How I Got Started Studying the Stars...
One of the questions people ask me quite often regarding my studies in the stars is: How did you get into studying the Mazzaroth in the first place? That's a fun question to answer. And since I am blogging on the Mazzaroth this year, it seems appropriate that I answer it for you all here.
I started studying into the stars about 20 years ago. Up to that point, I knew almost nothing about the constellations, the stars, or the heavens. And it was my oldest child - my son - that got me into it.
I home-schooled my children through high-school. My son was pretty young, when he first sparked my interest in the stars...
To give you some idea of how far back this was, my son is now married and he and his lovely young wife are expecting their first child this year in June (for which we are all very excited :-).
In order to insure my children's interest in learning, I chose to teach them thematically around subjects they chose. Of course we still had to do things like math and such... But when you teach around a theme, you can incorporate most things into it. I found it to be a pretty effective way to engage my children in learning.
So, before each semester, I would ask my son what he wanted to learn about this time. Once he asked to learn about "bugs". Oh boy, did we do bugs?! We went to the library and checked out and read everything on insects that we could find. We traveled to natural history museums and enjoyed their bug collections. We caught and studied bugs... yep... we did that... And we classified them and he wrote about them and it was all bugs for a whole a term in our house!
Next, he asked to learn about transportation. So, again, we immersed ourselves in it. I had found a plastic (working) engine model from Smithsonian museum online and ordered it. So we built an engine together in order to study the process of internal combustion. We traveled and rode on every unique thing we could find to ride on (steam train, paddle wheel boat, horse and buggy, etc...). We went to the library and again checked out everything showing inventions in the field (which covered the science end of my son's learning) and studied the eras of transportation (which covered the history end of his learning). It was all about transportation for a whole term in our house!
We thoroughly enjoyed this approach to home-school. And it was a happy and learning-rich time. But what should my son ask to learn about next? The stars! I was unprepared for this request. I really knew so little about it... When it came to insects and transportation, I knew a little bit going in. But the stars? I really felt inadequate to teach him on that topic.
So, I started studying... and reading. I read The Gospel in the Stars by Seiss and The Witness of the Stars by Bullinger. I read every Bible reference I could find on the stars and constellations...
Going into what would become a life-changing study of the stars, I knew only two things... But they were very important things:
1) I knew that God had created the stars and shaped the constellations.
2) And I knew that He had given the stars and constellations their original names.
But I had far more questions than answers. And some of my most compelling questions seemed unanswerable... Like, "What names did Yahweh originally give the stars?" Short of getting in a time-machine and going back to find out, there seemed no way to know the original star names...
But, as I shared in my January 10, 2019 blog, I believe God has helped me to find the answer to this question, and to others which were equally baffling.
Truly, my study of the stars has been a life-changing journey. And the more I learn about it, the more I find there is to learn... So, I call my personal star story, my "journey", instead of thinking that I have "arrived" at the point of being a Biblical Astronomy expert.
And thank you to my dear son, Christopher, who must have been inspired by God when he asked me to teach him about the stars... What an amazing journey its been over the past couple of decades. And I'm just getting started!
I started studying into the stars about 20 years ago. Up to that point, I knew almost nothing about the constellations, the stars, or the heavens. And it was my oldest child - my son - that got me into it.
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| My two children among their combined birthday presents (their birthdays are close together so we often celebrated them at the same time). My son in this photo is about the age he was when he inspired me to begin studying the stars. My daughter is beside him. |
I home-schooled my children through high-school. My son was pretty young, when he first sparked my interest in the stars...
To give you some idea of how far back this was, my son is now married and he and his lovely young wife are expecting their first child this year in June (for which we are all very excited :-).
In order to insure my children's interest in learning, I chose to teach them thematically around subjects they chose. Of course we still had to do things like math and such... But when you teach around a theme, you can incorporate most things into it. I found it to be a pretty effective way to engage my children in learning.
So, before each semester, I would ask my son what he wanted to learn about this time. Once he asked to learn about "bugs". Oh boy, did we do bugs?! We went to the library and checked out and read everything on insects that we could find. We traveled to natural history museums and enjoyed their bug collections. We caught and studied bugs... yep... we did that... And we classified them and he wrote about them and it was all bugs for a whole a term in our house!
Next, he asked to learn about transportation. So, again, we immersed ourselves in it. I had found a plastic (working) engine model from Smithsonian museum online and ordered it. So we built an engine together in order to study the process of internal combustion. We traveled and rode on every unique thing we could find to ride on (steam train, paddle wheel boat, horse and buggy, etc...). We went to the library and again checked out everything showing inventions in the field (which covered the science end of my son's learning) and studied the eras of transportation (which covered the history end of his learning). It was all about transportation for a whole term in our house!
We thoroughly enjoyed this approach to home-school. And it was a happy and learning-rich time. But what should my son ask to learn about next? The stars! I was unprepared for this request. I really knew so little about it... When it came to insects and transportation, I knew a little bit going in. But the stars? I really felt inadequate to teach him on that topic.
So, I started studying... and reading. I read The Gospel in the Stars by Seiss and The Witness of the Stars by Bullinger. I read every Bible reference I could find on the stars and constellations...
Going into what would become a life-changing study of the stars, I knew only two things... But they were very important things:
1) I knew that God had created the stars and shaped the constellations.
2) And I knew that He had given the stars and constellations their original names.
But I had far more questions than answers. And some of my most compelling questions seemed unanswerable... Like, "What names did Yahweh originally give the stars?" Short of getting in a time-machine and going back to find out, there seemed no way to know the original star names...
But, as I shared in my January 10, 2019 blog, I believe God has helped me to find the answer to this question, and to others which were equally baffling.
Truly, my study of the stars has been a life-changing journey. And the more I learn about it, the more I find there is to learn... So, I call my personal star story, my "journey", instead of thinking that I have "arrived" at the point of being a Biblical Astronomy expert.
And thank you to my dear son, Christopher, who must have been inspired by God when he asked me to teach him about the stars... What an amazing journey its been over the past couple of decades. And I'm just getting started!
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| My children today - this photo was taken at Thanksgiving in 2018... Christopher (my son) is in the background, his wife Melissa (whom we all love like another daughter) is in the black top with the scarf, and my daughter Katrina is on the left in the print top. |
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Thank you Christopher for starting your Mom on a journey for eternity
ReplyDeleteThank you Shauna for taking us along for the ride!
Thanks for joining me! So much fun! And isn't Yahweh good?
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