Page 39 - Heavenly Signs by Mel Gable

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Let us next take a look at the Constellation of Cancer which represents a crab or a snapping turtle in Babylonian
times. Cancer is one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for crab and it is commonly

represented as such. Its symbol is . Cancer is a small constellation and its stars are very faint.

Constellation of Cancer:

The modern symbol for Cancer
represents the pincers of a crab, but
Cancer has been represented as
various types of creatures, usually
those living in the water, and always
those with an exoskeleton.

In Babylonia the constellation had a
name which can refer to both a crab
and a snapping turtle. On boundary
stones, the image of a turtle or
tortoise appears quite regularly.

There also appears to be a strong
connection between the Babylonian
constellation and ideas of death and a
passage to the underworld.

Cancer depicted as Crab (Jehoshaphat Aspin, 1825)

Cancer showing but few stars, and its brightest stars being of only 4th magnitude, Cancer was often considered the "Dark Sign",
described as black and without eyes. Dante, alluding to this faintness and position of heavens, wrote in Paradiso: “Then a light
among them brightened, So that, if Cancer one such crystal had, winter would have a month of one sole day.”

Cancer is considered the “Dark Sign.” The scripture says “and a third of the sea became blood” which should be a
reminder of what the Lord did in Egypt during the Exodus of Israel from the land.

Exodus 7:17 “Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, I will strike the
water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood.”
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This event should remind us, this is the hand of the Lord at work and it is the Wrath of God being revealed. The
sea life which is destroyed and must die according to the scripture “a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had
life, died.” This sea life must include dolphins and other marine mammals closely related to whales and porpoises
which have blood in their bodies to turn the sea into blood. The word doesn’t use “like or the color of blood”, but
“became blood.” There are almost forty species of dolphin. They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas
of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, eating mostly fish and squid. Whales collectively inhabit all the
world's oceans and number in the millions. Whales are filter feeders that eat small organisms caught by straining
seawater through a comb-like structure found in the mouth. They will die once the sea water is polluted. This will
result in the sea being turned into blood. Is this to symbolize Christ’s blood shed for atonement of sin? Is this a

51 New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (Ex 7:17). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.