by Carlton Brown
An exciting two minute video book trailer gives you a rapid overview for a broader context, and a free KMZ file containing 450 pyramid and temple sites brings this story to life in Google Earth. Instructions for its use are included in the download.
Introduction
Four hundred and fifty (450) sacred sites and the deity art & icons from four different Sun god religions were researched using a common framework. This framework identified symbolic information embedded in temple alignments, art and icons and other information pertaining to altered states of consciousness (ASC). These archaeological sites were once the epicenters of their religions. As such, priesthoods once resided here and held domain over them, leaving a collective fingerprint—ensured by their teaching and time keeping needs—of their symbolically veiled ritual processes.
Site specifications captured within the research framework include:
1) Sacred space: included a sites geographical location i.e. proximity to a lightning center, fault line &/or volcano; its alignments relative to the overhead moving day-night boundary (solar terminator) and earth’s magnetic axis (geomancy), and the place where ritual took place; in some form of sensory isolation i.e. temple sanctum, pyramid chamber, or a cave / underground tunnel.
2) Sacred time: included pyramid & temple alignments both locally i.e. the equinox sunrises/sets, winter solstice sunrise (WSSR) and summer solstice sunset (SSSS), and regionally relative to the overhead solar terminator (on the WSSR/SSSS; seen by satellite), temple-pyramid superstructure features i.e. 47 degree angles as solstice symbols seen with some pyramid outlines, Hindu temple gates & spires, and in their deity art and icons as sacred time symbols i.e. V47 solstice, equinox serpents.
3) Sacred ritual: involved activities undertaken to catalyze the switch in one´s state of consciousness i.e. the consumption of entheogens (hallucinogens or neurochemicals from nature detailed in symbolic form in temple art as hallucinogenic flowers, fruit and fauna), and meditation, or drumming and/or pipe music.
Sacred ritual at its essence involved sacredly timed meditation conducted in sensory isolation (silence, or acoustic resonances) under the influence of hallucinogens, whilst potentially aligning the body to Earth´s magnetic fields (equinoxes; geomagnetic activity). Sacred time for the Sun god religions implied the winter solstice sunrise, summer solstice sunset, and equinox sunrises or sunsets (dependent on the phase of the moon i.e. new or full moon).
Sacred time coincided(s) with peaks in earth´s electromagnetic & magnetic fields. This offered four times a year when alpha-brainwaves could be maximally enhanced via entrainment processes. Alpha-brainwaves are the most important brainwave signature of people in deep meditative and transcendental states of consciousness. This is where the fanciful transcendental phenomena arise and deities, spirits, epic journeys, unity states of consciousness or god union, spiritual death / rebirth / resurrection (healing) and other transcendental phenomena were all played out.
The research framework filtered important information from the priesthood archaeological domains, identifying two separate and related archaeological fingerprints; site alignments recorded sacred time, and their sacred ritual processes were embedded in temple art and icons in symbolic form, which included sacred time symbols. You can read more about the second fingerprint, and the science and esoteric subjects involved in humans attaining and experiencing altered states of consciousness in Sun God Sacred Secrets.
A priesthood´s need to accurately tell time left its mark
Our ancient ancestors observed the sun, moon and stars rising, moving across the heavens, then setting, every day. They understood how the movements changed over time. They built structures on the ground— stone circles/megaliths, pyramids and temples— to help them keep track of these movements and to accurately tell time. This was important for society´s continued prosperity and to ensure their most important religious ritual-festival dates were secured.
Ancient calendar timekeeping is best comprehended by visualizing Earth’s daily rotation on its axis and its annual orbiting of the sun (space perspective), with the sun´s movement along the sunrise (east) and sunset (west) horizon between the solstice extremes (ground perspective). Most (80%) site alignments delineate one or more equinox sunrise/sets, winter solstice sunrise and its corresponding summer solstice sunset. Earth´s north-south (NS) axis is tilted 23.4 degrees from the solar system’s celestial pole, pointing toward Polaris in the northern night sky over the course of a day and year. Earth´s North Pole therefore faces the Sun to its greatest degree (+23.40) from vertical on the summer solstice on the 21st of June, and points furthest away from the Sun (?23.40) at the winter solstice on the 21st of December (vice versa Southern Pole). The equinoxes are midway between these solstice extremes on the spring (21st March) and autumn (21st September) equinoxes. This creates a 47 degree angular difference, which I believe was the ubiquitous solstice symbol found in art, icons and architectural superstructures the ancient Sun god world over.
The Sun rises on the eastern horizon and sets on the western horizon. On the winter solstice the sun rises and sets at its most southern extremity, and at the summer solstice at its most northern extremity. Midway between the solstices, or 91 days after a solstice, the Sun rises and sets on the spring and autumn equinoxes. On the equator these angular differences from solstice extremes represents 47 degrees. This angle increases the further north or south from the equator one goes.
Alignments provided a duality of purpose
Organizing time and creating order from the chaos of the ancient world was critically important for ancient societies. These societies built pyramids and temples to aid accurate timekeeping. This was crucial to their prosperity and was a key pursuit of priesthoods for millennia.
The commonly held view is that pyramid-temple alignments were related to timekeeping that informed the agricultural calendar. I believe this must expand to embrace the need to secure sacred time. After all, these were important places of religion first and foremost, which shared the solstices and equinoxes as their most important ritual-festival dates dedicated to their Sun gods. Accurate timekeeping was essential to propagating empire wide religions that placed the conduct of sacredly timed rituals by their leaders-priesthoods at societies´ epicenters.
The Solar Terminator or Day-Night Boundary
Why is the solar terminator (day-night boundary viewed from space) important to this story? Firstly, it delineates a regional pyramid-temple clustering alignment principle. Secondly it´s twice daily overhead passing generates some very interesting electromagnetic physics of relevance to human brainwave entrainment. The passing overhead solar terminator is observed on earth´s surface as dawn (peri-sunrise) and dusk (peri-sunset), and was associated with important Sun gods &/or their progeny tasked with protecting the solar horizons i.e. Horus, Hathor and Aker (Egypt) and Surya and Ashvin Twins (India).
The solar terminator moves across earth´s surface in a clockwise direction, as the earth rotates counterclockwise, at speeds of 1,600 km/h at the equator. As this day-night boundary moves overhead it is associated with ionization (sunrise) and deionization (sunset) processes in the upper atmosphere, which generate electromagnetic (EM) signals. These EM signals peak around the winter solstice sunrise and summer solstice sunset—which coincided with the timing of sacred rituals with transcendental intent. Viewed from space the solar terminator changes its NS alignment over the course of a year from its extremes of +/- 23.40, as depicted below
What information can be extracted from site alignments?
Regionally one can observe a clustering pattern of sacred site real estate. When you see this in Figure 4 below, you will be left many questions not least; was there a human colocation settlement logic across kingdoms and empires? After all these religions were also housed in cyclically and intermittently enriched electromagnetic (lightning centers, active fault lines and volcanoes) and geomagnetic fields (active fault lines and volcanoes).
That implies either pure chance at least four times, or that religion was an epicentral driving force for human settlement and colocation. More locally, pyramids and temples were aligned to the solstices (30%) and/or equinoxes (50%), which permitted accurate time keeping and the identification of sacred time.
Regional alignments indicate a colocation settlement logic
Something quite unexpected emerged from this project, once time-keeping archaeoastronomy and solar-terrestrial processes had been understood. A clustering pattern was identified, wherein 60-95% of a region´s religious real estate is bounded by a 2-7 minute wide time bandwidth associated with the solar terminator´s overhead passage on the winter solstice sunrise and summer solstice sunset, over 650-1,000km distances (see Figure 4).
This means that twice a year most of a religion´s collective sacred site real estate simultaneously experienced the same enhanced extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic (EM) fields (Schumann resonances) overhead. Interestingly, this also coincided with the timings of their most important ritual-festival dates dedicated to their Sun gods.
Additionally all four religions were located in (pre-Colombia Meso/South America, South India), or proximate to and on the same longitude (Egypt), as the global lightning centers. The lightning centers electrically discharge the inner magnetosphere which accumulates solar plasma charge via magnetic field reconnections with the interplanetary magnetic field, and ionization processes in the upper ionosphere.
Lightning generates Schumann resonances, which represent a band of extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic (EM) spectral peaks related to earth´s overhead cavity dimensions; that is EM waves up to 85km in amplitude and earth´s circumference in wavelength, and harmonics thereof.
Schumann resonance spectral peaks also correspond to the different brainwave frequency bands; alpha, beta, delta, gamma. Science shows how Schumann resonances can entrain (enhance) specific brainwave frequency bands, and alpha brainwaves appear most susceptible to external enhancements (amplitudes; power).
Pre-Colombian Meso/South American sites also reside within intermittently active fault lines and volcanic zones. Earthquakes (EQ) and active volcanoes are important local generators of intermittently enhanced ELF electromagnetic wave and magnetic fields. Mounting data highlights that EQ epicenters emit ultra/extremely low frequency EM fields in the weeks preceding an earthquake &/or volcanic eruption due to physical processes within the earth´s crust.
Enhanced ELF fields are detectable weeks before and leading up to big earthquakes i.e. > Richter scale 6.0 within a 70–80 kilometers radius of the EQ epicenter. That’s why places like Santiago de Atitlan (Guatemala) were once important places of Mayan shaman activity; cyclical lightning, intermittent earthquakes and volcanic activity, as well as the twice yearly solstices and equinoxes.
Solar Terminator Discussion
These solar terminator alignments represent a serious amount of sacred site real estate falling within range of a common theme. Yes these patterns could have occurred as a result of pure chance (more than four times), or as a function of geographical restrictions such as the Andes Mountains, the shape of a region’s landmass, its proximity to rivers and natural protections.
However when you view this alignment theme from different altitudes (regional and local), combined with sacred time symbols embedded in each religion’s temple art and icons (V47 degree solstice, equinox serpents) (see Chapter 5 of Sun God Sacred Secrets), with the fact that all these religions honored and worshipped their most important Sun gods at these sacred times (equinoxes, solstices) a composite and consistent picture emerges.
This fingerprint begs for an explanation beyond mere coincidence, especially when these regionally clustered sites simultaneously experienced the same enhanced electromagnetic fields i.e. at the winter solstice sunrise and summer solstice sunset solstice as the solar terminators passed overhead, which coincided with sacred ritual timings.
The causation and implications of these enhanced Schumann resonances and magnetic fields are reviewed more fully in Chapters 6-9 of Sun God Sacred Secrets. Suffice to say the science highlights benefits in modulating important parts of the human brain associated with deep meditative and transcendental states of consciousness; which ties in with sacred ritual´s outcome. This offered(s) the potential to switch one´s state of consciousness from being awake to a transcendental state. This capability is biologically enabled in humans, as part of the four states of consciousness humans were genetically gifted (awake, asleep, dreaming and ASC).
Marking solstices and equinoxes
Marking the solstices and equinoxes typically utilized a building’s main foundational/structural lines placed between the observer and the eastern (sunrise) or western (sunset) horizon. The key starting point was observation and marking the sunrise/set at a solstice extreme or equinox. A variety of techniques were used i.e. sighting solstice sunrises/sets and midday solar zeniths (south), counting days from solstice extremes (91 days to the equinoxes), and use of a gnomon (sundial).
A close relationship must have existed between priesthood timekeepers and temple architects to enshrine these alignment principles, and for this know-how to be state or empire wide. This knowledge effectively formed the basis of the solar and/or solar-lunar calendars.
Local pyramid and temple alignments
Of the 450 pyramids and temples reviewed for this project 86 were pre-Colombia Mesoamerican pyramids, 40 Inca/pre-Inca pyramids, temples and huacas, 103 Egyptian pyramids and 114 Egyptian temples, and 106 Divya Desam temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu, located in Southern India. These locations included their most important sacred sites.
At the macro-level approximately half were equinox aligned and a third solstice aligned. You can view this for yourself using the Google Earth KMZ file download, as well as view a select number of solar calendar structures and the simulated sunrises/sets they depict (Giza, Tiwanaku, and Chankillo).
View famous places demonstrating this alignment fingerprint like;
- Mesoamerica: Cholula, Teotihuacan, Monte Alban, Tikal, Calakmul, Yaxha, Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Palenque, Yaxha, Aguateca, and Tak Alik Abaj.
- Ancient Egypt´s pyramids: Giza (Pyramids of Khafre, Khufu & Menkaura), Red Pyramid, Bent Pyramid, Step Pyramid of Djoser, Pyramid of Niuserre Ini, Neferirkare, Sahure, Meidum, White Pyramid, Black Pyramid, Pyramids of Amenemhat III, and Senusret I, II & III.
- Ancient Egypt’s Sun god temples of: Amun, Maat and Khonsu (Karnak Temple Complex), Hatshepsut’s, Tuthmosis III’s and Mentuhotep II, Amenhotep III, Nyuserre-Ini, Ahmose, Satet, Hathor and Isis (Dendera complex), Rameses II (Abu simbel) and Aten
- Pre-Inca Kingdoms and the Inca Empire in South America: Caral, Chavin de Huantar, Cahuachi (Nazca), Pachacamac, Huacas del Sol and la Luna, Las Haldas, Napena, Chan, Tucume, Tiwanaku, Sacsayhuamán, Machu Picchu, and Ollantaytambo.
- India´s Divya Desam temples: 106 of the 108 temples.
Each religion biased a particular alignment principle &/or architectural feature to delineate or specify sacred time. Cardinal alignments, greeting the equinox sunrises/sets, dominated ancient Egypt’s Old & Middle Kingdom pyramids (90%) and Hindu´s Divya Desam temples (90%) and other Hindu temples.
Three quarters of the ancient Divya Desams temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu also used a 47-degree V-shape temple spire, and/or flat topped highly ornate pyramid gate structure (gopurams) on at least one of the temple´s main gates. This V47 structural outline is the same angle used in the pyramid(s) at Meroe (Sudan), and Meidum (Egypt). This ubiquitous V47 degree angle represents the solstice symbol.
Whereas urban &/or site alignments demarcating the winter solstice sunrise and its corresponding summer solstice sunset dominated the pre-Colombian Mesoamerican (70%), pre-inca (Inca South American pyramids, temples and huacas (88%), and Egyptian temple (30%; Luxor; New Kingdom, esp. 18th Dynasty) landscapes.
Mesoamerican site alignments with volcanoes
Pursuing the settlement logic still further, I´d like to draw your attention to some other less dominant geographic location attributes. This is because these are also underpinned by an intermittent enhancement of environmental electromagnetic and geomagnetic fields. One fifth of Mesoamerican sites reviewed used horizon volcanoes to assist pyramid, temple, or site alignments.
This indicates site planners considered these features important in site selection, in addition to natural protections and proximity to rivers. One also observes solstice volcano alignments for the large Moai stone statues on Easter Island and Borobudur the ancient Buddhist stupa in Java. Was this alignment principle of ritual benefit or simply an additional marker?
Conclusions
The Sun god religions of ancient Egypt, Meso and South America, and India built pyramids and temples specifically aligned with the solstices and equinoxes, which coincided with sacred time. Moreover, at the regional level the majority of a religion´s sacred site real estate was clustered into 2-7 minute wide time bandwidths delineated by the passing overhead solar terminator on the WSSR/SSSS, and over distances of 650-1,000km.
In addition these religions were also housed in, or proximate to and on the same longitude, as the global lightning centers. Two of these religions were also housed over intermittently active fault lines and/or near intermittently active volcanoes.
The commonality underpinning this colocation is the simultaneous experience of cyclical and intermittently enhanced ELF electromagnetic / geomagnetic fields, both known to entrain enhanced alpha brainwave amplitudes over the frontal brain. The significance of this relates to enhancement (via brainwave entrainment) of alpha brainwave generating processes, which are housed in the frontal brain (prefrontal cortex and angulate cingulate cortex).
These frontal brain processes govern our executive control functions and emotional regulation processes, which are considered gateway processes involved in humans attaining deep meditative and transcendental states of consciousness.
I therefore conclude that the Sun god religions´ ritual needs were a key driving force behind human colocation settlement, which facilitated state or empire wide religions. Many questions are raised, not least the possibility of humans being biologically enabled to experience non-local communication in transcendental states of consciousness by simultaneously accessing these states of consciousness.
Bibliography & Attributions
- [1] Earths 3 rotations: original work by Dennis Nilsson / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-3.0.
- [2] Earth´s Pole Star pointing: original image by Tau?olunga / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain-CC0 1.0 Universal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North_season.jpg
- [3] Carlton Brown / Public Domain
- [4] Image provided by Google Earth and partners; Image DigitalGlobe 2013, Image Landsat, data SIO NOAA US Navy NGA GEBCO. All rights reserved.
- [5] Composite image created by Carlton Brown / Public Domain. Composed of; (A & B) Cropped images repositioned to accentuate V47 solstice angle, with additional annotation overlays. Original images by Tom Ruen (Full Sky Observatory) / Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Seasonearth.png.
- [6] Composite image created by Carlton Brown / Public Domain. of the Sun god religions 3D positioning relative to the solstice solar terminators comprising modified original works (cropping, annotations, additions; by the author); (A-D) original works by NASA World Wind / Public Domain.
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- (B) Giza: a modified image created by Carlton Brown / Public Domain. original work by NASA Earth Observatory / Public Domain.
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About the Author
Carlton Brown was born in 1965 in North Shields (UK) and emigrated with his family to New Zealand in 1972. He is a veterinarian, biotech entrepreneur, vaccine innovator, hobby archaeologist-researcher, and author. He actively pursues travel, motorbike riding, various outdoor sports and activities, meditation, and more recently the spiritual aspects of his life.
He qualified Bachelor of Veterinary Science at Massey University in New Zealand (1986) and earned an MBA from the London Business School (1997). Carlton was founding CEO of Immune Targeting Systems Ltd (UK). Since mid-2007/12 he raised £23 million of venture capital and grants funding to develop new vaccine solutions to a multi-decade industry-technology bottleneck. In so doing, he developed a company and team as a quality-milestone delivering entity, directed the co-innovation, development and clinical validation of vaccine technology platforms against mutating viruses (Influenza-A, Hepatitis-B, and C & HIV). A synthetic universal influenza vaccine, able to target all potential pandemic flu strains, is in clinical testing, and a universal Hepatitis B therapeutic vaccine is expected to enter clinical development in 2014. A “next generation” cancer vaccine technology platform and universal pandemic flu vaccine also have their future potential.
His lifetime fascination with pyramid archaeology and cultures, lost civilizations and humankind’s real history through the Holocene period is matched by his researches into the science and art of altered states of consciousness. During the writing of this book, Carlton lived in Guatemala, overlooking the beautiful and inspiring Lake Atitlan in the heartland of the ancient Maya.