Perhaps the most striking and magnificent constellation in the heavens is this bright, well defined, easy to find winter constellation. Arranged in a large rectangle with three stars in a row in the middle, Orion is never forgotten once it is recognised. Not surprisingly, there are many stories about this constellation, often identifying it with a human figure.

Orion is best seen in the early evening sky of mid - late winter, standing upright in the South. Orion typically was seen a male figure, a warrior God, hero or great hunter. In Egypt Orion often was thought of as Osiris, the god of life, light and the sun. In much of the Middle East he was the "Giant" or the "Strong One". The ancient Jews sometimes called these stars Nimrod, a biblical figure who was bound to the heavens for disobeying God. In India Orion was a stag shot with an arrow (the three middle stars). While in China these stars were part of a constellation called the White Tiger. Some Brazilian Indians pictured a cyman (a relative of alligators and crocodiles), and the Maoris of New Zealand saw a canoe. In Greek Orion's name means:- Son of light. Most people these days accept the connection between the 3 stars of the belt and the pyramids at Giza.

In Egyptian mythology, Orion was the home of Osiris, the Egyptian god who was killed by his brother, Set. Set was a great force of evil, and the god of the desert. With the retreat of the Nile flood, the desert would spring forth to devour the richness that the Nile waters had enabled. The force of good, Osiris, was thus in battle with the power of evil, Set. Set grew jealous of Osiris over Isis. He tricked Osiris into getting into a box, which he then threw into the Nile, drowning his brother. Isis found the box and rescued Osiris' body. Then Set stole Osiris' body and cut it into 14 pieces. Isis refused to give up Osiris. Again she searched to rescue his dissected body. Anubis led the way. At last all the pieces had been found, except his phallus which had been swallowed by a fish. These were taken down to his crypt. Thoth watched them enter the tomb. Isis and her sister Nephthys prayed over Osiris's body while Anubis stitched the pieces back together. Isis then fashioned a phallus of wood and gold over which she uttered magical enchantments. Thoth helped her attach it to Osiris's body. Isis and Nephthys then wrapped the body in bandages, made from their own linen gowns. Thoth and Anubis knotted the cords. Thoth uttered: "His body to Earth; his soul to Sky." The Earth shuddered, and the wind blew. While Osiris dwelled in Orion his sister and wife Isis dwelled in Sirius. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, rises on the eastern horizon just before the Sun once each year. This following a night, and Osiris came back to life. His life thus restored, Osiris became the god of the after life of complete invisibility lasting about 70 days (during which time it lies in the daytime . period sky last appearance of Sirius in the night sky as its death; its daytime invisibility as ). Egyptian inscriptions describe the purification in the embalming house of the nether world; and its rising with the Sun as a resurrection. Accordingly they calibrated the process of mummification to this celestial cycle, completing it in exactly 70 days. The pharaohs, so it was believed, began their journeys in the celestial realms with a visit to Osiris and Isis in the regions of Orion and Sirius. Many people have found their greatest gods here. Titan is Orion b, Artemis admirer b, who slay with bow for spurned is she, rewarded him a placed in stars as constellation, poor Orion slain in love, forever remembered in the dusk.

I took my name Orionmoon, as the two are never far apart, and as a Sag. my bow is always pointing to the heavens. -----)----> Orion is Greek for son of light.

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