Cydonia: Chapter Seven: The Star-Covered World

The voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new horizons, but in seeing with new eyes. --Marcel Proust The building sites for temples and cities, names of geographic features and civilization founding myths reflect theurgic knowledge consistent with the template of heaven mirrored upon the earth. The celestial sphere is anchored to the earth at Sirius in the heavens and the Prime Meridian on earth. Civilizations from remote antiquity to the present have retained the symbols through names or myth of an understanding where it resided under the heavens. Ancient initiates of the mysteries ingeniously mirrored the constellations architecturally on earth, in the locations where cities and temples were built. Egyptians depicted Osiris/Orion with the head of a bull, knowing that directly above Orion in the heavens was Taurus. The Egyptian bull god Apis was linked directly with Osiris/Orion. The Taurus Mountains are under the constellation Taurus, and so is the [753] ancient city Epaphus in Turkey. Apis in Greek tongue is Epaphus, according to Herodotus. Intriguingly, above the land of the ancient Medes and Persians dwell the namesake constellations [754] Andro-medes and Perseus. The Minoan culture in Crete--knowing they were under the constellation Taurus when the sphere of the heavens was correctly aligned with the earth--revered the bull, incorporating it into religious ceremony and art. The legend of the hybrid bull-man originated in Crete. The Minotaur (Bull of Minos) lived in the city Knossos, a city named for the same root word that "Gnosis" meaning knowledge and "Gnostic" knower were derived from. The hero Theseus defeated the Minotaur and escaped the confusing walls of the Labyrinth by using Ariadne's thread called a "clue." This myth's correlation to the constellation Taurus can be seen on Cretan coins dating from the 2 C B.C. from Knossos, depicting the nd labyrinth designed around a bull horned center. A "bull leaping" ritual depicted on famous Cretan ceramics was performed by Minoan women as homage to the star Sirius which leapt ahead of Taurus at its rising and landed first on the opposite horizon at its setting. The knowledge of the mystery schools preserved in this myth can be seen in the names of the characters: the hybrid bull-man secretly kept in the center of labyrinthine walls, the Minotaur, was named in some versions of the story Asteria, a "star," Ariadne means in Greek "high fruitful mother," and Theseus means "to set" from the word tithesthai. [755] The symbol of twins was associated with both Isis and Osiris. Both deities were born as twin pairs, Osiris's brother was Set and Isis's sister was Nephthys. The zodiac explains the reason for the predominance of twins in myth; Sirius lies directly under the sign, Gemini, the Twins.The Egyptians consistently paired Isis with the jackal god Anubis. The jackal is a native dog of the Sahara and remains the symbol for the constellation incorporating Sirius, Canis Major. The Akkadian name for Sirius was Mul- lik-ud, which means: "the Dog Star of the Sun." In Babylon, Sirius was known as Kakkab-lik-ku, [756] which means: "Star of the Dog." The Assyrians knew Sirius as Kal-bu-sa mas, "the Dog of the Sun." The proximity in the heavens of Sirius and Gemini accounts for the myths of wolves, and other canines, involved with twins in the corresponding cultures on the earth residing under those stars. When the sphere of heaven is anchored to the earth at Sirius, the constellation Gemini extends 15 degrees to either side of the Prime Meridian. Gemini then overlays Rome, accounting for the Roman foundation myth of the twins who were sustained with the milk of a she-wolf. The wolf saved Romulus and Remus after they were thrown into the Tiber River. Both the "dog-star" Sirius and Gemini "the twins" are near the "dividing river in the heavens" the Milky Way. The Milky Way crosses the Prime Meridian under the feet of Gemini dividing the sky in half so that there are 6 zodiac signs on either side of it. Tiber means in Latin "The Divider." Myths and festivals preserved the knowledge of the location of Rome under the heavenly mirror. According to Ovid, during the Roman festival Porta Catularia when the Dog Star Sirius was rising, a dog, the sacrum canarium would be sacrificed and consumed. The historian Pliny mentioned an augurium canarium (dog sacrifice for crops) being made in late spring before the [757] ears of grain emerged from their husks when the star Sirius was setting. The proper alignment of the heavens with the earth yields the truth behind the quintessential foundation myth of a city or civilization. After the twins Romulus and Remus were saved from the Tiber River by the she wolf (Sirius), they were fed on her milk (Milky Way). Then the shepherd Faustes adopted the twins. In the celestial hemisphere directly above Gemini in the zodiac is the constellation Auriga, "the shepherd." The sons of Mars, Romulus and Remus, were said to have been born of the queen Rhea Silva from a city in the north called Alba Longa or "White and Long." The name Rhea means, "to [758] flow," from the Greek rheo "stream." Similarly the Amphisian twins, whose name means [759] "whiteness," built the walls of the city Thebes in Greece. This mythical repetition represents a major feature found among the constellations of Gemini, Canis Major, Orion and Taurus, the long white Milky Way. The twins of Gemini, whose Astrological glyph is two pillars II, were the inspiration for not only the foundation myths of Rome and Thebes, but also for Atlantis. Atlantis was ruled by seven sets of twins, the most famous king being the son of Poseidon, Atlas. The Atlas Mountains in Algeria lay directly under [760] Sirius and Gemini. Atlas, it was said, held up the pillars where heaven and earth connected. According to Herodotus, the Libyans living around the Atlas Mountains professed to know the measurements of the earth: These mountains are very high and were believed to touch heaven, but were altogether inaccessible because of the density of trees and [they] call this mountain "the Pillar of Heaven"; and they [761] themselves take their name from it, being called Atlantes. In myth and accounts of the mystery schools, there has been preserved a tradition of "twin" pillars. Intriguingly, the passage above is the clue to the identity of the two pillars of legend. Two pillars were "built" by the pre-Flood civilizations so that the knowledge of heaven coming down to earth would survive. Josephus said that the remaining pillar in Siriac would attest to the fact that there was another pillar. The one Pillar that survived the Flood, according to legend, was the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Great Pyramid was the counterpart on the earth of Isis's consort Osiris, a Pillar that extended from Giza towards the constellation Orion in the heavens. The other "Pillar of Heaven" was located on the Prime Meridian, as it extended to heaven anchored at its counterpart, Sirius. South of Algeria along the Prime Meridian is the African country Mali, home of the mysterious Dogon tribe. The Dogons maintain a tradition that they were taught by beings from the star Sirius. This culture astounded missionaries by describing a small companion star orbiting Sirius whose size was "like [762] a seed" but whose weight was "so great all the people of the earth could not lift it." Their assertion that Sirius had an invisible companion was preserved in Dogon tradition from before the actual discovery of Sirius B, the dwarf sun orbiting the red giant star Sirius A.The Dogons attributed their knowledge of the heavens to the fish-man teacher called Oannes, a hybrid of the zodiac signs Pisces (Dagim) and Aquarius. The Prime Meridian--the earthly counterpart of Sirius--lies in the middle of the Pyranees Mountains in Europe. The Pyranees on the 0 meridian was home to the mysterious Basques, a people who [763] claimed their land was the location of the Garden of Eden. The ancient Basques possessed the characteristics of the ancient Greek proto- Sidonians, the Pelasgians. They were said to be megalith builders, expert sailors and navigators long before the Romans arrived in their country. Their unique non Indo-European language sets their culture apart from other Europeans. The occurrence of Rh- negative blood types among the Basques is twice that of the usual European rate, seeming to point to their [764] separateness and uniqueness as a people. It has been discovered that the Basques made regular visits to North America--long before Columbus--to fish and to trade for beaver skins. Recently unearthed British customs records show large [765] Basque imports of beaver pelts from 1380-1433. The beaver Castor canadensis is native only to North America. It is significant that the beaver, named after the Gemini twin Castor along the Prime Meridian, would be of such importance to the Basques. Castor was associated with the beaver because of its innate ability to build structures using branches from trees. Brotherhoods of builders and initiates of the mysteries have long used the symbol of the Gemini twins, and this zodiac sign is associated with building in other cultures as well. "Bricks" was the Sumerian name for the month when the sun was in [766] Gemini, May-June. Similarly, it was twins who built Rome, Thebes and according to the Egyptians, all civilizations. Peru is home to three of the greatest megalithic sites on the earth, Sacsayhuaman, Machu Piccu and Olantaytambo. Sacsayhuaman, near Cusco Peru, is an immense complex of megaliths that once traced out a gigantic puma whose body extended into the city of Cusco with its head facing west. The head of the puma, which still exists above the city, is comprised of three levels of zigzagging walls about 50 feet high representing teeth. The boulders used for the first or lower levels weigh as much as 200 tons with the largest calculated to weigh 355 tons. These walls were made with black andesite, quarried in the mountains north of San Jeronimo, about 22 miles distant. Garcilaso de la Vega (b.1539) wrote of Sacsayhuaman: The largest and most magnificent work which they ordered built to demonstrate their power and majesty was the fortress of Cuzco, the magnitude of which is incredible to those who have not seen it, and those who have seen and looked with attention it makes them imagine and even believe that its greatness is made by way of enchantment and was made by devils and not men, because the multitude of so many stones of such great size, such as those placed on the three terraces (which are megaliths moreso than stones), cause admiration in imagining how they could be cut from the quarries from which they were taken […] many of them are so fitted that the joint hardly shows, and to think how they could fit stones so immense so well that you can scarcely insert the point of a knife between them. (Comentarios Reales de Los Incas) Each megalithic block is uniquely faceted to fit those that surround it. Though the technical skill with which the monument of Sacsayhuaman was constructed remains unparalleled, what is most intriguing is its location on the earth with respect to its mirror in heaven. The geomorphic Puma of Sacsayhuaman is the representation on the ground of the constellation Leo the Lion. When the celestial sphere is aligned to earth, anchored between Sirius in the heavens and the Prime Meridian on the earth, South America is dominated by the constellation Leo, residing between 45 and 75 degrees west longitude. The name Peru--a land encompassing three great monuments aligned with the stars--shares the same Greek root word found in the most famous megalith, the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Greeks coined the word PURAMOS specifically for the Great Pyramid of Giza. Until the Romans later adopted the name, the word puramos referred only to the Great Pyramid, with significant Martian connotations. The word "pyramid" is from the Greek puramos, the root of which is pur meaning "fiery." Though the Greeks referred to their god of Mars as "Ares," the planet Mars was called by the name Pur-oeis from the fiery [767] root pur as well. The third star is that of Mars [Ares], though others say it belongs to Hercules… Since she [Aphrodite] inflamed him violently with love, she called the star Pyroeis, indicating this fact. [768] The suffix of "Puramos," ammos in Greek means "a heap or mound." The most accurate translation for pyramid would be "The Mound of Mars." Appropriately, the city built around the most famous pyramids--those constructed as an earthly mirror of the heavenly Osiris embodied in the constellation Orion--had a Martian origin. The Egyptian city Cairo comes from the old Arabic, El Kahir, [769] meaning both "victorius city" and the "City of Mars." Cairo, the city dedicated to Mars, was located on the earth with respect to the consort of Isis, Osiris, indicating that within the mystery schools, worship of Osiris was worship of Mars. Because the ancients preserved the knowledge of the heavenly grid anchored at Sirius in the actual locations that were chosen--in the "holy places" which had been indicated by the goddess--the places around the globe where one finds a Puramos, a "Mound to Mars," are those places sacred to Mars, the god of the city, and his consort the goddess. Peru, the Greek name of the country in South America, actually means, "to glow red" and Peru's neighbor Brazil the largest country in South America, has a [770] name that comes from the Arabic word braza meaning "bright red." Central America lies two thousand miles to the north of Peru, occupying the region of earth overshadowed by the zodiac figure Virgo, when the celestial sphere was properly aligned to earth with Sirius positioned over the Prime Meridian. The Olmec culture flourished in this area, at a time predating the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. The demarcation between Virgo and Leo in the heavens nearly bisects Central America from South America on the corresponding area on earth. The Olmecs related the myth that a woman united with a jaguar in primordial times, producing a race with both features. The area on the earth that was overshadowed by the constellations Leo and Virgo is the location in which this human- [771] feline cult was popularly practiced: the Yucatan, Gulf region, Belize and Guatemala. This human- feline deity was said to have dominance over all things terrestrial and celestial. The legendary Olmec human-feline race was an echo of the Middle Eastern idea of the celestial being combining Leo and Virgo, the sphinx. While the Giza Sphinx commemorated a time, the Olmec's Jaguar Woman preserved knowledge of their location under the heavenly mirror. Mayan myth of the creation of civilization is strikingly similar to the creation stories of Egypt and Sumeria. The creator god of the Maya, Hunab Ku, rebuilt the world after three deluges that were caused by a great serpentine sky god--the Mayan myth of the Ouroboral alignments that corresponded to cataclysms. The first world he created was inhabited by dwarfs, who built the first cities--the Mayan version of the fallen Cabiri or Gibborim. Beings similar to the Telchines, called Dzolob, "the offenders," [772] inhabited the second world. The third and final world Hunab Ku created for the Maya themselves. Mexico City, the most populated city in the world, lies north of the Olmec sites. According to the Mexico City foundation legend, Huitzilopochtli the Aztec god of war--who was also the god of building --told the Mexica to leave their homeland to search for a new location to build a city. Huitzilopochtli declared that he would show them the exact location for construction by appearing in the form of an eagle [773] holding a snake in its claws. The legend says that exactly such an omen was seen by the leaders of the Mexica and was interpreted as a signal from their god to move their entire population to a swampy island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, an unbelievably inhospitable place, in A.D. 1325. Why would the war god Huitzilopochtli choose a mosquito-infested swamp as the perfect building site for the capitol city of his empire? The map according to the heavens overlaying the earth discloses the reason for this particular location. The national symbol for Mexico--an eagle perched on a cactus, holding a snake in its talons--has its origin in the heavens. Directly below the Virgin in the heavens overshadowing Mexico is the sign of Corvus, an eagle holding the serpentine Hydra in its claws. The Aztecs worshipped the solar war god Huitzilopochtli as founder and patron of their civilization, and his mother the goddess Coatlicue, similar to the Isis, Osiris and Horus trinity of Egyptian myth. The goddess Coatlicue "immaculately" conceived Huitzilopochtli when a ball of hummingbird feathers touched her. The main sacrifice for Coatlicue and the sun god was human blood. More important in the ritual of Aztec sacrifice was the heart from which the blood poured. The ritual engaged in by the priests of Coatlicue involved thrusting an obsidian dagger into the chest of their victims, tearing out the heart, and offering it still beating to the sun. The Aztecs practiced the ritual of human sacrifice yearly to the average toll of 20,000 lives. These victims were not only prisoners taken in war but also Aztec citizens, men women and children, specially selected for ritualistic slaughter. During the great famine in Mexico of 1452-1454 due to drought, 80,000 people were sacrificed in hopes of bringing relief to the region. The conquistador Cortez encountered the [774] barbarous practice in 1519 and was motivated to mercilessly destroy Tenochtitlan in1521. It was only a short span of ten years from the violent overthrow of Mexico by Cortez that the country suddenly embraced Roman Catholicism. The Catholic religion of Rome had absorbed and supplanted that of the Martian priests who worshipped the war god Mars Quirinis (Romulus) who was the son of the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silva (Flowing Stream), from the location called Alba Longa (Long White as in the Milky Way). It was not hard for the populace to exchange one form of worshipping the virgin's son Mars, the god of war, especially when that virgin called herself by the cue word Guadalupe, meaning "River of the Wolf." The twins of Rome had been thrown into the river and rescued by the wolf; the heavenly river of the wolf, the Milky Way, is presided over by Isis, in her guise as Sirius the Dog Star. The Mexican conversion to Roman [775] Catholicism was precipitated by a visit from the Virgin of Guadalupe (River of the Wolf). The river of the wolf, Guadalupe, has at its root the Latin lupus. In Roman times the lupa [776] represented a prostitute and the wolf's lair, the upanar, was a brothel. There was a cult of the wolf in Arcadia in central Greece. Plato wrote of the rites of Zeus Lycaeus in which the animal was sacrificed [777] and eaten and its essence absorbed. Devotees who partook of this rite called themselves Lukoi. In Chaldea, Sirius was called Kak-shisha, or "the Dog Star that Leads," and also Du-shisha, "the Director." The wolf was worshipped by the Delphians who set up a bronze image of the wolf at Delphi, sacred to [778] the god Apollo. According to Aelian the animal was also sacred to Greek god of Mars, Ares. The "virgin of the river of the wolf" can still be seen in the heavens, where the Milky Way traces a river-like path through the celestial northern hemisphere along Sirius and Orion. The goddess of Mexico was yet another aspect of Isis, the ancient matron of Egypt. The name Mexico has intriguing Martian associations. Mexico was derived from the word Mexitli, another name for the Aztec god of war, Huitzilopochtli. The suffix co signifies "place." Mexico means [779] literally "Place of the War God." The god of war of Mexico was an aspect of the Roman god of war, Mars. China lies under the constellations classified as water signs in astrology, Pisces and Aquarius. Not surprisingly the Chinese New Year falls when the new moon enters Aquarius, about the 4th or 5th of [780] February. In China the animal most associated with water, especially water from heaven, is the dragon. As the emblem of the Emperor and the Imperial command, the Chinese Dragon permeates the ancient Chinese civilization and culture. The Chinese proudly proclaim themselves Lung Tik Chuan Ren [781] (Descendents of the Dragon). The Chinese dragon, called Lung, controls the rain, rivers, lakes, and seas and is a divine bringer of rain. The water dragon symbol so frequently referred to by the Chinese reflects their knowledge of where they lie under the heavens--under Pisces and Aquarius. In China it is said that some of the worst floods were caused when a mortal had upset a dragon. The Lung of myth has 117 scales covering its body, preserving in myth the corresponding longitude of the capital of China, [782] Beijing, on the 117 meridian. th The ancient Chinese evidently knew where they were located on the heaven to earth grid anchored at Sirius and the Prime Meridian. The greatest concentration of pyramids in the world are located in a 62.4 square mile area south [783] and west of the city Xi'an, in China. Xi'an was the ancient seat of power where the first emperor consolidated the many warring states and established monumental works such as the Great Wall. Xi'an is [784] also well known as the location of the terra-cotta warriors discovered in 1978. Normally described as "burial mounds," these structures are entirely pyramidal in shape. It is believed that China has downplayed their findings in order to protect the sites from foreign archaeologists and looters. In the fields southwest of Xi'an there are purported to be perhaps a hundred earthen pyramids, each of a size comparable to the pyramids of the Yucatan or those of Egypt. Some pyramids are small and some are colossal. One, dubbed "the Great White Pyramid" is said to be approximately 1000 ft. [785] high, or twice the height of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. China has adopted a policy of concealment, even going so far as to restrict access to the whole zone in which the pyramids lie, forbidding photography, and even placing trees on the sites to make them less easily detected by remote means, including satellite. On a map of Xi'an China, the area of the mysterious pyramids lies on the 108th meridian. The Italian explorer Marco Polo, whose 24 years of travel took him through China and into Mongolia in 1275, may have traveled through the province of Xi'an. At the furthest reaches of his expedition Polo came to a city 200 miles north east of Beijing, called Xanadu, modern day Chengde. Kublakan the son of the Mongolian conqueror Gengis Kan had founded the ancient city as the crowning jewel of his empire. Gengis Kan's empire in measure of landmass was the greatest in history stretching from the eastern seaboard of China to the middle of Europe. According to the local language of the area, [786] the name Xanadu meant, "City of 108 Temples." While the city of Xanadu, or Shang-tu, was not quite located on the 108 meridian, it was still a city commemorating a number sacred to the gods throughout many cultures. Certain Hindu deities have 108 names. The Buddhist rosary is comprised of 108 beads. There are 108 books containing the complete teachings of the Buddha (Kanjur) and some Buddhist scholars believe that there are 108 Bodhisattvas, beings who are fully enlightened but have agreed to stay in this world to help lead others to enlightenment. There are said to be 108 states of sinful desire or defilements that must be overcome if one is to reach Nirvana. Many Buddhist temples have 108 steps, and the Buddhist New Year is often signaled by the [787] ringing of bells or gongs 108 times. In January 1997 the archaeologist Stephen H. Lekson published a remarkable discovery in the magazine Archaeology. Near the four corners area of south western United States, the ancient Anasazi [788] Indians created villages all perfectly aligned on the 108th meridian for more than 372 miles. The ancients recognized the significance of the number 108, among others, with respect to the location of the "holy places" indicated by the goddess. The pattern of both the heavens and the symbol of the goddess can be seen when the full geometric design of the heaven to earth grid system is examined (see illustrations at the end of this chapter). When the celestial sphere is correctly mirrored and superimposed upon the earth, one of the "pillars" between heaven and earth extends from Sirius to the Prime Meridian, anchoring that location where the longitudinal grid system starts at 0 degrees. The other "pillar" extends between Orion-Osiris in the heavens and the "Mound of Mars" the Great Puramos at Giza on the earth, with its own identical design but "invisible" grid system calculated from a "secret" 0 degrees at Giza. The megaliths on the earth which were built in the places sacred to the Goddess Isis/Aphrodite and her consort Osiris/Mars were laid out in a pattern that was discernable in the correlating numbers of sacred geometry. The geometric shape of a pentagram best illustrates the heavenly pattern mirrored upon the earth. The significance of the pentagram and its interior pentagon was explained in the mystery school of Pythagoras. The Pythagorean Pentagram expresses a redundancy of that number 108 emphasized by ancient builders, and is the symbol best expressing the properties of goddess worshipped in the mysteries. The Points of the Pentagram To measure is to know. --Kelvin In the most illustrative legend of the mystery schools, the 14th piece of Osiris was the one part of his body never recovered by Isis or her followers. In the mysteries pertaining to Osiris, the "missing phallus" and the number 14 represent the same the principle of hidden knowledge. 14 is a number referring not only to the 14 piece of Osiris, but also to a geometric pattern that was a template for the th heavens mirrored upon the earth. In the mystery school of Pythagoras, and the later mysteries of Gnostic Dualism (Knowledge of Twos) 14 is significantly the product of seven times two. 72 is the number of years associated with a one-degree movement in the precessional equinox. The Egyptians also incorporated the number 72 in the Osiris myth. As Egypt's greatest king, Osiris traveled to other lands to teach his civilizing technology after he finished teaching the Egyptians. Osiris left his consort Isis as regent while he was away. During this time Osiris's brother Set, and 72 conspirators, plotted to murder him. The number 72 is the quintessential number referring to the earth overlaid by the pentagram of the goddess. Proclus Lycaeus Diadochus wrote: We must next speak of the origin of geometry in the present world cycle. For, as the remarkable Aristotle tells us, the same ideas have repeatedly come to men at various periods of the universe. It is not, he goes on to say, in our time or in the time of those known to us that the sciences have first arisen, but they have appeared and again disappeared, and will continue to appear and disappear, in various cycles, of which the number both past and future is countless. But since we must speak of the origin of the arts and sciences with reference to the present world cycle, it was, we say, among the Egyptians that geometry is generally held to have been discovered. (Commentary on Euclid's Elements) In nature, patterns of many flowering plants, leaves and fruits exhibit a five-fold symmetry, seeming to mirror a divine pattern that was thought to exist in the heavens. History recounts a story of Pythagoras, the legendary 5 C B.C. Greek philosopher and mathematician, who demonstrated this symmetry to his th new initiates. When asked to teach a new pupil, Pythagoras handed him a knife and an apple. The initiate, [789] if worthy would divide the apple at its equator revealing a natural pentagram within. Pythagoras brought the pentagram of the Egyptian mystery schools to the island Samos, exporting the knowledge he learned from the temples of Egypt to Greece. The Egyptians celebrated Isis as the supreme teacher of men, and the symbols of Isis were used among the Greek disciples of the Pythagorean College to recognize each other, and to remember and convey the knowledge of her mysteries. It was said that to reveal the secret meaning behind the pentagram meant death. The Greek historian Diogenes Laertius wrote: He [Pythagoras] had three silver flagons made and took them as presents to each of the priests of Egypt… While still young, so eager was he for knowledge, he left his own country and had himself initiated into all the mysteries and rites not only of Greece but also of foreign countries. Now he was in Egypt when Polycrates sent him a letter of introduction to Amasis; he learnt the Egyptian language, so we learn from Antiphon in his book On Men of Outstanding Merit_, and he also journeyed among the Chaldean and Magi. (Diogenes Laertius VIII. 2-4) The initiates at the Pythagorean College assessed things according to how it was related to numbers and geometry. The students were taught mathematics (geometry, its highest form), music, astronomy and [790] magic. The ideas of Pythagoras were adopted by Plato whose writings later influenced the mystery schools of gnosticism, alchemy, and masonry, among others. The beliefs of Pythagoras were similar to the precepts outlined in the mystery schools of Egypt according to Plato in his dialogues: (1) that at its deepest level, reality is mathematical in nature, (2) that philosophy can be used for spiritual purification, (3) that the soul can rise to union with the divine, (4) that certain symbols have [791] a mystical significance, (5) All brothers of the order should observe strict loyalty and secrecy. These core philosophical beliefs have been maintained throughout history within the ritual symbolism of the mystery schools. It is important to reiterate that the sciences of reckoning time, movement and location on the earth are inextricably linked to Egyptian doctrine. Geometry, meaning measuring the earth remained foremost in the symbolic transfer of sacred knowledge in Greek thought. As we have seen, the earth according to Plato reflected the heavenly patterns already established. Isis in all her incarnations symbolized the "holder of the body of knowledge." The ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for the star Sirius was a pentagon. This icon painted on the walls [792] of the famous Temple of Isis/Hathor at Denderah represents both the star Sirius and the deity Isis. The mystery schools of both ancient and modern times realized that Isis was the key to the body of ancient knowledge (Osiris). Isis symbols are employed during initiations into her mysteries, as portrayed in Apuleius's [Metamorphosis] Golden Ass. Isis declares: You see me here. I am Nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are. My nod governs the shining heights of Heaven, the wholesome sea breezes, and the lamentable silences of the world below. Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names, and propitiated with all manner of different rites, yet the whole round earth venerates me. The primeval Phrygians called me Pessinuntica, Mother of the gods; the Athenians, sprung from their own soil, call me Cecropian Artemis; For the islanders of Cyprus, I am Paphian Aphrodite; For the archers of Crete, I am Dictynna; For the trilingual Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; and for the Eleusinians and their ancient Mother of the Corn. Some know me as Juno, some as Bellona of the battles, others, Hecate… The Egyptians, who excel in ancient learning and worship me with ceremonies proper to my godhead, call me by my true name, namely, Queen [793] Isis. Despite the great antiquity of the Sumerians, there is evidence that the 12-constellation zodiac is even older. Prehistoric evidence for the system was discovered in 1940 in a cave in Lascaux France. A painting of a bull on the wall of this cave which dates back 16,500 years, depicts the constellation Taurus [794] with the star cluster Pleiades in its neck, in the same configuration used today. It is certain that the 360-day year at least in the beginning was an integral part of the Roman religious system that was mythically founded by Romulus. Plutarch writes in his work, Numa Pompilius; During the reign of Romulus, they (the Romans) had let their months run on without any certain or equal term; some of them contained twenty days, others thirty-five, others more; they had no sort of knowledge of the inequality in the motions of the sun and moon; they only kept to the one rule that the whole course of the year contained three hundred and sixty days. Due to the tilt of the axis of the earth--commemorated in the trident-bearing Ouroboral god Poseidon--the pole of the earth traces a very slow circle in the heavens, like a wobbling top, completing a circle in the northern sky every 25,920 years, called the Platonic Year or the Precession of the Equinox. It is known that the Greek astronomer Hipparchus described the precession as early as 120 B.C. chronicling his discovery at the library of Alexandria. Debate has persisted over crediting Hipparchus with first discovery of the precession, however. There is evidence the Egyptians adjusted the entire layout of temples to accommodate the precession of stars they were aligned with. English astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer concluded that the Egyptians knew the length of the Platonic year, orienting temples to [795] stars as early as 6000 B.C. Knowers from the heavens possessed a unifying theory for the arrangement of the universe in remotest antiquity. Its rediscovery was the goal of many prominent astronomers and thinkers of the last 1,000 years. Johannes Kepler believed he had found a geometric arrangement for the orbits of the planets in our solar system in the 16 century. His theory was based closely on the writings of Aristotle and the th fragments of the proto philosopher Pythagoras. Kepler's geometric solar system employed platonic solids placed at the orbits of each planet. Significantly Kepler placed the pentagon and the tetrahedron in connection with Mars: Anyone with the least knowledge of geometry … would immediately recall the five regular solids with the ratio of circumscribed orbs to the inscribed ones, and there would immediately appear before his eyes the Euclidean … proposition … where it is proved that there cannot be, or be imagined, more regular solids than five … As a memorial of the event [in which he made this discovery] I present you with this idea, just as it occurred, in the words conceived at that very moment: The Earth is the circle which is the measure of all. About it circumscribe a dodecahedron [a solid made from 12 pentagons]. The circle enclosing this will be Mars. About Mars circumscribe a tetrahedron [a pyramid made from four equilateral triangles]. The circle enclosing this will be [796] Jupiter. The ancient Egyptian word for "five" was the same as the word for "hand." This corresponded to the most important part of man with respect to his ability to extend his will into reality. This idea corresponds to the shape of the pentagram having five points all with the angle of 36 degrees, (also the number of the constellations in Egyptian astrology). Between each point of the pentagram is a 72-degree angle. The Sumerians and the Egyptians divided the ecliptic of the zodiac into 12 signs with 2 above and below each totaling 36. Because of this number of signs, in one 24-hour day, 36 signs pass overhead. In 45 three days of 72 hours, the numeric signature of a pentagram, 108 signs will pass across the vault of heaven. Again the geometric symbol of the pentagram demonstrates this cosmology uniquely. The pentagram has 5 points each of 36 degrees. These pentagonal numbers are found throughout ancient myth and architecture of the Middle East. However the same geometry is displayed throughout the world incorporated in megalithic structures and their actual location under the earth-heaven alignment. For example, the megalithic site of Sacsayhuaman lies exactly on the 72nd meridian West of Greenwich. In fact the 3 greatest megalithic sites in Peru-- Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu and Sacsayhuaman--all lie in a line straddling the West 72nd meridian. Realizing that the ancients fixed the earthly location of Sirius on the prime meridian also provides an [797] answer for location of these megaliths. The Pythagorean pentagram with Greek letters at each point spelling hygieia, "health" or "blessed." Pentagonal arrangement of megalithic monuments on the earth. Cross section of a Quince (Pyrus Cydonia) showing its pentagonal symmetry. 72 x 5 = 360 [insert line break here] 72 x 360 = 25,920 = the Platonic year or one complete circuit of the precession of the equinoxes. D &M pyramid, Cydonia, Mars. United States Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia. A pentagram ring from Crotona, Italy, circa 525 B.C.E., probably related to the school Pythagoras founded there in 529 B.C.E. Also known as the "Ring of Solomon" according to the Pseudepigraphic text "The Testament of Solomon," where it was used by Solomon to harness "Jinn" or spirits in order to build his temple. (Note the Ouroboros with four fins circling the pentagram at the top of the ring.) [Ring image from the book "Imagini Degli Dei Antichi" by V. Catari, 1647.] "Him the Almighty Power hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky" [line break here] The expulsion of Satan and his angels from heaven by the archangel Michael. Wood cut by Gustave Dore "Paradise Lost."