STAR GAZER
Episode # 08-43 / 1612th Show
To Be Aired : Monday 10/27/2008 through Sunday 11/02/2008

"The Seven Sinister Sisters Fly High Across The Sky At Midnight On Halloween"

Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings, fellow star gazers. Because Halloween greeting cards often depict a witch riding a broom in front of a full Moon many people have the mistaken notion that there's a full Moon every year at Halloween when in fact we won't have a full Moon on Halloween again until 2020. But there is something you can see in the night sky every Halloween that is even niftier and definitely spookier because every Halloween the Seven Sinister Sisters fly high across the sky at midnight. Let me show you.

O.K., we've got our skies set up for the witching hour of midnight, any Halloween facing south. And if you look up almost overhead you will see the tiny cluster of stars called The Pleiades, but which are more popularly known as The Seven Sisters. And to various cultures long ago, whenever The Seven Sisters reached their highest point at midnight, which happens every year at the end of October and beginning of November, this was a sort of cosmic signal telling people that this was the time of the year to honor the dead.

Now astronomically speaking, whenever any object reaches its highest point in the heavens we say that it has culminated. And whenever The Pleiades culminated at midnight many ancient cultures held great ceremonies in honor of the dead, which is basically where our Halloween comes from. There was also a popular belief that great natural catastrophes had occurred on some of the nights when The Pleiades culminated at midnight. In fact some legends claim that the Great Flood and the 10 Plagues of Egypt, even the legendary sinking of Atlantis, occurred when The Pleiades culminated at midnight.

Indeed, this belief was so widespread that the ancient Aztec and Maya conducted spectacular ceremonies when The Pleiades culminated at midnight because they believed that the world had already been destroyed and recreated not once but 4 times when The Seven Sisters were overhead at midnight. Even the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán, Mexico was oriented to the setting of The Pleiades as were all of the city's west facing streets. And coincidentally many ancient Greek temples were also lined up with the setting or the rising of The Seven Sisters.

Now although The Pleiades no longer reach their highest point, that is culminate, exactly at midnight on the same nights as they did in ancient times, nevertheless, they are still almost at their highest every Halloween at midnight as a modern reminder that our ancestors were deeply moved and affected by the cosmos and used many cosmic coincidences to determine important religious and ceremonial events in their life. In fact some people still believe that the next time the world ends it will also happen on a Pleiades overhead at midnight night. But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

So get thee outside this Halloween or any Halloween at midnight look almost overhead for the beautiful cluster of stars known as The Pleiades, and The Seven Sisters or as I like to call them on Halloween, the Seven Sinister Sisters. And as you look at them remind yourself that these same stars have been seen by thousands of generations who have gone before us who saw them as very important in determining their own special days of the year when they honored their dead. And although it is a bit creepy don't you agree that Seven Sisters at midnight are even better than a full Halloween Moon? I mean I'll take seven witches over one Moon any night. Keep looking up!