We recently finished the wonderful holiday of Chanukah.
(click here to jump right to the really cool parts and skip the religious stuff)
Hunh? Was that even spelled right? Hanukah, Hanukka, Hanukkah? That’s what happens with a transliteration from ancient Hebrew. Just make sure to gurgle when you try to pronounce that “ch”.
This is the time we celebrate winning a war, killing more people than the other guys and hijacking a major religion with lighting a candelabra, eating potato pancakes and jelly donuts. Yum.
We’re taught Chanukah is a celebration of the “miracle of the oil” when one vial of oil lasted for 8 days, on the Hebrews reclaiming of Solomon’s Temple. Judah Maccabee and followers (not Twitter followers) won a battle against the Greek/Seleucid army around 100 B.C.E. And this happened exactly on the 25th of the month of Kislev (lunar month of Sagittarius).
Religious books make it all sound so simple and clear. Just like the stories in all religions, long complex political and spiritual issues are boiled down to a simplistic good guys vs. bad guys. And the good guys are always the religion telling the story. Do any religions celebrate loss in battle as Divine Will?
The Chanukah story took place in the middle of a very long drawn out war for control of the known world. It was not just the Jews against the Greeks, but also against each other, and possibly most importantly, between the Hebrews who followed the laws of Moses and those who followed the new laws set by the Rabbis.
To keep this post short, let’s just sum it up by saying the popular understanding of Chanukah glorifies war and military force, while forcing a change in the Hebrew Priesthood from the Tribe of Judah to that of the Levites. Just for reference, Jesus, King (a political title of lineage) of the Jews, was from the Tribe of Judah. His story may also be related to these politics.
The Christian Greek Scriptures state that Jesus was at the Jerusalem Temple during “the Feast of Dedication and it was winter”, in John 10:22–23. The Greek term that is used is “the renewals.”
So what is renewed?
The word Chanukah derives from the Hebrew verb “חנך”, meaning “to dedicate” and is related to ‘chinuch’ which means “spiritual preparation for the Redemption”. A dedication is a recognition of a new beginning. Similar words or spellings in the dictionary mean to stop, to park, to rest, to apprentice, to ripen, to parole, and to educate. This seems to imply the holiday is about something that stops then begins again, creating a new beginning in a more spiritual way.
A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. The solstices, together with the equinoxes, are connected with the seasons. (Wikipedia).
For about 3 days before the Solstice, the degree of change in the Sun’s position is not noticeable, appearing as almost no motion at all. This is the reason it is called a Solstice – from the Greek words “sol” – “sun”, and “stitium” meaning stoppage. For the Winter Solstice, the Sun stops over the Tropic of 
Capricorn before moving forward again. But let’s not base the meaning of the holiday on mere grammar.
Astrological records indicate the Winter Solstice took place on the 25th of Kislev. {Perhaps some relevance to the 25th of December when the calendars changed?). Hebrew texts at the time, as well as other historical documents, confirm other nations also celebrated the 25th of Kislev or the Winter Solstice.
consecrating the temple to Zeus, the head of the Greek pantheon of gods,- a festival to Dionysus, the Greek God of winemaking, celebrated for 8 days through ecstasy with use of alcohol, drugs and orgies, in honour of the Winter Solstice.
- Relighting the altar fire by Nehemiah on the same twenty-fifth of Kislev
So if the celebration predated the battle, then Chanukah cannot be about oil or a battle. It is a celebration of the Winter Solstice.
The Book of Enoch describes the year as 360 days, with 12 months of exactly 30 days, and the New Moon of Tevet, Capricorn, was the first day of Winter and the Winter Solstice.
The Book of Jubilees later tells us the year is 364 days. Our year is now 365.25 days. With all these changes to Earth’s orbit and subsequently the calendar, it is more difficult to know what day the Solstice fell on.
In ancient times, the New Moon of Capricorn and the Winter Solstice both occur on the same night. This means that both the Moon and Sun are reborn together. The Female Moon is giving birth to a new Sun/Son – in the darkest, longest night. It is this union of Male and Female that brings fertility and new beginnings that are to come in Spring. Earth is said to be preganant during with Winter.
So why is Capricorn so special? Well, many wonderful people were born during this month, but other than that……
The lights we light are ….
According to Kabbalah, at the time of the lighting of the Chanukah candles, there is a revelation of the “Ohr Haganuz,” which is the great light of the ancient perfected world, which was hidden away since the beginning of time, to be present again when all is perfected.
In English this means …..
Th Golden Age writen about in all mythologies; the time of the Gods on Earth and an idyllic life was the time before time, when the Primordial Light existed before the Sun. According to the bible, the Sun was created on the fourth day, so this Primordial Light was different than regular physical light.
In mythology, most cultures have some reference to ‘the best sun’ or the Golden Age, as the ancient perfected world ruled by Saturn. This primordial time was ruled by Saturn – the planet and the god. Enough astronomical evidence exists to show that before our Sun was the light for our solar system, the Planet Saturn was the light. Saturn/Plasma/Chaos Theory is an interdisciplinary scientific study into ancient myths, cosmology, science and plasma physics. They combine to show how our solar system was once very different than it is now, and many myths and stories of the goes actually describe cosmological events.
This perfect world ended, time began and Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. Only the archetypal memory of that world remains. The memory of Saturn was passed down through the generations, and we are reminded of it with the eternal light that burns inside most holy places, and Saturdays. This light will eventually be returned to the world.
Saturn, the planet and the god, was represented in myths by a horned animal, most often the Goat. The image of a sea-goat has been used to depict Capricorn since at least Babylonian times, and evidence shows it was in use by other nations long before that. Its symbol and astronomical star map all relate to the goat— mountain goat, sea goat, or even before that, the horned goat that has become associated with Satan, the Devil.
Originally, this was the Sumerian Ea, known to the Greeks as Oannes, the sea goat god who came from the ocean to bring knowledge, wisdom and civilization to humans. Many cultures tell stories of ancient goat gods, most often with horns, and associated with sexual energy, which is the life force of creation, of joy and play.
Saturn is the Lord of Karma, and forces us to balance
karmic debts so that we may be
free to experience a different future. Saturn often brings difficult life situations which block us from always following our immediate desires. In handling these setbacks, we face our fears and become a better version of ourselves.
The “Birth of the Sun” we are now celebrating is the rising of the Male Force. The most known is the Greek Goat god called Pan, equated with sex and drunken orgies to connect with the Divine. The name Pan simply means ALL. All inclusive of everything else. The source of all energy, such as the Sun.
Herbs such as horny goat weed, the antlers on the bottle of Yagermeister, and the antlers on Santa’s reindeer are all depictions of that ancient Male energy of the ancient Goat.
With the rebirth of the Sun/Son, we see light overcome darkness, as well as light emerging from the darkness. And this is exactly all explanations of the Winter Solstice holidays are about – Light overcoming Dark, or Good winning over Evil and ALL is reborn. Heaven on Earth.