Robert K. G. Temple - The Sirius Mystery

Robert Temple was bom in the United States in 1945. He attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and graduated in 1965 with a degree in Oriental Studies and Sanskrit.

THE SIRIUS MYSTERY is his first book; he spent eight years researching and writing it. Robert Temple is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

TO MY MOTHER

who has persevered

Robert K. G. Temple

The Sirius Mystery

Futura Publications Limited A Futura Book

A Futura Book

First published in Great Britain in 1976 by Sidgwick & Jackson Limited Copyright by Robert Kyle Grenville Temple All rights reserved

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN: 0 8600 7502 8 Printed in Great Britain by Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd Aylesbury, Bucks

Futura Publications Limited no Warner Road Camberwell, London SE5

My first thanks must go to my wife, Olivia, who has been an excellent proof-reader and collater and who made the greatest number of helpful suggestions concerning the manuscript.

My friend Michael Scott of Tangier read the book at an early stage and took extreme pains to be helpful, and devoted much of his time to writing out or explaining to me at length his lists of specific suggestions. He gave meticulous attention to details, which few people would trouble to do with anothers work.

This book would never have been written without the material concerning the Dogon having been brought to my attention by Arthur M. Young of Philadelphia. He has helped and encouraged my efforts to get to the bottom of the mystery for years, and supplied me with invaluable materials, including the typescript of an English translation of Le Renard pale by the anthropologists Griaule and Dieterlen, which enabled me to bring my survey up to date.

Without the stimulus and early encouragement of Arthur C. Clarke of Ceylon, this book might not have found the motive force to carry it through many dreary years of research.

My agent, Miss Anne McDermind, has been a model critic and adviser at all stages. Her enthusiasm and energy are matched only by her penetrating intuition and her skill at negotiation.

Others who have read all or part of this book and who made helpful suggestions of some kind are Professor W. H. McCrea of the Department of Astronomy, University of Sussex, John Moore of Robinson & Watkins, and Anthony Michaelis of the Weizmann Institute Foundation.

I am indebted to Adrian and Marina Berry for bringing me into touch with A. Costa, and to A. Costa for generously supplying his splendid photographs of the Dogon, some of which appear in this book, and also for his introduction to Mme Germaine Dieterlen. I am indebted to Mme Dieterlen for giving her permission and the permission of the Society des Africainistes of Paris (of which she is Secretary-General) to publish in English the entire article Un Systeme Soudanais de Sirius, which Mme Dieterlen wrote in collaboration with the late Marcel Griaule.

Among those whom I have consulted on specific points in my research and who have been extremely helpful are Geoffrey Watkins

the Hon. Robin Baring, James Serpell, Seton Gordon, and Herbert Brown. I am also indebted for help or encouragement of varying kinds to Fred Clarke, Professor Cyrus Gordon, Robert Graves, Kathleen Raine, Professor D. M. Lang, Professor Charles Burney, Professor O. R. Gurney, Dr Irving Lindenblad, Dr Paul Murdin, Hilton Ambler, Gillian Hughes, Carol MacArthur, Roy Markham, Richard Robinson, Dr Michael Barraclough, and Angela Earll.

In production of this book my British editor, Mrs Jan Widdows, has been cooperative, helpful, and sympathetic. The cartographer Daniel Kitts has cheerfully prepared maps and diagrams to requirements which were often exasperating. Mrs Mary Walsh showed ingenuity in picture research. Stephen du Sautoy has also been helpful and shown a great deal of imagination in connection with production of the British dust-jacket design, and has been a brilliant sales director in promoting the book, ably assisted by Mrs Sean Mooney.

I would like to acknowledge indirect debts to the African priests Manda, Innekouzou, Ydbdne, and Ongnonlou, without whom the subject for this book could not honestly be said to exist, since it probably could never have been formulated. Two early pioneers deserve especial mention: the late Sir Norman Lockyer, who found ways to consider together the previously separate fields of astronomy and archaeology, and the late Thomas Taylor of London, who devoted his life to the translation and exposition of texts which have survived the centuries of malignity, abuse, book burnings, and slaughter which for two millennia have been the fate of those who adhered to the Great Tradition - nor did Taylor himself escape the consequences of his position in pain and suffering. Thanks are also due to the philosopher Proclus for making public certain specific allusions to secret traditions which he might have concealed.

R.K.G.T.

Authors Note

Every effort has been made to trace the ownership of all illustrative material reproduced in this book. Should any error or omission in acknowledgement have been made the author offers his apologies and will make the necessary correction in future editions.

Foreword, to the Futura Edition

This edition of my book has been abridged. The general reader will not miss what has been removed, but anyone wishing to use the book for research purposes, and who needs the full references, will have to consult the hardback edition. There he will also find fuller explanations of many matters as well as an account of the ancient oracle centres. I have abridged this book myself, with the considerable assistance of my wife Olivia, whom I wish to thank for her patience and care in helping to decide what the general reader would not require. I doubt that many readers will object that the reading of my book has been made easier for them. For that was the intention. Many friends tried to read the hardback version of this book and told me with pained expressions on their faces that they wished a simplified version existed. I have therefore had no compunctions about making The Sirius Mystery accessible to readers who have neither the time nor the temperament to scrutinize ancient Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and a great many details which are not really necessary except to critical or scholarly readers.

At the time of writing this, The Sirius Mystery is being translated into seven foreign languages. It has been received favourably by many persons whose opinions I highly respect. Certain scientists have agreed to try and search for a radio signal from the system of Sirius which might be a way in which we could have some final proof that what I suggest is really true. I am very pleased that they considered my case sufficiently respectable to warrant such investigation with a radio-telescope. I have been requested by them not to mention this in such a way that they could be criticized by the severer and more conservative of their colleagues who think such searches for signals from intelligent beings in space are a waste of time and resources. I shall therefore regretfully refrain from saying here who is carrying on this search.

What will happen when a signal really is confirmed, whether it be from Sirius or from anywhere else in space for that matter? I feel certain that the day will come when all large radio telescopes will have to be surrounded by armed guards. No one seems to have realized yet that protection will have to be given to them when they become the only points of contact between ourselves and extraterrestrial civilizations. This need will become less acute when we have radio telescopes in space or on the Moon.