Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Also, in the museum in Naples has been kept an ancient marble urn showing the birth/nativity of the<br />
Greek god Dionysus, with two groups of three figures on either side of the god Mercury, who is holding<br />
the divine baby, and a female figure who is receiving him. 208<br />
For more on the subject of the star in the east and three kings appearing at the savior‘s birth in pre-<br />
Christian mythology, see Murdock‘s Christ in Egypt, pp. 198-209.<br />
25. He was a child teacher at 12, at the age of 30 he was baptized by John the Baptist,<br />
and thus began his ministry. Jesus had 12 disciples which he traveled about with<br />
performing miracles such as healing the sick, walking on water, raising the dead, he<br />
was also known as the “King of Kings,” the “Son of God,” the “Light of the World,”<br />
the “Alpha and Omega,” the “Lamb of God,” and many, many others. After being<br />
betrayed by his disciple Judas and sold for 30 pieces of silver, he was crucified,<br />
placed in a tomb and after three days was resurrected and ascended into Heaven.<br />
The above motifs all appear in the canonical gospels, in the New Testament section of the Christian<br />
Bible.<br />
26. First of all, the birth sequence is completely astrological. The star in the east is<br />
Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, which, on December 24 th , aligns with the<br />
three brightest stars in Orion’s Belt. These three bright stars in Orion’s belt are called<br />
today what they were called in ancient times: The Three Kings. The Three Kings and<br />
the brightest star, Sirius, all point to the place of the sunrise on December 25 th . This is<br />
why the Three Kings “follow” the star in the east, in order to locate the sunrise—the<br />
birth of the sun.<br />
This contention is based on general star alignments, as we have already seen abundantly concerning<br />
other gods such as Osiris and Horus. Also, this astrotheological symbolism likely goes back much farther<br />
in time; we simply do not know when it was initially recognized. Regardless, the alignment on December<br />
24 th is obvious enough: The three stars of Orion clearly line up with Sirius and point to the east, where the<br />
sun rises.<br />
The moniker of ―Three Kings‖ for these stars in the belt of Orion is documented all over the world. For<br />
example, South Africans call Orion‘s Belt Drie Konings—―Three Kings‖—while in French they are the<br />
―Trois Rois.‖<br />
In this regard, Carpenter remarks:<br />
Go out next Christmas Evening, and at midnight you will see the brightest of the fixed stars,<br />
Sirius, blazing in the southern sky—not however due south from you, but somewhat to the left of<br />
the Meridian line. Some three thousand years ago (owing to the Precession of the Equinoxes)<br />
that star at the winter solstice did not stand at midnight where you now see it, but almost exactly<br />
on the meridian line. The coming of Sirius therefore to the meridian at midnight became the sign<br />
208 Carus, 49; Mangasarian, 74. For the illustration, Carus cites: ―After Mus. Bord., I., 49, from Baumeister, Plate I., p.<br />
448.‖