Astrotheology / Open Lines

Author Micah Dank joined guest host Richard Syrett (Twitter) on Friday night to discuss the field of astrotheology and striking parallels between the signs of the Zodiac and the biblical narrative of Jesus. "In the New Testament [astrotheology] talks about the Son of God being the literal Sun as it goes through the twelve signs of the Zodiac," Dank said. The evidence for the story of Jesus being astrological allegory is fairly conclusive, he added. To make his point, Dank correlated the Christmas Story of Jesus with the movement of the Sun through the signs of the Zodiac.

Each December 25 the Sun is re-born as it begins to rise an additional degree each day, making the days longer until June 21 when the Sun remains in place for three days before continuing to rise again, Dank explained.The metaphor represents Jesus birth and his body remaining in the grave for three days before rising again, he noted. The signs of Capricorn and Sagittarius parallel Jesus' birth in a stable between the constellations of the horse and goat, Dank continued.

When the Sun enters Virgo, represented by a maiden with wheat, it corresponds to Bethlehem (which means "House of Bread") and Jesus' title as the "Bread of Life," he revealed. Dank covered how Leo represents Jesus as the "Lion of Judah" as well as why the New Testament account records 30 years from Jesus' birth until he was baptized by John. This period is associated with Saturn and the planet's 30 year orbit of the Sun, and takes place under the sign of Aquarius, he pointed out.

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Open Lines followed in the latter half of the program. Daniel in Arkansas recounted a ghost story that happened to him while visiting his girlfriend's family. According to Daniel, he was sitting at a card table playing board games when he spotted something in his periphery. "There's a little girl, prepubescent, nine or ten years old, I would guess, long dark hair... kneeling between [my girlfriend's] mother and myself," he explained, noting he would have seen her had she walked in to join them. None of the others there saw her and she eventually vanished, Daniel added. Later, Daniel spotted the little girl in a old photo at his girlfriend's grandparents' house and was told she was a deceased relative.

Betsy from Manhattan, Kansas, told Richard about the time she was walking with her daughter and spotted an unusual smoke cloud in the sky. It did not appear to be coming from anywhere, she recalled. "The smoke kept moving on its own, and then it kept getting bigger, and it transformed into a stagecoach with horses," Betsy said, adding it took off to the north. A year later, Betsy went back to the same spot and saw the smoky stagecoach again. Sean in Portland remembered an unusual event after his father passed away last November from brain cancer. The day of his father's wake he was outside smoking a cigar when a pigeon landed on his head. It rubbed its beak on Sean's head three times reminding him of how his father would tap his head three times while instructing him, he revealed. "He would always do that to me," Sean said.