Post by Ava on Sept 5, 2023 13:27:08 GMT
Throughout human history, people have witnessed the aurora – both the northern and southern lights – and sought to explain and make sense of these dancing patterns in stories and myths.
In the modern world, science has revealed most of the secrets of the northern lights (aurora borealis) and southern lights (aurora australis). We understand that auroras form when solar particles collide with Earth’s upper atmosphere. Larger solar storms cause a greater influx of particles, which can cause auroras to reach lower latitudes and appear to a greater number of observers. The colors of the aurora come from specific gases that are excited by the solar plasma.
All this scientific knowledge slowly started accumulating more than 2 1/2 centuries ago. But even now, when we look up at the trembling curtains of red, green or blue, a feeling of awe and mystery can pervade this ghostly show. It’s easy to see how many of these centuries-old myths referred to an otherwise unreachable world.
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One of the most common legends surrounding the northern lights concerned those who have passed into the Great Beyond. The people of the Six Nations Confederacy believed the northern lights showed the entry point to the Land of the Souls. The Vikings thought auroras were reflections from shields of the Valkyries, maidens who take dead warriors to Valhalla (heaven). The Salteaus of Eastern Canada and the Kwakiutl and Tlingit of southeastern Alaska all saw dancing souls in the flickering sky, sometimes of humans and sometimes of animals such as whales or seals. East Greenland Inuits viewed the lights as children who died at birth.
In contrast to the many myths surrounding those who have passed on, the Lakota Sioux interpreted the lights as spirits of generations yet to be born.
earthsky.org/human-world/legends-folklore-myths-northern-southern-lights-auroras/
In the modern world, science has revealed most of the secrets of the northern lights (aurora borealis) and southern lights (aurora australis). We understand that auroras form when solar particles collide with Earth’s upper atmosphere. Larger solar storms cause a greater influx of particles, which can cause auroras to reach lower latitudes and appear to a greater number of observers. The colors of the aurora come from specific gases that are excited by the solar plasma.
All this scientific knowledge slowly started accumulating more than 2 1/2 centuries ago. But even now, when we look up at the trembling curtains of red, green or blue, a feeling of awe and mystery can pervade this ghostly show. It’s easy to see how many of these centuries-old myths referred to an otherwise unreachable world.
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One of the most common legends surrounding the northern lights concerned those who have passed into the Great Beyond. The people of the Six Nations Confederacy believed the northern lights showed the entry point to the Land of the Souls. The Vikings thought auroras were reflections from shields of the Valkyries, maidens who take dead warriors to Valhalla (heaven). The Salteaus of Eastern Canada and the Kwakiutl and Tlingit of southeastern Alaska all saw dancing souls in the flickering sky, sometimes of humans and sometimes of animals such as whales or seals. East Greenland Inuits viewed the lights as children who died at birth.
In contrast to the many myths surrounding those who have passed on, the Lakota Sioux interpreted the lights as spirits of generations yet to be born.
earthsky.org/human-world/legends-folklore-myths-northern-southern-lights-auroras/
markandrewholmes.com/aurora.html
Aurora is transiting @ 27 Sag today, trine the NN @ 25 Aries (< 2° at noon here).
Natally I have this @ 20 Leo Rx, exactly squaring my true nodes with only 3 minutes orb.
