The Three Zodiacs
We normally talk about one Zodiac, but today, I’m writing about the three Zodiacs, at least from one perspective. The first one is the Zodiac of the fixed star constellations ~ the ones we can actually see in the sky. These are images of the spiritual archetypes that emanate from deep cosmic space, far beyond the boundaries of our solar system, and living behind everything that exists. It is, in a sense, much older, “wiser”, if you will, and all embracing than our home system.
In Ancient Persian cosmology, the All-Father Being, Zaruana Akarana, which is possibly the oldest root of the word, Zodiac, gathers in himself the spirit being of the whole Zodiac. Zaruana Akarana, also called, Zurvan Akarano, “the unlimited, or uncreated time”, and is at the same time the supreme and primordial deity. Zurvan’s children are the twins Ahura Mazda, the god of light, and Angri Manyu, or Ahriman, the spirit of darkness. Twelve spiritual powers, the Amshaspands, work in the Zodiac, of which seven lean towards the light side, and five towards the dark side. Thus, the all encompassing spirit is working through the astral realm.
The second Zodiac is the one of the “signs”, or divisions of the ecliptic, and is based on the seasonal rhythms of the Earth. Here we find the cosmic spirit manifesting as the cosmic-life cycles working into the Earth. We can regard these life cycles as the etheric, or life body of our planet, in whom the greater cosmos manifests, or reflects itself as life, and all its potentiality.
The third Zodiac consists of the divisions around the North-South axis of any locality. These astrological “Houses” take us right down to physical Earth reality, and are based on the physical/geographic location of an Earthly event, such as a birth. When relating the Sun, Moon, and planets to this, we recognize a world in which cosmic impulses are in seeming contrast to the physical sphere. However, amongst all earthly beings, the human being has the potential to consciously build bridges between the Spirit of the Cosmos, and the inescapable necessities and requirements of physical Earth life.
These three Zodiacs give us a picture of how pure spirit creates, manifests, sustains, and destroys on every level of existence. It can also be seen how the second Zodiac of signs and the third Zodiac of Houses are often held to be the same. I would rather say that they are different manifestations, or projections of the sublime spirit behind them, all interweaving in each other, and reflecting each other’s qualities, yet each has its own purpose. You will find these same living dynamics between the nervous system, respiratory/circulatory system, and the metabolic system of the human body. They all inter-work within each other, yet each has its own function.
In astrology, we are basically reading the threads and tapestry of karma. In a very simplistic way, we can say that the first Zodiac of the starry constellations is the spiritual life, the thoughts, or the “why”, while the second Zodiac of the constellations of signs is an earth centered reflection of this “why” in life and time, and the Sun, Moon, planets, and other bodies, as the feeling aspect of the “who”and “how”, as they move across the physicality of the “where” and “what” is to be done in the third Zodiac of the houses. Of course these qualities are intermingled and shared in each realm, The interweaving working of these spheres into each other give us the incredibly complex, yet decipherable language of astrology.
Keeping all this in mind, I will now bring up the Precession of the Vernal Equinox. The Earth’s axis tilts approximately 23.5 degrees in relation to the ecliptic. The equinoxes occur when the Earth’s axis is perpendicular to the sun. The gravitational effects that the Sun, Moon, and other planets have upon the Earth cause the Earth’s rotational axis to sway clockwise in a slow circular motion. Historically, this motion of the Earth’s axis gives rise to the equinoxes moving westward along the ecliptic, relative to the fixed stars. The time it takes the axis to make one complete swing around to its original point is 25,920 years. It also takes the Sun 25,920 years to move through all the constellations of the Zodiac, making a Platonic Year.
The apparent position of the Sun, relative to the backdrop of the fixed stars, at the seasonally fixed time of the Vernal equinox moves from one zodiacal constellation to another every 2,160 years. This period is known as an Astrological Age, or Cultural Epoch. Archetypically speaking, human individuality incarnates twice, approximately 1,080 years apart, during a cultural age, one female, and one male, although there are karmic and evolutionary reasons for this timing and sequence not to be rigidly held to, but this is beyond the scope of this particular writing.
This precession of the Vernal Equinox slowly regresses about .014 degrees every year, or approximately 1 degree every 72 years. This results in the difference of 20 minutes between the sidereal and tropical years. This 1 degree movement equates to the 72 year average lifespan of a human being. The average human heart rate is 72 beats per minute, or 4,320 beats per hour. A heartbeat is made up of the contractive systole, and the relaxed dilation of the diastole. Each approximate half, or 2,160, occurs every hour. The human life can be imaginatively seen as one cosmic heartbeat, and the systole and diastole relate to the average number of incarnations in one Cultural Age.
The incarnations can also be seen as one cosmic breath, and is reflected in the human average respiratory rate of 18 breaths per minute, or 1,080 breaths per hour. This leads us to 25,920 breaths per day. Whether conscious or not, it is not an uncommon perception in mainstream religious thought, and in different so-called New Age thinking; that our life on earth, and everything earthly around us is lower —lower vibration, or lower energy than the spiritual world, and is rained down upon by planetary and cosmic rays, or energies. In our current age we are called to conceive and feel that the workings of spiritual beings are in all things, in different ways and for different purposes. This points to the concept of, “energies” to be an injustice. Instead, consciousness is closer to the reality.r to the reality.
Let’s go back to the difference between the sidereal and tropical positions. When the tropical Zodiac was developed by Ptolemy, back in the 3rd century BC, the sidereal Vernal Equinox was in Aries. About 2,000 years ago, both sidereal and tropical were identical. At that time, the vernal point was fixed at that point by the tropical astrologers. Since then, the Precession of the Equinox has been regressing through the Zodiac. Today, the sidereal and tropical points are determined to differ from each other by approximately 23 degrees. This separation will continue to culminate and wane until the astronomical Vernal Equinox comes back to Aries in approximately 25,920 years to where it was in the constellation of Aries.
Now, there is much debate and disagreement about which system is better, if not more true. I have found there are merits in both systems. However, I would like to add something that is beyond an either/or view. We can look at this difference as a manifestation of cosmic will, and the evolutionary and karmic necessities involved in how humanity has evolved from a state of having a dreamy spiritual life and awareness of spiritual beings and realities, then slowly growing more and more separate from the spiritual world, until being immersed in a purely materialistic understanding of itself and the world; then developing the means for attaining awareness of spiritual realities again, but consciously, as a being a spirit amongst other spirits, with a growing individual freedom and responsibility for one’s self- development, and love towards all other beings.
Just as the Ancient Persians saw Zaruana Akarana encompassing the whole of the
Zodiac of the fixed star constellations, and these cosmic spiritual archetypes
working in the astral, and into life processes, right down into physicality, we can see how the human being is a manifestation of what is called the Cosmic Man, the spiritually pure Adam Kadmon, or the archetypal human being, which is another way of saying, “made in the image of God”. But this is not a static state, nor one to be returned to, but one to evolve towards consciously, for we are called to become co-creative gods.
May 6, 2021
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