The zodiac is both astronomy and poetry: a seasonal-mythic calendar where humanity inscribes its deepest stories into the sky.
Babylonian star-priests, Greek mythographers, and later Roman astrologers layered images and stories until each section of the zodiac held a living archetype. What mattered was symbolic resonance: the position of the sun in the year, the qualities of the season, and the myths cultures wanted to inscribe in the heavens.
It is not just “pictures in stars,” but a seasonal-mythic calendar, where sky, story, and human life mirror one another.
The Cycle of the Year and the Seasons
When we live through these seasons year after year, we are rehearsing the larger drama of incarnation. Spring is childhood, summer is youth and fullness, autumn is maturity, winter is old age and the approach of death. And just as winter gives way again to spring, so the soul turns from death to rebirth.
The Zodiacal myths are bound up in agricultural cycles. Taurus, the Bull, is the spring ploughing and fertility beast. Virgo, the Virgin, is the harvest maiden with wheat in her hand. Sagittarius, the Archer, is linked to winter hunting. Capricorn, the Sea-Goat, is a hybrid of goat and fish found in Mesopotamian iconography, marking midwinter. Aquarius pours the waters at the time of seasonal rains.
This cycle does not only repeat in the great arc of one life. It echoes within the subtler rhythms of a day (dawn as Aries, noon as Leo, dusk as Libra, midnight as Capricorn), or even within the breath (inhalation, fullness, exhalation, emptiness).
Every small cycle is a miniature of the greater one, and the greater ones enfold the smaller.
So we have cycles within cycles. The year turns; the life turns; the ages turn. As above, so below: the rhythm of the sun across the horizon, the moon through its phases, the precession of the equinoxes across millennia — all these are the soul’s curriculum, written in the macrocosmic story of the celestial realm.
Cycles within cycles within cycles….
the daily cycle, the yearly cycle, the individual life cycle, the soul cycle… and the great astrological ages
The 12 Signs & their Mythic Origins
Aries – The Ram
The ram appears first as the spring equinox opens the year. In Greek story it is the ram with the golden fleece, sent by the gods to rescue Phrixus and Helle. Its shining skin later becomes the prize sought by Jason and the Argonauts, the symbol of divine kingship and initiation. The constellation Aries was first recorded by Babylonian astronomers as early as the 7th century BCE, initially identified as "The Hired Man" or "The Agrarian Worker," but later changed to a ram, possibly due to its connection with the spring equinox and agricultural renewal. In Mesopotamian sources Aries was the agrarian ram, the sacrificial lamb of spring, tied to the god Dumuzi/Tammuz, who dies and is reborn with the season. In ancient Egypt, Aries was associated with the god Amon-Ra, who was depicted with a ram’s head and symbolized fertility and creativity, further linking the ram to themes of rebirth and the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with celestial events in Aries. In the northern hemisphere, Aries is the charge of new life bursting out of the soil after winter’s confinement. The lambs are born, the fields are ploughed, the world rushes forward. Its fiery force is innocence, courage, and urgency: the beginning of beginnings.
Taurus – The Bull
The bull comes when spring matures into fullness, April into May, when fields are rich and fertile. Mesopotamian records speak of the Bull of Heaven, a cosmic creature of power and destruction. In Greek myth, Zeus took the form of a bull to carry Europa across the sea, uniting heaven and earth. Cattle were wealth, sacrifice, and fertility in every agrarian culture; the bull’s body was both provider and destroyer. In the year’s cycle, Taurus anchors the blossoming and steady abundance of spring. It is heavy, sensual, enduring, a time of savoring the pleasures of the earth and laying firm roots.
Gemini – The Twins
Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri, are the heavenly twins placed among the stars by Zeus, one mortal and one immortal, symbols of brotherhood, duality, and exchange between the mortal and divine. Babylonian sources also knew them as the Great Twins, protective spirits. In late spring the world is alive with doubling: pairs of shoots, pairs of birds, mirrored reflections everywhere. It is the season of curiosity, quick movement, communication, and the lively air of restlessness before summer heat. Gemini embodies the mind’s play and the awareness of duality in all things.
Cancer – The Crab
The constellation itself is faint, yet the crab was woven into the story of Heracles and the Hydra. Sent by Hera, the crab bit his foot and was crushed, but she honored it with a place in the heavens. Earlier Mesopotamian traditions saw this constellation as a crayfish or turtle, always a hard-shelled creature of the waters. Cancer begins at the summer solstice, the turning of the sun at its peak. The sideways movement of the crab became the symbol of the sun’s retreat after reaching its height. This season embodies home, shelter, womb, and the pull of the tides — a time when light begins to diminish, and the soul turns inward to roots, memory, and belonging.
Leo – The Lion
The lion is the blazing height of summer. In Greek myth it is the Nemean Lion slain by Heracles, whose impenetrable hide became his armor. In Mesopotamian tradition, lions symbolized the king and the fierce power of the sun. The lion’s constellation rises with the hottest days, the “dog days” of summer, when the sun is ferocious and unrelenting. Leo is sovereignty, radiance, and the heart’s fire. This season calls for expression, play, creativity, and regal bearing — the lion’s roar echoes the triumph of the sun before it begins to wane.
Virgo – The Virgin
The great star Spica shines in Virgo, the “ear of wheat.” To the Babylonians this constellation was linked to Shala, the goddess of grain. To the Greeks it was Astraea, the maiden of justice, or Demeter and Persephone, the harvest mother and daughter. Virgo carries the sheaf of wheat, the sign of late summer and the gathering of crops. It is a season of refinement, labor, and sorting. Virgo represents purity not as moral constraint but as harvest: what is useful is kept, what is chaff is discarded. It is the archetype of service, humility, and the crafts of healing and order.
Libra – The Scales
Unique among the signs, Libra is not an animal or figure but a pair of scales. To the Babylonians, this was the sacred balance of Shamash, the sun-god who judged. To the Greeks, it was linked to Astraea, who weighed the deeds of mortals. Libra begins at the autumn equinox, when day and night are equal, the great balance point of the year. The season embodies harmony, justice, and partnership. The Soul faces the Other, learning fairness and balance, the art of relationship, and the wisdom of proportion in all things.
Scorpio – The Scorpion
Scorpio is fierce and secretive, known in Babylonian lore as the guardians of the gates of the underworld, scorpion-men who stood at the mountains of sunrise and sunset. In Greek myth, it was the creature sent to slay Orion, placed in the sky opposite him so that when one rises the other sets. Scorpio rules late autumn, the time of death and decay, when leaves fall and the earth darkens. It is the season of transformation, passion, and endings, where life withdraws underground. The scorpion embodies both poison and medicine, the sting that kills and heals.
Sagittarius – The Archer
The constellation was long seen in Mesopotamia as a composite being — a centaur-like archer with wings, sometimes with a scorpion’s tail. To the Greeks it became linked with Chiron, the wise centaur, healer, and teacher of heroes. Sagittarius arises as winter approaches, pointing its arrow to distant horizons. It is the sign of vision, exploration, philosophy, and the quest for meaning when the days grow short. The season turns us to journeys both physical and spiritual, seeking stories that sustain the long dark.
Capricorn – The Sea-Goat
This strange hybrid of goat and fish has its roots in Mesopotamian iconography, tied to Enki (Ea), the god of wisdom and the deep waters. In Greek myth it is linked with Pan, who leapt into the Nile and was half-transformed. Capricorn marks the winter solstice, the nadir of the sun’s journey, when night is longest. The goat climbs the mountain of endurance, the fish swims in the depths of hidden wisdom. This season is about survival, discipline, patience, and the slow ascent back toward light. Capricorn is the keeper of law, structure, and perseverance through hardship.
Aquarius – The Water-Bearer
The water-pourer was long known in Mesopotamia as Ea, who released the waters of life. In Greek myth he became Ganymede, the divine cupbearer carried to Olympus. Aquarius falls in deep winter, the time of rains and storms in the Mediterranean world, when water poured from the heavens renewed the land. It is the archetype of vision, community, and future-seeing. The water poured is not for the bearer alone but for the people, the collective, the generations to come.
Pisces – The Fishes
The Babylonian fish-god Oannes taught wisdom, rising from the sea. In Greek story, Aphrodite and Eros transformed into fishes to escape the monster Typhon, tied together with a cord so they would not lose one another. Pisces ends the cycle in late winter, the time of dissolution and endings, when the old year melts away and prepares for rebirth in spring. The fishes swim in the great sea of unity and compassion, dissolving boundaries and calling the soul to surrender. Pisces is the mystery of sacrifice, transcendence, and the return of all to the Eternal ocean.
Cancer
Cancer, the Crab. The constellation itself is faint — a small cluster of stars, not especially crab-like to the naked eye. Its mythic identity comes instead from Greek storytelling layered on older Babylonian traditions. In Greek myth, Cancer is the crab sent by Hera to hinder Heracles during his battle with the Hydra. The crab bites his foot, and Heracles crushes it under heel; Hera places the crab in the sky for its service. That tale provides the “crab” association, though earlier Babylonian records called the constellation The Crayfish or sometimes even The Turtle. So the creature-image was flexible, but always some small hard-shelled being of the water.
Cancer begins at the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. It is the peak of light, but also the turning point where days begin to shorten. The crab, with its sideways gait, became a symbol of the sun’s “turning back.” The solstice “tropic” itself is named for this: tropikos in Greek means turning, hence “Tropic of Cancer.”