Author: Simone Butler

Welcome to the dog days of summer! Although canines do need to stay extra cool and hydrated at this languid time of year, the phrase actually refers to the rising of Sirius, the “Dog Star.”…

The first time California-based Jeannine Schrantz set foot on African soil, she knew she had come home.…

Since Downton Abbey recently arrived on Netflix, I’ve been lost in early 20^th Century England. Yes, I’m a bit late to the party – the saga of a highbrow household and its hardworking servants originally debuted in 2011 – but the sumptuous, superbly-written series  does serve as an apt reflection of the Sun’s shift into nostalgic Cancer at the June 20 Solstice.…

What’s up with the sudden resurgence of interest in UFOs? Yes, of course it’s connected to the recent release of a long-awaited government assessment of the mysterious flying objects.…

The 1896 Quadricycle was Henry Ford’s first attempt to build a gasoline-powered automobile. He patched together an iron frame, a leather belt, a chain drive, a buggy seat and a primitive ignition system.…

If you won the lottery, what would you do? Most would go on a spending spree, and soon the money would be gone. (Studies have found that bankruptcy rates soar for lottery winners three to five years after their win.)…

When my mother died in the spring of 2005, I was inconsolable. My pain was an ocean too deep to be fathomed. Not only was I grieving the person I loved most in the world, but I was overwhelmed by my father’s pain and the hurtful ways he was expressing it.…

Before Michael Beckwith became a minister and founded the Agape International Spiritual Center, he was a young man with a lot of potential who’d lost his way.…

A key feng shui maxim is: Whatever is in closest proximity to you has the most impact on you. In other words, what’s happening within your living or work space is a reflection of where you’re at in your life.…

In the thought-provoking new film Nomadland, someone refers to people like Fern, the character played by Frances McDormand, as homeless. “Not homeless,” she counters, “just houseless.…

Recently I decided to clean all my light fixtures. In some cases, this had not been done in ten years. It’s amazing how much filth can accumulate in that length of time – and it definitely hadn’t been doing my feng shui any favors!…

In early Feb. 1962, Hindu astrologers braced for a three-day period during which the earth would be “bathed in the blood of thousands of kings.” At the same time in Britain, others were also awaiting disaster, believing the earth’s poles would flip and 75 percent of the world’s population would die.…

I’ve been loving all the hilarious Bernie memes flooding Facebook since the Inauguration. A bundled-up Bernie on the Dating Game, perched on the rings of Saturn, hanging with Crosby, Stills & Nash.…

Is it possible to transcend difficult transits? In his article in the April/May 2019 issue of The Mountain Astrologer, “A Mystic Looks at Astrology,” Ray Grasse posed that question to occultist Shelly Trimmer.…

At the holiday season, we all crave the comfort of family around us – as difficult as that may be this year while the pandemic rages on.…