Sacred Symbols Of The Dogon: The Key To Advanced Science In The Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Dogon cosmology provides a new Rosetta stone for reinterpreting Egyptian hieroglyphs • Provides a new understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs as scientific symbols based on Dogon cosmological drawings • Use parallels between Dogon and Egyptian word meanings to identify relationships between Dogon myths and modern science In The Science of the Dogon, Laird Scranton demonstrated that the cosmological structure described in the myths and drawings of the Dogon runs parallel to modern science--atomic theory, quantum theory, and string theory--their drawings often taking the same form as accurate scientific diagrams that relate to the formation of matter. Scranton also pointed to the close resemblance between the keywords and component elements of Dogon cosmology and those of ancient Egypt, and the implication that ancient cosmology may also be about actual science.Sacred Symbols of the Dogon uses these parallels as the starting point for a new interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphic language. By substituting Dogon cosmological drawings for equivalent glyph-shapes in Egyptian words, a new way of reading and interpreting the Egyptian hieroglyphs emerges. Scranton shows how each hieroglyph constitutes an entire concept, and that their meanings are scientific in nature. Using the Dogon symbols as a “Rosetta stone,” he reveals references within the ancient Egyptian language that define the full range of scientific components of matter: from massless waves to the completed atom, even suggesting direct correlations to a fully realized unified field theory.
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Inner Traditions (October 12, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594771340
ISBN-13: 978-1594771347
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #224,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #14 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Writing #65 in Books > History > World > Religious > Ethnic & Tribal #158 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations > Egypt
I have to admit that the string theory is a bit over my head, but Laird Scranton made some excellent observations in this book. I have studied Egyptology and ancient languages for many years, and he put forth explantions for the hieroglyphs I had never even considered, and they have great merit. Based upon Mr. Scranton's reasoning and use of hieroglyphs, I have been prodded to study other words (like about obelisks) to see what deeper meanings they might possibly have, and I haven't been disappointed.Semitic languages are fascinating, and Egyptian writing is even more so, because of the determinatives used at the ends of the words. This book has opened up a whole new avenue of research for me, and I want to thank Mr. Laird for his contribution to the study of science, language, and ancient history.
The saga of the Dogon began in the 1930s with two French ethnologists of a mystical bent, Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, who were concerned to demonstrate to their patronizing countrymen that the native Africans were not the illiterate primitives they were often imagined to be but rather were possessed of sophisticated cosmological beliefs. Their test subjects were the Dogon and they duly found the sophisticated cosmology they were hoping for. Their technique was to take the raw materials of the Dogon's beliefs, which were on the whole those of a typical agricultural society, and creatively transform them. A simple story of the creator god Amma "going around the land spreading seeds" becomes for instance "Amma turning on his own axis, generating spiral star worlds". The Dogon word 'gana', which simply means 'land, as opposed to sky', is consistently translated as 'space', with its science fiction implications, and the "four corners of the land" therefore become "the four angles of space". A description of Mercury turns into a revelation of Sirius B, and so on.The narrative was enthusiastically embraced by New Age writers like Robert Temple and John Anthony West and soon became an entire New Age religion, and Laird Scranton has taken on the mantle of continuing this story into the new dimension of astrophysics - his own personal interest. His approach is the same as that of Griaule & Dieterlen: a simple Dogon story is adopted and then rewritten and distorted to make it say something meaningful about astrophysics. A single example will suffice: In the original Dogon version of one story the acacia is the first tree to emerge from the earth. Once it has grown it produces four branches, from each of which a seed falls that grows into a new acacia. Scranton takes this story and interprets the four branches as equivalent to the four fundamental forces of physics - gravity, the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. To make gravity fit, he replaces the first acacia to grow from the parent tree with a 'mono' tree, borrowed from a different narrative, since this word in Dogon has the meaning 'sticky' (isn't that a description of gravity?), although this means splicing two unrelated stories together.Scranton further relates Dogon words and beliefs to Egyptian equivalents, unhampered by a personal familiarity with either language, and seems unaware that:a) the spelling of the words in the Egyptian dictionary he relies on (that of E A Wallace Budge) is mostly arbitrary and does not reflect the pronunciation of Egyptian words at any stage of their history (Robert Temple made this same mistake), so that for instance the word that Budge writes 'ather' and Scranton writes 'aether' (to convince readers that it is the same word as Greek 'aether') was probably pronounced 'yachar' in reality.b) like any language Egyptian changed over the course of its history and the spelling of words changed to reflect this - often Scranton chooses the very latest (and most corrupt) spelling of a word, one attested only in Greco-Roman times, simply because it contains letters that he can use to spell out a message about physics. Does this mean that the fundamental laws of physics changed over the course of Egyptian history? He was probably unaware of what era the words he chose came from - from the many listed in Budge's dictionary he simply chose the one that he could use.c) the Dogon language also changed over time and the dialect documented in the dictionary he uses, Toroso, is the most innovative of the Dogon dialects in terms of its pronunciation. The name of the Creator god, Ama, for instance, was originally Amba, the form that can still be found in the peripheral dialects such as Wazouba and Tombo. Four thousand years ago the language would of course have been unrecognizable. Scranton seems vaguely aware of this but dismisses these objections on the grounds that the mere existence of random phonetic similarities between modern Toroso and (Budge's version of) ancient Egyptian serves as its own justification.Many of the Dogon words and particles he employs simply don't exist in the language - so he interprets the word 'se:re' ('witness') as composed of a prefix 'se' meaning 'to possess the quality of' and a root word 're', 'to warp', so that he can relate an incident in Dogon mythology to the warping of space-time. Neither element actually exists - Dogon is a suffixing language and a derivational prefix like 'se' would be impossible, and Dogon phonology prohibits any root word from beginning with the letter /r/. He relates the Egyptian word 'nun' ('the primordial ocean') to the Dogon word 'nu' ('primeval waves of water'), which would be a remarkable synchronism - if any such word actually existed in Dogon (there is a word 'nu', but it refers to the humble bean).Phase two in his approach is to assign new meanings to Egyptian glyphs. Those used as letters are given sets of meanings drawn from physics - so the water glyph represents the electromagnetic force and the pot glyph represents particles - and Budge's dictionary is scoured for combinations of these glyphs that make sense in terms of modern physics (so for instance: "the force or act that weaves mass via the coiled thread", a reference to string theory.) So the letter for /p/ is assigned the meaning 'space' due to its square appearance in Budge's dictionary - Scranton was unaware that Budge often used simplified versions of signs for the sake of simplicity in printing and the actual Egyptian letter for /p/ consisted of three vertical strokes above a horizontal stroke. Of course each of these words in reality simply spells out a perfectly normal, everyday Egyptian word. The word for 'place', 'buw', begins with the letter /b/, so the appearance of this letter henceforth always means 'place' to Scranton, as though the fact that the word 'thermodynamics' begins with a /t/ means that the letter /t/ could be interpreted as meaning 'thermodynamics' wherever it occurs in any English word, including 'tea' and 'butter', which would give rise to some interesting speculations about the scientific knowledge of early Anglo-Saxons.In summary Scranton shows what can happen when fringe writers go no further in their research than scanning a couple of dictionaries, with no attempt to study the subject in depth and looking only for the tidbits that can be lifted out of context to support their theories.
In THE SCIENCE OF THE DOGON Scranton demonstrated the cosmological structure described in the myths of the Dogon parallels modern science, with illustrations often representing scientific diagrams of today. SACRED SYMBOLS OF THE DOGON continues the exploration for collections interested in early spirituality or Egyptian hieroglyphic language: here the Dogon symbols are revealed in a discussion of ancient Egyptian languages and scientific parallels sure to interest any New Age collection interested in scientific foundations of early Egyptian history.
Highly speculative claims with little fact-based commentary to back it up. He will constantly make assertions based on flaky premises and dubious correlations leading to some rather grandiose conclusions. He does a good job at positing alternative views, but does very little in the way to back them up with even sound reasoning. There are countless examples of things like: 3 represents Male and 4 Female and based on modern science showing that X and Y chromosomes have 4 and 3 protrusions, the Dogon must have understood DNA and its molecular composition.The shame here is that he has some fantastic assertions and very interesting ideas; he simply makes claims that I very much want to believe, but have no basis in evidence or science to do so and he does not drape his ideas in anything other than a veil of conjecture.
"Written by a Computer Analyst and very intriguing for those interested in Egyptian hieroglyphics" - my dadHe's really into the occult and all things mysterious. He says it's hard to read, but worth it especially if you've read the "Sirius Mystery."
Great book for those who belive in "alien" assistance with tthe progress of human kind. What is the answer to some civilizations having progressed so far ahead of the Europeans?
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