South

Fáilte South, element Fire: I re-member the energies associated with the south;

Everything that is born in the east grows and develops with the warmth of fire and the heat of passion.

I am; expansion and ripening, radiant warmth and kindness, compassion and love, strength and courage the zenith of the noon day and the summer of the yearly cycle. In this direction the sun reaches its highest point in the sky on its yearly journey.

Archangel Michael the liberator with his flaming sword is associated with this direction and from our Celtic mythology we welcome Anú, earth mother and goddess of abundance. She is the maiden persona of the triple goddess and mother of the Tuath Dé Danann. In Celtic Christianity St. Brigit of Kildare with her eternal fire holds this warm nurturing energy. This is the direction of Brigid's fire temple in the beautiful Curragh and of Gobnait's well where we celebrated in Cork.

I bring this energy here and now.

⧫ I place this lantern to remind us of the energy of radiance and friendly warmth in ourselves.

Noon - the height of the sun during the year

Rolling along the horizon the sun marks the annual cycle

Mid-day Sun

At mid-day the Sun is always due south in the northern hemisphere and due north in the southern hemisphere.

At it's zenith, high in the sky, it signifies a turning point, strong and powerful. Everything is abundant, bursting with energy and vitality. And yet, following all that activity, as the afternoon progresses a quietness arrives that often calls for a siesta - an afternoon nap.

Go out at noon, tune into the south and imagine drawing down and integrating that nourishing energy.

As William Blake says: Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.

Withdrawing Sun

Tracking the rising sun through the year, looking at the eastern horizon, we notice that each day the sun rises in a different place, slowly moving up and down from the extremes of the solstices. After the summer solstice the sun moves further south, and each day the sun is lower in the sky. We feel it's heat and strength withdrawing as winter sets in.

Southern Hemisphere

Traditionally, “North was rarely put at the top for the simple fact that North is where darkness comes from. West is also very unlikely to be put at the top because West is where the sun disappears,” says Jerry Brotton, a map historian from Queen Mary University, London in his book A History of the World in Twelve Maps.

Very early Egyptian maps show South on top. This could be because of the northwards flow of the Nile and since rivers were believed to be flowing “downwards”, they thought that “up” was South. However, Egyptian
astronomer Ptolemy (90-168 AD) is known to have used a North-up approach.