|
A Free Membership
Celtic Druids Newsletter
AB Study and Live
at Ireland's Druidschool
B Sli an Drui weekends
Sli an Drui Weekend Workshops
C Sli an Drui online
Sli an Drui Homestudy Course
D Celtic Handfasting
Pagan Weddings for all
E Druid's Calendar
Landscape Temple Map
F Five Roads to Tara
Gold Road identified
G Temple Donation?
200 yr old cow barn re-fit
H Astro Natal Chart
Incarnational Potential
I Astro Couples Chart
Compatibility for Couples
J Astro Transit Chart
Current Energy Flows
K Geostress Balancing
Home and Office
L Healing (One on One)
Healing and Counselling
M Psychic Readings
Tarot and Geomancy
N Spirit Release
(Ghost Busting)
O Evening Classes
Psychic Skills Development
customers 2010
Celtic Druids Newsletter
|
DRUIDISM >>
THE DRUID'S PATH
You may also like to check out our Handfasting service and our online Homestudy course or our special Weekends
Equinox means "equal night" and this happens because the sun is positioned above the equator and at this time of the year - day and night are about equal in length all over the world. The Spring Equinox is sometimes referred to as the Vernal Equinox – vernal means spring so together the Vernal Equinox means “Spring Equal Night and Day”. This is the start of the Astrological year when the Sun enters the Sign of the Ram (Aries). The famous Egyptian priests built their Great Sphinx to point directly toward the rising Sun on this day every year.
The Spring Equinox is also called: Alban Eilir, Eostar, Eostre, Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Festival of Trees, Lady Day, NawRuz, No Ruz, Ostara, Ostra, Rites of Spring. To Celtic Druids it is the time when day and night are equal in length and this happen when the Sun is at 0* of Aries and again in the Autumn when the Sun is at 0* of Libra.
There is a distinct relationship between the Spring Equinox and Easter. The new religion of the Catholic Church absorbed the existing traditions and their symbols and developed a new name ‘Easter’ which is obviously a variant of a German / Saxon Goddess name whose festival was with the arrival of spring. In the pre-Catholic times the celebration of the Vernal Equinox was about new life and hope, the planting of seeds and the activation of the fertility cycle. But the Catholic Church replaced this with solemn displays commemorating Christ and Christian or Catholic dogma (written rules). The Old Testament heroine was the goddess Ishtar in thin disguise(Esther is the Aramaic word for Ishtar)..Ishtar is Persian for 'star'..So Ishtar was the goddess of the morning & evening star,as well as being the Great Mother,Shining One,Lady of Visions,Priestess of Priestess', she was the source of the Oracles of Prophesy, & Possessor of the Tablets of Life's Records..Her symbols were the eight pointed star,the pentagram,dove,serpents, & the double axe..Her planet was Venus..she wore a rainbow necklace..the Persians converted this necklace(the rainbow) into a razor-sharp bridge that led to the Mount of Paradise..In ancient Sumeria,she had 180 shrines where women gathered daily for prayer, meditation,& socializing. The night of the full moon, known as Shapatu, saw joyous celebrations in her temples..At these rites(known as Qadishtu)..women who lived as priestesses in her shrines took lovers to express the sacredness of sexuality as a gift from Ishtar. Men communed with the goddess in these rites through sex..Every woman once in her life had to sit in the grounds of Ishtar's temple & wait for a man to take her on one of these nights..Until she had , she was not allowed to marry....
In Ireland, the spring equinox was celebrated long before the arrival of the Celtic tribes. The best known of the ancient Irish equinox temples is Knowth, which is near to Newgrange (Brú na Boinne). Knowth has a 100-foot long passage that accepts the Sun on the morning of the Spring and Autumn Equinox. A second and older stone cairn equinox temple is found at Longhcrew and is given the name Cairn T. Both Knowth and Cairn T allow a sunbeam on the morning of the Spring and Autumn Equinox to enter a passageway to light upon the sacred geometry on a back stone inside the temple. This is precise timing from a period of over 6 thousands years ago and it still works today. Druidschool has also discovered two ancient temples that were used to honour the two Equinoxes – More on this later in this essay.
The German fertility Goddess was Ostara, who was associated with fertility of both humans and crops. Ostara mated with the solar god on the Spring Equinox and nine months later she gave birth to a child around the Winter Solstice at 21st/22nd of December.
The Saxon name for the Germanic lunar goddess Ostara was Eostre. Her festival was held at the full moon after the Spring Equinox and the Catholics adopted this determination for their Easter.
The Mayans of Central American have also honoured the spring equinox. For ten centuries they have held their unique celebration using their ancient knowledge of the Sunbeam. El Castillo is the name of their great pyramid of the Equinox and as the sunsets on its western face light and dark compliment each other creating a very special pattern of a diamond backed snake descending the pyramid. This solar magic has always been known as the "The Return of the Sun Serpent".
For the Greeks the god-man of the Spring Equinox was Dionysus. He was associated with flowering plants and fruitful vines and he was always in pain during winter symbolising hibernation and the cessation of growth. He returned triumphant on the Spring Equinox and many researchers see direct parallels with the story of Jesus Christ.
Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylonia, Elam (5000 years ago) celebrated the start of their new year at the time of the spring equinox. Zoroastrianism was the religion of Ancient Persia until the advent of Islam 1400 years ago. "No Ruz," their new day or New Year was celebrated on the Spring Equinox. Many religious historians connect Judeo-Christian concepts to Zoroastrianism.
In Rome, about 200years before the birth of Christ there was a wide range of what are today called “mystery cults”. Attis and Cybele held their Spring Equinox rituals at the location of today’s St. Peter's on Vatican hill – the centre of Catholicism today. Attis was also known under various names such as Osiris, Dionysus, Tammuz and Orpheus. The Attis and Cybele festival had a death or day of blood and three days of semi-death and then a return to life for the deceased. Attis‘s mother was called Nana and she was a virgin – no surprise there… Attis was crucified on a pine tree and his followers ate his body, his blood was spilled or release to renew / redeem the earth. Attis was both a sacrificial victim and a saviour, his death and re-birth was intended to bring salvation to mankind. Most researchers will declare that Attis is clearly the prototype for Christ.
For today’s Catholics Easter Sunday is a moveable holy day that commemorates the execution, visit to Hell, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated from late March to late April. False Time explains the 14 step calculation used to determine the actual date for Easter each year.
In Judaism we can see that the Passover dinner was their spring fertility festival. It records the escape of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt – its main meal was of unleavened bread and of lamb.
In America the native Indians honoured the Spring Equinox in landscape-sized temples such as Mystery Hill in Salem NH. Five standing stones and one recumbent stone are set in a linear alignment that connects the sunrise and set on both the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes.
Wicca is a modern path that is seen as Celtic and/or European but today it is a mishmash of every cool religion or spiritual path. It is like some one trying to make a tree out of a lot of different stolen branches. Today there is no definition of Wicca so it can mean anything and therefore ultimately it means no thing. It combines ancient Celtic beliefs, symbols and practices, with the Masonic and ceremonial magic rituals. Wiccans recognize four minor sabbats at the two solstices and the two equinoxes and four major sabbats halfway between each equinox and solstice suggesting partial alignment to the cycles of natural time and part modern creation. But their rituals at the Spring Equinox relate to fertility and to the balance of the day and night.
The timing for the celebration of the Spring Equinox as given in Irelands Druidschool is explained in depth at Celtic Druid's Calendar In its most basic - there were no clocks, no calendars and the passage of time was measured in Ireland by the penetration of a sunbeam into designed passages in stone cairns to exactly light up a section of a stone with carvings upon it. This happens even today so the ancestral calendar is still accurate. The same solar alignment that determines the correct time for Spring Equinox is also the exact same alignment for the Autumn Equinox. This means if you were to stand outside of Cairn ‘T’ at Sliabh na Callighe or at Knowth and look 88* east of north you would see the sun rise to shine in through the passage and onto the Quartz standing stone inside on the Spring and Autumn Equinox.
But there is another important Spring and Autumn Equinox alignment over the Lambay Volcano to two hilltops called Summerhill and Knockastia. Summerhill is a small village in County Meath with only the remains of a temple on its highest hilltop. Knockastia is a volcanic outcrop just south of Uisneach – often referred to as the navel of Ireland. Just like Tlachtga in its relationship to Tara – we have a similar magically located temple on Knockastia serving the Royal site of Uisneach.
This is one of Eightfolds of the Solar Year of the Tuatha De Danann and Samhain and Imbolg share the same alignment to Sliabh na Callighe, Beltine and Lughnasa share the same alignment to Cnoc Lugh, the two Equinoxes share the same alignment to Summerhill and Knockastia, the Summer Solstice has its own alignment to the Hill of the Fair Gods and the Winter Solstice has its own alignment to Brú na Boinne or Newgrange. All these alignments for the Eightfold Solar year have the fulcrum or pivotal point of the leaking energies from the volcano being wrapped back into the solar wind. This is earth magnetism and landscape healing at an extraordinary level.
This knowledge was lost or so it seemed but the Gods and Goddesses and the Guardians of the sacred temples await true seekers with whom they share freely.
|