[Looking at history and our area’s unique political and religious attitudes.]

What is the North Star? Look the term up on the web and you will find pages in Duck-Duck-Go. Why is the term so used? The astronomers call the star Polaris. It is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, in the Northern Hemisphere. It is about 2500 times brighter than the sun, but its distance of 433 light years dims the light able to penetrate our atmosphere. Its location, within 1-degree of the north celestial pole, makes it appear stationary as the Earth spins through space. Facing Polaris indicates you are looking north.

How does a youngster locate the polar star? Find the Big Dipper. A line through the two stars at the end of the Big Dipper’s bowl, going from Merak through Dubhe, points directly at Polaris. The distance is about 5 times the distance between the two dipper bowl stars. It is the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper. To add to the intrigue, down load an app like ‘Sky Guide’ or ‘Night Sky’. Turn it on, point it at the sky, and watch astronomy come alive with the names of the stars and man-made satellites.

That is a nice synopsis of what is the physical North Star, but why is it relevant? Why are all these stars and constellations named? Throughout recorded human history, people have looked to the heavens for guidance.

Astronomy is the measure of the heavenly bodies while astrology is the study of stars to explain mysteries of life. Do not dismiss activity that is not in your wheelhouse. Can you explain the math and science of GPS? We know the moon, a heavenly body, impacts tides and many other things. But if you get too focused on the moon, you can be labeled a lunatic.

The stars and planets of the Zodiac represent the seasons, which in turn tells people when planting time is approaching. My grandparents used the positioning with the almanac to schedule optimum planting and harvest days and dates. That is not my specialty. Already in one-generation the skills of millenia are lost. The younger generation thinks they can look stuff up on computers and the web. But that did not exist even in our childhood.

Another intriguing application is navigation. How do you travel from ancient Babylon to Watson Brake with no electricity, no computer, no satellites? The North Star was the center of the global positioning system 5,500 years ago when people were scattering around the world. The navigator used Polaris and ocean currents to locate themselves precisely and repeat it, so others could follow.

The relocation of people was not random. The diffusionist hypothesis of archaeology is that cultures around the world developed in parallel rather than evolved. Just one example of many, is pottery developed in North and South America about the same time as the Middle East. That hypothesis demands global navigation. Move closer in time. Can you imagine being on one of Columbus’ ships? They journeyed both directions with precision by navigating from the North Star.

Because of its storied history, the North Star is now used as a term to describe a guiding principle. We all have a value system, which influences our decisions. Conflict, stress, and depression arises when we plow against our values. A really major area of decision making is rational versus feeling. Rational operates with a defined set of natural laws, even if you cannot define them. Rational is the foundation of cultural, economic, and scientific development and progress. “If you do thing A, then the result will be B.” It repeats.

But that is frustrating to a segment of the people. Why? They may like an idea, but do not want to do the work.

The rational process implies absolute laws with their consequences. It is commonly asserted by some that feelings should be the basis of decision making. Feelings are expremely important since it involves our spouse, children, friends, and pets. Look in my old hound-dog’s face and you see the emotion. But that will not build a computer, car, or government.

The Founders built a nation on Judeo-Christian principles, with the Ten Commandments, and an absolute God. Founder and the second President John Adams declared, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’ People who do not want the religious aspect try to destroy the government and culture from the way it was founded.

The terms are not a play on words, but represent the transfer of information between the science of astronomy, real-life applications including planting and tides, and religion.

Think about it. North Star is a reference point for astronomers, navigation, and cultural symbolism. Everyone has a guiding philosophy. What is yours? Will it stand-up through stress?