Megalithomaia

History and Celestial Time



By Walter Cruttenden




Discoveries like the ancient Greek Antikythera computer (1500 years
before the invention of precision geared devices) the Baghdad batteries
(2000 years before Volta “invented” the battery) or dental and brain
surgery artifacts found in ancient Pakistan (8000 years out of
historical sequence) appear “anomalous” within our current paradigm of
history. However, they are not unexpected according to the
ancient cyclical view.

Giorgio de Santillana, the former professor of the history of science
at MIT, tells us that most ancient cultures believed consciousness and
history were not linear but cyclical, meaning they would rise and fall
over long periods of times. In his landmark work, Hamlet’s Mill,
Giorgio and co-author Hertha von Dechend, showed that the myth and
folklore of over 30 ancient cultures around the world spoke of a vast cycle of
time with alternating Dark and Golden Ages that move with the precession
of the equinox. Plato called this the Great Year.

Although the idea of a great cycle timed by the slow precession of
the equinox was common to multiple cultures before the Christian era most of us
were taught this is just a fairytale; there was no Golden Age. However,
an increasing body of new astronomical and archaeological evidence
suggests the cycle may have a basis in fact. More importantly,
understanding the cycle might provide insight into where society is headed at this
time and why consciousness may be expanding at an exponential rate.
Understanding the cause of precession is key to understanding the cycle.

The standard theory of precession says it is principally the Moon’s
gravity acting upon the oblate Earth that must be the cause of the
Earth’s changing orientation to inertial space, a.k.a. the “precession
of the equinox”. However, ancient sources say the
observable of an equinox slowly moving or “precessing” through the
twelve constellations of the zodiac is simply due to the motion of
the solar system through space (changing our viewpoint from Earth). Here
at the Binary Research Institute, we have modeled a moving solar system
and found it does indeed better produce the precession observable and
resolves a number of solar system anomalies such as the uneven distribution
of angular momentum within the solar system and the variable rate of
precession.

Beyond the technical considerations, a moving solar system might
provide a logical reason why we have a Great Year with alternating Dark and
Golden Ages. That is, if the solar system carrying the Earth actually
moves in a huge orbit, subjecting the Earth to the electromagnetic (EM)
spectrum of another star or EM source along the way, we could expect
this would affect our magnetosphere, ionosphere and indirectly all life in a
pattern commensurate with that orbit. Just as the Earth’s smaller
diurnal and annual motion’s produce the cycles of day and night and
the seasons (both due to the Earth’s changing position in relation to
the EM spectrum of the Sun), so might the larger celestial motion be
expected to produce a cycle that affects life and consciousness on a
grand scale.

A hypothesis for how consciousness might be affected in such a
celestial cycle can be built on the work of Dr. Valerie Hunt, the former professor
of physiology at UCLA. In a number of studies she has found that
changes in the ambient EM field (that surrounds us all the time) can
dramatically affect human cognition and performance. In short,
consciousness is affected by immersion in EM fields. Consequently, the concept
behind the Great Year or cyclical model of history, consistent with
myth and folklore, is based on the Sun’s motion through space,
subjecting the Earth to waxing and waning stellar fields (all stars are
huge generators of EM spectrum), resulting in the legendary rise and fall
of the ages over great epochs of time.

In my book Lost Star of Myth and Time, I looked at some of the
ancient myths about rising and falling ages tied to the precession cycle, explored
current precession anomalies, outlined a dynamic solar system model that
better explains the precession observable, and suggested a hypothesis for
how a change in proximity to stellar-generated electro-magnetic fields
might be the mechanism that induces cyclical changes on Earth. Here I
would like to use this model as a guide to better understand where we
have been in terms of consciousness and ancient civilizations in the past,
and more importantly, where we are going in the future. As Graham
Hancock stated, this “new – or very old – approach to the
greatest problems of human history” could be the “key to the mystery of
the ages”.

Historical Perspective

Current theories of history generally ignore myth and folklore and do
not consider any macro external influences on consciousness. For the most
part, modern history theory teaches us that consciousness or history
moves in a linear pattern from primitive to modern with few exceptions. Some
of its tenets include:

Mankind evolved out of Africa,

1. People were hunter-gatherers until about 5000 years ago,
   
2. Tribes first banded together for protection from other warring
   parties,
   
3. Written communication must precede any large engineered structures
   or populous civilizations.
   

The problem with this widely accepted paradigm is that it is not
consistent with the evolving interpretation of recently discovered ancient
cultures and anomalous artifacts. In the last hundred years major
discoveries have been made in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, the Asian plains,
South America and in many other regions that break the rules of history
theory and push back the time of advanced human development. Specifically,
they show ancient man was, in many ways, far more proficient and
civilized nearly 5000 years ago than he was during the more recent Dark Ages of
just a thousand years ago. In Caral, an ancient complex of unknown
origin on the west coast of Peru, we find six pyramids that are carbon dated
to be 4700 years old, a date contemporaneous with Egyptian pyramids
and rivaling the time of the first major structures found in the so called
“Cradle of Civilization” in Mesopotamia. However, Caral is an ocean
away from the “cradle”, and we find no evidence of
any writing or weaponry, two of the so-called necessities of
civilization. At the same time we do find beautiful musical instruments,
astronomically aligned structures and evidence of commerce with
distant lands, all pointing to a peaceful and prosperous culture.

Gobekli Tepe presents an even greater challenge to current accounts
of history. This site in Turkey is dated to 11,500 years ago and contains
dramatic architecture including carved pillars of huge proportions. To
find something so large and complex long before the dates accepted for the
invention of agriculture and pottery is an archaeological enigma.
Clearly, such sites defy the standard historical paradigm. But what is stranger
still is that so many of these civilizations seemed to decline en
mass.

In ancient Mesopotamia, Pakistan, Jiroft, Iran and adjacent lands we
see knowledge of astronomy, geometry, advanced building techniques,
sophisticated plumbing and water systems, incredible art, dyes and
fabrics, surgery, medicine and many other refinements of a civilized culture
that seemed to arise from nowhere yet were completely lost over the next
few thousand years. By the time of the worldwide Dark Ages every one of
these civilizations, including the big ones, Egypt and the Indus
Valley, had literally turned to dust or nomadic ways of life. Near the depths of
the downturn there were ruins and little else to be found. And in some
areas where larger populations still remained, such as throughout parts
of Europe, poverty, plague and disease were often rampant and the
ability to read, write or duplicate any of the earlier engineering or
scientific feats had essentially disappeared. What happened?

While records of this period are still very spotty the archeological
evidence indicates consciousness, reflected as human ingenuity and
capability, was greatly diminished. We just seemed to have lost the
ability to do the things we used to do. Ironically, this is just what
many ancient cultures predicted. The world’s foremost Assyrianologist,
Stefan Maul, shed light on this phenomenon in his Stanford Presidential
Lecture where he tells us that the Akkadians knew they lived in a
declining era; they revered the past as a higher time and tried to hang
on to it but at the same time lamented and predicted the Dark Ages that
would follow. His etymological studies of cuneiform tablets show the
ancient words for “past” have now become our words for “future”, whereas
their words for the “future” have now become our words for the “past”.
It is almost as if mankind orients his motion through time depending on
whether he is in an ascending or descending age.

We find this principal of waxing and waning periods of time depicted
in numerous bas-reliefs found in ancient Mithraic temples. The famed
Tauroctany or bull slaying scene, is often surrounded by two boys,
Cautes and Cautopetes. One holds a torch up on one side of the zodiac,
indicating it is a time of light, the other holds a torch down on the
other side of the zodiac, indicating it is a time of darkness. As the
accompanying chart will show, these time periods correspond with the
Vedic description of when the Earth goes through periods of rising and
falling consciousness.

Jarred Diamond, the well-known historian anthropologist and author of
Guns, Germs and Steel makes a good case that it is primarily local
geographic and environmental advantages on the planet Earth that
determine which group of humans succeeds or fails versus another. Those
that have the steel, guns and bad germs win. While this helps explain
many regional differences of the last few thousand years it does not
address the macro trends that seemed to have affected all cultures
(including China and the Americas) as they collectively slipped into the
last worldwide Dark Age. The cyclical or Great Year model overlays and
augments Jarred Diamond’s observations giving a reason for the
widespread downturn. It suggests that it is not just the geography and
environment of man on Earth that determines his relative success but it
is also the geography and environment of the Earth in space that affects
mankind on a macroscopic scale. Just as small celestial motions affect
life over the short term (causing day and night and the seasons) so it
appears that large celestial motions affect us over the long term,
resulting in the rising and falling ages of the Great Year.

Understanding that consciousness may indeed rise and fall with the
motions of the heavens gives meaning to ancient myth and folklore and
puts anomalous artifacts such as the Antikythera device into an
historical context that makes sense. It speaks to why so many ancient
cultures might have been fascinated with the stars and it provides us
with a workable paradigm in which to understand history. It could also
help us identify the forces that propelled the renaissance and that may
be accelerating consciousness in the current era. Myth and folklore, the
scientific language of yore, provide a colorful look at consciousness
throughout the different ages.

Character of the Ages

The Greek historian Hesiod tells us of the wonderful nature of the
last Golden Age when “peace and plenty” abounded. Hopi myths tell us of
cities on the bottom of the sea. Typically ancient peoples broke the
great cycle into an ascending and descending phase, each with four
periods. For example, the Vedic or Hindu culture tells us that when the
Autumnal Equinox moves from Virgo to Aires we go through the ascending
Kali, Dwapara, Treta and Satya “Yugas” (the later being the golden era)
before slowly declining in reverse order as the equinox completes its
journey. The Greeks and other early Mediterranean civilizations used
like periods and labeled them the Iron, Bronze, Silver and Golden Ages.
More distant cultures such as the Maya or Hopi used still other names
such as “worlds” or “Suns”, and numbered them to identify specific
epochs.

A relatively modern proponent of the cyclical system was the Sanskrit
Sage, Swami Sri Yukteswar, author of The Holy Science (published in
1894). He taught that the position of our solar system relative to
another star is what causes the rising and falling ages, and that we are
now in transition from the lowest material age, the Kali Yuga, into the
electrical or atomic age, the Dwapara Yuga. In this period, it is said
we begin to see the world as more transparent as we move from an
awareness of self as a physical body in a strictly physical universe, to
an awareness that we are something more, living in a universe filled
with subtle forces and energies. As consciousness expands so does the
Universe take on a different appearance to the viewer. The technological
discoveries of the laws of gravity, electricity and magnetism just in
the last few hundred years give this idea credence – and the trend is
accelerating. In the last century it has been discovered that physical
matter is not really solid at all. We have found that matter is made of
molecules and these in turn are made of atoms, which are constituted of
99.9% empty space. The little bit of mass that does exist in the heart
of the proton and neutron, is now thought to be principally vibrating
energy, at least according to the latest String Theory. Indeed, reality
is looking more and more ethereal just as the hoary Vedas predict.

Ages beyond the present are difficult to grasp because our present
consciousness cannot behold a greater consciousness anymore than a
farmer of the last century could understand how we now communicate with
electrons through wireless space. So we tend to extrapolate the past
material view of things when envisioning the future i.e. more of the
same gadgets and technology, only slightly more advanced. But the
Oriental teachings about cycles indicate this is just a passing phase.
They say the real trend is towards a demi-god or god-like state where
the physical is but a manifestation of something from the netherworld, a
malleable manifestation of a deeper reality. And so it seems when we
read Greek mythology or pages of Vedic scripture.

The Silver Age or Treta Yuga, the third age (from the bottom) is the
Greek “age of the demigods”, or to the yogis of India, the age of divine
magnetism and the mind. While this is a difficult concept to grasp
consider the story of Babel.

Supposedly before Babel (pre 3100BC in the last descending Treta
Yuga) humanity spoke with one tongue and communed freely with nature.
The Old Testament tells us mankind began to build “towers” and then
languages were “confused” and people could no longer understand one
another (Genisis 11:1-9). In the standard theory of history this story
makes no sense but in the cyclical model it has great meaning. It would
have occurred around the time of the first tower buildings in ancient
Mesopotamia, probably between 3000BC and 3500BC. This is precisely
around the time of the mythical “fall” (3100BC) when according to Sri
Yukteswar the world declined from the descending Treta yuga into the
descending Dwapara yuga, a time when clairvoyance and telepathy were
lost (see Chart). We learn from Paramahansa Yogananda, another proponent
of the yuga cycle and the famed author of Autobiography of a Yogi, that
this time will come again in the year 4100AD when we pass from the
ascending Dwapara into the ascending Treta yuga. He tells us at this
time there will once again be a “common knowledge of telepathy and
clairvoyance”. Perhaps then we will better understand the meaning of the
ancient myths.

The Treta Yuga is said to be the age of levitation, telepathy, a time
of shaman and wizards of old, when tremendous physic and mental
abilities were common, truly an “age of the demigods”. We have all heard
stories about mythical powers of saints and sages who have these gifts.
Now seen as rare, the majority of people don’t take these reports
seriously or realize that we too might have this same latent ability in a
higher state of consciousness. Yet, this is exactly what the ancients
told us. In fact, Christ was quoting the far more ancient scriptures of
the Old Testament when in the depths of the last Dark Age he said; “Is
it not written that ye are gods,” and he himself embodied this
consciousness when he said, “These things that I do ye shall do also.”

Chart by Laurie Pratt, published in East West Magazine in 1932. The
zenith of the Golden Age last took place in 11,502BC. The pit of the
last Dark Age was in 498AD.

The final stage in the cycle of time is the Golden Age or Satya Yuga.
It is considered the highest time on Earth. If the Treta or Silver age
is inconceivable to us today, then the Golden Age must sound like a myth
or a dream. The Greeks called it the “age of the gods” and the myth and
folklore of the Vedas and ancient Egypt hint that this was a time when
gods literally walked the Earth and most of mankind lived in perfect
harmony with nature and the heavens. The myths that remain hint at a
primordial culture, radically different than the present. The Cosmos
are now perceived as nothing but unconscious space - at least to the
skeptical modern mind. While there now remains very little physical
evidence of this long ago period, we do find that virtually every
ancient megalithic construction prior to the year 1500BC seems to be
oriented towards some astronomical or cardinal point. Going back further
there are signs multiple structures may have been aligned to mirror
constellations or the larger heavens (see Lost Star later chapters) –
displaying an obvious and universal reverence for the heavens. The
Golden Age is said to be a time when we could perceive and communicate
with astral or causal realms and directly know God without the
intermediacy of any religion. Again, this sounds like little more than a
fairy tale given our current state of consciousness, but it is a theme
common to ancient peoples who spoke and wrote of the long lost higher
ages.

Predictive Value

If the cycle is real, and there can be no question that we are now
progressing out of the Dark Ages, then understanding where we are in the
cycle has predictive value. Just as the seasons of the year, caused by
the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, can be forecast in time (through
calendars and various astronomical means), providing advantage to the
farmer and statesman alike, so can the seasons of the Great Year be
cognized and precisely calculated by the rate at which our solar system
moves through space. This is observed anciently as the equinox precesses
through the twelve constellations of the zodiac – or in modern terms
through radio astronomy and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) by
measuring changes in earth’s orientation to distant quasars (VLBI
reference points). An accelerating rate tells us we are in the ascending
phase according to Kepler’s laws of celestial motions. Thus the twelve
signs of the zodiac act like numbers on a giant celestial clock and the
Autumnal Equinox is the hour hand. Seeing where it falls as it points
out to the heavens shows not only our place in time but in history. And
to the wise observer it is a weathervane of the future.


A deep understanding of the ancient Great Year paints a picture, at
least with a broad brush, of what we can expect over the next few
decades to thousand years as we progress through the cycle. Its
interpretation requires a study of myth and folklore juxtaposed against
an extrapolation of modern trends. During the current transition from
the Kali age (of gross material consciousness) to the early Dwapara era
(a time of increasing awareness of energy and finer forces) we are
manifesting our heightened knowledge through increasing ingenuity and an
endless array of new technology (literally material matter mixed with
finer energies). These new grown faculties are breaking down the
barriers of time and space. We can now fly just about anywhere on the
globe within the time it takes the planet to make one spin on its axis.
Likewise, we can instantly communicate with someone on the other side of
the Earth and send them a picture or video of almost any event or
object, in real time. These things would seem like magic to someone just
a few hundred years ago - just as the Great Year predicted telepathic
and clairvoyant capabilities of the future seem like fantasies to us
now.

Underlying this trend is a rebalancing of our primordial and modern
nature as we once again become aware of our larger Self – Nature. We
will see, more and more, a return to living in tune with Mother Earth
and it will be facilitated, at least in the near future, by increasingly
powerful yet thinner more transparent technology. As technology becomes
something hidden in the background, we can expect some amazing changes.
For example, while we currently still need antennas to transmit
communications (and soon power) or silicon to compute or store
information even these may be outmoded in the near future. Physicist
John Dering (a CPAK regular) has speculated that given the trend of
compute power sometime in the not too distant future we will develop
interface devices that allow us to pick up the wave forms captured by
trees or the antennae of bugs, and we may be able to tap into and
decipher all the information (waveforms) that have ever passed by a rock
or any inanimate object in the landscape. Could it be that our ancient
ancestors better understood the subtle qualities of stone? Another CPAK
author, John Burke, has already shown that ancient cultures had a
tremendous knowledge of electromagnetism as evidenced by the outer
stones at Avebury where he has demonstrated all of the standing stones
magnetic poles are uniformly aligned. He has also shown that some Indian
Shaman in the American West can find areas of high electrostatic charge
or geophysical discontinuities just by feel. They use these areas for
healing purposes. Contemplating these ideas gives new meaning to the
stories of our ancient ancestors. Understanding their wisdom may be key
to understanding our future.


Author’s Biography

Walter Cruttenden is the Director of the Binary Research Institute,
an archaeoastronomy think tank located in Newport Beach, California. His
focus is on the astronomy, mythology and artifacts of ancient cultures,
with an emphasis on history theory and cycles of consciousness.

Mr. Cruttenden is the author of Lost Star of Myth and Time, St. Lynn’s
Press. Lost Star is a studied look at ancient cultures throughout the
world and their belief in a vast cycle of time with alternating Dark and
Golden Ages.

Previously Cruttenden wrote and produced the award winning documentary,
The Great Year, narrated by James Earl Jones. The Great Year looks at
the myth and folklore of ancient cultures and seeks to find the message
that these cultures left for modern man. The Great Year includes 18
minutes of animation including a depiction of the celestial mechanics of
the precession of the equinox according to ancient cultures.

Before the Binary Research Institute Cruttenden served as founder and
CEO of two investment banks where he researched leading edge science and
technology companies. Cruttenden’s personal interests include yoga
meditation and Eastern thought. He is a resident of California.

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