The main star in the constellation Virgo is called Spica. Spica means the spike of wheat, the source of bread. The virgin is traditionally depicted with Spica representing an ear of wheat in her hand. The position of the sun at the equinoxes moved into Pisces and Virgo, the star groups conventionally associated with loaves and fishes, in 21 AD. The March spring equinox, used by the Jewish calendar to mark the beginning of the year and the timing of the great annual festival of Passover, had occurred with the sun in Aries the Ram since before the time of Moses. In 21 AD, precession of the equinoxes meant the position of the sun at the spring equinox shifted from Aries into the constellation of Pisces the Fishes. On Passover, on the full moon at 14 Nisan, precession meant the moon shifted from its traditional position in Libra the Scales into Virgo. At the equinox in September, the sun shifted from Libra into Virgo. So the cosmic axis of the year provided by the two great lights of the sky at Passover was understood by ancient astronomers to have shifted at this time into the signs of the loaves and fishes.Stephan Huller wrote: I can't see any relationship between bread and the zodiac.
Deborah Houlding explains why Virgo is associated with bread, edited as follows from http://www.skyscript.co.uk/virgo_myth.html
Virgo was associated with female deities including Ishtar, Innana, Aphrodite, Ceres, Demeter, Astraea, Erigone, Isis; and in Christian symbolism, the Virgin Mary. The roots of the symbolism of Virgo as the earth goddess holding a spike of corn can be traced to the ancient Mesopotamian period. Rupert Gleadow (Origin of the Zodiac, 1968, Published by Jonathan Cape Ltd, p.169 & 213 argues that although the Sun's passage through the sign marks the period of harvest, the Mesopotamians would have placed most significance upon the time that the full Moon illuminated its stars during the Sun's transit of Pisces. For the Mesopotamians this occurred in early spring, just as the first signs of corn appeared above the ground. Thus the Babylonian reference for the constellation was Ab Sin, 'the Furrow', depicting the virgin land about to bear its fruit.
By the classical era the Sun's transit through the zodiac sign had taken precedence and Virgo became more directly perceived as a Maiden of fruition through the Harvest. Even so, much of the ancient mythology attached to the sign combines allegory concerned with harvesting the fruits of the earth, or the period of germination. Some have argued that the constellation depicts 'the woman and her seed'.
Virgo is believed to be the early grain goddess Nidoba. In Babylonian myth, the identification between Virgo and the grain goddess led the constellation figure to be personified as Ishtar, the consort of the corn god Tammuz. Their myth is a celebration of the ongoing cycle of the seasons and has been adapted into the tale of many subsequent female deities including Ceres - the Roman goddess of corn and harvest, often directly linked with Virgo by the Greeks - Proserpina, Persephone, Demeter and Aphrodite.
Spica is a brilliant white binary star marking the Ear of corn in the maiden's left hand. Other titles include stakhus (Greek: 'ear of corn'), Arista (Latin, 'ear of grain'), Aristae Puella (Latin: 'grain maiden') and Spica Virginis or 'Virgin's Spike'. In ancient Egypt the star was associated with the Nile goddess Isis and temples in the ruined city of Akhenaton appear to have been aligned to its rising and setting. The best time to view Virgo is during May (around 9pm).
Star Names, Richard Hinckley Allen, 1889 provides the following commentary (p.466), summarised from Constellation of Words.
The association between the movement of the equinoctial axis into Virgo and Pisces at the time of Christ is the core theme of this thread, providing an objective, coherent and elegant natural basis of the myth of the loaves and fishes. A total lunar eclipse at the Passover on 23 March 4 BC was seen in Jerusalem adjacent to Spica. This eclipse showed that the axis of the equinoxes had moved from its traditional location attested by Philo, in Aries and Libra. Passover marks the date when the sun and moon pass over the equinoxes, at the full moon after the spring point. The theme of Jesus Christ as mediator between earth and heaven corresponds precisely to this slow cosmic shift of the stars against the seasons, as the objective astronomical framework for the construction of the Christ myth.Alpha (α) Virgo, Spica, is a binary, brilliant flushed white star marking the Ear of Wheat shown in the Virgin's left hand. Spica signifies, and marks, the Ear of Wheat shown in the Virgin's left hand — the Greek astronomer Aratus, circa 270 B.C., wrote "in her hands". All the Romans called it thus, Cicero saying Spicum, and their descendants, the modern Italians, Spigha; the French have l'Epi. In Old England it was the Virgin's Spike, in Flamsteed. The 17th century English orientalist Thomas Hyde gave the Hebrew Shibboleth, the Syrian Shebbelta, the Persian Chushe, and the Turkish Salkim, all signifying the "Ear of Wheat".
Sir Norman Lockyer, [founder of the journal Nature], said one of the temples at Thebes was oriented to Spica's setting about 3200 BC, and the temple of the Sun at Tell al Amarna was also so oriented about 2000 B.C., or perhaps somewhat later. A similar character attached to it in Greece, for two temples have been found at Rhamnus, "almost touching one another, both following (and with accordant dates) the shifting places of Spica," at their erection 1092 and 747 b.C.; "and still another pair at Tegea." Temples of Hera were also so oriented at Olympia 1445 B.C. at Argos and Girgenti; and those of Nike Apteros at Athens, 1130 B.C., and of "the Great Diana of the Ephesians," 715 B.C.
It was to the observations of this star and of Regulus about 300 B.C., recorded by the Alexandrian Timochares, that, after comparison with his own 150 years later, Hipparchos (circa 160-120 B.C.) was indebted for the great discovery attributed to him of the precession of the equinoxes; although Babylonian records, and the temple orientation of Egypt and Greece, may indicate a far earlier practical knowledge of precession. A probable explanation of Hipparchus’ discovery of precession is his observation of the total lunar eclipse on 21 March 134 BC, when the moon was adjacent to Spica, showing the exact position of the sun at the opposite position in Pisces.
Mark’s use of numbers with direct astronomical correlations shows the secret meaning of the miracle. The two fish match to the sun and moon, and to the two fish of Pisces. The five loaves match to the five visible planets. The twelve baskets match to the twelve months of the year and their corresponding twelve signs of the zodiac. The multitude match to the visible stars. The miraculous creation of abundant food matches to the idea that Jesus Christ incarnates a divine harmony between earth and heaven symbolised by a new zodiac age. The idea that the disciples could not understand the meaning of the story matches to the difficulty of explaining the astronomical basis of the Gnostic cosmology that gave rise to Christianity.
