PLUTONIC MARS

 

Plutonic Mars, that sounds like a mouth full. Mars and Pluto are the two planets associated with the sign of Scorpio, Mars of physical energy and war, linking up with Pluto the god of what is hidden underground, of potential power, and quite often what has to come to the surface and does so in a most forceful way. That’s a powerful combination.

 

Mars is also associated with the zodiac sign of Aries. In the natal or birth chart, Mars signifies physical strength and activity. It is also the will and determination to follow through on an idea. It is the heat of the body and passion.

 

Mars was the ultimate Roman god – the god of war, as in conquering circumstances in order to build an Empire. Athena is a female version of the warrior in the Greek Pantheon.

                                                           Greek Goddess Athena

 

But Athena was also venerated for her care and protection of the natural world and of human workers. 

 

Before being a war god, Mars was a god of the Earth and Nature, of that force which keeps things growing and changing, the cycle of life. This brings us to the other planet said to be associated with Scorpio, Pluto, the god of the otherworld, of hidden riches and raw life force.

 

In ancient Egypt the underworld is associated with the god Anubis who leads the soul to discover the mysteries of the hidden world.

 

Anubis leads the soul of Hunefer 

towards the mysteries of the secret world.

 

R. O. Faulkner has published a classic translation of these Egyptian mysteries called ‘The Coming Forth by Day’ under its more popular title ‘The Book of the Dead’.

 

In traditional astrology there were only 7 acknowledged planets, then with the aid of ever increasing discovery and invention another 3 planets were discovered and entered into human consciousness. That’s not a problem, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto had always been there, just not seen, and their ‘appearance’ simply signified another stage in human ongoing evolution or growing awareness. However, it did set the human’s a challenge to find out where the energies of the 3 new kids on the block should fit in, but true to their nature the astrologers solved this problem.

 

Alan Leo, known affectionately as the ‘father’ of modern astrology was also a Theosophist of 19th century and his chore was to bring back the spiritual dimension into ‘popular’ astrology with the aid of what these 3 ‘outer’ planets might signify for evolving human consciousness. Unfortunately Pluto had not yet appeared on the scene when he was writing, so his books have nothing to say on the matter, but otherwise, his many volumes are a treasure trove to the serious student.

 

Mars with the planet Venus signify complimentary energies; the quality of assertiveness and the quality of compliance are brought together in these two planets. When these two principles of action and reception get together on a good day, there is a spontaneous dance of life and love, often depicted by the Hindu god Siva whose dancing symbolises the 5 cosmic functions of creation, conservation, destruction, incarnation and liberation.

 

 

Siva dancing [from Larousse]

 

SCORPIO EAGLE

 The sun has now entered the much maligned tropical zodiac sign of Scorpio. This rather complex sign has three symbols just to demonstrate how complicated Scorpio can be; they are the scorpion, naturally; the serpent, and the lesser known third aspect of the golden eagle. These 3 symbols represent the 3 phases of development in the life and character of those with a heavy Scorpio influence in their astrological birth chart.

Scorpio has received a lot of bad press by those who do not know their astrology too well. Yes, sure its influence can make a person at their worst appear cruel and controlling, but when these people reach the height of their best expression, WOW, the sky is the limit – thus the third symbol of the high soaring and dignified Golden Eagle of exquisite self-discipline, wisdom and inner strength.

When Elizabeth I of the Tudor Age, [who had the sign Scorpio on the Mid-heaven] consulted her astrologer John Dee on a particularly thorny question relating to governing, he is reported to have replied

 

‘Soar like an Eagle, my Queen’.

 

Here was one dignified, resourceful and life-changing character who ruled in a ‘Golden Age’ of Britain. The Mid-heaven of a horoscope indicates the best way to interact with the world at large.

 

The intermediate Scorpio symbol of the Serpent alone has multiple layers of meaning. The scientific-mystical viewpoint is well discussed in Mark Balfour’s ‘The Sign of the Serpent’, where that creature represents the mysterious energy that drives the Cosmos. The serpent also represents our ability to slough off our old out-worn skin and become renewed person.

 

Scorpio people have a driving need to understand what makes the universe tick; a driving ambition to get to root causes and find solutions; either through modern orthodox scientific method, or if they are a little less traditional, by ploughing the by-ways of ancient arcane knowledge. ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ really does apply to this sign.

 

Now, as if having 3 phases of metamorphosis were not enough for our Scorpions to deal with, this sign is the first in the series of twelve to have what is known astrologically as a dual rulership. That means two not one planet is associated with this sign; Mars the ‘traditional’ ruler, and Pluto the newest ruler, allocated after its ‘discovery’, and therefore entrance into human consciousness, in 1930.

Some parts of the tropical 30* arc of tropical Scorpio actually cut across the constellation of Ophiuchus, which has been postulated as a 13^th sign of the zodiac, but whose energies are yet to come into play fully for life on Earth. Ophiuchus is roughly opposite the constellation Arachne, another contender for a 13^th Ecliptic sign, or perhaps the 14th?

Nebula ‘Rho Ophiuchi’ 

AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #53

 NINTH CENTURY BC (899-800)

From the ninth to eighth century BCE, Etruscans occupy north and central Italy, whilst Greeks colonise southern Italy and Sicily. Etruria, the land of Etruscans, will be at its zenith from the seventh to sixth century BCE. Herodotus thought the Etruscans came from Lydia in Asia Minor.

 

Assyrian Fighters

c883 BCE          ASHURNASIRPAL or ASHURNAZIRPAL II (r. 883-859 BCE) As king he takes Assyria to a new peak of revival. He contributed to the establishment of a more centralized Assyrian state by appointing governors to rule the western regions of the Mesopotamian Empire. (114). His leadership will be continued by his son Shalmaneser III. Ashur-nasipal II is to extend the temple town of Nimrud, founded by Shalmaneser I c1250, to make it the capital of his new empire of Assyria.

                        The national god of the Assyrians is Ashur, a god of battle depicted as eagle-headed and winged, usually in combination with the winged solar disc surmounted by a warrior. This is reminiscent of Egypt’s own winged solar disc and that of the Babylonians. Ashur is indeed identified with the storm god Baal (Bal-Marduk) of the city of Ashur and has similarities to Yahweh of the early Israelites, that is, the tribes of Jacob. (114)

Syrian winged Sun God.

[Time Life ‘History of the World’]

c850                  HOMER: the great Greek poet whose works, the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’, record the mythology of the ancients in the form of epic poems. This is primordial mythology suggesting indivisible synthesis of the individual and the universal, a theme that is a strong underpinning to many philosophies. Homer’s writings also show the dual mythological heritage of the ancient Greeks as can be seen in the warring ‘Iliad’ of patriarchal themes, and in the softer ‘Odyssey’ of matriarchal themes. (19)

                  Homer, as a representative of the archaic mind, saw an inseparable connection between the empirical and the archetypal. The endurance of his ideas will be demonstrated in the future great masters, Socrates (c420 BCE) and Plato (c365 BCE) as these philosophers 

Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. Odysseus trying to resist the

call of the Siren or the voice of the feminine soul.

                     Around this time is the first compilation of the Hebrew ‘Five Books of Moses’, the ‘Bereshit’ or ‘In the Beginning’. In the future, its Greek translation will be called ‘Genesis’.  According to this early version, in the beginning god created man and woman at the same time and equal and not in sequence as in a second compilation where Eve is taken from the rib of Adam. Adam and Eve are taken as symbolic of the split in the previously created androgynous human. Adam-Eve in turn can be seen to represent humanity as a polarity of man and woman, reflecting and expressing the fundamental polarity of the Cosmos and Life and as also seen in the Sun and Moon, polarity of day and night. Later, woman or the feminine side of that polarity, is designated as less than the male side or man, and this ‘dark’ side of the feminine moon or the misunderstood nature wisdom of woman, became known as Lilith.

Lilith: personification of the wisdom of the

Dark Night. Sumer c2000 BCE

c837                KING SHALMANESER III (d.824 BCE) the son and successor of Ashurnasirpal II (883 BCE) As King of Assyria (Syria/Iraq) this Shalmaneser leads an expedition during this year and the events recorded are the first mention of the ancestors of the Iranians, that is the Parsua or Persians (Sth Iran), and the Madai or Medes (Nth Iran). The Persians, as descendants of mythological Perseus, inhabit the mountains of Kurdistan. The Medes live on the plains of the Iranian Plateaux. (40) The dominant Persian cult of Mithraism is thought to be a mixture of Greek, Iranian and Gnostic elements, based on the more ancient Aryan fire worship of Mitra.

Arinna sun goddess, Hittite Queen of Heaven and Earth

[Time Life ‘History of the World’]

 

831                   Estimated total eclipse over Tanis and Bubastis in ancient Egypt, during the Third Intermediate Period; (240. 241) and thus, possibly heralding the famous ‘New Kingdom’ development of Ancient Egypt.

 

c800                HALLSTATT, Austria, a lakeside village built on salt mining, is claimed as the first of the early Celtic settlements, a people of the iron-age with developing culture that will spread across Europe. The people were anciently referred to as the ‘Keltoi’. [371]

 

ZODIAC CIRCLE: myth & imagination

 

The Zodiac Wheel as a Rainbow

Twelve steps to the year, marking out the seasons and the journey of the Sun as perceived by us standing on planet Earth. We all now know that it is the Earth which travels through space around our central star called the Sun, but here we are concerned with the way we see the world from our point of observation on planet Earth.

In an attempt to record this dual concept of motion, that of the apparent or perceived Sun journey across the sky, and that of the scientific reality of the Earth moving around the Sun, it is the aim of the Astrological wheel to match the two. For this purpose, our home, Earth, is placed in the centre of a wheel around which is the depiction of the Sun’s apparent circular path, half of the time above the round Earth and half of the time below the round Earth. This circular path is known by the name ‘Ecliptic’. It is an imaginary path but from here down on Earth, it allows us to track the motion of the Sun through the observable sky and is a useful marker for reference in the location of other objects and points and planets.

The Solar Disc, sometimes represented 

By the Egyptian god RA.

This great circle through the heavenly vault has a starting point which is called the Vernal Equinox. The Vernal Equinox point nominates as the start of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, it is a three-day period marking a time of equal day and night hours. For the Southern Hemisphere of our world this same point marks the opposite Equinox Point at the start of Autumn. These are the natural cycles of the seasons which guide our living and being according to which Hemisphere we belong to. Behind this natural cycle is a more esoteric cycle but that belongs to the Constellations and is for another time.

The Constellations are groups of stars in the sky named by the ancients to tell a story and to aid navigation. These Constellations are the original source of our famous zodiac signs. Those who are enthusiastic astronomers will easily pick out these star formations and it is interesting to follow the ancient mythology surrounding their symbolic pictures. The popular zodiac signs of astrology transferred these ancient Constellation names to the thirty degree segments of the Ecliptic Circle. There is an illustration of these 30 degree segments of the Ecliptic Circle at the start of the blog.  It is an imaginary circle that has inherited the characteristics and qualities of the original Constellation stories. These 12 segments, like those of an orange can can be grouped in various ways but our diagram displays them as a rainbow sequence, expressing the changing qualities of Light.

One of many star formations in the sky.

At the everyday level, the two hemispheres of our globe present us with a mirror image of the seasons, except of course at the Equator where things and climate tend to equalise themselves out. Thus, each half of the world follows its seasonal cycle and as the northern hemisphere was the first to move into high culture, its way of viewing the world has dominated. 

This domination extended to the practice of astrology and the orientation of casting a horoscope or celestial birth map, which still applies today. The result is that the North begins its spring when the Sun is in the zodiac sign of Aries, the classical beginning of the zodiac wheel and the start of a year of new growth. The South begins its spring new year and new growth when the Sun is in the opposite sign of Libra, at the opposite point of the Solar journey.

However, for those who wish to search the deeper secrets of the cosmos, the beginning point of a greater celestial cycle will always begin with the Constellation Aries which nowadays is not in alignment with the zodiac sign of Aries.  Thus, there is an epoch making Vernal Point which overrides that of our Earth seasonal changes. But as said this is a story for another time, hinted at here to demonstrate that true astrology is well aware of deeper and more meaningful realities and cosmic cycles than popular astrology would lead one to believe. There is reason behind apparent inconsistencies and contradictions. The world and living is not a simple straightforward process as is becoming more obvious to more people as technology throws us into the future.

The magic of number and geometry.

Fibonacci series of numbers applied to the zodiac wheel.

From John Cochrane at ‘Vibrational Astrology’.

 

AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #52

 

Solar Eclipse. Compliments of Skywalk

948 BCE   This is the timing of an Estimated total eclipse over Thebes in ancient Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period. (240. 241) And around this time the Vernal Point is recorded on the second tablet of mul-Apin in the Assurbanipal Library, as at sidereal Nisan 15 [March]. (16.30)

 

945             SHOSHENQ I / SHESHANK I [Biblical Shishak] inaugurates the 22^nd Dynasty of Egypt. Commander is Chief of the armies and advisor to King Psusennes II. Shoshenq will marry Maatkare the daughter of Psusennes and so reign over Egypt in his turn. Shoshenq is a native of Libya, descended from a Tanite princess and living as a prince of Bubastis. In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s rein of Judah, Shoshenq came up against Jerusalem with mighty armies and ransacked the Solomon’s Temple of its treasures, around the year 925 BCE, leaving only the Ark of the Covenant. 2Chron. Xii. 2-4,9. “…And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the King’s house, he took way all.” Following up on this, and with the taking of Mount Carmel, Ashkelon and Gaza, Egypt regained suzerainty of Syria-Palestine. Shoshenq’s is responsible for a revival of the greatness of Egypt. Shoshenq’s son Iuput is chief priest and oversaw the building of the second pylon at the Temple of Karnak.  Shoshenq’s reign will be followed by that of Osorkon I around 897 BCE. [80. 175] Around the time of when the Greek writer Homer is composing his master pieces.

 

 

940 BCE REHOBOAM (Rehav’am, 922-915 BCE) King of ancient Judah, son of Solomon, grandson of David. Rehoboam, meaning ‘he who enlarges the people’, was the third king of the house of David, and the first king of the Kingdom of Judea. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah, ‘the Ammonitess’. During Rehoboam’s reign, the kingdom was divided into two parts with Rehoboam and heir of Solomon, ruling the Kingdom of Judah in the south; the Kingdom of Israel occupied the north. (248. 249)

Menorah of the Magdala Stone from the 2^nd Temple of Jerusalem

           MENELIK, son of Queen Makeda of Sheba and King Solomon of Israel is the first king of Axum capital of Ethiopia.  Axum was founded by Sabean tribes of Semitic origin who moved from southern Arabia to the African highlands early first millennium BCE. Menelik is thought to have brought the Ark of the Covenant to Axum from the Temple of Solomon. The religion of this ancient country was that of the Sabeans and organized as a triad of Heaven, Sea and Earth. These divisions of the world are represented by the gods Astar [Babylonian Ishtar-Venus] Beher and Medr. Other gods are Aksum and Mahrem who is identified as Mars. [361]

 

               The descendants of Meneliks’ line are the Falashas, a group of Ethiopians claiming Jewish origin. The Falashas observe the traditions of Judaism in that they read the Bible in the Geez translation, which is an Ethiopian Semitic dialect, and which includes the Old Testament. They also read some Apocrypha, which are termed ‘hidden writings’.  The Falashas do not know the Talmud.  The name Falasha is Amharic for “stranger” and was given to them by other Ethiopians; they call themselves Beta Israel, “House of Israel”. (102) It is from this area that the future legendary figure Prester John is reputed to have come from. According to one author, St John is thought to have journeyed to this legendary kingdom of Prester/Preter John [297] that is Ethiopia.

 

c900 BCE A figurine of the Egyptian god RA with double plumes, is deposited in a sacred cave on Mount Dicte, Crete. The suggestion is that this placement connects RA to the Great Greek god Zeus, (55) and would indicate a line of descent or transference from Egyptian gods to Greek gods. Zeus will be born to the Great Mother Goddess Rhea in this same cave. 

              Around this time, the Celts start to move from the Danube region into France.

ZEUS

The great Greek God of Olympus 

The SUN and MOON

 

The Earthly Sun

Someone asked, ‘why do you follow the Sun and Planets in the apparent circular movements around the Earth?

The answer is, ‘because the sun in its daily journey and the moon in its monthly cycle, connect us with the ecliptic, which connects us to the planets and their cycles. The planets connect us to the stars and the stars to the cosmos beyond. Thus, through these interweaving connections we strive to understand the world and ourselves as a reflection of the greater cosmos.

The Earthly Moon

May I tell you something about the Moon Cycle?

Whatever you are doing or whatever is happening around you during the three days of the New Moon, will grow and develop over the following two weeks. This takes us up to the time of the Full Moon, a time of fulfilment of that two weeks’ growth. If what has grown and developed over that two weeks is not good or useful, the Full Moon marks the time of its disintegration, or the aborting of such action, thought or project. This is so that something new can occur at the next New Moon which will start another cycle of everyday beginnings. Of-course most people ignore this lunar cycle and the result is that their affairs tend to be more difficult than necessary because they are working against the tide of nature. Bit like competing with the tides of a great ocean!!

The Alchemical Sun and Moon.

The All-Good Buddha or the union of the Great Father and

Great Mother produces Enlightenment

AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #51

 FIRST MILLENIUM BC (999-0 BC)

 

TENTH CENTURY BC (999-900BC)

 

961 BCE                 SOLOMON. According to some, Solomon as the last king of Israel will reign from 961 to 922 BCE (158) He is the son and successor of King David. Sol-om-on means Sun God of On, the Hebrew version of Ra of Heliopolis. (13) However, others think that it could be a derivative from the oldest of the Egyptian gods and another attempt to keep alive Aton of Ancient Egyptian times. Solomon is said to have taken an Egyptian Pharaohs’ daughter for his chief wife.

AMON-RA

The Great Egyptian God of Egypt

 Atlas of Egypt

                        As Hebrew King and leader of his people, Solomon built the Temple of Jerusalem. Other versions say the Temple was built by King Hiram of Tyre (13) as a central sanctuary of the Israelite religion and eventual spiritual centre for the world. The Temple of Jerusalem is built to house the Ark of the Covenant, that is the chest containing the Torah or Teachings of God, written on stone or bones and given to the priest Moses in the distant past. The temple consisted of a vestibule, a hall, and a shrine in an inner sanctum or Holy of Holies where only the High Priest is admitted. (114) The temple will stand until destroyed in 586 BCE although plundered by Egyptian pharaohs before this time. [226] The triple construction of the building represented the triple construction of the universe and of man. The Hebrew temple also has a unique similarity to Egyptian temples of old. One can only ask, ‘was the move by the Hebrews out of Egypt, an attempt to guard against the decline of Ancient Egyptian culture and the loss of knowledge? (1.12.94)

Temple of Jerusalem by Simon Goldhill

Outer court, main hall and Holy of Holies.

                    In the ‘belly of the whale’, like Johana, or in the cavern of the temple, we experience a place and time of mystery, perhaps stimulating a connection with greater states of consciousness.

 

                        Solomon is a master of the occult arts and identified with the Egyptian Thoth or Hermes Trismegistus. ‘The Wisdom of Solomon’, is an occult writing going under his name and includes grimoires. Legends of Solomon will later influence the Arab and Moslem religion of the future ‘Middle Ages’. (1]

 

                                    When Solomon takes the throne in this century he is crowned by a Sheban moon-priestess called Bath-Sheba, said to also be his mother, wife and the daughter of a previous Sheba of c2000 BCE. (13). This would be very much in the ancient Egyptian tradition, although the term ‘sister’ is believed to be more that of associate rather than blood relative. One asks, ‘did Bathsheba come from Ethiopia or from Egypt?’ Another, and possible descendent of the Queen of Saba or Sheba, is thought to have ruled the mighty state of south Arabia until about 115 BCE, a land which was equal to the size of Yemen today. (158) It is known that Solomon took an Egyptian princess to wife and the author Velikovsky suggests that Solomon lived in the time of Hatshepsut and that she was the ‘Queen of Sheba’, and that in truth, Thuthmosis III lived and drove his campaigns in the time of the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut of the 15^th century BCE.

Hatchepsut,

 the female pharaoh. Joyce Tyldesley

                    On the walls of the Amon temple of Karnak in Egypt, are cut the hieroglyphics recording the military successes of Thutmose III in Canaan [Palestine] and Syria and corresponding to the later reign of Solomon. Indeed, Velikovsky claims Hatshepsut to be that intriguing Queen Sheba who married Solomon. [262] During the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam, was the famed city of Kadesh [Holy] taken in the campaign of Thutmose III, really the Holy City of Jerusalem. Was it Thutmose III who ‘ransacked’ the famous Temple of Solomon or did he build it in the first place? [262]