Was the Christmas Star a Jupiter-Venus Conjunction?
November 29th, 2009But perhaps no other planetary grouping can be equivalent to that of the two most refulgent planets Venus and Jupiter for the hypothesis that we seek. And if we study the only identified chronicle of the Star literally, as granted in St. Matthew, then what we genuinely require is the appearance of not just one, but two “stars.” The first appearance would have been experienced well in advance of the Magis reaching in Bethlehem, and the other at the remainder of their long journey.
In Hellenistic star divination, Jupiter was the king planet and Regulus (in the constellation Leo) was the male monarch star. As they moved around from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the star “went before” the magi and then “stood over” the position where Jesus was. In astrological versions, these phrases are supposed to refer to inverse motion and to placing, i.e., Jupiter appeared to reverse course for a time, then ended, and in the end resumed its normal advance. In 3 and 2 BC, there was a series of seven concurrences, including three between Jupiter and Regulus and a strikingly snug conjunction between Jupiter and Venus close Regulus on June 17, 2 BC. “The coalition of two planets would have been a great and awe-inspiring event” - according to some astronomers.
Others have offered a connectedness between a double eclipse of Jupiter by the moon in 6 BC in Aries and the Star of Bethlehem, particularly the second occultation on April 17. This issue was quite close to the sun and would have been challenging to watch, even with a small telescope, which had not yet been manufactured. Occultations of planets by the moon are quite average, but an astrologer to Roman Emperor Constantine wrote that an eclipse of Jupiter in Aries was a signaling of the birth of a divine king.
“When the princely star of Zeus, the planet Jupiter, was in the east this was the most robust time to confer kingships. Moreover, the Sun was in Aries where it is elevated. And the Moon was in very close co-occurrence with Jupiter in Aries.”
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