Apart from the scientific study of variations in sun affecting climate, which some zealots of UN CO2 policy may not acknowledge has a role - signs in the sun point to signs in the political and religious world. The world around 1200 wasn't just warmer – it was more revolutionary.
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: (Revelation 12:1)
The sun is the symbolic ruler of the heavens, thus when there are signs in the sun we can see from earth – such as an increase or decrease in solar activity- we might expect to see an increase in activity in the powers of the political heavens.
We are told that God has power over the power of the sun;
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. (Isaiah 30:26)
Christ also said there would signs in the sun that would cause distress of nations before his return.
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
The signs that truly distress people will be in the great powers of the political heavens, even in the superstitious ancient world none feared the sign in the heavens as much as what it might signify.
Stormy sun
A new paper from Japan shows Extremely active Sun from 1190 to 1220 in the Medieval Period: Intercomparison of historical records and tree-ring carbon-14
in Meigetsuki, the diary of Fujiwara no Sadaie, a Japanese courtier famous for his poetry, there are descriptions indicating the occurrence of low-latitude red aurorae in Kyoto on February 21 and 23, 1204. The sighting of a red aurora is also recorded for February 22 in another historical document, Omuro Soshoki, which remains in Kyoto, suggesting that the intense magnetic storm continued for three consecutive days, making it one of the oldest extreme space weather events documented in historical records. During these three days, red and white stripes were observed toward the north and northeast. This event may be associated with the appearance of a large sunspot with the size of a date palm, as recorded in a Chinese document on February 21, 1204. There are also recordings of the sighting of aurorae in the following month in Meigetsuki as well as in a Chinese document2) and a French document.8) In Meigetsuki, there is a description that aurorae were seen over three nights, although it was hearsay within the imperial court.
Their report showed
that solar activity was higher for longer than we thought during the Medieval Warm Period (MWP)
But what if this era of a remarkably hotter and brighter sun has a political counterpart?
Religious heat
So when we go look at this active sun era there was greater expectation of Christ/ Messiah/ Anointed.
For one it was the era of the Crusades. People were stirred up, more than just the apostate sword taking Crusaders. They might be seen as reactionary orthodoxy.
One of the more well-known proponents of church reform was Abbot Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135-1202) Joachim compared Christendom to Babylon because everyone wanted money, power, and worldly fame. Shortly after 1200, he speculated, two anti-Christian forces, possibly Muslims and heretics, would attack, defeat, and severely persecute Christians. Thus purified people would attain unsurpassed understanding of the hidden meaning of the Scriptures. For an indeterminate period, Christians would dominate the world in peace. in response .. the rivalry between the popes and the emperors culminated in the 1240s when Pope Innocent IV waged “total war"—a war of both swords and words—against emperor Frederick II.) christianhistoryinstitute.org
Joachim of Fiore (1135-1202) wrote a commentary on the Book of Revelation, so there was widespread expectation of the nearness of a more peaceful Messianic age. Running parallel in Judaism Maimonides (1135–1204) rigorously debated aspects of the Messianic age, leading to the imminent expectation of the Messiah. He wrote, Guide for the Perplexed, in the 1180s, grappling with the false Aristotelian science and philosophy. His book gained a large audience when it was translated into Hebrew by Samuel ibn Tibbon in 1204. Both were disturbing figures and would lead to rippling dissent against orthodoxy for centuries.
In addition we have such dissenters as the theologian Amalric of Bena. His writings on some strange ideas derived from Aristotle were such a problem to the papacy that he was forced to recant and some of his followers burnt, and then his dead body exhumed and burnt. It showed the dissent of the era. It also showed the counter-reaction of the papacy.
In another place in 1173 a merchant Peter (Pierre) surnamed Waldo of Lyons gave away his property and preached a simpler apostolic way of life.
The Vaudois were members of a Christian sect founded at Lyon in 1179 by Pierre Valdo. They only admitted belief in the Bible, especially the Apostles of early Christianity. They refused the sacraments and the cult of Saints, and they established their own clergy. The Vaudois were excommunicated in 1184. The doctrine included absolute poverty and non-violence. beyond.fr
There had likely been Valdenses before Pierre's birth, back to 1100, but they weren't noticed as a problem until after Peter's work in this warmer era from 1170 until his death in the years of the red skies about 1206. Confessing ones faith and arguing with the papacy using reason that the gospel could be preached by all and be read in ones own language wasn't useful. From 1215 his followers fled to the mountain regions of Northern Italy.
But this was the era of heretics. If you begin excommunicating everyone, you can't control their thinking. This was an era of change.
Political turmoil
This warm era of noted red skies begins with the death of Saladin (the Lion) in 1193 who had united the Islamic world, ejecting the Crusaders from Jerusalem (Joachim's predictions were not in a vacuum). Islam was making inroads into India. At Saladin's death his legacy fragmented to his 17 sons. In 1194 Richard I (the Lionheart) takes back the Crown and takes on his brother John and France. These things are not hidden events, but famous. Those years there were reports of red skies.
So in 1196 while Richard I was absent. there was pestilence and famine in England and a great armed uprising of the poor against the rich, where the poor rioted and took the goods of the rich. Also over in Germany, Henry VI Holy Roman Emperor persuades a diet at Würzburg to recognise his 2-year-old son, Frederick II, as king of the Romans. Those messianic in that era thought Frederik II might bring the era of peace, but the church wasn't happy. Henry VI also takes on the Byzantine Empire.
In 1197 there were two great sun-rulers unexpectedly dead: Henry the Holy Roman Emperor in the midst of taking on the Byzantines and on his way to Crusade in Israel died possibly poisoned, and another Henry, the Crusader ruler of Jerusalem falls out a window.
The next great red aurora was reported in Italy in 1200. In 1199 Richard I died and John took over, which leads to a peace treaty with the French in 1200. In this warm era Jews were prospering in England and John permits them to live freely in his realm in 1201. In a show of emerging people power the wealthy land owners, vote to stay with the English, after Normandy is recaptured by Philip II of France in 1204.
In 1202 there was an earthquake that damaged Crusader fortifications in Acre, Jaffa and Tyre
But events of the political heavens take a turn in the Byzantine Empire – Spots are truly seen in the sun- their Emperor replaced in an aristocrat's coup. That uprising is put down. But the resulting machinations leave Byzantine Constantinople exposed to Catholic crusader zealotry to take over the Orthodox, leading to one of the greatest battles of that ages where Islam and Byzantine Orthodox fought the Catholic crusaders.
By 1204, a year where the records have many reporting red skies from solar storms, one for 3 days from February 21-23 indeed also for April-June era in Germany. At tha that very time the Byzantine emperor Alexios IV Angelos is overthrown in a revolution after his co-ruler Isaac II dies on January 24. Alexios IV is executed Febuaray 8th. Then there are the great solar stomes and red skies - at that very time the Crusdaers and the Venetians make a pact and agree to divide the Byzantine Empire. Then shockingly Constantinople is sacked in April 1204 as part of the 4th and last crusade. With Venetian support, Boniface of Flanders Crusader was elected as Byzantine Ruler on 9 May 1204 and crowned on 16 May in the Hagia Sophia. This is followed by a large solar storm recorded in the diary of the Japanese poet Fujiwara no Teika Jan 20, 1205. From 1206 Henry of Flanders the Crusader rules Byzantine by 1211 conquering the last defenders, and walking though the Empire unopposed.
The record of sun spots and red skies cease. This weakness of Byzantine would lead to the later conquest by the Turks.
In 1208 John King of England is excommunicated by the pope. This set a pattern of later events. John raised taxation of his own nobles to raise money. Due to the rebellion and wishing to avoid civil war, King John and the Nobles agree and the Magna Carta (Great Charter) is sealed at Runnymede on June 15, 1215.
Patterns, but not a cycle!
The era of reports of red skies ended, until the next era as the sunspots became less- and the temperatures cooled. There was one more era of sunspot activity in the 1300s, then there was the cooling from a lack of sunspot activity – and it was the Dark Ages. Then it becomes warmer after the Reformation in the 1600s, then even the humble of my ancestors could read and some could write. The new eras of sunspot warming coincides with the great out pouring of the late 1700s that founded modern science- then again we see sunspot induced magnetic storms and some warming beyond 1850s until today, and there is an explosion of knowledge. Is there something in this?
As we consider, we might argue that the warmer climate of the eras of magentic storms led to dissent or we might point out that the sunspots led to red skies which likely unsettled people, or we might argue that God controls the sun and shows a response to events in the heavens, so they mirror the events on earth. In any case the correlation is curious.
The fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. (Rev 16:8)
And indeed the great power of the Holy Roman Empire ended with Napoleon's conquest in 1806. So was there a sign- well, yes there was. The the Prussian polymath and explorer Alexander von Humboldt who not only recorded the spectacular red auroras observed over Northern Europe in late 1806 – he was measuring magnetism at the time and so was able to explain them as a result of 'geomagnetic storms'. We we can explain the mechanics of things as much as we wish, and long may we find ever more detail, but why some years and not others? And then I can't find it but, Hitler saw a very strong amazing red aurora and decided to invade Russia. This action ended the last Reich, the revived Holy Roman Empire.
Modern conjunction
Then there was May 10, 2024
The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution to grant the State of Palestine the right to be seated among member states in alphabetical order. This will go into effect at the next session of the UN General Assembly on 10 September 2024.
A series of solar storms impact the Earth, creating aurorae seen at more southerly and northerly latitudes than normal. Aurorae seen on May 12 from southern Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
A series of solar storms and intense solar flares impact the Earth, rated G5 by NOAA, creating aurorae at more southerly and northerly latitudes than usual. This was the first G5 storm since 2003.
Co- incidence, perhaps. But then perhaps not. Perhaps the God of Israel controls the sun. It's not unscientific. Yes, indeed the theory is that sunspots are caused by the magnetic field, but that's a mechanism, not the first cause. And now they find cycles weren't even in the past, and that's inexplicable. Failing to fear God and fearing climate is part of the tribulation of this age.
But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. (Mark 13:24-26)
