Pisces 08: A Girl Blowing a Bugle (Bulimia)

In Marc Jones' "The Sabian Symbols in Astrology" the degree symbol for Pisces 08 is "A girl blowing a bugle."


The noun girl descends from the Middle English girle, meaning child or girl. Definitions of girl include “a female child”, “a young woman”, and “a daughter.”

The word blowing descends from the Indo-European (IE) root bhle-2 which means “to blow.” Paronyms include bladder, blast, blaze, blown, flatulent, flavor, inflate, and soufflé.

The word bugle descends from the IE root gwou- which means “ox, bull, cow.” Its paronyms include beef, Bootes, boustrophedon, bovine, buccinators (muscle in the cheek), bucolic, buffalo, bugloss, bulimia, bumelia (thorny tree or shrub), buprestid (beetle) butter, butyric, cow, cowslip, gayal (Asian ox), guar (herb), gunny (coarse fabric), Gurkha (member of the Rajput ethnic group in Nepal), hecatomb, and nilgai (antelope).

COMMENTARY: There’s an intriguing relationship here between FOOD and PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTIONS to it, particularly by women. Among the paronyms of blowing we find soufflé, a “light fluffy dish of egg yolks and stiffly beaten egg whites mixed with e.g. cheese or fish or fruit.” Among the paronyms of bugle are several FOODS and food sources including butter, buffalo, beef, guar and cow.

In the category of PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIONS to food there is the word flatulence (the presence of excessive gas in the digestive tract; generating gas in the alimentary canal, as food). A reaction to food that is both physiological and emotional is bulimia, a condition that Wikipedia indicates is much more common among women, especially adolescents:


Finally, it is notable that one of the American slang expressions vomiting is “blowing chunks”, i.e. "chunks" of partially digested FOOD.

Re: Pisces 08: A Girl Blowing a Bugle (NOT Bulimia)

The sound of the bugle signifies carrying or delivering a message, news, or signal. It has a mercury quality as it is not music for music's sake but has a practical purpose to carry information, and the type of tune identifies the particular meaning it conveys to others. The message is clear, exuberant, loud, and public, like a broadcast, or like a newspaper headline. A girl carries the message so the nature of that message is youthful and fresh rather than mature.

The blowing of air in a fast movement is a very Gemini/Marcury thing and is an expression of communication. The bugle conveys a sound in a practical way. The sound is shrill, sharp, penetrating, meant to get your attention, meant to be noticed by everyone.

charmvirgo said:

The sound of the bugle signifies carrying or delivering a message, news, or signal. It has a mercury quality as it is not music for music's sake but has a practical purpose to carry information, and the type of tune identifies the particular meaning it conveys to others. The message is clear, exuberant, loud, and public, like a broadcast, or like a newspaper headline.

A girl carries the message so the nature of that message is youthful and fresh rather than mature. It could be naive or immature on the negative side. As a girl's message it is non aggressive and non competitive, but doesn't mean it can't be spiteful or brash.

The blowing of air in a fast movement is a very Gemini/Marcury thing and is an expression of communication. The bugle conveys a sound in a practical way. The sound is shrill, sharp, penetrating, meant to get your attention, meant to be noticed by everyone.

I don't think it has anything to do with bulimia which is secretive and personal and an illness related to self esteem. There is not even a vague connection and has nothing to do with sound.

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I have my own formula for analyzing and interpreting the symbols. First I find the etymological root from which each word in the symbol descends. Then I place each word in the context of the other words descending from those same roots (i.e., the paronyms). Then I look for themes the connecting those various sets of words. I analyzed all 360 Sabian symbols this way. It's an objective and transparent method that clearly differs from the subjective one that you use. And that is a fact that should be celebrated--not criticized. The Sabian Symbols are amenable to many different methods of interpretation, none inherently better than any other, just more suitable for certain purposes than for others.

thoughtfully,
sdh3

charmvirgo said:

Symbols are like simple diagrams and they describe universal ideas. Symbols are about pictures not words and about seeing the larger picture. A picture speaks a thousand words and reaches the unconscious. Breaking down words into roots or syllables would be like focusing on the trees and not the forest and defeats the point of a symbol. Words are an intelletual approach, but symbols are symbolic not intellectual. Don't take it personally. I'm still interested to read what you write about the symbols.

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CharmVirgo, thanks for the reply and clarification.

While it is certainly the case that symbols can be like diagrams and can be about pictures, this is decidely not the case with the Sabian Symbols, or with any of the other well-known sets of degree symbols (e.g. Kozminsky). The Sabians were given as 360 vignettes or word pictures, not as diagrams or images. Words are the only form the Sabian Symbols have ever taken since being recorded nearly 90 years ago by Marc Jones. I suspect that if he had wanted the Sabians treated as images, he could have had someone draw them. That he chose not to is probably explained by the fact that Jones saw the Sabians as the latest installment in a long series of degree symbols, symbols of a kind dating back centuries, if not longer.

With that thought in mind, it is by no means peculiar or out of place to analyze words as words. Although his approach differs from mine, Blain Bovee has done more along this line than any other published author to date. On more than 80 occasions in his book (The Sabian Symbols and Astrological Analysis) he traces the words of the symbols back to their Greek and Latin roots. He also refers to dictionary definitions in dozens of other instances. Thus, there is both recent precedent and a sound logical basis for treating these symbols first and foremost as words, as what they essentially are.

I leave you with a quote from Bovee's book:
thoughtfully
sdh3

Re: Pisces 08: A Girl Blowing a Bugle (NOT Bulimia)

Quoting from page 137 of Marc Jones' The Sabian Symbols in Astrology:


"There are unlimited ways in which these Sabian Symbols can be interpreted, and the practiced student or professional astrologer need not confine himself to any one mode of approach."

Hmm. I have my part of spirit here. I like to digest my food.

It's about heralding the call of change, the spirit of future-oriented growth.

Rudhyars interpretations... are the best.

"A GIRL BLOWING A BUGLE.

KEYNOTE:*A call to participation in the service of the race, as an evolutionary crisis approaches.

This symbolic picture presents another aspect of the emotional*relationship between the individual and the collectivity of human beings. It can also be related to the old feminist movement or the present women's liberation. In traditional symbolism the woman refers more specifically to the biological and psychic aspect of human life; she is seen primarily as the mother, and/or the intuitive or "psychic" type of person. A new race of human beings may well be slowly unfolding some of its potential of consciousness and fulfillment. The individual who envisions this evolutionary development "sounds the call." He or she is both seer-herald and mutant. In that sense such a human being is both an individual true to his original nature and a dedicated person — dedicated to the future he or she holds in latency as does a seed in mutation.

At this third stage of the sixty-eighth five-fold sequence the two preceding phases blend in a new form of consecration of the individual to the Whole. Tomorrow acts through today; it SUMMONS men to rebirth."

I've so wanted to get a hold of Bovee's work. My paternal grandmother was a Bovee ... and actually it is spelled Bove in Italy. The extra 'e' was added as to an aid in pronunciation. as like many an Italian surname was altered over the last century and a half.
Some were simply shortened.

My grandfather changed the family name of Mastrogiovanni to Mastry just a month or two before my father was born.My fathers' four older sibs were all born and baptized with the original name. My father was the first to be born and baptized with the name of Mastry...followed by his four youngest sibs...all boys. Only one boy, my fathers next oldest sib, was born with the old name.
It means Master John, in English.
Mastry, as it is spelled is a French surname, I'm told (although it may properly be that of Mastri...and the meaning is obvious.

Bove is a House of old Italian nobility that originates in the area of Amalfi.
According to wikipedia: "The House of Bove is an ancient noble patrician family of Ravello, Maritime Republic of Amalfi that held royal appointments in the Kingdom of Naples, and presided over feudal territories. After the dissolution of noble seats of the Kingdom of Naples in 1800 they were ascribed in the Libro d'Oro of Ravello"

The 8th degree of Pisces is my Hermetic Lot of Victory...

It is about a "call to arms". or a "summons". imh, but experienced, o.

I've been blowing that bugle here at the forum for the last nine years, and more, presently.
...curiously, I was my Boy Scout Troops' bugler while I was a member of that troop. I had a valveless French horn that my father had bought from a curio shop. It had the most lovely sound.