THE STAR OF THE MAGI
Written by Blair MacKenzie Blake
With the advent of the space age, scholars began to explore the Bible in new ways. Therefore, in these modern times, it is not hard to see why some researchers of the UFO phenomenon have suggested that the Star of Bethlehem and the sequence of events surrounding the birth of Jesus were somehow related to advanced alien spacecraft. For starters there is the account given in the New Testament of the shepherds keeping watch over their flock: "and, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone 'round about them; and they were filled with fear" (Luke 2:9). Along with this account of angelic visitations, there is the description of the brilliant, miraculous star that heralded Christ's birth given in the Gospel of St. Matthew. The "star in the east" was followed by the wise men "till it came to rest over the place where the child was" (Matthew 2:9). As several UFO researchers have pointed out, stars (and planets) don't move in this fashion; nor do they suddenly stop and hover - but UFOS do.
While ufologists offer nuts-and-bolts flying saucers to explain the bright glowing object described as a star by people who were not technologically oriented, those who like to think of themselves as being more "scientific" are quick to dismiss these claims, offering, instead, a more prosaic explanation. As might be expected, for astronomers, the Star of Bethlehem was an impressive celestial event, either the passing of a comet, a supernova, or the rare alignment of a planet and a bright star. One researcher has proposed that the heavenly spectacle was the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter with a star in the constellation, Pisces. Yet, all of these explanations present us with problems, both as to the identity of the star and the "Three Wise Men" who followed it. So, then, just who were these "Wise Men" and what are we to make of this "star?"
Frater Ijynx doesn't give answers to such questions. Instead, he points those who ask them in the right direction - with hints and suggestions, or, more often as the case is, with cryptic allusions. This is no doubt due to certain oaths he has taken as the O.H.O. of a fraternal Order. At any rate, from our little talk, I was able to glean the following information: The "Three Wise Men" known as the Magi (from which the word magic is derived) were members of a secret brotherhood that pre-dated dynastic Egypt. Many occultists and researchers have claimed them to be Persian, Chaldean, or Babylonian astrologers - those knowledgeable of things celestial. They were supposed to be Priest-kings or initiates indoctrinated into Zoroastrianism, which also makes them magicians like the Sabians who studied the movements of the stars from the Giza plateau of Egypt. It has long puzzled scholars as to why the equivalent of three Aleister Crowley's (as the authors of "The Templar Revelation" phrased it) were bearing gifts from afar and following a star that announced the birth of Jesus.
It is beyond the scope of our enquiry as to whether or not the Star of Bethlehem was contrived by the authors and/or compilers of the gospels to compete with the gods of earlier religions such as the miraculous Virgin Birth in Mithraism, which pre-dated Christianity (Mithra being born on the winter solstice of Dec. 25, which is why people celebrate Christmas on that particular date). For the purpose of our investigation (which concerns only the identity of the Star of Bethlehem featured in the Nativity story) the particulars of the messianic traditions that anteceded Christianity as well as the political machinations surrounding the Bethlehem event are only important in so far as they offer us our best clue as to the true nature of this star. For we must ask: why didn't Herod and his men see such a great star-like beacon in the skies? Why send the Magi to find the child-king whose birth was heralded by a celestial event of such great magnitude as recounted in the New Testament?
At this point, let us recall the description given by the Magi in the Protevangelion of the apocrypha: "we saw an extraordinary large star shining among the stars of heaven; and so outshined all the other stars that they became not visible...(15:7)" Again, I reiterate: How could Herod possibly miss such an object, thus enabling the child-king he so desperately sought (which led to the "massacre of innocents" to suppress a particular messianic bloodline) to elude his soldiers' blood-dripping swords? As paradoxical as it seems, was the Star of Bethlehem, itself, invisible (or, at least, at certain times invisible) to all but the Magi? According to Frater Ijynx, the answer is: yes, the invisibility of the star was precisely the reason Herod didn't see it. He didn't know how to see it as it journeyed through the night, not being versed in the knowledge of things celestial (i.e. astronomy). For the science of astronomy is the key factor here.
What kind of astronomical event is both visible and invisible? I propose that the sign the Magi were seeking concerning the birth of a king (for their own hidden agenda) was a five-pointed star or pentacle familiar to all magicians. In the course of their investigations of pentacles as controlling features in geographic landscapes, researchers like Henry Lincoln and others have pointed to a little known astronomical fact: Every eight years, like clockwork, the bright planet Venus traces an immense pentacle in the heavens - its five points defined when the planet is "occulted" by the sun. In this way, Venus is unique among the other planets in our solar system whose pattern of movement around the sun (as viewed from the earth) form irregular or "meaningless" patterns. Only the alignments of Venus create a precise geometrical pattern - the pentacle already stated. This is secret knowledge that was inserted into the Bible; that of this particular occult sign in connection with the majesty of the child. Perhaps this is why in "Revelation" (22:16), Jesus proclaims himself to be, " the root and Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star" (Hebrew: Helel ben-shahar). But there is another famous individual whose name is most often linked to the falling or fading of the bright Morning Star (Venus) whose brightness is diminished "from most high" by the rising of the sun. As Frater Ijynx might ask: now do those three "Aleister Crowleys" make more sense?
