Don Cerow–Decoding the Book of Revelation

Have you ever read the last book of the Bible? No, seriously, ever try to get through the horrific images of death, pestilence and divine retribution? The prophecy of Armageddon? The trials of the “End Times” ?

People have been predicting the end of the world, well since, the beginning of the world. So far it hasn’t happened and according to Don Cerow, despite the doom sayers, the Book of Revelation doesn’t predict it either. Rather, the the twenty two chapters of Revelation and its colorful language depict a timeline of events that brings us through the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius.

An academician by training, Don takes a painstaking path laying out the astronomy and the astrology of his hypothesis. Written in a time before the schism of astronomy and astrology, the Book of Revelation is laden with astrological references that would make sense to a first century Mediterranean world dominated by Greek culture.

Following the Vernal Equinox as it precesses (moves backward) through the zodiac Don outlines significant events of the Age of Pisces and relates them to the fixed stars in the zodiac sign of as the Vernal Equinox matches (parallels) their positions.

In Don’s own words:

Revelation unlocks the vault of heaven and the treasures that lie hidden within.

In Revelation there are eight seals that are opened by the “Lamb of God” the only spiritual being able to do so. Don points out that as the book was written in 1st Century AD three of the fixed stars had already been hit by the Vernal Equinoxes, making these seals not so much prophecies but as markers of events as if to say “this is what happened before, now watch as we talk about what will happen”.

The fourth seal is an actual prophecy that marks the passage of the Vernal Equinox through Mu Piscium at about 246 AD.

This prophecy says:

“When he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth animal shout, ‘Come.’ Immediately another horse appeared, deathly pale, and its rider was called Plague, and Hades followed at his heels. They were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill by the sword, by famine, by plague and wild beasts.” -Revelation 6: 7-8

This period was a time of extreme governmental insecurity marked by continuous civil wars and foreign invasions. At the same time plague ravaged the Roman population reportedly felling 5,000 Roman citizens a day at its height.

Revelation says this about the fifth seal:

“When he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of all the people who had been killed on account of the word of God, for witnessing to it. They shouted aloud, ‘Holy, faithful Master, how much longer will you wait before you pass sentence and take vengeance for our death on the inhabitants of the earth?’ Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to be patient a little longer, until the roll was complete and their fellow servants and brothers had been killed just as they had been.” -Revelation 6: 9-11

The souls in this seal were told to be patient, held in abeyance, “until the roll was complete”, that is until the end of the Age of Pisces. This was the time where they were to “let those that do good, will do good, and those that do evil will do evil.” In other words, God was just going to let things roll as humans played out their personal passion plays.

The time that this Vernal Equinox parallels Zeta Piscium in 572 AD. The Lombards, the most barbaric of the barbarians, invaded Rome and “broke the back of Roman civilization”. Civilization disintegrated and the Romans were at the mercy of societal forces beyond their control.

As the opening of each of the seals indicates, the release of the troubles contained therein brought in its wake sorrow and suffering. For those who were killed for witnessing to the word of God, their soul’s purification was the result. Meanwhile, time and the rest of the world waited for final judgment.

The sixth seal, the parallel between the Vernal Equinox and Epsilon Piscium, in 778 AD correlates with the thirty year war Charlemagne waged against the pagan people of the North. In a bold stroke Charlemagne beheaded “5,000 princes of Gaelic peoples” which won him his battle but lost his war. In retribution the Vikings, whose royalty was intermarried with the Gaels, attacked the sad remnants of once great Rome, carrying away plunder, and eventually setting up settlements to support raiding forays into the heartland of Rome herself.

The seventh seal is not so much a prophecy, but an announcement proclaiming that when when the seventh seal was opened “there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour.” This cryptic reference is a actually a metaphor for the 1,000 years the Vernal Equinox will take to reach the last and final point, the parallel with Omega Piscium, which Don calculates is about February 12, 2013, the end of the Age of Pisces and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius.

As to what happens in the next three years is anyone’s guess, and as prognosticators some of us will take a stab at it. What is important to remember that the despite the trials of humanity have suffered through the ages as a species we have adapted, evolved and endured. The “end times” is the end of an age, not the end of humanity. The Book of Revelation promises “The New Jerusalem” of which Carly Simon signs so eloquently. So before you cancel your life insurance, or run up those credit card bills, prepare for the coming of a new age, rather than lament the old.

Photo printed under a Creative Commons license as posted on Flickr.