MOUNTAIN CLIMBING GOAT

The calendar year begins with the sun sailing through Capricorn. That’s a bit strange an EARTH sign being related to sailing over the sea. Maybe the clue lies in its ancient symbol of a goat with a fish tail. Capricorn is one of the cardinal signs of the zodiac, an important gateway to the rest of the Cosmos, spiritually speaking, although you may not think so when you first meet our Goat. Perhaps that is because some of them have not yet found their path and insist on going around in circles trying to find the way out of their enclosure limited by outmoded restraints. Once the exit sign has been found, they also find their legs and their hidden reserves and go bounding up the rocky mountain of discovery ahead of the rest of us.

If our Capricorn goat is feeling a little dour and down, it is probably an indication that they haven’t made contact with their higher self, their real self, have not accepted their need to climb whilst contemplating the seriousness of the world, without allowing it to overshadow the beauty of nature and all that surrounds them. After all it is reported in mythology that Saturn the planet of Capricorn ruled in a ‘Golden Age’, and this in spite of his reputation for being led like and boring. The ‘Golden Age’ is said to have ruled in a time before Jupiter-Zeus got the Olympiad organised.

Capricorn needs to lead and show others the way, but first they need to have trodden the path themselves. This they can do through applying themselves in conscientious hard work, asking for little compensation, although some become over ambitious and won’t do anything for nothing. Other Capricorns tend to be loners and hide themselves away in isolation so that they can contemplate either their own woes or alternatively the troubles of the world; maybe this is the clue to the sailor.

 

It may be significant that the great star Vega is located in this zodiac sign, Vega of the constellation Lyra, the harp of Orpheus. The sun passes by Vega on the 5^th January. How many Capricorns play the harp or a similar stringed instrument?

 

Time is important to the Capricorn for it sets limits and boundaries to their intentions and actions, thus giving these intentions the power of achievement. Thus the goat is very good at keeping a schedule and meeting deadlines, whether self-motivated or enforced by outside pressures. Capricorn can take back its power by applying this self-motivation and discipline. The down side is that in becoming so careful to avoid waste, the Capricorn can become mean time-managers and too caught up in economy measures.

An astrological clock,

as kept in many European Renaissance churches.

 

For the curious or the fanatic see, David Christianson, ‘Timepieces’.

AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #55

747 BCE          Babylonian chronological tables record the lunisolar cycle. (14)

 

725             The Kushites conquer the whole of Egypt and form the XXV Dynasty of the Pharaohs ruling over that country.

 

722                 NINEVEH LIBRARY in the land of Assyria holds documents of reports by official astrologers and these indicate that the concept of the Ecliptic has been established. The records also list heliacal risings of constellations, the synodic revolutions of the 5 visible planets and predictions of eclipses. 721 BCE is the oldest surviving dated recording of an eclipse at Babylon. (15)

Royal Library of Ashurbanipal

As collected by British Museum

c721              SARGON II the Assyrian King at this time captures the Israelite (Hebrew/Jewish) kingdom and establishes a resurgence of the Assyrian Empire. The ten tribes of Israel, as organised entities, dissolve and disappear from history.  

                       In 717 BCE Sargon II will build a fortress city at Khorsban. He dies in 705 and the city is never used but abandoned and left to fall into ruins. Sargon’s son, Esarhaddon rebuilds Babylon as part of the Assyrian Empire, then divides the kingdom between his two sons, Shamash, who rules Babylon and Ashurbanipal II who rules the rest of the Empire. (76)

Sargon of Assyria

710                 KING SHABAKA/Shabaqa third Kushite king of the 25^th Dynasty, Egypt. He commissions a stone copy to be made of an ancient papyrus text from the Old Kingdom 5^th Dynasty, which stone is erected in the Great Temple of Ptah at Memphis. The language of this text is of the archaic period and resembles that of the Pyramid Texts. The new stone copy becomes known as the ‘Shabaka Stone’ and is a recording of the ‘Memphite Theology’. It treats consecutively of three interrelated topics; that of Ptah as the king of Egypt and unifier of the land; that of Memphis as the capital of Egypt and the link between upper and lower Egypt; the third topic being that of Ptah as the supreme god and the creator of the world. (293)

Shabaqa,

[Cairo Museum]

708           DEIOCES (708-655BC) establishes the Median Empire of ancient Persia. (40) Persia, named from the ancient province of Persis, will become Fars of Iran/Afghanistan in the future and geographically located on the Iranian Plateaux. (102)

GIANT JUPITER

 The planet Jupiter is closely associated with the zodiac sign of Sagittarius and also with the sign of Pisces. Jupiter is the planet that indicates growth and abundance when looked at in the personal horoscope or birth chart. Jupiter can, for some people, bring all that luck and fortune that so many crave. But as the wise man said, there can be too much of a good thing. When possessions and ‘good fortune’ accumulate too much or get too big, the weight can weigh you down most terribly. On the other hand, one can run hither and thither scattering energy wastefully trying to achieve or accumulate what is not possible under the urgings of Jupiter to make it big or too far reaching. 

Egyptian god Horus, Lord of the Ladder to Heaven [Budge]

The beneficial side of Jupiter is seen in his ability to give optimism and protection in the harsher times of life, to balance out his polarity seen in Saturn. These two planets act in unison, or should do for a good working of the horoscope and of the personality attached;  Jupiter bringing wealth and growth, whilst Saturn balances that wealth and growth with the sort of control and discipline necessary to give the growth some direction that it might lead to practical accomplishment of use to the self and those other people contacted in life. Saturn keeps Jupiter within sensible limits and Jupiter prevents Saturn from making everything too austere and limited. When working in harmony and cooperation, these two are achievers; however, for some this is harder work and takes longer than for others.

Roman conception of the great god 

Jupiter-Zeus whose syzygy is Juno-Hera.

Jupiter enjoys a bit of pomp and ceremony as well as a bit of fun and a good belly laugh. When he or his wife are not having a good belly laugh at the absurdities of life, they can see the bigger picture, that picture that puts all the smaller events of everyday living into perspective. There is Zeus/Jupiter riding high with Juno on throne or horse and there they go mingling amicably with the people and with full understanding of their needs and foibles. That’s wise Jupiter-Juno.

Greek impression of the mother goddess 

Hera-Juno Syzygy of Jupiter-Zeus