TIATA3
III. Lands of the Gods
⎈ Southeast Asia ⎈ China ⎈ India ⎈ Middle East ⎈ Mexico ⎈ South America
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
Southeast Asia
In the jungles of Cambodia resided the Khmer Empire, the builders of the Angkor temple complexes. It is easy to note the perfect geometry of the temples, causeways, spires and sculptures. Like Egyptian temples, these structures were not only the place of worship, but the teachings themselves. Countless stories, lessons and trials were coded into these constructions, and once again, we find clear, symbolic language. As is to be expected, the site is laid out with perfect east west alignments and marks the position of the equinox sun.
In Angkor Wat alone, we find roughly 6-10 million stones, some weighing up to 10 tons. The average weight per stone is estimated at 1.5 tons, meaning the site may contain 10-15 million tons of stone. That’s more than the Great Pyramid at Giza. In Angkor, we find sandstone quite often quarried over 40 km away (25 miles) and transported through thick jungle.
The temple contains nearly 1000 square meters of relief. Three various levels display images of respectively ‘the heavens’, the ‘underworld’ and the world of man. Volumes of information are carved directly into the walls. Scenes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are prominent. In this way, the temple is a standing verse within the Vedas.
The key to understanding Angkor Wat (and as we will see later, the vedas as well) is precession and universal harmonics. As previously described, precessional knowledge can easily be shown by the use of number, and here in Cambodia, these numbers are constant. Perhaps the most obvious number is 72. It takes 72 years for the Earth’s axis to shift 1° along its full precessional cycle. Seventy-two multiplied by 360° gives us 25,920, implying the years of a full precessional cycle. Within a five pointed star, each point is 72º from the last. From these numbers can be derived several other numbers that serve as measurements or denominators in a sense – numbers that are specific to this process. The principle harmonic numbers are easy to remember as they are doubles beginning with 54, therefore; 27, 54, 108, 216, 432 and 864. There is a second ‘set’ of sacred numbers that also relate to these harmonics and their geometric equivalents, and this is where 72 comes from, but let us focus mostly on this first set, as a further description of all these numbers will be found further along. Adding or removing zeros does not change the general significance of the number as these are harmonics of each other. For instance, we might notice that 432, or 43,200 (600 x 72) was used as the ratio of the Great Pyramid’s base perimeter to the equator.
In Angkor, we find a total of 72 temples, and these are located on a line of longitude exactly 72° East of Giza – exactly one fifth of the way around the planet. At Angkor Thom, we find a central structure called the Bayon. Around it are 54 towers each containing 4 immaculately carved giant stone faces, making 216 faces in total. A bridge is lined with 108 statues, 54 on either side, holding a giant Naga serpent, and so on…
This bridge is a representation of a scene known as ‘the Churning of the Milky Ocean’. Inside Angkor Wat, we find a relief of this scene. This is a very popular image and can be found all throughout Southeast Asia. It is a literal description of precession. The name implies the stirring of the Milky Way by the Earth’s axis as it slowly turns. On either side, we see the Devas and Asuras, the creative and destructive beings, pulling on the great serpent. This force is turning the sacred Mount Mandara. Legend tells that they are trying to produce the ‘Elixir of Immortality’, but it may be better understood as a pictograph of eternity, showing the struggle of benevolent and destructive forces as precession carries humanity through the ages of high civilization and cataclysmic destruction. We will see this imagery again when studying myth, where it appears as the axle of a great millstone.
The entire effect of Angkor Wat is that of a unification of heaven and earth. Its massive arched spires reach up to the sky, and on the Equinox, the central and tallest tower pinpoints the position of the sun when viewed from the long causeway. Is it possible that the ancient Khmer people had encoded the positions of the temples to map out a region of the sky as the Egyptians had done?
According to Graham Hancock, legends of the Khmer relate that the ‘sky used to be on the ground’. He has theorized that the Angkor temples were planned in the form of Draco, which he believes, aligns to the temple, once again, in 10,500 BC!
Either way, it is clear that the temple site is an astronomical observatory of sorts and that it encodes within it’s structure, advanced mathematical knowledge of harmony and proportion. The knowledge was painstakingly inscribed into the stone walls to ensure its preservation. The Vedas themselves speak more clearly regarding the ‘astral realm’ then perhaps any other tradition surviving today, so knowledge of the afterlife was certainly present. Seeing as the precessional cycle is also portrayed with stunning detail in the temple relieves, architecture, and in the Vedas themselves (describing Yugas, or Ages of Man) we can deduce that the Khmer inherited the Secret Doctrine. We also know that the nearby neighbors of Tibet had long understood such principles, framed in a slightly different, Buddhist format.
The evidence seems to show that we are indeed dealing with a culture that received the doctrine. It seems clear that whatever was driving ancient masons of Egypt to build their temples, was also present in Cambodia. There are too many similarities of style and content. Perhaps these were not the same people as those who built Egypt, but it seems safe to say that their wisdom came from the same source and implied the same intentions.
The Angkor complex describes the Vedic tradition – the earliest stage of Hinduism. It might actually be considered a chapter of the Vedas itself, only instead of reading it, one had to experience it. Even today many individuals seeking enlightenment make pilgrimages here to meditate and absorb some of this high wisdom, just as they had in the first days of the temples.
Let us move onward, now to neighboring Indonesia, in which rest the remains of the mysterious Gunung Padang. This site has been known to locals for generations as a sacred place, though its international significance began in 1914 when it was mentioned in the Dutch publication Rapporten van de Oudheidkundige Dienst, or Report of the Department of Antiquities. Even still, it has drawn little interest until only the past 5-10 years.
The core of the site consists of five main platforms. Each of these contain stone foundations built into the ground as well as a large majority of stones scattered all over the place. This stone is called Andesite – an extremely durable volcanic rock which cleaves evenly into hexagonal cylinders. These are basically like logs and they are stacked horizontally in the log-home fashion, though in the bedrock these cylindrical shapes are found vertical. According to Robert Schoch, it is likely that the stone was harvested locally. In this case, the builders would be able to quarry the stone on site and simply split it into these convenient shapes.
The site was originally dated to around 5,000 years before the present, and this was generally upheld until around 2012, when it suddenly became clear that it was not simply a few stone foundations within platforms on the top of a hill, but the hill itself was actually a ‘structure’. There is a fine line between a hill with terraced sides and a step pyramid, and the significance of Gunung Padang depends greatly on which of these interpretations one takes. Even if the site began as a natural hill and was then sculpted into a pyramidal shape, the amount of terraforming involved in producing such a perfect geometric shape is phenomenal. One may build a pyramid from the ground up (additive) or remove the earth to carve the shape out of a hill (subtractive). Either achievement is astonishing. The sheer volume of matter being added or removed by human hands is unbelievable.
Up until recent times, it was never fully understood, or at least not widely understood, that this small mountain was a pyramid because it was entirely reclaimed by nature. The stones that used to be carefully ‘lincoln-logged’ together are today scattered somewhat like french fries on a dinner plate. It was difficult to see the whole picture. Once this became clear, however, core drilling was carried out (against the wishes of locals who even beat several of the excavators for defiling their sacred site…) to determine how much of the structure was actually manufactured and also for data that could be used for more comprehensive dating. This was accompanied by remote surveying via sonar readings and other techniques.
The results were controversial to say the least. A chamber was found within the hill, which Robert Schoch and Danny Hilman (of the Indonesian Center for Geotechnical Research) believe may have been a natural cave at one time, but which was largely reformed or renovated unnaturally. A passageway leads almost all the way to the surface. Evidence of what are most likely manmade ruins, including rooms, steps, and terraces go down at least as far as 15 meters.
As far as dating is concerned, the site became very old, very quickly. With the official age set at simply ‘at least 5,000 years’, varying opinions soon claimed it to be anywhere from 9,000 (supported by radiocarbon dating) to 23,000 years old, therefore making it another official thorn in the side of academia. Obviously the earlier dates will be vehemently denied by the ‘seekers of the status quo’ yet even the date of 12,000 years is now entirely legitimate.
Twenty or thirty years ago, this would never have been considered, but due to the re-dating of the Sphinx and all the other finds which have not yet been discussed, the 10,000 BC era is now understood to have been a time in which highly sophisticated societies may have lived. Gunung Padang can safely be placed in this category even by the more mainstream specialists. It is fairly well accepted that the site saw construction in at least three to four separate eras, and this adds yet more confusion. As with every other site, the truth remains unknown, but as a rule, everything seems to get older and older than previously thought.
In the core samples of the ground, Hilman’s team found a type of mortar holding together the stones. It contained 45% iron mineral, 41% silica mineral and 14% clay which contained carbon. Radiometric analysis of the carbon element places it between 13,000 and 23,000 years before present. This mortar is also significant in that it demonstrates a understanding of metallurgy. The concentration of iron within the compound is many times the average of even bedrock in mining areas, and therefore it is clear that this ‘cement’ is not naturally occurring. Strengthening this argument was the discovery of a piece of metal ten inches long found one meter below the surface of the eastern slope.
Indonesia is also the home of several other wonders of stonemasonry, including the temple of Borobudor (above), Gunung Kawi or the Ubud Monkey Forest, but nothing comes close to the grandeur of Mount Padang. It is being called the most significant sight in Southern Asia. Some go as far as to title it the oldest known manmade structure in the world. Perhaps time will tell if this is the case, but regardless, the site stands in solidarity with the archaeological paradigm break that is occurring.
At Pohn Pei, Micronesia, we find another site that embraces the same building technique as Gunung Padang. It is called Nan Madol. The level of contact between the people responsible for these two sights is as yet undetermined, as it is possible they simply developed the same technique due to access to the same materials. However, it is very likely that they were built during at least some of the same eras and by a similar, if not the very same, culture. Nan Madol is extremely significant in a completely different way. It is partially submerged in the ocean. Also, it is isolated way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! This leads us to believe that it was constructed at a time when sea level was lower, and that sea travel was well established.
Moving west, we find Sigiriya in modern Sri Lanka. The name is derived from Sihagiri meaning Lion Rock. Here an enormous crag has become the focal point of the ruins. Around halfway up, the stone is carved into the form of a lion. The access stairway to the top is fitted between its two front paws. This incredible formation stands nearly 200 meters tall (660 feet).
According to a local chronology, the King Kasyapa chose this site as the capitol of his kingdom and built his palace on top of the rock. It has been claimed that he was the builder of the lion in the late 4th century AD though other sources disagree. It is quite clear that this site has seen use in many different ages and the lion itself shows multiple masonry styles. Regardless, it certainly shows off the same talents present from Cambodia to Egypt and even the content is strikingly similar. Like the Sphinx at Giza, this may be a symbol of Leo marking the site as astronomical in function. A natural, 200 meter tower amongst a relatively flat, forested plain is truly the greatest observatory one could ask for.
It is very likely that it served this function at some point in its long history. After Kasyapa, it was abandoned and fell into the hands of Buddhist monks who maintained it until the 14th century. It is very possible that the site was a monastery before this king’s time as well. Many small stone huts are built into caves or under boulders, some containing inscriptions describing their use as monastic housing between 300 BC and 100 AD. Human habitation has been identified at the site at least as early as 5,000 years ago.
There is also (arguably) a great lion statue in Pakistan known as the Balochistan Sphinx, which looks strikingly similar to the Sphinx of Giza, had it been weathered 1,000 times more. There are many sites throughout the world that I have not yet visited or photographed myself, but it would take ten volumes to show images of each anyways. It is perhaps better to suggest that the reader look up each of these sites and view the wonders being described. Then I may simply list them and save a great deal of paper. Try as I may to describe such sites, this is truly a journey that needs, at the very least, to be seen, and at best, visited firsthand. You will never fully grasp the depth of such places until you have walked through them.
China
Further north however, we find more ancient architects in a place that most westerners would never have guessed. Here near the city of Xian in China are found strange legends as well as many pyramids. The Chinese government has been very quiet about these pyramids and because of this they are almost completely unknown to western culture. The story begins in 1912 when an American trader, Fred Meyer Schroder, came across these structures and he asked his Buddhist guide about them. His guide replied that there existed 5,000-year-old monastic documents that contained information about them, and also stated that these pyramids were extremely ancient at the time when the records were made. In his diary, he spoke of many smaller pyramids off in the distance.
In 1945, U.S. Air Force pilot James Gaussman was heading towards India when engine trouble forced him to fly low over China. He writes; “I flew around a mountain and then we came to a valley. Directly below us was a gigantic white pyramid. It looked as if it were from a fairy tale. The pyramid was draped in shimmering white. It could have been metal, or some other form of stone. It was white on all sides. What was most curious about it was its capstone: a large piece of precious gem-like material. I was deeply moved by the colossal size of the thing.”
He managed to take this photograph, which was published forty-five years later. Until that time, his report remained concealed within the Secret Service of the military. This pyramid was again seen in 1947, when Maurice Sheahan took another photograph. This time, the photograph was published in several American newspapers, including the New York Times (March 28, 1947) yet Chinese archaeologists continued to deny the pyramids’ existence. This one in particular is known as the ‘White Pyramid’, and is thought to be roughly 1,000 feet tall. This would make it possibly the largest in the world – more than twice as tall as the Great Pyramid at Giza. Nearby this one were said to be many others, ascending to a height nearly equal.
The Chinese Pyramids have been extremely well concealed, and the fact that they have remained so secret implies that certain interested parties may be intentionally hiding them, probably for good reason. For instance, when it was finally admitted that several of these structures did exist, they were simply called ‘trapezoidal tombs’, avoiding the term pyramid altogether.
Yet more and more accounts of them arise, and today it has been estimated that there are at least 90-100 pyramids in China. Many of these are centered around the city of Xian. Several have been planted over with trees, to help conceal them as hills. This may have been the fate of the giant White Pyramid.
These pyramids, however, are not the only curiosity in the area. The First Emperor of China also ordered construction here. Around the year 247 BC, Qin Shi Huang had geomancers find him a favorable spot at the foot of Mount Li where the construction was begun, yet as his power and influence grew, his construction project did as well. According to Sima Qian (early second century BC) who collected all oral traditions of his day, 700,000 workers from across the land all tirelessly carried out this construction until Huang’s death in 210 BC. They had built an entire subterranean city beneath a giant mound that seemed to serve as a scale model of his palace, his empire and the earth itself. The treasures hidden within it were guarded by automatically triggered weapons to ward off tomb robbers. Upon his death, the last of the men building the temple were walled into the structure alive to assure that they would not spill any secrets of its construction. The mound still stands today, though it only appears to be a forested hill.
The site became a major archaeological wonder in 1974 with a chance occurrence, as many archaeological sites are discovered. While digging a well about a mile from the site, three men discovered a pit in which they found life-sized statues of warriors made from clay. Excavations began immediately and within this pit were found over 1,000 warriors in battle formation with cavalry and archers. Today it is estimated that there are 6,000 life-sized figures in this pit alone, though two other pits were also discovered. Altogether, there are thought to be over 8,000 warriors. The Terracotta Army has now become one of the greatest archaeological finds of our age and considerably adds to the mysterious presence showing itself in ancient China. Certainly it demonstrates a belief in the afterlife.
India
Moving south, we enter the Himalayan mountains – what many consider to be the modern spiritual capitol of the world. In remote locations within some of the most unforgiving terrain on the planet are found breathtaking temples. Poised upon incredibly steep mountainsides, the monasteries of Tibet rest comfortably for thousands of years. The holy city of Lhasa is but one of countless mountaintop retreats. Nepal is also the home of many secrets, as is Bhutan. The Himalayan range contains not only mountains, but deep caves as well, and while the various monasteries attract the most dedicated spiritual aspirants of the world with their mystical allure, it is likely that the greatest and most incredible secrets of the region are entirely unknown.
So let us focus on the sites that are accessible. A personal favorite of mine is the temple of Masroor located at Lahalpur in the state of Himachal Pradesh. This temple takes a form that very closely resembles the Angkor temples at least when viewed from the front, yet the style in which it is built is quite different. It is carved from a single stone and it is confusing to note that the majority of the surfaces appear to be natural, yet the overall shape is a clear indication of extensive planning and design.
Notice the inset cuts to the left of the main entrance. Concentric squares are set deeper and deeper into the stone. This delicate ornamentation will be seen throughout the world and it is incredibly important. There is often no apparent necessity for this type of decoration beyond aesthetics, yet it is found everywhere. There are very limited number of ways to work stone, and as a stonemason myself, I am aware that even with a diamond coated blade on a circular saw or angle grinder, these cuts would be near impossible. There is simply no way to maneuver a tool into a position where they could make a flat cut on a surface that is not accessible from the side.
Certainly this could all have been done with chisels and hammers, but if this is the case, it is miraculous to note that there are no errors. One wrong tap of the hammer can crack the structure and destroy the entire effect. Perhaps if the builders truly were patient buddhists, they could painstakingly tap away millimeter by millimeter. However, why would they choose to work this way rather than simply carving images into the front surface? Why did they insist on creating these inner surfaces that are incredibly difficult to achieve? Either the practice was a meditative lesson in patience or else they possessed a secret of construction that we have not yet fully understood – one which made it easy to create such an effect.
Throughout India, we find many inexplicable structures that no architect or engineer can explain. Many of these, like the rock-cut temple at Masroor, utilize subtractive methods rather than additive. This is to say, many of these sites are built into bedrock rather than erected on top – often times these are entrances to cave systems.
Rani Ki Vav, in the Gujarat state, demonstrates this skill at a level of astonishing mastery. As we continue to see more and more examples of this phenomenal work, description becomes less and less necessary and images can begin to speak for themselves. Below is an image of the bottom layers of the same temple.
The Ellora Cave Complex in Maharashtra displays the same incredible skill.
As does the Badami Temple…
As well as Aurangabad…
And Kanheri, which takes a form very reminiscent of Petra in Jordan, or Abu Simbel in Egypt.
On the other hand, India has also seen masters of intricate temple building from the ground up. It is clear that these builders shared a similar skill set with the Khmer Empire responsible for the Angkor Complexes. This can be seen at Khajuraho, Modhera, Grishneshwar, Pattadakkal, and Dwarka. Dwarka is a coastal city. Though this temple remains above the surface of the ocean, it’s ancient sister city, also named Dwarka and referenced in ancient scriptures, has only recently been discovered beneath the waves – transforming it from legend to reality. More accurately, a city has been discovered there, and it may be the ancient city of Dwarka, though this is debatable.
In the central regions of India is found yet another clear sign of astronomer masons. Within Vidarbha lies the region of Junapani. There are approximately 90 megalithic sights in this region, the largest of which, Khairwada, contains over 1400 stone circles, cairns and habitation deposits. A team of researchers from various institutions wrote a report on many of these curious megalithic finds. The team included Mayank N. Vahia, Srikumar M. Menon, Riza Abbas and Nisha Yadav.
They found that many of these sites were purely residential, while others were sepulchural (tombs) but that many also had astronomical functions, as megalithic circles often do. In their report they stated, “The megaliths in central India also have carefully laid out stones with cup marks of typical size of a few centimetres. These are placed at specific locations along the stone circles. The patterns of these cup marks and their orientation suggest that they were probably designed to mark out specific locations in the sky that corresponded to rising and setting time of specific stars associated with important changes in seasons and especially with the arrival of monsoon.”
The skill and intention displayed in India (inclusive of incredible cave sculpting, Angkor-like, intricate construction designs, and classic stone circles) certainly implies that they had inherited the legacy. We see incredible stonework as well as knowledge of astronomy in ancient building, and in this particular case, within more modern structures as well. With so much ground to cover, however, we must continue on.
Middle East
In 1994, a shepherd living in Turkey found a stone on top of a hill amongst his fields. He began to dig it up, but soon realized that it was quite large. In fact, it was a nineteen-foot tall pillar buried in the ground. Very soon it was realized that this was an ancient artifact and an archaeological dig was immediately initiated. The German Archaeologist, Klaus Schmidt, oversaw the excavation. This ‘hill’ has proved to conceal a great deal more than a simple stone. It is called Gobekli Tepe, and it is thought to be the world’s first temple.
All things considered, Gobekli Tepe may be the single most important find of the century in regards to redating the timeline of civilization. In Turkish, its name means ‘Hill of the Navel’, yet some believe that the name may have to do with the Egyptian term, Zep Tepi, which means ‘first time’ referring to the age in which mankind was accompanied on Earth by the gods.
The pillar is one of many, and after excavating deeper, it was found that it was a part of a large circle of similar pillars. In fact to date, three other stone circles have been partially excavated, and a sonar reading of the entire mound shows the presence of at least twenty circles in all. At this point, it is estimated that only about five percent of the site has been uncovered.
The pillars are beautifully formed with smooth flat sides and broad tops. They are carved from limestone taken from nearby bedrock. Many are estimated to weigh up to 50 tons. They are all decorated with detailed relieves of animals – lions, boars, bulls, donkeys, foxes, gazelles, snakes, vultures, insects, scorpions and so on. In keeping with all our ancient creations, the concept and execution of the artwork is breathtaking. Though no ‘written language’ is used, there is clearly a message being communicated through symbolic images. Recently Dr, Robert Schoch and Dr. Manu Seyfzadeh have noted at the site, what they argue is actually the world’s first written word – GOD. Furthermore, it hints at a connection between the deity and the Sun. These discoveries became evident as they studied the later languages of the region.
In a 2020 article, Schoch writes, “As Dr. Seyfzadeh noted, some of the symbols at Göbekli Tepe are remarkably similar to the Anatolian Hieroglyphs (also referred to as Luwian and/or Hittite Hieroglyphs) used in the same general region (modern Turkey) millennia later. Is this purely coincidental? We think not.”
Schoch has also found what he believes to be correlations to the mysterious Rongo Rongo script of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), isolated in the Pacific. The Moai statues there even have stylized arms and hands carved in relief, just like the anthropomorphic pillars at Gobekli Tepe (particularly the famous ‘Pillar 18’, on which the first word was discovered). Even Australian Aborigines carry similar symbols. Laird Scranton, who helped to decode the advanced cosmology of the remotely isolated Dogon tribe of West Africa, also has found many clues in the symbols revealed at Gobekli Tepe, which potentially could link it to the Hindu deity Ganesha!
We clearly see the symbol of a dot circumscribed by a circle, which, in nearly every culture that would emerge later, means the sun.
Illustration : Rongo Rongo glyphs We must consider the fact that, as the builders of Gobekli Tepe seem to have displayed extreme craftsmanship and knowledge that implied a certain level of sophistication if not high technology, it is perhaps true they were this was the work of a civilization. Furthermore, this ‘civilization’ may indeed have possessed the key ingredient that surely would qualify it as such – written language. At Gobekli Tepe, we may be witnessing the original symbology that formed the building blocks of the first hieroglyphics present all throughout the globe!
And again, the site is less than five percent excavated at present. There are perhaps twenty stone circles in all! We must all wonder then, at what symbols or languages might be discovered as more of the site comes uncovered. Schoch believes that this civilization may have possessed an advanced system of emblematic writing, though, as is to be expected, no papyri would likely survive from this long past age. Then it would seem, we may simply be getting our first look at it now and it would seem that indeed, despite academia’s infantile eye turned blindly away, it does exist and promises to tell a great deal more…
Besides the glyphs and animals, we also find many spirals, crescents, circles and other sacred iconography. It could almost be called an Ark, as it has collected and identified countless species of its time, showing modern researches that all these life forms must have been present there long ago; another time capsule for us.
These images are not carved into the columns, but extend out in relief. This implies that either the builders were willing to increase their workload significantly for this effect (when they could have just carved images into the stone, rather than carving away all the negative space around it) or else they were in possession of a science that made this technique easy to execute. Either way, it is hard to imagine that these massive yet elaborate megaliths were made using only chunks of the very same limestone, which would crumble away at the same rate as the pillars themselves.
Within each of the circles are two parallel columns that all point slightly west of North and east of south. Take note of this image in which we see the arms carved in relief. The same technique of displaying the arms and hands will also be found not only on Easter Island, but also Mexico, Peru and elsewhere. The belt as well is a common feature and also the ‘H’ motifs. The Belt may be a reference to Orion and the symbol that looks like a C, then H, then a backwards C, is the word that Schoch and Seyfzadeh believe means God. Along with the C and H to the left of it, Schoch posits that this may mean, ‘God of Gods’ (read right to left). This, being potentially the earliest known written phrase, is enough of a breakthrough in itself, but the fact that the phrase might, in some sense imply a ‘head deity’ or even, monotheism…?!? to a Solar Deity/entity/consciousness…?!?
Well, let’s just give the scholars a chance to catch their breath. The most profound aspect of the site is its age. Gobekli Tepe is understood to be at least around 11,000 – 12,000 years old, and this is not doubted by academia. For this reason, it provides a perfect example of a flaw in the timeline that has broken the barrier between ‘alternative’ archaeology and accepted, orthodox history.
How are we to account for the construction of a massive monument built of enormous stones and carved with a high degree of accuracy and skill? How is it that such a ‘civilized’ structure was created in such a primitive age? We are expected to believe that the massive pillars were carved with hand-tools made of stone, yet none have ever been found in the vicinity. There is neither pottery for cooking nor any agricultural implements. There is literally no sign of its builders and there is another great mystery set around Gobekli Tepe. The hill in which it was found is an artificial barrier.
At some point in history, (probably around 8000 BC.) the entire site was purposefully, and tediously buried. This is not disputed and we can tell by the way in which the stone and dirt layers rest on its ancient floors. It would seem that a massive effort was made to cover over the site with the intention of preserving it. This may have been due to the threat of enemy invasion or simply to keep it hidden and protected from the elements so that we today could find it in perfect condition after all these millennia. As Schoch also mentions, solar outbursts likely played a large role in the dramatic earth changes of the Younger Dryas period, which was just around that familiar 10,500 BC date. Perhaps the builders intended to protect the site from solar activities, as they may have protected themselves in the nearby underground cities of Cappadocia. It is possible that they had knowledge of such events before they unfolded, if they had records of the previous event, and carved these cave cities for their own protection. It is, then possible that Gobekli Tepe was created before the ‘great cataclysm’ world flood, spoken of in so many mythologies, and preserved intentionally for us.
It is difficult to fathom that the ancients would plan this far ahead. It is as though they knew that today, (after we had fallen from wisdom, endured pure ignorance and then slowly began our ascent back up) there would be a war for the truth, and that very few remnants of their glorious age would survive, so they wrapped up Gobekli Tepe in a nice package and tucked it away for us, just like the Dead Sea Scrolls; just like the sands that filled in the Sphinx enclosure whenever it was neglected for a few years, to preserve its tell-tale erosional patterns. It is truly miraculous how orchestrated it all seems, especially considering that one could reach the site from Giza in roughly a month, walking ten hours a day (according to google maps).
Therefore, those academics who constantly criticized West, saying that we should see evidence of high civilization in other regions but concurrent with his older dates, are silenced all the more so, as Gobekli Tepe reveals it’s secrets. Of course the incredible artworks, hidden away in the caves of Europe, such as Chauvet, Altamira or Lascaux, dating back towards 30-40,000 years before present at least, were somehow invisible to such ‘quackademics’, as John called them.
The name Gobekli Tepe means ‘Hill of the Navel’ – an important phrase to remember. The entire site has an aura of spiritual sanctity. It is understood that it served a wholly religious purpose, and that is why it has been called the world’s first temple – it is claimed to be the oldest known structure that was built specifically for sacred ceremony or ritual. It is thought to have been a place where certain people gathered to commune with the gods. It is also one of the earliest sites in which we find such beautiful ornamentations built into a structure.
Turkey is the custodian of numerous ruins, a large percentage of the historical heritage of all the Middle East is found within this country. The relief-style arms are also found at Orenyeri. Other intriguing sites within Turkey include Bergama, Aphrodisias, Nemrut, Laodicea, Sardis, and Ephesus.
As we saw in India, the early peoples of Turkey also wielded the power to shape bedrock as if it was butter. This technique is found at Orenyeri, (which bears the distinguished look of Abu Simbel in Egypt and Kanheri Caves in India). We find it also (in Turkey) at Nevsehir, all throughout the Cappadocia region, Goreme, Besikli, the Tunnel of Titus, and in the incredible underground city of Derinkuyu.
Derinkuyu is one of at least 40 (with some estimating up to 200) underground ‘cities’ that extend at least two stories underground in the region of Cappadocia. It is by far the largest of them that is known and (at least half of it) is open to the public. Extending twelve stories beneath the surface (roughly 280 feet), it is thought that it could house 20 – 30,000 inhabitants. While many of the chambers are thought to be housing, others were designated as wine cellars, stables, food stores and even temples.
The soft volcanic rock makes the terrain easier to excavate, but at the same time, more likely to collapse. Therefore, it is impressive to note that throughout this enormous construction, there are no signs of a single cave-in. There are several wells, which extend all the way up to the surface and over 15,000 air shafts for ventilation. The doors which can seal the city off from the surface are operable only from the inside and are placed on rollers that allow for a single person to open them.
Why and when this city was created is unknown, though we will soon enough address potential reasons for this type of construction, as well as other examples. The underground holds a highly significant place in the cosmologies of many civilizations – both in a symbolic means and sometimes quite literally. In many cultures, there is no line drawn between the underworld as the land of the night/dead (the dreaming subconscious), and the tangible inner earth. Many myths intend to describe both at once and so mythology once again blends with history.
Further south, Syria is home of the elegant ruins at Palmyra, Aleppo and many other ruins that are sadly at great risk of destruction due to religious, political and economic warfare. Speaking of which, in Iraq we may find Uruk, half of the Ctesiphon and a small fraction of ancient Babylon.
Medo Persia, or the Achaemenid Empire, was centered in modern day Iran. In this country we find Persepolis, Shiraz, Pasargadae and Yazd.
To the west, in Israel, lie the temples of Caesaria, Capernaum and the famous Dome of the Rock – the alleged original building site of the Temple of Solomon – a site which is precious to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Freemasons and others, though not entirely relevant yet.
North of Israel, however, is located one of the most important sites in the Middle East. Baalbek, in modern day Lebanon, contains some of the largest megaliths ever used in construction, the world round. It is very sad to note that at the time of my writing, every day another treasure of the Assyrian/Babylonian legacy is being smashed to bits by the so-called Islamic State – better known as ISIS/ISIL/I – or else by American or Israeli forces. The Great Wall at Ninevah has already suffered such a fate as well as the ancient city of Nimrud, a city prophesied by Mohammad to hold great significance in the ‘end times’, when Islam would reclaim the Holy Land. This group occupies territory very close to Baalbek and I can only hope and pray that they do not destroy such a priceless treasure. On the bright side, even heavy artillery like tanks would simply bounce off the walls. Baalbek was built to last.
Here we see one of the ‘trilithons’ that never made it into the construction. It lies broken on the ground. The ancient city of Tyre is also in Lebenon. In Jordan we find Jerash, Shobak, Al Karak, Qasr Azraq, and the famous Petra. In the southern Nabataen Empire, (Saudi Arabia), we find Qasr al Farid. The list continues, but there is much ground to cover.
Mexico
Let us now cross to the Western Hemisphere. Not so long ago, most people thought of ancient Mexico as a jungle or desert landscape peopled by the Aztec and Maya – the only two cultures worthy of noting amongst an otherwise primitive collection of tribes. Today, unfortunately, many retain this ignorance, yet most have caught on to the fact that highly sophisticated and complex nations were actually happily living out their lives here before Europe interrupted. Most people today, however, may not realize that within the western hemisphere were empires equal in wisdom, technology, language, politics and size (population) to Egypt or India.
The initial arrival of Hernan Cortez in 1519 marked the beginning of the violent desecration of native culture. Mayan writings and historical records were nearly all obliterated, ancient sites were destroyed and three centuries later, the native population of Mexico was cut in half. This time of destruction isolated our current American society from much of its ancient history. We can only guess as to how much wisdom was stolen from us by the violent, oppressive, and greedy Spanish invaders. We can only hope that the Vatican has preserved many more scripts than they let on, seeing as how the early missionaries were often responsible for the banishment and destruction of such texts, and the Vatican rarely burns books until they have their own copy secure. Needless to say, these books, if they may exist, are the property of the Maya and Aztec priesthoods from which they were stolen, and many are the common heritage of the whole world.
Because of this unfortunate event, we have a very limited number of sources from which we can gather the remnants of history together for analysis. One of the principle sources comes from Father Bernadino de Sahagun. His work, History of the things of New Spain, (also known as the ‘Florentine Codex’) is of incredible value in understanding pre-conquest Mexico. Besides this, we also have a considerable wealth of surviving structures, art and stone tablets. From these, we can deduce that the ancient cultures stretched out across vast territories. We can find remains of over one hundred cities interconnected by broad paved highways. They had many observatories for studying the skies and developed intricate calendars.
Amongst the cultures that dominated the land were the Maya, Aztec, Toltec, Nahuatl, Mazatecs, Mixtecs, Quiche, Itzas, Zapotec, and many more. The most ancient civilization in the land however, was that of the Olmecs. These people were considered to be the Mother Civilization of Mexico. Their origin has been guessed at around 1400 BC to 2000 BC. However, as we have acknowledged, dating based on stone artifacts is literally impossible, and evidence of human occupation in Mexico has been demonstrated tens of thousands of years earlier. It is suggested that the Olmecs had their roots in farming cultures that had arisen around 5000 BC and that they flourished up until just a few centuries BC, inhabiting a coastal region just west of the Yucatan peninsula.
The principle sites at which we find Olmec remains are La Venta, Tres Zapotes, and San Lorenzo. The central site of La Venta contained two astronomically aligned pyramids. Unfortunately, Graham Hancock reports in Fingerprints of the Gods that this site was demolished by the oil industry in the 1950’s, but many sculptures were rescued. In this breakthrough work, Hancock truly solidifies the idea that clear correlations across the whole globe serve as definitive proofs of some earlier period of development or ancestral source of the ‘doctrine’ that seems to have been inherited by nearly every later civilization. Hancock was greatly inspired by the work of West and Schoch and his career also shifted from various jobs in journalism to a driven focus on investigative, anthropological research and he somewhat redefined the meaning of the term ‘non-fiction novel’.
In West’s last weeks when he was quite sick, Hancock came to visit him, as they had grown to be friends and colleagues while fighting scholarly ignorance together. This was the first time I met Graham, though in less than happy circumstances. This is not to say that any of these researchers ‘endorse’ the others wholeheartedly, as obviously each have their own unique views, but in broad agreement, everyone in the field felt a great loss with John’s passing, and I saw that Graham indeed, felt the same admiration for him as I did.
Though the trend had earlier been somewhat established in his book on the Ark of the Covenant, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods was Hancock’s definitive shift into ancient mysteries, wherein he describes the enormous megalithic heads of the Olmec, and many of the other themes soon to be covered.
These heads range from six to fifty tons each and stand between five and eleven feet tall. Many were buried up until around 900 BC. Those found at San Lorenzo are estimated to be the oldest and are the most skillfully executed, again demonstrating the backwards ‘progress’ like Egypt – the greatest level of skill at the earliest period. San Lorenzo is thought to have been the largest city in Mesoamerica from 1200 – 900 BC, and by around 800 BC, was replaced by La Venta, though it was re-colonized at later times.
From the heads, we can observe that the Olmec culture may have had similar knowledge to the Egyptians. One of the great mysteries regarding the giant sculptures is how they were transported great distances through swamp and jungle. Obviously transporting gigantic stones is difficult even in the desert, but through thick jungle it is that much harder to imagine.
It is hypothesized that they may be busts of Olmec Kings, warriors, or ball players. (The Olmecs were the originators of the ritualistic ball game that would be passed down to later civilizations.) Many people have noted that the faces seem to show African physiognomy rather than Meso-american. Though it is hard to prove, this theory may upset the accepted history of Mexico. Obviously, there were not supposed to have been African races in the region at this time, and it is one of many implications that may lead us to believe that oceans may have been crossed in ancient times. It is also quite clear that these sculptures are remarkably similar to Egyptian statues and even the Sphinx. We already know that the Egyptians were masters of capturing the human likeness within hard stones, and the Khmer of Cambodia were equally skilled.
The Olmecs also created many other stone sculptures, pillars, tombs, and alters that all seem to confirm their high degree of sophistication. It is also evident that they were avid star watchers, and it is very possible that the heads and other megaliths had astronomical functions. Since none of the heads remain in their original locations, there is no way to check for stellar alignments, but the fact that La Venta was centered around a Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon is a sure sign that they were astronomers.
The Olmec represented the earliest culture of Mexico and therefore they are the culture we know the least about, but just as in Egypt, we find in this period some of the most incredible achievements. It is a shame that we have lost so much information regarding their legacy due to the inevitable tides of history. As time moves on, ancient sites are continually built over and forgotten. As Edgar Cayce implied, many of the greatest ruins and relics of Mesoamerican culture are now buried beneath the modern cities (especially Mexico City), and these may never be rediscovered.
As we proceed chronologically, we find the next great achievement of Mexico apparently around the time of Christ. Just thirty miles north of Mexico City lay the ancient ruins of Teotihuacán, which translates, ‘the place where men become gods’ or ‘the place where gods are born’. Here stands another massive version of the Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. The ruins were ancient and mysterious even in the time of the Aztecs. Archaeologists date it at least 2000 years old but this doesn’t help us much, since it could just as easily be 10,000 or more. It was likely considered a sacred site long before it was even built upon. It is one of the largest ancient cities in Mexico, but we have no record of the people who built it, the language they spoke, or their ethnicity. The site was entirely laid out to mark the paths of specific stars, and once again, the art and architecture found here suggest the same highly symbolic language as Egypt, which in itself implies an origin of greater antiquity. If these skills and hieroglyphic languages were derived from a common ancestor at some point, it would make sense that both heirs would display such skills in the same general period, which is admittedly very broad.
But if you think it is too bold to claim a common ancestor or some sort of shared heritage, consider this. The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan has a base perimeter identical to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza – 1/43,200 of the Equator. The two pyramids share the exact same footprint, though the pyramid of the sun at Teotihuacan is much shorter in height. This simply cannot be attributed to coincidence. Once more, let me repeat this. The Great Pyramid at Giza has the exact same footprint as the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico City..!
Teotihuacan stands above an extensive cave, which evidence suggests was the original sacred site. It is likely that the pyramid was meant to mark the entrance to this subterranean region. It was thought to be a womb or primeval mound, where creation began. The cave and the pyramid, around the time of it’s building, were oriented to the stars of the Pleiades. This alignment would only occur twice a year when the Sun passed directly overhead. To establish this sightline, the perfectly straight axis of the city was angled 15.5° off of North-South.
Hugh Harleston has studied Teotihuacán for over fifty years. From his measurements and research of the site, he has drawn several conclusions. For one thing, he claims that the layout encodes information relating the shape, size and motions of the Earth. After much calculation, he determined the basic unit of measure that is the key to unlock the message. This he puts at 1.0594 meters and calls it a ‘Standard Teotihuacán Unit’. He assures that this same unit is used at Stonehenge, Egypt and other sites and he has also found other helpful keys to Teotihuacán.
He says, “When they draw a line, they’re telling you an area. When they draw an area, they’re telling you a volume. When they put volume, they’re telling you time.”
This reflects the idea that Teotihuacán was a three-dimensional form which perhaps reflected archetypal geometry that has harmonic relatives amongst higher dimensions. For instance, the number of sides of the pyramids, including all edges and surfaces, could ‘describe’ forms that could only exist in higher dimensions, or time.
Harleston believes that the main causeway was at one time filled with water, mirroring the sky. When a viewer stood on the Pyramid of the Moon, (where I took the above photo from) this would allow for precise astronomical measurements to be made using the reflection of the stars upon the water (As described in Chapter I). As I was visiting these temples, I ended up befriended a local Mayan shaman and staying with him a few nights. He told me that there was another reason for the pools of water. All of these sites are so far removed from the profane world, that it hardly feels comfortably speaking in many of them – these temples are built for silence and meditation – for divination. My friend related that in meditation, perhaps in trance even, one could sit on the pyramid and absorb the astral light of the stars as it was reflected off the pool of water. I will never forget this rich image.
He also related that one should ‘ask permission’ before entering the temples, and this was not his only implication that, in one way or another, the temples themselves are alive and conscious or perhaps contain living beings within them.It was not the first time I had heard such an idea, but this subject will be revisited.
Teotihuacán had a major influence on all the cultures within its wide vicinity. It is not clear whether or not it was the ‘capitol’ of an empire, but it is evident that its influence as a spiritual center embraced an enormous area. It has also been acknowledged that many of the civilizations to follow were a rough continuation of Teotihuacáno culture, which was likely a continuation of Olmec culture at least partially.
Due to the fact that the ethnicity inhabiting the site is undetermined, it is possible that it was a multi-ethnic city and was a space shared by many groups. It is likely that the builders of the site were heirs to the Olmec wisdom of stone manipulation. For this reason, we see a trail of culture leading all the way back to the early farmers and some historians lump all this together, claiming that these cultures were only the developmental period of the Maya, whose origins, they state, dated to around 2000 BC. Some place the origin of the Maya at the beginning of our current epoch described in the famous ‘long count calendar’, which corresponds to 3114 BC.
However, Maya culture supposedly reached its height between 250 AD and 900 AD, though this is only to say that within Mayan cities of that time, all the astronomy, mathematics, calendars, art, architecture and language of the various regions were combined to form one unified culture. This is why it is so hard to differentiate between the various peoples of ancient Mexico – because all these cultures were diffused into one another with substantial trade and relatively minimal warfare. In fact, the Mayans may hold the world record for the longest continual period of peace. For at least 500 years straight, they lived in relative harmony with the Earth and other tribes. This has been attributed to the fact that they possessed no monetary symbol or currency. Therefore goods were owned collectively and traded fairly.
Another site that needs mention is Tula. When Teotihuacán finally fell to northern tribes around 700 AD, a period of about 200 years followed in which the region apparently had no centralized cultural or political power. Then around 950, the Toltecs took over. The Nahuatl word Toltec generally means ‘craftsmen of the highest degree’, and so confusion has arisen regarding the claim that Teotihuacán was a Toltec creation. This claim was made in the Florentine Codex, but it is likely that the word was not referring to the Toltec Civilization, but simply to skilled craftsmen.
Nevertheless, Tula served as the capitol of the Toltec empire, which swiftly spread across Mexico into present day Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula, where they were blended with the Maya. At the center of Tula are pyramids, ball courts, great halls and giant stone statues (pictured with myself for scale reference) called Atlantes. Why yes, that does sound an awful lot like that term – so reviled by mainstream historians – ATLANTIS! There, I’ve said it! Blacklist me from the inner sanctum of scholarly review if need be, but Atlantis is no myth, and sooner or later, this admission must be made by the scientific community. Atlantis is what all of this tends to lead towards, though we are still only getting started with the evidence.
As with all these works of stone, we are expected to believe that they were created using only stone chisels and hammers, regardless of the fact that they are all carved from very hard stone. One more Archaeological site that must be visited while still in Mexico is the famous Chichen Itza. This is attributed to the period from around 600 AD to 1100 AD, when the Toltec and Maya were both occupying this region of the Yucatan. It is thought to have contained one of the most diverse populations of all Maya cities, and this explains the varied architectural styles.
The pyramid called El Castillo was built in honor of Kukulkan, the Mayan version of the Aztec Quetzalcoatl, meaning the ‘Plumed Serpent’. Both of these titles represent an ascended consciousness, much like the Egyptian winged solar disk, flanked by two cobras. In both circumstances, the serpent may represent the soul, and the wings, its ascended state. This is not to say that Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl was not actually a real person as well, but certainly these names are also titles, again representing universal qualities.
This pyramid has four staircases, each containing 91 steps, making 364 in total. When you add the platform on top, you get 365, the number of days in a year. Each of these staircases is oriented toward one of the cardinal directions. Each represents one of the four seasons of 91 days. This structure also displays a beautiful effect when viewed on the Equinox. A serpent’s head at the base of one set of stairs is given a body when the sun’s light falls over the northwestern corner and gives the impression of a wavelike pattern running down the side face of the stairs. The effect lasts for only minutes out of the year.
There is also a dome shaped building called the Caracol, which served as an astronomical observatory at Chichen Itza. Several narrow windows provide accurate sight lines to the equinox sunset, the setting of Venus at its northerly and southerly extremes, sunset on days of the sun’s zenith passage, Summer Solstice sunrise, and the southern meridian of the sky.
Clearly this site embodies the sort of wisdom we are searching for; that of star watchers, master stone masons, those with an obsession for permanence, and those who understood the magical effects of the pyramid shape. Though there are countless sites in Mexico that reflect incredible advancements of wisdom, technology and skill, these cannot all be addressed. Such temples and pyramids are scattered across the great expanse of the Mesoamerican territory, and are also scattered across an equally vast expanse of time.
We should begin to realize, however, that these temples all seem to have been placed in specially chosen spots. According to Drunvalo Melchizedek in The Serpent of Light, Chichen Itza represents the heart Chakra within a current of energy spiraling across the Yucatan. Along this path can be found six other temples representing, together, all seven of the chakras. Kohunlich, a rather hard temple to get to, embodies the Third Eye Chakra. The would-be eighth temple in the series is Tikal, in Guatemala. This represents the octave of the Root Chakra, or the beginning of the next current.
We can also find several pyramid temples in region between the Yucatan and Federal District (Mexico City). At Palenque, we find a pyramid that actually is a tomb – for Pacal, a highly revered and mummified personage who many claim to have been an ancient astronaut. His tomb was sealed under the pyramid and recovered in its full, pristine condition. This discovery was remarkably similar to the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb, with multiple passages leading to a decorated chamber containing multiple, concentric caskets or sarcophagi. Pacal’s casket lid portrays him within what many believe to be a machine of sorts, or even the cockpit of a vessel.
Illustration : The pyramid above Pacal’s Tomb at Palenque.
Further west in Oaxaca, we find the incredible ruins of Monte Alban – the White Mountain. Having made the mistake of getting a ride that did not drive all the way up this mountain, the severe slope made it’s impression as I walked the rest of the way up with my backpack in the hot sun. Arriving at the site, I was glad to have made such a strong note of this steepness, because at the top was a perfectly flat platform that seemed like the area of five football fields! Furthermore, it was circumscribed by stepped walls, which I immediately understood to have been the reservoir walls used to contain the gargantuan ‘water-mirror’. Clearly this was how they were able to eventually level it so perfectly. Nevertheless I was struck by the phenomenon. Clearly some drastic changes were made to the landscape in order to truncate the entire mountain FLAT.
As with many wells in India, using steps that descend down into the water would also give a clear view as to the volume of water present, if it were being used as a reservoir of sorts. This would make a lot of sense, as it’s high altitude would allow it to act as a water tower, with sufficient pressure to deliver throughout what is now known as Oaxaca City. Of course, at the same time, it is perfectly poised to view the horizon on all sides, with many peaks forming notches (or sights) on the horizon which could be used to track the setting and rising of celestial bodies. The ancient shaman could bathe in stellar light by sitting at the edge of this pool and this essence of starlight was shared by any who would drink the water. I had several hours at Monte Alban in which I was one of five or less people in the whole site, and so I was even able to meditate comfortably in this uncommonly calm setting. Even if the cosmic water mirror was not active, the grass lawn was just as mesmerizing.
Illustration : Monte Alban
Just outside of Oaxaca City is yet another beautiful temple that reflects this divine architecture. Mitla lies in the heart of Mezcal Country. Any real Mezcal in the World comes from this region, just as any true Champagne must come from the region of France whose name it bears. Mezcal is a liquor derived from a cactus. Mexico is a land of many cacti varieties and some do more than make one drunk. If you catch my drift…
Mitla is richly decorated with stone motifs that seem to hint at transcendental states and the geometric field patterns inherent in nature. We find shapes reminiscent of the Hunab Ku, which has been described as the Mayan Yin Yang. It could even be said that it was the Mayan equivalent of the Swastika, which thankfully, is finally starting to be understood by the masses as a sacred symbol. As cruel or evil as Hitler may have been, he does not deserve the right to destroy forever, a symbol that has for millennia been held as sacred by countless tribes, nations and religions. The swastika and the Hunab Ku both may represent a force of energy that moves inward and outward at the same time. It has been called VRIL by Blavatsky and later, by the Vril Society and Nazi’s. By scientists it is called ‘Zero Point’ or ‘Vortex energy’. To Tesla it was the secret of 3, 6, and 9. This force flows in a toroidal pattern inward and outward, from every single point in the universe. It is an energy that can be harnessed within technology or within biology.
This force, and thus the swastika, is not evil simply because the Nazis used it, and it is important for us to recognize this fact, as it is by no means the only sacred symbol that has been stolen from us. We must understand ancient symbols as they were originally intended to be understood. OF course, the swastika has many other meanings as well, in various ages and regions.
This power or energy field is often visualized within the psychedelic experience, not only when induced by substances, but also through meditative trance. The Maya were aware of the Merkaba field, which could be generated around one’s body in meditation and give them incredible vitality, and also superconsciousness and immortality, essentially. The working Merkaba generates the toroidal, vortex energy field (which looks like the shape of a donut, much like any magnetic field).
At Mitla we see these inward and outward forces rolling into each other like waves of darkness and light. It looks almost Minoan or Greek, and brings to mind the Theurgic Mysteries of Greece including the secret elixir called Soma and the pitch-black, underground labyrinths one had to traverse after the elixir’s effects started coming on. Indeed, at Mitla we find that much of the site is subterranean.
When visiting Mitla and stepping down into black tunnels, everything about the place proclaims itself a temple of initiation. Just as in the Middle East and Asia, the Underworld was equivalent to the underground and also to the subconscious realm, dream realm or land of the dead. To traverse this death metaphorically (or psychedelically) was to become an initiate of the mysteries. This leads us to another temple that also seems to be set remotely for use as a transcendental training ground, though it is not in Mexico.
Illustration : Mitla
South America
When arriving in Peru, most will fly into Lima, and most likely, quickly journey towards Cusco and the Sacred Valley by plane or bus. Let us not rush ourselves, though. Traveling north from Lima are two very important sites that need mention. Journeying to Chavin de Huantar is an incredible adventure, full of breathtaking views the whole way. One feels as if they are leaving society to enter a new world; as if they are entering through the gates of Jurassic Park. Entering into the Andes, from the Pacific coast, is nothing short of magical, and I believe this is part of the reason for the Temple in Chavin.
Illustration : Chavin de Huantar
Much like the Mitla, Chavin de Huantar is predominantly subterranean. The temple itself shows many different ages of construction and varied building techniques. Some stones are very rough and natural while others are shaped with perfect right angles. Some are very large and others tiny. Some walls use dirt or mortar, while others are ‘dry laid’. The stonework of the subterranean passages is incredibly well designed and has striking similarities to Egyptian temples and all the rest. We find faces peering out from the walls, perhaps as spirit guardians protecting the temple from negative entities, much like the Gargoyles of European cathedrals. We find stone circles and ‘portal’ chairs, similar to many of the previously discussed sites as well.
One of the most fascinating elements of Chavin is the Tello Obelisk. This monolith is placed inconspicuously near the entry of the temple, and may easily be missed if you do not know what to look for. The obelisk, much like Gobekli Tepe, serves as an ark – preserving important wisdom regarding much of the local flora and fauna. The beautiful relieves upon this stone may also confer the purpose of the temple within it’s symbols. Perhaps it tells which plants are meant to be utilized with the underground maze.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I must impress the similarities as we see them all throughout the globe. Chavin de Huantar is an initiation temple, just like those in Egypt, Asia and Mexico. It was not consecrated as an observatory in particular, or as social capitol of the region, or as glorified wine cellar. t’s purpose is recreate the experience of death in order to simulate (or stimulate) the state of a soul outside it’s body…
Illustration : Tello Obelisk at Chavin de Huantar
Illustration : Ancient pyramid at Caral In contrast, this heavily weathered pyramid lies near the Pacific Coast of Peru, between Lima and Chavin. It is in the central complex of an enormous city called Caral. Many archaeologists are calling it the oldest city in South America. Carbon dated reed baskets suggest that it was inhabited at least as early as 5,000 years ago, though it is admitted that the actual date of the main pyramid’s construction is unknown. However, this does make them at least concurrent with the Early Kingdom in Egypt when the Pyramids of Giza were ‘supposed’ to have been built.
I have visited many of the temples throughout Peru and Bolivia, especially in the Sacred Valley of the Urabamba River, but no other sites are quite like Caral. It lies in a flat desert plain that extends from the ocean into the mountains and has a very different feel from the temples that many would associate with The Inca (even though such sites are nearly all far older than the Inca Empire). Most of the sites are surrounded by jungle and poised on steep slopes like Machu Picchu or Ollantaytambo. Caral stands apart from all the rest. The extreme weathering and level of disrepair is also indicative of the fact that it may have been from an entirely different era than the so-called Inca ruins.
In my own observation, it is similar to Teotihuacan in Mexico. Whereas most other sacred constructions further south and east into the Yucatan region are scattered throughout thick forests and hills, Teotihuacan is located in a vast, dry plain with mountains surrounding in the distance. Both Caral and Teotihuacan are by far the most massive centers of culture in their respective regions, and both are quite possibly far older than their surrounding jungle temples. Caral was the center of an enormous city, and Teotihuacan was located on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan – the huge city that was more or less leveled and replaced with the Federal District, i.e. Mexico City. Tenochtitlan once had its own massive pyramids of the Sun and Moon, but the Spanish dismantled the entire city block by block and with the stone, built El Castillo de Chapultepec – The Grasshopper Castle – in the middle of the city.
Most importantly, both Caral and Teotihuacan contain enormous pyramids all set out in a grand scheme that was likely planned in advance. The largest Pyramid at Caral stands 60 feet tall and its base measures 450 feet by 500 – the area of nearly four football fields. It is one of six.
Of course, there are other sites that match this framework. For instance, the Giza Plateau and Angkor Complex. In every case we find a very wide and level plain – a clear view of the horizon. A series of many pyramidal structures is laid out with precise alignments to the rising points of the sun, moon and important stars which coincide with certain days of the year, especially equinoxes. They were all located nearby large urban centers. The temples in the areas around these sites often seem to be from a different time or of a different style. It would seem as though all these cultures had the need for what might be called a ‘national observatory’, much like we in The United States have NASA. It is ideally a collective resource for the community. The only difference being we use satellite dishes and telescopes whereas they used pyramids as position markers and utilized the shape of their natural horizons to pinpoint the movements of celestial objects.
Therefore, in each of these different regions, we find that the locals will build their own series of temples that each correspond, ultimately, to various esoteric principles. That is to say that within Egypt, within Cambodia, within Mexico and within Peru, we will find a grand Observatory, medical temples, transcendental temples, water storage temples, temples consecrated to the Chakras, to the Neters, to the sun, the moon, planets, constellations, etcetera. Within each land, we find that every temple has a different purpose and different feel. Eventually, we start to recognize these broad elements as archetypal forms of creation and consciousness.
Machu Picchu, for instance, is what I consider the Peruvian version of Monte Alban in Mexico. As described above, Monte Alban consists of an enormous, perfectly level plane in what is otherwise an area of steep mountain. At Machu Picchu we find the very same. Though the whole site is not perfectly flat, seeing the temple grounds with Huayna Picchu in the background (the tall spire behind it in most classic images like mine shown here) demonstrates to the viewer how much stone must have been removed, added or at least worked in some way – even to achieve the relatively level plane of temples. Also, like Monte Alban in Mexico, we find incredibly steep pointed peaks around us in every direction. To me this implies, one way or another, a massive displacement of earth material. It’s literally as though the mountain has been decapitated. Machu Picchu is mostly built on slopes, so it may not be so easy to see from photographs, but in person, in context, you realize that this mountain has been majorly altered by human hands – not only built upon, but terraformed.
Of course, certain plateaus were built into the complex intentionally.For instance, the main observatory of the temple is positioned at the highest elevation, so that no other temples will obstruct its view of the horizon. In the eastern wall of the Sun Temple are two windows which both look out to the Intipunku, the Sun Gate, several kilometers away. From the Sun Temple, the Sun Gate is positioned at the point of a natural V in the horizon, between two peaks and it is marked with a giant stone gate that appears, when observed from the temple, just like the sight of a gun, firmly pointed at a very exact sightline into the sky. When looking through one of the windows in the Sun Temple, the viewer will see the sun rise through the gate on the Winter Solstice. Through the other window, one would observe the same on the Summer Solstice.
Machu Picchu is an incredible fortress with a large section built solely for astronomical observation, but much of the grounds are made of temples designated for other specific purposes. Though some theorize that it was a mountaintop city of sorts, it seems to me, again, more like a monastery – almost Himalayan – a quiet place for reflection, solitude, philosophy and science. It was one of the many homes of the sacred doctrine. This can easily be seen in the ‘jigsaw’ style stonework that is some of the most perplexing in all the world.
Illustration : The Navel Stone in the center of the Coriconcha At Machu Picchu we find a great deal of evidence for countless renovations across the centuries. This image shows some of the huge, perfectly fitting blocks, built upon with much smaller stones. In many parts the ruins you can see up to five distinct styles of building within a single wall. We may never know when the first stone was set at Machu Picchu, but we know that whoever set it was present all throughout the Urabamba River Valley.
The center of this empire was Cusco, and at the center of Cusco lies the Coriconcha. This structure is described as the ‘navel’ of the World. It is one of the many places to bear such a name. As we may remember, for instance, Gobekli Tepe was called the ‘Hill of the Navel’. At the center of the Coriconcha, lies the ‘Navel Stone’. This is a large coffer, from which the Sun would come to ‘drink’ once a year. Most of the ruins of the Sacred Valley are found along the Urabamba River between Cuzco and Machu Picchu.
In the city of Cusco we find enormous stone w
Illustration : The Coriconcha, Cuzco. alls that are constructed like jigsaw puzzles. Once again there is the question of shaping and hauling the stones, but in Cuzco, the particular shock is found in the number of sides and angles found in every stone and how perfectly they fit together. For example, a particular stone has become quite famous for its seemingly unnecessary complexity – the ‘stone of twelve angles’. Notice the small protrusions coming out of the stone. It almost implies that its consistency was at one time closer to liquid, or some sort of soft clay, and that this malleable substance collected on the surface to form a sort of droplet of excess that eventually hardened back into a solid state. One can imagine a cement-like substance, yet this is certainly stone, so how could it ever have been ‘liquid’? These ‘droplets’ are one feature that is found at many sites in the Andes and beyond. It is an extremely important feature to notice.
For example, it is found in one of the most outstanding stone walls ever built, which lies nearby at Ollantaytambo. This temple-fortress is located 9,000 feet above sea level, roughly halfway between Cusco and Machu Picchu. The enormous wall contains blocks as tall as four and a half meters (fourteen feet). The thin stones set between them allow for the sloping hillside to shift the stone up and down without breaking. How the stones were quarried, lowered, moved across the river valley and hoisted back up onto an opposing mountain (quite high up in fact) is anyone’s guess. It is assumed that stone or bronze tools carved these faces, though no such tools were ever discovered nearby. Notice that NONE of the seems between stones are straight lines at all. Instead, they assume slight organic curves.
There is a pattern of curiosities to this method.
These were not formed with stone or bronze tools.
Illustration : Self portrait, to demonstrate scale of the stone wall at Ollantaytambo.
There are so many quite unique traits to this particular masonry technique that, as we will see in the following chapter, make it undeniable that this was a singular technology or understanding (technique) that was known only by the highest Adepts who travelled freely throughout ALL CONTINENTS.
THIS is the Master Technology!
The stones seem fused together somehow, though, like nearly all the stonework we’ve examined, no mortar was used. Some suggest that the joints were heated in order to ‘melt’ the stones together. However, last I checked, stones do not melt. Not only that, but this is some of the hardest stone in the region such as andesite and at the very softest, granite. We must ask how these jigsaw-style walls were built. Why not just cut rectangular bricks of right angles? It implies one of two things, either they held a secret, which made this sort of construction easy, or else it was necessary. It is very possible that both are true – that their technique was far more advanced than any theory yet hypothesized, and also that they had good reason to build in this way. It begins to looks like a technology that can manipulate the material state of the stone – perhaps control its density – soften or harden it at will…
One thing is certain, we cannot replicate this technique today, though it is clear that it makes for an unshakable structure. Even today, if somehow the entire crust of the Earth got a good shake by say, an asteroid impact, it is possible that these ancient structures may again be the only standing walls on earth. Wood will rot, metal will rust, but these stones are locked in place without mortar – impervious to flood or fire – immortal. This leads us to wonder; is this exactly what happened to the last Golden Age?
It is very possible, after all, that these cultures had witnessed the terrors of cataclysmic upheaval, and therefore, wanted to build only structures that would last through the centuries, come wind, rain or earthquake or flood. The technique, using many-sided stones, incredibly closely fit and without mortar, provides an astoundingly strong structure and it is very possible that this was a primary concern of the ancient builders. This could be one of the primary answers to the question ‘Why’, to say nothing, yet, of the ‘How’.
One of the most incredible of these titanic structures is Sacsayhuaman, which is located on a hill overlooking Cusco. This massive walled complex shows clearly many of the same oddities as Ollantaytambo. The site contains three massive walls, which seem to be holding back the hillside as retaining walls. The longest is about four hundred meters and around six meters tall (1200 feet by 18 feet). There is estimated to be over 6,000 cubic meters (about 170,000 cubic feet) of stone used in the construction. Once again we find the same jigsaw style, but utilizing some of the largest construction stones in the western hemisphere (all the Americas)! The heaviest of these may weigh around 200 tons.
Unfortunately, when the Spanish invaded, they destroyed the main structure at Sacsayhuaman and used the stones to build palaces for the Spaniards in Cusco (much like Tenochtitlan in Mexico City). A great deal of the temple, however, was composed of stones far too large for the colonists to handle and so the great walls still stand.
Illustration : Me, posing again, this time at Sacsayhuaman.
Sacsayhuaman is by far the most impressive example of the jigsaw style in the region, and this may be directly related to the ‘Navel Stone’ at the Coriconcha, which rests just down the mountainside from the giant walls. As we shall see, these ‘Earth-navels’ are extremely important and in fact, they are sources of an energy that is vital to this secret technology. The farther you are from the Navel, the more difficult it becomes to perform ‘Lithomancy’ (stone magic). Thus, at Machu Picchu (some 40 miles away) there is fantastic and tedious stonework, but there are no single stones that weigh anywhere near into the astonishing tonnage of Sacsayhuaman, which is literally less than a mile (within eyesight) of the Navel stone in the Coriconcha in the center of Cuzco. As you explore the Sacred Valley and move further from Cuzco, you will notice this ‘source power’ decline – the size of the stones decreases. That is why these ruins are all located in consolidated regions and not anywhere else in the surrounding continent – in the example of South America, this type of construction is all concentrated in Peru and Bolivia and a bit in Northern Chile and Argentina.
For example, Bolivia is the home of Tiahuanaco and nearby Puma Punku. These ruins are located just south of Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is also a very sacred lake. The Island of the Sun and Island of the Moon mimic the respective pyramids found in other locations. Principally at Tiahuanaco we find the Kalasaya, or Temple of the Sun. This is primarily an observatory. When standing at one of the viewing stones, the Sun would seems to pace back and forth across the ‘calendar wall’. This wall was cut into ten equal spaces with eleven megaliths, though one has now fallen out of place and in fact, much of the site was reconstructed in recent centuries, perhaps somewhat hastily.
As the setting or rising points of the sun traverse the wall, they pass through ten spaces in one direction and then turn around to pass through them all again, creating a year of ten months or twenty half-months. The two outside posts mark the Solstices while the center marks the equinoxes.
Illustration : Restored calendar wall at Teohuanaco
This is not the extent of the sight lines marked out at Tiahuanaco. There are several other viewing stones marking the same divisions of the calendar. Of course the building is oriented east to west, and so the central axis of the building will always mark the line of latitude that reflects the Sun’s zenith passage. Within this temple is the famous ‘Gateway of the Sun’ – another Intipunku. This too is an astronomical instrument. Around the central figure of Viracocha are ten columns of characters split into three rows – the top and bottom containing human faces and the middle – the heads of condors. The gateway serves as a miniature version of the temple, also showing the divisions of ‘doors’ through which the sun rises through during the various seasons. This monument was carved from a single block of stone, though it has since cracked into two pieces.
The calendar system embodied here is one of the most detailed and developed in all of the Andean regions. The natives of the land, when asked if they had built this site, laugh at the thought, reporting that it had been there long before the Inca and was in ruins when their people first came to the land. Max Uhle was thought to be an expert on the site, and his initial guess as to its age was merely 1,500 years. However, as Graham Hancock points out in Fingerprints of the Gods, it is strange that even after writing a book about the site, Uhle had never actually been there, yet his date became general accepted all the same. On the other hand, carbon dating and alternative views have allowed for the site to be as old as 2000 BC, showing the wide array of opinion on the matter.
Arthur Posnansky, however, spent over fifty years working with Teohuanaco and most of this time he spent living on site. After making countless measurements and taking into account astrological factors, he has performed the most comprehensive study of anyone. In his opinion: “It is an established fact that whatever calculation might be used to determine the age of the Temple of the Sun of Tihuanacu, on the basis of the variation of the obliquity of the ecliptic from those times until today, would demonstrate that [this] American solar observatory is more ancient than any monument of man in the world of which we know up to this time.”
The two stones that once marked the extreme positions of the sun, the outermost megaliths in the calendar wall, today appear inaccurately placed. The sun now wanders out past both ends due to precessional movements since the creation of the structure. When Posnansky set out to determine when the sun would have fallen directly on these markers, he arrived at a date of around 13,000 BC, or around 15,000 years ago. It is hard to pinpoint a date since the Spanish destroyed much of the site in the 17th century, but even still, there are plenty of alignments to work with and to cross-reference.
In other words, the machinery only could have functioned properly in specific ages. Thus today the sun wanders outside the extremes of the temple wall. It is likely that Posnansky’s estimate is the best source we have for the true date of the sites origins and as we’ve seen, this slow movement of the sky was also the key to dating the Sphinx many other sites.
It almost seems like someone planned this whole thing and knew that one day, all mankind would discover the secret – that all these sites are connected, all work in the same way, all were built with the same technology and all seem to intentionally reflect the sky at times they knew we wouldn’t be able to believe. Otherwise, why would they have done it? Why would they have put forth so much effort to prove that they were tracking precession and then lock these monuments to certain points on that cycle? Is it possible that they knew we would forget everything and need this grand riddle to wake ourselves up again? Are they warning us that this type of cataclysm might occur again?
Astrological dating does not stand alone in this matter. Another factor involved with dating the site has to do with Lake Titicaca. It is commonly acknowledged that Tiahuanaco was built as a port city. Massive harbor constructions seem to be incontrovertible evidence. Actually, this fact is not disputed by archaeologists, however, Lake Titicaca now sits twelve miles away and one hundred feet lower than the site. According to local geologists and experts on the lake, this magnitude of descent of the waters would have taken at least 10,000 years, no question.
Inside the main temple mound stand several statues, again very reminiscent of those at the pyramids of Tula in Mexico, and those in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Turkey and Easter Island. The arms are all carved in relief against the body.
So we find at Teohuanaco some of the most advanced knowledge regarding astronomy in a very early period. One that is uncomfortable for archaeologists, and for this reason, it is not very widely discussed. This advanced knowledge did not only apply to astronomy, but the quality of the stonework, as well, is at its peak. This is demonstrated at Puma Punku, a short walk from the Kalasaya. Here we find some of the most magnificently ornamented stones in the entire world. The giant ‘H’ blocks and variations can be stacked to build walls, each stone fitting so perfectly with the next that the construction is near indestructible.
Illustration : ‘H’ blocks at Puma Punku
However, the Spanish found ways to destroy
Illustration : Statue at Teohuanaco parts of the complex. Some theorize that Puma Punku was the site of some kind of ancient explosion, judging by the way these blocks are strewn about like children’s toys. It is certainly true that part of the mystery has to do with how these blocks came to be scattered in this way, but the more phenomenal characteristics of the site are found in the intricate shapes of the stones.
We find perfectly straight lines cut into the surfaces. Every edge is perfectly smooth and level. Incredibly narrow and deep holes have been perhaps ‘drilled’ into and through many of the stones. Once again, flat surfaces are carved on inlaid positions – where there is no position from which they could be sawed or cut, and once again we must ask, why? Are these simply designs? Are they functional? If so, what was their function? Could the desired effect not have been accomplished in any other way?
Over 2,000 miles from Peru is one more source. Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is one of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth. The famous statues here are known as Moai and nearly 900 exist today. Some are upwards of thirty feet tall and weigh up to 90 tons. Then, like the Unfinished Obelisk in Egypt, or the Unfinished Trilithon at Baalbek, there is the one unfinished Maoi statue, named Paro, that was not erected, but would have stood 69 feet tall and potentially weigh over 250 tons! These enormous statues show all the signs of a high civilization, yet they are isolated on a tiny island in the middle of an ocean, much like Nan Madol in Polynesia. Many bear distinct similarities with those of the Ancient Andeans and Meso-americans. Hundreds of these statues are posted around the perimeter of the island, gazing inward. It is very possible that they performed a similar function as the calendar wall at Teohuanaco – marking the sun’s pacing about between the southernmost and northernmost of them and shaping the year into segments.
Once again, many theories have been proposed as to how the stones were formed and placed but with Easter Island, there is another issue. The land itself is simply too small for a civilization to have existed there. This implies that either ocean or sky had to be traversed in order for some unknown Pre-Incan civilization to have accessed the territory.
There is, however another possibility. It is possible that the Rapa Nui culture extended back into the past far enough for it to have been flourishing before sea levels rose. Legends confirm that Easter Island was at one time a much larger country. Before the great cataclysm the island would have been one of many mountain peaks extending high above the ocean and this ridge of islands could have occupied a territory potentially as large as the Andes Mountain Range. Therefore it is possible that Easter Island only served as the last bastion of this culture – the only land left intact after the ocean rose, swallowing the coastline. Let us remember also, the mysterious Rongo Rongo script that existed on Easter Island, and the fact that, in the opinion of Dr. Schoch and John West, this could very well be one of the world’s first languages, and may be related to the symbology of Gobekli Tepe on the opposite end of the planet.
If a highly advanced civilization was building Tiahuanaco 15,000 years ago, before Lake Titicaca had receded 12 miles from its ports, then it is entirely plausible to imagine that the indigenous people of Rapa Nui may have also possessed the same knowledge in that time, only their waters did not recede, but began to rise and encroach on their countryside. Their mountains sank into the ocean until only a small group of islands remained, peopled by these incredible characters all staring inward toward the last mountain peak – the last remnant of their civilization. Some say that in their gaze is a powerful spell that prevents the last peak from sinking…
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