Zodiacal light

“ Again, is it not amazing that for thousands of years mankind should have been in presence of so frequent a phenomenon as the zodiacal light—a phenomenon which in southern latitudes is specially impressive—without considering it to be worthy of mention, or rather, let us say, without seeing it, until Childrey, in the middle of the seventeenth century, discovered it, if we may so speak? ”

“ These observations show that the outline on that portion of the light commonly seen in the morning or evening is concave instead of convex, as it would be were the cloud strictly lenticular. The actual outline of the cloud is that of which a section through the sun is shown in the figure. Since the tenuous edge of the lens extends beyond the earth's orbit it follows that there must be some zodiacal light, whether it can be seen or not, passing entirely across the sky, along or near the ecliptic. Observations of this zodiacal band are therefore of great interest. ”

“ Must we admit that emanations which reflect white light, and seem to have some analogy with the tails of comets, are less abundant at certain periods? Researches on the zodiacal light have acquired a new degree of interest since geometricians have taught us that we are ignorant of the real causes of this phenomenon. ”

“ That the laws of reflected light require an arrangement or a shape of this nebulous matter which will give us, at the base of the zodiacal light, larger angles between the lines of the incident and reflected light than at other portions, and also a regular decrease of such angles from the base to the apex of the light, as produced by such a shape. These three requirements appear to be fully met by an hypothesis which, if the theories examined are untenable, is now the only one remaining to us. "The hypothesis is that the zodiacal light is a ring around the earth. ”

“ As the seasons advance, when the ecliptic is declining gradually toward the horizon, the zodiacal light fades away till it is perhaps entirely lost to view, or can be seen only by those who have followed it in its changes, night after night, and are thus able, by familiar acquaintance, to detect and trace its dim markings in the sky. ”

“ And far higher are the gleaming constellations that are set in the forehead of night. Have the hands of man gathered the Pleiades and strung them like burning gems on a chain of fire? Can the power of man unloose Orion and let the stars of that magnificent constellation wander through the sky? The Mazzaroth or Zodiacal signs that mark the watches of the advancing year, the Bear and the stars of her train—who leads them forth? The laws of heaven, too, those ordinances regulating the changes of temperature and the seasons, does man appoint them? ”

“ In modern works we find the terms “useless,” “fanciful,” and “inconvenient,” applied to the Zodiac and its constellations; and for regulating a tropical year the constellations are “useless” and “inconvenient,” but the theory that the reckoning of the year and all its religious festivals depended on the observance of the Zodiacal star-groups, would help to account for the widely spread veneration in which they were held throughout so many ages and by so many nations. ”

“ Astronomers distinguish between a fixed and intellectual zodiac; and the movable and visible zodiac. According to the former, Aries still stands as the first of the signs; that is to say, the first thirty degrees of the zodiacal circle, reckoning from the equinoctial point in spring, are allotted to Aries in the intellectual zodiac.... Astronomers generally choose to reckon by the fixed and intellectual zodiac.— (Drummond's "Oedipus Judaicus.") ”

“ The observer will probably think that it is as easy to see a beetle as [16] a crab there. Cancer, like Leo, is one of the twelve constellations of the Zodiac, the name applied to the imaginary zone 16° degrees wide and extending completely around the heavens, the center of which is the ecliptic or annual path of the sun. The names of these zodiacal constellations, in their order, beginning at the west and counting round the circle, are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces. ”

“ For when the sun is midway on his course Between the blasts of northwind and of south, Heaven keeps his two goals parted equally, By virtue of the fixed position old Of the whole starry Zodiac, through which That sun, in winding onward, takes a year, Illumining the sky and all the lands With oblique light—as men declare to us Who by their diagrams have charted well Those regions of the sky which be adorned With the arranged signs of Zodiac. ”

“ This is one of the most sublime signs of the Zodiac and one of the most mystic, so fraught with hidden meaning that its full import cannot be fully understood save when viewed by the internal light of spiritual illumination, Yearly, at the Winter solstice, the immaculate Madonna is ascendant at midnight, when the new born Sun commences to rise to the task of growing the grain and grape, to save humanity from the cold and famine, which would inevitably result were he to remain in the southern declination. ”

“ According to the calculations made by the chief Astrologer Priest it was just at midnight that the conjunction of the luminaries took place in the Zodiacal sign belonging to the Moon. This union of the luminous orbs of the day and night is powerfully magical in its results.
The vibrations, set in motion by this mighty union of the positive and negative forces of Nature, react, not only upon the waters and the Earth, but the human family. ”

“ The aspects that the Moon bears to the other celestial bodies at these times is held to be a guide to the nature of succeeding events. But more attention is paid to such horoscopes thus calculated wherein the Moon falls on the place of any of the planets at birth.
Ingresses
are of two kinds, mundane and zodiacal. A mundane ingress is made when a planet in the heavens comes to [Pg 141] the cusp of one of the Houses in the horoscope of birth—that is to say, to the degree of the zodiac which held the cusp of such House. ”

“ Of the signs of the zodiac in general, then, the solstitial signs produce souls fitted for deaIing with the people, fond of turbulence and political activity, glory-seeking, moreover, and attentive to the gods, noble, mobile, inquisitive, inventive, good at conjecture, and fitted for astrology and divination. The bicorporeal signs make souls complex, changeable, hard to apprehend, light, unstable, fickle, amorous, versatile, fond of music, lazy, easily acquisitive, prone to change their minds. ”

“ Colours were also assigned to the twelve zodiacal signs—to Aries, white and red; to Taurus, white and lemon; to Gemini, white and red (the same as Aries) ; to Cancer, green or russet; to Leo, red or green; to Virgo, black speckled with blue; to Libra, black, or dark crimson, or tawny colour; to Scorpio, brown; to Sagittarius, yellow, or a green sanguine (this is as strange a colour as the gris rouge of Molière's L'Avare) ; Capricorn, black or russet, or a swarthy brown; to Aquarius, a sky-coloured blue; to Pisces, white glistening colour (like a fish just taken out of the water) . ”

“ For from [5] (the moment) of birth [6] the ascension of the zodiacal sign rising in the heaven should be closely watched, [7] since the Chaldeans, determining (from this) the horoscope, frame the configuration of the stars in accordance with the ascension (of the sign) ; and they term this—disposition, in accordance with which they devise their predictions. But neither is it possible to take the birth of persons, falling under consideration, as I shall explain, nor is the horoscope infallible, nor is the rising zodiacal sign apprehended with accuracy. ”

“ In addition to the rules which have been already given, respecting the familiarity of the regions of the earth with the signs and planets, it must be observed, that all fixed stars which may be posited on any line, drawn from one zodiacal pole to the other, through such parts of the zodiac as may be connected with any particular country, are also in familiarity with that particular country. ”

“ If you observe the Heavens on a fine starry night, and are sufficiently acquainted with the principal stars of the Zodiac as described in a preceding chapter, you may be surprised on certain evenings to see the figure of some zodiacal constellation slightly modified by the temporary presence of a brilliant orb perhaps surpassing in its luminosity the finest stars of the first magnitude. ”

“ As the moon in the zodiac touches off like a fuse the happenings of life, so his own desires and wishes touch off the powers of his soul, and the experiences may be transmuted into soul qualities when he has developed the eye which enables him to read the simplest of all books—everyday life. ”

“ If, then, the constellations have nothing to do with the origin of the names by which the Zodiacal divisions are indicated, we have to seek for some other source which might have given rise to these appellations. It becomes my object to unravel a portion of the mystery connected with these Zodiacal signs, as also to disclose a portion of the sublime conception of the ancient Hindu philosophy which gave rise to them. The signs of the Zodiac have more than one meaning. ”

“ The mundane factor as distinguished from the zodiacal, that is to say, the positions of the planets in the prime vertical as distinguished from their positions in the zodiac, is that which makes for individual expression. Three hundred and sixty persons could be born in a single day in any one locality and each of these could have a horoscope that is distinct and individual. The highest record does not reach this number. ”

“ Zodiacal ingresses are those that are made by the planets into the signs of the zodiac successively, and it is held that a change in the trend of affairs will take place in that department of the life ruled by the House wherein that sign is placed at birth. ”

“ If the sun, driving through the circles and passing along the signs of the Zodiac in his annual periods, accomplishes the changes and turnings of the seasons, how did those who were born before the signs of the Zodiac were placed among the stars, and the heaven was adorned with them, continue to exist, when summer, autumn, winter, and spring, were not as yet separated from each other, by means of which the body is increased and strengthened? ”

“ The other constellations of the two hemispheres are not unconsidered in astrology, but those of the zodiac are more important, because they form the pathway of the sun, the moon, and the planets, and are supposed to receive from these bodies, as they roll through their spaces, extraordinary energy. ”

“ Therefore it happens that the moon appears More swiftly to return to any sign Along the Zodiac, than doth the sun, Because those signs do visit her again More swiftly than they visit the great sun. It can be also that two streams of air Alternately at fixed periods Blow out from transverse regions of the world, Of which the one may thrust the sun away From summer-signs to mid-most winter goals And rigors of the cold, and the other then May cast him back from icy shades of chill Even to the heat-fraught regions and the signs That blaze along the Zodiac. ”

“ Their towering heads, coiffed with zodiacal signs, or grotesque with animal or bird, bend down to watch you everywhere. There is no hurry in them; they move with the leisure of the moon, with the stateliness of the sun, with the slow silence of the constellations. But they move. There is, between you and them, this effect of a screen, erected by the ages, yet that any moment may turn thin and let them through upon you. ”

“ The sign of the zodiac, too, under which a child comes into the world, possesses a power to produce a particular form of body and mental inclination, always, however, subject to the influence of the seven planets. ”

“ The sun enters Aries at the spring equinox and Libra at the autumnal equinox, while the first point of Cancer marks the summer solstice, and that of Capricorn the winter. The name Zodiac is derived from the Greek zoon, an animal, and has been given to the belt because the majority of the signs are named after animals. ”

“ As rays of the Sun, by change of the angle of incidence, call forth leaves and flowers from the plant at one time, and at another cause them to wither, so do rays from the fixed stars call forth and produce greater changes in flora and fauna; they are responsible for the rise and fall of nations and the temperamental change which we call civilization.
Bringing the analogy a step further, the natural zodiac is composed of the constellations as they are and remain in the heavens, and the intellectual zodiac commences at the changing point where the Sun crosses the equator at the vernal equinox. ”

“ The signs of the Zodiac have more than one meaning. From one point of view they represent the different stages of creation up to the time the present material universe with the five elements came into phenomenal existence. ”

“ In astrology the signs of the zodiac were called ‘houses’ or ‘mansions’ and each was assigned to a particular planet. When a planet was in its house or mansion, its power was very great. Each of the planets had also a sign called its ‘exaltation’ and in this sign its power was greatest of all. The sign opposite a planet’s mansion was called its ‘fall’ and that opposite its exaltation was called its ‘depression’; these were the positions of least influence. Mars’ mansions were Aries and Scorpio; his exaltation, Capricornus; his fall, Libra and Taurus, and his depression, Cancer. ”

“ Astrological Systems.—The refined system of astrological prediction based upon the solar zodiac was invented in Chaldaea, obtained a second home and added elaborations in Egypt, and spread irresistibly westward about the beginning of the Christian era. For genethliacal purposes the signs were divided into six solar and six lunar, the former counted onward from Leo, the “house” of the sun, the latter backward from the moon’s domicile in Cancer. Each planet had two houses—a solar and a lunar—distributed according to the order of their revolutions. ”