Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [79]
Thus, in reading the stars, humans could make sense of the universe and find lessons applicable to daily life. Higgins explains:
Among all the ancient nations of the world, the opinion was universal that the planetary bodies were the disposers of the affairs of men. Christians who believe in Transubstantiation, and that their priests have an unlimited power to forgive sins, may affect to despise those who have held that opinion ... ; but their contempt is not becoming, it is absurd. . . . It was thought that the future fortunes of every man might be known, from a proper consideration of the state of the planets at the moment of his birth.... This produced the utmost exertion of human ingenuity to discover the exact length of the periods of the planetary motions: that is, in other words, to perfect the science of astronomy. In the course of the proceedings it was discovered, or believed to be discovered, that the motions of the planets were liable to certain aberrations, which it was thought would bring on ruin to the whole system, at some future day.4
As time went on, this science became increasingly complicated, as the infinite stars were factored in and as the heavens changed. Recognizing the interaction between the planetary bodies and their influence on Earth, the ancients began to give the heavens shape and form, persona and attitude. In order to pass along this detailed information, which was, and continues to be, so important to all aspects of life, the ancients personified the heavenly bodies and wove stories about their "exploits," giving them unique personalities and temperaments that reflected their particular movements and other qualities, such as color and size. These stories were passed down over the many millennia basically by a priesthood, because they were esteemed for their sacred astronomical, astrological and mathematical value. As Higgins says, ". . . astrology was so connected with religion that it was impossible to separate them."5 These celestial movements and/or the revered stories about them were recorded in stone all over the world, in great monuments and in city layouts. These monuments constitute much of our proof that the ancients possessed this amazingly intricate knowledge, but we can also find enormous evidence of it in the legends and writings of the ancients, including the JudeoChristian bible, which is rife with symbolism and allegory.
Those individuals who believe the Bible to be the "literal word of God" are not only unaware of its symbolism, they are also ignorant of the passages within the Bible itself which clearly reflect that at least certain aspects of the biblical tales are allegory. For example, at Ezekiel 23, the author(s) tells a long story about two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, and their "faithless harlotry" when "their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled." Just as we get to the good stuff, "Ezekiel" springs it on us that he is speaking allegorically about the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem, which are accused of having "played harlot in Egypt"; in other words, they worshipped other gods. It is rather evident that Ezekiel is enjoying this sexual allegory, as he goes into gleeful detail about the transgressions of the "sisters" and their "nakedness" and "bed of love." It is also evident that this type of allegorical speech is used more often in the Bible than its writers and proponents would wish to admit. As in the lusty Ezekiel tale, a number of other biblical places, nations and tribes are frequently referred to allegorically as "he" or "she," which makes it difficult to figure out whether the speaker is talking about a person, group, place or thing.
The Christian cheerleader "Paul" also knew that there was allegory in the Bible, as he so stated at Galatians 4:22-5, in reference to the story of Abraham having sons by two women. As to these women, who we are led in the Old Testament to believe are real, historical