St. George Decoded - An Astronomy Lesson (contd.), page 10

Constellations of the equinoxes

Only one thing more needs discussing before we get back to our good knight St. George, and that is the actual constellation of stars that carry the sun into dawn. For the last two thousand years or so, they are as follows:

• For the spring equinox: Pisces.
• For the autumn equinox: Virgo.
• For the winter solstice: Sagittarius.
• For the summer solstice: Gemini.

However, precession, as we have noticed, is changing the relationship between the sun and its dawn constellations by 1° (two Moon widths) every 72 years.

A new constellation, a new age

The constellations that the sun passes through on its annual journey round the heavens are those of our familiar zodiac. Although the constellations of the zodiac vary in length, by convention we say that each zodiac constellation dominates a 30° segment of the sky. For the sun to move by 30° in relation to the dawn constellation will take just over 2000 years, by which time a different constellation is carrying the sun into the dawn sky.

We call this long period, when the sun rises under the same constellation, an 'age', and name the age for the constellation that carries the sun on the spring equinox. Thus we are living in the Age of Pisces, and are about to enter the Age of Aquarius. (Yes, this really is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, though we have a couple of centuries to go yet, see Figure 7 below.)

 

In former times, they may not have had this precision, so marking the actual beginning of an age would be a matter of dispute and contention. Some constellations overlap, for example Libra and Virgo. There is a large gap between Gemini and Taurus, and Scorpio is hardly touched by the sun at all. We can imagine there may have been considerable dispute amongst ancient priest-astronomers about the actual starting point of the new age. Signs in the sky would therefore be important. Santillana and von Dechend determined that conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn were significant to the ancients who may then have used this as a marker.

The coming cataclysm

The system of equinoxes and solstices would have determined the annual round of religious festivals, and changing the dominating constellations must have seemed like a cataclysm to our ancient priest-astronomers. The whole religious calendar and its dependencies would have to change. These transitions between ages saw the world above enter a cataclysm when all the old gods died, and new ones had to be found. Such an event needed marking.

Note that critics of this interpretation try to present the argument as meaning the physical world with the rise and fall of civilisations, Earth-bound catastrophes, and such. It means nothing of the sort, referring only to this system of equinoxes and solstices. One such cataclysm is approaching soon, with the Mayan 25,000 year calendar coming to an end at the winter solstice AD2012, signifying a catastrophic end to a 'world age'. Rest easy in your beds though, it is a symbolic ending only.