Essential Reading for Columbus Day

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

October 12, 1492 is traditionally understood to be the day that Columbus and his companions first set foot in the "New" World. 

The day is officially remembered as Columbus Day in the United States and as Indigenous Peoples' Day, Discovery Day, Discoverers' Day, Native American Day, Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity, Day of the Americas, and other variations in different states and countries.

The number of different names and perspectives on this day reflected in the short list above (and there are others, including Day of Indigenous Resistance) indicates the complexity of the issues raised by the landing of Columbus and his ships on October 12, 1492 . . . and the deep and abiding anguish remaining to this day due to the destruction and slaughter of the American Indians and the wholesale attack on their various cultures and civilizations that subsequently followed in the wake of that landing.

In order to better understand the significance of Christopher Columbus himself, and some of the issues evoked by this historic day, the following books might be considered essential reading for Columbus Day.

This is information that absolutely concerns everyone living on this planet -- and which deserves careful and serious contemplation:

• Thrice Great Hermetica and the Janus Age: Hermetic Cosmology, Finance, Politics and Culture in the Middle Ages through the Late Renaissance, by Joseph P. Farrell (2014). On a list of books billed as "essential reading" regarding Columbus Day, this one is rated "absolutely essential," especially from the standpoint of Columbus himself and the European side of events leading up to October 12, 1492. The information presented in this most-recent contribution from Joseph P. Farrell will forever change the way you understand Christopher Columbus and his voyages. Dr. Farrell's essential text argues that: "The voyage of Columbus, viewed against the large conceptual canvas and backdrop painted above, thus takes on crucial significance in the huge operational complex that has been unfolding, of the struggle between international papal and ecclesiastical power, and the international financial and 'hermetic' order represented by the militant Orders and the Italian city-states and banking centers of Genoa and Venice" (324). He also presents compelling evidence to suggest that October 12, 1492 may not have been the very first time that Columbus set foot in the "New" World! If that isn't enough to convince you to read this book (and it should be), trust me when I say that there is so much more in this book of tremendous significance that this revolutionary possibility is only one of many such astounding, conventional-history-confounding incendiary devices that Dr. Farrell sets off in this volume (all of them backed up by serious analysis, compelling evidence, and his signature "high-octane speculation" when appropriate).
• Christopher Columbus, the Last Templar, by Ruggero Marino (2005, first US edition 2007). Referred to in Joseph Farrell's Thrice Great Hermetica, and one of the sources contributing to his analysis of the significance of Christopher Columbus, this book explores connections between the "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" and the mysterious Knights Templar (who also feature heavily in Dr. Farrell's book). Some of the important symbology employed by the Knights Templar can in fact be shown to contain clear connections to the vitally important institution of Sol Invictus Mithras which features prominently in the "Judaic priestly bloodline" thesis of  Flavio Barbiero which is discussed in depth in The Undying Stars, by which the Roman Empire was taken over and its power used (among other things) to initiate a "War on Consciousness" and the institution of oppressive systems of control which featured a centuries-long suppression of the shamanic worldview wherever it could be found. Regarding the possible connection of Columbus to the Templars, note the depiction of the red crosses on white backgrounds (one of the distinctive dress codes of the Knights Templar) on the sails of Columbus' three ships on the cover of Ruggero Marino's book -- and in the painting above by Albert Bierstadt dated 1893. In discussing another of Ruggero Marino's important insights, Dr. Farrell writes in Thrice Great Hermetica of a block quotation from Marino regarding the famous 13th century Venetian merchant and adventurer Marco Polo: "In other words, Marco Polo, if one is actually attentive to what he says, made it to the New World across the Pacific, most likely during a Chinese voyage" (145). This hypothesis later received a huge boost from news released in September of this year (well after the publication of both Marino's and Farrell's books) that a map had surfaced drawn by Polo himself which -- if authentic -- could go a long ways towards "confirming" such a possibility. Here is Dr. Farrell's own commentary on the significance of this recent "find."
• Maps of the Ancient Sea-Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age, by Charles Hapgood (originally published in 1966). Examines the beautiful and sophisticated "portolan" maps which appear to indicate sophisticated ancient understanding of the geography of our planet, including the Americas and even Antarctica, and presents evidence that Columbus may have had in his possession a portolan map which guided him on his voyages. Previous posts have discussed the important and ground-breaking work of Charles Hapgood, and of the portolan maps such as the Piri Re'is map, including "The sub-glacial fjords in Antarctica," "Copernicus, Proclus, and the Lost Knowledge of the Ancients," "Earth's Big Roll," and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
• Yucatan Before and After the Conquest, by Diego de Landa (first written in the 1560s, and translated by Wm Gates into English in 1937). One of the first accounts of the absolutely brutal and inhuman atrocities perpetrated on the peoples of the Americas in the decades following the 1492 "discovery." It will turn your stomach. The account given by Diego de Landa is discussed in Graham Hancock's landmark Fingerprints of the Gods. The deliberate and genocidal campaigns to wipe out the civilizations of Central and South America are discussed (with references to the Diego de Landa texts) in the previous blog post entitled "450 Years," which I published back on December 15, 2012.
• Hidden No Longer: Genocide in Canada, Past and Present, by Kevin Annett (2010). Presents horrifying evidence of a sustained and deliberate campaign of oppression, brutalization, severe medical neglect and even murder against Native Americans (or First Nations) peoples, specifically focusing on the institution of mandatory "residential schools" run by the government and religious institutions of Canada right up through the end of the twentieth century. In this book and in the related (and equally essential documentary, Unrepentant), Kevin Annett presents arguments connecting certain doctrines and interpretations found in some aspects of literalist Christianity to the crimes which he finds evidence to believe did indeed take place on a staggering scale and duration. He also presents evidence that the criminal neglect in the residential schools fits into a larger narrative stretching back centuries and including deliberate efforts to transmit smallpox to tribe members by representatives of the colonialist governments.
• The previous blog post entitled "A November 11 meditation, 2013" detailing just some of the long string of broken treaties and deceptive and criminal behavior by the US government in its dealings with the American Indians, as well as some discussion of the lack of outrage at these violations by the people who made that government's actions possible. Further discussion of this history of criminal behavior by the government against the Native peoples can be found in this previous post about the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
• The previous blog post entitled "Columba, the Dove," published on January 26 of this year, which describes the constellation of Columba and presents arguments that this constellation was anciently known, and anciently associated with sailing ships (since it is located right next to the constellation Argo Navis). The discussion in that post and the related discussion in The Undying Stars demonstrate that the constellation of Columba features prominently in the ancient myths of Jason and the Argonauts, and Noah and the Ark, among others which also feature a ship and a dove. This fact, combined with some of the astonishing revelations offered by Joseph Farrell in Thrice Great Hermetica, raises the possibility that "Columbus" was not actually Christopher Columbus' birth name, but that he may have either chosen that name or been given that name based upon a preserved stream of esoteric knowledge regarding the connection between the stars and the myths, and the role he was chosen to play as the "Admiral of the Ocean Sea." Columba can be seen early in the morning from many latitudes right now, in the hours before sunrise, when the "Pre-dawn lineup of the Golden Age" are all currently high in the sky in the hours before daybreak, including Orion and Canis Major; look below Canis Major and Lepus to find Argo Navis and Columba using the instructions contained in the linked post above entitled "Columba, the Dove."

There are, of course, many more . . . but the above list should begin to give a fuller picture of the importance of Christopher Columbus, and of the crucial date of October 12, 1492, and of the complexity of the issues raised, and of the scope of the tragedy which followed the "discovery" of what came to be called "The New World."

"It is above all during trance that he becomes truly himself"

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Among the Eskimo peoples of North America -- including the Yupik, the Inuit and the Inupiat and the other peoples whose traditional lands stretched through the Arctic regions of North America and Greenland -- the shaman is referred to as the angakok or angakut. 

Much can be learned from examining some of the recorded descriptions of the forms and practices of shamanism as practiced among these peoples of the far north.

First, the name itself, angakok or angakut, is striking in its obvious representation of the sacred N-K and N-G pattern which Alvin Boyd Kuhn argues shows up worldwide in connection with the ancient Egyptian Ankh and its evocation of the concept of raising the spiritual aspect buried and hidden within the material world -- within each man and woman and within all nature around us. Other manifestations around the world may include Angkor Wat, King and Queen, Kundalini, Kukulkan, Kon-Tiki, and the River Ganges or Ganga. See for example previous posts "The Name of the Ankh," "The Name of the Ankh, continued: Kundalini around the world" and "Scarab, Ankh and Djed." 

There are many singular aspects of shamanic practice among the Arctic peoples of North America recorded in Mircea Eliade's encyclopedic collection of first-hand observations of shamanic culture, Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy (1951). Many of these are described in Chapter Nine: Shamanism in North and South America, which begins with an extended discussion entitled "Shamanism among the Eskimo." Eliade writes:

The Eskimo shaman's principal prerogatives are healing, the undersea journey to the Mother of the Sea Beasts to ensure a plentiful supply of game, fair weather (through his contacts with Sila), and the help that he provides for sterile women. Illness is presumably caused by violation of taboos, that is, disorder in the sacred, or by the theft of the patient's soul by one of the dead. In the former case the shaman attempts to cleanse the impurity by collective confessions; in the latter he undertakes an ecstatic journey to the sky or the depths of the sea to find the patient's soul and bring it back to his body. It is always by ecstatic journeys that the angakok approaches Takanakapsaluk (Mother of the Sea Beasts) in the depths of the ocean or Sila in the sky. He is, besides, a specialist in magical flight. Some shamans have visited the moon, others have flown around the earth. According to the traditions, shamans fly like birds, spreading their arms as a bird does its wings. The angakut also know the future, make prophecies, predict atmospheric changes, and excel in magical feats. 289 - 290.

Note that throughout the book, Eliade's translator uses the older convention of simply using the masculine impersonal pronoun when speaking generally: there are so many examples in the book of discussions of women shamans that it is clear that Eliade is not restricting his observations to men when this pronoun is used.

An interesting feature of their journeys is the fact that they always fasten ropes to their body, so that they can be sure to return from the spirit realm: 

[. . .] their ecstatic capacities enable them to undertake any journey "in spirit" to any region of the cosmos. They always take the precaution of having themselves bound with ropes, so that they will journey only "in spirit"; otherwise they would be carried into the sky and would vanish for good. 292.

Another distinctive feature is the frequency of journeys to the depths of the ocean -- which seems to be an understandable aspect of shamanic journeying for those whose life depended so much upon the sea. Eliade cites an earlier observer who notes that among the Arctic peoples, "The term most commonly used in referring to a shaman is 'one who drops down to the bottom of the sea'"(293).

But perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of Eliade's discussion of the Eskimo shaman is found in passages discussing personal journeys that the shaman undertakes alone, in addition to those performed publicly and for the benefit of the community. These give us an important insight into the seeking of the spirit world for no other reason than "for joy alone." Eliade explains:

But in addition to these seances demanded by collective problems (storms, scarcity of game, weather information, etc.) or by sickness (which, in one way or another, likewise threatens the society's equilibrium), the shaman undertakes ecstatic journeys to the sky, to the land of the dead, "for joy alone." He has himself tied, as is usual when he prepares for an ascent, and flies into the air; there he has long conversations with the dead and, on his return to earth, describes their life in the sky. This fact shows the Eskimo shaman's need of the ecstatic experience for its own sake and also explains his liking for solitude and meditation, his long dialogues with his helping spirits, and his need for quiet. 291.

Later, elaborating on this same theme, Eliade says:

Such exploits, undertaken for no apparent motive, to some extent repeat the initiatory journey with its many dangers and especially the passage through a "straight gate" that remains open only for an instant. The Eskimo shaman feels the need for these ecstatic journeys because it is above all during trance that he becomes truly himself; the mystical experience is necessary to him as a constituent of his true personality. 293.

Later still, Eliade cites evidence that, in shamanic cultures, the shaman never "monopolizes" the ability to make contact with the other realm (297). Although the shaman is distinguished from others in the community by the levels of his or her ability and the intensity of his or her experiences, "every individual seeks to obtain" certain abilities associated with the spirit realm, as well as "certain tutelary or helping 'spirits'" (297). 

This insight is most valuable, because -- as I have argued in previous posts and as The Undying Stars  presents further evidence for concluding -- there is good reason to believe that the shamanic worldview and shamanic journeying is at the core of the world's ancient sacred traditions, which nearly all share a common system of celestial metaphor which can be shown to convey a cosmology that can be characterized as shamanic.

As Gerald Massey (1828 - 1907) has asserted (see this previous post): "The ancient wisdom (unlike the modern) included a knowledge of trance-conditions."

The accounts which indicate that the Eskimo shaman pursues ecstatic journeys "for joy alone," and that "above all" it is "during trance that he becomes truly himself" refute anthropological theories that shamanic journeys are simply "performances," while at the same time confirming Massey's assertion that the knowledge of the crucial importance of making contact with and traveling to the other realm is central to the ancient wisdom that was the shared inheritance of humanity, but from which modernity has been somehow severed.

If so, then perhaps what is being asserted individually and specifically regarding the angakok -- that it is above all during trance that he truly "becomes himself" -- applies in some sense to humanity as a whole.

Welcome to new visitors from Midwest Real (and returning friends)!

image: Khafre Pyramid, Wikimedia commons (link). Edited.

Special thanks to Midwest Real host Michael Phillip Nelson for having me over to  Midwest Real for a conversation on a variety of important and real subjects -- and welcome to all those visiting who may be here for the first time after learning about The Undying Stars via that interview!

The breadth of Michael's lines of inquiry was truly impressive, and I think that listeners will agree that the conversation covered all sorts of different terrain than that visited in other recent interviews.

I will be listening to the interview again in order to recall some of the topics that we discussed, so that I can put up some helpful links to resources to explore those subjects further.  Also, please note, that when I am talking and get going on a thought and say only "he" or "him," I should be saying "he or she" and "him or her" -- there are plenty of things during a spoken interview which I later realize could have been phrased better or more clearly!

Here is the list so far:

• Evidence that all the world's myths and sacred traditions are founded upon a common system of celestial metaphor.
• The extensive and incredibly insightful analysis of Martin Doutré and the evidence he presents on his website Ancient Celtic New Zealand, as well as some discussion of why those who argue that such lines of inquiry are somehow "racist" are mistaken.
• Evidence that the Khafre Pyramid at Giza encodes advanced understanding of our moon and its relation to the earth (this is from an article by Martin Doutré as well).
• The research and analysis Ross Hamilton has presented regarding the "star mounds" of North America, and the evidence that their builders incorporated sacred geometry into their design. 
• The evidence presented by Jim Alison showing that the ancient monuments of the world reveal a sophisticated understanding of the size of our spherical earth, as well as the ability to locate sites along great circles on our planet.
• Additional evidence that ancient sites are positioned in such a way that reveals an understanding of the size of our planet and the ability to measure longitude thousands of years before this ability was "re-acquired" by humanity.
• Still more evidence that the ancient sites are positioned as part of some kind of world-wide grid whose purpose we still do not fully understand.
• Sophisticated alignments at Stonehenge and in the passage mounds of Ireland, and how they blow apart the conventional historical paradigm (not to mention the conventional tectonic paradigm that dominates modern geology).
• The overwhelming archaeological evidence suggesting ancient and consistent contact across the oceans, a scenario which is still widely opposed by academia and the defenders of the conventional paradigm.
• The stone face at Ollantaytambo as it relates to other similar examples worldwide, and the concept of pareidoleia, which may be a real concept and a useful idea to bear in mind but cannot be used to dismiss all of the patterns and evidence pointing to a lost civilization and ancient transoceanic contact. 
• The case of the Michigan relics, and the possibility they raise that refugees fleeing the religious persecution enacted in the Roman Empire during the imposition of the strict literalist form of Christianity that took over during the third, fourth, and fifth centuries AD may have reached the Americas -- a possibility that is bolstered by the almost-undeniable fact that the Americas were known to certain parties in the ancient world.
• Evidence that institutions such as the Smithsonian might be "in on" the cover-up, and that "mere venality" cannot be used to explain all of the conventional academic world's resistance to alternative historical paradigms.
• Evidence that what we would call today a shamanic understanding of the universe anticipates the "holographic universe" models that arose during the twentieth century as a result of the experiments which gave rise to quantum physics.
• The likelihood that all the ancient sacred traditions convey a shamanic worldview, and that they reveal the shared shamanic heritage of the human race (a heritage which has been formally targeted for suppression and destruction since the rise of literalist Christianity).
• Evidence of the suppression of the shamanic seen in the opposition to and even outlawing of drums, which are one of the most commonly-used tools for inducing shamanic journeying.
• The wide range of methodologies and techniques that have been employed in different cultures and different time periods in order to access the hidden realm, the spirit world.
• The teaching found around the world that the hidden realm or spirit world is actually the "real world that is behind this one," and that this material world which occupies most of our attention is actually projected from the "seed realm."
• Evidence that the pharaohs of ancient Egypt undertook deliberate shamanic journeys in order to gain information or effect positive changes on behalf of their kingdom which could not be accomplished any other way.
• Evidence that ancient techniques for contacting the spirit world were widespread all the way up through the first five centuries AD, for example at the extremely important rites of the Eleusinian mysteria. The Eleusinian mysteries were finally shut down after two thousand or more years by the emperor Theodosius, who was almost certainly connected to the takeover of the Roman Empire by the forces responsible for literalist Christianity.
• The possibility, raised by Jeremy Narby, Lucy Wyatt, and other researchers that shamanic journeys to the hidden realm may have been the source of much of the otherwise-inexplicable advanced knowledge of many cultures around the globe and throughout history.
• Evidence that these subjects are related to a broader "war against consciousness" and that suppression of human consciousness always accompanies systematic violation of natural universal law (see also the discussion of the "war on consciousness" articulated by Graham Hancock).
• The importance of singing praises, according to the ancient wisdom preserved in different parts of the world (see also here and here).
• Evidence that the "ideology of materialism" is not as certain as its proponents like to maintain.
• The speech of Jon Rappoport on the bankruptcy of the materialist ideology, and the power of the individual to transcend the materialist ideology and other synthetic realities, which he illustrated with the brilliant evocation of the "trickster god." 
• Evidence that the "raising of consciousness" of the inner spiritual "spark" buried inside each human being is part of our mission or our purpose or our opportunity in this physical life (maybe even the purpose), and that ancient practices such as Yoga may be related to that concept.

I hope everyone enjoys the interview -- visit again soon!

The Michigan relics (aka the Michigan tablets)

image: Michigan Department of Natural Resources (link). Djed-column "cast down"?

Beginning in the 1850s, and continuing for over fifty years, a series of artifacts including inscribed tablets of clay, slate, copper, and stone, was allegedly discovered in Michigan -- numbering into the thousands (some estimates as high as ten thousand).  These are the so-called "Michigan relics," and they have been roundly denounced as obvious frauds beginning in the late 1800s, and it is of course possible that some or all of them are fraudulent -- but there are many reasons to be careful before rushing to that conclusion.

The tablets depict a variety of scenes, many of them recognizably Biblical -- but with important and quite prominent departures from recognized "orthodox" Christian doctrine which may be a significant clue to the mystery. They also contain what one scornful professor writing in the 1890s described as "largely a horrible mixture of Phoenician, Egyptian and ancient Greek characters taken at random from a comparative table of alphabets such as is found at the back of Webster's Dictionary" -- although this is not entirely accurate as some of the tablets actually contain evidence of not one but two writing systems not know to be found anywhere else, one of which has been argued by some analysts to be based upon ancient Hebrew but altered as if to create a code, and the other of which is sometimes described as "toothbrush" writing and has yet to be deciphered (see below for an example of "toothbrush" script):

image: Michigan Department of Natural Resources (link).

The artwork on many of them can be described as fairly crude, although the quality of the art varies greatly, and at least one piece clearly uses techniques of perspective which were not thought to have been "discovered" or "invented" until the 1400s. Other criticisms include arguments that they contain copper that has been smelted using methods that the ancients allegedly did not possess, and that the daughter of one of the main "discoverers" of numerous relics later attested that her father forged them (a confession she notably did not make until after both her mother and her father had died).

All of these objections should of course be considered, and it is certainly possible that these relics are all forgeries. Yet several reasons to consider the possibility that at least some of them might be authentic remain.

First, there is the sheer number of the supposed forgeries. One collection alone catalogued 2,700 artifacts. Another collector catalogued between 9,000 and 10,000. The production of such quantities would seem to require a large number of co-conspirators, but most of those who denounce the relics as a hoax pin the scheme on a single individual, working perhaps with one other helper. 

Further, as Henriette Mertz (1898 - 1985) explains in her examination of the relics and the controversy entitled The Mystic Symbol and published posthumously in 1986, the scripts on the different artifacts reveal evidence that they were almost all done by different persons. Henriette Mertz was a code-breaker during World War II, and later was trained in detection of forgery, which is why she was asked to look at the tablets in the 1950s. She explains in her book some of the tell-tale signs of forgery, and why she does not believe that the script in the tablets betrays the work of a forger whatsoever: to the contrary, she cites evidence in the markings that they were done by different individuals, using a wide variety of different instruments and methods, and betray different "schools" and styles of writing even while depicting the same pictogram or letter.

One of the most important aspects of these tablets which must be considered in the question of whether or not they are fraudulent is the fact that they display a "theology" which is notably at odds with -- and even strongly repugnant to -- that which is considered "orthodox" by almost all the traditional literalist Christian teachers of western civilization for the past seventeen centuries. Researcher David Allen Deal, in a series of essays and analyses which are included at the end of

The Mystic Symbol and which can be read in part here on "Google books," demonstrates quite convincingly that many of the Biblical scenes portray two figures described as the "son of the right hand" and the "son of the left hand," and that the "son of the right hand" is the "younger brother" who becomes the Savior after the previous reign of the "son of the left hand," who is the elder brother of the two and who reigns for a thousand years prior to the advent of the "son of the right hand."

The assertion that Jesus had an older brother, of course, would be considered heretical among literalist interpreters, primarily because he is the son of a virgin mother (which would imply that he could not have any older siblings, although younger siblings might be possible -- a question, it should be noted, that itself has been hotly debated over the centuries even though it would seem to be much less contentious than the assertion that he could have had an older sibling). 

The further implication depicted in the labeled illustrations on some of the relics that this older brother is the Adversary, the Accuser, or the Enemy (that is to say, the Devil) is even more heretical and would be strongly rejected by most literalists (especially, it should be added, in nineteenth-century America). There are ancient sects which held that Jesus and the Devil are brothers, but the very idea is objectionable to most literalist Christian confessions in the west since late antiquity. 

What hoaxer in the 1850s, trying to create a series of fake tablets to imply a Christian presence (or a "lost tribes" presence) in the Americas would decide to impart such incendiary doctrines into the forged artwork?

Additionally, as both Henriette Mertz and David Allen Deal discuss in their analysis, some tablets appear to show priests giving reverence to Isis and other "pagan" deities right along with Biblical scenes. This is yet another piece of evidence which is difficult to explain under the conventional theory that all these relics are the product of a simple, uneducated hoaxer in the religiously conservative midwestern United States of the nineteenth century who took his cues from Webster's dictionary (and, as Henriette Mertz and David Allen Deal also point out, even if one finds alphabets in the back of a dictionary, that does not explain how that hoaxer then forms those letters into words and sentences -- some of which are written right-to-left and others left-to-right, and still others "as the ox plows" or "boustrephedon," one going right-to-left and the next left-to-right, which was anciently done but would be very difficult to forge, as Henriette Mertz points out [she suggests an experiment in which the reader try "forging" some lines while writing from right-to-left, to see how "natural" that might look or feel]).

There are still further reasons to entertain the possibility that these relics are not forgeries, such as the evidence David Allen Deal presents that they contain calendar wheels which indicate a Saturday sabbath (as was observed prior to the official change to the Sunday sabbath instituted by the emperor Constantine in AD 313), as well as astronomical details in one calendar-tablet indicating a solar eclipse which can be demonstrated to have been visible in AD 342 from the location where the tablet was found -- both astonishing pieces of evidence which might give "debunkers" some pause (would they care to explain how the nineteenth-century hoaxers managed to get those details right in their forgeries?) (seeThe Mystic Symbol, pages 191-192 for the sabbath analysis and 193-205 for the solar eclipse analysis).

Just as suspicious, in light of all of the above counter-evidence, is the haste and the vehemence with which the professors in the late 1800s dismissed the Michigan relics as obvious forgeries. One professor wrote, "Photographs of the objects have been sent to me and a glance is sufficient to reveal the true character of the find" (108). So, "a glance" is all that is required and they can be pronounced to be fraudulent. This haste in itself is suspicious -- in light of the evidence discussed above, it is even more so. 

Henriette Mertz notes that, although all these items were proclaimed fraudulent, and pinned upon the actions of one individual, that man was never actually charged with fraud:

Did one man alone forge each and every artifact comprising this vast collection of some 3,000 pieces? During the long heated controversy, the academic world would have us so believe and isolated one man charging him with the perpetration of forgery and manufacture and sale of fraudulent material. No proofs were ever offered nor was the man brought to trial. Most of this inscribed matter has now been destroyed as a result. 122.

Many artifacts do remain, both in private collections, and in some museum archives, but many have been lost -- as a direct result of the withering scorn and ridicule to which they were subjected almost immediately by the representatives of the academic community. One extensive collection also was lost when the building which housed it burnt to the ground (9).

These tablets are dealt with in some detail in The Undying Stars, because they might constitute unique evidence that some early Christians who held to doctrines which could be characterized as Gnostic and/or Coptic -- and hence heretical to the literalist hierarchical church that slowly came to power during the period between AD 70 and AD 390 (discussed briefly here and here, and at greater length in the book) -- may have fled for their lives to the Americas during the centuries in question.

If so, this might explain the haste with which evidence of ancient contact across the oceans is immediately denied today, and the vehemence with which the very possibility is ridiculed (see for example the tone of the Wikipedia entry on the Michigan Relics linked above, as well as the many quotations from professors beginning in the late 1800s all the way up to the present cited in The Mystic Symbol).

We know for a fact that Gnostic doctrines were persecuted by the rising literalist church in the period in question -- and other archaeological discoveries from the other side of the Atlantic have provided powerful supporting evidence to that effect, most notably the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts in the 1940s.

We have also shown that there is plenty of evidence in addition to and quite separate from these Michigan relics which argues strongly for ancient contact across the oceans during or even prior to the rise of literalist Christianity. Among the information most pertinent to the discussion of the Michigan relics is the fact that the very state of Iowa (and the Native American people for whom that US state was named) bears a name which is linguistically related to the divine name found in the Hebrew scriptures.

Further evidence is found in the extensive evidence of ancient copper extraction from the Michigan peninsula, discussed here (and also ridiculed by Wikipedia and largely ignored by conventional scholars). There is also the evidence of ancient Hebrew writing found in New Mexico, which David Allen Deal has also examined and discussed, and which is featured in this previous blog post.

It is important to note that the thesis of The Undying Stars by no means depends upon the authenticity of the Michigan relics. The "Michigan relic evidence" or the idea that some persecuted Gnostic or other Christians fled to the Americas is not essential to the "Roman Empire takeover theory" originated by Flavio Barbiero -- and in fact he does not even mention this idea in his book about that theory (The Secret Society of Moses). 

Nor is this evidence essential to the argument that the scriptures of Christianity -- along with the rest of the world's sacred myths -- are constructed upon a unified system of celestial allegory (for discussions of the evidence for this argument found in over sixty different myths from around the world, including some in the Old and New Testaments, see the index found in this previous post, and there are many others discussed in my book The Undying Stars).

However, there is extensive evidence -- piles and piles of it, in all different forms -- to support the conclusion of ancient contact across the oceans, in addition to the Michigan relics (if they are indeed authentic, which I believe they may be). Many of these different forms of evidence are discussed in previous posts, some of which are linked in this post, and they include artifacts that are almost impossible to dismiss as forgeries, including the hundreds of amphorae found lying at the bottom of Guanabara Bay outside of modern-day Rio de Janeiro, the staggering array of botanical and bacterial evidence arguing for ancient trans-oceanic contact compiled by two Brigham Young researchers, and the hundreds of red-haired mummies found in Peru and other South American locations discussed in this previous post (would any professors or Wikipedia authors like to explain how a hoaxer could have "forged" all those mummies?).

The fact that the Michigan relics are collectively just "one data point" among numerous other forms of evidence arguing for ancient contact across the oceans makes their hasty and vehement dismissal even more inappropriate. For those who would like to explore them further, here are links to a couple other web sites with discussions and images (for obvious reasons, some proponents of the authenticity of the relics may be coming from a literalist Christian perspective -- although I would argue that they may be strong evidence of the literalist takeover and the driving "underground" of the original and non-literalist communities).

The Michigan relics are an important piece of evidence that may (or may not) shed more light on important aspects of human history -- and point to events whose implications have had a huge impact on nearly every family or nation on our globe: events whose implications continue to this day.

Jephthah's daughter

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

In the Old Testament scriptures, in the Book of Judges, we encounter the horrifying story of Jephthah and his daughter. If ever there were a Biblical passage which renders an absolutely hideous message when taken literally, while yielding a completely satisfactory conclusion when understood astronomically, this story is it.

In chapter 11 of Judges, after a description of the elders of Gildead requesting that Jephthah be made head and captain over the children of Israel, and a description of a series of battles between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon, we arrive at verse 29, where we read:

Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gildead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon.

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,

Then it shall be, that whatsoever comth forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.

And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her had neither son nor daughter.

And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clohtes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou has brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.

And she said unto him, My father, if thou has opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.

And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.

And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.

And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,

That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thine house upon thee with fire.

If this passage is understood to be describing the literal and historical actions of a literal and historical judge and war-chief of the ancient children of Israel, who swears a vow to sacrifice the first thing he sees upon returning home from battle and burn it as a burnt offering to the Almighty, it would surely seem to be a horrible episode and one that probably does not feature too often in sermons. 

Certainly it could be used as a stern warning against swearing to rash vows (the episode is often referred to generally as "Jephthah's rash vow"), but even if it is used as an example of the dire consequences of swearing too rashly, that still leaves the gaping question of whether such a vow must then be fulfilled, even to the extent of killing another person -- even to the extent of sacrificing one's only daughter. Can this scripture possibly be implying that once such a vow is sworn, to break the vow is considered impossible, and worse than actually taking someone else's life -- let alone the life of one's own beloved daughter?

The passage itself gives us no help in this regard: it simply records that Jephthah groans with pain but clearly does not consider it possible to break the vow, and Jephthah's daughter understands and says that he must do it, especially since he was given victory in the battle over the Ammonites after swearing the vow. 

The verses which follow the human sacrifice likewise do not give any hint of whether the community thought Jephthah had acted rightly or wrongly: immediately after the verse about the daughters of Israel mourning Jephthah's daughter once a year, at the end of chapter 11, the following verse (at the beginning of chapter 12) has the men of Ephraim gathering and preparing to burn down Jephthah's house down with him inside, but not because he has killed his daughter and burned her, but because he did not take them along when he went to fight the Ammonites. 

Again, a literalist encountering these verses is left with a sickening scenario in which all values seem to be inverted and violence and darkness reign supreme. I am aware that the verses could potentially be used as a "type" or foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ by the Father, but even that hermeneutical move would have to be used with extreme caution, as the circumstances surrounding Jephthah's sacrifice are simply so shocking and so horrifying that there seems to be nothing uplifting in the passages whatsoever (to which the reply would be that this is the contrast between the sinfulness of humanity and the perfection of the redemption -- which seems to be the only way these verses could possibly be made to serve a positive purpose in a sermon). Even such a rhetorical move would still leave the question of whether Jephthah then was right in proceeding with the killing and burning of his daughter. 

Clearly, a strictly literalistic interpretation of these verses leads into an absolute swamp filled with pitfalls from which it becomes more and more difficult to extract one's self, the further down into it one charges.

However, like the horrifying verses about the prophet Elisha calling two she-bears out of the woods to tear apart the forty-two youths in the Old Testament book of 2 Kings (an episode almost as sickening as the Jephthah incident, and yet even that one is less hideous than this one in many respects, except for the obviously higher body-count), this passage contains clear elements of celestial metaphor which indicate that it was never intended to be understood as an account of something that took place on the earth involving human beings: it takes place in the sky.

Very briefly, because the elements of the system of celestial metaphor have now been explained in some detail in numerous previous posts, this incident has all the markers indicating a sacrifice at the point of equinox: those two points on the annual cycle where the two great "hoops" of the ecliptic and the celestial equator "cross" one another, allegorized in countless different forms as a sacrifice (previous posts as well as the first three chapters of The Undying Stars

which are available for free perusal online have demonstrated that the equinox crossings form the foundation for the myths of the sacrifices of Iphigenia, of Isaac by Abraham, of St. Peter in early church tradition, and even of Christ -- which explains the "echoes" that typologists can find between some of these Old Testament star-myths and the sacrifice on the Cross in the New Testament).

Which of the two equinoctial points we are dealing with here should be fairly obvious from the clues that have been included in the scriptural passage: the sacrifice is of a young virginal daughter (her virginity is emphasized several times in the episode), and so we should be fairly confident in identifying the September equinox. For those in the northern hemisphere, this would be the autumnal or fall equinox, when the days cross over from being longer than nights to the half of the year in which they are shorter (each of the two equinox-points are marked on the zodiac wheel below with a red "X" and the one on the right as we look at the wheel is the one at Virgo, where the sun which moves in the direction of the arrows as the year progresses is declining towards the lower half of the year and the winter solstice at the bottom of the circle). This fact supports the possibility that the "children of Ammon" that Jephthah was battling before he returned to his house to encounter his daughter (returning to the house of the sign of Virgo, that is) represent the upper, sunny, summery half of the year.

The exact correspondences of the different opponents Jephthah battles with are much more difficult to identify with exactitude, although we can be fairly confident that this is a celestial battle describing the circle of the zodiac (along with many, many other examples from both the New Testament and the Old Testament, as well as from other mythologies such as the Greek myths about the Trojan War). The identity of the daughter with the stars of Virgo, however, is very certain.

We have already seen that the passage itself takes care to emphasize her status as a virgin. The other distinguishing feature of the daughter of Jephthah, however, is her timbrel -- which is to say, her tambourine. It just so happens that the constellation Virgo has some distinguishing features which are often included in ancient art: one of these is an outstretched arm, and one is the fainter circle of stars that are in front of her face and above this outstretched arm. In the ancient Greek art depicting the Pythia of Delphi, for example, the outstretched arm represents the arm with the sacred laurel-branch, while the circle of stars corresponded to her circular dish or platter holding the holy water, as discussed in this previous post. In the case of Jephthah's daughter, this circle becomes a timbrel.

Note also in the  painting above, by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675 - 1741), the artist has incorporated the outstretched arm and the timbrel of the girl, in a way that is most suggestive of the possibility that he understood her connection to the Virgin of Virgo (either that or, in his formal art schooling, these elements were passed down to him without his understanding). This indicates that the esoteric aspects of these myths was known by some and passed down among some circles, without being taught to those seekers in the churches, who were being taught that these stories all represent events that took place in history among literal people.

Below is an image of the Pythia alongside the stars of Virgo: you can see the faint "circle" of stars that become the dish in the artwork of the Pythia, the circular hoop in the image of Rhea seated on a throne below the outline of Virgo, and the timbrel of the daughter of Jephthah:

The final clincher for me that we are dealing with a star-myth of Virgo and the equinox (point of many sacrifices) is the presence of fire -- almost always present in equinox-myths, since the equinoxes are the two points where the fiery path of the sun (the ecliptic) crosses through the celestial equator. Previous posts detailing this include "The Old Man and his Daughter" and "Common symbology between Mithraic temples and the Knights Templar." In the myth of Jephthah, we find that he must make his daughter (Virgo) into a burnt offering, and that immediately thereafter some men come and threaten to burn his house down.

And so, we see that what would be an absolutely execrable story if interpreted "historically" (the way most of those with positions of authority inside the various Christian churches have generally approached the scriptures for the past seventeen hundred years or more) is actually just another star myth built upon a structure that is found in the Greek myths and in Native American traditions all the way across the globe, intended (I believe) to convey a positive and uplifting message to all people, embodied in the motions of the the stars, the sun, the moon, and the planets, and a message which describes our incarnate condition as the "Djed-column cast down" -- identified with the horizontal line between the equinoxes, the line of sacrifice, the line of being made "like an animal" and plunged down into a similitude of death -- but which teaches the real possibility and even inevitability of reconnection with the spiritual realm, and the "raising up of the Djed column" again.

This is a powerful lesson, and I would think a very powerful argument that these passages are not intended to be read literally. Additionally, the above analysis should demonstrate that the scriptures and traditions the world over are all close kin, and that the artificial distinctions between "Christian" and "pagan" that were imposed upon the rise of literalist Christianity are both harmful and false.

"The real world that is behind this one"

Whether or not they were deliberately intended to do so, movies and other forms of storytelling often portray concepts or imaginary scenarios which can serve as useful metaphors to illustrate or to convey an understanding of profound concepts, concepts which might be difficult to explain or even to grasp without using metaphors or allegories.

It doesn't even really matter if the writers or moviemakers were originally intending to create a metaphor that can help to explain some deep truth about the nature of our universe and our place within it: we should actually expect that, if the universe really operates in such-and-such a way, then artists and writers and creators of stories should and will end up portraying analogies pointing to those realities, whether they do so knowingly or not.

A case in point is the recent movie Divergent, which is based upon a series of popular books with the same name, which I have not read and in which I am not extraordinarily interested at this time -- but (as I have mentioned before here), which do contain what strikes me as a very helpful metaphor for illustrating some aspects of the shamanic worldview. 

Regardless of your personal reaction to this recent movie (and it seems to provoke strong positive and negative reactions among different groups of viewers, as well as "strong indifference" among some who express exhaustion at the number of films that seem to be coming out in the "teen-plus-dystopia" category), it is worth considering the way the film embodies a powerful metaphor for understanding what some theoretical physicists have called our "holographic universe."

Assuming that most readers who have not yet seen the film probably fall into the "indifferent" category, no blaring "spoiler alerts" will be issued (but such an alert would come right about here, if there were one).

Without going into too much detail, the film posits a vaguely post-apocalyptic dystopian future world in which young adults are tested for their talents and predilections, after which they choose a "faction" in which they will contribute to the economy or society for the rest of their life. However, some small percentage of the population are "divergent" and have set of skills and traits that cross many categories and who have another talent which is the part which relates to the helpful metaphor regarding the shamanic worldview. 

The special talent which the divergents possess (that relates to the shamanic worldview) and which the majority of the populace portrayed in the film do not seem to exhibit is this: when they are injected with mind-altering drugs to make them enter a simulated world and react to different life-threatening scenarios within the simulation, a divergent is able to perceive that it is all a simulation, and then to bend the boundaries of the simulation in order to transcend the life-threatening situation in unexpected and seemingly-impossible ways.

The short clip from the film, shown above, illustrates one scene in which the main character demonstrates this singular talent of the divergent.

And here is where the film becomes an excellent metaphor to help us to grasp the concept of the "shamanic worldview" or the "holographic universe" (concepts which can be shown to be closely related in important ways, and which I sometimes combine to create the description "shamanic-holographic"). 

Because according to many accounts from shamanic cultures around the world, the ordinary world in which we spend most of our waking hours is actually very much like the "simulations" to which the characters in the Divergent movie are forcibly subjected: in many important ways, it is projected and constructed out of our own mind, to the point that it takes on a kind of reality, but a reality that is actually subordinate to the deeper reality from which the simulation-world is being projected. 

The reality that is the source of the simulation (or the hallucination, or the dream) is the unseen realm -- unseen, but just as real as the ordinary realm in which we normally move, and in fact perhaps more real in certain ways. Because the "simulation" realm which we generally think of as the "real world" is projected from the other realm, that hidden reality is sometimes referred to as the "seed world" or the "seed realm."

In his book Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts, discussed in the previous post, Dr. Jeremy Naydler describes the ancient Egyptian concept of the other realm, sometimes associated with a specific celestial conceptual paradigm called the Duat or the Dwat, in terms which very much resonate with this understanding of the totality of the seen and unseen aspects of reality:

The Egyptians were intensely aware that the world they lived in was more than just the world perceptible to the senses. It included a vast and complex supersensible component as well.

It would be a mistake, then, to regard the Dwat as simply the realm of the dead. It is the habitation of spirits, of beings that are capable of existing nonphysically. These include the essential spiritual energy or life energy of those beings and creatures that we see around us in the physical world. In the Dwat, everything is reduced to its spiritual kernel. Just as the forms of living plants, when they die, disappear from the visible world as they are received into the Dwat, so when the young plants unfold their forms again in the new year, they unfold them from out of the Dwat. This "hidden realm" (literally amentet, another term for the realm of the dead) is the originating source of all that comes into being in the visible world.

[. . .] In the Dwat, then, the essential forms of things exist inwardly in a more interior space -- a space that is prior to the external space into which they will unfold when they enter the world of physical manifestation. As for plants, so also for animals. Even the river Nile has its source in the Dwat. 83-84.

In a wonderful book I recently received entitled Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation, containing observations and experiences and teaching and insights from experienced shamanic practitioners and teachers and healers, including the book's co-authors Sandra Ingerman and  Hank Wesselman, as well as contributors Tom Cowan, Carol Proudfood-Edgar, Jose Luis Stevens, and Alberto Villoldo, there are many passages which attest to a similar understanding that the world of our "ordinary experience" is actually a projection of the unseen realm. 

During one important passage, Hank Wesselman discusses a series of spontaneous dreamlike visions he experienced at the age of thirty while on a scientific research expedition in the East African Rift in southwestern Ethiopia. Explaining that he was reluctant to discuss them with his fellow scientists from western countries, who might be less than receptive to such ideas, he turned to some of the African tribal men with whom he had become friends over the years of work in the field, and when he did so, he "discovered that they held a perspective that was quite foreign to my scientist's way of thinking about the world" (xvi):

Right at the core of their worldview lay the perception that the multi-leveled field of the dream is the real world, that we human beings are actually dreaming twenty-four hours a day, and that the everyday physical world came into being in response to the dream, not vice versa. These assertions were always accompanied by a conviction, strongly held, that the dream world is minded, that it is consciousness itself -- alive, intelligent, and power-filled -- infusing everything that emanates from it with awareness, vitality, and life force. xvii.

This worldview, it must be noted, is strikingly harmonious to the worldview of the ancient Egyptians as described by Dr. Naydler in the passage cited above.

And, as shamanic practitioner and teacher Michael Drake points out in one of the numerous insightful pages on his website, there are statements attesting to the same understanding from shamanic peoples halfway around the world, in North America, citing a passage from the Lakota wichasha wakon or holy man Black Elk (1863 - 1950) who had experienced his first vision unbidden at the age of nine, and who stated that the unseen realm was actually "the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world."

That particular passage from Black Elk that he cites is an extremely insightful quotation that speaks directly to the concept that we are exploring, and it is also helpful to examine it in the context of what Black Elk is describing when he makes that particular statement -- which happens to be the vision of his second cousin, Crazy Horse, which was discussed in this previous post.

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Black Elk was actually contemporaries with Crazy Horse -- Black Elk was born in December of 1863, and thus was 12 years of age and going on 13 during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in which Black Elk participated. Black Elk later held extended conversations with John G. Neihardt (1881 - 1973) during the years 1930 and 1931, which were published as Black Elk Speaks. Here is how Black Elk described the vision of Crazy Horse:

Crazy Horse's father was my father's cousin, and there were no chiefs in our family before Crazy Horse; but there were holy men; and he became a chief because of the power he got in a vision when he was a boy. When I was a man, my father told me something about that vision. Of course he did not know all of it; but he said that Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world. He was on his horse in that world, and the horse and himself on it and the trees and the grass and the stones and everything were made of spirit, and nothing was hard, and everything seemed to float. His horse was standing still there, and yet it danced around like a horse made only of shadow, and that is how he got his name, which does not mean that his horse was crazy or wild, but that in his vision it danced around in that queer way.

It was this vision that gave him his great power, for when he went into a fight, he had only to think of that world to be in it again, so that he could go through anything and not be hurt. Until he was murdered by the Wasichus at the Soldiers' Town on White River, he was wounded only twice, once by accident and both times by some one of his own people when he was not expecting trouble and was not thinking; never by an enemy. [. . .]

[. . .] He never wanted to have many things for himself, and did not have many ponies like a chief. They say that when game was scarce and the people were hungry, he would not eat at all. He was a queer man. Maybe he was always part way into that world of his vision. He was a very great man, and I think if the Wasichus had not murdered him down there, maybe we should still have the Black Hills and be happy. They could not have killed him in battle. They had to lie to him and murder him. And he was only about thirty years old when he died. 

This passage is absolutely incredible in the amount of profound wisdom that it imparts. We should  each consider it carefully and thoughtfully, for there are many insights we can gain from thinking deeply about these words.

In light of the specific subject at hand, however, it offers some astonishing confirmation of everything we have seen from other shamanic cultures from far away and even from thousands of years ago. We see that this ordinary realm was seen to be less real in some ways than the unseen realm, which is actually the real one, and everything in our ordinary world is actually only a shadow of that one. That is to say, in some ways this world is an illusion, a dream -- and Crazy Horse seems to have been able to transcend the boundary between these worlds at will, and when doing so was unable to be harmed by weapons in this seemingly solid "ordinary realm."

And this point brings us back to the metaphor from the movie Divergent, because it is by remembering and realizing that she is in a simulation, a projection, an illusion or a dream that the protagonist Tris is able to transcend the seemingly-solid boundaries and barriers that exist in the simulation (and that other non-divergent characters cannot transcend when they are inside the simulation). 

In other words, the world of the simulation in Divergent is a metaphor for this world that we seem to be living in, and the characters who are born with the unsought talent of transcending those barriers, and of perceiving when they are inside an illusion and that "this isn't real" are like the shamans who are able to transcend the boundaries of this world, and who have told us in no uncertain terms that this world is actually a projection of the unseen world, and that this one is actually in some ways a dream (modern theoretical physicists have proposed models that use the metaphor of a hologram). 

As Hank Wesselman describes it, "we human beings are actually dreaming twenty-four hours a day." In terms of the metaphor, we are inside an induced simulation, and (like the non-divergent characters in the film), we normally cannot perceive that it is a simulation, and we treat it as though it is the only reality, when in fact there is a more real world "behind it" that is actually the source of this "twenty-four hour dream."

Some readers might be thinking by this point, "Does this mean, or do you intend to say, that this world is not real, and so I cannot be hurt if I walk in front of a truck driving down the freeway? Because if you are saying that, you're crazy and I'm not listening anymore."

No -- obviously that cannot be the message that Black Elk and the others are telling us. Black Elk specifically says that Crazy Horse was murdered, and he was murdered by ordinary physical weapons in this ordinary reality to which our consciousness is usually attuned. The world and everything in it may well be composed of waves of energy which our minds interpret as various objects and surfaces, and physicists will affirm that this is indeed the case -- but any surfer will tell you that waves need to be respected, and that they will spin you around like you're in a washing machine if you pick a fight with one or (worse yet) pretend that they aren't real. 

But it does mean that, if reality is actually interpenetrated by an unseen realm, one from which this ordinary realm is in some way projected, then we need to be aware of and respectful of that other realm. It also means that, if contact with and even travel to that other realm are in fact possible, we may be able to obtain information from that other realm, or even to obtain power from that other realm as Crazy Horse did and which he used on behalf of his people -- and that changes effected in that other realm (which after all is the source of everything in the ordinary realm) can have real and meaningful changes on events and conditions in this ordinary realm.

It also means (or at least it has consistently been interpreted to mean, in cultures holding this worldview, as discussed at some length in my book The Undying Stars) that we do not have to fear the destruction of our material body in this realm, as our consciousness is not ultimately dependent upon this material realm, as taught by the ideology of materialism.

To return one more time to the metaphor with which we began this examination, it is also evident that the ability to perceive that this reality is not the only reality, and to be able to project back to that "source reality" can potentially get us out of a bad situation (as shown in the clip above). Certainly, Black Elk testifies that this was true in the case of Crazy Horse's life. And contemporary shamanic practitioners and teachers today, including those who share their experience and understanding in Awakening to the Spirit World, also attest that the ability to transcend this reality can be used to help get us out of bad situations in today's world as well. 

These situations do not need to be horrible traps such as the one depicted in the film clip above, or even battle scenes such as those that Crazy Horse faced during his lifetime -- they may have to do with other situations we are struggling with individually, or bad situations that we face on a larger scale such as a societal or even a planetary scale.

Finally, Divergent  offers a noteworthy metaphor in that those who have this "divergent" ability to "see through the simulation" and transcend the barriers that the oppressive rulers of the dystopia wish to impose on everyone (including the barriers that divide people up into mutually-distrustful "factions") are seen as extremely threatening to the oppressors, and are eliminated at all times whenever they are detected. There is abundant evidence throughout history, especially in "the West" during the past seventeen centuries or more, that this attitude has very often been the prevailing policy towards those who teach some version of the shamanic worldview -- and that shamanic cultures and teachers have frequently been eliminated whenever and wherever they have been detected down through the years.

And yet, as I noted at the end of the previous post as well, this information cannot be suppressed forever -- it tends to surface in unexpected ways, even after many years of lying dormant (just like a seed, in fact).

To that end, metaphors that can help explain and illustrate this vitally important subject (a subject which, admittedly, is one that our "left-brain" minds tend to reject immediately when it is first proposed), are extremely important. The Divergent metaphor of the "simulation-projection" and its ability to be transcended by those like Tris who are able to see through it thus becomes an excellent way to explain this concept, and to get the idea past our "left-brain gatekeeper" to where we can say, "Oh yeah, I could see how that would work." 

And that's a very good thing, because the evidence seems to suggest that this in fact is exactly the way reality is indeed structured.

Ross Hamilton's Star Mounds

The following is the text of a review I just posted of Ross Hamilton's Star Mounds: Legacy of a Native American Mystery (2012):

Ross Hamilton has done and continues to do a great service to our generation and future generations in his thorough (and ongoing) exploration of the mysterious "Star Mounds" of the Ohio Valley, and his analysis and attempts to unlock their ancient messages, alignments and meanings. His deep knowledge of geometry, sacred geometry, and astronomy, as well as his profound respect for the Native American traditions and legends and teachings, shine through in this beautiful book. The geometric analysis was astonishing, and the connections to the constellations equally significant: these earthworks are truly an often-overlooked wonder of the world (many of the earthworks surveyed by Squier & Davis in the first half of the nineteenth century are now sadly lost), and Ross Hamilton's careful and insightful analysis should increase our awareness of and desire to learn more about these treasures from the distant past, and about those who envisioned them and caused them to take shape upon the terrain of our amazing and wonder-filled world. Through his patient and careful examination and his unique set of skills and abilities, Ross brings to light the truly breathtaking hidden patterns and connections designed into these mounds.

In the first line, I might also have said "and to past generations as well" -- because through his prodigious study and examination of these ancient earthworks Ross Hamilton has helped to discover, express, and preserve at least some of the multi-layered messages that the ancient builders of these incredible monuments were conveying in their monumental design.

The earthworks of the greater Ohio Valley are truly incredible in their size, scope, durability, and layers of mystery. Most well-known among them, perhaps, is the Great Serpent Mound, which Ross shows to function as the central "key" uniting all the far-flung structures, and to which he devoted an entire equally-essential earlier book, The Mystery of the Serpent Mound: In Search of the Alphabet of the Gods (1993), which I discuss in earlier blog posts such as this one and this one.

In that earlier book, Ross Hamilton presents convincing arguments and evidence to demonstrate that the Great Serpent Mound is a terrestrial model and reflection of the celestial serpent found in the constellation Draco; in Star Mounds the author provides additional evidence to demonstrate that the entire network of earthworks in the greater Ohio Valley region (covering -- at least -- an area claimed by four different modern states in the US) represents a vast mirror of the wider heavens, including the constellations of the zodiac band, the circumpolar stars of the north celestial pole, and even the Southern Cross.

Using diagrams of the earthworks created in past centuries by professional surveyors (before some of these precious monuments were obliterated or damaged almost beyond recognition), as well as modern LiDAR imagery, Ross illustrates the celestial connections -- and ties the constellations into Native American myth and legend (the Star Mounds are tied in to Star Myths! incredible!). Some of the most satisfying and difficult-to-dispute connections to celestial formations are those that Ross illustrates between the Newark Complex and the constellation Pisces (especially in his diagram at the top of page 169) and between the works known as the Cross and the constellation Cygnus (page 131), but there are many others, and there are so many correspondences that the resonance cannot be dismissed as being either imagination or mere "coincidence."

This analysis is of tremendous importance, for it demonstrates that the designers of the "Star Mounds" of the Ohio Valley region were involved in the very same kind of monumental terraforming to make the terrestrial landscape reflect the celestial that can be shown to have also taken place in South America, the British Isles, and the Nile River valley of ancient Egypt: the entire "Orion's Belt" thesis of Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval was an important recognition and discussion of this ancient world-wide endeavor, as were earlier works such as John Michell's View Over Atlantis (1969) and New View Over Atlantis (1983) and Kathryn Maltwood's even earlier Guide to Glastonbury's Temple of the Stars (1929).

These undeniable connections to similar projects around our planet make Ross Hamilton's demonstration of the celestial patterns in the North American complex of the Ohio Valley region extremely significant not just to North American history, but to the mysterious history of the entire globe, and to the ancient dictum (which can be shown to operate in all the world's mythologies) of "as above, so below," the microcosm and the macrocosm.

This accomplishment alone would make Star Mounds an essential reference to place in your library next to the other works just mentioned dealing with other regions, but that's not all for the hidden messages that Ross Hamilton has found in these ancient monuments -- not by a long ways. With his formidable knowledge of geometry and proportion, Ross Hamilton discerns undeniable evidence of advanced sacred geometry at work in many of the ancient earthworks -- some of them simply breathtaking.

As just a small example, take for instance his examination of the "works" located in Seal Township,  in Pike County, Ohio, and drawn by Squier & Davis in the illustration shown at top (the entire text of Squier & Davis's Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, published in 1848, can be viewed online here).

Ross Hamilton notes that the Seal Work monument itself consists of a square and a circle, connected by a "neck" feature that is aligned (along with the sides of the square) to true north with near-perfect precision. He points out that this "neck" feature in the Seal Work is the longest known among the Star Mounds. He then proceeds to demonstrate why the length of that neck is so important, and how the distance between the square and the circle was surely no accident or simple random decision by the ancient designers.

Taking the outline of the circle, which is incomplete due to its interruption by a steep cliff, he completes the circle -- shown below in green (these are my illustrations of the explanations that Ross Hamilton shows on page 41 of his book, which the interested reader should consult -- any mistakes in the discussion that follows or the diagrams that I've made to try to illustrate it are my own and should in no way reflect badly upon Ross Hamilton's book):

In the above diagram, I have also added a purple outline to the circular feature, because what happens next is that we slide that purple outline towards the square feature, until the closest edge of the square forms a tangent with the perimeter of the circle, as shown below:

As Ross Hamilton discovered, performing the above operation with the circle of the Seal Works and sliding its outline towards the square forms "a true vesica piscis" (the extremely important shape made by the overlapping outlines of the two circles shown above -- the words vesica piscis are Latin for "bladder of the fish"). The outline is a "true vesica piscis" if the widest point of the vesica touches the center-point of each of the two circles.

This geometric figure was obviously incorporated deliberately into the Seal Works, and it provides tangible evidence of the sophistication and geometric knowledge of the designers. 

It also speaks to their incorporation of sacred spiritual symbology in their Star Mound architecture: for the vesica piscis symbol relates directly to the message conveyed by the Ankh and the Djed discussed in a series of recent posts beginning with "Scarab, Ankh and Djed." That series of posts explores the symbology of the cross (including the Ankh, but also the Djed, which was depicted horizontally "cast down" and then vertically "raised up"), and presents evidence that this common and potent ancient symbol typifies our human condition in our incarnate material form: a horizontal "cast down" or "animal" component (our material, physical body of earth and water) and a vertical "spiritual and immortal" component (the Christ within, the divine spark that comes down from the realm of air and fire to inhabit this body of earth and water).

In The Jesus Mysteries (1999), Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy make the argument that the ancient symbol of the vesica piscis was known to convey the exact same message!

On page 40 of that text, Freke and Gandy provide a vesica piscis illustration, showing how it is the origin of the familiar Christian "icthys" symbol shown below:

In the caption beneath their illustration of the two circles forming a vesica piscis with superimposed icthys, they write:

The sign of the fish is widely used today as a symbol of Christianity, but originated in Pagan sacred geometry. Two circles, symbolic of spirit and matter, are brought together in a sacred marriage. When the circumference of one touches the center of the other they combine to produce the fish shape known as the vesica piscis. The ratio of height to length of this shape is 153:265, a formula known to Archimedes in the third century BCE as the "measure of the fish." It is a powerful mathematical tool, being the nearest whole number approximation of the square root of three and the controlling ratio of the equilateral triangle. 40.

The mathematical approximation of the square root of three that they are referring to is the number 1.732, which is also the result (or quotient) that we get if we divide 265 by 153 (265/153 = 1.732).

Is it not extremely noteworthy that the vesica piscis was anciently seen to be emblematic of the unification of spirit and matter, just as we have seen the crosses of antiquity to have been as well?

Freke and Gandy point out the fact that in the 21st chapter of the New Testament gospel of John, the risen Jesus showed himself to the disciples, who have been fishing all night but without success. From the shore, he directs them to cast their nets on the right side of the ship, and upon doing so they catch so many fish tthat "they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes" (John 21:6). After they get the catch to shore (with the help of another boat), we are told the exact number of the fishes that were caught, in verse 11: "Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken" (John 21:11). Freke and Gandy draw the direct connection to the anciently-revered sign of the vesica piscis and its known ratio of 153:265, and point out that the ancient Pythagoreans "were renowned for their knowledge of mathematics and regarded 153 as a sacred number" (39).

But this subtle incorporation of the sacred vesica piscis is not the only sophisticated mathematical message that Ross Hamilton finds hidden within the Seal Works of Pike County, Ohio. In the illustration below, the area of the square that is connected to the circle is designated as one square unit (for a square with sides of one unit), and the area is placed adjacent to the square, as shown below. A circle is then traced out which touches upon the four corners of the "doubled square" as shown in the illustration:

Here again we see that the distance between the circle and the square at the Seal Works was carefully thought out. Because the new larger circle thus indicated happens to reach precisely to a line drawn tangent to the edge of the original circle, and parallel to the edge of the original square (see diagram). In other words, we can see right away that the size of the square was no accident, if doubling it leads us to be able to draw a circle that precisely reaches to the nearest edge of the earthwork's physical circular space.

But that is not all, because the size of the square, and the distance between the square and the circle, incorporate an even more amazing connection than the one described in the preceding paragraph (as obviously deliberate as that preceding connection must be). Because Ross Hamilton demonstrates that the distance to the outer edge of the circle would be 0.618 units, if the edge of the Seal Works square is 1 unit. In other words, there is a golden ratio indicated by the ratio of the distance between the square and the new larger circle just described. Specifically, this aspect of the golden ratio (the 0.618) is called the sacred cut or the golden cut (for some discussion see here and also look at the subsection entitled "Golden Ratio Conjugate"). 

It would be very difficult to argue that these mathematically demonstrable aspects of the Seal Works were not intentional. Think for just a little while about the beauty and subtlety of the design of this ancient earthwork, and how the size of the circle feature is just right to create a vesica piscis with the distance along the "neck" to the square, and then how the size of the square feature was likewise made to be just right to create a double-square that yields a circle that indicates the golden ratio when placed at that exact same distance (along the "neck" again) back to the original circle!

And this is just one of the amazing earthworks in the Ohio Valley region and the subtle geometrical knowledge that it contains and that it preserved through the centuries (in addition to its celestial mirroring aspects!). There are many more which are equally if not more astonishing, and which Ross Hamilton demonstrates and illustrates in his remarkable book. I should point out that I myself would never have seen these subtle geometrical messages within the Seal Works if Ross Hamilton had not taken the time to discover and present them. He has truly done humanity an important service.

The book also illustrates that most if not all of the works also have a feature which can function as a sort of "hub" around which the outline of the entire earthwork can be (mentally) rotated in a full circle, and that the number of "complete outlines" which fit around such a circle is different in most cases but has some significance to the message of that particular earthwork. Often the fit is a perfect whole number, indicating still further levels of astonishing sophistication and subtlety in the design of these amazing treasures in the landscape.

Knowing what we now know about the incredible ratios built into the Seal Works shape discussed above, the reader will no doubt be as sickened as I was to learn that much of this incredible monument has now been destroyed in order to dig for gravel. The short-sightedness of that fact is difficult to express in words, and it seems distressingly symbolic of much of our modern disregard for the sacred landscape and for the incredible efforts and achievements of those who occupied long before us.

These incredible Star Mounds of North America should be known to all humanity, and should be revered -- not ransacked in order to dig gravel pits.

Ross Hamilton's encyclopedic examination of these earthworks and their stories should go a long way towards bringing this vast ancient heritage site the recognition and reverence that it deserves. We, and future generations, owe him a debt of gratitude for his work.