Deneb: the former Pole Star

Deneb is the brightest star in the constellation of Cygnus, the swan. It sits in at the top of the Milky Way, the celestial and otherworldly axis around which existence was believed to turn, and it was also the Pole Star around 17,000-15,000BC. Researcher Andrew Collins believes Deneb to have had a far greater significance to human sky-watchers than any subsequent pole star, by virtue of its association with the Milky Way and the cosmic axis. This explains the long and widespread significance of swans, geese and other waterfowl as soul-guides and otherworldly messengers.

The Milky Way in cultures worldwide is represented as the World Tree whose roots reach into the underworld while its branches touch the sky. This in turn is represented by the wooden totem poles of many shamanic cultures. These are very commonly topped by a bird. Is this an ancient memory of the time when Deneb crowned the sky?

A replica of a totem pole in Ketchikan, Alaska. W. Knight, Wikicommons.

A 17^th-century drawing of Yggdrasil, the World Tree of Scandinavian myth. 

In Broken Skies, Deneb is Benu, the star which reflects the heart of existence, and around it circles the four stars of the soaring Sky Vulture.

Bennu was the Egyptian bird of creation. At dawn on the first day, the Earth God Geb in the form of a goose laid the primeval egg from which emerged the Sun God Ra in the form of the bennu bird. The benben stone, a sacred Egyptian relic which may have been the capstone of the Great Pyramid, is also linked to this bird.

                         The Bennu bird.

                       White Crane. Wikicommons.

The bennu was depicted as a heron perched on the primeval mound of creation. Archaeologists and alternative researchers have linked this to the ancient site of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey. I believe the bennu bird was originally a crane, for reasons I will come back to in a later post, and the crane is one of the most revered birds in Broken Skies, as it was in many shamanic traditions across Europe.

As centuries passed, Deneb drifted from its position as the axis of creation. In Broken Skies, and in myths around the world, this was associated with disaster and devastation which mirrors true historical events. I will return to that next week.