Returning to the Wisdom of Nature is what is meant by the Earth Charter and the Ark of the Gaia Covenant.
“Do not do unto the environment of others what you do not want done to your environment… My hope is that this charter will be a kind of Ten Commandments, a “Sermon on the Mount”, that provides a guide for human behaviour toward the environment towards the next century”. said Gorbachev. The Earth Charter should become like the Ten Commandments and the 16 principles are more or less the 16 Commandments of Gaia !
Let us return to Nature and her Wisdom. According to Satish Kumar, contemporary thinkers of the Green Movement are collectively developing an ecological world-view. Or in other words, Deep Ecology has become the priority in the minds of the thinking class.
The earlier “pagan” festivals worshipped the Sun’s entries into the constellations. The Sun’s entry into Capricornus was celebrated in India as Pongal. This is the beginning of Uttarayana, the northern transit of the Sun. At this point on Dec 21, the Sun’s gross RA (Right Ascension) will be 270 degrees and his declination -23 degrees and 27 minutes. That was the end of Daskhinayana, or the Southern Transit of the Sun. The Sun’s entry into the Vernal Equinox was celebrated as Vishu, the beginning of the Indian Year. At that point Sun’s gross RA will be zero and his declination zero ! Also the Sun’e entry into the Summer Solstice, Karkyadi, was celebrated as the Ramayana month. His declination will be +23 degrees 27 minutes and his gross RA will be 90 degrees ! His entry into the Autumnal Equinox, Thuladi, was also celebrated. It marks the beginning of the Thula Varsha, the North East Monsoon. His gross RA will be 180 degrees and his declination 0 degrees ! The word Equinox is derived from Latin Equi Noctis, when night and day are of equal duration ( at Equinoxes ) and Sun’s declination will be Zero degrees !
The Cross of the Zodiac refers to the Four Major Cardinal Points of the Sun – his gross Right Ascension at 0 degrees ( Meshadi ), at 90 degrees ( Karkyadi ), at 180 degrees ( Thuladi ) and at 270 degrees ( Makaradi ) !
The musician Paul Winter peformed concerts at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City, on the days of Equinoxes and Solstices. One of these concerts was for an annual Earth Mass, on Oct 7th. Oct 7th happens to be the Hindu holy day of Dussera, when the Universal Life Energy, the Universal Mother, is worshipped in India.
The Gregorian Calender may be more popular than the Astro Calender, but knowers of Astronomy and Astrology know which one is better !
Let us move from an anthropocentric theological world-view to a biocentric cosmic humanistic world-view !