What did the stars mean in ancient Egypt?

A star; inside a circle it writes Duat, the netherworld. The ceilings of tombs are covered with them.

What the sign shows: A five-pointed star.
How Gerald Massey read it in 1907: In his star-lore the pole star matters most: the one point that never moves became the sign of what is eternal.
Where you see it today: Polaris still marks north, and five-pointed stars like this cover the burial chamber of Unas at Saqqara.
Where it stands in Massey’s book: Massey names it 148 times across the book. Book IX, p. 607: “Seven eyes upon one stone”; Book VI, p. 324: “Facing the pole star in prayer”; Book IX, p. 581: “The sun that rose in the west”.
Signs that look like it: Sun disk, Foreleg of the Bull and Horizon. The app’s Symbol Trainer sets them side by side, so the eye learns to tell them apart.
In Massey’s words: “The Pole-star was a type of the eternal, because apparently beyond the region of time and change.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book VI, p. 330)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Star. The app’s Symbol Trainer reads 42 signs this way, each with Massey’s own words and the page they stand on.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

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