8.12.3-4. CONFLAGRATION

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____CONFLAGRATION

>><COMET.VENUS> Beyond Bauer [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon II:6 (1991) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Beyond Bauer - Ev Cochrane
_Nothing is easier than to judge what has substance and quality; to comprehend it is is harder; and what is hardest is to combine both functions and produce an account of it. (Hegel) It has been over forty years since the publication of Worlds in Collision and the world still awaits a comprehensive appraisal of Velikovsky's thesis of planetary catastrophism. Despite the fact that the past decade has found a rash of books proclaiming that "Velikovsky is dead," signs abound that the obituary notice was premature. Scientists covering the recent Magellan probe have expressed their surprise that Venus appears especially "youthful" and bears all the signs of still having a volatile geology replete with widespread volcanism. The Voyager probe, similarly, provided equally dramatic evidence that the satellites of Saturn and Jupiter have been subjected to tremendous forces consistent with the great cataclysms described by Velikovsky; while the giant planets themselves displayed wildly turbulent atmospheres and complex ring-systems suggestive of recent development. No doubt the forthcoming
... threatening to mankind that overt reminders of them are suppressed, though they are described in more or less veiled form in common legends and traditions. The refusal to see descriptions of these actual catastrophes in the ancient writings is a result of psychological suppression, of collective amnesia; (4) The catastrophes resulted from near approaches of heavenly bodies to the earth; (5) Legends of gods fighting and courting reflect actual encounters between heavenly bodies; (6) The major catastrophes resulted from near approaches of a comet, which produced world ____conflagration, a long period of darkness, floods, hurricanes; the duration of the year was altered (it was at one time exactly 360 days); the earth's axis was tilted, or its rotation slowed, during Joshua's miracle; electromagnetic forces were important; (7) The comet settled into orbit around the sun as the planet Venus; (8) There is a continuing terror of comets among mankind as a result of these unconsciously remembered events; (9) The catastrophes can be used to synchronize the histories of

>>.<> Venus in Ancient Myth and Language: Part Two [Aeon Journal]
_From: The Cataclysm (Aeon) I:1 (Jan 1988) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Venus in Ancient Myth and Language - Ev Cochrane
_In this study we will begin a survey of the various Indo-European languages with a view towards reconstructing the original significance of certain traditions associated with the Latin goddess Venus. As such, this study should be seen as forming a supplement to the researches of David Talbott and myself on the mythology surrounding Venus, where it was argued that the cult of the celebrated Mother Goddess can hardly be separated from the recent history of the planet Venus. It is a curious fact, one little noticed by the scholarly community as a whole, that the vast majority of the world's great goddesses were identified with the planet Venus. This is the case with the Sumerian Inanna, Babylonian Ishtar, Canaanite Astarte, Egyptian Isis, and Greek Aphrodite, for example. (1) Following the lead of Immanuel Velikovsky, who, in Worlds in Collision, proposed that the planet Venus had recently assumed a comet-like orbit, Talbott and I attempted
... material pouring from the dragon's mouth. This situation recalls the Mesopotamian description of Inanna, where, as a fire-breathing dragon, she rained down "venom" upon the inhabitants of Sumer. The Exaltation of Inanna describes the goddess as follows: "Like a dragon you have deposited venom on the land." (57) For our thesis here it is significant that the word translated as "venom" -- us -- can also signify poison or fire. The reference, quite clearly, is to some type of celestial
____conflagration. J. V. Wilson, for example, a prominent Sumerologist who devoted a book to the cataclysmic circumstances of Inanna's rampage, translated the previous passage as: "In the form of the great Serpent you have deposited poison across the land." (58) Similar anomalies will be found in other languages as well. The Norse eitr, for example -- signifying "venom" or "poison" -- is cognate with eit, "fire." (59) The range of meanings associated with the

>>x.Velikovsky and Oedipus [Aeon Journal]
7) Jastrow, "Sun and Saturn," Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archeologie Orientale 7 (1909), p. 165. 89. (p.29 #8) E. Cochrane, "Apollo and the Planet Mars," AEON I:1, pp. 4-5. 90. (p.29 #9) See the analysis of the Erra myth in E. Cochrane, "The Poem of Erra," AEON 1:5. As was the case with Ares during his rampage through Thebes, Erra's assault was accompanied by
____conflagration. Note also that Erra's usurpation of the royal insignia of the king of the gods is not unlike Oedipus' theft of Laius' sword and belt. 91. (p.30 #1) G. de Santillana and H. von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill (Boston, 1977), p. 176. 92. (p.30 #2) These heroes have been dealt with in several unpublished essays soon to see publication in AEON Next to Oedipus, perhaps, it is Samson who is the most famous of the blind heroes

>>c.<FIRE.CAT> Natural Catastrophes During Bronze Age Civilisations [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon V:1 (Nov 1997) Home¦ Issue Contents Second SIS Cambridge Conference
_Natural Catastrophes During Bronze Age Civilisations: Archaeological, Geological, Astronomical and Cultural Perspectives - July 11 to July 13, 1997: Fitzwilliam College: Cambridge: UK - A Report by Birgit C. Liesching
_Preliminary Remarks
_If the Portland World Conference sponsored by Kronia Communications in January of 1997 provided a surfeit of possible planetary scenarios, each more preposterous than the previous one, the Second Cambridge Conference was deliberately set up to by-pass any planetary possibilities. One speaker even appeared to deny that any catastrophes of an extraterrestrial nature were required to cause the destructions attested in the Near and Middle East. The Conference was a worldwide event, with attendees and speakers from as far away as Australia, South Africa, Hawaii, Japan, Canada, the USA, even Russia, and various Continental European countries in addition to the bulk who came from the UK. There were about 100 attendees, of whom 66 had booked for the whole conference. Including the speakers, maximum overall attendance would have
... proved to be the prime revelation of the entire conference. The pictures she showed, and the conclusions she drew, were stunning. Essentially, Courty reported that, ***in several excavation sites on which she had worked, such as Tell Leilan in North-East Syria, a "volcanic" deposit of tephra up to 2 meters thick was found. There is no suitable candidate for having deposited such a "volcanic" layer, neither at any of the individual sites nor, more importantly, over such a vast distance (she spoke of such deposits having been found hundreds of miles apart). Chemical analysis indicated that the deposit was of a different structure from volcanic tephra: It more resembles meteor debris. Various types of minerals have been found in the stratum, forming different sand-like grains. They are mixed in with a burnt occupation layer, mud-brick debris or a burnt surface in the virgin soil. This was also the first time I had ever heard of digging outside an archaeological area, so that here we have an analysis of the soil that indicates a ____conflagration not only of the buildings -- everything around the towns was scorched as well. No tektites were discovered, but glass of non-artificial origin was found in the virgin soil. Unlike the Euphrates and Jordan Valleys, there is no evidence of such deposits in India, where Courty also worked. Initially, Courty had dated the mysterious stratum to the end of the Akkadian Empire. Having reconsidered all the evidence, she has now come to the conclusion that the event needs to be assigned to the end of the "Early Dynastic

>>x.Discussion [Aeon Journal]
of what would be expected and is capable of being readily explained by other less extravagant processes. The Pleistocene extinctions and climactic changes do not require an inversion and neither does the draining of Lakes Missoula and Bonneville. Regarding the extinctions of the mammoths and other mega-fauna, I withdraw my remarks in KRONOS VII:4 (1982), pp. 66-83, in favor of William White's rejoinder in the three issues of KRONOS XI (1985-6). I consider it significant that the Greenland ice does not show any sign of the titanic ____conflagration, described by Sanderson in 1960, that supposedly accompanied the instantaneous extinction of the mammoth. I also recommend Jared Diamond's discussion of the demise of the mammoth in the June 1987 Discover, pp. 82-88, in which he explains how selective killing of males could lead to extinction without ever coming close to a 100% kill rate in any local area. The best physical evidence for an inversion would be uniquely related to one, e.g., formations on earth reminiscent of the tidally-induced bulge or some other mass concentration that enabled

>><ICE.MELT> An Allerød Conflagration? [Catastrophism Geology]
_From: Catastrophist Geology Year 2 No. 1 (June 1977) Home¦ Issue Contents
_An Allerød Conflagration? (COMMENTS ON APOPHORETA-II)
_I think that the basic point I made in my 1975 paper in SCIENCE was not the behavior of Globorotalia inflata but the huge ice melting that took place about 11,600 years ago. Question: did the ***ice melt by surging under its own weight (mechanical collapse) and therefore temperature rose (Alleröd), OR did temperature rise and therefore ice melted? If the latter alternative is correct, what produced the extremely rapid temperature rise? Something unusual, in any case, seems to have happened at that time. I have now run a second core from the Gulf of Mexico which confirms what we had previously found. Cesare Emiliani, Department of Geology University of Miami Miami, Florida, USA. P.S. I have ordered a subscription to CATASTROPHIST GEOLOGY for our department. I am sorry but I was really being light-hearted; the key word in the passage you quote is "half-seriously". I put the remark

>>.<> Paleo-Calcinology: Destruction by Fire in Pre-historic and Ancient Times Part I [Kronos]
_From: Kronos Vol. II No. 1 (August 1976) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Paleo-Calcinology: Destruction by Fire in Pre-historic and Ancient Times Part I - Alfred De Grazia - Copyright© 1975 by Alfred de Grazia
_[Note* This paper is an expanded version of one that was first presented on June 18, 1974 before the international symposium -- Velikovsky and the Recent History of the Solar System -- held at McMaster Univ., Hamilton. Ontario.
_Scientists probing the subsoil in their attempts to build up the record of prehistoric and ancient humanity have paid little attention to ashes and other evidences of high heat and ____conflagration that they have encountered. We would agree with Claude F. A. Schaeffer who wrote in 1948 that "Our inquiry has often been made difficult by the rarity in most reports of observations on beds of destruction... some reporters have regarded these beds as a nuisance or of little interest."(1) The recent excavation of settlements of Minoan times, buried beneath or affected by the tephra of the exploded volcano of ancient Thera/Santorini, did possess the broader perspective that Schaeffer sought. Marinatos and others introduced research

>>3. The Saturn Problem [SIS C&C Review]
From: SIS Chronology& Catastrophism Review 2000:1 "Proceedings of the SIS Silver Jubilee Event" Home¦ Issue Contents
_The Saturn Problem by Peter J. James
_Peter James describes himself as a 'generalist' in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. He graduated in Ancient History and Archaeology at Birmingham University and pursued postgraduate research in Ancient History at London University. Peter has published numerous articles on ancient chronology, technology and the history of science, in both academic and popular journals. He is the principal author of Centuries of Darkness, author of The Sunken Kingdom (1995) and co-author (with Nick Thorpe) of Ancient Inventions (1994) and Ancient Mysteries (1999). For many years Editor of the SIS Review, he is now an honorary member of the Society.
... Polar Configuration and the putative escape of the Earth. The other side of the coin is that while they have quite rightly eschewed Velikovsky's belief that Venus and Mars caused terrestrial catastrophes in the 15th and 8th centuries BC, they have at the same time ignored the mounting evidence for global disasters in prehistoric and historic times. After Velikovsky, recent research in geology, archaeology and related disciplines has shown that there were indeed many catastrophic events in recent prehistory. The following cases are conspicuous in being supported by hard scientific evidence: The Alleröd ____conflagration near the end of the Ice Age which may have wiped out the Pleistocene mega-fauna. Though this has only recently argued by geologist Han Kloosterman [28, my feeling is that this brilliant insight will shortly become commonplace in our understanding of the transition to the Holocene. The catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea during the Neolithic, as argued by the geologist/oceanographer team Ryan and Pitman [29. The massive upheavals and climate change which destroyed the Early Bronze Age civilisations of the Near East (c. 2300BC conventional dating). Initially explored by archaeologist Euan MacKie on the basis of radiocarbon evidence [30, the case for a global event at this date was developed in a series of pioneering articles by engineer Moe Mandelkehr [31. Mainstream archaeology has now accepted this 'event' [32, though it yet has to embrace an exo-terrestrial cause, such as the cometary debris model long argued by Mandelkehr. The mini-catastrophe which ended the Late Bronze Age with earthquakes and climate change- discussed by this speaker in earlier publications [33. In 1995 I suggested that a 'Clubian' phase of meteorite impact may have been the cause. (Further publication on this research is forthcoming.) Yet there seems to be no room in the Saturnist model for any of these events. They barely mention them, except to dismiss their importance. In place of historical catastrophism, the Saturnists offer one major event within the memory of the human race- the break-up of proto-Saturn. Yet even with this one event they have yet to clearly identify it archaeologically. So where is the catastrophe?
<<<See FireStorm File>>>

>>.<> Puzzles of Prehistory [The Velikovskian]
_From: The Velikovskian Vol 1 No 3 (1993) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Puzzles of Prehistory (1) - Roger W. Wescott
_In its most literal sense, prehistory is the record of everything that happened prior to the beginning of documentation. It follows that the origin of the universe, of our galaxy, and of the solar system are among the puzzles of prehistory. So are the origin of terrestrial life, of the animal kingdom and of the various zoological taxa to which the human family belongs --vertebrates, mammals and primates. In practice, however, prehistory is generally considered the predocumentary record of humanity. Humanity, in turn, is construed as meaning the family Hominidae, especially the genus Homo, and, above all, the species sapiens. In this essay, I will focus primarily on that part of prehistory which covers the period of human existence. But, because our species, like all others, is embedded in a space-time matrix, I will draw, as need arises, on the records of both the pre-human and the human
... that individual death was neither feared nor regretted.) After this situation ended due to the destruction of the "lesser sun," the Earth and its inhabitants fell from the "higher sky" into a "lower sky." (In scientific terms, the Earth was catapulted from what are now called the Jovian planets into a closer solar orbit. It tilted and began to rotate, producing diurnal and seasonal cycles.) The sky and its inhabitants were then periodically transformed. When that happened, the Earth suffered flooding,
____conflagration, tremors, freezes, bombardments and detonations, accompanied by grievous loss of life, both human and non-human. (The nova that shifted the Earth's orbit shifted that of several other planets. Before they settled into the orbits which we now observe, the planets made repeated, close approaches to one another, with devastating results.)
_CULTURAL EVOLUTION AS RECAPITULATION
_After the loss of their Pliocene paradise, our forebears were so frightened, shocked and bewildered that they dissociated themselves not only from nature around them but also from nature within

>>.<> SIS Silver Jubilee Conference: Abstracts [SIS Internet Digest]
_From: SIS Internet Digest 1999:2 (Oct 1999) Home¦ Issue Contents
_SIS Silver Jubilee Conference[ Full papers here www.knowledge.co.uk/sis/silver/
_Incorporating a Conference on Chronology & Catastrophism At Easthampstead Park, Berks. Fri 17th- Sun 19th September 1999 Organised by The Society for Interdisciplinary Studies.
_ABSTRACTS Harold Tresman: Introduction: The Impact Velikovsky Had.
_We are actually a little premature in celebrating this special anniversary and I am feeling quietly confident that we will survive the few months needed to make twenty five years. You will all remember that in the 'dark ages' of the sixties and seventies we had only a couple of books by a rather unusual author with some unusual ideas that seemed to stand all accepted scientific knowledge on its head. The author was Immanuel Velikovsky. In the 70s there was Pensée, where there were other like minded people, we isolated Brits were not the only ones. In 1978 we held our first conference at Glasgow, an event welcomed by Velikovsky. A discussion I attended a short
... the theories espoused by the Saturnists actually catastrophist? Apart from vague assertions that the break-up of a hypothetical polar configuration occurred in prehistoric times, they have never presented any dated geological, environmental or archaeological evidence for the effects that such a catastrophe would have had on the Earth. Far from providing a catastrophist model, the Saturnists seem to be increasingly settling into a crypto-uniformitarian position. Recent research in geology and archaeology, post-Velikovsky, has shown that there were indeed many catastrophic events in recent prehistory. To mention a few: The Allerod ____conflagration near the end of the Ice Age, as argued by Han Kloosterman, which wiped out the Pleistocene mega-fauna. Though this may be news even to catastrophists, it is almost certain that this brilliant insight will shortly become commonplace in our understanding of the transition to the Holocene. The catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea during the Neolithic, as argued by the geologist/oceanographer team Ryan and Pitman. The massive upheavals and climate change which destroyed the Early Bronze Age civilizations of the Near East (c. 2300 BC conventional dating

>>.<> The Great Terror [Kronos]
_From: Kronos Vol. I No. 1 (Spring 1975) Home¦ Issue Contents
_The Great Terror - Zvi Rix
_The Roots of Terror
_In a letter to the journal Pensee, Mr. Douglas Den Uyl raised an important point of inquiry regarding a possible relationship between the political structure and behavior of ancient governments and the natural order or disorder of things. "In recent issues of Pensee and in Velikovsky's own work ostensibly little, if anything has been said which would interest the student of politics. Yet I believe that certain questions can arise from Velikovsky's work concerning this matter. What is most directly suggested to me is a question concerning the type of regime (and its actions or policies) and the stability of the natural order. By today's standards. the regimes of very ancient cultures would be considered most oppressive and immoderate." Den Uyl goes on to suggest that "a clue to types of regimes existing in very ancient times could come from the fact of an unstable natural order. We notice today, for example, that unstable social situations
... confronted with this problem, chose first to define and then explore the background of the term "terror." The ultimate success of such a venture, however, depends upon the depth and open-mindedness of the study. The emotional roots of terror are not to be found in the surface soil of consciousness for they were long ago deeply implanted in the psychological fabric of mankind's makeup; and the nourishing sources of this terror have repeatedly been intimated by Velikovsky. "One of the most terrifying events in the past of mankind was the ____conflagration of the world, accompanied by awful apparitions in the sky,... a primeval chaos bombarded by flying hot stones, the roaring of the cleft earth, and the loud hissing of tornadoes of cinders."(3) Nevertheless, the human mind is all too inclined to evade troublesome and fearful memories. Plato was already aware of this psychological problem when he states in the Laws (III) that "at any rate they seem to have been strangely forgetful of the catastrophe"; or when he narrates through

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.<> The Great Comet Venus [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon III:5 (May 1994) Home¦ Issue Contents
_The Great Comet Venus - David Talbott
_Venus in myth and science
_The planet Venus is Earth's closest planetary neighbor, moving on an orbit 108 million kilometers (67 million miles) from the Sun. Modern astronomers have always believed that Venus, evolving within its own enclave in the solar system, has followed its present path for countless millions of years. Working under this assumption most planetary scientists believed-- until the 1960's-- that Venus might be very much like the Earth, and many scientists speculated freely on the possibilities of life on Venus. (1) But the space age brought more than a few surprises. Instead of an earth-like environment, astronomers discovered an incredibly violent planet, a seething, volcanic cauldron-- and a host of paradoxes yet to be unraveled. The mythical Venus-image presents many paradoxes as well. In the popular imagination, Venus means something like "the love goddess," and many authorities connect the very name of the planet-goddess with feminine charm.
on widespread myths and images of the planet Venus, all suggesting that in earlier times Venus was anything but a settled planet. He claimed that Venus moved on an elliptical orbit intersecting the orbit of the Earth. And it acquired the form of a comet, with a luminous tail or train of gas, dust, and stone. On at least two occasions, the earth passed close enough to the Venus "comet" to be disturbed in its motions, and a rain of celestial debris descended on our planet. This celestial
____conflagration, Velikovsky claimed, entered global mythology as the attack upon the world by a cosmic serpent or dragon (and/or overwhelming wars of the gods). The Velikovsky controversy is important today for more than one reason. To begin with, it offers an excellent study in scientific intolerance. Even as Worlds in Collision topped the national bestseller list, the scientific elite, led by the respected astronomer Harlow Shapley, threatened a boycott of the publisher Macmillan, and its collective voice was loud and fierce enough to cause the publisher

.<> Pleiongaea: A Myth for all Seasons [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon II:3 (1990) Home¦ Issue Contents
_ Pleiongaea: A Myth for all Seasons - Frederic B. Jueneman
_Protasis
_I supplement my livelihood by speculation. Most of these speculative excursions are in the firm sciences, which my jaded appetite constrains me from calling "hard" because each and every generation has made jelly out of the theories and hypotheses of the preceding generation's efforts, leaving very little worthy of the adjective hard. And too many conjectures expended on the paradigms of the so-called soft sciences are nothing more than a milk sop. I would like to carry on this noble tradition-- in all seriousness-- with a discussion of Pleiongaea and its ramifications. (1) Pleiongaea (plee -'on-jee-uh) is a neologism, which comes from Greek roots meaning literally "more Earth." But just how much is more we shall explore in a devious manner in this brief essay. Mindset To demonstrate how the mind works its deviousness, I've personally slept or wool-gathered through many a seminar which either couldn't hold my attention or mangled the
... diamonds, it is expected that neither organic nor inorganic chemicals will react in textbook fashion: the usual oxidation-reduction processes might even reverse their anticipated roles. With a gradual cooling of a youthful Pleiongaea and its heavy insulating atmospheric blanket, a critical stage would be eventually reached where the metastable mixture of primordial carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane would lose its heterogeneous equilibrium and become unstable. At such a time, the atmosphere, catalyzed by temperature, pressure, and airborne particulates, would ignite in an exo-thermic polymerization reaction. The resulting
____conflagration throughout the planetary air-mass would literally blow a considerable quantity of the atmospheric overburden into space, in effect causing a planetary nova. If there were a series of such reactions, as other critical stages were attained, heavier and heavier petroleum products would be produced, contributing to protracted oily rains over several geological epochs, and we shall discuss the textbook chemistry of these reactions presently. At the same time, the pressure wavefronts produced by such conflagratory explosions would compact and distort the surface of Pleiongaea to form grotesque continental rises and oceanic

.<> The Death of Heracles [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon II:5 (1991) Home¦ Issue Contents
_ The Death of Heracles - Ev Cochrane
_Sophocles' Trachiniae is conventionally dated to 440-430 BCE, and as such it represents the oldest extant tragedy dealing with the cycle of Heracles. (1) The play also forms the most complete account of the events leading up to the hero's death, and thus must figure prominently in any discussion of the hero's mythus. Opinions of the play vary enormously. It has been called "one of the boldest and most powerful creations of Greek dramatic poetry." (2) Other critics, however, have not been so kind. Sorum called it "a troublesome play." (3) Its standard epithets, according to Segal, include "inferior, imperfect, very poor and insipid, gloomy, dark, puzzling, odd, nebulous, curious, bitter, difficult." (4) The play takes its name from its setting, Trachis, a city in the Malian plain, close to the border of Aetolia and Thessaly, to whence
a small sampling of this mythic pool. We have elsewhere had reason to allude to the Heracles-like hero of Ossetic Russia. (96) There the strong-armed hero, able to uproot stout trees with his bare hands, is known by the name of Batraz. The immolation of Batraz occurs early in his career; indeed several traditions report that the hero was born enveloped in fire. In obvious torment, the incandescent-babe implores: "Faster, faster! Fetch me water! I feel a flame of fire in me, an inextinguishable
____conflagration which devours me..." (97) To alleviate the child's suffering his elders attempt to dunk him in vats of water: "Like a spout filling everything with flame, the child -- a child of blazing steel -- drops headlong to the seven cauldrons below; but they are unable to cool him." It is only with great difficulty that the hero's aunt eventually succeeds in cooling him. Thereafter the hero assumes a steel-like form, his body having been tempered by the waters. It can hardly

.<> Morning Star II [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon IV:2 (Aug 1995) Home¦ Issue Contents
_ Morning Star II - Dwardu Cardona
_HELEL BEN SHAHAR
_In Hebrew tradition, the Morning Star was known as Helel. This entity, on whom we shall now focus our attention, is mainly known from a passage in the Book of Isaiah where it is written: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Helel, ben-Shahar! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! "For thou hast said in thy heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of El, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north'. "'I will ascend above the heights of the 'âb; I will be like Elyon'. "Yet thou shalt be brought down to sheol, to the recess of the bor." (1) Let me begin by stating that whether this passage is to be assigned to Isaiah him- self or, as others maintain, to his contemporaries or
to as the Morning Star, but the implication of his character is clear enough. MULLYAN AND WAIJUNGARI Although the Australian hero mentioned above is not identified as the celestial body of our present interest, the Morning Star and Mars are not unknown to the Aborigines of that land. And it is to the mythological lore of these primitive peoples that I wish to turn next in an endeavor to strengthen the case presented above. The trailing ejecta discharged by both Venus and Mars as they dropped from the Saturnian center took the form of a
____conflagration which was said to have engulfed the gods' domain. Thus a myth from eastern Australia tells of Mullyan, the eagle-hawk, who built his nest at the top of a very high Yarran tree. There Mullyan was burned up with all his relatives and, while their charred bones fell to the ground, Mullyan returned to the sky as the Morning Star. (94) That the "very high Yarran tree" is a version of the polar column as the cosmic tree, there would seem to be little doubt.

x.The Rise of Blood Sacrifice [Aeon Journal]
. Ancient wars could usually be recognized by the remains of arrow points, pieces of armour, and intentional breaches of walls which were later repaired. Therefore, Schaeffer opted for local earthquakes. Yet, he already nourished doubts because in Troy, some 900 km away from Ugarit as the crow flies, destruction levels were excavated which belonged to the same periods as in Ugarit. No common, or garden-variety, earthquake could simultaneously level cities 900 km apart. Troy II, contemporary with Early Ugarit II, "perished in a vast
____conflagration from which no buildings escaped ruin." "What actually happened to bring about the burning of the whole establishment," wrote Schaeffer, "is still an unsolved mystery." (65) At St. John's College in the early forties, Schaeffer could muster a long list of excavation reports whose authors also reported destruction levels which they usually attributed to earthquakes or enemy attacks. From the material then available to him, the longest aerial line between simultaneously destroyed cities he could establish was 2-300 km between Troy and Tepe Hissar

.<> Morning Star* [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon IV:1 (Apr 1995) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Morning Star* - Dwardu Cardona *See note* below
_It seems that the belief that "the planets had always been deities," a belief that, according to one critic, was "asserted by Velikovsky and pressed more recently by Cardona," (1) is still being challenged. This belief has been called a "big lie that drastically oversimplifies ancient religion." "According to A. B. Cook," this critic continues, "Zeus and Kronos were originally general sky gods whose nature underwent a long evolution with their names becoming associated with planets at a late date." So often has this allegation been made that I am growing tired of having to counteract it. In various publications, I have repeatedly demonstrated how, among the Greeks, the gods' identity with the planets was forgotten, only to be rediscovered by Aristotle. (2) Those who have tried to fault Aristotle on this issue had no reason to. The issue, however,
to the Earth and was thus seen from terrestrial perspective as growing larger in size while emitting, and/or attracting from the Earth, an outflow of iridescent material that was visualized as a cosmic mountain of vast proportions. So memorable was this event that, in the Near East, it continued to be commemorated as the Leila Nakhla, or Night of the Drop, well into the historic era. (119) Concurrent with this episode, or shortly thereafter, Venus was ejected from the common axis of rotation amid a celestial
____conflagration. And it is this ____conflagration, seen atop the cosmic mountain, that accounts for the mythological burning to death of Quetzalcoatl atop a funeral pyre. It is the ejection of the Venerian orb from its Saturnian center that went down in Mesoamerican myth as the ejection of Quetzalcoatl's heart. For that reason, the Mesoamericans remembered the planet Venus as having been the excrement (but also sweat, spit, or vomit) of the sun, (120) a disclosure that resulted in Vollemaere's theory that the planet had indeed been ejected

x.Clashing Magnetic Fields [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon II:3 (1990) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Clashing Magnetic Fields - Donald W. Patten and Samuel R. Windsor
_INTRODUCTION
_The origin and repeated fluctuations of Earth's geomagnetic field are the issues of this essay. The origin of this field was the repeated, cyclic close encounters with a planet member of the Solar System. These ancient flybys are believed to have been very close and their cycle so regular that the same side of Earth was presented to the passing planet in alternating passes. The smaller planet, 11% of Earth's mass, deeply invaded Earth's gravitational field. Simultaneously the close encounters featured a sudden, intense and swift distortion of the two planets' magnetic fields. Additional recharging and polarity reversals were "created" by the "passing by" of the massive body. (1) Most of the electricity generated and polar reversals however, may in time be attributed to just the fact of one body passing close by another. Ronald Hatch, a celestial physicist, will soon publish a treatise on the subject of gravity and relativity
system, the orbits of both the Earth and Mars had their ancient perihelions at the January 7 orbit position, in the celestial zone of Capricorn. Their two aphelions always occurred 180 degrees opposite, in July (in Cancer). Cancer and Capricorn were the two zones the ancients recorded as being the "fear" zones. Berossos, the interpreter of Belus, affirms that the whole issue is brought about by the course of the planets. So positive is he on the point that he assigns a definite date both for the ____conflagration and the deluge. All that the Earth inherits will, he assures us, be consigned to flame when the planets, which now move in orbits, all assemble in Cancer, so arranged in one row that a straight line may pass through their spheres. When the same gathenag tales place in Capricorn, then we are in danger of the deluge. Midsummer is at present brought about by the former, midwinter by the latter. They are zodiacal signs of great power, seeing that they are the determining influences in the

x.Timna and Egyptian Dates [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon II:5 (1991) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Timna and Egyptian Dates - Gunnar Heinsohn
_I. Timna's stratigraphy and its inconsistencies In a recent study published together with Heribert Illig (1) the claim was put forward that the enigmatic absence of iron findings in Egypt during the period from 1200 to 600 BCE, and the no less enigmatic premature use of iron in the Chalcolithic (Copper Stone Age) and the Bronze Age (3700 to 1200 BCE) is due to unscholarly-- pseudo-astronomical and Bible Fundamentalist-- chronological constructs rather than to stratigraphic evidence. The same study suggested that the first stage of Egyptian High culture (Pre-and Early Dynastic, 3100 to 2890 BCE) was brought about by Asian invaders who did not enter the Nile Valley before the second third of the first millennium BCE. Archaeologically it can be shown that these Early Dynastic strata belonged to the same stratigraphic horizon as the Hyksos period in Egypt (c. 1675 to 1550 BCE), Israel, and Syro-Lebanon (so-called Middle Bronze Age), as well as that
" (17) From all this evidence it becomes obvious that it was not the archaeological material in situ but the preconceived chronological framework of modern Egyptologists that forced highly professional excavators to come up with their verdict "of course totally unconnected." In actual fact, Timna's occupation of Stratum V is continued in Stratum IV. However, this continuity does not imply that Timna's history between Stratum V and Stratum IV was peaceful and/or uneventful. It cannot be ruled out that the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age Stratum V suffered some ____conflagration before the triggering of new developments in Stratum IV which brought with it the earliest temple: "The interface of Stratum V was often hard trodden or burnt." (18) Even if one was willing to concede that some time may have elapsed between Stratum V and Stratum IV, the continuity of material culture and the absence of a wind-borne sand layer would require it to have been very brief indeed. The accommodation of one and a half millennia -- as determined by conventional Egyptian chronology -- certainly has to be
... raised by the absence of any aeolic layer and by the discovery that "New Kingdom small finds did in fact infiltrate down into Stratum V." (3) Stratum V Chalcolithic to Early Bronze I c. 3200 to 3000 BCE Bedrock originally covered with sand and ____loess
_The excavators of Timna are known for their archaeological expertise which, inter alia, is exhibited by their presentation of material proofs for gaps and cessations of settlement. Thus, they note that after the abandonment of Roman Timna (Stratum I) around 235 AD " ... most thoroughly excavated sites on the very border between Egypt and Asia is the Egyptian mining temple of Timna, whose most recent excavation report was published by Benno Rothenberg and colloborators in 1978. (2) The Timna Valley lies alongside the Wadi Arabah, some 30 kilometers north of the modern towns of Elath (Israel) and Aqabah (Jordan) on the Red Sea. The results of the Timna-Site 200 excavation will be applied here to put to test the aforementioned chronological statements. Site 200, with the Egyptian Hathor Temple, was

x.Cosmic Catastrophism [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon II:6 (1991) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Cosmic Catastrophism (1) - William Stiebing Jr.
_A large comet or asteroid hurtles through space on a collision course with the earth. As the impact nears, the earth is racked by cataclysms: Volcanoes erupt simultaneously; earthquakes shatter what was once firm land; mountain-high tidal waves destroy continents and change the earth's topography. A science fiction plot? Not according to many authors who have presented a similar scenario as historical fact over the years. A supposed collision or near-collision between earth and an asteroid, comet, or planet in ancient times has been used variously as the explanation for the destruction of Atlantis (2), the Deluge recorded in Genesis (3), or the miraculous events connected with the Israelite Exodus from Egypt. (4) Immanuel Velikovsky has provided the most detailed arguments for such cosmic catastrophism, and his theories have a large and very vocal following among the general public. Worlds in Collision? Immanuel Velikovsky was a medical doctor (with a specialty in psychoanalysis)
... catastrophes. Velikovsky does credit some destruction of ancient cities to the cataclysms, (79) but the powerful forces involved would lead one to expect more signs of wholesale devastation around the globe. Minoan sites on Crete were destroyed around 1450 B.C., but most Egyptian and Mesopotamian buildings were not. There is also no evidence of widespread destruction in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. in the Near East, Europe, or the New World. Individual sites were destroyed during those periods, but there are no signs of the universal ____conflagration one would expect from Velikovsky's writings. However, Velikovsky negates some of this archaeological evidence by questioning the dating of the remains (see "Reconstructing Ancient Chronology" below). Finally, radiocarbon dating does not support Velikovsky's claims. (80) He has questioned the validity of this scientific dating method because it was based on the assumption that the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere did not change over time. Velikovsky's theory of cosmic catastrophes, however, suggests that new carbon (including some C14) was added to the atmosphere

.<> Astral Kingship [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon III:2 (May 1993) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Astral Kingship - Lewis M. Greenberg - See note* below.
_KINGSHIP AND THE PLANETARY GODS
_Throughout the millennia of ancient civilizations, one can recognize a consistent pattern in the politico-religious behavior and dynastic policy, propaganda, and imagery of its rulers. For one, as each new potentate ascended the throne-- regardless of region-- a deliberate effort was made to acquire the complete earthly as well as the full spiritual power contained within the realm. The local gods were adored and embraced. To do otherwise would have been insensate. Divine power flowed from above, essential for the majesty of the new sovereign; and the source of that power was not arbitrary. It emanated from the greatest of the planetary deities, who showered their unqualified blessings only upon those terrestrial vicars deemed worthy. Who were these planetary deities and why were they considered the dispensers of divine authority? With a choice of gods and a multitude of celestial bodies to choose from, why were Saturn, Jupiter,
... Zeus and obtained an island which was just beginning to emerge from the waves. He called it Rhodes after the nymph Rhode, whom he loved." (61) The Colossus of Rhodes, the renowned work of the sculptor Chares, was a statue of Helios and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. (62) Helios was also associated with his son Phaethon who unsuccessfully attempted to drive the flaming chariot of his father until Zeus slew the youth with a thunderbolt, thereby saving the Earth and mankind from further ____conflagration and ruin. In another variation of the story, Phaethon ultimately became the Morning-Evening Star -- Venus. (63) The various traditions of the world tell of several different ages which came to a violent end. (64) In the rabbinical conception of ages, seven heavens and seven earths were created, and we belong to the seventh -- Heled -- which "is separated from the foregoing by abyss, chaos, and water." (65) Could Heled refer to that period of time which followed

x.The Israelite Conquest of Canaan [Aeon Journal]
_From: Aeon I:4 (July 1988) Home¦ Issue Contents
_The Israelite Conquest of Canaan - Gunnar Heinsohn
_Abstract: Archaeological sites in the land of Israel, exhibiting some of the finest stratigraphies in the world, were expected to yield four major groups of strata following the Chalcolithic and prior to the Hellenistic Age: for the period of (i) the Canaanites, (ii) the Israelites, (iii) the Assyrians, and (iv) the Persians. Surprisingly, though, all these four periods are either lacking in unambiguous layers or strata assigned to them, or are too few to cover the centuries over which these eras are believed to have lasted. The surprise did not end there: Where the nations known from written sources left no undisputed traces, three rich strata groups on top of each other were dug up and dated to the 3rd and the first half of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. The older ones were assigned to two different nations completely unknown to this very day, though their cultic material remains are remarkably suggestive of the
... Chalcolithic Chalcolithic About 3200 B.C. Field III: circular structure in Area 5 and Pits in Area 3. STRATIGRAPHY OF AI (et-Tell, 15km north of Jerusalem) TEXTBOOK DATES AND PERIODS STRATA EVIDENCE DATES AND HISTORICAL PERIODS (Tentative) -3100 to -3000 "Early Bronze" IB, chalcolithic vilage I Up to -1050 Chalcolithic village -3000 Destruction II Around -1050 Destruction -3000 "Early Bronze" IC, 1 st stage of high culture of an unknown people. Growth of same culture. III -1050 Early dynastic Canaanites down to a cataclysmic
____conflagration around -930 after which Israelites invade the place already in ruin and call it Ai (= "ruin"). to -2860 IV to -2860 to -2720 Continuation of culture until catastrophe after which an unknown people invade city. V -930 -2720 Highest urban flourishing of an unknown nation in the city whose original name is also unknown. "Early Bronze" IIA. "Early Bronze" IIIB unknown nation. "Early Bronze" IIB, around -2400/2350 destruction of city by unknown aggressor in the time of Sargon of "

.<> Reconstructing the Saturn Myth [Aeon Journal]
_From: The Cataclysm (Aeon) I:1 (Jan 1988) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Reconstructing the Saturn Myth - David Talbott
_The origins of ancient mythology; the birth of the first civilizations; a violent history of the solar system: these are the primary themes of the general theory highlighted in the following pages. If the thesis is correct, then modern man has gravely misunderstood his own past and failed altogether to recognize the drama of human origins --the events by which man became man. I have called it "the theory of the Saturn myth," a rather untidy use of language perhaps, though the roots of the thesis do lie in the study of myth, and the planet Saturn does loom as a central figure in the argument. In the broadest sense, what I have proposed is an explanation of mythical phenomena as a whole. As will be immediately apparent, however, this explanation requires some extraordinary concessions from the various disciplines touched by the theory. Astronomers and astrophysicists, historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and students of ancient myth and
, whirling an awesome flame." (34) Such images as these are so common that we barely give them a second look -- even though the myths themselves cry out for an explanation. In the Norse cataclysm of Ragnarok, the wars of the gods bring a world age to an end, and this is surely one of the keys to our understanding of the archetype. The wars of the gods occur during, or as the "break" that separates one world age from another. Witness, for example, the celestial
____conflagration of Aztec thought, the catastrophic interlude between world ages. So too, in Hindu myth, the universe dissolves in flames, subsequently to be regenerated as a new world age. To the same category belong the celestial
____conflagrations separating the age of the Egyptian Osiris from the time of his son and successor Horus. That the wars of the gods might have involved major upheavals in the solar system will not be easily believed in an age accustomed to clock-like uniformity of planetary motions. Yet there is no escaping the fact that the

c.<ARCH.EVID> An Integrated Model for an Earthwide Event at 2300 BC. Part I: The Archaeological Evidence [SIS C&C Review]
_From: SIS Review Vol V No 3 (1980/81) Home¦ Issue Contents
_An Integrated Model for an Earthwide Event at 2300 BC.
_Part I: The Archaeological Evidence - M. M. MANDELKEHR (c) M. M. Mandelkehr 1983
_M. M. Mandelkehr holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (University of Kansas) and an M.Sc. in Systems Engineering and Operations Research (University of Pennsylvania). He currently works in advanced radar system design.
_The work of Claude Schaeffer showing widespread destruction at archeological sites in the Near and Middle East due to catastrophic earthquakes around 2300 BC (conventional chronology) can be extended to a global level. ***Site destructions, major cultural discontinuities and movements of peoples can be shown to have occurred on an earthwide scale at this time, linked with an unusual disturbance of the Earth's crust.
_Introduction
_The mythologies of cultures around the Earth are rich sources of material which indicate the possibility of an unusual earthwide event within the past 5000 years. Similarities in the various literatures and traditions have
... a new event model which is postulated to have occurred at about 2300 BC (in the generally accepted chronology). Material in this first article is the archaeological evidence for the event; succeeding articles will cover evidence in the areas of climatology, geology, mythology and astronomy respectively. A final article will attempt to integrate all of the evidence into a cohesive cause-and-effect related configuration. The archaeological evidence sets forth two significant phenomena that took place at about 2300 BC. First, a large number of sites were destroyed, by earthquake and conflagration, over a large land area encompassing all of the known advanced cultures at that time. Second, cultural changes occurred, not only in the areas of destroyed sites, but over the entire Earth. The magnitude of these cultural changes is reflected in designated phase or age discontinuities in each of the cultural regions on the Earth as shown in the Chart overleaf. In most cases, continuous site occupancy and cultural stability existed for hundreds of years both preceding and following the discontinuities. The evidence is impressive. Schaeffer, a renowned

<GEO.EVID> Apophoreta 2 [Catastrophism Geology]
_From: Catastrophist Geology Year 1 No. 2 (Dec 1976) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Apophoreta 2
_After a banquet in ancient Greece, guests received some eatable or drinkable gifts, APOPHORETA - 'things to be carried off', to take home. On this page a column is published in which provocative hypotheses are presented. They may serve to stimulate thought and research - and the correspondence for the 'Comments' column of this journal. In their investigation of ***core samples from the Gulf of Mexico, Emiliani et al (Science 1975, 189:1083-88) discovered a section nearly two meters in thickness that yielded radiocarbon ages of about 25,000 years B.P. The section is overlain by 3.5 metres of sediment deposited in the subsequent period until the present. The section of interest contains samples with increased O18 concentration in foraminiferal shells, which according to Emiliani et al "may represent an excess of evaporation in the Gulf of Mexico". The dper part of the section revealed ... a temporary, drastic decrease in the abundance of Globorotalia Inflata. Although this could be
... on the snail faunas of the chalk sludge from one of these (the Devil's Kneading Trough in Kent). Or Michael Kerney showed that the erosion must have happened in a very short time indeed. Within the sludge there is a clear black horizon, only an inch or so thick, which has now been recognised all over southern Britain. The black colouration is due to charcoal fragments from burnt wood. In fact, at one stage in this study our thoughts ran on catastrophisms of a biblical kind and we pictured half-seriously a universal ____conflagration to account for the black band. It is more likely, however, that it represents a short period of dry climate when there were frequent brush fires. The snail fauna suggests the same thing and enabled the bed to be correlated with the ***Allerod oscillation of Denmark and northern Europe generally. This was a brief episode of climatic amelioration after the last glaciation. The charcoal made it possible to get a carbon-14 date on the deposit, giving an age of about 10,770 years before the present. This fits all over

When the Earth Nearly Died: Compelling Evidence of a Catastrophic World Change 9,500 BC [SC
_From: SIS Chronology and Catastrophism Workshop 1995 No 2 (June 1995) Home¦ Issue Contents
_When the Earth Nearly Died: Compelling Evidence of a Catastrophic World Change 9,500 BC - by D.S. Allen and J.B. Delair. (Gateway Books, 1995, £13.99 paperback)
_This is a large and meaty book, with 370 pages, a comprehensive index and an enormous bibliography. It is a sort of combination of Earth in Upheaval and Worlds in Collision but with a completely different cosmic theory from that of Velikovsky. As an update of the evidence for geological catastrophe the amount of research and detail is impressive, which makes the correspondingly skimpy use of myth and the rather wild astronomical deductions somewhat disappointing. I suppose catastrophists are awaiting the book which will at last make the establishment sit up and take notice but I am afraid this is not that book. If Clube and Napier, with their more moderate theory of massive meteorite impacts, have not yet convinced the orthodox that Earth has suffered cosmic catastrophe within historical times, then theories which postulate
... when the geologists consider a few million years ago as 'recent'. Major geological changes may well have occurred within the last few thousand years but such a use of references is not convincing. Having established their geological case the authors then turn to the mythological record of conflagration, flood, celestial disorder, terrestrial chaos, darkness, hail, fire and ice. They conclude that all this could only have been caused by the close approach of another large, cosmic body which, though comet-like in appearance, was certainly not a mere

2. Planet in Crisis: the Earth's Last 12,000 Years [SIS C&C Review]
From: SIS Chronology& Catastrophism Review 1997:2 (Apr 1998) Home¦ Issue Contents
_Planet in Crisis: the Earth's Last 12,000 Years By J.B. Delair
_Summary
_Earth's geological record is sporadically punctuated by well marked catastrophic signatures, caused either by limited activation of internal planetary mechanisms (e.g. earthquakes) generated by Earth itself, or by powerful external agencies (e.g. impacting cosmic objects) interacting with Earth to cause global disruption. Purely terrestrial catastrophes can mostly be ascribed to crustal dislocation generated by more deep seated phenomena. They exhibit anomalous juxtapositions and reactions relative to theoretically ideal planetary behaviour and appear to be legacies of an earlier (but geologically recent) cosmic intrusion. The implications for standard uniformitarianism and catastrophism are discussed. It appears that most present terrestrial disturbances are aftermath effects of the last major cosmic visitation around 11,500 years ago.
... Down the centuries precisely such a source has been repeatedly advocated to account for traditionally catastrophic events like Noah's Deluge, the loss of a primaeval Golden Age, the advent and also the demise of the Ice Age, the sudden refrigeration of the Siberian/Alaskan mammoth fauna and even the foundering of legendary realms such as Atlantis, Lyonesse, etc. [126-135. Variously identified as a great comet, an asteroid, an itinerant star, a massive meteor swarm, or a former moon- dated, equally variously, from as long ago as 25,000BC to as recently as just a few centuries before the birth of Christ- none of these agents, except the stellar candidate, seemingly possess the capacity to affect Earth to the degree that field evidence and geophysical theory demand. Nevertheless, if it was an errant star the incineration of Earth and its planetary neighbours would surely have followed but this did not occur - although widespread traditions about a vast world ____conflagration long ago suggest that a fiery end may have been threatened - so an astral agency may be dismissed. Yet even a relatively small portion of a star would possess the high electromagnetic and thermal potential required to cause internal terrestrial disruption. Indeed, only a fragment of an exploded star (nova or supernova), ejected along a trajectory traversing the solar system, seriously meets all the known requirements. This scenario, formulated on the testimony of abundant world-wide radiocarbon dating clustered around 11,500BP, has lately been advanced [136, 137, together with an indication of how and why today's apparently anomalous Earth design and behaviour patterns are legacies of just such an event. After apparently adversely affecting many of the Sun's outer planets, the postulated cosmic visitor was seemingly able to temporarily retard the rotation of Earth's mantle and lithosphere but could not halt the rotation of the inner core, due to the viscosity of the outer core.
<<<See FireStorm File>>>

.<> The Great Father [The Saturn Myth] [Books]
_II The Great Father
_Anyone attempting to trace the Saturn legend must reckon with the primordial god-figure whom ancient races celebrate as "the great father," and who is said to have first organized the heavens and founded the antediluvian kingdom of peace and plenty, the "Golden Age." While few of us today could locate Saturn in the starry sphere, the earliest astral religions insist that the planet-god was once the all-powerful ruler of heaven. But paradoxically, they also declare that he resided on earth as a great king. He was the father both of gods and men. This dual character of the great father has been the subject of a centuries-long, but unresolved debate. Was he a living ancestor subsequently exaggerated into a cosmic divinity? Or was he originally a celestial god whom later myths reduced to human proportions? For an explanation of the great father researchers look to such varied powers as the solar orb, an esteemed tribal chief, or an abstract "vegetation cycle." Almost uniformly ignored is the connection of the
mankind the fundamentals of civilization. Yama appears as the "universal lord"; Manu, as the "king of the world" or "universal legislator," to whom later monarchs traced their lineage. (20) "In the beginning," say the Upanishads, "there arose the Golden Child. As soon as born he alone was lord of all that is." (21) This was Brahma, the "god One." His prosperous epoch, however, ended in his own death and a world-destroying
____conflagration.
_Iran. Yima, the Iranian transcript of the Hindu Yama, is the patriarchal lord of mankind, the "brilliant Yima" who first introduced law and civilization to the world. His age knew "neither cold nor heat... neither age nor death." So resplendent was his rule that "the world assembled round his throne in wonder." But then (when Yima diverged from the path of justice), the Glory fled from his kingdom, and he was put to death. Thereupon, the

.<> "The Holy Land [The Saturn Myth] [Books]
V The Holy Land
_Ancient ritual the world over conceived the terrestrial ruler as the incarnation of the Universal Monarch. By the same principle each local city or kingdom became a transcript of the god-king's primeval domain. The sanctified territory on earth was laid out according to a cosmic plan, revealed in remote times. On this priority of the cosmic dwelling all major traditions concur. A celestial Sumer and Akkad preceded the organization of the actual Mesopotamian kingdoms. And such settlements as Eridu, Erech, Babylon, and Lagash took their names from a heavenly city occupied by the central sun. Every Egyptian town-- Heliopolis, Herakleopolis, Memphis, Abydos, Thebes, Hermopolis-- mirrored a prototype, a "city in which the sun shone forth in the beginning." So did Egypt as a whole, according to the ritual, reproduce the dwelling gathered together and unified by the creator. Hebrew tradition knew a heavenly Jerusalem which gave its name to the terrestrial city; and what the Hebrews claimed of their city, the Muslims claimed of Mecca. The Chinese declared their kingdom to be a copy of the celestial empire, and each capital city imitated the same plan. In unison, diverse traditions of the Near East, Europe, Asia, and the Americas recall a Holy Land par excellence, founded and ruled by the creator himself. From this Saturnian kingdom every nation took instruction in the ideals of kingship and in the proper organization of the sacred domain.
_The Mother Land
_In the creation myth the great god raised a circular plot of "earth" from the cosmic waters. The enclosure was Saturn's paradise-- the kingdom of heaven-- appearing as a vast wheel or throne turning about the stationary god.
_Saturn's Earth (1)
_In seeming reference to the fertile soil around us, the Latin poet Virgil celebrates the "mother of harvests" and "the mighty mother of men." But he gives the great goddess of fertility an intriguing title: "Saturn's Earth." Why Saturn's Earth? The curiosity increases when one notices that the Sumerian An, Enki, and Ninurta-- all identified as Saturn-- rule "in the Ekur." The translators render Ekur as "earth." (2) So also did Chinese astronomy deem Saturn the planet of the "earth," (3) while the Phoenician Saturn is said to have dwelt "in the centre of the earth." The Egyptian "earth god" is Seb (or Geb). That is, writes Budge, "the earth formed his body and was called the 'house of Seb. (4) '" But if Seb's body was the earth, why did the Greek historian Plutarch translate Seb as Kronos (Saturn)? (5) What connection of the planet Saturn and the "earth" might have justified this identity? Of course the common English translation, "earth," naturally suggests to the modern mind our planet suspended in space. But to the ancients no such detached view was possible. They knew only a terrestrial region, however large or small. In archaic ritual, the terms which experts translate as "earth" mean literally "land," "place," "province"; and the only region which the ancients considered worthy of sanctification as the "land" was their own unified state or nation-- all else belonging to the "barbarians." But every sacred "land" organized around a religious-political centre proclaimed itself a copy of the primeval dwelling in heaven. Thus the Egyptian ta, often rendered as "earth," refers first and foremost to the heavenly province of the creator-- the ta ab ("pure land"), ta nefer ("beautiful land"), ta sheta ("mysterious land"), ta ankhtet ("land of life"), or ta ur ("great land"). Such terms are synonymous with ta Tuat, the "land of the Tuat," the cosmic dwelling of Osiris or Re. In naming terrestrial Egypt ta, the Egyptians gave their homeland the name of the cosmic "place" par excellence. Ta signifies the cosmic dwelling "gathered together" by the creator. That the Egyptians conceived the ta as the "body of Seb" corresponds with everything we have learned of the primeval enclosure. Of equal significance is Seb's hieroglyphic symbol, the egg. The myths say that the egg of Seb is that from which the sun first shone forth (i.e., it is the same as the revolving
... In the Astronomica of Hyginus one finds Triptolemos remembered as "the first of all to use a single wheel." (34) Argive tradition held that the father of Triptolemos was Trochilos, "he of the wheel," whom some identified as the inventor of the first chariot. The Greeks of Chios knew the primeval god Gyrapsios, "he of the round wheel." (35) Obviously, none of these wheels or wheel gods can be separated from the famous wheel of Ixion, set loose in a celestial ____conflagration. The Hebrew Yahweh similarly sits upon a single wheel. While modern commentators offer competing interpretations of the cosmic wheel -- the chariot of the gods -- few stop to notice the link with Saturn. Cook, for example, after a prolonged study of ancient wheel symbolism, acknowledges Kronos (Saturn) as the old wheel or "disk" bearer, but is not inclined to draw any conclusions from this. (36) The "inventor" of the wheel, or "chariot," was the now-distant planet

.<> As Above, So Below: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Straight-Line Phenomena [Catastrophism & Ancient History Journal]
_From: Catastrophism and Ancient History V:1 (Jan 1983) Home¦ Issue Contents THEORY WORKSHOP
_"As Above, So Below" Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Straight-Line Phenomena - Robert C. Stephanos
_Sponsored by The Beaumont Society: Scientific Endeavours, Inc., Non-Profit, P.O. Box 26081, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19128. Copyright© 1979 by Robert C. Stephanos
_The original paper contains 20 more pages of earthquake/volcano pathways trending NE/SW from many parts of the globe. They are available from the author at the above address at cost plus handling ($ 3.00).
_And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? [The Acts 19:35 Thomas Jefferson, cofounder of our Republic, evidently was skeptical the above event actually happened. He reportedly stated, according to Dachille [1977:49, "He would
This island, off the Idzu Peninsula, disappeared and was believed to have been completely submerged. The Ogasawara Isles, a fortified base, despite every search could not be traced. (d) Tokio, four miles north-east of the epicentre, according to Reuter, suffered over 130,000 casualties and 350,000 houses wrecked. Yokohama, nearer the point of inception, was almost entirely destroyed. The destruction to property was universal, 23,000 persons were killed, and 40,000 injured. (e) A
____conflagration followed simultaneously with the shaking to pieces of Tokio and Yokohama. Great heat was registered, said to have reached 150 degrees F. (f) Immediately after the first great shocks torrential rains fell. These continued for upwards of fourteen days with little intermission. (g) A vast tidal wave swept the Pacific and three days later reached San Pedro, California, in four tidal waves, which despite the great distance covered, tore small boats from their moorings, the larger vessels having got up steam to meet the danger

.<> When Venus Was A Comet [Kronos]
_From: Kronos Vol. XII No. 1 (Winter 1987) Home¦ Issue Contents
_When Venus Was A Comet - Ev Cochrane and David Talbott
_INTRODUCTION
_For the past several years, the world had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of history's most famous comet, that named after Edmund Halley. In anticipation of this rare event, a number of books were rushed into print; ocean cruises were organized intent on optimum viewing, while hundreds of "souvenirs" flooded the market. A casual observer of the Halley phenomenon might well wonder why all this fuss over a "celestial snowball". Aside from the obvious scientific importance of Halley's visit, the fact is that mankind has always been fascinated by the appearance of comets, especially one as reputable as Halley's. The occasion also served as a powerful reminder of the fundamental mystery of the Cosmos about us, and of human nature as well. The reader need hardly be reminded of the bizarre behaviour which has traditionally greeted Halley's appearances in the past, including mass hysteria, murder, and suicide. Neither should the
... 29 & 30)." It is difficult to reconcile such statements with the current peaceful movements of the planet Venus, and yet it must be said that such imagery is hardly peculiar to the Exaltation. Consider the following passage from a hymn cited by Jacobsen: "She was making heaven tremble, the earth shake, Inanna was destroying the cowpens, burning the sheepfolds, crying 'Let us berate An, the king of the gods'."(30) In yet another hymn, Inanna announces: "I was the
____conflagration which shone forth in the heavens, when the heavens shook back and forth and the earth trembled and quaked "( 31) And again, the goddess is invoked with the words: "Loud Thundering Storm [Inanna... You make the heavens tremble and the earth quake. Great Priestess, who can soothe your troubled heart? You flash like lightning over the highlands; you throw your firebrands across the earth. Your deafening command... splits apart great mountains."(32) While reading these lines