Mystery
"The problem of knowing how, with no
instruments at their disposal, men could know of the movements and certain
characteristics of virtually invisible stars has not yet been settled."
This
quote, from an article by French anthropologist Marcel Griaule during his
extensive ten year study of the Dogon people of Mali provided inspiration for
Robert Temple to research this mystery and write the novel The Sirius Mystery .
The Dogon possessed accurate astronomical information concerning the star system
of Sirius over 5000 years ago. They claim to have been visited by advanced, int
elligent amphibious beings from an other planet, the 'Nommo'. This theory is
validated in Dogon as well as ancient Egyptian culture, the Dogon's knowledge of
Sirius and the galaxy, and traces of extraterrestrial visitors throughout
history.
The Sirius connection and theory is present in both Dogon and
Egyptian cultures. The Dogon are believed to be descended from the Egyptians and
the Sumerians; an early tribe in Mesopotamia approximately 3000 BC. The
Sumerians invented the wheel, possessed advanced writing and literature, and
were involved in astronomy and astrology. Their god Oannes is very similar to
the Dogon's description of the Nommo. It is possible that the "Nommo", or
amphibious extraterrestrials landed in this area accounting for the knowledge of
the Egyptians. The Dogon migrated to Libya, and eventually settled on the
Bandiagra Plateau in Upper Niger, in Mali. The Dogon maintained their beliefs
and celebrated their customs for thousands of years. The number of years can be
determined by numbering the ornate costumes and relics preserved from past great
festivals. The great festival is held every fifty years, celebrating the white
dwarf star, Sirius B's orbit around the Dog Star Sirius A. The oldest mask
intact dates back to the beginning of the thirteenth century. Since Sirius A was
not discovered by western astronomers until 1844, this is phenomenal evidence
that there was some form of interaction or divination with an advanced race.
There is a substantial amount of evidence involving ancient Egypt in the Sirius
mystery. The same astronomical information possessed by the Dogon was possessed
by the ancient Egyptians in the pre-dynastic times before 3200 BC., and there
are traces of the Sirius connection throughout Egyptian history and art. The
familiar symbol of Isis, with a star above her head, one of her feet in water
and the other on land; is a symbol of the Sirius connection....To ancient initiates
Isis was a symbol of Sirius, and Osiris a symbol of the Dark Companion of
Sirius, Sirius B.
The Egyptian calendar revolved around the movement of
Sirius; the year began with the "dog days" when Sirius, the "Dog Star" began to
rise with the sun, which occurs July 21 on our calendar. Contrary to other
rivers, the Nile begins its annual swelling in the hottest time of the year, the
"dog days", that is, at the moment when Sirius rises at the same time as the
sun, a date which during the third millennium BC coincided with the summer
solstice. There are tunnels in the Great Pyramid at Cheops that are aligned
to constellations, and function as telescopes to give a view of the area of the
southern sky in which Sirius moves throughout the year. Sirius was a part of
Egyptian culture, as it is in the Dogon culture.
The star Sirius A and its
dark companion, the white dwarf star Sirius B are at the core of the mystery
regarding the said extraterrestrial visitation. Sirius A, the "Dog Star", was
discovered in 1844, and is situated in Canis Major in the constellation of
Orion. Although Sirius is 8.7 light years away from Earth, this is relatively
close, and therefore appears the brightest. Sirius B was discovered in 1862 by
Alvan Clark, an American astronomer. Sirius B is a white dwarf star, which means
it is very small, white, and not very bright; Sirius B is 100,000 times less
bright than Sirius A. White dwarf stars are extremely dense because they are
near the end of their life and have collapsed in on themselves and become super
dense. In fact, Sirius B's density is so great that one cubic metre is over
20,000 tons. This does prove that Sirius B is very old, older than Earth itself,
which heightens the possibility that an advanced civilization did indeed live
within the Sirius star system. The astronomical information possessed by the
Dogon over 5000 years ago is truly incredible. They not only knew that Sirius B
orbits around Sirius A in a fifty-year orbit, but that Sirius B's orbit around
Sirius B was not circular but elliptical, and they knew the exact position of
Sirius within the ellipse. The Dogon also knew that Sirius B was white, and that
it was the smallest thing there is, but heavier than all the iron on Earth .
The Dogon use the Digitaria seed to symbolize it, since it is the smallest yet
most important thing they know. This information is strikingly accurate, given
that Sirius B is in fact incredibly dense, yet very small, for a star. Also,
Sirius B was not discovered until 1862, and even then neutron stars, black holes
and pulsars had not yet been discovered.
It has been proven that there is in
fact a connection between Sirius and Earth. Sirius and our planet are
gravitationally linked, even though they are separated by 8.7 light years. They
move through space spiralling around each other in a helix pattern that
mathematically resembles the geometry of the DNA helix. This gives even more
validity to the Dogon belief that we are linked to Sirius. The Dogon's knowledge
was not limited to Sirius; they also knew of Jupiter's Galilean moons, and
Saturn's ring. Considering that the telescope had not been invented until 1608
by Galileo, and there are ancient relics of the Dogon dating back to the
thirteenth century, one is drawn to believe that this knowledge must have been
imparted by some other very advanced, ancient people.
The "Nommo", or the
intelligent, advanced amphibious creatures from the Sirius system, are said to
have visited the Arabian desert somewhere between Mesopotamia and Egypt. There
is evidence of the visitation in the Dogon, ancient Egyptian, and Sumerian
cultures throughout history. The Dogon call the Nommo the "Monitors of the
Universe", the "Fathers of Mankind", "Dispensers of Rain", and "Masters of
Water". The Dogon believe they were descended from the Nommo, and a chosen eight
were taken to become Nommo and live in the Sirius system with them. There is
much mythology mixed with what seems to be substantial evidence. There is a comp
licated Dogon story of creation involving the Nommo, full of metaphors and
symbols; for example, the chosen eight Dogon-Nommo created an ark in the form of
a monumental granary. Each step contained a different classification of beings,
grains, and tools, much like the Biblical Noah's ark. They then brought the ark
to Earth. This could be the "visitation", or perhaps the Dogon developed their
story of descending from the Nommo after the visitation of the
extraterrestrials. When describing this to Marcel Griaule, the Dogon drew sand
diagrams to rk, and recreated the sound of the landing by striking four large
stone blocks with stones in a small cave, creating a thundering, echoing noise.
This does fit the description of how an interstellar craft would land, and
therefore reinforces the Dogon's theory.
There are many similarities between the
Nommo and the amphibian god Oannes of ancient Babylon. Oannes, with his companions,
was to have taught the Sumerian mathematics, astronomy, agriculture,
social and political organization and written language. In Babylonian History ,
written in Greek by a priest named Berossus, Oannes is described:
The whole
body of the animal was like that of a fish; and had similar to those of a man,
subjoined to the fish's tail. His voice, too, and language were articulate and
human; and a representation of him is preserved even to this day.....When the
sun set, it was the custom of the being to plunge into the sea and abide in the
deep; for he was amphibious.
Since Oannes was worshipped in Babylon by the
Sumerians, and the Dogon were descended from the Sumerians; this adds cre
dibility to the idea that the Sumerians or the Dogon were visited by, rather
than descended from the Nommo. There is also strange evidence in Egyptian
culture that there might have been intervention of a higher intelligence:
At
the period approximately 3400 years before Christ, a great change took place in
Egypt, and the country passed rapidly from a state of advanced Neolithic culture
with a complex tribal character of two well-organized monarchies, one
compromising the Delta area and the other the Nile valley proper. At the same ti
me the art of writing appears, monumental architecture and the arts and crafts
developed to an astonishing degree, and all the evidence points to the existence
of a well-organized and even luxurious civilization. All this was achieved
within a comparatively short period of time, for there appears to be very little
or no background to these fundamental developments in writing and architecture.
This is important evidence, and leaves much room for speculation as to who or
what gave the Egyptians their knowledge, and the Nommo are definitely good
candidates. Both the Dogon and the Egyptians believed the Nommo came from
Sirius, but, of course, stars cannot support life. In The Sirius Mystery,
Robert Temple states:
Planets are formed around the main-sequence stars of
spectral types later than F5. Thus, planets are formed just where life has the
highest chance to flourish. Based on this view we can predict that nearly all
single stars of the main sequence below F5 and perhaps K5 have a fair chance of
supporting life on their planets. Since they compose a few percent of all stars,
life should be a common phenomenon in the universe.
Therefore, the Nommo
probably came from a small, unknown planet in the Sirius system. Again, this
supports the theory of the Dogon by proving that the Nommo could have survived
and even flourished on another planet.
Although there is no conclusive, fully
credible proof of the existence or visitation of extraterrestrials, or the Nommo
other than the Dogon account of their theory; the "sirius mystery" has had many
years of research and struggles to find the truth. There are traces of this
mysterious connection in many ancient cultures, such as the ancient Egyptians
and the Sumerians; and of course the Dogon, who continue their way of life and
remain true to their culture despite modern technology and religions. Also, one
cannot overlook the importance of the extraordinary, detailed information that
the Dogon possessed concerning the Sirius system and the galaxy at least
four-hundred years before the telescope was invented. Perhaps someday when the
mystery is solved and the truth is found it will aid us in solving the many
other mysteries of the universe, and lead us to a higher consciousness.
Jasmine Courneya
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