zodiac and the insertion of Libra

[bozadi]

Apparently, Julius Caesar was not only closely associated with Goddess "Venus" but he was also somewhat responsible for the inclusion of Venus' actual astrological sign "libra" into the zodiac, making it consist of 12 rather than 11 signs (completing it?).

From wikipedia item on constellation libra (emphases added):

Libra was known in Babylonian astronomy as MUL Zibanu (the "scales" or "balance"), or alternatively as the Claws of the Scorpion. The scales were held sacred to the sun god Shamash, who was also the patron of truth and justice.

It was also seen as the Scorpion's Claws in ancient Greece. Since these times, Libra has been associated with law, fairness and civility.

 

[bozadi]

Another website says Libra was included in the zodiac "during" the reign of Julius Caesar:

From: davidmalin.com/fujii/source/Lib.html

Libra, The Scales is an ambivalent constellation in that it was created by the Romans during the reign of Julius Caesar from the rather empty patch of sky westward of neighbouring Scorpius.

 

[bozadi]

Since it is mentioned in historical sources that Libra was known in Babylonian astronomy, it follows that Libra couldn't have been "invented" by Romans. Apparently ancient Greeks didn't take Libra as an independent "sign" but it is said that Romans did (kind of "reinvented" it), and they seem to have associated it with the Julius Caesar's "justice" (celestial scales held by Caesar). I'll examine a few web sources which say so, and hopely share here my conclusions about them.

I also take a note of the C's session dialog:

Q: Another derivation of the word root of Scorpio is “skopos,” or “to see.” You said that the human race was seeded on a planet in the constellation Scorpio, and, therefore, when the zodiac was set up and the clues were laid out, it seems to me that the insertion of the sign of Libra was designed to take power away from human beings, to take their hands away, to prevent them from seeing, to make them defenseless. Is this imagery close?

A: On track.

 

[moyal]

Has anyone actually managed to find a complete and clearly visible photo or at least a complete sketch/drawing of the zodiac column?
Here my preliminary result of the attempt of a reconstruction:

View attachment SacradiSanMichele_Tierkreiszeichen.jpg

Note that there are actually 12 (twelve!!!) cartouche arranged on top of each other.
The top one, however, does not appear to have a representation of a zodiac sign, nor does it have an inscription on the edge. But I'm not sure what is actually depicted there:

View attachment Zodiaco_12thCartouche_Sacra_di_San_Michele_.jpg

 

[moyal]

Also, at least "Leo" appears on the feet of another column:


View attachment Portale_dello_Zodiaco,_Sacra_di_San_Michele_31.jpg

 

[Michael B-C]

Also, at least "Leo" appears on the feet of another column:

View attachment 79851
View attachment 79854

Your recent posts moyal have made me feel most amiss for not having posted the remainder of the mountains of research I did on this matter back in 2021 during the height of the unmentionable C word...

Anyway, I don't have much spare capacity at present to delve back into all the detail I uncovered at that time, but for those who are interested you have prompted me to at least post the full reconstructions of all the pillars/columns I put together back then.

Here is a reminder of the complete arch and its kaleidoscope of columns as viewed from the outside:



Also to remind from my previous post, below is the sketch I did for closer orientation with regard to the 'portal pillars' that jut out into the threshold of the door and which contain the most complex set of images:




Coming up the stairs towards the open air:

The LEFT PILLAR'S outward faces (RED) hold:

A - IMAGES: Various Constellations (from both Northern & Southern hemispheres) + 2 lines of text (A1 on left, A2 on right)
B - IMAGES: Flora & Fauna + 2 lines of text (B1 on left, B2 on right)
C - BLANK

The RIGHT PILLAR'S outward faces (PURPLE) hold:

A - IMAGES: 11 Zodiac Constellation ('signs') + 1 line of text (A1 on left, A2 on right is blank)
B - IMAGES; Various Flora, Fauna & Human Type Figures + 2 lines of text (B1 on left, B2 on right)
C - BLANK

There are 6 other pillars on the left (with the possibility that a 7th was removed/destroyed at some point - but it may also have been deliberately left blank) and a further 7 on the right. I will try and come back to these and post all the complete images of these 13 extra oddities.

I'll start with the RIGHT PILLAR in line with your previous post...



... the below are the individual images in close up detail. They are unique in design but of course most notable of all that they comprise 11 not 12 'signs'/constellations as Scorpio and Libra are joined as one single 'sign'/constellation as per the ancient world e.g. Babylon and early Greek:

 

[Michael B-C]

For those who want to see the images in their actual orientation on the pillar, here they are again from bottom up:


What we should note is that there is however a 12th image at the very top of the pillar design and before the first sign/constellation of Aquarius. I hunted everywhere to see if I could find a decent picture and the below is the best I could come up with:



Very hard to make out - but my instinct is that in line with other elements that appear across the whole design, this is a symbolic representation of a portal, or a plasma phenomena, or some other great transitional event that will accompany or signify the cosmic 'change' that the age of Aquarius will witness.

That's my tuppence ha'ppeny interpretation anyway...

Thoughts anyone?

 

[Michael B-C]

As for RIGHT PILLAR face 'B'

 

[Michael B-C]

Moving on to LEFT PILLAR face 'A':







What these 12 images with their 19 constellations inside denote, I have never had time to thoroughly explore...

 

[Michael B-C]

Finally LEFT PILLAR face 'C':









So that's all individual/collective images on the two principle protruding pillars.

As to their message/purpose...?

 

[bozadi]

Some astrological or astronomical websites say (or quote) that Libra was personally added by Julius Caesar into the zodiac in accordance with his calendar reform.

The following excerpt is from a book entitled “Astronomical recreations, or, Sketches of the relative position and mythological history of the constellations (1824)”

Google ebook link (might need sign-in):

Astronomical Recreations; or, Sketches of the relative position and mythological history of the constellations - Google Play

play.google.com

The Balance was introduced into the Roman zodiac, and perhaps was first added to the constellations, in the time of Julius Cæsar. Before this, the place of Libra was occupied by the projecting claws of the Scorpion. If this supposition be true, the zodiacs of Dendera and Estné, and others which contain this sign, cannot be dated farther back than the reign of that emperor. Humboldt, in his magnificent work on the monuments of the native American nations, seems to think that although Julius Cæsar did introduce Libra into the Roman calendar, still it might have been used by the Egyptians and other nations before that time. He observes, that in the Arabian hemisphere the belt of Orion is designated by the beam of a balance, and one of the Lunar stations of the Hindoos bears the same appellation. "It cannot be denied, " he continues, "that the figures of the Egyptian, Chaldean, and Grecian zodiacs were known in India from a period of unexplored antiquity, and it is probable that when Julius Cæsar added the Balance to the Roman zodiac, he did it at the suggestion of Sosigenes, a native of Egypt, who could not have been ignorant of the division of the ecliptic used in the East." There appears to us no force in these remarks. The Romans, we know, received from the Greeks and Egyptians the other signs of their zodiac, and if Libra then existed, why was it not added at the same time? Besides, we are assured that the most ancient Chaldean astronomers divided their zodiac into eleven signs only, making Libra a part of Scorpio.

And the following excerpt is from American Magazine of 1841, Vol 1 & 2

Google ebook link (might need sign-in):

The American Magazine - Google Play

play.google.com

About the time of Julius Cæsar, Libra was introduced into the Roman zodiac, supported by Scorpio.

In the reign of Augustus, however, Scorpio made to contract his claws, and relinquish the scales, which were then supported by the figure of a person supposed by some to represent Augustus, but probably intended to signify Jupiter, in compliment of Homer, who in his Iliad says,

"The sire of Gods his golden scales suspends
With equal hands."​

Manillius alludes to the balance as being supported both by Scorpio and by the human figure. The old poets all agree as to its being held up, but the moderns represent it entirely unsupported.

The following excerpt is from Edith R. Wilson, “The Story of Zodiac”, page 153:

(online: articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1913PA.....21..151W/0000153.000.html)

Among the Greeks, as in earlier usage, Scorpio was considered a double sign, and his "Chelae", or Claws, continued to protrude themselves menacingly towards Virgo, their next door neighbor in the zodiacal coterie, until shortly before the Christian Era, when Hipparchus (150 BC.) is credited with having introduced the Balance to mark the Autumnal Equinox. The first undisputed appearance of this name, however, in astronomical literature, occurs in the Julian kalendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, so that the Romans also claim the sponsorship of this Sign, as betokening the equality of days and nights at the Equinoctial season, and with this thought, Manilius, the Roman poet of astronomy writes

"Then day and night are weighed in Libra's Scales,
Equal awhile"—​

a fancy often reëchoed by other poets, as by Thomson in his "Seasons," where he exclaims

"Libra weighs in equal scales the year!"​

As we grope our way back, however, through the zodiacs of antiquity, we shall meet with Libra, or at least with a Balance Sign again, though somewhat differently depicted and it may be that the Romans with their Equinoctial Sign, simply revived a lost symbol somewhat differently introduced. Homer wrote

"The Eternal Father hung
His golden scales aloft"​

at a time supposedly prior to Greek acquaintance with the zodiac and its signs. But with neither Greek nor Roman will we find the primitive titles of the Via Solie and its twelve-fold divisions. …

I don’t know enough to accept or reject the reality of an “astrological conspiracy” against humanity in the historical process of adding Libra into the zodiac as the seventh sign/constellation. I accept it as a distinct possibility in view of the session dialog mentioned before.

I also think that the Libran conspiracy might have a symbolic astrological meaning. One of the negative potentials of the sign Libra is about “deception”, although deception might also be used for a positive purpose depending on the situation and the intent.

The way Roman rulers created Christianity (Judeo-Christianity?) for their egotistical interests involves a colossal deception in line with the view “the insertion of the sign of Libra was designed to take power away from human beings, to take their hands away, to prevent them from seeing, to make them defenseless.” If I get it right, they aimed to “pacify” some very angry Jewish communities, to make them “obedient”. These are very “Libran” keywords. The potentials of any astrological sign can be used in a positive (STO-like) or negative (STS-like) way. It seems that those dark forces who hated Julius Caesar tried to impose the negative Libran potentials maximally to make people obedient and passive to their tyrannies.

The effort to degrade and erase the cult of Divus Julius seems to involve an endless series of deceptions and corruptions.

Some similar comments can also be made about the establishment of “Islam”, considering that the term have meanings such as “peace”, “submission”, etc.

Another thing that comes to my mind from the sessions is about the STS efforts to pacify or repress “male energy”, which can be described basically as “Arian” (the opposite of Libra). As I said, no astrological sign itself is positive or negative. They all have positive and negative potentials.

So, the addition or re-addition of Libra into zodiac might have a dual meaning. In terms of Julius Caesars’ bringing peace, law, justice to humanity, it is positive, but then as the powers that be establish their control again, they insidiously corrupt good and legitimate things to their benefit. They bring “order”, use organized religions etc. for this purpose but their order is tyrannical, they command complete obedience and assimilation into their ways.

 

[moyal]

...
What we should note is that there is however a 12th image at the very top of the pillar design and before the first sign/constellation of Aquarius. I hunted everywhere to see if I could find a decent picture and the below is the best I could come up with:

View attachment 79875

Very hard to make out - but my instinct is that in line with other elements that appear across the whole design, this is a symbolic representation of a portal, or a plasma phenomena, or some other great transitional event that will accompany or signify the cosmic 'change' that the age of Aquarius will witness.

That's my tuppence ha'ppeny interpretation anyway...

Thoughts anyone?

The first association that came to my mind are tentacles with suction cups, quasi "Cuthulu-style" surrounded by whirlpools of water.
The meaning would be, the element "water" -> Ocean -> Sea -> Space -> Ocean of Space -> Abyss -> Abyss of Space -> "Primordial Waters of Chaos":
"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."(Genesis 1.2.)
Note the circles in contrast to the corresponding "braided" squares on the other column. These could then stand for the element "earth".

 

[Michael B-C]

Curse it... posting again here has got me to thinking...

In truth, the subject of the role of the Zodiac as a depository of hidden arcane wisdom concerning the path in to matter and out again has haunted me for a decade or more so if you will excuse, I share some further thoughts on these two pillars - RIGHT AND LEFT - which one meets as one ASCENDS the staircase of DEATH and comes through the threshold out into THE LIGHT.

To remind of something pivotal from the C's:

Session 28 September 2002​

A: Life is religion.

Q: (L) What does that mean?

A: Life experiences reflect how one interacts with God. Those who are asleep are those of little faith in terms of their interaction with the creation. Some people think that the world exists for them to overcome or ignore or shut out. For those individuals, the worlds will cease. They will become exactly what they give to life. They will become merely a dream in the "past." People who pay strict attention to objective reality right and left, become the reality of the "Future."

Laura has written much intimating how the Zodiac came in to being as likely a means by which to monitor the comings and goings of 'specific gods/comets' from out their 'caves/recesses' in the sky as they traveled along the ecliptic/horizon.

Though this knowledge was lost exoterically over time, I still think it informed or led to certain esoteric understandings that in the great above and in its signs and symbols resides the secret of secrets concerning mankind's condition here on earth. For with these signs and symbols came change and transformation, death and rebirth and knowledge in many forms.

To cut a long story short Judicial/Royal astronomy - for good and ill - became Esoteric/Personal astrology.

What we have forgotten today is this linkage between levels of knowledge, including the idea that the Zodiac was a single story made up of its constituent parts/'chapters' and was meant to be read and understood that way. Today, we have lost this understanding, splintering this down into a semi-pastime for most whereby personal interpretations of the individual birth date component is all that matter (sic).

The Medieval/Renaissance religious mind - through Arabic sources and re-discovered Greco-Roman texts - was, however, still busy trying to uncover and utilize the lost wisdom of the past as a whole story; as a path called The Way - from birth to death, from joining with matter to leaving it - taken by the spiritual aspirant - as a way in and a way out, and as a symbolic tool by which to understand the deeper meaning and hidden secrets of The Work.

And that is what we find here at Sacradi San Michele and its 11 'sign' zodiac.

Dare we suggest that the RIGHT column containing the zodiac is meant to speak to the deeper self (right brain) whilst the LEFT is given as a specific guide (via the left brain) to certain paradoxes/details found within this fuller, deeper understanding ...?

Anyway, this is what I think you are meant to contemplate as you rise up the steps of death below you:


Excuse the rather sloppy representation above, thrown together in haste, to serve as our guide...

As you can see, each of the 11 circles containing 12 zodiacal symbols on the right is matched with a certain other constellation contained in a square on the left, most of which can be found in the same region of the sky as one of the 11/12. Squaring the circle, circling the square.

In the normal understanding of this teaching, each zodiac figure has a number of (usually 3) accompanying additional signifiers (constellations) that appear in close physical proximity to it in the sky. These help to add further meaning and serve to clarify aspects implicit within the 'struggle' the aspirant goes through in that particular area of their journey.

In the case here this is true of all but 3 of our pairings, which for some reason have a partner chosen instead from a far distant area of the sky map, one not normally associated with each other. I note for now these all fall in the section from/post Leo to Capricorn, and are spaced equally. Clearly this all has some additional purposeful meaning for the designer that is out of the ordinary.

One reason Capricorn is at the bottom now becomes clearer if one first remembers that one is intended to read the whole design as one ascends from the Stairs of Death - for Capricorn is associated with the stage of death - in all its forms (physical and spiritual) - when the aspirant is ready to let go of all selfish worldly desires and ambitions. There is more to this configuration than that, but I think it is implicit as a reason for not ending with Pisces as would have been the absolute norm of the time.

This may also be connected to the idea that there were actually two paths by which one could travel the complete circle - clockwise being the norm for all those who stumble unconsciously blindly through life without ever learning anything other than its troubles and turmoils, and anticlockwise, the path taken consciously by those few who have already absorbed its complex, multifaceted lessons and are therefore ready to ascend... therefore this design, beginning with Capricorn/death and ending at Aquarius/the sign of giving selflessly to the world, may be a way of suggesting to the keen eyed that this design is intended for those few who have already broken through to this way of being in the world...

We will take note first of the summit, however...

Why the designer chose to crown the column on the LEFT with Hercules, partnered by a (sadly) photographically indistinct form on the RIGHT becomes clearer now. Hercules and his 12 labors was a Greek epic of the journey of the hero through the entire zodiac so as to attempt to complete the Great Work. All classical epics - from Gilgamesh, to Jason, to Hercules and even on to the Gospel of Mark - were all in some way constructed as narratives that conveyed through their structure the symbolic struggles through each sign so as to attain through the Passion of life the highest achievement - the status of Savior of the World, that is ascension through life to the realm of spiritual immortality. This was a standard narrative form in the ancient world and well understood as such by those who knew how to read the signs symbolically hidden in the narrative structure. This means that what is suggested by the figure astride the zodiac is likely that of the full flower of life in bloom (matter redeemed by spirit, spirit redeemed through matter) which is the selfless culmination of successfully negotiating all the primary lessons on The Way.

As previouslymentioned, I suspect Aquarius comes next because each of the signs of the zodiac also represents a precessional age of approximately 2,150 years totaling a grand cycle of circa 25,700 years. We in our time are now officially entering the Age of Aquarius as the sun at the spring equinox graduates from rising in Pisces to rising in the constellation of the Water Carrier. In 2023, the location of the Sun on the March equinox was still just about in the constellation of Pisces but also right on the border with Aquarius and thus heralds the great transition and a time of enormous change for all humanity. Is this why the 15th century designer, still living fully in the age of Pisces as he did, chose to depict this forecast?

Looking one by one at the signs and their collaborative constellation, I'll start with Aries as per tradition, even if it is the third sign down on the right. When we complete the circle perhaps the distinctive layout here will then make more sense as per the eyes and intentions of Nicholas, the original designer.

I'm going to write in short-hand terms to give no more than a basic idea of what each stage represents in the grand scheme. To do it full justice would test the patience of the reader here - so these are just going to be key markers with much nuanced detail missing.

For further orientation as we progress, below is a typical modern layout of the total design.



Each sign subjects humanity to the influence of certain distinctive forces of illusion and of appearance here on earth, (that at the same time hide revelation and complete being), and thus provides certain tendencies common to all irrespective of the particular sign under which an individual is born. Each labor is thus shared by all.

1.


ARIES - the Ram
DELTOTON - the triangle

Aries signifies:

Arrival - the decision and the force of arrival of spirit as it descends into matter.
It is the Alpha - the beginning - the sign for Aries is in part symbolically the Alpha (godhead) turned upside down, and the means by which through a fine point, human life dramatically enters the material world.

It implicitly suggests two equal and opposite forces entering at the same time and converging as a singularity - spirit converging and uniting with matter.

It arrives however into life as a single indistinguishable point/union.

Head down, head first! Like a butting ram...

It is the sign of commencement - blind force but implicit with power...

In Aries is found the impulse which leads to the building of form, which for ages will constitute the prison house of the soul.

That is why it is the animal of sacrifice.

But it also denotes the raw divine power to escape this fate.

It is the sign, therefore, of strong and potent impulses, and of violent fluctuations and exaggerated efforts; often a sign of failure, but always of implicit ultimate success.


DELTOTON

The Ancient Greeks called Triangulum Deltoton (Δελτωτόν), as the constellation resembled an upper-case Greek letter delta (Δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet.

A small constellation, Triangulum is bordered by Andromeda to the north and west, Pisces to the west and south, Aries to the south, and Perseus to the east.

Delta – 4th letter of the Greek alphabet = In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 4 = numerical meaning of 4 despite being 3

and signifies...

The question of the above and the below being intermingled at the deepest level - a source of knowledge for both liberation and control...


The implicit sign for Aries and that of Deltoton intermingled...

That the forces of '4' at work in this domain immediately co mingle with the forces of '3' birthed from above to create the state of endeavor writhing in illusion...

***

It is thus very interesting that the designer here, rather than utilizing a traditional classical shape for his version of Deltoton overlays it with a form highly reminiscent of a Northern Celtic style akin to a Triskelion / triskeles, with an intertwined shape that has no beginning and no end...




To my eyes, however, it is covered in strange objects making it somewhat akin to the arms of an octopus...?



Probably over thinking... but is this intended as a powerful visual warning about the capacity of this place to hold you in its many intertwining tentacles...?

Anyway...



Celtic lore is said to associate a variety of meanings to the triskeles, with each of them dealing with some aspect of personal growth, human development, and spiritual progress. Examples of these are life-death-rebirth, past-present-future, and creation-protection-destruction.

We here might also think somewhat of the whirling of comets and the entry into our environment of forces from beyond the veil...

More anon.


EDIT: Just noticed a rather obvious matter - the use of 11 circles to contain 12 signs (by returning Scorpio to its original conjunct with Libra as a single unit) serves to amplify Aquarius - the 11th sign - as the purpose of all during the time of Aquarius.

Of course Laura's birth sign is Aquarius... just saying... .

 

[Michael B-C]

To reinforce how the Medieval/Renaissance mind thought about the Zodiac in its entirety, the following figure is but one of dozens of similar from the period that were central to the esoteric ‘theology’ of the Zodiac:



Starting at Aries as the crown of the head, all 12 ‘signs’ of the circle were correlated to a physical aspect of the upright human body, finishing with Pisces at the feet. However, this concept was also expressed as:



Here we see the implication fully visualised – the human body in all its forms encased within the waters of the full zodiac with the feet (fish) of Pisces touching the head (ram) of Aries.

Here therefore we have the esoteric mystery of Aries – apparently the head, the start of the journey but also implicitly already a hairs breath away from completion at the feet of Pisces… if only we knew it:

Session 11 March 1995

A: Yes, think of the Ruby slippers. What did Glenda tell Dorothy???

Q: (J) You can always go home. (L) You have always had the power to go home...

A: Yes.

Q: (L) So, we always have the power to return to being STO? Even in 3rd density?

A: Yes.

The mystery – the concurrent duality – of Aries is further amplified by its direct opposition to Libra, the strange also relatively recently separated out sign that is highlighted on the zodiac at San Michele by its representation as once having belonged within the claws of Scorpio (we will come on to that issue anon). There is some evidence to suggest that Aries itself was previously separated out from the body of Taurus the bull – so both signs represent some form of change, some additional element of ‘control’ that these two signs collectively signify.

It is worth remembering that going back the known origins of Aries, it originally first manifested in ancient Babylon as a figure called THE HIRED MAN which was also understood to be the Ram of Aries. What is interesting is that whilst on the one hand this human figure was seen to represent the professional worker of the fields, the tiller of the land, one available ‘to hire’ or ‘to rent so as to bring in the spring harvest, on the other, and by a linguistic sleight of hand, the same signs in Akkadian/Sumerian could also be read as ‘The sheep of appeasement or placation’.

If this was not enough, in some later texts Aries the Ram was written as ‘Mul Udu-Nita’. Mul was the universal sign for a god, the Udu sign represented sheep but was drawn as a quartered circle and was a vital constituent part of the term Udi-Ldim which meant ‘the wild sheep’ and was closely associated with the planets Mars, Saturn and Mercury, whilst the Nita sign was associated with virility. So perhaps here we have an ancient memory of the wild cometary ‘sheep’ that the sign of Aries contains as a distant memory and their association with fertility, power and new life.

I can’t help but come back to this idea of the worker upon the earth – hired for money – the labourer - being also the sheep of appeasement… the sacrifice of heavenly spirit in dust so as to appease the hungry, ever angry gods through its ‘sacrifice’…

Of course the ancient Greeks absorbed all this when they set Aries up as the Golden Fleece, a story rich with symbolism concerning the human condition, including the strange incident when the two children, brother (Phrixos) and sister (Helle), fly away to safety towards Colchis on the back of the Golden Ram, only for the girl to fall off its back and become forever lost in the deep waters of the Hellespont (Helen)….



I can’t help but think this has something to do with an ancient memory of the female energy becoming entrapped by STS and of the breakdown of the bicameral mind and the loosening of integrated and freely open connection between the left/right brain so as to further enable control… part of the fall from Eden… and Aries as the sheep of appeasement being associated with the mind, the crown of the head, says a lot…

When you also consider that the constellation of Aries is in very close proximity to the full story of Perseus – the ancient story of the one who completed the great task… then you get the picture that the sign of Aries both represents the potential for liberty and the means by which to maintain control all at the same time…

On to the second of our signs on the column in their traditional order.


TAURUS - the bull

ORION – The Hunter


Taurus signifies:

The raw fecund power of divine matter - The “sign of generation”,

The pull of attraction to matter and being in the world - both earthly and heavenly attraction, or of bringing together.

At its essence, the mystery and pull of sexual attraction.

The world of desire filled with the potency of desire.

What for the unguarded can become the great illusion and vainglorious glamour.

Taurus as the earth or body - Taurus, the bull, as symbol of the overpowering creative force that must be mastered and channelled for the good of others.

Taurus has for long had close association with the Moon/Venus - Taurian influence, is the potential glorification of matter and subsequent illumination – or deluded downfall - through the power of its medium

The opposite sign to Taurus is that of Scorpio, and these two signs constitute the field of a stupendous effort, for in one we must wrestle with the problem of sex, and in the other, finally overcome the great illusion once and for all.

Minos, King of Crete, who held the bull captive also possessed the maze in which the Minotaur lived and feasted on human flesh, and the maze has long been a symbol for the great illusion. The word “maze” comes from an old English word, meaning to bewilder, to confuse, to puzzle. The island of Crete with its maze and its bull is in part a symbol of the great illusion. It was separated from the mainland, and illusion and bewilderment are characteristics of the separated self.

The key to the labour found in Taurus is therefore the right understanding and application of the universal law of Attraction.

Understanding must grow of the interrelation between that which builds the form and the form itself; between the two poles, positive and negative; between spirit and matter; between the Self and the not-Self; between male and female, and thus between the desire implicit in opposites - Sex, desire, attraction, the instinctive urge to creation, the pull of the soul, the urge to divinity, the lure of matter for spirit.... quantum entanglement...

Taurus has a long connection to light, illumination and sound, as an expression of the creative force: what became known as “the Word made flesh”.

To the medieval mind Taurus was associated with the throat – the place where ‘the word’ becomes manifest in speech – both true (illuminated) and false (illusion).


ORION

Now we can see why the designer chose to pair Taurus with Orion – the divine, all powerful hunter who becomes blinded, and so who wades through water in search of the sun.

Orion is closely associated with the animal kingdom. In one Greek myth there is a link with Scorpius who the goddess Artemis had sting and kill Orion for daring to threaten to kill all living things. In a second story, Apollo, being jealous of Orion's love for Artemis, arranged for Artemis to kill him. Seeing Orion swimming in the ocean, a long way off, he remarked that Artemis could not possibly hit that distant object in the water. Feeling challenged, she sent an arrow right through it and so killed Orion; when his body washed up on shore, she wept copiously, and decided to place Orion among the stars.

To the ancient Sumerians Orion was known as The True Shepherd of Anu (the most ancient and highest of all the gods). He went by the name of Sitaddaru and played the role of messenger for the will of the gods, with his staff in hand and a bird by his side. In their mythology he too was struck by a weapon… this may also relate to the later shepherd who was beloved of Ishtar (Venus) and who makes a brief appearance in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In a passage that has been compared to the later Greek tale concerning Artemis, Gilgamesh taunts the goddess by recounting the suffering of her previous golden boy:

‘You loved the shepherd… who was forever heaping up glowing ashes and cooking ewe-lambs for you every day. But you struck him and turned him into a wolf: now his own herd-boys hunt him down and his dogs tear at his haunches’.

It is worth noting that though Orion in later mythologies is claimed to be facing off against the bull in the sky, he is more often associated with the dogs that surround him, namely Canis Major and Canis minor…

The C’s have previously referred to the importance of the various strands of tragic myth still attached to Orion – saying they are super old and that he is a representative of our distant past and our fall from greatness into matter and immersion into animal passions here on earth…

 

[Michael B-C]

The first quarter of signs is completed by Gemini, the 3rd sign of becoming, which is in some ways the consequence of the 1st and 2nd:


GEMINI - the Twins

LEPUS – The Hare

CANIS MAJOR – The Large Dog

CANIS MINOR – The Small Dog


Duality is an ever present tension throughout the entire Zodiac.

It is implicit in most signs – already so in the dual horns of both Aries and Taurus – but in Gemini for the first time, it becomes wholly explicit. And it does so via the first directly humanoid figures.

The twins – one divine (who will live forever), one human (born to die), one all spirit, one all matter, entwined in one another’s arms but at the same time separated.

In contrast to its opposite sign, Sagittarius, whose aim is singular and true, the twins of Gemini pull in two different directions whilst being linked through common origin. The twin arms of the body capable of so much, yet so often at odds – with itself. There is also here implicit the mystery of karma and reincarnation.

With the coming into matter of mind comes also the experience of duality. The lesson is the reconciliation of this apparent opposition whilst not succumbing to the lure of glamour implicit in matter, which can seduce the soul through worldly success and hinder its true expression.

Here to the fore arrives the issue of the personality – even that of seduction by the false personality – and subjectivity vs objectivity.

The relationship of the twins is pinned to that of tragedy; Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Cain and Able, Castor and Pollux, Romulus and Remus, the Discouri (and the killing of the Bull). Even the ‘two poets’ of the Shake-speare project for which the travails of Gemini are central:

One of these men is Genius to the other;​

​

And so of these: which is the natural man,​

​

And which is the spirit?​

​

The Comedy of Errors​

They represent, therefore, the two aspects of man’s being, the soul and the personality, the spiritual man and the human being through whom that spiritual entity is compelled to function in the material world of glamour and illusion.

The natural man – the consummate man – may fall foul of this trick upon his being and become seduced by the ability to pull from the world reward that appears to confirm his greatness – as his spirit lurks lost to view in the shadows.

Thus the at-one-ment of the lower with the higher self, of the mortal and the immortal aspects, is the objective lesson of this sign. The disciple must register contact with the soul – heed to the call of Mercury, the messenger of the gods - and recognize its preeminent spiritual qualities or risk becoming lost on the breeze (as an air sign) or in the arms of earthly seduction (Venus is the esoteric ruler of Gemini).

It is this challenge which in the aspirant may eventually lead to a search for the golden apples of instruction and wisdom.



LEPUS & CANIS MAJOR/MINOR

It is worth noting that this is the only occasion in the entire design when all three constellations normally associated with a zodiac constellation for additional meaning are represented in their totality as opposed to just a chosen one. This may have been to amplify the esoteric importance of the number 3 and the 3rd sign.

Canis Major – containing the sacred Dog Star itself, Sirius - is the immortal Hound of Heaven, that chases forever the lesser Dog, the ‘underdog’, the man in physical incarnation. To the ancient Babylonians they were the bow (minor) and arrow (major).

The constellation of Lepus is most often represented as a Hare positioned at the feet of Orion, whose hunting dogs (Canis Major and Canis Minor) pursue it as he faces off against the bull of Taurus.

There is some profound connection here in that Orion was always associated with a pursuit of the Sun whilst the lonely, fleet footed Hare was viewed as a messenger creature of the moon. In ancient Babylon the same constellation was depicted as a rooster but a similar purpose as a late night messenger from the occulted realm was implied.

The hare was a sacred and mystical animal to among others the Celts; a symbol of abundance and good fortune as well as of fertility and rebirth (hence its close association with the feast of Easter). In a number of cultures, eating them was strictly viewed as taboo.

In Celtic folklore, the hare was linked with the otherworld and the supernatural, with shapeshifters often said to take the form of the hare. There is a legend that the Celtic warrior Oisin hunted a hare, wounding it in the leg. Oisin followed the wounded animal into a thicket where he found a door leading down into the ground. He went in and came to a large hall where he found a beautiful young woman sitting on a throne bleeding from a leg wound.

In these threads we again detect the capacity of life to hide its greatest secrets from the vain glorious eye, the once complete being of abundance has been split and now through the power of apparent divides (the carrying of a wound) leads to violent abuse of that which should be harmoniously unified.

The twin dogs of Orion hunt the hare, blind Orion hunts the sun, the twins are together but apart, the great bull is pulled in two to make way for the Ram of sacrifice.

The symbolism of division in search of its opposite to remake unity is everywhere here implied.

The complex turmoil of spirit descending into matter.

There are subtle lessons in humility and of warning also implied here… for inappropriately unaware hunting leads to tragedy.

The hare hidden beneath the hunter’s feet…

The snare of the moon…

The constellation Lepus was also seen as 'Cain driven from the face of the earth to the face of the Moon':

"A medieval legend used to say that at the end, Cain arrived at the Moon where he eternally settled with a bundle of twigs. An example of this belief can be found in Dante Alighieri's Inferno (XX, 126) where the expression 'Cain and the twigs' is used as a synonym of 'moon'".

A variation of this legend as given by many writers goes something like this:

A man traveling on Sunday with a bundle on his back was met by a fairy, who asked him why he worked on the Sabbath. He replied : "Sunday on earth or Monday in heaven, it is all one to me." "Then carry your bundle forever," she answered. "As you have no regard for Sunday on earth, take your perpetual Monday (Moon-day) in heaven and travel with the moon." So there he still remains.

From Constellation of words:

This constellation was Lagos among the Greeks. Greek lagos or Latin lagus, means hare. Latin lignum, is translated as 'firewood', 'that which is gathered', and it is related to the word logos. Latin logos resembles the Greek word for hare, lagos (these are not recognized cognates). In the Greek language the word legein, 'to be languid', is related to lagos, hare. The word logos is also from Greek legein, but in this case the e of *leg- is spelled with an epsilon. The word logos comes from the Indo-European root *leg- 'To collect; with derivatives meaning to speak'.

The words logos (Latin logus) and logic are from Greek legein, which means both 'speak' and 'gather', and cognate with Latin legere, 'to gather, collect', also cognate with Latin lignum, wood, firewood, 'that which is gathered' ("fire lurks within wood; there is ignis, to ignite, in lignis"). The meaning of logic might be compared to the simple task of gathering firewood. In gathering firewood the most appropriate sticks are chosen to fit the fireplace and to fit in into the bundle being carried. One might picture the sinning wood-gatherer chewing away thoughtfully like a lagomorph as he asks himself "should I pick this piece or not?", or "will this fit"?

The term logos seems to mean the creative principle usually translated as 'the Word' in English bibles.

So all in all, be careful what you gather as Gemini…. be careful by what you are seduced and for what you seek…. It may turn out not to be worthy of heating….

For the watery moon awaits you… and through deception, it seeks to bind you to the wheel of life…

***

Thus the first three signs, the first quarter, the quarter of becoming – or coming into being – are behind us.

1. The faculty of mind entangling with base matter, in Aries
2. The draw of desire that lures the ‘word’, in Taurus
3. The limitation and separation of essential duality, in Gemini

With them three primal questions for the disciple of the Way:

1. Will the adept learn in time to govern his own mind and bend it to his will through mental control and knowledge? Or will he run head first through life, stubbornly and blindly wasting his life’s blood and so sacrificing potential?
2. Will desire take the adept deeper into matter, becoming lost in its seduction and glamour, or through illumination seed a new desire to discover the truth of his attraction to be released from this earth?
3. Will he learn to accept the creative union implicit in the tension of opposites (not either or but yes and…) and so begin the process of reunification through suffering? Or will he forever remain divided and unable to discern that which matters from that which is matter and merely the shape of things.

For in the next – the 4th sign – that of Cancer, the labours really begin as the watery crab submerges these questions in the immersion of being.