nov 29 Hanukkah begins: Hanukkah means "dedication". It commemorates the victory of the Maccabees (led by Judah) over the Hellenistic Syrians in a revolt that took place around 165 BCE (note: Jews use BCE--Before the Common Era and CE--the Common Era instead of BC and AD). Once the Temple Mount in Jerusalem had been reclaimed, the Temple had to be rededicated. According to legend, only one jar of sacramental oil was found, enough for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, thus the eight days of Hanukkah.

Dec 1 World Aids Day

Dec 3 Illinois Admission Day

Dec 4 New Moon: The Moon and Sun are conjunct in the sky. The moon is dark and gradually increases to a crescent. This is the time to begin a ritual involving a new project, to ask for new vision.

Dec 5 International Day of Disabled Persons

Dec 7 Delaware Day

Dec 6 The Dunthor monthly open house

Dec 7 Pearl Harbor Day

Dec 10 Wyoming Day

Dec 10 Human Rights Day 

Dec 10 Nobel Prize Day

Dec 11 Indiana Admission Day 

Dec 12 Pennsylvania Admission Day

Dec 12 Poinsettia Day

Dec 14 Alabama Admission Day

Dec 15 Bill of Rights Day

Dec 16 Boston Tea Party

Dec 17 Aviation Day

Dec 18 New Jersey Admission Day & Inga’s Mom arrives.

Dec 19 Full Moon: Known as: Cold Moon, Oak Moon, Wolf Moon, Moon of Long Nights, Long Night's Moon, Aerra Geola (Month Before Yule), Wintermonat (Winter Month), Heilagmanoth (Holy Month), Big Winter Moon, Moon of Popping Trees. The Moon and Sun are opposite each other in the sky. The Moon reflects all of the Sun's light. This is the time to perform rituals for protection, clarity of vision and consecration.

Dec 20 Louisiana Purchase Day

Dec 21 Forefather's Day

Dec 21 Winter Solstice, First day of Capricorn

The colors of Sagittarius are those of desert and sky. The browns of jasper and sandstone, and the sky blue of blue topaz and certain turquoises.  These shades signify the vision quest, the quest for truth.  The part of the hero’s journey where he or she has left all that represents home and turns toward the future.

Picture Jasper is the Stone for this month. Picture Jasper is an earthy colored stone that is found smoothly polished but never faceted. It is popular in Southwestern style jewelry because of its resemblance to the desert. It is said to help with matters of cleansing, stability and grounding. Brown stones are connected to earth energy and carry strong memories of the past. This can make Picture jasper useful for regression and meditation.

Picture Jasper perfectly resonates with Sagittarius and should be worn for all those events relating to the sign. Sagittarius events include: the acquisition of an educational degree, expanding your consciousness through meditation, learning others viewpoints, studying other cultures, travelling to distant places, participating in competitive sports, official ceremonies, outdoor ritual and all legal proceedings. 

Click here to learn more about purchasing Inga's Earth Magic Jewelry.

Stephanie Laurence (Inga’s mom) will be here from Dec 18^th to Jan 3^rd for the Seattle leg of her world tour. I will be scheduling appointments for her so if any of you are interested in getting some coaching or hypnotherapy from her, call me! 

On Tarot:

Tarot cards tend to bring up so many images of fear and romance. Many people fear that they’ll hear bad things about themselves or their futures. I think that those kinds of fears are from the way cards are used in movies. While fortune telling is a traditional use of tarot I don’t think it takes into account free will or the natural tendencies of humans to grow and evolve so I try to look further into the imagery of the cards than that.

I use cards to get a grasp of the internal imagery or how the subject sees the problem and what part this problem plays in the unfolding of their lives. Then we can discuss ways to handle the energy/stress that is being experienced in a way that fosters growth. There wouldn't be much growth in simply telling someone something bad about himself or herself. So you have to remember that the movies are using divination to move a plot along not to give you a realistic view of how it is done. 

On Nativities:

This the time of year when people start noticing the nativity set on the hearth. Yes, I collect Fontanini. No, I am not celebrating a historical event. To me, the Christmas story is a metaphor for how Truth is kindled in our lives as a synergy between our logic and intuition. This metaphor has historical precedence over the current non-metaphorical version. Both the traditionally masculine logic and the traditionally feminine intuition are necessary. Then truth must be nurtured by continually choosing it over all the errors we are tempted with. This is the most important quest: to seek and hold to that which is true.

The nativity reminds me of this more than any other aspect or décor of the holidays. Too much of history has been corrupted by the partitioning of our masculine and feminine sides. To believe in what you are told while disregarding your own intellectual skills is not truth but this is what much of Christianity has tried to make its followers believe. That is why Mary’s husband is not the father of the baby in the Christian version. The early writers were trying to divorce the “birth of the hero”, a classic mythological motif (which is much older than Christianity) from the fusion of male and female and make it just about faith. Much of our current era has been about disregarding our intuition in favor of intellect.  This current time is not about choosing between good and evil or even about simple faith but about fusing intuition and intellect to birth grace. 

Here is the US distributor of Fontanini (lots of info on how they are made etc.):  http://www.roman.com/

Here is where I buy most of mine: http://www.catholicsupply.com/

Here is a local dealer: http://www.displaycostume.com/

Here are two collector's sites:

http://www.fontaninicollectors.com/

 http://www.fontanini.org/

We think of this newsletter as a community forum. You, our friends and clients, 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!

Stewart sent this one:

The following ad in The Atlanta Journal is reported to have received numerous calls.
 
SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I'm a very good-looking girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. Rub me the right way and watch me respond. I'll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me.
 
Kiss me and I'm yours. Call xxx-xxxx and ask for Daisy.
 
Over 15,000 men found themselves talking to the local Humane Society about an 8-week old black Labrador retriever.
 

Marie sent this one:

Published on Friday, September 20, 2002 in the Philadelphia Inquirer Victory of the Loud Little Handful by Mark Twain:

The loud little handful - as usual - will shout for the war. The pulpit will - warily and cautiously - object... at first. The great, big,dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it."

Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded, but it will not last long; those others will out shout them, and presently the antiwar audiences will thin out and lose popularity.

Before long, you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men...

Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.

Mark Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)

From Marilyn:

The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself? –Unknown

From Scott:

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world. John Muir (1838-1914)

Finally, here is one from the Garden Web Forum:

This is the story of the night my 10-year-old cat, Rudy, got his head stuck in the garbage disposal. I knew at the time that the experience would be funny if the cat survived, so let me tell you right up front that he's fine. Getting him out wasn't easy, though, and the process included numerous home remedies, a plumber, two cops, an emergency overnight veterinary clinic, a case of mistaken identity, five hours of panic, and 15 minutes of fame.

My husband Rich and I had just returned from a 5-day vacation in the Cayman Islands -- where I had been sick as a dog the whole time. We arrived home at 9 p.m., a day and a half later than we had planned because of airline problems. I still had illness-related vertigo, and because of the flight delays had not been able to prepare for the class I was supposed to teach at 8:40 the next morning. I sat down at my desk to think about William Carlos Williams, and around 10 o'clock I heard Rich hollering from the kitchen.

I raced over to see what was wrong and spied Rich frantically rooting around under the kitchen sink and Rudy -- or, rather, Rudy's Headless body -- scrambling around in the sink, his claws clicking in panic on the metal and his head stuck in the garbage disposal. Rich had just ground up the skin of some smoked salmon in the disposal, and when he left the room Rudy (who always was a pinhead) had gone in after it. It is very disturbing to see the headless body of your cat in the sink. This is an animal that I have slept with nightly for 10 years, who burrows under the covers and purrs against my side, and who now looked like a fur-covered turkey carcass, defrosting in the sink while it's still alive and kicking.

It was also disturbing to see Rich, Mr. Calm-in-any-Emergency, at his wit's end, trying to simultaneously soothe Rudy and undo the garbage disposal, and failing at both, and basically freaking out. Adding to the chaos was Rudy's twin brother Lowell, also upset, racing around in circles, jumping onto the kitchen counter and alternately licking Rudy's butt for comfort and biting it out of fear.

Clearly, I had to do something. First we tried to ease Rudy out of the disposal by lubricating his head and neck with Johnson's baby shampoo (kept on hand for my nieces' visits) and butter-flavored Crisco. Both failed, and a now-greasy Rudy kept struggling.

Rich then decided to take apart the garbage disposal, which was a good idea, but he couldn't do it. Turns out the thing is constructed like a metal onion: you peel off one layer and another one appears, with Rudy's head still buried deep inside, stuck in a hard plastic collar. My job during this process was to sit on the kitchen counter petting Rudy, trying to calm him, with the room spinning (vertigo), Lowell howling (he's part Siamese), and Rich clattering around under the sink with his tools. When all our efforts failed, we sought professional help. I called our regular plumber, who actually called me back quickly, even at 11 o'clock at night (thanks, Dave). He talked Rich through further layers of disposal dismantling, but still we couldn't reach Rudy. I called the 1-800 number for Insinkerator (no response), a pest removal service that advertises 24-hour service (no response), an all-night emergency veterinary clinic (who had no experience in this matter), and finally, in desperation, 9-1-1.

I could see that Rudy's normally pink paw pads were turning blue. The fire department, I figured, gets cats out of trees; maybe they could get one out of a garbage disposal. The dispatcher had other ideas and offered to send over two policemen. The cops arrived close to midnight and turned out to be quite nice. More importantly, they were also able to think rationally, which we were not. They were, of course, astonished by the situation. "I've never seen anything like this," Officer Mike kept saying. (The unusual circumstances helped us get quickly on a first-name basis with our cops.)

Officer Tom, who expressed immediate sympathy for our plight "I've had cats all my life," he said), also had an idea. Evidently we needed a certain tool, a tiny, circular rotating saw, that could cut through the heavy plastic flange encircling Rudy's neck without hurting Rudy. Officer Tom happened to own one. "I live just five minutes from here," he said. "I'll go get it."

He soon returned, and the three of them --Rich and the two policemen-- got under the sink together to cut through the garbage disposal. I sat on the counter, holding Rudy and trying not to succumb to the surreal-ness of the scene, with the weird middle-of-the-night lighting, the room's occasional spinning, Lowell's spooky sound effects, an apparently headless cat in my sink and six disembodied legs poking out from under it. One good thing came of this: the guys did manage to get the bottom off the disposal, so we could now see Rudy's face and knew he could breathe. But they couldn't cut the flange without risking the cat. Stumped. Officer Tom had another idea. "You know," he said, "I think the reason we can't get him out is the angle of his head and body. (You can see where this is going, can't you?) "If we could just get the sink out," he continued, "and lay it on its side, I'll bet we could slip him out." That sounded like a good idea -- at this point, ANYTHING would have sounded like a good idea -- and as it turned out, Officer Mike runs a plumbing business on weekends; he knew how to take out the sink!

Again they went to work, the three pairs of legs sticking out from under the sink, surrounded by an ever-increasing pile of tools and sink parts. They cut the electrical supply, capped off the plumbing lines, unfastened the metal clamps, unscrewed all the pipes, and about an hour later, viola! The sink was lifted gently out of the countertop, with one guy holding the garbage disposal which contained Rudy's head) up close to the sink (which contained Rudy's body).

We laid the sink on its side, but even at this more favorable angle, Rudy stayed stuck. Officer Tom's radio beeped, calling him away on some kind of real police business. As he was leaving, though, he had another good idea. "You know," he said, "I don't think we can get him out while he's struggling so much. We need to get the cat sedated. If he were limp, we could slide him out." And off he went, regretfully, a cat lover still worried about Rudy.

The remaining three of us decided that getting Rudy sedated was a good idea, but Rich and I were new to the area. We knew that the overnight emergency veterinary clinic was only a few minutes away, but we didn't know exactly how to get there. "I know where it is!" declared Officer Mike. "Follow me!" So Mike got into his patrol car, Rich got into the driver's seat of our car, and I got into the back, carrying the kitchen sink, what was left of the garbage disposal, and Rudy.

It was now about 2:00 a.m. We followed Officer Mike for a few blocks when I decided to put my hand into the garbage disposal to pet Rudy's face, hoping I could comfort him. Instead, my sweet, gentle bedfellow chomped down on my finger really hard and wouldn't let go. My scream reflex kicked into gear. Rich slammed on the brakes, hollering "What? What happened? Should I stop?" "No," I managed to get out between screams, "just keep driving. Rudy's biting me, but we've got to get to the vet. Just go!"

Rich turned his attention back to the road, where Officer Mike took a turn we hadn't expected, and we followed. After a few minutes Rudy let go, and as I stopped screaming, I looked up to discover that we were wandering aimlessly through an industrial park, in and out of empty parking lots, past little streets that didn't look at all familiar.

"Where's he taking us?" I asked. "We should have been there ten minutes ago!" Rich was as mystified as I was, but all we knew to do was follow the police car until, finally, he pulled into a church parking lot and we pulled up next to him.

As Rich rolled down the window to ask Officer Mike, where are we going, the cop, who was not Mike, rolled down his window and asked, "Why are you following me?" Once Rich and I recovered from our shock at having tailed the wrong cop car and the policeman from his pique at being stalked, he led us quickly to the emergency vet, where Mike greeted us by holding open the door, exclaiming "Where were you guys???"

It was lucky that Mike got to the vet's ahead of us, because we hadn't thought to call and warn them about what was coming. (Clearly, by this time we weren't really thinking at all.) We brought in the kitchen sink containing Rudy, and the garbage disposal containing his head, and the clinic staff was ready. They took his temperature (which was down 10 degrees) and his oxygen level (which was half of normal), and the vet declared, "This cat is in serious shock. We've got to sedate him and get him out of there immediately." When I asked if it was OK to sedate a cat in shock, the vet said grimly, "We don't have a choice." With that, he injected the cat.

Rudy went limp and the vet squeezed about half a tube of K-Y jelly onto the cat's neck and pulled him free.

Then the whole team jumped into "code blue" mode. (I know this From watching a lot of ER.) They laid Rudy on a cart where one Person hooked up IV fluids, another put little socks on his paws ("You'd be amazed how much heat they lose through their footpads," she said), one covered him with hot water bottles and a blanket, and another took a blow-dryer to warm up Rudy's now very gunky head. The fur on his head dried in stiff little spikes, making him look pathetically punk as he lay there, limp and motionless.

At this point they sent Rich, Mike, and me to sit in the waiting room while they tried to bring Rudy back to life. I told Mike he didn't have to stay, but he just stood there, shaking his head. "I've never seen anything like this," he said again and again. At about 3 a.m., the vet came in to tell us that the prognosis was good for a full recovery. They needed to keep Rudy overnight to re-hydrate him and give him something for the brain swelling they assumed he had, but if all went well, we could take him home the following night. Just in time to hear the good news, Officer Tom rushed in, having finished with his real police work and still concerned about Rudy.

Rich and I got back home about 3:30. We hadn't unpacked from our trip, I was still intermittently dizzy, and I still hadn't prepared for my 8:40 class. "I need a vacation," I said, and while I called the office to leave a message canceling my class, Rich made us a pitcher of martinis. I slept late the next day and then badgered the vet about Rudy's condition until he said that Rudy could come home later that day.

I was working on the suitcases when the phone rang. "Hi, this is Steve Huskey from the Norristown Times-Herald," a voice said. "Listen, I was just going through the police blotter from last night. Um, do you have a cat?" So I told Steve the whole story, which interested him immensely. A couple hours later he called back to say that his editor was interested, too; did I have a picture of Rudy? The next day Rudy was front-page news, under the ridiculous headline "Catch of the Day Lands Cat in Hot Water."

There were some noteworthy repercussions to the newspaper article. Mr. Huskey had somehow inferred that I called 9-1-1 because I thought Rich, my husband, was going into shock, although how he concluded this from my comment that "his pads were turning blue," I don't quite understand. So the first thing I had to do was call Rich at work -- Rich, who had worked tirelessly to free Rudy – and swear that I had been misquoted.

When I arrived at work myself, I was famous; people had been calling my secretary all morning to inquire about Rudy's health. When I called our regular vet (whom I had met only once) to make a follow-up appointment for Rudy, the receptionist asked, "Is this the famous Rudy's mother?" When I took my car in for routine maintenance a few days later, Dave, my mechanic, said, "We read about your cat. Is he OK?" When I called a tree surgeon about my dying red oak, he asked if I knew the person on that street whose cat had been in the garbage disposal. And when I went to get my hair cut, the shampoo person told me the funny story her grandma had read in the paper, about a cat that got stuck in the garbage disposal.

Even today, over a year later, people ask about Rudy, which a 9-year-old neighbor had always called "the Adventure Cat" because he used to climb on the roof of her house and peer in the second-story window at her. I don't know what the moral of this story is, but I do know that this "adventure" cost me $1,100 in emergency vet bills, follow-up vet care, new sink, new plumbing, new electrical wiring, and new garbage disposal -- one with a cover. The vet can no longer say he's seen everything but the kitchen sink.

I wanted to thank Officers Tom and Mike by giving them gift certificates to the local hardware store, but was told that they couldn't accept gifts, and that I would put them in a bad position if I tried. So I wrote a letter to the Police Chief praising their good deeds and sent individual thank you notes to Tom and Mike, complete with pictures of Rudy, so they could see what he looks like with his head on. And Rudy, whom we originally got for free (or so we thought), still sleeps with me under the covers on cold nights, and, unaccountably, still sometimes prowls the sink, hoping for fish.

In case you are wondering if the above story is just another Internet hoax, visit the Urban Legends Reference Pages and you'll see that it is indeed a true story. -- Scott

We've always wondered what would happen if we got the friends we've made through Inga's Earth Magic into a room together. Why? Because every one of us has a unique gift to offer to the world. And if we get enough of us in one place at the same time, something magical is bound to occur.

• 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!
• Where: Our place (click on LIBRARY in the navigation bar at the top of the screen and then MAP ROOM for directions)
• What to bring: Just your enthusiasm and love! There's a big pot of pasta on the stove, salad, bread and plenty of microbrews and red wine. 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!

The sun is shining, the day is young, and we've got our whole lives ahead of us, and you're wondering why I'm not inside worrying about writing my column???? Actually, I've been busy pondering the meaning of life and the concept of "worldview" but I'm not quite ready to write about it yet. Inga and I both will be writing about that for Capricorn 2002.

Now, for those of you who are readers of this newsletter but who have never come to one of our monthly open house events, here are some photos. I've asked some of you why you don't come and you get a strange look in your eye and say very little. I get the impression that you've imagined scenes of drunk people dancing naked in the moonlight in our backyard while chanting. I hate to dispel such imaginative notions but I'm here to tell you that there has never been any naked dancing or chanting. So far. What does go on is lots of eating, lots of talking and watching and petting our cats. Some of our guests like to take naps with Angus. Whatever floats your boat, ok? Angus is very accommodating and he really appreciates a fellow napper. 

And if you feel a need to dance naked in the moonlight in the backyard, knock yourself out! I'll be standing by with the digital camera. We always need good photos for the newsletter! (Personally, I'd wait for summer.)

One last thing - we've been putting out pumpkin and sunflower seeds for the grey squirrels in our neighborhood. When they first discovered such goodies in our yard, they'd eat two or three seeds and plant six while we and the cats watched, fascinated by such industriousness. Sure enough, come Summer, we had pumpkin plants sprouting up all over the place. About the same time, I noticed these huge sunflower plants growing in our planter beds. I didn't remember Inga saying anything about planting sunflowers but they sure looked neat coming up along with the lettuce and tomatoes. (Duh! Inga reminded me of our little fuzzy gardeners. So I'm preoccupied these days, ok?) Come Fall, and our little friends are now eating the sunflower seeds using some really cool manuevers.

Well, that's all for now. I'm off to further ponder the mystery of life while watching the squirrels. I'll report in when Capricorn comes around, ok? -- Scott Bruce Duncan */:-)

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