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3. The Tree of Life stands at midsummer, so much we have come to understand. The fruits of the white mulberry tree have a 'reddish purple' colour because, it was said, of the tragic deaths of the lovers Pyramus and Thisbe. Shakespeare has placed this story at midsummer: "A comic recapitulation of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' appears in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act V, sc 1), enacted by a group of 'mechanicals'. Their production is crude and, for the most part, badly done until the final monologue of Nick Bottom as Pyramus and the final monologue of Francis Flute as Thisbe ..." (Wikipedia) We have not time enough to investigate what these 'mechanicals' (6 of them) might signify - they surely must have an important and necessary meaning for the mythic undercurrent of the play. But I can venture a guess anyhow, viz. that they originate from the idea of 'mock kings' (cfr at Botein): ... 'In Upper Egypt', wrote Sir James G. Frazer in The Golden Bough, citing the observations of a German nineteenth-century voyager, 'on the first day of the solar year by Coptic reckoning, that is, on the tenth of September, when the Nile has generally reached its highest point, the regular government is suspended for three days and every town chooses its own ruler. This temporary lord wears a sort of tall fool's cap and a long flaxen beard, and is enveloped in a strange mantle. With a wand of office in his hand and attended by men disguised as scribes, executioners, and so forth, he proceeds to the Governor's house. The latter allows himself to be deposed; and the mock king, mounting the throne, holds a tribunal, to the decisions of which even the governor and his officials must bow. After three days the mock king is committed to the flames, and from its ashes the Fellah creeps forth ... We know that Pyramus and Thisbe were doomed by the forces of fate to die together. Nowadays we have stuntmen playing the dangerous parts and they don't have to act more than superficially - like mechanisms without life. Counting, based on the assumption that Gomeisa (currently at 07h 24m) does not move much against the star roof, leads me to a possible position at midsummer about 72 * 24 / 4 = 432 years ago. I decided to try one of the sky programs (Cartes du Ciel) available on my personal computer and see when Gomeisa was at 07h 00m. The result was the 20th of February 1501. This agrees fairly well with my approximate calculation, because 2012 - 432 = 1580. The difference could be partly due to the movement of Gomeisa, but my astronomy book was originally printed in 1968 and 1968 - 432 = 1536. Sirius moves 1 day in about 180 years and in 432 years it should move ca 432 / 180 = 2.4 days. On the assumption that Gomeisa should move with the same speed (and direction), the date for the right ascension numbers in my astronomy book ought to be not the year 1968 but earlier, because 1501 + 432 - 2.4 = ca 1930. Although I have also proposed hakaturou at Ga2-11 and ω Gemini, rising a week earlier than Gomeisa, to be at midsummer (north of the equator):
(115.9 - 106.4) * 72 = 684. I have changed my earlier colours to make them come in harmony with Mars at Ga2-21. Green at Adara, where a hole (presumably for birth) seems to be visualized, should be the correct colour. When the perfect number 496 is reached (in front of Betelgeuze) it does not necessarily have to indicate the apex of the present midsummer. Midsummer could be both at atariki in Ga1-24 and at Gomeiza at Ga2-18 (and also at hakaturou and ω Gemini). 113 - 88 = 25 days could point at Saturn (and all the 3 mentioned glyphs are now coloured for Saturn):
Manu rere in Ga2-19 (where 114 = 6 * 19) is eating healthily, while the preceding manu rere exhibits ihe tau in front (probably a sign of death). Perhaps midsummer covers a month, beginning with atariki in Ga1-24. Precession moves the cardinal points and one way to cope with this problem is to gradually extend the duration of for instance midsummer. The end of midsummer could then remain fixed while its beginning would come earlier and earlier, following the behaviour of Sun. The rise of a special star would come later and later in the year, but it could remain the mark of midsummer. We should remember 33 days for the duration of midwinter north of the equator on Hawaii (cfr at The Two Wives of Sun): ... the renewal of kingship at the climax of the Makahiki coincides with the rebirth of nature. For in the ideal ritual calendar, the kali'i battle follows the autumnal appearance of the Pleiades, by thirty-three days - thus precisely, in the late eighteenth century, 21 December, the winter solstice. The king returns to power with the sun ... 115.9 (Procyon) - 33 = 82.9, which could mean gagana in Ga1-18 was regarded as the point where the solstice season was beginning:
Its 'anádelta' could signify the 'Mouth of the River' (where the River disappears into the delta) and the empty eye-hole is also meaningful: ... Whereas, over the next two days, Lono plays the part of the sacrifice. The Makahiki effigy is dismantled and hidden away in a rite watched over by the king's 'living god', Kahoali'i or 'The-Companion-of-the-King', the one who is also known as 'Death-is-Near' (Koke-na-make). Close kinsman of the king as his ceremonial double, Kahoali'i swallows the eye of the victim in ceremonies of human sacrifice ... Right ascension 06h indicates the station halfway through a year which is beginning at winter solstice, because counting starts at spring equinox. 91 days from glyph number 408 will put us at Ga1-26. 408 + 91 = 499 which is 100 more than 399, the synodical cycle of Jupiter. Orion ought to be an ideal sign because of its visibility. Its location between 05h and 06h means, however, that it is rising too early to mark the proper beginning of midsummer. Gemini is the proper sign for midsummer and in order to read the G text according to when the stars are rising we have to read it from left to right. Later stars to rise are more to the east and the text is leading us in that direction.
This is also as Hevelius has drawn it, with later rising stars more to the right, as if we were looking down on the celestial sphere from the outside:
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