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