The Grand Stellar Alignment
 
A remarkable characteristic of the brilliant sector of the sky is the great straight line that rises diagonally from Sirius to Aldebaran, with its center marked by the three stars of Orion’s belt. It is pointed towards the zodiac, where the moon passes. Introductory astronomy manuals recommend observing this easy-to-locate "alignment".




This was seen as:

• The Tree of the Sky. The Mayan Myth that gives sense to the famous rite of "palo volador" (where those officiating are hung by their feet and rotated dangerously around a ceremonial mast), precisely respecting the pattern of the stars and clearly showing that this ceremony is a reading of the sky.

The myths regarding the image of a celestial tree made up of the Pleiades and preceding the stellar alignment is considered an annunciation: it signals the start of a solemn ceremony related to the descent of souls towards incarnation. The mythical dramatization explains that the Pleiades are a group of young people who have dragged the celestial tree into place…

• to make a ceremonial Mast that becomes the central column of their common house. However, this Tree is in the hands of the great Zi Pakna, a Giant associated with the season of gales and thunderstorms (Zi, "the Dreaded One = Orion; in China: Tsé; in Egypte: Sè).
• this Tree-pillar-column is shaken during the night of the festival by Zi Pakna and becomes a destructive weapon that makes the house crumble and fall, causing the death of the Young People (the Pleiades), whose souls are then visible in the form of a constellation. This theme turns up again in the legend of Hanuman, of Sun Wukong or Samson.
  
• The three-star staff, the "Jacob’s Staff"
  This long staff, sign of cyclical ceremonies (the Kal-Aur-Ops, Orion’s staff) remains everywhere a symbol of rebirth and of passing through death (The Egyptian Ouas at the hands of Sè-Orion in his role of Osiris, the Greek Pedamen, the "Crozier" and the "Crook" of the Shepard of souls). In popular tradition the starry staff remains the staff that "strikes three blows" to announce the instant of the ritual drama (maintained in the theater?), magic rod, staff of invisibility and symbol of higher authority
  
  

The summit is crossed by a fine S-shaped line, currently viewed as the "mantela" (Orion’s scarf or shield), it portrays…

• The Serpent’s Tree, an image connected with the reading of Orion’s rectangle as the "First Garden" (myths of Atlant/Atlas, of Herakles, of Adam)
  

As always, evoking the passage through death and, in that respect, of healing, it would be…

• The Serpent’s Pole, of Mws, Moses, the staff of Asclepius / Esculape, the child of the grand orchestrator of seasonal solar energies, Apollo. This celestial healer transmits visions of life-saving remedies that are dreamed by pilgrims who sleep at holy sites. Connected with the image of the Tempests of Autumn, the long rod or staff is transformed after the discovery of metal into…
• a devastating metal staff, a terrifying weapon that shines in the hands of Sun Wukong who discovered it at the bottom of the primordial waters, or…
• the invincible Lance, the Lance of the Great Ukko, the Nordic Giant who "makes the wind cry". (WK or WG appears to be one of the most ancient names of the moon in Orion: Og, the antediluvian Palestinian Giant conquered by Moses, and whose head dominated Noah’s Arch). This lance armed celestial heroes (from Horus to Saint George) in their battle against the dragons of the thunderstorm, which became symbols of Evil, all are horse-riding heroes because this lance blends in with their horses…
  
• The celestial Mount, The stellar alignment that departs from the heel of Sirius to end at the triangular head of Hyades, is ridden by Orion. It is connected to this head by the curve of the mantela, an S-shaped curve.
  
  If the triangular head is interpreted as a bird’s head and the "S" as a "gooseneck", the celestial Giant’s mount becomes…

• the Great Bird mounted by the divine being (Swan mounted by Apollo; the Eagle Garuda mounted by Vishnu, the Persian Rukh who haunts the tower of the same name, etc…

If the triangular head and S-shaped line are interpreted as the head and neck of a quadruped, the Giant’s mount becomes:

• the celestial mount, in India a fallow deer, the mount of the Master of winds and storms. In Europe and the Middle East a member of the equine family: onager, wild ass, horse (Asw, Ass, Asinus, Ahsan) rider on the storm, carrier of lightning and the passer of souls. He carries off the performer of the rite or the dying person towards the Great Beyond in the exaltation of the trance or in death.

Luminous onager, which would be Xanthi-As, the mount of triumphant Dionysos/Bacchus. His rear hoof appears to spew out the torrent of the galaxy: this hoof is Pègè: "blow struck – gushing spring", The flying horse would be Peg-Asos, Pegasus, whose silhouette is still familiar to us, remaining a symbol, among others, of all flights of the spirit. This image of a horse as the symbol of passing into the Great Beyond reveals one of the keys to rock art (see the interesting work of Pascal Raux: Animisme et Arts Premiers, Ed. Thot)

One of the most prestigious readings, built on the grand stellar alignment includes Hyades, Orion and Canis Major. It appears in myths related to the voyage of the souls and funerary objects (Etruscan paintings). It portrays…

• the Celestial ship with a black sail. The lines of Canis Major depict its stern and its tiller, Orion’s trapezoid is a sail the color of the night. Hyades, head resting on the S-shaped "mantela", forms the ship’s prow shaped in the form of a wild boar’s head, or that of a bull or Dragon. This figure is reputed "to announce future events". It has the gift of prophesy. It also signals the moment for sacrificial rites (death) and hierogamy (nuptials and birth),