Meaning of Sabian Symbols?

princess valhalla

princess valhalla

Well-known member
wondering if anyone can explain to me sabian symbols in general?:confused:

also, i calculated mine on this website and was further confused! It said:

Sun: The Pope. Sanctity
Moon: A deserter from the navy. Defiance
Mercury: A widow's past brought to light. Rectification
Venus: A woman reading tea leaves. Signature
Mars: A bride with her veil snatched away. Invitation
Jupiter: A boy molded in his mother's aspiration for him. Exaction
Saturn: Grande dames at tea. Aplomb
Uranus: Crowds coming down the mountain to listen to one man. Appeal
Neptune: A child and a dog with borrowed eyeglasses. Examination
Pluto: A child giving birds a drink at a fountain. Solicitude
North Node: Two angels bringing protection. Security
South Node: A petrified forest. Survival

This is LITERALLY like a foreign language to me! LOL
 
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dr. farr

Well-known member
AW member piercethevale has made numerous quality explanatory threads and posts about the Sabians here on the AW forum, and we have an entire Degree Symbols forum dedicated to exploring this matter (its a sub-forum in this Other Astrology section)
 
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sdh3

Well-known member
Princess V,

Everyone knows the old saying about how many words a picture is worth so let's begin with some visual interpretations.
Below are links to images that I collected for the symbols that you listed. I'm pretty sure the images will stimulate your intuitive understanding of the symbols. Have a look at those and sometime over the weekend I'll post links to some written interpretations that will help further.

thoughtfully
sdh3


princess valhalla said:
wondering if anyone can explain to me sabian symbols in general?:confused:

also, i calculated mine on this website and was further confused! It said:

Sun: The Pope. Sanctity
Moon: A deserter from the navy. Defiance
Mercury: A widow's past brought to light. Rectification
Venus: A woman reading tea leaves. Signature
Mars: A bride with her veil snatched away. Invitation
Jupiter: A boy molded in his mother's aspiration for him. Exaction
Saturn: Grande dames at tea. Aplomb
Uranus: Crowds coming down the mountain to listen to one man. Appeal
Neptune: A child and a dog with borrowed eyeglasses. Examination
Pluto: A child giving birds a drink at a fountain. Solicitude
North Node: Two angels bringing protection. Security
South Node: A petrified forest. Survival

This is LITERALLY like a foreign language to me! LOL
Click to expand...


PS: don't feel bad about having difficulty interpreting these symbols. It's an art that is long in the making.
 
princess valhalla

princess valhalla

Well-known member
Thank you sdh3! The visual interpretations were very useful to me since I have always been more of a visual learner. Some of the symbolism seems to slip right through my hand like sand but I get the gist of it. First thought: Man, the pope is scary looking, reminds me of darth vader! lol :D All in all I think sabian symbols are very beautiful and poetic. It gives me much food for thought.

Thanks,
Sarah
 
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sdh3

Well-known member
princess valhalla said:
Thank you sdh3! The visual interpretations were very useful to me since I have always been more of a visual learner. Some of the symbolism seems to slip right through my hand like sand but I get the gist of it. First thought: Man, the pope is scary looking, reminds me of darth vader! lol :D All in all I think sabian symbols are very beautiful and poetic. It gives me much food for thought.

Thanks,
Sarah
Click to expand...

Sarah, I'm glad you found those helpful. As for the image of the Pope (Sagittarius 30), I guess I could have found a more photogenic image ;-) But on a more serious note, your comment about the poetic nature of the symbols in general is very apt. Here's why I say that.

One of the things that I've attempted to do is understand the Sabians from a linguistic perspective with a particular emphasis on their word histories or etymologies. While the histories are not quite "poetic" they do speak to my intuition in a way that the images do for others. And every once in a while something really interesting jumps out at me. Your symbols and subsequent comments are a really good example. Here's what I mean.

From the information you provided, the Sabian Symbol corresponding to the position of your natal Sun is Sagittarius 30, The Pope. The word "pope" descends from the Indo-European (IE) root papa- which is “a child’s word for ‘father’, a linguistic near-universal found in many languages.” Another word descending from that root is the word papa which as we know means "father." The word father descends from the IE root peter- which means "father" as do the words padre, patriarch, paternal, patriot, and interestingly "goombah" which means "a companion or associate, especially an older friend who acts as a patron, protector, or adviser."

Taken together it's clear that this symbol is emphasizing "father-figures."
Now what's really interesting in your case is that you have the Sun here and as we all know, the Sun in a natal chart represents all manner of authority figures, heroes, rulers, older people, gurus, etc. To me, that means that this "father-figure" theme is doubly emphasized in your case. That you mentioned this symbol specifically is, I think, an added confirmation of its importance in your case.


I hope this helps somewhat. And again, thanks for your willingness to share this information with us.

--sdh3
 
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