Starsoot introduction to the stars & sky
Hi, I’m Janit and this is Starsoot. And we’re talking about the stars and the sky.
Now, the sky as we know it is divided into 12 parts East to West, which we know as the Zodiac constellations. Beginning Aries uptil Pisces. Now this arbitrary line that stretches across our 360 degree space is actually the Sun’s Path through our galaxy.
In ancient indian times, this was known as the Rishi-Rekha, or the line of the sages. It’s also known as the Solistial Colorés, which loosely translates to the ‘colour of the sun’ through the year.
While most of us know the zodiac constellations, there are actually 88 recognised constellations spanning this entirety, of which the zodiac is but 12 time & space chapters to.
These 88 include some famous well known constellations – Hercules, Ursa Major and Minor, Draco the dragon, Argo Navis the holy ship, Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia etcetera.
And some incredibly obscure ones, like Volantis, the flying fish. Pictor, the holy painting & easel in the sky, Apin, the triangle and plough of the sky and so on.
In fact, the greeks on their part had further divided this sky into 36 10-degree decanates based on some of these important constellations.
To them, the zodiac 12 and these 36 old world constellations, all in all 48, were considered holiest themes about existence as they perceived it.
As a larger fixture, these 10 degree ‘phases of the sky’ were considered the influence of the constellations in question extended to our lives in their astrology.
But this is not plain astrology, is it? But a compendium of ancient histories spanning to before even humans were on Earth.
To this end, the lunar astrology’s ‘mansions of the moon’ look at a different version of this same story.
The Indians call their Moon based asterisms the Nakshatras, and there are 27 of them in 4 steps.
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108 Steps around the zodiac in the Nakshatras
These Nakshatras in their totality 108 steps around the zodiac interestingly picks up the ancient storylines exactly from where Greek astrology’s decanates point to.
Almost if in history, this was a further evolution in the sky.
However, according to the Indian astronomy’s standpoint…
After the great epic Mahabharata, likely placed a few thousand years B.C, the ancient sky is supposed to have become fixed. In that, no new stars were being named to the ‘gods of history’.
This great epic war, Mahabharata is also said to have coincided with the holy river Saraswati drying up on the Earth.
Saraswati, the river on its part is said to be the Holiest of holies, the Milky Way descended from the heavens onto Earth.
And while the holy conch-shell Panchajanya is used by the charioteer god Krishna to announce the Mahabharata epic, this same conch-shell was what had brought the Saraswati river down to Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago at the very dawn of life on the planet.
We will come to some of these stories, where their traces of still hidden in the stars. And to that end, in the stars, we find almost all stories of mythology, religion or histories pointing back to.
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Let’s go back to the beginning. Or at least what we know of it, before we embark upon a linear journey of 108 steps of the zodiac.
How did the universe begin? What is considered, at least in esoteric & occult knowledge’s dogma as the very inception point.
Because I am Indian, I will always come back to Indian ideas of it, but the trace to it, I assure you, is thorough.
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Milky Way origin in the quintessence of the universe
The very essence, origin point and sacrament to living spirit in the universe is considered the Milky Way, of which our galaxy is named after.
This, Milky Way is collection of thousands & thousands of stars collected together almost as a path through the sky. We see it, at least in the northern hemisphere as an archway or white threaded sheet wrapping the sky holding it together. The path of spirit, so to speak, of all stars. The Brahmins called this the ‘Janeyu’, the sacred thread.
At some point, billions of years ago, the milky way entered what became our galaxy.
Upon the star of the rock, Keph, or Alphirk the Beta Cepheus, this living receptacle the starry universe descended.
And a waterfall of stars descended upon a rock. Water and Fire, fused into awakening, and our galaxy took shape.
To the Indian mind, this is the Shiva-Linga, the basilisk-phallic symbol of Water falling upon it to make holy. Cepheus, the constellation of the old king is known to the Indians as Sheffali, an epithet of Shiva.
An Indian holy book, Kali-Purana says in the beginning, there was only darkness. Mahamaya existed in the inert state as Yoga-nidra, the sleeping universe. And then with this, waterfall of fire, the universe awakened in our galaxy.
Shiva, as a god-head is said to represent the entire universe as our galaxy’s context of spirit. The pure crystal heart of knowledge of the one beyond the worlds. Both feminine and masculine energies are his Shiva-Shakti form as the phenomenon and the awareness.
While the Kalika Purana starts its stories from 8 degrees after Aries point, which is the beginning of the Zodiac, we attempt to trace the steps a little further back.
From evolution of form even before language began to form.
For in the stars yet, we find all stories… from the evolution of the species. The germ of truth, the earth-worm of Tibetan buddhism holiness, the very first life of the gods reflected in the first life of the forms.
All the creatures, marine, avian, serpentine and mammal find their root-places in our form and intelligence in instincts.
It is said that the entire 360 degrees of the cosmos is reflected in our bodies as the microcosm.
To that end, every star is a part and path to knowledge & self-awareness waiting to be redeemed.
While the path to evolution traverses the Lotus Crown of a thousand eyes in awareness, our collection of starry ideas & notions covers most all of them.
The Lotus, too is an idea we will come back to.
So while is merely an introduction to the stars and sky. We will yet cover one bridge before the true steps of the stars begin.
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Vedic or Sidereal astrology and Tropical astrology – the difference
Sidereal astrology and Tropical astrology.
The Earth that we live upon is not a perfect sphere, but rather has a wobble in its axis.
This ‘wobble’ of the Earth causes the Earth’s position relative to our galaxy to shift, every 5000 years or so.
As a result of this shift, the North Star or Primary anchoring Pole-Star of our universe also shifts.
The North Star is the Fixed point of the universe in our galaxy. And everything, Sun, stars and solar system in tow, move around.
In fact, the fundamental part is that every night, you see the North Star at the exact same spot in the sky – a ritual according to holy Puranas, is in itself holy and healing of the True North within.
The Current True North north star of the milky way galaxy stands as Polaris, the alpha Ursa Minor, the little bear constellation.
You can see the big dipper every night moving around this north star as literally the time-keeper of the night’s hours.
5000 years ago, however, the true north was in Draco, the constellation of the dragon.
Sidereal astrology or Vedic astrology maps the sky around Polaris, currently set at 4 degrees 24 minutes in Gemini’s part of the sky.
However, Christianity marks its theology of the time’s reading of the skies when the Pole Star was Thuban, the alpha Draco of the dragon. Which is the star the Indians call Uttanapada, and was once the 5th head of Brahma, cut off by Shiva.
Thuban of Draco currently sits in Leo the Lion-heart’s part of the sky, whose story is told as the fallen serpent in Eden.
Curiously even the falling serpent on the woman’s shoulder is a set of stars in the constellation Ursa Major, the great Bear. The whence upon a time in Paradise.
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The theology of the vedic zodiac of astronomy
The theology of the Vedic or Sidereal Zodiac is based on the liberation of the soul, beyond just the experience of this life. And as such, the stars and stories are read by that context.
The Tropical doctrine however is based more on morality, and leads the undertones to be accepted even before understood.
To this end, neither is wrong in its telling, rather a slightly multi-layered approach is sought…… and so both the zodiacs are slightly apart about the start pointing of the zodiac. 22 Arc-minutes to be precise.
The weight of the soul, and fall to matter of the fool perhaps.
Indeed well so, if we actually traced the route.
But either way, in order to understand we have to first pick and follow one system.
And to do so, we take the Sidereal system. Although the positions of the stars are somewhat different than the tropical system users of astrology recognise, in the end, we will simply mirror the perspective.
As far as the actual reading of the stars goes, most names and nomenclatures of the stars retain Arabic names from the 12th century Turkish systems. While Christianity has re-named several stars, the majority of the stars also offer as such, the Arabic perspective to these holy ideas. Adding to that our understanding of ancient Indian astronomy, aboriginal, Ainu and Chinese additions to our list offers us insight of over 600 stars out of the 360 degrees.
Pretty much every star you can see in the night with the naked eye in its brightness.
The nakshatra system is based on 27 asterisms, which is like a mini-constellation traced as the Moon’s path, or speed through the sky.
Each Nakshatra is 13 degrees 20 Minutes, and has 4 steps… set at 3 degrees and 20 arc-minutes.
Now this is significant because this is called a ‘Horse’s Step’. With 4 steps to soul horse in every nakshatra.
And with this reading, we begin the first Nakshatra that is the Twined, or the twin healing horses.
It is said One Horse is the Sun. That completes the 360 degree universe in 12 steps of the Zodiacal trot.
The Moon’s tread through the stars however, saunters 27 lunar mansions in 108 steps.
This sauntering pace of pasture, the inner horse sets. Which to the holiest state, is then followed by the Cows or Bull of Taurus in next zodiac.
The Nakshatras are thus called the path of Cows in the sky, around the Milky Way.
All these stories and more are set and told in the stars.
And in every lifetime, there are said to be two constants, the soul’s pondering in the stars and the fire.
And then to each lifetime, we learn a little about the stars.
The stories of the gods, and of man.
So tune in next time. As we begin to learn the stories of sky in a linear format of 108 sacred steps.
The first Nakshatra that is called the Ashwins, or the healing horse-gods.
The horses of the sun and moon as the mind of man.
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More information
That’s all for this time, for more information. You can check out the website fullcirclesquared.com or Starsuite.space
I also have a recent book out called Stars, Myths and Syllables available likely near you. The entire almanac to Soot of Stars will be available shortly.
I’m Janit Gambhir
Thanks so much for listening.
Until next time…
Godspeed and be well.