The Becoming And Transformation of Golden Sirius is my contribution to the album Dark Ambient Vol. 17 with various artists on the label Sombre Soniks. I was kindly invited by P23 of Sombre Soniks to create a track around the ideas of spring, transformation and rejuvenation. My intuitive thoughts wandered and then channeled to the consistent but ever changing idea of the star Sirius, which has over time metamorphosed into numerous shapes, emanations, expressions and identities. Sirius (Greek Σείριος, Seirios, lit. “glowing” or “scorching”) is a binary star and the brightest star in the night sky. Esoteric teachings of all ages have attributed Sirius a special status and the star’s importance in occult symbolism. Greek word itself may have been imported from elsewhere before the Archaic period, one authority suggesting a link with the Egyptian god Osiris. The name’s earliest recorded use dates from the 7th century BC in Hesiod’s poetic work Works and Days. Sirius has over 50 or so other designations.
In Sanskrit it is known as Mrgavyadha “deer hunter”, or Lubdhaka “hunter”. As Mrgavyadha, the star represents Rudra (Shiva). The star is referred as Makarajyoti in Malayalam and has religious significance to the pilgrim centre Sabarimala. In Theosophy, it is believed the Seven Stars of the Pleiades transmit the spiritual energy of the Seven Rays from the Galactic Logos to the Seven Stars of the Great Bear, then to Sirius. From there is it sent via the Sun to the god of Earth (Sanat Kumara), and finally through the seven Masters of the Seven Rays to the human race. Several occult researchers have claimed that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in perfect alignment with the stars, especially Sirius. The light from these stars was said to be used in ceremonies of Egyptian Mysteries. Recent scientific discoveries relating to the Great Pyramid and its mysterious “air shafts” have lead researchers to further confirm the importance of Sirius within the pyramids. In 1971, the American author Robert Temple published a controversial book entitled The Sirius Mystery where he claimed that the Dogons (an ancient African tribe from Mali) knew details about Sirius that would be impossible to know without the use of telescopes. According to him, the Dogon understood the binary nature of Sirius, which is, in fact, composed of two stars named Sirius A and Sirius B. This lead Robert Temple to believe that the Dogons had “direct” connections with beings from Sirius.
Composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, who wrote a piece called Sirius, has been claimed to have said on several occasions that he came from a planet in the Sirius system. To Stockhausen, Sirius stood for “the place where music is the highest of vibrations” and where music had been developed in the most perfect way. Sirius is important to Hermetic Orders. The dog star is the central focus of the teachings and symbolism of secret societies. The Rider-Waite tarot deck (originally published 1910) as drawn by illustrator Pamela Colman Smith from the instructions of academic and mystic A. E. Waite features a card known as The Star; “The seventeenth numbered major trump is called Les Étoiles, (French for The Star), and portrays a young girl kneeling with one foot in water and the other on. She has two urns, the contents of which she pours upon the land and sea. Above the girl’s head are eight stars, one of which is exceptionally large and bright. Count de Gébelin considers the great star to be Sothis or Sirius; the other seven are the sacred planets of the ancients. He believes the female figure to be Isis in the act of causing the inundations of the Nile which accompanied the rising of the Dog Star. The unclothed figure of Isis may well signify that Nature does not receive her garment of verdure until the rising of the Nile waters releases the germinal life of plants and flowers.” (Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of all Ages). In Masonic lodges, Sirius is known as the “Blazing Star” and a simple look at its prominence in Masonic symbolism reveals its utmost importance. The Masonic author William Hutchinson wrote about Sirius: “It is the first and most exalted object that demands our attention in the Lodge.” Although each occult philosophy describes Sirius in a slightly different manner, it is still consistently regarded as the “sun behind the sun”, the true source of occult power. It is perceived as the cradle of human knowledge and the belief of the existence of a strong connection between the star and planet Earth which never seems to become outdated. You can hear the full 13 minute 11 second track fully streamed on my SoundCloud account below.
Release Date: 20th March 2019
Production: Sheer Zed
Album Art: Fabian van der Meer & Madguten
Mastering: P23 at Sombre Soniks Studios
Genre: Dark Ambient, Electronic, Experimental and Drone
Sheer Zed • Writer • Buddhist Shaman • Musician • Artist • 