By both Liaf and Morfessa
After Virgo comes Libra in our circle of Zodiac constellations. Libra is not as bright of a constellation and you need a starry night and no lights to see it well. However, if you can find Virgo (via Spica as in the last message), then Libra is about 30 degrees left of Virgo along the ecliptic (the path that the sun will take later in the season). We think that trying to learn the path of the ecliptic is a lesson in and of itself, but once you get the hang of that, you know whereabouts to look for these constellations. In other words, you will at least know enough to look for the zodiac constellations somewhere along this band instead of looking, say, in some crazy area such as the northern sky next to the Little Dipper. With that being said, let's get onto the next constellation:
As Virgo told of the coming Seed of the woman, Libra tells of the manner and object of Christ's death. The name in Hebrew, Mozanaim, means the "scales weighing", and its name in Latin, Libra, means the same. The four brightest stars are called Zuben al Genubi, Zuben al Chemali, al Gubi, and Zuben Akrabi. Zuben al Genubi means, "the price is deficient". Interestingly, the scales are tipped toward the next ominous constellation Scorpio. Daniel said to Belshazzar, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." This is also the sinful condition of mankind as a whole. None of our works of righteousness can pay the price for our sin. Interestingly enough, the next star's name, Zuben al Chemali, means, "the price that covers". Only the precious blood of Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, was valuable enough to cover the cost of the whole world. Along that line of thought is the star al Gubi which means, "heaped up high", and that tells of the infinite value of the redemption price. The other star, Zuben Akrabi, towards Centaurus and Lupus (the victim slain, which we shall get into shortly) tells of the conflict in which the redemption would be brought about. That star's name means, "price of the conflict". Now we are ready to deal with the next constellation.
Some of these constellations are too far south to see from middle, northern latitudes. As with some other constellations such as Centaurus, only parts of maybe none of them are visible. The Southern Cross is one such constellation that cannot be seen from middle latitudes. Legend had it that the Southern Cross was just visible from Jerusalem's latitude at the time of the Lord's first coming to die on the cross. After that, due to the precession of the Earth, it veered southward disappearing from view when the Lord died--- but travelers going south could once again see the constellation. Precession does not happen fast enough to make a constellation disappear overnight, and it would be anyone's judgment call as to the "official" date it disappeared completely, but I can honestly say that in earlier times it was visible from the northern latitudes here many, many years ago.
Crux means "cut off" in Hebrew. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off. (Daniel 9:26). It is interesting to note that this constellation was portrayed as a lion in the ancient Zodiac of Denderah with his tongue hanging out as if thirsty. A female figure is holding a cup to him. Again, this has the theme of the "Lion of the tribe of Judah." The Egyptian meaning of this constellation was "victory". In ancient cultures, the symbol of the cross, including that of Egypt, meant life, but we learned to associate that with death. Needless to say, it was through the cross that life and salvation came to all who would accept the Lord.
The Latin name connotes a wolf, but ancient symbolism denoted an animal slain and falling down dead. This constellation can be found very low in the southern sky under and between Libra and Scorpio. The ancient Hebrew name, Asedah and Arabic, Asedaton, both mean, "to be slain". Earlier we mentioned that the spear of Centaurus was pointing straight at the heart of Lupus, in order to slay it. Now BOTH constellations were symbolic of Christ. Why is Christ slaying Himself? The answer is in the Scripture were Jesus says, "I lay down my life for the sheep." In one sense, he was crucified by the hands of men and we think of Jesus being a "victim" of mans' actions (and by extension our sins). However, Jesus willingly laid down his life as well. Perhaps men and Satan played a role in the grand play of the crucifixion, but Jesus had every power to stop it had his Father not wanted to have him lay down his life at that time. Jesus made it very clear there was a specific time set aside to do so, and we've done a series about that regarding the feast days. Therefore, there is no contradiction here.
In the ancient Zodiac of Denderah, Lupus is pictured as a little child with his fingers on his lips and He was called, Sura, a lamb! Again, this may be an indication of perversion of these constellations over the years to conform to mans' ideology. However, we oftentimes find that going back further in time that some of the original symbolism comes out. Perhaps these ancient cultures did not fully understand the significance of them, but retained the original meanings since the timeframe involved may have been much closer to the generations after Adam who were inspired to name them.
This is the last constellation in the grouping for Libra. Corona is a "C"-shaped constellation found much higher in the sky next to Bootes (we already stated how you can find its star Arcturus relative to the Big Dipper). If you take notice, each chapter is going to end with some theme of glory--- in this case, Jesus became the recipient of a crown in glory after His resurrection. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name... Philipians 2:9. And again, For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. Revelation 5:9. The Hebrew name for this constellation was Atarah, a royal crown. Today these stars are known in the East by the plural, Ataroth. The Arabic name is Al Iclil, an ornament or jewel. And the brightest star Alpha Corona also has the Arabic name of Al Phecca, the shining.
This completes the second zodiac constellation and associated constellations. There are ten more to go! However, we challenge the reader of this series to write down all the names of these stars and constellations of Libra and come up with their own theme. Undoubtedly, the theme will be that which we stated from the beginning: the manner and object of Christ's death.