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If you could go out in your backyard and look into the sky at night around 10:00 PM and notice for example the position of the constellation Orion in the sky above and then return outside lets say about 4:00 PM to view Orion again then you will notice that the constellation Orion has moved across the night sky from east to west. If you were to view the night sky recorded with time-lapse photography and then speed it up you could easily see that all the stars appear to move across the sky at the same rate as the Earth turns. Almost all of those "stars" remain in a fixed position (or pattern ) in relation to each other; but some of those "stars" actually do move a little each day in relation to the others, and thus were called "wandering stars". For the ancients the sky was populated by stars and planets as well as the Sun and the Moon. The word planet derives from the concept of ‘wandering star’ the other stars were the ‘fixed stars’. The expression "fixed stars" was originally devised to distinguish them from the the so-called "wandering stars" or planets as we know them.
They are actually the five Planets we can see without a telescope, and the word "planet" originally meant to the Ancients a "wandering star". To the ancients who were not aware of the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which were not visible to the naked eye, there were "seven stars" which moved across the band of fixed stars in the band called the Zodiac, consisting of the Sun and Moon and those five visible Planets. Remember that when the Bible was written no one knew that the brightest "stars" in the night sky were really the visible planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Likewise the Ancients did not know that the heavenly bodies we know as the Moon and planets of our solar system were appearing brighter than the far-distant "fixed" stars simply because they were much closer to the Sun and to the Earth than the "real" light-emitting stars, and they were just reflecting the Sun's strong light back to us on Earth. Unlike the stars, which are giving out their own light, planets are dark bodies not giving out any light of their own. What you see when you look at a planet is reflected light from the sun. This is the essential difference between a planet and a star. To the ancients of biblical times, these planets were considered as "stars" which were brighter and which "wandered" across the sky on a course of their own, independent of the other stationary stars which formed a fixed background upon which the motion of these "wandering stars" could be seen.
The Ancients noticed that "true" stars in the sky do not change their apparent position in relation to each other, but move in unison across the night sky as the Earth turns on its axis. This being the case then there would be no observable change in the pattern to observe if we were only looking at the "real" stars. It is, and was, the planets (those "wandering stars") which moved and provided a constantly changing pattern which could be observed and then often later interpreted as a "sign" of some coming event by mystics or religious priesthoods or by "magi"; a term used in the New Testament for astronomers and astrologers from Iran.
It was only after some study into astronomy and astrology that I
came to the conclusion that when the Bible mention "the stars"
it was talking about Astrology. Thus when the Bible mentions the word "star"
it is most often talking about a "wandering star" or planet
which appeared to be making some unusual motion, or appeared to be coming
into contact or close proximity with another "wandering star" or
some important fixed star. Over time stories and myths were created about
such motions of these "wandering stars" as well as
other "fixed stars" and constellations let alone the Sun. These
movements to the Ancients symbolically would give rise to myths that would
later represent something in the lore and legends of that nation
reflective of the time of this observed movement or expected movement as
such knowledge of the Cosmos increased. The observation of the apparent
motion of the Sun and Moon and Planets, and their relative positions to
each other and to the fixed stars or constellations of stars, is what
Astrology is all about - the study of the stars and their relation to
mankind.
The fixed stars have been used in astrology as additional indicators of various things for thousands of years. The stars were known as "fixed" as they didn't appear to move in the same way as the planets do, which are also known as the "wandering" stars. They are not rigidly fixed however, moving approximately 1 degree every 72 years so their positions have changed over time. They have a nature similar to those of the planets. At first it was believed that the stars were fixed immovable in the heavens in relation to each other, but we now know that all the stars are in motion and are moving at many miles every second on their paths through space. It is because of their remoteness that many centuries must pass before any change of position can be detected with the naked eye.
There were, however, four easily seen bright star-like objects which did appear to move amongst a huge circle of twelve constellations surrounding the earth. Early astronomers noticed how these four stars were clearly in motion against the background of fixed stars. To these moving stars they gave the name planet, from an old Greek word meaning 'wandering star'. Each planet was very bright, and because of their movement which made them more special than the rest of the fixed stars, they were eventually given the names of ancient deities, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Today we know these wandering stars as other worlds, neighbors of the Earth and members of the Solar System, eternally circling the sun. But what of the rest? Mercury was frequently too close to the sun to be seen against a dark sky, but it had been noticed and given a name. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, however, are so faint that they were not discovered until after the invention of the telescope within the last 300 years.
The ring of 12 constellations apparently surrounding the earth against which the planets move, is called the Zodiac, a word meaning 'Circle of the Animals', because with one exception, these twelve star groups are all named after animals (including people). When it was realized that the sun and moon also appeared to move through the zodiacal constellations, the belief in Astrology developed. Astronomy is, of course, the scientific study of the stars, whilst Astrology is the belief that the position of sun, moon and planets can affect people and events on the earth.
The constellations of the zodiac, through which the sun, moon and planets appear to move are, Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Gemini the Twins, Cancer the Crab, Leo the Lion, Virgo the Virgin, Libra the Balance, (or Weighing Scales), Scorpius the Scorpion, Sagittarius the Archer, Capricornus the Sea Goat, Aquarius the Water Carrier, and Pisces the Fishes.
Well we have covered this topic rather well and let us move on to the next information needed for our later study of the "Jesus Story" as coming from the movement of the Sun and stars through the Heavens.
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