This post is part 7 of a series about Venus and the Jaredites. To start at the beginning, click here.
In previous posts, I’ve shown that the last four years or so of Late Jaredite history align with points in the Venus cycle.1 I believe that the beginning years of the Ether 12-15 story can be described by Venus too.
A close reading of the final four chapters of Ether reveals that there are 4 distinct wars or conflicts involving Coriantumr that arise after Ether is cast out (in Ether 13:13). After counting these, I asked myself, “What if each of these wars began near an inferior conjunction, or more specifically, when Venus first appeared in its morning star phase?”
After some experimentation, the answer to that question blew me away.
When you apply the hypothesis that each war in Ether 12-15 began at the first rising of the Morning star, it creates a model that correlates incredibly well with the text. This has led me to believe that the Jaredites actually were waiting for Venus to rise to start their militaristic campaigns… and I believe that Moroni dropped subtle clues in his abridgement that this was the case.
As each war begins, you can see that he uses similar language to describe each one:
- 1st war: “And it came to pass that in that same year in which he was cast out from among the people there began to be a great war among the people, for there were many who rose up, who were mighty men, and sought to destroy Coriantumr by their secret plans of wickedness, of which hath been spoken.” (13:15)
- 2nd war: “And it came to pass that there arose up Shared, and he also gave battle unto Coriantumr; and he did beat him, insomuch that in the third year he did bring him into captivity.” (13:23)
- 3rd war: “And now, after the space of two years, and after the death of Shared, behold, there arose the brother of Shared [Gilead] and he gave battle unto Coriantumr, in which Coriantumr did beat him and did pursue him to the wilderness of Akish.” (14:3)
- 4th war: “And it came to pass that in the first year of Lib, Coriantumr came up unto the land of Moron, and gave battle unto Lib.” (14:11)
Notice the bolded terms “rose up”, “arose up”, “arose”, and “came up”.
I propose that Moroni’s use of variations on the term arose up or came up was purposefully done to mirror the movement of Venus, as the planet rises or comes up from the horizon when it begins its morning star phase. I believe these words were intentional hints that Jaredite military leaders were planning their insurrections to correspond with the first appearance of the Morning Star after inferior conjunction.
In other words: In this model, each of these 4 wars began on the same day as Venus’ heliacal rise. Shared chose the morning star’s first appearance to challenge Coriantumr, as did Gilead and the “many” others. Coriantumr likewise chose the first day of the morning star phase to attack Lib at the land of Moron.
That ancient Americans might choose this time of morning star’s first appearance as a suitable time to begin a war is not without its historical precedent. As one writer observed about the Mayans, “They planned for war when Venus was rising.”2
Researchers have indeed discovered that some of the Mayans’ wars occurred when Venus was first visible as the Morning Star. This makes perfect sense, because to the Mayans and other Mesoamerican civilizations, Venus was known as “the bringer of war.”3
Did the Jaredites also plan for war when Venus was rising? Did the morning star also bring war for them? … Perhaps as the Evening Star disappeared from the sky and the 8 days of inferior conjunction passed by, one by one, the people knew that conflict was coming on the horizon. Doesn’t that make an interesting picture? You can almost feel the anxiety heightening, hear the drums beating, sense the feeling of chaos and doom reaching its climax as the people watched with fear for the Morning Star to appear after its journey through the underworld. What carnage and horrors would it bring?
Anyway… when you apply this model to the timeline we’ve already established4 for Ether 12-15, you get a glimpse of just how amazingly well this fits…
Almost as if he was helping us to connect these wars to the Venus cycle, Moroni gives us the following information about the relative positions of these risings and other events:
- Ether 13:13-19 tells us that the first war started in the first year, when many rose up.
- Ether 13:20-23 tells us that the second war began either in the second year or the third year, when Shared rose up.
- Ether 14:3 tells us that the third war began two years after Shared’s death, when the brother of Shared arose.
- Ether 14:7-11 tells us that the fourth war began two years after Coriantumr began to dwell in the wilderness following his defeat by the brother of Shared.
- Ether 15:12-15 tells us that the final battle started four years after the previous one and after the people began to gather together for the end.
These details by Moroni are key to understanding just how stinking well the cycle of Venus fits into the timeline. Here’s why–
Because an inferior conjunction happens every 584 days, and two years is 730 days, we know that, given the amount of rest periods discussed above, there must have been some Venus risings in which a war did not begin. Here they are:
- 1 in the two years between Shared’s death and his brother’s rising,
- 1 in the two years while Coriantumr dwelt in the wilderness, and
- 2 in the four years while the people gathered for the final battle.
These 4 war-less Venus risings combined with the 4 war-starting Venus risings add up to 8 total Venus risings. Adding on the final Venus rising where Shiz is decapitated results in a total of 9 Venus risings. Therefore, if the Venus-Jaredite model is to work, then 9 Venus risings must fit in the at-least-11-years timespan described in Ether 12-15. In order to see if it does, we just need some simple math.
Recall that the synodic period of Venus is 584 days, meaning that Venus will make its inaugural rising as the Morning Star once every 584 days. In the table below, I have displayed each of the 9 rising events, calculating the relative day on which they would occur by defining the first Venus rise as day 1 and adding 584 days each time. This gives us some idea how these events are spaced. I have labeled them the letters A through I for future reference:
| DAY | EVENT |
| 1 | A: First morning star rise. Many rise up (13:15) |
| 585 | B: Second morning star rise. Shared rises up (13:23) |
| 1169 | C: Third morning star rise. |
| 1753 | D: Fourth morning star rise. The brother of Shared rises up (14:3) |
| 2337 | E: Fifth morning star rise. |
| 2921 | F: Sixth morning star rise. Coriantumr comes up to Moron (14:11) |
| 3505 | G: Seventh morning star rise. (people still gathering) |
| 4089 | H: Eighth morning star rise. (people still gathering) |
| 4673 | I: Ninth morning star rise. Coriantumr beheads Shiz. (15:30-31) |
Note: We will be using this table/timeline of relative dates throughout the rest of this series.
Now, if the Jaredite wartimes really were dictated by Venus, then we should expect the 9th heliacal rising to happen about 11+ years after the 1st rising (since we calculated previously that the Ether 12-15 timeline was at least 11 years). Well, if you take 4672 days5 and divide it by 365 days/year, you get 12.8 years.
12.8 years is insanely close to the 11 years we estimated before!! It’s more than 11 but not too unreasonably large (less than 22).6 It’s perfect! And, as you’ll see in later posts, this amount of time (~13 years) is extremely significant as it pertains to Venus…
And so, once again, we find another astonishing bullseye for the Venus-Jaredite theory… But, alas, there’s more…
For the past year or so, I’ve been documenting the instances of the number 8 hidden throughout the book of Ether, and there seems to be quite a lot of them. Applying the Venus-Jaredite model to Ether 12-15 results in THREE MORE secret instances of the number eight:
- After Ether is cast out in the first year, the Morning Star rises only EIGHT times before the Jaredites are destroyed.
- After Ether goes to see Coriantumr personally in the second year, Coriantumr only lives to see the Morning Star rise EIGHT more times.
- And the Lib-Shiz war (or when the “Shiz hits the fan,” so to speak for the Jaredites7–the beginning of the end) starts exactly EIGHT years after the first Morning Star rise.
These intriguing occurrences of 8 add astonishing credence to the model because eight has already been shown to be so important to the Jaredites for some reason. I mean, the Jaredites could have been destroyed in any number of synodic periods of Venus, but it had to be eight?! The Lib-Shiz war8–a conflict that included exactly 8 battles–could have started any number of years after the first war began, but it had to be precisely eight?! Come on, people! What is going on here?
As this series proceeds, you’ll see that taking Moroni’s clues about “rising up” as we’ve done in this post results in an amazing array of correlations that explain perfectly what is happening in Ether 12-15… so keep reading.
(TO BE CONTINUED…)
Sources and Notes
- Inferior conjunction: https://sitatcit.home.blog/2023/08/17/venus_jaredite_1/; superior conjunction: https://sitatcit.home.blog/2023/08/29/venus_jaredite_4/; “Nine moons” of a morning star phase: https://sitatcit.home.blog/2023/09/02/venus_jaredite_5/ ↩︎
- “Indeed, the Mayans partly based their religious calendar on the motions of Venus, and could predict its motions incredibly accurately. They planned for war when Venus was rising.” https://www.science20.com/between_death_and_data/ode_venus-87585 ↩︎
- “Mayanists have noted that the dates of recorded star wars often coincide with astronomical events involving the planet Venus, either when it was first visible in the morning or night sky or during its absence at inferior conjunction. Venus was known to Mesoamerican civilizations as the bringer of war (in contrast to the equivalent European belief assigning that characteristic to Mars). The Maya called it Chak Ek’ or “Great Star” and made it the focus of detailed astronomical observation and calculation. The Dresden Codex, one of only four surviving Maya books, includes astronomical tables for calculating the position of Venus, which the codex depicts as spearing people as it passes overhead.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_war ↩︎
- In this hyperlinked post, we calculated that the time described in Ether 12-15 must be 11 years or more. ↩︎
- I started the timeline at day 1 instead of day 0, therefore the ninth Venus rising is on the 4673rd day, but only 4672 days have elapsed at that point. ↩︎
- I estimated here that the Ether 12-15 timespan was probably no more than 22 years. ↩︎
- This phrase, though given in jest, is actually VERY appropriate for the story of Ether 14-15. The start of the Lib-Shiz war is the “beginning of the end,” when all hell breaks loose for the Jaredites. It’s really when the destruction begins–and Shiz is the biggest instigator of them all as he sweeps through villages, burning them and forcing people to fight for him or die. ↩︎
- The Lib-Shiz war was preceded by the Shared-Gilead war, which fascinatingly is also written to appear to be 8 battles. See here for more: https://sitatcit.home.blog/2023/04/09/the-8-battles-of-the-penultimate-jaredite-war/ ↩︎
The featured image for this post is titled ” ” and was found here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/image/moroni-buries-plates-b417feb?lang=eng
Science Is True and the Church Is Too 