2 I § The Hieroglyph of Cancer
IN the course of our different studies, we have often had occasion to allude to the symbolism of the annual cycle with its two halves, ascending and descending; and especially to that of the two solstitial gates, which are related to the figure of Janus among the Latins as with that of Ganesha among the Hindus. [1] In order to understand adequately all the importance of this symbolism, it must be remembered that in virtue of the analogy of each part of the Universe with the whole, there is correspondence between the laws of all the cycles, of whatever order they may be, so that the annual cycle, for example, can be taken as a reduced and therefore more accessible image of the great cosmic cycles (and an expression such as that of the 'Great Year' indicates this clearly enough), and as a summary, so to speak, of the whole process of universal manifestation itself. It is this, moreover, which gives astrology all its significance as a strictly cosmological science.
It follows that the two 'stopping points' of the solar procession (and this is the etymological sense of the word 'solstice') must correspond to the two extreme terms of manifestation, either in its entirety or in each of the cycles which constitute it, cycles which are of an incalculable multitude, and which are nothing other than the different states or degrees of Universal Existence. If this be applied more particularly to a cycle of individual manifestation such as that of existence in the human state, it will be easy to understand why the two solstitial gates are traditionally designated as the 'gate of men' and the 'gate of the gods'. The 'gate of men', corresponding likewise to the summer solstice and to the zodiacal sign of Cancer, is the entry into individual manifestation. The 'gate of the gods', corresponding in the same way to the winter solstice and to the zodiacal sign of Capricorn, is the exit from this same individual manifestation and the passage to the higher states, in that the gods (the devas of the Hindu tradition), like the 'angels' according to another
terminology, represent, from the metaphysical point of view, the supraindividual states of being. [2]
If we consider the distribution of zodiacal signs according to the four elemental trigons, we see that the sign of Cancer corresponds to the 'depth of the waters', that is, in the cosmogonic sense, to the embryonic setting in which are deposited the seeds of the manifested world. These seeds correspond, in the 'macrocosmic' order, to the Brahmānda or 'World Egg'; and in the 'microcosmic' order, to the pinda, formal prototype of the individuality pre-existing in subtle mode from the origin of the cyclic manifestation as constituting one of the possibilities which must be developed in the course of that manifestation. [3] This can be related also to the fact that this same sign of Cancer is the domicile of the Moon of which the relation with the Waters is well known and which, like the Waters themselves, represents the passive and plastic principle of manifestation: the sphere of the Moon is in fact the 'world of formation', or the domain of the elaboration of forms in the subtle state, the starting point of individual existence. [4]
In the astrological symbol of Cancer 20, the seed is seen in the state of half development, which is precisely the subtle state; it is thus a question not of the corporeal embryo but of the above-mentioned formal prototype, the existence of which is situated in the psychic domain or 'intermediary world'. Moreover, its representation is that of the Sanskrit u, a spiral element which, in the akshara or sacred monosyllable Om, constitutes the intermediary term between the point (m), representing principial non-manifestation, and the straight line (a), representing the complete development of manifestation in the gross or corporeal state. [5]
In addition, the seed is double here, placed in two positions, the one the inverse of the other and thus representing two complementary terms. This is the yang and the yin of the Far Eastern tradition where the yin-yang symbol which unites them has in fact a similar form. This symbol, as representative of the cyclic revolutions, the phases of which are bound up with alternating predominance of yang and of yin, is not unconnected with other figures of great importance from the traditional point of view, such as the swastika,
Figure 12
and also the double spiral which is related to the symbolism of the two hemispheres. These, the one luminuous and the other dark (yang, in its original signification is the side of light, and yin that of shadow), are the two halves of the 'World Egg', assimilated respectively to Heaven and
Earth. [6] These are also, for each being, and always in virtue of the analogy of the 'microcosm' with the 'macrocosm', the two halves of the primordial Androgyne which, generally speaking, is described symbolically as being of spherical form. [7] This spherical form is that of the complete being which is in a state of virtuality in the original seed and which has to be reconstituted in its actual plenitude at the term of the development of the individual cycle.
It is to be noted, on the other hand, that each element of the hieroglyph is also shaped like the conch (shankha), which obviously has a direct relationship with the Waters and which is likewise represented as containing the seeds of the future cycle during the periods of pralaya or 'outward dissolution' of the world. This conch encloses the primordial and unperishable sound (akshara), the monosyllable OM which, by its three elements (mäträs), is the essence of the triple Veda; and it is thus that the Veda subsists perpetually, being in itself before all the worlds but as it were hidden or enveloped during the cosmic catyclysms which separate the different cycles, to be subsequently manifested areew at the beginning of each of them. [8] Furthermore, the schema can be completed as being that of the akshara itself, the straight line (a) covering and closing the conch (u), which contains within it the point (m), or the
essential principle of all beings. [9] By its horizontality, the straight line then represents at the same time the 'surface of the Waters', that is, the substantial setting in which the seeds will be developed (this development being represented in Oriental symbolism by the blooming of the lotus flower) after the end of the intermediary period of obscuration (sandhyā) between two cycles. At this stage, keeping to the same schematic representation, we will have a figure that can be described as the turning round of the conch, as it opens to allow the seed to escape along the straight line now oriented in a vertical downward direction which is that of the development of manifestation starting from its unmanifested principle. [10]
Of these two positions of the conch, which are to be found in the two halves of the symbol of Cancer, the first corresponds to the ark of Noah (or of Satyavrata in the Hindu tradition) which can be represented as the lower half of a circumference closed by its horizontal diameter and containing within it the point in which are synthetised all the seeds in the state of complete envelopment. [11] The second position is symbolised by the rainbow, appearing 'in the clouds', that is, in the region of the Upper Waters, at the moment which marks the re-establishment of order and the restoration of all things, whereas during the catyclysm, the ark floated on the ocean of the Lower Waters. The rainbow is therefore the upper half of the same circumference; and the reunion of the two figures, inverse and complementary to one another, forms a single complete circular or cyclic figure, reconstituting the primordial spherical form. This circumference is the vertical section of the sphere of which the horizontal section is represented by the circular enclosure of the terrestrial Paradise. [12] Inside the Far-Eastern yin-yang the same two half circumferences are to be found, but they are displaced by a duplication of the centre representing a polarisation which is, for each state of manifestation, the analogue of what the polarisation of Sat, or pure Being, into Purusha-Prakriti is for universal manifestation. [13]
These considerations have no claim to be complete, and doubtless they correspond only to some of the aspects of the sign of Cancer. But at least they will serve, by way of example, to show that there is in traditional astrology something quite different from the 'divinatory art' or the 'conjectural science' that the modern outlook supposes it to be. In reality it contains all that is to be found, variously expressed, in other sciences of the same order, as we have already indicated in our study on the 'science of letters', [14] and all that gives these sciences a truly initiatic value, in virtue of which they can indeed be considered as an integral part of 'Sacred Science'.