Look both ways

A look back and forward at the same time.

The solstice was yesterday (June 21), and I am always fascinated by this day. Celebrations near and far still do happen-fires, harvest, and sun worshipers collide.

On the solstice, we are given a reminder to ‘honor’ ancient wisdom and traditions, to celebrate the summer with its abundance of light, warmth, and agricultural bounties. Overall we are much less conscious of the joy of the solstice and its celebrations, festivals, and rituals than days gone by. Our ‘modern’ world does still mark the solstice, and most of us somehow connect (somewhere in the recesses of our brain) that it is a day of celebrating new beginnings.

The simple ‘facts’ of the Solstice are that it is the day sun reaches it’s highest point in the sky all year, “the tilt of Earth’s axis is most inclined towards the sun directly above the Tropic of Cancer.” (http://time.com/5314789/summer-solstice-facts) and so it is one the longest day of the year. It marks the beginning of summer. One of the most well-known celebrations of the summer solstice is at the Neolithic monument of Stonehedge: with many of the theories of this magical prehistoric structure stating it was built to align with the sun. In doing a little research about Stonehedge, I learned a few new things that historians and archeologists are saying about this masterpiece: It took 1,500 years to erect, it is roughly 100 stones, it was possibly a burial ground, some stones are local to the nearby quarries, and yet other stones of the inner ring seem to trace to the Preseli Hills in Wales- some 200 miles away. WOW!  (BTW- want some interesting reading on Stonehedge? click.)

Icarus drawingOn this day I always tend to think of the Mythological story of Icarus, because of the sun. It’s a story of hope, and creative imagination at the beginning, unfortunately, turning into sorrow. Somehow this small Greek Myth has always stayed with me, and although it is kind of sad, I have always liked this myth. I think it’s the soaring free, the wings, flying above it all, the innovation of Daedalus and the spirit of Icarus,  that makes me admire this myth. So, on these summer days, where now, unfortunately, the days are getting shorter, there is still a joy and lightness of summer. Right now the day light is approximately five and half hours longer than that opposite day (i.e the winter solstice) and I’ll take it! Hopefully, we all get some soaring time this summer-with projects, friends, families, maybe some journeys, and always some paths with their twists and turns. With a little luck, your melting will be minimum!

The myth of Icarus:

“Icarus was the son of the famous craftsman Daedalus in Greek mythology. His father was the creator of the Labyrinth, a huge maze located under the court of King Minos of Crete, where the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull creature lived. In order for the secret of the Labyrinth to be kept, Minos had then imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus in a tower above his palace. Daedalus managed to create two sets of wings for himself and his son, that were made of feathers glued together with wax. He taught Icarus how to fly and warned him not to fly too high, which would cause the wax to melt, nor too low, which would cause the feathers to get wet with sea water. Together, they flew out of the tower towards freedom. However, Icarus soon forgot his father’s warnings, and started flying higher and higher, until the wax started melting under the scorching sun. His wings dissolved and he fell into the sea and drowned. The area of the sea where he fell took the name Icarian Sea after him, while a nearby island was named Icaria.”

https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Icarus/icarus.html

Four days into 2012, and all is well.

4 days, 96 hours into 2012, 5 days to go until a full moon, and the all is well. Will we make it through another year? I think so! Illustration at end of post.

It seems pretty safe to safe to say the Mayans, who were correct about a lot of things but I think they missed the mark on Doomsday in 2012. “The Mayans speak of a dark rift or galactic plain.  They say that the end of an age, which can bring about world wide catastrophes (but not the end of the world) is caused by the world sitting on the what they call a dark rift.  Modern scientists speak of the earth passing through this dark rift, or galactic equinox or central plain.  This event refers to the cyclic and destructive gravitational influence caused by the massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Some scientists believe that this is behind the increase in magnitude and frequency of earthquakes, floods etc which our world and other planets in the solar system are experiencing… All the so-called “Mayan prophecies of 2012” are nothing more than wildly speculative extrapolations, which are based on the yet uncertain interpretations by scholars of Mayan hieroglyphs. However, the truth is that apart from the astrological convergence, there is little indication that the Mayans prophesied anything specific regarding the events of this distant future. The Mayans were not prophets; they were not even able to predict their own cultural extinction. They were great mathematicians and accomplished sky watchers, but they were also a brutally violent tribal people with a primitive understanding of natural phenomena, subscribing to archaic beliefs and the barbaric practices of blood-letting and human sacrifice.” …

…”DEC 21, 2012, The sun reaches a solstice. With Mayan mythology teaching that our sun is a god and the Milky Way is the gateway to life and death, the Mayans concluded that this intersection in the past must have been the moment of creation. Mayan hieroglyphs seem to indicate that they believed the next intersection in 2012 would be some sort of end and a new beginning of a cycle.”  Info/words from: http://www.endoftheworld2012.net/mayancalendar2012.htm

What do you think? I think not a Doomsday, maybe a cool new beginning? Big change can bring good things too!

All this Mayan chatter got the gang curious…..they traveled to Mexico to see for themselves. Pretty amazing stuff those Mayan built! The steps, the angles, all connect to sun/moon travels. They certainly DID know something!

Chichen Itza - Mayan Temple
All this Mayan talk and some folks decided to head over to Chitzen Itza, a Mayan temple that still stands.