mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ 
For complete access to all the files of this collection
	see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php 
==========================================================
Home 
Up 

June 2003

Firmament-Chaos is a free email newsletter for registered users,
written by the author of Firmament and Chaos, John Ackerman.  Its
purpose is to clarify certain aspects of the sequence of cosmic
'catastrophies' interpreted from ancient myth in these books and to
explain new findings in the earth and planetary sciences in light of
this Velikovsky/Ackerman scenario.  As time goes by and scientists are
forced to make more and more ad-hoc adjustments to their present
theories, it becomes more and more obvious that the current
'uniformitarian' paradigm fails to explain the worlds in which we
live.

In This Issue

The Meaning of Myths

Sunspots II

Chaos Around Jupiter

The Meaning of Myths

The book Firmament is about mythology and the recent chaotic history
of the Earth and the planets. In most minds mythology conjures up
images of shepherds, familiar with the night sky, spinning fictitious
tales in which the distant planets are the prime players. But it is
difficult to imagine how a virtually stationary dot of light could be
called 'the god of war' and `the stormer of walls.' This requires even
more imagination than picturing a particular group of stars as the
Great Bear. The closest planet is more than fifty million kilometers
from the earth and the astronomers tell us that the solar system has
been the same for more than four billion years. Surely the planets
could have had no immediate influence on the race of man! But the
myths and their mysterious message cannot be dismissed. They wait
silently, almost mockingly - a monument to our ignorance of the past,
in the age of supercomputers.

The definition of myth given in Webster's Dictionary is as follows:

myth/'mith'/n [Gk mythos] 1: a usually traditional story of ostensibly
historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a
people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. 2:
parable, allegory. 3a: a person or thing having only an imaginary or
unverifiable existence. 3b: an ill-founded belief held uncritically
especially by an interested group. 4: the whole body of myths.

This pretty much expresses the view of western man in the twentieth
century, although one might be surprised by the phrase "of ostensibly
historical events." Originally the Greek word mythos referred to real
events involving 'super-heroes' whose exploits occurred in a
proto-historic time. The best known sources of these myths in western
cultures today are found in the works of Homer and Hesiod. Although
they are thought to have lived sometime between 1000 and 800 BC the
myths that they recorded originated much earlier.

For example, we maintain that the story of Phaethon driving the
chariot of the Sun too close to the Earth and scorching it, was a
description of one of two close encounters in which the Earth was
nearly destroyed by proto-Venus some 6,000 years ago. The planetary
chaos triggered by the birth of proto-Venus out of Jupiter lasted over
3,000 years, ending around 500 BC. A few generations after this, when
all those souls who had witnessed the approach of proto-Venus and
priori-Mars had passed, the myths became as mysterious to the people
as they are today. Thus began the Classical period, in which the
ancient cultures began to revise and reject the myths, and in some
cases, such as the ancient Hindu astronomy text, the Surya Siddhanta,
changing the positions of the `stars' and `planets', because they
`obviously' made no sense, and were considered an embarrassment. The
rationalists fomented the erosion by which the ancient gods and myths
were emptied of their true meanings. This ignorance of the meaning and
value of myth has become consolidated in the modern era and
particularly in the twentieth century in the form of the
uniformitarian paradigm underlying earth and planetary science.

A similar process resulted in the deterioration of the 'pure' myths in
India, where the original 'knowledge' of the Rig Veda was gradually
anthropomorphisized through the classics (Mah~bh~rata, Brahamana and
Ramayana) and the Puranas, and lost altogether in the Upanishads. The
famous mythologist, Joseph Campbell, found the latter the most
beautiful, exactly because they turn away from the sky gods, which
were the origin of the myths, and begin to look inward, the only
place, according to the eastern religions, that the truth can be
found. His statement confirms this:

"It is remarkable, but by about 500 B.C. such a turn of the mind
deliberately from the heavens to the search, not only for an inward
truth, but also and at the same time for specifically human values in
the social-political sphere, had become general across the whole field
of the great Eurasian high civilizations."

The stories in the Hindu Puranas and Upanishads often distort the true
relationships of deities set forth in the more ancient Vedas, which
were passed down for thousands of years by means of chanted hymns.
Fortunately, the Hindus have preserved the Vedas, which although less
popular, are still held in great reverence because of the purity of
the 'knowledge' they are believed to contain.

There has been an unfortunate resurgence of interest in eastern
religions in recent decades within segments of western society. Much
of this comes under the umbrella title 'New Age'. It is, on one hand,
a reaction against the increasingly secular, technological,
computerized nature of the world in which we are 'becoming,' providing
what appears to be a quicker source of spirituality. On the other hand
these religions are `soft and fuzzy' - less demanding than
Christianity.

There are serious questions as to the teachings of the present day
guru's and their application in the western world. The hackneyed
eastern philosophy, that claims true 'spiritual awareness,' can only
come from within, is not only impossible for the westener to
comprehend, but it is also a gross distortion of meditation as
advocated in the ancient texts. The Satapatha Brahmana (xi. 5, 6, 1)
says the following about meditation:

Study and teachings are loved. He (who practices them) becomes
composed in mind. Independent of others he daily attains his objects,
sleeps pleasantly, becomes his own best physician. Control of his
senses, concentration of mind, increase of intelligence, renown,
capacity to educate mankind [are the results of study] ... Of all the
modes of exertion which are known between heaven and Earth, study of
the Veda occupies the highest rank...The Veda is the eternal eye of
the fathers, of gods, and of men; it is beyond human power and
comprehension...As fire, when it has acquired force, burns up even
green trees, so he who knows the Veda consumes the taint of his soul
which has been contracted from works. He who comprehends the essential
meaning of the Veda, in whatever order of life he may be, is prepared
for absorption into Brahm
~, even while abiding in this lower world.

Thus, the most ancient books, the Vedas, are to be studied diligently.
This does not sound like something that will automatically come 'from
within.'  In order to discover the knowledge of the cosmic encounters
that is inherent in the ancient myths, they must be studied with an
open mind:

...the contents of these are not to be questioned by reason, since
from them [a knowledge of] duty has shone forth. The Brahmin who,
relying on rationalistic treatises, shall contemn these two primary
sources of knowledge must be excommunicated by the virtuous as a
sceptic and reviler of the Vedas....He and he only is acquainted with
duty, who investigates the injunctions of the rishis...by reasonings
which do not contradict the Veda.

In other words, read the Vedas, not with skepticism or in an attempt
to ridicule them using modern science, but in the spirit of truly
trying to understand the hidden knowledge they conceal. This is
exactly purpose of Firmament, and indeed the hymns have yielded an
amazing story of planetary interactions, which lasted almost three
thousand years.

Encouragingly, there are a few modern thinkers who dared to profess
that the ancient myths do indeed contain information on the origin of
the world and the meaning of life. The most famous of these was Mircea
Eliade. His definition of myth is much more in tune with injunctions
of the Vedic priests (rishis):

Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in
primordial time, the fabled time of the 'beginnings'. In other words,
myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality
came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a
fragment of reality...Myth tells only of that which really happened,
which manifested itself completely...In short, myths describe the
various and sometimes dramatic breakthroughs of the sacred (or the
"supernatural") into the World. It is this sudden breakthrough of the
sacred that really establishes the World and makes it what it is
today.

...myths are a constant reminder that grandiose events took place on
Earth and that this 'glorious past' is partly recoverable.

The Three Predominant Mythological Themes

There are three major themes that permeate the sacred myths of most
cultures. These are (1) the myth of destructions, (2) the cosmogonic
myth - stories of the origin or rebirth of the `world,' and (3) the
myth of the eternal return. In Firmament we reveal that these derive
from hundreds of close encounters with proto-Venus and priori-Mars,
which were experienced by one hundred generations of humans in all
cultures. If only a few isolated events had occurred, there would be a
much greater diversity of myths, but the repetition of hundreds of
events before they eyes of a hundred generations ingrained them to
such a great degree that we are able to find these basic themes in the
myths of every culture, and the sum of their descriptions give such a
detailed accounting that would never be possible using the present,
narrowly defined `scientific method,' which consists of running
mathematical models on supercomputers.

There are two levels of destructions, the great destructions and the
lesser destructions. The former describe an almost total annihilation
rather than an absolute one. Typically they involve thunderbolts,
earthquakes, scorching fire, rising and falling mountain ranges and
tidal waves which sweep across entire continents. All but a few people
of the lucky tribes survived, and most animals were also killed. The
ancient Egyptians and Aztecs claimed that such great annihilations
have occurred four times in the 'memory' of their culture. The
destructions are thought to be the result of the world 'growing old
and wearing out.' Although most people are killed in these
annihilations, a few survived and carry the memory to the next
generation. The destruction is followed by a 'new world', which in
many cultures is described as a 'new sky', implying a reorientation of
the Earth relative to the stars.

We have ascertained that the last two near-total destructions were due
to two very close passes of the flaming proto-Venus to the Earth 6,000
years ago, within a few years after its creation as a result of a
great impact on Jupiter. We speculate that the other two events
punctuated the Lower Dryas, around 10,000 BC, and were caused by the
capture of the Moon into its current orbit around the Earth.
Velikovsky cites several sources that claim knowledge of a time
`before the Moon.'

The lesser destructions were periodic ones in which deities died or
slept, only to be revived as the result of a subsequent event.
Although accompanied by tidal flooding on Earth, these destructions
generally did not cause massive loss of human and animal life. They
were referred to as raash (commotions) in the Christian Bible, and
were the reasons for the construction of the pyramids, tells and
ziggurats in the Levant. These myths describe the periodic collapse of
enormous lava tube features, considered deities, which rose to great
heights on the surface of priori-Mars as it orbited the Earth. Each
time priori-Mars escaped from orbit around the Earth they collapsed
because of the removal of its tidal force, which drew the magma to the
surface and supported them while in orbit. In Hindu myth, this was the
end of a `day of Brahma,' the primary deity. The night of Brahma, the
period during which priori-Mars orbited the Sun, was equal in duration
to his day. His lifetime was one hundred days (day+night). The
duration of each day is given as a manvantura, which is fourteen
years, counter to the inflated lifetimes cited in later Hindu books.

Each destruction was followed, fourteen years later, by the return of
priori-Mars, and then the creation took place, meaning that the same
lava tube figures rose up and the same volcanos began to erupt. The
Hindu deity Siva was responsible for the destruction, Brahma for the
creation, and Vishnu, the sustainer, was responsible for the return of
priori-Mars. This cycle, repeated one hundred times, was the origin of
the three dominant themes of all ancient myth and shows that the Hindu
triad are all associated with priori-Mars. It was also the source of
the notion of a `home god' (priori-Mars), which occasionally had to
rush off to do combat with (or make love to, depending on the myth) an
interloping (proto-Venus) deity.

The contents of the 'sacred' myths of the world, when interpreted
properly, tell more about how religion developed among ancient peoples
than it does about a 'true' god. In fact, the word religion comes from
the Latin stems re and ligio, and therefore translates literally as
'linking back.' There is no direct reference to 'god,' which in
Sanskrit is sura (glowing). Using this interpretation, our book
Firmament should be classified under religion because our purpose is
to rediscover, from the ancient myths, the cosmic events which
occurred in proto-historical times.

The only logical relationship between these cosmic deities, which were
planets, and Christian God Jehovah, lies in the belief that these
events were set in motion by Him.

(Gen 1:6 KJV) And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of
the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

(Gen 1:7 KJV) And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which
were under the firmament from the waters which were above the
firmament: and it was so.

(Gen 1:8 KJV) And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and
the morning were the second day.

The firmament was priori-Mars, which was covered with large amounts of
water at the beginning of the Vedic period. The solid surface of
priori-Mars which extended above its waters toward the Earth,
separated the waters on Earth from those on priori-Mars. The anger of
Jehovah with the worship of 'pagan' idols such as Baal (proto-Venus)
and Asteroth (priori-Mars) in the 'high places,' which were the very
planets that he set in motion, indicated His displeasure with the
Jews' failure to recognize the power of His hand.

In Sanskrit, firmament is bhamandala, literally, the circle or wheel
of the asterisms. The tidal force of the Earth induced the subsurface
melting of rock on priori-Mars, which was then drawn to the surface
causing many volcanic eruptions. Viewed from the Earth, these appeared
as bright stars, indeed, they were called the circum-polar stars,
because they revolved once a day around the north pole of priori-Mars,
which remained pointed toward the Earth. Its diameter was over twenty
times and its angular area over four hundred times that of the Moon.
Thus there was sufficient area for many glowing spots. These were
imagined to form shapes, just as we define constellations of true
stars. The shapes were called asterisms and ancient Hindu astronomy
book Surya Siddhanta accurately describe their positions in the
northern hemisphere of Mars and even gives instructions on how to
build a model depicting it. Believing that the asterisms refer to the
constellations of actual stars, modern investigators have been
frustrated because the positions do not match the stars we see today.

Sunspots II

Our last newsletter explained our theory of the origin of sunspots,
i.e. that they are caused by the impact of large bodies on the surface
of the Sun. In spite of the new measurements cited in that article,
indicating that the gas in their umbras is rushing into the Sun at
high velocities, no scientist has even suggested that this is the
cause. It is unclear why this obvious solution has not been
considered.

I believe the failure to espouse this idea arises because it requires
a large number of asteroids, perhaps an average of ten per day to
impact the Sun, and there is no known source, in the current paradigm,
for such an inexhaustible supply, particularly in light of the fact
that they must be massive enough to penetrate the solar atmosphere and
impact the surface.

The reason for this article, `on the heels' of the one in the last
newsletter, is that more pertinent data has just been released, this
time from the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE)
spacecraft. The article posted on
www.astronomy.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/001/291nfysz.asp

is entitled "Tadpoles Swim toward the Sun, Dark wiggling blobs, the
handiwork of giant solar explosions, race toward the sun's surface."
by Kelly Kizer Whitt.

The article states that "Other instruments have previously spotted the
curious, dark globules, which were first noticed in January 1999.
After the initial discovery, researchers scrutinized old data, finding
about 40 other events dating back to 1991. But TRACE's detection of
the tadpoles marks the first ever for a high-resolution satellite."
"This is the best view yet of these enigmatic shapes," said Edward
Deluca of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and
co-author of an upcoming Astrophysical Journal report on TRACE's
observations. TRACE's close-up ultraviolet view of the tadpoles
occurred on April 21, 2002, during a coronal mass ejection (CME).
Tadpoles have been seen in association with about 20 percent of CMEs."

"The tadpole feature has perplexed astronomers, because such gigantic
explosions should be propelling material outward, yet these black
blobs are (in their words) retreating toward the sun at up to 400
miles a second.  But the TRACE data, which observes in ultraviolet
light at 1.5 million and 10 million degrees Celsius, have helped
scientists unravel the mystery behind these formerly enigmatic
features."

DeLuca's explanation of the phenomenon is as follows. "The tadpoles
appear to be superheated magnetic regions devoid of plasma, which is
why TRACE's ultraviolet eyes detect them as black. When broken
magnetic field lines make new connections to generate the
outward-propelled CMEs, lines still attached to the sun's surface also
reconnect and snap downward, pulling the tadpole-like pockets down
with them. Magnetic pressure momentarily keeps the hot plasma out of
these spaces, preserving their dark appearance. As the tadpoles swim
downward, the empty space eventually fills with hot plasma from below
until the features disappear." The short film clip can be viewed by
clicking here.

The Velikovsky/Angiras Explanation

The film starts with a quiescent area of the sun's surface. Because
the background is dark it is not possible to see the massive body
which impacts the Sun, but the rebounding hot gases from the impact
site are clearly visible. These quickly expand to form a flare which
brightens the scene. This makes it possible to see the less massive
pieces which broke off from the primary asteroid and were retarded in
the solar atmosphere. The more massive of these bodies may also strike
the suface, producing smaller sunspots around the primary one as shown
in the figure at the right. It appears in the film clip that the same
hot plasma produced by the impact of the primary, which makes the
secondaries visible, may increase the chances that they become
vaporized.

The heat used to vaporize the less massive secondaries causes the
cooler, dark areas, named `tadpoles,' by the scientists, who voice
amazement that they are descending instead of ascending. By the
scientists own estimates, they are falling toward the Sun at
approximately 400 miles per second, only slightly slower than the more
massive primary, which cannot be seen.

In our scenario, millions of asteroids have been ejected from Jupiter
since the great impact (>1041 ergs) on its surface, 6,000 years ago.
These were emitted as great clouds of hot gas which shot in all
directions from the impact crater as the great Jupiter rotated,
initially with a period of one hour. Once out of the strong radiation
field of Jupiter, they condensed into unique solid bodies. Those
emitted in the forward direction were given orbital velocities that
injected them into the main asteroid belt. Those emitted toward the
Sun or in the backward direction ended up in highly eccentric orbits,
which have gradually decayed over the last six millennia and impacted
the sun. Their orbits were obviously influenced by relativistic
effects during this period.

The approximately eleven-year sunspot cycle corresponds relatively
closely to the orbital period of Jupiter because two systematic
changes in the direction of emission occur during each orbit. The
first is that the out-of-orbital-plane velocity component varies from
-15 degrees to - 21 degrees during one period, since the GRS is at -18
degrees and the tilt of Jupiter's spin axis is about 3 degrees.
Secondly, the eccentricity of Jupiters orbit (.048) also modulates the
orbital parameters of the emitted bodies with the same period.

As a result of the continuous emission of the hot gas, thus angular
momentum, from which these bodies form, Jupiter's rotational period
has increased from approximately one hour to some ten hours during the
last six millennia. The Earth has benefitted from the impact of these
bodies on the Sun via the solar flares that are produced from each
impact. Their heating effect on the Earth is just beginning to be
recognized. This is merely one of many advantages that have accrued to
the Earth from that great impact on Jupiter.

Further evidence for the origin of these bodies in the Jovian system
comes from the scientists estimate of the velocity of the tadpoles,
400 miles per second. This velocity coincides closely to that which a
body originating at Jupiter will attain in falling into the Sun.

It is ironic that the scientists have given animal names to these
mysterious events.  This was, of course, exactly what our forebears
did when they named the heavenly bodies in ancient myth - the same
myths on which the V/A theory is based. This is exactly the property
of the myths, which cause scientists to reject them as descriptions of
events which took place in the heavens.

Chaos around Jupiter

In a recent paper which was published in Nature, scientists are
grappling with the sheer number of the Jovian satellites and more
specifically with the large fraction that are in high inclination,
high eccentricity, and, worse yet, retrograde orbits. In
"Chaos-assisted capture of irregular moons", Sergey Astakhov et al
begin as follows:

It has been thought that the capture of irregular moons----with
non-circular orbits----by giant planets occurs by a process in which
they are first temporarily trapped by gravity inside the planet's Hill
sphere (the region where planetary gravity dominates over solar
tides). The capture of the moons is then made permanent by dissipative
energy loss (for example, gas drag) or planetary growth. But the
observed distributions of orbital inclinations, which now include
numerous newly discovered moons, cannot be explained using current
models.

They then introduce a new, better, `chaos theory model', which focuses
on a thin spatial region where orbits are chaotic. ... Dissipation
then switches these long-lived chaotic orbits into nearby
(non-chaotic) orbits from which escape is impossible. The chaotic
layer therefore dictates the final inclinations of the captured moons.

Saturn has more prograde irregular moons than Jupiter, which we can
explain as a result of the chaotic prograde progenitors being more
efficiently swept away from Jupiter by its Galilean moons.

The V/A Explanation

This is but another of a myriad of `ad hoc' changes required to fit
the data into the current uniformitarian paradigm. We maintain that
true deterministic chaos, not the weak version in chaos theory, was
the source of the many small bodies orbiting Jupiter. This took the
form of a highly energetic impact (>10 42 ergs) which occurred only
6,000 years ago. Some of the bodies were blasted into their current
orbits at that time, and others are the result of material condensed
from the Jovian jet which has been shooting out of Jupiter at an ever
decreasing velocity since that impact, and is now manifested as the
Great Red Spot. This was the same source which created the entire main
asteroid belt and the Galilean moons. The dominance of high
inclination and retrograde orbits may, as suggested in the article, be
due to the more efficient sweeping up of prograde satellites by the
Galilean moons, but their origin was from Jupiter itself. Saturn also
has a large number of irregular satellites, injected into orbit, as
were its ring particles, by earlier, less energetic, impacts.

Astronomy textbooks preach that the great planets protect the inner
solar system by absorbing the impacts of threatening asteroids,
possibly from outside the solar system, but when presented with the
evidence of such impacts, in the form of spots, satellites, rings, and
temperature excesses, planetary scientists fail to recognize them for
what they are.

We will notify you of future newsletters via email.  We also would
like to hear from interested readers onany related subjects and ways
to improve our website.

If you have any questions or comments about this site, send an email
to angiras at firmament-chaos.com