Lecture by Alan Chadwick in New Market, Virginia, 1979
Lecture 2: The Cycles and the Four Seasons, Part 2
An Introduction to Alan Chadwick's Lectures and a Glossary of Terms
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From December 21 through March 21, night is longer than day, even thought each day is a little bit longer. Most plants prefer the equinoctial periods of the year. Excitement builds as the year progress. After the equinox, day is longer than night, which fills the earth with love and desire for procreation. But on June 21, the lengthening of the day stops and begins to diminish. This signals all of life to finish up the process, bringing all to fruition. Then at the fall equinox, the darkness begins to be predominant. All of life begins to close down. The winds of fall sweep the leaves off the trees onto the ground. Everything goes into sleep. Inclination and declination of the sun last six months each. (13:16)
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Lecture 2, New Market, Virginia, September 4, 1979
The Cycles and the Four Seasons, Part 2
...no moment is ever performed or again repeated. Cycles are an entirely different matter. This is what we’re looking at. Therefore, every minute of every day, every hour, suddenly, the sunlight is gradually doing “that”. Now during December, January and February, until March the twenty-first, you understand that what we call darkness, shadow, sleep, is in the majority. It is more than is light in quantity. And that although, earlier in the morning it is a little lighter each morning, the dawn, and in the evening it holds out a little longer, in the evening, spreading like “that,” you must still remember that darkness is the encompassment of that period, the ruler as it were.
And therefore you will see how we were just relating with those flowers and plants; that there are almost none of them that like a total quantity of light. They can’t bear it. It’s too, too great. And that the huge majority live in the periods between, and some in the periods of government of darkness, as a few in the government of light: the Helios.
So very, very slowly, because of the angle, the increase of light is at first, in December, very slow indeed. The influence is vague. It’s merely a sense, and that everything in the world, at that moment, when that change takes place, is aware of it—everything. Even the buds that are closed, even the trees covered with snow and ice, and the soil, and the birds that are asleep and the animals in dormancy, and ourselves. But the whole world is aware that something has taken place. And that there is an excitement, and that is rather the word for what is happening. It is all the time an excitement, an opening up. And so that when it comes through January it is increasing again, not only is it opening up, but the opening up is increasing. Therefore it is excitement on excitement. And that in February, until March, that excitement is increasing more.
And suddenly, on March the twenty-first, the light held during the twenty-four hours is equal to the darkness, and we have “Equinoctia.” The whole of that period then, is “that,” and until then, darkness is in the majority and light has been in the minority. From that moment on, light becomes in the majority, and darkness goes into the minority. And therefore you have got this huge excitement of everything increasing until March, and then onwards out of that.
And that increasement is a falling in love with birth. A falling in love with life. And everything falls in love. The whole of the Oceans fall in love and want to sweep right over the land. You get the highest tides, they roar up against the cliffs and beat them. They say, “Let me come over you. I want to smother you with affection, with love.” And the great winds and the gales roar up and sweep over the forests and blow the trees down in the excitement of the capacities, and the emancipations of Artemisia, of love. And this swirls through the world. And all the trees, all the soils, everything is aware.
And the pigeons who have been going about in flights together. Suddenly, one pigeon looks at another pigeon in February, towards March, and says, “Coo, you look quite different today.” And the other pigeon looks at that one pigeon, and says, “But you are different, coo.” And they no longer go in a flock, but sit together on a bough, and keep looking at each other, and saying “coo.” And suddenly, they begin to pick up twigs and build a nest. And as it builds, they say “coo-coo, coo-coo.” And as the nest is built, the hen sits upon it, and lays an egg. And when an egg is laid, the male comes with the female and looks, and says “coo-coo, coo-coo, coo-cooo.” And they sit, and the little one hatches, or the two, or even three. And when it’s hatched, and all of them are hatched, they sing the full song.
And suddenly it’s ended. The whole of birth, the whole period of the gnostication of birth, this opening out into, is something unknown. But now it’s towards floration. But that whole period has swept past, and light has entered, and become considerable and everything has fallen in love, and is now beginning to pass out of that, into the forms of floration. And so you get the Sun, each day, rising earlier, and each evening evening-out and setting later, going right through May into June. And now the blossoming and the scent and the odor is becoming absolutely full.
And suddenly on June the twenty-first, complete cessation. The whole of that enormous opening out is completely ended. It’s as though it might swing off and go nowhere. And immediately the whole sense has started in the opposite direction: a new angle, a sense of sleep, of closing down. And each morning, earlier, and each evening, earlier, it starts to close down. Completely different, completely the opposite to what has been happening. And everything is aware, everything is aware. And they hurry, and they hurry up, and get on. And slowly it approaches September.
And in September it comes to the juncture again of equal light. It is no longer more light or more dark, they are equal. But they are not what the Spring was at all. It’s the opposite! The Spring was opening out, was excitement, but this is de-excitement. This is relaxing, it is going to sleep, it is closing down. And everything is aware of closing down. They’ve got to close down.
But now the darkness begins to become more than light, and everything, everything has fallen in love again. But now it has fallen in love with sleep and death. And the whole oceanic tides have done the opposite: They’ve fallen in love with the depths of themselves. They have withdrawn from wanting to fall in love with the world and they are swinging back into the Neaps, the opposite to the Springs. And they are retreating, and leaving whole areas of sands and beaches which have never been seen before, covered with mollusks and rocks and seaweeds and wrecks, which couldn’t be seen.
And all the winds have risen again, but they have risen in destructiveness, of death to bring about the pruning of the year, and blow the leaves off in great volumes of clouds, and to bring down the matter which has become decadent, and throw it upon the ground. And to sweep through everything with their great arms, performing their work of the love of sleep. And so all the plants are aware of this, and all the birds, and all the animals. And perhaps all the humans should be.
And then enters more dark than light. And it begins to close down. And the angle, you see, the angle of Spring and the angle of Fall are the least angles, they part very quickly. You enter that wonderful birth, and love of Spring, but it’s terribly brief. And that love of the entry of sleep is equally brief, for we pass the Sun much more quickly than at any other time. The passage is rapid.
But as you begin to approach the huge area of the low angle that goes into sleep and death, the angle opens out and becomes slower each day. So slowness increases with darkness, and you get this huge attitude of, “Don’t worry, you are going to sleep. There’s no argument, you are all going to sleep." Metamorphosis, change is taking place. And so that angle drops right down, again, into December, when darkness is utterly prevalent, and dormancy is in utter domination.
That is the inclination of six months of the Sun, and the declination of six months of the Sun. With that inclination and declination of the Sun, is the performance of its opposite, the Moon. You realize that the Moon, like Pallas Athena… Pallas Athena says, “I…