“Any day stands equal to the rest”

This quote is attributed to Heraclitus of Ephesus, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived from 535 – 475 B.C.E. Perhaps this quote means one day is no better than another or perhaps every day is just like any other day, but I tend to believe that it means that each day is as important as another. Perhaps, to the stones, like Las Bruixas above, there is only one day that stretches on forever.

With the arrival of Beltaine in the Southern Hemisphere and the passage of Samhain in the Northern Hemisphere, I am reminded once again that to the Earth Mother, Beltaine and Samhain are just two sides of a leaf, one facing to the Sun, one facing away. I came up with this thought for Beltaine/Samhain:

For our friends in the Northern Hemisphere, let us read the names of the Dead and remember; for those in the Southern Hemisphere, let us read the names of the newly born and rejoice!

After I read this, I thought, in the spirit of the universal and ever-moving (ever-changing) nature of the Earth Mother, that perhaps it would be best to do both, to honour those who are coming into the world and also to remember those that have passed through.  The ancients may not of known that life goes on in an opposite manner in a different hemisphere, but we surely do and we should embrace this knowledge and revel in it.

It takes a little bit of adjustment to consider and feel the slide towards winter and the ascent towards summer all at the same time. We don’t all move into sleep and hibernation; we don’t all run headlong into the glory of the summer Sun. We do both. We can do so by straddling the equator, one foot on each side, or we may do so by placing our feet on both sides of our understanding and experience concerning the seasonal changes and our experience of them. Please – don’t just live in the Dark Half or the Light Half of the Year: live in them both.

We do not enter into a quieter time to stay in an eternal winter; we do not frolic into an endless summer. We know that each will come and that each will follow and while we can truly only live in one at a time in these three dimensions, we can contemplate and extend ourselves into a larger reality.

As we honour the Ancestors, we often speak their names aloud and the Earth and the Sky are aware of their names because we speak them and we do so often. Yet, what of the young? What of the newest members of our community, be they animal or human? Should we not speak their names to that the powers-that-be become aware of their presence and entry into our lives. What of the newly Dead or those who have just become Ancestors, aren’t they born into that role as well? Shouldn’t we speak their names as well?

I will call to the seasons as I pass through them, not just where I stand, but where I understand. I will honour the darkness that lengthens as the days grow shorter, but I will savour the days that get longer as well, in the lands to my south. I will live in both worlds at the same time, while my body is anchored in one. Let my mind extend where my body, for now, cannot.

Unus dies par omni est: any day stands equal to the rest and for me, I will stand equally in both hemispheres as a child of the Earth Mother, in each and every day.