about 300,000 years ago
around 11:48 p.m.AUTHOR NARRATION
Hear the poem.
Read by the author in the original English.
AstrologyEnglish narration
POEM + COSMOS
Astrology
STORIES AND STARS
A Map of Your Design
Below, the arcs of stars are knotted into webs of light. Choose a zodiac sign, then move from stars to connecting lines to the figure people imagined there. Beneath the sky, discover the history of its name and symbol.
Opening the sky…
The interactive sky could not load. You can explore it directly in WorldWide Telescope.
Open the sky atlas ↗IN THE NAME AND THE IMAGE
Virgo
THE WORD
virgo the maiden
THE HISTORY
On a second-century BCE Babylonian tablet, the figure carries barley. In some later Islamic art, grain becomes so central that a farmer harvesting it replaces the maiden.
THE SIGN
The compact, looped sign stands for a figure once shown holding grain.
An interactive sky atlas, not a live telescope view. These are the twelve traditional signs; the Sun’s apparent path also crosses Ophiuchus. The figures are artistic interpretations. WorldWide Telescope · IAU / Sky & Telescope names and charts (CC BY 4.0) · Image history: The Met.
A PERSONAL SKY MAP
What astrology would say about me
This astrological reading is based on the exact date, time, and place of my birth. I do like it, and I don’t find it inaccurate!
A PRIVATE NATAL CHART
Highly analytical, exacting, and improvement-oriented, but with considerably more intensity, ambition, and personal force than the standard Virgo description captures. You have a striking combination of Virgo competence, Scorpio psychological depth, Capricorn discipline, Libra aesthetics and social intelligence, and a Leo desire to make your work distinctive. You likely have a low tolerance for things being badly designed, poorly reasoned, or unnecessarily inefficient. There is a strong capacity for sustained accomplishment, but also a tendency toward very high standards and continual self-revision. And beneath a fairly controlled exterior, the chart puts considerable importance on intimacy, home, loyalty, and creating a private life that feels genuinely substantial.
THE COSMIC CALENDAR
Our place in a 13.8-billion-year year
If the entire history of the universe occupied a single year, the Sun and Earth would not appear until early September. Our species would arrive in the final twelve minutes of December 31.
JAN 1 · THE UNIVERSE BEGINSDEC 31 · NOW
The Sun formsaround August 31
Earth formsaround September 2
THE FINAL MINUTES OF DECEMBER 31
Sources and method
Dates are rounded. The calendar compresses 13.8 billion years into 365 days; the times on the final day are calculated comparisons, not literal historical dates.
A QUESTION FOR READERS
Astrology, prediction, and reaction
While the majority of my poetry I don’t think is very controversial, there are a few poems where I wonder whether readers are ever annoyed or offended. Let me know here whether that was the case for you or not.
READER DISCUSSION
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