Balance and Transformation

An offering on the meaning of balance in our lives.

Another Equinox is upon us.  Mabon, the celebration where daytime equals the night.  Yet the balance achieved is only momentary, as we fall toward autumn and the Dark of the year.  There is only an immeasurable instant in time where the day equals the night.  Balance is fleeting.  The Equinox is all about Transformation.

 

The Autumnal Equinox is more closely associated with balance than the Vernal Equinox, as the Sun enters the Constellation of Libra, the Scales.  A ‘balance’ weighs and measures, adjusting itself against the dynamics in its arms.  The scales take those dynamic forces and differentiate and guide them by an ordering, structuring, and regulating principle.  This is the Principle of Ma’at, the balance of all aspects of existence.  Ma’at maintains order in the Universe by preserving equilibrium, the relationships between all things, the cycle of the seasons, heavenly movements, religious observations, justice, honesty and truthfulness.  The principle of Ma’at is the transformation of Order out of Chaos. 

 

Often, when we think of balance, we think of a goal to achieve, a state of being in equilibrium with the forces around us.  Some might see balance as something static that, once achieved, remains in effect.  Yet this is illusory.  Balance isn’t steady-state.  Balance is constant movement, constant change.  In order to attain balance, we must constantly make tiny adjustments.  Try balancing on one foot without moving.  You will fall over.  Balance is all about Transformation, the dance between dynamic forces.  Without Ma'at, there is no possibility of creation.  Without movement, there is no balance.  Without change, there is chaos.

 

Balance is a continuum.  Where does one experience or state of being end and another begin?  As a song once said, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”  As we think about the balance between day and night, this dynamic transforms from light to darkness.  There comes a time when this continuum moves back through the balance point and transforms from darkness into light.  As we move through the point of balance, we transform into something else, to reach another point of balance, transforming again.  Transformation is nothing less than constant renewal, constant change.  Transformation is Creation.

 

Balance isn’t a goal to be achieved, it is the journey.

Author's Note

This is an article I wrote for the most recent newsletter for my coven.