Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> LawPundit

Legal Commentary

: LawPundit

The Law and the Sun, Moon and Stars : The Religious Symbols of Mankind and Salazar v. Buono

By Andis Kaulins

 We refer here to our previous post on Salazar v. Buono -- i.e. the Mohave Cross case.

To understand law, it helps to understand the history of law.
To understand the history of law, it helps to understand the history of civilization.
To understand the history of civilization, it helps to understand the history of religion.
To understand the history of religion, it helps to understand the history of astronomy, especially in the formative phases of human belief systems, when mankind turned its eyes to the heavens in search of Supreme forces.

It is no coincidence that modern symbols of the world's religions can - rightly or wrongly - be affiliated with astronomical forbears:

In Christianity, the Cross arguably derived from ancient symbols for the Sun and "life", such as the Pharaonic Ankh.

Western Civilization to this day thus calculates its chronology by solar time.

In Judaism, the Star of David viz. the Seal of Solomon arguably derived from ancient symbols for the stars of heavens, known as Mazza-roth (the Zodiac, i.e. the stars on the ecliptic) from which perhaps the Magen (the Shield) in the Star of David derived. Job 38 in the King James Version reads:

"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart? "

Ancient Hebrew stellar-based  chronology was so accurate that they even developed the concepts of the helek and the halakim:

"The helek (Hebrew ???, meaning "portion", plural halakim ?????) is a unit of time used in the calculation of the Hebrew calendar. The hour is divided into 1080 halakim. A helek is 3¹/₃ seconds or ¹/₁₈ minute. The helek derives from a small Babylonian time period called a she, meaning '"barleycorn", itself equal to ¹/₇₂ of a Babylonian time degree (1° of celestial rotation)."

The ancient astronomer priests thus understood that stellar time was more accurate than solar time.

In Islam, the symbol of a crescent Moon and a star clearly trace back to ancient astronomical belief. As written at About.com:

"The crescent moon and star symbol actually pre-dates Islam by several thousand years.... [M]ost sources agree that these ancient celestial symbols were in use by the peoples of Central Asia and Siberia in their worship of sun, moon, and sky gods....

The city of Byzantium (later known as Constantinople and Istanbul) adopted the crescent moon as its symbol...

It wasn't until the Ottoman Empire that the crescent moon and star became affiliated with the Muslim world. When the Turks conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, they adopted the city's existing flag and symbol."

Even today, the Muslim calendar is purely lunar.

Accordingly, the Sun, Moon and Stars as ancient astronomical symbols and modern religious symbols are very closely related. Where does one draw the line between organized religion and ancient human cultural markings?

Full post as published by LawPundit on April 30, 2010 (boomark / email).