The mighty constellation Orion is about to set for the season, but before the giant hunter goes, he can still give us a 'leg up' into the sky for just a few more weeks.
Orion is probably one of the most well-known constellations around the world, and has been associated with the Egyptian God Osiris since ancient times. Over time, Osiris eventually became the very important Egyptian God of the Dead.
The interesting thing about ancient cultures is that they did not assign entire groups of stars or constellations to their gods and goddesses, instead they assigned these divine beings to single stars. In the case of Orion, the star that's connected to Osiris is a little bit surprising, because it's not a star in the famous belt, or the star at the head, it's not event the largest star in that region, which we know by the name Betelgeuse. The star related to Osiris is actually the left foot of the constellation, also known as the 'toe star' and the star we know by the name "Rigel'.
In the pyramid texts (discovered in the 1880s), which are some of the oldest known texts in the history of humanity, there's a description that the human being must approach the sky 'on the toes', just as the Toe Star:
'Thou must approach the sky on thy toes as the Toe-Star'
Rigel is interesting when the constellation Orion is rising in the East, which happens for us in the Fall, because it shows up before the bright star Sirius. Sirius was known as the resting place of the soul of Isis, the Egyptian Goddess who is consort and queen to Osiris. When Sirius/Isis rose up into the sky, then the Egyptians knew that the Nile was about to flood, and they would move off the flood plain to let the waters enrich the soil. Then when the star Sirius reached a certain point relative to the horizon, they knew that the waters of the Nile would recede and they could move back onto the plain and begin planting.
When you're looking into the sky this week, you'll see Orion as he appears to arc, or walk over the western horizon, following the planet Venus, with Sirius in his wake~dipping his toe into the West.