What was the Star of Bethlehem ... and how did the 3 wise men know where to stop without GPS?

Hi Yolande

Many Thanks for your emails they are inspiring, but I am not very up to date on names and places in space just yet.

Being the "Festive Season" with most of the religions celebrating light in some way or other. I do have a question for you, one, which I ask all the time and don't get an answer to (it may be naÏve). It would be interesting to be able to go back and find out just which Star the 3 Wise Men saw, how they all knew it was the right one, and why they followed it to Bethlehem? How did they know without GPS where to go and where to stop?

I do know that navigation by the stars is a wonderful thing, my Uncle was a man of the sea and taught us a little of what he lived by, it was fascinating, he couldn't answer my question but said the heavens change all the time and he only really knew about the present. I do know that all religions hail from the East and that astrology played a huge part in the religions. It doesn't matter what they call the stars today, they have all always been there or evolved for anyone interested to see. Maybe I am a bit nuts but it would be nice to know.

Perhaps I should have my astrological chart read and that would explain a lot about me. Well that's all the buzz hope it keeps you on your toes this festive season. We are off to Namibia to look at the Stars.

Kind Regards, Snooks

Many theories exist as to what exactly The Star of Bethlehem could have been; the most popular explanation amongst laymen is that it was a comet or a supernova. However, this would seem unlikely as supernovas are seen for a short period, and the Magi would not have been able to make such a long journey in a relatively short space of time (flight availability was a bit scarce). As for comets, well they're visible to a large part of Earth at the same time, and, they move at quite a speed, so how would the Three Wise Men have known 'where' to look for the Christ Child?

Astrologers seem to have the view that The Star was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which occurred three times in the year 7BC (in May, September and December), in Pisces. As this conjunction happens about every 60 years, I think that this too is an unlikely theory. In fact, our ASSA Chairperson Gloria Ford has such a conjunction and, although she's fabulous, I don't believe that she or anyone else born at the same time have claim to the title of 'Messiah'.

I have also come across the theory that Jupiter retrograded over Regulus (passing over it 3 times) between September 3BC and June 2BC. Regulus is associated with royalty and nobility and Jupiter is the planet of Kings so I quite like this theory!

The most bizarre theory is this one: "A modern astrological interpretation of Matthew's account of the star, based on the Magi's role as astrologers, "decodes" The Star of Bethlehem as a star configuration that was visible only to the highly advanced Persian Magi. The "star" was revealed in an ancient (March 2nd 5 BC) astrological chart."

-From Wikipedia, the world's on-line encyclopaedia Well, just for fun I had a look at this chart (and included it for your expert eyes), and from my own perspective saw nothing that special. I'd bet my life on it that not a single astrologer I know would pick this chart as 'the' chart between 5 other choices, let alone about 1000 charts!! To answer your question: NOBODY REALLY SEEMS TO KNOW WHAT THE STAR WAS BUT, SINCE MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND, EVERYONE HAS ENOUGH EVIDENCE FOR THEIR THEORY TO WRITE AT LEAST ONE BOOK!