Wheel of the Year, part 1, In Progress
NOTE: To my LJ friends and any others who read this post: This is a partial intial draft of a work in progress. I have a lot of work to do before the article is finished. I welcome any feedback.
Patriarchal Solar Traditions
Those who keep patriarchal solar traditions observe a solar year. In these traditions it is common for the sun to be or represent a god, if not the one true God. In these traditions sunlight is good. It is associated with life, knowledge and purity. Sunlight is associated with life in general because it makes things grow. It is associated with human life in particular because we humans are said to be alive as long as we “see the light of day.”
Sunlight is associated with a specific kind of knowledge. It is associated with knowledge gained by seeing things and reading alphabetical writing made visible in either natural or artificial sunlight. In the patriarchal solar traditions to know is to see the light, have a bright idea and be enlightened.
In patriarchal solar traditions the color white is associated with the pure unadulterated light of the sun. Since sunlight is pure, unadulterated light and white is the color of sunlight, white is the color of purity. White is the color of pure virgins and brides. It is the color all that is clean. We use it today in the medical industry to represent all that is clean, sanitized and germ-free. All of the “good guys”, not just physicians but also knights in shining armor, cowboys, scientists and monks, wear white. White, the color of the sun, represents all that is good, pure and holy.
In the patriarchal solar traditions all that is of the light is good: Sol, the sun, day, life, knowledge and purity. All that is not of the light is suspect, bad and evil: Luna (from which we get the words lunacy and lunatic), the moon (related to the words month and menses), night, darkness, death, sex, birth and occult knowledge or knowledge from within from such sources as intuition, the dead, divination and other sources that are not always clear as day.
Because it is dark even the rich, fertile soil of the earth is suspect. It is suspect because it is dark like the night. It “soils” white clothes and makes them “dirty”. We do not like to get “dirt on our hands.” Besides, the earth is associated with death because it is in the rich, dark soil of the earth that we bury the dead. Sex and birth are both “dirty” because they “soil” clean white sheets. Night time, under the cover of darkness, is the time for sex. Orgasms are “little deaths.” Birth is from a vagina, a dark place, and like a woman’s bleeding time involves blood which is associated with both impurity and death.
The Patriarchal Solar Calendar
The values of the patriarchal solar traditions are expressed and reinforced by using a solar calendar. For example, those in Christianized nations in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the beginning of the New Year shortly after the Winter Solstice when the amount of daily sunlight is gradually increasing. They use a baby boy rather than a girl to symbolize the beginning of the New Year. Images of the New Year baby boy depict no mother.
Spring begins at the Spring Equinox when daylight lengthens to the point of being equal with and about to overcome the darkness of winter’s death. During this same part of the year many Christians observe Lent, the name of which comes from the Latin word that means to lengthen. Lent is a period of fasting, self-denial and repentance, of turning away from darkness, sin, evil and everything that leads to death and committing oneself anew to Christ, the Light of the world. Lent is then followed by Easter, the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, his victory over sin, death, darkness, the tomb and all that is evil.
Summer begins with the Summer Solstice, the longest day of sunlight in the solar year. Christians have no special holy day to mark this day of the solar year. It is as if they take it for granted, if they notice it at all, that the sun is shining in all “his” glory and at the peak of “his” power on the day of the Summer Solstice.
“Fall” begins with the Autumnal Equinox when sunlight “falls” down to match the length of the darkness of night. At this time of the year many Christians, who associate darkness with death, observe All Saint’s and All Soul’s Day. These are days to remember those who have died and are no longer in this dark “fallen” and sinful world. They now live forever in the eternal (sun) light of heaven.
The Patriarchal solar year comes to an end with winter. Winter in this view of the year is the time of death and darkness. In winter trees, shrubs and flowers, according to knowledge based on seeing things in the light of the sun, appear to be dead. Many animals that hibernate also appear to be dead. Almost everything from the preceding year comes to an end and dies.
The patriarch solar year is not about cycles. It is linear. It goes from beginning to end one day (not night or moon) at a time. Each year is sequentially numbered. Its seasons are linear as well. The seasons have no birth, rise, decline and death. Rather the seasons are marked by the stages of the sun.