Quote:Rulers became stars and common souls became part of the Milky Way. Meteors were seen as souls coming to earth to enter the body. The heavens had gates. Souls would enter via Cancer and leave via Capricorn.
I don't really see the afterlife-heaven connection myself. I've never seen anything that would lend to the theory that the ancients believed that we became stars after we died.
The Creation accounts of various cultures speak of the stars and planets being set in motion before mankind, even the animals, roamed the earth.
In Genesis, the lights in the heavens are formed after the plant kingdom,
Quote:14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.(Genesis 14-20)
Hesiod's Theogony likewise describes the creation of the starry sky, before any soul had been born.
Quote:And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods.
I'm not even sure ancient religious teachers even believed in Astrology, sounds like something a spoiled prince would get involved with because he's got too much time on his hands (and obviously there are conmen willing to provide that service)
The whole idea behind weaving stories and myths around constellations, (and even the formation of the constellations themselves) is just to make it easier for sailors and timekeepers to memorise their local star map. In exactly the same way that those guys that can memorise the order of cards in a 52 deck in just 3 minutes by constructing a myth e.g. the Lovely Queen, wanted 6 Diamonds, so she asked the Black Jack, how much it would cost, 9 Rubies, he says, but the Diamond King intercedes, and 5 lumps of Coal ......etc.
So if you want to find your way home in an age before GPS and mobile phones, just follow the goat for 5 miles, go west untill you see the handle of the pan and then go southeast for 2 miles. If you see the hunter aiming his bow at the crab, then you've taken the wrong turn somewhere.
Occams Razor.
