Deciphering Planetary Symbolism

[Raziel]

Greetings! I apologize if similar thoughts have already been discussed in other threads. However, I hope this perspective on the symbols might be useful to someone, as it approaches the subject from a slightly different angle.

Again, the entire text belongs to "Idol Carver" (Резчик Идолов), and I wish to pay my respects to him in a way that ensures these words do not get lost to time. For my part, I would like to add that I have not read hundreds of treatises—at best, a couple of dozen. However, I have noticed that in all of them, the emphasis is placed on certain aspects, such as metaphorical recipes where it is unclear what is literal truth and what is merely an allegory or hint. For instance, how to properly pluck a flower, from which side to approach it, at what time, with what tool to cut it, and where its spirit actually resides at any given hour or season.

We are accustomed to the assumption that the spirit is inherently present within it, that it can be extracted, and that it is Mercury. But will it truly be there if we fail to account for all the nuances, about which, at best, we are simply told: "Act according to Nature." Therefore, I wish to emphasize the minutest details that are nowhere to be found in texts, perhaps because such things were obvious in the past, but are no longer so in modern times.

I also kindly ask you not to nitpick the wording, as some terms might not have been used with absolute precision in the strict context of alchemy or spagyrics. I have achieved nothing in this Art; I know less than most of you, and I am driven merely by simple inquiry and contemplation.

Below is a quote I would like to share:

«South is always above, North is always below. The East is the place of ascension, the West of descension; such is the overall order of the spirit's movement, established by the Sun.

Light is Being, the manifestation of life in all things drawn from the darkness of non-being; yet life, as an active form of matter's existence, is merely the part of this process visible to us. The Sun, as the source of manifesting light in our system, is, of course, the King who grants life.

The symbol of the Sun is a circle (a ring), representing the head and the radiant, luminous Spirit. The image of Matter is the cross, representing the four elementary principles that compose, nourish, and sustain it. The arc, through which our satellite, the Moon, finds its graphical representation, is a hieroglyph expressing the concept of motion.

When we look at the symbols of Jupiter and Saturn, we see that they consist of the cross of Matter and the arc of motion. Thus, they describe the movement of Matter sunwise (clockwise) and counterclockwise, meaning its expansion in the case of Jupiter, and contraction in the case of Saturn. The Ring of Spirit is absent from their symbols; therefore, the mythoparadigm I adhere to suggests that the Spirits of these planets have abandoned their celestial dwellings and descended to Earth. The Spirit of Jupiter clothed itself in storm clouds and became the God of Thunder, while Saturn, in its initial descent, darkened the face of the Moon (which, by its course, measures time for all that rests beneath it in the bosom of the Earth). Then, having fully descended, Saturn became Death, roaming the Earth and seeking whom to devour.».

 

[Lux Natura]

It is interesting to study symbols. The modern symbol for Jupiter comes from the Greek letter zeta with a line added (to signify Zeus), and this symbols has not changed much since the Greeks. The Greek Saturn, Kronos, was originally symbolized by kappa and rho united to abbreviate Kronos (K-R), but in the 12th century was changed to an eta, and in the 16th century the eta received a top cross bar. It had at other times been simply symbolized by the sickle, which is a crescent shape as well. The 16th century eta is the source of the modern symbol.

If you head back further, into Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, you will find a wholly different sets of symbols and understandings of the planets.

Thus the original symbols for Jupiter and Saturn were not a combination of cross and moon, but many modern interpretations have taken this viewpoint, and then ascribed other concepts to support this thesis. These concepts, and this understanding, makes sense in the light of which they are used, and often invoke other pre-existing concepts or ideas and support them, but ultimately these systems of symbols are only meaningful in relation to the greater symbolic environment in which they exist.

There are several authors that have ventured down this specific path of understanding as well, ultimately decomposing all the planetary symbols into combinations of sun, moon, and cross, and explaining the qualities of each planetary symbols in reference to these three primaries, their ratios, interactions with each other, their positions, and so on.

Within the Greeks you will find they had symbols and short-hands not just for the planets / main gods, but plenty of other non-planetary gods / goddesses, and other lesser divine being such as muses and so on.

The symbol of Earth was also at time the same as the symbol for salt (circle with a horizontal line as the equator), depending on what the writer preferred. To reconcile the difference between the symbol for earth (circle with quadrants) and salt (circle with horizontal line), you have niter, (circle with vertical line, and the verticality showing the movement of volatility), and it is also the union of these two salts that make earth, or alternately earth is decomposed into these two salts.

 

[Raziel]

It is interesting to study symbols. The modern symbol for Jupiter comes from the Greek letter zeta with a line added (to signify Zeus), and this symbols has not changed much since the Greeks. The Greek Saturn, Kronos, was originally symbolized by kappa and rho united to abbreviate Kronos (K-R), but in the 12th century was changed to an eta, and in the 16th century the eta received a top cross bar. It had at other times been simply symbolized by the sickle, which is a crescent shape as well. The 16th century eta is the source of the modern symbol.

If you head back further, into Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, you will find a wholly different sets of symbols and understandings of the planets.

Thus the original symbols for Jupiter and Saturn were not a combination of cross and moon, but many modern interpretations have taken this viewpoint, and then ascribed other concepts to support this thesis. These concepts, and this understanding, makes sense in the light of which they are used, and often invoke other pre-existing concepts or ideas and support them, but ultimately these systems of symbols are only meaningful in relation to the greater symbolic environment in which they exist.

There are several authors that have ventured down this specific path of understanding as well, ultimately decomposing all the planetary symbols into combinations of sun, moon, and cross, and explaining the qualities of each planetary symbols in reference to these three primaries, their ratios, interactions with each other, their positions, and so on.

Within the Greeks you will find they had symbols and short-hands not just for the planets / main gods, but plenty of other non-planetary gods / goddesses, and other lesser divine being such as muses and so on.

The symbol of Earth was also at time the same as the symbol for salt (circle with a horizontal line as the equator), depending on what the writer preferred. To reconcile the difference between the symbol for earth (circle with quadrants) and salt (circle with horizontal line), you have niter, (circle with vertical line, and the verticality showing the movement of volatility), and it is also the union of these two salts that make earth, or alternately earth is decomposed into these two salts.

Thank you for your detailed response! I was unaware of much of this. But as you yourself noted, these concepts are applied within a specific context. Here, I'd like to expand on that thought a bit and say that the effectiveness of the system (the human being) depends directly on the coherence and depth of the myth it relies on. And the fewer abstract dark spots there are in this system, the better. During practice, the operator must define their understanding of the universe within the most precise boundaries, but once the working is done, they must open themselves back up to the world and expand those boundaries. For example, let's take your definition of the source of the symbols for Jupiter and Saturn. In the context of researching and immersing oneself in the tradition, I agree that this is important and must be taken into account. But in a practical sense, these explanations are of no use to me personally; they are merely abstract letters and names of gods that do not belong to my world. Hypothetically, had I been born in Greece and spent my life there steeped in that mythology, my views and associations would be completely different. They would have become a personal understanding and inner sense that I could actually rely on.

 

[Phyllobius]

For what I know the part about south always above is not true in every traditions. In China, hence, Japan the north is the direction of choice because of the pole star around which everything revolves. In these parts the real shenannigans happen always at night.It seems that Eugene Canseliet thought like that.

 

[Lux Natura]

During practice, the operator must define their understanding of the universe within the most precise boundaries, but once the working is done, they must open themselves back up to the world and expand those boundaries.

This is a very good way of putting it. The system is personal and symbolic, even in cases where the symbolism approaches a hyper-realism of confusing the symbol for the thing it signifies, in which cases many are unable to perceive that they are dealing in symbols, and this is an endless source of confusion. For many, the roots of the symbolism have a historical lineage - whether that is going far back in ancient times, or more modern times, such as from the western mystery traditions / various esoteric / occult traditions, but it can all also be wholly personal without any deep need for a historical connection.

Physicists apply a certain symbol to a constant, but other symbols could be applied and the formulas work just as well, as the choice of the actual symbol is ultimately arbitrary, and what matters is the relationships as expressed by the mathematics. Many of the constants themselves can be derived from some other constants or interactions of constants as well, and the mathematics can be rewritten in numerous ways. You end up with various models or maps that represent a territory, and this territory can be represented in a multitude of ways that are all equally arbitrary, and equally valid, if they can serve to aid understanding in how to traverse that territory.

The boundary expansion can also be understood as the boundary dissolution. Psychologists have given their own meaning to this term, which is something else entirely, and many in the psychedelic community have also given their own meaning to this term, which also refers to something else that I think is perhaps more related to what I am talking about, but only somewhat similar.

The divisions that are required to define the symbols are tools to aid the understanding, but the understanding exists outside and above these divisions.

In the language of modern occult / hermetic "Qabalah" this is, for example, why Binah is above Da'ath. The machinations of divisions, symbols, the relationships of symbols, and so on, are not required for Binah, and they are ultimately caught by the net or gravitational field of Da'ath. Past Da'ath, all those symbols are amalgamated or simply removed, as required. In Da'ath, these symbols find their ultimate expressions as the source of the core constants. They are truth from the perspective of everything in and below Da'ath - but from above they are lies, even though the division of "truth vs lies" is itself only still valid at or below Da'ath - above there are no such divisions.

Still, one must pass through Da'ath, as it is the exit from there that is the dissolution or expansion of the system, depending on how one thinks about it, and once that exit has been passed, one can dive back down into the system with a complete different set of tools, that sees and understands all such symbolism as mere play-things that are all infinitely mutable.



In the system that sees the planetary signs as amalgamations of the core set of constants of sun, moon, and cross, Mars is often pictured as a circle with a cross on top - opposite to Venus, and similar to the symbol for Antimony. This tightens up the internal logic of the system and allows the interplay between Mars / Venus just as it exists between Jupiter / Saturn.

Jupiter / Saturn have their "ring of spirit" in potential - it exists as part of the cross, but we may say Jupiter / Saturn have their ring of spirit deeply buried. Mars and Venus, who are missing the moon arc, have that in potential as well. Earth, which has the ring of spirit and the cross, holds its moon at a distance, and the true glyph of the sun is a combination of all 3 symbols united into one, where the moon / cross is shrunk to a point or alternately the moon exists on the four tips of the cross to signify the swastika in its original meaning - constant creative motion. Compare it to Mercury, which shows these three symbols in equal weights, logically connected with the spirit holding the cross / moon at opposing ends. Mercury partakes of all three in equal measures and thus can communicate with any other that hold these in various weights.