Sirius Mystery [Paperback]

For the "uniinitiated", Robert Temple trigers his research by starting from the FACT that a tribe called Dogon in Africa happens to have knowledge about the Sirius star system they are not supposed to have i.e that Sirius A is "hiding" in its orbit a Sirius B and possibly a Sirius C (recently confirmed much to the dismay of the fanatical opposition Temple was met with, very unsurprisingly), or that Sirius B is a "heavy star" i.e a very dense star.

Now, when this knowledge by the Dogon was revealed to the western world (through the work of 2 French anthropologists) many of the things claimed by the ancient tradition of the Dogon were not known by western astronomers. In fact, only years later it became evident for western "science" (the same science that used to think the earth was flat, and the same "science" that only 300 years ago disputed that theere is blood circulation in the human body-!!!!- among many other such "scientific" facts) that the Dogon beliefs were solid.

Before i go on, i would like to laugh out loud at the ultragullible folk who think the Dogon took this knowledge from western expeditioners as Carl Sagan ridiculously suggested. I mean, what's the scenario here people? Western expeditioners show up to the Dogon and the first thing they decide to brainwash them with is stories about the Sirius star system which they themselves did NOT have? I mean, are some of you that irrational? And how does it go on according to you then? That the Dogon lost no time in constructing a religion out of something so abstract i.e a star they could NOT see from stories some white people told them that they couldnt possibly prove???? Nice one, but i've heard better jokes, and frankly, this is hardly a laughing matter, it's actually bitter how some will cling to hardly proven theories about our origins no matter how sad their outtake is...

But on to the book and excuse me for the above parenthetical argument but i simply couldnt resist it.

What Temple is forced to do after he presents us with what the Dogon know, is to backtrack. He has to do this because there is indeed more than enough evidence that such bizzare references (as the Dogon's) are to be found in other ancient cultures as well, namely the Sumerians, Egyptians and the Greeks. His "hunch" proves to be very revealing as Temple searches through these ancient cultures because he does actually highlight not a few but a plethora of such references, symbolisms and -mostly- myths that contribute to his argument.

Did i say myths? Whoa. Touchy little subject those myths. Those who consider themselves serious studiers of all theories concerning our tortured origin must've discovered by now that mythology is nothing else than a brilliantly devised method the ancients used to preserve knowledge. Whoa again, because knowledge does include history and in the absence of books the ancients basically coded history into mythology. Is Temple the only one who has uncovered this mega-fact? Not even close.

The author then, needs to trouble us with a lengthy diatribe where he delves into ancient mythology and he focuses for that matter in the medditteranean basin. That's a seriously difficult part of the book to get through. You will be bombarded with dozens of ancient gods, dozens of ancient myth comparisons, massive amounts of etymology, and a fair share of speculations and conclusions. The reward if you stay with the book is tremendous.

Temple doesnt pull his conclusions out of thin air no matter how "outworldly" these conclusions might be to some. His work is spectacularly researched and supported, and yes, he actually pulls the evidence for the support he needs from mainstream science. His massive bibliography is there to see.

The issue remains whether , at the end, you are ready to entertain the notion that the origin of our civilisation is indeed extraterrestrial, or, to be more to the point here, whether Temple convinces with his arguments.

Allow me to say, that it will take a lot more than Temple's book to be convinced about that, if that is actually the truth. Let's not forget that he's not the first researcher that makes such claims or draws such conclusions.
In my opinion, and knowing that our "mainstream" science doesnt exactly have a history of excellence when it comes to its field record, i would suggest that each theory forwarded by any researcher, no matter how "wild" it might be, is given the appropriate attention.

Has Temple been disproven? Hardly. Actually, recent discoveries by our brilliant scientists have only confirmed parts of his theory.

I'm not saying that I, for one, am 100% convinced by what Temple suggests. I'm not unconvinced either, indeed I think that he does a stunning job of laying out his theory and his arguments, and to quote an Arab philosopher "i believe in very little but i disbelieve in even less".
That is the reason i give this book 4 stars. Based solely on the convcincingness factor of the author's way of argumentation which i found pretty damn strong.

This book, as other books of that "line" as well, can or should be used as pieces to a puzzle, a puzzle which we do not know what it looks like and where it will finally (if we ever solve it) take us. If the truth interests us, if it honestly does, then hysteric rants against any theories that threaten our sacred dogmas have no place in searching for any origin, ours, or the universe's...
"The Sirius mystery" is a difficult book, but a very compelling, a very impressive one at that. Until the theory contained in it is disproven hold the noise of the rants down. And read it...Read it actually through.

What I find interesting about Temple's material is how much of it is familiar from other books of this genre (which I enjoy reading), but how he manages to put a completely different spin on it. Was Oannes actually half fish, or did his space ship land in water and the emerging being reminded those who saw him of a "fish-man" (as other writers have suggested)? Temple makes no mention of Zecariah Sitchen who writes of many of the same ancient events from Sumerian history. To Sitchen, the Annunaki were the astronauts from the planet Nibiru (in our own solar system), but in Temple's book they become anonymous Sirian gods who are mainly there so the number 50 can be worked into the story. This number has significance for the Sirius star system and ancient legends, he says, incorporated this number to emphasize its significance.

In much the same way, Graham Hancock (in Fingerprints of the Gods) shows how ancient stories worked in the numbers that signify the precession, the 25,000 year cycle of the zodiak around the horizon. Another book I've read discussed the use of the magic number 7 (7 wonders of the world, 7 deadly sins, etc.). It seems like a good working theory that ancient stories do incorporate numbers that are important and need to be remembered, but in this case, it's a stretch to associate the number 50 used in ancient legends with the movements of distant stars, the whole thing held together by the beliefs of an obscure African tribe.

Temple provides some interesting material on the ancient oracle centers, the best known being the Oracle of Delphi, and the associated omphalos stones. while this made fascinating reading, I found his logic sometimes hard to follow and kept waiting for a better connection between these means of ancient communication and the knowledge of the Dogon. The book wanders around a lot and is full of opinionated rants that decrease its credibility.

But the heart of the matter is really whether it is true that the Dogon somehow acquired knowledge of Sirius and associated stars and whether the method of acquiring this knowledge was visitation from ancient astronauts. Many other writers have picked up on Temple's main theme and restate his thesis that the Dogon, an unsophisticated people, know all about Sirius. But the whole thing is based on the work of two anthropologists who gained the trust of informants among the Dogon and related tribes. They described the belief system that involved Sirius, and it is all rather curious. But I find it difficult to feel as positive as Temple does that what he has laid bare is evidence of visitation by intelligent amphibians from a distant planet. The picture section in the book is great, and the complete work by the two anthropologists (translated from French) is in an Appendix. If you can stand to wade through all the material in this book, you may be able to form an opinion. Or you may be just as confused as I am. It's interesting, but is it true?

The author begins by citing events, which supposedly prove how
at least two NASA(?!?) employees pursued something of a vendetta
against him, allegedly attempting to prevent him of enlightening
the rest of mankind with his "forbidden" theories. He proceeds
later on to claim, that when NASA got tired of hunting him, they
enlisted the likes of CIA(!) agents to dicourage him further.

After having satisfied himself on giving away the US services,
he focuses on a formerly obscure African tribe by the name
of "Dogon" who hail from African Mali. He then proceeds to
make an in depth analysis of the unique heritage of those people
which seems to contain a lot of details on the star-system of

the constellation Sirius, like the rate-of-revolution of Sirius-
B around Sirius-A, the knowledge that Sirius B is a "heavy
star", etc. He even claims that the Dogon were in possession of
information on that Star-system, which scientists have only
recently come to discover, and that they could never have
possibly beeen able to acquire this information by themselves-
therefore they must have obtained it from somewhere.

The author suggests that the Dogon obtained this heritage from
Ancient Egypt, and he later claims that the Dogon were the
descendants of the "Guardians" of the desert oracle of Amon Ra.

That's where the book starts to get paranoid.

The author in a desperate attempt to attach some credibility
to his theory, draws heavily upon parts of Egyptian Theology,
Greek Mythology,& Sumerian Cosmogony which he boldly
transfigures to suit his theories. He thus is proved to be
wrong, by reaching unthinkable and absurd conclusions.

We thus learn, that the African Dogon are in fact the descendants
of the Greek Argonauts(!), that the Greek and Hebrew
civilizations & people are related to each other(!) and that our
Ancient Goddess Athena/Minerva is the same with Isis, and that
she was actually "Negro". (One of my Israeli pals nearly jumped
out of the window when I told him of Mr. Temple's conclusions.)

I wonder how Temple would explain the fact that Athena's Greek
statues (older than the Roman copies) feature Athena having
perfect Nordic features, and traces of paint found on a few
of her statues prove that she was thought to have blond hair and
blue eyes.(Ancient Greek & Roman statues where painted)

His absurd conclusions and obsessions aside, this is a moderately
interesting book, which could have even bordered upon the limits
of "scientfic & serious" (his study of the Dogon is not bad)
had he been subtle enough to restrict himself to citing mere
facts in the manner of, John J. Robinson for instance.

Three stars for his study of the Dogon alone.