Polaris

Polaris *Ursa Minor*Ursa Major* (Little Bear, Great Bear, Constellations) "Ursa Minor (Latin: "Smaller Bear", contrasting with Ursa Major), also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation in the northern sky. Like the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, whence the name Little Dipper.

"Ursa Minor (Lesser Bear). Aglaosthenes (Greek poet circa 7th BC), who wrote the Naxica, says that she is Cynosura (the dog's tail), one of the nurses of Jove from the number of the Idaean Nymphae. He says, too, that in the city called Histoe, founded by Nicostratus and his friends, both the harbour and the greater part of the land are called Cynosura from her name. She, too, was among the Curetes who were attendants of Jove (Zeus). Some say that the nymphae Helice (Ursa Major) and Cynosura were nurses of Jove, and so for gratitude were placed in the sky, both being called Bears. We call them Septentriones." {source: Hyginus, Astronomica }

"Ursa Major was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy. It is mentioned by such poets as Homer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Tennyson and Bertrand Cantat. The Finnish epic Kalevala mentions it, Vincent van Gogh painted it and Federico Garcia Lorca mentions in his poem "Song for the Moon" written August 1920.Homer and Hesiod both give the Great Bear the secondary appellation of the 'Wagon'. This is probably a memory of the Babylonian figure of the Wagon which was mapped out by the seven brightest stars of Ursa Major. The Babylonian Wagon was particularly associated with the dead, funeral processions and was used in astrology to predict forthcoming eclipses which generally forecast the death of the king."{source: Babylonian Star-lore by Gavin White, 2008}

* Ursa Minor is colloquially known as the Little Dipper because its seven brightest star seem to form the shape of a dipper (ladle or scoop). The star at the end of the dipper handle is Polaris, the North Star. Polaris can also be found by following a line through the two stars which form the end of the "bowl" of the Big Dipper, a nearby asterism found in the constellation Ursa Major. Polaris, HP Lovecraft: Slumber, watcher, till the spheres Six and twenty thousand years Have revolvd, and I return To the spot where now I burn. Other stars anon shall rise To the axis of the skies; Stars that soothe and stars that bless With a sweet forgetfulness: Only when my round is oer Shall the past disturb thy door. In Greek mythology, Zeus (the king of the gods) lusts after a young woman named Callisto, a nymph of Artemis. Hera, Zeus'

jealous wife, transforms the beautiful Callisto into a bear. Callisto, while in bear form, later encounters her son Arcas. Arcas almost shoots the bear, but to avert the tragedy, Zeus hurls them both into the sky, forming Ursa Major. In ancient times the name of the constellation was Helike, ("turning"), because it turns around the Pole. In Book Two of Lucan it is called Parrhasian Helice, since Callisto came from Parrhasia in Arcadia, where the story is set.{source: Castillo: Mythology, Edith Hamilton, 1942}

"Into the north window of my chamber glows the Pole Star with uncanny light. All through the long hellish hours of blackness it shines there. And in the autumn of the year, when the winds from the north curse and whine, and the red-leaved trees of the swamp mutter things to one another in the small hours of the morning under the horned waning moon, I sit by the casement and watch that star. " {source: -Polaris, HP Lovecraft }

The Native Americans said that Ursa Major was a bear being chased. It is said that it was the bear's blood that turned the leaves on the trees red.

In the Greek Magical Papyri the Pole star was identified with Set-Typhon, and given authority over the Gods. The Greek Navigators called it Kynosoura, meaning dog's tail. Typhon, is thought to be borrowed from the Persians, meaning 'to smoke', and was considered to be a storm demon. Study of the Etymology, finds the connection to the word 'Typhoon'. Typhon, was the monster of all monsters, the father of Monsters

reaching his hands to the sky, stars in his grasp. Hesiod narrates Typhon's birth in this poem: But when Zeus had driven the Titans from Olympus,mother Earth bare her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite (Venus) {See: Hesiod, Theogony }

550 BC, Artifact, Greece. Zeus hurling his bolts at Typhon. Typhon, by the will of his mother Gaia, was to destroy Zeus for imprisoning the Titans. His first battle reaped a small victory over Zeus, but with the help of Hermes, Zeus defeated Tphon and imprisoned him under MT Etna. The Mountain of Fire, located near Sicily.abal al-Nr in Arabic, Mountain of Fire. Derived from Phoenician Attuna, meaning furnace. It is the tallest active volcano in all of Europe. The Roman poet Virgil gave what was probably a first-hand description of an eruption in the Aeneid: A spreading bay is there, impregnable. To all invading storms; and Aetna's throat With roar of frightful ruin thunders nigh. Now to the realm of light it lifts a cloud Of pitch-black, whirling smoke, and fiery dust, Shooting out globes of flame, with monster tongues That lick the stars; now huge crags of itself, Out of the bowels of the mountain torn, Its maw disgorges, while the molten rock Rolls screaming skyward; from the nether deep The fathomless abyss makes ebb and flow."

" Well do I remember the night of the great Aurora, when over the swamp played the shocking coruscations of the daemon-light. After the beams came clouds, and then I slept." {source: Polaris, HP Lovecraft}

"And it was under a horned waning moon that I saw the city for the first time. Still and somnolent did it lie, on a strange plateau in a hollow betwixt strange peaks. Of ghastly marble were its walls and its towers, its columns, domes, and pavements. In the marble streets were marble pillars, the upper parts of which were carven into the images of grave bearded men. The air was warm and stirred not. And overhead, scarce ten degrees from the zenith, glowed that watching Pole Star. Long did I gaze on the city, but the day came not. When the red Aldebaran, which blinked low in the sky but never set, had crawled a quarter of the way around the horizon, I saw light and motion in the houses and the streets. Forms strangely robed, but at once noble and familiar, walked abroad, and under the horned waning moon men talked wisdom in a tongue which I understood, though it was unlike any language I had ever known. And when the red Aldebaran had crawled more than half way around the horizon, there were again darkness and silence." {source: Polaris, HP Lovecraft }

When I awaked, I was not as I had been. Upon my memory was graven the vision of the city, and within my soul had arisen another and vaguer recollection, of whose nature I was not then certain. Thereafter, on the cloudy nights when I could sleep, I saw the city often; sometimes under that horned waning moon, and sometimes under the hot yellow rays of a sun which did not set, but which wheeled low around the horizon. And on the clear nights the Pole Star leered as never before."-Polaris, HP Lovecraft "Gradually I came to wonder what might be my place in that city on the strange plateau betwixt strange peaks. At first content to view the scene as an all-observant uncorporeal presence, I now desired to define my relation to it, and to speak my mind amongst the grave men who conversed each day in the public squares. I said to myself, This is no dream, for by what means can I prove the greater reality of that other life in the house of stone and brick south of the sinister swamp and the cemetery on the low hillock, where the Pole Star peers into my north window each night? {source: Polaris, HP Lovecraft }

" One night as I listened to the discourse in the large square containing many statues, I felt a change; and perceived that I had at last a bodily form. Nor was I a stranger in the streets of Olatho, which lies on the plateau of Sarkis, betwixt the peaks Noton and Kadiphonek. It was my friend Alos who spoke, and his speech was one that pleased my soul, for it wasspee the ch of a true man and patriot. That night had the news come of Daikos fall, and of the advance of the Inutos; squat, hellish, yellow fiends who five years ago had appeared out of the unknown west to ravage the confines of our kingdom, and finally to besiege our towns. Having taken the fortified places at the foot of the mountains, their way now lay open to the plateau, unless every citizen could resist with the strength of ten men. For the squat creatures were mighty in the arts of war, and knew not the scruples of honour which held back our tall, grey-eyed men of Lomar from ruthless conquest." {source: Polaris, HP Lovecraft}

"Alos, my friend, was commander of all the forces on the plateau, and in him lay the last hope of our country. On this occasion he spoke of the perils to be faced, and exhorted the men of Olatho, bravest of the Lomarians, to sustain the traditions of their ancestors, who when forced to move southward from Zobna before the advance of the great ice-sheet (even as our descendants must some day flee from the land of Lomar), valiantly and victoriously swept aside the hairy, long-armed, cannibal Gnophkehs that stood in their way. To me Alos denied a warriors part, for I was feeble and given to strange faintings when subjected to stress and hardships. But my eyes were the keenest in the city, despite the long hours I gave each day to the study of the Pnakotic manuscripts and the wisdom of the Zobnarian Fathers; so my friend, desiring not to doom me to inaction, rewarded me with that duty which was second to nothing in importance. To the watchtower of Thapnen he sent me, there to serve as the eyes of our army. Should the Inutos attempt to gain the citadel by the narrow pass behind the peak Noton, and thereby surprise the garrison, I was to give the signal of fire which would warn the waiting soldiers and save the town from immediate disaster.Alone I mounted the tower, for every man of stout body was needed in the passes below. My brain was sore dazed with excitement and fatigue, for I had not slept in many days; yet was my purpose firm, for I loved my native land of Lomar, and the marble city of Olatho that lies betwixt the peaks of Noton and Kadiphonek.But as I stood in the towers topmost chamber, I beheld the horned waning moon, red and sinister, quivering through the vapours that hovered over the distant valley of Banof. And through an opening in the roof glittered the pale Pole Star, fluttering as if alive, and leering like a fiend and tempter. Methought its spirit whispered evil counsel, soothing me to traitorous somnolence with a damnable rhythmical promise which it repeated over and over: Slumber, watcher, till the spheres Six and twenty thousand years Have revolvd, and I return To the spot where now I burn.Other stars anon shall rise To the axis of the skies;Stars that soothe and stars that bless With a sweet forgetfulness: Only when my round is oer Shall the past disturb thy door." Vainly did I struggle with my drowsiness, seeking to connect these strange words with some lore of the skies which I had learnt from the Pnakotic manuscripts. My head, heavy and reeling, drooped to my breast, and when next I looked up it was in a dream; with the Pole Star grinning at me through a window from over the horrible swaying trees of a dream-swamp. And I am still dreaming.In my shame and despair I sometimes scream frantically, begging the dream-creatures around me to waken me ere the Inutos steal up the pass behind the peak Noton and take the citadel by surprise; but these creatures are daemons, for they laugh at me and tell me I am not dreaming. They mock me whilst I sleep, and whilst the squat yellow foe may be creeping silently upon us. I have failed in my duty and betrayed the marble city of Olatho; I have proven false to Alos, my friend and commander. But still these shadows of my dream deride me. They say there is no land of Lomar, save in my nocturnal imaginings; that in those realms where the Pole Star shines high and red Aldebaran crawls low around the horizon, there has been naught save ice and snow for thousands of years, and never a man save squat yellow creatures, blighted by the cold, whom they call Esquimaux.And as I writhe in my guilty agony, frantic to save the city whose peril every moment grows, and vainly striving to shake off this unnatural dream of a house of stone and brick south of a sinister swamp and a cemetery on a low hillock; the Pole Star, evil and monstrous, leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey". {source: Polaris, HP Lovecraft }

"The Pnakotic Manuscripts predate the origin of man. The original manuscripts were in scroll form and were passed down through the ages, eventually falling into the hands of secretive cults. The Great Race of Yith is believed to have produced the first five chapters of the Manuscripts, which, among other things, contain a detailed chronicle of the race's history. However, others attribute them to the Elder Things, because of certain similarities to the Eltdown Shards. The Pnakotic Manuscripts were kept in the Great Race's library city of Pnakotus (hence the name). They cover a variety of subjects, including descriptions of Chaugnar Faugn and Yibb-Tstll, the location of Xiurhn, Rhan-Tegoth's rituals, and others.The Pnakotic Manuscripts were originally held by the people of Lomar, who studied them diligently. Later, they were passed to Hyperborea and translated into the language of that land. Here the manuscripts were added to by the Voormi. Another addition is known to have been made in earlier times by a scribe in Zobna.The Manuscripts survived into historical times, protected by a secretive cult known as the Pnakotic Brotherhood, and are thought to have been translated into Greek in a version known as the Pnakotica. Rumors say that an English translation was made in the 15th century by an unknown scribe, but the consensus is that they exist only in manuscript form. The original scrolls of the Pnakotic Manuscripts are believed to be lost (nevertheless, a copy may still exist in the Temple of the Elder Ones in Ulthar)." {source: Joshi & Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia}

The inspiration for Polaris: H. P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters Vol. I, p. 62; cited in Joshi and

Schultz: "Several nights ago I had a strange dream of a strange city--a city of many palaces and gilded domes, lying in a hollow betwixt ranges of grey, horrible hills.... I was, as I said, aware of this city visually. I was in it and around it. But certainly I had no corporeal existence." {source: HP Lovecraft} It is speculated that the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe, was most influential here. "In theosophy, it is believed the Seven Stars of the Pleiades focus the spiritual energy of the Seven Rays from the Galactic Logos to the Seven Stars of the Great Bear, then to Sirius, then to the Sun, then to the god of Earth (Sanat Kumara), and finally through the seven Masters of the Seven Rays to the human race." {Source: Douglas Barker, The Seven Rays:Key to the Mysteries, 1952} See: Taoist Astral Healing, Astronomical Events as influences, and not destiny.

According to William Fulwiler, Polaris, is an autobiographical. HP's frustrations with being denied the warrior's part in World War I, attributed to his frequent fainting spells, and ill health. I don't know how he drew this conclusions, it appears to me, that the Stars are an influence. Perhaps, it was HPL's way of communicating that he can feel the heaviness of the sky. The Polaris leering at him, the 'yellow' creatures a constant. He is aware of them, and perhaps his minute size and power by comparison. HPL's dreams, may have been his ever present anxiety, knowing that there are forces, far greater than himself. Ever-present, watching...waiting, and the next move is beyond his control, thus he has no real power, only his imaginings to create a world in which his heightened awareness of forces beyond There is a re-occurring theme, of the comprehension of man, may be conceptualized; even if, only in pure horror. Not knowing which reality is real. The dream state, or the awakened state. The two can often be confused, especially when one actively creates alternate realities as a matter of habit.

In HPL's habitual creation, the stars, are ever-influencing factors. How can one know, when they are awake, and when they are asleep - plugged in, taken away from themselves? The Chinese had, from a very early date, a highly developed knowledge of astronomy. The Great Dipper (Ursa Major) is central to the Taoist tradition. The Pole Star, the primary star of the dipper, is the residence of Taiyi. To return to the One is to return, on one level, to the Pole Star. It is the place where all things begin and to which all things return.A flaming pearl signifies the One, the Pole Star, and the original qi, and is worn on a pin at the top of the head to signify full initiation as a Taoist priest. This symbol is also often found on the roofs of Taoist temples, between two dragons. Ursa Minor & Draco There is also a Biblical Reference in the Book of Job: Canst thou bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season? Or canst thou guide the Bear with her sons? This reference, Mazzaroth, is believed to be a constelation in Kabbalah. Genesis 1:14, gives us a clue, that the constellations, are meant to give man 'signs', for changes in the seasons, for survival (planting, harvesting, hibernation). The Swastika plays a role in Biblical story-telling, its estimated that about 6 thousand years ago, Polaris switched from the Draco constellation, to the Little Bear. This is believed to be a 'favorite' star of God. Later, interpreted further to be God's favorite people, or chosen people.

The Swastika, therefore represented the 'Health' of the people, chosen by God. Reclaiming them from the Dragon (Satan). It is believed, for this

reason, the Nazi's of the Third Reich, changed the direction of the Swastika, in reverse, to give the people back to Satan and back into poor health. Thus, the power symbol, was feeding the 'chosen people' to the universe, suffering to feed its power - symbolic human sacrifice, which escalated later into literal genocide. See Also: Introduction to Philosophy/Religion of Taoism The feeling in the Polaris tale, conveys guilt, shame, desperation to awaken but remaining woefully under the sleep spell.The Evil Eye, in the Sky, Polaris leers as a painful reminder that man is but the the receiver (or rather perceiver), and can do very little to change the stars. He should then, change himself; thus changing his perception of the world. In Tao, At one time, the dragon held the pearl. The dragon represents wisdom, and the pearl is truth. The dragon lost the pearl, when it was distracted from its task, which is constant transformation.

The pearl, and the dragon are also representations of the solar and lunar cycles. When more of the pearl is seen, the Moon is waxing, and less seen, it is waning. Later, within Buddhism, the flaming pearl, represents the genius in obscurity; enhancing magic. The Pearl has been adopted by Classical Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Be of the flaming pearl. And this is the story of Polaris. SIN JONES www.the-poison-apple.com

June 2011