Your Light Has Come

The Prophet Isaiah in Chapter 60, the last chapter in Deutero-Isaiah, opens his prophecy with these powerful words:

Rise up in splendor! Your light has come, the glory of YHVH shines upon you. See darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples, but upon you YHVH shines, and over you appears his glory.

Kabbalists believe that there has always been a Being with the fullness of matter and energy. They believe that for an infinitesimally small time Ten Centers of Sentient appeared within the Body of this Divine Being, called Ain Sof Aur, Neverending Light. These Sentient Intelligences cried out that Ain Sof Aur gave them every thing and they could give nothing back in return. Within that infinitesimally small time, Ain Sof Aur, withdrew from the center of His Being and created a perfect vacuum and into that vacuum He sent forth a Single Ray of His Divine Being into the center thereof. He formed from his own being the Ten Intelligences into a single Being named the Primeval Adam, the Ancient of Days, the Archangel of the Presence.

The Gospel of John begins with a description of this event. It says:

In the beginning was the Logos ... The Logos to the Greeks was the Divine Creative and Controlling Power. This idea of a Supreme Creative and Controlling Power separate from G-d is the essence of Kabbalistic thought.

John continues: And the Logos was with G-d ... While declaring strongly the separateness of the Creative and Controlling Power, the Gospel declares that is was with G-d before all time and into the beginning. The Logos and the Ten Intelligences are the same. We are simply using a separate nomenclature.

But then John goes on: And the Logos was G-d ... In what sense was the Logos G-d. First, the Logos is begotten from the Being of G-d and therefore carries the "DNA" of Godhood. Second, the Logos has the intelligence of G-d in that the 10 Intelligences were part of the Sentient G-d and know every thing that He knows. Third, the Logos is the active part of G-d because G-d remains outside of the Universe. The Logos is therefore Omnipotent, Omniscent, and Omnibenevolent, while it is not Eternal. But unlike G-d, the Logos is dynamic. It is the element of dynamism that gives the Logos its importance, because G-d does not act in this Universe. Only His Proxy, the Divine Logos acts in this Universe.

John continues: "He (meaning the Logos) was in the beginning with G-d. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be." Kabbalists believe that Ain Sof Aur and the Primeval Adam formed the Archangels in their glory and that Adam and the Archangels created the Universe and all that is in it. Literally, they believe that all things came to be through Adam and without Him nothing came to be.

Then John says: "What came to be through him was Life, and this Life was the Light of Mankind; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

As we celebrate the coming of the Seventh Light into the World, in the being of Yeshua ha Meshiach, let us remember that long before His coming, the Light was here in the presence of G-d and that same light still shines on us. Your light has come.

The Star of Bethlehem

In the Gospel of St. Matthew, the Shem Tov Matthew says:

"It came to pass when Yeshua was born in Bethlehem of Yudah in the days of Herod the King, behold astrologers came from the East to Jerusalem saying: Where is the King of the Jews who has been born. We have seen his star in the East and we have come with important gifts to worship him. ... Then King Herod called the magicians in secret and asked them well concerning the time the Star appeared to them. ... They harkened to the King and went, and behold the star which they saw in the East was going before them until they came to the place. When they entered Bethlehem it stopped before the place where the child was." Matthew 2:1-2, 7, 9.

Professor David Hughes, one of the leader astronomers in the United Kingdom has studied the account and the skies of that period and has concluded that what the Magi were seeing was Jupiter and Saturn in an unusual conjunction which occurred three times in 7 B.C. and during which the conjunction would appear to move due to the retrograde appearance of the planets during the conjunction. This would have occurred during the spring and summer of 7 B.C. This event would occur in the sign of Pisces which was associated with the Jewish people by Zoroastrian astrologers.

Dr. Michael Molnar of New York, a leading American astronomer, is an authority on astronomically related coins. He has a coin from Antioch which shows a star in the sign of Aries. He found that on April 17, 6 B.C. Jupiter would have been occulted in the early morning by the Moon in Aries and the appearance would have been noted by expert astronomer-astrologers. He concludes that this event is the Star of Bethlehem.

Dr. Mark Kidger, an authority on supernovas, believes that at the time of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 B.C. a nova event occurred on or near Dio Aquila. It was observed in 1927 to have another nova event and he was able to predict that a similar event had occurred in 7 B.C. So he believers that this nova event occurring with Jupiter and Saturn made a very bright star that would move.

The Arian Archbishop of York Most Reverend Brian Mackenzie-Hanson said this about his belief:

‎"A star rising in the East" (Matthew 2:2): Jupiter (the King Planet) and Regulus (the King Star: "Prince" or "Little King") came into conjunction for the first time on 11-Sep-3BC. Then over a period of 9 months, two more conjunctions of Jupiter and Regulus took place in the constellation Leo (the Lion, which the Old Testament of the Bible specifically associated with the Jewish people) for a total of 3 conjunctions. Because Jupiter goes into retrograde, its apparent motion through the background stars draws a halo (or Crown) over Regulus. Then, at the end of this nine month period on **17-June-2BC** appears the Star of Bethlehem in the western skies when looking from Babylon toward Jerusalem as Jupiter with Venus (the Planet of Love, harmony and Beauty; also Nativity when associated with Jupiter) and Regulus come into conjunction. Babylon being where the Magi where looking from.
- The Magi (the Wise Men, Matthew 2:1-12), being the Astronomers and Astrologers of the time were in no doubt as to what these signs (Genesis 1:14) in the sky meant!

There has not been a brighter, closer conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in Leo so near to Regulus in the 2,000 years before or since.

The problem I have with Archbishop Mackenzie-Hanson's theory is Herod the Great was dead in 4 B.C. Although he argues that there is a minority view allowing Herod to have lived until 2 B.C. or 1 B.C., the vast majority of scholars put his death at 4 B.C. The problem I have with the astronomical theories is that they are looking for an actual star in the sky. Everyone acknowledges that the observers were astrologers. But no one seems to know anything about astrology.

The astrologers ask Herod: Where is the King of the Jews who has been born. We have seen his star in the East. Everyone on earth has a Star in the East. The question that they ask is an astrological one. One must know that exact moment of birth in order to determine where to set the beginning of a horoscope. That place is called the Star in the East. My star is in Libra. In the seventh verse, Herod asks the astrologers "well concerning the time the star appeared." That question is also an astrological question. Herod did not know that the Meshiach had been born. He deduced that in watching the predictive horoscope the Magi had concluded from what was on the chart that a king had been born in Yudah. So, he asked the time. By knowing the time, he could deduce the moment of the child's birth in his area and theoretically could predict the exact place. He then acting on insufficient evidence had some boys killed in Bethlehem.

Many will claim that Josephus, who was no lover of Herod, did not mention a massacre in Bethlehem, but it might not have been a massacre. Herod knew the characteristics of the child. One, it must be a descendant of David; two, the child must have been born in the last two years; three, the child might have other indications of importance. According to one source, Herod had killed Zachariah in order to discover where St. John the Baptist was hiding. It is therefore likely he was already aware of the Bethlehem as a potential trouble spot and no stupid man, he already had spies on the ground.

So my conclusion is there never was an actual Star in the sky. The Star was on a predictive horoscope and predicted the coming of King.

It is important to note that St. Luke's Gospel which shows some Marian knowledge and is said to have originated at least partially from discussions with Mary makes no mention of the Magi. Mark, the earliest Gospel, does not make mention of the Magi. And, of course, John makes no mention of the Magi. So where do we get the Magi. I think that can be deduced from another scripture. Isaiah 60 specifically mentions the bringing of three gifts from kingdoms in places to the east and south of Bethlehem; it mentions camels; and it mentions sheep. I think that Matthew, so interested in proof-texts merely invented the Magi to give Yeshua a fantastical origin.

I could go on and on about other problems with the Infancy Narratives, but this blog is about the Star.

First Contact Soon

A scientist announced today that there are 300 sextillion stars in the universe. Now assuming that one out of every two star has planets circling it, which is what astronomers are finding in the solar systems near us, then there are an estimated 150 sextillion star systems in the universe and some 750 sextillion planets in the universe.

Assuming that there is one earth-like planet in every 500 (which is what scientists are finding), then there are 1.5 sextillion earth-like planets in the universe.

Science has found on Earth, life is pervasive and tenacious. It is therefore logical to assume that there is life of at least primitive forms on half of these planets or on about 750 quintillion planets. If we assume that only 1 out of 1000 of these planets has intelligent life at the level of at least a dog, then there are 750 quadrillion planets which have intelligent life.

Now, if we assume that 1 out of 1,000,000 of those planets which have intelligent life have developed civilization, then there are 750 billion planets that have civilization. Now, if we also assume that of the planets which are civilized one in one million have obtained space flight then there are 750,000 planets which have obtained space flight.

Now assuming that one out of four of these 750,000 civilizations that have obtained space flight are looking for us, then there are 187,500 civilizations that are looking for us.

Assuming that only one in ten thousand civilizations that are looking for us will find us in the next 100 years, then 19 civilizations will find us in the next 100 years. Therefore there will be about one contact every six years in the next 100 years. Knowing our government and seeing the impressive evidence for at least some UFO contact, our government has been in contact with alien civilizations for about 50 years and makes contact with a new species every six years.

First contact with someone other than the government is inevitable and should occur in the next six years. Shall I predict that first contact will occur on December 21, 2012? Seems as reasonable as any other time.