Timing the Autumn (Fall) Equinox 2023

Timing the Autumn (Fall) Equinox

The Autumnal (Southward) Equinox, the entry of the Sun into the Sign of Libra (Sun at 0° Libra), in a few time zones with example locations:

UTC aka GMT
Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 6:49:48 am UTC
Seconds rounded up to 50 minutes in this list.

London
Saturday, September 23, 2023, at 7:50:00 am BST UTC+1 hour
New York
Saturday, September 23, 2023, at 2:50:00 am EDT UTC-4 hours
Chicago
Saturday, September 23, 2023, at 1:50:00 am CDT UTC-5 hours
Albuquerque
Saturday, September 23, 2023, at 12:50:00 am MDT UTC-6 hours
San Francisco
Friday, September 22, 2023, at 11:50:00 pm PDT UTC-7 hours
Honolulu
Friday, September 22, 2023, at 8:50:00 pm HST UTC-10 hours
Tokyo
Saturday, September 23, 2023, at 3:50:00 pm JST UTC+9 hours

September 22-23 marks an equinox, when the Earth's equator tilts directly toward the Sun. The Sun rises and sets due east and west on the equinoxes. The Sun shines directly on the equator, and there are nearly equal amounts of day and night worldwide. It is the first day of Fall in the northern hemisphere and of Spring in the southern hemisphere.

The essential relationship of Earth to the Sun establishes the basis of the tropical astrology of Signs. The Autumnal Equinox marks the entry of the Sun into the Sign of Libra (Sun at 0° Libra) for both hemispheres. Instead of the Earth tilting away from or toward the Sun, its axis of rotation becomes perpendicular to the line connecting the centers of the Earth and the Sun. Nights get longer from Autumnal Equinox to Winter Solstice (December 21). The word equinox comes from the Latin aequus, meaning equal, and nox, night. Although the equinox happens simultaneously worldwide, the clock time will depend on your time zone. The time is earlier, moving west of Greenwich and the next day over the International Date Line.

"The International Date Line (IDL) is an internationally accepted demarcation of the surface of Earth, running between the South and North Poles and serving as the boundary between one calendar day and the next. It passes through the Pacific Ocean, roughly following the 180.0° line of longitude and deviating to pass around some territories and island groups. Crossing the date line eastbound decreases the date by one day, while crossing the date line westbound increases the date.-" --Wikipedia

In religious and spiritual traditions, equinox is a holy day. Solstices and equinoxes determine four points. The midpoints between those, called "Cross Quarter Days," are also recognized and utilized for celebration and ritual. They are the eight equidistant solar gates in the ancient Wheel of the Year. Maybon is a "name for the Autumnal Equinox, also known as the Second Harvest Festival, Festival of Dionysus, Wine Harvest, Cornucopia, Feast of Avalon, etc. The first Thanksgiving was on or near this date, and it is from these early harvest festivals that the modern Thanksgiving feasts developed." - Kristin Madden (Llewellyn Publications)

For the northern hemisphere, the wheel of the year turns toward darkness. Following the Fall Equinox, the energies of the Dark Gods and Goddesses begin to increase and gain attention. The balance described by the Taoist symbol of Yin and Yang reflects the Equinoxes. An imbalance starts at the point of the Equinox as night begins to overtake daylight's duration. The processes of inward turning gain significance. Persephone returns to her throne with Hades in the Underworld, or Inanna and Ereshkigal decide to play fair with power. Maybon is one "name for the autumnal equinox, also known as the Second Harvest Festival, Festival of Dionysus, Wine Harvest, Cornucopia, Feast of Avalon, etc. The first Thanksgiving was on or near this date, and it is from these early harvest festivals that the modern Thanksgiving feasts developed." - adapted from Kristin Madden (Llewellyn Publications).

 

Because night and day are nearly equal, the equinox is a great time to work on personal balance, a perfect time of year to re-evaluate where you are and take the steps necessary to get your emotional and spiritual lives in order.
--Nasco – I don't know who this is or where I got it, but I like it.

Reminder: in a few weeks, on Sunday, November 5, 2023, Daylight Saving Time ends – lose one hour, 2:00 AM becomes 1:00 AM. (Contact Personnel about payment for the lost hour.)

"Most of the United States observes daylight saving time, the practice of setting the clock forward by one hour when there is more extended daylight during the day so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less. Exceptions include Arizona (except for the Navajo, who observe daylight saving time in the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, and the overseas territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established uniform daylight saving time throughout the U.S.


"In the U.S., daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, with the time changes taking place at 2:00 AM local time. With a mnemonic word play referring to seasons, clocks "spring forward, fall back"—that is, in springtime the clocks are moved forward from 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM and in Fall they are moved back from 2:00 AM to 1:00 AM. Daylight saving time lasts for a total of 34 weeks (238 days) every year, about 65% of the entire year." -Wikipedia

2023 Vernal Equinox, Sun 0° Aries

2023 Vernal Equinox, Sun 0° Aries

The Northward, Vernal Equinox, Start of Spring, Aries Ingress.

For the ritually oriented and the curious, here are the 2023 Spring Equinox times
 

Monday, March 20, 2023

UTC
21:24:16

London - GMT
9:24:16 pm

New York - EDT
5:24:16 pm

Minneapolis - CDT
4:24:16 pm

Santa Fe - MDT
3:24:16 pm

Seattle - PDT
2:24:16 pm

Honolulu - HST
11:24:16 am

Kyiv, Ukraine - EET
11:24:16 pm

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Moscow, Russia - MSK
12:24:16 am

Tokyo - JST
6:24:16 am

March 20-21 brings the Vernal Equinox, also known as Ostara, Eostre, or Eastre, named for the Germanic Goddess of Spring and dawn. When the Sun's path along the Ecliptic crosses the Celestial Equator (the plane of Earth's Equator extended into space) from the South to the North, we have the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring, zero degrees of Aries. From this point, the length of daylight increases. The longer nights of the winter season are now in equal balance with daylight. It is the beginning point of the Zodiac that astrologers use for measuring.

All points in the eight-fold year (defined by the astronomical measure of solstices, equinoxes, and the midpoints between those) are marked by human celebrations, holidays, and holy days. Those coincidental celebrations are not accidental but knowingly or circumstantially correspond to the astronomical. There are holy days with the Jewish and Christian calendars (also with Chinese, Hindu, etc.) that combine New and Full Moons with solstices and equinoxes. For example, the Full Moon after the Spring Equinox is Passover. The Sunday following that Full Moon is Easter. For the Persians, the Equinox is New Year, Noruz.

National Weather Service

Some astrologers chart the Vernal Equinox (Aries Ingress) and derive information about the three to twelve months following. That chart is said to be in effect, for the year, until next Spring. It is considered especially strong until the Summer Solstice chart "comes in" in June. Other astrologers favor the Winter Solstice (Capricorn Ingress) for the twelve months following. Some chart all four, Solstices and Equinoxes, and utilize those charts for a sense of the three months that follow each.

In tropical astrology, degrees are measured from the always-receding Vernal Equinox; each year, the Vernal Equinox occurs 50.23 seconds of a degree EARLIER than the year before. This amounts to approximately 5 minutes of a degree every 6 years. Thus any point (a fixed star, for instance) that is, say, at 5 degrees and 10 minutes of tropical Aries in a given year, 6 years later will be at 5 degrees and 15 minutes of tropical Aries, BECAUSE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THAT POINT AND THE VERNAL EQUINOX HAS INCREASED, and tropical positions are always measured from the Vernal Equinox. This is why precession corrections are added, not subtracted, as time passes. -- Diana K Rosenberg writing in ISAR Email letter Volume 336, May 15, 2005

Happy Spring!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz3lqVv0vCE

"The Mummers' Dance" is a single by Canadian Celtic singer Loreena McKennitt from the 1997 album "The Book of Secrets." The song refers to the seasonal Mummers Play performed by groups of actors, often as house-to-house visits. 

When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair

When owls call the breathless Moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light

We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay

Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year

The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days

We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay

And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone

A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of our Lord's hand

We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay

We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay 

(Equinox times correspond to Monday, March 20, 2023, at 11:24:16 am, Honolulu local time.)

2023 Imbolc, Sun Ingress 15° 00’ Aquarius

Imbolc, Sun Ingress 15° 00’ Aquarius

Times for Sun at 15° Aquarius

2023 Imbolc aka Oimelc

Friday, February 3, 2023

UTC
02:42:23

London, United Kingdom
GMT (UTC +0)
2:42 am

Washington DC, DC, USA
EST (UTC -5)
9:42 pm

Chicago, IL, USA
CST (UTC -6)
8:42 pm

Santa Fe, NM, USA
MST (UTC -7)
7:42 pm

Las Vegas, NV, USA
PST (UTC -8)
6:42 pm

Seattle, WA, USA
PST (UTC -8)
6:42 pm

Honolulu, HI, USA
HST (UTC -10)
4:42 pm

Saturday, February 4, 2023

Tokyo, Japan
JST (UTC +9)
11:42 am

A long, long time ago, people noted the year's seasons, recognizing changing life processes on earth. The date of Imbolc is thought to have been significant in Ireland since the Neolithic period. This is based on the alignment of some Megalithic monuments. At the Mound of the Hostages on the Hill of Tara, the inner chamber is aligned with the rising Sun on the dates of Imbolc and Samhain. [caeraustralis.com.au/southernfire.htm]

Peoples' survival was reflected in changes of growing and living things. Certain plants became available, animals migrated or had calving times, different foods and activities entered life. People learned and oriented their behavior to integrate their lives to the rhythms of the seasons of the year.

While being attuned to seasonal change is not as much a life and death matter as it might have been thousands of years ago, the processes that mark the seasons are still with us. Some celebrations and holidays are with us as well. The seasons depend on the earth's orientation to the Sun that gives solstices (Winter and Summer) and equinoxes (Spring and Autumn). There are holidays and holy days around these eight earth-sun determined times. Four fire festivals and rituals are marked midway between solstices and equinoxes. Recognize these times as a reflection of thousands of years of human history, where people celebrated the changes and the seasonal changes for survival.

Midway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox is a holiday with the Celtic name Imbolc. It is one of the four fire festivals with the general outline of having a bonfire on a high place on the preceding night of the day and a night-long celebration to recognize the importance of the season's change (that might have been house parties in wintry times).

Mound of the Hostages on the Hill of Tara
via worldhistory.org /image/4028/mound-of-the-hostages-hill-of-tara/

Winter is winding down as the Sun's path reaches the midway point between the solar points of Winter and Spring. In snowy regions, the earliest spring blooms push through the snow. The feminine nature and goddess sense of the time is dominant. The ruminants calving and loaded with milk is reflected in the Celtic term, Oimelc, in which etymology is Oi for ewe and melc for milk. Imbolc was the standard form of the name, derived from imb + folc "wash all-around" - making Imbolc a festival of purification, such as we see in many other cultures in the spring. It is the feast day honoring the goddess of pre-Christian Ireland, Brigit, Brigid, or Bríg (there are several variants), where brigit is the Irish word for goddess. In later times the fire feast was transformed by Christianity into Féil Brighde Saint Brigit, the Feast of St Brigit (452-525 AD). She was a nun at Kildare in the year 467 (her birth is said to have been some twenty years after the death of Patrick). The Church neatly scheduled a holy day to honor Saint Brigit, similarly to adopting Christmas for Saturnalia. The popular day, also celebrated as Candlemas, Ground Hog Day, and the Feast of the Purification became the Feast of St. Brigit in what remains of the Celtic world.

Imbolc:

"To taste of every food in order,
This is proper at Imbulc,
Washing of hand and foot and head;
It is to you thus I relate"

- 16th century - based on Kuno Meyer's translation in Studies in Early Celtic Nature Poetry (p.169).

2022 Winter Solstice

2022 WINTER SOLSTICE

Southward Solstice
Capricorn Ingress

Kyiv, Ukraine Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 11:48 pm EET
UTC, Time Zone Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 9:48 pm
London, United Kingdom Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 9:48 pm GMT
New York, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 4:48 pm EST
Minneapolis, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 3:48 pm CST
Santa Fe, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 2:48 pm MST
Los Angeles, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 1:48 pm PST
Wailuku, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 11:48 am HST
Moscow, Russia Thu, Dec 22, 2022 at 12:48 am MSK
Tokyo, Japan Thu, Dec 22, 2022 at 6:48 am JST

“The days have decreased in length as much as they ever will [or increased that much south of the equator]. Life surges once more with the Sun from its southern decline. The Sun moves northward, its daily arc of light becomes slowly tauter and more radiant. The promise of spring spreads like a mystic fire over the earth to tell ‘men of good will’ that the New Life has begun to win over arrested death.”

-- Dane Rudhyar, The Pulse of Life, 1963

At Winter Solstice, the realm of the night has reached its maximum. The day begins increasing in length. Sol comes his furthest south and has his shortest period in the day sky, while the night is the longest of the year. From the point of the Solstice onward to the Summer Solstice, there is an increase in light.

The Winter Solstice marks the Sun’s entry into the sign Capricorn, ruled by the planet Saturn. It is also known as the Capricorn ingress. While the precise solstice time is given here for the Sun’s standstill moment, it seems to rise and set from the same point for three days or so. Winter celebrations include Saturnalia, a week-long Roman festival of the god Saturn. There is a more extended festival of Germanic people called by the Norse word for wheel, “Yule,” and of course, Christmas Eve and Day, and New Year’s Eve and Day. Karolina Markovic offers the feast day of St. Nicholas (Nikoljdan, December 19).

When does the year begin?

Of the solstices and equinoxes (two each, four total) and the midpoints of the four (another four) when charted for mundane astrology analysis, there’s been a see-saw of whether the winter solstice or spring equinox chart gives the pithiest and most reliable message. Do they only echo the larger change landscape, or are they reliable outlines of the 12 months that follow? Would there be geopolitical clues in comparing the layouts by setting the chart in key locations?

“...in very ancient times, the most important yearly turning points were considered to be the summer and winter solstices. Later, in the 4th century AD, Emperor Julian opted for the Winter Solstice in particular, “when King Helios returns to us again, and leaving the region furthest south and rounding Capricorn as though it were a goal-post, advances from the south to the north to give us our share of blessings of the year.”

--- Quoted by Charles Harvey in Michael Baigent, Nicholas Campion, and Charles Harvey, Mundane Astrology, 2nd ed. London, Aquarian Press, 1992.


“In the 20th century, Charles Carter in England, and Alfred Witte in Germany, both echoed Emperor Julian’s sentiments and made a persuasive case for the Capricorn ingress to be regarded as the beginning, or the start of the year. The consensus among most “Western” astrologers is that the Vernal Equinox (Spring) begins the astrological year. Witte saw the Capricorn ingress as the beginning of the solar cycle. In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the time when the old Sun dies, and a new one is born, and, as Chinese astrologers saw it, increasing yin switches over to increasing yang. Like the New Moon, which most astrologers acknowledge as the beginning of the lunar cycle, the Winter Solstice marks the end of the waning half of the cycle and the beginning of a new waxing half.

“In Northern latitudes, Capricorn is probably the most emotionally laden of the four Cardinal ingresses – the one that brings up primal fears of darkness, cold, hunger, and the cessation of all life. Will the light return? Will the round of life continue? For peoples who routinely experienced cold, famine, and nights lit only by firelight, seeing the waning of the Sun’s strength finally reverse itself must have genuinely seemed like a rebirth and must have been an occasion for heartfelt rejoicing.


“Today, around the time of the Winter Solstice we still compensate for the withdrawal of the Sun’s light and heat by cozily nesting indoors, stoking the fire, festooning trees with lights, and warming ourselves with food, strong spirits and the company of others. To counter nature’s threat of scarcity, we invoke a great-bellied saint clad in the color of fire, whose pack brims with human-made abundance. Our thoughts turn from fresh-picked food toward what is preserved and stored, from the vanished lushness of the natural world toward the human-created social order with its own ingenious methods for sustaining life and hope.”

 --- https:/ /alabe. com/ AUG2.htm (TR edited)

 

 

2022 Samhain timing

2022 Samhain

Here’s the timing for the midpoint between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice. Around this astronomically based, Earth-based, zodiacally-based time, humanity has offered recognition in celebrations, holy days, and holidays such as the Celtic Samhain, the roots of Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, and Dia Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

London (United Kingdom – England)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 11:45:19 am GMT equals UTC now
Boston (USA – Massachusetts)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 6:45:19 am EST UTC-5 hours
Chicago (USA – Illinois)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 5:45:19 am CST UTC-6 hours
Albuquerque (USA – New Mexico)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 4:45:19 am MST UTC-7 hours
Sacramento (USA – California)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 3:45:19 am PST UTC-8 hours
Honolulu (USA – Hawaii)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 1:45:19 am HST UTC-10 hours
Tokyo (Japan)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 8:45:19 pm JST UTC+9 hours

Samhain (pronounced “sah-wen,” Halloween, All Hallows Eve) is the tipping point. The precise moment of Samhain (useful for ritual purposes) is the exact middle of the time between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice.

Darkness, the hours of the night, are increasing. Different peoples, tribes, and clans have many names for male and female principals. At Samhain, the older crone or Wise Woman takes charge, while the Youthful Queen returns to the Underworld to join the Dark God. He rules over that time between the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes. The moment of transition is when the Sun ticks from 14° 59’ Scorpio to 15° 00’ Scorpio, the Zodiac Sign of death and rebirth. Samhain marks the ending, the beginning, and the Wheel of the Year turns. When the Young Queen returns in the spring, she’s pregnant with that newly conceived in the Underworld.

In some Celtic and European traditions, participants fortify themselves with cakes and drinks before setting out for the ritual gathering at sunset. They take lanterns, candles, or torches to light their way as it grows dark to the highest hill, which the druid and assistants have set up for the celebration. Key is the lighted bonfire at the time measured and announced by the druid or priest. Some years the bonfire may already be burning, depending on that year’s timing.

The ritual may involve remembering loved ones passed on to the other side of the veil. A period of meditation begins and continues until the priest lights the fire. As the fire leaps up, so do the participants who bring song, joy, and dance to the ceremony that continues until dawn light and a return to home and hearth. Tradition has it that the veil that divides the worlds is thin this night. The passages from life and death are both wide open. The Mystery recognizes that every ending is but a beginning.

The energy of the old year is most potent right up to the mid-season peak and turning toward the New Year. There are many variants among the tribes and peoples that recognize Samhain (Irish name) as the “turning of the year.” Compared to Día de Muertos, celebrated primarily in Mexico and the US Southwest.

1st - Imbolc, 2nd - Beltane, 3rd - Lugnasad, 4th - Samhain (image via EarthSky)

Earth’s track around the Sun and the Earth’s off-kilter axial orientation (23.5°) to the plane of that orbit is how we mark the Equinoxes and Solstices. That is also how we define the Zodiac on the plane of that orbit. When the angle of Earth’s rotational pole points toward or away from the Sun, we mark the solstices. We reference those points to the lines of latitude North, Cancer, and South, Capricorn. To map The Equator, the pole of Earth’s axis does not point toward or away but is perpendicular to the Sun. Those points in Earth’s orbit mark Earth’s Equator and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes. Look at the illustration, and this will make perfect sense. The Earth-to-Sun relationship provides the names. Spring Equinox equals Aries, the first Sign of the Zodiac. Then the Summer Solstice brings the Cancer Ingress and marks the northern tropic of Cancer. Back to the Equator comes the Libra, Autumn, and Equinox, and at the tropic of Capricorn is the Winter Solstice. The orientation of the Earth to the Sun marks the Seasons. Those points give us the lines of latitude on the planet. Extend that plane into space and where the Sun is on those solstice or equinox days marks the Zodiac. Eclipses occur on occasions of Sun and Moon alignment with the ecliptic plane. And that’s how it got its name!