Most of the time, to understand the mystical, we must understand the history behind the times so we understand context. Since we are in this time of great planetary alignment, a New Moon in Aquarius, and the Chinese, or Lunar New Year, let’s take a look at how we in the West ended up with the Gregorian calendar in the first place, and what the Chinese do differently.
Once upon a time, western culture was also on a Lunar calendar. The Roman polytheistic era is where most of the original names of the months came from, but this calendar had only 10 months, and winter was “undefined,” (which to me sounds ominous!). At this time, the Roman year had 304 days, creating problems with seasonality. So, in 713 BCE King Numa Pompilus changed it to 355 days. The exact time it takes for the Earth to revolve around the sun is 365 days, 6 hours and 9 minutes, so this extension was a step in the right direction, but still short. In this era, because of this undefined winter and the inexact nature of things, politicians and priests were able to make alterations to time. You can imagine how things could go wrong.
Julius Cesar introduced the Julian calendar in 45 BCE, to fix the issues that corruption had caused with the previous calendar. This was the first move towards a solar calendar, and officials were close – they created a 12 month, 365 day calendar (with the leap year), but miscalculated the orbit by 11 minutes. After a few centuries this added up to yet another seasonal issue: the spring equinox was now 10 days off. By this time, Constantine the Great had legalized Christianity (in 313 CE) and they deemed it important to align Easter with the Equinox. Cue the Gregorian Calendar.
In 1582, Pope Gregory the VIII made the switch. The main issue was the timing of religious holidays and indeed, this is a Catholic calendar. Intending to correct the drift caused by this 11 minute deficit, they immediately skipped 10 days – Thursday, October 4, 1582, was followed by Friday, October 15, 1582. And so it was. This almost perfectly aligned the calendar to the solar year, and was immediately adopted in most Catholic countries. In protestant countries, however, there was resistance; England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752, and Greece not until 1923. It does not escape the keen eye of your author that this move away from the lunar calendar mirrors the ‘dark ages’, and the time when women’s power was extremely repressed to the point where their lives were in danger. Women’s energy and power is tied to the moon; men to the sun. The Catholic Church has worked overtime to strip power away from women and traditions that link us with the rhythms of nature. Because there, when we remember our connection to nature, we remember that our governments are not the final authority, our churches are fallible, and our power comes from the Divine and does not require a middle man. The more we connect to nature and our innate power, the less we need “them”.
So what about this lunar calendar?
China has been using this system for 3000 years. It has stood the test of time. They honor the 13 cycles of the moon – each month has 28 days. It reflects the natural rhythms of nature, and the balance of yin and yang energy. Each month begins on the new moon, and this new year is known as the Spring Festival, a time to renew your chi, your life force energy. Practices include feasting with family, cleaning house to remove stagnant energy, wearing red and gold to symbolize fortune and prosperity, and the use of firecrackers to ward off negative spirits.
The New Year is seen as a time for self-improvement and moral reflection, aligned with Confucian ideals of cultivating virtue and living harmoniously within society. Practices like settling debts, reconciling conflicts, and setting intentions for the coming year reflect this focus on personal and social harmony. Ancestors are honored through altars and prayers.
The Chinese Zodiac is divided into 12 years, each represented by an animal. This year, we move from the year of the Dragon to the Year of the Snake, and the snake holds powerful transformative energy.
Here’s where I go from historical facts to personal opinion: to me, it makes a lot more sense to move with the moon and understand its rhythms, to hold on to a tradition that empowers people to be better and to clean up their lives and habits, as opposed to a calendar that’s main objective is the timing of religious holidays. The frequency of these intentions are worlds apart. Anything that seeks to turn your will to those in charge on Earth instead of the Divine is trying to take your power away.
I’m not suggesting that we try to change our calendar. I simply want to bring your attention to how many times we have allowed power-hungry humans to make changes that are not in our best interest, to strip us away from connecting deeply with each other, with nature, and with our own abilities to heal and know. As you start to look around you, you see it everywhere: remnants from the Catholic Church’s crusades, and modern division campaigns rooted in the understanding that divided we fall.
So I leave you with a challenge: overcome the labels, the opinions, and your own belief system – question yourself, question authority, question everything. Get curious about why things are happening as they are; ask questions. Know your history. Look deeper than the surface of the information you are presented with. And above all, create your own connection with god, the Divine, Source, the Universe – whatever you want to call the creative life force that sees and knows all. Because when you have your own relationship with this force of truth, no one can trick you or take your power away. You don’t need a man to listen to your confession and offer you forgiveness; you have a personal relationship with Great Spirit.
Happy Chinese New Year, my friends.
Stay strong.
Seek truth.
And clean your house.
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