The 2009 Triple Conjunction
Postscript to my article ‘The Triple Conjunction of Jupiter Neptune and Chiron’
in The Astrological Journal Vol 51.6 November/December 2009
by Phoebe Wyss
(Note by Melanie, December 2013 ... the ransacking of Timbuktu. Click here)
The BBC news on 30th November 2009 reported the opening of a high-tech library in Timbuktu to house and preserve some of the thousands of ancient manuscripts that have come to light in the area. Their existence has long been known, but their vast extent and antiquity was not generally appreciated. It is now thought that 300,000-700,000 manuscripts have lain hidden there for centuries.
Timbutktu, situated in Mali on the crossing of ancient trade routes at the edge of the Sahara, has been a centre of learning for millenia. One of the world’s first universities was founded here. While libraries were being destroyed by war and religious intolerance in other centres of learning further north, a vast collection of books was preserved at this remote desert site. Some were buried underground, while others were hidden in desert caves where many remain today.
However, during the colonial period, when manuscripts were being removed to European museums, the local people hid their collections in private houses in the town and outlying villages. There they were kept as family secrets until the present day when their threatened disintegration due to the lack of proper care required modern preservation methods. Most of the manuscripts are in Arabic and date from the Muslim period, but hundreds, maybe thousands, are written in Greek and so date from pre-Islamic times (the Muslim conquerors introduced Arabic into their dominions outlawing Greek in the 7th century.)
Historians say the discovery of these manuscripts will “force the West to accept Africa has an intellectual history as old as its own.” But it could also shed light on the origins of Europe’s own cultural history if copies of Christian apocryphal gospels come to light and classical works from the ancient pre-Christian world. Books have been found on mathematics, music, medicine and astronomy/astrology (see illustration below) that could be copies of very ancient works going back to the Pythagoreans – works thought lost forever in the fire that destroyed the library of Alexandria. No wonder the experts are drawing comparisons with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls!
Example of astrological diagrams from a Timbuktu manuscript
The Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in 1945 – the last occasion when Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron formed a triple conjunction. When the present triple conjunction started to build in April 2009 the construction of the high-tech library in Timbuktu was finished. In May, during the conjunction’s first exactitude, there was an exhibition of Timbuktu manuscripts in New York. And now, during its final exactitude, the library has been opened to the public bringing the existence of this treasure trove to the world’s attention. As I wrote in my article ‘The Triple Conjunction of Jupiter Neptune and Chiron’* we can expect the re-emergence of ancient wisdom at this time, which will bring spiritual inspiration and renewal in a period of great suffering.
*Read it in The Astrological Journal Vol. 51.6 and on my website www.astrophoebe.com
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Postscript from Melanie, 2013:
With the extraordinary violence going on in this very area, Timbuktu became a major focus of destruction. An international team of local people and others risked their lives to organise an astonishing "rescue-and-hide" operation, taking as many as possible of these ancient manuscripts out of the main archive building, and back into the safe-keeping of their time-honoured custodianship within families dedicated to this task. They travelled in convoys of individual taxis, private cars, boats, and any other form of transport which would attract the least amount of attention from the military activities.
Click here to read an article about this extraordinary process ...
