The author has found a personal, intuitive approach to the conceptions of ancient and medieval medicine that associate the signs of the Zodiac with parts of the human body. Her method is to make use of words that emerge in the state of falling asleep. This 'functional phenomenon' was first studied by Silberer. Isakower, whom the author does not mention, pointed out that in the transition to sleep typical sensations show a preoccupation with the body ego. Similarly, the author's emerging words at the beginning of sleep ('spectral words') are linked by association with posture and sensations of the body surface. These spectral words gave to the author an understanding for the autosymbolization by which primitive men might have projected the body ego into the star groups of the sky that mark the course of the sun. It would be interesting to compare the author's intuitions with more detailed historic studies of the changing conceptions of the Zodiac.