|
Your Sign Beyond the Zodiac 'All stellar mythology cries out against the privileged position of the Zodiac' Bouche-Leclerq, leading authority on the history of astrology The Sacred Sphere Around Us We have grown so used to seeing the Zodiac, alone, as powerful that it can come as a surprise to find that, for the first astrologers, the whole celestial sphere, from pole to pole, was filled with starry gods and supernatural beings who influenced the life of man. For these early astrologers, all the stars had power over our lives. They worshipped them, wove myths around them and built their temples in alignment with them. For the ancient Greeks, who inherited this vision of a living sphere from Babylon, and who gave many of the constellations the names and forms that they still have today, it seemed quite natural to believe that all the stars were powerful and sacred. Orion, the Golden Huntsman, the Great Bear, Perseus the glittering hero and the Lyre of Orpheus, the legendary musician, amongst others, influenced our destiny, just like the narrow Zodiac band of stars which forms the pathway of the sun and moon and planets, with which we are familiar. The twenty-two lost star signs reconnect us to the ancient vision of a sacred, living cosmos, and to the great celestial sphere around us. They are the constellations that still lie to the north and south of the Zodiac band of stars, and were used in conjunction with it. To find out which constellation rules you, all you have to know is your birthday, not the time of day, the place or year. (The brightest and most powerful star, or group of stars which falls nearest to the sun by longitude on your birthday is 'conjunct' your sun, and so rules you.) So why did these important star signs, which embody so many of the great myths and symbols of our culture, vanish from the scene? In the second century AD the great astronomer, Ptolemy, pinned our Zodiac to the spring and autumn equinoxes, which, together with the Zodiac, have gradually moved against the backdrop of the fixed stars. The result has been that the Zodiac and the constellations, from which each sign took its name, are no longer in alignment - as a result, the influence of the stars, both within the Zodiac and beyond it, has been progressively ignored. When Ptolemy fixed the western Zodiac to the moving equinoxes, he also tried to simplify astrology by excluding the constellations beyond the Zodiac. But even he described the influence of their individual stars and could not deny the astrological significance of the stars beyond the Zodiac. 'All stellar mythology cries out against the privileged position of the Zodiac' Writes the leading authority on the history of astrology, Bouche Leclerq, in 'L'Astrologie Grecque'(1899). He quotes Ptolemy as saying that he will 'leave to one side as impracticable the ancient method, which took account of all, or nearly all, the stars'. But, Bouche-Leclerq continues, 'the exclusion of the constellations beyond the Zodiac is so artificial that it could not be maintained, even by Ptolemy…' The twenty-two lost signs beyond the Zodiac do not undermine conventional astrology, however, but add a lost dimension to it. Valuable as modern astrology may be, it has lost touch with its roots and can no longer be called 'astrology' - the study of the stars - in the strict sense of the word. It concerns itself far more with the planets of our solar system than with the stars. These ancient signs are also highly relevant to the times we live in. Thanks to the moving equinoxes, we are now entering the new Aquarian Age, which will be ruled by Uranus, the planet named after the ancient Greek sky god who personifies the starry sphere and is the ruler of Aquarius. To look beyond the Zodiac, and beyond the 'village' of our solar system, towards deep space - the domain of Uranus - as astronomers are now doing, is, symbolically, in keeping with the coming age. One of astrology's most important tenets is that the discovery of a new planet heralds an important shift in human consciousness. The discovery of Pluto, in 1930, for instance, which was named after the god of the underworld, and which rules the depths of the unconscious mind, coincided with the rise to popularity of the psychology of Freud and Jung. The reintroduction of these 'Uranian' signs beyond the Zodiac, therefore, and our renewed awareness, when we find our personal star sign in the sky, of our links with the galaxies of stars around us, can be seen to coincide with our entry into the Aquarian Age. From my research as an astrologer, it is remarkable how accurate these rediscovered star signs are. Born under the sign of Andromeda, the princess chained to a rock as a sacrifice for her country, are Houdini, Queen Elizabeth II and Sylvia Pankhurst, who chained herself to the railings to win the vote for women. I have also found that where the Zodiac often offers us static traits of character, the signs beyond the Zodiac are often far richer, more dynamic symbols, as they describe the myths behind our lives and the 'Journey of the Soul of Man'. Perseus, for instance, cuts off the gorgon's head and comes to terms with neglected instinct and emotion, which the gorgon represents. The winged horse of inspiration, Pegasus, learns to distinguish between truth and illusion, in the form of the Chimaera. Andromeda, the chained princess, discovers freedom, and the Swan its human form. Ophiuchus, the traditional Zodiac's 'thirteenth sign', wrestles with the Serpent and transforms its poison into medicine. For the River of Night, which wells up from paradise, life is a journey back towards the sea, where all separate sense of self is lost, and Orpheus overcomes the sovereigns of the underworld with the music of his lyre. Each one has its own personal quest and compliments our Zodiac sign. The Signs Beyond the Zodiac My first real encounter with the signs beyond the Zodiac took place about twelve years ago, when I read the 'Astronomica' of Manilius, the great Roman astrologer and astronomer. Much of the 5th. Book of the 'Astronomica' is dedicated to their meaning: 'The child of the Lyre will sing beguiling songs at the banquet, his voice adding mellowness to the wine and holding the night in thrall…and, left to himself, he will ever burst into song which can charm no ears but his own….When the Dog Star rises over the rim of the sea…it will fashion unbridled astrologys and impetuous hearts…the child of the Crown will cultivate a garden budding with bright flowers, and slopes grey with olives…his heart is set upon elegance, fashion, and the art of adornment, upon gracious living and the pleasures of the hour…', and so on, at great length, for all the extra-Zodiacal signs. Beautiful as his descriptions are, our understanding of the myths, and of what they can tell us about the soul of man, has changed and grown, of course, since Roman times. What, I wondered, could modern psychology tell us abut the meaning of these age-old stories set amongst the stars, and so about ourselves? With the help of Jungian psychology, which I had studied for many years - and of the modern school of astrology, which uses myth and symbol to give the Zodiac and the planets a new and deeper meaning - I began to see what it could mean to be born under these 'new' signs. I then applied this to famous people, both alive and dead, and to my family and friends. Straightaway, the results were startling. As I continued, an image slowly grew and crystalised of the kind of person each one represented, and of the life-issues they were most concerned with. As with the Zodiac, each one had its own preoccupation's, its own problems and its own outlook on the world. But the rediscovered signs are different as they tell us more about where our life is leading and describe our inner quest. Your Sign Beyond the Zodiac is a Sidereal report. It contains:
|