Aquarius, The Water-Bearer
January 20 - February 18th
Mode: Fixed ~ Element: Air ~ Ruler: Uranus Mythic Archetypes: Prometheus ~ Saturn ~ Osiris, Isis, and Hapi (Egyptian) ~ Gilgamesh & Utnapishtim (Sumerian) ~ Pandora ~ Ganymede ~ Juno

In a symbolic sense, the Egyptians thought of the Nile as the god Osiris. The myth of Osiris had to do with death, dismemberment, and the eventual resurrection of this god. One of the holiest shrines of ancient Egypt is the temple of Elephantine, venerated as the symbolic beginning of the Nile. Here was kept an especially sacred relic, the lower leg-bone of the god Osiris. Nearby, on the island of Philae, there was a bas-relief depicting Hapi, the god of the Nile, pouring fourth the water of life from two vases. The image of Aquarius is, or course, that of the water-bearer pouring forth the waters of life; and in medical astrology, the lower leg is associated with Aquarius. To the ancient Egyptians, Aquarius represented the vital spiritual power which renews and fertilizes all things.

Aquarius had similarly powerful associations among the Babylonians. The four fixed signs of the zodiac recur again and again in Babylonian myth, especially in the Epic of Gilgamish and in the Hebrew Book of Ezekiel. The Greeks associated Aquarius with Ganymede, the beautiful Trojan boy who attracted the attention of Zeus (Jupiter) who carried Ganymede away to Mount Olympus to become the cupbearer of the gods. It is presumed that it was ambrosia (drink of immortality) that poured from his cup. The meaning of Aquarius is intertwined with the concept of a divine substance which nourishes all life.

Our present day interpretation is that Aquarius rules electricity, and the glyph for the sign ~ symbolizes electrical waves rather than water. In our scientific world, we have come to conceive of the life-giving substance as a vital, electrical quantum of cosmic energy rather than a magic drink. We have enjoyed the wonderful technological and scientific advances that have been ushered into our society since the discovery of Uranus in 1930.