Equinox is Here Again!

Are we there yet? We are indeed - but you wouldn't know it, in Oklahoma. It'll be many more weeks before the leaves begin to turn colour and fall, or before temperatures start to tumble too. Yet, officially we are here...

“But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.”
― Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot

Here's an autumnal equinox-related oddity I hadn't not come across before - from the ancient Roman world:

Equinox and medical theory

The Aëtius parapegma is an almanac that appears as a chapter in the 6th-century Tetrabiblos of Aëtius of Amida. It treats the rising and setting of constellations, weather forecasting, and medical advice as closely intertwined, and notes of the equinox (placed on September 25) that -

There is the greatest disturbance in the air for three days previous. Thus it is necessary to be careful neither to phlebotomize, nor purge, nor otherwise to change the body violently from the 15th of September through the 24th.

The passage is presented as advice for physicians, based on the principle that "the bodies of healthy people, and especially those of sick people, change with the condition of the air".

So, blood-letting and purging are not recommended. Alrighty then!

VERNAL EQUINOX

“Spring has many American faces. There are cities where it will come and go in a day and counties where it hangs around and never quite gets there. Summer is drawn blinds in Louisiana, long winds in Wyoming, shade of elms and maples in New England.”
Archibald MacLeish

A few more thoughts, from far better writers than I will ever be, on the matter of springtime's hide and seek games:

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.
Mark Twain

Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.
Charles Dickens

Winter lingered so long in the lap of Spring that it occasioned a great deal of talk.
Bill Nye

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.
Henry Van Dyke

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish dazed spring approaches They enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain of all save that they enter.
William Carlos Williams

And...on Spring and the Vernal Equinox in general:

It was such a spring day as breathes into a man an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, a longing that makes him stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, and fling out his arms to embrace he knows not what.
John Galsworthy

Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth. Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and the equinox!
D. H. Lawrence

Easter occurs on different dates each year because, like the Jewish Passover, it is based upon the vernal equinox, that dramatic moment when the hours of the day-light and the hours of darkness at last draw parallel and then the light finally and triumphantly wins out. Thus Easter is always fixed as the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. It's a cosmic, solar, and lunar event as deeply rooted in religious traditions originating from sun-god worship as one could conceivably imagine.
Tom Harpur

I've always assumed that every time a child is born, the Divine reenters the world. Okay? That's the meaning of the Christmas story. And every time that child's purity is corrupted by society, that's the meaning of the Crucifixion story. Your man Jesus stands for that child, that pure spirit, and as its surrogate, he's being born and put to death again and again, over and over, every time we inhale and exhale, not just at the vernal equinox and on the 25th of December.
Tom Robbins


For Vernal Music Monday: George Harrison and "the other" Paul (Simon) with
Here Comes the Sun

EQUINOX & Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson

It's not feeling very springlike around here - stormy, wet with flash flood warnings, the odd tornado watch, but the grass is growing and greening, at last, and trees are budding.....so it must really be spring!

For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

~ Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)
Atalanta in Calydon (1865)


Neil deGrasse Tyson is the 21st century's version of the late Carl Sagan. A guy who has that rare talent of engaging, educating and entrancing an audience of people quite unversed in science and astrophysics, with never a hint of pomposity or talking down. He's obviously in love with his subject - the mark of greatness in any teacher or communicator.

He had some contact with Carl Sagan: (From Wiki):

Astronomer Carl Sagan, who was a faculty member at Cornell University, tried to recruit Tyson to Cornell for undergraduate studies. During an interview with writer Daniel Simone, Tyson said, "Interestingly, when I applied to Cornell, my application dripped of my passion for the study and research of the Universe. Somehow the admissions office brought my application to the attention of the late Dr. Sagan, and he actually took the initiative and care to contact me. He was very inspirational and a most powerful influence. Dr. Sagan was as great as the universe, an effective mentor." But Tyson chose to attend Harvard University, where he majored in physics ...

For Astro fans: Dr. Tyson has Sun/Mercury and Venus in Libra.....his charming presentation style! Neptune/Jupiter in Scorpio, his dedication and passion for the subject. Moon somewhere in the first half of Cancer - his sensitivity to his audience. Saturn in Sagittarius, Mars in Gemini.

I came across this video yesterday. Watching it helps to wash away side-effects of the Santorums of this world. It's appropriate, too, for this day of equinox:

Vernal Equinox ~ Japan. (& Music for a Monday Trip.)

Thoughts go to our sisters and brothers in Japan at Vernal Equinox, first day of Spring. Hoping fervently that this will mark a turning point and that the worst is over.

Shunbun no Hi, the Vernal Equinox Day, has been a National Holiday in Japan since 1948.

The week of the Vernal Equinox is known as Haru no Higan (Spring Higan). The word higan means “the other shore", and the festival comes from the Buddhist beliefs that there is a river full of illusions, passions, pain and sorrow, that divides the earthly world from Nirvana. In order to gain the enlightenment, the soul must fight with all these and cross the river. When the night and day are equally divided, at the equinox, Buddha appears on earth to save stray souls and leads them to Nirvana.

On the Shunbun no Hi, the family and friends visit the cemetery wash the tombstones…bring flowers, burn incense, pray for deceased and bring offerings: sake and ohagi (rice balls covered with azuki bean). Shunbun no Hi is also a nature festival and a day of prayers for future crops. (See here.)

Illustration:

The cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan. The Japanese celebrate its annual arrival -- friends will gather under the trees to enjoy sake, sing songs, and celebrate the coming of spring. Traditionally, Japan has offered cherry trees to foreign countries as symbols of peace. Designed by the Rabbit Air creative team, this simple silhouette of a tree was inspired by shadows cast by cherry blossom trees on white sandstone in early spring. (See here.)

Some journal entries of an American teacher, Anne Thomas, living in Sendai are online at Ode Magazine. The entries from 14 March are especially moving, and even uplifting, strange as that might seem. Do take a look.






Blog on hold for a few days. We are going to Austin, Texas, with a stop in Fredericksburg and nearby Luckenbach on the way there, or on the way back . We're going to see my husband's second great-grandchild, as well as his daughter and granddaughter. Husband has a birthday on Tuesday too.

It's Music Monday (almost forgot). Here's Waylon (still sadly missed) singing Luckenbach Texas.

Later!

EQUINOX & ZODIAC SIGN LIBRA

Here in the northern hemisphere we're about to welcome in the fall/autumn of 2010. The equinox will occur sometime between late tonight and early tomorrow. In the southern hemisphere, our esteemed guest blogger Gian Paul, in Brazil, will be welcoming the spring.


Accompanying the equinox, Sun is about to move into the zodiac sign we call Libra, Cardinal Air sign, ruled by Venus.

I'm borrowing, once again, from Louis MacNeice's book, Astrology. It is, apparently, not too well known, published in 1964, possibly shunned by "the astrological elite" as MacNeice wasn't an astrologer by trade. He was a classical scholar and poet and by no means a "hack writer". I'm finding that the book highlights much from a different perspective, refers to sources not often heard of nowadays, as well as some ancient classical sources, and puts them in context. This, I find very helpful.

From Astrology by Louis MacNeice ~ Zodiac Sign Libra

One would not expect to find Venus as Libra's ruler (it has little in common with the other Venusian sign, Taurus) but Venus.....stands for harmony and so can promote a proper balance not only between persons but also within an individual. So the Libra type is easy to get on with, being diplomatic, gentle and tolerant. (William J.)Tucker comments that this type has "many of the traits common to the Chinese race". (This was before China went Red). Being the other equinoctial sign, Libra is the opposite number to Aries, and we could well imagine that it might do Aries some good. But this is contrary to the opinion of most astrologers who think that any two signs 180 degrees apart must be opposed to each other in every sense, just as planets are when in "opposition". There are, however, a minority who think that such opposed signs would naturally complement each other, and certainly the signs of spring and autumn equinoxes would seem to be a case in point.

Note that Libra is the only one of the signs that is inorganic; thus it seems quite fitting that (John) Varley summarizes its "elementary notions" as follows:
"Libra, independently of its appearing in the world's horoscope, to mediate the Zodiac horizontally, and to balance, as it were, the sign Aries, has been found to signify straight lines and regular buildings, and the sublime uninterrupted horizon line of the sea; it represents also the blue color of the sky and the distances."

We might add, thinking of of this blue seascape, that the Venus who rules Libra is more the Venus Anadyomene of Botticelli than the sensual goddess who prompted the Wife of Bath.

The picture that emerges of the Libra (type) person is a sociable, cultured, and courteous person, perhaps only too pleased to sparkle in embassies. He seems to be humanist, empirist, and eclectic, and almost entirely lacking in aggression. He would do most things for peace and finds it very difficult to say no. Perhaps his chief virtue is that he can see both sides of a question; his chief failing that he is too easily influenced. As for the Libra woman, she is extremely soignée. Barbault includes among Libra types Erasmus, Katherine Mansfield, Gandhi the apostle of non-violence, and, as its typical painters, Boucher and Watteau. Libra could hardly frighten anyone.

With regard to that last sentence - Louis MacNeice hadn't met my mother ! Her birthday was 28 September. She didn't fit comfortably into much of textbook Libra, nor did my first husband, whose birthday was the day before my mother's. As always I have to mention that the sign in which the Sun resides as we were born is not the be-all and end-all. In the case of Libra there is a very good chance that Mercury and/or Venus will be found nextdoor in Scorpio - "a horse of a very different colour", or nextdoor in the other direction, in Virgo, which sign lacks much of the tolerance and diplomacy that Libra is known for. Rising sign and the sign in which the Moon lay at our birth must also be taken into consideration, and their respective positions in the chart - whether close to an angle (ascendant and its opposite angle, midheaven and its opposite angle), where the main strength of the chart is found).

There's no such thing as "A Libran", except as a shorthand description of someone born between around 22 September and 22 October. But there can certainly be Libra-types: people who display all or many of the textbook Libra traits - though not necessarily coming via natal Sun.

Ronald Searle's whimsical take on Libra from Searle's Zodiac




A sidelight, when considering Libra, is that the last half of of the sign and the first half of Scorpio were known to ancient astrologers as Via Combusta (Burning/Fiery Road): from Skyscript:

The area between 15 Libra and 15 Scorpio is termed the Via Combusta: 'Fiery Road' or 'Combust Way'. It is considered to be a debilitating area, particularly detrimental to the Moon. Al Biruni wrote of it:

"The combust way is the last part of Libra and the first of Scorpio. These two signs are not congenial to the Sun and the Moon on account of the obscurity and ill-luck connected with them and because each of them is the fall of one of the luminaries. They also contain the two malefics, the one by exaltation (Libra, Saturn) the other by house (Scorpio, Mars)."
This may be a very ancient aphorism, originating from the period when 15 Libra corresponded with the autumn equinox.

Clicking on "Libra" (or"via combusta" if interested) in the Label Cloud at sidebar(right) will bring up relevant archived posts.