One of the earliest Christmas related posts on this blog was an argument for Jupiter being the Star of Bethlehem. It was made back when I still favored the September 11th 3 BC birth-date that I now reject, as I now believe Jesus was born near December 25th, (but I've been rethinking my exact chronology). Even after that change I stuck by the basic Star of Bethlehem theory since it still fit, it brought the Magi to Jerusalem on December 25th 2 BC.
I remain strongly convinced that the terminology of "We have seen (Observed) His Star" implies a Star that was always there and always considered His. And that logically as one that moves around it would be a planet.
But I have since considered that given my belief in using Scripture to interpret Scripture. To note that when The Bible associates Jesus with a star, it associates Him with the Morning Stat/Light Bringer. Something I talked about in my post on why it's incorrect to associate The Morning Star with Satan in Isaiah 14.
The New Testament refers to Jesus as the Morning Star (Revelation 22:16)
and the Day Star (2 Peter 1:19). The Day Star reference used a poetic
name for Venus "Phosphorus" which refers to the same thing Heosphorus
does, and has the same meaning Lucifer has in Latin. Phos=Lux=Light and
Phorus=Ferus=Bearer/Bringer.
The Morning Star is a title of Venus, the closest Planet to Earth. Also 1 John 4:7-16 twice says that God is Love.
I still don't know exactly what movements of Venus Matthew refers to. Many existing theories revolving around Jupiter also involve interesting movements of Venus. If I come to a solid theory I'll make a follow up post.
People who believe in the Gospel in The Stars/Mazzaroth theory, believe naturally that (at least some of) the Pagan associations of the stars and constellations are corruptions of their original meanings. But they desire to see some logic in how that happened. Which combined with patriarchal biases of mainstream Christianity makes them uncomfortable with the idea of the main star to represent Jesus being the one that most commonly becomes Feminine.
The Planet Venus was not universally Feminine. The Canaanites also had a male deity for that Planet, Ashtar, who I mentioned in the other post. Even in the Greco-Roman tradition there is a paradox, where it is associated with Venus/Aphrodite, but yet the star itself is viewed as a male offspring of the Dawn Goddess, also a subject of that post. Interestingly Quetzacoatl was also associated with the Planet Venus, (maybe that's the basis for the Anime Dragon-Maid making him a woman). Another male mythological personification of Venus is the Egyptian Sopdu, often associated with Horus (though this star name referring to Venus may be spurious). In Japanese mythology there is Amatsu-Mikaboshi, which seems inconsistent on if it refers to Venus or the Pole-Star, Ame-No is also associated with the Pole-Star. The Journey to The West also features Taibai Jinxing (The Gold Star of Venus). And then there is the Norse Aurvandil who helped inspire Tolkien's Earendil.
But I also want to talk about the fact that while Jesus did incarnate as a Male, He is ultimately God/Yahuah and so ultimately gender-less. In fact the Tetragramaton itself is arguably a Grammatically feminine name since it ends with a Heh, as are Elah and Eloah.
When Haggai calls Jesus the Desire of the Nations, the word for Desire there appears in it's Feminine form. Most places where you see "Salvation" in the KJV, the Hebrew word is Yeshua, but in it's Feminine form, Yeshuah. Chuck Missler argues Jesus is the Wisdom of the book of Proverbs, all three Hebrew words for Wisdom used there are grammatically feminine, and even the English Translation shows that feminine pronouns were used.
But most interestingly is that I on another blog argued for a reversal of the usual Typological Interpretation of The Song of Solomon, and argued that Shulamith is the type of Christ and The Beloved as Israel/The Church. Chapter 2 calls Shulamith both a Rose and a Lily, both those plants have also been used to represent Aphrodite/Venus, as have Pomegranates.
I have also argued that the Biblical significance of The Lily could be where the Six Pointed Star of David came from. And I've argued that Bethlehem is The City of David, so it fits for the Star of David to be the Star of Bethlehem.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher site was a Temple to Venus built by Hadrian. Many doubt that is the actual site of Golgotha, but there is evidence Christians venerated it before the time of Constantine.
Update March 2018: Stuff I confirmed using Stelarium.
I believe Jesus rose from the Dead at Sunrise on Sunday Morning. The day I believe that happened, April 9th 30 AD, was a day that Venus was visible in Israel in the morning as a Morning Star.
And my current 12 BC Nativity model has Venus visible in Israel as an Evening Star through when Hanukkah probably happened in December of 12 BC.
Update October 2018: Venus was also visible as an Evening Star during the early part of Hanukkah, and again for awhile after Hanukkah, in December of 26 BC. And was specifically in the leg of Ophiuchus that is stepping on Antares the head of Scorpio. A pretty ideal circumstance for the birth of the Seed of The Woman.
