would not have recognized the similarities between blood and copper with copper representing the lifeblood of the mountain. The Egyptian hieroglyph for copper is the ankh symbol, which is the Egyptian symbol for life.15 With turquoise representing the heavens, what better material than copper to represent the Earth's blood or life force—a place where heaven and earth meet.
Another aspect of copper is that it is an excellent conductor of electricity. Tie this to a statement from the Cayce readings: “Life in its manifestation is vibration. Electricity is vibration. 1861-16” On other occasions Cayce added: “Know then that the force in nature that is called electrical or electricity is the same force ye worship as Creative or God in action. 1299-1” as well as “Electricity or vibration is the same energy, same power ye call God, not that God is an electric light or an electric machine, but vibration that is creative is of the same energy of life itself. 2828-4” Could such mountains veined with copper be opportune sites for the manifestations of God's Creative Forces?
Perhaps these suggested connections by ancient humankind were the reasons for blood sacrifices on mountains to replace the copper “blood” that had been removed. As civilizations built their own pyramid mountains and mounds around the world, some cultures continued such sacrifices.
On the other side of the world, copper metallurgy was flourishing in South America, particularly in Peru around the beginning of the first millennium AD. Ceremonial and ornamental objects show the use of hammering and annealing. Copper was most commonly alloyed with gold and silver during the time when the Mayans, Incans, and Aztecs reigned in Central and South America.16
Author Adrian Gilbert has pointed out that researchers have found that one primary purpose of the Mayan pyramids was to symbolize mountains. Like the Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Kukulcan in Chichen Itza has two interior chambers. 17
The Egyptian hieroglyph for mountain is djew,
If we consider the area as a place for initiation, let us go back to the 51 degree angle of the Great Pyramid which has a sine of .777.18 In a right triangle, this is the ratio of the side opposite of an acute angle (less than 90 degrees) and the hypotenuse. John Van Auken's research on the Gnostic community with Judaic influences using Kabbalistic numbering quantified the heart chakra as 777 and signified this as the cross.19 This assertion is supported by the fact that the Great Pyramid is at the longitudinal and latitudinal cross or “heart” of the land masses of the world. Therefore, the Great Pyramid of Giza is arguably found at the center of the earth's landmass (30 degrees north, 31 degrees east)—both north-south and east-west.20
The Great Pyramid “cross” connection is possibly further strengthened celestially with the research done by author Andrew Collins. The answer as to whether the Cygnus-Giza overlay is any more valid than the Orion-Giza correlation lies in the fact that the match between the cross stars of Cygnus and the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure is precise and meaningful. It is a perfect expression of the celestial influence on the ground of Dwn-‘nwy, who as Sokar is also ancient Egypt's oldest funerary deity, whose abode was Rostau, Giza itself.21 These aspects will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 11.
In addition Mr. Collins states: “Strangely as Cygnus sets, its four main stars, called the triangles by astronomers, have the distinct appearance of a perfect four-sided pyramid, a casual observation which is unlikely to have been missed by Old Kingdom (Re: Egypt) astronomer priests.”22 It should be noted that he puts these Cygnus alignments during the age of the pyramid builders (approx. 2600 BCE). Even with these date differences, Cygnus and its stars seem to play a significant role with their symbolism as both a cross and triangles through the ages.
Personal observation suggests that these four main star triangles and the four-sided pyramid fit also into a diamond-shape or base-to-base triangles. The Cygnus constellation is also known as the Northern Cross or the Cross of Calvary, representative of the site of the crucifixion of Christ—a cross atop a mound. Terrestrially the Great Pyramid can also be seen as a cross point at the heart of the land masses of the earth. It lies at the center of a land mass where the east/west parallel crosses the most land and the north/south meridian crosses the most land intersect. Later chapters will discuss the Great Pyramid and its initiations in greater detail.
These star alignments also give a very interesting perspective when viewed from the Cayce reading 5748-6 text:
(Q) What was the date of the actual beginning and ending of the construction of the Great Pyramid?
(A) Was one hundred years in construction. Begun and completed in the period of Araaraart's time, with Hermes and Ra.
(Q) What was the date BC of that period?
(A) 10,490 to 10,390 before the Prince entered into Egypt.
There has been much discussion and controversy over the date of construction of the Great Pyramid. Mainstream Egyptologists place its construction at approximately 2500 BCE, but there are several researchers who suggest it is much older and date the pyramid closer to 10,000 BCE. The Edgar Cayce readings were very specific about the dates, placing the building of the Great Pyramid from 10,490 to 10,390 BCE.
Some of the methodologies employed in establishing its date of construction use the astronomical positions of the stars for the time periods championed by each school of researcher. These experts debate the alignment of stars and constellations to such points as the north entrance of the Great Pyramid and the north and south “airshafts” from the King's and Queen's Chambers. Because of precession—the movement of the earth's axis—there is a shift in the position of the stars. Because the precessional cycle is approximately 26,000 years, we can calculate historical dates based on star alignments. For example, our current polestar (North Star) is Polaris. But this star changes as we move backward or forward in time. In 3000 BCE our polestar was the star Thuban, located in the constellation of Draco while in 12,000 BCE it was Vega of the constellation of Lyra.
During the construction dates of the Great Pyramid gleaned from the Cayce readings (10,490-10,390 BCE), there was no specific polestar. There was instead a trinity of stars spinning around the celestial North Pole. During this ancient time, this star trinity was circumpolar, meaning that as viewed from this north latitude they never set below the horizon.23 The Egyptians called them the “Imperishables.” This trinity of stars, through thousands of years, has shifted in our view of the sky and now dips below the horizon during the year. Today the trinity, known as the Summer Triangle, consists of three stars—Deneb, Vega, and Altair—each connected to a separate constellation known as Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila, respectively. (See color Fig. 4.)
Through different ages and cultures, each of these three constellations has represented birds. It is easy to imagine the ancients looking into the sky above the Great Pyramid in 10,400 BCE and seeing a slowly turning triangle with three birds circling the center, one for each point of the triangle, centering this starry triangle in a celestial circle. (See color Fig. 5.)
The symbolic image of the bird above the Great Pyramid in this stellar triangle of the North is repeated in the Egyptian Benben stone, the pyramidal stone atop an obelisk or the apex of a pyramid. This important
