From the most ancient times, humanity has looked to the skies to work out the affairs of things on this Earth. Professor Emeritus Michael York takes us through an astonishing journey on ancient beliefs and modern celestial observations to give us an overview of how this timeless pattern of human interaction with the environment continues to this day. Professor Emeritus Michael York is a UK-based American Religious Studies scholar who specialises in the study of pre-Christian European religion and its relation to contemporary Paganism. In 2003, he published 'Pagan Theology', in which he put forward the idea that the ancient pre-Christian and pre-Islamic religions of Eurasia, indigenous religions from across the globe, and contemporary Pagan faiths could all be constituted as forms of paganism. His publications include 'The Emerging Network' (1995), 'The Divine versus the Asurian: An Interpretation of Indo-European Cult and Myth' (1995), and 'Pagan Ethics: Paganism as a World Religion' (2016). His interests remain in New Religious Movements in general and in the more amorphous movements of New Age and Contemporary Western Paganism. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx