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Lesson 4 - Heaven and Hell


Heaven & Hell Heaven and Hell are not just theologically opposite, they are geometrically opposite. Heaven is up. Hell is down. Heaven is and has always been up above. Hell is and has always been down below, under the earth.

Go outside at night and look up and you are literally looking at heaven. And what do you see? You see all the stars, which make up all the constellations.

Hell is hot and on fire, because the sun is hot and on fire and the sun goes down there every night, setting everything ablaze.

Latitude of the Holy Lands


We digress here for a moment to note where the Holy Lands are positioned on the earth. Your Bible may have some maps in it showing the Holy Lands. The area is always that surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt is at the bottom, Israel is on the left, Rome is the foot shaped piece of land at top. Somewhere around here is where all the Bible stories were written, and what we are most interested in observing about this region is what most people never pay any attention to. We are interested in the latitude of this region, because the latitude determines what stars you can see and what seasons of the year you experience.

The Holy Land region is approximately between 25° and 50° North latitude. This is important because this is the latitude where the familiar seasons of the year exist, with the shortest day of Winter occurring in December and the longest day of Summer occurring in June. This region also conveniently contains the United States of America where a lot of Christians live. If you happen to live in this latitude range then you're lucky, you're already familiar with the same seasons of the year the ancient writers of the Bible experienced, and you can go outside any night and see the same stars they saw.

The range where we have the well known seasons of the year with Winter in December and Summer in June extends from 23.5° North latitude, known as the "Tropic of Cancer," up to 66.5° North latitude, known as the Arctic Circle. The "Tropic of Cancer" is named after the zodiac constellation Cancer, for reasons that will become apparent later on.

As we head further North in this range the shortest day of the year, known as the Winter Solstice (around December 22), gets shorter and shorter, and the longest day of the year, known as the Summer Solstice (around June 21), gets longer and longer. When we reach the Arctic Circle, at 66.5° North latitude, the shortest day of the year becomes so short the Sun actually never rises on that day, and the longest day of the year becomes so long the Sun actually never sets on that day.

If we continue further North, above the Arctic Circle (66.5° North latitude), we find there is a period of perpetual dark days centered around the Winter Solstice (December 22) when the Sun never rises, and a period of perpetual light days centered around the Summer Solstice (June 21) when the Sun never sets. As we move further North the number of dark days centered around the Winter Solstice increase and the number of bright days centered around the Summer Solstice also increase. When we finally reach the North Pole this pattern reaches its extreme — we end up with one long period of darkness lasting half a year, and one long period of light lasting half a year. At the North Pole the sun rises around March 21, and just circles around the horizon day after day for half a year, never setting. Around September 23 the sun sets, not to be seen again until March 21 of next year.

Rudolph & Elf This is a good time to expose one of the misconceptions about the North Pole propagated by all the TV specials about Santa Claus we see each year in December. For example, at right is a scene from "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," a classic 1964 television special. Examine closely this picture and see if you can find everything that is wrong with it. First we have snow. OK, they got this part right, there is snow at the North Pole. Then we have a flying reindeer who has a headlight for a nose — OK maybe that's a bit of fancy. And we have an Elf. They're always short, I don't know why, and they love to make toys for children. — Sure, I don't see why not. OK, do you see what else is wrong with this picture? Look closely. Note the tree growing in the background. Actually there are no trees at the North Pole. The show would have you believe there's a whole forest of trees growing at the North Pole, but actually there's none. There's still one more huge error in this picture. Do you see it? Let me give you a hint: can you see anything? What time of year is it? It's December. Where are we? At the North Pole. What's wrong with this picture? The picture portrays the North Pole as being a bright sunny place in Winter when actually the sun set three months ago and won't be seen again for three more months! That's right, Santa Claus lives in the dark.

Santa should really move to the equator where it's sunny all year 'round. He could swim in the warm tropical waters and maybe lose some weight. And what's with that "Ho! Ho! Ho!" laugh? Real people don't laugh like that.

When you think of it none of the Santa Claus story makes any sense. All children eventually realize this. Even if you insist the story is real and that magical miracles explain everything about it children eventually grow up and realize it's all just a ploy put on by the adults. The same is true of the Jesus story — it's all just a ploy put on by the churches. Eventually people realize the story doesn't make any sense and stop believing in it. I propose to go one step further and show how the story actually does make perfect sense by pointing out what most people overlook, the first being the latitude of the Holy Lands and the seasons of the year that area experiences.

Returning to earth for a moment, the equator is a wonderful place to live because here it's always Summer. Pretty much all the days are 12 hours long no matter what time of year it is. Santa ought to move his workshop somewhere here, but for mythological reasons he's stuck living at the North pole.

If we move southward below the equator we encounter an interesting range where there actually isn't much land, but if you do happen to live in this range, such as in Argentina or southern Australia, then the seasons of the year are actually reversed, with the shortest day of Winter occurring in June and the longest day of Summer occurring in December. This range extends from 23.5° South latitude, known as the "Tropic of Capricorn," down to 66.5° South latitude, known as the Antarctic Circle. The "Tropic of Capricorn" is named after the zodiac constellation Capricorn, for reasons that will become apparent later on.

Notice how there's not much land down here in this region. Most people are familiar with the seasons of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and find it just a curious anomaly that there exist a few places on earth where the seasons are actually reversed.

As we head further South in this range the shortest day of the year gets shorter and shorter, and the longest day of the year gets longer and longer. The only difference is the shortest day of the year is in June, and the longest day of the year is in December. When we reach the antarctic circle at 66.5° South latitude the shortest day of the year becomes so short the Sun actually never rises on that day, and the longest day of the year becomes so long the Sun actually never sets on that day.

If we continue further South, well no one lives down here, so who cares? Not even Santa Claus lives down here. Scientists seem to find the South Pole interesting though. They come down here during the summer, when it's light 24 hours a day, and perform all sorts of fascinating scientific experiments. Navigating around the South Pole is difficult though, because every direction is North. Compasses tend to point straight up. You can fly straight towards a pure white snow covered mountain and think you're looking at a faraway distant hazy horizon. (At the North Pole compass needles tend to point straight down, because hey, you're there! Actually the magnetic North Pole isn't quite in sync with the North Pole axis the earth rotates on.)

However, we are interested in the latitude of the Holy Land, which is around 25°-50° North, because this is the region where the Bible stories were written. Therefore all further discussion about the stars and the seasons of the year will be from this point of view.

https://solarmythology.com/lessons/latitude.htm

The Northern Hemisphere

Northern Hemisphere Note how most of the land of earth is above the equator, in the Northern Hemisphere. I have no explanation for why this is, but it probably explains why most maps of the world are oriented with the North side up. People don't like to look down on themselves.

The majority of land and hence the majority of the world's population is in the Northern Hemisphere, so we tend to orient world maps with North at the top.

This also explains why globes are oriented with the North Pole upwards, as this makes it easier to see most of the land. If a globe was mounted with the South Pole upwards then most of the land would be on the underside of the globe and we'd all be bending over to see the land.

People also like to place themselves in the center, so world maps made by Europeans place Europe in the center, as we have above, while world maps made by Americans place America in the center. Known as the cartographic "rule of ethnocentricity," the placement of one's own territory at the center of a world map is an almost-universal feature of cartographic devices, including cosmic diagrams of pre-Columbian North American Indians; ancient Babylonia, Greece, and China; and the medieval maps of the Islamic world or Christian Europe

See also The Four Main Centric Theories of the Universe



Having most of the land in the Northern Hemisphere also explains why clocks go clockwise. Since most of the land is in the Northern Hemisphere, it's natural that the people who invented mechanical clocks would live in the Northern Hemisphere and would make the hands on their clocks mimic the direction a shadow moves on a sundial. "Clockwise" is the direction shadows move in the Northern Hemisphere. (See lesson on Sundials) Most measuring devices with dials also go clockwise because of this.

The convention of placing North at the top came a few centuries ago when European navigators started using the North star and the magnetic compass. Before that, the top of the map was to the East, which is where the word orient as in orientation comes from. The Chinese, however, put South at the tops of their maps, while Australians still like to refer to their country as "down under".

https://solarmythology.com/lessons/nh.htm

Earth's Precession and the Stars

In addition to placing ourselves in the latitude of the Holy Land, we also need to make one other point of reference change, and that is we need to go back in time about 2000 years to when the New Testament was written. This is important because the position of the sun relative to the stars has changed somewhat during the past 2000 years due to the earth's precession.

gyroscope
gyroscope
The earth is like a big spinning top or gyroscope. If you spin a gyroscope and hold it on the tip of your finger you'll notice the axis of spin changes slowly over time making a small circle. You'll notice the same thing if you spin a top on the floor—the axis of spin changes slowly over time making a small circle. The only difference is the earth isn't suspended by a finger, nor is the earth spinning on a floor. There is no cosmic force of gravity "downwards" towards the South pole. The force of gravity is actually sunwards, towards the sun, and moonwards, towards the moon which is constantly orbiting the earth. It is these two forces which cause the slow precession of the earth.

Precession The first difference is 2000 years ago the celestial north pole was not where the star Polaris is. Today the celestial north pole is very close to Polaris. We call Polaris the North Star because if you can find it and point to it you will be pointing North. However, around 0 A.D. the celestial north pole was actually between the Big Dipper and Little Dipper, as shown on this diagram at left. (Note: There actually is no year 0 A.D., the years jump from 1 B.C. to A.D. 1.)

(Note how the two end stars of the Big Dipper point to Polaris. This can help you find Polaris next time you're outside at night.)

Capricorn at Sunset The second difference is 2000 years ago the sun was entering Capricorn on December 22, whereas today the sun doesn't arrive at that position until January 18, almost a month later.

In the illustration here the sun has just set and the stars have just come out, and we can see that the sun is positioned on the front leg of the constellation Capricorn. This is where the sun was relative to the stars on December 22 around the year A.D. 1. In our present age you have to wait until January 18 to see this.

WHEN AND WHERE
To summarize, we need to go back in time about 2000 years, and we need to position ourselves at a latitude of around 25-50 degrees North so we are both at the time and the place when and where the New Testament was written. From here on out my discussion will be from the point of view.


https://solarmythology.com/lessons/precession.htm

Our Current Calendar


Our present day calendar keeps track of the solar year. It's a 365 day calendar divided into twelve months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. The length of the solar year is actually slightly longer than 365 days, so every now and then we add an extra day to the year to bring our calendar back in sync with the solar year. This way our calendar is at most a day off.

[The formula for determining when to add an extra day to the year is a bit complicated. It goes like this:

Add an extra day every four years.
Every one hundred years we skip a leap year.
Every four hundred years we DO have the leap year that we would normally skip.

So...

Years evenly divisible by 4 are leap years.
Except years evenly divisible by 100 are NOT leap years.
EXCEPT years evenly divisible by 400 which ARE leap years.

Hence the average duration of our present day calendar is 365 + 1/4 - 1/100 + 1/400 = 365.2425 days, which is pretty close to the actual length of the solar year of 365.2422 days. Our present day yearly calendar is only three tenthousandths (0.0003) of a day too long.]


It's interesting to note that there is no year A.D. 0 or 0 B.C.. The years jump from 1 B.C. to A.D. 1.


Frequently Asked Questions about Calendars by Claus Tøndering

https://solarmythology.com/lessons/calendar.htm

this lesson is tricky one i nakon ove lekcije je poduži školski odmor do na večer. slike su na linku

The Constellations Don't Look Like What They're Named

(From South Park Episode 211 "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off The Fatty Foods")
[Inside the planetarium]

Dr. Adams: Good morning children and welcome to the plane-arium. We're going on a fascinating ride through the universe. So I want you to lean back in your chairs and get comfortable.
(The chairs lean back)
Stan: This is stupid.
Dr. Adams: And now I'm going to dim the lights, and let the stars....come out.
Kyle: Whoopee...
Dr. Adams: Here we see the constellation called the Big Dipper. If I project the drawing of a big dipper on top of it, we see where the constellation gets its name.


Dr. Adams: These stars over here form the constellation of Taurus, the bull.


Dr. Adams: While these stars form the constellation Roger Ebert.


Dr.Adams: And these two little stars over here form the constellation, the Crusades.


See the clip here southpark.avi (698KB, Divx)

Aquarius

The reason some constellations don't look anything like what they are named is because some constellations have more to do with what time of year it is when they become prominent and what that time of year originally reminded people of. For example, the constellation Aquarius, the Water Bearer, is the constellation that becomes prominent during the rainy season. The stars doen't look anything like a guy pouring a pitcher of water.

Connecting the stars to try and make an image of a guy pouring a pitcher of water is futile. But every year when those stars are just above the horizon at sunset it always rains because it's that time of year. Hence people began identifying that set of stars with rain, and eventually personified those stars as a guy pouring a pitcher of water.

https://solarmythology.com/lessons/constel.htm

ebenica wrote:

Remek djelo.

ako dovučete ovdje onu lujku s kata i onog križarskog mediokriteta krvi ću vam se napit.

why? 'cause im a man.

Gnječ wrote:

mativka wrote:Trenutno me muči pitanje:
Što bi se dogodilo s Isusom da Ivanu Krstitelju nisu odsjekli glavu?

otvorio bi turističku agenciju.

ako budeš pratila predavanja na ovoj temi dobiti ćeš odgovor na svoje pitanje a usput će ti biti jasan i ovaj moj odgovor.

Leonardo Da Vinci je znao. možda nije smio reći ali je naslikao.

posljednja večera:



ovo bi mogao biti jedan od da Vinci kodova.



vidi li netko drukčiji raspored godišnjih doba?

Vertical and Horizontal thinking.


Some Christians acknowledge the Gospel story can be found in the starry night sky, but rather than diminish their faith it increases their faith.

paradoks vjerskog ludila ali o tome na kraju.

Seasons of the Year

The Sidereal Year begins on the Winter Solstice (December 21 or 22). This is the beginning of Winter. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year. The sun rises south of due east and sets south of due west. The sun is also at a low angle in the sky. Because the days are short and the sun is at a low angle it is cold during Winter. It rains a lot during Winter.

As the year progresses the days get longer and longer. Each day the sun rises and sets slightly farther north than it did the day before. After one quarter of a year we reach the Spring Equinox (March 21) when the sun rises due east (hence the term East-er) and sets due west. Day and night are of equal length. This is the beginning of Spring. The goodness of light and warmth begins to conquer the badness of darkness and cold. Crops begin to grow.

As the year progresses further the days continue to get longer. Each day the sun rises farther north of due east than it did the day before, and sets farther north of due west. At mid-year we reach the Summer Solstice (June 21) when the sun rises farthest north of due east and sets farthest north of due west. The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year. Summer begins on the Summer Solstice. The sun is high in the sky, giving lots of warmth and light. Crops continue to grow.

After the Summer Solstice the days begin to get shorter. Each day the sun rises and sets slightly farther south than it did the day before. Crops grow well during the Summer quarter. Near the end of the Summer quarter is harvest time, the best time of the year. We harvest the crops and crush the grapes to make wine. The sun has done it's job providing us with life-giving food and wine.

Three-quarters through the year we reach the Autumn Equinox (Sept. 22) when the sun again rises due east and sets due west. Day and night are again of equal length. This is the beginning of Autumn. The goodness of light and warmth begins to fail us. The badness of darkness begins to overcome the goodness of light.

During Autumn, the last quarter of the year, the sun dies. The days get shorter and shorter, and it gets colder and colder. Each day the sun rises and sets further south. Will the sun disappear forever? What will happen to us? Have no fear, have faith. Yes the sun will die, but the sun will soon be reborn. A new year will soon begin. This is the end of our story, and it is also the beginning. What happens after this? Go to the top of the page and read the story again.

The story is circular—a new year begins immediately after the old year ends. A new year is born immediately after the old year dies.

The Celestial Sphere

From our point of view the earth appears to be surrounded by a great celestial sphere upon which the fixed stars are attached. This celestial sphere slowly rotates upon its axis, making one complete revolution per day. During the night we see the stars affixed to this sphere slowly rise in the east, travel overhead, and set in the west. If we look northward we see the stars rotate around the north celestial axis.

(If we are in the southern hemisphere we can look southward and watch the stars slowly circle around the southern celestial axis. The time lapse photograph at right shows the stars circling the southern celestial pole. The southern celestial pole can only be seen when you are located below the equator in the southern hemisphere. This photo was taken from Australia. (See larger photo with credits.])

Currently the star Polaris, also known as the North Star, is very close to the north celestial axis. If you can find the North Star you then know which way North is. More importantly, the angle between the horizon and the North Star tells you what latitude on earth you're at. This helps ships navigate the open ocean. 2000 years ago Polaris was not near the north celestial pole due to the Earth's Precession.

Also present against the celestial sphere is the sun. In the picture of the celestial sphere model above the sun can be seen to the right of the earth and just slightly below the equator. The sun's position on the celestial sphere changes during the year, which is why the sun is on a swivel arm. We will talk more about the sun's annual journey around the celestial sphere later.

Philosophers have pondered for eons about what this great celestial sphere was made of. It was apparently made of some heavenly material we could not fathom. There was also the unexplained problem of five wandering stars known as "planets." Eventually the concept was abandoned when scientists decided it was the earth that was rotating on it's axis instead of a great celestial sphere rotating around the earth. The Foucault Pendulum is a very simple yet profound demonstration of the earth's rotation.

In 1633 the Catholic Church condemned Galileo for promoting a helocentric theory of the universe. They said, “The proposition that the sun is the centre of the world and does not move from its place is absurd and false philosophically and formally heretical, because it is expressly contrary to the Holy Scripture. The proposition that the earth is not the centre of the world and immovable, but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is equally absurd and false philosophically, and theologically considered, at least erroneous in faith.” (See The Church Sentences Galileo.)

Even though scientists have abandoned the Celestial Sphere theory, notwithstanding the objections of the Catholic Church, it is still convenient to use a celestial sphere as a map of where the stars and constellations are.

Sunset

Sunset is the special time of day we can determine the sun's position relative to the stars. At sunset the sun dips below the horizon, the sky gradually gets dark, and the stars become visible. With the stars visible and the sun just below the horizon the position of the sun on the celestial sphere of stars becomes apparent.

The other time of day we can determine where the sun is relative to the stars is just before sunrise.

During the day the stars are still there, we just can't see them due to the bright blue sky. If the bright blue sky were to disappear, and the sun's brightness to dim a bit, we could see both the sun and the stars at the same time.

During a total solar eclipse, when the moon moves directly in front of the sun blocking almost all of it's light, the sky becomes dark enough for us to see some of the brighter stars, again allowing us to see the position of the sun on the celestial sphere of stars.

The Sun Travels Along the Ecliptic

In our previous lesson we showed how sunset is the time of day when we can determine the position of the sun relative to the stars (see previous lesson). Now let us observe how the position of the sun relative to the stars changes as the days go by.

The animation at right shows how the sun's position changes day by day. (For this animation I have moved the sun slightly above the horizon but kept the sky dark so we can still see the stars.) Note how each day at sunset the constellation Capricorn (the goat) gets lower and lower until it is completely below the horizon. The sun appears to travel upwards along the green line through Capricorn towards Aquarius (the water bearer). The green line, representing the path the sun travels along, is known as the ecliptic.

If I allowed the animation to continue past January 10 we would see the sun continue it's journey upwards along the green line through the constellation Aquarius. (The corresponding animation file would be too big for some to download, so I stopped at January 10. However, you may download and install a trial version of the program Starry Night Backyard which generated these images from www.starrynight.com. The instructions tell you how to set the program so it will follow the sun's annual journey through the stars. 2006 Note: Starry Night Backyard has been retired. They have a similar program now.)

If I allowed the animation to continue for the rest of the year we would observe the sun travel through all 12 constellations of the zodiac. These 12 constellations are: Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemeni, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. At the end of the year the sun completes its journey by arriving back at Capricorn where it started, ready to begin anew its annual journey through the 12 constellations.

Note that the ecliptic is a closed circuit around the celestial sphere. (We shall encounter the word "circuit" again later on.)

By observing which constellation the sun is in you can tell what time of year it is. This is important if you are a farmer. You need to know when to plant the crops and when to reap the harvest. You need to be familiar with the seasons of the year. This is why astronomy was always important in ancient civilizations.

To the right we have a side view of the sun passing through the constellation Capricorn the goat. (In this side view I have switched to using icons to represent the Zodiac constellations.) Above the earth we have the visible night sky; below the earth we have the abyss of whatever is under the world that we can not see. Recall again that the sun rises in the East, and sets in the West. In this animation the sun is over there on the West side setting in the West. Note how each day at sunset Capricorn the goat gets lower and lower until it is completely below the horizon. The sun appears to travel through Capricorn as the days go by. On December 22 (the Winter Solstice) the sun is just starting to go through Capricorn. By January 10 the sun has made its way through most of Capricorn and we see that the zodiac constellation of Aquarius the water bearer is next in line.

(The other members of the zodiac would form a circle around the earth in this animation. I'm not showing them all right now to keep things simple.)

Compare this animation with the one above.

(All dates are for “Biblical Times”, about 2000 years ago. In our present 21'st century you have to wait until January 18 to see what they saw on December 22 due to the earth’s precession. See Lesson on Earth's Precession).



If I allowed the animation to continue past January 10 we would see the sun continue it's journey upwards along the green line through the constellation Aquarius. (The corresponding animation file would be too big for some to download, so I stopped at January 10. However, you may download and install a trial version of the program Starry Night Backyard which generated these images from www.starrynight.com. The instructions tell you how to set the program so it will follow the sun's annual journey through the stars. 2006 Note: Starry Night Backyard has been retired. They have a similar program now.)

https://www.starrynight.com/starry-night-8-professional-astronomy-telescope-control-software.html

Where to start the year



Since the year is circular, in that the four seasons of the year just cycle endlessly, it's somewhat arbitrary where we declare the start of the year to be. There are, however, a few natural places to start the year.

One natural place to start the year is at the Winter Solstice (December 22). This is the day the Sun is lowest in the sky, making this the shortest day of the year. From this point on the Sun gets higher and higher in the sky each day, making each day longer and longer.

Another often used place to start the year is at the Vernal Equinox (also called the Spring Equinox; March 21). On this day the Sun rises directly in the East, and day and night are of equal length. It's around here the harvest cycle begins. Time to plant some crops. The Astrology section of the newspaper always begins with Aries, Mar. 21, which is the Spring Equinox.

The Jewish calendar begins with the month of Nisan, around mid-March to early April, a date hovering around the Vernal Equinox. The twelve months of the Jewish calendar are: 1)Nisan; 2)Iyyar; 3)Sivan; 4)Tammuz; 5)Ab; 6)Elul; 7)Tishri; 8)Cheshvan; 9)Kislev; 10)Tebeth; 11)Shebat; 12)Adar. This is a lunar calendar synced to the phases of the moon. A new moon begins a new month. The twelve lunar months total 354 days. To keep this calendar somewhat in sync with the solar year, a 13th "leap month" is occasionally added, called Adar II.

To further confuse things, the Jewish New Year, "Rosh Hashana," is celebrated on the first of Tishri, the seventh month, sometime in September or early October, a date hovering around the Autumnal Equinox.

The Gregorian Calendar we use today sets the start of the new year on January 1, ten days after the Winter Solstice. Here is the explanation how that came to be:

"The 25th of December is the winter solstice by the Julian calendar. Julius Caesar adopted what is now known as the Julian solar year of three hundred and sixty five and one-quarter days. The three hundred and sixty five days were assigned to a year of twelve months, and the remaining quarter of a day was intercalated into every fourth year, known to us as 'the leap year'. Leap years are so called, because written in the 1604 edition of the Anglican prayer book was, 'On every fourth year, the Sunday Letter Leapeth'. Julius Caesar began his new solar calendar of Rome with January 1st in the year AUC 707 (45 BCE).1 Caesar did not commence the New Year on the winter solstice (22nd December), which he knew was the true beginning of the year. He wished to prevent disruption to the traditional, moon-regulated, commercial calendar as well as for the purpose of general convenience. Caesar adopted the rule of the moon and started the New Year by making it commence on the first new moon following the winter solstice. This happened to be ten days after the solstice and, hence, our 'New Year' is not the beginning of a new year at all. Consequently, we have at present three celebrations of the winter solstice or New Year. We have the astronomical or true New Year on the 22nd of December10; Christmas, the universal celebration of the rebirth of the sun—the resurrection of the Sun God; and, Julius Caesar's moon-fixed New Year, the 1st of January."2


For more on calendars here are a few links:

Frequently Asked Questions about Calendars by Claus Tøndering
The Jewish Calendar and Sacred Festivals
Judaism 101: Jewish Calendar
Hebrew Calendar Science and Myths
A Walk Through Time: Ancient Calendars
Ancient Calendars: Spiral Calendars (click on "See Ancient Calendars")
The Days of the Week are Named After the Planets [this site]

For our purposes we'll start the year at the Winter Solstice, December 22. Three days later, on December 25, the Sun rises 1/10 of its width further northward, just barely enough to be detectable by careful observation.

1. The Sun is born, or re-born, on December 25th.

[Jesus is born on Christ-mas day, December 25th. Actually, knowledgable Christians will admit the tradition of celebrating Jesus' birth on December 25 was an attempt to place a Christian significance on a pagan holiday. Pope Julius (350 CE) assigned the birth of Jesus to December 25.3 Pagans of numerous solar religions celebrated the birth of their Sun God on December 25th.

What Christians don't realize is how much more of their religion has been borrowed from pagan religions.

Christians admit they don't know what day Jesus was born. They don't even know what year he was born. This just raises a lot more questions about how much they don't know.

The Sun Enters Aquarius at "Age 30"

The constellations of the Zodiac are not all the same size, nor are they evenly spaced. Some of the constellations even overlap one another. It's somewhat arbitrary where to draw the line between one constellation and another. Part of this problem is alleviated by simply declaring that the divisions between the twelve constellations are evenly spaced.

The zodiac is divided into twelve equal areas, with each area containing one zodiac constellation. Each area is known as a "house". So when the sun is in the constellation Capricorn, it may be said, "the sun is in the house of Capricorn."

If we divide a circle into twelve equal parts, and place the twelve constellations of the zodiac in order around the circle, one in each part, we see that each constellation occupies 30 degrees of the circle.





The tradition of having 360 degrees in a circle probably comes from it being a nice convenient number very near the number of days in a year. 360 is a nice round number that can be evenly divided into 2 parts, or 4 parts, or 10 parts, or 12 parts, or 36 parts, or 72 parts—whatever you feel like, whereas the actual solar year of 365.2421934 days is not as easy a number to deal with.

The sun travels about one degree each day. It's not exact, since there are actually 365.2421934 days in a solar year instead of 360. Also the earth's orbit isn't a perfect circle, it's slightly elliptical. The earth travels slightly faster during the winter months when it's slightly closer to the sun, and it travels slightly slower during the summer months when it's slightly farther from the sun. In general though, one degree equals about one day. (The seasons are primarily caused by the earth's tilt, not by it's varying distance from the sun. See Cause of the Seasons [offsite])

It's still ambiguous exactly when the sun leaves one house and enters another. The standard dates used by astrologers for the past two millennium (the ones given in the table above) correspond to a time somewhere in the range of around 600 B.C.E. to 1 C.E. Today, some 2000 years later, due to the Earth's precession the sun is in Sagittarius on Dec. 22, and you have to wait until around Jan. 18 before you can say the sun is in Capricorn. However, the tradition of having Capricorn cover the days from December 22 to January 19 still remains today. Have a look at any astrology or horoscope section of a newspaper (if your newspaper has such a section. No one today really believes in astrology, but some newspapers still have one just for the fun of it.) You'll see there listed the twelve constellations of the zodiac, covering the full year, with Capricorn beginning on December 22, the Winter Solstice. Though the winter solstice is a natural place to begin the year, you'll notice the astrology section always begins with Aries, March 21, which is the vernal equinox, another common place to begin the year.

For our purposes it doesn't matter exactly what day the sun leaves one house and enters the next. It's the overall story line we are concerned about. We want to know the general sequence of events that occurs during the solar year.

If we accept the old tradition of having the sun enter Capricorn on the Winter Solstice, a natural place to start the yearly cycle, then when the sun has traveled 30 degrees the sun exits Capricorn and enters Aquarius. Thus an allegorical story of the sun's annual travels could have the sun character visiting the Aquarius character at "Age 30" That's actually 30 degrees, or about 30 days, but an allegory could use 30 years instead.

2. On the Winter Solstice the sun enters Capricorn. The Sun then passes through Capricorn, traveling 30 degrees in 30 days, to reach Aquarius at "age 30". Entering Aquarius is the first big event of the journey.
Jesus is said to have begun his ministry at age 30 (Luke 3:23). Jesus begins his ministry by visiting John the Baptist (Aquarius), who baptizes with water.

3. The Sun's annual journey around the zodiac takes one year.
Jesus' ministry is said to have lasted one year. [At least according to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). The Gospel of John implies Jesus' ministry lasted 3 years. The Gospel of John contradicts the Synoptic Gospels many times, which, by definition, is why it's not one of the "Synoptic" Gospels. Here we are concentrating on Jesus' mission as described in the Synoptic Gospels.]

Outlining the Solar Myth - Aquarius

So far we have:



Aquarius is depicted by a man pouring out a pitcher of water. At left we have the illustration of what Aquarius is supposed to look like on the western horizon, if you have a very good imagination. It takes quite an imagination to see this in the stars. The idea of a man pouring out water has more to do with what is happening at that time of year. (See The constellations don't look like what they're named).

The Sun enters Aquarius around Jan. 20. January is the rainy season. There is a lot of water everywhere. In January the days start to get longer and longer, as the Sun climbs higher and higher in the sky each day. The days also begin to get warmer and warmer, because the angle of the Sun's rays changes (see Cause of the Seasons [offsite]).

The longer warmer days cause any snow that has accumulated in the higher mountains to melt, adding to the inundation of water. Rivers rise and may flood. This is the first step in the harvest cycle. We look forward to the promise of a good harvest later on in the year.

4. The Sun visits Aquarius who immerses the land with water.
Jesus starts his one year ministry by visiting John the Baptist who baptises with water (Matthew 3).