LexiLine Journal #20 - 2002 : Southern Pleiades - Mulfra Quoit in Cornwall

Welcome!

.

In the course of creating http://www.megaliths.net and related sites my attention fell on

THE MULFRA QUOIT in CORNWALL

which I previously identified in my LexiLine postings as having megaliths representing CENTAURUS - the left stars (kappa, eta, chi, etc.) and LUPUS - the central stars (alpha, beta, etc.)

As I have now discovered, MULfra = Southern Pleiades, much as the similarly named MUL.MUL were the northern Pleiades in ancient Mesopotamia.

Richard Hinckley Allen in Star Names, Dover Publications, N.Y. 1997, reports of ancient legends that the southern stars were initially created by ancient seafarers to approximate the shape of Northern constellations in similar positions. Allen writes (p. 436) as follows:

********** start quoted material **********

"Before the observations of the navigators of the 15th and 16th
centuries the singular belief prevailed that the southern heavens
contained a constellation near the pole similar to our Bear or Wain;
indeed it is said to have been represented on an early map or globe.
Manilus wrote:

'The lower Pole resemblance bears To this Above, and shines with
equal stars; With Bears averse, round which the Draco twines;'

and Al Biruni repeated the Sanskrit legend that at one time in the
history of the Creation an attempt was made by Visvamitra [Latvian
vis- "all" plus mitra as in meter "measure(r)"] to form a southern
heavenly home for the body of the dead king, the pious Somadatta;
and this work was not abandoned till a southern pole and another
Bear had been located in positions corresponding to the northern,
this pole passing through the island Lunka, or Vadavamukha (Ceylon).
[AK: not Ceylon but Boötes is intended since Vadava-mukha is
comparable to Latvian Vadava Muizha "house of Vadav (IMO the starry
messenger, which is Boötes.]] The Anglo-Saxon Manual made distinct
mention of this duplicate constellation 'which we can never see.'...

And, quoting from Francisco Lopes of 1552: [AK: the spelling is
original!]
'Abowt the poynt of the Southe or pole Antartike, they sawe a lyttle
whyte cloude and foure stars lyke unto a crosse with three other
joynynge thereunto, which resemble oure Septentrion, and are judged
to bee the signes or tokens of the south exeltree of heaven.'

What is referred to here is not known, for although the figure
represented is that of the Southern Cross this constellation always
is upright when on the meridian, and, as the observation was made in
latitude 14° or 15°, its base star was plainly visible."

********** end quoted material **********

MULFRA solves the issue of how the ancients mapped the southern skies on the basis of Northern constellational models.

The Mulfra Quoit represents the stars at the left of the Centaur, Centaurus, as well as
the central stars of the constellation Lupus below them at their hermetic earthly location in Penwith, Cornwall. This is actually the position at which Lupus and Centaurus "join".

MUL.MUL was an ancient Mesopotamian name for the northern Pleiades, so that MULFRA (MUL plus FRA) - for ancient heavenly chartmakers - represented that portion of the sky in the southern hemisphere seen as the "southern Pleiades" - due to their similar form to the northern Pleiades. To see that similar form see http://www.megaliths.net/mulfra.htm

Such "southern Pleiades" are supported in Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names, Dover Publications, N.Y., 1963, ISBN 0-486-21079-0, p. 104, where the position of MUFRID is disputed in Boötes, but of course, we now see that it applied to Centaurus and Lupus directly
below it, so that MULFRA = MUFRID.

This puts the Southern Pleiades exactly opposite, 180 degrees from the Northern Pleiades.

Similarly, then, Triangulum Australis (the Southern Triangle) corresponds to the northern Triangulum across the way.

The Wain of the North, Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper, then finds its comparable in HORologium, and the Sanskrit legend noted by Allen identifies the King Visvamitra as KING HOR-AHA viz. KING ORRY viz. KING ARTHUR, who as we have reported at
http://www.megaliths.net/walesagt.htm was buried on the Isle of Man, which represents Corona Australis, i.e. Crown (King) of the Southern Skies. This too fits the legend of Somadatta.

In theory, the major constellations of the southern skies had their comparable models in the northern skies. We will examine this issue further in a future e-mail.