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Behind the Gemstone Files |
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The
Skeleton Key AUTHORSHIP ALPHA-1775 GEMSTONES A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z
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UPDATED
January 01, 2003 02:16 PM
The Dogons are a people well known by their cosmogony, their esotericism, their myths and legends that interest foreigners at the highest point in search for culture or tourism. The population is assessed to be about 300,000 people living in the South West of the Niger loop in the region of Mopti in Mali (Bandiagara, Koro, Banka), near Douentza and part of the North of Burkina (North west of Ouahigouya). The Dogon's (Mali, Africa) homeland has been designated a World Heritage site for its cultural and natural significance. They are also famous for their artistic abilities and vast knowledge about astrology, especially the Sirius star, which is the center of their religious teachings. The Dogons know that Sirius A, the brightest system in our firmament, is next to a small white dwarf called Sirius B, which was not identified by western scientists until 1978. The Dogons knew about it at least 1000 years ago. Sirius B has formed the basis of the holiest Dogon beliefs since antiquity.
The Dogon are an ethnic group located mainly in the administrative districts of Bandiagara and Douentza in Mali, West Africa.   This area is composed of three distinct topographical regions: the plain, the cliffs, and the plateau.  Within these regions the Dogon population of about 300,000 is most heavily concentrated along a 200 kilometer (125 mile) stretch of escarpment called the Cliffs of Bandiagara.  These sandstone cliffs run from southwest to northeast, roughly parallel to the Niger River, and attain heights up to 600 meters (2000 feet).  The cliffs provide a spectacular physical setting for Dogon villages built on the sides of the escarpment. There are approximately 700 Dogon villages, most with fewer than 500 inhabitants.  A Dogon family compound in the village of Pegue is seen from the top of the Bandiagara escarpment. During the hot season, the Dogon sleep on the roofs of their earthen homes.  Abdule Koyo, a Dogon man, stands on the top of the Bandiagara escarpment that overlooks the Bongo plains. As the rocky land around the Bandiagara has become less and less fertile, the Dogon have moved farther from the cliffs. Millet cultivation is more productive in the fertile Bongo plains.  Without any equipment but his own muscle and expertise, a Dogon man climbs hundreds of meters above the ground. Ireli villagers use ropes made of baobab bark to climb the Bandiagara cliffs in search of pigeon guano and Tellem artifacts. The pigeon guano is used as fertilizer and can be sold at the market for $4 per sack. The Tellem artifacts, such as brass statues and wooden headrests, bring high prices from Western art collectors. The precise origin of the Dogon, like those of many other ancient cultures, is undetermine. Their civilization just emerged, in much the same manner as ancient Sumer and Ancient Egypt. The early histories are informed by oral traditions that differ according to the Dogon clan being consulted and archaeological excavation much more of which needs to be conducted. Because of these inexact and incomplete sources, there are a number of different versions of the Dogon's origin myths as well as differing accounts of how they got from their ancestral homelands to the Bandiagara region. The people call themselves 'Dogon' or 'Dogom', but in the older literature they are most often called 'Habe', a Fulbe word meaning 'stranger' or 'pagan'.  Certain theories suggest the tribe to be of ancient Egyptian descent. They next migrated to Libya, then somewhere in the regions of Guinea or Mauritania.  Around 1490 AD, fleeing invaders and/or drought, they migrated to the Bandiagara cliffs of central Mali. Carbon-14 dating techniques used on excavated remains found in the cliffs indicate that there were inhabitants in the region before the arrival of the Dogon. They were the Toloy culture of the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC, and the Tellem culture of the 11th to 15th centuries AD. The religious beliefs of the Dogon are enormously complex and knowledge of them varies greatly within Dogon society. Dogon religion is defined primarily through the worship of the ancestors and the spirits whom they encountered as they slowly migrated from their obscure ancestral homelands to the Bandiagara cliffs. There are three principal cults among the Dogon; the Awa, Lebe and Binu. The Awa is a cult of the dead, whose purpose is to reorder the spiritual forces disturbed by the death of Nommo, a mythological ancestor of great importance to the Dogon. Members of the Awa cult dance with ornate carved and painted masks during both funeral and death anniversary ceremonies. There are 78 different types of ritual masks among the Dogon and their iconographic messages go beyond the aesthetic, into the realm of religion and philosophy.  The primary purpose of Awa dance ceremonies is to lead souls of the deceased to their final resting place in the family altars and to consecrate their passage to the ranks of the ancestors.  All Dogon villages have a Lebe shrine whose altars have bits of earth incorporated into them to encourage the continued fertility of the land. According to Dogon beliefs, the god Lebe visits the hogons every night in the form of a serpent and licks their skins in order to purify them and infuse them with life force. The hogons are responsible for guarding the purity of the soil and therefore officiate at many agricultural ceremonies.  In the village of Sangha, onion bulbs are smashed and shaped into balls that are dried in the sun. The onion balls are trucked as far away as the Ivory Coast to be sold as an ingredient for sauces. Introduced by the French in the 1930s, onions are one of the Dogon's only cash crop.  Millet Harvest - Dogon women pound millet in the village of Kani Kombal. Millet is of vital importance to the Dogon. They sow millet in June and July, after the rains begin. The millet is harvested in October.  Nowadays, the Dogon blacksmiths forge mainly scrap metal recuperated from old railway lines or car wrecks. So, little by little, the long process of iron ore reduction, which demands a perfect knowledge of fire and its temperatures, has been abandoned. One of the last smeltings was done in Mali, in 1995, by the Dogon blacksmiths. The event became the subject of a film which was entitled 'Inagina, The Last House of Iron'. Eleven blacksmiths, who still hold the secrets of this ancestral activity, agreed to perform a last smelt. They gathered to invoke the spirits.  Youdiou Dances - During the Dama celebration, Youdiou villagers circle around two stilt dancers. The dance and costumes imitate the tingetange, a long-legged water bird. The dancers execute difficult steps while teetering high above the crowd. The cult of Binu is a totemic practice and it has complex associations with the Dogon's sacred places used for ancestor worship, spirit communication and agricultural sacrifices. Marcel Griaule and his colleagues came to believe that all the major Dogon sacred sites were related to episodes in the Dogon myth of the creation of the world, in particular to a deity named Nommo. Binu shrines house spirits of mythic ancestors who lived in the legendary era before the appearance of death among mankind. Binu spirits often make themselves known to their descendants in the form of an animal that interceded on behalf of the clan during its founding or migration, thus becoming the clan's totem. The priests of each Binu maintain the sanctuaries whose facades are often painted with graphic signs and mystic symbols. Sacrifices of blood and millet porridge the primary crop of the Dogon are made at the Binu shrines at sowing time and whenever the intercession of the immortal ancestor is desired. Through such rituals, the Dogon believe that the benevolent force of the ancestor is transmitted to them.  Kananga masks form geometric patterns. These masks represent the first human beings. The Dogon believe that the Dama dance creates a bridge into the supernatural world. Without the Dama dance, the dead cannot cross over into peace. Their self-defense comes from their social solidarity which is based on a complex combination of philosophic and religious dogmas, the fundamental law being the worship of ancestors. Ritual masks and corpses are used for ceremonies and are kept in caves. The Dogons are both Muslims and Animists.  A 'Togu Na' - 'House of Words' - stands in every Dogon village and marks the male social center. The low ceiling, supported by carved or sculptured posts, prevents over zealous discussions from escalating into fights. Symbolic meaning surrounds the Togu Na. On the Gondo Plain, Togu Na pillars are carved out of Kile wood and often express themes of fertility and procreation. Many of the carvings are of women's breasts, for as a Dogon proverb says, "The breast is second only to God." Unfortunately, collectors have stolen some of the more intricately carved pillars, forcing village elders to deface their Togu Na posts by chopping off part of the sculpted wood. This mutilation of the sculpted pillars assures their safety.  Amaguime Dolu, a diviner in the village of Bongo, performs a ritual. He derives meaning and makes predictions from grids and symbols in the sand. At dusk, he draws a questions in the sand for the sacred fox to answer. The Dogon people believe the fox has supernatural powers. The Dogon may ask questions such as: "Does the man I love also love me?" or "Should I take the job offer at the mission church?" In the morning, the diviner will read the fox prints on the sand and make interpretations. The fox is sure to come because offerings of millet, milk and peanuts are made to this sacred animal.  - The Washington Post - Robert Temple The Sirius Mystery  According to Dogon mythology, Nommo was the first living being created by Amma, the sky god and creator of the universe. He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins. [This is a metaphor for our original 12-strand DNA. Our present physical DNA contains 2 strands which hold the genetic codes for our physical evolvement.] One twin rebelled against the order established by Amma, [This is a metaphor for one source/soul splitting into two polarities - yin /yang, when it enters into the electro-magnectic energies of third dimension] thereby destabilizing the universe. In order to purify the cosmos and restore its order, Amma sacrificed another of the Nommo, whose body was cut up and scattered throughout the universe. This distribution of the parts of the Nommo's body is seen as the source for the proliferation of Binu shrines throughout the Dogon region. The Dogon say that their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommo. The Dogon elder, Ogotemelli, describes them variously as having the upper part as a man and the lower portion as snake; or as having a ram's head with serpent body. Author Robert temple describes the Nommo as amphibious beings sent to Earth from the Sirius star system for the benefit of humankind. They look like Merfolk; Mermaids and Mermen. [Metaphor: amphibius - referring to the flow of the collective unconscious - creational source].  After the landing in a space ship, something with four legs appeared and dragged the vessel to a hollow, which filled with water until the vessel floated in it. The Dogon, call this spaceship 'Pelu Tolo' or 'Star of the Tenth Moon'. These aliens supposedly came from the Sirian star system. Their spaceship spiraled down from the sky. It landed somewhere to the northeast of the Dogon's present homeland. There was a great noise and wind. The ship landed on three legs, skidded to a stop, scoring the ground. Four legs appeared and dragged the vessel to a hollow, which filled with water until the vessel floated. At the same time a new star was seen in the sky, which possibly was a large space ship. The star was described by the Dogon as having a circle of reddish rays around it. This circle of rays was like a spreading spot yet it still remaining the same size. There is a Dogon drawing of the spaceship hovering in the sky, waiting for the Nommo who landed on the Earth. It represents three stages of 'Pelu Tolo' when it is spurting different amounts of blood or flames [as if it crash landed]. They called the Nommo 'Masters of the Water', 'The Monitors', 'The Teachers or Instructors', 'Saviors', and 'Spiritual Guardians'. AThe Dogons believe their gods are already here. I have to wonder if the word 'Nommo' means 'No More' - 'No Longer'. The Dogons have a unique distinction. Supposedly when they left Egypt and migrated to Mali where they brought with them sacred knowledge in the form of oral traditions - perhaps handed down by the ancient priests of Egypt. There are oral tradition about interaction with Amphibious Gods who came to Earth from the star Sirius (now called Sirius A). Dogon astronomical lore goes back at least 5000 years. This knowledge most likely dates back to the time of the ancient Egyptian priests - who stored their knowledge as their civilization was destroyed. This knowledge was too be part of our collective unconsciousness - to be remembered - to be brought to the public - when it was time for humanity to make great changes. These changes are reflected in all ancient prophecies. The information is about creation by Geometry - Mathematical patterns or formulas. We sense change in our thinking and our souls. We dream unusal dreams about changes and look for Magic in our lives, moveis, books, tV shows. We experience beyond third dimension. The souls of children, teens and young adults are often called Indigo Children - Children of the Blue Ray sense this. They are telekinetic sometimes moving objects - or bending objects with their minds. This collective unconscious is a program of grids. The Dogon draw grids. They understand the nature of our reality, based on an electromagnetic grid program that stores memory - The Matrix is the grids. Following the pattern of the grids ...... Dogon legend came with them from Egypt based on the ancient religions and the mystery school teachings of Isis and Osiris. It all begins in the area that was Sumer - The Cradle of Civilization - but in truth the area that surround the Great Pyramid. The Egyptian Goddess Isis is identified by the Egyptians with the star Sirius. The Dogons knew about Sirius long before modern man discovered the star system. Their religious tradition, dating back to their Egyptian roots, was later imparted through Greek migratory patterns. The name Sirius was given by the ancient Greeks. Planet Earth has many metaphors, archetypes and symbols that help us understand the nature of our creation. To this end we study the heavens and celestial blueprints and the physical planet, to unravel secrets buried until it was time.....
 The priests said that Sirius had a companion star that was invisible to the human eye. They also stated that the star moved in a 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, that it was small and incredibly heavy, and that it rotated on its axis. Initially the anthropologists wrote it off publishing the information in an obscure anthropological journal, because they didn't appreciate the astronomical importance of the information. What they didn't know was that since 1844, astronomers had suspected that Sirius A had a companion star. This was in part determined when it was observed that the path of the star wobbled. In 1862 Alvan Clark discovered the second star making Sirius a binary star system (two stars). In the 1920's it was determined that Sirius B, the companion of Sirius, was a white dwarf star. White dwarfs are small, dense stars that burn dimly. The pull of its gravity causes Sirius' wavy movement. Sirius B is smaller than planet Earth. The Dogon name for Sirius B is Po Tolo. It means star - tolo and smallest seed - po. Seed refers to creation. In this case - human creation. By this name they describe the star's smallness. It is, they say, the smallest thing there is. They also claim that it is the heaviest star and is white in color. The Dogon thus attribute to Sirius B its three principal properties as a white dwarf: small, heavy, white. souls that have crossed over. This belief is also shared with the Dogon.
Creation is linked to the Great Pyramid which links to Orion in the Kings Chamber (male). I have been there and connected - and to Sirius in the Queens Chamber (female) - Isis - Not far from the Pleaides - The Seven Sisters The sky is like a big giant map of messages a blueprint, if you will, of creational patterns. Ancient civilizations named the planets and created myths about them - all linked to the heavens and gods who created humans and came to Earth from the sky. Isis and Osiris - Zeus and Hera - Amma (not sure about his female counterpart but he had to have one as this matrix and grid is all based on opposites - polarities - like a magnetic (north and south). and is the brightest star in our night sky.
The Dogon also describe this 'star' specifically as having The Dogons have described perfectly the DNA pattern made by this elliptical orbit created by the two stars as they rotate make around each other. They believe Sirius to be the axis of the universe, and from it all matter and all souls are produced in a great spiral motion.  The Dogon also claimed that a third star Emme Ya - sorghum female - exists in the Sirius system. Larger and lighter than Sirius B, this star revolves around Sirius A as well. It has not been proven to exist, though some people have called it Sirius C. Sirius C translated from the Dogon language into English is called the "Sun of Women". It is described by the Dogan as "the seat of the female souls of living or future beings". Its symbol contains two pair of lines that are relevant features of a Dogan legend. The Dogon believe that Sirius C sends out two pairs of beams and that the beams represent a feminine figure. Some of the ancient Egyptian temples, such as the Temple of Isis at Denerah, were created so that the light of the helical rising of Sirius would travel down the main corridor to place its red glow upon the altar in the inner sanctum of the temple. When that light reached the altar, the beam of light from Sirius was transformed into Sothis, the Star Goddess, Isis. In a manner of speaking, the same belief system was involved in the Greek Temples, such as the Parthenon, which were oriented to receive the beams of light from the Pleiades into their inner sanctums, where the beams were then transformed into seven women. As the beams from the Pleiades entered the Egyptian temple of Hathor it became the seven Hathors female judges of mankind. Within the Dogon tradition, those pairs of feminine figures beamed down from the Star/Sun/Planet of Women to their original home near the Hoggar mountains bringing many aspects of civilization to the ancestors of their tribes. Dogon oral traditions state that for thousands of years they have known that the Earth revolves around the Sun, that Jupiter's has moons and that Saturn's has rings. The Dogons calendar is quite non-traditional in that its fifty year cycle is based neither on the Earth's rotation around the Sun (as is our Julian calendar) nor the cycles of the Moon (a lunar calendar). Instead, the Dogon culture centers around the rotation cycle Sirius B which encircles the primary star Sirius A every 49.9 - or 50 years.
The Repulsive or Repellent Ones - a demon - the fish-men who the Babylonians said brought them civilization. The first and most famous was called Oannes or Oe, who was thought to have come from a 'great egg'. This one during the day stayed on the surface among people, but for all the night he had to go into the sea. He, with other similar beings called Annedotus, is the creator of the Babylonian civilization (Berosso). Later Oannes will become the Fish-God for the Philistines.
Sumer where
kingship first descended from heaven.
The Chinese have maintained that their civilization was founded by amphibious beings that had a man's head and a fish tail. The entity, named Fuxi, has been depicted as both male or female. The date traditionally ascribed to him is 3,322BC - again we are back to the same timeline as the ancient civilizations - Sumer - Egypt - Dogon. 
The six-sided or hexagram star is revered as a religious symbol
Dagon was the god of the Philistines. The idol was represented in the combination of both man and fish. The name "Dagon" is derived from "dag" which means "fish." Although there was a deep affection from Dagon's worshippers to their deity, the symbol of a fish in human form was really meant to represent fertility and the vivifying powers of nature and reproduction.
Nereus was an ancient sea god with prophetic powers and the ability to change his shape. Nereus mated with one of the Oceanids (Doris) and became the father of fifty daughters called Nereids [nee're-idz]; three of these are important: Thetis [thee'tis], Galatea [gal-a-tee'a], and Amphitrite [am-fi-treye'tee]. Nereids are beautiful and often, but not always, depicted as mermaids; and usually they can shange their shape.
Skylla, who had a dog head and eat the sailors.  Proteus
'Proteus' was an ancient sea-god and the herdsman of Poseidon's seals. Like the other sea-gods he had the gift of prophecy and the ability to change his shape at will. He used to rest in caves to 'shelter from the heat of the star Sirius'. He was a son of Neptune and subject to the sea god Poseidon, and his dwelling place was either the island of Pharos, near the mouth of the Nile River, or the island of Carpathus, between Crete and Rhodes. He knew all things--past, present, and future--but would not share his knowledge unless compelled by a captur who could restrain the God--no matter what forms he might assume.
Triton - son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, a Merman, human above the waist, fish-shaped below (many male deities of the deep are often so depicted). His most distinguishing characteristic was that he blew on a conch shell and thus he was known as the trumpeter of the sea.
Iris - Many were the progeny of the sea; some of them we shall meet later in saga, for example the Graeae, Gorgons, and the Harpies. Progeny of the sea often appear grotesque or fantastic. At this point, however, we single out only Iris [eye'ris], a beautiful descendant of Pontus and Gaia. Iris, fleet-footed and winged, is the lovely goddess of the rainbow, the meaning of her name. She is also (like Hermes) a messenger of the gods, only Iris often becomes the particular servant of Hera. Aristotle's friend, Eudoxus, visited Egypt and returned claiming that the Egyptians had a tradition that one of their gods, Osiris or Ra (from Ray of Light), could not walk because his legs had grown together. Osiris was the god of the the Dead . He is a god of agriculture, for his death and resurrection are like those of a seed, cast in to the dark earth, motionless. New life breaks through its husk to push its way to the surface of the earth as a green shoot. He became one of the most important of Egyptian gods because he symbolized the triumph of life over death. He has never been shown with the body of a fish. The God Ra has taken endless forms. He usually appears as a man with the head of a hawk and a sun-disk which is encircled by a cobra. Over time, many other gods were assimilated to him: such as Atum-Re, Amun-Re. Mythology has it that human beings were created from the tears of Ra. The god Ra is the same soul who played the main god in all of the mythological stories/tales of creation. There are many metaphors in these tales, placed there so you can understand the patterns of creation and how our 3D reality works. Every Creational Myth has the same metaphors, because everything you experience is created by the same patterns that repeat over and over and over. The math is called Sarced Geometry. The repeating patterns are called fractals. View our reality as a giant computer program that you have created. You set up the basic mathematics for your program. You enter the program into your computer based on your original blueprint or design. You now use this design to create endless other programs as long as they remain with the geometry of your original design. You want your program to have many levels of reality because you know that you play in different realities other than 3D - such as your dreams. You create a multi-level or multi-dimensional program. This is how the 3D part of your program works. Third dimension is based on electromagnetic (EM) energy. All physical things consist of EM energies. We see this in our aura.  Our planet has poles - opposites - as does everything else in this universe. We call these opposites by many names - male/female - yin/yang - good/evil - God/Devil or Trickster or Magician, etc. Magnetics = magnets = magic = magician = Merlin = EM energies. This all creates illusions because that is what the Magician does. He uses his wand/rod/cane/pole =polarities - to perform his tricks. In magic one should never believe what one seems for all reality is the illusion. Magical tales is very popular these days in movies, TV, books, alien encounters, etc We seek beyond the knowledge of the illusion - 3D. We seek to out fox the Trickster and win the game - once we have learned the rules and how he performs his tricks. In the end, it is all a cycle of time - that is now coming feel circle - back to source. It all comes back to creation through electromagnetic pyramidal (3) energy grids that spiral into consciousness from higher frequencies - (more stands of DNA - 12). The Dogon were the one of the Keepers of the Codes linked to metaphoric tales of creation. This knowledge was to be brought forth at a time when humanity was ready to understand the nature of their existence in third dimension. The Internet would come into existence around that time, to share help spread the knowledge to the world. DOGON
CREATION - NIBIRU
- SIRIUS - DOGON THEORY OF CREATION
- Dogon Theory of CreationThe Dogon people are an indigeous tribe who occupy a region in Mali, south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. There are about 100,000 members in the tribe. They are a reclusive tribe of cave and hillside-dwelling farming people inhabiting a sparse, rocky plateau in southeastern Mali, West Africa. They live in the Homburi Mountains near Timbuktu. Isolated topographically and culturally from the outside world for countless centuries, they may well appear on first sight to be exceedingly unlikely receptacles of highly advanced astronomical knowledge which only goes to show just how easily we can be deceived by outward appearances. They are believed to be of Egyptian descent. After living in Libya for a time, they settled in Mali, West Africa, bringing with them astronomy legends dating from before 3200 BCE. The first Western scientists to visit and study the Dogon people were French anthropologists Drs Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, who initially made contact with them in 1931, and continued to research them for the next three decades, culminating in a detailed study conducted between 1946-1950. During their work, these anthropologists documented the traditional mythology and sacred beliefs of the Dogon, which included an extraordinary body of ancient lore regarding Sirius the brilliant, far-distant Dog Star. Their priests told them of a secret Dogon myth about the star Sirius (8.6 light years from the Earth. The priests said that Sirius had a companion star that was invisible to the human eye. They also stated that the star moved in a 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, that it was small and incredibly heavy, and that it rotated on its axis. Sirius - which we now call Sirius A - was not seen through a telescope until 1862 and was not photographed until 1970.  The Dogon name for Sirius B (Po Tolo) consists of the word for star (tolo) and "po," the name of the smallest seed known to them. By this name they describe the star's smallness -- it is, they say, "the smallest thing there is." They also claim that it is "the heaviest star," and white. The tribe claims that Po is composed of a mysterious, super-dense metal called sagala which, they declare, is heavier than all the iron on Earth. Not until 1926 did Western science discover that this tiny star is a white dwarf a category of star characterised by very great density. In the case of Sirius B, astronomers have estimated that a single cubic metre of its matter weighs about 20,000 tonnes. Many artifacts were found describing the star system, including a statue examined by Dieterlen that is at least 400 years old.  They go on to say that it has an is elliptical orbit, with Sirius A at one foci of the ellipse (as it is), that the orbital period is 50 years (the actual figure is 50.04 +/- 0.09 years), and that the star rotates on its own axis (it does). The Dogon also describe a third star in the Sirius system, called "Emme Ya" ("Sorghum Female"). In orbit around this star, they say, is a single satellite. To date, Emme Ya has not been identified by astronomers. In addition to their knowledge of Sirius B, the Dogon mythology includes Saturn's rings, and Jupiter's four major moons. They have four calendars, for the Sun, Moon, Sirius, and Venus, and have long known that planets orbit the sun. The Dogon say their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommos, amphibious beings sent to Earth from Sirius for the benefit of mankind. The name comes from a Dogon word meaning 'to make one drink', and the Nommos are also called 'Masters of the Water', the 'Monitors', and the 'Teachers'. 
Nommos
Watching the Nommo arrive The Dogon tells the legend of the Nommos, awful-looking beings who arrived in a vessel along with fire and thunder. After they arrived here - they put out a reservoir of water onto the Earth then dove into the water. There are references in the oral traditions, drawings and cuneiform tablets of the Dogons, to human looking beings who have feet but who are portrayed as having a large fish skin running down their bodies. The Nommos were more fishlike than human, and had to live in water. They were saviors and spiritual guardians: "The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe "had drunk of his body," the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings." The Nommo was crucified and resurrected and in the future will again visit the Earth, this time in human form. Later he will assume his amphibious form and will rule the world from the waters. Dogon mythology is known only by a number of their priests, and is a complex system of knowledge. Such carefully guarded secrets would not be divulged to friendly strangers very easily. If the star Emme Ya is eventually discovered in the Sirius system, this would give considerably weight to the Dogon's story. The Nommos, who could live on land but dwelled mostly in the sea, were part fish, like merfolk (mermaids and mermen). Similar creatures have been noted in other ancient civilizations -- Sumer, Babylonia's Oannes, Acadia's Ea, Sumer's Enki, and Egypt's goddess Isis. It was from the Nommos that the Dogon claimed their knowledge of the heavens. The Dogon also claimed that a third star (Emme Ya) existed in the Sirius system. Larger and lighter than Sirius B, this star revolved around Sirius as well. And around it orbited a planet from which the Nommos came. (Sirius A). According to Robert Temple's Book The Sirius Mystery, the Dogon, a tribe of about 100,000 in western Africa, have had contact with extraterrestrials. One of Temple's main pieces of evidence is the tribe's alleged knowledge of Sirius B, a companion to the star Sirius. The Dogon are supposed to know that Sirius B orbits Sirius and that a complete orbit takes fifty years. One of the pieces of evidence Temple cites is a sand picture made by the Dogon to explain their beliefs. There are a number of other astronomical beliefs held by the Dogon which are curious; e.g., traditional belief in a heliocentric system and elliptical orbits of astronomical phenomena; knowledge of satellites of Jupiter and rings of Saturn, among other things. Where did they get this knowledge, if not from extraterrestrial visitors? They don't have telescopes or other scientific equipment, so how could they get this knowledge? Carl Sagan concludes that the Dogon could not have acquired their knowledge without contact with an advanced technological civilisation. He suggests, however, that that civilisation was terrestrial rather than extraterrestrial. Western Africa has had many visitors from technological societies located on planet Earth. The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. As Sagan notes, if a European had visited the Dogon in the 1920s and 1930s, conversation would likely have turned to astronomical matters, including Sirius, the brightest star in the sky and the centre of Dogon mythology. Furthermore, there had been a good amount of discussion of Sirius in the scientific press in the '20s so that by the time Griaule arrived, the Dogon may have had a grounding in 20th Century technological matters beyond their understanding brought to them by visitors from other parts of Earth and transmitted in conversation. (Sagan notes that some of the discussion of the day involved the nature of white dwarfs, for example. Sirius B is a white dwarf, an extremely dense star, e.g., about a tonne to the cubic inch.) Chronologically, the earliest of these amphibious entities would appear to be the Babylonian fish-people. They were known to the Babylonians as the Annedoti, which translates as 'repulsive', but notwithstanding their unappealing appearance they were sufficiently influential for the Babylonians to accept their teachings and acquire from them the fundamental tenets of civilisation. The most august member of the Annedoti was Oannes, portrayed in ancient Babylonian depictions as a curious, complex hybrid of human and fish, with a bearded man's head beneath the head of a fish, and the body of a fish borne upon the back of a man's body. According to Babylonian legends, this aquatic deity would come on land during the day to teach the people, and would dive back at night into the Persian Gulf, where he lived in an underwater palace called the Apsu. Was Oannes the original Nommo?  Equivalent to Oannes in the religion of the Philistines at Philistia (in what is now Israel) was a human-bodied, fish-tailed deity called Dagon. Further to the west, Pharos in northern Egypt was said to be the home of 'the Old Man of the Sea' a shape-shifting amphibious deity known as Proteus, son of Oceanus and renowned among the ancient Greeks as an oracle. Significantly, their traditional legends specifically claimed that he often sheltered in a cave to avoid the heat of Sirius.
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