As the centuries rolled by, the legend of the once-great casing stones had faded into nothing more than a superstitious myth. However, Colonel Vyse conducted excavations in and around the pyramid beginning in 1836 that permanently eliminated the skeptics’ arguments. Vyse found that the pyramid was surrounded by debris of limestone chunks and sand that had piled up around the base by as much as fifty feet. He cleared a patch in the center of the north façade, hoping to reach the base and bedrock of the pyramid. There he found two of the original casing stones—forever ending the scholarly argument about whether the pyramid had ever been covered with a perfectly flat, polished white surface. The original blocks were still so finely carved that an exact measurement of the slope angle could be calculated.30 According to Vyse, they were perfect: “in a sloping plane as correct and true almost as modern work by optical instrument makers. The joints were scarcely perceptible, not wider than the thickness of silver paper.”31
Vyse published his detailed measurements and notes in 1840, and his assistant John Perring published his own book as well. This opened up a whole new phase of study known as “Pyramidology.”32 John Taylor, a gifted mathematician and amateur astronomer who worked as an editor of the London Observer in the nineteenth century, was already in his fifties when Vyse’s data came in from Egypt. Taylor then began a rigorous thirty-year investigation into all the measurements that had been reported in and around the pyramid, looking for hidden mathematical and geometric formulas. Taylor found that if he measured the perimeter of the base in inches, it came out to roughly 100 times 366—and if he divided the perimeter by 25 inches, he got 366 once again. What’s the big deal about 366? It is suspiciously close to the exact length of an earth year—365.2422 days.33 Taylor found that by slightly changing the length of a typical British inch, these figures could become exact reflections of the earth year. Was this merely a cheap mathematical cheat, or was there any worthwhile science behind it? That question was soon answered when a highly fortunate “coincidence” struck at almost the exact same time.
Sir John Herschel, one of Britain’s most highly regarded astronomers at the turn of the nineteenth century, had very recently tried to invent a new measuring unit to replace the existing British system. He wanted it to be based on the exact dimensions of the earth. Without knowing anything about Taylor’s research, Herschel used the most accurate dimensions of the earth available at the time to suggest that we should be using inches that were very slightly longer than normal—by a mere half the width of a human hair, or 1.00106 British inches. Herschel blasted the French for basing their metric system on the curvature of the earth, which can change, rather than using a line that went straight through the earth’s center, from pole to pole. A recent British Ordnance Survey had fixed that pole-to-pole distance within the earth as 7898.78 miles, or 500,500,000 British inches. It would become exactly 500 million inches if the British inch were made just a slight bit longer. Herschel argued that the existing British inch should be officially lengthened to obtain this truly scientific measuring unit.
Fifty of these inches would then be exactly one ten-millionth of the earth’s polar axis. Twenty-five of them would make a very useful cubit—which could replace the existing British yard and foot. Little did Herschel know that Taylor had already discovered these exact same units within the dimensions of the Great Pyramid.34 When Taylor found out about this, he was thrilled. He now had compelling evidence that the builders of the pyramid must have known the true spherical dimensions of the planet, and built their whole measurement system off it. That again implies that the ancient Egyptians possessed a significantly more advanced technology than we normally give them credit for.35Lemesurier reported that in International Geophysical Year 1957, the earth’s diameter from pole to pole was measured with flawless satellite precision—much more accurately than in Herschel’s time. As a result, we now know that the pyramid inch is indeed one five-hundred-millionth of the earth’s diameter at the poles—and this connection is so exact that the numbers check out down to multiple decimal points of accuracy.36 This means the pyramid was indeed built to be a mathematically perfect reflection of the length of a year on earth around its perimeter. These precisely earthscaled measurements appear again and again in obvious ways—both inside and outside the pyramid.
However, an even greater mystery is found when we measure the diagonals of the Great Pyramid—namely, the distance from one corner, over the top and down to the other corner. This distance comes out to 25,826.4 pyramid inches37—remarkably close to modern calculations of the true length of the precession of the equinoxes in years.
It definitely seems that the Great Pyramid’s designers wanted us to use the Egyptian inch. By making the pyramid’s diagonals add up to the precession of the equinoxes in Egyptian inches, we seem to have been given a message to pay attention to this great cycle. These same builders obviously knew the exact dimensions of the earth, and therefore may very well have traveled the world—seeding many different ancient myths in many different ancient cultures. As Santillana and Von Dechend revealed again and again in Hamlet’s Mill, the hidden message in each of these ancient myths told us to look at the precession—or what many ancient cultures also called the Great Year. The Primitive Mountain, Benben stone, Shiva lingam, omphalos, baetyl and Ka’aba stone, not to mention the redundant worldwide pinecone symbolism of the Mayan, Egyptians, Hindus, Buddhists, Greeks and Romans, also suggests there was once a worldwide awareness that the end of the Great Year would somehow involve the awakening of the pineal gland. The Great Pyramid now appears to be yet another way in which our ancestors attempted to permanently preserve this message for future generations. The Vatican seems to know about it, as they put an open Egyptian-style sarcophagus directly behind their gigantic pinecone statue—which was flanked with Bennu/phoenix birds.
The exterior diagonals of the Great Pyramid add up to 25,826.4 Pyramid Inches—a figure remarkably close to modern estimates of the precession of the equinoxes.
If the Great Pyramid does have a symbolic story to tell, another obvious part of the message would be that it was deliberately left unfinished on the outside. There is a flat, square area at the top where a pyramid-shaped capstone—another form of the baetyl stone—can be fitted. When we remember how well the Great Pyramid preserves the earth’s exact measurements, it is no surprise that Peter Lemesurier, the author of Great Pyramid Decoded, suggested the flattened top meant the earth itself, like the Great Pyramid, is somehow unfinished. It could be that the folks who built the pyramid intended to return at some point—perhaps the end of the Great Year—to finish the job they started. The return of the capstone also transforms the pyramid from a six-sided object—with a base, four sides and a top—to a five-sided object. According to Lemesurier, in Egyptian numerology, six means “imperfection” and five means “Divine Initiation.” Given that we see the exact length of an earth year in the perimeter, as well as the exact length of the precession in the diagonals, this suggests that the cycle of precession will ultimately remove the imperfections of humanity—by moving us through a Divine Initiation of some kind.
The Great Seal of the United States
I understand that some people might consider this entire interpretation of Great Pyramid prophecy to be numerology, and therefore lacking in any scientific credibility. However, no one can deny that this same symbolic message of a returning capstone was forever enshrined on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. The strange symbol of a single eye inside a gleaming-white triangle, descending onto a thirteen-course pyramid, has appeared on every U.S. dollar bill in circulation since the 1930s. The Great Seal was first proposed on the very day the Declaration of Independence was signed—July 4, 1776. Thomas Jefferson commissioned a French West Indian portrait painter named Eugene Pierre du Simitiere to create the original design, which was then approved by Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.
Even in these earliest versions, the “Eye of Providence”—a single ey
e, gleaming with light—appears over the pyramid. The original phrase that was written around the pyramid was “Deo Favente Perennis.” Deo means “God,” as well as “the open sky” and something that is “charged with the brightness of day.” The word favente means “favor, befriend, support and back up,” and perennis means “continual, everlasting, perpetual, perennial and eternal.” So, a loose translation would be “God Supports [us] Eternally.” In Latin, the word perennial means “yearly,” something that repeats every year—so this could be another reference to the Great Year of precession: “God Supports the Great Year.” Some of the earliest American currency featured the unfinished pyramid as the main symbol on the front—although in this case the Eye of Providence did not appear at the top. As we now know, the pyramid is also a baetyl—the symbol of the pineal gland in many ancient cultures. Perhaps the founding fathers felt the inclusion of this obviously Masonic symbol—the awakened pineal gland, or third eye, inside a triangle—would be too controversial for the early American colonists. In this case, the word perennis was written overhead, by itself.
By 1782, later revisions of the Great Seal changed the wording to what we now see—with “Annuit Coeptis” on the top and “Novus Ordo Seclorum” on the bottom. These phrases make the message even clearer. The word annuit means “to favor or smile on,” often by nodding approval—and the word coeptis means “undertaking,” as well as “beginning, starting and commencing.” When we include the Eye of Providence as a symbol of God, the phrase thus translates as “God has favored our beginnings.” However, there’s deeper symbolism in this phrase as well. The word annuit is related to other Latin words that mean “yearly”—and this is where we get the word annual from. One translation of the Latin word annui is a “yearly payment.” So, Annuit Coeptis can also mean “The [Great] Year Begins.” The payment we are expected to get from the Great Year appears to be written into the symbol itself—namely, the transformation of the earth, where the precessional cycle begins again.
United States $50 bill from 1778 with 13-course pyramid and the word Perennis—likely symbolizing the Great Year, or precession of the equinoxes.
This message is made much clearer when we delve into the mysterious roots of the phrase “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” which was incorporated into the Great Seal of the United States in 1782 by Charles Thomson. The official record openly states that Thomson was inspired by line five of Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue, which we will discuss shortly. The original Latin reads Magnus ab integro seclorum nascitur ordo, and it is interpreted to mean “and the majestic roll of circling centuries begins anew.” This sounds very much like a description of the Great Cycle of precession—describing the “majestic roll of circling centuries” that now “begins anew,” creating a Golden Age in the process.
The Great Roman Oracle
In my early years of intensive research, circa 1994, I found a direct quote from C. A. L. Totten, a 1st Lieutenant in the 4th artillery of the U.S. Army, who explained the deeper meaning of the Great Seal. This was published as a letter he wrote to Charles J. Folger, the secretary of the Treasury, on February 10, 1882:The All-Seeing Eye is one of the oldest hieroglyphics of the Deity. The triangle also is a cabalistic symbol of the most remote antiquity. . . . The descent of the mystic eye and triangle in the form of a capstone to this mysterious monument [the Great Pyramid] of all times and nations, is to us as a people most pregnant with significance. The motto, Novus Ordo Seclorum, is a quotation from the 4th Eclogue and was borrowed in turn by Virgil from the mystic Sibylline records.38
Totten goes on to give the exact quote, which is stunning—but first, let’s explore the “mystic Sibylline records” in greater detail, so we understand the context. In the early days of the formation of Rome, the name “sibyl” was derived from the Greek word sibulla, which meant a woman who gives prophecies—also known as an oracle. The Oracle at Delphi hosted the mysterious omphalos stone, a symbol of the pineal gland that was also believed to be a direct telepathic conduit to the god Apollo. There were ten famous sibyls throughout the ancient world, including Persia, Libya, Delphi, Samos, Cimmeria, Erythraea, Tibur, Marpessus, and Phrygia—but the most highly revered was the Sibyl of Cumae, who lived in a cave near Naples.39 Cumae was the first Greek colony founded in Italy, in a volcanic region near Mount Vesuvius.40 In 1932, the Sibyl of Cumae’s cave was discovered, dispelling rumors that she was only a myth—and it had a 60-foot-high ceiling and a 375-foot-long passage leading into it.41 The Sibyl wrote her prophecies on oak leaves, which she then left outside the cave, at any one of a hundred different entrances. If no one came to pick them up when they arrived, they simply blew away in the wind.
A 2001 National Geographic article suggested that the oracles’ mystical abilities may have been the result of hallucinogenic gases such as ethylene that naturally appear in the caves. Spring water near the site of the Temple at Delphi tested positive for ethylene, which has a sweet smell and creates a narcotic effect.42 Apparently the Cumaean Sibyl would sit on top of a tripod that was built directly over a grotto within the cave that volcanic gases would rise through.43 She also swallowed a few drops of bay laurel juice before entering into the trance state where she received the prophecies.44 Virgil gave an intense description of the Sibyl of Cumae at work in the Aeneid. Her behavior definitely suggests a powerful hypnotic influence had taken hold of her.
She changes her features and the color of her countenance; her hair springs up erect, her bosom heaves and pants, her wild heart beats violently, the foam gathers on her lips, and her voice is terrible. . . . She paces to and fro in her cave and gesticulates as if she would expel the gods from her breast.”45
During the time of the fiftieth annual Olympic Games and the founding of the city of Rome, the Sibyl of Cumae approached King Tarquin with nine books of her prophecies, claiming they contained the entire future history of Rome.46 Tarquin ruled from 534 to 510 B.C. This wizened old woman asked the king for nine bags of gold as payment, and he refused her exorbitant price. Right in front of King Tarquin she burned the first three of the nine books, which at the time he didn’t think was a big deal. However, her fame and reputation as a prophetess quickly grew, and when she later returned, she offered Tarquin the remaining six books for the same price. Again he refused—and again she burned the next three books right in front of him, making her seem all the more crazy. Nonetheless, by the time she returned with the final three books, she had become truly legendary for her accuracy. The king’s advisors urged him to accept her offer even though she still asked him for nine bags of gold—and he finally accepted.
Regardless of what any skeptics may think in modern times about the art of prophecy, the Sibylline Leaves were soon considered to be the greatest treasure in all of Rome—precious beyond any and all other government assets. They were renowned for their stunning accuracy, which apparently included a prediction of the invasion of Hannibal and his eventual defeat seven hundred years before it happened, as well as a prediction of Constantine by name, eight hundred years before he was born.47 They were consulted in times of great national emergency, such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, diseases and hardship.48 Michelangelo even included a depiction of the Sibyl of Cumae in his famous painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.49
As the Sibyl of Cumae originally described to Tarquin, these books apparently did contain the future history of Rome—but the problem was that the prophecies were worded in cryptic language that was not always clear. In many cases, when Roman emperors attempted to use the mystery texts to avoid a major catastrophe, they ended up actually fulfilling the prophecy they had hoped to prevent. For this reason the books were considered to be potentially dangerous; by trying to use them to stop a disaster from happening, you might actually create the disaster. They were thus kept under high security in vaults within subterranean chambers in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill in Rome—accessible only to the high priests. The chambers and the temple were completed as of 500 B.C., specifically to st
ore this treasure—which was only to be consulted in the most severe emergencies.
The Roman Senate considered the texts so valuable that ultimately an entire College of Priests was tasked to either track down or reenvision the first six lost volumes. They never succeeded in recovering the original words of the Sibyl. When Marcus Atilius authorized someone to copy the original three books, going against the official secrecy, he was punished by death—sewn into a sack and thrown into the Tiber River.50 Virgil was finally allowed to copy some of the texts into his Eclogues as of A.D. 82,51 and the temple of Jupiter then burned in A.D. 83, destroying most, if not all of the originals. General Flavius Stilicho burned the remaining copies in A.D. 405, believing them to be pagan and evil. Five years later, when Rome was invaded by the Visigoths, some felt this was Rome’s punishment for having destroyed the prophetic texts.
The Source Field Investigations Page 14
