The Mysteries of Sirius

The Mysteries of Sirius

The Dogon

The Dogon tribe in Mali "are cultural, and probably also physical, descendants of Lemnian Greeks who claimed descent 'from the Argonauts', went to Libya, migrated westwards as Garamantians (who were described to Herodotus), were driven south, and after many, many centuries reached the River Niger in Mali and intermarried with local Negroes.
"The Dogon preserve as their most sacred mystery tradition one which was brought from pre-dynastic Egypt by 'Dannaos' to the Greeks.'"
- Robert Temple, The Sirius Mystery

"The starting point of creation is the star which revolves round Sirius and is actually named the "Digitaria star"; it is regarded by the Dogon as the smallest and heaviest of all the stars; it contains the germs of all things. Its movement on its own axis and around Sirius upholds all creation in space. We shall see that its orbit determines the calendar."
- Marcel Griaule and Germain Dieterlen in African Worlds

According to Temple, the Dogon knew that Sirius had an invisible companion (the white dwarf star Sirius B). "The Dogon name for Sirius B consists of the word for star, tolo, and po, the name of the smallest seed known to them. By this name they describe the star's smallness - it is, they say, 'the smallest thing there is.' They also claim that it is 'the heaviest star' (since in it the element earth is replaced by an immensely heavy metal called sagala), so heavy 'that all earthly beings combined cannot lift it.' And the color of the star is white. The Dogon thus attribute to Sirius B its three principal qualities as a white dwarf: its smallness, heaviness, and whiteness. They go on to say that the start's orbit is elliptical, with Sirius A at one focus of the ellipse, that the orbital period is 50 years (the actual figure is 50.04 plus or minus .09 years), and that the star rotates on its own axis. The Dogon also describe a third star in the Sirius system, called Emme Ya ('sorghum female'). In orbit around this star, they say, is a single satellite. To date Emme Ya has not been detected by Western astronomers."
- Reader's Digest Mysteries of the Unexplained

"The Dogons considered Sirius B to be far more important than it larger and brighter companion. They also possessed knowledge of the third luminary as well as a small planet in the system and there is some confusion as to whether the third star was believed to be a smaller sun or simply a large planet, since this ancient African tribe also made reference to the 'shoe-maker's planet' and a 'planet of women'."
- Murray Hope, Practical Egyptian Magic

"The Dogon say that their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommos, amphibious beings sent to earth from the Sirius star system for the benefit of humankind. The name comes form a Dogon word meaning 'to make one drink', and the Nommos are also called Masters of the Water, The Monitors, and The Instructors. They came to earth somewhere to the northeast of the Dogon's present homeland. When their vessel landed (after a 'spinning or whirling' descent and with a great noise and wind), it skidded to a stop, scoring the ground....At that time a new star (perhaps a mother ship) was seen in the sky."
- Mysteries of the Unexplained (from Robert Temple, The Sirius Mystery)

"As (the ark) landed, the weight of the ark caused the 'blood' to spurt to the sky and gave the star of the tenth moon [pelu tolo] reality and brilliance."
- Dogon oral tradition

"The Dogon also describe this 'star' specifically as having a circle of reddish rays around it, and this circle of rays is 'like a spot spreading' but remaining the same size."
- Robert Temple, The Sirius Mystery

" After the landing, something with four legs appeared and dragged the vessel to a hollow, which filled with water until the vessel floated in it.
" According to Dogon art, the Nommos were more fishlike than human, and they had to live in water. They were saviors and spiritual guardians:
- Mysteries of the Unexplained (from Robert Temple, The Sirius Mystery)

Across the ancient middle east was a tradition that powerful beings or Sons of God were not only the spiritual guardians of men - they were the masters and owners.

The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe 'had drunk of his body', the Nommo also made men drink He gave all his life principles to human beings."
- Dogon oral tradition

"The Nommo was crucified and resurrected and in the future will again visit the earth, this time in human form. Later he will assume his amphibious form and will rule the world from the waters."
"...In Babylonian accounts of Oannes, amphibious beings who came to this planet for the welfare of the human race. Their vehicle was egg shaped, and they landed in the Red Sea.
"The Oannes 'had the shape of a fish blended with that of a man', a 'complicated form between a fish and a man'; they were 'semi-demons - halfway between men and gods'. Their appearance was repulsive."
- Mysteries of the Unexplained (from Robert Temple, The Sirius Mystery)

Temple "says that the Dogon have a traditional belief in Sirius B, which claim that it's made of a material called sagala (translation: 'strong') " so heavy that all earthly beings combined cannot lift it. The Dogon also accept the idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and are aware of the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter and Saturn's rings...This was all discovered in the 1930s, when the Dogon were anthropologically investigated."
"Sirius B was discovered in 1862 (not 1962) by Alvan Clark as he was testing the new lens he'd made for Dearborn Observatory's 18 1/2 inch refracting telescope. He at first thought he'd found a defect in the lens, but he finally realized he'd discovered the companion star that had been suspected since 1844. From 1834 to 1844 F.W.Bessel had noticed a wavy irregularity in the motion of Sirius against the background stars, and had concluded that it had an invisible companion. The orbit of the proposed compainion had been calculated in 1851 by C.H.F.Peters. By 1910 astronomers began to realize that there were a class of stars, eventually called white dwarfs, which were very small and dim, yet very massive, which meant they had to be incredibly dense. In 1915 the first spectrum of Sirius B was obtained by W.Adams at Mt.Wilson, which is all that would have been needed to classify it as a white dwarf. However, I couldn't find any information on when it was indeed realized that Sirius B was a white dwarf."
"Saturn's rings and Jupiter's Galilean moons had been known since the invention of the telescope. By 1930 four more of Jupiter's moons had been discovered, however, the fifth was found as late as 1892 by E.E.Barnard, and the rest followed as photography came into use as an astronomical tool around the turn of the century.
"As for a third star, Phillip Fox reported in 1920 that the image of Sirius B had appeared to be double, using the same 18 1/2 inch refractor with which Clark discovered B. R.T.Innes in S.Africa and van den Bos, a renowned double-star observer, also reported the 3rd star. I should note here that these were visual studies, and the object in question is at the very limit of what can be observed with a telescope. In 1973 a study by I.W.Lindenblad at the U.S.Naval Observatory concluded that there is no astrometric (measurement of irregularities of motion against the background, probably on photographs) evidence for a 3rd star."

"My conclusions: Nothing extraordinary need be invoked to account for the Dogon's knowledge. Someone probably gave the Dogons the information, probably after 1920. I admit there are inconsistencies: anyone astronomically knowledgeable enough to know about Sirius B would most likely have known about the additional moons of Jupiter, but then again, so would any hypothetical visitors from beyond. Also, why did the Dogons claim that this was part of their traditions? By the way, I could not confirm the Dogons knowledge of a 3rd star. This is unfortunate, as it would prove beyond doubt that they were given all this information by someone, as the modern study showed no such star exits."
- Tom R.(randolph@est.enet.dec.com)

The Guardian Star of Egypt

"The earliest Egyptians believed Sirius [Sothis] was the home of departed souls, which the Dogons also believe."
- Robert Temple, The Sirius Mystery

"In the astronomical science of the Egyptians, the most conspicuous solar system near our own, represented in the heavens by the brilliant Sirius, was of supreme interest. Cycles of immense importance were determined by it, and it entered into the highest mysticism of Egyptian initiation."
- G.R.S. Mead, Thrice Greatest Hermes

"Beneath the high-priest were a whole cadre of priests with specialized training. Among these were the 'horologers', or 'priests of the hours', whose job it was to determine as precisely as possible the hours of the day and night. This was crucial to the functioning of the temple, since various rituals had to start at precise times. These priests, through watching the progress of the sun or stars across the sky, determined when the rituals should being."
- Bob Brier, Ancient Egyptian Magic

"Sirius was the guardian star of Egypt, its rising greatly affecting the life of everyday folk through the yearly inundation from the Nile."
- Murray Hope, Practical Egyptian Magic

"Contrary to other rivers, [the Nile] begins its annual swelling in the hottest time of the year, at the beginning of the dog Days, that is, at the moment when Sirius rises at the same time as the sun, a date which during the third millennium BC coincided with the summer solstice."
- Lucy Lamie, Egyptian Mysteries

"The predynastic Egyptians worshipped the feminine principle, the great mother goddess [Tuart] represented by the seven stars of Ursa Major and her child Sirius the dog star, or Set. Sirius was also represented by the same symbol as his mother, whom he is supposed to have fecundated."
- Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks

"Sirius is the one consecrated to Isis, for it brings the water."
- Plutarch

"...To ancient initiates Isis was a symbol of Sirius and Osiris a symbol of the Dark Companion of Sirius; but he is not aware of Crowley's and Levi's insistence that the traditional secret revealed in the Eleusian Mysteries was that 'Osiris is a black god!'"
"... The familiar symbol of Isis, with a star above her and one of her feet in water and the other on land, is a symbol of the Sirius connection..." (Atu XVII of the Tarot - The Star)
"Temple also demonstrates that the whole Egyptian calendar revolved around the movements of Sirius - the year began with the 'dog days' when Sirius started to rise behind the sun (July 23 in our calendar) ...that the earliest hieroglyphic for Osiris (the God of Resurrection and of Eternal Life) was an eye plus a throne; and that the most secret of the rituals of Osiris, the 'black rite,' is described on one Hermetic text as being so cryptic in its total meaning that men will only understand it fully when they pursue the stars 'unto the height'..."

According to Philip Vandenberg, The Curse of the Pharaohs, "an archeologist named Duncan MacNaughton discovered in 1932 that the long dark tunnels in the Great Pyramid of Cheops function as telescopes, making the stars visible even in the daytime. The Greater Pyramid is oriented, according to MacNaughton, to give a view, from the King's Chamber, of the area of the southern sky in which Sirius moves throughout the year."
- Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger

"A north/south section of the Pyramid of Cheops shows that the two so-called 'air-shafts' leading out from the King's Chamber are, within one degree of accuracy, inclined so that the northern one is centered on the celestial Pole and the southern one on the three stars of Orion's Belt. Virginia Trimble pointed out that, in the light of the ancients' mystic sense, it is obvious that these openings were meant to be guide ways for the soul, aiming either towards the Circumpolars in the northern sky or to the constellation of Orion in the southern sky."
"In the north at the approximate time of the pyramid's construction in 2700 BC, the Pole was occupied by Alpha Draconis, the star around which turned the Circumpolars - called the 'Indestructibles' since they never disappear below the horizon. Thus they were the symbol of immortality. The King then, triumphant over the trials of terrestrial life, will ascend imperishable in the northern sky.
"From the southern sky, the ancients had chosen thirty-six stars or constellations, the decans, whose consecutive helical risings occurred approximately every ten days. The rising of each decan occurred after it had passed seventy days of invisibility, a period corresponding to that of mummification. Among these stars are Osiris (Orion) and Isis-Sothis (Sirius), symbols of yearly renewal, of the regeneration of the Nile, of cyclic death and rebirth."
- Lucy Lamie, Egyptian Mysteries

The Dog Star in Magical Traditions

"To find in the BLAZING STAR of five points an allusion to Divine Providence is also fanciful; and to make it commemorative of the Star that is said to have guided the Magi is to give it a meaning comparatively modern. Originally, it represented SIRIUS, or the Dog Star."
- General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma

Sirius, the dog star, stands for the spirit of wisdom in the Zoroastrian tradition.

"Temple believes the Contact (which he tends to portray as physical, involving actual space-ships) occurred in Sumeria around 4500 B.C. The knowledge thus gained, he argues was passed on via various secret societies of initiates in the Near East, Egypt, Greece and so on, at least until the time of the 5th century (A.D.) neo-Platonist Proclus. Thereafter, Temple loses track of it, and suggests that it petered out, although he mentions that off-shoots of it appeared in 'such bizarre and fascinating figures as Giordano Bruno, Marsilio Ficino, John Dee and even Sir Philip Sidney and the Earl of Leicester - not to mention the troubadours of Provence, Dante in Italy, and the massacred tens of thousands of Albigensians in France, the Knights Templar and an infinite rage of hopeless causes over two and a half millennia...'"

"Kenneth Grant, one of Crowley's closest associates in the Ordo Templi Orientis, repeatedly links Crowley with Sirius and seems to be hinting that the 'Holy Guardian Angel' contacted by Crowleyan mind-expansion techniques is a denizen of Sirius. J.G. Bennett, one of the closest of George Gurdjieff's associates, also tells us of coded references to Sirius in Gurdjieff's writings. Sufi historian Indries Shah traces the name of the Illuminati back to a verse in the Koran which mentions a shining star, and Crowley's alternative name for the Illuminati was the Order of the Silver Star (Argentum Astrum)."
- Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger

"The Order of the Silver Star is thus the Order of the Eye of Set, 'the Sun behind the Sun.' ...The Silver Star is Sirius."
- Kenneth Grant, Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God

"George Hunt Willamson, a flying saucer Contactee, claims to have spoken to natives of Sirius who use a language containing some to the same words as the 'Enochian' or 'angelic' language used by such magicians as Dr. John Dee and Crowley. Williamson also tells us a secret order on Earth has been in contact with Sirius for thousands of years and that the emblem of that order is the eye of Horus."
- Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger

"Many reliable psychics and mystics firmly subscribe to the idea of a special gene, or personalized 'time capsule', programmed with the knowledge of the 'old ones' who came from the Sirius system centuries ago; this gene has been passed down from generation to generation to the present day. From this Sirian genetic strain a new school of magic has emerged."
- Murray Hope, Practical Egyptian Magic

Related Sites
Dogon and Sirius
Good background info on the controversy plus links and references

Hyperlinks

·The Great Beast
·Lovecraft's Necronomicon