Scriptural revelation was the work of inspired thinkers drawing their refreshment and and relations from previous writers, and developing their own thought in exposition: Couched in their contemporary knowledge, these writings appealed locally, while yet obscured from the dabbling and daunting barbarian fashions, and so remote from us as to elicit ridicule and neglect, albeit quite unnecessarily ... Prophet and priest reminded the children of Isaac to keep in line, and see their own place, prestige, and power enlarged: it was immediate; it met their need; but prophecy, through Love's sincerity, meets all needs - in their times, and to come ....
In the meanwhile, discrepancy aside, there are (ten) more
zodiacal signs in St. John's sketchy sky chart (perhap as ten
lost tribes of Israel) to recover and explain: and these develop
our comprehension of the woman's place. At first she is the
mother bringing forth the child anointed to rule the world with a
rod of iron (Libra, the balance beam: an ordinary, simple but
crude but accurate means of comparing and ascertaining weighty
and valuable considerations - Science: the unbreakable, unbending
law of God, Mind, Truth, requiring the utmost diligent care in
its use: disobedience could be deadly, not merely painful;
heavenly (cosmic) measure that does not change - iron rod:
reduced and fashioned with firey heat, from the red soil of
Adam's (overturning) tillage: Science, induced by Love, deduced
from its divine Principle). St John beholds yet another wonder in
heaven, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns (and
seven crowns), and body and tail stretching across a third of
the (night) sky; and it chases the woman and her child. We
(re)cognize this great red dragon as the Milky Way galaxy (our
sun's home-city of stars): its liminal dusky glow (whence the
term, red, as dim embers glow reddish) lurking behind the more
obvious stark starry night sky, and crossing the ecliptic twice.
In astrological order the constellation of Scorpio the scorpion,
which coincides with a portion of this Milky Way,
follows immediately after Libra the balance, giving the
emphasis to an antipathetical Earthward chase scene in sequence,
as he delineates. That a third of the
stars should fall beneath its tail suggests the ongoing meteor
showers seen nightly and sometimes by the minute. St. John
seems to have guessed that the dragon (galaxy) had some
essential stellar luminescence - but his count suggests the
spread, rather than the actual number, of stars affected by its
proximity - for he feels its antipathy, its fixed vagueness,
its vastness outweighing the individual stars: even as the
nebulous plankton (fields) in the sea are comprised of
individual points of light at night. In this same order, the
constellation of the woman precedes the balance (and the child
therein), and thence dragon, in their descent to Earth, onto
the evening horizon, and so also is first to rise in the
morning, whence the story line follows this daily as well as
celestial order forwardly: the sun (and the day) transfers
forward to each succeeding sign, and St. John continues this
development figuratively with the woman soon giving-up her
crown and glorious clothing, and flying up to irregular
wilderness heights, and her child being caught up to heaven; the
dragon yet pursuing:
the next sign, Sagittarius the archer, first, coming forth as
Michael and his angels, doing battle with the dragon and its
angels, and casting them to the Earth. (St. John inserts here,
and elsewhere, a loud voice in heaven proclaing progress:
possibly an accent of notably bright stars off the ecliptic,
Vega, Altair, etc.). And, then, Capricorn the goat, but in
St. John's usage rather as the wings of an eagle (which is more
how the constellation appears) given to the woman to make her
escape: as both goats and eagles notably live in, and resort to
the high mountain crags for their safety. We recognize this
exit to the wilderness as the passing of a great Leader whose
presence we feel and hope to find in our larger thought of
existence beyond the formal constructions of presentient human
experience and endeavor - or like King Nebuchadnezzar,
struggling with the belief of insane personal (individual)
persistence on Earth, until the understanding of the rule of
the heavens should correct this wild harlotry in her (our)
thought. Then, next, Aquarius the water bearer, as St. John's
dragon sending forth from its mouth a flood to drown her
descendants (successors and followers); but, then, Pisces the
fish, as the Earth (or a type of Earthy manhood) helping the
woman, swallowing up the flood: as fish live in and appear to
swallow and breath even the water, without drowning: whence a
helpful example of sorts; Then, next, Aries the ram, and
adjacently the constellation of the Pleiades, six or seven
sisters, as the beast rising from that sea (of swallowed floods),
with seven heads, ten horns and ten crowns - and as the seventh
Pleiad is not always visible, and as rams seem to enjoy butting
heads (and horns, whence the figurative name, 'battering-ram'),
one head should be wounded unto death but recover and live again
(as this is the common human notion of restoration and
resurrection: to rise to fight again, sans ascension, that is,
without comprehension and understanding of eternal Life, but
passing a phase of belief in mortal life, in and out of sickness
and health)- Then, Taurus the bull, which St. John prefers more
lamb-like (as is more apparent by constellation), as the second
beast with two short horns (even as a young ram's lamb's-horns),
and the manner of lambs (and bulls) is to challenge, turn, and
charge aspace, and steer its head playfully, which is a more
lively image than the more remote and awesome ram, but similar in
power, and appropriate more to the exaction of domesticated
submission and image worship, as St. John interprets the
hardship; And next, St. John saw Orion the hunter, as the
enrobed and golden engirdled Lamb (as is equally apparent); the
sound of waters is yet another feeling of that Milky Way
galaxy-flow which crosses the zodiac here, too; and following
loyally, Gemini the twins, as the Lamb's undefiled select
choir-army (as members are uniformed twins of one another)
further developed, coming to do battle with
the latter beast and its worshippers (the first beast then
having lost its crowns, and gone off into the woman's
wilderness where it shall be later seen with her - St. John's
insertion of the fall of Babylon is as a background event being
announced: it may come as a clustering of planets, as the crown
fallen off the woman, or it may be anti-climactic, as the
nondescript constellation of Cancer the crab, crawling bottom
dweller; then, next but lastly among the secular zodiacal beings,
creatures, acts and actions, appears to St. John as the
Son of man (generic man with final authority for Earth) crowned,
and wielding with both hands a scythe (a curved hooked blade
instrument) apparent in the front of (our) next constellation,
Leo the lion, and reaping the Earth at the harvest
(before the woman comes again to gather). St. John reviews and
marvels momentarily at the Lamb's choir-army standing on a sea of
glass mingled with fire (REV15:2-4) - Gemini the twins, again,
standing on our Milky Way galaxy's luminescent glaze. His holier
vision of the temple in heaven being open(ed),
as the temple of the testimony (individual proofs of God; even
as the tribe of Levi was ordained for the priesthood) opens
next, and as even before the first sign, of Virgo the woman,
the great wonder in the heavens, St. John saw the temple of God
open; and so preluded and postluded the sequence of the eleven
other signs and wonders, even as, Leo the lion, also the
appellative for Judah, the lion of the tribe of Judah,
Engulfed in this visionary aspiration, St. John was, firstly,
handling animal magnetism: Moses' rod which would become a
flexible serpent (rather than break) when cast down loosely;
conforming it to his more spiritually demanding God-centered
imagery of reality superior to the iconic and secular idolatry
of traditional personal-self-centered humanity; enlivening it,
anointing it with Christ's plan, rather than merely adorning it
or scorning it; playing it up, to put it down (and in writing) -
though not more difficultly than the fifth-grade elementary
student who redacts his vocabulary lesson into a short story.
But be that as it may, St. John was also enumerating that plan,
which has only now begun to be played out in Christian Science,
the only true history of the world, for the history of matter
passes away (even as the unknown rules of spelling become known:
as the child learns the new words, not that the old words are
lost, except they were wrong, and the right made known, that
the wrong return not). A certain modern rich author [1] suggests
that Reverend Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy was/is the woman with the
crown, and her child was/is SCIENCE AND HEALTH; but we've also
seen that the zodiacal interpretation and the actual
constellations no longer coincide - it has taken nearly two
thousand years for this celestial translation - and Mrs. Eddy
surely did not wish to be seen later in St. John's REVELATION
as the same woman, the accused and stoned, dead prostitute, the
harlot who made-off with the 'Key-to-the-Scriptures', tauntingly
waving it to catch attention of Christendom (ref: GEN38):
because the world had not yet discerned the wrong it (the world,
and Christendom) imposes upon womanhood, causing it to be seen
sometimes so reputed, even as in her own day she was compared
to an English barmaid; And St. John's own usage of the lonely,
lowly prostitute was much more Christianly forgiving,
especially of his own lowly understanding of Earth-based
wilderness dominion not yet cosmic (as St. John saw stars that
move where we perceive planets like our own, he saw an Earthy
prostitute where we (may) see a spacer visitor of manly title) -
the cup of blood, her only reward for healing the saints:
collected from the blood stains on the pages of Mrs. Eddy's
book ... But even as a lion(ess) has (her) pride, and takes up
the defense against the merely dangerous beasts (the
ecclesiastical adoptions of children's souls to uncouth creeds,
strange practices, and subterfugal policies), so she is
appropriately typical: the Christ-idea of dominion on Earth
pointed to, and was held by, the woman, and she balanced a
weighty book from her 'Libra'ry of science and health, wispily
cleaned of that furious dust of mortal material history: ready
even to forestall or heal the bite of that loose scorpion,
then wash-away its (dead) commemoration with a flood of loving
endeavors .... (modernizing)
The man-child brought forth in St. John's great vision of the
woman, is, (the) Christ-Science, Mrs' Eddy's principal
(personal) successor: the very scientific generic Christ-man or
conscious presense of God or Mind-Am-I, ever with this man,
exemplified, today (MY343:5;346:27-5), and every Christian
Scientist, the woman's seed, is her successor in the proof,
demonstration, and understanding of (this) Christ-Truth.
St. John says very little about this child because it is more
than himself: it is the original, being the LORD, being (a) man.
Mrs. Eddy reminds us that the Christ-idea which animated her
thought of embodiment (her successor - the child of this
prophecy) may be found in her writings. (MY120:2)
The dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns, is
(the mind-set of) the fear-boggling ecclesiastical oligarchy
and monopoly (literally, 'one-(is)-many') imposing its belief
of system on Christ's Christianity, drawing men into submission,
with terrifying dogma, and promise of human bodily material
oneness: propounding marriages over adoption; demanding that
all new ideas be brought forth in the traditional schools of
thought. The ten horns are the Ten Commandments pointedly kept
(to prod or wound those without). The seven crowns are the
exaltations of the personal sense of God, as priests among men.
Michael and his angels, is St. John's indication of heaven's
rule reaching unto Earth - he does not actually itinerate the
child's rule with the rod of iron: implicating either a delay
or a background, that is, a studiously learned metaphysical
rule, over worldliness. In a sense, Michael is his
commander-in-chief, the enforcing power of that rule: the
presence and power of the Science of Life aiding the woman and
child: her husband procuring the opportunity, wisdom, and
technology of the cosmos, for the child's instruction on Earth.
Cast to Earth, the mental dragon of fearsome recriminations
embodies itself in Mrs. Eddy's early concepts of church, both
her prior associations and her first attempts to have her Christ
Science (or Christian Scientists) be(come) accepted by and in
the established churches - but also those churches could not
establish its Father-on-Earth ... whence ... forthwith, the
dragon spews its venomous flood of personal contempt, hatred
for Christian Science, to drown-out the very reality of why and
how we are here on Earth (be)neath the more heavenly spiritual
view of immortal man. Rising from the sea, of human belief
weighed with fears, and swayed with spheres, typifies the
essentially democratic rule by which a few Church Readers are
elected over their congregation temporarily.
The Earth, that receptive thought of weak and tired mortal
humanity watching and waiting for what good may float its way,
gloms onto the seeming perverse obfuscation imposed upon it
from the dragon's complaint, for that little good it finds,
because this is its native air and substance of (its) thought:
altogether crude to the woman and her child - even as that
first spacer woman, Mrs. Jehovah, and her son, Adam, found the
crude civility of Earth-living. The flood from the dragon
merely helps spread the good to the Earth's bounds and extremes:
as even enemies bless.
The beast, rising from this sea of that human ignorance of
Christ-Truth yet carrying and sharing its soggy crumbs of good,
having seven heads, ten horns (as did the preceding dragon), and
(here) ten crowns, is The Mother Church and its Publishing
Society, having together seven Trustees (heads): four over the
Church, and three over the Society. None can do war with this
(beast) Church: it is appointed 42 months, the shorter estimate
(short) of 400 years (by Mercury's ratiocination), from ca.
AD 1910, at Mrs. Eddy's passing, to ca. AD 2310 (2304). (She
flees ever higher this Earthly scene on spiritual thoughts
winged-with-love, ultimately into her highest wilderness refuge
[even unto her mausoleum]). In 1921, an internal battle (before
the Massachusetts Supreme Judiciary court [2]) between the two
boards resulted in the four Trustees of the Church declaring
titular "final authority", and overwhelming the three of the
Society, subsequently excommunicating (as killing) one, and
firing (as injuring) one of its own in the process (in a
related court
Recently (today, and perhaps many a time) a Mother Church Board
member was suggested as Mrs. Eddy's Personal Successor, but
this is very out-line to St. John's perceived prophecy. He [the
Director] did manage to knock at the next advance St. John
foresaw, of talking moving images, by the second (beast), of
the first (beast), getting all people to worship it through
television, and improve and advance all Christendom till it be
known as Christian Scientist, as Mrs. Eddy prophesied for today
(PUL22:9;MY151:1-16;342:19); but alas, a back-burn, a poison
pill (which could be healed) attempting to thwart its naive
simplicity by ghastly cannibalism - much as high definition
television technology, HDTV, attempts to thwart improved NTSC and stereo'eyes'ed full definition
television, FDTV. (It is
reasonably possible that said Board member, is as one more of
Michael's angels subduing that luminous dragon's image: on TV.)
And it is the successor's job to establish the second beast, as
Mrs. Eddy did the first, and specifically this means the
Son Dey School [4] (or Saturday Sabbath School) of Christ Science:
as the second beast had two lamb's horns, the keeping of the two
great Commandments, and no crown on its pure-child-like
trustee's endeavors, and it had the causal power to
excommunicate gay-diatribal fundamentalists, with Christianly
Scientifically correct deduced explanations of (the)
Scripture(s). And the talking moving images will do much better
at appealing to, and assuaging the prurient interests of
humanity, than the first century's Sunday School Lesson-Sermons
(ref: MIS114:2): including (predictably, again, because we are
slightly ahead of our 'today' at the point in exposition),
'4-D' four-dimensional video (that is, moving, stereo'eyes'ed)
images of Mrs. Eddy herself, reconstructed and regenerated by
computer, both imagery, and in fitting her own lecture words to
her mouth, face, and hands, and ultimately in logical
reconstitution of her meaning: that it will say new things not
heard nor written before but entirely consistent with her own
teaching and demonstration: it will again heal the sick, merely
watching this global (tele)vision, and improve and advance all
Christendom till it shall be known as Christian Scientist, as
Mrs. Eddy prophesied for today (PUL22:9;MY151:1-16;342:19); and
even possibly this very 'book' or significant parts of it (such
as, as delicious cinematic rendition of Adam in Eden, so
innocently scripted and portrayed that even it shall neither
affront nor disinform).
Coming forth on the land, means, the firm foundational
understanding gained in both the Christian Science Sunday
School, and in the ordinary school sciences and mathematics:
even as Moses had of
Lastly, the crowned reaper wielding the sickle, a little slow
getting around to this last task of harvest until it was ready,
divides humanity, the real from the secular. The exact placement
of this may be delayed three hundred years from today (ca. 1992)
as there is no sooner age limit on the preceding beasts, nor on
the success of the Lamb's choir army. Its meaning is therefor
less resolved: it may even intone a final division, for a
thousand years, of the Earthers from the new Spacers seeking out
Mrs. Jehovah's people with a permanent exalted view of heaven,
leaving in their wake a more neutral nucleus of Earth government.
Temporal estimates may vary, especially without fixed outstanding
signs in the heavens. If we attempt a fitting of zodiac signs to
intervals of years, we risk division isolating events within our
Church as merely the passage of hours (time wasted); and events
mean more to some persons than others: St. John himself next
amplifies, or, time-dilates, the later years. A business opens
on-time: the employees must be ready on-time; but once open, it's
all work, work, work, watch and pray (MBE), with little purpose
to watching the clock, save it is wise to know, as the events
will arrive, what these are, to be especially ready.
[We must note here in closing that the plausible actual
would become speculative if we merely imagine what persons
may have done, said, meant ... the importance is in the
demonstration of the Christ Science: not to rediscover
that which is today abundant, but discern and live it]
FUNDAMENTAL CONTROVERSES: Christian Science Class
Instruction * RKPetry The theory of measurement propounded in this work is
not to be cited (as) considering contraband or corpses;
Nor are the intellectual appurtenances hereïn to be used
for or in the commission of crimes against persons, peoples,
properties, or powers (States). May your tabernacle measure true. COPYRIGHT: BASIC LIBRARY RULES: READ QUIETLY
... [continuing to REV15] ...
[1: Bliss Knapp, Destiny of the Mother Church, writes of early
works in the Christian Science Movement]
[2: #35,653 and #35,788 (ref: March 8, 1920,
The Christian Science Monitor, pgs. 8-12: Report of the Master, Judge Frederick Dodge)]
[3: though the general meaning of, gay, might apply here,
overt intimacy, irreverent frivolity, blatant experimentation
(as many students believe they follow their leader
rather than working where she has lead them),
the special meaning appeared when Rev. Eddy discovered
she had to excuse a female student from taking her Class,
for the tendency to believe in monogenesis --
for otherwise, young ladies are brought-up kissing mommy and daddy,
brothers and sisters, pets, friends, eventually husband and children:
and the healing work has other priorities than redirecting society]
[4: as her Mother Church, so his Son Dey School: Her successor
(is) a man. (MY342:19-10)]
The teachings hereïn are not secularized nor classified:
Sunday School pupils, Primary Class students, Normal Class
graduates, scholars, researchers, astronomers, scientists,
governments, find this coursework timely, modern, global,
historical, democratic. The syllabus is the ALMS Program:
Astronomics, Linguistics, Mathematics, Systematics: Scientific
inferentiation on Holy Biblical Scripture: What actually happened.
CHARGES FOR OTHER USES:
© 1995, 2001-2
Mr. Raymond Kenneth Petry lambhorn@ChristScience.US
systematic paraphrase (or) depiction (or) evaluation (or) comparison
regarding fair-use/citation and second-source/mirror-site
a USA 501(c)3 nonprofit organization