Etruscan symbols
universal language of the heart

The mysterious Magliano disk found in Italy by a farmer ploughing his fields has the longest inscription containing Etruscan symbols found yet, the inscription was too complex to make any attempt to decipher it, but its similarity with the Phaistos disk was obvious: a double-sided disk with an inwards spiralling snake is a unique feature, it was clear that the two disks had something in common.

Through sheer chance the similarities between Scandinavian rune symbols and the system of meditation taught by the Buddha in the 6th century BC were noticed. An intriguing possibility was hovering in the background and after years, as an afterthought, the definitions used for translation of rune symbols were dropped into the positions of the Etruscan symbols on the disk. The story unfolded, there were great surprises hidden beneath each layer of understanding and gradually a whole new world opened up; seemingly surreal images such as the oversized golden fibula and pectoral found in an Etruscan tomb only 50 kilometres north of Rome contained detailed instructions on meditation techniques and concepts that were originally taught by the Buddha. Pythagoras was a contemporary of the Buddha Gotama in India, his “mystic numbers” were lost – but the mysterious Etruscan objects were filled with numbers, portrayed by series of repetitive figurative images, the patterns that emerged have a clear meaning that can still be interpreted.

The key to unravel these mysteries was found in a text written by Roman author Porphyry who wrote a biography of Pythagoras: in difficult-to-understand language but by no means hiding anything, he explains what Pythagoras taught; seen through the eyes of a Neoplatonic philosopher living in Rome in the 3rd century. A great breakthrough in understanding the Etruscan images was made by his comment that Pythagoras used “artistic means” to explain his mystic numbers, and that people from all over Italy, including Etruscans, came to see him. The possibility that the numbers of Pythagoras were used by artisans to make Etruscan objects was analysed by using concepts from the Buddhist system of meditation, what appeared was a visual shorthand of glyphs, often combined with images, which were designed to make it easy for people to remember series of difficult concepts by presenting them as one image, which would otherwise take pages to describe in words. The numbers that were used coincide with the system of meditation as taught by the Buddha, which is still taught at a handful of monasteries, unchanged after 2,500 years.

By adding together three separate sets of unsolved mysteries into one collective attempt to try and unravel the details, the conclusion represented itself. The first mystery was the riddles of runes in Scandinavia that were used from the fourth century, the second part of the mystery was that the runes looked similar to Etruscan symbols that were used in the 6th century BC but disappeared when Latin became prominent, and finally there was the third part of the mystery: the lost “mystic numbers” of Pythagoras. Any attempt at understanding these mysteries individually did not work, because they were part of one history.

It turned out that here was one logic system of “hand signals”, which were developed to transfer information that was too complex to describe in words. These hand signals were used in many different countries to explain concepts, accompanied by local images to visualise the concepts that they wanted to illustrate. There was one common denominator that connected all the different styles that were used by local artists : they all used the same numbers when making patterns, an indication that the inner meaning of the objects, however diverse the images may appear, had to be the same.

The only person whose name cropped up with sufficient skills to have designed this system of communication was Pythagoras, who is still a global household name, as children we all learn our mathematical skills about triangles at school through studying the theorem of Pythagoras. The surprise is that Pythagoras turned out to not only be a mathematician, he must have been a teacher in a network of global knowledge that was used to explain the “universal language of the heart”: how our mind, the sixth sense, works. The system, expressed by the Etruscan symbols and runes was used for up to 1,700 years with small deviations in the shape of symbols used, but the meaning stayed unchanged.

Objects that now seem surreal to our untrained eyes contained images with instructions on how to meditate, on how to see that our personal actions, kamma, are the Causes that will result in future Effects, even as rebirth in future lives. Through concentration the rebirth cycle can be observed by practicing Dependent Origination, which was part of the system of meditation techniques originally taught by the Buddha, and later by Pythagoras who taught the same technique in Greece, named metempsychosis. Pythagoras may have met the Buddha in person.

An action that started from curiosity about how runes can be related to Etruscan symbols revealed the role of Delphi as a sacred site where meditation may have been taught. The mysterious Etruscan script that were used as symbols on a mental roadmap gradually developed into Latin when they needed to write down texts, and details of the Pantheon, still one of the most admired buildings in the world, can be explained in great detail within the context of the system of meditation as taught by the Buddha. In Europe the Etruscan symbols continued to develop as a series of signals and was used until the 12th century in the shape of runes, with its final culmination on the Rök stone, its structure comparable to the golden pectoral of the Lion Tomb in Caere (Regolini-Galassi); and the Maeshowe rune inscriptions in Orkney that were made by the Old Norse Vikings.

The small disk found in Magliano turned out to be one of the most intriguing objects ever found and represents in a nutshell all the difficulties encountered by people who tried for many years to translate the meaning of Etruscan objects and symbols, as mentioned in above text. In the centre of the disc two intriguing symbols attract all the attention and force one’s eye to return and look at them again, despite the fact that there were at least 22 of the same symbols on the disk.

Ignoring all the twists and turns of the symbols that had many variations, but instead forcing it into one phonetic Etruscan letter “TH”, as proposed, it was impossible to translate the text on the disk. By looking at them again and again one can eventually accept that they were exactly that; eyes. The many variations were different kinds of eyes that were used to explain to students how to look at things in many different ways and how to put emphasis on different aspects, until it is possible to see the universal truth with the mind’s eye, the sixth sense: the Etruscan symbols were used to explain the universal language of the heart.

All contents is the personal view of the author.