Wednesday, January 8, 2014

12 Dancing Princesses Revealed

Fairy tales are vehicles for the transmission of history from ages lost in the mist of time. Clues to the lives and traditions of our ancestors are embedded in layers of characters, symbols, and story. Numbers are symbolic in fairy tales, hinting at astronomical awareness of the culture originating the tales. The story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses has its roots in the astronomical knowledge of pre-history. Twelve is a particularly significant number, associated with the ancient division of the sky into 12 constellations. It is common also to describe the movement of heavenly bodies, which move forward and back – as “the dance.” Each planet’s dance is different.