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The constellation of philanthropy: this week on The Night Sky

It’s the season of the Fall Funding Drive for Interlochen Public Radio, so I’m going to tell you about the constellation of philanthropy, which is not a gimmick that I’ve just made up. It’s actually one of the original 48 constellations ascribed by Ptolemy, and it’s visible overhead every night at this time.  

The constellation I’m talking about is Delphinus, the Dolphin, and you can find it just south of the Summer Triangle. It’s one of our smallest constellations, but there’s something really delightful about it when you find it. Delphinus kind of looks like a teaspoon, and it’s really easy to imagine it as a dolphin jumping in the starry waves at the edge of the Milky Way.

So why is Delphinus considered the constellation of philanthropy? Thousands of years ago, human beings believed that every human being comes from a star. This wasn’t some vague or romantic reference, it was a regarded as a truth that could be discerned by those who understood that the rhythmic motion of the planets against the background of stars was like a mighty script, written out by the gods for human beings on the Earth. And in this vast script, they read or understood that as souls made their passage from the star of their origin to the Earth, they were guided and protected by Delphinus.

This idea is reflected in legends about dolphins on Earth. We have this sense that they are especially interested in human beings, and it used to be sailors thought dolphins followed their ships to protect them from drowning. So this is one of those “as above, so below” stories: Delphinus guides and protects souls through the vast cosmic waters; dolphins guide and protect them through the Earth’s waters.

We get this idea that every human being has a soul that travels from its star to its earthly birth from Greek astronomer Ptolemy, who described it in his 1st century work “Tetrabiblos” or Four Books.

Look for Delphinus high in the west about 8:30 pm, below the Summer Triangle, which sinks toward the western horizon as the Earth rolls east toward the dawn.