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Theosophical Siftings the Zodiac Vol 6, No 13 the Zodiac

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Theosophical Siftings the Zodiac Vol 6, No 13 the Zodiac Theosophical Siftings The Zodiac Vol 6, No 13 The Zodiac by S.G.P. Coryn Reprinted from "Theosophical Siftings" Volume 6 The Theosophical Publishing Society, England [Page 3] OF our nineteenth century researches into the knowledge, the science and the mythology of the ancients, there is probably no department which has given rise to discussion so animated, to speculations so varied, to conclusions often and usually so fallacious, as that of the Zodiac and its twelve signs. Nor need we greatly wonder at the interest which it has evoked. To the sincere student who wishes only for wisdom and understanding, and who does not seek to force and to bend the facts of nature into the mould of his own creed, the Zodiac promises something more than a glimpse into the secrets of the Universe. Almost insensibly to himself he is led to perceive that herein lie the mystic tracings, in divine handwriting, of the world's past and a prophecy of things to come. And on the other side, we find very much the same enthusiasm of research, but directed to the belittling of the history of the Zodiac and to a reduction of its symbology and the mysteries and the myths and the legends which have gathered around it, to the superstition of peoples who knew no written language, nor arts, nor sciences, but believed themselves able to read the signs and the tokens of the heavens above them. And justly may the champions of the creed of a day seek to diminish the importance of the Zodiac, and well may they fear the revelations which it may bring. It is a history of the civilizations of mankind; it is a record of the wisdom and the knowledge possessed by those whom we have sought to place in the very infancy of the human intellect; and in its starry language it tells again the tale which it has told from the beginning — of a sinful humanity and of its redemption. To them of old time it taught more than this. It taught them, or helped to teach them, many of the mysteries of their own being, the secrets of themselves. For they saw a unity in all Kosmos, of which the whole was faithfully reflected in every part. They believed that man was in very truth the microcosm of the macrocosm, and that as it was above, so was it also below. Thus, in the Universe around them they saw a Titanic image of themselves, a cyclopean man, and each fresh truth regarding the Universe became a fact for the individual, and that which they knew of themselves they sought for also in the Cosmos. And thus grew up a most perfect system of correspondences, for man was the flower of normal evolution, and he had brought up within himself, and preserved within himself, the traces of his uprising through material nature, and that which did not manifest within him was potentially latent within him. Everywhere around them they saw not [Page 4] alone the history of the past, but the sure promise for the future, and that future was endless progression throughout the days and the nights of the eternal one, which should number themselves into years and into centuries of eternity, in their turn to be reckoned but as days in the dawn time of new eternities. We have passed out of these old ideas and superstitions and we rejoice in our knowledge, and when we see the pictures which they drew to express that for which words failed them, and the aspiring adoration of the heart alone could reach, we are told: "Behold this disease of symbology which springs up when the human mind is young". Page 1 Theosophical Siftings The Zodiac Vol 6, No 13 But we think that these sages of times long passed by were the men "who walked and talked with God". You will, I am sure, pardon me if I quote to you a few lines from Thornton's Physiography under the heading of my title. It will at any rate serve as a useful introduction to my subject. He says: — "The Zodiac is a Zone or Belt of the celestial sphere, extending about eight degrees on each side of the ecliptic. It was so called because the constellations within this region are often represented on celestial charts and globes by the imaginary figures of animals. Within the Zone the apparent motions of the sun, moon and all greater planets are confined. The ecliptic passes through the centre of the Zodiac and, like it, is bisected by the equator. The Zodiac, like the ecliptic, is divided into twelve equal parts of thirty degrees, each called signs, and these are designated by the names of the constellations with the places of which they once coincided. These twelve signs are counted from the vernal equinox, where the sun intersects the equator at the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere. Owing to a slow backward movement of the equinoctial points, the sun now enters the sign Aries about a month before it enters the constellation Aries. Hence the signs of the ecliptic are about one place ahead of the corresponding constellations of the Zodiac, which keep a fixed place on the celestial sphere." The Zodiac then, coinciding as it does with the ecliptic, represents a circle of 360 degrees, and it is within that circle that the motions of the planetary bodies around the Sun take place. The Sun itself is frequently referred to as though it shared in the planetary motions. This means, it is needless to say, that looked at from our own planet the Sun appears to pass from one constellation to another. Thus then, we have the Sun as the centre of the system and the Zodiac as the circumference, and between the two the revolving planets, with their ever changing aspects one to another, to the central Sun and to the Zodiacal Signs. It has hardly been my intention tonight to enter very specially into the origin of the Zodiac. This has already been very fully done, and the many and diverse judgments thereon are available to us. Suffice, it to say that its immense antiquity is now universally admitted, although I hope to show presently that it may fairly lay claim to an immeasurably greater age [Page 5] than any which science has yet assigned to it, It rather concerns my purpose now to show, if possible, some of the less obvious meanings which attach themselves to the signs, and, second, the value of the Zodiac as a chronological record, the way in which it has been used in the compilation of cycles, and the connection which occultists of all ages have professed to find between it and man. It is hardly necessary to say that the names of the Zodiacal constellations are not derived from any supposed resemblance to the animals, etc., whose names they bear. It has always seemed strange that such a theory could ever have been offered to any but children. A moment's glance at an astronomical map will sufficiently show this. There are many constellations in the Heavens, not included in the Zodiac, which offer a far better likeness to the animals in question than those which bear their names in the Zodiac which, as a rule, do not in the faintest degree, suggest the similarity. Now let us try first of all to take a generally comprehensive view of the cosmogonical meaning of the Zodiac as a whole, and it must be remembered that, like everything else in Nature, it can be viewed on each plane separately. We will especially seek for the highest: we must then remember that the universe, as we know it, is one of a long chain of universes, each one being further advanced in evolution than the preceding one, and that the process of this evolution is not in a straight line, so to speak, but arc shaped and spiral. Thus the first half of the process is in the direction of materiality, and the second half in that of Page 2 Theosophical Siftings The Zodiac Vol 6, No 13 spirituality. Now the ancients, in their secret teachings, divided the whole process into twelve portions or periods, and of these twelve portions they taught that six referred to the advance into materiality, and that the other six symbolized the return from materiality to spirituality. Now the invention of the Zodiac is due to the desire of the initiates to embody this profound idea in a form suitable to the comprehension of the multitude. The twelve signs are the twelve periods, but in order still further to bury the mystery from the profane sight, ten signs only were put forward, the first five being Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and Leo, and the second five Virgo-Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces. Two signs then were kept secret, and although in our present Zodiac we find these two missing signs, yet they are not under their proper names, which, we are told, would be too indicative of their real meaning. We now have Virgo- Scorpio divided into two — Virgo and Scorpio, and Libra or the Balances inserted at the middle point of the circle. In Isis Unveiled we are told that: — "Within this double sign was hidden the explanation of the gradual transformation of the world, from its spiritual and subjective, into the 'two-sexed' sublunary state. The twelve signs were therefore divided into two groups. The [Page 6] first six were called the ascending or the line of Macrocosm, or the great spiritual world, and the last six, the descending line or the Microcosm, the little secondary world — the mere reflection of the former, so to say.
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