A Note from Gentle Rains
Just a few updates on the site. First, I just wish to take a moment to welcome all our new members to our community. As our family continues to grow, I ask that all members to please take the time to welcome our newest additions.
~ ~ Message From Ning....
On Feb. 23, we're releasing new video, photo and music players and a redesigned chat feature to your social network.
New Media Players
The video, photo and music players on your social network are getting a new design and a few more features. The video and photo players will sport an updated look, with icons that match the theme and colors of your social network. Better yet, the buttons will only show while your mouse hovers over the player, gracefully sliding away when your mouse moves elsewhere.
Your social network's music player will have a new design, taking on your theme and colors. It will also become even easier to move between songs with sortable, clean playlists.
New Chat
Your social network will soon have a completely redesigned Chat feature.
Chat, if enabled, will become a persistent bar across the bottom of your social network. It will also include optional audio notifications, the ability to pop Chat out into a new window and a few other enhancements you've been asking for.
A Few More Improvements
If you have not uploaded a custom default avatar for your members, your social network will gain a new default avatar to replace the previous "gray man." Your new default avatar will take on the colors of your social network.
Members will no longer have to add an image when creating events and groups. Instead, your social network will have new default event and group images, which you can replace with default images of your own.
Finally, we're updating the Ningbar at the top of your social network with a few minor link adjustments and new button styles to make actions more obvious.
For more information or to see screenshots, check out the Ning Blog: http://blog.ning.com/2009/02/new-media-players-chat-february-23rd.html
Thanks!
The Ning Team
~ ~ Comment Smilies
We now have comment smilies! You can leave the smilies with a comment or just the smilie itself to others.
~ ~New Groups!
~ ~ Please remember that we DO NOT allow promoting of products or services on your profile pages. If you wish to promote your business, please contact us with your information and we will be glad to add it to the directory.
~ ~ We would love to bring you more new items and go premium with ning so we can advertise on our own, but the creators are flat broke. You can help us by chipping in whatever you can, if you can. Please don’t worry if you can’t, believe me we do understand. To help out…at the bottom of the page you will find the Chip-In widget, just click on that and away you go.
~ ~ We are growing on Myspace! Come and add yourself as a friend if you haven’t already, we would love to see you there!
~ ~ Be sure to vote for Magickal Gatherings, once every 24 hours. You can find the voting buttons on the right side of every page. We appreciate your continuing support!
Awards we have won to date can be found at the very bottom of the newsletter.
We were one of the few networks that were honored with the first X-Ray Your Soul~1 Off Site Award.
Just a few updates on the site. First, I just wish to take a moment to welcome all our new members to our community. As our family continues to grow, I ask that all members to please take the time to welcome our newest additions.
~ ~ Message From Ning....
On Feb. 23, we're releasing new video, photo and music players and a redesigned chat feature to your social network.
New Media Players
The video, photo and music players on your social network are getting a new design and a few more features. The video and photo players will sport an updated look, with icons that match the theme and colors of your social network. Better yet, the buttons will only show while your mouse hovers over the player, gracefully sliding away when your mouse moves elsewhere.
Your social network's music player will have a new design, taking on your theme and colors. It will also become even easier to move between songs with sortable, clean playlists.
New Chat
Your social network will soon have a completely redesigned Chat feature.
Chat, if enabled, will become a persistent bar across the bottom of your social network. It will also include optional audio notifications, the ability to pop Chat out into a new window and a few other enhancements you've been asking for.
A Few More Improvements
If you have not uploaded a custom default avatar for your members, your social network will gain a new default avatar to replace the previous "gray man." Your new default avatar will take on the colors of your social network.
Members will no longer have to add an image when creating events and groups. Instead, your social network will have new default event and group images, which you can replace with default images of your own.
Finally, we're updating the Ningbar at the top of your social network with a few minor link adjustments and new button styles to make actions more obvious.
For more information or to see screenshots, check out the Ning Blog: http://blog.ning.com/2009/02/new-media-players-chat-february-23rd.html
Thanks!
The Ning Team
~ ~ Comment Smilies
We now have comment smilies! You can leave the smilies with a comment or just the smilie itself to others.
~ ~New Groups!
- Here's To Your Health - A group to discuss various health issues from diseases to disorders.
- Magickal Montages - Unique graphics for your use! All graphics posted will be transferred to our new Magickal Montages site (located at: http://www.dezla.com/mggraphics) so we are not taking up the bandwidth. Please add your graphics to the group so everyone can benefit from their use.
~ ~ Please remember that we DO NOT allow promoting of products or services on your profile pages. If you wish to promote your business, please contact us with your information and we will be glad to add it to the directory.
~ ~ We would love to bring you more new items and go premium with ning so we can advertise on our own, but the creators are flat broke. You can help us by chipping in whatever you can, if you can. Please don’t worry if you can’t, believe me we do understand. To help out…at the bottom of the page you will find the Chip-In widget, just click on that and away you go.
~ ~ We are growing on Myspace! Come and add yourself as a friend if you haven’t already, we would love to see you there!
~ ~ Be sure to vote for Magickal Gatherings, once every 24 hours. You can find the voting buttons on the right side of every page. We appreciate your continuing support!
Awards we have won to date can be found at the very bottom of the newsletter.
We were one of the few networks that were honored with the first X-Ray Your Soul~1 Off Site Award.
Each month the administration will award one member the title of Member of the Month. This award is based on participation, contributions and helpfulness to the site and members.
Please remember to stop by the page of February’s Member of the Month Mauve Sunrise and congratulate her if you haven’t done so already.
Please remember to stop by the page of February’s Member of the Month Mauve Sunrise and congratulate her if you haven’t done so already.
The Birthday Club- A club for everyone to list their birthday, if you haven‘t already joined the group, please stop by and join us. We would love to wish you a “Happy Birthday”.
A Note from Christine
A Note from Christine
Valentine's Day More than Just Valentines
When you open your Valentine's Day card on February 14th, or delight in that heart-shaped box of chocolates, you will be participating in a ritual that goes back to early Roman times. The Ides of Spring, which occurred around the 15th of February, was celebrated with the Lupercalia festival. This time was considered to be a time of cleaning and ritual purification. Houses were swept and then sprinkled with salt and spelt, a type of wheat.
Lupercalia was also a fertility celebration dedicated to the god of agriculture, Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. Priests, known as Luperci, would gather at a sacred cave where tradition stated that Romulus and Remus had been raised by a she-wolf. The priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification.
The sacrifices were not the end of the matter, however. The hide of the sacrificed goats would be cut into strips and dipped in blood. Young men would then gently strike unmarried women with these strips, as well as the new crops, in the belief that the hide would bring fertility. (http://www.history.com/conten t/valentine/history-of-valenti NE-s-day) At the end of the day, young women would place their names in a large urn, and unmarried men would draw the names of prospective brides.
In 496 AD Lupercalia was abolished throughout the Christian world when Pope Gelaslius initiated the festival of St. Valentine on February 14th. (A similar procedure had taken place in 336 AD when the celebration of Saturnalia, held in December, was folded into the Christian observance of Christmas with December 25th becoming the official observance of Christ's birth.) Actually, there were three martyrs by the name of Valentine, but Gelaslius' choice for the Saint's Day fell upon a Roman priest who lived during the time of Claudius ll, or Claudius the Gaul. This Roman emperor had a spectacularly bloody reign, forcing all eligible males to part in military campaigns far from home. Dissent was especially vocal from those men who were married and so Claudius banned all marriages and engagements. In response, Valentine married young couples in secret. Valentine's defiance of Claudius was discovered and he was put into prison, stoned, beaten, and finally beheaded on February 14, 270 A.D.
Legend states that while Valentine was in jail, he fell in love with the jailor's daughter, often sending her notes signed "From your Valentine." History gives a
more likely version of Valentine's story, saying that he was arrested by the prefect of Rome, which was not yet a Christian state, asked to give up his beliefs and, when he refused, he was beheaded. Gelaslius, however, felt that the original story was more appealing, and so made it part of the St. Valentine's Day observance. (www.history.ca/content.Conten tDetail.aspx?ContentId=119)
During the Middle Ages, Valentine's Day became firmly associated with romance. In England and France, folklore held that February 14th was the beginning of the mating season for birds. It was not much of a leap to make the day one for human romance, as well. The idea of sending a valentine to one's beloved caught on quickly, too. The oldest known valentine in existence is a poem penned by Charles, the Duke of Orleans, to his wife in 1415. At the time the Duke was imprisoned in the Tower of London after his capture during the Battle of Agincourt between Britain and France. (www.history.com/content/valen tine/history-of-valentine-s-DA y)
Geoffrey Chaucer used Valentine's Day in his poetry. His poem "The Parliament of Fowls," written in the late 14th century, was the first documented time that the holiday appeared in print. The poem explored the theme of courtly love replacing people with birds. Chaucer's poetry was a major influence on Valentine's Day as we keep it today. (www.history.ca/content.Conten tDetail.aspx?ContentId=119)
Over the following three to four hundred years sweet hearts continued to exchange small gifts and tokens, and by end of the 18th century, printing technology enabled the giving of Valentine's Day cards. In the 1840's commercial cards began to appear, and by the beginning of the 20th century red candies, signifying the "passion" of love, and white candies symbolizing the "purity" of love had become common. At this time, also, red heart-shaped boxes in which to place the candy began to appear.
The Jane Ellen official website notes that in 1969 the Catholic Church removed the feast of St. Valentine from the Church Calendar on the grounds that there were too many pagan associations with the holiday leading to a lack of honour paid to the Saint.
When you open your Valentine's Day card on February 14th, or delight in that heart-shaped box of chocolates, you will be participating in a ritual that goes back to early Roman times. The Ides of Spring, which occurred around the 15th of February, was celebrated with the Lupercalia festival. This time was considered to be a time of cleaning and ritual purification. Houses were swept and then sprinkled with salt and spelt, a type of wheat.
Lupercalia was also a fertility celebration dedicated to the god of agriculture, Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. Priests, known as Luperci, would gather at a sacred cave where tradition stated that Romulus and Remus had been raised by a she-wolf. The priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification.
The sacrifices were not the end of the matter, however. The hide of the sacrificed goats would be cut into strips and dipped in blood. Young men would then gently strike unmarried women with these strips, as well as the new crops, in the belief that the hide would bring fertility. (http://www.history.com/conten t/valentine/history-of-valenti NE-s-day) At the end of the day, young women would place their names in a large urn, and unmarried men would draw the names of prospective brides.
In 496 AD Lupercalia was abolished throughout the Christian world when Pope Gelaslius initiated the festival of St. Valentine on February 14th. (A similar procedure had taken place in 336 AD when the celebration of Saturnalia, held in December, was folded into the Christian observance of Christmas with December 25th becoming the official observance of Christ's birth.) Actually, there were three martyrs by the name of Valentine, but Gelaslius' choice for the Saint's Day fell upon a Roman priest who lived during the time of Claudius ll, or Claudius the Gaul. This Roman emperor had a spectacularly bloody reign, forcing all eligible males to part in military campaigns far from home. Dissent was especially vocal from those men who were married and so Claudius banned all marriages and engagements. In response, Valentine married young couples in secret. Valentine's defiance of Claudius was discovered and he was put into prison, stoned, beaten, and finally beheaded on February 14, 270 A.D.
Legend states that while Valentine was in jail, he fell in love with the jailor's daughter, often sending her notes signed "From your Valentine." History gives a
more likely version of Valentine's story, saying that he was arrested by the prefect of Rome, which was not yet a Christian state, asked to give up his beliefs and, when he refused, he was beheaded. Gelaslius, however, felt that the original story was more appealing, and so made it part of the St. Valentine's Day observance. (www.history.ca/content.Conten tDetail.aspx?ContentId=119)
During the Middle Ages, Valentine's Day became firmly associated with romance. In England and France, folklore held that February 14th was the beginning of the mating season for birds. It was not much of a leap to make the day one for human romance, as well. The idea of sending a valentine to one's beloved caught on quickly, too. The oldest known valentine in existence is a poem penned by Charles, the Duke of Orleans, to his wife in 1415. At the time the Duke was imprisoned in the Tower of London after his capture during the Battle of Agincourt between Britain and France. (www.history.com/content/valen tine/history-of-valentine-s-DA y)
Geoffrey Chaucer used Valentine's Day in his poetry. His poem "The Parliament of Fowls," written in the late 14th century, was the first documented time that the holiday appeared in print. The poem explored the theme of courtly love replacing people with birds. Chaucer's poetry was a major influence on Valentine's Day as we keep it today. (www.history.ca/content.Conten tDetail.aspx?ContentId=119)
Over the following three to four hundred years sweet hearts continued to exchange small gifts and tokens, and by end of the 18th century, printing technology enabled the giving of Valentine's Day cards. In the 1840's commercial cards began to appear, and by the beginning of the 20th century red candies, signifying the "passion" of love, and white candies symbolizing the "purity" of love had become common. At this time, also, red heart-shaped boxes in which to place the candy began to appear.
The Jane Ellen official website notes that in 1969 the Catholic Church removed the feast of St. Valentine from the Church Calendar on the grounds that there were too many pagan associations with the holiday leading to a lack of honour paid to the Saint.
Skye has taken an extended leave of absence, but you will see her pop in from time to time. She has been working way to much overtime but for a good reason….they are trying to save up some money to buy the house of their dreams.
We can’t keep an eye on everything that goes on within the site, so if you have any problems or feel you were spammed by a member please use the “Report an Issue” link at the bottom of every page or contact us at….
And we will get back to you as soon as we can. We want everyone to feel safe and at home here with us at Magickal Gatherings.
Until next month…..
magickalgatherings@gmail.com
And we will get back to you as soon as we can. We want everyone to feel safe and at home here with us at Magickal Gatherings.
Until next month…..
Gentle Rains & Christine (co-creators)
Skye (group administrator)
Skye (group administrator)
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