Observations placeholder
Totem group – Picts – Sign of Zodiac - Stag
Identifier
026449
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The symbolism for the stag is described in the entry in the symbol section found by using the link.
Pictish stones were used as signposts.
They described in pictures the sacred site to which the pilgrim was being directed, they gave directions in which it was to be found and they gave the constellations that could be used for navigation by the stars. Every constellation has a symbol and each picture of the symbol then maps onto the constellation.
In this case we could find no correspondence between the stag and any of the constellations mapped by Ptolemy.
It is possible for example that the Picts would have used a non Greek name and symbol for constellations like Hercules, or Cassiopeia the Ethiopian Queen the Seated Woman, Cepheus the Ethiopian King, or Perseus. In effect a constellation may once have been mapped for the stag, but it has been lost to history.
But there is every reason to believe the Stag was a totem animal representing the Signs of the Zodiac [the tasks in the great work allocated to that clan]. The symbol may never have been allocated to a constellation. The varying poses and representations somewhat indicate that the animal itself was important , but no fixed representation for identification of constellations existed.
