posted June 15, 2002 06:31 PM              

Here is one of them:

Libra, The Scales, is a positive (masculine) sign. It is ruled by Venus. Venus is the goddess of love, harmony, and beauty. The point of Libra is the balance between the head and the heart. Shown in the painting are Mercury, ruler of knowledge, in his Egyptian form of Thoth and the goddess Venus in her Egyptian form of Hathor, goddess of festivity and love, with the cow's ears and horns. Both figures keep the scales in balance. In one scale lies a heart in its Egyptian symbolic form of an urn. The feather of ma'at is in the other.

Mercury is placed to the left and Venus to the right in accordance with the Cabbala where Hod, the sephira ruling man's intellect, is at the bottom of the left pillar with Metsah, feeling, standing at the bottom of the right pillar. Perfect balance is expressed between reason and emotion.

Netsah is the seventh sephira, hence a seven-pointed star between Hathor's horns. Hathor is holding a sistrum. The famous snakes of Mercury's staff (the negative and positive powers united in harmony) coil around the Ibis-headed Thoth.

The two sphinxes refer to the Tarot card The Chariot, associated with Libra. They are male and female, positive and negative. The head is the element water, the lion's forepaws fire, the wings air, and the hindquarters of the ox are earth. The floor is that of the freemason temple, showing the harmonious working of the pole's powers. The lily represents serenity.

The cube represents the foundation and is the philosopher's stone of alchemy. The golden embryo contained inside shows the sign for Libra. If the cube were opened out, the six surfaces would form a cross, and the golden embryo would be lying in the middle, a reference to the Rosicrucian belief where the rose is also placed in the center of the cross. It is the flower of Venus because it stands for self-sacrificing love.

The Yin/Yang symbol, the lemniscate, and the two polar powers of the Sun and the Moon are also symbolic of Libra's balance.

posted June 15, 2002 06:35 PM              

From the back:

Virgo is a negative (feminine) sign. It is ruled by Mercury. This is the stage in which details are examined. Virgo represents material nature in the form of the Fertile Mother. She is the Greek Demeter, the Roman Ceres, the Egyptian Isis and Maria, the bridge of the heavens and mediator. The four cherubim from the vision of Ezekiel represent the four elements as well as the four Evangelists. The angel in the top left represents John the Evangelist (water), the Eagle represents Matthew (air), the lion is Mark (fire), and the ox is Luke (earth). The life that inspires matter is symbolized by the transparent egg and flame.

A pentagram, the sign of the fivefold person (the five senses) glows above her head. All other symbols are determined by Mercury. Hermes is shown on the left, trying to encompass the universe with his intellect. In his Egyptian form as Thoth, he is seen on the right as an Abyssinian baboon. He is the judge of souls sitting at the gate of Osiris through which the dead must pass. The heart of the dead is placed on one scale and the feather of ma'at representing truth in the other. The two snakes are from Mercury's staff.

The bottom corners show aspects of Mercury. To the right is wisdom, represented by the holy Ibis. In the front of that, a cabbalistic book represents the Jewish tradition. In the bottom left corner are symbols of Mercury as the Trans-mutator: the leader of the dead to paradise. In Egypt, this is represented by a jackal. Hermes-Thoth plays the most important role in this transmutation. He is thought which leads to a new universal consciousness. This is a process of distillation and takes place in Athanor, the alchemical furnace where the new human is formed.

posted June 15, 2002 11:32 PM              

Capricorn, The Mountain Goat or Ibex, is a negative (feminine) sign, the third earth sign, and is ruled by Saturn. The backround of the painting forms a great skull through which the Sun rises. The rays push the darker firmament aside. This returning light brings new life represented by the children breaking loose from the Saturnian rocks and similarly, by Apollo the Sun god who wrenches himself away from the dark clutches, crushing the snake Apep, Egyptian symbol of darkness. The Sun hero Hercules also pins a corcodile under his foot--an Egyptian symbol analogous to Apep--while he squeeses a snake in his other hand. In Greek mythology, Hercules killed two snakes that fell on him while still in his cradle.

Every action summons up a counter-action. Here Capricorn meets his Saturn, his opponent. Saturn is the great teacher and iniator. Initiation takes place in the cave. All Sun gods were born or hidden in rocky caverns during a time when the Sun was weakest. That is why Saturn is protrayed as Father Time in the front of a cave, a gateway.

posted June 15, 2002 11:34 PM              

Aquarius is a positive (masculine) sign, the last of the air triangle, and is ruled by Uranus (formerly Saturn). Aquarius heralds the days of increasing light as the darkness of winter abates. It is characterized by transcendence and fluidity of movement across all borders. He is the humanist who will not rest before he has imparted his new knowledge to others. The border between self and non-self is not respected here. Aquarius is concerned with insight, equality, freedom from dogma, freedom of speech, and most especially, kindred with all humanity. Unity. These concepts of fluid forms represent electromagnetic waves of the new age that are poured out by the Water Carrier over the earth. Uranus radiates out over the world like a spiritual Sun. Seven lotus flowers drink up the energy, they are the seven chakras. They also form a Menorah.

posted June 15, 2002 11:40 PM              

Each one is loaded with esoteric symbolism.

I got Virgo typed in, I am working on the rest. Can you tell I have some time off work?

posted June 16, 2002 01:08 AM              

Taurus, The Bull, is a negative (feminine) sign. It is ruled by Venus. Under Taurus, substance is moulded into matter, the basis of life. All is harmony and peace. By falling asleep, Mars has surrendered. Jupiter in his bull form carries off Europa (a representive of Venus). She has a girdle around her waist and holds up a burning lamp. These are the magic weapons assigned to her in the Cabbala. Venus wears a garland of seven roses. The rose is Venus's flower, and seven is the number of Venus (Netsah) in her position as the seventh sephira. There is also a seven-pointed star forming the heart of the heraldic rose. The planet Venus shines over her head.

posted June 16, 2002 01:12 AM              

Cancer, The Crab, is a negative (feminine) singe, water in generation, and is ruled by the Moon. The correct symbol is the rather small hermit crab. The hermit crab puts its weak hind-quarters in abandoned snail shells for protection. Cancer is a collector, at every level. His fixed point is always his house, to which he retreats. The rapid retreat at the sign of danger is also characteristic of the tortoise, which was the symbol for Cancer in ancient Babylon. The backwards locomotion of the crab relates to the way Cancer loses himself in the past.

The crab sits on its treasures which are hidden in an iron chest partially buried in the sand. Hands reach out to grab the treasure. The pearl represents the acquisition of emotional experiences; it is the symbol of suffering that leads to insight. The Kephera, the holy scarab beetle, rolls a pearl up the slope. Because consciousness develops and revives through grief, a pearl is substituted for the ball of dung.

Next to the Moon is her material revelation in the form of Diana or Artemis. There is a complex interplay between the Moon, procreation and the sea. The ocean is mother to us all.

posted June 16, 2002 01:16 AM              

Sagittarius is a positive (masculine) sign and the last of the three fire signs. Jupiter is the ruling planet. The Sagittarian plunges himself into the ideas he has acquired, this being represented by the setting Sun of the Chinese zodiac. The self and non-self are joined together to make the all-self, resolving the dualism of Gemini. The centaur is a good example of synthesis.

Jupiter, the supreme god throned in the clouds, lights the arrows of idealism with his heavenly fire, which the Archer cannot help but shoot. It is Jupiter's generosity (associated with Hesod, the foruth sephira on the right pillar of the Tree of Life) that rules over the growth of the plant kingdom. This Jupiter power is shown by the dryads and the elfs, while the air spirits, the sylphs, carry Jupiter powers in the form of rain clouds.

The Sagittarian develops by forgetting his stallion body in his passion, turning into the white and serene unicorn, ancient symbol of chastity. He is the mythological centaur Chiron, teacher of Asclepius, the god of healing. He also is The Hermit, the ninth Tarot card. The Sagittarian becomes the square door of the cave of consecration and the Mysteries. Four is Jupiter's number. He carries the skin of the Ram. The first fire sign has found resolution in the last.

posted June 16, 2002 09:02 PM              

They are incredible! Thank you for sharing them with us.

posted June 22, 2002 10:21 AM              

We know what they mean already,but the pictures are Just the type of think I look out for

Alright...
We didn`t know that well !!

You might run into them again on my website