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In the Roman Catholic Church, the body of Christ is symbolized as a round white disk in a holder called a monstrance, which often look like sun like rays around the disk. In fact many images depicting the sun can be found on clothing, jewelery, buildings and artwork of the Pope in the Vatican’s and in Saint Peter’s Basilica, in Rome. One of the sculptures depicting the four virtues (called the truth) is a Madonna standing on the earth and holding a Sun instead of a baby. This equates truth with light and with the Sun itself. The Catholic fathers often compared Jesus to the sun as they compared Mary to the moon. They said her light was not her own light but light reflected from her son, Jesus. Even the pagan day Sunday was named after Sunna, German goddess of the sun. It then became the Christianized Sunday, sacred to Jesus, because the sun was thought to be a fitting emblem. Some believe that the Celtic cross was introduced to Ireland by Saint Patrick during his time converting the pagan Irish. It is believed that he combined the symbol of Christianity, a cross, with the symbol of the sun, to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross by linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun. But If we look further back to the Roman times we find the similar symbol of the Labarum, introduced by Emperor Constantine. represented as a monogram formed by overlaying the first two letters of the Greek word for christ Chi (χ) and Rho, (ρ)
Labarum Chi Rho
But If we go further back we find that Plato explained in the Timaeus that the Celestial Chi- formed in the monogram of Chronos (who was father Time) represented the crossing of Solar ecliptic path with the celestial equator of the Earth. These two great circles formed a cross like the letter Chi and were said to form the word Soul, or law that governs everything. The point in time when these to great planes intercect is is what we call the equinoX. This seems to be a case where a celestial symbol was overridden with Christian meanings. Prior to the labarum, the earliest Christian symbol, was a fish-like symbol now known as Ichthys (the Greek word for fish (ιχθυς), an acronym for the phrase transliterated as ” Iesou Christos Theou Yios Sotiras,” that is, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Savior.” Others think the symbol of the fish was because it was the age of Pisces. Perhaps a most telling symbolic act of the Church conquering the past glory of the Sun God of Egypt was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, which was moving an ancient Egyptian obelisk to the Basilica in Rome and then topping it with a Christian cross. It is still there today.
Cross on top of Oblisk
Another Obelisk (built by Pharaoh Tuthmosis III in Karnak) was also topped with the cross and sits in the square in front of the Lateran Palace in Rome. Twenty other of the obelisks were moved all around the world, including one to New York Central Park. It is interesting to note that the Washington monument is proportional to an Egyptian obelisk and that the original design included an Egyptian style winged sun over the door way. Imagine if it was used as the center gnomon on a huge sun dial rather than a monument to the man George Washington!
A similar tall monolithic tree found in Norse Mythology, called the Irminsul was a symbol for the tree of life, or Yggdrasil. It was believed to have held up the whole world like an aXis mundi, meaning center of the world, like the center pole in which we now know the Earth rotates around. Yggdrasil was said to draw from the magic springwater of knowledge. This tree could be related to the basis of tree of knowledge of Judaism, and Christianity. While it may seem that this aligning with the Earth’s axis is not related to the Sun, in fact, this is really aligning with the four directions, which is then also aligning with the sun. This tree motif can also be found in Mesoamerican tradition as Wacah Chan, in Hungary as Világfa and also in Siberian shaman culture. In Buddism, the Gautama Buddha found enlightenment underneath the Bodhi tree. In South America, the Aztec’s version of paradise was called Tamoanchan and it’s glyph was that of a flowering tree.
© Copyright2009 Kelly Sabota-O’Donnell
Beyond the daily and yearly cycle of the light, there is the even larger cycle of the light known as the great year. This is due to the precession of the equinoxes because of the wobble of the Earth on its pole. The Mayans knew of this grand cycle years ago and this is why their calendar is due to reach the end of it’s cycle on 2012. To fully understand the great year, it is interesting to see how ancient symbols relate to it.
In classic Greek alphabet, the letter X is known as “Chi”. In ancient times, Chi represented the invisible X that is formed celestially when the equator of the Earth crosses (passes over) the solar ecliptic plane (the imaginary plane that extends from the suns equator) during the time of the equinox.
Chi
The tilt of the Earth’s equator relative to the ecliptic plane is around 23° 26′ 19’’. Interestingly, the shadows cast on to the Earth during the solstices oscillate from the top to the bottom of the planet much like the top and bottom part of the X. This is why “Father Time” holds the hour glass X at the Winter solstice, because it represents the trinity of past, present and future where the top is the past, the center is the now and the bottom is the future. “Father Time” is a parallel figure to Chronos, spelled Χρόνος in ancient Greek). The etymological root of Chronos relates to words such as cronology and cronicle. It also has a remarkable sound relation to Christos and the word “Crone” a term used for an old woman. There is also an interesting association to the planet Saturn which is named after the Roman god Saturnus (that became the namesake of Saturday). This ironic relationship is because Saturn is equated to the Greek “Kronos” who is the father of Zeus. This is also why the ancient festival Saturnalia was held at the time of the winter solstice at the end of the year. This may have also given rise to the use of the term “Xmas” around the time of Solstice. Indeed Chronos may have eventually morphed into Santa. The X turned on its side becomes a cross and can also can represent the four seasonal turning points on Earth, which are the Solstices and Equinoxes. These turning points gradually shift over time and this shift is called the precession of the Equinoxes. This happens because the Earth is not a perfect sphere and there is a slight bulge at the equator, which results in a pull from the Sun and Moon towards the ecliptic plane. This causes the pole to rotate 1 degree approximately every 72 years, which changes where the North Pole points into the universe. One complete precession circle of 360 degrees takes approximately 25,772 years and means that the stars that we see in the background will change over time. This is why the Aquarian calendar of Conscious Revolution, (which will be discussed in future chapters), starts the year on the winter solstice because it will then be reconnected with the advancement of the precession of the Equinoxes.
On the Solstice of 2012, due to the precession of equinoxes, the Earth’s axis pole will align not only with the sun but also with the Galactic Center of the Milky Way Galaxy. In a sense, it can be compared to 12:00 midnight of the daily cycle, or a Winter solstice of the yearly cycle, but it is a higher order of the pole cycle and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius.
Procession Of Equinoxes
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© Copyright 2009 Kelly Sabota-O’Donnell
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