Lyrids Meteor Shower, April 21st -April 22nd - Lyre, Lyre - Sky on Fire

The constellation Lyra, is the radiant, or point of origin, for the Lyrids Meteor Shower.  Lyra, whose principle star is Vega, rises out of the northeastern part of the sky after 10:00 p.m.  The Lyrids shower runs from April 16th through the 25th, but the peak time for viewing will be during the pre-dawn hours of April 22nd, after the moon has set (Waxing Gibbous in Virgo at 91.2 % full).  This meteor shower is one of the more conservative displays we see in the meteor season, raining between ten to twenty meteors per hour.  However, according to astronomers, the Lyrids will sometimes surprise you with surges of up to one hundred meteors per hour.

According to myth, Orpheus, the son of Apollo and Calliope, was a musician.  His best known gig was playing lead lyre for Jason and the Argonauts.  His father, Apollo, gave Orpheus a lyre that’s sound was so pure and enticing, its music charmed everything - even the rocks in the field.  It also charmed a beautiful nymph named Eurydice, who fell in love with Orpheus and married him.  

It’s not easy being the half-mortal child of a god. Just ask Percy Jackson. Orpheus and Eurydice’s happiness didn’t last. One day, while running from an ardent admirer (a common pastime for beautiful nymphs), Eurydice was bitten by a snake and died.  Orpheus in his grief followed her into the underworld and pleaded with Pluto for her return. Pluto agreed, with one condition.  Orpheus must lead his wife from the underworld, but never look back at her until they were above ground. You guessed it; for whatever reason, he looked back.  Later, after Orpheus’ death at the hands of crazed fans during a bacchanalia, Jupiter placed the magical lyre in the sky for all to see.

The cosmic debris responsible of the Lyrids display comes from the tail of Comet Thatcher.  This comet appears in our neighborhood every 415 years and we pass through its debris field every April.  Comet Thatcher was discovered on April 5, 1861, a week before the beginning of the American Civil War.  Its discovery clearly lent credence to the old superstition that the appearance of a comet preceded catastrophic events.

Meteor watching requires no protective eye gear.  All you need is a dark sky, a blanket and maybe a lawn chair.  It’s a natural spectacle, rated G, devoid of CGI and Dolby Sound.  More importantly, like starlight, meteor showers are free.

LADY ORACLE

#7, Major Arcana's The Chariot - Life as a Velvet Steamroller

The Chariot from RWCS
by US GAMES®

 In tarot suits, sevens portray an aspect of victory.  In The Major Arcana, #7, The Chariot represents triumph over adversity.  The Chariot may conjure up images from “Ben Hur,” or “Gladiator” for you.  Roman charioteers charge around the arena jockeying for position as the crowd cheers them on.  Our charioteer in #7, however, doesn’t challenge another racer.  He challenges himself to win by using the strength of his own will.   

In the traditional RWCS depiction, the charioteer holds a scepter - a symbol of his right to rule his domain.  As in #1, The Magician, the scepter acts as a medium between earth and spirit.  The charioteer doesn’t raise the scepter above his head as the Magician does.  He’s content to establish his dominance here on the earth.  Don’t he mislead, however. The figure in The Chariot is perfectly capable of calling down fire from Heaven. His crown signifies Apollo, the Roman God of the Sun, who drove his fiery chariot across the sky, creating the day. 

#7 Rhiannon, the horse goddess
from Celtic mythology shown here is
fron "The Goddess Tarot"© by
Kris Waldherr represents The Chariot

In his writings, the philosopher, Plato, described the human mind as a chariot drawn by two horses, one black, one white.  Subconscious and Conscious thought. What we see in #7 is not the use of brute strength to defeat adversity, rather it is the pairing of intuition and reason that overcomes the obstacles.  Instead of using horses, as Plato does, the RWCS deck goes one step further, using sphinxes, one black, one white, to power tarot’s chariot.  Cosmic mystery is introduced, offering the mind a chance to expand past ordinary perception.  Our charioteer doesn’t need reins to guide his vehicle.  He surrenders to the mystery and guides the outcome of his battle through his faith in himself.

It’s good to see lucky #7 when you feel as if your back is

Corrine Kenner and John J. Blumen's
highflying Chariot from "Wizard's Tarot"©

against the wall.  When The Chariot appears, he reminds us that victory is close by if not already here.  His message is to rise above your self-imposed limitations, or the people who would make you sink to their level.  When all is well in your world, however, The Chariot can appear as a warning that you are dominating someone or something.  You may be investing your ego when you should be employing common sense.  

LADY ORACLE

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Orionid Meteor Shower - October 2nd to November 7th

                                                                                      “I’m high on my hill and I feel fine

                                                                                      Orion, let’s sip the heaven’s heady wine”

                                                                                                                  “Orion” by Ian Anderson

October is the month for beer and meteors.  Which one would you rather have at your house?  Don’t worry.  Meteors rarely hit houses and as for Octoberfest, kicking back with a cold glass of your favorite beer or Rhine wine is a perfect way to enjoy the spectacle of this year’s Orionid Meteor Shower.  The Orionid Shower is a rapid fire event boasting twenty to thirty meteors streaking towards Earth every hour. They hit our upper atmosphere at a brisk 148,000 miles per hour, usually burning up before impact.

Both the Orionid and the Eta Aquarid meteor showers originate from the debris trail left by Halley’s Comet. Earth passes through Halley’s debris field twice a year during the months of May and October.  The Orionid Shower runs from October 2nd through November 7th, however the meteors start falling in a trickle and will be more readily seen October 15th through the 29th.  The shower peaks just prior to midnight on October 20^th and through the pre-dawn hours of October 21^st.  The radiant, or point of origin, for the Orionids is in northeastern quadrant of the constellation of Orion, near its border with Gemini. The radiant for this shower will rise high into the night sky from the southern horizon. 

Orion is very easy to spot in the night sky.  Look for three bright, diagonal stars.  That’s Orion’s belt.  There’s a fourth star directly below the highest of the diagonal stars and it’s this star that denotes the point of his sword.  Orion’s sword is home to the famous Orion Nebula.  

The star, Rigel (Remember the Klingon crewman referring to

Captain Kirk as a Rigelian Bloodworm? There you go.) marks one of Orion’s legs while the stars, Bellatrix and Betelqeuse make up his shoulders.  Betelqeuse is a reddish colored star and on very clear nights you can see the color difference with the naked eye. Which leaves us with only a 

couple of questions: Who was this Orion guy and what made him so great that they named a star cluster after him?  Again, we turn to ancient myth for a torrid tale.

Orion was the son of Neptune, God of the Sea and renowned as a hunter.  He was a giant and but all tellings of the story, a very handsome man.  He fell in love with Merope, daughter of the King of Chios.  The king didn’t care much for Orion and as skeptical father’s of virtuous beauties often did in those days, he gave Orion a series of tasks to complete to prove himself worthy of the young lady’s hand in marriage.  Every time Orion completed a task, the king found another task and when the last task was completed, the king still refused Merope’s hand to Orion.  

One night Orion, feeling discouraged and probably more than a little sorry for himself, got very drunk.  Just what every palace needs - a drunken giant roaming the halls.  Orion decided that the solution to his woes was to kidnap Merope.  As with most brilliant ideas born of drunkenness, this one also ended badly.  The king had Orion blinded.  However, Neptune’s son was not without friends.  Orion was taken to the God of the Sun, Apollo.  The rays emanating from Apollo restored Orion’s eyesight.

And how did Orion repay Apollo’s generosity?  By going to Crete and putting the moves on Apollo’s twin sister, Diana.  Real nice.  Clearly Merope’s father had good reason to doubt Orion’s sincerity.  Diana, who was Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt, tracked game and swam with Orion.  They fished and feasted and fell in love.  They planned to marry.  Apollo was even less pleased with the prospect of welcoming Orion into his family than Merope’s father had been.  One day he challenged Diana to prove her archery skills by hitting a log floating out at sea.  Apparently Apollo’s eyesight was much better than Diana’s.  He knew it was Orion swimming in the ocean.  Diana killed her beloved with one shot.  When Orion’s body washed ashore Diana has devastated.  She placed him among the stars to honor him.  Wow, did those Olympians know about intrigue and passion, or what?

There’s another version of Orion’s story about becoming a constellation.  It’s short and sweet.  Orion got on the wrong side of Scorpius, the scorpion, literally.  He was stung to death. Both Orion and his arch nemesis were placed in the sky, but in different quadrants so that they never have to share the sky together.

Pick whichever version of the story you like the best, open a cold one and enjoy the meteor shower.  Oh, and don’t forget to watch out for triffids.

LADY ORACLE 

Check out this cool link for 2013 meteor showers!