第8章

THE ZODIAC

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 in 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 INFLUENCEAT 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 makeallowance 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 fromthe 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.