The Signs of Astrology

[doppelganger]

Taurus - I Seek My Self Through What I Have

The glyph of Taurus is the head and horns of the bull, although its rulership is over the neck and shoulders, the strong foundation upon which the massive head rests. Taurus is one of two signs ruled by the planet Venus, representing the relationship woven between the self and others in deed.

Taurus is Man as a collector of possessions: through the things he owns he defines his identity. The premier possessions of any self are its mind and body, through which self interacts with the world. Armed with these, the individual defines things that are "mine" as opposed to "yours," and in defining these Taurus reveals itself as sensitive to needs, both its own and those of others. Knowledge gained of oneself is a possession, too: Taurus takes what Aries has learned of itself and cultivates it, like fruits ripening in the garden, "so that the practical necessities of life are fulfillled." For Taurus, the things used to identify self are useful and have purpose.

Taurus are individuals "conservative and careful in how they express themselves, for they must give form to the impulse of life that Aries has passed on to them," preferring to let actions speak louder than words. Taurus learns from experience to correct mistakes and mend bridges. That said, Taurus is the metaphorical youngster in the life-cycle of Man, finding expression in the clutter that makes his house a home.

The Taurus method described here makes me think of the tendency to project objective "rightness" and orthodoxy onto the things I think I know. Could this be related to our modern cliche of being "bull-headed" or lacking tact ("a bull in a china shop")?

I'm not familiar with any bull imagery in Xtianity, but of course there's the Minotaur of Greek mythology, who resides at the center of the Labyrinth - an intricate maze that leads nowhere!

 

[Hema]

Yey! A fellow Scorpio! Guitar's Cry is one too, so that makes our relationship all the more interesting

Yaay! Wicked cool! My best friend from high school is a Scorpio too.

 

[doppelganger]

Gemini - I Seek My Self Through What I Think

"Gemini's function is to choose the right ideas upon which the soul of Man will develop and grow." Gemini symbolizes the mind of the individual accumulating thoughts and memories, critically selecting concepts and ideas that will inform it, and hence shape its world. "The mind serves to analyze, to separate what is being viewed from the viewer: to objectify." Through Gemini, subjective opinions that are a direct reflection of the individualized self of Aries develop and are communicated to others.

I could go on for a while about this one. Heck, look at my username . . .

The work of Gemini is what I think this forum is principally about.

 

[doppelganger]

Patty:

Have you considered making a seperate thread for each sign to discuss symbolism and similarities and differences with other traditions' symbols and the meanings associated with them?

 

[michel]

I could go on for a while about this one. Heck, look at my username . . .

The work of Gemini is what I think this forum is principally about.

You forget us Aquarians, who are comming into our own..............

Very interesting thread Willamena, I am afraid I am still using my trusty old books handed down to me by my grandfather................ I am enjoying looking for any 'differences'... I can't find much - and one of the books I have was written in the 1800's !

 

[doppelganger]

You forget us Aquarians, who are comming into our own..............

Very interesting thread Willamena, I am afraid I am still using my trusty old books handed down to me by my grandfather................ I am enjoying looking for any 'differences'... I can't find much - and one of the books I have was written in the 1800's !

I know the Aquarians are here too. :yes:

My point, inartfully put, was about all the arguing that makes up most of the forum's content.

 

[Buttercup]

Anything you want, if you have any questions about what I'd wrote. Otherwise, it's just a small part of my presenting what astrology is (in addition to the older threads I'd made).

I've been intrigued with the astrological tradition since my teen years and have come to understand and agree with the personal significances more and more, especially when and entire chart is drawn and analyzed.

Not sure if I've read any Oken but wherever your thoughts and his correspond is a seemless mesh of communication. Very well done.

I'd like to ask you to explain what you mean by this paragraph:

The Zodiac of astrology symbolizes the human condition divided into twelve aspects expressed in metaphor. These metaphors are applicable to the planets and points of astrology, and do not describe any particular individual except in that they describe all of humanity.

I always thought astrology WAS about the individual.

 

[Feathers in Hair]

I quite love your summary of Libra. It really speaks to my 'peacemaking' needs. Frubals on such a wonderful work of writing!

 

[Random]

Pisces - I Seek My Self And I Don't Seek My Self

Our individual, who in the previous signs Libra-Aquarius had found unity with humanity in various forms, now loses all consciousness and drops like the proverbial sack of potatoes to the ground! The image is overly dramatic, but that's appropriate for Pisces: this sign encompasses the entire drama of human existence, including what it is to lose oneself completely to unity. Pisces operates mainly on instinct, translating the experience of humanity it has gained into myths so that others can learn from him.

Pisces is the individual who has had the foundation of their world-view shaken --as Bob Marley put it, "their boat rocked" --and this leads to a withdrawl or alienation from what it is to be human, a sacrifice of consciousness for self-preservation. The dissolution of self that Aquarius saw as "freeing" has become a burden for Pisces as it can never look at the world in the same way again. In the glyph of Pisces, the crescents represent two "fish" turned away from each other but joined in the middle by a line. The symbol represents the internal conflict of self/no-self, sacrifice/don't-sacrifice; and also works for the feet, which Pisces rules, which sometimes want to go in opposite directions, figuratively speaking.

Pisces is ruled by the planet Neptune, where instinct is a requirement to navigate murky waters (formerly ruled by Jupiter). In our life-cycle analogy, where the individual aged from childhood to the elder at death's door, Pisces shows us an individual whose eyes have just opened: the new-born infant, exposed to everything the universe has to offer and equally vulnerable to it.

I'm a Pisces and we are currently in the Piscean Age. I don't know what to make of this beyond that: it does not resonate with me personally. Maybe that's cos' I'm a Pisces...

 

[YmirGF]

I'm a Pisces and we are currently in the Piscean Age. I don't know what to make of this beyond that: it does not resonate with me personally. Maybe that's cos' I'm a Pisces...

DItto Conor. Astrology doesn't "work" for me. Then again, I am a Pisces too. :yes:

 

[doppelganger]

DItto Conor. Astrology doesn't "work" for me. Then again, I am a Pisces too. :yes:

If I'm not mistaken, I think Willa's point is that all twelve signs are in each of us. Is that right?

If so, then what's being discussed in this thread is not the same as the usual "What's your sign?" kind of approach to Astrology that you see at Chinese restaurants and in tabloids, but really it's own nuanced and developed mythological system.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

If I'm not mistaken, I think Willa's point is that all twelve signs are in each of us. Is that right?

The book Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology by Sun Bear and Wabun Wind makes that same point; each of the signs are in us, and we exhibit the various traits at different points in our lives.

 

[Willamena]

It's remarkable how similar this is to Jane Loevinger's and Susanne Cook-Greuter's work on cognitive and ego development.

Did Oken develop this purely from Astrological tradition or does he cite to any modern psychology work on cognitive development?

They are not listed as references. This does reflect the tradition.

Oken didn't develop this specifically, I did. Oken's work is much more elaborate, and if you read the descriptions of the signs he wrote, he attempts to please all camps of astrology by appealing to every kind of, and application of, astrology you can imagine, and some that you probably can't. The descriptions given here are basically what I walked away from his book with twenty years ago combined with some things I have learned in the interim from other astrology books: a summary or reduction of what I consider to be the bare essential in what he said. (I like things to be simple.)

Also, it's very interesting that Pisces is the "I don't seek myself" state. That's what Taoism or Buddhism would consider the achievement of "enlightenment" or harmony with the way. But it uses the fish, which is the symbol for Jesus as well.

That's probably why Buddhism and monism confuse me --I don't consider Pisces to be an end achievement, but just one step in a series of achievements for consciousness.

That symbolism is in "the Cross" as well. Jesus bridges the gap between being and not being divided by the upright of the "T" or cross.

Interesting.

In ancient Egypt, Khenmu was the ram-headed god associated with the creation of the people and animals, and is often considered the "pottery" god for having crafted people out of the clay of the Earth. This is the same imagery in your description of Aries, the creation of self distinction out of chaos.

Anyone know of other ram-related symbolism? Of course, in Judaism and Christianity, the ram is the subsitute offering for atonement. Thus, perhaps giving up self-distinction - the killing of the ram - is the way to communion with God.

Actually, I found the symbolism of the creator in Capricorn, too, with a reference to the sea-goat being similar to Tiamat, and the mountain goat being Marduk who utilizes her dismembered body to fashion the world. Hm... There might be room for a creator god in each of the signs.

The Taurus method described here makes me think of the tendency to project objective "rightness" and orthodoxy onto the things I think I know. Could this be related to our modern cliche of being "bull-headed" or lacking tact ("a bull in a china shop")?

I'm not familiar with any bull imagery in Xtianity, but of course there's the Minotaur of Greek mythology, who resides at the center of the Labyrinth - an intricate maze that leads nowhere!

I like that. You could be right in relating bull-headedness to orthodoxy.

According to The Myth of the Goddess, the myth of the Theseus and the Minotaur is a Cretan telling of the cycle of sacred marriages between god and goddess, priests and priestess, king and queen as bulls, a symbol of the life-force. As they demonstrate through an examination of symbolism in the book, "all five marriages --Zeus, the bull, with Europa; Minos, son of the bull, with Pasiphae; the bull from Poseidon with Pasiphae; Theseus, son of Poseidon the bull, with Ariadne; and later Dionysos, the bull, with Ariadne --symbolize the marriage of sun and moon as an unending cycle." (Good book, by the way.)

I could go on for a while about this one. Heck, look at my username . . .

The work of Gemini is what I think this forum is principally about.

Patty:

Have you considered making a seperate thread for each sign to discuss symbolism and similarities and differences with other traditions' symbols and the meanings associated with them?

I could do that, on the debate forum. Good idea.

 

[Willamena]

I've been intrigued with the astrological tradition since my teen years and have come to understand and agree with the personal significances more and more, especially when and entire chart is drawn and analyzed.

Not sure if I've read any Oken but wherever your thoughts and his correspond is a seemless mesh of communication. Very well done.

I'd like to ask you to explain what you mean by this paragraph:

The Zodiac of astrology symbolizes the human condition divided into twelve aspects expressed in metaphor. These metaphors are applicable to the planets and points of astrology, and do not describe any particular individual except in that they describe all of humanity.

I always thought astrology WAS about the individual.

Hmm... I sometimes don't explain things well. What I meant was that the symbolism of, say, Aquarius for example does not describe any one invidivual. It describes one part of the condition of 'being human.' It is about the individual only in as far as we are all human; we all have Aquarius in us.

If you look at an astrological chart, all the signs are represented. Together as the Zodiac they symbolise all the potential of an individual to be fully human.

Edit: Astrology is about individuals; the signs are just a small part of that, a part about humanity.

 

[Willamena]

I'm a Pisces and we are currently in the Piscean Age. I don't know what to make of this beyond that: it does not resonate with me personally. Maybe that's cos' I'm a Pisces...

What does it mean to you to "be a Pisces"? (Doesn't that sound like the Aquarian tendency to adopt an ideology? or the Virgan tendency to know oneself only through a role one should be playing?)

Most people consider a basic description of the signs to be the be-all-to-end-all of astrology. But astrology doesn't even begin there --haven't even got to that part, yet.

 

[Buttercup]

Willa,

What does it mean for a sign to rule over a certain part of the body? I'm a Virgo and this statement:

Virgo rules over the stomach and abdomen.

is interesting to me. I've always had problems with my stomach. What significance does this have in astrology?

 

[Willamena]

Willa,

What does it mean for a sign to rule over a certain part of the body? I'm a Virgo and this statement:

Virgo rules over the stomach and abdomen.

is interesting to me. I've always had problems with my stomach. What significance does this have in astrology?

The symbolism that links the signs with organs of the body has a purpose in medical astrology. Basically, it's not about your stomach per se, but about what stomachs in general do: they break food down into little bits so that our bodies can digest it, and other parts of our abdominal guts organize the bits so they can be more readily absorbed into the blood stream. That's all in a manner similar in form to how Virgo breaks down the world it observes into details and organizes it to digest the information.

But you find that that interests you, because it has a special significance for you in your own body, and that's a good thing: that's when we begin talking about astrology. It's not astrology until we relate it back to you (an individual, a person) in a way that is meaningful to you; until then, it's just symbolism.

I'm going to write an article about how the signs are used in astrology, but in preview, it begins with you and your personal problems (like stomach); then we look at the circumstances surrounding that; then, lastly, we look to correlation in the symbolism for guidance, because until we have something to relate the symbolism to here in the real world it all has no astrological significance whatsoever.

 

[xexon]

A question for the astrologically adept,

What is the significance of being born next to a river?


x

 

[A. Leaf]

Willamena, lovely written piece, do you cross the western star signs, with the Chineses Eastern star sign, I find this brings an individuals character even closer to the real peron, of course, as you know, we can go into lunar position and hour of birth to get an even more honest prediction, I just wondered if you have studied the Chinese Star signs as well?? Makes me a Bull-Dog,..eh?

 

[Willamena]

A question for the astrologically adept,

What is the significance of being born next to a river?

I don't know; I'm stumped on that one. A more significant question would be to ask, "What is significance?"

When we signify a thing, we give it meaning. As we are all individuals, each one of us gives all things a significance that is unique. Of course, some meanings are agreed upon to facilitate communication. I'm not aware of any particular meaning given to the circumstance of birth by a river.