TIATA2
II. High Wisdom of Egypt
⎈ The Temple of Man ⎈ The Giza Plateau ⎈ A Map of the Stars ⎈ The Sphinx ⎈ Nabta Playa ⎈ Egypt the Wise ⎈ The Duat
The present issues from the past, and the future from the present. Everything is made one by this continuity. Time is like a circle, where all the points are so linked that one cannot say where it begins or ends, for all points precede and follow one another for ever.
– Corpus Hermeticum
Know thyself as the pride of His creation, the link uniting divinity and matter; behold a part of God Himself within thee; remember thine own dignity nor dare descend to evil or meanness.
– Akhenaten
There is a sacred science, and for thousands of years countless inquisitive people have sought in vain to penetrate its “secrets.” It is as if they attempted to dig a hole in the sea with an ax. The tool must be of the same nature as the objective to be worked upon. Spirit is found only with spirit, and esoterism is the spiritual aspect of the world, inaccessible to cerebral intelligence. Those who profess to reveal the esoterism of such teachings are charlatans.
– R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz
Egyptian civilization was not a development, it was a legacy.
– John Anthony West
The Temple of Man
Unanimously, the greatest minds of history have always considered Egypt to be the source of all true wisdom. The recorded documents, technology, and living traditions that were present in the library at Alexandria constitute a body of information so invaluable and far reaching, that there has never since been a collection that could even begin to compare. As many scientific breakthroughs as we may make, we will never be able to guess what data they had observed for centuries, or what they would have said about themselves.
Traveling to Egypt was the crowning achievement for men like Alexander the Great, the Greek statesmen Solon (arguably, the inventor of democracy) and Napoleon Bonaparte. There is no debate regarding the fact that Egypt was equated with knowledge of the highest degree fathomable.
The earliest accounts of Egypt were not direct contacts with the actual civilization in its prime. As stated above, the peak of Egyptian culture actually occurred at a period thought to be the earliest era of its existence, and this will be demonstrated shortly. Then, slowly but surely, it’s secrets were lost. One of the earliest accounts of Egypt comes to us from Herodotus who traveled there around 454 BC. Even then, those who showed him the monuments were more like spectators themselves, marveling at what the past had created while generally in the dark as to how it was done.
Therefore, much or all of the clues we have about Egypt come from interpretations of what they left behind – structures, hieroglyphs, paintings, relieves, sculptures and stories. The way these are interpreted can vary greatly from observer to observer. That is why Egypt is still shrouded in mystery.
Rene A. Schwaller de Lubicz (1887 – 1961) was a pioneer in recognizing and displaying the genius of the Egyptians. He was a mathematician, astrologer and alchemist, and therefore saw the whole of Egypt not as some prehistoric society just crawling out of caves and learning how to farm, but as an enormously complex puzzle of symbolic information that would require an illuminated mind to solve. His research helped to restore honor to the ancient Egyptians by outrightly showing evidence of their high knowledge and brilliant encryption methods. He insisted that Egypt be studied from a symbolic point of view, one heavily based on the use of number and geometry. For this he has been called the founder of the ‘Symbolist School’ of Egyptology.
Of course he was not the first to notice that Egypt’s constructions were brilliantly fashioned, and that their architecture far exceeded our own capabilities, but he showed in detail how far their knowledge of proportion, harmony, geometry, biology, astrology, and geodesy (the branch of mathematics dealing with the earth’s various measurements) extended. Suddenly, every single stone had a specific purpose, the length of every wall, the number of sculptures in a line, the mass of a pillar, the height of the ceiling – nothing was done by accident, and he was intent on proving this.
Schwaller insisted that the hieroglyphs were a completely different kind of language than that of our alphabet. He strongly emphasized the separation of exoteric and esoteric. Our modern language may be considered as a whole, exoteric. In other words, it is external and focuses on objective reality. In general use, our letters have no inherent meaning, and neither do our words. It is only when we already have an understanding of what the word means that it holds any value to us.
In opposition to this system are the esoteric hieroglyphs. Here we find a system in which a symbol (pictograph, or glyph) can evoke a specific meaning based on an image or idea. This is a system of principles. The Egyptian Neters, (somewhat mistranslated as ‘Gods’) actually means principles, or forces within nature, and the hieroglyphs are the language of these principles. In fact, as my friend, Mohamed Ibrahim, has mentioned, the ‘t’ in neter would be better translated as a ‘ch’, and so the pronunciation of the word is actually near identical to ‘NATURE’, and most certainly the origin of the modern term.
If we find in hieroglyphic writing a symbol representing a cat, the image that arises within us is that of the principle of a cat. It directly corresponds to the mental form of ‘Cat-ness’ – or the qualities of this existence. Therefore, the image of a cat refers to the qualities that make it a cat – its dominant characteristics such as dexterity, balance, cleanliness, and at times, ferocity. Cats have strong wills and walk where they please. They fend off disease by hunting rats. What else does a cat make one think of?
The serpent does not mean simply a snake, but wisdom, spirit or consciousness – for the snake has no arms or legs and thus can evoke the idea of a disconnection from the sense of touch, and therefore, the physical world. A serpent moves like a wave pattern of light or sound, thus it represents waveforms of energy and transmutation. A serpent on the forehead of a sculpture (the Uraeus), therefore, means that that person had attained a higher level of consciousness, separate from the purely physical. Because of various associations, serpents take on countless other meanings as well, both in Egypt and beyond.
The scarab does not simply mean ‘dung beetle’, but rather eternity and cyclical regeneration, as it carries a spherical ball of dung, which fertilizes its own eggs. It is therefore born of its own waste – a complete, sustainable existence similar to the phoenix, or the snake that eats its own tail; the ouroboros. The concept of immortality and eternity is thus represented in the scarab’s activities. To think in the symbolic mindset is to recognize that the outward object is an effect of the inward quality of it. The object is an emanation of the principle.
A parable I find to help illustrate this is the political cartoon. If we don’t know that a donkey means a democrat, or $ means money, or a bomb means war, then the illustration will convey no meaning to us at all. When we have this understanding, then all the pieces come together to form a comprehensive whole and a specific meaning comes forth. The phrase, a picture is worth a thousand words, certainly applies. To convey the meaning using only words, it would be much more complicated than a simple illustration, and many times, it would be impossible to embody the exact message.
Schwaller, as well as all those others who interpret Egypt from the symbolist point of view (very few), has made a point of recognizing that we today are reading the ‘political cartoons’ with no idea as to what the donkey and the bomb are actually referring to. To truly understand Khemit (meaning ‘The Black [land]’ – the Native Egyptian [or Khemetic] name for the Nile and its delta), one must look at the hidden meanings, which arise in the wellsprings of our consciousness when we observe the symbolic language. In Schwaller’s words, “the symbol is the most perfect means for esoteric transmission.”
To be clear, this system was not only used in the Hieroglyphic language, but actually extended throughout the entirety of Egyptian culture – in temple architecture, relief, paintings, sculptures and in all other forms of expression. Schwaller made the important distinction that the temples of Egypt were not simply places of worship and teaching, but they were the lessons themselves. Great wisdom was embodied in such buildings and to the initiate, these lessons could be understood from the temples as easily as we today could read a book. In this way, they serve as immortal teachers, and each one taught a different lesson. Each was dedicated to a different Neter, or principle, and so each was a chapter in the ‘book’ that was the lifelong object of study for the initiate.
The most amazing aspect of the temples is that they employ this symbolic language to deliver a very forceful and clear message to us today. It is as if they were built with the intention of sending their knowledge to us – the far removed future generations of humanity. This medium is a bridge between the past and future and that seems to be the reason it was utilized. This information was so sacred and important that they went to great lengths to immortalize it within indestructible monuments. The message has reached us now and we would be wise to interpret it with great care.
Amongst the more poignant statements made in these lessons, is that all arts should be studied as one. Within temple building we find many disciplines embodied as a single work. The object in focus was both the macrocosmic and microcosmic universe. The temples also demonstrate the study of consciousness itself, how it may be shifted and transformed, as well as how natural harmonies can be constructed to call forth such effects. This art also surfaced in the renaissance with the resurgence of sacred architecture by the cathedral builders of Europe, but none could have equaled the perfection established by Khemit.
It was understood that vibration is the key to everything. It is vibrating energy that calls forth a reaction to a heart wrenching concerto, a beautiful painting or a breathtaking view from the high peak of a mountain. All these wonders enter into our minds by way of vibration, either of sound, light, or other waves, and the construction of such wonderful temples as are found in Egypt demonstrate the same influence. The stones themselves, and the shapes they have been formed into, resonate with a person’s consciousness, even if subliminally, in order to lift them into a higher state of being.
Primarily, Schwaller worked with the Temple of Luxor, where he lived for over 15 years and developed the conclusion that this temple was built in the likeness of the human body. His primary work was presented in the book The Temple of Man, condensing all his years of research into a massive body of mathematics and interpretations thereof. With just one picture, however, we can gain a great deal of understanding into his suggestion – the human skeleton laid over the ground plan of Luxor.
The temple was built over a period of five centuries, slowly completing a plan that was likely set at the beginning. Schwaller’s fifteen years on site gave him plenty of time to measure everything he could possibly measure and calculate the relationships of all these measurements.
He had discovered the key that was to revive the meaning of Luxor, and this was not simply man, but the correspondence of man to the temple. For instance in the Hermetic tradition, the organs of the body all correlate to specific functions, planets, metals and astrological concepts. Within the temple, we find lessons in each part that relate to the principles representing that part of the body.
Moreover, the temple illustrated the perfected human being. The Pharaoh was the highest form of man; that which has reached a divine form. This is why the Pharaoh was often considered part God. But the temple also speaks of the unity of man and the universe, describing the microcosm and the macrocosm as the same form. The Egyptians saw the universe as indivisible from man, realizing that both were governed by the same natural principles, and in a manner of speaking, shared the same form. The Neters were described as very real and active forces that balanced and guided the progress of the divine human-cosmos.
The entryway of the temple reveals in itself a great deal. Two great pylons represent the dual nature within man, and the balanced imagery symbolizes the two hemispheres of the brain. In the center is a gate designed perfectly to Pi and Phi proportions, which will be discussed later. Above the door is carved the winged solar disc – representing eternal, liberated consciousness of the ascended soul.
Illustration 2: Hall of Marches, Luxor Temple
Upon entering, one would find the ‘Hall of Marches’. In this chamber, which corresponds to the feet and lower legs of the body, can be found eighteen giant statues of human figures with their left legs identically extended forward. Within Egyptian symbolism, this is used to denote the first step taken toward a destination. Even in modern Masonic tradition, the first step taken in a forward procession is always taken with the left leg. The angle at which the leg extends also matches the angle at which the chamber is skewed from the rest of the temple when viewed from above. This is embodying the principle of an initial motion – evoking the idea that the entire temple is taking this very same step forward. Just as the first moment of the big bang or the first appearance of life on earth, this chamber speaks of the concept of genesis – that which sets the whole into motion.
At the doorway into the second chamber, we find another clear, symbolic technique to establish the human form as the key to the temple. As one moves through the temple, or up through the body, they can notice that the stones which the relieves are carved into, each have specific heights. Therefore, the joints between them land at different levels relative to the figures carved onto them. At the knee level, the joint clearly lines up to the knees of the characters inscribed on it. This could also be found at the base of the feet, the ankles, the hips, the shoulders and so on. It acts as just one more mark of evidence that the human symbolism was absolutely intentional and it also functions similar to a ‘you are here’ marker that we might find on a modern map, reminding the viewer of what section of the temple they are in. picture
Illustration 3: Heights of seems between stones denote location within temple/body.
Moving onward, we enter the chamber of the thighs, which is elaborately ornamented with images of feasts and celebrations. These scenes illustrate offerings given to the Neters, and such offerings represent the sustenance that feeds the entire machinery of the cosmos. In the human body it corresponds to the femur, the largest bone and that which produces the majority of blood cells within its marrow, sustaining the body. This correlation demonstrates the sustenance that feeds the initial motion taken in the first chamber by the first step.
Illustration 4: Massive Luxor pillars representing the thighs or femurs.
The next chamber is centered on the navel and belly. Schwaller was convinced that within this chamber would be found symbolism related to the umbilical, and as this is the last connection to the mother’s energy, something related to birth. If the references to such topics were not found corresponding to the area of the navel, serious doubts would fall onto Schwaller’s research, but when hieroglyphs near the ceiling were interpreted, the message was to the effect of “Here the King is born. Here life begins.” His theory being right on target turned many skeptics to believers, and brought great legitimacy to his interpretations.
In the next chamber lies a hall of many pillars, each having carved on their bases the various phases of the moon. The moon, in Egypt, was associated with the lungs, as the wavelike pattern of inhalation and exhalation seemed to mimic the rising and lowering of the tides, the rise and fall of the Nile. The moon, working with the principle of the pull of gravity, was opposed by the Sun radiating outwards. For this reason the sun was equated with the heart, pumping the blood out through the body. In the small chamber located in the upper part of the hall of pillars, the early Christians had violated what was likely the altar and turned it into a place of Christian worship. It was a common practice for the holy centers of Egyptian temples to be replaced by invading theologies, and the heart of this temple was clearly such a holy place. Therefore if a solar-heart shrine was once positioned here, it is no longer in tact.
Illustration 5: Lunar phases portrayed by pillars representing lungs. Above this is the throat and head area. In the area of the optic center stand 12 columns, symbolizing 12 hours of day and of night. Interestingly, the optic nerve is made up of twelve bundles of nerves. Just above, we find the seat of the pineal gland. This small chamber is centered around the gland’s position in the brain. The pineal gland is known as the third eye because within the process of perfecting oneself, vital energy had to be drawn up from the ‘well within’ to stimulate this eye to open. The cobra on the forehead of the pharaoh was an indication that he had reached such a clairvoyant state. The vital energy, rising up through the chakras to the pineal gland was symbolized by a serpent – called in the East, Kundalini. The serpent was also symbolic of the soul and its journeys. For this reason, snakes were often worshipped by secret orders and even in the bible, were equated with the wisdom of transcendence, though in the Garden of Eden, this was forbidden. The wave shaped body of the serpent also alludes to vibration and energetic waves. From culture to culture, the serpent has constantly represented higher states of consciousness, forbidden knowledge and transcendence of the soul.
All in all, the temple paints a picture of a conscious, living universe and man’s place within it. It is a map of the eternal cosmos drawn upon the human form. Man and the universe are linked together in time, space and form. To study one is to study the other, and to study the Temple of Luxor is to study both.
Such a temple gives a clear example of the ingenious creativity and depth of the Khemetic Priests. However, Luxor is only one of the thousands of mysteries yet to be fully understood within the archaic empire. While the multitudes of mysteries cannot all be addressed in detail, we must investigate a bit further in order to gain a wider perspective of the brilliance at work. For instance, no description of the majesty of Egypt would be complete without at least a brief dissection of the Pyramids and the timeless riddle of the Sphinx.
The Giza Plateau
The Great Pyramid is perhaps the single greatest enigma in the world. Of the seven Great Wonders of the Ancient World, it is the only one remaining. Weighing in at around six million tons, the sheer mass is overwhelming to the viewer. The perfectly executed geometry as well, is eerily stunning. The overall effect given by the pyramid is nothing short of chilling. It seems almost out of place on our simple planet. When one contemplates its existence for only a moment, they might realize that the skill of the builders is unequalled in our current world. This realization is uncomfortable because we have been taught all our lives that we are the highest form of humanity that has ever inhabited the planet. But who today could build such a magnificent structure?
Most people believe that the great pyramid is four sided, yet in truth, it has eight sides, not including the base, and flat top, which would give it ten total faces. Each one of the ‘four’ sides are bisected down the middle and are actually concave. By an extremely subtle angle due they hint inwards at the middle point of each base edge. This can be seen, but only at dawn and dusk of the equinoxes due to the sun’s exact angle in the sky shedding light unequally on the two halves. This is no accident, but an incredibly precise calculation.
Illustration 6: Image: Hidden Inca Tours, Brien Foerster
The enormous base sits perfectly level within an inch from corner to corner – far greater precision than is used in today’s construction. The massive blocks used are far too heavy for any modern crane (or any other modern device) to lift, and the manner in which they were cut is equally mysterious, yet they are stacked hundreds of feet high and fit together so perfectly that a razor blade, even today, can not enter into the joints. To date, no one has provided a definitive theory as to how these stones were moved and put in place, though there are clues.
It is interesting to note that perhaps geo-polymers may have been used in the pyramid’s construction. This is a fancy word for natural cements that were poured or packed into forms to create blocks. In Why the Pharaohs built the Pyramids with Fake Stones, Joseph Davidovits argues that even today, ‘stones’ that are seemingly identical in density and chemical makeup to some of those used in the Great Pyramid, can be manufactured from sand and a few other locally-available ingredients using a simple process. In fact, he has demonstrated this quite effectively on video. If such stones could be ‘man-made’, and could fill the role needed by the structure, then perhaps this technique was used, at least for certain parts. By ‘filling the role’, I mean to say that the pyramids are machines. Though we may not understand exactly how they work, we can tell that they are energetic devices in some sense. They are laid out much like circuitboards and we can find lines, plains or fields of stone that are meant to be either insulative or conductive – to electricity, but ALSO to a certain force that is as yet unknown to most of humanity.
Does this solve the enigma by any means? Not at all. Even if the proper density or desired effect could have been achieved by this method for certain parts of the pyramid, there are other parts that seem to defy physics. It is also possible that this technique was used, at times, by later generations to mimic the effects produced by the great works of Pre-Dynastic times. However, within the pyramids, there is certainly evidence of far more unthinkable means being utilized. Certainly, for instance, the limestone casing blocks were not formed in this way. Only rudimentary sandstone has arguably been reproduced, which may have been ‘filler stone’ at best. There are MANY types of stone used in the pyramids, in the plateau’s patio itself and in the Sphinx and Valley Temples nearby.
It is not well understood, except by those who have visited the pyramids firsthand, that in fact, the Giza Plateau itself is constructed of stone. It is not bedrock carved smooth to make a platform for the pyramids, but multiple layers of massive stones that descend 6-8 feet per layer, on average, and again, are locked together so tightly that a credit card can not enter the seam. This platform is IMMENSE. There are places where one can find cross sections of this constructed motherboard (patio stones) and witness three or more layers deep of various types of stone, making one wonder if they are literally on a constructed mountain. How deep does this machinery extend into the earth, we might wonder?
Another curiosity of the plateau is why this motherboard-patio has throughout it, several pits which once contained massive ships. One of these is immediately South of the middle pyramid. A giant building has been constructed over the pit and the ship itself is suspended within this ‘museum’ – only a few feet away from the pyramid itself. Though scholars have denied that such ships ever saw the ocean, remnants of marine biology on their hulls tell a different tale. The ship is constructed brilliantly to allow that ropes will expand in the gaps between wood and form a watertight seal. Such ships could arguably have travelled to America or Australia with ease. It is odd that they decided to bury these ships in the sand pits of the plateau. It is almost as if they knew that we would forget about any ancient ages of exploration and would need evidence of such ships. The sand preserved the wooden structure beautifully and the ship did survive to our day, with strong implications… There are also many other pits or shafts that descend deep into the bedrock for unknown reasons.
It appears that the Giza Plateau and monuments may have been constructed over a long period of time, though the initial plan seems to have been established from the earliest age. At Giza there can be found evidence of many different techniques to quarry, shape, transport or place stones, and these should each be considered as separate mysteries, unless we can explain them all at once. The Master Technology that truly marks a civilization as an heir of the Secret Doctrine, will be addressed later, but there are many lesser technological methods that we can immediately attribute to Egyptians of some age between the creation of the plateau and today.
Flinders Petrie was another great mind who vastly illuminated the level of knowledge present at Giza. He was perhaps the first to truly understand and dissect the pyramid as a machine rather than a tomb. His shift of approach led him to discover incredible aspects of the pyramid that were often passed over by others. Perhaps most importantly, he measured precisely the various thickness of the courses of stone and found that there was a pattern of sorts. At the base are very large stones and the course above this one uses sligthtly smaller ones. The course above becomes thinner still and the following one, thinner still. This continues until the 19th course, which is suddenly thicker once again and those above it gradually diminish in like fashion until the 35th course, which is again, suddenly larger, just as the 44th and so on.
Petrie had discovered a sort of compression wave demonstrated in these thinner and thicker concourses of stone. He noted that many of the thick courses that established a new sort of plateau within the pyramid, tended to fall directly on even twenty-fifths s of the pyramid’s overall height.
I suspect these varied thickness may play a role in increasing the capillary action between stones as well. Some have suggested that one of the functions of the pyramid was to serve as a reservoir of water. Though it does not look like most reservoirs, pyramids have often been known to inexplicably draw water up from deep within the ground. In fact, it is very possible that the pyramid could have ‘pumped’ or ‘drawn’ like a wick, and stored, enough water for the vast empire, and perhaps this water was necessary in the pyramid to increase the conductivity of the ‘machinery’. Perhaps each of these bands of thick and thin courses were able to ‘wick’ the water higher and higher towards the apex.
I personally have a suspicion that these ‘compressions and expansions’ of stone levels play an important role in the directing of energetic currents that spiral up and down the pyramid and that perhaps, they also have a spiritual metaphor hidden within them as well. Perhaps they correspond to the chakras of the human body – the resonant centers that our own kundalini energy rises through in its ascent to the third eye. Perhaps we shall learn more about this subject when we reach the Renaissance Era, as Leonardo da Vinci also has some interesting things to say about the pyramid…
Chris Dunn, who was greatly inspired by Petrie, has elaborated on this evidence of ‘high technology’ in his book, The Giza Power Plant. He is a pioneer in the work of, not only showing that Giza is a machine, but also demonstrating the use of machines in the construction of these marvels. I had the pleasure of touring Egypt with Mohamed Ibrahim and Dr. Robert Schoch. (Schoch’s work will be visited shortly). Mohamed Ibrahim has also hosted tours with Chris Dunn and has helped to serve as the ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground for him, as well as for many other incredible researchers who have all noticed certain ‘keys’ to Egypt. Ibrahim finds these keys in more and more places, as he travels through the temples constantly as a tour guide, and thus helps to provide more data for more revelations by the ‘openminded’ research community at large. He pointed out to me much of the evidence at Giza that he and Dunn consider most important. For instance, evidence of high speed tube drills:
Illustration : Evidence of tube drill at Valley Temple, Giza.This was drilled into Rose Granite, which must have been imported from Aswan in Southern Egypt, This is presumably where ALL Rose Granite in Egypt originates.
Illustration : Evidence of tube drill, Giza plateau.
We also find evidence of circular saws, presumably with some sort of diamond coating seeing as they have sliced through stones like granite, basalt, quartzite and diorite (some of the hardest stones on Earth). Some of these circular saws may have used water as well and by studying the cuts, we can tell that some of the blades must have been up to roughly fourteen feet in diameter!
Chris Dunn has done carried out a detailed analysis of these ‘machining’ marks, and can even tell, at least roughly, how fast these saws and drills were likely rotating. It is safe to say, they were ‘power tools’ though it is hard to say if that power was electricity, magnetism or some other force as yet unknown to us, but certainly it was not donkeys spinning an axle or slaves turning a crank… One of the best examples of this is found in a stone box at the Cairo Museum. These boxes are found throughout Egypt, most notably at the Serapeum of Saqqara, where there are many. Do not jump to the conclusion that these were sarcophagi, as they may have had many functions.
The museum piece shown below, is unique, as it shows the process midway through. This box was abandoned after the lid broke or the circular saw went off course. The lids of these boxes were sawn off of their bottoms, ensuring that lid and box are of the same stone. They were likely transported as blocks and shaped near their final resting places. Having found a piece that is broken gives us a very unique glimpse into the process. Obviously, after having broken the lid, this piece was no longer worth the effort. The same can be said for the famous ‘Unfinished Obelisk in the quarry at Aswan; it tells many secrets, all because it cracked and was abandoned mid-process…
All of this represents, again, only lesser technologies that pale in comparison to the ‘Master Technology’ that we will soon see. It almost seems as though the entire history of the study of this monumental plateau has been dedicated to explaining away its mystery in order to feel more comfortable about the fact that it is completely unsolved, in a thousand ways. The ‘best guess’ of archaeologists is that is was a tomb built for Khufu, though no mummy has ever been found within. Even when it was first opened in the Ninth Century, no pharaoh was present. Unlike the rest of Egypt’s temples and monuments, the pyramid shows no signs of hieroglyphs or any other literal indication of its purpose, so the theory that it was a tomb was a shot in the dark, and simply put, it is entirely untrue. This mystery has been approached under the assumption that the builders were primitive and unlearned, and so its many phenomenal attributes are all called coincidences. The spirit this search should reflect is one of awe and humility. Inevitably, this search begins with two simple questions – why and how?
The true function of the pyramid is yet to be fully explained, but we do have many clues. These clues hint that it probably had several functions. To begin with, it seems to be a marker of time and in fact it is also a calendar of sorts. In other words, it is a time capsule that has incarnated advanced information within its design as if to relate to the future generations that this knowledge was present in the days when it was built. To read the pyramid like the temples, we must remember that the language is a spatial one. For this reason, many important messages can be found in its various measurements.
For instance, just as in the Temple of Luxor, we find Pi incorporated in the design. The height of the apex multiplied by 2π equals the base perimeter. In this, we see the ability to ‘square to circle’ just as in Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man – a feat not as easy at is would sound, and certainly more difficult without use of the constant Pi. Egyptologists predominantly attribute this to coincidence, since Pi was apparently not discovered until the Greek Age. However, at this point, it is impossible to deny that the Egyptians were aware of the irrational number, as it is demonstrated countless times throughout the empire in stone and art. Also, in the so-called King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid, we find a perfect ‘pythagorean’ triangle. The diagonal across the end wall and the length of the chamber represent the 3 and 4 of a perfect 3-4-5 right triangle.
The pyramid is aligned perfectly to the four cardinal directions, once again, with far greater accuracy than is the norm in our current world. Understanding that there even are cardinal directions, implies an understanding of the shape of the Earth. This knowledge, however, is also clearly exemplified elsewhere. The pyramid sits at, near perfectly, 30° North latitude. That is to say, exactly one third of the way from the equator to the North Pole. Once again, it is called coincidence. (Later, we shall see the reason why it was not placed exactly on the 30 degree mark, but we must work up to such an astonishing revelation…)
If that’s not enough, the pyramid also describes its relationship to the dimensions of Earth. The height multiplied by 43,200 is equal to the polar radius of the Northern Hemisphere. The base perimeter multiplied by the same number gives the equatorial circumference. In this way, the form of the pyramid directly reflects, (or is a miniature model of) the Earth’s northern hemisphere. You may say that 43,200 is an obscure number, but it too holds incredible significance. It is a grand, universal harmonic and we will see this number frequently in the following chapters.
For instance, if the base perimeter of the pyramid is equal to one 43,200th of the Equator, then half of the perimeter (or the length of two of its sides combined) equals one 86,400th of the Equator. This is the distance that a single point will travel (due to earth’s rotation) on the equator in a single second. That is to say, it is one 60th (second) of a 60th (minute) of a 24th (hour) of the length of the Equator. Since 60x60x24=86,400 (another number that the reader will soon become quite familiar with…), this distance (or unit) represents one 86,400th of the Earth’s Equator, OR one 86,400th of a single day – one second. It represents both time and space at once. Do not worry if this seems hard to comprehend at first, as it will make sense as we proceed, particularly by Chapter IV.
If we choose to consider these details to be more than mere coincidence, then we must acknowledge that the ancient craftsmen were aware of the Earth’s shape, it’s size, it’s rotation and also one of it’s most subtle and untraceable motions, precession, but that is by no means the whole of it.
For instance, more astronomical wisdom is demonstrated by four shafts, which extend from the King and Queen’s chambers. These were originally explained as ventilation shafts, but today this theory is more or less abandoned. For one thing, these chambers were originally sealed at both ends, and upon opening them, it was found that along the shaft were several ‘doors’ which kept them sealed. The shafts are around eight inches by eight inches. It has been noted by Robert Bauval, another dedicated ‘alternative’ Egyptologist, that the southern shaft of the King’s Chamber points directly toward Orion’s Belt (associated with Osiris) while the southern shaft of the Queen’s Chamber points to Sirius – the star of Isis – but this shaft is blocked at the end by a door. Regardless, this gives us another clue that the function of the pyramid may have been astronomical in some sense. Bauval’s further work in connecting the pyramids to the sky represents another ‘breakthrough discovery’.
A Map of the Stars
In The Orion Mystery, he outlines a shocking realization. Besides the shaft from the King’s Chamber, there is another connection to Orion’s Belt – the layout of the pyramids. Once Bauval brought the ‘Orion Correlation Theory’ to the public eye, it seemed hard to deny; a connection that should have been made long ago. Bauval’s explanation and illustration will demonstrate the clear connection.
“The first questions that come to mind in order to demonstrate such possible intention are these:
1.Did the pyramid builders have a keen interest in the stars? Yes they did.
2.Do the pyramids have astronomical qualities in their design? Yes they do.
3.Is there a feature in the pyramids that links them to Orion’s belt? Yes there is (the southern shaft from the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid).
4.Are there contemporary or near-contemporary texts, which are associated to pyramids in that region and which speak of a link with Orion? Yes, there are.
5.Did the ancient Egyptians imagine the pyramids to be ‘stars’? Yes (the Zawyat al Aryan pyramid was called ‘The Pyramid of Nebka is a star” and the Abu Ruwash pyramid was called “The Pyramid of Djedefre is a Sehed Star“. Also the ‘soul’ (Ba) in ancient Egypt was equated to a ‘star’, and several pyramids bear ‘soul names’, such as “The Pyramid of Neferirkare has become a Ba (Soul)” and “The Ba (Soul) of Sahure Gleams“.
From the above we must conclude that there is much that suggests a deliberate intention to represent Orion’s belt at Giza.”
– Robert Bauval
It seems quite obvious when comparing them side by side that the intention was there. It’s also important to note that this alignment can be seen on the horizon. Orion’s Belt rises directly behind the pyramids when viewed from the West, on the Equinox. These days, it would appear quite crooked and offset due to the precessional motion of the Earth’s axis. However, with computer programmed images of the skies of the past, it was found that the orientation of Orion would have most recently matched that of the Pyramids right around 10,500 BC.
We will find that this year is quite significant indeed. We might remember that at this time in orthodox history, we were supposedly working on learning to harness agriculture. The skills were not yet mastered, but minor attempts showed evidence scattered across the world. It would be another millennia or so before the assumed beginning of the Neolithic Revolution. Yet these collosal structures seem to mimic the sky at that moment.
Also at this time, we find the last effects of the most recent ice age coming to an end. In fact, this was a time when great catastrophes were ever present. Floods, glaciers, earthquakes and all manner of shifts were reshaping the globe. The melting of the last glaciers often caused massive floods. Ice would melt into pools on the surfaces of glaciers, for instance, and when a retaining levee would give out, thousands of cubic miles of water would rush into the ocean all at once, dramatically raising sea level and possibly wiping out coastal populations.
Is it possible that this period of instability was the subject of the message from the pyramid? Is it not a message worth conveying? It seems as though building an incredibly strong, stable structure, which could withstand both earthquake and flood, would be the perfect way to tell the future generations of one’s species that such events occurred frequently and predictably. It might also tell us that these people were fortunate enough to have survived the last one and that with their monuments they were marking their level of sophistication – that future mankind might realize the perfection they had attained. It would seem as though they knew that humanity would plunge down into a dark recession, but would eventually ascend once more in order to comprehend the message they were sending.
The ratio of ‘pyramid units’ to the earth, (43,200) hints that they knew of precession. Harmonic numbers can add or drop non-place-holding zeros, so let’s just use the base form of the number, 432, which, multiplied by 60, gives a perfect precessional cycle (in years) of 25,920. So it would seem that they were aware of the precessional motion, though further evidence will be seen shortly which proves this to be the case. With the Orion Correlation theory, we are able to calculate the time they were marking, perhaps when the transformation of the Earth last took place. Their attention to detail and incredible workmanship proves that they went to great lengths to make sure this building would live on until the end of the next cycle. Their mathematical precision demonstrates that they were a wise people, civilized, highly cultured and intellectual. Also, the simple fact that they were able to effectively build such a structure, demonstrates their possession of the master technology.
So the message becomes clearer, piece by piece, and as always, more questions arise. Is the time marker of 10,500 BC simply trying to point out that something happened at that time? Or is it possible that the pyramids were built, or at least planned, at that time? This is an essential question to ask. Egyptologists often laugh at the thought. It puts the date back 8,000 years before Khufu’s time (circa 2,500 BC) – the accredited builder. So if it were true, all of the history books would have to be thrown out. The entire timeline of Egypt would be rewritten. For this reason, it is a very bold statement, but the testimony of the Orion correlation does not stand on its own. In fact there stands beside the pyramids a great sentinel watching out over the Giza Plateau and protecting the timeless message.
The Sphinx
If there is any structure in the world that might parallel the prestige and mystery of the pyramids, it would have to be the Great Sphinx, calmly gazing into the far reaches of the universe. The challenges posed by its construction are, needless to say, baffling. Its quality reflects that it was made by the most talented masons in all of Egypt, and this is an initial clue that it is one of the oldest structures there. Could it have been the very same masters who constructed the pyramids with which it sits? In fact, the entire Giza ground plan seems to reflect a single plan laid out at the beginning of construction. The lack of elegant relieves and hieroglyphs, which decorate nearly every other structure in Egypt, lead us to believe that the whole site was made at a different time, by a different people, for a different reason. It is removed from the rest of Egypt, by its scale, its precision, and its content. Yet we are told that this whole project was erected around 2,500 BC, towards the climax of the civilization in the scholarly view.
Perhaps one of the most prolific names amongst the Symbolist School belongs to John Anthony West – a faithful follower of Schwaller. Honestly, West should be known as the father of the Symbolist School and Schwaller should be called the grandfather. It was John who inspired the movement of independent researchers (including Dr. Robert Schoch, Graham Hancock and many others) who have aided him in exposing the errors of our chronologies.
He was also the initial inspiration for this book. I was fortunate enough to have known John personally. He was the link that led me to this entire mystery, and not just me, but countless others. His work was the hinge upon which history turned. Having known him for the last dozen years of his life has been the greatest blessing I’ve ever received. I met John around my eighteenth birthday, when the rest of the world was telling me to go to college, but I, like him, wanted only to proclaim that ‘the emperor is not wearing any clothes’; that we are truly living in an insane asylum.
I soon learned that he was a ‘Rogue Egyptologist’. Soon enough, I understood that he was one of the greatest living geniuses, who was THE Rogue Egyptologist, who demolished the prevailing chronology of the origins of civilization! The term ‘Rogue Egyptologist’, heard for the first time by a young man being commanded by society to choose a lifelong vocation, sounded pretty good, though society’s commands meant little to me. John did not care what had been said before, he dared to proclaim the truth he saw. John became to me a heroic role model, a teacher and a dear friend. He would let me peruse his library, borrow books, and knowing how I much I loved those books, even offered to let me stay me stay in his studio cabin for a month when he took his family to Egypt. I mostly dug in to his copy of the Temple of Man, as it was a particular book that I did not expect to be able to afford myself anytime soon (it’s a massive, two-volume, expensive book). When John was studying this book, he had to translate it all himself from French just to be able to read it, as there was no English translation yet. John was an unstoppable force of nature, and most of the world is still far from recognizing the true importance and genius of his work. Any questions I could think of, he could answer. We remained close until his death in 2018.
When I first began reading his masterpiece, Serpent in the Sky, (arguably the greatest book ever written about Egypt) and the works that follow up all the arguments within it, I realized that this was the grand mystery I’d been searching for and John remained a helpful, priceless voice as I traversed these complex ideas. If the reader wondered what qualifications I have to write this book, (especially considering I’ve just noted my youthful apathy towards college) let the fact that I had John Anthony West as a teacher, friend and mentor for over a dozen years, stand for something.
I would never claim to know what he thinks of this book, because unfortunately, I was never able to show it to him. (I wanted it totally finished first. I was not about to waste his time with a rough draft.) Though, he knew I was writing it and he told me to do it. He told me to make sure that I was offering something unique; something that hadn’t been said before, but beyond that, the trick was simply to follow through and have the courage to publish. He could tell that I believed in it, so he told me just to do it. So I did.
If you don’t understand how important he was, you soon will. His passing in 2018 was the final catalyst that compelled me to finish this work. John is to me, what Schwaller was to him. It is not my aim to lean on John’s reputation for credibility, but to acknowledge that without his guidance over the years, I would never have been able to write this book. When I told him about it, he said that the hardest part was to simply do the work and publish it. Though this seems strikingly similar to the Nike motto, I have understood more and more what he meant. It takes courage to publish such things. He told me simply to do it, if I believe in it, and I do…
In studying the work of de Lubicz, John found a very curious statement mentioned subtly, as though it was obvious. Schwaller wrote that the base of the Sphinx as well as it’s enclosure showed signs of water weathering.
The implications of this were utterly groundbreaking and West realized this. Serpent in The Sky details all these findings and theories. There has been very little rainfall in the region for at least 7-8,000 years, yet the Sphinx shows prolonged and consistent precipitation based erosion, as if it had once lived in a rainforest. In fact, John considers that the Sphinx was likely created closer to the 10,500 BC date or even much earlier, for reasons that will be discussed shortly.
Regardless, there is no way it could have been built at the presently assumed date (2700 bc). It was a bold statement to make. Orthodox Egyptologists attempted to shrug off this hypothesis for a moment until the evidence came in, then the ground was pulled out from beneath the entire established timeline of history.
West at the time had enough information to understand this as a breakthrough discovery, but he lacked the academic background necessary to be taken seriously by the mainstream current of Egyptologists and archaeologists. After all, the commonly accepted origin of the Sphinx was attributed to the Pharaoh Khafre (or Chephren) around 2,700 BC and the change of date from 4,700 years ago to around 12,500 years ago is a major one. This was especially insulting to the Egyptologists whose life work was to be completely altered by a discovery of this magnitude, seeing as this independent researcher came out of left field. It was clear that he had to find supporters that would strengthen his credibility.
Dr. Robert Schoch and his PHD were then added to the picture and the scientific community finally started to take notice. A geologist and professor of natural science, coming from Yale, Schoch was just right. After agreeing to visit the site and perform a thorough, first hand investigation, it was agreed that there was legitimate reason to further the research. It was very clear that water, and specifically precipitation (not Nile flooding), was the weathering agent – running down in streams causing deep vertical fissures to be carved out of both hard and soft layers of stone. Alternatively, wind erosion scoops out the softer layers while leaving the harder ones intact.
West and Schoch released a feature length documentary in 1993 called Mystery of the Sphinx, which was narrated by Charlton Heston and for which John won an Emmy Award for best original research. His theory caused an enormous uproar within the Egyptology/Archaeology community, though geologists tended to agree with him and geologists are the authority on rocks and weathering. Nevertheless, the skeptical arguments came on like a tidal wave, and so the answers were hunted down.
The notion that the Sphinx predated Dynastic Egypt was not new, but to prove this had never seemed possible before such clear geological evidence had arisen. To prove that water weathering had taken place would certainly dispel the rumor that it was a construction of Chephren, and even the latest possible date for rain in the desert would place it much further in antiquity than even the Old Kingdom. So the clear objective became proving this to be the case, as well as disproving that the weathering could have developed from any other agent.
Due to historical documentation from several excavators, it is clear that any time the Sphinx has been left alone for even a matter of decades, the enclosure becomes filled in with sand. Its feet and lower body lie beneath the dunes. This lower part is the region displaying the erosion in question, including the walls of the courtyard enclosure. As the desert winds carry sand across the landscape, this space, which is carved down into the bedrock, fills in quickly. Because of this, the sands have protected the erosional features through countless millennia. West calculated the periods of time in which the Sphinx would have most likely been consistently exposed due to constant excavations of Pharaohs as well as foreigners. He determined that of the 4,700 years, which have elapsed since the time of Chephren’s apparent construction, the lower portion has been buried for about 3,300 years.
This would account for the fact that the wear from ancient rains would not have been covered over by the wind and sand induced weathering. It is as though the sand deliberately and delicately preserved the patterns for us to examine today. Perhaps this was part of the design, just like the buried ships.
Besides the obvious differences between wind and water weathering, the deep rounded channels carved out of the stone are not found in any other site in Egypt. This in itself says a great deal. If so many other temples and structures were built in the same age as the Sphinx, then why were they not weathered similarly? In fact many of the drawings commissioned by Napoleon clearly show several sites buried deep in sand, yet they are literally untouched by the sandstorms. It is evident that even after hundreds of years of exposure to the elements of the desert, wind and sand will only barely wear away at the relieves and inscriptions. Why then would it have carved channels two feet deep into the courtyard wall of the Sphinx? This is especially curious when noting that many other structures had been exposed to the elements for much longer periods of time than the Sphinx (Accounting for time buried beneath the sand).
We must also take note that many of the stones quarried out from the bedrock surrounding the sphinx were used to build the Sphinx Temple and Valley Temple directly in front of it. We can match these layers of sediment directly to the fixed bedrock walls of the Sphinx enclosure. This means that the Sphinx and Valley Temples were built concurrently to the Sphinx itself – before the controversial weathering took place. These two temples display some of the most advanced stonework in all of Egypt, in terms of size of stone, perfect shaping, lifting, placing of stones, and the fact that various types of stone from all across the land were utilized. It shows that that most advanced stonemasonry in the Kingdom took place long before the Old Kingdom dynasties even began – like 12,000 years ago… Now are we beginning to understand why academic Egyptologists despised John West and criticized him? It is because the greatest works of Egypt are more than twice as old as Egypt’s apparent beginning.
The argument had become a strong one at this point, but the problem remained that Chephren was supposed to have been the builder. It turns out that this conception is entirely based on circumstantial evidence and is in no way concrete. In fact, it rests upon only three very weak claims of evidence.
For one thing, the Stela of Tuthmosis IV, which was only partially intact when it was first excavated, showed the first syllable of Chephren’s name (in egyptian, Khafre), Khaf. The inscription had flaked off beyond this symbol and controversy arose over whether or not this was referring to Khafre or was part of a different name altogether. It was circumscribed within the oval shaped cartouche which always designates someone’s name, usually of royalty, but the same letter is found in many Egyptian names, so this evidence is questionable. Besides, it is possible that this Stele was only naming him as the restorer of the Sphinx. This was the view of Gaston Maspero, who was the director of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in the year 1886. He concluded, “The Sphinx stela shows, in line thirteen, the cartouche of Khephren. I believe that to indicate an excavation carried out by that prince, following which, the almost certain proof that the Sphinx was already buried in sand by the time of Khafre and his predecessors [i.e. Dynasty IV, c. 2575–2467 BC].”
Secondly, statues of Chephren were found buried in pits dug into the floor of the Valley Temple, which lies nearby. This temple clearly shows evidence of having been built contemporary to the Sphinx itself, yet there are no inscriptions or any other reason to assume that Chephren was the builder of it. It was common practice for Pharaohs to restore or revise the older temples. It is actually quite easy to imagine that for a civilization that spanned such great lengths of time, the oldest structures were rebuilt and developed upon a great deal. Therefore, finding statues of Chephren buried in the temple by no means implies that he was the original builder. If he was, the whole temple would likely be consecrated to him in relieves and portraits. Instead, we find only his statue buried in a pit.
The third connection to Chephren is simply that the sphinx’s face looks like him, and this is clearly a matter of opinion. There is no reason to conclude that it was actually intended to represent him. The master craftsmen of Egypt perfected the art of capturing the exact features of the pharaoh’s faces in relieves and sculpture. This means that even slight deviations may be intentionally distinguishing between two completely different people. Even still, it is conceivable that Chephren had the face rebuilt in his own image. It is a common theory that the head has been recarved, at least once, and perhaps this was Chephren’s role, since he is clearly associated with the Sphinx in some way, likely as an excavator and restorer. Ultimately, however, the truth is that the Sphinx looks nothing like Chephren.
West brought the question before Frank Domingo, the senior forensic investigator and working for the New York Police Department. He compared measurements of the sphinx with those of Khafre using computer imaging and forensic drawings. Ultimately, the two faces showed substantial differences, and Domingo determined that Khafre was not the model. The sheer angle of the face of the sphinx is drastically different than that of Khafre’s.
On the contrary, there is a reference to the Sphinx on a stone tablet dating from the late Dynastic Period, which describes Cheops discovering a temple of Horus in the area near the Sphinx. This implies that the Sphinx was around during the time of Cheops, who lived before Chephren and this threatens to destroy the theory in one blow. The tablet itself is from a later date, but it is believed to have been copied from an earlier text, possibly dating to the time of Cheops himself. The process of copying ancient documents was a regular practice in such a long living civilization. From this we can see that the Chephren hypothesis is shaky at best, and already disproved at worst.
West sums up the argument as follows.
“1 Egyptian civilization was complete at its beginning. There is no sign of a period of ‘development’.
2 Weathering on the body of the Sphinx is typical of water erosion elsewhere.
3 It is almost impossible to attribute this erosion to wind, sand, insolation or chemical reaction, since the Sphinx was buried in sand for most of its putative history.
4 There is a complete lack of similar erosional effects on other Egyptian temples and monuments exposed to the elements for as long or longer.
5 The attribution of the Sphinx to Chephren is based upon flimsy circumstantial evidence.
6 The architectural style and building scale of the Sphinx and Sphinx temple complex are unlike anything else in Dynastic Egypt.”
So it seems that the argument is quite strong, and the theory has gained support slowly but steadily due to Shoch’s in-depth and continuous analysis of the subsurface strata and countless other geological aspects and West’s continuous search for other signs of high wisdom in remote times. The obvious question that follows is – how old is it? We may remember that the Astrological Ages, caused by precession, were well understood and of extreme importance to the ancients. By tracking these ages, they were able to predict what influences would be shaping the world and humanity in the far removed future.
West had penned, before Serpent in the Sky, a book called The Case for Astrology, and it was this book that led him to Schwaller de Lubicz. It was this book that had prepared him to understand, that, like much of the Egyptian symbology, the Sphinx was Astrological in nature. John understood that the Sphinx must correlate to Leo, the lion. Would it not make sense then, for the Sphinx to have been built in the Age of Leo? At one time, it was staring directly at the heliacal rising of Leo (when it rises directly behind the equinox sun) – at the dawn of the most recent age of Leo – 10,500 BC.
It was not just the Pyramids and the Sphinx that lined up with the sky at that time. Looking east over the Giza Plateau in 10,500 BC, we would see the Sphinx gazing directly at Leo’s rising point, the Pyramids reflecting Orion’s Belt, AND the Nile River itself would reflect the Milky Way Galaxy, but even this is only a small sliver of the full body of evidence suggesting the attempt to map the stars upon the ground and to mark as incredibly important, the 10,500 BC date.
In fact, words attributed to Thoth (or in Greek, Hermes) validate the assumption. In the Hermetica is a passage in which he is speaking to Asclepius about the grand secrets of Egypt.
“Do you not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of Heaven? Or to be more precise, that everything governed and moved in Heaven came down to Egypt and was transferred there? If truth were told, our land is the temple of the whole world…”
Wayne Herschel is another independent researcher who is furthering the theory. His findings map out around fifty different pyramids stretching all down the Nile reflecting the brightest stars above the Milky Way. Notice here that the three stars of Orion’s belt have turned from the angle represented by the pyramids. That same twist, caused by precession, would point the Sphinx directly at Leo, which now appears ‘higher’ up on the Milky Way, but in 10,500 BC, would have appeared directly across.
Here Lower Egypt is shown and a closer look at the Andromeda representation at Saqqara is detailed. With such views, Prepared by Hershel, it is hard to imagine that this phenomenon is purely coincidence. For so many pyramid positions to sync with the brightest stars this side of the Milky Way seems to positively prove that this was the intention. We will see later that it was not the only civilization to do so. In fact, this is a central theme that will continually arise. Herschel documents ‘Earth-Star Maps’ the world round. His book, The Hidden Records, (and website of the same name) offers many theories and useful pictographs. Bauval has also mentioned star alignments of pyramids that extend far beyond Giza and down the Nile. Andrew Collins has also proposed star correlation theories in his book, The Cygnus Key.
One of the sites at which star maps are located is at Stonehenge, where nearby circular mounds mark out an image of the Pleiades. Certainly the Druidic builders of Stonehenge were keen to the secret doctrine. It should come as no surprise then, that both these cultures shared a love for the stars and were highly developed astronomers. The various alignments at Stonehenge blatantly disclose the fact of its astronomical function, not to say that this is its only or even primary function. It is plain as day, however, that site lines were built into it allowing for precise measurements to be made. This gives it the feel of an observatory of sorts. The reason it is mentioned now is because it just so happens that Egypt had its own Stonehenge – a far older version.
Nabta Playa
Located exactly on the Tropic of Cancer in southern Egypt rests the ancient site of Nabta Playa. This megalithic circle is at least a thousand years older than stonehenge. It is estimated to have been used between 11,000 – 5,500 years ago, though once again, the date of its origin is unknown. Six stones placed in the middle are surrounded by a circle of smaller ones. On the horizon are several other monoliths.
Thomas Brophy, astrophysicist and archeo-astronomer, has published astonishing findings on this subject in his book The Origin Map. His research shows that Nabta Playa served not only as an observatory, but represented a planetarium of sorts. This was in fact a three dimensional representation of the stars. It consisted not only of surface stones, but also some entirely buried stones and even carved bedrock.
Brophy initially noticed the very obvious East-West alignment, marked by two ‘gates’ made of two stones each. This line, if literally drawn onto the Earth, would be the Tropic of Cancer. Therefore, on the Summer Solstice, the sun would rise, pass over and set within these gates, directly overhead. Brophy, wondering at the purpose of the center stones, decided to take a look at what part of the sky would have been rising with the sun in the period when the circle was used.
He soon found that in the window of 6400 – 4900 BC, the three stars of Orion’s belt rose with the sun. He soon realized that the front three stones in the center were marking those three stars with incredible precision on the Summer Solstice in those years. This was the only time in which the stars would have appeared at such an angle due to precessional movements. Wondering at the purpose of the other three stones within the circle, he postulated that they might represent the head and shoulders of Orion, but it was clear that they would not have been in such a position at the same time. However, at the opposite end of the precessional cycle, the stars did match exactly with the other stones. If this is read correctly, then the six stones in the center of the circle were split into two groups of three – one marking Orion’s Belt and the other marking his head and shoulders – the former marking one end of the precessional cycle and the latter marking its opposite point – half a cycle – around 13,000 years – later!
He also found that when the constellation is laid out over the circle by matching the head and shoulder stars to the stones, the stars of Orion’s feet and his outstretched hand land directly on the outer circle, and when it was aligned using the belt stars, his shoulder rested right on the circle. At these two points, we find the sky tilted at each of its extremes, just as the location of Nabta Playa marks the extremity of the sun’s path north during the Summer Solstice. This means that the most recent alignment of the head and shoulder stars with their respective stones was around 16,500 BC!!! This means one of two things, both quite unbelievable. Either the stone circle was built in (or before) that age, or else the builders possesed a means of simulating what the skies would look like in future or past times. If they knew the exact length of the precessional cycle, let’s say, by some means other than having watched the sky themselves for 26,000 years, then it might theoretically be possible for them to calculate when the sky would reach its maximum tilt, and possibly they could attempt to calculate where the stars would land at that time, but this is a major stretch of the imagination. Today we require very advanced computer programs just to be able to look back ourselves and realize that these monuments do line up. If the ancients had computers that allowed them image the skies of the past and future, that would be quite a remarkable find, but the alternative – if this site was actually built by the year 16,500BC when it aligned to some of the stars it represents, then we are looking at yet another definitive mark of genius in an age possibly even predating the Giza Complex by several millennia.
So in 16,500BC the head and shoulders align. Then around 5000 BC the ‘belt stars’ align with the ‘belt stones’ and we can anticipate around the year 9000 AD the shoulders to align again! These were the values of time the Egyptians were working with, but wait, Nabta Playa keeps getting better and better…
The confirmation of Brophy’s theory came from outside the circle where stones, placed only a few hundred to over a thousand meters away marked out more site lines. There are six prominent lines and it did not take him long to notice that these lines roughly pointed to the six stars commemorated within the circle. Unfortunately, there was no date at which all of these lines matched up with their respective stars. But intrigued by the prospect, he continued to search for the answer. Soon enough, he realized that the lines were marking the star’s heliacal rising points on the horizon, or the moment at which the star rose directly behind the sun. In other words, the date set for each star was different. This made perfect sense however, in that the stars heliacal rising date came only once in each 26,000 year turn of the wheel. For this reason it was thought of as the ‘birth’ of the star, or the point at which its cycle began.
These calculations fit like a glove to the astronomical data, and such a breakthrough only encouraged more analysis. It means that if these six stones were placed when they aligned to such stars, they must have been placed at six different specific times within the long cycle.
The next clear question was why these stones were all placed at such random distances from the circle. Yes, they were all marking very specific lines to the horizon, but why would some be placed 1100 yards away while others were only hundreds?
Perhaps the distances were proportionate to the brightness of the various stars, Brophy hypothesized, but there was no correspondence. After investigating many possibilities, he decided to check what the actual distances to those stars were. Finding the proper data, which had recently been measured quite accurately, he was astonished to realize that all six stones were like proportioned when compared to the actual distance to each star. In fact he determined that the whole layout was built in a scale of one meter to .799 light years!
This may be one of the most incredible discoveries within Egypt, period. How on earth could these so-called ‘primitives’ only just crawling out of their caves have marked the relative distances to foreign solar systems? How could they have mapped out on the earth the two extremities of a cycle that takes 26,000 years to complete, as if they had personally witnessed the entire span of the cycle from that very spot, many times over? Did they know that someone would solve their riddle one day? Is that why they left behind so many confirmations that these stones were definitely describing the six stars of the Orion constellation?
Egypt the Wise
Let us recap the broadest concepts present in the Egypt’s earliest period. Based on observations of the remnants of Egypt, we can conclude the following.
- They were well aware of Pi and Phi ratios, and the Pythagorean Theorem (golden triangles) long before Greece.
- They knew that the Earth was round.
- They had the means to find key latitudes on the Earth’s surface and at these points they placed relevant structures.
- Therefore, they knew in detail the size of the Earth.
- They had a vast knowledge of the stars and were able to keep accurate records of their movements over great lengths of time.
- They were able to recreate the position of the constellations on the Earth.
- They were aware of the distances to certain stars.
- They held the ‘master technology’ that allowed for megalithic construction.
- They went to great pains in order to transmit their wisdom through the ages, embodying it into structures so sound that even the elements could not silence them.
- They also were masters of art, sculpture, medicine, mathematics and many other fields.
If we are earnestly seeking the beginning point of Egyptian culture, we are finding that it is so far in the past that the rains and sands of time have distorted the view.
What did they have to say for themselves regarding their own cultural genesis in the ‘Black Land’? This is another important question. Many chronological tables have been found which point to a far earlier origin date than what is given as the beginning of the Dynastic Record. Though few have survived in complete form today, they were spoken of by many writers of the time.
“The various sources postulate a long period in which Egypt was ruled by the Neters and then another, almost equally long, period during which it was ruled by the Shemsu Hor, (the ‘Companions of Horus’). The chronology is impossible to disentangle, and in some cases it depends upon the manner of calculation chosen, but the earliest calculation would place the founding of Egypt around 30,000 BC, the latest around 23,000 BC. Though the discrepancy is obviously very large, it is at least worth remarking that while the sources are independent, the discrepancy lies within a single order of this magnitude.
Herodotus quotes one of his guides as saying that in Egyptian history, ‘the sun had twice risen where it now set, and twice set where it now rises’. This remark Schwaller de Lubicz interpreted as a description of the passage of one and a half precessional cycles. This would place the date of foundation around 36,000 BC a date in broad agreement with the other sources.”
– John Anthony West
This is how Egypt itself, or Khemit, described it’s own origins and we claim it just sprouted up around 3000 BC.
The more archaeological finds that emerge, the greater the knowledge attributed to any certain age. We are working with scraps and remnants of lost peoples. For this reason our entire history is based on facts like; this person of this age had this much knowledge exemplified by this artifact. It stands to reason then, that we could only find more than we have already found. It’s true, when we find evidence of tools or temples or beliefs or fragments of wisdom, we can assume that the user of such devices was of at least a matching intellect. Yet if archaeologists one day dig up my remains, and find near my body a hair comb or a hammer, that by no means implies that there were not also televisions and atom bombs in my time. The point being, we tend to accredit our ancestors with the lowest level of understanding we can. As the body of evidence increases, (and it is booming today) the date at which certain knowledge was attained is constantly pushed backwards.
But the truth implies an even bigger flaw in the understanding of human progress as a whole. ‘Progress’, in the evolutionary context, paints a picture of gradual development from an inferior form into a more advanced form – a straight line ascending upwards. If we compare ourselves to the builders of the Sphinx, a moral crisis may arise. Are we really a more advanced form of those people who spent their days sculpting the earth into complex diagrams of the heavens and locking the keys of universal harmony into elaborate physical structures? Look at us with our nuclear warheads, our globally corrupt network of governments, our human rights violations, our prison systems, our petroleum gluttony, microwave ovens, bidets, reality TV shows and (John’s favorite) striped toothpaste…
The truth seems to reflect the fact that the ancients were right – time is cyclical. Progress is not a straight line, but a wavelike pattern slowly waxing and waning between the periods of great wisdom and those of dark confusion. Schwaller insisted that all things are subject to the law of Genesis. Birth, growth, death and renewal constitute progress. This applies to individuals, civilizations, humanity as a whole – even stars and galaxies. It is a universal constant.
We may now set forth a primary hypothesis as to the true nature of man – his heights, his falls, his origins. Though this book is not necessarily chronological, and earlier times will still be revisited, we have established at this point a certain understanding of the content of Egyptian wisdom. We conclude that at least this much was known in their day. We see a distant point in history when this culture was only still forming, and very close to that date, we propose that the highest wisdom was present. At a later time, a vast flourishing empire was heir to the land of these wise beings, yet the content of the wisdom was slowly simplified, and the skill of those documenting the same was greatly diminished. Moving on through history, we find the same downward slope to continue towards Greece and then Rome. Finally we arrive at the dark ages, full of death and confusion. Then slowly the enlightenment was reached and scientific culture was born. Finally we arrive at the present, when technology flourishes, though morality is scarce. Few among humanity even care about the ancient wisdom at all, and even fewer attempt to seek it out, yet we are entering into an age in which the archaic doctrine can once again become fully realized. We are approaching a state in which we will finally understand the message that was sent to us from the Golden Time.
Though the entire description above is quite brief and simplified, only addressing a small fragment of the Egyptian enigmas, it will have to suffice for now, as many of the principles addressed will be reinforced as we move along. At this point, we have discussed the Egyptian’s possession of what we have termed the ‘master technology’ (megalithic building techniques), and we have seen that they were well aware of the precessional cycle. The final aspect of the Secret Doctrine must now be raised – that of the state of the soul.
The Duat
Every facet of the Egyptian civilization was centered upon a single fulcrum – the doctrine of immortality. All the people of Egypt, regardless of how far along the path they might have been, were encouraged towards this promised destination. The priests and Pharaohs were understood to have attained a divine position or else be very close to it, while the common people regarded it as something to be worked towards. The initiation process allowed those who asked the most questions and actively pursued this knowledge to receive higher and higher levels of realization, not unlike the clearance levels within the CIA. The highest secrets were imparted only to those who were developed enough to expect a transformation within their current life.
Many Egyptologists accredit this obsession to a fear of death. They consider it a feeble attempt to explain or conquer death by inventing fantastic scenarios of the afterworld (and we might wonder how many of these researchers are Catholic…). Many consider it to be a fruitless, morbid superstition. Yet we realize that this is naught but the mold in which the Egyptologist-general casts all his hypotheses. Did he not already strip the monumental structures of their mystery and dignity? When it comes to matters of the afterlife, we should take great care to notice that every other discipline within this incredible civilization was developed to the state of mastery, whether it was astronomy, agriculture, mathematics or philosophy. With all the arts and sciences well established, immortality became the central focus within each of these separate studies and even within the society itself. Everything was related to the process of becoming an eternal entity.
Thus we realize, either it truly was simply an eccentric, superstitious obsession founded upon fantasy, or else everything related in the underworld texts represents genuine knowledge of the world beyond the body. It is hard to imagine that it could be anything between these extremes because the content of the funerary inscriptions are so dense with symbolic details that it would seem to represent either a complete knowledge or else a total fabrication. The choice is anyone’s to make, but oftentimes it is actually superstition on our part (contemporary society’s) that prevents us from taking seriously a valid investigation into the afterlife. In other words, it is possible that modern man himself is the one too afraid to approach the question of death and therefore denies that his ancestor would have solved the question already.
West states: “When death is regarded not (as with us) as an ultimate dissolution, but rather as a transitional (and crucial) stage of a journey, then the apparent Egyptian preoccupation with death becomes exactly the opposite of what it seems to be. It is, in fact, a preoccupation with Life in the deepest possible sense.”
In the many tombs along the Valley of Kings, elaborate funerary texts decorate the walls. There are several different versions of each text, often differing slightly in artistic styles and recorded at different times. The Osirieon at Abydos, as well, is home to volumes of inscriptions regarding the underworld, as both the underworld and the temple itself are the domain of Osiris. These ‘books’ contain a vast array of figures, concepts, names, realms, processes, actions, thresholds and destinations which are all presumed to be located in the land of the dead.
The Egyptian term for this region of reality was the duat. Although it was somewhat associated with the underworld, or that place to which the sun/Osiris goes at night, it was understood not as a literal location, but as a course to be run. There is a parallel, as well, between the physical underground, the underworld (duat) and the subconscious (dream world). It was believed that when one died, they must not break their concentration, but instead use all their willpower to compose themselves long enough to reach the goal at the end of the duat. Therefore, this was the training of the initiate during his life – to study the obstacle course that he would inevitably face at death and to memorize the pathway that would lead him to the door at the end.
In the book titled Coming Forth by Day, often referred to as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, we find this journey divided into the twelve hours of the night, or the twelve various stages of transformation of the soul. Much of the following interpretation comes from John West, once again, and his incredible documentary series titled Magical Egypt.
In the first hour we see a scarab in a boat being carried on a river, representing the constant flow of time as this progression takes place. Three serpents tow the boat, cleaving the waters. The scarab represents the kernel of consciousness that is rising from within the cleaving of the waters, or the body. It is rising between two kneeling figures and this may represent the two hemispheres of the brain and the scarab in the center may represent the pineal gland through which the soul exits. Above this, in the higher register is seen a similar boat inhabited by several divine entities who represent the various aspects of the soul as it stands in the first moment of death.
In the second hour, we observe the deceased character with the several personages representing aspects of himself as well as two serpents which are taken to be Isis and Nepthys, which symbolize the visible and invisible, intellect and will, the dweller in the night and the dweller in the day. This symbol represents magic in essence and since the serpents are positioned at the front of the boat, it means that these mystical forces are guiding the boat.
In the third hour we find ‘she who cuts up the souls’. This stage is somewhat equivalent to purgatory, or even hell. It is a place in which the souls who lack the willpower and focus to traverse the duat are cut apart; their various aspects are separated and returned to their respective sources. In other words, the soul is dismantled for parts. Unlike the furnace of hell, these souls are immediately dissolved. They do not experience eternal pain, but are instead lost to oblivion; diffused into nonexistence.
In the fourth hour the coffin is lowered into the depths of the earth representing the successful passage through the ‘realm of lost shadows’. From this deep region he then bursts forth in the fifth hour as a solar deity. As his spirit ascends from the ground he is standing upon a three headed, winged serpent. At this stage, earthly matter has become completely transmuted into its purely divine form. We see the heavenly forces pulling him upwards from high in the sky.
In the sixth hour we find Set or Apophis in the form of a giant serpent which must be cut into pieces in order to progress further. One must confront this adversary which could represent the darker aspects of one’s own soul. These would have to be neutralized before moving onward.
The seventh hour represents metamorphosis as the constituent parts of the soul are broken down into their elemental bases and re-synthesized. The Eighth hour represents the weaving of these ‘threads of the soul’ back together. In the ninth we find the scarab holding his ball of dung towards the sky – the egg of the new self germinating within. We find the sun rising between two serpents, the whole of which is surrounded on the right and left by the solar and lunar principles embodied as seated figures. The snakes cross each other at their base, and the whole image may be relating the interconnection of the two hemispheres of the brain, with the third eye or pineal gland represented by the sun. Beneath this scene, we see the ‘drowned souls’, or those lost in the labyrinthian catacombs of the duat. These souls are not banished or punished, they are simply lost, yet still retain the opportunity to eventually ascend the ladder once more.
The last few hours depict the soul finally reaching the heavens. The king is now literally sitting upon a serpent, his vehicle that is disconnected from the earth, that is shown amongst the stars. In the end, he is also seen in a boat towed by a great serpent, perhaps representing kundalini, the life force that can rise to activate the third eye, or alternatively, be released sexually. The sexual act would then serve as a beacon at this moment for the soul who wished to reincarnate. Alternatively, those intent on weaving the threads of the soul into a form that no longer needs to reincarnate will have the privilege of ascending to become a star. They will accompany Ra as he traverses the sky in his ‘boat of millions of years’. They who succeed, become immortal.
It is interesting that this system is employed in death and life alike. All these states of progress can be worked out during life, and at the end of each incarnation, one may be more prepared to face the duat than they were in the last life. At a certain point, one may successfully retain individuality when threatened with dissolution. Afterwards, the being can travel from incarnation to incarnation as a ‘solidified’ soul. Then, later on, may develop that soul to the extent at which incarnation in a human body is no longer necessary and death is no longer a factor. They have achieved a state outside of linear time and therefore, eternal. They have created the Philosopher’s Stone.
This simple concept, which historians call hocus pocus, could very well be the sacred key to our existence as humanity. In fact, it may have been the key to the more or less uninterrupted peace and prosperity that Egypt enjoyed for several millennia. If all members of society were striving to purify themselves so that they might fulfill their inevitable destiny and free themselves from the bonds of mortality, we would imagine that the evils present in the world would vanish. There wouldn’t be time or the need for war and oppression, not that these things didn’t exist, but they could simply not be pursued if a Pharaoh intended to join Osiris in the night sky. When his soul was weighed by Horus in the afterlife, it must not show that he was an unjust ruler. His heart must weigh less than a feather, when placed on the scales of Anubis. He must prove that he was fair and just in life.
Today, on the other hand, sociopathic billionaires desperately claw at one another while trying to reach the summit of political or economic power. If they knew that in truth they were clawing their way to purgatorial oblivion, digging themselves deeper and deeper into the land of the ‘lost souls’, they might rethink their ambitions.
The attention that Egypt paid to the soul is not unfounded. This elaborate science would not have occupied the minds of the empire for thousands of years if it was an illegitimate rouse. If this doctrine was forced upon the people and after countless centuries past, it still proved to have no positive effects, it is unlikely that it would have been preserved for so long. In fact, even today, over 2000 years after the end of the empire, we are still in possession of these texts, and still they plague the highest minds of the world.
For example, how and why does mummification take place? None alive today can reproduce the process of mummification. It was a vastly intricate science developed from a rudimentary embalming process. But why should the Egyptians go to such great troubles to preserve the body of the Pharaoh? As with everything Egyptian, eternity was strived for, from monuments to documents to people, but mummification had another purpose. It was believed that as long as the pharaoh’s body remained intact, then he was not rushed or pressured into reincarnation. Therefore, he could take as long as he needed to cross the duat. If his body could be preserved and then cemented into a tomb, or better yet, the side of a mountain in a remote area, it may never be disturbed for even millions of years. The Pharaohs were also buried with all sorts of talismanic protections and magical spells. The texts themselves decorate the tombs in relief in case the king should need to reference them. Even his faithful servants were often buried beside him, that they might serve him in the afterlife as well, and though it meant a ritual death, this was considered an incredible honor.
For the highest of initiates, learning to inhabit this world was the focus of lifelong study. By entering trancelike states, and by learning to control one’s dreams, the initiate could sharpen his willpower and focus. Upon his entrance to the duat, he would be prepared for anything that might approach him. It should be noted as well that the Tibetan tradition, utilizes nearly the exact same process. In Tibet however, instead of building tombs for the dead with the inscriptions surrounding them, the books are actually read aloud in the presence of the deceased body, describing to them each of the thresholds to be crossed, the names of the characters encountered, or the direction in which they should move.
Before we begin to discuss the ancient wisdom as it manifests in other regions of the world, however, I invite the reader to bring themselves back to Ancient Egypt. Try for a moment to vividly imagine yourself living amongst towns and fields within the Nile Delta. The daily tasks of cultivating and harvesting crops, manufacturing and selling goods, cooking, cleaning, traveling, conversing with friends – all the activities we enjoy today – are underscored with a deep sense of unified spiritual purpose. One feels a kind of confidence that is born only from an understanding that one’s culture is doing all it can to penetrate the deepest layers of the great mystery. The festivals and holidays commemorating celestial and terrestrial events are constant reminders of a central goal to be reached. Those who pursue the spiritual path with the greatest fervor will theoretically be admitted to the sanctuary of the temples and will ascend the various initiations until finally, they face the grand challenge and attempt to transcend the temporal world, liberating themselves into the sea of immortality. Does this strike you as ‘primitive’ or ‘superstitious’?
Next Chapter:
III. Lands of the Gods
I am the goal of life, the Lord and support of all, the inner witness, the abode of all. I am the only refuge, the one true friend; I am the beginning, the staying, and the end of creation; I am the womb and the eternal seed. I am heat; I give and withhold the rain. I am immortality and I am death; I am what is and what is not.
– Bhagavad Gita
Though the modern world may know a million secrets, the ancient world knew one – and that was greater than the million; for the million secrets breed death, disaster, sorrow, selfishness, lust, and avarice, but the one secret confers life, light, and truth.
– Manly P. Hall
I operate on the assumption that our education system, media and indeed our entire society today combine to give massive support and unquestioned acceptance to the orthodox side of the argument. Until I and a few of my colleagues like John Anthony West and Robert Bauval began to speak out there was really no counterbalancing view at all! And even now, although we’ve managed to get some people’s attention – and some television time – we’re still in every sense outnumbered and outgunned.
– Graham Hancock