55 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
55 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
EQUINOX
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by Vivienne West
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The Autumn Equinox came early this year: the twentieth to twenty-
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first of March. the equinoxes are a time of great power, probably
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even greater power than the solstices which many magicians seem to
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value more highly. They look to the Winter Solstice as a celebrat-
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ion of the Dark-faced gods, of cold and night and the powers they
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have. They look to the Summer Solstice as a celebration of fire and
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light, and worship solar deities and those to do with fire.
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But I look to the equinoxes as much as to these other, less ambi-
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valent festivals, for perfectly good reasons of my own. Sure,
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Winter and Summer solstices both as celebrations and as seasonal
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events in the environment, do emphasise particular magico-natural
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conditions and qualities. But what people fail to realise is that
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either of the equinoxes, in addition to being a celebration of
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growth (Spring) and ageing (Autumn), are both a celebration of
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perfect balance, perfect equilibrium.
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The days and the nights of the equinoxes are of exactly the same
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length: Planet Earth has a particular angle and relationship to the
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sun that it will not and can not have for another six months, and
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in temperate climes the weather is neither unforgivingly hot nor
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unforgivingly cold. Life is either winding up for the summer by
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putting out tender growth before the weather becomes too warm, or
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winding down for the winter by seeding, dropping vulerable leaf-
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surfaces, and preparing for a period of dormancy against the cold.
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In both cases nature is in the process of doing something, not at
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the extreme of having done it.
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Today, midway between my working day and my private night, I walked
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home at sunset. Even in our age of rock'n'roll and fast food and
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anaesthetising televisual soapies, something in modern, civilised
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man, recalls our magico-religious past and our awe of the seasons.
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On any Friday (which it is) I can expect to see evidence of perhaps
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one party, perhaps none, on my street. Tonight, the night of the
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equinox and a night of a just-past-full moon with lunar energy
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still very high, I counted no less than five parties-in-preparat-
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ion, three of them in full swing already, so early in the evening.
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All five of them had the sounds of bass guitars and pounding drums
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echoing the less electric but equally hypnotic rhythms of the anc-
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ient Shamans' drums. And of those parties, two of them had their
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lit windows covered with red or vivid orange cellophane, colours
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that celebrate the sun on this solar festival!
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I was greatly amused, both at their instinctual behaviour that they
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could probably have rationalised ("It's so-and-so's birthday",
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"We've just moved in, and this was the first convenient weekend"),
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and at a little idea of my own. I wonder how they would have react-
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ed if I had knocked on the front door, introduced myself politely
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as their friendly, neighbourhood witch, and congratulated them on
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upholding ancient witchcraft customs!
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