09/13/2026
Here is your ORDERLY ALMANAC for Sunday the thirteenth of September, Anno Deae Nostrae MMXXVI
All times are given in Central Daylight Time for New Orleans.
YOUR ORDERLY SUMMARY
* Day ruler: Sun
* Moon: Libra throughout Sunday
* Lunar phase: Waxing Crescent, approximately 7 to 8 percent illuminated at noon
* Void of course: Sunday at 9:26 a.m. until Monday at 1:43 a.m., when the Moon enters Scorpio
* Void convention: The interval begins after the Moon’s final exact major in-sign aspect to the Sun or a planet through Pluto and ends at the next sign ingress
* Primary theme: Begin cleanly at dawn, then devote the long void to correction, reconciliation, beautification, and intelligent redesign
* Best clear beginning: 6:43 a.m. - 7:45 a.m. - Sun hour before the void, for illumination, consecration, healthful renewal, confidence, and one modest undertaking
* Best early writing period: 8:47 a.m. - 9:26 a.m. - opening portion of the Mercury hour before the void, suitable for concise petitions and decisive corrections, but not inflammatory correspondence
* Principal warning: Moon square Mars at 9:26 a.m. The aspect begins the void and may bring irritability, domestic tension, defensive reactions, and quarrels concerning fairness
* Best devotional maintenance: 10:52 a.m. - 11:54 a.m. - Saturn hour during the void, for repairing boundaries, completing obligations, and giving established work firmer structure
* Best blessing of established work: 11:54 a.m. - 12:56 p.m. - Jupiter hour during the void
* Best artistic refinement: 3:01 p.m. - 4:03 p.m. - Venus hour during the void, for improving art, altars, adornments, and existing relationship work
* Best editing period: 4:03 p.m. - 5:05 p.m. - Mercury hour during the void
* Best inventive review: 9:05 p.m. - 10:03 p.m. - Sun hour, containing Mercury trine Uranus at 9:39 p.m. Excellent for discovering a new solution to an old problem
* Defer: Major launches after 9:26 a.m., coercive relationship work, permanent agreements made during conflict, retaliatory protection, emotional ultimatums, unfamiliar spirit work, impulsive domestic decisions, and any revelation whose chief evidence is that it arrived dramatically
* Forward-motion threshold: Monday at 1:43 a.m., when the Moon enters Scorpio. For ordinary waking hours, Monday morning is the practical threshold, although early Scorpio contacts require emotional restraint
Astronomical conditions provide the timing.
The magical recommendations are traditional symbolic interpretations, not guarantees or substitutes for consent, evidence, medical care, financial judgement, or the useful habit of leaving the room before saying the sentence one has rehearsed principally for its fatal elegance.
ACHTUNG HEXEN 💥🧹
MOON SQUARE MARS - 9:26 A.M.
The Libra Moon squares Mars in Cancer at 9:26 a.m. This is the Moon’s final exact major aspect before entering Scorpio early Monday, so the long void begins immediately afterward.
Libra seeks fairness, peace, proportion, and civilised agreement.
Mars in Cancer protects home, family, memory, emotional security, and whatever it has decided belongs beneath its shell.
Their square may produce conflict between diplomacy and defensiveness - the wish to settle matters graciously combined with the unmistakable desire to throw the tea service.
Possible expressions include:
* Irritability
* Impatience
* Domestic friction
* Defensive reactions
* Resentment concerning unequal effort
* Arguments about fairness
* Anger concealed beneath excessive politeness
* Protectiveness becoming territorial
* Passive aggression discovering an active hobby
* A minor inconvenience arriving in the costume of an ancestral grievance
Use the aspect for:
* Identifying the actual source of irritation
* Taking one proportionate protective action
* Correcting an unfair arrangement
* Cleaning or repairing the home
* Establishing a domestic boundary
* Ending a repetitive argument
* Naming resentment privately
* Redirecting agitation into safe physical activity
* Separating present circumstances from inherited emotional habits
* Recognising that peace cannot be maintained by one person continually yielding
Avoid:
* Retaliatory magic
* Coercive protection
* Quarrels
* Threats
* Punishing silence
* Reckless driving
* Handling flame, blades, tools, or electricity while agitated
* Public accusations
* Permanent decisions made in anger
* Treating disagreement as betrayal
* Invoking every ancestor merely because someone moved a chair
Mars is moving near the tropical longitude of Castor, a fixed star traditionally associated with intellect, skill, language, and volatility. No minute-specific election is based upon the alignment, but it reinforces the need to give force an intelligent task.
A sharp instrument may carve, repair, or wound. Its moral character is generally supplied by the hand.
THE LONG LIBRA VOID - 9:26 A.M. SUNDAY TO 1:43 A.M. MONDAY
After the Moon squares Mars, it remains void throughout the rest of Sunday.
The Moon is waxing, and the lunar cycle is gathering light. Ordinarily this supports growth and development. The void, however, weakens confidence that consequential undertakings begun during the interval will proceed directly or produce their intended outcome.
The contradiction is useful.
Something may be growing without being ready for public employment.
Use the void for:
* Continuing work already begun
* Editing
* Repair
* Maintenance
* Rehearsal
* Cleansing
* Reconciliation within existing relationships
* Reviewing agreements
* Correcting imbalance
* Beautifying an established altar
* Refining art
* Revising petitions
* Organising correspondence
* Returning borrowed objects
* Closing unfinished social obligations
* Testing a new method without committing to it
* Allowing a young intention to develop privately
* Giving yesterday’s revelation the indignity of a background check
Avoid using the void for:
* Major launches
* Important contracts
* Permanent vows
* First-time bindings
* Public announcements requiring immediate momentum
* Consequential financial commitments
* Relationship ultimatums
* Initiations
* Unfamiliar spirit work
* Projects depending upon rapid agreement
* Repeating a working because silence seemed insufficiently congratulatory
* Founding an occult society before confirming that three people can agree upon a meeting time
A Libra void need not be ugly, idle, or lonely. It may be gracious, artistic, socially restorative, and exquisitely arranged.
It is simply less reliable for outward establishment.
The salon may be open. The registry office is not.
RELATIONSHIP AND DEVOTIONAL STRAIN - 5:40 P.M. - 6:58 P.M.
During the void, the Moon squares Juno at 5:40 p.m. and opposes Vesta at 6:58 p.m.
Neither minor body determines the void, but together they provide useful symbolism concerning commitment, reciprocity, devotion, independence, and the terms under which attention is given.
This sequence may reveal:
* Unequal commitments
* Conflicting expectations
* Difficulty balancing relationship and private duty
* Resentment concerning emotional labour
* Devotion becoming rigid
* A partner feeling neglected
* The practitioner feeling spiritually unrewarded
* The belief that loyalty requires constant availability
* The discovery that everyone supports the sacred work provided someone else washes the vessels
Use the interval for:
* Reviewing an established commitment
* Clarifying expectations
* Restoring reciprocity
* Revising a devotional schedule
* Sharing responsibility
* Protecting necessary solitude
* Releasing a promise that no longer retains consent
* Tending an altar quietly
* Recognising where service has become self-erasure
* Allowing affection and vocation to coexist without placing either under arrest
Avoid:
* Tests of loyalty
* Emotional interrogation
* Renewing a vow from guilt
* Punishing another person for needing space
* Demanding praise for ordinary responsibilities
* Abandoning a meaningful practice because it feels temporarily dry
* Making sacred obligation responsible for every unmet emotional need
* Calling resentment devotion merely because it has been punctual
A faithful flame requires tending. It does not require the practitioner to climb upon the altar and burn beside it.
MERCURY TRINE URANUS - 9:39 P.M.
Mercury in Libra trines retrograde Uranus in Gemini at 9:39 p.m. This is Sunday’s clearest intellectual opening.
The aspect favours:
* Inventive thinking
* Unexpected solutions
* Honest conversation
* Intellectual freedom
* New perspectives
* Research
* Technology
* Writing
* Teaching
* Revising systems
* Discovering a simpler method
* Escaping a stale mental pattern
* The exhilarating realisation that the traditional procedure was preserved mainly because no one wished to rewrite the label
Yet the Moon remains void.
Use the aspect for:
* Solving an old problem
* Improving an established system
* Revising a document
* Brainstorming
* Experimenting safely
* Recording an unusual idea
* Updating ritual instructions
* Reworking a communication strategy
* Studying an unfamiliar perspective
* Drafting something for later review
* Discovering where fairness requires innovation
* Asking whether a custom still serves its original purpose
Avoid:
* Irreversible technical changes
* Impulsive announcements
* Signing consequential agreements
* Assuming every novel idea is workable
* Hazardous experimentation
* Sending a startling message merely to observe the response
* Treating cleverness as evidence of wisdom
* Replacing a reliable method with one recently revealed by a person who has not tested it
The void does not make the insight useless. It suggests that the idea should be captured, examined, and introduced after it has demonstrated the regrettable but essential ability to function.
Lightning illuminates the room beautifully. It remains a poor choice of permanent wiring.
THE DAY IN ONE SENTENCE
Shine before breakfast, sheath the sword before the argument, and spend the long void making existing things fairer, finer, and less likely to require an exorcism by Monday.
THE CELESTIAL DISPOSITION
* Day ruler - Sun
* Sun - Virgo
* Moon - Libra throughout Sunday
* Mercury - Direct in Libra
* Venus - Direct in Scorpio
* Mars - Direct in Cancer
* Jupiter - Direct in Leo
* Saturn - Retrograde in Aries
* Uranus - Retrograde in Gemini
* Neptune - Retrograde in Aries
* Pluto - Retrograde in Aquarius
* Chiron - Retrograde in Ta**us
* Lunar phase - Waxing Crescent
* Lunar illumination - Approximately 7 to 8 percent at noon
* Previous New Moon - Thursday the tenth of September at 10:27 p.m., at 18 degrees 25 minutes Virgo
* Next First Quarter Moon - Friday the eighteenth of September at 3:43 p.m.
* Civil dawn - 6:20 a.m.
* Sunrise - 6:43 a.m.
* Moonrise - Approximately 9:11 a.m.
* Moon upper transit - Approximately 2:54 p.m.
* Sunset - 7:09 p.m.
* Moonset - Approximately 8:27 p.m.
* Civil dusk - 7:32 p.m.
* Following sunrise - Monday at 6:43 a.m.
The placements use the tropical zodiac. Retrograde describes apparent motion as viewed from Earth.
The Sun in Virgo rules Sunday from the sign of careful work, useful service, purification, craft, health, repair, and discrimination. Solar authority is therefore expressed through competence rather than spectacle.
Mars remains within approximately one degree of Castor by tropical longitude. This verified proximity is treated as symbolic background rather than a minute-specific election.
The young Moon may become visible after sunset, low in the west-southwest, weather and horizon permitting. Its light is still delicate. A crescent of this age has no obligation to compete with Bourbon Street.
THE LUNAR COURSE
Void-of-course convention: The Orderly Almanac begins the void after the Moon’s final exact major aspect within its present sign to the Sun or a planet through Pluto and ends it at the next sign ingress. Conjunctions, sextiles, squares, trines, and oppositions are counted. Minor aspects, parallels, asteroids, Chiron, and lunar nodes do not determine the void.
The relevant interval is:
* Sunday the thirteenth of September at 9:26 a.m. - Libra Moon square Mars; the void begins
* Monday the fourteenth of September at 1:43 a.m. - Moon enters Scorpio; the void ends
Relevant exact contacts:
* 12:07 a.m. - Moon sextile Jupiter
* 3:02 a.m. - Moon parallel Juno
* 6:32 a.m. - Moon opposite Pallas
* 7:10 a.m. - Moon parallel the North Node
* 7:46 a.m. - Moon contraparallel Chiron
* 8:22 a.m. - Moon sesquiquadrate Uranus
* 9:26 a.m. - Moon square Mars; the Libra void begins
* 5:40 p.m. - Moon square Juno during the void
* 6:58 p.m. - Moon opposite Vesta during the void
* 9:39 p.m. - Mercury trine Uranus
* Monday at 1:07 a.m. - Moon trine the North Node during the void
* Monday at 1:43 a.m. - Moon enters Scorpio; the void ends
* Monday at 1:58 a.m. - Scorpio Moon opposes Chiron
Sunday therefore unfolds in four movements:
* A generous midnight opening beneath the Moon-Jupiter sextile
* A sensitive but usable morning before the void
* A long period of revision and maintenance following the Moon-Mars square
* An inventive evening in which Mercury discovers a new door but prudently refrains from moving the entire household through it before dawn
The final major Libra aspect is martial and tense. The void inherits unfinished heat. Work deliberately, especially where home, relationship, fairness, and emotional security intersect.
The scales have been placed upon the table.
Mars has also placed a fist upon it.
The first duty is to prevent the furniture from becoming an argument.
THE FORECAST
Sunday belongs to the Sun, sovereign of illumination, vitality, identity, authority, truth, health, honour, purpose, and the radiant centre around which lesser concerns discover whether they possess an orbit or merely an appetite for attention.
The Sun presides from Virgo.
This is not the Sun upon a gilded throne receiving ambassadors. It is the Sun in the workroom, sleeves turned back, examining instruments, correcting the inventory, opening the shutters, and asking why a ceremonial knife has been stored beside the marmalade.
Solar Virgo honours useful excellence.
It favours work done correctly, health supported consistently, systems maintained honestly, promises made precisely, and temples kept sacred through attention rather than publicity. It does not object to beauty. It simply asks beauty to wash its hands before assisting.
The Libra Moon adds grace, proportion, relationship, justice, diplomacy, art, and the desire for peace. Yet most of Sunday unfolds under a void begun by a square to Mars.
The day is therefore beautifully divided between illumination and postponement.
Begin what genuinely requires solar clarity early. After the void begins, improve what already exists.
At 12:07 a.m., the Libra Moon sextiles Jupiter in Leo. This is warm, generous, sociable, creative, and hopeful. For those still awake, it favours gratitude, prayer, blessing established relationships, artistic pleasure, and closing Saturday with a civilised sense that life might yet be worth the trouble.
It is not necessary to remain awake for the aspect. Jupiter has never considered sleep an insult unless he was personally giving the toast.
The Moon’s early contacts to Pallas, the North Node, Chiron, and Uranus make the dawn intellectually and emotionally alert. Strategy, direction, vulnerability, and change are all under discussion.
The opposition to Pallas at 6:32 a.m. may place feeling at odds with strategy. Someone may understand the plan perfectly and still dislike it.
This is not irrational.
A clever arrangement can remain unfair.
The planetary day begins at sunrise, 6:43 a.m., with the Sun’s own hour. This is Sunday’s clearest window for a modest beginning.
Use it for illumination, healthful renewal, confidence, purification, blessing personal purpose, consecrating a familiar solar emblem, or taking one practical step towards the intention planted at Thursday’s New Moon.
The Moon remains free of the void until 9:26 a.m., but the emotional atmosphere becomes increasingly sensitive.
At 7:10 a.m., the Moon parallels the North Node. At 7:46 a.m., it contraparallels Chiron. Purpose may briefly touch an old wound. A new direction may require leaving a familiar role, admitting a need, or proceeding without the reassurance once considered indispensable.
Do not ask a vulnerable moment to write a permanent doctrine.
The Venus hour from 7:45 a.m. to 8:47 a.m. is suitable for self-respect, art, beauty, gentle relationship work, and restoring balance to an existing bond. Venus occupies Scorpio, where affection seeks depth and truth.
Yet Venus is moving towards difficult contacts with Neptune and Pluto. Therefore, keep every love working free of coercion, surveillance, jealousy, and the belief that intensity has somehow acquired ownership rights.
At 8:22 a.m., the Moon forms a minor tense contact with Uranus. Plans may shift. Nerves may sharpen. Someone’s unexpected conduct may be interpreted as a declaration when it was merely an inconvenience.
Pause.
The Mercury hour begins at 8:47 a.m. and contains the final thirty-nine minutes before the void. This may be used for concise writing, correcting a petition, making one necessary clarification, or completing correspondence already prepared.
The Moon is applying towards its square with Mars.
Write clearly, but do not write angrily.
Mercury in Libra can phrase an insult so beautifully that one briefly forgets it remains an act of arson.
At 9:26 a.m., the Moon squares Mars.
The void begins.
The conflict may concern domestic arrangements, emotional security, fairness, family obligations, relationship boundaries, or a grievance stored so long that it has begun answering to the name of tradition.
Use the energy physically and constructively. Clean. Repair. Walk. Rearrange something practical. Remove a hazard. State a boundary after the pulse has settled.
Do not perform retaliatory magic. Protection should increase safety, not merely give anger somewhere ceremonial to stand.
The Moon hour from 9:49 a.m. to 10:52 a.m. is best used for settling the nervous system, preparing food, quiet cleansing, and allowing the square to separate.
One should not convene a tribunal while still hearing the blood in one’s ears.
The Saturn hour begins at 10:52 a.m. This is excellent for established protections, boundaries, completing obligations, repairing wards, reviewing contracts already in force, and bringing structure to a project already underway.
Saturn is retrograde in Aries. He asks whether personal independence has been built upon genuine self-command or merely upon the habit of rejecting advice before hearing it.
During the void, Saturn supports maintenance.
He is less enthusiastic about founding something new, especially if the founder describes ordinary oversight as persecution.
The Jupiter hour from 11:54 a.m. to 12:56 p.m. favours gratitude, teaching, blessing established community work, reviewing long-term plans, and restoring perspective.
Jupiter in Leo desires generosity and dignified expression. The void recommends that generosity be offered without founding an institution to commemorate it.
The Mars hour from 12:56 p.m. to 1:58 p.m. may be used for practical repair, cleaning, physical organisation, strengthening existing boundaries, and safely disposing of ritual remains.
Avoid confrontation.
Mars has already delivered the Moon into the void and need not be given a second opportunity to compose the afternoon.
The Sun hour from 1:58 p.m. to 3:01 p.m. is well suited to illumination, purification, healthful maintenance, and reviewing personal responsibility.
The Virgo Sun applies towards a sextile with Mars, exact on Monday afternoon. Constructive action is gathering strength. Sunday’s void asks that the tools be prepared, the plan checked, and the purpose clarified before outward movement resumes.
This is an excellent time to ask:
* What is the work actually for?
* What result can be observed?
* What habit will sustain it?
* What must be repaired before expansion?
* What portion belongs to me?
* What portion have I acquired through vanity, guilt, or poor delegation?
* Why is there rosemary in the account drawer?
At 3:01 p.m., Venus takes the hour.
This is Sunday’s best period for artistic refinement, altar beautification, mending garments, restoring an established charm, arranging flowers, working with perfume, music, or sacred images, and improving a relationship practice already in existence.
The Moon remains void. Create, revise, beautify, and restore.
Avoid new romantic bindings or declarations requiring immediate commitment.
A beautiful arrangement may deepen affection. It cannot manufacture consent. Even roses possess thorns, although unlike certain practitioners they seldom pretend these are an administrative oversight.
The Mercury hour from 4:03 p.m. to 5:05 p.m. favours editing, accounting, revising plans, documenting ritual work, organising messages, correcting labels, and researching a matter already opened.
The void is excellent for discovering omissions.
It is less dependable for sending the revised document into the world and expecting immediate obedience from everyone mentioned in the footnotes.
The Moon hour begins at 5:05 p.m.
At 5:40 p.m., the Moon squares Juno. Established commitments may feel uneven. One person may have mistaken accommodation for permanent surrender. Another may discover that a promise was made to preserve peace rather than express willingness.
Review the agreement.
Do not extract a new promise during the discomfort.
At 6:07 p.m., Saturn’s final daylight hour begins. At 6:58 p.m., the Moon opposes Vesta.
This is an austere but useful period for closing established workings, containing emotional excess, revising devotional duties, tending the altar, and accepting that not every spiritual practice must feel inspiring at every performance.
Faithfulness is not constant excitement.
It is the willingness to return without turning one’s disappointment into a theological scandal.
Sunset arrives at 7:09 p.m. The Moon sets at approximately 8:27 p.m., leaving the evening sky while the planetary night begins beneath Jupiter.
The Jupiter hour from 7:09 p.m. to 8:07 p.m. is suitable for gratitude, hospitality, study, and blessing established work. Enjoy what is present. Keep promises modest.
The Mars hour from 8:07 p.m. to 9:05 p.m. should be handled with restraint. Complete a practical task, close a boundary, or put away the day’s tools. Avoid arguments and provocative messages.
At 9:05 p.m., the Sun hour begins.
Mercury trines Uranus at 9:39 p.m.
This contact brings the day’s most refreshing mental current. A solution may arrive suddenly. A stale procedure may reveal its unnecessary complication. A piece of writing may find its proper structure. A conversation may become freer because neither party is required to preserve the old script.
Use the inspiration.
Do not insist upon immediate implementation.
Draft the plan. Record the idea. Test the method. Build the prototype. Rewrite the invocation. Discover which rule protects the work and which merely commemorates a long-dead inconvenience.
Mercury trine Uranus favours intellectual liberation.
The void reminds us that freedom also benefits from a forwarding address.
Sunday ends with the Moon still void in Libra.
Its lesson is not that nothing may be done.
Its lesson is that action has different purposes.
Before 9:26 a.m., take one clean step.
After 9:26 a.m., repair the road, revise the map, settle the terms, improve the tools, and remove whatever injustice has been preserved merely because it matches the curtains.
The waxing Moon is carrying Thursday’s seed towards visible growth.
Do not demand blossoms from it yet.
The root is busy, the soil is dark, and the celestial gardening committee has quite sensibly declined to receive visitors.
THE PLANETARY HOURS OF SUNDAY
The daylight planetary hours are calculated from sunrise at 6:43 a.m. to sunset at 7:09 p.m. The nighttime hours are calculated from sunset to Monday’s sunrise at 6:43 a.m.
Boundaries are rounded to the nearest minute. These are unequal planetary hours, not conventional sixty-minute hours. The Sun considers ordinary clocks useful servants but refuses to receive instruction from them concerning the length of an afternoon.
Daylight hours - Sunday, September 13
* Sun - 6:43 a.m. - 7:45 a.m.
* Venus - 7:45 a.m. - 8:47 a.m.
* Mercury - 8:47 a.m. - 9:49 a.m.
* Moon - 9:49 a.m. - 10:52 a.m.
* Saturn - 10:52 a.m. - 11:54 a.m.
* Jupiter - 11:54 a.m. - 12:56 p.m.
* Mars - 12:56 p.m. - 1:58 p.m.
* Sun - 1:58 p.m. - 3:01 p.m.
* Venus - 3:01 p.m. - 4:03 p.m.
* Mercury - 4:03 p.m. - 5:05 p.m.
* Moon - 5:05 p.m. - 6:07 p.m.
* Saturn - 6:07 p.m. - 7:09 p.m.
The Moon squares Mars and becomes void at 9:26 a.m. during Mercury’s hour. The remaining daylight hours are best directed towards completion, repair, revision, maintenance, and preparation.
Nighttime hours - Sunday, September 13, into Monday, September 14
* Jupiter - Sunday 7:09 p.m. - 8:07 p.m.
* Mars - Sunday 8:07 p.m. - 9:05 p.m.
* Sun - Sunday 9:05 p.m. - 10:03 p.m.
* Venus - Sunday 10:03 p.m. - 11:01 p.m.
* Mercury - Sunday 11:01 p.m. - 11:59 p.m.
* Moon - Sunday 11:59 p.m. - Monday 12:56 a.m.
* Saturn - Monday 12:56 a.m. - 1:54 a.m.
* Jupiter - Monday 1:54 a.m. - 2:52 a.m.
* Mars - Monday 2:52 a.m. - 3:50 a.m.
* Sun - Monday 3:50 a.m. - 4:48 a.m.
* Venus - Monday 4:48 a.m. - 5:45 a.m.
* Mercury - Monday 5:45 a.m. - 6:43 a.m.
Mercury trines Uranus at 9:39 p.m. during the Sun hour. The Moon enters Scorpio and ends the void Monday at 1:43 a.m. during the Saturn hour.
The civil calendar changes at midnight. The planetary night continues until sunrise, having no intention of revising its traditions merely because the clerk has changed the date upon the door.
INVOCATION
Sun of the discerning flame, ruler of this day and sovereign light within the ordered temple, rise through Virgo’s sacred chamber of work.
Illuminate what is useful.
Illuminate what is honest.
Illuminate the neglected duty, the damaged instrument, the unfinished promise, and the small act of care upon which the grand intention secretly depends.
Burn vanity from purpose without burning tenderness from the heart. Let authority serve life. Let confidence remain answerable to truth. Let no crown be worn merely to conceal the unfinished condition of the head beneath it.
Moon of the balanced scales, move through Libra with beauty uncorrupted by appeasement.
Place affection beside freedom.
Place peace beside justice.
Place courtesy beside truth.
Place reconciliation beside consent.
Let no agreement require one soul to become smaller so that another may continue believing the room is harmonious.
Mars of the guarded waters, receive the Moon’s final aspect without violence.
Reveal the anger beneath politeness, the fear beneath control, and the wound beneath defence.
Give us courage to name what is unfair without becoming unjust. Give us strength to protect without punishing. Give us wisdom to leave the weapon upon the altar until the hand no longer trembles with the desire to use it.
Castor of the skilled hand and divided nature, lend intelligence to action and restraint to the heated word. Let craft govern force. Let language repair what careless passion would sever.
Moon of the long void, withdraw from outward promise and bless the hidden work of revision.
Bless the corrected petition.
Bless the mended garment.
Bless the cleansed vessel.
Bless the returned key, the balanced account, the repaired ward, the gracious refusal, and the invitation withdrawn before it became an obligation.
Let what is young grow without spectacle.
Let what is unfinished receive labour.
Let what is beautiful become sound.
Let what is false remain without forwarding instructions.
Venus of the hidden rose, move through Scorpio without poison, chain, or secret account.
Teach us intimacy without invasion.
Teach us loyalty without possession.
Teach us that desire may be profound without being sovereign over another person’s freedom.
Where love has become debt, release the invoice.
Where affection has become surveillance, close the ledger.
Where grief has mistaken itself for a permanent engagement, permit the departed thing its burial.
Mercury of the balanced tongue, take Uranus by the bright hand and open the chamber of inventive thought.
Reveal the better method.
Reveal the missing word.
Reveal the stale custom, the needless complication, the locked door whose key has been hanging beside it for years beneath a label marked miscellaneous.
Let originality serve truth.
Let intelligence serve freedom.
Let every sudden inspiration consent to inspection before it assumes authority over the household.
Uranus of the awakened air, break the repetitive thought without breaking the mind that has carried it. Return movement to the stalled design. Give us change proportionate to need and innovation disciplined by consequence.
Saturn of the measured gate, close Sunday’s work with dignity.
Stand beside every vow and ask whether consent remains within it.
Stand beside every burden and determine its rightful owner.
Stand beside every boundary and distinguish protection from fear.
Let no exhausted practitioner call depletion devotion merely because the candles have already been purchased.
Jupiter of the generous heart, bless established work and enlarge what is just, useful, hospitable, and wise.
Let abundance circulate.
Let teaching liberate.
Let celebration remain within its means.
Let no agreeable luncheon acquire a board of directors before the coffee has been served.
Vesta of the faithful flame, restore attention to its sacred centre.
Teach us to tend the altar without demanding applause from it. Teach us to rest without guilt and to return without resentment. Let no vocation consume the entire life it was intended to bless.
Juno of the mutual bond, examine every compact made between living souls.
Strengthen what remains reciprocal.
Correct what has become unequal.
Release what no longer contains a willing yes.
Let commitment be a shared dwelling, never a respectable name given to captivity.
Over the river’s bronze morning, the iron lace, old brick, shuttered rooms, hidden courtyards, candlelit altars, fragrant kitchens, narrow passages, and Cities of the Dead where unfinished arguments have at last acquired the dignity of silence, extend the blessing of measured illumination.
May every purpose be made clear.
May every boundary be made just.
May every promise retain consent.
May every tool receive proper use.
May every young intention be protected from impatient hands.
By earth, make the work sound.
By air, make the thought free.
By fire, make the purpose radiant.
By water, cool anger and restore proportion.
Let what may begin, begin cleanly.
Let what must wait, wait without resentment.
Let what may be repaired receive the hand.
Let what has become unjust lose its place at the table.
No love without consent.
No protection without proportion.
No revelation without examination.
No authority without service.
No domestic apocalypse before everyone has eaten breakfast.
So is the purpose illuminated.
So is the angry hand restrained.
So is the unfinished work restored.
So is the living temple made radiant and free.
So may it be.
__________
With the shutters opened, the sword returned to its drawer, and every brilliant new scheme left overnight where the morning may identify the bodies,
Brick Talbot Bishop
* Coven Vieux Carré -
The Religious Order of Witchcraft
New Orleans Temple at Hands of Fate
