A Seafarer's Decoding of the Irish Symbols Read online

  A Seafarer’s Decoding

  of the Irish Symbols

  The Oldest Testament: 3200 BCE to 2500 BCE

  Donald J McMahon, Symbologist

  Copyright 2014 by Donald J. McMahon

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN 10: 1497395208

  ISBN-13: 978-1497395206

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2014905490

  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

  North Charleston, South Carolina

  Published by:

  Strategic i LLC

  403 Oceana Way, Carolina Beach, NC 28428

  [email protected]

  For more information, visit:

  www.seafarersymbols.com

  [email protected]

  To the countless and anonymous seafarers and scribes, who, with extreme detail and skill, created and etched the navigation symbols onto Irish stones five thousand years ago, thank you. The symbols were a common language of the seafarers and should be considered the Oldest Testament, written by many who never returned home.

  I am eternally grateful for J.

  Acknowledgments

  After I showed the decoding of kerbstone K67 to Michael Slavin, antiquarian of Ireland, in his Old Bookshop at the Hill of Tara, Michael encouraged me to write this book on the decoding of the Irish symbols. I will always be indebted to Michael for his encouragement and review of my manuscript.

  I truly appreciate the conversations I have had with Mr. 8 related to “what is above is below.” The dialogues started with “subjective interpretation” and ended with “yes.”

  Detailed diagrams of Margaret Ponting Curtis and her insightful discussions on the moon when I met her on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, during the summer solstice, 2004, gave me invaluable insights.

  Scott Wolter’s writings and my conversations with Scott inspired my work. The Hooked X reinforced my research into the roles the sun, moon, and, particularly, Venus play in the determination of latitude and longitude. Also, the thoughts generated from Scott Wolter’s America Unearthed Series on television inspired additional research.

  Conversations and dialogue with James Egan, curator of the Newport Tower Museum, Newport, Rhode Island, to continue to think “outside the box” were extremely encouraging, as were our discussions on John Dee’s Perfect Art of Navigation.

  Sincere gratitude is extended to the United States Sail and Power Squadron, America’s Boating Club, for the detailed education in boating safety, seamanship, piloting, and celestial navigation. My teacher was Robert Brandenstein, currently the National Education Officer of the USSPS. The knowledge and understanding from these courses gave me the confidence to sail the coasts of North America and in the Mediterranean Sea. My sailing experiences enabled me to decode the Irish symbols from a seafaring perspective.

  A deep level of appreciation is offered to many members of the Cape Fear Sail and Power Squadron who for the last several years have listened to, critiqued, and reviewed my findings. In particular, Bill Maney, Jerry Hall, Ted Poucher, and Yves Tondeur provided many insightful observations.

  I truly appreciate the helpful comments related to copper and gold mining in Ireland by Dr. Finbar O’Mahony, retired lecturer, Trinity College, Dublin, and a key representative of the O’Mahony Clan.

  Jordan Cohen, technologist, reviewed my manuscript and was extremely helpful in focusing attention on how the symbols led to phonics and eventual alphabets.

  I am grateful to the people I have met in Ireland and France for their helpful suggestions about relevant and significant locations in Ireland and France to investigate.

  I thank my many friends in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, for their encouragement and interest in this book. Charles A. Lewis provided key support in my understanding of ancient symbols.

  However, the highest level of appreciation and love is given to my wonderful, dear wife, Judy, who endured all of my early morning thinking and writing activities, who helped in my counting and measuring of angles at the megalithic sites, who kept saying “keep writing every day,” who proofread all of the manuscript versions, and who rubbed my neck and back after hours of research and writing.

  Contents

  Introduction

  Section 1: The Seafarer’s Trip

  Chapter 1: WHAT: Rocks of Ages

  Chapter 2: WHERE: Somewhere over the Rainbow—Ireland

  Chapter 3: WHO: The Invaders of Ireland

  Chapter 4: WHY: Golden Rule for Metals

  Section 2: The Seafarer’s Language: Symbols, Tools, and Stars

  Chapter 5: HOW: Navigation Symbols

  Chapter 6: HOW: Navigation Tools

  Chapter 7: Celestial Navigation: 3200 BCE

  Section 3: The Seafarer’s Decoding of Irish Stones and Mounds, 3200 BCE

  Chapter 8: Irish Kerbstones Decoded

  Chapter 9: Irish Mounds Decoded

  Section 4: The Seafarer’s Trip from Ireland to Western Europe and North America

  Chapter 10: Irish Travel Routes to Western Europe

  Chapter 11: America Decoded: Using the Irish Symbols

  Section 5: The Seafarer’s Actual Logbook of the Penultimate Trip, c. 2415 BCE

  Chapter 12: The Penultimate Trip’s Actual Logbook: 2415 BCE

  Chapter 13: Summary of a Seafarer’s Decoding of Megalithic Stones and Mounds

  Conclusions

  Appendices

  A. Symbols for Reflections

  B. Before-1000 BCE Boats

  C. Maps

  D. Math and Geometry

  E. Seafaring Poems and Lyrics Related to Ireland

  References

  Websites

  About the Author

  Introduction

  Water and Life

  In the beginning there were important locations below and marvelous celestial bodies above.

  This is a provocative opening statement by all who wish to know how the universe began. It is intriguing to know where these locations were and what was above. However, we do know that below there was water, land, and life. This book will start with the fact that water and life exist (see Figure I-1). It did not take long for life to exist on the water. The seafarer was born, sailed the oceans, and generated symbols as a testament to the journeys undertaken. The seafarer knew how to connect the dots.

  Figure I-1: World map

  Life came from the waters and needs water to continue. New life was generated on land when there was a realization that a man and woman created this new life. As societies developed, the procreative process was symbolized as gods and goddesses. The god was the sun, and the goddess was Venus, and every eight years they united. They shared equal attention from the ancient civilizations. Most importantly, the developing societies needed metals to expand their influence.

  Early on, people determined that they could navigate the waters to explore the earth. Celestial guidance was developed with symbolic representations. The seafarers, looking for metals, also were interested in sailing on the waters, staying close to land, but finding safety on islands. Out of sight of land, new lands and islands were discovered, and sailors needed a way to preserve their findings—that is, locations. Symbols were developed to record maps, time, locations, and directions.

  Realities needed to be expressed. Two types of writing developed to record the realities. Pictograms, or glyphs, were etched on stones, representing an object—a single symbol. Combining single symbols led to further expressions of reality. Eventually, alphabets, a group of symbols forming a word, were developed, and they also represented objects. Now that realities had led to symbols, the symbols, from oral traditions, had phonic expressions—langu
ages.

  An example of the evolution from a counting reality to a word is described and will be present throughout this book. When you read thirty, think about thirty being three tens, or in Ireland five thousand years ago, three was a zigzagzig, or three angles, and ten was an upside-down U shape. A four-angled zigzag and an upside-down U was forty. Symbols and numbers existed five thousand years ago, before alphabets.

  What was below were locations. What was above were celestial bodies, symbolized as

  Before 4000 BCE sailing was required to reach Ireland, and by 3200 BCE symbols were being etched on stones in Ireland. The seafarers left symbols for those who came later to describe why and how they went to Ireland. In time, Ireland became symbolized as the harp, the shamrock, and gold.

  The emphasis was to connect life and water to understand what life on the water was like in 3200 BCE, specifically in Ireland. Symbols were generated as part of the developing communication to describe what was above and below. This was needed if critical navigation information was to transcend traditional oral communications.

  Symbols were created and combined, and their meanings evolved over time. By taking a seafarer’s perspective, the Irish symbols can be decoded. The purpose of this book is to decode the Irish symbols from three data sources:

  •the actual symbols etched in the stones of Ireland,

  •the passageway/chamber designs of the Irish mounds,

  •and the mound configurations in Ireland containing the world’s greatest collection of etched stones.

  Symbols were inscribed by the seafarers to record key observations and events.

  Over time, the reality of these observations and events becomes myth, math, metaphor, and music. By taking a seafaring view, I hope to help you, the reader, understand the reality behind the symbols. The following seafaring questions will run as themes throughout:

  A Seafarer’s Perspective

  Where am I?

  Where am I going? Ireland

  Why am I going?

  How will I get there?

  How long will it take?

  Will I, or someone, return?

  The last question is the reason to create symbols and to make the effort to etch them on stones.

  Section 1: The Seafarer’s Trip

  The seafarer was looking for valuable metal rocks, gold, copper, and silver. Rocks of ages past became known as the Stone Age, the Copper (Chalcolithic) Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. There were reasons why these ages were so defined.

  The seafarer sailed from some harbor location and went to another harbor location, where the foods of life were obtained or grown. The boats carried jars and pottery containing water, food, and seeds for the growing process. They created their own gardens of Eden.

  All peoples, tribes, and invaders who came to Ireland arrived on boats. Those who departed Ireland also left on boats. This is a simple statement, but it has significance in understanding the symbols designed or replicated from past experiences.

  The Golden Rule for metals is very simple: he who has gold rules. The golden rulers influenced the seafaring capability by the rulers’ desire to “follow the sun” for gold and copper. Primarily, civilizations matured based on how their cultures utilized metal rocks to sustain their dominance. The seafarers were needed to find new locations of valuable metals.

  The purpose of Section 1 will be to answer: What were the seafarers looking for? Where were the seafarers searching? Who were the seafarers who got to Ireland? Why did the seafarers sail the world? It is important to note that symbols were coded from 3200 BCE to 2500 BCE by the seafarers on logbooks, or stones, at that time and even earlier.

  Section 2: The Seafarer’s Language: Symbols, Tools, and Stars

  Section 2 will address the basic Irish symbols, the tools needed by the seafarer to navigate the oceans, and the celestial bodies used for navigation. The seafarer needs information on his or her location, latitude and longitude, and the location to which he or she is headed.

  From a seafarer’s perspective, the basic Irish symbols are defined. The combination of these symbols and the rotation around an axis of these symbols are described. To decode the symbols, the seafarer must to be able to count, to measure angles, and to notice the rotation of the angles.

  The seafarer’s tools for navigation in 3200 BCE have not changed from then until today. The seafarer’s tools are devices to count and measure angles, maps, clocks to measure time, logbooks, and, of course, boats. In essence, they needed a GPS—global positioning device. The seafarer’s GPS in 3200 BCE will be described.

  The key celestial bodies were used by the seafarers to determine a location’s position around 3200 BCE. They include the sun, the moon, Venus, the polestars, Thuban and Canopus, the Northern Cross, and the navigation triangle. Emphasis will be on the symbols used to represent each celestial body and their use for calculating position and time.

  Section 3: The Seafarer’s Decoding of Irish Stones and Mounds

  Based on coding structures in Section 2, the symbols embedded in the stones and mounds of Ireland will be decoded. An example of a stone having multiple symbols is kerbstone K67, found at Newgrange (see Figure I-2). K67 has significant seafaring information etched on it and will be decoded.

  Figure I-2: Kerbstone K67 with spirals, diamonds, and zigzags found at Newgrange Mound, Ireland

  Figure I-3: Newgrange Mound with white quartz siding in Ireland

  Ireland has the greatest collection of kerbstones in the world. Many people find it fascinating to observe the kerbstones and contemplate their meaning. However, it is even more exciting to be able to decode the symbols, for it gives new insights into the practical uses of the symbols. The kerbstones are usually found surrounding carefully constructed mounds that have passageways. The Boyne Valley mounds of Dowth, Knowth, and Newgrange, Figure 1-3, are excellent examples of these mounds.

  The Irish mounds were designed as strategic places for many functions. The mounds were houses of life with activities concerning navigation, astronomy, healing, and storage. A dry, secure location was needed for the storage of grains and trading commodities. The seafarers needed a place to discuss the next trip and to create and store information on the suppliers and customers. They wrote on the kerbstones. These mounds became a repository of kerbstones and had specific designs for their shapes and their passageways. The locations of the mounds were in the gardens of Eden.

  The design structure of the Irish mounds contains significant seafaring information and can be decoded. The decoding structure is meaningful but gains value when used elsewhere. The seafarers traveled the trade routes for gold and copper. The Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages indicate that major metal trade routes existed. The seafarers would leave similar symbols wherever they went. They had a common language, as will be shown in Section 4.

  Section 4: The Seafarer’s Trip from Ireland to Western Europe and North America

  Section 4 decodes the immediate trading route locations from Ireland.

  The following facts about ancient Ireland are quite clear: 1) Ireland has many intersections of freshwater rivers flowing into bays leading to the oceans. 2) All visitors came by boat and, thus, were seafarers. 3) Irish antiquarians called these visitors “invaders” for a reason. Invaders come and they go—some stay, but where did they go?

  The Irish stones indicate that the seafarers left Ireland and sailed in all directions: north, east, south, and even west. The immediate harbors were in Scotland, the Orkney Islands, Wales, England, Brittany, and Spain. The symbols and mounds will be decoded using the decoding scheme from Section 3. The locations represent the metal trade routes from Ireland to the Strait of Gibraltar.

  The seafarers who left Ireland also went west from Ireland in the pursuit of gold and copper. If used by these seafarers, the Irish symbols, having a navigation orientation, should be observed in the harbors and gardens in North America, the otherworld. The decoding will summarize at a high (but simple) level the two major trade routes i
n North America and show that the symbols on the stones and the mound designs in North America had the same meaning. The seafarers arrived around 3500 BCE in North America, but they were highly active from 2500 to 1000 BCE. Their selected harbors would feature the copper trade routes.

  The robustness of the code they used is impressive. The seafarers left common symbols on stones and mound designs. Eventually, the alphabetic names associated with the metal trade routes had the same roots and phonetic sounds. The customer, supplier, storage, and gardens of Eden all had similar symbols, mound designs, and phonetic name structures.

  Section 5: The Seafarer’s Actual Logbook of the Penultimate Trip

  The penultimate seafaring trip will be described: from the Isle of Meroe in the Nubian Desert, to the Isle Royale, Northern Michigan, and returning to the Isle of Meroe via Ireland in 2500 BCE. Section 5 will decode the actual stone logbook of this trip.

  This trip was taken and was kept secret. Reality became myth, math, metaphor, and music. To travel we needed a plan—a purpose. Going back forty-five hundred years required some imagination, but it also required a mind-set to interpret the data. From a seafarer’s perspective, the trip logbook exists, and the navigation information was recorded in stone by the pharaoh’s scribes in 2415 BCE!

  Because this trip did occur, many times, one has to try to imagine how. This book will decode the symbols, demonstrate the celestial structure of the mounds, and describe the penultimate trip for gold and copper.

  Throughout this book, the seafarers will be traveling in waterways from around the Nile River, the Iberian Peninsula, Brittany, and Ireland. Today, we would refer to these locations as Egypt, Spain, Portugal, France, and the British Isles. It is safe to say that the seafarers were not of these cultures.

  Five appendices are available for the reader’s reflection on how the reality became myth, math, metaphor, and music:

  A seafarer’s checklist required the ability to count and to measure angles. The seafarer was an expert in celestial navigation. Keep in mind the basic symbols, the combination of the symbols, and the rotation of the symbols. In all of the figures in this book, please study them for counting and angles. Decoding can only occur if counting and angles are the primary mind-set of the observer. Only then can you connect the dots, decode, and understand the truths listed below: