introducing myself to you

HELLO! I am David Warner Mathisen. For the past ten years I have been exploring the amazing connection between the world's ancient myths and the stars. I am excited to share this with you, because I am convinced that the ancient myths, scriptures, and sacred stories are all about you.

There is overwhelming evidence that the myths and sacred stories from cultures all around the world, on every inhabited continent and island, are using the same worldwide system of celestial metaphor in order to impart profound truths for our benefit in this life. Sometimes this subject is called "astrotheology," which can be a useful term but which is also used to mean some other different things and which (in my opinion) has a few drawbacks. I prefer to use the term "Star Myths" to describe these ancient teachings.

I look forward to sharing new posts and new videos about the world's Star Myths, as well as adding some of my favorite posts and videos that I've written or made in the past.

A little about my journey so far:

I grew up in California, I have always loved to read, and some of the books that made an impression on me when I was very young included the illustrated volumes of Norse Mythology and Greek Mythology by Ingrid and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire, the Odyssey, the World of Odysseus by M. I. Finley, and the books on the stars by H. A. Rey (Find the Constellations, and The Stars: A New Way to See Them).

I attended the US Military Academy at West Point and then became a platoon leader, executive officer, staff officer, and company commander in line infantry battalions of the 82nd Airborne Division and 4th Infantry Division. Later, I had the opportunity to attend Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas and earn a masters degree in literature, where I studied an amazing array of wonderful literature from around the world, and focused on Beowulf and Old English poetry for my thesis. I finished my army career teaching in the Department of English and Philosophy at West Point, which included the wonderful experience of sharing the Odyssey with students, and of meeting the late Professor Robert Fagles, whose translation of the Odyssey was not available when I was a child but which is now my favorite English translation.

Even though the experience of exploring the Odyssey with students revealed amazing new perspectives on that text and its incredible depths of ancient wisdom, at that time I still had no idea that the world's ancient myths -- including the Iliad and the Odyssey -- were also speaking a celestial language, one that uses the heavenly cycles of the sun, moon, visible planets, and especially the stars and constellations to convey their message to us. It was not until I had left the army, and learned about the book Hamlet's Mill by Hertha von Dechend and Giorgio de Santillana, that I encountered the evidence that the world's myths might be using an extremely ancient system of code based upon heavenly cycles -- a system which is now largely forgotten.

This possibility was fascinating to me, and I set out to learn more. At the time, I was taking the scriptures of the Bible literally, and had no idea that my examination of this subject would lead me to find overwhelming evidence that the stories in the Bible are also based on the very same system of celestial metaphor which can be found in the world's other Star Myths -- myths from ancient China, ancient India, ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, the Norse myths, myths from other parts of Europe, myths from the Americas, from Australia, from Africa, from the islands in the Pacific, from ancient Japan, from other parts of Asia: in fact, from virtually every culture on the planet.

Since first beginning to perceive the outlines of this ancient world-wide celestial language which the myths are speaking, I have spent a lot of time trying to understand more about its "vocabulary" and "grammar," and to try to understand what the myths may be trying to say to us, using these celestial metaphors.

There have been others who have written about (or hinted about) this ancient system in the past as well -- going back even to ancient times and the philosophers Macrobius, Lucian of Samosata, Aristotle and Plato.

But, as I said at the very start, I believe these ancient myths are about each and every man and woman, and the journey we are on as we travel through this incarnate life. I believe they are a precious inheritance -- or, in the words of Aristotle, an "ancient treasure" -- which was given to humanity in the ancient past for our benefit and blessing.

That means that they are for YOU, which is why I'm excited to share this ancient treasure with everyone here on steemit!

These ancient myths have completely changed my life and my outlook on what is going on in the world around us. What I have learned so far has also completely changed my perspective on history, from ancient times right up to recent decades and even to the events taking place around the world this very week.

I hope that what I share here will inspire you to discover the riches of the ancient treasure of the world's myths for yourself!