A Short History of the Calendar
The first calendars were developed in Egypt over 4000 years before the birth of Jesus. The earliest documentation of celebration of the Winter Solstice with evergreens goes back to ancient Egyptians, when they brought them into the house as markers when the Nile would flood. Throughout Ancient Egypt, the sun was considered to be a universal creator, symbolized by Ra, a hawk-headed male image bearing the solar disk on his head. Ra was considered to be ill at the Winter Solstice as he was sinking low on the horizon. The Egyptians brought 12 green palm rush shoots into their homes as a symbol of the completed year to celebrate the suns rising again after the solstice. This symbolized the triumph of life over death because it was believed that the palm grew a new shoot each month and they believed it represented the 12 divisions of the zodiac. This eventually became the basis of the “12 days of Christmas”. During this time, the week length was 8 days which were named after the planets. The Egyptians believed that the most distant planet was Saturn which is why the festival of Saturnalia eventually evolved to be on the Winter Solstice which was at the end of the year.
In Europe, the first phase building of Stonehenge began approximately 1900 years before the beginning of the Gregorian calendar. It is believed that Stonehenge was used as a place of ritual and that it also marked time because the winter solstice sunrise aligned with the center alter. The Nordic countries also selected the Winter Solstice as their new year and burned a Yule log which was round and symbolized a clock-like wheel. The word Yule evolved from the Saxon word “hweol” which meant wheel, and was a symbol of the yearly cycle of the sun.
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© Copyright 2009 Kelly Sabota-O’Donnell
Beyond the daily and yearly cycle of the light, there is the even larger cycle of the light known as the great year. This is due to the precession of the equinoxes because of the wobble of the Earth on its pole. The Mayans knew of this grand cycle years ago and this is why their calendar is due to reach the end of it’s cycle on 2012. To fully understand the great year, it is interesting to see how ancient symbols relate to it.
In classic Greek alphabet, the letter X is known as “Chi”. In ancient times, Chi represented the invisible X that is formed celestially when the equator of the Earth crosses (passes over) the solar ecliptic plane (the imaginary plane that extends from the suns equator) during the time of the equinox.
Chi
The tilt of the Earth’s equator relative to the ecliptic plane is around 23° 26′ 19’’. Interestingly, the shadows cast on to the Earth during the solstices oscillate from the top to the bottom of the planet much like the top and bottom part of the X. This is why “Father Time” holds the hour glass X at the Winter solstice, because it represents the trinity of past, present and future where the top is the past, the center is the now and the bottom is the future. “Father Time” is a parallel figure to Chronos, spelled Χρόνος in ancient Greek). The etymological root of Chronos relates to words such as cronology and cronicle. It also has a remarkable sound relation to Christos and the word “Crone” a term used for an old woman. There is also an interesting association to the planet Saturn which is named after the Roman god Saturnus (that became the namesake of Saturday). This ironic relationship is because Saturn is equated to the Greek “Kronos” who is the father of Zeus. This is also why the ancient festival Saturnalia was held at the time of the winter solstice at the end of the year. This may have also given rise to the use of the term “Xmas” around the time of Solstice. Indeed Chronos may have eventually morphed into Santa. The X turned on its side becomes a cross and can also can represent the four seasonal turning points on Earth, which are the Solstices and Equinoxes. These turning points gradually shift over time and this shift is called the precession of the Equinoxes. This happens because the Earth is not a perfect sphere and there is a slight bulge at the equator, which results in a pull from the Sun and Moon towards the ecliptic plane. This causes the pole to rotate 1 degree approximately every 72 years, which changes where the North Pole points into the universe. One complete precession circle of 360 degrees takes approximately 25,772 years and means that the stars that we see in the background will change over time. This is why the Aquarian calendar of Conscious Revolution, (which will be discussed in future chapters), starts the year on the winter solstice because it will then be reconnected with the advancement of the precession of the Equinoxes.
On the Solstice of 2012, due to the precession of equinoxes, the Earth’s axis pole will align not only with the sun but also with the Galactic Center of the Milky Way Galaxy. In a sense, it can be compared to 12:00 midnight of the daily cycle, or a Winter solstice of the yearly cycle, but it is a higher order of the pole cycle and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius.
Procession Of Equinoxes
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© Copyright 2009 Kelly Sabota-O’Donnell
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