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The Biblical Astronomy of the Christmas Day Signs in 2 BC and 2017

The Biblical Astronomy of the Christmas Day Signs in 2 BC and 2017

This week we were all reminded of the importance of the Jupiter-Venus conjunction series and the critical role it has played regarding the birth of Christ, with their dazzling June 17th, 2 BC union, as Jupiter and Venus were closely aligned in Leo. As we have noted this continuing series related to the Celestial Sphinx relating to the modern Blood Moon Tetrads, our eyes have been opened to the key role embodied by this series, with its end-time applications. The Nov. 13th, Jupiter-Venus union saw the King Planet and the bright and Morning Star, less than 1/3 of a degree apart, 1 [Rev. 22:16]. During the Jupiter-Venus conjunction, Mars was mid-body in the constellation Virgo. Both Mars and Jupiter are moving east, Mars towards Virgo, and Jupiter moving towards Libra. Following the celestial signs around the 9/23/2017, Rev. 12 sign, Venus is involved in some noteworthy activity. While moving through Leo playing its part in forming the 12 stars in Virgo’s Crown and the 2017 triple union of Mercury-Regulus, Venus and Mars converge in Leo, remaining in close proximity in the first week of October. Rising in the dawn skies of October 5th, Venus passes 2 tenths of a degree from the arch-angel Mars-Michael, as seen in Plate 1 below. 2

Plate 1. Oct. 5th, 2017 Venus-Mars Conjunction in Leo

On Nov. 19th, after leaving its union with Venus, Jupiter unites with Zuben El Genubi in Libra, on its easterly ecliptic path into Sagittarius.
After the November 13th Jupiter-Venus union, the king planet continues on its ecliptic approach entering Libra, where it will remain forty-one weeks, in a subsequent 9-month retrograde into 2018. This is the first of a triple union between Jupiter and Zuben El Genubi in Libra, that will be completed in summer of 2018, resulting from Jupiter’s retrograde in Libra. The dates for this triple union are supplied below; 3

1. 12/21/2017 union of Jupiter-Zuben El Genubi in Libra.
2. 6/2/2018 union of Jupiter-Zuben El Genubi in Libra.
3. 8/15/2018 union of Jupiter-Zuben El Genubi in Libra.

In later Nov. 2017, we find Mars the archangel Michael moving into conjunction with Spica in the morning sky, see [Plate 3]. This union takes place on November 29th, with Mars 3 degrees north of Spica. Below we can see the Jupiter-Mars conjunction in Libra in early January 2018. This sets the stage for the triple conjunction of Jupiter-Zuben El Genubi in Libra based on the 2018 retrograde of Jupiter.

Plate 2. The Jan. 7th, 2018 Jupiter-Mars conjunction 4

In the morning sky on January 7, 2018, Mars finally overtakes Jupiter in Libra, in an eye-opening conjunction, with Mars only 3 tenths of a degree separated from Jupiter. The Jupiter–Mars union of January 7th 2018 takes place after the first of 3 unions Jupiter will undergo in Libra, this time about 1/2 a degree apart from Libra’s brightest star– Zuben El-genubi. December 21st 2017, finds Jupiter in direct motion passing North of Libra’s alpha star, meaning “the purchase or price which is deficient.“5 Jupiter’s union with this bright star in Libra speaks to man’s inability to redeem himself, because he has been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

Plate 3. 12/21/2017 union of Jupiter-Zuben El Genubi in Libra, with Mars near Spica. 6

The significance of Libra not only refers to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but also includes the judgement of God on mankind. The ONLY way man can be weighed in the balances and NOT found wanting, is by Believing in Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God who bought our redemption by spilling his innocent blood at the cross, [Rom. 10:9-10]. This truth is embodied in Libra’s star, Zuben Al Chemali-the Price that Covers! 7

Jesus is the only one ever who was not only qualified, but actually laid down his life for all man-kind, which makes him the only Way of Salvation, the Alpha and Omega-the first and last way God made available for the redemption of all humanity.

To brighten our holiday season this year, we will be treated to a Christmas Day conjunction of Saturn and Venus in Sagittarius! On Dec. 25th, 2017 Venus the bright and Morning Star unites with Saturn, displaying Christ’s victory over the evil one, as seen in Sagittarius where our quickly returning Lord Jesus Christ is portrayed in triumph, conquering to conquer! Here the star picture of the mounted Archer has his arrow aimed at the red heart of the Scorpion–Antares, while the foot of Ophiuchus crushes the Scorpion’s heart underfoot. As we noted in our previous blog post, Saturn has just completed its triple union with Saiph, the star in Ophiuchus’ other foot which was stung by the Scorpion, bruising the heel of the 1st and 2nd Adams, [Gen. 3:15]. This shows Satan’s persistent evil to obstruct God’s purposes any way he can, even though he knows he is defeated. This planetary conjunction near the conqueror’s Bow, shows the deadly accuracy of our Lord’s aim [Plate 4] to destroy the works of the enemy, [I John 3:8b].

Plate 4. The Arrow of Sagittarius aimed in the Galactic Center to the Heart of the Scorpion.

Of course, this week’s Jupiter-Venus union on Nov. 13th, 2017 reminds us of the Jupiter-Venus conjunctions marking the birth of Christ, on Sept. 11th, 3 BC. With the arrival of the new born king on the scene his sufferings to fulfill the OT Law as the Passover Lamb were ahead of him, where now he is looking forward to his Glory in eternal victory, and the redemption of his purchased possession–the Church of his spiritual body. The Christmas Day conjunction of Saturn and Venus in Sagittarius, recalls the exploits of the Magi in 3-2 BC, with notable celestial activity.

Matthew 2:9

When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

“According to astronomical calculations, Jupiter was not visible crossing the Meridian, the “high point” over Bethlehem from September through November of 2 BC …However by December 4 of 2 BC, Jupiter became visible at the Meridian shortly before dawn…the eclipse
shortly preceding Herod’s death occurred on January 9, 1 BC. Thus it was sometime during this five week period from December 4th to January 9th that the Magi journeyed from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and saw the star of Matt. 2:9.“⁸

In reference to “came and stood over” in verse 9:

“Astronomically, stars and planets are similar to the sun in that they rise in the east and set in the west. Furthermore, a star or planet is like the sun in that it will reach a high point in the sky in relation to the observer. At this point it is on the Meridian (longitude) of the observer. During the day, the sun reaches this point at noon. Consider the stars and planets in their nightly courses. They rise in the east. At some time during the night each will reach its highest point in relation to the observer, the Meridian. If this occurs in the southern sky as one is travelling south, as with the Magi travelling from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the star would appear to come and stand over one’s destination.“⁹

We should recall at this juncture Jupiter’s annual activities including its retrograde motion, began on December 25th, 2 BC. Martin states: “Jupiter arrived at its ordinary time for retrogression and it became stationary among the stars. But this time something unusual happened. In 2 BC as viewed from Jerusalem, Jupiter came to its normal stationary position directly over Bethlehem on December 25th…not only that, the planet assumed its stationary position while in the middle of the Constellation of Virgo, the Virgin.“ ¹⁰

Thus, according to Martin, the same astronomical phenomena that initiated Jupiter’s three Conjunctions with Regulus, its annual retrograde motion would have caused Jupiter to stand still in the heavens for about six days near the intersection of the ecliptic and the Meridian mid-body in Virgo. This occurred in week of the celebration of the Feast of Dedication in December of 2 BC. Also recall the relationship between the cycles of the Sun and Jupiter, and that the Sun, mid-bodied in Virgo for the twenty-day period, from August 27th to September 15th, marked the birth of the promised seed.

Martin goes on to say that: “on December 25th, 2 BC at the ordinary time for the Magi’s pre-dawn observations, Jupiter would have been seen in Meridian position (directly over Bethlehem) at an elevation of 68 degrees above the southern horizon. This precise position would show the planet shining directly down on Bethlehem while it was stationary among the stars.” ¹¹

Martin’s assertion that Jupiter began its retrograde motion on December 25th, 2 BC, aligns with the start of the Feast of Dedication, that year which was from December 22 to 29. As the Magi left Jerusalem, they saw Jupiter on its nightly course. Looking south they saw it high in the sky, nearing its apex on the Meridian of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Thus, the king planet-Jupiter was clothing Virgo, as the Sun did during the birth of the promised seed, mirroring the movement of the light of the world, while clearly marking the birthplace of the King of the Jews for the Magi.

Plate 5. The Journey of the Magi (1894) by James Jaques Joseph Tissot “12

These were important celestial indicators for the Magi, who would have seen the spiritual significance of “his star”—Jupiter, in” Virgo during the month of December in 2 BC, directly over Bethlehem, indicating the birthplace of the King of Kings, who would inherit David’s throne. In this light, we can understand Balaam’s great prophecy in Numbers 24, as a reference to this.

Num. 24:17-I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh, there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and he shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

“Star out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel“- Star = H3556 (kowkab) figuratively an illustrious Prince who is the star to rise out of Jacob, holding the scepter as ruler over Israel. 13 We should note the figure of speech polysyndetyn utilized in this verse regarding the “many ands” which emphasize each aspect of the verse appearing between the “ands.” This “star” was associated with the sceptre rising out of Israel, is a celestial reference to the sign of Leo the Lion with specific implications for it’s brightest luminary, Regulus the king star, the brightest star on the ecliptic also known as the “heart of the Lion.” The King’s sceptre is the symbol of his power over the heathens and those who oppose his purposes, by which he will rule over them with an unbending authority or “rod of iron,” [Ps. 2, Rev. 19:15]. Regulus was known by the ancients as the only king star which is linked with this scepter. This fulfills Jacob’s prophesy, that one holding this scepter would arise out of Judah according to Genesis 49. Secondly, the regal authority of this star is established in the king planet-Jupiter, whose authority as we have just seen, was symbolized by Leo the Lion, of the tribe of Judah that provided the regal stock from which the kingly line of Israel arose, first in King David, and ultimately in Jesus Christ from the “root of David” [Rev. 5:5]. The triple planetary Conjunction of the king planet Jupiter, with the king star Regulus in Leo from 3-2 BC, thus aligns specifically with the prophecy of Genesis 49:8-10, which shows the maturation of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Balaam’s revelation here in Numbers 24:17 provides a Scriptural basis for the connection between the “star of Jacob” [Jupiter] and the “Sceptre,” to the advent of Christ the King, who came forth out of Jacob’s genealogical line. Secondly, there is a celestial double meaning in the phrase: Star out of Jacob, with connotations for both the general and specific aspects of our Celestial Prelude. The complete details of the correlation between the triple Conjunction of Jupiter and Regulus in 3-2 BC, and the record in Gen. 49, is available through our bookstore on the DVD “The Biblical Astronomy of the Birth of Christ.” This unique teaching provides the in-depth instruction on the celestial pageantry of the birth of Christ, along with the history of the Magi and numerous related Biblical Astronomy topics that time does not allow in this blog post.

As we have shown, the ecliptic is structured so that each of the 12 primary signs of the zodiac of 30 degrees has three decans associated with them, of 10 degrees each. The first decan of Virgo called Coma, is depicted in the Dendera zodiac as a seated mother nourishing her infant son. Coma is the Hebrew name of this Constellation which means “the desired.” The Egyptian name for this decan of Virgo was Shes-nu the desired son, [Hagg. 2:7].14 It was in the head of this child, the desired of the nations, as Haggai prophesied him to be, that a supernova appeared over 100 years prior to the birth of Christ. E.W. Bullinger refers below, to the popular belief regarding this general sign that was prevalent in and before the first century BC:

“a traditional prophecy well known in the East, carefully preserved and handed down, that a new star would appear in this sign [Coma] when he whom it foretold, would be born.” ¹⁵

^{Plate 6. Jupiter-Saturn triple Conjunction of 7 BC.}

This tradition was based on Balaam’s declaration in Numbers 24, meaning that Balaam’s prophecy holds additional import. First, The new star, or supernova located in the head of the infant in Coma, visible for a total of over 270 years, was the general sign that prepared the Magi to be on watch for specific aspects of the second part of the Celestial Prelude, involving the series of celestial signs from 7-5 BC. These signs seen in the triple planetary Conjunction of Jupiter-Saturn in 7 BC would set the stage for the Magi’s recognition of the triple planetary union of Jupiter-Regulus from 3-2 BC, marking the long prophesied birth of the promised seed. Here we see the third aspect of Balaam’s prophecy in relation to the scepter, symbolic of the reign of the king planet Jupiter. As we have seen in our study, Jupiter is the planet that the Magi called “his Star” in Matt. 2:2.

“there shall come a star out of Jacob“- In Numbers 24:17, when “Jacob” is referred to, it refers not only to his seed, but also the land that was promised to him, in his Covenant with God. Bullinger states in reference to this star in Numbers 24:17 that the word “come” is, come forth (as in the Revised Version). He translates “there shall come a Star out of Jacob,” as: “There shall come forth a star at or over the inheritance or possessions of Jacob,” thus indicating the locality which would be on the Meridian of this star.”¹⁶ [emphasis mine]

This “Star out of Jacob” would not only be unique in its Messianic symbolism, of the Promised Seed, but also because of the terrestrial link of his birthplace-Bethlehem of Judea, in the Promised Land of Jacob’s inheritance. This holy land, especially the town of Bethlehem, was specifically marked out by his star-Jupiter, as God guided the Magi to the birthplace of both David and Christ. Rolleston has an notable remark regarding this:

“The Magi forewarned that the star must appear over Jacob, over his inheritance, would see that star in Coma passing over the center of that inheritance: but as it would also appear to pass vertically over every part of it that was nearly in the Latitude of Jerusalem, thus they could not at once fix on the spot of the Messiah’s birth, therefore they went to inquire; the Latitude, as it were, being given by the star, the longitude by the prophecy.” ¹⁷
Rolleston’s quote reveals that she also fell victim to the confusion between the general and specific signs of the Celestial Prelude. It was not the new star in Coma that led the Magi to Bethlehem, which had been shining brightly for over 100 years, but the Scepter–Jupiter in Virgo stationary due to its retrograde motion during the winter Solstice that stood over Bethlehem, the inheritance of Jacob, that inspired the great joy of the Magi. It was the dual triple Conjunctions of Jupiter-Saturn that identified the king planet as “His Star,” and the same star that got them started on their caravan which led them to Jerusalem in August of 3 BC. Since Coma is the “L”-shaped decan of Virgo, pictured below, adjacent to the Woman in the heavens, the Magi saw both the supernova in Coma, AND Jupiter in Virgo, simultaneously aligned on the Meridian in the same part of the skies over Bethlehem. We have depicted this graphically in the banner of this blog post.

Plate 6. Coma an ancient Decan of Virgo

Here we see the Witness of the Stars, and the Scriptures, working together to bring the Magi to the toddler Jesus, because their alert observation of “his star” brought them to Jerusalem and the scribe’s declaration from Micah 5:2, when Herod questioned them, sent the Magi south towards Bethlehem. Tracking again the historical references to the Coma supernova, Ignatius, one of the Church Fathers and the Bishop of Antioch, in about 69 AD, records that: “At the appearance of the Lord a star shone forth brighter than all other stars.” If we are careful not to confuse this reference with the planet Jupiter, we can deduce that this supernova was still visible to Ignatius over 200 years after it first appeared, thus marking the general time-frame of Jesus’ birth. Joseph Seiss has some viable historical references which narrow down the period wherein this supernova was visible:

“Hipparchus about one hundred twenty-five years before Christ, observed it [the Coma supernova] as a new star, and was led by it to draw up his catalog of stars. Ptolemy, about one hundred and fifty years after Christ, refers to it as having been observed by Hipparchus, but as having become so faint as hardly to be any longer distinguishable.” ¹⁸
A point of interest here regarding Hipparchus is that he is generally credited with the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes by modern science in about 134 BC. He reportedly came upon this discovery while studying the star Spica, on a celestial map produced by his predecessor, Timocharis. He noticed that Spica was about 2 degrees away from it’s location on the star map, and decided that its movement averaged one degree every 75 years; [close to the actual 72 years]. This is a key to remember in our study of Dendera’s zodiac related to Spica, and this general sign detailed in other sections of our [www.try-god.com] website. Rolleston also records the appearance of this bright new star in 125 BC, so bright that it was visible during the day.

The Magi would have witnessed both this star shining brightly in Coma, in the head of the young desired son, seen as already standing on his mother’s lap, not as an infant in a manger, [Plate 7]. Just below Coma in Virgo, Jupiter was in retrograde motion standing still on the Meridian, on December 25th during their early morning observations around 4:25 am in 2 BC, Jupiter was standing high overhead, directly above Bethlehem, as the Magi approached from Jerusalem, the general sign in harmony with the specific. This gives another reason why the Magi were the only group to recognize the specific signs of the Messiah’s birth, because the general sign was a fixture in Coma from about 128 BC to 150 AD, marking the general period the Promised Seed would appear. The typical person wouldn’t have noticed any irregularity in the heavens, because it does not stand out unless coupled with the knowledge of the specific signs, regarding Jupiter, which brought the Magi to Israel in the first place. This is another reason why the Magi were overjoyed when they saw “his star” over Bethlehem. Also of interest, is the truth that the Gentile Magi arrived during Hannukah-the festival of lights, also recognized as the second Feast of Tabernacles in Israel, allowed for those who missed the first one in September. It is fitting that the initial Gentile recognition and response to the light of the world took place during this appropriate time, indicating God’s Grace to all mankind, [Hag. 2:7]. The timing of the winter Solstice is also key here because the Gentile Magi appeared at the time of the expected birth of the heathen sun-god, but honored the true Son of God instead, marking a much needed transition from the world’s idol practices, to the true veneration of the Promised Seed-Jesus Christ. This understanding of the distinction between the general and specific signs surrounding the birth of Christ should clear up the majority of the confusion and controversy related to this topic of study, if the Bible is recognized as the standard of truth, supported by history and the accuracy of the Biblical Astronomy as detailed here.

With both Mars and Venus in Ophiuchus, during this sign in December of 2 BC, we can see the archangel Mars-Michael, standing to protect the ascendant Morning star-the toddler Jesus Christ, during this time of the enemy’s attack. A noteworthy point here is Jupiter standing still in the heavens for about six days during the Hanukkah celebration, near the intersection of the ecliptic and the Meridian in Virgo. This focuses our attention on the path of Jupiter intersecting the ecliptic; the Sun’s path, pointing out the celestial relationship between Jupiter and the Sun, not to mention their kindred symbolism.

Martin states that:

… while Jupiter was in its “standing still” position over Bethlehem, the Sun was also “standing still.” All know that December 25th is in the usual period of the Winter Solstice. The word Solstice means “Sun stands still.” These stationary coincidences of Jupiter and the Sun are quite related, and would have appeared significant… ¹⁹

Plate 7. Sunset Horizon from Jerusalem at Christ’s birth on 9-11-3 BC.

Malachi 4:2
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

The word “arise” in verse 2, is not only used of the Sun and light in general, but it and two of it’s derivatives occur in [Isaiah 60:1-3, Jer. 23:5]. As we have seen in regards to Jer. 23:5, the planet Jupiter, the sedeq planet is associated with the Messiah, Jesus Christ the righteous zemach-branch, and is one of five primary Old Testament prophecies pertaining to this Branch, as the coming promised seed. However, with the stationary choreography of Jupiter and the Sun, we have an added Messianic-solar link. The reference of “arise” above, is very interesting when considered not only from the aspect of Jupiter standing still, in Virgo, but also referring to the zemach-branch and the setting time of the star Spica in Virgo, whose ancient Hebrew star name refers to the four-fold ministry of Christ seen in the four Gospels. Thus it serves as a singular celestial marker of the moment of Christ’s birth, following on the heels between the setting Sun and New Crescent Moon at Virgo’s feet, [Plate 7] during the first moments of Tishri 1, in 3 BC! Thus, Virgo set the context for both Jupiter standing still on the Meridian as a reference to Bethlehem, the birth-place of Jesus Christ, and the star-set of Spica in reference to Jesus’ birth-time, at the beginning of New Year’s day, Tishri 1, on Israel’s Calendar.

This scenario provides us with the exact moments of the birth of Christ, about 20 minutes after sunset, with the setting of the Star Spica, coinciding with the first appearance of the Crescent New Moon on the first of Tishri, the newly born king was manifested to his earthly parents Mary and Joseph. Fifteen months later in Dec. 2 BC, the Magi paid their visit and homage to the toddler Jesus, imparting their gifts unto the young king, which would finance the impending trip of the royal family to Egypt, and away from Herod.

With this year’s Christmas conjunction we are reminded of our Lord’s 1st Advent, but even more we see his quick and victorious Return for the redeeming of the Church of his spiritual body, that we may ever enjoy our victory with him and the Heavenly Father.

Amen!

Footnotes

1. Starry Night Pro, Astronomy Software on Jupiter-Venus union of Nov. 13th, 2017.
2. Bruce McClure in “Tonight” for Plate 1 picture credit.
3. Starry Night Pro, Astronomy Software on the triple union dates of Jupiter-Zuben El Genubi in Libra, 2017-18.
4. Picture credit on Plate 2: https://jeffreylhunt.wordpress.com/2017/09/30/2017-2018
5. Witness of the Stars, E.W. Bullinger p. 45
6. Picture credit on Plate 3: https://jeffreylhunt.wordpress.com/2017/09/30/2017-2018
7. Witness of the Stars, E.W. Bullinger p. 46
8. Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed, p. 235. American Christian Press
9. IBID p. 234.
10. THE STAR THAT ASTONISHED THE WORLD, Dr. Earnest Martin p. 49.
11. Ibid
12. Picture credit on Plate 5; The Journey of the Magi (1894) by James Jaques Joseph Tissot
13. Strong’s Concordance on H3556, James Strong.
14. Witness of the Stars, E.W. Bullinger
15. The Witness of the Stars, E.W. Bullinger ppg. 36-37.
16. IBID footnote p.37
17. The Mazzaroth, Frances Rolleston. Footnote on “The Star of Bethlehem.”
18. The Gospel in the Stars, Joseph Seiss, p. 161.
19. THE STAR THAT ASTONISHED THE WORLD, Dr. Earnest Martin. p. 60.

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The Celestial Sphinx and the Jupiter-Spica Triple Conjunction of 2017.

The Celestial Sphinx and the Jupiter-Spica Triple Conjunction of 2017.

Now that the Sept. 23rd, 2017 date has passed, we can now exhale and take stock of what has been going on in the heavens during this time! Plenty!! As I have documented for over 20 years in the Celestial Prelude, it was the retrograde motion of the King planet Jupiter in the Triple crowning of the King star Regulus in Leo, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, that represented the celestial coronation of Jesus Christ the Promised Seed, on Sept. 14th, 3 BC, three days after Christ’s birth. As one of the 12 Characteristics of the Celestial Prelude, planets in retrograde play a key role in the celestial signs marking both the Birth and Return of Christ, specifically Jupiter. As we will document in our next couple of blog posts, there are other key planets in retrograde that bring a powerful and enlightening message related to Jesus Christ in the end-times.

First however, we need to set the context of the Celestial Sphinx, and nothing I know will do this better than our introduction to this subject from the study on The Great Sphinx below, edited and updated for our purposes here, [www.try-god.com].

As the earliest colossal statue in the world, the Great Sphinx is truly a monumental marvel of ancient Egypt. Due to prevailing uncertainty about the architectural symbolism of the Great Sphinx, a number of “alternative theories” have been circulating of late, regarding its age and the traditions associated with it. Due to the large number of minor sphinxes that remain intact from ancient Egypt, the Great Sphinx has regrettably been lumped in with many of its inferior later copies, like the ram-headed sphinxes based on idols like Amun-Ra, or the Pharaohs; (sphinxes with a man’s head). Because of evidence uncovered and detailed in this study, I believe it is a mistake to include this singular exemplar of the Great Sphinx, the model of all its lesser reproductions, along with inferior copies like the ram-headed Crio-sphinxes. The Great Sphinx was not viewed as a symbol of the sun god in ancient Egypt until much later in the New Kingdom dynasties. These numerous degraded forms of the great original are merely deified idols from the pantheon of the Egyptian star religion, and the worship of the solar cult. One purpose of this study is to explore other symbolic functions and associations of the Great Sphinx prior to this corruption.

The Great Sphinx

A possible later derivation of the word “sphinx” is found in the Egyptian “shesep ankh,” meaning a living image.1 However, instead of the living idol images of gods or pharaohs, a proposal of this study is that the Great Sphinx was originally intended as an oracle of the promised seed and the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Both Herbert Lockyer and Rolleston state, that the Great Sphinx symbolizes the summer Solstice 4000 years before Christ, sealed by the union of Virgo and Leo. Frances Rolleston notes that this junction of Virgo and Leo is marked by the star Denebola, which is a name meaning “the Lord or Judge who comes quickly,” thus representing the living image, of the Lord Jesus Christ coming in judgment.2

As the star marking the link between Virgo and Leo, the alpha and omega signs [Rev. 1:8] of the Biblical zodiac, this prophetic message of the coming Messiah has endured as the largest, and most famous sculpture on the planet.

The Constellation Leo

The image of the Lord returning in judgment is marked in the Egyptian Planisphere by a youth bearing a branch.3 As the great colossal statue to the light of the world and monumental epitome of the Sun of Righteousness [Mal. 4:2], this great prophecy in stone of man’s coming redeemer, harmonizes with the witness to the Patriarchal astronomers and later, the Written Scriptures. This theme goes back to the likely prehistoric origins of the Great Sphinx, prior to the unification of ancient Egypt under Menes/Narmer. According to this and later research, the Great Sphinx was built as a representation of Virgo‘s head on the body of Leo the Lion.4 This union of zodiacal signs symbolized the start and finish of the ancient zodiac of the Biblical Patriarchs, as the celestial scroll relates the promise of a Coming Redeemer for Mankind. The original purpose of this great monument to man’s redeemer, as the embodiment of the Sun of Righteousness, became defiled in the heathen star religions of ancient cultures, that ultimately formed a myriad mythologies spreading across the face of the earth. The roots of the solar cult in Egypt, Babylon and many other cultures of the ancient world can be traced back to the misapplication of this idea, of the Sun of Righteousness. The following overview of some of the oracular and celestial aspects of the Great Sphinx will be new to many readers, but when taken in the context of the following evidence from Archaeo-Astronomy and the Bible, we can begin to see the Great Sphinx from a newly enlightened perspective. This memorial to the promised seed carved out of the Giza plateau, has stood for ages facing east, envisioning both the first and second advents of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the imperious sentinels of Giza, the Great Sphinx and the Great Pyramid are the foremost ancient monuments, having stood the test of time, foreshadowing the Son of God as no other landmarks in human history. These last surviving wonders of the ancient world have remained singularly poised, high above the barren shifting sands of human ignorance, safely founded on prehistoric bedrock of truth, prophesying of the Coming Promised Seed, in harmony with the stars and Scriptures. Their combined witness sounds out from the geographic center of the Earth’s landmass, ever ringing upward in concert with the testimony of the celestial luminaries. These monolithic monuments of the Giza plateau, the Great Pyramid and the Great Sphinx, serve as prime examples of our thesis, showing the roots of what Joseph Campbell called the world monomyth , the idea that all the world’s myths are rooted in one master overarching epic narrative. I believe as others have before me, that this master myth has celestial roots, and that these roots ultimately lead us to the Revelatory Astronomy of the Biblical Patriarchs, Adam, Seth and Enoch. It is my hope that the following overview of the Great Sphinx, from the Bible’s view, will serve as important step along this path of understanding. In our condensed survey of the Biblical Astronomy of the Birth and Return of Christ, a number of aspects of the Great Sphinx surface, that have either gone unnoticed or been misinterpreted in the past centuries. Our review of the celestial signs surrounding the birth of Christ gave us an introduction to some unique aspects of the Great Sphinx, which we will expand on in this study. A prime aspect of the heavenly signs linked to the Celestial Sphinx is that we find unique planetary conjunctions that took place marking the Birth of Jesus Christ, in the constellations Virgo and Leo. Since these are the zodiac signs that constitute the alpha-omega signs of the Hebrew Zodiac, forming the Celestial Sphinx, it embodies a living practical example of Biblical Astronomy that the Great Sphinx itself memorializes. As a prime example of Biblical Archaeo-Astronomy, the Great Sphinx is a true living artifact of the divine science of Biblical Astronomy that the Creator utilizes today, marking the heavenly signs of the Second Coming of His only Begotten Son.

Virgo at Sunset on September 11th 3 BC. 5

A consistent note of interest regarding these signs bearing the celestial seal and signet of the Great Sphinx, is that most of these signs occur during the three-week annual period when the Sun is clothing Virgo, [Rev. 12:1].6 This is relevant due to its symbolism of the genuine exaltation of Mary, the woman most highly blessed among women, because she believed the words of the angel Gabriel when he told her she would bear the promised seed. In addition, the Sun in Virgo marks the annual start of the Hebrew Civil Year, in the month of Tishri. In this light, we notice in the relief from the ceiling of the Temple of Esneh [Fig. A], the basic stellar figures of Virgo and Leo are unified in the Great Sphinx, pictured with the solar disk crowning the head of the woman-“sun clothing Virgo,” who is joined with the body of the Lion’s extended claws, above the serpent Hydra.7 This clear stellar image found at the same temple site housing the Dendera zodiac, provides strong archaeological support, not for the union of Virgo and Leo only, affirmed in the two stellar aspects of the Sphinx monument, but also the exaltation of the woman-Virgo. She is shown at the far right below, prominently holding her grain stalk, or branch as she is shown in the Dendera zodiac, symbolizing her bearing the promised seed and the light of the world. Her branch represents the Alpha Star of Virgo-Spica, Al Zemach, the branch or offspring of God the Father, [Jer. 23:5].

Figure A. Sun in Virgo, in the Temple of Esneh, on the Giza Plateau. 8

The union of the ends of the ecliptic
in the Great Sphinx, with the Sun in Virgo, as seen in the Temple of Esneh.

This sets the basic context of the original function of the Great Sphinx, including:

The unity of the Biblical zodiac which starts at Virgo and ends in Leo.
The original role of the Sun in this context of “clothing Virgo,” along with embodying the solar aspects of the Sphinx as the Sun of Righteousness. [Ps. 19]
A Stone monument bearing parallel witness to the coming redeemer found both in the Stars and in Scripture.

With this in mind, lets look at some specific stellar aspects of the Great Sphinx.

Stellar Elements of the Great Sphinx

The original teaching of the celestial witness of the signs of the zodiac is encapsulated in the signs Virgo and Leo and preserved in this ancient monument of the Giza plateau, the Great Sphinx. A key astronomical truth in support of this is seen in the crowned head of Virgo actually bridging about 10 degrees into the sign Leo on the ecliptic. We have already made reference to this in connection with the star Denebola. The star Sarcam in Leo, is a Hebrew word meaning “the joining“, saying that here is the point where the two ends of the Zodiacal circle have their joining.9 This is borne out in the decan Corvus, the bird of prey devouring Hydra the abhorred serpent, a decan of Virgo. This serpent actually mirrors these signs of the Stellar gospel-the Celestial Sphinx extending below Leo’s claws including the signs of Virgo the virgin and the Crab. As the Anti-Christ will present a counterfeit of the coming redeemer so we find this witness in the stars also.
The bright star in the eye of Corvus the Raven, called Al Chibar in Arabic means “joining together,” referring also to the union of as these two ends of the true zodiac!9 This also fits with the start of the Hebrew calendar in Tishri, the equivalent of our September-October, the inception of the Hebrew Civil Year when the Sun was clothing Virgo.

Figure B. Axis E on the Dendera Zodiac. 10

The heavens declared Jesus’ arrival with the setting of the star Spica, Virgo’s branch on our September 11th, of 3 BC, between the setting Sun and Moon in Virgo. This is firmly secured by the fifth axis evident in the Dendera zodiac, in the Egyptian Temple of Esneh, subdividing the zodiac in the same way depicted on the ceiling of the Portico of that temple site; between Leo the Lion, and Virgo the woman, seen above with Axis E. 11
This truth is graphically depicted in the Dendera Zodiac Poster in the margin to the right, and available in our Bookstore. In addition to marking the Alpha and Omega of the celestial canon, the Great Sphinx mirrors the binding of Scripture together from Genesis to Revelation, as seen in the Red Thread references to Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah in both Gen. 49:8-10 and Rev. 5:5, the first and last books of the Bible.

Rev. 5:5
⁵And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

Only Jesus Christ is qualified to “open the Book” of Scripture because he is the protagonist of the Greatest Book in History, and the Master-key to its interpretation and unfolding!
Another indicator of the central importance to these stellar aspects of the Great Sphinx, is our recognition of the Celestial Sphinx, pictured below, Virgo and Leo the lion provide the basis for the signs of the triple union of Jupiter-Regulus in Leo, in 3 BC related to Gen. 49:8-10. This is the foundation key linking the Sphinx both to the Celestial Gospel and God’s Word, in their unified testimony to the Coming Promised Seed. In the link below you can view an excerpt from my DVD teaching on the Jupiter-Regulus triple conjunction starting 3 days after Christ’s birth on Sept. 14th 3 BC.

As we view the celestial context of this first union of Jupiter and Regulus, [Fig. B] we can see the head of Virgo rising above the eastern horizon just below the full body of Leo the Lion on the ecliptic. This is the view of what an observer standing in Jerusalem facing east would have seen on this date, providing a clear aspect of the astronomical symbolism of the Celestial Sphinx as an important marker and monumental prediction of Jesus’ birthday on September 11th, a prophecy of the birth of Christ preserved in stone from antiquity!

This serves as a monolithic marker to the prophecy provided in Rev. 12:1-5, in the sign of Virgo, further establishing this truth.

Figure B. The Celestial Sphinx. The Head of the Woman and the Body of the Lion as seen on Sept. 14th, 3 BC, on the eastern horizon from Jerusalem forming the Great Sphinx, and marking the first Jupiter-Regulus Conjunction in Leo. 12

We find these landmarks at the head and tail of the zodiac, which adds light to Dr. Martin’s observation that: “the woman Virgo is the Constellation of Headship for all 12 signs. The head position of Virgo is located within the last 10 degrees of Leo.”13 Virgo’s head is seen in Fig. B, just below and adjacent to the star Denebola in the tail of the Lion, unifying the circle of the zodiac. The Sphinx also unifies the Biblical canon, establishing the chronological order of God’s written revelation, in the Bible’s earliest book of Job.

Job 19:23-25
Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! [24] That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! [25] For I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

These verses are indicative not only of Job’s knowledge of his coming redeemer, that he knew of from the Celestial Gospel, but also of his faith that this redeemer would stand at a future latter day upon the earth. This knowledge directly corresponds both, with a witness that was engraved in the rock forever, remaining unto our day, and the witnesses of the celestial and written gospels. The word “For,” beginning verse 25, grammatically depicts the purpose of his words along with a monumental witness in stone, whose longevity has lasted into our day, as a witness to the redeemer that Job foresaw so long ago. Thus Job’s reference, in this majestic declaration of his redeemer, graven in rock forever, is readily associated with this enduring monument on the Giza plateau, analogous with the prophecy written in the stars between Leo and Virgo. In the only Patriarchal book with Genesis in the Bible, Job’s words certainly stand out as a reference to the witness of the stars and in stone, the witness God provided to the Biblical Patriarchs in the Bible’s first book written by Job. To further cement the link between the Great Sphinx and God’s Word, let’s take a look at Psalm 19:

Psalm 19:1-5

1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. 2 Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun, 5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. 6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

The word “line” in verse four refers to the ecliptic as the path in the Sun’s Tabernacle, at the end of the verse. These 12 houses or “Tabernacles of the Sun” refer to the 12 signs of the zodiac and the 12 tribes of Israel, the Bride of the Bridegroom, [Gen. 22:15-19]. Here, the Bible compares the Sun to a Bridegroom in verse 5, running a race-course through the circuit of heaven, the 12 signs of the ecliptic and their decans. The Great Sphinx elucidates the details of Psalm 19 because it unifies these Tabernacles of the Sun, first with Virgo, the woman, the Bride-Israel and last with Leo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Thus, all 12 tribes are presented to the Lord in preparation for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, preserved in a great monument of stone for the ages. As this ever-lasting monolithic witnesses to the Astronomy of the Biblical Patriarchs, the Great Sphinx and the Great Pyramid have timelessly preserved these statutes of Patriarchal Astronomy, The witness of Scripture continues in the Book of Job, which contains more overt astronomical references, with ancient Biblical star names than any other book in the Bible.

Job 38:31-33
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? [32] Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? [33] Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?

This is logical from a Biblical perspective because other than the Books of Genesis and Job, all God gave His Patriarchs was the stellar witness and celestial narrative of the promised redeemer of man. When we consider the Hebrew word “mazzaroth,” we find a very early reference to the 12 signs of the zodiac, occurring only in Job. There are later references to the 12 signs of the ecliptic in Scripture, but this gives us more evidence of the antiquity of this knowledge of the entire zodiac, in the context of the Biblical Patriarchs. When Job spoke these words however, the Bible, or even the Pentateuch had not been written yet by Moses the lawgiver. Thus, we see in verse 23, Job’s desire that his book would be part of the sacred written oracles that would correspond to this bedrock truth of the Great Sphinx, engraved in stone as a testimony to his coming redeemer.

The word “graven” *H2710 [chaqaq] in Job 19:24 means: to cut, carve, hew, square, quarry, mason or engrave. This is the same word translated as “lawgiver” in Gen. 49:10, and is the same root for the word “ordinances” in Job 38:33, thus the ordinances or laws of God related to the Celestial Sphinx, and their dominion in the earth, doubtlessly are engraved in stone. As we say God’s Word is set in stone. It is a known historical and archaeological fact that the Great Sphinx was carved out of an ancient rock formation on the Giza plateau, which is consistent with the testimony of God’s Word in Job 19:23, where the word “rock” [*H6697] means “a cliff, sharp rock compressed, or boulder.”

Another point to realize regarding this word [chaqaq] is that it is translated as “Lawgiver” in Deut. 33:21 and “governors” in Judges 5:14. This links to an alternative Egyptian name of the Sphinx; Bel-hit, that also means the “Lord who cometh,” as seen in Deut. 33:21. Deuteronomy 33 records the Song of Moses, and the 5th chapter of Judges records the Song of Deborah, both of which list the Tribes of Israel. The 20th verse tells us the stars fought from heaven…

²⁰They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

The witness of the stars, especially when combined with God’s Written Word have an impact against the darkness of this world. Another occurrence of “Lawgiver” is seen below in Genesis 49, also a listing of the Tribes of Israel, all of which refer to the Biblical zodiac, containing celestial and Scriptural links to each of the tribes. These Biblical lists of the 12 tribes of Israel are refined in the discussion of the breastplate of Israel’s High Priest, that also models its symbolism of the Hebrew Zodiac, or Mazzaroth. There is no man who is able to halt these celestial cycles and seasons set in motion by the Creator, thus the surety of the return of His promised seed for his people is set in the firmament, in stone and embodied in the Man Christ Jesus, is a mandate from heaven!

Gen 49:10
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah“- “sceptre” is shebet in the Hebrew, the same word used in Numbers 24:17; referring to the “star out of Jacob and sceptre of Israel.” This star out of Jacob is a clear reference to the King planet Jupiter which is covered in detail in the Astronomy of the Birth of Christ section of the [www.try-god.com] web-site.

“lawgiver from between his feet“- Regulus the king star and the alpha star in Leo. “The Arabic word “regel” means “foot” and is identical in meaning to the Aramaic word “regla” and the Hebrew word “regel” tying in with “from between his feet” above. In this one verse the Lion of Judah, Leo, intertwined with the lawgiver coming from between his feet, symbolizing the king star Regulus [see Psalm 60:9]. This gives a clear Biblical picture of the stellar elements of the Jupiter-Regulus triple union in Leo the lion of the tribe of Judah revealed in the 3 aspects of Genesis 49:9!

“Lawgiver“- *H2710 [chaqaq] meaning; to cut or engrave, inscribe, establish, ordain, to decree, to be a leader, a ruler, a lawgiver; a scepter. It occurs 19 times in the Hebrew O.T. The primary meaning is “writing or drawing in the sense of etching” [Isa. 30:8; in a book] The root can mean to enact a decree [In Prov. 8:15 its used of a governor decreeing justice with wisdom.] This word [chaqaq] attests to the power of the coordinated decrees of God’s Word first written in the stars, then later in stone and in the Scripture, providing a great precedent for the idea of all language being rooted in the celestial alphabet. [Ex. 32:13-16].

Finally the Word (logos) was made flesh in Jesus Christ, and God’s Word incarnate dwelt with us. These manifold witnesses to God’s omnipotent glory and Grace, all incorporate the awesome beauty and mathematical Symmetry that unveil the accuracy of all His means of divine revelation, embodied in the spoken and written word, in the stars in stone and finally in the flesh. As the Red Thread and master key to the interpretation of God’s Word, Jesus is the lawgiver, after the form of Moses, the one decreeing righteous judgment as the embodiment of the Word made flesh.

With this historical and Biblical background on the Great Sphinx, and its celestial reflection in the birth of Christ, we will now move to the context of the Celestial Sphinx in the end-times.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

In view of the current celestial showcase of heavenly signs surrounding to 9-23-17 replay of the Rev. 12 signs, there are matched sets of triple planetary conjunctions taking place. As we fast-forward to current events, in past light of Jupiter’s role in the Celestial Prelude, the 2017 triple conjunction of Jupiter-Spica was heralded by two Mercury-Spica unions in 2015, within a 6-week period. The first conjunction occurred Sept. 17^th, 2015, and the 2^nd on October 29^th, 2015. Mercury-Gabriel, as messenger arch-angel gives two proclamations resulting from its retrograde motion, foreshadowing Jupiter’s 2017 retrograde motion in Virgo, forming a triple conjunction of Jupiter-Spica. This is part of the first set of planetary triple unions we will focus on in the next few blogs. Mercury-Gabriel establishes the triple union of Jupiter-Spica on Oct. 11^th, 2016, that followed in a pre-dawn union with Jupiter, as Mercury passed within a degree of Jupiter in a Sunrise union.

Remember that this takes place during the Jupiter-Venus conjunction series from 2015-2017, as part of the Celestial Sphinx signs in Virgo and Leo. This conjunction series includes 2 triple unions of Jupiter-Venus, one each in Leo then in Virgo, the head of the Woman united with the body of the Lion, as the two main components of the Great Sphinx, unifying the circle of the Hebrew zodiac in its alpha and omega signs. We find this manifested at the birth of Christ in a dazzling Jupiter-Venus conjunction in Leo on June 17th of 2 BC. It was also 2 Jupiter-Venus conjunctions that actually bracketed the majority of heavenly signs marking the birth of Christ in 3-1 BC.

A guiding principle of the study of the Celestial Sphinx dictates that we should be watchful of activity in the heavens related to both components of the Celestial Sphinx. For instance, with Jupiter’s recent retrograde activity in Virgo, we also find important events in Leo around the king star Regulus-the heart of the Lion.

The 1st 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 directing us to the planetary unions of Jupiter-Venus, marking the initial 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 the Lord’s Second Coming.

Keeping in mind the context of the triple conjunctions of Jupiter-Venus and the Celestial Sphinx signs, other triple planetary conjunctions related to the Celestial Sphinx will also arrest our attention. First lets document the recent activity of Jupiter and Venus related to the Celestial Sphinx.

The following dates for signs of the Celestial Sphinx witnessed Jupiter-Venus conjunctions in Leo in the Hebrew Jubilee year of 2015-2016:

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

The following dates saw Jupiter-Venus conjunctions in Virgo in 2016-17, with only Nov. 2017 remaining:

July 27th, 2016
Feb. 26th, 2017
Nov. 13th, 2017

However, before the final Jupiter-Venus union in Virgo, Jupiter starts its 42-week retrograde motion in Virgo’s womb, during which time Jupiter completes another triple conjunction with Spica in Virgo! As we can see Jupiter’s dance card is very full in 2017. The precedent for this at the birth of Christ is seen in the coronation of God’s only begotten Son in the heavens with the triple conjunction of the King planet Jupiter with the King star Regulus in Leo in 3-2 BC, starting 3 days after Christ’s birth, based also on Jupiter’s retrograde motion. As we have seen regarding Jeremiah’s messianic prophecy [Jer. 23:5], Jupiter the sedeq planet is linked with the Messiah, Jesus Christ the righteous zemach-branch, in one of 5 primary Old Testament prophecies regarding the Branch-Al Zemach, as Jesus Christ, the Coming Promised Seed.

As we view the Sept. 9^th birthing of Jupiter from Virgo’s womb, completing Jupiter’s retrograde in Virgo, we also find important events in Leo around the king star Regulus the heart of the Lion. We can see both Mars-Michael the warrior arch-angel and Mercury-Gabriel the messenger arch-angel in close vicinity with Regulus, as Jupiter is delivered. With Jupiter’s birthing on Sept. 9^th, a Mercury-Regulus conjunction also occurs on 9/9/2017. This is a revelation because the Mercury-Regulus union is part of another triple conjunction based on the retrograde motion of Mercury in Leo concurrent with Jupiter’s retro dance in Virgo. This is added link unifying the two aspects of the Celestial Sphinx, is the 2nd matched set triple crowning unions leading to the replay of the Rev. 12 sign on 9/23/17.

Figure C. Planets in Leo around Regulus from 9-9-17 to 9-17-17.

Stellarium 2 from Bobmoler.wordpress.com

Next on Sept. 16^th, a Mercury-Mars union follows. Here we see Mercury-Gabriel heralding the King star Regulus, followed by a union of Gabriel with Mars-Michael, showing their solidarity with the Lord Jesus Christ, in their stance against the red dragon of Rev. 12:3-4. After this on Sept. 20th was an alignment of Venus-Regulus related to the Great Pyramid, seen below.

Figure D. Great Pyramid Star Shaft Alignments on Rosh Hashanah 2017.

Signs of the End – The Oracle in Stone

Here the star shafts of the Great Pyramid according to the Christ Angle, agree with the Celestial Sphinx, as Regulus and Venus are aligned in Leo the Lion, while Jupiter is in Virgo. The Venus-Regulus conjunction in Leo on Sept. 20th is shown below.

We also find the Sun entering Virgo in preparation of “Clothing” the celestial virgin in light, in the annual 20-day period the Sun spends in Virgo. This not only recalls the kinship between the cycles of the Sun and Jupiter, but was also forecast two years earlier on Sept. 17th, 2015, as a trait of the Celestial Prelude, when the Sun entered Virgo, with a cluster of signs, shedding light on the replay of the Rev. 12 sign two years later.

As was the case at the birth of Christ the dispostion of Spica revealed the details and exact timing of Jesus’ birth. In 3 BC, it was the setting times of the Sun and Moon that framed the setting time of Spica, the branch and offspring of God the Father. So Spica plays a key role also in the replay of the Rev. 12 sign of 2017.

Jupiter’s first union with Spica took place on January 20^th, 2017, where Jupiter is moving in an eastward direction against the stars in its normal orbit. On Jan. 20^th Jupiter first passes Spica only about 3.5 degrees apart. We cab see this depicted in Figure 1 below from [Bobmoler.wordpress.com]

Figure 1. January 20, 2017 Jupiter first conjunction with Spica

On Feb. 9^th, 2017 Jupiter first appears to stand still, beginning its retrograde motion, as seen in Figure 2. below.

Figure 2. February 9, 2017, Jupiter appears to be stationary.

On Feb, 23^rd, 2017 Jupiter passes Spica a second time in retrograde nearly 4 degrees apart, as seen in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3. Second Jupiter-Spica union on Feb. 23^rd.

On June 8^th, 2017 Jupiter ends its retrograde motion, returning to its normal easterly orbit. Then on Sept. 5^th, 2017 Jupiter passes by Spica for the third time, completing its 2017 triple conjunction.

We find this pictured below in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Jupiter following its 3^rd union with Spica, on Sept. 5th, this time only 3.3 degrees apart, seen above on Sept. 9^th, 2017 exiting Virgo’s Womb. This was four days prior to Jupiter exiting the womb of Virgo, in its gestation period with Spica on Sept. 9^th, 2017. With Jupiter the King Planet’s triple crowning of Spica the branch and offspring of God, in Virgo, we see the alpha sign of the Celestial Sphinx highlighted, with the crowing of its alpha star.

Figure 5. Jupiter-Venus union with Mars also in Virgo.

This is also two weeks prior to the replay of the Rev. 12 sign in Virgo on Sept. 23^rd, 2017. Jupiter and Spica then merge into the Sun’s brilliance in a Solar union on October 27^th, before the King Planet Jupiter returns to its engagement with Venus the Bright and Morning Star to complete its triple union in Virgo on Nov. 13^th, 2017, as seen above in Figure 5.

Also in Figure 5 above we find Mars-Michael in Virgo. Part 2 of this blog will exhibit how the triple conjunction of Mars-Spica in Virgo in 2014 foreshadowed this triple union of Jupiter-Spica in 2017.

The Heavenly Father is surely doing His best to get our attention with these aspects of the Celestial Scroll jumping out of the sky for those paying attention! What a great way to emphasize his Season of Repentance that started with the Aug. 21st Total Solar Eclipse leading to Yom Kippur-the holiest day on the sacred Hebrew Calendar, the Day of Atonement. May the peace of God rule in your hearts as you walk daily with the Lord.

Footnotes

1 Ancient Egypt, Lorna Oakes & Lucia Gahlin, p.428.

2 Mazzaroth or, the Constellations: The Sphinx, Frances Rolleston

3 Star Names their Lore and Meaning, R.H. Allen. p. 465.

4 Star Lore, Myths, Legends and Facts, William Tyler Olcott, p.386.

5 Jesus Christ our Promised Seed, V.P. Wierweille, p. 71

6 The Star that Astonished the World, Earnest Martin, p.187.

7 Witness of the Stars, E.W. Bullinger. p. 21-22

8 IBID.

9 Witness of the Stars, E.W. Bullinger. p. 169

10 The Skies of Memory, John Lash [picture credit]

11 The Atlantis Blueprint, Colin Wilso & Rand Flem-Ath. ppg 167-172.

12 Jesus Christ our Promised Seed, V.P. Wierweille, p. 45.

13 The Star that Astonished the World, Earnest Martin, p.186.

14 Jupiter-Spica conjunction graphics are from Bobmoler.wordpress.com

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Biblical Astronomy of the Blood Moon Tetrads and Judah Ben Samuel’s Jubilee Prophecies [Part 1.]

Biblical Astronomy of the Blood Moon Tetrads and Judah Ben Samuel’s Jubilee Prophecies [Part 1]

In our August 2015 post on the Partial Solar Eclipse; 9-13-2015, we referenced some truths regarding Israel seen as a Fig Tree in the Bible. The following section from that post provides a key foundation for this month’s post on Judah Ben Samuel’s Jubilee Prophecies.

Luke 21:24-33

“²⁴They will fall by ^[f]the mouth and the edge of the sword and will be led away as captives to and among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (completed). 25 And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; ²⁶men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.²⁸Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. ²⁹Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. ³⁰When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. ³¹So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. ³²Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. ³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”

Biblically, the Fig Tree is a symbol of Israel, as we will see later. As we compare the Blood Moon Tetrads in 1949-50 and 1967-68, we have noted that they are 19 years apart, but each of these Blood Moon Tetrads represent a stage in the restoration of Israel, first as a nation, second with the recapture of its capital city of Jerusalem.

The following insightful details come to us from the good people @ [360 day calendar.com]

“Why wasn’t Israel fully restored in 1948, including the temple mount?

Ans. In Ezekiel’s account of the fall of Jerusalem, God’s Spirit departs from the temple and leaves Jerusalem in specific stages (beginning 592 BC) and then comes back in stages 19 years later in 573 BC, (Ezek. 8, 40). In the same way, Israel is now being restored in stages — each stage on a time-frame predicted by the Bible. The next stage in God’s plan for Jerusalem also happened exactly 19 years after Israel became a nation in 1948: The 1967, Six-Day War.

The next stage in Israel’s restoration was the six-day war waged exactly 19 years later, to the day on the 360 calendar, June 5-10, 1967. In this war, the Temple Mount was captured along with east Jerusalem. Thus, June 5th, 1967, was also Pentecost on the 360 calendar.

But why 19 years later?

Ans. Because, from Ezekiel’s vision about the temple (573 BC) until when Israel became a nation are 1260 + 1260 years, that is 2520 years. (2520 days represents a seven-year period on the 360 calendar. {360 x 7 = 2520 days.}) Thus, 2520 plus 19 more years equals 2539. And so, from 573 BC to 1967 are 2539 years.

So, what’s important about 2539 years?

It happens that seven years on the regular Jewish calendar amounts to 2539 days in both 1948 and 1967. Thus, the seventh anniversary after Israel became a nation occurred exactly 2539 days later on the regular Jewish calendar, (i.e., 1948-1955). And the same is true of the seventh anniversary of the 1967 War, (i.e., 1967-1974). Hence, in God’s heavenly schematic, 2539 days correspond to the previous 2539 years back to the prophecy of Ezekiel in 573 BC!”1

This is an example of a Biblical Prophecy that has a dual significance that fits for both days and years. We will see another example of this when we discuss the “70 Weeks Prophecy” in Daniel 9, in Part 2 of this post next month, as it relates to the ministry of Jesus Christ among other things.

What has escaped the notice of most regarding Luke 21:24-33 is that Jesus’ prophecy relating to Jerusalem being over-run and controlled by the Gentiles, in verse 24 sets the immediate context of the astronomical signs of the Sun, Moon and Stars and the distress of the nations in verse 25. This should direct our focus on the heavenly signs surrounding the periods bracketing the Roman’s destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD, because this was the inception of a period when the Jerusalem Temple was down-trodden by the Gentiles. Conversely, with Israel’s recapture of Jerusalem in 1967, followed by the events surrounding their control of the Temple Mount, we can see the first stages of God’s restoration of Israel. Since the Luni-solar eclipse cycles are part of the heavenly signs of the Sun, Moon and Stars, including the modern Blood Moon Tetrads, there should be much we can learn from the this study. More on this later.

Figure A.

Blood Moon over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

What we also see in these 360 calendar links to the history of Israel is the annual pattern of sevens or the Sabbatical/Shemitah cycle built into the 360 day calendar. This pattern has been established in detail with the Biblical septenary temporal cycles starting with the Creation Week, setting the stage for Sabbaths not to mention Jonathan Kahn’s books like ‘The Harbinger,” that has seen the first realized correlation of a Sabbatical/Shemitah cycle with the 50-year Hebrew Jubilee in the current calendar cycle of 5776/2016. The key dates in 1949-50 and 1967-68 referenced above relative to Israel’s restoration marked by the modern Blood Moon Tetrads on Hebrew Feast and Holy days, are another level of divine marking from the Hand of God, establishing the authenticity of these heavenly signs for those who are paying attention. [Gen. 1:14-18]

A key with the final Super Blood Moon of the most recent 2014-2015 Blood Moon Tetrad is that it takes place after the Hebrew Jubilee opened on the Sept. 23rd, 2015. This gets our attention since the Super Blood Moon was the first Blood Moon of the 2014-2015 Tetrad visible in Jerusalem. As we correlate with the two previous Jubilees in 1917 and 1967, we find an intriguing history where in 1917, Jerusalem was liberated from the Ottoman Turks under General Allenby, just a few weeks after the Balfour Declaration promised Israel a homeland. Since this date in Dec. 1917 represents a prophetic time span of Shemitah cycles [360 x 7] totaling 2,520 years going back to 604 BC when King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, leading Israel away into the Babylonian Captivity. During this campaign, General Allenby’s planes buzzed Jerusalem with numerous fly-overs, dropping surrender leaflets on the Ottoman forces, causing the Turks to “wave the white flag” without casualty. As Isaiah tells us regarding the way Jerusalem would be delivered;

Isaiah 31:4b-5: “so shall the Lord of Hosts come down to fight for Mt. Zion and for the hill thereof, As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem; defending, also He will deliver it; and passing over, He will preserve it.”

In the details of this deliverance we can see the Hand of the Almighty working to fulfill this promise, even in the motto inscribed on the badge of the bomber squadron chosen to liberate Jerusalem which read: “I spread my wings and keep my promise.” This Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps took Jerusalem “as flying birds” and defended it, and passing over it, preserved it, fulfilling every detail of this prophecy.

With this backgroundsetting the context for this post, lets now consider the Judah Ben Samuel’s Jubilee Prophecies. Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel lived during the time of the Roman/Christian Crusades in the Holy Land between 1096-1270 AD. It was during this time that Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel began publishing his “Jubilee Prophecies,” with added Gematria calculations, and astronomical observations, summarized on the internet today. As news traveled between the Holy Land and Europe found its way to the rabbis and the clergy in Worms and Regensburg Germany, the good Rabbi walked many of the same steps as Martin Luther 300 years later, as he lead the Reformation against the Roman Catholic Church in the “Diet at Worms.“ A synopsis of the Rabbi’s prophecies is found below-

“When the Ottomans (Turks) – who were already a power to be reckoned with on the Bosporus in the time of Judah Ben Samuel – conquer Jerusalem they will rule over Jerusalem for eight Jubilees. Afterwards, Jerusalem will become no-man’s land for one Jubilee, and then in the ninth Jubilee it will once again come back into the possession of the Jewish nation – which would signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”2 Leviticus 25, tells us every 50 year Jubilee period each person regains ownership of their lands. As Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel beheld the future, his predictions today seem to be amazingly accurate. It was over 3 centuriesfollowing his death however, before his first prediction came to pass. The current Jubilee of 5776/2016 is a special hybrid of Shemitah/Jubilee cyclesthat coincides with the conclusion of Judah Ben Samuel’s 10th Jubilee marking the Messianic End Times.

Picture credit from September2021.com [3.]

Although Judah Ben Samuel’s Jubilee Prophecies are extra-Biblical in nature, they embody another key historical layer of verification in the divine patterns of these signs of the last days, as seen in the 50-year Hebrew Jubilee. The veracity of these prophecies has been questioned, but when viewed in the context of the existing pattern of sacred Hebrew calendars of the Shemitah/Sabbath and Jubilees, along with the Hebrew Feast and Holy days marked by the modern Blood Moon Tetrads about which Judah Ben Samuel referenced nothing in his writings, they gain added credibility.

Ludwig Schneider of Israel Today Magazine translated Judah Ben Samuel’s (1140-1217) writings into English. “…According to his article, Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel was a scholar of the Talmud in Germany. Just before he died in the year 1217 he predicted that the Ottoman Turks would rule over the holy city of Jerusalem for eight Jubilees, or 400 years (8 x 50). The Ottoman Turks did take control of Jerusalem 300 years after the Rabbi’s death in 1517 and according to the prophecy, the Ottoman Turks then lost Jerusalem 4 centuries later in 1917. It was during WWI that British General Edmund Allenby walked into Jerusalem on Hanukkah without firing a shot in 1917. This event falling on Hanukkah and the ease in which it took place, make this moment of history very notable. Judah Ben Samuel’s prophecy also said following the eighth Jubilee, the ninth Jubilee would find Jerusalem a no-man’s-land, which it was from 1917 to 1967, until the Six-Day-War. The Rabbi then predicted in the 10th Jubilee-Jerusalem would be controlled by Israel and then the Messianic end times would begin. The completion of this Tenth Jubilee brings us to the year 2017.” It is critical to realize that at the conclusion of this 10th Jubilee in 2017, we also will see the repeat of the Rev. 12 heavenly signs marking the Birth of Christ in 3 BC. Jubilee 11: Begins at Yom Kippur 9/30/17, marking a potential predicted period for the return of Christ.4

From the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917-during the 1917-1918 Jubilee, to the retaking of the Western Wall during the 1966-1967 Jubilee, to the current Jubilee from September 2015 to the fall of 2016, God is at work restoring His Blessings to Israel in stages. The Temple Mount seems the next logical stage of this restoration process, perhaps even during the current Jubilee.

In Israel’s War of Independence against five Islamic nations, the Jerusalem remained a “divided city.” The Jordanian government controlled the eastern part of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem. A strip of land divided Israeli control of Western Jerusalem and Jordanian run East Jerusalem. This strip of land was called “No-Man’s Land” by both Israelis and Jordanians. After the 6-Day War, on June 17, 1967, the Israeli Army controlled the entire West Bank and all of Jerusalem was returned to their possession, 750 years after Judah Ben Samuel made this prediction, these events fulfilled all the conditions of the prophecy. Then came the Rabbi’s last piece of his prediction:

“In the ninth Jubilee, Jerusalem will once again come back into the possession of the Jewish nation – which will signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”

As we have already seen with our opening verses in Luke 21:24-33, Jesus’ prophecy relating to Jerusalem being over-run by the Gentiles sets the context for the heavenly signs of the Sun, Moon and Stars of the end times. Scholars and Blood Moon enthusiasts have focused on the luni-solar signs, but have neglected their relation to Jerusalem. To understand this better, lets look at added evidence of this in Joel 2 setting the table for Joel 3.

Joel 2:30-32

³⁰And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. ³¹The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. ³²And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

This is one of the main “Blood Moon Prophecies” that occurs prior to the victorious return of the Lord, both FOR and WITH his Saints. These verses at the end of Joel 2 provide the immediate context for the prophecy relating to Jerusalem and the Gog-Magog alliance of Gentile nations we can see gathering around Jerusalem setting the stage for coming final battle of Armageddon at the start of Joel 3.

Joel 3:1-2

1 “For behold, in those [climactic] days and at that time,
When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
²I will gather together all the [Gentile] nations [that were hostile to My people]
And bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat (the Lord has judged).
And there I will deal with them and enter into judgment with them there
For [their treatment of] My people, My inheritance, Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations,
And [because] they have encroached on My land and divided it up.

The sensational focus on the Blood Moon phenomena, not only in Christianity but also in the secular media, has detracted from the reason for the Blood Moon Tetrads in the first place, which is the disposition of Jerusalem and specifically the Temple Mount that determines the final stages of God’s deliverance of Israel and the Church-the Body of Christ. The fact that we have completed the Blood Moon Tetrad of 2014-2015, and now find ourselves in the Shemitah/Jubilee of 5776/2016 with two more solar and lunar eclipses on Hebrew Feast-holidays, indicates that we are in a final period forewarningof the victorious Return of the Lord Jesus Christ, closing out world history.

The “Jubilee/Shemitah for Jerusalem that we find ourselves in today, depicts a level of God’s restoration of Israel in response to the Gentile domination of Jerusalem starting in 70 AD when Jerusalem was conquered by the Romans who destroyed the Temple. As Joel 3:2 relates the persecution of Israel where the Jews were either killed, starved, or sold into slavery. This ensued in centuries of the Gentiles over-running Jerusalem starting with the Romans, followed by Muslimforces, including the Ottoman Turks predicted by Judah Ben Samuel, who held it until 1917 when the Allied Forces under General Allenby delivered the Holy city. Calculating from 1917, the next Jubilee would be 1967 a half century later! If we start with the return of Jerusalem to Israeli controlin 1967 making 1966 the 49th Shemitah. The next Jubilee = (7 cycles of 7 Years = 49): 1966 + 7 x 7= 2015. Since 70 AD, Old Jerusalem was not under Israeli sovereignty until the one week war with Egypt in 1967. This makes the liberation of Jerusalem on June 7, 1967 a key pivotal point in modern Bible history and Prophecy marking a specific critical period of the End Times.

In the Declaration of Balfour Nov 2, 1917, British Foreign Minister Balfour pledged support for establishment of a “Jewish national home in Palestine.” During this 1917-18 Jubilee, there were other heavenly signs and planetary conjunctions taking place that tell related parts of the story of the restoration of Jerusalem and Israel. As we observe the movements of the planet Mars during this period, more truths come to light. The retrograde motion of Mars representing the Warrior Archangel Michael who fights for God’s people, moved in conjunction with Regulus the king star in Leo. This depicts the conflict surrounding God’s restoration of His people, versus our spiritual enemy and adversary who stands against God’s purposes at every turn. This Mars retrograde began in Leo then progressing into the head of Virgo, came back to Leo, depicting the Celestial Sphinx seen in the body of Leo the lion and the head of the woman Virgo, symbolizing Israel’s restoration. The Celestial Sphinx as seen below follows the structure of the Great Sphinx on the Giza Plateau. There is more regarding this subject of the Celestial Sphinx available with our “Dendera Zodiac Poster,” available for order in our Bookstore link seen in the right margin adjacent to this post of our blog page.

In addition to marking the start and close of the celestial canon, the Great Sphinx mirrors the binding of Scripture together from Genesis to Revelation, as seen in the references to Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah in both Gen. 49:8-10 and Rev. 5:5, the first and last books of the Bible. Another indicator of the central importance of these stellar aspects of the Great Sphinx, is that our recognition of the Celestial Sphinx, Virgo and Leo the lion provide the basis for the signs of the triple union of Jupiter-Regulus in Leo, in 3 BC related to Gen. 49:8-10. This is a foundation key linking the Sphinx bothto the celestial witness and God’s Word, in their unified testimony to the Coming Promised Seed.

To continue this sub-theme of Hebrew Jubilee planetary conjunctions of Mars during its retrograde motion, we find added evidence of this during the 1967 Jubilee, in between the Blood Moons on Passover [4-24-67] and Sukkot [10-18-67]. This Mars retrograde formed a loop in Virgo, around her womb area starting March 10th through June 24th. During this loop it approached conjunction with the Alpha Star of Virgo-Spica on June 6th, completing its loop around Virgo’s womb a couple of weeks later. This represents again the conflict surrounding God’s deliverance of Jerusalem from our spiritual adversary, as the city of Jerusalem was wrested from Gentile domination, seen in the rebirth of Jerusalem for Israel. This planetary activity during the previous two Jubilees depicting the restoration of Israel with Mars-Michael is a fascinating lead-up to the to 2017 Jubilee, when Jupiter the king planet and Holy Sceptre, will do a retrograde loop in Virgo’s womb area, symbolizing the birth of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, emphasized here with the Mars-Spica conjunction.

Figure B. The Celestial Sphinx. 5

As we view the celestial context of this first union of Jupiter and Regulus, [Fig. B] marking the birth of Christ, we can see the head of Virgo rising above the eastern horizon just below the full body of Leo the Lion on the ecliptic. This is the view of what an observer standing near Palestine facing east would have seen on this date, providing a clear aspect of the astronomical symbolism of the Sphinx as an important marker and monumental prediction of Jesus‘ birthday on September 11th, a prophecy of the birth of Christ preserved in stone from antiquity! This serves as a monolithic marker to the prophecy provided in Rev. 12:1-5, in the constellation Virgo, further establishing this truth.

The Head of the Woman and the Body of the Lion as seen on Sept. 14th, 3 BC, on the eastern horizon from Palestine, the Celestial Sphinx, and marking the first Jupiter-Regulus Conjunction in Leo, 3 days after the birth of Christ on Sept. 11th 3 BC, [Tishri 1]; Rosh Hashanah. We find these landmarks at the head and tail of the zodiac, which adds light to “the woman Virgo is the crown for all twelve signs. The head position of Virgo is located within the last 10 degrees of Leo.” Virgo’s head is seen in Fig. B, just below and adjacent to the star Denebola in the tail of the Lion, unifying the circle of the zodiac. The Sphinx also unifies the Biblical canon, establishing the chronological order of God’s written revelation, in the Bible’s earliest book of Job 19:23-25.

Footnotes

1. www.1260-1290-days-bible-prophecy.org [www.360 calendar .com]

2. See more at: http://destination-yisrael.biblesearchers.com/destination-yisrael/2012/12/rabbi-judah-ben-samuels-jubilee-prophecy-gives-the-year-of-the-messiah.html#sthash.KkE3oERL.dpuf

3. September2021.com [Phil Richardson] Picture credit

4. Israel Today Magazine, Ludwig Schneider [March 2008] http://issuu.com/ryaninzion/docs/israel_today_march_2008

5. Try-god.com/the great sphinx

http://jardalkalataol.blogspot.com/2015/09/feast-dates-and-second-coming-and.html

Http://www.lmci.org/pdfs/episkoposmar2012.pdf

New Evidence of the Coma Supernova framing the Birth of Christ?

Birth of Jesus Christ — Biblical Astronomy of the Birth of Christ

New Evidence of the Coma Supernova Framing the Birth of Christ

This blog post provides an example of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics informing and supporting certain aspects of Ancient Astronomy, specifically surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ. With the utilization of modern analysis of images of the Coma Cluster from the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Dragonfly Telephoto Array in New Mexico, we have assembled scientific evidence in support of the 2000+ year old Coma Supernova constituting the General Sign of the Celestial Prelude historically documented by ancient luminaries like Ptolemy and Hipparchus, but unsupported beyond this until now. We will start with an excerpt from my previous articles at [try-god.com] on the Celestial Prelude, setting the context of the Coma Supernova and the Hebrew Calendar.

“The practice of Intercalation of months kept the holidays of Passover, Pentecost and Rosh Hashanah, just prior to the Feast of Tabernacles in the month of Tishri, in their proper seasons of early Spring, the beginning of Summer and at Summer’s end. This “11-day gap between the solar and lunar years expands to a period of seven months over this 19-year lunar cycle. In the Calendar of Israel a total of seven years (3rd 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th) during this 19-year lunar cycle, would normally contain an extra month of Adar Sheni.”¹

With every 19 solar years plus two hours, the Sun and Moon return to meet each other at the same appointed time and place in the sky. The saros, however, consists of 19 eclipse years, which is only 18 solar years plus eleven days. An eclipse year thus consists of 346.62 solar days, which is equal to 11.738 lunations. When we divide the saros by 11.738, we get 1.618, (or phi),² accurate to 4 digits! Since the Sun intersects a lunar Node two times every 346.62-day eclipse year, we find the cycle of the celestial rendezvous of the Sun and Moon also governed by the phi ratio. The Hebrew calendar also unifies these luni-solar cycles according to phi, in concert with Israel’s sacred fifty-year cycle of Jubilees. This is evident because there are 618 lunations in any given 50-year Jubilee cycle. Thus, as the Hebrew calendar shows the perfect correlation of the sacred and secular celestial cycles, governing the rhythms of a myriad terrestrial and cosmic cycles, we find more evidence of the signature of God the Creator and His dominion of light reflected in the heavens, the Source behind all kingdoms of earthly life. This exhibits the perfect relation between the civil [lunar], and sacred[solar] years of the Calendar of Israel, in the larger context of precession. These related sacred and secular standards are also unified in the promised seed, Jesus Christ as the Priest–King of Israel, and light of the world presiding over all circadian rhythms and other aspects of the kingdoms of terrestrial life.

As we briefly mentioned earlier, the roots of the word for saros are much older than Meton’s application of the term. In fact it goes back at least as far as ancient Sumeria, because the Sumerian name for the great lunar eclipse cycle was also called the saros. This word traces through to the basic Babylonian unit of measure, also called a “sar,” showing ancient elements of the sacred celestial rule of measure. This period of lunation consisting of 18 years & 11, (10.96) days, was utilized by the Chaldean priests to predict eclipses. Wallis Budge supported this notion when he stated; “the Babylonians were a nation of stargazers observing the appearances of the moon, eclipses, & planets etc.” This was the culture that produced the Magi, and speaks volumes on not only their astronomical expertise, but also their focus while watching the heavens for the celestial signs revealing the birth of Jesus Christ the promised seed. The Babylonians also had a period of 3600 (60 x 60) years that they called a saros. Here again we see the Sexegesimal pattern behind the organization of the heavens, including the cycle of the Moon joining Saturn and Jupiter every 60 years in their celestial dance. Jupiter-Saturn Conjunctions exhibit the essence of this “base 60” numerical system as part of its function as a cornerstone of Biblical cosmology, providing the context of the Celestial Prelude marking the birth of Christ. Additionally, it gives us a window on the “celestial mechanism” that frames all Creation, the precession of the equinoxes. This will be fully explained in the Specific signs of the Celestial Prelude. Both of these planets frame the ancient solar system as its two outer-most naked-eye planets, while opening a window on precession. It also shows a unity of Saturn’s 29.5-year orbit with the 29.5-day lunar cycle on a year-day basis. This is half the Sexegesimal order of the solar system, formatted in the orbits of these two gas giants, the other half being Jupiter’s near 12-year cycle spending a year in each zodiacal sign, even as the Sun spends a month in each of the 12 signs. The solar half of the order is based on a division of 60, by twelve: (12 x 5), and the lunar half by 30 [30 x 2], both multiples of sixty. This is part of the numerical order of the solar system as it was patterned by the Creator according to the phi ratio.

Figure 1. Precession of the Equinoxes

The Babylonian “Sar” is doubtlessly related to the Hebrew word [*H8269] of the same spelling, meaning; “prince, captain, chief, ruler, leader, head.” The word has retained this meaning even in modern usage, as in the Tsar of all the Russias. As a testimony to what may have been based on the first human language, “Aesar” is a word for “God” in both, Icelandic and Irish, “Osar” in Egypt like “Osiris” was the prince. The English word “sir” and the Roman “Ceasars” are also traceable to this root. It is used in Daniel 10:13 & 20, referring the archangel Michael who dispatched the fallen angel (Daimon) who opposed the messenger angel that God sent to answer Daniel’s prayer. In Isa. 9:6, one of the great prophecies of the birth of Jesus Christ promised seed, used of the Messiah as Sar-Shalom; the Prince of Peace, the one who brings peace to all Creation [Eph. 2:11-18]. It is additionally used of Prince Moses in Exodus 2:16.

According to Hislop, The Chaldean version of this word; “Zer,” meaning “to encompass” gives us not only the English basis for: “Zero signified by a circle among the Chaldeans,” but also Zero; “the seed.” Thus, it relates to the Hebrew word zera [*H2233] used in reference to Jesus Christ’s birth- promised seed in Genesis 3:15. To this end the Chaldean word for the “woman’s promised seed” was “Zero-ashta,” that also formed the basis of the name Zoroaster. We should note that in the writings of Zoroastrianism in the Zend-Avesta, the predicted return of Zoroaster as a savior who would renew all existence in preparation for the Last Judgment, was prophesied. These references to the woman’s promised seed point directly to the general sign of the Celestial Prelude. Hislop also notes:

“In almost all nations, not only was a great god known under the name of Zero or Zer; the seed, and a great goddess under the name of Ashta or Ishta; the woman, but the great god Zero is frequently characterized by some epithet which implies that he is The only One.” ³

This evidence provides a strong basis for a direct correlation to the decan Coma, the seed who was the desired of the nations, especially in view of the Supernova in this child’s [Christos] head [pictured below on the Dendera Zodiac] marked as the promised seed, during the general sign of the Celestial Prelude. The implication that the promised seed of the woman would be the only one, speaks to the truth that Christ is the Alpha and Omega, or the first and last way God made available for the redemption of Mankind. Hislop goes on to say: “As he who by the Chaldeans was regarded as the great Seed was looked upon as the Sun incarnate, and as the emblem of the Sun was a circle, the hieroglyphic relation between zero; “the circle,” and zero; “the seed” was easily established.”⁴

Figure 2. Coma Decan in the Dendera Zodiac

The Biblical references to Christ associated with the Sun as the “light of the world,” the “Sun of Righteousness” [Mal. 4:2] and in Psalm 19:4-6, are only a few of many such references. Thus, in the case of the promised seed, Zero-ashta, the religion of the Magi served as a vessel for many principles and astronomical precepts, that led Mankind to the birth of Jesus Christ as the Promised Seed of the Woman, [Gen. 3:15-16].

Ignatius, one of the Church Fathers and the Bishop of Antioch, in about 69 AD, records that, “At the appearance of the Lord a star shone forth brighter than all other stars.” If we are careful not to confuse this reference with the planet Jupiter, we can deduce that this supernova was still visible almost 200 years after it was first seen as the celestial marker of the general time frame of Jesus’ birth. Thus, the Celestial Prelude proposes that this Coma Supernova that took place in the head of the infant “Christos,” nursed by his mother was the General Sign marking the time of the Messiah’s birth. Seiss has some viable historical references on this point:

“Hipparchus about one hundred twenty-five years before Christ, observed it [Coma supernova] as a new star, and was led by it to draw up his record of stars. Ptolemy, about one hundred and fifty years after Christ, refers to it as having been observed by Hipparchus, but as having become so faint as hardly to be any longer discernible.”⁵ (parenthesis and emphasis mine)

Also during this same period referred to by Ptolemy above, shekels from Judea struck during the period of the second revolt, [132 AD.] bear the design of a bright star over the Jerusalem Temple, called Bar Kaukab, or Son of the Star. This would have also been a logical reference to the supernova that appeared in the head of the woman’s son in Coma‘s lap, the desired of the nations, perhaps even a providential reference to Jesus as the true temple. The decan of Coma is pictured below as the three bright stars forming the inverted “L” shape, that significantly contains the North Galactic Pole, located 5 degrees west of Beta Coma. This is interesting in light of the original star picture associated with this decan, as seen in the Dendera Zodiac, of a mother holding her Son in her lap, known as “the Desired of the Nations,” [Figure 1, above]. The close proximity of the Northern Galatic Pole, recalls the imagery of Cepheus “the crowned king” who regally sits astride the Celestial Pole star polaris, picturing Christ seated in heaven at the right hand of the Heavenly Father [Eph. 1:20-23].

Figure 3 The Decan Coma

The Magi would have witnessed both this new star shining brightly in Coma, a decan of Virgo, while Jupiter was in retrograde, standing still on the Meridian in Virgo, in December of 2 BC. The general sign of our Celestial Prelude thus harmonizes with the specific signs, as the Magi headed south from Jerusalem, their visit with Herod just concluded, towards Bethlehem in search of the promised seed. This also explains why the Magi were the only group to recognize these specific celestial signs of the Messiah’s birth, because the general sign was a fixture in Coma for about 200 years prior to this period. The typical person wouldn’t have noticed anything out of the ordinary in the heavens, because it would not stand out unless coupled with the knowledge of the specific signs, bringing the Magi to Israel in the first place. This is another reason why the Magi were so joyful when they saw “his star,” Jupiter over Bethlehem. This scenario of what the Magi beheld in the skies over Bethlehem in December of 2 BC, is depicted in the banner of this article above, and covered in detail in our website article on the Skies over Bethlehem. In Numbers 24:17, when Jacob is referred to in Balaam’s prophecy, it refers not only to the seed of Jacob, but also to the land promised to him as an inheritance, in his Covenant with God [Gen. 15:18]. Rolleston has interesting remarks regarding this:

“The Magi forewarned that the star must appear over Jacob, over his inheritance, would see that star in Coma passed over the center of that inheritance: but as it would also appear to pass vertically over every part of it that was nearly in the Latitude of Jerusalem, they could not at once fix on the spot of the Messiah’s birth, therefore they went to inquire; the Latitude, as it were, being given by the star, the longitude by the prophecy.“⁶

Here we see the witness of the stars, and the Scriptures, working together to bring the Magi to the toddler Jesus, because their alert observation of “his star” brought them to Jerusalem and the scribes declaration from Micah 5:2, when Herod questioned them, sent the Magi to Bethlehem. While en route they witnessed the heavens come alive with the proof that their historic journey was not in vain, because they saw both the Coma Supernova, and Jupiter in Virgo in the same skies over Bethlehem. This puts both elements of the General and Specific Signs of the Celestial Prelude in the same skies observed by the Magi leading them to the birth place of Jesus Christ.

Some Professional Astronomers following my Try-God Blog and website have doubted the veracity of the historical evidence of the ancient Coma Supernova framing the birth of Christ, and have challenged this point, citing the lack of physical and scientific proof of this event. With this in mind, we present the following research that has come out in the last year or so, providing key astronomical research supporting the thesis of this ancient Coma Supernova. The following are excerpts from a Sky & Telescope article from November 2014 by Monica Young, a professional astronomer by training, and web editor/contributor for Sky & Telescope Magazine.

Figure 4. Some of the 800+ Dark Galaxies Pictured in the Coma Cluster.

“Pieter van Dokkum (Yale University) and colleagues took a unique look at Coma through the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, eight Canon cameras armed with telephoto lenses. The Dragonfly is designed to find faint, fuzzy blobs, but what its images revealed surprised the team. The research team included astronomers from San Jose State University, the University of Toronto, and the University of California-Santa Cruz. The team made its discovery by combining results from the Dragonfly Telephoto Array — which van Dokkum helped to invent — and the W.M. Keck Observatory’s 10-meter Keck I telescope. The team’s observations wrapped up in May, but it wasn’t until later in the summer that van Dokkum finally got around to looking at the images he’d gathered. In them, he noticed some faint, fuzzy blobs. Forty-seven blobs, to be precise. They looked rather large, and they really weren’t supposed to be there – at least, not according to the records keeping track of galaxies in the cluster.

Once these blobs were inspected they found them to be “dark Galaxies.” On Coma’s outskirts lurk 47 galaxies similar in size to the Milky Way — but with 1,000 times fewer stars. To survive in crowded Coma, these dark galaxies must contain 98%+ dark matter to hold themselves together, much higher than the fraction in the universe at large (73%).”

The galaxies’ size depends on their distance, so to make sure this result wasn’t just a trick of perspective, the team had to make sure these galaxies really belonged to the Coma cluster, more than 320 million light-years away. Determining cluster membership was a challenge because the objects are far too faint to study in the usual ways, such as taking a spectrum to determine their distance. Nonetheless, “van Dokkum and his co-authors make quite a convincing case,” says Mark den Brok (University of Utah).

To estimate the galaxies’ distance, the team traced the blobs’ distribution on the sky. It matched that of the Coma Cluster’s galaxies, suggesting the 47 objects were indeed a part of the cluster. Then, the team again turned to archival images — this time, those shot by Earth’s sharpest eye in the sky, the Hubble Space Telescope, which had observed the Coma Cluster many times before. Completely by chance, Hubble had captured three of the faint galaxies. One of the images was good enough to work with. In that image, there’s a faint, blurry galaxy hanging out with Coma’s classic inhabitants. But the galaxy’s individual stars aren’t resolved by Hubble, which suggests the blob is very far away indeed. The team simulated Hubble images taken at varying distances, and calculated that in order for the individual stars to be invisible, the galaxy needed to be at least 160 million light-years away.

Which means, the blob – and most of its friends – are probably in the Coma Cluster. “We conclude that most or all of the low surface brightness galaxies are, in fact, at the distance of the Coma cluster and are resolved in the Dragonfly data because they are intrinsically very large,” the authors write.

Figure 5. Coma Cluster From Chandra X-Ray Observatory

The authors initially expected the galaxies to be distributed randomly, as they would be if they lay in the foreground near the Milky Way. Instead, the galaxies cluster around the center of the image in the cluster’s periphery. Suspecting the objects might be clumps of galaxies too small for Dragonfly to resolve, in the team’s search through archival images of the region shot by a telescope that should be able to parse giant blobs into smaller, constituent objects. The discovery of a serendipitous Hubble image of one of the galaxies supported the team’s case, den Brok says, definitively showing that it doesn’t have the traits of a nearby dwarf galaxy. [Reference: Pieter van Dokkum et al. “Forty-Seven Milky Way-Sized, Extremely Diffuse Galaxies in the Coma Cluster.” Astrophysical Journal Letters, submitted.]

Starless Galaxies

Simulations that track the evolution of large-scale cosmic structure suggest that even normal galaxies start out with three times more star-building material than they develop into stars. So whatever process works to limit star formation in normal galaxies is working particularly well in these dark matter-rich galaxies.

“Our simulations have shown that one way to limit star formation so drastically is to use the energy stars produce when they blow up as supernovae,” says Greg Stinson (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany). “It turns out that this disruption leads directly to galaxies that look like the ones van Dokkum is seeing.”

“How did such bizarre and difficult-to-detect galaxies arise? Team member Pieter van Dokkum, astronomer at Yale University, suspects the galaxies may be failed Milky Ways—big galaxies that were headed for brilliance but lost their gas before forming many stars, perhaps because supernova explosions catapulted gas out of the galaxies and into the parent Coma cluster. They also must harbor lots of dark matter to hold together; otherwise the gravitational pull of other galaxies in the cluster would rip them apart.”

“I was actually very much relieved to see Prof. van Dokkum’s paper,” Stinson adds. Dark matter simulations have been producing galaxies with exactly the size and matter distribution that van Dokkum’s team observed, but such galaxies are naturally difficult to observe.”

It’s ironic that dark matter-rich galaxies were discovered in Coma, the birthplace of dark matter theory. Observations of the same cluster in 1933 helped Fritz Zwicky (Caltech) first conceive of the invisible matter that shapes the large-scale structure of the universe. Zwicky was also involved in Supernova discoveries in Coma during the 50’s and early 60’s. Now ever-deeper observations continue to help astronomers understand dark matter’s role in the galaxy.

Seeing this research on the Coma Cluster was intriguing to me. What if these diffuse galaxies could somehow support the history we had already seen on the Coma Supernova? Since these diffuse starless galaxies in the Coma Cluster were so limited in their star-making material, and a known cause of this is an exploding supernova in the region, would have depleted the energy galaxies used to form these stars, then we might be on to an explanation, not only of these diffuse galaxies in the Coma Cluster, but also provide modern scientific evidence of this ancient Coma Supernova. But, to more conclusively link a Nova/Supernova to these diffuse galaxies, we need to know more about how Nova explosions occur in general. Since this initial discovery of 47 Ultra Diffuse Galaxies [UDG’s] in the Coma Cluster, by this team, additional research has revealed over 800 added UDG’s in the same Coma Cluster. The following reference documents this.

STONY BROOK, NY, June 22, 2015 – A team of researchers from Stony Brook University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) have discovered 854 “ultra-dark galaxies” in the Coma Cluster by analyzing data from the 8.2-meter SubaruTelescope. The new discovery, published in the June 2015 editionof the Astrophysical Journal Letters, surpasses the 2014 discovery of 47 dark galaxies by more than 800 and suggests that galaxy clusters are the key environment for the evolution of these mysterious dark galaxies.

“The findings suggests that these galaxies appear very diffuse and are very likely enveloped by something very massive, “said Jin Koda, PhD, principal investigator of the study and Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University.

[See more at: http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/news/general/150622854ultradarkgalaxies.php#sthash.GE37hY7t.dpuf]

“We are beginning to form some ideas about how they [Dark galaxies] were born and it’s remarkable they have survived at all,” van Dokkum said. “They are found in a dense, violent region of space filled with dark matter and galaxies whizzing around, so we think they must be cloaked in their own invisible dark matter ‘shields’ that are protecting them from this intergalactic assault.”

This discovery can become very important for modern astronomy because it may lead to revision of fundamental theories.

“A central tenet of galaxy formation is that “as we count the number of stars, we can predict the amount of dark matter” holding the galaxy together,” said van Dokkum, as quoted by the Christian Science Monitor.

“If you have two galaxies, the Milky Way and one of these things, which have a very different number of stars but the same amount of dark matter, that simple idea doesn’t hold,” he added. “They [UDGs] prove to be “a Rosetta Stone for galaxy formation,” concluded Jin Koda.

Publication: Pieter G. van Dokkum, et al., “Spectroscopic Confirmation of the Existence of Large, Diffuse Galaxies in the Coma Cluster,” 2015, ApJ, 804, L26; doi:10.1088/2041-8205/804/1/L26

Figure 6. Virgo and Coma from Stellarium Astronomy Software

This new research provides added probable evidence for the Coma Supernova documented by the ancients Hipparchus and Ptolemy, which from their historical records states that the Coma Supernova was visible to the naked eye for at least a period of about 275 years.

In summary then, the key points regarding the general sign of the Celestial Prelude are first, this Supernova in Coma, set the general time frame in which the Magi were to expect the specific signs surrounding the birth of Christ. Secondly, when this general sign is separated from the set of specific signs of Jupiter-Saturn triple conjunctions, the confusion clouding the “Star of Bethlehem,” for the most part dissolves. Thirdly, When the Magi beheld the heavens above Bethlehem they witnessed both the bright Coma Supernova in the child’s head, while Jupiter shone down standing still in the heavens in retrograde motion in Virgo, during the Winter Solstice, when the Sun was standing still also, clearly marking the birth-place of Jesus Christ.

FOOTNOTES:

1 Symbols of Judaism M.A. Ouaknin p.12.

2 Sun, Moon and Earth. Robin Heath, p.28

3 The Two Babylons Hislop, p. 59

4 The Two Babylons Hislop, p. 18

5 Gospel in the Stars, Joseph Seiss. P.161.

6 Mazzaroth; The Star of Bethlehem, Rolleston,
*Strong’s Concordance word definition for H8269, H2233, etc.