Radical Uranus

 The planet Uranus has a special affinity with the sign of Aquarius. Saturn was the traditional ruler of this sign and still maintains its influence, for not all can respond positively to the rarefied atmosphere of Uranus, well not until they have passed the tests of Saturn. The Uranian influence was consciously added to our living experience of the planet Saturn, when it was rediscovered in 1781.

Kronos, reaper, time keeper and boundary marker

Saturn experience, and labour, lays down the much needed preparations and foundations for life and action so that the Uranian genius and inspiration has a solid platform to work from – the engineer needs good training in theoretical mathematics before reaching the point of being able to make the inventions and designs functional; the artist and writer needs to practise their techniques to give form to their dreams and imagination; the astrologer/astronomer needs years of observing and perfecting calculations before being able to apply the information intuitively to his/her understanding of people, events and the world; a successful revolution driven by Uranian forces needs the careful planning and organization of Saturn if it is to meet its intended purpose, that is to overthrow what used to be. Can you see the potentially useful balance of Saturn and Uranus energies combined? Without Saturn discipline and hard work, Uranus cannot manifest the change, the genius, in any positive and sustained way that is of use to use in our material world.

 

Uranus, deity of the starry sky, can fly because although he doesn’t like or observe boundaries, he has to utilise them, for unfortunately that is the way our material world works. The Female polarity of Uranus is the Egyptian sky goddess Nut.

The Egyptian Nut goddess of the starry night overarching creation. 

Related to the Greek/Roman god Uranus the smasher of boundaries.

Saturn lays the boundaries and the rules and then a Uranian influence comes along and wakens us up to greater possibilities, either accepted or not. Imaginative ideas need a structure within which to work. Have you ever tried flying without wings; have you ever had wonderful ideas that you couldn’t catch; have you only thought about the idea of doing good for the group? If you have then perhaps you need a little more Saturn structure and application in your life to define and execute these wonderful ideas. Combine the principles of these two planetary influences and you have unique rhythms and potential of extraordinary output.

The Tarot Magician

As Dione Fortune says, ‘If we try to escape from the discipline of matter before we have mastered the lessons of matter, we are not advancing heavenwards but suffering from arrested development.’

AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #56

c703 BCE        NUMA POMPILIUS (715-673 BCE) second king of Rome is credited with building the first temple to Vesta and establishing the institution of the Vestal Virgins. The temple is round to represent earth, has a domed ceiling to represent the celestial vault and in it a perpetual flame burns, symbol of the earthly hearth and heavenly spirit. (9)

Vestal Virgins of the Goddess Vesta

[historyhogs.com] 

                 Numa established most of the priesthoods of ancient Rome, particularly those of the gods Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus, known as the 3 Flamines. He also established the Salii, the priests who danced through the city twice a year carrying their special sacred shields, one of which had fallen from the sky as a gift from Jupiter. Numa also organized the first systematic Roman ritual calendar (324) and began the calendar year from when the sun reached the mid-point of the constellation Capricorn, following on from the winter solstice that is marked by the sun entering into the sign of Capricorn.(11)  The constellations and similarly named Ecliptic signs have not yet been distinguished or separated, this will occur in the third century.

King Numa is the recipient of a magical shield from the planetary god Jupiter, similar to that given by Zeus to Dardanus the first king of Troy (3000 BCE).  This shield is a copy of the Palladium or aegis worn by the goddess of wisdom, Minerva or Athena of Greece. To protect the valuable shield, Numa made 11 copies of it and appointed the above mentioned 12 priests of the Salii as their guardians. (247]

Numa Pompilius 

[sculptor Moitte 1806]

c700 BCE    HESIOD: Greek poet who in his work called ‘Theogony’, records and systemizes the Olympian pantheon along with Greek stories of creation. In this creation, first came the ‘gods’ Chaos and Gaia with their son Kronos, to be followed by second generation of ‘gods’ made up of Kronos and his wife Rhea, with their son Zeus who is born on the island of Crete. Zeus devours his own pregnant wife Metis, goddess of wisdom, and gives birth to Athena out of his head. Athena will become the patron and protector of the city state of Athens. This switch of genders some authors think symbolizes a growing male domination over female. (9)

Is this Hesiod?

                    Hesiod’s introduction of personifications of the gods recalls the Egyptian concept of ‘Maat’ expressed through the interaction of their gods. This is similar to the ‘Wisdom of God’ as recorded by the Hebrews in their ‘Book of Proverbs’. [185]

 

                Many Greek mythologies were set is Italy where the Greeks had established colonies. Here were located the ‘Phlegrean Fields’ that hid the entrance to the Kingdom of Hades near Naples. Etna in Sicily is regarded as the site where Zeus, who with the help of Hercules, fought the Titans, the ancient old gods. Etna is also the abode of the Cyclops and Hephaestus or Vulcan, god of Fire. The Tartara River near Etna is nominated as the site of Greek Kore’s kidnap by Pluto god of Hades or the underworld. The River Po which runs through Turin, the plane of Lombardy and exits in the Adriatic, is also the site of many Greek myths. (182]

Phlegrean Fields

Entrance to Hades, world of Vulcan and Pluto

                    Western thought is systemized by the Greeks around the end of this century and into the next and will reach its high point with Plato (365 BCE) in the fourth century of this era.  The ancients conceived the essences of life as gods, and Plato in the future will give these gods archetypal form. (19)

Vulcan, god of Fire

[detail from ‘Parnassus’ by Mantegna 1497]

                Around the turn of the century, the first kingdom of Media is established from a federation of Iranian tribes. From these tribes will arise the Achaemenid dynasty of the future. (102) In the European Late Bronze Age development, it is the time of the ‘Urn-field Culture’ of the Celtic people.

SOMBER SATURN

The planet strongly associated with the sign of Capricorn is Saturn; and well does Saturn, alias Chronos, reflect the qualities and character of that sign. Saturn marks the edge of the Universe, as the ancients knew it, the edge of the space-time continuum, from here it is a leap out into the unknown where the constraints of time and space no longer apply. Umm, so do you fall out of the tree, so to speak, or do you embrace with open arms the magnificent, if a little scary, vistas of the far beyond that are the prize of giving homage to necessity, duty, responsibility and hard work, according to Saturn’s demands.

Chronos looking a little wearily upon

capricious foolishness of mankind.

Saturn in history was known as the planet that guarded the limits of our universe and therefore provided the boundary to our experiences. Saturn only provides a boundary to keep mere mortals safe, but this boundary is not impenetrable and if there is the courage to peek into the unknown, beyond everyday life and thinking, then the magic can be wonderful. The compatriot of Capricorn is Aquarius, who is also ruled by Saturn. However, in this latter sign, due to its dual rulership of both Saturn and the radical planet Uranus, it is probably easier for the Aquarian to accept alternative possibilities than it is for the Capricorn person.

Without the influence of Saturn there would be no structure in our world, no form to anything, no skin to keep you contained, no deep thinking, no constructive accomplishment in the material world. Now these serious aspects of life can appear to many as limitations and restrictions but without them life would be but chaos, everything floating around without form! Such conditions only seem like barriers to achievement when we don’t pay homage to Saturn’s needs, or our own. There is a hidden side to Saturn that guides us on to discover our soul. Perhaps sometimes found in those precious moments of time, cut off from the hectic pace of modern life. Some might be ahead of the pack and take pondering in isolation very seriously, and even follow the life of the hermit.

Is this an hermit’s house?

Life can be a struggle under the influence of a too heavy Saturn influence but that struggle has the purpose of building stronger and deeper foundations of life and character, without too much self-interest or lack of recognition of the beauty in life. If those foundations are not made from the point of view of pure motive then you can be sure that they will dissolve at some later point in time and not be as productive as they could have been. If foundations are laid solid through life experience and contemplation, then these foundations will be the platform from which to shoot for the stars via Uranus.

The well known first publication of the famous astrologer Liz Greene, is called, “Saturn: a new look at an old Devil’ and is certainly worth a read if you are studying astrology.

A beautiful luminous Saturn from online Astronomy Magazine 30.7.10

 And to crack Saturn and begin your journey to the stars, try Robyn Sharma’s ‘’Leadership without Title’. A weekend read won’t get you there, but it will open your mind to possibilities and sign post the first steps.

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

AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #54

 EIGHTH CENTURY BCE (799-700]

Through the 8^th to the-4^th centuries BCE there is an intense mixing of cultures through war, invasion and migration; those peoples of the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Assyrian and Persian nations. The Assyrians will destroy the ancient Babylonian Empire and rebuild it during this century under their Empire. The Assyrians will destroy the Babylonian Empire and rebuild it during this century. Magna Graecia will be created by a succession of Ionian, Achaean and Dorian colonists. (182) There commences a second period of cultural and trade contact between Greece and Mesopotamia [350]

 

 

786 BCE         There is the occurrence of an exact heliacal rising of the star Spica at the Northern Autumnal Equinox on September 29^th 786 BCE. The exact heliacal rising of the star Spica on an Autumnal Equinox on a Sabbath-day is called The Great Sabbath and marks this as a time of great importance for world affairs.  The Equinox Points at this time are recorded as sidereal Aries-Libra 13.8 degrees. (30)

Saturn the ruler of Saturday the Sabbath 

a time of prayer and study.

753                   ROMULUS is the first king of the Roman civilization and he establishes Roma, centre of Latium, lying between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Apennine mountains. In 509 BCE, Rome will be established as a Republic, guided by two elected consuls who will eventually replace the king as ruler. (182)

                       Romulus consulted the gods and by their instructions laid out the sacred boundary of this first city of the Roman Empire. The first temple erected is to the god Jupiter Feretrius. Some of the major sacred festivals established at this time would continue to be celebrated for the next thousand years. At one of these rituals, the first Romans carried off the women of the neighbouring Sabine tribes of ‘star watchers’ who had come to observe proceedings. This event became known as the ‘Rape of the Sabines’. 

The Roman God Jupiter symbol 

Of Thunder and Lightening

                       Long before Romulus, the site of Rome had been occupied by exiles from Arcadia in Greece. These exiles were led by the Greek King Evander who established Greek religious customs in Italy, such as that of the ‘Rite of Hercules’. It is King Evander who welcomed the Trojan hero Aeneas after he left that burning city of Troy to re-establish a new Troy in Italy. Thus, Aeneas of the twelfth century BCE had previously established Lavinium and Alba Longa nearby where Rome is now to stand. Aeneas brought the statue of the goddess Pallas Athena from Troy to Italy for the establishment of the temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum, and there to be attended by the Vestal Virgins.

703 BCE            NUMA, the second king of Roma, will be responsible for expanding the priesthood of Salii and establishing the first Roman ritual calendar. Numa will also found the temple of Janus, the god who looks both ways at the point where the year changes from the past to the future. The fifth king of Roma will be an Etruscan called Tarquin the Elder and he will add to the Capitoline Hill, temples to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. (324)

750                  ISAIAH a Hebrew prophet who lived and worked in Jerusalem from about 750-700 BCE. His prophetic ministry inspired the ‘Book of Isaiah’ in the ‘Old Testament’ of the Hebrews. (196) where is says, ‘A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jess, and a branch shall grow out of his roots’. (Is.11:1) This Messianic theme is of a new anointed one to come, upon whom the spirit is rested and who will exercise the office of king in virtue of this gift of spirit. Isaiah regards the anointed one’s commission as consisting pre-eminently in the establishment of divine justice on Earth. The anointed one is given such divine properties as omniscience and power to cause death by word alone. Isaiah makes reference to one who is to come in the future who is to spring from ‘the root of Jess’, the father of David. It is a new ‘David’ at whose advent Jahweh will restore the glory of the original Davidic Empire. It is suggested that the old Jerusalem will fall and the new ruler will come from Bethlehem. The question is posed: ‘Had the reigning members of the house of David lost their divine functions? And that the monarchy from David’s time had become a false development? Did the prophets (Isaiah and Micah) expect Jahweh to start again with a new messianic line?’ (197)

                         Isaiah spoke at a time when the kingdom of Israel was near its end and the dynasty of David faced peril. The dynasty had fallen from the ideal of even a good secular ruler. Isaiah formulated the previously proposed idea of an eternal dynasty presenting the ideal king in four titles; ‘Wonderful counsellor, Divine hero, Father forever, Prince of peace’, which all sounds very Egyptian. These titles designate a state of complete well-being of body and mind, of internal and external order. The ideal king is to be adopted as the son of the Lord. (198) A sun king.

A Sun King

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]