Temple's original research connects what the Dogons believe, as learned from the Lemnians, back to the people the Lemnians learned it from: Egyptians, Babylonians, Sumerians. This tradition he calls the "Sirius Mystery." This tradition is sometimes also referred to as the Great Tradition, Secret Doctrine, Cult of Isis, though this results in much confusion because "Secret Doctrine/Great Tradition" often refers to the Void Doctrine (Dark Tradition) while the Cult of Isis refers, or should refer, more specifically to the Sirius lore. This will be dealt with later, when the focus is on Egypt, Babylonia and Sumeria. There one will see two different traditions linked together for the deepest initiates, as well as a usurpation of the Sirius cult of Isis by a Cult of Astarte, which superceded it, submerging and erasing it as much as possible.
The Dogons possess the Sirius Mystery in a rather pure form, separated from any void/dark tradition knowledge or other esoteric traditions such as the Cult of Astarte (e.g., of the Hebrews).
Note that Temple of not an occultist. For his own research in writing the Sirius Mystery, he won a prestigious fellowship in the Royal Astronomical Society of London. He won this because the Dogons, in revealing their knowledge of the Nommo to French anthropologists, revealed also very advanced astronomical knowledge, some of it not yet equaled by modern radio and mathematical astronomy!
The Dogons say:
1. The star Sirius (known to the Dogons as "Sigi tolo" or "Yasigi tolo." "Tolo" means star; they mean "Star of Sigui and Star of Yasigui") has an invisible (to the unaided eye) companion star (known to modern astronomers as Sirius B). The Dogons say this star orbits Sirius A in an egg shaped or elliptical orbit with Sirius A at one focus of the ellipse. The orbit, they say, takes about 50 years for one circuit. This has all been confirmed by modern radio astronomy.
2. The Star Sirius B revolves on its own axis in about one year's time. Modern astronomical equipment can not (at the time this was written up) observe such detail!
3. The material of Sirius B is super dense "star metal" vastly heavier than anything found on earth. They call it "sagala." Modern calculations have confirmed this!
4. There is a third star in the Sirius system they call "Emma ya" (see CM section) four times as light in weight as Sirius B, traveling along a greater orbit around Sirius A but in the same direction as Sirius B, also taking 50 years to complete one orbit. Emma ya moves 90 degrees behind Sirius B as it orbits. The existence of a Sirius C or third Sirius companion is controversial among modern astronomical observers. Dogons say Sirius C is bigger than Sirius B.
5. The Nommo came from the Sirius system.
6. Saturn has invisible (to the unaided eye) rings and Jupiter has four great moons, likewise invisible (to the unaided eye).
7. The planets orbit the sun, as does the earth, and the earth rotates on its own axis fixing day and year length.
8. The sun distributed light in space and on the earth with its rays.
9. The Milky Way (our galaxy) contains all the visible stars and the earth and sun are part of this system or world of spiraling stars. The Dogons say an infinite number of such spiraling worlds exist. These worlds are populated by many creatures such as men with tails or men with wings. The moon, however, they flatly say is dry and dead.
The Dogon also know things an enlightened person of knowledge, ancient Greek or Lemnian might have known, e.g., that the red blood circulates in the body and the essence of nourishment passes into the red blood after the body changes food and beverage.
The Dogon priests have a subtle concept of matter. They say the universe is based on two principles; one a principle of the vibrations of matter, the other a principle of the general movement of the universe as a whole. The original germ of life is symbolized by the smallest cultivated seed. This seed, quickened by internal vibrations, bursts the enveloping sheath and emerges to reach the uttermost confines of the universe. Note: Christ, in explaining the Kingdom of God, compared it to a mustard seed, a tiny cultivated seed, which grows into a tree (see Christian section). At the same time this unfolding matter moves along a path which forms a spiral or helix. Two fundamental notions are thus expressed: on the one hand the perpetual helical movement signifies the conservation of matter; further, this movement is held to represent the perpetual alteration of opposites, right and left, high and low, odd and even, male and female, reflecting a principle of twinness which ideally should direct the proliferation of life. These pairs of opposites support each other in an equilibrium which the individual being conserves within himself. On the other hand, the infinite extension of the universe is expressed by the continual progression of matter along this spiral path.
Note that the aforesaid implies the possibility of individuals not having the equilibrium conserved in themselves. These beings would be partial beings or sub-humans and in this way unlike the universe as a whole. (Cf St. Paul's comments on his own body, in Christian section.)
Such ideas as these existed in ancient Greece. These astronomical, scientific and philosophical ideas are, to the Dogon priests, subsidiary to their main body of knowledge, the knowledge of the Nommo to which they attach the supreme importance. It is as follows:
Our solar system belongs to Ogo, but Sirius and its system belongs to Nommo. Nommos came to earth, amphibious fish-men, founding culture and civilization, teaching men astronomy, time keeping, agriculture, all arts and sciences. Sirius is called the "land of the fish." The matter in the Sirius system is called "pure earth" but in our solar system it is called "impure earth." The landing of the Nommo on earth is called the "day of the fish." The earth itself is envisioned as the center of Ogo's activity in this sun or solar system, where Ogo plugged into our system of planets. Ogo used our solar system as a placenta to give birth. Ogo is humans, cosmically impure, evolved here, the imperfect, the outcasts, the meddlers. Ogo rebelled at his own creation and remained unfinished or incomplete. In order to atone for our impurity, the Dogons say the Nommo dies and is resurrected, acting as a sacrifice for us, to cleanse and purify the earth. Nommo is crucified on a tree and forms a eucharistic meal for humanity and is then resurrected. So while humans are cosmic pariahs as is Ogo, there is hope to the Dogons, hope of redemption, not from some sort of sin or some sort of rules infraction, but more from a form of impurity such as Ogo represents. The Dogons say Nommo will return. A certain star will appear in the sky once more as a testament to Nommo's resurrection. When Nommo originally landed on earth he crushed Ogo, thus marking Nommo's future domination over the earth, which Ogo had had prior to this. Mankind is envisioned as a mixture in which Nommo and Ogo battle and struggle. The Dogons are not talking about a spiritual thing here. They are saying that our FLESH is of Ogo and impure.