Each generation in a tribe confronted numerous challenges it had to successfully meet, if the nation was to survive. These included clan obligations, religious relationships, camp work, acquiring stories, and so on. To acquire the vital necessary learning, the cultures put sophisticated systems in place for the tribe to utilize. These duties were rooted in their special perspective on the nature of humans and of the environment. The ancients considered themselves part of the natural world. They believed everything came from the same source thus a bear, wolf or fish was our brother or sister and part of the evolutionary tree for a purpose. A bear being a relative is far more likely to be treated with kindness then an object, most urbanized people have become – disconnected from their brother A Tribe members life was shared with all creation in a common world. As they examined the natural world, they discovered in nature its marvellous detail of how it functioned. Each tribe reproduced habits of the species they observed so they to lived with the flow. In other words each ‘fine’ of the tribe replicated an animal’s teachings into tribal life & some began to see the written history of these animal gods in the stars as well. All ancient mythology is but symbolism for a sort of Genealogy of the Tree of Life.
The Magnificent Celtic World Tree bridged with the Milky Way as its massive roots that extended down to the Earth., is also what was considered to be the origin of all peoples, each symbolized by an animal sitting in the tree. Each tribe was a descendant from these animals brothers or gods or a particular tree, river and so on. And just as the animals were sacrificed in the circle of life, so were they. But all came from the World tree, even the winds and other trees. So many tribes chose the tree, animal, constellation, or mountain that they would most giant eagle hr connection see, as being their Mother or Father God. Whether the tribe was Japanese, Indian, 1st nations and so on, we are all from the one tree. Some tribes had a turtle instead of tree, but all mean the same thing. This is what comprises the ancients universe and understanding of its powers. We can see with this tree, in the Welsh Celts of the Arthurian cults who used his court warriors to help Culhwch (Kul oo k) finding the ancient animals to look for Mabon – blackbird, Stag, owl, eagle, and salmon. Ysbaddaden (pronounced – (Is ba thad’n) – which means Chief Giant.) gives Culhwch several tasks in order to win his daughter Olwen (means “white footprint” because she left white flowers where she walked). It is my opinion, giving the knowledge that the Celts well into the Roman times had Tree Gods they were descended from, that Ysbaddaden might have been the world tree – “Chief Giant” tree, though I cannot prove this theory. The Blackbird replaces the Hawk in Norse myths.
In the Norse Tree
The Norse decided on the frost giants (being the giants (possibly huge planets) of fire and ice in the voice or sea space who break up and become earth and planets but they too came from the tree with the rainbow bridge (milky way), and in its branches were also the similar main ancient animals of creation which included an eagle and it’s knowledge, a hawk called Vedrfolnir, a squirrel called Ratatosk who runs up and down through the ash tree and carries malicious messages between the eagle and Nidhogg. There are also Four Stags run in the branches of the ash which feed on the foliage and represent the four directions. Their names are: Dain, Dvalin, Dunyr, Durathror. Again all these constellations can be found in the sky. The hawk sits atop the eagles head in the sky.
Dain (dormant) – one of the 4 deer constellations in the branches of the World Tree, an elf name who most likely gave birth to the elves.
Dvalin (sleeper) – one of the 4 deer constellations, a dwarf name and the 2nd smallest deer is most possible the ancestor of the Dwarves.
Duneyr (drooping-ears) – the second largest of the deer – could be the ancestor to whomever mythical creature had drooping ears.
Durathror (sluggish beast) – the largest of the deer. Another constellation long forgotten.
Ratatosk (gnaw-tooth) – the squirrel constellation. Is the main stars in Cassiopeia, with his feet, body and two stars for its tail visible.
Geirrod- the eagle constellation, unnamed among the Norse but whose name we find as “Garuda” in Hindu mythology. Some called it the swan. (We call it Elyrch (which means swan in Pwkatta – pronounced Eleerpuh)
Vedrfolnir (wind-parched) – constellation for the hawk upon the eagle’s head.
Nidhogg (poison biter) – constellation of a serpent at the foot of Yggdrasill’s root. The constellation some say is the same as Scorpius, who resides just at the base of the tree’s root. But I read too many others that say the snake is like energy coiled & can move up and down the tree. It is the bridge to otherworld knowledge with sheds its skin and begins anew in each phase of learning.
In a poem called “Grimnismal”, there are four stags on the bottom roots, and four harts at the top boughs, making 8 turns of the wheel. An eagle at the top of branches and a snake at the bottom. (The eagle is now seen as Cygnus the swan in Summer).
One tells of the thunder god Thor helping out the hero Aurvandil by carrying him in a basket back from the frozen north. On the way his toe slipped out and became frost bitten, so Thor broke it off and threw it up into the sky to form a star.
An Anglo-Saxon (Celtic /Scandinavian tribe) version of Aurvandil is Earandel, meaning ‘morning star’.
A giant named Thiassi, carried off the goddess Idunn to attain youth from her eternal apples, was killed by the gods after they rescued her. To atone for this deed Odin took the old giant’s eyes and threw them up in the sky as his punishment. These stars could only be the twin stars Castor and Pollux.
Other myths associations with Constellations
Grendel – In mythic terms, is a major character who disappears beneath a lake or sea implies that it is a constellation which sometimes slips beneath the celestial equator. From northern Saxon regions, like England, a good proportion of the constellation Scorpio is below the horizon, and one of the zodiacal constellations. Checking on position, I found that Scorpius’ position makes it seem that it drowns in the mythic waters. Scorpius is also a clawed creature who loses a claw and its shoulder in the sky, as the same in the story of Beowulf.
