Farewell to March and A Final Sign of Spring

On the evening of the Vernal Equinox, I stood in the dark silence of the night and looked up to find the "Big Dipper." I wanted to know if it was indeed in its appointed place according to the time of year .... The "Big Dipper" is actually a group of stars in the Constellation "Ursa Major," and is apparently called by that name only in America. Ursa Major, or the "Big Bear" is certainly a very ancient constellation, known to the Mesopotamians, and the Indians of North America, as well as cultures of the Old World and Siberia. The identification of the "Bear" may date the constellation to as long ago as 8,000 to 10,000 years, about the time of the migrations across the Bering Straits.

The "Big Dipper" is not, properly speaking a constellation, but is a part of those constellations which we call "circumpolar." It is important to those of us who in North America
learn to "find" the north star by following an imaginary line from the "bowl" of the dipper to the tiny star which has lead the way home for travelers of so many millennia.

In the Rocky Mountains, in late fall, if I gaze Heavenward to find the Dipper, it seems to be laying down on its side, and just fits into an indentation formed by the ending slopes of two ridges which are highlighted against the deep space sky of a mountain hideaway that is not polluted by artificial light. At that time of year, it rests very close to the horizon, almost snuggled into the silhouetted mountains. Here in the Mid-west, in the spring of the year, the Big Dipper is very high-flying, almost directly overhead, and it stands straight up on end, as though it is performing a miraculous balancing act pirouetting on its handle. As I gazed skyward on the evening of the Vernal Equinox, the Big Dipper seemed very near to me, and big, and I followed the trail from the edge of the "bowl" to the tiny speck of light which is Polaris, the North Star.

Finding the little chart which shows the seasonal rotation of the "Bears Tail" or Big Dipper was a piece of serendipity, which confirmed for me the impressions I've had of the behavior of the Dipper at different times of the year and which also stirs memories of the "sacred circle" of stars which surround Polaris and which is celebrated in some lore shared by the Lakota and Dakota Nations. The far northern region of the world in which this "Big Bear" dances around the sacred circle is called the Arctic, the abode of Arktos, which in Greek means "Bearish."