My Blog

Newborn Baby Boy Giraffe Needs Name!

shooting_star — Fri, 11 May 2007 05:21:59 GMT

Enter the contest to name the new baby giraffe, born last Saturday: http://www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org/what_to_see/africa/african_giraffe_calf.cfm

I must not fear.

shooting_star — Wed, 09 May 2007 04:14:14 GMT

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. -- Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

Hello Happy Beltaine

shooting_star — Sat, 05 May 2007 06:02:04 GMT

Beltaine O.S. (old style) is celebrated on May 5th, not on May 1st. The following explains why: Beltaine is a high holy festival day, falling exactly halfway between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice. It is one of the four Cross Quarter days that fall between the equinoxes and the solstices. The solar year is like a pie and can be divided into quarters. In our tradition, the fiducial (starting point) is the astronomically-measured date (not arbitrary) of the Vernal Equinox. This year the Vernal Equinox was on March 20. If you divide 365.25 solar days by four, you get 91.3 days per quarter of the pie. In reality, the quarters don't come out exactly because the orbit is not perfectly circular -- it's eliptical. (This is how the ancients would have known that.) The Vernal Equinox (3/20/2007) was on the 79th day of 2007. The Autumnal Equinox (9/23/2007) is on the 266th day of 2007. This cuts the solar year in two and gives us the first half of the solar year. To find the Quarter Day between the two equinoxes, Subtract 79 from 266 and you get 187 days for the half year. Half of that is 93.5 days. But we said above that equal quarters should be 91.3 days, right? See, it doesn't come out exact. Subtract 93.5 days from 266 to get the half-point between the Equinoxes. Day 172 turns out to be EXACTLY the Summer Solstice on 6/21/2007. Let's look at the second half of the year. The Vernal Equinox in 2008 is on 3/19/2008. That is day 444. Subtract 266 (the Autumnal Equinox) from 444 and you get 178 days in the second half of the solar year. There were 187 days in the first "half" of the solar year and 178 in the second half. (See. They're not equal.) Halfway between the Autumnal Equinox and the next Vernal Equinox would be half of 178, or 89 days, from either one. Subtract 89 from 444 and you get day 325. This happens to be EXACTLY the Winter Solstice on 12/21/2007. This gives us the QUARTER days for the High Holy Festivals -- the Equinoxes and the Solstices. These are the High Holy Festivals to be celebrated in the Western Esoteric Tradition. In addition to these, Wiccans and Druids (and some others) celebrate the Cross-Quarter Days. These will be found half-way between the Quarter Days. For Beltaine, we're looking for the day that falls at the beginning of May. So we take the Summer Solstice (172) and subtract the Equinox (79). 172-79=93. 93 divided by two is 46.5. So 172 - 46.5 is 125.5. Day number 125 is May 5th. Beltaine! So, the Cross-Quarter Day is May 5th. This is why Cinco de Maya is a holiday, and not May 1st. Beltaine should really be celebrated on May 5th, not on May 1st. Beltaine O.S. (old style) is celebrated on May 5th. What does Beltaine signify? Previous, the Vernal Equinox was the holiday of new birth and beginnings (and re-birth). Beltaine is the next holiday of the season signifying the beginning of the crop-growing season. It is a celebration of the fecundity of Nature. In many traditions, the holiday is rife with sexual symbolism. In ancient Sumeria, the goddess pleads with the god to "plow her furrow." The Priest and the Priestess (or the King and the Queen) often couple ceremoniously during this ritual. Ancient Celtic tradition called it the "Merry" holiday and basically sanctioned amorous coupling in the forest during the holiday. Offspring produced from such a coupling was considered to be sacred and the progeny were children of the community at large. So, enjoy your Beltaine. Couple if you can. If you can't, bless those that do. Amor and Lux

Easter Schmeaster

shooting_star — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:34:46 GMT

In 325 C.E., the Council of Nicea decided the date of Easter would be the first Sunday following the first full moon following the Vernal Equinox. A bit arbitrary. Unfortunately, this arbitrary date is the lynchpin upon which the entire Gregorian calendar is built. The seemingly arbitrary date that January 1st falls on derives from the date of Easter, which is arbitrarily derived from the astronomical event of the Vernal Equinox. To me this day today means nothing. I already celebrated the real holiday, which was the Vernal Equinox -- the first day of most of the oldest calendars and the true day of new birth and re-birth. Sacred to Oestre, symbolized by the egg and the fertile rabbit.

I Am Yoga-Challenged!

shooting_star — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:06:33 GMT

A 30-day Challenge is where you agree to attend yoga class thirty days in a row, without a break. Some wimpy yoga studios allow you to make up a missed day by doing a double. Not mine. My Challenge started on March 1st, meaning that I had to do yoga every day until March 30th. Before long, it became my main preoccupation. I found that just to make it to the class was 90% of the effort. I had to plan my whole schedule around it. For example, if there's only a four pm class on Saturday, that pretty much narrows it down to an exclusive commitment of my time from 1:30 pm on, with the rest of my Saturday evening dependent on that. My biggest challenge about the Challenge was that I live 36 miles away from the studio. So, I ended up doing a lot of driving in the month of March: 36 x 2 = 72 miles, round trip. 72 x 30 = 2160 miles total My usual class of choice was the seven pm. I found that the Interstate traffic coming into the city was relatively light at about five pm. Occasionally, I would get caught in a traffic jam and it would be bumper to bumper in-bound. Because of this I had to allow an hour and a half travel time before class. I had to leave right about 5:00 pm in order to make it to the studio by 6:30. I was never late and I never missed a class. 6:30 to 7:00 was taken up by my warm-up routine. After changing into my yoga shorts, I would take my yoga mat, my towel and my bottled water into the studio and fight it out with the other regulars for the "Primo" spots closest to the front mirrors. In some standing poses, you're supposed to stare at your locked knee. At my age, If you're one or two rows back from the mirror, it's hard to see your locked knee. Same deal with your third eye. In some standing poses, you're supposed to concentrate on your third eye, which can be difficult if you can't even see it with your other two. The studio where I practice my hot yoga doesn't have showers. (Most studios do.) So, unless a thoughtful friend in the neighborhood offered me the use of their shower, I usually ended up going out afterward "moist," as I call it. When you meet someone that you haven't seen in a while and they want to hug you, you have to warn them first that you're "still moist." Generally, it takes almost two hours to totally cool down (and stop sweating) after a hot yoga class. (But it's a clean sweat. It's not smelly, because you've long since sweat out the toxins.) If I had to leave home at 5:00 for my 7:00 class, the class takes ninety minutes, and it takes about two hours to cool down afterwards -- that's five and a half hours total. Plus, I had to make sure that I ate something substantial before I left the house. You can't attempt to do yoga on an empty stomach (although I think I might have done that once or twice during the month.) So, give it another half hour for that and I must have committed six hours a day to my practice for thirty days straight: 6 x 30 = 180 hours total My studio does allow you to attend class at another Bikram Yoga studio, provided you get a note from that teacher. I did that three times, traveling to Mount Vernon Bikram Yoga instead of the Sweatbox. Still, there was no savings in distance, Mount Vernon being about the same distance away. I found I had to do laundry at least once a day. I got that down to a fine art. Two towels, two pairs of underwear, my yoga shorts, two socks, two sweatshirts and a pair of pants. You don't want your clothes (soaked in two liters of your own sweat) just sitting around for a day. I had to do a washload every day. Occasionally I wouldn't be able to do this so I had a backup bag of duplicates, just in case. "Hydration" is the technical term for ensuring that you have enough water in you before and during the class. I had to have at least one packet of Emergen-C to supplement my bottled water. Sometimes I would go through a whole liter of water on the drive in and I would have to add an Emergen-C to the second bottle right before class. During the class I would go through the entire second bottle. (Emergen-C is a powdered energy supplement with added electrolytes.) Two liters of sweat is about right. Sometimes two and a half, depending on the temperature of the class. How do I know? Because I wrung out my gear one day to see how much was there. Plus, I know how much water I was putting into me before class. And how much I had to put back in to replace it afterwards. Usually, I would buy a protein Power Bar from QFC right before the class and wolf that down. Since I always arrived half an hour before the class started, the power bar would kick in about halfway through the ninety minute class, providing a little energy boost exactly when it's needed. Now, to top this story off, I should add that I began training for the 30-Day Challenge back in February. I started going to class every day in spurts, with the last spurt beginning on February 19th. I didn't want to jump into daily classes without some preparation first. Unfortunately, it snowed about six inches on February 28th, making it impossible to make it to class. If it hadn't snowed that day I would have had ten full daily classes before even starting the Challenge. If you don't count the Snow Day (which was outside of my control) I really did 39 straight days of yoga. Now, why do such a thing in the first place? First, I accomplished physical changes to my body. My postures are deeper now. I'm stronger while in the postures, and my endurance and stamina is better. I never sat out a single posture in the entire time. (As a matter of fact, I have never sat out a posture since my first week over a year ago, with the exception of a double I did in October and another back in December.) I lost more weight and gained additional muscle tone. The spare tire I inherited from my Celtic ancestors continues to shrink, though there's still a ways to go. My legs are locking now in the final Head to Knee With Stretching posture. This is critical because this is prerequisite to being able to lock your knee in some of the other standing postures. On some days I was able to lock my knee in Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee pose. As a teenager, I was never able to lock my knees in these poses. So, locking my knee has been a life-long challenge for me. My Half-Moon pose has been called "beautiful" by my teachers. I've really improved on that one. My Back Bend has improved dramatically. My Cobra Posture has also been called beautiful. My Locust pose has greatly improved. There's a down-side to daily yoga. I'm pretty exhausted at the moment. Generally, I noticed that I was weaker on the average day, because there is not time to fully recover from the previous day. I've noticed that a day off provides for a much stronger class on my return. Also, I think there's something to be said about the mental effects of daily yoga. I have felt somewhat scattered and confused at times. This kind of daily yoga can have that effect, but to offset that, the ability to meditate is GREATLY enhanced with daily yoga. I found myself easily going into trance right after a class. I did it twice in my car (not while driving) going into a trance for about two hours, with strong effortless visions occurring, and even some lucid dreaming. The rest of my life has suffered during the month of March, which is not very balanced. So, it's time now to get back to real life, with a more realistic yoga practice. Say, only five days a week?

The Rest of the World Doesn't Revolve Around You! Or Does It?

shooting_star — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:26:34 GMT

Does the Earth revolve around the Sun, or does the Sun and all of the planets revolve around me? We are taught, in our modern American public school systems, that the ancients were ignorant and mistaken in their view that the Sun, the Moon and the planets travel around the Earth every day. We are taught that at some advanced stage of modern development, some modern-day genius was able to rise above his everyday perceptions and deduce the truth -- that is, that the Sun stands still and everything else revolves around it. However, this over-simplified explanation is not supported by the History of Science. It is clear from the historical record that the ancients were as smart and as sophisticated as ourselves in their ability to reason. The ancient Egyptians knew that the Earth was spherical and they were aware that there was an elliptical nature to the Earth's orbit. Such things aren't that difficult to deduce. If you simply observe the movement of the Sun for one solar year with a gnomon (a Sun-sighting stick) you will gather all of the information you need to deduce such things. The ancient Egyptians accomplished this task at an early date and this is the original reason for their veneration of the obelisk. An obelisk is at its simplest, simply a Sun-sighting tool. The first thing you will notice after a year of observations, is that the Sun's shadow returns to the spot it was at a solar year ago, or 365 days ago. There are four ordinals (or fiducials) that stand out. At noon, on one day during the year, the shadow is at its shortest point (the Summer Solstice) and on another day it is at its longest (the Winter Solstice). On the two days halfway between these points, the Sun rises Due East and sets Due West (the Equinoxes.) These four dates split the solar year into four equal parts (and space into four fundamental directions.) Or do they? What we actually find is that the four quarters do not separate themselves equally. The equinoxes fall a few days shorter or longer than expected to make an equal quarter of the pie. What does that suggest? Simply, that the observed movement of the Sun is not perfectly circular around the Earth. It is, therefore, elliptical. Other observations using obelisks and pyramids will reveal the spherical nature of the Earth upon which we sit, and still more observations will even allow the deduction of the distance of the Earth from the Sun! The ancient Egyptians had more than one year to study these things. In fact, the existing recorded history goes back to about 3112 B.C.E.; meaning, that for thousands of years they were observing such things. The Western World teaches that it was Copernicus who was finally able to rise above the deceptive nature of his senses to deduce that the Earth revolved around the Sun. We are taught that this view eventually prevailed, countering the prevailing dogma of the Catholic Church. In fact, most sophisticated thinkers on the subject had been seriously considering the option for centuries. Anyone who has traveled in a car on a freeway knows that you can begin to perceive yourself in your own car as stationary, and all the cars around you to be moving around you. A thought experiment can shift this point of view to make another car the stationary one and yours to be the moving one (for example, when you pull out to pass.) All the while, we are disregarding the fact that both cars are moving down the highway at a high rate of speed. Two ancient Egyptian soldiers traveling to battle on horseback can be expected to experience something quite similar. The biology of our brains and our senses has not changed that much in 4,000 years. Such thought experiments fall within the domain of something we have come to call Relativity. The Grandfather of Relativity was Galileo Galilei. Galilean Relativity describes this state of affairs where activity within one moving system will appear to be at rest, while obviously moving when viewed from another reference frame. The Father of Relativity is Albert Einstein. Einstein loved these Thought Experiments. He did them all the time and used them to illustrate his theories of Relativity. He had two theories of Relativity – The Special one and the General one. Special Relativity attempts to describe observations having to do with time that occur at speeds approaching the Speed of Light. General Relativity has to do with describing how great quantities of mass affect the fundamental fabric of space. But these subjects are beyond the scope of what I'm trying to get at here. Albert Einstein would be the first to tell you that there is no single stationary reference frame. Galileo said the same thing. To maintain that the Sun is the only stationary reference frame is naïve and mistaken; and is just as mistaken as claiming that the Earth is the stationary party. What they would both say is that it depends on which you presume to be the stationary one. Edmund Husserl was an early twentieth-century Philosopher whose claim to fame had to do with his assertion that one's subjective observations are the fundamental judgment to support what we decide is real and true. Husserl said that in a very real way, it is much more true to say that the Earth is standing still and the Sun revolves around it. Einstein and Galileo would both agree that you can do that. And when you do, all of a sudden you are connected to the world around you, because all of the world is revolving around you. You are now responsible for it. It is not some exterior thing revolving around some other external thing, totally oblivious to you and uncaring. By virtue of the fact that it is revolving around you, you are family with it, and not in some kind of lonely existential separation from it. This is why I have come to maintain that the Sun and the planets (and even the so-called Fixed Stars) revolve around the Earth. The Earth is stationary and all revolves around it. Galileo, Einstein (even Newton) and the ancients too would agree with me. How about you?

My two cents worth

shooting_star — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:18:34 GMT

There's some criticism in one of the Tribes I belong to about the Bikram Yoga practice that I'm dedicated to now. The argument is that it is fundamentally risky and unhealthy. The main argument has to do with the risks involved with that kind of heat exposure. (90 minutes of exercise in temperatures at least as high as 105 degrees and humidity of 50%.) I finally felt a need to respond to the particulars and I've posted that below here. After I wrote it all out, I realized that in this case, it's wiser just to let it go, and hopefully that poster will just go away to vent his frustrations elsewhere. Rather than let it go to waste, I thought I would post it here. So enjoy. If you feel like giving me your two cents, please feel free to comment. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wise men say there comes a time to just let it go. I think they also say it's about balance, so here's my two cents. I'm not a studio owner, or a certified teacher, so some of these issues may have an official response that I'm unaware of. I can't and don't speak for Bikram, or his teachers. I can only speak for myself. I do know that on the occasion of the first class, a questionaire has to be filled out by the newbie. That questionaire addresses some of these issues. And the person signs a disclaimer, stating that he/she understands the risks, and that they take on those risks knowingly. Part of the personal growth that seems to occur with regular Bikram practice is a growing sense of awareness of one's own body, where it's at and a sense of personal responsibility for what you do with it. Part of that has to do with learning what your body can tolerate (in terms of the degree of heat, amount of exertion and deepness of stretching) and then pacing oneself accordingly within the confines of the 90-minute class. At times I've found myself pushing myself too far and too much. I learn from that experience and feed that back into my practice. The next time I practice I take that learning into account, along with a judgment about the current state of my body and the environment of the studio, and proceed with my practice accordingly. This is part and parcel of the meditation, the concentration. All the while, trying to stop the internal dialogue and quiet the mind. In my opinion, pushing yourself beyond your limits is necessary for the changes to occur. My teachers constantly caution against pushing into pain, but in my own experience learning about the pain is part of the personal growth. The pain is your body telling you where its limits are, and I've learned just how far I can push into that pain in order to effect the changes I want to occur. I don't think there's anything new and profound about this. This is pretty elementary knowledge for both ballerinas and football players. The classic books on the subject discuss the pain issue. Read "Raja Yoga" for example. Personally, I think this process is a necessary part of the learning experience. If you accomplish it, then you are successful with your practice. I'm over fifty years old and not particularly active or athletic. I've attended about 200 Bikram classes in 2006, in three different Bikram studios. (Plus some at home to the CD.) I never attended any yoga classes before. I have NEVER experienced ANY of these extreme adverse symptoms you describe. I'm responsible for nourishing myself properly before the class. I'm responsible for hydrating myself as recommended. I very rarely sit out a posture. And I pace myself accordingly through the class, depending on how I feel my body is on that occasion. Some times I have a weak class and I don't push it. On other occasions, I feel VERY strong and I push it to the maximum. I've done two back to back doubles, which means over 3 1/2 hours in that environment. I still did NOT suffer any of these extreme symptoms you caution about. I've experienced a tremendous increase in muscle strength and tone. I've lost a lot of fatty weight. I think I'm more graceful and confident in my movement and activity. I think I have a more youthful and glowing appearance. In short, I'm more healthy as a result of my practice -- both mentally and physically. It works for me and it works for a lot of the other regulars that I see in the studios on a daily basis. That's my two cents worth.

to sweat

shooting_star — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 07:39:21 GMT

"To sweat is to pray, to make an offering of your innermost self. Sweat is holy water, prayer beads, pearls of liquid that release your past, anointing all your parts in a baptism by fire. Sweat burns karma, purifying body and soul. Sweat is an ancient and universal form of self-healing, whether done in the gym, the sauna, or the sweat lodge. I do it on the dance floor. The more you dance, the more you sweat. The more you sweat, the more you pray. The more you pray, the closer you come to ecstasy." -- Gabrielle Roth

Winter Solstice/Yule is Dec 21 in America, Dec 22 in Europe

shooting_star — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 03:19:55 GMT

How is it that the Winter Solstice can fall on two different days, depending on your location? The exact time of the Solstice is an astronomical event that occurs at the same precise moment, no matter where you are on the globe. It is the moment when the Sun reaches its most southerly point during the year. This year it occurred at Dec. 22, 00:23 am UT. UT means Greenwich Universal Time. (In other words the United Kingdom Time Zone.) This time translates to 01:23 am on Dec. 22 in Paris, 07:23 pm on Dec. 21 in New York and 04:23 pm on Dec. 21 in Los Angeles. Since the moment of the Solstice was the evening of December 21st in North America, December 21st is recognized as the date of the Solstice there. Since the moment of the Solstice was in the early hours of December 22nd in Europe, the Solstice is celebrated on December 22nd there.

Bikram Yoga Washington State Regionals Championship Competition Sunday December 3rd in Bellevue

shooting_star — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:38:19 GMT

This year's Bikram Yoga Washington State Regionals Championship Competition will be held on Sunday, December 3rd in Bellevue at 5 pm. Sarah Baughn, the #2 World Champion (from Mount Vernon, Washington) will be there competing. One of my teachers, Luis Rojas (from Mount Vernon) will also be competing. You can read about Luis and Sarah's experience last year here: http://bikramyoga.com/News/BentonWashington-SkagitValleyHerald.htm You can view Sarah Baughn's winning performance (with her amazing Floor Bow) from last year here: http://www.funkydooryoga.com/Video_SAB_YogaChamp.html This will be held at Bikram Yoga Bellevue, 626 120th Avenue NE Suite 101. Website with information is here: http://www.yogacompetition.com/home.html And yes, that picture is Sarah Baughn doing her Floor Bow!

What's the difference between a shooting star and a falling house?

shooting_star — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 07:54:13 GMT

What's the difference between a shooting star and a falling house? One which is propitious grants delicious wishes, the other which is vicious squishes witches.

Yusuf Islam

shooting_star — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:24:51 GMT

Yusuf Islam is one of my heroes. Known as Cat Stevens in the sixties and seventies, he was a very popular and prolific singer/songwriter. In 1978 or so, he gave it all up after a life-changing experience. Evidently, he was swimming in the ocean and almost drowned. He appealed to God for help and was swept ashore. His brother gifted him with a copy of the Koran. He changed his name to Yusuf Islam and devoted his life to his wife and children. Since that time he has been involved in charity work, raising money to educate and help starving children and promoting world peace. In 2004, the plane he was on to the United States was diverted when it was found that his name was on a No-Fly List. The Department of Homeland Security thinks he has terrorist connections. Probably because his last name is Islam, he reads the Koran and was awarded the "Man of Peace" award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureats in 2003. His first new album in 28 years will be released in the United States tomorrow. Check out his website here: http://www.yusufislam.com/ The entire album can be heard here: http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/yusuf/yusuf.html A video of one of the songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BPgduuF5NQ&eurl=

An Alchemical Christmas Story

shooting_star — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 20:07:28 GMT

An Alchemical Christmas Story In the year of our Lord, 353 AD, Pope Liberius declared that Christmas would be celebrated hereafter on December 25th (the traditional birthdate of Mithras and the time of the Winter Solstice.) Up until that year, Christ’s birth was not celebrated in December. We know with certainty that Jesus Christ wasn’t born on December 25th of the year 0. There is no year “0.” An attempt at an identification of that year wasn’t made until 523 AD when a monk by the name of Dionysius Exiguus was tasked with it by the papal chancellor, Bonifatius. Dionysius was mainly working on tables that calculated the dates on which to celebrate Easter. To do this, he was working from the beginning date of the founding of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita.) It has been known for a long time now that he erred in setting Christ’s birth in the year 753 AUC. (You see, King Herod died in 750 AUC and Jesus was born during Herod’s reign.) Dionysius erred in setting 754 AUC as equal to our year 1 AD. It is generally accepted now that the most likely years (in our reckoning) for Christ’s birth are six or seven BC. Christmas lore tells us that three Persian kings travelled to Israel at that time to search out a foretold birth. These Magi were astronomer priests, familiar with the cults of Mithras and Serapis. The last 2,100 year-long Aeon was coming to an end and a new king was expected to be born to begin the new age. In those years, Jupiter and Saturn were wandering through the skies in very close proximity. They would come together (conjunct) and then separate and then conjunct again throughout seven and six BC. At the time of a Jupiter/Saturn conjunction, the two stars appear as one bright star. In seven BC, these conjunctions occur in the sign of Pisces – which happens to be the sign of the new Aeon. The birth of this new king would be fulfilling the prophecies of Egypt as well as the Jews. A Horus King is born at the beginning of the Egyptian year, with the heliacal rising of Sothis, known to us as the star Sirius. On that night in 7 BC, Jupiter and Saturn are conjunct high in the sky in Pisces. Orion (Osiris) follows and shortly thereafter Sothis (Isis) rises just before the sun. On this particular morning, Mercury (Hermes Trismegistus) also rises after Sothis and appears immediately before the Sun. It is this day, July 29th of 7 BC that fulfills the prophecies. Traditional Christmas lore confirms the tale told in the skies. (As above, so below.) The scene in the stable contains all of the elements present in the sky. Jupiter and Saturn (conjunct) are represented by the two Magi, one who brings the gift of gold and the other who brings myrh. Aries and Taurus are represented by the sheep and the cow. Orion (Osiris) is represented by the presence of Joseph and Sirius (Isis) is represented by Mary. The Christ Child himself is a “Lion of Judah.” The Lion King is born when the Sun rises in Leo. Lastly, the oldest king kneels at the manger and presents the gift of frankincense. This would represent the last planet present – Mercury, the messenger of the Gods.