Satan, Venus, Christ and the Gas Giants: A Miltonic Parable
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:48 am
Milton's epic tale of the battle between Satan and God in Paradise Lost can also be presented as a metaphor for the physical structure of our solar system. At the moment, 24 February 2009, the planet Venus is visible in the evening sky each night. However, as happens precisely every 1.6 years, Venus is noticeably lower in the sky each night than the night before. Until the end of January Venus was sitting high above the sunset each night, and its rapid fall began in February. This is a result of its faster orbit catching the Earth, leading to conjunction on 28 March.
The connection with Satan, also known as Lucifer, is that the ancients knew Venus in its appearance as the morning star as Lucifer, while they generally called the evening star Venus. The mythical plunge of Lucifer from heaven to hell recounted in Paradise Lost was mirrored in the plunge of the morning and evening stars, occurring in precise rhythm five times every eight years. The five points of the Earth-Venus conjunction form an astronomical pentagram in space, long seen as a magical occult symbol, with error of one hour per 1.6 years.
Venus, also known as Aphrodite, is the goddess of beauty in Greco-Roman mythology. The conceptual link between Lucifer and Aphrodite in mythology arises from their use of deceptively beautiful surface appearance to gull their victims, concealing a vain absence of deeper values and a desire for unmerited control. Both are pretenders to real power, but both lack the substance to sustain their lies. When they gain power the result is disaster, as in Aphrodite's responsibility for the Trojan War and Satan's responsibility for the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden.
What of Christ and the gas giants? Here I beg your indulgence as I explain a cosmic discovery I have made. I have an interest in aligning the mythical narratives of human history with regular cosmic structures of the solar system, on the fancy that planetary cycles which have been in regular stable existence since the dawn of the solar system four billion years ago are somehow hardwired into our genetic makeup.
Two such planetary cycles have an interesting congruence. The first cycle is of the earth, which spins like a wobbling top, with each wobble taking 25764 years, a period known as the Great Year. This causes a phenomenon called the precession of the equinox, and the famous Zodiacal Ages. Due to precession we are now nearing the end of the Age of Pisces and will enter the Age of Aquarius in about 140 years, when the position of the sun at the March equinox will precess into the constellation of Aquarius. Based on the Great Year, each Zodiacal Age takes 2147 years. This is an astronomical function of the relation between the earth and the sun.
The second cycle, which I myself discovered, links the orbits of three of the four gas giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. These three planets come together in conjunction every 178.9 years, at a position one zodiacal sign past their last meeting, with error 0.3 years. Uranus, the fourth gas giant, is the odd man out from its three brothers which together make up most of the system's planetary mass. The interesting thing here is that precisely 12 of these Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune 178.9 year periods equals one terrestrial zodiacal age of 2147 years, so there is a near-precise harmony between the periods of the gas giants and the long term cycle of the earth.
But what of Christ? Here my interpretation becomes more speculative and mythological. For years I have been intrigued by an interpretation of the Bible in terms of the precession of the equinox. The time of Christ, the year 0, the beginning of the Age of Pisces, was in a sense the Alpha and Omega of the Great Year, the end of one cycle after the preceding Age of Aries and the beginning of a new 25764 year astronomical cycle. So there is congruence between the title of Christ as Alpha and Omega and this astronomical observation. More than this, the Age of Pisces is also the Age of Virgo, because there are two equinoxes at spring and autumn in these signs each year. An abundance of images link the Christian epoch to these celestial signs, from the Christian fish to the Virgin Mary, ideas of faith, the parable of the loaves and fishes, judgment day, the tree of life with twelve fruits for the twelve months, and most interestingly, the twelve jewels which are the foundation stones of the holy city of New Jerusalem described in the Apocalypse.
How does all this come together? The moral of this story is that our planet is in harmony with solar system cycles. A small cycle every eight years links Earth and Venus in an image of magical beauty. A much longer slower deeper cycle links Earth with the giant gas planets Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune every 179 years, neatly structuring the Earth's long cycle of precession against the twelve months of the year, in close harmony with the earth's Great Year.
The mythological inference from these astronomical correlations is that we can associate Venus with Satan, and Christ with the gas giants. Venus seeks to dominate by its flashy appearance in the sky, but in reality it cannot compete with the real deep power of the outer planets, except by temporary deception.
These astronomical observations correlate with the relative power of Satan and Christ in Milton's Paradise Lost. Satan's vain arrogance seems to temporarily win the day, but the real enduring power sits with Christ, who is the real representative of ultimate cosmic power and the incarnation on our planet of a deep universal truth.
Robert Tulip
The connection with Satan, also known as Lucifer, is that the ancients knew Venus in its appearance as the morning star as Lucifer, while they generally called the evening star Venus. The mythical plunge of Lucifer from heaven to hell recounted in Paradise Lost was mirrored in the plunge of the morning and evening stars, occurring in precise rhythm five times every eight years. The five points of the Earth-Venus conjunction form an astronomical pentagram in space, long seen as a magical occult symbol, with error of one hour per 1.6 years.
Venus, also known as Aphrodite, is the goddess of beauty in Greco-Roman mythology. The conceptual link between Lucifer and Aphrodite in mythology arises from their use of deceptively beautiful surface appearance to gull their victims, concealing a vain absence of deeper values and a desire for unmerited control. Both are pretenders to real power, but both lack the substance to sustain their lies. When they gain power the result is disaster, as in Aphrodite's responsibility for the Trojan War and Satan's responsibility for the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden.
What of Christ and the gas giants? Here I beg your indulgence as I explain a cosmic discovery I have made. I have an interest in aligning the mythical narratives of human history with regular cosmic structures of the solar system, on the fancy that planetary cycles which have been in regular stable existence since the dawn of the solar system four billion years ago are somehow hardwired into our genetic makeup.
Two such planetary cycles have an interesting congruence. The first cycle is of the earth, which spins like a wobbling top, with each wobble taking 25764 years, a period known as the Great Year. This causes a phenomenon called the precession of the equinox, and the famous Zodiacal Ages. Due to precession we are now nearing the end of the Age of Pisces and will enter the Age of Aquarius in about 140 years, when the position of the sun at the March equinox will precess into the constellation of Aquarius. Based on the Great Year, each Zodiacal Age takes 2147 years. This is an astronomical function of the relation between the earth and the sun.
The second cycle, which I myself discovered, links the orbits of three of the four gas giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. These three planets come together in conjunction every 178.9 years, at a position one zodiacal sign past their last meeting, with error 0.3 years. Uranus, the fourth gas giant, is the odd man out from its three brothers which together make up most of the system's planetary mass. The interesting thing here is that precisely 12 of these Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune 178.9 year periods equals one terrestrial zodiacal age of 2147 years, so there is a near-precise harmony between the periods of the gas giants and the long term cycle of the earth.
But what of Christ? Here my interpretation becomes more speculative and mythological. For years I have been intrigued by an interpretation of the Bible in terms of the precession of the equinox. The time of Christ, the year 0, the beginning of the Age of Pisces, was in a sense the Alpha and Omega of the Great Year, the end of one cycle after the preceding Age of Aries and the beginning of a new 25764 year astronomical cycle. So there is congruence between the title of Christ as Alpha and Omega and this astronomical observation. More than this, the Age of Pisces is also the Age of Virgo, because there are two equinoxes at spring and autumn in these signs each year. An abundance of images link the Christian epoch to these celestial signs, from the Christian fish to the Virgin Mary, ideas of faith, the parable of the loaves and fishes, judgment day, the tree of life with twelve fruits for the twelve months, and most interestingly, the twelve jewels which are the foundation stones of the holy city of New Jerusalem described in the Apocalypse.
How does all this come together? The moral of this story is that our planet is in harmony with solar system cycles. A small cycle every eight years links Earth and Venus in an image of magical beauty. A much longer slower deeper cycle links Earth with the giant gas planets Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune every 179 years, neatly structuring the Earth's long cycle of precession against the twelve months of the year, in close harmony with the earth's Great Year.
The mythological inference from these astronomical correlations is that we can associate Venus with Satan, and Christ with the gas giants. Venus seeks to dominate by its flashy appearance in the sky, but in reality it cannot compete with the real deep power of the outer planets, except by temporary deception.
These astronomical observations correlate with the relative power of Satan and Christ in Milton's Paradise Lost. Satan's vain arrogance seems to temporarily win the day, but the real enduring power sits with Christ, who is the real representative of ultimate cosmic power and the incarnation on our planet of a deep universal truth.
Robert Tulip