[disinfo ed.’s note: Excerpted from Secrets of Ancient America: Archaeoastronomy and the Legacy of the Phoenicians, Celts, and Other Forgotten Explorers by Carl Lehrburger]
Archaeo—What?
Even though astrology and astronomy were essentially the same discipline in ancient Egypt, Greece, and India, they have since the eighteenth century come to be regarded as completely separate fields. Today, astronomy is the study of objects and phenomena originating outside of Earth and is considered a scientific discipline. On the other hand, astrology uses the apparent positions of celestial objects as the basis for psychological experiences, the prediction of future events, and other esoteric knowledge. While the most important astronomers before Isaac Newton were professional astrologers (including Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei), interest in astrology declined after Newton with the rise of the Cartesian “mechanistic” outlook during the Enlightenment.*
*The term Cartesian is derived from the Latin form of Descartes, and it refers to the philosophy of the seventeenth-century philosopher Rene Descartes (1596–1650).
There are many different astrological systems, including those developed by the Celts, Chinese, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hindus, and ancient Americans. Moreover, now in the West, approximately 30 percent of Americans believe in its accuracy, but worldwide most astronomers scorn it.1
Nevertheless, Michel Gauquelin, a French psychologist and statistician, documented that there is a correlation between astrological birth charts and an individual’s profession. Despite his skepticism about astrology, his book, Written in the Stars, revealed that individuals in some professions tend to have the same planets positioned similarly at birth with a greater frequency than the statistical average.2 Despite his studies being rejected, more sophisticated analyses have confirmed many of his original results. As an example, Suitbert Ertel reported in 1986, “A reanalysis of Gauquelin professional data using alternative procedures of statistical treatment supports previous Gauquelin results. Frequency deviations from chance expectancy along the scale of planetary sectors differ markedly between professions.”3
In another study, psychiatrist Mitchell E. Gibson showed that mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and severe attention deficit disorders could be predicted by astrology. His examination of more than four hundred astrological birth charts using scientific statistical research models was able to predict mental illness by comparing chart indicators through the declinations (angles of separation) of planets and multiple other planetary aspects. The mental illness diagnoses included major depressions, anxieties, addictions, schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).4
Fortunately, a relatively new area of awareness and study has developed out of all this discord. The science of archaeoastronomy now encompasses how the astronomical practices of the ancients (and sometimes the moderns) affected their mythologies, religions, worldviews, architecture, and other remains of their cultures. For this, archaeoastronomers rely on many scientific disciplines, including astronomy, archaeology, anthropology, philosophy, and epigraphy to observe and interpret the meaning of astronomical alignments of monuments, large structures, and petroglyphs.5 This integrated field of study has been critical to revealing, often for the first time, the stories and cosmologies of the ancients.
The alignment of the structures at Stonehenge in southern England to the summer solstice sunrises was the first to be discovered in modern times. Now after decades of research it has been demonstrated that megalithic alignments in Europe and, as we will see, in the Americas were not limited to solar and lunar astronomical events but were also designed to calculate and predict other events, including eclipses.6
Preoccupied with looking down rather than up, archaeologists missed the Stonehenge archaeoastronomical alignments for centuries. Nevertheless, after the discovery of astronomical alignments at Stonehenge, research accelerated worldwide through the 1960s and 1970s.
Megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge predated the Celts, but the Celts used them and inherited the knowledge of constructing these structures encoded with astronomical information. This became a characteristic of Celtic architecture that, as will be shown in chapter 4, was repeated in New Hampshire. However, before proceeding, there are a number of
astronomical concepts used throughout this book that need to be defined.
The term solstice means “sun’s standstill,” referring to a period of eleven days before and after the days of the winter and summer solstices, during which the sun’s position on the horizon moves so slowly that its movement is barely observable. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, and the summer solstice is the longest.
The movement of the Earth around the sun is marked by the two solstices, which occur on or around December 21 and June 21 each year, and two equinoxes, which occur on or around March 21 and September 21. Because the daily shifting of the rising and setting sun’s position at the horizon is greatest during the equinoxes, it is easier to observe, and therefore it is easier to determine the precise day of the equinoxes compared with the precise day of the solstices. When observing the sun’s movement on the horizon over the year, its azimuth, or position on the horizon, also changes. In astronomy, the azimuth is measured from the north point on the horizon at 0° and moves eastward in a 360° circle around the horizon. The equinox sunrise, for example, is by definition at the 90° azimuth (due east), while the equinox sunset is at the 270° azimuth (due west), which is a projection of the terrestrial equator onto the celestial globe.
Declination results from the angle of tilt of the earth’s axis away from the celestial equator into space. The terrestrial equator lies on a plane perpendicular to the earth’s axis. As a result of the tilt of the earth, the celestial equator is inclined by 23.4° with respect to the ecliptic plane. The ecliptic is an imaginary line on the sky marking the annual path of the sun. It is a flat projection of Earth’s orbit onto the celestial sphere created by the Earth’s orbit around the sun. When the sun is on the celestial equator its declination will be 0° 0′ 0″ (zero degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc), and day and night will be equal. This is called the equinox days. When the sun reaches its extreme positions of 23.4° north and 23.4° south of the celestial equator, it will be the solstice days.
In between equinox and solstice are the cross-quarter days. Cross-quarter days, as will be seen in chapter 9 and 11, are one of the signs of European influence.
Megalithic Ireland and Martin Brennan
The worldwide implications of the decoding of Stonehenge spurred on further investigations by others, including William Hawley in England, Michael J. O’Kelly’s study of Irish megalithic structures from 1962 to 1975, and Martin Brennan’s work in 1979 and 1980. Again, we focus on these examinations in Europe by way of introduction because in the next chapter we will explore similar structures in New England that are best explained by a Celtic presence.
My friend Martin Brennan is first and foremost an artist, so his approach to understanding ancient Irish megalithic monuments and archaeoastronomy was uniquely different from previous examinations. While he was not the first or best known for revealing the relationship between astronomy and art in Irish megalithic structures, he was an important researcher, and his book The Stars and the Stones: Ancient Art and Astronomy in Ireland incorporated new astronomical interpretations into the archaeology.7
For example, Brennan noted that the Celts and Indo-Europeans observed cross-quarter days that were tied to the seasonal cycles and that they used them to track the agricultural calendar, marking times for planting, harvesting, and moving domestic animals.
Eight
Celestial Events
Celtic
Celebration
Festival Dates
Modern Celebrations
Autumnal equinox
Mabon, Oghar, second harvest
Sept. 19–23
Jewish New Year*
November CQ
Samhain or Samain
Oct. 31–Nov. 1
Halloween, Día de los Muertos, All Saints’ Day
Winter solstice
Yule, midwinter celebration
Dec. 19–23
Christmas
February CQ
Imbolc (Gaelic festival celebrating Brighid’s Day), spring, Candlemas
Feb. 1
St. Valentine’s Day
Vernal equinox
Ostara, Lady Day, Festival of Trees
March 19–23
Easter,* Passover,*
St. Patrick’s Day
May CQ
Beltane (Gaelic festival marking beginning of summer)
May 1
May Day
Summer solstice
Midsummer
June 19–23
St. John’s Eve
August CQ
Lammas, Lughnasa, festival of Lugh, harvest festival
Aug. 1
Labor Day
*These festival dates, based on the lunar calendar, do not fall on the same day each year.
While the equinoxes and solstices occur at precise moments that vary from one year to the next, celebrations associated with cross-quarter days such as Halloween (October 31), the Summer harvest festival in August, and Brighid’s Day in February did not necessarily fall precisely on the exact day between equinox and solstice, so they were sometimes fixed.8 As I will detail in chapters 9 and 11, earlier peoples marked the exact cross-quarter day, which will vary from year to year. For example, while the ancient Celts celebrated Brighid’s Day on February 1, in 2014 the February cross-quarter day, fell on February 3, and it occurs as late as February 8 in some years. Thus, Brennan suggested that large-scale Neolithic mounds such as Newgrange in Ireland demonstrated that earlier agrarian societies had a relatively complex way of life, since they included ritual gatherings related to agriculture at precise times of the year.9
The three principal Irish monuments in what is called the Brú na Bóinne Complex are Newgrange, Knowth (the largest), and Dowth, but there are also as many as thirty-five smaller mounds in the region. Of the three, Newgrange is the most famous.
However, despite the fact that in 1897 the mystical Irish poet George Russell eulogized the sun-filled chamber of Newgrange in his essay “A Dream of Angus Oge,” archaeologists refused to consider investigating the astronomically significant role of the sun at this site until 1969.10 If they had, disastrous mound reconstructions could have been avoided.11 Brennan, who had no links with the archaeological establishment, also would have been able to avoid the same frustrations and challenges that men like Barry Fell encountered. For example, today there is a lottery so that fifty people can observe the solstice at Newgrange, but during Brennan’s investigations in the 1970s he had to sneak into the monuments before daylight because he was denied permission to enter. Having had the same experiences at sites in North America, I can surely sympathize!
In late 1979, Brennan began his on-site research by observing the midwinter solstice sunrise at Newgrange, and he ended it one year later in the chamber of Dowth. At Newgrange, when the rising sun is full above the horizon on that day, its rays enter the chamber through an opening in what is called a “light box” or “roof box” and pass through to illuminate a triple-spiral engraving (see figure 3.6 on page 54 and figure 3.13 on page 57). On the other hand, at the Dowth chamber, it is the rays of the setting winter solstice sun that travel the length of the chamber and illuminate solar emblems on a wall.
Brennan also made comparable solar observations at other megalithic sites during 1980, and he and his colleagues gradually came to realize that the mounds were archaeoastronomical in nature, “whose structures are a celebration of light and measurement.”12 He reported, with his artist’s eyes and senses, that these occurrences became near-ecstatic events as he reexperienced ancient mankind’s connection to a spiritualized nature and the universal forces that were so integral to their lives.
Newgrange is estimated to have been constructed around 3200 B.C., which makes it older than Stonehenge. This was about the time that the Mayan calendar begins and about five hundred years after the beginning of the Jewish calendar and about six hundred years before the famous large-scale pyramids were constructed along the banks of the Nile. Cuneiform writing also appeared in the Middle East at this time, and Kali Yuga, the fourth and last stage of mankind, began in India.
The term Brú na Bóinne refers specifically to what is known as Newgrange. Together the three major mounds would also be termed the Boyne Valley Complex. The Boyne River is considered to be the earthly counterpart to the Milky Way, the Great River of Stars, so even its very name carries archaeoastronomical implications.
Surrounded by a stone circle consisting of twelve of the remaining large standing stones from an estimated original thirty-six, the base of the mound is encased with carved curbstones, some beautifully inscribed.
Light boxes (roof boxes) are a Neolithic design feature that controls the light entering a passageway, most notably during the equinoxes or solstices. Newgrange was built with a light box that permits the sun’s rays exclusively on the winter solstice to pass through the passage into the heart of the mound. In other European mounds and chambers the sunlight passes through the opening or door instead of a light box and, as we shall see in chapter 10, holes in the roofs of caves were employed in America by Native Americans. The winter solstice sunrise at Newgrange can only be viewed firsthand by a few lucky visitors, but videos of the light entering the chamber capture the excitement of the yearly event.14
Brennan also discovered that the layouts of these three Irish megalithic structures were used for more than marking the seasons. Examining the name of Newgrange in relation to Brú na Bóinne, he found that it was merely an ignorant translation that describes the principal sacred mound simply as the “new grain storage” area. The Irish Gaelic term Brú na Bóinne (Womb of the Goddess Boyne) was the original name of what was formerly known as Newgrange. Fortunately an effort is being made by many to restore the original name, and its English nomenclature has become outdated, according to Brennan.15 He wrote:
The spatial arrangement of Newgrange symbolizes the universe demonstrating its governing laws. The interpenetration of two opposing forces—spirit and matter—is fundamental to the structure. The union of these forces constitutes the universe. The idea is basic to many ancient cosmologies. It is possible to interpret Newgrange as a symbol of this union. The moment of creation, the sexual union of male and female, heaven and earth, spirit and matter is depicted on one stroke of the day of the Winter solstice.16
He also stated:
[In other words] the cave at Newgrange can be taken to represent a womb. Because it symbolizes the creation of the universe, it is a womb of the world, a sort of cosmic egg. It is female, earth, mother, and matter. At dawn on Winter solstice it is penetrated by a ray of the sun extending sixty-six meters down its passage. The ray of light is male, heaven, father, and spirit. This union symbolizes cosmic totality—the harmonizing of opposing forces—in a concrete way. It is a celebration of the marriage of spirit and matter and the birth of the universe through the fertilization of the cosmic egg using the earth and sun as the primary symbols, delivering its message each year in a universally intelligible language.17
Brennan’s insights into how the universal forces of nature are also revealed in many solar alignments found on petroglyphs in North America will be detailed later in chapters 8–12.
Brennan is also a fabulous storyteller, especially when he introduces his readers to the Tuatha Dé Danann, the pantheon of the earliest known native Irish gods. According to lore, they were a supernatural race of wizards and magicians who descended from the sky and inhabited Ireland before the emergence of the Celts. However, by following old legends he and others think that there is a historical basis for suggesting the Tuatha Dé Danann came not from the sky, but were members of the Tribe of Dan fleeing from the Levant. While the Hebrew Tribe of Dan is considered one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, their forefathers were thought to be indigenous people whom Greek Macedonians had intermarried with. And even though translating Old Irish can be imprecise, the phrase Tuatha Dé was also used in referring to the Israelites in early Irish texts.18 Thus, the timing of the earlier “Danite” migrations could have occurred a millennium earlier than the estimated date of the Exodus from Egypt ca. 1600 B.C.
The territory occupied by the earlier Danites and the later Tribe of Dan was located on the Mediterranean coast, and being a seagoing people, the Danites would have sailed westward across the Mediterranean. Their possible multiple migrations could have resulted from climate events, including comet disasters, pressures from the Philistines and other neighbors around 1000 B.C., or foreign invasions, including the conquering of the Northern Kingdom (Samaria) by Assyria in 722 B.C. They would have first arrived in Greece before spreading north into western Europe, Ireland, and Scandinavia, where they are now known as the Danes.19
As I will document later in chapter 14, my own process of discovery was in the future when I eventually came across evidence indicating that some of the Hebrews not only made it to northern Europe but also arrived in America thousands of years ago. In other words, reading Brennan’s book on Ireland set the stage for decades of investigations that lay ahead of me, exploring Celtic sites throughout North America and meeting many other investigators, including, by incredible serendipity, Martin Brennan himself.
Notes:
1. Wikipedia, “Astrology and Astronomy,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology_and_astronomy (accessed June 13, 2014).
2.Brennan, “31 Percent of Americans ‘Believe’ in Astrology,” The Horoscopic Astrology Blog, horoscopicastrologyblog.com/2008/12/11/31-percent-of
-americans-believe-in-astrology (accessed June 15, 2014).
3.William James Bookstore, “Astrology,” www.williamjames.com/Folklore/ASTROLOG.htm (accessed June 16, 2014).
4.Mitchell E. Gibson, MD, Signs of Mental Illness, 1995; Kevin Williams, “Scientific Evidence Suggestive of Astrology,” www.near-death.com/
experiences/articles012.html (accessed June 16, 2014).
5.Tiverton and Mid Devon Astronomy Society, “Astro-Archaeology at Stonehenge,” www.tivas.org.uk/stonehenge/stone_ast.html (accessed June 16, 2014).
6. Wikipedia, “Stonehenge,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge (accessed June 15, 2014).
7.Brennan, The Stars and the Stones.
8.Wikipedia, “Imbolc,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc (accessed June 15, 2014).
9.Brennan, The Stones of Time, 40.
10.Russell, “A Dream of Angus Oge,” Read Book Online, www.readbookonline
.net/readOnLine/50665 (accessed June 15, 2014).
11.Brennan, The Stones of Time.
12.Ibid., 9.
13.Brennan, Stones of Time. See also Ancient Wisdom Foundation, “Light Boxes,” Ancient Wisdom, www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/lightboxes.htm (accessed June 16, 2014).
14.Alan Betson, “Irishtimes.com: Winter Solstice at Newgrange,” Irish Times, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xriRUDU9kwI (accessed June 15, 2014).
15.Brennan, Boyne Valley Vision.
16.Ibid., 15.
17.Ibid.
18.MacKillop, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, 366.
19.Godlike Productions, “Tuatha de Danann & Tribe of Dan,” forum discussion, March 21, 2009, www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message753925/pg1 (accessed June 15, 2014).
Excerpted from Secrets of Ancient America: Archaeoastronomy and the Legacy of the Phoenicians, Celts, and Other Forgotten Explorers by Carl Lehrburger with permission from the publisher, Bear & Co. Available now at Amazon and other fine booksellers.
About the Author: Carl Lehrburger has studied archaeological and sacred sites in North America, with a focus on ancient Old World peoples in America before Columbus, for more than 25 years. He has published articles in Ancient American magazine. An avid traveler and explorer, he lives in Talent, Oregon.
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