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Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo
Libra
Scorpius Ophiuchus
Sagittarius
Capricornus
Aquarius
Pisces
 Sun enters Scorpio, 8th sign of
the Zodiac
(Oct 23 - Nov 21)
Scorpius
(the scorpion) is one of the constellations
of the zodiac.
In Western
astrology it is known as 'Scorpio'. It lies between Libra to
the west and Sagittarius to
the east. It is a large constellation located in the Southern
Hemisphere near the centre of the Milky Way.
According to Greek mythology,
it corresponds to the scorpion which was sent by Gaia (or
possibly the goddess Hera) to kill the
hunter Orion, the
scorpion rising out of the ground at the goddess's command to
attack. We note that as Scorpius rises in the east, the constellation of Orion
seems to die in the west. When Orion rises again, it may be seen as
the deity's restoration. In the myth, this restoration to 'health'
is performed by Aesculapius,
the god of the healing art. As Orion rises in the east, he is
'crushed' by the constellation Ophiuchus, 'the
serpent holder'. There was no classical god named Ophiuchus (which
means 'toiling'), but the figure was thought to represent
Aesculapius.
"King James I of England, who
reigned in the 1600s, once referred to Ophiuchus as 'a mediciner
after made a god,' because the Serpent Bearer was often identified
with Aesculapius, who in Greek Mythology, was originally a mortal
physician who never lost a patient by death. This alarmed
Hades, god of the dead, who prevailed on his brother, Zeus, to
liquidate Aesculapius.
"In recognition of his merits,
however, Aesculapius was put up into the sky as a constellation.
"In the sky he appears not so much
like a man but more like a large upended oblong structure with a
peaked roof where a star as bright as the North Star appears to
shine. That star is the brightest of Ophiuchus and is known
as Ras Alhague, the 'head of the Serpent Holder.'
"An oddity about Ophiuchus is that
the ecliptic—the apparent path of the Sun, Moon and
planets—actually cuts through this constellation. In fact,
the Sun spends more time traversing through Ophiuchus than
Scorpius! It officially resides in Scorpius for less than a
week: from November 23 through 29. It then moves into
Ophiuchus on November 30 and remains within its boundaries for
more than two weeks—until Dec. 17. Yet the Serpent Holder
is not considered a member of the Zodiac and so must defer to
Scorpius! Perhaps the reason was that in order to include
Ophiuchus, there would have been an unlucky thirteen 'Houses
of the Sun' instead of the currently accepted twelve."
Source
In many versions, however, Apollo
sent the scorpion after Orion, having grown jealous of Artemis's
attentions to the man. Later, to apologize for killing her friend,
Apollo then helped Artemis hang Orion's image in the night sky.
However, the scorpion was also placed up there, and every time it
appears on the horizon, Orion starts to sink into the other side of
the sky, still running from the attacker.
Scorpius also appears in one version of the
fable of Phaethon, a foolish
mortal who obtained permission to drive Apollo's sun-chariot for
a day. The horses, already out of control in their sky journey,
became scared when they encountered the great celestial scorpion
with its sting raised to strike, and the inexperienced boy lost
control of the chariot, as the sun wildly went about the sky.
Finally, Jupiter
struck him down with a thunderbolt to stop the rampage.
The astrological sign Scorpio (October 23 -
November 21) is associated with the constellation. In some cosmologies, Scorpio is associated with the
classical element
Water, and thus called a Water Sign (with
Cancer and
Pisces). It is also one of the four Fixed signs (along with
Taurus, Leo, and Aquarius). Its polar opposite is Taurus. Each astrological sign is assigned a part of the body, viewed as the seat of its power. Scorpio rules the genitals. The symbol for Scorpio is the
scorpion. The qualities of Scorpio include: a lifelong fascination with sex, birth, and death, an extremely focused nature, penetrative insight, a strong sense of privacy, and an ability to subtly affect others in profound (often sexual) ways.
The Chinese
included these stars in the Azure Dragon, a powerful but benevolent
creature whose rising heralded Spring. To
the Egyptians (for a period), the stars of Scorpius were seen as a
serpent. In classical Greek and Roman times, the scorpion's huge
claws included the stars that we now call Libra.
To the
Māori, Scorpius was
seen as a magic fish-hook on which the fisherman demi-god Maui caught a large
fish that was in fact a piece of land which then broke in two,
forming the two main islands of Aotearoa, now called New Zealand.
Then the hook was removed with great force from the islands, flying
into the sky where it remains. In another version, the fish became
the North Island and the boat's anchor became the South. The many
valleys and mountains of the North Island were caused when Maui's
brothers fought over the fish.
 The scorpion's poison
According to folklore, scorpions carry with them an oil that is a remedy against their stings:
Tis true, a scorpion's oil is said
To cure the wounds the venom made.
And weapons dress'd with salves restore
And heal the hurts they gave before.
Samuel
Butler; Hudibras, III, ii, 1029
Brewer (Ivor
H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and
Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) tells us that "the oil was extracted from the flesh and given to the sufferer as medicine; it was also supposed to be very useful to bring away the descending stone of the kidneys. Another belief was that if a scorpion was surrounded by a circle of fire it would sting itself to death with its own tail.
Byron, in the
Giaour (1. 422), extracts a simile from the legend:
The mind that broods o'er guilty woes
Is like the Scorpion girt by fire; ...
One sad and sole relief she knows,
The sting she nourished for her foes,
Whose venom never yet was vain,
Gives but one pang, and cures all pain."
Astrology
The
Real Constellations of the Zodiac
Astrology: Pro Astrology: Con
Feast day of St Anicius
Manlius Severinus Boëthius
Anicius ( 480
- 524 or 525)
was a Christian
philosopher of the 6th
Century.
Feast day of St Arnold
Reche
Feast day of St Henry of
Cologne
Having studied at the university in Paris,
Henry became one of the first Dominicans and was Cologne's first
prior. Friend of Blessed Jordan. Died 1225.
Feast day of St Ignatius,
Patriarch of Constantinople
Born around 799,
Ignatius was the son of the
Byzantine Emperor
Michael I Rangabe and Prokopia. He became
Patriach of Constantinople in 842. He made his
reputation by fighting corruption in civil and religious life, even
in the highest offices; he refused communion to
Bardas Caesar due to
his acts of incest. Because of his values, Ignatius was driven from
his see for nine years, but eventually returned in triumph.
Ignatius died
on October 23, 877.
Feast day of St John Buoni
Feast day of St John of
Capistrano (John Capistran; Giovanni da Capistrano)
More
Feast day of St Josephine
Leroux
Feast day of St Oda
St Oda was the wife of the
Duke of Aquitaine. After his death she devoted her life and fortune
to the care of the poor and suffering. Her shrine is at Amay, near
Liege, France. Died c. 723. Source
Feast day of St Romanus,
Archbishop of Rouen
Feast day of St Severinus
Boethius, Archbishop of Cologne
Severinus (Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius) was
a Roman statesman, philosopher and writer, born around 475 - 480. He was martyred in 524
or 525 at Pavia, where his
relics are still kept. He
was canonized 1883.
He is not to be confused with 'Another St Severin', patron of
Bordeaux.
Feast day of St Severinus,
patron of Bordeaux
Sometimes called 'Another Severin' to distinguish him from
the saint of the same name,
Archbishop of Cologne.
Feast day of St Theodoret of
Antioch, priest and martyr
(Rushy starwort, Aster junicus, is
today's plant,
dedicated to this saint.)
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days
Iga Ueno Tenjin Matsuri,
Sugawara Shrine, Ueno, Mie Prefecture, Japan (Oct 23 - 25)
On
October 23 and 24, locals
and visitors enjoy lantern parades, a dashi parade in the daytime,
strolling priests (yamabushi),
a costume parade and mikoshi
carried on young men's shoulders. On the 25th, there is
a procession of people disguised as demons that are said to dispel
illness and bad luck.
Las golondrinas: the swallows of
Capistrano
depart
Swallows
traditionally leave today from Goya,
Corrientes province, Argentina, and return to Capistrano Mission,
California, USA on or around St Joseph's Day (March 19)
each year, greeted by large numbers of locals and visitors from all
over the world. It is one of the planet's best-known equinox (or
near-equinox) events.
In 1998, monks from the Mission
had to entice the swallows with ladybugs and other insects, as
renovations at Capistrano had frightened them away.
Origin of the Flight: Goya, Corrientes, Argentina
Final
destination. Capistrano, California, USA
DATA
Distance of
total flight . . . 12,000 km.
Distance of each segment . . . 450 km.
Number of segments . . . 30
Type of flight . . . . . VFR (daylight)
Total Real time of flight. . 450 hours
Total calendar time . . . 30 days
Total fuel consumption . . . 120 gm.
Fuel performance . . . 0.01 gm. Grams per kilometer
Cruising velocity . . . . 30 km./hour
P.M.D. (maximum weight at takeoff). 280 gm.
Source
The legend of the swallows Swallows of
Capistrano, image site and mpg
 National Mole Day,
USA (Chemistry)
Mole Day is celebrated
among chemists
on October 23, between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m
(i.e. 6:02 10/23 in an American date style). The time and date are
derived from Avogadro's number, which is 6.02×1023,
defining the number of molecules
in a mole, one of seven basic SI units.
National Mole
Day Foundation
molearchy - government in which moles are in complete control
mole-mole -
a mole double agent
molebile - a
mole which hangs from the ceiling Source
See also: Newtonmas, Pi_Day,
Darwin_Day,
Square root day
National
Day, Hungary
(revolution of 1956,
see below)
On which day of the week were you born? Find out here
1698
Ange-Jacques
Gabriel (d. 1782),
French architect
1705
Maximilian
Ulysses Reichsgraf von Browne (d. 1757),
Austrian field marshal
1715
Peter
II of Russia (d. 1730)
 1734
Restif
de la Bretonne (Nicolas-Edme Rétif or Nicolas-Edme Réstif, called de la Bretonne for
his father's farm in Burgundy; d. February
2, 1806), prolific
French
novelist,
early communist theorist, known as
'the Chronicler of the
Street' (also 'the Rousseau of the Gutter' and
'the
Voltaire
of the Chambermaids') during the French Revolution, and some say inventor
of the term 'communism'.
More than 250 of his novels were
published (many printed by himself), mostly based on incidents in his own life. It must have
been some life.
Bretonne helped inaugurate the
'personal novel', a genre that rose to prominence in the 19th
Century. Much of Restif's work was libertine and long excluded by
the arbiters of literary taste as cynical, vulgar, and tasteless.
The term 'retifism'
('shoe fetishism') was named after him.
Works
include La Famille vertueuse (The Virtuous Family,
1767); Sara ou La Derniere Aventure d'un homme de quarante-cinq
ans (Sara, or The Last Adventure of a Forty-Five Year Old Man,
1783); Les Contemporaines (Contemporary Women, 1780); La
Paysanne pervertie (The Perverted Peasant Girl, 1784); La
Vie de Monsieur Nicolas (The Life of Mr Nicholas, 1794 -
1797), his erotic autobiography; Les Nuits de Paris (Paris
Nights, 1788); and Idees singulieres (Singular Ideas,
1769), which comprises his ideas for regulating prostitution. Just
before
Bretonne's death, Napoleon
gave him a place in the ministry of police, which he did not live to
take up. Bretonne, who also wrote 17 plays that were never performed, died in
poverty.
Said
the
Encyclopædia
Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910
- '11) in its article
on Restif: "His books were written with haste, and their
licence of subject and language renders them quite unfit for general
perusal."
Shop de la Bretonne More
1762 Samuel Morey (d. 1843),
American inventor of the internal combustion engine
1786
Barron
Field (d.
April 11,
1846), Australian
colonial judge and poet
Thy poems,
Barron Field, I've read,
And thus adjudge their meed,
So poor a crop proclaims thy head,
A
barren field indeed.
Unknown 19th-Century critic
"Barron Field, the
companion of the Lambs [English poet
Charles Lamb and his wife – PW]
in their excursion to Mackery End, had gone to New South Wales as chief judge
of the supreme court. Of the two poems which Field printed for private
circulation, the first was characterised by Lamb, as containing too much
evidence of the unlicensed borrowing which had helped to colonise Botany bay.
To the second, The Kangaroo, which
he quoted at length, he gave more praise: he was "mistaken, if it does not
relish of the graceful hyperboles of the elder writers"—a perhaps excessive
compliment, which might be suspected of having a double edge if
it had not been repeated less ambiguously at a later date."
Source
"When the cruelly named Barron Field published his First Fruits of Australian Poetry in 1819, he brought together a name, a title, and a notionally foundational moment with what seems memorable haplessness, an impression strengthened by the fact that his gathering of verse initially contained only two poems,
'Botany-Bay Flowers' and 'The Kangaroo', four more being added in the second edition of 1823."
Source
1796 Stefano Franscini, member of the Swiss
Federal Council (d. 1857)
1813 Ludwig von
Leichhardt (d. 1848?),
Prussian
explorer
and naturalist. In 1842,
Leichhardt moved to Sydney, Australia,
where he led three major expeditions. He was last seen on April
3, 1848, at McPherson's Station, Coogoon on the
Darling
Downs. His disappearance after moving inland, although
investigated by many, remains a mystery.
1817 Pierre Athanase Larousse,
French grammarian, encyclopaedist and lexicographer
1835 Adlai E Stevenson, Vice President of the
United States; his grandson Adlai Ewing Stevenson II was Democratic
candidate for President of the United
States (1952
and 1956)
1844 Robert Bridges
(d. April 21, 1930),
English poet,
Poet Laureate from 1913. At
Corpus Christi College, Bridges became friends with Gerard Manley Hopkins who is now
considered a superior poet but owes his present fame to Bridges'
efforts in arranging the posthumous publication (1916) of his verse.
1875 Gilbert N Lewis, American chemist
1892 Gummo
Marx (d. 1977), actor, comedian, Marx Brothers
1902 Kristmann Guðmundsson
(Kristmann Guomundsson),
Icelandic writer, who published more than 30 novels. Best-known for
books of romantic fiction, several written in Norwegian. With Gunnar
Gunnarsson (1901 - 1983) and Halldór
Killian Laxness (1902
-) among the first internationally known Icelandic authors.
1905 Felix
Bloch, Swiss physicist
1906 Gertrude Ederle, first woman to swim the
English Channel
1909 Zellig Harris, American linguist
1923
Frank
Sutton (d. 1974), American actor (Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.)
1925 Johnny Carson (d. January
23, 2005), American television
presenter
1927
Philip
Lamantia (d. March
7, 2005),
American
poet
and lecturer. Lamantia's visionary poems – ecstatic,
terror-filled, erotic – explored the subconscious world of dreams
and linked it to the experience of daily life.
The poet was born in San
Francisco's Excelsior
neighbourhood to Sicilian immigrants. A self-taught literary
prodigy, his poetry was published first in the Surrealist
magazine View when he was fifteen. He later became involved
with the San Francisco Beat
Generation poets and The
Surrealist Movement in the United States. He was on the bill at
San Francisco's Six
Gallery on October
7, 1955,
when poet Allen
Ginsberg read his poem Howl
for the first time.
Nancy Peters, his wife and literary editor,
said about him, "He found in the narcotic night world a kind of
modern counterpart to the gothic castle –
a zone of peril to be symbolically or existentially crossed."
The poet spent time with native peoples in
the United States and Mexico in the 1950s, participating in the peyote-eating
rituals of the Washoe
Indians of Nevada.
In later life, he embraced Catholicism, the religion of his
childhood, and wrote many poems on Catholic themes.
Source:
Wikipedia Wilson's
Almanac Book of Days hip list More
More
1931
Diana Dors (d. 1984), British sex
symbol and actress (Yield to
the Night;
There's a
Girl in My Soup)
Who got Diana Dors' millions?
1942 Dame
Anita
Roddick (d.
September 10,
2007),
DBE, English businesswoman, author (Business as
Unusual; Take it
Personally; Body and
Soul; A Revolution in
Kindness) social reformer, founder of
The Body Shop which uses business as a vehicle for social and environmental concerns. Today there are
more than 2,000
Body Shop stores, serving more than 77 million customers in fifty different
countries, in 25 different languages.
Roddick was also much in demand as a
public speaker, particularly to corporate leaders, and was a member of the
Demos think tank's advisory council.
Roddick was diagnosed with liver
cirrhosis due to long standing
hepatitis C in 2004, and after she
revealed this to the media in February 2007 she promoted the work of
the Hepatitis C Trust, and campaigned to increase awareness
of the disease. Dame Anita died of a
brain haemorrhage.
The price of dignity:
Anita Roddick on corporate citizenship
The Guardian
"In the past two years, 500 export
assembly factories have shut down in Mexico, throwing 218,000
workers on to the street. Their crime was the $1.26-an-hour base
wage they were paid by companies such as Alcoa Fujikura to produce
auto parts for export to the US. Those wages are now "too
high" in the global economy.
"Never mind that the Alcoa workers in
Acuna live in makeshift cardboard huts that lack potable water.
Never mind that many of the workers in nearby Piedras Negras were
selling their blood plasma twice a week to Baxter International
for $30 in order to survive. Those same auto parts are now being
made in Honduras by workers earning 59 cents an hour, in Nicaragua
for 40 cents an hour and in China for 27 cents an hour ..."
Source
| reetings from Australia.
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