The Dogon priests said that Sirius had a companion star that was invisible to the human eye. They also stated that the star moved in a 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, that it was small and incredibly heavy, and that it rotated on its axis.
Initially the anthropologists wrote it off publishing the information in an obscure anthropological journal, because they didn't appreciate the astronomical importance of the information.
What they didn't know was that since 1844, astronomers had suspected that Sirius A had a companion star. This was in part determined when it was observed that the path of the star wobbled. In 1862 Alvan Clark discovered the second star making Sirius a binary star system (two stars).
In the 1920's it was determined that Sirius B, the companion of Sirius, was a white dwarf star. White dwarfs are small, dense stars that burn dimly. The pull of its gravity causes Sirius' wavy movement. Sirius B is smaller than planet Earth.
The Dogon name for Sirius B is Po Tolo. It means star - tolo and smallest seed - po. Seed refers to creation. In this case, perhaps human creation.
By this name they describe the star's smallness. It is, they say, the smallest thing there is.
They also claim that it is 'the heaviest star' and is white in color.
The Dogon thus attribute to Sirius B its three principal properties as a white dwarf: small, heavy, white.
The Dogon elder, Ogotemelli, describes Nommo as having the upper part as a man and the lower portion as snake; or as having a ram's head with serpent body. [Serpent=DNA]
Author Robert Temple describes the Nommo as amphibious beings sent to Earth from the Sirius star system for the benefit of humankind. They look like Merfolk; Mermaids and Mermen. [Metaphor: amphibious - referring to the flow of the collective unconscious - creational source].
After the landing in a space ship, something with four legs appeared and dragged the vessel to a hollow, which filled with water until the vessel floated in it. The Dogon call this spaceship 'Pelu Tolo' or 'Star of the Tenth Moon'. [4=4th dimension or 'time'. It also references closure]. [10=10101010 = computer programming for On, Off, On Off, etc. 10 also references 1 = New beginnings in Numerology.]
Nommo supposedly came from the Sirius star system.
Their spaceship spiraled down from the sky. Spirals reference the golden ratio or the movement of consciousness from higher frequency into physical reality. [See Sacred Geometry]
The ship landed somewhere to the northeast of the Dogon's present homeland. There was a great noise and wind. The ship landed on three legs, skidded to a stop, scoring the ground. Four legs appeared and dragged the vessel to a hollow, which filled with water until the vessel floated.
At the same time a new star was seen in the sky, which possibly was a large space ship. The star was described by the Dogon as having a circle of reddish rays around it. This circle of rays was like a spreading spot yet it still remaining the same size.
There is a Dogon drawing of the spaceship hovering in the sky, waiting for the Nommo who landed on the Earth. It represents three stages of 'Pelu Tolo' when it is spurting different amounts of blood or flames [as if it crash landed].
They called the Nommo 'Masters of the Water', 'The Monitors', 'The Teachers or Instructors', 'Saviors', and 'Spiritual Guardians'.
I have to wonder if the word 'Nommo' means 'No More' - 'No Longer'.
Dogon art shows grids, perhaps depicting an understanding of the nature of our reality, based on grid programs.
The earliest Egyptians believed Sirius - 'Sothis' - was the home of souls that have crossed over. It is the brightest star in our night sky. This belief is also shared with the Dogon.
The Dogons have described perfectly the DNA pattern made by an elliptical orbit created by the two stars of Sirius as they rotate make around each other. They believe Sirius to be the axis of the universe, and from it all matter and all souls are produced in a great spiral motion.
The Dogon also claimed that a third star Emme Ya - sorghum female - exists in the Sirius system. Larger and lighter than Sirius B, this star revolves around Sirius A as well. It has not been proven to exist, though some people have called it Sirius C.
Sirius C translated from the Dogon language into English is called the "Sun of Women". It is described by the Dogon as "the seat of the female souls of living or future beings". Its symbol contains two pair of lines that are relevant features of a Dogon legend. The Dogon believe that Sirius C sends out two pairs of beams and that the beams represent a feminine figure.
Some of the ancient Egyptian temples, such as the Temple of Isis at Denderah, were created so that the light of the helical rising of Sirius would travel down the main corridor to place its red glow upon the altar in the inner sanctum of the temple. When that light reached the altar, the beam of light from Sirius was transformed into Sothis, the Star Goddess, Isis.
In a manner of speaking, the same belief system was involved in the Greek Temples, such as the Parthenon, which were oriented to receive the beams of light from the Pleiades into their inner sanctums, where the beams were then transformed into seven women. As the beams from the Pleiades entered the Egyptian temple of Hathor it became the seven Hathors female judges of mankind.
Within the Dogon tradition, those pairs of feminine figures beamed down from the Star/Sun/Planet of Women to their original home near the Hoggar mountains bringing many aspects of civilization to the ancestors of their tribes.
Dogon oral traditions state that for thousands of years they have known that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and that Jupiter has moons and Saturn has rings.
The Dogons calendar is quite non-traditional in that its fifty year cycle is based neither on the Earth's rotation around the Sun (as is our Julian calendar) nor the cycles of the Moon (a lunar calendar). Instead, the Dogon culture centers around the rotation cycle Sirius B which encircles the primary star Sirius A every 49.9 - or 50 years.
Much more at crystalinks