it's aboutTtime ...
In nature, time is erratic and shuffles about. In human logic, time is a fixed machine. Human logic expects annual stations of time, or mark points in a cycle, to be fixed and predictable. Nature says different and has 'early' springs, 'late' harvests etc ...
A calendar is a passage-of-time marking device; there are lots of calendars from different cultures (a fascinating study in itself). I tend to mark time celestially, rather than calendrically; I observe the beginnings of the seasons, or quarter festivals (Beltane and so on) by astronomy rather than from the date of a fixed wall calendar; nature varies the timing of seasons too, and seasons are the bi-product of the relationship between the Sun, the Moon and the Earth.
For me, Astronomically, Autumn begins when the full of the Moon is in sympathy, or synchronisation, with the full of the Sun; the Full Moon when the Sun is moving through Leo. Winter begins when the Moon and Sun are both at 3rd quarter; 3rd Quarter Moon while Sun is passing through Scorpio. Spring begins when the Sun and Moon are both in their new phase; the new Moon when the Sun is passing through Aquarius. Summer begins when the first quarter Moon and the first quarter Sun meet together when the Sun is passing through Taurus. The marking of the quarter festivals, or cyclic stations of the year is incorporated into the architecture of the design of Stonehenge; the stones which are currently called the Station Stones, have solar and lunar orientations to the 'cross quarters', with their axis perpendicular to the mid-summer sun rise and mid-winter sunset, which could only occur with Stonehenge being built at a latitude of 51 degrees north. The pre-Druidic, per-Celtic Henge builders thought the cross quarters are significant enough to incorporate them into both the architecture and location of the great stone temple.
In meteorology, the start point of seasons are considered to take place at solstices and equinoxes; in this system, autumn begins on the autumn equinox, winter at Yule and so on ...
This morning, a friend, Helen Demetriou, posted the following: 'In Latin, septem means "seven" and septimus means "seventh"; September was in fact the seventh month of the Roman calendar until 153 BC, when the first month changed from Kalendas Martius (1 March) to Kalendas Januarius (1 January). It is also the seventh month of the Astrological calendar, which begins with March/Mars/Aries'
The words March and Mars both suggest beginnings; Aries was denoted the first month of the year because it was during the Sun's annual passage through that sign of the zodiac that the Tiber would have its high (spring) tide; a symbol of life returning after winter.In the 12 Houses, Sasportas writes; ' Mars, the ruler of Aries in astrology, was originally a God of vegetation and fertility in the Roam pantheon and has its latin roots in generatively; Ma or Mas signifies 'to shine' and describe the generative force. He was called Mars Gravidus, from grandiri; to become big, to grow. In Greece, thw two Moons of Mrs were called Phobos and Demios (fear and fright), in Rome they were called Honos and Virtus.'
You can call any moment in time whatever you wish to call it; the name does not change its quality intrinsically, but it may have an affect on our relationship with the quality of that moment; when you change from Julien calendar to Gregorian you do not really lose 11 days from your life, but people thought that they had ...
Different cultures have had different names for moments of time. Currently, the names of the months, divisions of the Solar cycle; the passage of the Sun, have their roots in Rome. The 7-fold divisions of time; the days of the week, are names after Norse Gods;
Sunday: the Sun
Monday: the Moon
Tuesday: Tewis (synonymous with Mars)
Wednesday: Woden (synonymous with Mercury)
Thursday: Thor (synonymous with Jupiter)
Friday: (synonymous with Freyer)
Saturday: Saturn
in ceremonial magic, one would calculate the planetary hours and to do that, one needs to know which planet is the signature of the day; marking the first of the hours in the sequence - for more details, see my MA paper; Do modern Pagans use Astrology ... http://www.davidrowan.co.u
in kindness
David.
© David Rowan, September 2011
‘A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security’.
Albert Einstein
