The Reality of Astrological Archetypes
Astrologically defined fields of resonance are a fundamental organizing principle of the body. The most fundamental features of the gross anatomy of the body offer a suggestive parallel to the astrological glyphs. These glyphs point to the fundamental types of arcs/archetypes, or harmonics of resonance, which manifest through the body.
The astrological “signs” can be better understood literally as archetypal energy patterns rather than as symbols, arbitrary carriers of meaning. We suggest that the twelve astrological glyphs actually depict twelve archetypal energy patterns — twelve moments (types of arcs or harmonic resonances), twelve processes in the creation cycle. Each of the twelve patterns sustains a body part/energy field with a unique predominant resonant frequency and archetypal/astrological attunement to the universe. Differences in the physical qualities of the body are reflections of the differences in the energy fields. In each of the successive phases we picture energy moving downward and outward into manifestation, becoming more and more physical in our bodies as microcosms of the process of creation in which energy crystallizes from Spirit into matter. Notice that each of the glyphs embodies a duality — two arcs in a dynamic, bilateral yet stable phase relationship of polarity. This points to the fundamental resonant organizing processes of the universal holomovement of rajas and tamas. This gestalt of wholeness of the astrological “glyphs” can be called the “archetypal harmonic integrity” of the body.
Body cavities are thus identified as having unique predominant resonant frequencies, each of them in tune with universal, archetypal forces. For example there is a fundamental difference between the watery energy field of Cancer ♋︎, the breast, and the Fiery energy field of Leo ♌︎, the solar plexus. Each is a unique resonant environment. These astrologically defined fields of resonance are a fundamental organizing principle of the body. We now picture the twelve phases of “the four rivers of life” in their three polarities of emanation that sustain materialization.
The Astrological Glyphs
♈︎ The essence of Aries, the first phase of manifestation, is the quality of existence. The glyph for Aries, the Fire-predominant, positive, first sign of the cycle, embodies a pattern of energy radiating outward into manifestation from a seed point, a bindu. The birth of every process of manifestation is this type of arc, the Aries — resonant frequency and pattern of energy emanating from a center.
The glyph for Aries points to the archetype (type-of-arc) in tune with this harmonic of force throughout all creation. In the body this type of arc radiates upward and outward from the third eye and sustains the crown of the cranium as an energy field and as a body cavity resonating predominately with this keynote.
The third eye resonates with the casual plane. The brain is the personification of the process of the mental plane. The two lobes of the brain emanating from the casual plane resonance of the third eye embody this archetypal energy pattern and personify the processes of the Mental plane in the body. In the fields of force emanating from the third eye, the Aries archetype of resonance is embodied in the underlying sonic organization of the energy fields of the brain. The brain is a unique resonant field in the body.
♉︎ The Taurus type of arc is the keynote of the second stage in the manifestation cycle. Taurus adds the property of spatiality to existence and sustains the overall space for manifestation of the torso. The Taurus resonance sustains the body cavity of the neck — a nexus, a womb, where the mental plane images of Aries step down in vibration through the etheric plane into the physical plane. The top part of the glyph ♉︎ points to the receptive phase of the Tauran resonance, which receives impulses from the brain, the personification of the Mental plane, and then steps this energy down through Ether to physical expression sustaining the etheric body of the “tauruso.” The fields of force sustained by the Tauran attunement, receive the energies of the Aries archetype, concentrating and twisting them through the etheric into the physical vibrations of the torso (“tauruso”). The Ether-predominant neck and etheric body of the “tauruso” resonate with this archetype.
The body cavity of the neck resonates with the harmonics of the archetype Taurus in the macrocosm. The sympathetic vibration between their energies is attuned to the same keynote, sustaining an isomorphism of energy and consciousness — as above, so below — in the microcosm of the individual.
The etheric body is the first physical field of resonance in the step-down from the unified field of the casual plane, through the mental plane. It is a field of resonance which is defined by the interaction of the emanation of the unified field with the emanation of the Earth. It sustains the pattern of resonance of an elliptical helix of the interaction of Heaven and Earth. Thus, the Taurus — the twisting of the interaction of the spirals of “above” and “below” — is the dinergy of the centrifugal and centrifugal resonance of “the two hands of God.”
♊︎ The resonance of Gemini, the third moment in the cycle, predominates in the arms and spine. The spine is a unique resonant environment as the nucleus of the subtle body. Gemini unites the core and the periphery. The glyph for Gemini embodies the energy dynamic between the arms reaching out to touch the world, and the spine as the core of our energy. Here we see the depth of being experiencing the world, and the knowledge of the world touching the center. It is an archetypal energy field found in the core of every unit of wholeness as Spirit animates nature. The radiation from the ultrasonic nucleus of the spine fills the space of the body with the rhythms of universal law. Its twin character is seen in the dynamic between the two phasing fields of energy, expressed in the bilateral symmetry of the body, and in the dynamic relationship between sacrum and cranium (the two horizontal lines of the glyph), expressed through the primary respiratory mechanism. In Gemini we have the lengthening of the energy field from the Etheric radiating into the spiral helix of Fire and Water and the “two hands of God” reaching out to play in the world.
Fire Element
Form is an expression of energy. The astrological glyphs define a spectrum of resonance in the underlying sonic organization of the body. The archetypes Aries, Taurus, etc, manifest fields of resonance which are fundamental to structural and functional differentiation in the body.
♋︎ The next phase in this cycle of manifestation is Cancer, which rules the breast. The breasts are a unique energy field which resonates with the potency of divine love. Here, again, is a unique structure in the body, with a particular resonant frequency of vibration. It is the home of the neutral pole of the Watery Cancerian force, and the glyph represents the swirling spirals of energy emanating from the heart chakra representing the zenith of the sensitive Water element out of which flows the nurturing milk of divine love.
♌︎ So far we have archetypal energy patterns forming the head, neck, torso, spine, and breast. In Leo, we add the liver and diaphragm, stomach, pancreas and spleen, and the organs of the solar plexus, which resonate with the powerful radiance of the solar archetype (type-of-arc). The solar plexus is a unique field of resonance in the body.
Air Element
♍︎ The shape of the ascending, transverse, and descending colon embodies the archetype of Virgo. The colon sustains the resonant frequency of Virgo and embodies the forces which archetypally characterize these energies. Thus, Virgo, representing the harvest, is a point in the cycle where discrimination is used to discern what is to be cast off as chaff and what is to be saved to become a part of the body. The function of the colon embodies this process of discriminating wheat from chaff. Individuals with Virgo strongly resonating in their astrological signature express the same function in culture as scientists and artists.
♎︎ The kidneys are attuned to Libra and embody this archetype in the correspondence of resonance that is personified in the body. Libra ruled by the goddess Venus rules beauty and midwives the birth of the wisdom cycle of the centripetal evolutionary force. In the cycles of the year, Libra mediates between spring/summer and fall/winter, the oscillation between centrifugal and centripetal predominance in the hemispheres. Similarly, in the body Libra balances the forces of above and below, the upper arc of rajasic radiance and the lower line of tamasic crystallization. The Libra archetype mediates between love and fear, Fire and Water, expansion and contraction.
♏︎ Scorpio is embodied in the generative organs. The glyph depicts the hips, ovaries, and womb. Scorpio embodies the mystery of life emerging from the depths.
♐︎ Sagittarius is embodied in the hara center and thighs, embodying the resonant pattern of the radiance of Fire (creativity) burning (manifesting) on the Earth (materiality).
Water Element
♑︎ The energy of Capricorn resonates with the knees and skeleton. Here you see a polarity in the symmetry between the two octaves of Ether and Earth, crystallized on the left of the glyph, and their phase dynamic embodied in the circles above and below on the right, embodied in the Ether-predominant inner marrow and Earth-predominant outer bone. The V-shape of the glyph embodies gravity lines radiating from the nucleus of the Earth, that predominate in the return currents which support structure, for example, the skeleton. The knees predominate as the home of this archetype in the orchestration of the implicit order within the ultrasonic resonance of the body.
♒︎ Near the end of this cycle stands Aquarius, which rules the ankles, a unique energy resonating in the body. The creature in the zodiac that is most characteristic of the Aquarian essence and epitomizes the end of the cycle of crystallization of Spirit into matter, of Heaven embodying itself on Earth, is the human. The ankles embody our fundamental standpoint in life, the values we pursue, and the direction of our personal and collective evolution. Aquarius represents the end point of evolution, theomorphic humanity, made in the image of the creator.
♓︎ The feet resonate with the Piscean archetype, a Janus-faced field of force flowing between Father Sky and Mother Earth. The vertical curves represent rajas and tamas in their involutionary/evolutionary journey from Heaven to Earth. The horizontal line embodies the paradox of separateness within unity, the Janus face of being. The feet again are a unique energy field with a unique pattern of resonance, the home of a unique quality of consciousness in the body.
Earth Element
The twelve glyphs of the zodiac provide a suggestive paradigm in which the astrological archetypal resonances appear to be the fundamental organizing principles of the body, both as a body of consciousness and as a field of resonance. Each of the archetypal resonances is a unique resonant structure where a particular quality of consciousness predominates. The twelve glyphs point to twelve unique resonant processes that are sustained by the four material elements in their interaction with the trigunas of neutral, positive, and negative polarity. The body is a spectrum of living archetypes that connect the immortal cosmic person with its mortal expression over time.
The twelve phases of the zodical cycles differentiate the reflection of the spectrum of consciousness emanating from the nucleus of our solar cycle. All energy fields in our solar system are a microcosm of the solar cycle. The zodiac is the best tool for studying the archetypal spectrum of consciousness.
The all-pervasive holographic potency of Ved unfolds its “Knowledge” as the astrological archetypes that underlie the order of creation. As above, so below . . the body personifies the ubiquitous holomovement of the seed power of the Ved. Note that each archetype is essentially “psychological” and the process is a play of consciousness.
* Esoteric Anatomy: The Body As Consciousness, by Bruce Burger, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, 1998