Full Squirrel Moon and Sukkot

Tonight is the full moon called the Squirrel Moon, because now the squirrels are busily gathering nuts for the winter. This moon is also called Atchalankuaik, the "start getting sagittair roots" moon, by the Kalapuya of our area (sagittair is a potato like tuber). 

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon.

Sukkot 2014

Tonight is also the start of Sukkot, a 7-day Jewish harvest festival that begins at the full moon in late September or early October.

The word Sukkot means “Booths”; Jews all over the world build outdoor booths for Sukkot, like the simple huts that farmers in ancient Israel lived in during harvest time. The roof is always made of leafy branches, open to the sky so that you see the stars through the leaves. Each family decorates their hut, makes it comfortable, and eats at least two meals there; they invite guests, light candles, and say prayers of thanksgiving for the harvest.

Agenda:

1. Take a vision walk
2. Celebrate balance

3. Autumn awareness walk

4. Fall cleaning
5. Build a sukkah and eat outside

The Eternal Now

Quakers are mystics. Mystical experience is direct experience of God; our Quaker silent worship is an invitation to experience that of God within ourselves, and within the entire perceivable universe. 

One dictionary definition: "a person who claims to attain, or believes in the possibility of attaining, insight into mysteries transcending ordinary human knowledge, as by direct communication with the divine or immediate intuition in a state of spiritual ecstasy."

We mostly don't exhibit ecstasy anymore, but the early Friends did quake and shake, which is where our name comes from.

Agenda:

1. Read "Testament of Devotion"

2. Worship with the Earth