The obsession with the sun and stars is very ancient, being culturally passed along for probably at least 100,000 years. In the Magdalenian cave paintings at Lascaux (c. 45kyr-35kyr), the Bull (taurus) is depicted with the Pleiades behind their horns and over their shoulder, corresponding with the relative positions in the sky of Taurus and the Pleiades. The shape of Taurus the Bull would later become the letter A, the first in the alphabet (somewhere along the line it got turned 180°). So the Egyptians probably adapted their myths to an even older script.
I think the really fascinating reason is Why? these astronomical correspondences were charted and important. While some are agricultural and have practical purposes, not all of them do. The ancients were just obsessed with the solstice and equinoxes, but even with stars that cannot be seen with the naked eye. There are hidden understandings here.
Zach, that is a fascinating fact about the letter "A". I'd not heard that one before!
Can I ask what you mean when that the ancients were stars that cannot be seen with the naked eye? Maybe you mean constellations that are on the extreme north and south of the celestial sphere, but I'm guessing you actually mean stars that are too far away—and thus too faint—to be seen. If the latter, do you have any examples?
It's hard coming up with concrete examples because without a visually apparent reference translation can only implicate. The Australian Aboriginals plotted and named some stars and star clusters which cannot be seen, such as a star which erupted in the mid-1800s and then disappeared. But that's not the best example because it's not referring to a star which was always invisible. One contemporary example comes from the film Aluna, where a Kogi Mamo in a British observatory names a star which cannot be seen with the naked eye. In indigenous, oral cultures this kind of knowledge exists. A Lakota friend has told me some things very similar. I'll leave it at that because it's not my place to speculate about the causes, meanings, and origins of things I don't fully understand myself.
The Egyptians' association of Orion with Osiris and Isis with Sirius and their noticing how the heliacal rising of Sirius coincided with the rebirth of the land via the annual Nile flood is a great 'chicken or the egg' question of history. Was the natural phenomenon used to explain the myth or was the myth invented to explain the natural phenomenon?
Probably a bit of both, as the template for sky-earth correspondences was already drawn, but the specifics of place (Nile valley) would have spurred the development of specific and localized myths.
The Osiris paragraph really stuck out to me. Read through an alchemical lens, it’s the oldest blueprint of transformation. Solve et coagula ("dissolve and coagulate") is a core alchemical principle. Set’s dismemberment of Osiris is solve: the breaking down of substances into their elemental parts; Isis is coagula: she doesn't return Osiris to his old form, she integrates him into coherence through magic (the mystery known only by participation); and Horus, conceived after <ego> death, is the synthesis/unity aka the rubedo that transcends the the initial elements. Even the word "alchemy" is traced to khemia/Kemet, the "land of black earth" where deep, inner transformation begins.
The "midnight sun" isn’t gone at night, it’s working invisibly; it’s the hidden interval where the next sunrise is made. That’s why these symbols travel so well across cultures. They’re not just seasonal observations, they’re instructions for metamorphosis. As above, so below.
What an excellent comment, thank you for it, Tracy! You've vividly illustrated some esoteric connections that I was only partially aware of: there's a continuity between the ancient Egyptian religion → Platonism/Neoplatonism → Renaissance Alchemy.
As I hope System Failure makes clear, there are few things more interesting than the history/genealogy of ideas. Bravo!
The obsession with the sun and stars is very ancient, being culturally passed along for probably at least 100,000 years. In the Magdalenian cave paintings at Lascaux (c. 45kyr-35kyr), the Bull (taurus) is depicted with the Pleiades behind their horns and over their shoulder, corresponding with the relative positions in the sky of Taurus and the Pleiades. The shape of Taurus the Bull would later become the letter A, the first in the alphabet (somewhere along the line it got turned 180°). So the Egyptians probably adapted their myths to an even older script.
I think the really fascinating reason is Why? these astronomical correspondences were charted and important. While some are agricultural and have practical purposes, not all of them do. The ancients were just obsessed with the solstice and equinoxes, but even with stars that cannot be seen with the naked eye. There are hidden understandings here.
Zach, that is a fascinating fact about the letter "A". I'd not heard that one before!
Can I ask what you mean when that the ancients were stars that cannot be seen with the naked eye? Maybe you mean constellations that are on the extreme north and south of the celestial sphere, but I'm guessing you actually mean stars that are too far away—and thus too faint—to be seen. If the latter, do you have any examples?
It's hard coming up with concrete examples because without a visually apparent reference translation can only implicate. The Australian Aboriginals plotted and named some stars and star clusters which cannot be seen, such as a star which erupted in the mid-1800s and then disappeared. But that's not the best example because it's not referring to a star which was always invisible. One contemporary example comes from the film Aluna, where a Kogi Mamo in a British observatory names a star which cannot be seen with the naked eye. In indigenous, oral cultures this kind of knowledge exists. A Lakota friend has told me some things very similar. I'll leave it at that because it's not my place to speculate about the causes, meanings, and origins of things I don't fully understand myself.
The Egyptians' association of Orion with Osiris and Isis with Sirius and their noticing how the heliacal rising of Sirius coincided with the rebirth of the land via the annual Nile flood is a great 'chicken or the egg' question of history. Was the natural phenomenon used to explain the myth or was the myth invented to explain the natural phenomenon?
Probably a bit of both, as the template for sky-earth correspondences was already drawn, but the specifics of place (Nile valley) would have spurred the development of specific and localized myths.
Now THAT's an interesting point. Thanks for the comment, Dennis!
The Osiris paragraph really stuck out to me. Read through an alchemical lens, it’s the oldest blueprint of transformation. Solve et coagula ("dissolve and coagulate") is a core alchemical principle. Set’s dismemberment of Osiris is solve: the breaking down of substances into their elemental parts; Isis is coagula: she doesn't return Osiris to his old form, she integrates him into coherence through magic (the mystery known only by participation); and Horus, conceived after <ego> death, is the synthesis/unity aka the rubedo that transcends the the initial elements. Even the word "alchemy" is traced to khemia/Kemet, the "land of black earth" where deep, inner transformation begins.
The "midnight sun" isn’t gone at night, it’s working invisibly; it’s the hidden interval where the next sunrise is made. That’s why these symbols travel so well across cultures. They’re not just seasonal observations, they’re instructions for metamorphosis. As above, so below.
What an excellent comment, thank you for it, Tracy! You've vividly illustrated some esoteric connections that I was only partially aware of: there's a continuity between the ancient Egyptian religion → Platonism/Neoplatonism → Renaissance Alchemy.
As I hope System Failure makes clear, there are few things more interesting than the history/genealogy of ideas. Bravo!