image: Wikimedia commons (link).
September 21 is the birthdate of Leonard Cohen (1934 - 2016), born this day in 1934.
His music and poetry defies easy categorization and explores the breadth and depth of experience and emotion. I would recommend listening to all of it. His most well-known song, of course, is "Hallelujah," which has been covered by over three hundred other artists over the years since it was first released.
"Hallelujah" contains numerous biblical allusions -- and applies them to the present moment with such immediacy and power that the song by itself demonstrates beyond any doubt that the stories of ancient myth are not about ancient kings and queens and heroes who lived in a far-off time and a far-off place but rather they are about us: about each and every man and woman, as Alvin Boyd Kuhn famously declared in his 1940 masterpiece, Lost Light.
People can argue about Leonard Cohen himself or about the meaning of this particular song, but the figures referenced in the song itself can be shown beyond any argument to be based upon celestial metaphor.
David who plays the secret chord is of course a reference to the singer and psalmist David, who can be convincingly shown through an abundance of evidence to be associated with the constellation Hercules in the heavens -- and the constellation Hercules is located immediately adjacent to the celestial harp or lyre, Lyra, as seen in the star-chart shown below:
If you look at it carefully, you can envision Hercules whirling a sling around his head, as David does in his encounter with the giant Goliath, recorded in the text of 1 Samuel. Of course, that same outline can be envisioned as a mighty sword or other weapon, as we see in many other myths involving the constellation Hercules from around the world -- including later in the battle between David and Goliath. After felling the giant with a stone from his sling, the text of 1 Samuel 17: 51 tells us that David takes the sword of Goliath and severs the giant's head.
Below is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) showing David using the sword of Goliath and preparing to cut off Goliath's head:
image: Wikimedia commons (link).
Note that the artist, working in the early 1600s, has clearly incorporated the outline of the constellation Hercules into his depiction of David raising the giant's sword over his head. He has also placed the forward foot of David upon the temple of Goliath's head -- exactly as the forward foot of the constellation Hercules can be envisioned to be standing upon the side of the head of the constellation Ophiuchus in the heavens! And note that this is no mere act of artistic license: the text of the ancient scripture itself tells us that in this act of taking the sword to slay Goliath, David ran forward and "stood upon" the fallen giant (see 1 Samuel 17: 51).
At the top of this post is a depiction of David playing upon his stringed instrument, painted by Giacomo del Po (1654 - 1726). Note that once again, the artist has chosen to depict David in the general outline associated with the constellation Hercules.
Later in the song "Hallelujah," after describing David's playing of the chord, the lyrics make reference to the encounter with Bathsheba, saying: "Your faith was strong, but you needed proof / You saw her bathing on the roof / Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you." The story of David and Bathsheba begins in 2 Samuel 11, in which we read:
And it came to pass in an eventide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
As I explore in my 2016 book Star Myths of the Bible, and again in my 2020 book Myth and Trauma, this encounter with Bathsheba has abundant clues to show us that it too is based upon the stars. David once again is associated with the constellation Hercules, which can be envisioned as standing upon the "roof" of the house-shaped central section of the constellation Ophiuchus. Refer again to the star-chart above in order to see that outline.
From there, David gazes down and sees the beautiful form of Bathsheba, engaged in the act of bathing. The constellation Sagittarius plays the role of a woman bathing (or the role of a goddess bathing) in numerous myths -- some of these are explored in my book Star Myths of the World, Volume Two: Myths of Ancient Greece. The constellation Sagittarius is positioned beside the brightest and widest part of the Milky Way galaxy, the part we now believe to be the Galactic Core or Galactic Center -- and as the Milky Way often plays the role of a mighty river or other body of water in the world's ancient myths, this widest portion of the stream often plays the role of a pool or grotto in which a character associated with Sagittarius will bathe.
Below is an artist's depiction of David seeing Bathsheba in the act of bathing, from around the year 1520:
image: Wikimedia commons (link).
In the artist's depiction, note that the king (David) is positioned above an arched portico in a colonnade, which is a common feature in depictions of this scene from the 1500s, and suggests the outline of Ophiuchus, above which we find the figure of Hercules, gazing downwards. To the left of that arched portico we see Bathsheba at her bath, located just where we would expect to find Sagittarius in relation to the constellations Ophiuchus and Hercules.
Below is another artistic depiction of the same episode, also painted during the 1500s, this time by Paris Bordon (1500 - 1570), and this time the artist has chosen to show the arm position of Bathsheba in a posture which directly evokes the "bow" feature of the constellation Sagittarius:
image: Wikimedia commons (link).
Compare the posture of Bathsheba in the above painting to the outline of the constellation Sagittarius from the star-chart included earlier: you should find the similarity to be extremely compelling. If you look closely, you should also be able to spot the far-off figure of the king, gazing down at Bathsheba from high above. Note that Zeus, who is also associated with the constellation Hercules, is also frequently described as becoming enraptured with the beauty of mortal women that he sees on earth, and descending from the heavens to seduce them.
These correspondences should demonstrate beyond the shadow of a doubt that the stories of the Bible, in common with the myths imparted to the other cultures of our earth, are based upon celestial metaphor. They are not about persons and events that took place in distant history, long before our day: they are about us, and they are intended to convey profound truth for us even in this very present moment.
In the case of the amorous affair between David and Bathsheba, in which David also treacherously arranges to murder Bathsheba's husband Uriah (who can be seen in the first illustration riding off to the battlefront with a letter in hand), the love affair produces a son, who becomes King Solomon -- an absolutely pivotal figure in the Bible, and one whose significance is also explored at some length in Myth and Trauma.
Why is this adulterous affair the one that produces David's successor, Solomon? That might seem very difficult to understand, until we begin to become fluent in the celestial language that the myths are speaking, and to start to understand the significance of Sagittarius and its position in the heavenly cycles, including the cycle of the year, where the sun begins to turn back upwards and where the ancient myths often depict the great "turning point" that is sometimes described as a "second birth" (see this previous post on the "Two Mothers" pattern in the world's ancient myths for some further elaboration).
I hope that you will have an opportunity to take the time today to listen to a quality recording of Leonard Cohen's original version of "Hallelujah" if at all possible -- and as you do so to consider the profound ways in which the ancient myths continue to speak to us to this day, if we are willing to listen to them, and to poets such as Leonard Cohen, who bring their words and their power into direct contact with our lives with new and startling perspectives we may not have seen or thought about before.