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snoozefestaudioMost of December is still Fall. It's just the dreary, not fun at all, part of Fall after all the leaves are gone, and the crisp jacket weather has turned to nasty, blasting cold winds.
We wish we had snow... just to freshen the place up!.. but we won't be getting any until January. We're stuck with drab, dead trees, and sleet, and long, cold nights.
So, we put lights on the bushes and trees, and hang big decorations all over the downtown. And we play jolly music in all the stores.
And as we settle in for some serious indoor time... we set our sights on the big ten-day celebration coming at the end of December.
From the 21st, to the 31st... Solstice, to New Year... it's gonna be nothing but drinks, gifts, cookies, feasts, parties, and as much time off work as we can possibly manage to score!
And when your month ends with a ten day bender?.. it's easy to spend the first twenty just fantasizing about it!
It's the most... wonderful time... of the year!..
Or that's what we let the songs tell us, because... nobody wants to deal with reality in December!
We'll get plenty of reality in January, and we KNOW it!
For this month... let us have our lights, and little jingle bells, and cookies!
------------{=0=}------------
Okay, so as promised, I mocked up all four aces for the first draft of my Calendar Deck!
From top left, to bottom right, they represent; The December Solstice, The March Equinox, The June Solstice, and the September Equinox.
Now, to use a playing card deck as a Gregorian Calendar, each card has to correspond to a seven day period!
Each card WILL cover a SUN, MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, & SAT, but which one is the start day will depend on what year it is!
The weekday names aren't important, it's the seven DATES that matter.
And when I made a spreadsheet last night, starting off Ace of Spades week on December 21st, the day of the Winter Solstice... it was off track by the Spring Equinox!
Ace of Hearts week began on March 22nd! But the Spring Equinox is more like the 20th!
--<>--
So, I had to do some reasearch today before work, but found out that... actually, the dates for all the solstices and equinoxes will vary, between a range of about three or four days... over the course of decades!
The Spring Equinox can come as early as March 19th, and as late as the 22nd! And likewise the Winter Solstice isn't always December 21st... it can be the 20th.
Same for the other two, but the Spring Equinox is the most fickle, because it's effected by our adding of an extra day to February every four years.
That extra day keeps everything in synch over the course of millenia, but it does tend to push the date of a solstice or equinox this way and that, a bit.
--<>--
NOT A PROBLEM, HOWEVER!.. our cards have a seven day range! That's bigger than the range that these solstices and equinoxes can drift!..
So, I moved the start date for Ace of Spades week, three days back, to begin on December 18th!
Designating Ace of Spades to be DEC 18 - DEC 24, covers all possible dates for the Winter Solstice, with the 21st (the most common date) falling smack in the middle!
It also conveniently ends on Christmas Eve, which means that the Deuce of Spades can be totally dedicated to the holidays!.. as the Deuce of Spades week will be DEC 25 - DEC 31!
And that means that the 3 of Spades begins on New Years Day!
And THAT is cool, because it means that whatever day of the week the new year is about to start on... is the SAME day of the week we begin our counting with the Ace of Spades! Right?
See how cool that is?... it means even if we don't know the exact date of the Winter Solstice... this calendar will AUTOMATICALLY start us off exactly TWO WEEKS before New Year's Day, on the Gregorian Calendar... and the solstice is GUARANTEED to fall somewhere in that week!
--<>--
And, of course, by designating Ace of Spades to begin on December 18th, it means that Ace of Hearts will begin on March 19th... the earliest possible date that the Spring Equinox ever occurs!
You might be wondering what happens to February 29th... Leap Day, under this scheme. So, it designates the Jack of Spades as; FEB 26 - MAR 04.
That means, the Jack of Spades is normally seven days, but, in leap years, it's eight days. It's just... all the days from February 26th, through March 4th. So if February 29th is one of those days... it's one of those days.
But because this will be a Jack card, I can design him to look a bit more like a Joker, and encode some tricky little hints to warn you about the leap day.
That said, having Ace of Hearts begin on March 19th, is exactly what we want, and keeps everything else in the future lining up just perfectly!
It makes our Ace of Clubs week, JUN 18 - JUN 24... which covers all possible dates for the Summer Solstice, but puts June 21st (the most common date) smack in the middle!
Juneteenth, which is now a Federal Holiday, and Father's Day, are also both covered by this card.
We follow on to the Ace of Diamonds...
And again, the week of SEP 17 - SEP 23, perfectly covers the Fall Equinox, which, like the Spring Equinox, can occasionally hit as early as the 19th, or as late as the 22nd!
And from here, we just keep going, seven days per card thorugh this final suit of Diamonds until, we're to the King of Diamonds week, which is DEC 10 - DEC 16!
--<>--
And you'r thinking, WAIT!... we started this on December 18th! But our final card only gets us to December 16th! What happend to December 17th?
That's what the JOKER is for!
The year is exactly 52 weeks plus one day! There are exactly 52 spot cards in a playing deck, plus one JOKER!
So, The Joker's designated DAY, is December 17th!
As long as you celebrate Joker Day, by displaying your Joker Card for 24 hours... you can then start the deck over with the Ace of Spades, on December 18th... and keep going FOREVER!..
ALWAYS keeping perfect track of the solstices, equinoxes, and seasons!
IT WORKS!
------------{=0=}------------
Now, it should be noted here, that the Calendar Deck is a SOLAR calendar! You see I've included images of the Moon in these ACE mock ups, but...
...that's only to show how the Moon and Sun trade places. On the Spade and Club cards we have the Moon riding high while the Sun rides low, and vise versa.
And on the Heart and Diamond cards, when the Moon is on the Celestial Equator with the sun... I couldn't overlap them so... I chose to show a right-handed half-moon on the Heart Card, to symbolize that the days are getting longer... just as the first quarter moon does wax.
Left-handed half-moon on the Diamond card to symbolize that the days are getting shorter... just as the last quarter moon does wane.
This is NOT to indicate the actual moon phase of the date or the week! Simply a use of moon phase to symbolize the coming season... while the position of the moon (the line that it's on) DOES tell you where it'll be riding.
I chose to depict the high riding moon on the Ace of Spades as a New Moon... simply to keep with this symbolism, about the Solar situation. Winter Solstice is the darkest time of the year.
But it IS TRUE that the Moon rides high, at this time, as the Sun rides low.
And... depicting a full moon on the Ace of Clubs completes the symbology because... this is the brightest time of year... but the Moon does ride low like that.
--<>--
TO KEEP ACCURATE TRACK OF THE MONTHLY MOON PHASES WOULD REQUIRE A DIFFERENT DECK, AND I AM ALL-CAPSING THIS PART TO HIGHLIGHT THAT THIS WAS THE MOMENT IN MY LIFE WHERE I FIRST GOT THE IDEA TO CREATE A LUNAR CALENDAR DECK TO WORK AS A COMPANION FOR THE SOLAR DECK SOME DAY!
------------{=0=}------------
But, back to the CURRENT winter project here...
I DID nail down which cards will house the other eight zodiac signs, as well as the four midpoints of the Wiccan wheel of the year.
For the Zodiac dates, I went with the traditional dates we use in the culture... as those are the dates that are meaningful to people with birthdays who identify as one sign or another...
even if they are no longer the exact dates when the sun actually transits those constellations.
So, below is the entire skeleton for the deck as it exists...
I DO like that the midpoints, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, & Samhain, all fall in the SEVEN cards of their respective suits! Seven is a very culturally magic and mysterious number, and these are the mysterious hidden holidays.
Just another nice feature of starting Ace of Spades on December 18th.
And I may go next to these SEVEN cards, to flesh out the deck...
But either way, this promises to be a fun winter project!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
We wish we had snow... just to freshen the place up!.. but we won't be getting any until January. We're stuck with drab, dead trees, and sleet, and long, cold nights.
So, we put lights on the bushes and trees, and hang big decorations all over the downtown. And we play jolly music in all the stores.
And as we settle in for some serious indoor time... we set our sights on the big ten-day celebration coming at the end of December.
From the 21st, to the 31st... Solstice, to New Year... it's gonna be nothing but drinks, gifts, cookies, feasts, parties, and as much time off work as we can possibly manage to score!
And when your month ends with a ten day bender?.. it's easy to spend the first twenty just fantasizing about it!
It's the most... wonderful time... of the year!..
Or that's what we let the songs tell us, because... nobody wants to deal with reality in December!
We'll get plenty of reality in January, and we KNOW it!
For this month... let us have our lights, and little jingle bells, and cookies!
Okay, so as promised, I mocked up all four aces for the first draft of my Calendar Deck!
From top left, to bottom right, they represent; The December Solstice, The March Equinox, The June Solstice, and the September Equinox.
Now, to use a playing card deck as a Gregorian Calendar, each card has to correspond to a seven day period!
Each card WILL cover a SUN, MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, & SAT, but which one is the start day will depend on what year it is!
The weekday names aren't important, it's the seven DATES that matter.
And when I made a spreadsheet last night, starting off Ace of Spades week on December 21st, the day of the Winter Solstice... it was off track by the Spring Equinox!
Ace of Hearts week began on March 22nd! But the Spring Equinox is more like the 20th!
So, I had to do some reasearch today before work, but found out that... actually, the dates for all the solstices and equinoxes will vary, between a range of about three or four days... over the course of decades!
The Spring Equinox can come as early as March 19th, and as late as the 22nd! And likewise the Winter Solstice isn't always December 21st... it can be the 20th.
Same for the other two, but the Spring Equinox is the most fickle, because it's effected by our adding of an extra day to February every four years.
That extra day keeps everything in synch over the course of millenia, but it does tend to push the date of a solstice or equinox this way and that, a bit.
NOT A PROBLEM, HOWEVER!.. our cards have a seven day range! That's bigger than the range that these solstices and equinoxes can drift!..
So, I moved the start date for Ace of Spades week, three days back, to begin on December 18th!
Designating Ace of Spades to be DEC 18 - DEC 24, covers all possible dates for the Winter Solstice, with the 21st (the most common date) falling smack in the middle!
It also conveniently ends on Christmas Eve, which means that the Deuce of Spades can be totally dedicated to the holidays!.. as the Deuce of Spades week will be DEC 25 - DEC 31!
And that means that the 3 of Spades begins on New Years Day!
And THAT is cool, because it means that whatever day of the week the new year is about to start on... is the SAME day of the week we begin our counting with the Ace of Spades! Right?
See how cool that is?... it means even if we don't know the exact date of the Winter Solstice... this calendar will AUTOMATICALLY start us off exactly TWO WEEKS before New Year's Day, on the Gregorian Calendar... and the solstice is GUARANTEED to fall somewhere in that week!
And, of course, by designating Ace of Spades to begin on December 18th, it means that Ace of Hearts will begin on March 19th... the earliest possible date that the Spring Equinox ever occurs!
You might be wondering what happens to February 29th... Leap Day, under this scheme. So, it designates the Jack of Spades as; FEB 26 - MAR 04.
That means, the Jack of Spades is normally seven days, but, in leap years, it's eight days. It's just... all the days from February 26th, through March 4th. So if February 29th is one of those days... it's one of those days.
But because this will be a Jack card, I can design him to look a bit more like a Joker, and encode some tricky little hints to warn you about the leap day.
That said, having Ace of Hearts begin on March 19th, is exactly what we want, and keeps everything else in the future lining up just perfectly!
It makes our Ace of Clubs week, JUN 18 - JUN 24... which covers all possible dates for the Summer Solstice, but puts June 21st (the most common date) smack in the middle!
Juneteenth, which is now a Federal Holiday, and Father's Day, are also both covered by this card.
We follow on to the Ace of Diamonds...
And again, the week of SEP 17 - SEP 23, perfectly covers the Fall Equinox, which, like the Spring Equinox, can occasionally hit as early as the 19th, or as late as the 22nd!
And from here, we just keep going, seven days per card thorugh this final suit of Diamonds until, we're to the King of Diamonds week, which is DEC 10 - DEC 16!
And you'r thinking, WAIT!... we started this on December 18th! But our final card only gets us to December 16th! What happend to December 17th?
That's what the JOKER is for!
The year is exactly 52 weeks plus one day! There are exactly 52 spot cards in a playing deck, plus one JOKER!
So, The Joker's designated DAY, is December 17th!
As long as you celebrate Joker Day, by displaying your Joker Card for 24 hours... you can then start the deck over with the Ace of Spades, on December 18th... and keep going FOREVER!..
ALWAYS keeping perfect track of the solstices, equinoxes, and seasons!
IT WORKS!
Now, it should be noted here, that the Calendar Deck is a SOLAR calendar! You see I've included images of the Moon in these ACE mock ups, but...
...that's only to show how the Moon and Sun trade places. On the Spade and Club cards we have the Moon riding high while the Sun rides low, and vise versa.
And on the Heart and Diamond cards, when the Moon is on the Celestial Equator with the sun... I couldn't overlap them so... I chose to show a right-handed half-moon on the Heart Card, to symbolize that the days are getting longer... just as the first quarter moon does wax.
Left-handed half-moon on the Diamond card to symbolize that the days are getting shorter... just as the last quarter moon does wane.
This is NOT to indicate the actual moon phase of the date or the week! Simply a use of moon phase to symbolize the coming season... while the position of the moon (the line that it's on) DOES tell you where it'll be riding.
I chose to depict the high riding moon on the Ace of Spades as a New Moon... simply to keep with this symbolism, about the Solar situation. Winter Solstice is the darkest time of the year.
But it IS TRUE that the Moon rides high, at this time, as the Sun rides low.
And... depicting a full moon on the Ace of Clubs completes the symbology because... this is the brightest time of year... but the Moon does ride low like that.
TO KEEP ACCURATE TRACK OF THE MONTHLY MOON PHASES WOULD REQUIRE A DIFFERENT DECK, AND I AM ALL-CAPSING THIS PART TO HIGHLIGHT THAT THIS WAS THE MOMENT IN MY LIFE WHERE I FIRST GOT THE IDEA TO CREATE A LUNAR CALENDAR DECK TO WORK AS A COMPANION FOR THE SOLAR DECK SOME DAY!
But, back to the CURRENT winter project here...
I DID nail down which cards will house the other eight zodiac signs, as well as the four midpoints of the Wiccan wheel of the year.
For the Zodiac dates, I went with the traditional dates we use in the culture... as those are the dates that are meaningful to people with birthdays who identify as one sign or another...
even if they are no longer the exact dates when the sun actually transits those constellations.
So, below is the entire skeleton for the deck as it exists...
- 01 SPADE: DEC 18 - DEC 24 CAPRICORN, WINTER SOLSTICE, YULE
- 02 SPADE: DEC 25 - DEC 31 CHRISTMAS WEEK
- 03 SPADE: JAN 01 - JAN 07 NEW YEAR, EPIPHANY (THREE KINGS DAY)
- 05 SPADE: JAN 15 - JAN 21 AQUARIUS
- 07 SPADE: JAN 29 - FEB 04 IMBOLC (GROUNDHOG'S DAY)
- 09 SPADE: FEB 12 - FEB 18 VALENTINE'S DAY
- 10 SPADE: FEB 19 - FEB 25 PISCES
- KG SPADE: MAR 12 - MAR 18 ST. PATRICK'S DAY
- 01 HEART: MAR 19 - MAR 25 ARIES, SPRING EQUINOX, OSTARA
- 02 HEART: MAR 26 - APR 01 APRIL FOOL'S DAY
- 05 HEART: APR 16 - APR 22 TAURUS
- 07 HEART: APR 30 - MAY 06 BELTANE (MAY DAY)
- 10 HEART: MAY 21 - MAY 27 GEMINI
- 01 CLUB: JUN 18 - JUN 24 CANCER, SUMMER SOLSTICE, LITHA
- 06 CLUB: JUL 23 - JUL 29 LEO
- 07 CLUB: JUL 30 - AUG 05 LUGNASADH (LAMMAS)
- 10 CLUB: AUG 20 - AUG 26 VIRGO
- 01 DIAM: SEP 17 - SEP 23 LIBRA, AUTUMNAL EQUINOX, MABON
- 06 DIAM: OCT 22 - OCT 28 SCORPIO
- 07 DIAM: OCT 29 - NOV 04 SAMHAIN (HALLOWEEN), DIAS LOS MUERTOS
- 08 DIAM: NOV 05 - NOV 11 ARMISTICE DAY
- 10 DIAM: NOV 19 - NOV 25 SAGGITARIUS
I DO like that the midpoints, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, & Samhain, all fall in the SEVEN cards of their respective suits! Seven is a very culturally magic and mysterious number, and these are the mysterious hidden holidays.
Just another nice feature of starting Ace of Spades on December 18th.
And I may go next to these SEVEN cards, to flesh out the deck...
But either way, this promises to be a fun winter project!
°¦}
