-B.L.Freeborn, (c) Oct. 2012 -last updated Sept. 2022

The “Sator Rotas” to an archaeologist is a trivial, long worn out mystery. To any fifth grader it is a quick puzzle. After the fifth grader explains it to the archaeologist then it becomes an out-of-place artifact.

Let us first discover what is known and believed about this grid before we look at the way an un-influenced mind would perceive it.

It is a five by five grid of letters that has been found in several places spanning both time and distance. The oldest is dated to 79 AD from Pompeii. The clear representation pictured below is from Oppede, France. A number of them have been found in England. Others have been found throughout Europe and one has been found in Syria. It is assumed it is in Latin. It is thought to be a secretive sign between Christians but others consider it magical. There are others who think it is a Jewish puzzle.

Before we throw the current translation out, let us reiterate it:

From Wikipedia we have………

“Sator Sower, planter; founder, progenitor (usually divine); originator

Arepo (arrepo) (I) creep/move stealthily towards, also trust, or likely an invented proper name. Its similarity with arrepo, from ad repo, ‘I creep towards’, may be coincidental

Tenet holds, keeps; comprehends; possesses; masters; preserves

Opera work, care; aid, service, (an) effort/trouble

Rotas (rota) wheel, rotate; (roto) (I) whirl around, revolve rotate; used in the Vulgate Psalms as a synonym for whirlwind and in Ezekiel as plain old wheels.”

They continue with …

“One likely translation is “The farmer Arepo has [as] works wheels [a plough]”; that is, the farmer uses his plough as his form of work. Although not a significant sentence, it is grammatical; it can be read up and down, backwards and forwards. C. W. Ceram also reads the square boustrophedon (in alternating directions). But since word order is very free in Latin, the translation is the same.”

Now let’s think about this….. They have been found in England. They have been found in Italy – Pompeii, Portugal, France, and Syria. So is it logical to conclude it is written in Latin? Probably. However – let us pause to think like a modern fifth grader who speaks the language spoken in England at this current time which is conveniently – this one.

What would a fifth grader see?

I suspect he/she could make a rather large list of words very similar to the list compiled below. The first two words any fifth grader is likely to identify are TEN and NET. Surely, the word ten appears four times and when read in the opposite direction they spell net. The four “nets” create a picture which forms a net spread out from the central N.

These are in fact two very revealing words which will lead us forward – momentarily. Our fifth graders would also spot the words SAT and ARE very quickly. A very bright child might find the word OPERA and then OPERATOR. We would not expect them to find TOR since it is not commonly used today but they would see the commonly used English word TENET. They might go on to find POT, OPEN and AT. They of course would not realize that they are finding Modern English words in a puzzle written many years before the creation of the language they speak. Unless!!!! There is something we do not understand about English.

This has led us off topic but it is a necessary deviation. The history of the English language must be checked. Is it possible this is written in modern English or even Old English?

No.

Or that is what we must infer from references such as the quote below from Wikipedia: English Language which does not conflict with other references on the subject. (Reference notes are found in Wikipedia article.)

“Historically, English originated from the fusion of closely related dialects, now collectively termed Old English, which were brought to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxons) settlers by the 5th century – with the word English being derived from the name of the Angles, and ultimately from their ancestral region of Angeln (in what is now Schleswig-Holstein).[12] A significant number of English words are constructed based on roots from Latin, because Latin in some form was the lingua franca of the Christian Church and of European intellectual life.[13] The language was further influenced by the Old Norse language due to Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries.

The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman-French, and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to give the appearance of a close relationship with Romance languages[14][15] to what had then become Middle English. The Great Vowel Shift that began in the south of England in the 15th century is one of the historical events that mark the emergence of Modern English from Middle English.”

So, according to this English, even as Old English, was a dialect developed 400 years too late.

Darn!!! And it works so well in English if you look at the gematria. Like, the four tens actually are made of four 10’s!

Well, they do! Look…..

Using the Hebrew sounds for these letters, not a modern gematria for English letters and not translating them to Greek or Roman gematrias we substitute according to this:

A = 70

E = 1

R = 200

S =  60

T = 9

P = 80

N = 50 but if it considered to be a Hebrew Alef then = 1

let O =  6

S    A    T    O    R                        60      70       9       6    200

A    R   E    P     O                       70    200        1     80        6

T    E   N    E     T                         9         1     50       1        9

O    P   E    R     A                          6       80      1   200      70

R    O   T    A     S                     200         6       9     70      60

By this replacement, using the sounds provided by the Hebrew letters, we observe that indeed the tens create ten. There are four of them around a central 50.

The four tens sum to 40. This is a significant number. A square of sides of 40 has a diagonal of 56.56 which is a number often pointed out as important in these posts.  Or they might see it as a very Biblical number as in “Moses wandered for 40 years and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.”

When the 40 is added to the 50 it sums to 90. Furthermore, each ten is at 90 degrees to the other which is true if the longitude and latitude of the planet is called a “net” and the four cardinal directions are then at 90 degrees to each other just as shown.

In other words: North, South, East and West are at 90 degrees to each other and each is depicted by the word NET fanning out from the center.

We take this idea one step further. Each degree of longitude and latitude is made of 60 minutes and each of those minutes of 60 seconds. Note that each 9 + 1 or ten when added to the central 50 creates 60. There are four 9’s on the exterior of the net and 4 x 9 = 36 which then suggests the number of minutes in a degree or 360.

Not convinced?

Hmmm. In this image of the Sator Rotas from France the N is reversed which calls attention to it. The Hebrew Alef and the letter N are very similar. This letter in Hebrew has the value 1. Now if the central  letter is allowed both values, both 50 and 1, then their sum is 51 and 51 degrees is the latitude of Greenwich, England from which longitude is measured today. It is in the  center of both the puzzle and the Net created by longitude and latitude numbered from Greenwich.

If the letters surrounding the center (REPEREPE) are summed, the number 564 is obtained.  This is significant. The value ‘560’ was discussed in the prior post about the Hebrew alphabet. 40, 56, and 79 are the three most important numbers in this secret system. The 40 we have touched upon. The 79 appears as the word AT and might be said to refer to the diameter of the Earth at 7920 miles. It most certainly refers to something the ancients kept as an ultimate secret. Indeed, the word AT is very appropriate. The 56 appears in the sum of the letters REPEREPE (564) surrounding the middle. It is often found in secret writings as 565 or 56.5. If the center is allowed to be 1 then the 565 appears quite nicely. This also repeats in the RPNPR diagonal. 560 + 50 or 56.50?! But that can also be said to be 610 which repeats the 60’s.

Is this all that is hidden here?

No, it is a very plush garden of numerical facts. Notice that our ten’s reveal something else. The closest distance Earth comes to the sun is considered to be 91.4 million miles. Our 9 + 1 + 50 can be re-written as 91.50 miles. Not too bad for a bit of graffiti!

The circumference of the Sun is 2.72 million miles. Ra is the Sun God of the Egyptians. R = 200 and A = 70 …..Ra.  RA appears four times.

More? Yes!

I would be disappointed if the diameter of the Sun was not easily found and there….summing the exterior letters we find it equals 860. The diameter of the Sun is 864,000 miles plus a few.

Here then is another point. Hebrew does not have the letter O so the value for ‘v’, which also serves for letters w and u, was used as 6. There is some logic to using 7 for the O. Seven is the value for the letter ‘z’  in Hebrew. Z is the first letter in zero and zero was originally called ‘cipher.’ If the value 7 is used then the exterior sum is 864 and that perfectly reflects the diameter of the Sun. What is more, ATO would then sum to 86 which would repeat it.

This then is no simple rhyme about farmers with fabricated names tilling soil. It is in fact a dire message.

To obtain this message we must take a daring step. We will declare the establishment, quite respectfully of course, in grave error. For this is a grave matter and an even deadlier message. We will accept that this is not written in Modern English but will allow it to be plain OLD ENGLISH. Why Old English and not French, German or Russian? 10 !!! How is it said in French – dix, in Spanish – diaz, in German – zehn, in Russian – desyat, in Hebrew – yod, in Latin!!! – decem, and in English both old and new – ten!!! So, English it is!

We think these willy nilly old timers knew nothing of longitude and latitude. Maybe that is an incorrect perception as well! We have already seen the 60’s. We even found 610 in one diagonal. The sum of the opposing diagonal SRNRS is 570. What is 570 and why is it pertinent to longitude and latitude? The value of a radian is 57.29 degrees. Radians are used in circular measure. That is important in longitude and latitude, and other matters involving the circular movement of objects.

Shall we explore further? Shall we look at what has become an eerily out-of-place artifact? Is this evidence of time travel or evidence that we just do not understand something?

So, we diligently continue………………………..

We find these words in this little 25 letter grid.

In bold-italics is the Old English Spelling as provided by “The Student’s Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon,” by Henry Sweet, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1896. A few spellings are provided by “The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,” Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976. The Modern English equivalent is then provided. ME denotes Middle English, OF – Old French, and bold-italic – Old English.

From the Sator Rotas we read:

a = a, meaning ………always

ar = ar = meaning……….brass, copper, counting device, ær = early

aras = arise??? aries, arisan = rise, arasian = explore, detect

are = ar = aer = early, reverence, before

as = as ME = alswa = as

asa = assay ME = assai OF = ascian

aten = ateon = to draw out

at, ato, ate = æt = origin, ate

a = Ea, one supreme god, æ = divine law

ene = ane = one time, ænne = anne = one

era = ar = brass, copper, counting device, ær = early

net = nett = net, mesh

open = open

opera = opera = work, drama

= apperen ME = appear

aparian =  to take in the act

operator = operator

opor = ? opportune

opo = oppose, against- pose, pose from post

or = or = before, beginning, origin

oro = ora = bank, shore

ot = ut = out, oth = until

per = aparian = take in the act, see doing = appear = peer

po = fa = foe (if P is soft) = fæh

po = pawa = pea = pea, pee, poor, pour, pore

po = River Po in Italy

po = pohhe = pouch, purse

por = poren ME = pour = to stream forth

por = porus = pore = passage, porr = leek (vegetable), see ‘po’

pot = pott = pot

potenet = potent ME, Scottish = power

ra = Ra (god), ray, ra = to raid

rasa = ræs = attack, running rush

= race = course

= ræsc = shower of rain

rep = repan = to reap, rip = reap, rap = rope, riepan = to spoil, rape

repe = ripan = to reap, ripien = to ripen = repeat

ro = reow = row, order

rope = rap = rope

rot = rot = hrot

rota = rotare = wheel

rotas = rotates ????

rotare = rotare = wheel

roten = rote = repeat,  rotian = rotung = decay

sa = seah = see, sa = bucket

sara = sare = sore, sorrow, sarian = to be painful, sad

sat = sæt = ambush, lair

sator = sætere = robber

satoro = satori = Buddhist enlightenment

tare = taru = tear

tas = teoso = injury, tæsan = to tease (wool)

ten = teon = draw, drag, make, tien = ten

tenet = belief, tan  = twig, tænen = of twigs

to = to

top = topp = summit

tor = torr = tor, rock

torot = tarot = Italian 14^th century game, plural of Torah

This is a substantial list of Old English words. What is very odd is that the Sator words are closer to modern English than Old English. From this we might easily conclude that the historian’s have misunderstood something. This simple out-of-place artifact suggests Old English was spoken as a distinct language some 500 years before it was supposedly invented.

Perhaps our understanding can be improved by looking at the numbers. They have not all been sought out. This and a more proper translation is the topic of the next post.

We shall let this mystery rest for a few days before we study the numbers.

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