The Golden Apple and the Baby Bear: Humanity's Mythological Journey through the Precessional Cycle

       The Earth is a wonky place.  Maybe a better term is wobbly, for the axis of the Earth's spin does indeed wobble at a rate just barely perceptible within the course of one human lifetime.  In fact, the shift of one degree every 71.6 years due to precessional drift approximates the length of a human life just enough to be yet another indication of a divine synchronicity of meaning which covers the entirety of existence.  Of course you believe this, or you wouldn't be reading an astrology blog.  While the documented evidence codifying a conscious understanding of the precession of the equinoxes is attributed to Hipparchus in the second century B.C., the fact that the ancients had to keep building new temples every few generations so that their favourite patron stars could illuminate their sacred chambers on auspicious days demonstrates that the precession of the Earth's axis was understood long before that.  It's evidence enough to tell me that the deep stellar coding of our religions and mythologies were well aware of this, and made it a key component of their comprehension of the cosmos. 

   Our current pole star, fittingly named Polaris, (how embarrassed will the bear be in 1000 years when it remits its throne?), is a cute little bear, wandering lost from its Mother who relentlessly circles the pole looking for, but never finding it.  For this adorable little guy, though third brightest of all the pole stars, is almost entirely encircled by the jealous grasp of Draco.  Draco bemoans his loss of the throne, ever patrolling the golden apples of Hespereides.  In mythology, Golden apples are used as a distraction, often tossed to send someone off their path.  Draco understands this message deeply, for his time as the King of Heaven is ruled by three of the least bright pole stars, however: Thuban, the heart of the dragon, is by far the star which makes its way closest to the pole when it is in the position of rulership of the Northern skies.  It comes to within .1 of a degree, while Polaris, the second closest pole star, circles half a degree away from the true pole at its closest in a hundred years.  We are still in the waxing time of the baby bear's reign.
   The pole stars have always been used as a powerful tool in navigation, for it never moves and denotes in the dark of night the direction of true north.  The truer the star, the more reliable the navigational intelligence.  One can easily transpose this practical knowledge into the imaginal realm of the mythic.  In the many myths of the Serpent, which always represents true intelligence, and often the divine mystery of dark feminine power, often as a remnant of a barely remembered past matriarchal Goddess ruled society, we can intuit this message in the stars.  The truest path of guidance is not the brightest.  It takes a keen and receptive eye to see.  It is dark Yin, but its time has also passed.  The jealous and vaguely malicious serpent starts to come into clear view.  Draco guards the golden apple, but jealously.  The serpent tempts the favoured creation of God in the garden of Eden in both a vindictive, but enlightening fashion.  The fruit of the garden gives true and pure knowledge, which is dangerous and leads to death.  

   The dragon is of course defeated by masculine hero Hercules, who strangely enough takes his place as the pole star before Draco within the precession.  He is by far the dimmest of the stars which take the pole, though his knee, Tau Hercules, does come within a degree of true north.  The kneeling of Hercules in the sky seems to imply the importance of modesty within the heart of the great hero so as not to become dangerous with one's immense power.  This matches the idea of the dimmer stars coming closer to the pole.  It is interesting that in some versions of the myth, Hercules must do dirty dealings with Atlas to get the apples.  Hercules agrees to take the burden of the weight of Heaven off of Atlas while he leaves to collect the Golden Apples. This makes the pole star coding of this myth beyond deniable.  In the end, Hercules must trick Atlas into taking back the pole, which seems to mimic the relatively short, and less illustrious stay the great hero has at the pole. 

 
   Draco, eventually must give up its reign to the baby bear, which oddly implies the baby bear mythology of Goldie Locks, where the star is JUST RIGHT.  It's the third brightest pole star, and the second closest to the pole.  It seems to be the most suited star to the role.  But what other constellations play a role in this 25 772 year cycle?  Next up after Ursa Minor is Cepheus, the king of the Northern skies.  Though he takes up a rather unimpressive reign, despite containing the most pole stars.  Four stars within the king will take a role as the pole, but only Alpha Cephei is a second magnitude star, and is still 3 degrees away at its zenith.  The mythology of Cepheus shows this well.  He is a weak king, who in response to the arrogance of his wife Cassiopeia, ties up his daughter Andromeda to be devoured by the beast of the sea to save his kingdom.  It is only by the graces of the hero Perseus that she, and the kingdom are saved.  The Mythology, though not explicit in its telling, is a tale of an old weak king in need of a virile, and moral young replacement. 

 
   Cygnus takes over the throne from here, the great Northern Cross guarding the Milky way, which can be interpreted as the angel at the gates of Eden barring the way back to paradise for the imperfect, but wise, humans.  Interestingly, Deneb, the butt of the Swan (or angel), is the second brightest pole star.  Though 7 degrees away from the pole at its closest pass, the imagery of being far from paradise, and the guardian turned away from the humans on Earth is rather literal.  

  What comes next is of the greatest interest however, Alpha Lyrae, Vega.  By far the brightest pole star, and an undeniably great glory of the heavens.  It's impossible to not notice Vega while in the Northern Hemisphere, and to me, it has always looked like the mouth of a serpent with the two eyes behind it leading to a snaking body.  But this is not the constellation we have in our mythological texts.  Instead, it is the Falling Grype.  Perhaps the image of falling is a message about Vega falling away from the pole, for we are almost exactly at the polar opposite position in the time of our precession from Vega's place as the king, last ruling the North in 12,000 B.C..  Though bright, it only gets to within 5 degrees of the axis.  Is this image of the Vulture diving down towards its prey (or carrion) a message about the dangers of this star in the space of power?  One might be inclined to think it is the one true pole star, being by far the brightest and most beautiful.  The mythology of the lyre is one rife with necromantic powers, and beauty, but also great tragedy in the end. 

   There is a  highly plausible theory that Lyra is encoded into the very seal of the United States of America, which perhaps is playing into the Masonic belief that America was the lost civilization of Atlantis, and its colonization an attempt to re-establish Atlantis on Earth again.  I find this to be an extremely dark symbolic resonance however, to be focusing upon what amounts to the opposing pole star in a time where the tiny bear rules righteously.  Should we not give praise to the lost baby bear in a time of endless confusion and chaos?  Does the baby bear not have just the right amount of light to lead us home?  

   The mythology of the precessional shift is deep and multi-faceted.  I don't believe this little article is even beginning to scrape the surface of it, but I think it's important in the realm of astrological interpretation and mythological decoding to understand the profound messages it contains.  After all, galactic center is only 4 degrees away from our winter solstice.  The spot of greatest light in our galaxy meeting the degree of greatest darkness on Earth is a fascinating balancing of Yin and Yang worth considering.  The precession of the equinoxes is a larger cycle which existence on Earth must live through, and transmit the messages of through the millennia to far distant relatives, encoded in the stars for those with eyes to see, and hearts to receive.  Keep wondering, and the stars will speak to you.  

A handy table of the Pole Stars progression from Wikipedia.  Research and ponder to your heart's content, and do report back with what the guiding stars have to tell you about our history and future.

  To go a little deeper, and take some interesting tangents, check out my appearance on The Farm with Recluse, wherever you get your podcasts.