image: Wikimedia commons (link).
The earth-sun relationship is about to reach the point we call the September equinox, which is the fall equinox for the northern hemisphere (and the spring equinox for the southern). This year, the September equinox occurs at 12:21 pm Pacific or 3:21 pm Eastern time in North America, which is 7:21 pm UTC or 1921, on 22 September.
As we go through the cycle of the year, the relationship of hours of daylight to hours of darkness changes, as a function of the tilt of our planet's axis of rotation relative to the earth-sun plane: when the North Pole is pointed more towards the sun, then the northern hemisphere will have more of its daily rotation in view of the sun, and thus the percentage of the day's rotation during which the sun is above the horizon will be greater than the percentage of the rotation during which the sun is below the horizon, and thus days will be longer than nights.
When the North Pole is pointed away from the sun, then the situation will be reversed, and hours of darkness will be greater than hours of daylight during each of our daily rotations on our axis.
The two equinoxes represent the two "crossing points" at which we cross from the half of the year in which days are longer to the half of the year in which nights are longer, or vice versa (from the half with nights longer back to the half with days longer).
Sticklers for detail will point out that days are still just a bit longer than nights on the actual equinox days, because of some technicalities related to the size of the sun-disc itself and other factors related to atmospheric bending of light around the curvature of the earth, which we need not go into in this particular post -- the actual moment of equinox in either direction (from "days-longer" to "nights-longer," or from "nights-longer" back to "days-longer") is actually determined by the moment that the sun crosses over the celestial equator twice each year, once on its way north (towards the days-longer half for the northern hemisphere) and once more on its way south (towards the nights-longer half for the northern hemisphere).
These two crossing-point days, as well as the two turning-point days at which the sun reaches its highest arc (the summer solstice, at which point we have the longest day of the year) and its lowest arc (the winter solstice, at which point we have the shortest day of the year), form the primary "framework" of the annual cycle: four important milestones which are encoded in ancient myth worldwide, indicated by ancient stone monuments worldwide, and imbued with esoteric significance by which they take on meaning which relates to our struggle in this life, symbolizing aspects of our own plunge into incarnation and the subsequent loss of connection with our own Self -- and the process of recovering that connection.
Alvin Boyd Kuhn describes his interpretation of the esoteric significance of these four great stations of the annual cycle (the two solstices and the two equinoxes), in a passage I have cited in numerous previous blog posts, such as this one.
In addition to the significance that Kuhn argues in that passage, relating to the plunge of the divine spark of spirit into the confusing tangle of material incarnation, I would argue that the ancient myths can be shown to also use this same cycle for illustrating the related "burial" of and alienation from Self -- and for showing us the path towards recovery of Self and repair of that state of alienation.
Below is a diagram I've made (and shown on several podcasts) which uses a diagram of the annual cycle in the form of a zodiac wheel (this zodiac diagram was published in 1618 in a book by Johann Daniel Mylius), to which I have added the names of the zodiac signs, a horizontal line connecting the two points of equinox (one on the "way down" to winter solstice, and one on the "way back up" to summer solstice), and a vertical line connecting the two solstices (winter at the bottom and summer at the top), along with labels for the half of the year in which days are longer than nights for the northern hemisphere (the top half of the cycle) and for the half in which days are shorter (the bottom half):
The point of September equinox, which is the fall equinox for the northern hemisphere, was imbued with significance in the ancient system that relates to our plunge into the relative "darkness" of incarnation (as explained by Alvin Boyd Kuhn in the quotation linked above) but also -- according to my analysis and my contention -- with significance that relates to our plunge into alienation from Self, and our need to recover Self.
The ancient myths given to all the different cultures of the world thus serve as a map for our journey of recovery and healing -- but this knowledge has for the most part been deliberately obscured and even deliberately suppressed, by those who prefer to increase our alienation from who we are rather than to help us to recover that relationship with Self.
The world's ancient wisdom, preserved in the myths, has been deliberately and systematically attacked and destroyed (witness for example the burning of the priceless and irreplaceable Maya codexes by the invading Europeans upon coming to the Americas during the fifteenth and sixteenth and subsequent centuries).
Ancient sites around the world were often aligned to the great stations of the year, including the solstices and equinoxes and also the "cross-quarter days" which fall in between those four major stations of the solstices and equinoxes.
Above is an image of the famous Intihuatana at Macchu Picchu in the continent of South America -- a stone whose name means "the hitching-post of the sun" or the "tying-up place of the sun" or "sun-tying-up-place."
It is carved out of the bedrock itself, and situated such that the sun passes directly over it on the dates of equinox, such that it casts no shadow at mid-day on those two days (as the sun reaches its highest point on its daily journey).
There were other such Intihuatana stones in the Americas, but the invading Spanish priests of literalist Christianity systematically destroyed every Intihuatana they could find. The only reason that the sun's hitching-post at Macchu Picchu survived is that Macchu Picchu is so high up and so remote that the sacred site itself was not found by the invaders.
In addition to all these undeniable historical examples of the suppression and destruction of received cultural tradition related to the myths and to the ancient wisdom which used the heavenly cycles as a framework for conveying esoteric knowledge, we can also point to paradigms which are deliberately taught as though absolutely settled and beyond question, but which themselves appear in some cases to be dubious and thus to be very much worth questioning and examining.
For example, there are extremely ancient sites around the world which contain undeniable alignments to the sun's position on solstices or equinoxes -- sites which retain these alignments even today, many thousands of years later -- and yet we are told that the tectonic plates which carry our continents are "drifting" by about 2.5 cm (or one inch) per year in different directions relative to one another. If this is so, then how is it that sites such as Stonehenge (built between 3,500 and 5,000 years ago), and Mnajdra (thought to have been built over 5,100 years ago), and Newgrange (thought to have been constructed around 5,200 years ago) -- all of which contain precise alignments to sunrises and sunsets on the equinoxes and solstices -- have been able to retain those alignments over a period in which they should have drifted by more than 5,100 inches (over 425 feet) on the moving continental plates?
Below is a model of the distinctive ancient structures at Mnajdra on Malta, with red lines drawn upon the model itself to indicate the alignments of the site to the beams of the sun on the days of the solstices and the two equinoxes: these alignments remain to this day, and yet the structures themselves are extremely ancient, probably more than 5,100 years old!
image: Wikimedia commons (link).
Is it possible that the continents drifted, but that they did so in the distant past -- perhaps due to an enormous cataclysm of some sort -- and that they are not drifting by anything near one inch per year (or even one-half an inch per year, which would still mean Mnajdra would have drifted by well over 200 feet (without losing its precise alignments!)?
What would be the point of obscuring the evidence for some enormous catastrophe in our ancient past?
Another curious fact worthy of considering on the equinoxes (and solstices as well, for that matter) is the conventional explanation for the solstices and equinoxes themselves. In the modified version of the Copernican model which we are all taught (and which is also conventionally held to be "beyond question"), it is posited that our earth is orbiting around the sun in such a manner that the North Pole remains oriented in the same direction during the entire cycle of the year (as does the South Pole), during which time the earth is hurtling in a near-circle around our solar star.
This assertion is in itself somewhat curious: what principles of physics can be invoked to explain why a planet orbiting at a high rate of speed would hurtle around its orbit in such a way that its northern pole stays pointed in the same direction the entire time?
Below is a typical diagram depicting the conventional model, in which earth's axial pole remains fixed even as the planet itself makes its complete orbit:
image: Wikimedia commons (link).
Look at the diagram and imagine our earth -- a planet of not inconsiderable mass -- hurtling around the sun once per year while the alignment of the axis (and the direction to which the north and south poles is pointing) never changes in any appreciable manner.
Is it possible that this model is incorrect, and that someone is nevertheless forcing it upon everyone (and ridiculing anyone who dares to question it)?
Researcher Simon Shack has published an entire book filled with evidence which points to grave problems with the traditional solar system model, in which he argues that the earth does not in fact orbit the sun but rather that our sun is part of a binary pair, and that the sun is performing an orbital dance with that binary partner and in doing so that the sun goes around earth as part of its binary dance.
Admittedly, his proposed model may be at odds with some aspects of traditional Newtonian physics, but it would seem that an orbit such as that proposed for earth in the conventional model, in which the North Pole remains "locked" and pointing in one direction even as the entire planet speeds around the sun in a full circle, also has some points of contradiction with Newtonian physics.
If our sun is actually in a binary relationship, either in the manner proposed by Simon Shack or perhaps in a manner proposed by other researchers, why would anyone want to obscure that information and insist upon the conventional model we are taught?
These are important questions to ponder -- and particularly appropriate subjects to occupy some portion of our reflection on the day of equinox.
If the ancient wisdom uses the heavenly cycles as part of an esoteric system relating to the topic of alienation from our Self, and recovery of Self, then we should at least consider the possibility that certain people might want to keep the majority of men and women from that knowledge, in order to keep them alienated and divided against themselves.
But the myths still offer us their ancient message, one in which the equinoxes and solstices play a critical role. On this September equinox for the year 2021, I hope that you will have the opportunity to reflect on their positive and profound teachings and incorporate their message into your life.