For many astrologers, who believe that humanity is now shifting from the Piscean Age to the Aquarian Age, Jesus was the Avatar of the Age of Pisces; he represented that age through his actions and teachings, as seen from astrological and New Age viewpoints.
This article will familiarize you with the astrological and esoteric New Age Jesus so you can compare that Jesus to the Jesus of the Bible. In order to understand Jesus as the Piscean Avatar, we must look at the meanings of avatars, astrology, and Pisces.
Avatars
The term avatar comes from a Hindu word, avataras, which means ‘descents,’ describing a deity who descends into human incarnation. In Hindu beliefs, it usually refers to the earthly manifestation of the Hindu deity, Vishnu, for he descends to earth to protect it.1 One source explains it this way:
The earthly manifestations (or ‘incarnations’) of a Hindu deity…By about the 4th cent. CE this development culminated in ‘avatara’, denoting an earthly manifestation of Visnu due to his free choice (i.e. not due to the laws of karma or a curse) and taking the form of a full human life (including conception, birth, and natural death), for the sake of a specific cosmic purpose. This later came to be used for Buddha, an assortment of Hindu goddesses, and other regional deities. In recent times, the idea has been extended to humans who can become avataras (avatars) by a divine infilling. This has been applied to Ghandi, Satya Sai Baba (b. 1926), Jesus, and Mohammed.2
Jesus is listed here along with Ghandi, Sai Baba, and Mohammed. Avatar developed as a term applied only to incarnations of the Hindu deity Vishnu to being applied to others not considered deities, including Jesus who, by implication of this explanation, is viewed as human. A Guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, can be considered an avatar as well, because the Guru has come to the realization that “reality is, in all that lives, divinity itself.”3
According to another source, there have been nine manifestations of Vishnu, including Krishna and the Buddha, and there will be a tenth incarnation of Vishnu in the future: one who will be “seated on a white horse with flaming sword in hand. He will bring judgment on earth and restore the golden age.”4
Many leaders of contemporary religious groups are claimed by their followers to be “a living avatar.”5 The avatar, then, is seen to be one with a special mission and spiritual status. Combining Hindu-based ideas of an avatar with a view of Jesus as connected to the Age of Pisces, many astrologers classify Jesus as one who brought the teachings of Pisces to humanity.
Astrology: Know thyself
Astrology is a method of interpretation and divination using the planets, the sun and the moon as symbols and guides of external and internal forces.6 Many astrologers today see astrology as a “symbolic language” and “the language of the psyche.”7 Before the late 1800’s, astrology was more rigid in its interpretations, but later changed due to spiritual influences from Eastern-based teachings such as Theosophy, incorporating reincarnation and the idea of spiritual lessons within the chart. Alice Bailey, once a follower of Theosophist Madame Blavatsky, wrote Esoteric Astrology. Many other astrologers, such as Evangeline Adams, a follower of the Hindu teacher Vivekananda, and occultist Manly P. Hall, continued the practice of spiritual interpretations, shaping the face of modern astrology.8
A major influence from psychology came from psychologist Carl Jung,9 who introduced the idea of universal archetypes present within the collective unconscious of man. These archetypes are thought to bond men in common psychological patterns of universal principles that guide and motivate humanity. Jung said that astrology’s “configurations” symbolize “the collective unconscious which is the subject matter of psychology: the ‘planets are the gods, symbols of the powers of the unconscious.'”10 This idea was seized on in astrology, and in the last several decades, astrology has taken a more psychological and spiritual approach, with the planets, their patterns, signs, and house positions, being interpreted as archetypes of the unconscious.11
One astrologer describes the chart as “an attempt to represent the unlimited self manifested within a space-time dimension…”12 The three outer planets of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, discovered around 1781, 1850, and 1930, respectively, are considered planets that represent influences on a collective level. Their slow passage through the zodiac signs causes them to be interpreted generationally, and their position at one’s birth is read personally for the client only in relation to the personal inner planets and house influence.
Humanistic psychology also influenced astrology with its emphasis on the person rather than an event. Dane Rudhyar, an influential astrologer in this area, wrote that “people happen to events.”13 A result of humanistic astrology has been that the “inner world of personal experience” is emphasized over outer events, and predictive astrology focuses on upcoming events as opportunities to “integrate new aspects of one’s way of being” rather than formulating a “deterministic, meaningless act of destiny.”14 These spiritual and psychological influences softened astrology and transformed the more mechanical, traditional way of interpretation into a method of psychological and spiritual counseling. Telling the future or one’s destiny took a back seat to an inner self-analysis. Astrology became a tool to know yourself, psychologically and spiritually.
The connection of planets and constellations in the sky to humanity is summed up in an ancient pithy saying, “As above, so below,” a view shared by many in occult fields who see a mystical, magical connection between the universe and man. This view is explained by astrologer Alan Oken as the belief in “one Source” and “One Force expressing itself in an infinite multitude of forms and intensities.” He adds that “the macrocosm (the greater world) is always seen as revealed in the microcosm (the lesser world). This is what is meant when it is said that ‘man was made in the image of God.'”15
With the connection between the positions of planets and constellations in the sky to human life and events on earth as a given principle, then every movement and position in astrology becomes meaningful. The connection may not even be obvious or objectively measurable but it is still acknowledged: “Astrology is primarily a method of interpretation, at several levels, of the relationship between causally unrelated sets of phenomena.”16 Note the word ‘unrelated.’
Astrologer Stephen Arroyo calls this the “holistic approach” and describes it as based on “the ancient law of correspondences,” what C. G. Jung called “‘synchronicity,’ an a-causal connecting principle” that something born at a certain moment “bears the qualities of that moment.”17 In other words, every person or event that comes to be is magically connected to the moment when it comes into being. Author McIntosh admits that even without a scientific basis (although he later attempts to prove one), astrology still can “be defended on other grounds” and suggests that a “psychic principle” is involved which cannot be described except through examples, concluding that the principles of Jung’s synchronicity underlie astrology.18 This type of mystical relationship connecting the heavenly signs to life on earth is the foundation of contemporary astrology. Some astrologers feel a psychic link to the charts they study, even to the point of seeing them as a mandala19 upon which to meditate.
Astrological Ages of the Earth
A chart of the planetary positions at one’s birth cast in order to interpret the celestial connection for a person, according to astrology, is a natal or birth chart. Casting charts for events or countries is called mundane astrology.20 There is an even larger picture, the ages of the twelve zodiacs through which the earth passes as the north pole shifts towards a new constellation approximately every 2,000 years, often called the astrological ages or World Ages.
Due to a slight wobble of the earth’s axis, the north pole does not move consistently in time back to the same beginning point in a constellation, but approximately to a spot one minute of arc earlier.21 This is a backward shift through the zodiac belt, so that the earth moves from Aries to Pisces to Aquarius to Capricorn, etc., rather than the reverse. It takes about 26,000 years for the earth to pass through all twelve zodiac constellations. This is called the Great Year.22
According to this view, since the birth of Christ came at the beginning of the Age of Pisces, and 2,000 years have now passed, the Age of Pisces is ending and the Age of Aquarius is upon us. Using the collective meanings of planetary symbols, the Age of Pisces is interpreted by astrologers and others who believe in astrology as a passage for all humanity, spanning the birth of Christ until now. In this view, Christ becomes the living symbol of the Piscean Age.
Pisces: The End and the Beginning
The twelve signs of the zodiac used in western astrology, Aires through Pisces, are interpreted as a journey for both the individual and humanity. Aries is the birth of self and is characterized by fire, initiation, aggression, and a pioneering spirit. Taurus brings in the body and material world; Gemini is the mind and communication; Cancer is the early home, maternal influence, the desire to be sheltered and protected; Leo is creativity, drama, romance, the development of the ego; Virgo brings the lessons of service, humility, hard work, efficiency, and exactness; Libra, ruling the 7th house23, is where one learns the balance in relationships, the intimate lessons of attraction and repulsion; the lessons and development of self continue through Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.
Aquarius and Pisces are the two most collective signs since they pull the self away from its own journey and confront it with the demands of society, the community, and the larger spiritual self, or Self, as it is usually perceived. The sign before Pisces, the eleventh sign, is Aquarius, representing recognition of one’s role in collective humanity, the need for service to mankind, egalitarianism, and a desire for a utopian good of the whole over the good of the individual.24
Pisces comes from the Latin for “fish” and its symbol (called a glyph) is two fish swimming in opposite directions.25 This represents the dualism of man’s finite consciousness and the infinite consciousness of universe, material man versus spiritual man, the conflict between the ego-self of Aries and the group-oriented Aquarius.26
Pisces is located in the 12th and final house of the chart, a place of secrets and invisibility, and Neptune is the ruling planet. Neptune rules film, the arts, the ocean, illusion, fantasy, spirituality, the unconscious, visions, confusion, deception, and drugs.27 Neptune represents freedom from the ego-self and the material world and the need for “a complete merger with the whole.”28 The glyph for Neptune is a trident which is an upward turning crescent overlaid by a cross is “the crescent of soul pierced by the cross of matter”29 and represents in its positive sense the “elevation of spiritual values.”30
In astrology, each zodiac sign is aligned with one one of the four elements: fire, earth, air, or water. Pisces is a water sign, a sign of emotion whose more positive qualities are being sensitive, psychic, intuitive, compassionate, sacrificial, creative, spiritual, and sometimes even ethereal.31 Pisces is the dissolution of self and re-birth through Aries where the cycle starts anew. Jung believed that the progression from Aries to Pisces “encompasses the complete archetypal cycle of human life, from its first appearance as the spark of life to its reimmersion into the cosmic ocean.”32 This cycle teaches that there is no finality; it is a cyclical view of time — the end becomes the beginning. Neptune as the ruler of oceans and of Pisces brings to mind the commonly held mystical view that we are but drops in the ocean, and it is to the ocean that we will one day return.
As in most occult philosophies, death is never final but is necessary to sow the seeds for new life. The sign before Pisces, the eleventh sign, is Aquarius, representing the self’s recognition of its part in collective humanity, the need for service to mankind, egalitarianism, and a desire for a utopian good The Age of Pisces, with its emphasis on spirituality and compassion, and being a water sign, has been viewed as a time of cleansing for humanity, a spiritual preparation for the Age of Aquarius when the level of the collective unconscious will rise as each person raises their own consciousness,33 and when man turns from outer wisdom to his own inner wisdom for guidance. As one astrologer puts it:
The year 2000 heralds the beginning of a time when the qualities taught by these masters [Christ and Buddha] and others — love, altruism, nonattachment, faith, calm, and centeredness — will be called forth from the general populace. There will not be one spiritual master to lead us from darkness to light….but each of us must master our own journey from personal darkness to light.34
Jesus as the Avatar of Pisces
Since Jesus is considered a higher spiritual being, an Avatar, by many astrologers, he embodies the highest aspects of Pisces: universal love, compassion, sacrifice, intuition, servanthood, martyrdom, and spirituality. Jesus represents the birth of non-ego (Pisces) from ego (Aries).
Correlations are made between Jesus and the sign of Pisces. Pisces, meaning fish, is a water sign. There is much water and fish symbology in the Bible stories about Jesus, such as Jesus calling fishermen as disciples, being on the sea several times, calming the storm at sea, helping the disciples catch fish, performing miracles in feeding people with fish, walking on water, his baptism in water, and his talk with Nicodemus about being born again by “water and spirit.”35
Oken says that Jesus’ walking on water symbolized that man must rise above “his emotions, fears, and superstitions [the water] in order to be master of himself and thus worthy enough to be a true servant of the God-force.”36 This walk on the water is seen by New Ager Redfield in his book as symbolizing Jesus’ spiritual evolution to such a state that his vibrations were high enough to make Jesus less material and light enough to walk on the water.37
Oken points out that Friday, the day of Venus, is the day for eating fish. Venus in astrology is exalted in Pisces, that is, the zodiac sign of Pisces supposedly brings out the best qualities of Venus, such as universal love. It is asserted that this is what Christ was teaching, and the correlation is made between fish on Friday and Venus in Pisces to further show Jesus’ connection with Pisces.38
Jesus of the new age
The astrological Jesus is still a New Age Jesus, or, in more contemporary terms, the Jesus of the new spirituality. Jesus is the man who realized Christ Consciousness, the innate divinity in all men. In a book based on the Edgar Cayce’s channeled readings, Christ Consciousness is described as an awareness each of us has, which can be “awakened” by our will, “of the soul’s oneness with God.”39 Paramahansa Yogananda, the Hindu guru who came to America and whose book, Autobiography of a Yogi, inspired many Westerners to follow Hindu-based teachings, defines Christ Consciousness as “the universal consciousness, oneness with God, manifested by Jesus, Krishna, and other avatars,” and is the realization of “God immanent in all creation.”40 Unity’s The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary expresses it more directly: “Christ is the divine-idea of man….Each of us has within him the Christ, just as Jesus had……The cosmic man…is the Christ….we are not persons, but factors in the cosmic mind. Reveal yourself to yourself by affirming ‘I am the Christ, son of the living God’…”41 In one New Age bestseller, the author states that the greatest teaching of Christ was that we all have everlasting life, brotherhood in God, and that we have whatever we request.42
The return of Jesus should be viewed as perhaps “the reception of the Christ Consciousness in an individual.”43 When writing as an astrologer about Christ and Pisces related to the movie, “The Last Temptation of Christ,” I suggested that this film may have represented the second coming of Christ through a film. I stated in the article that “Humanity has been on the cross…nailed to its own narrow vision, unwilling to sacrifice ego for the resurrection of divinity. Discovering the Christ within frees us to experience that divine nature; what Christ did physically, we must do metaphysically.”44
Contained within the Piscean Avatar is the New Age Christ as the one who awakens Christ Consciousness within. This Avatar also is a man, Jesus, who became the Christ. As astrologer Oken puts it:
“Let us make it absolutely clear that when we use the world ‘Christ,’ we do not necessarily mean Jesus. The Christ is the final step in the evolution of Man. It is a level of consciousness in which the individual has completely unified his Self with the Godhead. In this respect Buddha was a Christ as was Krishna as was Jesus.”45
As in most New Age thinking, Jesus becomes the Christ through attaining the Christ Consciousness, the awareness of the divine Self. Jesus and the Christ are separate because anyone who achieves this spiritual awareness of the inner Christ can become the Christ, or as pop singer Jewel puts it, “We all will be Christed when we hear ourselves say/ We are that to which we pray.”46
Jesus, pisces personified
Astrologers view Jesus as the New Age Christ who models Christ Consciousness and embodies the purest principles of Pisces in order that humanity can learn from the Age of Pisces.
His lesson was that we need to give up the illusion of being separate so that we can be “liberated from the cycle of births and deaths,” and “be reborn in the womb of God…..This is symbolized in the Resurrection (Easter), which takes place in Aries. This completes the Zodiac circle, for he who died as a mortal Man on Earth was reborn as immortal Spirit in the Heavens.”47
One can see how easily the spiritual sign of Pisces can be welded to the new spiritual Jesus, one who came at the beginning of an age representing cleansing, compassion, and martyrdom for a higher spiritual understanding and evolution. Jesus’ modeling of Christ Consciousness fits into the Piscean ideal of spiritual self-sacrifice like hand in glove. Jesus’ teachings on loving your neighbor, turning the other cheek, humility, and even his sacrifice on the cross, are seen by astrologers as a perfect match for Piscean qualities.
An apologetic response
A response to Jesus as the Piscean Avatar can be made in three areas: A response to the asserted connection between Jesus and Pisces, a response to astrology, and a response to the Piscean Jesus based on the Biblical Jesus.
Jesus and pisces
The tie between Jesus and Pisces is made on superficial connections such as water and fish imagery, as well as on deeper correlations such as the Christlike traits of compassion and universal love with the Piscean ideal.
Examples of fish, water, and miracles with fish abound in the Bible stories about Jesus because Jesus lived in a land and culture where the major source of protein came from the sea. Other sources of protein were rare, and so fish was the normal food near the Sea of Galilee.48
The fish was an early symbol of Christ because the Greek word based on the initials of “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior” spelled “fish.” Also, the connection to baptism and to men becoming “fishers of men” for Christ may have played a part in this.49
In a desert land such as where Jesus lived, water naturally was important. Water for baptism was symbolic of cleansing, and for Christians, of new birth in Christ. To read a spiritual meaning beyond this or to make a connection with Pisces is reading beyond the normal, literal situations and inserting a meaning that is not there. The Bible stories also refer to donkeys, feasts, tax collectors, salt, birds, light, the Pharisees, scribes, rich men, the Law, fig trees, sheep, and parables about seeds, yet none of these things would normally fall under Pisces, Neptune or the twelfth house.
JESUS, OUTCASTS, AND UNIVERSAL LOVE
Traditionally, the twelfth house of Pisces has signified the outcasts and disenfranchised. It is true that Jesus, who exemplified humility, did go to these types of people, and so another connection is asserted in this area. However, in context, Jesus modeled God’s love for these people because of who he was, the Son of God, and He was showing the religious leaders that they were not being compassionate. He was teaching love, but a love based on God’s love, not an amorphous universal love that is talked about but has no standard by which to measure it. God is the standard for love (1 John 3:1, 23; 4:10), and we love because God manifested His love for us through Christ (1 John 4:9).
This type of love is not what is meant by New Age astrologers when they talk about love and compassion, for they mean an undefined love based a connection to universal energy or based on recognition of one’s self as God: “Your mind is everywhere because it is God’s mind. Everything that you need to know is in that mind. God is in your mind; you are very holy…You are the Jesus Christ in a collectivity of these times,”50 or as Walsch’s ‘God’ so succinctly puts it, “The most loving person is the person who is Self-centered.”51
This kind of love is based on a focus on self as God and on techniques that trigger this awareness. This is taught very clearly in Redfield’s book where the narrator is told that love “is a background emotion that exists when one is connected to the energy available in the universe, which, of course, is the energy of God.”52 New Age philosophy quotes “God is love” (1 John 4:8) but neglects or denies who this God is. It is also a fallacy to believe that if God is love, then all love is God, leaving the meaning of love open to whatever one may feel it is. This is like saying that the ocean is blue, so all blue things are the ocean.
To understand that God is love requires us to know who this God of love is: “…everyone who loves is born of God and knows God,” (I John 4:7). The God who said this is also the God who sent Christ as the Savior (John 6:29; 7:33; 8:18, 26, 42; 9:4). We know God through Christ (John 8:19; 10:15; 2 Corinthians 4:6). This God is the God who reveals himself in his word; those who reject his words do not know him. As Jesus himself said, “He who is of God hears the words of God,” (John 8:47). Moreover, we cannot love on our own, but only when we recognize this God as the source of love: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” (I John 4:10, 11).
To unselfishly love and serve the outcasts, the disenfranchised, the misfits, and the rejected is a reflection of the kind of love God shows for us, not a love with which we can credit ourselves. Those who claim to know Christ as Savior should heed this and allow Christ to be the model and motivation for this kind of love because “Whatever we do, it is because Christ’s love controls us,” (2 Corinthians 5:14).
IS ASTROLOGY FROM GOD?
Astrology, seen as a spiritual and psychological tool by astrologers and many others, is a form of divination.53 Astrology is condemned explicitly in Isaiah 47:13, 14 and condemned as a form of worshipping the heavens or the host of heaven in Deuteronomy 3:19, 17:3; 2 Chronicles 33:3; and Acts 7:42.
Isaiah 47:13-15 (Contemporary English Version):
You have worn yourself out, asking for advice from those who study the stars and tell the future month after month. Go ask them how to be saved from what will happen. People who trust the stars are as helpless as straw in a flaming fire. No one can even keep warm, sitting by a fire that feeds only on straw. These are the fortunetellers you have done business with all of your life. But they don’t know where they are going, and they can’t save you.
Divination is forbidden by God in Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18: 10, 11; 2 Kings 17:17; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Daniel 5:7, 8; and Acts 16: 16-18.
Seeking guidance through astrology replaces or prevents seeking God, as shown in Daniel 2:27, 28 and in Isaiah 37: 13, 14. Furthermore, astrology in not 100% accurate in predictions and therefore, when claimed to be a gift from God, cannot be coming from God, as God tells us in Deuteronomy 18:21, 22.
Although in some ways astrology may seem to work, whether by coincidence, by the desire of the client to believe the astrologer, or through occultic means, any accuracy it may claim does not point to the Creator God in Scripture. Thus, it fails the test in Deuteronomy 13:1-3, where we are told that even if a false prophet’s visions come true, but he still leads us to other gods, he is not from God and we should not listen to him.
Astrology is an attempt at spiritual progress through one’s own efforts. Reincarnation is often a part of the astrologer’s belief system that one can advance spiritually on one’s own. Both of these beliefs are answered by God: We are saved only by grace through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8, 9) and we live and die once (Hebrews 9:27).
Jesus, the Hebrew Scriptures, and the law
For those who may reject some of the words of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), please take note that Jesus said he was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets — all the teachings of God in Hebrew Scriptures — and not “the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished,” (Matthew 5:17, 18), and “Heaven and earth will disappear before the smallest letter of the Law does,” (Luke 16:17).
Jesus frequently quoted from (often by saying, “It is written,”) and referred to the Hebrew Scriptures. A small sampling:
Matthew –Matt. 9:13 quotes Hosea 6:6; Matt. 11:10 refers to Malachi 3:1; Matt. 12:3, 4 refers to David in 1 Samuel 21:6; Matt.13:14, 15 refers to Isaiah 6:10, Psalm 119:70, and Zechariah 7:11; Matt.15:4/Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16, Exodus 21:17, and Leviticus 20:9; Matt. 19:4/Genesis 1:27, 5:2, and 2:24; Matt. 21:42/Psalm 118:22f; Matt. 26:24/”The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!”
Mark — Mk. 4:12/Isaiah 6:9 and 43:8, Jeremiah 5:21, Ezekiel 12:2; Mk. 7:6, 7/Isaiah 29:13; Mk. 7:9, 10/Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16, Exodus 21:17, and Leviticus 20:9; Mk. 9:12, 13/referring to prophecy that the Messiah must “suffer many things and be treated with contempt;” Mk. 10:6/Genesis 1:27 and 5:2; Mk. 12:29-30/Deutoronomy 6:4, 5; Mk. 12; 35-37/Psalm 110:1
Luke — Lk. 4: 4/Deuteronomy 8:3; Lk. 4:8/Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20; Lk. 4:12/Deutoronomy 6:16 [Previous three verses in Luke 4 are instances where Jesus responds to Satan’s temptations with quotes from Deuteronomy]; Lk. 4:18, 19/Jesus quoting Isaiah 61:1 and part of 2; Lk. 11:50, 51/referring to Abel’s murder in Genesis 4:8 and to Zechariah’s murder in 2 Chronicles 24:21; Lk. 13:35 and 19:38/Psalm 118:26; Lk. 16:29-31/referring to Moses and the Prophets; Lk. 19:46/Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11; Lk. 20:17/Psalm 118:22; Lk. 20:41-44/Psalm 110:1; Lk. 22:37/Isaiah 53:12; Lk. 24:27/”And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”; Lk. 24:44-46/referring to a string of verses in the book of Psalm as follows, 2:7ff, 16:10, 22:1-8, 69:1-21, Chapter. 72, 110:1, 118:22f, “Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled,” (Lk. 24:44).
John — Jn. 5:39-40/”You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me”; Jn. 8:56-58/Jesus refers to Abraham knowing Christ would come and states, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am”; Jn. 12:14-16 [and Matt. 21: 4-5 and Lk. 19:29-32], Jesus asks the disciples to get a colt for him to ride on into Jerusalem/ Zechariah 9:9 tells us that Israel’s King will come on a “donkey’s colt.”
He fulfilled over 300 the prophecies of the Messiah in Hebrew Scripture, such as:
Isaiah 9:1-7, part of which is quoted in Matthew 4:15-16 referring to Jesus as being the “great Light” which would come to the people “sitting in darkness”
Hosea 11:1, quoted in Matthew 2:15, speaking of God bringing His son back from Egypt
Isaiah 53, foretelling the suffering and sacrifice of Christ for sins
Luke 1: 33, 67-79; John 4:25, 26; and John 12:37-41, which refer to prophecies in Isaiah
John 19:33-37, the two men crucified with Jesus had their legs broken by the soldiers, “but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs; but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear.” This connects to Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12 referring to the command that the Passover lamb cannot have a broken bone; and it fulfills Psalm 34:20 which predicts that “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken,” and to Zechariah 12:10, “..so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced.”
Jesus fulfilled every law, living in perfect obedience to God the Father.
Jesus, the lamb of passover and the veil of the temple
Thus, He was the very Lamb of the Hebrew Passover, the final sacrifice, “unblemished and spotless,” (Isaiah 53:7; John 1:29; Hebrews 7:25-27; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6). After his resurrection, Jesus told the disciples, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true,” (Luke 24:44).
His flesh was the veil that separated the Holy of Holies in the Temple (Hebrews 10:20), torn on the Cross for us (the veil in the Temple tore as Christ died, as recorded in Matthew 27:51 and Luke 23:45), so that we can enter the holy place of God’s presence, with our “hearts sprinkled clean” of sin through faith in Christ (Hebrews 10:19-22).
As Jesus put it: “You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life, but the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life,” (John 5:39, 40).
Is Jesus the piscean avator or is he God the Son?
The Biblical Jesus never claimed to be a manifestation of a Hindu deity nor a mere man who became an enlightened Guru or spiritual teacher. Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. He was the promised Messiah, the unique Son of God, and God the Son, second Person of the Trinity.
The deity of Christ can be seen in several passages:
One of Jesus’ names, “Emmanuel,” means, “God with us,” (Matthew 1:23).
The first verse of John chapter one, speaking of Christ as the Word, says that “the Word was God.”
Jesus says in John 8:58 that he is the “I AM” of Exodus 3:14, the name God used for himself in speaking to Moses.
The Jews recognized Jesus’ claim of equality with God in John 5:17, 18 as well as in John 10:30-33, when Jesus says that he and the Father are one.
Jesus refers to sharing “God’s glory before the world began” in John 17:4.
Philippians 2:6, 7 talks of Christ giving up his glory as God to incarnate.
Thomas, in John 20:28, cries out to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus created and sustains the universe, Hebrews 1:1-3.
Titus 2:13 speaks of “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, says to the newly pregnant Mary in Luke 1:43, “And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” acknowledging Jesus, still in Mary’s womb, as “Lord.”
Jesus is described as Creator in John 1:3, Colossians 1: 16, 17, and Hebrews 2:10.
Jesus is the Almighty in Revelation 1:8.
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega in Revelation 1:8, and 22:13 (God is called the Alpha and Omega in Revelation 21:6).
Jesus is worshipped as God by the wise men in Matthew 2:11, by the blind man in John 9:38, by angels in Hebrews 1:6, by the disciples in Matthew 14:33 and Matthew 28:17, by the women at the tomb in Matthew 28:9, and by the 24 elders in Revelation 5:14.
Just as God does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17), neither does Jesus (Hebrews 13:8).
The Hebrew Scriptures testify to the deity of Christ as well:
In Isaiah 9:6, God tells us that one of the names for Jesus is “Mighty God.”
Isaiah prophesies of John the Baptist in 40:6, saying that John will call for a highway for “our God,” speaking of Jesus; this is fulfilled in John 1:23.
God speaks of every knee bowing to him in Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2: 10,11 applies this to Jesus.
Jesus, speaking of God the Father in Luke 20:38, says that God is not the God of the dead but of the living, and Romans 14:9 says the very same thing of Christ, “that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”
God says in Isaiah 42:8 that he will not give his glory to another, yet Jesus speaks in John 17:5 of the glory he had with God before the world existed.
Joel 2:32 tells us that “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered,” and we see in Romans 10:9, 10, that those who confess Jesus as Lord will be saved.
We humans cannot match the sinlessness of Christ, nor do we fulfill the prophecies of the Messiah in Hebrew Scripture. Those prophecies pointed to one Person, the man Jesus. At Jesus’ birth, an angel appearing to the shepherds told them that “today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” (Luke 2:11). Jesus did not become the Christ; he was the Christ at his birth and had always been the Christ, the only Christ.
Jesus as man
Jesus, although fully God, was also fully man. He was not a spirit who merely materialized or an advanced being who temporarily took on flesh. He ate many times with others, such as when he went through the grainfields with his disciples, eating the heads of grain (Matthew 12:1); and after the resurrection, he had fish and bread with his disciples on the beach, as recorded in John. 21:12-15a. The Pharisees chided Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners in Matthew 9:11. He experienced hunger (Luke 4:2), and felt grief, distress (Matthew 26:37) and agony (Luke 22:44).
Was Jesus an esoteric teacher?
Jesus never taught that we are God, have an inner divinity, or can develop Christ Consciousness. He was clear that if we believed in him, we would have eternal life (John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47, 8:24). This is the core theme of both the Old and New Testaments, such as Isaiah 45:21 where God is called Savior, and Isaiah 9:6,7 and chapter 53 which predict the birth, suffering for sins, and everlasting kingdom of Jesus.
The theme of man’s sin in the sight of a righteous God, starting in Genesis 3 and continuing to Revelation, shows man’s need for deliverance from this sin (Genesis 3:15; 2 Samuel 2:22; Isaiah 1:16; Jeremiah 4:14; Daniel 6:27; Romans 3:23; 2 Corinthians 1:10) through faith in Christ and not by works (Acts 13:17-39, 17:30, 31; Romans 5:8-10, 8:5-11; 2 Corinthians 5:16-19; Galations 2:16, 3:24; Ephesians 2:8; Hebrews 9:14).
The Piscean Jesus is a mere example, not a Savior. One must be cleansed through one’s own efforts; spiritual advancement depends on one’s own understanding and actions. But since man is limited in understanding and has always shown the evidence of failings and wrong-doing, man’s efforts are like trying to clean a plate with a dirty rag; the plate gets dirtier and the rag wears out.
In explaining gnosis, a knowledge which leads to “higher realities” and to experiencing “ordinary reality” more deeply, the editors of Gnosis magazine describe this as esoteric, coming from the Greek esotero, meaning “further in;” thus, “we have to go ‘further in,’ into ourselves to catch a glimpse of what gnosis is.”54 They contrast esoteric spirituality with “exoteric” spirituality, which is a more “outward” form of belief. Exoteric spirituality has to do with salvation while esoteric teachings focus on “transcendence,” on experiencing God versus wanting to be with him in the afterlife.55 The gnostic journey is a subjective, inner one with no boundaries and only one’s own experience as the ultimate guide.
Astrology is an esoteric teaching because it claims an inner wisdom: 1) chart interpretation is based on a knowledge of the inner meanings of the planets, signs, symbols, and houses of the chart, and 2) astrology claims to reveal through its mystical symbolism the inner self of the person, as shown by the influence of Jung’s ideas on contemporary astrology. Additionally, the Christ Consciousness view of Jesus presents an esoteric Christ because it is claimed that he is innately within all men. As shown previously by the cited New Age and astrological sources, this Jesus is not accessed through faith, but rather by going within one’s own self and realizing one has or can have the Christ nature. This is done through special techniques and/or learning increasingly complex spiritual “laws.” But mystical experiences of transcendence do not last, nor do they erase the human condition of sin.
The Piscean Jesus is only one of many who can attain the Christ nature; Jesus and the Christ are considered to be separate. However, the Bible teaches that Jesus is the unique Son of God and Savior, is the only means of salvation (John 3:15; Acts 4:12; Ephesians 1:7), and is the Lamb of God “who takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29, 36). John the Baptist, who was conceived before Jesus (Luke 1:36, 41), told the crowds that Jesus “existed before me,” (John 1:30). The Christ, a term for ‘anointed one,’ is the Messiah, and there is only one promised Messiah, Jesus (John 4:25, 26).
However, Christ does not fit the esoteric pattern. When being questioned by the high priest after his arrest, Jesus said to him, “I have spoken openly to the world: I always taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret,” (John 18:20).
Although Jesus spoke in parables, this was to fulfill Old Testament prophecy that those rejecting God would not understand (Isaiah 6:9-11). Jesus quotes this in Luke 8:10 before he goes on to explain the parable of the sower to his disciples. Parables are not puzzles, but stories illustrating a particular teaching. In some cases, those listening understood the parable all too well, as in the case of the scribes and chief priests who recognized themselves in a parable about the vine-growers killing the vineyard owner’s son (Matthew 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19). After hearing this parable, these religious leaders were angry and wanted to seize Jesus (Matthew 21:46; Mark 12:12; Luke 20:19).
As explained by Jesus, his second coming is not a “reception of Christ Consciousness” or reaching a higher level of spirituality, but a physical coming that will be visible (Matthew 24:27; Luke 17:24). After Jesus ascended to God the Father following his bodily resurrection, two angels told the disciples that Jesus “will come in just the same way you have watched Him go into heaven,” (Acts 1:11).
Conclusions
The Piscean Avatar is an advanced spiritual teacher overlaid with astrological interpretations of Pisces and New Age mysticism. Correlations between Piscean qualities and Jesus, while touching on some of his characteristics, do not address Jesus’ central mission, teachings, or identity as the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Savior who pays for our sin with his shed blood on the cross.
The New Age Christ Consciousness is based on one’s inner divinity attained through one’s own efforts, in contrast to the salvation we are given as a gift through faith in the Biblical Jesus, and the spiritual and physical redemption we have through his resurrection and victory over death (1 Corinthians 15; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). As humans with a fallen nature, we cannot be God. This salvation offered in Christ is God’s grace, a gift that we cannot work for, be good enough for, or earn in any way (Romans 3: 27-28; Ephesians 2:8, 9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5). As Jesus says in John 4:10 to the woman at the well, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
Within the cyclical world of astrology, humanity passes through the twelve zodiac signs over and over; in reincarnation, the soul is passed through many bodies over centuries of time. In such a world, the fire of hope is repeatedly lit by humanity’s futile efforts to deliver itself from its own evil, only to flicker out again and again in the darkness of man’s inability to reach that goal.
How much more hope there is in the Jesus of the Bible, who conquered death and sin (Romans 5:14-19), who delivers man from the “domain of darkness” and transfers him to the “kingdom of light” (Colossians 1:13), who is the light of the world (John 8:12), and through whom we have, by faith, forgiveness of sins, the gift of eternal life and adoption as children into the kingdom of God (Galatians 4:5; Ephesians1:5; Colossians 1:14)!
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again. Those who believe in me will never thirst,” John 6:35
Endnotes
1 Stephen Cross, The Elements of Hinduism (Shaftesbury, Dorset, Great Britain: Element Books Ltd, 1994) (Rockport, MA: Element, Inc., 1994), 7.
2 John Bowker, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997), 113.
3 Cross, 7.
4 Geoffrey Parrinder, ed., World Religions, paperback ed. (NY: Facts on File, 1985), 223.
5 Eerdmans’ Handbook to The World’s Religions, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994), 415.
6 Author’s own definition based on eight years of previous practice as a professional astrologer, and five years of teaching astrology.
7 Shirley Soffer, The Astrology Sourcebook (Los Angeles: Lowell House, NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc., 1998), xvi.
8 J. Gordon Melton, Jerome Clark and Aidan A. Kelly, New Age Encyclopedia (Detroit: Gale Research Inc., Gale Research International Ltd, 1990), 38-41.
9 Stephen Arroyo, Astrology, Psychology, and the Four Elements (Sebastopol, CA: CRCS Publications, 1975), Chapter 4, “Archetypes and Universal Principles;” Christopher McIntosh, Astrologers and Their Creed (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1969), 136-9; Soffer, xiv-xvi.
10 C. G. Jung, interview with Andre Barbault in Astrologie Moderne magazine, May 26, 1954, as quoted in Arroyo, 33.
11 For comprehensive overview of the history of astrology, see Christopher McIntosh, The Astrologers and their Creed (NY, NY: Praeger, Inc., 1969), also J. Gordon Melton, pp. 37-43; for overview of astrology in ancient history, see Soffer, Chapters One and Two.
12 Priscilla Costello, “Ladder to Labyrinth,” Gnosis, A Journal of Western Inner Traditions, No. 38, Winter, 1996, 27.
13 As quoted in Arroyo, 45.
14 Ibid., 49.
15 Alan Oken, As Above, So Below ( NY: Bantam, 1973), 5.
16 Dane Rudhyar, The Practice of Astrology (NY, Baltimore: Penguin Books, Inc., 1975), 11.
17 Arroyo, 40.
18 McIntosh, 136, 138-9.
19 A mandala is an image based on four points upon which one meditates. In Tibetan Buddhism, “the evocation of the mandala and its deities is the means whereby the Trantric adept [disciple of Tantra Buddhism] conjures up and unites himself with the forces needed for the rapid destruction of his ego,” (John Blofeld, The Tantric Mysticism of Tibet [NY, NY: Penguin/Arkana, 1992], 99). Mandalas are used in Eastern forms of meditation to trigger an altered state of consciousness in which the practitioner can transcend the rational thought processes and experience the essence of reality or higher self, depending upon the particular teaching.
20 Oken, 18.
21 Ibid., 29.
22 Ibid., 30.
23 In chart interpretation, the planets are seen as what is happening, the zodiac signs they occupy as how the action or principle expresses itself, and the house occupied by the planet is the area of life most affected. Each planet and the sun and moon rule a sign (Mercury and Venus each rule two signs) which occupies one of the 12 houses of the chart.
24 Oken, 218-224; Soffer, 89-92.
25 Soffer, 94.
26 Oken, 226-7.
27 Ibid., 317-319; Soffer, 204-209.
28 Arroyo, 35.
29 Soffer, 208.
30 Ibid., 206.
31 Stephen Arroyo, Chart Interpretation Handbook. (Sebatopol, CA: CRCS, 1989), 33; Soffer, 93-96; Oken, 234-238.
32 Costello, 27.
33 Laurie A. Baum, Astrological Secrets for the New Millennium, (Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 1997), 22.
34 Baum, 15.
35 Oken, 228.
36 Ibid., 229.
37 James Redfield, The Celestine Prophecy (New York, NY: Warner Books, 1993), 241.
38 Oken, 230.
39 Glenn Sanderfur, Lives of the Master, The Rest of the Jesus Story ( VA Beach: ARE Press, 1988), 203.
40 Paramahansa Yogananda, Where There is Light (Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1994), 187.
41 Charles Fillmore Reference Library, Metaphysical Bible Dictionary (Unity Village, MO: Unity, 1995), 150.
42 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God, book 1, (NY, NY: Putnam, 1996), 52.
43 Sanderfur, 188.
44 Marcia Montenegro, “The Children of Pisces: Journey of an Age,” Welcome to Planet Earth, 1988, 22.
45 Oken, footnote 5, 235.
46 Review of Jewel Kilcher’s album, “Spirit,” People Magazine, Dec. 14, 1998, 37.
47 Ibid., 238.
48 Fred H. Wight, Manners & Customs of Bible Lands (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 51, 213.
49 Merrill F. Unger, The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, ed. R. K. Harrison, Revised and Updated Edition, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988), 430.
50 Lord Ashtar [channeled] through Ashtar-Athena, “You Are The Holy Sun of God,” Sedona, Journal of Emergence! December, 1995, 44, 45.
51 Walsch, 124.
52 Redfield, 153.
53 Divination is a means of obtaining unknown information through occult tools, paranormal or supranormal means, usually by reading hidden meanings into ordinary objects or patterns. Examples of divination are astrology, palmistry, numerology, reading runes, the I Ching, reading tea leaves, and various psychic techniques.
54 Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney, Hidden Wisdom (NY, NY: Penguin/Arkana, 1999), xiii.
55 Ibid., xiv.
Works cited
Arroyo, Stephen. Astrology, Psychology, and the Four Elements. Sebastopol, CA: CRCS Publications, 1975.
________. Chart Interpretation Handbook. Sebatopol, CA: CRCS, 1989.
Ashtar-Athena, [channeling] Lord Ashtar. “You Are The Holy Sun of God.” Sedona, Journal of Emergence! December, 1995.
Baum, Laurie A. Astrological Secrets for the New Millennium. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 1997.
Blofeld, John, The Tantric Mysticism of Tibet. NY, NY: Penguin/Arkana, 1992.
Bowker, John, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997.
Costello, Priscilla. “Ladder to Labyrinth.” Gnosis, A Journal of Western Inner Traditions. No. 38, Winter, 1996.
Cross, Stephen. The Elements of Hinduism. Shaftesbury, Dorset, Great Britain: Element Books Ltd, 1994. Rockport, MA: Element, Inc., 1994.
Eerdmans’ Handbook to The World’s Religions. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994.
Charles Fillmore Reference Library. Metaphysical Bible Dictionary. Unity Village, MO: Unity, 1995.
Jung, C. G.. Interview with Andre Barbault. Astrologie Moderne. May 26, 1954.
McIntosh, Christopher. The Astrologers and their Creed. NY, NY: Praeger, Inc., 1969.
Melton, J. Gordon, Jerome Clark and Aidan A. Kelly, New Age Encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., Gale Research International Ltd, 1990.
Montenegro, Marcia. “The Children of Pisces: Journey of an Age.” Welcome to Planet Earth, 1988.
Oken, Alan. As Above, So Below. New York: Bantam, 1973.
Parrinder, Geoffrey, ed. World Religions. Paperback ed. NY: Facts on File, 1985.
People Magazine. Dec. 14, 1998.
Redfield, James. The Celestine Prophecy. NY, NY: Warner Books, 1993.
Rudhyar, Dane. The Practice of Astrology. New York, Baltimore: Penguin Books, Inc., 1975.
Sanderfur, Glenn. Lives of the Master, The Rest of the Jesus Story. VA Beach: ARE Press. 1988.
Smoley, Richard and Jay Kinney. Hidden Wisdom. NY, NY: Penguin/Arkana. 1999.
Soffer, Shirley. The Astrology Sourcebook. Los Angeles: Lowell House, NTC/ Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc., 1998.
Unger, Merrill F. The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary. Ed. R. K. Harrison. Revised and Updated Edition. Chicago: Moody Press, 1988.
Walsch, Neale Donald. Conversations with God, book 1. NY, NY: Putnam, 1996.
Wight, Fred H. Manners & Customs of Bible Lands. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.
Yogananda, Paramahansa. Where There is Light. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1994.
Selected Video Interviews of Marcia Montenegro’s Testimony
Giving Testimony as guest of ex-psychic Jenn Nizza
Giving Testimony as guest of Doreen Virtue
Giving Testimony as guest of Alisa Childers
Giving Testimony with Pastor Brian Tubbs
Giving Testimony on Christ, Culture, & Coffee
Giving Testimony as guest of Dr. Walter Swaim of Truth Unbound
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