The astrological calendar marks 4 important gate-ways during the year that have to do with Earth’s path around the Sun. These are the 4 turning-points that are the endorsement of a new season:
The March and the September Equinoxes mark the time the Sun is exactly above Earth’s Equator, and the beginning of Spring and Fall. And the two Solstices are June 21st and December 21st. June 21st marks the Sun as being as North as possible hence the beginning of Summer in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of winter in the south; and the second Solstice is reached when the Sun the is at its southern extreme, marking the beginning of Winter.

All ancient cultures used the solar calendar intuitively as they followed the shifts in nature and hence many holidays, celebrations and festivals mark these days. The pagans actually had this natural wisdom in them – to be aware of nature and the gateway it offers for human kind, but later on as time advanced the true understanding of these gateways was lost. So today some of us celebrate these special times without even knowing their special meaning:
Passover and Easter around the spring Equinox (in the north), December’s solstice celebrated by Christmas and Hanukkah and more. Actually the 4 major Jewish holidays fall exactly on the 4 special astrological gateways, though their true esoteric meaning are not known these days.

All 4 cosmic dates are a great time for shifting and changing, as Earth changes its course towards the Sun and the Sun’s influence upon Earth takes another angle.
These are times that new things can arrive to our planet from the distant stars.

The Vernal Equinox (this year – March 20th) is known as the beginning of the Astrological Year. The ancient ones would have looked carefully to see what Sign rises in the East on the first day of Spring because this constellation told them of the nature of the whole astrological area. Structures as the Pyramids and Stonehenge were made to calculate the very very slow shift of ages as on each Equinox the degree of the Sign rising is slightly different, and every 2200 years or so a whole new Sign will appear behind the Sun during this important day as a new Astrological Age begins.

We are misled to think that the spring Equinox (spring in the north hemisphere it is) marks the beginning of Aries, but this is not so – and has not been so for the last 2000 years. The actual constellation you will trace in the skies behind the Sun today is Pisces, and it has been so since about the birth of Christianity, a time of many stories of fish, water, lakes and baptism… All related to the Pisces frequency.

We have been in the astrological age of Pisces for the last 2000 years or so, and you are welcome to check it out with any smart-phone application that shows the stars – aim it to the sun and see in which constellation it is… and the next astrological year is “just around the corner” as in 350 years or so the sign that the Sun will enter on March 21st will be the sign of Aquarius – as we all know from the famous song…

For us, humans, this great date and cosmic-happening of the Equilibrium day is a great opportunity to connect to the powers of new beginnings, of blossoming and enabling our life to go through its natural changes.
For those living in the southern hemisphere it will be a bit different as the beginning of Fall marks the time to begin to create a real balance in life that allows us to slowly let go of what does not fit anymore.