Equinoxes

In the professor’s explanation, the Equinoxes are the spring and fall points in a four-part astronomical cycle. Paired with the summer and winter solstices, they provide the axes from which he derives the sun cross, linking the seasonal calendar to the religious ideas he is describing.

Place in the Solar Cycle

The professor first describes the sun moving through the zodiac over the course of a year, while the Earth rotates daily through sunrise, zenith, sunset, and nadir. He then maps those four points onto an astronomical pattern: the two solstices, midsummer and midwinter, and the two Equinoxes, spring and fall. The Equinoxes thus mark two of the cycle’s four turning points in his account.

The Sun Cross

By drawing one axis between zenith and nadir and another between ascent and descent, understood astronomically as the solstices and Equinoxes, the professor produces a cross across the circles traced by the sun. He identifies this figure as the sun cross and says that it appears carved in prehistoric rocks. His explanation makes the Equinoxes part of a larger argument that the sun and zodiac underpin a number of religions and theses; they function not only as seasonal markers but also as components in his account of the symbol’s origins.