The Many Meanings of Stars
One look up at the night sky when nothing is hindering your view can be overwhelming. The night sky is full of wonders. An infinite amount of stars are laid out before you, more than your eye can even see or take in. The miracle that is the sky has been the same magnificent beauty long before you got there. It is the same sky that humans looked up at 200,000 years ago. And, throughout history, humans have been looking to the stars for answers to many of life’s hard questions. Cultures and regions have all discovered their own symbolism from the stars.
From the bible to the Mayans, the stars have always been a part of explaining where we come from and where we go. They have been a source of navigation for sailors first crossing the sea and a way of tracking time. Each culture throughout history has made discoveries in the sky or made their own interpretation of what the stars mean. The shooting star on its own has many distinctions. In ancient Greece, a shooting star represented the rise and fall of the human spirit, while in the modern world, a shooting star is a symbol of hope, and a chance to wish for a brighter future.
Out of all the interpretations of the stars, constellations have had one of the most significant impacts. Distinguishing different constellations in the sky has allowed us to map the sky and as such helped us to make discoveries of where we are. But, those same constellations have enabled us to interpret who we are as individuals through astrology. Depending on how the stars aligned at the very moment you were born, the stars can help to explain your own personality. These Zodiac interpretations have offered specific meanings for individual stars and clusters, each representing a significant aspect of life.
The star has even been drawn and used to represent a multitude of things. Something as simple as a gold five-point star is representative of a job well done. The six-point Star of David has representations in Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism. The Pentagram, a five-point star surrounded by a circle, has its own representation of our spirits connection to the elements. However, Christians used the symbol to represent the five wounds of Jesus, while it is a symbol of faith for the modern Wiccans.
The ultimate star in our sky is the sun, which offers many of its own meanings. The sun is representative of many things including, life, hope, and power. Native Americans believed the sun to be a guardian of the day and that it had the ability to heal. In the Zodiac, the sun is the most powerful symbol representing one’s self and sense of vitality. The sun has even been worshipped as its own deity in cultures like ancient Egypt.
The stars have carried many connotations for cultures, societies, and religions throughout time. There seems to be a consistent string that ties it all together, the stars represent answers to our many questions of who we are, and why we are here. At the base of it all, stars give us hope. When we look up at that endless night sky, we are reminded that we are much smaller than we seem to be in the grand scheme of things. This humbling feeling has allowed humans to interpret reason and purpose for millennia.
Which brings us to the importance of the stars representing love. Connection with others may be the most important adventure we have on Earth. We refer to important relationships as ‘star-crossed’ or ‘written in the stars’, it helps us to remember that there is a purpose to everything. So, there is no better gift for the most important person in your universe than the stars. By naming a star on CosmoNova, the next night you are watching the night sky, you can look for the one that means the most to you.
