I know, you probably think I am looney. But, let’s take a look at Wandering Stars and see how much you know or think you know.
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cosmos – קוֹסמוֹס – σύμπαν
cosmos (n.)
The Biblical Cosmos: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Weird and Wonderful World of the Bible
Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the Bible. When we read Scripture we often imagine that the world inhabited by the Bible’s characters was much the same as our own. We would be wrong. The biblical world is an ancient world with a flat earth that stands at the center of the cosmos, and with a vast ocean in the sky, chaos dragons, mystical mountains, demonic deserts, an underground zone for the dead, stars that are sentient beings, and, if you travel upwards and through the doors in the solid dome of the sky, God’s heaven–the heart of the universe. This book takes readers on a guided tour of the biblical cosmos with the goal of opening up the Bible in its ancient world. It then goes further and seeks to show how this very ancient biblical way of seeing the world is still revelatory and can speak God’s word afresh into our own modern worlds.
Psalm 115:16
16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord‘s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
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World (Kosmos)
The second usage of the word kosmos refers to the inhabitants of this world, or earth. Both of these first two usages appear together in one verse: “He was in the word [earth] and the world [earth] was made by Him, and the world [inhabitants of the earth] knew Him not” (John 1:10). This world of mankind is the world God loves. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16). However, there is that segment of the world of mankind that is alienated from God (Ephesians 2:12: 4:18) and hostile to Christ and His followers. Our Lord said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). So then it is this unregenerated world of mankind through whom the demons will accomplish their wicked deeds.
The third use of the word kosmos in Scripture refers to the combined activities, affairs, advantages, and accumulated assets of the worldly men on the earth. The Bible calls all these “the things that are in the world” (I John 2:15), “this world’s goods (I John 3:17). This usage of kosmos is not limited to material things, but it includes abstract things which have spiritual and moral (or immoral) values. Paul warns the believer to beware of “the wisdom of this world” (I Cor 1:20; 2:6; 3:19), “the spirit of the world” (2:12), and “the fashion of this world” (7:31). Peter wrote of the “corruption that is in the world” (2 Peter 1:4), and “the pollutions of the world” (2:20).
Dr. Merrill Unger made note of the fact that “In more than thirty important passages the Greek word ‘kosmos’…is employed in the New Testament to portray the whole mass of unregenerate men alienated from God, hostile to Christ, and organized governmentally as a system or federation under Satan (John 7:7; 14:27; I Cor. 1:21; 11:32; 1 Pet. 5:9; I John 3:1, 13; et al.”
The second Greek word is aion. It likewise is translated world. However, it connotes the idea of time and is more accurately rendered “age.” The disciples questioned Jesus about the “end of the world [age]” (Matthew 24:3), speaking of that time when He would return to the earth. Paul used the same word when he wrote of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world [age]” (Gal. 1:4). This present aion, from Pentecost to the return of Christ, is described as “evil.”
World עוֹלָם Κόσμος
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star astēr ἀστήρ כוכב
Original Word: כּוֹכָב
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: kokab
Phonetic Spelling: (ko-kawb’)
Definition: a star
as-tare’
raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Jude 1:13
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Source: Funk & Wagnalls New Comprehensive International Dictionary of the English Language.
astronomy (n.)
Þer wes moni god clarc to lokien in þan leofte, to lokien i þan steorren nehʒe and feorren. þe craft is ihate Astronomie. [Layamon, “The Brut,” c. 1200]
In English, astronomy is earlier than astrology and originally included the senses now distributed over both words; the gradual differentiation was complete by late 17c. and astronomy came to mean exclusively “the scientific study of the heavenly bodies.” See astrology.
Remember we have learned that “modern science” has a final goal of control. They study, they test, they learn to predict, and then they take control. Mapping is their first step. When they map something out, their intent is control.
late Old English planete, in old astronomy, “star other than a fixed star; star revolving in an orbit,” from Old French planete (Modern French planète) and directly from Late Latin planeta, from Greek planētēs, from (asteres) planētai “wandering (stars),” from planasthai “to wander,” a word of uncertain etymology.Perhaps it is from a nasalized form of PIE root *pele- (2) “flat; to spread,” on the notion of “spread out,” “but the semantics are highly problematic,” according to Beekes, who notes the similarity of meaning to Greek plazein “to make devious, repel, dissuade from the right path, bewilder,” but adds, “it is hard to think of a formal connection.” So called because they have apparent motion, unlike the “fixed” stars. Originally including also the moon and sun but not the Earth; modern scientific sense of “world that orbits a star” is from 1630s in English. The Greek word is an enlarged form of planes, planetos “who wanders around, wanderer,” also “wandering star, planet,” in medicine “unstable temperature.”
acerplanets = כוכב לכת = πλανήτης
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πλανήτης – planítis
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Translation results Hebrew כוכב לכת |
Well, we know the כוכב means star. so whatd does לכת mean?
כוכב לכת
כוכב (Star) לכת (cult)
let’s see this word in Greek.
very interesting. Let’s take a look at that Greek Word.
Λατρεία
Translations of λατρεία
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Noun
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worship
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cult
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adoration
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devotion
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- είδος λατρείας – סוג של פולחן – A kind of worship
αστέρι = star
Translations of αστέρι
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Noun
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star
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πρωταγωνιστής
- The main character in a drama or other literary work.
- In ancient Greek drama, the first actor to engage in dialogue with the chorus, in later dramas playing the main character and some minor characters as well.
- A leading or principal figure.
πρωταγωνιστής = דמות ראשית
What types of plays were performed in Greek Theatre?
Tragedies and comedies were the two main types of plays performed by the Greeks. Tragedies – Greek tragedies were serious plays with a moral message. They usually told the tale of a mythical hero (Greek gods or goddesses or their progeny) who, due to his pride, would eventually face doom. Comedy – Tragedies were more light-hearted than comedies.
So, these “GREEK PLAYS” were a method of spreading and maintaining the religious beliefs of the Greeks. And some of the stars in the heavens were the protaganists of their plays.
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wandering
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Translation results Greek
περιπλάνηση
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Translations of τροχιά
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Noun
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orbit
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track
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trajectory
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circuit
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Genesis
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Jude 1
6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.13 wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
Learn 12 important Biblical lessons about stars derived from 60 different Bible verses in this in-depth word study by Jerry Robinson.
Throughout most of the Old Testament, the word “star” is translated from the Hebrew word, kokab. (Pronounced ‘ko-kawb’)
The Bible makes several mentions of “stars,” comparing them to Old Testament saints, angels, and even church leaders. Stars in the Bible are a common occurrence.
In ancient times, it was not uncommon for the illiterate and unlearned masses to worship heavenly bodies. After all, the Sun dominated the sky during the day, giving life to their crops. Meanwhile, the Moon dominated the night, providing adequate lighting for travel and leisure activities.
But it is the stars that invoked humanity’s greatest creative and intricate legends and myths. The ancients enjoyed the most unobstructed celestial view. Void of modernity’s artificial light pollution, the network of stars that filled the night sky must have been stunning to the ancient mind. As they gazed upon the stars, they looked with eyes seeking familiar objects. (Hogwash. The Ancients had far more knowledge of the origin of things and a much clearer understanding of the heaven’s and the importance of the message in the stars. They were so much closer to the source than we are today.)
Both the Egyptians and the Babylonians assigned stars to their myriad of deities. The practice of star worship also thrived under the Assyrians and especially the Chaldeans.
Spiritual experiences often included worshiping the heavenly bodies, such as the Sun, Moon, and stars. This form of idolatry of astral bodies has been appropriately dubbed “Astrolatry.”
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Astrolatry definition: a reverence for, devotion to, or deification of celestial objects
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The worship of the stars. All the heavenly bodies, singly or together, have, at one time or another, been the object of worship. As is well-known, the Ancient Egyptians worshiped the sun which they named Ra. Many early religions included the worship of the moon and when called Luna (L) the term is usually a reference to a personified moon. The Chaldeans worshiped the stars and in consequence of their close study of the heavens and the records they left to posterity, have been termed the fathers of modern astronomy. Helena P. BLAVATSKY wrote: “The books of Hermes Trismegistus contain the exoteric meaning, still veiled for all but the Occultists, of the Astrology and Astrolatry of the Khaldi. The two subjects are closely connected. Astrolatry, or the adoration of the heavenly host, is the natural result of only half-revealed Astrology, whose Adepts carefully concealed from the noninitiated masses its Occult principles and the wisdom imparted to them by the Regents of the Planets — the (Fallen) ‘Angels.’ Hence, divine Astrology for the Initiates; superstitious Astrolatry for the profane” (CW XIV:344). |
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Astrotheology, astral mysticism, astral religion, astral or stellar theology (also referred to as astral or star worship) is the worship of the stars (individually or together as the night sky), the planets, and other heavenly bodies as deities, or the association of deities with heavenly bodies. In anthropological literature these systems of practice may be referred to as astral cults.
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The Bible is clear that God does not approve of His people engaging in the worship of the celestial spheres. In fact, after warning His people time and again not to worship the hosts of heaven, this practice inevitably weakens Israel to the point that God gives them over to their enemies. Consider this stunning description of the transgressions that led to the downfall of Israel in 2 Kings 17:16-20:
“They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves molten images, two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him. So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah.
Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. The LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.”
One of the most egregious forms of celestial worship described in the Bible is Sun worship. This is one of the practices that God finds abominable. Consider the stunning vision given to the prophet Ezekiel concerning this practice in Ezekiel 8:16-18:
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“Then He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose. Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.”
The Bible is clear that there are severe consequences for choosing to worship creation over the Creator.
Below, you will find nearly 60 Bible verses associated with the word “star” or “stars”.
see all HERE
GOD CREATED THE STARS.
“God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; the stars also. (Genesis 1:16)
GOD ESTABLISHED THE STARS IN THEIR PLACE AND HE ALONE CONTROLS THEM.
“Who commands the sun not to shine, and sets a seal upon the stars;” (Job 9:7)
“Is not God in the height of heaven? Look also at the distant stars, how high they are!” (Job 22:12)
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained;” (Psalm 8:3)
“Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name.” (Jeremiah 31:35)
IN DREAMS AND VISIONS, THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL ARE REPRESENTED AS STARS.
“Now he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, “Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” (Genesis 37:9)
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; (Revelation 12:1)
GOD WARNS HIS PEOPLE NOT TO WORSHIP THE STARS.
“And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. (Deuteronomy 4:19)
THE BIBLE REFERS TO ANGELS AS STARS.
“The stars fought from heaven, From their courses they fought against Sisera. (Judges 5:20)
“When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)
“But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. (Isaiah 14:13)
“Though you build high like the eagle, Though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD. (Obadiah 1:4)
“In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. (Revelation 1:16)
“As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. (Revelation 1:20)
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: (Revelation 2:1)
“And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. (Revelation 12:4)
EVERY STAR HAS BEEN GIVEN A NAME BY GOD.
“He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. (Psalm 147:4)
“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. (1 Corinthians 15:41)
ASTROLOGERS AND THOSE WHO “READ” THE STARS ARE POWERLESS BEFORE GOD.
“You are wearied with your many counsels; Let now the astrologers, Those who prophesy by the stars, Those who predict by the new moons, Stand up and save you from what will come upon you. (Isaiah 47:13)
THE WISE WITNESS OF JESUS WILL SHINE AS BRIGHTLY AS THE STARS FOREVER.
“Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:3)
JUST PRIOR TO THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS, THE STARS WILL LOSE THEIR BRIGHTNESS AND FALL FROM HEAVEN.
“Before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain; (Ecclesiastes 12:2)
“And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud And the moon will not give its light. (Ezekiel 32:7)
“It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. (Daniel 8:10)
“Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness. (Joel 2:10)
“The sun and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness. (Joel 3:15)
“For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light. (Isaiah 13:10)
“But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (Matthew 24:29)
“AND THE STARS WILL BE FALLING from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. (Mark 13:25)
“And the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. (Revelation 6:13)
“The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. (Revelation 8:10)
“The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter. (Revelation 8:11)
“The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way. (Revelation 8:12)
“Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. (Revelation 9:1)
THE ANCIENTS OFTEN ASSIGNED SPECIFIC STARS TO FALSE IDOLS.
“You also carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. (Amos 5:26)
“Wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude 1:13)
JESUS IS CALLED THE BRIGHT MORNING STAR.
“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. (2 Peter 1:19)
“And I will give him the morning star. (Revelation 2:28)
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. (Revelation 22:16)
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As we move on to this next article, keep in mind that the evil ones are constantly working to blurr the lines, to obsure the facts, to cover up the truth, to deceive. God told me long ago that the only thing that matters is the root. Scientists want you to forget the original meanings of words. Because if you KNOW the root you cannot be deceived.
As you read this article, keep your critical thinking tuned up. Look at what is really being said. Watch for the truth hidden between the lines.
Wandering stars: A brief history of defining ‘planet’
FROM WANDERING STAR TO EARTH-ORBITER, THE WORD ‘PLANET’ HAS CHANGED ITS MEANING MANY TIMES. PLUTO’S EXILE IS ONLY THE MOST RECENT.
Illustration by Nichla Smith
If words have power, then the word ‘planet’ must be one of the most powerful in the space community. Whether the subject is the planets in our solar system, dwarf planets like Pluto or Ceres, or exoplanets orbiting other stars, the public is automatically interested. According to planetary scientist and New Horizons’ principal investigator, Dr Alan Stern, this is because “people don’t live on black holes, or active galactic nuclei, or asteroids: they live on a planet. It’s important to them because that’s where they live.” (That is a lie! We do not live on a planet. The stars were created to serve the earth. God created the Earth as a wholy special place for man.)
I’ve always found the possibility of other worlds to be both inspirational and humbling. To think that there are planets upon planets waiting out there to be discovered, reminds me of the beautiful mystery of the universe that can both fuel and overwhelm the beautiful mystery of the human brain. – Laura, 23, writer and hostess
Humans have observed planets for at least four thousand years. (Now, that is an interesting comment. If “Science” believes the earth is millions of years old and man has been on earth for 8,000 years by their most recent estimates, why would they say man has only observed the planets for 4,000 years?) We know that ancient Babylonian astronomers recorded the cycles of Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, ascribing meanings to their positions in the sky. Occasionally, the sun and moon were also included in this list of planets visible to the naked eye. Each planet — including the sun and moon — was associated with a god: Mercury was associated with the god of wisdom, Venus with the goddess of love and war, and the Sun with the god of justice, and so on.
This fascination with planets was not unique to the Babylonians. For nearly all of recorded human history, people have ascribed special importance to planets. As Dr Jean-Luc Margot, an astronomer and professor at UCLA, put it, “For thousands of years, people have noticed that these planets are different. That may be why it’s built in to our culture that these objects are special. The sort of objects that, initially, we could see with our naked eye in the night sky, that behaved differently from the stars.”
The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa contains a record of the rise and set times of Venus on the horizon in the seventeenth century BC. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
I like planets because they’re a changing part of the night sky. I like trying to identify them. I love conjunctions… It’s like, ‘here are two objects which do not have much to do with each other at all actually, but you can see them together when usually you can’t!’ – Anna, 31, software engineer
The first known use of the word ‘planet’ in English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was in the year 1300 in an account of the lives of Christian saints. In other languages, though, the word dates back much further. The word ‘planet’ comes from the ancient Greek ἀστήρ πλανήτης (astēr planētēs), meaning ‘wandering star’. The ancient Greeks, like the Babylonians, associated the planets with gods, often corresponding with the Babylonian pairings. Other ancient societies, like those in China and India, also connected planets with personal attributes and predictions of future events, in what would later be referred to as astrology.
In the fourth century BC, astronomy became more quantitative, focusing on the scientific and mathematical side of observing the universe beyond Earth. This specialisation split astronomy from astrology and religion. Astrology dealt with the symbolic associations between the planets and everyday life as it still does, largely unchanged, to this day. Astronomers, however, studied the planets using observations and mathematics, determining how far each was from Earth and predicting their paths across the sky.
Planets represent the possibility of a new home for the human race in some distant future — a possibility that seems all the more important as evidence mounts that we might be destroying our planet’s environment, or at the least, we know it will not last forever. – Mark, 50, Associate Professor of History
In the early 16th century, the word ‘planet’ suddenly became much more specialised. Instead of denoting anything that moved with respect to the stars, ‘planet’ meant only objects that orbited the Earth. The same planets the Babylonians knew of, their moons, and Earth itself were included. While the Sun was still widely thought to orbit the Earth, it was no longer considered a planet, as the evidence that it was actually a star continued to grow. By the late 17th century, when the public started to accept astronomers’ realisation that planets orbited the sun, the name had stuck. The moon, since it did not orbit the sun, was struck from the list of planets.
The 19th century brought a crackdown on planets. With just eleven objects categorised as planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, as well as Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas), the working definition became dependent on size. Those objects too small to make the cut were downgraded to ‘asteroids’. One might think that this would be a fine line (especially given modern debates over Pluto), but it was not. The largest object to be reclassified, Ceres, was less than one three-hundredth the mass of the smallest planet: Mercury. Also, all of the objects that were reclassified shared similar orbits in what is now called the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. Shortly after this mass reclassification, in 1846, Neptune was observed for the first time.
In the 19th century, objects that were too small lost their planet status and reclassified as asteroids. Artist impression of asteroid belt. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
The last object to be officially added to the list of planets was Pluto. A planet beyond Neptune had been theorised for some time before Clyde Tombaugh actually saw Pluto in 1930, as slight wobbles in the orbits of the outer planets suggested a body larger than Earth lay beyond them. In 1915, estimates put Pluto’s mass at about seven times that of Earth. Now we know that Pluto’s mass is only about one five-hundredth that of Earth. It’s easy to see, then, why Pluto was initiated as a planet without question, and also why that confidence in its planethood waned with time.
A planet is big and round and it can be lots of different colours. – Olive, 5
In 2006, though, the word ‘planet’ underwent its first major transformation since the reclassification of the asteroid. The International Astronomical Union (IAU), a group of astronomers charged with standardising the names and designations of astronomical objects, decided it was time for a change, stating: “The word ‘planet’ originally described ‘wanderers’ that were known only as moving lights in the sky. Recent discoveries lead us to create a new definition, which we can make using currently available scientific information.” They issued a formal definition of the word ‘planet’ with a new set of criteria. According to the IAU, a planet must: orbit the Sun, have enough mass to remain approximately round due to its own gravity (the hydrostatic equilibrium criterion), and have cleared its orbit of other objects (the dynamical dominance criterion).
The New World Order: papier mâché school diagrams just got a little harder. Farry/Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
In the same resolution, the IAU defined a dwarf planet as an object that directly orbits the sun (and thus isn’t a moon), has enough mass, but has not cleared its orbit. Essentially, a dwarf planet is a planet that still smashes into lots of things as it orbits the sun. Because it’s not big enough to obliterate or absorb them, it hits them like a tetherball every time it goes around.
It seems like all of the things that we use to classify a planet a planet causes the classification of ‘planet’ to align with the properties of the rock we call home... We humans use what we know as a ruler, so when it comes to planets, I’m quite fond of them, because that’s where we live — on a planet. – Tim, 38, student and mechanical designer
These new IAU definitions have been controversial. Dr Margot described the new definition of ‘planet’ as being “problematic in a few ways. One is that it applies only to our solar system: that’s a problem. And two, it is not quantitative: that’s a problem. And there is, in fact, a third problem, which is that it relies on some idea of roundness, which is not observable, not easily quantifiable, and it’s inherently problematic as a classification tool.” Dr Margot, along with many other scientists, prefers the criterion of dynamical dominance: if an object orbits a star and has cleared its orbit, it is a planet. “The nice thing about dynamical dominance is that we can show fairly easily that any object that is dynamically dominant is going to be round, just because it has enough mass,” he insisted. That makes it simply another measurement of size and mass that sets a higher bar than the hydrostatic equilibrium criterion.
Dr Stern takes exception to the IAU’s definition of ‘planet.’ He prefers the geophysical planet definition, in which any object with enough mass to become round (the hydrostatic equilibrium criterion), but not enough to cause nuclear fusion (which would make it a star), is a planet. The result, he said, is that “you end up with a very large number of planets, in our solar system and in others, as a result. But we’ve just got to get used to the data that there are a lot of planets and that most of them are this really tiny type like Pluto.”
Pluto’s demotion from the planet club had some Pluto lovers up in arms. Why are planets so important to us? Javacolleen/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
I like planets because they’re all so different, so each one expands our knowledge of how varied the universe is. – Jason, 65, retired
Along with many other scientists, Dr Sarah Hörst, assistant professor of Planetary Science at John Hopkins University, “[doesn’t] particularly care one way or another if people consider ‘dwarf’ an adjective or if people are adamant that dwarf planets aren’t planets.” Dr Stern, on the other hand, disagrees. When he coined the term ‘dwarf planet’ in 1991, it was meant as a description analogous to those we use for stars: “Did you know the sun is a dwarf star? That doesn’t make it not a star, does it? It just means that it’s a small star compared to giant stars, and Pluto is a small planet compared to giant planets.”
Regardless of the IAU’s categorisation of Pluto, its definition certainly needs some work: no one will argue that extrasolar planets or exoplanets, which orbit other stars, are not planets. However, excluded by the IAU’s definition, they remain officially uncategorised by the scientific community. The classification scheme for exoplanets remains fairly casual, relying on comparative classifications like ‘hot Jupiter’ or ‘super-Earth.’ Even though we can’t see most of these planets yet, classification would simplify and clarify the language astronomers use to describe them. “It wouldn’t serve us very well if we had a classification that required us to wait thousands of years until we can get to the planet, see what it looks like, and then decide whether it’s a planet or not,” Dr Margot explained.
Our traditional meaning of the word planet hasn’t always meant what we think it has. But changing knowledge ingrained in primary school is never easy. Eden, Janine and Jim/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
They’re interesting because we haven’t ever had manned missions to any planets. We only have gotten pictures from space probes, and we could get more information about them if we had people looking at them. And we don’t, so we don’t get as much information. Basically, if we didn’t have planets, we couldn’t live. ‘Cause we live on a planet. ‘Cause usually when you think of space you don’t usually think of Earth. But Earth is a planet. – Archie, 7, aspiring astronomer
(EARTH IS NOT A PLANET!)
Dr Hörst put it most simply: “The definition might need to evolve; history certainly tells us that our understanding of the solar system and the universe is incomplete at best.” The language that we use is constantly evolving: the word ‘galaxy’ comes from the Greek for ‘milk,’ and the only remaining reminder of that is the name of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Perhaps in another thousand years, the original meaning of ‘planet’ will be nearly forgotten, too. We will almost certainly discover new astronomical bodies, and with those new discoveries will come new names.
Regardless of whether they are planets, dwarf planets, exoplanets, or simply ‘worlds,’ as many scientists have taken to using as an umbrella term, humans will always be fascinated by them. On that, the astronomers all agree. As Dr Hörst said, “People love planets! People love the unknown, the unexplored, the weird, the beautiful, the different. Planets are all of those things. But so are asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects and moons.” Classifying these objects is important to how we discuss them, and the word ‘planet’ has a rich and dynamic history. But when we look at those objects — planets or not — from down here on Earth, what matters most is the awe, fascination, and scientific inquiry that they inspire.
Edited by Bryonie Scott and Tessa Evans, and supported by Sam Brentnall.
Classical planet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Astrology | Symbols |
|---|---|
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| Background | Astrological signs |
| Traditions | Branches |
In classical antiquity, the seven classical planets or seven luminaries are the seven moving astronomical objects in the sky visible to the naked eye: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The word planet comes from two related Greek words, πλάνης planēs (whence πλάνητες ἀστέρες planētes asteres “wandering stars, planets”) and πλανήτης planētēs, both with the original meaning of “wanderer”, expressing the fact that these objects move across the celestial sphere relative to the fixed stars.[1][2] Greek astronomers such as Geminus[3] and Ptolemy[4] often divided the seven planets into the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets.
The term planet in modern terminology is only applied to natural satellites directly orbiting the Sun (or other stars), so that only five of the seven classical planets are planets in the modern sense. The same seven planets, along with the ascending and descending lunar node, are mentioned in Vedic astrology as the nine Navagraha.
Babylonian astronomy
The Babylonians recognized seven planets. A bilingual list in the British Museum records the seven Babylonian planets in the following order:[5]
| Sumerian | Akkadian | English | Presiding deity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aku | Sin | Moon | Sin/Suen |
| Bišebi | Šamaš | Sun | Šamaš |
| Dapinu | Umun-sig-êa | Jupiter | Marduk/Amarutu |
| Zib/Zig | Dele-bat | Venus | Ištar |
| Lu-lim | Lu-bat-sag-uš | Saturn | Ninib/Nirig/Ninip,[a][6] possibly Anu[7] |
| Bibbu | Lubat-gud | Mercury | Nabu/Nebo |
| Simutu | Muštabarru | Mars | Nergal |
In Mandaeism, the names of the Seven Planets are derived from the seven Babylonian planets.[8]
Alchemy
In alchemy, each classical planet (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) was associated with one of the seven metals known to the classical world (silver, mercury/quicksilver, copper, gold, iron, tin and lead respectively). As a result, the alchemical glyphs for the metal and associated planet coincide. Alchemists believed the other elemental metals were variants of these seven (e.g. zinc was known as “Indian tin” or “mock silver”[15]).
Extract and symbol key from 17th century alchemy text.
Alchemy in the Western World and other locations where it was widely practiced was (and in many cases still is) allied and intertwined with traditional Babylonian-Greek style astrology; in numerous ways they were built to complement each other in the search for hidden knowledge (knowledge that is not common i.e. the occult). Astrology has used the concept of classical elements from antiquity up until the present day today. Most modern astrologers use the four classical elements extensively, and indeed they are still viewed as a critical part of interpreting the astrological chart.
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A table of alchemical symbols from Basil Valentine’s The Last Will and Testament, 1670 ce.
Traditionally, each of the seven “planets” in the solar system as known to the ancients was associated with, held dominion over, and “ruled” a certain metal (see also astrology and the classical elements).
The list of rulership is as follows:
- The Sun rules Gold (
) - The Moon, Silver (
) - Mercury, Quicksilver/Mercury (
) - Venus, Copper ()
- Mars, Iron (
) - Jupiter, Tin (
) - Saturn, Lead (
)
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Some alchemists (e.g. Paracelsus) adopted the Hermetic Qabalah assignment between the vital organs and the planets as follows:[15]
| Planet | Organ |
| Sun | Heart |
| Moon | Brain |
| Mercury | Lungs |
| Venus | Kidneys |
| Mars | Gall bladder |
| Jupiter | Liver |
| Saturn | Spleen |
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Just remember that ALCHEMY came from the Fallen Angels. Alchemy and Astrology both. These are the basis is “Modern Science” Though they tried to fool you into believing that when they changed the name of their practice to Astronomy, they changed and their practice became legitimate and eventual became LAW.
That is just a smoke screen. They are still practicing the craft taught to mankind by the Fallen Angels. That is why they name all their stars and their missions after gods or goddesses and/or their progeny.
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You will find it difficult to impossible to uncover the original names of the stars and wandering stars given to them by the Creator. You will note the names given here are names given after the Babylonian, Greek and Roman Empires.
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The Hebrew Names of the Seven Planets
In the ancient world, the Hebrew names of the seven planets are found in the Babylonian Talmud, but evidence shows that there were another set of names given by the Jews of the Later Roman Empire. (I don’t see any reference to the names given by GOD.)
These other names are sourced from Epiphanius, the Bishop of Constantia (Salamis) in Cyprus from 367 to 402 CE. He was born to Jewish parents in Palestine and was a polyglot (or pentaglossos) since he was versed in Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Greek, and Latin. It is his names for the Seven Planets that are the earliest and the most accurate. They are listed in Panarion 15.2.
One. The Sun. Traditional name: Hammah. Panarion name: Hema or Semes (Hindu Sama).
Two. The Moon. Traditional name: Lebanah. Panarion name: Albana or leree or Mene.
Three. Venus. Traditional name: Kokab Nogah or Kokebet. Panarion name: Zeroua or Loueth.
Four. Mercury. Traditional name: Kokab. Panarion name: Chocheb Ochomod.
Five. Mars. Traditional name: Ma’adim. Panarion name: Chocheb Okbol. Ma’adim, “Reddener.” The latter is religiously neutral and astronomically correct, Mars indeed being the “Red Planet”
Six. Jupiter. Traditional name: Sedeq. Known as ‘Baal’s Planet’ it was a traditional name which means ‘justice’. Panarion name: Chocheb Baal.
Seven. Saturn. Traditional name: Sabbetay. Panarion name: Chocheb Sabeth. the former meaning Planet of Rest and the latter Restful. The names may be connected with the fact that Saturn was the slowest out of all the other planets known at the time.
When looking at the traditional and the earliest Hebrew names for the planets, we can see that in Epiphanius’ version, he avoids using religiously offensive names (for example, the Talmudic terms for the sun and moon consistently avoid the names Semes and Yareah, evidently because there were the Canaanite (and biblical) terms for the deified sun and moon).
Since the names of Epiphanius’ list of the Seven Planets are all Semitic in origin, it is probable that these names are all historically the native Semitic names used by astrologers and used by the Jewish people during the Roman Empire. If we delve deeper, than it is highly likely that their ultimate roots lie in ancient Babylonian astronomy.
Bibliography: Stieglitz, Robert R. (1981) The Hebrew Names of the Seven Planets, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, The University of Chicago Press.
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Don’t skip over this next article. It lists the stars and wandering star/planets that are no longer acknowledged. It is good for you to see the history and the development of our current cast of characters. Note their names and the reasons given for their denigration.
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