Today was funny, I read a hilarious announcement about Solstice event planning locally. Only the planners didn't quite get the difference between solstice and equinox, too busy trying to relate it to some zen thing of yin and yang, and internal cells in the body just waiting to be releasing the positive energy called forth by whatever was being planned.
However.
I wanted to post some info about the concept of Solstice. For me, it's a cool one to consider, taking a moment to tune into the earth year and its cycles and all that.
A couple years ago I heard about a Japan-originating practice on the Solstice called Candle Night. You can view the website in English translation by clicking a button on the page there...
Candle Night represents a simple opportunity to slow down and pay attention to what is going on with the earth, and in yourself (summer and winter), and to share insights as points of light via their innovative graphical webpage map of the earth viewed from space at night. Plus there's some cool background ambient sounds to go with it.
The Solstice is the day that, literally, the "Sun stops..." In the case of the winter solstice it is the shortest daylight of the year. From this point on, the days stop getting shorter (even as we head into what we call "winter". Hence the celebrations related to "bringing back the light".
The druids and other prehistoric cultures who watched the sun's journey during the year understood this astronomical calendar in ways we have apparently lost touch with in our modern urban culture.
Examples are amazing to study.
Maeshowe on Orkney in Scotland, and Stonehenge are the most notable archaeo-observatories of which I am aware.
Right here in Ohio we have an amazing record of prehistoric civilization with the mound builder native cultures, who also appear to have understood this intricate dance of the sun and moon quite well.
I believe that if we can appreciate it more ourselves in this modern time, we would gain better insight into our surroundings and earth context (sense of place).
I discovered today that there is actually a Observatory Mound within the Newark Earthworks monument (near the Octagon mound-- the one that's a GOLF COURSE of all things). I find this fascinating, as apparently others have before me.
Wikipedia's entry for the Newark, Ohio area notes:
"During the prehistoric period, Newark was an important center of cultural activity. From 100 BC to 500 AD the Newark area was transformed by the Hopewell culture. They built many earthen mounds, creating the single, largest earthwork complex in the Ohio River Valley. The earthworks covered several square miles. Observatory Mound, Observatory Circle, and the interconnected Octagon span nearly 3,000 feet in length. The Octagon alone is large enough to contain four Roman Coliseums. The Great Pyramid fits inside Observatory Circle precisely. The even larger 1180-foot-wide Newark Great Circle is the largest circular earthwork in the Americas, at least in construction effort. The 8 feet high walls surround a 5 feet deep moat, except at the entrance where the dimensions are even greater and more impressive. Archaeogeodesy and archaeoastronomy research has demonstrated advanced scientific understandings by the prehistoric cultures in the area by analyzing the placements, alignments, dimensions, and site-to-site interrelationships of the earthworks." [source: Wikipedia.org]
On this last topic, I delved deeper on other websites and learned More on the Observatory Mound.
Such as the following tidbits:
..."It's interesting that this implies a regular pattern of activity
of lunar observations at the Octagon, synchronized to the solar year, where
activity is concentrated in the latter half of the year. Note that the
maximum southerly moonrises exhibit a complementary behavior, where they
are only visible during the first part of the year, ending around the
summer solistice. An intriguing idea is suggested by the fact that the
design of the High Bank earthworks near Chillicothe, Ohio, which include a
practical carbon-copy of the Octagon structure, but oriented to the south,
has been shown by Hively and Horn to include the maximum southerly moonrise
azimuth. Thus, as suggested by Hively and Horn, the two earthworks, over
50 miles apart, may be complementary parts of the same observatory. This
speculation is strengthened by the remarkable findings of Brad Lepper,
Archaeology curator of the Ohio Historical Society, who has traced remnants
of a road, marked by two parallel earthen banks, that stretches between the
Octagon and its counterpart at High Bank."
"Using infrared and aerial photographic surveys, Lepper has found more
traces of this road, now all but obliterated by agriculture and other
development. He concludes "that the Great Hopewell Road was a virtually
straight set of parallel walls 60 m apart and extending a distance of 90 km
from the Newark Earthworks to the cluster of Earthworks in the Scioto
Valley centered at modern Chillicothe... The function of the Great Hopewell
Road is unknown, but similar structures built by the Maya were monumental
expressions of politico-religious connections between centers."
"The Octagon was used July through December. The solistices mark "the
changing of the guard" and quite possibly the attendant ceremonies included
a procession along this Hopewellian "Sacra Via," from Chillicothe to Newark
after the summer solistice, and from Newark to Chillicothe after the winter
solistice."
WOW.
I would conclude that the most authentic local solstice observation in Central Ohio, would draw on this ancient prehistoric legacy. The obvious event for December would be held in Newark someplace near the Observatory Earthworks, and could be most properly followed by some sort of symbolic or physical travel to Chilicothe. It might be appropriate to use light signals (fiber optic cable?) to send a message to Chillicothe (Ohio's first state capital), right past the hills that are part of the Great Seal of Ohio. Imagine the prehistoric signal bonfires set on strategic hilltops and prehistoric mounds aligned along the former Hopewell Road....
The new Hopewell Road could be our very own internet, the Information Superhighway.
I would conclude that the most authentic local solstice observation in Central Ohio, would draw on this ancient prehistoric legacy. The obvious event for December would be held in Newark someplace near the Observatory Earthworks, and could be most properly followed by some sort of symbolic or physical travel to Chilicothe. It might be appropriate to use light signals (fiber optic cable?) to send a message to Chillicothe (Ohio's first state capital), right past the hills that are part of the Great Seal of Ohio. Imagine the prehistoric signal bonfires set on strategic hilltops and prehistoric mounds aligned along the former Hopewell Road....
The new Hopewell Road could be our very own internet, the Information Superhighway.
What would today's Solstice message communicate?
How about a big Comma. ,
Go to Candle-Night to send your own solstice message of truth,
to the globe by fiber optic light signals!!
