royal watchers

The tale of Samson and Delilah is laden with solar imagery: his name means 'of the Sun', the 'out of the dead shall come forth the living' lion/bee/honey riddle can indicate the Sun (colour yellow, hexagonal shape, lion sun, open 6-leaved gold-yellow Spring daffodil!): he has his hair shorn (once a Midsummer's Day goddess ritual) and he loses his strength. Think Autumnal Sun - polled verses Apollo, ?unpolled (Now this mirror works in English - but whether it actually obtained or not is another thing altogether, note, but the contrast still makes the point that that half-year twin and consort was shorn of his sun-symbolising/Samson locks and then pulled to bits/dismembered. Samson escapes this fate. He is bound firstly to a treadmill and then between two pillars. Being 'between two pillars' was an image met with on Tarot II. We find it in the Long Man of Wilmington and Tarot XXI (the 22nd card of the Major Arcana):

It may come as surprise, but the Bible evidences people actually looking heaven-wards! On Tarot Le Monde (aka the World and Universe card) we find (top left) Cherub, (bottom left), Bull, (bottom right) Lion, and (top right) Eagle. These correspond exactly with the REVELATION (4, 7) progression of Lion, Calf, Man and Eagle - with one notable exception!REVELATION takes us through these in a clockwise direction, but the earth moves through the zodiac in an anticlockwise direction (like Tarot XX1) BUT the Earth's 'wobble' means that (clockwise!!!!) Taurus becomes Aries becomes Pisces becomes Aquarius over time (the 'Age' the Earth is 'in') although Taurus precedes Leo precedes Scorpio precedes Aquarius precedes Taurus in the anticlockwise zodiac path of the Earth - and you are looking here at the 4 Fixed Signs* of the Zodiac, which, in circa the 3rd Millenium BC, delivered a Spring of Taurus Aldebaran, a Summer of Leo Regulus, an Autumn of Scorpio Antares and a Winter of 'Aquarius' Fomalhaut - 4 Royal Watchers. These, in turn, were Aldebaran=East, Regulus=North, Antares=West and Fomalhaut=South. Since the zodiac is a circular, fixing any start (March 21st/Spring Equinox in this system = start) is uitterly arbitrary. What applied, astronomically, in the 3rd Millenium BC no longer applies (due to precession). The counterclockwise astrological year, however, is fixed to a March 21st/Equinox/Aries start and the attached symbolism - borrowed from Babylon - possibly appears in the Bible at II KINGS, (2, II), ZECHARIAH (6, 2-6), EZEKIEL (1, 5-10) and REVELATION (4, 7). Does it also apply the REVELATION (6, 2-8) 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse? Are the four Biblical horses also the Babylonian Royal Watchers? Certainly, if it comes in 4s it's been thrown at this basic model:

*Note: aka Cardinal signs - as in North, South, East, West

Spring-Taurus-Bull-Aldebaran-Earth-Morning/Dawn-East-Right-Pentacles-Diamonds-St. Luke-Michael-Melancholic-(?) Black Bile-Cold/Dry

Summer-Leo-Lion-Regulus-Fire-Midday-North-Up-Daggers-Spades-St. Mark-Raphael-Choleric-(?)Yellow Bile-Hot/Dry

Autumn-Scorpio-Eagle-Air*-Afternoon/Dusk-West-Left-Cups-Hearts-St. John-Uriel-Sanguine-Red Blood-Hot/Wet

Winter-Aquarius-Man-Water*(bearer)-Night-South-Down-Wands-Clubs-St. Matthew-Gabriel-Phlegmatic-Cold/Wet**

* The first system 'weakness' - Scorpio is a Water sign and Aquarius Air. ** The second - these are NOT Galen's values, they're mine. His are.Spring-Left-Jupiter, Summer-Down-Mars, Autumn-Right-Saturn and Winter-Up-Moon/Venus. In other words, Galen and his 4 Humours owe nothing to the 4 Royal Watchers for their inspiration. The two systems are NOT part of the same tradition. Audrey, "Audrey's Ancient Egyptians" site, gives the Taurus Bull as Autumn and the Scorpio Eagle as Spring and Galen also swaps some Air features with Earth ones (and vice-versa). Elsewhere, I find Galen's Humours distributed Sanguine-Spring-Hot/Wet-Left, Choleric-Summer-Hot/Dry-Down-Mars, Melancholic*-Cold/Dry-Earth-Autumn-Right and Phlegmatic-Cold/Wet-Winter-Up. But then expressions like 'Left' and 'Up' are moveable things - they depend utterly on your perspective - put two people face-to-face and ask them to extend their left arms sidewise! Similarly, are you picturing the image from below it or above it? Whatever one's perspective, however, it is quite clear that a Royal Watchers approach is at variance to other 'traditions'.

*Also identified as Saturn and Magic Square 3, to be 'balanced' by (sanguine) Jupiter and Magic Square 4 ... apparently (noting the publication of Cornelius Agrippa was 1510 AD!).

In Witchcraft, Freemasonry and Tarot I find:

East (Right)-Air-Spring( or Imbolc*)-Bull-Dawn-Pentacle (Female)

South (Down)-Fire-Summer Solstice (or Beltane*)-Midday-Lion-Wand (Male)

West (Left)-Water-Autumn (or Lugnasadh*)-Sunset-Eagle-Chalice (Female)

North (Up)-Earth-Winter Solstice (or Samhain*)-Night-Man-Dagger (Male)

* See below for the Cross Quarter Day (V Equinox/Solstice) idea.

This progression is clockwise, unlike the fixed star (precession) model. Despite some inconsistencies (like assignment of elements - Taurus to Air?) between the models notice they DO share much the same thematic mirror/complement/opposite + circularity basis - albeit reassigned. To the chalice/Cups some assign the Galen's Hot/Wet Sanguine blood - but surely logic indicates a Spring?Summer placement, as in Galen and Audrey (rather than 'Autumn, Summer to some')*? The circle (read either way) is Bull-Lion-Eagle-Man-(Bull ... )* - so there's some consistency there but the assignment of Zodiac threesomes seems to be a moveable feast largely provided by having male and female axes rather than male W-N v female S-E sides (of an imaginary seasonal square). Note that the idea of male and female axes rewrites Galen, whose system had male-female polarities rather than axes. We are now nearly 1/5 of the way (5000 years - and Taurus through Aries through Pisces to Aquarius dawning Age of) into precession - from an Aries=21st March start.*

* To make a point: the earth moves counterclockwise (both through the zodiac and on its own axis) - it therefore 'explores' its zodiac in that order. Ptolemy, circa AD 150 (contemporary to Galen), has the Spring Solstice as 0 degrees Aries with Aldebaran valued at 15 Taurus and Antares at 15 Scorpio. Each zodiac sign is quite arbitrarily assigned a 30 degree spread (X 12 = 360 degrees = full circle). 15 Taurus = half way through Taurus, so 0 degrees Aries to half way through Taurus (an anticlockwise move) = 45 degrees, So Aldebaran APPEARS to have moved 45 degrees (of 360) from when it marked the Spring Equinox. Does this work? 45/360 X Platonic 25920 = 3240 years. The date is circa 150 AD ..... so Aldebaran was due East in circa 3090 BC. 3044 BC is the correct answer, so Da -Daaaah!

This is an astrological chart start (though note some presentations and ?understandings above are clockwise in appearance!). The chart has Aries due LEFT! so left is East here - I'd be more comfortable rotating it through 180 degrees for that, visually, so East is Right, personally. Below Aries is Taurus - moving counterclockwise, notice! Precession, however, caused by the equator 'bulge' (and hence 'wobble') moves the other way, clockwise. If you look at a newspaper horoscope listing, then the order Aries down to Pisces goes counterclockwise (as illustrated here) but precessional Taurus to Aries etc GOES THE OTHER WAY.

Note astronomical clockwise presentation: precession of the zodiac Ages. This is Chambers ENCYCLOPAEDIA:

Notice precessional progression of Taurus to Aries to Pisces now seems anticlockwise whilst the anticlockwise zodiac now appears clockwise!* The Daily Telegraph sky-at-night articles also show the night sky as above - but at least specify Northern horizon = 'up' and Western horizon = 'right': in other words, a mirror, with west and east swapped over!

*Incidentally, note (as others have!) the similarities twixt the zodiac 'Ages' and the 12 labours of Hercules: Cretan Bull Taurus, Nemean Lion (Leo), Girdle of Hippolyta (Virgo) etc. Some also note Jacob and his 12 children, Charlemagne and his 12 Paladins, Arthure and 12 Knights (nights) of the Round Table and Jesus with his 12 disciples. If it comes in 12s + 1 ....

Basically, the whole area seems TO ME to be largely coherent in intent but, for all that, largely a contradictory, presentationally inappropriate, confusing and/or inconsistent mess: I find NO holistic esoteric (or exoteric) 'underground (or overground!) stream' - but, hey, I've been wrong before and welcome advice/comment here! Even the Bible confuses me: in ZECHARIAH (6, 2-6), the progession is introduced as White, Red/Black//Grisled and Bay but these are then ordered Red/Black (North), White (after Black)/Grisled (South). He calls them the 'four spirits of the heavens' and they come from 'between two mountains'. EZEKIEL (1, 5-10) puts Man and Lion on the right side, Ox on the left, whilst mentioning - but not assigning - Eagle. There are 4 of these 'tetramorphs' which are also called 'wheels', and they seem to fit to II KING'S 2 11 (eleven) 'and there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire ... '. In REVELATION (4, 7), they appear ordered Lion, Calf, Man and Eagle - exactly the wrong way round in sequence, really, but, at least, consistent? See Denelder - www.denelder.com/glossary/t - for "Tetramorph" and the Cross-Quarter Days. I have wondered whether the Sun rising in the East, setting in the West, being Northernmost at Midsummer etc. informs the thinking at all? It's worth noting, too, that the two poles idea (pi and phi to some) can be indicative of 'measure', 'ruling' - and figures in Freemasonry (click on Geometry/diags.). These poles can be parallel mirrors OR symmetrical axes - and, as diagonals of a diamond lozenge, they indicate the Sun (as sometimes worn by the High Priestess on Tarot II).

*Compare, say, www.bellaonline.com/articles/art17857.asp (et al) - Jane Kaminski - with the Ist model above.

An Orphic 4-headed year comprised Ram-Lion (Summer) -Serpent (Winter) - Bull (New Year) - Graves, R. Here, the lion seems to be identified with Summer (and Midsummer) and, often, the Sun (as in the Lion deity Hepta). In Egypt, this Lion Sun was once characterised born from a water lily.

Detail from David Wood, GENISIS. In Christian art, Christ is sometimes explicitly portrayed in the vesica piscis implicit here - and stylised in Le Monde, Tarot XXI, above. Note 'Adam and Eve' (click on Geometry/diags. and find the Durer paintings).

David Wood places the 4 Beasts on what appears to be a tetrahedral star - or, possibly, and as he says, just a hexagram Star of David - with Eagle atop, Lion right, Bull left and Man central, 'man and beast' emerging from the incorporated 'female vulva' (Fig. 82, GENISIS).. This distribution does not satisfy an EZEKIEL distribution! Where not Summer/Sun, Lion is Spring, be the system bipartite Lion and Serpent (or Boar), the Lion, Goat, Serpent (Chimaera combination), Lion, Dog, Horse(Hecate combination) or Bull, Lion, Serpent (Dionysus combination). A Bull-Calf for the New Year could give a four-part year (Bull, Ram, Lion, Serpent), and other 4-part combinations were our Royal (Fixed Star) Watchers, EZEKIEL's Bull, Lion, Eagle, and Seraph (Bull, Lion, Scorpion, Sea-Serpent) or Bull, Lion, Boar, Sea-Serpent or, lastly, Bull, Lion, Boar, Vultures. The 5 season Lion, Goat, Horse, Serpent, Bull-Calf is also possible - see Graves, R. THE GREEK MYTHS 2. pp. 428-9, for all of this and more. including the problem posed astrologers fitting the Labours of Hercules and 'Crab' together!. Graves numbers the 4-Season fit is 1, 4, 7, 11 but I make it 2, 5, 8, 11. Note also that the Midsumnmer Honey-Bee is the spirit of the dead/slaughtered Lion King of the 1st half of the year! Note also that Jesus was 'of Judah' - symbol? Lion. The Lion symbolised the bright waxing year; boar or serpent was the Dark waning year. In the above, the Scorpio Eagle gets also to be Scorpion and Boar, whilst the Aquarian Water-Bearer gets also to be Sea-Serpent and, in one case, Vultures!.

Tarot 21 (card 22) The World is not the only card to carry the 4 Watchers symbology. Here is the Waites' version of Tarot 10 (card 11), the Wheel of Fortune:

The progression is said to be clockwise, I found, as in the T - A - R - O, but Seraph/Man top left, Eagle top right, Lion bottom right and Bull/Calf bottom left, but they give us a clockwise Winter-Autumn-Summer-Spring. And our cardinals aren't - not obviously. Oh, well ...

For a fascinating exploration of these four "beasties" in the context of REVELATION - and Denise Been's thesis that what is being described there is precession, notably as relates to the various pole stars it features, look at her site: www.gisus.org - I particularly like the colour-wheel idea on her page 4!*

* I must make it clear, though, I do not endorse the content - or those parts of it concerning letters and words (like lamb). REVELATION was wrtiiten it Greek (amion was lamb) but the authoress finds significance in the English

STOP PRESS (22-06-08): this is/was Denise Been's interpretation of St. John's REVELATION:

OK - this is Denise's idea: the churches of REVELATION (and all the other - and VERY MANY! - 7s) are pole stars. St John's text, claims Denise, deals with the attributes of these pole stars. But the pattern is also evocative of a New Jerusalem plan: twelve gates on the sides of a cube shape - the three red lines on each side, two being on a circle that is close to squaring the circle (just over 98% agreement and added by me) based on Square Root 5. It's interesting stuff!

Later the same day (22-06-08) I received a number of (different) final revisions from Denise, the beasties Lion, Calf, Man and Eagle being assigned the same Royal Watchers but with different 'partner' star-signs and churches assigned than given here.

For the state-of-the-art latest 'final final final' draft (currently No. 5) visit Denise's Gisus site and go to photos: http://www.gisus.org/apps/photos/

MOVING ON (and speculation):

In a tripartite year, Lion is 5, Goat 10 and Taurus 2. A maths model would be 6-10-2 (equilateral). Its mirror would be the Water signs Cancer-Scorpio-Pisces, 4 -8-12. Were the model symmetrical/mirrored, then the Leo Lion would have to be the Virgo Virgin. Water would be opposite Earth (see Steiner-related art/Retrich - click on Geometry/diags.). It could be said that 1. No-one shall see Isis naked, and 2. the REVELATION Woman (Virgo) is literally "clothed with the sun" (Leo - 'ruler', the sun) - 12, 1. It is this distribution of mirrors that places Earth opposite Water and Fire opposite Air (the 4 chariots of three Starsign Horses, as it were, geometrically rotated as equilaterals), otherwise, Air seems somewhat better suited (in my esteem/model) to Scorpio's Eagle as Water is to the Aquarius Water-Bearer?* However, the Alchemical Pillars (click Tarot II - see 'Compass of the Wise') place Fire and the Polarity (literally!) of Air. and Earth of Water (as represented by various pyramid sigils). The Water-Earth and Air-Fire poles/pillars fit to the Royal Watcher 4 scenario. In Witchcraft, etc., however, E-S v W-N.

Note: returning to the subject I notice that Galen seems to fit to the 4 Watchers if Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry are assigned to Cross-Quarter Days (ish) appropriately creating the various Solstice and Equinoctal 'combinations' that comprise the 4 Humours. In this model the N-S axis is male and the E-W one female. This is the one assigned to St John the Evangelist, the Beloved Disciple said by some to be female in Leonardo's Last Supper. This creates a new problem: alchemically the (male) 'J' pillar comprises Fire and Air with (female) 'B' as Water and Earth, with geometric symbols as mirrors Air to Earth and Fire to Water. But the idea here considered has Fire opposite/mirroring Air.

Whether you have a system where Fire mirrors (logical, Water-bearing and geometric symbol) Water, or one where it mirrors (Royal Fixed Stars) Air, another problem comes with Jesus and John: Jesus is Fire but Midwinter whilst John is Midsummer but Water, whilst the Fixed Stars give Fire and Summer not Winter and Water is Autumn! It's a mess ...

However ... I've met with the idea of male N-S axis to female E-W before, in the context of 'Horus' maths, the maths of (Euclid 47) right-angled triangles and the maths of Latitudes. E-W would be horizontal, Isis, and N-S would be vertical, Osiris. Their child is Horus, the hypotenuse. If Isis is values, say, the Square Root of 33 and Osiris 4, then Horus will be 7 (33 + 4sq. = 7 sq.). And the Latitude will be the Tan value 4/Sq. Rt. 33 = the Sine value 4/7 = the Cosine value Sq. Rt. 33/7 = roughly 34.855 degrees. The other angle (apart from the necessary right-angle) will be approximatly 55.145 degrees - and this would be the Latitude obtaining were Osiris Sq. Rt. 33 and Isis 4. Think of a Latitude as a horizon ... Horus? ... Horizon? Doubtless you can substitute other family trio names.

*This last paragraph is pure me-thinking-out-loud speculation. I'm not suggesting for a moment it actually obtains - or obtained - but, just playing with it a little more, we'd have a Leo spring - so Leo would have to be, say, where Aries was in 150 AD = March 21st Equinox. Now Aries is 1 to Leo's 5 = roughly 5 X 2160 = 10650 BC. Some speculate about the Sphinx in that timeframe (Lion/Serpent). Now, if Leo were Spring, then Capricorn would be Summer and Taurus-y would be Winter (New Year). It does fot to the 4 part year scenario rather?!

Taurus left (instead of right) and clockwise model ...

Then there's Albert Pike's 1871 offering:

There again .... the Celtic Eight=fold year:

The High Cross Quarter idea (from www.highcrossquarter.co.uk or .com) - also clockwise but placing the equinoxes and solstices as the elemental boundaries and assigning these 4 elements to Cross Quarter Days (click on Station Stones or go to www.awugabunnies.co.uk/10.html
The problems are with both 4 Royal Watcher tradition and a Galen tie-in: summer is now hot-wet instead of the hot-dry it should be, for instance, whilst our Earth (bull) is now somewhat Autumnal and 'up'/North instead of left (above) or right/East (further above and ... and ...

And what of Yin and Yang? Shadow-Female-Wet-Earth-Moon-Compliant/Accommodating v Brightness-Male-Dry-Heavens-Sun-Active/Firm? We have our complements and opposites - and the (inverted) triangles (of the dark 'B' pillar/Earth and Water ... and Moon/Mater) are a "popular symbol for" female - but there are also inconsistencies with other ideas advanced above. Yin and Yang are polarities/opposites, but their imagery is also the mirror/complementary circle made by 6 9 run together with white for male (+ black dot) and black for female (+ white dot). There is obviously similarity to ideas above. If I try to fit Yin and Yang to the 4 Royal Watchers, though, male is the N-S (Sun-Air) axis and female is the E-W axis (Earth-Water). They are not polarised opposites. The symbology of the triangles - upright male and inverted female - found on alchemical J and B pillars fits to the axes, but it is hard to see how any of this is consistent, say, with White Woman of the West and Red Man of the East, the alchemical Moon and Sun. Galen will not fit, either. This female lunar Mercury- male/solar Sulphur symbology is at variance to female Red Rose v Male White which fits to Hindu wedding colours (+ gold) but apparently other cultures/religions have reversed values ...

And the Chinese? I 'liberated' this from Stephen W Dail's excellent http;//celestialchessworks.com

Um! Water and Winter in the North ...

Then there's the Red Indians ...

This collective study lacks coherence .... largely or partly because the subject matter does. Some themes exist in common, though, despite this. Whether this evidences a commonn tradition though ...*

*See elsewhere the presentational problems in (and of) where there is no agreement about what belongs to what (ida male or female/pingala female or male) and whether these are the pillars to equate to the Tree of Life (see awugabunnies 5) or the intertwining (DNA) serpents a la caduceus related to the 7 chakra system. There is the common idea beneath the presentational disparities of mirrors-complements-balance et al.