I have also started reading Joseph Campbell’s Skeleton Key to Finnegan’s Wake. Because some believe that Giambattista Vico’s cyclic view of old science and culture influenced Joyce, I ordered Penguin’s version of Vico’s The New Science. For now, I plan to look through The New Science just enough to get an idea of Vico’s thoughts.
I should first here go back to Joyce’s Ulysses while I re-read the first chapter of “Finnegan” so that the Bardic Astronomy aspect of Joyce’s earlier work gets clarified.
Ulysses vs. Odyssey
Homer’s Odyssey begins with Telemachus inquiring about his father and meeting Helen--probably the constellation Canis Major--then it switches in its second part to Odysseus and his return-trip past the Cyclops--probably the constellation Cetus--to Ithaca, then moves to a third part where Odysseus and Telemachus conspire to throw out the usurpers and then there is a last part where the usurpers are actually destroyed. Sagittarius is Odysseus shooting arrows toward Ursa Major and Ursa Minor which are probably the last two axe heads in the last part‘s contest. Joyce’s Ulysses is mainly a trip across Dublin. In the Odyssey, the path of the ship is the river constellation Eridanus. In Ulysses the path across Dublin is also Eridanus. We can use this constellation to get our bearings in both works.
The Odyssey went completely around the zodiac using the methods of Bardic Astronomy I have described. In Ulysses, Joyce used only the parts of the Odyssey from Gemini/Taurus to Pisces/Aquarius to tell his own story related to that part of the sky. He was pointing us to the old four-fold division of storytelling and the sky and the way it was used by the ancients. This explicitly describes the main difference between Joyce’s Ulysses and Homer’s Odyssey. The Odyssey was a complete four part bardic story but Ulysses is the second part of a story that never had its fourth part written. Joyce was planning HIS four part adventure but died after writing the third part, Finnegan’s Wake.
The Cosmic Egg
In movies and stories like Indiana Jones or in A Journey to the Center of the Earth there is sometimes a motif of an adventurer that is in a cave when a big rock starts rolling down the path behind the hero. The hero runs for his life and at the last moment jumps out of the way while the rock flies past and smashes to pieces against the cave wall. This rock can be the rock that Sisyphus keeps pushing in his torture or the Cosmic Egg rolling down from the Cosmos above. The egg rolls down the path of the river constellation Eridanus too. It hits the stone of south polar precession at (and below) Pisces/Aquarius. This is the old story of the Cosmic Egg. The cosmic egg rolls down from Gemini/Taurus to Pisces/Aquarius. A reference in the early part of Finnegan’s Wake to “Humpty Dumpty” is about this cosmic egg that smashes open at Pisces/Aquarius. Noah’s Ark makes its journey from Gemini/Taurus to Pisces/Aquarius also. The Ark has genetic material in it. Joyce’s earlier book Ulysses had genetic material at Pisces/Aquarius. The Ark has two of each animal. When the Ark lands, this genetic material starts to come out and grow. First there is chaos like the first sentence in Finnegan’s Wake then the two giraffs find each other and then the bull finds the cow and then things start to fit together into a slightly more coherent state. Soon in Finnegan’s Wake we get Shawn, Shem and Issy. The first decanate of Aquarius is Cygnus (the Swan) but in stories it can also be a stork bringing a child. In the story of Perseus and Andromeda, Perseus and Andromeda get together after Pisces/Aquarius and have a child named “Shah” which could have been brought by a stork--the Cygnus constellation. This child was the first of the “Shahs of Iran.”
Water then Air
In a human birth, the baby has its lungs full of watery fluid. It coughs out the water and starts breathing. It then starts eating and growing. In the first chapter of "Finnegan" the reader is starved for air. One is reading words but there is no spirit.
Beowulf
In this area of the sky, just after Pisces/Aquarius, Beowulf has just cut the head off of Grindl’s mother. The bent over Aquarius holding a jug is Beowulf severing the head of Grindl’s mother. This takes place in the grotto--the circle of constellations that never rise (below Pisces/Aquarius). He finds the body of Grindl too and cuts its head off. Beowulf then swims up from the grotto under Pisces/Aquarius. Beowulf emerges from the water later at the decanate Hercules (in terms of the year, around the fall equinox of Sept 21). He has crossed the spirit boundary of the Milky Way and is now on the spiritual or cold or "yin" part of the year.
The Milky Way between Sagittarius and Scorpio is the water boundary in the Beowulf story and the constellation Hercules is Beowulf climbing out of the water. Today’s date is September 22. Do you feel the spirit in the year returning? It is like a big fresh breath of air at this time of the year. Its early, but Spirit has returned.
The quarters of the sky I give the following correspondences.
Water puts out a fire. You heat the water and it turns to a gas (air). At the end of the year it freezes and becomes a solid (ice). You melt the ice with fire and start over again.
Similarly at the end of Finnegan's Wake HCE and ALP are waiting for the sunrise at Sagittarius/Scorpio. They are not waiting for the return of some material "Sun God" of Saturn but for Sol or Soul, the spiritual part of the day, month, year, life, Great Year or Cosmos.
Here is a diagram of coming up out of the water.
When reading old adventure stories, there are often few references to the fish decanates near and just past Pisces/Aquarius because it is hard to fit a fish story into an adventure story. The medieval “Fisher Kings” were at Pisces/Aquarius. Their castle is the world tree. You go in and upstairs find the family--perhaps Guenevere and the Grail--Virgo and Crater (the Cup) are up the ladder on the other (spiritual) side of the world tree. Meanwhile the Fisher King is the“uber-materialist” at Pisces/Aquarius.
After the resurrection of Finnegan at Pisces/Aquarius, one could say that one of the first decanates that Joyce uses (if he is consciously using them) is the Southern Fish. This is the confusing language in the beginning. People liken the Finnegan’s Wake story to a dream. The fish is swimming around under water. It is like a subconscious activity. A little later in the story one gets to the Dolphin decanate. This is the fish that breathes real air. It periodically swims to the surface and breathes air. It can even swim up to the surface fast enough to jump out of the water and get a look at the water paradigm--the matrix.
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