1. Review the significance of Scorpio, Serpent, Serpent Holder
a) the "serpent" and the "scorpion" are two leading figures of Satan
b) names of stars in scorpion, Ophiuchus, serpent
2) Aesculapius myth (Pronunciation: as-klee'-pee-uhs)
3) mono myth idea (original source), hero myths
4) proofs from scripture that Mazzaroth and the constellations tell the gospel
5) handout of the entire story of the gospel (short form)
6) constellation (decan) of Hercules
7) constellation of Sagittarius
Star Names in Scorpio
The constellation itself is called Akrab in Hebrew, the name of a scorpion, but also means the conflict or war. The Coptic name is Isidis, which means the attack of the enemy, or oppression. The Arabic name is Al Akrab, which means wounding him that comes. The brightest star, in the heart, the ominous red star, bears an ancient Arabic name of Antares, meaning the wounding. The scorpion's sting is called Lesath in Hebrew and means the perverse.
The star in the serpent, alpha, in the neck, is named Unuk, which means encompassing. Another Hebrew name is Alyah, the accursed. From this is Al hay (Arabic), which means the reptile. The beta star, in the jaw, names Cheleb in Arabic, or Chelbalrai, the serpent enfolding. The Greek name Ophiuchus, is itself from the Hebrew and Arabic name Afeichus, which means the serpent held.
The brightest star in Ophiuchus, in the head, is called Ras al Hagus (Arabic), the head of him who holds.
Other Hebrew names of stars, not identified, are Triophas, treading under foot; Saiph (in the foot of Ophiuchus), means bruised; Carnebus, the wounding; Megeros, contending. In the Zodiac of Denderah we have an enthroned human figure called Api-bau, the chief who comes.
Hercules, in the Zodiac of Denderah, the man is called Bau, which means who comes. In Arabic he is called Al Giscale, the strong one. The brightest star, alpha, in the head, is named Ras al Gethi, and means the head of him who bruises. The beta star, in the right arm pit, is named Kornephorus, and means the branch, kneeling. The star in the right elbow is called Marsic, the wounding. The star in the upper part of the left arm is named ma'asyn, the sin offering. The star in the lower part of the right arm is Caiam, or Buiam, punishing, and in Arabic means treading under foot.
Aesculapius
Greek god, Asclepius, and his Roman counterpart Aesculapius
Aesculapius was the legendary Greek god of medicine, the son of Apollo. He was educated by the centaur Cheiron, who taught him the art of healing and hunting. His had skill in curing disease and restoring the dead to life.
He is commonly represented standing, dressed in a long cloak, with bare breast; his usual attribute is a club-like staff with a serpent (the symbol of renovation) coiled round it. He is often accompanied by Telesphorus, the boy genius of healing, and his daughter Hygieia, the goddess of health.
If you've ever been to a hospital or flipped through a phone book looking up a physician, you've seen the image: two serpents criss-crossed around a staff topped by a round knob and flanked by wings. This is known as the caduceus, and it has been the symbol of the American medical profession for nearly a hundred years -- a decidedly odd symbol for doctors, until you begin to investigate its underlying meanings.
The staff of Aesculapius is sometimes depicted as a single serpent coiled around a cypress branch.
"Hercules"
"And still more fully is the Messianic work of the bruising of the Serpent's head set forth in the third constellation belonging to this sign. Here is the figure of a mighty man, down on one knee, with his heel uplifted as if wounded, having a great club in one hand and a fierce three-headed monster held fast in the other, whilst his left foot is set directly on the head of the great Dragon. Take this figure according to the name given it in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and you have a picture of Him who cometh to bruise the Serpent and "destroy the works of the Devil." In the head of this figure is a bright star, the brightest in this constellation, which bears the name of Ras al Gethi, which means the Head of him who bruises; whilst the name of the second star means The Branch knceling. The Phoenicians worshipped this man five generations before the times of the Greeks, and honored him as representing a saviour. Smith and Sayce trace the legend of him in Chaldea four thousand years ago. On the atlases he is called Hercules, So the Romans called him, but the Greeks called him Herakles, whom they worshipped and honored as the greatest of all their hero-gods, principally on account of his twelve great labors.
According to the mythic accounts, Herakles or Hercules was the god-begotten man, to whose tasks there was scarce an end. From his cradle to his death he was employed accomplishing the most difficult and wonderful of feats laid upon him to perform, and all in the line of vanquishing great evil powers, such as the lion begotten from Typhon, the many-headed Hydra sprung from the same parentage, the brazen-footed and golden horned stag, the Erymanthean boar, the vast filth of the Augean stables, the swarms of life-destroying Stymphalian birds, the mad bull of Crete which no mortal dared look upon, the flesh-eating mares of Diomedes, the queen of the devastating Amazons, the triple-bodied Geryones and his dog, the Dragon which guarded the apples of the Hesperides, and the three-headed snaky monster which kept the gates of hell.
Some have argued that the story of Herakles is a purely Greek invention, but it certainly dates back in all its essential features, in Egypt, Phoenicia, and India, to a time long anterior to the Greeks. By their own confession the Greeks did not even understand who or what Herakles was, or what was meant by all his great labors. They took him for the sublimest of the hero-gods, as the accounts came to them, and here and there, as in so many other things, appropriated all to their own country and people; but Aratus, who sung the song of the ancient constellations, and from whose song the Apostle Paul makes a quotation, speaks of Herakles as "An image none knows certainly to name, Nor what he labors for," and, again, as "The inexplicable image."
Ptolemy and Manilius refer to him in corresponding terms. They could not make out their greatest hero, or any meaning to his works! Not with them, therefore, did the mythic story of the powerful laborer originate. Its true original is in the ancient constellations of the primeval astronomy, which, like the Scriptures, pointed to the coming Seed of the woman to bruise, vanquish, and destroy the Serpent, and everything of the Serpent born or belonging to the Serpent's kingdom."
"A Picture of Christ"
"Stripped of its foul heathenisms and admixtures, we can easily trace throughout the myth all the outlines of the astronomic picture, and that picture anticipating the sublime work of the Virgin's Son, as depicted by the prophets and recorded in the Gospel, even the battering and vanquishing of Satan and all the powers of darkness. Christ is the God-begotten man. He it is that comes against the roaring satanic "lion" who "goeth about seeking whom he may devour." He it is that came into the world to strike off the heads of the great Serpent, lurking in the bogs to ravage and destroy. He it is who comes forth to free the world of all its monsters and hellish pests, and purge it of its vast uncleanness. He it is who had it laid upon Him to fight and slay the Dragon, and thus recover access to the fruits of the Tree of Life, though having to bear the whole weight of a guilty world in making the grand achievement. And He it is who "descended into hell," before whom the spirits of the under-world cowered; to whose power the king of perdition yielded; and who grasped the struggling triple-headed dragon-dog in charge of the infernal gates, and bore him off, "leading captivity captive." Wounded He was in the dreadful encounter—wounded in His heel, wounded unto death, yet living still; suffering also from the poisoned garment of others' sins, mounting the funeral-pyre to die of His own accord amid fires undue to Him, and thence ascending amid the clouds to immortal honor in heaven, with his foot for ever on the head of the foe.
The heathen in their blindness could not understand the story, and knew not what to make of the foreshowing; but in the light of God's fuller revelation, and of the facts attested by the Gospel, we read the origin and meaning of it all, and see how God has been all these ages proclaiming from the starry sky the glories, labors, sufferings, and triumphs of His only-begotten Son, our Saviour.
There is no character in mythology around which great and wondrous incidents crowd so thickly as around Herakles, and there is no character in the history of the world upon whom so much of interest and sublime achievement centres as upon Jesus Christ, the true Deliverer. With Him was the wielding of power unknown to any other man. To kill Him and to be rid of Him has ever been the intensest wish of all the Dragon brood, from the time Herod sought the young child's life even unto this present. With all sorts of ill and wrong was He smitten while He lived, and plotted against in all the ages by the jealous, obstinate, and quarrelsome goddess of false wisdom and serpentine intrigue against the will and word of Heaven."
"Thus, then, in this sign and its constellations, and in the myths founded on and associated with them, we have the precise picture presented in the text—the picture of the promised Seed of the woman treading on serpents, asps, dragons, and the whole brood of venomous powers—suffering and dying in the conflict, but in the end trampling all enemies in glorious triumph beneath His feet.
We wonder betimes what is to come of this unceasing conflict between right and wrong, good and bad, which we see raging around us in all things — this creeping in everywhere of scorpions and adders to sting and hurt—this twining and hissing of serpents and all horrid things—this everlasting toil, expenditure, and suffering for the better, which never seems to come. A glance at these constellations may serve to tell us, the same as promised in the Holy Book. There can be no deliverance without it, and long and oppressive must the struggle be. Many a serpent must first be strangled, many a hydra attacked, many a wild passion caught and slain, many a pang endured, many a sore reverse experienced. But the cause is secure. The victory must come at last. God and truth and right and good must triumph in the end. The Ophiuchus who holds fast will not lose his crown. The scorpion may sting the heel, but the foot will crush its head. The faithful wielder of the club of righteousness may be brought to his knee, but he shall yet lift up the instrument of his power in glorious success, strangle Cerberus, and bear off in triumph the apples of gold, whilst the great Dragon writhes through all his length with his head under the heel of the Conqueror. For from of old it stands written, "Thou shalt tread upon the serpent and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt Thou trample under foot."
Hero Myths
Every nation of antiquity as well as of modern times had or has some traditions of heroes of superhuman strength and power, and most of them are corruptions of the story of the hero of the starry message, the seed of the virgin.
The accounts of the twelve labours of Heracles are found only in the later writers, for Homer and Hesiod do not mention them. Homer only knows that Heracles during his life on earth was exposed to infinite dangers and sufferings...Homer mentions only one, viz. that he was ordered to bring Cerberus from the lower world.
Hesiod mentions several of the feats of Heracles distinctly, but knows nothing of their number twelve. The selection of these twelve from the great number of feats ascribed to Heracles is probably the work of the Alexandrines. They are enumerated in Euripides (Here. Fur.), Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus, and the Greek Anthology (ii. 651), though none of them can be considered to have arranged them in any thing like a chronological order.
http://www.mythindex.com/greek-mythology/H/Heracles.html
1. killing of the Nemean lion
2. destroying the Lernaean Hydra
3. capturing the Ceryneian Hind
4. capturing the Erymanthian Boar
5. cleaning the Augean Stables
6. killing the Stymphalian Birds
7. capturing the Cretan Bull
8. rounding up the Mares of Diomedes
9. stealing the Girdle of Hippolyte
10. herding the Cattle of Geryon
11. fetching the Apples of Hesperides
12. capturing Cerberus
Said Spurgeon:
"I tell you the Gospel of Christ is meant for the scum of the population! It is meant for the lowest of the low, for the worst of the worst. There is no den in London where the Savior cannot work! There is no loathsome haunt of sin too foul for Him to cleanse. The heathen dreamed of their Hercules that he cleansed the Augean stables by turning a river through them, and so washing away the filth of ages. If your heart is such a stable, Christ is greater than the mightiest Hercules—He can cause the river of His cleansing blood to flow right through your heart, and your iniquities, though they are a heap of abominations, shall be put away forever! Riches of love to sinners as such, and riches of pardon to sinners who repent are stored up in the Lord Jesus."
(Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit - Volume 13 - THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST, NO. 745)
Sagittarius
THE TRIUMPHANT WARRIOR
"And in Thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies." (Psa. 45; 4, 5)
This psalm (Seiss) "relates to the loveliest of heroes in the loveliest of His aspects, offices, and relations to His people. This hero is none other than the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His royal majesty and glory subsequent to His resurrection, and as to be hereafter revealed. When on earth He was despised and rejected of men, but here He is celebrated as "beautiful, beautiful, above the sons of man," endowed with every grace and invested with all authority and power. When on earth He was meek and non-resistant, not breaking so much as a bruised reed; but here He is contemplated and addressed as a mounted warrior, riding as a king, armed with bow and arrows, shooting down His enemies. His character here is that of the Mighty One, girding himself with honor and majesty, and going forth to victory. John, in his visions of the future, beheld "a white horse; and He that sat on him had a bow; and He went forth conquering and to conquer." It is the same divine Hero, in the same character, offices, and work, in both instances. He has a crown, a throne, and a cause—the cause of righteousness over against injustice, usurpation, and tyranny; which cause He enforces with invincible majesty. His former sufferings are now turned to aromatic perfumes upon Him. Out of the ivory palaces He is gladdened with the sound of the harp. And in glory and triumph He rides forth unto victory, hailed by the daughters of kings and worshipped by the queen at his right hand arrayed in the gold of Ophir.
In this sign we have again the double-natured Seed of the virgin, the Son of God as the Son of man. The figure is that of a mighty warrior with bow and arrows, riding prosperously. In all tongues he is named, as in our charts, the Archer, the Bowman, He who sends forth the arrow. In form he is the Centaur, the Piercer—not now, however, in connection with the Cross, far down toward the hidden regions, offering himself as a victim and sacrifice to satisfy the demands of justice, but lifted up on high, stationed on the path of the Sun, himself the Sun of Righteousness rising in His majesty.
The Greeks called him Cheiron, the Executer, the chief centaur, whom they described as "the righteous-dealing centaur," precisely as this Psalm represents the Horseman and Hero of whom it speaks."
"...with Cheiron everything noble, just, refined, and good was connected, even superhuman intelligence, dignity, and power. The artists in picturing him labored to blend the greatest beneficence and goodness with the greatest strength and majesty. And such is the description of the divine Hero of this Psalm.
According to the myths, Cheiron was the great teacher of mankind in heavenly wisdom, medicine, music, and all noble and polite arts, and from whom the most exalted heroes and the most honored of men received their tuition. And so it is said of this sublime King that every grace was poured upon His lips, and that He is the One specially blessed of God, whose name every generation shall remember, and whom the people, shall praise for ever and ever. The barbed arrows of this Archer are aimed at the heart of the Scorpion. It was sung of Cheiron,
"Midst golden stars he stands refulgent now,
And thrusts the scorpion with his bended bow."
And thus the "arrows" of the divine Hero of the text "are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies." His war is with the whole Serpent-brood, and His going forth is for their destruction. Whether we understand it of the moral and renovating power of the Gospel, or of the judicial administrations of the Son of man at the end of the present Gospel dispensation, or more naturally of both, it is the office and purpose in all the doings of the glorified Christ to pierce and wound the Serpent, to destroy all his works and power, and to disable him for ever. And this is shown in the sign, just as it is declared in the Gospel.
Some of the names in the sign express the further idea of graciousness and delight in connection with the action signified; which again accords with that saying ascribed to Christ in both Testaments: "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips."
Swiftness is another idea included in these names; and hence of quick and resistless power, of which horses and horsemen are the biblical images, particularly in connection with the scenes of the great judgment which Christ is appointed to enact. And the coming again of Christ is everywhere described as being with great power and glory, quickly, suddenly, like the lightning's flash. His own word is, "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me;" "The great day of the Lord hasteth greatly;" "For when they shall say, Peace, peace; then sudden destruction cometh upon them."
Cheiron is sometimes represented as occupying Apollo's throne; and so the word to this royal Judge and invincible Warrior is, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre." In the Indian sacred books there is a tenth avatar predicted, when Vishnu, the second in the divine Triad, is to come as a man on a white horse, overthrowing his enemies and rooting out all evil from the earth. And so, according to the last book of the New Testament, when the King of kings and Lord of lords comes forth to the battle of that great day to overwhelm the Beast and the false Prophet and all their armies, He comes in the form of a man sitting upon a white horse, in righteousness judging and making war, the same as in Sagittarius.
Thus everything in and illustrative of this sign serves to identify it as a pictorial prophecy of our blessed Lord, answering in all respects to the representations given in the Scriptures. Grotesque and unevangelic as it may seem, it is a showing upon the stars of the same things, under the same images, that we find written concerning the glorified Redeemer in whom all our hopes are centred. He is the sublime Lord and King of salvation, with the two natures in one person, once humbled to death on the cross, but now exalted to glory in heaven. He is the wise, the true, the good, the righteous, who standeth for the defence and administration of righteousness against the Devil and all the powers of the Adversary. He is the mighty Warrior who rideth prosperously, with the bow and arrows of truth and judgment, ever aiming and speeding them at the heart of the foe, and never more giving over until He has carried everything through to everlasting victory, when Death and Hades, and all the powers and children of evil, shall have sunk for ever to their deserved perdition. And the Decans in this sign confirm and further illustrate what we thus read from it."
Misc. Scripture on Christ as the Archer
"God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows." (Num. 24: 8)
"For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them...I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy." (Deut. 32: 22, 23, 42)
"For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me." (Job 6: 4)
"For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore." (Psa. 38: 2)
"He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins." (Lam. 3: 12, 13)
"God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors." (Psa. 7: 11-13)
"Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them." (Psa. 18: 14)
"Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them." (Psa. 21: 12)
"Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under thee." (Psa. 45: 5)
"Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces." (Psa. 58: 7)
"But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded." (Psa. 64: 7)
"Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them." (Psa. 144: 5, 6)
"When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you..." (Eze. 5: 16)
"Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear." (Hab. 3: 9-11)
"And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning..." (Zech. 9: 14)
Sep 19, 2011
Sep 15, 2011
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."
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."
Sep 14, 2011
Gospel in the Stars VI
Libra - The Suffering Redeemer
Seiss wrote:
"There would seem to be little or nothing to arrest our attention or to illuminate our faith in a matter so ordinary and unpoetical as a at pair of balances for weighing commodities. A more homely, secular, and every-day figure would be hard to find, but a more expressive one, or one more profoundly significant of the weightiest truths that concern the hopes of man, would be still harder to select when considered in the relations in which we here find this figure. The arms of that tilting beam, with its attached bowls, reach out into eternities (horizontal line - SG). The positions of that beam, which a feather's weight may change, indicate the fortunes of worlds, the destinies of ages, the estates of immortality. The equipoise (balance - SG) of that beam marks the adjustment of a vast and mighty feud and the effectual bridging over of a chasm as deep as hell.
And the whole instrument together, in use, bespeaks the eternal justice which presides over all the boundless universe (similar to the "all seeing eye" watching over all- SG). In the Persian sphere a man or woman lifts these scales in one hand, and grasps a lamb with the other, the lamb being the form of the ancient weight. Nor can we be mistaken when we here read the divine determination of the wages of sin and the price of redemption.
The figure of the Scales, or Balances, is found in all the Eastern and most ancient Zodiacs, the down side invariably toward the deadly Scorpion. In some instances the bowl on the low side was held by the Scorpion's claws, whence, in some of the Western spheres, Chela, the Claws, occasionally occupied the place of the Scales. Among the Jews it was denoted by the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, T, or Tau, originally written as we still write it, and as written in nearly all the ancient alphabets, in the form of a cross, which signified the end, the boundary, the limit, the completion; as the Saviour when about to give up the ghost on the cross said, "It is finished," the last letter in the history of His humiliation having been reached."
Job said:
"Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know (determine) mine integrity( worth)." (31: 6)
"Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!" (Job 6: 2)
What did Job mean when he expressed a desire to be "weighed in an even balance"? Surely no one thinks he wanted his physical body to be weighed. Job is using what we call a "metaphor." He, like all the ancients, likened being "judged" to being "weighed." When judgments are made, then something has been weighed by the mind, and a decision has been made. God is the judge of the universe, of all creatures, angels and men, and as such, he weighs, determines worth and value, and he judges and decides. And, Christ is God, and he is judge. The Father, said Jesus, "has committed all judgment to the Son," that is, he has committed the scales to him.
Job speaks of an "even balance," where things were "in balance," at peace, stable, and when things are "reconciled."
Libra, according to today's astrologers, is the sign dealing with partnership, and therefore of unions, particularly marriage. There is no doubt some truth in this as it applies to Christ and his mystical body, or to the church, as we shall see.
Solomon wrote:
"A just weight and balance are the LORD's: all the weights of the bag are his work." (Prov. 16: 11)
An "even balance" would also be a "just balance," one that is fair and honest, and gives a true and accurate judgment of worth. These qualities and characteristics belong to God as supreme "judge of all." (Heb. 12: 23) He "weighs" all men and things. He determines each's worth, and its "due," its destiny. Isaiah asks all this important question:
"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?" (Isa. 40: 12)
Here again the figure of the balance and scales is connected with the work of God as Creator and Judge. Daniel announced Jehovah's judgment upon the king of Babylon -
"Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." (Dan. 5: 27)
Here clearly Lord God is shown as the one who has the scales and balances, the one who weighs human decision and behavior. He determines guilt or innocence. He decides the kind and length of punishment. To be "found wanting," means to be found "deficient," or "insufficient," to be lacking, to not measure up. We will see how all this is told in the names of the leading stars on the two scales.
"Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed." (I Sam. 2: 3)
"All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits." (Prov. 16: 2)
God "weighs" the "actions" of his creatures. He "weighs" the "spirits" of each. Simply, he judges.
Seiss said:
"The names of this sign indicate the range of meaning attaching to it. In Hebrew it is Mozanaim, the scales, weighing, as where God is said to weigh the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. In Arabic, it is Al Zubena, purchase, redemption, gain. In Coptic, Lambadia, station or house of propitiation. In the Arab tongue, Lam is graciousness, and badia is branch—the atoning grace of the Branch. In Greek it is called Zugos, the cross-bar by which two oxen or horses draw, the yoke, pulling against each other, thwarts joining the opposite sides of a ship, the crossstrap of a sandal, the balance-beam in weighing. The name of the first star in Libra is Zuben al Genubi, the price deficient. Other names are: Zuben al Shemali, the price which covers; Al Gubi, heaped up high; Zuben Akrabi, the price of the conflict."
"All this clearly settles, as near as may be, that this sign of the Zodiac has reference to some great divine adjudications and adjustments relating to defaults, defects, and accusations, involving penalties, prices, payments. And with these ideas applied to the continuation of the story of the Seed of the woman, the divine Son of the Virgin, promised and appointed to lift up the fallen, recover from the Serpent's power, and bring men to the pasturages on the heavenly hillsides, we are at once brought face to face with eternal justice weighing the demerits and awards of sin on the one hand, and the price of redemption rendered and paid for it on the other."
"In the place of the woman and her Seed we have here a pair of balances suspended in the sky, in which is signalled to us the inexorable justice of the Almighty, in which the deficiency and condemnation on the part of man, and the all-sufficiency of the ransom paid on the part of his Redeemer, are alike indicated. One of the scales is up, which says to universal man, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." The name of the star which marks it records the verdict-"The price deficient" But the other side is borne down, and with it the star named - "The price that covers" Of what that accepted price was to consist is more fully told in the accompanying Decans."
The Southern Cross
"Strikingly enough, we here come upon a figure stationed in the darkest section of the heavens, in the very lowest part of the sphere, and outlined by the stars themselves so as to be readily recognized by every beholder—a figure of the shameful instrument on which the blessed Saviour died, even the Cross. Our latitude is too far to the northward for this constellation to be visible to us, but it is clear, distinct, and specially noticeable to those dwelling near or south of the equator."
"Formerly this constellation was visible in our latitudes; but in the gradual shifting of the heavens it has long since sunk away to the southward. It was last seen in the horizon of Jerusalem about the time that Christ was crucified. It consists of four bright stars placed in the form of a cross, and is by far the most conspicuous star-group in the southern heavens. Standing directly in the path of the second Decan of Virgo, the doublenatured Seed of the woman, and connecting with Libra and the price of redemption, it takes the same place in the celestial symbology which the Cross of Calvary holds in the Christian system."
"Ever since Christ Jesus "suffered for our sins" the cross has been a sacred and most significant emblem to all Christian believers. Paul would glory in nothing but "in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." It was a sacred symbol long before Christ was born. We find it in the most sacred connections, edifices, feasts, and signs of the ancient Egyptians, Persians, Assyrians, Hindoos, Chinese, Kamtschatkans, Mexicans, Peruvians, Scandinavians, Gauls, and Celts. The mystic Tau, the wonder-working caduceus, the invincible arrows, the holy cakes, all had their fabled virtues in connection with the form of the cross which they bore. But that sign has received a far more definite and certain consecration by the death of Christ upon it. Its original ancient meaning had reference to the Seed of the woman, the divine Son who was to suffer on it, to conquer by it, and to give eternal life' through it. We cannot adequately account for it except as belonging to the original prophecy and revelation concerning Him and the price He was to pay for our redemption, conquering through suffering, and giving life through death. And in all the ideas connected with it by the ancient peoples we can readily trace the application of it, the same as in the arrangement of the constellations.
Aben Ezra gives its Hebrew name, Adorn, which means cutting off, as the angel told Daniel of the cutting off'of the Messiah. And Christ was cut off by being condemned and crucified.
In the Zodiac of Dendera this constellation is marked by the figure of a lion, with his head turned backward, and his tongue hanging out of his mouth as if in consuming thirst. It is the same idea. Christ is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," and one of the few expressions made by Him as he died on the cross was that of His consuming thirst. Strong and divine as He was, His life was there parched out of Him. "Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst; and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When, therefore, he had received the vinegar he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." The hieroglyphic name attached means pouring water; and David, impersonating the Messiah, exclaims, "I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death" (Ps. 22 : 13-18). It is simply wonderful how the facts in the sign correspond with the showings of the Scriptures, and how all the old myths embody the same showings.
In the triad of the three great Egyptian gods each holds the sacred Tau, or the cross, as the symbol of life and immortality; but only the second, the Son, the Conqueror and Deliverer, extends the cross, thus pictorially expressing the offering of life and immortality through the Cross.
In the divine triad of Brahmanic deities the second, the Son, the One who became incarnate in the man-god Krishna, sits upon his throne cross-legged, holding the cross in his right hand; and he is the god of deliverance from dangers and serpents. The same is otherwise represented as the ruler of the elements, the stiller of tempests, the good genius in all earthly affairs. But in all these relations and offices he always wears a cross on his breast. It is the same story of deliverance and salvation through the Cross-bearer, the divine Son of the Virgin. And even so "it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell, and, making peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things."
The old Egyptians pictured departed spirits as birds with human heads, indicating the laying off of the earthly form and the putting on of immortality. But all such figures are represented holding the cross, emblematic not only of eternal life, but of that life as in, with, or through the Cross, just as the Gospel teaches."
"And in every aspect in which the figure of this Decan, in its deeper inward significance, appears in the records and remains of antiquity, it connects with deliverance, life, and salvation by means of it. Accordingly, it stands among the starry symbols of the ancient astronomy precisely as it stands in our blessed Christianity. It was placed there as the sign of what holy prophecy had declared should come, just as we reverence it as the sign of what has come in Jesus of Nazareth, the Virgin-born Redeemer of the world. It is the Cross of Calvary prefigured on the sky in token of the price at which our redemption was to be bought."
The Victim Slain
"The next in the series of these heavenly signs gives us a still fuller and clearer indication of the nature and payment of that price. Christ was not only "crucified," but He was also "dead and buried." Hence we have in the second Decan of Libra a slain victim, pierced and slain with a dart barbed in the form of the cross—pierced and slain by Centaur himself."
"But an important element in the mysterious transaction was, that He sacrificed himself. Men in their wickedness killed Him, but it was He who gave himself into their hands to do it. Without this voluntariness and self-command in the matter the great redeeming virtue of His sacrifice would be wanting. Hence He was particular to say as He went to the cross, "I lay down my life for the sheep...No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10 : 15-18)...This was partially prefigured by the Cross in Centaur's path, but more particularly in this Decan, which shows the death infliction by the barbed dart from His own hand."
"What this victim of Centaur is, is not very definitely determined. Many of our modern atlases give it as a wolf, but with no ancient authority for it. The Greeks and Latins sometimes called it the wolf; but they were so much in doubt that they more commonly called it the animal, the victim, without describing it. Ulugh Beigh says it was anciently called Sura, a sheep or lamb. The Arabs use a word in connection with it which means to be slain, destroyed; hence the slain one, the victim. It plainly expresses slaying, sacrifice by death; and so would fall in with that saying of the Apocalypse, that Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
In some of the Coptic and Egyptian representations this victim is a naked youth, a stripped and unresisting young man, with his finger on his mouth. This youth is Horus, the beloved son of Osiris and the virgin, the One to come, who appears in various relations under different names, all more or less connected with the bringing of life and blessedness through humiliation and death. In Phoenician this youth is called Harpocrates, under which name he became known to the Greeks and Romans. Harpocrates means justice, or the victim of justice, the vindication of the majesty of law. Among the Romans, Harpocrates was the god of silence, quiet submission, and acquiescence. All of this connects with this Decan as a sign of the promised One, and prefigured Him as quietly and meekly submitting as a victim and sacrifice to justice and the law, even as Christ did actually lay down His life and submit himself as our propitiation. "As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth."
In some of the pictures of this youth he is represented with the horn of a goat on one side of his head, as well as with his finger on his lips. This again connects him with sacrifice—willing, silent sacrifice. In some other pictures this horn is detached and held in his hand, filled with fruits and flowers—the original of the cornucopia, or horn of plenty; thus signifying that all good to man comes through that meek submission to stripping and sacrifice to satisfy the requirements of eternal righteousness.
So, then, from every side we get the idea of silent submission to death as a slain victim, and the bringing in thereby of a plentiful and everlasting provision for all the wants of man; prefiguring exactly what the Gospel sets forth as fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who, "being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2 : 5-8).
But the Cross, and Christ's death by the Cross, mark the limit and farthest boundaries of the humiliation for human redemption. There was nothing lower than that in the history; and the first two Decans of Libra are the southernmost constellations but one in the ancient astronomy. From the moment that Jesus gave up the ghost the price was paid, the whole debt was discharged, and everything gave token of change. The tide there reached its lowest ebb, and turned, thenceforward to flow in ever-augmenting volume from glory to glory."
The Northern Crown - His shameful Cross issues in a glorious Crown
"And so we find it foreshown in these starry pictures. That Southern Cross connects with the Northern Crown. The one is a Cross formed of stars, and the other is equally a Crown formed of stars. The third Decan of Libra is the Corona Borealis, vertical over Jerusalem once in every revolution of the earth."
There are various kinds of crowns. In the scriptures, we notice that there is a kingly and a priestly crown. Christ wears both.
"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." (Psalm 8: 5, 6)
"Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (Heb. 2: 8, 9)
To wear the crown is to rule, to be chief or king, to possess a kingdom. Adam wore a crown the day he was created. He was given dominion, a realm to rule over, and subjects. But, Adam lost his crown, his right to rule. Every sinner has forfeited his crown, all his original rights, by his state of sin and rebellion against God and heaven.
"The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!" (Lam. 5: 16)
The crown has been promised to Christ
"There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish." (Psa. 132: 17, 18)
"In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate." (Isa. 28: 5, 6)
"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married." (Isa. 62: 1-4)
So, as I said, the sign of Libra, and the decan of the northern crown, deal with marriage and partnership, the union of Christ and his bride, the church of the redeemed ones. It does deal with "balance," but not so much an individual's so called "inner balance," or "balance in life," but of that "balancing" of the weight of our sins and the weight of Christ's sacrificial worth.
"And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible." (I Cor. 9: 25)
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (II Tim. 4: 8)
"And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." (I Peter 5: 4)
"His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself." (Rev. 19: 12)
"Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling." (Psa. 49: 14)
"Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." (Psa. 72: 1-8)
"O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name." (Isa. 26: 13)
"And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." (Dan. 7: 14)
"And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." (Rev. 1: 6)
Serpent is seeking the crown (as shown by promimity to the serpent of the next constellation of Scorpio and the decan of serpentarius.
Seiss wrote:
"There would seem to be little or nothing to arrest our attention or to illuminate our faith in a matter so ordinary and unpoetical as a at pair of balances for weighing commodities. A more homely, secular, and every-day figure would be hard to find, but a more expressive one, or one more profoundly significant of the weightiest truths that concern the hopes of man, would be still harder to select when considered in the relations in which we here find this figure. The arms of that tilting beam, with its attached bowls, reach out into eternities (horizontal line - SG). The positions of that beam, which a feather's weight may change, indicate the fortunes of worlds, the destinies of ages, the estates of immortality. The equipoise (balance - SG) of that beam marks the adjustment of a vast and mighty feud and the effectual bridging over of a chasm as deep as hell.
And the whole instrument together, in use, bespeaks the eternal justice which presides over all the boundless universe (similar to the "all seeing eye" watching over all- SG). In the Persian sphere a man or woman lifts these scales in one hand, and grasps a lamb with the other, the lamb being the form of the ancient weight. Nor can we be mistaken when we here read the divine determination of the wages of sin and the price of redemption.
The figure of the Scales, or Balances, is found in all the Eastern and most ancient Zodiacs, the down side invariably toward the deadly Scorpion. In some instances the bowl on the low side was held by the Scorpion's claws, whence, in some of the Western spheres, Chela, the Claws, occasionally occupied the place of the Scales. Among the Jews it was denoted by the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, T, or Tau, originally written as we still write it, and as written in nearly all the ancient alphabets, in the form of a cross, which signified the end, the boundary, the limit, the completion; as the Saviour when about to give up the ghost on the cross said, "It is finished," the last letter in the history of His humiliation having been reached."
Job said:
"Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know (determine) mine integrity( worth)." (31: 6)
"Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!" (Job 6: 2)
What did Job mean when he expressed a desire to be "weighed in an even balance"? Surely no one thinks he wanted his physical body to be weighed. Job is using what we call a "metaphor." He, like all the ancients, likened being "judged" to being "weighed." When judgments are made, then something has been weighed by the mind, and a decision has been made. God is the judge of the universe, of all creatures, angels and men, and as such, he weighs, determines worth and value, and he judges and decides. And, Christ is God, and he is judge. The Father, said Jesus, "has committed all judgment to the Son," that is, he has committed the scales to him.
Job speaks of an "even balance," where things were "in balance," at peace, stable, and when things are "reconciled."
Libra, according to today's astrologers, is the sign dealing with partnership, and therefore of unions, particularly marriage. There is no doubt some truth in this as it applies to Christ and his mystical body, or to the church, as we shall see.
Solomon wrote:
"A just weight and balance are the LORD's: all the weights of the bag are his work." (Prov. 16: 11)
An "even balance" would also be a "just balance," one that is fair and honest, and gives a true and accurate judgment of worth. These qualities and characteristics belong to God as supreme "judge of all." (Heb. 12: 23) He "weighs" all men and things. He determines each's worth, and its "due," its destiny. Isaiah asks all this important question:
"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?" (Isa. 40: 12)
Here again the figure of the balance and scales is connected with the work of God as Creator and Judge. Daniel announced Jehovah's judgment upon the king of Babylon -
"Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." (Dan. 5: 27)
Here clearly Lord God is shown as the one who has the scales and balances, the one who weighs human decision and behavior. He determines guilt or innocence. He decides the kind and length of punishment. To be "found wanting," means to be found "deficient," or "insufficient," to be lacking, to not measure up. We will see how all this is told in the names of the leading stars on the two scales.
"Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed." (I Sam. 2: 3)
"All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits." (Prov. 16: 2)
God "weighs" the "actions" of his creatures. He "weighs" the "spirits" of each. Simply, he judges.
Seiss said:
"The names of this sign indicate the range of meaning attaching to it. In Hebrew it is Mozanaim, the scales, weighing, as where God is said to weigh the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. In Arabic, it is Al Zubena, purchase, redemption, gain. In Coptic, Lambadia, station or house of propitiation. In the Arab tongue, Lam is graciousness, and badia is branch—the atoning grace of the Branch. In Greek it is called Zugos, the cross-bar by which two oxen or horses draw, the yoke, pulling against each other, thwarts joining the opposite sides of a ship, the crossstrap of a sandal, the balance-beam in weighing. The name of the first star in Libra is Zuben al Genubi, the price deficient. Other names are: Zuben al Shemali, the price which covers; Al Gubi, heaped up high; Zuben Akrabi, the price of the conflict."
"All this clearly settles, as near as may be, that this sign of the Zodiac has reference to some great divine adjudications and adjustments relating to defaults, defects, and accusations, involving penalties, prices, payments. And with these ideas applied to the continuation of the story of the Seed of the woman, the divine Son of the Virgin, promised and appointed to lift up the fallen, recover from the Serpent's power, and bring men to the pasturages on the heavenly hillsides, we are at once brought face to face with eternal justice weighing the demerits and awards of sin on the one hand, and the price of redemption rendered and paid for it on the other."
"In the place of the woman and her Seed we have here a pair of balances suspended in the sky, in which is signalled to us the inexorable justice of the Almighty, in which the deficiency and condemnation on the part of man, and the all-sufficiency of the ransom paid on the part of his Redeemer, are alike indicated. One of the scales is up, which says to universal man, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." The name of the star which marks it records the verdict-"The price deficient" But the other side is borne down, and with it the star named - "The price that covers" Of what that accepted price was to consist is more fully told in the accompanying Decans."
The Southern Cross
"Strikingly enough, we here come upon a figure stationed in the darkest section of the heavens, in the very lowest part of the sphere, and outlined by the stars themselves so as to be readily recognized by every beholder—a figure of the shameful instrument on which the blessed Saviour died, even the Cross. Our latitude is too far to the northward for this constellation to be visible to us, but it is clear, distinct, and specially noticeable to those dwelling near or south of the equator."
"Formerly this constellation was visible in our latitudes; but in the gradual shifting of the heavens it has long since sunk away to the southward. It was last seen in the horizon of Jerusalem about the time that Christ was crucified. It consists of four bright stars placed in the form of a cross, and is by far the most conspicuous star-group in the southern heavens. Standing directly in the path of the second Decan of Virgo, the doublenatured Seed of the woman, and connecting with Libra and the price of redemption, it takes the same place in the celestial symbology which the Cross of Calvary holds in the Christian system."
"Ever since Christ Jesus "suffered for our sins" the cross has been a sacred and most significant emblem to all Christian believers. Paul would glory in nothing but "in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." It was a sacred symbol long before Christ was born. We find it in the most sacred connections, edifices, feasts, and signs of the ancient Egyptians, Persians, Assyrians, Hindoos, Chinese, Kamtschatkans, Mexicans, Peruvians, Scandinavians, Gauls, and Celts. The mystic Tau, the wonder-working caduceus, the invincible arrows, the holy cakes, all had their fabled virtues in connection with the form of the cross which they bore. But that sign has received a far more definite and certain consecration by the death of Christ upon it. Its original ancient meaning had reference to the Seed of the woman, the divine Son who was to suffer on it, to conquer by it, and to give eternal life' through it. We cannot adequately account for it except as belonging to the original prophecy and revelation concerning Him and the price He was to pay for our redemption, conquering through suffering, and giving life through death. And in all the ideas connected with it by the ancient peoples we can readily trace the application of it, the same as in the arrangement of the constellations.
Aben Ezra gives its Hebrew name, Adorn, which means cutting off, as the angel told Daniel of the cutting off'of the Messiah. And Christ was cut off by being condemned and crucified.
In the Zodiac of Dendera this constellation is marked by the figure of a lion, with his head turned backward, and his tongue hanging out of his mouth as if in consuming thirst. It is the same idea. Christ is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," and one of the few expressions made by Him as he died on the cross was that of His consuming thirst. Strong and divine as He was, His life was there parched out of Him. "Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst; and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When, therefore, he had received the vinegar he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." The hieroglyphic name attached means pouring water; and David, impersonating the Messiah, exclaims, "I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death" (Ps. 22 : 13-18). It is simply wonderful how the facts in the sign correspond with the showings of the Scriptures, and how all the old myths embody the same showings.
In the triad of the three great Egyptian gods each holds the sacred Tau, or the cross, as the symbol of life and immortality; but only the second, the Son, the Conqueror and Deliverer, extends the cross, thus pictorially expressing the offering of life and immortality through the Cross.
In the divine triad of Brahmanic deities the second, the Son, the One who became incarnate in the man-god Krishna, sits upon his throne cross-legged, holding the cross in his right hand; and he is the god of deliverance from dangers and serpents. The same is otherwise represented as the ruler of the elements, the stiller of tempests, the good genius in all earthly affairs. But in all these relations and offices he always wears a cross on his breast. It is the same story of deliverance and salvation through the Cross-bearer, the divine Son of the Virgin. And even so "it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell, and, making peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things."
The old Egyptians pictured departed spirits as birds with human heads, indicating the laying off of the earthly form and the putting on of immortality. But all such figures are represented holding the cross, emblematic not only of eternal life, but of that life as in, with, or through the Cross, just as the Gospel teaches."
"And in every aspect in which the figure of this Decan, in its deeper inward significance, appears in the records and remains of antiquity, it connects with deliverance, life, and salvation by means of it. Accordingly, it stands among the starry symbols of the ancient astronomy precisely as it stands in our blessed Christianity. It was placed there as the sign of what holy prophecy had declared should come, just as we reverence it as the sign of what has come in Jesus of Nazareth, the Virgin-born Redeemer of the world. It is the Cross of Calvary prefigured on the sky in token of the price at which our redemption was to be bought."
The Victim Slain
"The next in the series of these heavenly signs gives us a still fuller and clearer indication of the nature and payment of that price. Christ was not only "crucified," but He was also "dead and buried." Hence we have in the second Decan of Libra a slain victim, pierced and slain with a dart barbed in the form of the cross—pierced and slain by Centaur himself."
"But an important element in the mysterious transaction was, that He sacrificed himself. Men in their wickedness killed Him, but it was He who gave himself into their hands to do it. Without this voluntariness and self-command in the matter the great redeeming virtue of His sacrifice would be wanting. Hence He was particular to say as He went to the cross, "I lay down my life for the sheep...No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10 : 15-18)...This was partially prefigured by the Cross in Centaur's path, but more particularly in this Decan, which shows the death infliction by the barbed dart from His own hand."
"What this victim of Centaur is, is not very definitely determined. Many of our modern atlases give it as a wolf, but with no ancient authority for it. The Greeks and Latins sometimes called it the wolf; but they were so much in doubt that they more commonly called it the animal, the victim, without describing it. Ulugh Beigh says it was anciently called Sura, a sheep or lamb. The Arabs use a word in connection with it which means to be slain, destroyed; hence the slain one, the victim. It plainly expresses slaying, sacrifice by death; and so would fall in with that saying of the Apocalypse, that Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
In some of the Coptic and Egyptian representations this victim is a naked youth, a stripped and unresisting young man, with his finger on his mouth. This youth is Horus, the beloved son of Osiris and the virgin, the One to come, who appears in various relations under different names, all more or less connected with the bringing of life and blessedness through humiliation and death. In Phoenician this youth is called Harpocrates, under which name he became known to the Greeks and Romans. Harpocrates means justice, or the victim of justice, the vindication of the majesty of law. Among the Romans, Harpocrates was the god of silence, quiet submission, and acquiescence. All of this connects with this Decan as a sign of the promised One, and prefigured Him as quietly and meekly submitting as a victim and sacrifice to justice and the law, even as Christ did actually lay down His life and submit himself as our propitiation. "As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth."
In some of the pictures of this youth he is represented with the horn of a goat on one side of his head, as well as with his finger on his lips. This again connects him with sacrifice—willing, silent sacrifice. In some other pictures this horn is detached and held in his hand, filled with fruits and flowers—the original of the cornucopia, or horn of plenty; thus signifying that all good to man comes through that meek submission to stripping and sacrifice to satisfy the requirements of eternal righteousness.
So, then, from every side we get the idea of silent submission to death as a slain victim, and the bringing in thereby of a plentiful and everlasting provision for all the wants of man; prefiguring exactly what the Gospel sets forth as fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who, "being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2 : 5-8).
But the Cross, and Christ's death by the Cross, mark the limit and farthest boundaries of the humiliation for human redemption. There was nothing lower than that in the history; and the first two Decans of Libra are the southernmost constellations but one in the ancient astronomy. From the moment that Jesus gave up the ghost the price was paid, the whole debt was discharged, and everything gave token of change. The tide there reached its lowest ebb, and turned, thenceforward to flow in ever-augmenting volume from glory to glory."
The Northern Crown - His shameful Cross issues in a glorious Crown
"And so we find it foreshown in these starry pictures. That Southern Cross connects with the Northern Crown. The one is a Cross formed of stars, and the other is equally a Crown formed of stars. The third Decan of Libra is the Corona Borealis, vertical over Jerusalem once in every revolution of the earth."
There are various kinds of crowns. In the scriptures, we notice that there is a kingly and a priestly crown. Christ wears both.
"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." (Psalm 8: 5, 6)
"Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (Heb. 2: 8, 9)
To wear the crown is to rule, to be chief or king, to possess a kingdom. Adam wore a crown the day he was created. He was given dominion, a realm to rule over, and subjects. But, Adam lost his crown, his right to rule. Every sinner has forfeited his crown, all his original rights, by his state of sin and rebellion against God and heaven.
"The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!" (Lam. 5: 16)
The crown has been promised to Christ
"There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish." (Psa. 132: 17, 18)
"In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate." (Isa. 28: 5, 6)
"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married." (Isa. 62: 1-4)
So, as I said, the sign of Libra, and the decan of the northern crown, deal with marriage and partnership, the union of Christ and his bride, the church of the redeemed ones. It does deal with "balance," but not so much an individual's so called "inner balance," or "balance in life," but of that "balancing" of the weight of our sins and the weight of Christ's sacrificial worth.
"And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible." (I Cor. 9: 25)
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (II Tim. 4: 8)
"And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." (I Peter 5: 4)
"His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself." (Rev. 19: 12)
"Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling." (Psa. 49: 14)
"Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." (Psa. 72: 1-8)
"O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name." (Isa. 26: 13)
"And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." (Dan. 7: 14)
"And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." (Rev. 1: 6)
Serpent is seeking the crown (as shown by promimity to the serpent of the next constellation of Scorpio and the decan of serpentarius.
Sep 13, 2011
Gospel in the Stars V
Agenda - Finish Virgo, the Decan of Bootes.
The third Decan of Virgo still further expresses and defines the marvellous gospel story.
You will observe how, beginning with the first decan of Virgo, that we have gone from focusing on the woman to focusing on her seed.
Seiss wrote:
"One of the most common, constant, and expressive figures under which Christ is presented in the Scriptures is that of the Oriental shepherd."
"And this feature of what pertains to the Virgin's Son is the particular topic of this Decan."
Christ the Shepherd
In scripture, the work of a shepherd is made applicable to men. Just as some shepherd literal sheep, some shepherd men. The idea of a shepherd is connected with being a leader, guardian, caretaker, and a strong man.
From the beginning of the gospel message, or proto-evangelium, men have characterized the coming Savior, or seed of the woman, as one who will be a shepherd in his relation to men. Lord God himself used such terminology in describing his deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. He is said to have led them like a flock of sheep or goats. He identified himself as the Shepherd of Israel. He was viewed as a herder of cattle as well.
"Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth." (Psa. 80: 1)
"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Psa. 23: 1)
"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isa. 40: 11)
"And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them." (Eze. 34: 23, 24)
"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones." (Zech. 13: 17 & Matt. 26: 31)
"Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock." (Jer. 31: 10)
"As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." (Eze. 34: 12)
"My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace." (Jer. 50: 6)
"Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?" (Eze. 34: 2)
"instruments of a foolish shepherd" (Zech. 11: 15)
"For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened." (vs. 16, 17)
"And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." (Matt. 25: 32)
"I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep...and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." (John 10: 11, 16)
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep..." (Heb. 13: 20)
"For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." (I Peter 2: 25)
"And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." (I Peter 5: 4)
Seiss said:
"We here have the figure of a strong man, whom the Greeks named Bootes, the ploughman. But he and the so-called plough are set in opposite directions. Neither does a man plough with uplifted hand in the attitude of this figure. The name thus transformed into Greek has in it a Hebrew and Oriental root, Bo, which means coming; hence, the coming One or the One that was to come. The Greeks, failing to hold on consistently to their idea of a ploughman, also called this man Arcturus, the watcher, guardian, or keeper of Arktos, the adjoining constellation, which in all the more ancient representations is the flock, the sheepfold. Bootes is not a ploughman at all, but the guardian and shepherd of the flocks represented by what are now ordinarily called the Great and Lesser Bears; though they both have long tails, which bears never have. The brightest star in the constellation of Bootes is also called Arcturus, the guardian or keeper of Arktos, a word which in its Oriental elements connects with the idea of enclosure, the ascending, the happy, the going up upon the mountains. According to Ulugh Beigh, the ancient Egyptians called Bootes Smat, who rules, subdues, governs; and sometimes Ban, or Bo, the coming One. Al Katurops, the star on the right side or arm of Bootes, means the Branch, the Rod, and is often connected with the figure of a staff, the shepherd's crook, the traditional emblem of the pastoral office.
There can, therefore, be no doubt that we have here not a Greek ploughman, but the far more ancient Oriental shepherd, the keeper, guardian, ruler, and protector of the flocks; and that shepherd identical with the Seed of the Virgin, the Promised One, He who was to come, even "the Desire of all nations," "that great Shepherd of the sheep" whom the God of peace brought up again from the dead (Heb 13 : 20).
He also bears a sickle, which shows Him as the great Harvester; and the harvest He gathers is the harvest of souls, as where He directs his disciples to pray God to send forth laborers into His harvest. And the harvesting of souls is the gathering and keeping of the Lord's flock. The sickle and the crook thus go together as significant of one and the same idea, and show that Bootes is not the keeper of dogs and hunter of-bears, but that promised Saviour who was to come to gather in the harvest of souls and "feed His flock like a shepherd."
Christ the Reaper
John wrote:
"I looked; and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God." (Rev 14:15-19)
"Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great." (Joel 3: 13)
"Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." (Psa. 37: 1-3)
"In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it." (Isa. 22: 25)
Christ is the chief Reaper, employing angels who are also call reapers (Matt. 13: 30, 39). These, under his authority and guidance, will "separate" the wheat from the tares, the children of God from the children of the wicked one. He not only reaps himself, but he insures that all, both good and bad, receive (reap) his due. This connects his office of a Reaper with that of being Judge.
"I sent you (preachers of the gospel) to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours." (John 4: 38)
"the joy in harvest" (Isa. 9: 3)
"when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm" (Isa. 17: 5)
"the harvest is the end of the world" (Matt. 13: 39)
"Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them." (Jer. 9: 22)
"him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest" (Jer. 50: 16)
"For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come." (Jer. 51: 33)
"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jer. 8: 20)
Bootes (Christ) the Strong Man
"And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him (Gideon), and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." (Judges 6: 12)
"Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot..." (Judges 11: 1)
"And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth...and his name was Boaz." (Ruth 2: 1)
"Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep." (I Sam. 16: 18, 19)
"arrows are in the hand of a mighty man" (Psa. 127: 4)
"the sword of a mighty man" (Zech. 9: 13)
"Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." (Psa. 19: 5)
"Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself." (Psa. 80: 17)
"For she (harlot) hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her." (Prov. 7: 26)
"A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength." (Prov. 24: 5)
"Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?" (Matt. 13: 54)
"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)
"No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house." (Mark 3: 27)
Wrote Bullinger:
"The star e (just below the waist on his right side) is called Mirac, or Mizar, or Izar. Mirac means the coming forth as an arrow; Mizar, or Izar, means the preserver, guarding.
The star h is called Muphride, i.e. who separates.
The star b (in the head) is named Nekkar, i.e. the pierced (Zech 12:10), which tells us that this coming judge is the One who was pierced. Another Hebrew name is Merga, who bruises.
The constellation of the Canes Venatici (the Greyhounds), i.e., the two dogs (Asterion and Chara), which Bootes holds by a leash, is quite a modern invention, being added by Hevelius (1611-1687). The bright star of the 3rd magnitude in the neck of Chara, was named "Cor Caroli" (the heart of Charles) by Sir Charles Scarborough, physician to Charles II, in honour of Charles I, in 1649. This is a good example of the almost infinite distance between the ancient and modern names. The former are full of mysterious significance and grandeur, while the latter are puerile in the extreme, almost approaching to the comic! e.g., the Air Pump, the Painter's Easel, the Telescope, the Triangle, the Fly, the Microscope, the Indian, the Fox and Goose, the Balloon, the Toucan (or American Goose), the Compasses, Charles' Oak, the Cat, the Clock, the Unicorn, &c. The vast difference can be at once seen between those designed by the ancients and those added by astronomers in more recent times.
These new constellations were added, 22 by Hevelius; and 15 by Halley (1656-1742). They were formed for the purpose of embracing those stars which were not included in the ancient constellations. This shows that the old constellations were not designed, like the modern ones, merely for the sake of enabling astronomers to identify the positions of particular stars. In this case all the stars would have been included. The object was exactly the opposite! Instead of the pictures being designed to serve to identify the stars, only certain stars were used for the purpose of helping to identify the pictures!
Summary On Virgo
Wrote Seiss:
"It is no part of my design in these Lectures to enter upon the exposition of all that is implied and expressed in the various symbols applied to Christ, except so far as necessary to show that what is written in the Scriptures is likewise written on the stars. And in so far as this first sign and its Decans are concerned, I think it must be admitted that the result is very marvellous. Ill must be the mind and dull the apprehension which cannot detect identity between God's sign in the text and this sign in the heavens. Are they not of a piece with each other, and hence from one and the same divine source? Here is the woman whose Seed was to bruise the Serpent's head. Here is the great Virgin-born, the divine Child, whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, of the increase of whose government and peace there is to be no end. Here is the prostrate one, deceived by Satan into sin and condemnation, but holding hopefully to the promised Seed, the most illustrious in the sphere of humanity, the vigorous, beautiful, and goodly Branch, as the particular joy and consolation of fallen man. Here is the Desire of all nations, the great Coming One, reseating the fallen who cherish and joy in Him. Here is His double nature in singleness of person, the " God with us" held forth in holy prophecy, the Seed of the woman, who is the Son of God. Here is the Rod, the Branch, on whom was to rest the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, who should judge the poor with righteousness and reprove with equity, and smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips. Here is the God-begotten Healer, Teacher, Prophet, the heroic Destroyer of the destroyers, yet despised and rejected of men, stricken, smitten, and afflicted, consenting to yield up his life that others might have immortality, and thereupon reappearing on high, clad in power and majesty, as the strong and everlasting Ruler, Guardian, and Shepherd of his flocks. These are among the most essential and most precious things of our faith. The Gospel is nothing without them. Yet this is but one of twelve such signs, each equally full, vivid, and to the point. God never does things by halves. What He once begins He always completes. We have seen the first of these signs. It bears with it the internal as well as the external evidences of what Maimonides says the ancient Fathers affirmed, to wit: that it has come from the Spirit of prophecy. And if God inspired the framing of these signs, we may expect to find the rest as rich and telling as this opening of the series, each amplifying the other, till all the sublime wonders of redemption stand revealed upon the sky.
Meanwhile, let us believe and hold fast to the fact, so joyously fore-announced by the prophet, and so vividly inscribed upon the stars as the hope and trust of man, that a virgin has conceived and brought forth a Son, who verily is what Eve supposed she had when she embraced her first-born—even "a man, the Lord," Immanuel, God with us. Let us rejoice and be glad that unto us a Child is given, even that Seed of the woman appointed to bruise the Serpent's head and be the everlasting Shepherd and Guardian of His people. Let us see in Jesus the great Healer, Teacher, and Prophet, even God in humanity, who was to come, and who, though despised and rejected of men, hated, condemned, and pierced, still lives in immortal glory and power as the true Arcturus, to give repentance, remission of sins, and eternal life to as many as accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. And, in this faith established, let us be all the more quickened in our interest and attention in tracing the whole story as it shines upon us in oui darkness from God's everlasting stars.
Titles of Christ in Virgo (and Decans)
1. The Seed (heavenly or divine, and human)
2. The Branch (or fruit)
3. The Coming (Sent) One, he who will "come down"
4. The Son of God and Man (virgin's son)
6. The One to Rule
7. The Desired One
8. The Shepherd (Guardian)
9. The Despised
10. The Pierced
11. The Reaper
12. The Beautiful Lord.
13. The Mighty One (Conquerer)
14. The Judge and Avenger
15. The Redeemer (Restorer)
16. The Mediator or Peacemaker
The third Decan of Virgo still further expresses and defines the marvellous gospel story.
You will observe how, beginning with the first decan of Virgo, that we have gone from focusing on the woman to focusing on her seed.
Seiss wrote:
"One of the most common, constant, and expressive figures under which Christ is presented in the Scriptures is that of the Oriental shepherd."
"And this feature of what pertains to the Virgin's Son is the particular topic of this Decan."
Christ the Shepherd
In scripture, the work of a shepherd is made applicable to men. Just as some shepherd literal sheep, some shepherd men. The idea of a shepherd is connected with being a leader, guardian, caretaker, and a strong man.
From the beginning of the gospel message, or proto-evangelium, men have characterized the coming Savior, or seed of the woman, as one who will be a shepherd in his relation to men. Lord God himself used such terminology in describing his deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. He is said to have led them like a flock of sheep or goats. He identified himself as the Shepherd of Israel. He was viewed as a herder of cattle as well.
"Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth." (Psa. 80: 1)
"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Psa. 23: 1)
"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isa. 40: 11)
"And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them." (Eze. 34: 23, 24)
"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones." (Zech. 13: 17 & Matt. 26: 31)
"Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock." (Jer. 31: 10)
"As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." (Eze. 34: 12)
"My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace." (Jer. 50: 6)
"Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?" (Eze. 34: 2)
"instruments of a foolish shepherd" (Zech. 11: 15)
"For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened." (vs. 16, 17)
"And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." (Matt. 25: 32)
"I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep...and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." (John 10: 11, 16)
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep..." (Heb. 13: 20)
"For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." (I Peter 2: 25)
"And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." (I Peter 5: 4)
Seiss said:
"We here have the figure of a strong man, whom the Greeks named Bootes, the ploughman. But he and the so-called plough are set in opposite directions. Neither does a man plough with uplifted hand in the attitude of this figure. The name thus transformed into Greek has in it a Hebrew and Oriental root, Bo, which means coming; hence, the coming One or the One that was to come. The Greeks, failing to hold on consistently to their idea of a ploughman, also called this man Arcturus, the watcher, guardian, or keeper of Arktos, the adjoining constellation, which in all the more ancient representations is the flock, the sheepfold. Bootes is not a ploughman at all, but the guardian and shepherd of the flocks represented by what are now ordinarily called the Great and Lesser Bears; though they both have long tails, which bears never have. The brightest star in the constellation of Bootes is also called Arcturus, the guardian or keeper of Arktos, a word which in its Oriental elements connects with the idea of enclosure, the ascending, the happy, the going up upon the mountains. According to Ulugh Beigh, the ancient Egyptians called Bootes Smat, who rules, subdues, governs; and sometimes Ban, or Bo, the coming One. Al Katurops, the star on the right side or arm of Bootes, means the Branch, the Rod, and is often connected with the figure of a staff, the shepherd's crook, the traditional emblem of the pastoral office.
There can, therefore, be no doubt that we have here not a Greek ploughman, but the far more ancient Oriental shepherd, the keeper, guardian, ruler, and protector of the flocks; and that shepherd identical with the Seed of the Virgin, the Promised One, He who was to come, even "the Desire of all nations," "that great Shepherd of the sheep" whom the God of peace brought up again from the dead (Heb 13 : 20).
He also bears a sickle, which shows Him as the great Harvester; and the harvest He gathers is the harvest of souls, as where He directs his disciples to pray God to send forth laborers into His harvest. And the harvesting of souls is the gathering and keeping of the Lord's flock. The sickle and the crook thus go together as significant of one and the same idea, and show that Bootes is not the keeper of dogs and hunter of-bears, but that promised Saviour who was to come to gather in the harvest of souls and "feed His flock like a shepherd."
Christ the Reaper
John wrote:
"I looked; and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God." (Rev 14:15-19)
"Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great." (Joel 3: 13)
"Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." (Psa. 37: 1-3)
"In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it." (Isa. 22: 25)
Christ is the chief Reaper, employing angels who are also call reapers (Matt. 13: 30, 39). These, under his authority and guidance, will "separate" the wheat from the tares, the children of God from the children of the wicked one. He not only reaps himself, but he insures that all, both good and bad, receive (reap) his due. This connects his office of a Reaper with that of being Judge.
"I sent you (preachers of the gospel) to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours." (John 4: 38)
"the joy in harvest" (Isa. 9: 3)
"when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm" (Isa. 17: 5)
"the harvest is the end of the world" (Matt. 13: 39)
"Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them." (Jer. 9: 22)
"him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest" (Jer. 50: 16)
"For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come." (Jer. 51: 33)
"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jer. 8: 20)
Bootes (Christ) the Strong Man
"And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him (Gideon), and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." (Judges 6: 12)
"Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot..." (Judges 11: 1)
"And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth...and his name was Boaz." (Ruth 2: 1)
"Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep." (I Sam. 16: 18, 19)
"arrows are in the hand of a mighty man" (Psa. 127: 4)
"the sword of a mighty man" (Zech. 9: 13)
"Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." (Psa. 19: 5)
"Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself." (Psa. 80: 17)
"For she (harlot) hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her." (Prov. 7: 26)
"A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength." (Prov. 24: 5)
"Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?" (Matt. 13: 54)
"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)
"No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house." (Mark 3: 27)
Wrote Bullinger:
"The star e (just below the waist on his right side) is called Mirac, or Mizar, or Izar. Mirac means the coming forth as an arrow; Mizar, or Izar, means the preserver, guarding.
The star h is called Muphride, i.e. who separates.
The star b (in the head) is named Nekkar, i.e. the pierced (Zech 12:10), which tells us that this coming judge is the One who was pierced. Another Hebrew name is Merga, who bruises.
The constellation of the Canes Venatici (the Greyhounds), i.e., the two dogs (Asterion and Chara), which Bootes holds by a leash, is quite a modern invention, being added by Hevelius (1611-1687). The bright star of the 3rd magnitude in the neck of Chara, was named "Cor Caroli" (the heart of Charles) by Sir Charles Scarborough, physician to Charles II, in honour of Charles I, in 1649. This is a good example of the almost infinite distance between the ancient and modern names. The former are full of mysterious significance and grandeur, while the latter are puerile in the extreme, almost approaching to the comic! e.g., the Air Pump, the Painter's Easel, the Telescope, the Triangle, the Fly, the Microscope, the Indian, the Fox and Goose, the Balloon, the Toucan (or American Goose), the Compasses, Charles' Oak, the Cat, the Clock, the Unicorn, &c. The vast difference can be at once seen between those designed by the ancients and those added by astronomers in more recent times.
These new constellations were added, 22 by Hevelius; and 15 by Halley (1656-1742). They were formed for the purpose of embracing those stars which were not included in the ancient constellations. This shows that the old constellations were not designed, like the modern ones, merely for the sake of enabling astronomers to identify the positions of particular stars. In this case all the stars would have been included. The object was exactly the opposite! Instead of the pictures being designed to serve to identify the stars, only certain stars were used for the purpose of helping to identify the pictures!
Summary On Virgo
Wrote Seiss:
"It is no part of my design in these Lectures to enter upon the exposition of all that is implied and expressed in the various symbols applied to Christ, except so far as necessary to show that what is written in the Scriptures is likewise written on the stars. And in so far as this first sign and its Decans are concerned, I think it must be admitted that the result is very marvellous. Ill must be the mind and dull the apprehension which cannot detect identity between God's sign in the text and this sign in the heavens. Are they not of a piece with each other, and hence from one and the same divine source? Here is the woman whose Seed was to bruise the Serpent's head. Here is the great Virgin-born, the divine Child, whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, of the increase of whose government and peace there is to be no end. Here is the prostrate one, deceived by Satan into sin and condemnation, but holding hopefully to the promised Seed, the most illustrious in the sphere of humanity, the vigorous, beautiful, and goodly Branch, as the particular joy and consolation of fallen man. Here is the Desire of all nations, the great Coming One, reseating the fallen who cherish and joy in Him. Here is His double nature in singleness of person, the " God with us" held forth in holy prophecy, the Seed of the woman, who is the Son of God. Here is the Rod, the Branch, on whom was to rest the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, who should judge the poor with righteousness and reprove with equity, and smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips. Here is the God-begotten Healer, Teacher, Prophet, the heroic Destroyer of the destroyers, yet despised and rejected of men, stricken, smitten, and afflicted, consenting to yield up his life that others might have immortality, and thereupon reappearing on high, clad in power and majesty, as the strong and everlasting Ruler, Guardian, and Shepherd of his flocks. These are among the most essential and most precious things of our faith. The Gospel is nothing without them. Yet this is but one of twelve such signs, each equally full, vivid, and to the point. God never does things by halves. What He once begins He always completes. We have seen the first of these signs. It bears with it the internal as well as the external evidences of what Maimonides says the ancient Fathers affirmed, to wit: that it has come from the Spirit of prophecy. And if God inspired the framing of these signs, we may expect to find the rest as rich and telling as this opening of the series, each amplifying the other, till all the sublime wonders of redemption stand revealed upon the sky.
Meanwhile, let us believe and hold fast to the fact, so joyously fore-announced by the prophet, and so vividly inscribed upon the stars as the hope and trust of man, that a virgin has conceived and brought forth a Son, who verily is what Eve supposed she had when she embraced her first-born—even "a man, the Lord," Immanuel, God with us. Let us rejoice and be glad that unto us a Child is given, even that Seed of the woman appointed to bruise the Serpent's head and be the everlasting Shepherd and Guardian of His people. Let us see in Jesus the great Healer, Teacher, and Prophet, even God in humanity, who was to come, and who, though despised and rejected of men, hated, condemned, and pierced, still lives in immortal glory and power as the true Arcturus, to give repentance, remission of sins, and eternal life to as many as accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. And, in this faith established, let us be all the more quickened in our interest and attention in tracing the whole story as it shines upon us in oui darkness from God's everlasting stars.
Titles of Christ in Virgo (and Decans)
1. The Seed (heavenly or divine, and human)
2. The Branch (or fruit)
3. The Coming (Sent) One, he who will "come down"
4. The Son of God and Man (virgin's son)
6. The One to Rule
7. The Desired One
8. The Shepherd (Guardian)
9. The Despised
10. The Pierced
11. The Reaper
12. The Beautiful Lord.
13. The Mighty One (Conquerer)
14. The Judge and Avenger
15. The Redeemer (Restorer)
16. The Mediator or Peacemaker
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