In several articles I have mentioned that the story of the Bible is very similar to other stories throughout the ages. Some say they copied and that it retold the story with other names. Often it is said to discredit the Bible or strip it of its value. We find similar stories in India, Iran, Egypt and many other. Even if at first sight it doesn’t look like the same story, many of the sayings are the same. Some will simply use it to say that their religion is the true one. But by doing so they throw away the baby with the bathwater, in other words they fail to see the reason behind those similarities. I will use the Bible, not because it is the only one of importance but it will not confuse too much as when using parts of all of them. While I will refer to some it will only be with the intent to show that they all in a way talk about the same.

Let’s start with the word Mazzaroth.
The word Mazzaroth is the Hebrew word for zodiac. But before I continue please do not make the mistake that astrology as you know it today is what I am referring to, as today’s astrology is merely a rudiment of the ancient science. And G-d said: let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as Signs to mark sacred times and days and years…. Genesis 1:14. And: he is the maker of the bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted Job 9:9-10.
Now signs, what are signs? A sign to point something out, a gesture to convey information. Now you are familiar with the 12 zodiac signs although they also used other names for the signs to which I will get back later, each sign is 30 degrees and they are each divided by 3 of 10 degrees, making them 36 in total, and there is another division of 28.

First the 28; they are called mansions of the moon, the moon makes its revolutions around the earth in 28 days. Two and a third of these sections or mansions are embraced in each sign of the solar zodiac and each is marked with its own name and smaller group of stars.

These 3 of 10 degrees are called Decans, I will name them for you here:

Gemini:
• Lepus, the hare or sometimes called the serpent, the mad enemy under Orion’s feet.
• Canus major, the great dog, the prince coming.
• Canus minor, Procyon, the second dog following after Sirius and Orion.

Cancer:
• Ursa minor, anciently the lesser sheepfold, close to and including the pole.
• Ursa major, anciently the greater sheepfold, in connection with Uranus, the guardian and keeper of the flock.
• Argo, the ship, the company of travellers under the bright corpus, their prince, the Argonauts returned with the golden fleece.

Leo:
• Hydra, the fleeing serpent, trodden under foot by the crab and lion.
• Crater, the cup of bowl of wrath on the serpent.
• Corvus, the raven or crow, the bird of doom, tearing the serpent.

Virgo:
• Coma, the infant, the branch, the desired one.
• Centaurus, a centaur, with dart piercing a victim.
• Bootes, or Arcturus, the great shepherd and harvester, holding a rod and sickle, and walking forth before his flocks (commonly called bears).

Libra:
• The cross, over which centaur is advancing, called the southern cross.
• Victim of centaur, slain, pierced to death.
• The crown, which the serpent aims to take, called the northern crown.

Scorpio:
• The serpent, struggling with Ophiuchus.
• Ophiuchus, wrestling with the serpent stung in one heel by the scorpion, and crushing it with the other.
• Hercules, wounded in his heel, the other foot over the dragons head, holding in one hand the golden apples and the three headed dog of hell, and in the other the uplifted club.

Sagittarius:
• Lyra, an eagle holding the lyre, as in triumphant gladness.
• Are, the altar, with consuming fires, burning downward.
• Draco, the dragon, the old serpent winding himself about the pole in horrid links and contortions.

Capricornus:
• Sagilla, the arrow or wounding dart sent forth, the naked shaft of death.
• Aquila, the eagle Pierec and falling.
• Delphinus, the dolphin, springing up, raised out of the sea.

Aquarius:
• The southern fish, drinking in the stream.
• Pegasus, a white horse, winged and speeding, as with good tidings.
• Cygnus, the swan on the wing, going and returning, bearing the sign of the cross.

Pisces:
• The band, holding up the fishes, and held by the lamb, its doubled end fast to the neck of Cetus, the Sea monster.
• Cephens, a crowned king, holding a band and sceptre, with his foot planted on the polestar as the great victor and lord.
• Andromeda, a woman in chains, and threatened by the serpents of Medusa’s head.

Aries:
• Cassiopeia, the woman enthroned.
• Cetus, the sea monster, closely and strongly bound by the lamb.
• Perseus, an armed and mighty man with winged feet, who is carrying away in triumph the cut off head of a monster full of writhing serpents, and holding aloft a great sword in his right hand.

Taurus:
• Orion, a glorious prince, with a sword girded on his side, and his foot on the head of the hare or serpent.
• Eridanus, the tortuous river, accounted as belonging to Orion.
• Auriga, the wagoner, rather the shepherd, carrying a she goat and two little goats on his left arm, and holding cords or bands in his right hand.

Now anyone who has been paying attention will start to realise, apart from these, there are the wanderers, or travellers, which the old idolaters glorified as the 7 great gods, the 7 planets, the sun and moon included. Then we have the serpent that bites its own tail that makes up the circle, where the crab and lion press down its snaky head, referring to Hydra just as Leviathan in Job 41-1 refers to Cetus the sea monster, this is not to say that this is the snake mentioned curled around the tree in Adams story.

So we have 12 zodiac signs, 28 moon days, the 7 planetary days, 36 decans and 48 signs in the heavens. And in the great circle lies the garden and its tree’s. And it must become clear that the story is written around them. But as said, present day astrology is a rudiment, a primitive representation that lacks the precise measure. While I will continue to show more, do not take it lightly. You all know the moon has not only influence on the tides, it also influences the menstruation period of women, and so do all planets have their influence both on men/women as on location/countries. So in other words the moment you die and are born are written in the stars, including the basis for that which needs to be experienced in order to overcome and grow. So on top of all your experiences and influences it has on you, it is also guided from outside, as well as you influencing them. You sort of write on theirs as well, they are a little like Ascara, the scribe that keeps record. The wheels within wheels. As above so below and vice versa.

We know that writing both letters and numbers are old and that they all had the same order, abc and ended with stu. Nobody ever wondered why they all have the same order and why vowels are so irregularly distributed among the consonants? There is evidence that the 7 planets and the zodiac date back, as far as records show, at least to the year 3447 before Christ. If we refer the ancient 25 letters to the zodiac, placing the first two letters at Gemini as the first sign and take the 7 vowels in their places as representing the 7 planets with A for the Moon, E for Venus, the two additional sounds of E for the Sun and Mercury, I for Mars, O for Jupiter and U for Saturn, as various of the ancients say, the result is that we find the Moon in the first half of Gemini, Venus in the first half of Leo, the Sun in the latter half of Virgo, Mercury in the first half of Libra, Mars in the latter half of Scorpio, Jupiter in the latter half of Aquarius and Saturn in the first half of Gemini. Which is an exact notation of the actual condition of the heavens at a ascertainable date which can occur but once in many thousands of years, and that date is the 7th day of September 3447 before Christ.

Now let’s start with Virgo, the birth, the virgin Mary, Astraea and Athena of the Greek story, Krishna, the divine incarnation of the Hindu mythology, was born of a virgin, 100 years before Christ. In Gaul they found an altar with the inscription “to the virgin who is to bring forth”. And when one looks at the Dendera stone one can see a Decan of Virgo, a woman holding an infant. Now the first Decan in Virgo is coma which in Hebrew and oriental dialects means the desired, the longed for. The very word which Haggai uses where he speaks of Christ as the desire of all nations. The ancient Egyptians called it Shes-nu, the desired son.

Leaving this behind for a moment and returning to house and temple. House in Hebrew has a number value of 412 and temple has a value of 444, the difference is 32, the value of the heart. The house is your physical body, the temple your spiritual one, only to be entered by the purified heart.

Just to bring you back to seeing that there are layers of wisdom written in the one and the same text. So not just letter but number too.

You hear many of those doom thinkers nowadays, the end of the world etc. and it often is taken from the New Testament. There are several different translations, some say end of time, others end of days or even end of the world. The truth is the actual word in Greek is aeon which when correctly translated means Age and if we look at the zodiac and its 12 signs or houses the Eon is equal to the 2160 years which is called an age.

Now you will all have heard about the dead sea scrolls that were discovered in the Judean desert in 1947 by a Bedouin Arab in the caves near an archaeology site near Kirbet Qumran which contain proof that there is a link between these ancient scrolls, first century Judaism, the early Christian church and the ancient practise of astrology. Many scholars and churchmen alike are having problems with reconciling, a discredited occult practise like astrology in modern churches. The scrolls of astrological horoscopes were found in cave 4, near the ruins of the Essene community in Qumran, these horoscopes were chosen to be carefully saved for future generations. This science of astrology was practised and believed in by the devotees of the Essene sect, and also practised by the early church of the New Testament. The fabled three Kings were astrologers, who knew the star of David. They also used the same lunar calendar that is used until today by the Jews for determining the true Jewish holy-days together with their solar calendar. Two documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, from cave 4, one in Hebrew, the other in Aramaic, both dating probably to the end of the first century B.C., contain fragments of ‘horoscopes’, or more precisely, astrological physiognomies claiming a correspondence between a person’s features and destiny and the configuration of the stars at the time of his birth. The text runs from left to right instead of the normal right to left and uses, in addition to the current Hebrew ‘square’ alphabet, letters borrowed from the archaic Hebrew (or Phoenician) and Greek scripts. The spiritual qualities of three individuals described there are reflected in their share of Light and Darkness. The first man is very wicked: eight parts of Darkness to a single part of Light. The second man is largely good: six parts of Light against three parts of Darkness. The last is almost perfect: eight portions of Light and only one of Darkness. As far as physical characteristics are concerned, shortness, fatness, and irregularity of the features are associated with wickedness, and their opposites reflect virtue. In the astrological terminology of the document, the “second Column” doubtless means the “second House” and a birthday “in the foot of the Bull” should probably be interpreted as the presence at that time of the sun in the lower part of the constellation Taurus. The Aramaic horoscope is that of the final Prince of the Congregation, or Royal Messiah.

In Gen. 7:12; 8:6, 10a, 12a, the total of 54 days (40 plus 7 plus 7) passed from the time that the Flood began until Noah left the ark. In Gen. 7:11; 8:13a, 14-16a, however, the period was the equivalent of a solar year.

As you begin to delve deeper into the subject of how the ancient wisdom encoded in the myths applies to your own life, in ways that are at once both practical and profound, you begin to see that this entire metaphorical system in which the infinite heavenly realm of the stars becomes a visible representation of the Invisible Realm of “pure potentiality” (the realm of the gods) points you towards an awareness that this universe or cosmos in which you find yourself is intertwined and interpenetrated at every point by that Infinite and Invisible Realm . . . and that you must therefore have an invisible and infinite component as well.

Indeed, it would be a grievous omission if you were to examine all these myths from around the world, seeing all of their incredible connections to the stars and all of their astonishing parallels with one another, and fail to perceive that one of the central themes running through the ancient wisdom imparted to cultures on every inhabited continent and island of our globe involves the integration of our ordinary, uncontroversial, mortal and physical selves with an invisible, infinite, immortal and spiritual nature, a nature which might be called the “higher self” (and which in some cultures is explicitly given a name which means exactly that).

While the concept of the higher self has now been talked about enough in some circles to risk becoming cliché, especially if it is not explained or understood in a way that enables you to actually apply its powerful meaning to your own life, the ancient myths provide you with a plethora of illustrations and metaphors that can enable you to grasp the teaching at a very deep and practical level.

Any student of myth who has examined a wide range of sacred stories from many cultures will soon realize that there is a “superabundance” of myths involving “twinning” – tales in which actual twins, or very close and intimate pairs who may not have been born twins but who function very much like twins, feature prominently or play a central role. The list of such twins in myth is almost endless, and would include the following (as well as many more): Gilgamesh and Enkidu in ancient Mesopotamia, Jacob and Esau in the Hebrew scriptures, the Ashvins in the ancient Vedas, Castor and Polydeuces in ancient Greece, Achilles and Patroclus in the Iliad, Jesus and Thomas Didymus in the New Testament, Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the Popol Vuh of the Maya, Taiwo and Kehinde of the Yoruba, Romulus and Remus of ancient Rome, Amphion and Zethus of the ancient cult of Thebes, David and Jonathan in the Hebrew scriptures. Very frequently, one of the two twins will be divine (or at least semi-divine) and the other will be mortal. Sometimes, one will be described as having a divine parent, while the other will have two mortal parents. For example, the hero Heracles (or Hercules) is a son of a divine father, Zeus, and a mortal mother, Alcmene (or Alcmena). Heracles in ancient myth also has a twin-brother, Iphicles, who is not semi-divine, being the son of a mortal father, Amplitron (who is the foster father of Heracles as well), and Alcmene. Similarly, Kastor and Polydeuces (or Castor and Pollux, to use the Latin form), are described in some versions of the myth as being mortal (Castor) and immortal (Polydeuces). This is because, like Heracles and Iphicles, Polydeuces is the son of the divine Zeus and the beautiful mortal woman Leda, while Castor is the son of Leda and her mortal husband Tyndareus, king of Sparta. Note that Leda is famously seduced by the god when Zeus takes on the form of a swan and the constellation Cygnus is located immediately adjacent to the constellation Hercules, who plays the role of Zeus in most of the Greek myths. Cygnus is a constellation which appears to be flying “downwards” in the Milky Way, towards Sagittarius and Scorpio. Leda corresponds to Sagittarius in the story of Leda and the Swan. In the most famous part of the myths of Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces), the mortal brother, Castor, is slain in a battle, and Polydeuces appeals to Zeus to allow Polydeuces to share some of his own divine nature with Castor, in order to save him.

Here is how the ancient poet Pindar (c. 517 BC – c. 437 BC) describes the arrangement, from the tenth Nemean Ode: Swiftly Polydeuces the son of Tyndareus went back to his mighty brother, and found him not yet dead, but shuddering with gasps of breath. Shedding warm tears amid groans, he spoke aloud: “Father, son of Cronus, what release will there be from sorrows? Order me to die too, along with him, lord. A man’s honour is gone when he is deprived of friends; but few mortals are trustworthy in times of toil to share the hardship.” So he spoke. And Zeus came face to face with him, and said these words: “You are my son. But Castor was begotten after your conception by the hero, your mother’s husband, who came to her and sowed his mortal seed. But nevertheless I grant you your choice in this. If you wish to escape death and hated old age, and to dwell in Olympus yourself with me and with Athena and Ares of the dark spear, you can have this lot. But if you strive to save your brother, and intend to share everything equally with him, then you may breathe for half the time below the earth, and for half the time in the golden homes of heaven. When Zeus had spoken thus, Polydeuces did not have a second thought. He opened the eye, and then released the voice of the bronze-clad warrior, Castor.

Now pay close attention: the divine twin who rescues the mortal twin, sharing his immortality with his mortal counterpart. This pattern is given to you as an illustration of the reality of your condition while passing through this incarnate life. You are encased in a mortal form, but you have access to a “divine twin” who is ready to lift you up and allow you to share in that same divine nature. In fact, in the story of Castor and Polydeuces, Castor also becomes a divine figure and the Twins of Gemini are of course visible in the night sky in the zodiac constellation whose two brightest stars bear the names of Castor (the dimmer of the two) and Pollux (the brighter). These sacred stories tell you that the two natures are dramatized in the myths as two distinct individuals, but that in fact the truth being conveyed is that they correspond to the two natures inherent in one person the two natures which every single man and woman himself or herself possesses, a “lower self” and a “higher self”, or a “mortal self” and a “divine self”.

This concept is dramatically illustrated by the New Testament writer who calls himself Paul, and who is described in the narrative contained in the book of Acts as having previously been called Saul. As Saul he was antagonistic to Jesus, but as Paul he was integrated with and empowered by the “Christ within”. His previous alienation from his divine nature is dramatized by the encounter in which Jesus appears to Saul on the road to Damascus, and asks Saul: “Why do you persecute me?” and Saul is transformed. The two aspects of Paul are almost like two different people, two “twins” named Saul and Paul. But they are really the same individual, and the story is intended to illustrate a profound truth for your understanding. The names of Saul and Paul have undeniable celestial antecedents. The name Saul, of course, clearly recalls the Saul in the Old Testament, who persecuted David, David and Jonathan being another manifestation of “the Gemini or Twins” in the story, but the name also recalls the word sol, which corresponds to the sun. The name Paul, on the other hand, corresponds to both Apollo (the sun god of ancient Greece and Rome) and to Pollux or Polydeuces! And Saul and Paul are one and the same persons, only as the Sun of November is the same as the Sun of May. Only in different characters: Saul before his conversion, being the November sun, in the sign of Sagittarius, where you see the Great Persecutor with his bow and arrow, playing havoc with vegetable nature, stripping the trees of their foliage, riding down to Damascus and on the high road to hell. St. Thomas’s day, which originally falls on the 21st of December, the lowest point of the sun’s declension: and, consequently, the lowest pit of hell. The same Saul being, in Hebrew, the self-same word שאול which is, translated hell [Sheol, which is translated in the King James version sometimes as “hell”, sometimes as “pit”, and sometimes as “grave”. As the Greek name Paul is an abbreviation of the Greek Apollo, under whose protection the month of May is placed in the calendar of Julius Caesar, and of the name of the star Pollux, in which the sun appears in his regenerate and mild and amiable character at that delightful season.

The “lower self” (in this case Saul before his conversion, alienated from and even “persecuting” the divine nature) corresponds to the lowest point on the annual cycle -in which the Sun is cast down into the sign of Sagittarius just as Saul in the book of Acts is cast down and blinded when he is on the Damascus Road- while the “higher self” (the transformed Paul) corresponds to the sign opposite Sagittarius on the zodiac wheel, Gemini, through which the Sun travels in May and June, on its way to the highest point on the annual cycle. As opposite signs on the zodiac are sometimes described in myth as “adversaries” or opponents, and in this case the metaphor is especially apt, as the Sun is “persecuted” in Sagittarius (just prior to the lowest point on its cycle) and “exalted” in Gemini (just prior to the highest), it is expressly stated in Acts 13: 9 that Saul and Paul are one and the same person.

The two together are intended to illuminate something about your own human condition. So the lowest point (where the sun is cast down in Sagittarius, as Saul is cast down on the road) is the great “turning point”, representative of the point in your life at which you begin to become aware of the existence of the higher nature and the importance of the Invisible Realm, the point where the Djed column begins to be re-established after being cast down, the point at which you can begin to elevate and integrate your divine nature once again, after a period of temporary alienation and disassociation.

As pointed out above, the 21st of December was traditionally observed as the day of St. Thomas (and remains on that day in some Anglican churches) indicating an understanding at some level that Thomas in the New Testament is also associated with the “lower self”, dramatized in the well-known episode of “doubting Thomas” in the gospel accounts. This episode of Doubting Thomas, which we do not need to go into now, is the important insight into the significance of the identity of Thomas and comes from the observation that Thomas in the gospel texts is explicitly said to also be called “Didymus”, which means “the Twin” (the prefix di- meaning “two”). From this, you can see that we are dealing with the same theme involved in the other twin stories from the world’s mythologies. The texts that were selected to be part of the New Testament “canon”, however, give no indication as to the identity of the twin of Thomas. The illuminating answer is found in an ancient text which was excluded from the canon by the authorities of the church hierarchy during the fourth century, but which survived in a large sealed jar buried beneath the sands at the base of a cliff near the modern-day village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt (no doubt to escape the persecution of those same church authorities, who outlawed texts that had not been selected), and rediscovered in the twentieth century.

In the Book of Thomas the Contender (a title which itself recalls of the “adversary” or “persecutor”), Jesus addresses Thomas and tells him directly that Thomas is “my twin and true companion”. This understanding, that Thomas is in some way the “twin” of Jesus, opens up an entirely new perspective on the meaning of the confrontation between Thomas and the risen Christ described in the gospel account of John chapter 20.85. In that encounter, Thomas is filled with doubt, and declares to the other disciples: “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe”. But Jesus appears and directs Thomas to “reach hither thy finger” and feel the wounds, and to “reach hither thy hand” and thrust it into his side and Thomas answers with the declaration, “My Lord and my God” (John 20: 25 – 28).

Looking again at the Twins of Gemini and of Saul and Paul, Thomas is specifically said to be a twin, and Jesus himself tells Thomas that Thomas is the twin of Jesus, so you can conclude that you are again dealing with a situation with a divine twin (Jesus) and a mortal twin (Thomas) and that the two are illustrating a truth about your own situation in this incarnate life. Like Saul and Paul, they are not illustrative of two different people, but of the “lower self” (Thomas) who rejects the higher self (Jesus, or the “Christ within”) and who later becomes reconciled with and guided by the higher self, the divine nature.

As illustrated in Star Myths of the Bible, artists down through the centuries have depicted this encounter between Thomas and Jesus in ways that indicate an identification of Thomas with the outline of the constellation Capricorn, the zodiac sign which actually commences at the December 21 juncture between Sagittarius and Capricorn (traditionally Thomas’s day). This fact reinforces what you have already seen about the symbology of the “upper and lower halves” of the zodiac wheel, and the significance of the great “turning point” at the winter solstice where the Djed column begins to be restored, and your connection with the higher nature has its inception.

Now we need to consider the following: there are 30 days that can be converted to one of these units:
-2,592,000 seconds
-43,200 minutes
-720 hours
As in small so in large, but this giant circle/cycle has more divisions, as said the 36 Decans, the 28 moon days, and 364 days, then there is the 260 and in them the eight makes its turns.

Quetzalcoatl Aztec god, now why do I bring this up? Now their calendar was based on 260 days 52 weeks of 13 days. Without going into too much details for reasons I did explain before, according to my calculations Jesus was born the 6th of April 1BC (there was no zero Bc) and the resurrection happened on the third of April. The very same date of birth and resurrection of Quetzalcoatl.

The very same day when the blazing morning star was at its highest peak in the sky. Worlds apart yet the same, like in all these stories, myths etc. So let’s see if you recognise it here, the blazing morning star, Venus, which describes a pentagram in eight years, being at its highest point (of the pentagram) in the heart of the star of David. Daath the 33 on the tree.

Now you have seen that the planets, their size, their durations and distances are based on the structure. Our life’s events (as long as we are fixated and attached to the little I), biology, cosmology all of the material world follows the patterns. There are so many possible combinations or entry points and ways it expresses itself, like the measures, whereby a length can express itself in circumference for instance. Influences you are not aware off because the blockages due to your identification with matter, with the little I, and not realising that spirit entered matter and got stuck on the cycle of life and death and so you lost your conscious connection with spirit, your true nature.

Throughout the ages men have been searching this great treasure, one of which is said to be the elixir of eternal life, the philosopher’s stone that turns everything to gold, the holy grail that for which kings trade their kingdom etc. It is something you always carried around with you but were never able to reach, to find. True it was hidden and the reason should become clear to you by now, you have always looked for it in material ways, even made your happiness depend on it.

The clock is ticking, when do you decide to turn around? Exercise your freewill? Or will you remain a slave of ego? Let it make excuses for you, not today, maybe when I have some time, when I made enough money or whatever excuse it comes up with until you run out of time.

 

24-02-2018
Moshiya van den Broek