#quadruple star system

[quiltofstars]

The dwarf galaxy Leo I (left) next to the star Regulus (α Leonis) // James E.

The name Regulus comes from the Latin word regulus meaning "little king" or "prince".

[underoosstark]

YOU HAD GHEZ AS A PROF?? that's so cool!! and btw you're in luck with talking about exoplanets bc that's what my undergrad research was in!! admittedly i was more working on the detection side and specifically in planets either around m-dwarf stars or binaries, but yes it's so fun to talk about weird exoplanet orbits :)

and yes, it's like absolutely insane how much progress that we've made recently! stuff that i talked about in undergrad are totally out of date now, the detector i worked on is like. a physical thing that exists now, TESS is real and working now, and there's all kinds of new exoplanet records. i still want to keep up with the field even though i've long given up on the astrophysicist dream lmao

if you'd like to learn about cool-ass planets, may i recommend looking into PH1b? my research prof was involved in it. it's the first transiting exoplanet found in QUADRUPLE star system which is amazing and it was found by citizen scientists using kepler data and they're still doing it with TESS if you want to get involved!

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/nora-dot-eisner/planet-hunters-tess

SPACE IS SO COOL man space is just. so so cool. more and more i’m thinking that exoplanets & exoplanet detection might be one of the more specific astro subjects i’m interested in because it’s just so insanely interesting to me. i remember being like 6 or 7 years old and obsessed with the planets in our solar system and now it’s like. oh yeah. we can use all of these clever methods and each one is able to detect a different type of planet around stars that are SO far away and we can compare these planets to our planets and figure out how it all was created and like!!!!! man!!!!!! that’s so fucking cool!!!!!!!

[mylonelylittlestar]

XAVIER: THE SUN

Xavier is the sun, but not in the way people think. People hear "sunshine character" and think of clear skies during spring. Of flowers and beaches and singing birds. But that's not Xavier. Xavier is the sun in a different way.

(This is all based on my own knowledge/memory of stars, and it's probably not perfectly accurate because I tend to forget things quickly. I'm also oversimplifying and heavily romanticizing this. This is not an academic paper. It's a silly little post about Love and Deepspace!)

The sun is an average size star compared to other stars in the universe. There are billions of smaller stars and billions of larger stars. Compared to stars like Rigel and Betelgeuse, the sun is just a speck of dust in space, and stars like Teegarden's Star and other red dwarfs are grains of sand compared to the sun. It's not particularly special in size.

It's classified as a yellow dwarf star. Yellow dwarf stars don't "go supernova". They don't turn into black holes or neutron stars. They are simply too small.

They burn out of their hydrogen supply over millions of years, collapse, then expand, turning into "red giants". They stay that way until they become unstable, shedding their outer layers in form of large clouds made up of dust and gas (called planetary nebula).

What is left afterwards is the core, a white dwarf. White dwarfs are very dense and do not produce heat. Instead they spend millions of years slowly cooling down. When they completely cool down they turn into black dwarfs, but we will never see one because the universe isn't old enough for a white dwarf to completely cool down and actually turn into one.

It's not special. Even its death will be slow and anticlimactic. It won't collapse into a supermassive black hole after a giant supernova. It will just fade away slowly and quietly after its life as a red giant is over.

What makes the sun special is not itself, but its perfect proximity to earth. The sun makes life here possible because its mass and distance to our home planet gave us a chance to exist and observe it. Nothing else. It is perfectly average in its size, luminosity, and mass.

The sun is also lonely. More than half of the stars that we have observed share a solar system with at least one other star. They orbit each other as they travel through the universe. We can also observe triple star systems (the nearest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri, is part of a triple star system as far as I remember), quadruple systems, and possibly even septuple star systems (Nu Scorpii and AR Cassiopeiae). I've even seen things about possible octuple and even nontuple star systems.

But the sun is alone. It has a lot of planets surrounding it, but no other stars accompany it. There's a chance that it has siblings though, stars that formed in the same nebulae/gas cloud, but we have trouble finding them because we don't even truly know in what nebulae the sun was "born" in.

We have theories, but it's hard to do anything except guess because our sun is quite old and therefore far away from its birthplace (which has probably stopped existing by now). We're looking for stars with similar compositions and ages as our sun, and we look at their orbits and compare them to the orbit of our sun to see if they could be related, all in hopes of finding out more about our star through them, but the search takes a lot of time. We might never find its siblings. Maybe they're just too far away. Or there are no siblings. Maybe the nebulae only gave birth to one star, our sun, and no others.

Maybe our sun was always destined to be alone, from the very beginning of its life to its end. And maybe Xavier is destined to be alone too.

[vague-humanoid]

When I stepped into John Roe’s apartment early last December, slipping off my boots at the elevator that opens into the home, it wasn’t immediately clear that people inhabited the space, let alone a child. The four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath Manhattan residence looked like a showroom. In the living room, a white minimalist couch with no arms confronted two white bouclé chairs. White couch, white lamps, white walls. Even Roe’s wife, Cherry, wore white. Charlotte of the Upper West Side has no dust, she told me—unlike the couple’s previous home, on the sixty-second floor of the Four Seasons Private Residences. Above my head, gentle classical music issued from invisible speakers.

Roe, a ruddy Asian man who wore a pink polo shirt tucked into khaki pants, is the developer of this nine-story brick and terra-cotta building, named after his daughter. His goal, Roe said, was to create the most immaculate and sustainable indoor environment possible. He obtained a Passive House Institute certification, which recognizes when buildings minimize the energy used for heating and cooling with airtight seals and insulation. (Such measures can decrease energy consumption by up to 90 percent.) To reduce residents’ inhalation of volatile organic compounds, Roe employed nontoxic building materials. Indeed, the star of Charlotte is its air. Each unit sports its own Swiss-engineered ventilation system, called Zehnder. On an iPad, Roe showed me the app that gives residents control over what they breathe.

The building’s approach to filtration is undeniably sophisticated. The air in each unit isn’t shared with any other. Outside air is brought in, filtered, treated with an ultraviolet-C light that kills 99.9 percent of pathogens, and completely changed out once per hour. Circulation can be boosted or slowed. Most apartments with similar systems recycle the air every four to five hours a day. “We were thinking, if we’re already going to build a Ferrari, then why would we only give it a 200-horsepower engine?” Roe said. “Let’s put a 1,000-horsepower engine into it.” The quadruple-layer, triple-paned windows feature museum-quality glass and are generally opened only for cleaning. Otherwise, you’d let in air far dirtier than what’s circulating inside.

At night, when Roe’s family is sleeping, it “smells like you’re camping, because the fresh air is getting pumped in at such a rapid rate,” he said. You know the air is good, he told me, because the hydrangeas last. Typically, when cut at the stem and arranged in a vase, the delicate flowers wither and droop in a few days. In his apartment, the blooms will stay perky for nearly two weeks.

@karpad @ubernegro @redstarovermoundcity @socialistexan

[witchrog]

As twilight surrenders to the deep night, the Moon, rising gracefully, begins its celestial dance, obscuring the majestic Regulus, as it reaches its zenith along the meridian. Blessed Full Moon!

Regulus (Alpha Leonis) is a quadruple star system and the brightest object in the constellation of Leo currently found at 00°09’ tropical Virgo, 05°06’ sidereal Leo. Regulus, latin "prince" or "little king," the Greek "Kardia Leontos" translating to the "Heart of the Lion'' stands as a beacon in the Leo constellation. Across civilizations, from Babylonian reverence as "Sharru" and "Lugal" to Persian recognition as "Miyan," the center of their cosmic quartet, Regulus commands attention. Its significance extends to the 10th Lunar Station, the "Brow of the Lion," ancient elections for matters of conquest, construction, childbirth, and healing.

Regulus, rules temperance, royalty, and victory. Its talismans, provide solace from sorrow, quell wrath, and bestow favor upon the wearer, as one of the most fortunate of the 15 Behenian stars. Elections with the Moon here were done for the destruction of enemies and the incarceration of captives, for the completion and fortification of buildings, for the ease of childbirth and the curing of infirmities. Virtue cannot be bought or stolen; it must be earned.

In his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa says of Regulus talismans that they “make a [person] temperate, keep anger away, and give grace.” As the moon waxes towards its full splendor, though not in direct alignment with Regulus, it still traverses its Lunar Mansion, casting an ethereal glow over the night. And amidst this celestial spectacle, keen observers may catch a glimpse of Alphard, adding another layer of cosmic intrigue to the nocturnal canvas.

Photos from the web and dearest @orphicastrology

[neddea]

My fellow Trigun enjoyers, assemble 🙌🏻

If you had to guess, which planet/moon do you think would most likely be Noman’s Land/Gunsmoke?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while (because my latest obsession is astronomy, although it’s also a long running one). In both animes and manga there are two suns, but I’ve been generally looking at exoplanets (planets outside our Solar System) within the habitable zone of their stars, thinking it would be complicated to find a two-star (binary) system that could have any kind of habitability. Yesterday though I found THIS OFFICIAL ART FROM NASA:

(Look at this, it’s so pretty!)

Turns out, NASA has a whole site that is… kind of an AU in which space travel is viable, and they explain how these planets would look like and what events would be cool to see in them and whatnot. They even have some 3D rendering from the surface of those planets so that you can see how it would look like! When I say this website is cool, I’m underselling it:

ANYWAY, back to Trigun shenanigans! When I saw the poster for Kepler-16b, I realized that yes, you could actually live on a planet of a binary system! These are called circumbinary planets, and a funny detail when you read the Wikipedia page:

A quick note on nomenclature: from what I’ve gathered, the name of the star system is followed by a letter or two. If it’s in caps, it’s a star, with A being the primary one and B the secondary; if it’s in lower case, it’s a planet. The planet counter always (?) starts at b, so if there are seven planets in the system called TRAPPIST-1 they would be TRAPPIST-1b, TRAPPIST-1c, TRAPPIST-1d…

Another important note is that there are two types of planetary configuration: If the planet only orbits one star, it’s called S-Type (or non-circumbinary planet); if it orbits both stars, it’s called P-Type (or circumbinary). Hope this didn’t get too confusing!

So I’ve made a list of binary systems that could potentially host human life. Which one do you think would be the best choice?

Kepler-16: the NASA poster one, its planet unofficially called “Tatooine” amongst scientists (good for them). 16b (the planet) is, however, a gas giant like Saturn, so it would be impossible to live there. If it has a moon with an atmosphere though, that could host life! And we’d get to see in the sky two stars and one bigass planet covering a good chunk of it. Pretty neat 🪐

Kepler-35: The planet discovered here is not within the habitable zone, but there is a high chance there might be other rocky planets in it. We can just make it up however we want it to be ✨

Kepler-38: Same as 35, but also the mass of the planet is unknown (I think? Wikipedia says one thing and NASA another, so idk)

Kepler-47: It has 3 planets, which is very cool 🪐🪐🪐 The second one, 47c, is within the habitable zone, but it would be the same case as 16b (living on a moon). The other two planets would also be perfectly visible, I think.

PH1/Kepler-64: First circumbinary planet found in a quadruple (FOUR STARTS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) system, and the discovery was made by citizens! How cool is that!? The planet orbits two of them, but the other system is fairly near and probably influences the planet?. They’re probably perfectly visible from the surface.

ROXs 42: Not much known about the planet, but it orbits the secondary star and has an atmosphere💫 That’s because it’s a gas giant, so it’s not habitable and we’d have to use a moon. Would be cool to see the stars wandering the sky on different paths though, since it’s the only S-Type system in this list!

Kepler-453: I’ve gotten confusing info about the habitability zone on this system, but we know that there’s a gas giant half the size of Jupiter 🤔

Kepler-1647: Same as Kepler-16 and 47. Apparently the system would be capable of sustaining an Earth-sized moon! 🌑

A quick sketch of how each of them would look like:

[star-tourney]

PRE-TOURNEY ROUND

Hello! I've finally finished picking out ten guys from the MASSIVE list of stars(or not stars) with only one submission to their name. THE TOP FOUR from this poll will be able to participate in the tournament.

This was really hard to do, because so many of them were really really good! No worries though, because even if a star did not make it in here, I'll be making appreciation posts sometime..

Here are brief descriptions of each of the stars chosen here, embedded with links to their wikipedia pages. Please choose carefully and lovingly..

Albireo - Double star with two completely oppositely colored components, very pretty! We don't know if it's a binary system or optically doubled (which means they only LOOK close from our perspective).

Gamma Velorum - Quadruple star system that contains a Wolf-Rayet star (doomed massive star rapidly shedding its layers, very stunning), one of the nearest supernova candidates to the sun.

PSR J1748-2446ad - fastest spinning pulsar known, spinning at about 716 times a second (or 43,000 a minute). That's really fast.

CFBDSIR J145829+101343 - the binary system home to the brown dwarf that's no hotter than a freshly brewed cup of coffee... still pretty hot..

Pistol Star - one of the most luminous and massive blue hypergiants stars in the Milky Way. its name is kind of really cool too.

Zeta Reticuli - Wide binary star system that, from the southern hemisphere, you can actually see seperate with the naked eye (granted there's dark skies). Also subject to a lot of sci-Fi usage and alien conspiracy writing. You might know her from Alien the movie.

Black Widow Pulsar - a pulsar that is ripping apart its brown dwarf companion with its powerful winds and particles, which is what gave it its name in the first place.

KIC 98322227 - A contact binary star system, which means these stars are literally touching each other. People thought they were going to merge last year, but we were apparently wrong.

Kepler's Supernova - Massive supernova that happened in 1604 and was observed and recorded by Many. This is the most recent one that was unquestionably seen with the naked eye.

Watch for Rolling Rocks - Mario you know this guy

[talonabraxas]

Tuesday, October 10 Venus is busy today! The bright planet passes 2° south of Regulus at 1 A.M. EDT, a few hours before the Moon passes 6° north of Venus at 6 A.M. EDT. Let’s pick up the scene in the morning sky an hour before sunrise, when the trio is some 30° high in the east. Venus is magnitude –4.6, impossible to miss. To its upper left (north) is Regulus, the 1st-magnitude star marking the heart of Leo the Lion. Sometimes called Cor Leonis, what appears to the eye as a single star is actually a quadruple star system — quite fitting, perhaps, given the four chambers that make up the heart. With a telescope, you can split two of Regulus’ components, which are separated by about 175″. The brighter star is Regulus A, while the fainter one is designated Regulus B. This secondary is itself a close double that cannot be split, while an unseen fourth star also orbits Regulus A. Through that same telescope, take a peek at Venus. The planet appears some 43 percent lit and is now 28″ across. Rounding out the scene, the waning crescent Moon lies to the upper left (north and slightly east) of Regulus. Note how and where our satellite is lit — as if from an unseen light source below the horizon. This is because the Sun lies farther east along the ecliptic, rising after the Moon and appearing to light it from below. The tiny, distant dwarf planet Pluto is stationary against the stars of Sagittarius at 8 P.M. EDT. Sunrise: 7:05 A.M. Sunset: 6:28 P.M. Moonrise: 2:56 A.M. Moonset: 5:02 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (15%) Lion of the Sun 'Regulus, the Heart of Leo' Talon Abraxas

[netmassimo]

An article published in the journal "Astronomy & Astrophysics" reports the discovery of an object that could be a gas giant planet or a brown dwarf in the HIP 81208 system. A team of researchers analyzed data from the archive of the observations conducted with the SPHERE instrument mounted on the VLT in Chile discovering an object that was cataloged as HIP 81208 Cb orbiting the smaller of the two stars in this binary system. A brown dwarf was discovered around the more massive star together with the smaller and more distant star in an analysis also published some time ago in an article in "Astronomy & Astrophysics". The new discovery makes HIP 81208 a so-called hierarchical quadruple system, the first of its kind discovered using a direct imaging system.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Astrophysicists catalog all known planet-hosting, three-star systems A planetary physicist at The University of Texas at Arlington is the lead author of a study that catalogs all known planet-hosting, triple-stellar systems—those having three or more stars with planets. Manfred Cuntz, professor of physics, led the project, titled "An Early Catalog of Planet-hosting Multiple-star Systems of Order Three and Higher." This study provides a thorough bibliographic assessment of planet-hosting, triple-stellar systems. It was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplements Series. Co-authors include UTA alumni G.E. Luke, Matthew Millard and Lindsey Boyle, as well as Shaan D. Patel, a doctoral-bound graduate student. The paper offers a system classification that considers the various types of planetary orbits among other factors. Additionally, the authors examine past controversies and planet retractions based on the criteria for what constitutes a planet-hosting, triple-stellar system. Most planets, such as all in Earth's solar system, orbit a single star. About 100 known planets are members of stellar binaries, the authors wrote in their study. "The number of planets found to be hosted by higher-order systems is relatively small—about 40 for triple and quadruple systems combined, with the exact number depending on whether some controversial or unconfirmed cases are included," Cuntz said. "The number of confirmed planets in triple-stellar systems currently stands at about 30, which is approximately 0.5% of the total number of planets identified. This aspect makes those planets very special." The NASA Kepler Space Telescope, which was operational from 2009-18, aided in the science of discovering planet-hosting, triple-stellar systems, Cuntz said. Scientists expect the number of known systems to increase, particularly with the abilities of the James Webb Space Telescope, which was launched in 2021. The authors note that the overwhelming majority of triple-stellar system planets are Jupiter-type, meaning they are gas giants, and the host stars are relatively massive, compared to typical main-sequence stars. However, some Earth-mass planets have been found as well. Triple-stellar systems can be divided into two subgroups, each of which travels in a relatively large orbit around the system's center of mass. In a triple-stellar system, two of the stars usually form a close binary pair (two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other), and the third orbits that pair from a farther distance. Systems with more than three stars are expected to produce even more complicated orbiting arrangements. "The existence of planets in triple-star systems is extremely challenging theoretically, both regarding their formation and orbital stability," Cuntz said. "These topics are a stark motivation of future UTA research, also involving students."

[quiltofstars]

The “ABCs” of stars: Capella (α Aurigae, top), Aldebaran (α Tauri, middle), and Bellatrix (γ Orionis) // CHERUBINO

[themoleofmarco]

Magic as Security in SVTFOE

But magic isn’t an allegory for capitalism in Star versus the Forces of Evil. Besides the fact that a one-to-one allegory is boring (”I’ve always been looking for the quadruple entrende, what Shakespeare could do,” as Courtney Love says, and Shakespeare scholar and literary beacon, Marilynne Robinson has said as much in interviews), it just doesn’t make sense as a direct allegory. The show’s observations about financial situations were actually pretty direct: Rich pigeon’s character and his kingdom’s quick rise in Mewni society is clearly not hiding the show’s thoughts about capital power (and it’s actually one of the more nuanced takes on capitalism, without ever endorsing it). But Star and her family are part of a feudal system, not a capitalist one. The writers have something else up there sleeves, at once more relevant to their young teen audience and more all-encompassing of a kyriarchical structure than a simple take-down of capitalism. 

Instead, the whole show starts to cohere when you see magic metaphorically standing in for a sense of security. It may seem like I just made my own one-to-one allegory, but the way it’s applied in the series is anything but some pat moralistic offering. In the first season, the influx of magic serves to free Marco, “the safe kid,” from his rampant anxiety. In fact, Star and her magic early on, when read as a metaphor for security, serve to distinguish security from safety. Marco’s desire to be always prepared but never in danger is radically flipped by fiery rainbows, laser puppies, and giant monster squirrels. He has to make peace with chaos and trust (that is feel secure) in his abilities to accept the unpredictable nature of his new reality, find means to respond to the chaos (rather than avoid it), and get through to the other side of his efforts and often pain. Cartoon logic of course helps with his survival but the theme of developing the emotional security to face one’s problems stands pretty sturdy. 

This idea of security evolves with the show to depict the role fear and safety play in constructing gender roles and racial hierarchies--and how the gift of emotional security can allow exploration and disruption of these prejudices. It’s infinitely queering (an aspect that the show explores in many, many ways). I want to point out here how integral security and imagination are to one another. The well of magic is a source of comfort for Star, eventually for Marco, and for many other characters who get to be close to it, in the way it explodes and rejects norms to privilege an individual’s emotional landscapes, which then find unique manifestation in their spells.

How does something so beautiful eventually go wrong, then? One place to look for an answer is the council, who manage imprisonment, travel, and time-space. The first two, have a pretty clear parallel to contemporary institutions--prison systems and immigration--that purport to provide security, and in many ways, do, for the members of their nation. Time-space might be harder to parse out, except that when we consider that Father Time is a distinct entity from time-space. Time-Space is not time itself but the concept and practice of alternative realities and multiple chances, as seen in the “Mathmagic” episode. It’s a similar philosophical belief to many afterlife concepts. All of these systems privilege the Self and provide emotional security, but do so at the cost of others’ liberties. Capital, as it is now, functions along those lines, which is why I think many made the connection between magic and capital; it’s not wrong, but it’s not broad enough--we named it a square but didn’t acknowledge that a square is also a rectangle and a quadrilateral.

When magic is destroyed in the end, the rulers of Mewni gave up security. They give up security in their own safety, the safety of their people, and assurances of happiness and life, itself. Required for this act: trust and emotional security. It’s the paradox at the heart of the show that magic is required to destroy magic. Emotional security is required to let go of emotional security. On the other side is a more dangerous and strange world but where everyone is in peril together, and doing their best to address it together, too.

There are deeply queer feminist , democratic, antiracist, and globalist implications to this conclusion that got drowned out by shippers in the fandom. And many, perhaps invested in a grassroots-led and enacted revolutionary movement, were turned off by the finale and turned on the show overall because of it. (Others have complaints about rushed pacing, which is funny to me in a show whose core humor relied on manically-paced jokes and plot lol) But more narratives of revolution, especially one’s that acknowledge anticolonial struggles, like Andor, are beginning to acknowledge the solidarity across groups and classes historically required to ignite change (and svtfoe, with it’s references to the Mexican revolution among others, which I wanna address in some later essay, certainly fits in this category). The world at the end of the series will never be the same, which is a revolutionary promise without the fantasy of utopia. It’s gonna get a little weird and a little wild, and we can figure it out together.

[aveline-shepard]

I’m seeing a lot of posts about Laika, the dog launched into orbit on Sputnik 2, and frankly find the romanticization of her orbital flight to be crass and ill-informed at best. She was a street dog who had no idea what was happening, went through inhumane preparatory training, is documented to have been extraordinarily stressed during her entire journey, and died a horrific death due to panic and overheating. She and the other animals selected as candidates and/or sent to space were never able to consent to their training or journeys, and while their contributions may have been important, to sanitize these narratives is to do a great disservice to them and to ourselves. Laika and the other dogs who were chosen as potential candidates for orbit were subject to inhumane conditions that terrified them.

An excerpt from the Smithsonian Magazine (emphasis mine):

The Soviet canine recruiters began their quest with a herd of female stray dogs because females were smaller and apparently more docile. Initial tests determined obedience and passivity. Eventually, canine finalists lived in tiny pressurized capsules for days and then weeks at a time. The doctors also checked their reactions to changes in air pressure and to loud noises that would accompany liftoff. Testers fitted candidates with a sanitation device connected to the pelvic area. The dogs did not like the devices, and to avoid using them, some retained bodily waste, even after consuming laxatives. However, some adapted…Three days before the scheduled liftoff, Laika entered her constricted travel space that allowed for only a few inches of movement. Newly cleaned, armed with sensors, and fitted with a sanitation device, she wore a spacesuit with metal restraints built-in. On November 3 at 5:30 a.m., the ship lifted off with G-forces reaching five times normal gravity levels…The noises and pressures of flight terrified Laika: Her heartbeat rocketed to triple the normal rate, and her breath rate quadrupled.

Per the New Yorker:

In 2002, forty-five years after the fact, Russian scientists revealed that she had died, probably in agony, after only a few hours in orbit. In the rush to put another satellite into space, the Soviet engineers had not had time to test Sputnik 2’s cooling system properly; the capsule had overheated. It remained in orbit for five months with Laika inside, then plunged into the atmosphere and burned up over the Caribbean, a space coffin turned shooting star. Turkina quotes one of the scientists assigned to Laika’s program: “The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog.”

Whether or not her death was justified is up for debate; there are certainly very scientifically valid arguments for testing dangerous chemical levels, procedures, products, and experimental technology on non-humans before graduating to human test subjects built on the foundational assumption that it is most important to preserve human life above animal life, and that the ends justify the means. However, my point is not to argue whether or not animal testing is justified in any or all circumstances, it is merely to say: please learn and remember the full, unflinching, factual story. It adds insult to injury to frame her as an excitable explorer who bravely made an enormous sacrifice, rather than a dog selected for her sweet, docile temperament who was functionally tortured and horrifically killed and never knew why.

[ariesinwitchcraft]

What is Astrology and why is it important?

Astrology is a science that examines the action of celestial bodies upon all living beings, non-living beings, and earthly conditions, as well as their reactions to such influences. The study of the stars is in fact one of the oldest sciences known to humankind, tracing its origins back to Sumer and even earlier. The Astrological arts were also well known to the Egyptians, Hindus, Chinese, Persians, and the great civilizations of the ancient Americas. 

Astrology is the progenitor of astronomy, and for many years the two existed as one science. Nowadays, astronomy is considered an “objective” science of distances, masses, speeds, etc., while Astrology is a “subjective” and intuitive science which not only deals with the astronomical delineation of horoscopes, but can also be called a philosophy which helps to explain the spiritual essence of life. 

There are in reality two branches of Astrology. The first is Exoteric Astrology which includes the mathematics of the art involved with charting a horoscope and the predictive arts. The second is Esoteric Astrology which deals with mysteries of the universe itself, the spiritual, moral, intellectual, and physical dynamics of the cosmos. Esoteric Astrology reveals the universal pattern of living and the means by which human beings can align themselves with the spiritual fabric and pattern of the universe. It is a system for understanding celestial energies and a method for viewing the universe as a symmetrical whole.

Of great importance to the art of Astrology is the Zodiac. This is a circle or belt, which anciently was said to extend eight or nine degrees on each side of the ecliptic (the Sun’s apparent path around the Earth, or the orbit of the Earth as viewed from the Sun.) The Zodiacal “wheel” is a flat chart which is divided into twelve houses, each of which is said to be ruled by one of the twelve Signs. 

The twelve Signs of the Zodiac are distributed among the four Triplicities (or sets of three Signs). Each of these triplicities is attributed to one of the four Elements, and they represent the operation of the Elements in the Zodiac. The twelve Signs are also divided into three Quadruplicities (or groups of four Signs). Each of these Quadruplicities is attributed to one of the three qualities of Cardinal, Mutable, and Kerubic (Fixed). 

The Triplicities (grouped by Element)

Fire Signs

Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius

Positive traits: fiery, impassioned, eager, spontaneous, independent, and enthusiastic

Negative traits: they can be too forceful, domineering, and overbearing

Water Signs

Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces

Positive traits: intuitive, receptive, emotional, sensitive, compassionate, and complex

Negative traits: they can be moody, easily influenced, self-pitying, and wavering

Air Signs

Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini

Positive traits: able to communicate well, intellectual, logical, open-minded, idealistic, and objective

Negative traits: they can be cold, insensitive, and impractical

Earth Signs

Capricorn, Taurus, and Virgo

Positive traits: stable, earthy, practical, dependable, conservative, and sensual

Negative traits: they can be dull, slow, possessive, and overly materialistic

The Quadruplicities (grouped by quality)

Cardinal Signs

Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn

These signs are known as Cardinal because they rule the change of seasons: Aries— spring; Cancer— summer; Libra— fall; Capricorn— winter.  

These signs are also attributed to the four cardinal points of the compass: 

Aries— east; Cancer— north; Libra— west; Capricorn— south.

Positive qualities: Cardinal Signs are active, fervent, independent, enthusiastic, ambitious, and initiating. Mentally they are quick and insatiable.

Negative qualities: They can be impetuous, domineering, thoughtless, and without the abilities to follow through with projects they have started.

Kerubic Signs

Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius, and Taurus

These Fixed Signs govern the middle month of each season. Unlike the Cardinal signs which herald the transition between season, the Kerubic signs are solidly established at the heart of each season. 

Positive qualities: These signs are stable, determined, persevering, able to concentrate, accumulative.

Negative qualities: They can be egotistical, obstinate, and too firmly ingrained in their ways and opinions.

Mutable Signs

Sagittarius, Pisces, Gemini, and Virgo

These Signs rule the closing month of each season. Also called Common Signs, they govern the completion of the work of one season while looking ahead to the next season.

Positive qualities: adaptable, versatile, changeable, subtle, intuitive, and understanding. Mentally they are clever and flexible. 

Negative qualities: They can be unreliable, fickle, deceptive, and cunning. 

—From “Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition”, by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero

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Everybody Loves Tyler James Williams

November 2, 2022

Tyler James Williams somehow looks different than he did a few years ago. Now that he’s starring in ABC’s hit series Abbott Elementary as the strict but charming schoolteacher Gregory Eddie, millions of viewers have fallen in love with him. But Williams has been around long enough to know when it’s real.

“That’s the downside of what’s happening currently. People don’t see me. They see Gregory,” the 30-year-old says. Some fans might be firing off thirst tweets, but Williams hasn’t forgotten the comments that were much less kind. “I remember in the early Twitter days, there were whole threads about how ugly and unattractive I was.” (Those unflattering tweets date back to 2012 when he was 20, and social media was roasting him for battle rapping in a Disney movie.) “Now, when I’m so shockingly attractive, people talk about it.” He laughs. It’s cool, though. “In a few years, it’s going to flip back.”

It’s a day of multiple talk show tapings around Manhattan for Williams. He’s just wrapped a photo shoot for this piece, and we’re chatting over carnitas tacos at a nearby restaurant. (“Not usually the best interview food, but let’s wild out,” he says.) He’s wearing an outfit that could have been thrifted from the set of Saturday Night Fever: houndstooth flare-leg pants and a white top unbuttoned to mid-chest — both custom-made. It’s flashier than anything Gregory would wear, but then again, he isn’t Greg.

When Abbott Elementary premiered in December 2021, its mockumentary format appealed instantly to viewers still in withdrawal over defunct workplace comedies like The Office. And similar to Parks and Recreation, Abbottinhabits a unique space as a sitcom with a moral core that’s, in this case, centered around a community of predominantly Black students — proxies of the kids often neglected by the education system in real life. Weeks before Season 2 premiered in September 2022 with quadruple the ratings, creator Quinta Brunsonearned her first Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series — the second Black woman to do so — while co-star Sheryl Lee Ralph won Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as the battle-tested teacher Barbara.

Williams picked up a Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series nomination for his performance as Greg. And though he didn’t take home an Emmy that night, his character’s Halpertian stares at the camera have become the audience’s surrogate, giving an otherwise upbeat show an irreverent edge. Then there’s what talk show host Tamron Hall calls the “swoon factor”: his slow burn will-they-won’t-they relationship with Brunson’s character, Janine. “This show leans into the fact that less is so much more, and he’s adept at doing less,” Ralph says of Williams. “There are so many subtleties to his performance.”

Ever since landing his breakout role as a young Chris Rock on the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris at age 12, Williams has been keenly aware of the connections audiences draw between himself and his characters. After shouldering the legacy of a comedic legend for four seasons, he shuffled through cameos and supporting parts: playing zombie apocalypse survivor Noah in Season 5 of The Walking Dead and gay Ivy Leaguer Lionel in 2014’s Dear White People. He first collaborated with Brunson in 2019 for a Romeo & Juliet spoof on HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show, where the two played star-crossed stans — he was a Barb; she was part of the Bardigang.

Abbott’s giving me room to breathe and feel safe again. I feel much more in control than I have with anything else.

A year later, at the height of the pandemic in early 2020, Brunson DM’d Williams about her pilot for Abbott Elementary. He’d been avoiding a return to network TV for years, but with Abbott, he knew he could trust Brunson to keep the material and his character honest. “Quinta protects Gregory as much as I do, and that’s something you don’t often find in network TV, where it’s a ratings game,” he says. “People will throw a character under the bus for a joke in a heartbeat. Abbott’s giving me room to breathe and feel safe again. I feel much more in control than I have with anything else.”

A sense of control is significant to a former child actor accustomed to being told what to do. Williams booked his first gig as a regular on Sesame Street and appeared on the children’s program from age 4 through 10. His most notable role, Everybody Hates Chris, was on a set dominated by stand-up comics, who, as Williams recalls, “are known to be rather abrasive.” With Abbott, he says, “Quinta wants to build a good working atmosphere that people want to stay in and around for.”

Williams himself lends his decades of experience to his castmates, who see him as a tenured teacher of the game. “He’s been in this industry practically his whole life, and he’s really paid attention to how it works,” says Ralph. “He lets you know about the numbers, what it means, how streaming affects the Big Five, how the industry is changing. I love that he’s got that kind of knowledge.”

Talking to a former child actor is much like asking a war vet about their time in the service — it’s a group few people belong to, and even fewer survive unscathed. But Williams no longer finds it weird to reflect. “The more I talk about it, the better I feel,” he says. “For a long time, I tried to outrun it, and it made things worse.”

Growing up in Yonkers, New York, Williams attended public school until sixth grade before being home-schooled. His father, Leroy Williams, worked as an NYPD sergeant, and his mother, Angela Williams, was a gospel singer and minister who oversaw the careers of Tyler and his younger brothers, Tyrel and Tylen. At 4, Tyler told his mom he wanted to act after watching Will Smith in Men in Black with her on home video. He would ask her to rewatch the movie every day, and they made a routine of analyzing films together.

Soon after, he started auditioning for roles; within six months, he landed his first commercial for the cold and allergy medicine Dimetapp. Unlike his mother, who herself had auditioned for commercials as a child and disliked the experience, Tyler was committed to acting. Raising Tyler and his brothers while navigating the stresses of the entertainment world inspired Angela to write a book guiding other parents through the process. In My Child is Going to Be Rich and Famous: How to Successfully Balance Family, Parenting, and Entertainment, she describes Tyler as a “dry-witted, observant” kid who was wise beyond his years and “selectively social.” Like many child actors, he had trouble finding friends who could relate to him.

Years later, people still ask Williams how he’s so well-adjusted. “We’re not as chaotic as I think most child actors get the [reputation for] being, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we adjusted well,” he says of himself and his brothers. “We had a lot to work through, and a lot of therapists got a lot of money from me.” He laughs. “That was the uphill fight and what feels like the fight of my career and life. Because [acting] is the only thing that I love like this. I lost 6 inches of my intestines to that.”

At 23 and between gigs, Williams’ Crohn’s disease flare-ups hindered his ability to work and kept him hospitalized; his surgeon attributed part of his physical distress to anxiety. Williams was just making the transition into adult roles and had become obsessed with constantly working to evade the fall from grace that struck many of his child-star peers. It only stoked his anxiety that he’d briefly shared a manager with Lindsay Lohan, the industry’s textbook example of a child actor who spiraled upon hitting adulthood. “I had the stories. I knew what to attempt to avoid,” he says. “But it's kind of like telling somebody there's a bunch of land mines outside, and here’s how you avoid them.”

I knew I could fall into this trap of child actors, and I was hyperaware of that. I think I overcompensated. I was really calculated in everything I did.

Finally, he hired a therapist to help confront his fears. “As a child, it’s really weird when your audience tells you that you did such a good job at something that they don’t want you to do anything else,” he says. “I knew I could fall into this trap of child actors and [be] known for one thing and never work again and just be a nostalgia artist, and I was hyperaware of that. I think I overcompensated. I was really calculated in everything I did.”

These days, Williams knows the business better and has used that awareness to reclaim control of his career. “At first, I was coasting on raw talent and seeing what would happen,” he says. “Now, my game is refined. I know what I’m doing.”

TV is full of stories about assholes and anti-heroes, but it’s hard to resist a sitcom that genuinely makes you smile. Williams points out that creator Shonda Rhimes once said her soapy political thriller Scandal could only have thrived during the Obama years. On the opposite end, Abbott is warmth in an age of darkness. Williams asks me if I feel good after watching an episode. Yes.

“I hope so,” he says. “I was looking at a bunch of pilots at the time and was like, these are heady, and mmm, that’s smart. But it had no heart to it. And this inherently did.”

Brunson wrote Gregory with Williams in mind from the start. “He’s someone who really embodies the everyday guy I wanted Gregory to be, and also I knew he had the sense of humor to pull off certain quirks,” Brunson explains. “We both approach comedy in a similar way. For the Janine and Gregory aspect, that makes them a bit more playful than most on-screen potential love interests.”

The surplus of streaming platforms has inched Black television content closer to a percentage that reflects our daily lives. But Hollywood has always struggled to sustain and nurture a consistent number of Black stories. Williams gets backhanded compliments about Abbott all the time. “People come up to me and say, ‘The main cast is Black, but it doesn’t feel like a Black show.’ And I’m like, well, what does that mean exactly?” he says. “Usually, when people say it’s a Black show, it has to be outside of awards contention and made for a niche market. For me, it’s good TV, regardless.”

A lot has and hasn’t changed in the time between Everybody Hates Chris and Abbott Elementary — both of which feature predominantly Black actors. “Shit, you saw with Everybody Hates Chris. We got nominated for the Golden Globe with Season 1, but we were ‘the Black show’ that was nominated. We weren’t [considered] one of the elite shows at the time. We suffered after the fact because of that,” says Williams. “Sheryl’s [Emmy] win [for Abbott] validates that in a way. It’s not this old-school mentality where there’s this stuff, and then there’s your stuff. It’s all good stuff. It just so happens to have a predominantly Black cast.”

To celebrate his 30th birthday in October, Williams attended a Bad Bunny concert in Los Angeles with his brothers and friends who also work in TV and film. Over the years, he’d been so overly cautious of his image that it felt good to let loose. “I spent so much of my 20s digging my way out of that child actor hole,” he says. “I don’t speak fluent Spanish, but I was in there hollering all the lyrics like I’m Puerto Rican. We got a box, and we partied.”

Williams lives with his brother Tylen in LA and is looking for a second place in New York. He’s single and opting for meet-cutes mainly on the exclusive, celebrity-populated dating app Raya. (“We can’t move via DM. Everything is being watched,” he says.) He was FaceTiming with a woman one day when his uncle walked into the room and, after the call, asked Williams if she would have talked to him if they met on the D train.

“I highly value people who look at me, and I’ve been able to tell since I was a child,” says Williams. “So that’s my criteria. Can you actually see me, or is this because it’s trendy?”

Top Image Credits: Tommy Hilfiger X Richard Quinn jacket and pants, Buck Mason T-shirt

Talent Bookings: Special Projects

Photo Director: Alex Pollack

SVP Fashion: Tiffany Reid

SVP Creative: Karen Hibbert

[house-of-secrets]

The Candy Foundation

All Hallows Eve was one of Joy's favorite holidays. She loved being able to dress up and pretend for that night to be anyone but herself. Especially given her recent worries, Joy was more than ready to throw on a costume, dance till her feet hurt and drink till the sun came up. This plan was not recommended given that the students still had classes first thing Wednesday morning, Joy thought this to be a special torture designed by the professors to get back at the students. The impending 'torture' aside, Joy happily donned the last of her eye liner and admired herself in the full length mirror. Damn she looked good!

After the success of last year's All Hallows Eve Ball / Exhibition Opening Party, Mr. Sweet had allowed an all school costume party. Quadruple-checking that her wig was secure, Joy stepped out onto the landing to go join her friends.

* Scent of Lavender * Scent of Lavender *

The Anubis residents had all agreed to gather in the sitting room to take pictures before walking over to the party. Joy was one of the last people done so she got to take in all of the different fun costumes. Mara was rocking her solar system dress and star themed makeup, she wore a silver sash bearing the words "Miss Universe" to tie the outfit together. Lili and Jerome were taking silly pictures in their Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf outfits. Nina and Fabian were dramatically posing on the couch as Vera snapped a photo of their Gomez and Morticia Adams costumes.

"Announcing the one and only Alice in Wonderland!" declared Alfie strutting into the room in a black suit with shades and an earpiece. Behind him followed Amber in a gorgeous blue silk dress, adorable white apron with a pretty bow. The couple made their way over to Mick who was dressed as Prince Thor. Patricia and Eddie, who were dressed as a witch and Captain America, then entered the sitting room and squealed over Joy's outfit. Joy happily showed off her look, exclaiming how happy she was to have so many pockets.

The clearing of a throat and chuckle of "Well it looks like we match" had Joy turning around to see K.T. and then made her mind short circuit. Her friend was absolutely gorgeous. K.T. was rocking a green and black bodysuit with fabulous makeup.

"Haha," laughed Joy, once her brain came back online. "You're right! Kim Possible and Shego, what a perfect pair we make".

"We absolutely have to get some awesome action shots together tonight" declared K.T.

Luckily Vera saved Joy from having to come up with a suitable response by ordering everyone to gather together for a group photo. After five minutes of fake smiles and scuffles Vera came away with an acceptable photo.

Patricia slipped her hand into Joy's, "You ready to Party J-bird?"

"You bet!" cheered Joy as she twirled the sassy witch twice, before following her friends out the door.

* Scent of Lavender * Scent of Lavender *

The All Hallows Eve party was a roaring success. The set up team had done a fabulous job transforming the Physical Education Barn into a fun party space. The design team had chosen to have both large barn doors open allowing the party to spread out to the surrounding areas. Tessa Jones, one of the three student representatives, had been in charge of planning and had made sure to clear off the second landing which encircled the perimeter allowing the space to keep an open air feel. The food and drinks would be located on the balcony, leaving the ground floor for dancing and a couple tables for socializing.

Joy enjoyed her time dancing with her classmates and celebrating one of her favorite holidays of the year. She found that she spent most of her time dancing with K.T. in particular. Ever since Joy had gotten over the fact that the girl was related to Nina, she could see that she was whip smart and had a delightfully wicked sense of humor. Joy had never thought that she would have not one, but two close American friends. Yet, here she was with two of the four people on this earth who she would die for being goofy Americans.

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