Astral alignments are established by astroarchaeologists,
who calculate the age of a site from its remains and then use
computers to recreate the star patterns visible at the time the
site was built. England’s Stonehenge (construction started c.
2800 BCE) is a good model. There, the large standing stones
were arranged against the horizon to function as foresights;
smaller stones served as backsights. In order to mark the pas-
sage of the sun, the astronomer-priest would fix a spot on
which to stand to observe the sunset against the foresight
stones. As the sun changed its course during the year, it
would set to the right or left of these stones, its extremes
marking the solstice and equinox points. Stonehenge was
used as an elaborate observatory for marking the important
celestial events of the year. The movements of the sun,
moon, planets, and important star systems such as the Pleia-
des and especially the heliacal risings of the stars and planets
were all noted there.
The same principle was employed in Mesoamerica,
most dramatically at Tenochtitlán, the political and religious
capital of the Aztec, where the course of a river was altered
in order to create the desired alignments for observing the
rising sun at the equinox and solstice and the heliacal rising
of the Pleiades. Other Mesoamerican sites were also con-
structed with relation to the Pleiades, as well as to the stars
Capella and Sirius and the planet Venus.
Gerald Hawkins (in Stonehenge Decoded, Garden City,
N.Y., 1965), using modern techniques, has checked Lock-
yer’s thesis at several sites in Egypt. While disagreeing with
some of Lockyer’s findings, he does establish that Egyptian
temples are aligned with certain stars. Edwin C. Krupp
(1978) has made a connection between the alignments of the
pyramids and the cult of Isis and Osiris, represented respec-
tively by the stars Sirius and Orion. First, he notes that all
stars are invisible for approximately seventy days when their
light is lost in the brighter light of the sun; he finds it signifi-
cant that the ancient Egyptians called this time “being in
Duat” (i.e., the underworld). Krupp sees a relation between
this time span and the period allotted for embalming: Seven-
ty days were required to prepare a body for burial. Because
the stars are often thought of as the land of the dead, Krupp
suggests further that the shafts in the pyramids aligning with
Sirius and Orion were constructed so as to allow the souls
of the pharaohs to rise up to these stars, the souls’ final rest-
ing place.
In North America there are few sites of astronomical in-
terest, but where they exist the myths and legends of the peo-
ple also show astronomical characteristics. The kivas of the
Anasazi, ancestors of the modern Pueblo, show some evi-
dence of astral alignment, and modern Pueblo rituals pre-
serve astral timings. Among the Plains Indians, medicine
wheels constructed of large and small stones arranged in the
shape of a wheel with spokes establishing alignments, mark
the solstices. In Saskatchewan, Canada, the Moose Moun-
tain Medicine Wheel is also aligned to the heliacal rising of
the bright summer stars Aldebaran, Rigel, and Sirius.
THE POLESTAR. Sometimes diverse cultures use similar im-
ages to describe the same star. The polestar, or North Star
(the position held today by the star Polaris in Ursa Minor),
because of its relative lack of motion as compared to other
stars, is important for both land and sea navigation. In many
cultures it is seen as the center of the universe.
Norse people believed that the gods ordered the uni-
verse by driving a spike through the earth and causing the
heavens to revolve around this axis. The end of this spike was
fastened to the polestar. For the Mongols, the polestar was
the golden peg or nail that holds the turning heavens togeth-
er. In India it is called the “pivot of the planets” and is repre-
sented by the god Dhruva, who was so immovable in his
meditation that he became the polestar shining about Mount
Meru, the center of the world. Because Dhruva began his
meditation in a search for constancy after having been disap-
pointed by the unsteadiness of his father’s love, the star is
worshiped in India as a source of constancy both in medita-
tion and in marriage. The Mandaeans, along the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers, worshiped the polestar as the central star
around which all other heavenly bodies move; their sanctu-
aries were built so that persons entering them faced the pole-
star. Worshipers prayed facing it, and the dying were posi-
tioned so their feet and eyes were aligned with it.
The constancy of the polestar also led to its popularity
among sailors, as the epithets Steering Star, Lodestar, and
Ship Star show. (Strabo, the Greek historian and geographer
of the first century BCE, attributed its use among Greek sail-
ors to Thales, the astronomer and philosopher of the sixth
century BCE.) The constant position of the polestar made it
useful to land travelers as well. In Mesoamerica it was
thought both to protect and to guide traveling merchants,
who burned copal incense in its honor. The Arabs used the
polestar to navigate across the desert and believed further
that fixed contemplation of it would cure itching of the eye-
lids. For the Chinese, the polestar was secretary to the Em-
peror of Heaven and as lord of the dead punished the dead
according to their deeds.
THE PLEIADES. Even in societies where little attention was
paid to the stars, the movements of the Pleiades were noted.
For instance, the Bantu-speaking peoples of southern Africa
regulated their agricultural calendar by them, and in Bali the
Pleiades and Orion were used to keep the lunar calendar. In
Australia, where the first annual appearance of the Pleiades
coincides with the beginning of the rainy season, the Aborig-
ines consider these stars the source of rain and curse them
if rain does not follow their appearance. In general, the last
visible rising of the Pleiades after sunset is celebrated all over
the southern hemisphere as beginning the season of agricul-
tural activity.
Where myths have developed about the Pleiades, these
stars are generally associated with women. In the Greco-
Roman world, these stars were called the “seven daughters
of Atlas,” and in China they were worshiped by women and
girls as the Seven Sisters of Industry. In Australia, they are8734 STARS