The Demon Star and River of Souls

I tried to post this before Samhain but my internet has been wonky. Since Nov. 2 is Dia de Muerte in some Latin countries, I'm counting this as a win.  Barely but a win, nevertheless.

I love this time of year. In my mind, it's not December but October that is The Most Wonderful Time of Year. Monsters, ghosts, Geoff Peterson - it's all good. Of course, some of this wonderful weirdness is reflected in the stars.

Take for example Ras al Ghul, better known these days as Algol. Algol is found in the constellation of Perseus. Although it appears to be one star in our skies, Algol is actually two stars orbiting around a common center of gravity. These stars eclipse each other on a very regular basis of two days, twenty hours, forty nine minutes and eight seconds. This gives Algol the appearance of dimming and brightening again.

Because of this, Algol has gathered quite a reputation as bad luck. Ras al Ghul in arabic, means either "eye of the ogre" or "Mischief Maker," depending on what sources you check. It's said that the Arabs wouldn't even begin an important battle if Algol was in its dim phase.

The Arabs weren't the only ones to be spooked (pardon the pun) by this star. It has also been known as the "Demon star" for centuries. The Hebrew name for this star, Rosh ha Satan, translates as "Satan's Head" while in Latin, it is Caput Larvae or the "Spectre's Head." Even today, astrologers tend to view this star as a malevalent force, causing all kinds of violence, sickness and mayhem.

Of course, the best known story associated with Algol is that of snake-haired Medusa. Several names for the star is "Eye of the Gorgon" or "Gorgon's Head." She was one of three sisters and the only mortal one. When she was beheaded by Perseus, it is said she was pregnant with Poseidon's children which sprang out of her headless corpse - the winged horse, Pegasus and a son, Chrysaor. Chrysaor was a piece of work himself, going on to father several little monsters of his own. Allow me to go on a tangent for a second. I know Perseus was the hero who cut off Medusa's head but it's always looked to me as if the constellation itself was the headless one. I've always seen it up there in the sky as if he's dancing, arms out-stretched and ecstatic, as if to say, "Yay! I'm headless!" See:

The Milky Way has some spirit lore to it as well. Many cultures have seen it the same way - as a pathway for the newly dead to follow to the afterlife. Jan de Vries speculates that it is the Milky Way, rather than a rainbow that is mentioned in the Eddas as a road to the Land of the Dead. It is also speculated that it was seen as a path that had good times to cross as well as bad, depending on where it was in the sky. It was possibly easier to cross during winter, when it was seen as being frozen and more solid but thawing in the spring. It could also have points during the twenty four hour period that was easier to cross, depending on where it was in the sky.

Cherokee lore sees it as the River of Death. The souls cross over the river on a log which is bounded on either end by two canine stars, Sirius (Agise'gwa or the Great Female) on one end and Antares (Wa'hyaya or the Alpha Male) on the other. It is said to be a dangerous passage that only the brave will make - fall off the log and land into the raging river below. The wolves have to be fed as well - if not, the soul is doomed to walk back and forth across the river. Presumably, this is a test on the way back to the stars of which we are all reflections.

Well, that's it for now, people. Take care and happy Halloween, Samhain and Dia de Muertes..

Azra

The Stars Themselves

Hello there!

Thanks for coming by and reading the first ever entry of Queen of Stars, Jewel of Light. Like it says in the header, it is my small effort to honor the Star Goddess by learning star lore and a smattering of backyard astronomy (oh, why do I have a foreboding feeling that it just may turn into much more sometime down the road?) Right now, I say it's a small effort because I think I could study for several lifetimes and never discover all the stories there are here in the Americas, let alone all over the world. I originally thought I might limit the lore to those stories that focused on female characters, be they goddesses or no but the Marching Orders were pretty specific. She is the Endless Deep so the scope of the stories should be endless too.

Yes, Ma'am.

In case you're wondering, the title comes from Crowley's Book of the Law, via Ceisiwr Serith's rosary called Poems to Nuit. The link to the rosary can be found here.

There are several stories about what exactly the stars themselves are. Some of the Tswana people of Africa think the stars are little holes in the sky which let in bits of sunshine as the Sun sails back to the east on the other side. Some Navajo stories say most of the stars are crystals who do not shine with their own light. They glow in the light of certain other stars called "igniters." These crystals were placed in the sky by Black God...at the least the ones in nice, orderly patterns were. Of course, Coyote had to get involved when he got mad because he felt left out of things. He stole Black God's fawn skin bag the crystals were kept in and scattered the contents all over the place.

That Coyote. Always causing trouble.

One of my favorites is a story from the Pacific northwest. Way back when, there was a boy who was the younger son of a chief. The boy's name was One Who Walks All Over The Sky. Now, One Who Walks All Over The Sky was sad that the sky was so dark so he made a mask out of wood and pitch that he lit on fire. He still wears it now as he walks about during the day. After a long day of traveling across the sky, he goes below the horizon to sleep. He happens to be the type that snores too - you can tell because every time he does, sparks fly off his mask and up into the sky to become the stars.

And you thought your significant other was bad about snoring.

There is a Feri prayer that begins, "Holy Mother, in whom we live, move and have our being, from you all things emerge and to you all things return..." Of course, the Charge of the Star Goddess says the same thing as well as "...I am the soul of Nature, who gives life to the universe." According to scientific findings, this is quite possibly true: as a star goes through its life cycle, it turns to heavier and heavier materials to fuel the nuclear reactions going on deep within their cores. As those stars die, the results of this process is spewed out into the universe. We know them as the elements on the periodic table. Carbon, calcium, iron...we truly are made of star stuff.

There's even a bit of promise in the stars. According to Raven Hail, in her book The Cherokee Sacred Calendar: A Handbook of the Native American Tradition we are all, along with everything in this world, reflections or emanations of individual stars that hold permanent places in the heavens. When there is a death, the reflection or emanation is carried back up to the Sky Vault and returned to its star to shine. In ancient Egypt, the stars near the pole were called the "imperishable ones" because they never left the sky. The Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops as he is sometimes known, even built two shafts into the Great Pyramid - one aimed right at the pole star at the time, Thuban, so he would also be imperishable in the afterlife. The other shaft is aimed at Orion but why is a tale for another time.

Well, people, that's it's for now. Take care.

Azra