Eleusis transcendent

image: the ruins of the sanctuary at Eleusis, including the Telesterion. Wikimedia commons (link). 

The late afternoon sun bathed the city in a warm gold reminiscent of summer, but now a gentle breeze blew in from the sea, the cooler salt air invading the hillsides where the warmth of the sun had left a relative vacuum, bringing with it the hint of the approaching autumn.  From the hills of Athens, the sun in its arc descended towards the west, in the direction of Eleusis and the Gulf of Eleusis, and the island of Salamis rising up out of the Aegean and separated by only a short stretch of water from the site of sacred Eleusis.

Salamis, of course, brought to mind Athenian naval prowess, but at this time of year, all the city-states of Greece observed a holy truce: each year, messengers from Athens traveled throughout the land to announce the celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and to guarantee safe passage for an entire month leading up to the great festival, and for most of the month afterwards, to anyone who wished to attend in person. All were invited, whether man or woman, free citizen or slave -- as long as they could speak the Greek language, and as long as they had never committed the crime of murder. 

The truce would last from the time of the full moon in the month of Metageitneon (the middle of the second month after the annual cycle of the Attic calendar began with the first new moon following summer solstice, which would put the fifteenth day of Metageitneon towards the beginning of our September), when the runners went out, through to the tenth day of the fourth month after summer solstice, Pyanepsion, which would be towards the end of October. But the runners had been sent out nearly a month ago now, and it was now the fourteenth day of Boedromion (and the eve of a full moon), that third and final "summer month" after the solstice, towards the end of what moderns would someday call September. Athens was now packed with those who had streamed in from all over the civilized world to observe the sacred mysteria.

Earlier in the day, the procession of the priests and priestesses of the mysteries had left Eleusis and walked from there to Athens, the priestesses bearing the sacred and secret objects in closed containers, out of public view. 

A thrill of anticipation ran like a steady electrical current through all those who would participate for the first time in the rites which would begin the next day. They did not know, nor did any who had not already experienced the Eleusinian mysteries themselves, the exact details of the secret rites in which they would participate on the fifth day after the sacred festival began, for the penalty for divulging the secrets of those rites was death, and the ancients honored the prohibition so steadfastly that none can say for sure to this day exactly what went on within the sacred sanctuary of the Telesterion at Eleusis.

But, the public portion of the mysteries was widely known, for it began in the public places of Athens on the first day of the festival (the fifteenth day of Boedromion), on which day the formal invitation was proclaimed in the streets. The following day, the command of Halade Mystai! would go up ("Initiates, to the Sea!"), and all the people desiring to be initiated (the mystai) had to go down to the waters of the Aegean below Athens to bathe in a ritual act of purification, taking with them a piglet.

The following days there would be sacrifices and celebrations, and then at last would come the long-anticipated processions of the initiates, led by the priests and priestesses with the sacred objects still in their containers. Significantly, this ritual procession would include a stop at a cemetery, a crossing of a bridge over the river Cephisus, and a ritual mocking of the initiates by onlookers along the way. There was also a point where the initiates had to shout obscenities, in recollection of the time that Demeter, whose rites these Eleusinian mysteria were, had been made to smile by the off-color words and antics of the old nurse Iambe, who had cheered the mourning goddess during her search for her missing daughter Persephone. Both Demeter and Persephone were the goddesses of the Eleusinian rites, but Persephone was always referred to as Kore (meaning "the Maiden") in connection with the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Imagine the excitement of the mystai when they finally arrived in Eleusis! They would be nearly exhausted from the day's march and the events on the march itself, but what an impression it had left upon them and as they finally rested in the shadow of the sacred buildings themselves, they could look back and reflect upon all of them, as well as the emotion-laden days in Athens on the previous days. Perhaps many would then continue further back, and reflect upon how long they had anticipated this day, when they would finally walk the path to Eleusis itself -- perhaps a lifetime goal for many who were there now for the first time. 

For the poets, and no doubt those who were already initiated, made no secret of the knowledge that those who witnessed and experienced the nights that were to come, here among the pillars of the holy buildings dedicated to Demeter, would be forever changed, and would be freed of the dread of death, and would be promised a better condition in the invisible realm of the dead. But, the mystai no doubt had also heard that the experience itself -- the secret rites that would commence the following night -- would move them profoundly, and would contain moments of terror that would fill them with dread (how exactly this would take place, we can today only speculate).

And so it would be with a mixture of high emotions and awful anticipation that those undergoing the initiation would have watched the sun sink once again into the west. They felt that events were now in motion that they could not stop, even if they wanted to back out now, drawing them onward almost in spite of themselves.

They might reflect, too, on the knowledge that these rites had been taking place since time immemorial, right there on those slopes of Eleusis facing the water, each and every year at this particular season, when the sun was crossing the great line of the celestial equator and the nights were balanced with the days, with the festival really getting underway after that line had been crossed and the kingdom of the night was expanding further and further, the days steadily retreating in their length on the way to the lower half of the year. 

No one knows exactly when the Eleusinian mysteries had been founded, but they had been taking place at least since what we would call the eighth century BC, and possibly for many centuries before that based upon the archaeological evidence. We know that the so-called Homeric Hymns, some of them probably composed in the seventh century BC, describe the search of Demeter for Persephone after Zeus permitted Hades to kidnap the maiden and take her to the underworld to be the bride of the god of death, and that Eleusis receives prominent mention in the Homeric hymn to Demeter. The hymn to Demeter is the second in the Homeric Hymn series, and it is rich in mythical detail that help us to understand the profound themes which the Eleusinian Mysteries esoterically convey -- a translation of that Hymn to Demeter, which is believed to be one of the earliest of the collection, can be found online here. 

What experiences awaited those anxious mystai, as well as the epoptai (those who had already been initiated, and were returning to Eleusis to participate again as initiated "seeing-ones," possibly to have revealed to them additional parts of the ritual which took place while the mystai were still blindfolded or in the dark)? They could only wonder and imagine that first night, as the cold night winds accompanied the sun's plunge into the western seas and rustled the leaves on the trees upon the darkened hills.

We, too, can only wonder what awaited them, for the Eleusinian Mysteries, those most celebrated in the ancient world, enacted for two thousand years in a row (a few centuries longer than the period which separates us today from the last participants), were shut down along with many other sacred conveyances of the ancient knowledge, at the dawn of the era of literalist Christianity, by the decree of the Roman Emperor Theodosius in AD 392. Flavius Theodosius began the third dynasty of Christian emperors, following Gratian (who had outlawed the Vestal Virgins in Rome) and the Valentinians, who themselves followed the Constantinians which began with Constantine himself, who had declared Christianity the religion of the empire in AD 324, and who had died in AD 337. 

No longer would the secret experiences of Eleusis be available to all who chose to participate.

However, from the imagery of some of the artwork surrounding the Eleusinian Mysteries -- including the tablet shown below dedicated by a participant named Ninnion (her name can still be seen on the dedicatory inscription, at the lower left corner of the tablet), scholars have formulated guesses regarding what would have taken place on the night of the second day after the arrival of the initiates (behind the procession of the priests and priestesses carrying the hidden sacred objects).

image: Ninnion Pinax, or "Votive Plaque of Ninnion" dedicated to the keepers of Eleusis. Wikimedia commons (link).

We also have veiled hints of what took place which have survived in some ancient accounts, including those of the ever-helpful Plutarch. From these accounts, and from the scene above, we can surmise that the transformative events that awaited the mystai on the night following that first night after their arrival at Eleusis would involve a harrowing search by torchlight, during which they would no doubt be enacting the desperate search of the bereaved Demeter, and during which some have speculated that they would be startled by sudden visions of the two goddesses themselves, Demeter and Kore, illuminated by bursts of light with pyrotechnic effects and perhaps thunderous music or percussion, techniques perfected for and used in ancient theater as well. 

Ancient descriptions suggest that they would have wandered in circles, calling out loudly, perhaps blindfolded during the initial windings and searchings, and that they would have also been given glimpses of sacred and symbolic objects representative of the cult of the two goddesses. One ancient source also declares that at the end of the search there would have been a triumphant revelation and a celebration, and much flinging about of torches also!

The most sacred aspects of the central rites probably took place in the cave-like settings inside the inner sanctuary buildings, and included a ritual drink and perhaps even a handling of the sacred objects themselves, as well as the revelation perhaps of the goddess or goddesses themselves. Some have speculated that the drink given to the initiates possessed hallucinogenic properties, or that hallucinogenic substances were otherwise involved, accounting for the powerful visions and the feeling of dread described. 

But we simply do not know. The contents of the mysteries have been sealed off from our view, and may (as far as we can tell at this point in history) retain their secrets for eternity.

What we can say for sure is that, for those who have become familiar with the ancient system of celestial metaphor which underlies all of the most ancient sacred rites and scriptures of the planet, there are abundant clues in the imagery that has survived, as well as in the ancient Hymn to Demeter itself, to allow us to gather just a taste of the significance of Eleusis.

First of all, it is clear from the specific station of the year when these rites would be celebrated -- just after the fall equinox, and after the full moon began to wane -- that the Mysteries of Eleusis involve the descent of the great  heavenly cycle into the lower half of the year, the dark half, the portion signifying the underworld. From the extensive analysis and evidence offered by Alvin Boyd Kuhn (so extensive that it is really beyond dispute, in my opinion), we can also declare that this descent was seen by the originators of the ancient myths to be representative of the descent of the fiery soul into the material realm: the incarnation in the body.

Note all the imagery which confirms this interpretation surrounding the rites of Eleusis: there is the descent from Athens into the sea by the participants, during their ritual cleansing at the start of the festival; there is the crossing of the bridge, during which crossing the initiates are ritually mocked (note the crossing points of the year marked on the zodiac wheel, above -- the downward crossing is at the sign of the Virgin); there is the story of Persephone, seized and taken down into the underworld; there is the fact that Persephone is always referred to as Kore, the Maiden (the word "maiden" means "virgin") in the rites of Eleusis, just as the sign of the Virgin presides over this downward crossing on the annual cycle; there is the association of Demeter with grain and the harvesting of wheat, just as Virgo traditionally carries a sheaf of wheat, associated with her brightest star, Spica; and there is the imagery of the torches, which we have already seen were anciently associated with the equinoxes and the crossing of the blazing ecliptic path of the sun downward or upward across the unchanging line of the celestial equator (see discussion in this previous post, for example). 

The goddess Hecate is often shown in imagery surrounding Eleusis and the search for and return of Persephone/Kore, and when she is shown, she is often depicted carrying two torches.

Further, the imagery of the goddesses Demeter and Kore, seated upon their thrones, are often configured to resemble the distinctive features of the constellation Virgo. Note in the Ninnion Pinax shown above the posture of the two goddesses, who are seen on right side of the plaque (facing to the left). Demeter is above, and Kore is beneath. Both are seated on thrones, and both have the extended hand that is very distinctive of Virgo (we have discussed this in previous posts such as this one and this one). Below is the same ancient scene, with the outline of the stars of Virgo superimposed:

Further, we have already discussed at length the thesis put forward by Alvin Boyd Kuhn that the search for the hidden god or goddess over all the lands inhabited by men and women was meant by the ancients to convey the sacred truth that the divine spark is hidden within all men and women, but that it is seemingly "lost" and must be pursued, reawakened, and found again (see here and here, for example).

We note that the mystai stopped at a graveyard on their way down to Eleusis: suggestive of the ancient allegorization of the plunge of the soul from the world of spirit as a "death," and this life as a passage through the "underworld" itself (which, relative to the world of spirit symbolized by the ethereal spheres that circle above our heads, this world in fact is -- again see Kuhn's extensive analysis and support of this assertion). We also note the symbolism that on the day in which they were ordered down into the sea (symbolic of the command to incarnate), they had to carry with them a live piglet: symbolic of the fact that when the spirit incarnates, it must take on the "animal" body, and become a cross of the spiritual and the carnal (how many ancient allegorical myths warn against becoming too comfortable with the carnal side of this combination, and of thus "turning into swine").

And, note carefully the incorporation into these rites of the obscenities shouted by the participants, in commemoration of the actions of Iambe in bringing a smile to the lips of the grieving goddess: this is a component of goddess-myths the world over, found in Norse myths (Loki and Skadi), in Japanese myths (Uzume and Amaterasu), and in the Old Testament story of Sarai/Sarah and her secret smile (all of these are discussed in this previous post, which features detailed diagrams of the constellation Virgo which show why these goddesses or female figures all have to smile). 

It is very interesting to note that sexually explicit antics are often involved in the myths involving the smile -- this is true of the antics of Loki, of Uzume, and (in many versions of the tale) of the old Iambe (sometimes named Baubo in some versions of the Greek or Latin myth of Demeter) as well. This is highly significant, as the stars themselves can hardly be said to suggest such a constant theme, and it is difficult to argue that this very specific and distinctive aspect of the myth would arise independently in so many different cultures. And yet Japan is very far from Scandinavia, and both are far from Greece as well -- how did this myth-detail arise in such far-flung mythologies? There are a few possible answers, but I believe the most likely is the fact that all these vessels of ancient wisdom are descended from a common, even more ancient source (the "lost civilization" -- and one that other evidence reveals to have been very advanced and very sophisticated).

Esoterically, however, we can speculate that the connection to the more physical and generally private aspects of the human body (specifically, the sexual functions) at which the goddess or maiden is made to smile in these myths connects to the greater theme of incarnation as well: this specific part of the solar cycle (the autumn equinox and the plunge into the lower half) and of the lunar cycle (after the full moon is over, and the moon begins to wane towards "death") and of the elemental cycle (plunging from the air and fire of the heavenly journey into the earth and water that all the circling heavenly bodies encounter when they sink down into the western horizon) figures the plunge of the disembodied soul into the incarnated physical vessel of the human form. 

Perhaps these myths are meant to hint at the idea that the soul finds this condition somewhat uncomfortable at times, especially the most carnal aspects of its incarnation. Certainly the myths involving the smiling goddess seem to poke fun at this aspect of our incarnate state. The mocking of the initiates, and their explicit participation in the obscenities of Iambe, might certainly have been intended to convey to the mystai this esoteric message.

We do not know what exactly took place on those powerful nights of mystery which the initiates could look forward to as they marveled at the experiences which they had undergone thus far. But we can guess that the truth that the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries meant to have them experience -- and hence to know, deep in their bones, not just by faith but by gnosis -- was that this mortal material life is not all that there is, and that the physical world and all that seems so solid and imprisoning can actually be transcended. If they actually underwent an out-of-body experience during the rites themselves, as some believe they did, then they would have experienced that aspect of transcending apparently un-crossable boundaries right then and there!

This is exactly what the evidence tells me that the ancient universal myths bequeathed to humanity were all meant to convey. They all intended to teach a shamanic, holographic vision of the universe we inhabit, and that we can grasp hold of the shamanic and holographic within this very life, to overcome and to create and to transcend.

Unfortunately -- tragically -- this ancient message was somehow subverted, and an active and deliberate campaign to stamp it out was initiated, even as the Eleusinian Mysteries were still going on. Their shutting down by Theodosius was a decisive event in that anti-shamanic campaign (discussed at greater length, and using other clear examples from history, in my book The Undying Stars). The sanctuary and the Telesterion at Eleusis would be sacked in AD 396 and never rebuilt.

But the message of the Eleusinian Mysteries does not depend upon the physical stones of the sanctuary, nor even in the secret objects or rituals (whatever they were) enacted on those final nights. The message is still available today, and can be read in the book of the starry heavens and the books of the sun and the moon in their cycles, open for all to see every day and every night.

Ten reasons to suspect a close connection between ancient Roman Mithraism and ancient Roman Christianity

image: Mithraeum located under the Basilica of San Clemente, Rome. Wikimedia commons (link).

Conventional scholars continue to debate the origin of the Roman cult of Sol Invictus Mithras, which (based upon the archaeological evidence of the mithraea) arose circa AD 100 and ends in AD 396.  Although scholars today are more circumspect in their pronouncements regarding the origins of this institution than they have been in previous decades (prior to the 1970s), it is still common for well-regarded Mithraic scholars to assert that Mithraism and Christianity were bitter rivals.

For instance, this essay published in a collection in 1994 tells us that: "Between the second and fourth centuries C.E. Mithraism may have vied with Christianity for domination of the Roman world." The author continues:

The Christians' view of this rival religion is extremely negative, because they regarded it as a demonic mockery of their own faith.  One also learns of Mithraism from brief statements in classical Greek and Roman authors.

While it is certainly true that Christian polemicists, including Tertullian, attacked Mithraism on these grounds, this does not necessarily indicate that the two systems were indeed at cross-purposes. Author Flavio Barbiero, whose work is discussed in The Undying Stars and in this previous post, has put forward a theory which argues that the cult of Sol Invictus Mithras was actually the secret society through which decisions were made and strategy enacted to gain control of the "command-and-control" centers of the Roman Empire, and that this exclusive institution, whose proceedings were kept entirely secret, operated in the background, using literalist Christianity as a public and nonexclusive shield -- one that it controlled, and one that would take the brunt of those who wanted to stand against the underground campaign.

Flavio Barbiero offers a host of evidence to support this view of events, and the conclusion that this campaign was ultimately tremendously successful -- successful to the point that it shaped European history and then world history for the following seventeen centuries, and continues to do so to this day. The following points are taken from his 2010 publication The Secret Society of Moses: The Mosaic Bloodline and a Conspiracy Spanning Three Millennia. Many of these pieces of evidence are also discussed in his 2010 article entitled "Mithras and Jesus: Two sides of the same coin" on the website of Graham Hancock. 

Note that the following points are not intended to be aimed at any particular branch of Christianity as it has existed since the fourth century, but rather to shed light upon the possible origins of all of literalist Christianity, which deliberately chose to take a very different approach to the interpretation of the Biblical scriptures, and one which intentionally cut itself off from all the "pagan" traditions of the world as well as from the esoteric, gnostic, Sethian, Valentinian and Hermetic forms of Christianity which existed prior to this juncture in history.

• Mithraism was neither a "religion" nor a "mystery cult" -- unlike other ancient religions, it was extremely exclusive and met in special mithraea which were so small that, "At most, forty people could be seated in each of them" (158). The majority of mithraea could not hold more than twenty.
• Numerous mithraea have been found underneath ancient Christian basilica or churches, indicating that there may have been some kind of symbiotic connection between the leadership of the cult of Sol Invictus Mithras and that of the Christian church. While it is possible to explain this fact away by saying that the Christian church triumphantly took over the sites of its old rival and built churches on top of their sacred sites (as it later did around the world), there is evidence that this explanation was not the case for Mithraism and Christianity. Specifically, Barbiero notes that the Basilica of St. Peter on Vatican Hill was built above the Phrygianum, the most central mithraeum in Roman Mithraism, where the "Father of Fathers" (head of the entire order of Sol Invictus Mithras) held sway. Most significantly, the Christian Basilica of St. Peter was built by the emperor Constantine in AD 322, but the last "Father of Fathers" of Mithraism did not die until AD 384, and he continued to use the mithraeum in the Phrygianum for all those years! It would be remarkable if these two supposedly "rival religions" coexisted for even two years with their "headquarters" co-located, but the dates indicate that this coexistance lasted for sixty-two years. Barbiero writes: 

In this light, we are forced to conclude that Sol Invictus Mithras and Christianity were not two religions in competition, as we often read, but were two institutions of a different nature that were closely connected. Rather than being a simple hypothesis, this is practically a certainty. It is unthinkable that the Roman church continued to extend hospitality to the head of a rival pagan religion for more than half a century and at the heart of its most exclusive property, the basilica dedicated to the prince of apostles. The Mithraic pater patrum and the bishop of Rome must necessarily have been closely linked. 163-164.

• As the passage just cited indicates, the title of the supreme head of the Mithraic organization was pater patrum, or "Father of Fathers." The Mithraic system had a hierarchy of seven Mithraic grades, with the highest being the Pater or "Father" (the head of any particular mithraeum). The head of the entire system, of all the Mithraic "lodges," was the "Father of Fathers," or pater patrum (pa-pa, for short). It is most significant that, after the death of the last Mithraic pater patrum, in AD 384, the bishop of Rome adopted this same title, which is still used to this day (and which is rendered in English "the Pope," but in Italian and Spanish is still papa). This evidence is discussed in Barbiero, 163 and elsewhere.
• As part of the same discussion, Flavio Barbiero notes that specific aspects of Mithraic ritual and attire were adopted into the rituals of Christianity, including the distinctive headgear of Christian bishops, which is still called a mitre, a word with linguistic connections to Mithras or Mitra.   
• There is powerful evidence of early prominent Christian leaders who were also members of the Sol Invictus Mithras organization, right up to the point that they declared themselves Christians, or took holy orders to become high-ranking leaders of Christianity. The most prominent of these whom Barbiero notes is the emperor Constantine himself (Barbiero, 166-167). Others include St. Ambrose, whom Barbiero notes "passes directly from being a pagan to being bishop of one of the most important sees of the period" (166). St. Ambrose was the son of a father who was a member of Sol Invictus Mithras, as was the Christian apologist and polemicist Tertullian (AD 160 - AD 225), as well as church fathers St. Jerome and St. Augustine (Barbiero 167-168). This fact is highly significant and indicates that these early Christian "Fathers" were descended from the same family lines that Barbiero discusses in his thesis.
• Constantine continued minting coins with clear Sol Invictus symbology and imagery, even after his vision of the heavenly "Chi-Rho" sign in some cases minted coins containing both sets of symbology, Christian and Mithraic. This is a clear indication that the two systems were not actually seen as antagonistic, at least during the early stages of establishing Christianity as official to the empire (later, Mithraism would be dismantled and the family lines would use Christianity as their open system of control, the "underground" mechanism of Sol Invictus Mithras having served its purpose). This use of Sol Invictus symbology on his coins is discussed in Barbiero page 165, and is also attested to in the notes to a translation of the works of the Christian polemicist and apologist Eusebius (c. AD 260 - c. AD 340). On page 207 of this edition of the works of Eusebius, we read a note from the editor to Eusebius' mention of a chi-rho coin which informs us that Constantine claimed to have seen the Christian chi-rho sign in the sky "resting over the sun," and that thereafter Constantine "continued to commemorate [the sun] on his coins as Sol Invictus (see Bruun, 'Sol'), whether out of numismatic conservatism (Barnes) or as a sign of solar monotheism."
• There is evidence that early Christian leaders saw reverence to the sun as not at all incompatible with Christianity, with Pope Leo in a famous passage in his Christmas sermon of AD 460 declaring that: "This religion of the Sun is so highly respected that some Christians, before entering the basilica of St. Peter the apostle, dedicated to the one true living God, after climbing the steps that lead to the upper entrance hall, turn towards the Sun and bow their heads in honor of the bright star" (cited in Barbiero, 161). Tertullian also writes that "it is a well-known fact that we pray turning towards the rising sun" (Ad Nationes 1.13, cited in Barbiero "Two sides of the same coin," page 3). This connection between the sun and the "one true living God" described in the sermon by Pope Leo is in keeping with Constantine's use of both Sol Invictus imagery and Christian "chi-rho" symbology on his coins (Constantine evidently did not see anything contradictory or conflicted about the use of both).
• In AD 386, a decree by the emperor Aurelian changed the name of the Christian day of worship from "the day of the sun" (Sunday being the first day of the week, in a significant change from the seventh-day Sabbath of antiquity) to "the day of the Lord" (Barbiero, 237).
• The spread of the mithraea throughout the western empire (particularly in the vicinity of army barracks and organs of the government bureaucracy) parallels the spread of Christianity. Barbiero writes, "Wherever the representatives of Mithras arrived, there a Christian community immediately sprang up" ("Two sides of the same coin," page 9). Early bishop's sees were located in Britannia, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa -- the same places that legions were located and which are the sites of mithraea (Ibid).
• Barbiero traces the progress through which the new Roman class of equites or "equestrians," to which the descendents of the family lines who had come to Rome with Titus and Vespasian after the fall of Judea belonged, gained access to the Senate and then progressively grew more and more powerful in the Senate. Dedicatory inscriptions reveal that as this process took place, more and more senators were members of Sol Invictus Mithras. However, upon the death of the last pater patrum of Sol Invictus Mithras, Flavio Barbiero notes that the entire Senate, that "stronghold of the cult of Mithras, discovered that it was totally Christian" (163, see also 241). In other words, the transition was remarkably smooth and bloodless -- indicating that Mithraism and Christianity were not at all the bitter rivals that the conventional narrative often paints them as being. They were, as Barbiero says, "two sides of the same coin."

These are by no means all the pieces of historical evidence which Flavio Barbiero musters to support his assertion that the institutions of Sol Invictus Mithras and literalist Christianity actually worked "hand in glove." Further, while this is a central part of his overall theory, there is much more to the theory, and that "much more" is itself supported by still further extensive evidence from other aspects of history.

In short, there is so much evidence to support this thesis that it simply cannot be ignored, and deserves careful consideration by everyone who wishes to explore the possible reasons for the suppression of the ancient celestial system of allegory which (I believe) was meant to preserve and to convey a sophisticated shamanic-holographic cosmology that was once widespread around the globe and which flourished in "the west" right up until the fourth century AD. The loss of this ancient wisdom, an inheritance belonging to all of humanity, is an absolutely watershed event in human history, and one which continues to impact our lives right up to the present day.


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Special note: if you have not yet seen it, you might be interested in this previous post discussing possible connections between Mithraism and the later Knights Templar.

Brisingamen, the necklace of Freya

Freya and Brisingamen sketch based on image in Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants

Now is a particularly good time of year to go out after dark and enjoy the spectacular constellations visible along the zodiac band in the hours after nightfall and leading up to midnight (and the next week and a half will be particularly excellent, as the moon is waning and rising later and later in the night -- that is, closer and closer to sunrise -- as the sun prepares to "overtake" the moon and give us another new moon on June 28th, after which there will still be a few nights of good star-gazing while the moon sets relatively soon behind the sun).

High in the center of the sky you can locate the constellation Virgo, one of the most important constellations in the sky, and one who plays numerous roles in the ancient mythologies of the world, as demonstrated in the previous series of posts which presented some of the connections between the mythical stories of cultures as widely diffuse as those of ancient Japan, of the Indians of North America, and of the Norsemen of Scandinavia.

Virgo is easy to spot if you can locate her brightest star Spica, which Corvus the Crow is constantly staring at as described in this previous post, and her directly outstretched arm which is very prominent and which is described in this previous post.

Above her (all relative positions described from the perspective of a viewer in the northern hemisphere; please adjust for your own latitude on our planet) you can now easily make out the stars of Bootes the Herdsman, featuring the brilliant red-orange star Arcturus. A commonly-cited memory aid for locating both Arcturus and Spica tells us to follow the sweep of the handle of the Big Dipper and draw an "arc" to Arcturus, and then to continue along the same general direction and draw a "spike" to Spica. This method works quite well, especially as the well-known constellation of the Big Dipper is now high in the sky for observers in the northern hemisphere.

Another aid to locating Bootes which always helps me to find him is the fact that his long pipe reaches very nearly to the tip of the handle of the Dipper. Once you locate the Dipper's handle, you can trace the Herdsman's pipe back to his large (but faint) head, and then continue to trace out the rest of the constellation.  Both Virgo and Bootes are depicted in the star chart below, which is now familiar to readers of the three articles linked above which make the case that all the myths discussed utilize a common system of celestial metaphor, one that connects virtually all the world's ancient sacred traditions no matter how widely dispersed across the globe (including those in the Old and New Testaments).

If the night is dark and Bootes is high in the sky, you can clearly make out the beautiful semicircle of stars known as the Corona Borealis, or Northern Crown, which can be seen in the diagram above just to the left of the Herdsman's head, and which is labeled "Crown." It really is very close to the outline of the head of Bootes, and the best way to locate it is to look right at his head and it will be seen to be almost touching him. The diagram in the previously-linked post on Arcturus shows both Bootes and the Crown, and labels the brightest star in the Crown, which is known as Gemma or Alphekka or Gnosia.

We have seen from the examination of the mythology of ancient Japan that the Northern Crown was described in the Kojiki as an "augustly complete string of jewels eight feet long," which should give us a clue that another marvelous string of jewels belonging to a beautiful goddess may also be connected to this semicircle of stars next to Bootes and above Virgo: the dazzling fire-gold necklace of Freya, the Norse love-goddess.

Freya's necklace is called the Brisingamen, and it is featured in the Norse poetic Edda in the section known as the Thrymskvitha (or "Lay of Thrym"), which can be found beginning on page 173 of this online version of the poetic Edda. The Brisingamen is also featured in the prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, particularly in the section known as the Skaldskaparmal, in which the theft of the necklace by Loki is alluded to although not described at length.

Other early Norse poetic compositions outside of the Eddas describe the theft of the Brisingamen by Loki with more detail, saying that Loki (who is a master of shape-shifting) turned himself into a fly in order to steal into Freya's bedchamber while she slept, buzzing around her face until she batted at him with the hand which even in sleep rested upon the clasp of her precious necklace. The moment she did this, Loki transformed in a flash into his normal self and stole the necklace. Snorri also refers to the theft of the necklace, citing passages from other poets which refer to the theft as well, showing that the episode was well-known by his day and probably much earlier.

If any doubt remained about the identification of Loki with Bootes in the episode of Skadi's laughter described in that post on the mythology of ancient Japan, the fact that Loki is described as the thief of the Brisingamen from the sleeping goddess and the fact that the starry necklace in the celestial realm is located not on Virgo where it belongs but next to Bootes who hovers over Virgo's recumbent form should "put those doubts to bed" once and for all (so to speak).  

Additional evidence comes from the fact that Snorri mentions that it was Heimdal who challenged Loki over the suspected theft, and who fought Loki for the necklace and eventually beat Loki and returned the necklace to Freya.  The authors of Hamlet's Mill present extensive evidence that Heimdal, the "son of nine mothers" and the one who, Snorri tells us, is also referred to by the name Vindler (which the authors of Hamlet's Mill tell us is associated with turning, or a turning handle).  The authors of Hamlet's Mill argue that these clues tell us that Heimdal is associated with the "handle" that turns the entire night sky around the central pole -- and that he is in fact associated with the entire "equinoctial colure," which stretches from Ares to Virgo through the north celestial pole (and around from Virgo to Ares through the south celestial pole as well, although this half of the colure is less appropriate to this discussion about the northern constellation Bootes and the northern myth of Loki).

Based upon their arguments, if Heimdal is associated with the handle of the Dipper and the north celestial pole, we can surmise that it is only natural that Norse myth might describe him as the arch-rival of Loki, if Loki is associated with the nearby constellation of Bootes the Herdsman, who appears to be tied to the handle of the Big Dipper. For discussion of those characteristics of Heimdal, see this previous post.

The fact that Virgo's arm is raised as if in the act of "swatting away" the thief of her necklace should be even further proof that this set of constellations furnished the material for this particular episode from Norse myth.

Any doubts which still remain regarding the identification of Loki the thief who steals from the goddess her most precious possession with the constellation Bootes above Virgo can be laid to rest by noting another nearby asterism seen in the star chart above, located just above the head of Virgo and to the right of the figure of Bootes the Herdsman, the constellation known as Coma Berenices or Berenice's Hair (and marked as such on the diagram). In his outstanding book The Stars: A New Way to See Them, author H.A. Rey says of Berenice's Hair:

Small and very faint. Contains a group of dim stars, visible only on clear, moonless nights when the constellation is high up [like, right now].  36.

He goes on to explain that:

The constellation owes its name to a theft: Berenice was an Egyptian queen (3rd century BC) who sacrificed her hair to thank Venus for a victory her husband had won in a war.  The hair was stolen from the temple but the priests in charge convinced the disconsolate queen that Zeus himself had taken the locks and put them in the sky as a constellation.

This story as related by H.A. Rey almost certainly has it backwards: the story of the queen who sacrificed her hair to the goddess Venus is most likely a legend inspired by the constellations Virgo and Coma Berenices (and not an original event that happened on earth and which later inspired the naming of constellations in the sky).

Those familiar with the Norse myths will immediately be reminded of yet another theft by Loki of the treasured possession of a beautiful goddess: this time, the theft of the golden-red hair of Sif, the wife of the thunder-god Thor. The myth of the theft of Sif's hair by Loki is clearly a dramatization of these three constellations: the disembodied hair of Coma Berenices, floating above Virgo and just next to Bootes.  In all of this, it can be seen that our identification of Loki with Bootes has ample reinforcement.

This analysis provides further support for my assertion regarding the identity of Loki and Skadi in the episode of the laughter of Skadi (Loki is again Bootes, and the beautiful Skadi is Virgo, who takes on the female role in a great many of the world's myths). It also further supports  the connections we saw, discussed in the post entitled "The celestial shamanic connection: Ancient Japan," between the Norse myth related in the Eddas in which the gods must make the beautiful jotun maiden Skadi laugh, and the Japanese myth related in the Kojiki that brings laughter to the assembled gods when the goddess Amaterasu hides herself in a cave. In the Japanese myth, it is the sexually explicit dance of the goddess Uzume which brings the laughter, and in the Norse myth it is the equally graphic antics of Loki which finally bring laughter to Skadi.

In the discussion, I make the argument that both of these myths clearly involve the constellation Virgo the Virgin and and the surrounding constellations in that region of the sky, and that in the Norse myth Skadi plays the role of Virgo and that Loki is Bootes the Herdsman -- a correlation I have not seen explicitly put forward anywhere else before (although the authors of Hamlet's Mill were clearly aware of some relation between the myth of Skadi and the myth of Uzume and Amaterasu, they never tell us directly that the connection specifically involves Virgo and Bootes, or trace out the connections between these myths and those stars).

The details which indicate that Loki's role in the tale come from the location of Bootes are conclusive, in my opinion, particularly the fact that Loki eventually precipitates himself into Skadi's lap in order to finally bring a smile to her lips -- a detail which can be readily understood from the relative location of Bootes and Virgo shown in the star chart. But the further evidence we have seen for Loki as Bootes in the myth of the theft of the necklace of Freya and in the myth of the theft of Sif's hair should put the matter beyond any doubt.

And so, if we have established that Loki is Bootes in numerous episodes from Norse myths, this serves to reinforce the assertion that the episode in which Loki makes Skadi laugh and the episode in which Uzume makes the assembled gods laugh and the goddess Amaterasu come out of her cave share a clear celestial connection, in that both the Norse and the Japanese myth use many of the exact same celestial components.

Further, the fact that we have now established the Northern Crown as the celestial counterpart of the mythical Brisingamen, the gorgeous necklace of Freya, reinforces yet another connection between the Norse and the Japanese myth-systems, in that the oldest surviving Japanese text containing these myths, the Kojiki, describes a jeweled necklace in conjunction with the episode in which Uzume dances for the assembled kami. Both systems are clearly employing many common elements in their myths involving the constellations surrounding Virgo in this particular part of the night sky.

Be sure to note also the fact that both myth systems, from Japan and from Scandinavia, are doing so in texts which can be shown to date from long before the conventional paradigm would allow for contact between cultures situated so far from one another on the globe. The Kojiki was composed no later than AD 711 or AD 712 (and probably contains myths that are centuries older than that). The age of the Poetic Edda is debated among scholars, but its original composition probably predates Snorri's Prose Edda of about AD 1220, and it may contain material that had been passed down for centuries before it was ever written down. In any case, contact between the cultures of Japan and Scandinavia prior to AD 711 is not consistent with the dominant conventional narrative of history, so what can explain the existence of a common system of celestial metaphor in the mythologies of such widely-separated peoples?

There are many possibilities, but almost all of them set the conventional historical paradigm on its ear.  One possibility is that there was ongoing transoceanic contact between these cultures during the centuries that these works were composed, or at some time prior. Another possibility is that both cultures (and the many others around the world whose mythologies share the same universal allegorical system) are descended from some even earlier common predecessor civilization, perhaps one which left this ancient esoteric system as a precious inheritance for all humanity.

In any case, if it is at all possible for you to do so, now is an excellent time to head outside in the hours after nightfall, and to identify the constellations discussed, such as Virgo, Bootes, the Northern Crown, and even (if the night is dark enough and the sky clear enough) Berenice's Hair. As you do so, you can think of the legends of the beauty of Freya, and of her dazzling necklace, the Brisingamen. And as you contemplate the theft of the heavenly necklace by Loki (and his theft of another heavenly treasure, that of Sif's hair), you can reflect on the possibility that this once-universal system of celestial metaphor, which Aritsotle himself referred to as the "ancient treasure" and which may represent the legacy of some far older and possibly far more advanced predecessor civilization, has effectively been stolen from humanity, and knowledge of it suppressed, for at least the past seventeen centuries.

Make your plans to attend the Eternal Knowledge Festival at Atherstone!

If you have the ability to do so, you should strongly consider making your plans to attend the upcoming Eternal Knowledge Festival for 2014, which will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 4th through July 6th, at the Purley Chase Conference Centre, Atherstone, Warwickshire.

The Eternal Knowledge Festival is hosted and organized by Lucy Wyatt and Gary Evans.  

Lucy Wyatt should be familiar to regular readers of this blog: her work on the shamanic roots of civilization were very influential in the formation of my own understanding and analysis as I began to wrestle with the question of why the ancient sacred scriptures and traditions around the world so consistently manifest a common pattern of celestial allegory. Previous blog posts discussing her important work include: 

• "The shamanic tradition in ancient Egypt" 
• "Review of Jeremy Naydler's Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts"
• "Arkaim, gold, and the ancient shamanic rituals"
• "Stonehenge acoustics, and beyond"
• "Where did domestic grains and domestic animals come from in the first place?"
• "Rupert Sheldrake and Morphic Resonance"

and

• "Revolution"

Lucy's interview on Red Ice Creations from March of 2012 can be found in two parts here: part one and part two (Red Ice membership required to access their extensive archive: highly recommended and well worth the subscription!). 

Gary Evans is an explorer and a speaker, and provides public relations to increase the awareness of the work of several alternative researchers and authors.  His own interview on the Red Ice Creations site, with Lana Lokteff on Radio 3Fourteen, can be found here (again, membership required but well worth it).

In addition to the opportunity to meet and talk with Lucy Wyatt and Gary Evans, participants in the Eternal Knowledge Festival will have the opportunity to attend talks and workshops presented by many insightful thinkers and philosophers and authors and explorers on a wide range of subjects, including:

• Marcus Allen of NEXUS magazine
• Patricia Awyan of the Khemit School of Ancient Mysticism
• Tom Bree of the Prince's School of Traditional Arts
• Paul Devereux, author of several books including Lucid Dreaming
• Brian Foerster, an explorer, author and speaker and host of Hidden Inca Tours
• Adrian Gilbert, the author of The Cosmic Wisdom Beyond Astrology
• Gary Lachman, philosopher and author of numerous books and a founding member of the band Blondie, as well as a former guitarist for Iggy Pop
• Christopher McIntosh, philosopher and lecturer at Exeter and author of several books including Gardens of the Gods
• Karen Ralls, a medievalist, scholar, lecturer, and author of numerous books
• Diana Taylor, a Tarot consultant and teacher
• Gregory Sams, the inventor of the first VegeBurger, and an author of numerous books
• and Gary Evans, mentioned previously (also the organizer of Infinite Connections)

Unfortunately, I personally will not be able to attend this year's Eternal Knowledge Festival, but as you can see it promises to be an exciting time.

If it is at all possible, everyone who is interested in these important topics should try to make plans to be there!

Like a finger, pointing a way to the moon . . .

In the above segment showing an exchange from the film Enter the Dragon (1973), Bruce Lee famously explains to his young student:

"It is like a finger, pointing a way to the moon . . .

Don't concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory!"

In doing so, the groundbreaking film brought into the popular awareness an ancient principle which was recorded in writing at least as early as the inscription of the text of the Shurangama Sutra, which according to tradition was translated into Chinese in AD 705 from an ancient Indian sutra or scripture (sutras are writings, as opposed to other sacred teachings which were not written down but memorized and passed verbally from generation to generation).

As discussed in this essay by Professor Ron Epstein, published in 1976, there is some controversy over whether or not the Shurangama Sutra is actually a translation of an older sutra or whether it was actually created by the minister Fang Yung, who lived during the period that it was supposedly translated into Chinese.  In any event, because records regarding the authenticity of the Shurangama Sutra exist from as early as AD 754, we know that it was in existence by at least that year, and probably before.  Further, whether it was originally penned by Fang Yung or was in fact a translation or at least an adaptation of earlier scriptures, its principles resonate with teachings that are much older, and it became a very influential text in Ch'an Buddhism in China (which is philosophically related to Zen Buddhism in Japan -- both the Chinese word Ch'an and the Japanese word Zen are probably linguistically related to the Sanskrit word dhyana).

You can read a translation of the Shurangama Sutra for yourself at various places on the web, including here (online pdf).  The metaphor of the finger pointing to the moon is found on page 60 of that particular translation and file.  There we read:

This is like a man pointing a finger at the moon to show it to others who should follow the direction of the finger to look at the moon.  If they look at the finger and mistake it for the moon, they lose both the moon and the finger.  Why?  Because the bright moon is actually pointed at; they lose sight of the finger and fail to distinguish between brightness and darkness.  Why?  Because they mistake the finger for the bright moon and are not clear about brightness and darkness.

Whatever other deep matters this passage is illuminating, the analogy of the finger pointing to the moon provides another powerful illustration of the concept of the esoteric (the inner or the hidden) and the exoteric (the external or the literal), and the danger of losing sight of the esoteric truth by a mistaken focus on the literal or exoteric.  This concept was discussed in a previous post using an example from the 1984 film Karate Kid (for a variety of reasons, some aspects of the martial arts have traditionally been taught using esoteric methodologies, as that post mentions).

The finger in this illustration is only an aid, pointing to a higher truth (represented by the moon).  To lose sight of the higher truth because one mistakes the finger or the "teaching aid" for the truth itself would be analogous to losing sight of the martial art that the waxing of cars was intended to teach, and to focus exclusively on waxing cars.

Shockingly, there is abundant evidence that this is exactly what has happened through the literalist interpretation of the stories found in the ancient scriptures which became the Old and New Testaments of the Bible -- the literalists have fallen into the exact mistake warned against in the Shurangama Sutra: "they look at the finger and mistake it for the moon" (and in doing so, they lose both the moon and the finger).

For example, in this previous post entitled "No hell below us . . ." I argue that the scriptures describing hell which are found in the Bible were intended to be read metaphorically, and to refer to that portion of the year in which the sun's daily path (the ecliptic) is below the celestial equator -- and particularly to the winter months at the very "bottom" of the annual cycle, that part of the year on either side of the winter equinox, which is metaphorically speaking the very Pit of hell.  In other words, these scriptures are intended to convey an esoteric message, but literalists have interpreted them as describing a literal place called hell where souls are consigned for eternal torment -- a mistake of the same magnitude as mistaking the finger for the moon.

Another example would be mistaking the twelve disciples for literal historical figures, when they are almost certainly representative of the twelve signs of the zodiac and the characteristics associated with each.  Angrily insisting that they must be studied first and foremost as literal men living in the Roman Empire is akin to reversing Bruce Lee's dictum in the above film clip to say, "

Don't focus on the moon -- you must only focus on the finger, such as the disciples in the stories, and must never consider the possibility that they are only a guide to point you towards something else!"

Further evidence that the ancient scriptures of the Bible (and of many other sacred traditions found around the globe) are primarily esoteric in nature rather than literal can be found in my new book, The Undying Stars, which also examines some of the history behind the replacement of esoteric truths with a mistaken literalist hermeneutic.

The Undying Stars also discusses the profound truths that these esoteric ancient scriptures may have been intended to convey.  In other words, it examines the question which one may be thinking upon reading the above discussion, which might be expressed something like this: "OK, if you are saying that the twelve disciples represent zodiac signs, or that the passages about hell represent the lower half of the annual zodiac wheel, then why would anyone write sacred scriptures about that and make such a big deal about those scriptures for so long?  What's the point of making a bunch of stories about the stars?"

One important thing to notice in both the segment from Enter the Dragon and from the Shurangama Sutra is the fact that in both cases, the moon itself is also being used as a metaphor for something else!  In other words, the teachings are not just talking about "the moon," meaning the massive rocky body orbiting our planet at an average distance of 238,857 miles.   They are using the moon in a metaphorical sense, just as they are using the overall metaphor of a finger pointing to the moon in a metaphorical sense.  The moon in both examples is meant to stand for a higher-mind that is beyond the intellect, a thinking that is beyond or above our ordinary form of thinking (in fact, it is meant to convey a truth which is difficult to express in a sentence, which is why it is best grasped through a metaphor and through the esoteric).

In just such a way, the stars and the motions of the heavens to which the ancient scriptural texts (including those which found their way into the Bible) are themselves an analogy for something else. The ancient scriptures are not just "a bunch of stories about the stars" -- they are esoteric stories related to the motions of the heavens and the heavenly bodies, but they are much more than that.  They use the motions of the heavens and the heavenly bodies to express profound truths about the human condition and our purpose in this life, as well as to imply a sophisticated cosmology that appears to anticipate modern quantum physics by many thousands of years.

The sophistication of this ancient cosmology suggests that extremely ancient civilizations may somehow have been possessed of extremely advanced science and even what we can only call advanced technology, and may help to explain some of the ancient accomplishments which are extremely difficult to explain using the conventional historical paradigm.  This fact may also help to explain why someone would want to subvert the ancient scriptures which teach it, and to get everyone focused on the finger (and only the finger) . . . and to miss all that heavenly glory!

The Smithsonian Cover-up

John Wesley Powell (1834 - 1902, image above from Wikimedia commons) was made the first director of the Bureau of Ethnology in the United States in 1879, which was established that same year by an Act of Congress, a position he held until his death in 1902.  

That bureau, which changed its name to the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1897, was directly connected to the Smithsonian Institution, which had been established in 1846 through the will of the British chemist James Smithson (1765 - 1829) and funded by his bequest of 105 sacks of about 1,000 gold sovereigns each, and pursued the mission of organizing all the anthropological research in the nation.

In his first year as head of the Bureau of Ethnology, Powell submitted the first of his Annual Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, dated July 1880 and covering the Bureau of Ethnology's efforts for 1879-1880.  The entire report can be seen online here among other places.  

Beginning on page 73 of that publication is a famous essay by Powell entitled "On Limitations to the Use of Some Anthropologic Data."  In it, Powell sets forth the doctrine which would become the guiding principle of his Bureau of American Ethnology and of the Smithsonian at large all the way through the present day, a strictly isolationist doctrine which flatly declares that it is "illegitimate" to entertain any line of analysis which attempts to connect any artifacts found in the New World with any "peoples or so-called races of antiquity in other portions of the world."  

A reproduction of the letter, with the passages emphasizing this isolationist doctrine highlighted in yellow, can be found online here as well.

The motivations behind this strict imposition of the isolationist paradigm and flat rejection of the examination of any possibility of diffusionist explanations (which propose the possibility that there was contact across the oceans prior to the arrival of Columbus) can and have been debated.  Many biographers and vignettes emphasize the "tremendous respect" Powell had for the native tribes of North America and some have suggested that his support for an isolationist doctrine was based upon that respect for the Native Americans and the view that any theory proposing ancient pre-Columbian contact with "peoples or so-called races of antiquity in other portions of the world" must automatically be disrespectful to the native peoples here, or even based upon some kind of racist animus.  

It is certainly likely from some of the episodes of Powell's life that he did in fact have tremendous respect for the Native Americans.  However, it is undeniable that Powell's own 1879 essay displays some extremely paternalistic and disrespectful generalizations, including his assertions in the second part of the essay (entitled "Picture Writing," beginning on page 75 of the above-linked version of the 1879 report) that the "pictographs" found in North America are "simply the beginning of pictorial art" and in almost all cases "simply mnemonic" -- possessed of no systematic or as Powell calls it, "conventional," structure by which ideas could be preserved using symbols that possessed a common meaning agreed upon by all who understood that system (i.e., whose meaning was agreed-upon by convention across a large number of people, thus constituting a writing-system).  

In this astonishing denial of the existence of writing systems, Powell explicitly includes even the obvious writing-systems of the Maya and the Inca and other cultures of Central and South America, whose artifacts were by no means unknown to him and to the other employees of the Bureau of Ethnology (in fact, the 1879 report contains long sections dealing with "Central American Picture Writing," and many of the other annual reports discuss the artifacts and culture of the Maya and Inca and other civilizations in detail).  Nevertheless, Powell asserts in his letter that:

To some slight extent pictographs are found with characters more or less conventional, and the number of such is quite large in Mexico and Central America.  Yet even these conventional characters are used with others less conventional in such a manner that perfect records were never made.

Such a statement is extremely paternalistic, and effectively denies the existence of any true systematic writing systems, even among the cultures of Mexico and Central America!  Based upon this false assertion, Powell then declares: "Hence it will be seen that it is illegitimate to use any pictographic matter of a date anterior to the discovery of the continent by Columbus for historic purposes."  By this declaration, Powell effectively discarded any and all artifacts containing writing from consideration of historic analysis, and in doing so protected his earlier declaration that any contact with peoples from "other portions of the world" is plainly "illegitimate."  

Thus, none of the numerous inscriptions and artifacts which clearly attest to the possibility of ancient contact -- many of which have been discussed in previous posts on this blog and many more of which have been detailed in numerous published books -- could be considered as evidence which might challenge the isolationist dogma.  Some of those artifacts containing evidence of writing which strongly supports the possibility of ancient contact are discussed in the following previous posts:

• "Have you heard of this artifact? The Grave Creek Stone"
• "Chief Joseph, 1840 - 1904"
• "Beltane and ancient inscriptions in the New World"
• "Ogham inscriptions in Colorado"
• "The staggering implications of the ancient inscriptions at Hidden Mountain near Los Lunas, New Mexico"
• "The case of the Micmac hieroglyphs: a powerful blow to isolationist theories"

And there are hundreds of other examples which could be discussed in addition to the evidence discussed in those posts.  To simply refuse to consider any such evidence at all is unscientific to the extreme, and yet it has been the implicit or explicit policy of the Smithsonian since the days of John Wesley Powell.

The fact that the Smithsonian has not changed their policy of refusing to consider any artifacts which might suggest the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact with the "New World" is evident from the controversy over the Bat Creek Stone found in 1889 in Tennessee, which the Smithsonian recently (early in 2014) called "an obvious fraud" in their response to Scott Wolter's discussion of the artifact on his America Unearthed program on the History Channel.  Scott Wolter's response to the Smithsonian's dismissive belittling of his examination of the Bat Creek Stone, and their ad hominem attacks on Wolter himself as lacking in "qualifications and reputation as a researcher," can be seen here.  His response also includes expressions of regret towards the Smithsonian's dismissal of the Bat Creek Stone from representatives of the Cherokee people, who did possess a system of writing and who told the Smithsonian that if they are so sure that the stone is a fraud, the Cherokee can take the stone back and rebury it where it was found out of respect to those who originally produced it.

Recently, a new aspect of the Smithsonian's policy of refusing to countenance any artifacts that might pose a challenge to Powell's "doctrine" of isolationism has received a lot of publicity in light of the publication of Richard Dewhurst's new book Ancient Giants Who Ruled North America: the Missing Skeletons and the Great Smithsonian Cover-Up (briefly discussed in this previous post).  Richard Dewhurst used the capabilities of modern search engines to examine the archives of US newspapers going back to the early 1800s and found hundreds of published descriptions of giant skeletons being unearthed across the North American continent, many of them containing photographs.  

He also found evidence that, while the Smithsonian in its early years was an enthusiastic documenter of such discoveries, the arrival of John Wesley Powell marked a dramatic change in the Smithsonian's attitude and policy towards such finds, to such an extent that Dewhurst was forced to conclude that: "What my research has revealed is that the Smithsonian has been at the center of a vast cover-up of America's true history since the 1880s" (3).  He documents numerous cases in which representatives from the Smithsonian arrived on the scene of any reported discoveries of giant skeletons with remarkable rapidity (sometimes within one or two days, even in the late 1800s and even when the archaeological find was in remote regions of the American west) and in which skeletons reported as being turned over to the Smithsonian were never seen again.  

Today, if one searches the internet for the terms "Smithsonian cover up," the predominant results will have to do with the cover-up of giant skeletons.   Richard Dewhurst believes that the motives for what he calls the "Powell doctrine" of suppressing and denying any archaeological evidence that could indicate the presence of other ancient peoples in the Americas or contact with ancient cultures from across the oceans may have sprang from the fact that John Wesley Powell's father was a Methodist preacher in Palmyra, New York (Powell himself was obviously named after John Wesley, 1703 - 1791, the founder of Methodism), where Joseph Smith first published the Book of Mormon in 1830 and where the early enthusiasm of the people of the area for the new revelations caused Powell's father to lose his congregation (as Richard Dewhurst explains in a footnote on page 6 as a likely motive for Powell's animus towards any diffusionist theories).

Richard Dewhurst also believes that the distasteful US policy of "Manifest Destiny" and the efforts of the federal government following the Civil War to seize the territory to the west of the Mississippi and to suppress the Native Americans who lived there played a role in the Smithsonian's (and Powell's) desire to characterize the native peoples of the continent as primitive barbarians, incapable of producing anything more than "the most rudimentary picture making," (Dewhurst, 6).  Dewhurst proposes that such a doctrine may have been deployed in order to help convince the population to support the aggressive plans to exploit the lands of the Native Americans.

If so, then the "Powell doctrine" probably did not originate with Powell himself, but would have likely been the determined policy of a number of other government officials.  At the front of Powell's first annual report (containing his essay declaring as "illegitimate" any attempts to connect any artifacts found in the New World with cultures from anywhere else) is an introductory letter from Powell to Spencer F. Baird, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, in which Powell says the following: 

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith the first annual report of the operations of the Bureau of Ethnology. 

By act of Congress, an appropriation was made to continue researches in North American anthropology, the general direction of which was confided to yourself.  As chief executive officer of the Smithsonian Institution, you entrusted to me the immediate control of the affairs of the Bureau.  This report, with its appended papers, is designed to exhibit the methods and results of my administration of this trust. 

If any measure of success has been attained, it is largely due to general instructions received from yourself and the advice you have ever patiently given me on all matters of importance.

I am indebted to my assistants, whose labors are delineated in the report, for their industry, hearty co-operation, and enthusiastic love of the science.  Only through their zeal have your plans been executed.

Much assistance has been rendered the Bureau by a large body of scientific men engaged in the study of anthropology, some of whose names have been mentioned in the report and accompanying papers, and others will be put on record when the subject-matter of their writings is fully published.

I am, with respect, your obedient servant,

J.W. POWELL

While this introductory and dedicatory letter may simply be an example of "polite formalities" or conventional platitudes within a government bureaucracy, in keeping with the style and traditions of the period, it is also possible in light of the topic being discussed that it contains evidence that Powell's doctrine did not originate with Powell himself, but was part of a policy transmitted by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution whose office was in Washington, DC, and of other men in Washington as well.  The highlighted areas (all highlighting is my own and is not found in the original document) seem to support such a possibility, with Powell referencing a "general direction" which "was confided" to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Spencer Baird by some unnamed parties (presumably parties connected with Congress, whose authorizing act for the creation of the Bureau of Ethnology was mentioned immediately prior to this mysterious assertion), and "the advice you have ever patiently given me on all matters of importance," and his declaration that "your plans [have] been executed."

The likelihood that what Dewhurst calls "the Powell doctrine" has roots far deeper than Powell himself (or even Powell's animus towards diffusionist theories due to the loss of his father's congregation) is evident from the fact that the Smithsonian's policy of refusing to entertain any possibility of ancient contact across the oceans and its haste to declare any artifacts containing inscriptions which might employ the known writing systems of ancient Mediterranean cultures as frauds or hoaxes has continued long after the death of John Wesley Powell, and continues to this day.  

This continuing refusal to examine artifacts containing inscriptions such as those mentioned in the list of previous posts above and reflexive labeling of such artifacts as either fraudulent or the products of post-Columbian contact cannot be explained by the Powell family's personal experiences in Palmyra, New York.  Nor, it seems, can the benighted and repulsive nineteenth-century belief in "Manifest Destiny" be the reason that the Smithsonian continued to enforce the "Powell doctrine" throughout the twentieth century, long after the United States had seized all of the lands of the Native Americans between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean, and most of the citizens of the country had forgotten that their land had once belonged to someone else.  Is it possible that there is some other motive which lies behind the Smithsonian's ongoing policy of anti-diffusionism?

Personally, I am not an expert on the "giant skeletons" controversy.  While it certainly seems, based upon the prodigious volume of reports and descriptions and even photographs (see, for instance, the photograph below from 1940 published in the San Antonio Express), that such skeletons have been found throughout the Americas in some numbers, and that the absence of any such skeletons on display at the Smithsonian National Museum is suspicious, I also believe it is a mistake to focus entirely on giant skeletons when talking about a "Smithsonian cover-up."  

The easiest way for defenders of the Powell doctrine to deflect such cover-up arguments is to argue that such "giant skeletons" were simply the remains of some isolated individuals exhibiting traits of giantism, to point out that enthusiasm over giants and the possibility of ancient trans-oceanic contact was rife in the nineteenth century (much of it fueled, it must be noted, by religious agendas and a desire to support literalist interpretations of the Bible or by the newly published Book of Mormon), and to argue that whatever skeletons may have been uncovered in those early decades were lost or crumbled to dust and were not maliciously squirreled-away in the bowels of the Smithsonian's warehouses.  

I certainly do not agree that these counter-arguments settle the case, and believe that Richard Dewhurst's analysis of the evidence of giant remains (and other such analysis by other researchers, such as the analysis in this essay found in several places on the web) is extremely valuable and worthy of careful consideration.  I also believe that all dogmatic declarations that the facts of the matter are settled and that no further analysis is legitimate (whatever the subject) should be treated with great suspicion (see discussions to that effect in previous posts such as this one, this one, this one and this one, for example).  Nevertheless, I also believe that the "giant skeleton" aspect of the "Smithsonian cover-up" question could become a huge red herring which falsely divides the debate in the eyes of the general public into two camps, those who believe America was once home to a race of giants, and those who generally side with the Powell doctrine.  

The Powell doctrine excludes a whole lot more evidence than giant skeletons, as the recent Bat Creek Stone controversy demonstrates.  There is abundant evidence that there was ancient contact across the oceans, most of it involving human beings of what we might call "normal" (or at least non-gigantic) stature.  As far as I know, no one is maintaining that the giants whose skeletons have been found throughout the Americas were the authors of inscriptions using known "Old World" writing systems including Hebrew, Egyptian (both hieroglyphic and hieratic), Phoenician/Punic, Ogham, cuneiform, runic, Iberian, Libyan, and Roman, but many of these have been found in the Americas and conventional scholars either ignore them, declare them to be frauds or hoaxes, or explain them away as artifacts which were brought to the Americas by Europeans after Columbus and either lost or given to Native Americans (this is the explanation for the small cuneiform tablet which Chief Joseph had in his possession when he surrendered to the US Army, described in this previous post linked above).  Many other forms of evidence for ancient trans-oceanic contact have been found, such as the amphorae at the bottom of Guanabara Bay in Brazil, and the mummies and other evidence listed in this previous post describing the "Calixtlahuaca head" (which is itself another artifact attesting to ancient trans-oceanic contact).

To the extent that the Powell doctrine and the ongoing policy of the Smithsonian and the rest of conventional academia ignores or devalues these artifacts, and discourages their honest appraisal by professional scholars, the search for the truth is greatly inhibited.  What professional scholar wants to risk ridicule and marginalization by publishing an examination of any of these pieces of evidence, at least one that reaches conclusions which contradict the oppressive official policy of the Powell doctrine?

Clearly, the so-called Powell doctrine did not originate with John Wesley Powell alone, and its ongoing enforcement throughout academia (and at the Smithsonian) is evidence that its roots go far deeper than John Wesley Powell himself.  Its continuing effect of suppressing open-minded examination of the evidence cannot simply be explained by Powell's personal views of the Native American peoples, or the personal impact his family may have experienced due to the "lost tribes" enthusiasms of the nineteenth century in general and the beginnings of the Mormon religion in particular.  Nor can its continuing impact be attributable to the nineteenth-century doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" (although perhaps related to the latest incarnation of that vicious doctrine).   

I believe that there is a bigger reason why powerful forces believe that evidence of ancient trans-oceanic contact must be suppressed, one that involves the spreading of illusions about history which powerful interests find extremely valuable for the public to accept.  The control of history can certainly be a form of very powerful mind control -- and the single-mindedness evident in the efforts of John Wesley Powell (and of the Smithsonian Institute since 1879) demonstrates just how important this control of history must be to someone's agenda.

Angkor Wat, Giza, Paracas and the World-Wide Grid

In their outstanding book Heaven's Mirror, Graham Hancock and Santha Faiia point out the undeniable fact that Angkor Wat is located seventy-two degrees east of Giza in Egypt (page 254).  

Seventy-two is an important precessional number.  It is highly unlikely that the site of Angkor Wat would be located such an important number of degrees of longitude from the site of the Great Pyramid at Giza simply by accident, especially because both the Great Pyramid and the art and architecture of Angkor Wat deliberately employ precessional numbers and symbology in their construction and (in the case of Angkor Wat) in their symbology, as Graham Hancock discusses in Heaven's Mirror and other books (including Fingerprints of the Gods).  

The fact that Angkor Wat bears a name which is made up of two sacred Egyptian words -- Ankh and Horus -- makes the connection between Giza and Angkor even more certain to be deliberate and not a coincidence.  Further, as Joseph P. Farrell and Scott D. de Hart discuss in their book Grid of the Gods, both sites contain pyramid structures; the pyramids at Angkor (shown above in an image from Wikimedia commons) happen to be shaped differently than the pyramids of Giza (being taller than they are wide, unlike those at Giza), but that may well be because their purpose is different, as Drs. Farrell and de Hart discuss in their book.

The fact that these two sites are separated by seventy-two degrees of longitude is an important piece of evidence supporting the assertion made by Drs. Farrell and de Hart, and by Graham Hancock and others, that the ancient astronomically-aligned sites on our planet are part of a global "grid" laid out by an ancient civilization or civilizations possessed of deep wisdom and sophisticated scientific understanding.  

Interestingly enough, Heaven's Mirror also reveals that one hundred eight degrees to the west of Giza lies another mysterious site: Paracas, on the Pacific coast of Peru.  One hundred eight is one of the most important and widely used precessional numbers in the mythology and traditions of the world.  It is, of course, 1.5 times 72.  Multiples of 108 which are found in numerous ancient myths and legends include 216, 432, and 540.  

Paracas is located in the Ica region of Peru, home to the mysterious elongated skulls which were recently in the news due to the results of DNA tests which are discussed in this article on the Ancient Origins website.  Paracas is also the home of an ancient geoglyph known as the "Paracas Candelabra" (shown below in an image from Wikimedia commons), which may reflect the constellation of the Southern Cross according to Graham Hancock's analysis in Heaven's Mirror. 

As Graham Hancock also points out in Fingerprints of the Gods, the ability to measure longitude accurately eluded "western civilization" until the 1700s, when John Harrison finally developed a chronometer accurate enough for precise longitudinal calculation (see discussion here regarding the "Longitude Prize").  The fact that Giza is seventy-two degrees west of Angkor Wat and one hundred eight degrees east of Paracas suggests that the ancients had a way of accurately measuring the globe.  

The fact of an ancient world-wide grid is not simply a piece of "gee-whiz" trivia.  As Drs. Farrell and de Hart discuss in the book linked above, such a grid may have been constructed in order to harness the enormous power of the earth, and potentially the power created by the motions of other planets in our solar system as well.  The fact that we today know little or nothing about such a grid -- and the fact that conventional academia reflexively suppresses such information and ridicules and marginalizes those who choose to investigate the evidence regarding this and other mysteries of mankind's ancient past -- suggests the possibility that vital information about our planet and our relationship to has been deliberately concealed for centuries.

Previous posts discussing the evidence for a world-wide grid can be found here, here, and here.