The Celestial Branch – Constellation Ophiuchus
Asclepius & Rho Ophiuchus
“This is the constellation which is in Scorpion, having in both hands a serpent. It is said, indeed, to be Asclepius whom Zeus, as a favor to Apollo, raised up among the stars. He employed his medical skill to revive even those already dead, among whom the last was Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, and the gods took this unfavorably lest their honors be curtailed if Asclepius were able to accomplish such deeds; therefore it is said that Zeus in his wrath hurled a thunderbolt at his dwelling; then for Apollo’s sake he raised Asclepius to the stars.
It has a sufficient brilliance although it is in the largest star, that is, Scorpion, and it shines forth in clear outline.” Edelstein and Edelstein, Asclepius, Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies, Vol. I, pp. 58-59 citing Ps. Eratosthenes, Catasterismi, I, 6.
These divinities, which we do not see among the stars, inasmuch as they do not have their own characteristic signs, share their powers with others. Just as Ophiuchus is Asclepius himself… so the Ram is recognized as the star of Minerva. Emma J. Edelstein and Ludwig Edelstein, Asclepius, Vol. I, p. 59 citing Servius, Commentarii in Aeneidem, XI, 259.
Constellation Ophiuchus gets my vote for Best Kept Secret in the Known Universe. Besides its preeminently powerful location on the zodiac belt, the history, myth, and lost oral traditions underlying this surprise star sign make it one of the most important rediscoveries in modern metaphysical history.
The constellation’s name “Ophiuchus” (also called “Serpentarius”) is a term meaning serpent holder or serpent bearer.1
Taken together with its giant serpent, the serpent holder constellation technically consists of three constellations, a snake holder and a snake in two parts (Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda). The snake holder is literally standing on the zodiac belt north of and between constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius holding on to what has historically been pictured as a single python-sized snake.
The constellation we are told takes its storyline from the myth of Asclepius, a master physician par excellence who lived and practiced the healing arts in ancient Greece in or around 1400 BCE2 and who was killed by Zeus with a thunderbolt for an offence that varies according to the version of myth one consults.
Of particular relevance to the constellation’s meaning in the context of the present day is a prophecy from the Roman mythic period recorded in Ovid’s Metamorphoses3 referring to a second renewal of Asclepius’s destiny that by my calculation has not occurred yet.
“Ocyrrhoë, the daughter of the Centaur Chiron, attempting to predict future events, tells her father the fate of the child Æsculapius, on which the Gods transform her into a mare. * * * She was not contented to learn her father’s arts only; but she sang the secrets of the Fates. Therefore, when she had conceived in her mind the prophetic transports, and grew warm with the God, whom she held confined within her breast, she beheld the infant, and she said, “Grow on, child, the giver of health to the whole world; the bodies of mortals shall often owe their own existence to thee. To thee will it be allowed to restore life when taken away; and daring to do that once against the will of the Gods, thou wilt be hindered by the bolts of thy grandsire from being able any more to grant that boon. And from a God thou shalt become a lifeless carcase; and a God again, who lately wast a carcase; and twice shalt thou renew thy destiny.” Ovid, Metamorphoses II, FABLE X, Ocyrrhoë. (Roman epic C1st B.C.E. to C1st A.D.)
As the popular version of the myth of Asclepius ends, Zeus places the slain mortal Asclepius in the sky (first death). Asclepius’s ensuing career as a Greek god (first renewal of his destiny) ends with his being dispatched by the Christians in the pagan overthrow period along with the rest of the gods and goddesses of the time (second death).
His destiny role as “savior of the whole world” is usurped by the Holy Roman Empire in the name of the new dying god and savior, Jesus Christ. But the body of stars to which Zeus remanded Asclepius has remained unconquered and undisturbed all this time, partially because astrologers and astronomy scientists were targeted for conformity compliance or extinction by the Church Fathers.
But the stars and the sign remained undisturbed [there was no way to get rid of them], preserving the memory and essence of the Serpent Holder and its mythos. Practitioners of the heavenly and metaphysical arts were reportedly persecuted and prosecuted to the fullest extent, in all likelihood to keep a lid on this esoteric truth that turncoat priests of the pagan gods to save their hides could not possibly have overlooked or failed to know.
To kill off an entire layer of the divine fabric, though, takes a lot more doing than the destruction of temples and peoples.
This history of spiritual anthropology and circumstance strongly suggests a return of the perfected essences of the Serpent Holder from the vault of the starry sky could conceivably renew Asclepius’s destiny a second time, completing the Roman mythstorians’ own prophecy.
Celestial Intelligence, Intelligent Universe &The Divine
The unabridged story of the serpent holder and its related constellation, with all of the details told and no stone left unturned, cannot be told because it is a work still in progress, with the so-called second coming featured as an unresolved legacy issue.4
Of perhaps greater moment than the second coming of Christ is what an impending second renewal of Asclepius’s destiny implies: That the stars behind the 13th constellation not only mark the Divine Asclepius as dynamic living light of Zodiacal Intelligence but are actually composed of the vital essences of a once human man or soul group whose earth walk only seemed to end when Zeus placed Asclepius among the stars.
For me it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that a body-mind-spirit-soul so commended, to be supra-interred, would be preserved incorruptible, freed of earthly constraints including gender bias, beyond Time and Space, to follow its dharma in continuance of a blessed and ordained soul family tradition in furtherance of that family’s cosmic agenda.
Fixed thus in the firmament of the heavens along with the myriad other created life forms referred to in the Book of Genesis, I reasoned if for example statues can weep and bleed5 serving as vehicles for the expression and facilitation of miracles leading the faithless to faith and the saintly to the mantle of sainthood, then by what form of arrogance do I formulate a judgment that in the vastness of the Universe the stars and countless other celestial objects don’t live and breathe according to their particular constitutions and act and influence the spaces around them in their roles as transcendent (by Earth’s standards) super beings? “It would be a terrible waste of space,” quoth Ellie/Jodie Foster in the movie Contact.
| “MAZZAROTH is a Hebrew word which means in general “The Constellations of the Zodiac.” The book of Job, which is thought to be the oldest book in the Bible, goes back to approximately 2,150 B.C., which is 650 years before Moses came upon the scene around 1,500 B.C. to write the Pentateuch.” From The Alpha and the Omega, Jim A. Cornwell, 1995, www.mazzaroth.com/Introduction/MazzarothDefined.htm
“The Mazzaroth is believed to have been given from God to Adam to show His plan of redemption for man. It was supposedly corrupted by the Babylonians approximately around the building of the tower of Babel in Genesis. *** It is believed by some historians and scholars that the purpose behind this astrological reference was a prophetic guide to the coming of the Jewish Messiah. The knowledge of this was known to many in the ancient world, being aurally perpetuated to succeeding generations from Seth (see the Book of Genesis, the 5th chapter) and eventually to Job and his contemporaries.” Mazzaroth From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Mazzaroth 02/03/2009 “Mazal” is literally associated with the twelve signs of the Zodiac, which are called the “Mazalot,” but we use the word in a way which means more than just the Zodiac. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto explains that there is a multi-leveled conceptual system through which HaShem interacts with the physical creation. In other words, “energy” which originates with HaShem travels through this system and eventually reaches us. At some point along the way, this energy is said to pass through the Mazalot, the stars and the planets, which then transfer it to the rest of creation. This explains how people trained in astrology may know what will happen to an individual in the future. They are “reading,” through the configuration of the Mazalot, the energy that is yet to be delivered. However, we are actually forbidden to engage in the prediction of the future via astrology even though it may work. The source of this prohibition is, “You shall be tamim (pure, perfect, simple) with HaShem your G-d.”Mazal (“sign,” pl. mazalot): 1. a spiritual conduit of Divine beneficence (from the Hebrew root “to flow” [nozel]). 2. specifically, the thirteen tufts of the “beard” of Arich Arpin. 3. a physical embodiment of such a spiritual conduit, such as a star, planet, constellation, etc. 4. specifically, the twelve constellations of the zodiac. 5. According to our sages, the Jewish People are not under the influence of the mazalot[145]. HaShem chose not to give the Torah in Nisan or Iyar, for the mazal of Nisan is a lamb and the mazal of Iyar is a bull and neither is capable of singing praise. Rather, He gave the Torah in Sivan, for the mazal of Sivan is twins, who have hands with which to clap and legs with which to dance.[146] In Kabbala and Chasidut, it is explained that the thirteenth mazal transforms the entire set of mazalot into attributes of mercy. This is because numerically, twelve is a closed, rigid, perfect system; reflected in the physical world by the twelve lunar months and the twelve signs of the zodiac; in the Jewish people, by the twelve tribes; in the spiritual realm, by the twelve permutations of the letters of the Divine Name Havaya, and so on. In each of these sets, however, there is a (sometimes hidden) thirteenth element that adds the flexibility and adaptive quality that makes the set alive, pliable and viable. This is perhaps most clearly evident with regard to the twelve lunar months. In the Jewish calendar, a thirteenth month is added in seven out of every nineteen years in order to align the lunar year with the solar year. Here, the thirteenth lunar month makes the twelve original ones into an empathic system that can coexist with its solar “mate.” Similarly, the thirteenth tribe, Levi, officiates at the Temple, reconciling the twelve tribes of the Jewish people with their “mate,” HaShem. The Mazzaroth (Zodiac), Hillel ben David (Greg Killian) http://www.betemunah.org/mazaroth.html |
OPHIUCHUS TIMELINE
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The impact of the above on the worlds beneath the starry canopy, if we let it back into our lives, has the ability to put a quantum spin on form and content of the science of astronomy while simultaneously pumping a restorative infusion of celestial life essences back into the body of astrology to evolve it into a space age paradigm.
Research reveals that the Asclepiads like the Egyptians from whom they learned were experts in many fields of science, being especially proficient astronomer-astrologers. In and around the time of Galileo astronomer-astrologers learned the hard way that their discoveries were considered heretical, capital crimes by the Christian church.
It was under duress and in dire circumstances that the simple language used to explain the signs in the sky turned into a dialect of symbolism so as not to conflict with the descriptions of God’s creations as found in dogmatic documents such as the Bible. Hence, the record in these matters is bound to be unsatisfying, however, in the natural unfoldment of future events the destiny of this matter will be revealed as surely as the previously hidden zodiac constellation Ophiuchus mysteriously experienced a spontaneous revival in the waning hours of the 20th Century.
Constellation Ophiuchus: An Argument For Intelligent Design
I don’t know what makes me think I’m qualified to explore the subject of intelligence let alone Intelligent Design but I’m going to give it a whack.
One look at the exclusive neighborhood Ophiuchus lives in gives us our first significant fact helping us determine whether IAU’s designation of Ophiuchus as a zodiac constellation isn’t, ironically, a product of science’s unwitting complicity in a demonstration of the principles of Intelligent Design.
Further, in asserting Constellation Ophiuchus was intentionally designed to be vitally influential in the healing, evolution and soul growth of our planet and our species, we start with the assumption that its placement on the Zodiac Belt is no accident and is, in fact, tied to its function and station in life.
The Milky Way Galaxy resembles our solar system in general design and behavior to the extent that it is comprised of a central star with lots of other stuff orbiting around it. Because the shape of the galaxy is elliptical, orbiting objects experience galactic equinoxes, solstices and seasonal conditions just like we do here on Earth in relation to our central Solar Star, the Sun. Hence, the geometric angles between galaxy, solar system, and Earth are more or less calculable and certain alignments can be expected to be significant for one reason or another.
Many ancient civilizations including the Mayans and Egyptians knew how the alignments worked and left documentation behind, but wouldn’t you know it, 99% of it has not survived to aid scientists in getting a sense of what the ancients knew that we don’t and what are the dates that we should be looking for.
There have been some key celestial alignments in the waning decades of the 20th century that have come and gone, but the upcoming date that has everyone on the edge of their seats right now is December 21, 20126, just three days after the Sun crosses the boundary between constellations Ophiuchus and Sagittarius. Sagittarius is the constellation that contains the Milky Way Galactic Center.
Milky Way Galaxy | You Are Here
The Hood
If we zoom in to take a closer look at the Galactic Center and its surroundings, we see a confluence of three constellation energies: Sagittarius (fire – life/father element), Scorpius (water – consciousness/mother element) and Ophiuchus (considered by Astrologers to represent the Fifth Element, Ether – the substance out of which the other 4 elements were created, and therefore either transgendered or omni-gendered), a constellation taking its overt storyline from that of the divine physician commended to the stars for resurrecting the dead without a passport and a visa.7
Here’s an asterism-style map in which there are no constellation boundaries drawn. It is not difficult to imagine what a tricky job it must have been to decide where to put the boundaries.
SN 1604: Death of a Star in Constellation Ophiuchus = Signs of Life
SN1604 | "Kepler's Star"
The last supernova to be observed in our galaxy was spotted in early October 1604. Although the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler was not the first to see and report it, it was he who conducted and submitted a systematic study of it. Hence it was dubbed “Kepler’s Star”. Its technical designation is SN 1604.
The lapse of over 400 years since SN 1604 lit up the sky between the easternmost foot of Ophiuchus the Serpent Holder and the Milky Way Galaxy Center is not this supernova’s only distinction. Studies conducted over the last 30 years using x-ray, radio and optical technologies kept scientists very busy trying to resolve the mysteries of its origins which they finally managed to do using data recently collected by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory between 2000-2006.
At its first sighting in 1604 Kepler’s Star was described as already brighter than all the stars in the sky. Within a matter of days the supernova surpassed Mars and then Jupiter in brilliance. It was still as bright as Jupiter as twilight overtook it and observers lost sight of it. Kepler reported that when it reappeared in the night sky in January 1605, it was still brighter than Antares (Alpha Scorpius) and continued to be visible with the naked eye until March of the following year.
An Astronomology Perspective
If you can’t make heads or tails of my tabulations, don’t worry. I do need to include this information at least for now whether I keep it in the book or not remains to be seen. For now, it’s in. Astrologers who want to learn the principles of Astronomology are going to appreciate that I’ve provided the data view.
These numbers basically speak for themselves and are included for the interest of astrologer-types who like to track such alignments. In that regard, apply the general rules of fixed star astrology which say the orb of an alignment between a planet and a star (considered akin to a conjunction) is 1° Ecliptic Longitude and/or 4’ (minutes) of Right Ascension. Matching Declinations within 1-1.5° and in the same hemisphere (+North, -South) are called Parallels; Anti-Parallels in fixed star astrology are probably of less importance but still tell a story. Allow some wiggle room for brighter stars and certain planets (Sun, Moon, Earth). In cases of a natural alliance I would tend to observe an expanded orb as well.
Rev. 06/25/2011
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Appendix A – Timeline | Appendix B – Major Greek Deities of Healing | Appendix C ~ Genesis: 1-3 Revisited
Copyright © 2005-2012 Donna Provancher – All Rights Reserved
- (Pronounced oh-fee-you-kus) from L., from Gk. ophioukhos, lit. “holding a serpent,” from ophis “serpent” + stem of ekhein “to hold, have, keep.” Ophiuchus. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Ophiuchus. ↩
- Asclepius, Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies, Edelstein and Edelstein Id. “In this year (1405 B.C.) Ilium was founded by Ilius, and Asclepius entered the profession of medicine.” (Choronicon Paschale, 7th c. A.D. Patrologia Graeca, 92 (Migne) 79, p. 232D: T.134 and citing also Georgius Cedrenus, Historiae Compendium, I, 147). ↩
- Metamorphosis is a mythological hexameter poem written by a Roman poet, Ovid (circa 43-18 B.C.E.) ↩
- This would constitute the First Coming in the Jewish religion, and the Third for the Greeks. ↩
- Weeping Statues and Icons http://www.visionsofjesuschrist.com/weepingstatuesandicons.htm ↩
- The 12/21/12 date is conjecture affirmed through consensus of the Mayan calendar experts who proffer their date under the caveat they are not sure their interpretation is completely correct. ↩
- Signs point to it being a handy thing (or perhaps as yet further evidence of Intelligent Design) the constellation is not named “Asclepius”. The generic name Serpent Holder stands free of gender bias. ↩
