Skyscript Astrology Forum

I wanted to share an observation on something, but I'm also hoping to get some feedback/critical input as well. Given the topic is a religious one, I'm hoping I don't step on any toes, apologies beforehand if this is the case.

It's said that the gnostic Christians believed there were two gods, the god of the Old Testament "the Demiurge" and the god which Jesus came from. For obvious reasons the various sects of gnostic Christians were considered heretics, however some details in the bible vaguely support the gnostic ditheistic stance. Primarily I noticed that the concept of the Old Testament God seems to be partially derived from the Canaanite chief deity "El" who was a moon-bull god:

https://www.thetorah.com/article/who-wa ... or-bull-el

http://arabianprophets.com/?page_id=2028

The idea of a moon-bull god brought to mind the sign Taurus and its exalted ruler the Moon. Afterwards I looked up the location of the vernal equinox Sun during the Bronze Age (when the Canaanite religion first originated) and discovered that it was in the constellation Taurus. Assuming the concept of YHWH is partially related to Taurus/the Moon then this provides some rationale for the gnostic concept of the Old Testament God as a demiurgic figure involved in the creation of matter. I base this on the symbolism of the Moon representing matter and the Sun representing form. Accordingly the Sun represents the transcendental noetic god, which is the ultimate source that precedes the "logos". Note that the cosmological schema of the gnostics is very similar to the Hindu schema involving the concepts of Brahman and Brahma.

I want to stress that the connection here is very subtle and indirect. I don't get the impression that the deity El was explicitly understood in terms of the philosophical form/matter distinction, nor was he assigned a subordinate demiurgic like role (just the opposite actually). I'm only suggesting implicit emphasis on Moon/Taurean/matter symbolism that was gradually inherited by a later YHWH tradition. There are two other points to consider about YHWH-El:

1.According to this source, YHWH means: "He Who Causes That-Which-Is To Be & He Who Causes That-Which-Can't-Be To Fall"

https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/YHWH.html

If correct, this closely correlates with the astrological concept of the Moon (fortune) being elevated in Taurus and having its fall in Scorpio. Referencing the Moon and its relationship to Taurus/Scorpio the 2nd century astrologer Antiochus comments:

“whom fortunes exalts, no one may depress; while he whom fortune depresses, no one is able to exalt”

This idea of the inescapability of divinely ordained fate seems to match well with the above translation.

2.Historically Judaism has been associated with Saturn. This seems contradictory because El is a moon-bull deity so you would expect Judaism to be associated with the Moon as well, however I realized this could be because Taurus and Aquarius are signs of equal ascension and as such share a metaphysical connection.

If approaching this question from a gnostic perspective only (excluding more sophisticated conceptualizations of the OT God) and understanding YHWH as primarily representing matter then a pattern emerges. According to Greek optical theory, the Moon is the quickest planet and sees other planets intelligibly while Saturn is the slowest planet and cannot see the other planets in an intelligible manner. Thus this describes the basic conditions of incarnation into matter; in the material world you must be able to see (the Moon) and be seen (Saturn).

Similar to the connection between Taurus and Aquarius, there's an equally interesting pattern with Pisces (relating to Christianity) and Aries. The equal ascension relationship between Pisces and Aries pairs Jupiter with the Sun, which is the exalted ruler of Aries (This in turn helps supports the notion of Christianity as a solar religion). Consider the symmetry between these two pairs of signs:

Taurus and Aquarius
-The primary emphasis is on the exalted luminary ruler of Taurus, the Moon.
-The Moon has an orbital period of ~28 days, Saturn has an orbital period of ~28 years.
-Saturn symbolizes matter/agnoia.

Aries and Pisces
-The primary emphasis is on the exalted luminary ruler of Aries, the Sun.
-The Sun takes 12 months to go through the tropical zodiac, Jupiter's orbital period is ~12 years.
-Jupiter represents gnosis (The Jupiterian/Piscean connection to Christianity is ironically emphasized in the term "gnostic Christianity").

This symmetry between the orbital periods suggest that Saturn and Jupiter are octaves or perhaps conceptual companions of their respective luminary pairs. Also note that Jesus is frequently represented as a lamb or a shepherd, both of which are symbolism related to Aries. The symbolism suggests that Jesus is the proverbial shepherd that leads souls back to the monad/the ultimate source which corresponds with the gnostic idea of escaping from the Demiurge and rejoining the pleroma. I was reminded of this concept when reading this article:

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/triplicities.html

"the Christian faith speaks of the Holy Trinity being the Father (universal parent from which we emerge), son (separate life as an individual) and Holy Ghost (universal soul to which we return)."

What I've discussed so far is just one puzzle piece which might help explain the complex origins of the theological schism between the monotheist orthodox Christians and the ditheist gnostic Christians. Currently I'm trying to determine if the gnostic ditheist position is actually positing the existence of a second god or if it's only an artificial theological convention that's being used to examine different facets of the same god.

The tetramorph icon is composed of the four fixed signs: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio (the eagle) and Aquarius. Based on my previous observations the tetramorph seems to be related to the concept of YHWH although the exact nature of the connection isn't clear. My reasoning involves the four planets ruling the fixed signs: Moon, Sun, Mars and Saturn and how two of them are connected to YHWH (the Moon and Saturn). Also, it seems like there's a special logic regarding these planets relate to each other:

1.These four planets include both luminaries and both malefics. This suggests the idea of "life and death" since luminaries symbolize life and the malefics symbolize death.

2.The Moon is exalted in Taurus symbolizing fortune and prosperity. Likewise Mars in Scorpio opposing the Moon symbolizes troubles, conflicts, loss etc.

3.The Sun and Saturn (as represented by Leo and Aquarius) represent light and darkness, As stated in point #1, this can suggest "life and death" but I think it can mean light and darkness in various metaphorical ways too.

4.The tetramorph icon is composed of two pairs of signs of equal ascension: Taurus/Aquarius and Leo/Scorpio. In the previous post I explained how the Taurus/Aquarius pair is related to the Moon/Saturn and Greek optical theory. For the Leo/Scorpio pair, it seems to be referring to actions/the will. This is because the Sun rules nous (intent) and both Mars and the Sun are considered praxis (action) planets according to Valens. Taken together, it seems like the Moon/Saturn represent matter/physical reality while the Sun/Mars shows how we interact with matter/our actions within the physical plane. Interestingly enough, the general meaning of the tetramorph maps well with the verse Isaiah 45:7:

"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things."

light = the Sun

darkness = Saturn

prosperity = the Moon

disaster = Mars

Recall that the tetramorph is mentioned in Ezekiel and Revelations but it's implied that it's not YHWH itself, rather its a chariot or a cherub. Even in the verse above it's stated that these four conditions are things that YHWH creates, it doesn't say that YHWH is these things. However on the other hand YHWH-El seems to be related to the Moon and Saturn, which is half the planets of the tetramorph. At this point I get the impression that the concept of the Old Testament God is multivalent due to being a composite concept that was gradually developed throughout time (as described in the torah.com article I listed above); because of this the tetramorph contains elements of YHWH but at the same time it isn't YHWH. In this regards, I respectfully acknowledge that YHWH is a very elegant and complex concept (especially in Judaism) which defies simple explanation. I'm only describing one aspect of a much more sophisticated idea.

One other interesting thing about the tetramorph I want to point out is that it features the exaltation sign of the Moon but not the Sun. This suggests that the tetramorph is specifically symbolizing the wheel of matter. Closely related to this, the ascendant in the Thema-Mundi is in Cancer which is connected with the mother-archetype. In gnostic Christianity a female deity named Sophia (who is also understood as a personified female aspect of God) is conceptualized as being the mother of the kosmos. I wonder if Valentinus or one of the other founders of the various gnostic sects derived their cosmological myths from the symbolism of the Thema-Mundi? This is something worth deeper contemplation. I've actually identified strong symbolism in the gnostic myth of Sophia which closely relates with the Moon; once I fully process this I will probably write about it.

Finally, I want to share my thoughts comparing the tetramorph pantocrator with the traditional Buddhist depictions of samsara:

Samsara is depicted as a wheel; technically the tetramorph is a four sign subset of the zodiac wheel. Conceptually speaking, the tetramorph is saying something similar to samsara (life and death, the ebb and flow of fortune). I wonder if the tetramorph pantocrators are the western equivalent of Buddhist depictions of the wheel of samsara? This interpretation is reinforced by Jesus (Pisces/Jupiter = gnosis) being in the center of these pantocrators which seem to be suggesting that he's the way of liberation from "samsara". If that's the intended meaning then it suggests the gnostic esoteric teachings of Christianity continued to persist even after being stomped out by the orthodox church. I've read before that the Eastern Orthodox Church has been historically accused of retaining a trace of gnosticism in its beliefs; coincidentally the Eastern Orthodox Church is also known as the most mystical out of all the orthodox branches of Christianity. Maybe this explains why many of the tetramorph pantocrators seem to have a byzantine, eastern orthodox kind of appearance?

The canon Holy Bible says little about reincarnation and karma, although there are a few verses which are suggestive of it. The apocryphal texts OTOH do mention reincarnation more explicitly (and karma is subsequently implied along with it). However I'm not interested in proving that the concepts of reincarnation and karma exist in Christianity due to scriptural proof, rather my angle is the following chain of logic:

1.The Old and New Testament appear to be complicated astrological metaphors, or at least astrology is a major part of it.

2.Working on the assumption that astrological symbolism legitimately underpins Christianity then we can make some theological assumptions about Christianity by following the astrological logic without the need for scriptural deduction.

I have two primary arguments in favor of reincarnation and karma existing in Christianity:

1.The lot of fortune/the Moon is related with the broader, overarching concept of heimarmene. I vaguely remember Robert Schmidt mentioning something along the lines of the lot of fortune being connected to this idea of what we owe and what is due to us. My memory is incomplete on this point, but I'm sure somebody is probably familiar with what I'm talking about.

The fact there's this concept of fortune and how it's determined by "what's due to us" in Hellenistic astrology is strongly suggestive of reincarnation and karma. I think that alone is a smoking gun. I can't imagine any other circumstance under which we would accrue positive/negative fortune unless we had some previous life. So following this chain of logic, it's not surprising that the tetramorph has a strong underlying emphasis on lunar symbolism. Furthermore the Moon shares an inherent connection with Saturn through the signs of equal ascension relationship; Saturn in this case is suggestive of the role of karma perhaps? Saturn being exalted in the sign Libra implies judgement and Libra is the 4th sign of the Thema-Mundi which compounds this impression of judgement after death.

I want to reiterate that my recollection of exactly what Schmidt said regarding this is quite foggy, so if I've made a mistake here please let me know.

2.The syzygy is potentially connected to reincarnation. Schmidt mentioned this in passing in one of his astrological lectures. I recall he said something about souls being incarnated in batches and this occurring on the new and full moons. Presumably this is related to spirit (the Sun) being assigned to body (the Moon)? I want to stress that he only mentioned this briefly and explicitly said that this was speculation and not fact. Assuming this is true, it's quite interesting since the tetramorph suggests the importance of the syzygy through its strong emphasis on the luminaries. One interesting point is that the Gnostics and early Christians believed that after death the soul rises no further than the Moon which underscores this idea that the Moon is connected with the life/death cycle in some manner.

If you take the above two arguments, you can combine it with my reasoning about the tetramorph in the previous post and come to a rather interesting conclusion. The tetramorph seems to be suggesting two intertwined dynamics:

1.Taurus and Aquarius (the Moon and Saturn) imply fortune and karma.

2.Leo and Scorpio (the Sun and Mars) are related to actions/praxis in some manner.

Therefore the implication is that our fortune and karma are inter-related with our actions. This possible interpretation is undergirded by the fact that the Moon and Saturn are feminine, receptive planets while the Sun and Mars are masculine, proactive planets.

I think that the tetramorph is extraordinarily rich in symbolism. I wouldn't be surprised if there's additional layers of symbolism which I haven't realized yet. I do feel fairly confident in reaffirming my earlier observation that the tetramorph icon is likely a western version of the wheel of samsara.

Kubernetes wrote:

*EDIT: can a moderator reduce the size of the pictures? I dont know how to change the picture sizes but they're huge and take up way too much space.

You can do this yourself. If you upload your graphics and pictures from https://postimages.org/ You can change your graphics size to 640x480 for message boards Then upload your graphic to the Skyscript site. You can edit your posts here and change the size by deleting the code you used for the big pictures and adding the new smaller pictures.

Therese Hamilton wrote:Kubernetes wrote:

*EDIT: can a moderator reduce the size of the pictures? I dont know how to change the picture sizes but they're huge and take up way too much space.

You can do this yourself. If you upload your graphics and pictures from https://postimages.org/ You can change your graphics size to 640x480 for message boards Then upload your graphic to the Skyscript site. You can edit your posts here and change the size by deleting the code you used for the big pictures and adding the new smaller pictures.

Thank you! I'm very pleased with the results.

Kubernetes, I'm very happy this worked for you!

According to this scholar Yahweh is associated with the sign Aquarius:

https://youtu.be/-LVb9vysXwg?t=2347

This scholar has no in-depth knowledge of astrology, he just accidentally discovered this astrotheological connection. This is interesting because it correlates neatly with my prior speculation regarding the deity El and the signs Taurus and Aquarius.

Ea is a deity related to the middle eastern flood myths who told a man named Atrahasis to build a boat in order to escape a giant flood (Ea himself does not order the floods, his brother Enlil does).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ea_(Babylonian_god)

The story of Yahweh, Noah and the global flood makes a lot of sense if Yahweh is connected with Aquarius the water-bearer (which as we know is connected with flood symbolism). However, one gets the impression that the role of Enlil and Ea was compressed into a single entity in the Genesis flood narrative. Regardless, this is still a very interesting observation.

A common trope in contemporary Gnostic Christianity is that the Demiurge is a villain. I think this misunderstanding arises from modern audiences literally interpreting ancient religious texts that were written using unfamiliar literary devices. Also the lack of familiarity with astrological symbolism in Christianity (and the Platonic implications of it) makes it difficult to understand the allegories in Gnostic Christian mythology. Below I will clarify the symbolism underlying the Demiurge:

It's said the Demiurge was incompetent and because of this he created an imperfect world. This is a reference to the Platonic theory of forms. The material world being imperfect is a feature and not a bug; it's an intrinsic property of matter/duality. This reference would be immediately understood by audiences familiar with Platonism during the classical antiquity period. There's an interesting tangential comparative religion angle here with the demiurgic Brahma of Hinduism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma

In the Bhagavata Purana, Brahma is portrayed several times as the one who rises from the "Ocean of Causes".[50] Brahma, states this Purana, emerges at the moment when time and universe are born, inside a lotus rooted in the navel of Hari (deity Vishnu, whose praise is the primary focus in the Purana). The scriptures assert that Brahma is drowsy, errs and is temporarily incompetent as he puts together the universe.[50] He then becomes aware of his confusion and drowsiness, meditates as an ascetic, then realizes Hari in his heart, sees the beginning and end of the universe, and then his creative powers are revived

The demiurge Brahma is "incompetent" while putting together the universe which mirrors the incompetence of the Demiurge in Gnostic Christianity and supports the notion that incompetence is only being used in a passing, figurative sense. My understanding is that the Demiurge plays a similar role as ascribed to Brahma above, which is of a flawed but wise creator.

Another interesting observation is that Brahma arises from the "Ocean of Causes". This concept is possibly analogous to the moniker "Yaldabaoth" which is frequently used to refer to the Gnostic Christian Demiurge. The name Yaldabaoth means "son of chaos". This is often interpreted as suggesting the (Platonically influenced) Demiurge is chaotic or malevolent but I think the term is actually implying that the Demiurge arises from an ocean of chaotic unformed consciousness. Thus Yaldabaoth is a son of chaos but in a descriptive sense and not a pejorative one. Recall that Plato's demiurge of the Timaeus was a master craftsman who formed the world out of a chaotic stew consisting of the four primordial elements (fire, earth, water, air) present in the khora.

The overall point is the implicit understanding that the material Demiurge is a complimentary (and not purely antagonistic) opposite to the transcendental noetic Christ. The idea being that things fall apart (Demiurge/agnoia/dyad) and are brought together again (Christ/gnosis/monad). The underlying ontological raison d'etre is not cosmic error or conflict but rather divine theater. This is the conclusion of the Valentinian exegesis of the Pauline epistles per Elaine Pagels from the book "The Gnostic Paul" and one that I agree with based on the extant zodiacal symbolism in Christianity.

Something many people are unaware of is that the history of Christianity is very complicated, it was never as straightforward as the mainstream contemporary Christian apologetics like to portray it as. Particularly, in the early church there was a distinct schism between the proto-orthodox Christians and the gnostic Christians (Keep in mind there were also multiple sects within the proto-orthodox and gnostic branches themselves, neither branch were ever one monolithic sect self-identifying as proto-orthodox or gnostic for example). Below I've provided a handy platonic heuristic to help conceptualize the difference between the proto-orthodox Christians and the gnostic Christians:

The proto-orthodox Christians have a more terrestrial, matter based theology. They put a strong emphasis on the teachings of a physical Jesus that lived, died and was resurrected. They're associated with the more judaizing elements of the early church and this branch follows the church of Peter (In Greek, "Petras" meaning rock, which is very apropos for a more terrestrial oriented ecclesia).

The gnostic Christians have a more celestial, form based theology. They emphasized an ethereal, archetypal Jesus as opposed to a historical living Jesus (This is related to the docetism controversy). They were associated with the hellenizing elements of the early church and followed the teaching of the Apostle Paul who received his gospel in a spiritual vision as opposed to receiving it from a living, physical Jesus.

One interesting observation...Paul sounds like a vague reference to "Apollo", while his previous name Saul is a loose homophone for "sol", which means Sun in latin. Also his close colleague (mentioned in 1 Corinthians) that helped establish Paul's ecclesia was named Apollos. The deity Apollo is associated with the Sun which symbolizes the noetic world of forms. I can't definitely prove this but I get the impression there was deliberate punning with regards to the names of Peter and Paul and their respective roles (Peter teaching a more Saturnine, matter based gospel while Paul is teaching a more Solarian, form based gospel)

A layperson might ask, what's particularly gnostic/esoteric about what Paul was teaching? Well there's a large body of works dissecting the message of Paul and trying to understand what he was saying. It's known that in his letters he was using a large amount of gnostic terminology and concepts. Orthodox Christian apologetic scholars say this was just a coincidence or that the gnostic Christians appropriated his terminology in order to use his letters for their own heretical theology; meanwhile non-apologetic history oriented scholars generally agree with the notion that there were some genuine gnostic elements in Paul's (authentic) epistles. Personally I believe that the Apostle Paul was a genuine gnostic and I base this on three facts:

1.The earliest point at which the Pauline epistles re-enter the early Christian scriptual corpus was in the late 2nd century when they were discovered by the Marcionites which was a quasi-gnostic sect. The gnostic Valentinian sect were also in possession of the Pauline epistles around this time. To be more explicit about the significance of this, the gnostics were using the Pauline epistles before the proto-orthodox was. However, there is contention on this issue.

2.The Valentinians have detailed exegeses on specific Pauline epistles (Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Phillipians, Colossians and Hebrews*) which claim to explain the esoteric meaning** of what Paul was saying in these letters. Keep in mind that the Valentinians originated during the 2nd century AD and pre-date orthodox Nicene Christianity by well over a century.

3.In the book of Hebrews there's an interesting chapter which seems like a deliberate wink and nod from Paul to clue in the initiated reader that his corpus of letters are ultimately gnostic in intent. In Hebrews 7 he says that Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek means "my lord is righteousness":

melchi = my lord is

zedek = righteousness

However, zedek also means Jupiter in Hebrew. Therefore the alternate reading of Melchizedek is "My lord is Jupiter". This is significant because the sign Pisces is ruled by Jupiter. Christianity not only originated during the age of Pisces but the New Testament is populated with numerous references to fish, as well as the extra-biblical symbol of the ichthus.

As an aside, whenever there's astrological symbolism in the bible I always assume it's a reference to the esoteric, gnostic meanings in Christianity. This is for two reasons:

1.Orthodox Christianity completely ignores the astrological symbolism in the bible and has no say in the matter.

2.If you're familiar with Hellenistic astrology and its heavy Platonic philosophical underpinnings then by using the relationships of the twelve signs and seven classical planets you can infer an archetypal version of Christianity that's remarkably close to what the early Gnostic Christians were saying.

With regards to the astrological symbolism of Christianity, there's something quite interesting about Pisces, per Valens:

Pisces is the celestial sign which is feminine, moist, quite wet, bicorporeal, with many offspring, mossy, scaley, sinewy, humpbacked, leprous, two-formed, mute, motile, with rough skin, in conflict with itself because one Fish is northern, the other southern. It is moist, downward-trending, servile, changeable, with many offspring, bicorporeal, sociable/lewd, with some limbs missing, the cause of wandering, varied.

Pisces is inherently conflicted with itself because the two fish that make up the sign are swimming in different directions. This feels like the same dynamic that was taking place with the early church; the gnostics were going in one direction and the proto-orthodox church were going in another. This idea of Christianity being an incidental two-tier mystery religion is supported by extant astronomical observation as well. Below is a picture of the vernal equinox from the year 1 AD and one from 2023 AD which I provided for comparison:

This is the vernal equinox in the year 1 AD. Note how the Sun is firmly in the northern, upwards oriented fish, which suggests a certain celestial quality to it. This was around the heyday of ancient gnostic Christianity within a few centuries (The date in this picture is March 23rd instead of March 21st to correct the time when converting from Georgian to Julian calendar values).

This is the vernal equinox in the year 2023 AD. The Sun has clearly been following the more horizontally oriented fish (suggesting a certain mundane or terrestrial quality) for well over a millennia now which reflects the actual history of Christianity and how things played out between the gnostic and proto-orthodox sects with the proto-orthodox branch eventually becoming dominant.

There's a second part incoming, but this first part covers the major bases of the not widely recognized duality of Christianity. In the second part I'm going to elaborate more on the themes covered here and their theological implications.

*These exegeses are discussed in the book "The Gnostic Paul" by Elaine Pagels

**Esoteric writing was its own informal literary genre during the Classical Antiquity period. Many mystery religions/esoteric schools would have their materials written in such as fashion that the uninitiated would only come away with a shallow understanding of the doctrine while the initiated would know how to correctly read the materials and decipher its true meaning. In his astrological writings Valens alludes to this practice and more recently Robert Schmidt has talked about these kinds of coded writing/cryptic compositional devices which are used to obscure the true meanings of esoteric pieces of writing.

During the Classical antiquity period various gnostic groups shared a three-part schema for classifying the spiritual potential of people:

Hylic - People that aren't spiritual at all and lack an inclination for esoteric understanding.

Psychic - People that have some spiritual inclination, but only moderately so.

Pneumatic - People that have a strong spiritual inclination and ability to understand esoteric concepts.

I've provided these terms as a handy legend because I'll be using them frequently in this post.

One of the primary exegetical guidelines the Valentinians used was that "Jews" was actually referring to psychic Christians and "Gentiles/Greeks" was referring to pneumatic Christians. I've provided a picture from my copy of The Gnostic Paul (pg.18 ) where it first explains the concept. I have a few thoughts regarding this:

1.Presumably the reason that "Jews" indicated psychic Christians was because of Judaism's classic connection with Saturn. Saturn symbolizing the manifested material world as opposed to the unmanifested world of forms. The psychic Christians are metaphorically "Jewish" because they only understand Christianity in very carnal, literal terms as opposed to allegorical, transcendental ones. However, in various instances throughout the exegeses "Jews" (along with other code words) can refer to matter in general and doesn't always refer to psychic Christians.

2.The Valentinians used the four gospels (John was their favorite) and the Pauline epistles, although I'm not sure about the rest of their canon as far as books from the New Testament are concerned. What this suggests is that if the Pauline epistles can be read using such a code then it's likely the gospels can be read in such a manner too.

3.These Valentinian exegeses don't explicitly spell out the astrological reasoning behind their usage of "Jews" or their other interpretations however much of what they say fits neatly within a Platonic/Hellenistic astrological framework. If you're familiar with Platonic Hellenistic astrology then it's much easier to understand the exegeses (they're still tedious sometimes though).

4.I believe the presence of astrological symbolism (even indirect, as is the case with "Jews") can be used as guidelines to arrive at the correct exegesis for a given passage.

5.I theorize that "Gentiles/Greeks" refers to pneumatic/gnostic essence because the Greeks considered Zeus/Jupiter as the king of the gods and this heavily influenced their culture. Jupiter of course rules "gnosis". By extension, western civilization (which is heavily influenced by ancient Greek culture) has always felt quite Jupiterian to me.

I want to expand on point #1 with a detailed example. I'll be examining Jesus's Jewish background through psychic and pneumatic Christian lenses:

psychic Christians - They place a large degree of importance on Jesus' ethnicity and this influences their overall religious sentiments. Consider modern day Fundamentalist Christians; they're intensely Judeophilic based upon Jesus' Jewishness as well as practicing biblical literalism. Being "psychic" they primarily understand things through a material/carnal/surface layer perspective.

pneumatic Christians - They understand the Jewishness of Jesus as a metaphor for being born into matter, which is a condition that affects all of humanity. Likewise the pneumatics generally consider the bible as allegorical in nature and eschew biblical literalism.

Moving on, below I've provided a passage which demonstrates the usage of the code in actual exegesis:

Many of the exegeses make for tedious reading but they have intriguing elements, especially to someone familiar with Hellenistic astrology. One thing I immediately noticed in this passage is that the demiurge Yahweh has a role congruent with Saturn, which he is apparently associated with. According to Valens Saturn rules "nemesis", which is the quality of judgment in proportion to one's actions, something similar to "karma". Although the original passage itself seems to be talking about judgment in an eschatological context and not a personal, reincarnational one, however that could be the intended exoteric meaning.

Regarding reincarnation, I'm not 100% clear about the Valentinian stance on it since much of their material was destroyed by the orthodox church so it's hard to fully understand what they believed, however there's a quote by a renowned Valentinian gnostic named Theodotus that's unambiguous on the matter:

"the gnostic is one who has come to understand who we are, and what we have become; where we were . . . whither we are hastening; from what we are being released; what birth is, and what is rebirth. Yet to know oneself, at the deepest level, is simultaneously to know God; this is the secret of gnosis"

To come full circle, this quote brings to mind the Timaeus (a story of the creation of matter) and how it concerns what is coming to be and passing away. The zodiac implies reincarnation (being a wheel, along with other reasons), and Christianity seems to be based upon astrological archetypes, therefore it seems reasonable to assume that reincarnation is a legitimate (albeit esoteric) doctrine in Christianity. Additionally, sometimes pictures speak a thousand words:

Interesting post Kubernetes,

Assuming that the concept of YHWH is related to Taurus/the Moon then this supports the gnostic belief that the Old Testament God was a demiurge like figure and not the "true" god. I base this on the symbolism of the Moon representing matter and the Sun representing form. Following this logic, the Sun represents the "true" god, which I assume is Logos or source (This is identical to the Hindu concept of Brahman and Brahma).

I think we are dealing with 2 concepts here. God or YHWH and his representation during a period (Taurus). Where the concept of God may have been altered during a specific period is very plausible. And even today, Islam is a lunar religion where God is never represented in a figurative form.

"YHWH is the name of God of the Jews. Among the Semitic peoples the reading is from right to left, and in Hebrew HWHY is the name of ZEUS the supreme god in Greek mythology. The name ZEUS is based on the theme "dy-eu", derived from the Indo-European root *dei- which means to SHINE , it is also at the origin of the Sanskrit "dyau" meaning BRIGHT SKY , and of the Latin "dies" meaning DAY . In ancient Greek, it is found in the words "éndios" and "eudía" which designate MIDI (Mid-Day) respectively."
http://secretebase.free.fr/religions/in ... ention.htm

Ouranos wrote:Interesting post Kubernetes,

Assuming that the concept of YHWH is related to Taurus/the Moon then this supports the gnostic belief that the Old Testament God was a demiurge like figure and not the "true" god. I base this on the symbolism of the Moon representing matter and the Sun representing form. Following this logic, the Sun represents the "true" god, which I assume is Logos or source (This is identical to the Hindu concept of Brahman and Brahma).

I think we are dealing with 2 concepts here. God or YHWH and his representation during a period (Taurus). Where the concept of God may have been altered during a specific period is very plausible. And even today, Islam is a lunar religion where God is never represented in a figurative form.

"YHWH is the name of God of the Jews. Among the Semitic peoples the reading is from right to left, and in Hebrew HWHY is the name of ZEUS the supreme god in Greek mythology. The name ZEUS is based on the theme "dy-eu", derived from the Indo-European root *dei- which means to SHINE , it is also at the origin of the Sanskrit "dyau" meaning BRIGHT SKY , and of the Latin "dies" meaning DAY . In ancient Greek, it is found in the words "éndios" and "eudía" which designate MIDI (Mid-Day) respectively."
http://secretebase.free.fr/religions/in ... ention.htm

Hello, thanks for your comment. I don't agree with the excerpt you posted, I've heard of YHWH being the same as Zeus before but I think this is incorrect. I have many reasons for thinking this but here is one example posted earlier:

https://youtu.be/-LVb9vysXwg?t=2347

YHWH is synonymous with Ea/Enki/Aquarius for both etymological reasons and thematic ones as well. Here is a different, scholarly reason why YHWH isn't synonymous with Zeus/Jehovah:

https://www.logosapostolic.org/bible_st ... Yahweh.htm

I do admit that this is a complicated topic and I could be mistaken though.