First report on the Opening of the stargate tour.
The Opening of the Stargate tour, which took place between 16 June and 1st July, was a great success. In Egypt we visited various pyramids and tombs at Giza, Dashur and Saqqara as well as what remains of the sanctuary of the Phoenix at Obelisk of Sewosret III at Heliopolis. [Note: For details of the itinerary please see previous article "Opening the stargate tour to Egypt and Israel".] However, the undoubted highlight of this part of our trip was our visit to the Pyramid Khafre on 21st June to see it crowned by the sun. This was a quite extraordinary spectacle, far more magnificent than any of us had imagined it would be.
In preparation for what was to come, we gathered together close by the Sphinx in good time for when the Giza Necropolis would be opened for visitors by the guards. Walking up the Khafre Causeway, we made our way to the foot of the Pyramid, just as the ancient Egyptian priests would have done at the time it was built in c. 2400 BC. We made our way round to the back of the pyramid, so that we were close to its western face at around 9.30 am. To our surprise we found that we had the place to ourselves, (eighteen in number), except for an Egyptian boy selling postcards and a camel mounted bedouin, as ever hopeful of persuading at least one of us to go for a ride. Though it had been a hot walk up from the Sphinx and for all of this way we had been bathed in brilliant sunlight, the western face of the pyramid was still in the shadows. However, standing further back in what seems to have been a little plaza we were already able to see the sun hovering just above the pyramid. To put ourselves in the right mood we gathered in a circle, all holding hands, and closed our eyes for a few minutes of meditation. Almost immediately I felt what was like an electric shock, entering though my head, going through my body and passing out through my feet. I have always been skeptical about "pyramid power". I don't believe that pyramids are of themselves capable of sharpening razor blades, or causing seedlings to grow at an accelerated rate. Yet this shock of energy was something that I could not deny. Was this transformation of solar energy the real pyramid power, I wondered? If so, what was it for?
These questions were still floating freely in my mind as we broke up the circle and moved closer to the base of the pyramid. I handed out miniature ankhs, symbolic of "life" and therefore the power of the sun, to each member of the group. In my own hand I had a much larger ankh, which I had bought in the Cairo Bazar the day before. I now pointed this towards the tip of the pyramid, in the direction of the Orion stargate. Was this what the Egyptian priest had done over 4000 years ago, I wondered? Would they have known or even guessed that in the year 2000 AD the summer solstice sun would be placed exactly over the Orion stargate as it crossed over the crest of the pyramid? Certainly it seems that they knew about the stargate as we had ourselves seen the day before, in the Egyptian Museum, how the Benben stone of Amenemhet III carries the glyph of Orion holding in his hand a star. "As Above, So Below", the Hermetic Dictum, was once more in my mind as like Orion I pointed an ankh towards the stargate. "As above, so Below", would this now mean that a gateway to the legendary Hall or Records might now soon be discovered? Who knows. Until it is found there is no proof that such a chamber even exists. However I did have a feeling that in some esoteric way the two events might be linked: that no secret gateway on earth would be discovered until the gate of heaven had been symbolically opened.
Already the sun was beginning to move into position and at exactly 10:11 am, the time predicted for the event by the SKYGLOBE computer program, it could be seen sitting precisely on top. What a thrill it was for us to see this cosmic event, to look up the side of the Khafre Pyramid and see the awesome disc of the sun blazing over the few remaining facing stones close to its peak. It brought to mind certain words of the Pyramid Texts concerning the sun shining on the benben stone of Heliopolis, the prototype of all pyramidions: "O Atum! When you came into being you rose up as a High Hill, you shone as the Benben Stone in the Temple of the Phoenix at Heliopolis" [R.T. Rundle Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, p. 37, Thames & Hudson, London, 1978]
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| The Pyramid of Khafre | Sun at exactly east over Khafre Pyramid |
As the sun climbed higher in the sky, so the shadows departed and standing back a little we could see its reflection on the casing stones. Immediately this brought to mind the Masonic image of the eye in the triangle or pyramidion. This glyph is used in the Great Seal of the United States of America. One wonders if Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had the seal of the United States put on the dollar bill, had any idea of the significance of its symbolism. As he was a 33rd degree Freemason, one may suspect that he did. However, he probably did not realise that the eye of God (to the ancient Egyptians the Eye of Horus, i.e. the sun) would sit upon the Khafre Pyramid in this way precisely at the summer solstice.
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| The Great Seal of the United States | The ankh or "key of life" |
Once the sun had moved away from the peak of the pyramid we dispersed as a group, returning again the following afternoon to see the sun from the eastern face of the Khafre Pyramid as it passed to the west. At around 3.30 pm things did not seem all that encouraging. The sun was still high in the sky and to the left of the pyramid's cap. It seemed unlikely that it would sit on top of the pyramid at 3.49 p.m. as the computer predicted. However all such negative fears were to prove unfounded. From this time onwards the sun fell like a stone, its movement of 1º every 4 minutes of time being almost vertical. At 3.49 precisely it was positioned directly over the capstone of the pyramid, which as in the morning shimmered in reflected sunlight. At this time the few remaining facing stones of the pyramid, which are angled at 53º 10', cast no shadow.
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| Sun around 3.30 pm | Sun at exactly west over Khafre Pyramid | Sloping block casting no shadow |
Once more we gathered around and raised a great cheer, lifting aloft the ankh in such a way that it framed the sun at the stargate. From there, over the next few minutes, the sun continued on its progress, gradually being eclipsed by the pyramid. As one of our party had brought eclipse glasses with him, w were able to watch this; the disc of the sun being steadily cut by the pyramid until it was visible no more.With the sun behind the crown of the pyramid it gave off a dazzling radiance not too disimilar to the aura I had see around the sun at the time of the total eclipse of August 1999.
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| "Stargaters" gather east of pyramid | "Opening the stargate" | Radiance after sun eclipsed by pyramid |
Though we took many pictures of the days events, these barely do justice to the extraordinary nature of what we witnessed. To see the sun rise and set behind the capstone of a pyramid is a remarkable sight and one I shall never forget. Fortunately the whole event was recorded for us by our South African film crew. It is hoped that the documentary they are making will be screened world-wide either later this year or early next.
There was much more that we saw and experienced in Egypt; too much to be reported on here. Those who would like to know about the subject of the stargate and the theoretical astronomy that underpins the events we witnessed are referrred to my book Signs in the Sky. What happened to us when we went on from Egypt to Israel will be the subject of my next report.