Month: July 2022

Biblical Astronomy of The Grand Celestial Alignment of June 2022  1

The heavens were revving up for some celestial fireworks in June of 2022, to be reflected on earth leading into our July 4th celebrations for Independence day!

The Grand Celestial Alignment in June of 2022, picks up on what we saw two months ago in the celestial signs in April of 2022, starting with a union of Mars and Saturn, as the two approached each other closer than a lunar diameter on April 5th. April opened with three bright planets massed low in our east-southeast sky just before sunrise. This was preceded by a triangular massing of Venus-Mars-Saturn in Capricornus on March 28th, 2022. In April 2022, these planets Venus, Saturn & Mars are only 6 degrees, apart with Venus to the left, followed by Saturn and Mars in conjunction.

Figure 1.  Capricornus the Celestial Goat-fish. 2 

The union of Mars and Saturn, represents interesting symbolism as the Red planet Mars can embody the blood of Christ, which is key during the Passover month of April, in light
of his perfect sinless blood, that he sacrificed for all humanity. Mars can also represent the Warrior Archangel Michael as he fights for God’s people, against Satan-embodied in Saturn or Satan’s planet. With this conjunction in Capricorn in April 2022, it recalls the same month our Lord was crucified on April 28th, 28 AD, with a series of planetary conjunctions within a Grand Alignment nearly 2000 years later.

As Christ embodies the Passover in Israel, seen in the celestial symbolism of Capricornus his death and resurrection fulfilled a prophecy of Isa. 53, sacrificing his life for the sheep. As Bullinger eloquently put it; “the living fish proceeds from the dying goat, and yet they form only one body. [Eph. 4] That picture which has no parallel in nature, has a perfectly true counterpart in Grace, and the great multitude which no man can number, is redeemed unto eternal life through the death of their redeemer. 3 

Around the 8th of April, Jupiter, which was immersed below the horizon during the first week of April, makes an appearance, expanding this alignment with the other three planets to make it a foursome. By the morning of April 19, all four planets are aligned in a diagonal line of a little over 30 degrees; from lower left to upper right: Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn, as seen in Figure 2.

These two planetary unions that included the outer planets of Neptune and Uranus, show that these solar system giants were present in a Celestial Alignment even in April, just not visible to the naked eye, as their fellow outer planets Jupiter and Saturn.

Saturn presently rising before midnight, is visible to the naked eye shining as a bright, golden-white orb glowing in Capricornus. This sign pictured as a Goat-Fish reflects Jesus as he embodies one of two goats-Old Covenant sacrificial animals
on the day of Atonement, the other of which was the scapegoat. Bullinger says of the two goats; the first of which is the sin offering, God gave it to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord.” [Levi. 10:16-17] The other goat, which was not slain, was released into the wilderness. [Levi. 16:22] 6 Here is the death and resurrection of Christ.

On May 30th, a Jupiter-Venus union, started June’s alignment off, with a bang! Unions of Jupiter-Venus have been key in marking the birth of Christ in 3-2 BC, with other similar signs following. As a reminder, the unions of Jupiter-Venus the sky’s two brightest planets, was also one of the signature planetary unions marking the birth of Christ, with the Jupiter-Venus union on Aug. 12th 3 BC, about a month before the Rev. 12 sign on Sept. 11th, 3 BC. We have seen notable replays of these celestial signs with the Blood Moon Tetrad of 2014-2015, as referenced below in August of 2016.

Figure 3. August 15th, 2016 Jupiter-Mercury-Venus triangular union in Leo. 7

This triangular planetary union in Leo is considered part of the signs of the Celestial Sphinx, which occur in Leo the Lion, or Virgo the Woman, the Alpha-Omega signs of the Mazzaroth, that have united these 12 signs in their thematic telling of the Celestial Gospel since their creation in Genesis. Celestial signs like planetary conjunctions and alignments, for example, are key in marking the birth and Return of Jesus Christ.

This spectacular Jupiter–Venus conjunction in 3 BC was marked again last year in the early dawn of Feb. 11th, 2021 is a precursor to the triple union of Venus, Mercury and Jupiter, with the Moon on the same day. Not only are the Jupiter-Venus unions significant in marking the birth and return of Christ, but also the unions of Mercury-Venus are noteworthy, as referenced by Dr. Ernest Martin.

In his book, The Birth of Christ Recalculated, Ernest Martin states; “On the morning of  September 1, Venus and Mercury came into conjunction only .35 degrees apart...”8 

Dr. Martin goes on to tell us how this Mercury-Venus conjunction set the stage for the Jupiter-Venus conjunctions around the birth of Christ, highlighted by their spectacular June 17th 2 BC union:

“After the Sept. 1 meeting with Mercury, Venus journeyed back into the light of the Sun, emerging in the West as an evening star about 20 December, 3 BC, and when this occurred, an observer would have noticed the planet just after sunset moving progressively higher in the sky (going more easterly) with each succeeding day. This movement placed Venus on a collision course with Jupiter which was moving westward. At the period when Venus had just passed its easternmost elongation from the Sun (the farthest east of the Sun that Venus ever reaches) on 17 June, 2 BC, the two planets “collided”. They were 0.04 degrees away from each other. This was a most uncommon occurrence. To an observer on Earth, the luminosity that each planet displayed made them look like one gigantic star. It was as if Venus had stretched herself as far eastward as she was able, in order to join with Jupiter as he reached westward to meet her. This conjunction occurred at the exact time of the full Moon. The whole of the evening sky was being illumined from the east by the full light of the Moon, while the western quarter witnessed the Jupiter/Venus conjunction. Professor D.C. Morton, Senior Research Astronomer @ Princeton University, said the conjunction of 17 June, 2BC, was a notable astronomical event [ZPEB, vol. I, pg. 398]. Such closeness had not been witnessed in generations. Roger W. Sinnott, writing in the journal Sky and Telescope, December, 1968, ppgs. 384-386, referred to this conjunction as a brilliant “double star” that finally gave the appearance of fusing together into a single “star” as the planets drew nearer the western horizon. He said that only the sharpest of eyes would have been able to split them and that the twinkling caused by the unsteady horizon atmosphere would have blended them into one giant “star” for almost all viewers. “The fusion of two planets would have been a rare and awe-inspiring event” [pg. 386]. Here were the 2 brightest planets in the heavens merging together. This was happening at the period when Venus was approaching her time of greatest brilliance.” 9

Leo The Lion

The major signs marking the birth of Christ on September 11th 3 BC, are not only sealed with this triple union of Jupiter-Regulus in Leo, but also by this set of Jupiter-Venus conjunctions in Leo, including the June 17th sign of 2 BC. In addition, the greater majority of heavenly signs marking the birth of Christ were bracketed by 2 Jupiter-Venus unions in 3 and 1 BC.  The first Jupiter-Venus Conjunction marking the birth of Christ took place on August 31st 3 BC, in Leo with the last one occurring on August 21st, 1 BC in Virgo. Here we find an interesting variation on a Celestial Sphinx sign highlighting planetary conjunctions of Jupiter-Venus, taking place during the first fulfillment of the Rev. 12:1-2 prophecy relating to the sufferings of Christ in his ministry as the Passover Lamb. This alerts us that we should look for similar Celestial Sphinx signs as a precursor to Christ’s Second Coming. In this light, it is with great interest that we discover 3 Jupiter-Venus conjunctions that occurred in Leo, followed by Jupiter-Venus conjunctions in Virgo in both 2016 and 2017.

The following dates saw Jupiter-Venus conjunctions in Leo in the Hebrew Jubilee year of 2015:

June 30th, 2015
August 25th, 2015
October 26th, 2015 

Jupiter-Venus in Conjunction

The following dates, depict similar Jupiter-Venus conjunctions in Virgo in 2016-2017:

July 27th, 2016
Aug. 26-27th, 2016 [Jupiter enters Virgo] starting its retrograde in Virgo’s womb
Feb. 26th, 2017
Sept. 23rd, 2017 [Virgo clothed with the Sun/Moon @ feet]-Rev. 12:1-2
Nov. 13th, 2017

Now that we have an idea of the impact of celestial activity of Jupiter-Mercury-Venus, and some of their individual unions as signs of the Celestial Sphinx, we can get a sense of their key roles in the birth and return of Christ. These 2 brightest planets; Venus and Jupiter, teamed up to provide the closest planetary union of 2014, and the closest Venus–Jupiter conjunction until August 27, 2016, noted above. In the eastern dawn, starting in mid-August, these two dazzlingly-brilliant planets moved closest together around August 18, 2014. This notable Venus-Jupiter union, separated by only 1/3 a degree, was the only one
of 2014, between the first two Blood Moons of the 2014-15 Blood Moon Tetrad.

Returning to the June 2022 Grand Celestial Alignment of planets, we find these 5 visible planets appear in the sky as they are ordered in their solar orbits. Scanning from the east-northeast horizon up to the right, we find Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Adding the Moon, which marks Earth’s spot in the lineup from June 23 to 25, which spot is occupied by the outer planet Uranus as viewed from Earth in the banner above, explaining why it is occulted by Earth’s Moon on June 25th.

The June Moon appeared in a series of snapshots, paired to these planets in the order seen below. The Moon, which passed near all five planets in June, makes identifying each planet, on given mornings a lot easier. On Saturday (June 18), for instance, a waning gibbous moon was positioned 6 degrees to the lower right of Saturn, with Neptune.

Incredibly, the last time this kind of alignment happened was March 5, 1864! The alignment of planets in this specific order last took place in Dec. 2004.

Jupiter the scepter and King Planet- an early morning object, rising in western Pisces,  shining at a brilliant magnitude over 2.5 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in Earth’s sky. The redeemed multitudes seen in Capricorn’s fish-tail, are also embodied in the adjoining fish decans of Delphinus the dolphin, and Pisces Australis, the fish of the south, and decan of the water sign Aquarius. This theme continues with Pisces, as the Moon pairs with Jupiter in this planetary alignment.

Mars finally comes to the fore as it continues to brighten in its approach to Earth. It rises in the east out of its previous conjunction with the slower moving Saturn, in early April, now shining at magnitude 0.5. The Red Planet Mars is distinguished by its crimson red-orange hue, emphasizing the stainless redeeming blood of Christ.

As we have seen, this Grand Celestial Alignment is a somewhat rare, Celestial sign with many implications for the First and Second advents of Christ. With activity like this, it’s easy to keep our heads to the sky, anticipating the Great Hope of Christ’s return for his saints, and the spiritual body of his church. It is great to be a partaker in this Hope with you all!!

God Bless!

Rene’ 

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