Very interesting article! Although I will say that my article was slightly misrepresented. I do not believe the stars or planets themselves are necessarily malevolent deities. I believe the stars themselves are physical conduits for both good and bad spirits, sort of like an “angelic ZIP code.” I believe that all of creation, including the celestial bodies, is inherently good because God created it. In fact, the Church actually condemns the notion that the stars and planets are imprisoned spirits as a heresy.
Fascinating insight into religious beliefs I'd never heard of before. The ideas that the planets don't move 'correctly' bothered a lot of our ancestors. If planets are viewed in such a dark light, did the topic of comets ever come up with the locals during your tours of duty?
Sadly not in Afghanistan. During the summer in the south, people would sleep outside in rural areas so they were used to meteors et al. But a long term comet, I have no clue. Maybe it could be viewed as a sign by some. In Iraq, my time was split between cities and the near-nomadic zones, and I sadly wasn’t thinking astronomy at the time.
Reading about the belief that angles are chained to the planets made me wonder why anyone would believe such beings would be held in the material realm, but then I remembered Revolution mentions angles chained under the Euphrates, so it makes more sense then I expected it to. I doubt that's what Jude was getting at, though, and Enoch isn't scripture.
The Mandaeans sound like an interesting bunch. Obscure religions are deep wells for novelists to draw inspection.
I wasn't aware of this type of... "creencias", sorry 🤭.
All sorts of different types of beliefs out there.
Beliefs…thank you!! That's what I learned with your post 🏵️.
Very interesting article! Although I will say that my article was slightly misrepresented. I do not believe the stars or planets themselves are necessarily malevolent deities. I believe the stars themselves are physical conduits for both good and bad spirits, sort of like an “angelic ZIP code.” I believe that all of creation, including the celestial bodies, is inherently good because God created it. In fact, the Church actually condemns the notion that the stars and planets are imprisoned spirits as a heresy.
I want to appologize for where I got that wrong. I placed a correction below my statement with your correction.
All good! I’m very flattered that my work is even mentioned here, thank you for that. Very good piece!
Thank you for the kind words, and for sharing your own thoughts in your original article!
No man has come closer to making me get a TikTok account.
I'm still not going to, but he came very close.
LOL!
Fascinating insight into religious beliefs I'd never heard of before. The ideas that the planets don't move 'correctly' bothered a lot of our ancestors. If planets are viewed in such a dark light, did the topic of comets ever come up with the locals during your tours of duty?
Sadly not in Afghanistan. During the summer in the south, people would sleep outside in rural areas so they were used to meteors et al. But a long term comet, I have no clue. Maybe it could be viewed as a sign by some. In Iraq, my time was split between cities and the near-nomadic zones, and I sadly wasn’t thinking astronomy at the time.
Reading about the belief that angles are chained to the planets made me wonder why anyone would believe such beings would be held in the material realm, but then I remembered Revolution mentions angles chained under the Euphrates, so it makes more sense then I expected it to. I doubt that's what Jude was getting at, though, and Enoch isn't scripture.
The Mandaeans sound like an interesting bunch. Obscure religions are deep wells for novelists to draw inspection.
Another name for Mandaeans is Sabia. Though for my Sabia I pulled more from pre-Temple Judaism and Zoroastrianism.