SPECTACULAR ANCIENT NIGHTS
During the Golden Age
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ANCIENT NIGHTLY SPECTACLE
In David Talbott’s The Saturn Myth, the night sky of the Golden Age is revealed as a breathtaking spectacle dominated by Saturn & Co., but not as we see it today. According to Talbott, only Saturn’s sunlit crescent was most visible to ancient skywatchers—a luminous arc that appeared like a “ship of heaven”2,7. This crescent did not simply sit passively in the sky; rather, it seemed to sail nightly around the central, stationary bodies of bright Venus and turquoise Mars {due to the view from Earth as it rotated}.
Talbott’s analysis of ancient symbols and myths suggests that Saturn’s crescent—resembling a cosmic boat or barque—encircled the axis of the heavens, with Venus and Mars shining at the center, fixed above Earth’s north pole2,7. The rest of Saturn’s disk was either dim or invisible, making the illuminated crescent all the more dramatic. Ancient peoples described this sight as the “island at the top of the world,” “the cosmic ship,” or “the revolving temple,” all rooted in the visual experience of this celestial configuration2,7.
Venus, often depicted as a radiant star or “eye” at the heart of Saturn, and Mars, glowing with a turquoise or reddish hue, completed this nightly tableau. The entire formation inspired awe and reverence, appearing as a living myth in the sky—a spectacle so extraordinary that it became the foundation for the world’s earliest religious symbols, cosmic myths, and the archetype of the Golden Age2,7. A plasma column extending from the configuration down to Earth’s north pole gave the illusion of a great angel wearing a colorful, flowing robe.
The spectacle of the Saturn configuration, which lit up the Earth much brighter than the full Moon, made the night time seem more important than the daytime. So most or all cultures initially started their days at sunset, when the configuration was the brightest. During daylight it was dimmed by sunlight, much as the Moon is now.
ANCIENT DAYTIME RECKONING
Several ancient cultures began their day at sunset rather than at sunrise or midnight. The most notable examples include:
Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamians reckoned their day from sunset to sunset1.
Ancient Greeks: The Greeks also began their day at sunset3,6.
Ancient Israelites / Jewish Tradition: The Jewish day has been reckoned from sunset to sunset since antiquity, a practice that continues in Jewish religious observance today4,5,7. This tradition is rooted in biblical texts and was adopted by early Christians for certain observances2,7.
Medieval Europe: Influenced by Jewish tradition, medieval European societies often marked the beginning of religious and festival days at sunset, a practice reflected in the timing of events like Christmas Eve2,7.
Other cultures had different conventions:
The Romans and Chinese eventually marked the start of the day at midnight3,7.
In pre-1926 Turkey, the "Turkish" time system counted hours from sunset7.
In summary, ancient Mesopotamian, Greek, and Jewish cultures are the primary examples of societies where the day began at sunset, a tradition that influenced later religious and cultural practices in the West1,3,4,5,6,7.
The choice of midnight as the start of the day in both Roman and Chinese systems was primarily a matter of practicality and astronomical reasoning.
For the Romans, the transition to using midnight as the civil day's starting point likely stemmed from the difficulty of precisely determining sunrise or sunset, which vary by season and location. Midnight, as the opposite of noon (the sun's highest point), provided a fixed, astronomical reference point. Plutarch speculated that since the beginning of day and night is hard to determine at sunrise or sunset due to their variability, it made sense to use the sun's nadir (midnight), when its course turns back toward rising, as the day's start1,2,7. Over time, this convention became formalized in Roman civil life, even though daily activities were still organized around daylight hours7.
For the Chinese, the adoption of midnight as the day's beginning was also linked to astronomical observation. The Chinese divided the day into 12 double-hours (shichen), and midnight marked the start of the first shichen. This system was practical for official record-keeping and aligned with the movement of celestial bodies, which could be tracked independently of the changing times of sunrise and sunset throughout the year.
In both cultures, midnight was chosen for its consistency and its relationship to the sun's position, making it a logical, if not immediately intuitive, marker for the start of a new day1,2,7.
SUPPORT FOR SATURN THEORY
The tradition of ancient days beginning at sunset is often cited by Saturnist theorists like Ev Cochrane and David Talbott as evidence for the special status of Saturn in archaic cosmology. According to these theories, Saturn was not just another planet but was regarded as the "primeval sun" or the "sun of night"—a celestial body whose appearance or dominance began as the visible sun set1,5,8.
How Sunset as Day's Start Supports Saturnist Theories:
Saturn as the "Sun of Night": In ancient Mesopotamian and Near Eastern traditions, Saturn was sometimes associated with the sun, not because it shone as brightly, but because it was seen as the ruler or steady light of the night sky, coming into prominence as the sun disappeared1. This association is echoed in mythological texts and later interpretations, where Saturn's emergence after sunset symbolized the start of a new day or era5,8.
Mythic Inauguration of the Day: David Talbott, in The Saturn Myth, argues that myths describing Saturn "coming forth" to inaugurate the day at sunset reflect a memory of a time when Saturn was the dominant celestial body, especially visible or significant at night5,8. The archaic day beginning at sunset is thus seen as a ritual echo of Saturn's supposed ancient prominence.
Planetary Hours and Saturn's Primacy: In ancient astrological systems, such as those described by Vettius Valens, the planetary hours began at sunset, with Saturn often presiding over the first hour, reinforcing its association with the transition from day to night and the beginning of the new day2.
Symbolic and Ritual Continuity: The sunset-to-sunset reckoning is interpreted by Saturnists as a cultural fossil, preserving the memory of Saturn's role as a cosmic ruler whose "day" began when the sun set, marking a shift from solar to Saturnian authority in the sky5,8.
In summary, the ancient custom of starting the day at sunset is used by Saturnist theorists to support the idea that Saturn was once regarded as a central, even solar-like, figure in the night sky, whose appearance after sunset marked the true beginning of timekeeping and ritual cycles in early societies1,5,8.
WHY WAS EGYPT DIFFERENT?
According to Ev Cochrane and other Saturn theorists, the Egyptian sun god Ra was originally a name for Saturn (or Mars) during the era of the so-called "Saturn configuration," when Saturn appeared as a dominant, stationary celestial body in the polar sky1,4,5,6. After the breakup of this planetary configuration—an event marking the end of the mythic Golden Age—the visible sun took over Saturn's former role, and the name "Ra" was quickly transferred to the solar orb1,4.
This rapid transfer meant that Egyptian religious and calendrical practices were reoriented around the visible sun. As a result, Egyptians began their day at sunrise, reflecting the new solar focus, rather than at sunset as in older traditions that honored the night sky's dominant body (Saturn)1,4. Thus, the sunrise-based day in Egypt is explained by Saturnists as a cultural adaptation to a changed sky, where the name and worship of Ra shifted from Saturn (or Mars) to the sun, and daily timekeeping followed suit.
Saturnist theorists, such as Ev Cochrane, argue that many ancient myths and calendar systems traditionally linked to Sirius are better explained by Venus's prominent cycles and symbolism. However, if Egypt’s calendar was indeed based on Venus rather than Sirius, the fact remains that the Egyptians started their day at sunrise, not sunset—a practice seemingly at odds with Saturnist claims about sunset-based day reckoning reflecting Saturn’s primacy.
Cultural and Theological Context: Saturnist theories primarily focus on the mythological and ritual centrality of Saturn (or Venus, in some reinterpretations) in certain cultures, especially Mesopotamia and the Levant, where sunset marked the beginning of the day. Egypt, by contrast, was a fundamentally solar-oriented civilization, with the sun god Ra at the heart of its theology and daily life6. The sunrise beginning reflects this solar focus, regardless of which celestial body the calendar was tracking.
Venus as the Morning Star: If the Egyptian calendar was based on Venus, it’s notable that Venus is most spectacular as the morning star, appearing just before sunrise. This could naturally reinforce a sunrise-based day, as the appearance of Venus at dawn would herald both the new day and the beginning of Venus’s visible phase4. This aligns with Egyptian cosmology, where cycles of rebirth and renewal are linked to dawn and the rising sun.
Distinct Regional Traditions: Saturnist theorists acknowledge that not all ancient cultures followed the same calendrical or cosmological conventions. Egypt’s preference for a sunrise-based day start is seen as an expression of its unique religious and environmental context, not as a contradiction of the broader Saturnist hypothesis, which is more applicable to Mesopotamian and Levantine traditions.
Mythological Adaptation: The symbolic roles of Venus (or Saturn) could be adapted to fit local cosmologies. In Egypt, Venus’s synodic cycle and its association with creation and rebirth (e.g., the Benu bird, Benben stone) are woven into solar and stellar mythologies, but the practical day-to-day reckoning remained tied to the sun’s rising4,6.
In Summary
Saturnists would explain Egypt’s sunrise-based day start as a product of Egypt’s solar theology and environmental realities, not as evidence against the mythological importance of Saturn or Venus in other contexts. The adaptation of Venusian symbolism into a solar framework demonstrates the flexibility of mythic and calendrical systems across ancient cultures, rather than a universal rule about day reckoning4,6.