Worship of heavenly bodies
The worship of heavenly bodies is the veneration of stars, the planets, or other astronomical objects as deities, or the association of deities with heavenly bodies. In anthropological literature these systems of practice may be referred to as astral cults.
The most notable instances of this are sun gods and moon gods in polytheistic systems worldwide. Also notable are the associations of the planets with deities in Sumerian religion, and hence in Babylonian, Greek and Roman religion, viz. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Gods, goddesses, and demons may also be considered personifications of astronomical phenomena such as lunar eclipses, planetary alignments, and apparent interactions of planetary bodies with stars. The Sabians of Harran, a poorly understood pagan religion that existed in Harran during the early Islamic period, were known for their astral cult.
The related term astrolatry usually implies polytheism. Some Abrahamic religions prohibit astrolatry as idolatrous. Pole star worship was also banned by imperial decree in Heian period Japan.
Etymology
Astrolatry has the suffix -λάτρης, itself related to λάτρις latris 'worshipper' or λατρεύειν latreuein 'to worship' from λάτρον latron 'payment'.In historical cultures
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is worldwide the place of the earliest known astronomer and poet by name: Enheduanna, Akkadian high priestess to the lunar deity Nanna/Sin and princess, daughter of Sargon the Great. She had the Moon tracked in her chambers and wrote poems about her divine Moon. The [|crescent] depicting the Moon as with Enheduanna's deity Nanna/Sin have been found from the 3rd millennium BCE.Babylonian astronomy from early times associates stars with deities, but the identification of the heavens as the residence of an anthropomorphic pantheon, and later of monotheistic God and his retinue of angels, is a later development, gradually replacing the notion of the pantheon residing or convening on the summit of high mountains. Archibald Sayce argues for a parallelism of the "stellar theology" of Babylon and Egypt, both countries absorbing popular star-worship into the official pantheon of their respective state religions by identification of gods with stars or planets.
The Chaldeans, who came to be seen as the prototypical astrologers and star-worshippers by the Greeks, migrated into Mesopotamia c. 940–860 BCE. Astral religion does not appear to have been common in the Levant prior to the Iron Age, but becomes popular under Assyrian influence around the 7th-century BCE. The Chaldeans gained ascendancy, ruling Babylonia from 608 to 557 BCE. The Hebrew Bible was substantially composed during this period.
Egypt
Astral cults were probably an early feature of religion in ancient Egypt. Evidence suggests that the observation and veneration of celestial bodies played a significant role in Egyptian religious practices, even before the development of a dominant solar theology. The early Egyptians associated celestial phenomena with divine forces, seeing the stars and planets as embodiments of gods who influenced both the heavens and the earth. Direct evidence for astral cults, seen alongside the dominant solar theology which arose before the Fifth Dynasty, is found in the Pyramid Texts. These texts, among the oldest religious writings in the world, contain hymns and spells that not only emphasize the importance of the Sun God Ra but also refer to stars and constellations as powerful deities that guide and protect the deceased Pharaoh in the afterlife.The growth of Osiris devotion led to stars being called "followers" of Osiris. They recognized five planets as "stars that know no rest", interpreted as gods who sailed across the sky in barques: Sebegu, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
One of the most significant celestial deities in ancient Egyptian religion was the goddess Sopdet, identified with the star Sirius. Sopdet's rising coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile, a crucial event that sustained Egyptian agriculture. The goddess was venerated as a harbinger of the inundation, marking the beginning of a new agricultural cycle and symbolizing fertility and renewal. This connection between Sopdet and the Nile flood underscores the profound link between celestial phenomena and earthly prosperity in ancient Egyptian culture. She was known to the Greeks as Sothis. The significance of Sirius in Egyptian religion is further highlighted by its association with the goddess Isis during later periods, particularly in the Ptolemaic era, where Isis was often depicted as the star itself.
Sopdet is the consort of Sah, the personified constellation of Orion near Sirius. Their child Venus was the hawk god Sopdu, "Lord of the East". As the bringer of the New Year and the Nile flood, she was associated with Osiris from an early date and by the Ptolemaic period Sah and Sopdet almost solely appeared in forms conflated with Osiris and Isis. Additionally, the alignment of architectural structures, such as pyramids and temples, with astronomical events reveals the deliberate integration of cosmological concepts into Egypt's built environment. For example, the Great Pyramid of Giza is aligned with the cardinal points, and its descending passage is aligned with the star Thuban in the constellation Draco, which was the pole star at the time. This alignment likely served both symbolic and practical purposes, connecting the Pharaoh's eternal journey with the stars.
Sabians
Among the various religious groups which in the 9th and 10th centuries CE came to be identified with the mysterious Sabians mentioned in the Quran, at least two groups appear to have engaged in some kind of star worship.By far the most famous of these two are the Sabians of Harran, adherents of a Hellenized Semitic pagan religion that had managed to survive during the early Islamic period in the Upper Mesopotamian city of Harran. They were described by Syriac Christian heresiographers as star worshippers. Most of the scholars and courtiers working for the Abbasid and Buyid dynasties in Baghdad during the ninth–eleventh centuries who were known as 'Sabians' were either members of this Harranian religion or descendants of such members, most notably the Harranian astronomers and mathematicians Thabit ibn Qurra and al-Battani. There has been some speculation on whether these Sabian families in Baghdad, on whom most of our information about the Harranian Sabians indirectly depends, may have practiced a different, more philosophically inspired variant of the original Harranian religion. However, apart from the fact that it contains traces of Babylonian and Hellenistic religion, and that an important place was taken by planets, little is known about Harranian Sabianism. They have been variously described by scholars as -Platonists, Hermeticists, or Gnostics, but there is no firm evidence for any of these identifications.
Apart from the Sabians of Harran, there were also various religious groups living in the Mesopotamian Marshes who were called the 'Sabians of the Marshes'. Though this name has often been understood as a reference to the Mandaeans, there was in fact at least one other religious group living in the marshlands of Southern Iraq. This group still held on to a pagan belief related to Babylonian religion, in which Mesopotamian gods had already been venerated in the form of planets and stars since antiquity. According to Ibn al-Nadim, our only source for these star-worshipping 'Sabians of the Marshes', they "follow the doctrines of the ancient Aramaeans and venerate the stars". However, there is also a large corpus of texts by Ibn Wahshiyya, most famously his Nabataean Agriculture, which describes at length the customs and beliefs — many of them going back to Mespotamian models — of Iraqi Sabians living in the Sawād.
China
Heaven worship is a Chinese religious belief that predates Taoism and Confucianism, but was later incorporated into both. Shangdi is the supreme unknowable god of Chinese folk religion. Over time, namely following the conquests of the Zhou dynasty who worshipped Tian, Shangdi became synonymous with Tian, or Heaven. During the Zhou dynasty, Tian not only became synonymous with the physical sky but also embodied the divine will, representing the moral order of the universe. This evolution marked a shift from the earlier concept of Shangdi to a more abstract and universal principle that guided both natural and human affairs. In the Han dynasty the worship of Heaven would be highly ritualistic and require that the emperor hold official sacrifices and worship at an altar of Heaven, the most famous of which is the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.Heaven worship is closely linked with ancestor veneration and polytheism, as the ancestors and the gods are seen as a medium between Heaven and man. The Emperor of China, also known as the "Son of Heaven", derived the Mandate of Heaven, and thus his legitimacy as ruler, from his supposed ability to commune with Heaven on behalf of his nation. This mandate was reinforced through celestial observations and rituals, as astrological phenomena were interpreted as omens reflecting the favor or disfavor of Heaven. The Emperor’s role was to perform the necessary rites to maintain harmony between Heaven and Earth, ensuring the prosperity of his reign.
Star worship was widespread in Asia, especially in Mongolia and northern China, and also spread to Korea. According to Edward Schafer, star worship was already established during the Han dynasty, with the Nine Imperial Gods becoming star lords. The Big Dipper and the North Star were particularly significant in Chinese star worship. The Big Dipper was associated with cosmic order and governance, while the North Star was considered the throne of the celestial emperor. These stars played a crucial role in state rituals, where the Emperor’s ability to align these celestial forces with earthly governance was seen as essential to his legitimacy. This star worship, along with indigenous shamanism and medical practice, formed one of the original bases of Taoism. The Heavenly Sovereign was identified with the Big Dipper and the North Star. Worship of Heaven in the southern suburb of the capital was initiated in 31 BCE and firmly established in the first century CE.
The Sanxing are the gods of the three stars or constellations considered essential in Chinese astrology and mythology: Jupiter, Ursa Major, and Sirius. Fu, Lu, and Shou, or Cai, Zi and Shou are also the embodiments of Fortune, presiding over planet Jupiter, Prosperity, presiding over Ursa Major, and Longevity, presiding over Sirius.
During the Tang dynasty, Chinese Buddhism adopted Taoist Big Dipper worship, borrowing various texts and rituals which were then modified to conform with Buddhist practices and doctrines. The integration of Big Dipper worship into Buddhist practices highlights the adaptability of star worship in China, where it was syncretized with various religious traditions over time. The cult of the Big Dipper was eventually absorbed into the cults of various Buddhist divinities, Myōken being one of these.