Astrological Equations: Toleh: Aries

Toleh / Aries 5 30 9 Gematria: 44 Formative: Edge: EN Ruler:   Toleh/Aries

Traditional Meaning: Self-esteem, initiative, pioneering. Self-motivation, new beginnings and cycles. Aggressive, willful, powerful, assertive; enthusiastic.

Formative Meaning: Hay/5, Life, forms Toleh, Tayt-Lammed-Hay: a cell (9) in biological equilibrium (30) alive (5), the birth of a living cell. The beginning of the Zodiac. The beginning and end of the evolution of energy/consciousness.

(The Zodiac) begins with Aut Hay (5), symbol of life, forming a cell Toleh (Aries) which initiates an organic movement (Lammed) giving birth to life (Hay). In brief, Toleh is where all life begins.     Suares, The Sepher Yetsira, p.141 Each element of this perfectly intelligent abstract equation contributes to a direct understanding of the structure and meaning (and its place in the cycle) of the zodiacal sign we know fruitlessly as Aries. The zodiacal sign Aries, marker for the vernal equinox and initiator of life, is "formed" by the Hebrew letter Hay, the archetype of biological life. The energy that Hay forms is Tayt-Lammed-Hay which simply and elegantly describes the structures of an archeyptal cell (Tayt), an organic, equilibrating movement or energy transfer (Lammed) and again, the archetype of Hay/Life, 5. A replicating cell is the basis for life. It is hard to be more concise.

Here, at the beginning of the zodiac, we have the opportunity to read the familiar signs from the inside out and to let them describe themselves, and their place in a complex, hyperlinked semantic web of interrelated meaning. This way of understanding the planets and signs of the zodiac might be called "formative," or "yetziratic" astrology, because it is concerned with the basic, abstract principles behind the construction of the manifest universe we live in and our place and role within it. The Sepher Yetsira describes the zodiac as the edges of the Cube of Space -- 12 active environments for the impersonal energies of the 7 planets which form the faces and center of the cube. The "equations" of the zodiac describe these environments as a two-way developmental sequence, or 12-stage cycle which turns in two directions: in the direction of evolutionary, biological structuration of energy and in the involutionary direction of the dissolution of structures and the development of consciousness. It is one thing to know Aries as a beginning, and it is another to know it as the end.     We know that all the Autiot are not only symbols of different states of energy, but are actually those states which they represent. They are not, as it were, snapshots of fixed, congealed states; they are alive and active. Hence, they can react in opposite ways to the cosmic flow of living energy.     Suares, The Sepher Yetsira, p.129 Hay, 5, symbol of archetypal life, initiates the zodiac as a structural and evolutionary process dealing with biological energies in different states of organization -- the conditions necessary for life. When read according to its inner meaning, the zodiac describes the itineraries of physical and psychological energies, both personal and collective, through twelve stages of structural evolution or involution. The traditional zodiac of astrology, with the signs arranged in a circle, is the outer form or manifestation of an inner zodiac arranged on the cube of space, with the planets on the axes and the signs on the twelve edges of a three-dimensional cube, and the psyche in the center. Suares poses four different readings of the zodiac, in two different directions. One of them starts and two end here in Toleh/Aries, where physical energy begins and psychological energy may someday rest. Since we are here, at the beginning, it's important to remember that there are no zodical "types." The signs of the zodiac are containers or active environments (or structural evo/involutionary stages). They are specific states described exactly by their equations, in this case Tayt-Lammed-Hay, a concise formulation of a primative living cell. Energy is born into a biological process in Toleh/Aries, and will continue its physical development through Sagittarius. As was the case with the planets, the formative letter announces the theme, and is found here in the structure of the energy of the sign. Hay (5), archetypal biological life, has as its agent in the structural universe, Toleh, which is responsible for the first formation of life and all beginnings. And it is in this particular structure that Meadim, our symbolic future, formed by pointed Dallet, 4, is Olet, Aleph-Waw-Lammed-Tav, and finds its furthest cosmic projection. Olet means, of course, folly or madness. We will find that the Sepher Yetsira describes the zodiac as a circular, two way current of energy, with different itineraries, or developmental stages, for both physical (outward) and mental/psychic (inward) energies. Each sign will describe a different state or stage of the relationship of two fundamental energies, Aleph (beyond thought) and Yod (space-time and duration, Aleph in existence). These energies will have different fates, according to their path of building up or dissolving structures. The first five signs, from Toleh/Aries to Arieh/Leo, all represent archetypal energies, and carry us from the 5/Hay forming Toleh/Aries to the 9/Tayt forming Arieh/Leo, the journey of the cell into physical existence, achieved only when Yod, 10, Existence, forms Betolah/Virgo. The numbers are all multiples of one (Archetypal seed forms) except for the ten of the Existential Yod. The first six signs are all under the horizon, and deal with inner, subjective structures of existence. The last six, Libra through Pisces, above the horizon, deal with the outer structures of existence, where energy reaches its material perfections and spiritual realizations in objective reality. The numbers are all multiples of ten (Existential reality) except for the one hundred of Cosmic Qof forming Pisces/Daghim.     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 300 400         Five planets have two homes; two (the Moon and the Sun) are dual in their own residence. The Sepher Yetsira does not assign planets (rulerships) to signs, but is otherwise faithful to classical, geocentric astrology. Some things probably didn't have to be said when there was a common basis of knowledge. The structure of the Zodiac shows the caduceus of intertwined lunar and solar energies, originating in Sartan/Cancer and Arieh/Leo, and ending in the life and death of their energies in Saturn. The two-way flow of energy in the zodiac is made explicit in the planetary rulerships (hard and soft aspects) of the signs. The physical/solar aspects of energy find their cell in the Tayt of Leo and their material perfection four signs later in Qoshet/Sagittarius, at the threshold of Ghedi/Capricorn, home of Saturn alive. The psychological/lunar aspects of energy find their cell in the Tayt of Sartan/Cancer and find their unstructured states in the four signs backwards in the zodiac, ending in Daghim at the threshold of Deli/Aquarius, home of the death of Saturn and obsolete structures.