One indication of the transition of a people from nomadic wandering to
a settled society is the founding of a permanent temple. Another is a
switch in interest from the number seven to the number twelve, from
lunar to solarcalendrics, the 7-note diatonic panpipe to the 12-note
chromatic scale, and other symbolic activities which informed every
aspect of the culture. But actually founding the temple, city or
civilization traditionally began by locating the point on the ground of
its sacred center. This was done by trained individuals including the
original Chinese feng shui and hing fa masters, the Roman augur (who
inaugurated the process), and those trained for this specific task in
India, Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and elsewhere
around the ancient globe. Modern geomancy relies, in part, on some of
the ancient sciences required for this task, including dowsing,
astronomy, surveying, geometry and geology.

After locating the sacred center, the Earth energies which naturally
wander through this point are fixed in place to serve as a reliable
fountain of fertile energy above which the central temple's inner
shrine is built. Just as meridian currents of the body are encouraged
to flow with strength in their proper course by upright acupuncture
needles, the naturally wandering earth energies were guided by standing
stones and other structures, and incorporated into an organized,
symbolic landscape in which their mythological tales took place. These
earth currents were known in China as the "dragon current", or
lung-mei, and exist in two forms: the yin, or negative, current
represented by the white tiger, and the yang, or positive, current,
represented by the blue dragon.

Worldwide mythologies of the dragon-slayers Horus, Cadmus, St. George,
St. Michael, St. Catherine and others include the founding of societies
by the spearing and fixing of an "earth born snake" who usually guards
sacred springs, wells and rivers. For example, the crocodile was the
totem of pre-Christan Copts, and a famous Egyptian carving depicts an
equestrian Horus lancing a crocodile, his adversary uncle, known as Set
or Typhon

The mythology of the founding of Thebes by Cadmus tells of his lancing
the serpent and sowing its twelve teeth which become warriors which
spill blood to fertilize the land and grow into the family/tribes which
populate the society.

Later, the similar mythology of St. George spearing the dragon
continues the tradition.

The fixing of the wild dragon current is symbolized by the placing of a
"gnomon", an upright shadow stick orsundial into the earth at the
sacred center. Sometimes the spear or stick is slanted towards the
North Star and is called a "style", its angle revealing the angle of
the site's latitude upon the Earth. The shadow stick is often described
as a world-axis, the cosmic pole symbolically stretching between Heaven
and Earth, around which the twelve-tribe society, or "amphictyony",
turns, as the zodiac surrounds the sun. It is this cosmic pillar which
properly orients the temple, and the society, outward from its sacred
center to the sun, moon, planets, stars and entire cosmic order.

simple device positioned at the interface of time and space. It
"squares the circle", marrying astronomical cycles of time, marked by
the moving shadow of the sun, with the square of space, the four
cardinal directions and solstice-equinox "corners" of Earth. Thus, it
was ultimately the proper marriage of Heaven with Earth which
transformed chaos to cosmos and served to synchronize society and its
organs with the Divine Architect's ideal construction.

Two Borneo tribesmen measure the sun's shadow at summer solstice,
the longest day of the year, producing the shortest shadow.

As the sun rises and sets at shifting points on the horizon, the
vertical gnomon casts its shadow in different directions on different
days of the year, while the length of shadow also varies from day to
day through the year. When the stick is slanted towards the Polestar,
the direction of its shadow will remain identical at identical times of
the day regardless of the day of year, and only the shadow's length
will vary. The path of the shadow's tip was carefully traced to glimpse
the beautiful order of the world.

This center was the starting point of a geometric plan of society which
was delineated architecturally on the ground, the world's largest
drafting table. A famous instance involves the founding of Rome by
Romulus, who, following ancient ritual, selected the site, purified
himself, dug a pit (Latin: mundus "the ordered world", equivalent to
the Greek kosmos,) and built a fire altar above it. Then, with white
and black bulls, he chanted as he ploughed a circular furrow around the
Palatine Hill. The earth broken by the plough was directed inward so
that no portion of the sacred earth fell outside the enclosure. He
lifted and carried the plough over what would be the gates or portals
[portare, to carry -->"portable"] and that's why a door is called a
portal, because in the sacred ceremony the plough was portable and
carried over that gap. It was strictly forbidden to cross a sacred
ploughed line, which his twin brother Remus did. And it was because of
this impious act by his brother that Romulus slayed Remus and founded
Rome alone. Related Latin words which reveal this relationship between
ploughing and society include Urbs (city), Orbis (round), Urvum
(plough), Urvo ("I plough around"). Of course, the Big Dipper is
still known many places as "the plough" constellation circling the
North Star in the great cosmic amphictyony.