The Zodiac and Its Sacred Origins: From Theosophy’s Sacred Teachings in “The Secret Doctrine,” Part 1 of 2

Today, we’re pleased to share selections from Section 16, The Zodiac and Its Antiquity, in “The Secret Doctrine,” where Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (vegetarian) contends that the Zodiac’s roots lie in ancient Eastern and Biblical traditions, long before Greece.

Section 16 The Zodiac and Its Antiquity

“‘All men are apt to have a high conceit of their own understanding, and to be tenacious of the opinions they profess,’ said Jordan, justly adding to this— ‘and yet almost all men are guided by the understandings of others, not by their own; and may be said more truly to adopt, than to beget, their opinions.’

This is doubly true in regard to scientific opinions upon hypotheses offered for consideration— the prejudice and preconceptions of ‘authorities,’ so called, often deciding upon questions of the most vital importance for history. There are several such predetermined opinions held by our learned Orientalists, and few are more unjust or illogical than the general error with regard to the antiquity of the Zodiac. Thanks to the hobby of some German Orientalists, English and American Sanskritists have accepted Professor Weber's opinion that the peoples of India had no idea or knowledge of the Zodiac prior to the Macedonian invasion, and that it is from the Greeks that the ancient Hindûs imported it into their country.

We are further told, by several other ‘authorities,’ that no Eastern nation knew of the Zodiac before the Hellenes kindly acquainted their neighbors with their invention. And this, in the face of the Book of Job, which is declared, even by themselves, to be the oldest in the Hebrew canon, and certainly prior to Moses; a book which speaks of the making of ‘Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades [Osh, Kesil, and Kimah] and the chambers of the South’; of Scorpio and the Mazaruth— the twelve signs; words which, if they mean anything, imply knowledge of the Zodiac even among the nomadic Arabian groups. […]

Again, if the Bible is supposed to be an authority on any matter— and there are some who still regard it as such, whether from Christian or Kabalistical considerations— then the Zodiac is clearly mentioned in II Kings, 23:5. Before the ‘book of the law’ was ‘found’ by Hilkiah, the high priest, the signs of the Zodiac were known and worshipped. […]”