Dogon shame

Did ancient gods from the Sirius star system visit an African tribe 5,000 years ago? New
evidence deals a devastating blow to what was considered to be the best case for
extraterrestrial visitation.
by Philip Coppens
Source: http://www.philipcoppens.com/dogonshame.html
The story that the Dogon, a tribe in Mali, West Africa, had possessed in their antiquity
extraordinary knowledge of the star system Sirius achieved worldwide publicity in 1976
through Robert Temples extraordinary book The Sirius Mystery. It was compellingly
argued and became one of the most influential books of the 1970s ancient astronauts
genre.
Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, a star that became the marker of an important ancient
Egyptian calendar, and a star that is said to be at the centre of beliefs held by the
Freemasons. According to some cultures, Sirius is where the forefathers of the human
race
might
have
originated .
Temple claimed that the Dogon knew about two smaller stars that are closely related to
Sirius Sirius B and Sirius C. The mystery was how they had obtained this knowledge, as these companion
stars cannot be seen by the unaided eye. Temples solution referred to legends of a mythical creature, the
god Oannes, who might have been an extraterrestrial, described as descending to Earth from the stars to
bring civilising wisdom to the Dogon forefathers.
In 1998, Temple republished the book with the subtitle new scientific evidence
of alien contact 5,000 years ago. The books reputation was first dented in
1999, when Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince published The Stargate Conspiracy,
in which they allege that Temples thinking had been heavily influenced by his
mentor, Arthur M. Young. Young was a fervent believer in the Council of Nine,
a mysterious group of channelled entities that claim to be the nine creator gods
of ancient Egypt. The Nine became part of the UFO and New Age mythology
and many claim to be in contact with them. The Nine also claim to be
extraterrestrial beings from the star Sirius. In 1952, Young was one of nine people present during the first
contact with the Council, an event initiated by Andrija Puharich, the man who brought Israeli spoonbender
Uri Geller to America.
In 1965, Arthur Young gave Robert Temple a French article on the secret star lore of the Dogon, an article
written by two French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. In 1966, Temple then aged
21 became Secretary of Youngs Foundation for the Study of Consciousness. In 1967, Temple began work
on the thesis that became The Sirius Mystery. As Picknett and Prince have been able to show, Temples
arguments are often based on erroneous readings of encyclopdia entries and misrepresentations of
ancient Egyptian mythology. They conclude that Temple was very keen to please his mentor, who believed in
extraterrestrial beings from Sirius.
Though Temples work was challenged, at its core lay the original anthropological study of the Dogon by
Griaule and Dieterlen, who describe the secret knowledge of Sirius B and Sirius C in their own book The
Pale Fox. But now, in another recent publication Ancient Mysteries by Peter James and Nick Thorpe this
mystery is also uncloaked as a hoax or a lie perpetrated by Griaule.
To recapitulate: Griaule claimed to have been initiated into the secret mysteries of the
male Dogon, during which they allegedly told him of Sirius (sigu tolo in their language)
and its two invisible companions. In the 1930s, when their research was carried out,
Sirius B was known to have existed, even though it was only photographed in 1970. It
was very unlikely that the Dogon had learned of this stars existence from Westerners
prior to the visit by Griaule and Dieterlen.
Griaule and Dieterlen first described their findings in an article published in French in
1950, but they included no comment about how extraordinary the Dogon knowledge of
the invisible companions was. This step was taken by others, particularly Temple, in the
Sixties and Seventies. To quote Ancient Mysteries: While Temple, following Griaule,

assumes that to polo is the invisible star Sirius B, the Dogon themselves, as reported by Griaule, say
something quite different. To quote the Dogon: When Digitaria (to polo) is close to Sirius, the latter
becomes brighter; when it is at its most distant from Sirius, Digitaria gives off a twinkling effect, suggesting
several stars to the observer. This description of a very visible effect causes James and Thorpe to wonder
as anyone reading this should do whether to polo is therefore an ordinary star near Sirius, not an invisible
companion, as Griaule and Temple suggest.
The biggest challenge to Griaule, however, came from
anthropologist Walter Van Beek. He points out that Griaule
and Dieterlen stand alone in their claims about the Dogon
secret knowledge. No other anthropologist supports their
opinions. In 1991, Van Beek led a team of anthropologists to
Mali and declared that they found absolutely no trace of the
detailed Sirius lore reported by the French anthropologists.
James and Thorpe understate the problem when they say
this is very worrying. Griaule claimed that about 15 per cent
of the Dogon tribe possessed this secret knowledge, but Van
Beek could find no trace of it in the decade he spent with the
Dogon. Van Beek actually spoke to some of Griaules original
informants; he noted that though they do speak about sigu
tolo [interpreted by Griaule as their name for Sirius itself], they disagree completely with each other as to
which star is meant; for some, it is an invisible star that should rise to announce the sigu [festival], for
another it is Venus that, through a different position, appears as sigu tolo. All agree, however, that they
learned about the star from Griaule. Van Beek states that this creates a major problem for Griaules claims.
Although he was an anthropologist, Griaule was keenly interested in astronomy and had studied it in Paris.
As James and Thorpe point out, he took star maps along with him on his field trips as a way of prompting his
informants to divulge their knowledge of the stars. Griaule himself was aware of the discovery of Sirius B and
in the 1920s before he visited the Dogon there were also unconfirmed sightings of Sirius C.
The Dogon were well aware of the brightest star in the sky but, as Van Beek learned, they
do not call it sigu tolo, as Griaule claimed, but dana tolo. To quote James and Thorpe: As
for Sirius B, only Griaules informants had ever heard of it. Was Griaule told by his
informants what he wanted to believe; did he misinterpret the Dogon responses to his
questions? Either way, the original purity of the Dogon-Sirius story is itself a myth as it is
highly likely that Griaule contaminated their knowledge with his own.
With this, the Dogon mystery comes crashing down. For more then 20 years, The Sirius
Mystery has influenced speculation about the possibility that our forefathers came from
the stars. In his 1998 revised edition, Temple was quick to point out the new discussions in
scientific circles about the possible existence of Sirius C, which seemed to make Griaules claims even more
spectacular and accurate. But it is apparent that Temple was not aware of Van Beeks devastating research.
From the findings of Van Beek and the authors of Ancient Mysteries, it is clear that Griaule himself was
responsible for the creation of a modern myth; one which, in retrospect, has created such an industry and
near-religious belief that the scope and intensity of it can hardly be fathomed. Nigel Appleby whose book
Hall of the Gods was withdrawn from publication has admitted to being tremendously influenced by
Temples Sirius Mystery. He has written of Temples belief that present-day authorities are unwilling to set
aside the blinkers of orthodoxy, unable to admit the validity of anything that lies outside their field or that
offers a challenge to the status quo. Appleby also believes there exists a modern arrogance that cannot
countenance the idea that ancient civilisations might have been scientifically superior.
But it seems that Griaule, a scientist, wanted to attribute to earlier civilisations more knowledge than they
actually possessed. Credulous scholars, like Young and Temple, were taken in and through them a whole
generation has swallowed the false mythology of aliens from the Dark Sirius Companion.
This article appeared in Fortean Times.