A Khoi San myth tells of the creation of the Milky Way.

A girl dancing around a night fire threw embers into the night sky.

 

 

Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 1989-90.  One of a series named ‘Zulu: the space above your head’.

Gavin Jantjes, born South Africa, active Europe.  Smithsonian Museum of African Art, Washington, DC

 

They persisted and slowly the coals formed the stars and the ash the shimmering Milky Way. 

 

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Dung beetles have been under study for years for their biology and behaviour and for their beneficial effect on soil ecology.

 

It is believed that, of the 8000+ species of dung beetle, at least 600 roll balls of dung away from the source of the animal excrement to bury them underground where they feed on it in safety. They also use these balls to lay their eggs.

 

 

as below

 

Others bury their balls of dung directly under the excrement and do no rolling. 

 

Scarab, New Kingdom, Egyptian blue, gold, ca. 1550–1479 BCE, Egypt. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

The beetle species, Scarabaeus sacer, a talisman, closely allied with the sun, and symbol of resurrection, was venerated in ancient Egypt.

 

 

During daylight, many species use the position(s) of the sun, when it is visible, to calculate straight lines to move their balls away from source and competitors.

 

When the sun is not visible, they use the variations of the sun’s polarized light  – to which our species is insensate – as it traverses earth atmosphere to calculate the straight line of its path to safe haven.

 

Others use the polarized light of the moon when the moon is visible.

 

2006:  Marie Dacke and her colleagues at Lund University discovered that one species of dung beetle, the nocturnal Scarabaeus satyrus, navigates a straight line away from the source of its food by using the Milky Way when the moon is hidden.

 

 

 

Funerary Jewelry from the Tombs of the Three Foreign Wives of Thutmose III, c.1479-1425 BC; gold, melon beads on wire, faience, sweret bead on wire. New Kingdom Dynasty, Thebes, Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Scarabaeus sacer was venerated in ancient Egypt.

 

 

The eyes of Scarabaeus satyrus, and all other dung beetles, are too weak  to identify individual stars or constellations.

 

On moonless nights,  it interprets the light gradient across the Milky Way – from one of its sides to the other and from dark to variations of light – to move in a straight line with its ball  of dung. 

 

 

photo from Shutterstock of a dung beetle moving its ball of dung

 

 

Thus, it avoids going round in circles and having to fight to protect its food.

 

Scarabaeus satyrus is the first such animal to have been found interacting with the Milky Way in this way.

 

A life force which is animal and one which is not, operating in an animate universe.