We hold these truths to be self-evident,
— from the Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America
Sun enters Aries at about 1:15 am EDT on Tuesday. That is the Vernal Equinox. It is a big deal precisely because it happens every year, not in spite of the fact. There are other self-evident facts that not only coincide with but are also defined by an equinox event. All of those truths direct us to the concept of equality renewed, restored and re-affirmed. That’s the nature of life on Earth, for you and equally so for everybody else. It’s not staid repetition, it’s dynamic evolution, advancing the truth one step at a time to a greater level of awareness. It is also understandable one step at a time.
The truth started about 4.5 billion years ago when something knocked a chunk off our planet, tilting the axis of Earth’s rotation. The chunk became the Moon which functioned to stabilize that inclined rotation. Light and gravity combined with that inclination to create an engine circulating the winds and waters equally over the planet, making life possible.
After life gained a foothold, the circulation propelled by Sun, Moon and Earth connected all living things. Somewhere in your body is a molecule of water once hosted by a dinosaur. Sometime today you will inhale molecules of gas that have been shared by billions in your lifetime. While the existence and motion of molecules is not self evident, the Sun’s apparent motion is plain to see. An equinox is central to the solar cycles that are equally available to everyone.
The Sun’s apparent motion across the sky during the course of a day is the result of our planet’s rotation. The length of a day is a combined product of the tilted axis and the position in our orbit around the star at the center of our solar system. The more your part of Earth is tilted towards the light, the longer your day is. Being tilted away means fewer daylight hours. Twice a year, Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted neither away from nor towards the Sun and all of our planet’s surface is equally exposed for an equal amount of time. Not surprisingly, the Sun is directly over the equator at that time and that is self evident by where it rises and sets.
No matter where you are on Earth, Sun rises due east and sets due west on the days just before, during and after an equinox. In the days that follow the Vernal Equinox, the place of rising and setting will move slowly north as the northern hemisphere leans into the light. On the other side of the year, after the Libra Equinox, we all see the Sun move slowly South on the horizon, gradually lengthening day in the southern hemisphere. This cyclical pattern back and forth across the horizon creates the seasons and its regular return to equality is not, as Rick Santorum is fond of saying, a “false theology,” it’s a self evident fact that you can verify with your own eyes if you bother to look for yourself. If you bother to think for yourself about what you are looking at when you witness the Sun, the rest of the truth will also be apparent. For humanity in general, that realization came in steps precisely because we are not encouraged to think for ourselves. It is ironic that one of the biggest steps was a document produced by a bunch of rich white guys, sons (and fathers) of the oppressors.
When Thomas Jefferson and his cohorts authored the Declaration of Independence, they drew on thousands of years of historical steps. Many of them, being slave owners, had only the self interest of their clique in mind, but the truth once released is not confined as long as people look at what is self evident and think for themselves. Yet, time and time again it has been necessary to return, like an equinox, to the point of realization to keep the steps from going backward. With this coming Vernal Equinox, the stakes are higher than ever. It is not just the founding principles of a nation that are at stake, it is the survival of our planet and all of us equally as part of it.
Please make time to watch the Sun rise and/or go down on Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday next week. When you do so, please bring yourself present to all that it means, to all that it has ever meant and how many steps it took for you to be aware of that. Add to that awareness the certainty that we are at a point in the course of earthly events when it will soon be determined whether any planet which has so evolved can long endure. It is no coincidence that those who oppress you and your consciousness are the same who perpetuate war, slavery, ignorance and want. They are the same merchants of misery who poison the air, water and food while destabilizing the cycles that connect and nourish us all. They are tragic in that they deny their own equality; they are the most pitiful slaves of all. If you know such a powerful and unwitting slave, invite that person to watch the Vernal Equinox Sun on the horizon with you and offer that equal a handshake, or a hug, or a kiss. You might be the step they need to take to join the human race for real and ensure our mutual survival.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
What they said. It’s spiraling, not going back to beginning each time. at least i hope it is! Now I’m wondering how to use the equinox new moon magic with merc and mars retro. Wait, or cook up something different? anyone have ideas?
a start anew- once more.
do the first thing- then the second. *wink
“apparent” motion. always the word that stops me where i am. and makes me look around, even to the places i cannot see.
i haven’t said this in a while: always utterly beautiful and insightful and inspiring reading. my thanks to you.
Thank you Len for sharing your sight and wisdom as poetry.
Thank you Be for augmenting my reading, as always.
Jann, forsythia! Ahhhh……that and the lilacs how I do miss them. Breath them in for me.
ruby lonestar: That’s quite a poem. Please accept my thanks for where it took me.
xtica, Abena, amelie, Burning River, stormilarue: Thank you all for your kind and generous words.
be: Thank you once again for building, extending, broadening and deepening as only you can do, giving all of us a veritable orchestra to accompany my little tune. You are so very generous with your teachings.
Jann: May you have pleasant weather for your sprigging day and may its found treasures bless and delight you and your friends beyond any expectation. It is an honor to know that my words will be of service. Thank you.
Thank you, Len, for the thought provoking post, words that give way to a pause and observe the moment and the movement.
I sent an email this morning to my Crones group (an informal group of women, generally post-menopause, but including a couple of younger “crones in training”). For the last two Autumnal Equinoxes, we have gathered in a park on the banks of the Huron River in early evening to have a “Twigging Day”. Taken from idea of cj wright, we wander the land, picking up leaves, twigs, acorns, branches, feathers and other earthy flotsam and jetsam, to place on our personal altars during the winter months. We then gather again, and show each other our finds, and sometimes trade things. We chat about the astrology of the day or season, along with other esoteric and metaphysical topics.
For spring, the Crones have been invited to gather to have a “Sprigging Day”. The intention is to gather next week, on Tuesday (Equinox) or Wednesday (Sun-Mercury conj) or Thursday (Aries New Moon). We will again pick up earthy flotsam and jetsam for our summer altars, and perhaps even a find a sprig or branch of forsythia to force as our mothers did. Prior to that I will share your post with them so we might spread the notion of equality.
My gratitude for your eloquent and insightful writings.
JannKinz
thank you Len. as someone who teaches about socialization and systems of oppression (to oppressors and the oppressed), i am blissfully thankful that next week is spring break so that i may truly take the time to inJoy this sacred holy*day. ♥☮♫
I have been deeply touched by your call at the end, Len. I am now in the throes of disentanglement from virulent oppression. How can we sit together under the same sunrise? How can we kiss in peace? I hear your call, however, Len. My heart is touched.
How I wish it could have been so.
This was lovely Len, thank you once again. It reminds me a little of the way Daniel J Boorstin writes. In “The Discoverers”, he takes us back to the days before the civilizations of Greece and ancient others to show how we got where we are now, and how they measured time by the Moon and stars before calendars were even thought about. We often hear that we should live in the present and not look back. I agree for the most part, but without history how could we understand the meaning of most of the things we do?
As to your words “. .the certainty that we are at a point in the course of earthly events when it will soon be determined whether any planet which has so evolved can long endure”; this equinox has Mars (7 Virgo 38 rx) square the Moon’s nodes (7 Sagittarius-Gemini 41) in the south bending. This is an open invitation, if not a commandment, to release aggression, especially in the name of Service. It seems a perfect time with Mars trine Pluto to do so. There is a quintile aspect between Saturn and Pluto that takes the energy of their relationship to another dimension, and which can provide the skills to organize and implement ideas, especially in mathematics, engineering and science.
There are 4 new cycles starting in this event; Sun-Mercury, Sun-Uranus, Mercury-Uranus, Venus-Jupiter. Even the Moon is conjunct Neptune, allowing us to dream dreams that might otherwise seem impossible to come true, and yet, now, in this special time, it could happen. Mercury is the lower octave of Uranus and what brilliant, innovative never-thought-before ideas must be passing from the higher realms to the one we are in now. Oh, and I should note that Hermes (the Greek Mercury) at 2 Aries 54 is conjunct Mercury at 2 Aries 57 retrograde in the Equinox chart, emphasizing the strength of the message. This degree has a Sabian symbol of a cameo of a man’s profile, suggesting the shape of his country. Dane Rudhyar says about this symbol “To the modern individual assailed by surface evidence of meaninglessness and futility it gives a feeling of participation in the vast tide of evolution.”
So maybe this is now or never for our planet and our species and there is no way to go but forward. Thanks so much for making this a positive direction Len.
be
As always, magical 🙂 Look forward to reading your posts every week – something wonderful to discover every time-inspirational-thank you so much Len 🙂
Len, this is a wonderful essay. I especially appreciate the last paragraph. Thank you!
lovely, absolutely lovely. your posts are poetic and inspiring. a good day to you sir!
poetry in motion, truth
honor, exquisite liberation
gratitude