Zodiacal Oppositions: A Key to the Signs
Astrological Symbolism
One wonderful key for grasping zodiacal symbolism is to study the Axes, the oppositions of signs. Here I will offer a few simple observations on the Axes.
Aries and Libra
In a previous article I described the axis with idioms:
“the carrot and the stick”
“The easy way or the hard way”
“Good cop, bad cop”
“By hook or by crook”
Taurus and Scorpio
This axis presents itself well with some fables and myths.
The Bull and the Gnat from Aesop
A Gnat flew over the meadow with much buzzing for so small a creature and settled on the tip of one of the horns of a Bull. After he had rested a short time, he made ready to fly away. But before he left he begged the Bull's pardon for having used his horn for a resting place.
"You must be very glad to have me go now," he said.
"It's all the same to me," replied the Bull. "I did not even know you were there."
You have likely heard the idea that Elephants fear Mice. Eustathius says “one is not so greatly amazed at the vast size of the elephant as at the mouse which is such an object of fear to the elephant.”
Then the great story of David and Goliath, the little boy who brings down the terrible giant warrior with his sling.
These are three variations on a single motif, the relation of large beings to smaller ones, one can view these as the perspectives of the signs: Taurus wishes to be indifferent to the small, annoying, but dangerous Scorpio. Scorpio wishes to assert its power over the larger Taurus. The proper position is that of the Elephant, a healthy fear from both sides.
Gemini and Sagittarius
Here we have the image of the Bow itself, the technology therein.
The Sagittarian arrow launched by the tension of the two sided bow. The conversion of Potential energy into Kinetic.
When I described this image to
, he asked how the opposition would present itself the other way around, how does Sagittarius lead to Gemini? The image that arose was a classic from Robin Hood: the arrow that splits the arrow, and more generally the splitting arrows cause.