Even without studying too much astronomy, we know that stars are fixed – that they’ve been used for millennia to navigate around the world. We don’t call it the north star for nothin’… Of course, the sun and the planets move at different speeds so we don’t always see them at the same times or in the same places. Still, looking up at the night sky means that we see things in more or less predictable places at more or less predictable times.
Most cultures in the ancient world tracked the movement of the stars. They looked at comets and other unexplainable heavenly sightings and saw: danger, disaster, bad omens, angry gods! The wise men, or magi, are often thought to have been Zoroastrian Persian priests. In their understanding of the origin of everything, god created the universe, but was opposed by an uncreated force. We think in terms of good and evil, but they thought in terms of a creating force and an uncreating force (like matter and anti-matter). To be a good person was to be someone on the side of creation. The same positive force that guided human life also created cosmic order. If something in the sky bucked the normal schedule of things… what could that be except a sign of uncreation? Of resisting god? What could it lead to except danger, disaster, and bad times?
And yet… even though their gut instincts must have told them that this star was bad news, the magi were granted wisdom to know they were seeking a king and peace to know that this would be joyous. The journey was ahead of them and they made it. There was just something reassuring about the presence of that star.
Sources:
https://theconversation.com/can-astronomy-explain-the-biblical-star-of-bethlehem-35126
https://www.orthodoxpath.org/catechisms-and-articles/star-of-bethlehem/
https://www.stellar-journeys.org/Comet%20Tales.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism