The Solstices and Equinoctes, long celebrated as natural "turning points" and thus specific Holidays, mark the quarter-moments of one Earth's annual tide. The reference-framework within which these are observed is the Earth-Sun spatial relationship, and this exclusively within the context of: Earth's position in space during the course of one whole rotational-tide of our planet around the Sun, measured as such from one of these four distinct moments of this tidal-rhythm.
Here, the underlying perspective-framework is that of the Earth-Sun system being a purely mechanical phenomenon-process, consisting of these two bodies, of which one is taken as fixed, with the other moving in a circle around it, and which exists "on its own", is defined by itself, and is entirely unrelated to anything whatsoever within the environment in which it exists.
Although somewhat practically useful, this way of perceiving & measuring the Earth's annual tidal rhythm veils from our sight, and keeps us mis-aligned, rather than supporting our ever-increasing attunement-to, the wider Natural rhythms, and serving to reveal, instead of conceal, their actual dynamics (laws-of-motion).
The Sun-Earth system as such does not exist "in a vacuum", isolated-from, or otherwise fundamentally-non-related-to, the rest of the time-space continuum, which we generally know by the term Universe (or Cosmos).
The whole Solar system - our local star the Sun, with its suite of planets and their Moons - is exactly what & how it is, and moves as it does, as part of the Milky Way, our local Galaxy ( - and by "our" here is implied: we Earthlings, and this Solar system we're part of, *belong to it*, not the other way around!).
So, indeed, albeit from the partial, very limited (and fundamentally incorrect) perspective of the Sun-Earth as system "existing on its own" our planet's annual tidal rhythm can be measured & represented via these 4 points we call Equinoctes & Solstices, which simply re-occur over and over again in a repeating-of-the-same circular manner, in truth, the whole Solar system moves around & outwardly-directed-from the center of the Galaxy - *not* in a circular, but open-ended, spiral-expanse motion.
Keeping to the practice of celebrating the four seasonal moments (and this aside from the fact that the four seasons of the climate as such, anywhere on Earth, are now, as phenomenon, becoming entirely obsolete), we keep not only our conscious mind & awareness away from getting more directly attuned to the actuality of rhythms (and existence of it as such, at all!) of the wider context of the Universe, but - and this is of primary importance! - our *subconscious psyche*, and the whole foundational psycho-biological system directly related to it.
Or, in other words: by perpetuating the already-established, ritualized habitual practice (individually & collectively) of moving (and existing) within a framework of a two-dimensional circle, as a perpetuated self-feeding loop of "eternal re-currence of the same" - we keep ourselves (at the primal, deep level, psychologically as well as physically) locked within this pattern, and keep training into dormancy (eventually, to full atrophy) our capacity for attunement with the wider space-time Continuum, the living-moving Cosmic Body of which our Solar system is only one tiny organelle. ... Much like a dog chasing its own tail, or a mouse running on a rotating-wheel, with these 4-seasons Ritual/feast-celebration practice habitualized in a fixed manner, and kept perpetuated as the basic annual Natural-rhythms framework for the celebrations, our inherent capacities of Sight, over time are getting trained out of existence - toward total blindness, such that even merely the potential for Sight eventually gets extinct; instead of becoming increasingly more and more Connected-with and attuned-to the rest of the Universe, we gradually slip into greater and greater isolation from it ...
The movement out of this dead-end-loop is via conscious introduction of new, different Rituals - over time, as the framework of perception of species widens, gradually adjusting our practices which are at the basis of the (individual & collective) Natural-tides-related habit-establishing beat-like movements.
Most of what we can see of the sky here on Earth are the aspects of the time-space continuum belonging to this our local Galaxy.
How exactly is the Center of Milky Way Galaxy connected to other Galactic Centers, we presently do not know. What *is* clear is that the first-next (in the sense of immediacy-proximity for us) hub-like reference-point, akin to how the Sun functions for its planetary-suite company, is our Galactic Center. So, our first next annual-tide-related, habit-establishing, healthy and natural collective step is the introduction of Rituals which are not Earth-Sun-as-isolated-system-in-itself based, but are based on awareness of our Galaxy as our *actual* existence-related Natural framework.
By the calendar system we use to measure time now, the Earth-Sun duo is aligned (and each time in a specific manner so) with the Galactic Center directly twice per year: on (or immediately-next-to) the dates of June 19th and December 19th.
The primary reference used for measuring here is the Zodiac - the starry-belt area of the Ecliptic - defined by the stars of this area themselves, not by the Earth's movement around the Sun (which is the Tropical framework): the Galactic Center is aligned with the 2*07' Sagittarius, so when the Sun comes to this Zodiac position ( ~ December 19th), the Earth is toward-the-other-side (aligned with the ~2* Gemini, observed Heliocentrically), and there is a direct spatial alignment of the Earth-Sun-G.C.; as well as when the Sun is positioned at 2*07' Gemini (~ June 19th) - with this configuration putting the Earth in-line exactly between the Sun itself and the Galactic Center.
... Each time one of these two peculiar configuration-positions of the Sun-Earth system in reference to the core of our local Galaxy happens as event, we're at a different position in the time-space continuum; the Solar System moves on its unique path, in expanse-spiral motion, out-&-further-away from the Galactic Center - path such that each new "step" of it is yet-untraversed, still-uncharted, in truth: yet-unknown - *coming into existence by this motion itself* !
What we, as species, will see of the Infinity thus unfolding depends on how we train our capacities for such sight.
Let our feasts-of-times Rituals be rightly performed - with Joy, in this continuous flight, celebrating Beauty at each next "semestral-stone-step", dancing with our hearts-minds-&-bodies with ever-increasing harmony of attunement to the perfection of Nuit's delight!
[image credit: wiki fandom]
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~ Know Thyself! ~
