This is zodiac
Have you ever wondered why Aries (Ram) and Taurus (Bull) astrological signs are where they are on a solar circle?
Aries (Ram) 21 March – 20 April
Taurus (Bull) 21 April – 21 May
I can hear everyone say: "Because the constellations in the sky at that time look like ram and bull"!
Well wait till you hear this.
The mouflon is a subspecies group of the wild sheep (Ovis orientalis). Populations of the wild sheep can be partitioned into the mouflons (orientalis group) and the urials (vignei group). The mouflon is thought to be one of the two ancestors for all modern domestic sheep breeds.
The aurochs, also urus, ure (Bos primigenius), is an extinct type of large wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle. The species survived in Europe until the last recorded aurochs died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland in 1627.
In the article "The Corsican Mouflon - and the EU Life Nature scheme" we read that the main lambing season for European wild mouflon, starts in March and lasts until May.
In the article "Characteristic activity patterns of female mouflons (Ovis orientalis musimon) in the lambing period" we read that the wild European mouflon were monitored during their lambing season between the 1st of March to the 20th of April.
This means that the wild sheep main lambing season in Europe ended during the time of Aries (Ram or is it maybe Lamb) zodiac sign 21 March – 20 April.
In the book "Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour of Wild Cattle: Implications for Conservation" by Mario Melletti, James Burton we read that the main calving season for European wild bison starts in May with 80% of calves being born by the end of July and the rest being born by the end of September.
In the article "Strontium isotope tracing in animal teeth at the Neanderthal site of Les Pradelles, Charante, France. " by Tegan Kelly we read that wild aurochs calving occured in May-June.
This means that the wild cattle main calving season in Europe started during the time of Taurus (Bull or is it maybe Calf) zodiac sign 21 April – 21 May.
Interestingly, in "Agroecological Practices For Sustainable Agriculture: Principles ...
edited" by Wezel Alexander and in "Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour of Wild Cattle: Implications for Conservation" by Mario Melletti, James Burton we can read that the main aurochs mating season was most likely July to September.
So summer, the part of the year symbolised by a bull starts with wild cattle calving and ends with wild cattle mating...
Today, lambing season starts in January and lasts until April and calving season is all year round, but this is not a natural thing. We people changed the natural cycles of animals through domestication because it suited us. But even today, with domesticated sheep, Aries is an important animal calendar marker. It marks the end of lambing season and the beginning of the milking season. I talked about this in my post "Aries must die"....
The first lunisolar calendars were created by our henge building Central European ancestors 7000 years ago. The reason for the creation of the lunisolar calendar is because it allows a reliable way of marking cyclical yearly events that happen in nature, particularly the events linked with agriculture. To be able to do this you need a static point on a solar circle, a point within the solar year, that you can reliably determine and which doesn't change. Once people were able to precisely determine the winter or summer solstice, they had that static point on the solar circle, and now they could plot all natural events that occur during the yearly cycle.
I am sure that they soon noticed that the lambing season and the calving season always happens at the same time and they simply marked these periods with a lamb and a calf. And hey presto, Aries and Taurus were born...
I can hear you asking: "What about the stars"?
Well I believe that constellations were added much much later. But basically, when the constellations were chosen, they were chosen to look like already existing zodiac signs of Ram and Bull, and not the other way round. And when I say look like, I mean vaguely, very vaguely look like (or not at all) look like... :)
Here is the constellation of Aries:
Here is the constellation of Taurus:
See what I mean?
Neat don't you think? What do you think?
Makes sense of course. But then it begs the question: "Can we account for all the other zodiac signs in terms of old agricultural/season practices".
ReplyDeleteThanks Tim. I will leave this to others. :) Mapping of these two signs onto natural events alone completely changes the accepted idea of the development of zodiacs...And explains some very important symbols which we find in all religions from the time of the Vinca culture until today. I will write about it soon.
DeletePisces coincides with the latter part of the spawning season of Atlantic salmon. Virgo is connected with ancient viticulture, time to gather the grapes when she was overhead, but other zodiac signs tie in with other natural phenomena, not necessarily agricultural.
DeleteLibra is in a category of its own to an extent, one of the youngest signs, if not the youngest, humancentric, connected with the founding of Rome.
Hi Katie. Please have a look at the completed work on natural solar zodiac here https://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/p/zodiac.html
DeleteI am blown away by this blog. You are filling in the missing parts of huge cultural jig saw for me.. To attempt to bring people closer to nature and natural cycles (a personal desire) requires resurrecting the meaning of all the cultural things that currently have lost all meaning and interest due to agriculture, Christian remodeling and modern lifestyles. I am very familiar with Japan and its culture and there the culture has deep meaning to people and a reality we have lost in Europe.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for this kind comment. I am so glad that I am not the only one who finds these things fascinating.
DeleteFascinating! I think you are right. The ancients were very observant of correlations between seasonal patterns on earth and in the heavens.
ReplyDeleteThe ram and bull are also fertility symbols and their horns are archaic solar cradles. The Sun, like the ram and the bull, was thought to inseminate the Earth.
Meteoric iron bits were viewed as seeds sown by the Creator. These iron seeds were placed in graves as an expression of the hope of life after death. At a cemetery in Gerzeh, about 40 miles south of Cairo, archaeologist Wainwright found 3,300 year old meteoric iron beads. The meteoric iron beads found at Gerzeh are among the earliest known iron artifacts.
Iron beads were worn around the necks of by archaic chiefs. Such images have been found on prehistoric rock paintings in the Sudan. Likely the rulers believed that these iron beads provided them with powers from above. Wearing them would have been a sign of divine appointment. Another sign of divine appoint was the ox head (aleph) with horns and the Ankole Longhorn bull. These marks became the Canaanite Y which designed a ruler who was overshadowed. Thus the spelling of these names Yishmael, Yitzak, Yacob, Yeshua, Yeshai, etc. Hathor is shown wearing the Ankole long horns in which the Sun rests.
Hi Alice, I love your work FYI. You should read "Some Celestial Associations of Min" By Wainright. Meteoric iron was associated with the bones of Set and thus Min. Min was the Bull of his mother (Hathor) shown with an erect phallus. Amun-min became Ammon or Zeus Ammon the ram headed god. The staff of Min is the Y staff. He is possibly the original king of Egypt as Menes, and I believe Minos and Man are all related. Min is cognate with Amun and Jamin the Hebrew word for right hand. The hand of power, that the bull and the ram would symbolize and where the Y staff would be held.
DeleteThanks, but my name is not Alice :)
Delete:) I was responding to Alice Linsley in the comment above
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