Transcript for 12/20/24: ASTRUM W/ DR. SKY

I am sure many people want their Christmas stories to be the Hallmark Card version of history -- it is all they have been exposed to with nativity scenes and spin that certainly makes for a great myth but if you really take the time to biblically comb through the story the entire narrative is a tragedy that again has a happy ending --which leaves the world with a feeling of light and hope.

The advent, nature and role of the Messiah was promised several times in the Old Testament, notably with God’s pledge to Abraham that through his seed, "all the families of the earth would be blessed." . It was a universal promise made for all mankind.

By the time Jesus was born, the ancient Jewish faith was badly in need of the promised messiah. The priests and masses however were already conditioned to look out for another type of messiah.

All prior textual clues regarding the season and sign of the Messiah’s birth were lost during the Babylonian exile.

Knowledge regarding signs heralding the arrival of the Messiah would pass on to the "wise men" of Babylon over whom King Nebuchadnezzar had appointed Daniel as their governor.

This knowledge was later preserved and passed down through generations of Chaldean wise men until an extraordinary celestial alignment-- or the bright Star appeared and moved to the place where Jesus was born. 

There is no mention of there being three kings, only 'Magi' (wise men, magicians or possibly astrologers) who left three gifts. The Greek word, generally translated as 'star' astera/astra/astrum from which we get 'astronomy') can also mean planet, or could refer to other objects such as a comet.

There is no mention that the star is particularly bright, and believe it or not it is even hinted at the fact that the only ones who saw the star were the Magi and it only had significance for them -- they new what it was, and others only saw it as an anomaly in the sky. 

But as I have indicated the Oral history or the event was spread around the world --and so the story while real and historic may have picked up a little mythological traps along the way -- like the attendance of a little drummer boy -- or how the animals were suddenly able to talk about the event amongst themselves.

Christmas has evolves over time and biblical themes become rarer in an era of "Universal Christmas" — one stripped of its biblical connections — the world will yet be reminded of this watershed event through scattered hymns and sketches of the manger scene.

As the Nativity story is retold year by year, all those who hear it are bound to think—however briefly—about the original Star of Bethlehem that led the Magi to the cradle of Christ, but few would then go and look for evidence that the star was certainly an anomaly in the heavens.

Some say it was a confluence of planet alignment. a rogue comet, and a possible winged disc, some thing that in modern times would be called a UFO.

This is what triggers the curiosity about the wonders of God and what exactly happens when the sun goes down early, and we are confronted with the dark.

The answer is always light — Christmas is the time for lights in the sky — as it was a bright and luminous star that led the Magi to the stable where Jesus was born.

So the story goes. It took a while for the wise men to find the boy Jesus but they followed a star or a light that traveled across the heavens, much like a comet or a meteor would.

Interestingly, there’s some evidence that a pair of planetary conjunctions happened around the historically accepted time frame for the birth of Christ. That could potentially explain the Star of Bethlehem.

Or perhaps it was a Merkabah.

The Merkabah was an upward and downward interlocked tetrahedron that appeared as an orb. The Merkabah means light-spirit-body.

It was literally a flying pyramid that was so bright it looked like an orb to the observer on the ground. 

It was an unidentified orb that appeared in the sky above places of great spiritual power. It was a vehicle that carried the righteous or guided the righteous to holy ground.

In the Bible, Ezekiel accessed the three-dimensional Merkabah to ascend to heaven. In the Torah, it is the chariot of fire, some say it was a wheel within a wheel or vortex or pillar of fire.

The Merkabah was known as the sacred shape, the light of the throne of God.

It was known as the divine light vehicle allegedly used by ascended masters to connect with and reach those in tune with the higher realms. “Mer” means Light. “Ka” means Spirit. “Ba” means Body. 

Mer-Ka-Ba means the spirit/body surrounded by counter-rotating fields of light, wheels within wheels, spirals of energy as in DNA, which transports spirit/body from one dimension to another.

Merkabah is in Hebrew, means the Vehicle of Ja -- or God.

A fully activated Merkabah looks just like the structure of a galaxy or a UFO. It can also be seen as a bright star-- a beacon of light in the dark heavens -- perhaps the very vehicle that guided the astrologers from the east to find the Christ Child.

THE mystery of the Star of Bethlehem has long baffled astronomers and laymen alike. It is simply stated in St Matthew's Gospel: "Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem/ Saying, Where is He that is born king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship Him."

Until about 50 years ago, most people did not publicly question the accuracy of this text, for fear of sounding irreligious. But now we can speculate freely about this mysterious star, especially since St Matthew says later that: "Lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was".

This would indicate that the star appeared before the Astrologers and moved ahead to guide them until it stopped over the cave where Jesus was born.

Certainly, we have learned that stars can do some strange things. They can collapse and become invisible. A star can explode and become, for a few weeks, the fourth brightest object in the sky (barring the Sun, the Moon and Venus). Stars can suddenly become much brighter and then fade back to dimness. They can spin around thousands of times per second - becoming clocks so accurate that they will not gain or lose a second in five million years.

But no Star can visibly rush across the heavens and stop over one spot - like a cosmic racing car whose brakes have been slammed on. According to Newton, an object in space can change its course or speed only if "acted on by a force". And according to Einstein, nothing can exceed the speed of light which, if St Matthew is to be believed, the Star of Bethlehem would have had to do.

But it was also reported that the Moon eclipsed Jupiter on the night of April 17, 6bc estimated to be around the time of Jesus birth .

Another idea is that a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn took place. This happens at intervals of about 20 years, and makes a spectacular sight

It could have been a comet that would be an easy explanation.

Comets are utterly unlike other celestial objects. Their vast tails seem to stretch across the sky, as if pointing at some place on the ground.

Many comets did appear around this time. They were believed to herald the births and deaths of princes. One appeared at Caesar's death in 44bc, and another just before Claudius's death in ad54 - although how this comet "knew" that Claudius's wife was planning to poison him must remain a mystery. Halley's Comet appeared in 12bc - somewhat early to be the Star of Bethlehem - and Chinese astronomers recorded one in 5bc, an apparent year after Christ's birth.

But comets, eclipses, conjunctions, a massive stellar brightening . . . they all, as an explanation of the star, suffer from one fatal flaw: Matthew's is the only gospel that mentions its appearance. Mark, Luke and John have nothing to say on the subject.

If any extraordinary object appeared in the skies in 6bc, then surely someone in Arabia or Judaea or elsewhere would have recorded the fact. Rome was full of astrologers who peered at the night sky and drew weird conclusions from presumably accurate data. 

The idea that the Magi saw a nova or supernova explosion was hinted at by 17th century astronomer, Johannes Kepler, and has had many supporters since.

However, there is no Western record of such an event. Chinese records only have one possible mention of a nova or supernova over the potential time for Jesus's birth.

There is also no known supernova remnant, which we would expect to find if there had been a supernova at this time.

No matter how we look at historical star alignments and other anomalies -- we only have Mathew as a witness-- and the wise men who did not show up on the night of Jesus birth but at a time where Jesus was a young adult.

Mathew’s Biblical account does not number the unnamed “wise men”, only naming the three gifts presented as gold, frankincense and myrrh. Also it is written that these wise men arrived when Jesus was older, quite possibly even a toddler. In Mathew, Jesus is “described not as a baby, but a child and residing in a house, not a stable, with only “his mother” present.”

We also view the Nativity in most Christmas or biblical movies as it is happening after the birth of the Christ child and not what allegedly happened before Mary gave birth to him . 

On one hand we hear that Mary was ”great with child” meaning that she was due to give birth and yet had to flee from Nazareth to Bethlehem. That is a 94 mile journey by donkey.

So it would have taken a long amount of time to get there and frankly it would have been hard for a mother ready to give birth to make such a long journey. However, we are fed a bit of mythology every year about Christ’s birth and we continue to spread it. I am sure that people think that the spin on Christmas is as literal as biblical script.

The truth is, it really isn’t and while we put our little barns or stables near the gingerbread houses on the fireplace mantle we pay no mind to the fact that stables, at least the one that Jesus was born in was quite literally a cave.

The Quran states that Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, as does the Bible. It has often been argued that Jesus was either born in a “guest quarters” outside the inn or a cave.

Both the Quran and the Bible say that he was born in quarters outside an inn.  The Gospel of Luke account states that Mary gave birth to Jesus and laid him in a manger “because there was no place for them in the inn,” but does not say exactly where Jesus was born.”

In the 2nd century, the Catholic Saint Justin the Martyr stated that Jesus had been born in a cave outside the town. In ‘Mary and Mariology‘ it says, “The Church of the Nativity inside the town, built by St. Helena, contains the cave-manger site traditionally venerated as the birthplace of Jesus.”

Some people feel guilty about spreading myths about Santa Claus, but every year we spread myths about Jesus’ birth.

Furthermore at Christmas time, angels are everywhere from artwork and songs to ornaments, wrapping paper, and many other cultural artifacts.  

Heavenly messengers figure prominently in the Christmas story. However there is something about angels that you might not know. Angels are mostly seen as religious Icons during the holidays but did you know that angels are one of the only images at Christmas that you will see in pagan and secular celebrations? 

The reason that this is the case is because an angel in history is depicted as a heavenly conduit with the divine, and has also been seen as an agent of reverence or the purveyor of chaos. 

Throughout the world, beliefs about angels cover a wide spectrum, from one extreme, that they are merely thought forms and move about without detection to another extreme where they do have bodies without souls and are merely agents or soldiers that do the will of their master.

The higher angels of course answer to God and the fallen angels answer to the Devil or Satan.

The idea of angels being beautiful with wings is merely an artist’s idea and in most historic and biblical accounts angels have been powerful and their faces have struck fear in mankind. Angels of the past had been described as resembling serpents or animals with large black eyes, with the strength of lions. 

In the ancient Jewish texts angels were constantly spoken of in Garden of Eden as being serpentine, upright walking beings that would sparkle in the sunlight. 

In the familiar Christmas passage from Luke we read: 

"And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were sore afraid." 

Now reading only Luke we see that the shepherds fell to their knees and covered their faces when they saw the angel. The angel told them not to fear for there was great news about a child from god born in Bethlehem. 

In many translations of the biblical account we learn that the angel came down on what is called a flying altar , that is described as a golden bowl. In other translations the angel arrives in red robes and is seen standing on a gold tetrahedron or Merkabah.

The Merkabah is described throughout the bible as a light that burns like fire above the head of the anointed. The Merkabah and the Golden bowl or dome has been described elsewhere as the method of travel for angles and other beings from heaven. 

"Then I looked, and above the dome that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in form resembling a throne."–Book of Ezekiel

We can only assume that the altar that assumes the shape of pyramids and domes is a type of vehicle for the angels.

When it is seen from the side it appears like a jewel. As it rotates, it becomes a Tetrahedron. It was known anciently as the vehicle in which the spirit of God travels. It can be called the "Chariot of Fire" or the "Angels’ Fire."

Again the basic descriptions of Merkabah or vehicles of God move across the sky and position themselves over holy individuals or Holy places. 

The star of Bethlehem not only moved across the sky but it also moved and stopped as if it were piloted by an intelligent being eventually hovering over the house where the child lived. The scripture (if we are to take it literally) is evidence of this.

The light over Bethlehem hung low in the sky. Low enough that the wise men knew exactly which house the Christ child lived in. This would mean that the star, light, altar or craft, positioned itself right above the place of Christs birth.

Within the modern era there have been many views on how angels and Gods have interacted with mankind. It also has created a method by which Pope Francis and others have created or at least have tried to mix science and spirituality through a new cosmology and exotheology.

It is important now to re-envision what we know of angels and how they have somehow lent themselves to being more than religious figures, but figures that veiled though the centuries as heavenly emissaries that share the same attributes as fairies, and even extraterrestrial entities. 

We know that angels have been present from the origin of the universe. They have a special relationship with light, fire, flames, cosmic transportation and photons. It is believed that they taught us math and how to communicate. 

They have been given the charge of inspiring human kind, bearing messages, destroying or creating great cataclysms, protecting and warning us of great disasters and guiding us through our lives. 

In addition to the term angel, they are called emissaries, sons of God, hosts of the Lord, the hosts of heaven and the holy ones. 

They are most certainly a contributor to the extraterrestrial archetype. Their actions and their demeanor can be described as being like aliens or Extra terrestrial biological entities. 

Literally, any entity not of this earth would be considered an extra or ultra terrestrial being -- one that either travels through space or bends time lines in order to appear to humans.

The debate on their appearance remains a mystery and simply is not what the artists of the renaissance have depicted.

It is all a matter of interpretation.

As we enter into a new phase of science and theology, angels are relevant as their characteristics are similar to what we now call aliens or cosmic visitors. Many people believe in angels and extra-terrestrials but the more we know about them the more they seem to mimic each other and so few can define what we are dealing with.

The birth of Jesus was timed at the confluence of various interconnected developments — prophetic, spiritual, theological, cultural, political and even astronomical.

The only problem is that connecting the dots is often met with cynicism and accusations of blasphemy.