Yesterday marked the start of the new month of Nisan, first of the Jewish calendar. According to our ancient mystical texts, like Sefer Yetzirah, each of the twelve months of the Jewish year corresponds to one of the twelve Zodiac constellations (mazalot). The month of Nisan corresponds to Aries, or tal’e in Hebrew. Aries is depicted as a sheep or ram and, of course, the highlight of Nisan is the holiday of Pesach, referring to the korban pesach, the “paschal lamb”—a sheep!

Our Sages pointed out that God specifically commanded this species to be sacrificed because it was what the Egyptians worshipped at the time. This is likely referring to the ram-headed deity Ra. Amazingly, Ra is actually mentioned in the Torah when Pharaoh tells Moses that Ra neged pneichem (Exodus 10:10), typically translated as “evil [ra] will be before you”. Rashi comments here that Ra is an Egyptian idol and Pharaoh was warning the Israelites that they would perish under the wrath of his god Ra. Of course, the entire Exodus narrative was about showing God’s mastery over all aspects of Creation, and His destruction of Egypt’s false idols, Ra chief among them.

In astrology, Aries is a “fire” sign, which is quite appropriate for the Exodus connection. The fire alludes to the fire of the sacrificial altar for the korban pesach, as well as the pillar of fire that led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Wilderness. Furthermore, at the Pesach seder, the Haggadah reminds us to say “blood, and fire, and columns of smoke”, dam v’esh v’timrot ashan, in memory of the Ten Plagues and the Exodus. (Actually, this phrase originally comes from Joel 3:3, straight from the prophet’s vision of the End of Days!)

The next month is Iyar, corresponding to Taurus, shor in Hebrew, which is an “earth” sign. It is interesting to note that our Sages said the people who later built the Golden Calf did so because they were trying to depict the image of the bull that they had seen on the Divine Chariot of God. (Recall that the Chariot has four faces: lion, eagle, bull, and human, as described in Ezekiel 1, for instance.) The bull was symbolic of the Holy Land of Israel, and represented the people’s yearning to till the earth and work the land.

At the same time, Iyar is associated with or, light, and is also called the month of Ziv, or “glow”, in Tanakh. This may also be alluding to the intense light and glow of the Divine Chariot (which the Israelites saw both at the Splitting of the Sea and at the Sinai Revelation). In fact, one explanation for Iyar is that it stands for “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Rachel” (see the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Likkutei Sichos, Vol. III, pg. 159). These four figures are linked to the four wheels of the Chariot (although Rachel is typically replaced with David when describing the Chariot).

Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh points out that the focus of Iyar is self-improvement and rectification, as this is the time of Sefirat haOmer. The symbolism of the bull here is to remind us to work on ourselves and ascend from our biological, animal nature to a higher, spiritual plane. The omer itself is actually referring to barley offerings which were brought to the Temple in ancient times. Barley was typically used for animal feed. At the end of the omer cycle, on Shavuot, the Torah commands bringing wheat offerings and loaves of bread, which is human food. This, again, symbolizes our transformation from animal to human, from mundane to holy, from earthly to divine. Fittingly, the month of Shavuot and receiving the Torah is Sivan, the “air” sign of Gemini:

The Gemini twins, te’omim in Hebrew, represent the many “twins” associated with this month. It is when Moshe met God “face to face” at Mount Sinai, and then returned with a set of twin tablets. (Why couldn’t God just put all the commandments on one tablet?) As our Sages point out, on Sinai Moses received not just the Written Torah, but also the Oral Torah—twin Torahs—again symbolized by the twin stars of Gemini. Gemini is an “air” sign, representing ruach, spirit, and elevation, an appropriate time to give the Torah.

The following month is the difficult Tamuz, in which most of the “Three Weeks Between the Straits” take place. This is the “dangerous” Cancer crab, sartan. It is important to remember here that the Torah prohibits being a m’onen, believing that certain times of the year are auspicious while other times are inauspicious or ominous or unfavourable. Rabbi Akiva explains a m’onen is someone who says “Today is an auspicious day for going away on a journey; tomorrow is an auspicious day for purchasing property successfully…” (Sanhedrin 65b) The Rambam later codifies this legally in stating that a person is absolutely forbidden from believing in lucky or unlucky times, and that “Anyone who performs a deed because of an astrological calculation or arranges his work or his journeys to fit a time that was suggested by the astrologers is [liable for] lashes.” (Hilkhot Avodah Zarah 11:9)

Sefer Yetzirah connects Tamuz to the sense of sight, and this month is about seeing the good in all things. One who has a good eye will have a good life. That is why within Tamuz is the yahrzeit of Joseph, of whom the Torah says he had a particularly good eye, ben porat Yosef, ben porat alei ayin (Genesis 49:22). Based on this, our Sages said Joseph and his descendants were not affected by the evil eye (Bava Metzia 84a). If one has a good eye like Joseph, there is no need to fear from all kinds of superstitious beliefs. In Judaism, astrology has nothing to do with superstition or fortune-telling or horoscopes, it is simply to understand the astronomical constellations of the cosmos and our own connection to them since, after all, man is an olam katan, a microcosm of the universe. The same Talmud says that aquatic creatures are not subject to the evil eye either since they are always immersed in purifying waters. Remember, the crab-like Cancer is an aquatic creature, too, and Cancer is a “water” sign!

Then comes Av when we commemorate the destruction of both Holy Temples. In Tanakh, the Temple is sometimes referred to as Ariel, “God’s Lion”. Fittingly, the constellation of Av is Leo the lion, or aryeh in Hebrew. Intriguingly, the Sages describes the flame of the Temple as a roaring fiery lion (see Zohar III, 33a, Ra’aya Mehemna, and also Sanhedrin 64a). This is all the more fitting because Leo is a “fire” sign! At the same time, in Av we expect the coming of Mashiach, and some even say Tisha b’Av is the very birthday of Mashiach ben David, who is the “Lion of Judah”.

Next comes Elul when we begin the Forty Days of Repentance. It is all about doing teshuvah and returning to a pristine, virginal state. Hence, the constellation of Elul is Virgo, or betulah in Hebrew. Virgo is an earth sign, symbolizing the return to our roots, and rectifying ourselves to become like the primordial Adam, made from the dust of the earth, adamah. Then comes Tishrei when we are judged. The Books of Life and Death are opened and the scales of judgement lie before God. Of course, the constellation of Tishrei is the scales of Libra! Libra, mozna’im, is an air sign, once more connected to soul and spirit, as every soul is judged in Tishrei. But it isn’t all gloom, because the holiday season ends with the joy of Simchat Torah. On Shavuot the Torah was gifted to us, but it is on Simchat Torah that we really appreciate the gift! Gemini and Libra thus parallel each other nicely, both being air signs and both representing pairs and dualities.

Then comes Scorpio, ‘akrav, another “dangerous” creature, fitting for the month of Cheshvan that has no holidays and commemorates tragedies like the Flood and the untimely passing of Rachel. It is often called Marcheshvan because of this, a “bitter” month. Again, it is not because there is anything inauspicious or physically dangerous or unfavourable about this month. Like Cancer, Scorpio is a water sign, and an opportunity to purify. In fact, the floodwaters were brought upon the Earth to purify the world and restart civilization in a more positive way. In ancient times, Scorpio was also referred to as the “Eagle”. With this in mind, we can revisit the Divine Chariot to better understand the four faces: the bull of the Chariot was the Taurus sign; the lion face was Leo; the eagle face was Scorpio—ie. the “Eagle”—and the human face represented Aquarius. These four signs are referred to as the “fixed signs” of the Zodiac and represent the peak energies of their respective seasons.

With Kislev we are back to a fire sign in Sagittarius the warrior, or kashat the bowman in Hebrew. Naturally, this is the month in which we commemorate the fiery Chanukah wars and the warrior Maccabees. And this is the month in which we kindle the Chanukah flames. Chanukah continues into the next month, Tevet, with its earthy Capricorn constellation. In Hebrew, it is called gdi, a goat.

The name “Capricorn” refers to a horned goat or special sea-goat, and in Greek mythology it was seen as symbolic of Amalthea, the goat that nursed baby Zeus. Her horn was the “cornucopia” that produced endless fruits. This might sound totally idolatrous, with no kosher connection to Torah. Yet, the Talmud (Bava Batra 91a) points out that the name of Abraham’s mother was Amatlai bat Karnevo. “Amatlai” and “Karnevo” sound suspiciously like Amalthea and cornucopia! The reality is that most myths and pagan stories actually have a root in the Torah, but were adapted by various cultures and reworked into pagan beliefs and myths over the centuries. We have seen many such examples before, including clear and undeniable parallels between Gideon and Leonidas, Yefet and Japetus, Yavan and Ion, Tuval-Cain and Vulcan, Anakim and Anunaki, Rephaim and Rapiu, etc.

The horned Capricorn goat was significant not just in Greece, but in ancient Babylon. In fact, the oldest-known reference to Capricorn is from a Babylonian clay cylinder dating back to 2100 BCE! It is interesting to note these Greek and Babylonian myths and the kernels of Torah truth that they are based on—especially in light of the fact that in Tevet the most important day is the fast on the tenth day. Recall that the Tenth of Tevet specifically commemorates the Babylonian siege on Jerusalem, and the Greek translation of the Torah!  

Then comes Aquarius, dli, with its life-giving waters. In the Aquarius month, Shevat, we have Tu b’Shevat to mark the start of a new agricultural year, when we begin to irrigate the soil once more. The waters of Aquarius also represent the flowing and life-giving waters of Torah so, again, it is a lofty air sign like the other spiritual Torah-related constellations. The prophet Isaiah (11:9) said that in the End of Days, knowledge of God will cover the Earth like waters in the seas. This is an allusion to the watery “Age of Aquarius” that we are on the cusp of. To explain this new age, we have to understand the axial precession, or “Precession of the Equinoxes”:

The entire night sky is divided up into 88 constellations. So, what makes the twelve zodiacal constellations so special? Why these twelve? The reason is that the sun’s path over the course of the year appears, from our earthly vantage point, to move specifically through these twelve constellations. In fact, if you look carefully at a map of the constellations, you will find that the sun’s path actually moves through thirteen constellations, the extra one being Ophiuchus. There are thirteen Zodiac signs, not twelve! This is perfect from a Jewish calendar perspective, because seven times in nineteen years we have a leap year of thirteen months, adding a second Adar. Thus, the thirteen Zodiacal constellations neatly correspond to the thirteen months of a full Jewish year.

Now, Earth’s rotational axis actually has a wobble, meaning that the positions of the stars and constellations above us appear to shift over time. Where the sun is found at the spring equinox each March changes, too. For the past 2000 years, the spring equinox saw the sun in Pisces, so these past two millennia were referred to as the “Age of Pisces”. Before that we were in the “Age of Aries”. Currently, we are transitioning into the “Age of Aquarius”. The entire cosmos seems to be shifting into a new “watery” era when divine Torah knowledge will fill the Earth as waters fill the seas. If you do the math (thirteen constellations multiplied by 2000 years each), the total length of this cosmic cycle is 26,000 years. That’s an excellent number, too, of course, because it is linked to the value of God’s Ineffable Name, the Tetragrammaton (26).

Finally, the last sign in a regular year is Pisces, dagim, corresponding to Adar. As mentioned above, fish are immune to the evil eye, and are immersed in purifying waters, which is why some believe Adar to be a fortuitous and “lucky” time. Adar is an especially happy month in the Jewish calendar because it was home to many Jewish festivals and happy occasions in the past, Purim being just one of them. So, when a leap year comes around, it is Adar that we want to double, so that there is more joy and positive energy, more purity and less evil eyes.

This brings us right back to Nisan, the root of which is nes, “miracle”. Our Sages say that we were once redeemed in the month of Nisan, so we will one day again be redeemed in Nisan. Hopefully this new month of Nisan will be a month of miracles, and one in which we merit to witness the Final Redemption.

Chodesh tov v’chag Pesach kasher v’sameach!

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More on astrology in Judaism:

Should Jews Believe in Astrology?
Mashiach and the Mysterious 13^th Zodiac Sign
The Strings That Hold the World
Why is Adar Lucky?