Moments of Awareness

Taurus - This magnificent white bull depicts the body Zeus (spirit and mind) wore to attract the Phoenician princess Europa (beauty and grace) as she gathered flowers at the seashore one day. He'd seen her and fallen instantly in love, and he refused to be put off by her reluctance. He stayed around letting her get used to him until one day he knelt before her and she adorned his disguise with flowers and climbed upon his back, a burden he bore happily across the sea (some say she was abducted and he bounded across the water) to the island of Crete where he revealed his true form and they shared sexual pleasure under a cypress tree. She became his queen on Crete and bore him three sons, receiving from him three gifts only he could give - a bronze man to guard her island, a dog so fast no prey could escape it and a javelin that never missed, seeing to the safety and providence of this branch of his family. When her time with Zeus was over she married another man and lived the rest o...

Aries  [update for all links (February 4, 2104):  MOA T & A Glossary ] - This gleeful Greek god of war and passion is the prodigal first-born son of Zeus (spirit and mind) and Hera (jealousy and arrogance). He's always running around wreaking havoc, having an ongoing affair with the married Aphrodite (ethereal beauty and unbreakable bonds), getting all the girls pregnant and often ignoring the influence of his sister Athena (inspiration and restraint). His destructive influence is often alarming, as witnessed by his sons and constant companions Deimos (fear and dread) and Phobos 1 (panic and flight), but sometimes palliative from which encounters his daughter Harmonia (harmony and concord) is born. His lovers and offspring are too numerous to recount here; as a dynamic force he's prolific in both conquest and reward. He's often not well-liked - both parents are said to dislike him and his father even claimed at one time to hate him - but he goes about his busines...

It's yours for $75,000 plus points and closing costs, as is. It needs a roof, a central air & heating unit and it could use new windows. (You'll probably want at least new screens unless you're like us and keep the mozzies out with a nice stick of satya sai baba nag champa incense in the kitchen window. So long as there are curtains across the front windows after dark they pretty much stay out from that side too.) There's a stud wall between the kitchen/dining room and living room areas, leaving the communal part of the house very open and ready to be remodeled to your tastes. There's no carpet except in one closet (we'll take that up if you like), so you can do what suits you with the floors as well. (The kitchen and bathroom floors are covered with linoleum for now, but we're considering taking that up, which will not affect the purchase price of the house.) The kitchen and dining room walls are covered with neutral and rather plain wallpaper that I do...

Aries [update for all links (February 4, 2104):  MOA T & A Glossary ] That's right, slow down a bit, settle in, relax, let things come to you for now. Trying to force change will only leave you frustrated but if you can sit back and take things in you'll find change abounding in the unseen regions. You're exceptionally well-suited to following the path most appropriate to your energy in a given moment. They're all going to be more dense than you prefer but sometimes that's refreshing for one such as yourself who's used to meeting challenges head-on and conquering them without a second thought in most cases, a chance to flex all your physical, emotional and intellectual muscles and really work out your kinks for a while. Have consideration for the sometimes extreme sensitivity of others this month and go with the flow to whatever degree you feel is appropriate and things will perk up around the 16th, especially in the areas of people and things to which...

Shoulda woulda coulda, it's too late now. Virgo  [update for all links (February 4, 2104):  MOA T & A Glossary ] urges us to clean house, to stop crying over spilt milk and put the pitcher upright. We're preparing to move into the wider world with ideas that have been incubating over the past year/s and it's time now to tie up loose ends, burn off the IP's (for you military types), finish our product and/or perfect delivery of our service. The shift we're experiencing this month is unusually pronounced and taking place on several levels. Our creation has been in the kiln of late, baking under an unusual intensity of Sun energy with several planets in Leo and Pisces . All of a sudden it's nearing time to reveal our sculpted clay piece in all it's earth en glory, beginning with our family and close friends, immediate loved ones, and in stages over the course of time (as is always the case) to those business partners who are not also our friends and t...

Argiope aurantia in Japanese Privet with Green Anole Wrapped & Preserved for Later Consumption This argiope lives about eight feet up in the privet at the southeast (facing the house this is the front right) corner. This day I had a dead anole in the house and nobody wanted it so I tossed it in her web and she ate on it for at least two days.

We did a lot of exploring, gave most of the religions at least a cursory glance (and in my case lived one of the basics, Northern Independent Fundamental Baptist, for many years), checked out a few 'cults' along the way, and finally realized that there's one set of words with which many are familiar and with which few find fault, and that is the red-letter portion of The Holy Bible. As we understand them, these words attributed to Jesus ('the existing One is salvation') the Christ ('the anointed one') clearly state our system of beliefs. Our favorite passages are as follows: Matthew 5   [update for all links (February 4, 2104):  Blue Letter Bible, Matthew ]: And seeing the multitudes, [Jesus] went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed ar...

Female Argiope aurantia & Her Finished Egg Sac [See photo series at Argiope aurantia ]

Male (R) & Female (L) Argiope aurantia (Garden Spiders)

If we've taken full advantage of the element -cycle [update for all links (February 4, 2104):  MOA T & A Glossary ] we've just been through, this Leo Sun will bring a seemingly miraculous level of bounty. Aries dried our seeds, bringing clarity to the ideas contained within them and the beginnings of physical manifestation. In Taurus we northern hemispherians began the process of germination, growing roots and sprouts, following the heat to the light producing it while southerners' seeds were put away to sleep for the winter . Gemini taught us to breathe, to depend upon the air for life, to be symbiotic and those down under took this time to create dreams and possibilities. Cancer brought the rains and morning dew, snow in the south, refilling lakes and ponds and rivers and to some degree the water table. Now under Leo 's Sun the hard work of spring and autumn are past and we're free to just relax and grow a while, just take what we like of what we fi...

Southern Armyworm Larva on Lady's Thumb Leaf The plant is Lady's Thumb.

Crab Spider Legs on Coreopsis Leaf

Adult Leaf-Footed Bug, Green Lynx Spider & Tiny Beetle I'd say hunter & hunted but this spider seemed to have a good deal of respect for his plant-mate here.

Aries [update for all links (February 4, 2104):  MOA T & A Glossary ] You won’t burn through all the moisture no matter how hot and bright you flash this month, so be your vibrant, electric self with aplomb and enjoy relative freedom from the constraints of propriety that often bind. Contrary to appearances, you’re feeling your way through as much as anyone else right now. So long as you keep in mind the golden rule, “Do unto others as you’d have done to you,” your words and deeds will strike at the heart of truth we so need to find without creating excess damage and you know the old adage, “The truth shall set you free.” Just be aware that sometimes what we’re freeing ourselves of is something we think we meant to hold onto and try to let go graciously. The space will be filled in time. Taurus All this letting go wouldn’t be so bad if once we released a thing we were done with it, but it all just keeps coming back. If you had your way things, when they moved, would alw...

Water  [update for all links (February 4, 2104):  MOA T & A Glossary ], water everywhere; drink your fill, for the droughts can always come again. Cleanse yourself, satiate yourself, immerse yourself, then find a warm place where you can air dry in the sun , let the moisture really penetrate. Leo 's Sun will be hot, and Cancer asks us to see to our future security, to get prepared. We may practice a water-abstinence discipline for some time before going out into the desert to meditate, but when we reach the oasis we take it in in every way possible, fill up our goatskins, make sure our camels drink... as soon as we've assured it's not toxic, which brings us to the Crab's other side. The part of security we may be missing under this energy is seeing the present as it really is. Everything looks a little 'trippy' just now, maybe a little rosy or maybe we just think so. We're seeing things in new ways right now, ways that may have us feeling a little in...

Rachelle  [updated link (February 4, 2014): Rachelle Strauss ] came into an email group of which I am a member ( Natural Family Life ) shortly after it got rolling, and her introduction made me sit up and take notice. As a Gem/Lib/Gem  [updated link (February 4, 2014): MOA T & A Glossary ] she's a wordsmith by nature, but it was her attitude, her light that drew me. There was something in it I recognized. Time went along as it is wont to do and at some point we started talking off-list. I found her to be wise and open, not only able but willing to delve into any subject with zeal and veracity, contradicting me when she felt the need as freely as she supported me where we agreed. Time continued going on as we explored our respective lives, sharing amazing likenesses and fascinating differences, learning and growing along the way often by leaps and bounds. Time came when there wasn't as much time for either of us and things went quiet a while, with just the occasional, ...