Looking at humanity’s relationship with the stars through the lens of the cultural arts is an engaging process that is undertaken not in order to predict the future, but to re-enliven a sense of being an integral part of something greater than the mundane self. In these four sessions, Star Lore Historian Mary Stewart Adams will offer a basic introduction to the star pictures that over-arch every human biography, together with the planetary rhythms that unfold in the course of each life. Registration information through North Central Michigan College at this link.
First session ~ Oct. 21st – The Zodiac. Ancient cultures experienced the speaking of the stars as the most sacred word, referred to as the “astro-logos,” or astrology. Out of this experience they developed a science that related the divine in the human being to the divine in the cosmos. In this first session, we will be introduced to the constellation regions of the zodiac where they found this divine; the qualities and elements associated with each region; and the different systems for aligning the zodiac to the calendars used by humanity on the earth, which include the tropical, sidereal, and heliocentric zodiacs.
Second session ~ Oct. 28th – The Classical Planets. While the physical structure of the human form is aligned to the constellations of the zodiac, we learn from ancient cultures that the inner organs of the human being are aligned to the rhythmic nature of the planets. There are seven classical planets that can be seen with the naked eye, including sun and moon. In this session we will consider the qualities of the planets and how these qualities are nuanced depending on where they are in the zodiacal regions of the sky.
Third session ~ Nov. 4th – The Sun, the Moon, and the Ascendant. According to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, on earth we live in the sub-lunary world. And as earth’s only natural satellite, the moon orbits around us as though weaving a beautiful garment of protection, like a guardian between what lives on earth and what lives in the celestial cosmos. In this session we will consider the phases of the moon, the Metonic cycle of the moon, the role of the moon’s nodes in the destiny of the individual, and other magical mysteries.
Fourth session ~ Nov. 11th – The Horoscope. The first three sessions of our working together address the stars, the planets, and the moon in space, and now we will consider the star picture overhead at the moment of an individual‘s birth, which requires organizing all of these celestial objects in time. We will cast a simple horoscope so that participants can experience the depth of knowledge required of the ancients in their quest to understand how the human being is related to starry worlds. The intent is that by the end of all four sessions, participants will have a deepened understanding of how the ancient science of the stars developed through the ages and can be discovered in an ongoing way in contemporary culture.
Registration and information at this link.
About the presenter:
Star Lore Historian Mary Stewart Adams, host of the weekly public radio segment and podcast The Storyteller’s Night Sky is a global advocate for starry skies, and led the team that established the 9th International Dark Sky Park in the world in 2011 at the Headlands, in her home state of Michigan.
Mary has received numerous honors for her work advocating for dark skies, combining her extensive knowledge of ancient mythologies with nearly 40 years of researching anthroposophy, with a particular emphasis on the human experience of starry worlds as it is expressed in the astrology of the ancients, the astronomy of the scientific revolution, and the astrosophy that has developed through an application of spiritual science to the relationship between the human being and the cosmos. She travels far and wide teaching her humanities-based approach to understanding the celestial world around us, and the cultural influence of star knowledge through the ages.