The Vernal Equinox is Saturday, March 20th. It is that moment that arrives every year where everything is in balance, light and dark are balanced and nature everywhere from pole to pole is showered equally with the light and life of heaven. It occurs twice a year, and not again until the Autumnal Equinox in the Fall.
The First Vision aligned with the Spring, the date of which is not recorded. However, as Michael Quinn noted in his work (using borrowed research), the Smith family in general and Joseph in particular, would have associated power with the event. It is not unlikely that the First Vision occurred on the Vernal Equinox, just as Moroni's visits always coincided with the Autumnal Equinox.
For our day, the Autumnal Equinox is the more significant. The Vernal is associated with life, birth, beginnings, restoration and newness. The Autumnal is associated with death, closing, judgment and endings. We live on the cusp of the end times. Though there remain a great many things to be done, our era is the time when history is about to close out.
Observing the Vernal, Autumnal and Solstices was something done from ancient times, in ceremony and in ritual. Whole cities were built aligned to the cardinal directions of the compass and the lights of heaven. The lights of heaven were given to us first as "signs" and secondly as "seasons."
Observing the Vernal, Autumnal and Solstices was something done from ancient times, in ceremony and in ritual. Whole cities were built aligned to the cardinal directions of the compass and the lights of heaven. The lights of heaven were given to us first as "signs" and secondly as "seasons."
Don't let them pass by unnoticed. Otherwise you note less than even the plants and the animals whose life cycles and behavior acknowledge the passing of such events.
John C. Lefgren has an article that I frist read on Meridian Magazine where he suggests March 26, 1820 and it can be found now on John Pratt's website here: http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2002/vision.html or on Meridian Magazine's website here: http://www.meridianmagazine.com/sci_rel/021009maple.html. In this article Bro. Lefgren found supporting data from weather records from 1820 to come up with this date. John Pratt also has an article suggesting the same date that is in his book, Divine Calendars: http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/divine.html.
ReplyDeleteFunny, I was just talking with my wife about the spring equinox this morning at breakfast.... I enjoy this software: Stelliarum to track and watch the skies. It's a free download if any are interested (a google search should help locate it).... I've been watching Orion these days. On some clear moonless evenings you can see the Orion nebula quite well. I still get the binoculars out and marvel at what I'm seeing.
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