549- Considering the North Star & then the Tarot (Free)

We are told that Chaco Canyon exists due to an ancient culture searching for, and finding, a sacred center. The path of the Buddha is also said to be a “middle” way and is illustrated by the tuning of a musical string, not too tight, or too slack, but in the middle. Even in old myth, and current movies, we find ideas like “Midgard”, again pointing to a center of some kind. Maybe a center point, or a middle, could be considered as a place of balance and centering. Maybe it is a bit like the equinoxes, or the two equal days (balanced night and day) which are the mid-way divisions of the solar year. In this episode we consider Polaris the pole star in hour one. This star is said to mark the pole of the earth as someone standing at the north pole would see it directly above their head, fixed and unmoving. Someone in a more southerly direction seeing the pole star at 41 degrees above the horizon would know they are located at 41 N degrees latitude. And while the west has used the name Polaris since roughly the renaissance, this idea goes way back. The Hindu culture used a name for Polaris that means “fixed” or “immovable”. If one uses a camera to image Polaris with the shutter held open, a circular trail of stars will be seen around a point (the original circumpunct, or circle dot?). That point being the North Star named Polaris. It should be noted that this star never sets below the horizon and is among the most useful stars for finding location and direction in navigation. Ironically the importance of Polaris is not reflected as one might expect. The star seems to be “ignored” to some degree for lack of a better description intending to imply its “occulted” importance. In hour two we discuss the Tarot deck. Our guest uses three decks and I, once again, assert the inversion I detect in the Rider Waite deck. All in all, this is an interesting episode and it will serve those who are seeking to consider our world, and our place in the universe, in different ways than have been offered in western education. In closing I would like to wish all living beings a happy, healthy and higher-minded new era. Rapid change is upon us all, as is the opportunity to forge a better future, free of fear, hatred and tyranny.