TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

Pages explaining 'the costume of Saturn':

The symbol of the planet Saturn is the sickle:

(Wikipedia)

Volumes of books could be written about Saturn the god and his 'reincarnations' in mythologies all over the world. For our purpose, though, it is necessary to concentrate on one issue only - Kepler used a cube to define the distance between Jupiter and Saturn. And he certainly did not invent this idea, he inherited the connection between Saturn and the cube from ancient sources. That is my belief.

In two dimensions the cube can be drawn as a square. One side of the cube represents the whole. Looking up to the night sky there is such a square, viz. the Pegasus Square:

(Wikipedia)

This modern chart shows the closeness of this square to Pisces (the fishes) and to Aquarius (the water carrier). With a little imagination the square becomes like a raft floating on the water.

In Hamlet's Mill an old Sumerian chart shows the square as a field of earth (1-iku) surrounded by two fishes:

Above the water there is a patch of land, square in form. In ancient Egypt land will rise from the flooded plains:

... According to Wilkinson the benu bird was a heron (Ardea cinerea - cǐnis = ashes) and '... standing for itself on an isolated rock or on a little island in the middle of the water the heron was an appropriate image for how the first life appeared on the primary hill which arose from the watery chaos at the time of the original creation.'

'Similarly to the sun the heron rose up from the primary waters, and its Egyptian name, benu, was probably derived from the word weben, to 'rise' or 'shine'. This magnificent wader was also associated with the inundations of the Nile.'

At the beginning of time there is water everywhere, and Noah in his square-formed ark must wait until land will reemerge. The picture language is universal.

Saturn with his sickle is by this instrument defined to be connected with the patch of land. He is the reaper of the crop grown last year.

Therefore he must appear in time just before the appearance of the new year, when the new 'land' emerges.

Once Pisces (and therefore also the Pegasus Square) was located around winter solstice. Due to the precession of the equinoxes it has now moved to spring (north of the equator). The fishes have been moved up onto 'land'.

But astrology is a conservative business. Therefore the square and Saturn are still remembered as located at the darkest of times, when new land not yet has risen above the 'waters' which 'inundated the old fire'.

Land is in contrast to the sea. Land is therefore close in meaning to light (and fire which is the source of light). And land is henua:

The vertical staff serves to show how the sky roof is propped up to let in the light, a light which will shine on the fields to make them fruitful.

The horizontal direction is the opposite - defined by the surface of the cold sea.