Sacred Sites - The Pleiades

For some reason, when we turn our eyes to the night sky, a tiny cluster of stars always seems to capture our gaze. This little grouping seems so small, faint and insignificant when compared to the brighter, more defined and better known areas of the heavens.

Could this be a clue to man's evolution on Earth? Could this beautiful cluster called the Pleiades, be home to some of us? History from around the world indicates that this may indeed be a strong possibility.

Pleiades Constellation From ancient manuscripts and cuneiform to legends and mythology, is seems no stars were more talked about and considered more influential to man's destiny than this small heavenly group. They were considered "The Creator of the Universe", "The Center of the Heaven", or "The Seat of the Soul of God." Why were the ancients so fascinated by this tiny group of heavenly orbs?

They seem to be the first stars mentioned in astronomical literature. The Pleiades appear in the Chinese annals of 2537 BC as a point of worship and identity for young women who called them the 'Seven Sisters'. Later, the Emperor Huang Ti, considered by many scholars to be the driving force behind cultural, social and economic development of China, attributed his vast knowledge to visits from beings from the Pleiades.

The earliest Greeks left no written record, but erected temples on hilltops that aligned to the helical rising or setting of the Pleiades. As that culture developed into one of the greatest of its time, several temples were oriented to specific positions of the Pleiades. The Temple, built in 1530 BC was the first. The Hecatompedon, erected in 1150 BC and the Parthenon, finished in 438 BC are among the notable.

The Dyaks of Borneo, the Berbers of North Africa and the early Arabic nations believed this small cluster of stars was the central point of the universe and the seat of immortality. Muhammad wrote, "When these stars rise all harm rises from the earth."

The Pleiad month, as the Greeks called it, held special meaning to primitive people as it was the beginning of their new year. On midnight, November 17th, when the stars are directly overhead, the culmination of the Pleiades marked a time when the Kings of Persia could refuse no request. This was also the precise event at Bursiris for the commencement of the feast of Isis where the stars were worshipped as Arthur-ai.

In Egypt, in the year 2170 BC, on the first day of spring, at precisely midnight. the Pleiades were visible through the south passageway of The Great pyramid. Cheops contains fascinating mathematical correlations to the Pleiades including, the seven mystical chambers. The rotation of our solar system around the Pleiades takes 25, 827.5 years. This number was worked into the structure of Cheops in four separate locations.

The most notable is in the base diagonals of the pyramid which are 12, 913.75. This number multiplied by two is 25, 827.5. Coincidence? Is it also coincidence that the three major pyramids of the Giza plateau are a mirror image of the stars in Orion's belt? What was the connection between the two stars systems?

The Temple of Hathor in the ancient city of Denderah was dedicated to the goddess of love and the stars of Hathor: the Pleiades. A star clock in the Temple celebrates the Pleiades, marking the marking the greater center on which our solar system revolves, taking 25,827.5 years to complete one cycle.

Half a world away, correlations with this cyclical clock can be found in the Hopi and Mayan calendar. Native American legends denote the Pleiades as a sacred place in the heavens. The Lakota believe that after death, the soul returns to its home in the Pleiades. The Kiowa and Cheyenne have oral histories that seven maidens were placed in the night sky to protect them from a bear. These seven maidens became the Pleiades.

The ancient cultures of Mexico also paid homage to these stars. In ancient Aztec and Mayan tradition, the Pleiades were worshipped at their culmination for the lighting of the new fire. This was a time when the old energy left and was refreshed by new energy and knowledge. Most sacred was the fifty two year cycle of the new fire when the two recognized time counts of the sacred and the secular calendars coincided.

At Teotihuacan, the west face of the great pyramid of the sun is oriented to the setting of the Pleiades. Eleven of the streets of this once thriving city point to the same spot on the horizon. On the platform of one of the lesser truncated structures, the Pleiades are carved into the rock floor. A short distance from the temple complex, in the crumbling rooms archeologists believe the priests lived in, the Pleiades are depicted on the floor in brilliant red.

In the Mayan jungle city of Palenque the faint cluster is depicted on a beautiful ceiling mural, with the inscription, "Diety, taking pity on the children of Earth, sent on of the Divine sons to instruct them and live among them." This "Divine son" is believed to be Queztalcoatl, the white god that brought knowledge to the primitive people of Central America.

The Apibones tribe of the Brazilian Amazon believed the Pleiades were the home of their ancestors and the Inca called them Capoc Collea Coyllur, "the god that brings things into being". In ancient Peru the Pleiades were revered as "The arbitors of human destiny."

These early civilizations of South America believed the stars were inhabited and that "gods" came from the stars to change their lives forever. Pre-Inca societies believed that people from the Pleiades taught them how to use fire, plant and harvest crops and utilize mathematics and astronomy.

Even the Bible addresses the Pleiades. Of all the star groupings in the heavens, why does the Bible only mention these four: the Pleiades, Orion, Arcturus and the Cambers to the South? Why is the influence of the Pleiades denoted as "sweet" when Orion's depiction is constricting?

"...which maketh Arcturus, Orion, the Pleiades and the Chambers to the South."

Job 9:9

"Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion."

Amos 5:8

"Canst thou bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion?"

Job 38:32

All of this information only scratches the surface of the ancient's references to the Pleiades. What are we to take from these histories? Were there beings from the Pleiades that visited Earth and imparted knowledge that helped to bring us from stone wheels to computers and space flight? Were they the arbitors of human destiny? Are they, as believed by the Apibones and others, our forefathers?

Like everything else, the answers lie within each of us.