The Maya Long Count and Galactic Alignment: the work of John Major Jenkins

12  . 19   . 19  . 17 . 17

 :||   ::|||    ::|||    :|||    :|||

As discussed in the previous post, the famous Maya Long Count is approaching that momentous point at which the final place rolls back to zero, increasing the place before it by one.  

In this case, that place before it also rolls back to zero when asked to increase by one, causing the place before it to increase by one, which again is already at the point at which it too will roll to zero when it increases by one.  This, of course, causes the place before it to also roll to zero, causing the first place in the five-glyph series to increase to 13, followed by four zeros -- the start of a new cycle.

As this is published, December 18th is just beginning here in California, and so the series of glyphs above shows a "17" (or two dots each representing a single tally and three bars representing five apiece) at the final space (this is the count for the 18th of December this year, according to most modern analysts of the Maya Long Count).  It can only go up to 19 before it rolls to zero and increases the count in the previous space -- it will reach 19 (four dots and three bars) on December 20th and "roll over" on the 21st.

Also mentioned in the previous post is my belief that the renewal of the Long Count has more to do with celestial renewal than with any supposed prediction of catastrophe, whether from being "cut off from the galactic center by the interposition of the sun" (as some have alleged to be the cause of impending disaster) or from the earth finally becoming fed up with supposed overpopulation and carbon emission (as others maintain).  

This assertion -- that the Long Count most likely commemorated the precessional cycles and anticipated the arrival of a new precessional dawning -- is also discussed in my 2011 book, and in the "Happy New Year 2012" blog message published at the end of December of last year.  The fact that the Long Count counting system described above appears to have been deliberately fashioned to incorporate certain precessional numbers (particularly 7,200) and to measure out roughly one-fifth of the entire estimated "Great Year" or "full circle" of precession appear to support the assertion that the Long Count points to precessional renewal (which, of course, can also point to both cosmic and individual renewal at all kinds of levels, based on the ancient teaching of the harmony between the macrocosm and the microcosm).

As mentioned in other previous posts on this subject, I believe that the thorough and deliberate analysis of John Major Jenkins on this subject is extremely compelling.  John Major Jenkins has been studying the evidence related to the Long Count and its significance for nearly thirty years, including much time spent at ancient sites in modern-day Guatemala and Mexico and among the contemporary Maya themselves.  

His Galactic Alignment theory of the Long Count's celestial meaning (which he shows to have almost certainly had additional layers of significance relating to rebirth, renewal, and the transcending of the duality that many ancient wisdom traditions link to "the Fall") is perhaps best summarized in a 2001 article entitled "Izapan Cosmos: a brief survey of Izapan iconography and astronomy in the Group F ballcourt,"  which gives a short version of his theory and supports it with numerous diagrams, photographs and maps.

Using the evidence at Izapa, he shows that there are multiple reasons to believe that the Long Count was pointing to the time when the Winter Solstice sun (which is already a sunrise of annual rebirth, in that it marks the period in which the sun ceases its southern movement and shortening of days, and turns back towards the north and begins the lengthening of days) would rise against the backdrop of the Milky Way galaxy, and the Great Rift (or Dark Rift) in the galaxy near the bulge of the galactic center, which the Maya associated with birth (the bulge being seen as symbolizing an expectant mother, and the Great Rift as the birth canal).  

[Readers of this blog may want to go back and review the discussions of the sun's motion at Winter Solstice here, here, and here, and to check out the discussion of the concept of "heliacal rise" here and here].

Mr. Jenkins reviews the evidence in that article, which include the symbology of the monuments and the alignment of the Maya Ball Court (whose ball going through a circular goal almost certainly symbolizes the same solar rebirth, as Mr. Jenkins demonstrates), along with numerous photos and diagrams.  He expands on this evidence in much greater detail in his books (which can be found here on his website).

To understand the motion of precession that Mr. Jenkins is explaining, take a look at the drawing he includes right in the middle of the article linked above, just below his drawing of the Ball Court at Izapa and to the right of it Stela 60, and just above his full-color drawing of the dramatic Stela 67.  That drawing shows the rising band of the Milky Way galaxy in the east on the morning of the Winter Solstice sunrise at Izapa.  

The drawing shows the Milky Way drawn four times.  In the top position, marked as 6000 BC, the Milky Way band (with the galactic nuclear bulge and the Dark Rift or birth canal) is well above the horizon at Izapa as the Winter Solstice sun begins to rise.  However, as we have discussed in previous posts such as this one and this one, the mechanics of precession act to "delay" the celestial background over the centuries, such that the familiar landmarks slowly show up at a lower place in the sky on the expected day than they were before.  

Thus, as the drawing in the article shows, the Milky Way will be successively lower and lower in the sky on the morning of Winter Solstice sunrise, until it is lying along the Izapa horizon as the Winter Solstice sun begins to dawn.  This significant alignment, which the ancient Maya astronomers calculated to take place in 2012, creates a powerful astronomical picture of rebirth.  The Winter Solstice sunrise, already a symbol of annual rebirth, aligns with the birth canal of the galaxy.  It is such a powerful motif that we can understand why the ancient Maya were counting down towards 2012.

In another excellent article in which he summarizes and explains his theory, this time on the Graham Hancock website, John Major Jenkins says:

As I've been able to show through an interdisciplinary analysis of the academic literature, synthesizing material from ethnographic starlore, archaeoastronomy, linguistics, mythology, and iconography, the solstice-galaxy alignment was conceived as the union of the male principle (December solstice sun) with the female principle (the Milky Way's center). The region of the Milky Way that the solstice sun will unite with contains not only the nuclear bulge of the Galactic Center (which, by the way, is recognizable with the naked eye) but also a "dark-rift" feature caused by interstellar dust. The modern Maya call this dark-rift or Great Cleft the xibalba be- the Road to the Underworld. This feature is the key to understanding the rebirth metaphor of the 2012 end-date, for it was also conceived, in Maya symbology, as the birth canal of the Great Mother (the Milky Way).

The concept of Father Sun being reborn at the end of the age is very similar to the events in Maya Creation mythology (the Popol Vuh) in which First Father / One Hunahpu is reborn in the underworld ballcourt. The ballgame metaphor, too, encodes the alignment. If we look at accepted notions of ballgame symbolism, we learn that it is basically about the rebirth of the sun on the temporal levels of day, year, and World Age. The sun is reborn daily at dawn, yearly at the December solstice, and, in terms of World Ages, on December 21, 2012-when the December solstice sun aligns with the Galactic Plane, which is the precession cycle's "finish line." The dark-rift that lies along this plane is the "goal" toward which the December solstice sun, as the gameball, moves over many millennia. In this way, the Maya conceived of the gameball going into the goalring as a replication of cosmic time's end-game. Finally, yet another way that the solstice-galaxy alignment was encoded into basic Maya institutions involves King accession rites. Here, the king, as a shamanic journey, must be initiated into kingship my journeying into the "cosmic center"-something Siberian shamans have been doing for a long time. In the Maya tropical lands, however, the cosmic center is not the Polestar but the Galactic Center, identified by the nuclear bulge- the womb of the Milky Way mother toward which the "sun king" precesses. Precession reveals the king's slow procession to ultimate enthronement in the heart of time and space. But for the sake of kingship in local space-time, he makes an initiatory vision journey into the celestial heart to be anointed and given the power of rulership and sacred knowledge.

This is the core of how the solstice-galaxy alignment of 2012 was encoded by ancient Maya thinkers into their basic institutions. In my book I call this end-date idea-complex "the Galactic Cosmology."

The diagrams below may assist readers in further conceptualizing the mechanics that bring the December solstice sunrise into alignment with the glorious band of the Milky Way.   The first diagram shows the Age of Pisces, which is coming to an end (the exact end-year is a subject of debate and some disagreement). 

I have added a red line which indicates the constellation-signs in which the equinox sunrise takes place (again, remember the concept of heliacal rise -- a couple previous posts dealing with that concept are linked above).  The red letter "E" shown in Pisces (on the left) and Virgo (on the right) indicate that the equinox sunrise takes place in these zodiac constellations during the Age of Pisces.  For the northern hemisphere, the March equinox is the spring and gives the Age of Pisces its name.  During this age, the solstices (marked with a blue line) are in Gemini (at the top, marked with "JS" for "June Solstice") and Sagittarius (at the bottom, marked with "DS" for "December Solstice").  In the northern hemisphere, of course, the December Solstice is the Winter Solstice.

However, as the mechanism of precession slowly delays the backdrop of the heavens, the ages will finally shift as they have before, and the zodiacal constellation of Pisces at the Spring Equinox will be replaced by Aquarius (the "preceding" sign -- hence "precession"), ushering in the Age of Aquarius.  The situation will then be as shown in the diagram below:

Note that the red line of the equinoxes now indicates Aquarius (marked with a red "E" in the lower left) and Leo (red "E" at upper right).  The blue line of the solstices has shifted too, and now designates Taurus (June Solstice, upper left) and Scorpio (December Solstice or Winter Solstice, lower right).  

The important point to understand is that the Milky Way in the night sky rises between Sagittarius and Scorpio.  You can see these brilliant constellations in the stunning video linked at the top of this post: click on the image of the Milky Way lying almost horizontal above the eastern horizon.  This should help to imagine the celestial backdrop that John Major Jenkins is discussing in his articles, and which his theory maintains is the key to understanding the significance of the Long Count and 2012. 

Even if it is not yet the official start of the Age of Aquarius, you can now understand why the Maya understood the December Solstice sunrise to line up with a year in that transitional period in which we are shifting from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius.  Because this shift brings the Winter Solstice sunrise from Sagittarius (in the Age of Pisces) to Scorpio (in the Age of Aquarius), that sunrise will pass through the band of the Milky Way (which rises between Scorpio and Sagittarius) at some point during that transition.  The Maya calculated it to take place THIS YEAR, on this December Solstice.

This discussion should help us to begin to understand the amazing significance of the Maya Long Count.  John Major Jenkins is to be commended for his diligent work in uncovering the evidence that supports this Galactic Alignment understanding of the Maya Long Count cycle.   Finally, this understanding of what the Maya Long Count may mean should also serve to raise our respect for the incredible astronomical and mathematical sophistication of the Maya who anticipated this event well over two thousand years ago, incorporating both a masterful understanding of the subtle motion of precession and also a profound awareness of the symbolic language of our earth, sun, and galaxy -- and the connections between macrocosm and microcosm spanning many levels of consciousness.

450 years

By now, most of the world is aware of the fact that the Maya Long Count, which consists of 13 periods of 144,000 days each (for a total of one million, eight hundred seventy-two thousand days) is coming to an end.  

Even if the ancient Maya (as most conventional scholars assert) were not actually counting from that start date over 5,000 years ago, the ancient inhabitants of Mesoamerica began erecting monuments with carved inscriptions which dated themselves from that start date as early as 36 BC.

There is a wall panel at Chiapa de Corzo in Mexico with a Long Count date of 7.16.3.2.13, which indicates that it was commemorating a date that was (starting from the number on the right of the series above):

• 7.16.3.2.13  this position indicates13 individual days (the furthest-right number rolls to 0 after 19, such that the second-to-the-far-right number indicates periods of 20 days), 
• 7.16.3.2.13  this position indicates 2 periods of 20 more days (this position rolls to zero after 17, such that each tick of the  third-to-right position indicates 18 periods of 20 days, or 360 days),bringing the total so far to 53 (two periods of forty days, plus 13 individual days),
• 7.16.3.2.13  this position indicates 3 periods of 360 days, in addition to the 53 days already indicated, bringing the total so far to 1080 days plus 53 days or 1,133 days (note that this position rolls back to zero after 19 ticks),
• 7.16.3.2.13  this position indicates sixteen periods of 7,200 days each, and it also rolls to zero after 19 ticks, so 115,200 days are indicated by this sixteen, which add to the 1,133 indicated so far, for a total of 116,333 days from the start of the count,
• 7.16.3.2.13  this final position indicates periods of 144,000 days each (because the previous place in the numeral system counted nineteen periods of 7,200 days each, such that the twentieth rolls the previous place to zero and moves this final far-left position up one tick, and twenty times 7,200 equals 144,000).  There are seven such periods of 144,000 days each indicated on the date at Chiapa de Corzo, which total 1,008,000 days in addition to the 116,333 indicated so far.  This brings the grand total of days from initiation on this inscription to 1,124,333 days, which Maya researchers believe indicates a date in the month we call December (in the calendar that most of us accept due to our schooling and the conventions in place in the business and political and academic worlds) in the year that we would call 36 BC.  The creation of the current age was held to have taken place when this count reached thirteen such periods of 144,000 days the previous time around.

The above date shows that this count has been observed for an enormous length of time -- at least since 36 BC and probably before.  According to most observers, we have now reached the final days that will cause the positions to roll up to 13.0.0.0.0 again.

The day that the calendars we have been taught designate as Saturday, December 15 would be designated under the above system as 12.19.19.17.15.  The final digit (the 15) is ticking upward each day, until it reaches 19, and after 19 it will roll back to 0, causing the digit to its left (already at 17) to tick upwards to indicate another 20-day period.  Since that place rolls over at 18, it will then roll to zero, causing the next place over to its left to tick upwards in turn.  Since that place is already at 19, it too will roll over to zero, causing the place to its left to tick upwards, but since that one is also at 19, it too will roll over to zero, bringing the first position from 12 up to 13, and thus the end of the count: 13.0.0.0.0.

The famous Stela C at Quirigua shows, on its eastern face, an inscription indicating the creation date of the current age, the last time the count was at 13.0.0.0.0.  You can see that numeral in the image above, reading from the top-left to the top-right, then down to the next row left-to-right, and so on.  The top-left glyph shows two bars and three dots (they look like squares), which indicates thirteen (each bar is five, and the dots go up to four before forming a bar, just like a typical tally system in which you make four vertical lines on a piece of paper and "cross" it on the fifth).  The next four glyphs show a zero.

The significance of this end of the current Long Count and initiation of the next one has been heavily debated and sensationalized, of course.  I have discussed the unfortunate media sensationalism and obsession with the "end of the world" in several previous posts, including this one, this one, and this one.

I am much more inclined to agree with the analysis and conclusions of longtime Maya researcher John Major Jenkins, who believes based upon his research and his extensive time on the site and among the Maya people themselves that:

There is ZERO evidence that the ancient Maya predicted the end of the world in 2012. The Maya calendar does not END in 2012. DOOMSDAY-2012 is a fallacious construct, a projection of exploitative and underinformed writers and Western nihilistic fantasy.

Instead, he finds that this rolling over of the count indicates a renewal and a new beginning, one long anticipated by those ancients who had been counting towards it for so long.  It was to be a renewal triggered by an alignment of the earth, the sun and the galaxy, and one that they anticipated based upon their incredible astronomical knowledge and foresight.  He writes:

Over 2,000 years ago the early Maya formulated a profound galactic cosmology. They saw that the sun, on the winter solstice, was slowly moving toward the heart of the galaxy. Naturally enough, with their uncorrupted intelligence intact, they suspected that the world would go through a transformation when the solar and the galactic planes aligned. They devised their Long Count calendar to target when the cosmic alignment would maximize, and that time is AD 2012. We are lucky that the brilliant skywatchers who devised the 2012 calendar left carved monuments for us to decode, and that they have survived the decay of centuries, so that we can know exactly what they prophesied and believed about 2012. 

Incredibly, at the early Maya site of Izapa in southern Mexico, the galactic cosmology and a profound spiritual teaching are preserved. Izapa speaks to us of the Galactic Alignment in 2012 as a transformative nexus in time, a still-point turnabout, inviting us to reconnect with our cosmic heart and eternal source.

The fact that there is so much confusion over the meaning of this incredible count, and the fact that it takes the dedicated efforts of careful thinkers such as John Major Jenkins to piece together what the ancient Maya were anticipating with their count should cause us to ask, "Why is there so much confusion about this whole subject?"   

The answer to that question is a heartbreaking answer, but it is one that should be meditated upon deeply as we approach this momentous 13.  The reason that so little is known about this ancient civilization and what they thought is that their records were cruelly and deliberately and almost utterly destroyed by violent men.   

You can read the heart-rending account in the words of one of those responsible for the destruction of these records, the Franciscan friar Diego de Landa (later a Bishop), in his account Yucatan Before and After the Conquest. Translator William Gates wrote in 1937 in introduction to that account that:

It is perhaps not too strong a statement to make, that ninety-nine percent of what we today know of the Mayas, we know as the result either of what Landa has told us in the pages that follow, or have learned in the use and study of what he told. [. . .]

If ninety-nine hundredths of our present knowledge is at base derived from what he told us, it is an equally safe statement that at that Auto de fé of ‘62, he burned ninety-nine times as much knowledge of Maya history and sciences as he has given us in his book. 

By '62, Gates means 1562, four hundred fifty years ago, when Landa and his forces tortured many Maya to death as part of his efforts to subdue and convert them.  During the same year, he admits to destroying a great number of the Maya texts.

In chapter 41 of his text (the chapters were probably divided and numbered later by someone other than Landa), Diego de Landa describes some details of the Maya calendar cycles, and then adds these terrible words:

These people also used certain characters or letters, with which they wrote in their books about the antiquities and their sciences; with these, and with figures, and certain signs in the figures, they understood their matters, made them known, and taught them. We found a great number of books in these letters, and since they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehoods of the devil we burned them all, which they took most grievously, and which gave them great pain.  

In Fingerprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock writes of the above statement, "Not only the 'natives' should have felt this pain but anyone and everyone -- then and now -- who would like to know the truth about the past" (112).  On the same page, Mr. Hancock also describes similar depredations, such as those of Juan de Zumarraga, who in November of 1530 "burned a Christianized Aztec aristocrat at the stake for having allegedly reverted to worship of the 'rain-god' and later, in the market-place at Texcoco, built a vast bonfire of astronomical documents, paintings, manuscripts and hieroglyphic texts  which the consquistadores had forcibly extracted from the Aztecs during the previous eleven years."

How far could these ancient texts have gone towards shedding light upon the thinking of those who created the Long Count and who had been diligently keeping it so many centuries before the invasion of their land by these violent intruders!

How much more might the Maya themselves be able to tell us today if their ancestors had not been horribly murdered en masse and their culture forcibly erased at the point of a sword!

In chapter 15 of his text, Diego de Landa offers some samples of the atrocities that were perpetrated upon the Maya by the invading conquerors:

I, Diego de Landa, say that I saw a great tree near the village upon the branches of which a captain had hung many women, with their infant children hung from their feet. At this town, and another two leagues away called Verey, they hung two Indian women, one a maiden and the other recently married, for no other crime than their beauty, and because of fearing a disturbance among the soldiers on their account; also further to cause the Indians to believe the Spaniards indifferent to their women. The memory of these two is kept both among the Indians and Spaniards on account of their great beauty and the cruelty with which they were killed. The Indians of the provinces of Cochuah and Chetumal rose, and the Spaniards so pacified them that from being the most settled and populous it became the most wretched of the whole country. Unheard-of cruelties were inflicted, cutting off their noses, hands, arms and legs, and the breasts of their women; throwing them into deep water with gourds tied to their feet, thrusting the children with spears because they could not go as fast as their mothers. If some of those who had been put in chains fell sick or could not keep up with the rest, they would cut off their heads among the rest rather than stop to unfasten them. They also kept great numbers of women and men captive in their service, with similar treatment.   

These horrifying events are important to gravely consider as the Maya Long Count approaches 13.0.0.0.0.  It has been ticking its way towards this date for long centuries, but the culture and civilization of the people descended from those who started that count was violently interrupted along the way (four and a half centuries from the renewal point, if we count from 1562).

Now, as the count reaches its long anticipated end, it does so in the midst of an awful silence.





 

The Illusionists (December 2012)

"The Cage" was the intended pilot to the ground-breaking science fiction series Star Trek, but it was not originally shown prior to the launch of the series and was only aired later after being edited into a sort of "story within a story" that was called "The Menagerie."  However, it can now be seen in its original intended form, without the disruptive and somewhat contrived additional storyline, by purchasing it from various retail outlets on the web, or by watching it on a streaming service such as Netflix, which currently has it available in the "watch instantly" category as the first episode in the first season of the original Star Trek television series (all of the episodes can be viewed in streaming form under "watch instantly" on Netflix).

"The Cage" showcases many of the literary strengths that would mark the classic Star Trek series, including a philosophical examination of important questions of human existence.  In "The Cage," the captain of the Enterprise (in this case, Christopher Pike, Captain Kirk's predecessor) falls into the clutches of the super-intellectual and somewhat amoral denizens of Talos IV, who think nothing of imprisoning "inferior" species in their underground zoo, preferably both a male and a female, trying to find a species that is hardy enough and adaptable enough to serve as slaves for the survival of the Talosians.

The Talosians have developed remarkable powers of illusion, and they believe that by using these powers, they can make captivity pleasant for the humans and their future servitude palatable.  However, as the dismayed leader of the Talosians tells Captain Pike after remotely "assimilating" the records stored on-board the Enterprise:

We had not believed this possible.  The customs and history of your race show a unique hatred of captivity -- even when it's pleasant, and benevolent, you prefer death!  This makes you too violent and dangerous a species for our needs.

The question of whether one would choose "pleasant, and benevolent" captivity will surface again in another classic science-fiction film exploring this issue (and the power of illusion to enslave) -- The Matrix, released in 1999.

"The Cage" was filmed from the end of November through the middle of December, 1964, which means that it was being made at this time, forty-eight years ago.  It is always worthwhile to reflect upon the timeless themes explored in "The Cage" at any time, but it is particularly appropriate now, forty-eight years later, as we enter the portentious month of December, 2012, around which (rightly or wrongly) so much media hype has been built up.  

As I wrote one year ago at this time, in this previous post and also this previous post, I believe that the end of the Maya long-count cycle has more to do with changes in the heavens and the start of a new celestial age -- the "Age of Aquarius," which is the incipient precessional age, although when it officially begins varies depending upon who you ask -- than with cataclysmic destruction on earth.  

If the angle of the earth in relationship to the sun, stars, and planets has an impact on our life on earth (and it clearly does, as the ancients clearly taught and as changes in the tides and changes in the seasons clearly demonstrate), then the advent of a new precessional age (or "new Sun," as the Maya called the successive ages) might presage changes in human behavior and spiritual consciousness, and these changes may well be positive rather than catastrophic (many in fact believe that they will be).

However, the media typically dwells only on the "end of the world" aspect of 2012, with productions such as National Geographic's overly-sensational 2012: Countdown to Armageddon and similar apocalyptic fare. 

The Talosians in "The Cage" were able to use their powers of illusion and suggestion to manipulate the officers and crew of the Enterprise, making them think that their phasers were incapable of blowing a hole in the glass wall of their prison cell, or that a huge laser cannon seen only in that episode was ineffective at blasting through the rocks that guarded the entrance to the underground catacombs.  In one memorable scene, when Captain Pike manages to get his hands around the neck of the leader of the Talosians, the illusionist causes Captain Pike to see a powerful alien monster rather than the scrawny and relatively defenseless Talosian.

Just knowing that it was an illusion enabled Captain Pike to foil its power, knowing that reality was not what he was being shown.  This is an important principle, because -- while the human race has not yet developed unaided mental powers equal to the illusion-projecting capabilities of the Talosians -- modern technology allows the creation of illusions that might be nearly as convincing as those shown in 1964's "The Cage."  In fact, as we pointed out in a previous post, modern technology in 1938 enabled the broadcast of a radio program that actually convinced some people that earth had been invaded by Mars!

How difficult would it be for some group of modern-day Talosians to use current media or Hollywood technology (which today is far more advanced than anything that the creative producers had in 1938 or 1964) to create panic around an event centered on the prophecy of December 2012?  What kind of influence could the new computer-generated powers of illusion enable, if most people accept uncritically whatever they are shown or told by those "in authority," and never learn to practice their own "due diligence"?  

Captain Pike's actions show that the best way to defuse a powerful illusion is to refuse to go along with it -- even when it appears that one is confronted with overwhelming adversaryforce.  However, if you watch "The Cage" carefully you will also see that even Captain Pike could not defeat the illusionists all by himself -- he had to communicate what was going on to his companions, so that they could resist the illusions as well, and acting together they were able to demonstrate enough resolve to convince their captors that they would resist their enslavement, even to the death if necessary.

These are important themes to consider as we head into the month of December 2012 -- and beyond.

Ancient origins of the circus, and reflections on the "Wheel of Death"

Above is a clip from the Cirque du Soleil's amazing Wheel of Death performance in the Koozå show, which I was fortunate enough to see with my family in 2007.

As incredible as it appears in the video, it is even more breathtaking in person.

The word "circus" literally means "circle," and comes from the Greek word "kirkos," which also meant "circle" but which also clearly the root of the name of the sorceress Circe in Homer's Odyssey, who transforms men into different animals.  Astronomical and precessional imagery in the Odyssey are discussed in the Mathisen Corollary book.

It is quite clear that the ancient circus was closely connected to the circular motions of the heavens, and in particular the motions of the planets, as discussed in this previous post from a year ago entitled "The chariot race in Ben-Hur and the motions of the planets."

That post demonstrated that the ancient "circus" (which involved a horse-race in an oval stadium, in the same direction that the planets orbit the sun) clearly had celestial significance.

For one thing, ancient sources explain that there were never more than seven circuits around the track (corresponding to the number of visible planets, including Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), and for conclusive evidence, the authors of Hamlet's Mill point to ancient sources who relate that the central lawn of the ancient circus featured a pyramid dedicated to the sun, as well as altars dedicated to the Moon and the five visible planets.  These features, added to the direction of the motion of the race, clearly indicate a celestial connection to the ancient "circus."

The "Wheel of Death" is of course a modern invention, first designed in the 1930s, but there appear to be elements of continuity between this amazing feature of the modern circus and its ancient namesake (the ancient circus that represented the circling planets), including the fact that travel to the mystical "circles of the planets" has long been seen as a crossing of the boundary between the realm of the living and the spirit world (see discussions of shamanic tradition, as well as the intriguing work of Dr. Jeremy Naydler who argues that ancient Egyptian priests and pharaohs deliberately went right up to "the threshold of death in order to travel into the spirit world") (120).

The imagery of the Cirque du Soleil Wheel of Death performance in Koozå is obviously deliberately evocative of death and otherworldly scenes (including the horned costumes of the main performers, and the skeletal costumes of the supporting performers, as well as the otherworldly music and atmosphere). Further, the overall name of the transformative modern "Cirque du Soleil" evokes the circle or circuit of the sun, which has deep ancient significance, as discussed in previous posts about the solstices and the equinoxes (see here and here) and the video "Precession = The Key."

The cosmic importance of the circle, from which the "circus" takes its name, is discussed by the authors of Hamlet's Mill on pages 48 and 49:

"What is eternal," Aristotle said, "is circular, and what is circular is eternal."  That was the mature conclusion of human thought over millennia.  It was, as has been said, an obsession with circularity.  There is nothing new under the sun, but all things come back in ever-varying recurrence.  [. . .]  The cosmos was one vast system full of gears within gears, enormously intricate in its connections, which could be likened to a many-dialed clock.  Its functions appeared and disappeared all over the system, like strange cuckoos in the clock, and wonderful tales were woven around them to describe their behavior; but just as in an engine, one cannot understand each part until one has understood the way all the parts interconnect in the system.

The same could be said of a circus, which seems to be many bizarre and awe-inducing parts that each have their own strange fascination, but taken as a whole they add up to something more -- something that evokes the awe-inspiring "gears within gears" of the universe itself.

Even more profound, circus performances such as the Wheel of Death performance shown in the video above illustrate the awe-inspiring capabilities of the individual human being (in this performance, two human beings who must balance their finely-honed skills with one another in order to bring about a display that could not be accomplished by one man alone).

The ancient esoteric traditions insisted that man as an individual is a "microcosm," an embodiment of the universe in both his body and his mind.  The awe-inspiring aspects of the macro universe were thus reflected and embodied in the micro universe of the individual.

When we see individuals achieving heights of performance such as those on display in the Wheel of Death performance above (and in many other acts in Cirque du Soleil's Koozå and indeed in many other circuses around the world and throughout the centuries), we are reminded that we human beings are something far beyond the diminished vision we are brainwashed into believing by the keepers of the (demonstrably false) conventional paradigm of human history and their ideology of materialism.

To the extent that Koozå and other modern circuses remind us of this incredible capacity of the human being, they tap into a very ancient and profound truth that stands against the tide of modern mediocrity and materialism.  We should support them at every opportunity and in every way possible.

Precession = The Key

I just uploaded a video entitled "Precession = The Key." 

Its purpose is to provide a clear overview of some of the most important concepts discussed in the Mathisen Corollary book and this blog.

Please have a look and, if you find it worthwhile, please feel free to share it with friends and to give it a "like" or write some feedback -- thanks!

Why is it important to understand the precession of the equinoxes? Because precession is the key to seeing the evidence that the very most ancient civilizations were far more advanced than conventional historians and academia will admit.

Precession also enables us to see evidence of global trans-oceanic contact long before Columbus. It can even enable us to see evidence that the ancients may have known the size and shape of our spherical earth -- before the construction of the Great Pyramid!

This shocking conclusion completely upends the fabricated myth of linear upward progress from early civilizations to modern civilization. It has far-reaching consequences.

There are numerous previous posts dealing with all of the topics covered in the video. If you want more detail on anything discussed in the video, you can use the handy "internal search" window at the top-left of this page (for terms such as "precession," "Orion," "Osiris," "consciousness," "linear," "solstices" and so forth).

Thanks for watching, sharing and responding!

Fascinating interview with Richard Merrick on Red Ice Radio

The previous post discussed some of the mechanics of the Venus transit and provided some links to sites to help you observe this historic astronomical event if possible.

Above is a remarkable interview with Richard Merrick, author of the newly-released book the Venus Blueprint: Uncovering the Ancient Science of Sacred Spaces, in which he discusses the ancient importance of the Venus transit as well as the harmonic pattern of the planet Venus itself.

Especially important in his view is the pentagonal pattern created by the five synods of earth and Venus over a cycle that is extremely close to eight years (but very slightly shorter than eight exact earth years). Details of that pentagonal pattern traced out by the celestial mechanics between earth and Venus can be seen in the excellent diagrams and discussion in this webpage by Nick Anthony Fiorenza (scroll down for the pentagram discussion). The upcoming Venus transit takes place at one of the points of this pentagram pattern, because those are the points at which Venus and earth align with the sun.

Both hours of Richard Merrick's interview on Red Ice Radio are fascinating (the first hour is embedded above, and the second hour is available to subscribers to Red Ice Creations). In the interview, Mr. Merrick discusses evidence that ancient civilizations were very aware of the importance of Venus and the pentagonal structure, and that they captured many subtle and sophisticated aspects of the harmonics of Venus in their mythology relating to the goddess associated with that heavenly body (under many different names). He also relates some of the significant aspects of this pattern to his work on harmonics and his harmonic interference theory.

Noting that the 8:5 ratio inherent in the earth-Venus synodic pentagram approximates phi (the Golden Ratio), he observes that ancient structures around the world also incorporate this ratio, and that those which incorporate the Golden Ratio also usually incorporate sophisticated harmonics that yield unusual acoustical and vibrational effects inside their sacred spaces.

This is a very important subject, and Mr. Merrick's work promises to expand on the observations of these acoustical and proportional aspects of ancient structures which others have also analyzed. For example, the indispensable Serpent in the Sky, by John Anthony West discusses cymatics (the study of wave forms) in conjunction with the advanced knowledge of ancient Egypt, and on page 78 says:

It is harmony that is responsible for the specific physical phenomena that scientists call 'reality,' but that wiser men realise is but the physical aspect of reality to which our senses have access. We speak of musical 'form'. We know it is the result of harmonies that may be reduced to vibrations -- that is to say, to number. But we tend to think of musical 'form' metaphorically, whereas we should regard it literally.

Mr. Merrick's work also appears to add some new perspectives on the exciting discoveries of acoustics at sites such as the Hypogeum Hal-Saflieni on the island of Gozo in Malta and other extremely ancient sites, discussed in previous blog posts here and here. He takes his discussion of the different wave and vibrational geometries down to the cellular level in the human body, and reaches some very innovative and noteworthy conclusions. This subject matter appears to intersect with a related important topic explored in several previous posts, which is the importance of chanting (see here, here and here, for instance).

Richard Merrick is also the author of a previous book, Interference: A Grand Scientific Musical Theory (2010). His new book The Venus Blueprint was just released last week, just in time for the upcoming Venus transit for 2012. While I have yet to read either of these books, I hope to do so in the near future. I strongly recommend listening to his entire interview above as an introduction to his analysis and as a window into some of the more esoteric ramifications of the upcoming Venus event on June 5/6.

Fascinating new research about Algol and ancient Egypt

Special thanks to String for alerting me to this amazing recent discovery:

About a week ago, a team of astrophysicists from the University of Helsinki led by Dr. Lauri Jetsu submitted research suggesting that the ancient Egyptians understood the periodicity of the star Algol, and that they incorporated its cycle into their charts for the relative auspiciousness and unluckiness of days throughout the year (in fact, not just of days, but of sections of days -- their calendars were three times more precise than simply lucky and unlucky days, breaking each day into three parts and discussing the merits of each).

Algol is the second-brightest star (designated as β-Persei) in the constellation Perseus (almost as bright as the brightest star in Perseus, Mirfak, also known as α-Persei). 

The constellation Perseus is shown below, with a red arrow pointing to Algol.  His position in the sky relative to nearby celestial landmarks is discussed in this previous post and this previous post, although those tend to depict Perseus as seen rising in the east, and during this time of the year he is descending in the west in the hours after sunset and before midnight.

Why would the ancient Egyptians (circa 1200 BC according to the texts examined by Dr. Jetsu and colleagues) tie their predictions as to the relative propitiousness of days (and portions of days) to Algol, and how did these modern researchers discover that they were looking at Algol based on texts discussing the merits of those days and times throughout the year?

As the article above explains, the researchers analyzed the pattern of predictions preserved in the ancient Egyptian Cairo Calendar and discovered two cycles throughout the year, one corresponding quite accurately to the cycle of the moon, and one corresponding to a period of 2.85 days.  The scholars present evidence that the Cairo Calendar's 2.85-day cycle is linked to the cycle of Algol, which dims appreciably every 2.867 days.  

This phenomenon is visible to the naked eye, and is caused by the fact that Algol is actually a system of three stars, two of which orbit one another rather closely (one of which being the star we see and the other a much larger but less massive and dimmer giant star which causes the dimming phenomenon as it eclipses the smaller brighter star) plus a third star orbiting this pair at a greater distance.  The system and the dimming phenomenon (also known as the "minima of Algol") are described here in the very informative website of Professor Jim Kaler.  The entire eclipse lasts about ten hours from start to finish, but the appreciable dimmed period is shorter than that, perhaps four to five hours. 

Some astronomers have long suspected that the ancients may have known about the antics of Algol.  For one thing, there is the Arabic name of the star, Al Ghul or "the demon" ("the ghoul"), which gives us the star's modern name.  The great H.A. Rey describes this Arabic name as meaning "the prankster" (The Stars: A New Way to See Them, 42).

There is also the fact that Ptolemy (c. AD 90 - c. AD 168) in his Almagest (which was preserved by and heavily influenced the Arabic astronomers) designates this star as representing the head of the Gorgon Medusa being carried by Perseus (who slew her with the help of Athena, Hermes, and Pegasus).

There have also been those who have denied the ancients the sophistication to have identified the periodicity of Algol, although it seems quite presumptuous to do so, particularly in light of other evidence demonstrating that their knowledge clearly surpassed anything for thousands of years afterwards (such as this evidence that they understood the atmospheric effects which cause a phenomenon called "extinction," to say nothing of the even more ancient evidence that they understood the subtle phenomenon of precession, a fact that most conventional historians continue to dispute).

Now, this intrepid team from Finland has added further evidence for the high level of precision attained at very remote dates in mankind's ancient history.  They even provide an argument that the periodicity captured in the Cairo Calendar (which is slightly shorter than the periodicity recorded in modern times, since Algol's behavior was "rediscovered" in the 1600s) was not in error, but that the observations provided by the ancient texts can help astronomers today to determine the change in the motions of the Algol system over the 3000-plus intervening years!  We should all be grateful to Drs. Jetsu, Porceddu, Lyytinen, Kajatkari, Lehtinen, Markkanen, and Toivari-Viitala for their diligent work in uncovering this amazing new window into human history and knowledge.

Left unexamined in many articles discussing this incredible new find is one other big elephant in the room.  Remember, this entire discovery by the Finnish team came about because the ancient Egyptians recorded very detailed beliefs about the relative auspiciousness of the segments of each day throughout the year.  Nobody seems to ask whether -- if they knew so much about astronomy, as well as about many other subjects (and see here as well) -- they could have actually known something we don't know about the impact of the different "arrangements of the heavens" on affairs here on our little planet.  

This previous post discusses some of the logic behind the idea that the "harmonies" created by the arrangements of heavenly bodies might have some impact on the way that we feel, just as the relative "harmonies" or "dis-harmonies" of a building's architecture (or even the arrangement of furniture inside) can have an impact on us but from a smaller scale of distance. 

This post explores the idea as well.

Here is one other reference discussing the minima of Algol, and the traditions that these eclipses of the star can lead to unfortunate "losing one's head" with unpleasant results (see Medusa, above).  Note that this site contains a list of times and dates for these cycles of Algol, running all the way up to the end of 2012.  As this is published, Algol has just emerged a few hours ago from one minima, and another eclipse will take place early in the small hours of the morning just after midnight on May 11 (Greenwich Mean Time, which will still be May 10 in North America and points west, out to the International Date Line).