From Eden to Babel
The descriptions below can be seen visually by keeping this Zodiac Map open in a separate window.
This report covers the astrological time from the Garden of Eden to the Tower of Babel. By the timetable in Bible Dates the events of Genesis 2:4b-11 occurs in the Age of Taurus. The zodiacal sequence explains how the Bible's editors told their stories and placed events in the order they did. I have kept additional commentary to a minimum.
Scholars are certain that the first two chapters of Genesis were written by two different authors and later spliced together by a third. One view holds that they are contradictory; another finds the second complementary to the first as a focused view of the creation of man.
In When Was Eden Created I proposed a third view, that the second chapter on the Garden of Eden was the author's way of introducing the creation of the zodiac. The Old Testament was not written as an actual history of Jews. It was written as an epic, giving a mythological view of where Jewish ideals and traditions came from. More specifically, it was written as an astronomical allegory in which the main actors are represented by the stars and how they move.
Thus it is that circle of stars within the zodiac which serves as our guide to deciphering Genesis. As a check on this method, by following the sun along its path through each of the twelve constellations, we should be able to find constellations within each month that represent the principle actors.
As far as where to start, in Days of Creation, I explained why the first six days of creation occur in the Age of Gemini. Of significance is that the third day was in Leo when God made earth. As Genesis 2:4b says, the Garden of Eden was created in the day God made the earth and heavens. So we start in Leo.
Leo
On the third day, God made dry land appear from the water under the heavens.
9And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
10God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. (Gen. 1:9-10)
+++++++++++++++ Begin Genesis 2 in the Garden of Eden ++++++++++
In the day God made the earth and heavens-the third day.
In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
5when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up-for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;(Gen 2:4b)
Note how in Genesis 1:10 the land is described as dry. This is how Eden started out.
Age of Taurus
In Days of Creation I explained that the six days of creation represented the Age of Gemini. That means that the Garden of Eden was created in the next Age, the Age of Taurus. As such, the Age of Taurus begins when the sun is in Taurus at the spring equinox.
As always, light symbolizes good and dark symbolizes evil. Leo starts on the summer solstice when everything is good. As the sun descends through the monthly constellations, evil increases to its maximum on the winter solstice.
The next two watery constellations represent the cleansing in Noah's flood. As the sun rises to the next summer solstice, things continue to get better. The Age of Taurus extends to the time before Abraham. The chart below serves as our guide.
Virgo and Libra
The Garden of Eden — Images
The three actors in the Garden of Eden are Adam, Eve and the Serpent, represented by Bootes, Virgo and Serpens respectively. They do not appear on the scene in the same sequence they are on the zodiac, so I am going to treat Libra and Virgo as one unit.
1. God created the man.
7then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.(Gen. 2:7)
Bootes the Herdsman represents Adam.
2. God made the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and he put the tree of knowledge of good and evil there too.
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)
The middle of the garden would place the two trees at the north pole.
3. Eden had a river that divided into four rivers.
10A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.(Gen. 2:10)
The zodiac has two rivers, the Milky Way and the constellation Eridanus. The Milky Way's size and length easily qualifies it as the main river with Eridanus a tributary. The other two were the named Tigress and Eupthrates.
4. God formed beasts and birds, and brought them to the man to be named.
9So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.(Gen. 2:9)
The task wasn't immense as it sounds. They were the animals of the zodiac. The word "zoo" has the same etymology.
5. God took a rib from the man and used it to create a woman.
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 and brought her to the man. (Gen. 2:21)
Bootes has his arm raised towards Virgo, exposing his rib cage.
6. The serpent and the woman have a conversation.
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'?" (Gen. 3:1)
Serpens head is facing Bootes and Virgo as if they are engaging in a conversation.
7. The woman ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to the man to eat.
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)
Virgo has in her outstretched hand what is usually interpreted as a corn stalk. It is not much of a stretch to think of it as the forbidden fruit she is offering to the man.
8. In the year 2750 BCE the star Thuban was almost exactly in the North Pole position. Two things qualify if as the tree of good and evil. One, it is located in the constellation Draco when is associated with evil. Two, from the years 2750 on, Thuban descended from its pole position to be replaced by Polaris. The plucking of the forbidden fruit represents the star's descent.
9. The serpent was cursed above all the wild animals.
14The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; (Gen. 3:14)
The statement refers to the constellation Draco which lays on the North Pole above all the other constellations.
10. "He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel."
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. 3:15)
One foot in the constellation Hercules lies on top of Draco's head. Over the course of a year the constellations rotate around the pole. Thus at one time the foot is on top of the head, and at another the head is on top of the foot. This is what is meant by bruising.
11. He drove out the man. At the east of the garden he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword.
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)
Bootes and Virgo leave the garden when they descend below the horizon. At the same time, Perseus (next to Aries) rises in the east as if to be driving them out of the garden with his sword.
When Ezekiel describes a cherub as having the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox and the face of an eagle, he is describing the four cardinal constellations in the Age of Taurus. (See the chart at the top of this page.)
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. (Ezek. 1:10)
14And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. (Ezek. 10:14)
Scorpio
Cain and Abel — Images
Representing Cain and Abel are Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer and Hercules respectively. The serpent symbolizes Cain evilness and Hercules upside down position represents the fallen Abel.
8Cain said to Abel his brother, "Let us go out to the field." And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. (Gen. 4:8)
What was the mark on Cain? Coincidently Ophiuchus' head is represented by one star. It's a reasonable guess that that the mark is the head star Ras Alhague which ranks as the 56th brightest star of all the stars and the brightest in the constellation. Graphic illustrations show the star on Ophiuchus' forehead.
15Then the LORD said to him, "Not so! If any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him. (Gen. 4:15)
The Golden Age
Before the introduction of Christmas, each year beginning on December 17 Romans honored Saturn, the ancient god of agriculture, in a festival called Saturnalia. This festival lasted for seven days and included the winter solstice, which usually occurred around December 25 on the ancient Julian calendar.
The Titans were among the earliest gods. They were of enormous size and incredible strength that were said to populate earth with demigods by coupling with nymphs or each other. The most important was Cronus, called Saturn in Latin. In the time of Cronus, the gods made the first men, the Golden Race, who did not suffer old age, sickness or toil, because the earth gave them fruit without labor.
This period, called the Golden Age is described as the first age when men kept the faith and did right by the gods. There was ease and peace upon the land. There were no laws and no strife, therefore no need of punishment. When Zeus overcame the Titans the Golden Age ended.
The Jewish version of the Golden Age can be found in Genesis 5.
Capricorn
1. Genesis 5 gives us an account of great men, most who lived for almost a thousand years. The longest was Methuselah at 969 and the shortest, Enoch at 365. Enoch was the only one who went to heaven without dying first. Noah was the tenth generation after Adam.
23Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
24Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Gen. 5:23-24)
Enoch's flight to heaven when the sun is in Capricorn occurs when the Milky Way stretches south to north when it was taken as the celestial river to heaven. Star maps show Cygnus the Swan in Capricorn flying up the Milky Way.
The Bible's silence on human events suggests that everyone lived to such extreme ages because there was no strife.
2. Then there was the Nephilim, sons of God who mated with earth women.
4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. (Gen. 6:4)
The Nephilim are comparable to the Titans.
Noah's Ark — Images
There is a classic Greek Myth called Jason and the Argonauts. It is about Jason and his fifty Argonauts who sail through twelve adventures on the ship Argo in search of the Golden Fleece. A web search will turn up sites that tell the story and there is a 1963 movie which may be available in your local video store.
Their ship Argo is represented by the constellation Argo Navis and the story unfolds as they sail around the zodiac. The Jewish version is called Noah's ark and takes place from Aquarius through Gemini. It's a story of appalling savagery for which Christians and Jews take too lightly.
Richard Elliot Friedman in Who Wrote the Bible? makes a compelling case that the Bible had several original authors which were later woven together by a later editor to make them seem as if there was one. The confusion caused by this duplication will become apparent.
What is notable is that one author (P for priestly) refers to God as God and the other (J for Yahweh/Jehovah) as Yahweh, translated as Lord. P has one pair of each kind of animal. J has seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals. P said the flood lasted 370 days. J said it was forty days and forth nights. To denote the differences, I put a J or a P after the sequence number.
Either way, both were consistent in basing their versions on the constellations. When the sun is in Aquarius the Water Carrier, Noah is the man and the constellation Argo Navis appears in the evening sky as Noah's ark. It is such a big constellation that astronomers, today, have broken it up into three constellations: Puppis, the Stern, Carina, the Keel, and Vela the Sail. They stretch from Gemini to Leo. At the bow is Corvus the Crow, and at the stern is Columba the Dove.
Aquarius
In classical times when the Sun passed in front of the stars of Aquarius, it used to be the rainy season. This was the beginning of the Egyptian Spring when they believed that the Nile would overflow its banks when Aquarius dipped his great jar into the waters of the Nile.
Aquarius is the central figure of that region in the sky often referred to as The Sea. To the east of Aquarius is Eridanus, the Great River, Cetus, the Whale, and Pisces, the Fishes; to the west lies Capricorn, the Seagoat; and to the south is Pisces Austrinus, the Southern Fishes. In the Age of Aries Aquarius coincided with the month of February, which gets its derivation from februarie, "to cleanse."
1. In the Age of Taurus, Aquarius began at the end of December when the sun begins to rise from its lowest point on the horizon. It was a time of darkness, personified as evil.;
5The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. (Gen. 6:5-6)
2. Noah personifies Aquarius the Waterman.
9These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. (Gen. 6:9)
3. God told Noah to make an ark.
14Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. (Gen. 6:14)
Pisces
When did the flood begin?
1P. On the seventh day of the second month in the 600th year of Noah's life, the flood began.
11In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. (Gen. 7:11)
If the 600th year symbolizes the 6th month, the flood began on the eighth month which coincides with the time of Pisces.
2J. It rained for forty days and forty nights.
12And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. (Gen. 7:12)
The number four represents a complete journey through the four cardinal points. Perhaps the authors chose forty days because forty months or years seemed too long to live on a ship. Also, forty days would take the ark into Aries.
Aries
When did the flood end?
1J. At the end of forty days Noah opened the window.
6At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, (Gen. 8:6)
Forty days takes us from Pisces to Aries.
2P. The flood lasted one year and ten days to the 27th day of the second month.
13In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. (Gen. 8:13-14)
The 27th day of the second month falls into Aries.
Taurus
Which bird did Noah send to find dry land?
1P. Noah sent a raven to seek dry land. The raven went to and fro until the waters dried up.
7and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. (Gen. 8:7)
In the evening sky, Corvus the Crow's position along the equator makes it visible for half the year. From March it descends towards land until it disappears below the horizon in June.
2J. Noah sent a dove to look for dry land. On the first attempt the dove returned. On the second attempt it returned with an olive branch. On the third attempt he did not return, proving to Noah that the earth had dried.
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. 8:8-12)
When the sun is in Aries, Columba the Dove rises above the horizon. In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, Jason sent out a dove to test the dangerous rocks at the passage from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea. When the bird returned unscathed, it proved to Jason that the passage could be navigated.
When did Noah and God make their covenant?
3J. Noah built an altar and offered burnt offerings of every clean animal and clean bird. Yahweh promised to never again destroy every living creature as he did.
20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. (Gen. 8:20-21)
The sun leaves Aries on the spring equinox. It is a time of triumph over evil when daylight hours start to exceed night time hours. The constellation Perseus with its meteor shower the Perseids appears above Aries.
When Noah stepped on land, his first task was to make burnt offerings of the clean animals. Imagine Noah standing before his animal bonfire represented by Perseus and the Perseids meteor shower. Or his fire could be represented by the sun's emergence above the equator.
4P. The bow in the cloud shall be a sign of the covenant between God and the earth.
13I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Gen. 9:13)
Each day the sun moves in an arc or bow above the horizon. Cloud is a code word for Milky Way. There are only two places where the sun crosses the Milky Way-Gemini and Sagittarius. By process of elimination, the sign of the covenant would occur when the sun crosses the Milky Way at Gemini. The word "covenant" is a pun for covering, as in the sun's light covers the earth.
Noah gets drunk.
5P. Noah got drunk and lay naked in his tent. Ham saw his nakedness and told his two brothers.
20Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard;
21and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent.
22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. (Gen. 9:20-22)
The constellation Auriga the Goat Herder's position above Orion accounts for the incident when Ham looked down upon his father's nakedness.
GEMINI
Shem and Japheth covered their father but did not see his nakedness.
23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. (Gen. 9:23)
The Gemini Twins' position above Orion represents Shem and Japheth standing over their father.
Tower of Babel
Cancer
When the sun was in Capricorn, Gen 5:23 tells us how Enoch went to heaven. It was the time when the Milky Way went in a north-south direction, symbolizing the celestial river to heaven. Six months later in Cancer, the Milky Way is again facing a north-south direction. This takes us to Genesis 11:1-8, the story of the Tower of Babel when the passage to heaven is open again.
As the story goes, the world had one language. One day the people got together and decided to build a tower that reaches to the heavens because it would prevent them from being scattered.
4Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." (Gen. 11:4)
But God feared that if they spoke one language, nothing would be impossible for them.
6And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. (Gen. 11:6)
So the gods came down and confused the language by scattering them all over the earth.
6And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
7Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." (Gen. 11:6-7)
Readers might reflect on the moral significance of this little fable. Like the story of Adam and Eve, it reflects on the attitude of the priests to preserve their authority by keeping the people ignorant and confused.
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