Over recent years there has been a notable resurgence of interest in the magic and mysteries of Sirius throughout the world. In Germany this has resulted in the publication of a number of fascinating publications related to various aspects of the Sirian mythos.

Unfortunately as enticing as these books are there are currently no plans for any of them to be published in English at this present time.

In this article I have identified some of the more important books to have been released and with a little help from Google Translate I have added a little information regarding each title. Sorry if the English translation is difficult to follow and understand in parts - blame this on my poor understanding of the German language and Googles problem in dealing with more modern 'New Age' terminology.

From the Ancient Egyptians through to Freemasonry the worship of the star Sirius has influenced the esoteric beliefs of the most important esoteric writers of any age. I reveal how Sirius has been encoded into the Major Arcana of the Mystical Tarot.

 

About the Tarot

 As any Tarot student will tell you the Tarot deck of 78 cards is split into three separate parts.

These are referred to as the Major Arcana, Court Cards and Minor Arcana.

In many ways each of the three parts are completely different in the way that they function but in the main they interconnect through a sophisticated astrological and numerological links which combine to reveal a unique understanding of universal wisdom.

In this sense each of the Tarot cards can be seen as 'gateways' to other realms of consciousness - doorways that swing two ways to connect student with the Universe thereby uniting Microcosm to Macrocosm and enabling a good Tarot reader to see both backwards and forwards in time and space.

Even now, after all these long years of Siriun research, I am still astounded at the thought that a single dot of light some eight and a half light years away can hold such a prominent position in metaphysical and spiritual thought.

It seems almost inconceivable that such a distant stellar body could determine the destiny of life on planet earth but this theory can be found at the heart of a widely spread belief in the importance of Sirius as a stellar influence that could possibly hold the key to an understanding of human existence.

The star Sirius is also known as the "Dog Star" by virtue of it being prominant in the constellation of Canis Major, or 'Big Dog' and is thought to be around 2–300 million years old It can be seen easily from the Northern Hemisphere by the naked eye between 30 and 73 degres of latitude and sometimes its luminosity is so great that it can be seen in daylight.

About Canis Major

Canis Major is one of the eighty-eight modern constellations and was included in the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy's classification of 48 constellations.

Sirius is often referred to as one of the dogs following Orion the hunter - the other one being Canis Minor or the 'lesser dog'. It can be located quite easily by following the line that is naturally formed by the stars of Orions' Belt down and tp the right a little where the star can easily be identified by its size and brightness.

There are several other fairly bright stars (in order of brightness) in Canis Major, all with Arabic names/ They include Adhara (Virgins), Wezen (The Weight), Murzim (The Announcer), Aludra (The Virgin), Furud (Bright Single One) and Muliphen (Dog's Ear).

Roman myth refers to Canis Major as 'Custos Europae' which is the dog guarding Europa but which happens to fail to prevent her abduction by Jupiter who appears in the form of a bull as well as relating to 'Janitor Lethaeus' who is the watchdog.

According to traditional Chinese uranography Canis Major is located within the Southern Quadrant of the night sky and is symbolised as the Vermillion Bird of the South.

About Sirius

Not only does Sirius hold a prominant position in Canis Major but it is also the brightest star in the night-time sky with a visual apparent magnitude of -1.47. It is almost twice as bright as the next brightest star, Canopus.

The reason for the brightness of Sirius is not its intrinsic luminosity but is in fact due to its proximity to our own planet.

At a relatively close distance of just 2.6 pc or 8.6 light years Sirius is one of our nearest neighbours. It is roughy twice the mass of our own Sun.

In a mythological sense Sirius was considered to be a dog in its own right whilst early Greek mythology sometimes uses the constellation to represent a two-headed dog.

Sirius as a Binary Star System

During the testing of a new 18.5-inch (470 mm) aperture telescope for Dearborn Observatory American on January 31, 1862 telescope-maker and astronomer Alvan Graham Clark became the first observer of a companion star to Sirius; although suspicions of its existance had first been proposed by German astronomer Friedrich Bessel in 1844.

Sirius B, as yje new discovery came to be called, is one of the more massive White Dwarf stars.

There is currently a great deal of debate as to whether Sirius is not in fact a Binary star system but whether it is actually a Triple system with a much smaller dark star in its proximity.