Annie Dieu-Le-Veut

I am continually amazed and delighted at the different strategems used by artists, writers and musicians to hide “the family silver”, the time-honoured star lore, from the Time Bandits intent on stealing it by changing our calendars and freezing and fracturing our zodiacs.

Lewis Carroll put the whole thing in Alice in Wonderland. Alice’s Globe, shown below, interprets what each character she met meant. From when she fell down the rabbit hole into the Underworld, reflected in the stars above, Alice is clearly on a sort of surreal heroine’s journey of self discovery through the constellations.

Some of the characters are obvious, such as the White Rabbit as Lepus, Tweedledum and Tweedledee as the Gemini twins, and the Cheshire Cat as Lynx.

But some are less so.

For instance, Ophiuchus as Humpty Dumpty has been suggested, as he is the serpent holder and the serpent comes out of the egg. When Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall, the reign of the Lord of Summer is over, and Orion as the Lord of Winter takes Ophiuchus’s place.

The Mad Hatter with his ever-flowing teapot works for Aquarius, and the March Hare must be Aries, with the Teacup as Crater the cup. There’s a Leo lion and a unicorn for Monoceros. And could the Jabberwock be Draco the Dragon?

If anyone has any other suggestions, please do put them in the comments.

The pictures come from Alice’s Globe, which you can buy here: https://globemakers.com/product/alices-globe/

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