“The moment primitive man began to observe anything, he must have taken
note of the stars, and as soon as he began to talk about them he must have
started by defining, in some way or other, the particular star he
meant.... Observers would first consider the brightest stars and separate
them from the dimmer ones; they would then discuss the stars which never
set (the circumpolar constellations) and separate them from those which
did rise and set. Then they would naturally, in a northern clime, choose
out the constellation of the Great Bear or Orion, and for small groups,
the Pleiades (_op. cit._ p. 132).... A few years’ observation would have
appeared to demonstrate the absolute changelessness of the places of the
rising and setting of the same stars. It is true that this result would
have been found to be erroneous when a long period of time had elapsed and
when observation became more accurate, but for hundreds of years the stars
would certainly appear to represent fixity, while the movements of the
sun, moon and planets would seem to be bound by no law ... would appear
erratic, so long as the order of their movements was not known.”
The reflection that Ursa Major was probably the first constellation which
made any deep impression upon the mind of prehistoric man in America, as
elsewhere, lent an additional interest to the star-group, as I
concentrated my mind upon its form and endeavored to imagine it in four
equidistant positions, corresponding to the numerals in the symbol _Ollin_
of the calendar-stone of Mexico (fig. 2, no. 2).
I succeeded in obtaining, in succession, mental images of the
constellation in four opposite positions. This effort led to an unforeseen
result which surprised me. In a flash of mental vision I perceived a
quadrupled image of the entire constellation, standing out in
scintillating brilliancy from the intense darkness of the wintry sky (fig.
3, no. 3). At the same moment I saw that it bore the semblance of a
symmetrical swastika of giant proportions. This fact, so unexpectedly
realized, gave rise to such an absorbing train of new ideas and
interpretations of the data I had accumulated, that I left my window, on
that memorable night, with a growing perception of the deep and powerful
influence the prolonged observation of Polaris and the circumpolar
constellations would naturally have exerted upon the mind of primitive
man. Deeply impressed with the striking resemblance between the composite
image of Polaris, Ursa Major, and certain forms of the swastika, I started
on a fresh line of investigation, and devoted myself to the study of
primitive astronomy and its influence upon the intellectual development of
mankind in general and the American races in particular. After having
worked, during thirteen years, without any preconceived ideas about the
ancient Mexican civilization and without formulating any general
conclusion concerning it, I saw all the knowledge I had slowly acquired
fall into rank and file and organize itself into a simple and harmonious
whole.
[Illustration.]