The Stick and the Shadow

What one will notice is that towards the western horizon a shadow shows up that is very long, from the early sun; and this shadow will continue to decrease as the sun is moving up, until it reaches its shortest point — and this is the ninety-degree angle, if one is looking at the 180 of the circumference, from 0 to 180: the ninety-degree angle. Now if one is in an equatorial place on the earth, which is a very small, narrow place, where the sun will actually be directly overhead twice a year — like Mecca — the shadow will disappear completely. The sun is literally directly over one's head, and the shadow disappears. For the rest of us, one will notice that in the winter the shadow is long and in the summer it is short, based on the movement of the sun towards the south in the winter — the shifting of the earth, in truth; but it is preferable to look at it geocentrically, just because that is how, phenomenologically or experientially, we experience it: we experience it geocentrically. So this is put in geocentric terms — not to get out of abstract thinking, but simply to look at this as we experience it as human beings. Instead of looking at it as the shift of the earth, it is better to look at it as the sun moving over, because that is how we see it, and that is how young people experience it. When the sun moves over to the south, then the shadow becomes longer, in the winter. Now as the sun is moving back towards the north, then the shadow is getting smaller and smaller. So one can actually see the movement of the shadow during the year. It is a very interesting thing; and anyone who has been doing it for a while becomes so accustomed to it that he can pretty much work out what time of the day it is just from his shadow, if the sun is out, because he knows the shadow pretty well in the winter and in the summer. And those who live with Bedouins, who know the sun really well, find it phenomenal how accurately they can tell the time based on just looking at the shadow.