Zodiac

Spiritual zodiacal influences:

For our current Waking consciousness and physical senses, the zodiac consists of twelve star Constellations around the ecliptic. The star formations are given symbolic names of animals (and men). We can find the sign or symbol of the zodiac belt with old cultures dating back millenia.

The zodiac is a representation of the astral world beyond (1920-04-17-GA201), projected into our spatial perception.

Mankind has always studied the constellations of the zodiac with special attention, because both Sun and Moon pass through these constellations on their journey through the heavens. That makes these constellations and their corresponding zodiacal spiritual influences special, because their influence is sometimes there and sometimes not. This modulates the effect of specific spiritual influences on Man and the kingdoms of nature with certain rhythms related to Sun and Moon. For example the moon, passing through the constella­tions at four-week intervals, brings it about that there is always a time in a four-week period when some constella­tion of the zodiac does not have an influence. Other constellations outside the zodiac have a continuous influence which does not change. (1924-05-17-GA353)

From a spiritual scientific evolutionary perspective:

A zodiac is hence a stage of development for spiritual beings. When a planet develops into a fixed star the beings who are embodied on it also go higher, and after the fixed star stage, a zodiac forms with even higher, creative, beings than those that work from a sun. The sun that shines down on us now will someday shine down as the stars of a new zodiac, and so also will current Earth and mankind evolve from planet to sun to zodiac (1907-02-11-GA266, see Creation of solar system#1907-02-11-GA266).

For clairvoyant consciousness, the zodiac represents high spiritual beings who have evolved to the emanating Condition of Consciousness, meaning they can create from nothing by self sacrifice. They lie at the origin of the creation of our solar system, and are also called the First Hierarchy of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. During the Old Saturn planetary stage, the Seraphim supported the sacrifice of the Thrones to create Old Saturn, in the next planetary stage Old Sun the Cherubim did the same for the sacrifice of the Spirits of Wisdom.

Aspects

• correspondence of zodiac constellations and spiritual hierarchies
  • The spiritual beings behind the twelve constellations of the zodiac can also be named by their names as the spiritual hierarchies: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, and so on .. with Man as the tenth hierarchy. Man, however, develops onwards and subsequently reaches stages already attained by other Beings. Therefore one day he will also be instrumental in forming an eleventh and a twelfth category. In this sense we must think of twelve spiritual Beings. (1910-03-26-GA119 on Zodiac clock)
• the zodiac circle as a line representation of the dimension of time (1911-01-19-GA060)
  • the zodiac is a line which returns on itself, forming a circle as the expression of the rotation of Time and while one branch of Time goes forward into the future, the other turns backwards into the past
  • the course of the Sun through the Zodiac is the expression of the spiritual activity of the Spirit of Light (Ormuzd or Ahura Mazdao) through (Zaruana Akarana) - in brackets the terminology of Zarathustra's teachings in the ancient Persian cultural age
  • see also Zodiac clock and compare with Schema FMC00.329 on IAO
• crystal heaven
  • is the name in primeval wisdom for "that which happened in the beginnings of our evolution, before the Old Saturn development, and lies outside, beyond the Zodiac .. in that crystal heaven are deposed all the deeds of the Beings of a former evolution" (1909-04-18-GA110)
  • the crystal heaven is depicted on Schema FMC00.077B. Consider the zodiac for the Earth planetary stage of evolution. The evolutions of the First Hierarchy and Old Saturn indeed lies 'beyond the zodiac'. Another way to contemplate is Schema FMC00.329 on IAO.
• Scorpio instead of Eagle in the Zodiac: "because the forces of opposition are often stronger than the positive forces" (1904-05-XX-GA090A)
• all stars that make up the 12 onstellations of the zodiac are part of the Milky Way

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.627: illustrates the spiritual cosmology of Zarathustra in ancient Persia, some 6000 years ago, and the concept of Zaruana Akarana or the zodiac as symbol of eternity (or the infinity of time) and unity over light and darkness.

Rudolf Steiner explanations in 1911-01-19-GA060 are illustrated by on the right. The illustration of the Ovum Zoroastraeum or the egg of creation by Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) is taken from ‘Oedipus Aegyptiacus’, (published in 1652-1654), whereby Kircher referenced the Zoroastrian creation in Plutarch's (ca. 46-119) ‘De Iside et Osiride’ (in English ‘Of Isis and Osiris’).

The 'egg of creation' come back in creation myths and their symbols worldwide, see for example the leontocephaline figures found in Mithraic temples (Schema FMC00.626) or Phanes in ancient Greek Orphic cosmogony, and other visualizations oa of the Petra Genetrix (the mother rock from which Mithras was born - see Schema FMC00.628B.

The concept of eternal time and link with the ouroboros (Schema FMC00.328) is also explained by Rudolf Steiner in context of IAO, see Schema FMC00.327 (and Schema FMC00.329) on the IAO topic page.

Schema FMC00.260A illustrates the zodiacal influences on Earth and Man

Schema FMC00.077B is a simplified variant of FMC00.077A to highlighting the 'moving up the ladder' in context of IAO and the three Logoi.

It shows how the fourth Earth stage represents a new IAO cycle. The First Hierarchy has fully flown back, see also the Wheel of Planes Schema FMC00.078. See Note [1] in the Discussion area below.

Also shows how the spiritual hierarchies constituting the zodiac change (to relate, see eg 1914-04-25-GA266/3).

Lecture coverage and references

See: Creation of solar system

1906-09-04-GA095

(Q&A from steinerdatenbank, not on rsarchive) contains a question on the origin of the names of the zodiac signs

The whole animal kingdom was one inside of Man, meaning: Man was at the step between the current animal kingdom and human kingdom. To develop further, Man had to expulse the parts that could not be part of his further development. He excreted that, which currently builds our animal kingdom. Originally the animals were much less different from Man as currently [editor: Man's bodily constitution morphed and underwent a major transformation under influence of the I during the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs].

Now this excretion of the animal kingdom did not go at once, but very gradually. First fishes, than reptiles and amphibies, followed by birds and mammals. And with these groups also again a gradually excretion to place. That way for example the predators were excreted before the apes. When the lions were excreted, then the star sign in which the Sun stood was called Lion, and when Man excreted the bull nature, the corresponding star sign was called Bull.

The names of the four apocalyptic animals in John's Book of Revelation point to the same, they are: Eagle, Lion, Bull, Man. But with this, not all names of the zodiac signs are explained.

1906-10-04-GA091

is an esoteric lecture describing the zodiac signs with links to the ten, eleventh and twelve commandments and the unfolding of the development of the Christ impulse.

1909-04-17-GA110

(SWCC)

when the Old Saturn globe had evolved to the Old Sun globe, there distinctly appear encircling it, those beings who form the Animal circle or Zodiac, but even though they did not surround it so compactly as they did in the Sun existence, they were already there on ancient Saturn. Thus, around Old Saturn we must think of the Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim wielding their power, and they are to us, in the spiritual sense, the Zodiacal circle.

and further

If you lift your hand and point upwards with your finger, over that place is the region of certain Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. If you point to some other place, it will be another region of other H1 entities; for these three groups of Beings form a circle around Old Saturn. Suppose that you wanted to indicate the direction in which certain Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim are to be found. They are not all alike, each one is very distinctly different from the other, they are all individualised, so that one indicates different Beings when one points with the finger to different places. And to be able to indicate the right Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim, one marks the spot by a certain constellation of stars. In this direction one would say are the Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim, called Gemini, in another those called Leo, and so on. We must consider those separate constellations as signs to show the direction in which certain Beings are. They are something more, but we must first be clear, that when we speak of the ‘animal circle’ or Zodiac, we have to do with spiritual Beings

and then is explained the principle of the 'zodiac man', how in the initial germ of Man's physical body, a certain differentiation originated from different areas from the zodiac:

Thus also have all the other foundations or germs of the human organs been formed by the Animal Circle or Zodiac. The heart was formed by Leo the Lion. Near the heart, the cage of the ribs, which is necessary for the protection of the heart, was called the breastplate. In the beginning a region had naturally to be formed before the inclusion of the heart. Another name for the breastplate arose, which was taken from an animal who had received such a breastplate from nature — Cancer, the Crab; that which is out in space is really called ‘breastplate,’ a protection which the Crab has from nature, hence that region was called ‘the Crab.’ It lies on one side of the Lion. The other regions of the Zodiac were named according to the same principle. In fact, it is man projected outwards into universal space who has given these designations to the Zodiacal circle. But it is not always so easy to discover the original intention, in the transformed names, as for example, with the Crab. The name has not always been transmitted in a direct line, so that one has to return to the original sense if the meaning is to be made clear.

1909-04-18-GA110

quote A

What is called the physical body today had its first foundations during the very earliest Old Saturn formation. That physical body was not as yet interpenetrated by an etheric body, or by an astral body; but it was already so organised that after passing through all the transformations it experienced later, it could become the bearer of the spiritual earth Man of today. Very slowly and gradually was this physical body organised during the Old Saturn evolution, and, whilst Old Saturn itself was being formed, the different signs of the Zodiac slowly revolved, and the human body member by member, took on its earliest form.

• When Saturn stood under the sign of the Lion the beginning of the heart was formed;
• the ribs or the thoracic cage were started while Saturn was under the sign of the Crab;
• the foundation of the symmetrical shape of man, that is the reason for his being symmetrically built on two sides, arose while Saturn was under the constellation of Gemini.

Thus we follow piece by piece the formation of the human body,

• and when we look up to that part of the Zodiac, where Aries the Ram is, we can say: The upper part of our head originated when Old Saturn stood under the sign of Aries;
• the foundation of our organ of speech, when Saturn stood under the sign of the Bull.

And when you think of man distributed thus, you can see in the zodiacal circle the creative forces for each of the human organs.

This was represented pictorially in the old Mysteries, and the zodiac was drawn as you see it here on the ceiling of this hall. By chance - but there is no such thing as chance - we have met in a hall which is adorned above by the signs of the Zodiac.

Formerly the Zodiac was not designed by depicting the animal form corresponding to each sign, but the different human members were drawn in the corresponding region of the heavens: for instance, for Aries a head; further on, for the Bull, the region of the throat; that which most of all expresses symmetry — the arms, for Gemini; the thoracic cage, for the Crab; the heart, for the Lion; and thus they came to the lower parts of the legs, for the Waterman; and to the feet, for Pisces.

...

What I have now explained to you, and which culminated in the teaching of the macrocosmic man, is a teaching which in fact includes the deepest cosmic mysteries, and which in the future will gradually flow into the general education of humanity at large.

quote B

That which happened in the beginnings of our evolution, before the Old Saturn development, we must place outside, beyond the Zodiac. Primeval wisdom called it the Crystal Heaven, and in that crystal heaven were deposed all the deeds of the Beings of a former evolution. They formed, so to speak, the foundation on which the new Beings began to create.

1911-01-19-GA060

(in RSL008) is on terminology

Zarathustra showed — and this is a most important point — that the Zodiac is a line which returns on itself, forming a circle as the expression of the rotation of Time. In the highest sense, he taught that while one branch of Time goes forward into the future, the other turns backwards into the past.

Zaruana Akarana, the self-contained line of Time, the circle described by Ormuzd, the Spirit of Light, is what was later called the Zodiac.

This is the expression of the spiritual activity of Ormuzd. The course of the Sun through the Zodiac is the expression of the activity of Ormuzd.

The Zodiac is the expression of Zaruana Akarana. Zaruana Akarana and Zodiac are one and the same word, like Ormuzd and Ahura Mazdao.

1920-04-17-GA201

longer extract on: Lemniscatory time and space#1920-04-17-GA201

Now through what means does Man possess these relationships?

He possesses them through his astral body, which establishes these relations. They are only possible to him because through his astral body Man is a denizen of an astral world, a world which though acting upon space is not itself spatial.

We only conceive the Zodiac in its full meaning when we treat it as the representative of the astral world beyond.

And now, without having regard to present-day astronomical theories, let us examine these phenomena which appear to our sense of vision. We know that either actually or apparently the Sun passes through the Zodiac in various ways; in its daily course, in its yearly course, and again in its course through the Platonic year, through the precession of the equinoxes. This points to the fact that the effects upon us of that absorbent ether ball called Sun vary greatly, as they come from the different directions of Space.

1921-10-28-GA208

describes the twelve signs of the zodiac and how they relate to Man's formation and activities.

1924-05-17-GA353

Question: how does the zodiac differ from other fixed stars?

If we simply look out into the distant universe we see countless stars. They seem to be irregularly placed. But one can always distinguish groups of them, and these are called constellations.

Now the stars we see are further away from the moon or closer to it. Looking at the stars we see the moon pass through the starry heavens like this [drawing], don't we?

But whilst some constellations are positioned in such a way that the moon always passes through them, it does not pass through others. If you consider Hercules, for instance, the moon does not pass through. But if you look at the Lion, then the moon always passes through the Lion at given intervals.

Twelve constellations have the special character­istic that they form the path, as it were, taken by the moon and also by the sun. We may say, therefore, that the twelve constellations Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Scales, Scorpion, Archer, Goat, Water Carrier and Fishes mark the path of the moon. It always passes through them and not through the other constellations. We are thus always able to say that at any particular time the moon, if it is in the sky, is in one constellation or another, but only a constellation that is part of the zodiac.

Now I want you to consider, that everything there is by way of stars in the sky has a definite influence on the Earth as a whole and specifically also on Man. Man truly depends not only on what exists here on Earth but also on the stars that are there in the heavens.

• Think of some star or constellation up there. It rises in the evening, as we say, and sets in the morning. It is there all the time, and always influences the human being.
• But think of another constellation, the Twins, let us say, or the Lion. The moon passes that way. The moment it passes that way it covers up the Twins or the Lion. I see only the moon and not the Twins. At that moment they cannot influence the Earth, because their influence is blocked.

And so

• we have stars everywhere in the sky that are never blocked out, neither by the sun nor by the moon, and always have an influence on the earth.
• And we have stars which the moon passes, and the sun seemingly also passes them. These are covered up from time to time and their influence then stops. We are therefore able to say that the Lion is a constellation in the zodiac and has a particular influence on Man. It does not have this influence if the moon is in front of it. At that time the human being is free of the Lion influence, the Lion's influence does not affect him.

[Effect of planets and zodiacal influences]

Now just imagine you are terribly lazy and won't walk but someone gives you a push from behind, and you have to walk. He drives you on, and that is his influence. But imagine I do not permit him to influence you; he cannot give you a push. Then you are not subject to the influence; and if you want to walk you have to do it yourself.

Human beings need these influences. And how does this go?

Let us hold fast to this: The Lion constella­tion has a particular influence on Man. It has this influence for as long as it is not covered up by the moon or the sun.

[Planet in front of zodiac sign or not]

But let us take this further. Again consider an analogy from life. Let us say you want to know something. Imagine you have a governess or a private tutor — he usually knows everything. When you are a little boy you don't want to think for yourself, you ask your tutor and he'll tell you. He'll also do your homework for you. But if the tutor has gone out, so that you do not have your tutor available at the moment and have to do your homework, then you have to find the power in yourself. You have to recall things for yourself.

The Lion continually influences human beings, except when it is covered by the moon. Then the influence is not there. When the moon blocks the Lion's influence, Man must develop using his own resources.

Someone able to develop his own strong Lion influence when the moon covers the constellation may thus be called a Lion person. Someone able to develop particularly the influence in the constellation of the Crab when this is covered up is a Crab person. People develop the one or the other more strongly depending on their inner constitution.

You see, therefore, that the constellations of the zodiac are special, for with them, the influence is sometimes there and sometimes not.

The moon, passing through the constella­tions at four-week intervals, brings it about that there is always a time in a four-week period when some constella­tion of the zodiac does not have an influence. With other constellations the influence is always the same.

In earlier times people took these influences that came from the heavens very seriously. The zodiac was therefore more important to them than other constellations. The others have a continuous influence which does not change.

But with the zodiac we may say that the influence changes depending on whether one of its constellations is covered over or not. Because of this, the influence of the zodiac on the Earth has always been the subject of special study. And so you see why the zodiac is more important when we study the starry heavens than other stars are.

Milky way

1909-04-18-GA110

The present planets visible in the heavens originated during the period known as the fourth, the era of Earth evolution in our Akashic Record. These facts should be borne in mind; it is impossible in dealing with the universe to mention everything in detail. You may also have noticed that first there existed a kind of globe; I spoke, for instance, with reference to Old Saturn, about a globe of fire or a large kind of fiery egg, and after that I mentioned a rotating motion. That is quite correct; originally we have a kind of egg or globe.

While this globe, corresponding to the primal condition of Old Saturn, is revolving, a kind of girdle is being formed; it does not surround the whole of the egg, it is like a broad band. Everything that is being formed around about is gathered within the girdle.

This girdle formation represents a general cosmic law. You can see this law relating to accumulation in the form of an equator or girdle exemplified in the cosmos as far as the eye can see, for the Milky Way owes its existence to it. The Milky Way is like an outermost girdle surrounding cosmic space with stars sparsely distributed in between, and is the result of the law that causes things to be gathered together in a belt as soon as a rotatory motion sets in.

Because of this, our cosmic system is lentil-shaped. It is not spherical as is usually accepted and the girdle is gathered together at the equator.

1921-01-15-GA323

is the essential extract to imagine the milky way as outcome of a dimensional thinking exercise

[introduction]

Suppose you thus look into it and recognize that there is something in the human organization which falls right out of space, is not in space at all, but obliges you for instance to imagine spatially separated line-systems, inherently united with each other and yet united by another principle than three dimensional space affords. Thinking in this way, you will no longer be too far removed from what I shall now bring forward. You will at least be able to entertain the thought in a formal sense. No-one, I mean can validly object to thinking it as a pure form of thought. For to begin with, all we are called upon to do is to conceive a clear idea, as in mathematics generally. It cannot be objected that the thing is unproved, or the like. We are only concerned to reach a self-contained and consistent idea.

Think therefore for a moment that you had to do not only with ordinary space, conceived in its three dimension, but with a "counter-space" or anti-space". Let me call it so for the moment, and I will try to evoke an idea of it, as follows.

[counterspace]

Suppose I form the thought of ordinary, three-dimensional, rigid space. I form the first dimension, I form the second dimension and I form the third dimension (Fig. 4).

Then I have, so to speak, filled-in in thought — in the idea and mental presentation of it — three-dimensional space with which I am ordinarily confronted. Now as you know, in any such domain you can not only advance up to a certain degree of intensity; you can subtract from it too, and as you go on subtracting — taking away — you come at last to the negation of it. As you are well aware, there is not only wealth but debt. Likewise I cannot only make the three dimensions to arise in thought but I can also make them vanish. Only I now imagine the arising and vanishing to be a real process, — something hat is really there. Of course it is possible to think only two dimensions instead of three, but that is not my meaning.

What I now mean is this: The reason why I only have two dimensions (Fig. 4a)

is not that I never had a third. The reason is, I had a third and it has vanished. The two dimensions are an outcome of the coming-into being and vanishing-again of the third. I now have a space, which, though it outwardly shows only two dimensions, must inwardly be conceived as having two third dimensions, one positive and the other negative. The negative dimension springs from a source that can no longer be there in my three-dimensional space at all. Nor must I think of it as a "fourth dimension" in the conventional sense. No, I must think of it as being, to the third dimension, as positive to negative (Fig. 4a once more).

And now suppose that what I have been indicating is really there in the Universe; yet, as things generally are in the real world, approximately so. It would then be not a pedantically accurate but an approximate rendering of what I have here drawn. This need not cause you any great surprise, for in outer sense-perceptible reality you never find mathematical figures reproduced in any other way, always approximately. If then I claim that the picture represents something real, you will only expect it to do so in an approximate sense. To represent a reality corresponding to it, I need not repeat exactly the same drawing, but I should have to draw something flattened; that would answer to it. The fact that something has been there and has then vanished, I may perhaps suggest in this way: I will suppose that the density of an effect, indicated by the dark shading, came into being and then partly faded out again, drew weaker (Fig. 5).

You are then left with a sphere that has a denser portion in the middle region. I beg you know, compare what is here drawn with the real cosmic system, such as we see it with our eyes, — the cosmic sphere with all the stars widely dispersed, and then the stars more densely packed in the region of the Milky Way, or what we call the galactic system.

Yet you may also compare it with something else. Take any popular star-map. The picture we have shown (Fig. 5a)

— let us still take it simply as a picture — is fundamentally equivalent to what is always being shown: the passage of the Sun or of the Earth through the Zodiac, with the with the North and South poles of the ecliptic somewhere out yonder.

The idea we have been forming is, as you see, not so very remote from what is there in the outer Universe.

In coming lectures we shall of course still have to look for more detailed relations.

1921-04-07-GA324A

We must imagine the universe with a configuration of its own, corresponding to an ellipsoid with three axes. The configuration of certain stars suggests that this idea is correct. For example, we usually say that our Milky Way galaxy is lens-shaped, and so on. We cannot possibly imagine it as a sphere. We must find a different way of imagining it if we want to accommodate the facts of physics.

Discussion

Note 1 - Research into and experience of the zodiacal influences

For info on the Astrostat work by Joachim Schultz and Suo Vetter's, more recently taken up by Wolfgang Findeisen, see:

• Research into zodiacal influences

For experiental experience of the different influences from various zodiac signs, see:

• Wolfgang Wegener: 'Das dynamische Tierkreiszeichnen: Eine praktische Anleitung zum Selbst-Erlernen'
• Paul Platt: 'The qualities of time'

Related pages

• Stars
• Creation of solar system
• Zodiac streams: seven and five
• Zodiac clock
• Zodiac man
• Research into zodiacal influences

References and further reading

• Julius Schwabe: 'Archetyp und Tierkreis' (1951)
• Frits Hendrik Julius (1902-1970): 'The Imagery of the Zodiac' (1994) (also as 'Die Bildersprache des Tierkreises' (1974 in DE), original 'Beeldentaal van de dierenriem' (1969 third edition in NL)
• Fred Gettings (1937-2013): 'The Book of the Zodiac ; An historical anthology of astrology' (1973)
• Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985)
  • Astrological Signs - The Pulse of Life (1978)
  • 'The Zodiac as The Universal Matrix' (2013)
• John Jocelyn : 'Meditations on the Signs of the Zodiac' (1991)