Today the Northwest Sky reminds me of a Florence Sky. I love Florence, and last night's research for my book got me thinking about it again. The fluid walkways and ever-excited tourists, smiling, as they wind their way through cathedrals, art galleries and vendors eating gelato and flirting through shimmering wine glasses.
Every time I saw, THE Clock, above the main door, of the Cathedral, with portraits of four Prophets and amazing colors, by Paolo Uccello, I would stand gazing at it for a long time.
Wikipedia:
[This one-handed liturgical clock shows the 24 hours of the hora italica (Italian time), a period of time ending with sunset at 24 hours. This timetable was used till the 18th century. This is one of the few clocks from that time that still exist and are in working order.]
Last night, I spent hours doing research on Astro-Canonical hours,i.e. astronomer-astrological time, used before the Catholic Church came up with Gregorian calendar changes, and setting a 24 hour timetable,based on solar movement, beginning after midnight for the new day. The new day, in many cultural groups, begins right after sunset, as the moon rises, and based on moon and planet motion, which is why your body doesn't sync with western work-a-day world.
The Canonical hours link in with the motion order of the planets and the rate of motion of those planets. So, the Moon is the fastest mover, followed by Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. A sequence of motion within astronomical circles, taken from Sumerian astronomy.
I also started studying the astrolabe, last night, which is a word which always tickled my curiosity, since I have seen
a number of astrolabe's in my travels around the world, by ship or 2 -4 masted schooners, like the Star Pilot, I used to crew and party on in Santa Barbara, CA.It was off of Stern's Wharf for about a year, before heading down around Roatan, Honduras, which is where my sister's boyfriend, Mike, got off, then lured her down, from Topanga Canyon, accompanied by Bugger, the Norwegian Elkhound, famed for his love-fête, with the wild beach pigs, for a year, before returning to Seattle, to marry, which is how I ended up in the Northwest, always planning to return to Kona, after the wedding.( It was summer and Mt. Rainier was smiling and I was sailing on Lake Union, every Tuesday night.)
The astrolabe is able to measure the movement and motion of planets and is still used today by many mariners, researches and even farmers, it is so perfect in its tracking of planetary movements.
An astrolabe watch, which mariners use.
Yes, it was Saturday night, and the mind wanders after eating a lovely Chinese meal, with a fine, Irish friend, so what is a single girl supposed to do? Nails?
No, I headed right off for the Internet and began reading about the Astrolabe. Before the Roman Catholic Church got involved with eradicating all ancient, cultural beliefs and activities based on moon-time, and tried to re-arrange time to control human endeavor, by wiping away all use of planetary time, meaning working and planting according to moon and planet cycles, there was the astrolabe used by Sumerian astronomer-astrologers, Egyptians, Babylonians, well, anyway, a lot of folks along the Tigris-Euphrates river valleys. It spread to Scotland, Wales, Crete, Ireland, England, Peru, and China, when Marco Polo took one with him, on his little camping trip, through Asia.
No, I headed right off for the Internet and began reading about the Astrolabe. Before the Roman Catholic Church got involved with eradicating all ancient, cultural beliefs and activities based on moon-time, and tried to re-arrange time to control human endeavor, by wiping away all use of planetary time, meaning working and planting according to moon and planet cycles, there was the astrolabe used by Sumerian astronomer-astrologers, Egyptians, Babylonians, well, anyway, a lot of folks along the Tigris-Euphrates river valleys. It spread to Scotland, Wales, Crete, Ireland, England, Peru, and China, when Marco Polo took one with him, on his little camping trip, through Asia.
So, while I am still trying to understand Canonical Hours as dictated through the Sumerian astronomers, you can check it all out at http://www.astrolabes.org/ and if any of you are planning to be in Chicago, in the near future, could you get some info on the collection, at the Adler Planetarium, as they have one of the best collections of Astrolabes in the US. You should also check out the Planetarium while you are there.(My B-day is 9/9 and the only place I have been in Chicago is the airport).
A-84. An Eastern astrolabe (with inscriptions in Arabic) from Baghdad, this instrument is signed and dated to the year 525 of the Hegira, which is A.D. 1131 in our calendar. It is the oldest instrument in the Adler's collection.
If you want to check out more about the Canonical Hours, not the ones followed by the Roman Catholic Church, go to my astrologer's webpage, Steve Nelson, who is a well-respected Mythic Astrologer, and educate yourself.
To find your canonical hours: http://www.bit.ly/aT5KvL
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