ZEITGEIST: THE MOVIE

and assurance of the Sun having reached the very lowest point of his course, and therefore of
having arrived at the moment of his re-birth….
To the right, as the supposed observer looks at Sirius on the midnight of Christmas Eve, stands
the magnificent Orion, the mighty hunter. There are three stars in his belt which, as is well known,
lie in a straight line pointing to Sirius. They are not so bright as Sirius, but they are sufficiently
bright to attract attention. A long tradition gives them the name of the Three Kings. 209
View from Egypt, 12-24-00
There are many examples of kings, queens, heroes and other figures being born under a star or other
celestial configuration and being presented with gifts. As we can see from all of the above, the theme of
the messiah‘s birth being attended by a star and/or ―dignitaries‖ is thus not original or unique to
Christianity.
27. The Virgin Mary is the constellation Virgo, also known as Virgo the Virgin. Virgo is
also referred to as the “House of Bread,” and the representation of Virgo is a virgin
holding a sheaf of wheat. This House of Bread and its symbol of wheat represent
August and September, the time of harvest. In turn, Bethlehem, in fact, literally
translates to “house of bread.” Bethlehem is thus a reference to the constellation
Virgo, a place in the sky, not on Earth.
Virgo the Virgin and Mary: The identification of a ―virgin mother‖ with the constellation of Virgo is
common in history. For example, we have already seen that the Egyptian goddess Isis is a virgin mother,
as are Neith and several other mythical figures. Concerning the Virgo/virgin mother-goddess motif, in
Christ in Egypt, Murdock relates:
The identification of Isis with the Virgin is...made in an ancient Greek text called The
Katasterismoi, or Catasterismi, allegedly written by the astronomer Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE),
who was for some 50 years the head librarian of the massive Library of Alexandria. Although the
original of this text has been lost, an ―epitome‖ credited to Eratosthenes in ancient times has been
attributed by modern scholars to an anonymous ―Pseudo-Eratosthenes‖ of the 1 st to 2 nd centuries
AD/CE. In this book, the title of which translates as ―Placing Among the Stars,‖ appear discussions
of the signs of the zodiac. In his essay on the zodiacal sign of Virgo (ch. 9), under the heading of
―Parthenos,‖ the author includes the goddess Isis, among others, such as Demeter, Atagartis and
Tyche, as identified with and as the constellation of the Virgin. In Star Myths of the Greeks and
209 Carpenter, 16-17.