Category: astronomical events

Friday Links

Karen

1. Happy Solstice! I didn’t realize it was yesterday because we’re going to the lake tonight to see the full moon. You can also see the full moonrise align with Stonehenge on a live stream at 2:30 today–here’s more info, including a new job title that I want:

“Stonehenge’s architectural connection to the Sun is well known, but its link with the moon is less well understood,” said Clive Ruggles, emeritus professor of archaeoastronomy at Leicester University. “The four Station Stones align with the moon’s extreme positions, and researchers have debated for years whether this was deliberate, and—if so—how this was achieved and what might have been its purpose.”

 

2. Speaking of ancient times, journalist Paul Salopek has been retracing the path Stone Age humans took out of Africa and to the rest of the world–24,000 miles, on foot. He’s been going since 2012?!

 

3. This feels appropriate today (buy your own here):

Did We Make It?

Karen

Today is the Vernal Equinox. It caught be by surprise this year but that fast-changing light might account for how unsettled I’ve been feeling in the last week. But the forsythia and the hyacinths are out and I even saw an apricot tree in bloom yesterday–I think it’s really happening.


(Textile Pattern for Kimono, Shin Bijutsukai ca 1900-1902, Japanese design Magazine)

 


(Charles Sheeler, Spring Interior 1927, oil on canvas)

 


(Per Adolfsen, Twins 2022, colored pencil, chalk)

The Shortest Day

Karen
Rockwell Kent Moonlight, Winter c. 1940

We’ve made it to the Winter Solstice! Here we are in the wheel of the year and the upward spin begins after today.

To celebrate, you could listen to this 1978 album (which includes a reading of Susan Cooper’s “The Shortest Day”). You could do some of the rituals suggested here. As that post says:

The Winter Solstice is a portal. It is a yes/and. It is saying goodbye to the year. We process the hard, hard lessons we learned. We welcome in light, spirits, and all forms of kinship so that we may stay safe, in service, and attuned to gratitude. After Solstice, we welcome in the New Year.

What do you want to come forth out of the unknown?

Equinox

Karen

Well, here we are, rolling into the dark season. Over the last 17 years (my god) of blogging here, I’ve gone from truly dreading it to being mostly OK with it. Medication helps a lot, of course, but so does realizing that the seasons passing are “not such an awful linear progress but instead a looping and a return.”

So here are some vibes for Fall (and don’t forget the classic vibes of September 21).

Adrian Paul Allinson (1890-1959), “Dahlias”
Eliot Hodgkin, “Undergrowth” (1941)
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840), “The Dreamer (Ruins of the Oybin)”
Millcreek Canyon, Tuesday night

Summer Solstice 2023

Karen

(The Sun, 1909 by Edvard Munch)

 

It’s the longest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere and a good day to go watch the sun set, have a bonfire, pick some flowers, or even listen to the “Hymn to the Sun” from Philip Glass’s Akhnaten.

You can even join me in setting a theme for the summer. I might need to workshop mine a little, but right now it’s “The Summer of Ease and Abundance and Enjoyment and Maximalism and the Kind of Rest and Spaciousness I Haven’t Experienced in a Summer Since About 1995.”

However you choose to celebrate, enjoy the light today. Happy solstice, friends!

Welcome, Fall

Karen

It’s the Autumnal Equinox today and I, for one, am ready for this Autumn of Ease & Abundance. And I think it’s off to a great start–look at these glucose numbers for Toby on his increased insulin dose this week!

(For reference, he was averaging between 300 – 450 for numbers on the lower dose.) He’s already SO much sassier–I think he’s ready for the Summer of Struggle to be over, too.

So yes, happy fall! Don’t forget to be pagan about it in between checking your cat’s blood sugar.

Here Comes The Sun

Karen

The Vernal Equinox was Sunday, which means we’re finally in the half of the year where the nights aren’t longer than the days. We did it. It’s all right.

(Really loving NINA’s covers lately–check out this one too.)

Happy Solstice

Karen

(Art by Gottess on Instagram)

We made it to the darkest day, which means it’s only going to get lighter from here. Light a candle, build Stonehenge, read this bit from the Modern Women newsletter:

This is a time to pause and to catch up to yourself, wherever you may be. Without judgment. With acceptance. With third-eye sight, sharpened by the stillness.

See in the dark, feel into all the messages the emptiness brings.
Gather up all the repeated complaints and yearnings, throw them all in the fire that needs to burn up this year. Make a promise to do something different, as soon as you’ve rested and restored, as much as you can.

Next year at this time, you’ll be someone different.

Happy Summer Solstice

Karen

We started going to Great Salt Lake for sunset on the solstice when I was in high school, I think, and it’s become a pretty solid tradition. It’s where Doc met my brother and his family for the first time; Mom even made it out there when she was in the depths of chemo.

Not getting Seasonal Affective Disorder because of my meds has really made the Summer Solstice feel less poignant and panicky (things are less panicky now in general, thank you meds) but it still feels right to stop for a second and enjoy the heat and the light and watch the sun go down.