Celebrating the Feast of Ullr ... and Convection Ovens

According to the Magical Almanac for today, the Moon is still waxing (1st Quarter) and is in the sign of Aquarius, all of which makes me want to break into the Fifth Dimension song, AND which reminds me to look up “The Age of Aquarius”.  Beyond “peace guiding the planets and love steering the stars”, it occurs to me I really don’t have much of an idea of what it means, only that it’s a slow-to-arrive and slow-to-depart era that will replace the dark and repressive christian Age of Pisces.  I do remember reading once that as one era begins to fade, and the next begins to peek over a distant horizon, there is a period of unsettledness and uneasiness and chaos; we don’t seem to do well without guiding influences, so all hell breaks loose.  I should go look that up again.

BUT!  Today’s moon being in Aquarius is not the same thing as “The Age of”.  “Sympathy, affection and care towards people reach way beyond the family”, so sayeth ... somebody or another.  They should have said “towards others”, not just “towards people”.  In any event, to celebrate today’s waxing moon being in Aquarius, I went outside, braving the crunchy wet snow on my back porch, and filled all the various feeders.  I did interrupt two squirrels in the midst of feeding themselves, but hopefully they’ll come back.

Thanksgiving.  Nov 27 - Day of Parvati - Hindu Mother of the Universe and the Feast of Ullr:  “The Feast of Ullr was to celebrate the Hunt and to gain the personal luck needed for success. Weapons are dedicated on this day to Ullr. If your arms were blessed by the luck of the God of the Hunt, your family and tribe shared the bounty with a Blot and Feast to Ullr .”

Ullr (pronounced “OO-ler”) is actually the god of skiing and winter sports as well as hunting and success – Telluride, Colorado holds a Festival of Ullr every year – not so much a festival of respect for Ullr as it is the winter version of Spring Break – lots of half naked sky bunnies and drunken speed skaters hooting and hollering ... but hey, you take a pagan festival where you can get it.  Eons and eons before the invention of the ice skate with its metallic blade, Ullr used to travel across the ice with “magic bones” on his feet.  So there you go.  Usually graphics have him on skis as opposed to skates, and those in this picture the skates still look like they have metallic blades on them.  But no, he skated around on bones.

So, Happy Ullr Day!

Meanwhile, I tried out the convection oven to see what it did.  I’ve used the oven before, just not the “convection” side of it.  I will say it seems to cook things a lot faster; this is the day when I miss my cats most of all, because this was our day:  they knew exactly what day it was when the smell of roasted turkey wafted through the house – an entire year may have passed since the last one, but they all took their customary places around the dining room table and looked hopeful for 2 hours straight.  It was the only time they got this particularly treat – freshly roasted turkey – they LOVED this time of year.  So I miss them.

I am once again thinking that this may be the time to get back to the earlier “Soul Mate” project.  Obviously, it was set aside while I dealt with all sorts of accident-related hindrances (followed by grieving, when just about everyone I knew and loved died, all within a year or two of each other).  Now, where did I leave off with that?