The Orion Zone

new book by Gary A. David

2010-11-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

My new book The Kivas of Heaven: Ancient Hopi Starlore is now available.
http://theorionzone.com/kivas_heaven.htm

The Gold Standard for First Nations Orion Research, November 23, 2010
By John Jay Harper "www.johnjayharper.com" (Spokane, WA United States)

This review is from: The Kivas of Heaven: Ancient Hopi Starlore (Paperback)
This is a masterpiece of scholarship and educated speculation on the Orion constellation of stars and the role they play in human evolution. Beyond a doubt, it is well-researched and written. I am reading it right now for pleasure but I want to revisit some of the chapters before I comment further on the technical proclamations. But let me be blunt: do yourself a favor, get this book for your city and home library. It is a treasure chest of previously unknown references and unseen connections to cosmology in general. Professor David is intellectually honest, humble in his musings and I consider this author's subject matter skill-level outstanding: akin to that of John Major Jenkins and Joseph John Campbell, for examples. I know you will enjoy this book immensely too: it is a genuine page-turner and one that you will savor for its stimulating contents and startling conclusions about our future beyond 2012. On a sidenote, I can only imagine First Nations teachers and their students will benefit greatly from reviewing this work as well.

Epsilon Eridani: the Zalos?

2009-02-05T09:55:00.000-08:00

Giorgio Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend in their classic book Hamlet's Mill describe a "whirlpool in the sky" near the constellation Eridanus (or Eridani).

“That there is a whirlpool in the sky is well known; it is most probably the essential one, and it is precisely placed. It is a group of stars so named (zalos) at the foot of Orion, close to Rigel (beta Orionis, Rigel being the Arabic word for ‘foot’), the degree of which was called ‘death,’ according to Hermes Trismegistos, whereas the Maori claim outright that Rigel marked the way to Hades (Castor indicating the primordial homeland). Antiochus the astrologer enumerates the whirl among the stars as Taurus. Franz Boll takes sharp exception to the adequacy of his description, but he concludes that the zalos must, indeed, be Eridanus ‘which flows from the foot of Orion.’” (Giorgio Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and Its Transmission Through Myth (Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., 1998, 1969), p. 210)

The whirlpool is an icon used in cultures around the world to signify an interdimensional portal, the transition between worlds, or a gateway between one reality and another. It is the doorway through which the shaman begins his or her ecstatic quest from the physical to the spiritual plane.

Recent news focuses on a particular star in Eridanus.

More Epsilon Eridani

"In the lore of Star Trek, the planet Vulcan orbits the nearby star Epsilon Eridani. And in fact, the star really does have planets. Logically, though, we probably won't find any Vulcans there, because the system is too young for the development of such advanced lifeforms.

"Epsilon Eridani is just 10 light-years away. It's a little smaller, cooler, and less massive than the Sun -- not bad specs if you're looking for a good home for life. But it's only about a fifth of the Sun's age, so there probably hasn't been enough time for complex life to have developed.

"The ingredients are there, though. About a decade ago, astronomers at McDonald Observatory discovered a planet orbiting the star. It's half again as massive as Jupiter, the giant of our own solar system. If it's like Jupiter, it's a big ball of gas with no solid surface -- not an inviting home for life.

"But the planet may come close to the distance where temperatures are right for liquid water. So if the planet has big moons, they could be more comfortable places for life to develop.

"At least one other planet orbits the star. So do two asteroid belts. The position of one of the belts hints at a third planet. And there's a broad disk of comets beyond the planets -- possible sources of water and the chemistry of life.

"So while we probably won't find an advanced civilization there, Epsilon Eridani might be a good place for future starships to visit."
http://stardate.org/
Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2008

Many examples of the painted spiral exist in ancestral puebloan pottery from the American Southwest, and the carved spiral also is found in rock art. In particular, the whirlpool or double-spiral motif represents the "gate of Masau's house." Masau'u is the Hopi god of death, the underworld, fire, and the earth plane.

As you can see, this artistic rendition of the ancient Hopi god looks very much like modern depictions of a Grey alien. As my book The Orion Zone argues, Masau'u is the terrestrial equivalent of Orion, ritually the most important constellation in Hopi cosmology. Eridanus, also called the River, starts at the left foot of Orion.

Scientists have discovered planets revolving around a star just 10 light-years away, a star not unlike our sun in size and temperature. This suggests that the ancients somehow obtained knowledge that this region of the sky, this "whirlpool in the sky," may harbor life.

Epsilon Eridanus is relatively young. Perhaps intelligent entities migrated to this hospitable planet from elsewhere in the cosmos. Then, using SOL (speed-of-light) technology, they traveled over to our Earth, looking very much like the grey creature of the Hopi named Mausau'u, the god of the underworld. It should be stated that in many cultures the subterranean realm of the underworld, or Hades, also includes the celestial realm of stars and planets.

Mothman, 14th century New Mexico, and the hallucinogen Datura

2008-10-12T18:29:00.000-07:00

The Mothman Prophecies (book and subsequent movie) introduced us to a bizarre creature that terrorized the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the late 60s. Surprisingly, a similar entity haunted a 14th century pueblo that the ancestral Hopi, Zuni, and Acoma built upon a flat-topped pyramid in New Mexico. Stranger still, archaeologists have found evidence there of a cult involving a hallucinogenic plant called Datura (jimsonweed). Read the details and see ancient murals depicting the crypto-zoomorph in Gary A. David’s article “The Mothman, Pottery Mound, and the Sacred Datura.”

Neo-Barbarians at Nabta Playa, Egypt

2008-06-05T18:53:00.001-07:00

The Oldest and Most Important Astronomical Site in the World Vandalized: Neo-Barbarians at Nabta Playa, Egypt

About one hundred miles west of Aswan in the Sahara Desert lay an archaeological site called Nabta Playa. Only ten to eleven feet in diameter, this megalithic calendar circle has a north/south line-of-sight as well as a summer solstice sunrise alignment. According to former NASA physicist Thomas G. Brophy, Ph.D., three stones inside the circle mirror the pattern of Orion’s belt at the meridian for this season during the period 6400 to 4900 B.C. Three other interior stones represent the shoulders and head of the constellation for the astoundingly early date of 16,500 B.C.

Another set of megaliths south of the circle align to the vernal equinox heliacal rising in 6300 B.C. of six of key stars of Orion: Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka (the belt), Betelgeuse, Bellatrix (the shoulders), and Meissa (the head). This vernal equinox heliacal rising happens only once per precessional cycle (25,920 years).

Even more astonishing is the fact that some of these megaliths are arranged proportionally to correspond to the physical distance from Earth of each of the aforementioned stars except Meissa. In addition, other megaliths in this group are arranged proportionally to correspond to the same stars’ radial velocity, or the speeds at which these stars are moving away from us.

“The companion megaliths in each distance alignment match corresponding megaliths in each velocity alignment in such a way as to fit the physics of orbital motion, and thus probably represent actual companion objects to the six primary stars. Meaning: The designers of the megaliths had a basic understanding of physics, and knowledge of astronomy that rivaled or surpassed ours today.” [Thomas G. Brophy, Ph.D., The Origin Map: Discovery of a Prehistoric, Megalithic Astrophysical Map and Sculpture of the Universe, Writers Club Press/iUniverse, New York/Lincoln, Nebraska, 2002, p. 104]

Compounding the complexity of this astrophysical map, a sculpture carved into the bedrock has been found buried beneath the surface sediment. This sculpture accurately depicts the Milky Way Galaxy, showing the relationship between our Sun and the vernal equinox heliacal rising of the Galactic Center circa 17,400 B.C. Given the astronomical encoding of this site, Nabta Playa’s homage to Orion reveals an understanding of the cosmos that shatters our traditional notions of the ancient world.

Considering the site’s astounding data that do not seem to fit any traditional paradigm of a “primitive” culture, it was heartbreaking to learn about the recent vandalism of such an important archaeological treasure. Robert Bauval posted the following on April 23, 2008 at the Graham Hancock Message Board:

“Thomas Brophy has just returned from a visit to Napta Playa. Yesterday in Cairo we compared photographs of the 'Calendar Circle' taken by myself in November 2007 and by Thomas Brophy a few days ago. We were shocked at the apparent 'vandalisation' of the site (see photo).

"Brophy had visited the site also back in 2003 and took extensive photography. During his visit last week he noted that some of the most beautifully worked stone in the Calendar Circle were missing, and that many of the standing stones had been knocked down, moved around and even broken. Also Brophy noted that a carved megalith at Complex Structure A was also missing. Evidence of a recent encampment --in the form of rubbish-- was found nearby (see photo). It would also seem that some of the beautifully worked grinding blocks and stones were also missing.

"In all occasions that either Brophy or myself had visited the site (10/2003,11/2007 and 4/2008), we were both extremely surprised that the area was totally unsupervised and that absolutely no security was in place, not even a panel informing visitors that this was an important prehistoric site still under study and asking them not to touch or remove any of the stones. Considering that Napta Playa was discovered in 1974 and, since 1998, has been declared the oldest and thus most important astronomical site in the world, this total lack of supervision and/or security is, to say the least, deplorable.

"Thomas Brophy and myself will be reporting this grave matter to the Egyptian authorities in the hope that they will take the long-overdue action that is needed to safeguard the site. To place a security officer at Napta Playa would only cost a few hundred dollars per month. We really cannot comprehend why such an important prehistoric site has been, and still is, left totally unattended and thus at the mercy of any vandals. Its proximity to Abu Simbel (100 km) makes Napta Playa extremely vulnerable to such vandalism and souvenir seekers.”

www.grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=240359&t=240359

Because of its current damaged state, we probably will never learn who constructed Nabta Playa, much less how such knowledge in prehistoric times was programmed into its megaliths. Sic transit gloria aborigine.

The Lost Tomb of Walmart

2007-08-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

The Lost Tomb of Jesus

The Lost Tomb of Walmart

Walmart of the Rocks, Prescott, Arizona

Another Orion Correlation in Arizona?

2007-04-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

The Tohono O'odham (formerly known as the Papago tribe) consider Baboquivari Peak near the Mexican border as the navel of the world, the place where the people emerged from a subterranean existence. Their creator god I'itoi lives in a cave just below the summit.

This mountain is actually the central one in a triad of peaks. Boboquivari (elevation 7740 ft.) is in the middle, while to the north lies Kitt Peak (6875 ft.), upon which an astronomical observatory is built. http://www.noao.edu/kpno/ At the southern end of the range is Caponera Peak (4885 ft.).

My article "The Great Pyramids of Arizona" http://www.farshores.org/a07gpa.htm describes at similar triad of mountains nearly 238 miles to the north. Humphreys Peak, the highest mountain in Arizona, is flanked by the slightly lower Agassiz Peak and the still lower Fremont Peak. Surprisingly, Humphreys and Baboquivari are on an exact north/south meridian.

Baboquivari: 111.60 longitude
Humphreys: 111.68 longitude

In the article I mention that the northern sacred mountains are the winter home of the Hopi kachinas, or spirit messengers. These three mountains mirror the three Hopi Mesas where this tribe has lived for over a thousands years. In turn both the tripartite mountains and the tripartite mesas reflect the belt stars of Orion. http://www.theorionzone.com/

In the O'odham language Baboquivari is known as Waw Kiwulik, meaning "narrow about the middle." Maybe it is merely a coincidence that the figure of the Orion constellation is also "narrow at the middle." Or considering all the other Orion lore in Arizona, maybe not.

Is Aztlan in Utah?

2007-03-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

Belgian paleographer Antoon Leon Vollemaere thinks so. After reviewing a number of Aztec documents and doing onsite research, he surmizes that the "mythical" home of the Aztecs before they headed south to found a civilization in the Valley of Mexico was a lonely mesa near the juncture of the Colorado and San Juan rivers in southern Utah.

"After 3 years of study and investigations, we located in May 1991 (Vollemaere 1991d 'De mythe van Aztlán...' in Flemish) the three mythical places:

Aztlán, 'Land of the Herons', ancient homeland of the Azteca Mexica, must be situated in the region of Lake Powell (Colorado River and San Juan River, Utah), at least on Wilson Mesa and Grey Mesa, but probably over a larger area;

the beautiful and interesting White House cliff dwelling of Canyon de Chelly (Arizona) was certainly the historic (Teo)Colhuacan, the second mythical town of the Aztec migration; it was the 'residence of the ancestors (Colhua), or 'residence of the hill bending forward';

the Gila Cliff Dwellings (New Mexico) were one of the several Chicomoztoc's (Seven Caves or Seven Canyons), the third most important town of the Aztec migration to Central Mexico." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicomoztoc

Here is the the migration path of the tribes.

One of the tribes that migrated south were the CUILLAHUACA, or "the Ancestral People." He believes this group stayed north in Arizona and became the Moki, another name for Hopi. There is a Moki Canyon in Utah north of the San Juan where a number of ruins have been found.

"As we see, the tribe glyph (ethnonym) represents water, running first over a square surface, and then finally falling down. This clearly indicates a waterfall, a cataract, or a rapid. Therefore we must call this Aztec tribe more correctly People of the Rapids. If they are called Colhua, it should be better to designate them by the name of Acolhua, or Water (Atl)Colhua, an Aztec tribe who came later to the region of Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico.... Therefore we may suppose that the Cuillahuaca (Acolhua / Hopi), lived in the region of the rapids from the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers in the north to Moqui [Moki] Canyon (north of Hall's Crossing) in the south. In that region there are found many Anasazi ruins, potsherds, and petroglyphs. The Mesa Verde and Kayenta potsherds belong to the period 1000-1300. In this period falls the first migration (1064) of the Aztec tribes to the south."

Vollemaere believes that the event that precipitated the migration may have been the 1064 eruption of the volcano north of Flagstaff, Arizona now known as Sunset Crater.

The above photo from the Cline Library archives at NAU shows pictographs (rock paintings) of shaman figures in Moki Canyon. http://www6.nau.edu/library/scadb/recdisplay.cfm?control_num=12156

Read more at Vollemare's website: http://users.skynet.be/fa039055/aztlnkat.htm

The Rez of the Body

2007-03-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

To follow up on the post below The Resurrection of the Body? , I googled "resurrection of the body" and the first entry was The Catholic Encyclopedia. Under CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RISEN BODY:

"All shall rise from the dead in their own, in their entire, and in immortal bodies; but the good shall rise to the resurrection of life, the wicked to the resurrection of Judgment. It would destroy the very idea of resurrection, if the dead were to rise in bodies not their own. Again, the resurrection, like the creation, is to be numbered amongst the principal works of God; hence, as at the creation all things are perfect from the hand of God, so at the resurrection all things must be perfectly restored by the same omnipotent hand. But there is a difference between the earthly and the risen body; for the risen bodies of both saints and sinners shall be invested with immortality. This admirable restoration of nature is the result of the glorious triumph of Christ over death as described in several texts of Sacred Scripture: Is., xxv, 8; Osee, xiii, 14; I Cor., xv, 26; Apoc., ii, 4. But while the just shall enjoy an endless felicity in the entirety of their restored members, the wicked 'shall seek death, and shall not find it, shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them' (Revelation 9:6). "

Oh, what a pretty picture the Vatican minions have painted here. Sinners have no exit from their resurrected bodies, no chance for reincarnation and a second chance, no escape from eternal torment. This Boschian nightmare has inflicted untold psychological pain from the Middle Ages onward.

The Catholic Church is, I opine, responsible for more human misery than any other institution in history (other than the Bush administration ). ;-) From Torquemada and the Inquisition to the genocide of Native Americans and the burning of the Mayan codices down to our own day of sexually perverted priests and the ban on contraceptives that ultimately results in both dire poverty and death from AIDS, the Church has perpetuated its power by means of this warped mentality.

Isn't it ironic, though, that the Roman Catholic Church would insist on a corporeal resurrection but deny that Jesus lived a normal human life? No, he was the result of a virgin birth and died a virgin, apparently. Let's save that nasty sexual stuff for heaven.

Gary David

Another Pyramid Mausoleum

2007-03-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

I don't really know who is interred in this pyramid made of marble, granite, and glass located at the Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina. I'd bet he was a Mason though, because this southern city on the 33rd parallel is host to the "Mother Lodge" of the world.

See my article "Along the 33rd Parallel: A Global Mystery Circle" (fourth link down).
http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_gd1.htm#Along

More Pyramids in Arizona

2007-03-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

Some of you might have already my article "The Great Pyramids of Arizona."
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/article1678.html

Here is some more pyramid lore connected with the state.

Charles Debrille Poston is known as the "Father of Arizona." http://home.southwind.net/~crowther/Dibrell/CDP.html
In 1863 he named the Territory of Arizona and obtained the signature of President Lincoln for its authorization. He was also responsible for the Congressional enactment that created the territory and was its first Congressional deligate. In a previous post I have discussed the significance of the name "Ari-zona." http://theorionzone.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html

During a trip to India Poston got involved with the Parsee religion and became one of North America's first Zoroastrians. He even wrote a book called The Sun Worshippers of Asia (1877).
Online book: http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=genpub;view=toc;idno=AJF4804.0001.001

He died in Phoenix (Valley of the Sun) in 1902. His remains rest in a pyramid-shaped monument at the summit of Poston's Butte near Florence, Arizona, where he had once hoped to build a Temple to the Sun.

George Wiley Paul Hunt served seven terms as Arizona's first governor between 1912 (the year of statehood) and 1932. He was a prominent and longstanding Freemason.

He died in Phoenix in 1934. His final resting place in Phoenix’s Papago Park is within sight of an archaeo-astronomical observatory once used by the Hohokam but now called Hole-in-the-Rock. The Hunt’s family mausoleum was constructed in the style of a white-tiled Egyptian pyramid.

The letter "A" as in Arizona is itself a pyramid.

The Pyramids of St. Augustine

2007-03-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

"The three Dade Pyramids, located at St. Augustine National Cemetery in Florida (above), are the oldest monuments found in the NCA cemeteries. Erected in 1842, the pyramids are 11 feet long on each side and constructed of coquina. Originally, each pyramid was covered with a stucco finish that has since deteriorated. The memorials were erected in honor of 1,468 soldiers who died during the Florida Indian Wars between 1835 and 1842. Soldiers killed during the Dade Massacre [sic] on December 28, 1835, are interred in the cemetery."

http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hist/mipJAN06pg5.asp

-The latitude of St. Augustine is 29 degrees 53 minutes.
-The latitude of the Egyptian pyramids of Giza is 29 degrees 58 minutes.

-Egypt is a land where the ancient pursuit of immortality was legendary.
-St. Augustine is where the alleged Fountain of Youth is located.
-Dade is an anagram of "dead."

The Resurrection of the Body?

2007-03-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

The Baptists and all the other fundamentalist Christians feel betrayed by this recent Discovery film http://www.jesusfamilytomb.com/, just like they felt betrayed by "The Last Temptation of Christ" and were vindicated by Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." (See the first comment by a self-avowed extremist to my post "Iconography of the Facade of the 'Jesus Tomb'.")

IMHO, the doctrine of Resurrection of the Body is a ghastly notion, something akin to "Night of the Living Dead." Besides being contra-naturum, contrary to the laws of physics (and I don't think that even Jehovah Himself violates those, since He supposedly set them up), it is just an inane idea that the body would simply levitate into the stratosphere and be whisked off to eternity among the clouds.

At what point in the body's ever-changing form propelled through time does it ascend into heaven? At age 30? At age 10? At age 75? When the body dies? Is there some sort of cosmic mortician that makes the body pretty for heaven? As Eric Clapton sang after the tragic death of his son: "Would you know my name, if I saw you in heaven?"

No, the body and the ego are Maya, illusions shifting through the web of the senses, which themselves are a dream within a dream, to quote Poe.

Now, resurrection of the spirit, that's another matter. ;)

Gary David

Remember the Cameron Conspiracy!

2007-03-08T21:37:00.000-08:00

A bit of cyber-nostalgia from the late 90's:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020207102610/www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2900/jc33msn.html

Is James Cameron, producer of "The Lost tomb of Jesus," still carrying out a Masonic agenda after all these years?

Pontormo's "Supper" Revisited

2007-03-07T19:46:00.000-08:00

Author and researcher Gary Osborn has commented on the significance of the angles in the painting shown in the previous post. He provides us with angles drawn:

"Here we see that one of the knives on the table is perfectly horizontal while the other knife is angled at 23.5 degrees. The triangle surrounding the eye appears to be a reference to the Great Pyramid as its side angles are 52 degrees. It is truly significant that these two angles are featured in the same painting - especially one that has an all-seeing eye in a pyramid or capstone positioned above Christ's head.

"Time and time again, we see these two angles - 23.5 degrees and 52 degrees turning up together in these paintings - especially paintings from the 17th century. However, this painting is 16th century - which still fits the time period. The 30+ John the Baptist paintings I have found that feature the 23.5-degree references were painted between the 16th and 18th centuries."

23.5 is, of course, the angle of the tilt of the Earth's axis of rotation, or angle of obliquity. See Osborn's great work on the subject: http://www.freewebs.com/garyosborn/235degrees.htm

Also relevant is the round silver plate that echoes the golden orb that encompasses the triangle. Again it's a case of pyramid and circle, just like the icon on the facade of the reputed tomb of Jesus and his family.

Iconography of the Facade of the "Jesus Tomb"

2007-03-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

Even before the airing of the Discovery Channel's program "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," the controversy tantamount to that spawned by The Da Vinci Code seems to be brewing. Here is the show's web site with the basic facts:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/tomb.html

Here is a more comprehensive site:

http://www.jesusfamilytomb.com/

What initially stopped me in my tracks was a photo of the facade of the tomb that supposedly contains the family of Jesus. This icon over one meter wide is sculpted into the rock on the south face of the antechamber. It is apparently unique among the tombs of Jerusalem.

First off, the entrance is not simply a rectangle but a Tau shape. For significance of this, see my article. http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=65

What really arrested me, however, was the upwardly pointing triangle (chevron) over a circle. Look familiar? A circle within a pyramid? Is this the Masonic "All-Seeing Eye of Providence"?

Did the Knights Templar visit the grave of Jesus in the 12th century AD and record this iconography, later to be passed on through the traditions of Freemasonry? Speculation, perhaps, but intriguing nonetheless.

Listen to what Simcha Jacobovici, Director/Producer/Writer of the film, has to say about it.
http://www.jesusfamilytomb.com/the_chevron_circle.html

Jocobovici also discusses a painting by one of Leonardo's apprentices, Jacopo da Pontormo (1494-1557). It is called "Supper at Emmaus."

http://www.jesusfamilytomb.com/the_chevron_code.html

The Talpiot Tomb as it's called is also known as "The Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries" (bone boxes).

1. Ossuary 80/500: "Mariamene e Mara” – “Mariamne, also called Master”
2. Ossuary 80/501: "Yehuda bar Yeshua” – “Judah, son of Jesus”
3. Ossuary 80/502: "Matia” – “Matthew”
4. Ossuary 80/503 "Yeshua bar Yosef” – “Jesus, Son of Joseph”
5. Ossuary 80/504: "Yose” or “Yosa” – a nickname for “Joseph”
6. Ossuary 80/505: "Maria"– a Latinized version of the Hebrew “Miriam.”
7., 8., & 9. Ossuaries 80/506-508 were plain, with no inscriptions.
10. Ossuary 80/509 disappeared before it could be checked for inscriptions and decorations. (The program supposedly provides evidence from what is called "patina figerprints" that this could possibly be the heretofore discredited Ossuary of James, brother of Jesus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ossuary)

Beside the bombshell approaching DC (viz. Brown's, not Washington) proportions that we have the bone box of not only Jesus but also his son, the name "Mariamene e Mara" has been identified by scholars as Mary Magdalene. The Gnostic "Gospel of Mary" has surely elevated her status in recent times

There is a lot more of this complex story to come, I'm sure. I will conclude for now, however, with an icon that in pre-Christian times represented the goddess traditions of the world: Inanna, Ishtar, Isis, Venus, Tanith, Aphrodite.

(Thanks to Steve Bartholomew: http://chargedbarticle.org/phoenicians_in_utah.htm.)

Was Mary "the Master," spouse of Jesus, also a reincarnation of Inanna?

Who is Hu? (a few notes)

2007-02-27T20:35:00.000-08:00

One of the names for the Sphinx at Giza is Hu. It is also the god of Taste, springing from the blood of Ra's phallus. Hu also means bad or wicked, and naked, as well as to grieve, to beat, to crush, and to slay. Huhu is the primeval watery mass whence came everything. In Egyptian Hu can also mean rain.

On the other hand, Hu is the name of one of the Hopi kachinas, the whipper kachina, that comes in order to bring rain to the desert. This figure has a black mask, goggle eyes, fangs and lolling tongue, and is an ogre. It carries a yucca whip in each hand. Sometimes it holds a rusty butcher knife in one hand and a whip in the other. Basically it keeps everybody in line, so to speak. I've seen this one in action, but I don't want to describe it because it is part of the sacred kachina dance. (You'll just have to come to Hopiland and see for yourself. The photo above is a Hu kachina doll.) Anyway, it acts as a guardian of the dance in the same way that its namesake in Egypt is guardian of the horizon.

Hamlet’s Mill says that Humeri is an antiquated Latin word for Orion. Humeri is also the plural of humerus, the long bone between the shoulder and the elbow.

According to Harold Klemp, spiritual leader of Eckankar, Hu is the ancient name of God as well as a love song to God. “HU is woven into the language of life. It is the Sound of all sounds. It is the wind in the leaves, falling rain, thunder of jets, singing of birds, the awful rumble of a tornado. . . . Its sound is heard in laughter, weeping, the din of city traffic, ocean waves, and the quiet rippling of a mountain stream. And yet, the word HU is not God. It is a word people anywhere can use to address the Originator of Life.”

Topper Site on 33rd Parallel

2007-02-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

The Topper Site near Allendale, South Carolina has been radiocarbondated to 50,000 yrs. BP. http://www.athenapub.com/topper.htm

Does anyone else think it an odd "coincidence" that this site lies exactly 33rd parallel?
Latitude: 33 0 32 N

For the significance of this latitude, see my article
"Along the 33rd Parallel: A Global Mystery Circle."
http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_gd1.htm#Along
(Fourth link down.)

Gary David
http://www.theorionzone.com

Global Orion Links: A Celestial Plan?

2006-12-03T11:14:00.000-08:00

by Gary A. David

Humans naturally seem to resonate with the hermetic maxim “As above, so below.” We like the idea that the earth mirrors the stars. We even try to enhance this duality by constructing pyramids, temples, stone circles, henges, or sacred villages to reflect star patterns. Biblically speaking, God’s will shall be done “in earth as it is in heaven.”

But why did ancient astronomer-priests from diverse cultures around the world apparently focus on the constellation Orion as the supreme celestial template?

As some readers know, the primary “Orion Correlation Theory” (OCT) was developed in Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert in their international bestseller The Orion Mystery. The co-authors discovered an ancient “unified ground plan” in which the pyramids at Giza form the pattern of the belt of Orion.

According to their theory only briefly summarized here, the Great Pyramid (Khufu) represents Alnitak, the middle pyramid (Khafre) represents Alnilam, and the slightly offset smaller pyramid (Menkaure) represents Mintaka. In addition, two ruined pyramids —one at Abu Ruwash to the north and another at Zawyat al Aryan to the south— correlate to Saiph (Orion’s right foot) and Bellatrix (Orion’s left shoulder) respectively, while three pyramids at Abusir farther south correspond to Orion’s head. http://www.robertbauval.co.uk/articles/articles/gizaorion.html

· (A number of researchers have disputed either all or part of the OCT since its publication nearly a decade ago. http://www.teamatlantis.com/yucatan_test/orion1.html
· And most recently: http://www.mysterious-america.net/cygnus-orion.html
and also: http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Cygnus_Orion_Giza.htm.)

Egypt was not the only place, however, where Orion’s influence was felt.

Inspired by Bauval’s work, I stumbled across an Orion Correlation that the Anasazi (ancestral Hopi Indians) constructed in Arizona from about 1050-1300 AD. Every major star in the constellation corresponds to a specific masonry village site. The terrestrial replication of the celestial pattern is uncanny.

· Read about the Arizona Orion Correlation at the Graham Hancock Forum: http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/DavidGA1.php?p=1
· See more information at my own website http://www.theorionzone.com.
· Also consult the maps of this correlation: http://www.theorionzone.com/maps.htm

About one hundred miles west of Aswan in the Sahara Desert lies an archaeological site called Nabta Playa. Only ten to eleven feet in diameter, this megalithic calendar circle has a north/south line-of-sight as well as a summer solstice sunrise alignment. According to former NASA physicist Thomas G. Brophy, Ph.D., three stones inside the circle mirror the pattern of Orion’s belt at the meridian for this season during the period 6,400 to 4900 BC. Three other interior stones represent the shoulders and head of the constellation for the astoundingly early date of 16,500 BC.

Another set of megaliths south of the circle at Nabta Playa aligns to the vernal equinox heliacal rising [http://www.answers.com/topic/heliacal-rising] in 6300 BC of six key stars in Orion (Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka, Betelgeuse—Orion’s right shoulder, Bellatrix, and Meissa—Orion’s head). This vernal equinox heliacal rising happens only once per precessional cycle (nearly 26,000 years).
http://www.rhodes.aegean.gr/maa_journal/Issues/Past%20Issues/Volume%205%20No1%20June%202005/BROPHY.pdf

Rock art researcher Rob Milne has found at least three distinct rock engraving sites in South Africa that have been laid out to reflect Orion. At Boomplaas, for instance, an alignment of engraved stones mirrors Orion’s belt as it appears on the summer solstice, December 22nd. Another alignment of stones at the same site imitates the belt during the rising of the constellation shortly before sunrise on the winter solstice, June 21st. Check out Rob’s fine Web site replete with photographs from his expeditions in the bush. http://sabic.co.za/robmilne

Orion Correlations indeed seem to be popping up all over the world. Just over thirty miles north of Mexico City the massive site of Teotihuacán also apparently reflects the stars of Orion. In particular, the configuration formed by the Pyramid of the Moon, the Pyramid of the Sun, and the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl spatially correlates to Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak respectively, i.e., the belt. http://www.philipcoppens.com/orionimage.html

Author Page Bryant has suggested that two sites erected by the Mound Builders of North America are potentially Orion correlations as well. Both O’Byam’s Fort in Hickman County, western Kentucky and the Hill Works in Ross County, Ohio (the latter about thirty miles northeast of the Serpent Mound) consist of three major mounds corresponding to the belt stars, with one of the three slightly offset in each case.
[Bryant, Starwalking: Shamanic Practices For Traveling Into the Night Sky (Bear & Co, Santa Fe, 1997]

Knights Templar researcher Jeff Nisbet has discovered an Orion correlation in Scotland. To very briefly sum up the template: the islands of Fidra, Lamb, and Craigleith located off the southern coast of the Firth of Forth represent the belt stars of Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka respectively. Northeast of the belt, the Isle of May correlates to Bellatrix. Northwest of May on the Fife Peninsula a few miles south of Eden River once lay a stone circle called the Dunino Circle, now lost. If again found, this may correspond to Betelgeuse.

A line drawn northwest between May and the hamlet of Dunino comes to rest at Dunsinane Castle of Shakespeare’s “MacBeth.” A line drawn southwest from May through Fidra leads to the famous Rosslyn Chapel. A second line drawn from May through the Lamb leads directly to Tara in Ireland, an even more remarkable geomantic feat. A third line drawn from May through Craigleith leads to Temple, Scotland’s earliest known headquarters of the Templar Knights. Due south of Craigleith is the Castle of Yester, which corresponds to Rigel (Orion’s left foot). A line drawn from this isle through Yester intersects the Cisterian Abbey of Melrose to eventually reach the Glastonbury Tor in England. For more on this excellent research, see Jeff’s Web site: http://www.mythomorph.com/mm/content/2004/0215the_pyramids_of_scotland.php

According to the Czech magazine WM, three pyramids of stone perfectly mirror the belt stars in Montevecchia, a town in northern Italy about 40 kilometers from Milan. The highest of these pyramids is 150 meters tall. Identified by satellite and aerial imagery, these structures so overgrown with vegetation that they were originally mistaken for natural hills are thought to be over 3,000 years old. http://farshores.org/a03ipyr.htm and http://farshores.org/a03ipyr2.htm

Patrick Conlan has discovered another correlation to Orion’s belt in Ireland at Loughcrew, located three miles from the town of Oldcastle, County Meath. Running for three miles northeast to southwest along a ridge 700 feet high, three evenly spaced peaks are located with the western one slightly offset—similar to Mintaka. Nearby are 5,000-year-old cairn tombs, or passage graves, together with rock art. One stone with star glyphs apparently represents these peaks. http://conlanabu.com/

In addition, three henges located at the Thornborough Neolithic Monument Complex in North Yorkshire, England correlate to the belt stars. This template is arranged similar to the Arizona Orion, with his head pointed southwest. http://thornborough.ncl.ac.uk/index.htm

Other promising candidates for sites corresponding to Orion need further research. For instance, southwest of X’ian in China’s Shensi Province is a pattern of large ancient pyramids constructed of clay that appear to mirror the belt stars. http://www.earthquest.co.uk/articales/theory.html

The Jordanian author Rami Sajdi posits that the belt stars of Mitaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak correspond to the Middle Eastern sites of Jerusalem, the Essene community of Masada on the Dead Sea, and Petra respectively. http://www.acacialand.com/orion.html

Besides providing the exact pattern for locations of temple complexes or sacred cities, the rising or setting stars of Orion were incorporated into the archeo-astronomy of megalithic construction. The Bighorn Medicine Wheel, for instance, is a stone circle about seventy-five feet in diameter with twenty-eight spokes. It is located upon a promontory on the western slope of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming at an altitude of over 9,600 ft. The circle is adjacent to a number of line-of-sight cairns that forms astronomical alignments. The heliacal rising of Rigel is marked by one cairn. The helical risings of Aldebaran in Taurus and Sirius in Canis Major are also aligned with specific cairns, and each event is separated by twenty-eight days—the lunar cycle.
http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/projects/geoweb/participants/dutch/VTrips/MedWheel.HTM

In Guatemala, the archaeologist José Fernandez determined that all of the primary temples at the Postclassic Quiche Maya site of Utatlán (established about the time the Hopi Mesas were first being settled in Arizona) were oriented like the Nazca spider to the heliacal setting points of the stars in Orion. [José Fernandez, "A Stellar City: Utatlán and Orion," paper presented at the international symposium "Time and Astronomy at the Meeting of Two Worlds," Warsaw, 27 April-2 May 1992; see Graham Hancock, Heaven’s Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization, p. 35.]

Also, recent study of the eponymous Great Zimbabwe located in the country formerly known as Rhodesia shows that on the winter solstice three bright stars in the constellation rise over three stone monoliths on the eastern arc of the Great Enclosure. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3137

The ultimate purpose of these earth-sky reflections scattered across the globe remains elusive.

“Is it possible that the incorporation of a ‘celestial plan’ in ancient and mysterious monuments from many different parts of the world, and a particular focus on the three stars of Orion’s Belt... could be parts of a global scientific legacy passed on by a lost civilization of very remote times?”

The above quotation from Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods is part of the caption for a photograph depicting a huge spider “geoglyph.” Made in the desert like by removing the darker colored pebbles in order to leave exposed the lighter ones, this earth sculpture found on the Nazca Plain in southern Peru is 150 feet long.

The German mathematician and astronomer Maria Reiche studied this and other Nazca figures and lines for over forty years. She believes that the spider’s legs were shaped to represent the outstretched limbs of Orion with its waist forming his belt. http://www.bylandwaterandair.com/peru/nazca_lines_nazca_peru/nazca_spider

She furthermore posits that a particular line intersecting this anatomically correct arachnid from the Amazon jungles was oriented toward the heliacal setting of this constellation, perhaps for the purpose of coordinating solar and lunar calendars.

The spider figure is located close to what is known as the Great Rectangle, a geometric form of which has associations with Orion. Located nearby, an anthropoid figure deemed “the Owl Man” also bears an eerie resemblance to the Hopi god of death and the Underworld named Masau’u, who also has associations with Orion. http://www.morien-institute.org/nazca5.html (See a picture of Masau’u: http://www.theorionzone.com/outline.htm.)

The list goes on. As we have seen, either Orion’s pattern in the sky is reproduced by human-made structures on the ground or the rising and setting of Orion’s stars are lined up with astronomical markers. Various cultural sites in Peru, Mesoamerica, North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, Africa, and Egypt along with other locations across the globe concentrate on this particular constellation with an archetypal intensity.

Probably not all of these sky-ground patterns are valid. Still we must still ask the question: Is this merely a series of colossal coincidences or are we witnessing a worldwide Orion legacy that was propagated long ago by a single cohesive force or intelligence? Are these correlations just the result of the collective unconscious or are they the manifestation of a deliberate, unified celestial plan? Are the Orion Correlations merely the intense need for humans to find patterns in the cosmos, or are they the inheritance of some lost super-civilization or even a gift from the stars?

Orion strides across the cold winter sky in stoic silence.

Email: islandhillsbooks@msn.com

Excerpt from The Orion Zone: Ancient Star Cities of the American Southwest Copyright © 2006 by Gary A. David. All rights reserved

Gary A. David is an independent researcher and writer living in northern Arizona. The Orion Zone: Ancient Star Cities of the American Southwest is now available from Adventures Unlimited Press. This book discusses a correlation between the stars of Orion and the Hopi villages and ruins in the Four Corners region of the US. (See http://www.theorionzone.com.) Recently Mr. David’s articles have appeared in Atlantis Rising, Fate, and World Explorer magazines.

9/11: Part of the Hopi Prophecy of the Final Purification?

2006-11-28T10:15:00.000-08:00

The Hopi recognize prophecy as a large part of their cultural heritage. Spiritual elders had foreseen many things that have already come to pass. They had envisaged moving houses of iron (trains), horseless wagons traveling on black ribbons (automobiles), people speaking through cobwebs (telegraph and telephone lines), a falling "gourd of ashes" (the atomic bomb), women wearing men's clothing (the women's liberation movement), humans journeying along a road in the sky to live in the heavens (Skylab, MIR or the International Space Station), and the door of the House of Mica (the United Nations) closing four times on Hopi pleas for peace.

Just after the emergence from the subterranean Third World at the beginning of the present Fourth World, a figure known as Pahana, or Elder White Brother, took with him a corner of the Fire Clan's four inches square stone tablet and proceeded eastward toward the rising sun. At the same time the Younger (red) Brother stayed back, traveling the spiral road of migrations, constructing pueblos throughout the American Southwest, and eventually settling in the Hopi villages much as we see them today. Similar to the Mesoamerican myth of Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl, it was assumed that Pahana would return at the end of the cycle to save the righteous people from foreign forces destroying the land.

The following paragraphs are the conclusion of an essay titled "Spiral Gate: the Arc of the Covenant." I researched and wrote this long article in a few weeks in late August, 2001. I was under some inexplicable compulsion to finish it. Then the world changed forever.

Many Hopi elders must surely feel that the world's spirals are wobbling out of control, as the prophesied end of the Fourth World approaches. We need look no further than our ubiquitous TV screens to see that Grandmother Earth is in turmoil:

Environmental degradation on diverse fronts, multiple species extinction, inexplicable genetic mutations, radically shifting weather patterns, more frequent and more devastating hurricanes/tornadoes/floods, global warming with elevated levels of "greenhouse gases," one energy crisis after another triggering "rolling blackouts," increased seismic and volcanic activity, lethal epidemics and pandemics, aberrant human and animal behavior, daily terrorist attacks, oxymoronic "holy wars," the constant threat of chemical and biological warfare, proliferation of nuclear materials, transnational machinations with Machiavellian motives, local political subterfuge resulting in widespread citizen apathy, factional massacres, "ethnic cleansing," mass cult suicides, school shootings, "road rage," increased numbers of paramilitary groups and individual arsenals, addiction to the pornography of media violence or unseemly trivialities, rising prison populations, social chaos and anomie, mental and emotional exhaustion, increased psychosomatic illnesses, religious disorientation and uncertainty, disregard for humanistic or humanitarian principles, widening schisms between social classes causing increased inequities, dire poverty and famine on one hand and conspicuous consumption and opulent wealth on the other, unrestrained avarice and power mongering justified by glib cynicism within a moral vacuum, an almost total disregard for the Golden Rule-- the dismal litany goes on and on, all of it symptomatic of the End Times.

Hopi elders did not need technology, however, to envision what is now upon us. They foresaw it long ago in their humble kivas, and have been preparing for the final Purification.

From http://theorionzone.com/spiral.htm

Is 9/11 just one among many signs that point to the ending of our current global cycle, which the Hopi call the Fourth World? Of course, this concept is not original. The media bombard us 24/7 with imagery of mass catastrophe and death. Fundamentalist Bible-thumpers preach the Apocalypse is at hand. Jihadist suicide bombers demand a worldwide Islamic theocracy. 2012 New Age gurus predict a new era of peace and enlightenment.

Who's right? Did the Hopi foresee our ultimate destiny, only to bide their time while patiently tending their corn out on the isolated mesas of the Arizona high desert?

Who Put the Ari- In Arizona?

2006-10-29T16:32:00.000-08:00

Lingustics scholar Gene D. Matlock recently wrote: " Lately, the Turks, who still call themselves Ari (Aryan, Turanian, and Kurustan) are coming out of the closet and claiming to be the parents of all civilizations--even of Egypt." I am particularly interested in this term Ari, and how it got in the name Arizona.

Considering the prefix Ari-, we readily think of Ariel, the powerful spirit of air and earth in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. In the Old Testament book of Isaiah, Ari-el is an appellation for the city of Jerusalem and literally means “Lion of God.” In Ezekiel the word refers to the “Hearth of God,” or the altar upon which burnt offerings were made.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a 1599 reference for the word “zone” from T. Hill’s Schoole of Skil has the following meaning: “The constellation named Zone or the gyrdle of Orion.” In other words, a constellation within the larger constellation, or his belt. Following Aristotle’s usage, the Latin poet Ovid refers to “Zona” specifically as the three central stars of Orion. Thus, in the name Arizona is hidden the fiery belt of Orion emblazoned upon the sacred navel of the world, in this case the three Hopi Mesas located on the high desert of the southwestern United States. (For an overview of the Arizona Orion Correlation, see my article on the Graham Hancock Forum: http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/DavidGA1.php

The first usage of “Arizona” appears to have been written by one Padre Ortega sometime before 1754, when he referred to the “Real of Arizona.” The Spanish word real means “military encampment,” but the adjective form meaning “royal” is also implied. In addition, the Spanish term arisco can mean “churlish, surly” or even “vicious,” while ariete means “battering ram” (reminding one of the constellation Aries near Orion) and arimez means “projection”— all traditionally active, masculine, and violent attributes in keeping with the archetypal Orion. Furthermore, the Spanish word zona refers to “belt” or “girdle” as well as to “zone.” Alternate spellings for Orion include “Arion,” “Oarion,” “Aorion,”so the prefixes Ari- and Ori- might have been interchangeable. The Greek aristos, as in “aristocracy,” means “best” or “noblest,” while the related Sanskrit word arya, as in “Aryan,” means “of high rank” or “noble.” The Italian word aria also means “air” (as in “arid”) or “melody.” In light of all these etymologies, perhaps the padre was merely recording what was already established in the region we now know as Arizona.

If we lend credence to diffusionism rather than to the more academically accepted isolationism, it is plausible that Indo-European speaking Aryans such as the Nagas did at one time travel to Arizona (i.e., Ary-zona), where they shared linguistic concepts phonetically with the Hopi.

For instance, the Hopi suffix -sona refers to “one who relishes” while tsoona means “he’s forward, not shy, or having fun exuberantly,” all of which suggest characteristics of Orion. In addition, the term orai (homophone of the first two syllables in “Orion”) means “Rock on High” or “Round Rock,” after which Oraibi was named, one of the initial Hopi Mesa villages. Furthermore, the Hopi word soona means “germ, kernel, edible part of any seed, or heart of a tree.” Like the center of the constellation Orion, this could be a reference to the heart of Hopiland, whence sprouts the sustenance of the sacred corn or other agricultural mainstays.

Because of all these linguistic "coincidences," I believe that this semantic nexus was tranoceanically transported from the Middle East and northern India here to the high desert of Arizona.

Gary A. David
Chino Valley, Arizona (The Orion Zone)
http://www.theorionzone.com