Description
The sixth album of the musical cycle about the constellations — «Starry Sky» — turned out to be about Pisces. Pisces are very important for at least 1/12 of the people inhabiting our planet, because the Sun passes through this constellation — in March-April (and for astrologers — in February-March — everything is different there), and thus heralds spring (in the northern hemisphere of the Earth, but in the southern — the beginning of autumn).
I made a promise to myself: for the time being, not to touch the zodiacal constellations. But, apparently, this time has come, and the promise has been exhausted. The melodies that visited me from mid-October to early November 2022 came from this constellation, which many have heard about, but not everyone has seen, or at least represent the outlines of its stellar configuration.
The mythological story of the constellation Pisces is also not as well known as, for example, the legend of Perseus and Andromeda. But one of the meanings of this music is to immerse the listener in those knowledge and Worlds in which he, perhaps, has not yet been. Releasing a new album about the constellations, I feel like a stellar guide and sincerely rejoice at the opportunity to send you on these space journeys using the best means for this — music.
There is no single version of the myth about the constellation Pisces — there are several different, rather contradictory ones. According to one of them, two fish tied with a ribbon by their tails symbolize the throwing of the human soul, in which one fish strives for worldly well-being, and the other rushes up, forgetting about everything earthly and perishable. But the strong tape connecting them does not allow the soul to break, and these fish can achieve at least something of what they want only by agreeing and choosing a common direction that is really valuable for both.
Another legend reminds us of the time of confrontation between the Greek Olympian Gods and the titanic monsters — the creatures of the bowels of Gaia — the Earth. Typhon, a terrible giant, more terrible than which nothing in the World existed, intended to become the ruler of the entire Oikumene, and to overthrow Zeus and his Olympian retinue into Tartarus. Suddenly, Typhon was distracted by Aphrodite and her son Eros, who were risking being the first to Tartarus. But the Deities of Love and Passion managed to hide from the monster, turning into two fish, and get lost in the sea waters, where the creation of the Earth had no absolute power.
Zeus took advantage of the confusion and crushed Typhon with a huge block — the size of a mountain, which turned into the volcano Etna, which periodically erupts curses towards the snow-white peak of Olympus, but he can no longer think of world domination.
And the third story tells how two sea fish found an egg in the depths of the ocean, and guessing that it was unusual, they pushed it ashore. Soon the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite hatched from the egg. For their flair and insight, both Pisces were ascended by the goddess to heaven, and became a constellation.
In all these legends, the image of Pisces is extremely positive. They symbolize searches on the path of life, salvation in difficult times, and the ability to find in the hidden depths something very dear to oneself and to the World.
Yours Andrey Klimkovsky
Pisces is the last constellation in the zodiac. But it is also the most important, because it is within its limits on the celestial sphere that the point of the Spring Equinox is located — the origin of the equatorial system of celestial coordinates. And although she has not always been here, in the present era, it is the constellation of Pisces that gives us spring. And a couple of thousand years ago, the same role was assigned to the constellation Aries.
In addition to the point of intersection of the ecliptic with the celestial equator, or the Gamma point, the constellation Pisces contains a very beautiful and interesting spiral-type galaxy — M74. This is the closest to us of such stellar cities that we can observe in full face, and view their spiral branches without distortion. And yet, the spiral galaxy M74 and our Milky Way Galaxy are separated by 35 million light-years.
The Pisces constellation is not at all rich in bright stars, and the most noticeable of its luminaries are hardly brighter than the 4th magnitude. Among them is the alpha of the constellation, from ancient times bearing the name Alrescha — a rope — this is how it is translated. The ancient Arabs saw here a strong ribbon, which connected two fish — northern and western. Groups of dim stars, corresponding to both water-sky inhabitants, are located in relation to Alrescha on the far edges of this rather large constellation, in which 86 stars can be counted on a dark night.
