The History of Astrology and the Gifts of the Magi

Some people celebrate the Adoration of the Magi every year on January 6.  Read an interesting article about the history of astrology and how it was applied in the beginning. (Reference: Good Heavens! Oldest-Known Astrologer's Board Discovered | Live Science) 

Per Wikipedia "Astrology is a pseudoscience that claims to divine information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the movements and relative positions of celestial objects."

• I believe the initial use of the real science of astrology (as opposed to pseudoscience), "in the beginning", i.e. used to predict the weather for agriculture purposes, natural disasters, etc., is the correct use or application of astrology. 

The article goes on to state that people began to say they could apply astrology in human affairs for success. 

• I believe that "beginning" (of when people started saying how astrology could be applied) could possibly be the beginning of when scam and con artists began to leave their indelible marks on the history of mankind, i.e. deceivers started telling people they could predict their future success by the stars and that deception has continued to this day (psychic readings, hotlines, etc.). 

• I believe there is only one exception where, not the stars, but a single star, was applied to human affairs for salvation and its appearance lent itself to the prediction of the rise (success) and fall (failure) of many.

*The star that led the wise men to Jesus.* 

Image credit: Star Of Bethlehem by FullMoonMaster on DeviantArt
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The visit of the Magi may be a part of the so-called Christmas tradition but more importantly … it's a true story.  

It's an integral part of the most beautiful story ever told.  

Christmas Tradition: The Gifts of the Magi

Christmas Tradition: The Gifts of the Magi

Every year during the month of December, many people direct their minds to the story about the birth of Jesus, revered by faithful Christians as the Savior of the world. Although the nativity scene always shows the three wise men (also called the three kings) adoring a newborn baby and bearing gifts, the biblical account indicates that their visitation did not occur on the night that Mary gave birth.

Using Loose Ends to Tie Up a True Story

The Europeans, the folks from England in particular, are such gifted musicians. I am so glad the USA was invaded by all of these artists. When much younger, there was hardly any place that I would go without my transistor radio. If it was my turn to do the dishes, I would make this household chore last and last and last, while listening to the latest tunes. There were also lots of music shows on TV – American Bandstand and Soul Train – but they were only broadcast at certain times, Saturdays. Can you imagine what a tough childhood I had? Having to wait an entire week to hear good music!!

But then cable TV came along with the music channels and my husband learned how to work a VCR. Later on YouTube was invented. Did you know that YouTube was created to handle my “mood swings”? OK. That’s a stretch. No doubt the inventors had other things on their mind. But we all know that music is so very necessary to the human psyche. Isn’t it awesome that the people from my generation who remember the music, kept their vinyl records and figured out how to upload those great songs and share them on the Internet via YouTube or Vimeo or wherever? I figure whoever is uploading the music has to be somebody about my age because most kids probably wouldn’t know who “The Impressions” are, let alone what kind of music they made, and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t want to upload that stuff!

So I’m sharing two links in this post.

The first video – “Slow Down” – I shared over a year ago in my Google Plus post stream. I only remembered it today because as I was checking my Notifications, I saw that someone had given it a Plus One. This group of 3, called “Loose Ends” – 2 guys and a doll – are out of England. I’m not sure what they are up to these days, but their sound – though it came out in the 80s – is still fresh. There’s a article about them on Wikipedia, if you’re interested. 
 ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_Ends_(band) )

The second one is “Keep on Pushing”; an oldie but a goodie. Here’s my story behind this song. I usually DO NOT keep up with the political conventions. If my TV is turned on while the convention is being televised, I may hear some sounds but won’t pay close attention. So years back, the Democratic convention was on television, and all I could hear was a cheering crowd and music in the background. A speaker was being introduced. I don’t know who. Some tall slender black guy. Evidently he was senator. They say his name by way of introduction and this song is playing as background music. The Senator turned out to be Barack Obama. I don’t know what his speech was about because I had only stopped to hear the music! Besides, he was representing from Chi-town (Chicago) and why listen to what he has to say? It’s not like he’s ever gonna be President! True story.

Clearly, I have no psychic capabilities and can not predict the future.