Pyramid Quest (48 page)

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Authors: Robert M. Schoch

Tags: #History, #Ancient Civilizations, #Egypt, #World, #Religious, #New Age; Mythology & Occult, #Literature & Fiction, #Mythology & Folk Tales, #Fairy Tales, #Religion & Spirituality, #Occult, #Spirituality

BOOK: Pyramid Quest
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CALENDAR AND ALMANAC
Cotsworth (1905) was convinced that the Great Pyramid (as well as other pyramids, pyramid-like structures, obelisks, and various stone erections around the world) served as a giant “sun dial” or “almanac,” the changing shadow cast throughout the year being used not only to tell daily time but also to determine the seasons, the times of the equinoxes and solstices, and the exact length of the year. Cotsworth says
these sharp pointed stones were purposefully selected to cast an easily-marked pointed shadow which would indicate the hour of the day, etc. Further, the stones were required in solid blocks to ensure stability, and cast the longest possible shadows from a fixed vertical height to trace the progress of the Seasons by the differentiation of their shadows, which vary so slightly and gradually that they could not be traced and studied with the requisite accuracy from smaller erections. . . . the real object of the Pyramids was to determine that most vital factor of human knowledge—the length of the Year and the Seasons, so essential to the welfare of Nations growing in population, and thus forced to develop a higher civilization with assured regularly increasing crops to meet the growing needs of its people. (1905, pp. 3-4 of the section “The Pyramids of Egypt, Mexico, Etc.: Their Solution—Showing why they were built”)
Pochan (1978, p. 287) summarized his ideas about the calendar function of the Great Pyramid as follows.
The Great Pyramid, unlike the other pyramids, was not topped by a black basalt pyramidion, but ended in a platform, in the center of which was a raised gnomen (spherical, I believe), whose shadow, cast on the pavement of the northern es planade, marked true solar noon on the various days of the year. The maximal and minimal elongations of this shadow distinguished, respectively, the winter and summer solstices. Moreover—and this is an important detail that has eluded the Egyptoplogists who have dealt with the Great Pyramid—the faces are not at all flat, but are hollowed in such a way that for half a minute, at sunrise and sunset during the two equinoxes, only half of the north and south faces are illuminated.
STANDARD OF MEASURES
Going back to at least the seventeenth century, with the work of Greaves and Newton (see Greaves, 1646, 1704, 1737), the Great Pyramid has been regarded as either a standard of measures (including linear measure, volume, weight, and in some cases even temperature) or at least a record of the measures used by the ancient Egyptians (see Bonwick, 1877, for a review). One of the driving beliefs behind this type of research during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries among certain researchers was that the standards of measure used by the ancients were more accurate and meaningful—in the sense of, for instance, being Earth commensurate, based on natural entities like the “fixed” diameter of the planet—than the diverse modern measures then in common usage. There was also a strong amount of both nationalism and religiosity involved in such researches (see for instance, Day, 1868, 1972 [reprint of an 1870 work]; Gray, 1953; Seiss, 1877; Smyth, 1864, 1867; Taylor, 1859). Taylor (1859) was heavily concerned with the issue of British measures, and the first edition of
Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid
(Smyth, 1864) is heavily focused on deriving Earth-commensurate, divinely inspired weights and measures in the Great Pyramid that just so happen to be almost identical with certain traditional British measures. Indeed, Smyth (1864, p. ix) said that the
Our
of his title was “being used in a national [i.e., British] sense,” and he goes on to say:
that particular
inheritance
of our nation did not come to pass by accident or chance—but was, on the contrary, the result of settled intention and high purpose, arranged from the beginning of the world! In partial demonstration whereof it may be mentioned, that the remarkable length alluded to, of
twenty-five
such unit inches [so-called Pyramid Inches or Primitive Inches; see earlier] (increased by 1/1000th on the present Parliamentary inch), formed in early ages
the sacred cubit of the Jews
; and was specially maintained by them for important purposes, in antagonism to the measures of profane nations, during all the period of Divine Inspiration to the chosen of their race. (p. x, italics in the original)
Commenting on the concept of the reputed standards found in the Great Pyramid being the result of divine inspiration, as asserted by Smyth, Bonwick (1877, p.127) commented:
But that which has intensified the interest in the excitation of the marvelous in man by the announcement that this said standard was an ordinance from heaven—
a gift from God.
By bringing the religious faculty into the arena of discussion, a vast increase of force has been acquired. Argue as philosophers will upon materialism, they are confronted with the practical reply, from all the ages, of the
intuitive
in humanity. There is a something at the back of all that cannot be accounted for by the rude logic of facts. There is in man a perception, however obscure and ill-defined, of spiritual existence, that sometimes comes with such power as to sweep away all dykes of reason and philosophy, and stir to the very depths the hearts of nations as of individuals. The mass are, and perhaps ever will be, governed more or less by a feeling of the supernatural. The alliance, therefore, of religion with the pyramid idea of measurement at once lifted the theory from the field of abstract, scientific enquiry into the domain of sympathetic belief. (italics in the original)
SOLAR TEMPLE
Pochan (1978, p. 286) contends that, among other functions, the Great Pyramid “was also a solar temple dedicated to the ram-headed god Khnum, for whom were reserved two of the four solar barques discovered at its base. The Pyramid—as well as the head of Sphinx, (Harmachis, the watchful guardian of the rising sun)—was painted red, the color of the sun as it sets in the crimson west.”
PYRAMIDOLOGY AND THE GREAT PYRAMID AS PROOF OF GOD
In our day of modern research it has been discovered that the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is something more than just a great tomb of a pharaoh. This colossal monument of antiquity has been found to portray the Christian religion upon a scientific basis in a manner most appropriate to our present scientific age. Pyramidology is the science that deals with the Great Pyramid’s scientific demonstration of Biblical truth, true Christianity and the Divine plan respecting humanity on this planet. (Rutherford, 1970-1986, 1:[first published in 1957]11)
 
 
Pyramidology is the science which co-ordinates, combines and unifies science and religion, and is thus the meeting place of the two. When the Great Pyramid is properly understood and universally studied, false religions and erroneous scientific studies will alike vanish, and true religion and true science will be demonstrated to be harmonious. (Rutherford, 1970-1986, 1:13)
“In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord.” Isaiah 19:19 (quoted from the cover of Ferris, 1939). Some have interpreted the Great Pyramid as the altar and pillar referred to in this biblical passage (for instance, Capt, 1986, p. 9).
Many writers have considered the Great Pyramid to be divinely inspired and thus proof of God, and most commonly the Judeo-Christian God specifically, as indicated in the foregoing quotations. Riffert (1952, originally published 1932) titled his book
Great Pyramid Proof of God,
and more recently Zajac (1989) has made the same argument. This concept of the Great Pyramid as proof of God is closely related to the concept of the Great Pyramid’s structure being prophetic if interpreted correctly (see the later section, “Prophecies”).
ENCODING OF MATHEMATICAL, ASTRONOMICAL, AND GEODESIC DATA
Using a variety of different measurements and units (various forms of inches, cubits, and so forth), subject to a wide range of mathematical manipulation, different authors have claimed to find many pieces of information encoded in the Great Pyramid, such as pi, phi, and other mathematical relationships; the radius, circumference, and polar flattening of the earth; the distance to the sun, moon, and even planets; the density of the earth; the processional cycle; the length of the year; the shape of the earth’s orbit; the law of gravity; the speed of light and other physical constants; and so forth (see, for instance, various discussions in Adams, 1933; Bonwick, 1877, who summarizes much of this thinking up to his time; Davidson and Aldersmith, 1924; Day, 1868, 1972; Edgar and Edgar, 1988 [originally published 1923-1924]; Gill, 1984, 1997; Gray, 1953; Smyth, 1864, 1867, vol. 3; Stecchini, 1971; Taylor, 1859; Tompkins, 1971; review of certain theories along these lines in Kingsland, 1932, pp. 99-112).
In relation to the concept of ecoding geographic knowledge, Smyth (1877, 1880, 1890) and many subsequent authors have contended that the Great Pyramid sits in the middle of the landmass of the entire Earth (“Geographic Centre of the Land Surface of the Whole World,” to quote from Smyth, 1877, pl. 20) and it also sits at the exact apex of the Nile Delta. Indeed, I have long hypothesized that the Giza Plateau, with the proto-Sphinx (the Predynastic portions of the Great Sphinx) and other Predynastic structures and sites, such as the mound underlying the Great Pyramid, may have been both a very sacred site and also a politically important site marking the apex of the Nile Delta and the an early boundary between Upper (to the north) and Lower (to the south) Egypt.
THE GREAT PYRAMID AS TIME CAPSULE AND SYMBOL OF CREATION
Alford (2003, 2004; see also Alford, 2000; DeSalvo, 2003, p. 107) has suggested that the Great Pyramid was a symbol and memorial to the creation of the universe. It served as tomb in its subterranean parts, but the upper sealed portions were a sort of a museum, repository, or time capsule. The coffer in the King’s Chamber, in Alford’s view, contained meteoritic iron representing the seed of the creator god. From the King’s Chamber, low-frequency sound may have been broadcast to the Giza Plateau, via the so-called airshafts. Alford has suggested in his 2004 book
The Midnight Sun
that the Great Pyramid was part of an ancient “cult of creation,” the primary aim of which was a celebration and reenactment of the myth of the creation of the cosmos. In Alford’s view, the Great Pyramid was a simulacrum of the cosmos in its intial stages of coming-into-being, whereas various Egyptain temples symbolized later or final stages of coming-into-being (Alford’s term). Alford suggests that restorative rituals were carried out at both pyramids and temples that helped ensure the continuity and ultimate immortality of the world. In this conception, the Great Pyramid in particular was infinitely important to the cosmos.
Doreal (1938) and Edgar Cayce (see Lehner, 1974; Robinson, 1958; Cayce, 2004) are among the spiritual leaders who viewed the Great Pyramid as having a connection with the lost continent of Atlantis and a possible Hall of Records for the Atlantean civilization. Doreal (1938/1992, pp. 2-3) explicitly says that the Great Pyramid, besides being “used as a temple of initiation by the priests of Thoth, in fact, is still used as such. . . . It was also used as a storehouse for the records brought from Atlantis when the Atlantean Islands sank beneath the waves, which had happened some 12,000 years before the building of the Great Pyramid.”
PYRAMID PHYSICS
As best summarized by DeSalvo (2003), following in the footsteps of Antoine Bovis, who in the 1930s believed there was evidence that the Great Pyramid helped to preserve organic remains, such as dead animals, and Karl Drbal, who in the 1940s developed a method that he believed could preserve and even sharpen razor blades utilizing a pyramid shape, research on “pyramid power” and “pyramid physics” continues to this day. A leader in this field since the 1970s is Patrick Flanagan (1975; DeSalvo, 2003, p. 251), who has done numerous experiments with “pyramid energy” (“biocosmic energy”; see also DeSalvo, 2003, p. 168), such as the effects on food, razor blades (claiming to have duplicated successfully Drbal’s experiments along these lines), growing plants, and so forth.
The Ukraine physicist Dr. Volodymyr Krasnoholovets has also been working with pyramid shapes and their properties, and has reputedly found that the pyramid shape, when the orientation is correct, can affect the fine structure of metals, including the result that razors are sharpened (see discussion in DeSalvo, 2003, pp. 143-152). According to DeSalvo (2003, p. 147), Krasnoholovets believes
the Great Pyramid was build to intentionally amplify basic energy fields of the Earth on a subatomic, quantum level. He calls these fields inerton fields or waves and has measured them in model pyramids. He proposes that the Great Pyramid is a resonator of these fields produced by the earth. It would be a new physical field like the electromagnetic or gravitational field. This field is what affects the materials placed in the pyramids and caused the sharpening of the razor blades.
In Russia, a series of large fiberglass pyramids, up to 144 feet tall, has been erected, and experiments involving nonorganic and organic materials, as well as living organisms, are being carried out in them (DeSalvo, 2003, pp. 117-141). Pyramids are also being used in Canada, India, and elsewhere for meditation and health purposes (DeSalvo, 2003, pp. 169-173).
Another prominent researcher in the field of “pyramid physics” is Joe Parr, a man who has twice spent a night on top of the Great Pyramid taking electrical, magnetic, and radioactive measurements in 1977 and 1987 (DeSalvo, 2003, p. 153). It has been noticed since at least the nineteenth century by some people that anomalously large electrical charges may build up on the summit of the Great Pyramid. DeSalvo (2003, p. 12; see also Tompkins, 1971, pp. 278-279) relates the account of the nineteenth-century British inventor Sir William Siemens, who, at the top of the pyramid, felt a prickling sensation and received an electrical shock. Reputedly on the spot, Siemens made a Leyden jar (which will store static electricity) out of a wine bottle and newspaper. He was able to charge the Leyden jar by holding it up over his head, and it started to emit sparks. It then discharged toward one of the Arab guides, giving him a shock that knocked him to the ground.

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