So school is back in session. And, while that is exciting, there is a certain amount of tension in the air. It's a good tension, though: that breathless excitement that you get when you realize that you are hurtling toward some unknown destination that is only visible in the periphery. And you are afraid to even try to look at it too closely unless it changes because you looked at it, changes for the worse. But, it is there, and it is big, and there is the sense that if it crumbles it will crush you, even from this distance. Yeah, that kind of feeling.
So, there has been a semi-scheduled break in my tradition classes. I call it semi-scheduled because the scheduling was out of the control of both my teacher and myself. Schedules conflict, and maybe that's a sign that it's time to slow down a little. I am thankful for the break, though, since it allows me to focus on my school work and ensure that I make the grades I need.
But, minds being what they are, the learning process never stops, and I have been kicking around some thoughts with Nymphaea in our free time. She convinced me to post some of what I've been talking to her about on here, so here goes.
Don't kill me, as these are just my own thoughts, though I welcome comments:
The Wheel of the Year is a big concept within the larger pagan community. It symbolizes everything: life, death, love, hate, light, dark; and the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. I posted earlier about how, in my view, the Sabbats were divided into two alternating stories: the story of agriculture, and the story of light. I have been thinking about this, and since everything is a mirror of something else, I feel that these can also be related to people on a personal level as the stories of action and body/spirit. This is where it gets tricky, though. I do not agree that the solstices are the turning point of the solar year from light to darkness or darkness to light. Rather, the equinoxes are the turning points.
I drew this out as a sine wave (because nerd) where the solstices are the highest and lowest points (because they are). I mean, I feel that the longest day is pretty obviously the height of the light half of the year (still talking solar here). This puts the equinoxes halfway between, at the line, 0, the perfect balance between positive and negative. However, there is a downward slope after Midsummer before you get to 0, just as there is an upward slope on the other side of Yule. So, the issue, when looking for turning points, becomes whether you are looking for the light/dark dichotomy or the rising/falling dichotomy (incidentally, this works with the moon phases too, since the full and dark moons are the points of power and the quarters are the turning points) . Because, in the standard interpretations that I have heard, people are looking at the rising/falling dichotomy instead of looking at the tone of the season. This is not the way my inner world works. My magic is as light as it is dark, and I wish to celebrate these halfway points as more important explicitly because they are equal as well.
So, as we approach the equinox, the end of the Light draws near and the time of the Dark is just beginning. Let us move away from the physical growth that occupied our spirits and instead feed those spirits. Let them feast at the table of the Lord of the Underworld and his Dark Lady, for this is where wisdom is gained.
