The Night Sky : The Science and Anthropology of the Stars and Planets

Rating:
Summary: Astral ethno-astronomy
Review: Best known as the author of the excellent survey of alternative and tribal medicines, *Planet Medicine*, the author here seeks healing from the stars. Why stars?--"The modern materialist universe has no place for us and we would be fools to try to survive in it...but unless we are active in making a new universe [ie, cosmology], it will leave us...ravaged. We must enter the violence and the emptiness...and transform them into something livable [xvi]." Found on sale bins everywhere, this grossly underrated book covers the anthropology of the men who invented modern astronomy & cosmology, comparing well with Timmothy Ferris' *Coming of Age in the Milky Way*. He then uncovers the astral/occult sky, sky myths from many times and places, and the role of the night sky in the human imagination, from pop stars and sci fi to UFOs and post-modern nihilism a la Big Bang. There's really nothing else like it, a great impressionistic tour and re-creation of the cosmos that we, as humans, still seek to live in, in wonder. Recommended for students of cosmology, mythology, anthropology or anyone else who marvels at the night sky above--and within--and who seeks a human place in a scientifically dead universe.

Rating:
Summary: Astral ethno-astronomy
Review: Best known as the author of the excellent survey of alternative and tribal medicines, *Planet Medicine*, the author here seeks healing from the stars. Why stars?--"The modern materialist universe has no place for us and we would be fools to try to survive in it...but unless we are active in making a new universe [ie, cosmology], it will leave us...ravaged. We must enter the violence and the emptiness...and transform them into something livable [xvi]." Found on sale bins everywhere, this grossly underrated book covers the anthropology of the men who invented modern astronomy & cosmology, comparing well with Timmothy Ferris' *Coming of Age in the Milky Way*. He then uncovers the astral/occult sky, sky myths from many times and places, and the role of the night sky in the human imagination, from pop stars and sci fi to UFOs and post-modern nihilism a la Big Bang. There's really nothing else like it, a great impressionistic tour and re-creation of the cosmos that we, as humans, still seek to live in, in wonder. Recommended for students of cosmology, mythology, anthropology or anyone else who marvels at the night sky above--and within--and who seeks a human place in a scientifically dead universe.