Re: OT: Celestial maps

Constellation figures arise from both people 'seeing' them in the
night sky and from people looking for stars that fir an image from a
cultural story. You might get ideas from looking at the history of
naming stars and constellations.
What figures may be used for constellations depend on the symbolism of
the culture and the geographical location of the people of that
culture. So you might have a different set of stars ascribed to an
older constellation that is no longer visible, if the people have
moved a considerable distance in space or time from their origin.
In the case of the 'animal' calendar of the peoples inhabiting the
northern third of the world, both Old and New World, the corresponding
constellations came after, from a belief that each kind of animal had
a spiritual source. Individuals a born from it and return to it when
they die, e.g. all deer come from the Deer Spirit and are
manifestations of the one spirit. This is also the basis of astrology.
The constellation in the ascendant on the night you were born connects
you to the spirit that constellation represents.
The astrological system we have inherited comes from the ancient
Babylonians by way of the Greeks. But the calendar of the signs is off
due to several thousand years of precession and shifting of the stars
relative to the solar system.
So none of the constellations as we know them existed in the
Pleistocene. Since you want it for your conculture, you might as well
create a night sky for every season for yourself. The sky is not staic
but changes by the hour, the day, the month, the season and the year.
Then connect the dots to fit the symbolism of your conculture. Who is
going to dispute your creation?
Another thing you might play with is the star maps of your conculture.
Would they be bound sticks like the Polynesians, incorporating
currents and prevailing winds, or stonehenges, or figures carved in
land and only visible from the air?

Some links that might interest you
http://members.optusnet.com.au/gtosiris/index1.html

http://www.fillingthesky.com/index.html

and this one has a free program (Carte du Ciel) for drawing sky charts
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/index.html

Dio lo benedice sempre, tutte le maniere,
Paul



On Jan 13, 2008 11:17 PM, caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:
> >"Paul Schleitwiler, FCM" <pjschleitwilerfcm@...> wrote:
 What do you need it for?
>
> I'm trying to figure out what figures might have been available in the
> past for zodiac signs for my conculture. I guess it really doesn't
> matter. There are so many stars that anybody can see anything he wants
> in them. The constellations of today only vaguely resemble what they're
> named for. I suspect that, at least in some cases, the name was chosen
> before the constellation was found. "I'd like to have a lion in the
> sky. Let me see if I can find a star formation that looks like a lion!"
>
> Charlie