Mazzaroth

“Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven … and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” Genesis 1:14

Sky map
Appointed times
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How these dates are worked out

The appointed times come from Leviticus 23. Months start at the new moon and a Jewish day runs from sunset to sunset. These are calculated dates, not a calendar to keep: the ways of counting months can differ by a day or two, and in some years by a whole month (the spring feasts of 2027, for example). The 364-day options count 52 weeks a year from the spring equinox of creation (3761 BC), moved to the nearest Wednesday so the weeks match real weeks; they have no Moon in them. Church days are civil dates and follow the Western way of setting Easter (the old Julian way before 1582); there is no Easter before AD 326. Checked against the real Moon: on seen-new-moon months the festival night (the 15th) is about a day from the full Moon, so the day numbers fit the real Moon; the 364-day year, uncorrected, drifts away from the seasons.

Place and clock
Date and time
13,001 BCAD 3000
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What holds up?

The Story you can tour here is a tradition, not a finding. It comes from Frances Rolleston (1862) and E. W. Bullinger (1893), who read twelve signs and thirty-six companion constellations (“decans”) as one story, Virgo to Leo. This project tested parts of that reading against modern star data, each test compared with what chance or ordinary sky geometry would give.

The short version: the sky matches the way the signs and decans are grouped, the story runs in a real order from chapter to chapter, and there is a natural seam where it begins. The more specific claims, about star-name meanings and which figures are brightest, mostly did not hold up. A result that fits a reading is not proof of it.

What the sky supports

  • The decans sit beside their signs. On average 17° along the zodiac, against about 90° for random grouping. None of 20,000 random shuffles did as well, and the grouping is close to the best the geometry allows (12.7°).
  • The story runs in order from chapter to chapter. Going from Virgo to Leo, the decans shift from level with their sign to well to the east of it (a steady trend, tested in advance, far beyond chance). But the best possible grouping shows the same trend, so it comes from the sky, not from Bullinger’s particular choices.
  • The story’s start is a real gap. The widest gap between neighbouring signs is from Leo to Virgo, about 48°, so the circle is naturally cut where Bullinger starts it. Cutting it there gives the strongest version of the trend.

What was not supported

  • Order inside each chapter, and decans fanning across the zodiac. Neither beat chance.
  • The Redeemer’s figures being the brightest. Brighter on average, but not by more than chance allows, and the answer flips with judgement calls about each figure’s role.
  • Star-name meanings. Checked against an independent scholarly dictionary of star names, about 1 in 10 of Bullinger’s meanings holds up (163 checked: 10% supported, 9% partly, 72% contradicted, 9% unknown). Of Rolleston’s, 7% are supported, 9% partly, 74% contradicted, 11% unknown (152 checked). The few that hold up are mostly late, learned Arabic or Latin names, not the ancient names the story needs.

What holds together, but proves less than it sounds

  • Rolleston’s roots and verses. The Hebrew root she gives for a name does occur in the Bible verse she cites in 73% of cases (shuffled references: 2%), and her meaning fits the root in a Hebrew dictionary about two times in three. That shows she was consistent with the Hebrew. It does not show the star names come from those roots, which the dictionary check mostly contradicts.

What cannot be settled from this data

  • How old the figures are. Older sky layers are consistent with an earlier date, but none fixes one. The picture depends on the reading chosen.
  • Whether the story was intended, or what it means to you. The tests ask what the sky does. They cannot say what its makers meant.