Overwintering
January 1 and it’s “New Year, New You” time… but how did we end up entangled in an agenda directly opposed to Nature?
”The date was chosen partly in honor of Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and the month's namesake. Though medieval Christians attempted to replace January 1 with more religiously significant dates, Pope Gregory XIII created a revised calendar that officially established January 1 as New Year's Day in 1582”
~ Britannica
Let’s dig a little deeper..
”Although the Julian calendar was the dominant European dating system for more than 1,600 years, its solar year measurements (365.25 days versus the more precise 365.2422 days) contained a slight inaccuracy that caused the calendar’s seasonal dates to regress nearly one day per century. Pope Gregory XIII introduced calendar reforms in 1582 to correct the issue. The Gregorian calendar continues the preexisting system of leap years to realign the calendar with the Sun, but no century year is a leap year unless it is exactly divisible by 400.
~ Britannica
And just a little more… Julius Caesar had a agenda to align with the Sun in order to organized the “chaotic” Roman Calendar that was “out of alignment with the Seasons” (control)
It was chaotic with a lunar calendar trying to the fit within the constraints of a solar cycle, creating a confusing lunisolar calendar with inconsistent months. Before that (in the Western World), the calendar came from the Greeks. The Jewish calendar followed (s) a lunar cycle aligned with an agricultural motivation but still linked with the Sun due to the need to know “the ripening of crops”.
Sounds like a lot of powerful men making a lot of rules, to me.
What if… we go further back to a time where we as humans weren’t trying to control the cycle of nature, but instead we surrendered to what IS? What if we looked to the medicine right in front of us and recognized the message?
A woman’s cycle is approximately 28 days in length, as is the cycle of the Moon. The Moon guides the tides and our bodies are 50-75% water depending on our life cycle.
And nothing is a coincidence, only medicine (as I’ve come to experience it)
A lunar calendar of 13 Moons would mean each month is 28 days. This would align with a woman’s cycle and Grandmother Moon. But alas, this Goddess Wisdom was stolen with a need for control, and women needed to be controlled along with it.
Indigenous peoples all over the world knew this nature-wisdom. Indigenous Americans know the wisdom on the Turtle’s Back.
All turtle shells hold this wisdom… 13 moons and 28 days.
(link for more on this, here)
Hmmmmmmmmmm…….
Step back into the shoes of your ancestors.. then again, and again. Keep stepping back until you are in the shoes of your ancestors who lived in alignment with the Earth’s Seasons. For myself, this means the indigenous Irish Celtic People. Wherever your ancient ancestors might come from, the certainly were not “stepping into the New Year” in the middle of Winter, whether northern or southern hemisphere.
This Full Moon in Cancer begs us to listen.
Cancer is exaulted when illuminated by the Moon. The moon is her home, and Cancer is concerned with all thing Home. The crab’s whole entire incarnation is home, always available as it’s body.
How can we return home at this time? Where do we feel this most at home in our hearts?
Winter is for stillness, rest and a slow time in the belly of our homes and wombs. It’s a time for caring for the inward parts with gentleness and forgiveness. We forget these truths when distracted and embedded in a fast and restless patriarchal society.
The Earth Element associated with Winter, reminds us that the Earth must rest in order for newness in Spring. The seeds below the surface are cultivating the strength to break through when the conditions are conducive for survival.
Observing the Ego of human-kind, we recognize why we think we are the exception, and then we wonder exactly where we became so imbalanced along the way.
Rest Well.