My favorite part of the night sky is rising earlier and earlier as Autumn progresses. This area of the night sky is one of the most, if not the most, recognized parts of the night sky that include the constellations of Orion, the Bull, the Twins, Auriga and Canis Major & Minor. These constellations contain some of the brighter stars that we see.
As is it recognized, it holds deep mythology and stories among ancient cultures the world over. One powerful story centers around the Lakota Sioux. They identified the region of the night sky (as shown in the picture in this post) as the Sacred Hoop. I first learned about the Sacred Hoop through my studies with Daniel Giamario. The hoop is bordered by highly prominent stars and stellar configurations and at its enter is the opposite side of the Galactic Center (where the Archer constellation points the arrow) called Galactic Edge or Galactic Extreme. This point marks a place, astronomically, where one can exit the Milky Way.
The Lakota believed that at the Galactic Extreme is where soul’s came into our galaxy and planet to incarnate. Souls would come down the “Milky Way” to the Galactic Extreme. The Galactic Extreme is between the Twins and Bull constellations, easily seen from almost anywhere. Cayelin Castell, the first to formally study and learn Shamanic Astrology through Daniel, wrote an article here on the Sacred Hoop that goes further in depth about this area of the sky and the Lakota story.
Back in 2010, the Full Moon came through this area of the sky (nearly exact to the degree of the Summer Solatice point) on Winter Solstice and was eclipsed by the shadow of the Earth, creating a Lunar Eclipse, as seen from the Sonora Desert. It was truly surreal and while we were seeing our own shadows projected upon the Moon, it was also a time outside of time, where stillness descended and all possibilities and potentialities existed. Imagine that a time out of time where souls would come to Earth while the Moon was bathed in Earth’s shadow. Certainly auspicious, but also gifted with unlimited potential.
Another side this Sacred Hoop represents is that it is part of the larger mechanism of the Galactic Clock, where the Ecliptic, Solstice points and Galactic Plane (Milky Way) can orient us in the Great Year of 26,000 Earth years (or orbits around the Sun). Since the Sun reached that center point back in 1998 (in alignment with Galactic Plane and Solstice point), we are experiencing a great shift called the Turning of the Ages. It is an evolution of human consciousness and that Lunar Eclipse took place essentially at the epicenter markers (or hands of the clock) of the Turning.
When we gaze out at the Sacred Hoop of Stars (the title of Cayelin’s article and Daniel’s teachings), we are seeing a portion of the construct of galactic time in the largest perceivable way, at least in human terms. It teaches us there are no limits to life or what we see, that the pregnant void of all possibilities co-exists within and without our consensus reality or material (cause and effect) time. It is place of learning to open and be open to all that is and can potentially become and that boundaries and borders are never permanent.
– Erik Roth, Shamanic Astrologer