M.J. Rose

…As we enter the future (welcome 2009), let us look to the past…

Rocks of Ages: A composite photo of the Oshoro Stone Circle in Otaru, Hokkaido ANDREW KERSHAW

Mystery shrouds the ancient Oshoro circle

By MICHAEL HOFFMAN
Special to The Japan Times

In 1861 at Oshoro, southwestern Hokkaido, a party of herring fishermen, migrants from Honshu, were laying the foundation for a fishing port when they saw taking shape beneath their shovels a mysterious spectacle — a broad circular arrangement of large rocks, strikingly symmetrical, evidently man-made. What could it be? An Ainu fortress?

They would have been astonished to learn, as in fact they never did, that the Oshoro Stone Circle is a relic from a time before even war — let alone fortresses — likely existed in Japan.

Oshoro today is part of the city of Otaru, on its western fringe, 20 km from the city center and 60 km west of Sapporo.

The Late Jomon period (circa 2400-1000 B.C.) was an age of northward migration. The north was warming, and severe rainfall was ravaging the established Jomon sites, primarily in the vicinity of today’s Tokyo and Nagoya.

Perhaps resettlement stimulated thought, for it coincided with a novel Jomon institution — the cemetery.

“By devoting a special area to burials,” writes J. Edward Kidder in “The Cambridge History of Japan,” “Late Jomon people were isolating the dead, allowing the gap to be bridged by mediums who eventually drew the rational world of the living further away from the spirit world of the dead.” [the rest]

My first thought after reading this article was that perhaps, just maybe, the pyramids were created to store vast quanities of WATER for emergencies or for some otherwordly purpose? Read this and let us know what you think. We would love to hear your own theories.

The Concave Faces of the Great Pyramid

Aerial photo by Groves, 1940 (detail).

In his book The Egyptian Pyramids: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference, J.P. Lepre wrote:

One very unusual feature of the Great Pyramid is a concavity of the core that makes the monument an eight-sided figure, rather than four-sided like every other Egyptian pyramid. That is to say, that its four sides are hollowed in or indented along their central lines, from base to peak. This concavity divides each of the apparent four sides in half, creating a very special and unusual eight-sided pyramid; and it is executed to such an extraordinary degree of precision as to enter the realm of the uncanny. For, viewed from any ground position or distance, this concavity is quite invisible to the naked eye. The hollowing-in can be noticed only from the air, and only at certain times of the day. This explains why virtually every available photograph of the Great Pyramid does not show the hollowing-in phenomenon, and why the concavity was never discovered until the age of aviation. It was discovered quite by accident in 1940, when a British Air Force pilot, P. Groves, was flying over the pyramid. He happened to notice the concavity and captured it in the now-famous photograph.

This strange feature was not first observed in 1940. It was illustrated in La Description de l’Egypte in the late 1700’s (Volume V, pl. 8). Flinders Petrie noticed a hollowing in the core masonry in the center of each face and wrote that he “continually observed that the courses of the core had dips of as much as ½° to 1°” (The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, 1883, p. 421). Though it is apparently more easily observed from the air, the concavity is measurable and is visible from the ground under favorable lighting conditions. [the rest]

P.S. Happy New Year!

Here is an intense Reincarnation Diary from a reader, Reba…

I have many little visions that I recall but the most profound past life recall went as follows; I had laid down for a nap on the couch and was in that twilight before sleep. Suddenly my head was on a chopped up stump, slimy and sticky from blood. Flies were buzzing around it. I could hear the birds chirping and a crowd whispering. It felt like spring time. I was worried about my long dirty blood caked braid getting in the way of the executioners ax and noticed it was lying in front of the stump past my face. That relieved me. I looked down and saw my chest. I was wearing a corset that was dirty and cinched up tightly. I was very tired and wanted it to be over. My hands were bound behind my back. I heard the crowd hush and a swoop. I shot straight up on the couch and immediately wrote this in my journal. At the time I was dating a guy who’s family hated me. They were blaming me for many things like their horse dying, litter of puppies dying, a car accident, all because I read Tarot cards. I believe they were responsible somehow in that past life for having me tortured and executed.