Starlore

Starlore refers to the body of knowledge, myths, and folklore associated with stars and other celestial phenomena. It includes star naming, constellations, observations of celestial events, and the ways communities have used the heavens for navigation, calendars, and ritual life. The concept is inherently cross-cultural and varies widely: many traditions attach stories, deities, or moral meanings to patterns in the sky, while others treat stars as markers for seasonal changes or travelers’ guides. In addition to narrative material, starlore encompasses practical astronomy embedded in cultural practice—such as recognizing asterisms, tracking heliacal risings, or aligning structures with celestial cues.

Scholarly study of starlore sits at the intersection of cultural astronomy, anthropology, and history. Researchers document and compare how different societies interpret the same stellar phenomena, noting how trade, migration, and contact shape shared motifs or divergent myths. Starlore also informs modern education, literature, and media, where it provides a source of inspiration and a means to communicate scientific ideas through storytelling. In contemporary usage, starlore is often treated as a descriptive label rather than a formal discipline, used to discuss non-scientific cultural knowledge about the cosmos. The term itself combines star and lore, reflecting the dual nature of the sky as both observable science and a field of human meaning.