An excerpt from the GTA Member Webinar on December 16, 2022.
Transcript edited for print.
The Magi, Their Gifts, and Herod’s Reaction
Now, let’s talk about the Magi bearing gifts. So, we know there were three gifts given to Jesus: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. All three were reserved for kings and deities because of their value. These Magi came from a great distance and brought enough gold to Joseph and Mary that they could escape Herod and travel back to Egypt. What we do know is the Magi didn’t discover them in 3 BC. Based on the evidence, it looks like it was 2 BC, about a year later. They tracked down the family at that time.
This aligns with what happens next: Herod orders the murder of all boys up to the age of two. This is one of the last major orders he gives before he dies, and it’s based on the timeline he learned from the Magi. The Magi, by the way, never report back to Herod. They have a dream warning them their lives are in danger, so they leave and don’t share the information with him.
Now, this was a two-year period. From the time the Magi visit in 3 BC, we have 2 BC and then 1 BC. Herod realizes his political future is in peril, and on top of that, he’s dying, suffering from several major ailments. He knows that if this prophecy comes true, it will threaten his successor’s political stability.
Astrologers and Their Role in Recognizing Jesus
Interestingly, we know that the oldest depiction of this event is on a third-century AD sarcophagus slab. It shows the adoration of the Magi—or astrologers. And here’s the fascinating part: astrologers were the first to recognize Jesus as the future king of the Jews. Spiritually, it’s a big deal. The Bible even states they knelt down and worshiped him. At the very least, they recognized him as someone of great significance based on their understanding of prophecy and astrology.
So, think about it. The first people to recognize Jesus were astrologers. And, you know, the Catholic Church later bans astrology—even though Pope Leo X was one of the top astrologers of the medieval period and wrote 18 books on the subject.
The astrologers not only funded the family’s escape to Egypt, but they gave them enough wealth to sustain them for most of Jesus’s youth. So, they were not a poor family. Mary, as we know, came from a royal branch of the line of David, meaning she was considered Jewish royalty—not just an average girl from modest means.
Jesus’s Timeline
Now, we have this sequence of events. Jesus’s birth likely occurred around September 11th, give or take a day or two. Based on conception charts, that’s the timeframe, though we will never be able to prove it. The following year, the Magi arrive with their gifts. According to tradition and apocryphal sources, that’s December 25th, 2 BC. By then, Jesus is a year old and referred to as a “young child,” not a babe. The original Aramaic word confirms this.
Afterward, Herod dies, Tiberius becomes emperor of Rome in 14 AD, and Jesus begins his ministry in October of 29 AD. The crucifixion and death occur on April 3rd, 33 AD. This aligns with a New Testament account of an eclipse at 3 PM when Christ dies on the cross. So, we have a pretty solid timeline here.
Why December 25th?
Let’s get into the celebration of Christmas. For the first three centuries of Christianity, Jesus’s birth wasn’t celebrated at all. The most significant holidays were the Epiphany on January 6th, commemorating the arrival of the Magi, and Easter, celebrating the resurrection. The first recorded Christmas celebration happened in Rome on December 25th around 336 AD during the first Mass upon sunrise at 7.30 A.M. local time.
Historical records, like an old list of Roman bishops from 354, mention December 25th as “Natus Christus in Bethlehem Judea,” or “Christ born in Bethlehem, Judea.” So, why wasn’t it celebrated in September, Jesus’s actual birth month? Well, this celebration was timed to coincide with Saturnalia, a pagan festival honoring Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, which began days before the winter solstice. Pope Julius I declared December 25th as the date to celebrate Christ’s birth, allowing Christians to worship discreetly during a period when Christianity was still under persecution.
Suppression and Transformation of Christianity
For 300 years, Christianity faced severe suppression by the Roman Empire. Christians were arrested, tortured, and executed as the religion was seen as an existential threat to Rome’s power. But as we all know, the more you try to suppress something, the stronger it becomes.
Now, while that’s happening, during this 300 year suppression of Christianity, we see the procession shift into the Age of Pisces. So that occurred within 40 years from the first celebration of Christmas, in the 3rd century, 221 AD.
The Age of Pisces and Early Christian Symbols
We see a shift from the Age of Aries into the Age of Pisces—a symbol strongly associated with Christianity. Pisces, the fish, became a key Christian symbol. Early Christians even referred to themselves as “little fishes.” The 12 apostles were called the fishers of men, and a code word for Jesus was the Greek word for fish, “ichtis.”
The Edict of Milan and Thessalonica
Then, what follows is the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, allowing Christians to practice their faith openly within the Roman Empire.
Note here, the Sun-Neptune conjunction, with Neptune in Pisces. What does Neptune rule? Religious belief systems. Now, the religion itself is ruled by Jupiter—the religion in terms of the hierarchy and its impact on the secular world. But Neptune rules the actual belief system. So, we start to see a paradigm shift in belief systems.
Then, shortly after the Edict of Milan, we have the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 AD, which made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire under Emperor Theodosius. From there, Christianity spread rapidly, becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire.
The Collapse of Roman Belief Systems and Christianity’s Rise to Power
Then, we have the first official Christmas celebration, authenticated by the emperor himself. And what do we see? A Saturn-Neptune-Pluto triple conjunction occurs, which coincided with a profound historical transformation that reshaped the collective psyche. It marked the beginning of a new cultural worldview that dismantled the foundations of the old one, ushering in sweeping changes across society. Sounds similar to what we’re experiencing today, doesn’t it?
During this alignment in the early fourth century, powerful archetypal forces led to the collapse of the Roman Empire and the end of its gods. It wasn’t just the empire itself that fell but also the entire framework of Roman paganism, which had dominated for centuries. Interestingly, Rome had no issue with diverse religions—it allowed Judaism, for example—but it could not tolerate rebellion, like Judea’s defiance of Roman authority.
This period marked the collapse of many belief systems, replaced by the nascent framework of Christianity. Christianity’s promise of salvation through Christ aligned with Saturn-Neptune-Pluto archetypes: Saturn’s spiritual authority, Neptune’s vision of salvation, and Pluto’s transformative destruction of old systems.
By the fifth century, Christianity had eclipsed Roman authority, with the Church emerging as the most powerful entity of the post-Roman world.
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A trends forecaster, William’s annual global forecasts are backed by a deep study of economies, geopolitics, archetypal cosmology, and modern astrological forecasting techniques. William’s predictions for the outcome of the U.S. Midterm and Presidential Elections are well documented on his blog.
William Stickevers is a strategic astrological advisor, advising clients from 28 countries for over three decades with strategy and cosmic insight and foresight to gain an asymmetrical advantage in their investing, business planning and decisions, and to live a more fulfilled life according to their soul’s code and calling.
William has been a regular guest on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and The Jerry Wills Show, and featured on The Unexplained with Howard Hughes, Beyond Reality Radio with Jason Hawes and JV Johnson, We Don’t Die Radio with Sandra Champlain, Supernatural Girlz, Paranormal Podcast, and Alan Steinfeld’s New Realities. An international speaker, William has lectured at the New York Open Center, Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), two Funai Media events in Tokyo, Japan, the United Astrology Conference (2018), for the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NYC, Long Island, New Jersey, San Francisco chapters), American Federation of Astrologers (Los Angeles), the Astrological Society of Connecticut, the San Francisco Astrological Society, and in Europe (Munich and Bucharest) and Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama).
More information on Programs, Consultations and Forecast Webinars are at his website www.williamstickevers.com.
