Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio: Man, bull, lion and eagle

A Selection from
Symbols and the Question of Unity by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea)
'In the realm of symbols, one of the most ancient, the supreme Symbol, the master mandala, is the Zodiac.'

The Zodiac is an eternal symbol, for the more that is discovered - the new planets and so on - only confirms to an ever greater extent the truth of its revelation, and the apparent new growth of man, the expansion into other realms of consciousness and other possibilities even in his most physical structure, is clearly mapped out in this design: that is, the "new" possibilities are contained in the original pattern and have therein been revealed.

It is powerful in that it is not a mere imaginative band but is a physical path the planets and Sun journey through, and the truth of the design is therefore based on the actual harmony of the spheres. Man is given in this unique mandala the knowledge, as within, so without. He is precisely shown that this cosmos which beyond a doubt is a perfection in its workings, is the exact same perfection that governs his being and is his being. He looks up to the heavens and sees only a mirror of himself.

The origin of this symbol is not known. We find it recalled in the Sphinx, which is a combination of man, bull, lion and eagle, all these representing the four Fixed signs and the four Elements: Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio. But even the origin of the Sphinx is unknown, lost in the night of Time. It is simply considered prehistoric. An important and significant clue to its ancestry is that in the symbol the sign Scorpio is represented by the Eagle, its highest manifestation.

The Eagle is Power. Humanity at its present stage does not correspond to this aspect at all, which indicates victory over death, immortality, a life entirely evolving in the higher being, the lower nature having been completely conquered. Either this magnificent symbol, with its nine pyramids behind, is the picture of a civilisation of the past that lived in this consciousness, or it was a people who had the capacity to foresee, with remarkable skill, thousands of years to come, and predict that man would then live in the consciousness not of the Scorpion any longer but of the Eagle. This is what is now taking place.

The movement of transformation (the Aquarian Age) is for this purpose: to conquer the disintegrating and decaying forces of Death. From now through to the Age of Scorpio approximately 6,480 years will transpire, but it is predicted in the Sphinx that instead of mankind knowing the blackness and death of the soul that is reflected in the image of this animal, it shall know the Eagle; the poisons of the scorpion's death sting shall be transmuted into the majestic power of an eagle. The Sphinx is a prophecy in stone, made to last through the wear of the ages, of that which is now in its beginning...

"Time presents itself to human effort as an enemy or a friend, as a resistance, a medium or an instrument. But always it is really the instrument of the soul.’...‘To the ego it is a tyrant or a resistance, to the Divine an instrument. Therefore, while our effort is personal, Time appears as a resistance, for it presents to us all the obstruction of the forces that conflict with our own. When the divine working and the personal are combined in our consciousness, it appears as a medium and condition. When the two become one, it appears as a servant and instrument ..." Sri Aurobindo; The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 61.