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Solar Mythology in the New testament Part 4Harvest TimeOn August 23rd the sun enters the house of Virgo the virgin. Virgo is the virgin that figuratively gives birth to the sun each year when the sun passes out of Virgo. Even though Virgo gives birth, she remains a virgin, just as Mary is the virgin who gives birth to Jesus and yet remains a virgin.
Food and drink are literally the elements which sustain life. Mother earth brings forth food which grows up out of the ground. Because life springs forth from the earth, the earth is given the female role of mother, since it is from the female that life emerges. And if earth is the mother, then the father must be the god above who pours down rain from the sky impregnating the earth. This is why God above is a masculine "He" instead of a feminine "She" or a sexless "it." The sun is born or re-born in four different ways:
[1] Frederick Goodman Zodiac Signs pg. 87 The Scales of JusticeAfter the harvest the sun moves from Virgo into Libra, the Scales. (September). These are the "Scales of Justice." The harvest has been gathered, it is now time to sell the harvest. Scales are used in buying and selling the harvest. At the end of harvest time, when there is nothing left to sell, the money changers pack up and leave. The Bible says, “Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers.” (Mark 11:12-19; Matthew 21:12) Jesus, the sun, representing the passage of time, moves out of Libra, the Scales of Justice, and the money changers pack up and leave, because the season has passed and they are finished selling the harvest. As we enter the season of Autumn the leaves fall from the trees and the trees appear to wither. It is at this point in the story that Jesus is said to curse the fig tree and make it wither, a story which makes no sense if Jesus were a real person, but it makes perfect sense when understood as an allegory. It is simply Autumn, and Jesus, the sun, who makes the seasons pass, causes the leaves to fall from the trees (Mark 11:20-25; Matthew 21:18-22)
Note that food and drink are literally the elements which sustains life. When we participate in the Communion ritual in church we eat bread, figuratively the body of Jesus, and drink wine (or grape juice), figuratively the blood of Jesus, because food and drink are literally the elements which sustains life. It is the sun which makes plants grow so we can have food to eat and wine to drink. We personify the sun as Jesus and then give thanks to Jesus (the sun) for our food and drink. The harvest is our salvation. ScorpioIn late October the sun enters Scorpio, the Scorpion. The name of this sign in Arabic and Syriac is Al Akrab, which means wounding him that cometh. The brightest star in this sign bears the ancient Arabic name of Antares, which means the wounding.1 Thus, when the sun enters the house of Scorpio, the Scorpion figuratively stings the sun wounding it to make it slowly die.By late October it becomes very noticeable that the days are getting shorter and colder as the sun rises lower and lower each day. The sun, which lived to give us the harvest of food so that we may live, is now weak and dying. Darkness and cold begin to reign. The sun spends more of it's time down below in the underworld then it does above. The sun has descended down into hell. Night is longer than day, and the days aren't very warm. We've harvested the food. We've had our feast. Now the year tragically winds down and comes to an end as the days become short and cold. Similarly, after the last supper the Jesus story goes tragically downhill. In the Jesus story Jesus is betrayed by Judas, one of the twelve. Judas represents Scorpio the scorpion. Scorpio stings the sun condemning it to death, just as Judas kisses Jesus condemning him to death. It is interesting to note that even though the chief priests want to arrest and kill Jesus, they can not identify which person is Jesus, and resort to bribing Judas to point him out for them. It should be obvious by now which person Jesus is. Jesus has thousands of people following him. A huge crowd welcomed him as he entered Jerusalem, riding both an ass and a colt, quite a theatrical performance that would naturally draw a crowd. After entering Jerusalem Jesus continues to teach every day to the crowds assembled. Supposedly by now anyone could point him out, yet inexplicably the chief priests can not identify him, and resort to bribing Judas to point him out for them. Judas is a personification of Scorpio. Pilate, whom Jesus sees next after being betrayed by Judas, is a personification of Sagittarius, the next sign in the zodiac following Scorpio. Scorpio, the scorpion, stings the sun condemning it to death, just as Judas kisses Jesus condemning him to death. After the sun has it's fateful encounter with Scorpio it moves on to Sagittarius, leaving Scorpio below the horizon, a figurative death for Scorpio. Similarly, after Jesus (the sun) is kissed by Judas (Scorpio), Jesus (the sun) moves to stand trial before Pilate (Sagittarius), and Judas (Scorpio) dies a tragic death. There is a contradiction in the Bible regarding the death of Judas. Matthew 27:3-5 claims Judas returns the money and then hangs himself in an act of suicide. But in Acts 1:18 Judas is said to have used the money to buy a field in which "he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out," which sounds somewhat like an accident. Christian apologists try to come up with clever scenarios whereby both are true so there is no contradiction. I leave it to the reader and his imagination to try and reconcile these two conflicting passages. For our purposes we only care that Judas dies (Matthew 27:1-10), followed immediately by Jesus being handed over to Pilate (Matthew 27:11-26). [1] Joseph A. Seiss. The Gospel In The Stars pg. 45 SagittariusSagittarius is the last constellation the sun passes through before the Winter Solstice, when our story ends. Similarly, Pilate is the last person Jesus sees in his story before the story ends. Pontius Pilate is a personification of Sagittarius. Sagittarius is a man on a horse with a bow and arrow. The theme is hunting. We're all done harvesting, so let's go hunting. It is a good time of the year to go hunting. The animals are full grown. And we've not much else to do, except it sure is getting dark and cold this time of year, isn't it? What's happening to our sun? It seems to be leaving us. Will it leave us forever? After the death of Judas (after Scorpio goes below the horizon), Jesus (the sun) is handed over to Pontius Pilate (Sagittarius). Pilate is the last person Jesus encounters in the story before being put to death, only to be resurrected three days later; just as Sagittarius is the last zodiac month of the year the sun passes through before dying on the Winter Solstice, December 22, only to be resurrected three days later and begin anew its journey northward, on December 25, Christmas day. "Pontius", ποντιος {pon'-tee-os} (Strong's Greek #4194), is literally "of the sea", a reference to the sea of stars above. (It's also of Latin origin, betraying it's late addition to the text.) [Click here to see the verse in Greek]. "Pilate", πειλατος {pil-at'-os} (Strong's Greek #4091), is literally "armed with a spear". Sagittarius, the archer, is armed with a bow and arrow, which serves the same purpose as a spear. The theme is hunting. We're all done harvesting, so let's go hunting. Sagittarius also pierces the side of the sun with his arrow, just as Jesus has his side pierced while on the cross.1 But the days are getting shorter and shorter, and colder and colder, as the year comes to a close. The dark nights are getting longer. Things look dark and gloomy. What will happen to our savior, the sun, who makes the harvest grow providing us with life saving food? Will he disappear forever? Are we doomed? Is this the end? The good news of the Bible is, "No, this is not the end. It is the preface to a new beginning. The sun will arise again, the cycle will begin anew, and we will all be saved, again." HEROD But of course using this logic we could claim multiple copies of any character whenever it was convenient for us. We could have two Judas characters, both who betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, one who returns the money and hangs himself (Matthew 27:3-5), and the other who uses the money to buy a field in which "he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out." (Acts 1:18). The Bible doesn't say there are two different people both named Judas, but then again the Bible doesn't explicitly say the Judas who tripped and fell is the same Judas who hanged himself, though such would be the natural conclusion, were it not for the fact that the two versions of the story contradict one another. So the Bible does not explicitly say this is a different Herod, though it would be the norm for any writer to mention such a thing if it really were a different person who happens to have the same name. After all the Bible does distinguish between John the Baptist and John the brother of James and son of Zebedee, so there's no confusion between which John it is referring to. Yet for Herod the Bible makes no distinction, leading us to believe it is the same Herod mentioned earlier. This of course leaves us desperate when trying to force this story into a historical context. However, there is no problem when we interpret the story as an allegory, with Jesus a personification of the sun and Herod a personification of the darkness and cold of night time and the dark and cold seasons of Autumn and Winter. As an allegory Herod figuratively "dies" every morning with the rising of the sun (Jesus), and regains power every evening with the setting of the sun. Herod also looses power when the bright warm seasons of Spring and Summer commence. Herod regains power in the dark and cold seasons of Autumn and Winter. Herod is a personification of Night. Herod, or the darkness of Night, is taking over Jesus, the sun, as the days get shorter and shorter in Autumn and darkness begins to reign. (See Matthew Chapter 2—The Birth of Jesus for more on King Herod). ANTI-SEMITISM Imagine if the Koran had a statement that Muslims used to justify endless persecution of Christians. Christians would forever be persecuted by Muslims, because of a statement in the Koran, a book Christians don't believe is holy scripture and never read. Persecution of Jews diminished after World War II when it was revealed that 6 million Jews had been exterminated during the war by the Nazis. It finally became unfashionable to persecute Jews. THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS On Christmas day, December 25, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. December 22 was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, when the sun was at its lowest. Three days later, on December 25, the sun rises 1/10 of it's width farther north — just barely detectable by carefully observing the shadows cast at sunrise. Our savior, the sun, has been reborn, to begin the cycle of the year and the cycle of life again. Originally Jesus was said to have been born in a cave. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) article on "Bethlehem" says, “The tradition of the birth in a cave was widely accepted, as we see from Origen's words about a century later: — In Bethlehem the cave is pointed out where He was born, and the manger in the cave where He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and the rumor is in those places and among foreigners of the Faith that indeed Jesus was born in this cave —. (Contra Celsum, I, li.) It is reproduced also in the apocryphal gospels (Pseudo-Matt., xiii, ap. Bonaccorsi, op. cit., 159-163; Protevang. of James, xvii sqq., Bonaccorsi, 155-159; Gospel of the Infancy, II-IV, Bonaccorsi, 163-164).” [See Eusebius's Life of Constantine, lib. 3, chs xl, xli, and xlii.] [Also see Matthew Chapter 2—The Birth of Jesus]
[Also note that archaeological evidence indicates Bethlehem of Judea was uninhabited at the alleged time of Jesus' birth. "There is surprisingly no archaeological evidence that ties Bethlehem in Judea to the period in which Jesus would have been born." (The likelihood is there was no settlement at this site at that time.)— Where was Jesus really Born? Archaeology magazine’s article Volume 58 Number 6, November/December 2005] Hence the story is circular, just as the years are circular. A new year begins after the old year ends.
In the Gospel story of Jesus, after his resurrection the story ends. People have always asked what did he do after that? Why does the story end here? Why isn't the rest of his life chronicled? — The reason is, if you want to read the continuation of the story, turn back to page one. The story is circular. Three days after Jesus dies and is placed in the cave he is born again, and the story begins anew. In church it is customary to begin reading through one of the Gospels at the beginning of the year. Each Sunday we take the next chunk of the story and read it and the pastor makes a sermon on it, never realizing that the story is an allegory for the passage of time, the seasons of the year, which we ourselves live and experience, as we live our lives, dependent on the sun for light and for food. [1] Acharya S interview at http://www.consciousmedianetwork.com/members/acharya.htm (Oct. 2005) [Return to text.]
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In the Jesus story we then have the Last Supper, where Jesus and his twelve disciples, a reference to the twelve zodiac months of the year, recline and eat the harvest. (
On New Years Eve we personify Father Time and Baby New Year, but we know these two figures aren't real people, they are merely personifications of the passage of time and the beginning of a new year. The current year is old and finished with. A new year is about to begin. The moment the Old Year ends a New Year begins. The cycle of life is circular and never ending.