Man was circular before he came into the physical world. To come into the physical world he broke through his circle, and now in his present state he is a broken and extended circle—or a circle extended to a straight line. But man may again become a conscious circle or sphere by following the path of his occult spiritual zodiac.

—The Zodiac.

THE

WORD

THE ZODIAC

XIII

IN the present article an attempt will be made to outline the position of the head and trunk of the physical body within its zodiac, so as to show how the physical body is an elongated circle or sphere, and how along the circle are situated the organs or parts which indicate the signs of the zodiac.

Man has passed through many changes of form since the beginning of involution into matter. In his physical body are preserved the forms he has passed through. In the beginning the form of man was spherical, as in the first round and in the first race of the fourth round, in which round and race were outlined in idea all that was and is to take place in the following rounds and races. This spherical form is represented by the head. The head of man contains the idea and images of all the forms and organs which are developed into functional activity in the entire body. The head is characteristic of the sign aries (♈︎), absolute consciousness, which, although distinct in itself, yet includes all there is and all there will be in the body.

In the second and third races of our fourth round the body of man changed from a form like that of a crystal sphere, and, becoming elongated, presented the appearance of a transparent, opalescent, oval or egg-like form, in which there appeared an elongated loop, something like the filament within an incandescent electric-light bulb. Around this loop matter condensed and solidified into what later became our physical body. These were the bodies of double-sexed beings, of which mythology and ancient writers have preserved a record. This loop was a double spinal column, but as the race became physical one side of the loop was dominated by the other, and finally became inactive as a spine, but remained as the digestive tract and the organs connected therewith.

In those early times double-sexed humanity did not live on food, as does present mankind; their food was taken in through the breath and from the electrical forces of nature. These early beings, though physical, were able to move through the air without walking. They generated through the double spine an electrical energy, which enabled them to move and perform other operations in the world, such as the control of material bodies and of the forces of nature. To get an idea of the nature and form of this loop, we may imagine two human forms standing face to face as one form; then the spinal columns would be like the loop referred to. As one of the spines became inactive, these beings used the legs, which they had formed, as organs of locomotion. So man gradually assumed his present form and became a being of one of the now existing two sexes.

The signs of the zodiac were then, and are now, corresponded to him, as shown in Figure 31, a phase of which is given in some of the ordinary almanacs.

In Figure 31 the full figure of a man is given, showing his relation to the signs of the zodiac in the parts of his body. The signs from aries (♈︎) to libra (♎︎ ) are related to the foreparts of the body from the head to sex, and from libra (♎︎ ) to pisces (♓︎) the lower signs are related to his thighs, knees, legs and feet. Those signs which have a divine use are now lowered to the locomotory use of man, and to his functional activity on the earth; but when the functions are raised these are the divine signs which make a complete whole of the broken circle, which is indicated by the spinal column.

But man still possesses the circular zodiac within his body; that is, the occult zodiac, and the zodiac to be followed by the one who desires to attain immortality—a state of continuous, undying existence. This circular zodiac begins with the head and puts forth at the neck, from which the oesophagus extends to the stomach, and continues as the entire length of the alimentary canal. Along this tract there is a fine line or chord which is situated partly on the outside of the canal running lengthwise. This acts as one of the spinal cords in the present, potentially, dual being. This line is, however, usually broken at its lower end, but a connection without a break can be made with the gland of Luschka, which is situated at the extreme end of the spine (coccyx). From this gland proceeds the terminal filament, which is the central and only one of the many nerves comprising the cauda equina. This terminal filament passes through the coccyx and the lower vertebrae up to the lumbar region (small of the back), and there connects with and enters the spinal cord. The spinal cord does not extend below this point. The spinal cord then passes upward through the dorsal region, the cervical vertebrae, thence through the foramen magnum into the skull, and completes the round of the body.

Figure 32 shows an absolute zodiac containing four zodiacs. In each of these four zodiacs an outline of the profile of the human head and torso is given. The front of the body faces the signs from aries (♈︎) to libra (♎︎ ) by way of cancer (♋︎), and the back of the body is from libra (♎︎ ) to aries (♈︎) by way of capricorn (♑︎). Beginning with the throat, an outline is given of the oesophagus, stomach, alimentary canal, and the organs lying along this tract down to libra (♎︎ ).

Taurus (♉︎) marks the genesis, or beginning, of the tract at the throat; gemini (♊︎) indicates the oesophagus and bronchi; cancer (♋︎) the part at which the bronchi approach the aorta and heart, in line with the oesophagus; leo (♌︎) the stomach and solar plexus; virgo (♍︎) the vermiform appendix, ascending colon, the womb in woman and prostate gland in man; libra (♎︎ ) the descending colon and organs of sex. From this point the ascent of the body begins.

Scorpio (♏︎) is represented by the gland of Luschka. The terminal filament extends from the gland of Luschka, which is at the extreme end of the spine, through the spine to the beginning of the spinal cord, which is in the small of the back, and which region indicates the sign sagittary (♐︎). Capricorn (♑︎) is that region of the spine which lies directly behind the heart. Aquarius (♒︎) is the region of the spine between the shoulders and the cervical vertebrae, and pisces (♓︎) are the cervical vertebrae to the foramen magnum, thus completing the circle.

As in Figure 30, in our last article, we shall again call the five zodiacs, beginning with the largest, respectively, the absolute zodiac and the spiritual, mental, psychic, and physical zodiacs; but, whereas Figure 30 deals with the ordinary physical man from birth to death and outlines his period of devachan, or heaven, Figure 32 deals more particularly with the outside spiritual zodiac—the circular or regenerative zodiac of immortality. This in no way conflicts with the change of signs in the parts of the body, but rather shows how certain of the signs may be changed from their physical to the divine nature; as, for instance, in Figure 30 the horizontal diameter intersected the middle portion of the body of the man from cancer (♋︎) to capricorn (♑︎). This dividing line crosses his heart, and whereas the inverted right-angled triangle formed with its horizontal line from cancer (♋︎) to capricorn (♑︎) and the sides meeting at the point of libra (♎︎ ) at the feet (in Figure 30) that this lowest point is at the point of libra in the body, which is at the place of sex, as this is the lowest point of involution and the beginning of evolution (Figure 32).

In the spiritual zodiac it will be noticed that the middle point of the figure is the heart, and the horizontal diameter line extends from cancer (♋︎) to capricorn (♑︎), and that this line, extended, forms the horizontal line of leo–sagittary (♌︎–♐︎) in the absolute zodiac, thus showing that the heart of the spiritual man, which begins with breath and ends with individuality, is on the line of leo–sagittary (♌︎–♐︎), which is life–thought of the absolute zodiac. The mental man is contained within the spiritual man; his head reaches to the heart of the spiritual man and his body extends to libra (♎︎ ), as do the bodies of all the four men.

Within the mental man stands the psychic man, whose head touches the heart of the mental man, which is at the solar-lumbar plexuses of the spiritual man, which is the limit of the signs leo–sagittary (♌︎–♐︎) of the spiritual zodiac, as the head of the mental man was limited to leo–sagittary (♌︎–♐︎) of the absolute zodiac.

The figure of the physical man, the smallest man, reaches the heart of the psychic man, which is the sign cancer–capricorn (♋︎–♑︎) of the psychic man and leo–sagittary (♌︎–♐︎) of the mental man, and limited to the signs virgo–scorpio (♍︎–♏︎), form–desire, of the absolute zodiac.

This little man is in this occult zodiac as a germ. Its sphere is limited to the sex organs of the spiritual man, which is the solar plexus and lumbar region, life–thought, of the mental man and the heart of the psychic man.

The left side of the inverted triangle of each zodiac in Figure 32 is represented by the threefold line which lies outside along the alimentary canal. This line, or channel, contains the psychic germ of reproduction. It begins its descent into the lower portion of the body at the sign cancer (♋︎) at any of the zodiacs, and thence descends to the sign libra (♎︎ ). Thence it begins its ascent along the line libra–capricorn (♎︎ –♑︎), which, in the body, is indicated by the spinal column. When this germ has reached its lowest point—prostate gland and sacral plexus—if immortality or a knowledge of the higher life is desired, it then begins its ascent upward through the spine after having made contact with and entered the gland of Luschka.

The Figures 30 and 32 should be studied together, but each from its own standpoint. The figures will suggest and reveal infinitely more than any description can concerning the relationships existing between the physical, psychic, mental, and spiritual man, with the absolute zodiac.