The Cygnus Mystery: Unlocking the Ancient Secret of Life's Origins in the Cosmos

This is an excellent piece of detective work by Mr. Collins. He breaks a lot of new ground here, more than in his previous books, where he stands on the shoulders of others more. The author's premise is that ancient civilizations understood man's origins to be extra-terrestrial, and specifically derived from the area of the Galaxy that is home to the Cygnus(Swan) constellation of stars or planets. He travels the globe collecting evidence to support this contention a la Graham Hancock. For my part, I can find nothing here that is profoundly disagreeable or even unreasonable. I look forward to the author's next work.

Written by Andrew Collins, organizer of the Questing Conference (Great Britain's premier event on alternative history, forbidden archaeology, and ancient wisdom), The Cygnus Mystery: Unlocking the Ancient Secret of Life's Origins in the Cosmos is an examination of the origins of life - not in the strict Darwinian sense, but in the sense of humanity's earliest ancestors' awareness of life and death, as connected to a cosmic source. Exploring what astronomic lore has to say about 15,000 BC, in the Paleolithic era when Deneb, the brightest star in Cygnus, was the Pole Star, The Cygnus Mystery probes the roots of the amazing physical and neurological transformation in humanity from beasts to fully conscious and complex psychological beings, a metamorphosis that happened almost overnight in geological terms. The Cygnus Mystery proposes that the cause of this sudden shift lay in a sudden spike in the cosmic rays reaching Earth, offering evidence that the rays, which have left behind subatomic traces in deep caves, emanated from the binary star system Cygnus X-3. A handful of color photographic plates illustrate this blend of archaeo-astronomy, scientific revolution and spiritual wisdom.

The book offers a convincing alternative to the theory that the three stars of Orion's Belt formed the basis for the position of the three pyramids in Giza. I do not like Robert Temple's books so this writer's opinion of his books coincided with mine: he's okay for unearthing data but best ignored as to his conclusions. I have difficulty reconciling the data put forward by Charles Hapgood (who put forward the theory of a periodic shifting of Earth's crust in his "Path of the Poles") with the implied belief of Andrew Collins that the North Pole has always been where it is now. Hapgood's data is simply too detailed and incontrovertible. The evidence is that the current collection of stars (including Cygnus)that presently form the North polar constellations must be comparatively recent phenomena. Coral formations in Toronto, Canada mean the poles have moved. The Cygnus theory (in which I concur)needs more exact dating.

Mr. Collins takes the reader on an exciting ride to nearly every continent on earth, intriguing archaeological locations, mythologies, rituals and ancient artwork, and ties it all up very meaningfully with the constellation Cygnus and its neighbors in the heavens. The book is very readable but dense with information - very well-organized. I really appreciate that, as many authors tell you everything in the first couple of chapters and then try to rehash what they've already said in the next eight or ten chapters. I came away from this book with the sense that he could have included much more, but didn't want to overwhelm the reader. He included a photo section, and there is art scattered throughout that enhances the text. There is an extensive bibliography, including websites, and plenty of footnotes for the reader to do further investigations on his/her own. He also inspired me to visit an archaeological site that is only about a half an hour away from me - the Hopewell Mounds in Newark, Ohio. I will definitely reread this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in human culture.