Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Bash...meaning of an emasculated Milky Way

Terry Johnson tenacious@cyberback.com
Mon, 21 Oct 2002 22:21:16 -0500


-snip-
On Behalf Of Jim Macdonald


"Emasculated" is a male metaphor, and typically the sky in most mythologies
is seen
as male whereas anything earthly is female.  The union of the female earth
to the
male sky has been torn apart by the dirty air, the sky's strength blocked by
it.  (I
think that's what they mean).
________________________________________

-snip-


As a planetarium producer and meteor observer for the international
astronomical community, I have a bit of education under my belt concerning
ancient constellation lore.  In fact MOST ancient peoples, including the
aborigines, saw the Milky Way as female.  And as far as female vs. male
constellations go, there are about the same number of each.

Since one definition of emasculate is "to weaken", I'm going to go with the
light polution idea that the sky doesn't have as much power over our senses
as it used to.  Even far out in the country where I live, I can see the city
lights creeping up on the beautiful vision of the heavens I've enjoyed since
I was a child.  Little Rock lies 60 miles to the south, and I can now see
only half of the nebulae in Sagittarius as I could 5 years ago because of
the southern sky glow.  Those sights are our heritage, and if things
continue like they are, they will be lost to all but some very isolated
regions.

"Earth & Sun & Moon, human tribe, thin blue line.
 Earth & Sun & Moon will survive."
  --even if we lose our own place in the grand scheme of it all.

--Terry