The Tarot of the Constellations

 

 

A Tarot of the Northern Constellations

Being the Journey of the FOOL around the stars of the Northern Hemisphere , the part of the Fool being assumed by Ursa Major - who is of course a bear 

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the Tower

 

Cancer and Praesepe, the Beehive Cluster   


Crab has just started to moult.
...whole sequence HERE

 

 

 

 

 

Monarch butterfles

 http://davidlbanks.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/hello-world/

 

 

http://www.siloam.net/rostau/08MAR2003/cancer2.gif

http://calgary.rasc.ca/images/MoonAndM07.gif

size comparison - the Beehive cluster ( Praesepe)
-  and the moon

 

Beehive cluster may be twins in disguise
 

  M44 - the Beehive Cluster.
New observations suggest that this may be two separate clusters, which are colliding with one another. (Image credit: Sven Kohle and Till Credner, University of Bonn.) The star cluster Praesepe, also known as the 'Beehive' or M44 is familiar to amateur astronomers as a pretty object in the spring sky. Astronomers at Leicester University and Queen's University Belfast now have evidence that it may be two separate clusters in collision.

Praesepe is at a distance of 500 light years from the Earth. With the naked eye it looks like a hazy patch, but even a small pair of binoculars resolves it into hundreds of stars.

When the Leicester and Belfast teams looked at the cluster they noticed that it had two distinct concentrations of stars or 'sub-clusters'. The ages of the stars in the Beehive indicate that it is 800 million years old - the distribution of stars should have smoothed out completely over such a long period of time.

Also, the stars in one of the 'sub-clusters' give off weaker X-ray emission than those in the other. This is another key indicator that there are two separate groups of stars, one much older than the other. The team then analysed the motion of the stars in Praesepe and to their surprise found that it will fly apart completely in just 10 million years - a relatively small amount of time compared with the cluster's age.

The scientists believe that the most consistent explanation for all this is that M44 really consists of two separate clusters which collided at some point - the energy released by this event is causing both of them to break up.

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/astronomy-facts/stars/beehive-cluster-may-be-twins-in-disguise

http://www.mormonwomenhistory.org/final/matcult/images/beehive.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 Sirius / Sothis 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

as Sirius

Canis Major, the Great Dog

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

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

 as Sothis Sopdet, Goddess of

Verse

The Child of Earth and Starry Heaven waits,  

Attending to decrees of Stars and Fates,  

While through her hands the waters ebb and flow  In Cosmic Rhythm, then descend below.  

She marks the time, and Destiny creates!

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 Sopdet

Sopdet (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

 

 

The Star 

The Star Tarot Card is the 17th card in the Tarot deck and represents free flowing love, tranquility, hope, generosity, good will, harmony, positive thinking and faith.

This card shows a nude woman kneeling with one foot in the water and one foot on land. She holds a jug in each hand and pours her water on the land and back into the water. A large star shines over her head.

She renews both the subconscious (the water) and the material world (the land) by pouring the water on each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Moon

 Luna 

 

 


The Moon's Libration
The Moon's Libration

http://www.minoanatlantis.com/Minoan_Navigation.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Sun   

 

 

 

                                                                       Solis  

 

 

Navigating by the Sun


The Sun at Noon in a Haze


  the Sun at Noon in a Haze  

http://www.minoanatlantis.com/Minoan_Navigation.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Judgement

 

 Cygnus the swan 

Judgement 


.The Judgement Tarot Card

is the 20th card in the Tarot deck and represents forgiveness, release, hope, redemption, a new beginning and reconciliation.

This card shows an angel, some think this is Gabriel, blowing a trumpet with a flag with a red cross. Humans are seen rising from their graves and are gray in color. Huge mountains are in the background. This picture could mean that we can not overcome our obstacles and the inevitable ending of life. And the promise from God of life after death.

When played this card could mean the signal of an impeding judgement. It could also mean that someone from your past will come back. Another meaning could be a preoccupation with the past or a clearing out of the past.

 

 

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 four Royal Stars
and Polaris  

The World 

The World Tarot Card or The Universe Tarot Card is the 21st card in the Tarot deck and signifies success, involvement, wholeness and prosperity.

This card shows a nude woman hovering and dancing above the Earth. She holds a staff in each hand and is surrounded by a green wreath. In the four corners are signs of the Zodiac.

The world represents the ending or pause of a life cycle.

 

 The Water Bearer with Fomalhaut ending the Stream

 
The Scorpion, with his red heart Antares
The Bull with his red eye Aldebaran

 
The Lion, with Regulus at his heart

 

http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2001/4stars.html

 

 

 

 

Melody Hay

Melody Hay - Blue Door, 2008
acrylic on door - 24 x 28 inches

 

 

More of the Tarot

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the verses

 

 

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