“We are all living an archetypal journey.”
– Jim Sher
The archetypal symbol and its corresponding glyph of the 12 zodiac signs reveal the sophistication of the original archetypal concepts and how they remain relevant today. The core themes attest to how each of these unique archetypal symbols represents a truly universal aspect of human nature. Viewed as parts of a greater whole, they also offer a guided path of individual development to manifest the highest potential and bring spiritual focus into everyday life.
Embedded in these archetypes are mythical and real creatures, objects, and beings that represent a base starting point for learning and, most importantly, the trajectory, or purpose line, that a journey can take to reach spiritual maturity.
Astrology is coded archetypal language inspired by contemplating the stars. In Transpersonal Astrology, it is considered cosmic code coming from the greater whole of divine consciousness itself.
ARIES
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It’s common knowledge that Aries is symbolized by the Ram. But what does this symbol mean, and how does it fit with the Aries zodiac archetype?
Since ancient times, the ram has been a symbol of strength and independence. The visual evokes these creatures magnificent spiraling horns, known for butting their heads against other rams during mating season to establish their dominance and virility.
How does this fit in with astrology? Aries is courageous, competitive and known for confronting challenges head-on. The Sun enters Aries, a fire sign, at the Spring equinox, correlating to the push of creative energy required for new birth. Just as rams fight for their right to create new life in the spring, so must the newborn human be inspired by Aries fire to ignite its desire to thrive and continue to be reignited from cycle to cycle throughout its life.
From a transpersonal astrology perspective Aries is driven by its desires, which correlates to a tremendous desire for self-determination and to create its life, just as the head-strong ram has the powerful drive necessary to establish its place among its challengers. Aries initiates us into the archetypal process of the Hero’s Journey to experience directly our own authentic being and discover what we are here to create in this life.
TAURUS
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Most people may know that the symbol for Taurus is a bull and that its glyph represents the bull’s head and horns. In astrology, there is also a deeper archetypal correlation between the nature of a bull and the sign of Taurus.
The bull has been considered a sacred animal since ancient times. It is an early example of how humans were able to domesticate animals to bring forth the potent life force of the earth. The mastery over the Bull’s nature allowed it to be used in agriculture in order to cultivate sufficient food without which there the formation of stabilized communities was made possible. The bull therefore also became associated with prosperity and a sustained peaceful life.
In astrology, Taurus, which is an earth sign, is associated with strength, perseverance and a quiet sensual nature. Think of the classic image of a bull grazing peacefully in a pasture. The Taurus archetype can also be stubborn or “bull-headed” and even turn into a raging bull when provoked with the potential to cause much destruction, such as in a stampede or a bullfight.
Transpersonal Astrology regards Taurus as representing the second stage of individual growth. Following the powerful Aries drive of self-determination, Taurus is where a person begins the process of tending to its life force. The archetype of Taurus teaches us to harness the power of our instinctual nature through developing our talents and abilities as well as our values, which determines where we focus our energy.
GEMINI
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Gemini’s symbol is derived from the Latin word for “twin” and is associated with the story of the twin sons of the God Zeus: the mortal Castor and the immortal Pollux. Separated after Castor’s death, the twins became forever united in the cosmic stars as the constellation of Gemini.
On an archetypal level, the Twins correspond with the principal of duality and polarity, which sets up the need to enter a process of integration to create Unity and Wholeness. Gemini needs to discover connections between all it experiences to understand its place in the universe. It recognizes the connection between light and shadow, spirit and matter, body and soul, ad infinitum. The Twins perceive each other as mirrors to their inner world. They may seem separate and opposing in their unique expressions, yet they are connected through consciousness.
Gemini, an intellectual and curious air sign, represents the third stage in the process of individual development where a person begins to explore and relate to its environment. Gemini voraciously gathers information through research and interactions to find ways to reveal the interconnectedness of everything. It is motivated to share its impressive databank of knowledge by exchanging ideas through communications and trade. As the first air sign of the Zodiac, Gemini symbolizes our connection with others by the mere fact we all breath the same air.
The Transpersonal astrologer, Dane Rudhyar, received an archetypally related vision for the symbol of Gemini as representing two pillars, the roof and floor of the gate to the temple of wisdom. This Gate is the place to pause, to accept, and to know the peace which alone can ensure our success in searching for true connection, understanding and wholeness. Gemini, ruled by the “Messenger of the Gods” Mercury, teaches us to stop our tense striving so we can learn to deeply listen within. In the focused power of total stillness, we become open to receiving messages from Cosmic Consciousness which can lead us to experience total Unity with all existence.
CANCER
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The archetypal essence of Cancer, developed from ancient times, is deeply embedded in humanity’s psyche. Cancer is symbolized by the crab and its glyph represents the crab’s arms and claws, which are used to tenaciously hold onto things, nourish itself and defend from attacks. The crab’s hard shell protects its delicate internal organs, and their highly effective hair-like sensors and antennae help them navigate hazardous environments. The crab aptly evokes Cancer’s nature that creates firm safety boundaries and intuitively feels its way through life’s challenges, sensing whether it needs to fiercely defend or can safely reveal its deeply sensitive inner life.
Cancer’s ruling planet is the Moon, which constantly changes shape, disappearing then growing to fullness each month as it affects the ebb and flow of tides. Crabs reflect this changeability: they scuttle about, advancing, retreating, or averting sideways, and can live underwater or on land. The Cancer nature is equally in tune with the rhythms and cycles of life, feeling most at home in the depths of interior feelings, while developing strength to rise in perpetual rebirth to face each day as it comes. Perhaps because Cancer feels the harshness of life all too well is why it is also associated with nurturing and protecting the innocent young.
From the Transpersonal Astrology perspective, the danger we face in the life arena of our birth chart governed by Cancer, a water sign, is in losing ourselves in acute sensitivity and emotions and becoming unmoored in fear of life’s complexity and overwhelming challenges. The answer to our need for strength to harness the potential of each day is to discover where we belong in the greater collective of humanity and find our anchor in the vast ocean of cosmic consciousness. We must have faith in our own divinity and activate our innate psychic ability to visualize our role as a unique co-participant in the greater Whole of existence. Ultimately, we must hold tenaciously onto the realization that in our most essential root of existence we are the divine expressing.
LEO
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Leo is Latin for lion, which is its symbol. The glyph for Leo, a fire sign, resembles the male lion’s face and glorious mane, the image of which ancient cultures archetypally associated with the radiating Sun, Leo’s ruling planet.
The lion is regarded as the King of the Beasts for its strength, hunting prowess and magnificent roar. Lions travel in large prides of up to 40 with females outnumbering males up to 4 to 1. The females hunt for the pride, using their elegant, silent agility to dominate their prey. The males lead the pride, encircling its perimeter with sovereign instinct to keep their group gathered and protected. The ancients saw lions as sentries of the eastern and western horizons guarding the rising and setting sun. Associated with rulers and gods, the golden lion was considered a supernatural force and symbol of resurrection.
The lion archetypally embodies the Leo nature, known for its vital powers and dramatic flair. As a fixed sign, Leo conquers the wilder fieriness of Aries to radiate warmth and magnetism, drawing people in with the captivating playfulness of light dancing in a campfire. Leo loves being the center of its world just as the Sun is the heart of our solar system commanding all in its orbit. The danger is when this devolves into excessive attention-grabbing pride and autocratic behavior that projects internal ego-created darkness onto others.
From the Transpersonal Astrology approach, the challenge for Leo is to become conscious of its shadowy psychic depths so it can begin to integrate its personality. Resolving the excessive drama of internal conflicts makes its approach to life simpler. As the unification process continues, Leo begins to identify with its own divinity, becoming a courageous, inspiring leader motivated by the need to express its unique creativity simply for the joy of it. At its highest level of expression, Leo achieves true simplicity, fulfilling its cosmic need to radiate from the heart without casting shadows on others.
VIRGO
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Virgo, which is Latin for maiden, is commonly known as The Virgin. In pre-Christian Greek culture “virgin” refers to “self-contained,” its root “vir” means strong. This representation of the virgin symbol suits the discerning Virgo better than simply “one who has not had sex.” As an earth sign ruled by Mercury, Virgo has as much appreciation for physical pursuits as it does for analysis and synthesis of information.
Various interpretations of the Virgo glyph correspond to the Virgo/virgin archetype. It resembles the letter M with a serif-like stroke turning inward on itself, invoking a stylized vagina and womb, symbol of cosmic generative powers and the emerging life force. The inward stroke further corresponds to the receptive, inwardly focused Virgo nature concerned with self-improvement, health and being of service. The M is said to represent the intestines, which Virgo rules, that govern how life energy is assimilated for optimum use.
In Transpersonal Astrology, Virgo holds a critical position as last of the “personal” signs related to self-development. At the threshold of the remaining signs representing self in relation to others, Virgo thrusts us into a crisis of transmutation wherein our very purpose must be re-oriented. Our conscious ego is called to be in a state of open-hearted readiness to participate in a greater whole and feel the impact of total relatedness.
The Virgo tendency is to recoil in fear or confusion or avoid being in this critical state by remaining distracted with constant busy-ness and mental analysis or smugly focusing on the imperfections of others. Yet, the one thing necessary for Virgo is the tolerance to allow this new reality to unfold, or as Dane Rudhyar wrote, “simply to be still and silently to bear the pressure of evolution, the inevitability of the metamorphosis.” What will occur, if we are willing, is the reconciliation of the opposites of self and other as the self-oriented ego is assimilated into the collective whole of Unity Consciousness for optimum use, without losing its distinctive gifts. This is the Great Work of the true Alchemist.
LIBRA
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The symbol for Libra is The Scales, which for millennia have been used to determine the relative value of anything at all levels of existence, including the spiritual. Ancient Egyptians depicted one’s heart, the symbolic center of our psychic life, being weighed against the feather of truth to determine entrance to the afterlife. In Christianity, the “weighing of souls” weighed good and evil to determine who would go to heaven or hell. In the Kabbalah, the duality of all things was born from the Scale of the Universe, setting humanity on the path of seeking balance in opposites to hold order in the cosmos. Libra occurs at the autumnal equinox where days and nights are equal, its glyph symbolizing the setting sun, half seen and half unseen.
Venus rules Libra, associating it with the goddess of love, beauty and harmony. Libra also evokes the blindfolded goddess of justice who ensured impartiality in her judgments. As a cardinal air sign, the objective Libra archetype in our psyche will often force a tip of the scales when it senses gross imbalance in relationships, which ignites the energy needed to recalibrate back to equanimity and a peaceful flow in all things.
In Transpersonal Astrology, the challenge for Libra is to develop sacred balance through total ease in relating. Any resistance to expressing totally accepted relatedness, with an object, a situation or a person, indicates some unconscious fear which must be recognized and resolved, beginning with releasing pain of the past that holds our psyche in a fragmented state. This leads to radical total acceptance, wholeness and balanced co-operative sharing wherein we sense being lived by something greater than ourselves. With ease we lovingly include all aspects of a situation, relationship and the greater whole of the cosmic Mystery of which we are a part. The elegant solution to the test of mastery in relating is when everyone involved is at ease to express the fullness of their nature. This spiritual victory of Unity over duality opens us to a creative and contagious state of acting in love with the collective cosmic consciousness.
SCORPIO
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The Scorpion, symbol of Scorpio, has existed over 400 million years with barely any physical changes. These nocturnal creatures molt up to six times during maturation and leverage their venomous stinger to kill their prey. After it mates, a female scorpion often devours the male. The ancients therefore regarded the scorpion as a mythical symbol representing the capacity to survive multiple fundamental transitions and the regenerative birth/death process leading to immortality.
Like Virgo, the Scorpio’s “M” shaped glyph represents the intestines, corresponding to the elimination process it rules. Yet, the phallic-like stroke at the end completes the powerful fecundation process that is only potential in Virgo. The tip of the stroke also evokes the Scorpion’s deadly stinger, symbolically linked to the sex act wherein one can experience a sense of dying to the individual self in merging with another.
Scorpio, a fixed water sign, calls us to eliminate all that is unnecessary so we can focus and release potent creative power. In Transpersonal Astrology, Scorpio’s role in the self-actualization process is to guide us through the paradoxical process of identifying with our passions and de-identifying with them at the same time. Identification is necessary to fully express uncorrupted passion, yet we need the perspective of being outside our identification to understand what it serves beyond our personal ego desire. The danger is when we project an ideal image of our passion onto a person or thing, absorbing its identity into our own. We don’t see it as it is and all becomes lost to our ego identification.
The answer is to surrender our ego desire to remain separate and understand our creative passions serve the greater whole of society and beyond. We must will our ego to die and invoke our power to witness its death, transforming ourselves into something fundamentally different as we become our identifications mind, body, heart and soul and let them go to the greater whole. Blissful in the throes of intense creative passion, we become at once the conscious container and the contained passionate fire, focusing our creative power for a necessary, inclusive evolutionary purpose.
SAGITTARIUS
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Sagittarius, Latin for Archer, is symbolized by a half human and half horse Centaur aiming its bow and arrow towards the heart of the cosmos. The Sagittarius glyph represents the arrow poised in the bow’s string, aimed and ready. The Archer and the Centaur are powerful archetypes embedded in our consciousness since ancient days. The Centaur represents the potential unification of the animal and the divine in human nature, capable of reaching spiritual maturity. When egoless, the archer becomes one with its target, aided by unseen forces piercing space and time with perception, insight and love.
This dramatic tension, fundamental to the individuation process, strongly correlates with Sagittarius which seeks to expand consciousness through exploration, philosophy, intuition, advanced study all of which can lead to the attaining of wisdom. Its ruler, Jupiter, infuses the Sagittarian pursuit of truth with an underlying optimism. Sagittarius, a fire sign, burns with inspired attention on contemplating and transmitting knowledge to the world in direct and unwavering ways.
The challenge for Sagittarius is in dealing with the world of abstract ideas there is an underlying challenge. On one hand a culture must create laws in order to develop a society of fairness and justice, but on the other, it can enact too many laws at the expense of the individual. Sagittarius grows by learning how to balance these opposing forces.
Transpersonal Astrology teaches us that the impersonal nature of universal principles must always reach the core of individual’s daily life if it is to be effective and spiritually relevant. The arrow’s unbroken path from the heart of the Archer to the heart of the cosmos suggests the unification of universal and individual needs. Dane Rudhyar considers the gift of the Sagittarius to be “the art of living together.” When mastered one might experience the Divine singing at the core of human all relationships.
CAPRICORN
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In our continuing series exploring the symbols of the astrological signs, we now come to Capricorn, which is represented by the only mythological creature in the Zodiac, the Sea Goat. The most cited Sea Goat story is about the wilderness god Pan, who transforms from half man/half goat to half goat/half fish when he dives into water to escape a monster attack. The Sea Goat paradoxically evokes the independent earth-bound goat, leaping atop steep mountains, and the luminescent fish gliding through water, the element symbolizing the realm of consciousness and spirit. The Capricorn glyph is a highly stylized representation of the front half of the goat with its impressive horns and the tail of the fish that curls to form a circle, symbol of wholeness.
Archetypally related to the nature of Capricorn, the Sea Goat evokes the grounded and self-governing qualities of a goat, preferring high perches to better view its domain below, and the water-dwelling fish that suggests Capricorn’s deeply spiritual side. Capricorn is motivated to express its highest self in ways that are tangible and real. It is responsible, can organize large structures and systems of living, operates efficiently and practically, and works tirelessly to achieve its ambitions for society. Its serious demeanor is self-controlled and has firm boundaries. Rather than seeking personal gain, Capricorn focuses on what is best for the whole.
When Capricorn has not mastered this higher level of expression, it is vulnerable to personal ambitions and desire for power over others. The structures it creates can be overly standardized, imperialistic and dependent on outmoded traditions that operate with strict rulesets inhibiting free and independent self-expression. When a society becomes too mechanistic it loses its sense of humanity. The Transpersonal Astrology approach calls Capricorn to create structures that empower individuals to govern themselves with maturity and dignity, offering their unique contributions in service to the greater whole. Capricorn’s destiny is to realize a sense of personal integrity and responsibility that will infuse all forms of living with the animating power of spirit.
AQUARIUS
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The ancient symbol for Aquarius is The Water Bearer. This may seem odd for an air sign but note it is actually a person holding a container filled with water and pouring it out. Air signs represent ideas and connecting with others through communication. Water is symbolic of consciousness and enlightenment. The vessel represents the ability to contain and focus consciousness. On an archetypal level, the Water Bearer is a humble servant, holding a sacred vessel, performing a sacred act that serves a divine purpose – bringing the power of consciousness to humanity. The Aquarius glyph with two identical wavy lines represents water currents. Their placement one above the other evokes the hermetic principle “as above, so below,” meaning there is a correspondence between the whole of the cosmos and physical reality animated by the consciousness flowing between them.
These potent symbols are true to the Aquarius nature associated with visionary ideas that better humanity. Aquarius needs to feel connected to a broad social network but also needs absolute freedom to express its unique nature. It maintains a sense of detachment so it can form unbiased perspectives, unshackled from tradition, and focus its creative efforts into innovations that move society forward. Aquarius ruler Uranus is known as a disruptive force that ensures necessary change continues to happen. Paradoxically, this fixed sign is a change agent, but it is immovable on what matters most – humanity’s survival.
In Transpersonal Astrology, Aquarius plays a pivotal role in the individual developmental process. After reaching the heights of personal achievement and depths of wisdom and maturity, Aquarius teaches us it is imperative to focus our mature creative power through the enlightened lens of cosmic consciousness. Should the use of power not be safely managed for the benefit of the whole of humanity, it could be unleashed to enrich only an individual or limited group, and lead to destructive results for everyone else. Aquarius calls each of us to consciously bear the responsibility of infusing our personal creative power with cosmic consciousness in service to all of humanity. Living this way is a sacred act of Love. It is our evolutionary purpose.
PISCES
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Our archetypal journey through the Zodiac ends with the mutable water sign Pisces. It’s symbol, traditionally depicted as two fish swimming in opposite directions, dates to ancient times. Fish first swam in primordial seas a half billion years ago before mutating into land dwellers. Archetypally, the fish’s habitat, the ocean, represents the origin of consciousness, whereas the fish represents manifest spiritual wisdom. The glyph for Pisces is a stylized representation of the opposing fish bound together by a tether to the material world.
Pisces is the symbol of all creation, embracing everything that has been experienced and learned and universally connects us. Ruled by Neptune, it is associated with the mystical, boundlessness and unconditional love. It is the sign of poets and the vast realm of the imagination. Pisces is also associated with negative states of delusion and not facing the truth of one’s life. The powerful sensitivity and psychic nature of Pisces can become overwhelmed by clinging to the pain of failures or faded past glories and unrealized dreams, resulting in escapism and being disconnected from reality.
As the last stage in the cycle of individual development, Pisces is where we are called to reach spiritual maturity, yet it is also the threshold of new beginnings. The deeper meaning to the counteracting fish is key to what holds us back from successfully completing cycles of development. While one fish flows towards peak conscious awareness, the other dives deep into unconscious memories and traditions that condition our imagined identity. Our imperative therefore is to sever attachment to all memories while taking with us only the essence of what was learned in the experiences. Becoming aware of memories that unconsciously dictate negative behavior patterns allows us to consciously let go of what is not working.
It takes tremendous courage and trust to responsibly face what is happening in the present. It takes faith, imagination and a clear connection with cosmic forces to liberate our creative spirit and consciously participate in the powerful act of renewal, cycle after cycle, and manifest our highest potential. To Pisces, this is the reality to be lived.
Thank you. Beautiful and insightful information.