Worshipping the Sun

In ancient Egypt people worshipped the Sun God Ra, and he was believed to rule in all parts of the created world including the sky, Earth and the underworld. In ancient Greece people worshipped Helios as a god and personification of the Sun. The ancient Maya worshipped a Sun god called Kinich Ahau. The Inca people of the Andes region of South America worshipped the god Viracocha, who is said to have created the universe, sun, moon and stars. He was said to command the Sun to move over the sky and he was seen as the god of the Sun and storms. Continuing this through mythologies and traditions of ancient people around the world, we could keep listing gods related to the Sun and find a common adoration and gratitude for its presence.

Inca God Viracocha

Why were the ancients so fascinated with the Sun and its positioning in the heavens? They were also interested in other elements of the heavens including the Moon, planets and the stars themselves. In particular, tracking the path of the Earth and its true North axis through the phases of the zodiac seems to have been of great interest.

There are twelve original constellations of the zodiac, which were used by the Egyptians but probably originated in ancient Summeria and are known as the Astrological ages. These occupy 30 degrees of celestial longitude and approximately correspond to the constellations of Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Currently we are in the age of Pisces and are transitioning to the age of Aquarius. Each of the age is characterised by a duration of around 2160 years, and 12 times this gives us a total of 25,920 years, which also is the total duration for the precession of the equinox. Together this celestial coordinate system takes the ecliptic as the origin of latitude and the Sun’s position at vernal equinox as the origin of longitude.

Equinox means equal night. The vernal equinox is the point on the horizon at which the Sun’s path crosses the celestial equator moving from South to North. There are two of these that occur each year and they are known as the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The Autumn equinox is the date in the year when the Earth experiences a 12 hour day and a 12 hour night and occurs in late September. In addition to the equinox, there is also the solstices. The summer solstice is the date on which the Sun is the highest in the sky at noon in the Northern hemisphere and usually occurs in late June. Tracking these events is very useful for ancient agriculture so that one can plan for crops and is a necessary component of any society that has moved out of a hunter-gatherer status and is seeking to build a civilisation. They are also useful as calendar markers.

Many of the ancient megalithic structures exhibit cardinal alignments which are clearly linked to astronomical phenomena. But the Sun appears to get special interest. At the ancient Stonehenge site in England for example, the stones are carefully aligned so that if one sits at the centre, you have a clear view of the summer solstice sun rising over the heel stone. Similarly, you can see the Sun setting at the winter solstice.

Near the Great Pyramid in Cairo, Egypt, one can stand on the body of the Great Sphinx which has the body of a Lion and the statue lies exactly along the East-West axis of the Giza necropolis, with its gaze looking directly East, so that it stares at the rising Sun during the vernal equinox. At dawn on the vernal equinox one can also gaze directly at the rise of its own celestial counterpart in the constellation of Leo, to create a celestial rising, just as the Sun begins to rise. Although curiously, this only happens around 10,500 years ago, a date which is inconsistent with the claimed archaeological dating of the Sphinx from Egyptologists. Similarly, Serpent Mound in the state of Ohio in America, appears to also gaze directly at the summer solstice at Sunset. Indeed, if we travel around the world and examine many of the ancient megalithic structures, we find profound cardinal alignments which clearly demonstrate that people from all cultures sought out astronomical significance in the construction of their temples and religious sites of interest.

Perhaps its not a surprise, as mentioned there are practical reasons for tracking the movement of the Sun such as for agricultural planning and the correct measurement of the seasons. But also, in addition to air and water, the Sun appears to be the main energy giver for all life on Earth, and so it is not unreasonable for ancient people to associate this object with their divine worship.

Maybe, it was about creating a spiritual moment, where the Earth (the land of people) and the Stars (the land of the Gods) would become joined for just an instant, during one of these equinox or solstice events. That this is where you could experience the divine and actually feel the presence of a creator. Such observations were also usually accompanied by rituals, and it is possible that a society seeing that the elders were able to conjure the exact positioning of the Sun as a part of these rituals, also reinforced a religious belief and so a hierarchical system of control over a population.

Whatever is true, our link to our ancient ancestors is provided by our shared need for the Sun, since without it neither of us would have been here. That object connects us to our past but also our future, as it continues to rise and fall with the setting of the day. If any object ever deserved the honorary title of a God, the Sun is surely it.

This article was originally posted on a previous web site for the asterism project on 15th Jul 2020 and it has been copied here since that site was closed down.

Creation of the Universe in Mythology

The story of the origin of our planets, solar system, galaxy and indeed universe is one that science continues to ponder with its ever more precise measurements and long-range observations of the past. But philosophy, mythology and religion had an opinion on these going back to the dawn of civilisation. In the Judaic—Christian tradition we are left with the legacy of the Old Testament and its description of the creation of the world. In the Bible, it says:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day and the darkness he called night.

Tahiti is one of the largest island in French Polynesia located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean. The native people of Tahiti have their own mythology about the creation of the world:

“Ta-aroa rested for a long time in his shell. It was shaped like a seed and spun around in the infinite emptiness in constant darkness. There was no sun, no moon, no earth, no mountains. there was just churning, unbound water. There were no people, no pigs, no birds, no dogs, no man-made objects, no sea and no freshwater. Ta-aroa flicked his fingers against the inside of the shell where he sat so cramped - and it cracked and opened. He squeezed out, stood up and shouted: “Is anyone there? Is anyone under there”? Not a voice answered his calls! Then he created the world of his own flesh - and the different parts of his body became the different parts of nature - except for his head, which he kept for himself.

The Sami people are native to large parts of northern Norway and Sweden and also parts of Finland and the Murmansk Oblast of Russia. This is the Sami tradition:

“Sami mythology contains several stories about the creation of the world and man. Here, the world was not created from nothing but was transformed by the gods. The Sun god was called Beaivi, which is also the Sami word for sun. According to the Sami mythology, the reindeer came to earth riding rays of the sun. On the Sami drum, several central gods were placed on the Sun’s rays. One story tells of the god Ipmill, who was tormented by the noise from the spirits of the underworld. So he decided to create a new world. Ipmill sacrificed a female reindeer from the sacred mountain passevare, and built a new world, of the body parts of the animal: the bone became the skeleton of the earth, the flesh became the land, the veins became rivers, and the hairs became forests. Ipmil made the reindeer’s head into the sky, and the eyes became the Sun and the Moon.

Japan is an island country in East Asia, located in the Pacific ocean off the eastern coast of the Asian continent. This is the Japanese tradition:

“Two gods were commanded: “Fix this floating country and put it in order”. To help them with their task, they were given the heavenly jewelled spear. The gods stood on the hovering bridge of the heavens and pointed the spear downwards. When they touched the sea, the salt water solidified, and the salt dripping off the spearhead and became an island. This is Onogorojima, “The island that solidified itself”. The gods descended from the heavens, erected a Column to the heavens and built a hall. Later, the gods gave birth to all the islands of Japanese. They then gave birth to the god of the wind, Shinatsuhiko, then the god of the trees, Kukunochi, the god of the mountains, Oyamatsumi, and the god of the fields, Kaya-no-hime...

The Maya people were an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous people of Mesoamerica. The group that inhabited the region of Guatemala had this tradition:

“Still it hovers. It is motionless, in peace and without a ripple. It is desolate, and the heavens are empty. These are the first words and the first story. There are no people there, no animals - no birds, fish, crabs, trees, cliffs, caves, ravines, grasslands, forests. Only the sky reposing in itself. The earth has not yet appeared. There is only the ocean, and the ocean is motionless beneath the sky - that is all there is. Nothing has been put together. Nothing moves, or vibrates or makes a sound in the sky. Then came the word. The first light and man appeared in their minds...

The Greenlandic Inuit are the indigenous peoples and the most populous ethnic group in Greenland. This is their tradition:

“Our ancestors talked a lot about how the earth and its people came into being. They did not understand how to hide words in lines like the white man, they just told stories, the people who lived before us. Long ago, when the earth was created, it came crashing out of the sky. Dirt, mountains and rocks - everything came from the heavens. After the earth had been created, came the people. The earth itself game them form. Small children grew right out of the ground, they sprouted in the underbrush covered in leaves, and they then lay there between the bushes, wiggling around with their eyes closed - they could not even crawl. They got their nourishment from the earth. But the people, who did not understand death, soon became too numerous and the earth became overcrowded. Then there was a mighty flood. Many drowned, and thus the population was reduced. We can still see traces of this floor high up in the mountains, where you can find mussels.

The peoples of the pacific Northwest had this tradition:

“Before there was anything - before the great flood, before the animals roamed the fields and the forest covered the land, before the birds flew among the trees and before fish, whales and seals swam in the sea - before all this was darkness - darker than thousand stormy winter nights. All the light in the universe was hidden in a tiny box. The Raven has always existed and always will. After turning into a fledgling, he finally caught hold of the light - a beautiful, radiant orb. Changed again into a huge, shiny black shadow the raven spread its wings snapped up the light and flew out into the vast darkness. The world was transformed: mountains and valleys appeared, the rivers glittered and life awakened everywhere. Far away another great winged creature rose into the air - that was when the light struck the eyes of the Great Eagle for the first time. The Eagle attacks the Raven, who lost half of the light. It fell onto the rocky ground and shattered into many tiny pieces that bounced back into the sky. They are still there - as the moon and the stars that light up the night. The Eagle followed the Raven to the end of the world. There the Raven set the last part of the light free. The light stained the clouds red, and then the sun climbed up over the mountains to the east.

Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous people of the Australian mainland. Here is there tradition:

“The dream time tales of the Aboriginals have no beginning or end, but glide into and intertwine with each other. Told through 10,000 years. An eternal process of creation. A great darkness filled the heavens. This darkness was quiet and peaceful, and encased within it lay the earth, cold and lifeless. On the surface were mountains and tall peaks, hills, valleys and plains, and deep caves and grottos. In these caves, there were forms of life, but without awareness or their surroundings. There was no wind, not even a gentle breeze. One day, the Great Father Spirit whispered softly to Goddess of the Sun: “Now, you shall awaken and go out and give life to the world and all that it holds. First you shall wake the grass, the plants, and then the trees. After covering the earth’s surface, you shall create insects and fish, reptiles and lizards, snakes, birds and mammals. Nothing shall be created that does not benefit the other parts of creation”. All the mammals, birds and reptiles now used the opportunity to examine this strange new creature that had appeared with the rain, the thunder and the lightning. They gathered to talk about what they had seen, and all gave different accounts of this new being.

In ancient Egypt there were many creation myths. The texts describe a process without beginning and end, where the Universe is a dynamic living organism. This is their tradition:

“In the beginning, before there was any land of Egypt, all was darkness, and there was nothing but a great waste of water called Nun. The power of Nun was such that there arose out of the darkness a great shining egg, and this was Re. He was all-powerful, and he could take many forms. “I am Khepera at the dwan, and Re at noon, and Tem in the evening”, he said. and the Sun rose and passed across the sky and set for the first time. Then he named Shu, and the first winds blew; he named Tefnut the splitter, and the first rain fell. Next he named Geb, and the earth came into being; he named the goddess Nut, and she was the sky arched over the earth and with her feet on one horizon and her hands on the other; he named Hapl, and the great River Nile flowed through Egypt and made it fruitful.”

These bits of scripts were taken from an exhibit at the Archaeology museum in Stavanger, Norway. They illustrate the variety of ideas and the creativity of thinking, but also perhaps the commonality between some of them. Science has replaced these mythologies with the Big Bang model which is closely linked to observational evidence. Yet, there is still so much we do not understand about the nature of the Universe, such as what is dark matter and dark energy and are there other universes in a giant multiverse? In an infinite sea of possible universes, and if we take the meaning of infinity to its extreme interpretation, then by definition all of the above mythologies will occur at least once, no matter how crazy. Perhaps what matters is not how we got here, but that we are here, and what we will do with the limited time that we have been given.

This article was originally posted on a previous web site for the asterism project on 15th Jul 2020 and it has been copied here since that site was closed down.

Simulated Reality & the Cosmos

Many have speculated that we may be living in a simulated reality. That is to say, that we are manifested constructs in a numerical program, operated and designed by beings far smarter than us. This is an interesting idea and for anyone that is familiar with computer programming it is not so far-fetched.

In particular, for a physicist working on building a numerical model for a physical system, they will be faced with coding up equations that time march in discrete steps called cells that adequately model the system, and the physical properties in and out of each cell are calculated by say using finite difference numerical schemes or others. You can literally sit there and watch the calculation scroll down the screen, in a manner not too dissimilar to the terminal screens visualised in the Matrix films. Perhaps the calculation only takes a few minutes, or perhaps it takes hours or days. But in the end, once the computation is completed, something has been modelled and simulated and then as a scientist you will scrutinise the results.

An interesting development of our modern society is the community of gaming. These started at a very basic level with limited processing power and interaction potential, and then they have accelerated to the point where you can put on a visor and barely not know the distinction between that simulated gaming world and the actual world where you physically exist.

An incredible example of what is possible is the God of War produced by Santa Monica Studio for the PlayStation 4 series. Based loosely on Greek and Norse mythology, you become a God doing battle with other Gods. Along the journey, the player will encounter monsters of all sorts.

God of War

Another example is the game Galactic Civilizations produced by Stardock for Microsoft Windows. In this game the player gets to explore the planets and beyond using your own spacecraft, encountering other species. Another amazing example is Eve Online, produced by CCP Games. It has a scale and complexity that boggles the mind, as players compete and engage in large scale space warfare. The game takes the player right out into the Milky Way 21,000 years into the future. We have come a long way since board games like Monopoly and Dungeons and Dragons.

Eve Online

These sorts of games allow one to invent any species that we wish to, and then to enter those worlds and experience it like they really did exist. Only subtle errors in the simulation, a result of the currently limited technological capability of what we can program, visualise and trick our sensors over, give you a reminder that this really is just a game.

But what about the future? If the level of gaming is where it is today, where will it be in 10 years or 100 years or even 1,000 years from now. It seems quite possible that in the distant future, we will have the technological ability to create all of the fantasies of our best hopes and dreams but also of our worst nightmares. As we then continue to converge towards that technological-biological symbiosis it may even be possible that we could get hurt.

One of the things that is intriguing about our own mythologies is that although we tell our children certain things exist, we know as adults that we are really just telling stories. That is, about wizards, dwarfs, elves, giants, dragons, fairies or whatever it is our minds can conjure. Yet with this increasing convergence, and ultimately what will be an inability to tell the difference between the real world and the simulated world, everything that is in our children’s stories will come into existence. What are the implications of this? Are we heading ourselves towards a cliff-edge unable to stop the magnetic pull of technology upon us? And as we fully immerse ourselves in this world what does it imply for free will? Indeed, if our actual existing reality is just a simulation, are we really players in the game or constructs generated by a meta-mind for the benefit of players far in excess of our intelligence?

The science and science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke said that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Our universe and our very existence appear to be a miracle of nature. But is it really just the physical embodiment of someone else’s technology? And for the purposes of our existence, would it really matter?

This article was originally posted on a previous web site for the asterism project on 17th Sept 2019 and it has been copied here since that site was closed down.