I have discovered a quote from Robert Forrest, which presumably refers to the original purpose of this folio; – “The aim should be to compare the merits of various numerical theories concerning the Pyramids, and to weigh them against the number-juggling argument.” If this was intended to be a restriction, then it has clearly been ignored by the majority of contributors, and the Folio has run wild. Perhaps this is because there is a limit to what can be said about its measurements, angles, and extrapolation of same. More possibly, perhaps it is just that there is something about a subject of such age and scale which leaves science behind in a welter of metaphysics, romance, and the thrill of the mysterious. Clearly there is more to Pyramidology than number-juggling and numerical theories, and as I must confess that my Maths is not really up to Bob Forrest’s standard, and as I suspect that even if it was I’d be hard put to contribute anything new or different, I intend to concentrate my efforts on the non-mathematical responses to the Great Pyramid, both within the Folio, and in such of “the literature” as I have to hand. I am forced to conclude that in the match between Bob Forrest and the The Numerical Significance of the Great Pyramid, Bob Forrest has won hands down, at least on the ground that has so far been fought over, so let us try and see if there is really anything left to get excited about.
I have three hardbacks devoted to the G.P., apparently not common ones, together with some pieces in paperbacks, a booklet, and some articles, most of which latter are already in the Folio. If anyone wants to borrow any of these then I will gladly lend on receipt of some postage. The three main works seem to typify the range of response to the G.P. between Smyth and 1960.
“The Great Pyramid of Gizeh, seen from the aspects of symbolism and metaphysic”, regards the G.P. as symbolising nature, perfect society, the ideal man, Knowledge, Brotherhood, a reaction against sacrificial religion, true Literature and all Art. I quote; – “The super moral of Khufu’s story surely is that instead of projecting our attention in too narrow rays toward the apprehension and portrayal of the perfect man, we need to widen and equate the base of our conception so as to include more men and more of men rather than unduly increase the altitude of our aspiration; which is to say that sympathy and aspiration for content of value are interdependent. Khufu accorded a less altitude of aspiration than does the equilateral triangle, that symbol of tri-compound unity, of the man of equal mind, body, and soul, because aspiration being the outcome of experience must ever be subservient thereto. Not virtue then as an aim, is his plea, so much as virtue as a means of substantialising our sympathies
“The Solution of the Pyramid Problem” (such confidence!), the calculations of which are nearly beyond me, takes an attitude more suitable for a man who is “Chief Engineer of the Central and Northern Railway Division of the Colony of Queensland, Australia”. He regards the trio of Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus as being a massive, accurate but nonetheless functional and terrestrial surveying instrument.
“The plan of the Pyramids under consideration is geometrically exact, a perfect set of measures. … These edifices were applied to a thoroughly geometrical purpose in the true meaning of the word – to measure the Earth.” And again “… the sarcophagus in the King’s Chamber may have been used by the Chief Architect and leading men of the works as a bath.”
“The Symbolic Prophecy of the Great Pyramid”, an AMORC publication, features such gems as the Exodus, the Wall Street Crash, The Great War, and the Birth of Christ. There is little hint as to how or why the ancient Egyptians were either informed of, or concerned with, these events, and of course the controversy over the Pyramid Inch is hardly featured. The general atmosphere is that one of glowing well-being that tends to feature in Rosicrucianism, but there is no critical argument to justify the prophetic conclusions.
Further to the prophecy question, I have a booklet, published in 1956 by the Covenant Publishing Co. (British Israelites), which traces the prophecies in the frame of the emergence of ancient and modern Israel, and finds that the Great Circle of the G.P. passes through the sites of the beginning and end of the Exodus, and of the crossing of the Red Sea, and through Bethlehem.
I could of course go on like this for a very long time, but it is only my intention to try and hint at the contents of a few books that other Foliates (devotees of a Folio) may not have encountered, and to example a few of the typical interpretations of the G.P. Even in our own Folio we have a range of responses to the same base information that includes Quetzalcoatl, Phobos, prophecy, pyramids on assorted heavenly bodies, Lovecraft, Stonehenge, Fort, Biblical translation and criticism, and all that without approaching the fringe material not from our own contributors.
David Randell has written (and I think we should give him a small prize for the sheer excellence of his contributions) “By now it should be relatively clear in the readers’ minds that the pyramid does have a stimulating quality in the mind of man”, and goes on to speak of the “religious function” saying that; – “The stimulating effect of the Pyramid on the consciousness of man seems to indicate the activation of the linking process whereby through the unconscious an aspect of the self is realised … a flow is created between the conscious and unconscious elements of the mind.” I would certainly agree about the “stimulating effect”, and also agree that the function of the G.P. as we are at present considering it is always most likely to be of a religious type. My suspicion, however, is that we are taking it all a little seriously, and perhaps in the wrong context.
For me, the context of the Great Pyramid is all those other exciting phenomena of the “fringe” – Bigfoot, Black Magic, UFO’s, Stonehenge, the Bermuda Triangle, Fire-walking, Wicca, Ectoplasm, Leys, OOBE’s, Falls of Frogs, Table-turning – the greater and lesser mysteries in which we as laymen have been able to get involved over the last 100 years.
I am beginning to conclude, from several years disorganised but nonetheless voracious investigation of these and related subjects (and half a Theology degree!) that both traditional religion and the new, intellectual, though “popular” occultism are largely based on the phenomenal: the phenomenally good, bad, miraculous, unexpected, beautiful, thrilling, frightening, impressive, mysterious and, in the instance of the Great Pyramid, the phenomenally large and uncannily accurate. Then after the event or the understanding, or however the perception of the phenomenon has occurred, first the religious urge, and then the religious response takes over, and the actual source material is more or less submerged in the processes of making-safe, through understanding, and protecting from investigation through fear and worship. Eventually little truth remains – the psyche transforms the source into more or less what the individual wants it to be.
As you might imagine from the unclear fashion in which I have set it down, this is a theory which is in its infancy – in fact it is more likely still in gestation. However, what it boils down to is that it is no good judging the phenomena by those who interpret them – if facts are available it is those we must look to to judge the validity of anything that is based on them.
I would hazard that most of our various explanations and ideas regarding the Pyramid, and certainly very many of those published in the last 120 years, tend to fulfil our own needs and wishes in one way or another. I am by no means qualified to comment on the Prophecy and Revelation theories, or the Databank, or Extra-Terrestrial Pyramids or, indeed, Mr. Ivimy’s fascinating and careful book, which was the first thing since my primary school textbook that posited some millions of people working for X number of years, to actually attract me to Pyramidology. To categorically refute any theory would clearly be as daft as to try to prove the non-existence of God. However, with the possible exception of Mr. Ivimy, all these theories would seen to be essentially a priori, essentially self-dependent. We seem to be presented with little or no evidence, particularly of a historical/corroborative nature, for most of the theories to hand, and I would therefore ask the Folio contributors to consider why they have taken up the positions that they have, and how these positions relate to their attitudes to other of the key subjects in the occult field, such as those I have listed above.
I hope that I do not appear to have tried to refute any particular theory or model of Pyramidology. I was honestly and deeply disappointed when Kusche produced his book damning the Bermuda Triangle, and since I can boast neither his evidence or his thoroughness it is not my intention to do a similar hatchet job on the Great Pyramid.
I must, though, confess my opinions that the mathematical theories tend to be damned by historical fact, inaccurate measurement, and Bob Forrest ‘s Budge-Budge, Merton Sewage Works syndrome – e.g. if you can achieve any kind of skill at imagining impossible things before breakfast, you can make them not only believable, but provable, with the aid of mathematics; and, as I have said, the purely religious theories and those dependent on a combination of maths, religion, hope, etc. tend to be so subjective as to lack conviction without a direct contact with their progenitor.
The acid test of all the products of the “occult explosion” is going to be whether the public can participate in them in one way or another; it’s the old Nuffield principle of proof by experiment. One of the few clear trends at present seems to be the return of occultism from the hands of the expert, initiated (and usually wealthy) few, to the interested many. Because of a number of reasons – the hippy movement, increased further education, all sorts of things, there are far more of us involved in, and willing to be seen to be involved in the field than ever there would have been ten years ago. The latest product of this movement is the wish to undertake practical work, and to relate the phenomena to human beings. Ley Hunting shows every sign of moving toward dowsing, the key magazine of British Craft, Quest, is concerned almost entirely with practical occultism, and runs a number of excellent practical courses in various aspects of the work. Fort appears more and more often, and surely this is the great participatory sport of the next 10 years. Ufology becomes a matter of psychology, interpretation, and human experience. In this sort of context (into which also falls this biofeedback business), the Pyramid seems to have very little to offer. At least to me, there seems to be no way of becoming involved in this magnificent monument to what, in the last event, is probably only human endeavour. All that there seems to be is this new “Pyramid power for fun and profit” business. If we are to believe Bob Forrest in INFO Journal no. 21, then there is little in the supposed mummification powers of the geometry of the G.P. I have only heard of this effect working on razor blades, though this may be due to my own ignorance. If this is so, then perhaps what we have is a relatively simple experiment in psychokinesis – the rearrangement of one type of molecule in a very limited area into an already established pattern. However, that is pure speculation.
In the end, it must be admitted that Herodotus, some time away from ancient Egypt, but nearer than us, said that they were tombs; the aligned upper passage was plugged, and the type of information we have to back the possibility of extra-terrestrial intervention would not secure a conviction in Uganda. Although it is not always a popular view, it must be our responsibility to discard the least likely explanations first.
It really is a matter of whatever turns you on, and I don’t doubt that nothing I say will deter the true acolytes of the Great Pyramid. Personally it quite grabbed me ten years ago, but the research I have done in connection with the Folio has left me a little jaundiced with the whole thing. Oh well, it’s in the nature of the thing that something new, exciting, and probably phenomenal, will turn up before the month’s out.
Kevin McClure
23.9.77