mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== David Talbott Background This is a follow-up article to my previous "Reconstructing the Saturn Myth," AEON Vol. I, No. 1. It is assumed that readers will have read that article and are familiar with the general context of the theory discussed in the following pages. defining the model In presenting the case for Saturn's polar configuration it is necessary to draw upon many wide-ranging pieces of a celestial puzzle. But the theory can only give meaning to the separate pieces by reference to a model outside all generally accepted theoretical frameworks. In effect, our interpretation of each significant datum requires one to tentatively grant a sweeping theory reinterpreting all of the data. It would be an understatement to say that this can create a major difficulty in communication. Our argument on behalf of the polar configuration must concentrate initially on the model and the way it interprets ancient myth. If a new theory can unify and explain its subject, the quickest way to deal with the communications problem is to be sure that the model itself is understood. I shall offer here a further description of the polar configuration and a suggested approach for testing the model against the mythical-symbolic record, with additional examples as to how that record supplies the answers predicted by the model.1 An Ancient Experience Our subject is an extraordinary period in Earth history and the history of man's prehistoric epoch dominated by profound and at times overwhelming cosmic events. The polar configuration involves a unique congregation of planets moving very close to the Earth some time before the dawn of civilization. In my initial summary I presented a static image of the configuration (Fig. 1), representing a particular phase in the configuration's dynamic history, and a particular moment in a spectacular daily cycle. My contention is that this heaven-filling apparition, stretched across the northern sky, was the true source of myth and symbol around the world. I have further claimed that the former existence of this apparition can be verified through a systematic testing process. With respect to this verification process, an advanced summary of the polar configuration will establish an important advantage: the concrete forms of the configuration, together with their behavior and their interacting relationships with each other, are too specific to allow for slippery ambiguities of interpretation. The model must be judged on its ability to "predict" all of the recurring symbols and events of myth.2 For if ancient man actually experieced the polar configurationand witnessed its ultimate earth-threatening dissolutionthere can be no doubt but that we should find countless echoes of the experience in celestial tales and pictographs around the world. And if myth as a whole arose from the human response to the extraordinary celestial phenomena involved, then it should be possible to trace all of the well-established objects and events of myth back to a set of unified forms no longer present in the sky. Hence, the critic should welcome the proposed testing process: to refute the model as a unified theory of myth, one only needs to find a reasonably well- documented instance pointing either to the sky as we know it or to forms other than those of this highly specific model.3 To summarize the "model" as seen from the terrestrial view: Because the north celestial Pole is its pivot or center, it is the polar configuration. What the earthbound witness saw was a towering apparition reaching upward from the northern horizon and filling the circumpolar sky with a nightly display, an interplanetary light show against which our night sky today would literally disappear. We have already noted the key components: central, stationary orb of Saturn at the celestial Pole; four primary streams of ejecta radiating in four directions; enclosing band; illuminated crescent displayed on the band (and, as the earth rotated, visually revolving around Saturn); aaethereal column appearing to hold aloft the revolving wheel; and comet-like appendage seeming to spiral out from the wheel and revolving faster than the crescent. In analyzing this model, it will be crucial that we separate the human experience of the configuration from the objective scheme behind it. As I have previously stated more than once, the model, involving planets in extremely close conjunction and in polar alignment, allows for several deceiving appearances. How might the participating planets have actually combined to present such an image? Did the radiating streams issue directly from Saturn? Did the band literally surround Saturn? Did the comet-like spiral actually curl out from the band? Eventually, we will have to address these and many other questions. But since all of the immediately useful evidence traces to man's experience of this unique phenomenon, a reasonable approach will focus first on what the ancients saw. The present model should not be viewed as a speculative venture in physics, but as a series of interacting planetary images, implying a particular and unique placement of the planets themselves in ancient times. Though physics is not excluded in this methodology, its contribution becomes relevant only as the images behind the model are fully validated. That our ancestors saw the polar configuration can be proven, I believe, from a systematic examination of their testimony, bequeathed to us in great abundance as pictures, stories and imitative rites. Also, one notes that disproving this model if incorrect will be vastly easier than proving it if correct. This is because, as stated above, one well-defined instance refuting the predicted identities and relationships will at least require a modification of the theory. But it is in the nature of the system of "proof" involved in our methodology that this requires many hundreds of verified predictions by the model. In the terms I am proposing here, the model can be vigorously tested as a set of verifiable images prior to any consideration of the objective scheme behind them. In the following summary, I shall review the primary images, listing numerically the most fundamental predictions of the model. In the process, I hope to demonstrate three important principles: In each of the listed cases the predicted imagery stands in dramatic contrast to the appearance of the sky today. In each of the listed cases the predicted imagery is confirmed by the unambiguous testimony of ancient sources. In each of the listed cases at least a few independent researchers have already discovered the image or theme, though remaining unaware of other, equally crucial themes which could illuminate their own anomalous findings. Central Sun The model presents the planet Saturn as a giant orb stationed motionless at the celestial Pole. In relationship to other components of the configuration, the Saturnian orb: rests squarely in the center of a wheel-like band; is situated at the juncture of four radiating streams of light; occupies the summit of a celestial column. The first and most obvious implication of such a model, if valid, is that familiar ancient images of the "sun" (such as the enclosed sun and sun- cross) actually originated not at as distorted or unusual perceptions of the solar orb, but as accurate drawings of the polar Saturn and its habitat. The model thus predicts 1. The ancient sun god was the planet Saturn. The Sumerian Ningirsu, the planet Saturn,"comes forth in terrifying splendor. In the land it becomes day." Ningirsu is thus "the god who changes darkness into light," the god "whose splendor is heroic."4 That such statements would be made of the now-distant Saturn seems unthinkable. Rather, this is the very language one would expect in descriptions of the "sun" in ancient hymns.5 The Babylonian sun god is Shamash, and Babylonian astronomical texts say in unequivocal terms: "The planet Saturn is Shamash."6 Thus the Greek historian Diodorus reports that Babylonian astronomers knew the planet Saturn as the star of the "sun" (Helios).7 Though early Egyptian sources do not offer a formal astronomy to directly connect their gods with planets,8 a later Egyptian ostrakon cited by Franz Boll identifies the sun god Ra as the Greek Kronos, the planet Saturn.9 In the Epinomis of Plato, the names of the five planets are given. In the earliest copies of the text, the name for the planet Saturn is Helios, the "sun." For many years scholars considered this a mistake and the reading was usually "corrected" to Kronos, the accepted Greek name of the planet Saturn. But the identity of the sun and Saturn occurs in other Greek texts as well: Originally, Saturn was "the sun."10 The Latin poet Hyginus, in his enumeration of astronomical and planetary myths, identifies the planet Saturn as "the star of Sol."11 Other Latin sources repeat the identity.12 The Hindus knew the planet Saturn as arka, meaning "of the sun."13 Certain wise men of India also asserted that Brahma, called the "true sun," was none other than Saturn.14 The alchemists, preservers of the ancient mysteries, remember the planet Saturn as "the best sun."15 From this predicted identity of Saturn as the ancient sun god, it follows that ancient imagery of the "sun" will contradict virtually every reasonable description of the solar orb, and that the earlier the date of the imagery, the more "flagrant" should be these contradictions. While the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West, this will not be the character of the original sun god in the myths, according to the model.16 More specifically (and against all natural experience today) we should find repeated, conventionally inexplicable references to the "fixed," "stationary" or "resting" character of the god 2. The ancient sun god occupied the motionless center, the celestial Pole. The Egyptian sun god Atum is "fixed in the middle of the sky,"17 and the "Firm Heart of the Sky,"18while the sun god Ra "rests on his high place."19 Rather than soar across the sky, Ra is the axis or pivot, with the lesser lights revolving around him. These are the "stars who surround Ra."20 "These gods shall revolve round about him."21 "The satellites of Ra make their round."22 Shamash, the universally acknowledged sun god of the Babylonians, is "suspended from the midst of heaven,"23 occupying "the summit house" and "the house of rest."24 The sun god Ninurta is "the steady star" and the god of "lofty repose."25 The Hindu Brahma, called "the true sun," does not rise and set, but "remains alone in the center."26 The acknowledged sun god Surya "stands firmly on this safe resting place" and is celebrated as "the immovable center of his system. "27 In an old mythical tradition kept alive by Greek and Roman symbolists, the sun god occupies the central, axial position while the other planets or stars revolve around him.28 Quetzalcoatl, the former sun god of the Aztecs, occupies the "fifth direction, " identified as the stationary cosmic center.29 The old god Xiuhteuctli, known as "the central fire," is the pivot of the turning heavens, identified by the chroniclers with the celestial Pole.30 Among the Ashanti of Ghana the old sun god is "the dynamic center of the Universe, from which lines of force radiate to all quarter of the heaven." He is "the center around which everything revolves."31 If Saturn was the ancient sun god, and the sun god stood at the celestial Pole, one should expect to find many of these former associations reflected in the age of early astronomy and astral mysticism 3. Early astronomy and astrology must have preserved numerous echoes of Saturn's polar station. The priestly astronomy of Iran knew Kevan, the planet Saturn, as "the Great One in the middle of the sky," his station identified as the celestial Pole.32 The throne of the Hebrew El, whom the Greeks translated as Kronos or Saturnis acknowledged to be "the pole of the Universe."33 In Chinese astronomical traditions, Saturn is "the genie of the pivot" and identified as "the planet of the center, corresponding to the emperor on earth, thus to the polar star of heaven."34 In neo-Platonist symbolism of the planets, the planet Kronos-Saturn is uniquely identified with the celestial Pole, or is placed "over the Pole."35 Latin poets remembered Saturn as god of "the steadfast star," the very language used of the celestial Pole in global tradition.36 In the mystic societies and traditions reviewed by Manly P. Hall, the god Saturn is "the old man who lives at the north pole."37 The consistency of the message cannot be denied, and it is certainly not the message predicted by any conventional model of the ancient sky. If the old sun god is simply an image of our Sun, distorted by an undisciplined imagination, one should not expect to find the same non-solar features repeated from one land to another. And least of all should we encounter repeated identification of the god with the improbable and remote planet Saturn, or the god's placement at the celestial Pole, visited by neither the planets nor the Sun today.38 Additionally, it needs to be remembered that, in the model we are examining, the polar character of the old sun god is crucially linked to other features of the proposed planetary configuration. In all major bodies of myth we should find: 1) that a company of secondary gods revolves around the sun god. 2) that the god dwells within a revolving band or enclosure, i.e. that the god is himself the pivot or axis of the revolving wheel. 3) that a crescent is depicted in different positions around the god, implying that the cres-cent moves, but the god doesn't. 4) that four streams of luminous ejecta radiate from the god in four directions, implying that the "directions" take their reference from the god (i.e., that the god himself stands at the fixed "center"). 5) that the god dwells upon a cosmic column day and night, implying that though the cir-cular dwelling above the column revolves, the god never leaves this home. Here, then, is an elementary level at which the critic is challenged to refute the model: if it can be shown that at root the mythical imagery of the sun god pertains to the rising and setting solar orb, then the model is immediately discredited. And needless to say, if the sky has remained unchanged over the millennia, this challenge to the theory should face no difficulty. In Egypt, for example, there are thousands of cosmological references to the old sun god. If the subject is our Sun, then no task should be easier than showing this or demonstrating that the portrait differs fundamentally from the above-stated requirements of the model. The Enclosure The model of the polar configuration includes a wheel-like band visually revolving around the stationary Saturn as the Earth turns on its axis. If the experience on which our theory is predicated actually occurred, and if, as the theory claims, myth itself mirrors the collective history of the polar configuration, then we should expect, not an occasional indication of this band or enclosure, but instances on every page of ancient texts. We should find that no picture was distributed more widely or more frequently throughout the prehistoric world; that in the myths no image was more commonly stated or given more varied interpretation by the mythmakers themselves. And though the planet Saturn now appears as a bare speck in the sky, we should find, amongst all peoples with adequately preserved planetary traditions, a mysterious association of the enclosed sun with the planet Saturn and the celestial Pole. 39 4. The ancient sun-god stood in the center of a luminous enclosure. The Egyptian sun god dwells within the Aten, whose hieroglyph is the universal symbol of the enclosed sun.40 The Babylonian Shamash occupies the center of a revolving, wheel-like celestial enclosure.41 The Hindus celebrated the wheel of the sun god Surya, and in art the god is presented in the center of a fiery wheelas is also the true sun Brahma.42 The same symbolism of the sun-wheel occurs in Buddhist art.43 Classical art repeatedly portrays the sun or sun god in the center of a fiery, turning wheel.44 In petroglyphs strewn across Europe ancient symbolists depicted the sun god inside a great wheel. In the Edda, the sun is fagrahvel, "fair wheel." In fact, our English word "wheel" traces to the old Gothic pictograph of the enclosed sun.45 Throughout the Americas, though the wheel was never harnessed for work or travel, the sun god was consistently depicted as the center of a turning wheel. This alone should be sufficient to prove that the wheel of the sun was not originally conceived as a vehicle for travelling across the sky (the usual assumption): The consistent image is of a wheel revolving around a stationary god.46 In fact, this simply-stated image of the enclosed sun occurs on every continent, and from one land to another it is among the most frequently occurring hieroglyphs47though the image does not look like our Sun, and no one today would "draw" our Sun in this fashion. 5. The pictograph of the enclosed sun must have been an ancient image of Saturn. As already observed, the ancient sun gods are identified with the planet Saturn and no other. It is thus doubly significant that these gods were all portrayed in the center of a wheel. For the same reason, it becomes particularly noteworthy that the pictograph of the enclosed sun was proclaimed to be a portrait of the planet Saturn. The Dogon of Africa, for example, draw the planet Saturn this way:48 Figure 2 The same picture was used for the Sumerian Ningirsu, the Babylonian Ninurta, recognized as the planet Saturn.49 So too, the central and highest god Anu, acknowledged to be Saturn,50 was "the high one of the enclosure of life."51 The Maori of New Zealand knew the planet Saturn as Parearau, whose name means "surrounding band."52 Throughout Roman Africa, the god Saturn was depicted as an orb surrounded by a band.53 It would certainly not be satisfactory, however, to limit our discussion of the band to its literal pictographic form. If Saturn's wheel dominated the ancient sky 6. Many different mythical objects, though seemingly unrelated, must be traceable to the band of the enclosed sun . Common mythical objects that the model would interpret as the band, we must include: Mother Goddess Celestial Kingdom World Wheel World Egg Cosmic Temple Cosmic City Sun God's Shield Sun God's Crown Sun God's Throne World-Encircling Ocean Encircling Serpent Band of the Celestial Eye Primeval Island Encircling Cord or Rope As a unified theory, the model would predict that all of these themes, when traced to their roots, will reveal themselves to be nothing other than a circle of fire and light, the dwelling of the sun god. It should go without saying that in the majority of instances these objects themselves are so different as to provide no basis for a syncretic blending. But the theory requires us, at every step, to distinguish between the symbol and the thing symbolized: in our mundane world a crown does not look like an egg and an egg has nothing in common with an eye or a throne. But is it possible that, as symbols, these were simply different versions of the same thing? A text from The Egyptian Book of the Dead reads: I am the lord of the crown. I am in the Eye, my egg. . .My seat is on my throne. I sit in [em, as] the pupil of the Eye."54 Could this strange combination of symbols speak for a level of coherence the experts have yet to penetrate? It is an easily demonstrated fact that each of the symbols listed above signified the dwelling of the sun god and that the Egyptians recorded the god's dwelling as a circle or band.55 The real problem for the translators is that the sky offers nothing with which to connect the idea. So while the ancient symbolists themselves were preoccupied with the natural powers behind the symbols, the modern researchers are left with only the symbols and nothing to do with them. Although space here will allow only the briefest of examples, these should be sufficient to illustrate the directions that the testing process can take. It will be seen that it matters not whether the myths deem the celestial dwelling a temple, city or kingdom, the meaning is precisely the same. The subject is the embryonic, circular "cosmos" fashioned by the visible creator, who is Saturn.56 On earth men built imitative dwellings of varying scale and function. But mythically, each had its inspiration in the same enclosure . For all of mankind the band of the enclosed sun became the model of the ideal dwelling, the divinely prescribed plan. All that was outside belonged to chaos and darkness.57 Countless myths insist that temples, cities and kingdoms on earth arose as copies of this radiant band.58 Sumerian hymns and sacred texts speak of a shining temple in the sky, the celestial dwelling of the sun god or cultural hero. It is described "floating in the sky, heaven's midst, "59 or floats "like a cloud in the midst of the sky."60 Throughout Mesopotamia the local temple took its name and symbolism from this cosmic prototype, each instance being mythically connected with the cosmic center, and each resting symbolically on the mountain of the world.61 To this cosmic dwelling one can compare the Egyptian sun temple founded in primeval times. "May I shine like Re in his divine splendour in the temple. "62 "Thou are the ruler of all the gods and thou hast joy of heart within the shrine."63 This original dwelling of the sun god, it was said, occupied the center from which all creation occurred. Here too, the local temple was conceived as a copy of the celestial model, the ideal dwelling originally produced by the sun god. According to Henri Frankfort, "This thought is applied even to temples built quite late in the history of Egypt."64 Thus, when the Egyptians laid the foundation of a temple, they consecrated the enclosed ground as "the primeval territory of the domain of the sun god."65 The same enclosure of the sun god is celebrated as a cosmic city. The Egyptian Atum-Ra, is "fixed in the middle of the sky. . .dweller in the city, "66 and every Egyptian town kept alive the tradition of a city in the sky, created by the sun god in the beginning. The Mesopotamian Anu shines with "terrifying splendor" as the "hero of the sacred city on high."67 And to the abundant Mesopotamian and Egyptian examples one could add countless parallels around the world, including such well-established instances as: the Hebrew celestial Jerusalem, "Sublime in elevation in the uttermost north. . .the City of the King; the Chinese "Imperial City," defined as an enclosure around the north celestial Pole; the Hindu celestial city of Brahma, "the all-containing city" at the celestial Pole.68 Several scholars have examined in great detail the symbolic connection between the sacred terrestrial habitation and the cosmic dwelling of the old sun god. It is clear that, for the builders on earth, there is not only a sense of "divine plan" inherited from remote times, but the memory of a very specific prototype or celestial model. H. P. L'Orange, for example, investigated the Near Eastern patterns, concluding that the ancient throne, temple and city were all symbolically connected to a celestial prototype which served as the prescribed form. This prototype was a great wheel in the sky, in the center of which stood the sun god and universal monarch, "the Axis and Pole of the World." 69 All that L'Orange lacked was a concrete reference for the image. The Egyptian Aten With respect to all of the enclosure-themes listed above, the logical test is: When traced to their earliest expressions, do these mythical images reveal the form of a visible celestial band around the old sun god? Considering the terms in which such objects are usually conceived, one would not automatically think of a circle or band. So the model's prediction clearly distinguishes itself from the experiential world of modern researchers, who have sought to project our own (far less dramatic) celestial dome upon antiquity. On this vital question, an excellent test is provided by the Egyptian Aten, for I have claimed, against all conventional interpretation, that the Aten was not the Sun but the circular dwelling of the sun.70 Since Egyptian sources yield a great deal of information on the Aten, a serious researcher should be able to determine if, as our model implies, the Aten represented the concrete celestial form behind all of the mythical symbols listed above. Here are some examples: Aten and Mother Goddess "Son of the Aten" is one of the most common phrases in the language of the kingship rites. "My Aten has given me birth," states one Egyptian text.71 Hence, the Coffin Texts invoke the Aten as the "Great Lady" (i.e. mother goddess),72 and the Aten-band came also to mean "mistress."73 Aten and the House of the Sun From the Coffin Texts: "Your pavilion is enlarged in the interior of the Aten."74 Aten and Throne From the Coffin Texts: "My seat is in the Aten; how firm is my seat in the Aten."75 Aten and Crown According to the kingship rites, the Aten served as the prototypical crown of kings. Thus, the god dwells in or is born in the crown, and the terrestrial ruler's crown is "even like the Aten on the head of Amen-Ra."76 Aten and World Egg From the Egyptian Book of the Dead: "O thou who art in thine egg, who shinest from thy Aten."77 Aten and Celestial Kingdom The Egyptian sun god "rules all that the Aten encircles."78 What makes this phrasing intelligible is that the word aten also means the created "land."79 Hence, the creations of the sun god occur inside the Aten-band: "Thou makest thy creations in the Aten."80 Aten and Shield To the Egyptians, the celestial enclosure possessed the magical quality of protecting the inhabitants from the dark and chaotic forces outside the enclosure,81 and this simple fact will explain why the enclosure was conceived as a shield.82 Thus the texts can say, "The Aten makes thy protection."83 For the same reason, the mother goddess, who personifies the Aten-band, is "the Great Protectress."84 Aten and Island of Beginnings A single spell of the Coffin Texts identifies Re as "the noble one who is at the land of the Island of Fire, but also the god "who is in his Aten."85 The subject is the "land" which congealed from the waters of chaos as a band around the sun god.86 Aten and Circular Serpent One of the most common forms of the Aten-sign shows the band as the body of a serpent. Ra himself is ami-khet-f, "the dweller in his fiery circle," but also ami-hem-f, "the dweller in his fiery serpent."87 Aten and the Bond of Heaven A popular hieroglyph which was virtually interchangeable with the Aten sign was the sign shen. Here, the Aten-band is represented as an enclosing rope, stretched around the sun god and marking or constituting the boundary of the celestial kingdom. (Thus the encircling rope is often written with the Aten- sign as determinative.88) Aten and World-Encircling Ocean The shen-hieroglyph denotes also "the surrounding ocean," identified as the border separating the organized kingdom of the sun god from the disorder perceived outside the enclosure.89 What, then, is the Egyptian Aten? It is either nothing, and out of nothing the symbolists conjured meaningless and contradictory images; or it is something the ancients experienceda visible reference making intelligible each and every one of these associations. Permit the Aten-band to have actually hung over the ancient world, every bit as tangible as the ancient sun itself, and all of these mythical interpretations take on a stunning coherence. The surrounding ocean was the circular serpent, and the circular serpent was the sun god's crown, which was the cosmic temple. The value of the Aten is that, behind it, there is a considerable volume of raw data, enough to either validate or refute the model's predictions. Having reviewed all of the key sources many times, I can say I have never found an early instance of Aten-symbolism that contradicts this claim: that each and every one of the symbols listed above is strictly synonymous with the Aten-band. To be sure, no such statem ent has ever been made by Egyptologists, and this simple fact sets the model against the entire field of specialists. But in the methodology adopted here, this is an advantage: for if I am wrong on this identity, surely nothing could be easier than demonstrating the error. To fully evaluate the consistency of the mythical message as it bears on the sun-god's enclosure, each and every one of the images cited here can be the subject of independent scrutiny, and the symbolism examined in all of the major cultural traditions. So also must the inquiry seek to determine if the various enclosure images consistently reveal the predicted relationships to the other components of the model. Does the enclosure, whatever its mythical formulation, always rest on the summit of a great mountain or celestial column? Does it revolve around the sun god? Does it display a bright revolving crescent? And is it associated in one way or another with an enigmatic, spiraling, "cometary" curl? In fact, every symbol interpreted by the model as a figure of the band, should reveal these very relationships, causing endless dilemmas for those seeking to understand them in terms of our familiar sky. Polar column The model of the polar configuration includes a distinctive pillar-like form reaching from the northern horizon toward the polar center. It suggests a stream of gas, dust, ice or other cosmic debris stretched along the shared planetary axis. At the upper end (i.e., visibly constituting the termination of the stream) stood the planet Mars, rotating on the same Earth-Saturn axis so as to retain a stable position visually "beneath" the polar Saturn.90 This improbable position of the planet Mars in the model yields a host of equally improbable associations, so that one's natural incredulity must be balanced in some measure by the extraordinarily specific tests the model offers. To begin with, there is the obvious impression of a luminous cosmic column. 7. The wheel of the sun rested on a great pillar or mountain of fight. It would be impossible to find a well-developed mythological system that does not include this spectacular cosmic mountain as the primeval home of the sun god. Not just a mountain but a column of fire and light, a golden mountain, silver mountain, or mountain constituted of fiery waters, air or "aether." In one myth after another, it is claimed that the mount rose from the waters of the deep to bear aloft the the enclosure of the sun. And the myths consistently locate a mysterious, ancestral land (the world wheel) upon the summit of this very mountain.91 The world mountain is an obvious key to the symbolism of the old sun god. Since the mount is recognized to be synonymous with the world axis, the sun on the summit can only be a polar sun. In all of the myths related below an ancestral generation of "gods" is said to have dwelt on the mount, and it is from this race that those telling the story claim to have descended. (Which is to say that the symbolism of the polar sun is inseparable from the story of the cultural hero.) In conventional translations of Egyptian texts, the dwelling of the sun god is located upon the "horizon," and the sun god himself, under whatever name he may appear, "shines in the horizon." This certainly does not sound like a polar sun and hardly suggests the great column postulated here. The literal meaning of the word Aakhut, however, is not "horizon," andas stated long ago by Renouf"there is no reason why we should continue to use the misleading term."92 In the most literal sense, the Aakhut is the "Mountain of Fire-Light," constituted from the flaming, watery Aakhu exploding from the creator in the beginning. The Egyptians celebrated the Aakhut as "the venerable hill of primeval beginning"93 and claimed the towering column to have served as the perch or resting place for the ancient sun god in the creationa central pillar around which the created "land" (world wheel) congealed. Thus the sun god Atum is "fixed in the middle of the sky upon his support:"94 The celestial perch was the veritable axis of the world. The Babylonian sun god Ninurta is similarly described as "the god of the steady star upon a foundation."95 In one of the primary Babylonian traditions this foundation is the Hursag, "The Mountain of the world." A hymn to Ninurta reads: Incantation- O Sun-god, from the great mountain is thy rising; From the great mountain, the mountain of the ravine, is thy rising; From the holy mound, the place of destinies is thy rising.96 Does the god actually rise from the mountain? As in Egypt, the original language does not support the translations. In truth, the Babylonian sun god does not "rise and set" but waxes and wanes, while occupying the center or midst of heaven. And, as already noted by others, both phases of the cycle occur on a single mountain.97 Thus, as reported by Lenormant, the great hill was called "the axis of heaven" and identified as "the column which joined the heavens and the earth and served as an axis of the celestial vault."98 The Hindus knew the famous mountain as Meru, on whose summit stood the primeval dwelling of the gods. In the beginning this "golden mountain" or "jewelled peak" rose in the cosmic sea to serve as a universe pillar holding aloft the celestial city of Brahma. Around the summit of this axis-mountain turned the starry heavens.99 Chinese myth recalls a similar mount, Kwen-lun, the "Pearl Mountain," or "Great Peak of Perfect Harmony."100 On the summit of Kwen-Lun stood the great palace of Shang-ti, the universal emperor at the celestial Pole, the palace itself being described as Tze-wei, "a celestial space around the north Pole. "101 The Japanese recalled the world mountain Shumi, described as "a fabulous mountain of wonderful height, forming the axis of every Universe, and the center around which all the heavenly bodies revolve."102 The Iranian sun god shone atop the cosmic mountain Hera Berezaiti. According to the Zend Avesta, "The Maker Ahura Mazda has built up a dwelling on the Hera-Berezaiti, the bright mountain around which the many stars revolve."103 Altaic races remember the cosmic mountain whose "peak rises to the sky at the North Star where the axis of the sky is situated, and where, on the peak, the dwelling of the Over-god and his 'golden throne' are situated."104 This was "at the navel of heaven, on the peak of the famous mountain."105 The Greek Olympos, where stood the original city of the gods and home of Kronos, Latin Saturn, was the "wholly shining," a cosmic mountain rising into the fiery aether and called the "navel" and "axis" of the world.106 The Hebrew celestial Jerusalem stood on the summit of the cosmic Zion, after which the Hebrews named the local hill in Palestine. "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion."107 "Mt. Zion, thou 'far reaches of the North,' an emperor's citadel."108 Many remarkable counterparts to these traditions will be found in the myths and symbols of the New World. One of the better known instances is the White or Shining Mountain Colhuacan, recognized by many writers as a polar column. On the summit of Colhuacan dwelt the original divine race.109 The Omaha recall the great rock which Wakanda summoned from the waters in the beginning: "the great white rock, standing and reaching as high as the heavens, enwrapped in mist, verily as high as the heavens."110 In the Eskimo tradition the world of the gods is situated above a great mountain around which the celestial bodies revolve.111 8. The celestial column must have received many different mythical interpretations, all arising as symbols of the same phenomenon. The hypothesized cosmic mountain could hardly have failed to produce a great variety of symbols. What imagination might perceive as a "mountain" could just as well be seen as a "river" joining heaven and earth or a celestial fount feeding the four directional streams of the land above. If some saw a giant god bearing the heavenly sphere on his shoulders, others might have seen a column of "wind" or "aether," or a flaming sword round which the heavens turned. Taking the most obvious examples, we list these mythical images as the logical and predicted figures of the cosmic column, if such a thing was actually witnessed by ancient man: World Mountain World Pillar Binding Post Phallic Column Serpent-Column112 Heaven-Supporting Giant Nether River Fountain of the Deep Underworld Spring North Wind/South Wind113 Sword (straight, not curved)114 Single Leg (of a one-legged god) Trunk of the World Tree We are thus faced with an array of radically different images, many of which, in their own terms, seem to offer no basis for meaningful combination. For only if the hypothesized column was actually there would one expect to find a mythical sword identified as an aetherial fount, or a river conceived as a towering mountain. Yet it can be shown that in the world of ancient symbolism these improbable objects are repeatedly brought into "inexplicable" combination, and in the very ways that the model would predict. To fully demonstrate this point will require far more space than permitted here, but we can at least outline some of the directions the tests can take. In ancient imagery of the celestial kingdom, one encounters numerous references to a vivifying wind rising from below the land of the gods, often called the "North Wind" or "South Wind." Not infrequently the North Wind/South Wind is itself personified as a god (as in the familiar instances of the Greek Boreas and Sumerian Enlil). If the model is correct, this could be nothing other than the polar column conceived as an aethereal stream. Hence, a consideration of the imagery, from the vantage point of the model, leads inexorably to an equation of "North Wind/South Wind" and "World Mountain," though a mountain constituted of wind would, apart from the model, appear as an absurdity. To test the explanatory capability of our model, therefore, it is appropriate to ask: Did the ancient symbolists themselves recognize the radical identity of the World Mountain and the North Wind/South Wind implied by the model? The Greek Boreas is, at once, the "North Wind" and a boreal "mountain."115 The Sumerian Enlil personified the "wind," lil, stretched between heaven and earth. His most frequent epithet, though, was Imhursag, the "Great Mountain" in fact the world mountain of Sumerian myth.116 Hindu sources refer frequently to a stream of wind, air or smoke joining heaven and earth, called "the breath of life" and personified as Agni or Indra. But this aethereal stream was nothing less than a heaven-supporting mount or pillar: "He [Agni] as a pillar of smoke upholds the heavens."117 Thus the "Kingpost" of the Hindu sacred dwelling, symbol of the axis-pillar, is dalled "Breath,"118 and the Upanishads can say, "The breath of life is a pillar."119 Adding to the complexity of the symbolism, there are also countless myths of a central fount, spring, river or well bringing the "waters of life" to the inhabitants of the celestial domain. If the polar configuration is to account for the theme, could this subterranean source (i.e., beneath the created land of the gods) be anything else than the very same column? And will a review of the evidence confirm the predicted relationship to the improbable planet Mars? Though all well-developed mythological systems deserve to be consulted on this test, there is no better source than Egypt for definitive material. The Egyptian god whom classical writers recognized as Hercules-Ares-Mars was Shu, 120 a god said to have come into being in the fiery, watery Outflow of the sun god.121 In his form as Anhur, Shu is represented as the war god and symbolized by the sword or spear, one of the most pervasive Martian symbols in the ancient world.122 In the methodology here proposed, the direction of the tests becomes obvious: Was the god Shu depicted as a pillar or mountain? Shu is the Egyptian pillar-god par excellence (addressed as "the pillar"), the Mountain of Fire Light presented in human form. In fact few themes seem to have enchanted Egyptian poets and artists more than the myth of Shu bearing on his shoulders the circle of the Aten or the fiery enclosure of the mother goddess Nut--exactly as suggested by the model. Was the pillar-god the central fount or river? Shu is called the "waterway," the celestial Nile. In the creation the pillar- god is literally "poured out" as water by the sun god Atum, who "is established upon the watery supports of the god Shu."123 Was the pillar-god the "wind of the below"? In Egypt, the word for "north" is (for the obvious geographical reasons) synonymous with "lower" or "below." Shu is literally "the wind of the below," conventionally translated as "North Wind." Of the sun god it was said, "He breatheth and the god Shu cometh into being." Thus is the central sun "established upon that which emanateth from thy existence."124 That "water" or "air" should serve as a shining pillar of heaven will seem absurd only until one sees the polar column as the reference. It did look like a shining column of water or air. And it did appear to hold aloft the sun god's enclosure. By this logic we have an explanation for two seemingly unrelated hieroglyphs for the Egyptian shu noted below: the first a pillar (A:1) tracing to prehistoric Egyptian images of a horned pillar,as our model would predict (A:2); and the second (B) depicting the aethereal stream beneath the wheel of the central sun. A:1. Symbol of Shu A:2. Primitive form of (1) B. Hieroglyph for shu Figure 3 The reader will note that the glyph (B) emphasizes also the crucial relationship of the shining pillar to the image of the enclosed sun. 9. The enclosure of the sun god was inseparable from the cosmic column on which it appeared to rest. Egyptian sources locate the sun god in "the enclosure of the High Hill." "O very high mountain! I hold myself in thy enclosure."125 The sun god does not shine above the mountain so much as he shines in it. He dwells "in the midst of" or "in the interior of" the Aakhut, the Mountain of Fire-Light. In this sense the Aten-band can be best understood as the hollow summit of the mount; and the texts can be accepted in their most literal sense: "O you in your egg, shining in your Aten, growing bright in your Mountain of Fire-Light."126 "Grow bright and diminish at your desire. . .You send forth light every day from the middle of the Mountain of Fire-Light."127 This equation of sun-god's enclosure and hollow summit of the world mountain will explain why, around the world, the mythical land, city, and temple (as well as imitative dwellings on earth, whatever the scale) were all consistently invoked as a "great mountain." Constituted in the shadow of the cosmic prototype, every sacred habitation seems to have stood symbolically upon the summit of the primeval hill.128 There are, of course, countless other directions in which an investigation must take. A primary motif would be the famous sword of the warrior hero, often described "like a mountain" (or conversely, a great mountain becomes the god's sword, launched against his enemies).129 Here too, if the model is to survive even the most elementary tests, we should expect to find repeated associations of the same sword on the one hand, with the world pillar, and on the other hand, with a stream of wind or water beneath the habitation of the gods.130 In all of these instances, whatever the specific direction the researcher may choose to take, the tests will force the issue in the boldest terms: Virtually none of the predicted associations and identities make any sense under the appearance of the heavens today. Yet precisely the same "unnatural" associations should be found again and again, the warrior hero taking the form of a great mountain, toiling on behalf of the sun god or a great "king, " bearing aloft the band of the cosmos, merging symbolically with his own sword, and endlessly personifying a channel or column of water or air beneath the sun god's dwelling. Once confirmed, such a highly improbable nexus of symbols, hopelessly contradictory at one level, yet beautifully coherent at another, will constitute a major verification of our model's ability to predict the interconnected themes of myth. Four Streams of Life In the model, the central orb of Saturn appears to be the source of four primary streams of luminous material radiating in the four directions. I have emphasized that the four cross-like streams in the illustrated configuration should be taken not as refracted light, but literally as ejecta erupting explosively and "noisily"131 from the polar center, creating a sea of debris in which the orb of Saturn itself appeared to float.132 10. The dwelling of the gods was divided by four fiery streams coursing outward from the sun god and dividing the dwelling into four quarters. Considering the model in the most obvious terms, how might such a spectacular phenomenon have entered the myths? In applying our model to the well-established themes of world mythology, we encounter several motifs that could only be explained as the four streams. There is, to begin with, the familiar myth of the four rivers of paradise, or the divine "land of the four rivers" which so many ancient races recalled as the place of beginnings. The best known, of course, is the paradise of Eden, divided by four rivers "spreading to the four corners of the world."133 But surprising parallels seem to occur on all continents: The Navaho narration of the "Age of Beginnings" tells of an ancestral land destroyed in a great catastrophe. "In its center was a spring from which four streams flowed, one to each of the cardinal points."134 [With the polar configuration as a reference, the concept of a central spring or river whose waters are dispersed in the four directions acquires special significance. In the polar column it is easy to imagine a central water source welling up from below to distribute its contents through the arms of the sun cross above. It would not be unreasonable, in other words, to look for similar ideas elsewhere.] The Chinese paradise of Kwen-lun, adorned with pearls, jade, and precious stones, lay at the center and zenith of the world. In this happy abode stood a central fountain from which flowed "in opposite directions the four great rivers of the world."135 Four rivers appear also in the Hindu Rig Veda: "The noblest, the most wonderful work of this magnificent one [Indra], is that of having filled the bed of the four rivers with water as sweet as honey."136 (As noted, Indra was the great mountain/aethereal column.) The Vishnu Purana identifies the four streams with the paradise of Brahma at the world summit. They, too, flow in four directions.137 The home of the Greek goddess Calypso, in the "navel of the sea," possessed a central fountain sending forth "four streams, flowing each in opposite directions"138 From the Iranian central fountain, Ardvi Sura, situated at the summit of the world (i.e., atop the cosmic mount Hera Berezaiti) issued four life-bearing streams.139 In the Scandinavian Edda, the world's waters originate in the four streams flowing from the spring Hvergelmir in the land of the gods.140 Several additional examples of the mythical four rivers could be enumerated. 141 But our model does not simply predict this universal theme, it associates the theme with a very explicit image- the wheel of the sun or enclosed sun cross, though, again, both the idea and the image connect with no natural experience today. It is thus worth noting that various comparative mythologists have already discerned the sun cross pictograph as a portrait of the celestial land of the four rivers. J. C. Cirlot, in his Dictionary of Symbols, for example, observes that the image of the enclosed sun-cross "expresses the original Oneness (symbolized by the centre)" and "the four radii. . .are the same as the four rivers which well up from the fons vitae. 142 11. The four streams of the sun-cross must have passed into myth under several different forms, each possessing a root identity with the others, explicable only by the model. Common mythical forms that would have to be mentioned in any general summary of sun-cross symbolism would include: Four rivers of the sun god's dwelling Four winds emanating from the sun Four spokes of the world wheel Four pathways quartering the kingdom Four flames or fiery emanations Four pillars of heaven Four arrows or streams of arrows In my introductory article I noted the mythical concept of arrows launched toward the four corners, and the related practice among widespread peoples in order to consecrate a new territory as a copy of the ideal kingdom in the sky. 143 Similarly, the language of the four winds radiating from the cosmic center will be found on all continents, as will the myth of four pillars sustaining the cosmic dwelling at four "cardinal points" and the pervasive symbolism of four pathways radiating from the numinous center to partition the kingdom into equal quarters. What the model adds to this diverse collection of motifs is a most extraordinary formula. It says that, despite the seeming incompatibility of the themes, each and every one of them answers to the same celestial phenomenon. Moreover, it is not possible to believe that, if this be so, the early mythmakers could have entirely forgotten the identity. So while four streams of water, air or fire may appear as unlikely candidates for he aven-sustaining pillars, that is exactly their function predicted by the model. Egyptian symbolism presents the four life-bearing streams as the Four Sons of Horus, identified as "four blustering winds," "four blazing flames" or four streams of water.144 But the same figures are presented as "four pillars of heaven" placed at the four corners of the celestial habitation (i.e., ranged around the central sun).145 The Hindu Satapatha Brahmana, in setting forth the ritual of the world wheel, extols the great god Vishnu with the words: "O Vishnu, with beams of light thou didst hold fast the earth on all sides."146 The subject is not our terrestrial world but the created land of the gods. The Ethiopic Book of Enoch reads: "I saw the four winds. . .these are the pillars of the earth."147 In architectural renderings of Eden's four rivers, they too appear as pillars.148 The Mayan Bacabs, identified as four streams of water, are the "four props of heaven."149 In Hawaiian myth, the life elements radiate to four corners of heaven by means of the "four spirits," Tane, Rono, Tanaoroa and Tucalled "the Four male Pillars of Creation."150 This is a subject deserving far more attention than the few paragraphs allowed here. But these examples alone should be sufficient to show that a previously-unexplained identity is at work. The predictions of the model are an open invitation to researchers to extend the tests into all major bodies of myth and symbol. Surely, in a world bearing any resemblance to our own, the sheer weight of experience and natural discrimination would have stood in the way of such mythical identities. That the equation is repeated from one land to another thus strongly suggests an underlying idea yet to be recognized by comparative mythologists as a whole. 12. The four directional streams must be located inside the enclosure of the sun and on the summit of the world mountain. Here again, the precise indications of the model leave little room for ambiguity. Will the consensus of ancient testimony support this unique placement claimed by the model? Among the Egyptians there are several pictographs which, if they bear any relationship to the polar configuration, could only refer to the four streams : A:l A:2 A:3 B:1 B:2 C D E Figure 4 The cross form A:1 or A:2 (earlier A:3) carries the meaning "to be inside of" or "to be enclosed by."151 A closely related form B:1 (earlier B:2) signifies the "outflow," of the sun, but also "to divide." Similarly noteworthy is the form C, meaning "to come to life", "to blaze forth (with flame or water)". Viewed from the vantage point of the model, these and related forms and meanings constitute a dramatic and highly literal portrait of the four fiery emanations of the sun god. The daily waxing of the streams is the god's "coming to life." The four streams erupt from the central sun (as "outflow") and they not only stand inside the enclosure, they divide it into four quarters. Thus the Egyptian sign for apt (D above) means "division of the sacred dwelling." While there is no easy explanation of the pictograph for Egyptologists, it is the very image our model would predict for such an idea. 152 I must emphasize again that our focus is on the most commonly-stated themes, not the remote, shadowy corners of myth and symbol in which any and every reading might be entertained. Among the Egyptians, the preeminent image of "the sacred dwelling" (Figure 4 E) signified the organized space within the womb of Nut. For us it is easy to see this as a figure of the enclosure divided by the four streams- a primitive version of the sun wheel. In fact, to achieve this basic image, it is only necessary that one place the "outflow"/"to divide" pictograph within the band of the Aten . Thus allowing the sun-cross to receive its acknowledged meaning, "of the interior" or "inside." (As already noted, the goddess Nut personified the Aten band). This may all seem very obvious when a concrete reference lies before us, yet one would have to look far and wide to find, in conventional treatments of Egyptian symbolism, any acknowledgement of even these most elementary relation ships. The reason is: the specialists have no external source to illuminate the glyphs. Since they do not realize that the Aten was the band around the ancient sun, they do not have anything with which to connect either the idea "to be inside" or "a division of," and as a result, even the most basic levels of the symbolism are usually missed.153 In the same way that the model locates the four streams within the circumpolar enclosure, it places them also on the summit of the world mountain. This fundamental relationship should be confirmable in both texts and symbols. Did the Egyptians, for example, preserve any pictograph explicitly locating the four streams simultaneously inside the enclosure and on the summit of the cosmic mountain? The relationship would seem to be confirmed in the Egyptian Menat-symbol: Figure 5 The sign appears to show the image of the four rivers, un, "to come to life," "to blaze forth," contained within an enclosure that itself rests upon a pillar. (Here, the four streams are duplicated as eight, a feature not uncommon in images of the sun-cross). It remains to be asked, then, whether Egyptian texts confirm the same relationships of the four streams to enclosure and mountain top. In the Coffin Texts, the All-Lord remembers the time when "I did four good deeds within the portal of the Mountain of Fire-Light. I made the four winds that every man might breathe thereof."154 Thus are the four winds explicitly located inside the enclosure of the cosmic mountain, without the slightest deviation from the symbolism predicted by the model. The same test can be applied again and again to ancient sources on a theme-by- theme basis, with the same question applying to each instance: Will the natural order today account for the theme? Does the polar configuration predict the theme? crescent With respect to the overall behavior of the polar configuration, no single feature is more valuable in the testing process than the revolving crescent that portion of the surrounding band directly illuminated by the Sun and visually revolving around Saturn with each turn of the Earth on its axis. It is this unique feature of the crescent that places it in the center of ancient symbolism of the archaic "day" and "night," enabling us to carry the inquiry into many special details of the ancient daily cycle. At these more finite levels, the predictions of the model not only contradict any and all appearances of the sky today, but possess a level of specificity which, if the predicted symbolism is verified, would seem to allow for no explanation apart from something close to our basic model. For certainly, apart from the experience here proposed, neither metaphor nor make believe could have produced a set of principles coinciding so precisely with the role of the crescent in the polar configuration. Thus, the crescent will help to force the issue with conventional interpretation, which has never seen anything other than our Moon in ancient uses of the symbol. Since I will contend that the Moon has no role at all in the earliest expressions of myth, the lines are clearly drawn. To challenge the thesis, a conventional mythologist will only need to demonstrate that the original crescent's role is explicable by the present behavior of the Moon. To verify the polar configuration, on the other hand, it must be shown that in its early uses, the role of the crescent always fulfills the predictions of the model: 13. The ancient sun god stood within the hollow of a great crescent. Whatever else one may think of the imagery, it is impossible to deny that the crescent's two most common contexts in the ancient world and (or closely related variants) do match very precisely the role of the crescent in the proposed configuration, while a conventional mythologist, asked to explain these images, would have to resort to a good deal of conjecture. Of course, our Sun and Moon never do present the image of the sun-in-crescent because the crescent in our sky today is the sunward face of the Moon. The incongruity was noticed several years ago by E. A. S. Butterworth, who observed that the universally revered crescent "is not the natural luminary of heaven, for it has its hollow side turned towards the 'sun.'"155 The subject of Butterworth's study was the mythical imagery of the celestial Pole, but his starting point required him to deal with both the polar "sun" and the associated crescent "moon" in a vacuum. Though he perceived a key to the symbolism, he did not ask if the sky itself may have looked different in ancient times. Perhaps one of the problems is that the conventional researcher is too accustomed to the image of the sun-in-crescent: having seen it so often, it simply does not occur to him that the form is unusual, or deserves an explanation. In our model the crescent means the illuminated portion of a circumpolar band or enclosure, Saturn's dwelling in the sky: 14. The crescent of myth and symbol must have been wrapped around the sun god's enclosure and virtually inseparable from this revolving band. It is well known that in classical mythology Saturn (or Kronos) wields a curved harp or sickle by which he establishes his dominion. Most authorities would agree with Karl Kerenyi that the sickle is the "image of the new moon. "156 In what sense could one say that Saturn today possesses the crescent Moon? The connection appears to be very old, for it occurs also in ancient Babylonia. Ninurta, the planet Saturn, holds in his hands a weapon called SAR-UR-USAR-GAZ, and also BAB-BA-NU-IL-LA157. These names happen to be the very titles of the god Sin, the crescent "Moon."158 But there is another peculiarity also: Though always identified by scholars as the lunar sphere, Sin is apparently never presented as a "half-moon," three quarters moon" of "full moon." He is simply Udsar, "the crescent."159 And though no relationship would seem more bizarre under our familiar sky, Babylonian art continually presents the crescent of Sin wrapped half way around the enclosed sun cross.160 I offer a few of many examples below: Figure 6 Did this relationship of the Sin-crescent to the sun god's enclosure originate in a haphazard combination of once-independent symbols, or in a fundamental equation? The connection between Sin and Anu (the planet Saturn) amounts to an "identity," according to Peter Jensen.161 George Rawlinson says the same thing: the Babylonians regarded Sinthe crescentas an aspect of the planet Saturn.162 Alfred Jeremias states the equation unequivocally: Sin = Saturn. 163 All of the available information will confirm that Sin was part and parcel of the old sun-god's enclosure, the very (highly specific!) association predicted by our model. Thus the texts invoke the Sin-crescent as the protective rampart a "luminous sanctuary which in the land is elevated!"164 One naturally wonders if this unique merging of crescent and band might occur also in the Egyptian symbolism of the Aten, the sun god's enclosure. We do not have to look far for an answer. In numerous representations of the Aten, a crescent forms exactly half of the band, as in our example below from the tomb of Ramesses VI (Fig. 7). A popular Egyptian figure of the crescent was the divinity Ah or Aah, whose special hieroglyph has caused one Egyptologist after another to identify him with our Moon. The root ah, however, means "to embrace," a concept devoid of meaning in connection with our Moon, but charged with meaning when referred to the polar configuration: resting within this very enclosure, the sun god is "embraced" by the brightly illuminated crescent. It appears that the predictions of the model find dramatic support in Egyptian sources. For the only "moon" invoked in early Egyptian ritual is that which houses the central sun. Chapter LXV of the Book of the Dead, bearing the title, "The chapter of Coming Forth by Day and Gaining Mastery over enemies," begins, "Hail (thou) who shinest from the Moon [Ah] and who sendest forth light therefrom."165 "In several chapters the sun is spoken of as shining in or from the moon," notes Renouf.166 Figure 7 This peculiarity appears to have generated a great deal of confusion among Egyptologists. One of the gods associated with the crescent-enclosure is Khensu, whom all authorities identify as the Moon. But the god's image remains enigmatic, for Budge writes: "He wears on his head the lunar disk in a crescent, or the solar disk with a uraeus, or the solar disk with the plumes and uraeus."167 Did the Egyptians have difficulty deciding whether the god was the sun or the moon? With respect to the image of the crescent- enclosure, Budge writes, "in this form he represents both the sun at sunrise and the new moon."168 There is more significance in this statement than might be immediately apparent; for as stated by Budge, the image is not only associated with the sun god, but with a particular point in a daily cyclewhat he calls "the sun at sunrise." As I have stated above, the specific position of the crescent in its relationship to a daily cycle will help to unravel a great deal of symbolism left in confusion in the usual summaries 15. The crescent revolved around the orb of Saturn each day, its alternating positions corresponding to phases in the daily cycle of waxing and waning. As stated, the crescent is that portion of the band directly illuminated by the Sun (solar orb); hence, as the Earth rotates, the terrestrial observer sees the crescent complete a full revolution around Saturn each day.169 The position of the crescent in relation to the daily cycle is sepicted below. As the Sun sets in the West (assuming the present direction of Earth's rotation), the image is 1) As the crescent descends, the apparition grows steadily brighter. Then, when the Sun reaches its Midnight position with respect to the observer, the crescent is directly below Saturn, and the apparition its brightest: 2) Representing the most brilliant phase of the configuration, this image should dominate over all others. As the Sun rises in the East and the sky lightens, the radiance of the configuration diminishes: 3) Then, when the Sun reaches its Noon position, the crescent hovers above Saturn. 4) This is the point of least radiance, mythically the "end" or "completion" of the daily cycle. The position of the crescent with respect to the phases of the ancient "day" can contribute immensely to our understanding of the roots of symbolism, for ancient nations possessed an array of symbols relating to the cycle of day and night. To measure the ability of the polar configuration to predict the forms and meanings involved, one must remember that the original, archaic "day" began at sunset, as the polar configuration began to grow bright, reaching its supreme moment in the image , while the "night" or period of "cessation," answers to the image There is thus considerable meaning in Budge's identification of the upright crescent-enclosure with "the sun at sunrise" (literally, "the shining forth of the sun"). Since, in our model, this moment par excellence comes when the crescent rests directly below the orb of Saturn, the Egyptian symbol corresponds directly to the predicted image of the archaic "day." 16. The revolving crescent's designated place was atop the world pillar It was G. S. Faber, writing over 150 years ago, who first seems to have noticed the unique connection of the mythical mountain and the symbolic "Moon" of ancient rites. Resting on the summit of the mount, the crescent served as the receptacle of the sun held in its embrace, the combined image providing the likeness of a human form with outstretched arms. Thus the sacred mount passed into numerous local traditions as "The Mountain of the Moon," he said. .170 Faber, however, was propounding a vastly different idea from that offered here. It was his purpose to show that all such motifs arose as distorted echoes of the ancient image of the ark of Noah resting on the Mount of Ararat after the deluge, it being the habit of pagan minds to assimilate Noah to their solar worship and the ark itself to the crescent moon. Yet remarkably, the widespread "pagan" image discovered by Faber answers to the cosmic form of the midnight polar configuration noted above. And this very image makes possible a new understanding of a crucial characteristic of the cosmic mount: its summit is cleft, horned or two-peaked. On analysis these two peaks of the world mountain always turn out to be the anomalous, yet highly visible crescent "moon."171 Moreover, the image of a recumbent crescent resting on a cosmic column and holding in its hollow the central sun, , is perhaps the single most crucial image to our analysis of the polar configuration. For one thing, it establishes certain implied meanings of the crescent which would not be suggested by a crescent alone (i.e., these meanings are entirely dependent upon a particular relationship of the crescent to the central sun and supporting pillar). 17. The spectacular appearance of Saturn within the pillared crescent must have inspired many previously-unexplained mythical images, all mysteriously linked to each other. What are the primary mythical forms which our model would explain through this image? The most common and fundamental include: Giant bird standing upright (on its tail feathers), with outstretched wings God or goddess with outstretched wings Pillar or mountain supporting a pair of horns The Bull of Heaven, with the sun between its horns God or goddess with upraised or outstretched arms Heaven sustaining giant bearing sun god and/or celestial band on his shoulders Sun god in cosmic ship resting on a pillar or mountain Twin peaks or cleft peak of the world mountain (Faber's "Mountain of the Moon. ") There are, of course, many other important mythical themes which, if they are to explained by the model, would appear to have their reference in the same components of the polar configuration. It is useful to limit discussion to the listed themes for two reasons: they are, without question, primary symbolic images, occurring in more than one land. And by focusing an investigation first on these primary forms, the analysis can be kept within manageable limits. If man did gaze up at the polar configuration, no one would doubt that these images are the result; while if man never experienced such a thing, the images are left without a meaningful explanation. To anyone seeking to test the model, therefore, the immediate task is to determine if, in the above-noted themes, it is possible to confirm the predicted and unambiguous role of the revolving crescent. For example: The model predicts that the outstretched arms of the heaven-sustaining giant (such as the Egyptian Shu discussed above) are formed by a crescent; that the sun god rests between these two arms; that the arms reach exactly half way around the enclosure of the sun god; that (in a most unnatural way) the arms revolve around the stationary sun, participating in the cycle of day and night, and (more specifically still) that they stand above the central sun during the phase of waning brightness and below the central sun in the phase of greatest brilliance. And if these predictions are not specific enough there is the additional predicted equation of the outstretched arms with all of the other mythical forms originating in the crescent, no matter how different these forms themselves may appear. 18. Originally, the symbolists must have recognized the underlying equation of the crescent-forms. If the theory is correct, then the outstretched wings of the thunderbird or winged god or goddess, signified the same thing as the cosmic ship, the two peaks of the world mountain, and the horns of the Bull of Heaven. Though the terrestrial objects, in themselves, do not offer a basis for the mythical equation, the model predicts such an equation by explaining each of them through the same objective form.172 Hence, there are a few discrete imagesoutstretched wings, outstretched arms, ship, horns, twin peaksthat should figure most prominently in the testing process. We should expect to find these few, select images brought into repeated juxtaposition in ways that could only baffle the experts. In fact, once the methodology is understood, anyone applying the test to earlier sources should find it useful even in the first few hours of research. I give two examples. The first (Fig. 8) is from the Papyrus of Her-Uben A, depicting the sun god's daily cycle of waxing and waning. The stationary god rests within the band of the Aten (presented in its popular form as a circular serpent). Within the enclosure the god's seat is the Aakhut, the two-peaks of the Mountain of Fire-Light. But also supporting the god and serpentine band are the horns of a bovine figure, which itself rests between twin lions facing right and left. Significantly, the supporting horns and twin lions are acknowledged to be mythical forms of the two-peaked Aakhut, so there can be no question but that the artists, in presenting the symbolism of the daily cycle, duplicated the same underlying concept in multiple variations, simply superimposing one upon another as if to announce their shared identity and equivalent roles in the daily cycle. Figure 8 As predicted by the model, the upright two peaks (horns, twin lions) symbolize the phase of "shining forth"the archaic "day" of the central sun.173 But interestingly the two peaks are at other times shown in an inverted position over the sun (emphasizing once more that the subject is not a terrestrial peak but the revolving crescent). And as our model would predict, the meaning is "waning," "period of diminished light," "non-existence"the archaic "night. "174 Notice also the two improbable arms reaching half way around the enclosure from above. The model, recognizing the outstretched arms to be the revolving crescent, not only predicts such odd usage, but predicts the specific meaning: inverted arms above the sun must symbolize diminished light, negation, night. That this is the meaning of inverted arms hieroglyphically is known by all students of the Egyptian language. Figure 9 In Fig. 9, the tendency to elaborate and juxtapose a few discrete symbols is all too obvious. While the resulting appearance is complex, it is impossible not to notice that the complexity is produced by duplication of a select number of forms, these being placed in deliberate reference to a surrounding band. Apart from the band and serpentine-band symbols, the key duplicated images are: outstretched wings, outstretched arms, and ships. Additionally, the overarching body of the goddess Nut figures most prominently in the illustration. Using the model as the guide, one would expect this form of the goddess to represent the inverted crescent, or archaic night. And "night" is indeed the meaning conventionally assigned to this form, recorded pictographically by the hieroglyph. This simple glyph we would interpret as a stylized form of the inverted crescent, for it was a very common tendency in the evolution of pictographs for curved or circular forms to pass into straight-li ne images of this sort. That the pictograph signified the upper half of an enclosure has already been shown by Heinrich Schfer.175 With respect to the latter illustration, notice that the artist juxtaposes the very forms which the model interprets as crescent images, bringing them into a repeatedly-stated relationship with images of a circle. Is this not the very type of elaboration we should expect in later art, in which the artist is removed by centuries or millennia from the actual experience but is guided still by certain underlying concepts and secret identities? Long after the events that inspired them, we still see the outstretched wings reaching around a circle; ships sailing on outstretched arms; outstretched arms reaching around a celestial band, in which the respective positions above and below, and to the right and the left are connected in some mysterious way with the cycle of day and night. Though there is much room for analysis of portraits such as this, my contention is that wherever meanings can be clearly established they are precisely those predicted by the polar configuration. Conversely, literally none of the verifiable meanings accord with the behavior of our Sun, Moon and stars today. Bull of Heaven The most practical way to determine how fully our model will predict the generally accepted meanings of the partsand reveal additional meanings yet to be recognized by the specialistsis to focus more comprehensively on discrete types. One might consider, for example, the Bull of Heaven: The theory would claim that all solidly attested attributes of the Bull are explicable through the history and dynamics of the polar configuration. Will such a bold claim stand up under close scrutiny, particularly where there is substantial evidence bearing on the subject? Let us follow this example through the predictions of the model. Figure 10 The model predicts: The ancient sun god possessed shining horns. It is well known that throughout the ancient world the old sun god was invoked as "the Bull" and given shining horns. Egyptian sources, for example, leave no doubt that their sun possessed shining horns: The sun god Ra, "the Mighty Bull," is invoked as the "supreme power, with attached head, with high horns. "176 One of Re's epithets is simply, "Shining Horn." Amen Ra is "established with two horns,"177 while Horus-Ra is the "Mighty Bullthe sun with sharp horns."178 The model predicts: The horns of the Bull were a crescent. That the shining horns took a crescent form appears to be disputed by no one. (Fig 10). Why the sun god would possess these horns is usually not even asked. A. B Figure 11 The model predicts: The sun god rested between the horns. This unusual placement of the sun god can be confirmed in both Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Egyptian example of the Hathor-horns embracing Ra (Fig. 11: A) compares with a painted vase from Baluchistan (Fig. 11: B). The same placement occurs repeatedly in Scandinavian rock drawings (Fig. 12), acknowledged to be variations of the cosmic bull.179 Figure 12 The model predicts: The original form of the Bull was a crescent and pillar. The Pyramid Texts invoke "the Pillar of the Stars. . .The Pillar of Kenset, the Bull of Heaven," a bull "whose horn shines, the well-anointed pillar, the Bull of Heaven."180 More specifically, these are the horns of a world pillar (i.e., bearing aloft the celestial enclosure): "I am the Bull, the Old One of Kenset. . .I support the sky with my horns.181 Notice also the most elementary form of the Bull in Scandinavian rock drawings (Fig. 12): it appears to be nothing but a pillar and crescent. The model predicts: The crescent-horns reached half way around the sun god's enclosure. The Egyptian Aten, the enclosure of the sun, rests "between his horns."182 In fact, the single most commonone could almost say, the onlyuse of horns symbolically was in combination with the Aten band, in the very fashion predicted by our model. Specifically, the horns wrap around the band, as in the Hathor-horns of Fig. 11. The model predicts: The horns revolved around the central sun. In their upright position, they must have signified the period of "brightness" or "coming forth," while their inverted position must have denoted the archaic "night." The hieroglyph , depicting the horns below the central sun, means "day," "to shine forth." Another hieroglyph (Fig, 13; A = later form; B = archaic form), shows the horns above. the accepted meaning is "absence of light," "mystery," i.e., the archaic night. A B Figure 13 The model predicts: the horns of the bull were synonymous with the two peaks of the world mountain, the ship of heaven, the outstretched arms of the heaven-sustaining god, and the outstretched wings of the winged god or goddess. On the equation of the horns and the cleft peak: the symbolic identity of the two was stated by the Egyptologist Percy Newberry some eighty years ago: the Egyptians conceived the two peaks of the Mountain of Fire Light as a pair of horns.183 It is this unique identity that the Egyptian artists emphasized in placing the head and horns of a bull between the two peaks of the Aakhut symbol (Fig. 14:A) A B C Figure 14 Similarly, the Babylonian world mountain Imhursag is that "whose horns gleam like the rays of the Sun-God.184 On the equation of the horns and the cosmic ship: Egyptian sources say that the shining horns are the sailing vessel of the sun god. From the Pyramid Texts: "May you ferry over by means of the Great Bull." And from the Coffin Texts: "Your horn is what ferries over Him who is in your shrine."185 In the same way, the Babylonians conceived the crescent simultaneously as a pair of horns and the "shining bark of the heavens.186 (Thus, in Fig. 14:B we see the gods sailing in a pair of celestial horns.) On the equation of horns and outstretched arms: hieroglyphically, the word for "bull" is Ka, a word signified by a pair of outstretched arms (Fig. 14:C). 187 "I know the secret of Hieraconpolis. It is the two hands of horns and what is in them."188 (Symbolically, outstretched hands = outstretched arms) What is in the outstretched hands/horns is the celestial city, the land of the gods. On the equation of horns and outstretched wings. The identity is stated in the most explicit way in the Cretan "Horns of Consecration" (Fig. 15:A). Here we see a pair of wings literally superimposed upon the famous horns. The identity will illuminate the language of the Egyptian Coffin Texts, where the great goddess states, "My horns are on him [the sun god] as the Great Wild Cow, my wings are on him as a hau-bird."189 In the more elaborate symbolism of later epochs the identity was preserved through the winged bull (Fig. 10) or a horned bird (Fig. 15:B). Why did the Egyptian Bull of Heaven have a pair of wings wrapped unnaturally around his back? The best way to understand such symbolism is to permit the more explicit forms (as in Fig. 15:A) to illum-inate the more expansive later forms. When one realizes that the outstretched, embracing wings of various mythical creatures denoted the same crescent as the shining horns of the Bull, the appearance of contradiction and absurdity is immediately removed. A B Firgure 15 With the model's predictions before us, the invitation to the skeptic can be unequivocal. From the abundance of ancient data on the Bull of Heaven, is there a clearly stated motif that we have left out or does not fit the highly specific predictions of the model? I raise the issue in black and white terms for this reason: That a model, based on an unfamiliar sky, would claim to predict all of the concrete features of the Bull is, on the face of it, preposterous. That it actually does predict all such unusual features can be verified by anyone. This is a contradiction that cannot last forever. Either I am wrong in stating the model's predictive power, or the ancients did experience something extraordinary and very much like the planetary apparition here proposed. As I stated earlier, it is simply not possible that a fundamentally false model could accurately predict the interconnected themes of myth at any level of specificity. a universal symbolism I noted at the outset that, in evaluating the model of the polar configuration, one will find the predictions of the model to be verifiable at every level of analysis, not only through ancient sources but through the work of the most penetrating researchers. (For example, most of the 18 predictions enumerated in this article are answered by "anomalous" discoveries of the best scholars in the field). The respective researchers, however, each working in a separate enclave, have no larger picture with which to connect their findings. They have penetrated to a part of the unified symbolism of the polar configuration, without being aware of the other pieces. Nevertheless, for some time I had assumed there was one level of imagery which no previous researcher had detected. I assumed that in the juxtaposed images of "day" and "night" I would be the first to present the basic signs and interconnected meanings. It was with a great deal of surprise, therefore, that I encountered the massive and wholly-ignored work of Hermann Wirth, in Der Aufgang Menscheit.190 In this monumental assimilation of ancient signs and meanings, the author offers a conclusion of stunning significance to our investigation. He claims that around the world a singular image was employed in connection with a solar cycle. The image Wirth found is given below (left), together with its most common, stylized variants. A) B) C) D} E) Figure 16 It was Wirth's claim that these images signified the coming to life of the sun, while on every continent the forms were inverted as below to signify the opposite phase of the cycle: Figure 17 This, or some variant (often the "life"-signs were simply turned upside down) denoted the weakening of the sun. The upright and inverted forms, he argued, must have originated in an annual seasonal cycle, and he connected the meanings to a presumed far-northern race from which mankind descended. In the end, the thesis failed to capture any attention at all from the scholarly community. Wirth's ponderous exposition and complex, abstract explanations seem to have convinced no one, even though the basic data he gathered, including many thousands of pictographs the world over, clearly demonstrate a universal symbolism of a waxing and waning sun. While this symbolism answers to nothing in the present sky, its remarkable accord with the predicted symbolism of the polar configuration is beyond dispute. Conclusion In this brief summary, I have attempted to highlight some of the most fundamental predictions of a model At the same time I have noted the surprising manner in which the primary themes of world mythology fall into the specific, highly "anomalous" patterns we should expect if such a planetary configuration actually loomed above mankind in the age of mythical beginnings. A researcher seeking the truth of the matter must therefore reckon with two claims: I claim that the model predicts all of the recurring objects and events of myth. And I claim that a fundamentally false model could never achieve this predictive ability. I have submitted this outline in the hope that someone will challenge me on the first question, since very few, indeed, would dispute the latter. Because of space limitations, I have left unaddressed several components of the hypothesized planetary configuration. The cometary Venus-curl is an immense subject I intend to treat in a separate series of articles. The seven small bodies revolving inside the enclosure must also be reviewed, as well as the indispensable role of Jupiter, hidden behind Saturn. Also, the cometary streams radiating from the band have an important role in both the pictographs and the myths. As we obtain a preliminary outline of these components, it will then be possible to begin constructing a scenario of events. Lastly, I wish to say a word on the limitations of the methodology I have adopted in this introductory phase of our investigation. It is something of a contradiction to speak of a "unified theory of myth," when the theory focuses only on the external component, the concrete forms inherent in the objects and events of myth. In what way did human consciousness itself contribute to the shape of myth, which is filled with symbols of the human condition? It is not my intent to ignore this question: a truly unified theory must address the relationship between consciousness, events and perception. Though science long ago established its own sacred limitations on such discussion, meaningful answers will require one to push beyond these boundaries. I hope the reader will appreciate that our constraint at the start is due to the unusual physical component. Demonstrating the full explanatory power of the polar configuration will require us to cover a great deal of ground, and this process is difficult enough without entering the deeper levels of mind and spirit. It is not my intent to circumvent the ultimate questions of human existence, but to establish a new vantage point, permitting some new perceptions on some very old questions. NOTE: After the Footnote Section there is a contact list for ----- further information on current Velikovskian research. 1 In my previous installment, I indicated that I would be taking up "The Ship of Heaven" in this issue. Insertion of the present article, however, has required postponement of the essay, which will appear in issue number three. 2 It would be fair to say that no prior theory will predict more than the smallest fraction of mythical data. In fact, the prevailing view would surely hold that no unified explanation of myth and symbol is possible. 3 As noted in "Reconstructing the Saturn Myth," the proposed history of the polar configuration will become an important part of this testing process. There are several forms that are not present in the phase illustrated here, most significantly the multiple and concentric crescent-enclosures of the transformed configuration. In due course, this transformed imageand the events leading to itwill become a vital part of our argument. 4 W. F. Albright, "The Mouth of the Rivers," The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. XXXV, No. 4, p. 165. M. Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, 1939), p. 57. Hildegard Lewy, "Origin and Significance of the Magen Dawid," Archiv Orientalni, Vol. 18 (1950), p. 335. 5 The Egyptian sun god Ra is "glorious by reason of thy splendours," and the lords of all lands are said to celebrate Ra's shining forth "at the beginning of each day." Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead (London, 1901), pp. 76, 627. 6 M. Jastrow, "Sun and Saturn," Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archologie Orientale, Vol. 7 (1909), pp. 163-78. 7 Diodorus. II.30. On reviewing the character and epithets of Saturn among the Babylonian priest-astronomers, one of the foremost early students of Babylonian religion, George Rawlinson, asked, "How is it possible that the dark and distant planet Saturn can answer to the luminary who 'irradiates the nations like the sun, the light of the gods?'" History of Herodotus (London, 1862), Essay X, p. 509. douard Dhorme speaks of "La plante Saturne, incorpore au cycle solaire." Les religions de Babylonie et dAssyrie (Paris, 1949), p. 67. Compare Peter Jensen: "Es ist daher nicht zu leugnen, dass dem Saturn in vershiedener Weise gleiche Qualitten wie der Sonne beigelegt werden. Dies geht so weit dass. . .man Saturn und Sonne irgendwie mit einander verknpfte." Peter Jensen. Die Kosmologie der Babylonier (Strassburg, 1890), p.115, emphasis mine. From this curious identity, Jensen is led to treat Saturn as the representative of "der Sonne im Moment ihres Aufgehens, der Sonne am Hor izonte," p. 115. But no explanation is given to connect the idea with any behavior of the planet. 8 Talbott, "Reconstructing the Saturn Myth," AEON, Vol. I, No. 1 (January, 1988), pp. 23 ff. 9 F. Boll, "Kronos-Helios," Archiv fr Religionswissenschaft, XIX (1916-19), p. 343 f. 10 Plato, Epinomis, 987 c. The antiquity of the idea is confirmed by Bidez, Revue de Philologie XXIX (1905), p. 319. Porphyry, as reported by Macrobius, held Kronos-Saturn to be the sun. Macrobius, Saturnalia, I, 22, 8. Several Greek sources, including the Alexandrian mathematician and astronomer Eratosthenes, identify Saturn as 'heliou asthr, the "star of the sun." A. Bouch-Leclercq, L'Astrologie Grecque (Paris, 1899), p. 93, n. 2. The Roman historian Nonnos, XL, 393, cites Kronos as the Arab name of the sun. So too a papyrus in the Louvre on the astronomy of Eudoxos, identifies Saturn as o tou hliou asthr. See Jensen, Die Kosmologie, op. cit., p. 116, n. 1. Both Ptolemy and Rhetorios use hlion for the planet Saturn. Boll, "Kronos-Helios," op. cit., p. 344. In response to the former habit of "correcting" such texts, Boll states, "Kronos und Helios eine und dieselbe Gottheit sind." Ibid., pp. 345-6. 11 Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, II, 42. 12 Thus the scholiast on Germanicus records Saturn as stella solis, and the same identity is given by Simplicus. A. Bouch-Leclercq, LAstrologie Grecque (Paris, 1899), p. 93, n. 2. See also Servius, ad Aeneid I, 729 ("apud Assyrios Bel dicitur quadam sacrorum ratione et Saturnus et Sol."). 13 Robert Temple, The Sirius Mystery (New York, 1976), p. 180. 14 E. Moor, Hindu Pantheon (London, 1864), p. 218. The identity of the Vedic Yama, Iranian Yima, as Saturn is observed by Hermann Collitz, who notes also the god's pervasive epithet: "die prchtige Sonne." "Knig Yima und Saturn," Studies in Honor of Cursetji Erachji Pavry (London, 1933), pp. 86 ff. 15 Julius Schwabe, Archetype und Tierkreis (Basle, 1951), p. 492. 16 I say "the original" because it is beyond dispute that in the course of CONTINUED ON FILE #3