22 September 2018 –
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 actually 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 light to dark. 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 it was 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’ & then hopefully our redemption out of our own ego forces.
The Sidereal zodiac shows us the vernal point has moved thru the ‘procession of the equinoxes’, so that it is now descending thru the lower half of the zodiac, taking humanity along on its evolutionary journey.
Adoring this great cross, formed from the 4 Cardinal Points of the Equinoxes & Solstices, are the 7 Festivals: Michaelmas, Advent, Christmas, Easter-tide Ascension, Whitsun & St. John’s-tide. These festivals are the 7 Cosmic Roses unfurling from the center of The Cross.
So today on this Autumnal Equinox, we can contemplate & celebrate this solar moment of equality & balance, experienced by everyone around the globe. We can also think about how the world has changed, how the constellations have moved on, how The Christ has united with the Earth, & is now working in us to redeem our evolution.
We can take our initiation in hand when we consciously co-create the festivals in the solar-cycle of the year, working to unfold the 7 Roses of transformation within, & out in the world.
And so it is my friends, that we begin our journey, like Persephone, into the dark of the year…feel your power go within like the seed planted deep within the darkness of the Earth…We must be initiated into these dark mysteries before we can truly celebrate life’s renewal…
The apples fall from the tree, the corn & grain are gathered in, the grapes are crushed for wine…The Sun God is sacrificed to the night & the fertile Mother assumes the face of the Wise Crone – the Harvest Hag challenging us to face our shadow…
Balanced Blessings
~Hazel Archer Ginsberg
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MICHAELMAS AND THE SOUL-FORCES OF MAN By RUDOLF STEINER, a Summary by Hazel Archer Ginsberg
Lecture 3. The sun circles – The Druid and the Mithras Mysteries; Observation of the sun yielded knowledge of the connection between heaven and earth. The great language of the heavens was deciphered, and then applied to earthly things.
Through the heart organization the course of nature was perceived within the human being, and through the heart science the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac was studied. In this way initiates read in the heavens what was to be done on earth.
“…the human heart is really a subconscious sense organ.”
This was taught in the Mithras Cult.”
“…The disciple was taught to perceive the course of the seasons within himself by means of his heart organization.
the heart-science of the old Mithras pupils; what they really studied when they looked at themselves through their heart was the spirit of the sun’s annual passage through the zodiac. In this way the human being experienced themself as a higher being, riding on his lower nature; (the Bull) and therefore it was fitting that the cosmos should be arranged in a circle around him; in this manner cosmic spirituality was experienced.
“…A spirit of reverence for the ancient cultures pervades us when we see deeper into them and work to rediscover, how to apply this heart-science now.
Steiner talks in lecture 3 about the relationship between the various phases of the moon and the weather. “…looked at in a spiritual-scientific way the moon presents itself as a sort of fortress in the cosmos. From the outside, not only the light-rays of the sun but all the external effects of the universe are reflected by the moon down to the earth; but in the interior of the moon there is a complete world that nowadays can be reached only by ascending, to the spirit world.”
“…higher beings who occupied etheric bodies only, and whose instruction was imparted to human beings as though inoculating the etheric body with higher wisdom.”
“…it was simply a case of his having to breathe and of his blood circulating in him; and it was in his circulation that he willed.”
We know now that what the individual planets tell us provides the vowels of the world-script; and all that forms around the vowels when the planets pass the constellations of the zodiac gives us the consonants.
This kind of Cosmic experience leads us to participation in the cosmos; in this way we can achieve a spiritualized instinct for the meaning of the seasons with which our organic life as well as our social life is interwoven — an instinct for the different ways in which the earth stands to the cosmos while on its way from spring to summer, and again from summer through autumn into winter. Celebrating festivals that have social significance, in the same way that the forces of nature, through our physical organization, make us one with our breathing & circulation.
“…As the blood circulation inside us is essential for our existence, the circulation of the elemental beings between earth and the heavens is indispensable for us as well.”
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Mabon (an ancient Celtic name for the Autumnal Equinox)
A salmon swallows the nut of wisdom
And leaps from the river’s dark depths –
A bright flash of silver in the bent rays of light
A hawk wheels in the eye of the Sun,
His elongated shadow moves
Over an ancient green mound
A fox gleams gold and russet there at the fringe of the forest
Her eyes glinting secrets
From the coming twilight realm
A Maiden sits silent
Clasping two crossed swords
In elegant equipoise
On his knee the King muses by a deep pool…
Soul tied to the wheel
Crystalized in the last shock of corn
Pierced by the oblique sun lit spear
With eyes that see
Down into the root
Where autumn grain waits
To Be
Easter-Tides’ Seed
The death of bedazzled day
And the dawn of focused night
Meet in symmetry
Halfway
Thru the cycle
We enter the return
Sail West Beloved Sun King
We follow You
Into the Dawning Dark
~hag