Summer Solstice June 20th 2024
This Tiny Universe
The pinnacle moment has arrived, it's the changing of seasons, another Summer Solstice sun rises at day break. Today is Thursday, June 20th, the day governed by the planet Jupiter or Guru, and marks the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest amount of daylight hours in the year. In the Southern Hemisphere it will be the opposite turning point, as they experience the Winter Solstice. The local time may vary, but the fullness of this moment of transition is experienced across space and time. While the early morning solstice sun blazes over New York cities skylines, nighttime falls in Tokyo.
Each celestial event rings bells through the wide space of this earth, just like how the New Moon, every Moonth, leaves the sky to spend the night with the Sun. The celestial phenomenons that we experience with our senses, we mark as time, we create art for, or we make reverence towards, all hold special significance, as every one of these events has the power to unify the whole world. Every remarkable moment of transition, this dawning Summer Solstice, cascades its magnificence across all three worlds, the earth, sky (atmosphere or space), and heavens (stars)...
Then what is it really, that remains the same beyond these seasonal changes? What is the underlying unifying force of this day?
The Moon gazed down at me and said, The Stars, the stars that the Sun calls home today, shine down at the same moment everywhere. The stars that I (the Moon) call home today, shine beside me in unison at the same moment across all time and space. I move so fast my name means ‘to measure’ says the Moon. But if you can catch me, in that tiny moment, when my whole body glistens over the deep blue nightscape, if you can catch me at Full, you’ll see the same stars as they dot this tiny universe we all call home.
Thank you Sūrya, The Sun, in all your various names and forms, Bhāskara (maker of light), Divākara (maker of the day), Savitṛ (creator), and Tīkṣṇāṃśu (hot-rayed) to name a few.
These open eyes burn because of you alone, this sight, your eternal gift. Only you can light up this world, only you can crack nighttime into day. It is you that has the keys to our home in Heaven. As you journey to sleep you hold open heavens gates, are the stars our ancestors past, watching over us? In your light I could live forever. It is only you that can bridge the heavens to earth, just one big star, held by this tiny universe. May we all return home to you. May we all live in your light.
The four seasonal marker points as they occur against the backdrop of stars today
Attuning Ourselves to the Sky Today
The patterns of the sky, as observed from earth, are not only a marvel to the eyes, but also an essential part of the cosmic rhythm that governs the natural cycles of time. The changing positions of the stars and celestial bodies have played a significant role in shaping the seasons that we live by. Throughout human history, the stars have remained a constant and unconquerable force of nature, serving as an integral component of our existence and our understanding of nature's clock.
To understand seasons, we have to understand the movements of the earth. The earth is making three very notable movements.
It completes one spin on a axis every 24 hours (marking days). The stars rise due east, as the earth spins counter clockwise on its axis. One day was traditionally marked as Sunrise to Sunrise in the ancient world (today much of the world uses midnight). The second notable movement of the earth is its revolution around the Sun every 365 days (marking years). Lastly, and of great significance to the ancients for tracking the seasons is the earths wobble. The earth wobbles like a spinning top marking one massive revolutuion of the earth axis every ~26,000 years!
The axis from which the earth spins, is tilted at a 23.5° angle to the ecliptic, the pancake like plane of our solar system. The North Star, our pole star, is completely still and unmoving, a true meditation master. It is our stationary star because it is the exact point from which the northern axis of the earth spins. There is written record of the pole star being Vega about 12,000 years ago. The southern axis of the earth hits no starry maker point and rests in the blank space of night.
The wobble of the earth is extremely slow and subtle. This creates what we call the precession of the equinoxes. The seasons migrate through the stars ever so slowly at the rate of the earths wobble on its axis. We can observe this on the grand celestial landscape of the solstices and equinoxes drifting backwards through the 12 zodiacal constellations. The 16° degree band of sky that all the planets travel through is paved within theses 12 solar constellations commonly referred to as Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. It is our cosmic highway reverberating through human histories stories of creation and cosmology. Where did we come from? Have we not all been born of these same stars?
Today, the Summer Solstice occurs while the Sun is at ~5° of Gemini. About 2,000 years ago, the Summer Solstice would have occurred at 0° of Cancer, when the Vernal (Spring) Equinox also lined up with 0° of Aries. As the seasons have drifted through our Zodiacal stars, in the present day we now experience the Vernal Equinox occurring at ~5° of Pisces.
To live in resonance with the flow of gross cosmic occurences, is our only marker point for ‘time’. It is like waking during the day and sleeping during the night. Looking up, I feel reverence for the cool light of the Moon, and the hot rayed Sun, our distant friends. For me stargazing is a practice of mindfulness a place to feel the pure presence of what is.
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