Stars of the Healers: Mengloth, Eir, and Hyndla
The very large constellation which the Greeks referred to as the Serpent-Bearer was also their constellation of medicine, associated with Aesclepias. It has a long association with those skilled in medicine and herbalism, although poisoning is also a warning with its main stars. Ophiuchus the Serpent-Bearer is actually two or three constellations – the figure who holds the snake, and the two sides of the serpent.
The brightest star is Ras Alhague, from slurred forms of Arabic words that scholars are still at a loss to translate. It is at the top of the “human figure” of the constellation, and this is Lyfjaberg, the Healing Mountain—the star of Mengloth the Healer, the giantess-goddess who traveled the Nine Worlds to learn healing, even to the Realm of Death itself.
The second brightest star is lower in the constellation—right in the center of the Serpent itself, and thus right in the middle of the wrestling with healing. While it is generally referred to as “the knee” of the figure, it looks more like the center of the snake. This is the star of Eir, the Aesir healing goddess whose specialty—as befits the healer of a warrior people—is surgery. The star is named Sabik in Arabic, meaning “Preceding”—Eir is the healer who steps forth first on the battlefield, while Mengloth stays on her mountain and lets patients come to her. We do not know where Eir has her hall, and she is counted as sometimes at Frigga’s Fensalir and sometimes at Lyfjaberg with her colleague. So as a wandering healer she moves on the serpentine river.
One more star in this constellation is of note. The third brightest of the Healer’s Stars is Celbalrai, the “left shoulder” just below Lyfjaberg’s mountaintop. Its name comes from the Arabic Kalb Al R’ai, the Shepherd’s Dog. As soon as I noticed this star, Hyndla the Blood-Hound Goddess of Genealogy came forth to claim it as hers. She also lives on a mountain in a range in Jotunheim, and so it makes sense that her star is placed “high” near Lyfjaberg. While she is not a goddess of healing per se, her study is that of genetics, and she no doubt has a great deal of experience in tracking diseases passed down in the bloodlines.