The Star does not represent Jesus but the four theophanies of Christs divinity, the Star announcing primarily his advent, by association the four magi; the Sign of Aquarius his baptism by St. John (who like the Star announces his coming, Behold, the Lamb of G-d ) and his first miracle, the turning of Water in Wine at the marriage of Cana.debra wrote:And between the announcement and the second coming, we get a romantic moonlit seafood dinner with canine serenade!
So if we interpret the Star and the sign Aquarius in terms of a Christain paradigm, the question for me is how do we interpret the two folloing bodies in the same light?
Below the figures of the celestial bodies star, moon and sun are three tableaus associated with the zodiacal signs Aquarius, Cancer and Gemini.
Cancer is the sign of the soul's descent;* and we may associate it with Christs descent into the underworld upon his death, when the world became darkened. It is the sign of Job covered in sores, of faiths testing by Satan. It is also again associated with St. John the Baptist (precursor of Jesus who paved the way) in terms of the solar year in which St. John is associated with the Summer Solstice, when the Sun enters Cancer, from which point it decreases; as Christ is associated with the Winter Solstice, from which point it increases:
"He must increase, but I must decrease." said John.
And this phrase also associates John and Jesus with the iconography with the twins of the sign of Gemini, in which one ascends as the other descends. According to the Golden Legends John and Jesus were cousins, in Islamic tradition they are called the two of the two aunts; in art and literature they are represented as playing together as children. The two figures of the twins, the Increaser and Decreaser, thus represent also the Soltices of the Sun. As the sign of Gemini in pagan tradition represented the twins castor and pollus, one mortal and one immortal, so interpreted in the light of the Christain paradigm the sign was taken to represent the two sides of Christ, as human and divine.
Christ is represented by both the Star of the Morning and the Sun at Noon, the light of the morning triumphing over darkness, the beginning or birth of day also the birth of Christ in particular; and his birth in the flesh, the mortality of his humanity is trumphed over by death, when the world is darkended and he descends into hell; but death is triumphed over by his resurrection, his second birth into full glory, the full light as represented by the full light of the Sun at Noon as symbolic of the light of Christ.
"He must increase..." said John.
There was a fall (XV) and there will be a restoratation (XXI) between the first Judgement, which brought death into the world (XVI**) and the final Judgement in which resurrection triumphs over death (XX) there is that which brings an end to all things, time - represented by the signifies of time, the markers of the day and the night and of the seasons, the star, the moon and the sun. The providential hand of G-d works through history, motivated by divine love Caritas (of which in Augustinian theology the final Judgement is the exemplar), towards salvation and the restoration. In Christian paradigm on could say that history does not a beginning or end, but rather a centre from which history radiates in circles like the ripples on a pond, from the viewpoint of the infinite the past and present in an eternal now. Thus one finds reflections or refractions or holographs or prefigurements of that moment both before and after in every direction from the centre. And that centre is the birth, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SteveM
*Cancer and Capricorn are called the two portals of the universe; through the gate of Capricorn the soul ascends and through the gate of Cancer the soul descends.
**Judgment begins with the house of God.