How the Constellations Got Their Names, Part IV

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LIBRA: The constellation Libra, the Scales, rose at dusk during the lunar

month of Pakhons when the Sun was in the opposite constellation, Aries. The

greek words Pa Khons, or the Coptic Pa Chons, literally mean " the traveler of

the night skies. " Chonsu is generally represented on the monuments as a

handsome boy (Khensu.p.khard) " Chonsu the Child, " bearing the symbol of the

New Moon on his head, and wearing the lock of hair of youth, and all the

appurtenances of divinity and royalty. In assigning Chonsu to the month when

the Sun was in Aries, the Egyptians make this New Moon identical with the

Paschal (Easter) or

first New Moon of the ecclesiastical lunar New Year. The first of the lunar

Pachons would tally with the first Nisannu, Babylonian and the first Nisan,

Jewish. During the historic period, that is since about 4,000 B.C., there is

no documentary evidence that the Egyptian people ever used any calendar other

than their common one, comprising twelve months of precisely thirty days with

five added days at the end of each year, without any provision for a

leap-year day, but this has already been explained elsewhere.

 

In this statement, we are not including the late period when the

Egypto-Greeks tried to have different calendars adopted. But the mere fact

that Chonsu tallies with the Paschal New Moon suggests that in the

prehistoric period, that is before 4,000 B.C., it was the vogue with the

common Egyptian folk, before being replaced by the common calendar. However,

there is evidence to believe that for religious purposes in the temples, the

lunar calendar was observed during the historic period.

 

When the Paschal New Moon is first seen, it, like any other New Moon,

first appears just above the western horizon. Simultaneously, the

constellation Libra rises in the east. So, from the point of view of the

mundane houses (divisions of time) during the Arian Age, Libra becomes the

first of the constellations.... So Libra occupies the first house commencing

with the Ascendant (eastern horizon). Every astrologer must know that

sunrise occurs on the Ascendant and nowhere else. The common glyph for Libra

is not as is commonly believed, the representation of the beam of a scales,

but is a very ancient Egyptian

ideogram, 3h.t (Akhet), which depicts the Sun in the process of rising over

the hilltops, and which translated reads " the place where the Sun rises, "

meaning, of course, the Ascendant. Thus, unmistakably, Libra became

associated with the first house and not with the seventh. Incidentally,

during this lunar month the Egyptian harvest was weighed, stored and sold.

 

SCORPIO: The evening rising of the constellation Scorpio occurred during the

lunar month of Payni with the Sun was in Taurus. The Egyptians of the

Pyramidic period identified the Scorpion with Srkt, the scorpion-goddess

Serket, or to give her full Pyramidic name, Srkt.htw, which translated means

" she-who-relieves-the-windpipe " (Pyr. 606; PSBA 39, 34). According to our

constellation melothesia table, this immediately identifies Scorpio with the

second mundane house. In modern conventional astrology, the windpipe comes

under the dominion of Taurus!

 

It would appear that the Egyptians also identified this constellation with

Serpens, the serpent, the stars of which intermingle with those of the

Scorpion. In Egyptian symbolism, the serpent always has been associated with

the winds. The evening rising of Scorpio ushered in the deadly Khamsin

(Arabic--50 days wind) bringing with it pestilential hot sandstorms from the

Sahara and hordes of scorpions to infest the land. This was the most

parched, oppressive and sickening month of the year and frequently brought

plague or similar contagion. It was during this month that the waters of the

Nile were at their lowest and arid death stalked the land. In symbolism,

Scorpio, the snake sign par excellence, is an airy sign.

 

SAGITTARIUS: With the abatement of the Khamsin, the Nile more easily

fordable, and the harvest finally secure, the acronychal rising of

Sagittarius, the soldier archer, in the lunar month of Epiph when the Sun was

in Gemini, found the Egyptian army prepared to set out on foreign

expeditions. In the representations of Sagittarius, the strong arms pulling

the bow are the most marked feature; and the third mundane house is credited

with holding dominion over the shoulders and arms. Our particular Island

Universe, known as the Galaxy or Milky Way, comprises all of the known fixed

stars and millions that are as yet

unknown. But it does not comprise spiral and other nebulae which are other

Island Universes in space; and there are millions of them! The center of our

Island Universe is situated in Sagittarius 2 degrees 05 minutes, latitude

south 5 degrees 32 minutes.

 

The examination of any popular Graeco-Roman star atlas will show that the

four successive constellations, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces and Aries, are

represented as being amphibious if not entirely aquatic in form. Capricorn

appears as a horned goat complete with fish's tail; Aquarius is but the Greek

variant for Hapi, the god of the Nile; at the feet of the chained Andromeda

swim the tethered fish (Pisces); while below the reposing ram lurks Cetus,

the sea monster. These four constellations rose acronychally during the

summer months of the Eqyptian Inundation, when the Nile overflowed its banks

and turned the land into

a sea. This is yet another pointer to the fact that it was the Egyptians who

named the constellations and not the Babylonians as is commonly supposed.

The representations of the zodiacal and other constellations are but

ideograms, differing but little from those which compose Egyptian

hieroglyphic writings. In the unrolling papyrus of the eastern skies, the

whole story of the Inundation can be read at dusk in the rising of these four

constellations. Their symbolism fits

only Egypt, for she alone of all the nations of antiquity suffered the annual

transformation of her countryside into an immense lake during the four months

when these constellations rose at eve.