"Heliacal Rising of Sirius"

We would like share with our readers an interesting point that somebody has recently brought to our attention; namely, "the fact that the ancient Egyptians viewed the morning viewing of the Sirius A star during the beginning of August, compared to current mid to late August."

Well, as some of you might know, the egyptologist Schwaller de Lubicz ("Sacred Science - The King of Pharaonic Theocracy") was convinced that "Sirius plays the role of a center for the circuit of our entire solar system", and that the Sirian or fixed year, was established according to the heliacal rising of Sirius. However, he also believed that "the interval between two heliacal risings of Sirius corresponds neither to the tropical year, which is shorter, nor the sidereal year, which is longer."

In other words, de Lubizc who thought that the Sirian year consists of almost exactly 365.25 days assumed that in a so-called Sothic cycle of 1460 years the summer solstice advanced 11.5 days in relation to the rising of Sirius. He noted: "If we keep in mind that the solstices gain approximately eleven days per Sothic cycle with respect to the rising of Sirius, it may be observed that the periodic return of a star to a particular meridian loses approximately nine days during the same cycle, so that the vernal point is displaced by approximately twenty days in 1460 years among the constellations of the zodiac."

De Lubicz also studied the findings of Jean-Baptiste Biot, who wrote about the significance of the position of Sirius, which is marked twice (at approx. 17° intervals) in the famous 'Zodiac of Dendera':

"According to a multitude of literary documents, we know that the ancient astronomers made frequent use of simultaneous risings to indicate the points of the ecliptic to which they especially wished to draw attention [...]. According to the singular precision with which we here find the emblem of Sirius placed on our monument near the solstice, it would appear that the astronomers who drew that celestial tableau knew with uncommon skill how to make use of that procedure."

"In other terms", explains De Lubicz, "Sirius is marked once in relation to its rising at the time of the summer solstice, which was then in Cancer, and once in its real position in the sky of "fixed" stars."

Furthermore, he points out that "the ancient Egyptians' knowledge of the phenomenon of the equinoctial precession has often been disputed. Yet modification of the calendar of festivals relative to the seasons (hence to the solstices and the equinoxes) in relation to the calendar of the Sirian year, which remained permanent, constitutes an incontestable proof thereof. At this point, in order to avoid confusion, we must recall two fundamental notions:

- During the entire historical period of Pharaonic Egypt, the heliacal rising of Sirius, which marked New Year's Day, always took place when the sun was in the constellation Leo.

- On the other hand, the summer solstice occurred coincidentally with the heliacal rising of Sirius around the year 3400 B.C., at the very time when the vernal point (spring equinox) was in Taurus. But between the epoch of the pyramids and that of the foundation of the Dendera temple, the summer solstice had slowly retrograded toward the stars of Cancer, [...] while the vernal point (the spring equinox) was in Aries."

Such statements would certainly require further investigation, especially in light of the scientific evidence (meridian transits of Sirius), which shows that the length of the Sirian year is identical to the tropical year.

While de Lubizc may have been wrong in his assumption about the length of the Sirian year, he clearly recognized the importance of Sirius:

"For it is remarkable that owing to the precession of the equinoxes, on the one hand, and the movement of Sirius on the other, the position of the sun with respect to Sirius is displaced in the same direction, almost exactly to the same extent."