CORRESPONDENCE 269 



(mag. 3-5) was at this distance from the pole : and a choice of two dates 

 is possible, (i) when this star is approaching, and (ii) when it is receding 

 from the pole. Obviously this theory requires the compound assumption 

 that (a) this inclination of the passage was casual and not intentional on 

 the part of the architect, and [b) that the motion of the pole was not known 

 in those days (otherwise how account for their erecting a piece of archi- 

 tecture of such astonishing quality of endurance, when a few centuries would 

 suffice to make it astronomically out-of -truth, or at least out-of-date?). 



But if we assume the Drayson movement to be that of Nature, the argu- 

 ment for design and knowledge, as against ignorance and chance, becomes 

 much stronger. For on calculating the minimuin distance of Alpha Draconis 

 from the pole according to this motion, one finds it to be just 3° 18', the 

 quantity required ! Furthermore, the angle PCE is found to be 59° 45', 

 which is sufficiently near 60° to be remarkable, as we shall see (indeed, 

 if we make it exactly 60° the change in the polar distance aP thereby occa- 

 sioned is imperceptible, and the difference in time is only 22 years). 



We see, then, that the Great Pyramid, with its south- and north-pointing 

 passages, furnishes mankind with an enduring astronomical transit-instru- 

 ment whereby the stages of the cycle represented by PCE assuming suc- 

 cessively the angles, 



180°. 135°, 90°. 60" 



can be determined by solar and stellar observations with great precision. 

 These positions in the cycle or Great Year correspond, it will be remem- 

 bered, to the dates 



Dec. 21 Feb. 4 March 21 April 21 



Mid-winter Commencement 0} Mid-spring May-time 



spring 



in the ordinary year, and their significance as seasonal points is obvious. 

 May not the Great Year, perhaps, have a similar significance as regards 

 the flowering of that hardy perennial. Mankind ? 



Alfred H. Barley. 

 July I, 1920. 



P.S. — A propos the last sentence, since writing this letter I have come 

 across this curious passage in a work dealing with the Evolution of Symbolism : 

 — ' ' They (the builders of the Pyramid) had it [that is, astronomical know- 

 ledge] assuredly ; and it is on this knowledge that the programme of the 

 Mysteries and of the series of Initiations was based ; hence, the construction 

 of the Pyramid, the everlasting record and indestructible symbol of these 

 Mysteries and Initiations on Earth, as the courses of the stars are in Heaven. 

 The cycle of Initiation was a reproduction in miniature of that great series of 

 cosmic changes to which astronomers have given the name of the Tropical or 

 Sidereal Year [i.e. the precession cycle]. . , . Moses, an Initiate into the 

 Egyptian Mystagogy, based the religious mysteries of the new nation which 

 he created upon the same abstract formulae derived from this Sidereal 

 Cycle. . . ." 



Note. — The " south-pointing " passage in the Pyramid, whose inclination 

 I give as 26° 18', is evidently that known as the Grand Gallery ; but this does 

 not extend upwards to the south face. A south-pointing passage which does 

 so extend, and is often represented in Pyramid diagrams as parallel with the 

 Grand Gallery, must have misled me into thinking the whole passage practic- 

 ally continuous. The conclusions in (ii) of my summary must therefore be 

 maintained with reserve until further details of this passage are available. 

 But they could be abandoned altogether without impeaching the main points 

 referred to in (i) and (iii). — A. H. B. 



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