by John P. Pratt (24 Aug 2012)
©2012 by John P. Pratt. All rights Reserved.
Taken from the Research Notes of Dr. John P. Pratt
The following is a chronological summary of major discoveries of John P. Pratt taken from his research notes.
Sat 27 Nov 1948: First Discovers Calendar. (Except from his mother's diary when he was three.) "I'm getting more amazed by the minute the way Johnny is going crazy about figures. I left a calendar on the table; it's only good for another month. You'd have thought Johnny had found the pot of gold at rainbow's end. He hasn't put it down since. He's even trying to make figures with his crayons.
Thu 2 Dec 1948: First Studies Calendar. (Except from his mother's diary.) "You should see him ,study a calendar that no other child would even notice."
May: Graduated with B.A. degrees in both Physics and Math.. Chosen "Outstanding Physics Student" for 1968 and graduated in upper 1% of class. Began graduate school in physics at the U. of Utah.
Summer. Change major to Astronomy.. Got married and moved to Tucson, Arizona to attend U. of Arizona.
Summer: Ancient Astronomy.. "This summer has become an unexpected crossroads in my life. . . . In a flash of inspiration in May, it came to me that I should make a life study of ANCIENT ASTRONOMY! This inspiration came to me the day after my last final in my final class to finish all my course work, on May 18th. Few times in my life have I felt so exuberant."
Fall: New Dissertation. Wrote Gerald Hawkins, author of Stonehenge Decoded asking for ideas for PhD dissertations in astronomy, and for him to be on my dissertation committee. Tried to change my dissertation topic to determine position of moon in ancient times, but did not get approved. This caused me to lose the top position in my class and best funding. I wrote that my "inner desire is to write books for the LDS Church on modern and ancient astronomy. Oh yes, and there is one other possibility: The Mayan calendar has never been correlated once and for all with our calendar."
Feb: Back to Astrophysics. Realized I could not do a dissertation on ancient astronomy in a modern astronomy department. Went back to astrophysics to finish PhD as quickly as possible.
Fall: Research Desires. Journal entry: "These are the desires of my heart: 1) to write a book on the Book of Abraham and modern astronomy, 2) research on ancient star names, checking out the proposal that constellations were revealed to ancient prophets as proposed in Gospel in the Stars by Joseph Seiss, 30 produce a general work on ancient astronomy on worldwide cultures, 4) solve the Mayan calendar correlation problem and 5) a book on Orson Pratt as an astronomer.
May: Graduated with PhD in Astronomy. Moved to Utah with no job yet. There are none in the country in astronomy. My friends all went overseas.
Spring: Doing Research. "I am trying to write an article on Sir Isaac Newton's religion, on the astronomy of the Egyptian Alphabet, on the origin of the constellations and on the Star of Bethlehem."
14 Oct 1981: Begins "Aztec Calendar" Journal [0:3, meaning taken fromVol. 0 of Research Notes, page 3 shown in brackets]. (From this point on, most entries will be taken from my bound, page-numbered research journals rather than personal journals.) Today I note that using 3 Nephi 8:5 to determine Savior's Crucifixion date works to the very day if Christ born on Thu 6 Apr 1 BC (Greg) = JD 1721156, which was Passover that year. (Add 33x365+3 days to get Fri 1 Apr 33 for Crucifixion. I say "I must publish this result. It was discovering this that sparked my study of the Aztec Calendar. To me that is very convincing that our calendar is correct; this year really is 1,981 years since Christ's birth.") Then I review Isaac Newton's work.
21 Oct 1981: Discover "Saros Century" [0:15]. I discovered there are 658,532 days between 3 Apr 33 and 3 Apr 1836, which is exactly 100 times the length of a "saros" eclipse cycle of 6,585.32 days.
Summer: Write article on Date of Resurrection. I get the idea to write an article for BYU Studies. When I went to phone them to submit, I had a clear Voice tell me to phone the Ensign instead. I though that was nonsense, so I phoned BYU Studies. It was busy and the Voice said, "It will always be busy, now phone the Ensign." So I did and was amazingly put right through to Jay Todd, the Managing Editor. I began, "I've got an article for you, but you wouldn't be interested in it." When he asked why not, I said, "Because if what I say is true then Bruce R. McConkie is wrong, and you can't publish anything contrary to his opinion." To my shock he responded, "That's okay. He's been wrong before." So I submitted it to him, suggesting April 1983 as a publication target, as Easter would be on 3 Apr that year. It wasn't published until June, 1985.
Later that summer Eldon Watson told me BYU Studies had published a scathing review of April Sixth, by John Lefgren. I'm pretty sure I already knew about the book. When I read it I was shocked that I had been "scooped". That is, the entire book was about my discovery. At first I was disappointed, but then I was glad that he was the one who was attacked, not me. So I wrote a rebuttal to the review, which was published in the Spring, 1983 issue. John Lefgren and I have been friends ever since.
11 Dec 1982: Begins Book of Mormon Chronology [0:11-12]. List all key verses about chronology.
8 Mar 1984. Recommence Mayan Calendar Study [0:15]. I had spent the last two years working on my first Ensign article, and only now returned to the Mayan Calendar. Calculate best rational approximations of Venus and Mercury synodic periods in terms of months or years. Also verify that Metonic cycle is by far the best approximation for lunisolar cycle. Make list of Mixtec and Aztec month and day names. [0:17]. Note that p. 189 of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico by Anthony Aveni says 1 Flower is especially for heliacal rising of Venus. Check out rising of Venus positions and try various corelation constants looking for 1 Flower.
9 Mar 1984. Discover Venus-Mercury Morning Star Conjunction at Resurrection [0:21]. That fits Aztec legend of Venus resurrecting when Quetzalcoatl did! Write out Sacred Round with day names instead of numbers (the right way to do it!). Names used are Earth, Wind, Temple, Lizard, Snake, Death, Deer, Rabbit, Water, Dog, Monkey, Grass, Reed, Jaguar, Eagle, Condor, Motion, Flint, Rain, Flower [0:25]. Also look for 1 Flower as name of Christ, hence his birthday using my computer program for Mayan Calendar.
10 Mar 1984. Study 260- and 364-day Interactions [0:29]. 7x260 = 5x364; 1040 x 365.25 = 260x1461. There was an Aztec 1040 year cycle (twice the 520-year cycle). Verify that the 260-day Sacred Round never had days intercalated by verifying Tompkins statements that 61 Venus cycles brought Venus back to 1 Flower (by dropping four days from 584-day count, and 301 cycles dropped 30 days, for average length of 583.9203. Compare to Neugebauer length of 583.92166 [0:31].
Sun 11 Mar 1984. Summarize Mayan Day Meanings [0:35] from Irene Nicholson's Mexican Mythology, p. 49. They were given by Mayan Priests to early Catholic missionaries. I suggest the red rose as the flower to be used in the 1 Flower symbol. (That is indeed what I used 26 years later when I had Mary and Michael draw up new glyphs for modern day use. I had totally forgotten that suggestion of so long ago!) Also I propose that Jaguar is symbol of Aaronic Priesthood and Eagle is Melchizedek.
12 Mar 1984. Solution to Mayan Calendar Remainder [0:41]. If x congruent to a mod 20, b mod 13 and c mod 365 then x = 8541a + 14600b + 14820 c mod 18980.
14 Mar 1984 Reed and Arrow are Synonymous Glyphs [0:43]. Make a table of my favorite Mixtec representations.