If you look at old manuscripts, or the doors of cathedrals, or stained glass or indeed most representations of the sign Cancer before the Renaissance, you won’t always be looking at a roundish, cosy old crab. Sometimes Cancer is a crayfish, sometimes an odd beetley thing, sometimes who knows?! In ancient Egypt, the constellation was named scarab, after the dung beetle, a creature of extraordinary importance in the Egyptian world. The dung beetle was associated with Khepri, the god of the rising sun, a creator god and bringer of life. Scarabs made of faience or carved from stone were popular amulets. Small ones must […]
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