1. Kurdah - Xi Cepheus
0°22 Aries - 'The blaze' upon a horse's brow.
The Knock of inner spirituality on the brow. Inner Silence borne over the centuries and lifetimes makes heard its inner calling.
Divinity at the threshold knocking upon the third eye. The ancient Indians marked it as a mark on the forehead saluting this inner divinity.
The classical figment of the Horse sets this off. Aries Point, what in astrology is the end of process, consciously atleast.
How do you know a degree? This one says the world for many many centuries has known this Star to be the beginning of the Zodiac.
The star itself, Kurdah, is old language for a running horse. The blaze upon its brow, what the Indian mark as the ‘Tilak’.
The spot for the Horse, where would be the Unicorn’s horn.
But our world knows not of Unicorns, or flying horses in pegs & Pegasus-es, of centaurs or sea-horses, all vestiges of thousand of civilisations past.
The Star is the spot where the Horses look, inward in focus. As if running & chasing time itself where wonder and magic roamed free.
This is the First Degree of the Zodiac. It is said that the horse is the mind focussed to its thought(s). And thus the eyes like two horses, held in chariot of Focus.
The Point of Chariot, not quite the horse’s mouth, but rather the third eye, Ajna of the Horse.
The constellation that houses ‘Kurdah’ is Cepheus, of the King.
And like the Emperor’s messenger horse, we begin to know ourself in the stars.
The Message of this Star and Degree – Know Your Self.
To the Indian Nakshatra scheme, this is the first step station of the asterism Ashwini, of the Healing Horses. It is said to be ruled by the Tail of the Dragon or the Lunar Eclipse Ketu. And the Step station of this degree – Mars.
Naturally, this is a critical degree.
A coat of quotes and passing poetry
"
"And as the seed waits eagerly watching for its flower and fruit.
Anxious its little soul looks out into the clear expanse
To see if hungry winds are abroad with their invisible array ;
So Man looks out in tree, and herb, and fish, and bird, and beast.
Collecting up the scattered portions of his immortal body.
Into the elemental forms of everything that grows.
He tries the sullen North wind, riding on its angry furrows,
The sultry South when the sun rises, and the angry East,
When the sun sets, and the clods harden, and the cattle stand,
Drooping, and the birds hide in their silent nests.
He stores his thoughts.
As in store-houses in his memory. He regulates the forms.
Of all beneath and all above, and in the gentle West Reposes where the sun's heat dwells.
He rises to the sun,
And to the planets of the night, and to the stars that gild.
The zodiacs, and the stars that sullen stand to North and South,
He touches the remotest pole, and in the centre weeps That Man should labour and sorrow, and learn and forget, and return.
To the dark valley whence he came, and begin his
labours anew."
"Artwork and Poetry | William Blake