Christmas

One More Christmas Star Story!

Star of BethlehemI’ve been reprinting this every year because it’s so fabulous.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa and have a Cool Yule.

John Charles Webb Jr. left a comment with a link to his site which postulates that the “star” of Bethlehem was not an astronomical event but was in fact an astrological alignment that occurred on March 2, 5 BC (-4). If you run a HELIOCENTRIC (most Western astrologers use a geocentric system that comes down to us from the ancient Greeks) chart for this date you will see this formation of the Seal of Solomon, later called the Star of David. The story of Jesus is of course that he was of the lineage of the Hebrew King David.

This same configuration was present during the planetary alignment in 2003 that was called the“Harmonic Concordance”. This chart was a geocentric chart rather than heliocentric, but still it is a powerful symbol. The Seal of Solomon is known in the three Abrahamic religions, and is called the Star of David by the Jewish people. Astrologically the configuration includes:

· three oppositions

· a mystic rectangle

· two interlocking Grand Trines

· a hexagon of sextiles forming a Grand Sextile

By |2022-09-13T12:49:05-04:00December 24th, 2008|Religion|Comments Off on One More Christmas Star Story!
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The Origins of Christmas

Rob Tillett at Astrology.com has a wonderful article about the origins of the Christmas holiday.  Here is a portion of the article:

In the New Testament, the holy book of the Christians, there is no actual mention of the date of the birth of Jesus and the primitive church did not celebrate it. The shepherds of Luke’s gospel (Luke 2:8) were said to have been minding their sheep in a field when they received the angelic proclamation of his birth. It is therefore unlikely that the birth of Jesus could have happened on December 25, for at that time all would have been wrapped up in a warm barn, the wintry weather being too cold for them to be out in the elements. Why then was December 25 chosen as the day for Christmas? Here we have to look more deeply at the customs, religious practices and celebrations of the time.

The Solstice and the Saturnalia

At the beginning of the Christian Era, the Roman Empire was the dominant force in Europe, the Middle East and the world of the Mediterranean. Rome followed a pagan religion of many gods and goddesses, including Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, the Moon and the Sun. There are many myths and legends that tell the stories of these gods and heroes, really a coded set of narratives that reveal much about the ancient cultures and their approach to life, the universe and everything.

Life in ancient times was far more dependent upon the seasons and the natural cycles than we are in the West today, cocooned as we are in our electronic villages, turning night into an interminable electric day. During times when people could actually see the stars in the night sky, astrology developed as a mode […]

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By |2022-12-01T07:25:29-05:00December 23rd, 2008|Religion|Comments Off on The Origins of Christmas
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The Christmas Star

star-of-bethlehemEvery year at about this time we start pondering the mystery of the Star of Bethlehem.  There are lots of different explanations that I’ll be covering over the next couple of weeks.  Here is an interesting article that appeared in Universe Today:

David Reneke, news editor of Australia’s Sky and Space Magazine, believes astronomers may have found the answer – or at least something that fits all the known facts – basing his research on the highly esteemed gospel according to Matthew, the first of the four gospels in the New Testament. It would appear to be the first written and this version places key players together in the same time period. “It’s generally accepted by most researchers that Christ was born between 3 BC and 1 AD.” says Dave. With the aid of modern astronomy software programs astronomers can reproduce the night sky exactly as it was, thousands of years ago. Humans are curious and so was Dave, so he turned back the hands of time and the stars to the time of that long ago Christmas…

Two thousand years ago, astronomy and astrology were considered one and the same. The motions of the heavenly bodies were used to determine the events of history, and the fate of people’s lives. Of the various groups of priests and prophets of this period, those which commanded the most respect were the Magi – whose origins are not entirely clear. Known as ‘wise men’ , we can only assume they were actually priests who relied on their […]

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By |2022-09-13T12:49:12-04:00December 12th, 2008|Astrology|Comments Off on The Christmas Star
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