This is my first post. I was searching for info on astrotheology and saw this post and thought I'd add my two cents.
Basically my sense is that astrotheology is about is the application of 'symbolism' stuck onto the human-invented patterns of the stars (constellations), and the positions of the planets, Sun, Moon to be a framework allowing a visual understanding of important relationships of ideas within human thought about the human condition and about Reality (at least as can be perceived by humans). It does not mean that the mentally projected patterns attached onto the actual sky are "physical realities" in an absolute sense (as the constellations themselves are inventions of humans and their stars are most often not even near each other in actual 3-dimensional space) but are a symbolic system meant to understand something else.
However, if one sees various levels of patterns within Reality as basically a range of magnification levels within a "fractal" Reality (so various levels resemble each other in some fundamental manor which may not seem obvious but upon decoding, perhaps can show a relationship), then representations expressed on one level of thought (as ideas of certain deities, heroes, stories, myths) may correlate to seemingly unrelated levels one normally would feel were unrelated (like a concept of nature or reality - maybe even something like "sacred geometry" - google that). So as a whirlpool of water may look like a spiral galaxy or a tree may resemble the branching capillaries within the lungs (and oddly, performing sort of similar functions!), stories about Heracles may represent some aspect of Reality as expressed in human stories (so if we theoretically strip away all cultural aspects of the story, we may come to a basic almost 'mathematical equation' at the root of that story. Another culture may have this same root equation but the cultural details upon it make it appear like it is different).
As for Heracles 11th labour of defeating the dragon Ladon which was twined around the tree of the Golden Apples of Hesperides ('Hera's orchard in the west, where either a single tree or a grove of immortality-giving golden apples grew'), this could be like Saint George defeating the dragon and this could represent the concept of defeating the untamed primal forces of basic human nature in order to progress towards enlightenment from the ego-based dualism (and this in itself could be a representation of a stage within an almost 'yogic' understanding of human "spiritual feeling" [for lack of a better term] ultimately reaching activation of the 'third eye' or pineal gland of the brain. The dragon Ladon being like the "kundalini (sanskrit for 'coiled') serpent)
An interesting (and not astrotheological) thing to consider is the location of a very large statue of a pine cone at the Vatican. Pine cone motiffs also exist on papal staffs but also on staffs in older Greek use. If research by John Anthony West into symbolic Egyptian understanding is correct, they too had an understanding of the pineal gland as being the basis for human mystical experience (sometimes called 'cosmic consciousness', 'Christ consciousness', even 'I and the Father are One' could be what Christ was supposedly referring to [with the patriarchal word 'father' really meaning the concept of base level of all of Reality that is experienced when transcending ordinary consciousness in this way] - of course most Christians would find this totally incorrect but then again I feel it's possible Christ learned yogic and Buddhist ideas and experience and even survived crucifixion attempt and ended up in Kashmir - google "roza bal" - so I guess I'm a heretic!). The absolute feeling of being fully one and not separate from the whole Universe is an understood goal of yogic and Asian religions - but apparently a blasphemous thing to say or think in the monotheistic religions of the west)
Of course my idea of Heracles (Hercules) defeating the dragon Ladon (constellation Draco?) as representing something like this is just an idea at present. But there is a line of ascent from Scorpius, north through Ophiuchus (the Serpent handler and healer and representation of the Greek Asclepius -whose "Rod of Asclepius" is still the medical symbol today... actually this is a hidden zodiacal constellation with the Sun being within it even longer than in Scorpius) and into Hercules whose foot is upon Draco. Next in line is the north celestial pole. I am trying to research if there may be something represented in this line of constellations to the north celestial pole. It's very interesting to wonder about such things but given the myth of Heracles and the apples of Hesperides, I do wonder!
The whole sky of invented constellations contains mainly mythological representations (mainly Greek but much go further back to older times and some the ancient Greeks didn't even know where their root was from). Whole segments of the constellations have mythological stories attached to them (constellations Andromeda, Perseus, Pegasus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia is a whole main story attached to the sky by human imagination. The sacrifice of the King [Cepheus] and Queen's [Cassiopeia] virgin daughter [Andromeda] to a sea monster [Cetus] or water spirit which is defeated by a hero [Perseus] is the pattern seen in other culture's myths). Many of these constellations and even their stories go back much further and the names may change but often the basic ideas don't (so the constellation Hercules kneeling with a foot upon the dragon Draco does appear to correlate to the older sun-god Izhdubar and the dragon Tiamat (Izhdubar being associated with Nimrod, and even King Gilgamesh of the Sumerians - a basic symbolic story passing through different cultures and renamed)
(there is the idea of Hercules [really, the Greek Heracles] as a solar diety and his twelve labours as symbolic of the solar journey through the zodiacal constellations)
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The 12 zodiacal constellations are along the ecliptic and are the apparent path of the Sun throughout the year. There have been alterations throughout history which I haven't fully investigated. Apparently at one time, Scorpius, Libra and Virgo region were of one group. Later Scorpius included the stars of Libra as a larger Scorpion - that area being the claws of the Scorpion as revealed in these star names within Libra today:
Zubeneschamali - altered Arabic for "northern claw"
Zubenelgenubi - altered Arabic for "southern claw"
Eventually Libra as the scales was envisioned.
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Obviously, in the Northern hemisphere, to cultures which had agriculture based upon the the typical four seasonal changes, their activities were centred around the apparent power (and height in the sky) of the Sun throughout the year.
At one point, Leo was the site of the Summer solstice ( ie, when the Sun attained it's apparent highest altitude in the sky). Around 2350BC, the bright star Regulus was very near the Summer Solstice.
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Four Evangelists of the Bible as the Four Zodiacal seasonal points
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Regulus was one of the ancient Royal Stars. Roughly around 2350BC, these four stars were near the four zodiacal points
1. Fomalhaut (Piscis Australis the 'southern fish') - Winter Solstice. Actually this is below Aquarius and the solstice was within Aquarius
2. Regulus (Leo the lion) - Summer solstice
3. Aldebaran (Taurus the bull) - Vernal Equinox
4. Antares (Scorpius the scorpion) - Autumnal Equinox
Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning" (Richard Hinckley Allen) - Quote from the section on Scorpius
"Sir William Drummond asserted that in the zodiac which the patriarch Abraham knew it was an Eagle"
1. Matthew symbol is the angel and human (Aquarius) - Winter Solstice
2. Mark symbol is the Lion - (Leo the lion) - Summer solstice
3. Luke symbiol is the Ox - (Taurus the bull) - Vernal Equinox
4. John symbol is the Eagle - (Scorpius) - Autumnal Equinox
It's interesting that the reference of Scorpius with an Eagle (or Phoenix - the bird which becomes resurrected) seems to correlate the symbols of the Four Evangelists with these four older zodiacal constellations
These evangelists are represented with these three animal figures and the angel (so these 3 animals and a human). From various sources, they state a correlation of these principle points on the zodiac to these four evangelists which are named for the four books of the New Testament.
I heard Jordan Maxwell discuss some of this but I didn't listen to all of his recordings. I did hear his explanation of 'precession of the Equinoxes' and it was not correct but it doesn't mean the other ideas are false.
He mentioned the cause being the Sun physically moving throughout the stars of the galaxy but that is definately not the cause of the precession of the equinoxes (The Sun does have a motion around the centre of the actual galaxy but this is not the cause of precession of the equinoxes). Precession of the equinoxes is due to the slow almost 26000 year "wobble" of the direction of the Earth's rotational axis. The angle remains roughly the same but it performs basically a slow circular wobble like a spinning top might wobble whilst still spinning (as example). This appears to be caused by gravitational forces such as from the Moon upon the tidal bulge on the Earth. The visual result )as seen by humans on Earth) is a very slow apparent shift of the solstice and equinox points in the sky over the span of almost 26000 (I can't recall the exact number) years.
This concept is very important to any concerns about astrotheology as it means that over millenia, the whole symbolic representation of what the constellations signify as relating to agricultural cycles, times of spring, summers, autumn, winter (etc) will change.
Another deeper meaning is that the various constellations may have been invented by ancient humans to visually symbolize certain ages of different types of conditions over a period of tens of thousands of years.
Usually accepted and promoted history of civilization gives a certain time range of complicated civilization but according to John Anthony West, rain erosion patterns on the Sphinz in Egypt suggest the body (or at least the surrounding enclosure) was created when the rains were last in that region - over 10500 years ago! This goes against modern official history.
The biblical story of the Great Flood is very similar to the one from the much older Sumerian account in the Epic of Gilgmesh. Other stories around the world may point to a very serious catastophe in the distant past. Personally I have a hunch that the common fear of comets in the sky as dreaded omens reflects back to a time when a very bad catastrophe may have reduced advanced civilization back to a primative level. Could it be possible that rather complex civilizations were around over 10500 years BC?
Of course I don't believe it was "God" (as the Bible claims) or the Sumerian gods who sent a Great Flood (according to the Epic of Gilgamesh, their gods didn't like all the noise humans were making so they wanted to destroy humanity LOL) but human culture would attribute such disasters to gods.
What if there are visual symbols of ages past within the constellations. The location of the solstices/equinoxes over 26000 year cycle of precession could hold clues to some hypothetical trends of climate or change that happen cyclically.
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Ram's Horn (Aries?) - Golden Calf (age of Taurus?) - Fish (Pisces?)
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Some people do point to the changing of where the vernal equinox point is within the constellations as a correlation to various changes of religions over time (example, the story of Moses coming back with the commandments and seeing the people had made a golden calf... this supposedly as a symbolic reference to Taurus and no longer appropriate as this was the transferance into the age of Aries (Ram ... with the Jewish use of the ram's horn symbol).
The Vernal Equinox within Pisces (the fishes) would be the association with the age of Christianity. Around the time between the switch from BC to AD, the vernal equinox is very near 'omicron Piscium' (a star in the constellation west side and generally along the usual visual shape of that constellation's western side). Reading 'Star Names :Their Lore and Meaning" shows some references to Christ with this constellation (including the fishes he fed the masses with). Other references even going back to opinions of Johannes Kepler involving three consecutive conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter within Pisces
google "star names their lore and meaning" and click Pisces
That's a very good reference to star names and also information on the mythological and symbolic background within the constellations
I have this as a book but sometimes it's easier to do a word-search in the online version. It's originally from the 1800's but since it's subject is from distant history, much info is still ok.
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There is definately evidence suggesting many mythological gods are solar dieties and their labours or mythological life stories symbolically mirror passage through the zodiac. The whole death and resurrection is many times symbolic of the cyclic changes from dead winter to summer.
Solstice is latin for solstitium "point at which the sun seems to stand still"
This appears (pre-telescopic naked eye observing) to be about a 3 or so day period from what I've read and it does correlate to the length of time of Easter as well as the time from the Winter Solstice to Christmas day. To ancient humans whose lives depend on growing seasons, the observation of the apparently dead Sun (not gaining any altitude in the sky at local noon over several days) finally starting it's gain in daily altitude was a great symbolic event of rebirth of the Sun.
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In my opinion, the greatest series of lectures I have heard on the subject of not only zodiacal astrotheology but as related to the planets known to the ancients (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) and two luminaries (Sun , Moon) as symbols of understanding the ancient system of seeing Reality, was by Manly P. Hall.
google : manlyphall org ... and click on astrotheology
Anyone interested in this subject should really really listen to all parts of that series including the "Solar Christmas"
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Tarot cards symbolism as a zodiacal solar journey
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Here's something I'm currently wondering more about. The idea that the major arcana of the Tarot cards represents a series of symbolic representations of the solar journey through the constellations (in my researching, not always the zodiacal ones).
As an example the card 'Strength' may be when the Sun transfers from Leo into Virgo ... as the card shows the woman controlling the jaws of the lion (in most decks).
My opinion of Tarot cards are essentially as visual symbolism that can allow the extraction of subconscious impulses into the conscious. So I dont see them as "telling the future" in the normal way but as symbols to grab out the thoughts that are already just below the surface anyway.
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Anyway, to some, this whole post may seem ridiculous but by thinking of things as symbolic representations of things, instead of "literal history" one can gain a lot of insight from religions, mythologies, alchemical symbols and such.
