February
FEBRUARY 2024
Motto:
Be humble, if thou would’st attain to Wisdom.
Be humbler still, when Wisdom thou hast mastered.
Be like the Ocean which receives all streams and rivers.
The Ocean’ mighty calm remains unmoved;
it feels them not.
- H. P. Blavatsky, The Book of the Golden Precepts.
Phenomena:
FEBRUARY
2 Moon’s last quarter
5 Mercury conjunction Pluto
7 Venus trine Uranus
8 Sun square Uranus
10 Mercury square Jupiter, Chinese year of the Dragon
14 Mars conjunction Pluto
16 Moon’s first quarter
17 Mercury square Uranus, Venus conjunction Pluto
19 Sun enters Pisces
22 Venus conjunction Mars
24 Full Moon
25 Venus square Jupiter
27 Mars square Jupiter
28 Sun conjunction Mercury and Saturn, Mercury conjunction Saturn
Many Years Ago
FEBRUARY
February 1
- Fritjof Capra: Fritjof Capra, born February 1, 1939, is an Austrian physicist and philosopher. Born in Vienna, Austria, Capra earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Vienna in 1966. He has done research on particle physics and systems theory, and has written popular books on the implications of science, notably The Tao of Physics. He is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California.
- Johannes Trithemius, Born Johann Heidenberg Johannes Trithemius (1 February 1462 – 13 December 1516), was a German cryptographer, polymath and occultist. He studied at the University of Heidelberg. Trithemius' most famous work, Steganographia in three volumes, appears to be about magic — specifically, about using spirits to communicate over long distances. Among his pupils were Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535) and Paracelsus (1493–1541).
February 3
- Felix Mendelssohn: One of the most celebrated figures of the early Romantic period, German composer Felix Mendelssohn, born this day in 1809. Mendelssohn's work includes symphonies and chamber music. His most-performed works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Italian Symphony.
February 5
- Andreas Papandreou: Andreas Papandreou, born this day in 1919, was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. Papandreou was born on the island of Chios, Greece, the son of Zofia (Sofia) Mineyko and the leading Greek liberal politician George Papandreou. In 1943, Papandreou received a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. Papandreou returned to Greece in 1959 and he served two terms as Prime Minister of Greece (1981-1989 and 1993-1996).
February 7
- Frederic Myers: Born this day in 1843, Frederic William Henry Myers was a poet, philologist, and a founder of the Society for Psychical Research. Myers was educated at Cheltenham College and at Trinity College Cambridge where he received a B.A. in 1865. Myers was interested in psychical research and was one of the founder members of the Society for Psychical Research in 1883.
February 8
- Mendeleev: Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, born this day in 1834, was a Russian chemist and inventor. Mendeleev spent most of his career in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) as a popular and influential lecturer at the university. He created a table of the known elements (63 at the time) in ascending order by atomic weight, grouped together by similarities in properties.
- Proclus: Proclus Lycaeus, called the Successor was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers. Proclus was born February 8, 412 AD in Constantinople to a family of high social status in Lycia. He studied philosophy and mathematics in Alexandria and began determinedly studying the works of Aristotle under Olympiodorus. Eventually, dissatisfied with the level of philosophical instruction available in Alexandria, went to Athens in 431 to study at the Neoplatonic successor of the famous Academy; there he was taught by Plutarch of Athens and Syrianus; succeeded Syrianus as head of the Academy.
February 11
- Thomas Edison: Thomas Alva Edison, born this day in 1847, was an American inventor who, singly or jointly, held a world record of 1,093 patents and who played a critical role in introducing the modern age of electricity. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.
- Capodistrias: Count Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias, born in Corfu this day in 1776, was a Greek Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire and one of the most distinguished politicians and diplomats of Europe. After a long career in European politics and diplomacy he was elected as the first head of state of independent Greece (1827-1833) and he is considered the founder of the modern Greek State, and the founder of Greek independence.
February 12
- Abraham Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky. He was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln successfully led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military and moral crisis preserving the Union while ending slavery and promoting economic and financial modernization.
February 13
- Elaine Pagels: Elaine Pagels, born Palo Alto, California, February 13, 1943, is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she is best known for her studies and writing on the Gnostic Gospels. Her popular books include The Gnostic Gospels, and Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. Pagels is the main notable modern advocate for a connection between Buddhism and the third and fourth Century Christian sects which were called "Gnostics".
February 15
- Galileo: Born this day in 1564 Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter and the observation and analysis of sunspots.
February 18
- Ramakrishna: Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born this day in 1836 was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda. To Ramakrishna all religions are revelations of God in His diverse aspects to satisfy the manifold demands of the human mind.
- Kazantzakis: Born this day in 1883, Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer and philosopher, known globally after the 1964 release of the Michael Cacoyannis film Zorba the Greek, based on his novel. From 1902 Kazantzakis studied law at the University of Athens, then went to Paris in 1907 to study philosophy. Kazantzakis, much more of a philosopher than a writer, was deeply influenced by the writings of Nietzsche and Bergson, and the philosophies of Christianity and Buddhism. In his work, he attempted to synthesize these different world views. In 1927 he published the book Askitiki, the main work of his philosophy. He became famous, however, during the last years of his life, when he turn to pezography. During that time he published, among others, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Greek Passion (Christ is Recrucified), and his autobiography Report to Greco.
February 19
- Copernicus: Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, born this day in 1473, reintroduced the heliocentric system, proposing that the Earth, like the other planets, revolves around the Sun and that it turns once daily on its axis. Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, jurist with a doctorate in law, physician, classics scholar, translator, artist, diplomat and economist.
February 20
- George Washington: Called the Father of His Country, George Washington, general and commander in chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution and first president of the United States (1789), was born this day in 1732.
February 23
- Handel: English composer George Frideric Handel, a leading figure of late Baroque music, was born in 1685 in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg. He received critical musical training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in London and becoming a naturalised British subject in 1727. Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, with works such as Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks and Messiah remaining popular.
February 24
- Pico della Mirandola: Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, born this day in 1463, was an Italian Renaissance philosopher Hermetist and Cabbalist. He is famed for the events of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 Theses on religion, philosophy and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance". It was always Pico’s aim to reconcile the schools of Plato and Aristotle, since he believed they both used different words to express the same concepts. Similarly, Pico believed an educated person should also study the Hebrew and Talmudic sources, and the Hermetics, because he believed they represented the same view seen in the Old Testament.
February 25
- Steiner: Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, born this day in 1861, was an Austrian philosopher, architect, and esotericist. Steiner gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher. At the beginning of the 20th century, he founded a spiritual movement, Anthroposophy, as an esoteric philosophy growing out of idealist philosophy and with links to theosophy. In the first, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and mysticism; in a second phase he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, the movement arts and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural center to house all the arts.
- Meher Baba, born this day in 1894, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master. At the age of 19, a brief contact with the Muslim holy woman Hazrat Babajan began his seven-year process of spiritual transformation. Over the next months, he contacted four additional spiritual figures whom, along with Babajan, he called "the five Perfect Masters." From 10 July 1925 to the end of his life, Meher Baba maintained silence, communicating by means of an alphabet board or by unique hand gestures. In 1931, Meher Baba made the first of many visits to the West, where he attracted many followers.
February 26
- Victor Hugo: Victor Hugo a poet, novelist, and dramatist who was the most important of the French Romantic writers, was born this day in 1802. He is considered one of the most well-known French Romantic writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Miserables, 1862, and Notre-Dame de Paris.
February 27
- Assagioli: Roberto Assagioli, born this day in 1888 was an Italian psychiatrist and pioneer in the fields of humanistic and tranpersonal psychology. Assagioli founded the psychological movement known as Psychosynthesis, which is still being developed today by therapists and psychologists, who practice his technique. His work emphasized the possibility of progressive integration of the personality around its own essential Self through the use of the will.
February 28
- Chögyam Trungpa: Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, born this day in 1939, was a Buddhist meditation master and holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, the eleventh Trungpa tulku, supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries, teacher and originator of a radical re-presentation of Shambhala vision. Recognized both by Tibetan Buddhists and by other spiritual practitioners and scholars as a preeminent teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, he was a major, albeit controversial, figure in the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism to the West, founding Vajradhatu and Naropa University and establishing the Shambhala Training method.
- Linus Pauling: American chemist Linus Pauling, who received two Nobel Prizes, one for Chemistry in 1954 and another for Peace in 1962 for efforts to control the spread of nuclear weaponry, was born this day in 1901. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century. Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology.
FEBRUARY
1 Two things are impossible in this world of Maya: to enjoy more than Karma hath allotted; to die before one's hour hath struck.
2 A student without inclination for work is like a squirrel on its wheel; he makes no progress.
3 A traveller without observation is a bird without wings.
4 A learned man without pupils, is a tree which bears no fruit; a devotee without good works, is a dwelling without a door.
5 When Fate overtakes us, the eye of Wisdom becomes blind.
6 Keep thine eyes open, or Fate will open them for thee.
7 He who kisses the hand he cannot cut off, will have his head cut off by the hand he now kisses in the next rebirth.
8 He who keeps to his business, he who loves his companions, he who does his duty, will never be poor.
9 A thousand regrets will not pay thy debts.
10 Fallen flowers do not return to their stems, nor departed friends to their houses.
11 To feel one's ignorance is to be wise; to feel sure of one's wisdom is to be a fool.
12 One proof is better than ten arguments.
13 Rain in the morn brings the sun after noon. He who weeps today, may laugh tomorrow.
14 The soothsayer for evil never knows his own fate.
15 Like oil, truth often floats on the surface of the lie. Like clear water, truth often underlies the seeming falsehood.
16 Often vinegar got for nothing, is sweeter to the poor man than honey bought.
17 Every tree hath its shadow, every sorrow its joy.
18 The fields are damaged by weeds, mankind by passion. Blessed are the patient, and the passionless.
19 The virtuous man who is happy in this life, is sure to be still happier in his next.
20 What ought to be done is neglected, what ought not to be done is done. The sins of the unruly are ever increasing.
21 Without Karma, no fisherman could catch a fish; outside of Karma, no fish would die on dry land, or in boiling water.
22 Let every man first become himself that which he teaches others to be.
23 He who hath subdued himself, may hope to subdue others. One's own self is the most difficult to master.
24 Hatred is never quenched by hatred; hatred ceases by showing love; this is an old rule.
25 The path of virtue lies in the renunciation of the seven great sins.
26 The best possession of the man of clay is health; the highest virtue of the man of spirit is truthfulness.
27 Man walks on, and Karma follows him along with his shadow.
28 Daily practical wisdom consists of four things: — To know the root of Truth, the branches of Truth, the limit of Truth, and the opposite of Truth.
