Turnings of the Sun: Solstices, Equinoxes & the Solar Cycle

Long before we divided the year into months or named its seasons, we could watch time moving across the horizon. Sunrise shifted north and south; days lengthened and shortened; the Sun reached two apparent extremes and crossed two points of relative balance. These four turning points—the solstices and equinoxes—emerge from Earth’s axial tilt and orbit around the Sun, creating the…