THE STORY OF THE DOGON

It appears that since the publication of Temple’s "Sirius Mystery" more people have read the stories of the "Debunker" than the story of the Dogon.

In 1986, however, a more modern translation of "Le Renard Pâle" appeared. Written by Prof. Stephen Infantino and published by the Continuum Foundation (rights owned by Mr. Nataki of Afrikan World Books in Baltimore), that version served as an invaluable reference for author Laird Scranton. In his intriguing book "Hidden Meanings: A Study of the Founding Symbols of Civilizations" Scranton presents some profound and compelling new explanations for many of the Dogon symbols, words and rituals in the light of current scientific understanding of the structure of matter – whether the atom, water or stellar objects. He also offers us a remarkable insight into the drawn symbols of the Dogon, and demonstrates from a scientific perspective that a link exists between Dogon signs and the hieroglyphic characters of ancient Egypt.

If Scranton is correct, that "the symbols were deliberately organized and encoded by a knowledgeable authority sometime before 3400 BC", then there would soon be a need to revise our perception about the knowledge that mankind possessed in remote epochs.

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It will become evident that the Dogon’s cosmogonic myth goes beyond our current understanding of the structure of the universe and the origin of life. It illustrates that the most incomprehensible aspect of all in the universe, the only Real Substance, will always remain incomprehensible to the human intellect. Yet by reflecting upon itself, the human mind has the possibility to realize or experience the Dogon’s "word" or "thought", which appears as the underlying spiraling or vibratory structure of the manifested universe, presenting in its different aspects the ideas of space and time.

The story in itself is as timeless as the wisdom it conveys.

As Germaine Dieterlen points out in the preface of "The Pale Fox" (Translation by Mary Beach, by permission and courtesy of the Anodos Foundation, Archives of Arthur M. Young, 2004):

"The Dogon myth does not only tell of adventurous deeds, nor of rivalries among gods, or even of the effect of love and hate – love of God, the wickedness of the villain – as in other religion. It does not lead to a great detachment either, this ideal is proposed to man as a final alternative and within sight of death or fusion into a ‘great whole’. But it gives evidence of a serious examination of the condition of life and death. Whence its precise biological aspect; of course the universe is considered as a whole, but also as a living body, articulated and ordered – to such a degree that disorder is even integrated into it – functional, with dovetailed parts that depend upon each other. The myth presents a construction of the universe – from the stellar system to the smallest seed, by way of man, the microscopic image of that world. Psychology intervenes in this perspective: for instance, the characters and the behavior of the principle players of the myth. The emphasis is placed on the Fox, semper peccatus semper iustus. Independent but not satisfied; active, inventive and at the same time destructive; daring and yet fearful; anxious, sly and yet casual, he embodies all the contradictions inherent to the human condition. In this economy, it is important to know and understand the structure of the universe; but it must also be lived, in the fullest sense of the word, by the body and the mind." (page 41)

For centuries the Dogon have observed, analyzed and studied everything that surrounds them and "they developed a native explanation for the manifestations of nature". The Dogon possess "systems of signs consisting of several thousand, astronomy and calendars, a method of counting, a high knowledge of anatomy and physiology, genetics, and a systematic pharmacopoeia". (page 29)

Observing nature and life on Earth, the motion of the stars, the Sun, the Moon, Venus and other planets, they did not require textbooks or sophisticated instruments to understand the facts and the reality. The Dogon’s way of thinking "makes the universe an orderly whole, where the notion of law is less present than the notion of a pre-established harmony, endlessly troubled, and continually reorganized. Every part of the entirety is a summary of the whole. There is neither subject nor object, but things linked in a single reign." (page 31)

It appears that long before empirical science established their facts, the Dogon already knew that "the sun turns on its own axis, as if propelled by a huge spiral spring. Reinforced by the "ropes" of rain that penetrate it, the Earth turns on its axis, logoro-ne gogono galaze, lit: "circles ((around) its center)", & makes a great circle, aduno digili, "circle of the world", like a top its spinning accompanied by a circular displacement. The moon turns like a conical spiral around the Earth." (page 297)

The Dogon elders not only possess an accurate astronomical understanding of our solar system, but they also have an astonishing clear perception of mankind’s place in the universe, which centers, so to speak around the invisible stars of the Sirius system.

"Two systems, that are sometimes linked together, intervene, and are at the origin of various calendars, giving a rhythm to the life and activities of man; the same goes for the performing of rites established because of certain events which may have been authored by human beings or of which they are the testament, events which were determined for the most part by the deeds of the Fox who endeavored to disturb the established order of things. One of them, nearest to the Earth, will have the sun as an axis, the sun is the testament to the rest of Ogo's placenta, and another, further away, Sirius, testament to the placenta of the Nommo, monitor of the Universe". (page 292)

Furthermore it says, "The group of stars in which Sirius plays the primordial role, comprises the constellation of Orion & a certain number of stars located not far away. The 4 principal stars on Orion’s Chariot are called "from the seat of Amma’s base" (amma bolo doy tolo), or "stars from Amma’s navel" (amma bogu tolo), "the Goatherd’s star" (enegirine tolo), & finally Sirius (sigi tolo) & his "companions" (po tolo, emma ya tolo). These stars constitute the "support for the seat of the world". […]" (page 292)

"Therefore, in starry space, the Chariot is the symbol of Amma’s seat; it surrounds atanu, the Belt, or the 3 vicars; it is associated to the basic elements & to the cardinal directions which presided over the creation of the universe "thought" by the creator. (page 293)

According to Dogon mythology, Amma is the supreme God, the creator of the universe. "The sense of the word amma is: to hold tight, embrace strongly and keep in the same place". (page 48) The Nommo Monitors are the "ancestors" of men, to whom Amma entrusted a part of the management of the universe. Nommo anagonno called Ogo will become the Pale Fox, and his twin "brother", the "father" of men was the nommo sacrificed in heaven to redeem the sins of his twin.

The Dogon say that Amma has foreseen the dualistic organization of the universe, "The reason Amma created the Nommo & the Fox, is because he disorganized the world and organized it", amma nommo-le yurugu-le vo manu-go aduno yammalaze kene kanay kanaza. The last words mean literally "organization must come about". For he made the nommo anagonno to be the masters of the universe; opposed but complementary, Ogo, who foments disorder, & his "twin brothers" – who combat him – will be associated to his administration as well as to his functioning." (page 165)

They also say that "the Earth is the piece of placenta torn off by Ogo, the sun which is the rest of his placenta is retained by Amma & entrusted to the Nommo; the moon is the testament of the opening made by the tearing away of the piece of placenta & taken to Earth when Ogo descended." (page 297)

"The piece of placenta, that became Ogo’s ark* & turning on its axis, first landed on the "fork of the world". […] Seeing the disorder caused by Ogo, Amma then turned the piece of placenta into earth; later he formed the moon, ie pilu, from the opening made by Ogo when he emerged from the bosom. Then the ark was stabilized, orienting itself east-west and became our Earth". (page 125)

*(Note: The English translation of the French word ‘arche’ is ‘ark’, but in the copy of the Beach manuscript [p.124 & p.125] it was either misspelled or mistranslated as ‘arch’)

It should be pointed out that the Dogon, as noted by Dieterlen, differentiated between ‘earth’, which represents the element or matter and ‘Earth’, the planet.

"So, if Amma created the world, the po took care of its turning around: as it turned, then acting as a spring, the po dragged & distributed things in the universe; it is the po that started the Fox’s descent on Earth. It finished Amma’s work." (page 245)

"The descent of the ark coincided with the dispersion of the stars in the sky & started their respective revolutions. At that time, like the sun the Creator had come out when Ogo ascended the second time & "pushed" to the west so Ogo would be unable to reach it, all the stars came out of Amma’s bosom also. The last one to come out was sigi tolo, Sirius, that Amma "pushed" to the east in the direction of the Earth". (page 290)

While the Dogon may have not identified the "ark" with a space ship, we can, however, clearly identify Sirius B as po tolo, which literally means ‘deep (profound) beginning’.

"The "star of the fonio" (po tolo), turns around Sirius, sigi tolo. The revolution lasts 50 years. It is the most important of the stars, & has the role of a master – among the spiraling stars created by Amma; it is the testament of the po pilu & was born after he finished his work, it is thought to be the center of the world of stars. […] The star of po, is the double of the whole creation, & for mankind is of considerable value. When, they saw it, later, in the sky, it signified the renewal of the world. It is, for them, the image of Amma’s "bosom", & through it keeps the basic signs that summarize the creation, & keeps the po pilu which represents it in the heavens. That is why it is said of it: it is like the "egg of the world’, aduno talu, & the "eye of Amma" amma giri, the guide of the universe. Because of the creative role of the po pilu, the star is believed to be the reservoir, the source of all things. The po pilu empties itself when it finishes making the world turn & turned into the po star. It is the smallest & heaviest of all celestial things. The po tolo is heavy (because) it had (within it) the rest of the blood of the world’s blood spun around by the po. (It’s) the rest of the blood of all things it created. po tolo is the smallest of all the things, it is the heaviest star". (page 294) [see also Appendix II]

"The primitive location of the star in the sky is the one in which the sun is found today, which is also called "seat of the po tolo", po tolo doy, (Sirius was also there but he moved away like it). Like the other stars it moved away from the Earth, for only the sun remained close to her. It therefore moved & now is located in the middle of the sky, but it is a center of movement, like the places where the helix is attached in the "devil’s" game. Moreover, "as soon as sigi tolo emerged, po tolo turned around it". It did the same thing around Sirius as the po did around its own germ inside Amma’s bosom represented by the gaba. The movements of the po tolo maintain all the other stars in their respective places; indeed, it is said that without this movement, none of them would "hold up". It is the po tolo that forces them to keep in their trajectories: it regulates Sirius’s trajectory, Sirius is the only star that doesn’t follow a regular curve which it separates from the other stars by surrounding it with its own trajectory. That is why it is called "the pillar of the stars", tolo ogo. The movement of po tolo, the heavy embryo of the world & the testament to all creation, are active: its contents is ejected by the force of its whirling in the shape of "the infinitely small", comparable to the seeds of the po pilu which developed rapidly: the star, which is as white as the po pilu, continues to distribute the germs of life that the grain it represents held within it. "Amma created po tolo before any other stars. In po tolo’s substance (body) (all) the things in the (whole) world, evidence of them exists a little. It contains (it is the granary) all things in the world. po tolo is the axis of the world. If one looks at po tolo, it is as if one said that po tolo turns: (in reality) it is thanks to it that the world turns." (page 295)

""Amma made space spin", amma ganna gona; spinning and dancing, Amma created all the spiraling worlds of the stars of the universe." (page 112)

For the Dogon the "internal movement of the smallest of all the elements created by God, is reflected in space by the spiral movement of the stars." (page 259)

Thus we find the often quoted hermetic axiom "As above, so below" also in the cosmogony of the Dogon. They have an "internal system of stars" that corresponds to the stream of blood and the functioning of the vital force and organs in the human body - like a mirror image of the universe. The motion of this stellar world directly affects the life of man and his evolution on Earth, both physically and spiritually. An external system "is made up of more distant stars that also intervene, but to a lesser extent, in human life. It includes the Milky Way, which is in itself the image of the spiraling stars inside the "world of spiraling stars" in which the Earth is found. In this "world of stars", the axis (Amma’s fork) around which they move, links the Pole Star, aduno giru "the eye of the world", the stars forming the Southern Cross, aduno giru ley "second eye of the world". These stars have these names because they "look at" the space they hold up: "The Polar (star) & the Southern Cross hold up the place on which the Earth rests"." (page 202)

“The star sigi tolo […] is the image of the center of the universe, for “Sirius is the naval of the world”, sigi tolo aduno bogi.” (page 158)

But for the Dogon, "it is not the thing itself but only the symbol that is important".

They also say that "the stars, which are part of the world of "spiraling stars" created by Amma correspond also to the "signs", which are the expressions of the Creator’s first thought. It is said: "The stars turn in the sky. The stars are the unborn signs of Amma turning in the sky"." (page 291)

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