Astrological signs are not signs. They are symbols.



The astrological signs are not signs actually, they are symbols.


A sign is a simple thing, like a traffic sign. It just means one thing.


A symbol is an image which has an impact on the human psyche and connects it to its own depths. It's a metaphor for psychic or spiritual realities.


I keep coming back to this fundamental notion of "symbolic language". In my view, a major cause of misunderstanding in astrology comes from not understanding what symbols are and how they work, which is by showing analogies.


The law of analogy is an esoteric principle which means that there is a similarity between the symbol and what it means.


For instance, the Moon means woman. Woman and Moon have similar cycles, so they are symbolically connected. Now, in symbolic language, just because the Moon means woman.... doesn't mean that she will mean woman in all cases, and never mean anything else. The Moon is also like our dreams, we see the Moon and dream at night.


The Moon is like the crowd, and the crowd is like the sea. Our emotions are like waves they come and go and in a crowd they propagate and amplify. So the Moon symbolises the crowds as well, the public.


Of course, the Moon symbolises fecundity and children, how could she symbolise woman without symbolising child? ... (Well Venus does that, but not the emotional Moon)


So the Moon symbolises many things, which are all linked by analogy, and because the Moon is a symbol, we could understand all her meanings without opening a book...



 Jean-Marc 

  http://jeanmarcpierson.com 


Blog posts written between 2017 and 2019 have become a book

Originally self published, the book has now found a publisher and a new title: 

You can order Magical Doors - The symbols of Astrology -  on most online stores worldwide, and at The Wessex Astrologer. 







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