Balanis sensibilities...
Aquarius 28 may seem a difficult symbol to interpret for many. The action of felling a tree and sawing it up would seem to be about putting firewood away for a future time. This is true. It may in fact mean this for some in some instances. But there is much more going on within Aquarius 28 than putting firewood aside.
Careful investigation of the key words within this symbol reveals a whole other world of sense. ‘Tree’, ‘felled’ and ‘sawed’ each have deeper threads of sense … surprisingly so… than meets the eye.
The verb ‘to saw’ means to cut (Latin secare) from which we derive to cut into pieces, (much like as in ‘to analyze’) into segments and sectors, both segment and sector being derivatives of to cut.
In Buddhist thought, discriminating awareness is said to cut through obscurations. The diamond and the sword are symbols for such awareness. Indeed the scythe, the sickle and the sword are all akin with the root words for ‘saw’. ‘Saw’ comes from Old English sagu, or sage; OHG saga. We might say that ‘saw’ is rooted in ‘sage’-like wisdom.
‘Felled’ is ‘to fell’, literally to cut down (a tree); to beat or knock down a person. But ‘fell’ is also the root word for ‘felon’ ‘felonry’. In this sense ‘fell’ means cruel, deadly as in a ‘fell potion or poison’.
‘Tree’ is rooted through many languages, but fascinatingly from the Welsh dar, and Breton dero, meaning oak, Greek drus, meaning tree… the Tree, i.e. oak; and Sanskrit dru, also meaning oak. One can hear the name of the ancients Druids in these roots, those peoples associated with trees, tree wisdom, especially that of the oak tree.
The Greek drus, a tree, becomes druas, a tree nymph: in the Greek tradition, Hamadryades were eight Dryad nymph daughters of the forest spirit Oxylos… meaning ‘of the forest’. Perhaps the first amongst these was Balanis, the nymph of the acorn bearing trees, especially the oak tree.
It is said that the nymph lived as long as the tree lived… perhaps suggesting something about Aquarius 28 individuals, their source and extent of life energy as well as potential dangers in being ‘cut down’ metaphorically or literally.
Taken altogether, a sense of something of ‘spirit’ lying just beyond ordinary perception is suggested. Indeed, the opposing Leo symbol, “Many little birds on the limb of a large tree”, is assuredly connected in with liminal awareness, subliminal influences, and subtle energies that lie just beyond the horizon of perception. Many birds on a limb also suggests dryad nymphs that live on a ‘limb’ or just beyond the liminal horizon of trees.
Aquarius 28, therefore, brings sage wisdom of trees, tree-wisdom and tree spirits to a point of acknowledging and respecting such spirit, or foolishly, perhaps even villainously, acting as if tone-deaf to their powers. In a common way, individuals may find themselves feeling sticky… as if some ick or sticky substance has glommed onto them… perhaps the unwitting victims of subliminal messages, gossip or energetic poison. A common technique for catching small birds in past times, was to smear lime paste on a trees limb, sticky enough to catch the birds feet when they landed on it.
In a more esoteric sense, the symbol points to a potential for greatly expanded awareness of spirit energies that may of great benefit or of a great sense of personal fulfillment.
The difference might be expressed as that between a chainsaw happy man cutting down majestic trees as weekend recreation, as opposed to someone who communes with, cares for and learns from the generous tree spirits.
Compare Taurus 28 “A woman pursued by mature romance” and Scorpio “The king of the faeries approaching his domain. Both symbols evoke a sense of discovering another realm, one which may be out of reach in ordinary perceptual reality, or one which is near, but must be approached properly and which may growth to become an important dimension of personal development and fulfillment.
The word-image of ‘fold’ has been developed elsewhere for Leo/Aquarius 28, in its sense related to sewing… folding over a seam. I suggest ‘fold’ is a useful image through which to appreciate how different dimensions of reality relate to one another. The key idea/dynamic being that of unfolding that which is near, yet hidden.
Blain Bovee
Thank you!!!
Posted by: Vixie Styx | February 15, 2011 at 04:00 PM