Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [82]
At Job 9, it is explicit that God is the Divine Architect of the Zodiac "who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south . . ." And again at Amos 5:8: "He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night." The Lord "builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds vaults upon the earth." (Amos 9:6) And he is praised for his astrological creation: "Thou has made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun to know its time." Like the Lord himself, his creations such as the sun, moon and skies are considered righteous and eternal, as is reflected at Psalms 89:37 and at Daniel 12:3; thus, the heavenly bodies served as sacred symbols and representatives of God.
From these various biblical passages, it is obvious that the Lord is not only the architect of the heavens but is pleased with both his stellar creations and his ability to command them. That being the case, it is equally obvious that astrology is not evil, unless the Lord is evil, an idea widely subscribed to by the Gnostics, who made the assessment that anyone in charge of this chaotic and crude "lower" world must be a villain. But, if "God" is good, then "his" creation must be good, and the biblical writers make it clear that astrology and the zodiac are their Lord's creation.
That the stars, moon and sun were considered to have personality is also explicit from biblical texts. Early Church father Origen opined, and was ridiculed by "heretics" and "heathens" for his opinion, that "all the stars and heavenly bodies are living, rational beings, having souls," and he quotes Isaiah 14:12 in his proof of this, saying that the Lord has "given commandments to all the stars."12
At Psalms 147:4, the stars have names, given to them by "the Lord." That biblical writers were aware of the constellations is also clear from Isaiah 13:10: "For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light." The fact that the Hebrews believed the sun and moon had personality and animation is further reflected at Isaiah 24:23: "Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed." The sun and moon are again anthropomorphized or personified at Psalms 148:3, when they are asked to praise the Lord.
The importance of the skies is repeatedly emphasized throughout the Old Testament, with the sun and moon even considered the "rulers" of the day and night, made out of the Lord's "steadfast love" (Ps. 136:9). In the Song of Solomon, an embarrassment to God-fearing Christians for its overt sexuality, "Solomon" uses celestial imagery to describe his beloved: "Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun ..." (Sol. 6:10)
The sun and moon are also considered to be healing, as is reflected at Isaiah 30:26, in which the light of the sun and moon increase "in the day when the Lord binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow." (And this from a "loving" God!) Furthermore, the arts of medicine and astrology were inextricably linked, because medicines were frequently dispensed not only based upon symptoms but also on natal charts and other astrological castings; hence, "physicians" or "doctors" were also astrologers, as well as priests and prophets. As Allegro says:
To know the correct dosages in these cases required an appreciation of the susceptibility of the patient to the drug's effects, perhaps the most difficult calculation of all. Much depended on the recipient's "fate" allotted him at his birth, the factor that determined his individuality, his physical stature, the colour of his eyes, and so on. Only the astrologer could tell this, so the art of medicine was itself dependent for success on astrology and the considerable astronomical knowledge this presupposed. . . . The combined arts of medicine and astrology were known and practised by the Sumerians