Starworshippers

Starworshippers is a term used to describe individuals or groups who venerate stars or other celestial bodies as sacred entities or powerful symbols. In scholarly writing, it can refer to a broad spectrum of beliefs and practices centered on the night sky, from mythic reverence to ritualized devotion. The label is not a fixed denomination, but a descriptive category for traditions in which celestial phenomena are central to cosmology, identity, or ritual life.

Historically, many cultures connected stars to gods, omens, and calendars, and they developed rituals, myths, and calendars around stellar observations. While not every culture that attends to the stars would identify themselves as starworshippers, astronomy and astral symbolism have repeatedly played a key role in religious and ceremonial life across regions such as the Near East, Egypt, Greece, and the Americas. Common elements in these contexts include calendrical rites tied to celestial events, storytelling that frames stars within a mythic world, and practices that align daily or seasonal activities with observations of the sky.

In modern times, the term appears in discussions of neopagan, esoteric, and occult movements, as well as in science fiction and fantasy literature, where starworshippers may be portrayed as groups worshipping stars as deities, cosmic forces, or sources of meaning and unity. The concept also arises in analyses of how people relate to the night sky, science, and the broader cosmos.

Related topics include astronomy, astrology, celestial mythology, religious studies, and neopaganism.