© linda falorio, 1978, 1996, 1998

A = 1

The letter A is first in the vowel sequence. The significator of birth and beginnings, A was assigned the Winter Solstice, the first day of the Lunar calendar marked by the Sun reaching its furthest declination South at 23 degrees, the Tropic of Capricorn, bringing the longest nights of the year to the Northern Hemisphere where the majority of the world's population resides; then the Sun turns Northward bringing longer days and shorter nights.

The day of the turning Northward of the Sun has been celebrated from time immemorial. The Romans called it Saturnalia -- a blessed, happy time of year. Christians call it the Birthday of the Son of God, Bringer of Light into the Darkness of the World; and Western pastoral tradition celebrated the beginning of New Year.  Ancient Egypt celebrated the Winter Solstice by eating pork, sacred to the Goddess in her aspect of Alphito, and by decorating palm trees, the tree of birth representative of the Goddess, with sea shells, food, and other things.  Similarly, European culture decorates pine trees with five-pointed stars suggestive of the shape of the letter A -- The Pentagram.