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by Robert Bauval (Contribution by), Alain Leroy (Photographer), Judith Page (Illustrator)
When I painted the Egyptian Zodiac series, I wanted to get away from the traditional images of the past, and in doing so, I not only produced visions of the ancient gods of Egypt, but realized that I could include the precession of the constellation of Orion, beginning with Sekhmet, in the Age of Leo, 10640 BCE. If we go back to the beginning; the symbolic Six Days of Creation took place from the Wurm III Glaciation period (Ice Age) around 22000 BCE to 8480 BCE at which point order was restored to the earth. Let us suppose that the first six ages; Capricorn, Scorpio, Libra, Virgo and Leo were the recognized six days of creation? Could it be the Age of Cancer around 8480 BCE would be an example of the Fall of Adam? We carry on into the Age of Gemini around 6320 BCE with Noah and the flood. We see the fall of Babylon that followed with Moses and the bull-worshipping Pharaohs of Taurus in 4160 BCE. The next is the Age of Aries around 2000 BCE - the death of the bull, heralding the Exodus and the Old Testament of Moses to the cultured world. This ended with the prophets of the Old and the New Testament celebrating the approaching Age of Pisces. 210 years after the age began, the Christ-child appeared on earth, and continued the New Testament through what is deemed as the Dark Ages all the way through to the Renaissance, and onwards to the New Age; the Age of Aquarius. Hence, we start with the Age of Leo. Astrology reveals to us the influence celestial bodies have on our personal fate. As a global community, they also wield a great power in our lives. On the cosmic level, we are familiar with the twelve constellations across the zodiac, and these make up the natural zodiac; they are fixed, and remain in the same place around the zodiac. There are many amongst our readers who debase astrology, maintaining that astrological signs do not correspond with constellations. But this is not the object of this article. I have attempted to describe the phenomenon of the Precession of the Equinoxes using Egypt as a basis. I began with 12 paintings titled, the Egyptian Zodiac, modelled on gods I felt corresponded to not just the great ages that can be explained from the astronomical viewpoint, but also astrological signs that influence a person's character. Which would you be?
