Anne Wrights Fixed Stars website is a great free resource I agree.

Here is a link to the page discussing Alcyone (the brightest star in the Pleiades) which cover lots traditional astrological associations connected to the Pleiades.

http://www.constellationsofwords.com/st ... phabet.htm

This is an interesting quote I came across while studying the Old Testament. The professor had studied at Hebrew Union college and was well aware of the importance of astrology in ancient Hebrew culture. It was a shock to his conservative Christian midwestern students, but he was quite vigorous in his defense of the importance of astrology in the Bible. I am quoting the King James version. You will see that King James translators were decidedly uncomfortable with some of this explicit astrological language and attempted to bury it in transliteration of the word, "Mazzaroth", which in the original Hebrew literally describes the band of constellations of the Zodiac.

Job 38:31

31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?

33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?

In context, God is challenging Job, naming the tasks that God performs and rhetorically asking if Job is capable of achieving any of them. Interestingly, we see a flash of the double nature of the Pleiades: God himself says they have "sweet influences," but on the other hand God has bound those sweet influences, presumably as a means or a result of his branding the dominion of the heavens in the earth (astrological influences). God's "binding" of the Pleaides may also allude to the seasonal period leading up to the the warmth of spring, which is marked in many cultures by the rising of this star cluster.

Taken together, this passage is a strong argument for the validity of astrology from a Biblical perspective, although not everyone is open enough to hear it.

In another ancient culture entirely--

In ancient Celtic astrology, Beltaine (around May 1) marked the beginning of the new year and Saturn conjunct the Pleiades marked the beginning of a new a thirty-year cycle. New year for the Celts was a time of letting go of the old, forgiveness of wrongs done, and undertaking the new year afresh. Both weeping and rejoicing were not unexpected reactions to this radical yearly event.

Best,

Pam

Hello Pam,

I haven't had the opportunity to post on skyscript for months due to time constraints so my apology for the delay picking up this thread again.

Thanks for the Old Testament sources.

In ancient Celtic astrology, Beltaine (around May 1) marked the beginning of the new year and Saturn conjunct the Pleiades marked the beginning of a new a thirty-year cycle. New year for the Celts was a time of letting go of the old, forgiveness of wrongs done, and undertaking the new year afresh. Both weeping and rejoicing were not unexpected reactions to this radical yearly event.

I have to state I am a bit sceptical about a lot of the information floating around claiming to be ''Celtic astrology''. One has to be very judicious in the sources you rely on. We know extremely little about Celtic Astrology and Astronomy and most of our sources are Roman. Where did you source the information on Saturn? I have not seen that before.

Hi, Mark!

Sorry it's taken a while to get back to you on this! Iv'e been busy writing on another subject altogether lately. The information on Celtic astrology comes by way of Peter Berresford Ellis' book, The Celts: a History. He cites Pliny as saying that the Celts followed a 30-year calendar cycle; archaeologically, his evidence is the Coligny Calendar, which is based on cycles of both the Sun and Moon.

The article on the Coligny Calendar below mentions the thirty-year cycle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coligny_calendar

Thanks for your patience!

Best,

pam

The information on Celtic astrology comes by way of Peter Berresford Ellis' book, The Celts: a History. He cites Pliny as saying that the Celts followed a 30-year calendar cycle; archaeologically, his evidence is the Coligny Calendar, which is based on cycles of both the Sun and Moon.

Hello Pam,

Nice to hear from you again. I have a copy of Peter Berresford Ellis' book, The Celts: a History. However, I couldn't find the reference you mentioned. I do love the books of Peter Berresford Ellis. However, its worth noting that this book was published 30 years ago. Scholarship has moved on quite a bit in the intervening period.

In any case I found the quote from Pliny the Elder you mentioned from the Wikipedia piece:

The mistletoe, however, is but rarely found upon the robur; and when found, is gathered with rites replete with religious awe. This is done more particularly on the sixth day of the moon, the day which is the beginning of their months and years, as also of their ages, which, with them, are but thirty years. This day they select because the moon, though not yet in the middle of her course, has already considerable power and influence; and they call her by a name which signifies, in their language, the all-healing.

There is no doubt the Coligny Calendar remains an intriguing and much debated item amongst archeologists and astronomers. However, I dont think we can automatically assume the 30 year period is referring to the Saturn cycle. After all the calendar is Soli-Lunar based on variations of 29 and 30 day months. It therefore seems just as plausible that the 30 year cycle is a symbolic extension of the Luni-Solar monthly cycle. Moreover, I am not sure all the information provided on the Wikipedia link can be accepted at face value. Rather like the cryptic Dendera zodiac in Egypt there has been a considerable amount of speculation what it means. The calendar is written in Latin script but seems to be a Celtic Gaulish language. The calendar was created at a time when Gaul was a Roman province. The current view seems to be that is dates from the 1st or 2nd century AD. This therefore leaves open the possibility of Roman cultural influences having affected the calendar.

For an updated summary of current academic opinion on the Coligny Calendar I will offer a quote from Daryn Lahoux's recent monumental book 'Astronomy, Weather and Calendars In the Ancient World' (2007)

The Coligny calendar is long inscription (1.48 m by 90 cm high) on bronze of five years of lunar calendar (probably a five calendar cycle). It is written in what is believed to be an ancient Celtic tongue, using Latin script. The days of the month are each accompanied by a peg hole, and they were written vertically, beginning with the name of the month, followed by the numbers I-XIIII or I-XV, depending on the month.

The year has seven months of thirty days and five of twenty-nine ( for a total of 355). A thirty-day intercalary month was added twice every five years, bringing the average year lengthh to 367 days, although it has been argued that one of the thirty-day months, Equos, occasionally had twenty-eight days to bring the average year length down. The symbols, letters, and words beside the dates are still largely unexplained.

.........The calendar represents the oldest known document in a Celtic tongue possibly dating from the second century AD and as such is of great importance , but its highly abbreviated character and lack of parallels ( apart from the tiny fragment of Villards d'Heria calendar) make it difficult to interpret. There may may be references to either feasts or solstices and equinoxes or both.
'Astronomy, Weather and Calendars In the Ancient World' , Daryn Lahoux, pages 194 & 196, 2007

I think we are on stronger ground linking the Pleiades star cluster to Celtic beliefs. In her book on Fixed stars Bernadette Brady makes the following statement regarding Celtic lore regarding the Pleiades

This grouping of stars seems also to be linked by the Celts to the Fates, as an old oral custom forbade women to sew on days when the Pleiades were either the heliacal or aconychal ( first star to rise in the east after sunset) rising-just in case they broke the thread and accidentally snapped the thread of life for the human race.

The Celts also used the aconychal rising of the Pleiades to mark their month of mourning for dead friends. Prayers for the dead were said on the first day of what we now know as November. This custom is still echoed today with All Hallows Eve (October 31), All Saints Day (November 1), and All Souls Day (November 2) still celebrated as feast days of the dead, and reflected also in Remembrance Day (Veterans Day in the US) November 11, the day given to mourning of the dead after World War I.
Brady's Book of Fixed Stars, Bernadette Brady, 237-8

Brady seems to be relying largely on the book Outer Space Myths, Name Meanings, Calendars, by Gertrude and James Jobes, 1964.

Karttikeya is the little boy raised by the seven wives of the seven rishis, six of whom were accused of infidelity to their husbands, with the exception of Arundhati. He grew up to destroy the demons, and restore heaven to the gods.

Arundhati, prissy little princess that she was, gets remembered at Hindu wedding ceremonies because she was the only faithful one, thus the example of a perfect wife. She is associated with Aphrodite - the names do sound somewhat similar.

I wish I could remember who the other six sisters were accused of messing around with (obviously their saintly sage husbands were boring them). Why do I keep thinking that one or more may have gotten caught with the Moon? Moon is male and a hottie in Vedic stories, and also in some of the Norse lore.

Anyway, I can't remember, can't find anything on Net, and don't have access to all the sources right now. But I just thought I'd toss this into the pot.

Sunny Dawn wrote:Arundhati [...] is associated with Aphrodite - the names do sound somewhat similar.

Only if seriously mispronounced!

The story of Aladdin's Lamp is really like the story/running joke of a Genie stuck in a bottle. Now the fixed star Algol is about how the Genie got stuck in the bottle in the first place. The clue is how to 'charm' the Genie out of the bottle, whether by flute (ie the snake-charmer) or the wave of a hand (ie the rubbing of a lamp).