The Magi and Astrology in the Life and Death of Jesus

If you've been following along on Instagram, you might have seen my recent post on my journey of being forced out of the church, picking up astrology, and the eureka moment I had that would unite astrology and faith in my mind forever. 

That moment was when I was reading Chris Brennan's book Hellenistic Astrology, and he told the history of astrologers in the Roman Empire. Astrologers 2,000+ years ago had primary functions as royal advisors. They would help kings decide when were the best times to go to war or to maintain peace with a neighboring country. Part of the information they would use would be the “transiting chart,” or the current sky. The other part would be the king-in-question's natal chart, the chart from the moment of his birth. 

In the ancient world, the birth chart of a king would have likely been seen as very sacred and secret information for this reason. Knowing the birth chart of a king would give enemies and allies alike deep insight into his most vulnerable qualities and times of greatest weakness. 

Learning this, I jumped to open my Bible to Matthew 2. This passage, which for my entire education in seminary and years as a pastor had felt really obscure, suddenly came to life. This verse in particular stood in sharp relief: “(7) Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.” You cannot construct a very accurate natal chart without a birth time.

I had heard off-hand comments that the Magi were astrologers, and my NRSV Annotated Bible even says they were, but now I think I know exactly what these astrologers were doing, and the dangerous decision they made. Seeing an astronomical phenomenon, and knowing of the Jewish prophecy of a spiritual leader, these Magi were likely court astrologers going to sleuth out the birth details (the word “nativity” means exactly this: birth circumstances!) and identity of a new, neighboring king. I imagine the Magi encountering the Christ child and deciding not to reveal his identity to Herod, not desiring to disrupt his fate or his ministry. 

This week I had another major insight into the role of astrology in establishing Jesus' identity as a king. During the crucifixion, each of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) mention the sun going dark. Some scholars have suggested this could have been a sand storm, but I have a big reason to now believe it was a solar eclipse. In ancient astrology, solar eclipses were seen as astrological events that portended the death of a king. So much so that courts would make efforts to hide and protect kings during them. 

Now we can see that Jesus' life was bookended by celestial phenomena that signal kingship in astrology. Holy. Crap. I am so, so excited to be putting this together. This is why astrologically fluency could be so so important in Biblical interpretation.

On January 25, under the full moon in Leo, I will be diving into this material in a webinar on the Magi and the nativity. And I want to hear from you: what is the question that is most burning in your mind or heart after reading this? What would you want to learn from me in a webinar offering on this topic? What doubts are you having that I can help reassure when it comes to learning this material? Email me at lindsey@badpastor.me and tell me!

Can you imagine how much might change about Christian faith if people had a more fluent understanding of astrology, which was such a feature of Jesus' cultural context?!