Bookshelves, Royal Society
This evening as I appreciated the stars and the half-moon shining in our southern skies, my gaze was drawn to the constellation of Scorpius and it's bright red star Antares - one of the four Persian royal stars - and I wondered 'Why Scorpius?' You see, to my eyes, the elegant curve of this constellation looks more like a fern frond unfurling a gesture. I suppose the desert astronomers of old were more acquainted with scorpions than they were with gesturing ferns, which led me to ponder on the ethnobias of the names for the 88 classical constellations.
Then I considered the constellations we call the Southern Cross and the Pointers and having formed the question, I followed this question to the blog of the Aboriginal Astronomy Project, whose latest post tells a story about the Southern Cross and the Pointers. In a nutshell, puzzled reader, you will need to click this link to read the Aboriginal telling because the copy-and-paste function is not allowed. It's not a long story: the good ones never never are.
I love this synergy we call Serendipity. Ever notice that the symbol ? is similar to the glyph for the asteroid Ceres? Is similar to the curve of the constellation named Scorpius and it's bright red star Antares...... Do questions compete with each other to be completed first? Duelling questions, rebelling answers....
I had a thought last night. If I did not know the name tree, what would I call this being. I would call it "WOW THAT'S BIG!" which is one of many secret names for trees in case you didn't know...
Cyathea frond
Did you read the legend at the Aboriginal Astronomy Project? If not then what I write next will not make sense...
I can get down with the Southern Cross as a shovelnose ray and the Pointers as two boys in a canoe. I can see that story in the sky. I enjoy the correspondence with the Maori creation story of The Land of the Long White Cloud - that we call New Zealand. A country I have visited twice and where Tane Mahuta hooked me good and proper all the way back in 1980, when I was nineteen. I had a passion, a strong propulsion to travel to New Zealand and it may take me the rest of my life to unfurl the forces that scurried me down that path.
New Zealand is one country, one culture which does not disappoint. It lives up to its mythology. From the plane you DO see a long white cloud and it is breathtaking. It is a country steep and steeped in primeval forces. It is a country that knows who you are long before you start to recover from the anosognosia of everyday life.
The blackfella story puts me in remembrance of Australian Wildlife Conservationist Steve Irwin who paid a steep price for having quick reflexes on 4 September 2006, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming an underwater documentary film titled Ocean's Deadliest. He pulled the barb out. Irwin's death a demonstration in what not to do when skewered by a marine animal. Irwin's whole life was about teaching people. His message lives on: little stingrays are scared of big people in the water with them.
A ship, a turtle and a snail are named after Steve Irwin. An asteroid discovered in 2001 was named 57567 Crikey in honour of Irwin and his "signature phrase." Crikey is an Australian minced oath - a kenning. A profanity which shapeshifts into a word with a cork placed over it's poisonous sting.
Tane Mahuta - Lord of the Forest
Further Reading:
The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life - Robert Trivers
Shark and Ray Handfeeding - Cuddle a 300kg stingray
Eagle Dreaming: Southern Cross as foot of a Wedge-Tail Eagle and other stories - Aboriginal Astronomy Project.
Tane Mahuta - New Zealand's famous giant
The Seven Worst Things About Being Male - Psychology Today
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