The echo of Halloween at Imbolc in early February, (both these cross-quarter days are when the Sun is at a declination of approximately 15 degrees South) is also concerned with new life in the dead of winter. It coincides with the first signs of approaching spring breaking through the earth and the legend of the Groundhog emerging from the dark to look for his shadow has a similar folk status.

The essence of the American groundhog superstition is the belief that making a tricky choice through observing the current state of nature determines the future. By old tradition the state of the weather in early February in the Northern Hemisphere gave farmers a clue as to an early or late spring. This belief found echoes in many agricultural societies. In Britain there is an old rhyme "If Candlemass Day be bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year". In the United States, Pennsylvanian folklore centred on the groundhog, a little animal believed to emerge from its winter sleep on this day to see if it could find its shadow on the ground. If it saw no shadow the groundhog decided the climate was mild enough for it to remain above ground, and human observers predicted an early spring. However if it did see its shadow the groundhog knew it was still too cold and returned underground for another six weeks of hibernation. At this time in early February the Sun in Aquarius helps towards an offbeat nature which is on a par with Halloween in the sense that both are solar parallels or antiscion points. Its 'tricky' nature reflects the similarly tricky spirits abroad on the night of All Hallows.

So we might suggest the keywords of "Death and Regeneration" for the declination area of 14-16° South, and the grinning mask of the Halloween Jester for any planet or body situated there.

It is important to remember the solar similarities between Halloween and Imbolc, the hours of daylight are the same for both, planetary hours would have the same length. But the main difference is that one anticipates the darkness of winter (Halloween) while the other anticipates the lightness of spring (Imbolc). They are both concerned with light and shadows. Their midpoint is the winter solstice, renowned as both the heart of darkness and the birth of light.

Today neither Halloween nor Imbolc takes place at its true solar date. The festivals were meshed with the calendar to be fixed on convenient first-of-the-month dates somewhen in the past, and so these two special days are not exactly halfway between an equinox and a solstice on a count of days nor do they exactly correspond by zodiac antiscia. If we fix Halloween as the night of October 31st, the Sun is usually around 9 degrees of Scorpio. The antiscion point of this would be 21 degrees Aquarius, but the Sun does not reach this zodiac degree until about the 10th of February. Imbolc or Groundhog Day would be better placed at this time. Alternatively if you take the halfway point between equinoxes and solstices (or halfway between zero Cardinals) as 15 degrees of the Fixed signs, then Halloween should be celebrated around November 7th and Imbolc around February 4th.

Others may argue that the true strength of the celebrations each year depends on the Moon, and that they should be fluid enough in calendar date to allow for an appropriate lunar phase. That may be so but the truth is that these are solar festivals, determined by the changing declination of the Sun (or the changing tilt of the Earth as it orbits the Sun). Surviving through the centuries as quaint customs to appease the world of faerie on the eve of solar festivals was the knowledge that the Sun's power had an animating effect across the Earth at these special times.