Santa Cruz Good Times

Wednesday
May 22nd
Text size
  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

A Look at the Mayan Calendar Ending

RisaNewS

Our first week of December, candles lit for Advent, we remain under the shadow of the lunar eclipse. The end of the Mayan calendar occurs in three weeks as the Festival of the New Group of World Servers begins. We have gifts to make (no more buying), food to prepare, guests to invite, trees (or Hanukkah bushes) to trim, lights to hang as the days move deeper into dark stillness.  Now is a good time to explain about the end of the Mayan calendar (Dec. 21). The eclipses (something disappears, task completed), especially and since the May 1999 eclipse, have prepared us for this date, assisting Earth and her kingdoms to release all obstructions hindering the new templates, patterns and archetypes to develop the new world. The purpose of the Eclipse is to disrupt and destroy illusions, beliefs, mayas, distortions and glamours—internal and external—so that humanity can awaken. At the May 1999 eclipse the Sun was actually at the very center, in the “dark rift,” the darkest part of the Galactic Center. Our world since then has been in great world turmoil. In 2000 the Shamballa Force, Will, Purpose and Light of God, was released onto our planet. Time began to accelerate. Both the dark (materialism) and the light (spiritual ascendency) have become exceedingly apparent. Humanity is now asked to choose between these polarities. Our choice is our future. On Dec. 21, the Earth slowly re-emerges from the darkness of the birth canal. The “light” (within us, Earth) is rekindled. By 2016 the Sun moves completely out of the galactic center/darkness. From 2012 till 2016 new gifts for humanity will be offered, recognized, cultivated. It is good to know this. So, as with our Advent wreath, we can prepare—first through truth, then knowledge and then gratitude.


Esoteric Astrology as News for the week of Nov. 29–Dec. 5, 2012 For Sun and Rising Signs

ariesAries-March 21–April 20

You will begin to seek harmony within relationships. You will no longer be the dominant one. Instead seeking balance and equanimity is your focus. You’re changed. You’ve become a peacemaker. Let’s define the process toward peace through the Esoteric (Soul-focused) lens. We begin with intentions for Goodwill, which lead to Right Relations, which evolves into the Peace Process. You cultivate this. It makes you very magnetic.



taurusTaurus April 21–May 21

You become even more practical and helpful, then compassion develops, something new, often only ascribed to suffering Pisces. You become more thoughtful and expressive. There is no ostentation, no flowery exhibitions or drama. Just steadfastness. You become interested in design, architecture, gardens and all things that create a sustained systemic flow. The devas begin to speak with you.



geminiGemini May 22–June 20

You ask when do the two brothers (Castor and Pollux) become one? Always you seek this oneness. In between you are romantic and playful but sometimes keep this intact and behind the scenes. Beauty, art and music, especially music, your hidden Sag side, are most important. Your surroundings must reflect this or you enter into sadness. You love deeply, silently, you are loyal. Tend to your heart’s desires.



cancerCancer June 21–July 20

You’re impelled to bring your home and surroundings into a state of beauty, balance and harmony that allows you to feel peace. You have a loving personal touch only a nourisher understands. Not sentimental yet very sympathetic. When you love someone you have great emotion. How you were raised affected your thinking. Over the years you’ve created new ways, overriding your upbringing.



leoLeo July 21–August 22

You realize that your tone, intentions, agendas and past sadnesses can filter into communication, creating misunderstandings within self and others. You begin to consider diplomacy, being more truthful with tact and charm. It’s important to compliment others now. At first, it’s uncomfortable. Compliments are holy words that summon the true spirit of others. Compliments reflect the reality of another’s value. You too are valuable.


virgoVirgo August 23–September 22

You have a talent ... of finding things of beauty and value, form and function. Throughout your life you develop good taste. You’re generous, offering others gifts, not as rewards, but reflecting your affection. Use your beautiful kind voice to help others feel safe and secure. Begin to work with natural oils and develop your own scent. The devas will work with you.

 


libraLibra September 23–October 22

Some would call your needs too dramatic, extravagant. However, close friends realize your tastes of well-defined luxury have a touch of whimsy with a talent for design. When you apply your abilities to food, the results are deliciously comforting. Love is most important to you. When lacking you turn away. Never to return. We weep in the misunderstandings.



scorpioScorpio October 23–November 21

Sometimes you get hurt but don’t tell anyone. Instead you hide behind veils of bravery and courage, determined to not allow your heart to be vulnerable ever again! You try to be safe in the world. Open affection with a loved one is not safe for you. Sometimes you’re secret in your affairs. Still no one knows. In terms of comfort these days, be sure to dress your feet in the most comfortable of shoes. Bespoke is best.

 


saggSagittarius November 22–December 20

You feel the need for real friends. Not just acquaintance, not co-workers, not people you must impress or people you make laugh. You seek real and true friends, unafraid of you. Friends you can’t overwhelm, override, impress with your brains or brilliance. You also need them to be a bit unconventional. Tend carefully to calves and ankles. Keep them warm. With friendship comes the essence of responsibility. Are you?

 


capricornCapricorn December 21–January 20

All things different and cultural seem to land on your doorstep, knock on your door, enter your home, are in your choice of books, art and clothing. Thoughts of freedom seem to have no limits. You’re not really confined but somehow you feel restrained. The Sag meditation is inspiration. It expands your sense of self, mind and heart. As you assume yoga poses, ask what inspires you. Keep your hips and thighs warm.


aquariusAquarius January 21–February 18

You seem ultra casual in life but underneath there’s a need for an intense depth in relationship. You’re very vulnerable with those you love. Your heart’s on your sleeve. You are devoted and attentive. Love feels like a healing for your body. When the other is not what you expect, when you are disappointed, you easily become disenchanted, forlorn. Then time passes and you love again. Tend to your lower back.

 


piscesPisces February 19–March 20

How you love is by being present, listening, being available, curious, asking questions. At times you feed people flowers you’ve grown and cultivated. Your goals now are to find order in the disharmony all around, to find harmony in the systems breaking down, to discover what you truly want and need and to take steps toward this. Even if it’s simply writing it down in a small journal no one sees. Bake for the holidays. Give it all away.


Risa is Founder & Director of the Esoteric & Astrological Studies & Research Institute, a contemporary Wisdom School in Santa Cruz, CA.

More at nightlightnews.com. Risa's email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Facebook: Risa's Esoteric Astrology

Comments (3)Add Comment
...
written by a guest, December 05, 2012
thank you for the insightful commentary! if you are interested in getting more details about your Mayan Glyph please take a look at my Mayan Jewelry Line. You can enter in your birthdate and it will give you more details regarding your Mayan Glyph, and also the option to purchase a pendant for your glyph for you or your loved one. Perfect way to celebrate a new beginning!
...
written by a guest, November 28, 2012
I'm always impressed with the breadth of truth in your words and your heightened clarity of cosmc interpretation. Thanks & keep up the gokd works. Love, Sandra
...
written by a guest, November 27, 2012
what are you smoking? open your eyes were all dead robots.

Write comment
smaller | bigger

busy
 

Share this on your social networks

Bookmark and Share

Share this

Bookmark and Share

  • Search
  •  

    No Big Surprises

    The highly anticipated draft Environmental Impact Report for desal is finally out. Will it change anything? By Elizabeth Limbach When scwd2, the group pursuing the proposed joint desalination plant for the Santa Cruz Water Department and Soquel Creek Water District, set up a booth at the Santa Cruz Earth Day festival in 2012, its reception was less than warm. Signature gathering for Measure P, the “right to vote” on desal ballot measure, was in full swing, as were tensions over the controversial project, which would produce up to 2.5 million gallons per day of desalinated water and cost an estimated $100 million. What were representatives of an energy-intensive desal plant doing among the recycling and conservation booths? That was the attitude Melanie Mow Schumacher, public outreach coordinator for scwd2 (pronounced “squid squared”), remembers sensing.

     

    The Maya-Ixil Move Forward

    Local nonprofit works to educate and create opportunity for indigenous communities in Guatemala In an isolated region of the Guatemala mountains called Ixil, the indigenous Maya population was devastated by a civil war between the government and leftist guerrilla factions that spanned 1960 to 1996. During that 36-year war, the Guatemalan military eradicated entire Mayan communities. In what amounted to genocide, soldiers burned Mayan farmlands and homes, raped and tortured the people, and scattered families. By the end of the war, 200,000 Mayans had been killed, 7,000 of whom were Maya-Ixil.

     

    Public Thinking

    Watsonville teens host TEDx event Santa Cruz County is no stranger to the TED brand. TED—which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design—talks have come to the area through independently organized events 10 times since 2011. This month, the gathering returns to the county with a new twist, thanks to the Watsonville Youth City Council. TEDxYouth@Watsonville, which will take place Sunday, May 19 at the Henry J. Mello Center for the Performing Arts in Watsonville, will feature only speakers younger than 19 years old and will traverse topics from racial stereotypes and renewable energy to traditional Mexican dance.

     

    Transoceana

    Danny Moriarty’s musical influences have been known to impact his life beyond his local rock band, Transoceana. “I went through two periods,” confesses the singer, guitarist and songwriter. “I borrowed Bono’s mullet look from the ’80s for a while, and then I dressed like I was from the ’70s and had big hair like Jimmy Page.” Bono and Page are also symbolic of Transoceana’s evolution as a band during their three years together.

     

    Cruzin’ for Inspiration

    Former resident pays homage to Santa Cruz with locally shot thesis film When he left Santa Cruz for the University of Southern California’s graduate film program in 2010, Christopher Guerrero had completed the film major at UC Santa Cruz in 2008 and worked on campus in the film and digital media department. It wasn’t until he headed south, that Guerrero began to reminisce about the coastal town. “It was really really hard when I moved to L.A., to acclimate and find friends,” he says, adding that—counter to the philosophical, conversational culture of Santa Cruz—he found nowhere in his new town where he could simply sit and talk about life with someone. “I didn’t really realize why I love [Santa Cruz] so much until it was gone.”

     

    Beck to the Future

    In celebration of Beck’s solo acoustic show at The Rio, GT explores Song Reader, the alternative rock icon’s most ambitious interactive art piece yet. Here’s an odd little paradox of the digital revolution: The more sophisticated our technology gets, the more our musical milieu begins to resemble that of a bygone era, when song ideas were passed around from musician to musician, perpetually taking on new twists. Dozens of different YouTube users might try their hand at setting somebody’s rant about cats or double rainbows to music, or you might hear the Belgian musician Gotye turning the many and varied covers of his song “Somebody That I Used to Know” into a virtual orchestra (see below).

     

    Growing Berries Without Bromide

    Researchers test a new alternative to a controversial chemical The scarecrows perched in Santa Cruz strawberry fields do little to scare away the birds, much less the insects and fungi harbored in the soil. Everything likes to eat strawberries, which makes growing them a risky business. This predicament led UC Santa Cruz professor Carol Shennan to take an unconventional approach to pest management. Nine years ago, the fatal plant disease Verticillium wilt was wiping out strawberry plants at the university farm. Chemicals hardly phase the pathogen, and Shennan saw little improvement with crop rotation, which is typically used to treat infested fields. A visiting plant pathologist from the Netherlands recommended a little-known organic technique called anaerobic soil disinfestation, and, with so few other options, Shennan decided to give it a try. 

     

    Uniting All That Has Been Separated

     

    Legal Battles Drag On

    More than a year after the 75 River St. occupation, four defendants remain embroiled in ongoing case  More than a year and a half since a group occupied the former Wells Fargo building on River Street in an act of protest, felony charges linger on for four of the original defendants and a trial may be imminent. Gabriella Ripley-Phipps, Brent Adams, Cameron Laurendeau and Franklin Alcantara were scheduled to begin trial May 13 in connection with the late 2011 protest. That trial now has been pushed back to September due to scheduling conflicts. The four face a felony charge of vandalism and a misdemeanor for trespassing.

     

    Bringing the Message Home

    Former mayor and UCSC student recap their experiences at the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women While traveling to New York for the 57th United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), seasoned local activist Jane Weed-Pomerantz had a notion of what to expect. But, with the vast scope of worldwide women’s rights violations presented at the commission, she knew she would still be taken aback at times. “I was worried because I had a feeling I would be finding out what I did find out about women and girls in the world,” says Weed-Pomerantz. “I was trying to brace myself for the knowledge of the reality, because we are really very protected in this country.”
    Sign up for Tomorrow's Good Times Today
    Upcoming arts & events

    Latest Comments

     

    May Day in the Alps

    When my daughter returns to Santa Cruz from her new home in Los Angeles, she comments on how quiet it is here. It was even more so during a trip to Ben Lomond, when we set out for a sample of her second favorite macaroni and cheese. Sitting at the front of the Tyrolean Inn restaurant, the green tarp with plastic windows kept out the chill as well as the noise of an occasional passing car. A new draft beer celebrating the German spring, Maibok ($6) was refreshing, served in a hefty glass stein, but specialty cocktails are unique as well.

     

    The Power of Conversation

    Local author Cecile Andrews emphasizes importance of community engagement in newest book Cecile Andrews, author of the new book “Living Room Revolution: A Handbook for Conversation, Community and the Common Good,” probably wouldn’t get along too well with Larry David’s character from HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, known for hiding his face and avoiding communication with anyone he runs into on the street. Andrews is a longstanding part-time Santa Cruz (part-time Seattle) resident who says something that’s struck her about this town over the years is people's willingness to participate in a practice she’s dubbed the “Stop and Chat”—which is exactly what it sounds like.

     

    What are you a total sucker for?

    A cold beer after a long bike ride, gossip, and fighting over politics. Kyle McKinley Santa Cruz | Lecturer

     

    Best of Santa Cruz County

    The 2013 Santa Cruz County Readers' Poll and Critics’ Picks It’s our biggest issue of the year, and in it, your votes—more than 6,500 of them—determined the winners of The Best of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll. New to the long list of local restaurants, shops and other notables that captured your interest: Best Beer Selection, Best Locally Owned Business, Best Customer Service and Best Marijuana Dispensary. In the meantime, many readers were ever so chatty online about potential new categories. Some of the suggestions that stood out: Best Teen Program and Best Web Design/Designer. But what about: Dog Park, Church, Hotel, Local Farm, Therapist (I second that!) or Sports Bar—not to be confused with Bra. Our favorite suggestion: Best Act of Kindness—one reader noted Café Gratitude and the free meals it offered to the Santa Cruz Police Department in the aftermath of recent crimes. Perhaps some of these can be woven into next year’s ballot, so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy the following pages and take note of our Critics’ Picks, too, beginning on page 91. A big thanks for voting—and for reading—and an even bigger congratulations to all of the winners. Enjoy.  -Greg Archer, EditorBest of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll INDEX | Shops | Food & Drink | Arts & Entertainment | Health & Fitness | Professionals | The Rest |

     

    Vine & Dine: Pine Ridge Vineyards

    Chenin Blanc + Viognier 2012 On a recent trip to Palm Springs, I came across Pine Ridge Vineyards’ Chenin Blanc + Viognier at a new downtown restaurant called Lulu. Superbly decorated in Hollywood-esque style and with a very hip vibe, this California bistro is one of the hottest new dining spots—and the Chenin Blanc was just the right wine to pair with some of Lulu’s Happy Hour tapas-style food. And eating outdoors in the desert’s warm night air makes a chilled white wine taste even better.

     

    The Gypsy

    French-born jazz vocalist Cyrille Aimée lives for musical freedom and improvisation Cyrille Aimée is a musical gypsy. Her sound incorporates elements of Latin American, American, Brazilian and other styles of jazz, she has recorded albums as a duet with Diego Figueiredo, she currently performs with the Surreal (same pronunciation as her first name) Band, and she is working on a new album with yet another band. As it happens, Aimée can actually blame gypsies for her love of jazz. “I grew up in Samois-sur-Seine, which is a little town in France where Django Reinhardt used to live,” she says. “Every year they have the Django Festival in his honor, and so gypsies from all parts of Europe come and honor him and play guitar. I started hanging out with the gypsies and became obsessed with their music, their way of living, their freedom. What drew me to jazz music was the freedom of it, all the improvisation, and the fact that it’s a style of music that is constantly changing.”

     

    Step on up to the Bar

    Here in Santa Cruz County, we are privileged to have farm-fresh greens year-round. Making a nightly salad at home is a snap since the emergence of pre-washed greens, and vinaigrette dressing is made easily with your favorite vinegar and small spoon of Dijon mustard whisked with a bit of olive oil.

     

    Exposed

    David Cay Johnston’s new book explains how big companies rob us blind In his late teens David Cay Johnston started to ask questions. “Why do we have these guys in uniforms with guns driving around in cars all day?” “Why is the Santa Cruz County Courthouse being built in such an unusual shape?” He wrote an article, while still living in his hometown of Santa Cruz, proving that the off-kilter courthouse building, which officials had promised would save money, actually cost more than a conventional building.

     

    Do you unplug often enough? Or do you need help?

    Santa Cruz | Caregiver