Astrology And The Watchtower Society
By B. J. Kotwall
Three article in the Awake! magazine (1994 July 8) deride astrology and star worship. What is missing in these articles is what the Watchtower Society (WTS) used to teach.

For 62 years, 1891 to 1953, the WTS taught that God resided on the star Alcyone in the Pleiades constellation  and that from this star he governed the universe!

This belief was taught in 1891 in  Volume 3 of Studies in the Scriptures and was based on passages in the Bible.

The WTS also taught that the Great Pyramid of Egypt provided additional proof of God's throne in the Pleiades! (The Golden Age 1924 September 10 pp. 793-794)

The International Bible Students Souvenir Convention Report (1914) says:

The Pleiades, the center of the universe, are located in Taurus, and as though to emphasize the foundation, the original meaning of Alcyone, one of the chief stars of the Pleiades, is "foundation". How significant that thewhole universe should throughout the ages swing about that constellation and that star which alone picture so clearly the Ransom! The bullock offered on the brazen altar in the court was indeed the foundation: it represented the sacrifice of the Lord. The bullock in the sky represented the very same thing. (pp. 252-253)
The book Reconciliation (1928) says:
But the greatness in size of other stars or planets is smallwhen compared with the Pleiades in importance, because the Pleiades is the place of the eternal throne of God. (p. 14)
In 1953 the doctrine about Alcyone and Pleiades was discarded:
 Some attribute striking qualities to these constellations or star groups and on the basis of such they then offer private interpretations of Job 38:31,32 that amaze their hearers...when viewed Scripturally they are completely without foundation. (The Watchtower 1953 November 15 p. 703) The Bible verses quoted in this 1953 article which were used by "Some" to "amaze their hearers" were in fact the verses used by the WTS to prove that God resided on the star Alcyone! (The Watchtower 1915 June 15 p.185; The Golden Age 1928 May 16 p. 540)
A different link of WTS doctrine with astrology appeared in the Watch Tower of 1903. There astrology and planetary positions were said to support the WTS's predictions of the "long promised era"  to start by 1914. (Watchtower Reprints 1903 May 1 p. 3184)

The constellations of the Zodiac are presently considered by the WTS as being of pagan origin. (Insight on the Scriptures Volume 2 (1988) p. 1240) The same were regarded in 1914 as of Divine origin with each of the 12 Zodiacal signs having numerous correspondences with the Bible.

To my knowledge the WTS has not directly admitted their error about God's throne on the star Alcyone. Their latest history book Jehovah's Witnesses Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993) which they claim is "objective" and "candid" is silent on the subject.
 

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