Blog #20 – The constellation Gemini as Osiris and Taurus as Horus- Egyptian Myths in the Stars

Since the beginning of Ancient Egyptian culture, the sky has provided a palette for their myths, religion and world view. We don’t know much about how exactly the Ancient Egyptians perceived the night sky. There are certainly a number of dominant features that are easily recognized such as references to Orion which they associated with the ancient Egyptian god Osiris. Sirius, the bright star used to track the beginning of summer flooding of the Nile is well represented in their recorded texts as Sopdet. The higher spiritual bodies of a person were encouraged to find their place in the “Imperishable Stars”, i.e., those surrounding the “North Pole”. Nut is likely their representation of the Milky Way arching over the earth. But there may be more to see in their view of the stars and their myths – especially as we accept the importance of the precession of the equinox. This blog explores the strong connections between what they were observing in the sky and the primary core Ancient Egyptian myths associated with death and resurrection of Osiris. 

In the earliest Ancient Egyptian written text, the Pyramid Texts, Osiris is said to have died and been reborn[1]. It is said that Seth killed him. Horus, the son of the reborn Osiris, avenges his father’s death by winning the battle with Seth. Horus thus reigns as the primary god of a unified Egypt. It has not exactly been clear how all this relates to the stars, but it is becoming more and more likely that this is a record of the precession of the equinox observed between 9,000 and 5,000 years ago.

Readers are likely familiar with the concept that we are presently living in the Age of Pisces. This reflects that the constellation Pisces rises above the horizon with the sun on the Spring equinox (https://www.awhico.com/blog/2021/1/24/blog-19-a-return-to-hamlets-mill-and-the-milky-way). It has done so for 2,000 years since the time of Christ. In a few hundred more years the precession of the equinox will have the constellation Aquarius rising helically on the Spring equinox and we will enter the Age of Aquarius. 

Hamlet’s Mill makes a convincing case that ancient myths were attempts by humans to capture the changes they were observing in the sky over very long time periods. They found common themes in myths in many different cultures around the world suggesting very ancient origins to the myths. Early humans were capable of seeing, tracking and recording the slow precession of the equinox[2]. The precession of the equinox through time can be observed in two ways: 1) the movement of the north pole and 2) the changes in the zodiac constellation that rises with sun on Spring Equinox. Figure 1 shows the circular movement of the “North Pole”. In present day we have a North Star in the Little Dipper constellation but for most of time there is no “North Star”. Although slowly, it is always seen to be circling around true north. Figure 1 also labels the constellation that rises with the sun associated with the differing locations of the north pole going back through time. Through 25,920 years the earth wobbles and the sun marches through the full zodiac and back again.

Figure 1. The circular locations of the earth's north pole through time. Presently it is aligned with the "North Star" in the handle of the Little Dipper constellation at the top of the circle at +2,000. Moving clockwise around the circle shows the location going back in time through its location during the different ages.

While Hamlet’s Mill explored the precession of the equinoxes in many cultures, Jane B. Sellers extends and expands this model by focusing solely on Ancient Egypt. Specifically, she explores the death and resurrection of Osiris[3]. 

Sellers notes that between 4,000 to 2,000 BCE the god Horus was predominant in Ancient Egyptian culture. This was the Age of Taurus when that constellation rose on the Spring Equinox. Although the image of a bull has been applied to the stars of the constellation since Sumerian and Babylonian times, possibly due to image of two horns extending upwards, this may not be how the Egyptians envisaged their sky 1000s of years earlier.  Remember that we don’t know exactly how the Egyptians envisaged their sky. For them, it is possible that they imagined the head of a falcon, Horus the hawk, in this star grouping (Figure 2A) or the all-important Eye of Horus (Figure 2B).  

Figure 2. The Constellation Taurus as seen with the naked eye with A) a Horus head is overlayed and B) Eye of Horus overlayed.

There are strong links between the Horus falcon and the bull in Ancient Egypt. For example, all of the New Kingdom Pharaohs had Horus names that contained bull references such as “The strong bull, high of plumes”[4] (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Hieroglyphs for Pharaoh Amenhotep-IV/Akhenaten Horus name, “The strong bull, high of plumes” that includes images of both the hawk and bull.

Going back to the Age that preceded Taurus/Horus, it was the constellation Gemini that rose helically on the Spring Equinox. The Age of Gemini ranged from 6,000 to 4,000 BCE that corresponds to the time of pre-dynastic Egypt. Seller explores the observed movements of the constellation Orion, in particular, the loss of Orion rising at sunrise on the Spring Equinox. She invests quite a few words constructing a framework where the constellation Orion represents Osiris and is seen to “die” by being drawn down below the “watery” Milky Way by Seth. The challenge she faced with this imagery results from the fact that modern-day Orion is off of the main pathway in the sky: the ecliptic. This was easily observed and well recognized by the ancients. So, unlike other important heavenly bodies such as the sun, moon, planets and zodiac constellations, Orion is somewhat isolated. In spite of this separation from the ecliptic, Sellers puts forth the idea that Orion was seen as a precursor to the sunrise for a time – and then precession moved it below the horizon at the Spring Equinox – and so was seen to die. She sees this “death” of Osiris/Orion resulting from its failure to rise helically on the Spring equinox heralding the change of an age. 

But we see the possibility of a simpler and clearer connection between the observed sky and the enduring myths of Osiris and Horus. This can be accomplished by maintaining focus on solely the constellations of the zodiac. Such an approach would remain true to Hamlet’s Mill and the importance of the march of ages associated with the precession of the equinox. To do so requires only a bit of additional conjecture and speculation on how the Ancient Egyptians would have imagined the zodiac constellations. Sellers herself provides the key when she states on page 145 that “In Arabia, Orion/Osiris shared the name ‘Al Jauzah’ with the stars of Gemini”2! 

While it is obvious that it this was the Age of Gemini, with her focus on the modern-day constellation Orion, Sellers barely mentions the constellation Gemini. But it is an easy extension of the modern-day view of the constellation Orion/Osiris up to include the stars of Gemini (Figure 4). If envisaged this way, then the death of Osiris would also be observed on the ecliptic - which the precession of the equinox would embody. The failure of Gemini to rise with the sun on the Spring Equinox would be recorded as the death of Osiris. Gemini would now be down in the underworld to be replaced by his son Horus/Taurus next in line in the precession. 

Figure 4. The modern day constellations of Gemini and Orion overlayed with an image of Osiris and Taurus by the falcon head of Horus.

As we will see in the next blog post, drawing in the constellation Gemini into the Osiris myth plays an important role in explaining the interactions between Seth and Horus over the ages. 

So yes the constellation Osiris was seen to have “died”, as the constellation Orion moved below the horizon, but concurrent with it, just above it on the ecliptic the constellation Gemini was also evolving in the precession. The proposition that the stars were providing early humans with a framework for very complex human world views began seems to hold true. Most importantly it must be remembered that this was not an effort to “identify” images in the sky, but rather a human-based effort to find stories and myths that captured their higher experiences.

[1] https://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/HorusPT.pdf

[2] de Santillana, G., and H. von Dechend. 1977. Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and Its Transmission through Myth. David Godine, Boston.

[3] Sellers, J.B., 2003. The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, a study of the threshold of myth and the frame of time - https://books.google.ca/books?id=jDKTAgAAQBAJ.

[4] https://pharaoh.se/pharaoh/Amenhotep-IV