Modern mathematical science deals in precise measurements accurate to many decimal places. Simple integers rarely appear. the trend has recently been toward reforming our units of measure to get away from specific objects of reference and base them on universal physical properties. in ancient times people tried much the same thing, but, not having an arithmetical system, they used whole numbers of the same length (the inch) to measure astronomical time (the day). then, using geometry, they created their first objective measure, a megalithic yardAny unit of length 2.7-2.73 feet long, after Alexander Thom discovered 2.72 ft and 2.722 ft as units within the geometry within the megalithic monuments of Britain and Brittany., which expressed the difference between the solar and lunar year.
Their idea of sticking to whole numbers remains part of our number theory and, as Leopold Kronecker famously said, “God created the natural numbers, all else is the work of man.” The natural numbers or integers carry with them a sense of unity and design as to how they interact with one another. As symbols these number relationships affect the physical world and this suggests they provided a fundamental creative fabric for the universe. the constructions made by megalithic people present such a view. The monuments could only reflect a “heavenly pattern” (“as above, so below”) because the fabric of abstract whole number relationships appears to have been employed in a later weaving of planetary time cycles, which were then seen as the work of some god or gods (the demiurge) who surrounded the earth with numerical time ratios.
Today it is not easy to believe in an organizing role in the world between whole numbers and the structure of the physical systems that surround us, the earth, and the solar system. however, many of our institutions are relics of a time when human life was organized to correspond with such a reality, as with the historically widespread seven day week, the twelvefold division of space, the ideas behind many of our religious symbols, the organization of ancient and modern calendars, and the units of measure we still use. Those who investigate this phenomenon of ancient number association must either assume these were
merely ancient beliefs without a substantial basis in fact or be damned
(as a regressive influence within a modern scientific age) for suggesting
that the world has a numerical design.
However, such polarizations of thought usually hide great riches, despite
being sat on by the proverbial dragons of cultural prejudice. The ancient
number theory was a system of thought at least as grand as ours that connected human thought and action to the causes of the universe itself, and
did so in a more direct way than our own science or religions do for common citizens today. Indeed, this ancient science appears to have invented
our religions and developed the numeracy underlying our modern science.
The number relationships of the following chapters imply one of two
things. Either the planet we call earth has been created according to some
numerical criteria or some incredible genius in the past invented an amazing numerical discipline to make it look as though the earth had been
created by inventing a system of measures, a map of astronomical time,
and a model of the earth’s geoid (its shape and size) that conform elegantly to several numerical relationships. This ancient geoid was remarkably simple, being based upon different approximations to pior π: The constant ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, approximately equal to 3.14159, in ancient times approximated by rational approximations such as 22/7. and made implicit within ancient metrologyThe application of units of length to problems of measurement, design, comparison or calculation. through the cunning use of whole number ratios. one has to question whether it was possible to have created such a wonderful artifact without the earth actually being like that.
It might have been fitting for early man’s intuitive powers to have
been awakened in this way, as an artifact of creation. It appears unlikely
that the massive bodies surrounding the earth could have accidentally
fallen into time cycles so rationally interrelated, especially when the earth
is not at the center of the solar system. It stands out that the entire solar
system is somewhat focused on the earth, making its cycles fit some
meaningful criteria just as the shape of the earth is found related to time.
The factual basis for creationism is not at odds with modern science
but rather with a modern superimposition, which mistakenly concludes
that the gods of religion did not, in any way, make the world (just as we
alter it using physical forces). But eliminating something from possible
proof is fundamentally unscientific and, in this case, an unfortunate
reaction against an ancient world where the knowledge of such gods was
an exact science like our own.
If some ancient group or groups managed to read astronomical time and the shape of the earth, then their genius was already old by the time of the ancient Near east, whose numerical sciences were derivative but now definitive, defining what any ancient astronomy could have been. I suggest that what followed the original astronomical discoveries, recorded in the megalithsStructures built out of large little-altered stones in the new stone age or neolithic between 5,000-2,500 (bronze age), in the pursuit of astronomical knowledge., was a descent into superstition about the gods and an ascent into today’s mathematics, focused on the calculations and proofs possible once numbers were liberated from being the lengths within geometrical structures.
The scientists of the megalithic can then be seen as having had a distinct purpose for the evolution of the human intellect, to establish both an early exact science and to develop our religious symbolic cultures, where symbols were religious intermediaries, expressing the form of the gods. The megalithic sciences may also have been an initiation for the human mind, anticipating the kind of cultural mind we have today and this, like many real-world initiatives, probably met with complications due to the behavior of the human groups aggregating around the new technologies of, first, a bronze age and then an iron age.
Now relegated to our cultural unconscious, we need the megalithic culture to be better appreciated today, as they give a deeper explanation for why this planet and its living systems are special within the universe. technology appears to be “dumbing down” the post-industrial population into mere users and consumers of convenience and entertainment, unconnected to the cosmos. It further appears impossible to politically resolve the set of impacts we are inflicting upon the natural environment, potentially marring the living planet. religious beliefs are often so dissociated from any megalithic origins that faith is often lost or dogmatic. most importantly, the functional model of human action, compatible with our scientific experimental methods, is commonly
believed to have disproved any cosmic purpose for a human life.
The megalithic discovery of the world as a purposeful creation within the cosmos was also a discovery that human development, like that of the earth and the planets, needs to follow a law-conformable path. the lost paradigm of number association, organizing the world in an intelligible way, has not been detectable to modern astronomy, and, indeed, the peer review process rejects any theory that lacks a physical causation. The whole point about ancient number science is that it looked at numbers as organizing principles rather than as the outcomes of physical measurements.
In my research I’ve found that understanding megalithic monuments
conveys a sense of theater, for such monuments were often staged productions rather than operational structures. the builders of these monuments
took care to enhance their pedagogical veracity, even for unknown future
audiences such as visitors from our own time. the theatricality becomes
clearer when the exact techniques required to encode the depth of information into the monuments are properly recognized. the large stones we associate with the megalithic period would only have gotten in the way of actual
megalithic activities, which instead used tools consisting of bone, wood,
and fiber. the stone monuments were largely retrospectives upon their scientific work and only represented their implicit methods of working.
We are faced today with a sad fact, that the megalithic has been ill appreciated by recent centuries because of our own competing interests and attitudes emerging from religion and science. unlike ourselves, the peoples of the megalithic did science before religion and almost certainly created their mythologies through new types of exact knowledge of sky and earth. Their developed language, visible at megalithic sites as alignmentsIn general, to the sun and moon on the horizon, rising in the east or setting in the west.
Also, a name special to Carnac's groups of parallel rows of stones, called Le Menec, Kermario, Kerlescan, and Erdevan., geometry, and exact measures, has a contemporary role in leaving open a last chance to see the foundations of our own civilization. Some of these large stone buildings still exist solely because of the use of megaliths, as if to preserve their knowledge despite coming changes.
Examining these megalithic sites, one can glean perspectives about
these enigmatic precursors of civilization and the megalithic mode of
human existence. Integrating their new knowledge into humanity’s
oldest stories, we can discover not only megalithic ideas about the role
and status of human beings in the universe but also the essence of the
megalithic imagination that preserved these ideas in stone for millennia.
I propose that modern cultural life would benefit at this time from a
now-freshened renaissance of the prehistoric worldview.
Click here to view the publisher page , where extra information on this and my other books, including reviews, can be found. The contents of Sacred Number and the Lords of Time are:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One
A Journey to the Lords of Time
1 The Awakening of the Stone Age
Right Time, Right Place, Right Circumstances
An Awakening to the Structure of Time
Counting without Numbers
Megalithic Notation Using Day-Inch CountingThe practice of counting the days, using inches or other small units, between synodic phenomena such as years or planetary loops.
2 The Transmission of the Squares
Finding the Perfect Place
A Bigger Coincidence Concerning Squares
The Egyptian CanevasA technique of geometrical knowledge expressed within multiple square grids, noted and named by Schwaller de Lubicz in Pharaonic art and temple building. (2500-1500 BCE)
3 Megalithic Revelations at CarnacAn extensive megalithic complex in southern Brittany, western France, predating the British megalithic.
The Multiple-Square Geometries of Le Manio
The Time Temple of Locmariaquer
Mane Ruthual and the EclipticThe path of the Sun through the sky along which eclipses of sun and moon can occur, traditionally divided into the 365¼ parts of the solar year, each part then a DAY in angle rather than time. Pole
Re-creating the Cosmic Clockwork
4 The Framework of Change on Earth
How Circumpolar Observatories Work
Capturing Sidereal Time
Early Perspectives on a Created World
Part Two
The Journey Back to Earth
5 Looking South to Measure the Earth
The Metrological Sciences: Counting, Geometry, and Scaling
The Royal Cubit3/2 feet of any sort, such as 12/7 {1.714285}, 1.5 Royal feet of 8/7 feet, but sometimes a double foot, such as the Assyrian {9/10} of 1.8 feet. at Gavrinis
Measures Born of the Earth
Meditations upon the Form of the Earth
Coincidences as Relics of the Creation
6 The Megalithic Model of the Earth
The GeodeticUnits of measures and monumental measurements relating to the numerical definition of the shape of the Earth by the late megalithic. Key to Stonehenge
The Henge as a Model of the Earth
Discovering Degrees at Stonehenge
Avebury, the Quarter Degree, and the Model of the Earth
Pi in the Earth
7 From Egypt to Jesus
YHWH as a God of History
The Many Faces of Precession
Framework Conditions for Planet Earth
The Ark of the Covenant
8 Designer Planet
The Geometer’s Gift
The Pattern Placed in Stonehenge
Lessons Left in Egypt
Looking Back to Europe
9 The Time Factoring of the Earth
The Start of a Mesoamerican Megalithic Era
A Road with One Measure and Two Meanings
The Geodetic Links to Day-Inch Counting
Saturn’s Connection with the Pole
Understanding Saturn’s Masterpiece
Appendix: Further Demonstrations of the Ancient System of Number Association
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index