September 23, 2017
by MJSmith
The following excerpt is from the Red Book, compiled by Richard Oaks. I have made a few changes to the writing. [All of my comments will be in these types of brackets.]
CHRISTMAS
Isaiah 9:5 – “For unto us a child is born…”
Over eighteen centuries ago, the advent of a babe stamped a new impress on history.
Little dreamed the Emperor, enthroned in his gorgeous palace upon the Capitoline Hill, that a babe slumbering in a manger in the obscure hamlet of Bethlehem, a remote province of Assyria, was to establish an empire before which the power of the Caesars must dwindle into significance. When the child Jesus was born, all the nations known of that period were in subjection to the government of Rome. Around the Mediterranean shores were clustered the thronged provinces and majestic cities, that gave Rome the palm of dynasties. The Atlantic Ocean was an unexplored sea. The Indies had but a fabulous existence. Rome was then the world, and Caesar was the governor of Rome. He could do what he pleased with the property, the liberty and lives of over three hundred millions of people comprising the Roman Empire.
Such power no mortal ever swayed before; such power no mortal will ever sway again.
For unto us a child is born
First – let us consider what gave this declaration its especial interest.
Second – what was the star they saw in the east that went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was? [It is possible that this star was the planet Venus, a.k.a., the morning star (which Jesus promised to mankind in Revelation).] Millions of children were born before the babe of Bethlehem, but they were not heralded by angels or tokens in the heavens. Even the material history of Jesus furnishes this fact, that the meek Nazarene was the most conspicuous character that ever trod the globe. Uneducated, he put to shame the arrogant Rabbis, overthrew the proudest systems of philosophy, ancient and modern; yea, warrior, king and philosopher went down before him, and his teachings and demonstrations are destined to take Christianity back to its primitive definitions.
But, turn we from the material to the spiritual history of the babe, whose infant wailings blent with the bleating of the goat and lowing of the kine, briefly to trace that history to its hour of gloom and glory.
The prophet Isaiah sang – for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And did not the Hebrew Melodist discern just cause for clapping hands, when a mighty Truth welling up from the infinite presented itself to mortal sense, and that sense kissed it and called it a babe?
And did not that wise seer forecast the destiny of Truth when he said, the government shall be upon its shoulder, it shall be a marvelous instructor, and omnipotent power, an imperishable Principle? But remember, the Hebrew bard in his grand epic referred not to that little bunch of flesh, phosphate and linen lying in a crib – but to the advent of a spiritual idea, the idea of Life evolved from Spirit, man begotten of the Principle of all being; perfect Mind reflecting perfect Mind and mind never starting from or resulting in matter; Soul not cribbing with beasts; Deity never blending with dust; Spirit untouched by evil passions and mortality. Retaining conscious spiritual existence and entity, the mind of Jesus retained its native domain, of Mind instead of matter. Hence, the control Jesus exercised over material beliefs, and the error called mortal man.
The existence of Jesus was identical with Truth, and the Life that is God. He demonstrated Spirit free from matter, and the divine Soul, the substance of man, and body but its accompanying shadow and this eternal substance never in its body or shadow. He knew that even as good and evil are opposites, so are the spiritual [sense] and material sense of things opposites.
The material senses declare matter substance and Spirit shadow, while the spiritual sense of things reverses this statement, and finds the only permanent and eternal side of things, the thoughts that beget them.
To understand this great fact in metaphysics, it is necessary to be born again; born of the Spirit and not of the flesh; and this was the birth referred to in those words of the prophet Isaiah, “For unto us a child is born and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful”.
Great epochs begin with the birth of new ideas, the development of an unseen Principle; unseen only to the material senses. When we enlarge our idea of God, it becomes more divine and less human, and this more spiritual conception of being has birth in higher individuality. But the highest finite sense of goodness is a feeble conception of infinite Love. In fine, it is but a babe born meekly because of its surroundings, clothed with worldliness, sin and self, as when Columbus gave birth to his conceptions of this globe. Whoever utters an impregnable Principle, turns the fortunes of the race gradually into a higher channel by the mild pressure of Truth.
It is the great conceptions of meek and noiseless birth, not the roaring effervescence, that change the existing state of things, and gently force onward. The silent light drawing artists’ pictures, cheering the cot, gilding the palace, glinting upon the couch of woe, glancing into the dungeon, melting the iceberg, brightening the flower, blessing the world, is unpretentious, but the loud whirlwind, that sign and product of disunion and weakness, passes on and is forgotten. The most notable period of the ages was that when a Galilean peasant uttered by the way-side and in humble homes, to artless listeners, dull disciples, and to wondering ears his simple sense of Truth, of how it healed the sick, saved the sinner and robbed the grave of its victory. He trusted those words to the providence of God, but in no fact seems the man of Galilee greater than in his serene sense of the immortality of those words.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” What a calm confidence was that in the superior permanence of Mind over matter! The late Starr King wrote, “If we study life aright, we shall never sneer at abstractions as visionary or unreal – for if they are false they are unsubstantial as the coruscations in the northern sky; but if true, they are permanent, impregnable as Principle; resistless as right.”
In Mary’s meek conception of man created by God, the Judean shepherds saw the Immanuel, for to their thought Deity took the form of flesh and blood; but the Virgin Mother knew her own idea conceived of God, and it was more spiritual, and so she gave it birth and named it Jesus [Savior]. Here the vision of Mary rose above the maternal instinct, giving place to prophecy, and mutely she pondered the fate of her son. Even a mother’s pride and fondness where not blind to the necessities of history when the divine meets the human and the human struggles with the divine; but conscious of the power of Truth, and the supremacy of Spirit over matter, she early made demands upon her idea of God to present this proof, saying to her son at the marriage feast, “They have no wine” and he replied, “Mine hour is not yet come.” But the persistent mother had a clearer sense that God gives dominion to man, and she urged the exhibition of this power and the demonstration that her idea was begotten of Truth, namely that Mind is creative, causal, and must present its own ideals. Therefore, she said unto the servants, “Whatsoever he saith unto you do it.” And Jesus turned the water into wine, and for this simple fact the Scriptures declare that by this he manifested forth his glory; and because of it his disciples (in the original texts, his students) believed on him; in other words, they understood measurably how he performed that so-called miracle. The world was at war then, as now, with the metaphysics of Jesus, because in every instance he made matter the servant of Mind. The all-engrossing care for the body; the absorbing desire for material dependencies; the craving for amusement and superficial show; yea, the sensualism entrenched behind every form of society, betray the fact that with us matter is first in all things and mortal mind has little faith in the power of immortal Mind; that wrong has little faith in right, in greatness or goodness, yea, in the power of Truth to destroy error. We ought to weary of that self that cannot fulfill more the powers of a higher destiny; when we try to subdue a perverse nature, to spiritualize thought, to elevate our aims or to exalt and consecrate the affections and prove them rebellious and trampling on the silken fetters imposed by a guardian conscience. But when we succeed in making Love and Life one in the vocabulary of our affections, we do well. Every right that is wrought out, however simple or grand, is a step toward harmony, the ultimate of being; yea, it is the birth of some higher idea of God and unto us a child is born. It was a pure thought, a virgin conception that laid the foundations and outlined the character of Jesus. Mary’s spiritual idea of man and creation was crowned by birthright, and her sorrowing son never sold his inheritance for a mess of pottage – to forego the frowns, or to purchase the flatteries of the world; but, animated by a divine sense of Life and its high behests, Jesus overcame the world. The purity of his origin was embodied and reflected in the character of Jesus. Science had in him a fit representative at the court of heaven; wisdom was justified of her child, and philosophy had to admit that the power of man is his mortal strength and spiritual status; that animal courage, brute force, or serpentine art, never constituted strength or manliness; they are a shame to a man, they belittle his true origin – belie his nature and betray the truth that must redeem him. The lowest animal propensities never produced a man; and a debased thought or a debased action was never made by law a high thought or a pure act, and the offspring of the thought or act betrays its parentage. When Spirit shall beget man, God will have created him, and he will be a man; and it will require no great sagacity to distinguish the entire man from a beast.
[The Bow-man, or Bow-son Archer – Sagittarius after being nullified by the Word of God (Leo)]
The word son had a broad signification originally. In the Hebrew, an arrow was called the son of a bow, a month the son of a year, etc. Jesus was the son of God in the Hebrew sense, only as a month was the son of a year; a month being a tiny representative of time. [Likewise, we have the zodiac constellations representing, pretty much, a month of time. Thus, depending upon the zodiac one has either twelve or thirteen constellations cycling on the belt for the whole year. Likewise, the Jewish calendar consists, not of twelve, but of thirteen months. And even though Moses separated the sons of Israel into a belt (cycle or wheel) in the Book of Numbers there are actually thirteen tribes altogether mentioned, for Levi is replaced by Joseph’s son Manasseh upon the outer wheel, while Levi is split up into four groups and placed in the center of the twelve tribes and encircles the Holy Tent of Meeting on all four cardinal sides.] Jesus was in part the representative of God, of Life, Truth and Love – he represented Life and its continuance when he healed the sick and raised the dead; he represented Love by self-abnegation, purity and mercy; he represented Truth, when with Truth he destroyed error. From the parable of the husbandman we learn how the ages have received the Truth presented by Jesus; how vanity holds guard at the threshold of history to shut the door on the angel visitant that hath not on an old time garment, saying, “This is the heir; come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours.” Let us stop the advancing steps of others, when we are unwilling to take those steps ourselves; and let the inheritance be ours whatsoe’er the cost; by killing the heir to a higher inheritance none may learn what are his rare possessions, or question the superior value of ours.
According to Dean Stanley and our most learned compilers of the Bible, Christian healing continued over a period of three centuries after the crucifixion of our Master. I love to contemplate that period, though it be dim with the mist of remoteness and the light hath faded on the mount of revelation. Over the track of time, swept clean by the winds of centuries, methinks I behold the untiring zeal, the struggling hope, and the pure faith of the Christian martyrs, and I see the right hand of their blessed fellowship take hold of this hour – healing the palsied palm, cleansing the leper’s conscience, plucking the feathers from the plumes of vanity, and Christian charity once more brooding with white wind over the churches, saying unto them, “Thou that killest the prophets and stonest them, how oft would I have gathered thee under my wings as a hen doth her chickens, but ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” In other words – the Spirit that healeth had fled. Well might the prophet say – for Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. When I remember thee, O Zion, with healing in thy wings’ thy walls were salvation and thy gates praise. We ought to have a new lexicon and a new life with the new tongue, we ought to set our light upon a hill that others, seeing our good works, may be led to Christ, Truth, the fount of all healing.
And lo! the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was.
The star watched by the Wisemen of the Orient [East], symbolized Science; those watching, willing, working sages guided by divine Science knew whence came the more spiritual idea of creation; and unto them a child was born of their faithfulness and love, the womanhood of God. [I believe that in this paragraph that Mary Baker Eddy is speaking of the second coming of Christ, with the woman God-crowned bringing divine Science, via a little book open – that of SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES.]
The Chaldeans’ faith in the stars, proverbial and prophetic, clothed those guardians of night with the beauty and mystery; they saw the fate of men and empires in a star, no higher revelation hung out upon empyrean where the rain hath a father who hath begotten the drops of dew. Unlike the Orient, the Occident [West] precipitates fate and divines it not, likening fame, fortune or power to a star, a scintillation in the sky of destiny [the second coming of Christ]. But today the face of the sky, replete with hoary intelligence, blushes at the dawn, for the star that once rose in the heavens has gone down to earth; the God of our day was the more befitting symbol of Science because Science rests upon the very altar of Deity. The sun, governing its system of worlds, symbolizes the government of God, and it was Science that rescued this sun from the definitions of superstition. Almost nineteen [twenty now] centuries ago – Science, symbolized by a star, appeared to Zion’s watchmen in the night of that age, a period darkened by the reign of the debauched Herod, and it guided them to the birth of a more spiritual idea, even to the Virgin Mother’s spiritual thought, and true conception of man’s real being, which thought that wonderful Mother made palpable, presented to others, and to their belief it became flesh and dwelt among us in the form of a babe at first – and according to their belief her spiritual conception of man brought forth a material man and was a miraculous conception (but it was not) and they called the babe Jesus. The prophet, however, gave this idea of Mary’s a more appropriate term – he called it, Wonderful, a Counsellor, a Prince of Peace. That spiritual idea of God, by man’s material thought changed to a belief of life, substance and intelligence in matter, was not changed from its spiritual basis to Mary or to her son and was this right understanding of creation by which that son afterwards changed the water into wine by purely mental process and through the understanding that form is evolved by and from Spirit instead of matter, and that we can gain no likeness of the Father of eternal Spirit from a material basis. Mary’s conception was the counterpart of God’s creation, of a scientific metaphysical creation, without a single material element, whereby to create, as when Spirit first said, “Let there be light and there was light” and “Let us make man.” This great metaphysical fact by which we learn that Mind evolves all outline, form and color, that the universe and man are created spiritually, and exist spiritually instead of materially; by which we learn that Life, substance or Soul is not in matter, has come down the track of centuries to our time, and again the shepherds shout, for unto us a child is born, a new idea has been given birth, and his name is called Wonderful, and we have seen the star in the east, the Science that guided us to this idea, and have come to worship its Principle for this Principle is God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Christian Science is the star of Christian destiny because it reveals this true idea of God, in the supremacy of Spirit, the one God, and the proper dependence of man on God as his one substance, Life and intelligence, a dependence such as the idea hath upon its Principle for all those original elements. This great Truth in metaphysics robs not man of his individuality, rather does it make him eternal in the power that Science confers, namely, that of demonstration, for we all admit Mind is immortal and if it can evolve its own idea and see it as a flower, a tree or a man, that thing is as immortal as the thought that begets it and as perfect as thought would have it. On this scientific Principle, Jesus, prophet and apostle, healed the sick and cast out error. Jesus’ demonstration was above theirs for he understood its Principle from his birth. This guiding star of Science hath led on the ages, and will lead on to our final spiritual ultimate where all tears are wiped away and no night is there to demand a star. The creative, or causal power, supposed to be hidden in the blind forces of matter, we learn in Christian Science adheres only in Spirit. This great Truth of being despised and rejected of mortal man, material thought in all ages, came to the waiting Wisemen of old, as it comes to the waiting heart today, a Prince of peace, healing the sick, casting out error, raising the dead, that is, resurrecting our understanding of Life from the basis of matter to the basis of Spirit, and of the increase of His government there shall be no end. When unto us this child is born, the age lays it again in a manger, binds it in swaddling clothes, nurses it in obscurity and decrees its death and yet we behold now as of old the power of Truth in meekness as in might.
I said, we ought to have a new lexicon as well as newness of Life in Christ Jesus, and I will add here are a few definitions I would place upon its pages.
God is omnipotent, therefore there is no power nor intelligence besides Him. Sin, sickness, and death are impotent because God is omnipotent. Drugs are anti-Christian, being employed instead of God to heal the sick; matter used in the place of Spirit is anti-Science. Drugs relieve a difficulty for the time being by permanently fastening on the patient the conditions that call for the drug.
Allopathy teaches that disease is properly cured by producing another and a greater difficulty [hum, is this why material drugs seem to have such terrible side effects?]. Homeopathy teaches the part is greater than the whole.
Christian Science, casting out error and healing the sick, teaches that all things are possible to God. Do you believe this? and how can you doubt it if you believe the Bible? Like the star of night the gentle presence of Truth comes to us in the darkness, when earth hath half-starved our angel appetites and we are an hungered; and it comes to cheer, to guide and bless – to point to heaven and lead the way.
Christian Scientists, on this anniversary of the nativity of our Master, we question thee. Has the light of divine Science gone before you a star in the heavens of Soul till it came and stood over where the young child was, to break the solemn night? Was it a divine hope, springing exultant on triumphant wing, sovereign o’er sin, the victor over sickness yielding glad fruition, a sublime understanding whose upward tendency told you it was a child of heaven born not of the flesh, but of the Spirit clothed with white winged charity and on the door of heaven the face radiant with goodbye (God be with you)?[1]
Now, let us take into account that Mary Baker Eddy represented the woman God-crowned (as does the Virgin Mary) found in Revelation 12. The morning star transited the sun twice during her God-crowned mission, once in 1874, the year before the angel descended from heaven with a little book open (SCIENCE AND HEALTH), and in 1882 when Mary Baker Eddy began to write letters to friends about her hidden mission as the woman God-crowned. The woman’s crown has twelve stars in it. It is possible that these twelve stars represent twelve constellations or twelve months (twelve sons, or nations, of Israel).
The following is for those who are ignorant of the second coming of Christ. [Again, my interpolations are inside these brackets.]:
The fourth Mary window.
“Revelation xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.
“Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science interprets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of anyone whom God has appointed to voice His Word [whether this be Christ Jesus or Mary Baker Eddy]. Again, without a correct sense of its highest visible idea [womanhood], we can never understand the divine Principle. The botanist must know the genus and species of a plant in order to classify it correctly. As it is with things, so it is with persons.
“Abuse of the motives of religion of St. Paul hid from view the apostle’s character, which made him equal to his great mission. Persecution of all who have spoken something new and better of God has not only obscured the light of the ages [astrological ages?], but has been fatal to the persecutors. Why? Because it has hid from them the true idea which has been presented. To misunderstand Paul, was to be ignorant of the divine idea he taught. Ignorance of the divine idea betrays at once a greater ignorance of the divine Principle of the idea—ignorance of Truth and Love. The understanding of Truth and Love, the Principle which works out the code of eternal good and destroys both faith in evil and the practice of evil, leads to the discernment of the divine idea.
“Agassiz, through his microscope, saw the sun in an egg at a point of so-called embryonic life. Because of his more spiritual vision, St. John saw an ‘angel standing in the sun.’ [This angel is found in a different chapter other than Revelation 12, yet the angel represents the same type of idea as the woman God-crowned.] The Revelator beheld the spiritual idea from the mount of vision. Purity was the symbol of Life and Love. The Revelator saw also the spiritual ideal as a woman clothed in light, a bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb of Love. To John, ‘the bride’ and ‘the Lamb’ represented the correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea, God and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth.
“The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence of God and man as the divine Principle and divine idea. The Revelator symbolizes Spirit by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance of spiritual Truth, and matter is put under her feet. The light portrayed is really neither solar nor lunar, but spiritual Life, which is ‘the light of men.’ In the first chapter of the Fourth Gospel it is written, ‘There was a man sent from God…to bear witness of that Light.’
“John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the immaculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual idea as the Messiah, who would baptize with the Holy Ghost, — divine Science. As Elias presented the idea of the fatherhood of God, which Jesus afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God’s motherhood [which Mary Baker Eddy afterwards manifested]. The moon is under her feet. This idea reveals the universe as secondary and tributary to Spirit, from which the universe borrows its reflected light, substance, life, and intelligence.
“The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals, — separated by belief from man’s divine origin and the true idea, — will through much tribulation yield to the activities of the divine Principle of man in the harmony of Science. These are the stars in the crown of rejoicing. They are the lamps in the spiritual heavens of the age, and show the workings of the spiritual idea by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting the light which shines ‘unto the perfect day’ as the night of materialism wanes. [In Revelation 1 we have the seven lamps being the seven churches of Asia. However, since these are lamps in the spiritual heavens of the age (Possibly the Age of Aquarius?) they could represent the zodiac constellations.]
“Revelation xii. 2. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
“Also the spiritual idea is typified by a woman in travail, waiting to be delivered of her sweet promise, but remembering no more her sorrow for joy that the birth goes on; for great is the idea, and the travail portentous [prophetic].
“Revelation xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
“Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense, harmony is the real and discord the unreal. We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and death. Perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra [water] head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness? The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, — the belief that substance, life, and intelligence can be material. This dragon stands for the sum total of human error. The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that matter has power of its own, and that by means of an evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be broken. [It is a fact that the word shalt, or shall, means can, thus “Thou shalt not” actually means “Thou cannot”. Spiritually speaking man cannot break God’s Laws, however, mortal belief (being a belief) thinks it can break God’s Laws.]
“The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of God. The Revelator sees that old serpent, whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the offspring of the spiritual idea [these words take us back to Genesis 3], which is prolific in health, holiness, and immortality.
“Revelation xii. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
“The serpentine form stands for subtlety, winding its way amidst all evil, but doing this in the name of good. Its sting is spoken of by Paul, when he refers to ‘spiritual wickedness in high places.’ It is the animal instinct in mortals, which would impel them to devour each other and cast out devils through Beelzebub.
“As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea with error’s own nature and methods. This malicious animal instinct, of which the dragon is the type, incites mortals to kill morally and physically even their fellow-mortals, and worse still, to charge the innocent with the crime. This last infirmity of sin will sink its perpetrator into a night without a star [angel].
“The author [Mary Baker Eddy] is convinced that the accusations against Jesus of Nazareth and even his crucifixion were instigated by the criminal instinct here described. The Revelator speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God and of the dragon as warring against innocence. Since Jesus must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate, met and conquered sin in every form. The brutal barbarity of his foes could emanate from no source except the highest degree of human depravity [which is the first degree only – see SCIENCE AND HEALTH p. 115]. Jesus ‘opened not his mouth.’ Until the majesty of Truth should be demonstrated in divine Science, the spiritual idea was arraigned before the tribunal of so-called mortal mind, which was unloosed in order that the false claim of mind in matter might uncover its own crime of defying immortal Mind.
“From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and death, envy, hatred, and revenge, — all evil, — are typified by a serpent, or animal subtlety. Jesus said, quoting a line from the Psalms, ‘They hated me without a cause.’ The serpent is perpetually close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typifies mortal mind, ‘more subtle than any beast of the field.’ In the Apocalypse, when nearing its doom, this evil increases and becomes the great red dragon, swollen with sin, inflamed with war against spirituality, and ripe for destruction. It is full of lust and hate, loathing the brightness of divine glory.
First Edition
“Revelation xii. 5. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne. [Notice the Grandmother’s clock in the Illustration above (from Mary Baker Eddy’s Christ and Christmas). It reeds 12:05. This not only stands for Revelation 12:1-5 but also for the Woman God-crowned Keystone in WINDOW OF THE OPEN BOOK, for it is found in the same position of 12:05.]
“Led on by the grossest element of mortal mind, Herod decreed the death of every male child in order that the man Jesus, the masculine representative of the spiritual idea [this means there is a feminine representative of the spiritual idea], might never hold sway and deprive Herod of his crown. The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our Master; but ‘of his kingdom there shall be no end,’ for Christ, God’s idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples—imperatively, absolutely, finally—with divine Science. This immaculate idea, represented first by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman, will baptize with fire; and the fiery baptism will burn up the chaff of error with the fervent heat of Truth and Love, melting and purifying even the gold of human character. After the stars sang together and all was primeval harmony, the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea [woman and manchild]; but this only impelled the idea to rise to the zenith of demonstration, destroying sin, sickness, and death, and to be caught up unto God, — to be found in its divine Principle.
First Edition
“Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God.
“As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides of human fear, — as they were led through the wilderness, walking wearily through the great desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised joy, — so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for them who love God. Stately Science pauses not, but moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, leading to divine heights. [The High Priestess card below depicts these two pillars and the woman God-crowned.
“If we remember the beautiful description which Sir Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Rebecca the Jewess in the story of Ivanhoe, —
When Israel, of the Lord beloved,
Out of the land of bondage came,
Her father’s God before her moved,
An awful guide, in smoke and flame, —
we may also offer the prayer which concludes the same hymn, —
And oh, when stoops on Judah’s path
In shade and storm the frequent night,
Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to wrath,
A burning and a shining light!
“Revelation xii. 7, 8. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Christmas Morn
“The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God’s divine messages, different offices. Michael’s characteristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through the understanding of God. The Gabriel of His presence has no contrasts. To infinite, ever-present Love, all is Love and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death [no red dragon]. Against Love, the dragon warreth not long, for he is killed by the divine Principle. Truth and Love prevail against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with them. Thus endeth the conflict between the flesh and Spirit.” (S&H 560:6-567:13)
Is it possible that the two angels, seen above, are Michael (Truth) and Gabriel (Love) and represent the second and third comings of Christ taking place in the Western Hemisphere? Venus, the morning star, has also transited the sun twice during our own lifetime, our (generic man’s) God-crowned mission. The first time being on June 8, 2004 and the second being June 5, 2012. I have seen the transits of Venus as being symbolic of the woman God-crowned, spoken of in Revelation 12.
We seem to be living the words of Revelation 12:9-16. How does Mary Baker Eddy end her section on Revelation 12? She says, in S&H 572:12: “Love fulfils the law of Christian Science, and nothing short of this divine Principle, understood and demonstrated, can ever furnish the vision of the Apocalypse, open the seven seals of error with Truth, or uncover the myriad illusions of sin, sickness, and death. Under the supremacy of Spirit, it will be seen and acknowledged that matter must disappear.” Is not the girl seen below representing the angel of Love, Gabriel? By reading the little book open brought to us by the angel of Revelation 10 (Mary Baker Eddy) Love is able to unseal the closed BIBLE seen laying on the table next to the old man of scholastic theology.
First Edition
Today there is much talk on the Internet, about a special occurrence in the heavens (with the stars) that depict Revelation 12. Although I am not sure I agree with every talking point 100%, I would like to share their findings with you.
The September 23, 2017 Alignment
Since it would be forty weeks, being the proper time of gestation for a baby, I asked myself what the date would be forty weeks before the September 23, 2017 alignment? I counted the weeks backwards and it fell on December 17, 2016. To most people this would not mean much, but to me it is the birthday of Michael Shanks, a.k.a. Doctor Daniel Jackson on Stargate SG-1. I met Michael Shanks back in 2004, an important year for the woman God-crowned, when Venus transited the sun for the first time since December 1882. Also of importance at that time is that the book The De Vinci Code was published and distributed to the world. This book had to do with the sacred feminine. The book is fiction, yet its message was that there is a female descendant of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. So I see this as being a message, from the author Dan Brown, about the second coming of Christ. And although I think it was also about the second coming of Christ I now think that it is also about the third coming of Christ.
What was so important about June 5, 2012? It is the exact date that my site, the Ark of Truth – Mother’s Hood, was launched. It is also around this time that another book was written called The Hunger Games about a Forever Leader, and twelve (really thirteen) areas throughout the apocalyptic United States of America. It is of importance that the first coming of Christ, with Jesus (a man), took place in the Orient (East) while the second coming of Christ, with Mary Baker Eddy (a woman), took place in the Occident (West), particularly in the United States of America.
Although I am not sure that people are right about the September 23, 2017 alignment being a fulfillment of Revelation 12, I think it is interesting to think about it and consider the possibility. It was brought up on one of the sites I went to that the constellation of Leo has more than nine stars in its makeup. The supporters of the alignment fulfilling prophecy say that Leo has only nine stars that are visible to the naked eye. These nine stars are supposed to be part of the woman’s crown, while three planets make up the final three (making for a total of twelve stars). As I have already explained, it is quite possible that the twelve zodiac constellations could represent the twelve stars of the woman’s crown, as they form a circular belt. But for now, let us assume that Leo and the three planets are figuratively, or symbolically, representations of the twelve stars for the woman’s crown.
According to these Internet reports Virgo is supposed to represent, in heaven, the woman God-crowned. The three planets, supposed to be part of the woman’s crown are Mercury, Venus (the morning star), and Mars (I have more on these three planets further on). The actual order, after Leo’s star of Regulus is Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Mercury being closest to the woman’s head. This is quite interesting because the six transits of Venus across the sun took place as follows: June 5, 1761 and June 4, 1769 both on Fridays – symbolic for Venus (planet and goddess); December 9, 1874 and December 6, 1882 taking place on Wednesdays – symbolic for Mercury (planet and god); and June 8, 2004 and June 5, 2012 taking place on Tuesdays – symbolic of Mars (planet and god). Also, the sun is upon Virgo’s left shoulder, shining upon her, so that the woman is clothed with the sun, while the moon is not really under her feet at all, but slightly below and to the left of the woman’s left foot. Perhaps I am just being too literal on this alignment, when I think that the moon should be directly under the woman’s feet?
As you can see on the diagram I took off of You Tube it says — 9 Months Nov. 2016 – Sep. 2017 — even though November to September is ten months, it would be over 42 weeks, because the 42 weeks would begin on December 3, 2016, not in November as suggested. Unless the child is over due. Since writing this post I heard on a different You Tube video that the birth took place on September 9th. Yet there was to be a second birth on the 23rd. The video making this claim about two births did not go into detail on this, saying they had explained it elsewhere.
Virgo is the only woman constellation in the zodiac. So going back to the 40 weeks thing…the video claimed that Jupiter would be in the womb of Virgo for 42 weeks. This could be so for an overdue baby, although forty weeks is the normal amount of time for the gestation period of a child, most people say nine months, but it really is ten months. Even at 42 weeks, we would hit the date of December 3, 2016. Remember this fact, because one of the people who believe they are right about this alignment says that Virgo was inseminated in November of 2016.
Jupiter is supposed to be the woman’s manchild, found in her womb for forty-two weeks (again, I say it should be forty). I found it of interest that Jupiter was close to Virgo in 1969 – when on Mary Baker Eddy’s birthday (July 16) Apollo 11 launched to head for the moon, fulfilling the same Revelation 12 prophecy where generic man (as two astronauts) would have their feet upon the moon. It is also symbolic in that there were a total of twelve male astronauts that walked upon the moon throughout the Apollo missions. Since 1969 Jupiter has made four complete orbits (every 12 years or so), would this make for a divine calculus of the Word, the Christ, Christianity, and Science? These years would be 1981, 1993, 2005, and 2017. Some interesting things happened in 1981. This is the year that I began working for the first time, but aside from that, the first space shuttle went up. It was called the Columbia, just as the Mother-ship of Apollo 11 was named. Also, of importance is that the U.S.S.R. launched their Venera 13 space probe, which went to Venus, the morning star. It landed on March 1, 1982 and sent back pictures of the morning star. This is also the same year that the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark came out. In this movie the ark of the covenant was located but then stuck away in some Area 51 Warehouse (as depicted in the final Indiana Jones sequel). The year 1993 is the year I got married, quit my job, and conceived my son. The year 2005 is the year that the movie The De Vinci Code came out.
Another thing I found interesting (on Wikipedia) is about the Feast of Trumpets (the Trumps or perhaps the seven trumps?). It is the first of the Fall Feasts and its timing is traditionally based on the 22nd and ends on the evening (midnight) of the 23rd (of September). Rosh Hashanah, the High Holy Day, ends in September with the year of 5777 (lots of sevens!) and is the beginning of 5778.
The Feat of Trumpets is the day when the dead are resurrected and judgment begins.
So, there was the mention of a comet coming from the loins of Leo and going through Virgo, like it was inseminating the Virgin. I missed catching the date of this, but I believe it was supposed to have been in November (which I think would be too soon).
So the man on You Tube said that the manchild is supposed to be the Church (Lost Israel?). I am not sure I agree on this point. He also said that the woman is supposed to represent the people of Israel (would this not be the church also?), as well as, the Virgin Mary.
It is a fact that through 2014-2015 that the four blood moons all fell on Jewish Feast Days. The blood moon is a symbol given in Revelation. We see a blood moon every time there is a lunar eclipse.
Of course, Leo would represent the tribe of Judah, as well as, Jesus. But we also know, in Science, that Leo is the first living beast for the Word in the divine infinite calculus. I am not so sure as to what Jupiter, as the King Star, is supposed to represent. If what the man said is right then would not the King Star be the Church? And what is the rod, how is it represented, in this alignment of the stars and planets, sun and moon? He does not say.
I find it interesting that the alignment has never happened before in history. (Since writing this I read that it happened one other time a long time ago.)
Now Revelation 12 also speaks of the red dragon. What if today the red dragon happens to be North Korea? And instead of Yellowstone Park’s volcano erupting, as the man thinks is possible, that it happens to be a nuclear missile from N. Korea that sends up the cloud making Virgo invisible? To be honest, I hope neither one takes place! And it does seem that Kim Jong Un has backed off from his threats for now. (Although nothing bad happened on the 23rd, it was rainy and cloudy where I live so I was unable to see the alignment.)
Another thing that I think the man may be going overboard with is the three planets (Mars, Venus and Mercury) movement after 9/23/17. They all follow one another, evidently, to the same three constellations of Libra, Scorpio, and Ophiucus. So why does he think that these three star (planet) messengers have a specific message for an assigned constellation? He thinks that the three planets are the first three angels spoken about in Revelation 8.
He says that Mercury goes to Libra, atonement, the altar of heaven, and balance (Soul). I believe that Libra is representative of the black horseman (Revelation 6) that must be nullified by Christianity (Aquarius, the face of a man, the only man constellation of the zodiac if we do not count Ophiucus as part of the zodiac).
He does not tell us which Arch Angel that Mercury and Venus are supposed to represent. Could these three planets actually represent Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, and generic man, for the three comings of Christ? Or do they specifically have to do with the three pairs of transits dealing with America?
It takes Venus, if I counted right, sixteen days before it meets with Jupiter. Then twenty-three days later it moves into the pincer of Scorpio. Now, I believe that Scorpio is the red horseman that must be nullified by the Christ-Truth (Taurus, the bull). This message, that comes from the Christ-Truth, is “Babylon is fallen” or rather, “confusion, caused by the belief that man is born into matter and has a corporeal brain to think with, is fallen (is defeated or killed).”
The third messenger, Mars, deals with the two beasts of the red dragon. This is the planet that the man calls Michael, but I am not so sure he is correct, because, since Scorpio has more to do with the conflict of war, it seems to me that perhaps Michael (Truth) best goes along with Venus (Love).
The third messenger goes to the knee of Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer. Ophiuchus is generic man and he restrains the serpent, or the red dragon, he holds the serpent back and keeps it from biting the heel of the woman (the Virgo). Michael means, “Who is like God?” I like this definition better than the one that the man gave on You Tube, “Who dares to be like God?” Is it not Christian Science that shows us who is like God? With Christian Science (spiritual understanding) we do not dare to be like God, we already are like God – Spiritual in nature.
This third constellation (or thirteenth constellation) is composed of generic man and a serpent. The man from You Tube once more thinks that this serpent is the red dragon of Revelation 12 even though DRACO, another constellation, is to the right side of Virgo and Hydra is to the woman’s left (he does not mention this fact, I ask why? Is it because he could not seem to make DRACO fit into his plans?). “Hydra was the nine-headed serpent that Hercules had to kill as one of his twelve labors. Each time he lopped off one head, two others grew in its place.”[2] There is also Hydrus. “Johann Bayer created this constellation, publishing it in his star atlas of 1603. He placed it near Achernar, the mouth of the River Eridanus and nestled between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. It is sometimes called the Male Water Snake, to avoid confusing it with Hydra.”[3] So with so many serpents, snakes, or dragons in the sky, which one represents the red dragon of Revelation? All of them?
The man also says that the seven heads to the red dragon (of Ophiuchus’ serpent – Serpens) are the seven stars of the serpent’s head. It is interesting that the Corona Borealis is directly above the serpent’s head, and it too, according to the man, has seven stars, supposed to be crowns I guess. I think the guy is sort of loose with his interpretations of the stars – angels (messengers), the red dragon’s seven heads, and the red dragon’s seven crowns. Serpens “is the only constellation that is divided into two parts. The head (Serpens Caput) and the tail (Serpens Cauda) are separated by the constellation of Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer. At one time both the Serpent and the Serpent Bearer formed a single constellation. Serpens was familiar in ancient times to the Hebrews, Arabs, Greeks, and Romans.”[4] The book these quotes are from does not say how they are separated or why they are now separated.
If we skip over Ophiucus on the constellation belt the next constellation would be Sagittarius – the off-white horseman of Revelation 6. The Word (Leo) nullifies the off-white horseman. This first horseman, Sagittarius, also has a crown (Corona Australis) near one of its hoofs.
Revelation 8:1 says: “And when he had opened the seventh seal [Love], there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” Back in June of 2016 I calculated that the silence in heaven ended around February 2017 (when we would gain a new President). It was at this particular moment that I understood that Donald J. Trump would become the next President of the United States of America. While it is interesting that the You Tube video is describing the seven angels (beginning in chapter 8) in regards to the three planets, there are seven angels, three of which he tends to ignore (he only tells us about the first four).
So this man goes into the forth messenger. Yet which star in heaven is supposed to be this forth messenger? He does not say or mention that point at all. The fourth angel, which symbolizes Principle at this point in Revelation 8, is where 1/3 of the sun, the moon, and the stars darken (do not shine at night). He brings into play that this is when the woman God-crowned is taken into the wilderness (by the eagle). But he does not seem to understand what the eagle is in the zodiac. “Originally these stars [of Libra] were thought of as part of Scorpius…Our understanding is that Libra became a separate constellation at the time of the ancient Romans.”[5] It is my own theory that during the time when Libra and Scorpio were united that Ophiucus was considered to be part of the zodiac and when Scorpio and Libra were combined as one they were seen as an eagle. This combination forms the flying eagle of Science. The fourth “sign” of the flying eagle (the fourth living creature) nullifies the ashen horseman of death.
He, the narrator of the You Tube video, thinks that the wilderness is a cloud in the sky caused possibly by volcanic eruption. Yet, it could also be a nuclear winter that blocks out the sky. As I said before, I prefer that neither is correct.
A solar eclipse takes place on August 21, 2017. He mentions that it goes right over Yellowstone Park, which puts stress on the land that could cause a volcanic eruption. He brings up Revelation 12:6 where the earth helps the woman, but I do not think he explained how the earth helps the woman in his scenario! Just covering up the constellation of Virgo does not seem to be very much help to me. The earth helps the woman by disposing of the red dragon’s flood (false teachings about the woman God-crowned).
So, yeah, I find a lot of interesting things and can correlate them together with other things in Revelation, but this does not mean that the man and others are right about everything they put forth.
I am not apposed to this alignment in heaven (space) having prophetic importance. But it does not point to the second coming of Christ, as that already happened with the feminine representative of Christ – Mary Baker Eddy. However, Mary Baker Eddy spoke of a third coming of Christ. Since I have quoted from this piece “The Second Advent” in other posts I will not quote the whole article here. It is found in the Red Book, a.k.a., Essays and Other Footprints, pages 47-49.
On page 47 Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Mary as the mother of Jesus became the first scientific interpreter of the Christ idea, of Mary as the highest interpreter of man and God, of man as woman which represents God’s highest manhood.” Notice she says that Mary was the first scientific interpreter of the Christ idea, this means there is more than one scientific interpreter of the Christ idea – or other woman God-crowned missions to take place.
Further on down the same page and over to p. 48 she writes, “Error, contradicting Truth, is tempting Christian Scientists to form misconceptions of the first, second, and third appearing of Christ and the relatives thereof. I warn you that this evil intent, if carried out, will take away your understanding of Christian Science and check the unfolding of Truth at this period.”
“Christian Scientists are not Second Adventists believing in the finite appearing of finite good. Every loyal Scientist understands that the second coming of Christ is the next higher, hence, more spiritual revelation of God’s character. The Christian era presented the first tangible idea of God’s character by its inspired man, Jesus. The era of Christian Science ushers in through woman the second appearing of His character and this from the necessity of His nature as the Father and Mother of all, the creator, even the complete and ever-present idea of God. Therefore, this era comes not through Jesus but through Mary [Baker Eddy], the type of womanhood and mother of its first and forever appearing which divine Science alone can give. The third appearing of the spiritual idea of the character of God will present but the disappearing of all else, and establish the supremacy of Spirit which obliterates the human sense of the divine, takes away all sense of matter and reveals the final fact that the idea, Christ, is not a materialized or finite man or woman, but is the infinite concept of infinite Mind.” (p. 48, [my interpolation])
She says, “next higher” this means there is another higher Scientific understanding of Christ – the “third appearing of the spiritual idea of the character of God.” It is this third appearing that I feel that the alignment of September 23, 2017 truly represents! It “will present but the disappearing of all else, and establish the supremacy of Spirit which obliterates the human sense of the divine, takes away all sense of matter and reveals the final fact that the idea, Christ, is not a materialized or finite man or woman, but is the infinite concept of infinite Mind.”
Finally, in the final paragraph, on page 49 [my interpolations], she writes, “All this is not the material Jesus, nor Mary [Baker Eddy], nor Martha [Jones-Smith], but the spiritual idea dwelling forever in the bosom of the Father-Mother God, because this idea is the link in being’s chain which unites indissolubly the Father and son, man and God. The on-rushing centuries are declaring this idea higher and higher in the scale of being and will ere long yield to the sense of its ascendant glory.”
Post Date August 24, 2017
The solar eclipse was on Monday this week. It was pretty amazing to see, even though where I live, I did not get to see a total eclipse. I did see pictures of it on the television. The umbra (shadow) of the moon hiding the sun did not really last very long when it did occur, thus assuring us that light (Spirit) can never be permanently eclipsed by shadow (matter). There was one place where the eclipse was accompanied by lightning and thunder – the town of Charleston in South Carolina. For those of you who area familiar with the history of Christian Science know that as newlyweds Mary and George Glover lived there, in a house build by George. It is possible that Mary conceived her son here, however, I think it is more likely that she conceived almost immediately. It is possible, however, that George was premature. I only say this because the marriage took place on December 10, 1843 and the birth took place on September 11, 1844 (you do the math). A friend of mine thought that perhaps it was symbolic that the last land place for the eclipse be Charleston because George Washington Glover II, was not Mary Baker Glover Eddy’s true conception or man child. And the eclipse was symbolic of material birth being shown up as error (shadow). And for there to be lightning and thunder there did seem to be a bit odd after hearing her opinion upon the topic.
I feel that this paragraph explains what should really be taking place on September 23, 2017. It is from SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 463:5. [My interpolation.]
Scientific obstetrics
Teacher and student should also be familiar with the obstetrics taught by this Science. To attend properly the birth of the new child, or divine idea, you should so detach mortal thought from its material conceptions, that the birth will be natural and safe. Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual birth. A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive. The new idea, conceived and born of Truth and Love, is clad in white garments [clothed with the sun]. Its beginning will be meek, its growth sturdy, and its maturity undecaying. When this new birth takes place, the Christian Science infant is born of the Spirit, born of God, and can cause the mother no more suffering. By this we know that Truth is here and has fulfilled its perfect work.
[1] ESSAYS AND OTHER FOOTPRINTS; “ESSAYS ASCRIBED TO MARRY BAKER EDDY”, p.4-11
[2] Skywatching; by David H. Levy, p. 174
[3] Ibid, p. 176
[4] Ibid, p. 212
[5] Ibid, p. 183 [My interpolation.]
The Ark of Truth- Mother's Hood 