Two nights ago it was interesting.
I went outside friday night to chant to Venus, (its her day, and also I chose an hour owned by her) and observe the various celestial bodies.
It was rather cloudy at the start but then the clouds cleared. The moon was brightly shinning, Vega and Altair were spotted quickly, and I'm beginning to recognise the Libra constellation, Scorpio is still the easiest to spot :)
I'm really keen to understand different calendar systems at the moment. Especially, why different cultures picked particular points as the beginning of their year, and differences between lunar and solar, and lunisolar and what they were used for.
Jupiter was rising in the east. And I started my Osiris chant, and then I saw a really huge shooting star!
Also the Moon had that coloured ring it around it, that is rainbowish coloured.
Was really beautiful, sometimes my mind feels transported to times and place where there was that deep connection to living in tune with the movement of celesital bodies and alignments etc.
It just seems to create these extra passageways in the brain just contemplating it.
I also thought it would be interesting to see which Nakshatra the new moon lies in at the beginning of the Chinese Calendar each year. And I found through trying about six random years, that it was commonly in Shravana or Dhanishta.
The general idea they follow to calculate the beginning of the year is the second new moon after the December solstice.
I also thought it interesting to note which Nakshatra the equinox and solstices are currently falling in:
March Equinox is in Uttarabhadrapada. Autumn Equinox in Southern Hemisphere, Spring in North. Water/Pisces.
September Equinox is in Uttaraphalguni. Spring Equinox in Southern Hemisphere, Autumn in North
Earth/Virgo.
December solstice Sun in Mula. Summer Solstice in Southern Hemisphere, Winter in North
Fire/Sagittarius.
June solstice Sun in Mrigshira Air. Winter Solstice in Southern Hemisphere, Summer in North
Air/Gemini.
Looking at these like "four corners" of the seasonsal points, also each one currently falls in a sign of each element (using four element system), which I have placed with them.
It is also interesting in relation to the 2012 solstice, Sun aligning with the galactic center, that nearly everywhere I read it only mentions it in a "Northen Hemishphere centric" way. Its always, "The Winter solstice". This is purely speculative, but I wonder if there would be different effect in the different hemispheres? As far as whatever occurs on the date. Obviously there is a lot of hype about the date, and all sorts of different ideas floating about... but just thinking along the terms of how the winter solstice is about the returning of the light, and the summer solstice is the receding of the light, I wonder if it could be that those in the Northern Hemisphere would more likely experience a "return of light" (such as wisdom, enlightening etc) and the Southern Hemisphere plunging into darkness... (ignorance etc)????
Sometimes I don't know if my mind is just demented trying to make connections with things that bare no resemblance to reality or if I'm actually on to something...
In the past it seems when I have been able to verify the results of my little attempt at making connections it usually turns out to be a 50% success rate. Sometimes they are so spot on, and other times completely off!
I want to prepare some research on "menstuation in various cultures" soon, found a really interesting part in the Garuda Purana, about the reason behind women having "menses", that sparked me off thinking about it.