The Scorpion, Archer, and Sea-Goat,
The Man that carries the Water-pot,
And Fish with glittering scales.”
These signs have always and everywhere been preserved in this order, and have begun with Aries. They have been known amongst all nations, and in all ages, thus proving their common origin from one source.
The figures themselves are perfectly arbitrary. There is nothing in the groups of stars to even suggest the figures. This is the first thing which is noticed by every one who looks at the constellations. Take for example the sign of Virgo, and look at the stars. There is nothing whatever to suggest a human form; still less is there anything to show whether that form is a man or a woman. And so with all the others.
The picture, therefore, is the original, and must have been drawn around or connected with certain stars, simply in order that it might be identified and associated with them; and that it might thus be remembered and handed down to posterity.
There can be no doubt, as the learned Authoress of Mazzaroth conclusively proves, that these signs were afterwards identified with the twelve sons of Jacob. Joseph sees the sun and moon and eleven stars bowing down to him, he himself being the twelfth (Gen. xxxvii. 9). The blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix.) and the blessing of Moses (Deut. xxxiii.) both bear witness to the existence of these signs in their day. And it is more than probable that each of the Twelve Tribes bore one of them on its standard. We read in Num. ii. 2, “Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own Standard, with the Ensign of their father's house” (r.v. “with the ensigns of their fathers' houses”). This “Standard” was the Degel (דֶגֶל) on which the “Sign” (אוֹת, Oth) was depicted. Hence it was called the “En-sign.” Ancient Jewish authorities declare that each tribe had one of the signs as its own, [pg 018] and it is highly probable, even from Scripture, that four of the tribes carried its “Sign”; and that these four were placed at the four sides of the camp.
If the Lion were appropriated to Judah, then the other three would be thus fixed, and would be the same four that equally divide the Zodiac at its four cardinal points. According to Num. ii. the camp was thus formed:—
In the North, from North-West to North-East:
Asher (Sagittarius).