""The Girls of Spike's 15 Month Calendar is ready for pre-order!

A fund raiser for Spike's Vampire Bar and Spike's Inferno,
all of the models, the photographer and the graphic designer
have generously donated their time and mad skills to this fabulous project.

Pre-order to reserve a copy or 10 today for $15 + shipping at
www.girlsofspikes.com


Also, please join us for an exciting celebration
August 10th, 2007 at supperclub for
The Girls of Spike's Calendar Release Party
Details here: ( www.girlsofspikes.com/release)

Pre-order your calendar and party ticket together for $30.

Please note that when you pre-order your ticket or your ticket and calendar package
that Paypal will say that it is including shipping costs. Paypal requires a shipping fee field.
What we've done is make it so that the cost of the ticket plus the Paypal shipping fee comes out
to the proper amount of $15 for a ticket or $30 for a calendar & ticket combo.

Thank you for your support! We know you'll like the calendars. ""

as th goddess pulls her soft cloak across the face of the moon,
i light a dark and white candle to bring transformation soon.
as the eclipse shows all the lunar phases so bright,
may my psychic talents be seen in a whole new light.



March brings a change in the weather, the rains and final winter snows fall and the ground is beginning to warm. The spring bulbs are sending shoots towards the sky. Ostara, the Spring Equinox is approaching signifying another turn of the wheel. It is the time of the Storm Moon.

The Storm Moon ushers in the new beginnings of spring, and Ostara brings the world to balance. These energies are at the heart of the full moon in March. This is also a time of breakthroughs and breaking through illusion to see the truth. This makes the Storm Moon an excellent time for working towards breaking old habits and breaking through the blocks that prevent you from moving forward.

How can we harness this energy to benefit our lives?

If you have a habit that you are hoping to break, why not make yourself a charm or talisman to carry with you to help keep you focused. Amethyst is a great stone to help prevent overindulgence, if your habit is snacking before bed time, choose a smooth piece of amethyst to charge in the moon. Carry this stone with you during the time you would find yourself snacking and rub it between your fingers, like you would a worry stone. This may help keep your mind focused on your goal.

Looking for a breakthrough or a new beginning? With the energies of Spring and the imagery of new plants breaking through the soil, why not use that energy to work with your own? In a small pot of soil, plant herbs that possess the same qualities that you are looking for. As they grow and you tend to them, visualize and feel your own goals breaking through the things that cover them and reaching for the light. This is also an excellent activity for Ostara celebrations!

This time of year is also an excellent time to gather wood for a wand or besom. Most of the trees are still dormant and ready for pruning. A basic guideline for the length of a wand is to measure the length of your arm from your elbow to the tip of your middle finger. Personally, I say, use whatever length is comfortable for you. So you may want to start with a longer length and trim and smooth the wand until it suits you. Charge the wood in the moon, or spend some time in circle working on your wand to instill it with your energy.

If you would like to bring the energy of the Storm Moon indoors, you can do that by placing vases of spring blooms like daffodils and hyacinth around your home. Find a beautiful pastel altar cloth, or place a piece of aquamarine on your altar.

However you do so, celebrate the new beginnings and the promise of the coming Spring!



Lunar Eclipse
02.12.2007


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February 12, 2007: Picture this: The year is 2025 and you're on the moon. "Home" is 100 meters away—an outpost on the rim of Shackleton Crater. NASA started building it five years earlier, and it is growing fast. You're one of the construction workers.

As always in these polar regions, the sun hangs low, barely above the craggy lunar horizon. You adjust your visor. It amazes you how bright a low sun can be when there's no atmosphere to dim it.

Suddenly, the lights go out.

Up in the sky, a big black disk covers the sun. A red "ring of fire" appears where the sun was only moments before, and its glow turns the ground red beneath your feet.

You've been waiting for this. It's an eclipse.

Right: On the moon, the ground turns red during a lunar eclipse. This photo was taken by Doug Murray of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, during the total lunar eclipse of Oct. 27, 2004. [More]

Astronauts on the moon are going to experience eclipses typically once or twice a year: Earth glides in front of the sun turning lunar day into a strange kind of ruddy night. It'll be one of the highlights of any lunar tour.

The charm of the eclipse comes from Earth. Our planet is big enough by a factor of three to block the entire sun but, curiously, this doesn't cause complete darkness. Rays of sunlight bend around the edge of Earth, filtering through the atmosphere. As seen from the moon, the edge of Earth lights up like a sunset-red ring of fire—one of the most beautiful sights in the solar system. (A simplified, 1.2 MB animation of the process may be seen here. Credit: Graphic artist Larry Koehn.)

Can't wait until 2025? The next eclipse is right around the corner: Saturday, March 3, 2007. Stuck on Earth, we can't see the ring of fire, but we can see the red glow it produces on the moon. The phenomenon will be visible from parts of all seven continents including the eastern half of North America.



Above: A visibility map of the March 3, 2007, total lunar eclipse. Credit: Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC. [More]

In the USA, the eclipse will already be underway when the moon rises on Saturday evening. Observing tip: Find a place with a clear view of the eastern horizon and station yourself there at sunset. As the sun goes down behind you, a red moon will rise before your eyes.

Rising moons are often reddened by clouds or pollution, but this moon will be the deep, extraordinary red only seen during a lunar eclipse. As you watch it ascend into the night, imagine what it would be like to stand by Shackleton Crater watching from the opposite direction.

It's not so far-fetched. NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon no later than 2020. From their polar base camp, humans will explore the countryside hunting for resources they can use to "live off the land." They'll study the moon's geology, learning more about the unique potential of the moon to reveal ancient secrets of Earth and the solar system. They'll also evaluate technologies needed for future missions to Mars.

And occasionally when the ground turns red, they'll pause and look up at a glowing ring in the sky.

March 3rd is a good night to imagine that.