Star Gate For Many Cultures

November 17th is a Star Gate for many cultures. On this date each year the Pleiades are closest to the earth. For all peoples who recognize that they originated in the Pleiades, November 17th is a most important portal and holy day - the thinning of the veil, the time when the spirit can most directly travel 'home', and when we can most easily receive from our ancestors of the stars.

In Hawaii, from the kahiko (the ancient times) to present, November 17th is celebrated as Makahika - the mystical Winter Solstice, celebration of the harvest and time of personal rest and spiritual and cultural renewal.

For the Celts, midnight on November 17th was celebrated as Samhain. It is the holy time when the space between this and the supernatural worlds cracks open, granting free passage 'home' for those who have died over the year, opening the way for fairies and beings from other dimensions to commune most deeply with us.

In North America, First Peoples, including the Cheyenne, Paviotso, Kiowa, Cherokee, Iroquois, Navajo, Shasta, Sioux, Tewa, Zuni, Hopi, PaiPai, and Inuit have traditionally observed the winter -rising Pleiades.

The Hopis consider themselves direct descendants of the Pleiadians, whom they call the Chuhukon, meaning "those who cling together". They believe that these stars are the Sacred Mountain top home of the Kachinas, honoring this in their rituals.

The Navajos named the Pleiades the Sparkling Suns - the Delyahey. The Iroquois used this day to pray for happiness, while the Cree acknowledged it as the time they first came to earth in spirit form and became flesh and blood.

Since ancient times, the Lakota spoke of the Tiyami - home of the ancestors- as being the Pleiades. They hold the tradition that our spirits return south to the Seven Sisters at death and celebrate November 17th as the most direct gateway to the stars they/we call home.

The Aztecs linked this date when the Pleiadian constellation reaches its highest point, or culminates, at midnight with the end of a world and so the beginning of another New Year.