Applications in Sympathetic Magic

A is very excited about a trip planned to the East Coast. There will be a wedding, and he's excited to visit various relatives.

He's so excited he'd like to go today.

I tried to explain to him the the trip wasn't until the end of September. I pulled out the portable Stonehenge and pointed to the spot just past the Atumnal Equinox. "See," I said, "When the sun peg is here, then it will be time to go to the Grandma M's."

So. This morning, Portalable Stonehenge was left out on a table after we had moved the day peg forward one hole (to help keep track of which day to move the sun peg) and the moon peg forward two (about 12 degrees in the sky). I left for a moment to get a snack, and when I came back A was moving the pegs all over the circle. "What are you doing?" I asked (note: the question has be edited for the sake of tender readers).

"When the sun peg is here," said A, "we can go to the East Coast."

"Uh, no." I said, moving the moon's descending node peg and the sun peg back to their correct positions. "That's not quite the way it works." I started to remind A that we only move the node pegs three times a year and the sun peg every six or seven days, but he ran off to harass the cat.