Riding the Wheel of Fortune

Waterwheel at Daio Wasabi farm in Azumino, Nagano, Japan. The farm appeared in Akira Kurosawa's film, Dreams (1990; see film clip, below, and my previous posts on that film, here, here, and here). Image Source: Youtube.

Is time a circle? Sometimes, it looks as though the wheel turns and returns. The wheel of fortune represents two opposing things: a divination of the future, or luck at the roulette table. That means the wheel, which is also a symbol of human technology, mixes a message about the passage of time because it combines order with chaos. The wheel supposedly reveals the points where Fate meets Fortune. Looking at a problem linearly, we might believe the past is gone, done and fixed, indicating the path of future destiny. But if time is a circle, we can revisit the past, gamble again and change its story.

Welcome the Summer Solstice

Image Source: Yelton Manor B&B.

Today marks the solstice (16:38 UTC) and marks the start of summer in the northern hemisphere, the onset of winter in the southern hemisphere. Slooh:

The solstice is a moment when the changing seasons and celestial rhythms of the planet are in unison as the northern latitudes acknowledge the longest day of the year while the southern latitudes mark the calendar’s march forward from the shortest. Slooh will celebrate this global phenomenon by featuring live views of the Sun from both hemispheres as a means of fostering our deep and primal connection to Earth and sky.

In explaining the importance of the Global Solstice, Slooh founder and CEO Michael Paolucci said, “Twice a year, it grows brightest in one half of the planet and darkest in another. Slooh’s mission is to bring a global community together to celebrate this moment as humans have done since antiquity, to face down the darkness and move into light.”

The promise of the June solstice, when summer begins in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere, is reflected in the celebrations of cultures around the world. Thousands still gather at England’s ancient Stonehenge to welcome the first sunrise of summer. Ancient Celts and Slavs celebrated solstice with bonfires to add to the power and warmth of the Sun. Christians placed the feast of St. John the Baptist near summer solstice. And the Chinese hold the Duanwu, or Dragon Boat Festival, each year in June when the Sun is near solstice. The word solstice is loosely based on the Latin words for “sun standing still”, and at June solstice the Sun appears to stand still at its most northerly point in the sky before it slowly begins to move southward again.

See Slooh's solstice views of the sun here.