1 THE ZODIAC

Books: Light of Egypt

To the ordinary astrologer the Zodiac is simply a band of space,



eighteen degrees wide, in the heavens, the center of which marks

out the pathway of the Sun during the space of one year of 365

days, etc.



The twelve signs are to him simply thirty degrees of the space

(12 times 30 equal 360), bearing the names of the constellations

which once occupied them. Nay, he, as a rule, still imagines i

some sense that the signs (constellations) are still there, and

that the power and potency of the twelve signs is derived from

the stars which occupy the Zodiacal band of the skies.



But this is not so, as any ordinary astronomer well knows. This

single fact, i.e., the gradual shifting of the constellations,

the DISPLACEMENT, let us say, of the starry influx from one sign

to another without any ALLOWANCE being made in the astrologer's

rules for any such change, has been one of the greatest

obstructions to the popular spread of the art among EDUCATED

MINDS. Argues the scientist: The "fiery influence of Aries," if

depending upon the stars of that constellation, ought now to be

shedding forth their caloric from the sign Pisces, and Aries

ought to be lumbering along with the earthy Taurine nature. So,

also, the lords of these signs ought to be changed, but that they

are not can be proved by the fact that our earliest records of

that dim, historic past show, equally as well as your latest

"text-book," that Mars is the lord of Aries--a fiery planet in a

fiery sign; but astrologers still say that Pisces is watery and

Aries fiery, WHICH IS NOT THE CASE, IF THE STARS HAVE ANY

INFLUENCE AT ALL. It is not necessary," say these logical

thinkers, "to learn your abstruse science if we can demonstrate

that the very basis upon which your conclusions rest is in every

sense fundamentally false." The scientific facts of the case are

as follows: The influence of the twelve signs, as described by

astrologers, is a delusion, because in all ages they are reported

the same; whereas WE KNOW that every 2,160 years each sign

retrogrades to the extent of thirty degrees, and, as your art

does not make allowance for this, it is false. For, if the

influence of the twelve signs does not emanate from the stars

occupying the space of those signs, it must emanate from

nothing--a doctrine well suited, no doubt, to musty old sages of

your superstitious Chaldea, but quite out of court in our

progressive age--the last decade of our cultured and scientific

nineteenth century.



So far, so good. And so the world rolls along its bright pathway

in the heavens, little heeding the logical conclusions of an

exact science. But to an initiate of those inner principles of

our planet's constitution all these mental conflicts have a

meaning and a purpose within Nature's divine economy; for it is

neither wise nor expedient that the masses, with popular science

in the lead, should grasp the truths which Mother Nature reserves

ALONE for her own devoted priests.



The shining Zodiac, with its myriad constellations and its

perfect galaxy of starry systems, derives its subtle influence,

as impressed astrologically upon the human constitution, from the

solar center of our solar system, NOT FROM THE STARS which occupy

the twelve mansions of space. Aries, the fiery, and PISCES, the

watery, ARE ALWAYS THERE, and, instead of its being an argument

against astrology, it is one of its grandest truths that, in all

ages and in all times, Aries, the first sign of the Zodiac has

been found EVER THE SAME, equally as well as Pisces the last.



In order to convey our meaning, let us digress for a moment and

bring forth a fitting illustration. The condition of our

atmosphere and the surrounding objects--vegetation, etc.--have a

peculiar condition and a magnetism wholly their own when surveyed

exactly at sunrise. There is a freshness and peculiar sense of

buoyancy not visible at any other time. If this state could be

registered by any instrument and compared with any other set

periods during the day, it would offer a remarkable contrast. Two

hours later there is a very different influence, and at noon

there is a wonderful contrast. The same may be said of sunset,

and again at midnight; and, lastly, note the difference two hours

before dawn. This is the coolest period of the whole twenty-four

hours. These are facts, and yet our hearts are all beating to the

same life-flow, and the Earth is no farther away from the parent

Sun; and yet it is the angle at which we, THE INHABITANTS,

receive this Sun's light that makes all the difference between

dawn and sunset, noon and midnight.



When to these facts it is further added that it is sunrise, noon,

sunset and midnight at the same instant, all the time, to some of

the various, different portions of the globe, it demonstrates

most conclusively that the Earth itself is enveloped, so to say,

in a complete circle of conditions very similar to the twelve

signs of the celestial Zodiac.



If we apply the foregoing illustration to the twelve signs of the

Zodiac, we shall see a perfect analogy. We shall find that when

the Sun reaches the celestial equator, so that it is equal day

and equal night on the Earth, that he is on the line of the

celestial horizon; it is cosmic sunrise. Hence Aries, the fiery

Azoth, begins his active influx, and extends for thirty degrees,

equal to two hours of the natural day.



It is the fiery red streams of awakening life that we all

manifest at sunrise; then comes a change of magnetic polarity

after the first fiery flush of cosmic life; the gleeful

chattering of the birds and the cackling of the poultry. A

reaction is noted; all things before active become restful and

quiet.



So it is with vegetation, so it is with infant life, and so it is

with cosmic conditions.



This corresponds with the sign Taurus. It is the solar influx,

thirty degrees removed from his point of equilibrium toward the

North. As this sign represents the powers of absorption, we see

that at this period vegetable and animal life is quietly

absorbing, for its own use, the fiery streams of solar life.



Again we view the activity of solar influx from a different angle

and change of polarity, and all things become active, It is

executive force. This corresponds to the sign Gemini. It is the

solar influx, sixty degrees removed from his point of

equilibrium. Then comes another change of magnetic polarity. It

is rest from labor; it is noon. This corresponds to Cancer. The

analogy is perfect. It is the solar influx, ninety degrees

removed from his point of equilibrium toward the North, and the

highest point in the arc of his apparent journey and of cosmic

life. It is the equilibrium of life forces.



Again the fiery influx begins its activity, and, as the hottest

part of the day is about two hours after noon, or middle of the

day, so is solar influx most potent at this point in the Zodiac.



This corresponds to the sign Leo. It is the solar influx, removed

120 degrees from his point of equilibrium and thirty degrees

toward the South. And so on month after month, until the last

one, Pisces, which well corresponds to the watery skies of

February and the lifeless period two hours before dawn of a new

day upon the Earth, a new year to man and a new cycle in the

starry heavens. The Zodiac, then, as it applies to the human

constitution and the science of astrology, has its foundation in

the Sun, the center and source of life to the planet; and the

twelve signs are the twelve great spaces of our Earth's annual

orbit about her solar parent, each one typical of its month, and

each month typical of its corresponding action upon our Earthy

conditions.



As each sunrise is different in its aspects, so are no two signs

of the Zodiac alike. The sunrise on the first of March is wholly

different from the sunrise upon the first of May. So is the

beginning and ending of each sign, and the beginning and ending

of each natural day, peculiar unto itself.



When we reflect upon the inner laws of this action and

interaction, we come nearer and nearer to the one great occult

fact, viz.: THE DIVINE ONENESS OF LIFE.



We find a perfect analogy between the destiny, the life, and

expression of life on the Earth, and the life and material

destiny of embodied man. He, too, has his sunrise, the beginning

of a new day of life, the seedtime, the flowering season, when

life wears a roseate hue; the ripening fruits of experience, his

harvest-time--it may be tares or golden grain; his gradual decay,

the ebbing of the life forces and the icy winter of death; his

gentle zephyrs and destructive hurricanes, floods and tempests,

periods of drought and plenty. Within his triune constitution

there are spring tides and low tides of physical, intellectual

and spiritual forces. Man also makes the annual journey about the

solar center, when, at the beginning of each new year to him, the

life forces of his soul are renewed, regalvanized, so to say,

according to the magnetic polarity of his constitution.



And so, every form of life has its Zodiac, its orbit of life and

destiny. It may be infinitesimal, or vast beyond conception, each

in its own peculiar plane. So we see that, the whole visible

universe is one vast organism, the medium of expression for the

invisible, real universe-- the soul and God, the great central

Sun, the eternal center of all life, binding the whole into

unity--ONE LIFE.



The celestial signs of the shining Zodiac have no existence to us

apart from the graceful and unwearying motion of our Mother

Earth. She alone makes our seasons, years and destiny; and she

alone, by her motion about the Sun, determines the thrones and

mansions of the planetary powers.



The astrological Zodiac of a Saturn or a Mars cannot be like

ours. Their years and seasons are peculiar to themselves and

their material conditions; hence the twelve constellations have

no existence as objective facts of concrete formation or cosmic

potentiality. No! But as unalterable symbols of occult truth, the

starry pictures of the shining constellations have an eternal

verity. They pertain to the living realities of the human soul

and its varied experience.



What the mysteries are, and what connection they have with the

twelve constellations, will form the subject of our next chapter.