The equinox and the plane of the ecliptic





















The earth is approaching the point on its orbit known as the September equinox (autumnal equinox for observers in the northern hemisphere, where it is autumn, although it is spring in the southern hemisphere).

The diagram above is an attempt to diagram the cause of the solstices and equinoxes a little differently than they are usually shown. The horizontal glass plate represents the "plane of the ecliptic" -- that is, the plane upon which the orbit of the earth takes place around the sun. Imagine the sun as being to the left on this image.

Note that the sun itself will trace out a path across the daytime sky along this plane, but it will not be "horizontal" to an observer on earth. To understand why, take a look at the above diagram, in which an observer is represented by a red "thumbtack" pushed into the earth (OK, it's a low-tech computer generated thumbtack). To this observer, the sun will actually arc high across the sky, but always at an angle less than 90 degrees, and tilted towards the southern horizon.

The earth in the image above is at the June solstice, so the north pole is aligned towards the sun (as directly "pointed at" the sun as it ever gets). Note that the antique-style globe in the image has an equator depicted -- this equator can be projected into the celestial sphere to give the "celestial equator" (90 degrees from the celestial north pole -- for more discussion of the celestial sphere, re-visit the web pages of the Polynesian Voyaging Society and the blog post here). During the day (looking towards the plate of glass in the photo above from the observer's red thumbtack on the globe) the sun will be above the celestial equator, but at night (looking out into space toward the right in the photo) the ecliptic path (which the planets generally follow as well, since they are orbiting the sun very close to this same plane of glass) will be below the celestial equator.

In the image below, the globe is shown at the position of the December solstice, and now the north pole is pointed left and the sun would be located to the right of the photo (along the plate of glass or "plane of the ecliptic").






















Notice that our observer is still represented by a red "thumbtack" pushed in to the same latitude (the latitude of Egypt, home of those ancient celestial observers). Look at how much shallower the path of the sun will be across the daytime sky for this observer. It will be much closer to his southern horizon. It will cross the sky south of the celestial equator -- it will follow a path between the celestial equator and the southern horizon. Note that at night, when the earth rotates our little red observer to the left and he gazes left into the night sky (away from the sun) he will see that the ecliptic path of the planets and zodiac constellations is actually above the celestial equator (towards the north celestial pole).

These two diagrams should help to illuminate the reason that the sun's arc does not remain at the same tilt throughout the year -- if the sun's arc were a rainbow, the rainbow would be tilted at a steeper angle through the sky on the summer solstice and at a much shallower angle (tilted way more towards the horizon) on the winter solstice. This fact was depicted in a diagram from a post back on the time of the June solstice this year (that diagram is reproduced again below).

























Armed with this understanding, we can now understand that the equinoxes take place when the earth is going around the plane of glass in the diagrams and the sun is "broadsides" to the earth (if the earth were a ship and the north and south poles were the bow and the stern, the ship would be going past the sun such that the sun was directly off the starboard or larboard side). Because of this, as the earth rotates, the sun will rise precisely in the east and as it continues to rotate the sun will set precisely in the west. The diagram below shows the earth going by the sun on an equinox -- think of it as a ship if that helps.






















Naturally, if the sun moves in an arc through the daytime sky that is north of the celestial equator on the June solstice (in the northern hemisphere) and south of the celestial equator on the December solstice (in the northern hemisphere), then at some point the sun's daily path must cross the celestial equator. This event takes place twice each year on the equinoxes. For observers in the northern hemisphere, the September or autumnal equinox is the day the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator from the north to the south, on its way to the December or winter solstice. Likewise, the June or spring equinox for the northern hemisphere is the day the ecliptic crosses back from the south to the north of the celestial equator.

In the yellow notepad drawing above, note that the sunrise points move to the north and to the south during the year, reaching the northernmost rising point on the summer solstice (marked "SS" in the drawing) and the southernmost rising point on the winter solstice (marked "WS"). On the equinoxes, the sun's rising coincides with the point that the circle of the celestial equator strikes the horizon -- due east. From the autumn equinox, the sun's rising point will then continue to march south towards the winter solstice rising point further south along the eastern horizon.

This year, the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator on the morning of September 23 (the date is a function of the Gregorian calendar, so the date shifts a bit from one year to the next until the next leap year keeps the dates from drifting too far).

Considering the plane of the ecliptic helps give a greater understanding of the mechanics of the solstices and the equinoxes.






Does the direction you lay your head down to sleep matter?























Does it matter which direction your body is oriented when you lay your head down to sleep?

Some ancient civilizations apparently thought so. The Mahabharata, one of the ancient texts of India, was probably composed in the 8th or 9th centuries BC but possibly much older than that (certainly the authors of Hamlet's Mill demonstrate throughout their book that the Mahabharata contains encoded ancient knowledge which is likely from the same source as the ancient knowledge that turns up in ancient Egypt and ancient Sumer and other civilizations around the world -- we have examined one such piece of evidence from the Mahabharata in this previous post). The Mahabharata instructs its readers:
They that are wise should never see themselves in an unpolished or dirty mirror. One should never have sexual congress with a woman that is unknown or with one that is quick with child. One should never sleep with head turned towards the north or the west. [See this online version, and to find the passage cited, look in the section marked page 199, in section 104].
This very ancient injunction against sleeping with the head to the north or to the west has been preserved among Indian culture, according to some sources. For example, Swami Buaji (who lived to quite an advanced age) apparently believed the same thing about the importance of the direction of the head while sleeping. In this passage, which is cited around the internet in various places, he says:
"Never lie down to sleep with your head northward or westward" is a common injunction given from time immemorial by the Indian mother to her children. Almost every Hindu- orthodox or heterodox- observes this dictum of his ancestors, but he doesn't know the rationale or significance behind the dictum, although it has been handed down to him through generations. For example, Vishnu Purana says: "O King! It is beneficial to lie down with the head placed eastward or southward. The man who lies down with his head placed in contrary directions becomes diseased." The Varshaadi Nool says: "Sleeping eastward is good; sleeping southward prolongs life; sleeping westward and northward brings ruin." The Mahabharata says: "Men become wise by sleeping eastward and southward." There are two Tamil proverbs which run thus: "Vaaraatha Vashvu Vanthaalum Vadakkae Thalai Vaikkakkuudathu", meaning; " Even in the heyday of sudden fortune, one should not lie down with head to the north", and " Vidakkeiyayinum Vadakkaakaathu", meaning: "Even the head of the dried fish should not be placed northward." The Ayurvedic physician seats his patients facing eastward before diagnosing the disease or administering his medicine. Brides and bridegrooms are always seated facing eastward on the wedding day. Even corpses are placed down with the head southward.
In addition to cited numerous other texts and proverbs beyond the Mahabharata, Swami Buaji also gives some explanation as to why he believed the direction of the body at rest was important. According to that Yogi, human beings reflect the planet earth in having a north pole and a south pole, and the alignment of our body while sleeping matters because the flow of energy through the earth effects our own magnetic field.

This unrelated website appears to counsel very much the same thing, arguing the importance of the direction of the body during sleep and proposing that head facing east and feet facing west is beneficial.

We have seen in previous posts that ancient cultures appear to have been aware of the low-frequency underground electric currents called telluric energy which flow through the earth (see for instance "Magnetic polarity at Avebury Henge"). It is quite likely that the ancients were aware of some of the influence that the earth's energy has on the human body (some researchers point to evidence that this energy also impacts seeds and the positive growth of plants).

Even in our supposedly advanced modern civilization, we know very little about sleep. In fact, the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School admits that we still do not even really know why we and other animals require sleep at all! Recent studies have found a strong link between quality of sleep and successful aging.

Based upon the fact that Swami Buaji was healthy and active at a very advanced age (according to his followers, he was still teaching at ages over 110, determining his age by photographic evidence from various times in his life), it may be prudent to consider carefully his advice on the direction of the head and body during sleep. The fact that his teaching is backed up by very ancient texts, from civilizations that appear to have known more about the earth's energy field and its impact on life on earth than we do today, would appear to make his case even stronger.





The mysterious "sailing stones" of Racetrack Playa









note: Someone complained about the image originally published with this blog post (based on lack of digital rights to that image).  The previous image came from Wikimedia commons and I do not believe its use infringed with the rights as stated on its page on Wikimedia commons when I found it there at that time, in September of 2011.  However, that image has been removed and replaced with the above image, which also comes from Wikimedia commons and which carries a prominent statement that the author of the above image has released it into the public domain.  You can visit that Wikimedia commons page yourself by following this link:
 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Death-Valley-Recetrack.jpg

The text of the original post follows:


The Mojave Desert is a stark and beautiful geographical feature which holds a special place in my heart for two reasons.

First, growing up in California, I had the wonderful privilege as a boy of going on long car trips with my family across the great southwest to places such as Carlsbad Caverns, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, and Sedona, Arizona: all destinations which required passage through the vast Mojave. I have many fond memories, not only of these well-known sites but also of smaller out-of-the-way stops along the road, where signs or park rangers explained details of the incredible natural history of the area, and talked about the wildlife and the human history of those who have made that area their home.

Second, as a young Army officer I was deployed several times to the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California, smack in the middle of the Mojave Desert and not far from Death Valley. During the long days and nights in the desert I had the opportunity to drink in its unworldly beauty and stunning panoramas.

I well remember driving for hours at night in a column of Bradley Fighting Vehicles across the desert landscapes, the entire world bathed in the green light of my night vision goggles, across enormous valleys that seemed like they would never end, protruding from my Bradley turret and trying to stay awake and keep track of where we were at the same time, or coming down steep mountain passes in the late afternoon into the great Central Corridor, and feeling you could see for hundreds of miles, as if you were on a giant desert planet far from earth which dwarfed all human beings and their pathetic noisy machines of war.

There are several gigantic dry lakebeds there, such as Bicycle Lake or Silver Lake, entirely flat and bone dry, thousands of feet in length and long enough to accommodate multiple landing strips for huge Army cargo aircraft such as C-130s.

In other parts of the Mojave Desert, these dry lakes are called "playas," from the Spanish term for a beach (perhaps given that name with grim desert humor in the days of the Old West). Travelers driving to Las Vegas from Southern California along Interstate-15 pass by a couple large playas within sight of the interstate.

Further north, in Death Valley itself (still part of the Mojave) is the famous Racetrack Playa, so called because it contains mysterious "sailing stones" which leave racetrack-like trails in the mud of the dry lake. These wandering boulders, some of which weigh over 700 pounds, have mystified scientists and lay visitors alike, because to date no one has actually seen them move, much less photographed their lonely voyages, but move they do, from one location to another, leaving behind deep broad grooves in the earth to show their progress.

Here is a link to an online paper from the USGS written by two geologists who analyzed the trails of the Racetrack Playa rocks using GPS data. Here's another link to a discussion of the phenomenon which examines some of the theories that have been put forward over the years and proposes one which seems to be a likely candidate for the truth.

As both articles point out, the surface of the playa is almost perfectly flat, so flat in fact that just a couple inches of rain will cover the entire lakebed, which appears to rule out gravity as a driving force for these mysterious rock movements.

Some hypotheses put forward in the past suggested that strong winds might be able to move the rocks when the soil floor of the playa becomes wet and slick, but as the second article points out, the force of winds required to move rounded boulders weighing several hundred pounds through mud would be beyond hurricane speed. I can personally attest to the fact that winds in the Mojave can be quite extreme, and I have seen them roar through with enough force to blow the heavy rear hatch of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle back and forth, but even so I have never seen them blowing boulders around.

The theory put forward in the second article mentioned above, however, seems quite plausible, and is echoed in various other publications on the web, which is that thin layers of water which pool in the playa bottom after a rare desert rainfall or after runoff from the snow in the surrounding mountains can and often does freeze at night. These very thin ice sheets can be moved by much less severe winds, such as winds in the neighborhood of 10 to 60 mph. If so, boulders and stones in the ice sheet might well be carried along as the ice sheet is slid across the lakebottom surface by the wind, scouring marks in the soil below as they go.

The second article linked above indicates that several boulder tracks are often parallel and identical in their twists and turns, providing evidence that appears to support the allegation that they moved within a single ice sheet. However, the tracks recorded by GPS in the first article linked above, as well as the photograph entitled "Figure 1: Two diverging sliding cobbles" on the first page, appears to argue against the mechanism of a single ice sheet moving the two boulders shown. Other theorists have suggested that "collars" of ice could form around individual rocks, enabling the wind to blow them more easily but still individually.

An interesting video showing the strong winds blowing thin layers of liquid water along the playa bed at Racetrack can be seen here.

The Mojave Desert in general and the dry-lakebed playas in particular appear to provide strong geographic support for the hydroplate theory of West Point and MIT graduate Dr. Walt Brown. We have discussed before the fact that the location of an extensive zone of barren volcanic geography at the front edge of a sliding "hydroplate" (in this case, the plate carrying North America) is consistent with Dr. Brown's theory that the great plates slid rapidly during the events surrounding a catastrophic rupture of the earth's surface and flood, building up tremendous friction and melting rock into magma especially along their forward edges. For a previous discussion of that concept, see "Ancient volcanic activity in the Mojave Desert."

The playas themselves are examples of geographic features in which runoff is limited but evaporation is high, creating conditions in which the floodwaters were trapped and slowly evaporated away, leaving high salt concentrations behind. As Dr. Brown explains on this page in his book, after the flood event:
Drainage of the waters that covered the earth left every continental basin filled to the brim with water. Some of these postflood lakes lost more water by evaporation and seepage than they gained by rainfall and drainage from higher elevations. Consequently, they shrank over the centuries. A well-known example was former Lake Bonneville, part of which is now the Great Salt Lake.
The playas of the Mojave are smaller examples of the same phenomenon.

The "sailing stones" of Racetrack Playa are a fascinating natural mystery, and one that may be solved soon. Then again, perhaps these silent travelers will continue to keep their secrets for many more thousands of years.

Rest in Peace Jimi Hendrix













Rest in peace Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 - September 18, 1970).

What more needs to be said about Jimi Hendrix that has not been said already? He had a titanic impact on music. In many ways, it can be accurately said that he singlehandedly created an entirely new way of playing the guitar, and that his visionary use of electronic amplifiers and recording studio equipment ushered in a new sound that had not existed before.

Every year at this time, at the anniversary of the passing of two iconoclastic musical artists (see also this previous post), we can pause and be reminded of the incredibly important role music plays, and the tremendous power it has on our lives.

The power of music is very much related to some of the central themes discussed in this blog -- see for example this previous post entitled "Why do we listen to beautiful music about heartbreak and misery?" There is some evidence that ancient advanced civilizations were aware of the power of music and its relation to harmonic concepts in mathematics and architecture -- perhaps more aware of it than we are today! See also this previous post and this previous post.

The first rock album I ever owned was a vinyl copy of the first album of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced? I listened to it over and over. I first heard this album while visiting my best friend Matt who had moved from Belmont (in the South Bay) to Nicasio (in the North Bay) and he had the album. It was the summer between 8th and 9th grade for us.

The song I loved to listen to the most was "May This Be Love" (also known as "the waterfall song" for obvious reasons -- see video below). When I started high school that fall, which was a stressful experience, I would think of this song in my head. Especially on the first day of high school, when I needed to think of it a lot.






The music of Jimi Hendrix lives on. Respect.

The Calixtlahuaca head

















Calixtlahuaca is an ancient Mesoamerican site located near the present-day city Toluca in Mexico. The site was occupied by the Aztecs, but the structures there were built by a people who came before the Aztecs, a people whom the Aztecs referred to as "Toltecs," or "the Builders."

While the site is important in its own right for the impressive ancient structures there, particularly the distinctive circular temples (possibly related to astronomical observations), it is also noteworthy for the discovery of the controversial "Calixtlahuaca head," an image of which can be seen on this Wikipedia entry (and in other places on the web). It is worth clicking through to check it out, as it clearly depicts an individual with European features including a beard and mustache.

The head was discovered in 1933 during the excavation led by Jose Garcia Payon, underneath two undisturbed cemented floors predating the Aztec period, according to this article describing the find. It sat mostly forgotten in storage in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City until 1990, when an archaeology student named Romeo Hristov, who had read the accounts of the head and initiated a search for it, located the artifact after two years of research.

Not only does the sculptured head clearly display European features, but details of the style used indicate that it is Roman in origin and style. Professional scholars have examined the head and declared that it is "unquestionably" Roman in origin. Dating by thermoluminescence in 1995 suggested that the head is not a modern fake, but was sculpted some time between 870 BC and AD 1270, an admittedly broad range but old enough to indicate that it was made well before historically known European contact with the civilizations of the Americas.

Predictably, defenders of the conventional paradigm, which disallows regular contact between ancient peoples who were separated by the vast oceans of the Atlantic or the Pacific, have suggested that the head was either planted at the site as a prank prior to its discovery in 1933, or that early Spanish conquistadors introduced it and that the twentieth-century excavators mistakenly thought it had come from an undisturbed older area, or that some Roman ship may have been blown off course and the head kept as a treasured object by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica.

A good example of the kind of alternative explanations that skeptics propose in order to avoid the possibility that ancient civilizations could have had sustained contact with the Mesoamerican civilizations (or that ancient Europeans, Phoenicians, Egyptians or other Old World peoples could have actually been living in Mesoamerica for extended periods) can be found here, from a professor at Arizona State University.

As we have said before about other "anomalous" finds (such as the head of the Ruamahanga woman, which is not a sculpture but an actual skull which can be dated with radiocarbon dating and analyzed using mitochondrial DNA examinations), if this Calixtlahuaca head were the only piece of evidence suggesting ancient trans-oceanic contact, then it is certainly appropriate to suggest alternative explanations and to prefer them to a possibility that has no other support. However, the fact is that there are many other pieces of evidence that ancient mankind was far more advanced than we give credit for, and that ancient civilizations could and did traverse the oceans, including:
In light of all the evidence (and the above examples are merely the tip of the iceberg), why do so many professors and historians privilege speculative explanations with absolutely no evidence to back them up over the obvious conclusion that ancient civilizations could and did cross the oceans regularly? Why is it that orthodox scholars find it more likely that some of the other participants in the 1933 excavation that unearthed the Calixtlahuaca head just happened to have an authentic Roman head with them on the dig, which they planted as a joke? Or that early Spanish conquistadors happened to haul an ancient sculpted Roman head along with them into the jungle on horseback for some unknown reason, in order to leave it in Calixtlahuaca? At least in this case the ridiculous explanation that ancient Mesoamericans simply sculpted a head that accidentally and unintentionally looks European has not been trotted out, as is the case with other sculpted faces and figures found in other sites.

Again, if it were to turn out that the Calixtlahuaca head were to be proven to be a hoax, or that somehow it really was brought to Mexico in the 1500s by the Spaniards for some reason, this would not really damage the thesis that advanced ancient civilizations were in contact with the Americas. The Calixtlahuaca is only "one data point" in a huge pile of other pieces of evidence which point to conclusions other than the conventional storyline. However, in light of all the other evidence, it is very likely that the Calixtlahuaca head is another important sign declaring that most of what we have been taught about the ancient history of mankind is wrong.

Why is it that most people have never heard of this important 1933 discovery? And why is it that conventional scholars are so anxious to dismiss it?

Birthdate of H. A. Rey



















September 16 is the birthdate of the wonderful author H. A. Rey (16 September 1898 - 26 August 1977), best known for the Curious George books, which he created along with his wife Margret.

Readers of this blog will know that H. A. Rey also wrote some of the very best books on the constellations and stargazing, which are discussed in this previous post (among other places on this blog). His innovative method for diagramming the constellations was (and remains) far superior to anything that came before it or that has been devised since, in my personal opinion. It is extremely useful to anyone who wants to go out and try their hand at finding constellations tonight -- for some discussion and examples see this previous post (constellation Virgo) and this previous post (constellation Boötes).

Rey's books on the stars also contain lucid explanations (with excellent and helpful illustrations) of the concept of the zodiac, the declination and right ascension of stars, the phases of the moon, and the precession of the equinoxes.

Rey's personal life involved escaping with his wife from the Nazi occupation of Paris just in time with the help of two bicycles that he assembled from spare parts. The story is related by Garrison Keillor in today's "Writer's Almanac." Both Rey and his wife were Jewish.

He was born Hans Augusto Reyersbach in Hamburg, Germany.

The world is immensely richer for his life.

Tobacco and coca byproducts in ancient Egyptian mummies




















Many people are unaware that researchers have found evidence of substances derived from tobacco and coca in tests conducted on ancient Egyptian mummies. Children being taught conventional views of mankind's ancient history in school are rarely if ever given all the evidence and encouraged (or even permitted) to form their own conclusion based on their analysis of the preponderance of evidence. The presence of substances such as tobacco and coca is ignored, suppressed, or dismissed as "pseudoarchaeology" because such substances present a very difficult problem for the reigning academic theories.

It is generally agreed that tobacco and coca are New World plants, unknown to Old World civilizations prior to 1492. Detection of tobacco and coca in ancient Egyptian mummies implies extremely ancient contact across the oceans, and not mere chance contact either. It is one thing to admit the possibility that a random Mediterranean ship was somehow blown off course and made it to the New World, and then somehow returned, but the detection of tobacco derivatives and coca derivatives in the hair follicles of ancient mummies indicates familiarity and ongoing use -- evidence for deliberate, ongoing, long-term trans-ocean contact and a "logistics chain" for obtaining such plants.

Here is an article from the website of Colorado State University discussing the most well-known tests which found evidence of coca- and tobacco-derived substances in Egyptian mummies (namely cocaine and nicotine). It argues that, although the initial reaction to the publication of the results of this study in 1992 was skepticism and disbelief from the academic community, that reaction was based primarily upon firmly-held assumptions about the ancient history of mankind and not upon the evidence itself.

This article describes the earlier discovery in 1976 of plant fragments within the wrappings of the mummy of the well-known and powerful Pharaoh Ramses II (or Ramesses II). Close examination of the fragments revealed that they were tobacco. The theory that these tobacco fragments were somehow dropped there from the cigar or pipe of a nineteenth-century archaeologist was later weakened by the discovery of further tobacco inside the abdomen of the mummy itself. Nevertheless, many skeptics continue to maintain that any evidence of tobacco products in the Ramses II mummy must have been introduced later.

The Ramses II mummy also contains evidence of cannabis, which was known in the Old World (although not generally associated with the region and culture of ancient Egypt). Strangely, nobody seems to argue that nineteenth-century archaeologists accidentally dropped cannabis into the mummy.

The evidence from the Egyptian mummies is sensational, and perhaps more easily dismissed as fringe science because of our own (very strong) cultural perception about drugs and tobacco. However, it is by no means the only evidence of plant species which point to ongoing and regular ancient trans-Atlantic contact. This extensive study by two university professors lists plant after plant, many of them having nothing to do with altered states of consciousness, presenting extremely strong evidence for ancient contact between the "Old World" and the "New World." Species include jimson weed (native to North America, found in Europe and Asia), marigolds (also native to the New World, found in China and India), sarsparilla (native to the Old World, found in Central America), and certain breeds of cotton from the Old World found in South America, all with evidence indicating pre-Columbian transport of these plants.

Defenders of the prevailing timeline of history can labor mightily to dismiss the presence of coca and tobacco substances in ancient Egyptian mummies, but in the end this evidence is simply one more data point in a huge web of other evidence. In fact, even if it turned out that all the scientific studies which found coca and tobacco among these mummies were mistaken or even fraudulent, it would not really matter. The other evidence is overwhelming that ancient trans-oceanic contact did take place. For previous discussions of some of this evidence, see also this post, this post, and this post (among others), and the evidence discussed in the Mathisen Corollary book itself.