Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
I stayed up to see the eclipse of the full moon yesterday. It made for a late night but I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a lunar eclipse, so Toby and I sat and watched it for a while. And took a camera phone picture.
Science explaining the eclipse is here, hippie thoughts about it are here, and The Mighty Boosh’s moon routine (which is what was in my head the whole time) is right here.
It’s the vernal equinox today, the first day of spring and a day of (symbolic) balance between day and night. It got a Google doodle, but how about some hippie thoughts, too?
“Throughout the world, the spring equinox is a time of great confrontation between the forces of darkness and light, [as symbolized] in the death and resurrection of the central deities of sacred teachings throughout the world. […] Without the opposition that darkness brings, there would be no movement and no struggle, and it is from the struggle that the spiritual treasures are produced.” (via)
Coming out of the long dark of winter or the long dark of the soul, it’s good to remember that there’s purpose and balance to everything, even darkness. For me this equinox marks a year of adjusting, a year post-breakup, and I hope at least a little growth (I won’t go so far as to say “spiritual treasures”).
It also means the tulip and hyacinth bulbs I planted last fall are coming up, and I’m not even going to try to make that an analogy. Happy spring!
(Not my photo of Stonehenge. Yet.)
It’s the winter solstice tomorrow–the shortest day, the turning point on the swing back to warm weather. Read about the astronomy, celebrate it like a hippie, wish someone a happy Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, get your Christmas preparations all finished, or pick from any of these festivals. As the hippies say, “It’s all good.” We made it through the darkest part.
And here’s a Jung quote to ponder as we go through the rest of the dark and into a new year:
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
It was the point of the Summer Solstice in the night last night for our time zone but most of the world will observe it today. Longtime readers will know I’ve had a really hard time just celebrating the Solstice, because it marks the end of the increase of light and the turn to the other half of the year when I get Seasonal Affective Disorder and it’s cold.
But this year, I’m calling it “Midsummer Day” like the English do (at least the English children’s books I read) and I’m surprisingly fine with it. I’ve been telling myself this year is all about “increase, not loss”–after all, we have three months of abundant light left, and winter isn’t the end of the world when there’s snow hiking to be done.
I also have to think of this quote from Cold Mountain, which I read back in my 20s when I had such a hard time seeing the solstice pass:
“Were she to decide fully to live here in Black Cove unto death, [Ada] believed she would erect towers on the ridge marking the south and north points of the sun’s annual swing…Over time, watching that happen again and again might make the years seem not such an awful linear progress but instead a looping and a return.”
Yes. Looping and return. Increase, not loss. Happy solstice! 
Astronomical bonus: it’s the full “supermoon” Sunday (science here; hippie things here), so celebrate all weekend.
I used to have a hard time telling which phase of the moon we were currently in (other than full). Was it a waxing or a waning crescent? What if someone on the street asks you and you don’t know? Does anyone else worry about these things? Fortunately, I read something* years ago that cleared it up for me.
Moon points east: Grow, be increased
Moon points west: Rest, be blessed
So–keeping in mind a crescent moon is usually in the western part of the sky–the “points” on the crescent pointing back across the sky to the east mean a waxing moon that will “grow” to be full soon. 
The opposite, with the “points’ going to the west, means it’s an old moon about to be dark and “rest”: 
There. Now you are prepared in the event of pop quizzes about basic moon phases. And for good measure, here is the waxing crescent moon as seen last night:
*I think it was in an L.M. Montgomery book, but it sounds more like the Old Farmer’s Almanac. I really don’t remember where I picked it up, but Google doesn’t seem to think the saying is very widespread.
1. Somewhat related to Wednesday’s post about “the 47%” of Americans “who are dependent on the government”: CNN featured a wrenching essay by John Scalzi about growing up poor. Just….go read it. It made me so ashamed of throwing around the term “the poor” without any real thought behind it.
2. It’s the autumnal equinox tomorrow, and while one could be sad about the state of the world and the start of the long slide into darkness and everything else fall will bring, the hippies are telling us to take heart
Give the world ALL the LIGHT, LOVE and COMPASSION you have! Send your HEART out to humanity, the planet, and all life. Send your knowingness that paradise is here right now, and BE in the world as you want it to be. Use your highest, purest intentions, and remember that the truth is not out there; it is within YOU…GATHER TOGETHER and celebrate this beginning wave of your great transformation. Equinox will bring a much needed balance in your world
OK then. I love the caps; it’s like a Dr. Bronner’s soap label.
And as we watch the field baking in the heat-–as we feel the sun’s power to burn as well as to bless–we can feel our own gifts, our own special abilities as they ripen and swell, and know that we, too, have the power to make a difference for growth or for destruction in the world.
It is a time to mark peak moments, moments of warmth and growth […], (it) is a time to invite fire into our lives-–fire to burn away all that we have outgrown and all that no longer serves us; fire that makes the wild things grow in us, for which our inner selves have longed.
Cait Johnson and Maura D. Shaw from Celebrating the Great Mother
Thank everything that’s holy and/or scientific–today is the winter solstice. We made it. We beat the dark. Only three months to the equinox.
This year I learned a phrase connected with the Roman sun god Sol Invictus, whose birthday was celebrated around the winter solsitce: Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or “birthday of the unconquered sun.” So happy sun birthday to you–the old star hasn’t fizzled out!
1. It’s the autumnal equinox today, which I would like a lot more if it didn’t signal the beginning of the long descent into darkness. At least it’s only three months to the solstice, right?
2. Blue Moon Ranch is having its seventh annual Open Barn Days this weekend. They’ve expanded to have the event on both Saturday and Sunday, so if you’re attending a yoga retreat one day, you can still see alpacas and crias like Jethro here on the next: