Gospel Zodiac

Zodiacal symbols on the Temple veil

the seven lamps before the altar

the twelve loaves upon the table


Spring equinox initiates

ram-headed Jesus

the fire-chrismed prophet

on the seasons’ cusp

serious and thirty

at Saturn’s return

ready to take up the sword

and behead the foe.

Aries rules the tribe of Reuben;

headstrong captains lead the exodus

in the hour of confrontation


Seeded on the Bull’s shoulder

The Pleiades beacon the ploughman

as he treads the furrow’s bounds;

stone and earth call the builder

to shape clay thoughts and desires.

Buddha’s mind is the May full moon,

Sudden above the trees.


St Paul sets sail

On the Castor and Pollux

Under mercurial skies;

the mutable man is on his way

to communicate with foreigners

and broker a new age.

Where do they meet,

the parallel lines?


Jesus was born with the waxing sun,

John with the waning

At the toppling of the sun,

When the Crab’s claws grab the Earth.

Silly cowardly creature,man,

Retreating fearfully when he should advance!

Sea-brothers in white,

Jesus and John were spawned together

And swam as one

With the moon’s tides.


When Sirius gyres up to its zenith

the sons of the Lion, hearts inflamed,

the tribe of Judah,pharaohs all,

race their chariots across the desert

for honour and fame.

Jesus,Moses and Elijah

Each raise a tabernacle beneath

the stations of the sun.


As the August sun leaves Leo

and prowls towards Virgo,

its radiance quite annihilates

the Virgin’s faint stars;

and in September she is reborn,

Visible once more at dawn.

Children,little star-shepherds,

bakers of delicious bread,

harvest the days with invincible force.


At the fulcrum of the year

The tribe of Issachar are sheep-dipped

In thickening darkness,in the fall;

perilous counterpoise of souls

yoked between extremes.

The evening star conducts

A perfect marriage in the air,

While terrible Jerusalem

contrives omens of the Passion.


Plough the dead vegetation back

into the earth to putrefy

in the month of All Souls;

sublime poison seethes

in Scorpio’s sting.

Swallowing strychnine,

the snake-handler yells

redemption to the coffin-lid sky.


Sagittarius rules the long journey,

the horse’s mouth,all oracles

and jests,as the archer’s bolt

shoots high beyond expression.

Into false Jerusalem,astride

a colt,he rides, the man

misunderstood,condemned

by hosannas and praises.


Northward from its southerly limit

turns the sun,flying the banners

of Naphtali.Caesar paces

up and down,performing

his works through Saturn’s offices.

Which authority should one

turn to, which scripture to believe?

Skeletons in winter’s boneyard,

teach the ignorant flesh.


The Water-Bearer lives in the act

of pouring;silently,he serves,

releasing a river,a waterfall,

a rainbow.The Temple

was not entirely destroyed;

one can leave a message

in the Wailing Wall.

The ointment is poured out

onto the Master’s head

and feet.


Pisces is the sign of Joseph,

the martyred king,a salmon leaping

upstream to his birthing-place;

Ash Wednesday promises

that death is but the medium

and the executioner a friend.

Look,the gift vouchsafed you:

a ring found in the belly of a fish.