December 21, 2008
Terra Preta could reverse global warming

Ancient techniques pioneered by pre-Columbian Amazonian Indians are about to be pressed into service in Britain and Central America in the most serious commercial attempt yet to reverse global warming. Trials are to be started in Sussex and Belize early in 2009, backed with venture capital from Silicon Valley, on techniques to take carbon from the atmosphere and bury it in the soil, where it should act as a powerful fertiliser. The plan is to scale up rapidly into a worldwide enterprise to reverse the build-up of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, in the atmosphere and eventually bring it back to pre-Industrial Revolution levels.
The ambitious enterprise is the brainchild of two of Britain's most successful environmental entrepreneurs: Craig Sams, one of the founders of the best-selling Green & Black's organic chocolate, and Dan Morrell, who co-founded Future Forests, the first carbon offsetting company.

December 12, 2008
Astronomers confirm black hole at the heart of the Milky Way

Important news for those interested in the so-called “Galactic Alignment”, with links to 2012: a swarm of stars orbiting a vast black hole at the centre of the Milky Way has been mapped, providing astronomers with their most detailed look yet at the heart of our galaxy. Observations by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile has found the strongest evidence yet for a super-massive black hole at the galaxy’s core, as well as charting the immense gravitational effects this has on the surrounding stars.
Over 16 years, the orbits of 28 stars in the Milky Way’s central region have been meticulously tracked by astronomers, allowing them to study the hidden black hole that influences their movements. The black hole is known as Sagittarius A*.
Reinhard Genzel, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, who led the international study team, said: “The centre of the galaxy is a unique laboratory where we can study the fundamental processes of strong gravity, stellar dynamics and star formation that are of great relevance to all other galactic nuclei, with a level of detail that will never be possible beyond our galaxy.”
The observations have also allowed astronomers to pinpoint the Earth’s distance from the centre of the galaxy with greater precision, measuring it at 27,000 light years.

The discovery is important as research by the likes of John Major Jenkins has shown that on December 21, 2012, there will be a “galactic alignment” between the Earth, the sun and the galactic centre. By default, the distance from this centre is an approximation, 27,000 light years, but it is perhaps an interesting “coincidence” that the so-called Great Year is established at 26,000 years. Roughly speaking, it takes light to reach us from this Galactic Whirlpool – the Abyss? – one Great Year to reach us. No doubt to be continued.

December 3, 2008
Unearthing Bosnian Pyramids

Three years after the initial excavations at Visoko started, it is time for an overview of where we are with the Bosnian pyramids. The resulting article has appeared in NEXUS Magazine (Volume 16.1, December 2008-January 2009). Alas, the submitted version was too long for the print version, and hence Duncan Roads and I decided to offer the unabridged edition online. Also listen to my Radio NEXUS interview with Barry Eaton here.

November 25, 2008
Histories & Mysteries Conference

It took 53 weeks to organise, but now the – first – Histories & Mysteries Conference has been accomplished. I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to all helpers, speakers and visitors, as well as co-organiser Cris Winter and the core team of consultants, Ian Robertson and Gordon Rutter. I like to think that an event’s esteem is visible in the type of visitors it attracts, and with the likes of Robert Temple, Simon Cox and David Icke in the audience of the conference and, finally, with more than 1000 visitors that came to see the skull on Sunday, resulting in crowds that spilled out onto the street – the longest queue the Hub apparently ever had – we seem to have done something right. In fact, the Hall family, who used the conference to hold a public tribute to Stan Hall, had invited two friends of Stan, Neil Armstrong and Erich von Däniken, to attend, but both had alas prior engagements. It would have truly made for this event being out of this world and it is clear that for alternative history, this was a landmark event.
The conference should go down into history as the first time ever that the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull was officially put on public display. For this, we need to especially thank the current caretaker, Bill Homann, who championed through pneumonia to be there for us!
The conference had media coverage in all – and I mean all! – UK newspapers, as well as several radio and television channels, including even some foreign media, both before, during and after the event. But the face of the conference became Robyn Smith, a member of the film crew, who surprisingly found herself in about a dozen newspapers and websites on Sunday morning.
Once again, my sincerest of thanks to each and every person in the Hub over the weekend, as well as the Rosslyn Chapel staff on Monday afternoon, who saw some crystal entertainment too.

November 20, 2008
From the Tower of Babel to the Tower of Dubai

I had the privilege of speaking in front of a select group of project managers at the Middle East Project Management Forum 2008 in Dubai. The invitation came about because of an article on this site that tackles the building of the Great Pyramid from a project manager perspective. For it has to be said that all ancient buildings were overseen not by Egyptologists or archaeologists, but by project managers. Then, as now, much of their hard work goes unsung, yet today, their insights should actually be sought by the body of archaeologists and Egyptologists, as it would do away with some rather “elaborate” propositions that are sometimes “constructed” to “explain” things – things also known as assumptions.
One look at the Dubai skyline makes it apparent that this is the “navel” of modern building, with complexes such as those surrounding the Burj Dubai taken almost directly from the CGI of Hollywood science fiction movies, their realisation today no doubt creating the same sense of amazement that once inspired our ancestors as they saw the Gizeh complex rise heavenwards.
One speaker, Khalid A. Hamdy, provided an overview of the creation of the Dubai metro system, whereby it was of interest to note that the design actually uses some ancient principles: the design schemes for the stations are based on the four elements (earth, wind, water and fire) and as opening date of the network, the choice has fallen on September 9, 2009 – 9/9/9.
Another speaker was Ahmad Abdelrazaq, executive director of Highrise Building, Samsung Corporation, the man responsible for the tallest building of the world, the Burj Dubai, currently approaching near completion and towering over half a kilometre high. Abdelrazaq is clearly building a new Tower of Babel, but it seems that this one will be completed without any major problems, and is meant to last for eternity. It was interesting to note that he highlighted seismic activity and gravitational force as key considerations in the design of the Burj Dubai, as well as wind – the latter not really an issue for the Great Pyramid, though it is now more and more proposed that the so called airshaft could be wind shafts, very much like the pipes of an organ.
In my presentation, I highlighted that the Great Pyramid and the Pharos Lighthouse were the tallest constructions until the erection of the Eiffel Tower. But now, it is once again clear that the Middle East is reclaiming the honour of building higher than anyone else.

November 18, 2008
Darklore II

I am pleased to announce that volume two of Greg Taylor’s Darklore has been published. As with Volume 1, I have contributed to it, this time on the origins of the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull. As with Volume 1, I am in the company of several excellent authors, including Paul Devereux, Nick Redfern, Mike Jay and my old friend Theo Paijmans. This time, a limited hardcover edition is made available in a print-run of 333 copies. If successful, one can only wonder whether the third edition might see a limited edition of 666 copies.

November 12, 2008
The Mayan Underworld Discovered

University of Yucatan archaeologist Guillermo De Anda has concluded that a series of caves may be the place where the Maya actually tried to depict their voyage through the underworld, or Xibalba, described in ancient mythological texts such as the Popol Vuh. Searching for the names of sacred sites mentioned by Indian heretics who were put on trial by Spanish Inquisition courts, De Anda realised the journey had been recreated in a half-dozen caves south of the Yucatan state capital of Merida. Inside these caves are ancient temple platforms, staircases and paths that skirted underground lakes littered with Mayan pottery and ancient skulls.
Among De Anda's discoveries are a broad, perfectly paved, 100-yard underground road, a submerged temple, walled-off stone rooms and the “confusing crossroads” of the legends. At the centre of one of the underground lakes, De Anda's team found a collapsed and submerged altar with carvings indicating it was dedicated to the gods of death.
This discovery underlines once again that the Underworld was often built as part of religious complexes. Clifford Brown, a Florida Atlantic University archaeologist, added that “There are a number of sites in the lowlands where there are caves right underneath the principal temples, palaces and pyramids, which are thought to represent a religious axis mundi, where you have the pyramid representing the heavens, and the caves representing the underworld underneath.” This further underlines the importance of the “pyramid template”, as identified in “The New Pyramid Age”.

November 8, 2008
Meeting with remarkable... French political visionaries

As promised, the Australian magazine New Dawn delves deeper into the enigmatic character of Raymond Abelio and Jean Parvulesco, two Frenchmen who are often encountered on the ways in which the occult interacts with "real" politics. Co-authored with my friend Stephan Chalandon, the article provides hopefully some truly unique insights into what often motivates politicians, as well as their own "vision" of the future, and how the world might develop. For example, Parvulesco predicts a strong return of "Mother Russia", with the creation of a Eurasian union... and civil war for the United States. If you want to know more, you know where to go...

October 4, 2008
Back to China

A decade after writing on the Dropa tribe - a tribe of dwarfish beings that some believe might be survivors of an alien crash-landing on Earth - I felt it was time to revisit the enigma. Indeed, in those years, some new material has come to the surface, which shows that the story is older and more complex than some believe - many thinking it is "just" a fabricated story of the late 1970s, which is definitely not the case. As the original article appeared in NEXUS Magazine, it was only normal for the follow-up to also feature in that magazine.

September 28, 2008
Farewell, Stan

It is with extreme sadness that I have to report the death of Stan Hall (July 13, 1936-September 27, 2008). Over the past few years, Stan became one of my closest – both in distance and personally – friends. Only a few months ago was he diagnosed with cancer, but the end came – alas – much quicker than anyone expected or could have predicted.
Stan was a remarkable character, singled-handedly organising the Tayos Cave Expedition in 1976, securing not only the co-operation of the British and Ecuadorian military, but even that of astronaut Neil Armstrong, with whom he stayed in touch. They were, in fact, “blood-brothers”, both having quite a rare blood type, which meant that if anything were to happen on the expedition, they would help each other out.
The expedition itself was extremely controversial, if only because it rode on the wave of one of Erich von Däniken’s controversial books, which was partially based on Juan Moricz’s allegations – the cave itself being at the centre of this controversy.
It was years of contact and friendship with Moricz and Petronio Jaramillo that set Stan on the “right path”, to where the veritable cave – that of the “Gold Library” – was located.
Throughout the years, Erich and Stan also stayed in touch, most recently in August 2007. He was, it is clear, a great man, who organised a great expedition – one that should stand as the prototype for any explorer… even though it too – like all such endeavours – did not come without controversy, most notably in Ecuador itself.

Early on in our friendship, while struggling with some ill health myself, he asked whether I fell into the category of people that was willing to show and share pain, or not. As our friendship developed, it was clear that Stan was not one to be ill, nor one to be taken care of. The realisation that this life had little left to travel and explore, and might be a “burden” – in his mind – on his wife and daughters… it seems Stan made rapid preparations to begin the greatest expedition of all, into another “underworld”, this time not in the jungles of Ecuador, but into the Great Beyond. There, he is hopefully to meet up again with Juan and Petronio.
Farewell, my friend. Thanks for all the wonderful times. You are one I will never forget.

September 3, 2008
New Dawn Features Catharism and Raymond Abellio

Two articles, one on the Cathars, the other on Raymond Abellio, are currently featuring in the September-October 2008 (issue 110) edition of New Dawn Magazine. The former will hopefully introduce new dimensions to this religion, which few have been able to fully grasp, whereas Abellio will no doubt be an unknown to most. However, in the next edition of New Dawn, he and some of his collaborators and friends will be explored in further depth, revealing the extraordinary character of these people.

August 4, 2008
Bad Archaeology. But How?

I was recently told that my article on Glozel was featured on the “Bad Archaeology” website. I thought at first that this was an honour, and that it was listed there as the article exposes bad archaeology. Upon verification, I found the article on the site dates from September 2007, and it turns out that I am accused of doing bad archaeology, or at least bad reporting of archaeology. However, for anyone who does read my article and the “rebuttal” on the website, it becomes apparent that the site is called bad archaeology because that’s what its contributors practice.
First of all, one can only laugh by claiming Nexus is a “small publication”: newsstand in several countries, with numerous foreign editions. If that is “small”, TIME or Newsweek is miniscule in comparison!
Second, though I am indeed rather negative about the archaeologists involved, James Doeser makes it appear as if I have personal prejudices and see a conspiracy everywhere, which I then portray on the archaeologists involved in Glozel. On the contrary: my negative comments are the result of what happened in Glozel, and the article is written in light of that. Doeser spins it the other way around.
It is clear that Doeser believes that any archaeologist is a hero, and especially Garrod, whom, it is clear, he and several others one day want to put up for sainthood. He gives her version of the story, but at no point does he prove that her version is the correct one. We are supposed to take it on faith she wouldn’t do such a thing. Right…

Most importantly, though, is the fact that Doeser goes for the usual spin and antics, and makes it all about me, rather than the facts. I was simply flabbergasted that he dared to omit the crux of the entire story, namely how these archaeologists were involved in a scandalous campaign to destroy Fradin, specifically throw him in prison, and how archaeology set out not at all to find the truth, but operated within a preconceived and in retrospect wrong framework, namely that Glozel was a fraud, and most likely a modern one. Read the site’s quote from Garrod, and it becomes even more apparent.
If Doeser was able to show that these archaeologists were not involved with Fradin’s arrest and the campaign to destroy him, and entertained for more than five seconds the notion that they would hold serious archaeological excavations at Glozel, I would have had to eat humble pie. But the crux of the problem is not even addressed, as, of course, that’s where the real bad – vicious – archaeology lies.

August 1, 2008
Some Paranoia Please

Paranoia Magazine is running my article “The Russian ‘Woodpecker’ Beam” in their issue 48, fall 2008 – out now. The article re-excavates the story of the Russian Woodpecker, a signal emanating from near Chernobyl in the 1970s and 80s and said to be linked with mind control experiments. At the end of the Cold War, it was said to be nothing more – or less – than beyond the horizon radar – no mind control. But two decades later, there is now ample evidence to show that the Woodpecker was indeed much more.

July 6, 2008
Mexican Pyramid of the Sun Cave Re-opened

Archaeologists are re-opening a cave sealed for more than thirty years deep beneath the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. The cave system is buried 20 feet beneath the pyramid and extends into a tunnel stretching for some 295 feet (90 meters) with a height of 8 feet. They say new excavations begun in June 2008 could be the key to unlocking information about the sacred rituals of the people who inhabited the city, later dubbed "The Place Where Men Become Gods" by the Aztecs who believed it was a divine site.
"We think it had a ritual purpose. Offerings were placed at the very end of the tunnel as part of the pyramid's construction process," according to Mexican archaeologist Alejandro Sarabia. "We want to find out why the Teotihuacan people sealed it and when," he said.
The tunnel was first discovered in the early 1970s but it was closed soon afterward, and most of the information about it was lost when the archaeologist who found it died.
The ritual importance of this cave, and its link with the “New Fire Ceremony” has been explored in my 2007 publication “The New Pyramid Age”.

June 29, 2008
Canopus in Al-Ahram

Assem Deif has featured Canopus and my conclusions about this star in his regular contribution to the Al-Ahram Weekly. I am especially pleased as this is an Egyptian newspaper, and Deif is a professor of mathematics at Cairo University and Misr University for Science and Technology. Let us hope that the item generates some interest, so that Canopus one day can be restored to its proper place in the night’s sky.

June 27, 2008
New Light on the Life of Otto Rahn

New Dawn Magazine is devoting a large portion of their latest issue (no. 109, July-August) to Agarttha and related subjects. I have contributed an article on Otto Rahn and the obsession with the search for the Holy Grail that was dear to the heart of Heinrich Himmler. Though this is a very popular subject, I believe that the article is able to provide new insights, and place the entire saga within its proper framework.

June 2, 2008
Mitchell-Hedges and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls

The latest issue of NEXUS Magazine carries my article on the circumstances in which the Mitchell-Hedges skull was likely discovered. The article was written over six months ago, but was held back to coincide with the release of the movie.
It is a remarkable coincidence how this article corresponds with part of the plotline of the new Indiana Jones movie. Note how in the movie, Indiana Jones explains how he once rode – “well, technically I was kidnapped” – with Pancho Villa. It is then learned that Harry Oxley and Indiana Jones have been obsessed with the skull – in the movie, actually the Mitchell-Hedges skull – since university, and the plot of the film is actually around Indy trying to find out where Oxley has disappeared to – which leads them to the kingdom of the crystal skull. Well, make this the story of Mitchell-Hedges – who rode – i.e. was kidnapped – by Pancho Villa and Ambrose Bierce, who disappeared somewhere in Mexico… and you might have the true story of how the Mitchell-Hedges skull was discovered. Or how art…?
Want to know more? NEXUS Magazine says it all – or at least opens the way that will lead to the truth.

May 19, 2008
Archaeology versus Living Traditions

The crystal skulls war, waged in the shadow of the new Indiana Jones movie, has brought about a divide, which only few journalists seem to have noticed: that between archaeologists and their claims/interpretations, and that of anthropology/living traditions. For example: archaeologists stick around Jane Walsh, who almost single-handedly leads the archaeologists’ assault, claiming that all crystal skulls are 19th century fabrications. Yet it is clear that Mayans in Middle America have a living tradition about a gathering of the skulls. Indeed, social beliefs change over time, but the Guatemalan shamans were uttering these beliefs before the crystal skulls achieved any notoriety whatsoever, suggesting their opinions were genuinely their own – which implies also that archaeologists have it dead wrong.
For example, in the jungles of southern Mexico, the Lacandon, the last unassimilated Mayas, still have communities that worship crystal skulls. In the shadow of the Palenque ruins, Lacandon priest K'in Garcia fans copal incense and holds a heavy crystal skull above his head during ceremonies for Hacha'kyum, the Mayan god of creation. Garcia, the son of the Lancandon's most respected elder, Chan Kin, believes the skull has special powers, including the ability to stave off sickness and deforestation in the rain forest where the last Lacandon still live. "When I am alone at night, at about 2 a.m., it starts to glow, it emits light, and it stays like that for about a minute," says Garcia, underlining that in his eyes, the skull has otherworldy, if not supernatural, connotations.

In the run-up to the movie, I highlighted in certain interviews that whatever is occurring, as we head towards 2012, there is one clear new development, which is that the Mayans, after centuries of oppression, are now becoming ever stronger, ever more socially sure about their self-identity, and their desire to have social respect. A most remarkable change for the better occurred on April 23, when a television station that once was the voice of the Guatemalan military dictatorship that had massacred thousands of Mayans, showed the glyph of the day from the millennial Mayan calendar and announced itself as ''TV Maya: Guatemala's multi-cultural station.''
The station, funded by the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (ALMG), broadcasts for 30 minutes, three times a day, showing programs that teach Mayan culture, worldview and language. Its programs are broadcast in indigenous languages with Spanish subtitles.
The station will be of particular importance in healing the wounds of the past and creating unity in Guatemala, a country that is sixty percent indigenous, with 22 different linguistic groups of Maya, as well as Garifuna and Xinca. It continues the country's commitment to peace accords made in 1996, after the Guatemalan military adopted a ''scorched earth'' policy in its efforts to fight leftist guerillas. That policy left more than 200,000 people dead, most of them rural Mayans. It is a massacre that has, as is usual for Central and Southern America, hardly received any attention from the international media – not even from those who claim to help Mayan knowledge enter the West.
With the rise of the Maya, there might be an interest clash on the horizon, once they have the self-assurance to “pick a fight” with the archaeologists who, from their ivory towers in “Colonial Headquarters” seem to continue to dictate what the truth should be – rather than is.

May 9, 2008
New Dawn covers Moon Wars

The May-June 2008 issue of New Dawn Magazine is carrying my article on “Moon Wars” as its feature article. The article queries what is going on with NASA: whether there is evidence of faked moon landings, or extra-terrestrial contact – and what precisely the role of the military-industrial complex is in all of this. Like NEXUS, New Dawn is Australian, but not available at newsstands in the UK or US. By sheer coincidence - or is that synchronicity? - when taking out a subscription to the magazine now, you will receive a copy of The Templar Revelation!

April 18, 2008
Skullmania

Due to illness, BBC documentary presenter Gordon Hillman is unable to appear at next month’s Megalithomania in Glastonbury. I have been asked to fill his place and, seeing the weekend of the conference (May 17-18) will see the world premiere of the new Indiana Jones movie in Cannes, crystal skulls seem to be an appropriate theme for my lecture – also in light of a series of articles of mine that are currently running in NEXUS Magazine.
Megalithomania normally has an excellent line-up, and this year is no exception, with speakers like John Michell, Dave Furlong, David Hatcher Childress, Sam Osmanagich, Peter Marshall, Tom Graves, etc. So despite the late notice, I hope to see you in the shadow of the Tor!

April 4, 2008
Philip Coppens and the Origins of the Crystal Skull

Issue 15.3 of NEXUS Magazine (April-May edition) is running my article “Origin & Symbolism of the Crystal Skulls”, which also formed the inspiration for the magazine’s cover. The article tackles the crystal skulls, arguing that they were most likely created in Central America and may have played an important role in the Mayan priests' re-enactment of their creation myth. I also address the sceptics’ pet theory that they were late 19th century creations. The next issue of NEXUS magazine will carry an article on how the Mitchell-Hedges skull may really have been discovered. Expect loud bangs and explosions when that article will come out – perhaps not coincidentally around the time when the Indiana Jones movie hits the big screen.

February 29, 2008
Seeing the whole pyramid

Giulio Magli of the mathematics department at Milan's Polytechnic University has largely agreed with conclusions previously drawn by Zahi Hawass that astronomical alignments and the landscape of the Giza plateau indicate that the two main pyramids, those identified with Pharaohs Khufu and Khafre, were not built in different stages, but planned as a single, grand project, “to state forever that his soul had joined the sun god”.
The study suggests that Khufu planned the construction of two pyramids, exactly as his father, Snefru, did in Dahshur. "What better way to prove this relationship than making the sun, himself, talk about it", said Magli. This particular fact is seen during the summer, when observers standing by the Sphinx can see a spectacular sunset between the two pyramids. "The sun setting between the two pyramids forms an ideal, giant replica of the hieroglyph Akhet," Magli said. Meaning "horizon", the hieroglyph held deep symbolic meaning for the ancient Egyptians. It was composed by the hieroglyph "djew", meaning "primeval mountain", and the sun setting or rising in between – adding further insight to a conclusion drawn in The New Pyramid Age, which is that the Giza plateau itself was an expression of the primeval hill.

February 9, 2008
The end of times question posed by New Dawn

I was honoured to be invited to contribute an article for “Special Issue 4” of New Dawn Magazine, devoted to Prophecies and Predictions, asking whether the countdown has begun.
I am honoured that “Crop circles: Messages from the Timewave?” features with articles contributed by John Major Jenkins, José Argüelles, Barbara Hand Clow and many others.

January 11, 2008
New Arrivals

It is with great pleasure that just ahead of the fourth anniversary of this site, I announce two new arrivals: one is the birth of my godson, Daan. The other is the future publication – on January 24, 2009 – of my next book, “Servants of the Grail”, showing that the birthing process of a book takes longer than the gestation of a child.
The – very – few who know what the outline of this book is, are all in agreement that it is nothing short of spectacular. Alas, as my bad timing would have it, it was written some years ago in the immediate aftermath of “The Da Vinci Code”, which meant that finding a publisher was problematic, trying to find a niche in a market that was more interested in quick-wins and re-editions than anything new and substantial that would detract from the main offering: Da Vinci Brownies. But with “The Da Vinci effect” now gone, the market is apparently looking for new challenges – and let’s hope that Servants of the Grail will be as spectacular as those who know its outline have agreed it is.
Daan’s arrival into this world was a matter of hours after I had completed the final revision of the manuscript – how about that for timing.

January 1, 2008
Best Wishes

First of all, I would like to add my name to the list of people wishing you the best for 2008. I would especially like to thank those courageous unknowns who climbed North Berwick Law at night, in order to provide for a quite spectaclar fireworks display in the wee hours of 2008. Little did they no doubt know that such primordial hills (see Land of the Gods) were seen as places of a "new fire ceremony", whereby... on New Year... new fires were lit... to welcome in a new age. Furthermore, they were probably unaware that some have theorised that these hills might also have had a link with Vulcan's fire, visualised as volcanic eruptions. In the case of Berwick Law, an ancient volcano, the event was therefore all the more symbolic!
In 2007, I was able to bring you 52 new and a few additional updated articles. I hope you enjoyed at least some of them – and we will continue as before in 2008.