The "Christmas Star" --Then & Now

     In December 2020, there has been much talk of a “Christmas Star.”  It is actually a close planetary conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn.  The closest pass happened last night, December 21st, the Winter Solstice.  I have added pictures below.

     In early evenings of June 2015, there was a fairly close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter (the second and third brightest objects in the night sky, after the moon.)  They didn’t get as close as this conjunction.
    What might that original “Christmas star” have been?  Paul Meier is a Christian pastor and former history professor at Western Michigan University.  [First, an “aside.”  For trivia buffs, Western Michigan is the school that the real Tim Allen and his fictional counterpart, Tim Taylor (on Home Improvement) attended.]  Meier's thoughts are the basis for a lot of what is contained here.  
     The idea of a star twinkles throughout Hebrew history.   Numbers 24:17, written by Moses, was a bit of Hebrew poetry, spoken by a false prophet who was trying to “profit” off of cursing Israel.  (His name was Balaam.)  Instead of a curse, part of what Balaam said was:
   I see Him, but not now:
   I look upon Him, but not near;
   A star shall come out of Jacob [the ancestor of Israel];
   A scepter shall rise out of Israel…”
     As Jews over the centuries hoped for their Messiah, their Anointed One [which is what “Christ” means], many expected a star to accompany Him.  The six-pointed Star of David [King David] has symbolized the People of Israel from Old Testament times to today’s Israeli flag. The five-pointed Star of Solomon, David’s son, and David’s six-pointed star, show up in stone at archaeology sites.
     Scientists and Bible scholars have offered explanations for the “Star of Bethlehem.” The “Star” could have been a miracle sign, a miracle star, a supernova, a comet, or a conjunction of planets.  If it was one or more observable astronomical events, ancient records can supply some insight.  Ancient Chinese astronomy records are the best. But the appearance of something miraculous cannot be tested—or discounted, for that matter.
     Magi was the technical term for the Wise Men, a term with shadings of “magicians.”  They probably came from Persia (modern-day Iran) to Bethlehem. Why would they do this? One possibility is God used the Magis’ fascination with astrology to draw them to Judea. In ancient astrology, the giant planet Jupiter was considered the “King’s Planet,” for it represented to the Romans the highest god and ruler of the universe: Marduk to the Babylonians and Zeus to the Greeks.  In Hebrew Jupiter is called "Sedeq", meaning "righteousness", a term also used for the Messiah. 
     The ringed planet Saturn was seen as the shield or defender of Palestine, while the constellation of Pisces, which was also associated with Syria and Palestine, represented major events and crises.  Jupiter encountering Saturn in the sign of the Fishes would have meant that a divine and cosmic ruler was to appear in Palestine at a major point of history.
     Jupiter and Saturn traveled very close to each other in the night sky, and in May, September, and December of 7 BC, they appeared almost joined.  Mars joined the configuration in February of 6 B.C.  In 6 BC, Jupiter was occasionally blocked out ("eclipsed") by the Moon in the constellation Aries. Jupiter’s status as a kingly star was amplified when Jupiter was in close conjunctions with the Moon. The second blocking out on April 17 coincided precisely when Jupiter was 'in the east.'  This situation could be the condition mentioned twice in the biblical account about the Star of Bethlehem.

     Jesus was born sometime between 6 and 4 B.C., with B.C. numbers running opposite our AD numbers. This confusion arose because the man who developed this timeline miscalculated on the date of the founding of Rome.  We know that Jesus had to have been born this early (i.e. before AD 1) because King Herod the Great died in March or April of 4 B.C.  Jesus could have been born as much as two years before, though, because rotten Herod, according to the Bible, ordered all the baby boys in Bethlehem under the age of two to be killed.  Herod had found out about the matter of another King being born from the Magi and wanted Him killed.
     In 1871, English astronomer John Williams [not to be confused with the modern music composer and conductor! 😉] published a list of comets taken from Chinese records.  Comet No. 52 on the Williams list appeared for some seventy days in March-April of 5 B.C. near the constellation Capricorn and would have been visible in both the Far and Near East. As each night wore on, the comet would seem to have moved westward across the southern sky.  [Did you track the movements of the comet from spring 2020?  Did any of you see the much brighter Hale-Bopp Comet in the late 1990s?]
     The time is also very appropriate. This could indeed have been the Magi's marker. Comet No. 53 on the Williams list was a "tailless comet", which could have been a nova, an exploding star. No. 53 appeared in March-April of 4 B.C. — a year after the comet with the tail.  It was visible all over the Far and Middle East.  
     Dr. Meier thinks it happened this way:  The conjunctions from 7-6 B.C. alerted the Wisemen to look for important developments in Palestine.  Maybe some Jews living near them alerted them to Old Testament interpretations.  [Not noted by Meier, but also possible: one or more studied the Old Testament, as well as other people's writings; or maybe one or more of the Magi was Jewish.]

  The comet of 5 B.C. reinforced this idea that an important new King was arriving in Palestine. This set them on their way.  The supernova of 4 BC appeared after they had stopped in Jerusalem and spoken to suspicious King Herod.  Dr. Meier believes that Jesus might have been born in the winter of 5-4 B.C.  He has been to the Holy Land many times and has asserted that shepherds do, indeed, stay out "watching their flocks by night", even in Judean winters.
     On the other hand, maybe the planetary conjunctions came closer to Jesus' actual birth in 6 B.C., and the Wise Men simply got there later.  The story in Matthew speaks of the Holy Family being in a house and refers to Jesus as a Child, not a Baby.  Maybe the family had planned to stay on in Bethlehem, to get away from Nazareth gossip about the couple getting married earlier than planned and Mary being pregnant before a full year of betrothal had passed.  In that culture, betrothal was to last a full year, and the couple was expected to defer sexual activity until after the wedding. 
     On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer in Earth’s night sky than they have since 1226 A.D.  They were not fully joined, though.  Jupiter and Saturn sat just 0.1 degrees apart, or a mere one-fifth the width of the Moon, as the Moon appears to us.  They did look quite near, though, to the naked eye.
     December 21^st was also the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.  This was the first day of winter and the longest night of the year.  The Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun at this time.  This has nothing to do with how close or far we are from the Sun.  In fact, we’re slightly closer to the Sun in January than at any other time of the year!  

Telescope image

Simple camera image

What Color Is Your Christmas?

Customs say that Christmas colors

Feature red and green:

Reams and reams of dusty paper

Tell what these hues mean.

Newer en vogue Christmas pallettes

Favor blue and silver-- 

Mildest hints of bracing cold,

Tinselly chills with frosty lure.

"I'm dreaming of a...

    ...blue, blue Christmas."

Irving wrote of Christmas white,

Decked in sparkling snow;

Here an unplanned black-eyed Susan

Joins planned lemons dressed in yellow.

"Susan" on December 1st

Lemons on December 17th
Photo by my husband

Others might await their snow:

Winters here bring liquid flow.

Yet our rain has gone away--

Still not back this holiday.

If the rain falls on us all,

Good and evil both the same*,

What does this prolonged' drought

Say of our respective blame?

Christmas comes, Christmas goes,

Elsewhere as they brave the snows.

Christ's love blankets all our sin:

Someday all that's right will win.

--C. Marie Byars; (c) December, 2020

*Matthew 5:45

This poem forms a triptych with two other poems on our lack of rain:

Rain Redux

Perspectives

It partially "twins" with the black-eyed Susan poem below and forms a partial "triptych" with the visuals in all three of these posts:

Black-Eyed Susan (poem)

Black-Eyed Susans (homegrown images)

 

Rain Redux*

Rain, rain, come again;

Drought and dryness starts to drain.

Rain, rain, come and stay:

Stay again another day.

Arizona wants some rain

Which we've too long sought in vain;

Rain that's gone away since May:

We would welcome shades of gray. 

Father, who once cursed the soil,

Saying now that we must toil,

Still You show amazing grace,

To Your falt'ring human race---

SOOOO

Rain, rain, come and play

Stay with us another day.

---C. Marie Byars, (c) November, 2020

*Redux, both because of the importance of "again" in the original rhyme and this poem. Also, "redux", because this poem comes in tandem with my poem of earlier this year, discussing the distress of Arizona's already long-standing lack of rain then, which is even worse now.

(It was a challenge writing a poem with deeper thoughts using the "punch" and even "taunt-like" meter of the original rhyme.)

Here's the previous poem that "twins" with this

Perspectives

Volunteering

 

During this COVID time, we are limiting our travelling and exposure. We did take some time to do some socially distanced, responsible  volunteer painting.  (My husband held the ladder while I got up into the pinnacle!)

Perspectives

"Rain" means something other
If you're not from Arizona:
"Into every life..."*
(Twist you here the knife)
"A little rain must fall..."*
(Unmitigated gall).

At last God sent us rain
To ease this climate's pain
Elsewhere they have floods--

Nature's twisted torsades.**

I pray You come again,
Far moreso than the rain;
I want to see Your Face:
Lord, Jesus, come with haste.

---c.m.b.  (c), 2020

(a summer of record breaking 110+ days in Phoenix; no rain; high ozone)

*A paraphrase from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Rainy Day"  (see link below)

**Torsades:  an irregular heart rhythm

"The Rainy Day", by Longfellow

Lilies on My Table

 Flowers I bought to off-set the wicked heat and drought outdoors. Set on our bird themed tablecloth, a gift to ourselves for our last anniversary.  They opened over a couple of days, just as the store promised.

Add caption

[Joy & Peace in Believing]

(from the Olney Hymns)

Sometimes a light surprises
     The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord who rises
     With healing on His wings;*
When comforts are declining,
     He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
     To cheer it after rain.

In holy contemplation
     We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God's salvation,
     And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow,
     We cheerfully can say,
E'en let the unknown to-morrow
     Bring with it what it may!

It can bring with it nothing,
     But He will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing,**
     Will clothe His people too;
Beneath the spreading heavens
     No creature but is fed;
And He who feeds the ravens
     Will give His children bread.

Though vine nor fig tree neither***
     Their wonted fruit shall bear,
Though all the field should wither,
     Nor flocks nor herds be there:
Yet God the same abiding,
     His praise shall tune my voice;
For, while in Him confiding,
     I cannot but rejoice.

 --William Cowper [pronounced "Cooper"], 1779; part of Olney 

hymns, written alongside his friend, John Newton, author of 

"Amazing Grace" 

*Malchi 4:2--  the Sun of Righteousness [Christ] will rise with 

healing  in His wings. This idea is also found in a verse of "Hark 

the Herald Angels Sing"

**Matthew 6 & Luke 12--  Jesus told His followers that God

clothes the grasses in beautiful lilies that outshine wealthy King 

Solomon's best clothing.  He feeds the birds, specifically ravens, 

though they don't work and plan as the farmer does.  Jesus tells His 

followers that His Father will certainly take care of them, also, and 

that they shouldn't worry. 

***Habakkuk 3:17-19, a paraphrase.  If all else goes badly, rejoice. 

This is not idle, wishful thinking, nor pie in the sky optimism.  

Cowper suffered from crippling, pitch black depression at a time

before there were psychiatric medications. 

(Habakkuk is one of my favorite books of the Bible.) 

Nature is Never Spent (*)

"For all this, nature is never spent."*
As unto urban wastelands sent
Was this poetic English gent
Ourselves are now to parched lands lent,
Absorbing well what Hopkins meant.

I see no British Isles lush~
I look on desert city rush~
Adapting as that orange-breast thrush**
I find my own internal hush.  

"There lives the dearest freshness deep-down things,"*
As I admire our flowerings
And still the robin gamely sings.**

"For all this, nature is never spent."
On earth, this comes as form of rent
Until we dwell in Christ's new tent.***
--C. Marie Byars, 2020 (c) 
[during covid and unrest times, but not in direct response] 

*From Gerard Manley Hopkins', SJ, 1877 poem
God's Grandeur

**A U.S. robin is a type of thrush. Per various field guides, its wide range suggests it's adaptable.

***Tent/tabernacle/dwelling.  The Old Testament Tabernacle was a durable, highly ornate tent with a special purpose for worship. There, God's visible presence on earth could be found.  In John 1: 14, "The Word [Christ] became flesh and 'tabernacled' among us."  The Greek word for 'dwelling' means more literally 'tented.'

You Have Searched Me

(Psalm 139:1-10; 14. An original translation.)

Yahweh, You searched me;
Thus You know me.
My sitting down and my rising up You know.
My disposition You discern from a distance.
My path and lying down you sort out,
And my entire way You make useful.
A word is not yet formed on my tongue,
And, yet You, O Yahweh, already know it.
Behind me and in front of me You close me in,
And upon me have You placed the palm of Your Hand.
Too wonderful for me is this Knowledge!
She is high: I cannot reach her!
Where could I go from Your Spirit?
And where might I flee from Your Face?
Were I to ascend to the skies,
You would be there.
And were I to make my bed in the depths of the earth,
Indeed, You would be there.

Alamosa, Colorado KOA
(photo by my husband)

Were I to rise on the wings of the dawn
And were I to dwell at the edge of the sea,
Even there your Hand would hold and guide me,
And your strength would sustain me. . .
I praise You,
For I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful,
How rightly I realize this!

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower; 
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.
--Robert Frost, 1923 (1924 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner)

Cardinal, Sunflower and Violet
watercolor by my daughter when age 12
copyright held by artist

Ferreting out exactly what Robert Frost's religious beliefs were are difficult. Things are compounded by the losses in his life. However, as this poem alludes to the Garden of Eden, the first creation by God, and how it was sunk by the first sin (Genesis 3), it is being incorporated on this Christian site.
Although this poem seems bleak, it does speak of cycles of life that will continue to come about in this imperfect world: there will be new flowers or leaves on the tree next year; there will be a dawn tomorrow; people will die but leave their descendants after them.

In May

The time that hints the coming leaf, 
 When buds are dropping chaff and scale,  
And, wafted from the greening vale,
Are pungent odors, keen as grief.

Now shad-bush wears a robe of white,  
And orchards hint a leafy screen; 
 While willows drop their veils of green
Above the limpid waters bright.

New songsters come with every morn, 
 And whippoorwill is overdue, 
 While spice bush gold is coined anew
Before her tardy leaves are born.

The cowslip now with radiant face  
Makes mimic sunshine in the shade, 
 Anemone is not afraid,
Although she trembles in her place.

Now adder's-tongue new gilds the mould*,
The ferns unroll their woolly coils,  
And honey-bee begins her toils
Where maple trees their fringe unfold.

The goldfinch dons his summer coat,  
The wild bee drones her mellow bass, 
 And butterflies of hardy race
In genial sunshine bask and float.

The Artist now is sketching in 
 The outlines of his broad design  
So soon to deepen line on line,
Till June and summer days begin.

Now Shadow soon will pitch her tent
Beneath the trees in grove and field,
And all the wounds of life be healed,
By orchard bloom and lilac scent.

--John Burroughs, 1837-1921

*"Mold" in British English.  Flowers are now adorning the ground, where before moldy leaf remnants lay

The Bone that Has No Marrow

            [originally untitled]

Posting this for Lent, though it does not have specifically Lenten language.  Lent, besides reflecting on our personal sinfulness, is often a time of renewal, of seeking a new path. This poem hints at the need to do that, lest we flounder with no good purpose.      

                        #127

The Bone that has no Marrow,
What Ultimate for that?
It is not fit for Table
For Beggar or for Cat.

A Bone has obligations —
A Being has the same —
A Marrowless Assembly
Is culpabler than shame.*

Nicodemus Visiting Christ
  Henry Ossawa Taylor, 1899

But how shall finished Creatures
A function fresh obtain?
Old Nicodemus’ Phantom
Confronting us again**!

--Emily Dickinson, 1830s.  Part One:  Life

                                        
*A bone without marrow leaves nothing for a creature to eat.  A bone without marrow cannot fulfill its obligations of holding up the body.  A person who similarly can't hold up their obligations is shameful.

**The poet asks how creatures (people) without this structure can remake themselves. She revisits John chapter 3 where Jesus tells Nicodemus that a person must be "reborn" of the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God.  Nicodemus is puzzled.  Jesus says the Holy Spirit has to do the transforming. Sometimes John chapter 3 is read during Lent.

Flowers in February

The annual return of the snapdragons and African daisies.