The Origins of the Zodiac

How many of you know the origins of the Zodiac names? This origin of such things is like most things innocent and simple rather than complex and sophisticated. The root of Zodiac is Greek (zoo), which literally means ‘circle of animals.’ But, to look at the stars themselves it would take a very vivid imagination indeed to envision actual animalistic forms by the actual placement of the stars of each constellation in space.

The names were given to the constellations by the Ancient Egyptians and were directly tied to the natural observations of their repetitive life activity cycles throughout the year. Needless to say they were more spiritually evolved than people of the present and could from their observations deduce much finer things than the grossly materially minded of the present.

In the Egyptian desert it was very difficult to work in the heat of day. So then as now people rested or even slept during the hottest times of the day and worked in evening and early morning. The sky became very familiar to everyone. In time they used the sky to measure time and routine of life – like a huge heavenly clock.

Back then the skies were unpolluted and therefore much clearer. People became much more familiar with the skies and they became used to them to define the cycles of their lives.

They divided these cycles into 12 sections related to 12 star configurations.

It was well know that the star configurations that were the zodiac were farther than the planets, the sun and the moon and that these closer bodies traveled the sky within the more distant circle of stars.

The sun being the most apparent and influential heavenly body relative to the Earth defined daily cycles while for a period of time that lasted approximately 30 days in the background behind it at its zenith was the stellar cluster of a Zodiac sign. This placed the Sun in that sign and defined a month.

(Whereas the sun appears every day at the same approximate spot in the sky due to its relatively rapid movement, the Moon with its much slower movement didn’t synchronize with the Sun’s movements and therefore comes in a few days under a different sign.)

Bearing in mind that the birth of the names of the zodiac was Egyptian then the particulars of the physical environment inclusive of seasonal and natural phenomenon figure prominently in the final system.

The Great Gospel of John: on The Origins of the Signs of the Zodiac

It was the original inhabitants of Egypt that named the Zodiac. They did it by careful observation of the stars, which was possible because they attained a much greater age than we currently do. Also by the fact that they could always see them in the pure atmosphere rather than through clouded and polluted skies. Most of them would sleep during the heat of the day and only venture outside in the coolness of the evening to do their work. They had the constellation constantly in their vision, which gave them to opportunity to memorize the configuration of the stars. They observed the Zodiac as an immense circle which was divided into twelve nearly equal parts, each segment having an individual constellation within it. But the Zodiac also moves in such a way that after 30 days the sun came to be under a different sign. Their New Year began during the period of the shortest days, which in Egypt were always accompanied by rain.

1)  The stellar constellation present at this time was seen in the simile of a shepherd emptying his bucket of water into a trough meant for watering the animals.
The Ancients called such a man an Aquarius (Uodan) and gave the same name to the constellation of the rainy period.

2)  During the rainy period fish were swept onto the banks of the now flooded Nile and had to be caught before the water sank and they would be on dry land and soon decay and the foul air would be all over the land. The fish were partly eaten on the spot and partly salted and dried in the wind as a supply for the rest of the year. The constellation under which the sun came to be in at that time of the fish was therefore called the sign of the fish.

3)  After the sign of the fish the original inhabitants had to care for their sheep which were shorn and mated.
This work took about thirty days and since the sun was under a new sign they named this time period the ram.

4)  As the sun got stronger and the warm air of the south collided with the cold air of the north it created storms.
They had the expression MAOR TZA, which means, "warm the sea," and symbolically it shows a warrior in full regalia. Later the Roman term for the month of march –mars derived from the very ancient MARIZA or MAOR IZA to warm the sea. The changing to the war god Mars did not happen until later, and then only gradually.

After the sheep had been cared for, the ancient pastoral tribes used this time period to look mainly after their cattle.

During this time the cows were usually in heat and therefore the healthy ones were separated from the weak ones to ensure a good strong breed.

The bull, which was very important to the Egyptians, lent his name to the constellation under which the sun now came especially as it loosely showed the outline of a bull on his hind legs.

Even the Roman Taurus originates from the very ancient "T A OUR SAT" or TI A OUR SAT, meaning as much as "the bull’s time.

Also the coinciding Roman term for the month of April (Aprilis) DATES BACK TO THE ANCIENT Egyptian tongue, namely to " A UPERI LIZ" i.e. "bull opens gate to the pasture."