Spiritual Enzymes
The symbols of the zodiac are spiritual enzymes. Edited and posted on Substack
The anonymous author of “Meditations on the Tarot” - A Christian Hermetist - introduces the Major Arcanas as “Spiritual enzymes”: they have the power to stimulate and awaken deep layers of the soul when we contemplate them. I have no doubt that the zodiac is the same. The twelve signs are authentic symbols.
Symbols are not mere conventions, like ordinary words. If you don’t know that the French word “bateau” means “ship”, you won’t be able to guess. The sound of the word “bateau” has nothing to do with any sound that may suggest a ship. You can calligraphy the word with great art, it won’t look like a ship at all.
Symbols on the other hand are like tips of icebergs: if you see the tip, you can have an intuition of the whole iceberg.
Imagine being new to the world like a child. You see an iceberg for the first time, however you have previous experiences of floating things.
Intuitively, you are using the law of analogy: this new thing (the iceberg) must behave like things you already know (the yellow duck in the bathtub, a piece of wood in the river...) so there must be a part of the iceberg below the surface. Intuitively you also understand density, because you have experience of small and heavy things versus bigger but lighter ones (the formers sink, the latter float).
You can feel the approximate size of the immersed part of an iceberg, even without previous experience of icebergs. You apply the law of analogy: you assume that it goes with this new thing- the iceberg - like with the things you already know.
Symbols invite us to a similar intuitive understanding. They appear as the tip, they mean the iceberg. Thanks to the symbol, we should be able to guess the whole thing without opening a textbook.
One day a guy called Archimedes found the exact formula for floating bodies, but he would never have been able to discover the scientific formulation if he hadn’t had first the lived experience of things floating or sinking.
The famous esoteric law of analogy states that we can similarly get intuitions about the invisible worlds.
Symbols are tips of spiritual icebergs. Don’t take the metaphor too literally, this doesn’t mean that the spiritual world is cold like the Arctic. It’s only the tip versus hidden part that is supposed to make sense!
Symbols show something we know, the head of a ram, a bull, two twins etc. or imaginary creatures like a centaur or a sea goat - but these are made of parts that belong to the world we know: a horse and a man, a goat and a fish…
The other side of the equation, the hidden part belongs to dimensions that are beyond the grasp of our senses. Symbols mean psychic energies or spiritual realities. The word “occult”, as you know, means “hidden”.
The law of analogy, as an esoteric principle, states that “As above, so below” and we usually understand that “above” means the heavens, and “below” is down here on earth.
Above means the subtle and invisible worlds. Below is the reality we experience, everyday, thanks to our senses.
As above so below goes both ways. Our world below is like what is above, it is a reflection of the psychic or spiritual dimensions.
At the same time, there is a radical difference between what’s familiar and what’s beyond our grasp, transcendent, mysterious, unutterable, ineffable, you name it.
The more we calm down the mental noise the more we’re making room for intuition.
The more we become silent like a cathedral the more we can hear, feel and see.
A humble temple can do.
Blog posts from past years have become a book…