EX ORIENTE: MITHRA AND THE OTHERS.

In September (6-8.9.2017), together with the Annual Meeting of the Italian Society of Archeoastronomy (S.I.A.), an International Workshop will take place in Rome (Sapienza University) on the theme:

Ex Oriente: Mithra and the others. 

Astronomical contents in the cults of Eastern origin in ancient Italy 

and Western Mediterranean

The following is the Abstract I sent - about ten days ago - to give a lecture at this Int. Workshop. I've just known this evening that the Abstract wasn't accepted and that therefore I'll be not allowed to illustrate my point of view about: 

Astronomical events and contents at the origin and in the doctrine of the Christianity.

Some CELESTIAL or HEAVENLY PROPORTIONS holding MY HERMENEUTICAL PROPOSAL

Prima di darvi, cari lettori, una serie di proporzioni che racchiudono il senso delle mie scoperte e di questo blog ove le vengo esponendo, due parole sul meraviglioso cratere - prodotto in Attica  al principio del IV sec. ac e conservato all' Hermitage Museum di S. Pietroburgo - che vedete qui a sinistra, che  sintetizza la storia del santuario di Delfi, massimo oracolo della Grecia classica. 

Vi si vede (figura a destra della palma) Dioniso chiomato e barbato, in aspetto di maestosa virilità e circondato da menadi e satiri, che - in atteggiamento di padrone di casa, cioè del tempio - dà il benvenuto, stringendogli la mano in segno di gentile accoglienza, ad un timido ed imberbe Apollo compostamente ossequioso. E' appena il caso di ricordare che nel santuario di Delfi il culto di Dioniso era preesistente al culto di Apollo [cfr. C. Lanzani, Religione dionisiaca, Melita ed., 1987, pp. 37, 39, 119, ..], il cui inizio - ben sintetizzato nel vaso dell' Hermitage - può dunque essere datato a verso il 400 ac. 

*       *       *

Ciò premesso, passo ora a darvi una serie di proporzioni che, come detto, racchiudono il senso della mia proposta ermeneutica storico-filosofica a fondamento astroNomico e vanno quindi ben meditate da tutti coloro che sono alla ricerca delle verità. Le scrivo in inglese così mi capiscono tutti:

Dionysus : Apollo = unicorn : phoenix(bennu) =

                            = geocentrism : heliocentrism = Moses : Christ

*       *       *

To remember that a secret wisdom began already in ancient Egypt, I like to close this article with the image of the Hatshepsut-sphinx:

Queen-Pharaoh Hatshepsut ruled Egypt
from 1479 untill 1458 bce.

<< I regret to inform you that your paper proposal has not been accepted ...

... by the Academic Program Committee. They commented: "The paper is based merely on conjectures that cannot be historically proved." We do hope, however, that you will join us in the discussion at the Congress nonetheless.>> [email received by me some days ago].

The argument on which I wanted to speak at the 2015 Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) was:

Rational interpretation and dating of the Damascus road Christophany and understanding of Paul's conversion. The 150 words of the Abstract I sent had been the following:

This paper demonstrates that a definite and verifiable astronomical phenomenon permits a rational interpretation and dating of the Damascus road Christophany and an understanding of the sosaid Paul's conversion.

The phenomenon (the plain dynamics of which will be illustrated) is the double Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, the alignments of which occurred in constellation Leo in October A.D. 34 and in April 35. This phenomenon is to be identified with the phoenix return described in Tacitus' Annals 6,28 (as I demonstrated in previous congresses).

It was due to this phenomenon if the geocentric Saul's conviction (based on the Judaic sacralization of the single J-S conjunctions) underwent a crisis; the thought of the implied heliocentrism was the intellectual goad against which Saul-Paul tried in vain to resist. Phisically reasoning on the evolution of this phenomenon in the following months, the Christophany on the Damascus road can be dated at about August 24th, A.D. 35.

THIS YEAR would have been 2021 ... IF DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS HADN'T GOT WRONG !!

Happy 2021!! .. we would have wished one another in these days IF the monk Dionysius Exiguus in the year (which we nowadays call) A.D. 531 had better known the middle time interval between two Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions, so to avoid a computational error of 6 years.

The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction occurred in the years 530-531
while the monk Dionysius Exiguus was doing his computations

On behalf of pope Boniface II (530-532) and while the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of those years 530-531 (see graphics here on the left) was already happening, Dionysius tried to establish how many years before the present conjunction had occurred the Incarnatio Domini nostri Iesu Christi , i.e. the _triple_ J-S conjunction ended in the constellation of Pisces a couple of years before Herod-I's death . This is indeed the real astronomical phenomenon today said the 'star of Bethlehem'.

Knowing that the present conjunction (he was observing night after night) was the 27th following the memorable triple one in Pisces, BUT counting with 19.64 instead of 19.86 years as time interval between two successive J-S conjunctions, he estimated 531 instead of 537 years before. He said so that the old conjunction had occurred in the Rome-year 753 instead of year 747 ab Urbe condita.

That's why - having the Christian Era begun six years before - six years should be added to the current count of the years, so to have now 2021 instead of 2015 years ab Incarnatione Domini nostri Iesu Christi.

Anyway I wish a "Very Happy New Year !!" to all my readers, wherever you are - dear friends - in the about 70 countries where this blog is read.

SEYNSGESCHICHTE: the so-said STAR OF BETHLEHEM - occurrence date 7 BCE

The astroNomical - therefore historical - phenomenon nowadays known as the sosaid STAR OF BETHLEHEM was in effect, really, a triple Jupiter-Saturn conjunction occurred in the year 7 BCE in the constellation Pisces, at the following dates (see diagrams above): 

May 30th   -   October 1st   -   December 6th

Could it have been seen from the Sun, the same physical phenomenon would have occurred only once, in the date September 1st, 7 BCE. So this is a trine-and-one astroNomical phenomenon, depending on the view point from which it is 'seen'.

October A.D. 34: the Appearance of the TACITUS' PHOENIX (Annals 6.28), i.e. one of the most important astroNomical events ever happened

La congiunzione planetaria tra Giove e Saturno che avvenne a cavallo
degli anni 34-35 nella costellazione del Leone
(congiunzione G-S eliocentrica il 28.12.34, ang.resid.=0°26'13")

At beginning of September, A.D. 34, the angular distance between Saturn and Jupiter had become less than 3° and during the whole month it continued to decrease. In these October days of 1980 years ago, the two planets seen from here, from the Earth, appeared in close conjunction in the constellation of Leo: the minimal angular distance was reached on October 5th and amounted to only 0°26'41" (less than a lunar diameter!)

Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56-117)

Writing about eighty years after this event, the greatest of Roman historians Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56-117) registered in his Annals, book 6, ch. 28):

28. With Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius as consuls [A.D.34], after a long cycle of centuries the phoenix came to Egypt and afforded material to the most learned of the natives and Greeks for holding forth at length on that marvel. I am pleased to set out the points on which they agree and the many details which are in doubt but not inappropriate to know. Those who have portrayed its appearance agree that that animal is sacred to the Sun and that in its face and the uniqueness of its feathers it is different from the other birds. As regards the number of its years various accounts are recorded. .. ... ... These matters are uncertain and exaggerated by fabulous details; but that that bird is seen from time to time in Egypt is not in dispute. [Tacitus, tr. R. Martin, Aris ltd, 2001]

About a phoenix appeared in the last years of Tiberius' reign wrote also Pliny the Elder and Dione Cassius, giving both as year of the appearance A.D. 36. This error was due in my opinion to the fact that the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of those years was indeed a multiple conjunction, i.e. a conjunction which lasted many months in both years A.D. 34 and 35 (what everyone can verify personally, see graphics above).
The enormous relevance of this astroNomical event is because its second close alignment Jupiter-Saturn (J-S) took place (see graphics) on 2-3 April, A.D.35, just some days before the Jewish spring-feast of Pesach. Moreover on April 6th the Moon occulted one of the two 'conjuncted' planets, Jupiter, and perhaps both.

I think everyone of you, my dear readers, can easily understand how important is this "appearance of the phoenix in A.D. 34 -35" for a scientific study (datation, essence, ...) of the religious belief based - among other things - on it: the Christianity.

August 24th, A.D. 35: _the_ dating of Paul's conversion to heliocentrism.

In my opinion (based on the diagrams you can see here links)  the Damascus Christophany, the event/definitive-conviction which changed Paul's life and world history, occurred in the third decade of August AD 35 (exactly 1978 years ago): let's say indicatively on August 24th, A.D. 35, with an uncertainty of +/- 5 days.

Christ's Noumenon (7 bce)

Happy New Year .. 2017 !! ..

.. we should have today wished one another IF the monk Dionysius Exiguus in the year (that we call nowadays) A.D. 531, when he was trying to count how many years before the Incarnationis Domini nostri Iesu Christi had occurred, if he had known better the middle time interval between two Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions.

He very probably knew that the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction he was observing night after night in those years 530-531 (graphics here on the left) was the 27th after the memorable triple Jupiter-Saturn conjunction that happened more than five centuries before in the constellation of Pisces, the one that - we know nowadays - happened in the year 7 b.C. at Herod's time and that is commonly referred to as the 'star of Bethlehem' (see graphics behind the title of the blog). But he probably didn't know the right time interval between a J-S conjunction and the next, so he was 6 years wrong in his estimation of the time when the triple J-S conjunction in Pisces had occurred. He said in the second half of Rome-year 753 instead of year 747 ab Urbe condita.

That's why we have wished today one onother "Happy 2011 !" instead of "Happy 2017", which would have been more correct and really ab Incarnatione Domini nostri Iesu Christi.

Anyway.. "Happy New Year" to all my readers, wherever you are in the almost 70 countries where this blog is read.

The Star of Bethlehem (7 b.C.)

In these December days of the year 7 b.C. the triple conjunction between the planets Jupiter and Saturn, on the background of the stars of the Fishes constellation, was going to its end. As everyone of you, my readers, can see on the graphics on the left, in these days Jupiter - after having been at the right of 'its father' Saturn between October 1st and December 5th - was newly again at its left and the visual angular distance Jupiter-Saturn (1° 16' 59" on December 18th) was now rapidly increasing .

The three alignments of this rare planetary event had been respectively on May 29th, October 1st and on December 5th, while the total time interval of this J-S conjunction during which the planets had an angular distance of less the 3° was from April 27th 7 b.C. till to January 14 of year 6 b.C., about 8.5 months. A sort of heavenly pregnancy, the ideal celestial context for the birth of Jesus Christ, at the same time son of man and god.