The next feast day on December 27 is the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist, the mythical author of the Gospel of St John. Mythical because nobody knows who wrote the Gospels, and the names associated with them come from tradition, not from direct knowledge of the authors.
The Gospel of John is the most mystical of the gospels, breaking from the pattern established by Matthew and Luke and introducing aspects that are more consistent with Christian Gnostic movements than mainstream Christianity. This gospel almost got rejected when the bible was canonized, but unlike other Gnostic or mystical texts of the time, it adhered to certain beliefs that were also canonized and thus was entered in, barely.
Each of the Gospels have an identifying image that might also be used in heraldry as they took on various saints of evangelists as patrons. I had mistakenly believed that John was identified by the face of the Man, but he is in fact the Eagle. This changes some of the symbolism associated with him. In occult symbolism, the Eagle, as a symbol of Saint John, is also tied the sign of Scorpio, the sign of fixed water, which the sun passes through at the end of Autumn and the beginning of Winter from October to November. Each of the fixed signs have a star associated with it, but visibly independent of it which are known as “Watchers.” The Watcher for Scorpio is the star Antares. It is considered the watcher of the west and the heart of scorpio. A talisman of this star, when made at a properly elected time, can bestow various virtues, include health, understanding and memory, and the driving away of evil spirits. . In a complex arrangement, the angel associated with this Watcher is said to be Uriel, but other times Gabriel, depending upon which occult system you’re using. I associate Gabriel with the lonely star of winter, Fomalhaut, which makes Uriel associated with Antares. Uriel is a complex angel. One one hand he is thought to have visited God’s wrath in various biblical and extra biblical stories, but is also an angel of repentance. However, Uriel is also considered to be an angel of the arts and sciences, an angel of wisdom, and a keeper of light and beauty. his name means God is my flame, or as Auriel, the light of God. It seems appropriate that the most mystical of gospels and it’s author, would also be connected to the most complicated and mystical of angels as well, through the symbol of the eagle as the indicator of the gospel and saint, but also as the direction of West and of Antares.