“On this hand, on the other.”
The Span of Protection
Phase 356
Water Element
Dr. Marc Edmund Jones provides the official meaning of this Sabian symbol in his work, Sabian Symbols in Astrology:
Pisces 26° A new moon that divides its influences
This is a symbol of universal initiative as a basic dynamic in any personal scheme of things, and it reveals itself most simply in man’s instinctive and often blind outreach to the reality in which he participates. His action must be tentative until he achieves his own true self-discovery, but he makes a fine skill of his uncertainty and refuses to commit himself except as he encounters a full response to his deeper realization and ultimate motives.
The keyword is FINESSE
When positive, the degree is a thoroughgoing capitalization on life’s transitions and an effective development of every emerging potentiality of self, and when negative, a completely disruptive vacillation.
The formula is: sustaining-practical-universal-generalizing-spiritual-experimental.
I’m Only Human – Christina Perri
What’s a human being to do then when things are divided asunder, when things that are hidden make it all so very unclear. Strategic plans underway and out-of-sight with no resolution or rescue in sight. Wide is the gate and narrow the way, but do you go this way or that? A time of division demands making a decision. How can we ever hope to capitalize in the midst of such periods of transition? The answer lies within the this Sabian symbol. Read through it again, slowly. Understand. Focus. Read and receive knowledge. Here is the initiative needed in uncertainty to reach out, even if timidly at first, and to set one’s direction ahead.
Things that can neither be confirmed nor denied
Do things seem this way and that? Is there a lot of double-speak going on? A walking back of the talking just yesterday proclaimed with certitude? In the midst of such mayhem, how does one tap into the universal initiative required? On the one hand, we know that the Cheshire Cat told Alice that if she didn’t know her destination, then it really didn’t matter which way she went. On the other hand, we are told, that our destiny is often met on the road we take to avoid it. It’s quite paradoxical. A conundrum. A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, as we often quote Churchill in saying.
So here we are at a new moon divided–this way or that–we must choose, for entropy is death, and a new moon is quite the opposite–it is insemination, conception, and a beginning. So, please, no sleeping right now, wake up! We’re at a climax!
“For it is waking that understands sleep, not sleep that understands waking,” and also, “There is an ignorance of evil that comes from being young; there is a darker ignorance that comes from doing it, as men by sleeping lose the knowledge of sleep.” C.S. Lewis
So, if you have to choose–once you slap a cold rag on your face–which way would you go? So, then, go! Do not look back unless and until your choice is proves itself wrong. Otherwise, assume you’re on the right track–just keep going!
“On this hand, on the other.” Saijin
Image: A walk on the moon?
These personal reflections are but an example of one person’s journey of discovery with the Sabian Symbols. This blog series was written in 2014 and 2015, during the last two years of my mother’s life. She and I lived here together in my home, and at the end of each day I would sit and write my reflections on each symbol. At that time I had studied the Sabian symbols for seven years. However, these blogs aren’t interpretations, they are simply my reflections about the symbols. Yet, they hold a very sacred place in my heart and in my memories. I have edited them lightly over the following years, but always preserving the essential feelings and energies surrounding that first attempt at writing about them. When this series is done being edited, around Scorpio season, I will most likely go on and begin a new blog series. Much has changed over the past nearly nine years! I have many other things I’d like to share about the symbols. But, for now, this is the first cycle of reflections.
If you are interested in beginning your own adventure with the Sabian symbols, I encourage you to begin keeping a set of notes of your own thoughts. You might begin your quest with drawing a Sabian symbol from the Sabian Oracle. You can find it by clicking the link below. Enter the time of the draw for later reference.
Draw a Sabian symbol from the Sabian Oracle!
You can find more of my works on my website at SabianGeometry, on YouTube at Sabian Geometry or on Facebook at Sabian Geometry with Saijin. If you are interested in studying the Sabian symbols in their models of the Cross (4-fold) and the Star (5-fold), I invite you to purchase my book: On the Shoulders of Giants: Advanced Techniques in Sabian Symbology. The Sabian Symbol Septenary (7-fold model) is available to read on WordPress or if you prefer to listen, on Spotify.
*All of my works are based on Sabian Symbols in Astrology by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones, 1953 First Edition.
To learn more about The Sabian Assembly, the organization founded by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones on October 17, 1923, where seekers are bound by “searching for competent rather than easy answers to the problems of life”, please visit The Sabian Assembly.
Sabian Symbologist ~ Saijin 
