3. Astral Worship.
The worship of the planets and stars was probably a later development than sex and solar worship. It flourished for a time in nearly every part of the world, and left its impress on the religions that succeeded it.
In Chaldea, one of the principal sources of Judaism and Christianity, the worship of the stars prevailed. I quote from Dr. Ridpath: “In their aspirations for communion with the higher powers, the yearning of the ancient Chaldeans turned upwards to the planets and the stars. The horizon of the Babylonian plain was uniform and boundless. It was the heaven above rather than the earth beneath, which exhibited variety and life. The Zodiac was ever new with its brilliant evolutions. Through the clear atmosphere the tracks of the shining orbs could be traced in every phase and transposition. With each dawn of morning light, with each recurrence of the evening twilight, a new panorama spread before the reverent imagination of the dreamer, and he saw in the moving spheres not only the abode but the manifested glory of his gods” (History of the World, vol. 1, p. 138).
“Until today, in the high light of civilization, the idea of some kind of domination of the stars over the affairs of human life has hardly released its hold on the minds of men; and the language of the old Chaldean ritual of signs has still a familiar sound in the ears of the credulous” (Ibid, p. 140).
After alluding to the ancient Vedic religion, which recognized in the stars the souls of our departed ancestors, Prof. John Fiske says: “The Christianized German peasant, fifty centuries later, tells his children that the stars are angels’ eyes, and the English cottager impresses it on the youthful mind that it is wicked to point to the stars, though why he cannot tell” (Myths and Myth Makers, p. 76).
In the Zodiac the Sun had twelve palaces. Each palace had a star for a god, and each was subject to the Sun. Each day of the week was governed by a planet, and each hour of the day had its controlling star. Many scholars, including Jefferson, have held that Christ and his Twelve Apostles relate to the Zodiac and were derived from this stellar worship. The seven days of the week are still dedicated to the old planetary gods, and, with a few modifications, bear their names.
“Chambers’ Encyclopedia” says: “The Jews, as well as the early Christians, had no special names for the single days, but counted their number from the previous Sabbath, beginning with Sunday, as the first after the Sabbath, and ending with Friday, as the sixth after the previous, or eve (Ereb) of the next Sabbath. After a very short time, however, young Christianity, which in the same manner had endeavored to count from the feria secunda, or second day after Sunday, to the Septima (or Saturday), had to fall back again upon the old heathen names” (Art. Week).
The planetary gods Nardouk (Jupiter), Adar (Saturn), Istar (Venus), Nergal (Mars), and Nebo (Mercury), were all worshiped by the ancient Israelites. Istar was called “Queen of the Stars.” Moloch, the rival of Jehovah, who shared for centuries the worship of the Hebrews, had his blazing star, the emblem of his implacable cruelty. The worship of Astarte, daughter of the moon, and “Queen of Heaven,” whose emblem was a star, was introduced by Solomon himself ([1 Kings xi, 5]; [2 Kings xxiii, 13]). For more than three hundred years she had her temple in Jerusalem. And even today devout Jews address orizons to the new moon, a relic of the worship of Astarte. The rosary is a survival of astral worship. It was once a symbol of the stars.
The author of “Supernatural Religion” says: “The belief that sun, moon and stars were living entities possessed of souls was generally held by the Jews at the beginning of our era.”
The same belief was entertained by the Christian Fathers. Origen says: “As the stars move with so much order and method that under no circumstances whatever do their course seem to be disturbed, is it not the extreme of absurdity to suppose that so much order, so much observance of discipline and method could be demanded from or fulfilled by irrational beings?”
Out of astral worship grew the so-called science of astrology. Of this “Chambers’s Encyclopedia” says: “Astrology is one of the most ancient forms of superstition, and is found prevailing among the nations of the East at the very dawn of history. The Jews became much addicted to it after the Captivity.”
One of the so-called Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament reads: “There shall come a star out of Jacob” ([Num. xxiv, 17]). “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, ... and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was” ([Matt. ii, 1, 2, 9]). This marvelous event at the advent of the Christian Messiah was a complete “fulfillment” of what had been predicted centuries before concerning the appearance of the expected Persian Messiah, the original of the expected Messiah of the Jews.
Graves says that the language of Matthew clearly betrays the astrological origin of his story: “The practice of calculating nativities by the stars was in vogue in the era and country of Christ’s birth, and had been for a long time previously in various countries. ‘We have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.’ Now mark, here, it was not the star, nor a star, but ‘his star’; thus disclosing its unmistakable astrological features” (Sixteen Crucified Saviors, p. 53).
After referring to the prevalency of astrology at the beginning of, and anterior to, the Christian era, Strauss says: “When such ideas were afloat, it was easy to imagine that the birth of the Messiah must be announced by a star, especially as, according to the common interpretation of Balaam’s prophecy, a star was there made the symbol of the Messiah. It is certain that the Jewish mind effected this combination; for it is a rabbinical idea that at the time of the Messiah’s birth a star will appear in the east and remain for a long time visible.... In the time of Jesus it was the general belief that stars were always the forerunners of great events.”
Jesus in the Apocalypse declares himself to be “the bright and morning star” ([xxii, 16]). He “had in his right hand seven stars” ([i, 16]). “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches” ([20]). His second coming will be heralded by “signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars” ([Luke xxi, 25]).
The star of the Magi which pointed so unerringly to the cradle of Christ points not less unerringly to one of the sources from which Christ came.