It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
From this point on, daylight hours gradually begin to lengthen again, leading towards the spring equinox in March [Getty]
Across the Middle East and North Africa, Sunday 21 December marked the winter solstice, the astronomical moment when the Northern Hemisphere experiences its shortest day and longest night of the year.
The phenomenon marks the official start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, as the Earth's axis tilts away from the sun and sunlight falls directly on the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.5 degrees south latitude.
From this point on, daylight hours gradually begin to lengthen again, leading towards the spring equinox in March. Longest night across the Arab world
In much of the Arab world, the solstice is noted primarily as a scientific and seasonal milestone rather than a cultural one. Media outlets and meteorological or astronomical bodies across the Gulf and wider region highlighted Sunday as the day of the shortest daylight hours and the longest night of the year. Related
In Qatar, the Qatar Calendar House announced that the winter solstice occurred at 6:04 pm local time, coinciding with the sun's apparent alignment over the Tropic of Capricorn.
Astronomical experts said the day had marked the shortest daylight hours of the year in the country, with the sun appearing at its lowest noon elevation and casting the longest shadows.
Similar explanations were shared in Saudi Arabia, where climate expert Abdullah Al Misnad said winter officially began in the evening hours, lasting around 89 days. He noted that all locations north of the equator experience their shortest day at this time, regardless of temperature fluctuations, which are governed by atmospheric conditions rather than astronomy.
In Egypt, astronomers described the solstice as the peak of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, with daylight lasting around 10 hours compared to roughly 14 hours of night. The sun’s low arc across the sky means shadows reach their greatest length at midday. Cultural silence in the Gulf
Despite this widespread astronomical awareness, Gulf countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE do not traditionally mark the winter solstice with festivals or rituals.
Cultural calendars in the Gulf are centred on Islamic lunar events such as Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, as well as national days. Pre-Islamic seasonal observances linked to solar cycles were largely replaced after the spread of Islam, leaving the solstice without deep cultural roots in Arab or Bedouin traditions.
Any modern acknowledgement tends to be educational rather than celebratory, appearing in science columns, weather apps or social media posts by observatories and astronomy enthusiasts.
In cities such as Dubai or Doha, hotels or expat communities may occasionally reference the solstice, but it is not marked as a shared public or family tradition. Yalda night and the Persian cultural sphere
Further east, however, the longest night carries powerful cultural meaning. In Iran and across parts of the wider Persian cultural world, the winter solstice is marked by Shab-e Yalda, an ancient celebration dating back more than two thousand years.
Yalda, whose name is derived from a Syriac word meaning "birth", symbolises the rebirth of the sun and the victory of light over darkness as days begin to lengthen.
Families gather on the solstice night to stay awake together, sharing food, poetry and stories until after midnight or dawn.
The celebration is deeply rooted in pre-Islamic Iranian traditions, including Zoroastrian and Mithraic beliefs, and remains a central cultural event in Iran today.
Rituals often include reading poetry by Hafez, storytelling from classical texts such as the Shahnameh, and eating symbolic red fruits such as pomegranates and watermelon, representing life, warmth and the promise of brighter days.
hab-e Yalda is also observed in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, parts of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, and among Kurdish communities, reflecting the reach of Persianate culture across the region.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
GM to invest US$4B to shift some production from Mexico to the U.S.
Vehicles move along the 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV assembly line at the General Motors Orion Assembly June 15, 2023, in Lake Orion, Mich.
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
Shares of General Motors rose before the opening bell after announcing plans to invest $4 billion to shift some production from Mexico to U.S. manufacturing plants as the automaker navigates tariffs that could drive prices higher.
President Trump signed executive orders in April, relaxing some of his 25 per cent tariffs on automobiles and auto parts, a significant reversal as the import taxes threatened to hurt domestic manufacturers.
Automakers and independent analyses say the tariffs could raise prices, reduce sales and make U.S. production less competitive worldwide. Trump portrayed the changes as a bridge toward automakers moving more production into the United States.
GM said late Tuesday that the investment will be made over the next two years and is for its gas and electric vehicles. The company will add production of the gas-powered Chevrolet Blazer and Chevrolet Equinox, which are made in Mexico, to two American plants starting in 2027. The Blazer will be produced at GM’s Spring Hill, Tennessee plant, while the Equinox will be made at its Kansas City, Kansas facility.
GM will also begin making gas-powered full-size SUVs and light duty pickup trucks at its Orion Township, Michigan plant, which was previously being reconfigured to make electric vehicles until demand for such cars weakened.
The new investment will give GM the ability to assemble more than 2 million vehicles per year in the U.S.
CEO Mary Barra said in a statement on Tuesday that GM is committed to building vehicles in the U.S. and supporting American jobs.
GM has 50 U.S. manufacturing plants and parts facilities in 19 states, including 11 vehicle assembly plants. The company says that almost 1 million people in the U.S. depend on it for their livelihood, including employees, suppliers, and dealers.
Last month GM lowered its profit expectations for the year as it braces for a potential impact from auto tariffs as high as $5 billion in 2025. The automaker now foresees full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxes in a range of $10 billion to $12.5 billion. The guidance includes a current tariff exposure of $4 billion to $5 billion. GM previously predicted 2025 adjusted EBIT between $13.7 billion and $15.7 billion.
Shares of General Motors Co. rose almost 1 per cent before the opening bell Wednesday.
In reflecting upon the Aeon of Maat and how Nema’s own work developed the initial articulation by Frater Achad, I feel one of her wisest insights relates to the importance of “the double current” in seeking to develop a more balanced magical path. In contrast to simply seeing our current age as needing the mono-message of Thelema or Will, Nema’s own journey has been towards a place where the overlapping Aeons of Horus and Maat dialogue with each other.
Horus; “Welcome!” Ma’at; “In peace.”
The issue of how Magicians in the West quantify progress has always been a tricky one. Yes, we may choose to rely on the grade system mapped out by a given Order that we participate in, but this is no guarantee of personal evolution. Grades and titles are not without value, but they seem to function primarily as markers of progress within the given sub-culture of that Order. I think a more interesting and potentially demanding question is how we translate any claimed maturation into social or cultural change.
Such dilemmas are not unique to overtly Gnostic or Magical religious paths, with most religions having to grapple with the more collective or political dimensions of their original spiritual message. Certainly in the Buddhist tradition the historical development of the Mahayana tradition (from the earlier Theravarda) reflects an attempt to explore the more collective implications of that philosophy.
The pursuit of true will as a project for the contemporary Mage certainly resonates with the existential and individualistic concerns of the 20th century that birthed Thelema, but is it enough? The icon of Horus as the conquering child certainly seems to capture the type of surging technological change of the last century, but to my mind this energy needs some counter-balance.
The primary symbolism in ancient Egypt regarding the goddess Maat reflect her position as the neter (divine principle) of justice and balance. The hieroglyph of the feather is seen as representing the breath of life, as well as the standard against which the human heart will be weighed at the judgement. Her other symbol of the ruler is in keeping with these ideas of accuracy, assessment and truth.
For Nema (and Achad) the importance of the Horus/Maat “double current” is that it at once acknowledges the need for a prophetic cleansing of a corrupt Piscean/Osirian age, while at the same time recognizing that such change needs balance and stabilization in order to prevent “Will” becoming egoic megalomania. I see great parallels between Maat and the Gnostic Sophia as the embodiment of wisdom. The punk rock energy of Horus may get the revolution started, but in the longer term we need our Aeons to overlap and to allow a multiplicity of perspectives to support us in the cultivation of a fairer society.
This idea of the Aeons being sequential and dominated by mono-mythologies is frequently promoted in esoteric lore, and while it may have been helpful and even accurate in times past, I believe that the value of such an approach is now limited. What Nema seems to be pointing towards (and which Maat herself embodies) is the importance of allowing these differing Aeonic currents to dance with and inform each other, and create what she describes as a “PanAeonic Magick”.
In my view Pete Carroll highlights something similar in his seminal “Mass of Chaos B”:
“In the first aeon, I was the Great Spirit In the second aeon, Men knew me as the Horned God, Pangenitor Panphage. In the third aeon, I was the dark one, the Devil. In the fourth aeon, Men knew me not, for I am the Hidden One . In this new aeon, I appear before you as Baphomet The God before all gods who shall endure to the end Of the Earth.”
Liber Null and Psychonaut
In contrast to those ages ruled by a singular narrative or dominant discourse, now is the time of Baphomet, a deity more overtly borne of humanity’s creative imagination. Baphomet embodies duality itself and transcends it, within their being they hold the ongoing process of dissolving and coming together.
I believe the Aeon of Maat with its core message of balance holds within it the possibility of the multiple, and the aspiration of being able to recognize numerous perspectives and approaches. Nema’s artistic depiction of N’Aton captures much of this as the half of their face that is visible contains a multitude of individuals dwelling in a futuristic city scape. N’Aton represents the potentiality of a future in which dualities are played with by the Magician: transcended, discarded, redefined and embraced in accordance with a true will that balances both individual freedom and collective responsibility.
The icon of N’Aton provides a potential map for the Magician’s project of self-sovereignty. N’Aton seeks to balance the needs for individual self-definition and collective connection. Rather than getting overly focused the type of brittle, self-obsession that can tip into solipsism or megalomania, for me N’Aton asks that any claims to insight are pressure tested in the realm of wider society. In many ways the Aeon of Maat closely parallels the description of the Aquarian age as described one of Nema’s magical colleagues Louise Martinie of the New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual Temple:
The Aeon in which we are presently incarnate has been called by various names. “Aquarian” seems to be the designation which is most widely used in the New World cultures. The Aquarian mode emphasizes profound searching, a reliance on experiential knowledge, and a uniting of diverse occult systems. Aeonic Voodoo seeks to incorporate these dispositions in its structure.
He then goes on to describe this Aeon’s defining features:
Anarchism; the state of being without a “frozen” hierarchy. Postdrogeny; the abrogation of all existent gender roles so that new perceptions may manifest. Feminism; as it is in the forefront in its stand against restriction and for human liberation. Equalitarianism; the belief that all people have equal political and social rights, and Nonviolence; a refusal to subject the self or others to physical coercion.
Whether we define this Aeon as being Aquarian, of Maat, or holding a multiplicity of overlapping words, we seem to be moving towards a place where language and definitions are being asked to become more plastic and amorphous in trying to stay alive to the diversity of human experience.
2008, Silver Star: A Journal of New Magick, Issue 9 (Spring Equinox, 2008)
Page numbers: 76-81
Publication date: 2008
Publication name: Silver Star: A Journal of New Magick, Issue 9 (Spring Equinox, 2008)
The brief ritual Nexus of Horus/Maat, composed by Aion 131 (= Denny Sargent) in 1995, is here given in full with commentary from various online sources. Many of the webpages and sites from which material was drawn in 2006-2007 are now defunct.
Fellowship of Ma-Ion. Secret magic order founded by "Frater Achad" (Charles Stansfeld Jones ), a close associate and magical child of magician Aleister Crowley.
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Jul 12, 2020 ... The Seven Principles of Ma'at. An error occurred. Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your ...
The seven principles are Truth, Justice, Harmony, Balance, Order, Propriety, and Reciprocity. What is Maat known for? Ma'at was an Ancient Egyptian Goddess who ...
Maat or Maʽat comprised the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also the goddess who ...
