image: Wikimedia commons (link); modified.
The X-Files is one of the longest-running series in television history, premiering in September 1993 and (after a lengthy pause) still airing new episodes today.
The series depicts a world in which malevolent aliens are plotting to take over the earth and destroy humanity, assisted by certain treacherous humans who have been promised that they will be spared in exchange for their collaboration.
The episodes revolve around the exploits of special agents Mulder and Scully of the FBI, who investigate cases in the agency's "X-Files" involving the unexplained and the paranormal, and the tension between the implications of the mounting evidence and the resistance of those who want to ignore those implications and who refuse to accept the possibility that their entire paradigm may be wrong (as well as the efforts of those who actually know what's going on and who want to suppress the evidence or downplay the implications in order to preserve the false paradigm).
This tension leads to the memorable tagline which appears at the end of the credit sequence which rolls at the beginning of every episode: "The Truth is Out There" -- the implication being that no amount of effort by the forces who want to suppress the facts can ultimately prevent the truth from finally coming out.
It's an extremely powerful message.
I do believe that the truth eventually does come out, regardless of efforts to suppress it, although I myself am not at all convinced that the truth involves space aliens (see discussions here and here, for example). In fact, I'm personally more inclined to believe that many of the space alien theories propagated rather aggressively during the decades immediately following the ostensible end of the Second World War were intended to distract from the truth that is actually out there, rather than to point people towards the truth -- although I think the overall premise of the X-Files can serve as a brilliant metaphor for things that are actually going on and which are in fact extremely dangerous, and which are important to perceive for the safety of the human race and the planet Earth.
Whatever your beliefs on that subject, however, one paradigm-exploding body of evidence which should really be beyond dispute at this point is the overwhelming set of data-points which demonstrate that the world's ancient myths -- from virtually every culture on every inhabited continent and island -- are speaking a common language of celestial metaphor. This evidence argues strongly for the existence of some now-forgotten culture or civilization which predates (possibly by millennia) even the most ancient civilizations known or postulated by conventional academic historians.
The evidence in myth of a shared world-wide system may in fact constitute an even more-indisputable body of evidence for the existence of such a lost civilization than the formidable body of evidence composed by the world's network of ancient monuments, which also appear to be interconnected in ways that are virtually impossible to reconcile with the conventional historical paradigm (see for example evidence discussed here and here, as well as in the work of researchers such as Graham Hancock and Joseph Farrell and Laird Scranton, among many, many others).
That's because, once the outlines of the system are understood, the connections between the stars and the myths can be readily perceived by anyone, for myths stretching from ancient Egypt to Aotearoa, and from the myths of ancient China and Japan to those of the Norse of Scandinavia, and from the stories in the scriptures of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation -- all of which can be seen to be closely related to one another and even to share numerous common elements making their connection to one another and to the stars of the night sky virtually undeniable.
This evidence can be seen in the texts of the myths themselves, as well as in ancient artwork from around the world, and it can be seen most of all in the motions of the stars and visible planets of our night sky, which are accessible on most nights to everyone who is able to go out and look at them for himself or herself.
The number of correspondences between the myths and the stars are absolutely overwhelming, and constitute a compelling -- and, in my opinion, conclusive -- set of data which argues that the world's myths are based on a common system of celestial metaphor. I have now outlined some of this evidence in five original books each with hundreds of pages and hundreds of illustrations, including The Undying Stars (423 pages), Star Myths of the World, Volume One (482 pages), Star Myths of the World, Volume Two (718 pages), Star Myths of the World, Volume Three (766 pages), and Astrotheology for Life (322 pages), as well as another book based on just a small selection from my first one thousand blog posts, entitled Ancient Myths, Ancient Wisdom (866 pages).
And the evidence that has been presented in those books thus far actually constitutes only a tiny fraction of the evidence available in ancient myth and ancient artwork from around the world which could be offered as support for the conclusion that some common system of celestial metaphor, from some presently unknown source, somehow informs the sacred stories from cultures separated from one another by vast distances -- and in some cases by vast gulfs of time as well.
Indeed, new discoveries such as the Pylos Combat Agate, which was only unearthed in the past year from a shaft-grave discovered only as recently as 2015 -- and which was not even recognized as containing its stunning artwork until it was carefully cleaned off in 2017, and first revealed to the public this past November well after I had published all of the original volumes listed above, and well after the publication of the blog post selections included in Ancient Myths, Ancient Wisdom -- provide astonishing new evidence for the operation of this ancient worldwide system, in addition to the evidence in texts and artifacts which have been known and remarked upon for centuries (or even for millennia).
Unlike other forms of evidence pointing to the existence of an ancient culture predating and influencing the other known cultures and civilizations of humanity, the celestial correspondences can be seen by going outside on a clear dark night and looking up at the sky. It is not necessary to travel to remote deserts or jungles, or to have an advanced degree in geology or archaeology or even astronomy to see the evidence for one's self.
An example which is shown in my recent video discussing the special category of "dual-horizon" myths, and discussed in a little more detail in this month's "Stars over Grimerica" episode exploring the celestial phenomena visible during this time of year, are the aspects of the goddess Durga and the demon Mahishasura, from the ancient scriptures and sacred traditions of India, which can be readily seen to correspond to the distinctive features of the constellation Virgo (and the nearby constellations of Leo, Hydra, and Coma Berenices) and of the constellation Orion (and the nearby constellation of Taurus, particularly the "head of the bull" formed by the Hyades and the two "horns" indicated by the two stars located at roughly an equal distance beyond the two tips of the "V" of the Hyades).
Below is an amazing stone relief found in the Mahishamardini cave temple (or mandapa) in the Mahabalipuram temple complex of southern India, thought to have been carved in the 7th and 8th centuries AD. This portion of the temple carving depicts the goddess Durga, riding on a lion towards Mahishasura, depicted as a powerful figure with the head of a bull water buffalo:
left: Mahabalipuram temple relief, Wikimedia commons (link); right: stars of Orion and Taurus, stellarium.org.
The correspondences between the depiction of the figure of Mahishasura by the artist of the late 600s or early 700s, and the outline of the constellation Orion as we can see it in the sky above our heads this very week in the year 2018, could not be more compelling.
Below, the outline of the figure of Orion (yellow lines) and the nearby "head of the bull" of Taurus as defined by the V-shaped Hyades plus the two stars indicating the tips of the two long horns (red lines) have been added to the same stars seen in the above image to the right of the temple relief:
Note that the figure of Orion as seen in the sky appears to have one leg bent and the other leg straight (the leg on the right as we face the constellation, which would be the left leg of the figure, if envisioned as facing us). The artwork from Mahabalipuram depicts Mahishasura in an identical stance: the left leg is bent at the knee (the leg on the right as we face the sculpture), while the right leg (on the left as we face it) is straight.
Further, the Asura carries a short club in his right hand, which can be seen in the outline of Orion held aloft in the figure's right hand (on the left as we face the constellation).
The artist has even depicted Mahishasura as having a long sash which dangles down from his waist between his legs, somewhat closer to the leg on the left (the right leg of the Asura) than the leg on the right as we face the sculpture. This detail clearly corresponds to the "sword" or "sheath" hanging down from the famous three-star belt of the constellation Orion, containing the hazy Orion Nebula, which is visible in the star-diagram above between the legs of the constellation, slightly closer to the leg on the left as we face the image than to the leg on the right.
Above and a little to the right as we face the star-chart above we see the outline of the head of Taurus the Bull, depicted with red lines in the image. The fact that this bull's head is clearly separated from the neck and torso of the outline of Orion no doubt gives rise to the fact that in the ancient myths, Durga slays Mahishasura by severing his head from his body.
Clearly, the ancient artist seems to have been aware that the myth of the combat between Durga and Mahishasura is based on the constellations in the night sky, and that Mahishasura corresponds to the constellations Orion and Taurus, with Orion representing the body and Taurus the head. It is also possible that the artists themselves were not informed of the actual celestial origin of the artistic conventions they were taught regarding the proper ways to depict various supernatural figures -- but it is clear that however the artists inherited these artistic conventions, the conventions themselves preserved the connection to the stars in the heavens.
In the videos linked above, as well as in other writings about the identity of the goddess Durga, I have provided further discussion which shows fairly conclusively that the goddess corresponds to the constellation Virgo in the sky, and that the lion upon which she rides corresponds to Leo (a common pattern in other myths around the world, in which goddesses ride upon, stand upon, or are otherwise associated with lions). And, what is in my opinion still further confirmation of the celestial correspondences in this myth, it can be seen that the constellations Orion and Taurus (representing Mahishasura) are sinking down into the west at the same time that Virgo and Leo (representing the goddess Durga riding triumphantly upon her lion) are rising up out of the east. Right now, in fact, is a particularly good time of year to observe this phenomena in the motions of the respective constellations Taurus, Orion, Leo and Virgo.
There are in fact hundreds, or even thousands, of other examples which could be offered from ancient myth or ancient artwork, literally from around the globe.
And the silently circling stars which you can go outside and see this very night will testify to the connection of the ancient myths to the heavenly actors, a connection which becomes all but undeniable as example after example is found to correspond to the constellations and other celestial players in extremely precise and minute details.
In fact, the knowledge of these connections is not particularly new, and it certainly did not originate with me or with my work. I have found hints of this awareness in the writings of ancient philosophers, including Plato and Macrobius (and I'm pretty suspicious of Plutarch's knowledge on this subject as well). In more recent centuries, French free-thinkers such as Charles-Francois Dupuy (1742 - 1809) and Volney (1757 - 1820) wrote extensively on some aspects of this same concept.
Even more comprehensive, in my opinion, are the connections between the stars and the characters and episodes found in the Bible that were discovered by the Reverend Robert Taylor of England (1784 - 1844), who delivered sermons or lectures on these correspondences over a course of many years to packed audiences in London (and who was in fact thrown in jail on multiple occasions for doing so, in addition to losing his job as a minister). After his death, these sermons were collected and published in two volumes, which can both be accessed through links on the "Resources" page of my primary website.
Even more recently, Professors Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend collected a massive encyclopedia of evidence for what they called a "great world-wide archaic construction" which survived "in traditional rites, in myths and fairy tales no longer understood," which became a book entitled Hamlet's Mill: An essay on myth and the frame of time, published in 1969 (nearly fifty years ago now!).
And yet, despite the fact that Robert Taylor's extremely massive body of lectures was published in the middle of the nineteenth century (and we are already well past the beginning of the twenty-first), and despite the fact that Hamlet's Mill was published forty-nine years ago this year, the overwhelming amount of evidence which demonstrates that the ancient myths, scriptures and sacred stories of the world are based on the stars -- and indeed, based upon a common world-wide system of celestial metaphor which employs the same metaphors and the same understanding of constellational details (details in many cases which we would not expect to arise independently of one another in multiple cultures without any connection) -- this paradigm-shifting information is all but unknown today.
It's almost as if some very powerful forces are actively working to suppress the awareness of this evidence, and to preserve the conventional paradigm and historical narrative among the general public (and even among academicians), akin to the forces depicted in the X-Filesseries, who work to suppress the evidence that Mulder and Scully encounter, and to keep the true picture implied by the evidence from coming to light.
And yet, despite whatever forces may or may not be working behind the scenes to discourage awareness of the full implications of this information, the evidence is out there and it is available for all to see, once they begin to look for it. As the characters of the X-Files themselves declare, "no agency has jurisdiction over the truth."
And, unlike the evidence discovered by agents Mulder and Scully in that series, the evidence of the myths and the stars cannot be buried away in some bulging filing cabinets in remote corners of vast institutional buildings -- because the evidence is turning over our heads at all times. All we have to do is learn how to look.
In this case, the truth really is out there . . . or, perhaps more precisely,
The Truth is Up There