Did The Vikings Use a Solar Stone Crystal to Navigate Cloudy Seas?
Vikings dominated the North Atlantic seas for at least 300 years, but how did they sail across great distances with incredible accuracy, without a magnetic compass? A long-held theory about Vikings using crystals for navigation may have been proven true with modern science.
The Vikings, the great north seamen, sailed from Norway to Greenland and many parts in between. They were known to have amazing maritime navigation skills, by using the sun to plot their position on the globe. But scientists have wondered for years how they could navigate when they couldn’t see the Sun. Enter the sunstone, or solar sign, a crystal that when held up to a cloudy sky, can help to locate the Sun.
For years the use of Sunstones has been nothing but a theory based on a legend. Such as this mention in the tale Rauðúlfs þáttr:
“The king made people look out and they could nowhere see a clear sky. Then he asked Sigurður to tell where the sun was at that time. He gave a clear assertion. Then the king made them fetch the solar stone and held it up and saw where the light radiated from the stone and thus directly verified Sigurður’s prediction.”
Ancient Sound Technology; The Breath of Creation
Crashing waves. The thump of a palm against a taut drum skin. The wail of a new born baby. Sound is our tether to the present, to one another, and to our deep and ancient sense of the world. Throughout the ages, ancient sound technology, created through voice, instruments, and the natural world has provided healing and spiritual connection.
Every ancient civilization is based on the belief of the sanctity that is sound, from the Old Testament’s verse, “and God said, let there be light,” to the meditative Aum of the Hindu tradition; sound represents a spiritual significance that is essential to the human relationship to nature, self, and one another.
The first ancient people known to use sound as a healing power are the indigenous people of Northern Australia. The ancient culture created a kind of sound healing expressed through the didgeridoo, or its ancient name, the yidaki. Made from fallen eucalyptus branches hollowed out by termites, the didgeridoo is considered to be the oldest wind instrument, dating back more than 40,000 years.
Used in ceremonial rituals and for its healing properties, the didgeridoo was also a way to communicate across far distances due to the unique sound waves which are believed to be able to be heard through the Earth. The low frequencies produced by the didgeridoo are thought to heal, help with mobility, and open up energetic flows.
“He who knows the secret of the sound knows the mystery of the whole universe” – Hazrat Inayat Khan
North American indigenous cultures incorporated “reciprocal participation” in their tribal ceremonies with a complex and interconnected musical exchange that ranged across nations and tribes. Used for ritualistic purposes, creative expression, and healing, making and sharing music has always been central to Native American daily life.
According to the American Indian Heritage Foundation (AIHF), “ [u]nusual, irregular rhythms and a somewhat off-key style of singing are used. No harmony is ever incorporated, although sometimes many people sing at once, and other times the vocals are solo. The Native American vocals are passionate, used to invoke spirits, ask for rain or healing, or are used to heal the sick.”
AIHF states that “many researchers feel that Native American music is some of the most complex ever performed. The tensing and releasing of the vocals combined with varying drum beats make it a very intricate form of art.
In ancient Egypt, seven vowels served as sacred sounds, creating a strong euphony, or harmonic convergence. In addition to the human voice, Egyptian high priestesses played the sistrum in ceremonies, a kind of rattle with metal discs attached to it that generated an “ultrasound” to enhance healing, and which is still in use today. The ancient Egyptians believed so strongly in the power and sanctity of sound that there are no vowels present in their written language of hieroglyphics.