There is growing debate about whether or not Jesus Christ was a real historical person as described in the gospels. The “Christ Myth Theory” suggests the Jesus story was invented, based on other deities around the Mediterranean, including many that were largely solar in nature. Here I, Robert Tulip, explain how observation of a visible movement of the stars known as the precession of the equinoxes could have been used to make Jesus the imaginary founder of the zodiacal Age of Pisces. In her books on Jesus mythicism, D.M. Murdock aka “Acharya S” has discussed this precession theory in some depth. There is much more to do to develop this cosmic vision as a persuasive scientific hypothesis for how the church got started.

What is precession of the equinoxes?

The word “equinox” means “equal night” and refers to the two times of the year when the days and nights are approximately the same length, generally March 20th and September 22nd. Precession of the equinoxes is explained by astronomy as due to the wobble of the axis of the earth. It is a very slow process, moving the equinoxes by just one degree of sky per human lifetime. Precession was measured by Greek scientists more than a century before the time of Jesus, and was probably known even earlier by astronomers in Egypt, Babylon, India and Central America.

In the last 2,000 years, the equinoxes have precessed against the zodiac stars by almost one sign. According to my calculations, in 21 AD/CE, around the alleged time of Jesus, the spring point – known as the “first point of Aries” – shifted out of the constellation of Aries and into the constellation of Pisces. This event exemplifies the precession of the equinoxes and is arguably the basis of the Christ myth, the cosmic observation subsequently “brought down to earth” in the fable of Jesus of Nazareth. (Editor’s note: Other calculations place the starting date of Pisces at other times, such as during the first and second centuries BCE.)

Jesus as mythical milestone

Traditional astrology sees Aries as the first sign and Pisces as the last sign. From this system, the time of Jesus marked the end of a previous “Great Year” of 25,800 years and the start of a new Great Year, when the equinox shifted back from the sign of the “first” zodiac age, Aries, to the “last” zodiac age, Pisces. Do you see the resemblance with the Christ myth? Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the first and last (Rev 22:13), Aries and Pisces. He is the sacrificial Lamb of God (end of Age of Aries) and the Fisher of Men (dawn of the age of Pisces). His symbol is ICHTHYS or fish, and he calls to him “fishers of men” as his disciples. His communion food is designated as fish, when he asks for as much after his resurrection (Jn 21). His early Christian followers were called the “little fishes” and represented by two fishes – a symbol for Pisces.

In fact, the fish became a “primary symbol” of Christianity, concerning which Christian art historian Dr. Charles R. Morey remarks in an article entitled, “The Origin of the Fish-Symbol’ (Princeton Theological Review 8.93):

[The Fish] almost always clearly represents Christ, though sometimes standing for the Christian, and its history can be traced from its appearance in the second century down to the fourth, when it begins gradually to disappear on Christian monuments….

All of this mythical symbolism indicates that Jesus Christ was invented to symbolize the movement of the sky at the dawn of the Age of Pisces.

“…Jesus Christ was invented to symbolize the movement of the sky at the dawn of the Age of Pisces.”

There is much more in the Bible to build on this cosmic framework as a coherent and compelling story about the real meaning of Christianity. In order to arrive at the real origins of Christianity, we need to exclude everything supernatural, in order to provide a natural scientific explanation. That accomplishment is difficult to do since the conventional religious stories are based on magical ideas that have a strong cultural hold.

No ‘historical’ Jesus?

People often say the Jesus story is based on history. As part of the solar mythology and astrotheology incorporated into the gospel story, the precession framework shows why that claim is wrong, as the gospel authors evidently wanted to explain how the slow movement of time visible in the heavens was reflected on earth. As it says in the Lords Prayer: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” in this case interpretable as referring to the fictional story of Jesus modelled on what we can see in the sky. It is also said, “As above, so below.”

There are many more miraculous and supernatural Bible stories that begin to make sense when we put them in the framework of precession. The loaves-and-fishes miracle in the gospel story (Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6:31-44; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:5-15) evidently represents the new abundance from the shifting equinox axis of Pisces and Virgo. The Book of Revelation is chock-full of accurate cosmic symbolism. Even the core theology of John and Paul, the shift from law to grace, apparently comes straight from a sky map of precession.

In this regard, D.M. Murdock/Acharya S is a pioneer in developing scientific explanations of Christianity, especially the continuity between Christian myths and older stories from Egypt and India. The ancients evidently used precession to construct the Christ myth, but this knowledge was lost due to the power of the church. The task now is to reconstruct the Christ story as a natural explanation of the connection between earth and the cosmos. The physical framework provided by precession of the equinoxes is central to this task of explaining what the Bible authors really meant by the myth of Christ, as the apparent “avatar” of the Age of Pisces.

Writer Robert Tulip works for the Australian government, has a Master’s degree in philosophy from Macquarie University, and is a fervent student of astronomy as well as mythology, including and especially Jesus mythicism. More of his writing can be found on FreethoughtNation.com/forums and Booktalk.org. Robert may be reached at his website and Facebook page as well.