mysteries of egyptian zodiacs - HiddenMysteries Information Central

– the figure of a traveler standing on the spike of Virgo
(see Figure 7.20, 7.21 and 2.32 and 2.34).
– the bird sitting on the tail of the snake under the Leo’s
figure. Since it is right under the additional Virgo (see
subsections 5.1.5 and 5.1.6) standing on the Leo’s tail,
it could refer either to Leo or Virgo.
– the five figures located under the constellations of Libra,
Virgo and Leo in the procession of figures belonging
to the partial horoscopes (see Figure 7.20 and
7.21). The first figure is a person sitting on a chair
with spread out arms holding two identical objects.
It is located under Leo. It symbolizes the equilibrium
between the day and night occurring at the equinox
(see section 5.8). The figures in the procession preceding
it belong to the partial horoscope of the summer
solstice, which we will discuss later. The second figure
— a person sitting on a chair and holding a child
on his/her hand. This is probably a symbol of the
new year (see section 5.8). As we already explained
earlier, the Egyptian new year began in September
near the autumn equinox. The next symbol is a figure
of Saturn with a crescent on the head holding a
scythe (see subsection 5.4.2 and Figure 5.29 and Figures
7.20 and 7.21). Notice that the figure of Saturn in
the main horoscope is just above it. This situation is
natural because Saturn moves so slow that within one
year its position does not change much. Therefore, it
has almost the same position in the partial horoscope
as in the main horoscope. Notice that these two figures
of Saturn are almost the same, except Saturn
in the main horoscope has a planetary walking stick
instead scythe. The forth figure is a lion with front
paws on the equinox symbol, a rectangular table with
wavy lines (see section 5.8). Finally, behind the lion
there is a half human half animal figure. It appears
as a female with a lioness lower body with one hand
holding a bowl. Bowl in her hand is an indication of a
planet in a partial horoscope. We have already seen a
similar figure holding bowls in the partial horoscope
of the winter solstice on the Long zodiac. Later in this
chapter we will see more examples of such bowls on
the Esna zodiacs. We can conclude that this figure
is a planetary symbol of a partial horoscope. Since
it’s a female with lioness attributes, it must be Venus
in Leo (because it is preceded by a figure of lion).
Consequently, the meaning of this composition is understandable.
In fact these five figures provide us with
the information that on the autumn equinox Saturn
was approximately at the same place as in the main
horoscope (in Virgo or in Libra), and Venus was in
Leo.
Let us analyze the meaning of the first two figures mentioned
earlier, i.e. the male planet standing on the Virgo’s
spike and the bird sitting on the Leo’s snake. Let us point
out that the spike in Virgo’s hand is not just a decoration,
but it represents the brightest star in this constellation.
In the modern astronomy it is denoted as αVirgo, but in
7.4 Decoding the Date from the Round Denderah Zodiac 171
the old astronomy it was called Spica or Spike or Virgo 30 .
On the old astronomical charts this star was placed exactly
at the top of the spike in the Virgo’s hand. The
fact that this planetary symbol stands right at the top
of the spike, indicates that it was very close to αVirgo
on this day. We still need to explain what planet it is.
To solve this problem we notice a hieroglyphic inscription
above its head as well as a star indicating its visibility.
On Figure 7.24 we present a brief table of several basic
Egyptian hieroglyphs, which is completely sufficient for
our purposes.
Figure 7.24: Egyptian Alphabet. (Taken from [116], p. 70)
In this inscription there are three hieroglyphs (see Figures
2.34 and 7.25). The hieroglyphs were written in such a
way that they always face the beginning of the word 31 , so
the first symbol in this inscription is the curved line (or
rope), which stands for the letter S. The second symbol
is the leg, which means the letter B, and the third one,
which looks like a cup with a handle, stands for the letter
K. (See Figure 7.24.) In the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
usually only consonants were used, and all the vowels were
omitted, so Egyptologists adopted a convention to put E
between the consonants if there is no vowel 32 . Therefore,
the name of this planet is SEBEK, which according to
Henry Brugsch means Mercury 33 .
On the other hand the figure itself has an appearance
that is appropriate for Mercury (see Figure 2.34). Indeed,
on some Egyptian zodiacs it was represented by
a male figure with human face (see subsection 5.4.9). Let
us mention that in the works of contemporary Egyptologist
S. Cauville, this figure was also identified as Mercury
34 . We would like to signal that in the Napoleonic
30 See [22].
31 See [116], p.71.
32 See [116], p. 71.
33 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 697.
34 See cite[10], p. 29.