stephan happy huller wrote:Robert Tulip has attempted to ram foreign traditions of 'astrotheology' into the Biblical texts.
What does ‘foreign’ mean in assessing the origins of Biblical images? The Jews were in captivity in Babylon and were influenced by Babylonian thought. Egyptian, Greek and Indian religion also had influence. Acts 7:22 says Moses was learned in all the teachings of the Egyptians. So it is not a matter of finding things elsewhere and introjecting them into the Bible, but rather reading the Bible with a view to finding lost astral meaning. We can readily show that in the case you have raised, the Pole Star.
stephan happy huller wrote: the Mandaeans were recorded starting their year with a ceremony directed at the Great Bear and Polaris (the North Star) in the Little Bear …the priest, when entering the edifice, has the North Star, the great object of their adoration, immediately facing him. . . . Towards midnight the star- worshippers, men and women, come slowly down to the Mishkna by the river side. . . . By midnight there are some twenty rows of these white-robed figures, ranked in orderly array facing the Mishkna, and awaiting the coming of the priests. A couple of tarmidos, lamp in hand, guard the entry to the tabernacle, and keep their eyes fixed upon the pointers of the Great Bear. As soon as these attain the position indicating midnight/ a signal is given, and a procession of priests, including ' the spiritual head of the sect, the Ganzivro,' moves to the Mishkna.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... sion_N.gif is a map of the movement of the North Celestial Pole, the axis of the earth and the unmoving spot in the sky around which the stars appear to revolve. The Celestial Pole itself rotates slowly around the North Ecliptic Pole, the axis of the sun, located at the right foot of the dragon.
At
Draco and Ursa in Ancient Astronomy I explore the astronomy around this observation, including as it is contained in ancient writings. I summarise some of this material at
The Celestial Pole in the Apocalypse