The Rhythms of Deep Time
by Amy Martin (c)
This is the day of deep time, the kind of time that stars and planets feel, their big bass beats to our tiny staccato days and nights.
Boom! Solar perihelion!
As our planet swings around the Sun in squashy oval, we are at the point in the loop closest to the Sun by a few million miles. It happens every year about this time, making the sunlight a little brighter, the brilliant winter light.
So close to the Sun, yet so cold. Earth is the paradox planet. The daily solar path arcs low across the southern horizon, matching the deep tilt of the Earth on its axis. The slanting rays struggle to pierce extra layers of atmosphere and loose their heat.
Yet the brilliant winter light remains, providing more light for the Moon to reflect, creating the Grandmother Moon of winter, nearly 10 percent shinier than other times.
Boom boom! New Moon at solar perihelion!
Today, just as the Earth is making this close approach to the Sun, the Moon has slipped between us and disappears into the solar corona, silent in the night, invisible in the sky.
We are tight, lined up with fierce accuracy so that in the wee early morning hours of Tuesday, the Moon moves into place with such perfect grace that it suddenly appears and completely covers the face of the Sun – a total solar eclipse.
Boom boom boom!
Winter Solstice, solar perihelion, New Moon and solar eclipse, and in four weeks another New Moon that marks the halfway point to spring.
Seize this moment when deep time converges with our own earthly time. Feel the rhythm, dive deep for the next few weeks. Use the fertility of darkness, the energy of the perihelion turning, to refine the purpose of your life. And then surface into new light, your own initiation complete.
January 16, 2011
