22 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Autumn Equinox Brings Balance into Night School exact at 1:50 am in the Central Region. This is when the Sun crosses the equator heading south for the season.
Our Day-star rises due east & sets due west around this time. “Equinox” comes from the Latin words “equi” meaning “equal” & “nox” meaning “night.” This implies that there will be equal amounts of daylight & darkness, however that is not exactly the case.
This year, the Sun will rise at 6:38am CDT on the equinox & will set at 6:46pm. So that makes our day 12 hours & about 8 minutes long. With Solar Noon at 12:42 pm.
Exactly equal day & night won’t happen until September 25 with Sunrise as 6:41 am CDT & Sunset at 6:41 pm CDT. This day is known as the Equilux! “Lux” being Latin for light.
Also, every year when Summer turns to Autumn, Deneb takes over from brighter Vega as the zenith star when twilight fades into night.
At the Autumnal Equinox – the wheel of the year turns & we find ourselves moving into the time of the harvest. In the tropical zodiac, at equinox, we say the Sun is crossing the celestial equator, moving from Virgo into Libra, the sign of the scales – a time to take stock. Are the scales balanced? Do they tip & spill? Are they full? Do we know what to harvest & what to plow under? Can we identify & cut away outworn habits & emotional baggage that can choke our growth?
But in sidereal astrosophy we see the Sun in relation to the actual constellations as they are now, with the Sun in reality appearing in the crown of stars in the constellation of the Virgin.
When we use the tropical zodiac, the 4-foldness of the Equinoxes & Solstices form The Cross, which reminds us of an event that occurred only once in history, at the time of the incarnation of Christ. Then, the start of Spring was at 0 degrees of Aries, the Ram – the 1st sign in the zodiac.
At the Equinoxes we have the horizontal beam, a balance of light & darkness. At the Solstices we have the vertical beam, an opposition of light & dark. At Autumn Equinox the Sun is balanced in Libra, which then marks the transition from the light to the dark signs of the zodiac. Libra is a threshold, a gateway between the upper chakras & the lower chakras. In the upper signs, from Aries thru Virgo we have a memory of the cosmic human being before we were formed on Earth. From Libra to Pisces, the human form meets the physical world. So we can look at the upper half of the zodiac as being related to our past cosmic creation by the ‘gods’ & the lower half of the zodiac as our human journey of ‘The fall’ giving us the task to work toward our redemption out of our own “ego”I” forces.
The Sidereal zodiac shows us the vernal point has moved thru the ‘procession of the equinoxes’, (The Sun moves backward thru the constellations) so that it is now descending thru the lower half of the zodiac, taking humanity along on its evolutionary journey.
Adorning this great cross, formed from the 4 Cardinal Points of the Equinoxes & Solstices, are the 7 Christian Festivals: Michaelmas, Advent, Christmas, Easter-tide – a 3-fold Fest which includes Ascension, Whitsun, then St. John’s-tide. These festivals are the 7 Cosmic Roses unfurling from the center of The Cross.