The Analemma
You've all seen it. In the traditional tarot deck, floating over some
major arcana heads is that sideways eight. Yes, you know it's used as an
"infinity" symbol too, but what does it mean?
Basically, you must first consider that in some distant hoary age, the
earth, yes your beloved sphere, tipped. Since that time, we have not spun
upright but sit on a 23degree tilt. Because of this, as we fly through space
and time we have a distinct wobble. In addition the earth's orbit around the
sun is not a circle, but more of an ellipse. Now if you can imagine that if you
were to look at where the sun stands in the sky every day, at exactly the same
time for an entire year, what you would discover is that the sun traces out a
sideways figure 8, which in astronomy is called the analemma. Because of our
elliptical orbit and wobble, what appears as an 8 is actually the changing
position of our earth in relation to the sun.
In ancient times, pagan astronomers were aware of this unique celestial
pattern. The Greeks often called it the "central pillar" which
"has a shape like a sideways chi". They also noted the shape of the
analemma and likened it to something common they were familiar with, a horse
bridle. Because of the resemblance, they also called it the
"hippopede" or literally, "horse-fetter", which may explain
why in many old cultures the sun was often represented by a horse. A more
official term was the "leminscate", the origin of the modern word
analemma.
The ancient Norse, who were far more literate in scientific matters then
many give them credit for, also knew about this mysterious pattern. It is
amusing to discover that Odin's 8-legged horse is named "Gleipnir",
the Norse word for.."horse fetter"! In Scandinavian legend, Fenris
the killer wolf that will someday destroy the world at the Twilight of the Gods
is currently bound from doing so because this giant fetter holds him in place.
Mysteriously, this fetter was said to be created from: "the miaul of a
cat, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish, the
beard of a woman & the spittle of a bird", all of which may prove out
to be old Norse zodiac signs or celestial objects.
The Romans also knew about the analemma too, and because they did, after
the mass conversions of the populace form pagan religions to Christian, the
Catholic Church knew too. In Vatican City is a place called the Torre dei
Quatro Venti, the Tower of the 4 Winds which was built in the 16th century.
This structure contains a calendar room which has line where a "circular
line on the globe passes through Rome and the North and South poles. At midday
the sun would traverse the plane of this circle. In the south wall of the room
there was a small hole through which the suns rays were admitted so as to fall
on the floor with this line." This small beam of light traced out the
analemma on floor.
Great. So what good is an analemma, and what did the ancients use it for?
Well, after tracing the analemma, which of course will take any good astronomer
a year, you will find that you can mark out the entire calendar along it's
path. In ancient times, calendars were big business, and it was often a well
guarded secret of the pagan priesthood on how this was done. If you are
industrious and curious enough, in the Links section we provide several other
sites that give good directions on how to erect a device so that you can trace
your own analemma.
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