Gospel in the Stars VII

The Sign Of Scorpio - "The Toiling Deliverer"

Significant Things in Scorpio

1. The Conflict (battle, war) and the enmity
2. The symbol of the scorpion as a symbol of the serpent
3. Satan is one who attacks and who "wounds" and "destroys"
4. Satan as one who rends, tears, and devours
5. The sting of Scorpio inflicted on the serpent holder
6. The crushing of Scorpio with the foot of the serpent holder

"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shall Thou trample under foot." (Ps. 91: 13)

Seiss wrote:

"IT is generally accepted by the old interpreters that the word "lion" in this text should be taken as denoting some venomous thing, either reptile or insect, of a class with serpents. Bochart thinks it means "the black serpent." Patrick takes the description as meaning "serpents, asps, and dragons, with all the rest of those venomous sorts of creatures." The Saviour recurs to this passage where He says, "I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy" (Luke 10:19). Accordingly, we find both the Psalmist and the Saviour using the precise imagery of the sign of the Zodiac and its Decans which we are now to consider. A gigantic scorpion, serpent, and dragon, with a mighty man in conflict with them, mastering them and treading them under foot, is the figure before us."

"The name of this sign in Arabic and Syriac is Al Akrab, which, as a name, means the scorpion, but also wounding, conflict, war. David uses the root of this word (Ps. 144: 1) where he blesses God for teaching his hands to war. In Coptic the name is Isidis, attack of the enemy—a word from the same root which occurs in Hebrew (Ps. 17:9) in the sense of oppression from, deadly foes. The word scorpion itself is formed from a root which means to cleave in conflict or battle, and this sign in the Zodiac is the house of Mars, the god of war and justice. The principal star in this sign is called Antares, wounding, rutting, tearing.

The scorpion, as a living thing, is a spiderlike insect, formed something like a small lobster, with an extended chain-like tail ending in a crooked horny sting loaded with irritant poison. To be struck by a scorpion is often fatal, though not necessarily so; but the pain from it is the intensest that can be inflicted on the human body. It is the most irascible and malignant insect that lives, and its poison is like itself. And in this sign we have the figure of a mammoth scorpion, with its tail uplifted in anger as in the act of striking. The figure, the names, and all the indications agree in telling us that we here have the story of a most malignant conflict, and of a deadly wounding in that conflict."

"The Suffering Savior"

"How clearly and fully all this corresponds to the great conflict of Christ, and His dearbought victory in achieving our redemption, any one can easily trace. The text exhibits Him as victor in just such a conflict. Though it refers to the success of God's people in general, and their security under the shadow of the Almighty, the New Testament applies the passage to Christ, who is always the kernel of everything pertaining to the powers and triumphs of His people. What they get, they get in and through His going before them in the matter. He is to His Church what the head is to the body—the chief of the whole thing, without which all the rest is powerless and nothing. Therefore we must understand the declaration as including Him and as referring pre-eminently to Him. It accordingly represents Him as in conflict with serpents, scorpions, asps, dragons, and all deadly and venomous things, just as in this sign and its Decans.

In the Egyptian Zodiac this sign is represented by a monster serpent, Typhon, or Python, the hundred-headed son of a malignant, envious, and intractable shrew, the father of the many-headed dog of hell, of the Lernsean Hydra, and of the three-headed, firebreathing Chimsera. In the Hebrew Zodiac this sign was counted to Dan; and Dan is described as "a serpent by the way," and an "adder in the path." Scorpio certainly ranks with the Serpent, and stands in close affinity with the Dragon.

The Serpent's seed is everywhere and always the enemy of the woman's Seed; and the conflict is above all between Christ and the Devil, until all evil is finally subdued and crushed. The great office of the divine Son of the woman, and his experience in it, were sketched from the beginning, as the bruising of the Serpent's head and the bruising of His heel. No sooner did Christ come into the world than the Dragon sought to devour Him through Herod's executioners. No sooner had He come up from the waters of baptism, attested from the open heavens as the Messiah, the Son of God, than the Devil made attack upon Him. And as He came to the final act of discharging the debt of a condemned world, the most terrible of all the assaults of the powers of darkness had to be encountered.

We know something of the wrestling and agony which our Saviour suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane. We know how sorrowful was His soul, as though His immortal being were about to be broken up. We know how He was inwardly wrung with anguish until every pore issued sweat of blood, clotting on His body and falling in great drops to the ground. It was "the hour of the powers of darkness," as He himself explained. It was an experience of agony the like of which never had been, and never could be again. It was the sting and poison of the great Scorpion struck into the Son of God, making all His glorious nature vibrate as if in dissolution. It was the prophetic sign of the Zodiac fulfilled in the Seed of the virgin."

The Attack of the Enemy (Isidis)

Christ was Attacked

1. Even before he was born a) verbally against the prophecies b) against the ancestry (Israel, David, etc.)
2. When he was born when Herod sought for the young child's life
3. When he tempted Christ in the wilderness
4. When he was confronted by the brood of vipers, the scorpions
5. When he was unjustly tried and convicted and crucified
6. When his people are attacked, especially in the last days

Stars in Scorpio

Bullinger wrote:

"The brightest star, alpha (in the heart), bears the ancient Arabic name of Antares, which means the wounding...It shines ominously with a deep red light. The sting is called in Hebrew Lesath (Chaldee, Lesha), which means the perverse. The stars in the tail are also known as Leshaa, or Leshat."

Wrote another:

"Before 2,000 years ago this constellation included the stars we now call Libra, the Scales. Libra was originally part of the claws of Scorpio but it was de-clawed by the Scales, and some of these stars are still named for the claws of the scorpion. The scorpion that adorns the sky today has no claws, but it does look like a scorpion. In the anatomically correct spot, the bright star Antares marks the "heart" of the scorpion. The long hooked tail stretches south and east toward Sagittarius...Because of the effects of the precession the Sun is now only in Scorpius only from November 23 to November 30."

(http://www.mazzaroth.com/InsertFour/ScorpiusStarChart.htm)

Misc. Scripture on the Scorpion

"Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought..." (Deut. 8: 15)

The world in which we now live is the opposite of Eden. It is a wilderness, a place where "evil beasts" seek to devour.

"And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house." (Eze. 2: 6)

These "scorpions" represent evil people, the enemies of God and Christ. Scripture uses figures of various "evil creatures" to symbolize wicked people, and the destructive powers of darkness.

"I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves."
"Beware of dogs."
"Go tell that fox."
"Your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, seeks whom he may devour."
"You brood of vipers (serpents)."
"I have fought with beasts at Ephesus."

"...as the scorpions of the earth have power." (Rev. 9: 3)

"...their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man." (9: 5)

Men are hurt and wounded by the sting of the scorpion, by the poisonous venom of the serpent. Man is tormented by sin and death.

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Cor. 15: 55-57)

The sting of death! The pain and torment of sin! Who will heal us? Who will remove the stinger and the poison? Who will destroy the scorpion?

"The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies." (Isa. 42: 13)

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war." (Rev. 19: 11)

"Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle." (Psa. 24: 8)

"I will rid evil beasts out of the land" (Lev. 26: 6 & Eze. 34: 25).

"The Serpent"

"A further confirmation that we are on the right track in thus interpreting this sign is the fact that the first Decan, or illustrative sidepiece, presents us with a picture of the Serpent itself in all its giant proportions.

It was the particular admonition to the Church in Philadelphia: "Hold fast that thou hast, that no one take thy crown." We have likewise seen in the preceding sign that there was held forth a celestial crown for Him who was to suffer on the cross. It was for the joy thus set before Him that the Apostle says He "endured the cross, despising the shame." On the other hand, mythology represents Python as aiming to acquire the sovereignty of gods and men, and only prevented from gaining it by the struggle which ensued between him and the greatest of the Olympian gods. That myth was simply the story of this constellation, for here the Serpent is stretching after the celestial Crown, has almost reached it, and is only kept from taking it by being held fast by a manly figure grasping him firmly with both hands.

This serpent in the Decan is, of course, to be construed with the Scorpion in the sign, as the one is expository of the other; just as Spica in Virgo is to be construed with the Infant in Coma. The conflict in both cases is the same, only the images are changed to give a somewhat further impression of it. In the first instance it is the Evil One attacking and inflicting the intensest of anguish; in the other, it is a fierce contest for the Crown."

"The Bible everywhere assures us of the existence of a personal Devil and Destroyer, just as it everywhere describes a personal God and Redeemer. It tells us plainly whence he came, what he is, what power he wields, and what is to be his fate, just as it tells whence Christ is, who He is, for what purpose He came into the world, and what is to be the result of His marvellous and complex administrations.

The doctrine of a Saviour necessarily implies the doctrine of a destroyer. The one is the counterpart of the other, and belief in both is fundamental to the right explanation of things, as well as to our proper safety. Men may doubt and question, and treat the idea of a personal Devil as a foolish myth, but their language nevertheless bewrayeth the unfittingness of their skepticism. The doctrine is in the oldest, worthiest, and divinest records ever made for human enlightenment, and in the common belief of all nations and peoples from the beginning of the world. And here we have it pictured and repeated at every turn of the starry configurations, precisely as we find it presented in the sacred Scriptures. Nor can we be on the safe side without honestly receiving and believing it. People may make a jest of it if they will, but they will find out some day that this story of the Serpent is a terrible reality."

"Ophiuchus"

"Any attentive reader of the Scriptures will observe how constantly the Redeemer of the world is represented in the attitude and character of a Physician, a Healer, a Mollifier of wounds, a Deliverer from the power of disease and death. Before He was born the prophets fore-announced Him as "the Sun of Righteousness" who should "arise with healing in His wings"—as He "with whose stripes we are healed"—as He who "healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds "—as He who saith, "O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction." So the record of Him in the New Testament is that He "went about all Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people," and giving every demonstration of power to make good His word, that if any one would receive His teachings and believe on Him that sent Him, the same should never see death, and be raised to life eternal at the last day. His great complaint against men ever was, and is, that they come not unto Him that they might have life. And this again is accurately and most strikingly presented in the second Decan of Scorpio and the myths connected with it."

"We have here the figure of a mighty man wrestling until he is bald with a gigantic serpent, grasping the same with both hands, disabling the monster by his superior power, and effectually holding him fast so that he cannot get the crown. With one foot lifted from the scorpion's tail as stung and hurt, he is in the act of crushing that scorpion's head with the other. He thus appears as the one who hath power over the Serpent and over death, holding, disabling, and destroying them, though himself wounded in His conflict with them. Such is also the representation of Krishna in two sculptured figures in one of the oldest existing pagodas of Hindostan.

In one of the old Egyptian spheres the picture is that of a man enthroned, wearing the head of an eagle or a hawk, the enemy and slayer of the serpent, and assigned a Coptic name which means the chief who cometh. But the more common figure is that which appears on our modern atlases, whom the Greeks in their own language called Ophiuchus, the Serpent-holder, otherwise, from two Arabic words signifying the same thing, Cheleb Afei or Esculapius, who figures so illustriously in the mythologies and worships of Greece and Rome.

The Great Physician. This Esculapius was held to be one of the worthiest of the gods. It was to him that the great Socrates in his last hours sacrificed a cock. His temples were everywhere, and everywhere frequented and honored. But, though regarded as a god, the son of Apollo, or the Sun, Homer applies epithets to him never applied to a god, and the greatest of his achievements are mostly ascribed to him in the sphere and activities of a man. He therefore comes to view as both god and man, after the same style as the Seed of the woman in the Scriptures. He is assigned seven children, who were simply personifications of his own qualities and powers, their names further describing him as the Healer, the Physician, the Desired One, the Healthgiver, the Beautifier with good health, the One who brings cure, the Universal Remedy. The story is, that he not only cured all the sick, but called the dead to life again by means of blood from the side of the goddess of justice and from the slain Gorgon, and finally himself suffered death from the lightnings of heaven because of the complaints against him by the god of hell, but was nevertheless raised to glory through the influence of Apollo. In all the representations he is invariably accompanied with the symbol of the serpent.

Many hypotheses have been broached to account for the origin of the story and illustrious worship of Esculapius; and I cannot but wonder that no one has ever thought of tracing it to the primeval astronomy and to this conspicuous constellation of Serpentarius, to which it most certainly belongs. Taking these signs, as I hold them to be, the pictorial records of the primitive revelation concerning the Seed of the woman, we at once strike the heart of a complete explanation of every feature of the myth, which at the same time very wonderfully confirms the correctness of so accepting these signs. Here is the man with the serpent, as was Esculapius. Here is the Seed of the woman, the Son of God. Here is the Serpent-holder and the Deathvanquisher, hence the matchless Physician and Healer.

It may seem strange to identify Esculapius with Christ, nor do we say that Esculapius was Christ; but we do say that the constellation out of which came the heathen legend concerning Esculapius was the picture and sign of the promised Sun of Righteousness, the Healer and Saviour of mankind. As truly as Spica denotes the Seed of the virgin, Serpentarius denotes that same Seed; and the whole story of Esculapius thus found its hero, its features, and its names from the primitive prophecies and promises concerning the Virgin's Son, as pictured in this constellation. Everything characteristic in the myth was in some sense prophetic of what should be, and was, fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Christ is the true Sun of Righteousness, the great Healer, the heavenly Physician, the Desired One, the sublime Restorer of soul and body, the Beautifier with health and salvation, the Bringer of cure for suffering and perishing humanity, the Universal Remedy for all the ills which sin has wrought. He is the potent Holder of the Serpent, the Vanquisher of death. He is the Resurrection and the Life, who raiseth up the dead by virtue of the blood taken from the virgin in taking her nature, and the blood of the Gorgon vanquished by His power. And He it was who died from the divine thunderbolts as a Sinbearer to silence the clamors of perdition, and yet, on the plea of His merit and divinity, was raised up and enthroned in highest heaven as the very God of salvation.

His identity with what the myth represented appears also very strikingly in a certain ancient prophetic hymn to Esculapius, fabled as inspired and sung at the time of his birth —a hymn with these remarkable lines, which the angels might be supposed to sing over the manger of Bethlehem:

"Hail, great Physician of the world! all hail! Hail, mighty Infant, who, in years to come, Shall heal the nations and defraud the tomb! Swift be Thy growth! Thy triumphs unconfined! Make kingdoms thicker and increase mankind: Thy daring art shall animate the dead, And draw the thunder on Thy guilty head; For Thou shall die, but from the dark abode Rise up victorious, and be twice a God."

The whole showing of the constellation, and of the mythic story connected with it, thus wonderfully accords with what the prophets anticipated and the New Testament teaches concerning the divine Son of the virgin."