The Moon was Full on Sunday, October 9the, which means that all week long, it’ll be a waning gibbous, and I just have to say that one of my favorite celestial phenomena is the waning gibbous Moon when it rises into autumn skies.
On Thursday morning, October 13th, the Moon will pass by the Pleiades star cluster that marks the shoulder of Taurus, the Bull; then on Friday, the 14th, it will join the planet Mars, right between the Bull’s horns.
There’s something quietly spectacular about this configuration, in light if what the Ancient Egyptians believed. They believed that the region of Taurus was connected to the larynx in the human being, and not only the larynx, but everything connected with speaking and listening in the human form.
The symbol for Taurus is a circle with horns at the top. The constellation looks like the triangular forehead of a bull, also with horns. And in Egyptian art, goddesses are often shown wearing this crown of horns. But a deeper part of the mystery involves actively imagining that what would be the head and horns have descended right into the human form, so that the triangular forehead of the bull becomes the larynx region, while the horns become what we know as the eustachian tubes ~ these tubes connect the middle ears to the back of the throat.
This whole region of Taurus stars, then, was intimately connected not only to our organs of speech, but to our organs for listening. This is amazing.
Looking further, the Pleiades are situated over the left shoulder, which, in the human being, is the side to which the heart is titled.
So when the Moon sweeps past Pleiades early Thursday morning, it is an invitation to sense what’s living in the heart, and on Friday morning, when Moon meets Mars between the Bull’s horns, it is a time for listening inwardly to what the heart has to say.
The image depicts the cow with horns as a symbol of the ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis. This symbolism is rooted in the idea of how the human being is intimately connected with the stars, and with the role of Isis in preparing for the birth of the word.
And as ee cummings would say: “i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)”
Mary
The Storytellers’ Night Sky Monday mornings on Interlochen Public Radio, and on podcasts everywhere.