The extreme points in the solar arc are called the solstices (summer and winter) which occur when the sun makes it's highest pass over the globe at the
Tropic of Cancer on June 21, and when it makes it's low pass at the Tropic of Capricorn. The mid points are called the eqinoxes (vernal and autumnal) and
occur when the day and night time are equal as the sun passes over the equator twice a year. The latter occurs at the beginning of the other two cardinal
signs of Aries and Libra. The scales, which is the sign for Libra, indicates the equinox.
Regardless of historical 'facts', we now celebrate the nativity of Jesus on December 25, just following the winter solstice and the shortest days of the
year. Because the human gestation period is synchronized with the solar arc, any one who is born at the winter solstice was conceived at the vernal (spring)
equinox (close to the Passover and Easter) in March.
The nativity of John the Baptist is celebrated on June 24th after the Summer Solstice meaning that he was conceived at the autumnal eqiunox in September.
John represents the sun at it's high point while Jesus represents it at the low point, coming up.
In Greece, Apollo the sun god ruled the Temple at Delphi for nine months of the year, while Dionysus ruled during the three winter months. In the Masonic
legends, Hiram is the sun and the three ruffians are these three winter months. The sun rules Leo, so Hiram is raised by the grip of a lion's paw.
Jews and Islamists begin their day at sun down, and they begin their year at the autumnal equinox when the sun crosses the equator heading south, the
yearly analogue to the daily cycle. Rosh Hashanah, at the new moon nearest the September equinox, in Jewish legend, is the anniversary of the day on
which God created humans and animals—the beginning of the world. Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, is eight days later.
Rosh Hashanah occurs in the seventh month; Passover occurs in the first month. The beginning of the first month is the new moon nearest the March equinox.
Passover was the full moon following the equinox. Easter falls on the first sunday after the first full moon after the equinox.
The reason for starting the day, or year or 'creation' at sundown or when the sun was moving to another hemisphere, was because in the solar scheme, the
Sun personified the soul. The scheme is a pessimistic one, and conceptualizes the the soul in the body as a person in a prison; the soul is said to have
died in some sense. This is the first death.
The sun god in the 'underworld' at night was symbolic of the soul in the body, in figurative darkness. At dawn, the light returns and the spirit is free
of the body and in it's own element. The sun at high noon represents the souls return to the heavens. Hence the reason for the death themes at Easter and
Masonic rituals. Death frees the soul from the body. Matter (female) is seen as something to be overcome. Science seeks to conquer Nature (female).
The yearly version of this notion sees the sun entering an underworld at the September equinox, at the nadar at Christmas, back in the northern hemisphere
at Easter, and peaking in the sky at the fourth of July. The appeal of solar worship is so strong that Constantine and the Bishop of Rome changed the day
of worship from Saturn's day to Sun day, which immediately made him new friends. Looking at St. Peter's in Rome, you can see that it is aligned to the
equinox sunrises.
John's mother was named Elisabeth.
That name only occurs in
one chapter in
the KJV of the Bible, the chapter that tells the story of the births of both John and Jesus.
The angel Gabriel appears to Zacharias John's father, a priest in the Temple, during what is called "the days of his ministration" (Luke 1:23), which as we
have already figured would be Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur at the autumnal equinox as the sun crossed the equator heading south. "After those days his wife
Elisabeth conceived" (John 1:24) John's conception parallels man's creation.
"In the sixth month" (meaning of Elisabeth's pregnancy 1:26) Gabriel visits Mary and tells her "behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also
conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her" (1:36); this would be at the vernal (or spring) equinox and the Passover. Jesus
conception parallels the Hebrews being freed from bondage in Eqypt, the body. Allegorically Israel is the soul and Egypt the body. Note that Mary and
Elisabeth are depicted as cousins here.
[56] And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house. John and Jesus are born to cousins six months apart at solstices after
having been conceived at the equinoxes.
In Luke 3 we read "Jesus himself began to be about
thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli" (3:23). This is the only use of this name in the New Testament.
It only appears once in the old testament, in 4 Ezra 1:2.
Joseph dreams and goes to Egypt. Matthew 2 It would seem
reasonable to presume that if Mary went to see Elisabeth that they would go to Egypt together, ie that John and Jesus grew up together; meaning that they
were not strangers when they met at the River Jordan.