Christianity's Destiny:
The First and Lasting Signs
by
by Rollan McCleary

On the Day of Pentecost it's said Christ's disciples spoke in many tongues. But on the morning of May 28th AD 30 in their own language the skies too were uttering about people and ideas that would make up Christianity and opposition to it. It was the day that saw everything of importance that would ever happen to the religion, a day that saw all history. The record was and is nothing short of a heavenly WikiLeaks.

Through celestial bodies not even then seen or named, the heavens spoke of much more than just the day's fiery dove through Venus, ancient symbol of doves, beside Columbia (dove) in the fire element. They pointed not just to Peter and to Paul, who conjuncted his travelling companion Luke and aspected Apostle and from the house of mission and travel. The skies which foresaw Luther, Thomas Aquinas and in a mysterious way the Ratzinger who would become Pope Benedict, also foresaw Darwin's momentous Beagle voyage and Poincare discovering the Chaos principle. Canterbury and York joined to promise Anglicanism along with its and Archbishop William's problems around homosexuality aggravated by Uganda's homophobia dramatically forecast. Overt opposition to the picture was also shown including Stephen Hawking's refusal of belief in a Creator God while the Beatles and John Lennon were negatively placed anticipating "bigger than Jesus" boasts.

The information of this book is unprecedented in the history of any religion or writing on astrology. It surpasses any alleged Bible Codes for insight and accuracy. After a thorough house by house examination of the remarkable data through hundreds of examples, two final chapters look at history through snapshots in time of major turning points and trends, and reflect on future prospects along with the nature of prophecy itself, of which astrology is an aspect. This includes assessment of those trends assuming the imminent end of Christianity. Might there be an end through decline of belief, decadence, the enlargement of Islam or even the mysterious Rapture, and to what extent is the latter belief original to the faith and intended to be believed? It is not possible to read this book and retain quite the same attitudes to either religion or astrology.

From the PREFACE:

What is the destiny of Christianity? In the second decade of the twenty first century the religion is mired in an identity crisis of rare proportions of which Catholicism's sex abuse scandals are a significant, but far from unique component.

People even begin to wonder what Christianity really is and represents. What amid so many contending voices does it truly represent? Which group, tradition, authority or Bible most nearly defines it today or manages to do so in anything like its original form, and is there any hope left that the inaugural power and innocence could ever be regained? Even charismatic attempts to return to some assumed visionary Pentecostal norm appear vulnerable to dubious prosperity gospels and bizarre instant heaven experiences savouring more of New Age techniques than any more spontaneous, pristine Christian spirituality. Behind this picture of creeping decadence we might hear other mysterious, hard to assess whispers of extreme destinies. There is the much contested St Malachy Prophecy of the Popes which would make Pope Benedict XVI last in the projected line; and there is that wing of especially American Evangelicalism that awaits the Rapture and being snatched away from approaching Tribulation. This has spawned a highly lucrative market of best sellers on the Left Behind theme.

There are so many perspectives and questions, but this book offers a genuinely unique, unprecedented take on the nature and destiny of the faith we call Christianity. In terms of production this book is a sequel to my Testament of the Magi about the astrology of Christ. It is not however at all necessary to have read that study to appreciate the present one, except for awareness of one single point — namely that if we can be sure of when Christ died there is not the slightest problem in determining the relevant data for the Pentecost that founded the new faith.

If we can be certain of the date of the first Pentecost then, through a coding clearer, more testable and reliable than any alleged Bible Codes, we can have something like a heaven's eye view, almost a celestial WikiLeaks, of what was and is going on. I don't just mean knowledge through the conventional signs of astrology, or not just the traditional planetary variety highly subject to interpretation (and thus Forer effect according to critics), but the new kind which can include the exactitudes of such as the asteroids. At Christ's birth these supplied his names and titles in super-conjunction and the names of his leading ancestors in his house of ancestors. They also reveal the kind of supporters and enemies he will have across time. They do so likewise here for the church. Not that traditional astrology is redundant or that I ignore it........

WHEN THE DAY OF PENTECOST HAD COME

It wasn't like any other day before or since, and it would direct the subsequent course of history. It did or didn't involve a major supernatural event depending upon your view, but it was still exceptional because it produced if nothing else the miracle of organization and expansion that would become Christianity with its eventually vast membership and enormous cultural effects.

The date of Pentecost in a given year is always traceable, but astrological inquiry has so far been held up by scholarly disagreement about the year of Christ's crucifixion. AD 30 or 33 are the two main contenders. One or other must correspond to the year of the crucial Pentecost. At the intertestamental period in question, this festival of the giving of the Law, called Shavuot, was still celebrated seven weeks, or fifty days inclusively counted from the Sunday following the Passover in any given year. Researches included in my Testament of the Magi and Signs for a Messiah allow of no other possibility than that AD 30 was the year of crucifixion. (The recent much media touted, supposedly definitive resolution of the Easter dating problem from Colin Humphreys which has crucifixion on April 1st 33 does not in fact resolve all it ironically asteroid Humphreys even turns up in Jesus' natus on the degree of the Part of Misinterpretation!). The pattern for the Pentecost of 30 AD Ýconfirms this with its necessarily unique characteristics describing not only a very "fiery" event, but the nature of the Church as an institution and its destiny. This means that its patterns can be tested against events of history to this day — a real tour de force. This testability of which I supply some examples in the penultimate chapter, incidentally makes the Pentecost pattern one of that rarest of items in astrology, a master chart crossing centuries and cultural boundaries and akin to a horoscope for the Roman Empire or Western history and culture itself and not just the Church. It was the day that foresaw almost everything (in religious context) from St Paul to Darwin, a celestial WikiLeaks on one and all.

I shall offer a blow for blow treatment of the pattern through primarily its houses and along the lines commonly used for the analysis of any institution. Institutions, similarly to nations and cities, can all have their birth charts which are derived from an emotionally or symbolically potent moment, like signing a nation into being or crowning its first monarch. The elevation of Charlemagne, the inauguration of the Holy Roman Empire, has long supplied a working chart of sorts for the ever fragmented Europe. Astrologers also set up not just birth charts but Event charts which describe a passing setting and situation like a road accident, though in the case of Pentecost a dramatic event and the birth of something coincides.

The descent of the Spirit, the experience of fire and a "rushing mighty wind", is obviously at once an event and the moment of birth for the church. The record indicates that the time ("the third hour of the day" Acts, 1.15) was nine o clock, or rather, as people didn't have watches, somewhere between nine and ten in the morning. It was because it was morning and this "hour" of the day that the apostle Peter tells the mockers who decide the disciples are drunk, that it is too early in the day for drink.

Since the chart will have to work in psychological and historical terms and a water sign such as is still ascending at 9 am cannot hope to describe the all—important moment of impact, there is every reason to suppose the foundational moment should be set for around 9. 15 am. It is, besides, only when a fire sign has begun to rise that Venus, traditional symbol of doves, and itself suitably in fire, and conjunct Columbia (Dove) in the same element, will be near conjunct the destiny Midheaven, symbolizing the mystery of the moment, while on the horizon at the pattern's image-defining ascending point will be Uranus, symbol of the Spirit, itself also in fire. Further certifying the pattern, and rather remarkably, the time sensitive Midheaven is in direct close aspect to Sainte-Colombe (Fr. Holy Dove/Holy Spirit), an asteroid which itself this day happens to be closely conjunct Aletheia (Gk.Truth) as though to fulfil the promise, "When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth" (Joh 16:13). Around 9.15 am on May 28th, AD 30 is therefore the obvious time and the fact that at that time the chart's so-called Part of Enlightenment falls conjunct the illuminating Venus again speaks strongly for it........

9.15 am, Sunday 28th May (Julian Calendar) 30 AD in Jerusalem

The disciples, praying in an upper room " possibly the same one at which the Last Supper was celebrated " and awaiting the promise made them by Jesus of a special visitation, are suddenly surprised by sound like a violent rushing wind. It fills the entire house carrying upon it as it were "tongues" of fire. These flames descend upon the disciples' heads so that they speak in other languages. Going out into the street the company astonishes the many pilgrims to the city who hear their own languages or dialects being spoken. Others more dismissive and sceptical decide the disciples must just be drunk; but in response to this and to explain what is happening Peter, who protests that around 9 am ("the third hour") is not the time people get drunk, addresses the crowd. His religion inaugurating sermon links the event to prophecies from especially Joel who foresaw a last times when the Spirit would be universally poured out.

The history-changing moment of impact rises in fire, the "fire" of the Spirit. Uranus, the planetary symbol (within any religious context) of the Spirit and more generally of revolution and surprise, assumes a dramatically forceful mode as it rises in fiery Leo and is supplemented descriptively and graphically in various ways including by a clear symbolization of the fiery dove in the tenth house which however can be dealt with in the affairs of that house. This strengthening and supplementation in the first house begins with the fact that Uranus is closely conjunct the Jesus asteroid Isa (Arabic for Jesus), and fortunately trining the asteroid Priestly. In astrology everything is connected and relevant unless it quite obviously isn't. The fact that Tiepolo conjuncts Uranus could be a hint of how we might imagine this visionary event " extravagantly and in truly late baroque or early rococo fresco style, an open heaven full of light, fire, clouds, angels and swirling energies.

Since Uranus is about any adoption while Leo is the royal sign, the contacts nicely code from the outset the apostle Peter's perception of the first believers as, "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy people" (1 Pet. 2:9). This, then, is the moment of Jesus, the moment of the Messiah, the moment of grace and one that moves against the devil. Just above the crucial ascendant horizon describing what has been taking place around impact time or the moment the disciples spill out onto the street announcing the event to the world, stand the asteroids, Masi (Messiah) and Joya (Joy). Conjunct, or just below the ascendant, are Isa (Jesus) and Charis (Grace) redolent of the concept of the charismata of the Holy Spirit that are now gifting and setting the assembled company aflame at the same time as they are driving back the devil. Asteroid Lucifer is under affliction from what's called a square (90 degree) aspect to Masi and also Laguerre (war) which is the state the Masi could be said to be in with the devil, seen as "ruler of this world" (Joh 12:31).

The asteroid just ahead of Uranus and telling us how the Spirit is most immediately manifesting to the world in this event, namely in "tongues", is Babel. The event in effect is Babel's reversal. Whereas at Babel (meaning confusion), God deliberately confused and divided people by new languages, in this instance, even if it causes some confusion, the variety of tongues creates a new unity and understanding. "And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered because each heard them speaking in the native language of each" (Acts 2:6).

The fiery Leo ascendant functions as introduction to an important scene-setting and self image-fixing first house for the whole Pentecost pattern that will unfold below the ascendant. Its degrees are truly loaded with signs and meanings for religion and the destiny of the community of believers being birthed. Through the recently ascended Jesus, heaven, or at least its foretaste, its vision, is now felt to have appeared for always and for ever. Semper (Lat.always) and Aeternitas (Eternity) conjunct the 3 degree Isa (Jesus) and then from below them at 4 degrees, these all conjunct Coelum (Heaven). Heaven is opening up, indeed, the "rush of a violent wind" identified with the Spirit and filling the whole house is described as "from heaven" — note not from Paradise for which there is another asteroid, a matter I address in a later section.

Wishing as far as possible to fill out the moment in Event chart terms, I should mention there is no asteroid in any language for flame, but outside the rising factors just mentioned there is Flammeus which in Latin means fiery. At 17 degrees of fiery Aries it does happen to aspect, and exactly to the degree, asteroid House in Gemini, sign of languages and an air sign — the wind bearing the tongues of fire fills the house (Acts 2:2). Flammeus is also in acceptable aspect to an asteroid, Apostel, (Ger. apostle) at 19 Gemini, and obviously it is the apostles who are recipients of the fiery revelation.