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by Gary A. David
2004
Originally published under the title "Secrets of the Round Towers"
in Atlantis Rising magazine, Issue 46
from
TheOrionZone Website
Round Towers Around the Globe
Like pyramids, circular towers of stone are found on both sides of
the Atlantic. The common figure linking these structures, however,
proves to be the serpent or snake. Cultures as diverse as
the Celts of Ireland and
the Hopi of Arizona associate this
religiously and psychologically charged reptile with round temples
reaching toward moisture-laden storm clouds.
Over 65 towers of exquisite masonry, many rising over 100 feet high,
dot the green countryside of Ireland. The monasteries of
Monasterboice, Domhnach, and Kilkenny were all
built adjacent to earlier round towers. Some researchers claim these
commanding structures were fire temples dedicated to sun worship.
Why, then, are round towers frequently located next to healing
springs or holy wells issuing from the subterranean realm over which
the snake rules?
The round temple was a key architectural feature of the Knights
Templar, which eventually gave rise to both the Rosicrucians and the
Freemasons. In
Sacred Geometry (1982), Nigel Pennick explains the
symbolism of the circular form:
“Like the Pagan temples, the round
churches were microcosms of the world. In the late Middle Ages,
they became the prerogative of an enigmatic and heretical sect,
the Knights Templar. The round form of church became especially
connected with the order...”
Most of Europe’s Gothic cathedrals were
constructed using designs uncovered by this fraternal organization
in a 12th century excavation of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Some believe that a group of Knights Templar sailed to the New
England coast in 1308 and erected a Romanesque round tower at
Newport, Rhode Island.
Round tower at
Newport, RI
Even earlier the Phoenicians may have
spread this unique architectural feature globally in homage to Baal,
the fertility deity of rain, thunder, and lightning. In Jesus, Last
of the Pharaohs (1999), Ralph Ellis avers that round towers were
modeled after the Egyptian Benben tower located in the Phoenix
Temple at Heliopolis. (The Phoenicians were named after the mythical
bird that rose from its ashes.)
Morphologically similar to round
towers, the djed pillar was known as the “backbone of Osiris.” This
column symbolically channeled kundalini (serpent energy) up the
vertebra.
Egyptian djed pillar,
anthropomorphized
Over 7,000 circular towers called
Nuraghi from the second millennium BC are found on the island of
Sardinia north of the ancient Phoenician city of Carthage
(modern-day Tunis). In addition, Graham Hancock (Underworld, 2002)
reminds us that the Gigantija, or Giants’ Tower, was constructed on
the Maltese island of Gozo a millennium before the Great Pyramid.
Its elliptical chambers at one time possibly supported towers. A
stone relief discovered at the site depicts a serpent.
Gigantija
Perhaps serving as a model for the minaret,
the Radkan Tower in northeastern
Iran is circular with a conical cap. Archeoastronomer Manochehr
Arian (Zia) has found solstice and equinox alignments for this
structure, suggesting a sophisticated observation of the sky going
back 800 years or more.
Moving from the Near to the Far East, we can easily see how the
Indian stupa or the Chinese pagoda is another form of the round
tower. According to the principles of feng shui, the pagoda traps
negative ch’i, or dragon energy located in the earth. This belief
stems from the popular legend of the celestial Lady White Snake, who
enchanted a mortal with her beauty and gave birth to his son. A monk
eventually discovered her true nature and summoned the elemental
powers to imprison her inside Thunder Pagoda for a thousand years.
Stupa with snake-like
Brick pagoda, Kaiyuan, China
ornamentation on top
The Serpent and the Circle
In a Christian context the serpent signifies the Devil and his
minions who were “...cast out into the earth...” (Revelation 12:9).
Andrew Collins' book
From the Ashes of Angels (2001) refers to the
Testament of Amram, an apocalyptic fragment from the Dead Sea
Scrolls. Amram, the father of Moses, perceives in a dream
a Watcher
called Belial. This creature is “terrifying in appearance, like a
serpent...” and “his visage [is] like a viper (below images)...” As an appellation
of Satan, the name Belial from II Corinthians 6:15 suggests a figure
who is lawless, worthless, or reckless.
 
The word “serpent,” Collins adds, is
synonymous with both the Watchers found in the
Book of Enoch and
the Nephilim. The latter denotes the “giants in the earth” from Genesis
6:4.
Omphalos at Delphi in
Greece Ouroboros
Codex Marcianus, 11th century AD
Contrary to the Latinate cross representing the body of Christ, a
circular structure stands for the worldly or even the satanic
domain. For instance, the omphalos, a Greek word meaning “navel,” is
the oracular Stone of Splendor at Delphi. This sacred center where
tellurian serpent forces would accumulate had the ability to
directly communicate with the gods.
The figures of the serpent and the circle are united in a Gnostic
and alchemical symbol called the Ouroboros. This serpent biting its
tail designates world-creating spirit hidden within matter.
Round Towers in the Four
Corners
Numerous round towers built by the Anasazi (or
ancestral Hopi) can
still be found in the American Southwest. At the Chetro Ketl pueblo
ruin in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, a round “tower kiva” rises three
stories high. Circular towers at Kin Kletso and Tsin Kletsin in the
same canyon are also found. The outlying villages of Salmon Ruin 40
miles due north and Kin Ya’a Ruin 25 miles due south contain similar
structures.
Tower kiva at Chetro
Ketl, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
Round towers are located as well at the
spectacular cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park of
southwestern Colorado. These include Cliff Palace, Sun Temple, Cedar
Tree Tower, and Far View Community. The Cajon Group at Hovenweep
National Monument in southeastern Utah also exemplifies this type of
ceremonial structure. Circular buildings are found at Mummy Cave
Ruin in Canyon de Chelly National Monument and at Wukoki Ruin at
Wupatki National Monument. Both of these sites located in Arizona
are traditional homes of the Snake Clan.
Incidentally, the astronomical orientations of Wukoki Ruin are akin
to those of the circular Caracol observatory at Chichén Itzá built
three hundred years earlier by the Yucatan Maya, who worshipped the
plumed serpent Kukulkan, and who share many cultural traits with the
Hopi. Wukoki is also a former house of the Snake Clan.
Caracol observatory
at Chichen Itzá, Yucatan, Mexico
The Hopi refer to round towers as “snake
houses.” In a narrative describing the origin of the Snake Clan, the
wife of the culture hero Tiyo gives birth to a brood of venomous
snakes, which keeps getting loose. Masau’u (Hopi god of death, the
earth, and the Underworld-- also spelled Masau or Masaw) explains to
the snake mother why her children no longer can have a house in
which to live.
“And Masau said, ‘No, the snakes
have no houses; because they have bitten and killed Hopi they
should never again have a house, but should live under rocks and
in holes in the ground.’ But he also said the snakes houses (the
round towers) which were built for them should never again be
destroyed and that all coming generations of people should know
the snake’s doom, never again to have a house.”
Alexander M. Stephen
“The Journal of American
Folklore,” January/March 1929
We are obviously talking not about
rattlesnake pens but either the temples or domiciles of a dangerous,
snake-like race. The same Hopi myth concludes with an offering to
the recovered snakes:
“When the snakes were all collected
and they were gathered together at night, they took the first
snake they had found and washed its head and gave it the name
Chüa (he of the earth) and decorated it with beads and ear
rings. Then the Youth [Tiyo] opened a bag and gave the people
cotton and beads and said as the snakes had brought rain the
people should now be happy and content, and on every celebration
of the Snake festival good things would be given to them.”
Chüa is the Hopi name of the worshipped
snake that initiated their biennial rain ceremony still performed on
the Arizona high desert. This name is similar to “Chna,” an English
transliteration of the Greek word referring to the Phoenician land
of Canaan. The biblical Anakim were known to have hailed from
southern Canaan.
Andrew Collins also states that the Nephilim were called the sons of
the Anakim, and that Jewish scholars translate the word Anak as
“long-necked” or “the men with the necklaces.”
The Hopi offerings of
earrings and necklaces are particularly significant because the Hopi
term naaqa means “turquoise necklace” or “ear pendant ” and
anaaq
means “ouch!", an interjection used to express the extreme pain
caused by snakebite.
In addition, Baal, the Phoenician rain god mentioned above, is
similar in sound and sense to the Hopi word paal. (Because the Hopi
have no “b’” sound, “p” is the closest approximation.) This word
means “liquid,” “tree sap,” “juice,” or “broth.” Its root word pa
(or paa) denotes “water,” but it also has the sense of “wonder.”
The Hopi legend previously cited may point to the
Indo-European Nagas, those snake worshipping seafarers originating from the Indus
River Valley. They are also known as the Long Ears, who stretched
their lobes with earplugs. Coincidentally, archaeologists found an
example of this artifact in an ancient pueblo ruin known as Snaketown near modern-day Phoenix.
Templar Testament
Did the Phoenicians, who might have assisted the earliest Anasazi in
building the round towers, come to the American Southwest and
establish outposts in order to trade with the latter? Were the
Knights Templar the recipients of this Naga/Phoenician legacy,
carrying forth the ancient traditions bequeathed from Egypt? Do
these structures form a global network centered around ophidian
fertility symbols? To return to our starting point, were the Irish
round towers also “snake houses,” or phallic temples used by a race
of serpent people whom St. Patrick in the 5th century AD ultimately
had to chase into the sea?
Perhaps we are uncovering more questions than answers. Nonetheless,
round towers survive as a testament to the awesome spiritual power
of the Knights of the Round Temple. Their serpentine eyes gaze
across the centuries, now and then sending a shiver up the spine.
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