EPIPHANY DAY
(REVELATION
DAY)
The text below is a copy of a
response to Dr. David Frawley, American Institute of Vedic Studies and a
chapter from
the book
In
Search of Ancient Astronomies, edited by Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, in Chapter
7: "A Serious Mystery" p. 246, the Dogon Myth of Sirius is discussed.
Dear David Frawley, (
http://www.vedanet.com )
Via a www-friend of mine,
Philip Johnson, I was directed to your website because of my interests
in Comparative Mythology related to Comparative Cosmology, and I want to
give the following response on what I’ve read on your pages, randomly
quoted below.
In the
following text, it is IMPORTANT to stress VERY CLEARLY out the fact,
that my points of view describes a GLOBAL COMMON HUMAN RELIGION
and that the text CAN NOT be taken or quoted as describing
anything else but just that.
( If the contents in this
letter are quoted anywhere, please quote this too). (And please, also
quote my
www.native-science.net )
David Frawley.
Randomly quotations from your pages:
http://www.vedanet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=174&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0
Secrets of the Yugas or World
Ages - Adapted from
Astrology of the Seers,
by David Frawley
According to the Vedic seers,
life on Earth is under the rule of vast cosmic forces that originate
from the stars. All that happens locally on our planet is a result of
forces coming from the distant regions of the universe. These are not
just distant regions of the physical world, but also of the cosmic mind,
the mysterious origin of things from which the underlying forces of
creation arises. These forces determine the nature of the time in which
we live. Usually we are so involved in the transient events of our
personal lives that we miss these great powers altogether. Like fish, we
fail to see the ocean.
(Agreed on this)
The Ancestral stories of Creation, tells us primarily
of the basically cosmic elements and secondly, the story of Creation
relates specifically to the elementary Creation of our Milky Way,
telling the very opposite story of the modern science: Nothing is DRAWN
IN towards the centre of our galaxy, (This has been happening as a
FORMER STAGE of the Galaxy development) but NOW, later on, everything is
created OUT of and OUT FROM the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy. (
http://www.cosmology-unified.net/ )
Harmonization with the Galactic Centre
An important cosmic event is
occurring now. (Happens
in fact every year - but of course with different qualities throughout
the bigger cycles of 23.600 years and so on)
The winter solstice is now at a point of conjunction with the galactic
centre. (Actually, such
a conjunction is 13 degree away from Winter/Summer Solstice alignment)
There is some doubt as to the exact location of this point. I would
place it at 06º 40' Sagittarius, or the middle of the nakshatra Mula.
(Actually 29 degree
Sagittarius accordingly to Modern Science. That is: The different
between the actual Summer/Winter Solstice Line and the Galactic Center
Line is approximately 13 (degrees) times 72 years = 936 year since the latest common
alignment between the 2 lines).
The Star Vega or Abhijit
Vedic astrology regards the
North Pole as the spiritual pole of the globe from which higher
spiritual influences come into the planet. However, the North Pole star
does not remain the same throughout the precessional cycle.
(Does not really matter in the relevant
case below) At
the opposite side of the precessional cycle, the point of greatest
light, the bright star Vega (alpha Lyra) serves to mark the North Pole.
(Back “in those times”, yes)
Vedic astrology shows a
connection between our sun and the star Vega. Vega may be a controlling
star for our Sun, its guide; or perhaps our Sun may revolve around it or
with it around some greater center. Vedic astrology looks back to a time
some fifteen thousand years ago when Vega was the North Pole star.
(The Pole Centre was a little bit away from
Vega back then, but close to the Pole Point) Apart from the
galactic center, Vega may be another important point of light that
governs life on Earth.
(The Vega Star was/is ONE PART OF “the governing lining rule” together
with the Star Sirius, in order to find the direction to the Centre).
The "Ruler" Line
Sirius AND Vega marks the cardinal Galactic line
going over the North Pole centre, starting of with a drawn line from
Sirius, over the North Pole area towards Vega, going further on to
the Centre of our Galaxy in the Constellation Sagittarius, 29 Degree.
Primary Line dates:
Jan 3rd and July 4th.
At MIDNIGHT at Jan 3rd, the centre of
the Milky Way Galaxy is observed in the North. These 2 datum's marks
divides the 2 Galactic Seasons, created by the Earth orbit of the Sun.
These 2 Seasons could be called "Season of Galactic Light",
beginning at October the 4th with the high peak at January the 3rd and
decreasing until April the 4th, where the "Shaded Galactic Season"
begin, peaks on July the 4th and decreases until October the 4th.
Correction of the Epiphany
datum
Observe this: I have made a
datum correction on the otherwise accepted datum of Epiphany Day at
January the 6th. Its my believe that the Epiphany Day originally was
installed in order to measure the day and angular difference between
Winter Solstice and the cardinal direction to the Centre of our Galaxy.
The Galactic Centre is
measured by Modern Science to be at 29 degree Sagittarius, which
correlates to January the 3rd. The angular difference is approximately
12,4 degree and when adding 12,4 days to the datum of Winter Solstice,
occurring
between December 20 and
December 23,
the Epiphany Day should
be between January the 2d and 4th. (
Link:
http://www.native-science.net/MilkyWay.SolarSystem.htm )
Wikipedia “Epiphany” Links:
-
Theophany,
an appearance of a deity to man
-
Hierophany,
a manifestation of the sacred
-
Darśana,
Hindu term commonly used for "visions of the divine"
Each precessional cycle is divided into two halves:
an ascending half, in which the Sun is moving towards the point on its
orbit closest to the galactic centre, and a descending half, when it is
moving towards the point on its orbit furthest from the galactic centre. (Which Nakshatra (time) is “29 degree
Sagittarius”?) (I’m not familiar with the Vedic terms)
Following or loosing the Galactic Knowledge
If a Culture is using either the Moon or Sun as their
favourite choice of worshipping and practising their seasonal rituals, it’s important to know of the
precession movement of 1 degree every 72 year. (1 degree every 72 year
times 360 degrees = the 25.920 year Cycle = Earth, Sun and Stars/Galaxy
directional Circle.)
Quotation:
“The confusion between the lesser and greater cycles
has led to some errors in the occult view of history. H.P. Blavatsky and
her followers exemplified such confusion, as they based their views on
the Hindu texts that used the longer cycle and did not understand the
precessional cycle”.
- If not remembering this precessional movement, the
cultural worshipping gets out of synch with the specific rituals and telling of
the Story of Creation, which is connected to our Milky Way Galaxy. A
telling now forgotten by many Cultures. In fact, I don’t know of any
actual Culture, ancient or modern, remembering this important fact,
which also seems to be the case in the quotation above.
But the Vedic Story may just be one of the few which
come closest to having a still alive Knowledge of this important matter.
The Symbols, Qualities and Meaning
From this link:
http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Nakshatras/19mula.htm
(The Nineteenth Nakshatra 00:00 - 13:20 Dhanus, Sagittarius) the
headline tells of: "The Root" (Direct route to the Galactic "Sun") and
several keywords, all regarding the telling of all life origin out of
the Centre of our Galaxy.
David, my personal and educational situation is: I
have no orthodox education or graduation. But via some spontaneous
spiritual experiences, I’ve been somewhat educated in natural
understanding of Mythology and Cosmology. But it is a GREAT CHALLENGE
for me in order to get forward towards intellectual Networks, going
against the orthodox establishments coming out with “new-old” ideas.
If it’s accordingly to a “higher order” to get my
views spread, I need ALL the help I can get!
So please, David Frawley, if you have any proposals
for me – or hopefully for both of us – in order to find some Comparative
Mythology and Comparative Cosmology Networks, I’ll be very grateful.
Please contact me!
Feel a very warm Welcome to take a good look at my
websites below and ask me any question on the contents.
Best Regards from
Ivar Nielsen
Pileloekken 7
DK 3770 Allinge
Baltic island of
Bornholm
Denmark
nielsen.ivar(at)gmail.com
www.native-science.net
www.cosmology-unified.net
Epiphany -
Further remarks and Links
Liturgical Epiphany practice
in Western Churches
The West generally acknowledges a
twelve-day festival, starting on December 25, and ending
on January 5, known as
Christmastide
or the
twelve days of Christmas,
although some Christian cultures, especially those of
Latin America and some in Europe extend it to as many as
forty days, ending on
Candlemas
(February
2).
On
the Feast of the Epiphany itself, the priest, wearing
white vestments, will bless the Epiphany Water,
frankincense, gold, and chalk. Chalk is used to write
the initials of the three magi over the doors of
churches and homes. Not only do the letters stand for
the initials of the Magi (traditionally named Caspar,
Melchior, and Balthasar), but of the phrase Christus
mansionem benedicat, which translates as "may Christ
bless the house".
There is also an ancient custom of
solemnly announcing the
date of Easter
on the feast of Epiphany. This tradition dates from a
time when calendars were not readily available, and it
was therefore necessary to make known the date of
Easter
in advance, since many celebrations of the
liturgical year
depend on it.
The
Twelve Days of Christmas is probably the most
misunderstood part of the church year among Christians
who are not part of liturgical church
traditions. Contrary to much popular belief, these are
not the twelve days before Christmas, but in most
of the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas
until the beginning of
Epiphany
(January
6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January
5th). In some traditions, the first day of Christmas
begins on the evening of December 25th with the
following day considered the First Day of Christmas
(December 26th). In these traditions, the twelve days
begin December 26 and include Epiphany on January 6.
The Vedic tradition
Besides the light from our own Sun, we also
receive light from the center of the galaxy,
the galactic Sun. Much of the light of this
greater Sun, however, is not in visible
frequencies. Some astronomers have suspected
a central galactic light, like that of a
quasar, whose light may be obscured by dust
or nebulae in the region of the galactic
center. According to Vedic astrology, the
light from this galactic source has a
special influence upon Earth. It nourishes
and sustains intelligence in human beings.
This is not the materialistic intellect but
true intelligence, the capacity to perceive
the real or divine spirit in things and act
according to the Divine Will.
When the Sun is located on the side of its
orbit where its dark companion comes between
it and the galactic center, the reception of
the cosmic light is reduced. At such times
there is a dark or materialistic age on
Earth. When the Sun is on the opposite side
of its orbit and has an open reception to
the light of the galactic Sun, there is a
golden or spiritual age on Earth. Humanity
then acts in harmony with cosmic
intelligence and with Divine powers that are
its functionaries and emissaries. The Sun's
dark companion appears to possess a negative
magnetic field that obstructs the cosmic
light from the galactic center from reaching
the Earth. Through this it creates cycles of
advance and decline in human civilization.
Link:
http://www.vedanet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=174&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0
More
links to the Epiphany Subject
Wikipedia “Epiphany” Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(holiday)
-
Theophany,
an appearance of a deity to man
-
Hierophany,
a manifestation of the sacred
-
Darśana,
Hindu term commonly used for "visions of the
divine"
3 Wise men or 3 Wise
Kings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi
Answer from David Frawley (Vamadeva)
Namaste Ivar!
Thanks for all the important information.
Clearly there is ultimately only one
religion for all humanity which is universal in its scope and
eternal in its principles. Existing human religions are at best
a reflect and at worst a perversion of it.
The Ancestral stories of Creation, tells
us primarily of the basically cosmic elements and secondly, the
story of Creation relates specifically to the elementary
Creation of our Milky Way, telling the very opposite story of
the modern science: Nothing is DRAWN IN towards the centre of
our galaxy, (This has been happening as a FORMER STAGE of the
Galaxy development) but NOW, later on, everything is created OUT
of and OUT FROM the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy.
(
http://www.cosmology-unified.net/
)
----Yes creation is from the
center, although our spiritual growth draws us back to it.
Harmonization with the Galactic Centre
An important cosmic event is occurring now.
(Happens in fact every year - but of
course with different qualities throughout the bigger cycles of
23.600 years and so on)
The winter solstice is now at a point of conjunction with the
galactic centre. (Actually, such a conjunction is 13 degree away
from Winter/Summer Solstice alignment) There is some doubt as to
the exact location of this point. I would place it at 06º 40'
Sagittarius, or the middle of the nakshatra Mula.
(Actually
29 degree Sagittarius accordingly to Modern Science. That is:
The different between the actual Summer/Winter Solstice Line and
the Galactic Center Line is approximately 13 (degrees) times 72
years = 936 year since the latest common alignment between the 2
lines).
-----6 40 Sagittarius is a
sidereal position, not a tropical one like 29 Sagittarius. Given the
difference between the two zodiacs is around 23 degrees or so, we
are indicating basically the same place.
--------Curiously Vedic
astrology and astronomy traditionally calculated all stellar and
planetary positions from the point of the pole, which was said to be
the supreme position of Vishnu.
Vedic astrology shows a connection between our sun and the star
Vega. Vega may be a controlling star for our Sun, its guide; or
perhaps our Sun may revolve around it or with it around some greater
center. Vedic astrology looks back to a time some fifteen thousand
years ago when Vega was the North Pole star. (The
Pole Centre was a little bit away from Vega back then, but close to
the Pole Point)
Apart from the galactic center, Vega may be another important point
of light that governs life on Earth.
(The Vega
Star was/is ONE PART OF "the governing lining rule" together with
the Star Sirius, in order to find the direction to the Centre).
---The Vega-Sirius line sounds
very important. One also wonders how Alpha Centaurus might fit into
this.
The "Ruler" Line (Observe the correction below)
Sirius AND
Vega marks the cardinal Galactic line going over the North Pole
centre, starting of with a drawn line from Sirius, over the North
Pole area towards Vega, going further on to the Centre of our Galaxy
in the Constellation Sagittarius, 29 Degree.
-----This would be to the
Nakshatra Mula or the root in Vedic thought.
My
personal conditions:
David, my
personal and educational situation is: I have no orthodox
education or graduation. But via some spontaneous spiritual
experiences, I've been somewhat educated in natural
understanding of Mythology and Cosmology. But it is a GREAT
CHALLENGE for me in order to get forward towards intellectual
Networks, going against the orthodox establishments coming out
with "new-old" ideas.
If it's
accordingly to a "higher order" to get my views spread, I need
ALL the help I can get!
So
please, David Frawley, if you have any proposals for me – or
hopefully for both of us – in order to find some Comparative
Mythology and Comparative Cosmology Networks, I'll be very
grateful. Please contact me!
<<A good place for you to
start may be to join our discussions on Graham Hancock's website
on Lost Civilizations where I am featured as author of the
month.
Best Wishes,
Vamadeva (David Frawley)
MY Reply -
and MY Sirius Ruler-Line correction
Dear Vamadeva,
Thank you very
much for your quick and confirming response!
I'll have a
closer look at the Graham Hancock site, thank you.
About the
"sidereal and tropical time": I'm using a Star Map and the Starry
Night Astronomical PC-program in order to find the important Stars
and "ruler line".
I'm a little bit
in doubt of what you mean when stating the 6 40 Sagittarius
comparing to my 29 degree Sagittarius, which I mean is the overall
scientifically and astronomical direction to the Galaxy Center. Can
you elaborate more over this issue?
I've tried to
´have a quick look at the Alpha Centaurus, but I have to look more
closely.
By the way:
(Correction)
I think I have to
edit/correct my former explanation especially regarding the Sirius
star. (One learns as long as one goes on, right)
My edited explanation
here:
1. Sirius is the FIRST
marking Star in order to find the "Ruler Line".
2. When first Sirius
(the biblical Bethlehem Star) shows up, it forewarns the most
important Star Constellation of Orion with its 3 "Belt Stars" (The
biblical "3 Wise Men")
3. The (hereby
corrected) directional "Ruler Line" starts of from the observation
of Sirius pointing to the Star Constellation of Orion. A line from
the MIDDLE Belt Star, going over the POLE area, further on to the
bright Star of Vega and further on pointing to the Galaxy Center at
29 degree Sagittarius.
4. By this
editing/correction, this galactic "Ruler Line" should count for both
the Northern as well of the Southern Hemisphere.
- If correct described,
this description should be possible to rediscover in the
Mythological telling of many cultures all over the World.
I'm looking VERY
much forward to your answer!
All the Best from
Ivar Nielsen
Sirius and Dogon myth of Origin
Seemingly, many ancient myths are dealing with the star of Sirius. I'm
sure they used this star and the Vega star as guidelines to the centre
of our Galaxy as described above. In the following a more specific tale
is told of Sirius as having some kind of an influence on origin of life.
I'm not sure of this story is mentioned to be understood precisely in
this way, but more as a just "Sirius and Vega being the guideline" to
the centre in our galaxy, from which life once origin. But read this
chapter below for your self and make your own opinion.
From the book
In Search
of Ancient Astronomies, edited
by Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, in Chapter 7: "A Serious Mystery" p. 246, the
Dogon Myth of Sirius is discussed.
Sirius, as we know, is the brightest star of the night
sky. Its appearance in the early evening is a sure sign that winter is
on the way. The brightness of Sirius might alone have given it special
significance in the star lore of ancient peoples, but the coincidence of
the heliacal rising of Sirius with the summer solstice and the
inundation of the Nile prompted the Egyptians to base an entire calendar
and timekeeping system on the behavior of this star. Sir Norman Lockyer
argued that seven Egyptian temples, including two at Karnak, had been
aligned on Sirius.The Egyptians were not the only ones to make use of
the heliacal rising of Sirius. John Eddy's careful work on the Big Horn
Medicine Wheel in Wyoming shows that the North American Indians who
built this structure also observed the reappearance of Sirius in the
predawn sky.As distances between the stars go, Sirius is relatively
nearby. It is the sixth closest star to earth, at a distance of 2.67
parsecs, or 8.7 light years (approximately 52 trillion miles). Sirius
emits considerably more energy than the sun and so, on an absolute
scale, is much brighter and hotter than the sun. The surface temperature
of Sirius is about 17,500 degrees F., and the star is white in color. It
is about twice as massive as our sun.
In 1844 Friedrich Bessel, a German astronomer, concluded
that an unseen, dark companion must be in mutual orbit with Sirius.
Bessel had completed extremely careful measurements of the slowly
changing position of Sirius and had discovered a small wiggle, first to
one side and then to other, around the expected line of motion of Sirius
in space. Bessel rightly assumed that Sirius was affected by the
gravitational influence of a close neighbor, and in 1862, the American
telescope maker Alvan Clark saw the faint companion of Sirius for the
first time through one of his new instruments.
Sirius A and its companion, Sirius B, revolve about each
other in 49.9 years. The companion, it turns out, is a rather exotic
type of star that's called a "white dwarf." Although Sirius B contains
about as much material as the sun, it is, at most, only about twice as
large as the earth. The star is extremely condensed. One teaspoonful of
its material weighs nearly a quarter of a ton (which would be rather
hard on the teaspoon).
A curious tale about Sirius and its dense, faint
companion emerged from Africa a few decades ago. The Dogon, a tribe
living in what is now the Republic of Mali, attach special importance to
Sirius. In their tradition, the bright Sirius is accompanied by a very
heavy and dark object they call "Po," the word the Dogon also use for a
genus of cereal grain known as Digitaria. This object, according
to the Dogon, is the smallest type of star. They also maintain that it
completes an orbit around Sirius every fifty years. These beliefs of the
Dogon, which were first communicated by tribal priests to two French
anthropologists, M. Griaule and G. Deiterlen, in the 1945, are allegedly
at least eight hundred years old, as are the designs of the Dogon sand
diagrams that illustrate the Sirius system and other astronomical
objects.
One of the Dogon sand diagrams shows what is identified
as the elliptical path of Sirius B about Sirius A, with Sirius A
located off-center, as though at a focus of the ellipse. The similarity
between the Dogon design and the projected relative orbit as seen from
the earth is suggestive. The Dogon also hold that Jupiter has four
moons and that Saturn is ringed. A telescope is required to see
Jupiter's four Galilean satellites and Saturn's rings, but the Dogon
have not had the benefit of this instrument. Other traditions of theirs
about these planets also predate the telescope's invention.
The startling agreement between modern astronomical
knowledge and Dogon star lore prompted an American orientalist, Robert
K. G. Temple, to explore the problem in more detail. In his book The
Sirius Mystery, he details many more Dogon beliefs and
aspects of many other mythologies that, in his view, relate to Sirius
and its "dark" partner. Temple concludes, in all seriousness, that the
original stimulus of Dogon beliefs, and indeed of all of these peculiar
beliefs, about Sirius was a visit to earth by extraterrestrial
amphibians nearly five thousand or more years ago.
According to Temple, the home world of these beings is a
planet in the Sirius system.
Robert Temple, in # 1.The
Sirius Mystery, illustrates his comparison between Dogon traditions
of Sirius and modern astronomical knowledge with these diagrams of the
orbit of the companion of Sirius about Sirius itself and the wiggling
paths of proper motion, observed and inferred. Actually, this
comparison is misleading, for the Dogon do not draw any diagram like
that shown at left. The diagram at left is a redrawing by
Griffith Observatory, which is based on a reinterpretation of the
diagram drawn by Temple.
(Griffith
Observatory) # 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirius_Mystery
+ Nommo: Ancestral Spirits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nommo
Temple's case rests upon extensive reinterpretation of a
great volume of ancient commentary and mythology. For example, the
peculiar myth of Cannes is used to support the idea of planet-hopping
amphibians. Cannes, as reported by Berossus, a Babylonian living in the
third century b.c., was a
peculiar combination of human and fish. Most of Cannes' body was
fishlike, but under his fish head was another head. This strange
creature, with both a fish's tail and human feet, could speak. It was
his custom at evening to return to the sea to spend the night. Other
sources characterize Cannes as a teacher who brought writing and
astronomy to humanity. Other arts and sciences, in fact, the
fundamentals of civilization—agriculture, architecture, law, and
mathematics—were all allegedly transmitted to undeveloped cultures of
the earth by Cannes.
The myth of Cannes is probably much older than the
earliest account (Berossus') of it. Temple is impressed by the fishlike
attributes of this culture bearer, and he concludes that Cannes must
have come from an oceanic world far from the earth. Quite arbitrarily
Temple assumes that the seemingly detailed astronomical knowledge of
Sirius held by the Dogon is evidence that Cannes' home world was part of
the Sirius system.
Temple believes the Dogon could only have obtained
correct detailed knowledge of the Sirius system either with modern
telescopes, which of course they did not have, or through direct
communication with visiting spacemen. It is difficult, he argues, to
believe that the Dogon would have stumbled upon the fifty-year orbital
period of Sirius B by coincidence.
Many examples from the myths and legends, including those
concerning Gilgamesh, Jason and the Argonauts, the Sumerian Anunnaki,
and a monstrous hound of Greek mythology, Orthrus, are associated one
way or another with the number 50, and Temple maintains that these
elements of the various stories refer to the binary orbit of Sirius.
Dogon astronomical traditions were bound to cause
consternation among astronomers, for it seems impossible to reconcile
the Dogon astronomical knowledge of the star Sirius with their
instrumental resources, namely the unaided eye. Temple's conclusions,
in turn, are so unorthodox that his evidence and his handling of it
demand the most careful review.
It does seem remarkable that a tribe in Africa, which is
celebrated for its complex system of cosmology and unique religious
traditions, should have detailed knowledge of the existence and nature
of Sirius B, the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, and the rings of
Saturn. The possibility always remains that the apparent similarity
between the Dogon description of the Sirius system and the real
situation is due to chance. Some may be as uncomfortable, however, with
this explanation as with Temple's extraterrestrial hypothesis. We may
never know for certain why the similarities exist, but it is possible to
remain skeptical of the notion of an ancient visit to earth by
amphibious inhabitants of Sirius.
It should not surprise us, on the other hand, that Sirius
occupies a special place in the Dogon scheme, since it is the
brightest star in the sky. It was, as we have learned, a convenient
reference for the Egyptian solar calendar, and although we do not know
if Egyptian tradition was transmitted to the Dogon, the apparent
brightness of Sirius could have stimulated an independent Dogon
tradition.
Temple rightly cautions us to be wary of accepted
translations of ancient texts and interpretations of myths, yet he
seems to fail to heed his own advice. His catalogue of the occurrence of
the number 50 is a case in point. Associations like these are always
suggestive, but they are almost invariably taken out of context, in
Velikovskian fashion. Perhaps we should attach special significance to
these relationships, but we have no way to judge unless all such
numerical associations are tabulated and classified. We may be finding
505 in myths because we are looking for 505. An objective test should be
devised if we are going to imagine that we are doing science.
The appearance of Cannes is another troublesome matter in
Mesopo-tamian tradition, but alternative explanations to the
"visitor-from-Sirius" hypothesis are available. Cannes may be associated
with the Sumerian god Ea, who also provided humanity with wisdom and the
arts of civilization. According to Berossus, Cannes came from the waters
of the Persian Gulf, and this may refer to a seafaring people whose
major center was located on the island of Bahrain. It is thought by some
archaeologists that these maritime people did introduce new culture to
the "land between the rivers" and stimulated the growth of Sumerian
civilization.
There is no direct connection between Cannes and the star
Sirius, but we might reasonably insist upon one if we are to believe
Temple's notion that the myth of Cannes echoes the visit to earth of
amphibious creatures from a watery planet in the Sirius system.
Otherwise, we might arbitrarily choose any other god of the ancient Near
East and deduce from his or her character the physical conditions upon a
hypothetical planet from whence the god had come. Thoth, the Egyptian
ibis-headed god of science, learning, and writing, might suggest equally
well that a planet of the Sirius system is a vast marshland.
Lockyer, in The Dawn of Astronomy, associated
Cannes with Ea and reminded us that Professor Peter Jensen, a German
orientalist and author of Cosmologie der Babylonier (1890),
thought the star Eta Argus (now Eta Carinae) was Ea's star. This
peculiar eruptive variable is known for its irregular variations in
light. Perhaps the great brightness of Sirius was misequated with the
past great brightness of Eta Carinae, which at times outshone even
Canopus, or Alpha Carinae, the brightest star after Sirius. The myth of
the dark companion may be a recollection of the erratic fading of Eta
Carinae.
Perhaps the strongest evidence against the idea that the
Dogon tradition is a relic of extraterrestrial contact is found among
the Dogon themselves. Not only do the Dogon speak of a second, dark
member of the Sirius system, but they also describe a third star, "Emme
Ya," and the planet that orbits it. Emme Ya requires thirty-two years to
complete an orbit. Though only one fourth as massive as Sirius B, it is
larger than that famous white dwarf.
There is no observational evidence that yet another
companion orbits Sirius (with or without planet). If the Dogon tradition
of a dark neighbor of Sirius- truly refers to Sirius B, what are we to
make of this additional partner, which apparently does not exist?
Furthermore, why are the orbital periods of these stars preserved in
years, a strictly earthbound unit of time, as opposed to some
untranslatable unit of time that would have been significant only to
inhabitants of Sirius. It also seems odd that visitors from Sirius would
provide the Dogon with a plot of the relative orbit of Sirius B as seen
from the earth. It is more likely this Dogon diagram somehow derives
from relatively recent earth-based astronomy.
Perhaps the most revealing item of all is the Dogon
statement that Jupiter has four satellites. At first, this claim seems
amazing, for Galileo did not know Jupiter had any satellites until he
viewed four of them through his telescope. Without telescopes of their
own, the Dogon must surely have been given the information by someone
else. Whoever the source of this information may have been, it is
certain ancient astronauts did not provide it. Jupiter is now known to
have at least fourteen satellites, and visiting spacemen inclined to
pass this kind of information along should have been more accurate.
Although we may not be able to identify the source of the
Dogon Sirius mystery, it seems more likely that their astronomical ideas
are either a collection of good and bad guesses or a garbled record of
old and recent astronomical knowledge which somehow contaminated older
Dogon beliefs.
Other January/July
forward/backwards Myths
Janus the 2 Headed god, looking backwards in the past and forwards to
the future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus
Odins Ravens - Huginn and Muninn, bringing news of the past and the
future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn
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