Lunar Standstill: Returning to the Cradle of Civilization

Full Moon Perigee—Eclipse @ Moment of Moonrise—California PDTime—Four Nights of Light

Earth and Moon in Eclipse–rarer than 18.6-year wobble at Standstill—courtesy SOHO

When the Ancients calculated ahead in time to the most spectacular tracking through the Heavens visible to the ‘greatest number of peoples of Earth’, it was foretold, we should all become visionaries. 2012 received much kudos and focus, but what if the Maya Long Count Calendar were three years out? What if the Egyptian and Assyrian and Indo-Arctic peoples were right, after all?

Tonight’s the Night, Josephine
Tonight it all comes into coalescence:
In North America at least, because of wide television and media publicity, a huge surge of population will raise their eyes to view the ‘closest blood moon’ to come our way. Actually, media moguls are only partially right: it is the closest to Earth—perigee—in the moon’s orbit round us for this year, but it is also the closest—cosmically—in breaking time-space barriers that will come our way once in a long time.* Tonight’s full moon—appearing most spectacularly in California at her stage entrance in the east, as she enters total eclipse AND as the sun is setting due west–is the crux of the 2015 Minor Lunar Standstill.

Now and over four nights the Harvest Moon will appear to rise and set at roughly the same place—and within moments of the same hour—on our east horizon, setting due west at dawn—in concert with sunrise— under identical conditions. Tonight’s total eclipse is a bonus of the Standstill.**

Closeness to Earth may appear to add vibration to her brightness.

Full equinoctial Standstill Moon Eclipse at moment totality breached, Sept. 27/28, 2015, courtesy Gail Slaughter

As for the tides, wow. Similar extremes: as high as seven feet; then ultra lows less than the ‘normal ‘six hours apart. Even the fishermen are confused. But abalone love moonlight.
*PDT Moon enters eclipse at Moonrise 7:11p.m. exits totality after approx. one hour, 8:11p.m. or: enters totality beginning at 10:11 p.m. EDT, ends at 11:24 p.m. EDT.

Ancient Man thought the Moon had come to a nineteen-year cyclical Standstill. Its so-called wobble created an enormous spread of cultural carvings in stone throughout the Neolithic world.

Are we any wiser for our anthropocine leap through time?

Twenty thousand years ago—18,000 B.C.—myth and legend were one. Man looked to the heavens for guidance and to check the weather, and then went out and found another flesh-eating animal to kill and cook on the sacred fire embers.

We may believe civilization has evolved way beyond that amygdalian impetus, but in the opinion of Maya calendrical scholar and astronomy buff, John Major Jenkins, we have barely scratched the surface of ‘civilization’.

SEPTEMBER REMEMBER, OCTOBER ALL OBER

Shifing aurora borealis erupt over Anchorage AK 9/19/15 at height of CME storm

Current notions about cultural evolution refers to a type of social Darwinism in which human society today is supposed to be hierarchically more refined and advanced in every essential way than our grunting? dirty, cave dwelling, ‘primitive’ Neolithic ancestors. This view is naïve; compare life in a typical Third World urban slum of today with the cosmopolitan city dwellers of Alexandria 2,000 years ago. Technology and science is not the barometer of cultural sophistication. Social Darwinism has entered the realm of cliché, although still to a surprising degree it holds currency in the underlying assumptions of many people, including scholars—John Major Jenkins on preface to Hamlet’s Mill de Santillana & von Dechend 1969

Heavenly intervention—in the form of repeat eclipses—is an aspect of Metonic cycle that has always intrigued.

As the sun, moon and earth return to the same relative positions, the pattern of eclipses of moon and earth repeats every nineteen years. A six-hour difference in the lunar draconic cycle, however, is enough to throw the eclipse repeatability out of kilter, but up to four eclipses may repeat around the same dates nineteen years apart, before this happens.

Lunar standstill calendar, NatiMuseum of American Indian, Washington DC

June—too soon
July—stand by
August—come it must
September—remember
October—all over
Hurricane ‘creation’ rhyme, Bahamas 1940s, now outdated, outclassed by year-round storms

ANCIENT OF DAYS—AUTUMN EQUINOX 2015—Repeating the Cosmic Loop—Eclipse, Standstill Harvest Lunar Wobble

Four dominant periods* are 18.6 years—the precession period of the lunar orbit— and 182.6 days or half a year; 13.7 days or half a month, and 9.3 years—the rotation period of the moon’s return to perigee.

The primary nutation of 18.6 years drives two other observational cycles:
the Saros cycle (18 years, 11 days) and
the Metonic Cycle (19 years)

2015 Eclipse Solar Lunar Cycles replicate Ancient Egyptian Astronomy
The great Zodiac of Dendera at Luxor, established during Roman rule 50B.C. and superimposed on the archaic Egyptian temple to Hathor, celebrated the wobbling moon.

The cause of this weird wobble cycle is the precession of the lunar orbit around us, on Earth.

Photographed from ISS: our galaxy, our planet, our moon in eclipse—surrounded by AIRGLOW

The Sun’s gravitational pull also brings about a precession of the Moon’s orbital axis, within a period of 18.6 years. Precession advances locations at points where the moon’s orbit crosses the ecliptic—at the nodes.

Maximum moonrise and moonset invariably repeat every nineteen years.

Literally, after exactly nineteen solar years the sun will return to the same position relative to the stars—our view of the heavens—and the moon will have nearly the same phase—with a two-hour difference in its cycle.

Significantly, repeat eclipses will occur on the new or full moon nearest to the sun’s passing through one of the nodes.

Sun + Moon conjunct astral nodes. Ancient eclipse prediction practice returns equinox 2015 to surprise skywatchers

This sacred numeric calculation was much appreciated by the Egyptians, followed by the Greeks, Carthaginians and all early northern peoples, including pre-Celtic Arctic nations. As the dates of the new moon, full moon, would repeat every nineteen years, it naturally fell within cultural knowledge of the privileged. It became ‘mystery schools‘ fodder.

For any given solar calendar date, full Moon events will replicate every nineteen years.

This creates a cyclic loop back to pre-Celtic mythic nineteen Priestesses of Bridget/Brigantia. Each of these individual priestesses represented a character or experience associated with nineteen components of the Great Lunar Year. This relationship creates an excellent basis for cyclic pattern divinations.

*Lunar Standstills
Because of the 5.1 degree tilt of the moon’s orbit with respect to the ecliptic, the moon may be anywhere within 5.1 degrees above or below the ecliptic. During major standstills the moon reaches a declination of 23.5 plus 5.1 degrees or 28.6 degrees; major standstills occur every 18.6 years. At minor standstill the greatest declination that the moon reaches is 23.5 minus 5.1 degrees or 18.4 degrees.

Antikythera—Ancient Astronomical Prediction Device

Antikythera 2000-year old Greek analog computer geared to predict astronomical positions of sun, moon, major planets and constellations. Eclipses were used for calendrical and astrological divination for the Olympiads, 86B.C.

This means that every 18.6 years, the rising or setting Moon reaches a northern extreme in rising and setting azimuth at summer solstice, and a southern extreme at winter solstice. These are called major standstills. While such standstills can in principle be determined using horizon observations, as with the summer solstice Sun the Moon’s year-to-year angular displacement along the horizon at summer solstice is very small near standstill. It should be noted that 18.6 years is measured from the point of view of the lunar orbit. Observationally, from the Earth’s surface, the length of time between two major standstills is not 18.6 years: it switches back and forth between 18.5 and nineteen years, with 18.6 years a modern observational average.

Post Scriptum In Death We are in Life The Hajj Stampede
It is with regret that we observe the panic-related crush of death which came this week in Thursday’s New Moon pilgrimage—Hajj—to the Saudi shrine of Shrines. Ancient texts note death and life are one. Yet our condolences nonetheless.

Hilal [waxing lunar crescent]—First ‘New Moon’ Sighting sends Seven Hundred to their Death

Hajj—pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia—annually calculated to fall on waxing lunar cycle

2015’s Hajj—Pilgrimage of self-denial after month of fasting during Ramadan. Many believers were delirious with joy, even at the concept of being within sight of the shrine, staggering to follow fellow devotees in the sacred circumambulation of their faith’s most hallowed Mosque. Yesterday’s unfortunate panic—two fully locomotive swirling streams of humanity colliding at an intersection in the holy city—crushed and killed 736, leaving for dead thousands of adherents and lost family members in an Arab/Persian/Islamic nightmare.

With life so precious, may we all enjoy the miraculous Antikythera provided by the Heavens tonight and for the next few…
…millennia.
With gratitude
©2015Siderealview ©Marian Youngblood
Equinox 2015

Crop Circles 2012: Archive Retrieval from our own Consciousness

Yarnbury, on A303 to Stonehenge: 2012's second crop circle in oil seed rape--canola--photo courtesy Steve Alexander

“Now it begins… needles and pins…” Miss Toni Fisher The Big Hurt

The 2012 Crop Circle season is a little late, but it is underway. This Wiltshire pattern arrived in a night of heavy rain, after a month of downpours, but showing no sign of crop abuse (stalks intact); more rain since then has, however, had an impact. Britain’s second crop design for the season appeared in oil seed rape, at Yarnbury Castle, Winterbourne Stoke near Stonehenge, last Saturday–April 28th–on the same day as European-African swallows returned en masse to their British breeding grounds.

Alton Priors Code-tailed Swallow crop circle of June 2009 has never been 'decoded'

It is an interesting coincidence that one of several crop designs imprinted in code–one which the ‘experts’ have yet to decode–is the gigantic swallow crop circle of June 27th, 2009 at Alton Priors. It appeared one year after–and in the same field as–a herald swallow, without coded tail.

world communications fracture?

We have blogged before on the archetypal swallow and its significance in all northern cultures. It symbolized loyalty, faith, honor, love, hope and safe return. In this post on swallow symbolism, many cultures look to the bird as a representative of the light.

On the other hand, code has been penetrating our consciousness shields in other ways…

Even before the European crop circle season began, on April 15th at East Kennett, the honor again fell to Hidalgo province, Mexico, to lead the crop circle world in astonishment, as overnight a ten-acre wheatfield was used as a cosmic database whiteboard, like a screenshot from ‘The Matrix’. Mexican authorities and croppies worldwide are still trying to untangle the web of “alien” words imprinted in the ripening grain, which delighted computer code freaks, who set about converting it into electronic instructions. Locals in the northern suburb were delighted to be the ones to witness the formations being made, reporting lights descending during the night, and ‘buzzing’ while the crop was being imprinted. When the field was monitored next morning, readings of great fluctuations in heat, and sparking electromagnetic static were measured and recorded. The team’s compasses didn’t work, and the local farmers’ cows wouldn’t give milk the following day.

When Tula-Iturbe Farmers noticed that the code embedded in growing wheat was allowing the crop to continue to grow, as, according to the young reporter, none of the stems in the whole field was broken, they were even more convinced that they were being singled out for a cosmic message. “The writing in the field happened in such a short time and there was no noise except for the light sparks”, admitted one resident.

The event occurred on the night of February 27th, 2012 during the Mexican festival to celebrate the national flag–Dia de la Bandera. Rural Tula-Iturbe is a northern satellite community of Tula de Allende, the city famed for standing within the bounds of ancient Toltec capital, Tollan-Xicocotitlan, see this report on last year’s crop circles that appeared in Tula at equinox–one of Mexico’s most celebrated festivals.

World communications blackout?
The Winterbourne Stoke glyph could not be more different from the Mexican formation; but its small, contained design is somewhat similar to the logo for one of Earth’s largest telecommunications corporations. It is tempting to suggest that the positioning of the crop design so that the middle axis lies across one of the tractor ‘tramlines’, enhances the fracture between left and right curves, positioned offset from one another–and emphasized by the median (machine-made) line. Given the remarkable recovery of our sun from solar minimum of a few years ago, its recent active storms, plasma CMEs–coronal mass ejections–of almost weekly M- or X-class flare [alerts on the NOAA solar-geomagnetic indicator, sidebar right] producing subsequent electronic disturbances and power outages; it is a short mental leap to seeing the Winterbourne Stoke design as shorthand for a breakdown in world communications; and it is too much of coincidence that the ‘logo’ appeared only twenty miles due south of that estimable telecoms corporation’s British headquarters in the ancient Wessex burgh of Malmesbury; but I run ahead of myself…

Astrolabe crop circle below Milk Hill, solstice week 2009, appeared in three phases, the tail code manifesting last; its message remains undecoded

Celestial happenings in 2012
Solar disturbances aside, there are several other events in the heavenly lineup for 2012, not least the long-awaited transit of Venus on June 6th:
May 4th: partial lunar eclipse, visible off Mexico
May 5th: full ‘supermoon‘, closest to earth (perigee at 221,000 miles instead of usual quarter-million mile distance);therefore “large”
May 4th-5th peak of Eta Aquarids, meteor shower from debris of Halley’s comet
May 14th first standstill Venus during retrograde loop
May 20th annular eclipse of Sun, visible in Pacific states and western U.S.*
June 4th partial lunar eclipse, visible Asia N.America
June 6th transit of Venus and Inferior Conjunction
November 13th 2012 total solar eclipse in which sun and moon align with head of the Serpent (constellation Serpens), visible only in Pacific Polynesia
November 18th Solar system conjunct dark ridge Galactic Center
Nov 28 partial (penumbral) lunar eclipse.

*Alone, May’s annular eclipse (sun’s disk not totally occluded) will stimulate response from thousands of daytime viewers, as the path of the phenomenon starts early afternoon on the Oregon/NoCal border, moving through Nevada, Utah and Arizona, passing in late afternoon over a corner of Colorado, New Mexico, and ending at sunset in Texas. But then, two weeks later, tens of thousands will be geared up to watch the rare transit of Venus‘s solitary disk, as it crosses in front of the sun, from our earth-view–highest visibility in NW Pacific states. This paired event will not happen again this century.

Twelve-petalled flower motif at Hill Barn, East Kennett, April 15th, 2012, in canola

At the beginning of a season, it is easy to lapse into speculation of how the soon-to-come surprises will impact our consciousness: for a group awareness now exists, watching as this long-heralded year opens its doors to never-before seen messages in the corn. If one believes that Consciousness creates Reality; then to no small degree the Crop Circle Community, worldwide, combines its anticipation–swallow-code: hope, expectation–to ‘create’ whatever comes next. It is only our preoccupation with the external measurement of Time which is seen by our logical conscious mind as a hurdle to understanding what our subconscious is already working away merrily on.

To a degree, that scenario completely ignores the fact that the Earth herself, a biological, pulsing, cohesive, supportive (sentient) being, may be capable of sparking electromagnetic vortices–like the subterranean aquifer of Wiltshire-Salisbury Plain–into producing high sonic, low-resolution heat, electrostatic charges which twist and manipulate plant stems into ethereal forms.

However potent is Earth’s own energy, it is on record that previous crop circle groups have combined their meditations/expectations of a design, willing it to appear; and been gratified when something close to their dream manifested.

2012 is already hyped as Apocalypse, EndTimes, Rebirth, New Aquarian Age, but it is also the time when the Maya predicted we would renew ourselves as a (human) race; when their Great Cycle would climax, and it would feel to us like ‘coming home’–their and the Hopi’s ‘Return of the Ancestors‘.

the alternate view...

Whichever way you see this exciting new start in Wiltshire: as a simple manufactured work of art by fairies, or aliens without human feet; as electromagnetic current produced by the conductive Wiltshire limestone aquifer; or as a physical manifestation of our own human Group Consciousness; I believe that, at some timeless level, we are retrieving our own memory archives, our own record of our growth together as a world society: delving into the Akashic Records to pull out yet another surprise season of meaningful designs which will keep much of humanity on the edge of its seats for the rest of the performance.
©2012 Siderealview

Galactic Center calling Earth: Blue Moon signal; pick up please

December Full Moon rises exactly at sunset on the opposite (NNE) horizon - latitude 57ºN

New Year’s Eve – the last day of 2009 or Hogmanay, as the Scots call it – will be triply auspicious. Not only is it the eve of a new year, a new decade no less, but it will be graced by a full moon, a partial lunar eclipse, and the Moon will be Blue. In celestial spheres you might say we are being given the royal treatment; or at least being sent a signal.

When a month is graced with two full moons, the second one is called a blue moon. You know, the ‘once in a blue moon’ blue moon? Because our modern calendar calculates by the sun (annual orbit of the Earth round the sun takes 365.25 days), its 30- and 31-day months take us out of synch with our nearest neighbour, whose cycle is 29.53 days. Only the female menstrual cycle and the oceans remain in touch with our lunar companion. The rest of humanity seems to have forgotten what cosmic rhythm is.

Blue moon of May 2007 seen at 40ºN latitude USA

Because of the lunar/solar anomaly, only 41 months in every century can be called true blue moon months, hence a fairly rare occasion. The blue moon cycle of 2.72 years, therefore, makes it something special. December 2009 already had a full moon on the night of December 1st/2nd. The last blue moon month was May 2007 and the next will occur in August 2012.

This New Year’s Eve, because the full moon always rises at the moment of sunset on the opposite horizon and because the moon will not be full this December 31st until 7:13pm GMT, those of us in the Old World will be able to witness the full orb of Luna rise at sunset in the Northeastern skies on Hogmanay night. That’s 4pm GMT in London, home counties, Midlands and Birmingham and about half an hour earlier (3:20pm) in Edinburgh where Hogmanayers will only just be starting their all-night revelry. Four hours later, as Jupiter prepares to set in the southwestern sky, the moon’s disc reaches its fullest and the Earth moves between her and the sun to cast a shadow over her in partial eclipse. This moment of maximum partiality occurs at 19:23 UTC, 7:23pmGMT or 11:23am PST. In astronomical terms it is not a full (total) eclipse because earth’s shadow (eclipse magnitude) will only reach 0.0763, but for us earthlings in the eastern hemisphere it will still be a singular sight.

Solar system planets from outer orbits looking in

At midnight when Hogmanay reaches crisis point in Scotland’s capital, when they shoot off fireworks from the battlements of Edinburgh castle to welcome the new year to the screech of bagpipes, very few, I suspect, will note that the ‘New Year star’, Sirius, reaches its zenith in our northern skies. Sirius will stand behind Orion in the south with the Moon, in Cancer, followed in close proximity by our secondmost close neighbour Mars, the ‘red’ planet, retracing its steps through Leo as we enter 2010. The ringed giant does not arrive on the scene until late when the revellers are wending their weary way home: Saturn is a ‘morning’ planet right now, best seen in the east in the hours before dawn, with its spectacular rings just starting to ‘open’ to our view.

That’s the astronomical picture.

The astrological one is a little different. It reflects a vastly complex array of planetary influences to which our ancestors paid heed, but which Technological Man tends to ignore. However, like the menstrual cycle affecting the female population, it is well, occasionally, to pay attention to heavenly bodies and the way they appear to sway our passage through the cosmos.

At winter solstice the Sun enters the cardinal earth sign of Capricorn, having played and filled us with optimism in late November while in fiery Sagittarius, encouraging us to look to the future, fulfill our dreams. Capricorn Sun and Cancer full Moon bring those dreams and our grasp on reality into sharp focus: both make us examine our ‘outer’ career, capabilities, achievement potential and ‘inner’ love of family, home, need for a peaceful centre: their polarity challenges us to fix our relationships. Cancer may be content to be dependent, Capricorn urges us to be grown-up and responsible. Cancer represents the origin, Capricorn looks to the goal. In this mix stands the astrological giant Saturn in Libra, exerting discipline, demanding that we find balance. Mars, because of retrograde motion in Leo, is teasing us, telling us ego fantasies, diverting our attention from the path of loving acceptance. Our usual mental messenger, our Mercurial helper is currently useless; he is doing a backwards dance through Capricorn and being uncommunicative. It is up to us to review how well we’re using our own natural-financial-mental resources. However, on January 5th, Mercury is joined by loving Venus, so all is not lost. There is hope in the days ahead. The loving, healing solution may show us a way through our planetary difficulties.

Fortunately, we may still call on the largest of the planets: Jupiter, which presently consorts with another friendly giant, Neptune, the bringer of change. Together they stand in forward-looking Aquarius and are guaranteed to bring abundance into our lives, fresh ideas, a new focus, perhaps even a totally unexpected way of solving our problems. Both reflect the potential for the spiritual, the mystical, even a miracle, to bring about the change we cannot perceive ourselves.

This brings us to the spiritual view.

At the time of the December solstice each year the sun approaches the heart of the Milky Way, our Home Galaxy, and conjoins with Galactic Center in the constellation Sagittarius. At this time of year the Earth also gets closest to our own star, Sol. Closest point in our orbit, perihelion, happens annually on January 2nd/3rd.

Through the ages, after solstice when the sun moves northward along the horizon again, each month setting farther and farther north, the period from winter solstice to summer solstice was festival season. In several ancient civilizations winter solstice was associated with the return of a Sun-God to save the world, the bringer of light and fruitfulness to the earth, and hope to humanity.

Spiritual communities too, mindful of ritual handed down from ancestral hierarchies, hold winter solstice sacred, meditating and communing with the silence of winter in a kind of mental hibernation which itself opens up communication with Source. It is at midwinter that many begin preparations for the three major festivals of spring and summer: in the Celtic calendar they are known as Imbolc (February 2nd), spring equinox (Ostara, Easter) and Beltainn (May 1st).

Other indigenous cultures celebrate on these dates, the Hopi, Maya, Chinese, Arab, Vedic and Zulu, but one which has gained world-wide recognition is the May full moon celebration of Wesak, the greatest festival in the Buddhist calendar. All surviving cultures which perpetuate these ancient forms begin with a meditation at winter solstice which culminates in the May celebration.

It is fascinating, then, to discover that in using an ancient technique of knowing when the planet is at its closest to Galactic Center, by aligning with cosmic energy emanating from the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, at the crossing of Galactic Center with celestial ecliptic, at a time when the Earth is herself at her perihelion, closest to her own star, and when the stella maris, the ‘spiritual sun’ Sirius is at her zenith, ancient civilizations and their modern devotees discovered a means to tuning into the cosmic Source of all energy, knowing, and guidance.

In the sacred Long Count calendar of the Maya, one of the most accessible of ancient calculations to modern man, within a period called a Great World Age, an eon, an unimaginably-huge 26,000-year timespan, there are only a few moments when we Earth people come closest to the center of this cosmic cross, the point where the ecliptic crosses the Milky Way, at precise center of our Galaxy.

Galactic Center where stars are born

This nebulous area of the Universe, where stars are born, is our own cosmic womb, from which we, as stardust emerged. It is from this hole in the Cosmos that many spiritual masters and followers believe emanates a divine energy; that the centre of the galaxy is constantly emitting and transmitting a pure energy source which may be utilized in our conscious co-creative process to amplify and transmit new programmes of operation to us, to amplify our awareness and to broadcast light energy directly to enhance human DNA.

Winged serpent sun god Quetzalcoatl of the Maya from Codex Borgia

In the mythology of the Maya, it is to this great birth canal or womb aperture that Creator-sun-god Quetzalcoatl, mythical feathered serpent, one who crawls on Mother Earth but also flies in the heavens will return on winter solstice 2012. This cosmic re-union symbolizes the joining of spirit with matter, in order to be reborn: the Shift of the Ages.

Our alignment with Galactic Center occurs only once in every 25,800 years. We have come close to it several times in the last three decades. During the so-called ‘Galactic alignment period’, or ‘era-2012’ between 1980 and 2016, the closest the Earth came to Galactic Center was on December 21st, 1998.

Galactic center is exactly where the December solstitial sun will stand at noon Universal Time on December 21st, 2012.

Is it any wonder then that we as a species are being given a few reminders of this cosmic date only a couple of years up the stellar turnpike?

If Galactic Center is transmitting messages, is it not logical for us, a technologically advanced civilization, to pick up the spiritual phone?