Celestial Geometry

Many ancient, even prehistoric, monuments and temples around the world show an amazingly sophisticated understanding of the heavens. They reflect this sacred knowledge in celestial alignments – to the eternal cycles of the sun, moon, stars and planets.

The ceremonies performed at sites such as Stonehenge in England or Teotihuacan in Mexico are now lost to us. But the time-worn stones and structures remain, and archaeoastronomers (experts in ancient astronomy) have studied how their sightlines relate to astronomical phenomena such as midwinter or midsummer sunrise or the rising of the Pleiades star cluster. Within, Ken Taylor dives into the fantastical:

• The principles of astronomy – the seasons, the solstices and equinoxes, the rising and setting of stars, the “lunar standstills”
• Solar alignments – the language of light and shadow, and the life-giving shows of the sun
• Lunar alignments – the drama of the eclipse and the mysterious energies of the night
• Alignments to stars and planets – reaching out to the immensity of the cosmos

In exploring such connections, in words, superb photographs and clear explanatory artworks, Celestial Geometry opens a whole universe of mystery and wonder, and a window on the inner life of ancient civilizations.