astrology of light
The Sun is very largely the GIVER OF LIFE on the planet we call Earth.
Life, at least as we know it and define it, requires a temperate zone that has both liquid water and an atmosphere suitable for breathing. We also know from modern space exploration that temperature is a huge factor in whether a planet can sustain life as we know it, or if it can’t. If a planet is too far from a star, it’s too cold for liquid water. If a planet is too close to a star, volatile gases in the air make it impossible for our lungs to breathe the air.
Just like the porridge in the Goldilocks story, it can’t been too cold and it can’t be too hot. It has to be juuuuuuuuust right.
Of course Heat is not the same thing as Light. But Heat and Light are closely related. And in the natural world, little creates Heat like LIGHT.
Without the right amount of LIGHT from a nearby star, the chances of any planet having a temperate enough climate to sustain life is virtually none. Without LIGHT we would be blind. Without LIGHT no plants could grow. Without LIGHT, even if we could manage to survive as a race for any extended length of time, what we think of as “life” would be very, very, very different.
So the importance of LIGHT for human beings cannot be over-estimated.
the astrology of light
Each DAY is a Cycle of Light.
We each are aware of Sunrise, and Noon, and Sunset, and Midnight. We all understand these four segments of every day have unique qualities. And above all else, we all know what separates them is the Light.
We know that that when the sun rises the day will gradually become brighter, the Light will gradually get stronger. And usually the day will get warmer as the sun rises over the horizon line and gradually makes it way to what appears to us to be the “center” of the sky – directly overhead at the true noon hour.
That of course is why noon is called “High Noon.” The sun is at its highest place in the sky at noon. Noon is the height of daylight. Noon is halfway between the time the sun rises over the horizon at Sunrise and the time the sun sinks below the horizon at Sunset later in the day. The heat of the day tends to follow in the hours after noon, as the heat from the Light is collected by the Earth’s surface and it warms the mass we live upon, the heat is multiplied.
As the sun begins sinking in the sky after the Noon point, we know Sunset is coming. As many hours as it took to get from Sunrise to Noon, that’s exactly how long it takes to go from Noon to Sunset. It’s a visible process.
From Sunrise to Sunset is what we call “Day-time.” It is during this period there is Light.
And then beginning at Sunset, the other half of the cycle is completed. From Sunset to Sunrise is what we call “Night-time.” And during this period there is No Light. (At least not for us.) Now it’s an invisible process.
Since the Sun is no longer visible to us during “Night-time,” we may not realize that it takes exactly as long to get from Sunset to Midnight as it does to get from Midnight to Sunrise. And in the exact mirror-reverse of Noon, at Midnight the sun is as far away from the middle of our visible sky as it can get. The sun is literally on the other side of the planet…at least from the Earth-centric position of human beings riding around a single solar system on this planet.
The Cycle of Light in a single day is divided into four quadrants with the most visible moments along dividing lines of the wheel: SUNRISE to NOON to SUNSET to MIDNIGHT. And then from MIDNIGHT to SUNRISE, beginning the Great Wheel all over again.
This Cycle of Light occurs and re-occurs in every 24-hour period, each and every day.
Each YEAR is a Cycle of Light, too.
You can think of it in a very similar way to the Cycle of Light we see each day, day in and day out.
Instead of a 24-hour day, we now deal with a 365-day year. The quadrants now become seasons.
Instead of SUNRISE to NOON we have the VERNAL EQUINOX to the SUMMER SOLSTICE. The sun is rising higher in the sky in the daily cycle. And the days are getting longer in the annual cycle. But both are times of increasing light.
Just as the sun is at its brightest at high NOON in the daily Cycle of Light, in the annual Cycle of Light, the SUMMER SOLSTICE is the brightest day of the year because it has the most hours of sunlight and the fewest hours of darkness or any day during the year. This is true every year not matter what year it is. No matter where the planets are. No matter what sign the Moon is in. NOON and the SUMMER SOLSTICE are the brightest in the Cycle of Light. LIGHT is at its zenith. The SUMMER SOLSTICE marks the longest “day” of the year and has the shortest night.
Then instead of NOON to SUNSET in the daily cycle, we have the SUMMER SOLSTICE to the AUTUMNAL EQUINOX in the annual cycle. The sun is getting lower in the sky in the daily cycle. And in the annual cyctle, the days begin to get shorter and shorter. Both are times of decreasing light after the zenith.
And then instead of SUNSET to MIDNIGHT, we have the AUTUMNAL EQUINOX to the WINTER SOLSTICE. In the daily cycle we can’t see the sun, but the sky continues to get darker during this period because the sun is going as far “away” from where we are on the planet as it gets. In the annual cycle, we can see the amount of daylight is gradually decreasing and the days are getting shorter and shorter. Both of these are times of continued decreasing light.
In the same way that midnight is the darkest time of the daily Cycle of Light, the WINTER SOLSTICE is the darkest day of the year. The sun is at its nadir, as far from directly overhead as it gets. The day of the WINTER SOLSTICE has the least amount of LIGHT in the year because it has the fewest hours of daylight of any day in the year. And it has the most hours of darkness. The day of the WINTER SOLSTICE is the shortest “day” of the year, with the longest night.
From the darkest day of the year at the WINTER SOLSTICE, the sun can do nothing but increase in light.
So finally, instead of the daily cycle from MIDNIGHT to SUNRISE, the annual cycle’s mirror of the cycle is from the WINTER SOLSTICE to to the VERNAL EQUINOX. Both cycles are increasing in light from the darkest point.
So where does the ASTROLOGY part come in you may be thinking.
All astrology is about cycles.
Whether it’s a a Mars cycle or a Saturn cycle or a Rahu cycle, cycles are the bedrock of all systems of Astrology.
LIGHT clearly has cycles too.
And these LIGHT cycles have deep meaning for humans. Sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously.
There’s a conscious, external, visible, textual, and objective meaning to the Cycle of Light.
And there’s also a subconcious, internal, invisible, emotional, and subjective meaning to the Cycle of Light.
Half of the cycle itself is visible and half of the cycle is invisible. At least to any one person standing on the planet.
In the visible external, we consciously know waning of the Light has a meaning. We learn that as the days get shorter, the temperatures will gradually become colder. Even the squirrels key off of the Cycle of Light and know to start storing nuts for the coming winter as the Light wanes. We humans usually don’t store nuts, but we may can fruit from the summer, we trim our hedges, we pull out our winter sweaters, we winterize the pipes. We prepare for the coming darkness and the days of sparsity.
And of course in the other half of the year, as the Light is growing, we intuit the meaning of increasing Light as well. Just in different ways.
But there is deeper, esoteric message in these annual Cycles of Light that roots back to Ancient Wisdom Schools.
And that’s where the ASTROLOGY OF LIGHT comes into play.
There is wisdom in the LIGHT for those who take the time to notice the natural world. There is much to be learned and much internal growth for those who see and appreciate the quality of LIGHT and its mystical cycles.
Don’t get caught up in the name. The ASTROLOGY OF LIGHT goes by many names.
Some call it the Wheel of Light or the Wheel of the Year or the Celtic Calendar of the Wheel of Life or the Wheel of Days. The names are countless. Even just in English.
Some systems largely concentrate on four dates — the two solstices and the two equinoxes. But most recognize eight dates each year as significant.
And what may surprise you, the “minor dates,” possibly dates you’ve never heard of before, that fall between the solstices and equinoxes are considered the most powerful times of the year in Wisdom teachings. And also possibly to your surprise, you’ll find the Astrology of Light shows us the seasons don’t actually start when most printed calendars say they do.
So be patient. Your frame of reference may change. That’s what Wisdom Teachings are for.
From this post forward, we will systematically unearth THE ASTROLOGY OF LIGHT by looking in-depth at how these great cycles of light operate in our lives and how we can learn from them by living in harmony with the LIGHT. And you will note that we will alternately refer to the nuts and bolts of the Astrology of Light as the Quarter Suns & Cross-Quarters or simply as the Great Eight.
20 November 2022
-an excerpt from Living in the Light: the Astrology & Wisdom of Quarter Suns & Cross-Quarters
copyright 2022 Sonrisa East