I grew up in Indiana where we didn't do it for the first 16 years or so of my life. I hate it and it messes me up. But I was thinking about one of your essays recently where you talked about clock time and capitalism having to inure us to clock time...and then I realized that part of the reason it messes me up so much is actually because I am so inured to the clock. If I were in sync with the Sun then it wouldn't matter so much what the clock said.
Personally, I love the summer change, but that’s also because I’m a late-day person and anyway work from home. When my husband would have to wake hours before sunrise without the winter change, I then understand the other opinion.
It’s exactly as you say, the problem is the clock and how we have to measure our activities against machines rather than the light.
As a Southern Hemispherean, I notice a tendency of some Northern Hemisphereans to speak as if their seasons are universal. (Here, we are going into Autumn.) Weirdly, too, in the Antipodes Northern Festivals such as Christmas and Easter are celebrated arse-backwards, in the opposite seasons to their original ones, which I feel is bad magic. One thing I love about Equinoxes is that they are a kind of meeting in the middle: the Northern and Southern Hemisphere briefly equalise, with a mirrored set of day and night lengths, before swinging away from each other again.
I'm from Europe but spent half of my childhood in the tropics and then moved to Australia after 15yrs of living in Europe as an adult. I'm a Christian and have really enjoyed intentionally playing with the symbolism of my family's Christian festivals to reflect the difference in seasons. One of my favourite times of the year is now Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, originally a Jewish Harvest festival, today a public holiday in Europe that hardly anyone celebrates. I run with the fire symbol of the New Testament (the coming of the holy spirit) and so we use lots of candles (which really don't fit with a hot summer Christmas), cook a simple meal on an open fire (can't do that in the summer due to bushfires), light sparklers and also use the colourful autumn leaves to decorate.
I wasn't prepared for how different Easter feels in autumn (death) vs spring (life) but love the quieter more reflective feel of it now. The bursting forth from the grave is no less triumphal but somehow more bittersweet, as nature moves towards rest. Of course, even as the trees loose their leaves the grass which dies in the summer heat begins to grow again and so there is both death and life as the two cross each other.
Anyhow, just some thoughts I had upon reading your response to Rhyd. The southern hemisphere always moves in its own rhythm, somehow out of step and yet still perfectly atuned to the world. I love it.
I'm so looking forward to the course, which I enrolled in on an Impulse just after my partner died. Even the moon gazing homework has been enormously helpful in experiencing my grief and accepting it as a normal part of life, if a very painful one.
To anyone else who hasn't decided yet, join me on the journey. (I may have to miss a bit as I'm off camping for the Australian Easter, in a down to earth festival, but I'm sure I'll still be able to do the reading and homework. )
So choose for yourself, even if you've been pagan for years and done heaps of other courses. Let's learn from Rhyd and each other.
Do you have any thoughts on Daylight Saving Time?
I grew up in Indiana where we didn't do it for the first 16 years or so of my life. I hate it and it messes me up. But I was thinking about one of your essays recently where you talked about clock time and capitalism having to inure us to clock time...and then I realized that part of the reason it messes me up so much is actually because I am so inured to the clock. If I were in sync with the Sun then it wouldn't matter so much what the clock said.
Yeah exactly.
Personally, I love the summer change, but that’s also because I’m a late-day person and anyway work from home. When my husband would have to wake hours before sunrise without the winter change, I then understand the other opinion.
It’s exactly as you say, the problem is the clock and how we have to measure our activities against machines rather than the light.
Happy Equinox Rhyd!
As a Southern Hemispherean, I notice a tendency of some Northern Hemisphereans to speak as if their seasons are universal. (Here, we are going into Autumn.) Weirdly, too, in the Antipodes Northern Festivals such as Christmas and Easter are celebrated arse-backwards, in the opposite seasons to their original ones, which I feel is bad magic. One thing I love about Equinoxes is that they are a kind of meeting in the middle: the Northern and Southern Hemisphere briefly equalise, with a mirrored set of day and night lengths, before swinging away from each other again.
I'm from Europe but spent half of my childhood in the tropics and then moved to Australia after 15yrs of living in Europe as an adult. I'm a Christian and have really enjoyed intentionally playing with the symbolism of my family's Christian festivals to reflect the difference in seasons. One of my favourite times of the year is now Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, originally a Jewish Harvest festival, today a public holiday in Europe that hardly anyone celebrates. I run with the fire symbol of the New Testament (the coming of the holy spirit) and so we use lots of candles (which really don't fit with a hot summer Christmas), cook a simple meal on an open fire (can't do that in the summer due to bushfires), light sparklers and also use the colourful autumn leaves to decorate.
I wasn't prepared for how different Easter feels in autumn (death) vs spring (life) but love the quieter more reflective feel of it now. The bursting forth from the grave is no less triumphal but somehow more bittersweet, as nature moves towards rest. Of course, even as the trees loose their leaves the grass which dies in the summer heat begins to grow again and so there is both death and life as the two cross each other.
Anyhow, just some thoughts I had upon reading your response to Rhyd. The southern hemisphere always moves in its own rhythm, somehow out of step and yet still perfectly atuned to the world. I love it.
Another illuminating and wonderful post, you've led a well travelled and awesome life Rhyyd. Happy Vernal Equinox
I'm so looking forward to the course, which I enrolled in on an Impulse just after my partner died. Even the moon gazing homework has been enormously helpful in experiencing my grief and accepting it as a normal part of life, if a very painful one.
To anyone else who hasn't decided yet, join me on the journey. (I may have to miss a bit as I'm off camping for the Australian Easter, in a down to earth festival, but I'm sure I'll still be able to do the reading and homework. )
So choose for yourself, even if you've been pagan for years and done heaps of other courses. Let's learn from Rhyd and each other.