Adventures With Cassiopaea

Chapter 28

This precession business is strange. Theories of the significance of the precession of the equinox began to emerge in the early sixteenth century when astronomers compared their measurements of the tilt of the axis to the measurements of Ptolemy. Ptolemy's figure was 23'51", and Dominicus Maria Novara, one of Copernicus' teachers, estimated it to be 23'29". His conclusion was that the tilt had changed since Ptolemy measured it.

Chevalier de Louville, observing from Marseille, measured it at 23'30", and this observation was confirmed by other astronomers. The reason De Louville chose Marseille for his measurement was because he wanted to compare his observations to those that had been calculated in the same location by Pytheas in the late fourth century BC. Pytheas figure was 23'50". (Theon of Smyrna had given the figure of 24 degrees around 127 AD, and the Brahmins of India had given a figure of 25 degrees.)

The obvious thing about these measurements was that they seemed to indicate that the polar axis was gradually straightening up to be in alignment with the vertical celestial axis. It was not inscribing a circle, but a gradually diminishing spiral. The rate at which it was doing this was calculated to be one degree every six thousand years. Some theorists extrapolated these calculations back in time, suggesting that approximately 400 thousand years ago, the earth would have been lying on its side in the plane of the ecliptic. This means that, for half the year, one pole or the other would be in perpetual daylight, fried by the sun, while the other would be in perpetual night. In between these extremes, for another half of the year, (divided into two periods), there would be equal day and night all over the earth. It's not very likely that such a condition would have been a "golden age."

The priests of ancient Babylonia studied the heavens, mapped their constellations, identified the path of the Sun and estimated the periods of the Moon and Sun as they moved across the sky. Twice a year, at equinox, day and night are equal and the Sun rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west.

Around the year 130 BC, Hipparchus of Nicea compared ancient observations to his own and concluded that in the preceding 169 years those intersections had moved by 2 degrees. Hipparchus calculated the length of the year to within 6.5 minutes and discovered the precession of the equinoxes. Hipparchus's value of 46" for the annual precession is good compared with the modern value of 50.26" and much better than the figure of 36" that Ptolemy was to obtain nearly 300 years later. it moves one degree backward through the signs every 72 years - was carefully noted by the ancients.

In his Principia Mathematica, Isaac Newton demonstrated that the precession of the equinoxes is the result of the earth's oblate spheroidal shape which causes it to spin in something less than a perfectly aligned motion. In short, it inscribes a very gradual circle in relation to the celestial axis and, according to Newton, the period in which this entire circle is completed is 26 thousand years. This means that not only does the sun rise in a slightly different location, but the terrestrial axis points to a different area in the heavens as time goes by. As it happens, the general area of the heavens pointed to by the terrestrial pole, does not have an abundance of visible stars to consistently have a pole star. So it is only occasionally that it really has one, and even then, the pole star is not quite "on the money." Twelve thousand years ago, the time at which many occultists point out that one of the stars in Draco, Thuban, was the pole star, it was actually less of a pole star than the current one if we take into account the decreasing angle of the axis of the earth. That is assuming, of course, that present observations can be extrapolated backward.

Much of the occult or psychic speculations link the Pole Shift with Noah's Flood and the destruction of Atlantis, the fabled ancient high civilization. [A fascinating history of many of the different theories and who first proposed them is the subject of a very informative book: Arktos, by Joscelyn Godwin. 1996, Adventures Unlimited Press, Kempton, Illinois.]But, the uniformitarian view is also well represented in the occult literature. Sampson Arnold Mackey, a shoemaker in Norwich, England, formulated a grand theory of the ages of the world that is pretty much based on De Louville's gradual diminution of the angle of the terrestrial axis to the plane of the ecliptic, but also incorporating ideas based on the precession of the equinoxes. And here is where we find the first fully expounded idea that the precession itself is important as a clock that strikes the hours of world ages.

Mackey assumed the precessional cycle to be 25 thousand years. He also accepted the gradual diminution of the axial orientation at one degree every 6 thousand years. He assumed (from where, we don't know), that each completion of the precessional cycle diminished the angle of the earth axis by four degrees. Therfore, it will take four more precessional cycles to get to the "Golden Age," at which time the terrestrial axis is aligned with the celestial axis. Four more precessional cycles equals 150 thousand years from now.

Helena Blavatsky adopted some of Mackey's ideas during her short term of membership in a "secret society" called the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, which taught Mackey's doctrine in an essay called "The Hermetic Key" composed by Thomas H. Burgoyne, secretary of that order. However, the HB of L made some "adjustments" to Mackey's ideas so they would better fit some other scheme of their own. They altered the degrees of change per cycle from 4 to 3'36" so that a complete cycle takes one hundred turns. They also changed the precessional period from 25 thousand years, to 25,920 years, coming closer to Newton's original figure.

Mackey believed that he had discovered in astrology, the key to universal mythology. His entire scheme was based on certain mythological interpretations, and the H B of L claimed Mackey as a member, but of course, only after he was dead. This seems to be a common practice of many secret societies that seek to align themselves with certain ideas or people for one reason or another. Nevertheless, the adoption of this idea by the H B of L, later taken up by the occultists Papus, Barlet, Guenon, Reuss, Kellner and Steiner, ensured that it would become a foundational philosophy among groups such as the Ordo Templi Orientalis, the Theosophical Society, the Golden Dawn, and so on. Most of their ideas are founded on this uniformitarian, cosmic clock of precession and slow, spiraling movement of the earth's pole in a grand, shifting circle that reverses the polar directions every two million years or so. As it happens, Rene Schwaller de Lubicz hung out with the Theosophy crowd for a couple of years and most of his ideas can be found to be rooted in this "occult uniformitarinism."

The two great themes of myth are the yearning for the golden age and a terror of a world destroying catastrophe. And the two ideas are inextricably linked to each other. In virtually all of the stories about the Fall from Eden and the Flood of Noah, the great celestial bodies in the heavens were said to have been out of control.

Amlodhi, of Icelandic legend, owned a mill which, in his own time, “ground out peace and plenty.” Later, in decaying times, it ground out salt. Finally, it fell to the bottom of the ocean and was grinding out rock and sand, creating a vast whirlpool, the Maelstrom. According to Giorgio De Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend, this myth was evidence pointing to the precession of the zodiac. Following the Uniformitarian Occultists, they say that all myths of this type point to the shifting of the sun through the signs of the zodiac, or “world ages.” They write:

Now it is time to locate the origin of the image of the Mill, and further, what its alleged breakup and the coming into being of Whirlpool can possibly mean.

The starting place is in Greece. Cleomedes (c.A.D. 150), speaking of the northern latitudes, states (1.7): “The heavens there turn around in the way a millstone does.” Al-Farghani in the East takes up the same idea, and his colleagues will supply the details. They call the star Kochab, Beta Ursae Minoris, “mill peg,” and the stars of the Little Bear, surrounding the North Pol, and Fas al-rahha (the hole of the mill peg) “because they represent, as it were, a hole (the axle ring) in which the mill axle turns, since the axle of the equator (the polar axis) is to be found in this region, fairly close to the star Al-jadi…" These are the words of the Arab Cosmographer al-Kazvini. Ideler comments: “Koth, the common name of the Pole, means really the axle of the movable upper millstone which goes trhough the lower fixed on, what is called the ‘mill-iron."

…The Bhagavata Purana tells us how the virtuous prince Dhruva was appointed as Pole star. The particular virtue of the prince, which alarmed even the gods, is worth mentioning: he stood on one leg for more than a month, motionless. This is what was announced to him: “The stars and their figures, and also the planets shall turn around you.”[…]

There is a remark by Trimalchio in Petronius (Satyricon 39): “Thus the orb of heaven turns around like a millstone, and ever does something bad.” It was not a foreign idea to the ancients that the mills of the gods grind slowly, and that the result is usually pain. [Talk about your lame interpretation! Next they will be saying that the ancients were howling savages who smeared bear grease in their hair!]

The nine grim goddesses who “once ground Amlodhi’s meal,” working now that “host-cruel skerry quern” beyond the edge of the world, are in Mundlfoeri, literally “the mover of the handle.” The word mundil …”is never used in the old Norse literature about any other object than the sweep or handle with which the movable millstone is turned.

The case is then established. But there is an ambiguity here which discloses further depths to the idea. “Moendull” comes from Sanskrit “Manthati,” says Rydberg, “it means to swing, twist, bore …Its direct application always refers to the production of fire by friction.” [We notice that the authors don't jump on this pregnant allusion!]

The identity of the Mill, in its many versions, with heaven is thus universally understood and accepted. But hitherto nobody seems to have wondered about the second part of the story, which also occurs in the many versions. How and why does it always happen that this Mill, the peg of which is Polaris, had to be wrecked or unhinged? Once the archaic mind had grasped the forever enduring rotation, what caused it to think that the axle jumps out of the hole? What memory of catastrophic events has created this story of destruction? Why should Vainamoinen … state explicitly that another Mill has to be constructed? Why had Dhruva to be appointed to play Pole star – and for a given cycle? For the story refers in no way to the creation of the world. [And here I beg to differ]

The simple answer lies in the facts of the case. The Pole star does get out of place, and every few thousand years another star has to be chosen which best approximates that position. It is well known that the Great Pyramid, so carefully sighted, is not oriented at our Pole Star, but at alpha Draconis, which occupied the position at the pole 5,000 years ago. …It is the more difficult for moderns to imagine that in those far-off ages men could keep track of such imperceptible shifting, as many of them are not aware of the mere facts. [It is far more difficult for me to comprehend how these two authors can be talking about the ancients grasping this concept, and then to wonder why anyone with the brains to do so would even care! That is, assuming it is just a "concept."]

Most of these myths, however, come under a misleading name. They have been understood to deal with the end of the world. …What actually comes to an end is a world, in the sense of a world-age.

Coherence will be re-established in this welter of traditions if it is realized that what is referred to is the grandest of heavenly phenomena, the Precession of the Equinoxes. [De Santillana & Von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill,1977, David R. Godine, Boston]

Somehow I fail to be excited. I guess I am not clever enough to see that the wobbling of the Earth like a spinning top about to fall over is the "grandest of heavenly phenomena." But, what is important is what these two authors have done: They have resorted to Uniformitarianism to explain the great mystery of this worldwide myth of the “unhinging” of the Pole star. They, and many, many others, have followed this path, believing that all the clues from ancient monuments and myths have to do simply with measuring linear time, “World Ages,” in more or less “cultural” and historical terms. According to them, the World Age of the Hebrews was the age of the Ram, symbolized by Abraham taking his son to sacrifice him, and a Ram appeared in the thicket, and such other allusions. The age of Pisces, the age of Christ, is symbolized by the fish, and numerous allusions are dredged up to support that one. Now, we are supposed to be entering (or have already done so, depending on your source), the Age of Aquarius.

Continue to page 251

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