Zodiacal Symbolism in the Gospel

Commentary to JWK: Ascent to Life, 4/8

Cosmological symbolism is for Kaiser the way of seeing through the staging in time and place of the message of the Gospel as the archetype for our spiritual journey. By his description, he helps us see through the details of the journey, which are as different as are people, but from a conceptual standpoint the process is the same for all of us. The Course takes the same view, and it helps to begin to see those similarities in the process, and not get lost in the details.

The Zodiac and the Milky Way

In this section of the lecture, he points out that there are several ways of seeing structure in the archetypes of the zodiac, commonly known as the astrological signs. They can be broken down as three times four, the three crosses (cardinal, fixed and cardinal), or four times three (the four elements, which stand for conditions of aggregations), or also as six times two (the six polarities). Sympolically, the six polarities are two reflecting images of two Menora’s (six arms), in which the Milky Way is like the way in and out, which cuts through between Capricorn and Aquarius, and Cancer and Leo.

Symbolically the Milky Way was seen by the ancients as the symbolic path by which the soul descended (Leo to Cancer) into the earthly domain, conversely ascend (Capricorn to Aquarius) into the realm of Spirit. Cancer is where the soul descends into the sublunar world, the world of time and space. He sees the Zodiac as a force field with twelve force fields that represent the transition from spirit to the world of time and space. In short the Zodiac represents that transition and the path in and out of the world of time and space. He explains that the normal procreation is symbolized between Virgo and Scorpio, is repeatable and part of the life in the world of time and space, and completely dualistic in nature. The symbolism of the immaculate conception has nothing to do with this.

On the contrary, the spiritual overshadowing by the divine is represented by the Cancer-Leo-Virgo dynamic, and symbolizes the birth of the Christ child within us which is our Higher Self. He therefore disabuses us of the idea that Jesus is the Only son of God, as Christianity has it, and emphasizes that we are all Children of God, as we realize when we experience that awakening. He sees Jesus merely as representing in form how Christ consciousness manifests in our lives. The structure of the Markan Gospel in particular shows how his ministry on this world, and in our lives individually is symbolically represented as a time, times and half a time, i.e. 3-1/2 rotations through the zodiac, reflecting the spiral nature of our spiritual path, wheere we process the same issues repeatedly at higher levels.

In Mark the descent of Jesus into the Sublunar world comes after an elevation in Gemini (Mountain), and then a descent into the realm of Cancer, symbolized by his entering into a house. I will make a separate post on the schematic of this structure. The second time around is in Mark 7:31-8:10, after the opening of the Hearing and Speaking of the Soul (elevation, Gemini), followed by the feeding of the crowd. And in the third time he comes through Jericho (Moon) coming to the Manifestation of God’s Will (Mark 10:46-52) and Mark 12:35-37. He reflects on some of the differences in the sequence of things among the Gospel stories.

The process he pictures is how we gradually must let go of our accepted concepts. This is also reflected clearly in the Course:

To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. ²Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. ³No belief is neutral. ⁴Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make. ⁵For a decision is a conclusion based on everything that you believe. ⁶It is the outcome of belief, and follows it as surely as does suffering follow guilt and freedom sinlessness. ⁷There is no substitute for peace. ⁸What God creates has no alternative. ⁹The truth arises from what He knows. (ACIM, T-24.in.2:1-10)

Throughout, Kaiser makes clear that the path amount to increasingly letting go of our old ways, and the way up (toards Spirit) must of necessity start with letting go, The Course speaks of placing the future in the hands of God. Thus we realize our oneness with all our brothers in acceptance that we are still as God created us, and we are his Son. JWK reflects on this as follows:

The “greatest commandment” is not an obligation, but a condition for the fulfillment of that state of being.

When Jesus was asked: “Which commandment is the first of them all?”he answered:

'The first is: Hear, Israel, the Lord, our God, is the one Lord; and you will love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your understanding, and all of your power.
The second is this: You will love your brother like yourself.
There is no other, greater commandment than these.'
(Mark 12: 29-31)

This now is the criterion, that the propagandists of comradeship of all kinds put first what Jesus quoted as “second,” and then contend that the first is fulfilled by it. (JWK: Ascent to Life)

Again, he emphasizes that John the Baptist is not a person, but a persona dramatis, symbolizing a state of consciousness, when we let go of our victim role, where life happens to us, and learn to accept whatever we experience as the best lessons for us, and our opportunity to wake up from the dream.

The more we immerse ourselves in this material, we realize that it is entirely possible to read the Bible on a completely different level than the world does. I knew this at six years of age, when I refused to continue my Bible class, because they expected me to take things differently. I knew different, growing up in a psychiatrist’s household, and with influences like Kaiser. I never believed in the church version of Jesus, and with the Course I ended up with greater clarity than ever before, and even more so with the work of Gary Renard, and his outlook on the Thomas Gospel, which clearly shows me the pre-Pauline Jesus, who is a teacher of nondualism.