Aquarius Constellation Astrology

Aquarius constellation, the Water Bearer, is an ecliptic constellation laying between constellation Capricorn and constellation Pisces. It spans 30 degrees longitude in the zodiac signs Aquarius and Pisces. The Aquarius constellation contains 16 named fixed stars.

Aquarius is said to represent Ganymedes, son of Callirhoe, the most beautiful of mortals, who was carried to heaven by an eagle to act as cupbearer to Jupiter. According to other accounts, however, it is Deucalion, son of Prometheus, who was translated to heaven in memory of the mighty deluge from which only he and Pyrrha were saved.

Constellation Aquarius: Ptolemy makes the following observations: “The stars in the shoulders of Aquarius operate like Saturn and Mercury (profound liar, thief, blackguard, scandal and slander); those in the left hand and in the face do the same: those in the thighs have an influence more consonant with that of Mercury, and in a less degree with that of Saturn (subtle, studious, keen and profound mind, often shameless liar, interested in occult or serious subjects): those in the stream of water have power similar to that of Saturn, and moderately to that of Jupiter (dignified, pious, conservative, acquisitive, retentive. Honor and preferment if culminating.)” By the Kabalists Aquarius is associated with the Hebrew letter Nun and the 14th Tarot Trump “Temperance,” over which virtue the constellation appears to have some rule. The beauty of Ganymedes and his flight through the air also link it to the ideas of personal charm and aviation with which it is certainly connected. [1]

Aquarius, The Waterman…has universally borne this or kindred titles; Ideler assigning as a reason the fact that the sun passed through it during the rainy season. In connection with this the proximity of other analogous stellar forms is worthy of note: Capricornus, Cetus, Delphinus, Eridanus, <a “=””>Hydra, Pisces, and Piscis Australis, all the watery shapes in the early heavens, with Argo and Crater, are in this neighborhood; some of whose stars Aratos said “are called the Water”; indeed in Euphratean astronomy this region of the sky was ‘the Sea’, and thought to be under the control of Aquarius.

The constellation immemorially has been represented, even on very early Babylonian stones, as a man, or boy, pouring water from a bucket or urn, with an appropriate towel in the left hand, the human figure sometimes being omitted; while the Arabians, who knew of the latter but did not dare to show it, depicted a mule carrying two water-barrels; and again simply a water-bucket…On a Roman zodiac it was a Peacock, the symbol of Juno, the Greek Hera (another constellation Pavo is the peacock), in whose month Gamelion — January-February — the sun was in the sign; and at times it has been shown as a Goose, another bird sacred to that goddess…

With the Magi and Druids it represented the whole science of astronomy. The Anglo-Saxons called it se Waeter-gyt, the Water-pourer; while not long after them John of Trevisa, the English translator, in 1398 thus quaintly recalled the classical form: The Sygne Aquarius is the butlere of the goddes and yevyth them a water-potte…

In astrology it was the Airy Trigon, Gemini and Libra being included, and a sign of no small note, since there was no disputing that its stars possessed influence, virtue, and efficacy, whereby they altered the air and seasons “in a wonderful, strange, and secret manner”; and an illuminated manuscript almanac of 1386, perhaps the earliest in our language that has been printed, says of the sign: “It is gode to byg castellis, and to wed, and lat blode.”

With Capricorn it was the House of Saturn, governing the legs and ankles; and when on the horizon with the sun the weather was always rainy. When Saturn was here, he had man completely in his clutches — caput et collum; while Jupiter, when here, had humeros, pectus et pedes. As Junonis astrum it was a diurnal sign, Juno and Jove being its guardians, and bore rule over Cilicia and Tyre; later, over Arabia, Tatary, Denmark, Russia, Lower Sweden, Westphalia, Bremen, and Hamburg.

Proctor’s Myths and Marvels of Astronomy has a list of the astrological colors of the zodiac signs attributing to Aquarius an aqueous blue; while Lucius Ampelius, of our 2d century, assigning in his Liber Memorialis the care of the various winds to the various signs, entrusts to this the guardianship of Eurus and Notus, which blew from the east, or southeast, and from the south.

The astronomers’ symbol for the sign, ♒ showing undulating lines of waves, is said to have been the hieroglyph for Water, the title of Aquarius in the Nile country, where a measuring-rod may have been associated with it; indeed Burritt drew such in the hand of the figure as Norma Nilotica, a suggestion of the ancient Nilometer. [2]

“The youthful Waterman, who from upturned pot pours forth his stream, likewise bestows skills which have affinity with himself: how to divine springs under the ground and conduct them above, to transform the flow of water so as to spray the very stars, to mock the sea with man-made shores at the bidding of luxury, to construct different types of artificial lakes and rivers,” and to support aloft for domestic use streams that come from afar. Beneath this sign there dwell a thousand crafts regulated by water. Why, water will even set in motion the face of heaven and the starry habitations, and will cause the skies to move in a novel rotation. Never will the sons of Aquarius grow tired of the works which come in the wake of water and follow springs. They who issue from this sign are a gentle sort and a lovable breed, and no meanness of heart is theirs: they are prone to suffer losses: and of riches they have neither need nor surfeit. Even thus doth the urn’s stream flow” [3]

The Atonement being made, the blessings have been procured, and now they can be bestowed and poured forth upon the Redeemed. This is the truth, whether we think of Abel’s lamb, of patriarchal sacrifices, the offerings under the Law, or of that great Sacrifice of which they all testified. They all with one voice tell us that atonement made is the only foundation of blessing.

This was pictured and foreshown in the heavens from the beginning, by a man pouring forth water from an urn which seems to have an inexhaustible supply, and which flows forth downwards into the mouth of a fish, which receives it and drinks it all up.

In the ancient Zodiac of Denderah it is the same idea, though the man holds two urns, and the fish below seems to have come out of the urn. The man is called Hupei Tirion, which means the place of him coming down or poured forth. In some eastern Zodiacs the urn alone appears.

This agrees with its other names–Hebrew, Deli, the water-urn, or bucket (as in Numbers 24:7); the Arabic Delu is the same…Aquarius is the modern Latin name by which the sign is known. It has the same meaning, the pourer forth of water. [4]

References

1. Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian E. Robson, 1923, p.28-29.
2. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Richard H. Allen, 1889, p.45-49.
3. Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, book 4, p.243.
4. The Witness of the Stars, E. W. Bullinger, 18. Aquarius (the Water Bearer).