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"On the Other Hand"
Emmett's Blog and Essays
December 25, 2013
A Christmas Missive
a letter to Bill Biersock, author of "Of Mary There Is Never Enough"

Hello Bill: Yuta and I are thinking of you this Christmas Day, also with our best wishes to Julia over these Holidays. We wish you both (and ourselves) good health in the coming year.

Viewing today's Christmas TV special about Jesus' birth and life, I'm reminded of your book on Mary and I wanted to share some BIG THOTS with you on the subject, as follows:

- A new zodiacal star constellation rises at the spring equinox roughly every 2000 years in a backwards "precession" of astrological signs over a 24,000 year "Great Year" cycle.

- Some say it's the wobble of the earths axis that causes the "north star" position to shift in a circular pattern over this cycle of time along with shifting constellations at the celestial equator (the zodiac among them). A few others say that our "sol" is co-orbiting a bright and dense companion star (I think it might be Sirius) causing the apparent precession.

- The "Star of Bethlehem" may have been a tight triangular conjunction of the three known outer planets of their time, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, in the sign of Pisces. They are slower moving because their orbits lie outside of earth's orbit, lending magnitude to the celestial event. I further conjecture that a committee of "Wise Men" came from the east, likely from Persia, to discover who would be born at the hour and the coordinates that placed the tightest conjunction directly overhead (at the "midheaven").

- The male fire sign of Aries, ruled by Mars, provided the symbols for the 2000 year epoch of Jewish Old Testament and Torah. It was about law, war, obedience, revenge (even into succeeding generations), a mighty and powerful God, the invention of a fiery hell, and it was about shepherds and lamb sacrifice (the ram being the Arian symbol).

- The luxurious Garden of Eden had to be negated and the symbols of female earth sign Taurus ruled by Venus were overturned to make way for Mars. The horned deity became the cast out Devil, love turned to lust and comforts gave way to misery. The Mythras figure in the star constellation above Taurus depicts a man holding a knife who slays the bull (hence the word "myth" and the deep mystery of the bull fight).

- Taurus with its Golden Calf and ruled by the Godess of Love then shifted to martial Aries - always a revolution. The symbols come first, then the ideas, then the words and finally the commands.

- The Age of Pisces began with the virgin birth of Jesus. Astrologers agree that opposite signs are a powerful influence in this cyclic theme, appearing as the rising sign at the fall equinoxes. The female earth sign of Virgo, symbolized by a virgin holding harvested wheat, lies 180 degrees from Pisces and signifies Mary's rise to theological prominence. Such geometrically opposed pairs of zodiacal signs are what I call "similar opposites", forming the dialectical basis of astrology.

- Jesus is born as a male deity but the female influences of watery Pisces and earthy Virgo seem to have directed the course of Christianity toward matriarchy and Mary's deification in mysterious ways.

- So the relatively sudden celestial shift from the "cusp" of 0 degrees of Aries backwards into 29 degrees of Pisces was once again a revolution, the symbolism of which Jesus seemed well aware. Benevolent Jupiter, ruler of Pisces, became the greatest of Olympian Gods, signifying forgiveness rather than revenge, faith instead of obedience, charity over struggle, undeserved rewards not based on merit, death rather than eternal hell, and miracles in utter disregard of man's sciences and technology. Water rituals replaced the fiery lamb sacrifice.

- Now we're on the cusp of another epoch, the Age of Aquarius, and again it's contrary in the most basic ways to the previous Age. Saturn, the opposite polarity of Jupiter, is ruler of Aquarius, a masculine air sign. All the astrological symbols that feed into religions of the world must once again change. The script was written long ago.

- If there's to be a "second coming" of Christ, Saturn as male ruler of Aquarius may well be His new persona. No more Mr. Nice Guy, rather, a judgmental deity who rewards knowledge and merit, not faith, individual rather than collective values, and who fosters scientific accomplishment in the real world (no inner prayerful dialogue here). In other words, the most basic religious precepts, the symbols themselves, will once again be radically reshuffled with all the opposite polarities of successive zodiacal signs revealed - another revolution of human culture.

This is my Christmas missive to you, Bill, as I feel you have the background to give it a thorough appraisal.

I'm sending CCs to my daughter Diana who's also an astrologer in addition to her yoga and meditation classes and activities, and to her Jungian friend Ari Davis whose conversation I greatly enjoyed last night at her Christmas party (despite the wine I remember it all).

All the best over the Holidays, Emmett.

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