image: Wikimedia commons (link).
The annual dance of the Earth and the Sun will bring us to the moment of March Equinox in approximately three more hours, at 0306 Greenwich time on 20 March, which will be 1406 in Melbourne, Australia on 20 March and 2306 on 19 March for the East Coast of North America (2006 on 19 March for the West Coast).
Equinox marks the moment when the center of the Sun crosses the Celestial Equator in the heavens, a conceptual circle in the sky which is 90-degrees "down" (South) of the North Celestial Pole, and 90-degrees "up" (North) from the South Celestial Pole.
Due to the tilt of the Earth relative to the plane of our Earth-Sun dance, the arc of the Sun's path travels successively North of this conceptual Celestial Equator during half of the year (from the March Equinox through to the June Solstice, and then on through to the September Equinox), and then South of the Celestial Equator during the other half of the year (from the September Equinox down to the December Solstice, and then back up to the March Equinox).
The "celestial mechanics" of this annual cycle forms one of the main foundational structures underlying the world's ancient myths. For a much more detailed explanation of the celestial mechanics behind the Solstices and Equinoxes, and discussion of how this cycle forms a critical framework for ancient myth, check out my online course entitled Celestial Mechanics and the Myths.
The observance of Easter is closely linked to the March Equinox. The formula and traditions regarding the selection of the date of Easter each year are rather complex (and are different between different branches of historical Christianity), but at their core they relate to the first Sunday following the first Full Moon after the March Equinox.
At the moment, the Moon is waxing (growing larger and stronger -- the celestial mechanics of the Moon cycle are also discussed at length in the course mentioned above), on its way towards a Full Moon on 25 March. That will be the first Full Moon following the Spring Equinox, and many Western literalist Christian churches will observe Easter on the following Sunday, which is 31 March 2024.
Interestingly, because the formula for determining the date of Easter differs in Eastern Orthodox churches, they will not observe Easter this year until May, after the Moon goes through one more complete cycle and reaches another Full Moon on 23 April.
The fact that the observance of Easter, following ancient traditions and formulas, is tied to the cycles of the Moon (as well as to the cycles of the Earth-Sun dance) shows beyond any doubt that this holiday is celestial in nature, and tied to events which take place in the great cycles of the heavens. This indisputable fact, all by itself, goes a long way towards demonstrating that the stories of Jesus and the disciples, including the story of the Crucifixion, are celestial in nature, and are in no sense literal and historical records of events involving flesh-and-blood men and women.
In a book entitled Who is this King of Glory? A Critical Study of the Christos-Messiah Tradition, Alvin Boyd Kuhn wrote:
It is a grave question whether the ecclesiastical system and movement known as Christianity has any right to its name. So far from being the cult that brought in a true Christ-worship for the first time in "heathen" darkness, it was indeed -- after the third century -- the one system that destroyed such a true worship. Ancient cults bent all effort upon the cultivation of the god within man. This is the nucleus of the only true Christianity.
This March Equinox is an outstanding opportunity to contemplate the riches of the ancient world-wide system of Star Myth entrusted to humanity by some ancient source predating even the most ancient cultures known to conventional history (already operating in the earliest known texts of ancient Egypt, ancient India, ancient Mesopotamia, and every other ancient culture we know about today).
Mistakenly taking these Star Myths literally has led to -- and continues to lead to -- an inversion of their true message and to the perpetration of untold crimes, oppression, and exploitation.
Sincerely wishing you blessings this Equinox day.