The Moon and the Calendar and the World's Ancient Wisdom

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Months used to be based on the moon in ancient cultures.

Even a simple consideration of our English word "month" shows a clear etymological connection to the word "moon."

The ancient Latin word signifying a month was "mensis," which survives today in its plural form to signify a woman's monthly cycle, which is also correlated with the cycle of the moon and the two cycles have traditionally been associated (although this has in recent years been hotly contested by "modern science" which wishes to declare that there is no correlation: see a few sample articles and medical studies on the debate here and here). 

Scholars believe that the ancient Romans followed a lunisolar calendrical system, in common with many other ancient cultures. Indeed, our very word "calendar" comes from the names used in that ancient Roman system (we will return to that point in a moment). 

In a strictly lunar system, months will be measured by observation of the moon, with the new month typically commencing at the first observation of the brand new sliver following the New Moon. Because the periods of the moon's cycle do not subdivide the solar year evenly, a strictly lunar system is not well suited for also observing the renewal of the solar cycle (the year, as opposed to the month). 

If the moon-driven months do not go evenly into the sun-driven year, then a strictly lunar calendar system will have no way of preventing the start of a year from drifting into different seasons (winter, spring, summer and fall being functions of earth's relationship to the sun). Therefore, ancient cultures followed lunisolar systems which followed the moon for the months, but added modifications in order to keep the observation of new year tied to the sun's cycle as well, typically observing the "renewal" of the sun at either the winter solstice or the spring equinox.

One common mechanism for making a lunisolar calendar involved measuring the months based on the cycles of the moon, and measuring the year by a certain number of lunar months, but then inserting an extra month (known as an "intercalary month") into the year periodically, in order to make up for the discrepancy caused by the fact that the solar year does not divide evenly into lunar months. The ancient Hebrew system for doing this (a system still preserved to this day) which was related to systems in use in ancient Mesopotamia, is described in the video below showing part of a lecture by the late Professor David Neiman (1921 - 2004):

As Dr. Neiman explains in that video, twelve lunar months alternating 29 days and 30 days apiece (because the actual cycle of the moon does not exactly divide into terrestrial days either, but is longer than 29 and shorter than 30) adds up to 354 days (you can easily confirm this using your phone's calculator, if you desire, by adding 29 and 30 for a total of twelve times, or six pairs of 29 and 30, which sums to 354).  

Thus, the first day of a year composed of twelve lunar months will obviously drift rather rapidly away from the same time of the year from one year to the next (if you begin the count of months for one year in winter, for example, you will soon find that the start of the year is taking place in the fall, if you keep starting a new year only 354 days after the previous year -- and not long after that the new year will begin in the summer and then in the spring). 

To keep this kind of drift from getting too large, and to bring the calendar year of lunar months back into synch with the solar cycle which governs the seasons, one method used by ancient traditional lunisolar calendars involved adding an additional lunar month to the year periodically, so that some years would have 13 lunar months before celebrating a new year.

As the video above explains, the ancient Hebrew lunisolar system (which is related to ancient Babylonian lunisolar systems) would add this 13th lunar month after two years, because a 354-day year (based on 12 lunar months) would be eleven days short, and so adding a 13th ("intercalary") month of 30 days after two years (when the calendrical year had fallen behind by 22 days) would bring the new year back to within three days of the actual solar cycles that started two years before (because in that third year, without the intercalary month, you would then be behind by 33 days, but adding in an additional lunar month of 30 days would bring you to within three days of the three solar cycles that had been going on all this time that you were measuring months by the moon).

Thus, after three years of lunar months (with 12 lunar months in the first two years and a third year with 13 lunar months), your calendar would be about three days behind (the extra month of 30 days almost, but not quite, catching up to the 33 days that the lunar system fell behind the solar cycle).

Following this pattern again for the next three months would mean that the calendar of lunar months (12, 12, and 13) would be behind by six days (three from the first three years, and three more days behind after the next three). 

After six years of lunar months (12, 12, 13, 12, 12 and 13) and six days of displacement from the solar cycle, the next (seventh) year of twelve lunar months would add another 11 days of displacement from the solar cycle, for a total of 17, and without an intercalary the next (eighth) year of 354 days would bring the total to 28. 

But, as Professor Neiman explains in the lecture above, adding an intercalary lunar month of thirty days in the eighth year brings the lunisolar calendar into very close alignment with the solar cycles, because of course the solar cycle does not divide evenly into earth days either -- it is not exactly 365 days long but rather a number closer to 365.2422, which we know about because our solar-based calendar system inserts an extra day into "leap years," which happen every four years (except on years ending in 00 which are not evenly divisible by 400, such that 2000 was a leap year since it is evenly divisible by 400, but 1900 was not a leap year since it is not evenly divisible by 400, this rule being instituted because a year is not exactly 365.25 days long either, so having a leap year every four years would be too much).

Thus, the fact that the solar cycle repeats every 365.2422 days (almost 365.25 days) means that after eight such cycles, the "day count" must be increased by almost exactly two full days (which could be accomplished using the leap year system with which we are familiar, for example). That's why the lunisolar system described above, which adds another intercalary month in the eighth year, will bring the lunisolar calendar back into near-perfect agreement with the solar cycle (12 lunar months, then 12, then 13, 12, 12, 13, 12, 13) -- because the lunar counts fall behind by 28 days and add 30 days with the intercalary month in the eighth year, and someone keeping an accurate solar day-count over the same period would have to add two days somewhere in those same eight years, bringing the two systems into alignment.

The ancient Norse and Germanic cultures used a lunisolar system, as did the ancient Celts, the ancient cultures of India, the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, and those of ancient China and Japan, and many others as well. The traditional observation of lunar New Year in China and surrounding nations also follows the ancient lunisolar systems preserved in those East Asian cultures. The cultures of ancient Greece also employed lunisolar systems, each with slight variations but all intended to accomplish the same goals described in the foregoing paragraphs. And, as mentioned above, the ancient Romans also  appear to have followed a lunisolar system -- but they began to modify the system in rather unusual ways and finally jettisoned the lunisolar approach altogether during the time of Julius Caesar.

The vestiges of the ancient Roman lunisolar system can be found in special terms which were applied to certain days each month, and which continued to be used after the older system was altered (and are still used, somewhat poetically, in modern English). These terms seem to preserve the original strictly lunar character of the months. The Romans called the first days of each month were called the "kalendae" (the Latin plural is usually changed to "kalends" when translating this word into English). One week later came the "nonae" (which in modern English has been changed to the "nones"), and two weeks after the kalendae came the "ides" (which is the most familiar of these three special day-designations to us in modern times), on the 15th of the month. 

Scholars believe that these vestigial terms, still in use in the classical Roman era, must reflect an earlier system in which each month began at New Moon (the day of the kalends). In such a system, the day of the nones would mark the arrival of the First Quarter, and the ides would of course mark the arrival of the Full Moon. 

We still talk about the "ides" even to this day, in conjunction with the 15th of the month (most commonly in the United States when referring to the "ides of April," on which income taxes are typically due to be paid, and of course the "ides of March," on which day Julius Caesar was assassinated).

However, we now use a calendar system in which the months are completely divorced from the cycle of the moon, such that the term "ides" designates the 15th day of a month that does not synch with the moon and which thus has no connection to the Full Moon whatsoever.

It is in fact ironic that we call our calendar system by a name derived from the word "kalends," which was the name for the first day of each month -- the day which would be indicated by observation of the first thin sliver-crescent of the New Moon. Our calendar system requires no observation of the cycles of the moon at all, and by its very arrangement seems to imply that the moon is irrelevant to our daily lives -- when of course the moon is not irrelevant at all, but is intimately connected to the very cycles by which new life is conceived and the family of humanity is preserved.

It is ironic that the date of Easter, out of all the holy days observed by the Christian faith, relies upon a lunisolar calculation, involving the arrival of the Full Moon following the March equinox (the rules for its calculation are rather complicated and involve calendrical tables which do not always correspond with what one would expect based on the actual lunar and solar activity which can be observed in the sky itself). 

The lunisolar character of Easter is ironic because literalist Christianity can be shown to be aggressively solar in almost every way, from its designation of Sunday as the day of worship, to the solar alignment of its churches, to its preservation of four canonical gospels one of which is longer than the others, one of which is shorter than the others, and two of which are about equal length of a length that is in between the longest and the shortest, just like the solstices and the equinoxes (and which are traditionally associated with the figures of the Lion, the Ox, the Eagle, and the Man, which correspond to constellations marking the solstices and the equinoxes in the precessional Age of Taurus, as discussed in this previous post).  

It is also almost certain beyond any doubt that the triumph of literalist Christianity was accomplished in conjunction with an underground secret society known as the cult of Sol Invictus, whose name means "the Unconquered Sun" (or the "Unconquerable Sun"). And it is of course notable that literalist Christianity soon set about imposing a strictly solar calendar upon the world wherever it went.

Thus, it is ironic that the date of Easter maintains a distinctly lunisolar aspect, despite ongoing calls to fix it to a date that will not wander so much, such as "the second Sunday in April each year," a proposal which would strip it of any lunar elements and attach it to the day of the sun in a month whose starting and ending (as with all the other months) no longer has anything to do with the cycle of the moon.

Thus far, however, the date of Easter remains tied to the cycles of the moon in relationship to the solar cycle landmark of the March equinox.

We obviously owe this ongoing lunisolar observation for the date of Easter to the fact that Easter is connected with the observation of the Passover (the Last Supper in the Passion Week being described in the gospel accounts as an observation of the Passover meal), and the observation of Passover is of course tied to the ancient lunisolar systems described above. 

We might say that the lunisolar nature of Easter is a last grudging concession within literalist Christianity to the ancient lunisolar systems which were once observed by the nations of the world (whose traditions the literalists soon set out to destroy wherever they could).

Lunisolar traditions also survive in the observation of Lunar New Year as mentioned above, as well as in many sacred days and festivals within Hinduism and Buddhism and others to this day. 

The complete disconnection of most men and women from any awareness of the cycle of the moon in modern western cultures (upon whom the strictly solar calendar was imposed centuries ago) must undoubtedly be reckoned a terrible catastrophe. The motions of the moon appear to have measurable effects on our bodies and internal cycles, and they clearly have an impact upon the seas and mighty oceans, and upon the daily tides. 

As mentioned in my previous discussion of the Tychos model for explaining the observed motions of our solar system (see here), Tychos discoverer Simon Shack has found evidence which strongly suggests that our moon itself is not just some "random appendage" whose orbit around earth has nothing much to do with the rest of the solar system, but rather that our moon itself and its orbital cycle has undeniable harmonic resonance with the orbital cycles of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and even the outer planets as far as Pluto! 

Based upon his findings, Simon proposes that our moon may in fact function as "some sort of 'central driveshaft' for our entire system," meaning for the entire solar system.

If so, it would certainly seem wise for us to pay much more attention to the cycles of the moon than we do today -- and the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that the ancients did indeed pay much more attention to those cycles, prior to the replacement of the ancient lunisolar calendars and the aggressive enforcement of a strictly solar system which removed the role of the moon altogether.

However, here in the Holy Week in between the observation of Palm Sunday (this past Sunday, which was a Full Moon) and Easter, we have a clear reminder of those more ancient systems which once were observed the world over. 

The very fact that Easter's date is celebrated at very different times each year, based upon the cycles of both the moon and the sun, should hint to us that these ancient stories are in fact metaphorical in nature, and that they have their basis in the celestial motions in the heavens above, rather than in literal and historical events. You can find my extensive discussion of the celestial foundations of a great many of the Easter Week events described in the gospel accounts in my 2016 book Star Myths of the World, Volume Three: Star Myths of the Bible (along with numerous illustrations and star-charts). 

Some of those events which are explored and whose celestial foundations are explained include:

• The triumphal entry into Jerusalem
• The cleansing or scourging of the Temple
• The cursing of the fig tree
• The Upper Room and the Last Supper (including the Foot Washing episode)
• The Garden of Gethsemane, and of course
• The Crucifixion

That same volume also explores the celestial foundations of the Passover story, as well as the Exodus from Egypt and crossing of the Red Sea, which all can be confidently shown to have their basis in celestial metaphor as well. 

As I emphasize throughout that book and in all my other writings, the fact that these amazing ancient sacred stories are based on the stars should not be misinterpreted as indicating that they are not true: quite the contrary. They can be demonstrated to contain profound truth, very much necessary to our lives even in this present moment -- although I do conclude that their metaphorical nature indicates that they are not literal (which is not the same thing as saying they are not true).

In any case, I hope that at this time of spiritual renewal and new beginnings, you will have the opportunity to consider the messages given to humanity in the ancient myths, given in distant antiquity like an ancient treasure, for our blessing and benefit.

And I hope that you will be inspired to begin to observe the cycles of the moon, and to consider the ongoing significance of the moon and its cycles in our lives.

 

Frame of the heavens, Frame of the myths: March equinox 2021

I've just published a new video entitled "Frame of the heavens, Frame of the myths: March equinox 2021."

It provides some discussion of the celestial mechanics underlying the March equinox, the June solstice, the September equinox, and the December solstice, a cycle which (along with the constellations and the other heavenly bodies and cycles) forms the framework upon which the ancient myths, from virtually every culture, have their foundation.

The relationship of earth and sun, and our planet's axial tilt relative to the earth-sun plane (this plane being known as the ecliptic, and the angle of our axis of rotation in relation to that plane being known as the "obliquity of the ecliptic") create the seasons of the year and the migration of the sun's position back and forth across the celestial equator.

This video should make these phenomena more understandable, as well as relating them to the ways in which they have been depicted in previous centuries using the "shorthand" of the zodiac wheel, and emphasizing the importance of the frame of the solstices and equinoxes to the myths of the world.

This year, the March equinox takes place on 20 March (today). It is a day of tremendous significance in ancient myth, and the day in which the sun reaches one of the two important "crossing points" -- in this case, for those in the northern hemisphere, the "crossing upwards" point after which hours of daylight will be longer than hours of darkness for half of the year, until we reach the "crossing downwards" point of September equinox, six months from now.

The spring equinox is a day filled with promise and renewal, and the crossing into the upper half of the year is associated in the ancient world-wide system which undergirds the myths with the upper realms of spirit and air and fire -- reminding us that we ourselves have an inner connection to the infinite realm, a connection which we access through recovery of our own Higher Self, from whom we often become alienated in this incarnate life, but which can never actually be damaged or destroyed.

I hope you will have an opportunity today to meditate on these powerful truths and to clear the channels of communication with Self, as we pass through this important milestone in the cycle of the year.

What the celestial foundations of the St Patrick story should teach us

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

My friend Davey Halpo of Ireland recently posted a note on social media which sardonically declares: 

We're almost there, everyone. The date when the world celebrates Christianity subjugating Ireland's native animism and spirituality.

And indeed, the story of St. Patrick, whose legendary date of death is observed each year on 17 March, fits into a pattern which has been repeated throughout the world, in which the empire-building agents of literalist Christianity seek to stamp out the sacred traditions given to the various cultures in all the far-flung nations of the world and to convert the men and women of that land to faith in the dictums of literalism -- using psychological appeals to the threat of hellfire and eternal damnation and, if necessary, force of arms and threat of imminent physical torture and death.

The story of St. Patrick's conversion of Ireland, said to have taken place in the fourth or fifth centuries, would later be enacted in the lands of Scotland in the fifth through seventh centuries, and the lands of the Norse in what is today Scandinavia in the tenth through twelfth centuries, and in the Americas beginning in the late fifteenth century (and continuing for the subsequent five centuries), and in the parts of Africa where it had not already gained a stronghold beginning in the mid-sixteenth century, and in the islands of the Pacific beginning in the eighteenth century, and so on around the globe, with varying levels of success and varying levels of violence and psychological coercion.

It is thus most ironic (grimly ironic) to consider the evidence -- largely forgotten today -- which demonstrates beyond doubt that the stories included in the texts we call the Bible can be shown with overwhelming supporting evidence to be based on the very same system of celestial metaphor which forms the foundation for the ancient myths and sacred traditions of virtually every other culture on our planet, on every inhabited continent and island of the earth.

In fact, the fabled life of St. Patrick himself can be shown to be built upon the same celestial patterns which are repeated in other myth-traditions from around the world, from his alleged kidnaping as a youth by pirates (which contains strong parallels the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis) to his famous driving out of the serpents from the island of Ireland, which is such a well-known part of his legend that it is almost invariably featured in depictions of the saint.

This incident of driving out the serpents, which has in later centuries been described as a metaphor for Patrick's "driving out paganism" from the shores of the island (in other words, for literalist Christianity's expulsion of the sacred traditions originally given to the people of the land, and its replacement of those traditions with literalist dogmas), can be confidently shown to parallel ancient myths around the world which feature a battle against serpents or serpent-like adversaries, from Apollo's battle against Python and the battle of Zeus against Typhon in the myths of ancient Greece, to Thor's battles against the Midgard Serpent or Marduk's struggles against the goddess Tiamat (and there are many others).

These battles with serpent-adversaries can in almost every case be shown to be based upon figures we can see outlined in the infinite realm of the heavens -- often figures associated with constellations surrounding the serpent-like figure of Scorpio. Sometimes the figure battling Scorpio is associated with the constellation Sagittarius (as is the case with Apollo in his battle with Python), and sometimes the figure battling Scorpio is associated with the constellation Hercules (as is the case with Zeus in his battle with Typhon, or Heracles battling the nine-headed Hydra). 

But sometimes the figure battling Scorpio is associated with the constellation Ophiuchus, an imposing oblong constellation positioned directly above the multi-headed, sinuous form of Scorpio. And this, I am convinced after much analysis, is the case with the familiar story of Patrick and the serpents.

Above is an image which juxtaposes an artistic depiction of St. Patrick with the outline of Ophiuchus and Scorpio in the night sky (the colors of the sky have been inverted, for greater clarity of the outlines). Notice how Ophiuchus stands directly above the serpent-form of Scorpio -- and how distinctive features of the constellation Ophiuchus correspond directly to the iconography common in depictions of St. Patrick.

Patrick, for example, is almost always depicted holding a crook-shaped staff in one hand, and often a three-leafed shamrock in the other hand. The figure of Ophiuchus in the night sky consists of a tall central body, which is rectangular in shape and topped with a triangular shape which in some myths is envisioned as a helmet but which in this case becomes the distinctive religious headgear of the saint. On either side of the central body are the two "serpent-halves" of Ophiuchus, a "tail" on the left (as we face the diagram above) and a "head" on the right (which is the west side, in the sky itself). 

Note how well these features correspond to the distinctive iconography associated with St. Patrick. The left or "tail-end" of the serpent-half of Ophiuchus is often envisioned in myth as a spear or other long staff -- and in the case of St. Patrick, this becomes the crook-shaped staff associated with the saint.

The western "head" of the serpent can appear in myth as a variety of objects, including as a pomegranate, or a mirror, or even a wine-glass or goblet. This head-end of the Ophiuchus serpent consists of a roughly triangular outline of stars, with three stars at the top of it -- almost in a straight line but actually with the central star uppermost. In the star-chart above, I have numbered these stars "1." "2." and "3."

Now consider how nicely these three stars correspond to the traditional shape of the Irish shamrock with its three lobed leaves -- two on the outside, with a central leaf pointing upwards!

The confirming detail, of course, is found in the outline of Scorpio, below the feet of Ophiuchus -- which is exactly where we almost invariably see the serpents depicted in the iconography of the saint. The serpents are being driven out from beneath St. Patrick's feet:

 

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Note that this iconography is very similar to the traditional depiction of St. Michael the Archangel in his battle with the dragon, described in the Revelation of John, chapter 12.

In the case of Michael, of course, the staff is usually envisioned as a long spear, extending all the way down to pierce the form of the dragon beneath his feet -- and, if you look at the outline of Ophiuchus in the heavens, you can imagine a line running straight down through the line of stars in the eastern serpent-half (on the left of the central body in the star-chart below) and piercing the form of Scorpio right around the point of the bright red star Antares, the largest star of Scorpio and located at the very "heart" of the great serpent:

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Note that in the case of the iconography of Michael, we often see an additional clue to the celestial identity of the Archangel, and that is found in the set of scales or balances held in his other hand (the hand not holding the spear). If you look closely in the image by Bartolomeo Vivarini (1440 - 1499) at left, above, you can see the set of scales held by the Archangel in his left hand. 

These scales, of course, correspond to the zodiac constellation of Libra, in the heavens, which is located in just the correct position relative to the constellation Ophiuchus to match the scales held by St. Michael in the artwork down through the centuries. This fact is extremely strong and compelling evidence pointing to the conclusion that this story is celestial in its origin, and that Michael standing over the fallen dragon corresponds to Ophiuchus towering over the sinuous form of the constellation Scorpio.

Another parallel of the story of St. Patrick banishing the serpents can be found in the sacred traditions of ancient India, for example in the well-known story of the Lord Krishna banishing the powerful multi-headed serpent known as Kaliya, also called the Kaliya Naga. This episode is recorded in the Puranas, and continues to be re-enacted each year all the way up to the present day, in the festival of Nag Nathaiya in the holy city of Varanasi in India.

In the story, the young Lord Krishna dances upon the heads of the great Kaliya Naga with such force and such power (Krishna in fact assumes the entire weight of the universe) that the Naga will certainly perish unless Krishna shows mercy. The wives of the Naga beg Krishna to allow Kaliya to be banished instead of killing him. Below is a typical depiction of the scene:

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Once again, the serpent-adversary in this ancient myth corresponds beyond any doubt to the multi-headed outline of the constellation Scorpio in the heavens. The figure of the Lord Krishna, dancing on his heads, would of course correspond to the constellation Ophiuchus, which appears to be standing on the heads of Scorpio in the heavens.

Notice that in this scene, Krishna is almost invariably depicted as playing his famous flute. Now look back to the image of St. Patrick at the top of this essay, in which I argue that the crook-shaped staff of the saint corresponds to the left (or eastern) half of the serpent-shape flanking either side of the outline of Ophiuchus. Notice how the "tail-end" of the serpent (which I have labeled in the star-chart with the words "Crook-staff") can easily be envisioned as the flute of Krishna, held directly out to the left side of his head.

Numerous other examples from ancient myths and traditions around the world could be added to the few given above -- but these few examples should prove the point beyond any reasonable doubt. The story of St. Patrick and the chasing out of the serpents is celestial in its origin, corresponding to a pattern of metaphor which underlies other myths found in other cultures as well as one which forms the foundation for the stories in the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation. 

Whatever the historicity of any figure named St. Patrick, the details we are given about episodes in his life appear to be mythical in nature, based upon the same pattern found in more ancient myths from around the globe.

However, the historicity of the subjugation and eradication by the forces of literalism of the sacred traditions given to the various cultures of the nations of the world is beyond any doubt, and we can be quite certain that it actually took place. The terrible irony, however, is that this subjugation of the ancient ways was done in the name of adopting a religion which was based upon other stories patterned on the very same system of celestial metaphor which forms the basis for all the world's myths -- but a religion which insisted that its stories were literally "true" and historical, while all the others were "pagan" and false.

Sadly, this pattern continues to be enacted to this very day. This fact is worth carefully contemplating this year on March 17.

 

Congratulations to the team of researchers unlocking the secrets of the Antikythera Mechanism!

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The Antikythera Cosmos from Tony Freeth on Vimeo.

In an accomplishment which must rank as one of the most impressive feats of "reverse engineering" of all time, a team of scholars led by Tony Freeth -- who have in some cases been working on the project for over a decade -- has reconstructed the "front face" and the intricate supporting mechanics of the ancient Antikythera Mechanism, the remnants of which were discovered at the site of an ancient shipwreck on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, where the mysterious device had been resting for approximately two thousand years (the mechanism is thought to have been made in the first or second centuries BC).

Tremendous "thank you" goes out to Deniz D, who alerted me to this remarkable recent reconstruction, described in this article on Vice published on March 12. The accomplishment of the group from University College London who appear to have solved the mystery of the mechanism's design is examined in even greater detail in the accompanying video, which is truly a "must-watch" and may literally take your breath away as it presents the visual model of the original ancient device.

I myself have been fascinated by this ancient device since about 2006, when I had the opportunity to attend a lecture given at Hewlett Packard's campus on Page Mill Road in Palo Alto, describing the breakthroughs in the study of the Antikythera Mechanism which had been enabled using computer-aided "reflectance imaging" and "interactive relighting," described in this article (also from 2006). 

These capabilities and imagery from the early 2000s played an important role in the recent breakthroughs by the team, whose patience and diligence in continuing to pursue the secrets of this incredible ancient machine rightly deserve to be ranked alongside the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone and hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt and the decoding of the ancient cuneiform writing of ancient Mesopotamia.

The mechanism is named for the island in the Mediterranean near the site of an ancient Roman shipwreck which was discovered in 1901. The island itself gets its name "Antikythera" from its location to the south of the larger island of Kythera or Cythera -- Antikythera literally indicates "over against Cythera" or "opposite Cythera."

The island of Kythera or Cythera itself was in ancient times closely associated with and sacred to the goddess Aphrodite, and indeed the island is said by at least one ancient writer to have been named after the goddess. In the ancient poems of Hesiod as well as in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the goddess Aphrodite is sometimes called Cytherea.

The video linked above explores the remarkable story of the efforts to reverse engineer the geared mechanism found in fragments among the shipwreck near Antikythera, beginning shortly after its recovery by sponge-divers in 1901. 

The conclusion reached by the team led by Tony Freeth describes a mechanism of incredible sophistication, displaying the phases of the moon and the two "nodes" where the plane of the moon's orbit intersects the earth-sun plane, allowing the prediction of eclipses, since eclipses of the sun or moon can only take place when a new moon or a full moon occur as the moon crosses one of these nodes. For previous posts discussing the lunar nodes, see for example here and here. 

In addition, the team reveals that the Antikythera Mechanism almost certainly displayed the motions of the sun as it moves through the background path of the zodiac throughout the year, as well as the motions of all five visible planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), even incorporating the phenomenon of their retrograde cycles!

Throughout the linked video, the narrator makes more than one reference to the supposedly mistaken design of the Antikythera Mechanism's positioning of the earth in the center with sun and planets circling around it on successive interlocking rings -- but note that from the perspective of an observer on earth this is exactly what we see, and the mechanism is obviously designed to depict the heavenly cycles from the perspective of an observer on earth. This fact in no way necessitates the conclusion that the ancients who designed this incredible ancient machine believed that earth was stationary, just because earth is placed at the center of the device.

Furthermore, as discussed in a video I made entitled "Simon Shack, Tycho Brahe, Retrograde Mars, and the vital importance of our Moon," it is quite possible to explain the heavenly motions we see from our vantage point on this planet either by the conventional Keplerian model or by a model in which our sun is actually interacting with a binary companion and in doing so going around our earth even as it interacts with its binary companion -- and there appears to be abundant evidence which suggests that the Keplerian model may in fact be incorrect, in which case the narrator of the above video should issue a public apology to the designer or designers of the Antikythera Mechanism.

Indeed, the motions of the planets as seen from earth, and as described in the linked video about the Antikythera device, may actually be more satisfactorily explained by the "Tychos" model proposed by researcher Simon Shack, building upon the work of astronomer Tycho Brahe, than by the model introduced by Kepler and subsequently adopted as the only possible explanation for the motions of the planets.

Note also the central role played by the ancient philosopher Parmenides in assisting Tony Freeth and his team of researchers in unlocking the mysteries of the Antikythera Mechanism's design and gearing ratios. This aspect of the story is quite remarkable and involves an inspired level of analysis and sleuthing by the research team, based in part upon newly-discovered inscriptions among the fragmented remains of the original device. Those who have been following this blog for many years, or who are familiar with the work of the important scholar Peter Kingsley, will recall that Parmenides plays a central role in the indispensable book In the Dark Places of Wisdom, discussed in numerous previous posts including this one and this one.

Finally, if you watch the above video, you will hear modern materials scientists marveling at the design of the Antikythera Mechanism which has emerged -- and wondering how they could have produced the physical mechanism itself, using the tools available in the ancient period. This question is extremely important -- and I would suggest that another recent discovery should be considered in conjunction with any discussion of the level of tooling available in ancient times. 

That discovery is the Pylos Combat Agate, which features artwork of incredible sophistication and detail, on a tiny scale which has astonished scholars. I wrote extensively about this important artifact when it was first revealed to the world, and about the evidence which shows that the scene on the Pylos Agate is celestial in nature: see for example my video here and discussion here.

You can read more about the incredible new discovery by Tony Freeth and his colleagues in their article in the journal Nature, here.

I find it very significant that this most intricate computer from the ancient world had as its primary purpose the tracking of the heavenly cycles, which themselves form the foundation for the ancient myths not only of Greece but of virtually every other culture on our planet, from every inhabited continent and island.

Congratulations to the entire team and to everyone who played a role in re-discovering the secrets of the Antikythera Mechanism! As the end of the linked video implies, this important milestone does not end the mystery, but leads to more questions about humanity's ancient history -- and the ways in which the conventional narrative we have been led to believe may be fatally flawed and in need of radical revision.

New video: The Vision of Ezekiel -- and the sudden proliferation of "warning banners" on social media!

I've just published a new video entitled "The Vision of Ezekiel -- and the sudden proliferation of warning banners on social media!"

In it, I express my annoyance at the fact that YouTube has recently slapped a "warning banner" beneath my 2017 video which explores the evidence showing that the famous First Vision of Ezekiel (in Ezekiel chapters 1 and following) is not describing a literal event but rather setting forth a subtle and sophisticated description of the heavenly framework of the celestial mechanics underlying the motion of the stars and the visible heavenly bodies in our solar system including sun, moon and planets -- celestial mechanics which also form the foundation for the system of metaphor underlying the world's ancient myths (including those in the Bible).

That 2017 video, entitled "Astrotheology of the Vision of Ezekiel: Wheels within Wheels," now has a banner underneath it which reads: "FLAT EARTH: The flat Earth model is an archaic conception of Earth's shape as a plane or disc. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat earth cosmography, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze . . . " 

That "Flat Earth" banner is itself linked to a Wikipedia article which spews a bunch of nonsense about ancient cultures around the globe and their purported belief in a Flat Earth, apparently holding Wikipedia up as an authority on the subject.

My 2017 video about the celestial foundations of the metaphorical Vision of Ezekiel has absolutely nothing to do with the Flat Earth distraction -- in fact, the video itself features animation (intended to help the viewer understand the celestial mechanics of the earth-sun relationship and the motion of the sun through the background of stars, along the ecliptic path) which clearly shows a spherical earth. 

Additionally, I am on record with blog posts dating back to 2015 in which I demonstrate abundant evidence which anyone can use to satisfy himself or herself that we are indeed standing upon a spherical planet and not upon a flat plane or disc -- see for example "The invisible kraken: Evidence that the earth is not flat."

In fact, as I have stated on more than one occasion, not only do I not believe in a "Flat Earth" but I am also not inclined to believe in "Flat Earthers" -- in other words, I have suspected from the beginning of the sudden appearance of the Flat Earth movement that the whole operation is a campaign designed to confuse people and to discredit (using guilt by association) other voices who are legitimately questioning conventional narratives about a host of important subjects, such as the official storyline surrounding the attacks of September 11, 2001. 

Certainly at this point there are sincere individuals who have been tricked into adopting the Flat Earth arguments, but I suspect that the leaders of that Flat Earth campaign are for the most part not sincere and are playing a role as disinformation agents, which is a demonstrated tactic that can be shown to have been deliberately used in order to infiltrate and try to discredit legitimate movements of the people in previous decades.

By affixing this warning label entitled "Flat Earth" to my video, the helpful busybodies at YouTube (or their algorithms) imply that the content is associated with the Flat Earth disinformation campaign, thus discrediting it and discouraging visitors from watching my work.

More disturbing, however, is the larger pattern which has emerged just in recent weeks and months, in which such "warning labels" with links to "authoritative" websites propagating the party line are now popping up on all sorts of content posted by individuals to the various social media platforms, including but not limited to YouTube (owned by Google), Instagram (owned by Facebook), Twitter, and others. 

I myself have recently had a similar "warning banner" attached to an Instagram post announcing to those who might be interested the publication of my article, "Star Myths: Rediscovering Humanity's Deep History," in New Dawn Magazine issue 185.

Even worse, the same cast of social media companies are also now taking down content questioning important recent events, and they are doing so at a new aggressive pace which is different from previous years. 

My own video, which I made on 07 January 2021 (immediately following the disturbing events of 06 January 2021) examining some extremely suspicious aspects of the January 6th operation, was almost immediately removed from YouTube -- as if any questions about an extremely important event which had taken place not even 24 hours earlier are now forbidden, and the official storyline must be accepted without any critical examination. 

Interested viewers can still find that video which I made (follow this link to the blog post for links and discussion), but they cannot see it on YouTube, and it was subsequently removed in short order from other social media platforms on which I attempted to publish it including Vimeo and others. 

There is a reason why the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights declares its opposition to the abridgment of freedom of speech and associated freedom of the press -- rights which do not originate with the US Constitution itself but instead which are inherent to all men and women everywhere and which cannot be legitimately denied or destroyed. 

The recent increase of censorship across social media platforms thus marks a very disturbing trend which should alarm men and women of good conscience everywhere. Apologists for censorship always chime in when such alarms are sounded to point out that companies such as Google or Twitter or Facebook (and its subsidiary Instagram) or Vimeo are all private corporations, and that because of this fact the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution have no authority over their decisions of what to publish and what to censor -- but this is a false and flawed argument.

First of all, private entities are not entitled to violate human rights simply by virtue of the fact that they are private corporations and not governments. Private restaurants cannot refuse to serve patrons based on race or ethnicity or religion, for example.

Beyond that argument, however, companies which can legitimately be viewed as part of a "free press," a category which is absolutely essential for the expression of ideas and issues within a free society, are explicitly covered by the First Amendment, and their operation cannot be infringed upon by organized suppression of discourse, including by government agencies. 

It should be obvious to any observer that the sudden recent campaigns to suppress all discussion of issues surrounding important topics such as the January 6th event or the safety and advisability of the experimental emergency-use biologics which are being given the label of "vaccines" even though they are themselves fundamentally different in operation and intent than anything which has previously been called a vaccine, cannot be the product of independent decisions by all the various social media companies acting on their own without co-ordination. 

The subject is even more pressing because the older and more established media outlets such as the major newspapers and television studios already speak with the same voice on most subjects, making the newer social media platforms important outlets for the expression of critical thought and analysis which calls the conventional narrative into question. Thus, the recent proliferation of "warning banners" -- as well as the sudden ramping up of outright censorship and de-platforming of dissenting voices -- across numerous popular social media platforms is all the more disturbing.

Readers should be aware that as important a voice as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was recently completely censored by Instagram, which terminated his account in February of 2021 without prior warning. See this article published in Global Research on 11 February for more about that egregious act of censorship and "de-platforming."

Who is behind this recent amplification of censorship and crackdown on dissenting opinions? 

This subject is something about which we should all be deeply concerned, not to mention outraged -- and we should demand that these abridgments of the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press be addressed and corrected immediately.

Welcome to new visitors from Luke and Matt's Sci-Fi Sanctuary! (and to returning friends)

Big thank-you to Matt and Luke of Luke and Matt's Sci-Fi Sanctuary for inviting me over to the show to discuss movies, myths, floods, stars and various related subjects!

Welcome to any new visitors finding this site for the first time as a result of hearing about it on their podcast!

Above is the video of our conversation, complete with some visual aids and star-charts that I prepared in advance for our discussion of the Biblical Flood and its celestial foundations.

If you prefer the audio-only version, you can listen to it in the browser or download the file at this URL, which also has links to listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

The format of the show revolves around the discussion of a movie, typically a sci-fi film, and for this show we discussed the movie Noah (2014). From there, we launched into an examination of the celestial foundations for the story of the Genesis Flood, as well as the story of the planting of the first vineyard and Noah's drunkenness.

For those wishing to explore further, some of the topics we discussed are featured in previous blog posts, including:

• "Sacred ritual drama and the realm of the gods"

• "Shem, Ham, and Japheth"

• "Here it has reached the turning-point: The celestial map of the soul's spiritual trek"

• "Balaam and the Ass"

• "Let me disclose, O Gilgamesh, a matter most secret: The mystery of the Flood"

I hope you will enjoy my conversation with Luke and Matt: if so, please give them some positive feedback by rating their podcast on one of the podcast platform apps, and check out their other movie discussions in the Sci-Fi Sanctuary!