Zodiac man

Zodiac man is the symbolic name for the representation of the zodiacal influences in the creation of the human physical body, as found in many old illustrations. It is these zodiacal influences that still develop the embryo out of chaos in the womb, see Embryo in the womb.

The germinal spiritual form of Man's physical body was created during the Old Saturn evolution the signs of the zodiac slowly revolved, and the human body took on its earliest form, member by member. This spiritual physical form of the human physical body, without its 'filling' by substance of the lower elements, is also called the 'phantom', see also cleansed phantom.

The current mineral physical body was formed from the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs onwards, under influence of the four Group souls of humanity, see (1908-09-10-GA106 and 1911-08-26-GA129 as well as human races).

The form of a living being depends on the moon that is always passing the constellations of the stars and modulates the cosmic forces which proceed from them, and the other planets modify the influence of the moon. (1924-04-23-GA316)

Aspects

examples
- form of a bird: egg is round, head to tail formed from Moon in conjunction with Taurus/Aries to Libra (1924-04-23-GA316 )

Inspirational quotes

1924-04-22-GA316 and 1924-04-23-GA316

Behold what is joined in the cosmos And thou feelest the forming of Man.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.127 illustrates the concept of 'zodiac Man', the fact that the various parts of the human body are an expression of the formative influences of the zodiac signs.

Schema FMC00.127A: provides lecture references and a more granular description for the mapping of zodiac signs to the parts of the human physical body.

This mapping is very ancient knowledge, one reference added is from Marcus Manilius 'Astronomica', written in the 1st century AD (ca. 30-40 AD). It was rediscovered ca. 1416–1417 and published in English 1674-1697.

For the left columns, see also Schema FMC00.256 for a visualization of three groups of zodiacal influences on Man.

provides lecture references and a more granular description for the mapping of zodiac signs to the parts of the human physical body. This mapping is very ancient knowledge, one reference added is from Marcus Manilius 'Astronomica', written in the 1st century AD (ca. 30-40 AD). It was rediscovered ca. 1416–1417 and published in English 1674-1697. For the left columns, see also Schema FMC00.256 for a visualization of three groups of zodiacal influences on Man.

Schema FMC00.257 illustrates how Man gets form and life from respectively (three groups of) zodiacal influences (see Zodiac man) and (three groups of) planetary influences (see Seven life processes)

Starting left, the embryo is formed in the womb, and the small child later rises upright as Man did in the Lemurian epoch.

On the right, quoting from 1921-10-30-GA208 how the soul life comes about:

Man develops an independent etheric life towards the head because they raise that part out of both the zodiac and the movements of the planets. Then the human astral body and human 'I' enter and are able to take part in the thought and idea activity of the ether body.

Lecture coverage and references

1909-04-18-GA110

(SWCC) is a continuation and summary statement for the detailed explanations on 1909-04-17-GA110.

What is called the physical body today had its first foundations during the earliest Old Saturn planetary stage. That physical body was not as yet interpenetrated by an etheric body or an astral body; but it was already so organised that after passing through all the transformations it experienced later, it could become the bearer of the spiritual earth-man of to-day. Very slowly and gradually was this physical body organised during Old Saturn evolution, and, whilst Old Saturn itself was being formed, the different signs of the Zodiac slowly revolved, and the human body member by member, took on its earliest form.
When Saturn stood under the sign of the Lion the beginning of the heart was formed;

the ribs or the thoracic cage were started while Saturn was under the sign of the Crab;

the foundation of the symmetrical shape of man, that is the reason for his being symmetrically built on two sides, arose while Saturn was under the constellation of Gemini.

Thus we follow piece by piece the formation of the human body, and when we look up to that part of the Zodiac, where Aries the Ram is, we can say: The upper part of our head originated when ancient Saturn stood under the sign of Aries;

the foundation of our organ of speech, when Saturn stood under the sign of the Bull.

And when you think of man distributed thus, you can see in the Zodiacal circle the creative forces for each of the human organs.
This was represented pictorially in the old Mysteries, but formerly the Zodiac was not depicting the animal form corresponding to each sign, but the different human members were drawn in the corresponding region of the heavens: for instance, for Aries a head; further on, for the Bull, the region of the throat; that which most of all expresses symmetry — the arms, for Gemini; the thoracic cage, for the Crab; the heart, for the Lion; and thus they came to the lower parts of the legs, for the Waterman; and to the feet, for Pisces.
Think of such a Zodiacal circle as a man designed out there in the Cosmos, then you have that which corresponds to the powers of the Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim who created the first beginnings of the physical human body.
This is the great Cosmic Man, the Man who is found in all the World Myths, and all the national legends or sagas, out of whom single individuals of the earth are composed in the most varied forms. Think of the giant YMIR who is spread out in the great Cosmos; microcosmic man is formed out of this giant.
[editor: see Adam Kadmon and Giant Ymir]
Up above is the macrocosmic man who is a Creator, who, out there, comprises all that man has within him. Profound truth lies in the depths of such representations, truth which comes to light more or less imperfectly, according to the degrees of the clairvoyant power of the nations. It also shines through that wisdom which finds its outward expression in the old Testament. It shines in that wisdom which, as the old Hebrew mystery-teaching, leads back to that Mystery teaching which was the foundation of the Old Testament — to Adam Cadmon of the Kabbala. The macrocosmic Man is none other than the one we have now designed in the Cosmos; only we must form our conceptions of him in the right way.

1908-09-10-GA106

see full extract on Group souls of humanity, a key point being:

The time during which the sun traverses a sign has some significance, but such a period would not suffice for the change that had to take place in order for Man to progress from sexuality under the sign of the Scorpion to the evolving of his hips under the sign of the Balance.
We should have a false picture of this, if we thought that it could have occurred in one transit of the sun. The sun goes once through the zodiac, and only after this complete circuit does the forward step occur. In earlier times it had to make the transit oftener before the forward step could take place. Therefore we cannot apply to more ancient epochs the familiar time-reckonings of post-Atlantean times. The sun had first to go completely around - in earlier ages even several times - before evolution could progress a step. For those members that required a stronger molding, the time lasted even longer.

1910-12-31-GA126

1917-12-29-GA180

When we transplant ourselves into ancient times of human knowledge, we find a clear awareness of the fact that the Zodiac is not only to be found up yonder in the Heavens, but that man too carries within him the same law and principle as is represented for example by the Zodiac,—that is to say, by the farthest circumference of the Universe of the fixed stars.
You know that in olden times not only certain places in the Heavens were thus named, as Aries and Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, etc., but the human being too was membered thus:

head = Aries;

neck = Taurus;

the two sides of man in their lateral symmetry = Gemini;

the chest and ribs = Cancer;

the heart as Leo, and so on

Man bears microcosmically within him the several regions which are also the fundamental places of the Heavens. This connection of microcosm and macrocosm was deemed most essential in those ancient times. Man, as it were, bore within him the Heavens of the fixed stars, by virtue of the Zodiac which represents it.
It was said, of old time:

When a Man uses his larynx in speech, there sounds forth from him the same cosmic stream which flows down to us from the cosmos when the Moon is shining from the Pleiades. They felt the kinship of the Light and of that which the Light carries down when the Moon is shining from the region of the Pleiades,they felt the kinship of this macrocosmic stream with that which issues from man when he makes use of his larynx.

So too with the Sun. So too, they felt Man penetrated with the same law and principle that works in the planetary system, yet with this difference. They knew that the system of the fixed stars corresponds to fixed places in Man, namely, the Ram to the head, the neck to the Bull, and so on. Fixed portions of the human being were thus associated with the heaven of the fixed stars.
Those organs on the other hand which represent, as it were, the mobile element in man, sending the saps and fluids throughout Man's nature, were connected by them, and rightly, with the planetary system.
Man is himself, as it were, a heaven of the fixed stars, and he carries a planetary system within him. Thus in the oldest Mysteries they conceived an intimate relationship as between Man and the whole cosmos.
To perceive the full scope and range of this matter, must, however, also bear the following in mind.
In Man we have the several constellations like fixed places: Aries the head, Taurus the neck, and so on. Thereby, Man stands in a certain relation—a quite individual relation—to the starry heavens.

Assume for a moment that a man is born to-day in the Spring, when the Sun rises in Pisces. Pisces will be quite especially determined by his inner system of fixed stars. Now Pisces is associated with the feet,—that is to say, with what man experiences through his feet, inasmuch as he is born in the Spring, when the Sun rises in Pisces, a man is born with that part of his being which corresponds to this particular constellation to the Sun. If he were born at another season of the year, his constellation would be less in accordance with the cosmic constellation. Nowadays, this attunement or non-attunement of the human being is determined according to certain hard-and-fast schemes. In the ancient Mysteries they felt in a very living way the peculiar unison, the sounding-together of the human constellation after birth with the heavenly constellation.

Now you will bear in mind that a very special constellation existed in the age of Aries, precisely in the Mystery of Golgotha. For at that very time the whole of mankind, with that portion of the human being which corresponds to the head, was in harmony with the constellation of Aries in the Spring. Here was another reason why those who knew the Mysteries felt something quite peculiar in this correspondence of the human constellation of the head with the constellation of the Cosmos. Man is related, through the head, not with the Earth but with the Cosmos. Through the head, therefore, he is especially adapted to receive the forces of the Cosmos. With his head—that is to say, with his Aries—he reaches out into the Cosmos. What constellation will therefore be the most favourable one, of all that can exist in the Cycle of 25,920 years in which we are now living? Precisely that, in which the constellation of the Ram is with the rising Sun in Spring. In short, I wish to indicate this fact. They studied Man in his whole being, in his attunement with the macrocosm. They studied this especially because they were well aware how much depended, even for earthly events, on this attunement of Man with the macrocosm.

1921-10-28-GA208

1921-11-24-GA209

1924-04-23-GA316

When we look out into the worlds of the ether it is as if, with our etheric body, we were always losing ourselves in these worlds, but all the time the astral is streaming in towards us — the astral that is also not spatial but works as if it came towards us from the periphery of the universe.
And now suppose that we have to do with vegetable protein in food. In the first place, vegetable protein has heaviness; in the second place, as protein, it strives towards the cosmos. When you introduce vegetable protein into the human organism the other two kinds of forces immediately begin to work on it: the forces which work in from all directions and those forces which as the forces of the astral work in from beyond space, as it were, upon this protein.
And now suppose everything that might work in this way upon the human being were only capable of making him into a round, spherical body. You find the form which the working of these forces produce — the forces streaming outwards from and into the Earth — you find this form in the bird's egg. These forces take shape in the egg.
Why is it that not merely an egg-like form but a form with definite configuration is produced from an egg?
If only those forces were at work of which I have just told you, all that could happen would be a completion of the egg shape. The bird would be complete when the egg is complete. But a bird has a very definite shape and has it because, in the first place, the moon circles round the Earth. What I am saying about the bird also applies to the human being. If it were a case of the moon alone circling around the Earth, no bird would arise, but what would happen would be this — that the egg shell would get soft and fall away and a spherical being would emerge, a spherical being consisting essentially of protein. Now the moon does not only circle around the Earth, but there are all kinds of different constellations in space. The moon is always passing these constellations, and as it passes them it modifies the forces which proceed from them.

Picture to yourselves that the moon is passing the Pleiades. The egg is then exposed to the forces which are the result of the in-streaming of the Pleiades and this in-streaming is modified by the moon. From the Pleiades there streams a force which is modified by the moon which is standing in front of them and exercising its influence, and as a result of this there arises the head of the bird. Therefore we can say that the bird's head is formed from the cosmos by cooperation between the planet moon and the fixed stars which are arranged in a special way in the Pleiades.

The moon passes on and, let us say, it now stands in front of the constellation of Libra whose forces are again modified by the position of the moon. Here we have a different set of forces and besides this, the moon which was full moon when it stood in front of the Pleiades, has now, in front of Libra, become New Moon. The moon in connection with the constellation of Libra works differently from when it is working from a position in front of the Pleiades and the effect upon the egg is the formation of the bird's tail.

The rest lies in between. So, if you want to study the form of the bird you must study how the moon passes by the cosmic constellations.

[editor: the Pleiades are in the sign Taurus but on the outskirt near Aries. Compare Aries/Taurus to Libra on the Schema illustrations on the topic page Zodiac streams: seven and five]
What is a person who has knowledge of earthly conditions able to say about the form of Man, or, for that matter, of any living being? He can only say: Yes, of course, the Eagle has a definite form, the vulture has a definite form, the kangaroo has a definite form, and so on. Why have they these particular forms? If you remain at a standstill within the earthly world, as science does, there is only one answer: The animal has inherited its form from its ancestors. Thought can find no other answer. This answer is just like the logic of the saying: Penury comes from poverty. But this is no explanation at all. You must go further back. Those ancestors received it from their ancestors, and so you go on, in a vicious circle.
We must study the cosmic forces and constellations of the stars if we are to have any understanding of the form of a living being.

quote B

But this is not all that I have to say. If only these things happened, very beautifully developed beings would be produced but they would all of them be like jellyfish, as the human being actually was in far past epochs of the Earth.
In the Atlantean epoch the human being was a kind of jellyfish. This was because the only substance he could absorb was in a plastic, fluid state, and out of this he was able to build up his physical body.
The reason he was able to incorporate into himself potassium, sodium, and the other substances is because the other planets of our system, as well as the moon, pass through Libra, Aries, Taurus and so on, and they member into us those things that enable us to have the true form of Man.

In the formation of the human head, the influence of the moon is also united with the forces that go out from Mercury and Venus and the constellations into which they enter with the other planets. If these other constellations were not combined with the moon constellations, we should all be born as hydrocephalics. Organic metal is incorporated into us because the constellations of Mercury and Venus are working in conjunction with the moon constellation.

We should get a terrible form of rickets, not only bow legs but legs that would be elastic, and our arms would be jelly-like structures if the planets that are more oriented to Saturn were not to combine with the moon constellation and if Saturn himself were not to work together with Jupiter and Mars. It is the sun which brings about the rhythmical balances between these two categories of planets.The first two lines of the verse, therefore, should help you to understand how the human being is actually formed out of the cosmos. We shall not really progress until astronomy — but in the sense I have just indicated — is introduced into our medical science. Most of what is said about these things does not signify much. There is a muddle because things that happen in the human being are ascribed either to external, earthly circumstances, or to heredity. But when one comes down to details, the result is nil, because it is forgotten that the origin of the human form must be understood by a knowledge of the starry heavens in their qualitative aspect, in their inner aspect. The most important planet in the process of the formation of the human being is the moon. The moon must cooperate everywhere; the other planets modify the influence of the moon. The moon is the most important.