Kaye Shinker, Astrologer
Here is a bit of background information and at the end of the article a little morsel of astrological information that can help you preserve some of your investments.
Alaska has two seasons: Getting ready for summer and Getting ready for winter. Alaska skies change rapidly but sometimes the storms are endless. A white out snowstorm can last a few days or a few weeks. Alaska is the least desirable state for amateur astronomers. Statistically, the odds are against you. 200 days per year are overcast. All sorts of events interfere with a good view of the stars. Summer, winter, the aurora Borealis and bitter cold.
If your hobby is astronomy and you have an excellent telescope, store it in Texas and plan to visit it during the Winter holidays. Alaskans concede that the stars at night are big and bright and Texans still have the best view. That’s it. Everything else is bigger and better in Alaska.
Sky watchers the First Financial Astrologers. Moving to a new part of the world gives you the opportunity to explore the mythology of another culture. As an astrologer I searched through the native myths to see if they mentioned sky messages to tell time, predict the seasons, and future events.
Put on your mukluks, tie the hood on your parka and hitch up the dog team. OK? Mush.
Everyone asks how do Alaskans deal with 24 hours of darkness. We don’t. We go to Hawaii. Well, I go to New Orleans the food is better and they celebrate every holiday with fireworks, a parade and a round of parties.
Winter solstice means 4 hours of what the natives call daylight; a better description is twilight. (oh , the definition of a native is someone who has lived in Alaska more than one calendar year). Natives have one goal and that is to stay another year. They will move heaven and earth and Ebay to raise the funds to make it through the winter. In fact the Internet has made getting through the winter almost easy.
The Big and Little Dippers. Native story tellers used the movement of these constellations to tell time. The Inupiat have a very long creation myth that has scattered survival instructions one is for telling time without the Sun. Inupiat are Eskimos. During the previous century they inhabited the coastal areas from Anchorage around to Prudoe Bay. They prefer the name Inupiat.
The constellations most of us can identify immediately are the Big and Little dipper also known as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. On clear nights you can observe their position in the sky and know the time.
The last star on the handle of the Big Dipper gives the time during the night. It points west in the evening then when it points straight up it is half way through the night then east it will soon be sunrise. Time of night is very important when night is 24/7 for 3 months.
To verify this phenomena for yourself check the sky map is at www.kidsastronomy.com. The program moves the constellations around according to the time of night. Alaska’s flag is a magic sky map. An illustration of how not to get lost in the Arctic. It describes how to find North, and shows how the Big Dipper points to the North Star. No, the North star isn’t that huge in comparison to the other stars but it is extremely important.
The North Star is true north and is known as a circum Polar star. A way of checking to be sure you have identified the correct star is to find the Little Dipper. The North Star is the last star on the handle of the Little Dipper. The North Star alias Polaris is not a very bright star and it changes from bright to dim in irregular pulsating intervals. Inupiat legend suggests that a blinking Polaris is a precursor of westerly winds that bring winter.
Polaris has a long history of providing directions for travelers. Sailors and travelers in all ages have used the star to find their way in unknown territory. An Islandic priest suggested to pilgrims traveling to Palestine in 1140 a way to find its latitude. Israel is around Latitude 32 as is Palestine, Texas.
Here is the technique, lay down on with your toes point directly at the North star. Bend your right knee up to about a 45 degree angle and rest your right hand, thumb pointing up, on your knee. When you reach a spot where the North star seems to be resting on the tip of your thumb, you’re at the same latitude as Jerusalem. Ancient mariners had a similar technique for every island in the
ocean. Once you found the proper latitude for your island, you maintained that latitude until you ran into the island.
Aurora Borealis
Aurora’s are most attractive during March and September but they can appear at any time of the year depending on amount of Sun spot activity. At Barrow on winter solstice noon there is a glimmer of twilight and then you search again for the dipper weather permitting. Most of the winter it is too cold to bother. And there is the perpetual ring of light that when activated becomes the aurora. It is never really dark even in winter.
The Inupiat believe that abundance of dancing lights in the Aurora’s brought an abundant supply of game, fish and berries.
Reading the Sky Messages? An abundant supply of Auroras means that there is an abundant supply of Sun spots. The Sun controls food production, food supply controls the Market place. The domino effect of an abundant supply of anything brings down its price creating a recession in industries based on that commodity.
P.S. High Sun Spot activity statistically speaking occurs when Jupiter is in the same zodiac sign as Saturn, Uranus or Neptune.
P.S.S. When Inupiat die their spirit joins a game in progress among the dancing lights. The field of play is the northern lights and the ball is the skull of a Walrus. The rules are similar to soccer.