ARE WE LIVING INSIDE THE EARTH?

LEGENDS OF THE FIRMAMENT AND OTHER DISCREDITED REALITIES

By ANDREW GOUGH

May 2023

The audacious suggestion that intelligent life exists inside the Earth inevitably provokes a raised eyebrow and a muffled chortle amongst the uninitiated. Nevertheless, the evidence intimates that the supposition is far more credible than it first appears. However, what if the notion of advanced life forms thriving inside the Earth was only part of the delusional reality of our world? What if we are living on the inside of a larger realm?

An open, challenging and sceptical mind is essential to initiating the process of decommissioning the psychological disinformation that has been systematically disseminated into our psyche since birth. As we venture into unconventional schemes of reality, the truth may seem stranger than fiction. Stay with me! Before we delve into the notion that we may be living inside the Earth, we will review the hollow Earth that allegedly exists beneath our own world. Buckle up. You may want to review my previous work on the hollow Earth before continuing.

A depiction of the inner Earth from William R Bradshaw’s 1892 science-fiction novel, The Goddess of Atvatabar

 

Legends of the Hollow Earth

Nearly every culture recalls legends of civilisations that exist beneath the casing of our world. Enthusiasts of ‘inner Earth’ theories are familiar with popular traditions such as Agartha, Shamballa and Saint Martin’s Land. There are, however, literally dozens of others.  Why are these accounts not taught in school? Silly question. To even discuss them is to be ostracised by academia, colleagues, friends and family. These subjects, while not entirely censored, are relegated to the domain of fiction and wild conspiracy theories. They are a no-go zone, and this is truer today than ever before.

Dr Heinrich Kusch, an Austrian archaeologist, speleologist and author specialising in prehistory, has written some profoundly insightful books on the inner Earth in recent years. Sadly, they are currently out of print and have never been translated into English. Is Dr Kusch being censored? It would appear so, for his impeccably documented findings propose that trade with the inner Earth people was both real and widely practised up until the end of the sixteenth century, when humans violated their trade agreement with the people of the inner Earth. Tunnels were sealed, and churches, and later monasteries, were built over the entrances. To support his hypothesis Dr Kusch provides authentic written accounts of inter-terrestrial conflict, artefacts over fifty thousand years old, and archaeological validation of many of the alleged entrance sites across his home country of Austria, and beyond. Disappointingly, it appears that his discoveries have proven too controversial, and his work has been all but muted.

Dr Heinrich Kusch exploring an underground passage

 

It is easy to forget that before the onslaught of academic censorship, peer review shaming and big pharmaceutical-funded ‘science’, the world’s most esteemed thought leaders unabashedly debated their inner Earth theories. Edmond Halley (1656 – 1742), the English mathematician, physicist and astronomer who influenced many of the scientific advancements of the eighteenth century, proposed a hollow Earth consisting of a shell five hundred miles thick, two inner concentric shells and an innermost core. He envisaged each inner region as having an atmosphere and being luminous – and possibly inhabited. Halley was such a respected thought leader that they named a comet after him.

Leonhard Euler (1707 – 1783), a Swiss mathematician, physicist and astronomer, maintained a theory on the hollow Earth that lacked the concentric spheres of Halley’s theory, but added the element of an interior sun. And Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 – 1855), the German mathematician and physicist known as the ‘the greatest mathematician since antiquity’, worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner and outer sources of the Earth’s magnetic field, and theorised that the Earth’s history and geography can be explained by the Earth being a hollow planet with access at the poles.

However, it was Cyrus Reed Teed (1839 – 1908), a physician and alchemist who got me thinking. He proposed a ‘cellular cosmology’ that placed the entire universe inside a shell. Teed created the rectilineator, a device that measured the curvature of the Earth, and his body of work became known as Koreshanity. The Nazis were intrigued with his theories and studied his findings in detail. They were especially intrigued that Teed believed we were living on one of many layers of existence inside the hollow Earth, looking up at the universe, which itself was an illusion created by a peculiar solar mechanism. He preached:

To know of the Earth’s concavity and its relation to Universal form, is to know God; but to believe in the Earth’s convexity (that is, living on the Earth’s outside surface) is to deny God.

Teed added that the Earth does not rotate around the Sun, but rather the Sun is a giant battery-operated contraption, and the stars are mere refractions of its light. Teed’s insistence that we are not living on the outside of the Earth seemed incredible but inspired me to look deeper, and my research led me to the firmament, an ancient construct so fascinating that it would alter my worldview forever.

Dr Cyrus R Teed, alias Koresh

 

Reports of the Firmament in Antiquity

The word firmament comes from Latin, firmamentum, meaning a firm object, and is a prominent construct in the creation myths of antiquity. Websters defines it as ‘the vault or arch of the sky’, but its context is most frequently tied to biblical cosmology, where it is known as the vast solid dome created by God on the second day of creation. Its purpose, we are told, is to insulate our dry world on Earth from the primal waters beyond.

The Sun, planets and angels, and the firmament. Woodcut dated 1475

 

The Book of Genesis, from the Geneva Bible (circa 1560), which preceded the King James Version by half a century, provides a clear and unambiguous explanation of the firmament. Not only is the firmament where heaven resides, but the Sun, Moon and planets are embedded within it:

Genesis 1:6

Again God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters: and let it separate the waters from the waters

Genesis 1:7

Then God made the firmament, and separated the waters, which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so

Genesis 1:8

And God called the firmament Heaven

Genesis 1:14

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years

Genesis 1:15

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the Earth: and it was so

Genesis 1:16

God then made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made also the stars

Genesis 1:17

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to shine upon the Earth

The Geneva Bible, 1560 edition

The Hebrew model of the firmament is known as the Raqia, a construct that shields the Earth from the Tehom, or the cosmic ocean above, also known as the ‘Great Deep’. As with the Book of Genesis, the Hebrew account places the chambers of heaven within the firmament, along with the Sun, Moon and stars. It also includes the concept of portals, windows into and apparently beyond the firmament. Further still, it introduces the notion of the Sheol, where souls go, righteous or not, after death. The Sheol exists within the pillars of the Earth – a model that we will encounter again.

Early Hebrew concept of the firmament; the Sheol and Tehom are also depicted

 

Similarly, the Book of Job, which scholars believe was written between the seventh and fourth centuries BCE, and may be older than the Torah, does not explicitly mention the firmament, but does refer to something very similar when it states:

Can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?

Islam also speaks of the firmament, and while the word appears in the Quran just nine times, there are over three hundred references to the words ‘sky’ or ‘heavens’. Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1872 – 1953), an Indian-British barrister who wrote several books about Islam, including a highly respected interpretation of the Quran, was one of the first translators who substituted the word ‘firmament’ for ‘heaven’. In doing so, Yusuf Ali lifted the veil and placed the firmament in a more precise cosmological context. Some examples include the following:

Quran verse 2:29 tells us there are seven layers of firmament:

He gave order and perfection to the seven firmaments; and of all things He hath perfect knowledge.

Quran verse 55:7 tells us the firmament was constructed ‘high’:

And the firmament has He raised high

Quran verse 51:47 tells us that the firmament is strong and impenetrable – a fact that, as we shall soon see, modern science has recently confirmed:

And the firmament We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] Expanders.

Quran verse 55:7-8 reinforces the strength of the firmament and tells us that it cannot be penetrated (transgressed):

And the heaven He has raised high, and He has set up the Balance, in order that you may not transgress the balance

Quran verse 41:9-12 implies that stars/planets/moons are contained within the firmament:

…Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the Earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient. Then He ordained them seven heavens in two days and inspired in each heaven its mandate; and We decked the nether heaven with lamps, and rendered it inviolable. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Knower.

Further, the Quran states that the lower firmament is filled with stars, to protect against shaitans (evil spirits) that are chased off by a flame.

Quran verse 41:12 adds:

And We adorned the lower heaven with brilliant stars and to guard; that is the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing.

Clearly, the firmament is associated with an extremely strong structure that was created by Allah on the second day of creation. It is associated with heaven and contains stars, or in this case, ‘lights’. What is especially intriguing is that the Quran suggests that there are not only seven firmaments above us, but a similar number here on Earth. Yusuf Ali’s translation of the Quran, verse 65:12 confirms:

Allah is He Who created seven firmaments and of the Earth a similar number. Through the midst of them (all) descends His Command: that ye may know that Allah has power over all things, and that Allah comprehends, all things in (His) Knowledge.

The description of the firmament in the Quran is fascinating and alludes to the ‘windows’ or ‘portals’ that the Hebrew model identifies. Specifically, the Quran makes multiple references to the firmament breaking open, thus confirming that it is a solid dome-like structure in the first place. Take, for instance, Quran verse 42.5 (‘rend asunder’ meaning to break apart):

The heavens may almost rend asunder from above them and the angels sing the praise of their Lord

A depiction of the ancient Islamic world view

 

It is not only the conventional creation myths that reference the firmament, but older accounts do as well. The Enūma Eliš is the primary source for Mesopotamian cosmology (circa 1750 BCE), and includes many parallels with passages of the Book of Genesis, including:

• a watery chaos before creation
• separation of the chaos into heaven and Earth
• different types of waters and their separation from each other
• the creation of stars, Sun, Moon and planets within the firmament.

Some have speculated that the Babylonian Tower of Babel was a construct built to study and honour the firmament, as its description mirrors the ziggurats dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk in Babylon. Intriguingly, a Babylonian clay tablet (now in the British Museum) shows a depiction of the known world in the sixth century BCE and describes the creation of the world by Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, who divided the primaeval ocean and created land and sea. Sounds a lot like the firmament. Further, Dagan was the creator figure known as the ‘father of gods’ and was worshipped across the Euphrates, the very region that is highlighted on the tablet. He is depicted as a half-human, half-fish deity – a creature well-appointed to thriving in the water-based firmament. It is especially interesting to note the synergy between the seven tablets of the Enūma Eliš, the seven days of Creation in the Book of Genesis, and the seven layers of the firmament in the Quran.

Does the Babylonian world map depict the firmament?

 

The Nebra sky disc was discovered by metal detectorists in Germany, and is even older than the Babylonian world map. I had an opportunity to examine the fascinating artefact during its exhibition at the British museum in 2022.  If the Nebra sky disc dates to the Bronze Age (3300 BCE to 1200 BCE) as scholars believe, then it is the oldest depiction of the cosmos yet discovered. Its circular, outer casing has been lost, but can easily be envisaged. The question is, does it depict the firmament? Do the circular elements within it represent the realms that it covers? This notion is speculative, no doubt, and thus we will continue with this idea in the back of our minds.

The Nebra sky disc

 

Another intriguing reference to the firmament can be found in the Book of Enoch, an ancient Hebrew religious text ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. The book is thought to date to circa 300 BCE, and speaks to the origins of demons and Nephilim, angels who fell from heaven, and why the flood of Genesis was morally necessary. Chapter 18 contains two alluring references to Enoch’s encounter with the firmament:

Enoch 18:1

I saw the treasuries of all the winds: I saw how He had furnished with them the whole creation and the firm foundations of the Earth.

2. And I saw the corner-stone of the Earth: I saw the four winds which bear [the Earth and] the firmament of the heaven?

Enoch 18:5

…I saw at the end of the Earth the firmament of the heaven above

Enoch 23:1-4

From thence I went to another place to the west of the ends of the Earth. And I saw a burning fire which ran without resting, and paused not from its course day or night but (ran) regularly. And I asked saying: ‘What is this which rests not?’ Then Raguel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered me and said unto me: ‘This course of fire which you have seen is the fire in the west which persecutes all the luminaries of heaven’.

Did Enoch encounter a place on Earth where the firmament meets the Earth? What did he mean when he said, “I saw the corner-stone of the Earth”? And is the fire he mentions one and the same with what the Quran states is present when the lower level of the firmament is violated? The answers to these questions are not clear, but the references to the firmament most certainly are.

The Flammarion engraving (1888): “A mediaeval missionary tells that he has found the point where heaven and Earth meet…”. The artist is unknown, and the image may represent Enoch’s journey.

 

Freemasonry and the Firmament

I joined the Freemasons shortly after moving to London in 1997. My hope was to experience their rituals and learn as much as I could about their secrets. I progressed through Craft Freemasonry (Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason) and advanced to other degrees, such as Royal Arch, Royal Mark Mariner and Chapter. I was fascinated by the rituals and their respective regalia, which seemed to represent an arcane view of ancient cosmology. On reflection, it appears that the symbolism I found so captivating may represent the firmament. I visited the Museum of Freemasonry in London’s United Grand Lodge to confirm my suspicions. I was not disappointed.

United Grand Lodge of England, London © Andrew Gough

 

I examined the museum’s tracing boards, the painted illustrations that depict the various emblems and symbols of Freemasonry and which are used as teaching aids during the initiation rituals.

Masonic tracing board © Andrew Gough

 

The museum’s First-Degree tracing board featured pillars and stairs that reached up to the sky, like Jacob’s Ladder, with the Sun, Moon and stars contained in an enclosure, and a chequered floor representing the surface of the Earth. “Interesting,” I thought. “Pillars were also featured in the ancient Hebrew model of the cosmos.” However, it was the masonic aprons that seemed to be the surest representation of the firmament.

© Andrew Gough

 

© Andrew Gough

 

Masonic aprons. Do they represent the firmament? © Andrew Gough

 

What intrigued me most about the masonic aprons is that they portray a structural element that separates the realm above, which includes an all-seeing eye, from the realm below, which contains pillars, Sun, Moon, stars, and other masonic symbols. Like the Genesis, Hebrew and Quran models, God and heaven exist in or above the firmament or, in this case, the Masonic all-seeing eye. The notion that the masonic apron represents the firmament that insulates Earth from the watery abyss beyond is titillating. To this day nobody is sure how far back the origins of Freemasonry reach. I for one believe they extend at least as far back as Mithraism, but we can only speculate. Fortunately, there are other, more concrete examples that suggest that the ‘domed’ symbolism we find on the masonic aprons portrays the firmament.

 

The Firmament in Ancient Cultures

We have witnessed how ancient texts such as the Babylonian Enūma Eliš, Book of Enoch, Book of Genesis, Book of Job, Quran, and even Freemasonry (whose origins remain unclear) speak of, or allude to, the dome structure over the Earth known as the firmament. It should come as no surprise that other ancient cultures did as well.

Ancient cultures – and Freemasonry – appear to have been aware of the firmament

 

In Hindu mythology, the god Indra is known as the King of the Immortals and Lord of the Firmament, and thunder, attributes that we find in other gods, such as the Roman God Jupiter and the Scandinavian God Thor. What else do the three have in common? Each are protectors of humankind, and what better description of the firmament?

Indra, Hindu Lord of the Firmament

 

In the Navajo tradition there are multiple references to the firmament. Here, the creator of the universe, Black God, creates the constellations one by one and places them in the firmament.  In Mayan cosmology, in the time before their gods were born, sacred lizards held the firmament up with their heads and tails. Similarly, the Incas believed that the world of the gods was in the firmament and was known as Hanan Pacha. The other worlds were made up of the Kay Pacha (earthly world) and the Uku Pacha (the world below or ‘of the dead’) – much like the Hebrew tradition. Predictably, the Catholic missionary presence consigned the Hanan Pacha to ‘heaven’. Perhaps the most captivating illustration of the firmament is Nut, the goddess of the sky, stars, cosmos, astronomy and the universe in the ancient Egyptian religion, who is portrayed arching over the Earth as a living representation of the firmament, with stars embedded within her.

The Egyptian Sky Goddess, Nut, representing the firmament with stars affixed to her body

 

Clearly, the ancients believed in the existence of a domed Earth that separates our world from the realm above. Essentially, what they are suggesting (for lack of a better description) is that we are living in a giant snow globe. And how do we feel about that?

Is the Earth a giant snow globe?

The Firmament in Modern Times

We find a possible reference to the firmament, and the structure of the Earth, in the Prague Astronomical Clock. Installed in 1410, the Prague astronomical clock is the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest still in operation. It was created by Jan Šindel (1305 – 1455), a professor of astronomy at Charles University, Prague.

Prague Astronomical Clock

 

Šindel’s maps were used by Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601), a Danish astronomer known for his precise astronomical observations. The Tychonic system displays what appears to be the firmament, covered in stars. It also states that the Earth is stationary.

The Tychonic system, surrounded by a sphere of fixed stars. The Moon and the Sun are shown orbiting the Earth, and five planets orbit the Sun.

 

While the Prague astronomical clock does not overtly suggest the presence of the firmament, it does hint at the existence of an enclosure around our continents. A closer look at its innermost element suggests a possible depiction of the Earth, and its continents, surrounded by a circular wall.

A close-up of the Prague astronomical clock’s innermost element

 

This internal element of the Prague astronomical clock resembles ancient maps of what many today term ‘the ice wall’, an alleged enclosure around the Earth’s land masses and oceans made of ice, or glaciers. For example, Alexander Gleason’s (1827 – 1909) 1892 map shows the North Pole at the centre of the planet and, at first glance, does not appear to include the South Pole. Upon closer examination we can see that the South Pole encompasses the entire outer perimeter of the planet. Is Gleason providing us with a representation of the ice wall?

Gleason’s 1892 map of the world

 

The implication of the theory is that beyond the ice wall are other continents, including (according to some) lands of legend, such as Atlantis and Lemuria. This notion sounds absurd, most would agree, but, interestingly, the most decorated military man of his era confirms that the existence of these far away continents may in fact be quite real.

Modern, popular rendering of the Earth and the other continents beyond the ice wall © Ohawhewh

 

Richard Byrd (1888 – 1957) was an American naval officer and recipient of the coveted Medal of Honor. Famously, he was also a pioneering aviator, who had been exploring the South Pole since 1928. His Antarctic expedition of 1946 – 1947 was known as Operation Highjump and may hold a clue to understanding the firmament, ice wall and the lands that may exist beyond it.

Throughout 1946 – 1947 thirteen US Navy support ships, six helicopters, six flying boats, two seaplane tenders and fifteen other aircraft were deployed in Operation Highjump, along with a team of four thousand skilled men. Shortly after the expedition Byrd shared a rather peculiar concern. Apparently, his biggest takeaway from the mission was the realisation of the fantastic speed with which the world is shrinking.

As the world shrinks, and it will continue to shrink at an ever-increasing acceleration, thus bringing these places closer, I can see a time in the future when it [Antarctica] will be very important strategically.

Antarctica is believed by many to be situated near the edge of the firmament. What did Byrd mean when he said the world is shrinking? Did he mean the firmament is contracting, the ice wall is melting (or receding), or was he referring to something else? Could his concern have had something to do with the current obsession over global warming?

Fortuitously, Byrd kept a secret diary that was only released by his son many decades after his death. Byrd’s final entry is quite enthralling:

I have seen that land beyond the pole, that center of the great unknown.

What exactly had he seen? Is he referring to the continents beyond the ice wall, or the inner Earth, which he appears to chronicle in his diary? A few years later, in a December 1954 television interview on the Longines Chronoscope television show, Byrd elaborated on his findings:

Strangely enough there is left in the world today an area as big as the United States that has not been seen by a human being and that’s beyond the pole on the other side of the South pole from Middle America. And I think it is quite astonishing that there should be an area as big as that unexplored.

Byrd’s insights are valuable and seem to corroborate ancient maps that identify lands outside the ice wall; continents that some have identified as lost civilisations of renown. Byrd was under strict orders to remain silent about what he had witnessed in Antarctica and had been repeatedly reprimanded by the United States government for his earlier disclosures to the media. Neuro-linguistic processing (NLP) practitioners would concur that when you watch him speak about the lands beyond the South Pole, his body language suggests he knows far more than he is permitted to say. You can watch Byrd’s interview here.

Byrd shifts his body and looks away when asked about the continents beyond Antarctica. Longines Chronoscope (1954)

 

Study of the Firmament in Modern Times

Do Byrd’s comments imply that Antarctica is close to the juncture where the firmament meets Earth? Or is he referring to the ice wall? Had Byrd seen the same construct that Enoch saw? We may never know. However, a clue to the magnitude of his discovery may be in the year in which Byrd conducted Operation Highjump, for this was the start of the golden age of research into the firmament, and this is confirmed by a series of declassified documents that were released in 2000. The files were intended to reveal what Russia was up to during the Cold War, but deep within the highly technical texts are references to the firmament and the efforts the Russians were expending to study it. The documents, which can be found on the CIA website under the Freedom of Information Act’s Electronic Reading Room, are illuminating and include the following:

The brightness of the firmament is measured:

Evidence that the firmament can be measured ‘down to the horizon’:

Evidence of echoes and glows in the firmament:

An analysis of the temperature of the firmament:

Contents page of a naval manual featuring the firmament:

Abstract stating the Sun is moving, not Earth, featuring the firmament:

The documents are extraordinary and provide a modern, scientific perspective on the existence of a dome structure over the Earth. According to official documents, scientists (not conspiracy theorists) have studied the structure that allegedly encloses the Earth and refer to it in the same way as the ancients did. They called it the firmament.

The 1940s, 1950s and 1960s marked the zenith of Earth exploration and witnessed the creation of organisations whose purpose was to research, protect – and conceal – various aspects of the planet we live on. Curiously, these organisations were not only created in a hurry, but in rapid succession to each other. Just what was the impetus for their urgency?

In early 1945 the United States created a secret intelligence programme called Operation Paperclip, in which more than 1,600 German scientists were incorporated into various US initiatives. The United Nations was founded shortly thereafter, in October 1945.

In the March 1947 edition of a Chilean newspaper by the name of El Mercurio, Byrd, who had just completed Operation Highjump, stated that it was imperative for the United States to initiate immediate defence measures against potentially hostile regions at either pole, and that the United States could be attacked by flying objects that could travel from pole to pole at incredible speeds. It is important to understand that Byrd was not suggesting that these ‘alien craft’ came from outer space, but rather from the North and South Poles.

Prophetically, Byrd appears to have been right, for 1947 saw a flurry of credible UFO sightings across the USA, culminating in the infamous Roswell incident during the first week of July. Just what had Operation Highjump stirred up?

Three weeks after the Roswell incident, on 26 July 1947, the United States Department of Defense was created. Two months later, in September 1947, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) followed suit. The following month the United Nations (UN) introduced their logo, which featured the Earth surrounded by a wall, with South America nearest the outer wall – but with no real depiction of Antarctica. A laurel wreath surrounds the outer wall and opens at the top. Intriguingly, in Greek Mythology, the laurel wreath is associated with Apollo – the name used in the Apollo missions to the Moon. Like the Gleason world map, the North Pole is depicted at the centre. The omission of the South Pole is consistent with the United Nations remit: to conceal and control what nations can and cannot do at the South Pole. Interestingly, other organisations use the same exact map with the same laurel wreath surrounding it, such as International Civil Aviation, International Maritime Organisation and the World Health Organisation. Do they represent a consensus of understanding that the South Pole is special, and may be one and the same with an ice wall that circumnavigates our world while concealing the presence of additional continents beyond?

The 1947 map of the United Nations

 

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was launched on 4 April 1949. However, it was not until July 1958 that the National Aeronautics and Space Act was signed into law, creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with a charter to provide research into problems of flight within and outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Or did they mean firmament?

At the helm of NASA’s most strategic missions was Wernher von Braun, a former member of the German National Socialist Party (Nazi), and the world’s leading rocket scientist.

Von Braun with President Kennedy in 1963. President Kennedy was the initiator of the American lunar programme in 1961, and von Braun was appointed its technical director.

 

Von Braun was such a dominant figure in the study of aerospace exploration that he was bestowed with the title, ‘father of space travel’. Although he was announced as a member of the NASA team in 1958, his transfer from Nazi Germany to the United States had been approved in 1945. However, it was not until 1957, with the launch of Sputnik 1, a campaign by the then Soviet Union to launch an elliptical low Earth orbit probe, that the United States realised they were trailing behind the superior efforts of their Cold War adversaries. Von Braun had been campaigning for a mission like Sputnik since 1954, and he now had his chance. Some of the projects von Braun had worked on are well documented, such as the Apollo missions. Others, we will never know about, for they were classified top secret. Von Braun died in 1977 and the epitaph on his tombstone provides a clue as to what his classified missions may have entailed. It simply reads, “Psalms 19:1”:

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows his handiwork

Wernher von Braun’s tombstone, in Alexandria, Virginia

 

Von Braun was not the only rocket scientist of his day. James Van Allen (1914 – 2006) shared a similar fascination, if not obsession, with the firmament. Van Allen was an American space scientist and a contemporary of both von Braun and Byrd, and is credited with establishing the field of magnetospheric research in space. Famously, Allen discovered Earth’s two main radiation belts, extending from an altitude of 640 km to 58,000 km above Earth. As a result, the now celebrated ‘Van Allen radiation belts’ were named after him and were featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1959.

 Bill Pickering, Van Allen & von Braun in 1958

 

Initially, Van Allen’s experiments consisted of launching balloons at the North and South Poles. These were not your ordinary run-of-the-mill balloons. Van Allen’s balloons fired rockets high into the air. Not surprisingly, he was approached by the US military, and in 1962 he was chosen to lead Operation Dominic, a series of thirty-one nuclear test explosions at the top of the atmosphere. Tellingly, the project’s most strategic mission was called Operation Fishbowl.

The Operation Fishbowl nuclear tests began in 1962 and involved launching rockets from Johnston Island, a remote location in the Pacific Ocean, under the guise of monitoring the effects of high-altitude explosions. In fact, in the Kingfish mission, the fourth detonation of the Operation Fishbowl series, twenty-nine rockets were launched into the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The Starfish Primeoperation was even more extreme and featured the Thor rocket, which carried a thermonuclear warhead whose detonation took place at an altitude of 400 km (250 miles) above the Earth. Why partake in an activity with such grave environmental consequences? What could possibly justify such a reckless experiment?

According to the official report, at the time of the Kingfish detonation:

Johnston Island observers saw a yellow-white, luminous circle with intense purple streamers for the first minute. Some of the streamers displayed what appeared to be a rapid twisting motion at times. A large pale-green patch appeared somewhat south of the burst and grew, becoming the dominant visible feature after 5 minutes. By H+1 the green had become dull gray, but the feature persisted for 3 hours. At Oahu a bright flash was observed and after about 10 seconds a great white ball appeared to rise slowly out of the sea and was visible for about 9 minutes.

The description of the impact is alarming, for it appears that Van Allen had attempted to explode through the firmament with a nuclear warhead.

Operation Fishbowl explosion, 1962

 

As if the state of global space exploration was not already strange enough, enter Stanley Kubrick (1928 – 1999), the celebrated American film director, producer and screenwriter. Kubrick was renowned for such films as Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), and his last major motion picture, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), which according to lore featured a director’s cut that revealed a little too much about what transpires behind the closed doors of the global satanic cabal. Many believe this led to his death. Or should we say, assassination? But it was his ground-breaking film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), with its pioneering special effects and scientifically accurate depiction of space flight that captured the imagination of the public – and NASA.

Kubrick’s visionary space exploration film

 

What is often forgotten is that the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey was co-authored with Arthur C Clarke (1917 – 2008), the English futurist and science-fiction writer. Clarke had been writing about space exploration since the 1940s, including such works as The Sentinel, which featured the discovery of an ancient alien artefact on the Moon. They began their collaboration in 1964, and Kubrick’s letter to Clarke states that his goals for the film included “a space-probe with a landing and exploration of the Moon”:

Kubrick’s letter to Clarke

 

The two men had sizable egos, but still managed to produce one of the greatest cinematic feats in history. Their research knew no bounds, and a photo from the mid-1960s shows Kubrick and Clarke walking with executives from NASA. For the avoidance of doubt, the NASA executives include Frederick Ordway, a prominent NASA engineer, Deke Slayton, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts and NASA’s first Chief of the Astronaut Office, and George Mueller, who headed up NASA’s Manned Space Office. The photo, with the men looking strident and smug, conjures up scenes from Quentin Tarentino’s Reservoir Dogs. Who knows, it may have inspired it.

Kubrick and Clark with NASA officials, mid-1960’s

 

Quentin Tarentino’s Reservoir Dogs; a similar vibe

 

It is worthwhile to revisit Clarke’s famous three laws of futurist studies from 1962, which state:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Clarke’s third law is legendary and often quoted, while the first and second laws are virtually unknown. But it is his second law that intrigues me most:

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Might the impossible have involved faking the Moon missions in order to win the Cold War and generate public enthusiasm, and funding, for the continued exploration of the firmament – under the guise of NASA? Did Kubrick film the Apollo Moon landings? Did Clarke help him?

If Kubrick had filmed the Apollo Moon landings, it would have been the most audacious film project ever attempted. Surely, he would have left clues in his subsequent films?  After all, how could he have resisted? Sure enough, in his iconic film rendition of Stephen King’s novel, The Shining, he hints at both NASA and the Moon landings.

Kubrick conspicuously changed the number of the haunted room in the Overlook Hotel from Room 217, which King had used in his book, to 237. This is intriguing, if not suggestive, for the distance between the Earth and the Moon is 237,000 miles. But perhaps a more overt clue comes from the attire of Danny Torrance, the child in the film with psychic powers known as ‘the shining’, who wears an Apollo 11 jumper in the film. Of course, Apollo 11 was the first mission to land humans on the Moon, and the mission that Kubrick allegedly filmed on behalf of NASA. Then again, these references could be mere odes to NASA, and not hidden subliminal symbolism that confirms his collusion in the Apollo Moon missions.

Does this photo portray Kubrick’s ode to the Apollo 11 Moon launch?

 

My detour into the possible collusion and fakery of the Apollo Moon missions is not without merit. After all, NASA in Hebrew means ‘to deceive’, and if we cannot believe what NASA says, then we have a very big problem indeed. If we cannot believe what they say, we must turn our attention to what they are not saying, if you follow my drift. Take, for instance, the conventional account of the Apollo missions from the NASA approved Wikipedia entry:

From 1968 to 1972, the Apollo programme’s lunar missions sent humans beyond LEO.  Since the end of the Apollo program, no human spaceflights have been beyond LEO [my bold]

This statement borders on the ridiculous, for LEO (low Earth orbit) starts at 2,000 km (1,200 miles) above the Earth, we are told, and yet the Moon, which NASA says they have successfully landed on six times,  is over 383,025 km (238,000 miles) away. Today, NASA claims they have not only lost the footage of the Apollo missions, but the technology to return to the Moon as well. Surely, this is more misdirection from an organisation whose every initiative must be considered suspect. Even former President Obama perpetuated the belief that the Apollo Moon landings were fabricated when on 15 April 2010 he confirmed that the United States cannot travel past LEO:

Some have said, for instance, that this plan gives up our leadership in space by failing to produce plans within NASA to reach low Earth orbit, instead of relying on companies and other countries. But we will actually reach space faster and more often under this new plan, in ways that will help us improve our technological capacity and lower our costs, which are both essential for the long-term sustainability of space flight. In fact, through our plan, we’ll be sending many more astronauts to space over the next decade.

There you have it. NASA cannot travel past LEO. Ok, so let’s get this straight:

• The Van Allen Belts start at 640 km to 58,000 km (400 to 36,040 miles)

• LEO starts at 2,000 km (1,200 miles)

• The Moon is 384,000 km (238,855 miles) from Earth

 

Are these figures to be believed? We have sent men to the Moon several times, allegedly, but have lost the technology and footage of the missions, and with our exponentially superior technology today we still cannot travel past LEO. Has NASA been a charade from the start? Or is it a covert front for initiatives to study, break through and travel beyond the firmament?

 

Possible Proof: Civilians to the Rescue

The Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT) is composed of around thirty civilians who conduct non-government-sponsored space exploration. Albeit inadvertently, the CSXT may have produced one of the most compelling cases for the existence of the firmament yet. In 2014, they became the first organisation to officially launch an amateur rocket into space.

The launch of CSXT GoFast

 

The CSXT GoFast rocket climbed to 116 km (72 miles) above Earth before something extraordinary happened. Not only was the rocket not scorched by radiation, but 48 seconds after its lift-off, while travelling at 3,580 miles per hour, it abruptly hit a wall. Inexplicably, it did not explode. The camera attached to the GoFast rocket clearly shows that it gently wedged into a substance that somehow absorbed its rapid ascent without causing it to explode. Had the GoFast rocket proved the existence of the firmament? Or had something nefarious intercepted it before it penetrated even deeper levels of the atmosphere and uncovered something it was not supposed to see? In any case, 116 km (72 miles) is much closer to Earth than LEO or the Van Allen belts, prompting the question, just what, and whom, are we to believe? You can watch the entire GoFast flight here.

Does this picture reveal the moment GoFast hit the firmament?

 

The material that engulfed the rapidly ascending GoFast rocket is reminiscent of another curious expedition that took place a few years earlier, only this initiative did not occur in space. It was performed under water. Michael V deGruy (1951 – 2012) was an American documentary maker who specialised in underwater filming. DeGruy’s acclaimed documentary, The Blue Planet, was narrated by David Attenborough and premiered on 12 September 2001, the day after the attack on the World Trade Center. While filming the documentary deGruy may have stumbled upon the firmament that separates us from the world beneath ours.

We recall that the Quran speaks of firmaments on Earth – not just in the sky. DeGruy encountered what appears to be a lake at the bottom of the ocean. In his 2012 interview, he recounts how he was shocked to discover another distinct body of water on the ocean floor, while in a submarine at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. “Wait a minute. I’m already under water,” deGury exclaimed.

He proceeds to add that the lake

…was so super saline and dense that the submarine couldn’t go down in it. We literally bounced off of it…it was insane.

Had DeGruy encountered the same watery element that the GoFast rocket had collided with 116 km (72 miles) above the Earth? It sounds a lot like the water-based dome that ancient cultures believed was created by God to separate the watery abyss above from the dry earth below. Sadly, and rather suspiciously, DeGruy died the day after his interview about the eerie lake at the bottom of the ocean, when the helicopter he was travelling in exploded. There were no survivors. Was he silenced for having discovered the firmament between our world and the world beneath ours? Listen to deGruy’s account of his discovery here.

Mike deGruy discusses the strange substance beneath the bottom of the ocean

Are They Trying to Tell Us?

Has the media been trying to tell us about the existence of the firmament, or are they laughing at us behind our proverbial backs?

The final season of HBO’s American fantasy drama Game of Thrones features a 700-foot-tall, 300-foot-thick ice wall, that was constructed by giants eight thousand years ago to prevent those within from venturing into the realms beyond. Is this a reference to the ice wall that some believe surrounds our globe?

The Game of Thrones ice wall © HBO

 

The hit TV show The Simpsons debuted in 1989 and, in the opinion of many, has repeatedly featured scenes that have accurately foretold events that have come to fruition years later. Countless memes portray the eerie accuracy of the predictions. How could the show’s creator, Matt Groening, pull this off? Can he time travel or, for that matter, can anyone?

The Chronovisor is an alleged time-travel device, rumoured to be in the possession of the Vatican, that enables one to view both past and future events, as if watching a documentary on a television. Various priests have emerged over the years and served as whistleblowers for the existence of the device, while others have claimed there are several variations of the device in existence elsewhere.

Returning to our core narrative, what do the Simpsons have to say about the firmament? In The Simpsons Movie (2007) scene, Trapped in Dome, Homer’s hometown of Springfield is enclosed in a dome from which no one can escape.

The Simpsons Movie (2007) scene: Trapped in Dome

 

Additionally, in Episode 6 of Season 24, A Tree Grows In Springfield, Homer dreams he hits a home run in the World Series that leaves the stadium and shatters the dome in the sky, prompting a massive deluge of water to descend and flood the stadium.

Episode 6 of Season 24, A Tree Grows In Springfield

 

The scene is thought provoking for it alludes to another enticing aspect of the firmament: it has portals to the great abyss of water beyond it. Was the global food of Noah caused by openings in the firmament, prompting the waters to surge down and engulf the planet below? The Hebrew and Quran models of the cosmos speak of portals in the firmament, so theoretically, if that is true, then this is possible. Or was the flood of Noah and others like it the result of an opening in the firmament beneath our feet? Would this explain why all comet impact craters are vertically aligned and frequently filled with water? If the Earth is truly spinning at 1,000 miles per hour while travelling 67,000 miles per hour around the Sun, surely some comets and meteors would have impacted the Earth at right angles.

View of Lonar crater, India; water-filled and vertically impacted

 

Even Marvel Comics feature the firmament, with the fictional cosmic entity known as Eternity first appearing in 1965. Wikipedia tells us:

Before Eternity, there was a single universe, whose animating force was the primal cosmic being that would later call itself the First Firmament. The First Firmament was attacked by its creations, The Celestials, during the catastrophic cosmic war that erupted between them and their counterpart creations, the Aspirants. The climax of that war resulted in the Celestials’ weapons tearing the first universe apart. The core essence of the First Firmament and the surviving Aspirants desperately fled to the void outside creation.

There are other media references to the firmament, but perhaps none more poignant than the 1998 film, The Truman Show. The film stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a man who lived what he believed was an ordinary life until discovering he is an actor in a reality TV show and has been living inside a dome his entire life. In the penultimate scene, Truman attempts to escape his hometown in a sailing boat while Cristof, the reality TV show’s director, played by Ed Harris, controls the weather, creating turbulent conditions and forcing Truman’s boat to collide with the wall of the dome of the film set. Truman is shocked to have hit the edge of his world, but soon discovers a nearby staircase that leads to an exit door that takes him out of the dome.

Truman inspects the fake sky before finding an exit to the dome

 

As if Truman’s escape is not symbolic enough of an ice wall and the firmament, in the final moments of the film we see Cristof viewing Turman’s escape on a monitor, while sitting across from a table that features perhaps the most explicit illustration of the firmament yet. We are shown a dome over a flat surface, with a wall-like structure around it, a multi-dimensional structure beneath the dome, and another dome over the entire structure with radiant spheres branching off into infinity. Does the curious detail of the table’s design depict the true nature of our universe?

Cristof sits in front of a representation of the firmament

 

Has the media teased us with snippets of the true nature of our world? Can we trust them? Can we trust our government institutions? Let us review what I call the timeline of deception, and reflect on the flurry of unprecedented activity that occurred when the study of the firmament and the ice wall was in its modern-day infancy:

Timeline of Deception

• 1928: Admiral Byrd’s first expedition to Antarctica
• 1939: The Second World War starts
• 1945: The Second World War ends
• 1945: Operation Paperclip
• 1946: Operation Highjump
• 1947: Byrd warns about the world shrinking and craft attacking from either pole
• 1947: The Roswell Incident
• 1947: The United Nations logo introduced
• 1947: CIA and Department of Defense founded
• 1949: NATO founded
• 1952: National Security Agency founded
• 1958: NASA founded
• 1959: Russia studying the firmament
• 1959: Antarctic Treaty signed by twelve opposing nations
• 1960: Wernher von Braun hired by NASA
• 1961: Marvel heroes gain superpowers during mission to outer space
• 1962: James Van Allen and Operation Fishbowl
• 1968: Kubrick and Clarke create 2001: A Space Odyssey
• 1969: First man on the Moon (Apollo 11)
• 1972: Last man on the Moon (Apollo 17)
• 2000: deGruy discovers a firmament at the bottom of the ocean
• 2010: Obama cites goal of reaching LEO
• 2014: Civilian space exploration hits firmament at 72 miles
• 2023: Climate change emerges as top danger (or so they say)

 

If the ice wall is real, is it melting or shrinking due to the cyclical nature of the Sun – which appears to reside within the firmament, not 150 million km (93 million miles) away as we have been told? Is that what Byrd was referring to when he spoke of the alarming rate at which our world is shrinking? Is this the real reason that climate change has been shoved down our throats, when there is clearly no demonstrable change in our weather? The rapid construction of organisations with charters and infrastructure to study our cosmos is suspicious. What did they learn in the 1940s that propelled them into such drastic courses of action? Why were they setting off nuclear weapons at the top of the atmosphere if they were not trying to find a way out?

As we wind down our exploration of the firmament, let us revisit Teed’s bodacious statement once again to establish whether it resonates more than it did the first time:

To know of the Earth’s concavity and its relation to Universal form, is to know God; but to believe in the Earth’s convexity (that is living on the Earth’s outside surface) is to deny God.

Suddenly, Teed’s theory seems reasonable, plausible, possibly even likely. Is the firmament real and, if so, how can we know for sure?

Bill Nye (1955 – ) hosted a science-themed television programme in the US called Bill Nye, the Science Guy. The programme, which ran from 1993 to 1999, was funded by the National Science Foundation and was widely respected for its accurate and insightful commentary on complex subjects. What does Nye have to say about the universe in which we live?

The Earth is a closed system. We cannot leave the Earth. There is no place to go.

Is he right? Time will most certainly tell.

 

Postscript: On Reflection

What can we possibly conclude about our Earth? Is it round, as we have been told? Or is it flat? Perhaps there is a hybrid where it is a multi-dimensional construct of some sort. And what about the ice wall? Is it real? Are there other continents, unbeknownst to us, beyond the ice wall? Byrd said there were, although he refrained from naming them. What about NASA? Can they be believed? I regret to say that I for one find them highly suspect, to say the least.

So, does the firmament exist? If so, does it merely shield the continents and oceans in our realm, or does it extend over a larger land mass, including other continents beyond the ice wall. Does it adjoin the Earth near Antarctica? Given the international attention that Antarctica has received over the years, and the fact that politically divergent nations banded together in 1959 to create the Antarctic Treaty in order to conduct their work in private, does this suggest that the South Pole may be where the firmament comes closest to our realm; and/or where we find access to other continents beyond ours; and/or where the legendary entrances to the inner Earth are situated, which Byrd spoke about in his private diary? The questions just keep coming.

If the firmament is real, if there are other continents, then why would the puppet masters of our world withhold such fundamental truths about the composition of our world? I have reflected on this question and believe that if it was common knowledge that we lived in a dome, and that other continents existed beyond ours, and that civilisations existed below ours, this would not necessarily present insurmountable theological or intellectual problems. However, what if there was a portal that allowed humans to escape, ascend, transcend, and otherwise depart our realm and travel to another? Now that might be a problem. The Hebrew and Quran models – and others – suggest that these portals do, in fact, exist. This brings us to an alluring 1623 map of the North Pole that may provide some answers.

Mercator: Septentrionalium terrarum descriptio, map of the North Pole (1623). Gerardus Mercator, with addition of data from Willem Barentsz’s voyages.

 

Gerardus Mercator (1512 – 1594) was a Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer, whose work was coveted by contemporaries, such as the alchemist and trusted advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, John Dee (1527 – 1608). Shortly after his death, Mercator’s family pulled together elements from his immense library of maps and produced a consolidated atlas. While his world maps display curiosities such as enormous continents in the north, and in the south, it is his depiction of the North Pole that is most interesting. Not only does Mercator depict it as being in the centre of the Earth, but he also illustrates a circular land divided into four equal quadrants, with an island in the middle. At the centre of the island is a massive rock or mountain, thirty-three miles in circumference, called Rupes Nigra, meaning Black Rock, that is surrounded by a giant whirlpool and four rivers leading into the centre. Curiously, arguably the largest conglomerate in the world is named BlackRock and owns the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, amongst other nefarious interests that are best ignored for now.

It appears that Mercator’s illustration of the North Pole was inspired by a fourteenth-century book that no longer exists, the Inventio Fortunata, meaning ‘fortune-making discovery’. References to the book do exist, however, and thanks to a letter dated 20 April 1577, in which Mercator is replying to Dee regarding his questions about the North Pole, we learn some tantalising information about the true centre of our universe. Mercator writes to Dee:

…In the midst of the four countries is a Whirlpool into which there empty these four Indrawing Seas which divide the North. And the water rushes round and descends into the Earth just as if one were pouring it through a filter funnel. It is four degrees wide on every side of the Pole, that is to say eight degrees altogether. Except that right under the Pole there lies a bare rock in the midst of the Sea. Its circumference is almost thirty-three French miles, and it is all of magnetic stone. And is as high as the clouds, so the Priest said, who had received the astrolabe from this Minorite in exchange for a Testament. And the Minorite himself had heard that one can see all round it from the Sea, and that it is black and glistening. And nothing grows thereon, for there is not so much as a handful of soil on it.

Mercator’s letter to Dee is now in the British Library. The Inventio Fortunata is referenced mid-left.

 

Mount Meru, the sacred mountain of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology, appears to be one and the same as Black Rock. The Vedic texts refer to it as Paradesha, and the Japanese as the Congealed Drop, which was the origin of their people and the navel of the world. Further, the four rivers that run from the Black Rock are reminiscent of the four rivers that the Book of Genesis say flow out of the Garden of Eden. Intriguingly, Paradesha in Hebrew means ‘garden’. Is the Garden of Eden at the North Pole?

The image of Black Rock appears reminiscent of another construct from antiquity, the Nordic Tree of Life. Here is the path, portal or window that so many ancient cultures speak of – the passage to paradise. What if ascension was something we, as individuals, could accelerate, if we only knew where and how to embark on the journey; not just a spiritual journey, but a physical one that enables the passage from this realm to the others, and even to heaven.

The World Tree Yggdrasil from Norse mythology, as envisioned and depicted by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine in 1886

 

On reflection, Bill Nye’s brazen comment may not be true after all:

The Earth is a closed system. We cannot leave the Earth. There is no place to go.

What if there is a place where we can end the wheel of reincarnation?

What if there is a place where we can travel beyond the firmament?

What if there is a place where we can travel to the inner Earth?

What if there is a place where we can return to source – to our creator?

What if that place is the magnetic Black Rock at the North Pole? What if we are meant to return to it, like the salmon returns to its birthplace to die?

The failed Great Reset of 2020 to 2023 was met with a Great Awakening and, as a result, we now realise that we live in a world that is run by a satanic cabal that wants to keep us captive, as though slaves. With this knowledge, the doctoring of our HIStory now makes sense. The existence of the firmament, ice wall and the ascension centre known as Black Rock, is reason enough to conceal the true nature of our world. What is true and what is not? We can only trust our instincts. Let’s break through the dogma, shall we? It is time to reclaim our true place in the universe and return home in our own time.

Is the Wizard of Oz allegorical to our journey home?

Respect paid

The YouTube videos of the anonymous researcher, Ewaranon, deserve mention and praise. His work reinforced mine and opened my eyes to other significant insights about the realities of the world we live in. Do watch his comprehensive series, What On Earth Happened?