Designer: Chris Mackey

 

Groundspeak Zodiac Set: This set was commissioned by the official store of Geocaching and Groundspeak.

 

Company/Mint: Unknown to me

 

Year Made: 2018 to Present

 

Stats: 45mm x 4mm thick

 

Purpose: Custom Made Geocoin

 

Availability: Still in Production

 

My Thoughts: This is one of the best researched and most attractive western zodiac geocoin series to date. Every coin in the series of 13 is simply amazing and I hope that they will eventually come out with a collectors edition of the set in .999 silver or gold plated. The tracking code is located on the side of the coin which is also somewhat novel. The only oddity to the series is that some of the designs us cultural relief while others use enamel coloring to meet the design.

 

Well written words from the Artist of the Series: 

 

For Taurus: While not as illustrious a story as some of the signs, Taurus or better known The Bull of Heaven dates all the way back beyond the Chalcolithic era and possibly even into the Upper Paleolithic! Leading experts believe he is even represented in the Hall of the Bulls in the ancient caves at Lascaux which date back to about 15,000 BC. He was worshiped throughout the early world by nation after nation after nation beginning as far back as ancient Mesopotamia and later throughout Egypt, Africa and on into Europe with the Druids, Greece, and ancient Rome. When it was first observed as a constellation, ancient humans realized that it crossed the plane of the ecliptic and marked the location of the sun during the Spring Equinox. It heralded the coming of spring to the northern hemisphere. When the spring equinox entered the Bull, the constellation would become covered by the sun in the western skyline and spring would begin.

 

For Virgo: The front of the coin features a graphically simplified version of the maiden in repose with her wings half-folded behind her and her uncut hair flowing. On the reverse, the symbol of the maiden with crossed legs is center within the Triplicity of Day Ruler, Night Ruler, and Participant positions. Sheaves of grain bracket either side as her symbol of fertility and her star constellation is centered below.

 

For Gemini: Despite the ever-popular theme of "the twins" being two women in depicting this zodiacal sign, that they are in fact, two young men. They are Castor and Pollux to be more exact. According to Greek mythology, Tyndareus, the king of Sparta and his beautiful wife Leda were expecting a child when Zeus grew enamored of the beautiful queen. Zeus transformed into the guise of a swan to approach and finally seduce Queen Leda. Shortly afterward the queen gave birth to two sons... the twins. Pollux, the son of Zeus was an immortal demi-god while his brother Castor was mortal. Both boys would become avid horsemen, athletes and scholarly. Sadly, Castor in his mortality died while still in the prime of his life in a rather strange feud over cattle with his cousins, but not before warning his brother. As Pollux was about to be struck with a spear, his father Zeus intervened and slew his rivals. Pollux was distraught and asked Zeus to save his mortal brother with the gift of immortality. Zeus then cast them both into the heavens as the constellation Gemini.

 

For Libra: I was surprised to learn that while often thought of as the scales, the personification of the Libra is the griffon. The scales do not indicate balance the way of right and wrong, but rather a perfect split between calmness and harmony with violence and action. The color for Libra is Chrysolite (Peridot in modern days), a cool green gem, slightly lighter in color than an emerald. In the Triplicity, the day ruler of Libra is Saturn, the night is Mercury and the participant is Jupiter. Libra is the time of balance when the hours of day and night match each other (the fall equinox), a time of righteousness and auspicious beginnings.

 

For Cancer: When I dove into the historical records of the crab I was quite surprised to find those oldest depictions did not show a crab at all, but rather a lobster or something lobster-like. Suddenly the symbol made so much more sense... a long curved body with a rounded tail tucked up almost into a circle below it rather like the profile of a shrimp, lobster or crayfish. Indeed, the ancient descriptions of Cancer referred to it as a shelled creature that resided in or near the shallows of any body of water. Over the eons, Cancer would be depicted as lobster, crayfish (Germanic), shrimp, scarabs (Egyptian), water beetle, scorpion and even a snapping turtle (Babylonian)! The idea of Cancer as the crab truly became established when Greek mythology set the crab Karkinos as an ally to the goddess Hera who would attempt to sabotage Hercules attempts to destroy the Lernaean Hydra. Karkinos attempted to distract Hercules during his battle and was rewarded with immortality by Hera becoming the constellation in the heavens. 

 

For Leo: Leo is the Nemean Lion or Leon, a terrible monster that terrorized the countryside of Nemea in the Peloponnesus, a peninsula in the south of Greece. It was a cunning beast who was fabled to kidnap women and hold them hostage in its cave nearby. It would wait for brave warriors to come challenge it before rushing out to strike them down, devour their flesh and give their bones to Hades. In some tales Leo would even cast an enchantment to appear as a beautiful woman in distress and then attack would-be saviors while their guard was down. As the first of the 12 feats assigned to him, Heracles would eventually face off against the lion. He would first try to strike it down from a distance with a bow and arrow, but the hide of the beast was impervious to this attack. As the lion closed in, Heracles would try to stun him with his club, but this attack as well proved only marginally successful. He would finally have to strangle the lion to death. Recognizing the value of the impenetrable hide of the lion, Heracles would attempt to take the skin of the lion, but his blades were not sufficient for the job. Athena had watched the hunt from a distance and finally told Heracles to use the lion's own claws to penetrate the hide.

 

For Capricorn: Capricorn is one of the four cardinal signs of the Zodiac. The symbol is based on ancient Sumerian's earliest god of wisdom and water - Enki. Later known as Ea in ancient Babylon, Enki is the god of intelligence, craftsmanship, magic and all waters. The goat is a symbol of ambition, resolution, curiosity and resilience while the fish is symbolic of passion, spirituality, intuition and connection of the soul to the earth and the waters that flow through it. Inky is the patron god of crafts and through higher levels of skill...civilization. He has often been depicted with a horned crown and wearing a cape made from a great fish.

 

For Scorpio: Scorpio is one of the oldest constellations ever recorded. Ancient Sumerians referred to "Gir-Tab" (the scorpion) some 5,000 years ago and long before the first appearances of a divided zodiacal calendar in the Babylonian astronomy of the 1st Millennium B.C. Gir-Tab, "the sting that burns" is a complicated constellation made of 18 primary stars and located near the center of the Milky Way. Ancient mythology records that Scorpius was sent forth to destroy Orion after he boasted that he would hunt down and kill every animal on earth. Artemis, also a hunter, wasn't having it and sent her scorpion to challenge and ultimately defeat Orion. In the aftermath, the Gods raised up both Scorpius and Orion to the heavens where Orion continuously flees away from the scorpion across the night sky.

 

For Pisces: Pisces is known for having two fish, but it can be surprising to learn that the two fish are actually the goddess Aphrodite and her son Eros(Cupid) in disguise. They donned the disguise of fish to escape the Typhon, the father of all monsters. The two fish are often illustrated as one residing in heaven (Aphrodite) and one residing on earth (Eros) and connected by a spiritual link or line between. 

 

For Aries: The ram was both a winged ram like a Pegasus and also the golden fleece ram warded by the dragon of time. This is Chris Mackey's birth sign. 

 

The 13th Sign - The Wheel: The final in the Zodiac series... The Great Wheel. This single zodiacal wheel is a compilation of 3 of the most notable wheels in modern history... The Ptolemaic Wheel, the Cosmic Clock of Halevi and the Zodiacal Charts of Hermes Trismegistus, the duality god of Greco-Roman/ Egyptian melding. The constellations, their signs, house divisions and triplicity charting are encompassed between the two faces and the outer edge showcases the original zodiacal stones according the breastplate of Aaron from the Book of Exodus. At the center is the heavenly form of the Hemphta, the panamorphic diety of combined cultures that symbolizes the center-point of universal knowledge.