Fish or Cross

When the movement that was to grow into Christianity was being initiated out of Rome (not Palestine), the earth had only recently, c.60 BCE, entered the Age of Pisces. An "Age" is the period of time during which the Sun rises and traverses over a dominant constellation at the vernal equinox, a period of time that lasts some 2160 years. This slow shifting viewpoint of Earth's relationship with the cosmos is known as precession of the equinoxes.

Earth had just exited from the Age of Aries (c.2220 BCE to c. 60 BCE), during which the ram and lamb had played prominent roles in various religious movements of the world. Prior to that, in the Age of Taurus (c. 4380 BCE to c. 2220 BCE), the bull (and cow) had been focus of much of the world's religious attention.

In the early years of the Christian movement the symbol used by the cult as an indicator to other followers was of two arched lines that suggested a fish form. The arched symbol would be the standard for the struggling society well into the third century CE. (How, where and why this early symbol for the movement was replaced by the cross is given in detail in Time Frames and Taboo Data.) The cross as emblematic of Jesus' death, allegedly for world salvation, was not regarded to be symbolic of the instructive teachings of the master that were held central to the earlier emerging society.

Proof of the importance given to the fish symbol was uncovered not long ago at Megiddo Prison, Israel, where the remains of an early church were discovered under rubble being removed from a planned site of a new prison ward. There was much awe and excitement at finding two mosaics, one of which had as its central focus a depiction of two fishes, each facing opposite directions--acknowledgement of the new Age of Pisces.

Considerable hype was given to the ancient Christian symbol in the mosaic as predating the stark cross, and that the Greek writing used in inscriptions revealed that the money for the church and the mosaics were donated by a Roman officer and a woman named Aketous. The depiction of the two fish forms indicate that the church was active up to the fourth century--or just before Constantine, who recognized the political clout of the fanatical converts, legalized Christian observances across the Byzantine Empire.

After the fourth century CE, altars also began to be used in Christian churches for priestly theatrics, and focus was deliberately altered from the fish symbol to the cross to emphasize Jesus' sacrifice for the believers. With Jesus' death thus installed as the central theme of the movment, ritual and circumstance were made to overshadow all the early teaching that had once offered a means of experiencing inner peace.