Ogdoadic Science and the Gnostic Defect

by John Munter

Ogdoadic science could be defined as that which comes out of the ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, and Dogon traditions describing the quatum and astrophysical world thought of by the Dogons as evenly divided between 'that which is seen and that which is not seen'. The proofs of what I have termed ogdoadic science are many.

The Four Forces

Firstly, the proof regarding that which is seen is absolute and incontrovertible coming from Robert Temple's 'The Sirius Mystery' (published 1976, 1998). The Dogon Tribe from Mali know that Sirius B and C each elliptically orbit Sirius A in a 50 year cycle even though Sirius C wasn't discovered by modern science until 1995. Dogons also know that Sirius B is a white dwarf: 'the smallest thing in the sky and the heaviest thing in the sky'.

Secondly, regarding proofs of things not seen, the Dogon have a detailed description of string theory explicated beautifully by Laird Scranton in 'The Science of the Dogon' (2002,2006). Amma (God, the Egyptian Amen, the Sumerian goddess Nammu) makes the string (the Dogon Dada, the spider, the ancient mother goddess Neith of the Egyptians) vibrate using the four quatum forces: the strong force, weak force, electromagnetism, and gravity which are spoken of as fire, wind, water, and earth. While the string is conceptualized by modern science as a small loop, the Dogon see it as a coil.

Scranton quotes Stephen Hawking in saying there are more than 200 elementary particles formed from the vibration of the string such as quarks. The Dogons say there are 266 'signs'. These all form in 'Amma's egg' or the original black hole before the Big Bang in seven stages which burst forth from Amma's egg in the Big Bang creating an eighth dimension or being. These are the seven unseen dimensions postulated in string theory rolled up in the four visible ones.

When Amma's egg is burst the 'po' or the atom is created in a swirling whirlwind. The Egyptian tradition is also that the first of their ogdoadic gods were formed in an explosive sneeze-type of an experience. Scranton quotes from Griaule and Dieterlen's chapter on 'The Creation of the Po' from 'The Pale Fox':

"Like a central air bubble, it spun and scattered the particles of matter in a sonorous and luminous motion which, however, remained inaudible and invisible. It was less a word than a thought...the po is the image of the origin of matter."

Ogo and the Nummo

The Third ogdoadic proof is the description of light by the Dogons involving a mythological character called Ogo who is constantly in motion creating his own space. Scranton notes that he is correctly placed after the Big Bang or after 'Amma's eyes are open' and properly characterized in association with electrons. Ogo has a fight with the sene seed or electron and took away from it two elements: water and fire. These refer to the electromagnetic force and light/energy.

Ogo also has a twin referring to space/time which he tried to tear out of the placenta and because of that, no matter how fast he travels he will never be able to find her.

Ogo is also described with all his travels of having been striped with different colors: red, white, black, gray, yellow, green, and blue--which refer to the refraction of light through different mediums.

Another story of Ogo is that Amma was jealous of his travels and cut 'the vein of his tongue' which restricted the range of his voice. This was noted by Scranton as well reflecting that Ogo only represents the visible light in the full electromagnetic spectrum.

The fourth ogdoadic proof is the description of Astro-physical science. The first emergent beings from Amma were a perfect pair called the Nummo. Modern science tells us that the first atom formed in the Big Bang was hydrogen. Interestingly, it was H2 or 'heavy hydrogen' which is deuterium that created stable neutrons which allowed the formation, then, of helium and off to the races we go. (Scranton actually missed this deuterium point!) So it was the perfect hydrogen Nummo pair that began everything which the Dogons insist is in everything.

The Nummo are identified as the same thing as water. Water has two hydrogen atoms and eight electrons. The Dogons consider the rays of the sun as being the excrement of Nummo since they are a product of the fusion of hydrogen atoms.

The sun and stars are thought to have been created by Amma by his flinging of pellets of earth through space. The sun is like a pot fired up to white-hot temperatures. It is surrounded by eight spirals of copper. Scranton points out that copper has two electrons in the inner electron ring and eight in the second ring, the coils imply the rotation of the sun, the copper is a metaphor for sunlight, and the number eighth corresponds to the eight zones of the sun: "the core, the radiant zone, the convection zone, the photosphere, the sunspots, the magnetic field, the corona, and the solar wind.".

Stolen Fire

The fifth proof of ogdoadic science is the Dogon story of the stolen fire from heaven to light the smithy's fire on top of the granary. This is really a story of the descent of the light or consciousness into matter (a deep story line that Scranton misses) using the format of the four quantum forces (which he does get). The strong--binding--force is the Nummo's heavenly workshop. The descent to earth with the fire by the first ancestor reflects the transition phases of the weak force--the 'symmetry breaking' into the lower vibration of the physical world. The running to the granary reflects the electromagnetic force--which may be in or out of our visible light spectrum. The dropping of the embers reflects the power of gravity and the visible world. The return to pick up the embers is the power of gravity to pull us to the physical world and, maybe, the reminder that everything revolves around something. The running to and around the granary several times is reflective of the electromagnetic force and electrons going around the nucleus.

The granary is symbolic of the primal unity of Amma's egg. Scranton points out the double circle of the granary refers to the point of Stephen Hawking that all non quantum matter has a double 'spin'. Going up the steps of the granary reflects the increase in vibratory rate by the weak force, again. The hiding of the embers in a bellows skin and hollering: "Stolen!" is a thinly veiled metaphor of an illumined human being recognizing his unity with the light and fire of heaven in the action of the strong force.

Defective Creation

With confidence in these five proofs we can look at Dogon mythology as likely transmitting some reliable history. The Dogon story of the first defective creation takes place, apparently, before the earth was bombarded by meteorites containing water. This creation violated the principle of twin births. Along with the Nummo pair, the concept of the pairing of opposites, complementarity, male-female, etc is important for the Dogon. Because this was violated, the jackal was born. Taken metaphorically this could mean the jackal was not utilizing a higher soul and employed a scavenger or predatory mentality such as could be inferred from Gnostic stories in the Nag Hammadi texts in their 'first creation' story which had a defective 'lion-like' being. This lends substance to the position of John Lamb Lash at www.metahistory.org that the first creation of Sophia, Ialdabaoth, was before the creation of the earth and was, perhaps, 'inorganic' in his terminology.

The Dogons say the first eight humans were taken to heaven by going into the earth, being shrunk to germinal form, and taking on the essence of water--which is the Nummo pair--so they could return and teach humanity their various gifts. Here is where the concept of the 'Defect' shows up again. Scranton quotes the Dogon elder Ogotemmeli:

"When the first ancestor, who was the smith, had finished his instruction, the seven other ancestors descended to teach their skills of civilization to man. These skills included leatherworking, music, and so on, and were taught in order of rank. However, the eighth ancestor took his place out of turn and came down before the seventh, who was the master of speech. This made the seventh ancestor so very angry that he turned against the other, took the form of a great serpent, and tried to remove the heavenly grains from the granary. The smith saw the serpent as an adversary and in order to rid himself of it, advised men to kill the snake."

Though the seventh was the master of speech, the eight had special status as speech itself. This could reflect the knowledge that there was a manipulative effort to control or manage the original or inner voice or spirit working through human beings--and then to negatively impact their granary.

Gnostic Parallel

The "form of a great serpent" is reminiscent of the Gnostic 'lion-faced, serpentine bodied' Ialdabaoth. The eight ancestors could possibly be viewed as eight extraterrestrial races charged with assisting humans in evolving. The serpent description resonates with some contemporary views of races such as the reptilians and greys who may be viewed as having their own agenda and not necessarily a homo sapien-friendly one.

In any event, the Dogons have an over-archingly positive and theocentric view of a world created by Amma, run by the Nummo, assisted by the beings from the Sirius star system who came for their benefit and will one day return and rule from the sea.

Our future could be a worse one!

Warba, MN February 23, 2008