Rating: WORTHY!
This book - about how different peoples have viewed the heavens over the years - was interesting to me although I imagine it's not for everyone. The author does tell a fine story about how people viewed the skies, both metaphorically and practically. They all had legends, and of course not all of the constellations were interpreted in the same way as we westerners typically view them. Not everyone would see it in the same way, this massive dome of stars, and sun and moon overhead, but most of them put it to practical purpose, usually in connection with farming and hunting. Naturally it was applied to religious ritual as well.
I read this graphic novel a while ago which was based on ancient legends. One part of the story was about a population of rabbits living on the Moon, and I never did know where that idea came from until I read this book which said that, rather than there being an old man in the Moon, there's a rabbit - in the view of some cultures, and the illustration in the book showed that there is indeed one in there, when viewed in a different way. You can see the rabbit, with its head and ears to the left, leading across to a body and back legs!
The author covers different creation legends, rituals, farming and navigational advice and a host of other interesting avenues of thought all revealing the ingenuity and creativity of ancient cultures when it comes to availing themselves of what the sky can still teach us even today, if we'd look and learn. I commend this book as a worthy read.
