Solstice and equinox

The earth's axis is tilted at 23.5° from the vertical (that is, compared to its orbit around the sun), and this produces some noticeable effects, chiefly the seasons and their varying hours of daylight.

The Solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest point in its apparent yearlong course across the equator and back down. And the equinoxes are the two middle or “equal” points that the Sun hits as it goes up and down across the ecliptic as we see it from the Earth.  The Equinoxes are the exact days when the day and night are of equal length.

THE VERNAL EQUINOX

The vernal equinox is usually around March 20^th each year and marks the beginning of “spring” as we commonly call it.  This is astrologically the beginning of the sign of Aries, “the ram”, and the beginning of the Sun’s course through the Zodiac again. Days become long and nights small.

THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX

The autumnal equinox is the exact opposite point of the solar path, and marks the first day of “Fall” or “Autumn”, and is astrologically the first day of the sign of Libra, “the scales”.  Libra is the sign of the balancing scales, and that should make sense to us as we now know that this is the middle point, or “balancing point” of the zodiac. Days get smallerr and nights longer.

THE WINTER SOLSTICE (Dakshinayan)

This brings us to the Solstices.  December 20th or 21st is the shortest day of the year, where the Sun is seen from Earth’s perspective as being the furthest away and dimmest that it will be. This winter solstice point is astrologically the first day of Capricorn, the goat-fish in western tradition, and the crocodile in the Indian tradition.  Both symbols represent the same energy of coming from darkness into more light.  The crocodile is often half submerged when seen, and lays low but can be quite powerful and fearsome when it moves up onto dry land.  This fits the nature of this time, when the Sun is most hidden, but is beginning to make its journey towards more light. 

THE SUMMER SOLSTICE (Uttarayan)

After 6 months of the Sun moving north, it reaches its peak of northern movement on the summer solstice on June 21st.  This is the brightest day of the year, and the Sun is as far north as it will ever be.  For 3 days the Sun stays at about that same place, just like the opposite winter solstice. Then on June 25th, the Sun actually starts descending and moving south.  This is astrologically known as the sign of Cancer, the crab.  And as crabs are easily seen to side-step as they move, this is exactly how the Sun behaves here

These four major points that correlate to Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn are places where the Sun and the Earth are in an alignment, and so naturally we would assume that these signs would have importance.

This is why, as these four signs are called the “cardinal” or “chara” (changeable) signs.  These cardinal signs are naturally the most active, and the most changeable.  This makes sense, as these are the actual points where the sun “changes” its course.  The Sun represents the “Soul of All”, or Saarva Atman.  Logically it makes sense that if these signs are where the Soul of everything changes its course, the people born under that sign will also be more likely to change course throughout life, and be more comfortable with change

 

In the Northern Hemisphere:

At winter, in December, the days are at their shortest and the nights are at their longest. This is called the Winter Solstice.

At midsummer, in June, the days are at their longest, and the nights are at their shortest. This is called the Summer Solstice.

Between the two extremes there is a day (one in spring, and one in autumn) where day and night are equal in length that is 12 hours each. Each of these days is called an equinox:

March 21st is the spring (or Vernal) Equinox,

September 21st is the Autumn Equinox.