Overlighting this early human fascination with number and geometry were the stars, and perhaps their participation was not passive at all. There is the possibility of human brain embeddedness of starlight (left), which could account for the enlightenment, development, and expansion of human consciousness. We do not have to concede this intimate relationship with the stars to continue this theory of Minoan astronomy, but we do concede the contribution the stars make in the form of the astronomical ages.

Today the chorus is singing, "This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius," but when the disk was created it was the dawning of the Age of Aries from which came the Greek legend of Jason and the Argonauts. It was preceded by the Age of Taurus, supposed to have been between 4320-2160 BCE (4525-1875, dates vary). An Age, lasting about 2,000 years or so, receives its name from the sign through which the sun passes year after year as it crosses the equator at the Spring equinox (equal night), when night and day are equal in length all over the world, each lasting 12 hours on this day.

In the Age of Taurus the bull was worshipped as divine. After perhaps as many as 25,000 preceding years of bull worship, it is not surprising that the bull figured significantly in the Minoan civilization. A bull's foot appears twice on the Phaistos Disk (left). Egypt had its Serapis, the sacred Osiris-Apis bull. Baal was widely worshipped, later on the Israelites had their golden calf Moshe (Moses), and painted on the walls of buildings in ancient Sumer are humans with horns. The horns tell of their status as gods and goddesses. (Minoan Queen Pasiphae drawn by Picasso, right)

The idea of the bull-god is foreign to many of us, although it should not be. Even today in India the bull is sacred, and in Spain and Mexico bull sports are still popular, as are rodeos in the U.S. In Crete, the bull apparently was at the center of both religion and sport. This history of bull-worship clears up some of the mystery of the Minoan legend of the Minotaur, a bull-being at the center of the bull sports and the maze. It clears up some mystery about Zeus, the Greek god who often appeared as a bull. And it also shines some light on the worship of the bull-born Dionysis. (Left, Bronze Age palace groundplan at Mallia, Crete compared with bull's head)

In the Age of Aries the bull-god gives over to the ram, whose Golden Fleece is the object of the quest of Jason and the Argonauts. They stopped worshipping the bull - in fact, they slayed the bull in Crete, or Theseus did, in the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur. Following the Age of Aries is the Piscean Age in which a divine fish symbolizes the Son of God as the "fisher of men." As we move into the Age of Aquarius, the cup is the symbol of the divine and holds the Water of Life, and the Knights of the Round Table quest for the Holy Grail. One way or another, either directly or indirectly, we are influenced by the stars. Are they really eternal powers? The Minoans apparently believed so.

During the Mediterranean Bronze Age, the Aegean people were making a transition from the Age of Taurus and old religion of bull-worship to the Age of Aries. This was no less a transition from a primitive, idolatrous religion, tied to millenia of Dualism as basic to religious thought, to the beginnings of a scientific-philosophic world-view and Emantionism and the "One" source of life. The Minoan ascendency over the bull is dramatized perhaps by the bull sports at the center of their festivities. When the shift comes and the ages change from Taurus to Aries, the worship of the bull is not transferred to the worship of the ram, but instead the worship becomes a quest for god/dess, who is conceived of in such a way as to be sought after. With the Minoans comes the idea of the Seeker and, for them, as well as for the evolution of consciousness, the Seeker of knowledge is finally the same thing as the Seeker of God/dess.

Perhaps this seeking after the goddess in the sky motivated the development of astronomy in Minoan Crete, with the idea that if we invent telescopes and binoculars and astronomical measuring devices, we can seek the goddess through seeing her, getting closer to her and knowing her well. Perhaps this astronomical questing for the divine led to our recognition of the universal powers of time and infinity and the higher powers of destiny, and to conclusions about such things we might have drawn from stargazing. For the Aegean people, these eternal powers seemed to emanate from the stars, and it stands to reason that the biggest star, Sirius, must be the most powerful. Therefore, from this star, an eternal and perfect goddess high in the sky, flow all the gifts in heaven and earth.

With this new power of thought and technological capability comes the wealth, ease and abundance that we associate with the Minoan civilization, a phenomenal flower that blossomed in the middle of the Aegean Sea. The Greek creation myth tells the story of how it came to pass that the people were so blessed. It was because the goddess gave them a son--Zeus--who in turn overthrew the old gods. It is not yet the Age of Pisces when the gift is the son of god. It is the Age of Aries when the gift is the son of goddess. (left, palenquin pictograph on the Phaistos Disk, right, Minoan palenquin)