Pole Stars, 3100 BCE

Pole Stars, 3100 BCE
March 6, 2004

Sir Norman Lockyer wrote his "Dawn of Astronomy" back in 1894 and then "derided for proposing that Stonehenge was built as an astronomical instrument - showed how the pyramids might have served practically to gather precise astronomical data."
(John Anthony West 'The Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt')
Astronomy was used by the Egyptians to accurately position their pyramids and temples, by orienting them to what was then the northern Polar Star Thuban and Alnilon, a star located in Orion's belt. However, today, the North Pole star is different.
A little research revealed "the north celestial pole drifts away from the fixed field of stars at the rate of about 20" arcseconds a year due to the perpetual wobble-like cycle of our planet. Furthermore the north celestial pole will keep on drifting from the fixed star field up to a full 47° (about one quarter of the visible sky field) over its 26,000 years cycle."
(Robert G. Bauval, THE ANCHOR OF THE WORLD)
However, many scholars believe the Ancient Egyptians understood this precession, and chose the 'pole of the ecliptic' to orient those pyramids by, rather than the 'north celestial pole'. The north celestial pole at that time was Thuban, aka Alpha Draconis, in the constellation of Draco. However, the pole of the ecliptic is located in the heart of Draco, approximately between the stars Zeta Draconis and Al Tais.
The Egyptians named the various constellations after their Gods, and most of these constellations have not changed much in their conception through out the years. The northern most constellation of Draco had indeed its associated God.
"Draco the Dragon - was seen as a crocodile that represented SET, ruler of darkness, the dead and the circumpolar stars. Several of the pyramids at Abousseir and Giza were oriented to the position of the star Thuban that was contained in this constellation."
(http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/d/r/drn116/egypt.html (accessed on March 6, 2004)
I'm not sure where this web-author got the info on Set being ruler of 'the dead'. This job was actually given to Set's foe Osirus, for Osirus was " a ruler not over the living but over the dead, thus promising them eternal life."
(http://www.philae.nu/PerAnkh/perankhO.html (accessed on March 6, 2004, italics and underlining mine)
The orientation of one of the shafts in the pyramids to Orion's Belt was because they believed this represented Osirus' afterlife kingdom, to where the mummy's departed soul would go. SET, however, is a God of the 'here and now'.
As I've noted in an earlier article, Dragon and Phoenix:
"The Dragon represents '...the chaos of original matter with the result that with man's awakening conscience a struggle arose, and the created order constantly challenged the dragon's power.' (from http://www.crystalinks.com/dragons.html) SET is known as the GOD of CHAOS. Both SET and the Dragon represent '' 'The spirit of the way', bringing eternal change.'' Dragon/Set is 'dark, chaotic unmanifested potential'..."
Thus from these celestial observations, greater metaphysical understanding is obtained.
We have an astronomy program called The Sky, which can be set to any period in history, and it will construct a view of the stellar heavens as they existed at that time. Imputing the year 3100BC as the reference, Julia was able to show pictures of how the North Pole and South Pole stars would appear to people of that time. I did screen captures and made .gif images of them.

North Pole, Alpha Draconis (AKA 'Thuban')

The blue circle is centered on the celestial North pole, and is at 80*.

South Pole, Alpha Hydri

Here, the blue circle is centered on the celestial South pole, and is at 80*.