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Caution: Rant Alert

It's an arbitrary and artificial cycle without relation to the natural cycles of the world, an oppressive seven-headed monster.

I say, let's kill it. Death to the week!

Yes, I know that pagans invented it. (Since pagans invented just about everything, that's really no great shakes. Pagans invented slavery and genital mutilation too. Face it, they haven't all been winners.) Tart it up with pagan god-names if you like, but we are not fooled. The intrusive Roman proves it's a foreign import.

When Muhammad of Mecca (piss be upon him) was setting up Islam, he intentionally replaced the traditional solar-lunar calendar with a strictly lunar calendar that careened through the solar year like a drunken bicyclist. In this way he guaranteed that the holidays of his religion would never accrete any of those nasty (and inevitably paganizing) seasonal associations, as the holidays of Judaism and Christianity had. Well, you can't say he wasn't savvy.

Same deal with the week. That's why the Hebrew prophets denounced new moons and holidays and championed the Sabbath instead. Stop looking at the Sun and Moon to tell time; you don't need them. Look at the calendar instead. Why measure our lives by the cycles of nature when we've got this nice, convenient, man-made cycle instead?

Tonight is the night where the clocks fall back for most of North America. It's a fabulous time for ritual, because you can use the time change to your advantage to 'eat' something that you want banished from your life, and then recreate things the way that you would like to see them unfold. The fact that this happens over Samhain makes the work even more powerful! All you need is a deck of tarot cards, and some staying power, as you're going to be up late!

Preparation for this is easy. Before the appointed time--02:00--determine what you would like to rid from your life (I already have mine planned, I celebrated it's demise last night). Choose a card that represents that. For instance, if you are holding on too tightly to something that needs to be surrendered, you might want to choose the four of pentacles. Maybe you've got a personality trait of being too stubborn, and you want to learn to be more flexible; the king or queen of swords might be an appropriate card for that. You're going to have to know your cards a bit, but really, any card that resonates with what you want to see leave your life can be used. 

Is time linear, circular or parallel? Depending on our perspective, we may be influencing our own healing. 

Regardless of the spelling, the name Chronus/Cronus/Khornos/Chronos, is associated with linear time and the early origins of the Earth. In some myths Khronos is a serpent with the heads of a man, a bull and a lion. He paired with the serpent goddess Ananke. They coiled around the primal egg and split it open to create the earth. In other myths, Cronus is the Greek Titan who castrated his own father and ate his own children to gain the former’s power and to prevent the latter from coming into power.

I called this post "looking back" because, scurrilous wag that I am, I wrote it a week later than the date it was posted.  Oh, the technology!

My week twelve savings:  $78, 15% ($12) of which I added today.

Time is money, so they say, and I seem to be more on the "money" side of the equation this month.  Money to buy gifts for loved ones and strangers, but the act of earning it has left me very short of time for the other important things, like wrapping gifts and writing blog posts.  So here's a few quick ideas about using time or money to prepare for Giftmas in all its forms, since few of us have both:

• Wrap presents with string instead of tape.  Save some plastic and add a layer of wonder to even the simplest gift.
• Open a bank account for someone who often comes up short.
• Make some wassail to lure in carolers, or show them how it's really done.
• Cash in the change jar for a gift certificate to a restaurant.
• Quit smoking and invest the difference.  Next year celebrate the difference in your finances with a big party or a smaller mortgage.

That's it for now, and two of my paid jobs and several people who want me to take on additional volunteer obligations are all awaiting my attention.

As we come to the end of the calendar year, it's a good time to reflect on what the year past has held and what we hope for the new year. I found some beautiful composite photographs which combine an entire series of movements into a single image to be a helpful metaphor for gaining perspective on the year.