mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs, M. A., presents: MYTHOPEDIA a new science of myth View My Guestbook Sign My Guestbook visit also my personal homepage Science is arid, but there is no alternative; religious doctrines no longer possess any real power to persuade. P. A. H. Seymour, The birth of Christ, London, 1998: 136 There is no future in an attitude which is so afraid of awkward possibilities that they must be suppressed, even at the expense of scientific credibility. P. A. H. Seymour, The birth of Christ, London, 1998: 167 As thought mythology approaches - or is a primitive prelude to - science; and as experience it is precisely art J. Campbell, Primitive mythology, New York, 1959: 179 Welcome to Mythopedia, a radical reinterpretation of world mythology in the light of the latest astronomical discoveries. The website consists of the following sections: o myth-wise offers a perfunctory overview of the Mythopedia thesis. Containing most of the 'dry stuff' it explains the theoretical background of our views on mythology and offers a new and complete methodology for an emerging science of myth; o mythaeum is a provisional encyclopaedia of myth, ritual, and religion with a special interest in catastrophism and the axis mundi; o and mythologues contains a variety of essays, articles and picture presentations on the new comparative and structural model of mythology and religion. The pages are under continuous development. More articles will be added over the course of time. Typos and inadequate statements will be corrected, and the encyclopaedia will continuously be enlarged. Your suggestions are warmly awaited. search Mythopedia: Google _______________________________ Google Search (_) Search WWW (_) Search mythopedia.info myth-wise (an overview of the theory) For more than 200 years 'modern' mythologists have been trying to penetrate the mystery of mythology. No consensus was ever reached, but towards the end of the 20^th century two developments stood out from the welter of theories: the explanation had to be catastrophist and it had to concentrate on the axis mundi, the polar centre of the world. Until now the proponents of these ideas have ignored each other, but what is really called for is a fusion of catastrophism and 'polarism'. The latest discoveries in plasma science suggest that many of the most influential myths were based on the eye-witness accounts of a super-aurora, provoked by an unknown celestial agent. A sequence of turbulent events in the solar system taking place in the dawn of human history spawned the germs of the intellectual heritage of mankind, including virtually all forms of religion, art, and architecture. The spectacular events transpiring in that 'alien sky' were faithfully recorded on stone in thousands of petroglyphs all over the world, enacted in thousands of rituals celebrated until the present day, and narrated in thousands of myths now baffling scholars and laymen alike. The ultimate cause of these catastrophes has not yet been determined, but the data at our disposal suggest that an errant cosmic agent, a comet, may have entered the inner solar system and prematurely disintegrated amid a spectacular display of auroras and meteor showers. The two most significant events appear to have occurred at about 3100 BCE and 2300 BCE. During intervening and subsequent centuries the sky remained filled with debris and only in the 1^st millennium BCE had the sky been sufficiently cleared up for planetary astronomy to emerge. This is the core of the Mythopedia thesis. In its fullest extent, the theory is interdisciplinary and it has the potential to become a unifying model. It does not simply deny or ignore older theories such as those of Tylor, Frazer, Eliade, Dumézil, Jung, and Lévi-Strauss, but places them in a different perspective and incorporates them in a larger overarching framework. Thus the study of myth, ritual and symbolism begins to look like a respectable and testable science. Simultaneously, the world views of all races, ranging from the most savage to the most elevated, are cast into a refreshing light, highlighting the uniformity of human tradition. the key discoveries (the axioms of the new mythology) regular evolutionary principles Over the centuries, mythological ideas have developed according to certain unidirectional processes and tendencies you might call the regular evolutionary principles of mythology. visual prototypes The ultimate origin and significance of the myths was embedded in the underlying visual images, not in the meanings, functions, and interpretations the myths acquired subsequently. myth, ritual, and icon Myths, rituals, and traditional icons developed as parallel expressions of the same prototypes. culture and civilisation Human culture and civilisation themselves were largely modelled after mythical prototypes. symbolism Mythology is not to be taken literally, but expresses itself through an interface of symbolism. The essence of these symbols is visual, not allegorical. single prototype All myths, rituals, and traditional icons trace back to a single prototype, even if this single prototype may in reality have been stretched out over several centuries. catastrophe The single visual prototype of the myths was inspired by a series of catastrophical events that took place in the solar system prior to the onset of civilisation, presumably about 3100 BCE and 2300 BCE. plasma science This series of events can be reconstructed in great detail with the help of the mythical record and may be explained by reference to plasma phenomena operating when extreme solar weather or an unknown agent caused unprecedented auroras in the earth's magnetic field. what the experts say about the connection between myth and early disasters in the sky. the upcoming book Comparative mythology - the echo of catastrophe is the working title of a scheduled book in two volumes. In the first volume I disclose the underlying principles of our fundamentally new approach to comparative mythology, in which a catastrophist model is advanced as the only satisfactory explanation for the enigma of myth. Needless to say that this requires a wholesale revision of many established ideas about myth and religion. The second volume sketches the historical development of the axis mundi over time, based on a detailed study of myth, ritual, and art, combined with the findings of plasma science. The draft version of the book already comprises more than a 1,000 pages. The text is elucidated with helpful diagrams and numerous illustrations which further enliven the text. To give you a taste of what it is all about, I have included some text samples on this website. All are invited to comment on this. mythaeum (an archetypal encyclopaedia of myth, ritual and symbolism) about the Mythaeum encyclopaedia project bibliography PLEASE NOTE: The statements presented in this encyclopaedia are a selection of paraphrases and literal citations obtained from a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, most of which are given in the bibliography. The statements may be contradictory and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editor. The version offered on this website is stripped down. The professional version of the encyclopaedia is far better equipped for research purposes, providing references as well as keyword tags for each separate research note. The keyword tags have shown to be a tremendous research tool, enabling users to retrieve relevant data on any combination of topics in an instant, no matter whether these data come in different languages or from different cultures. universal prehistory Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Aeneolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age Afro-Asiatic cultures Egypt pre-Muslim Egypt pan-Semitic culture Mesopotamia Assyrians, Babylonians, Sumerians, Elamites Levant Ugarit, Phoenicians, Syrians, ancient Israel, Jews, including Pre-Islamic Para- or Jewish-Christian sects such as the Nazarenes and the Ebionites Arabic culture including the Southern Semites, the Mandaeans, and the Berber Indo-European cultures Anatolia Hittites, including non-Indo-European Hurrians, Asia Minor, Cyprus Iran Medes and Persians, Scythians, Ossetes, others, as well as Armenians India Indo-European India: Hinduism, Buddhism, Tantrism, Lamaism, Jainism pan-European culture Christian Europe, including pagan Europe in historical times and Judaeo-Christian 'heresies' such as esotery, gnosticism, philosophy, hermeticism, alchemy, Manichaeism, qabbala, astrology, Freemasonry, and catharism Greece ancient Greece and colonies Rome including Etruscans and the Byzantine empire PLEASE NOTE: Roman folklore and traditions are classified under 'Greece'. Germanic-speaking cultures Celtic-speaking cultures including ancient Iberians and Basques Balts Latvians, Lithuanians Slavs including Albanians and Rumenians northern and eastern Asia Uralic peoples Finns, Lapps, Samoyeds, Voguls, others Caucasus Georgians, others Arctic Asia Turks, Mongols, Siberian tribes, Koreans, Eskimos, Tibetans Japan including the Ainu China surrounding the Indian Ocean southeast Asia Austro-Asiatic India, Indus-culture, Thailand, Indo-China (Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Birma), Malaysia, aborigines of Taiwan Oceania Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Indonesia and Madagascar Australia Australian aboriginals Africa sub-Saharan Africa the Americas North-America excluding Eskimos Meso-America Maya, Aztec, etc. South-America including the Caribbean islands universal, unspecified or unclear mythologues (essays and presentations relating to the new mythology) o Plasma mythology - how the gods destroyed the world explains in a brief and plain fashion how the appearance of a super-aurora in connection with earth-shaking catastrophes came to be remembered as the mythology of the axis mundi. Catastrophist mythology and axial mythology were the 20^th century's two most powerful developments in the field, but only a fusion of the two is capable of illuminating the past. The article appeared originally in Dutch in a journal entitled Bres; op de bres voor een bezield bestaan. o a Typhon reader is an anthology of classical texts referring to the monster Typhon. o Familiar faces of the axis mundi is a tabular overview of some of the most prominent forms of the cosmic axis. o Radlof - the father of planetary catastrophism provides an ultra-brief overview of the theory of Radlof, who anticipated Velikovsky's revolutionary ideas by more than a century. o Snapshots of the polar configuration is apresentation of the model, featuring a picture gallery with no less than 72 images showing the history of the entire 'catastrophe' from beginning to end. o The roots of tree symbolism is a picture gallery featuring natural trees that exhibit strong morphological similarities to particular phases in the history of the world axis. o How art motifs are borrowed is a quick graphic illustration of a fundamental principle in the new mythology: ideas and art motifs are constantly recycled as old religions go and new ones come. Functions change, but forms remain. o Celestial Fireworks is a graphic model proposed to explain the origin of myth, ritual, and symbolism, including a general slideshow, a comparison of the model with traditional art, and an approach to the anatomy of the configuration. o a preliminary listing of themes and motifs of a universal mythology o Ignis e Coelo - Fire from heaven (January 2001): A revolutionary paper on the mythology of the lightning. Why is the lightning universally described as a bird, as a twin, as a lion or as a dog? What is the idea behind the lightning twins? Why is a stone believed to descend in the lightning? o a social history of man - a summary of Robert Briffault, The mothers; a study of the origins of sentiments and institutions, I-III, 1927 (April 2001): The forgotten theory of matriarchy and the essential otherness of precivilised man are revived in a summarising discussion of Briffault's voluminous work. Briffault's conclusions are weighed against the Saturn theory. o 'Ancient New Year's celebrations', a radio interview in the Laura Lee Show ('Conversation for Exploration') on the 4^th. January 2002: Click the hyperlink to hear the full 1-hour long interview, during which the archetypal features of New Year celebrations from all corners of the globe are revealed and discussed. o gods and planets - the fallacy of Velikovskyan catastrophism (2001-2003): This lengthy article deals with the question whether it is valid at all to identify specific gods with specific planets and look for the origin of the god's myth to the behaviour of the planet. The answer is that the mythical record cannot be used to identify specific planets supposedly involved in the hypothetical catastrophe that spawned the myths. I wish to emphasise that this critique on a number of assumptions made by Saturnists is in no way to diminish the quality and merit of their work. I am convinced that a spectacular and earth-threatening catastrophe occurring a few thousands of years ago marked the beginning of the myths and that prodigies very much like the Saturnists' polar configuration were observed at close quarters. marginally related: o what is wrong with the evolution theory? a summary of arguments, based on the work of Richard Milton. The relevance of this for the model here proposed is the overwhelming evidence that the geological column has been deposited under catastrophic circumstances. o towards a theory of ghosts: plasma and psychospheres: a synoptic outline of a promising new line of enquiry into the ghost phenomenon, with electromagnetic field theory and plasma as key factors. o de mythische Jezus; waarom Jezus niet uniek was (2002, in Dutch): This book, which comprises 303 pages and numerous references, deals with the life of Jesus, showing that every facet of Jesus' life has countless correspondences in the mythologies of other cultures; it is shown that Jesus' life is not unique but just a Jewish version of the universal hero, who is born of a virgin, is a wandering teacher and miracle-worker, dies and is resurrected, and ascends to heaven. Koopman & Kraaijenbrink Publishing, Delft, 2002, ISBN 90-75675-08-9. Can be ordered in any bookstore or on-line. credits In this place I wish to express my utmost gratitude to the actual support I have received in word and action from my friends David Talbott (left in the picture), Ev Cochrane (right in the picture), and Dwardu Cardona (not in the picture). It has been a delight to communicate with them on matters mythological and I think I can safely state that my work would not have become what it is now without their help. Special thanks also go to the Society for Interdisciplinary Studies (the SIS), Kronia Communications, and the Mainwaring Archive Foundation (the MAF). I hope our cooperation will go on for many more years to come. links o Aeon - a Journal of Myth and Science o Kronia o Encyclopedia Mythica o Bulfinch's mythology o Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts o Fools Paradise o MythNET o The Joseph Campbell Foundation o The MYSTICA o The Perseus Project o MYTHUS this website has last been updated on 17^th. July 2004 Site Meter