3. I am intuitively feeling my way through a thicket of contradictory or seemingly meaningless information, but I can see a kind of pattern. Next piece of evidence is once again in the Babylonian zodiac:
Horse and Stag are looking at each other above Field, which probably represents the square of Pegasus. I think Stag brings the fire of spring sun: ... A man had a daughter who possessed a wonderful bow and arrow, with which she was able to bring down everything she wanted. But she was lazy and was constantly sleeping. At this her father was angry and said: 'Do not be always sleeping, but take thy bow and shoot at the navel of the ocean, so that we may get fire.' The navel of the ocean was a vast whirlpool in which sticks for making fire by friction were drifting about. At that time men were still without fire. Now the maiden seized her bow, shot into the navel of the ocean, and the material for fire-rubbing sprang ashore. Then the old man was glad. He kindled a large fire, and as he wanted to keep it to himself, he built a house with a door which snapped up and down like jaws and killed everybody that wanted to get in. But the people knew that he was in possession of fire, and the stag determined to steal it for them. He took resinous wood, split it and stuck the splinters in his hair. Then he lashed two boats together, covered them with planks, danced and sang on them, and so he came to the old man's house. He sang: 'O, I go and will fetch the fire.' The old man's daughter heard him singing, and said to her father: 'O, let the stranger come into the house; he sings and dances so beautifully.' The stag landed and drew near the door, singing and dancing, and at the same time sprang to the door and made as if he wanted to enter the house. Then the door snapped to, without however touching him. But while it was again opening, he sprang quickly into the house. Here he seated himself at the fire, as if he wanted to dry himself, and continued singing. At the same time he let his head bend forward over the fire, so that he became quite sooty, and at last the splinters in his hair took fire. Then he sprang out, ran off and brought the fire to the people ... The Horse has no wings, but below her the Swallow has wings and above her the Panther has wings. The whole section from the Great One (Aquarius) and up towards the north pole probably is to be treated as a whole. Once upon a time this section of the sky roof straddled winter solstice, but nowadays 'the door which snapped up and down like jaws' divides the flow of time into before and after spring equinox (north of the equator). At the opposite end of the sky roof Virgo was likewise divided into Frond (before) and Furrow (after). This section once was at summer solstice but nowadays it is at autumn equinox (north of the equator). Below is the Abyss and above the Wagon, signs which are like mirror versions of the Field and the Wagon of Heaven at winter solstice. If time according to the G text is divided into a before and after at the end of line b6, then it could be at the old section of winter solstice (north of the equator), i.e. at the current autumn equinox (south of the equator):
Yet, we must avoid reading the text from a position south of the equator and according to the current positions of the stars. The cardinal points are moving in time and what matters is the cyclical flow of time as observed against the sky roof. Within your mind you can follow this time structure both forward and backward and the map should be presented and thought of as a whole, thus also the G text. |
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