This is an annual repost for the holidays. For an in-depth discussion on this topic please tune in to Astrological Musings Radio Sunday morning, December 20 2009, at 11 am Eastern (or listen to the archived show later). More details here.
by Lynn Hayes In the 2,000 year old tale that we know as the Christmas story, three wise men came out of the east following a star to Bethlehem. The three wise men were Magi, members of the priestly class of Persia. Ancient historian Diodorus tells us that after Persia invaded Babylon, the Magi learned astrology from the Chaldeans as well as alchemy and other occult arts.
There has been much debate over the centuries as to the identity of the Star that the Magi followed. In ancient astrology Jupiter, being King of the Gods, was associated with kings and Johannes Kepler in 1606 hypothesized that the Star was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces in June of 2007. Astronomer Michael Molnar says:
Jupiter underwent two occultations (“eclipses”) by the Moon in Aries in 6 BC. Jupiter was the regal “star” that conferred kingships – a power that was amplified when Jupiter was in close conjunctions with the Moon. The second occultation on April 17 coincided precisely when Jupiter was “in the east,” a condition mentioned twice in the biblical account about the Star of Bethlehem. In August of that year Jupiter became stationary and then “went before” through Aries where it became stationary again on December 19, 6 BC. This is when the regal planet “stood over.” – a secondary royal portent also described in the Bible. In particular, there is confirmation from a Roman astrologer that the conditions of April 17, 6 BC were believed to herald the birth of a divine, immortal, and omnipotent person born under the sign of the Jews, which we now know was Aries the Ram
Looking at the chart for 4/17/0006 b.c.e. with our modern planets, there is a nearly exact Mystic Rectangle formed by an
opposition between Pluto and Uranus which sextiles an opposition between Neptune and Mercury. Jupiter in Aries is at the exact midpoint of the Mercury/Uranus sextile. This is a powerful configuration that could bear out this theory.
However, there was a slow moving comet in 5 b.c.e. that bears the hallmarks of the gospel stories. The gospel of Matthew reports that the comet “stood” over Bethlehem, and Chinese accounts of the comet in 5 b.c.e. said that it was visible in the sky for 70 days. Although in the middle ages comets were seen as portents of doom and disaster, in more ancient times comets were said to herald new dynasties. Colin Humphries has written a very convincing article promoting the Comet as the Star of Bethlehem.
The dating of the birth of Jesus at zero c.e. is due to an error by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus who was instructed in A.D. 533 to create a new calendar using Christ’s birth as a beginning point. The Gospel of Matthew states that Jesus was born during the time of Herod the King, but Herod died in 4 b.c.e.
Because the Magi were astrologers and astronomers, it is more likely that they used a combination of astrological information to seek the star since they would not have been privy to the schedules of comets. However, the confluence of events that occurred during this period, combined with a high expectation of the imminence of a messiah to rescue the Jews from Roman subjugation, no doubt led to a flurry of messianic prophecy and excitement.
posted December 19, 2009 at 5:40 pm
John Charles Webb, Jr. has a site on this subject. templeofsolomon.org.
posted December 20, 2009 at 5:08 am
I found the article of interest. Approximately 25 years ago, an astrologer by the name of Moby Dick in Honolulu published a book entitled Joshua bar Joseph ish Nazareth in which he writes the story of Jesus as if it were written in the first person. I found it especially interesting that after many years of research on Moby’s part, he drew a chart that he believed to be a rectified chart of the birth if Jesus. It was, if memory serves me correctly for March or April of 6 AD. Moby I am told was quite a personality on the air as a disc jockey, but more importantly, it was said of him that he was Jewish and became a Christian whose passion it became to know as much of Jesus as he could. Sadly he passed away soon after we moved to Hawaii so I never got to meet him, but I did look up his son who was also an astrologer. The book had a limited edition and I am now moivated to seek it out an read it once more. Thanks for the article..the only thing that doesn’t quite figure is Herod’s death superceeding the birth of Jesus, I wonder if it is mentioned in Moby’s book.
posted December 22, 2009 at 5:11 am
- Pope’s star watcher to visit Nasa (12th February 2009) and talk aliens… The Vatican is to go head to head with Nasa over the
possibility of life existing anywhere else in the Universe except Earth…
- Secrets of the Vatican – UFO’s in the Ancient Art (VIDEO)… FILM: UFOs in the Bible…
THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM MYSTERY – The Secret Places of the Lion, by George Hunt Williamson:
“The theologians are wrong about the supranatural light generated by the star, the light that guided the Magi. In fact, we’re talking
about a spaceship, the same that had led the people of Israel out of Egypt, the one that had fed them with manna for 40 years… The
spaceship had come back in time to announce the birth of Jesus – the Supreme Being of our solar system, the Son of God… Jesus wasn’t
born in a stable as belived, but in a house”(Matthew 2: 11).
God and Spaceman of the Ancient Past, by W. Raymond Drake:
“The stars seem motionless from Earth, the only stars drifting in the sky are the planets, which slowly move on precise orbits… Only a
spaceship intelligently controlled can look like a celestial body which suddenly appears close enough to the Earth, in a narrow area, to move guiding those who follow it and then to stop. Jesus had been born in a stable in Bethlehem”…:
http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2008/10/star-of-bethlehem.html
posted February 6, 2010 at 3:21 am
Any theory about the star of bethlehem that is worth even considering must meet two criteria: (1) it must explain all the known facts and (2) it must make a testable prediction (to discover whether it is true or false). It would also be nice if the theory were very simple which is unusual in the world of convoluted astrology. It would also be nice if it contained some human truths which many bible stories do. As far as I know there is only one theory. Check out the URL link for “a statistical solution to the star of bethlehem problem”.
posted February 21, 2011 at 5:55 pm
The events that make the above Chart possible need fine tuning: Jesus was Created (i.e. placed in the womb) on the 12th wk. 77th day of 6 BC, Jesus would then be Born on the 12th month, 7x7x7th day (9 December 6 BC), Jesus would die on the 77th day (18 March) of 30 AD, and two days later, be resurrected, this describes a total of 12,777-days. Jesus’ Key: 777. There is only one version of The Holy Bible that contains this precise formula: The King James Version. And the formula is called, THE SOLOMON FORMULA:Theophysical Science, and I am its founder, Simon “Sam” Gutierrez of The Solomon Formula. And here is that formula: 360-111-222-333-444-555-666-777-888-999. All of what I described regarding Jesus’ Creation/Birth/Death is proven hundreds of times in the KJV. In any science, coincidences do not exist!