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By Root 1188 0

to their occupation-the truth is that the Church has been a longtime practitioner of astrology. Many of the Church hierarchy have not only "looked to the stars" but have been regular, secret adepts of the same "magical arts" widely practiced by Pagans but publicly condemned by Christians,' and it would be safe to assume that this practice continues to this day behind the scenes. Numerous churches and cathedrals, such as Notre Dame in Paris, have abundant astrological symbols, full zodiacs, etc. In the 19th century the papal throne, St. Peter's chair, was cleaned, only to reveal upon it the 12 labors of Hercules,2 who, as we have seen, was a sun god. As Walker states:

Astrology survives in our own culture because Christianity embraced it with one hand, while condemning it as a devilish art with the other. Church fathers like Augustine, Jerome, Eusebius, Chrystostom, Lactantius, and Ambrose all anathematized astrology, and the great Council of Toledo prohibited it for all time. Nevertheless, six centuries later the consistory and the dates of popes' coronations were determined by the zodiac; aristocratic prelates employed their own personal astrologers; and signs of the zodiac appeared all over church furnishings, tiles, doorways, manuscripts, and baptismal fonts. The traditional Twelve Days of Christmas were celebrated by taking astrological omens each day for the corresponding months of the coming year.3

Despite its outward vilification by the clergy, astrology has also been used by countless kings and heads of state privy to the astrological, as opposed to literal, nature of the Bible. Not being thus privy, biblical literalists claim that everything in the Bible occurred literally and factually upon the earth, including the talking snake, Noah's ark, the parting of the Red Sea, the raising of the dead and numerous other incredible miracles that apparently occurred only to the biblical people at that time in that part of the world. The miraculous and implausible exploits of other cultures, however, are to be tossed aside as being unhistorical, mythological and downright ridiculous. As we have seen and will continue to see, these other cultures had the identical stories as those found in the Bible; therefore, following the "logic" of biblical proponents, we should also toss out the Judeo-Christian versions as "merely" mythological and allegorical at best, and diabolical at worst. As history, these various biblical tales are no more factual than the stories of the Greek gods or the Arabian knights. As allegory, however, they record an ancient wisdom that goes back well beyond the founding of the Hebrew nation, into the deepest mists of time.

In ascertaining the astrology of the Bible we should first properly define the word astrology. Although many people think astrology is meaningless mumbo-jumbo, it is not merely casting horoscopes but is in fact a science, as "astrology" means the study of the celestial bodies (astronomy) and their influences on each other and on life on Earth. The only difference between the well-respected astronomy and the vilified astrology is that astronomy charts the movements and constitution of the celestial bodies, while astrology attempts to determine their interrelationships and meaning. The sacred science of astrology began with astronomy, when humans noticed that they could determine some regularity in life by observing the skies and heavenly bodies, both nighttime and daytime. They could thus predict the seasons, including the time of planting and harvest, as well as the annual flooding of the Nile, for example. They also noticed the sun's effects on plants, as well as the moon's waxing and waning and effect on the tides. The knowledge of the heavens was also essential in seafaring, as stated, and a variety of ancient peoples were extraordinary seafarers for millennia, an impossible feat without a precise and detailed knowledge of the heavens, which in turn was not possible without the understanding that the earth was round and revolved around the sun, crucial information suppressed by