Re: Tonight -- the highest Full Moon

[Guest guest]

Tonight -- the highest full moon in decades! Rising near sunset far to the north of east . . . culminating overhead near midnight . . . and setting near sunrise far north of west . . . Hope your skies are as clear as ours tonight. (The Full moon is nearly as high tomorrow night as well!)

Extreme lunacy New Year rings in highest full moon in decades

by Bob Berman

Next Tuesday night (January 2), we'll see the highest full moon until the 2020s. You know the old song "How High the Moon"? Neither do I; it was before my time. But someone should play that tune at 11:40 p.m. Tuesday night. It's the highest moon since the '80s. But since you weren't looking that night, chances are that this will be the highest full moon you've ever seen, period.It won't quite reach the zenith - the overhead point. The moon never totally gets there, as seen from our region; although it will indeed be straight up that night from southern places such as Florida's gatored communities. Here, on Tuesday night, the moon only misses being straight up by a measly 14 degrees. That's seven moon-widths higher than the sun ever gets.While the sun's annual high point is always the June 21 Solstice, the full moon reaches its annual highest-up position now: within a fortnight of the Winter Solstice. The full moon does everything opposite to the sun. The sun's highest in summer; the full moon's highest in winter. The sun peaks at noon, the moon at midnight. They're polar opposites.Fine. But why should the moon attain different heights from year to year? It's because the moon's orbit wobbles. It rattles around like a plate dropped on the floor, changing orientations in space in an 18.6-year cycle. So it's not just the moon that moves; its orbit moves as well. This makes its track against the background stars a bit different each year.In the mid-1990s, its path took the moon to middling positions. But this year it goes to extreme places. While late December or early January always brings us the year's highest full moon, that highest point now gets boosted even further - much further.Conversely, next June and July, when full moons are always low low low in the sky, it'll be even lower than it normally is. Many of us will find it totally blocked by hills from moonrise to moonset. From more northerly places like Alaska, it simply won't clear the horizon at all for the entire week around the full moon. Imagine: no summer full moons at all. Nothing. Gone.Another thing: Since winter air is the year's driest, and a high winter moon shines through far less air to begin with, this coming moon will also be noticeably brighter and whiter than other full moons. So in all ways we could call Tuesday night's event the Extreme Moon: high, white, bright. And if you're concerned that you might miss it to clouds, watch one night earlier, on January 1. The moon will then be slightly out of round, not quite full; but it will ascend just as high that night, with the very loftiest point on Monday reached at 10:40 p.m.In bygone centuries, fixed astronomical instruments forever peered straight up and kept track of the zenithal stars. What crossed that special spot always depends on the observer's latitude. It's where the North Star floats for those at the North Pole (namely, no one). It's where Orion's Belt hovers for those who live at the Equator. From Hawaii, all the planets, the sun and the moon can float straight up. One size doesn't fit all; it depends where you live.From our mid-Hudson region the sun, moon and planets never get directly overhead, but the moon can come closest - and this is when it finally happens. Ancient superstitious cultures would have looked for meaning in this Extreme Moon. Will it herald an unusual year coming up? Stuff like that.Anyway, step out around 11:40 p.m. on Tuesday, or an hour earlier on Monday, and see the shortest natural shadow that you've cast since the 1980s. If you're six feet tall, the shadow will only extend one foot. Whether or not looking at a shadow in icy air sounds appealing probably depends on a different issue: whether the full moon can cause deviant behavior.

[Guest guest]

Just the perfect post I need today because I'm not yet ready for erudition, discussions, debates, weighty ideas or even Social Conscience! Maybe next week I'll see if there's anyone on Jung Fire who might like to know what the life was like of an ex neighbor of mine who spent his life primarily in forests and by rivers and the ocean.

Hi Marte:

I moved to a new intentional community for seniors and foster families last July...and we are in a beautiful meadow abutting Mt Tom in Easthampton Massachusetts...far enough away from any artifical light fro the night sky to be dazzling. I often wake up in the middle ofthe nigth and go out on the patio nto have a look up....this particular moon is gorgeous and powerful....I can feel it's pull.....The other night while star gazing I looked up and found myself in the company of a bobcat ...we are also graced by the presence of cyote, red foxes and unfortunately fisher cats but they hunt at dusk and are rarely seen. My soft grey polydactyl cat named Molly is slowly adjusting to life as a house cat.....She sits from a safe perch at the patio door and observes the wild life.

that after having a near death encounter with one of the predators, probably a cyote.....people say she couldn't have gotten away from a Fisher....

It should be a clear and beautiful night to search for the full moon.... I'd love to know about the adventures of your neighbor's life.

Blessings:

Suzanne

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

Thornton Wilder

[Guest guest]

Dear Suzanne -

Thanks so 'specially much for this post!

I've been working hard at weaning myself (?) for a bit from too much

involvement with words and too much time at the computer. [Hans

Selye, whose works on stress I studied years ago, was the first

writer I saw to use the word " eustress " , in the context of pointing

out that too little stress can be (sort of anti-enantiodromia?)

as ? " bad " ? as too much, but " too little stress " was certainly not

what I've been contending with for some time even though some of it

was happy occasions stressfulnesses.]

A day or two ago, I came across an old book written by a native

Washington State Olympic Peninsula naturalist and basked in sort of

casually thumbing through his lovely simple tales from his doings and

ruminations basked from that " slice " of previous times and styles in

this " neck of the woods " to which I am a by-now 18-year transplant.

Then yesterday, needing to " go to bed " at the preposterous hour of 6

p.m. for a preliminary sleep while still trying to repair post

holiday-season exhaustion, for the first time in my entire sofar life

I saw the moon through my southeast side balcony door, silhoueted low

in the sky behind the tips of a douglas fir.

I had never seen the moon in that spot or at that hour before, and,

for the old saying, " could hardly believe my eyes " . (*)

So I got out my trusty Farmer's Almanac (a week old while I wait for

the January one) to estimate the phase of the moon and found it would

be, yes, just a few days past the full moon.

So this is a non-erudite non-21st Century cyberspace style simple

_thank you_.

Just the perfect post I need today because I'm not yet ready for

erudition, discussions, debates, weighty ideas or even Social

Conscience! Maybe next week I'll see if there's anyone on Jung Fire

who might like to know what the life was like of an ex neighbor of

mine who spent his life primarily in forests and by rivers and the

ocean.

Any takers? Or is this a bit too sort of Washington State

Dinosaur " Rousseauian " ?

love to all,

marte

N.B. A couple of excerpts from the article I especially appreciate

because they were things I'd noticed by myself. My bed is beneath a

skylight so I often track the location of the moon in its upward

swing, and have spent quite a lot of time trying to " figger out " the

changing orbits of the sun and moon through the seasons by watching,

as distinct from " reading about " .

:-)

>Here,

> on Tuesday night, the moon only misses being straight up by a

measly 14

> degrees. That's seven moon-widths higher than the sun ever gets.

(*) And this, especially:

> noticeably brighter and whiter than other full moons.

That was another aspect that struck me!

[Guest guest]

Dear " God Bless You " fellow by age and my ?lost utopia? ( " just

kidding? " ) " back home place " Suzanne/Brita (*) -

Thank you _so_ much for this post.

I've been watching " your " (OUR -- ?archetypally? ) moon with especial

appreciations to and of you, for many many reasons.

Right now it's what my once New England styled/conditioned soul

( " persona " ?) might call (or have called) a " Reprobate Hour " .

Not yet even three o' the klok in the a.m.

......

I've been feeling (by the words of some of " The Young " [*]) age-

challenged this past ?holiday season?. And not at all " jungian " in

all of that, might I add? [Jung -- the remaining myth mythos and

legacy (if I MUST -- racing against time here) -- the Man for/of All

Seasons [see Dan's fine wry goodhumored post to Alice a few days ago

about Jung as the new G'd Archetype) (too wrong an hour to be able to

go back, Dan, and quote you right).

Oof. What a lot of words.

-/-/-

We're a pretty big group here, on Jung Fire, seems to me. At

least " big " for an attempted 'intimacy', by means of computers.

As for me, for the moment, I'm typing into a computer at what would

once upon a time for me have been an altogether " wrong " hour.

So here's to -- what?

Mercurius?

The hangman Tarot Card?

The (hello, Toni!!!! :-)] Cloud of Unknowing?

-/-/-

At " carbon dating " age 76 (*) -- younger than some here and older

than many, I have just now (a bit impulsively I must admit) decided I

would write these few more words to this list, though " prolly "

[hello, Kione, if you still ever log on here] shundna, because by

long-ago simpler-world notions, I ought right now to be in bed and

asleep.

So I'll give it a try!

marte-in-her- " Dali Klok "

:-)

>

>

>

> In a message dated 1/4/2007 2:39:50 PM Eastern Standard Time,

> marte@... writes:

>

> Just the perfect post I need today because I'm not yet ready for

> erudition, discussions, debates, weighty ideas or even Social

> Conscience! Maybe next week I'll see if there's anyone on Jung

Fire

> who might like to know what the life was like of an ex neighbor of

> mine who spent his life primarily in forests and by rivers and the

> ocean.

>

>

>

> Hi Marte:

>

> I moved to a new intentional community for seniors and foster

families last

> July...and we are in a beautiful meadow abutting Mt Tom in

Easthampton Mas

> sachusetts...far enough away from any artifical light fro the night

sky to be

> dazzling. I often wake up in the middle ofthe nigth and go out on

the patio

> nto have a look up....this particular moon is gorgeous and

powerful....I can

> feel it's pull.....The other night while star gazing I looked up

and found

> myself in the company of a bobcat ...we are also graced by the

presence of cyote,

> red foxes and unfortunately fisher cats but they hunt at dusk and

are rarely

> seen. My soft grey polydactyl cat named Molly is slowly adjusting

to life

> as a house cat.....She sits from a safe perch at the patio door

and observes

> the wild life.

> that after having a near death encounter with one of the

predators, probably

> a cyote.....people say she couldn't have gotten away from a

Fisher....

>

> It should be a clear and beautiful night to search for the full

moon.... I'd

> love to know about the adventures of your neighbor's life.

>

> Blessings:

>

> Suzanne

>

>

>

>

>

> We can only be said to be alive in those moments

> when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

>

> Thornton Wilder

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Marte:

Here's a good description of a Fisher cat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_(animal)

It's not really a cat and looks more like a large weasel....It is considered a fierce predator that was introduced in New England because it can kill and eat porcupines as well as rodents, squireels, etc. It is one of the few animals here that will prey on domestic house cats. Alice recently showed us a picture of a Fisher after her wonderful cat, Bunky, fell prey to one. They are said to be sneaky and like to hunt at dusk....so our cats at Treehouse are not safe to go out at night.

Love and blessings:

Suzanne

[Guest guest]

Replying to:

> I moved to a new intentional community for seniors and foster

families last

> July...and we are in a beautiful meadow abutting Mt Tom in

Easthampton Mas

> sachusetts...far enough away from any artifical light fro the night

sky to be

> dazzling. I often wake up in the middle ofthe nigth and go out on

the patio

> nto have a look up....this particular moon is gorgeous and

powerful....I can

> feel it's pull.....The other night while star gazing I looked up

and found

> myself in the company of a bobcat ...we are also graced by the

presence of cyote,

> red foxes and unfortunately fisher cats but they hunt at dusk and

are rarely

> seen. My soft grey polydactyl cat named Molly is slowly adjusting

to life

> as a house cat.....She sits from a safe perch at the patio door

and observes

> the wild life.

> that after having a near death encounter with one of the

predators, probably

> a cyote.....people say she couldn't have gotten away from a

Fisher....

>

> It should be a clear and beautiful night to search for the full

moon.... I'd

> love to know about the adventures of your neighbor's life.

Hi, Brita/Suzanne -

Thank you so much for this post, so full of the local flora fauna

light and dark specific details! I've read it several times already,

with new appreciations each time.

What is a " fisher cat " ? At one point in my readings I thought I ?

knew? that that's a cougar (a mountain lion) but now I don't know

whether that was a dream, a hallucination, or maybe a narcisstic

distortion [?! :-)].

We've had cougars come into our " neighborhood community " (as well as

surrounding areas) from time to time, but though I know very well

what a bobcat is, I Await Clarification From You about " fisher cats " .

[Did I " dream " or just imagine that I've already asked you this and

you've already answered??]

I'm glad your polydactyl Molly survived her " near death encounters

with one of the predators " ! Nothing like an Early Wake Up Call, eh,

as to the need for life changes?! [How appropriate to these early

January days?].

My last (so far) domestic/ated (reluctantly)] cat didn't. He was a

stray who had " adopted me " at a time of a geographical move of mine

(I've several times been " adopted by " animals this way!).

I'd had so many cats and dogs by then (and -- ancillar-ily " mine " --

horses, one goat, several snakes and a few gerbils), along with so

many geographical moves, that by the time this piteous abandoned

feline critter conned me into taking him in as companion to what I

was then hoping would be my final geographical move, I simply named

him Kat-Kat.

We slept together for a long time and for a long time he always

clawed me during the night. Eventually he decided I was not his

enemy after all, and stopped doing that (I had a Simaese one time

years previous who put his claw directly into my right eye. Do you

suppose that's why I had to have cataract surgery in my right eye a

little while ago, long before I'm going to have to have it to my

left??!!).

But then he got fat and lazy and terribly spoiled and slovenly, but

his feisty spirit never left him. Because I kept TELLING HIM he

MUSTN'T GO OUT AT NIGHT, but one night at -- what else? -- a full

moon, he managed to push open a door I'd failed to latch securely.

[All these years later, that door still shows his many frantic

scratchings at it!]

He Met His Maker in what I believe was perhaps the last of the

coyotes who still found it possible to make peaceful (for him) entry

into this sort of in-between Druid and 21st century community.

Do please forgive such a long post, but I'm still trying to find my

way into Year 2007 after what, for me so far any way, has seemed to

be an exceptionally challenging -- " Split Archetype " ? -- turn of the

year.

I do try to get and keep a few personal e-mails of some listers so as

not to do this sort of excessively-long, oblique-to-most-current-

topics post too often.

If you'd be open to my having your off-list e-mail address, let me

know.

And though I'm working on an epitaph about my Total Inability to

Understand Cyberspace, I'll see if I can figure out al the scare

tactics about computer viruses & etc. and how/whether to give you mine.

Is it a deal?

[Neighbor life details some other time -- this is pretty ridiculously

long already!]

:-)

love -- and apologies to everyone else who gets this deluge of words,

but it's been a kind of weird and wonderful day here for me so far

today!

With best wishes and good hopes for all Fire Sitters,

marte

[Not proofread. Sorry.]

[Guest guest]

>What do cats usually mean in dreams?

This can be a complicated thing (as I don't really have to tell y'all) because cats can mean so many different things depending on one's life experience with them. I recently had occasion to discuss a dream cat with a woman and for her cats have a very negative and frightening meaning while to someone like me a cat can be either aloof or friendly or cuddly, etc. She's fearful of them while I am not so cats in our dreams would have entirely different meanings.

Off the top of my head, though, cats generally seem to signify the ability to see in the dark, to see hidden things, and they are often perceived as sneaky and vicious and unfeeling (because of the way they play with their live prey, etc). Maybe they could even suggest shapeshifting as witness their connections with witches in folk lore.

Then there's the matter of whether it's a big cat (lion, tiger, etc) or a small cat (housecat, lynx, etc) and a whole different set of symbols around both ends of the cat family.

And then we get into color... .

Blissings,

Sam

Don't believe everything you think. ~ Bumper Sticker...to think you know the truth because you have based it purely on facts (even if you are not deliberately distorting them) is an "intellectual arrogance accompanied by crudeness of feeling, a violation of life as stupid as it is presumptuous" (CW, paragraph 621). ~ Elaine Aron, PhDWho looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. ~ C.G. Jung (from a letter to Fanny Bowditch, dated 22 Oct 1916 in Volume I of the Letters of C. G. Jung)A dream is an answer to a question we haven't yet learned how to ask. ~ Fox Mulder on the X-FilesJust because I believe something doesn't mean it's true; just because I don't believe something doesn't mean it's untrue. ~ Sam

[Guest guest]

Suzanne says: >>Here's a good description of a Fisher cat.<< --I wonder if the description of the Fisher cat would relate as much to the dream as the separate terms "fisher" and "cat". Something relating to the Fisher King, plus the normal symbolism of cats, maybe. What do cats usually mean in dreams? __________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

Sam says: >>Off the top of my head, though, cats generally seem to signify the ability to see in the dark, to see hidden things, and they are often perceived as sneaky and vicious and unfeeling (because of the way they play with their live prey, etc). Maybe they could even suggest shapeshifting as witness their connections with witches in folk lore.<< --Thanks, Sam. C. Lockharthttp://www.soulaquarium.netYahoo! Messenger: grailsnailBlog: http://shallowreflections.blogspot.com/"The most dangerous things in the world are immense accumulations of human beings who are manipulated by only a few heads." -- Carl Jung"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning." -- Aird"LOVE PEOPLE AND USE THINGS - NOT LOVE THINGS AND USE PEOPLE." -- Unknown"While many say only God has the authority

to forgive men, men are quick to take it upon themselves to judge the sins of other men. Thus, the urge to punish has always had an unfair edge over the impulse for mercy." -- Unknown __________________________________________________