The Sirius Mystery

[Laura]

Due to the fact that Joseph P. Farrell has made reference to the Sirius Mystery (and the fact that someone else recently mentioned this to me), I decided to have a look on the net. I'm sure I remember reading an expose of Robert Temple showing that he (or someone associated with this mystery) "fed" information to the Dogon which they then regurgitated just to keep the anthropologists off their case, and to continue to conceal their "real" secrets.

Anyway, a cursory check brought up this interesting article that deserves archiving and discussion:

http://www.toolband.com/news/letter/index.php?t=1&id=13

ON THE TRAIL OF OGE-MAKE

Recently, while going through some boxes of UFO documents in my closet, I came across a copy of the pulp sci-fi magazine Amazing Stories dated January 1948 (Vol 22, #1). Flipping through the musty yellowed pages, I noticed a short story entitled “The Fire Trail” that was written by Oge-Make, an orphaned Caucasian child raised to adulthood by Pueblo Indians in New Mexico. With the edges of the magazine’s fantastic cover art literally falling apart in my hands and raining down on my clothes in tiny colorful pieces, I suddenly remembered having briefly written about this story in my very first newsletter for this site (May, 2000 e.v.), in an article called “The Bestirring of the Nommo(s): A Serious Mystery Revisited.”

In that newsletter, I mentioned that the curious little tale involving a sacred Navaho ceremonial contained specific details that were possibly related to the obscure Dogon tribe of sub-Saharan Africa and the “Sirius Mystery” cosmology now associated with their secret priesthood. But as I began to read the story again, it occurred to me that there was more to it than I originally thought, particularly with regards to information contained in the book The Stargate Conspiracy (2000) which, synchronistically enough, I had just re-read the night before! In this book, which concerns the new Egyptology, the Council of the Nine, ‘esoteric’ Freemasonry, occult fraternities, and an overall plot by an unknown agency using mystical transmissions supposedly channeled from intelligences from the Sirian comity for some socio-political agenda, or as a long-term military psyop experiment, authors Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett theorize that certain revolutionary discoveries about the nine principle gods (the Great Ennead) of ancient Heliopolis made by scientists, scholars and other powerful individuals “tie into a dangerous conspiracy nearly fifty years in the making.”

However, in light of certain revelations imparted by the author of “The Fire Trail”, it would appear that certain of the conspirators, benign or otherwise, have been around at least as far back as the summer of July 1947 (coincidently, the date of the Roswell event), with the message of vital importance that the utopian beings wished to convey to humankind concerning the catastrophic destruction of our planet by atomic weaponry. Although there was nothing new about such dire cosmic warnings in the flying saucer-age, what was rather intriguing to me was the means by which the communications of the alleged extraterrestrials were imparted to Oge-Make. This would seem to lend support to Picknett and Prince’s hypothesis of a chemical stargate by which genuine hidden knowledge is made accessible to certain individuals by those who normally exist outside the threshold of human perception. Before elaborating further on this idea, perhaps it would be best to first give a brief introduction of the Sirius mystery to those who are not familiar with the secret traditions of the Dogon. (NOTE: for additional information, readers should check out the May and July newsletters from 2000 e.v. in the archives).

THE DOGON AND SIRIUS B

The genesis of the Sirius Mystery is most often attributed to American orientalist Robert K, G. Temple’s book of the same name. First published in 1976, The Sirius Mystery, attempts to explain how several high priests of a supposedly primitive tribe living in some of the remotest parts of Africa came into possession of detailed and specific information concerning the binary (or possibly trinary) Sirius System, including astronomical peculiarities that they have allegedly preserved for at least 800 years without the benefit of a telescope. To those who have read Temple’s highly influential book, this information is startling to say the least:

Rather than venerate the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, (relatively close by at 8.7 light years away), the Dogon of the former French Sudan (now the Republic of Mali) instead, give special significance in their complex cosmology to its dark companion, Sirius B, a star that is not only totally invisible to the naked eye, but that can only be seen using a powerful telescope. Not only do certain Dogon priests seem to be aware of the invisible companion’s existence, but it would appear that they also know that it is an exotic type of star known as a white dwarf, claiming it to be one of the heaviest types of stars in the universe, a fact that astronomers now know to be true. And if that were not enough, they also know that its orbit is elliptical, taking 49.9 years to complete around Sirius A, an event that they celebrate with an elaborate ceremony (Note: it has been claimed that Dogon sand diagrams even show the elliptical path of Sirius B about Sirius A, with Sirius A positioned off-center, or at a particular focus of the ellipse, which would also be astrophysically-accurate, although the tribal designs themselves are up to various interpretations, and may be, as archaeoastronomer Dr. E.C. Krupp states, “a sexual mnemonic that equates agriculture with human procreation.”) So, is this all due to chance? Were the Dogon high priests just damned lucky guessers as Robert Anton Wilson joked in his book about things Sirius, The Cosmic Trigger, or did somebody (or something) provide them with information that is relatively new to the rest of the modern world?

Using ancient Sumerian, Babylonian and Egyptian ‘mythology’ to solve the Dogon-Sirius puzzle, Temple traces the origins of the Dogon’s inexplicable knowledge to an advanced race of aquatic extraterrestrial beings called the “Nommo” who originated from a planet in the Sirius system and who visited the earth in ancient times. The tradition of the dark partner of Sirius and of the emissaries of the god, Amma, who bequeathed civilization to those who they came into contact with, was preserved for centuries among the initiated, handed down from generation to generation, until in the 1940s when it was revealed to two reputable French anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. The anthropologists, who had lived with the Dogon for years and apparently gained their utmost trust, subsequently published these most secret traditions of the tribal priests, and it was this article that prompted Temple to delve further into the matter.

Although impressed by Temple’s extensive research, those skeptics who believed that the Dogon’s anachronistic knowledge wasn’t just a series of coincidences, thought that their star lore regarding the Sirius system was derived from early Christian missionaries who, for some strange reason, felt it was important to teach a near stone-age African tribe the laws of celestial mechanics of a stellar remnant white dwarf!

Considering such explanations as, frankly, ridiculous, in writing about the Sirius mystery back in the 2000 newsletter, I mentioned that, to me, the most likely solution to the puzzle was that the anthropologists hoaxed the entire thing. Although the “Pup” (Sirius B) wasn’t first photographed until 1970, its presence as an obscure companion of Sirius was guessed at back in the mid-19th century by the German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel after observing tiny irregularities (wobbles) in the slow proper motion of Sirius over a ten-year period. His suspicions were finally confirmed in 1862 when Bessel’s “dark star” was first observed by Alvan Graham Clark using an 18-inch telescope that, at the time, was the largest refracting optical instrument in the world. So, it was certainly conceivable that members of the scientific community were aware of the unusual characteristics of Sirius B at the time that the anthropologists were studying the Dogon’s beliefs, and history has shown that even “reputable” members of academia have been known at times to take matters into their own hands.

HOAX?

Since the writing of that newsletter, other critics of Temple’s extraterrestrial conclusions have claimed that Marcel Griaule, of whom the secrets were made known – he being “the first outsider in their history to inspire their confidence”, over-interpreted the Dogon high priests’ answers to his questions concerning their cosmological theories, meaning that he was told what he wanted to hear. This is just short of saying that the eminent anthropologist put the words into the Dogon priest’s mouth, thus fabricating a great mystery for possible academic glorification. The problem with this is that, in the article, as pointed out by Temple, Griaule didn’t trumpet the Dogon’s apparent knowledge of the unseen companion, but, instead, merely placed it as a footnote which stated, “the question has not been solved, nor even asked, of how men with no instruments at their disposal could know the movements and certain characteristics of stars which are scarcely visible.” Although this would seem to confirm that Griaule himself had an interest in astronomy, as some critics use to bolster their case that he was the sole perpetrator of the hoax, the other side of the coin is that he used the words “scarcely visible”, when Sirius B is totally invisible to the unaided eye. Still, if he was a very clever hoaxer, he might go about it that way. Though it is true that we have to take his word for the tribe’s most secret traditions, as he, himself, was the only outsider to which these things were imparted, it doesn’t seem fair to accuse him of hoaxing the mystery on the grounds that other researchers haven’t been able to find other modern day Dogon informants who are aware of the same knowledge of the Pup, let alone a third stellar component. After all, the most esoteric traditions were reserved for only certain members of the priesthood.

As I also mentioned back in 2000, the Dogon weren’t the only nontelescopic observers who knew of the existence of Sirius B. Voltaire’s remarkably prophetic Micromegas (1752) concerns a giant from Sirius and his dwarf companion who travel to the earth to impart wisdom to a certain priest! Knowing that this book predated Bessel’s suspicions and Clark’s observations, is it pure coincidence, or is there something else at work here, something, perhaps, related to the knowledge transmitted via a chemical stargate?

REVELATIONS IN SCRAWLS OF GRAPHITE

Before I dilate further on the possible shamanic aspect of the Sirius mystery, there is another book that mentions the dark companion that was published 25 years before Temple’s work. This extremely rare book (just try to find a copy outside of Utah), entitled Star Guests: Design for Mortality (1950) by William Dudley Pelley, is briefly mentioned in The Stargate Conspiracy, whose authors believe it to be the first collection of channeled material from extraterrestrials ever published. Really? They also consider the author to be an important figure “where the genesis of the stargate conspiracy is concerned.” Really? When the ‘Stargate’ authors finally managed to obtain a copy of Star Guests, they write that they were “staggered” to find elements of the Sirius mystery, relating that it “focuses not just on Sirius, but actually on Sirius B…” Really? What the book of 245 pages actually mentions on two occasions is “a mammoth planet revolving about Sirius as its sun”, and “a stupendous satellite “ that does the same, an idea that the author most likely got from reading a copy of Richard Hinckley Allen’s popular Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (evidently, it could even be obtained in the federal prison system of the 1940s), rather than from channeling non-human entities that migrated from fantastic Sirian planets. Reading Star Guests is not exactly a pleasant experience, as what awaits those patient enough to comb through the automatic writing is a nauseating string of platitudes, predictable 1950s flying saucer contactee drivel, pseudo-scientific zingers, new age “soulcraft” doctrine, and a Biblical slant that one might expect from a white supremacist founder of the fascist “Silver Shirts of America”, but hopefully not from invisible intellects from sublime dimensions controlling a “miraculous pencil.”

To be fair, the book contains a lot of what today could be labeled as ‘Sitchinism’ albeit written in an ornate prose that is reminiscent of the Old Testament, and filtered through the neural circuitry of an American Hitler enthusiast, but as for containing “all of the major elements of the stargate conspiracy”, even with its influx of interstellar spirits migrating to our terrestrial ball as the progenitors of “shapes hideous to think upon they might make in diabolical caprice”, I will have to read it a third time. On second thought, perhaps the following paragraph from Star Guests is what Prince and Picknett found so disturbing:

“Of thirty persons in a given street-crowd, ten may be the beast-progeny of the ape-mothers of long ago, ten may be reincarnated spirits from the original Sirian migration, and ten may be members of the Goodly Company of the Avatar, trying to repair the moral damage done so long ago when the members of the Migration ran riot in sodomy – and yet all thirty appear the same as to physical members and, viewed externally, show only differences of racial features and dress. The only way by which they may be identified is by observing their spiritual manners and employments. Multiply that given street-crowd by millions – and even billions – and you have the worldly situation with its conflict of temperaments that makes society what it is, and human progress what it isn’t!”

If the ‘Stargate’ authors think that Pelley’s scrawls of graphite make for some interesting reading, then they are sure to find the message of vital importance of he who walked the “Trail of Fire” even more so.

VERBAL SLEIGHT-OF-HAND?

Returning now to the January 1948 issue of Amazing Stories, in “The Observatory” by the editor (i.e. “From the Editor’s Desk”), Raymond A. Palmer warns his readers that this isn’t just an ordinary issue, for the most part because they are running a story that he has “no hesitation in calling TRUE.” This story involves an accurate account of what occurred in the summer of 1947 during an ancient ceremony held by Navaho, Hopi, and other Pueblo Indian tribes when Oge-Make ascended on “a pathway of flames”, traveling through both space and time before returning with an incredible tale involving extraterrestrials from a world circling Sirius. In a side box to the actual article, editor Palmer once again stresses the validity of the tale and offers a sincere warning to all Americans to think about the message related, even going as far as adding a plea for help from his readers at the conclusion of the story in what he deemed to be “a matter of great importance.” In light of his reputation as the P.T. Barnum of ufology, perhaps this is what one might expect from a Palmer production. Described variously as a “hunchback carnival barker”, as “the man who invented the myth of flying saucers” and as “the trickster of the pulps”, whatever one chooses to believe, for forty years, with his alternative-reality magazine, Palmer certainly helped popularize the notion of aliens from outer space visiting the planet earth, and the cover-up of this fact by the powers that be. Only this time, amid the glitter of juvenile mysticism on cheap pulpwood paper, the major elements of the “stargate conspiracy” can truly be discerned (and at about a penny a word!).

Unlike Pelley’s vague allusions to Sirius B as the “seat of the Godhead” in his “seminal” book, Star Guests, in “The Fire Trail”, the “pale son”, Oge-Make speaks of “Sirius and its dwarf companion.” He also describes it has a small sun with a heavy core circling a larger neighbor. Besides these particulars, even more intriguing for fans of Temple’s The Sirius Mystery is Oge-Make’s description of the denizens who inhabit the planet in the Sirius system that he was transported to “in the spirit” during the Navaho ceremony. These beings were said to have a certain fish-like quality to them, living in a water-like medium in which they were propelled by tail-like appendages. Compare this to the Nommo(s) - the amphibious creatures shown in Dogon tribal drawings who, as “the Instructors” and “The Masters of the Water”, were credited with founding human civilization after arriving in an ark, which Temple posits to be an interstellar spaceship. Even more intriguing, however, is the name “Oge-Make”, which might be related to the Dogon’s “Ogo”, a word that they use to refer to our solar system, and to humankind itself in all our cosmic impurity.

As I touched upon earlier, in the Epilogue of The Stargate Conspiracy, the authors theorize that the true stargate of the Heliopolitan religion as revealed in the ancient “Pyramid Texts” and other Egyptian sources, as well as the seemingly advanced knowledge of the African Dogon tribe, might be connected with the shamanic experience and the use of psychoactive substances. This “revolutionary possibility [that] began to take shape” in the ‘Stargate’ authors’ minds, is exactly how, in July of 1947, Oge-Make takes his journey to “Planet One” in the Sirian system.

“UPON THE PATHWAY OF FLAMES DO I WALK…”

In order to deliver a message and seek answers to Navaho concerns about certain threatening governmental programs in the area from the “Great White Fathers” , ostensibly in Washington D.C., the pale son Oge-Make is selected to take a mystic adventure known as walking the Fire-Trail. However, while in an ecstatic trance induced by the hypnotic rhythm of native drums, the throbbing chant by firelight, and an unpleasant tasting concoction prepared by the Medicine Man that he swallows from a pottery goblet (along with smoking something from a red sandstone pipe), instead of journeying out-of-the-body to Washington D.C. to address Indian concerns, Oge-Make takes shamanic flight into the star-dusted blackness, with the planets of the solar system quickly retreating from view. We can assume that this journey involved the consuming of a certain plant with psychoactive properties by the descriptions of his head throbbing and the sudden onslaught of vivid colors while staring into the flaming cedar boughs: “Like swaying orange hands with purple nails – like expanding veils – like corridors – strange undulating corridors…” As the hallucinations grow more intense, Oge-Make is able to walk upon their undulating color of emerald and violet, all the while hearing the prayer-chant: “Upon the pathway of flames do I walk in beauty. Upon the pathway of flames do I walk in knowledge.” Once transformed into a higher body of light, he is able to communicate with the spirit guide, who is also endowed with a similar radiant vehicle. And it is while in this altered state of consciousness, in what today might be called “remote viewing”, that he is given a tour of the Sirian “Planet One”, a bluish utopia with forests of pulsing jeweled brilliance and vast otherworldly golden structures where its delicate, iridescent fairy-like inhabitants glide about in shiny aerial objects.

But as the story unfolds, we learn that all is not well in the paradise of “Planet One” (in the year 50,050 of their time, which in Earth time was “long millenniums before the memory of man”). The core of the planet had become heavier through thousands of years of atomic disintegration. Freaks of nature were developing due to deadly radiations, and it was their hope to get to another planet where the least infected children could survive. While the contaminated planet’s leaders debate whether or not they are justified in taking another planet in a distant star system (SUN 32) by force (one in which the miserable creatures kill their own kind, and have recently developed the hydrogen bomb), something goes seriously (pardon the pun) wrong with their own experiments with a futuristic weapon, causing their entire planet to catch on fire like “a picture soaked in gasoline, to which some one had touched a match”, thus becoming a sun – that which is eventually revealed to be the collapsing white dwarf known to us as Sirius B. In the end, after returning with these grim shamanic visions of another world, the Navaho elders, putting aside for a moment their own plight, instruct the pale son, Obe-Make to deliver the grievous message to the white man.

UNMASKING OGE-MAKE

So, what are we to make of this strange little tale involving a chemical stargate that enables one access to worlds beyond the spectrum of tangibility? Keeping in mind my warning about “the trickster of pulps”, it is almost certain that the author, of “The Fire-Trail”, Oge-Make, was in reality the science fiction writer L. Taylor Hansen, who contributed a lot of material for Amazing Stories in the late 1940s and probably used the pseudonym in order to further imbue the tale with an aura of mystery.

As a footnote to the story itself, editor Ray Palmer states that the tale, with its message of vital importance (which he knows is true!), was passed on to him by a mutual friend, the “scientist” L. Taylor Hansen, who considered it to be interesting material for the magazine’s readers. It is difficult to find out much information about Hansen, other than that she (?) did write a book in 1963 entitled He Walked The Americas. Interestingly enough, this book focuses on various Indian legends about a long lost, bearded “Fair God” who made his rounds in the ancient Americas, spreading the wisdom of Atlantis and other mythic realms of a past Golden Age to the Native Americans. These and other esoteric ideas of the wandering prophet tie in well with the momentous second coming and a new global religion that is at the center of The Stargate Conspiracy. (Note: Fans of Robert Anton Wilson might also be amused that “The Fire-Trail” was published in Volume I, number 22 of Amazing Stories (22+1=23), and that allusions by the Sirians to our own solar system mention SUN 32 (32 being the reverse of 23.)

POSSIBLE SRI CONNECTION?

Although the scholarly author describes herself as being the daughter of the professor who was one of co-originators of the theory of Continental Drift (Taylor-Wegener), of having a Masters Degree in both archaeology and anthropology from Stanford University in California, as well as being an expert Egyptologist, all of these credentials may be bogus. In fact, in doing some checking of Hansen’s background, no one seems to be able to find any verification of her even being a Stanford alumnus. But even if she turns out to be a complete fraud, the fact that she claimed to have these degrees from “Stanford” may be telling in that the ‘Stargate’ authors consider The Stanford Research Institute (founded by the university in 1946) to be an important link to the conspiracy. SRI is now well known for playing a key role in the new Egyptology, using both remote sensing and remote viewing techniques while searching for a possible ancient stargate technology at Giza. As Prince and Picknett explain in their book, this stargate involves a means of physically (?) transporting a human being to other worlds, with the method of looking for it (i.e. remote viewing) involving an out-of-body experience in which the viewer is able to mentally travel (i.e. without his mortal sheathings) across both space and time, and then report back what was seen. Sound familiar?

Could the mysterious L.Taylor Hansen have been an unknown player (or pawn) in an intel-created, psi-related project at Stanford? She (as Oge-Make) most certainly was one of the first to write about the comity of Sirius, including its dark companion and, along with it, deliver to the “white man” a message of vital importance. Her mentioning of “The Seven Tribes of the Black Tortoise” in He Walked The Americas may also be a veiled reference to a shamanic/reptilian connection with the Nommo(s) and Sirius B, but the stargate involved here is for the truly initiated (and one wouldn’t expect to hear the platitudinous warnings uttered by most psychic contactees.)

THE BLUE STAR KACHINA & RETURN OF THE NOMMO(S)

With regards to the Navaho/Hopi/Pueblo Indian ceremonial that Oge-Make experienced, there is one other point of interest that I’d like to mention, and this most certainly does involve dire cosmic warnings. I’m referring to the Hopi prophecies of the Blue Star Kachina, Saquasohuh, who represents “a blue star, far off and yet invisible, which will make its appearance soon” Many consider Saquasohuh to be associated with Sirius – but to others it is believed to be a “patuwvota” or “flying shield” which is interpreted as a UFO controlled by sacred beings from another planet (in the Sirius system).

According to the Hopi elders, when the Blue Star Kachina dances in the plaza (at Oraibi) and removes his mask in front of the uninitiated children (i.e. the general populace), the “Day of Purification” will begin. Hence, the appearance of the ‘star’ marks the destruction of the world as we know it. As it turns out, the Dogon have a similar belief. According to The Sirius Mystery, we are told that the Nommo will come again: “A certain ‘star’ in the sky will appear once more, and will be the testament to the Nommo’s resurrection.” Prognostications of a near stone-age tribe in Africa that perhaps came from a chemical stargate, or compelling evidence of a dangerous conspiracy over fifty years in the making? As the saying goes, only time will tell. Until then, “Question everything, especially authority” (including the channelings of a man named William Dudley Pelley)!

Here is the previous article referenced above:

http://www.toolband.com/news/letter/2000_05.php

THE BESTIRRING OF THE NOMMOS: A SERIOUS MYSTERY REVISITED PART ONE
Excerpts from a lecture given at P.U.P. LODGE(Hollywood) by FRATER IJYNX on January 17, 2000 e.v.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DOGON 101 for those probationers, neophytes and tertiary members whose drink is other than The Black Wine of Owls There is a great mystery surrounding an African tribe called the Dogon. Like many people, I first became aware of this after reading THE SIRIUS MYSTERY by American orientalist, Robert K.G. Temple. Now, after nearly twenty-five years, Temple's scholarly work is back in print with a new forward by the author containing further revelations to support his case that the earth was visited by an advanced race around 4500 B.C. These beliefs are based on detailed and specific knowledge of sub-Saharan tribal cultures, in particular those of the Dogon who live in the Republic of Mali. It was a report in a 1940s scientific journal entitled "A Sudanese Sirius System" by the French anthropologist team of M. Griaule and G. Deiterlen which prompted Temple to do his own researches into the matter.

What had so intrigued him was the fact that the Dogon, a tribe known for their complex cosmology, gave special significance to a star that is totally invisible to the naked eye. The Dogon, it seems, venerate not Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky(as seen from the earth)and relatively close at a distance of 8.7 light years away(about 52 trillion miles), but its invisible companion which the they call Po, named after a tiny cereal grain known as Digitaria. The notion of Sirius A having a companion was first suspected in 1844 by Friedrich Bessel, a German astronomer, who, after ten years of observing peculiarities in the motion of Sirius A, using advanced mathematical computations, deduced that its slight wobbling was the result of the gravitational influence of a companion star. But, it wasn't until 1862 that Alvan Clark first saw the faint companion in his telescope, at the time one of the most sophisticated optical instruments on the planet. Today the dark neighbor is known prosaically as Sirius B, and was first photographed in 1970. If this was the extent of the Dogon's knowledge regarding the Sirius system then we might dismiss the whole thing by saying that they were "just damned lucky guessers" as R.A. Wilson joked in his book, THE COSMIC TRIGGER.

But not only do the Dogon know of the invisible companion's existence, they also know that the orbital period of Digitaria is 49.9 years, an event which they celebrate with an elaborate ceremony. Even more astonishing, they know that the orbit of Digitaria is elliptical, and that Sirius A was at one foci of this orbit instead of being at the center which, as Temple points out, one would expect of a "primitive" tribe. And if all that were not enough, the Dogon also claim that Digitaria is one of the heaviest types of stars in the universe , a fact that modern astronomers now know to be true, As it turns out, Sirius B is an exotic type of star known as a white dwarf.

So the question is: where did the Dogon, a nearly stone-age tribe, get such detailed information about the Sirius system? According to the Dogon, the answer is that it was imparted by the Nommos, fish-like beings who came down from the skies in ages past and bequeathed to mankind its civilization. The Dogon claim these traditions are at least 800 years old, handed down from generation to generation by the tribal priests.

When Temple's book was first published, his skeptics claimed that the Dogon's knowledge must have come from a more mundane source - namely missionaries. Others believed it was all due to chance! On the other side of the coin, those willing to listen to Temple's argument were impressed by his research which, unlike other proponents of the ancient astronaut theory (Von Daniken in particular), was both well-documented and cautious. Temple himself claimed to be embarrassed by the idea of extraterrestrial visitors. Some, myself included, felt the most likely solution was that the original anthropologist team had hoaxed the entire thing.

After all, it is only a mystery if a"primitive" African tribe know these things, not members of the scientific community. Temple, himself, must have considered this but chose not to believe it, for, as he points out in the book, Griaule and Deiterlen didn't trumpet this part of the story in their writings, but, instead , merely placed it as a footnote, which stated the question has not been solved, nor even asked, of how men with no instruments at their disposal could know the movements and certain characteristics of stars which are scarcely visible.

The telling point here is that they used the word "scarcely visible" when in fact, Sirius B is totally invisible to the naked eye. After reading the book, I came across another strange tale about the Sirius mystery. This was Voltaire's MICROMEGAS, a book published in 1752 about a being from a satellite of Sirius who travels to earth with a dwarf companion to impart wisdom to a certain member of the priesthood! Not only is this an accurate title for describing a dense white dwarf star, but the story is remarkably prophetic in light of what modern astronomers have recently rediscovered.

There is also a rather curious story that I read in a pulp from the 1940s which relates to the Sirius mystery. This is a short story called "THE FIRE TRAIL" which appeared "Amazing Stories" VOL 22 #1 from January 1948. It was written by Oge-Make, possibly a native American, who in the summer of 1947 (remember this date) had a message of vital importance he wished to convey to the people of the world. In the story , the Indian leaves his body in what today sounds like a remote-viewing experience. The story may contain coded references to visitors from the Sirius system in earth's ancient history. I will talk more about this later, when I discuss the occult tradition surrounding Sirius. But, before we move on, I want to go back to Temple's critics. As it turns out, the Dogon also describe a third star in the Sirius system with an orbiting planet. This star they call "Emme Ya" . When THE SIRIUS MYSTERY was first published there was no observable evidence of this additional companion. This was used as the strongest evidence against the idea of visitation by amphibious beings in our past. Which brings us to the new forward of the recent reprint. In 1995, the existence of a red dwarf star was confirmed. This is called Sirius C. So the Dogon were damned lucky guessers after all!..

Or they (and Temple?) are pawns in the "Stargate Conspiracy."

Here's another article on the topic:

Investigating the Sirius "Mystery"
Ian Ridpath

Did amphibious beings from the star Sirius visit the earth 5,000 or more years ago and leave advanced astronomical knowledge that is still possessed by a remote African tribe called the Dogon? This astonishing claim was put forward in 1976 by Robert Temple in his "ancient astronaut" book, The Sirius Mystery. An astronomer, familiar with the Sirius system, would say no, because astronomical theory virtually precludes the possibility that Sirius is a suitable parent star for life or that it could have habitable planets. But most of Robert Temple's readers would not know enough astronomy to judge the matter for themselves. Neither would they find the relevant astronomical information in Temple's book, most of which consists of brain-numbing excursions into Egyptology. (Isaac Asimov has been quoted by Temple as having said that he found no mistakes in the book; but Temple did not know that the reason for this, according to Asimov, was that he had found the book too impenetrable to read!*) Even the BBC-TV Horizon investigation on ancient astronauts (broadcast as part of the PBS "Nova" series in the United States), which did an otherwise excellent demolition job on the more extreme fantasies of Erich von Däniken, left the Sirius problem unanswered because of its extreme complexity. Yet an answer is needed, because the Dogon legends about a companion to Sirius are claimed to originate before any terrestrial astronomer could have known of the existence of Sirius B, let alone its 50-year orbit or its nature as a tiny, condensed white dwarf star, all of which the Dogon allegedly knew. So what is the truth about the Dogon and Sirius? Does astronomical and anthropological information omitted by Temple help us to resolve this most baffling of all ancient astronaut cases?

First, let's recap Temple's story. At the center of the mystery are the Dogon people living near Bandiagara, about 300 kilometers south of Timbuktu, Mali, in western Africa. Knowledge of their customs and beliefs comes from the French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, who worked among the Dogon from 1931 to 1952. Between 1946 and 1950 the Dogon head tribesmen unfolded to Griaule and Dieterlen the innermost secrets of their knowledge of astronomy. Much of this secret lore is complex and obscure, as befits ancient legends, but certain specific facts stand out, particularly those concerning the star Sirius, with which their religion and culture is deeply concerned. In the information imparted to the French anthropologists, the Dogon referred to a small and super-dense companion of Sirius, made of matter heavier than anything on Earth, and moving in a 50-year elliptical orbit around its parent star. The white dwarf companion of Sirius which answers to this description was not seen until 1862, when the American optician Alvan Graham Clark spotted it while testing a new telescope; the superdense nature of white dwarfs was not realized until the 1920s. But the Dogon Sirius traditions are at least centuries old. How can we account for the remarkable accord between ancient Dogon legends and modern astronomical fact?

Temple's answer, since espoused by Erich von Däniken (of course!), was that the Dogon were told by extraterrestrial visitors. A Dogon legend, similar to many other tales by primitive people of visits from the sky, speaks of an "ark" descending to the ground amid a great wind. Robert Temple interprets this as the landing of a rocket-powered spacecraft bringing beings from the star Sirius. According to Dogon legend, the descent of the ark brought to Earth an amphibious being, or group of beings, known as the Nommo. "Nommo is the collective name for the great culture-hero and founder of civilization who came from the Sirius system to set up society on the Earth," Temple explains in his book. The Nommo were amphibious, he presumes, because water would keep them cool and absorb short-wavelength radiation from the hot star Sirius.

Much of Temple's book is devoted to establishing that the Dogon share common roots with Mediterranean peoples. This explains the central place occupied by Sirius in Dogon beliefs, because the ancient Egyptians, in particular, were also preoccupied with Sirius, basing their calendar on its yearly motion. But is there any explanation of the apparent Dogon belief in life in the Sirius system?

First, let's look at what astronomers know about Sirius to see if it is at least theoretically plausible that advanced life might have arisen in its vicinity. Sirius A, the brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth, has a mass 2.35 times that of the sun. Its white dwarf companion, Sirius B, has a mass of 0.99 suns. Stellar evolutionary theory tells us that the most massive stars burn out the quickest, so that originally Sirius B must have been the more massive of the two, before burning out to become a white dwarf. Probably Sirius B spilled over some of its gas onto Sirius A during its aging process, so that the original masses of the two stars were approximately the reverse of what we see today.

A star with twice the sun's mass, as Sirius B probably had, can live for no more than about 1,000 million years before swelling up into a red giant; this does not seem long enough for advanced life to develop. But had life evolved, it would have disappeared during the red giant stage of Sirius B, when any nearby planet would have been roasted by the star's increased energy output, followed by a stellar gale for at least 100,000 years as hot gas streamed from Sirius B to Sirius A. During this mass transfer the two stars would have moved apart, thereby destabilizing the orbits of any planets in the system. According to observations of Sirius B as analyzed by H. L. Shipman of the University of Delaware, Sirius B has been a cooling-down white dwarf for at least 30 million years. Sirius B is now emitting soft x-rays, so that life in the region of Sirius would not be very pleasant today. But in any case, Robert S. Harrington of the U.S. Naval Observatory has recently shown that planetary orbits in the "habitable" zone around Sirius, defined as the region in which water would be liquid, are unstable. So there are unlikely to be any amphibious beings living on planets in the Sirius system today, if indeed any such beings ever lived there.

Temple offers one prediction which allows a test of his theory. In his book he says: "What if this is proven by our detecting on our radio telescopes actual traces of local radio communications?" To help in my investigation of the Sirius mystery, I asked radio astronomers Paul Feldman at the Algonquin radio observatory, Canada, and Robert S. Dixon at the Ohio State University radio observatory, both of whom are carrying out searches for extraterrestrial signals, to listen to Sirius. They would normally have paid the star no attention, because of the extreme unlikelihood of its supporting life. In April 1977 both radio astronomers listened to Sirius on different wavelengths, without detecting any artificial signals.

With this information in mind, let's look more skeptically at the Dogon legend. Immediately, we encounter a surprise: the Dogon maintain that Sirius has two companions, not one. These companions have male and female attributes, respectively. It seems that they are not to be interpreted literally as stars, but as fertility symbols. Nowhere is this better shown than in a Dogon sand diagram of the complete Sirius system, shown in the illustration redrawn here from a paper by Griaule and Dieterlen. Its description, given in the caption from information by Griaule and Dieterlen, is clearly symbolic; Temple chooses to interpret it literally. On pages 23 and 25 of his book he gives his own modified version of this diagram, retaining the symbol for Sirius, one of the positions of Sirius B, and the surrounding oval; all else is omitted. He then interprets the surrounding oval meant to represent "the egg of the world," as the elliptical orbit of Sirius B around Sirius A, even though the symbol equated with Sirius B is drawn as lying within the oval, not on it. This is Temple's basis for saying that the Dogon "know" Sirius B orbits Sirius A in an ellipse.

The Dogon are also supposed to know that Sirius B orbits every 50 years. But what do they actually say? Griaule and Dieterlen put it as follows: "The period of the orbit is counted double, that is, one hundred years, because the Siguis are convened in pairs of 'twins,' so as to insist on the basic principle of twinness." The Sigui ceremony referred to is a ceremony of the renovation of the world that is celebrated every 60 years (not 50). And the "twinness" referred to here is an important Dogon concept which explains why they believe Sirius must have two companions.

Is there any astronomical evidence that Sirius has more than one companion star? Some astronomers in the 1920s and 1930s thought they had glimpsed a third member of the Sirius system, but new and more accurate observations reported in 1973 by Irving W. Lindenblad of the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., showed no evidence of a close companion to either Sirius A or Sirius B.

{Ridpath falls down here since we now know that Sirius DOES have two companion stars!}

The whole Dogon legend of Sirius and its companions is riddled with ambiguities, contradictions, and downright errors, at least if we try to interpret it literally. But what can we make of the Dogon statement that Sirius B is the smallest and heaviest star, consisting of a heavy metal known as sagala? Sirius B was certainly the smallest and heaviest star known in the 1920s, when the super-dense nature of white dwarfs was becoming understood; the material of which white dwarfs are made is indeed compressed more densely than metal. Now, though, hundreds of white dwarfs are known, not to mention neutron stars, which are far smaller and denser. Any visiting spaceman would certainly have known about these, as well as black holes.

Dogon sand drawing of the complete Sirius system, after Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. A, Sirius; B, po tolo, the object equated with Sirius B, shown in two positions; C, emme ya, the sun of women, equated with Sirius C; D, the Nommo; E, the Yourougou, a mythical male figure destined to pursue his female twin; F, the star of women, a satellite of emma ya; G, the sign of women; H, the sex of women, represented by a womb shape. The whole system is enclosed in an oval, representing the egg of the world.

Perhaps one would forgive Robert Temple for believing that the Dogon had been visited by men from Sirius if their legend specifically stated so. But it does not! Nowhere in his 290-page book does Temple offer one specific statement from the Dogon to substantiate his ancient astronauts claim. The best he does is on page 217, where he reports that the Dogon say: "Po tolo [Sirius B] and Sirius were once where the Sun now is." Of this ambiguous statement, Temple comments: "That seems as good a way as any to describe coming to our solar system from the Sirius system, and leaving those stars for our star, the Sun." But this cannot conceal the fact that the whole Sirius "mystery" is based on Temple's own unwarranted assumption.

The parts of Dogon knowledge that are admittedly both ancient and profound, particularly the story of Nommo and the concept of twinning, are the parts that bear least relation to the true facts about Sirius. The parts that bear at least superficial resemblance to astronomical fact are most likely trimmings added in this century. Indeed, in view of the Dogon fixation with Sirius it would surely be more surprising if they had not grafted on to their existing legend some new astronomical information gained from Europeans, picking what fitted their purpose and ignoring the rest.

Carl Sagan has underlined how easily information gained from Westerners can be absorbed into native culture. He recounts the true case of the physician Carleton Gajdusek in New Guinea, who was approached by a scientific colleague who had found that some local natives believed that a certain disease was transmitted in the form of an invisible spirit that entered the skin of a patient. The native informant had sketched with a stick in the sand a circle outside which, he explained, was black, and inside which was light. Within the circle the informant drew a squiggly line to represent the appearance of these invisible malevolent spirits. How did the natives get such an astounding insight into the transmission of disease by microbes? Years earlier, Gajdusek himself had shown the natives the appearance of a disease-causing germ through his microscope, and the sand drawing was simply the natives' recollection of this deeply impressive sight.

It is all too easy for Westerners to think of African tribes as isolated, uneducated, and ignorant. But the Dogon are not isolated. They live near an overland trade route, as well as close to the banks of the Niger River, an important channel of trade. Any number of travelers could have come into their midst, or Dogon tribesmen could have journeyed to the coast, where they might have met astronomically informed seamen. The Dogon have been in contact with Europeans since at least the late nineteenth century.

Nor are they uneducated and ignorant. Peter and Roland Pesch of the Warner and Swasey Observatory in Ohio have pointed out that French schools have existed in the Dogon area since 1907. Dogon tribesmen wishing to pursue their education have been able to do so in nearby towns. Then there are missionaries, who would naturally be interested in the legends of the natives. Missionaries from the White Fathers made contact with the Dogon in the 1920s. It is tempting to speculate that certain of the more specific details about Sirius B were grafted onto the existing Sirius legend at that time, because it was in the 1920s that astronomers were discovering the true nature of Sirius B as a tiny, super-dense star, and white dwarfs were being accorded the same kind of publicity as attends black holes today. Alas, there is no mention in the missionaries' summary reports of their activities that they discussed Sirius with the Dogon; if more detailed notes were published, these might throw more light on the origin and antiquity of Dogon myths.

The point is that there are any number of channels by which the Dogon could have received Western knowledge long before they were visited by Griaule and Dieterlen. We may never be able to reconstruct the exact route by which the Dogon received their current knowledge, but out of the confusion at least one thing is clear: they were not told by beings from the star Sirius.
References

* Harrington, R. S. 1977. Astronomical Journal, 82: 753.
* Lindenblad, I. W. 1973. Astronomical Journal, 78: 205.
* Pesch, P. and R. Pesch 1977. The Observatory, 97: 26.
* Ridpath, Ian 1978. Messages from the Stars. New York: Harper & Row.
* Shipman, H. L. 1976. Astrophysical Journal, 206: L67.

Editor's note
* See Asimov's essay, "The Dark Companion," in his Quasar, Quasar Burning Bright (Doubleday, 1978), in which he says he is embarrassed by his stupidity in not specifying that his comment, made only "to get rid of him [Temple] and to be polite,'' not be quoted. "I assure you I will never be caught that way again." - K.F.

Ridpath, despite being a total skeptic and having a rather narrow knowledge base, brings up interesting issues about Temple's claims.

The Cs, of course, support the extraterrestrial hypothesis about human civilization, though they tend to dismiss the Sirius story.

Q: (L) Are there any positive Extra-terrestrials from the
area of Sirius interacting with human beings at the
present time?

A: Well, now! First off, it is important
for you to know that the term you use: Extra Terrestrial,
which of course, is one of the most correct terms used at
your level, all that is NOT of the Earth is Extra-
Terrestrial. And, for those on your surface earth
environment to refer to themselves as the supreme species,
or alone in the universe, or the one and only in the
cosmos, is laughable in the extreme. It is akin to a
microbe on a grain of sand referring to itself as the only
form of life on the beach. Would it not? Now, when you
ask are there any beings in the vicinity of Sirius, it
would be something like that same microbe, located on the
grain of sand, on the beach, which is, of course, but one
of the beaches located on the surface of the earth, after
all, asking if there is, in fact, any life located over in
the vicinity of that seashell...

Q: (L) But I asked if there were any interacting with
Earth...

A: And we are answering that question. We have
chosen to take this opportunity to put things into better
focus for you, and we are hoping that these messages will be
heard by others, and not just you. While YOU may understand
these concepts perfectly well, not all do. Certainly you
know that? Therefore, that is why we are giving this
information. Now, to answer your question: Are there any
beings who reside in the vicinity of Sirius who are
positively oriented, or STO as it were, again it is
difficult to answer that because we do not know how to
define the "vicinity of Sirius." But, if you mean within
a light year or so of Sirius, as you measure distance,
then we can say there are no such beings in that area in
3rd density. But that leaves open 4th through 6th
density. So, you see, as you already know, but we wish to
reinforce this, there is so much to contemplate here that
it is laughable when those around you refer to certain
areas or star systems and claim that there are beings from
here or there or wherever, and that their objective is
this or that or the other. Because if you knew the TRUE
nature of the universe, of All of the universe, of all
possible realms, you would also know that any and all
things are possible, and, in fact, DO exist! You must
NOT forget this.

Q: (L) So, in other words, these people are right?

A: All of these people are right, and all of these people are
wrong. Because it is silly to point to some section of
the sky, to ascribe any area as being the "Home" of this
that or the other.

Q: (L) But what if that is, in fact, the case? The Orions
live in some star system in Orion, right?

A: So are you.

Q: (L) Well, we aren't living there now!

A: That's not the point. If you were to stay in 3rd density
and view your star, which you know as the sun, from
another point in your galaxy, it would appear to be a part
of the Orion system. Would it not?

Q: (L) Probably.

A: Well, now perhaps you are beginning to understand what we
are talking about??? At one level, and in one sense.

Q: (L) Well, how do these beings get here crossing such vast
reaches of space?

A: As we have told you, there are seven levels of density
which involves, among other things, not only state of
being physically, spiritually and etherically, and
materially, but also, more importantly, state of
awareness. You see, state of awareness is the key element
to all existence in creation. You have undoubtedly
remembered that we have told you that this is, after all,
a grand illusion, have you not? So, therefore, if it is a
grand illusion, what is more important, physical structure
or state of awareness???

Q: (L) State of awareness?

A: Exactly. Now, when we go from the measuring system, which
of course has been nicely formulated so that you can
understand it, of density levels one through seven, the
key concept, of course, is state of awareness. All the
way through. So, once you rise to a higher state of
awareness, such things as physical limitation evaporate.
And, when they evaporate, vast distances, as you perceive
them, become non-existent. So, just because you are
unable to see and understand has absolutely no bearing
whatsoever on what is or is not possible. Except within
your own level of density. And this is what almost no one
on your current level of density is able to understand.
If you can understand it and convey it to them, you will
be performing the greatest service that your kind has ever
seen. Think about that for a moment. Let it seep into
your consciousness. Analyze it. Dissect it. Look at it
carefully and then put it back together again.

Q: (L) What is it that limits our awareness?

A: Your environment. And it is the environment that you have
chosen. By your level of progress. And that is what
limits everything. As you rise to higher levels of
density, limitations are removed.

Q: (L) What creates this environment of limitation?

A: It is the grand illusion which is there for the purpose of
learning.

Q: (L) And who put the illusion into place?

A: The Creator who is also the Created. Which is also you
and us and all. As we have told you, we are you and vice
versa. And so is everything else.
*******************

Q: (L) Okay, a year ago we talked about the quorum and I did
not understand. Now, what I would like to know is, is the
understanding I have acquired in the past two weeks
regarding this group...
A: You need some review.
Q: (L) Okay.
A: Not just about the "Quorum," but about many important
subjects, and tonight, we intend to have some free flowing
energy, if you don't mind. In other words, we may
supercede questions, when appropriate. However, it may be
necessary for you to begin the process by asking a
question.
Q: (L) I am curious about what I call the "Scottish
Question." Why is it that everytime I start a paper trail
on any issue of conspiracy, there always seems to be a
link to Scotland and Scots?
A: "Celtic," what does it mean?
Q: (L) Well, the word "kilt" comes from "Celtic," but no one
seems to know where they originated... they just sort of
appeared on the landscape, so to speak.
A: Exactly!
Q: (L) Are you going to tell us?
A: No, not just as of yet.
Q: (L) So, there is some interesting connection! (RC) Does
it mean "warrior race?"
A: If you prefer! We have close affiliation with the
"Northern Peoples." Why? Because we were in regular,
direct contact with them on Kantek, before they were
"lifted" to Earth by Orion sts.
Q: (L) If you were in direct contact with them, how come they
were in cahoots with the Orion STS bunch?
A: Who says they are in "kahoots?"
Q: (L) Weren't they rescued by the Orion STS?
A: Yes. But one need not be in "kahoots" to be rescued!!!
Q: (L) Well, if the Orion STS brought the Celts here, they
must have brought them for their own purposes, am I
correct?
A: Essentially, but herein lies the reason why you need a
review. You see, you have some gaps in your knowledge
base which are caused by channeling, absorbing and
analyzing information out of sequence with what we have
given you and mixing it all together!
Q: (L) Okay, what's my problem?
A: You are doing wonderfully, my dear, but it is difficult
for you to keep up this way, because your natural drive
for the truth makes you impatient, and therefore you tend
to fill in the gaps with simple reasoning and assumptions.
While these are often correct, they can tend to allow you
to get ahead of yourself.
Q: (L) Okay, square one: Is the quorum composed of humans who
have been alchemists, who are presently in possession of a
substance called "the elixir of life" and which David
Hudson calls "monoatomic gold?"
A: And much, much more! Monoatomic gold is but one minor
issue here. Why get lead astray by focusing upon it
solely. It would be akin to focusing on the fact that
"Batman" can fly! Is that the only important thing that
"Batman" does in the story? Is it?
Q: (L) Of course not! (R) Batman fights crime!
A: What we mean is that alchemy is but one minor piece of the
puzzle.
Q: (L) Okay, I understand. But, understanding the alchemical
connection, and its potential for extending life and
opening certain abilities, makes it more feasible to think
of a group that has been present steadily and consistently
for many thousands of years on earth.
A: They are not the only ones!
Q: (L) Oh! I knew I was opening a can of worms!
A: Let us go to the root.
Q: (L) What is the root?
A: Who, or what made you?
Q: (RC) The Creator. (L) Prime Creator.
A: How? And who is Prime Creator?
Q: (L) Everything, I guess.
A: You are "Prime Creator."
Q: (L)Well, we know we are... (RC) We are creators, but we
aren't the Prime Creator...
A: Prime Creator Manifests IN you.
Q: (L) Okay, so at the root is Prime Creator.
A: But... who was secondary?
Q: (RC) The Sons of God? The Elohim?
A: Who is that? Remember, your various legends are "seen
through a veil."
Q: (L) Okay, the secondary creators are the ones interacting
with us directly?
A: Okay.
Q: (L) Is this the source of the stimulation to discover
knowledge?
A: Basically, but, let us take this step by step.
Q: (RC) Okay, getting back to the Celts, were the Pleiadians
the secondary creators who brought in the Celts?
A: Review what we have just said!
Q: (L) They said it was the Orions. Are the Orions these
secondary creators? (RC) Well, I read that it was the
Pleiadians. And the Hebrews were originally the Hoovids
who came from Sirius...
A: Here comes a shocker for you... one day, in 4th density,
it will be your descendants mission to carry on the
tradition and assignment of seeding the 3rd density
universe, once you have the adequate knowledge!!!
Q: (L) If the Orion STS brought the Celts here, were the
Celts, while they lived on Kantek, in the form they are in
now?
A: They were lighter in appearance.
Q: (L) You have told us on other occasions that the Semitic
peoples were remnants of the Atlanteans, and yet they are
quite unlike...
A: Whoa!! Wait a minute, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
First things first. What Roxanne said was not entirely
factual. Remember, there is much disinformation to weed
through.
Q: (RC) What did I say that was not factual?
A: In this part of your 3rd and 4th density universe,
specifically your "galaxy" it is the region known as Orion
that is the one and only indigenous home of human type
beings... reflect on this! Indigenous home base, not sole
locator. What you are most in need of review of is the
accurate profile of "alien" data.
Q: (RC) I thought that humans originated in Lyra and then a
war broke out there and