Sabian Symbols: History, Info & Articles.

Elven

Hail all ye Symbolers!! How are you?

I thought I would start this thread for any bits of:

:) History
:) Articles
:) Weblogs
:) Websites
:) Analysis
:) Bits and Pieces

... anything which might be of interest or related to the Sabian Symbols that you would like to share that you've found. Comments are always welcome!

Happy Symboling :)
Many Blessings
Elven x
 

Elven

Hi all :)

I found this article, which I thought was fascinating - and thought that I would post it for a read. The web address is at the end. Enjoy! I have posted some comments at the end.


PART ONE: Speaking of the Eon

After Marc Edmund Jones and the clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler discovered the Sabian symbols, Jones placed in storage the cards on which they were recorded. He felt that making scientific use of the symbols in astrology might not be possible. At the time (the mid-1920s), Jones and others were involved in the scientific reorganization of astrology itself, and in various types of occult investigation.

It was these other interests that brought him into temporary partnership with Elsie Wheeler to obtain a new set of symbols for the degrees of the zodiac. He had found the degree-symbols of Charubel to be useful, but felt that the Charubel series was overly moralized or slanted in terms of "good/bad" interpretation. Also, as Charubel's symbols were meant to illuminate the Ascendant degree only, Jones believed that a fresh approach could produce a set of symbols with more universal significance.

When he came to realize that it might never again be possible to re-create the situation that had allowed the original discovery of the Sabian symbols, Jones decided to publish them. In 1931, the symbols became available to students in a mimeographed series of lessons called "Symbolical Astrology", which included interpretive vignettes for each degree, together with elaborated versions of the images originally obtained through Elsie Wheeler's special gift.

At that time, Dane Rudhyar became interested in the symbols. He saw their potential, and in 1936 brought them to wider attention in the world of astrology by including a condensed version in his book The Astrology of Personality. In 1953, Marc Edmund Jones published The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, and wrote that this book "probably marks the fruition, for the present life-time of the author, of a project in astrological research which has occupied...more than three decades..." (p. viii) He also suggested that further refinements would be the work of "fresh minds in another generation."
In one form or another, the Sabian symbols have had wide use by astrologers for some 70 years, and their interest and utility for deep insight into horoscopes has not diminished. In Jones's book, the symbols are presented in the brief images seen by Elsie Wheeler, and recorded under his guidance. Symbols and keywords are given, with 1 Aries-1 Libra on facing pages andsoforth, significantly linking each symbol to its 180-degree opposite. Jones wrote this about his purposes: "...It is a highly stylized and often very oblique depiction...vignettes designed to fall into place in any possible connection of experience...conceived as a species of poetry...a catalyst for the creative inspiration..." (p. 140) Terms like "poetry" and "catalyst" are apt, for the symbols are all of this and more. A strong keyword for the Sabian symbols as a whole could well be Intensification.

Rudhyar wrote articles about symbols and symbolism in American Astrology in 1944-45 and again in 1954-55. He continued working with the Sabian symbols over the years, and in 1973 published An Astrological Mandala, which reinterprets the cycle as "a contemporary American I Ching", useful for divination even outside of astrology, as a tool of metaphysical discernment.
Rudhyar presents the symbols sequentially, with the zodiac divided into two Hemi-cycles (starting Aries, Libra), four Acts (starting Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), twenty-four Scenes (one-half sign each), and seventy-two Levels (five degrees each). The 360 Phases of this creative arrangement are the degree-symbols themselves, many of them reworded, and all of them reinterpreted on the basis of Rudhyar's aesthetic insights. It can be useful to study the two cycles side-by-side, to see which symbols are re-worded and which have remained as described by Elsie Wheeler.
Rudhyar asserts that "...the entire zodiac constitutes a mandala [an arcane pattern of unfoldment]...[with] rhythm as well as form...And language, particularly any poem, also has rhythm and form. The 360 Sabian symbols are words in a vast cosmic poem, whose meaning transcends the...images visualized by the clairvoyant." (p. 11)

The concept of the Sabian symbols as an "astro-poetic" tool of interpretation or inspiration strikes like lightning into the heart of a subject that some consider lost in the darkness of intellectual confusion. In the literature of all ages, we see inexplicably powerful images used to convey messages of great scope and power, through words of a forcefulness that is entirely out of proportion to their everyday usage. Here is a mystery with which one must inevitably contend, in order to contemplate the deeper meaning of astrology. Poets have known about this dynamic source of human response for many ages, from the modern school of the Imagists to the European Romantics, from the writers of brilliant Japanese haiku to the magical bardic singers of the Druidic age, and beyond.

The late Eric Schroeder—whose work was acknowledged by Marc Edmund Jones in his book on the Sabian symbols—attempted a magnificent tour de force in Zodiac: An Analysis of Symbolic Degrees, published posthumously in 1982. Schroeder constructed an ingenious synthesis based not only on the Sabian symbols, but also on the degree work of Maurice Wemyss, Charubel, and LaVolasfera/Sepharial. His conclusion is a triple proposition: "[1]...a special...poetic symbolizing power pervades nature while evading or transcending...the known laws of material behavior; [2]...this power uses material events as repositories...in conformity with a sort of imaging which can be traced very far back in the religious or metaphysical concepts of mankind; [3]...while astonishingly free with disguise...this power is rhetorical in method, relying...on what might be called rhyming emphasis, and working on feeling ['feeling' is a Sabian keyword for the Moon]. It seizes upon that part of a complex phenomenon which is notable to the perceiving intelligence in question...[to provide] the valid detail for some given image..." (p. 11)
Marc Edmund Jones suggested that his own access to this primordial source, and that of his clairvoyant assistant, was facilitated by "...tapping back into early Mesopotamian or allied roots..." which seem to lie within the subconscious mind of the human race as a whole. (Sabian Symbols, pp. 330-331)

Poet and author Robert Graves—in his erudite, often obscure book, The White Goddess—writes in depth of the lost roots of poetry and its involuntary fascination for all people throughout the ages. He suggests that prophecy and poetry must intertwine in the practice of true poetry, using words, symbols and images to place the minds of speaker and listener in direct contact with esoteric forces that exist outside time and space. But he sees this source as being part and parcel with the real world as we know it, if only through our awareness of its presence—the sense that "something is there". This same spiritual wellspring might simply be called "Mother Nature" just as well as the "White Goddess". Myriad names are given to it in the myths and legends of the ancient past.

Since many of the best astrologers who read charts for clients often seem to "prophesy" more than to "predict", these words by Robert Graves bring to consciousness a special aspect of astrology's basic field of attention:
"...the ancient Hebrew distinction between legitimate and illegitimate prophecy—'prophecy' meaning inspired poetry, in which future events are not necessarily, but usually, foretold—has much to recommend it. If a prophet went into a trance and was afterward unconscious of what he had been [saying], that was illegitimate; but if he remained in possession of his critical faculties throughout...that was legitimate. His powers were heightened by 'the spirit of prophecy,' so that his words crystallized immense experience into a single poetic jewel; but he was...[himself]...the sturdy author and regulator of this achievement..." (p. 441)
Astrologers may recognize here a classic argument in favor of astrology over other divinatory means, in that astrology presumably allows its practitioner to exercise full control of his or her rational faculties while actively exploring realms that do not yet exist in the day-to-day world, or exist no longer. Thus, while open-minded astrologers may see value in spiritualist or mediumistic activity, it is not necessary to become passive mediums in order to tap into the recondite matrix upon which astrology's broad range of symbols is based.
The question that now confronts us is, how may an astrologer employ the Sabian symbols to read horoscopes more sensitively, and at the same time strengthen his or her feeling for astrology?
Rudhyar's specific answer is quite direct: "...The material is to be USED, to serve as a catalyst to deepen thinking about individual experiences [or outer events] and their essential meaning..." (p. 6) This view remarkably agrees with that of Marc Edmund Jones, given earlier. The comments of these two outstanding astrological thinkers quite possibly supports a keyword for the Sabian symbols en masse, which was offered before: Intensification.
Rudhyar spoke of the whole lifetime represented by a horoscope as its "Eon". This Eon is the total expression of every internal or external event, every action, reaction or interaction of a person's entire life—its overall "Soul" from birth to death. Logically, if a lifetime is a cycle, so also any complete cycle may be viewed as an Eon with an independent "life" at its own special level of existence.
The Sabian symbols are such a cycle. They too may constitute an Eon with a unique individual existence in the metaphysical world. Yet the full and complete lifetime of this particular great Eon—that is, the cycle of zodiacal degrees and symbols—is indeterminate, at least from the point of view of mankind. The symbols apparently reach across a time-span of such vast extent as to be essentially "timeless".
As we know, the degrees of the zodiac approximate the whole round of days that makes up a year on planet Earth, a year in the life of Man. The power of the symbols interpenetrates the year of growth that continues from equinox to equinox, from solstice to solstice, waxing and waning with the seasons of the living planet. Speaking poetically, any given day of Nature's springtime may arouse a poet's Muse—and "the Muse" is still another aspect of Graves's universal White Goddess. Therefore, our poet's true inspiration may also be seen as that particular day's palpable and living relationship to the year as a whole, as conveyed to him by a series of imagistic symbols—no matter what precise words of expression that individual mind may use to visualize them. Perhaps the original true symbols come down to us from a time when the earth traveled more rapidly through the ecliptic, a time with 360 days in the year to exactly match the 360 symbols. Of course, we do not know this to be a certainty, but the thought of some unique perfection in the first conception of the universe is hard to relinquish.
Symbols for degrees do not replace signs, houses or aspects, which also are symbols that have significance in and of themselves alone. A native's Eon contacts the Eon of the Sabian symbols at specific points, through the placement of planets and sensitive points in a natal horoscope. Thus the human Eon is rooted in something greater (or larger, or longer) than itself through the horoscope of birth. In turn, it makes that greater whole the greater still by the mundane contribution of its own lifelong part in the "Act of the Universe".

The website for this article is here:
http://www.khaldea.com/articles/pss_gkm1.shtml

In 1953, Marc Edmund Jones published The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, and wrote that this book "probably marks the fruition, for the present life-time of the author, of a project in astrological research which has occupied...more than three decades..." (p. viii) He also suggested that further refinements would be the work of "fresh minds in another generation."

P.S. Lynda - MEJ is talking about you!!! :)

Blessings
Elven x
 

Simone

Wonderful idea, Elven! Thanks for this!

(I have updated the index of threads too)
 

Elven

I found this article written by Lynda Hill for an astrology site and thought this was great. Its a bit about Elsie Wheeler.

Elsies Natal Chart has also been done by Lynda. You can find it here:

http://www.astrologyweekly.com/natal-charts/elsie-wheeler.php


Elsie Wheeler biographyThere is little known about Elsie Wheeler, the psychic, whom Marc Edmund Jones worked with to bring forth the Sabian Symbols. We know that she was crippled with arthritis and have been in a wheelchair since she was 3 years old.

In the 1920 Census, Elsie is listed as being at the Bethesda Hospital and Home for the Incurables in St. Louis, Missouri. She moved to San Diego some time in the early 1920's, living with her uncle Frank W. Baxter in India Street, Washington Street and Market Street at various times. In the 1930 Census, Frank was listed as being a barber and Elsie a spiritualist medium.

She spent many of her days at the San Diego Indoor Sports club, which is located in the beautiful Mission Hills district. There she would seek to encourage a handicapped friend, who was not as bad off as herself. But she always said, "Don't give up -- there's lots to live for."

While she gave psychic readings she did not feel fulfilled responding to the ordinary questions of love, money, and health. She wanted to 'do something of enduring worth'.

Elsie enrolled in Marc Edmund Jones' classes and in 1925 Marc took her to Balboa Park in San Diego to bring forth the Sabian Symbols. This is her legacy that she left to the world.

Elsie never married, nor had any children. She died at the age of 51 in San Diego on the 26th November 1938.

The beauty and grace with which she lived her life is enhanced by the gift she has given to the world. Indeed, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said "To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom".

Information from: Lynda Hill, Australia.


I will also post this on the Looking for Elsie Wheeler thread.

Many Blessings
Elven x
 

Lynda

Thanks!

Elven, you're amazingly tireless in your efforts - thanks! No wonder your nickname is 'Elven' - you're the 'elf' who comes to help!!

One of the Sabian Symbols that often appears when I'm being helped is Aries 16: Brownies Dancing in the Setting Light of the Sun - I've had amazing experiences around that degree...

Interestingly for me, I must add that my progressed Moon is soon to go over Aries 16 - the Brownies degree - the progressed Moon stays on a degree for a month, so I'd better get going on enlisting help during this upcoming period!! Things are likely to come to light...

Thanks again :) - I must go back to bed (it's 4.49am here)
Lynda
 

Elven

While searching for some more info on Elsie's life in Missouri, I discovered that the Daughters of the American Revolution had started in Missouri in 1895.
They gave alot of help to Charaties- Mothers and Children during there time from the early 1900's in the Missouri Chapter.
It makes me think of course of:

Sabian Symbol Cancer degree 30: Daughters of the American Revolution.
'You may find yourself relying on the old traditions that were, in their day, radical and transforming. The difficulty is that these traditions are the predictable, conservative values and despite your inner feelings of modern freedom, this is not how you appear.
Being bound by social conditioning or leading the charge to break down the barrieirs of tradition.


Just wondering if Elsie Wheeler had contact with this group, or they impacted on her life in some way. I never knew about the DoTR!

If you would like to read more on the Missouri Chapter, and what the DoTAR were about there is an archive report here: But the following contains some paragraphs of interest.

http://www.umsl.edu/~whmc/guides/whm0204.htm

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, ST. LOUIS CHAPTER (1895- )
RECORDS, 1895-1985
7 FOLDERS, 32 VOLUMES (ON MICROFILM)

WESTERN HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS

Anna Harris O'Fallon, the Missouri State Regent, proposed forming a St. Louis Chapter to ten women in St. Louis on January 31, 1895. The group agreed to organize, and on March 2, 1895 the chapter received its original charter, number 113. Mrs. Mary Mitchell Hutchinson became the chapter's first Regent.
The St. Louis Chapter adopted the three main objectives of the National Society: to promote patriotism, encourage historic preservation, and provide educational opportunities. The chapter instituted various programs to further these aims.

To promote patriotism, the chapter began programs in three areas. These included Americanism, flag respect, and support for the government. The Americanism program consisted of citizenship training, good citizenship awards, and participation in courtroom naturalization ceremonies. In the years before 1930, the chapter secured teachers for naturalization groups. The St. Louis Chapter's first flag committee, consisting of Mrs. Adeline Walcott Denison and Mrs. Edward F. Finney, inaugurated the first Flag Day celebration in St. Louis on June 14, 1901. The chapter also gave flags to schools and girl scout troops, taught the history and proper use of the flags, and participated in flag ceremonies. To support the government, the St. Louis Chapter provided information on National Defense, subversive groups, such as the Communist Party of America, and pending legislation that supported the aims of the DAR.

The St. Louis DAR Chapter concentrated on war relief efforts during the Spanish-American War and World Wars I and II. In 1898 it sent 30 nurses to Cuba and paid their expenses. One of them, a nurse as well as a physician, Dr. Irene Toland, died while serving in Cuba. The chapter offered lunches to 3000 soldiers who passed through St. Louis' Union Station on their way to camp, and they sent writing supplies to the men and women serving in Cuba and Manila.

During World War I, the chapter contributed to the French Orphans' Fund, sent ambulance drivers to France, and bought Liberty Bonds and Savings Stamps. In 1920, the group contributed from its Mary Alice Booth Educational Fund to a DAR state-wide Revolving Loan Fund for disabled ex-servicemen. At the time, Missouri was the only state with this type of fund. By 1924, the chapter's funds had been repaid.

During World War II, the St. Louis Chapter aided the Red Cross with sewing, blood plasma drives, and equipment. Service men and women received "Buddy Bags" from the St. Louis group, which included personal items such as soap, magazines, and writing supplies. The group also sponsored drives for War Bonds and Defense Stamps.

An early historical project for the chapter included the cleaning and restoration of Houdin's statue of George Washington in Lafayette Park. In 1901, the chapter placed a bronze tablet in honor of the Indian Chief Pontiac in the old Southern Hotel near the supposed site of his grave. Other historical programs included setting markers along the Old Boone Trail and placing a granite boulder in Jefferson Barracks Cemetery to honor the unknown soldiers who died at Fort Bellefontaine in north St. Louis County. The St. Louis Chapter, along with other Missouri chapters, restored the historic Arrow Rock Tavern which in the 1880s and 1890s, serviced travelers along the Santa Fe Trail in central Missouri. The St. Louis Chapter continued to provide funds for the Tavern's upkeep through 1985.

In the area of education the St. Louis Chapter provided scholarships, student loans, and financial aid to select schools. The Mary Alice Booth Educational Fund provided some of the money used for these purposes until 1947 when it became a building fund.

Since 1907, the group has supported the School of the Ozarks with gifts of money, clothing, books, and student scholarships. Other schools receiving financial aid from the chapter included the Indian schools, St. Mary's in South Dakota and Bacone College in Oklahoma. Wholly DAR-supported schools for underprivileged children in Alabama and South Carolina also received contributions from the St. Louis Chapter.

Other programs supported by the St. Louis DAR Chapter include contributions to the St. Louis Police Wives' Association, DAR Revolution Medal to a St. Louis University Air Force ROTC student, and contributions to the National Conservation Project. In the local area, the chapter planted trees and shrubs in parks to support conservation efforts.

Some how I think (from the Symbol) that Elsie Wheeler was much more familiar with the Cautionary side of this symbol.

Being bound by social conditioning or leading the charge to break down the barrieirs of tradition.

Many Blessings
Elven x
 

Lynda

Hi Elven
Great stuff about the DAR - they're very interesting!

And a friend of mine pulled a Sabian Symbol for me right before I read your post, asking about publishing deals for my book overseas and she pulled (you guessed it) Cancer 30.

This stuff continues to amaze me.

Greetings from Avalon
Lynda
 

Lee

Please forgive me if this has already been mentioned here on the forum or in Lynda's book, but are you all aware that Marc Edmund Jones developed another set of Sabian Symbols with another psychic before his sessions with Elsie Wheeler?

According to the book "Sabian Symbols in Card Reading" by Delle Fowler, in 1922 Jones "was in need of a deeper insight into the 52 playing cards for the system of tarot that he was developing for himself, a system based on the work that a man named Sampson had done originally." Jones worked with a psychic named Zoe Wells, apparently in much the same manner as he later worked with Elsie Wheeler, to create 52 verbal images, each of which was assigned to a playing card.

Again according to "Sabian Symbols in Card Reading," "The playing card symbols were incorporated into the inner discipline of the Sabian Assembly as a part of the Tarot work included there. This Tarot work is sacrosanct to Acolytes and Legates of the Sabian Assembly. When public interest in these symbols was expressed some years ago to several students of the Sabian Assembly, Dr. Jones requested that this Tarot, as he had gained it from a man named Sampson, not be taught or desseminated. He said this man had not wished it to be made public. There was, however, one big exception. Dr. Jones said that the keywords could be used, since they were his contribution along with Zoe Wells, and he gave his permission for these to be shared with the public." The book also states that he began his second, more famous set of Sabian Symbols because he felt his and Wells' earlier playing-card symbols were "too generalized or not specific enough."

Unfortunately no more historical information is given in the book. It would be interesting to know, for example, who Sampson was and to what extent his "Tarot" conforms to how most of us define tarot.

Jones and Wells's work consisted of a one-sentence verbal image, and seven keywords, for each card. In her book, Fowler includes the original image sentence and then expands on it with a paragraph describing more of the scene. And for the seven keywords, she provides further explanatory text. She also describes how to lay out the cards in a 15-card layout of her own design, and some sample readings.

Delle Fowler is described on the sabian.org site as a long-standing member of the Sabian Assembly and a practicing Sabian astrologer.

-- Lee
 

Elven

Hi Lee,

Thankyou so much for the detailed post and information on the Symbols! :) I didn't know about the Sabian Assembly site, so I have posted it here for those who would like to have a look:

http://www.sabian.org/index.htm

The website contains information on:
Sabian Symbols
Sabian Reading List
Sabian Approach to Astrology
Marc Edmund Jones
Sabian Healing Orientation
Sabian Insights: Selections from the Sabian Lesson Sets
Sabian Thesaurus: Passages of Particular Interest to Students
Poetry, Short Stories, Articles, Inspirational Pieces
Sabian Astrology Questions and Answers

THE SABIAN SYMBOLS ORACLE
The Origin and History of the Sabian Symbols

Lee said:
According to the book "Sabian Symbols in Card Reading" by Delle Fowler, in 1922 Jones "was in need of a deeper insight into the 52 playing cards for the system of tarot that he was developing for himself, a system based on the work that a man named Sampson had done originally." Jones worked with a psychic named Zoe Wells, apparently in much the same manner as he later worked with Elsie Wheeler, to create 52 verbal images, each of which was assigned to a playing card.

This is so interesting Lee! I have for many years read with the 'current' 360 Sabian Symbols and the Tarot. I find they they work brilliantly together! I would be interested to use both the old and the new Symbols together if I could find some more information on the 'Descriptive Sentences' and the 'Key Words' to the 52 cards.

Lee said:
Unfortunately no more historical information is given in the book. It would be interesting to know, for example, who Sampson was and to what extent his "Tarot" conforms to how most of us define tarot.

Wouldn't that be such an interesting study!!

Lee said:
Jones and Wells's work consisted of a one-sentence verbal image, and seven keywords, for each card. In her book, "Sabian Symbols in Card Reading" by Delle Fowler, Fowler includes the original image sentence and then expands on it with a paragraph describing more of the scene. And for the seven keywords, she provides further explanatory text. She also describes how to lay out the cards in a 15-card layout of her own design, and some sample readings.

This would be a very interesting book! Do you know where to aquire it from? Possibly from the Sabian Assembly website(?). It would be an interesting read!

Lee thankyou so much for posting this info! Im off to have a look at the sabian site! :)

Many Blessings
Elven x