Chapter 27 Chapter 29 Deciphering an Ancient Code

The orbit of the earth is projected outwards, forming a great circle in the celestial sphere - this is called "ecliptic" in astronomy. Surrounding the ecliptic is a star-studded belt, extending about 7 degrees north and south, bringing together " "Twelve constellations of the Zodiac": Aries, Taurus, Gemini.Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.The constellations vary in size, shape and range, yet (by chance?) they occupy a house along the ecliptic line and are spaced evenly, giving the daily sunrise and sunset a rigid cosmic order.

To make this picture more clear, the reader is asked to take out a pen and paper: (1) draw a dot in the center of a blank piece of paper; (2) draw a circle around the dot, about half an inch from the dot; (3) Around this circle, draw a larger circle on the outside. The dots represent the sun.The smaller of the two concentric circles represents Earth's orbit around the sun.The larger circles represent the edges of the ecliptic.Around the perimeter of this larger circle, you must draw 12 evenly spaced grids, representing the 12 constellations of the zodiac.There are 360 ​​degrees in a circle, so we can imagine that each constellation occupies 30 degrees of space on the ecliptic.The dot is the sun; the one of the two concentric circles closer to the sun is the orbit of the earth.We all know that the earth orbits in a counterclockwise direction, from west to east; we also know that every 24 hours, the earth rotates around its axis (also from west to east).

These two actions caused people on the ground to have two illusions: ①. Every day, as the earth rotates from west to east, the sun appears to "move" across the sky from east to west, when in fact the sun is a fixed point. ② About every 30 days, as the rotating Earth orbits the sun, the sun appears to slowly "pass" through the 12 constellations of the zodiac (which are also fixed points) - one constellation after another , "moving" from east to west. On any day of the year (corresponding to any point on the circle representing the Earth's orbit in our diagram), the Sun will clearly appear between a terrestrial observer and one of the constellations.On this day, if the observer gets up before dawn, he will see the sun rise in the east in the part of the sky occupied by that constellation.

We can imagine that under the clear and unpolluted sky of the ancient world, people must have felt very relieved when they saw the celestial bodies moving so regularly.It's also easy to understand why the four cardinal points of the year—the equinoxes, the winter and summer solstices—are given particular attention by humans around the world.Of particular importance is the connection of these cardinal points to the constellations of the zodiac.The most valued is the constellation where the sun rises on the morning of the spring equinox (or vernal equinox).Due to the relationship between the earth's axial precession, humans have discovered since ancient times that this constellation is not fixed forever; on the day of the vernal equinox, the tasks of "entertaining" and "picking up" the sun are undertaken by the 12 constellations of the zodiac in turn. The process is very, very slow.

From the beginning of the year to the end of each year, the orbit of the earth makes the constellations on the sunrise sky that we see change month by month: Aquarius→Pisces→Aries→Taurus→Gemini→Cancer→Leo and so on.Currently, when the spring equinox comes every year, the sun rises due east, between the constellations Pisces and Aquarius.Due to the effect of precession, the "spring equinox" arrives at the early stage of the earth's movement every year, so it moves gradually at a very slow speed.It takes 25920 years to pass through all 12 constellations of the zodiac and "reside" in each constellation for 2160 years.to complete a cycle.Contrary to the annual "solar journey", the direction of "precession movement" is: Aquarius→Cancer→Gemini→Taurus→Aries→Pisces→Aquarius.For example, "The Age of Leo" and "2160 years when the vernal equinox sun rises from Leo" began in 10970 AD and ended in 8810 BC.We are now living in an empty space in astrology: the "age of Pisces" is over, and the "new age" of Aquarius is about to begin.Traditionally, the transition period between two eras is always considered to be ominous.

As Professor Santillana said: "At the vernal equinox, the position of the sun in the twelve constellations of the zodiac is like the pointer of a clock, indicating the moment of the precession cycle, and this moment is very long-the vernal equinox. Each zodiac sign is stationed for almost 2,200 years."① The Earth's axial precession proceeds in a clockwise direction (from east to west), therefore, it is exactly opposite to the direction in which the Earth orbits the Sun.This situation, involving zodiac constellations fixed in space, produces a phenomenon: the beginning of the vernal equinox, "continuously moving along the ecliptic, in the direction exactly opposite to the annual course of the sun, that is, the inverse zodiac The correct order of the second house (Taurus → Aries → Pisces → Aquarius, not Aquarius → Pisces → Aries → Taurus people"②

In a nutshell, this is what the "precession of the equinoxes" means.The famous line "The age of Aquarius has come" in the musical "Hair" is the best portrayal of the precession of the equinoxes.It mentions an astronomical fact: for the past 2,000 years, the sun has risen from Pisces every vernal equinox. However, the era of Pisces is now coming to an end. Aquarius, start to rise from there. The 25,776-year precession cycle is what drives this spectacular astronomical phenomenon to cycle through the sky.Exactly how the precession moves the equinoxes, from Pisces into Aquarius and onwards along the zodiac, is also worth noting.

As mentioned above, the vernal and autumnal equinoxes occur on only two days each year: when the earth's tilted axis is exactly sideways to the sun.During these two days, the sun rises from the due east all over the world, and the days are as long as the nights.Due to the Earth's axis slowly.Continuously producing precession, the direction is exactly opposite to its orbit, and its point sideways to the sun must occur early in each year's orbit.These annual changes are so small that they are barely noticeable—it takes about 72 years to move one degree along the ecliptic (the width of a person's little finger stretched toward the horizon).However, according to Professor Santillana's calculations, these small changes add up to form a 30-degree channel in less than 2,200 years, passing through one constellation of the zodiac, and less than 26,000 years to form a 360-degree channel. , through a complete precession cycle.

When did the ancients first calculate the precession? The answer to this question hides one of the great secrets of human history.Before unraveling this mystery, we might as well take a look at the "official" view of the academic community. The Encyclopaedia Britannica is a great treasure house of orthodox historical knowledge.According to its records, it was the ancient Greek scholar Hibacus (HIP parchus) who discovered the astronomical phenomenon of "precession": Hibacus, also spelled HIPPARCHOS, was born in Nicaea, Bithynia, and died in Rhodes around 127 BC.He is a Greek astronomer and mathematician who discovered the astronomical phenomenon of "precession of the equinoxes"... This major discovery is the result of long-term observation of astronomical phenomena with a keen mind.Hibacus observed the positions of the stars and compared his observations with observations made 150 years earlier by the Alexandrian scholar Timocharis and earlier by Babylonian astronomers.He found that there was a difference in the longitude of the celestial sphere that was beyond the limits of observational error.Therefore, he proposed the theory of "precession" to explain this astronomical phenomenon.The annual precession value he provided is 45 or 46 seconds (a second is 1/3600 of 1 degree), which is very close to the number accepted by the modern astronomical community - 50.274 seconds ③.

Here, we have to explain the terminology. "Second" is the smallest unit of calculation in radians.The orbit of the earth around the sun has a total of 360 degrees, and there are 60 minutes in every degree, and 60 seconds in every minute.The annual change is 50.274 seconds, which is less than 1/60 of 1 degree. Therefore, it takes about 72 years (equivalent to a human lifetime) for the sun to move 1 degree along the ecliptic at the vernal equinox.Observing this extremely slow change was very difficult at the time, so the precession value proposed by Hibacus in the 2nd century BC would be praised as a "significant discovery" by the Encyclopedia Britannica.

If the discovery was just a "rediscovery", would it still seem so "significant"?Would the mathematical and astronomical achievements of the Greeks still appear so brilliant if we could prove that astronomers had taken on the daunting challenge of making observations of "precession" thousands of years before Hibacus was born?Is it possible that, in ancient times before the rise of modern science, human beings have conducted precise and scientific research on this almost 26,000-year astronomical cycle? To seek answers to these questions, we must have conclusive evidence that can withstand rigorous scrutiny.As mentioned above, the annual precession calculated by Hibacus is 45 or 46 seconds of arc.Therefore, unless we can find more accurate data in older materials, we cannot deny Hibacus' achievements and status casually.After all, he is a recognized "precession discoverer" in the academic circles. Of course, there is a lot of information worth exploring.For the sake of brevity, however, we must limit our exploration here to myths from around the world.One group of myths (the Flood and other cataclysmic legends, dealt with in Part IV of this book) has been examined at length; we have found that these myths share some intriguing features in common: ① There is no doubt that these myths are extremely ancient.Take, for example, the legend of the flood in Mesopotamia.Some versions of this story are engraved on clay tablets left over from 3000 BC (the earliest era of the ancient Sumerian state).When these clay tablets were engraved, human beings had just begun to have written history.It clearly shows that even at that time the legend of the World Flood was very old, and therefore its roots should predate the written history of mankind.We don't know exactly how old it is.In fact, no scholar has been able to identify the creation age of any myth, let alone these ancient myths that have spread far and wide.It is no exaggeration to say that they have been handed down in this world and become an eternal part of human culture. ②. The ancient atmosphere surrounding these myths is no illusion.As mentioned earlier, many cataclysmic myths are clearly accurate eyewitness reports, documenting the realities of human experience during the last Ice Age.Therefore, in theory, the origin of these myths and the origin of modern humans may be at the same time, that is, about 50,000 years ago.Geological evidence, however, points to a slightly later date of origin, and we noted above that 15,000 to 8,000 BC is the most likely period.In the entire living experience of human beings, there was only that period when rapid and severe climate changes occurred on the earth, as vividly described in myths. ③. The turmoil caused by the end of the Ice Age is a global phenomenon.No wonder, although the myths of catastrophes are scattered all over the world, they show a high degree of consistency with each other, which can be said to lead to the same goal. ④. Surprisingly, myths not only describe common experiences, but also use common symbolic language to state these experiences.Myths around the world keep showing the same "themes", the same "props", and the same characters and plots that make people feel familiar. According to Professor Santillana, this consistency shows that there is a hand behind the scenes manipulating these myths.He and Hertha Von Dechend, a professor of the history of science at the University of Frankfurt, co-authored "Hamlets Mill", which is a very original work on ancient mythology.Among them he states: Applied properly, universality can serve as a litmus test.For example, when a certain material found in China also appears in Babylonian astrological documents, we must make the inference that if it reveals an unusual set of images that no one can prove to have been produced separately and independently, we must It should be assumed that there is some connection between the two.Take the origin of music, for example.The tragic death of Orpheus, the originator of music, may have come from the imagination of poets from different regions.But when the main character of the myth who plays the flute (rather than the lyre, like Orpheus) is flayed alive for various absurd reasons, and his tragic end is repeated around the world, we can infer that , there is an external connection between these stories.The character of the piper appeared in the legend of Hamelin in Germany and in the mythology of Mexico before Columbus, and there are some common images between them, such as the color "red".This should not be a coincidence... Similarly, when we find numbers such as "108" or "9 times 13" repeatedly appearing in the Indian Vedas, Khmer Angkor Wat, Babylonian monuments, and the ancient Greek philosopher Herac The Lament of Heracleitus and the Hall of Valor in Norse mythology, how can we regard it as an accidental coincidence...④ Is there really an ancient and as yet unidentified hand behind the scenes of these so-called "coincidences" and "accidents" that link together the myths of catastrophe around the world?If the answer is yes, then could it be the same hand that produced the highly accurate, technologically advanced maps of the world explored in Part 1 of this book, both during and after the last Ice Age?Is it possible that the same hand was left behind in another set of world myths—the myths of the death and resurrection of the gods, the myths of the earth and heavens revolving around the trees, the myths of the constant revolving images of whirlpools and stone mills? Under the mysterious fingerprint? According to Santillana and Dai Chengde, these images all refer to astronomical events, and do so through a very ancient but "highly refined" language of astronomy and mathematics: "This language transcends local beliefs and sects. It Preoccupied with numbers, movements of bodies, measurements, general structures, diagrams—in other words, numerical structures and geometry."⑤ Where did such a language come from? "Hamlet's Stone Mill" is a complex and brilliant work of scholarship, but it is deliberately evasive at times; the author does not provide a clear answer to the above question.However, the author leaves some intriguing clues here and there.For example, at one point in the book, the authors say that the history of the scientific language or "code" they found in mythology is "terribly ancient"⑥.In another place, they lock the language more clearly as a product of 8000 years-at least "6000 years before the birth of the Roman poet Virgil (Virgil)"⑦. Which of the civilizations we know could have developed more than 8,000 years ago?Using such refined technical language?To be honest, the answer is "no".We might as well admit frankly that in prehistoric times, there may have been a civilization with highly developed technology on the earth, which has been forgotten now.When encountering the crux of the problem, Santillana and Dai Chengde began to evade their words again; they vaguely said that this set of scientific and technological language is "the first magician who dares to use numbers, measurements and weighing methods to explore the truth of the world." The legacy left to us by ancient civilizations. This legacy is clearly related to scientific thinking and complex mathematical knowledge.Its history is too old to withstand the scouring of time, and it has been gradually lost: When the Greeks rose, the great ancient buildings of the world had been covered with dust for centuries, and they were completely sealed up.However, a certain part of this culture is still preserved in traditional rituals and myths and fairy tales that we no longer understand... What we see is a scrap of a whole culture, which can especially arouse our curiosity.It reminds us of the landscape paintings that Chinese painters are good at: paint a stone here, a gable there, and the top of a tree there, and let the viewer imagine the rest.Even if we could crack their codes, even if we could understand their technology, we would not be able to probe the minds of these ancient ancestors, because it is hidden in unique symbols, and the minds that created these symbols have long since disappeared. Two historians of science, who teach at prestigious universities on both sides of the Atlantic, claim in a book that they have discovered remnants of a coded technical language thousands of years older than the earliest recognized civilizations.What's more interesting is that Professors Santillana and Dai Chengde, who are extremely rigorous in academic research, claim that they have "cracked part of the code."⑩ For two serious scholars, this is an astonishing statement. Notes: ① "Hamlet's Stone Mill", page 59. ② Same as above, page 58. ③ "Encyclopedia Britannica", 1991 edition, Volume 5, pages 937-938. ④ "Hamlet's Stone Mill", p. 7. ⑤ Ibid., page 345. ⑥ Same as above, page 418. ⑦ Same as above, page 245. ⑧ Same as above, page 132. ⑨Ibid, 4~5, 348 pages. ⑩ Same as above, 5 pages.