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My French stinks, Langdon thought, but my zodiac iconography is pretty good. Taurus was always the bull. Astrology was a symbolic constant all over the world.

The Da Vinci Code

Astrology is well defined in dictionaries:

The study of the positions and motions of celestial bodies in the belief that they have an influence on the course of natural earthly occurrences and human affairs.

I don't understand why "Astrology was a symbolic constant all over the world". How should we understand it in this context?

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    It might be added that this sentence is a little strange: he means "Symbols in astrology are constant all over the world."
    – jonathanjo
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 11:44

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It's saying that the symbolism of astrology, so for instance constellation of Taurus as a bull. Was always identified as a bull, irregardless of what culture saw it.

So he's saying that aztecs, vikings, africans etc. all saw the constellations, and used the same symbols for them. So even if he doesn't speak their language, he can "read" the symbols, because they have the same meaning in all languages.

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