JULY 23
On this date, the Sun enters the Sign of Leo. It was also on this date in 1855 that British poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning attended a seance at the residence of London solicitor, John Rymer and his wife. This seance was conducted by the famed medium, Daniel Dunglas Home. As the evening wore on, the Brownings reportedly witnessed a number of mysterious occurrences...including the manifestation of several disembodies hands, one pair of which purportedly placed a wreath of clematis upon the head of Mrs. Browning.

JULY 24
Some time during the Fourteenth Century, a Cilician teenager experienced a vision in which he had become an ascetic. Accordingly, the young man joined a monastery but practiced such severe self-abnegation that he was asked to leave. Undaunted, he embarked upon a life of solitary austerity, eventually dwelling atop high pillars as a means of escaping humanity. Though his lofty residence afforded little in the way of shelter, he rarely descended and is said to have lived to be sixty-nine years of age. He is thought to have died on this day and was later canonized, becoming known as Saint Simeon Stylites...from the Greek word stylos, meaning "pillar."

JULY 25
On this day, the Japanese city of Osaka celebrates the Tenjin Festival, a sacred ritual that dates back to 949 A.D. In order to protect themselves from Summer diseases, Osakans carry pieces of paper in the shape of a human to a city shrine. There, to the chants of Shinto priests, worshippers rub their bodies with the papers. Boats are then taken to the mouth of the Dojima River, where the papers are dropped into the water in the hope that illness and disease will be discarded along with the paper shapes.

JULY 26
On this date in 1875, one of the most influential psychiatrists of the Twentieth Century, Carl Gustav Jung, was born in small Swiss village. A student of Siegmund Freud, Jung is best known for his controversial theory that, buried deep within each person's psyche is a vast, inherited repository of images and impulses which Jung referred to as the "collective unconscious." Jung was fascinated by paranormal topics...including alchemy, mediumship and witchcraft...throughout his entire life. Also on this date, the Hopi of Northeastern Arizona observe a cycle of dances and ceremonies in honor of the kachinas, living supernatural beings who are believed to assist the tribe in its eternal quest for survivial. The kachinas are said to have accompanied the ancestors of the Hopi nation when it first emerged from the Underworld onto the surface of the Earth. Although the eventual fate of the kachinas varies, one legend tells that the kachinas abandoned their people when the Hopi began to take for granted the blessings they received. However, prior to returning to the Underworld, it is believed that the kachinas taught a few of the faithful young men how to perform some of the rituals. If the details of the ceremonies were rigidly observed by men with good and pure hearts, then the spirits would return to Earth to possess the worshippers. The vital blessings of rain and general well-being would then follow.

JULY 27
This date marks the Feast of Saint Pantaleon, a Fourth Century doctor from Venice who foiled six attempts on his life. His executioners...who reportedly sought to kill him simply because he failed to charge his patients for services rendered...tried burning, drowning, submersion in liquid lead, attacks by wild beasts, putting him to the sword, and breaking him on the wheel. None of these attempts proved successful. Only upon inception of the seventh torture...decapitation...did Saint Panteleon's life come to an end.

JULY 28
This date marks the Feast of Saint Christopher. Modern Catholics regard this Saint as the Patron of Travelers, but European worshippers of one thousand years ago probably perceived him in a somewhat different light. In those times, when early Christians were challenging the beliefs of older polytheistic religions, many peasants fused two faiths into one. In the Flemish areas of Belgium, for example, the powers of Thor, Norse God of Thunder, Rain and Farming, were transferred to Saint Christopher. The people prayed to this Saint on July 28, as they had once done to the Thunder God...their prayers being for protection of their crops from storm-wrought destruction.

JULY 29
For generations in the French city of Tarascon, a festival has been celebrated on this date to honor Saint Martha of Bethany. Legend dictates that the city was built upon the spot where this Saint captured a dragon named Tarasque by binding the creature fast with her girdle. To commemorate this feat, a dragon float is carried through the streets of Tarascon while onlookers touch the dragon to gain good luck.

JULY 30
On this date, the Micmac Indians of Nova Scotia paddle their canoes to an island in the middle of a lake which has been considered sacred since the Pre-Christian era. They pitch birch-bark wigwams on the isle and camp by the shore for several days, performing a year's worth of marriages and christenings. However, they also take this time to honor the Catholic Saint Ann who was introduced to them by missionaries over two centuries ago.

JULY 31
In the Ukraine on this date in 1831, the influential mystic and medium, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, was born. Blavatsky credited entities she called "spirit masters" with writing her classic text, "Isis Unveiled."

AUGUST 1
Although still seasonably hot, the month of August traditionally heralds the demise of Summer with shortening days and lengthening nights. The Ancient Celts marked this time with a festival known as Lugnasadh, so named to honor Lug, the God of Light and of the Declining Sun. Lugnasadh also celebrated the early harvest. When the Christian feast of Loaf Mass (or Lammas) took the place of Lugnasadh, similar themes prevailed. Until the early 1100s, for example, early grain was baked into loaves and offered at mass on this day. However, another rite of Lammas owed even more to the Pagan rituals of the Celts. Well into the Mid-1900s, Scottish farmers ceremonially cut handfuls of corn to wheel around their heads in praise of the Harvest God. In yet another ceremony, farmers would toss sickles into the air and it was thought that the position of the fallen sickles would predict which marriages, illnesses and deaths would occur prior to the time of the next Lammas. Lammas was also considered a time to celebrate the harvest of wild foods. In Medieval times, a maiden clothed in white (who may have been representative of a long-past wood spirit) was seated upon a hilltop. Villagers scaled the slope in a procession and laid offerings of blackberries, acorns and crab-apples in the maiden's lap. A dance then followed before the procession made its way home. While Lammas continues to be celebrated in some British country churches, the Lugnasadh Festival has enjoyed something of a revival in recent years. Observed by present-day Wiccans as one of eight annual sabbats, Lugnasadh commemorates the first fruits of the harvest, the closeness of witches to the earth and the Wiccan philosophy of oneness with all life.

AUGUST 2
According to Medieval lore, it was on this day in the Eleventh Century that Lady Godiva of Coventry exasperated her wealthy husband by pleading that he help the town's poor. He told his bashful wife that he would...but only if she rode unclothed through the streets. Lady Godiva took up the challenge and, miraculously, rode unobserved...presumably, it is believed, because the grateful townsfolk chose to remain indoors. Her chastened husband fulfilled his pledge and Lady Godiva acquired a brand of immortality for her act. In sporadic celebrations held for centuries on August 2, Coventry has paraded a young woman...sometimes garbed and sometimes not...through the town on horseback.

AUGUST 3
On this date in rural Japan, people begin the Harvest Season with a ritual known as Aomori Nebuta. The villagers promenade huge effigies, constructed of wire and bamboo and painted with intense facial expressions, through the streets. It is believed that this action will drive away sleep...the purpose being that the farmers need to be wide awake in order to perform the hard labor of harvesting.

AUGUST 4
Up until the Mid-1800s in Scotland, the lame, sick, impotent and mentally ill would flock to Loch-mo-Naire on this date in order to visit thes lake, famed for its healing powers. Gathering on the shore at midnight, the ailing pilgrims would drink the water and then remove their clothing, walking backward into the Loch, where they immersed themselves three times. The visitors would pay Loch-mo-Naire for its services by tossing silver coins into its watery depths.

AUGUST 5
On this date in 1950, baseball manager Nick Mariana of Great Falls, Montana, was inspecting the home field prior to a game, when he was surprised by a flash in the sky. Looking up, Mariana spotted two unidentifiable silver objects which he was able to film with a movie camera stored in his case. Although the processed film clearly showed the silver flashes, experts have yet to determine exactly what it was that Mariana saw on that day.

AUGUST 6
Two well-known sightings of sea serpents occurred on this date in different years. In 1817, a large snakelike monster was reportedly seen off the coast of Massachusetts near Gloucester harbor, where further sightings occurred over the course of the following two-and-a-half weeks. Thirty-one years later on this same date, another serpent was reported to have passed close by the British naval frigate "Daedalus."

AUGUST 7
Annually on this date, the women of Ancient Athens and Ancient Alexandria would mourn the death of the handsome Adonis who died of wounds inflicted by a wild boar...or so the myth relates. During the Festival of Adonia, women would climb ladders up to the roofs of their houses and chant: "Woe, woe Adonis." According to folklore, Adonis (and other hero-gods who suffered a similar doomed fate), represented the yearly growth and death of crops. It was also believed that the tears of the women worked sympathetic magic, likely to bring rain.

AUGUST 8
The "Dog Days of Summer," long hot spells which strike the Middle Latitudes around this time of the year, derive their name from Sirius, the Dog Star, which is visible just prior to Sunrise between July 3 and August 11. In Ancient Egypt, the appearance of Sirius conincided with the rising of the Nile's fertile waters and thus, was cause for celebration. To the Greeks and Romans, however, Sirius marked only the heat and disease of Summer and the "Dog Days" of these cultures were associated with irritability, ill health and even death.

AUGUST 9
Each year around this time, Nepalese villagers commemorate their triumph over Ghanta Karna, a towering demon who, despite its baby-faced image, committed endless acts of slaughter and depravity which filled his mouth with blood. In response to the people's prayers for deliverance, one of the Hindu Gods transformed himself into a taunting frog which teased Ghanta Karna into chasing it down a steep well. Spectators then seized the opportunity to stone the trapped fiend to death and burn his remains. On Ghanta Karna Day, children stationed at crossroads (traditional haunts of evil spirits) collect money from passersby for the creation of huge Ghanta Karna effigies which are later paraded around town before being burned. Meanwhile, a man of the "untouchable class" adopts the persona of the demon and exacts payment of his own. To refuse him alms is to court disease or misfortune. When the costly revelries are over, the people go quickly to their homes, where they remain until dawn lest the ghost of Ghanta Karna returns in search of revenge.

AUGUST 10
On this date in 1901, two British teachers named Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain visited the French Palace of Versailles and apparently, stepped back in time. Among the long-dead figures they encountered were Queen Marie-Antionette and the Comte de Vaudreuil, a courtier who once lured the thoughtless Queen into authorizing the performance of an anti-royalist play.

AUGUST 11
Since at least 830 A.D., sky-watchers around the world have been amazed and delighted by the Perseid meteor shower which appears annually around this time of year. The shower lights up the night sky with as many as sixty flaming meteors every hour. The Perseids takes their name from the constellation of Perseus, which marks the area of the sky where the shooting stars originate.

AUGUST 12
On this date in 1873, a London newspaper reported that Florence Cook, a British medium celebrated for her spirit summonings, had performed one of her most remarkable coups. Wearing a black dress and bound tightly to a chair, Cook purportedly caused her alleged spirit guide, Katie King, to appear in person during a seance. Skeptics noted that the apparition, although garbed in white, looked uncannily like Cook herself. However, the assertions of witnesses that Cook had remained confined to her chair throughout the event were unable to be refuted.

AUGUST 13
Time was finite to the Ancient Maya civilization of Central Mexico, who believed that the Universe itself commenced on this date in 3114 B.C. According to Ancient Mayan calculations, the cosmic progression of days will come to an end on December 23, 2012. On that day, so some astrological commentators believe, human beings will be liberated from their earthly bonds to begin a galactic (and cataclysmic) voyage.

AUGUST 14
Annually, on the second Friday of August in the Scottish coastal town of South Queensferry, the so-called "Burryman" makes his appearance, matted from head to toe with thistle burrs. Wearing an outlandish hat fashioned from seventy roses and a single dahlia, the Burryman walks slowly around the edge of town speaking to no one. Respectful townfolk offer him donations, even though nobody seems to know the Burryman's purpose or even remember how he came into being. While the origin of the South Queensbury Burryman remains obscure, he is not unique. At one time, there were a number of other Burrymen in fishing villages along the Scottish coast. One recent theory proposes that the figure may represent a now-forgotten God of Fertility, perhaps associated with the August fishing harvest. Another theory is that the Burryman evolved from a scapegoat figure meant to carry away communal guilt and that the people threw burrs which stuck on his person in order to relieve themselves of sin.

AUGUST 15
Ramadan, the ninth month of Islam's lunar year, is by far the most holy. A time of repentance that may fall in any Season, Ramadan is observed by Muslims with an extraordinary fast. For the entire month, the faithful consume not one scrap of food nor one drop of water from Sunrise to Sunset, eating or drinking only after dark. With the rising of the next Full Moon, Ramadan comes to an end, a moment officially observed in some Islamic countries with cannon fire and also often celebrated with banquets. So festive is the post-Ramadan mood that Malaysian Muslims recommend this period as a time to patch-up old quarrels.

AUGUST 16
During the Mid-1980s, art historian Jose Arguelles reached the well-publicized conclusion that August 16, 1987 would be a very special day. Arguelles stated that according to the Ancient Mayan and Ancient Aztek calendars, an alignment of celestial objects on that date would bring about a five-year period of peace and spiritual cleansing in preparation for a Twenty-First Century visit by beings from another world. On the appointed day, hopeful New Age enthusiasts gathered at widely scattered "sacred sites" from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia to old ruins in New Mexico, ready and willing to be reborn. Some believed that alien spaceships might appear, or that Jesus Christ would return. However, no sensational events occurred and, in fact, even the Planets were not aligned as some believed they would be. Nonetheless, the experience of traveling to distant locations and gathering with like-thinkers proved satisfying to most of the participants...some of whom proclaimed the "Harmonic Convergence" to be the seminal experience of their lives.

AUGUST 17
The Feast of Diana, which honored the forest aspect of this Ancient Goddess, was celebrated by the Romans on this date. According to one legend, Diana had once cohabitated with Rex Nemorensis, King of the Wood, in order to enable the Earth to bring forth fruit.

AUGUST 18
According to traditional Chinese belief, the spirits of the dead return to Eath during the Late Summer, an occasion referred to as the "Hungry Ghosts Festival." Left unattended and unfed, these long-haired ghosts become angry, stealing food and bringing evil. The Chinese celebrate the Festival around this time of year and avert such phantasmal antics by offering food, clothing, incense, models of house and cars, and special currency known as "hell bank notes." Each offering is burned since flames are thought to carry material objects into the Realm of the Spirits.

AUGUST 19
On this date in 1963, a sixteen-year-old boy in New York State was listening to the radio while milking the cows in his parents' barn. According to his story, static suddenly garbled the reception and the motor of the milking machine abruptly ceased working. As a bull tied up in the barnyard let out an awful bellow, the boy rushed to the window and spied a fifty-foot-long football-shaped object settling to the ground approximately one quarter mile away. The boy stated that the object emitted a "beeping" sound and released a peculiar red vapor. Seconds later, it shot up into the clouds, where four other people claimed to have seen the strange football-shaped vessel.

AUGUST 20
Stored within a cover, an optical disk filled with the songs of whales, speeches by world leaders and other other sounds accompanied each of the crewless Voyager space probes. The first of these was launched from Cape Canaveral on this date in 1977. Although scientists believe that the chance of aliens stumbling upon either probe is probably remote, mission planners did not want to miss any opportunity of potential contact with extraterrestrials.

AUGUST 21
On this date, Ancient Romans would make solemn sacrifices to the hero Hercules, Patron God of Businessmen. Throughout the whole year, merchants would set aside one-tenth of their profits for the benefit of this deity. When the very wealthy participated, such incredible banquets were held in honor of this Roman hero that mountains of leftover delicacies had to be heaved into the River Tiber.

AUGUST 22
On this date in 1923, residents of Paris awoke to find placards promoting a secret "Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross" posted all over the city. In the posters, members of the mysterious Brotherhood...who quickly became known as the Rosicrucians...offered to "bring our fellow men out of the error of death." Condemned by officials of the Church as satanic, the movement vanished from public view as swiftly as it had appeared. Despite rumors of continuing Rosicrucian activity in France, England, Germany and the Netherlands, details remain either disputed or altogether missing. Also on this date, the Sun begins to take its leave from the Sign of Leo and continues its journey by entering the Sign of Virgo.