PaganSquare


PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form
Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in star gazing

I know how much my fellow heathens and pagans get annoyed about things being called Christmas that are actually pagan. The upcoming conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21st 2020 will make the two planets appear as a single bright star to the naked eye, or like a double planet. Since it will be visible just after sundown it will be easier to view than some other sky occurrences, so people are excited about it. I've seen posts on the net saying the media calling it a Christmas star is wrong because it will be on the solstice, not on the 25th. The date of Christmas in the Bible is in lambing season, but the date established for the holiday by the Church as December 25 was supposed to be the solstice.

Christmas was originally established over the date of Roman Saturnalia, or on Sol Invictus (the Romans had multiple gods with overlapping areas of influence just like we heathens), which was on the winter soltice in accordance with the Julian calendar in use at the time. The winter solstice precesses, though. The Gregorian calendar reform re-established the drifted date of Christmas with the solstice. Eastern Orthodox who still follow the Julian calendar have their Christmas on January 7 according to our calendar, the Gregorian. Since the Gregorian calendar reform, the solstice precessed again. So the dates of Christmas and the solstice are off again, but they aren't supposed to be. Christmas was supposed to be on the solstice, so calling it a Christmas Star is not really wrong.
 
However, it is not going to look like a cross in the sky. It's going to look like a double planet, or if you have a telescope, like two planets close to each other.
Last modified on
PaganNewsBeagle Airy Monday Nov 10

Today's PaganNewsBeagle features stories so airy they may just float off your screen into the Aether: fluffy, feathery dinosaurs; telepathy in a lab?; best sky events for November; arctic outbreak weather; how well do you understand clouds?

Where did birds get feathers from? Turns out, dinosaurs had lots of fluffy feathers millennia before their bird descendents learned to fly.

...
Last modified on

Posted by on in Pagan News Beagle
PaganNewsBeagle Sept 29

Welcome to Airy Monday at the Pagan News Beagle. Today we have stories on the autumn night sky, campfire storytelling, quantum physics and miracles, virtual/created constructed beings, and Pagan academics.

The still-warm evenings of autumn make for great star-gazing. This article at Space.com points out what to look for when you look up.

...
Last modified on

Additional information