I first became acquainted with the Dogon/Sirius connection when I read VALIS in 1993. Upon reading Tractate 50, I initially believed that Phil had fabricated the entire notion of three-eyed, amphibious, extraterrestials with pincer claws who visited an ancient African tribe called the Dogon.
It wasn't until last year (1999), that I discovered a very strange book while doing some research at the local library that my views changed regarding this matter. The book was THE SIRIUS MYSTERY by Robert G. Temple. Evidently, Phil was also familiar with this exhaustive study about benevolent visitors from the Star System Sirius. In this truly amazing work, Temple traces the traditions of the Dogon and three related tribes back 5,000 years to the ancient Mediterranean cultures of Sumer and Egypt. He convincingly shows that these ancient civilizations possessed not only great wealth and learning, but also a knowledge dependent on physics and astrophysics, which they claimed was imparted to them by visitors/monitors from Sirius.
So, I decided to create a digital collage which illustrated the meeting of the Monitors From Sirius and the ancient Dogon of 3400 B.C.. Tom Grimes, a very talented 3-D digital artist (whose work also appears on the PKD site), agreed to collaborate on this project and he did the alien craft hovering in the background. The icon in the lower left corner is based on a Dogon design which depicts the Sirius Star System and the sun. The icon in the lower right corner is an ancient Assyrian frieze which has two fish-like beings that appear to be performing a ritual around a tree of life.
Temple links the monitors from Sirius with the founder of civilization in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology – Oannes. I found the following quote about Oannes in Gaskell's DICTIONARY OF ALL SCRIPTURES AND MYTHS:
During the day-time Oannes held intercourse with men, taught them sciences and arts, the building of cities and temples, laws and the introduction of the the measurement of planes; further, he showed them how to sow and reap; in a word, he instructed them in everything necessary to social life, so that after his time they had nothing new to learn. But when the sun had set, Oannes fell into the sea, where he used to pass the night.
- (Originally from Goldhizer's MYTHS AMONG THE HEBREWS) Sounds curiously familiar to the supposedly far-fetched speculations of Temple and the equally outrageous notions of Philip K. Dick doesn't it?
John Meluch was born in 1948 in the once industrial town of Lorain, Ohio. His earliest memories include the nightly fireworks of a nearby steel plant, the rumble of locomotives in his backyard, and the distant chatter of shipyard riveters......all a distant memory now. He has worked at several careers including: teacher, shipyard worker, graphic artist. He presently resides in
Lakewood, Ohio where he teaches High School English and also does freelance
digital graphics and photography. He has most recently collaborated with
British 3-D digital artist Tom Grimes.
