The Puzzle Methodology of "On that Glorious Day"

To solve the puzzle you need to identify the characters, where they are in the sky, and at what date would they be in that position. There's also a couple of events that happen that you have to recognize. I do not give away the answer in this text, but I do detail who is who and how to go about solving the puzzle to figure out which date I was born on. I first give the clues, then I give the method.

So I was born in Scotland County, North Carolina. This is more for the flow of the prose than anything else, so it's not really needed all that much. It does help with one clue if you really want to be sure that this configuration of the planets and such is unique. I was originally going to let the puzzle actually give the time, which means you need to know the location, but decided against it.


Here's the clues:

"As the sun struggled to break the dawn of day":  This means that it is the morning sky being referenced. So the events described after this mean the sky looked this way at dawn.

"morning star...glowed above the archer's arrow":  Venus was in Sagittarius.

"nearby...wing-footed messenger combined his light to hers":  Mercury was close to Venus (within a few degrees).

"god of the sea lumbered among the scales":  Neptune was in Libra.

"war god danced about the head of the virgin maiden":  Mars was in Virgo.

"keeper of the dead rode upon the tail of the lion":  Pluto was on the "tail" of Leo.

"castrated first ruler was trampled between the feet":  Uranus was between the "feet" of Leo.

"day gave way to night":  Now were talking about dusk, the evening sky.

"Cronos...stealing a cool drink from...water bearer":  Saturn is in Aquarius.

"king of the gods rested his head upon the Golden Fleece":  Jupiter is in Aries.

"goddess of the hunt speared the shoulder of the bull":  The moon is in Taurus.

"emersion within the shadow of Tellus the month before":  There was a total lunar eclipse the month preceding the month in which I was born.


Method of solving the puzzle:

So now you have all the clues, you should be able to solve the puzzle if you know how to use the time skip/step functions of your planetarium program. People that know me can cheat a little because they know my age. But that's not necessary.

I use the morning (sunrise) and evening (sunset) sky as a time frame for the observations. To solve the puzzle, I started with the objects that move the slowest. Once I get those in position, I know they will stay there a while.  And although I do reference specific regions of the mythological signs, it doesn't matter all that much except for the fastest moving objects.  I basically work to get the date when the planet crosses the constellation boundaries and are in the general area.

I start with Pluto. I back up in time until Pluto is near the tail of the Leo. This gets you within a few years of the time.

I then switch to the next distant planet, Neptune, and keep backing up in time until it is in Libra. Just so happens, it's already in Libra so I don't have to worry with it.

Next comes Uranus. I back up until it is between the feet of Leo. Which feet?  Doesn't matter because since it moves slowly, just getting it near Leo will work.  For my date of birth, this gets you within a year or two.

Next comes Saturn. I back up until it's in Aquarius. This only gets you a little bit closer to the date.

Next comes Jupiter. I back up in time until it is in Aries. This gets you to within a few months.

Next comes Mars. I back up until it's near the head of Virgo. This only helps to move you a few days closer.

Next comes Venus. I back up until it's in Sagittarius. You're now within a month of my birth date.

Next comes Mercury. I need to back up until it's in conjunction with Venus. For my birth date, it's already in conjunction so I don't have to worry with it.

Next comes the fastest moving object, the Moon. I back up until it's in Taurus. This can be tricky. The Moon moves very fast so you need to really use the clues. Remember that I give times of the day for the observations, morning and evening. The Moon description is the evening sky, at sunset. The moon actually spends a couple of days within the constellation of Taurus. So how do you determine which day? Back to the clues! I back up until the Moon is on the shoulder of the bull. "Where's the shoulder?", you might ask. It doesn't matter because out of the two possible choices, one has the moon between the horns, which is definitely not on the shoulder. You should now have the date of my birth. It's nailed down even better because you could check further to verify that the moon was totally eclipsed in the month before this date (which is how knowing where I was born might come in handy).


* Back to home page *