Saturn - Cosmic Keeper of Time

Symbol of Saturn

If Jupiter is the King of the Planets, then Saturn is the Queen of the Planets. Saturn, in ancient days, was known as Chronos, the keeper of Time. Chronos, below, was the son of Uranus and his wife, Rhea (the firmament). Chronos' wife was Gaia (the Earth). Saturn is the mother and giver of all forms, both mother and father, and posessing qualities of both sexes.

Saturn, Keeper of Time, click to enlarge

Artwork by Orlando

The rings around Saturn were easily seen by the ancients, and limit the planet within them, as time limits our existence here on Earth. Saturn is the last planet the ancients could see with their primitive telescopes, and so we have 7 days in the week, each day named after a corresponding planet. This is most evident from the French (or Spanish) names for the days of the week, as follows:

Sunday - SUNday - pretty obvious, eh?

Monday - MOONday - Lundi (Luna's Day)

Tuesday - MARSday - Mardi (Mars' Day) (eg Mardi Gras)

Wednesday - WODEN'sday - Mercredi (Mercury's Day)

Thursday - THOR'sday - Jeudi - (Jupiter's Day)

Friday - VENUSday - Vendredi - (Venus' Day)

Saturday - SATURNday - Samedi - (Saturn's Day)

In fact, the word MONTH comes from the length of time the moon takes to complete one revolution around the Earth (a MOONTH) or 28 days. There are 13 lunar months and 12 solar months in each year of our Earth.

You can also go to The Birth of Islam, a fascinating essay in progress which discusses the theory that the Ancient Egyptians used just such a 10-day week, and it was subsequently reduced to 7 days for various reasons. The author declares Egypt held on to her "ancient celestial tradition of reality" until it was replaced with the "7 days of creation, the 7 spirits of God, and the 7 wandering bodies in the heavens" for which our days of the week are so aptly and obviously named. An excellent essay, thus far!