It's a folk myth that you can only get eggs to spin cleanly on either the fall or spring equinox.  It can be done at any time of day or year, but what you genuinely need to do this successfully is an extremely fresh egg.  

The light is now noticeably shifting, the dark slowly visibly rolling back.  Very sunny days or very dark days both stand out from the patchy-not-quite-grey that is our spring in the Pacific Northwest.  But once all the flowering trees pop, it's a good bet that we're well away from winter and we're there now.  Instead of dead yard, everything has suddenly turned into a mass of green weeds, not yet up to growing speed due to the lack of sun.  However we get three more minutes of light every day, so full growing speed isn't far off.  Now that the apple tree is moved, the herb bed where it stood in a pot is about to be taken out and reworked, with a nearby raised bed getting a big ol' expansion.  The sage bush in that area will be my next spagyric herb.  My housemate knows to save the leaves for me if she gets around to chopping it down during a time when I'm busy with something else. 

Mostly for this entire week, I've just been operating in fits and starts of cosplay construction.  My plan is simple:  whatever outfits are in the best shape to go as of Thursday night are what goes.  I've got several things in process but I've had some tech snafus, some which could be reworked and some not.  And wigs.  They're practically like caring for living creatures.  We have a room for Friday and Saturday night, which is going to be a Goddess-send when it comes to downtown access on those weekend mornings.  The density is going to be something to watch out for.  Saturday is the BIG day.  Last year, downtown freeway exit ramps got closed because too many people were trying to come into downtown Seattle.  I actually have four work shifts, with one coming on Thursday, the set-up/get-ready day before the con starts.  This is one of the most hilarious configurations yet.  I haul some of my gear downtown on Thursday when I go early to check-in and get my badge, and leave it at Kalla's office, which is in the vicinity.  I do that again Friday morning with the rest of my gear, then work an 8-2 shift.  Kalla will take the bus to work, get off work not long after my minion shift ends.  Then we'll find each other and a strange series of punts and adventures will begin. 

On the intentional, social aspect of the con, my pendulum was consulted when it came to the speed dating.  The pendulum had some specifics:  I have to go twice.  I looked up the planetary energies of each session.  For the first, I get a Venus day, and the session spans times of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars energy.  The second is a solar day and the session will receive Venus, Mercury and Moon energies.  I'm probably going to dress in an interesting combo of my own clothing and be sort of Blade Runner butch for one session and do my X-men movie Blink cosplay option for the other.  Her makeup isn't too crazy, her clothing is all mine, and really if I can just get a herringbone braid into her wig, I'll call the outfit done until such time as I make her jacket properly.  If my Lorelei outfit works out, I'll wear that the day I'm not speed dating.  A muting-face-cage-mask isn't the sort of thing to wear for that, but wearing something that just got seen for the first time three weeks ago on tv on the busiest day of the con would be just about right. 

I sat for several hours last Friday night with pendulum and grimoires, seeking the symbols for my left ankle tattoo.  It was divined that the emblems accompanying the original spiraling path shape need to be removed for clarity and construction due to intended size and medium, and some specific alchemical notations included instead.  The five symbols are copper, filter, oil, saffron and Virgo.  The overall design is going to follow the overall shape and appearance of the design which illustrates the Egyptian perception of the flow of energy between heaven and earth.  The fire circle at Forestdance the year I went to Costa Rica turned out to be this pattern, with a main fire and a root fire.  That added second fire is part of the Illumination fire structure too.  One cool detail that doesn't happen at the Oregon fires which did happen in Costa Rica was the brewing of a tea from plants on the land each night to support an aspect of each night's fire. 

"Things bright and clear being so obtained
The King and Queen being begot togeathere
Being put presently in the Secret Prison,
Feed them with heavenly Dew; not Watry things."

~ from 'A warning to the false Chymists or the Philosophical Alphabet by Thomas Rawlin' folios 14-55. This work was printed in Latin, Thomas Rawlin, Admonitio de Pseudochymicis, seu Alphabetarium Philosophicum in quo refutatur aurum potabile Antonii, 1611.

I got involved with the rangoli team the last night at Illumination 2013 and showed them this same design.  The two guys heading it up discussed for a bit and then dug out the jugs of playa dust they'd collected at Burning Man 2012 and used that to lay most of the design.  We ran short for some of the inner bits and the color changed slightly if you knew what you were looking for.  The smaller symbols got dropped out for space considerations but we kept the scarab.  On my ankle, I'm going to take that out too because I'm down to just a few inches of size. 

There are some days approaching which are positively-attuned and in the phase of Fixation, and that seems like a good time to get inked, so this might be happening next week.  It'd be healed before P-con if I do that, which would be another vote for next week too.

Speaking of cons, last Thursday I had my second night of ECCC minion training.  It was everything you ever wanted or needed to know about the show floor area and how it works or doesn't work.  It was raining, but I had a new umbrella with me (so it functioned the way it was supposed to) and I found a different bus stop to wait at to catch a bus home afterward than last time.  Everything went much faster.  Two sessions down, two to go.

Last Saturday I got together with Kalla.  We have both been busy with family for the last couple of weeks.  There was actual sunshine, it was a gorgeous winter day.  We went up to Saint Edwards State Park in Kenmore, WA.  It used to be a monastery and then a seminary.  They have a wonderful, Paganish, stone structure called the Grotto out behind the old seminary building.  I got some great macro images of spiderwebs.  After our outdoor adventures, we grabbed some dinner and had a very serious pow-wow about K's con workshop and plans beyond.  Very productive banter.  I had delicious yam tacos, but something in them set off several hours of inflammatory aches and pains and I haven't figured out just what it was.  ...le sigh...