Return of the Christ

In the modern, secular west we consider ourselves to be the pinnacle of human evolution and holders of the ultimate intelligence given to us through the scientific method. We view the past as a continuous upward climb of civilization finally peaking in the present day. Yet something is missing, we are being led by two vocal groups who claim to have the answer. Each have seemingly polar opposite views of the world but neither explains the human condition in a satisfactory manner. On one side are the atheists, rational thinkers who say something only exists when it can be observed and tested while in the other camp are literalist Christians who believe that the scriptures are written by God and faith leads to ultimate salvation.

This article will attempt to demonstrate that both these groups are missing the important link that has been hidden for almost two thousand years - Jesus Christ never existed. He was no less a character in a mythic story, the universal story known to all cultures. He exists in all of us and all of us are capable of harnessing the power of Christ within.

The greatest story ever told, the story of Jesus Christ, can be observed in the night sky and through the movements of the sun through the signs of the zodiac as the year progresses. His conception, birth and death is told allegorically through observation of the heavens. From his birth on the winter solstice to the transfiguration on the summer solstice we see the story played out in front of our eyes. What this says is that underlying Christian teachings glows a greater, more powerful esoteric knowledge. It demonstrates the ancients possessed a thorough understanding of the earth and the universe found in advanced astronomy told through myth. More importantly they used these myths to convey the deepest knowledge - knowledge of who we ultimately are.

If we look comparatively at ancient religions we find this same story told over and over in many forms but with different gods instead of the familiar Jesus. Egypt had Horus, Greece had Dionysis, Persia had Mithras, India had Krishna, and the list goes on covering dozens of regions with their own gods. What is remarkable though is that each story has a uncanny parallel with the New Testament with only subtle differences in each. How can the story of Horus have so many similarities with the story of Jesus yet be thousands of years older? The answer is that Christianity is far from a original concept but an amalgam of godman epics corrupted by the leaders of a huge empire for political reasons and control. By giving one man in all of human history the exclusive rights to the godforce, the early roman church found the ultimate control mechanism becoming the conduit to heaven for the dulled masses. We must look through an obscured looking glass to see the ultimate truth.

Through the use of symbols, etymology, astronomical information, political history and comparative religion I intend to demonstrate the Jesus myth as clearly as possible and show a small part of what the ancients were telling us when this story was originally constructed.

But simply saying that Jesus is the sun would be a serious misrepresentation of the facts on my part. The sun too was a symbol, a symbol of the eternal human soul that rises, reaches it's zenith, eventually sets but then is reborn anew.

By using a free astronomy computer application like Stellarium we can go back to the time of Jesus to observe what was happening in the heavens above as this is where the story is played out. Starting on december 24 at sunset we look directly east and see the three wisemen or the stars of Orion's belt as they follow or align with a star in the east, Sirius, the brightest star in our sky other than the sun. They are led by news of a coming saviour who will light the world. At midnight, when the sign of cancer is directly overhead and virgo is in the east, Jesus is born, three days after the winter solstice as the sun reaches it's lowest point in the sky. Because of the curved ecliptic the sun appears to stop moving or die for those three days before it can be observed to move again. As dawn breaks we see the first glimpses of the nearly born sun. His virgin mother or the sign of virgo lies in the temple, directly above on the highest point of the ecliptic at dawn. On the western horizon lies the Praesepe (Latin for "manger") cluster of stars in the breast of cancer attended by two stars known as the asses. On the eastern horizon lies Capricorn; the fish swimming in the lowest depths crossed with the goat who is capable of ascending the highest mountain. The scapegoat has died for our sins and is born anew. Foreshadowing his future, the cross rises in the northeast only to be eventually overpowered by the sun's brilliance as day breaks. There is now an observable ascending movement in the sun's place in the sky.

The continuing saga of Jesus is told through the zodiac or mazzaroth, the twelve constellations on the plane of the ecliptic that the sun moves through during the year. Each constellation represents one lunar cycle or month. It is here where we get the idea of twelve disciples.

Starting in Capricorn we see jesus as a baby grow into a child of twelve. At midday we see him in the temple most high talking with the wise men and astonishing them with his knowledge. Like in ancient egyptian society, a child until twelve and a man at thirty.

Aquarius is the next sign in our journey at 30 degrees as each sign or house occupies a 30 degree section of the three hundred and sixty degree circle in the zodiac. Aquarius represents John the Baptist baptizing Jesus with water as he passes by. The John story is particularly well played out in the stars as we will later see.

Once Jesus leaves Aquarius and moves in Pisces we see John put in prison as he disappears below the horizon and Jesus goes onto Galilee. Galilee literally means circuit, a closed loop. The sign of Pisces shows the feeding of the five thousand with two fishes and five loaves of bread. Pisces is five houses away from Virgo which is associated with the harvest of grain and Pisces itself provides the fishes. This sign is very important as a sign of Christ due to it's alignment in the precessional cycle at the spring equinox. The next two thousand years are under the sign of the fish as the lamb of aries is sacrificed just as the old age had been.

It is at his point we reach Easter celebrations when sun rises perfectly aligned with the eastern cardinal point. He crosses the equator so that night and day are exactly balanced. Jesus is now identified as the lamb of God or the good shepherd. This is the pagan festival of rebirth as the fertile earth becomes green with plant life and lambs are born onto the world. Mary lies on her back on the western horizon accepting the light of God as this is time of the conception of Jesus, nine months before his birth near the solstice.

The sun enters the constellation of Taurus after Aries and shows the increasing power of the charging bull climbing the ecliptic or ploughing the field. We also find an important star cluster called the Pleiades here. It's seven main stars are visible with the naked eye and it may correspond to the seven disciples Jesus talks with at this time.

As the story progresses we enter into Gemini represented as the two apostle brothers, James and John. The days of summer are upon us and at the point when the sun moves out of Gemini into Cancer, we see the summer solstice. This is his transfiguration on the mount when his power is at it's peak. The three apostles accompanying Jesus on the highest point of the ecliptic are the sign of Cancer and the twins of Gemini.

This day once was celebrated as the rebirth of John the baptist or Aquarius as we see him emerge from prison only to be decapitated by the eastern horizon. But as the day goes on he rises to be born again. His virgin mother setting on the western horizon now represents the young maiden presenting the severed head.

As we enter Cancer, the sun appears between the two asses again but this time he takes his priestly role and rides them into Jerusalem. Outstretched claws become the asses swinging tails. The crab carrying it's house on it's back, seems to walk sideways as the longest day has passed and the sun reverses it's motion knowing it's eventual fate on the cross.

The days of summer are at their hottest now and the sun enters the house of Leo the lion. At the lion's heart, lying almost exactly on the ecliptic is the regent or king star Regulus. Jesus now takes on his kingly role as he crosses it. Herod as the personification of darkness is alarmed at the presence of the man who claims to be the messiah.

It is now the time of the harvest and Virgo arises after Leo on the horizon. This is time celebrated by the church as the birth of the virgin. In her hand she holds a bushel of grain giving us the name Bethlehem which literally translates as the "house of bread." Jesus enters Bethany as the sun passes Virgo's alpha star Spica - "head of wheat." Virgo also fulfills her role as the apostle Mary Magdeline and the mother of John the baptist at his conception. At the end of the month of harvest we see the last supper where the blood and body of christ are produced by the sun's energy and shared among the twelve.

The cool months of autumn begin as we see the constellation of Libra the scales. The harvest has been sold and winter approaches so the merchants are thrown out of the temple by the sun. It is said that he curses and withers the fig tree at this point as the fall is happening. Jesus' fate is being weighed by those in authority.

Scorpio is represented by Judas Iscariot who gives Jesus the kiss of death or stings him as the scorpion stings the passing sun. Judas' reward is thirty pieces of silver or the thirty day lunar cycle. As the sun leaves Scorpio Judas gives the silver back and ends his life.

Finally Jesus is handed over to the Romans when the sun rises in Sagittarius. This constellation shows the might of the Roman empire as the character Pontius Pilate. Pontius means "from the sea" as the sea of the center of the galaxy shines brightly behind him. We identify him with a centaur holding a bow and arrow or as a man on a horse holding a spear. This is the spear that eventually pierces Jesus as he is crucified. When he leaves Sagittarius, Pontius washes his hands of the sun and leaves him to his fate.

It is upon the cross where Jesus is placed between Sagittarius and Capricorn at the solstice when the sun reaches it's minimum point of 23.5 degrees. He dies on that day only to be placed in a cave and reborn three days later on the 25th. The crucifixion though is celebrated at Easter since this is the time of his conception and according to the church, true birth. Jesus dies each year at the same time and is reborn in a cave.

The story of Jesus Christ is not a sad one however because it is cyclical. Just as the body dies the spirit lives on and is born again. Herod or darkness tries to prevent his rising but fails every time.

Along the way the Roman church turned the word into flesh making Jesus a real man. Representing the sun as a horribly tortured man on a cross strengthened the idea of this one man being the "Son" of God instead of the "sun" of God. Even at the crucifixion we see many signs of the solar myth. On the equinox Jesus carries the cross to twelve stations in the sky as the day progresses hourly. He is forced to wear a crown of thorns representing the rays of the sun. Even the sadistic image of the beard of Jesus is ripped off during torture is a metaphor for the rays of the sun being torn away and relates to the story of Samson which is another retelling of the solar myth.

Constantine was the Roman leader who made Christianity the favored state religion throughout the empire early in the forth century. He knew the diverse people of his far flung empire with their many gods would only come under control of Rome when they were united under the cross. Although he chose Jesus as Rome's official deity he was a worshipper of Sol Invictus or "the unconquered sun" up until his deathbed baptism to Christianity. Constantine presided over the council of Nicea which first formed church doctrine and structure. It is here that the church took on it's formal role as the centre of spiritual life and it's holy day became Sunday.

Over the next few hundred years there was a intentional destruction of accumulated knowledge culminating in the burning of the Library at Alexandria. The gospels were now written in latin and only the church authorities were allowed to read or write the language. The dark ages were introduced through the universal scourging of any book or person that disagreed with the word of the official roman church. One group that suffered greatly were the Gnostics. This loose association of the earliest Christian movements were now treated as heretics and they were stamped out under the imperial boot.

The symbol most often associated with Gnosticism is the "sun cross" which is simply a circle with a cross at the center and was known since the earliest times. This circle representing the sun was replaced by a dying and crucified Jesus as the Romans took central control of spirituality. While the Gnostics used myth to convey gnosis (divine inner knowledge,) the ruling church favored blind faith and obedience in an external God. The mythic was replaced by the flesh of the one individual and these stories are made then history.

Throughout the past two thousand years followers of Gnosticism have been persecuted as we see in the the early centuries and later with the Cathars. Their books have been mostly burned but thanks to discoveries like Nag Hamadi some of these texts have been recovered and translated. The only contemporary true Gnostic community surviving uninterrupted from ancient times are the Mandeans who live in Iraq and due to the American invasion are being persecuted more than ever.

What do these people believe that so inflames those who enforce official doctrine? They believe in a mythic Christ. In the earlier Egyptian and Greek mystery schools initiates were taught this knowledge and instructed on how to reach gnosis or enlightenment. They were adept at science and philosophy and were educated enough to know that the official doctrine was a corruption of the divine word. Since Jesus was so similar to other pagan gods his adoption by the newly uneducated masses was guaranteed. Mithras' main cave temple in Rome was changed to a Christian temple and became the site of St. Peter's. Temples dedicated to Isis became temples to Mary and festivals dedicated to Sol Invictus were now festivals to Jesus. Non-sanctioned philosophy and science was outlawed and under strict scrutiny by those claiming to have a priestly lineage to the mythic apostles.

Outside of the gospels there is little evidence of a mortal man named Jesus. Historian Josephus who wrote long volumes on many subjects, wrote a few short paragraphs on Jesus and this is claimed by some as proof of his existence. It has been established that this material is inaccurate due to later additions though. The gnostic Paul wrote briefly about Jesus in Acts but he speaks of him as the Christ and not the mortal man. History was chronicled quite well at the dawning of the millennium so God descending to earth in mortal form should have some contemporary reporting. It does not. The New Testament was written by people who were not present to witness the acts of an earthly Jesus.

In a recent case thrown out of Italian court, this subject was openly discussed as one Mr. Luigi Cascioli brought a lawsuit upon his community priest, Father Enrico Righi. As an atheist Mr Cascioli charged the Catholic Church with character misrepresentation and asked them to prove that Jesus existed. He said the church has no evidence at all and that history was based on a lie but of course the judge would not listen. The case that garnered world attention was dismissed and only later was Father Righi heard to remark, "If Cascioli does not see the sun in the sky at midday, he cannot sue me because I see it and he does not." The truth is both parties are right, Christ does exist but not as one man from history. He exists in everyone and is represented in metaphor by the sun descending into matter. The case is now before the European Court.

It is amazing to think about how much ancient astrotheology has influenced our modern culture. We see Horus, ancient Egypt's sun god, making the twelves steps across the daytime sky in the form of the twelve hours finally setting on the western horizon. Notice the similarity between the words "Horus", "hours" and "horizon." The same similarity applies to "sunset" and Horus' enemy, "Set." I wonder if George Lucas has sun worship in mind when he names his hero, Luke Skywalker? We still see remnants of the ancient mystery schools present in modern Freemasonry. Freemasons rely heavily on symbol and ritual to convey their understanding as a modern incarnation of the classic initiatory solar cult.

It is only in this modern age where Man has generated new myths, produced his own light and blotted out the night sky that we forget the sun gives it's life so that we may live. We are now living out of sync with the natural world and are teetering on the brink of environmental catastrophe because of it. Many say we are approaching the last days - they are right.

The earth has three main motions - it's twenty-four rotation, it's three hundred and sixty-five day revolution around the sun, and a motion known as precession. This slow backwards wobble is known as the great year and causes the precession of the equinoxes. Slowly over twenty six thousand years the sun is seen to regress through the signs of the zodiac and align with a certain constellation at the spring equinox. Knowing about precession invalidates modern astrology as the signs have moved almost a full house since the system was divised. Two thousand years ago it aligned with Pieces identifying Christianity with the symbol of the fish. Before that it landed on Aries giving the Hebrews the Ram symbolism. Using this astrological alignment ancient man created temples to replicate heaven on earth and using this system a reliable date can be put on monuments.

Since an age lasts roughly two thousand one hundred and sixty years we are now in the dawning of the new age of Aquarius. The last days of Pieces are upon us. Asked by his disciples how will they recognize him at the end of the age, Jesus says, "Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in."

With technological innovation doubling every eighteen months and a worldwide internet transferring an ever-increasing amount of knowledge to anyone who seeks it, this is the age of man. Freedom of the individual is the new mantra of the masses since twentieth century ideology that served "the greater good" committed some of the worst crimes imaginable. Much like the Gnostics did before us though, we must grow wise to begin to understand our inner humanity before civilization can rise to it's destined utopia.

In the spring of 2012 we will see a rare conjunction. On June 5th Venus will cross the sun as part of it's second stage of a 243 year cycle. Venus is commonly know as the morningstar due to it's role in the heavens of announcing the dawn. The third brightest object in the sky has an orbit perfectly timed with our own. In Latin it was known as Lucifer, the light bearer. The name "Lucifer" later became associated with Satan perhaps due to the planet's apparent banishment from heaven as it's inferior orbit makes it only appear close to the sun and only visible at sunrise or sunset. It is the morningstar who will usher in a new dawning of the great year.

On December 21st, 2012, the sun will align with the center of our galaxy on the solstice for the first time in twenty six thousand years. The glowing mass of stars takes on the appearance of a giant snake eating it's own tail with the sun about to be swallowed. It is here we get the half black, half white ouroboros symbol representing the passage of time. This great solar cross is considered by some to be the metaphorical return of the Christ.

Don't expect the Christ's return to be heralded by angel's blowing trumpets from heaven though. For many the day will pass unheeded and only for those who look will Christ reveal himself.

Much like the sun will be bathed in the heavenly fire of the galactic center will we be purified as the age of the baptist approaches? The Long War that began in 2001 has potential of spreading to new fronts in the Middle East and more resources and energy will be directed to this murderous cause. Just like the ancient Roman empire eventually fell, Rome's protege America too will fall. Our support of unjust foreign policies will eventually bring the war to our shores and prove to be our undoing. We will reap what we sow.

But there is hope - catastrophe will be avoided. For it is only now with advanced science that we have started to uncover the understanding that the ancients possessed of both the micro and macroscopic worlds. But it will be from the smallest, most unlikeliest of places that the greatest shift will occur - illumination on the individual level. In us lies the same matter that that lies at the heart of the sun and we are one with it just as we are one with every individual on the planet. We each carry the pure potential energy of the rising sun inside us and are capable of becoming the Christ if we choose. Our free will allows us to bend and shape our reality enabling us to transcend the earthly plane. Through self discovery we will learn how to use this power that lies dormant within and become the Christ - the risen sun.

Originally written in 2007. It is presented exactly as it was written at the time - spelling and grammar errors included. Please excuse the amateurish style and over dramatic language. I was a much younger man then.