Sabian Symbols: History, Info & Articles.

Elven

Hail Symbollers :) Hows things.

I thought I'd explore the 'Harp' issue. Being a mad harpist myself I thought this would be interesting - but of course in relevance to the Symbols.:)

CAPRICORN 9: AN ANGEL CARRYING A HARP - Creating Harmony.

this symbol obviously hasn't seen or heard me play!! lol

There is some History of Harps in the days of Mesopotamia also - please correct me if I am wrong here and I will edit the post, but it was in this area where the 'Sabians' were from. I will try to post some info about them soon.


This comes from the History and folklore of the Harp by Gary Garrita. The information was very comprehensive so not all of it is in the thread - please read more from the site if you like. Enjoy - I hope this text adds to the quality of your view of the Symbol.

http://www.harps.com/history_expanded.html

INTRODUCTION

The history of the harp goes back thousands of years. The harp is the oldest known stringed instrument. The piano, the guitar, the violin and all other string instruments evolved from the harp. Throughout the ages, the harp has had an impact on almost every culture. Harps have been regarded as sacred and have been instrumental in the healing process, in celebration of birth, as comfort in passing, and to make people feel better. No other instrument has been so closely associated with so many positive things - with a profound sense of beauty, with peace and tranquility, with love, with enchantment, with goodness and with heaven. The word "harp" comes from Anglo-Saxon, Old German, and Old Norse words whose root means "to pluck". Scholars disagree as to what exactly a harp is. The names early musicians gave their instruments are not be the names we give those instruments today and the names of instruments in the ancient world were interchanged. Harps in my definition are multi-stringed-instruments, with open strings (no frets), where each string plays one note and where the strings are plucked with the fingers. This would include medieval harps, baroque harps; Irish harps, Celtic harps, Spanish harps; Chinese harps, African Harps; as well as related instruments like lyres, zithers, charach, citharas, psalteries, arpas, yahz, cheng, kotos, koras and other stringed instruments. The evolution of the harp conformed to paths of human migration and also coincided with the development of musical scales in each culture. The harps' development reflected physical, cultural and economic environments such as trade, religion, environmental changes, and technology at the time.

PREHISTORIC TIMES

No one really knows where the harp originated and we will never know what music sounded like at the dawn of civilization. One of the earliest musical instrument relics discovered showed a harp-like instrument on rock paintings dating back to 15,000 BC, which were found in France at the caves of Les Trois Freres. Many believe that the earliest harps came from the hunter's bow. Perhaps while hunting, prehistoric man liked the sound of the vibrating bowstring. Then a second string was added to the bow, then a third. In the course of time, more and more strings were added. Eventually, a gourd or a hollow area at one end of the bow was added which became a sound box. This came to be known as the arched harp of which the Egyptians later perfected.

ANCIENT EGYPT

Of all the musical instruments in ancient Egypt, the harp seems to have been the most popular. In Egypt, some of the earliest depictions of harps are from the Pharaoh's tombs dating some 5,000 years ago. The hieroglyphs show that there were many harps in ancient Egypt. Music played a great part in ancient Egyptian life. They regarded musical instruments and music itself as originating from the gods. Harps were used in harp ensembles, in festivities, banquets, funerals and temple worship. The Egyptians played mostly Arched Harps - where the neck and body form a bow-like curve or "C"-shaped arched" soundbox (the soundbox is the body and resonator of the instrument.) The harps were mostly played in a vertical position. The Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III (1198-1166 BC) had many harps depicted among paintings in his tomb. In the New Kingdom, harps measured up to 6-1/2 feet in height with 19 strings and had to be played standing up. Many illustrations show the hands are on different strings with wide gaps between the hands. In my latest recording "Qualities", the actual acoustics from the Pyramids at Giza, Egypt were used on my harps to make them sound as if they were actually played inside these pyramids of ancient times.


MESOPOTAMIA

Harps were very popular in ancient Mesopotamia as they were in Egypt. One of the earliest illustrations of a harp in early Mesopotamia was on a vase found during an excavation of a Babylonian temple near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These harps were arched harps with 12 to 15 strings; like the instruments that were played in Egypt at about the same time. Mesopotamian arched harps were played with the soundbox held uppermost, whereas in Egypt, the resonator was held below. The Mesopotamians later developed other types of harps. The angle harp differed from the Egyptian arched harps in that the neck and the body form right angles. Vertical harps also known as lyre harps (or just "lyres") also began appearing in ancient Sumeria by 2800 BC. A lyre usually had two arms (usually wood) extend out of the instrument's body. The arms are connected at the top with a stick or crossbar to which strings are wound. The strings are stretched from the stick crossbar to the instrument's body. In box lyres, the body and belly form a hollow wooden box; in bowl lyres, the body may be a tortoise shell, gourd or carved bowl", and the belly is usually an animal skin.


PALESTINE & BIBLICAL TIMES

Much of the imagery and concepts of harps we have come from the Bible. The harp is the first instrument mentioned in the bible. One of the earliest archaeological finds showing a harp was near Jerusalem. A cave drawing from the 3rd to 4th millennium BC, was discovered in Megiddo that depicts a man playing a frame harp known as a "nevel". Legend has it that the sound of the nevel is so sweet that when all the other musical instruments heard it they became ashamed. In the Bible, Jubal was "the ancestor of all who play the harp" (Genesis 4:21). The bible mentions that King David was "skilled in playing the harp". David played his harp as a shepherd while sitting in the fields and composing his psalms. Although no one knows exactly what David's harp(s) looked like, the Bible does say that David played very well and prevented King Saul from going mad. "And David would take the harp and play with his hand. Saul would find relief and feel better and the evil spirit departed from Saul" (Samuel 16: 23). This seems to be the oldest recorded case of harp therapy. Harp lyres were used in the Temple of Jerusalem as a regular part of the worship service. One depiction of a harp that existed close to the time of Jesus was shown on a coin called the "Bar Kochba coin". On this coin is shown a small harp called a kinnor, the kind that was probably used in the Temple Service. Legend has it that the Jews refused to play the harp when they were exiled in Babylon. Instead the Harp of David was hung upon the willow trees. The harp of the Temple was forever silenced and disappeared. Ancient Talmudic prophesy (Mas. Arachin 13b) says that harps will usher in the coming of the Messiah. "The harp of the ten strings is reserved for the day when the world that is to come (the Olam Haba) is united in one harmonious whole." In the last book of the New Testament, Revelation 14:2 states "And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. "

Please add any more interesting bits and pieces about the Harp!

Blessings
Elven x
 

Lynda

Hi Elven
You asked about Elsie's condition - yes, she was immobilised from a very early age... we don't know a lot about it, but I read somewhere (sorry to be so vague) that she was confined to a wheelchair from the age of 3. As mentioned elsewhere (for those who might not have read it), she was in the Bethesda Hospital and Home For the Incurable in St. Louis, Missouri from before 1900 until around 1923.

Apparently she came to San Diego sometime in 1924.

Certainly, when she passed away at 52 (in 1938), she had trouble holding her head up and she couldn't use her hands.

All the details about what happened that day in 1925 in the park in San Diego are rather sketchy, but it seemed they worked in the car all day. I know that Elsie had a nurse, Mrs. Pearl Calpin, but there was no mention of her in Marc Edmund Jones' recount of the day.

Hope this helps!
Lynda
 

Elven

Symbol philosophy

Hail Symbollers :) How are you all?

from the website:
http://www.halexandria.org/dward324.htm

Some interesting information can be found on this site. It relates to the Philosophy of the Sabian Symbols. I have included some of the article here:
Sacred Geometry
Birth of the Symbols


A philosophy of astrology, per se, is less obvious, but can be described by alluding to what are known as “Sabian Symbols.” These symbols, according to Dane Rudhyar [1], “take events from the realm of the fortuitous, the unprecedented, the unique and the incomprehensible to the realm of ‘universals’.” “Expressed through symbols, life becomes condensed into a relatively few interrelated units of experience. Each unit is a concentrate of the experiences of millions of people.” Symbols use “an imagery that is close to the foundations of the natural life -- and these foundations are still very real and active in the immense majority of human beings.” The Tree of Life, for example, is replete with symbols, and it is those symbols which constitute its meaning -- even when discussion and mere words prove to be wholly inadequate.

The history of astrology’s Sabian Symbols is critical to their understanding.It began in 1925, when Marc Edmund Jones (an astrologer) approached Elsie Wheeler (a clairvoyant medium, who happened to be crippled by arthritis). Jones had a novel idea. He provided a deck of 360 cards, each card representing one degree of the Zodiacal circle (and identified, for example, as one degree Aries, ten degrees Scorpio, and so forth). In Miss Wheeler’s presence, Jones shuffled the deck (and reshuffled many times during the process), and then began pulling one card at random -- without his or her seeing what the card was. Miss Wheeler responded by describing what she saw. Apparently, a scene flashed in her inner vision, which she quickly described, and which Jones made a brief pen notation on the card of what she said. Not only was the procedure entirely aleatory as far as the normal consciousness of the two participants was concerned, but the amazing thing was that the 360 symbols were obtained during a few hours in the morning, and later in a few hours during the afternoon -- at a rate of roughly one symbol every ninety seconds.

What made the resulting Sabian Symbols so incredible is that while the two individuals had proceeded at fantastic speed and had operated purely at random, the result was a series which, when carefully studied, yielded a definite and complex internal structure. The entire 360 cards matched with one another in geometrical pattern. Dane Rudhyar [1], for example, found that the symbols formed, among other possibilities, a pentagonal five-step process -- much in accord with Sacred Geometry. Apparently, there was some kind of Consciousness at work. For the symbols were not only operating at both an existential and archetypal-structural level, but they could be considered as “phases of a cyclic process rather than as isolated images -- that is, when the possible interpretations are considered in the light of preceding and following phrases in a characteristic five-fold sequence, and in terms of wider relationships -- any ambiguity usually disappears.”

continued:

The Sabian Symbols are just one aspect of the philosophy of astrology. Determinism and Free Will also play a major role, as does the basics of how anyone interprets the symbolism of astrology. Pictures -- and astrological charts -- convey a thousand words, and perhaps more than most things, demonstrate the limits of language (or rather, why, perhaps, language is considered a curse during the time of the Kali Yuga). Symbolism, in fact, conjures understandings and emotions far beyond a written sequence of words.

According to Dane Rudhyar [1], an astrological “birth chart is a person-centered symbol. That is to say, it carries a ‘message’ -- the symbolic formulation of the individual’s dharma [destiny]. It suggests how [the individual] can best actualize the innate potentialities of his or her particular and unique selfhood. It is a symbol, a mandala, or logos, a word of power. Astrology, seen from this point of view, is a language of symbols. It implies a process of unfoldment of an idea of feeling-response.” “...a process of unfoldment, as Carl Jung might have said, of ‘individuation’.”

A person’s experiences “basically repeat themselves [Cycles!], even though [the individual] might respond to them differently at each new encounter.” “There are only a certain number of basic meanings to be gathered by a human being in his or her lifetime, and that these meanings can be seen in terms of structural and cyclic sequence.” “An individual, however, acting as an individual and having succeeded in becoming free from collective patterns, may break through the circle of limitations and tap into a deeper source of life and consciousness; this indeed is what true occultism is about.” [1]

Rudhyar goes on to say, “Man should not seek tensely and self-protectively to avoid or control events. Events do not happen to an individual person; he or she happens to them. An individual meets them, and imparts to them his or her own meaning.” “All truly constructive, creative, or redeeming acts are performed through the individual person by a focalization of the whole universe. This is the ‘transpersonal way’ of which I have spoken for many years.” [1] Astrology is thus, in many ways, transpersonal. It is part of the Creating Reality and Intermingled Realities, in which we all have a part.

Astrology can also be used for the most mundane and trivial purposes. But then again, so can all really useful tools in the hands of men and women with limited intentions.

Blessings
Elven x
 

Elven

Sabian Symbol: Pisces 27 - A Harvest Moon!

This seems such a beautiful symbol - one in which to reap what has been planted for the Harvest. A time of hard work and celebration.

Here is some information about the Harvest Moon. Enjoy!
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/harvest/

Keith's Harvest Moon Page said:
A few facts, definitions, dates, about the harvest moon...

Q. What is a harvest moon?
A. Simply put, the harvest moon is the full moon that occurs closest
to the date of the autumn equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.
Some people claim that the harvest moon shines brighter and more golden than during normal full moons. However, since the time between moonrises on successive nights is shorter in autumn than at any other time of year, there is very little darkness between sunset and moonrise.

The continuance of the moonlight after sunset is useful to farmers in northern latitudes, who are then harvesting their crops. The full moon following the harvest moon, which exhibits the same phenomena in a lesser degree, is called the hunter's moon. A similar phenomenon to the harvest moon is observed in southern latitudes at the spring equinox on about March 21.


Q. Does the harvest moon always occur in September?
A. No, It depends on the date of the full moon with relationship to the equinox.
While it's a fact that most harvest moons do occur in September you need
only to check 2001 to see that it can, from time to time, fall in October.


Q. How do I determine the date of a harvest moon?

A. Step 1. - Find the date of the autumn equinox for the year desired.
(Example: The autumn equinox for the year 2001 occurs on Sept. 22nd)

Step 2. - Now determine the full moon dates for both September and October.
Septembers full moon is on the 2nd. Octobers full moon is on the 2nd.

September 2001 October 2001

Step 3. Count the number of days from the equinox to the September full moon.
9/22 -> 9/2 = 20 days.
Step 4. Count the number of days from the equinox to the October full moon.
9/22 -> 10/2 = 10 days.

Conclusion And the "Harvest Moon" winner is October 2nd.


Another is a very short page Chineese Legend:
http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/moon.htm

A picture of the Harvest Moon:
http://www.pbase.com/stanzman/image/36543860


A little more info on the Harvest Moon from:
http://www.moonconnection.com/harvest_moon.phtml

The Time of the Harvest Moon

A harvest moon occurs at a specific time of the year. The moon officially turns full when it reaches the spot opposite to the sun. The harvest moon happens on 13:59 Greenwich time on the Saturday nearest to the fall equinox, which is September 23rd. Once in every three years we get the same full moon in October, but the one in September is called the harvest moon because farmers can continue their harvest late into the night by the light of the full moon. The same moon appears three days in succession, but the one that appears on Saturday is the one that receives this name.
Other names for this moon are the Wine Moon, the Elk Call Moon and the Singing Moon. It received the name of harvest moon because it appears in the Northern Hemisphere at the time of the year that coincides with the harvesting of crops.

It's For The Birds

During a harvest moon there are other advantages for the bird lovers of our planet. This is the perfect time to watch the birds migrate past the light that emits from the moon. Some studies have proven that birds rely on the Harvest moon to migrate from one area to another. They have also proven that the birds wait for this moon to begin their migration.

Gazing Upon a Harvest Moon

The moon during the year rises about 50 minutes later each day, but near autumn equinox the time shortens to 30 minutes. Some years there is an extra treat for moon watchers when they do their gazing between dusk and dawn. Wildfires in North America and dust storms in Africa sometimes fill our air with aerosols. A low hanging harvest moon can give an array of colors that is not usually seen. There is also an added treat to watching a harvest moon. This is called moon illusion because the rising or setting moon looks bigger than when it does high in the sky.


Please feel free to add more about the Harvest Moon and your impressions on the Symbol! :)

Blessings
Elven x
 

Lynda

Elven you don't know how psychic you are :)

Hi Elven and All

Here I am in Chicago - a long ways from Sydney, Australia - but it's familiar territory; I've been here before.

One of the trips to this part of the U.S. involved speaking at a Sabian Assembly conference in Detroit, Michigan and The Harvest Moon degree was highlighted continually throughout the trip, but especially at the Conference.

How amazing is it that the clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler, although the Sabian Symbols were given birth completely at random, came up with the Harvest Moon for a late Pisces degree - as you quote from Keith's Harvest Moon page:

"Q. What is a harvest moon?
A. Simply put, the harvest moon is the full moon that occurs closest
to the date of the autumn equinox in the Northern Hemisphere."

... which means that the Sun at the harvest moon would be in either late Virgo or early Libra... A harvest moon is always on a full moon, which means that the Sun is opposite the Moon. The Harvest Moon degree has the Sun in late Virgo (with the Moon position in late Pisces)... she was some clairvoyant!

Hope you guys are all having fun
Best wishes from Lake Michigan
Lynda
 

Elven

Hi Lynda, Hi All :)

Great to hear about what your up to Lynda - sounds so exciting :D I hope your having a good time.

I chose the Harvest Moon by asking - 'Elsie which Symbol tonight'?
Need I say anything more!! :) - Nup!! LOL!!

Blessings
Elven x
 

MCsea

HEY Lynda -
Great to hear you are in the states and good!
you just keep having a good time!!

Elven

YOU ARE AMAZING!

I hope you are moving FORWARD with your beads!

Marina
 

Elven

Thanks MCsea!! :)

...for pushing me there!! Ive got Sabian Symbols all over the place. I cant engrave them during the night because God Knows what the neighbours think ;) - the engraver is so noisy and it sorta makes this wizzing and grinding noise!!! I just cant make them at night :D!!! Its sooooo loud!! LOL!!!

Blessings
Elven x
 

MCsea

Well it is nice to 'hear' they need to be made
'in the light'
must be a symbol in that!!

Ok - I hope they are moving forward and into a place of prosperity!

Marina