(Click on the stars from the 3rd page onwards to discover the mysteries of this constellation)

Our first astronomical navigation begins looking back to the Phoenicians, a people who greatly developed navigation techniques and guided themselves by the stars at night. In this cartography, our stars are cultural manifestations that we connect through the first constellation: the scarab.

In Phoenician times, voyages were filled with surprises and fears; therefore, some navigators carried with them a “scarab,” a good luck and protection amulet, which is a ring shaped like a beetle on one side and a stamp on the other. The stamp is said to be a signature or an identity symbol, as well as a symbol of resurrection. The scarab symbolizes the sun and rebirth for the Phoenicians. It represents chthonic deities from within or beneath the earth and seas: the gods or spirits of the underworld, in contrast to celestial deities. It refers to what is buried, submerged, underwater, unknown, terrifying, and mysterious. This scarab, along with the Ara of Altar and The Hand of Sabazios, completes an entire collection of mysterious objects related to the mysticism of these Mediterranean cultures, highlighting their rich spiritual and symbolic traditions.

This symbol can speak to us of other processes of death, of the power of transmutation. We relate it to the ecocides we witness today, such as droughts, water acidification, or chemical fertilizer spills that lead to anoxia. This constellation may guide us toward stories of rebirth or water regeneration. This was shown to us by Maria Teresa Vicente and all the members of the Association for a Living Mar Menor, who together launched a Popular Legislative Initiative to grant legal status to the Mar Menor. Just as the Phoenician navigator carried his stamp, his amulet of protection, the Mar Menor now has a signature, an entity of protection.

This relic and this constellation can trace paths to redefine life after death. It offers us deep time to imagine other hydric futures.