At Chimney Rock a new Kiva was built every 19 years. It wasn’t until Kim Malville recognized the 19 year Lunar Standstill when the Moon rose between the chimneys did it start to make sense why these kivas were being built 19 years apart as a to honor and celebrate the NEW energy transmission from the Moon to the Earth. Each kiva was built with its own powerful intention as a way to co-create with Great Mystery to align with the NEW mysteries reaching their maximum expression every 19 years.
The Standing Stones of Callanish Scoland were designed to capture when the Moon walks the land every 19 years illuminated in this ancient saying:
When the Moon walks the land, at the calling of the cuckoo, the Shining Ones will return. (Sometimes this is quoted as a singular Shining One, not plural as in Shining Ones).
Shamanic cultures around the world have left us powerful reminders of the Lunar Standstill being a time to create a mythic re-enactment of this rare cosmological event. These stories and ceremonies come from a direct expereince of the importance of the Lunar Standstill that was largely lost and we are now re-membering.
When we engage these remarkable events through ceremony we are helping to source and co-create the new expressions of reality emerging in our collective pysche during the Lunar Standstill time when the Earth connects with the Sky and the Sky with the Earth.
Humans have collectively participated with these intiation cycles over eons of time. Wondrously, are in the process of bringing back into our awareness the importance of these timings – working once again with how the universe, the cosmos, the greater reality, or whatever we choose to call it, responds to our intentional interaction with these cycles.
Ancient Cultures and the Lunar Standstill
The Lunar Cycle differs from the Solar cycle. For example, the Sun returns to the same place on the horizon each year within a few hours of the year before, every 365.34 days. This is how we are able to determine the seasonal cycles in a predictable way.
The Moon on the other hand takes 19 years to return to the same spot on the same date on the horizon.
Margaret Curtis along with her husband Ron, studied the Callanish Stones over many decades living close to these ancient stone circles since 1974. Margaret and Ron are no longer with us but their writings including Callanish: The Stones, the Moon and the Sacred Landscape : Maximising the Symbolic and Dramatic Potential of the Landscape at Callanish (published in 1994 and updated in 2009). These writings are a remembering of why this time is worth noting:
The Sun always rises on the east horizon. The Sun always sets on the west horizon. The rise and set positions mirror each other around a north-south axis.
In the long summer days, the sunrises and sets in the northeast and sets in the northwest. This pattern repeats year in, year out.
The Moon also rises on the east horizon. The Moon sets on the west horizon The rise and set positions mirror each other about a north-south axis
But whereas the Sun takes a year to move from the midsummer NE/NW path to the midwinter SE/SW path, and back, the Moon takes only a month to move from its long NE/NW path to its SE/SW path and back.
Furthermore, the size of the Moon’s monthly swing across the horizon gradually varies: – from a small swing (smaller than those of the Sun) nearly S/SE to S/SW – the south extreme: to a big swing – nearly N/NE to N/NW – the north extreme: then back again. This pattern of small to big to small swing repeats itself about every 18 ½ years.
The Callanish standing stone sites are located in a limited area where 2 ranges of hills relate to the rise and set of the Moon at its rate south extreme every 18 ½ years.
The farther one travels north in latitude, the greater is the extreme of the Sun rise or set north or south of due east or west, at the solstices. At Callanish, the Sun rises over 50 degrees north of east at midsummer (30-40 degrees in the United States). Each solstice the Sun predictably rises in the same place.
The Moon’s orbit is inclined five degrees and eight minutes from the ecliptic (the Earth’s ecliptic is tilted 23 ½ degrees away from the Sun). Thus, over a 19 year cycle, the Moon may rise or set as much as five degrees and eight minutes beyond where the Sun is on either side of the ecliptic.
The Moon has a slow cycle that oscillates to its maximum and minimum locations every 18.61 years. The great Scottish archeoastronomer Alexander Thom, coined the expression – “major standstill” and “minor standstill” to mark these stations.
These terms are analogous to the commonly understood concept of the solstices relative to the Sun’s cycle that happens every year. **
The last two major standstills of the Moon were in 1987 and 2006 and the last minor standstill occurred from 1996-1997 and 2015-2016.
Geomantic Moon Magic (Geomantic in this context is defined as intentionally connecting with sacred sites/structures around significant cosmic events and co-creating with Great Mystery)
In recent years, mainstream archeology and archeoastronomy is realizing that ancient peoples were not only aware of these important timings, but also worked ceremonial magic with the Lunar Standstill cycles.
Alexander Thom’s first book: Megalithic Lunar Observatories was based on his field research conducted during the 68-69 Major Lunar Standstill – prior to the 1986/1987 Lunar Standstill. It is interesting to note that the 1987 Lunar Standstill coincided with the Harmonic Convergence. An event that was celebrated around the world.
Alexander Thom discovered many stone circles and stone rows throughout Scotland located around 57-59 degrees North latitude that were related to these extreme lunar cycles including the east coast of Scotland near Aberdeen with many recumbent stone circles.
These circles often have a massive stone altar that to this day acts like a Moon Altar as the Moon rises or sets during the Lunar Standstill when the Moon is at its southern extreme, usually in the signs of Sagittarius and Capricorn.
Ancient cultures understood how the Moon was connected to monthly planting cycles, high and low tides, eclipses, reproductive cycles, and a time when births were most likely to occur. What we are remembering now is how these cultures also understood every 19 years a cultural rebirth occurred with extra potent ceremonial significance.
As we approach the next Lunar Standstill it might be useful to ask:
How can we ceremonially engage this significant rebirth time to bring forth through us and within us a new relationship between the Earth and the Moon teaching us more about our relationship with the cycles and rhythms of Earth and Sky?
How are we celebrating the powerful connection of the Moon as it relates to the Earth at the 19 year Lunar Standstill?
What are the best ways (ceremonially and intentionally) to honor this sacred time so we experience the greatest possible growth and awakening?
Greetings!
I am interested in getting a shamanic astrological reading and also discussing with you the opportunities for ritual in and around the standstills.
I am an aspiring astrologer, i have been working with moon cycles for a number of years and I am also interested in indiginous shamanic practices.
I have many questions for you, but lets start with the simple ones. What is the significance of the 0* Cancer and 0* Capricorn outside of the standstills? Do they still have the abillity of channeling the out of bound energies or in the case of 0* Capricorn the energies of the galactic center? The case of 0* Cancer the extra universal (limits or boundaries of source?)
Also I am curious about the movement of the galactic center… does it move relative to 27* Sagitarious or does the earths wobble (our procession) move us relative to it and 27* Sag?
Finally, I am very curious about your statement “What we are remembering now is how these cultures also understood every 19 years a cultural rebirth occurred with extra potent ceremonial significance.” What information, anecdotes and or ceremonies can you relay that accelerate or magnify this rebirth and evolution for personal growth?
I look forward to hearing from you and thank you so much for the information you have online!
I love your enthusiastic inquiry John. Contact me via email cayelink@gmail.com and we can set up a session for you.
O° Cancer and O° Capricorn are of course the seasonal Solstice Points and they will always be a part of the Out Of Bounds Equation for the Moon during the Lunar Standstill as far as I know. It is an interesting question and perhaps could change over the 26,000 year Great Year.
These points do move through all the constellations over the 26,000 year cycle so they are NOT always located on the Galactic Crosses as they are currently. As long as Earth is tilted the way it is and the wobble continues these points will continue to represent the Solstices though there will be different stars behind these seasonal points over time.
Galactic Center doesn’t move but the seasonal signs do based on the tilt and wobble of the Earth so Galactic Center is not always overlaid by 27 Sagittarius. That does shift 1 degree every 72 years so it won’t move far over one life time.
In the video on the 19 year lunar standstill I shared about standing stone circles and kivas as the two main examples that were created to track the 19 year Lunar Standstill Cycle way back when. We don’t know what ceremonies ancient cultures were doing but we know they were doing them or they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble to create these structures. AND of course we can create our own sites as was done at Faywood Hotsprings in New Mexico back in the 90’s.
I feel it is up to us to tune in and ask what ceremonies can we do now to align with these mysteries in the most useful, productive and magical way possible? If you have been studying shamanic practices you may have some ideas about to engage this already and of course you can do shamanic journeying, meditation, tuning in around ways to create the ceremonial magic that will work for you. These links share some of the ways I have done it https://cayelincastell.com/ceremonial-solar-return-birthday-magic/ and https://cayelincastell.com/the-magic-of-ceremonial-hiking/
I hope that helps?🌠🙏🌈🏜🌄