Point to Ponder

The path of the Sun has been observed and recorded since ancient times and its special and auspicious days are still being celebrated today at least four times a year. In prehistoric, megalithic times, the year was divided into eight (!) portions.

In the book "Beyond Stonehenge" Gerald Hawkins writes about the Beltane Fires lit at various times in the British Isles since Celtic times. The fires were built on the equinoctial and solstitial dates, and he reports that they were also "lighted on four other dates when the sun's declination was 16.3 degrees, north or south."

He goes on to say, "This declination fixed calendar dates which were one-eighth of a year after the solstices and equinoxes, approximately Feb 4, May 6, Aug. 8, and Nov 8 on the present Gregorian calendar. The year was therefore divided into eight approximately equal portions. These divisions are very close to the solar alignment dates found in the megalithic structures by Thom, and by Lockyer before him. Since the megaliths predate the Celtic Druids, the Beltane Fires might be something handed down from the darkness of prehistory."

Not so long ago it was discovered that the same positional alignments (and hence the relevant Celtic calendar/festival dates) are also marked in stone in “America’s Stonehenge” in North Salem, New Hampshire.

Now, Hawkins could be wrong about the “darkness” of prehistory. But isn’t it amazing that the declination of Sirius during Earth’s “Great Year” cycle is nowadays between 16° to 17° - and that a similar geometric angle is found in Egyptian temples like Dendera, as well as in Teotihuacán and other major Mesoamerican sites?

We also know that "the sun is parallel in declination to Sirius at 4 times in the year: on its path south of the equator, it shares the declination of Sirius about Nov. 7. On its path back north, it repeats this contact about  Feb. 3. About May 6, the sun's declination to the north is the same as Sirius' to the south. About Aug. 5, the same position occurs". (ref.)

Maybe it’s all some weird “precessional coincidence”, or perhaps it is related in some way we don’t comprehend yet.

In that sense, Sirius may or may not change its RA significantly over millennia. Yet there is one star that for sure does not change its annual vernal equionx position relative to RA 0h: it’s our own Sun.

Hence, for some thinkers, the conventional universe seems to be strangely out of balance. It’s like a simple scale where the one side goes either up or down and the other side remains fixed.

Maybe this is the pivotal point to which one should apply the famous lever of Archimedes.

If the axis our Earth is subject to gyroscopic precession, then why does the observer’s fixed (reference or transit) meridian wobble relative to the stars and not relative to the Sun (mean solar day) during Earth's complete 360° orbit around the Sun?

Are there different cosmic forces at work during the day than at night??

:)