“Identify, develop.”
Let us proceed to a study of this day’s septenary or 7-fold geometric model of the Sabian symbols, which constitutes a mandala of 360 astrological degrees as developed by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones in collaboration with and channeled by Elsie May Wheeler in the spring of 1925.* Additionally, by utilizing the ancient esoteric writing, The Emerald Tablet, Tablet III by Thoth, we adopt a ready and constant framework for our deeper reflections. The chakra system is also made available for the additional insights it may provide; the geometric designs provided are based on the work of Frank Chester and may be used to cut out and assemble a Chestahedron for meditation.
Man is a star bound to a body, until in the end, he is freed through his strife. Only by struggle and toiling thine utmost shall the star within thee bloom out in new life. Wisdom cometh to all her children even as they cometh unto wisdom. All through the ages, the light has been hidden. Awake, O man, and be wise.
Before the Lords of hidden Amenti learned I the wisdom I give unto men. Masters are they of the great Secret Wisdom, brought from the future of infinity’s end. Seven are they, the Lords of Amenti, overlords they of the Children of Morning, Suns of the Cycles, Masters of Wisdom. Formed are not they as the children of men? Three, Four, Five and Six, Seven, Eight, Nine are the titles of the Masters of men.
Far from the future, formless yet forming, came they as teachers for the children of men. Live they forever, yet not of the living, bound not to life and yet free from death. Rule they forever with infinite wisdom, bound yet not bound to the dark Halls of Death. Life they have in them, yet life that is not life, free from all are the Lords of the ALL.
Forth from them came forth the Logos, instruments they of the power o’er all. Vast is their countenance, yet hidden in smallness, formed by a forming, known yet unknown.
THREE holds the key of all hidden magic, creator he of the halls of the Dead; sending forth power, shrouding with darkness, binding the souls of the children of men; sending the darkness, binding the soul force; director of negative to the children of men.
The Root Chakra awakening: “Identify, develop.”
Pisces 21° A little white lamb, a child and a Chinese servant
This is a symbol of the scattered divisions of labor through which any over-all reality is encountered by man in his everyday or more haphazard existence, and of the necessity that he brings the threads of his diffusion into a skein of meaning and opportunity. He must learn that nothing acts alone or persists in a vacuum, and that in consequence there is an integrating significance throughout his own experience. He must find this and draw it to single focus in some special design of self-expression.
The keyword is TALENT.
When positive, the degree is completely unconditioned self-discovery out of wholly unlimited potentialities, and when negative, groping aimlessness.
FOUR is he who looses the power. Lord, he, of Life to the children of men. Light is his body, flame is his countenance; freer of souls to the children of men.
The Sacral Chakra awakening: “Follow your ‘knows’ wherever…”
Taurus 12° Window-shoppers
This is a symbol of human imagination as the real corrective for man’s experience, enabling each individual to know in advance whether the choices he will make are in line with his desires. Implicit in the passive symbolism is the continual demand that action follow each tentative examination of life’s possibilities, and that some latent phase of self-awareness be quickened in consciousness as a result.
The keyword is VISUALIZATION.
When positive, the degree is high ability in presenting the immediate potentialities of human achievement and the consequent self-realizations, and when negative, self-depreciation and a dismissal of all really desirable things as beyond actual acquisition.
FIVE is the master, the Lord of all magic – Key to The Word that resounds among men.
The Solar Plexus Chakra awakening: “To let ’em know what’s coming.”
Cancer 4° A cat arguing with a mouse
This is a symbol of man’s necessary establishment of a set in mind or realization as a preliminary to any entrance into personal experience, and of his tendency to enjoy the preparatory more than the consummatory phases of his participation in reality. Here also is the eternal effort of human nature to get outer acceptance or social sanction for its inborn desires, as well as inner or intelligent and practical confirmations for the values it has made its own.
The keyword is JUSTIFICATION.
When positive, the degree is a gift for persuading others to accept the motives of self and to co-operate with its ends, and when negative, interminable quarreling with the nature of things.
SIX is the Lord of Light, the hidden pathway, path of the souls of the children of men.
The Heart Chakra awakening: “Sufficient unto oneself.”
Leo 25° A large camel crossing the desert
This is a symbol of man’s capacity to overcome the handicaps imposed on him by the normal limitations of the world in which he elects to function, and of his underlying and basically inexhaustible endurance. Here is a psychological integration of human character, revealing an effective self-mobilization which the least of men may accomplish. His achievements in the face of the difficulties to be overcome are the real foundation of his self-refinement and ultimate self-discovery.
The keyword is ADEQUACY.
When positive, the degree is uncompromising persistence and uncomplaining self-expenditure in any course to be followed, and when negative, ruthlessness in an unintelligent self-interest.
SEVEN is he who is Lord of the vastness, master of Space and the key of the Times.
The Throat Chakra awakening: “You can do better than that.”
Libra 16° A boat landing washed away
This is a symbol of the superficially unfriendly relations which exist between man as a person and the totally impersonal forces of nature. The reversed symbolism emphasizes the cosmic integrity as a continual attempt on the part of its over-all ordering to restore each phase of reality to pristine conditions. Here is not so much a thwarting of human effort as a stimulation to new accomplishment, and a freedom from whatever has exceeded its usefulness.
The keyword is RESPITE.
When positive, the degree is a joy in bringing every self-competence to the recurrent emergencies of life, and when negative, frustration as an excuse for inaction.
EIGHT is he who orders the progress; weighs and balances the journey of men.
The Third Eye Chakra awakening: “Do we have rocks in our heads?”
Sagittarius 8° Rocks and things forming therein
This is a symbol of the necessity that man create his own reality out of the actual situations in which he becomes involved, and that he do so by taking control of the circumstances which provide the matrix for his everyday existence. Implicit in this symbolism of nature’s processes is the demand that the stabilities thereby established be taken as a foundation for all consequent and individual initiative. Each person in accepting his roots and capitalizing on his own endowment is enabled to proceed to high achievement.
The keyword is COMPOSITION.
When positive, the degree is exceptional ability to mold or remold the course of events, and when negative, persisting inner confusion.
NINE is the father, vast he of countenance, forming and changing from out of the formless.
The Crown Chakra awakening: “Enticing invitations.”
Capricorn 29° A woman reading tea leaves
This is a symbol of man’s persistent desire to establish conscious relationship with an invisible world of over-reality, given an emphasis here on the side of outer or everyday self-encouragement. The mind has its ultimate focus in eternal and universal co-ordinates, and ever tends to fit the exigencies of practical living into some pattern of possible consummations. Conscious experience therefore comes to be supplemented by intuition as a direct realization of pure potentiality.
The keyword is SIGNATURE.
When positive, the degree is naïve insight as brought to high intelligence in meeting the recurrent issues of life, and when negative, superstitious dependence on the unknown.
Meditate on the symbols I give thee. Keys are they, though hidden from men.
Reach ever upward, O Soul of the morning. Turn thy thoughts upward to Light and to Life. Find in the keys of the numbers I bring thee, light on the pathway from life unto life.
Seek thee with wisdom. Turn thy thoughts inward. Close not thy mind to the flower of Light.
Place in thine body a thought-formed picture. Think of the numbers that lead thee to Life.
Clear is the pathway to he who has wisdom. Open the door to the Kingdom of Light.
Pour forth thy flame as a Sun of the morning. Shut out the darkness and live in the day.
Take thee, O man! As part of thy being, the Seven who are but are not as they seem. Opened, O man! Have I my wisdom. Follow the path in the way I have led.
Masters of Wisdom, SUN of the MORNING LIGHT and LIFE to the children of men.
“Identify, develop.”
Thank you for visiting the Sabian Symbols Septenary.
The featured artistic renderings of the symbols are provided by Ruby Fumizki.
The tagline phrases and 7 gem images of the Chestahedron are by Saijin.
The interpretations are the official ones provided by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones, from his book, Sabian Symbols in Astrology, the 1953 First Edition, published by The Sabian Publishing Society, New York; printed in the United States of America by the Roberts Studio Press, Arden, Delaware.
To learn more about The Sabian Assembly, the organization founded by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones on October 17, 1923, where seekers are bound by “searching for competent rather than easy answers to the problems of life”, please visit The Sabian Assembly at sabian.org.
To learn more about the Sabian Symbols
Saijin invites you to visit her on-line at SabianGeometry.com
on her YouTube channel at Sabian Geometry
and on Facebook at Sabian Geometry with Saijin.
If you are interested in studying the Sabian symbols in their models of the Cross (4-fold, structural) and the Star (5-fold, creative), she invites you to purchase her book:
On the Shoulders of Giants: Advanced Techniques in Sabian Symbology
Saijin's Sabian Symbol Septenary 