Jehovah of the Pleiades
The constellation of the seven stars forming the Pleiades appears to be the crowning center around which the known systems of the planets revolve…. It has been suggested, and with much weight, that one of the stars of that group is the dwelling place of Jehovah and the place of the highest heavens…. The constellation of the Pleiades is a small one… But the greatness in size of other stars or planets is small when compared to the Pleiades in importance, because the Pleiades is the place of the eternal throne of God.
– J. F. Rutherford, Reconciliation, 1928, p. 14
by Ken Raines
Substantially revised, July, 2021.
The Watchtower Society has taught that Jehovah was a being who eternally existed in the time and space of this universe. For example, their second President, J. F. Rutherford said the following:
Jehovah is and always was. From everlasting to everlasting he is the Lord God…. How unsearchable to us are the thoughts which he must have had as he communed with himself when he was all alone in the immeasurable eternity of time and space!
– 1928 Yearbook of the International Bible Students Association, Daily Texts and Comments section, January 1.
Rutherford thus believed that Jehovah lived eternally within infinite time and space before he created anything. The first president of the Watchtower Society, Charles Russell not only believed “Jehovah” lived in a location in space (the Pleiades, see below), but that he existed in bodily form:
We understand that the bodily presence of Jehovah is in Heaven.
– Watch Tower, Oct. 1, 1914, p. 295.
This is completely different from the classical theist view of God that holds He is incorporeal (without a body) and transcends all time and space as he created ALL things including space and time. Since He created both space and time, He is ‘space-less’ (Infinite) and ‘time-less’ (Eternal). He is incorporeal or without a body (human-like or otherwise) and thus in not located in a particular place in space/time. He is both transcendent and omnipresent and thus all things “live, move, and have their being in Him” as the New Testament puts it.
It appears the Watchtower Society still believes that “Jehovah” God is not transcendent but exists in a space-time location in the universe somewhere:
The true God is not omnipresent, for he is spoken of as having a location. (1Ki 8:49; Joh 16:28; Heb 9:24) His throne is in heaven. (Isa 66:1)
Insight on the Scriptures, Vol 1., Jehovah: Attributes
Heaven is thus a place in some sort of space/time. They don’t hazard a guess as to where anymore. In 1953, they said it was an invisible realm. (New Heavens and a New Earth, 1953, pp. 19-20.)
Since they believed the ludicrous idea that God had a body with a shape, they even believed that He wore clothes! (The Golden Age, Sept. 8, 1926, p. 777) So where, exactly, is Jehovah to be found? In the Pleiades star cluster they said said from their founding to the 1940s.
Jehovah of the Pleiades
Rutherford, as the above quotes demonstrate, believed that God was confined to a place or location in space. The Society’s first president, C.T. Russell did as well. This place was identified as being in the Pleiades star cluster in their literature from the late 1800s through the 1930s at least.
The Bible seems to show that God’s throne in heaven is in what we call the north, very likely near the stars called the Pleiades.
– The Golden Age, May 16, 1928, p. 540.
Specifically it was claimed he probably lived on or near the largest or brightest of the stars in this group, Alcyone. In the August 15, 1925 Golden Age it was stated that the City of Zion in heaven was associated with Alcyone in the Pleiades star cluster. (The Golden Age, August 26, 1925, p. 755.)
In other words, instead of the old idea that the earth was the center of the universe, they believed heaven was at the center of the universe. And heaven itself was located in the Pleiades star system, specifically around the star Alcyone! Everything else in the universe revolved around this center of gravity. Nice of them to locate heaven for us. Perhaps we will pay heaven and Jehovah a visit in the future, once we build the interstellar craft.
They apparently got this belief that the Pleiades was the center of gravity for the universe from Piazzi Smyth and Joseph Seiss’ works on the pyramids. They said that the Pleiades was the center of gravity around which all stars including the sun revolved.
To support the claim that the star Alcyone was probably where God’s throne in heaven was, Russell in his book Thy Kingdom Come, quotes Seiss’s book on the pyramid as saying:
Alcyone, then, as far as science has been able to perceive, would seem to be ‘the midnight throne’ in which the whole system of gravitation has its central seat, and from which the Almighty governs the universe.
– Charles Taze Russell, Millennial Dawn, Vol. 3: Thy Kingdom Come, 1891 p. 327. This quote is from Joseph Seiss’ Miracle in Stone or The Pyramid of Egypt, 1877 p. 91.
This quote came from Seiss’ book, Miracle in Stone or The Great Pyramid of Egypt published in 1877 (Also a source, apparently, for Russell’s pyramidology). In this book Seiss claimed (based on Smyth’s earlier work) that when the Pyramid was first built, the entrance passage
… pointed to a Draconis, the then pole star, at its lower culmination, at the same time that the Pleiades, particularly Alcyone, the centre of the group, were in the same meridian above.
– Joseph Seiss, Miracle in Stone or The Great Pyramid of Egypt, 1877 (second edition, 1878), p. 83.
In the September 10, 1924 Golden Age they were still echoing Seiss’ words about the Pyramid pointing to the Pleiades when it was first built:
… the position of the Pleiades at the time of the completion of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, “God’s Stone Witness,” is a very prominent feature of that building in the midst of the land of Egypt. For these and other reasons Bible Students have good cause to believe that in the region of the Pleiades is located the throne of Jehovah God,…
The Golden Age, Sept. 10, 1924 pp. 793-4.
They then admit that the idea that the Pleiades is no longer considered as being the center of gravity of the universe.
They thus believed that “heaven is located in or in connection with the heavenly group, Pleiades… heaven is a place and at a distance from the earth” (New Era Enterprise, June 28, 1921, p. 4.) and thus “Probably some few days would be required to make the journey from heaven to earth” for angels such as those that announced Jesus’ birth. (The Watch Tower, Feb. 1, 1896, p. 291; The Watchtower, July 1, 1931, p. 203.)
Thus as Rutherford said:
The constellation of the seven stars forming the Pleiades appears to be the crowning center around which the known systems of the planets revolve…. It has been suggested, and with much weight, that one of the stars of that group is the dwelling place of Jehovah and the place of the highest heavens…. The constellation of the Pleiades is a small one… But the greatness in size of other stars or planets is small when compared to the Pleiades in importance, because the Pleiades is the place of the eternal throne of God.
– J. F. Rutherford, Reconciliation, 1928, p. 14
In the Forward to the book just quoted, Reconciliation, he said:
The writer does not give his opinion. No human interpretation of Scripture is advanced. The contents this book are a statement of the facts as they exist…
The reason, apparently, he could say this with such confidence is he believed the interpretations of Scripture he published were given to him by angels who transmitted them into his mind, inaudibly:
This is proof that the interpretation of prophecy does not proceed from man, but that the Lord Jesus, the chief one in Jehovah’s organization, sends the necessary information to his people by and through his holy angels.
– J. F. Rutherford, Preparation, 1933 p. 28; The Watchtower, August 1, 1933 p. 231.
Is The Watchtower a means or channel employed by God to transmit information to his people?… he could and would transmit information to his people… No man can properly interpret prophecy, and the Lord sends his angels to transmit correct information to his people,…
– The Watchtower, Feb. 15, 1935 p. 52.
Jehovah has made the necessary arrangements within his organization to instruct his people, and all recognize that for some years The Watchtower has been the means of communicating information to God’s people. That does not mean that those who prepare the manuscript for The Watchtower are inspired, but rather it means that the Lord through his angels sees to it that the information is given to his people in due time,…
– J. F. Rutherford, Riches, 1936, p. 316.
… the remnant are instructed by the angels of the Lord. The remnant do not hear audibly sounds, because such is not necessary. Jehovah has provided his own good way to convey thoughts to the minds of his anointed ones.
– J. F. Rutherford, Preparation, 1933, p. 64; The Watchtower, August 15, 1933 pp. 247, 248; The Watchtower, Sept. 15, 1938 p. 286.
THE CHRIST: 144,001 gods From the Pleiades
Before I document the next quote I need to briefly explain Watchtower doctrine and beliefs in the 1920’s to explain the full import of it. From Russell on, they said the 144,000 of Revelation were gods (Zion’s Watchtower, December 1881, pp. 2-3; Reprints p. 301). Together with Jesus, these gods composed THE CHRIST (Consolation, Jan. 6, 1943, pp. 5-6). From their home in the Pleiades THE CHRIST would rule over the earth during their millennial reign of earth.
In 1920, Rutherford published his booklet, Millions Now Living Will Never Die! that proclaimed that in 1925 the Kingdom of God would be set up on Earth. Abraham, Issac and Jacob, etc. would be resurrected in 1925. (Millions Now Living Will Never Die! pp.88- 90, 97.)
In 1920, The Watch Tower magazine published a letter from a Bible Student (JW) who said he was asked what he would do if Rutherford’s prophecy did not come true in 1925, apparently probing him to see if he would leave the Bible Students if Rutherford’s prophecy failed:
Someone asked me the other day: Suppose you should be here in 1925 what would you do? I said, I believe I will be home in the Pleiades before then.
– The Watch Tower, Nov. 1, 1920, p. 334.
I don’t know if this person made it somehow to the Pleiades before 1925. Probably not. If he’s a normal person, when 1925 came and went he didn’t do the rational thing and leave the Watchtower Society but the cognitive dissonance probably lead to belief perseverance. See my blog post on this on my Expand Your Thinking blog here.
Jehovah lives in the Pleiades star cluster, 14401 gods (no more, no less) will rule earth from their home in the Pleiades starting in 1925, Abraham, etc. will be resurrected in 1925, angels are transmitting all this new light into our sect’s leader’s mind so it’s not human opinion…
Apparently, human self deception regarding thinking you know more than you actually do knows no bounds.
Star Worship?
Because the Pleiades star cluster was viewed as being where Jehovah was apparently permanently ensconced, they said it was worthy of the Bible Students reverence and study:
If somewhere in the space among the Pleiades is the throne of God, then this group is worthy of our most reverent study.
The Golden Age, Sept. 10, 1924 pp. 793, 794.
When the Society officially ended its belief that Jehovah lived in the Pleiades in 1953, they stated that this previous “reverence” could lead to improper veneration:
were we to think of the Pleiades as his throne we might improperly view with special veneration that cluster of stars.–Deut. 4:19; 2 Chron. 2:6; 6:18.
– The Watchtower, Nov. 15, 1953 p. 703.
Deuteronomy 4:19 states:
and that you may not raise your eyes to the heavens and indeed see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the armies of the heavens, and actually get seduced and bow down to them and serve them,… (NWT)
The footnote to this in the 1984 NWT with references says:
“and serve (worship) them.”…
Which is the way others translate the passage. The other two passages cited by the 1953 quote above states that God cannot be contained in the universe. They also stated that God and heaven are invisible, and cannot be seen by scientific instruments such as telescopes. This apparently ended their belief that God exists in the universe. However, they still state emphatically that they believe that God exists in a spiritual “body” and is therefore confined to a particular location and cannot be in more than one “place” at a time. This means that they still believe he exists in some kind of space and time that He didn’t create. Other statements by the Society’s writers seem to imply that angels and God exist invisibly in the space and time of this universe.
Also, they have not addressed the philosophical and theological problems or implications of Jehovah existing in a time and space that He didn’t create. They have, to me, a ridiculously anthropomorphic view of God that boarders on the humanoid. It is what some think theists believe God is like and looks like: an old man with a beard, sitting on a throne, perhaps with a crown on his head and a staff in his hand. That’s completely absurd.
“Jehovah” god Drives a Flying Saucer?
Since Jehovah was viewed as existing in outer space during from the Russell through the Rutherford periods, he was not Transcendent, Omnipresent thus Imminent as Christians have traditionally believed. He was instead confined to a body located in “the space amongst the Pleiades.” When he sent angels to communicate to those on earth light-years away they would have to travel through light years of space apparently to get here. This took time. Days, in fact. (Watch Tower, Feb. 1, 1886, p. 291, The Watch Tower, July 1, 1931, p. 203)
Did they use some sort of spaceship to travel from the Pleiades to Earth as some have suggested? Or could they survive traveling through interstellar space unaided and unprotected? At this point the Society’s ‘occultic’ view of Jehovah and his angels sounds more like Erich Von Daniken’s “gods” from outer space than the Alpha and Omega of Scripture or certainly Classical Theism. It sounds more like the “ancient astronaut” theory that the “gods” of the religions of earth including the God of the Bible were actually aliens from space. (See R. L. Dione’s book God Drives a Flying Saucer.)
Angels And Women: Hesperus Came From Outer Space
Hesperus, the fallen angel in the automatic writing book Angels and Women that the Watchtower recommended, claimed to be from a star system in outer space as well. This was on or by a star located in the western sky he said. This is similar to the Society’s position at the time that heaven was located in the Pleiades star system. The Pleiades however, is in our northern sky:
The Bible seems to show that God’s throne in heaven is in what we call the north, very likely near the stars called the Pleiades (Job. 38:31)
– The Golden Age, May 16, 1928, p. 540.
Angels and Women appears to teach that all the fallen angels had their own star or planet that they were assigned to and from which they came. (Angels and Women, pp. 149, 150.)
In all this, the Society’s conception of God is close to the Mormon anthropomorphic conception of God as an extraterrestrial of sorts on another planet (Kolob).
The God of Scripture
The God of scripture as well is described as Transcendent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Personal. He is described as being the creator of all things which would include the Pleiades (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1, 3; Col. 1:16.). He created the universe by Himself, no one, such as Michael the Archangel, helped Him (Isa. 44:24). Since he created all things by Himself, he transcends all things including space (2 Chron. 2:6; 6:18; 1 Kings 8:27). He is, therefore, ‘spaceless’ or Infinite, Imminent, and Omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-11; Jer. 23:23, 24; Acts 17: 27, 28.). Since He created all things, the Bible is consistent when it says that time was created as well and God is ‘timeless’ or Eternal and Immortal (Col. 1:17; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2; 1 Tim. 6:15; Psalm 90:2). He is also described as being Omniscient (Psalm 147:5; 1 Jn. 3:20), not needing other, created beings to keep Him informed of what’s going on “out there” in space and time.
Where Did This Belief Come From?
The idea that the Pleiades was the center of gravity for the universe was the short-lived pet hypothesis of the German astronomer Johann Heinrich Mädler (1794-1874) in the early to mid 1800s. Encyclopedia.com’s entry on Mädler noted he sought to show that Alcyone in the Pleiades was the gravitational center of the Milky Way in his book Die Centralsonne (The Central Sun):
In his Die Centralsonne, Mädler sought to provide evidence that the Milky Way possesses a central constellation. He thought the latter, represented by a center of gravity, was formed by Alcyone in the Pleiades. Mädler vigorously defended this idea, but without success, for further research disproved his views.
The book appears to have been published in 1846. The idea seems absurd on the face of it today. It was not known then that the Milky Way (considered the universe at the time) contains about 200 billion stars, maybe more. Even at the time the idea that thousands of stars of the Milky Way were all rotating around the pleiades cluster would seem hard to believe. How big did he think Alcyone and the Pleiades were anyway?
Piazza Smyth apparently got the idea from Mädler. I don’t know if Smyth believed that Alcyone was where heaven was located as I haven’t read any of his books. Seiss did and may have been the first major writer on the great pyramid that said it indicated where heaven was. It appears to be from Seiss that Russell may have gotten that idea, based on his positive quote of Seiss noted above that connects the Pleiades/Alcyone with God’s throne in heaven.
I read a Golden Age magazine that mentioned a Gen. O. M. Mitchel who said in a book that the Pleiades and Alcyone were the center of the universe. He was a general in the civil war and an astronomer. I bought an undated copy (see p. 179 for his Alcyone ref. based on Mädler) An Amazon copy for sale says it is from Jan. 1, 1848, two years after Mädler’s book. A scan of the book online is an 1852 edition. I haven’t found another astronomer from the 1800s that supported Mädler’s hypothesis and it appears to have went nowhere fairly quickly as it didn’t get much support.
Conclusion
I think it is safe to conclude that there is quite a difference between the Rutherford, Joseph Smith, Dione, von Daniken, et al. view of God as being a time and space bound Pleiadian or humanoid and the incorporeal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God of classical theism. The two views are very different.