Gary A. David

Circular towers of stone, like pyramids, are found on both sides of the Atlantic. The common figure linking these structures, however, proves to be the serpent or snake. Cultures as diverse as the Celts of Ireland and the Hopi of Arizona associate this religiously and psychologically charged reptile with round temples reaching toward moisture-laden storm clouds.

The historic relationship between flying shields and the Native Americans of Arizona has become a part of a long tradition. Legends of ancient star beings that pilot spacecraft and sometimes mate with the indigenous people are an accepted fact for the native peoples, not a matter of dispute.

Legends from the ancient Hopi Indians abound with what they call magical flying shields. Although this northern Arizona tribe has traditionally been known as the People of Peace, the warrior shield could be an apt analogy because in Hopi culture the concept of war is inexplicably connected to the stars.

The traditional term used for flying saucer is paatuwvota. Since the Hopi word paa means water, paatuwvota possibly refers to the expanding concentric rings in a lake or pool. This might be a metaphorical description for the way the strange airborne device appears to operate. For a desert people like the Hopi, water is synonymous with wonder—perhaps the type evoked by witnessing these spacecraft.

Secluded in idyllic Frijoles Canyon is a circular masonry building with an almost unpronounceable name: Tyuonyi (Chew-OHN-yee). In the Keresan language of the people who once lived there, the pueblo’s name literally means ‘meeting place’ or ‘treaty place’. The prehistoric “apartment complex” on the canyon floor may have thus been a hub, drawing in different native groups, including Keres and Tewa, from across the Pajarito Plateau and beyond.

The two-to-three story pueblo had 300 ground-floor rooms –about 400 total– arranged around a central plaza in tiers extending from three to eight deep. The back rooms would have been used for storage more than for living quarters. An easily defensible entrance on the east side allowed the only access to the D-shaped plaza, which contained three kivas at the north end arranged in a row like Orion’s belt.  A Great Kiva outside the pueblo may also correspond to the star Sirius.

The Mothman's flight patterns seem to range extensively through space and time. Just as he was seen along the Ohio River in recent times, he haunted the Rio Puerco Valley of New Mexico 700 years ago. The range of Datura is equally extensive, from the East to the West Coasts of the United States and from Canada down to southern Mexico. Perhaps this potent psychoactive plant merely opens a dark doorway through which the inter-dimensional Mothman flies toward the light. Whatever the reality, this wingéd wraith has taken hold of our modern imagination just as surely as it must have moved those pueblo people at Pottery Mound so long ago.

Nota bene: Dr. Andrew Weil highlights the negative aspects of the plant: "Datura is not a nice drug. Although sometimes classified as a hallucinogen, it should not be confused with the psychedelics. It is much more toxic than the psychedelics and tends to produce delirium and disorientation. Moreover, Datura keeps bad company. All over the world it is a drug of poisoners, criminals, and black magicians."

The universality of the Maltese Cross: The Maltese Cross is found in virtually all corners of the world. It is basically an eight-pointed, equilateral cross with each arm gradually expanding in width at the outer edge. The Arabic numeral 8 turned on its side represents infinity, whereas the octagonal shape was incorporated into Christian baptismal fonts. This cross looks like a grouping of four arrowheads with their apexes converging at a central point. It symbolizes the four cardinal directions or possibly the four points on the horizon corresponding to the sunrises and sunsets of the summer and winter solstices. In this context it represents the sun.

Most of us shudder when we see photos of swastikas on Nazi flags or on the uniforms of the Third Reich. It reminds us of that terrible historical period in the mid-20th century when hatred threatened to rule the world. Most of us would be surprised to learn, however, that this emblem was once an ancient symbol known the world over to represent just the opposite: peace, prosperity, and fortuity.

This essay discusses the Egyptian Star Correlation projected on the desert near modern-day Cairo, which is comprised of a four key constellations: 1. Orion (Giza pyramids = belt stars; Abu Ruwash = Saiph; Zawyat Al Aryan = Bellatrix; Abusir = Meissa) 2. Canis Major (Sirius = Letopolis) 3. Leo (Regulus = Heliopolis) and 4. Gemini (Pollux and Castor = the limestone quarries of Mokattam and Tura). Add a final locus of Saqqara and the Blazing Star of the Nile is formed—a five-pointed celestial symbol of transcendence and immortality. In addition, the constellations Taurus hovers off to the south (Aldebaran = the Red Pyramid; Epsilon Tauri = the Bent Pyramid; Zeta Tauri = Memphis).
Moreover, a square formed by four of the five points is oriented to the cardinal directions. The hypotenuse shared by its two right triangles is a line from Giza to Heliopolis (azimuth 45°). This extended vector points northeast to Baalbek and ultimately Mount Ararat. The 135° vector (Letopolis to Mokattam/Tura) points southeast to Mecca in Saudi Arabia and to Awwam in Yemen. The 225° vector (Heliopolis to Giza) points southwest to the Libyan Desert Glass region and ultimately the Igbo territory of the Niger Delta. The 315° vector (Mokattam/Tura to Letopolis) points northwest to Minoan Crete and perhaps the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. The geodetic construction of Duat template ranged from Heliopolis and Letopolis south to Memphis. The pattern consisted of pyramids, temples, obelisks, astronomical observatories, and sacred quarries, each corresponding to a specific constellation. The ancient Egyptians erected a scale model of the celestial Afterlife in the form of the Blazing Star, itself a symbol of the primary goddess Isis.

Many ancient cultures around the world have legends of the Birdman, which describe in various forms some sort of half-human, half-avian creature. These tales are possibly connected to our universal psychological yearnings for flight. In liturgical literature and visual art, for instance, the appearance of angels, or simply humans with wings, may be the result of our innate desire to soar above the Earth into the realm of God. The soul itself is sometimes portrayed as winging up to heaven. More archaic traditions conceptualize the bird as a psychopomp, carrying the soul to the underworld.

In his book The Orion Zone: Ancient Star Cities of the American Southwest, independent researcher Gary David shows how the constellation Orion provided the template by which the Anasazi (ancestral Hopi) determined the precise locations of their villages during migrations across the southwestern United States that lasted centuries. Spiritually mandated by the Hopi god Masau'u, this terrestrial Orion closely mirrors its celestial counterpart, with a prehistoric “city” corresponding to each major star in the constellation. By its specific orientation this sidereal pattern projected upon the Arizona desert also encodes various sunrise and sunset points of both summer and winter solstices. The astral-tellurian configuration surprisingly includes at least one contiguous constellation as well, Canis Major. The flux of ley line energy along a series of ancient pueblo sites ranging from southwestern Colorado to the mouth of the Colorado River additionally indicates a functional chakra system of Orion brought down to earth. In this article Mr. David gives us an overview of his main findings.

Deep Impact déjà vu DATELINE: 47,000 YEARS BP, ARIZONA As the fiery bolide streaked toward its terrestrial destination, the end of the world must have seemed imminent. Although not nearly the size that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period, this mass of cosmic nickel-iron measured 150 feet across and weighed 300,000 tons. It slammed into the ground at 40,000 miles per hour with a force equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT. The impact and resulting explosion instantly created a bowl-shaped crater 570 feet deep and 4,100 feet in diameter. Extending nearly two-and-a-half miles, its circumference is not a circle or oval as one would expect but instead a square with the corners rounded off. If the meteorite struck during the day, the eruption of ejecta, dust, and smoke would have risen high into the deep blue sky, obscuring the sun. If it hit at night, the blinding flash would have illuminated the landscape, turning darkness into broad daylight. The blast shook the ground and produced shock waves in the air for miles in every direction. Without warning, this bizarre astro-geological formation suddenly loomed more than 150 feet above the plane of high desert, much as it does today. Barringer Meteorite Crater was named after Daniel Moreau Barringer, a Philadelphia lawyer and mining engineer who staked his claim in hopes of making a profit from this desolate stretch of sagebrush and red sandstone in northern Arizona. White settlers had found some thirty