A few modest photos from today's solar eclipse, 20 May 2012

A few modest photographs of the progress of the disc of the moon moving across the disc of the sun, seen as a projection (not as dramatic as photographs taken through filters looking directly at the sun itself).

As the eclipse reached its maximum, the sky noticeably darkened -- not the way it does at night but the way it looks when there is a large forest fire and the smoke and haze create a strange filter to the normal sunlight.  

All the shadows of the trees took on the shape of a thousand fragmented crescents, similar to the shadows seen in this image.

There are many other (more spectacular) images of the eclipse from around the world available for viewing at various sites, such as here and here.

Birthday of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

May 20 is the birthday of beloved Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, born this day in 1959.  

He is most well-known for his incredible rendition of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" (above).  Here is a link to an NPR segment describing the amazing story behind the recording of that song in 1988, when Brother Iz talked music producer Milan Bertosa into staying at his studio for fifteen more minutes (it was already three in the morning), and then walked in and recorded in one take, accompanied only by his own ukelele.

Here is a link to a previous blog post entitled "What kind of music gives you chills?" which explores the power of music and the impact it can have.  It cites an article that examined songs that have an impact on our "sympathetic nervous system" which concludes, "Music is most likely to tingle the spine, in short, when it includes surprises in volume, timbre and harmonic pattern."  The music of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole is certainly capable of "tingling the spine" and contains all of those elements.

The NPR story cited above also hints at another reason that his music is so powerful and strikes such a chord with listeners.  It quotes Israel's childhood friend and fellow musician Del Beazley:

In Hawaii, we talk about this thing we call mana.  Mana is like an energy that you get. We believe we get ours from the elements first, the Earth, your sky, your ocean, your God, and all that is inside of us. And when we open our mouth to speak, to sing or to play, that's what we let out. But it's that that makes him [Israel] special, because his mana always came out.

Israel often expressed his certainty that the soul continues after the death of the body, and in fact expressed that belief in some of the interview quotations included in that same NPR story.  His music also lives on and continues to convey his positive energy to new generations of listeners.

Rest in peace.  Respect.

The constellation Corvus

This is an excellent time of year to view the constellation Corvus, the Raven (or the Crow).  Currently, he is high in the southern sky, transiting (reaching his highest point on his nightly arc, arcing upwards from the east prior to transit and then downwards towards the west after transit) at about 10:30 pm at latitude 35 North.  

Corvus is easy to locate if you can find Virgo the Virgin, and Virgo is also easy to locate after sunset in the hours before midnight this time of year.  She follows Leo the Lion quite closely (giving rise to the many ancient goddesses who either ride a lion or ride chariots pulled by a lion).

Currently, the planet Saturn is located in Virgo, very close to her brightest star, Spica (see the diagram in the post linked with the first link in the previous paragraph, which has a helpful red arrow pointing to Spica).  Saturn is yellowish in color and glows with a steady bright glow, unlike the twinkling stars (planets do not twinkle, just as the moon does not -- they are bodies in our solar system and reflect the sun's light as does the moon, but since they are farther away they appear to be similar in size to the stars).

Once you have found Virgo, you may well look around and wonder what that bright grouping of stars might be, close in the sky below her -- a fairly bright quadrilateral of stars glowing brightly in a relatively dark patch of sky beneath Spica (and Saturn) and off to the right (or west -- all descriptions here are northern-hemisphere-centric).  This is Corvus, and as you become familiar with his constellation, he will really begin to resemble a crow or a raven, sitting there with his bill pointed towards Virgo and his tail-feathers pointing downwards.

The diagram above shows the constellation Corvus, and the original image has the grey lines as his outline is typically drawn in many star-charts, but they are not very helpful.  Much better (as usual) is the outline (added in green lines above) suggested by H.A. Rey, the beloved author of children's books including the Curious George series, whose book The Stars: A New Way to See Them is a wonderful companion for anyone interested in becoming familiar with the constellations of our night sky.

On page 50, describing this constellation, he says of Corvus:

Small but quite bright, below the Virgin's head.  The star and the tip of the bill, and the one where the leg joins the bird's body, are rather faint, so the complete shape of the sitting crow can only be seen under best conditions, but the four brightest stars of the constellation, forming a quadrangle, are easily found.  The Crow's bill is pointed toward the Virgin's jewel, Spica, as though he were waiting for a chance to grab it.

This is a wonderful description, and quite apt for the bird, as you will see for yourself when you locate him.

Here is a link to the delightful "Constellation of Words" website discussion of Corvus and the ancient legends surrounding this constellation (which was known in the ancient world and described by Ptolemy in his Almagest).  Note the legends in which the Raven was charged with watching Coronis, a beautiful young princess and the daughter of King Phlegyas, while she was pregnant with his son, Asclepius.  

This is another example of evidence supporting the argument that the myths encode information about the heavenly bodies, rather than (as most people think) the other way around (the "other way around" would be the idea that the planets were named after the gods, when in fact the gods were named after the planets, or in some cases the constellations).  The myth of a raven watching a princess is almost certainly inspired by the constellation Corvus watching the Virgin.

Another important aspect of the constellation Corvus  is the appearance of a raven among the other animals depicted in the tauroctony scenes present in the mithraea of the ancient Roman mystery religion of Mithraism (also known to the ancients as the Persian Mysteries).  

Professor David Ulansey's Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World presented the case for interpreting the imagery of the tauroctony scene based upon constellations and other aspects of celestial mechanics.  This interpretation stands in marked contrast to the conventional view held by most academic scholars of Mithraism, who for nearly a hundred years had interpreted the various figures depicted in the tauroctony scene as representing the various types of creatures that sprang from a slain bull as part of a Zoroastrian creation legend.

Instead, Professor Ulansey argues that figures present in the tauroctony represent the constellations along the celestial equator as it was when the equinoxes were in Taurus and Scorpius, namely: "Taurus the bull, Canis Minor the dog, Hydra the snake, Crater the cup, Corvus the raven, Scorpius the scorpion" (51).  

He also gives some evidence which argues that the cup (when it appears in the tauroctony) may represent Aquarius rather than Crater, because the cup does not always appear in the tauroctony but when it does it usually does so with a lion, and thus the bull, scorpion, cup and lion could represent the four constellations that guarded the equinoxes and solstices during the epoch depicted (52).  However, this debate does not concern Corvus, as the image of a raven is a fixture in most of the tauroctonies, whether they also have an image of a lion and a cup or not.

An astute observer of the heavens as they are today, or of the star map above showing Corvus and identifying the celestial coordinates along the edge of the map, will notice that Corvus does not lie along the celestial equator, which would seem to argue against Professor Ulansey's theory.  However, the observer must also remember that due to the phenomenon of precession, the celestial equator (as well as the celestial north and south poles) moves against the background of stars.  

Just as the central point around which the sky appears to turn moves over the millenia until it is beneath different stars (currently almost precisely beneath Polaris, but thousands of years ago beneath Thuban in Draco instead), so the celestial equator shifts along with it, such that the line of the celestial equator passed through those constellations in a previous age but it no longer does so today.  Thousands of years ago, the celestial equator passed right through Corvus.

For all these reasons, becoming familiar with the small but important constellation Corvus is worth making the effort to do this time of year.

Moving report of elephants mourning the passing of "Elephant Whisperer" Lawrence Anthony

Here is a beautiful and moving story about a procession of wild elephants who arrived from miles away to pay their respects upon the death of their friend and benefactor, Lawrence Anthony, remaining for two days in an elephant vigil.  Mr. Anthony's family said that these elephants had not been seen in the area of his house for about fifteen months prior to his sudden passing from a heart attack.

Mr. Anthony, the author along with Graham Spence of the Elephant Whisperer, as well as of  Babylon's Ark and the Last Rhinos, lived with his family in a remote rural compound in the Thula Thula game preserve in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.  He died of a heart attack on March 2 of this year; he was 61.

His family reported that after his passing, two herds arrived after a trek of about twelve hours and remained in the vicinity of the compound for two more days.  Here is a touching article about the incident from the Delight Makers website.  Here is a link to a photograph that the family posted.

Besides being incredibly moving and heart-rending, this story is extremely important.  First, this type of grieving behavior is by no means unknown among elephants -- many other examples exist (see stories here and here, for instance, as well as the well-publicized and moving story of Shirley and Jenny -- see video one and video two).  This in itself is important.  That wild elephants would display such grieving for a human who befriended them is also important.  There are also other stories of domestic animals displaying powerful grief and mourning after the loss of a human friend and companion, such as those discussed here.

Second and even more amazing is the implications of the report that two herds of elephants many miles away somehow perceiving the death of a human -- and traveling for twelve hours to his location.  There is no easy explanation for such perception that I know of being offered by the promoters of an absolutely materialistic worldview.  If these reports about the elephants perceiving the passing of their friend are true, they deal a powerful blow to the strictly materialistic views of consciousness and existence which are so virulently promoted by many defenders of "Science" (in denial of much evidence, it must be added).

The only real rebuttal that a strict materialist could offer for this moving story would be to deny it altogether, it would seem.  To do that, they would have to assert that in their time of mourning the family dreamed up this very improbable story -- an incredibly callous and cynical suggestion and one that would really be quite inhuman to suggest.  I do not know of anyone who is suggesting such a thing, but only point out that it is quite unlikely and would be really quite wrong to suggest it.  

It would also be ridiculous to suggest that the mysterious arrival after Mr. Anthony's death of the two elephant herds of Thula Thula after fifteen months in other parts of the park was mere coincidence, especially since they loitered in the area grieving, and especially in light of the many recorded instances of similar acts of grieving by other elephants stretching back for decades.

Here are two more articles (here and here) which describe the arrival of the elephants at the Anthony family compound.  

This moving episode suggests that the nature of consciousness is far different than we have been led to believe by the proponents of the absolute materialist worldview that has held sway in most of academia for a century.  It clearly has resonances with the work of Rupert Sheldrake, author of (among many other works) the book Dogs that Know When Their Owners are Coming Home, and other unexplained powers of animals.  It also brings up the extremely important subject discussed by Chris Carter in his excellent essay "Does consciousness depend on the brain?" which was linked in this previous post.

Rest in peace Lawrence Anthony, and we send our sincere wishes for comfort to his grieving family, of all species.

Scorpio rising into prominence in the late evening sky

The beautiful and distinctive constellation of the Scorpion is one of the landmarks of the summer sky.  In the northern hemisphere, the Scorpion makes his way across the southern portion of the sky, with most of the constellation below the plane of the ecliptic, which itself is below the celestial equator at night (and above it during the day for observers in the northern hemisphere between the March and September equinoxes -- see diagrams and discussion here).  This southerly position means that for observers in the mid- to upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere, the Scorpion stays low in the south and never gets very high above the southern horizon, even at his highest point during the night.

The constellation Scorpio (or Scorpius) is not difficult to find, following in a line behind Virgo (there is another zodiac constellation between Virgo and Scorpio, the faint but interesting constellation Libra, which we can ignore for this discussion, because you have to really be looking in order to find it).  To find Virgo, see this previous post.  Virgo follows directly behind the unmistakable and majestic constellation of Leo, which is currently high overhead after sunset and still graced by the presence of the red planet Mars (no longer in retrograde and now heading back towards Virgo), easily visible with the naked eye.  For a post discussing the important connection between the Lion and the constellation Virgo, see here.

The constellation Scorpio is described in this previous post, which contains an embedded video with gorgeous high-definition time-lapse photography of the night sky as it circles through the night (due to the rotation of the earth), much of it featuring the brilliant and sinuous form of the Scorpion.  It is easy to spot, currently rising up vertically from the eastern horizon beginning about an hour or two after sunset.  

About a third of the way down the Scorpion's long body (before the amazing hook of the tail) is the bright red star Antares (the "anti-Ares" or rival to Mars, presumably because of its dazzling red color), shown on the diagram above as the largest circle connected by the lines that form the constellation.  Antares currently rises above the horizon shortly after 9 p.m. for observers in the northern hemisphere at latitudes around 35 degrees north.  By the time Antares is above the horizon, the forward part of the constellation (including the formidable claws, which really look something like an arcing bow, as you can see from the diagram above)  should be clearly recognizable if you know what you are looking for and where to look.

As that previous post with the time-lapse video explains, scholars Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend -- the authors of the influential and controversial Hamlet's Mill (1969) -- found connections in the Scorpio legends stretching from ancient Sumer and Egypt all the way across the oceans to the Native Americans of both North and South America, and then across the Pacific into Polynesian legend as well.

They note that ancient sources including Orphic and Pythagorean tradition and the writings of Macrobius all attest to a belief that the souls of the dead travel across the sky in the Milky Way before being reincarnated (at times it is also explained that they are given a drink of forgetfulness either as the enter the Milky Way or before they leave it to return to a new incarnation).  Because the Scorpion is located at one of the "gates" of the Milky Way (the southern gate, the northern being located near the Twins and the "Gate of Cancer" -- see discussions here and here), various mythologies and traditions from around the globe seem to have a scorpion goddess who greets the souls of the departed as they enter the next world.  

De Santillana and von Dechend identify the goddess Ishara (found in the Gilgamesh series of ancient Sumer and Babylon) with this tradition -- she was a love goddess as well as a goddess of the underworld, and she was associated with the constellation of the Scorpion.  The Egyptian goddess Selket or Selqet (also Serket or Serqet) was also clearly associated with this tradition according to evidence cited in Hamlet's Mill.

Interestingly, de Santillana and von Dechend also cite Maori tradition of the souls of the dead entering the Milky Way on one end and emerging on the other, as well as Native American traditions from widely separated geographical locations.  The direction of travel sometimes varies (either south to north or north to south), but the role of a scorpion goddess who receives the souls of the dead or nurses them before they are reincarnated is a motif that resonates across many cultures around the world.  They explain:  

Among the Sumo in Honduras and Nicaragua their "Mother Scorpion . . . is regarded as dwelling at the end of the Milky Way, where she receives the souls of the dead, and from her, represented as a mother with many breasts, at which children take suck, come the souls of the newborn." [H. B. Alexander, Latin American Mythology (1916), p. 185.].  Whereas the Pawnee and Cherokee say [S. Hagar, "Cherokee Star-Lore," in Festschrift Boas (1906), p. 363; H. B. Alexander, North American Mythology, p. 117]: "the souls of the dead are received by a star at the northern end of the Milky Way, where it bifurcates, and he directs the warriors upon the dim and difficult arm, women and those who die of old age upon the brighter and easier path.  The souls then journey southwards.  At the end of the celestial pathway they are received by the Spirit Star, and there they make their home."  One can quietly add "for a while," or change it to "there they make their camping place."  Hagar takes the "Spirit Star" to be Antares (alpha Scorpii).  243.

On the next page, the authors also make note of the tradition of the "Old goddess with the scorpion tail" among the Maya, and her similarity in role to Selket-Serqet of ancient Egypt (244).

All these traditions regarding the constellation Scorpio and the Milky Way as the pathway of the dead may have arisen in complete isolation among the ancient Orphic and Pythagorean traditions (which many astute analysts have shown to have strong hints of Egyptian ancestry) and the pre-Columbian cultures of the "New World," as conventional historians are bound to insist, but the harmonies between them are extremely strong.  

Nor are these parallels the only data points which hint at an ancient connection between cultures separated by the world's mighty oceans (or perhaps between some unknown forerunners of those cultures).  For other startling connections between the traditions of the Maya and the events of the Gilgamesh epic, see this previous post, and for a list of numerous other pieces of evidence suggesting ancient contact not acknowledged by the conventional narrative of human history, see this previous post.

In light of the above discussion of the widespread tradition of the scorpion goddess as the one who receives and nurtures the souls at the gate of the Milky Way, the image below of the gold-covered statue of Selket guarding the burial shrine that contained the nested mummy cases that held the body of Tutankhamun is significant.  Note the scorpion on her head.  This intimate location nearest to the body of the departed king surely is important confirmation of the themes discussed in Hamlet's Mill about the importance of the constellation of the Scorpion.

Make your plans for the upcoming solar eclipse!

Every month, the motions of the moon in relation to the earth and the sun produce the phases of the moon, described here and here with diagrams.  

When the moon is positioned on the far side of the earth with respect to the sun (so that the side receiving the full force of the sun's rays is towards observers on earth) we see a full moon, and when the moon is positioned between the earth and the sun (so that the side receiving the sun's rays is towards the sun and invisible to observers on earth) we have a new moon (this post from a new moon earlier this year also contains a video of the mechanics involved).

If the moon's orbit were on the identical plane that the earth follows around the sun (the plane of the ecliptic), then every time it passed through the exact point of new moon and full moon, observers on earth would see an eclipse.  There would be a lunar eclipse on every full moon as the shadow of the earth crossed over the face of the moon, because a full moon takes place when the earth is between the moon and the sun.  There would be a solar eclipse on every new moon as the interfering body of the moon inserted itself between the earth and the sun, because a new moon takes place when the moon passes between the earth and the sun.  

However, because the moon's orbital plane is inclined to the plane of the ecliptic, the moon's orbit only passes through the ecliptic plane twice -- once "on the way up" and once "on the way down."  These are known as the lunar nodes, one known as the "ascending node" and the other as the "descending node."  These nodes and their motion are described in much greater detail in this previous post, which also discusses the likely reason for "seven-world cosmologies" and "nine-world cosmologies" and how the nodes fit in (the seven worlds represent the five visible planets plus the sun and the moon for a total of seven, while the nine worlds include the two lunar nodes as well for a total of nine).  For further discussion, see also this post, which contains a link to excellent animation on the subject.

When the moon passes through the point of new moon or the point of full moon at the same time that it is passing through one of the two lunar nodes, observers on earth can see a solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse, respectively.

This month, new moon will take place on May 20 (it will already be early on May 21 in Greenwich time and the "leading" time zones of the globe), and this new moon will be special because it will create a solar eclipse.  Observers in the portions of the earth that can observe the sun will be able to observe the eclipse.  Because their location on the earth will determine the angle between themselves and the two heavenly bodies of moon and sun, the eclipse will be partial in most latitudes (the moon taking a bite out of the sun of varying sizes depending on the observer's latitude), but within a certain band of latitudes (which will move like a rifle barrel along the turning earth during the day) the moon and sun will align to create an annular solar eclipse.

The distinction between an annular solar eclipse and a total solar eclipse results from the apparent size of the moon, which changes throughout its elliptical orbit (recall that we were recently treated to a full moon of unusual apparent size).  The diagram below shows the variations between the maximum apparent size of the moon and the minimum apparent size of the moon (black lines -- the maximum is the outermost line and is solid and the minimum is the innermost line and is dotted) as well as the sun (red lines -- the max is the outermost again, and you can see that the moon's apparent max and min vary much more widely).

If the apparent size of the moon happens to be equal or larger than that of the sun during a solar eclipse along the "rifle barrel" of perfect alignment to an observer on earth, then observers in that band of latitudes will be treated to a total eclipse of the sun, perhaps the most awesome natural celestial phenomenon there is for earthly observers (one will occur in November of this year for observers in Australia and the South Pacific).  

However, if the moon is too far away to completely cover the sun, observers along the narrow band of perfect alignment are treated to an "annular eclipse," named for the Latin word anulus or "ring."  This month's solar eclipse will be an annular eclipse.

This webpage from NASA contains an embedded Google map which depicts the track of the upcoming May 20/21 annular solar eclipse.  You can move the green cursor along the track to see the exact times that the eclipse will begin, reach maximum, and end at any point along the path.  You can also zoom in and zoom out.

Note that looking directly at the sun is extremely dangerous and can cause permanent damage to your retina and even permanent blindness, and even more so if its beams are enhanced by additional optical lenses, and that extra caution must be exercised during the observation of an eclipse for safety (during a total eclipse the effects can be safely observed with the naked eye during totality, but this does not hold true for an annular solar eclipse or for a partial solar eclipse).  This webpage from Sky & Telescope gives advice on safely observing a solar eclipse.  This article also describes the upcoming annular eclipse and gives some additional safety tips.

In her excellent book The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, Jane B. Sellers argues that solar eclipses (and total eclipses in particular) are directly related to the ancient myths of the "contendings of Seth and Horus" and the death and resurrection of the gods.

Her explanation is quite thorough and extensive, and should be read in its entirety in her book, but a few quotations she cites from the ancient Egyptian texts should suffice to give an idea of her argument.  For instance, on page 43 of her book, she cites this passage from the Egyptian Book of the Dead:

On the crest of that mountain is a snake, He Whose Consuming Fire is Within Him is his name.  Then after mid-day he will turn his eyes against Re, then a stoppage will take place in the bark and great amazement among the sailors . . . Then Suty will hurl a spear of metal against him and cause him to disgorge all that he has swallowed.

Elsewhere, on page 32, she cites a different passage from the Book of the Dead:

I filled for thee the Eye after it had failed that day of the battle of the Two Fighters.

What then is it?

The day it is of the fighting of Horus with Seth, throwing excrement in the face of Horus . . .

Several previous posts have discussed other aspects of the important theories of Jane Sellers, most notably this one. 

If you are in a location where it is possible to do so, make your plans to (safely) observe the upcoming annular solar eclipse!

Fascinating new research about Algol and ancient Egypt

Special thanks to String for alerting me to this amazing recent discovery:

About a week ago, a team of astrophysicists from the University of Helsinki led by Dr. Lauri Jetsu submitted research suggesting that the ancient Egyptians understood the periodicity of the star Algol, and that they incorporated its cycle into their charts for the relative auspiciousness and unluckiness of days throughout the year (in fact, not just of days, but of sections of days -- their calendars were three times more precise than simply lucky and unlucky days, breaking each day into three parts and discussing the merits of each).

Algol is the second-brightest star (designated as β-Persei) in the constellation Perseus (almost as bright as the brightest star in Perseus, Mirfak, also known as α-Persei). 

The constellation Perseus is shown below, with a red arrow pointing to Algol.  His position in the sky relative to nearby celestial landmarks is discussed in this previous post and this previous post, although those tend to depict Perseus as seen rising in the east, and during this time of the year he is descending in the west in the hours after sunset and before midnight.

Why would the ancient Egyptians (circa 1200 BC according to the texts examined by Dr. Jetsu and colleagues) tie their predictions as to the relative propitiousness of days (and portions of days) to Algol, and how did these modern researchers discover that they were looking at Algol based on texts discussing the merits of those days and times throughout the year?

As the article above explains, the researchers analyzed the pattern of predictions preserved in the ancient Egyptian Cairo Calendar and discovered two cycles throughout the year, one corresponding quite accurately to the cycle of the moon, and one corresponding to a period of 2.85 days.  The scholars present evidence that the Cairo Calendar's 2.85-day cycle is linked to the cycle of Algol, which dims appreciably every 2.867 days.  

This phenomenon is visible to the naked eye, and is caused by the fact that Algol is actually a system of three stars, two of which orbit one another rather closely (one of which being the star we see and the other a much larger but less massive and dimmer giant star which causes the dimming phenomenon as it eclipses the smaller brighter star) plus a third star orbiting this pair at a greater distance.  The system and the dimming phenomenon (also known as the "minima of Algol") are described here in the very informative website of Professor Jim Kaler.  The entire eclipse lasts about ten hours from start to finish, but the appreciable dimmed period is shorter than that, perhaps four to five hours. 

Some astronomers have long suspected that the ancients may have known about the antics of Algol.  For one thing, there is the Arabic name of the star, Al Ghul or "the demon" ("the ghoul"), which gives us the star's modern name.  The great H.A. Rey describes this Arabic name as meaning "the prankster" (The Stars: A New Way to See Them, 42).

There is also the fact that Ptolemy (c. AD 90 - c. AD 168) in his Almagest (which was preserved by and heavily influenced the Arabic astronomers) designates this star as representing the head of the Gorgon Medusa being carried by Perseus (who slew her with the help of Athena, Hermes, and Pegasus).

There have also been those who have denied the ancients the sophistication to have identified the periodicity of Algol, although it seems quite presumptuous to do so, particularly in light of other evidence demonstrating that their knowledge clearly surpassed anything for thousands of years afterwards (such as this evidence that they understood the atmospheric effects which cause a phenomenon called "extinction," to say nothing of the even more ancient evidence that they understood the subtle phenomenon of precession, a fact that most conventional historians continue to dispute).

Now, this intrepid team from Finland has added further evidence for the high level of precision attained at very remote dates in mankind's ancient history.  They even provide an argument that the periodicity captured in the Cairo Calendar (which is slightly shorter than the periodicity recorded in modern times, since Algol's behavior was "rediscovered" in the 1600s) was not in error, but that the observations provided by the ancient texts can help astronomers today to determine the change in the motions of the Algol system over the 3000-plus intervening years!  We should all be grateful to Drs. Jetsu, Porceddu, Lyytinen, Kajatkari, Lehtinen, Markkanen, and Toivari-Viitala for their diligent work in uncovering this amazing new window into human history and knowledge.

Left unexamined in many articles discussing this incredible new find is one other big elephant in the room.  Remember, this entire discovery by the Finnish team came about because the ancient Egyptians recorded very detailed beliefs about the relative auspiciousness of the segments of each day throughout the year.  Nobody seems to ask whether -- if they knew so much about astronomy, as well as about many other subjects (and see here as well) -- they could have actually known something we don't know about the impact of the different "arrangements of the heavens" on affairs here on our little planet.  

This previous post discusses some of the logic behind the idea that the "harmonies" created by the arrangements of heavenly bodies might have some impact on the way that we feel, just as the relative "harmonies" or "dis-harmonies" of a building's architecture (or even the arrangement of furniture inside) can have an impact on us but from a smaller scale of distance. 

This post explores the idea as well.

Here is one other reference discussing the minima of Algol, and the traditions that these eclipses of the star can lead to unfortunate "losing one's head" with unpleasant results (see Medusa, above).  Note that this site contains a list of times and dates for these cycles of Algol, running all the way up to the end of 2012.  As this is published, Algol has just emerged a few hours ago from one minima, and another eclipse will take place early in the small hours of the morning just after midnight on May 11 (Greenwich Mean Time, which will still be May 10 in North America and points west, out to the International Date Line).