Celestial bodies in our Solar System show harmonic resonance with the Sirius Star System and many cultures have had a long interest in our relationship with it.
Previous civilizations did understand sky mechanics at an advanced level, and the mathematical precision of their astronomical observations is a testament to this.
What the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system, consisting of a white star, called Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion, called Sirius B, orbiting each other with a separation of roughly the distance between the Sun and Uranus.
The system is between 200 and 300 million years old and it was originally composed of two bright bluish stars.
At a distance of 8.6 light years, the Sirius system is one of Earth’s nearest neighbors.
This proximity is the main reason for its brightness, as with other near stars such as Alpha Centauri, Procyon and Vega.
Sirius A is the brightest star in the night sky, almost twice as bright as the second-brightest star, Canopus, and the 5th closest star we’ve identified to our sun.
Its companion, Sirius B, is currently 10,000 times less luminous and was once the more massive of the two.
Sirius B, also known as the Pup Star, is one of the most massive white dwarfs known. This mass is packed into a volume roughly equal to the Earth’s.
Because there is no internal heat source, Sirius B will steadily cool as the remaining heat is radiated into space over the next two billion years or so.
Along with Procyon and Betelgeuse, Sirius forms one of the three vertices of the Winter Triangle to observers in the Northern Hemisphere.
Under the right conditions, Sirius can be observed in daylight with the naked eye in the winter months by following a line down from the Orion belt, where it appears as a white/blue star. These observing conditions are more easily met in the Southern Hemisphere, owing to the southerly declination of Sirius.
Some scholars suggested that Sirius was a member of the Ursa Major Moving Group, a set of 220 stars that share a common motion through space.
Sirius may instead be a member of the proposed Sirius Supercluster, along with other scattered stars. This would be one of three large clusters located within 500 light-years of the Sun. The other two are the Hyades and the Pleiades, and each of these clusters consists of hundreds of stars.
The ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Babylonians, Indians and Chinese all had special understanding about the importance of Sirius.
A fascinating aspect of Sirius is the consistency of the symbolism and meanings attached to it.
Several great civilizations have indeed associated Sirius with a dog-like figure and viewed the star as either the source or the destination of a mysterious force. It has over 50 designations and names attached to it.
The name “Sirius” comes from the Latin Sīrius, from the Ancient Greek Seirios, “glowing” or “scorcher”, owing to its brightness.
It was described as “burning” or “flaming” in literature.
To Greek observers, these emanations caused its malignant influence. Anyone suffering its effects was said to be “star-struck” (astrobólētos).
The season following the star’s reappearance came to be known as the “dog days”.
The inhabitants of the island of Ceos in the Aegean Sea, in Greece, would offer sacrifices to Sirius and Zeus to bring cooling breezes and would await the reappearance of the star in the summer.
If it rose clear, it would bring good fortune. If it was misty or faint, then it foretold pestilence. Coins retrieved from the island from the 3rd century BCE feature dogs or stars with emanating rays, highlighting Sirius’s importance.
The star is also called Alpha Canis Majoris in Latin and as the “Dog Star”, reflecting its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major (the Greater Dog), classically depicted as Orion’s dog.
The Ancient Greeks thought that Sirius’s emanations could affect dogs adversely, making them behave abnormally during the “dog days”, the hottest days of the summer, the Heliacal rising of Sirius. They also observed that the appearance of Sirius as the morning star caused plants to wilt, men to weaken, and women to become aroused.
Homer, in the Iliad, describes the approach of Achilles toward Troy in these words:
Sirius rises late in the dark, liquid sky
On summer nights, star of stars,
Orion’s Dog they call it, brightest
Of all, but an evil portent, bringing heat
And fevers to suffering humanity.
The Romans knew these days as dies caniculares, and the star Sirius was called Canicula, “little dog”.
The Romans celebrated the Heliacal setting of Sirius around 25th of April, sacrificing a dog to the goddess Robigo so that the star’s emanations would not cause wheat rust on wheat crops that year.
Interestingly, the 25th of April is now a national holiday in Italy, Liberation Day, celebrating the end of World War II on Italian soil.
In Iranian mythology, especially in Persian mythology and in Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Persia, Sirius appears as Tishtrya and is revered as the rain-maker divinity.
In Chinese astronomy Sirius is known as the star of the “celestial wolf” (Tiānláng), Tenrōin in Japan and Cheonrang in Korean.
Many nations among the indigenous people of North America also associated Sirius with canines.
The Seri and Tohono O’odham tribes of the southwest describe Sirius as a “dog that follows mountain sheep”, while the Blackfoot call it “Dog-face”.
The Cherokee paired Sirius with Antares as a dog-star guardian of the “Path of Souls”. The Pawnee of Nebraska knew it as the “Wolf Star”, while other tribes knew it as the “Coyote Star”.
Further north, the Alaskan Inuit of the Bering Strait called it “Moon Dog”.
It was “Wolf that hangs by the side of Heaven” for the Northern Osage.
The Hopi Natives refer to Sirius as the Blue Star Kachina. People think the Red Star Kachina is a separate star but perhaps it is the same star at a different part of its cycle. Hopi Prophecy states that when Sirius makes its appearance in the heavens, the Fifth World will emerge.
In India it is referred to as Svana, the Dog Prince Yudhistira.
In Sanskrit it is known as Mrgavyadha “deer hunter”, or Lubdhaka “hunter”. As Mrgavyadha, the star represents Rudra (a form of Shiva). The star is referred to as Makarajyoti in Malayalam and has religious significance to the pilgrim center Sabarimala.
In Scandinavia, the star has been known as Lokabrenna (“burning done by Loki”, or “Loki’s torch”).
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s essay Treatise on the Astrolabe, it bears the name Alhabor and is depicted by a hound’s head. This name is widely used on medieval astrolabes from Western Europe.
Bright stars were also important to the ancient Polynesians for navigation of the Pacific Ocean. Sirius matches the latitude of the archipelago of Fiji.
Sirius served as the body of a “Great Bird” constellation called Manu, which divided the Polynesian night sky into two hemispheres.
Just as the appearance of Sirius in the morning sky marked summer in Greece, it marked the onset of winter for the Māori, and the name Takurua described both the star and the season.
In Ancient Egypt, Sirius was regarded as the most important star in the sky. In fact, it was the foundation of the Egyptians’ entire religious system. It was revered as Sothis and was associated with Isis, the mother goddess of Egyptian mythology.
Isis is the female aspect of the trinity formed by herself, Osiris and their son Horus. Sirius/Sothis was held in such high regard that most of the Egyptian deities were associated, in some way or another, with the star.
Anubis, the dog-headed god of death, had an obvious connection with the Dog Star.
The hieroglyph representing Sirius contains three elements: a “phallic” obelisk (representing Osiris), a “womb-like” dome (representing Isis) and a star (representing Horus).
Thot-Hermes, the great teacher of humanity, was also esoterically connected with the star.
Several occult researchers have claimed that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in perfect alignment with the stars, especially Sirius. The light from these stars was said to be used in ceremonies of Egyptian Mysteries.
The Heliacal rising of Sirius, which refers to its first annual appearance from behind the sun, is when the star can be observed just before sunrise. Sirius’ Heliacal rising always preceded the flooding of the Nile and the Summer Solstice in Ancient Egypt.
Owing to the flood’s own irregularity, the extreme precision of the star’s return was important to the ancient Egyptians, who worshipped it as the goddess Sopdet, meaning”Triangle” or “Sharp One”, as guarantor of the fertility of the land.
The start of the new year, heralded by the rising of the waters, was linked with this “going forth of Sothis” and led to the goddess being called “Lady of the new year”.
The 70 day period of the absence of Sirius from the sky was understood as the passing of Sopdet-Isis and Sah-Osiris through the Egyptian underworld.
It is interesting to note that the embalming of the dead took 70 days. Sopdet was a goddess of fertility to both the living and the dead.
The Sothic cycle or Canicular period is a period of 1,461 Egyptian civil years of 365 days each and it confirms that Sirius does not move retrograde across the sky like other stars, a phenomenon widely known as the precession of the equinoxes.
It is thought that the reason why the Egyptians and many other civilizations of that era used Sirius as their marker for the passage of time was because they picked the most stable object in the sky as their reference point.
Thuban was the pole star when the pyramids allegedly were built and the so-called Simulation began.
Sirius is mentioned in Surah 53 An-Najm (The Star) of the Holy Qura’n, where it is given the name “Ash-Shira”, meaning “Leader” or “Known One”, also known as Mirzam Al-Jawza.
The precession of the equinoxes is an approximately 26,000 year cycle where the rotational axis of the earth appears to wobble, inscribing a great circle in the starry sky. Currently Polaris is almost in line with the earth’s Northern axis.
This great cycle is caused by the interaction of gravitational forces between the earth and the other celestial bodies in our solar system.
Some scholars have offered a radical theory that the reason for this apparent wobble is in fact because our sun is part of a binary star system.
Proposing that Sirius may be the companion to our sun is opposite of what we commonly think of as binary stars because it’s not the closest star to our own.
In general, a binary star refers to a pair of stars that revolve around a common center of mass.
We can observe other binary star systems due to the wobbly movements these stars make or through regular fluctuations in their brightness.
There may be many more binary or even triple star systems than we previously believed, though typically they are closer together.
On the other hand, the binary model seems to better explain a variable rate of precession since the wobble would speed up or slow down depending on the proximity of the two stars as they rotate around each other.
Obviously, if we take into consideration the theory of a flat earth, the starry dome would be rotating above a stationary land, and still, the occult and mystical aspects of Sirius would be relevant.
Sirius remains about the same distance from the equinoxes and the solstices throughout the centuries, despite precession. Researchers found no “precession” adjustments are required to track the star Sirius.
For this reason, it is suggested that Sirius may be the best fit as our binary companion, though a more suitable star would be one closer to our Solar System.
Although there are researchers and astronomers willing to consider this radical idea, it does turn a lot of theories about our universe on their heads, and many people are resistant.
In his book, The Holy Science, the Indian philosopher Sri Yukteswar proposed that our Sun did have a binary relationship with Sirius.
He suggested that this relationship was the cause of the great ages, or Yugas, of Hindu belief, a cycle of roughly 24,000 years, similar to that of precession.
According to this belief, when the Suns are closer in relationship we experience Golden Ages, and because of this cycle the rise and fall of civilizations has occurred before.
When the two Suns are the farthest apart, we experience Kali Yuga. It happens that the stars are now moving closer together towards another Golden age.
Around 25 CE, Seneca described Sirius as being of a deeper red than Mars. It is therefore possible that the description as red is a poetic metaphor for ill fortune.
It is notable that not all ancient observers saw Sirius as red.
The 1st-century poet Marcus Manilius described it as “sea-blue”, as did the 4th-century Avienius.
Around the year 150 CE, Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, a Greek Egyptian astronomer of the Roman period, mapped the stars in his Almagest, in which he used Sirius as the location for the globe’s central meridian. He curiously depicted it as one of six red-colored stars. Among the other five he listed Betelgeuse, Antares, Aldebaran, Arcturus, and Pollux, all of which are at present observed to be of orange or red hue.
Also Babylonian cuneiform texts refer consistently to Sirius as a red or reddish star.
The reason could be that the star moved over the centuries and thus the perceived color changed.
According to scholar Robert K. G. Temple, knowledge about Sirius made its way from Egypt to Mali, to a West African tribe called the Dogon.
In his book entitled The Sirius Mystery, he traces the origin of the Dogon tradition back to ancient Egyptian times, around 3,200 BCE.
The Dogon have since time immemorial closely guarded a secret initiatory tradition containing accurate and detailed astronomical knowledge regarding Sirius that would normally be considered impossible without the use of telescopes.
Long before the rise of modern astronomy, the Dogon knew that Sirius A also has a closer, heavier binary star associated with it, with a 50 year orbital period.
They say that Sirius B is immensely heavy, invisible, very small, yet extremely powerful. Their understanding of the two stars’ orbits coincides exactly with modern astronomical findings, yet was noted thousands of years before it was scientifically proven.
They also claim that a third star, Emme Ya, exists in the Sirius system. Larger and lighter than Sirius B, this star revolves around Sirius A as well.
The Dogon also believe that approximately 5,000 years ago, Amphibious Gods, called Nommo, came to Earth in three legged space ships from the Sirius Star System.
They are said to have “descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder” and imparted profound knowledge to ancient civilizations (such as the Egyptians and Dogon) about the Sirius star system as well as our own solar system.
Allegedly, ancient aliens from Sirius were blue and their descendants thought of as blue-bloods or royalty.
The Dogon have described perfectly the DNA pattern made by this elliptical orbit created by the two stars as they rotate around each other. They believe Sirius to be the axis of the universe, and from it all matter and all souls are produced in a great spiral motion.
The Dogon’s mythology system is strikingly similar to the ones of other civilizations such as the Sumerians, Egyptians, Israelites, and Babylonians as it includes the archetypal myth of a “great teacher from above”.
Depending on the civilization, this great teacher is known as Enoch, Thoth or Hermes Trismegistus and is said to have taught humanity theurgic sciences.
In occult traditions, it is believed that Thoth-Hermes had taught the people of Atlantis, which, according to legend, became the world’s most advanced civilization before the entire continent was submerged by the Great Deluge (accounts of a flood can be found in the mythologies of countless civilizations).
Some skeptics propose this astronomical knowledge was due to contamination by the first European anthropologists encountering the Dogon.
Some scholars concluded, after their research among the Dogon, that…“although they do speak about Sigu Tolo as the star they call Sirius, they disagree completely with each other as to which star is meant. For some it is an invisible star, for another it is Venus that, through a different position, appears as Sigu Tolo. All agree, however, that they learned about the star from European scholars…”
Some other scholars suggested that the Dogon could have received Western astronomical information in 1893, when a French expedition arrived in Central West Africa to observe a total eclipse.
In the religion of the Serer people of Senegal, the Gambia and Mauritania, Sirius is called Yoonir. The star Sirius is one of the most important and sacred stars in Serer religious cosmology and symbolism.
The Serer high priests and priestesses, “The rain priests”, check Yoonir to forecast rainfall and enable Serer farmers to start planting seeds. In Serer religious cosmology, it’s the symbol of the universe. Interesting to note the similar sound of the Yoni of Hindu belief.
In the Sumerian Civilization, predating the Egyptians, their Epic of Gilgamesh describes a dream of Gilgamesh where the hero is drawn irresistibly to a heavy star that cannot be lifted despite immense effort.
This star descends from heaven to him and is described as having a very ‘potent essence’ and being “the God of heaven”. Gilgamesh had for his companions 50 oarsmen in the great ship, Argo, a constellation bordering Canis Major, where Sirius is found.
Sirius’ Alchemical Symbol was also listed by Heinrich Agrippa, a German Renaissance polymath, physician, legal scholar, soldier, knight, theologian, and occult writer.
His most known work are the Three Books of Occult Philosophy published in 1533. They drew heavily upon Kabbalah, Hermeticism and Neoplatonism.
Sirius is one of the 27 stars on the flag of Brazil, where it represents the state of Mato Grosso.
Composer Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, who wrote a piece called Sirius, is claimed to have said on several occasions that he came from a planet in the Sirius system.
To Stockhausen, Sirius stood for “the place where music is the highest of vibrations” and where music had been developed in the most perfect way.
Sirius has been the subject of poetry. Dante and John Milton reference the star, while it was a “powerful western fallen star” for others.
Tennyson’s poem The Princess describes the star’s scintillation:
…the fiery Sirius alters hue
And bickers into red and emerald.
A more recent study using advanced infrared imaging concluded that the probability of the existence of a triple star system for Sirius is “low” but could not be ruled out.
Every 50 years, the two stars in the system, Sirius A and B, come as close together as their orbits allow, creating huge magnetic storms between them. As they approach each other, the stars both begin to spin faster as tidal forces become stronger, eventually trading places with each other.
This energy is eventually released to flow down the magnetic field lines to the sun, which transmits it like a lens to all the planets.
It may cause cataclysmic events on Earth due to re-aligning of energies before the re-polarization.
Sirius B made its latest closest approach (periastron) to Sirius A in 1994, with the next approach expected at around 2044.
If our sun is in a physical binary relationship with Sirius or other stars, that metaphysical concept may have more physical implications which we are only beginning to understand.
Mystery schools consider it to be “a sun behind the sun” and, therefore, the true source of our own sun’s potency. If our sun’s warmth keeps the physical world alive, Sirius is considered to keep the mystical world alive.
It is the “real light” shining in the East, the otherworldly light, whereas the sun illuminates the physical world, which is considered to be a grand illusion.
According to mythology, survivors from Atlantis traveled by boat to several countries, including Egypt, where they imparted their advanced knowledge. Occultists believe that the inexplicable resemblances between distant civilizations (such as the Mayas and the Egyptians) can be explained by their common contact with Atlanteans.
A great number of secret societies, that have historically held within their ranks some of the world’s most influential people, teach about a mystical connection between Sirius and humanity and hold the Dog-Star in the utmost importance as to the metaphysical interconnections we have with the cosmos and also call it “The Blazing Star.”
Sirius, or Venus, can also represent The Star card in Tarot, as the Major Arcana with the number 17.
Sirius can possibly be found behind the All-Seeing Eye on the American dollar bill. It is shown shining right above the Pyramid.
According to Jyotish astrology of India, Sirius is located in the Nakshatra Ardra which lies entirely in the sign of Gemini. Ardra is associated with both Sirius and Betelgeuse, in the constellation of Orion.
Considering most of the ancient wisdom was passed through the millennia, even the image of the teardrop of Ardra is reflecting the Egyptian Goddess Sopdet and her life giving waters which stood for the flooding of the Nile, and can be interpreted as a metaphor for the awakening of the human race.
With the ruling planet Rahu, it also has the influence of Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, reflecting the emphasis on the mind and a deep feeling nature combined with the passionate thinking.
You can generally locate Sirius in your own astrology chart at 19° Gemini, Sidereal and at 13° Cancer, Tropical.
If you have pronounced aspects of Sirius in your chart, you need to learn how to guide people towards their evolutionary experience without forcing your own will on them. It encourages us to be the teachers for others, and lead by example.
Sirius is the knowledge-holder of ancient hermetic wisdom. It represents high ethical standards, and inspires freedom.
Sirius can be authoritative in nature, nevertheless his energies can help us expand our consciousness.
It impacts our discernment between right and wrong, with a sense of responsibility to direct others towards the expression of their soul’s destiny.
The symbolic link between Sirius and occult knowledge has constantly appeared throughout History and has seamlessly traveled throughout the ages. It is as revered today as it was millennia ago.
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The Sirius Binary Star System – Occult and Esoteric Considerations
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Links and References:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon_people
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Pics:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Sirius_A_and_B_Hubble_photo.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Hubble_heic0206j.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Orbit_Sirius_B_arcsec.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Sirius_A_&_B_X-ray.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Sirius_A-Sun_comparison2.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Sirius_B-Earth_comparison2.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Sopdet.svg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Sirius_Midnight_Culmination_New_Year_2022.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Five_Pointed_Star_Lined.svg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopdet#/media/File:Ivory_label_with_Djer_name_and_Sopdet.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopdet#/media/File:Isis-Sothis-Demeter.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sothic_cycle#/media/File:CanisMajorCC.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Sri_Yukteswar_Giri#/media/File:Swami_Sri_Yukteswar_Pose.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon_people#/media/File:Bandiagara_escarpment_2.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(tarot_card)#/media/File:RWS_Tarot_17_Star.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea_(island)#/media/File:Coin_of_Ceos.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudra#/media/File:RudraShiva_from_Ananda_Patani_manuscript,_Assam.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmament#/media/File:Early_Hebrew_Conception_of_the_Universe.svg
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brazil#/media/File:Flag_of_Brazil.svg
