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GARDEN TOUR

This page comes with a map

Welcome to the Garden of Eden. The people who make a living off the Bible, insist that the Garden is somewhere in Mesopotamia. They're full of it.

The Garden is the area of sky within a circle of stars called the Zodiac. To prove that point, we are going to visit many of the stars (pun intended) of the Bible. Thanks to Star Myths, we have available to us, an artist's depiction of the classical constellations in lifelike form. So there is no need to decipher star patterns.

Before we start, the picture below helps to explain what you will be looking at. For charting convenience, astronomers treat the sky as if earth was enveloped inside a hollow ball they call the celestial sphere. For mapping purposes, the ball is cut into half along the Celestial equator, a plane concentric to earth's equator. There are two maps of the Garden, north and south.

The apparent movement of the stars depends on where you are and where the stars are on the celestial sphere. For example, if you are in the northern hemisphere, the stars around the North Pole are visible every night. Stars at the equator can be seen in the north and south hemispheres.

Figure 1.

The picture above (Figure 1) shows another circle called the ecliptic. It represents the path of the sun as seen from earth. The picture below (Figures 2 and 3) shows how the constellations of the zodiac lie on the ecliptic, the sun's path. Notice how the ecliptic rises and descends below the equatorial plane. Viewed from earth, the sun travels in the path of two arcs each day.

Where the equator and the ecliptic cross, marks the time when the sun enters the spring and fall equinox; the spring equinox sets the zero hour. As earth moves in its yearly orbit, the constellations appear to shift one position each month.

Figure 2. The sun in the Age of Taurus.

Figure 3. The sun in the Age of Aries.

The North Garden

1N. The Flaming sword

When God sent Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, he placed a flaming sword to guard the entrance. Astronomically, when Adam (Bootes) and Eve (Virgo) fall below the horizon, Perseus rises from the east with his sword as if to be chasing them away. The description of his flaming sword can be explained by the fact that when Perseus rises from the horizon, there is a meteor shower, known as the Perseids, which appears to stream from his constellation. Notice the similarity in names between Perseus and Perseids. For a description of cherubim, see [11N].

²⁴He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen. 3:24)

1N. The Passover Lamb

The entrance to the Garden is located at Aries the lamb. Moses was in Aries at the time of the ten Passover plagues. It was here when he told the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and smear its blood on their front doors so the angel of death would pass them by.

²¹Then Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Select lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the passover lamb. (Exodus 12:21)

1N. The Lamb of God

John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God. Jesus is the Christian equivalent to the Passover Lamb.

²⁹The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

1N. David and Goliath

To the left of Aries is the hideous sight of a man with a raised sword in one hand and an ugly head in the other. That is David with Goliath's head. Astronomers call it Perseus. The head he is holding is the head of the snake haired monster Medussa.

⁵¹Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. (1 Sam. 17:51)

1N. David and Bathsheba

Just above Perseus is the constellation Andromeda. In myth she was known for her beauty. When David was on the roof of the king's house he saw a beautiful woman bathing. When he inquired who she was, she was identified as Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. David sent for her and lay with her. Within a short time she found herself pregnant.

²It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.
³And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"
⁴So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.
⁵And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, "I am with child." (2 Sam. 11:2-5)

David solved his problem by having Uriah sent to the front lines of battle where he would meet certain death.

¹⁴In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
¹⁵In the letter he wrote, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die." (2 Sam. 11:14-15)

2N. Golden Calf

Taurus the bull was the place where the Israelites made the Golden Calf. When Moses came down the mountain with the two tablets he saw the Israelites dancing around the calf.

He was so angry he broke the tablets God made and made the people drink a concoction of powdered golden calf and water.

¹⁹And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
²⁰And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the water, and made the people of Israel drink it. (Exodus 32:19-20)

Moses wasn't satisfied. So he sent his priests with swords to avenge what they did.

²⁸And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. (Exodus 32:28)

Then God had to get his licks, so he sent a plague upon the people.

³⁵And the LORD sent a plague upon the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made. (Exodus 32:35)

3N. Elijah

On the outer circle, the upper half of a man with a club in his hand is called Orion. In the Old Testament, Orion is known as Elijah. Elijah is best known for going to heaven by a whirlwind-he didn't die. You have to look closely for the whirlwind. It's the Milky Way which starts just behind Orion, bends across Perseus [1] and flows up to [11] Aquila the eagle.

¹¹And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (2 Kings 6:11)

3N. Son of Man

Another famous person connected with the Milky Way is Jesus' Son of man. Prophecies about the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory describe Orion and the Milky Way. They can be seen on a clear dark night with a new moon at around the third week in December. Orion is easily visible on almost any winter night. For details, see Son of Man

²⁴"But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
²⁶<And then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. (Mark 13:24)

3N. David and Jonathan

We turn our attention now to the Gemini twins where David and Jonathan had a homosexual love affair. The Bible is not explicit with the details, but there if enough to tell the tale.

When they first met, Jonathan stripped himself naked in front of David.

³Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.
⁴And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his girdle. (1 Sam. 18:3-4)

Jonathan's father, Saul was angry at his son for shaming his mother's nakedness.

³⁰Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, "You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness? (1 Sam. 20:30)

Next to a stone heap, they were laying on the ground kissing. In biblespeak, stone heaps are usually phallic symbols.

⁴¹And as soon as the lad had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed [prostrate] three times; and they kissed one another, and wept with one another, until David recovered himself. (1 Sam. 20:41-42)

David was distressed at Jonathan's death. His love was wonderful, better than the love of a woman.

²⁶I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. (2 Sam. 1:26)

4N. Backsliders

Moses had a crabby streak at Cancer the crab; there was a lot of bloodshed. From Numbers 11 to 20, this is where the Israelites tried to rebel against Moses; thousands died. See Moses' Sun Signs Particularly, this is where God sentenced the Israelites to wander forty years in the desert.

5N. Samson's Lion

The lion you are looking at is the one Samson killed. For those not familiar with Samson, he had the strength of Hercules, which is where this tale came from. In the Greek myth, Hercules killed the Nemean lion as one of his twelve labors.

⁵Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and he came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion roared against him;
⁶and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion asunder as one tears a kid; and he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. (Judges 14:5-6)

5N. Deep

Hydra is the largest constellation in the sky. It is split in two halves with its head in the north hemisphere and the rest of its long snaking body in the south. Genesis 1:2 calls it deep which translates to tehom. Tehom is related to Tiamet, the primeval dragon goddess in the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish. In the epic, the supreme god Marduk defeated Tiamet, whose body personified the primeval ocean. When she was split in half, the second half became the sky.

¹In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
²The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. (Gen. 1:1-2)

In the same way, God split the waters in two, and called the second half, "heaven".

⁶And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."
⁷And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.
⁸And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. (Gen. 1:6-8)

5N. Leviathan

The description of Leviathan as a twisting serpent and as the dragon of the sea points to Hydra. Presumably, God's sword cut him in half.

¹In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isaiah 27:1)

6N. Eve

Eve was the first woman to be created and the original virgin. At Virgo she appears with an outstretched hand as if to be offering the forbidden fruit.

⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. (Gen. 3:6)

6N. Virgin Mary

Because Virgo lies on the sun's ecliptic, she is the most important. Notice how she is lying prostrate, as if she is in the missionary position, waiting for God to lay upon her. See When Was Jesus Born

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; (Matt. 1:18)

7N. Elisha and the Bears

In starlore, Bootes is known as the Bear Driver. To the right at [9], there are two bears, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. They are the two bears which Elisha sicked on some boys who called him baldhead. The bears killed forty-two boys.

²³He went up from there to Bethel; and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, "Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!"
²⁴And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. (2 Kings 2:23-24)

7N. Eve's Birth

Bootes is also Adam in the Garden. His raised arm exposes his ribcage. God took one of those ribs and used it to create Eve. His outstretched arm also represents his accepting the forbidden fruit from Eve.

²¹So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh;
²²and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman (Gen. 2:21)

7N. Joseph

As Mary's husband, Bootes stands alongside Mary.

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; (Matt. 1:18)

8N. The serpent

There is a famous event when the Serpent convinces Eve that the forbidden fruit will not kill her. Serpens the serpent is at her feet as if to be talking to her.

¹Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?"
²And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden;
³but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
⁴But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die.
⁵For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (Gen. 3:1-5)

8N. Evil Herod

Serpents are evil creatures, and who could be more evil that snake Herod, the man who tried to kill Jesus.

¹⁶Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men. (Matt. 2:16)

9N. The Tree of Life

In the middle of the Garden is the tree of life which we know as the star Polaris. In earlier times, the star Thuban was located at the North Pole but due to earth's precession, it declined. Thuban is located on Draco the Dragon's tail, so it was called the tree of good and evil. Genesis depicts it decline as the fruit which Adam and Eve picked.

⁹And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:9)

10N. Serpents Seed

When God punished the serpent, he put him above all the other animals. The highest spot in the garden is at the North Pole where Draco the serpent is located. Notice his head is under Hercules' foot. As they revolve around the pole, when Hercules is on top, he is bruising the serpent's head. When the serpent is on top, it is bruising Hercules' heel. What makes the serpent so sinister in the minds of ancients is that in the north sky, it is visible every night as if to be lurking everywhere.

¹⁴The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Gen. 3:14-15)

11N. Cherubim

The Cherubim is a very large creature that covers the entire Garden. So we have to look in four directions. Ezekiel says it has four faces, the face of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. At [2] is the ox. At [5] is the lion. At [11] is the eagle. And in the south garden at [2] is the man. Combined, they protect the four cardinal points.

¹⁰As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man in front; the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle at the back. (Ezekiel 1:10)

The South Garden

1S. Jonah's Whale

Cetus is the great fish who swallowed Jonah. In that quadrant called the sea, Jonah is likely represented by Aquarius the waterman.

¹⁷And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17)

2S. Jesus

The original birth of Jesus was marked when the sun entered the stars of Pisces the fishes. Thus Jesus is the sun in the age of Pisces. So when Jesus says he will be with us until the close of the age, he meant the age of Pisces. The sun will enter the Age of Aquarius sometime in the second decade of the second millennium. See When Was Jesus Born

¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matt. 28:20)

3S. John the Baptist

Above the fish is Aquarius the waterman. That pitcher of water he is pouring symbolizes John the Baptist, pouring water on Jesus (Pisces [2]) as if to be baptizing him. See John the Baptist

¹In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
²"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matt. 3:1-2)

4S. Nativity

A well known scene around Christmas time is the Nativity-baby Jesus in a basket, surrounded by his parents and a few goats, donkeys and lambs. In Capricorn the sea goat is where it happened. Capricorn is the time of December 25 when the sun emerges from its three darkest days. As a place where livestock are kept, the goat symbolizes the manger.

¹⁵When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."
¹⁶And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. (Luke 2:15-16)

5S. Crucifixion

That hoofed man with the bow and arrow is known as Sagittarius the archer. Sagittarius is the time of the year when the sun allegorically dies at the winter solstice, the darkest days of winter. This is the place of the Skull, where the archer's arrows nailed Jesus to the cross.

³³And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. (Luke 23:33)

Figuratively the cross it is the imaginary lines of the equinoxes crossing the solstices. Thus allegorically, the sun is crucified on the cross at the time of the winter solstice. The Christian cross represents the length of the four seasons. See Gospel Zodiac

6S. Last Supper

The house of Scorpio is where Jesus had his last supper. It is the last stop before the sun enters Sagittarius where it is going to die. So when Jesus said his time was at hand and he will keep the Passover at "your" house, he meant the time when the sun is in the house of Scorpio.

¹⁸He said, "Go into the city to a certain one, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples.'" (Matt. 26: 18)

7S. Noah's Ark

It takes a big boat to hold two of every animal on earth, and the constellation Argo Navis has the capacity. It is so big, that it was divided into three constellations: Carina the Keel, Puppis the Stern and Vela the Sail.

¹³And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
¹⁴Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. (Gen. 6:13-14)

Argo Navis and the Sea is the source of a multitude of ancient flood myths. The one that relates to the name Argo Navis is called "Jason and the Argonauts". It's an adventure story about the crew's quest to find the Golden Fleece.

The south Garden has many constellations relating to water. On the second day of creation, God separated the waters and called the upper half the firmament. These constellations symbolize birth or evil, depending on where they are in the sun cycle.

8S. The Dove

After the rain stopped, Noah sent a dove out three times to find land. The first time the dove came back; the second time it returned with an olive leaf; and the third time it did not return. So Noah knew it found land. That dove is otherwise known as Columba. In the Jason and the Argonauts legend, Jason sent a dove to see if it could fly through some dangerous rocks.

⁶At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made,
⁷and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.
⁸Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground;
⁹but the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him.
¹⁰He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
¹¹and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.
¹²Then he waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more. (Gen. 8:6-12)

9S. Star of Bethlehem

At the bottom half of Orion, there are three stars at its waist. To the right there is a dog with a big eye. Those are your three wise men and the star of Bethlehem. What is unique about the star in the dog's eye is that it is the brightest star in the sky next to the sun. A line through the three wise men points to the dog's eye, Sirius. On December 25 in the afternoon, the three wise men rise above the horizon. An hour later, Sirius ascends above the horizon. A straight line through all four stars, points to the house of baby Jesus. See Star of Bethlehem

⁹When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. (Matt. 2:9)

10S. Red Sea

Among the outstanding events in the Bible is the time when pharaoh's army pursued the Israelites across the Red Sea. There is a general consensus among scholars that the crossing could not have been across the actual Red Sea. Among many other impossible obstacles, like trekking through a waterless desert, it is 150-200 miles long, a mile and a half deep, and too salty to be potable. They speculate on alternate routes, but the real answer is the writer didn't know his geography and had a tendency to exaggerate.

There is no speculation here. Moses was another sun hero like Jesus. At that time the sun was in the house of Taurus. Located in Taurus is the constellation Eridanus the river. See Moses' Sun Signs

¹⁸But God led the people round by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. (Exodus 13:18)

⁴"Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea; and his picked officers are sunk in the Red Sea. (Exodus 15:4)

10S. THe Jordan River

Eridanus represents the Jordan River when Joshua crossed it into the Promised Land

¹Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim, with all the people of Israel; and they came to the Jordan, and lodged there before they passed over. (Joshua 3:1)

Exit

That completes our tour ladies and gentlemen. I hope your visit was entertaining as well as enlightening. For more details, please visit the web pages on your topic of interest.