file: Wikimedia commons (link).
The two points of equinox through which we pass each year are imbued with tremendous significance in the ancient myths of the world.
These are the points of "crossing-over," where we experience the transition from one half of the year, in which days are shorter (or longer) than nights, to the other half of the year, in which days are once again longer (or shorter) than nights.
We are once again at that "crossing-point" of the year, the March equinox, at which (for those in the northern hemisphere) the hours of daylight -- which have been growing successively longer and longer since passing the December solstice -- cross-over and become longer than the hours of darkness.
Usually, this takes place around the dates of March 21 or 22 each calendar year, although this year due to the "slippage" of the calendar, it falls on earlier on the calendar. This "earlier date" has nothing to do with "spring coming early this year," as some headlines are saying (which makes no sense).
Spring equinox represents the moment when earth is "broadside" to the sun on the way from the winter solstice to the summer solstice, and the relative positions of earth and sun do not "move any faster" from winter solstice to spring equinox in this year or in any other year, no matter what calendar day we happen to label that day upon which spring equinox takes place from one year to the next. It is the calendar that is "slipping around" from one year to another, not the dance of earth and sun.
Instead of focusing upon what particular numerical date in the calendar it is on this March equinox, it is more valuable to focus upon this concept of the "crossing-points of the year." The world-wide system of celestial metaphor which forms the foundation for the ancient myths of cultures from every inhabited continent and island on our globe encodes these crossing-points of the equinoxes using a variety of myth-patterns.
One of these patterns involves the depiction of sacrifice associated with the equinox points (such as the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father Agamemnon in ancient Greek myth, or the sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 -- both of which sacrifices are stopped at the last moment when a substitute is provided: a stag in the case of Iphigenia, and a ram in the case of Isaac). Both of these episodes of near-sacrifice with divinely-provided substitute can be shown to relate to constellations associated with the "crossing-points" of the equinoxes.
Another myth-pattern which can be shown to relate to the equinoxes in the myths, but which is completely different from the sacrifice pattern, is the "door through which the gods will pass." The equinoxes are the two points where the plane of the ecliptic intersects with the circle of the celestial equator.
The circle of the celestial equator is an imaginary line in the heavens which is "ninety arc degrees down (or up)" from the two celestial poles, the north celestial pole and the south celestial pole. Due to the tilt of our earth on its axis of rotation relative to the plane of the ecliptic, the line of the ecliptic through which the sun and all the planets cross the heavens is "tilted" in relation to the celestial equator. A good way to visualize this "obliquity of the ecliptic," as it is also called, is to look at an armillary sphere, as discussed for example in this previous post. Perhaps the best way to envision the "yawning open and shut" of the "crossed rings" of the celestial equator and the ecliptic plane is to watch this video which I made back in 2017 and which illustrates the celestial mechanics from the point of view of an observer on earth, while discussing the famous "vision of Ezekiel."
Once you understand that the two equinox points are the two points where the "tilted" ecliptic circle (or ecliptic plane) intersects with the celestial equator, then you can apprehend the reason that the ancient Star Myths of the world represent the equinox points as a "door" or "gate" through which the gods must pass. In the heavens, the journey of the sun through the sky takes place along the ecliptic circle -- and the paths of the moon and five visible planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) also travel along this general ecliptic path, although not exactly upon the same line as the ecliptic plane defined by the relationship of earth and sun.
Because the sun, the moon, and the planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus all travel along the ecliptic path through the sky, the ancient myths sometimes refer to this path as the path along which the gods travel. And that path only crosses the circle of the celestial equator at two points each year: at the point of fall equinox, and at the point of spring equinox.
Therefore, these two points are sometimes portrayed as "gates" or "doorways" in the world's ancient myths (and specifically as gates or doorways for the gods themselves): they are the two points through which the sun, moon, and planets "pass through" the celestial equator.
In the ancient epic of Gilgamesh, for example, when the heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu undertake the dangerous journey to the Cedar Forest to chop down the tallest tree whose top reaches to heaven, we are told by the ancient texts that they intend to use this tree to make a new gate for the gods. In the translation of Professor Andrew George of the text of Gilgamesh Tablet V ("Standard Version," at the end of Tablet V), we read this declaration of Enkidu:
"Seek out for me a lofty cedar,
whose crown is high as the heavens!
"I will make a door of a reed-length's breadth,
let it not have a pivot, let it travel in the door-jamb.
Its side will be a cubit, a reed-length its breadth,
let no stranger draw near it, let a god have love for [it.]
"To the house of Enlil the Euphrates shall bear it,
let the folk of Nippur rejoice over it!
Let the god Enlil delight in it!" (page 47).
The making of a new door for the gods to delight in may well refer to the ages-long machinery which causes the "precession of the equinoxes," by which the "door" of the spring equinox (as well as the other reference-points of the year, such as summer solstice, the fall equinox, and the winter solstice) transition into a new zodiac constellation every 2,160 years (approximately) -- thus creating a "new door" for the spring equinox.
The fact that the very next tablet in the Gilgamesh cycle has to do with the slaying of the Bull of Heaven provides powerful confirmatory evidence that this interpretation of the "making of a new door for the gods" has to do with the shifting of the "gate" of spring equinox due to the motion of precession, which ages ago caused the "gate" of spring equinox to shift from the constellation Taurus to the constellation Aries.
Other myths from other cultures which have to do with the forging of a new gate, or the ending of an old one, include the fire-retrieval myth from the Indigenous First Nations of the Pacific Northwest involving the stealing of fire by the figure of Stag (who must jump through a deadly dangerous tent-door which snaps open and shut) and perhaps the passage of the ship Argo through the snapping rocks of the Symplegades in the myths of ancient Greece (both of these myths are discussed by the authors of Hamlet's Mill).
But perhaps my favorite mythical reference to the path of the gods is found in Book 13 of the Odyssey, when the long-suffering hero Odysseus is finally returned to his native island home of Ithaca by the Phaeacian sailors, but the goddess Athena causes a mist to settle around the landscape so that he is deceived and does not recognize its beloved familiar terrain.
In the (literally-translated) English translation of Theodore Alois Buckley (1825 - 1856), the scene is described in this manner:
When a very shining star arose, which especially comes announcing the light of the morning, the mother of day; at that time then the ship that passes over the sea neared the island.
Now there is a certain haven of Phorcys, the old man of the sea, amongst the people of Ithaca; and there are two abrupt projecting shores in it, inclining towards the port, which swell from the great wave of hard-blowing winds from without; but within well-benched ships remain without a chain, when they reach the goal of the morning-station. But at the head of the port there is a large-leafed olive; and near it a delightful cave, shaded, sacred to the Nymphs, who are called Naiads. And there are stone cups and casks in it; and there then the bees stow away their honey. And in it are stone distaffs of a great length, and there the Nymphs weave their sea-purple robes, a marvel to behold.
And in it there are perpetual flowing waters; and it has two doors: these to the North to be descended by men, but those on the other hand, to the South, are more sacred; nor do men enter at all by that way; but it is the way of the immortals. 238 - 239.
These evocative lines of the ancient poem describe the path of mortals, and the path of the immortal gods. The descriptions are celestial in nature -- the world's ancient Star Myths employing the awe-inspiring expanse of the heavens themselves as a means of illustrating for our deeper understanding truths involving the invisible realm, the infinite realm.
We cannot see this invisible and infinite realm with our ordinary vision, but we can see the realm of the heavens and the night sky, which is in fact an infinite realm (when we gaze into the night sky, we are in a sense gazing upon an infinite realm), and the ancient myths use the heavens in order to make visible the truths about matters we otherwise might not grasp.
The important thing for us to understand is that there is a crossing-point where the pathway of the gods (visualized in the ecliptic) meets the mortal realm, where we find ourselves in this incarnate life. The gods, and the infinite realm, actually intersect with our lives -- and we can see this throughout the Odyssey, where the goddess Athena as well as the god Hermes speak to Odysseus and give him guidance and help along his journey. We see it happening in the very scene described above, which talks about the pathway of the immortals -- immediately after these lines, the goddess appears to Odysseus, although in disguise.
Indeed, as I have discussed in numerous previous posts, there is abundant evidence that the world's ancient myths depict the gods as working out their will through the actions of men and women. The gods inspire Odysseus, but they do not act for him. The gods advise Perseus and equip him with tools he will need for his mission, but they do not slay Medusa for him. The gods direct Gilgamesh and Enkidu, but they do not slay Humbaba for them, or chop down the cedar to build the new door.
There is an intersection between the realm of the gods and the place where you and I are, right at this very present moment. We actually always have access to this connection, although most of the time we do not avail ourselves of it, because we ignore it, or forget it, or do not perceive it. But the myths remind us of this powerful truth.
I believe that the "gateway points" of the equinoxes are also an excellent time to meditate on this truth, in order to remember it.
