03/20/2026
Time is a circle. This statement -- while exceedingly simple in its presentation -- masks a powerful Truth, an intimation at the divine polyrhythms at work within and without everything we interact with throughout our lives as human beings. Knowledge of this fact is useful. Gnosis/true understanding of this fact leads directly to the mysteries embedded in our very existence, and this particular moment in time offers a very powerful opportunity to engage with just that shared mystery. Today marks the Vernal Equinox, the moment that begins the Northern Hemisphere’s Spring season, the start of a new Tropical Zodiacal year, and arguably one of the most potent moments of the year to put your plans in motion and get the most ‘bang for your buck’. Why and how this matters, in this day and age, is something that feels all the more pressing to address.
You can tell a lot about a people or paradigm by their relationship to Time. Since the Enlightenment era -- since Rationality and Empiricism burst into the clear light of day to usher in the eventuality of subprime mortgages and social media influencers – we as a society have come to interact with and perceive Time as a flat line. With the advent of electricity and artificial light, the average person lost touch with what little connection they still had to natural circadian rhythms. Time was shifted into the quotidian realm so many of us find ourselves in-- Labor vs. Necessity -- and for those lucky enough, some leisure calculated in where you can. Our cultural darling Einstein gave us a bit of a shakeup when he determined that line could bend and perspective was even taken into account. OK fine -- a 3D lattice work of SpaceTime then, an undoubtedly more mature, nuanced, and elegant understanding of Time, albeit a flat(curved) one!
Many ancient and indigenous cultures understood this circularity and passed its wisdom down through their traditions. Today, many do understand this, especially those fortunate enough to receive these ancestral traditions or recover a focus on nature. Science, however, in her certainties only knows this. Our textbooks are familiar with the Water/Krebbs/Solar- Seasonal /Neuroexcitatory/Reproduction/Circadian/Aerobic/[insert Latin name] cycles. The modern intellectual paradigm of the West is primarily driven by the fundamental precept that things are developing towards some end, some Outcome, some objective, a distinct path from monkey or caveman to cyborg or some other evolutionary trajectory.
I draw a distinction here between Science and carriers of ancient wisdom---though many in the latter category also happen to be accomplished, credentialed scientists---on the basis of one quality: Humility. Humility in this context is the recognition that nature is so perfect, so powerful, so elegant, so complex and divine that we simply know so much less than we give ourselves credit for. We don’t know what we don’t know, but we’re also just clever enough to think we do know what we don’t know. It's kinda funny if you ask me. The more we’ve come to learn, to understand on the material plane, and to "control,” the more assured we become of our cleverness. In the immortal words of William Shakespeare, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies."
I don’t mean to downplay Science’s accomplishments -- good God no! I love Science. Chemistry has and always will be one of my greatest passions, but it has its limits. Still, the fact that we can use electrons to write on microchips is an absolute fu***ng miracle. The fact that we can take IR photos of stars millions of light years away and discern their chemical content is utterly delightful. The fact that I can take a tiny 1mL sample of some extract from the lab, run it through HPLC and get a complete Scorpionic/8th House breakdown of everything buried inside that sample is totally incredible. Yet, that same paradigm may turn around and deny any value to wisdom like the I Ching, anything astrological, or simply occult. The old Daoist sages held that Rationality and Intuition were 2-sides of the same coin, and I feel strongly that the path forward is led by precisely this type of thinking.
As a community of Mycologists, farmers, foragers, and overall lovers of nature, we are uniquely positioned to appreciate the rhythmic quality of time and its familiar turnings combined with the scientific rigor and rationality common to the citizen and non-citizen scientist alike. Whether it’s the bright Aries promise of an early morel harvest or the fortuitous Virgo bounty of a late Chanterelle flush, we pay attention to nature and her ebbs and flows. (It definitely helps when you want to not die in the woods.) Likewise, as a community of educated, bright, and inspired scientists, we are equally positioned to explore our crafts and our passions with the dual blades of Empirical Rationalism the Mystical Intuition. We as a community are positioned to take the lead into a kinder, more connected, more accepting world.
The Equinoxes are extremely interesting moments in time within the Solar cycle. As many are already well aware, they occur twice each year when the Earth’s tilt is precisely in the middle of its wobble, and Day/Night share an equal run-time (minus atmospheric refraction). Magickally speaking, this is pure liminal space -- the "in between." On the Spring side of the year, today, we are just leaving the watery depths of mutable Pisces, the final sign of the Tropical Zodiac. We are transitioning to the 0 degree of the whole wheel, into the cardinal Fire sign of Aries the ram. The Autumnal Equinox falls on September 20, marking the transition from mutable and Mercury-ruled Virgo into the Venusian realm of the Cardinal Air sign of Libra, the scales. In both of these cases, we find ourselves at the threshold of one season passing away into the next. Unlike the Solstices, where the respective energy is at its most Exalted/developed, the Equinoxes are when the Day-Night/Male-Female/Lunar-Solar/Yin-Yang/etc. forces are in precise transition, handing over the reigns for the next phase of the cycle. This liminality is GOLD where Magick is concerned. Energetically speaking, force applied to a system that is out of balance will have a stronger effect than a force applied to a system that is at rest in equilibrium. If you give me a shove while my feet are firmly planted, I’m probably not going to budge, but if you give me one right after I trip on my shoelace, then that’s another story. It's pure Physics, plain and simple.
To further underscore the importance of this particular moment, the old Jyotish and Vedic traditions believed that the three points of the great wheel where Fire met Water were sacred moments of transition, uniquely positioned within the wheel to reflect the radical changes of life. These great Gandānta points as they are known in Vedic astrology do not lose their relevance when you shift from a Sidereal framework to a Tropical one. Today, we find ourselves at one of these very points.
It doesn’t require much to engage with the Universe in a thoughtful, purposeful, and potent way -- especially at these unique moments in the cosmic rhythm, where change is the point. If you feel so inclined, take five minutes to sit quietly today and reflect on whatever beckons your attention; light a candle and honor those who’ve come before, express gratitude for those you love, or simply go wherever your mind flows. Write a song or a poem, make a new extract, or go out into Nature and show her some love. Just use this moment! We invite you and yours to reflect on the Magick of the Equinox and the Magick of the wheel as a whole. May the road rise to meet you and the wind be ever at your back! Whatever lies ahead, I hope this Equinox brings a bright new Spring season to all!
-MMM Labs
