The Dogon Tribe’s Sirius Mystery & Otherworldly Origins
The Dogon, an ancient West African tribe residing in Mali, possess a cosmology that includes surprisingly precise knowledge of the Sirius star system. This has given rise to the “Sirius mystery,” a debate about how a secluded, primitive culture could know about celestial bodies invisible to the naked eye and astronomical phenomena discovered only in recent history.
Table of Contents
- The Mystery of Sirius B and C
- An Otherworldly Explanation: The Nommos
- Connections to Other Ancient Cultures
- Frequently Asked Questions about the Dogon
The Mystery of Sirius B and C
The Dogon’s knowledge, revealed to French anthropologists in the 1930s, includes details of the Sirius system that were unknown to modern science at the time:
- Sirius B: The Dogon knew about Sirius B, a white dwarf star, which was not officially confirmed by Western astronomers until the 1970s.
- 50-Year Orbit: They accurately described Sirius B’s 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius A, the brightest star in the night sky.
- Sirius C: The Dogon also speak of a third star, Sirius C, an assertion that is currently unconfirmed by modern astronomy but has been speculated about.
The Dogon also had knowledge of Jupiter’s moons and Saturn’s rings and knew our location within the Milky Way Galaxy. Their artifacts, some over 400 years old, depict this astronomical understanding, challenging the notion that their knowledge came from a recent cultural exchange.
An Otherworldly Explanation: The Nommos
One of the most profound elements of Dogon lore is the story of the Nommos, an amphibious, extraterrestrial race from the Sirius system who are said to have imparted this celestial wisdom to the tribe’s ancestors more than 600 years ago.
- Non-Physical Beings: The Nommos were allegedly non-physical beings who appeared to only a small sect of the Dogon tribe to prevent the contact from being detrimental to their well-being.
- Transmission of Knowledge: The tribe’s advanced knowledge is passed down to new generations every 60 years during the Sigui, a celebration that marks Sirius’s cycle.
Connections to Other Ancient Cultures
The story of amphibious, god-like beings is not unique to the Dogon. Similar figures appear in the mythologies of ancient civilizations, including Babylonia, Greece, and Slavic nations.
- Egyptian Connection: The most compelling link is to ancient Egypt. The Dogon’s language for describing the Sirius star system contains ancient Egyptian words that have not been used for centuries. Both cultures also shared similar civic structures, like the establishment of upper and lower kingdoms and a 360-day calendar.
- Mesopotamian Deity: The Mesopotamian deity Dagon or Dagan, a merman or fish god, shares a similar name and description with the Nommos of the Dogon tribe.
These parallels suggest a shared history of star knowledge passed down through generations, leaving open the question of whether our ancestors had help from elsewhere in our cosmic neighborhood.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Q: Do scientists believe the Dogon tribe was visited by aliens?
A: Mainstream science, including figures like Carl Sagan, generally dismisses the idea of extraterrestrial contact, suggesting instead that the Dogon’s knowledge was acquired through a cultural exchange with Europeans. However, some evidence, such as the 400-year-old artifacts, challenges this conventional view. - Q: What is the significance of Sirius in ancient cultures?
A: As the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius has been a central part of many ancient cultures. In ancient Egypt, Sirius was known as the “Nile Star” and its appearance heralded the annual flooding of the Nile, a crucial event for agriculture. - Q: Where can I learn more about ancient civilizations and their connection to the stars?
A: Gaia’s library features a wide range of content on ancient cultures, starseed origins, and the possibility of ancient astronauts. Explore our series and films to dive deeper into these fascinating topics.
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Researchers Decode Ancient Egyptian Spell From Mysterious Codex
Two Australian scholars translated an ancient Egyptian handbook containing 20 pages of papyrus encoded with magic spells. The codex contains bizarre drawings and a series of enchantments written in Coptic, an Egyptian language that used the Greek alphabet. The origin of the codex, as well as its discoverer, remain unknown.
Now referred to as the “Handbook of Ritual Power,” the documents were decoded by researchers Malcolm Choat from Macquarie University and Iain Gardner from the University of Sydney. Macquarie University originally purchased the codex in 1981 from an antiques dealer, though attempts to decipher it were unsuccessful for decades.
The two initially translated the documents in 2014, but now a new translation by French academic Korshi Dosoo of a page containing a cryptic drawing, appears to be a magic love spell. Dosoo recently published his translation in the Journal of Coptic Studies. The texts are believed to have been written some 1,300 years ago in Upper Egypt and contain 27 enchantments paired with various illustrations.
courtesy LiveScience.com
The writings contain biblical references to Jesus, Adam and Eve, and a previously unknown Coptic deity, named Baktiotha. The nature of the documents’ translation led the researchers to believe it was a collection of spells made by a scholar, rather than a religious figure, who compiled it in order to help others achieve specific life goals.
The recently translated love spell seems like it was used to solve a love triangle or some other complicated romantic situation.
“Christian literary texts from Egypt which mention love spells often imply that the problem is not that the woman doesn’t love the man per se, but that he does not have access to her, because she is a young unmarried girl protected and secluded by her family, or already married to someone else,” researcher Korshi Dosoo of the University of Strasbourg, told LiveScience.
Other spells were clearly used for social or occupational purposes, such as getting along better with another person or outperforming a business rival. The codex also included spells that were clearly meant for medical applications like curing disease and other ailments.
There still remain a number of other cryptic texts throughout the world eluding scholars’ translation, most notably the Voynich Manuscript – a compendium of herbal and medicinal knowledge, with bizarre illustrations of naked women in bath halls. Since it’s discovery and identification as a rare and enigmatic codex, attempts to translate the manuscript have baffled a multitude of university professors, as well as AI algorithms built specifically to translate it. Though the Voynich text looks similar to Gaelic scripture, AI determined it to be Hebrew, while scholars at Perdue recently determined its origin to be Mexican.
For more on mysterious encryptions in ancient Egyptian art check out the documentary series, The Pyramid Code:
