The Signs of the Zodiac
The meaning of the signs is very similar to the meaning of the houses. One difference is that while the planets color the areas of life associated with the houses in which they are located, the signs color the planets' expression of their own functions. While the character of each sign can principally be deduced from that of the corresponding house, such as Aries from the first house, astrologers do consider that other factors contribute to the character of the twelve zodiac signs.
A factor that can be dispensed with as an influence on the signs is the constellation figure associated with the sign, such as Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Balance Scales, Scorpion, Archer, Goat-Fish, Water-Bearer, or Fishes. These are just what the Sumerians and Babylonians imagined that the stars drew in the sky. Furthermore, due to precession the Babylonian constellations no longer occupy the same ecliptic longitudes. And the sign that the Babylonians always called the "hired man" the Greeks of Alexandria, Egypt transformed into a sheep or ram through a scribal misunderstanding. In Late Babylonian times the cuneiform scribes wrote the Sumerian name for Aries, which is lú-hun-gá, in abbreviated form by writing just the cuneiform sign lú, which means 'man', but sometimes also the homophonic but different sign lu, which, if read as a logogram, means "sheep" (ref: O. Neugebauer, Astronomical Cuneiform Texts, vol. II, p. 475, Springer-Verlag publ.). The Babylonians knew what the sign represented, but when the zodiac shows up among the astrologers of Alexandria, Egypt in the wake of Alexander the Great's conquests the hired man has become a sheep, as depicted in the late Egyptian Zodiac of Denderah. If the signs can acquire their symbols in such an accidental fashion, then the symbols can be no more than mnemonic labels.
A factor which affects the character of the zodiac signs, but not the houses, is that of the element triplicities, according to which Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius are Fire signs, Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn are Earth signs, Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius are Air signs, and Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces are Water signs. The elements are related to the doctrine according to which the odd-numbered signs are masculine and extroverted while the even-numbered signs are feminine and introverted. The Fire and Air signs are masculine while the Earth and Water signs are feminine. Signs of the same element and gender are all related by harmonious trine or sextile angles, indicating compatible natures. While both the Fire and Air signs are extroverted, the Fire signs tend to be passionate while the Air signs show a mental approach to life. And while both the Earth and Water signs are introverted, the Earth signs tend to have a pragmatic approach to life while the Water signs are more sensitive and emotional.
One of the major distinctions between the three signs which make up an element triplicity is whether the sign is Cardinal, Fixed, or Mutable. The modality of the sign relates back to the same distinction that we made between the first, second, and third houses of a mundane quadrant. The four Cardinal signs, Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, tend to be self-centered builders. The four Fixed signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, tend to be stable, sociable types. The four Mutable signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces, tend to be restless changers.
Another more problematic factor affecting the signs is that of each sign's ruling planet. Ptolemy set the two luminaries to rule the northern hemisphere summer signs Leo and Cancer because as he says these signs are 'most productive of heat and warmth' and Leo is masculine like the sun and Cancer feminine like the moon. He chose distant Saturn to rule the opposite winter signs Capricorn and Aquarius which, in the northern hemisphere, are cold and dark like Saturn.
By placing Mercury as the ruler of the signs Virgo and Gemini on either side of the luminary signs, the visible planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn ruled two sets of five signs, from Virgo to Capricorn and from Gemini to Aquarius. According to this system, the signs Aries and Scorpio not only had the qualities of the first and eighth houses, as well as masculine fire and feminine water qualities, but they were also influenced by the nature of the planet Mars. When the modern planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered, astrologers assigned them as co-rulers of Aquarius, Pisces, and Scorpio along with the traditional rulers. It would have made more sense for the invisible planets to replace the rulers of Gemini through Aquarius, or at least to be consistent in continuing around the zodiac from Aquarius to Gemini. The haphazard manner in which these new planets have been linked to the signs does not say much for the concept of sign rulership in general.
