What's Your Sign?

Nearly everyone knows the answer to the question asked in the title of today's blog. Astrology is so popular, even professing Christians have been known to take a peak now and then at their horoscope.

Horoscopes are based on diagrams of astral constellations found in the Zodiac. Many people believe there are only 12 constellations or signs in the Zodiac; however, there are a total of 48. The 12 familiar to many of us are those that lie along the elliptic orbit of the sun. That's the path in the sky the sun appears to follow as the earth resolves around it. There are 3 other constellations associated with each of the 12, making a total of 48 in all.

Many of the diagrams associated with the constellations seem to illustrate major events in the Bible. For example, there is Virgo, the Virgin, who is often pictured with a child standing on her lap. Consider also Aires, the Ram, which is associated with Cassiopeia, the Enthroned Woman, who is preparing for her redeemer husband, and with Cetus, the great Sea Monster that is bound before her. I could go on and on. All of this has been summarized quite nicely in a book called "The Witness of the Stars" by E.W. Bullinger.

Two additional observations worth noting are, first of all, the diagrams associated with each of the constellations are virtually the same across ancient civilizations. This suggests a common source. By the way, no one just looks up into the night sky at one of the constellations, and says, "There, I see it. It looks like a ram!" The diagram of Aires, the Ram, is based on only 3 stars arranged in a sort of triangle--not exactly a clear picture of a ram's head. The idea to impose such a visualization on those three stars had to come from someone. Again, since all the ancient civilizations represent the constellations with virtually the same visualizations, it suggests a common, ancient source. Some people think that common ancient source was Babel. The Tower of Babel probably was constructed with a map of the heavens at the top for religious purposes. God condemned such worship by confounding the language of the people and dispersing them across the earth.

Secondly, the signs of the Zodiac were known to the ancient Israelites. The Hebrew word for the Zodiac is "mazzaroth". It appears in Job 38:32, which also mentions some of the signs individually. This means the Israelites knew of the Zodiac and its supposed influence on life according to the pagans. The pagans, in fact, went from appreciating the significance of the stars as pointers to God the Creator and Author of the Plan of Salvation to worshiping stars and looking to them for guidance. Such practices were roundly condemned later on in the Pentateuch. For example, in Deuteronomy 4:19, God said: "And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon, and the stars--all the heavenly array--do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven."

With all this in mind, it is no wonder, there seems to be so little emphasis on the stars in the account of creation in Genesis 1. Clearly, God wanted everyone to appreciate that beauty of the stars (more about that in the posts ahead), but he did not want them to be looking to the stars for guidance or to otherwise get caught up with the worldview of that day.