RE: Eclipses - Magnificence & Mystery
And just to blow your mind a bit more, just for fun.
The Paleolithic cave paintings are actually star maps. The work of Chantal Jègues-Wolkiewiez is brilliant, a documentary is around, if somewhat hard to find:
http://www.bonnepioche.us/tv/documentaries/lascaux-prehistoric-astronomers-p1080.html
As you can see from this picture in the upper left of this slide, which was taken from that documentary, the solstices and equinoxes are mapped into these bulls.
This is deep in Lascaux cave, the bull on the left is moulting, the one on the right is erect, their eyes mark the Summer and Winter Solstice Sun risings on the horizon, the tails are intertwined marking the Equinox rising. The Winter rising on the right signals movement towards the Spring and Summer, the one on the left, the Summer Solstice rising, signals moving towards the Autumn and Winter.
What is most fascinating is that this is the exact alignment point if the cave were transparent! So how did these supposedly primitive 'cavemen', scrawling masterpieces of art on cave walls as magic to catch them, or whatever the current guesswork claims, figure out these alignments through the cave walls? Much more to the story, as there are many caves involved.
and this:
I knew these drawings marked some celestial bodies. I kind of know a lot of this stuff. I didn't remember specifically about what they represented so that is nice to remember this now.
I know so many landmarks from the prehistoric world do represent some celestial bodies.
I've also seen very compelling evidences about how a lot of cave paintings represented psychedelic experiences. Here's a short primer on this.
http://gizmodo.com/scientists-think-cavemen-painted-while-high-on-hallucin-786996190
I've pondered if the higher order neurotransmitters, as we'll call them, allowed them to see the cosmic courses and alignments, and possibly even through the cave walls for that phase. Which seems silly in our discursive state of consciousness, but what do we really know when faced with these enigmas.
Rudolf Steiner said that wisdom and knowledge came from the stars, and I believe he meant the structures as they appear from Earth, hence the "anthro"posophy.