I love the stars.
How amazing is it that at night, when the sky gets dark, humanity’s first instinct is to look up and wonder at the worlds we cannot reach? That we loved the stars so much that we etched our history across them with beautiful pictures?
There is simply something magical about the stars. Every day I get up and put on a silver necklace I was given when I graduated from college. It is a shooting star etched with the words, “live your own life follow your own star.” Part of why we etched constellations into the sky is so sailors and travelers could them and find their way. We based astrology on our pictures in the stars so we could have something to follow. As a Christian who grew up in the church I can point to several instances in the bible where God sent stars to herald amazing things. People follow those stars with little more than a sense of hope.
My favorite set of stars is the Pleiades (aka the 7 sisters). A cluster of stars to the right of Orion. It’s part of Taurus’ shoulder.
The story of the Pleiades is a group of 7 sisters, it’s not actually clear who they were but I like the version where they are Atlas’s daughters because Atlas holds up the sky, were trying to escape Orion and Zeus turned them into doves that flew into the sky and became to stars. They named the cluster of stars after those 7 sisters because until a few years ago 7 bright blue stars were easily visible in the cluster, 1 burned out. In reality there are hundreds of stars in the cluster but 7… now 6 burn brighter than our own sun does. I love the Pleiades more than any other constellation because I have a birthmark on my right leg, just above the knee, shaped like the Pleiades with 7 dark freckles etched into it. The birthmark fades in the winter and appears with a lot of vibrancy in the summer (I like that detail just because it is the exact opposite of the star cluster that fades in the summer and burns bright in the winter).
Even when I was young and could not say the word Pleiades I thought it was so cool to have a constellation on my skin. I never thought it meant anything magical, I am not the one the prophecy spoke of, but it always made me feel special. There was a set of stars in the sky that belonged just to me.
What a millennial thought. This clearly visible constellation that has been in the sky since the beginning of the world obviously belongs to me.
Still, it makes me feel special. I thought it was especially cool when I learned the Pleiades is part of the constellation Taurus. The position of the stars at the time of your birth is arbitrary but I am a Taurus with Taurus rising. Maybe I am the one the prophecy spoke of (by the way, if you think that is a great idea for a cliched teen romance novel, it is and I already called dibs).
It’s nice to feel special. I don’t always. No matter how confident you are there are always going to be days where you feel rejected, unattractive, lonely, all sorts of unpleasant things that take away our self-worth. You matter, even if your birthmark does not look like a constellation. Everyone has their thing that makes them unique and special, sometimes it’s just a matter of perspective.
I am the only person who sees the Pleiades in my birthmark. I am the only person who sees it from above, it’s upside down to everyone else. What I see as special others might see as a blemish. At the same time, things I see as flaws, like my wonky hairline, others might see as beautiful and special. We cannot read minds. Unless someone tells you they see something as special we will never know. That is just how life and human interaction is. Perspective matters. Perspective changes everything. Sometimes you don’t feel special because you are seeing yourself from the wrong angle and you have to change it. Change it so you can see your star and follow it.
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