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Thursday, December 7, 2017

Los Angeles is Burning


"A fire in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles on Wednesday [6 December 2017]." Image Source: Reed Saxon/Associated Press/NYT.

The mainstream media are reporting that several fires are devastating Southern California and are now ravaging Los Angeles, including Bel Air. This is the biggest wildfire event to threaten LA since 1961. The Getty Museum has closed to safeguard its art collections from the Skirball Fire, which is burning just west of UCLA, the Los Angeles Country Club, and Beverly Hills. The Getty announced, here, that they will reopen on 8 December. Similarly affected, UCLA will reopen on 8 December. The San Fernando Valley, including North Hollywood, is threatened by the Skirball Fire on one side, and the Creek Fire on the other. KTLA reports that for the first time, firefighters have used drones to assess where the Skirball Fire is traveling and how hot it is.


Fire has reached oceanfront homes as it moves toward the coast at San Diego and at Santa Barbara. The largest fire is the Thomas Fire, which has burned 115,000 acres, which (for comparison) is just over one quarter the size of Greater London, UK. 200,000 people have been evacuated. But the whole area under fire alert is vast, extending as far east as Tuscon, Arizona.




You can follow local fire maps, with names of highways and towns, here, here and here. You can follow CalFire on Twitter here and the LAFD here. There are lots of Instagram accounts following the fires. Here is the view from someone's bedroom.

Video by Ben Laffin on 6 December 2017. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images. Video Source: NYT.

"The remains of the Vista del Mar hospital after the Thomas wildfire swept through Ventura." Image Source: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images/ Guardian.

Man jumps out of car to rescue wild rabbit from raging Californian wildfires (7 December 2017). Video Source: Guardian via Youtube.







I have KTLA local news on my TV by satellite and they are covering the valiant efforts of firefighters in different areas of the city. You can watch their channel live stream and reports on the Internet, here. In the video directly below, you can see the city's famous skyline on the night of 6-7 December, with different fires clearly visible on three points on the horizon.

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES Thousands of people have fled their homes as wildfires continue to burn (7 December 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Deadly California wildfire forces thousands to flee (5 December 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

THOMAS FIRE In Ventura County Santa Paula Ojai California - WILDFIRE Creek Brush Fire 12/5/2017!!! (5 December 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

New Fire Erupts In Bel Air As Destructive SoCal Wildfires Rage (6 December 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

LIVE ON THE SCENE: The Thomas Fire continues to burn in Ventura County, California. 12.7.17 (7 December 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Celebrities Post Video of Fires, Flee Their Homes as Los Angeles Is Engulfed in Flames (7 December 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

CALIFORNIA FIRE SCARY FOOTAGE, DAMAGE, CAUGHT ON CAMERA DECEMBER 2017 (6 December 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

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Sunday, December 3, 2017

Look Skyward: December Supermoon of 2017


Image Source: The Old Farmer's Almanac.

Today is the Cold Moon full moon and occurs at 3:47 p.m. London UK time; 10:47 a.m. in New York; 9:17 p.m. in Mumbai; and 2:47 a.m. on 4 December 2017 in Sydney. You can see more time zones here. This moon is also a Supermoon, the only one in 2017, and the first of three in a row, with more to come on 1 and 31 January 2018. The 31 January 2018 full moon will also be a lunar eclipse. A Supermoon occurs at or near perigee, making it appear much larger than usual.

You can watch live footage of the moon on the Slooh telescope below, starting at 9 p.m. Eastern (NYC time) on 3 December 2017. Or you can watch it here.

The Supermoon Challenge (3 December 2017): "At 9 p.m. EDT Sunday (Dec. 3) the astronomy broadcasting service Slooh will air a free webcast about largest full moon of 2017, the December supermoon Cold Moon." Video Source: Youtube. (Hat tip: Space.com.)

I don't read horoscopes to understand history, of course, but astrologers do. It can be entertaining on days like this. For those who follow lunar calendars and astrology, the moon passes through a different zodiac sign every 2-3 days, unlike the sun, which takes a month to do so.

This full moon will be in the sign of Gemini, and astrologers have announced that if you want to shift your life and achieve your highest calling and establish your legacy, you'd better start doing it before the December solstice: "Jump now!" Review and make peace with your past, because the wormhole of opportunity is closing.

We are about to end a period of debates on social roles, personal and national boundaries, borders, immigration, limits, citizenship, and how we perceive those ideas. On 19-20 December 2017, those changes will lead to a two-and-a-half year period of hard work and brutal honesty as we face fears, confront karma from the past 29 years, revamp belief structures, expose secrets, and begin rebuilding reality. Think of it as one prolonged dental visit, but your smile will look great in 2020, if we don't have a world war first.

The last time there were similar aspects in the sky (Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn) was 18 December 1517, almost five hundred years to the day on this solstice. This date in 1517 of course marked the onset of Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation. There is an upcoming interview on this blog about that event; previously scheduled for November, it will be posted soon.

Astrologer David Palmer states that the fire is going out before a long winter. The picture he draws resembles Game of Thrones: after ages of warning that 'winter is coming,' in fact, now, 'winter is here.' Those who are resilient, work hard, have planned for the period of testing in the snow and the darkness will achieve great things. The test is spiritual and emotional before it is financial and physical. So 'working hard' implies spiritual work first and how that determines your work in the world. This is not about your work and money coming first and you sort out your emotions and state of your soul later.

A previous similar astrological crossroads in the sign of Capricorn occurred on 19 December 1284, a time which marked the end of the Crusades in what is now the Middle East, and led to the suppression of the Knights Templar in the early 1300s.

On today's full moon, the way to prepare for the upcoming period and how to do your best work in the coming years may not be evident. When seeking the big picture of your situation, it may look like you are trapped in a rat maze and facing brick walls. If you are scientifically minded, logical, and always want reasonable answers, you're advised to chill out and let the answers come to you. Astrologer Timothy Halloran: "Be like a flower that opens up to the sun to receive that information, without trying to grab it."

In the first week of December, be careful when driving because people will be tense. Avoid arguments, coffee, and Facebook.

For today, the following meditation is suggested at Om Journal:
"The Moon is in its maximum power. The best meditation for this day is silence. Either early in the morning or in the evening time, sit in a comfortable pose and listen to the silence of your mind. Try to stop your thoughts, so they won't disturb you anymore. Your thoughts are like clouds, flying by the clear sky of your mind. Try to keep this balanced feeling as long as possible and don't strain your body. Rejuvenation procedures are favorable today; ideal places for them are natural bodies of water, where you can swim along the moonlight."
If swimming in a large body of water under the moonlight (!) is unavailable, or just too cold, I checked Youtube, which has over 13,300 results (and counting) on videos for meditations just for this full moon of December 2017, here.

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