Monday, September 8, 2008

Anatomy

This is my favorite picture. I like it because it confronted me with a wealth of new information in such an aesthetic way. I hope to make similar (blogs) collections about the other signs of the zodiac and to put this picture in all of them.

Pisces sign and glyph (at the feet of the man in the drawing) picture is courtesy of  "shadowplay” from Flickr who wrote to me:

It was shot in a market in Mexico (Guanajuato, I believe) and you see a lot of those kind of posters with all kinds of information on them, sometimes used in schools to teach kids.

Sefer Yetzirah is ascribed according to Jewish tradition to biblical patriarch  Abraham, but researchers date it to 2-6 century C.E. It is one of the most influential Jewish books. In it we find a connection between the Hebrew letters and the signs of the zodiac and the leading organs of the body:  

From: http://www.wbenjamin.org/saadia.html

Sefer Yetzirah [Book of Creation] Saadia's Commentary (excerpts)

[Among the Hebrew letters we find] Twelve simples: He, Vav, Zayin; Het, Tet, Yod; Lamed, Nun, Samech; Ayin, Tsadeh, Qof. He [God) carved them, hewed them, tested them, weighed them, and combined them. He formed of them: the signs of the zodiac, the months [of the year], and the leading organs of the body;

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