Since ancient times the solstices and equinoxes have been celebrated by people around the world. Why?
In our urbanized lifestyles wherein we often cannot see the stars, the moon and even the sun, and where nature is replaced by steel and concrete, we might ask ourselves this question: why all the buzz around the Solstices (and Equinoxes)? Why the buzz around a new moon or the full moon?
Even the diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis, producing day and night is largely obscured by the artificial day of electric lights.
In general, it seems most people are out of touch with the influences of sun, moon and our earth’s rotation.
Counsel given us since time immemorial describes these planetary influences upon our lives. Think of the ancient art of astrology!
For those of us who meditate, for example, we are told that it is beneficial to meditate at points throughout the day such as dawn, noon, dusk and/or midnight. The solstices and equinoxes are said to be excellent times for personal retreat and reflections. But, again, why?
The principal point is such counsel has to do with stillness.
The universe, you see, is abuzz with energy and motion. Indeed, movement is ceaseless. Yet life would be intolerable without respite; without sleep; without a pause between activities.
In stillness, at rest, and in quiet, we rise to varying degrees above the ceaseless flux of change. It is as an observer, standing apart from activity, that we can feel our changeless Self. As thoughts appear suddenly from nowhere; as sub-atomic particles pop into space and time; as we are born from nowhere and leave this world into what seems to be no-thing, so it that in stillness we touch the hem of Infinity out of which all energy and objects emerge. Each week we intone a song in the Ananda Festival of Light that begins “Out of the silence came the song of creation!”
When the sun, moon and earth achieve certain positions (daily or four times a year), their combined influence produces a hushed stillness in the ether of energy and consciousness. In that relative stillness, humans gather intuitively in peace and harmony, because in stillness our differences cease to be, even if but momentarily.
Hence the many holidays that take place around the solstices and equinoxes.
Is there a particular meaning or significance to the solstices and equinoxes individually? Each has its traditional agricultural and cyclical significance but even as such, each stands as a symbol for the journey of the soul.
Here are some thoughts taken from traditional sources using modern concepts and languages:
- The summer solstice is the longest day of the year; it is the day with the most sunlight. Summer is when nature is alive with energy not just from the sun but from the sun as a symbol of Life itself from its Divine source. Paramhansa Yogananda stated that the Sun is the symbol of the Spiritual Eye (the “Third Eye”) which beholds the Spirit within creation and from which all creation is born, sustained and withdrawn. Science has concluded–as the rishis of East and West have always claimed–that all matter is a form of Energy. The saints go further and say that the energy behind matter is guided invisibly by the creative Intelligence of Spirit, the “only begotten of the Father (who is beyond and untouched by creation). In energy we are One! We therefore celebrate life, vitality, energy and creativity as a divine manifestation in which all beings and all life partake.
- The winter solstice is a day with the least amount of sunlight. Here, rather than be afraid and huddling in the cold, we come together to affirm the inner Light of Spirit as our true source of life. Tradition has it that the winter solstice celebrates the fact that from this point forward sunlight will increase each day heralding the coming of Spring. However, its alignment with the birth of Jesus Christ is just one indication that a deeper meaning can be found in considering that the outer darkness in the world around us can be dispelled by the inner light of the soul. The soul reflects the universal Spirit in every atom of creation (the innate intelligence of which Yogananda called the Christ or Krishna consciousness) and at the time of outer darkness we come together to be reminded of the true, inner light of the soul.
- The Spring equinox celebrates the outer fact of Spring but also the power and potential of the soul’s resurrection from error, sin, delusion and darkness. Thus, it is aligned with the celebration of Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Spring reflects back to us the beauty and perfection of the soul’s perfection.
- The Fall equinox celebrates the harvest of the good fruits of our labor. It also heralds the season of reflection as, like leaves turning brown and falling to the ground, we detach ourselves from the fruits of our labors and from the myriad self-definitions which may have served us well in the outer world, but which, in the end, confine the expansive and eternal spirit of the soul-Self within. All things must pass and Fall signals that it is time to withdraw from the outer world.
The solstices and equinoxes, therefore, are moments of pause in nature, in the large bodies whose energies influence our bodies and minds. At such times we can, if sensitive to these energies, feel their calming presence and we can take advantage of their reflective gift of soul insights.
[Saturday, June 22, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Ananda Community of Lynnwood (near Seattle WA USA) celebrates the Summer Solstice with an Open House and summer faire. Ananda Community Summer Solstice & Open House – Ananda Washington ]