The gods and goddesses of Siderealism are organized into four major facets. Used for navigation through the Black, the spaceborn religion first personified, then deified the constellations and the space around them. Either from an abundance of gratitude at finding their way after a person lost in the black, or out of superstitious fear that they might upset the stars themselves and find themselves moving in the wrong direction.
Facet One - Polaris (The North Star)
Often depicted as a young woman with luminescent skin, dressed in soft white furs, always running ahead of the travelers she guides like a wildhearted girl. Her hair is the ebony of space with stars laid in it, trailing behind her like a path that always leads travelers home again.
Her position at the head of the pantheon reflects her status as a guiding star. She is most often prayed to by those who are lost, either literally or within their own lives, for guidance and understanding of the path they are on. She can be capricious, answering when it suits her, but most Siderealite believers trust her to lead them through harsh circumstances.
In temples, her star is often surrounded by a halo via the HUD in the dome (see Dome Temples, below). She is the star most often associated with ruling over the other constellations, though the degree of that command isn’t agreed upon between different parables and stories.
Facet Two - The Black (Empty Space)
Not usually personified, nor really an enemy to Siderealites. Viewed primarily as a source of struggle as well as exploration and discovery. Given respect, even in prayer, as their dead are often released into the embrace of The Black. Depicted rarely, usually by a void in a carving where it feels as though there should be an image.
The Black takes a position in the pantheon similar to the River Styx in old Earth mythology, or Hades itself. A world unto its own, one that the living can visit in suits, but never fully sink into without joining the parade of those who were floated into space in coffins. An endless sea that drifts traveling souls to the place of their next incarnation.
The Black is rarely prayed to, but spoken about often, and only occasionally asked for protection in the most dire situations. If a Siderealite is facing almost certain death, they might turn their pleas to The Black, in the hopes that it will swallow them quickly when death comes.
Facet Three - The Stars (and Constellations)
The constellations are considered minor deities, smaller gods with a smaller section of interest or command over Siderealite life. It is common for Siderealites to find a personal connection with a star from one of the five main constellations, but not uncommon to find people who experience a connection to one of the less popular and more niche stars or constellations in their sky. Stellar priests of the Siderealism are often said to not have favorites, but this is widely understood to be a white lie.
Facet Four - The Ship Itself
Not treated as a deity, but still a major facet of the religion is an appreciation for the vessel that supports life here among the stars. Siderealites are encouraged to donate their time or money to maintenance, and engineers are praised highly when they choose that path. Thanks are often given in prayer to the constant protection of the hull and the gift of the air, water, and food the ship provides. This often extends to include stations where Siderealites have found a more permanent home.
Orion, as from Earth lore, is called a hunter. His belt contains a triple goddess of stars, who tend to be worshipped as a group. Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka are depicted as mermaids who giggle together and lead travelers astray toward fun pursuits rather than letting them reach their boring destination. Orion is said to have tamed them, and worship of this constellation is most often a sign that someone has faced addiction in their lives and overcome it. Worshiping the triple goddess of his belt alone is considered crass or childish, but is not unheard of.
Arcturus, within the constellation of Boötes, is depicted as a man dressed in red with dark skin and fiery hair. He is the long-time lover of Polaris, though she refuses to marry him or bear his children as she has too many humans to care for. It is said she gladly points the way to him for other lovers who might fulfil his needs, as the arc of the Big Dipper leads right to his star. Worshipping Boötes as a constellation is a plea for love everlasting or gratitude for finding it, either in polyamory or in monogamy. The worship of Arcturus alone is most often undertaken by those with an unrequited love, who wish for the object of their affections to notice them.
Dauphin, a distinctively diamond shaped constellation, is depicted as a dolphin dragging a raft behind it through the Black. The raft can be empty, but often has several humans in damaged space suits recovering as they are pulled to safety. Dolphins are, generally, considered good luck and Dauphin features in many Siderealite tattoos. Worship of Dauphin most often comes after a close call in the vacuum, or after a loved one is lost to the Black, altars for lost crews and ships usually feature dolphin iconography heavily, in an attempt to coax Dauphin to bring their loved ones back. Often evoked in conjunction with Polaris.
Ooinuza boasts the brightest star in the night sky, a popular choice for favored god, Sirius. Interchangeable, as one dog considers itself part of a pack or family, Sirius and Ooinuza are the gods of loyalty and family. They are hearth tenders, protectors of food production, and they overlook pregnancies aboard ships and stations to keep both mother and child safe from outside dangers. To evoke Sirius or Ooinuza, one leaves wax shaped like food in a bowl outside one’s door or in one of the main areas of a ship. It is believed that the dog stars will coax evils toward the false food and use it as an offering to convince them to leave without harming the mother and baby.
The Engineers: Voiles, Carina, and Tomoza were once constellations that depicted the individual parts of a mythical ship. To Siderealites they are known as The Engineers, and are usually depicted as a man (Tomoza), a woman (Carina), and a genderless person with their face veiled (Voiles) in engineering outfits laid over with oil in a pattern, like embroidery. These are the gods of machinery, mechanisms, and ships. They are known to be capricious and silly, as likely to play tricks on you as assist you with your work. Most Siderealite mechanics have a favored Engineer, many have a favored star within those constellations. They believe they are protected from tricks and disrepair by their close, personal relationship with the minor gods within the constellations. Prayers with foul language are believed to be heard more readily than calm and measured entreaties, because it entertains The Engineers.
Star Reading & Celestial Charting
These are common practices within the religion. Either as a means of meditation and drawing your mind closer to the stars, or as a way of keeping old ways close to their heart. It is not uncommon for young people to take small shuttlecraft out alone and turn off assisted guidance to practice their navigation. Older Siderealites tend to keep star charts of their children and grandchildren’s days of birth in albums next to their holovids and images. Often, Siderealite couples have their star charts analyzed before marriage, and highlight the positives and synchronicities between them. A low number of synchronicities is considered very bad luck in a new marriage, and can even lead to a wedding being called off.
Going on the Float
This is a form of meditation and also has a place in temple services. Gravity is turned off in a ship, or zero-g is induced in a small area of a larger station, beneath large glass domes. These domes often have a HUD to outline different constellations or to simply let you look out into The Black toward the Stars. On Artemis, Siderealite temples are often made in disused offices for zero-g therapy. These offices are usually decorated with murals and mosaics until they are only recognizable as a place of worship, and not a place of business.
A much more serious form of Floating, usually only undertaken by the very devout or the very wealthy who can pay to access foolish risks, requires a Siderealite to exit the station entirely on a tether in an EVA suit to float free of the station or ship. This is not approved of by modern priests, as it is very dangerous, but used to be common practice.
Offering of Light
This is a practice reserved for religious holidays, birthdays, weddings, and deaths. Occasionally encouraged during times of serious trouble, but it would need to be severe. Small hatches on Siderealite ships can occasionally be found with airlocks inside that measure no more than 1x1ft, designed to hold and eject light into The Black. Candles, flashlights turned on, holographic displays, anything that gives light can be offered to The Black.
When a Siderealite dies, a message is flashed out into The Black with a light in morse code. The idea being: if photons survive and travel forever, the message will also survive and travel with your loved one into their next life to bring them comfort. Quiet or calm children are believed to have many of these messages surrounding them.
Pilgrimages
These are sometimes taken by more devout believers. Chartering or piloting a ship to the site of several well-known and preserved wrecks, Siderealite ships that weren’t spared from a long and difficult journey, and now hang like skeletons in The Black. It is customary to go without food or other supplies, and only use the water recycled by your ship from your waste. This was once considered honorable but these days undertaking a pilgrimage, especially such a strict one, is considered unnecessary and a little out-there. Completing a pilgrimage still earns you respect among the faithful.
Dome Temples
The preferred place of worship for Siderealites, usually repurposed from nightclubs, zero-g therapy offices, or botanical gardens. Anything with a dome and the ability to turn gravity off in a localized way. Some temples have true domes stretching over the entire worship area, while others make do with smaller domes over single rooms jutting out to the side of a station so they can still see the stars. Priests within the temples are available at all hours of the day, and are always happy to discuss a Siderealite’s relationship to the Stars.
Clergy
While there is an elected head-of-church within the religion, this position changes hands every 5-to-10 years, and it confers no real power to the person elected. The position only really serves as a deciding voice on disputes within the religion, and a way to fold in new cosmological understandings without the religion splintering too greatly over the vast distances of space.
Other than that, there isn’t a great deal of hierarchy within the religion itself, only the delineation between fully invested stellar priests who tend to be skilled astronomers, and the priests in training who serve as the temple’s janitors, create the star charts, and learn astronomy from the priests above them.
The Journey is Sacred
Exploration, adventure, charting new maps, and all other movement through the stars is holy. Even those journeys that end in disaster should be viewed as sacred attempts to commune with the stars around them. Death is just another journey, not to be feared, though this is a difficult tenet to follow.
Rebirth
As stars sometimes die and are reborn, the Siderealite faithful believe their light is swallowed by The Black and allowed to emerge elsewhere in the universe to be remade into another life. Death is neither an ending nor a beginning, we are all in the middle of a wheel that turns until it falls over.
Unity
Those who were guided to the same stations, and those who choose to board a ship together, are family of a kind. Siderealites believe in the importance of loyalty to those aboard your ship and closeness with them. Checking in on shipmates is encouraged, as are adoptive/found families. Polyamory is common enough, with Siderealite priests performing multi-person handfasting several times each year, though monogamy is still the default position of most within the religion.
Siderealites are a physically affectionate crowd, with their friends and families, as well as strangers where allowed. Families are known to drag their mattresses all out into the main room and sleep together from time to time, with younger children co-sleeping in their parents bed until they can safely get themselves to the emergency pod in the event of a loss of atmosphere. Usually sometime between 4-6yrs old. These behaviors, once common on older spacefaring ships for good reason, are believed to have inspired the importance of unity within the religion.
Depictions of gods and goddesses almost always include transparent EVA helmets that effectively appear as a “halo” around them. This is true of any paintings of those lost to The Black as well. Temples are often lit only enough to see your way through, allowing the darkness to envelope Siderealites so they can see the stars easily through the domes.
Many priests and devout faithful have glowing tattoos with luminescent ink, and all invested stellar priests wear robes with stars glittering across them in various constellations while they are working. Many of these robes are hand-embroidered gifts from families they helped along their path or loved ones who support their work.
Followers
Even the most devout follower is unlikely to look down on those who don’t share their faith. The religion is polytheistic, and primarily focused on sticking together against the difficulties of traversing the endless skies. This encourages very little in-fighting. Priests will hear your concerns whether or not you have attended their temples before, and can also be reached at certain times via holocall while you are on the drift.
There is plenty of room for less devout followers, or even the “only on religious holidays” crowd who come to the temple to float once or twice a year and otherwise never set foot in it. Siderealites’ relationship with the stars and the gods themselves are considered personal and largely private unless they choose to share it with you. They do not seek converts, but welcome them easily enough.
The Youth
Siderealite teenagers have a “secret” rite of passage, usually forgetting the adults in their lives were teenagers once as well, which involves sneaking into hydroponics and breaking off a small amount of the hallucinogenic mushrooms used primarily for medical purposes. Tripping on the Float is supposed to be a very unique and awe-inspiring experience for those who are bold enough to do it and risk the trouble it might bring. Tales of ‘bad trips’ are told as warnings, but this only stops a few.
Children who are raised in the religion are taught star charting very early, and as such can become intuitive and creative navigators or pilots. Even those who don’t take to charting find themselves appreciative of the skill in those who did.
Feeding the Engine - February 1, annually. A lesser holiday for tidying your home and repairing things that have needed a repair for too long. Refilling fuel and tending to your own health and happiness as well. This day is dedicated to The Engineers (gods) as well as engineers generally, and comes most often with donations to the repair and upkeep of the ship or station one inhabits.
Polaris Day - May 21, annually. A spring time holiday where the domed temples are filled with colored lights for offering to The Black, and where people write wishes/prayers on colored paper and then burn these for the Stars to see. Polaris and Arcturus are celebrated on this day as guides for luck in love and in choosing your path for the year ahead. Handfastings on this day are common, as are first dates. On Artemis, there is a similar holiday (Star Day) where the wishes are tied to trees, and with less focus on Siderealism or the gods themselves.
Irukaza - Sept 13, annually. A holiday to celebrate Siderealites who are coming of age, whether it is children who are old enough now to perform certain tasks for the ship, new adults who are considered full crew members now, or people who have become parents in the year just passed. A special unleavened bread is baked in the shape of a dolphin, to honor the fact that leavening agents were not always useable in space travel, and is decorated with sugar crystals in the patterns of important constellations.
Sirius Day - November 2, annually. A day when traveling Siderealites come home from The Black for 24 hours to be safe with their families. The celebration consists of a large feast and communal sleeping within family and friend groups in the main room of homes around the station. Sirius and Ooinuza are highlighted on this day, as protectors of the harvest. Pregnancy announcements on this day are considered very blessed. Artemis celebrates a version of this holiday a few days after the Siderealite holiday (known as Harbor Day).
Christmas - December 25, annually. Siderealites also celebrate Christmas in a fairly traditional manner, though it is known to be an adopted holiday from outside the religion, they have embraced it with enthusiasm. Siderealites specifically celebrate more on Christmas Eve than on Christmas Day itself, because they believe the Stars are busy on the day–having also adopted the holiday of their worshippers.
Note: Siderealism is practiced all throughout the galaxy, and temples can be found on the majority of space stations and, far less often, planetside.