CELESTIAL OBJECTS OF WORSHIP

The Sun: The Sun is considered male; and The Moon female. Worshipping the Sun is more apparent in colder regions and the Moon in warmer regions. There are however exceptions to these generalizations with the common worship of the sun in hot, arid ancient Egypt and in parts of western Asia. In many state cults of ancient civilization, the Sun plays a special role, particularly where it has replaced an old god of heaven and especially where it is viewed as a marker of time. It was in Africa, in Ancient Egypt, that the main concepts of solar deity originated. It is the Sun that has been given the name ‘God of Heavens’.

The Moon: The Moon is in many ways worshipped different than the Sun with such things as rituals. The phases of the Moon are such a phenomenon they attract a mixture of all people. With its waxing and waning phases it is often interpreted as gaining or losing weight. In places where the Moon is seen as Female, the waxing and waning sequences, it is represented as pregnancy and delivery.

Eclipses of the Sun and Moon: This is often interpreted as a battle, as the dying, or the devouring of one of the two heavenly bodies when an eclipse happens many religious sects yell and shout, beat drums and make much noise. This is to scare the two apart and save the victim from being devoured. People from the far north: Eskimos, Aleuts and others see the eclipses as the Sun and Moon moving from the correct places in order to make sure everything is how it should be on Earth. There are certain places in the World where they believe the eclipse of the Sun and the Moon is their heavenly lovemaking. This is their way of creating more stars, but in doing so they make themselves indistinct during the process.

Heaven and Earth: Primitive worlds view Earth to be simply ‘continuously existing’. Some even believing it was to of come into being by the act of a Heavenly God, or creator. Heaven and Earth, as personified powers of nature and so worthy of worship, are evidently not of equal age, but the Heavenly Deities, as the personification of the physical aspects of the sky, appear in variations that are adapted to the types of cultures concerned.

Stars and Constellations: The worship of the stars and constellations in the modern world survives only in a very corrupt or hidden manner. Knowledge of the Zodiac, the planets, and observation or precession extended from the West to south Asia. All were deeply influenced by the spirit of ancient Mediterranean and Oriental knowledge of the stars. The stars are usually considered to be living beings, particularly animals that have been transferred to the sky. They evidently are taken seriously especially since they show, by their rising and setting, the appearance of game to be hunted or fruits to be gathered.

Religions, beliefs, practices and superstitions will always be around. Man is incurable of his religiousness, thus having no reason to forget it. Believing in ‘something’ is better than believing in ‘nothing’ and also gives its followers a reason to carry on doing what they do.