Equinox and Equilux

A wide purple clover path through lightly wooded area

Whether you call it Ostara or not, the vernal equinox has come (a few days ago. And I'm sorry this is late, but thank Covid.)

Again, I am blessed to be living where all four seasons tend to correspond to the calendar, more or less, so the 8 Sabbats match up pretty well.  Being a part of the local pagan community means that I have two rites planned, one of which I'm leading (pending  negative Covid test, of course).  

Equinoxes have the theme of balance for me, always. Light and dark are mostly even, or as close as one can get.  Per timeanddate.com, we got 12 hours and 8 minutes of daylight on the equinox itself (March 20).  We had EXACTLY 12 hours on March 17.   Why is three days early?

I originally thought it was the imperfections of our modern calendar.  But I also had to look it up too.

Stepping back a little bit, many of you probably already know the word “equinox” comes from “aequus” meaning equal and “nox” meaning night.  In both spring and fall, the axial tilt is neither towards nor away from the sun, so the sun is directly over the equator (subsolar point). Lengths of day and night will be around 12 hours, depending upon where one lives, but not necessarily in balance.  The day when light and dark are exactly 12 hours each is called the “equilux” and is not the same day as the equinox.  For example, where I live, the spring equilux was March 17, and the fall equilux is September 26.  Other latitudes have different dates.  

According to my go-to page for all things timing,  it all depends on what one is looking at. If you are looking at the sun’s rising and setting itself, the date where there are 12 hours between the first peak of the sun over the horizon and then the last glimpse as it sets below the horizon, the very edge of the sun as a “disk,” that is the equilux.  The equinox is measured comparing the point where the earth is directly beneath the sun crosses the equator (that subsolar point) and is straddling equally the northern and southern hemispheres.  (See https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/equilux.html).  There are also atmospheric effects like refraction, making the sun appear higher in the sky than it actually is. 

That’s enough science for one day. I hope I have explained it well enough.  So if you want to emphasize balance, then it maybe best to celebrate the equilux rather than the equinox.  If you are more interested in marking the passage of the seasons, then the equinox is just fine for that.

In my Samhain reading, I chose the "Guardians" from the Druid Plant/Animal Oracle for Ostara.  In this deck plants who are the Guardians are the Elder Ruis, the Hawthorn hUath, and the Birch Beith.   This card indicates a 'situation or relationship which seems to be in difficulty can be preserved or strengthened if action is taken.'  Identify those things that are strongest in the situation and strengthen them, rather than focusing on the weaknesses.  

It may also be helpful to think of the Ogham associations of these three trees as well.  (I refer mostly to this book which I highly recommend, especially if you go to your local brick-and-morter store, rather than Amazon, but do what you need to do.)   Super briefly,  ruis  is associated with passion and high emotions.  hUath can refer to mental or psychological challenges.  Beith can refer to new beginnings but also purification.  There are other meanings too, but taken together in this way and with the other meanings of the card, this makes sense to me.  The Guardians then seem to be saying to calm down and not get overly angry, or anxious, or anything to safeguard your emotional well being, and purge those things that are getting in the way of that.  

There could be other associations for people as well.  Whether we celebrate the equinox or the equilux, spring is a perfect time for clearing things out (upcoming blog post).