The significance of this enigmatic star and its new-found meaning
What was the “Star of Bethlehem”?
It has been my tradition to tell this story every year at this time, first from my planetarium days years ago, taking the audience on a 2000-year-old journey from biblical times to the present day, until now and, more recently, here, at Astronomy for Change.
This year will be different.
To understand its new-found meaning, we need to look at it’s biblically significant origins and why it was important 2 millennia ago and how those very-same reasons persist until today, different people, same problem.
Many claim (physicists mostly) that time doesn’t really exist, that it is an invention to help us measure change and chronicle events. It is the “ever-present now”; the past is gone — the instantaneous-past, the previous nanosecond, gone; the future is not here yet — as I write this sentence, the previous sentence is a matter of history. As I write this ‘.’, it is now in the past. There is no future, just the “ever-present” now. So too, now, the biblical significance of the Star of Bethlehem hasn’t changed for 2000 years — it’s as though 2000 years have passed in an instant.
Why this introduction?
My conscience will not allow me to tell this story any other way. It must be told and told this way now and forever more.
Unlike the previous rosy pictures painted of western culture and civilization over the millennia, of their contributions since Greek and Roman times, history will not, cannot, record it, but as it happened now. The collective west was, and is, a witting party to a genocide unlike any recorded over the previous thousand years. It is ongoing and is The Crime of a Thousand Years.
Bethlehem is a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of modern-day Palestine, about ten kilometers south of Jerusalem. Christianity was born here 2000 years ago. It is here, from this land, 2000 years ago until now, that the Star of Bethlehem draws its significance. And it is here, in this region, where the genocide continues now, during Christmas week, arguably the holiest week for all Christendom.
We are living though historically significant times that will be recorded in the history books.
It will be our legacy, and it cannot be undone or unwritten. Many are unaware of these events or their significance, wittingly or otherwise. Those too stupefied with their devices and the “social media” culture are incapable. Some are too selfish, self-centered and narcissistic to even care, even if they took the time to read or make meaningful use of their time, to look out beyond their bubble. Others, young adults with no values or culture, the leaders of tomorrow’s world through 2050, are foolish, insipid and immature to a fault, more interested in seasonal shopping to know or worse, indifferent, to what is happening to the living descendants of Jesus, the man so many of them claim to follow.
Given the culture described above, it is no wonder why the genocide continues unabated or unchallenged. WB Yeats’ famous poem “The Second Coming” comes to mind here, specifically the first stanza:
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
It is from this backdrop that I tell the story
Brilliant Sirius with the stars of Canis Major, blazing bright in the Winter’s Night Sky is less than 9 light years distant and the brightest star in the sky next to the sun. Image credit: the author (c January 1986, Florida Everglades).
The following quote from the gospel according to Matthew is often found on holiday greeting cards and is heard around the world during this season as a message of peace and hope; the year is over, and it’s time to rest, to be with family, friends and to prepare for the new year.
Los Reyes Magos
“And having heard the king, they went their way; and lo, the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them, until it came and stood over where the Child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshiped Him; and opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh” (Matt. 2:9-11)
Orion with Los Tres Marias (the three Marys)
Orion animated zoom, beginning first with the full constellation, then closer to the 3 belt stars (Los Tres Marias) and then finally to the great nebula in Orion, Messier-42. Orion from rural Long Island, c 1970…Image courtesy the author.
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