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The Magi's Star
"No, the whole tale [of the traditional story of the Star of
Bethlehem] is
but an ingenious working out after the fact." ---Isaac
Asimov.
This is an anachronistic tale about the three Kings or Wise Men from the east. It is a story that seems to be out of joint with time.
"Having undergone many trials and fatigues for the
gospel, the
three wise men met at Sewa (Sebaste in Armenia) in AD 54 to celebrate
the feast of Christmas. Thereupon, after the celebration of Mass, they
died: St. Melchior on 1 January aged 116: St. Balthasar on 6 January,
aged 112: and St. Gaspar on 11 January, aged 109"
But, is this story really anachronistic, out of joint with
time?
First published in the International Planetarium Society Journal Volume 14, #3, 3rd quarter, 1985
Researching possible explanations for a more
accurate telling
of
the "Star of Bethlehem" has led to a rediscovery of the "method" used
by
Johannes Kepler to determine important dates in world history. Kepler
argued that great events in history occurred every 800 years using
multiples of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions.
This "method" plots geocentrically the consecutive conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn (Table 1). Each conjunction occurs on the average every 19.85 years and they are approximately 117 degrees apart. The figures used in the diagram are from Bryant Tuckerman's, Planetary Lunar and Solar Positions, Volumes I & II, Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society , Philadelphia.
The
diagram
leads me to ask the following questions:
1) Did the Magi use or know about this "method"?
2) If they knew about this "method," how did they interpret it?
3) Are "triple" conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn really significant?
4) Do written records of this "method" exist in ancient literature or mythology?
5) How does one interpret seven consecutive conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, in Pisces, approaching the vernal equinox?
The heart of this thesis, originated by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend in their book, Hamlet's Mill (l977), and supported by Harald A. T. Reiche of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, holds that "myths were vehicles for memorizing and transmitting certain kinds of astronomical and cosmological information!" The mythological formula identified by the authors is really a mechanism to precisely explain the slowest of all observable motions of the heavens, the precession of the equinoxes. According to de Santillana and von Dechend, "Number gave the key. Way back in time, before writing was even invented, it was measures and counting that provided the armature, the frame on which the rich texture of real myth was to grow!"
The mythological framework is splendid indeed, for it is the celestial sphere. Within the celestial sphere, we find the "Mythical Earth." This Mythical Earth is not the physical planet but instead the implied plane through the four points of the year, marked by the equinoxes and solstices . In other words The Mythical Earth is the Celestial Ecliptic plane! Von Dechend and de Santillana explain that the zodiacal constellations that rise heliacally are the points that locate the "Mythical Earth!" However, the framework is not fixed but constantly changing due to precession of the equinoxes. That, they argue, is what prehistoric, preliterate man was trying to tell us or preserve knowledge of, by using his scientific language, mythology.
But the most important aspect of the Jupiter/Saturn mythological relationship is seen with the realization that Saturn and Jupiter can be used as a clock for keeping track of "cosmological" periods of time, particularly, precession of the equinoxes.
According to von Dechend and de Santillana, there
is no doubt
that the Greek Kronos (Saturn) is the same as Chronos (Father Time).
In dialogue between Kronos (Chronos) and Jupiter (Zeus), we learn:
"kai panta ta metrates holes demiourgias endidosin"
which translates as, "Saturn gives Jupiter all the measures
of
creation." With this act of Jupiter overthrowing his father,
the
sun, moon and planets are set in motion. During each successive
conjunction, Saturn gives Jupiter "all the measures of
creation!"
Furthermore, successive Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions can be used to keep
track of even longer periods of time.
Successive conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn are one of the easiest-to-observe, long-period astronomical cycles. That this cycle repeats in almost twenty year intervals (more precisely (19.85 years on the average) is less important than the fact that it is a reoccuring, measurable period of time.
The last of the great "Mythographers" was Johannes Kepler. In De Stella Nova. Kepler applied observational data (i.e." successive conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn) to reconstruct the history of the world. His chosen method was borrowed from the "lingua franca" of astrology. This method has nothing to do with astrology per se, but Kepler found in it a simple, "bookkeeping" style for tabulating large quantities of time.
The Diagram below illustrates successive plots of Jupiter/Saturn
conjunctions. To understand the diagram, the following relationships
are of value:
1) Any conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is called a
"great
conjunction."
2) Three successive "great conjunctions" form a triangle called a
"Trigon".
3) A Trigon is equivalent to a passage of approximately 60 years.
4) Twelve 'great conjunctions' equal a 'middle conjunction'.
5.) Four 'middle conjuctions' equal a 'big conjunction'.
6.) Three 'big conjunctions' equal a 'mighty conjuction'.
The diagram shows that in every 60 year period (59.55 years to be exact), a "great conjunction" occurs near or slightly displaced from the point of origin. While successive "great conjunctions" are about 117 degrees apart, the vertices of successive trigons move approximately 360 - (117 x 3) = 9 degrees farther eastward in this same period. We can see that it takes 40 "great conjunctions" to return to our initial starting point (9 degrees times 40 = 360 degrees).
The elapsed time counted by proceeding from
conjunction to
conjunction and back to the origin is thus 40 times 20 years = 800
years, or more precisely, 794.25 years. This represents one-third of a
"rotation" of the initial trigon. Similarly, the elapsed time counted
by proceeding from trigon to trigon, continuing around the zodiacal
circle and back to the original starting point is 40 x 60 years = 2,400
years. A more accurate value for the actual elapsed time is 2,382 years.
What we see here is a very neat method for keeping track of cosmological periods of time. The amount of elapsed time observed by the ancients would be incredibly close to the amount of time necessary for the vernal equinox to actually move through one zodiacal constellation (25,800 years divided by 12 equals 2,150 years). Now let us return to Kepler and his method for determining great moments in history, using this "lingua franca" of astrology.
Astrology had grouped the 12 zodiacal constellations into four collections called "triplicities!" or Trigons. These triplicities, and their associated "elements" are:
Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius..............Fire
Taurus, Virgo and Capricornus............Earth
Gemini, Libra and Aquarius...............Air
Cancer, Scorpius and Pisces .............Water
Successive great conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn will remain in one triplicity about 200 years (10 successive conjunctions). In other words, it will take 800 years or 40 successive great conjunctions to pass through the four triplicities once. However, in order for all the great conjunctions to return, the cycle must be repeated two more times, for a total of 2400 years.
According to Kepler, great worldly events thus
took place in
this manner every 800 years when great conjunctions entered a Fiery
Triplicity.
4000 BC Adam Creato mundi
3200 Enoch Latrocinia, urbes, artes, tyrannis
2400 Noah Diluvium
1600 Moses Exitus es Aegypto, Lex
800 Isaiah Aera, Graecorum, Babyloniorum, Romanorum
0 Christ Monarchia Romana Reformatio orbis
800 AD Carolus Magnus Imperium Occidentis et Saracenorum
1600 Rudolfus II Vita, facta et vota nostra qui haec disserimus
Using this bookkeeping method, it is possible to predict when and where succeeding great conjunctions will occur. In following this line of reasoning, it becomes imperative to see the great conjunctions as they occurred during the centuries preceding the Christian Era. (Refer back to Figure 1.) The diagram contains plots of successive great conjunctions from 185 B.C. to 114 A.D.
Assuming that the constellation of Pisces covers some 45 degrees of sky, seven great conjunctions took place in Pisces (including the triple conjunctions of 7 B.C.) in this time. Each succeeding conjunction occurred closer and closer to the vernal equinox.
This fact, combined with a knowledge that the vernal equinox itself was moving from Aries into Pisces during this era symbolically marking the end of a "World-Age" may thus be the key to understanding the nature of the Star of Bethlehem. It is certainly the theory favored by von Dechend and de Santillana.
The three great conjunctions of 7 B.C. are unusual in that "triples" are rare and do not happen in a predictable pattern. There was however a "triple" conjunction in 146 B.C., so it was probably known that triple conjuctions do occur. I suspect, as do the authors of Hamlet's Mill, that there are many mythological stories connected with conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter, because of their association with "measures of creation and of time!" We will likely never know them all.
REFERENCE W0RKS C0NSULTED
Allen, Richard Hinckley, Star Names, Dover Publications, Inc.,
1963. (First edition, G. E. Stechert, Publisher, 1899.)
Asimov, Isaac, "The Star in the East," December, 1974, Fantasy
& Science Fiction, Volume 47, #6, whole #283, Mercury Press, Pub.
Bunton, George W., The Star of Bethlehem, Bernice P. Bishop, Museum
Press, Pub., 1977.
Hughes, David, The Star of Bethlehem, Walker & Co. , 1979.
Martin, E. L., New Star 0ver Bethlehem, FBR Publications, 1980.
Marshal, Roy K., Stars of Bethelehem in the Planetarium, Zeiss
Publications, 1967. (1 Planetarium International).
Reiche, Harold A. T., "The Language of Archaic Astronomy: A Clue
to the Atlantis Myth?." Technology Reveiw, December 1977.
(And private communications, 1981.)
de Santillana, Georgio, and von Dechend, Hertha, Hamet's Mill:
An Essay 0n Myth and the Frame of Time, David R. Godine Pub 1977.
Sinnott, Robert W., "Thoughts on the Star of Bethlehem," Sky
and Telescope, December 1968.
Tuckerman, Bryant, Planetary, Lunar and Solar Positions, Volumes
I and II, Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1961.
I am writing a "book" about the Magi's Star
Details about the book will be posted here shortly. Thanks!
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