Judas leaves the Last Supper. The Last Supper shows the zodiac Twelve with Jesus, the dangerous Messianic thirteenth. Judas is ‘chosen’ by Jesus to betray Him, ‘that the scripture may be fulfilled.’ (Jn.13.11,18,21-30; Mt.26.20-25; Mk.14.17-21; Lk. 22.21-23)  Like the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the Twelve Disciples stand for the circle of the Twelve Signs.

Judas Iscariot echoes Christ’s name and fate, hung upon the Tree.  Judas represents the opposite side of the two Fishes, the inevitable antichrist, insistently listed last among the Twelve, darkly highlighted, the traitor.  This is the meaning of the Pisces symbol, the back to back Fishes, a treacherously deep duality.

In the Dead Sea Scrolls we shall find Judas much closer to Jesus, his divine double, than is at all comfortable.

The twelfth Sign, Pisces, defines the Twelfth House (Key to the Houses) of the horoscope.   Alongside the high holiness of discreet secrets and sacred places, care and compassion, the Twelfth House is also associated with the deeper, darker side of our secret, inner life : treachery and self-undoing, suicide.  The predestined fate of Judas. (Acts 1.16)

Twelve Always Signifies the Zodiac
Every spiritual Twelve represents the celestial Signs which encompass our world.  This Traditional parallel of the Twelve Apostles and the Twelve Tribes is highlighted, set in heaven, (Lk. 22.30) in close proximity to Judas’ Kabbalistic character definition.

This Traditional identity is repeated, more explicitly still, in the supreme Kabbalistic vision of Revelation (Ch.21) where the City of God is built to the zodiac rule of Twelve : ‘twelve thousand furlongs, its length and breadth and height being equal.  Its wall was one hundred and forty four cubits high.’ Innocently insisting the symbolic nature of this number.

When we find the 144,000 ‘Saved’ at the End (14.1) we might recognise a similar spiritual symbolism, as a measure of zodiac wholeness ? 12 x 12 plus some noughtiness ? the full Monty of holiness. Just doing your best, not your worst, probably.  The zodiac is constructed from the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, divided in three stages and the City stands foursquare with three gates in each direction.  As the Tibetan Buddhists paint their mandalas, representing these same elements.  There’s nothing new under this Sun.

The twelve gates are named for the Twelve Tribes and the twelve foundations for the Twelve Apostles.  The twelve foundations are ‘garnished’ with twelve astrological stones, ‘the twelfth, an amethyst,’ an ancient charm against the vices of the vine : the Pisces gem (see the wedding at Cana).  Only a few examples are spelt plainly : Judas; probably ‘Doubting’ Thomas, the Twin, (Gemini is the Twins, sign of the duality of doubt) and Simon who is given the name of Cephas or Peter, 'the Rock,' symbolising the powerful spirit of Capricorn, the Goat, the essence of the Establishment, the Church, not omitting the darker side of the goaty Devil.

Peter as the Goat, Sometimes Satan
This Kabbalistic symbolism offers the best explanation why Jesus turns on Peter immediately after anointing him the foundation of His Church, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan,’ (Mt.16.23) echoing the same phrase used in His own temptation (Mt.4.10).  He goes on to precisely define the problem with evil : materialistic blindness to the subtler spirits which give us life, ‘thou art an offence to me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.’

Then, in perhaps the most revealing prophecy in the Gospels, Jesus tells Peter he will deny His Lord three times before the cock crows. This is followed by the story of Peter’s thrice denial in the courtyard of the high priest. Can we fail to recognise this as a prophecy for the fate of Peter’s Church, of all churches ?  In order to survive in the courtyards of power, the church must ever and again deny the truth. Because, in another translation, the church continues to ‘think as men think, not as God thinks.’ (Mt.16.23 NEB)

Christ was condemned to death as a blasphemer by the priests of His Father’s faith and ever it has been so, for the things of heaven on earth become the pawns of politics, of power, and are turned against truth itself. Against every prompting of the Holy Spirit of God’s truth through the ages.  What a sorry litany of cruel crucifying, innocent children, fresh from heaven, and innocent truth sayers.

This is one of the strongest, most honest messages of the Gospels but it is not often preached from the pulpit, though goodness knows our church has some need of caution against itself and its quite natural self-righteous intolerance, its quite natural accommodations with the world. If Onias did once come the Messiah, the cock may crow, the trumpets may blow and he may come again ? will Peter’s heirs … care ?

Testifying wiser times, the great late 12^th century cathedral in Chartres, one of the pinnacles of Christendom, portrays the twelve zodiac signs both in its whelming blue windows and the exuberant sculpture of its doorways; dating from the early 15^th century, the equally famous astrological clock in Prague, showing the Sun and Moon’s positions in the zodiac, hourly parades the Twelve Apostles, a provoking association.