Our Cosmic Ancestors (18 page)

If astrology is a science, it must be a very complicated one. It inter-wines the objective information about the movements of the celestial bodies with the subjective projections of supposed influences that these configurations of stars may have in the lives of men and human destinies of Earth. But the foundations for such speculations are very shaky.

First of all, astrologers have not, up until this day, calculated which is the most important moment when the stars cast their spell - is it the moment of birth or the moment of conception? Similarly, they have no final and clear definition of what is meant by an astrological conjunction of two planets. Is it the moment when they are at the same point in longitude as calculated by their cycles, which we will call the 'theoretical conjunction', or is it the geocentric conjunction when we see it from the Earth? Or, finally, is it the heliocentric conjunction, the instant when these planets are in line with the Sun?

In addition, the second case of astrological planet conjunctions, the geocentric one, is totally contusing, because over a period of six months the variable angular velocities of Jupiter, Saturn, and Earth can create as many as three such conjunctions and nobody can decide which is the right one.

The most famous of these triple conjunctions happened in 7 BC, the year when Christ was born, in the sign of Pisces. If we can believe the latest tables of planetary conjunctions established by our best computers in 1962 - and who else can we trust? - three different alignments in the same area of the skies took place that year between Jupiter and Saturn: first on 14 May, lasting to 3 June, with a maximum on 24 May; the second on I October, lasting to 21 October, with a maximum on 11 October; and the third on 5 December, lasting to 15 December, with a maximum on 10 December.

This triple conjunction between the two planets so excited the astrologers of that time that the legend about the star of Bethlehem was born and with it the beginning of a new era in human history.

Triple conjunctions are very rare and seem to come only once every 973
years. The first one of our era arrived in AD 967 in the sign of Aries, on 5
June, I3 October, and 12 December. Again in 1940, in the sign of Taurus, we had triple conjunctions on 24 July, 6 November, and 26 December. There must have been others, but so far I have not had the time to find them. At any rate, these three examples should be enough to show that astrology, be it a science or an art, is not easy to master and requires a certain intelligence. Before even trying to decide if astrology is an exact science or a sham, which in itself is a delicate question, we should study a little the very basis of our modern astrology as transferred to us by the Chaldean Magi: the zodiac with its twelve mysterious signs. Since the dawn of time, men must have noticed that certain stars hanging in the vault of the sky seemed to disappear behind the Sun and that each return of the yearly seasons brought these stars back. Too, they must have soon realized that the stars were immobile and the Sun was travelling around, and that the same path, only slower, was followed by the planets. In such a way, certain characteristic groups of stars were chosen to indicate every season of the year. The whole ring of constellations was given the name 'zodiac' - or circle of animals because of all the animals our ancestors seemed to recognize in these star groups.

Depending on the region and the way they counted their sheep, goats, or cattle, our ancestors divided the band of the zodiac into eight, ten, twelve, or thirteen parts. One division was as good as the other because the constellations are not evenly distributed at equal intervals. The Chaldeans, like the Sumerians before them, had divided the band of stars into twelve parts because they counted everything by 12 or by 60. Actually, it is better to divide the zodiac into thirteen parts, since it is easier then to give each segment one characteristic constellation without gaps or overlap.

It is quite easy to design, with groups of the brightest stars in the zodiac, thirteen different triangles that have dissimilar forms and orientations and whose centres are evenly spaced about 28
^°
from each other all around the great highway of the celestial vault. Again, we have here the same magic number, 28, or 4 times 7, that we find all over the world, as in the 28 parts of the Maltese cross of the Aegean, the 28 sectors of the Medicine Wheel of Wyoming, or the 28 inches of the cubit of Giza, Tiahuanaco, and Cuenca.

Thirteen was a sacred number for the Mayas. I believe they divided the zodiac into thirteen parts, even though I have not been able to prove it. The Mayan calendar consisted of 13 baktuns of 20 katuns each, representing 260 conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn.

Some modern astrologers have already begun to use thirteen signs of the zodiac. Generally they place a new sign between Scorpio and Sagittarius, but it seems more logical to me to insert a new sign between Leo and Virgo. More available space is found there than after Scorpio, and so a new sign called 'Triangle' could very conveniently be created by taking the bright star Denebola from the very tip of the lion's tail in Leo. When I started to write this book I had no intention of devoting a whole chapter to astrology. It seemed to be outside the subject matter for this account of my discoveries. If at all, only ancient astrology interested me. But my effort to discover as much as possible about the knowledge of our ancestors in all things astronomical, forced me to become an expert in astrology. Doing all of this research in a factual and precise manner, I could not help but notice the pitfalls and empty gaps of the old astrology. This, in turn, made me seriously question the validity of the whole understanding of our modern astrologers and their esoteric merchandise. Either the astrologers did not have the faintest idea themselves what it was that they were doing, or they did not care what kind of product they were producing, as long as it sold.

This map of the Sumerian civilization shows the twelve countries around Sumer as well as the corresponding zodiac signs and constellations in 9700 BC. Apparently, the zodiac originally served as a road map as well as a sky map.

However, to make the public believe that high-grade value was offered, today's astrologers have given the old hoax a new twist. The ancient book of the Chaldean Magi is transferred to magnetic tape and from this data a computer can produce a nearly infinite number of different combinations. As a result, every client who pushes the buttons in a modern astrology computer promptly receives a printout of his horoscope. He goes home proudly convinced that for his good money he has received a tailor-made guide for his life based on all of the mysterious secrets of the ancient wisdom and guaranteed to be true because a computer produced it. In reality, all he has received is an absolutely worthless piece of paper. But what he does not know does not hurt him.

I had to ask myself what I could do if I had to reform astrology. Where would I start, considering my knowledge of mathematics, physics, astronomy, and electronics and, above all, my firm belief that the stars do influence humanity. The answer was simple and there was only one - I would have to start from ground zero, from the very beginning, as was the case with the Apollo spacecraft and its communication system that fell into my hands and was my responsibility.

For me, the universe with its billions of stars is a stage where comic and tragic plays are staged that represent each and every life here on Earth. The actors are the Sun, the Moon, and the planets in perpetual motion. Depending on the relative positions of these actors, the life of humans on Earth can be paradise or hell. So I came to the conclusion that a new astrology should be created on a basis that would be fully valid for the next ten, twenty, or even more millennia to come. To do this, we would first have to make an inventory of all visible stars within the zodiacal band, excluding the circumpolar stars, which are different in the two hemispheres. In such a way we would create the permanent background, the stage setting for the main actors, and this background would remain the same for thousands of years.

Next, we should concentrate on the 7 or 8
^°
of latitude on both sides of the ecliptic, which is the superhighway of the sky where the Sun, the Moon, and the planets move majestically and permanently. We should forget about the circumpolar stars for now, even though these will serve other purposes. After that, the stars in the band of the zodiac should be divided into small groups at equal intervals like the spokes of a wheel so that they would be easy to recognize and could

be used as milestones to determine the exact positions of the Sun, Moon and planets at all times.

This concept of a new astrology first came to my mind in 1965 in Tahiti, where everything is so much simpler than anywhere else in this world. The western part of the island is ringed by a good road. It's about 120 km long and it takes about three unhurried hours to drive its whole length before arriving back at the point where one started, like a planet in the zodiac. On Tahiti, except in Papeete, where the solid middle class lives, there are no streets and houses have no numbers. One lives at 'kilometre 13' or 'kilometre 17' and these indications are enough to find everyone. It was at the beach of Moorea, an island twelve miles west of Tahiti, whilelwas contemplating the incredibly beautiful display of stars at night that I got the idea to reconstruct astrology. I would make the zodiac the dial of the big celestial clock using the Moon, the Sun, and the planets as the hands for seconds, minutes, and hours.

The stars would have their permanent home, say, at 264
^°
or 288
^°
longitude, where anyone could find them at any time when he wants to. This is not quite possible today with even the astronomical zodiac, which moves every year by 50 seconds of arc, and not possible at all with the astrological zodiac, which got stuck at the time of Babylon and has not moved since.

After 1 had decided to use the stars as mileposts, all that was left to be done was to make small groups of them at equal distances with easily recognizable configurations. Like any astrologer worth his salt, I used a computer and in no time at all I had the results. The best geometrical figure for grouping nearby stars is the triangle; and the best solution to have them divided evenly is to use thirteen irregular triangles. At the same time, the computer, which never does things halfway, gave me all of the celestial coordinates for each of the thirty-nine stars chosen to form these thirteen groups.

Opposite[previous]
The thirteen zodiac signs

This illustration shows a new zodiac made of thirteen equally spaced triangles and thirty-nine corresponding stars. This is much more logical than our present Babylonian zodiac with twelve unevenly spaced constellations, some above and some below the ecliptic, which does not seem to make sense.

The only thing I have not been able to find are the ancient names for all the stars in the thirteen new signs of the zodiac, but I managed to establish a sort of road map showing the triangles, their names, addresses, and the month when the Sun rises in them in the morning.

I think that the new zodiac that I propose was used by the Mayas, who counted by 13 and 26. In this new system each sign would change after every 28 days, 2 hours, 17 minutes, and 3 seconds, and these changes would take place on 21 March, 18 April, 16 May, 13 June, II July, 8 August, 6 September, 4 October, I November, 29 November, 27 December, 24 January, and 21 February. The spring equinox would come as it does now - between the signs of Pisces and Aquarius; but the autumnal equinox would occur in the middle of a new sign - the Triangle.

This custom of considering the zodiac as a sort of a road map of the skies is well established, and it may indeed be true that the zodiac was first invented because of its usefulness as a road map.
Do not laugh - such a thought is less ridiculous than it may seem at first blush. In our times the spring equinox occurs on 21 March, on the line between Pisces and Aries, while the autumnal equinox occurs on the line between Virgo and Libra.