Solar Noon

The Vedic and Tantric texts recommend meditation and rituals at midday. Midday is the time when the Sun is directly overhead, in the place called the midheaven (vyoma-madhya). Internally, this is seen as the middle of the breath. Externally, this time is called solar noon (in modern vernacular). The point of midday happens when the Sun is at its highest elevation and crosses the celestial meridian. Originally, before the Sun crosses celestial meridian, it is called ante meridiem (a.m.) and after it passes this point it is post meridiem (p.m). Solar midnight is when the Sun passes the nadir (opposite the midheaven) and becomes ante meridiem (a.m.) again.   

            When people used sun dials to tell the time, midday was observable when the shadow of the gnomon lined up directly with the gnomon, similar to a new Moon conjunction or full Moon opposition. The entire upward space from the perceiver is day: the Sun is oriented upwards. The entire sphere below the perceiver is in the darkness of night: the Moon is oriented downwards. Similarly, the gnomon (Śaṅkhu) was 24 angulas in length with 12 above ground and 12 below ground harnessing the hours of day and night. At this point of alignment, there is an awakening of the central channel, called the inner fire (antara-agni), representative of the perceiver who can attain liberation.

Sundials were the primary time pieces till the mid-17^th century. When mechanical clocks appeared, they had an ‘Equation of Time’ to correct the mechanical clocks to true midday. Sundials were considered to have the ‘correct time’ and mechanical clocks had an ‘inaccurate mean time’. After the mechanical clock become more common, the correction slowly became the other direction and sundials were corrected to mechanical clock time. This initially created outrage among some British Astronomers: that a time when the Sun was not on the celestial meridian was being called midday. But technology won out and modern humans are presently disconnected to the actual midday.

As I write this, the midday where I am located on August 14^th is at 13:11 (71 minutes after clock time noon). This is the time which is indicated for successful spiritual practice, be it ritual or meditation. 

Exact midday will vary depending on your longitude. There are websites that can help calculate this time for you, just search “solar noon calculator”.

The Civil hour has caught the popularity of the modern mechanized world. And it has the benefit that companies and countries easily calculate the time in different times zones. We have to remember though that we are humans living on a planet spinning around a living Sun. For successful ritual, one has to align with the heavens, not a mechanical clock.
Find Solar noon for where you live.