Apocalypse as model of human development

The Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, is probably the most complex and difficult book of all and the most redolent with symbolism. It has been interpreted as charting the individual's journey in time and space as he or she reorientates the frame of reference from the here and now, passing and ephemeral existence to the eternal.

F Aster Barnwell has elucidated this interpretation in terms of astrological symbolism. For example, the "four beasts" may be seen as the four fixed signs in the cross of transmutation - Taurus and Scorpio (in its higher psychic expression as Eagle), Leo and Aquarius. At the psychological level, Taurus represents need for security and at the spiritual level the ability to be contented. Similarly, Scorpio represents the need to express sexuality and the capacity for transcendence, Leo the need to exercise one's own power and will and energy or capacity for will, and Aquarius the need to express individuality and capacity for expressing humanity. It can also be demonstrated that misuse of the energies represented by these signs and the resultant faults result in sins (respectively theft, fornication, murder and sorcery) enumerated in Revelation IX 20-21.

Again, the energies of the four mutable signs - Gemini and Sagittarius, Virgo and Pisces - which unite in the mutable or common cross, may be related to psychological truths represented by the "four horsemen", respectively the black, white, red, and pale. These are the means of transforming to the spiritual by the death or doing-away with what has been outgrown, the ego-driven, lower consciousness. And the four cardinal signs of the cross of transcendence - Aries and Libra, Cancer and Capricorn - are related to the two olive trees and the two candlesticks (Revelation XI and Zachariah IV), the "two witnesses". Aries and Libra, as the two olive trees, represent the degrees of awareness of self, ego and conscience, perfection and peace; while Cancer and Capricorn, the two candlesticks, represent degrees of definition of self, emotions and ambition, belonging and purpose.

Further, the problem of duality, of coming to terms with conceptual pairs of opposites to arrive at a fully integrated consciousness, is related to the praises sung to the "Lamb that was slain" (Revelation V 11-12) and failure to master duality with those suffering second death in the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation XXI 7-8), these dualities being the the opposing pairs of zodiacal signs. Examples are Aries-Libra representing power but also fearfulness, Virgo-Pisces representing glory but also unbelief. The praises are seven, one for each pair of opposites and one - blessing - for the state beyond duality, for integration. The failures or shortcomings are either eight in number (one for each of the fixed signs, and for each pair of cardinal and mutable signs) or (chapter XX 14-15) six, again fixed signs separately, but the mutable together and the cardinal together. Barnwell relates the six pairs to self-awareness (Aries-Libra), self-expansion (Taurus-Scorpio), self-exploration (Gemini-Sagittarius), self-definition (Cancer-Capricorn), self-expression (Leo-Aquarius) and self-assessment (Virgo-Pisces). The six pairs of opposites and the state beyond the opposites are further linked to the seven churches, the seven cities and the seven planets.

Symbolism is not confined to the signs of the zodiac but to the numbers represented by their 360 degree circle in space (which St John also extends to a symbolic 360-day year), each sign comprising 30 degrees (months of 30 days), these divided into 3 decanates, the basic unit of space and time. One decanate of each sign depends totally on that sign, one also on the preceding sign and one also in the following sign. They are related to the 24 elders, each elder representing a decanate of the cardinal and mutable qualities (that is, those not represented by one of the beasts). The elders wear crowns of gold, as the individual integrates experience and is spiritually realized on mastery of the energies represented by the respective signs. It is the fixed signs (those of the beasts) that are unfocused and heavenly and least likely to be manifest in consciousness, so it is their misuse that is emphasized in Revelation. The number 1260 (also severally represented as: 42 months; three years and a half; "time, times and half a time") symbolizes the progress of psychospiritual integration, fully comprehensive and reiterative. This is the permutation of pairs in the 36 decanates, the individual has experienced all possibilities of space-time reciprocity. Barnwell explains that this true wisdom is compared with the number 666, the "number of the beast", related to linear, rational thinking, the use of a theoretical approach avoiding experience, where space-time reciprocity is ignored, the combination rather than permutation of pairs in the 36 decanates. Going further afield, Barnwell points out that three and a half is the number of times the sleeping serpent of kundalini coils around the base of the spine. He suggests that 666 represents incomplete awakening of kundalini energy, when gifts, even genius, are spoiled by ego-centred pride, rather than the full 1260 days for full psychospiritual synthesis when the ego is surrendered to God's will. This relationship to kundalini is strengthened when one considers the spiritual journey through the chakras until at the seventh chakra (church, city, planet) one is beyond duality.

This interpretation links the wisdom of the New Testament through the prophecies of Ezekiel in the Old Testament to the astrological traditions of Babylon and Egypt.