Summer has arrived, and the hot and sweaty days are great to help the body remove toxins and cleanse itself of impurities. Have you noticed that we tend to eat less in summer? The hot energy of the body is definitely stronger during the summer keeping the body vital and energized, needing less food. During the cold winter days the body uses the energy of the food we ingest to create more vital energy to store. So let’s welcome the natural purification process and enjoy the Sun’s vitality.
Have you ever wondered where the old saying: dog days of summer comes from? .. well these hot days from early July through August and part of September are named after the “Dog Star”, Sirius. During the first 5 days of the month of July Sirius rises in the sky and sets in conjunction with the majestic Sun, astronomers call this phenomenon “helical”, which comes from Helios –rising and setting.
Since the ancient times of Egypt, Sirius has been known as the Nile Star or Star of Isis. About 5,000 years ago the rising of such star marked the flooding of the Nile River. The story indicates that the statue of Isis, at the Dendera temple, had a precious jewel in her forehead, and when the light of the Star of Sirius hit the jewel, the flooding began.
The etymology of the word Sirius may originate from various places: the Egyptian word sihor, which means Nile, or from the Greek word seirios, which translates scorching. The Romans knew it as Canicula, because the location of this star is in the constellation Canis Major, which could translate “the big dog”. To the Romans, the hot energy-waves of this phenomenon drove men and dogs mad, and called these blazing hot days caniculares. In the sixteenth century the translation of this Latin word to English was “dog days”.
The Sirius star has become a big part of the history of the Cosmos. It is one of the brightest stars in the sky and can be easily seen with the naked eye. To the Norse it was known as Loki’s Brand. The Dogon tribe, in Africa, believe Sirius B (the small companion of the larger Sirius A) to be the navel of the Universe and home to the mysterious race known as the Nommo.
The Pleiades, a cluster of seven stars found in the Taurean constellation also show themselves during these dog days of summer, just ahead of the Sun, when we look towards the east-norht-east horizon. This group of stars is only one million years old, when our precious dinosaurs walked the green Earth. To the Greek the Pleiades were known as the Seven Sisters: Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Dryope (also Merope or Aero), Electra, Maia, Taygete. Daughters of Pleione and Atlas, the Titan who held the world. This is what has given them the name Atlantides. The story says that one beautiful day, the hunter Orion saw Pleiades walking the countryside and mesmerized by their glow wanted them for himself. For seven years he tried to win them over, until Zeus turned them into stars, as they have so persistently asked for.
In some cultures, the appearance of these stars signaled the beginning of the new year. To the Vikings, the Pleiades were known as Freya’s Hens, to the Maori they were known as the Mataariki, to the Australian they are the Makara, and to the Japanese they are the Subaru … which is the reason why the world known car company uses them in their logo.
To the Native American, as well as the Greeks, the Pleiades were also known to be a vision test, the number of stars you could see determined the sharpness of your eyesight.