Herod

Whenever someone has a REALLY bad reputation, there's an above average chance that he's a Reactive.

I was reminded of this after the celebration of the Epiphany a few days ago. My analysis of the start of the Christian era is basically
- 44 BC : Crisis begins with Caesar's assassination
- 17 BC : High begins as Augustus consolidates power
- ~ 5 AD Awakening begins - quite possibly around the time Jesus is found in the Temple
- ~ 30 AD Unraveling begins, possibly around the time of the Crucifixion
- 70 AD Crisis ends - around destruction of Jerusalem but also simultaneous with the Year of the 4 Emperors and other Roman events.

Looking at Herod, he not only acts like a Reactive but is born and dies at the expected time as well. The Temple was rebuilt during his reign, indicating both the ability to manage large public works projects ... and the political savvy to get the religious locals on his side. There is a standard assumption that the Slaughter of the Innocents is just hagiography, intended to draw parallels with Moses. Generational theory, though, suggests that the similarities are to be expected. During a High, attacks on outsiders and threats to the social order are common - they can even be seen as a primary indicator of the First Turning. The Spanish Inquisition,the Salem Witch trials, and the Red Scare all happened soon after their respective Crises. It's easy to see how the newly established social order - with the support of institutions strengthened during the Crisis - would find new enemies to attack. Prophets are born during the High and so are going to show up at the same time as these other responses to the changing world. Killing male children of subject peoples might not ever have been *common* but it's hardly surprising that it happened more than once over a period of some thousand years or so,

And this is quite aside from the evidence that Herod was a real piece of work anyway. Living through the post-Caesar wars, he appeared to have no difficulty making sure he was on the winning side. He even killed several members of his own family. Indeed, the surprising thing is that the Magi weren't wise enough to see what they were asking: "We hear you survived a nasty succession crisis in Rome that ended just a few years ago. So, heard anything about a new King of the Jews that this star proclaims?" They shouldn't have needed an angel in a dream to predict how that might turn out.