There is evidence that the ancient myths of the world were based on foundations of celestial metaphors: this is astrotheology. This term is rarely found in dictionaries, or even little known. But it began to gain popularity, notably following the release of a video called Zeitgeist in 2007. This video argues that excerpts from the gospels about Jesus were based on stories of solar deities from ancient mythological systems, such as those of the Egyptian falcon god Horus.
This system of correspondences between myths and constellations has been known for thousands of years from archaeological works describing such a system. But it is only recently that certain researchers like Robert Taylor have attempted to condense and detail a system that is as old as it is disparate and scattered. The works of the French Volney and Charles-François Dupuis were also counted. But they focused primarily on the cycles of the sun and moon. The relationships between myths and constellations were further analyzed by Taylor.
One of the most significant works on this subject is certainly the book by Giogio de Santillana and Hertha Von Decend published in 1969: “Hamlet’s mill: knowledge, origin and transmission through myths”. The authors, university professors, describe that the ancient myths of the world seem to share ancient and forgotten common patterns.
These patterns of relationships to the cosmos and human existence are linked to the movements of the sun, the moon, the stars, the visible planets, and above all the powerful celestial cycles, particularly the slow but inexorable cycle known as precession of the equinoxes. This book provides individual connections between mythical figures and specific constellations.
The authors admit to having discovered the ruins of a vast, totally lost ancient system, which modern language cannot describe. These ruins, although buried under the sands of time and history, have a global dimension. We can only be amazed by such a possibility, such a correspondence between the immensity of the cosmos and the depth of the human psyche.
The authors demonstrate that this vast and complex human-celestial world construction can only be the product of an extremely sophisticated and profound knowledge, cannot come from a system of thoughts totally foreign to our spiritual and cognitive structure (with regard to of so-called modern consciousness).
They conclude: “the myth is neither an impossible fantasy, nor the object of a heavy psychology. It is quite different, and this requires to be perceived with open eyes. This is what we have tried to do”. Let us direct our wondering thoughts towards this global, interconnected and unique tangle of myths… and admit that it follows a logic and speaks a completely different language to our way of thinking. It challenges our logic of categorization and our relationship to reality and to ourselves.