PROPHECY SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

From Sepp Rothwangl, September 1, 2001

The shocking assassination of today is the reason for this email, which I finished and dated yesterday,  for me  a remarkable day because it was the 246000th day before the next alignment of  all the planets. This apparently random synchronicity  may be coincidence. This article is intended to show that there are subconscious links between the yearly count and the apocalypse on the one side and the assassination on the other side. I don't know if some religious motivation is behind this attack, but it could be possible, because in essence, the worst wars are always religious in nature. I feel deeply sad and sick at heart with all people who were killed, have lost relatives and friends, or are involved with that horrible act. May God, if you believe, bless us, and let us also love and bless one another! Yours Sepp =================== Archaeostronomical Interpretation of the Revelation by Sepp Rothwangl One of the most cryptic texts of ancient Christianity is the Revelation to John, who is not the writer of the Gospel, but who lived about 1900 years ago on the Greek island of Patmos. In the original Greek it is called the Apocalypse and means the revealing of the end times. That end-time in English is called the "Last Day" or "Doomsday," and in German, it is known as  "Juengster Tag," meaning the "youngest day," which shows just the other side of the same coin, an arbitrary day of fate. Let us first continue this playing with words, in order to analyse Revelation, which is a sort of literature too. The myth of Tithonos, in Greek meaning "young day",  and Eos tells this story about the marvellously:  Eos, the goddess of the rosy dawn, falls in love with the young Tithonos, requests that he live for eternity, but forgets to request eternal youth for him, as well.  Thus Tithonos ages, wastes away, weakens, and turns grey, until he can only chirp like a cricket in the days of late autumn of the old year.  Or like the years of the old age. Poor Eos! That tells the myth, but what is the moral? Will she ever again have a young lover? Surely, because no day lasts eternally.  No year lasts eternally.  And no age lasts eternally! Otherwise it would be no age.  And like the year at the year's end turns,  the ages turn with the turns of an era.  After any year a new year follows, such as after an age a new age rises. But changes of age are often seen as the end of time, or the end of the world, because ages are very long periods and tower far above man's lifetime or even generations. To keep traditions alive over generations is what religions do. Therefore their orientation in time has to be for long periods and in very slow motion, like the precession due to the wobble of the earth's axis. And here we are already at the decisive point: Believing Christians started "their world" with the birth of Christ, which is linked to the beginning of the age of Pisces, which with its Greek letters ICHTHYS was the first symbol of Jesus. But due to their other symbols Alpha & Omega , their Christian "world" or worldview is defined to end when the age of Pisces ends. Don't  forget, Alpha & Omega are the first & last letters of Greek alphabet. Revelation gives a decisive hint when this end will happen and thus has enormous potential for good, as well as bad, influence. We have seen what happens if believers take the ugly moral or vengeful descriptions in Revelation not only in recent Heaven's Gate or Waco disasters, but previously in the crusades of the Middle Ages. Let's hope believers become aware of the astronomical contents of Revelation without linking it to its moral claims and violent demands. Thus the Revelation loses its destructive potential but opens a door to the future without religious fear. It's a pity that believers cannot distinguish between the end of their worldview and the end of the world itself. And they live in the belief that religious literature is the words of God himself. The end of their age might seem for them  similar to an event horizon, when no one can predict what will happen. If the Christian worldview with its calendar comes to a decisive point, where its end is predicted, believers fear their worldview would no longer be valid. Let us hope it is possible to inform believers about astronomy and take away their fear, which mostly seems to be the greatest cause of aggression. That seems to be the tragedy of the religions. If they are successful for a long time in fascinating people with their miracles and mysteries, they insist their way is the only  one that is correct, because it is told by tradition. But even that mystery has its problems, for those who are not aware of the actual secret of the mystery. "Our thing is a secret in a secret; the secret, which can explained only by another secret;  a secret over a secret that only with a secret is satisfied by itself."  This is a quotation of Ga'fat al-Sadiq, sixth Imam of the Muslim religion and it quite explains the business plan of religion. Keep secret a secret, which is a secret itself. No one ever will have a look inside that black box, if it is empty or not. Just a secret about a secret ... It is therefore advised that the worthy readers not read these lines any further, if they want to keep the mystery of religion, but read on, if you want to lose your fear!  You could be disappointed, if you learn the secret, particularly what is behind the secret of the end time. The secret of the Revelation of St. John!  The secret of the Apocalypse! The secret of the "Last Days," the numbers 6-6-6, 7, 1000, 1260 etc… But nevertheless, if you should be disappointed at how dull and boring this secret actually is, then you should be comforted!  Nature and life still have so many other secrets that learning one can't disappoint you. Thus, we will try to unveil the revealing.  It may seem like heresy or sacrilege for a believer, and it could hurt or insult some people, which often happens if you  unmask, uncover: reveal. Let us hope not to suffer as a result the fate of a Galileo Galilei, Giordano Bruno, or that of Salman Rushdi. The translation and interpretation of Revelation takes place in the same way as other ancient descriptions of celestial movements, such as the giant corn grinding mill of Native Americans, which is mirrored in the Latin "septem triones," the seven stars (corn grinding oxen) of the Big Dipper, or the myth of Kallisto describing it as a circumpolar constellation, never rising or setting and therefore being unable "to take a bath in the Sea." The result may cause conversion, of course, but it is surprising and astonishing.  It gives the impression of breaking new ground, although Franz Boll, Herta von Dechend and Giorgio de Santillana have made a good beginning .  These authors seem to have only tasted John's Revelation, and then made a retreat, perhaps because of religious consideration, perhaps from caution so as not to singe their fingers. The text that  John of Patmos left to us corresponds to a surrealistic poem, a dream experience, even a vision.  To its pictorial abundance one must approach either analytically or enjoy its poetry without comment. We approach  its astronomical contents now like a psychoanalyst examines a dream of a patient,  turning to reality what the subconscious is saying.  These contents may seem coded, as children in their drawings or dream-messages encode messages of things too painful to speak of any other way. We might call such fear irrational. We need to respect this text as a work of art, just as we have the greatest respect and appreciation for the works of van Gogh or Dali. So let us interpret John of Patmos' literature like an art historian does with paintings of allegories from the Middle Ages and see the result. John's Revelation starts with greetings: [Rev 1:4] John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, Already at the beginning John speaks of seven spirits. Whenever in ancient astronomy the number seven is involved, this usually means the seven stars of the Big Dipper, the Pleiades or the seven ancient planets, which includes the Sun and Moon along with the five planets that can be seen with the naked eye. Therefore, we need more hints on the meaning of that magic number Seven, which Revelation gives us. [Rev 1:11] saying, "Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and  to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea." And: [Rev 1:20] As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches. Thus Revelation itself reveals what the number seven means: Consequently the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. But who are the angels (or celestial deities), which represent the seven churches (or temples) of Asia Minor? We need to look at the seven cities more closely! The following first letter is directed to Ephesus, which was the capitol of the cult of Artemis in the ancient world. It begins:  [Rev 2:1] "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: `The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands." Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and the moon, who became Roman Diana, was the deity of this city.  That Artemis represents the moon we find in New Testament itself, where in Acts 19: 21-40 is reported the quarrel between the apostle Paul and the silversmith Demetrius. The silversmith feared the loss of his business because of the new belief in Paul's teachings about Christ: see [Acts 19:24-28] and [Acts 19:34-35] There can be no doubt that this image fallen down from heaven to Earth is the Moon, which is shown on so many coins and statues of Goddess Artemis.  The first letter of  John is a call to the angel of Ephesus, Artemis, the goddess of the moon!  First of the ancient planets has been found! The second letter goes to Smyrna.  Similar to all the other it begins: [Rev 2:8] "And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: " John defames and threatens the synagogue of the Jews there as the one of Satan's.  Now the Jews have special proximity to Saturn, which changes to the Roman Satyr and finally within Christianity develops features of Satan.  The holy day of the Jews is the Sabbath, Saturday, a hint to the second planet Saturn. The third letter goes to Pergamon with its famous temple of Zeus (with the large, still preserved marble altar). [Rev 2:12] And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write … The angel of Pergamon, therefore, can be only Zeus, the protector and patron of the city.  Zeus becomes Roman Jupiter, divinity of another planet.  With the third letter thus the planet  Jupiter is addressed by John. The fourth letter goes to the angel of Thyatira. [Rev 2:18] And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write [Rev 2:28] and I will give him the morning star. It is full of reproaches for immorality involving a woman named Jezebel and mentions the morning star. Sexual love and female fertility, the principle of the Greek goddess Aphrodite (Roman Venus), surely means immorality to Christians. The ancient name of the planet Venus also was the morning star (Lucifer) and thus gives us another hint, and we discover Venus, the fourth planet. The fifth letter goes to Sardis. [Rev 3:1] And to the angel of the church in Sardis write … This was a municipality with a rich cloth trade.  Here we read of clothing and thieves.  The god of thieves and merchants is Hermes/Mercury. Sardis was located in the Hermes Valley, near the major road system that linked it with the other six churches of Revelation: the fifth hint to another planet, Mercury. The sixth letter goes to Philadelphia. [Rev 3:7] And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write … In Greek Delphi, which was the name given for this city once was the most famous oracle of the ancient world. The city was founded by the Sun-god Apollo himself, after he killed Python, as the myth tells.  The dolphin, the holy animal of Apollo, points the way to the sixth heavenly body, the sun. The seventh letter goes to Laodicea. [Rev 3:14] And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write… Here it would not be a surprise, if Laodicea were a place where Ares/Mars was worshipped.  There are a lot Mars-Latopius sanctuaries. Perhaps further research can help here.  The seventh letter therefore would be addressed to the only remaining planet of antiquity, Mars. Pic: Medieval manuscript with drawings and description of the seven planets: iovis, mars, saturnus, solis, luna, mercurius and lucifer. All letters end with the record:  "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Can you hear John's message? The spirit of the churches is the seven old divinities of the (former pagan) sanctuaries, which are assigned to the seven planets?  He wanted to pack the seven planets into his secret message as astronomical content!  A further possibility could be that John suspected that the planets also functioned as time telling factors, as they were celestial clocks, which also determine calendar, prescribing feast days and religious ceremonies.  The number SEVEN and why John selected just these municipalities, suggests the seven planets.  In antiquity, the number seven links with the weekdays, the Jewish Menorah, or the number of planets known at that time. As shown, the letters are "addressed" to the planets or at least their deities, then in consequence numerous additional astronomical references are to be found.  The introduction of the end of the world with the trumpets brings a fantastic description of the cosmos: [Rev 4:6-8] "and before the throne there is as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they  never cease to sing, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" This looks like a metaphor, which reminds us of the celestial globe and lets us think of the four directions and the constellations of the cardinal points of the zodiac and the year, Taurus, Leo, Aquila and Aquarius.  The symbols of the four evangelists are derived from these constellations and points of the compass. In the following sequences, Revelation  shows  the coming of the end of the old age, or the dawn of the new, by using the seals and the trumpets. [Rev 5:2] "and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I wept much that no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to into it. Then one of the elders said to me, "Weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals." John weeps, because he fears nobody can understand the book (the cosmos). The voice of the elder predicts that there will be a new "Lion" of the Jewish tribe who  will be able to read the secret. What does the lion mean?  We will discuss this later! [Rev 5:6] And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth; The metaphor of the sacrificial lamb, also a symbol of Christ, corresponds to the past sun-sacrificial age, the age of Aries, which has gone due to precession of the equinoxes. It expresses that the spring equinox sun as good as has eaten, devoured, or consumed this age or constellation due to the precessional shift. Remember here also the holy meal, where believers eat the body of Christ (the sacrificed lamb). Because of that shift of constellation almost every 2000 years at an arbitrary point of the tropical year, the significant change of one constellation can be observed. It is the moment before sunrise on the day of the vernal equinox, when, after 2000 years, one constellation has set in the East and a new one announces the sunrise, while in the West a new one rises upon horizon. 2000 years ago Pisces replaced Aries in the East and Virgo replaced Scorpio in the West. Because he expressed the change to the constellation of Pisces, Jesus acquired the symbol of ICHTHYS, the fish, as well as the sacrificed lamb. In this context there must be mentioned some of the old beliefs of death and rebirth, such as  that the dead souls are waiting in the Milky Way and walk along it until they are reborn. The Greek goddess of death was the wife of Hades/Pluto. Her name was Persephone, Proserpina or Hel, and she is represented by the constellation of Virgo, whose main star is Spika, brightest on the ecliptic. Its  Greek name is era, meaning the corn-ear in the hands of the constellation Virgo. By observing the rising of that star, the earlier astronomers Hipparchos and Ptolemy calculated the precession of the equinoxes. Thus the Greek name of Spika became also an expression for the era, synonym for age. In its Roman expression, "Arista", it was the origin of terms like aristocracy, meaning noble birth. On the other hand, the Christian belief that Christ was born out of a virgin may be based on the fact that Virgo became the new autumn equinox constellation. Thus the introduction becomes a new sense. The firstborn of the dead means the same as the firstborn in the age of Virgo or the first born in the new era (Spika). [Rev 1:5] and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead,… But let's continue now and see what other stars or constellations occur: [Rev 5:8] And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints; What are the golden harp and the celestial (scale-) bowls called?  The Lyra and balance!  Is the incense intended for the altar? But further in the text:  Then the first four seals of the famous book were opened, and the four apocalyptic riders come: [Rev 6:2] And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. [Rev 6:4-6] And out came another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another; and he was given a great sword. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" And I saw, and behold, a black horse, and its rider had a balance in his hand; and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not harm oil and wine!" [Rev 6:8] And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him; The white horse reminds us of Pegasus, which is the constellation north of Pisces. The bow looks like Sagittarius, and the crown is the Corona borealis or northern crown, exactly opposite on the other site of the zenith of the sky as it was on a spring morning in the times of John. The white horse is followed by three others:  one fire-red with sword, a black horse with a balance and finally one pale as death. The one with a sword could correspond to Perseus with the sword, which is opposite Libra (balance)  and the one pale as death finds correspondence in the wife of Hades, Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, the dead goddess embodied in the Virgo.  Nevertheless, wheat and barley are a further reference to Spika, the corn-ear, the main star of Virgo.  The first part of the Apocalypse seems almost a kind of star walk, full of fantasy, with the descriptions of the constellations at dawn of the vernal equinox  2000 years ago, a description of the morning at the arbitrary  moment of the age-old deadline for the changing of the ages. The morning sky that was seen by John of Patmos!  It looks like the announcement of the age of Aries by the Persian king and "timeturner" Kai Khosrau, when he shouted out in Firdausi's mythic epos, called Shanameh :  "The whole world is my kingdom.  Mine is everything, from the fish down there to the head of the bull." You need to consider also the concept of the world of antiquity, if you want to understand:  Many believed at that time that for each human there is a star.  When a child is born, its star appears in the sky. Still today we say of movie stars:  "his star has risen" if he is successful.  However when someone died in the antiquity, then his star also vanished -- his life light. Up until here John described the constellations at the spring morning of his own age. It is Pegasus in the East; Perseus in the North; Virgo and Libra in the West; Sagittarius in the South; and  Corona Borealis, Lyra and Aquila in the zenith. Fig. 80:  Sky representation spring equinox, 5 a.m., Jerusalem at the time of John on Patmos After the four horses followed the fifth seal and a request to wait: [Rev 6:11] Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. The sixth seal describes then obvious astronomical and calendrical events: [Rev 6:12] When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood. [Rev 7:4] And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of every tribe of the sons of Israel … The description of the eclipses of sun and moon is followed by the indication of each 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. >From this the ominous number 144,000 results, a number that we know is very important from the Maya calendar, which arises as a result of combination of duodecimal and decimal system. Before opening the seventh seal, the elected people are going to be saved: [Rev 7:17] For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. It is a first hint to the source of water. The seventh seal contains the seven trumpets and its opening begins dramatically with silence: [Rev 8:1] When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Afterwards a constellation south of Scorpio near the southern celestial pole is mentioned: the altar: [Rev 8:3] And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; The altar is the southernmost visible constellation that can be seen from Mediterranean Patmos. It seems on the lower surface of the sky globe.  The actual South Pole itself as not visible to John, because it is not visible on any position north of the equator.  Michael Scotus called the constellation altar "puteus sive sacrarius" (Source or altar). It is  the holy well as symbol for the way into the underworld and is depicted by Calypso, the "hiding nymph" on the "downunder" island of Ogygia. The legend of the basilisk fits into this pattern, in which the kite with the head of a rooster waits at the bottom of a deep well. Finally, we have the beautiful old Grimm's  fairy tale of "The Blue Light" or "Frau Holle".  The metaphors of the well seem unfathomable. There is a history from Gervasius of Tilbury that the Star of Bethlehem fell into a well pit at Bethlehem, after it had fulfilled its function to light the path of the magis.  The Ka'aba of Mecca, with a black stone, a meteor, framed in silver, is likewise built on such a well, whose edge once showed a cube.  Before Islamic times this well was a sanctuary of the god Hubal, a Kronos/Saturn equated with god. The cubus is an old Christian symbol of Saturn, Satan, Incubus. On this altar, which was formerly called a well, according to Erathosthenes, Zeus swore his oath, before he attacked his father Kronos and threw him off his throne and out of the heavens,  thus usurping the rule of Olympia in the first mythical dawn of gods and turn of an era of the ancient Greeks.  It is the mythical base of the Olympiads - the Greek time calculation. An enigmatic hint about seven wells or the well of an oath is also mentioned in Genesis: [Gen 21:31] Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba; because there both of them swore an oath. [Gen 21:33] Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God. John's concept of the world seems to have been similar to the sky globe of the ancient Greeks and the one of Ovid and also he swears at the well or altar, as did once Zeus before the breaking of the dawn of the Olympic Gods. With the opening of the seventh seal, which contains the trumpets, and with swearing to the altar, suddenly the constellations, which John describes, change.  Here the view of John on the starlit sky of the future begins!  Particularly a constellation is noticeable, which was not visible in the dawn of the vernal sky 2000 years ago! The great showdown of the Apocalypse after opening the seventh seal starts with the trumpets and the woes:  The first reminds of a tempest, second of a volcano, third of a comet or a meteorite impact: [Rev 8:10] The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. [Rev 8:11] The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died of the water, because it was made bitter. That will probably hook some gloom and doom apocalyptic, world-end-prophets and black-painting astrologers.  This might be the prophecy of  John about the asteroid 1997XF11, which the astronomer Jim Scotti discovered on 6 December 1997.  This Asteroid will approach earth on 26 October 2028 at approximately 40,000 km and could collide with earth at a speed of about  30,000 km/h.  The course calculations are not yet exactly possible, but it appears the asteroid will come dangerously near to the earth. This close approach is realized best in a model with scale of 1:1 billion. Earth would be then be reduced to the size of an eyeball and moon a pinhead, about 30cm apart. The precalculated distance between the asteroid and earth is only a tenth of the distance from earth to moon, or only about 3 cm on this scale. An asteroid with the size of approximately 1.5 km could have considerable effects if an impact occurred. But John could  hardly have known about this asteroid. Thus let us  continue his report. The fourth trumpet brings darkness again, but this time somewhat differently, perhaps like a darkening by enormous dust masses? The fifth opens the shaft into the abyss: [Rev 9:1-2] And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless pit; he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. The metaphor of the shaft or open pit is similar to those of the well, and it is useful to compare it in the metaphoric language of the ancients with the way to the "downunder."  The shaft leads likewise to the Southern pole, into the underworld inside the earth where Vulcanus and Hephaistos, the smiths and  demiurges, work.  The often unfaithful wife of the Hephaistos is Aphrodite/Venus.  Their place in hell as Morningstar/Lucifer seems to have been pre-programmed for a long time before Christianity. The following locusts and the scorpion may remind again of Tithonos, when he became a cricket at the end of his days, and of the constellation of Scorpion, who in the Greek myth killed Orion. [Rev 9:3-4] Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth; they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads;… The fifth trumpet ends with: [Rev 9:11-12] They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon. The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come. What does John want to express here?  Because angels are the old planets, as already explained in the introduction, the solution here is very simple!  As a king, only one star is over them, says John: Apollo, the God of the sun!  How is it possible that only the sun is visible, as the only one of all planets (angels in John's terminology)? When is this the case?  The description is a planetary position, as it actually occurred with the alignment of all planets in May 2000.  This was The Greatest Year of the cosmos, as Aristotle called it.  One sees only the sun, since all other planets are behind it, and by the sun's light are blotted out and therefore are invisible.  For this planetary lineup of 5/5/2000 the American Richard W. Noone is a peculiar prophet and, strangely, fulfils not only John, but also the Gospels! Isn't it said in the bible, that no one knows the day and the hour? [Mat 24:36.7] But of that day and hour no one knows, … American Richard W. Noone depicts with his book (5/5/2000. Ice. The ultimate disaster) an unrealistic end of world scenario, where a polar shift due to the influence of gravitation of this planetary alignment destroyed the civilization on the earth.  Although this alignment was without any geological nor astronomical effect, he points out the subconscious power of this alignment by mixing up temporal shift with spatial shift and losing thus orientation in time and space. Noone seems to be a believing follower of ancient world views, as was John, without being aware that the world view is not the world itself. John had suspected already this planetary position, and Noone fulfilled it like a "self fulfilling prophecy."  We will see later, how Dionysius Exiguus adjusted and the Catholic church adopted the yearly count and fulfilled this prophecy. The sixth trumpet follows: [Rev 9:14] saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of mankind. The great river Euphrates, at which the four angels (cardinal points) are bound can be nothing else than the Milky Way. It is in many ancient star descriptions described as a great celestial river, flowing out of the vessel of Aquarius (waterbearer). Also, in the Greek/Roman myth of Pisces, this river is mentioned by Ovid: When the giants, led by Typhon conquered the heaven, all of the Olympic Gods fled or were changed into animals: Zeus/Jupiter into a ram, Apollo into a raven, Saturn into billy goat, Artemis/Diana into a cat, Hera/Juno into a cow. Also Aphrodite/Venus fled with her son Eros/Cupid and went to hide along the coast of the  Euphrates. Two fish came along and saved the goddess and her son from the raging Typhon. Therefore, says Ovid, the godfearing people of Syria do not eat fish any longer, being afraid of committing a sacrilege. The Milky Way during the Middle Ages was called daemon meridianus presumably because its surface looks like a big animal. Since in the biblical tradition the most dreadful spirit is this "daemonio meridiano" (High Noon Devil) or " collegio spirituum sapientissimorum" (assembly of very learned spirits) , "de quibus valde timendum est"(one has to be afraid of). Also the Psalm is telling of: [Ps. 91:5-6]  Latin: non timebis a timore nocturno, a sagitta volante in die, a negotio preambulante in tenebris, ab incursu et daemonio meridiano. [Ps. 91:5-6] English: You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at the noon. Many myths are still told today of this animal, usually a dog or a wolf that steals corn from the Northern mill and runs away across the sky. So the Pawnee tribe of American Indians call it the dogway. The ancient Dutch call the Milky Way Brunelstraat, after Brunel, a thieving fox. Last, but not least, the high noon devil was one of the most feared demons in the Middle Ages, because, as Giordano Bruno stated, on these other stars there would live other men and gods. In the following 10th  chapter, John opens the book and makes clear what will come in the future. [Rev 10:1-2] Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring; when he called out, the seven thunders sounded. John expresses here for the first time, completely and clearly, the rise of the lion!  A more modern scientific explanation would sound like this: The constellation of the lion rises due to the precession of the equinoxes upon the western horizon at dawn of the spring equinox day. On the celestial globe in the pictorial language of John, the constellation LEO steps out of the Sea. Fig. 81:  Sky representation spring equinox, 5 a.m., Jerusalem, year 2000 (crosswise 21x 18) In chapter 11, first some calendrical advice is given with the hint to a period of forty two months, measured and calculated with a staff. We will later again ran across that same period, expressed in another way. [Rev 11:1-2] Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told: "Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. Next John sees two witnesses, who talk prophesy for 1260 days and perform all kinds of miracles and torment humans. They are called the two olive trees. Finally their enemies kill them, but after three and one-half days, God again makes them alive: [Rev 11:3-4] And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands which stand before the Lord of the earth. [Rev 11:11] But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. In this context, it is interesting to mention another medieval Christian prediction, the prophecy of Malachy, important at any pope's election. This prophecy pretends to give a prediction in the slogans or mottos (epithets) of all popes until the end of time. The current pope, John Paul II, is the last but one on this list, and his  epithet is "labore solis" (solar eclipse). The final  Pope corresponds the last slogan to the list: Gloria olivae (fame of the olive tree). The Latin lines immediately after Gloria olivae, which is the last Pope's  slogan of the Malachy's Prophecy reads: Into psecutione extreme S.R.E. sedebit. Petrus Romanus, qui pascet oves in multus tribulationibus: Quibis transactis civitas septicollis diruetur, & Iudex tremedus iudicabit populum suum. Finis. (The bishop of Rome, pursued, settled down in the outermost end to withdraw. The Roman Pope, who pastured so many herds of sheep: Afterwards the city on seven hills (Rome) will be destroyed and the terrible judge will pass final judgment on his people. End). How this prophecy until now is fulfilled in Catholic Church is found on website of calendersign: http://www.calendersign.ric.at With the seventh trumpet, twenty-four elders, the third woe comes with the opening of the ark of his covenant and then appears a woman and the dragon: [Rev 11:16] And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, [Rev 11:19] Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. [Rev 12:1-6] And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. What else might this celestial woman bear than a new age, like Mary did with Jesus, whose surname was ICHTHYS and who started a new age? And the constellation of Draco is the dragon, the one who wants to eat this newborn child.  Astronomically it is easy to explain , because the constellations on ecliptic (the ages), run like the hours of the clock around the center of the ecliptic North Pole, where is situated the constellation dragon.  John describes that Draco at the pole of the ecliptic is the center of the precession's movement.  With his words, the dragon devours the world's  ages.  This is similar to the Greek myth, where Kronos devoured all of children, until finally Zeus escaped from him and later conquered his father. It is interesting that here again 1260 days are mentioned, the same period as the two prophets gave their witness. It looks as if it would be the period of time the new age would manifest. The 1260 days also relate to the above 42 month period, if each month has exactly 30 days. This might be a hint to a new world calendar with 12 x 30 days each month and some leap days left, if we remember. [Rev 11:2] but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. Also a later sentence mentions the same period, if  "times" means a year consisting of  360 days. (3.5 * 360 = 1260). [Rev 12:14] But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and two times, and half a time. A time in this context means one year. Next is the fight of archangel Michael with the dragon. [Rev 12:7-9] Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. This is the famous dragon fight, which happened at the beginning of many myths, when Thuban,  the Dragon, still represented the polar star (about 6000 years ago). In all his fights he was overwhelmed at the beginning of the legends of Siegfried, Parcifal, Gilgamesh etc. and finally in that Vienna fairy tale of Casper and the crocodile.  The constellation Draco, around which the precessional circle is leading the whole zodiac in a wobble around, might be a formulation that everyone who knows a bit of astronomy still understands today. Now in Revelation starts the famous meeting of the two animals: [Rev 13:1-2] And the dragon stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its horns and a blasphemous name upon its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bears, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. [Rev 13:4-6] Men worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it? And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months; it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. It is the second time that John has mentioned the lion stepping out of the Sea, meaning in fact the rising of LEO because of precession. Again the 42 months are mentioned like a legacy of a new calendar. The feet of the bear give us a hint to explain why stepping out of the Sea actually means the rising of a constellation. It is marvellously expressed, for example, in the myth of Kallisto, the Greater Bear (part of it is the Big Dipper), which offended against the holy order, and therefore was thrown into the north sky. Kallisto (the most beautiful one) was a companion of Artemis, the goddess of the moon. Artemis, also Goddess of virginity, only allowed to virgins to be her companions.  Zeus, however had seduced, raped, and impregnated Kallisto.  She tried to conceal what happened and remained, although now pregnant, a companion of the moon goddess, which broke the rule. Pregnant women do not follow the rule of the moon, because they have no female period (menstruation)! As the Greater Bear in the heavens, Kallisto never again can take a bath in the Sea (because it is a circumpolar constellation and never sets), therefore lovers will never approach her again, because she stinks so badly. And someone who never can take a bath in the Sea also never can step out of the Sea. And then John asks the mystery question, which gave cause for the greatest speculations.  What is the number of that (first, and wounded by the sword) beast, which Revelation said that the inhabitants of the earth worship it? [Rev 13:11-17] Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.  It exercises all the authority of the first beast (the lion) in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men; and by the signs which it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, bidding them make an image for the beast which was wounded by the sword and yet lived; Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. [Rev 13:18] This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six. As has been shown, Revelation deals with the coming and going of ages due to precession of the points of the equinoxes concerning to the constellations of the zodiac. The precession was first measured and estimated by Hipparchos and Ptolemy with a value of 100 years for each 1° of the zodiac. This value was too large, and more clever astronomers are surely aware of it, because the actual (recently calculated) value is 71.66 years per 1° of the zodiac. For example all Arab and Hebrew astronomers calculated with a different value, which is 66.6 years per 1° of the zodiac. Their assumption thus was that 30° of the zodiac the cardinal points would move along in 2000 years (2000 : 30 = 66.6)! These astronomers or star catalogues are: · Al-Khwarizmi (~800 CE), al zij Sindhind. · "Tabulae probatae" or "az-Zig al-mumtan" from the years 829-830 CE. · Al Battani (880 CE) "al-Zij", a star catalog with 533 stars. It calculates the annual precession with 54'', which results exactly in 30° in 2000 years. (54'': 60: 60 x 2000 = 30°). · As-Sufi (964 CE), a fixed star book. · Al Biruni (973 - 1048 CE) al Qanun al-Masud (Masudi Canon). · Arab fixed star catalog from 1st Oct 1112 CE (according to Paul Kunitzsch with a difference of 14,47° since Ptolemy. (1112 -150 = 962; 962:14.47 = 66.4°) · The "Libros del Saber" of Alfonse of Castillia (1252-1284 CE). · Judah Ben Verga of Lisbon (according to Bernard R. Goldstein) That list and the value of precession the medieval astronomers used show quite brilliantly, what John actually meant with the number of the beast: It is the number of the zodiac, which translates literally from ancient Greek as "beast circle." The number of the beast is the ancient value for the precession of the equinoxes around the zodiac! After revealing the number of the beast John tells which constellation is the next, following due to the precession, after the sacrificed lamb, meaning Jesus, called ICHTHYS (Pisces): [Rev 14:2] And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder .. [Rev 14:6-7] Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of water. This is first time that John announces the "angel with the water," Aquarius, the waterbearer. He followed by another one, who wears a sickle: [Rev 14:14] Then I looked, and lo, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. [Rev 14:16] So he who sat upon the cloud swung his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. That celestial with the sickle looks very like Kronos/Saturn, whose tool is the sickle. With this sickle, the Titan Kronos cut off the genitals of his father Uranus and settled on the throne of heaven. Saturn and his many representatives like Thoth, Kronos, Pan, and Dionysos, were the former "time gods," whose cults finally culminated in the ceremony of drinking wine, which  survives in Christianity, along with holy meal, celebrated at Easter. Pic: Medieval Painting of Saturn with Scythe In the following chapters there is much about anger, fury, revenge, and arbitration, which seems to be necessary, at least as a program, in any big change. It deals more with Hebrew moral or religious feelings and less with astronomy. The text starts to be astrologically and astronomically interesting again when the angel with the millstone appears. [Rev 18:21] Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, … That angel in early Christian iconography looks like St. Florien, patron of the fire brigades, who overtook the image of the waterbearer. He is followed by another angel with the key to the abyss: [Rev 20:1-4] Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed … [Rev 20:6] …but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years. [Rev 20:7] And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison. Many times the 1,000-year period is mentioned here. This corresponds to the former constant of precession, the number of the beast (zodiac). John is describing again why, due to the precession (the movement going out from the dragon), ages change and new paradigms arise, overwhelming the old. There is a Russian myth telling of a dog who is chained to the constellation Ursa Minor at the celestial pole. He chews on his fetter until he gets free. If he is free, the end of the world has come. Also this myth gives us a hint to an ancient global view, as well of the movement of the Milky Way (dog way, or daimon meridianus), but also of the changes of the polar stars due to the wobble of Earth axis. The Milky Way, our own galaxy, and its center have nothing important as a point of reference. The recent declaration of the Aquarian Age Network reads: While acknowledging the zero point of the zodiac to be defined as the point where the true galactic equator crosses the ecliptic between Taurus and Gemini, and recognizing the J2000 galactic equator defined by the galactic north pole of 12h 51.4m, 27° 8' to be representative of the B1950 definition of the galactic coordinate system, by virtue of Sagittarius A* being recognized as the dynamical center of the galaxy with the true galactic equator passing through Sagittarius A*, and by virtue of the sun being at 90° 00' 32" past the point of the crossing of the J2000 galactic equator and the ecliptic at the spring equinox of 20 March 2000, 0735 GMT, we declare the Age of Aquarius to have unequivocally arrived. Pax Aetatis Aquarii vobiscum! Expressed in more simple words, this declaration tells that the point of spring equinox (once being between the constellations Gemini and Taurus, on the galactic equator) already has moved more than 90° from this point on the galactic equator, which is opposite of the center of our galaxy and supposed to be a black hole. The 90° relates to three constellations, each 30°, and therefore the constellation Aquarius enters the spring equinox dawn and the new age arrives. The Aquarian Age declaration  actually expresses the same thing as the medieval drawing showing the myth of Taurus. The Minotaur represents the monster that began to devour men and time due to precession in the age of Taurus. This constellation announced the day of the spring equinox about 6,000 years ago. At this time, the sun at spring equinox was on the crucial point of Milky May and zodiac: at a door between two main paths of the sky. This door was close to Taurus, where two paths crossed! The path of the planets and the assumed path of the dead souls, the Milky Way that is represented here by the Labyrinth. Pic: Painting of the Greek myth of Daedalus showing the Minotaur and the Labyrinth with a dog's head from a Medieval manuscript in the National Library of Paris. Revelation ends calmly with the start of the new age, giving water from the fountain of life, measuring newly created heavens, and with Jesus calling himself the morning star. [Rev 21:6] And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life without payment. [Rev 21:10] And in the Spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, [Rev 21:15] And he who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. [Rev 22:16] "I Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star." Revelation finishes with a last allusion to the star of David, calling it here the morning star, which could lead to a misinterpretation. It means here surely not Venus, but the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurring metaphysically in a shape of a triangle, which slowly shifts over 59 years along the zodiac.  After about 1000 years the triangle (Grand Trine or Tripod) describes, compared with the start position, a hexagraph, the star of David, also announcing like the morning star a "new day," but in another context. The very impressive triple conjunctions of  Jupiter and Saturn are also called prophecies in religions, such as star of Bethlehem in 7 BC, or the one of 571 CE that the medieval chronologer Abu Mashar called "conjunction announcing of the Arab people." This "new day" is the DAY of God, which lasts 1000 years. For example the Koran tells in Sure 32: For God 1000 years is one day. Also [Ps. 90:4] says: For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. [I John 3:8] . . . one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. In this context we understand the promise of Jesus "that he will be raised on the Third Day." [Mat 17:23.13] , [Mat 20:19.21] , [Luke 9:22.27]  etc. If One Day (of God) lasts 1000 years, the Third Day starts after two of this days (2000 years) have gone. Thus the Third Day begins after 2000 years. So far this interpretation of the Revelation of John of Patmos is - confessed - a view that decodes the whole with only the astronomical key, but contributes a way for the open minded to understand some still hidden facts. The code has been used in that way as Umberto Eco describes it in his "Introduction into Semiotics": (Due to the code …) "the information of a source is decreasing, while the possibilities of transmitting a message is increasing. … The existence of a code … limits the number of criteria." That's exactly what the code does, when using it to understand Revelation. It reduces the abundance of fantastic descriptions, but the possibility of receiving an understandable message is growing. The astronomical sieve filters out that core of truth and the rest falls away through the sieve. The structure, which before was invisible, remains and can be recognized. This structure also is subconsciously alive in modern art or in musicals, like the Rocky Horror Picture Show with its Time Warp, which sings "it's just a step to the left." This step goes from Pisces to Aquarius. If Revelation describes the bygone age of Aries by using the constellation Ram, the sacrificial lamb designates the fish, yet John never mentions Pisces or fish. That was his secret and mystery, how he hid his message. And that mystery seems to have  a recent parallel in modern culture. Most of all Revelation has influenced our everyday, or, better, our every-year lives, by adjusting the calendar. Around 1500 years ago, there lived two astronomers and chronologers who influenced the fundamental way we count the years. Both were influenced by an alignment of all naked-eye planets that occurred in 531 CE and which was also the basis for the Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata to adjust the start of the Kali Yuga, the still-valid Indian age, to a similar alignment of all planets on 17th Feb. 3102 BCE. Such an alignment was called the Greatest Year and mythically is represented by the Greek Symposium (sitting together) of  the Olympic Gods, held after the creation of mankind by Prometheus. The Western contemporary of Aryabhata was the Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus, who had similar ideas, but projected into the future. He wanted to link the Greatest Year with the precession of Earth's axis, which was known in early medieval times to have a value of 66 2/3 year per 1° (resulting in 2000 years per 30°). The modern value, as shown above, is 71.66 years per 1°, which is the reason that about every 2000 years a new  constellation rises at dawn on the vernal equinox, giving orientation in time. 2000 years ago this was Pisces and, with its Greek letters ICHTHYS, Pisces became the first (new age) symbol of the Christians. What Dionysius actually did was to calculate when the age of Pisces might end and therefore also show the time when Christ would return. Then he figured out, using the common multiple of the planetary periods, when a Greatest Year (alignment of all planets) would recur, and having found this, he adjusted  2000 years before it (to calculate one age, due to the value of precession 66.6) [to find] the year of Christ's birth. Actually on 5-5-2000 there was such an alignment of all planets, proving that this indeed was the reason for the establishment of the Christian yearly count. Briefly, John's Revelation can interpreted convincingly in such a way. John describes the starlit sky of the Near East, approximately between 30° and 40° northern latitude, before the morning dawn of the spring equinox. The horizon was the age-old deadline designating Pegasus in the East and Virgo in the West.  He avoids mentioning Pisces, which seems to be the secret of the Apocalypse, and describes the constellation and age of Pisces as if it were a sacrificed lamb.  He attributes the change of the ages to the movement around Draco.  The coming turn of an era results for him in the starlit sky, as if it were at the morning of spring equinox at present.  Significant for that arbitrary moment is the new half-risen constellation Leo in the west and Aquarius in the east. The constellation Altar represents for him the southern ecliptic pole. Solar and lunar eclipses and a planetary conjunction, like the bead of planets,  May 5, 2000, initiate the new age. With his descriptions he influenced substantially the adjustment of the yearly count which is still in use and results now in the year 2001 of the Gregorian calendar, the first year of his prophesied new world age. Sepp Rothwangl 9-9-01 / 246,000 www.calendersign.ric.at