The Celtic calendar consists of thirteen months based on the lunar cycle. The holiday called Samhain (pronounced sah-win) marks the end of the year. It is celebrated from sunset on October 31st until sunset on November 1. This time was chosen because it was the midpoint between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, and so this Gaelic festival marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year. An interesting feature of this lunar calendar is that after Samhain, there is a period of five days that are not a part of the calendar year.

High Tea I do enjoy my morning coffee, but besides water, no beverage is consumed by more individuals across the globe than tea. I occasionally write about tea, and I know more than the average person about tea, but I am no “tea sommelier.” That title is used for individuals who have specialized training in tea varieties, preparation methods, tasting, and pairing—similar to a wine sommelier.

In my childhood home, we didn't have a "drawing room," but I read about them in novels and heard the term used in movies. I wanted one, though I didn't really know what the term meant. A drawing room is a formal living room in a house, traditionally used for entertaining guests. Today, the term is less common in the U.S.

There are signs and people saying BOO this week. My granddaughter wanted to know this month why ghosts say "Boo?" I didn't know, so... People have screamed “boo,” or at least some version of it, to startle others since the mid-16th century. The Oxford English Dictionary showed it appearing in a 1560s poetic thriller, "Smyth Whych that Forged Hym a New Dame," but not being said by a ghost.

The absolute underlying the universe combines itself with yin and yang in the Tao. The birds know. The way.  A sadness. Nothing preceded creation. From nothing comes all. And to nothing we shall all return.

Tonight is Mischief Night, an informal holiday celebrated by children and teenagers in the United States, Canada, and the U.K. It's celebrated on the night before Halloween (usually October 30). On this night, people are supposed to play harmless pranks on their neighbors or family members. "Mischief Night" is the name generally recognized as a New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware phenomenon. I am not a fan of pranks, but the common pranks include egging houses or toilet-papering trees and minor mischief. A tradition I never heard of before involves lifting residential gates off their hinges, exchanging gates with other people's gates, or placing gates in awkward places, such as suspended in trees.

At the antipodes - youth and old age -an estuary: wild river meets calm sea.An atoll of hope rings my island.On this worn multicolored map of relief,a compass rose showing all possible directions.

People posting photos online of prom nights. Mostly daughters in red-carpet Hollywood evening gowns.Mothers who don't want their little girlsto become women and leave home forever,stage rehearsals for it over and over.

"It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again." -  John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez Walking the tidal pool feels primeval - still it's today, but hermit crabs, sea urchins, sea squirts, baby sheepshead, spears, and periwinkles have ancient forms scuttling over my feet -ghost crabs moving through time and space.

Feeling the distant pull of the moons, full and new, horseshoe crabs ride tideshigh in spring, full of eggs, spawning onshore, attracting shorebirds who need the eggs to survive their long coastal migration north.

In my youth, I released a number of messages into the world. I put messages in bottles and containers and put them in my local river, which I knew eventually could take them to the Atlantic Ocean. I released some directly into the ocean at the Jersey Shore. I also launched some upwards attached to helium balloons. None were ever recovered or, if they were, no one took the time to reply to my message, which had my home address and phone number.

In two previous posts about déjá vu and some related strange experiences with memory, I wrote about that strange feeling of having "already seen" something or experienced it before without really having a memory of it. I have also written about the less familiar jamais vu (from French, meaning "never seen"), sometimes seen as the opposite of déjà vu, and…

Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, was proclaimed as the female Christ by her followers. After leaving Manchester, England behind for the religious freedoms of t...

"In Act One, my situation was presented. I had no choices, options, or authorship. I followed the stage directions and learned my lines, and the plot made sense. But longed for a change of scene... " LIFE IN THREE ACTS #poem

The story of how Hollywood became Hollywood, starts not under the California sun, but in a little town in New Jersey. The birthplace of the American movie industry belongs to Thomas Edison, and his early dominance is the very reason moviemakers made a dramatic escape to the other coast. Black Maria Back in 1891, Edison wanted a piece of the developing moving picture business.

Emblematic image of a Rosicrucian College; illustration from Speculum sophicum Rhodo-stauroticum, a 1618 work by Theophilus Schweighardt. Frances Yates identifies this as the "Invisible College of the Rosy Cross" There is a little history lesson in this post, but the history is what leads me to think that the time is right for a new "Invisible College." The original Invisible College was the Rosicrucian College, identified by Frances Yates as the "Invisible College of the Rosy Cross".

Maybe you read The Onion newspaper. I do - when I can find a paper copy, or if I see an online link - but in this information overload age, I rely on the daily short bursts of news from the Onion Radio News. I get them through iTunes so that I have a new one each day. How else can I stay current with events and sound intelligent over a "You-Pick-Two" lunch with colleagues at Panera?

Thom Powers, one of the co-founders of the Montclair Film Festival, will speak about his new book, Mondo Documentary, which traces his 20 years of experience in documentary programming and his pers...

Diwali, or Deepavali, is the Festival of Lights. It starts today this year. It doesn't always fall on my birthday, but this year it does, and so I paid more attention to it. Diwali derives its name from the Sanskrit for "row of lights," and this theme symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.

I share today's birthday with Mickey Mantle. Once, I wanted to play Yankee baseball - shortstop, like Phil Rizzuto, scooting bases, turning two. I starred in childhood street games, A decent outfielder, but I could not hit the long ball, and the dream was benched, until my sons played ball, and I got to have catches again, hit practice, coach, and finally, we all watched Jeter fly for the last time.