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Tara/Belfast

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the Fool

 

the Fool Tarot Deck

 

Ursa Major, the Great Bear


Ursa Major — the great bear — is always above the horizon in the northern latitudes, but the best time to see it is in the spring when its high above the northeastern horizon. Ursa Major is best known as the home of the Big Dipper.


Of all the star patterns in the sky, the Big Dipper is the most universally recognized. The dipper's seven bright stars form a portion of the great bear. It's hard to see the rest of the bear, especially from light-polluted cities.

After you locate the dipper, look at the two stars that mark the outer edge of its bowl. Now connect these two stars, then extend the line above the dipper's bowl. Polaris, the north star, lies along this line, about five times the distance between the two pointers. No matter where the Big Dipper is in our sky, those two stars always point to Polaris.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/ursa_major.html

 

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/PT/M0.html

 

 

arc to Arcturus

 

 

the Magician        http://silverwingtarot.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/rws-01-magician2.jpg

 

Bo๖tes, the Herdsman
The brightest stars of Bo๖tes form a cone shape, with brilliant yellow-orange Arcturus at the base of the cone. Arcturus, the fourth-brightest star in Earth's night sky, is about 20 times larger than the Sun, and it produces about a hundred times as much energy.


But Arcturus is nearing the end of its life. In astronomical parlance, Arcturus has moved off the main sequence and entered the "giant" phase of its life. At a distance of about 35 light-years, it's closer to us than any other stellar giant.

The name Bo๖tes comes from a Sumerian word that means "Man Who Drove the Great Cart." The "Great Cart" was the Big Dipper. Bo๖tes trails the Big Dipper as it wheels around the North Star.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/bootes.html

 

and straight on to Spica

 

 

The High Priestess


Virgo

 

http://thefoolsjourney.net/images/zodiac/virgo.jpg

http://magicoftheordinary.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/the-tarot/

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fEglkkU__oM/SFsK5xpnaDI/AAAAAAAACm0/BGNGbelOa8Q/s400/Molly+Montale+-+Madcow%27s+Tarot.jpg

 

 

The Empress   http://silverwingtarot.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/empress11.jpg

 

Cassiopeia
The mythological queen Cassiopeia floats overhead in fall and winter.


The best time to see her is in November, high in the northeastern sky. Cassiopeia looks like a flattened "W" against the frothy background of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The "W" consists of five bright stars. It's surrounded by fainter stars, so it's fairly easy to pick out.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/cassiopeia.html

 

the Emperor

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/tarot-emperor.jpg

 

 

the Heirophant

 

                                                                       Draco

   Draco # 2.

                       

 

                                                 Draco Overview

                     

http://radicalcorner.com/uranometria_photos_main/uranometria_photos.htm

 

The Chariot  http://www.timboucher.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/chariot-tarot.jpg

 

Auriga, the Charioteer
Auriga, the celestial charioteer, has neither chariot nor horse. Instead, he's drawn as a man holding the reins in his right hand, with a goat on his left shoulder — the star Capella — and two baby goats in his left arm. Look for him cruising high across the southern sky in January and February.

Aquila, the Eagle

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/auriga.html

 

 

 

The Lovers   http://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/images/products/ga035-tarot-lovers.jpg The Lovers

 06-the-lovers.jpg   Love Fortune Clock screensaver

http://radicalcorner.com/uranometria_photos_main/cetus_overview_edited.jpg

 

 

Perseus, the Hero
Perseus, the hero, arcs high overhead in fall and early winter. Many of its stars are immersed in the faint glow of our galaxy, the Milky Way. In fact, if you look at Perseus under dark skies, you may be able to see three of the spiral arms that enfold the Milky Way.

Perseus

One of the brightest and most interesting stars in Perseus is Algol. The name Algol means "demon star." Ancient skywatchers thought it was cursed because its brightness changes. That's because Algol — which is about 75 light-years from Earth — is the most famous "eclipsing binary" star. Today, astronomers know that Algol is two separate stars. About once every three days, the fainter member of the pair passes in front of the brighter one, and Algol grows fainter.

A faint star cluster in Perseus, called M34 is visible with binoculars.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/perseus.html

 

 

the tower

 

 

 

 

The Hermit

Orion, the Hunter
Orion is one of the most beautiful of all constellations, and one of the easiest to find. It looks like a large rectangle high in winter's south-southeastern sky.

Orion, the Hunter

Two of the brightest stars in the evening sky lie at opposite corners of the rectangle: bright red Betelgeuse at the northeastern corner and even brighter Rigel at the southwest.

Near the center of the rectangle, look for a short diagonal line of three stars — Orion's belt. And extending south from the belt, you'll see another, fainter line of stars that forms Orion's sword.

One of the objects in Orion's sword isn't a star at all. It's a nebula — a cloud of gas and dust that's like a giant fluorescent bulb. Hot young stars inside the nebula pump energy into its gas, causing the gas to glow.

 

The Wheel of Fortune

 

 

The Star     http://www.sothis.de/images/sothis/sothis-zeichnung.jpg

Sothis aka Sirius A
The Star of Isis is called Sothis, or Sirius
and is the brightest star in our night sky.

http://whgbetc.com/mind/dogon.html

 

 

Sothis brings the flood
Sothis brings the flood
An Egyptian cat of 2500 B.C. watches the rising waters of the Nile, the vital annual event which at that time was announced by the heliacal rising (first visible rising before the sun) of Sirius, or Sothis, the Dog Star. (Cover picture for Astronomical Calendar 1978.)

http://www.universalworkshop.com/redliongallery/pages/covers.htm

Sirius

Canis Major, the Great Dog
Canis Major loyally follows its mythical master, Orion, across the southern skies of winter.

Canis Major

The brightest star in Canis Major also is the brightest in the entire night sky — brilliant Sirius, which is just 8.6 light-years away. That's only twice as far as our closest stellar neighbor.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/canis_major.html

Sopdet, Goddess of

Verse

<a name="verse" href="http://www.cs.utk.edu/%7Emclennan/BA/PT/"> The Child of Earth and Starry Heaven waits, <br>Attending to decrees of Stars and Fates, <br>While through her hands the waters ebb and flow In Cosmic Rhythm, then descend below. <br>She marks the time, and Destiny creates! </a>

from http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/PT/M16.html#verse

Sirius, new Year and the Inundation
by Caroline Seawright

spddwt egg determinative ( spdspddwt ) Sopdet, as a cow seated above growing plants, from Djer's Ivory LabelArtist rendering of a statue of the goddess SopdetSopdet (Sepdet, Sothis) personified the 'dog star' Sirius. This star was the most important of the stars to the ancient Egyptians, and the heliacal rising of this star came at the time of inundation and the start of the Egyptian New Year. As a goddess of the inundation, she was a goddess of fertility. She also was linked to the pharaoh and his journey in the afterlife.

She was represented as a woman with a star on top of her headdress, or as a seated cow with a plant between her horns (just as Seshat'shieroglyph might have been a flower or a star) as depicted on an ivory tablet of King Djer. The plant may have been symbolic of the year, and thus linking her to the yearly rising of Sirius and the New Year. She was very occasionally depicted as a large dog, or in Roman times, as the goddess Isis-Sopdet, she was shown riding side-saddle on a large dog.

Sirius was both the most important star of ancient Egyptian astronomy, and one of the Decans (star groups into which the night sky was divided, with each group appearing for ten days annually). The heliacal rising (the first night that Sirius is seen, just before dawn) was noticed every year during July, and the Egyptians used this to mark the start of the New Year (wp rnpt, 'The Opening of the Year'). It was celebrated with a festival known as 'The Coming of Sopdet'. Sopdet, from the Tomb of Seti I

The time period between Sothic risings is called the Sothic Cycle and it is one of the tools Egyptologists use to create a chronology of Egyptian history.

-- Sopdet, April McDevitt

Even as early as the 1st Dynasty, she was known as 'the bringer of the new year and the Nile flood'. When Sirius appeared in the sky each year, the Nile generally started to flood and bring fertility to the land. The ancient Egyptians connected the two events, and so Sopdet took on the aspects of a goddess of not only the star and of the inundation, but of the fertility that came to the land of Egypt with the flood. The flood and the rising of Sirius also marked the ancient Egyptian New Year, and so she also was thought of as a goddess of the New Year.

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/sopdet.htm

 

 

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This tool displays the approximate Moon phases for a given month. For official phase times and dates for this month and past months, check our Sky Almanac. Moon rise and set times are available from the U.S. Naval Observatory.

 

 

the Sun

 

Justice

http://www.charleswebb.com/images/blind-justice.gif   http://www.graffitiverite.com/Sano/Spotlight/f-Blindjustice.JPG

Lyra, the Harp
It's easy to find Lyra, the harp, by first finding Vega — one of the brightest stars in Earth's night sky. Look for Vega high overhead in mid-summer. Lyra looks like a small, lopsided square, with Vega just beside one of the corners of the square.

lyra

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/lyra.html

 

Fortitude

 

Taurus, the Bull
Taurus, the bull, is marked by a V-shaped pattern of stars that outlines the bull's face. Bright red Aldebaran, the "eye" of the bull, stands at one point of the V. This pattern is part of a cluster of stars called the Hyades — the second-closest star cluster to Earth. It consists of several hundred stars that lie about 130 light-years away.


Aldebaran outshines all the other stars that outline the bull's face. But Aldebaran isn't a member of the Hyades cluster — it just lies in the same direction. It's about 70 light-years away, half as far as the stars of the Hyades. Aldebaran is a red-giant — an old, bloated star that's used up most of its nuclear fuel. It's much larger and much brighter than our own middle-aged Sun.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/taurus.html

 

 

Justice

http://www.rackraids.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/tarot-_50-01.jpg

 

 

Sagittarius, the Archer
Sagittarius, the archer — whose brightest stars form the shape of a teapot — slides low across the southern sky of summer. Sagittarius has drawn his bow, and his arrow is pointing at Antares, the bright red heart of Scorpius, the scorpion. The archer is avenging Orion, who was slain by the scorpion's sting.

sagittarius

The constellation Sagittarius is one of the most interesting regions of the sky. The center of our Milky Way galaxy lies inside Sagittarius, about 26,000 light-years away. The constellation also contains several globular clusters — tightly packed collections of hundreds of thousands of stars.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/sagittarius.html

 

 

the Devil

  Hydra

  http://www.kiwi-us.com/%7Egandalf/RPG/AwT/DEVIL.gifhttp://www.tarotreadingsecrets.com/content_images/the-devil.jpg

 

 

 

Death                        http://www.kiwi-us.com/%7Egandalf/RPG/AwT/DEATH.gif

 

Scorpius, the Scorpion
Three bright stars form the "head" of Scorpius, the celestial scorpion, while its tail curves away below it in the southern sky of summer.


The brightest star in Scorpius is Antares, which is in the middle of the scorpion's curving body. This brilliant red star is one of the behemoths of our stellar neighborhood. If you placed it at the center of our own solar system, it would swallow Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and almost reach Jupiter.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/scorpius.html

 

Judgement

The Judgment (XX). Rider-Waite deck.

 

Cygnus, the Swan
The brightest stars of Cygnus form a cross, so the swan is also known as the Northern Cross. Find it soaring high overhead during late summer evenings.

cygnus

The constellation's brightest star is Deneb — an Arabic word that means "the tail." Deneb — the tail of the swan — marks the top of the cross. The swan's outstretched wings form the horizontal bar of the cross, while the head of the swan — a double star called Albireo — is the bottom of the cross.

Although it lies about 1,500 light-years from Earth, Deneb shines brightly in our night sky because it's a white supergiant — a star that's much larger, hotter, and brighter than the Sun. Deneb is the northeastern point of a star pattern called the Summer Triangle.

If you use binoculars to scan the area between the two bright stars that define the swan's eastern wing, you'll see the remnant of a supernova — a faint, incomplete ring of light called the Cygnus Loop.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/cygnus.html

 

the World

The Lion, with Regulus at his heart

 

The Scorpion, with his red heart Antares

 

The Water Bearer with Fomalhaut ending the Stream

 

The Bull with his red eye Aldebaran