What Are We Balancing?

Tomorrow is the Fall Equinox, one of the two days of the year when we have an equal amount of dark and light, and the balance tips into dark until the balance tips back to light on the Spring Equinox, six months from now.

This begins our entry into the darkest quadrant of the year, in my opinion the most spiritual quadrant, and also the richest in terms of significant events. We sharpen our instincts in the dark.

What are we really balancing here? Is it the mix of work and play? The dance of partnership and individuality? The dance between our dreams and goals and what we have to do every day to get there? The balancing between silliness and seriousness?

We constantly move between these polar opposites as we live. When we have too much of one thing, we have to bring in more of another in order to find pleasure, relief, joy, renewal, passion.

So actually, how many days are we in balance? Probably few, because we go back and forth between these aspects. We work all day, then in the evening we do something fun. Or we rest. We study serious things and take care of business all week, then we play and party on the weekend. Is that a 50/50 split? Not really.

Look at another famous example. The image of the scales of Libra are also the theme of the statues of Justice. And yet, isn't this somewhat of a misnomer? If a person robs or kills someone, and then they go to jail for a few years, does that achieve balance? It takes the criminal out of public circulation for a while, but it rarely does anything to restore what was stolen from the victims and certainly does not bring back the dead.

Look at what lies ahead for us right after this day of balance. We find ourselves facing progressively darker and colder days for the next few months, and they will not balance out again for quite a while. Then they will just keep getting lighter for a while. In the calendar year, there is balance on only two days.

It appears that the perfect image of balance is really a symbol for a turning point, a dynamic influence, rather than a static state of being.