In 1854, Henry David Thoreau published a reflection on his experience while living alone in a cabin on Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Although his time at Walden was over two years, Thoreau used the annual cycle of Earth’s seasons to structure his account.

As Saturday segues into Sunday for most of you reading this, the cycle of seasons will renew again with the vernal equinox, when Sun enters Aries just after 12:30 am EDT (04:30:07 UTC) on Sunday. In the case of this year’s renewal, it would be especially appropriate to draw upon Thoreau’s meditations to observe the occasion.

Foremost among Thoreau’s musings to take as your inspiration this equinox is his famous admonition to simplify.

That’s because the astrology surrounding this Vernal Equinox is complicated enough to confound all but the most proficient astrologers. There is no doubt that those complexities are reflected by the often bewildering state of affairs in the world at large at this time. It is even distinctly possible that your own life at the moment is more than a little perplexing.

What better way, then, to participate with the Sun’s initiation of another cycle around the zodiac than to do so simply? With the occasion of St. Patrick’s Day and its frivolities now behind you, a change of pace might be just what the cosmic doctor ordered.

To set a sustainable pattern for the next 12 months, you might want to consider spending Saturday evening quietly, reflecting on the miraculous combination of factors that make Earth’s season’s possible. The Earth spins on its axis. That rotation is stabilized by the Moon orbiting Earth at just the right distance. Together the Earth and Moon orbit the Sun, also at just the right distance.

At one point in its orbit, the northern pole of Earth’s axis tilts directly toward the Sun during the Cancer solstice, precisely as the symbolic Sun is entering the sign Cancer. Six months later, on the opposite side of its orbit, and with Earth’s southern pole tilted toward the Sun, comes the Capricorn solstice and the simultaneous beginning of solar Capricorn.

Precisely in between the solstices, when neither pole is inclined toward the Sun, come two times of equinox. One such occasion is in September, just as the Sun enters Libra. The vernal occasion, the renewal of all earthly things, comes every March.

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With every equinox, the Sun is observed to be directly overhead at Earth’s equator.

Furthermore, no matter where in the world you are, the length of your day will be equal to that of any and everybody else. Equator, equal, equinox — it is so simple, yet without comparison anywhere else in the universe that we know of. If such a time is not worthy of a similarly simple yet solemn observance, what is?

You may choose to experience this weekend’s equinox in solitude, like Thoreau. You might instead elect to spend the miraculous transition to another season in the company of others. Whatever your preference, at least consider taking some of the time in as simple a fashion as possible, if for no other reason than to remind yourself that breathtaking awe need not always be accompanied by shocking confusion.

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