12 Tribes, 12 Constellations, 40 Years and 42 Encampments = Our Sacred Mandala

This week we read the Torah portion of "BaMidbar," the opening chapters of the Book of Numbers, which describe how the Children of Israel were commanded to pitch their camp in the same configuration during the 40 years of wandering in the desert between Egypt and the Land of Canaan. The configuration of the encampment is the mirror image of the twelve constellations of the Zodiac and their associated tribes. As the constellations of the zodiac surround the earth, the twelve tribes encamped surrounding the tabernacle.

The repetition of this sacred and specific pattern – which may have been the collective embodiment of the Israelite’s mandala, was reenacted forty-two times as detailed in the Book of Numbers by the generation in the desert. This repetition may have served to embed this cosmic pattern into a symbolic primal identity point during the process of developing tribal consciousness during the forty years of wandering. 

The 42 times the Israelites encamped in mirror-image of the order of the zodiac may have been a primitive version of what the medievalists would later call the drawing down of rūhaniyyāt, spiritual energy which manifests as powerful energetic emanations above attracted by a “sympathetic” image below. The graphics here illustrates the order of the encampment and how it corresponded to the order of the zodiac.

Back to Parshat BaMidbar

As the annual Torah cycle progresses, this week we're back at BaMidbar at last! 

Of course as an Astrologer, this is my favorite Parsha. The 12 Tribes arrayed around the Mishkan reflect exactly the 12 Mazalot (Zodiac Signs) mirroring them in the Heavens above. The Tribal Encampment Configuration in the Desert was a powerful energetic vortex designed by HKBH and arrayed in the Heavens even before humankind was created. 

The same pattern was foreshadowed by the positions the 12 sons of Yacov (Jacob) were instructed by their dying father to take around his coffin as they escorted it from Egypt to Ertez Yisrael, to bury him in the Cave of Machpelah with Yitzchak, Rivka, Avraham and Sarah. The coffin of Yacov was the "Mishkan" in this instance.


The energetic vortex was deliberate and powerful. The Cardinal (Initiating) points each had their "Degalim" (flags) - Yehuda/Aries/Nissan to the East, Ephraim/Libra/Tishrei to the West, Reuven/Cancer/Tammuz to the South and Dan/Capricorn/Tevet to the North. Following each Cardinal Tribe/Sign/Month comes the Fixed (Establishing) Issachar/Taurus/Iyar, Shimon/Leo/Av, Menashe/Scorpio/Cheshvan, and Asher/Aquarius/Shvat. Following the Fixed Tribes comes the Mutable (Transforming) Zevulon/Gemini/Sivan, Gad/Virgo/Elul, Benyamin/Sagittarius/Kislev and Naftali/Pisces/Adar.

Initiating - Establishing - Transforming. Each Quadrant of the Year works to propel that energy from Equinox to Solstice and back again... like clockwork. COSMIC CLOCKWORK.
Astrologically, these 12 energies are the "Houses of the Holy" and YOU are the Mishkan - the point in the middle of the cosmic energetic circle, where Initiating, Establishing and Transforming energies do their cosmic dance around you in the Heavens, mirroring and reflecting above in symbol and archetype that which is below.