A Clip from My Latest Monthly Aspectarian Interview

Walter Perschke: It is always a pleasure to have these conversations with you. You serve up astrology in such a clear and practical way. Before we shift to our ongoing discussion, you said you wanted to first talk about the upcoming equinox and the meaning of the quarterly movement of the sun through the signs. What can you tell us about these four points each year?

Barbara Schermer: Every year is marked by two equinoxes (the third week of March and the third week of September) and by the two solstices (the third week of June and the third week of December). Equinoxes are the "equal day, equal night" time of year, and solstices, "sun stands still," are when the sun reaches it farthest southern or northern point in the zodiac. The winter solstice, for those of us living at the mid-latitudes in the Northern hemisphere (Chicago), gives us six plus hours of sunlight each day and the summer solstice fifteen plus hours of sunlight.

For many traditions and in many countries, both ancient and current, there are festivals marking these four quarters. They are considered, "spiritual portal points." What this means is we are more naturally in harmony with the movements of the sun and therefore can more easily realign ourselves to our own center and in yoga what is called the Sun chakra (the energy center between and just above your eyes commonly called your third eye). The ideas of actual portals seem to be supported by recent studies. There is new confirmed research emerging that shows there is a direct connection between the sun and earth in what are called magnetic portals. They seem to be from above the Earth's equator and move towards the south pole of Earth in December (winter solstice), or the north pole of Earth in summer in June (summer solstice)....

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