Astronomy

Mirfak (it sometimes also goes by the name Algenib) is is the brightest star in the constellation of Perseus. The star is a yellow supergiant about 550 light years away. It has a mass about 8 times that of the Sun, but has expanded to 60 times the size, while its luminosity is about 5000 times greater. On a dark night, you may detect a faint array of stars clustering around Mirfak. This assemblage of stars is known as the Alpha Persei Moving Group (Melotte 20), of which Mirfak is the most prominent member. Although some feel that this stellar grouping is too dispersed to be called a star cluster, these stars nonetheless move in the same general direction through space, and were born from the same cloud of gas and dust about 50 million years ago.

Finding Mirfak

Start with the distinctive W (or M) shape of Cassiopeia. From there find a pathway of stars (you can see part of the pathway in the photograph below, with Algol at the bottom of the picture) in which Mirfak is the brightest star. The constellation of Perseus lies due north of the Pleiades, so this offers another way of finding Mirfak

Mythology

The name Mirfak, Arabic for ‘elbow’, may have nothing directly to do with the Greek constellation of Perseus but comes from a longer phrase meaning ‘elbow of the Pleiades’, perhaps indicating another way of linking stars in this part of the sky to form a memorable picture. Perseus is one of the great heroes of Greek myth and his story involves no fewer that six constellations. He had a tough start in life. His grandfather, the king of Argos, had been told that he would be killed by his own grandson, so he locked his daughter Danae in a dungeon. Zeus, however, came to Danae as a shower of golden rain through the skylight of her prison and made her pregnant. When her father found out he locked her and the newborn baby in a chest which he threw into the sea. They were rescued by a fisherman who brought up Perseus as his own son, but Perseus still had challenges ahead.

Now his new uncle decided he was a threat and sent him off to fetch the head of Medusa, fully expecting that would be the last of Perseus, since a single glance from her would turn him to stone. But Perseus was a bright lad and cleverly used a polished shield as a mirror so that poor Medusa turned herself into stone.
Drops of blood falling into the sea as he cut her head off gave birth to Pegasus the winged horse. On his way home with Medusa’s head in as bag he stopped to rest in the kingdom of Atlas. But Atlas refused him hospitality and so Perseus turned him to stone and he became the mountain range in north Africa which bears his name. There are more stories about Perseus, how he rescued Andromeda from the sea monster, how they had many children whose descendants became the kings of Persia, and how he did, after all, come to kill his grandfather: by accident when a discus he threw in a contest went astray and hit the old man who was one of the spectators.

But it is interesting to backtrack a moment to use the mention of Atlas to reconsider these myths. Atlas was a Titan, one of the race who preceded the gods of the Greeks, whose role was to hold the sky in place.  He was father of the Pleiades, who are consequently sometimes also called the Atlantides. In other words his name is closely associated with Atlantis. Similar names crop up in other cultures; Mayans speak of a land of Aztlan from which they originate; Hindu myth tell of a sunken Paradise called Atala. So perhaps in the story of Perseus we find a hint of a modern hero, a hero for post-lapsarian times. He is fathered by a shower of light (an updating of the etheric body). His forefathers seek to destroy him but he is carried to safety across the sea. He emerges from a reality that has gone (the old living relationship of Heaven and Earth is turned to a fixed one, when Atlas is turned to stone). That former reality is brought low by a terrible power (Medusa) that nonetheless also gives birth to a new blend of the physical and spiritual (symbolised by Pegasus, the horse with wings), and  Perseus is able to rescue his female counterpart (who had been imprisoned because of the hubris of a parent) from the threat of an overwhelming ocean (symbolised by Cetus the sea monster), and together these survivors of the flood through many trials come to people our world. Maybe what we have here is a myth, told through the pictures men and women made from the stars, which keeps alive memories and lessons of the collapse of a world that existed in ancient times and perhaps in another dimension, a collapse  from which humanity learns, grows and gradually recovers.

Spiritual Qualities

Key Qualities: Clearing, Intention, Emergence

The light of Mirfak has been likened to a waterfall moving through you, clearing and cleansing. It is a light that has a very powerful, direct quality – a light that comes straight to the point, as it were. That promotes clarity, pushing aside what might obscure our purpose from us. It is as if Mirfak says to us, “This is what has happened in the past, but that doesn’t matter any more; what matters is your path now”. At a deeper level the star encourages the movement from entanglement in the events we have participated in to  movement into the eternal now. So we may also think of Mirfak helping us to reorganise the energy field towards self-realisation or using our experience to guide us to freedom.

Our inner journey

We move into a structure of light within the light of Mirfak that has been created by beings, for whom this system has been home, to assist in focusing light for the benefit of human consciousness. Their purpose is to create forms of light, somewhat crystalline in structure, that can hold aspects of the light of Mirfak within human consciousness. This is a little like charging up a battery which then releases power over time. The crystalline form holds a light that helps us move into actions that are aligned with the highest good of all, by amplifying the connections between Divine Will and our human will, as individuals and as groups, and ultimately as humanity and even beyond  as life on Earth.

Listen

Please note: This inner journey may take you into deep states of relaxation. Do not listen while driving.

Music on Track 2 is by Thaddeus: Angels of Beauty from Angels.

[mp3-jplayer tracks=”1. Christopher: Mirfak Talk@AS0141T_Mirfak.mp3, 2. Sananda: Mirfak Inner Journey@AS0142J_Mirfak.mp3″]

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Starlight Essence

You may like to use Mirfak Starlight Essence to enhance your connection with this star. Each essence is £6.95 + p&p.

Mirfak helps bring out the heroine/hero within you. This is your time; whatever brought you to Earth can be fulfilled now. If you find a tendency to procrastinate, to feel you are not good enough or not ready, use Mirfak essence to cut through mind chatter or inherited ideas about yourself and to recognise that this is the time – this moment now is yours. In a particular way it helps you grasp the gift that is each present moment; that way is the way of the warrior, fearless, bold, intent upon the purpose each moment reveals. This essence can help you discern what truly matters from peripheral distractions.

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