Zodiac Belt

 

These ancient star-pictures are in what we call the "Zodiacal Circle", an imaginary band, encircling the heavens through which our solar system revolves.

 

This solar path through the stars is called the "Ecliptic".

 

The Ecliptic, if it could be viewed from immediately beneath the Polar Star, would form a complete and perfect circle, concentric with the Equator.

 

All the stars and the sun would appear to move in this circle, never rising or setting.

 

To a person north or south of the Equator the stars appear to rise and set obliquely, but, to a person on the Equator, they rise and set perpendicularly.

 

Each star is twelve hours above and twelve hours below the horizon.

 

The points where the two circles (the Ecliptic and the Equator) intersect are called the "Equinoctial Points".

 

It is the movement of these points (which are now moving from Aries to Pisces) which gives rise to the term, "the precession of the Equinoxes" (the vast cycle of the sun).

 

The highest and lowest points from the celestial equator reached by the Sun as it travels along the ecliptic are called the "Solstices.

 

The northernmost point is called "Summer Solstice (June 22; the southernmost point is called "Winter Solstice
(December 22).

 

The Summer Solstice point lies in Gemini and the Winter Solstice point lies in Sagittarius.

 

At these points the Sun appears to stand still momentarily - hence "solstice" (solstice is Latin for "stands still").

 

The Zodiacal Circle is divided into twelve divisions or "Signs".

 

It is necessary to make a distinction between the "signs" of the Zodiac and the "constellations" of the Zodiac.

 

Each sign is exactly thirty degrees long one twelfth of the complete zone and the first sign (Aries-in modern atlases) begins with the Vernal Equinox (about March 21, when the hours of sunlight and darkness are very nearly the same).

 

That is, the sun always enters the sign of Aries as it passes through the Vernal Equinox.

 

It then traverses Taurus and Gemini and enters Cancer at the Summer Solstice, after which it traverses Leo and Virgo and enters Libra as it passes through the Autumnal Equinox (about September 21, at which time the Sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south and the hours of sunlight and darkness are again nearly the same everywhere on Earth).

 

The Sun then traverses the six signs south of the equator and enters the sign of Aries again when it arrives at the Vernal Equinox.

 

Equinoctial Points

The twelve groups of stars (constellations) within the boundaries of the twelve signs originally had the same names as the signs, and each constellation would remain forever within the corresponding sign if the Vernal Equinox did not move among the stars.

 

This movement or "precession" of the equinoxes carries the signs of the Zodiac westward around the ecliptic with a constant speed that causes them to make a complete circuit of the sky in approximately 25,800 years. Thus the constellations of the Zodiac remain fixed but the signs steadily slip westward.

 

The sign of Aries, for the last 2000 years, has been in the Sign to the west. The signs and constellations of the Zodiac coincided about 300 B.C. and also about 26,000 B.C.

 

The Greek writer, Hesoid, says that Arcturus, rises at sunset fifty days after the Winter Solstice.

 

In our calendar this date would be February 19. This bright star now rises at sunset (in Greece) on March 30.

 

From the known rate of the shift of the constellations of the Zodiac we can determine that Hesoid lived about 2800 years ago.

 

We learn from the early writings of the Persians and the Chinese that there were four bright stars in the sky that protected and watched over the others.

 

These stars were said to be in the east, the west, the north and the south. These positions evidently corresponded to the Vernal Equinox, the Autumnal Equinox, the Winter Solstice and the Summer Soltice the four cardinal points of the sky.

 

If we look in the vicinity of these points we can find no stars of any considerable brightness and we might be inclined to doubt the accuracy of this ancient literature or to wonder whether the four bright stars have faded considerably during the intervening years. However, when we consider the westward precession of the equinoxes, the four cardinal points would not have the same location with reference to the stars as they had ages ago, for the constellations of the Zodiac are continually slipping in an easterly direction with reference to the Vernal Equinox. We must study the Zodiac as the Persians saw it.

• Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.

 

•  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.

(Leviticus. 26: 28-46) God warned Israel that if they persisted in continually breaking His Laws, not only would curses come upon them.

He would punish them for seven times, (a time being 360 years, seven times would be 2520 years) and would banish them from the land of Palestine and scatter them among the heathens (like lost sheep)

• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25