A very special calendar

Many people have had only connection with the zodiac through the horoscopes published in newspapers, magazines, on the radio or TV. Cannot be speechless, then, that the assessment of astrology is often negative.
That is why we would like here to focus the attention of the reader not in astrology, nor in the astrologers, but in this millennial creation where we find in cultures as different as the Azteca, Hindu, Egyptian and Greek: the zodiac.
An easy explanation tells us that the zodiac is a calendar, developed to organize agricultural work or religious holidays.
Without doubt this is true to some extent; but is it enough? On the contrary, we believe that the zodiac is much more than a calendar, and I will explain why.
We said that the zodiac is also a calendar, because it matches with the year: the 12 signs are very similar to our 12 months, only that counted from the 21st march (spring equinox in the north and one in the fall in the South).
The interesting thing is that a year, whatever the day that you take such as home, is a cycle. And in this characteristic is the key to the importance that has the zodiac as an instrument of understanding of life.
A cycle is a recurrent temporary process, i.e.: it has a beginning and it has an ending.
A cycle is clearly differentiated from a linear process homogenous and undefined, that is what we tend to think currently.
A cycle is the path of a circle. If we draw a circle - if we live it - the moments of this path are not homogeneous, it is not the same to begin drawing the circle, to be in half of it or to be finishing it. The difference between the cycle and the straight homogeneous line can be felt when it is plotted one and the other. Draw means here: Live, starring in.
In addition, the end of a cycle is, it is at the same time, the beginning of the next.
However, if we observe with patience all around us, we see that there are innumerable cycles. For example: the process that goes from the seed to the fruit (to return to the seed); the menstrual cycle in women; the cycle of day and night; economic cycles; the historic, the cycle of the circulation of the blood, etc. Each thing traces its cycles.
In reality, we will soon realize that the world is a fabric of cycles. There are countless.
The utility of the zodiac is based on this obvious fact: everything that happens in this world can be seen as a cycle or as part of it.
One of the most interesting features of the cycles is that we can divide in so many stages or phases as suit us, (as do the current calendars with the months, weeks or days, for example). That what we divide into 12 stages is irrelevant; could be 20, 36, 8, etc. That does not matter and depends on the purposes that we propose.
What matters in contrast, it is that we can qualify or characterize as rigorously as possible each of the stages.
This is what differentiates the zodiac in respect of our current calendars. For the common almanac every day is equal to another, each month to another, every week to another one, etc. The current calendar is an instrument essentially quantitative: serves to know at what time of the year, of the month or of the week we are; but not to know which is the quality of that time. Today July 20 does not tell us much about the meaning of quality of day (barely, which can be a hot day), it only indicates its quantitative significance. In the almanac, we will not find any answer to the questions about the meaning of our existence.
In contrast, what makes the zodiac something much more powerful than a calendar is that each stage is qualified with accuracy and depth. Once the stages are qualified, we can use the zodiac as an instrument to understand what happens to us. In effect, it will serve to find at what stage we are of our cycles, to understand the meaning of what happens to us.
This is one of the tasks that makes the real astrology.
This vision allows us to understand that the signs of the zodiac are not only the symbolic names that are given. Thus, the name "Aries" (or "The Morueco"), that it is given to the first "sign", is simply a resource to evoke more easily the qualities or characteristics that has the first stage of any cycle.
To put it simply: The Moruecos (male Breeding rams) behave in a way that remind us of what´s going on, when it is starting a cycle: there is a lot of courage, a strong impetus to launch into the adventure, a desire to fertilize, etc.
"Taurus" (or "Bull") on the other hand, makes us remember the second phase of any cycle: when the initial impetus was found with the tradition of what has already been achieved on the successful history of life and has to change and be modified to continue progressing; therefore, prudence takes  courage place in decisions, etc. and due to this the bull symbolically associates ourselves with the second stage.
And so with all the phases or signs.
This understanding of the Zodiac finds it, in its rightful place, it is an instrument of knowledge, whose significance and need begins to get gradually manifest in our days.

Rev


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