Welcome to new visitors from AdventureFit Radio (and returning friends)!

Welcome to new visitors from AdventureFit Radio (and returning friends)!

Big thank you to Tom Ahern and Bill Kerr of AdventureFit Travel and AdventureFit Radiofor reaching out all the way from Australia to invite me over to their show! 

Tom and I had a great interview (Bill was recuperating and couldn't be part of the conversation) and I hope you will enjoy it. 

Welcome to all new visitors who may be checking out the blog and the Star Myth World website for the first time due to hearing about my research through this latest podcast. 

Here is a link to the podcast on the AdventureFit website, and here is a link you can use to download the file to your iTunes or other mp3 player (other options for listening are available at the podcast link).

I thought Tom asked some great questions and led the conversation into some areas that have not necessarily surfaced in other podcast interviews. 

Below are a few links to some previous posts related to some of the subjects we touched upon during the chat:

  • Musings that out-of-body experiences involving mushrooms or other methods may relate to the message of the myths.
  • The importance of Gobekli Tepe and how it upends the conventional paradigm of humanity's ancient history (and see also here).

It was great to "meet" Tom and Bill during the weeks leading up to this interview, and I wish them all the best with their travels and research and other projects. Travel is obviously something that can greatly enhance our lives, and can also provide us with new perspectives and even cause us to question assumptions that may go unexamined if we always stay within familiar surroundings and people -- so getting out to experience other cultures and other parts of the world can indeed be life-changing.

I myself have had the opportunity to travel to New Zealand and Australia (thanks, Kiwi!) and can attest to just how much positive impact that trip has had on my life. 

 

This interview was recorded on April 27, 2017.

New video discussing some aspects of Astrotheology for Life

New video discussing some aspects of Astrotheology for Life

Here's a video I made discussing some of the concepts found in my new book, Astrotheology for Life.

I hope it's helpful for explaining some of the reasons I had for writing this particular book in this particular way.

You can find most of the previous videos I've made on related subjects in the "Videos" section of the Star Myth World website. You can also "subscribe" on YouTube if you want to be alerted immediately when a new video is published (although new videos will also be posted to the blog, usually within twenty-four hours of being published online somewhere).

Please feel free to leave feedback on videos or to pass them along to friends or family as appropriate, and also to let me know if there's a way to make them more helpful in any way.

Introducing Astrotheology for Life

Introducing Astrotheology for Life

I'm very pleased to announce the arrival of my latest book, Astrotheology for Life: Unlocking the Esoteric Wisdom of Ancient Myth.

You can see sample content by visiting the "Books" section of my main website, Star Myth World (dot com). 

This book aims to explore the system of celestial metaphor upon which virtually all of the world's ancient myths, scriptures and sacred stories are founded -- a concept sometimes referred to as "astrotheology" -- and also to explore how their ancient wisdom applies to our lives today. I am convinced that in order to begin to understand their message, it is important to approach the myths in the language that they are speaking.

To that end, I have arranged the discussions in Astrotheology for Life by "myth-pattern" (sometimes referred to as "oicotype"). As most of those who have studied myths from around the world soon begin to realize, certain themes or patterns can be found in myths from cultures which are widely separated from one another on our planet (and indeed separated from one another, apparently, by time as well). Some of these myth patterns which are explored in some detail in the book include:

  • The baby cast adrift in the water -- typically in a river and sometimes in the sea
  • The crossing of a Great Flood, one of the most prevalent patterns in ancient myth
  • Stories involving a woman or a goddess who must be made to smile, or who smiles and then denies it
  • The retrieval of the beloved from the realm of the dead, usually an unsuccessful retrieval (such as we find in the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, a pattern which is extremely widespread)
  • And stories involving a "failed baptism," in which a baby is dipped in fire or in water intended to make the child immortal or invulnerable to weapons, but the outcome of which is typically unsuccessful.

By looking at patterns of myth, and then discussing the likely celestial analogues upon which these specific stories are built, as well as the possible esoteric messages which the stories in these myth-patterns may be intended to convey, the hope is that the reader will begin to develop "pattern recognition" in the exploration of ancient myth, so that you can approach them for yourself, directly.

The book also discusses the probability that the presence of these worldwide patterns in the myths may point to the existence of an extremely ancient culture of great spiritual sophistication, predating all known civilizations under the conventional academic paradigm, and completely upending that paradigm of ancient human history.

The book is entitled Astrotheology for Life because I am quite convinced that the ancient myths and their profound wisdom have direct applications for our lives today. 

And not only for our individual lives: I am also convinced that many of the grave problems we face in the world today are a direct result of being "cut off" from the ancient wisdom which was entrusted to all humanity in the form of the ancient myths. Reconnecting with this ancient wisdom may be vital in making choices that will result in life for future generations.

For this book, I developed a new way of displaying the star-charts in black and white, so that they will be highly visible and helpful, and also so that the cost of the book can be kept down (color images cost more money to produce in a book). Astrotheology for Life contains over fifty illustrations and labeled star-charts along with clear and systematic explanation showing how the ancient myths and myth-patterns are built on the cycles of the heavens, and how to interpret their message for yourself.

I hope that the message inside will be a blessing to you in some way.

 

 

 

 

 

The Twins in the west

The Twins in the west

As the moon continues to grow (wax) towards full moon (which occurs on May 10), its increasing light will make star-gazing and constellation-identifying more challenging. However, at present the moon is moving into the constellation of Leo the Lion and is roughly adjacent to the two "twin-stars" of Gemini -- Castor and Pollux -- making it very easy to identify them in the sky.

The star-chart above (which was made using the excellent open-source planetarium app Stellarium, available at stellarium.org), shows the sky on the night of May 3rd from the position of an observer in the northern hemisphere at about 35 north latitude. The direction of observation is towards the south and west, and in order to locate the Twins of Gemini you will want to direct your attention to the western horizon, where the two stars of Castor and Pollux will be fairly high in the sky and roughly equivalent in height above the western horizon.

In the diagram above, note that the western horizon is "wrapping" upwards towards the right which is why the "right-hand" head of the twins, Castor, appears slightly higher -- but that "wrapping" effect is there in order to indicate that this part of the horizon would be "wrapping" around you to the right, if  you were actually outside, and that you would thus have to turn slightly to your right if facing south, in order to face west. As you turned right, the horizon would be level in real life, and the "twin-stars" of Gemini would be roughly even in height relative to the western horizon.

You should have little difficulty locating the brightest stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux. The brighter of the two, towards the east or left in the diagrams, is Pollux, while Castor is slightly dimmer (it is on the right or west). Below is a zoomed-in diagram of the section of the western sky containing the Twins:

Depending on the darkness of the sky in your area (and it will become more and more challenging as the moon waxes towards full, but then as it wanes again it will become easier) you may be able to make out the rest of the upright figures of the two Twins. They form two "parallel lines" coming down from the bright stars of their two heads, and their hands appear to be joined.

The stars marked with red arrows in the above diagram will be easiest to see, even as the moon becomes brighter and brighter. To the east (left in the diagram) and slightly below the twin-stars of Gemini will be the bright star Procyon, in Canis Minor (the "Little Dog"). To the west (right in the diagram) and also slightly below the level of Castor and Pollux will be the stars of Auriga the Charioteer. The brightest three stars of this constellation form a triangle and are marked by red arrows in the diagram above. The brightest star of Auriga is Capella -- forming the "eye" of the Charioteer's head, as envisioned in the constellation-outlining system of H. A. Rey.

As discussed in this previous post on the mythological traditions associated with the Twins, in many cultures there are myths in which one of a pair of mythological Twins is mortal, while the other is immortal. In the myth of Castor and Pollux (or Castor and Polydeuces), Castor is mortal while Polydeuces is immortal. 

This aspect of the myth, which carries an important esoteric message, can help you to remember which star (and which Twin) is which in the night sky. The star of the immortal Twin (Pollux) is brighter. Additionally, there is a trail of stars descending from the foot of the mortal twin (Castor) -- as if perhaps representing chains with which Castor is bound in the underworld. The motif of the Twins, of course, helps us to understand our own condition here in this incarnate life -- in which we are "bound" or "chained" within the realm of matter (the "lower realm" or the underworld), but in which we have access to our own "divine twin," as described in so many ancient myths around the world (see for instance the discussion in this previous post). 

There is a sacred story from the Tewa-speaking language groups of the Pueblo Native Americans, in which a young couple, just married, are so in love that they neglect all other duties among their people -- until the young woman suddenly becomes ill and dies. The young man, distraught, refuses to let her go -- and the story continues with the adventures of the living husband and undead bride until eventually the two are turned into the stars of Castor and Pollux, to chase each other forever across the sky. This story, and its numerous other celestial references, is discussed in more detail in Star Myths of the World, Volume One -- and I believe that it depicts very much the same truths about our incarnate condition contained in the myth of Castor and Pollux and in other similar "Gemini-related" Star Myths found in cultures around the world.

The bright stars that mark the heads of the heavenly Twins of the constellation Gemini were sometimes described in ancient myth as flames of fire which came down to rest above the heads of Castor and Polydeuces. In particular, during the Voyage of the Argonauts (in which Castor and Polydeuces participated, according to some ancient sources), there was a mighty storm with ferocious winds, but Orpheus -- who had been initiated into the mysteria of Samothrake or Samothrace -- offered prayers to the Great Gods of those mysteries (who also appear to have been associated with the Twins), and immediately the wind died down, and at the same time two flames descended over the heads of the Twin brothers on the ship, to the wonderment of all the others. 

The parallels between this ancient myth -- recorded by the historian Diodorus Siculus during the time period between about 60 BC and 30 BC -- and the events of Pentecost described in the text of the book of Acts in the New Testament of the Bible are unmistakable, as discussed in this post from 2015 which connects some of the aspects of Gemini with the traditions associated with the ancient feasts celebrated seven weeks after Passover and Easter.

All of these ancient myths, I believe, have important truths to convey to us, for our benefit in this incarnate life -- in which we ourselves have a "higher self" and a "lower self," and in which we ourselves can be said to be "cast adrift" upon a dangerous ocean (the "lower element" of water being a frequent mythological description of the material world, as opposed to the spiritual realm which is more closely associated with the "upper elements" of air and fire).

These ancient truths can come home to us in a personal way as we gaze upon the impressive sight of the constellation of Gemini standing in the western skies in the hours after sunset.

I hope that if it is possible for you to do so, you can take in the light from these stars in person, and further explore the many important teachings preserved in the myths surrounding the Twins. 

Yoga Sundial

Yoga Sundial

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

During the months on the "upper half" of the annual cycle, I like to try to do my morning Sun Salutations outdoors, towards the direction of the rising sun.

Because I live in the northern hemisphere, these are the months between the March equinox and the September equinox, when hours of daylight are longer than hours of darkness, and when it is generally warmer outside than it is during the months on the "lower half" of the annual cycle. Even during the lower half of the year, I like to try to do my Sun Salutations outdoors if possible, on occasion and weather permitting, but as days get longer and warmer during the upper half of the year it is especially enjoyable to take advantage of those conditions and practice outdoors if at all possible.

Doing your Sun Salutations outdoors has numerous benefits. If the sun is already above the horizon, you can close your eyes as and feel the sun on your face and see its warm glow through your eyelids. Additionally, if you orient yourself and your Yoga mat towards the sun each morning, you will be able to follow its daily motion as it rises further and further north (during the "upward" progress from winter solstice up to summer solstice) or further and further south (after summer solstice, when the sun turns around and rises further and further south on its way "down" to the winter solstice).

In this way, you will actually become a sort of human gnomon or menhir, and will gain a good first-hand feel for the sun's annual motion along the horizon. Here's a link to a postfrom the early days of this blog which discusses this principle as part of an examination of the concept of "cross-quarter days" (one of which is coming up soon!) -- and here's a link to one more early post which contains a little sketch I made showing the same concept from a slightly different angle.

If the sun is already up in the sky and casting shadows, then you can easily align yourself in the direction of the sun by seeing that the shadows made by your arms and legs as you do your salutations are going "straight back" and not off at an angle from the point your hands or feet are touching the mat.

Below is a composite image showing my Yoga mat as it moves through the year, pointing towards the sunrise in the east:

compass rose: Wikimedia commons (link).

compass rose: Wikimedia commons (link).

The top of the image is pretty much due east, and thus north is towards the left and south towards the right. At present, my mat is oriented as shown in the top image in the composite, facing towards "north of east" -- but not too long ago (prior to the March equinox) it was oriented as shown for "south of east." As most readers already know, the sun's rising-point moves back and forth along the eastern horizon between a northernmost point (reached at the June solstice) and a southernmost point (reached at the December solstice), passing through the "due east" rising point twice each year at the equinoxes (once on its way north, in March, and once on its way back south, in September).

By lining up your Sun Salutations to face the sun each morning, you will be aligning yourself with this annual motion as well! 

Note that we already do many things that correspond to the cycles of the heavens, often without even thinking about it. For instance, most of us take our sleep during the hours that our side of the earth is turned away from the sun, thus aligning our waking and our sleeping hours with the sun's progress across the sky or (figuratively speaking) "under the earth." Most of us observe our own birthdays, and the birthdays of our friends and family, which is a way of noting when the earth in its annual motion around the sun has returned to the same relationship it had on the day upon which we (or our friend or family member) was born. And there are many other examples, of course, that most of us can come up with, once we begin to consider the subject.

If you read translations of some of the ancient Sanskrit texts, including the great epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, you will see that the characters in those stories perform morning rituals at the sun's rising each day.

Additionally, there are passages in the Pyramid Texts which describe the gods giving their salutations to Ra. In Utterance 579, for instance, the text at one point says: "They praise thee; they come to thee with salutations, as they do homage to Re, as they come to him with salutations" (1952 translation by Samuel A. B. Mercer).

For more on the Yoga Sun Salutations, see this previous post (linked in the first line, above, as well). 

For those in the northern hemisphere, where the days are getting longer and warmer as we head towards our summer months, I hope that you can have the opportunity to do some Sun Salutations outside, oriented towards the sunrise, if at all possible!

I like to chant every day

I like to chant every day

I'm not sure who this person is (in the above video), but he likes to chant every day.

You don't have to have ideal surroundings in order to benefit from chanting.

Obviously, if you happened to live among the incredible ruins of Rajavihara (Ta Promh) at Angkor, you would probably not be self-conscious about chanting mantras every day.

But, just because the modern world is often covered with uninspiring architecture doesn't mean you cannot create vibrations around you as if you were at Ta Promh.

The chant in the above video is discussed in this previous blog post. As mentioned in that blog post, the sloka is repeated four times, beginning with the sacred syllable OM each time, and concludes with the repetition of the word "Shanti" three times (also preceded by the sacred syllable at the beginning of the three).

A technique for keeping track of the four repeated slokas using the thumb and fingers of one hand is illustrated. The thumb and index finger form a circle on the first sloka, then the thumb and middle finger for the second sloka, then the thumb and ring finger for the third sloka, and then back to the thumb and middle finger for the fourth and final sloka, so that you don't lose track of how many you have chanted.

Previous posts discussing the benefits of chanting and singing every day include:

and

There are many places where the power of the sacred syllable OM is discussed. A previous post which touches on this subject can be found here.

While, like me, you may not live among beautiful structures such as those found at Angkor in Cambodia (I've never even been there), I believe we can make our temple wherever we happen to find ourselves on this planet.

The beautiful and important constellation Coma Berenices

The beautiful and important constellation Coma Berenices

Right now is one of the best times of year to go out at night and try to locate the challenging but extremely beautiful and mythologically-important constellation known as Coma Berenices, or "Berenice's Hair."

The constellation is located just beyond the "outstretched arm" of the constellation Virgo, which is currently sailing across the heavens during the prime viewing hours after sunset and through midnight and beyond -- and when Virgo and hence Coma Berenices are near the highest point on their arc across the sky, they are farthest from the "ground haze" of light and dust and thicker layers of atmosphere that lingers near the horizon, and thus your best opportunities for observing Coma Berenices come when Coma is high in the sky.

Additionally, because Coma is such a challenging constellation to see, finding Coma Berenices is much more difficult (and often impossible) if the moon is anywhere in the sky. As we are now approaching the point of new moon (which will take place on April 26), the best times to try to find Coma Berenices will be up to the point of new moon, as well as the first few nights after new moon (but wait until the new waxing crescent has set -- it will be following the sun very closely for the first few nights after new moon).

The best way to locate Coma Berenices is to get away from any city lights, driving out to the country if possible. Once you know where to find this elusive constellation and have seen it in the heavens for yourself, you actually can find it on a dark night from within the "city limits" of a small town or suburban location, but only if you get away from any street lights and only if the constellation is high in the heavens and no moon is present.

Coma Berenices is made up of very faint stars, but (somewhat akin to the Beehive Cluster), you can almost "sense" it in the heavens when you are looking in the right place, and like the Beehive it does consist of a dazzling cloud of tiny stars, although covering a larger area than does the Beehive Cluster. Berenice's Hair is also not very far from the Beehive in the night sky -- you can see them both at this time of year. The Beehive travels ahead of the mouth of Leo the Lion, and the constellation Virgo (who is reaching up towards Berenice's Hair) follows behind Leo.

Below is a star chart showing the location of Coma Berenices, above the outstretched arm of Virgo and in front of the Herdsman, Bootes.  Bootes is fairly close to the Big Dipper -- his brightest star Arcturus is orange, and can be found by following an "arcing" line from the handle of the Dipper (the old saying says "Follow the 'arc' to Arcturus"):

The easiest way for me to locate Coma Berenices is to follow the line of the upward-reaching arm of the constellation Virgo. Virgo is particularly easy to locate right now, because the jovial planet Jupiter is presently traveling through the constellation. Jupiter is the brightest object in the night sky right now, until Venus rises in the early morning hours ahead of the sun. Of course, when the moon is up, it is brighter than both Venus and Jupiter.

If you follow the outstretched arm of Virgo, you will come immediately to the "handle" of Coma Berenices, which stretches upwards along roughly the same line as Virgo's arm (upwards, that is, for viewers in the northern hemisphere). To the right (or west) of this vertical "handle" you will see the shimmering cloud of stars which make up the "hair" of Berenice.

Here is how groundbreaking author H. A. Rey describes Berenice's Hair in his book, The Stars: A New Way to See Them --

Small and very faint. Contains a group of dim stars, visible only on clear, moonless nights when the constellation is high up. Shown here as a few strands of hair fluttering from a stick between the star Cor Caroli and the Virgin's outstretched arm. 

This constellation owes its name to a theft: Berenice was an Egyptian queen (3rd century BC) who sacrificed her hair to thank Venus for a victory her husband had won in a war. The hair was stolen from the temple but the priests in charge convinced the disconsolate queen that Zeus himself had taken the locks and put them in the sky as a constellation.

Of all our constellations, Berenice's Hair is the one farthest from the Milky Way [I believe he here means, "in terms of its location in the sky," as opposed to "farthest in terms of actual distance in space"]. With the queen's hair overhead you don't see the Milky Way: it [meaning "the Milky Way"] then runs along the horizon, blotted out by the atmosphere near the ground. Thus no hair can ever get into the milk, celestially speaking. Best time: April through August. 36. 

While it may be true that the constellation's present name stretches back to the name of the historical Egyptian queen Berenice (during the Ptolemaic period), the constellation figures prominently in myths around the world, sometimes involving the theft of the hair of a goddess (such as the myth of the theft of the hair of the goddess Sif, in Norse mythology), by which we can know with a great degree of certainty that this constellation and its mythological associations are much older than the 3rd century BC. 

Anyone who reads Star Myths of the World, Volume One will find that Coma Berenices plays an important role in myths found around the globe, including in myths from the Maya, from the cultures of the Pacific Islands, and from the Menri people of the Malay Peninsula. That volume also discusses an aspect of the Isis and Osiris myth from ancient Egypt which also involves Coma Berenices. I would argue that the mythological connotations associated with this particular constellation are so similar in so many different parts of the globe that they constitute more evidence for the possibility that the world's ancient myths may descend from some now-forgotten, extremely ancient common source, one which predates even ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia by thousands of years.

Before we take a look at a few ways in which Coma Berenices appears in myth, let's look at the constellation itself. Below is a "close-up view" of the stars of Coma Berenices as they appear in the sky. The cloud of stars which gives the constellation its name can be seen near the top of the image, about three-quarters of the way across the rectangle:

Below is the exact same screen-shot of the region of the sky containing Coma Berenices, but this time the outlines of the constellation are drawn in and labeled, along with portions of the outlines of the nearby constellations of Virgo and Bootes:

Following the outlining convention suggested by H. A. Rey in his book, four "lines" have been drawn from the top of the "handle" towards the cloud of stars to the right (or west) -- but, as you may be able to see from the diagram, there are actually a lot more stars hovering in the region of the end of these four lines (to the right of the right end of each line, as you look at the image). These stars make the constellation quite beautiful, and extremely satisfying to gaze upon, if you are able to locate it.

Once you have successfully located the constellation under ideal conditions, you may be able to dimly perceive it even from locations that do not have the most ideal sky-viewing conditions, if you know where to look and what you are looking for. However, you will still need a pretty dark night, with no moon, clear skies, and Virgo high in the sky.

From the above images, you will be able to understand that, although the ancient myths do indeed incorporate Coma Berenices as a lock of hair that has been cut off (usually from a figure played by the constellation Virgo -- including Sif from Norse mythology, Isis from ancient Egypt, and the mother of Maui in the Pacific Islands), the constellation Coma will also appear in ancient myth as a torch, a whip, a bunch of flowers, or even as a "feather-duster" or "whisk" of sorts (usually of peacock-feathers).

Many goddesses associated with Virgo the Virgin are depicted in ancient myth and ancient artwork as carrying a torch, which I believe to be associated with Coma Berenices in most or all cases. For example, below is a piece of pottery featuring red-figure artwork, unearthed in the ancient city of Vulci along the northern coast of Italy (Vulci was an important Etruscan culture center in ancient times). In it, we see a goddess who is usually identified as Kore, the Maiden (a name for the goddess Persephone), in the act of sending forth Triptolemus to spread good agricultural seeds and farming practices around the world:

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Note that the goddess is holding what appears to be a long torch with some flickering flames turning upwards at the tip (which is pointed downwards in the image). The torch would not really seem to be an integral part of the scene -- it seems to be a little out of place, in fact. I would argue that it is a celestial detail, and that the goddess is associated with the torch because of the relative locations of Virgo and Coma Berenices in the actual night sky.

Note also that the goddess is sending Triptolemus forth in a chariot drawn by winged serpents, which she has loaned him for the task. I believe it is possible that the inspiration for the winged serpents comes from the constellation Hydra in the sky, which is a long serpentine constellation located underneath Virgo and which is also very visible at this time of year (and somewhat easier to see than Coma Berenices). Below is a star chart showing Virgo and Leo, with Hydra stretching beneath them (the head of Hydra is actually "ahead of" or even further west than the front of Leo the Lion, even though Virgo is  "behind" or further east than Leo in the sky):

Note in the above star-chart that the constellation of Crater the Cup, on the back of the serpentine figure of Hydra, could well be envisioned as the "wings" of the winged serpent in this particular instance. Note also that the figure of Virgo in the sky can be envisioned as being "seated" upon a throne or a chariot. Figures associated with Virgo are often depicted as riding on the backs of lions, or in chariots or carts drawn by lions, no doubt due to Virgo's proximity to Leo in the heavens. However, because Hydra is also adjacent to Virgo, sometimes the goddess also has access to a chariot pulled by winged serpents, as in the story of Triptolemus.There are literally hundreds of other myths which feature the constellation Coma Berenices which we could explore -- but what has been discussed already should be enough to establish the fact that Coma is an extremely important constellation in the world's ancient Star Myths. This fact makes finding Coma Berenices in the night sky all the more thrilling, in my opinion. On top of that, however, finding Coma Berenices is an exciting challenge, and once you are able to locate it, the constellation itself is also extremely beautiful, even if faint.

For all these reasons, I hope that you will have an opportunity to try to observe Coma Berenices in the night sky over the next few nights -- and the next few months -- if it is at all possible for you to do so. 

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

image: Wikimedia commons (link).