<< Previous Figures portrayed by stars in the night,
by nature "dramatic" figures
Next >>

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Home page


The awaited return of the most obvious seasonal signal
The "brilliant" sectors of the sky
An assembly of sacred images



Figures portrayed
by stars in the night,
by nature "dramatic" figures



Why make reference to
seasonal stars.
Measuring time in "moons"



When lunar imagery is combined
with stellar imagery to compose a "mythical cinema"



The human condition
and its development
in the collective memory



More

French version

 

They evoke the destiny of "souls", life, death and ritual sacrifices

The image that we have maintained of the Orion-Taurus group on our sky maps shows the warrior Hercules wielding a club and protecting himself with a skin-coat-shield as he confronts a bull who is giving him a disconcerting stare. This "dramatic" reading of the constellations appears to come down to us from the most distant past (see the famous painting of the Bison in the Lascaux Cave), indicating a close relationship between mythical images, observations of the fixed stars and seasonal rites of passage through death.

We recognize that the ceremonial confrontation between the officiant in his "suit of lights" and the black Bull floating nearby, under the sign of death – dominant rite during the apogee of Cretan culture – a millennial culture that still exerts its attraction. Aficionados still vibrate in a singular emotion within the sacred ancestral ring.

The seasonal "reemergence" of the great brilliant sector of the heavens appears to have been regarded in the entire northern hemisphere as the reappearance (Greek: apocalypse or "uncovered"), the return of the previously "invisible" (Greek: Adès), the "place down there" (Latin: Inferi or Underworld), where the principles of life in the form of "souls" of the dead transit to return to the Milky Way.

All of the images suggested by the pattern of stars in this sector (e.g. the Trident from Europe to China) play a role both in the mythical series describing the "Kingdom of the Dead", in ritual sacrifices (sending a "messenger" soul towards higher powers) and in funeral rites.

The interpretation that sees a Pomegranate in Pleiades (Greek: Sidè) is a good example. The appearance of this small group of brilliant dots announces the reemergence of the major constellations of the fixed star sector. One who sees the pomegranate will soon see the reappearance of the Kingdom of the Dead: in as much as the legendary transmission of these lustrous seeds will become the mythical fruit that all must taste when they arrive in the "domain of no return". Greek myths have Orion hurtling Side into the Kingdom of the Dead. They dawdled over what to do with the young Persephone/Proserpine, life-giving power of the springtime, held in the Kingdom of the Dead during the months of winter because she entered the Kingdom and "tasted the pomegranate". The corresponding rite is particularly well illustrated in Etruria: the divinities and the dead of the here-after are represented with a pomegranate in the hand.

     
<< Previous  
Next>>
Contact
About us
Copyright