Since time immemorial, solstices and equinoxes have been considered by past civilisations and initiates as special days, full of magic and power.
Marking the change of seasons, the transition from cold to warm seasons or vice versa, were an opportunity for ordinary people to celebrate the cycles of Mother Nature, fertilised by the Sun and bearing fruit to feed all her earthly children. For initiates it was a sacred time when they could attune themselves inwardly to the spiritual aspect of the Sun.
Universal esoteric teachings say that the Sun has two aspects:
- firstly, manifesting itself on the material plane, endowing the world with life and vital energy, stimulating all existence to reproduction, physical growth and development,
- secondly – manifesting itself on the spiritual plane, giving adepts consciousness, illumination, enlightenment, wisdom, insight, inspiration and all the virtues that are born from the warmth of divine Love.
Throughout history, the annual cosmic drama of the dying and resurrection of the Sun has been clothed in various myths and stories that were intended to:
- explain the phenomenon of seasonal variability,
- bring hope that after the death of the physical body we will not die completely, but will be reborn in another world,
- and finally – to convey, in an allegorical way, profound truths regarding spiritual rebirth and liberation of the soul from the earthly cycle of birth and death.
Therefore, this drama referred in a fractal way to three levels of human existence, namely: the physical, the psychical (i.e. regarding the soul) and the spiritual.
In esoteric science, the Sun has always been a symbol and representation of human consciousness. This consciousness – like the constantly reborn Sun traveling through the Zodiac – must learn twelve main lessons in the course of reincarnation; must symbolically die and be reborn twelve times and so pave the way to liberation.
The topic of this article deals with the energy of the spring equinox and the aspects of spiritual knowledge related to it.
Astronomical perspective
In the northern hemisphere, where the author resides, the March equinox is the moment when the Earth crosses the point in its orbit at which the sun’s rays fall perpendicularly to the equator and are simultaneously tangential to its surface at the poles. From that moment onwards, during half a year, the North Pole is closer to the Sun than the South Pole (i.e. the Sun illuminates the Earth’s northern hemisphere more).[1] In other words, the March equinox is the moment when the ecliptic path of the Sun, viewed from Earth, crosses the celestial extension of the Earth’s equator, whereby the Sun leaves the sign of Pisces and enters the sign of Aries.
If we were to stand at the equator at the moment of the spring equinox, the Sun would be directly above our heads. On this day, an equal amount of sunlight reaches the northern and southern hemispheres, and the day lasts about the same amount of time as the night.
The message of inner Christianity
In esoteric Christianity, the spiritual aspect of the Sun has been called the Christ. In the form of Light, Christ descends to Earth every year to energise it, as Max Heindel says: “because, without this yearly infusion of divine Life and Energy, all living things on our Earth would soon perish, and all orderly progress would be frustrated so far as our present lines of development are concerned.”[2]
On a mystical level, the birth, death and resurrection of the Savior-Sun take place every year. At the winter solstice, the Christ impulse descends to the core of the Earth and saturates it with its Light. From Christmas to Easter, this impulse sacrifices itself immeasurably, giving life not only to dormant seeds, but also to everything around us, on Earth and in the Earth.
During the winter months, the Spirit of Christ suffers the torment of having to lower its vibrations and contact with the low state of consciousness prevailing on Earth. It waits for the day of liberation which coincides with the time that in the Orthodox Churches is called Holy Week or Passiontide. According to mystical teachings, this week is the culmination or peak of the wave of Its suffering and the time in which It breaks free from prison.
When the Sun crosses the equator and the sun’s rays falling perpendicularly to the equator create the sign of the cross, “Christ hanging on this cross” shouts: “Consummatum est!” – „It has been accomplished!” This means that the annual task has been completed. It is not a cry of agony, but a cry of triumph, of great joy that the hour of liberation has come and that he can again soar for some time into the spiritual spaces, freed from the shackles of our planet.
The spiritual impulse of Christ leaves the Earth after Easter, when the Word, the Logos, ascends to Heaven at Pentecost. But it does not stay there forever. On September 21, it will begin its journey down to Earth again.
During the period from September to March, when the Spirit of Christ resides first near the Earth and then in its very core, we are more intensely saturated with the mystical vibrations characteristic of winter, and starting from the spring equinox, the energies are more material in nature, supplying us with strength and the courage to face life’s challenges.
Equinox energy
The equinox is a symbol of the balance between light and darkness, a balance that can occur within us. What does this mean? Does it mean that lukewarm state about which the Revelation of John warns us: “ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev 3:15-16)
Of course not. The energies of the equinox teach us balance and neutrality in the face of the manifestations of light and darkness that we encounter every day. This neutrality comes from the awareness that our understanding of reality is limited. What we perceive on the earthly plane as bad, undesirable, uncomfortable or unpleasant, from a higher point of view is most likely something that had to happen to us – as souls – to evolve. From a spiritual point of view, both what is bright and what is dark in us serves God to get to know Himself. Therefore, God never judges us. As the famous saying goes: “The sun shines equally on the bad and the good.” However, this does not give us the right to consciously, carelessly harm others. If we think so, we will quickly be disabused of this error by the corrective law of karma. God is Love and He calls us to it. The twelve main spiritual lessons we have mentioned above involve the soul absorbing various aspects of this most powerful Force in the universe.
Aries, Ego and the Spirit Spark
In the preceding age of Pisces, the age of Aries, the human “I” gained sovereignty and independence. Man gained awareness of his own individuality and began to slowly to free himself from the influence of group consciousness and the spirits that took care of it. At this stage of his development, he was still primitive, immersed in great spiritual ignorance, and was just beginning to learn who he was.
The part of the body assigned to the zodiac sign Aries is the head. It is the seat of human, egocentric consciousness, separated from the Spirit.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, which in the Polish version of the Bible is entitled “The First Passover – Testimonies and Signs”[3], John the Baptist refers to Jesus first as the “Lamb of God” and then as the “Son of God”. We quote:
„The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
Then John gives this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.” (J 1: 29-33)
Of course, it is no coincidence that on the Passover holiday, celebrated in the first spring month of the Jewish calendar, John refers to the symbol of the lamb to describe Jesus. Animals were once sacrificed on the Passover holiday. According to the Gospel of John, Christ was nailed to the cross when the Jews were slaughtering lambs for the Passover supper. This message should be read allegorically. In the mystery language, it refers firstly to the end of the age of Aries, secondly to the completion of the annual sacrifice made by the Sun, and thirdly to the knowledge that in order to free oneself from the earthly cycle of birth and death one must “crucify” one’s egocentric “I”, whose symbol is Aries.
In these few sentences we find an allegorical reference to the alchemical process that the candidate must go through to become again the Son of God. First of all, he needs to cleanse his inner space persistently and subordinate his entire life to the divine element present in his heart. This is the initial stage which in the teachings of inner Christianity is called the “John phase.” The divine element hidden in the heart is the so-called Spirit Spark from which, like from a seed, a luminous, solar body of the Soul, represented in the Bible by Jesus, can develop. In a long-term process of transformation, the human soul surrounds itself with light and finally becomes ready to connect with the Spirit. Thanks to this connection, the sins of the world are “blotted out”, which means that man is liberated from the need to be rereborn again on Earth. The culmination of this process is the final crucifixion of man’s false, egocentric self, sealed with the cry: “Consummatum est”, “It has been accomplished.”
Spiritual ego
Perhaps we think that the crucifixion of the “lower self” must involve a hostile attitude towards this aspect and the need to combat it. This attitude, however, leads to the development of the so-called “spiritual ego”, which is the voice of the inner critic, judging everything in us that we consider evil, egocentric or inferior. This “spiritual ego” is an imitation of the voice of the divine “Threefold Ego”, our true self, through which the Monad can manifest itself.
As a result, an absurd situation arises, namely: our “spiritual ego”, that is, the pseudo-spiritual aspect of the lower self, criticises other aspects of the lower self and wants to “crucify” them, eliminate them. It is a vicious circle that leads nowhere. The true “crucifixion of the I” can only be accomplished with the help of the Light. The spiritual vertical Light attracted by us through the Spirit Spark, must help us illuminate the darkness of our horizontal, time-trapped personality.
Paradoxically, in order for the self to decrease, we need to give the aspects of our self that cause problems more attention, not less. The Shadow must be recognised and returned to the Light. However, this will only be possible if we stop stigmatising it and considering it “bad.” At some stage of our earthly journey, we needed its aspects. Neutrality in the face of the manifestations of light and darkness can only appear if it is preceded by respect for everything that is within us and around us. This is the wisdom of the equinox energy.
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[1]In the southern hemisphere, where the seasons shift by six months, the spring equinox ( and all related spiritual phenomena) occur around September 21–24 (September equinox).
[2] ‘The Mystical Interpretation of Easter’ by Max Heindel, The Rosicrucian Fellowship.
[3] In the English version this chapter is entitled „John Testifies About Jesus”
