mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== THOTH -A Catastrophics Newsletter- VOL I, No. 13 May 16, 1997 EDITOR: Michael Armstrong PUBLISHER: Walter Radtke CONTENTS: THE MYTH OF THE CENTRAL SUN (3)...........David Talbott NEWS ITEM: Aviation Week & Space Technology Comments ..............................Wal Thornhill EUROPA PREDICTION AND DISCUSSION..........Wal Thornhill BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT Controversy--Catastrophism and Evolution: The Ongoing Debate PLASMA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY URL's.........Ian Tresman ----------------------------------------------- Quote of the day: Mankind today is still making history without having any conscious idea of what it wants or under what conditions it would stop being unhappy; in fact what it is doing seems to be making itself more unhappy and calling that unhappiness progress. Norman O. Brown, _Life Against Death_ ----------------------------------------------- THE MYTH OF THE CENTRAL SUN (3) David Talbott (dtalbott at teleport.com) ------------------------------------------------------------ EDITOR'S NOTE: The following continues David Talbott's introductory comments on the "Saturn theory." New readers are referred to earlier installments in issues of THOTH posted on the Kronia website (address listed at the end of this newsletter). Go to the THOTH page and click on the image titled "Thoth: the Egyptian God of Knowledge" to access the back issues. ------------------------------------------------------------ To the traditions of a polar power, previously cited, should be added the following: In the Persian Zend Avesta the creator-king Ahura Mazda rules from atop the world axis, the fixed station "around which the many stars revolve." Iranian cosmology, as reported by Leopold de Saussure, esteemed the celestial pole as the center and summit of heaven, where resided Kevan, the sovereign power of heaven, called "the Great One in the middle of the sky." Throughout the ancient Near East, according to the comprehensive research of H. P. L'Orange, the "King of the Universe" appears as a central sun, "the Axis and the Pole of the World." These archaic traditions can help us re-interpret the images of the sun god kept alive by Greek and Roman symbolists. In astrological representations, the primeval "sun" occupies the central, axial position while the other planets or stars revolve around him. The definitive celestial profile of Helios is as Basileus, the Royal Sun, recognized by Franz Cumont as the prototype of terrestrial kings or princes surrounded by their guards. In the time of the Roman emperor Nero, the sun-god was still remembered as the axis, the genius loci, the center of the cosmos, and presented as such in astrological depictions, with the emperor himself serving as the terrestrial image of the original sun god. It is significant too that, as noted by John Perry (Lord of the Four Quarters), the Etruscans--predecessors of the Romans--claimed there was one supreme deity, held to be the axial "Pole" Star. "According to Jewish and Muslim Cosmology," wrote the eminent authority on Semitic religions, A.J. Wensinck, "the divine throne is exactly above the seventh heaven, consequently it is the pole of the Universe." (An echo of the ancient tradition will be found in the words of the prophet Isaiah, who locates the throne of El in the farthest reaches of the north.) Amongst Finno Ugric peoples, the supreme ruler of the sky is Ukko. As stated in the Finnish Kalevala the seat of Ukko was at the Pole. And this assertion, according to the prominent chronicler Uno Holmberrg, was part of a pervasive tradition of the creator-king seated atop the world pole. A remarkable counterpart is provided by the Ashanti of Ghana, who remembered the old sun god as "the dynamic center of the Universe, from which lines of force radiate to all quarters of the heaven." Thus, according to the Ashanti, this former sun god is "the center around which everything revolves." This idea of an ancient sun god ruling from the axial center stands in dramatic contest to the common suppositions of mythologists and historians. To the modern mind nothing could be more absurd than a polar sun. Yet the unmoving sun is the ancient tradition, as noted by E.A.S. Butterworth in his insightful work, The Tree at the Navel o the Earth. Upon evaluating the archaic images of Helios and other ancient sun gods, Butterworth concluded that this luminary "is not the natural sun of heaven, for it neither rises nor sets, but is, as it seems, ever at the zenith...There are signs of an ambiguity between the pole star and the sun." How could such an improbable "ambiguity" have dominated the cosmological thought of ancient star worshippers--in every corner of the world? Butterworth's insights have a considerable history behind them. The precedence of the cosmic center among the great ancient cultures has been noted and documented by others. Almost a hundred years ago, William F. Warren, in his groundbreaking work, Paradise Found, identified the celestial pole as the home of the supreme god of ancient races. "The religions of all ancient nations...associate the abode of the supreme God with the North Pole, the centre of heaven; or with the celestial space immediately surrounding it. [Yet] no writer on comparative theology has ever brought out the facts which establish this assertion." In the following years a number of scholars, each focusing on different bodies of evidence, reached the same Conclusion. The controversial and erratic Gerald Massey, in two large works (The Natural Genesis and Ancient Egypt), claimed that the religion and mythology of a polar god was first formulated by the priest-astronomers of ancient Egypt and spread from Egypt to the rest of the world. In a general survey of ancient language, symbolism, and mythology, John O'Neill (Night of the Gods, two volumes) insisted that mankind's oldest religions centered on a god of the celestial pole. The renowned Mesoamerican authority, Zelia Nuttall, in Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilization, undertook an extensive review of New World astronomical themes, concluding that the highest god was polar. From Mexico she shifted to other civilizations, finding the same unexpected role of a polar god. Reinforcing the surprising conclusions of these researchers was the subsequent work of others, among them the noted Finno-Ugric authority, Uno Holmberg (Der Baum Des Lebens), who documented the preeminence of the polar god in the ritual of Altaic and neighboring peoples, suggesting ancient origins in Hindu and Mesopotamian cosmologies; Léopold de Saussure (Les Origines de l;'Astronomie Chinoise), who showed that primitive Chinese religion and astronomy honor the celestial pole as the home of the supreme "monarch" of the sky; René Guenon (Le Roi du Monde and Le Symbolisme de la Croix), who sought to outline a universal doctrine centering on the polar gods and principles of ancient man. In the nineteenth century and early twentieth century these revelations were viewed as highly unorthodox and generally given little attention. But more recently the pioneering historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, together with many of his colleagues, has documented numerous traditions of the cosmic center--the place where it all began--and noted again and again the relations of the cosmic center to the celestial pole. Most of the writers cited above possessed a common--if unspoken-faith in the ceaseless regularity of the solar system, seeking to explain the polar god in strictly familiar terms: the center of our revolving heavens is the celestial pole; the great god of the center and summit, in view of his role as axis, must have been the star closes to this cosmic pivot. But then, as we have seen, it's simply impossible to separate the tradition of the polar power from that of the former sun god, the central sun, lighting the world from one spot. So it is not just a matter of ancient star worshippers looking up at the pole and noticing that the circumpolar stars slowly wheel around that center. The mystery is the location of the supreme luminary, the power many nations called "sun", at this improbable station in the sky. How did an idea contradicting all natural experience today, establish itself around the world? -------------------------------------- NEWS ITEM: Aviation Week & Space Technology Wal Thornhill (walt at netinfo.com.au) In the same issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology (Feb 3, 1997) that was referred to concerning Europa's terrain (should that be Eurrain?), there is another item headlined - "Twisters" Found In Stellar Clouds. Accompanying the article are two stunning photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of the Lagoon Nebula. [http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/96/38.html]. Following is a partial quote from the report: 'Analogous to Earth's tornadoes, the large difference in temperature between the hot surface and cold interior of the interstellar clouds, combined with the pressure of starlight, may produce strong horizontal shear to twist the clouds into their tornado-like appearance. While the spiral shapes suggest the clouds are twisting, future observations will be needed to confirm that.' I would like you to note the exceedingly weak explanation for the formation of the "twisters". It is yet another manifestation of astronomers clinging to simple gas models rather than more complex plasma models. It should also be noted that earthly tornadoes are not well understood either because, I would suggest, electrical effects are ignored. Helical filaments are a natural configuration of current carrying plasmas and are seen in the powerful jets emanating from active galactic nuclei. I have no doubt that the clouds in the Lagoon Nebula will be found to be twisting (rather than being some pressure wave effect). One of the telling arguments for the veracity of recent planetary interactions is the recurring helical, serpentine imagery associated in mythology with the planetary gods and in particular, Jupiter's corkscrew thunderbolts. ------------------------------------------- EUROPA PREDICTION AND DISCUSSION [Wal Thornhill wrote]: Back on 17 Jan, I posted an item about what I expected would be found on the closer images of Europa. The earlier post ran, in part, as follows: Since so many of the moons of the outer planets have similar markings, I can visualize a situation where they may have repeatedly gotten in the way of a large discharge between the gas giant planets and other bodies, like Venus or Mars. The Saturnian scenario has not yet dealt with the minor players in the celestial drama, but the moons of Jupiter and Saturn must have been swarming around between them. If Europa, for instance, had come between Venus and Saturn (for argument's sake) while Venus was the focus of plasma streams from Saturn, then Europa would have been entwined (and I use that word deliberately) in the interplanetary plasma "ropes". As I have said of the markings on Venus, when the plasma ropes are constrained to flow parallel to the surface of a planet (or moon), the result is a number of parallel marks or scars often running for great distances. The precise appearance of the scarring depends on many factors: the dielectric properties of the surface material, gas pressure at the surface, etc. The argument is strengthened when it is remembered that even the tiny moons of Mars exhibit linear scarring and circular craters. Europa seems to have suffered many episodes of electrical scarring judging by the multiple layers of crisscrossing linear features. This would be expected if its orbit brought it repeatedly into the danger zone between Saturn and Venus. Electrical scarring seems to follow the law of fractals. So I would expect the new closer up shots of Europa to show similar scars down to the limit of resolution. That is, trenches consisting of circular craters, possibly being so close together as to appear continuous; levees on each side of the trenches; the parallel "racetracks" to be composed of many trenches, side by side. ***** [Response by James G. Acker]: Wal, Did you see the images released on April 9? The ones with the "ice floes" that have broken into pieces, but where you can still see the pattern continued on the broken pieces? My question to you is--given the fact that the surface is clearly active, does that in any way change your interpretation of ANY of the features? I.e., can you grant that maybe more than one type of process is at work on Europa? ***** [Response by Dave Talbott]: Can't speak for Wal, but I spent about 45 minutes studying the incredible recent close-up pictures of Europa. Clearly there has been more recent activity on Europa than any astronomer had imagined prior to the Voyager probes. There are significant sections of the surface which have been re-arranged by the movement of ice. These in particular put a huge exclamation point the long, narrow channels, whose formation COULDN'T be due to ice movement or any geological process "deep within the planet," as the planetary geologists had claimed. Where melting has occurred and sheets of ice have been randomly shifted about, you can a get a very dramatic picture as to how irregular the spacing is between the broken fragments under such conditions-literally nothing like the thousands of narrow channels running side by side, some up to hundreds of kilometers--which geologists had tried to explain by fracturing and subtle movements of the ice. And notice that in the fields of formerly melted ice, after the various fragments had been frozen into place again, additional channels were carved out, up, down, and over the previous fragments. The consistent pattern of these channels suggests an instrument being dragged along the surface to plow out the long, parallel furrows. Try as I may, I could not see anything in the character of the channels to suggest internal geology. That recent chaotic motions of planets and their moons might account for the catastrophic melting and re-freezing would seem self- evident. ***** [Wal Thornhill]: Jim, Dave has effectively answered the question for me while I was in Melbourne. The surface was recently active with both electrical sculpting and melting. The evidence for an episode of melting and re-freezing of the ice is graphically depicted in photo P-48526. It must be water ice for the creation of ice floes. Satellite photographs of Antarctic sea ice breaking up do not show parallelism, constancy of width, levee banks, the dark-light-dark appearance, or anything to match the scale of the "cracks" on Europa. Certainly nothing to match the appearance of "freeways". The larger "cracks" range up to 70km in width and stretch as far as 3,000 km in straight or curved paths across Europa's surface. When seen in close-up, the "cracks" look like furrows. The best conventional explanation for this appearance is some form of gas venting through the cracks from below. But the material vented had to be "dirty" to provide the colouration of the levees. It had to be remarkably consistent over great distances. Then clean ice had to fill the bottom of the "crack" to give the bright centre line. (I would not expect to see any dark central lines of dirty ice beneath the furrows when seen in cross section where the ice floes have broken away. The photos are not yet sufficiently detailed to test this suggestion). The lightning discharge hypothesis is the only one to explain all of the observed linear features from the smallest to the largest scale. The central line is bright because that is where the lightning vapourized the ice to blast it outwards and form the levees. We are looking at a clean bed of ice at the bottom of the channel. The colouration of the levees may come from shock heating and rapid cooling of the ice and any resulting chemical changes in dissolved or suspended material. (The same mechanism that formed the green glass beads found near rilles on the Moon). The larger furrows stand out as much more deeply coloured than their surroundings. So it may be that the electric discharges that created them were sufficiently intense to cause nucleosynthesis in the form of the conversion of oxygen atoms (from the water) to sulphur. Elemental sulphur takes many colours ranging from yellow through red to black (look at Io's surface) and could account for the reddish colouration of the ejected material. Alternatively, and I think less likely, the coloured material may be exogenous and implanted by the discharge itself (as described by Ralph Juergens). Of course, when we finish discussing Europa, we have the linear features on Ganymede and Callisto to explain--not to mention the moons of Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. ***** Wal Thornhill responded to further comments by James Acker: [WT] The surface *was* recently active with both electrical sculpting and melting. The evidence for an episode of melting and re-freezing of the ice is graphically depicted in photo P-48526. It must be water ice for the creation of ice floes. [JA] Well, that was expected. Good that we agree. [WT] Satellite photographs of Antarctic sea ice breaking up does not show parallelism, constancy of width, levee banks, the dark-light-dark appearance, or anything to match the scale of the "cracks" on Europa. [JA] I don't think we can compare the sea ice of Antarctica or the Arctic to Europa. The scale of heating is dissimilar. Europa is postulated to have the same kind of heat source as Io, though at a lesser intensity. Because it's internal, it will have a different surface manifestation. Believe it or not, "Aviation and Technology Week" (or something similar) had an article on Europa. It must be a weekly, because it was the same pictures I saw on the Web. My office-mate gets it. The scientists are already describing what they are seeing in the long ridge systems as cracking, upwelling, and refreezing. I'm not surprised by that. All I can say is that I think the lava lake analogy is apt. [WT] I used the Antarctic sea ice description because it's the one often used as an analogue of the Europa markings and in a book I saw in Melbourne, it had the photographs side by side for comparison. There are close-ups of Europa which show the same features and which I accept as fractured ice. P47170 is an example with a circular pattern and wedge- shaped cracks evident. I still think that the number of special conditions required to satisfy the appearance, range of sizes and sheer number of linear features argue against the standard mechanism. Certainly nothing to match the appearance of "freeways". The larger "cracks" range up to 70km in width and stretch as far as 3,000 km in straight or curved paths across Europa's surface. When seen in close-up, the "cracks" look like furrows. The best conventional explanation for this appearance is some form of gas venting through the cracks from below. But the material vented had to be "dirty" to provide the coloration of the levees. It had to be remarkably consistent over great distances. Then clean ice had to fill the bottom of the "crack" to give the bright centre line. [JA] Looking very closely, I'm not sure of that. We may be only seeing light and shadow. I say that based on the appearance of the close-up and the cracks on the floes. [WT] To get some idea of the coloration you need to look at the global colour images where the contrast between the reddish "cracks" and the white surface is quite marked. [JA] Gotta delete the rest, sorry. I know you mentioned Ganymede and Callisto. Ganymede is supposed to be ice and rock, and Callisto doesn't have a lot of lines, just a lot of craters. At least I think they're craters. ***** [WT] In the article "Strange Forces Alter Europa's Terrain" in Aviation Week & Space Technology (Feb 3, 1997) and referred to by Jim Acker, three forces are seen as shaping the moon's surface. They are: lateral spreading of surface plates; water vulcanism; and a mysterious local obliteration process. I quote from the NASA description: "This is the highest resolution picture ever taken of the Jupiter moon, Europa. The area shown is about 5.9 by 9.9 miles (9.6 by 16 kilometers) and the smallest visible feature is about the size of a football field. In this view, the ice-rich surface has been broken into a complex pattern by cross-cutting ridges and grooves resulting from tectonic processes. Sinuous rille-like features and knobby terrain could result from surface modifications of unknown origins. Small craters of possible impact origin range in size from less than 330 feet (100 meters) to about 1300 feet (400 meters) across are visible." Notice the use of the words "sinuous rille-like features". The accompanying image: [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov:80/galileo/europa/p48227.html] shows detail down to a resolution of 230ft. It looks as if the resurfacing has been caused by fracturing of the ice, floating apart and re-freezing of the exposed water. The re-frozen surface is more lightly scarred by furrows (sinuous rilles?) which suggests that a short-lived thermal and/or torsional event occurred during the scarring process. The edges of the cracks are sharp. The distinction between cracking and furrowing is easy to see and to term the furrows evidence of water vulcanism is, in my opinion, stretching the imagination past the elastic limit. The furrows are no respecters of existing topography and the levees are so consistent in appearance over long distances that it begs explanation by the water vulcanologists as to how this might be achieved by eruption of a fluid. A rough calculation from the dimensions of one of the furrows shows that the levees are formed solely from the material excavated from the channel. It does not require additional matter from beneath the crust nor does it require subsidence of the fluid to leave the central channel. This suits the electrical discharge formation process, as does the uniformity over long distances and the disregard for existing surface topography. The arcuate nature of the longest furrows on Europa may also be consistent with the influence of the self-induced magnetic field of a plasma discharge on the motion of the discharge. Many of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn exhibit the same kind of linear (often parallel) scarring, even though their sizes and composition vary markedly. Some moons featuring such scars are so small that to talk of volcanic features is nonsense. As I remarked in an earlier posting on the subject, I propose that many of the moons of the gas giants were probably unfortunate enough to become secondary electrodes in an interplanetary discharge between planets. In such an event, since a moon is a better conductor than surrounding space, plasma ropes will twine around the moon, ripping charge carriers (electrons and ions) from the surface and forming circular craters, rayed craters, and furrows (or rilles) in the manner described by Ralph Juergens for the Moon. The precise nature of the scarring (rilles, circular craters, rays, etc.) will be determined largely by the characteristics of each moon's surface, but the hallmarks of electrical machining will be evident. When it comes to the proposed plasma discharge experiment in an evacuated chamber with magnetized spheres, it would be worthwhile to include an extra sphere, representing a moon, between the cathode and anode, with an electrical connection so that its voltage may be varied. In this way it may be possible to photograph the kind of effects to be expected on an object like Europa. Wal Thornhill --------------------------------------------- Book Announcement: Trevor Palmer: CONTROVERSY - CATASTROPHISM AND EVOLUTION: THE ONGOING DEBATE Plenum Company: New York/London [to be published in early 1998] For the last 20 years, Professor Trevor Palmer has been one of the most outstanding yet least known British chroniclers of the paradigm shift in the natural sciences, particularly with regards to the scientific revolution in the fields of cometary astronomy, neo-catastrophism and evolution. Since the late 1970s, when Trevor began to write about these startling new research findings in SIS REVIEW, he has been continuously following the implications of impact-related research on palaeontology and evolutionary theory. Over the years, Trevor Palmer has been influenced by quite a number of neo-catastrophists and SIS speakers such as Rene Gallant, Archie Roy, Victor Clube, Ruppert Sheldrake, Chandra Wickramasinghe - to name be a few of the British players in this scientific drama - who have enlightened many meetings of the Society for Interdisciplinary Studies since its foundation in 1974. In his book, CONTROVERSY - CATASTROPHISM AND EVOLUTION: THE ONGOING DEBATE, Trevor outlines a new history of evolutionary theory, natural selection and adaptation, all of which appear to be founded more on 19th century natural theology rather than pure science. He shows how and why Lyell's religious belief in uniformitarian gradualism supplanted catastrophism by the middle of the 19th century and how, during the last 20 years, a prolonged scientific revolution has once again brought catastrophism to the forefront of the natural sciences. Darwinian natural selection, long thought to hold all keys to evolution, is critically reappraised and revised in view of new astronomical, geological and palaeontological evidence. Trevor's book will most certainly accelerate the process of up-dating evolutionary theory by demonstrating how the theory of impact-generated evolution might help to explain many of the current anomalies. Whilst Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge, Steven Stanley or David Raup have come up with similar speculations about punctuated equilibrium and catastrophic evolution, Trevor Palmer has gone a step (some would rather say a mile) further than his American colleagues. He has applied the model of 'coherent catastrophism' by Clube, Napier, Bailey et al. to both the evolution of hominids, Homo sapiens and human civilization and has thereby underlined the "erratic descent" of Man and culture. Professor Trevor Palmer is Head of the Department of Life Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics at Nottingham Trent University. He is the Chairman of the Society for Interdisciplinary Studies and (together with Professor Mark Bailey and myself) a member of the Organizing Committee of the 2nd SIS Cambridge Conference. CONTENTS: 1. The Context of Evolution: The Earth and Its Surroundings. 1.1 The Solar System 1.2 Possible causes of catastrophe on Earth 1.3 The fall and rise of catastrophism. 2. The Establishment of Gradualism 2.1 Catastrophism, gradualism and evolution 2.2 Myth, cosmogony and pre-nineteenth century catastrophism 2.3 Catastrophism and evolution in early nineteenth century France 2.4 Hutton and his legacy 2.5 Natural theology and diluvialism in early nineteenth century Britain 2.6 The catastrophism-uniformitarianism debate in the 1830s and beyond 2.7 Lamarck, Darwin and evolution 2.8 Towards a gradualistic evolutionary synthesis. 3. Gradualism under Challenge 3.1 From catastrophism to neocatastrophism 3.2 Eustasy, impacts and mass extinctions 3.3 Phyletic gradualism and quantum evolution 3.4 Punctuated equilibrium and species selection 3.5 Gould's view of life. 4. Nemesis for Evolutionary Gradualism? 4.1 Iridium, tektites and the death of the dinosaurs 4.2 Conflicting views about the K-T transition 4.3 A periodicity in extinctions? 4.4 Current views on mass extinctions. 5. The Erratic Descent of Man 5.1 Early views on human evolution 5.2 The molecular revolution 5.3 Early hominoids 5.4 Hominids 5.5 Arguments over patterns in hominid evolution 5.6 The changing environment 5.7 Our uncertain origins. 6. Towards a New Evolutionary Synthesis 6.1 Darwinism challenged and defended 6.2 Life itself - accident or design? 6.3 More heat than light - the evolution debate as reflected in books of the early 1980s 6.4 The continuing evolution of evolution 6.5 Evolution today - Darwinism, Lamarckism, Matthewism, or what? 6.6 The pattern of the past, and of the future. ----------------------------------------------- PLASMA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY URL's With the interest in space plasmas, THOTH readers may be interested in the following Web resources. PLASMA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY There are almost 200 topical areas in plasma science and technology, including about 80 applications areas! See INFORMATION RESOURCES link for SPACE PLASMAS. http://www-plasma.umd.edu./ Finnish Meteorological Institute, Space Plasma Physics http://sumppu.fmi.fi/plasma.html Queen Mary and Westfield College, UK and Int'l Space Plasma links http://www.space-plasma.qmw.ac.uk/DOC/useful_links.html CAN GRAVITY be INDUCED? ABSTRACT: The Sun is inducing gravity without a corresponding quantity of mass. This phenomenon is brought about by a plasma in a magnetically unified state; a magnetically sustained 'non-space', an absolute vacuum held in place by the photospheric plasma shell. http://www.goodfelloweb.com/nature/cgbi/ Submitted by Ian Tresman ----------------------------------------------- For those with interests in Egyptian antiquities, the following sites may be helpful: The Ministry of Tourism, Egypt The Egyptian Tourist Authority http://interoz.com/egypt/ Features: Egyptian Antiquities Cataloguing many of the most interesting Egyptian Antiquities, both inside and outside Egypt. The Egyptian Bulletin Board System (BBS) Allows messaging and real time chat on a number of different subjects, including travel questions, Ancient Egyptian Science, Ancient Mythology, Egyptian Mysteries, Egyptian News from Around the World, Egyptology and Archeology, Modern Egyptian Entertainment and more. Ian Tresman ----------------------------------------------- PLEASE VISIT THE KRONIA COMMUNICATIONS WEBSITE-- http://www.kronia.com/~kronia/ Other suggested Web site URL's for more information about Catastrophics: http://www.ames.net/aeon/ http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/sis/ http://www.flash.net/~cjransom/ http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/velikovskian/ http://www.access.digex.net/~medved/Catastrophism.html http://www.grazian-archive.com/ http://www.tcel.com/~mike/paper.html http://nt.e-z.net/mikamar/default.html ----------------------------------------------- The THOTH electronic newsletter is an outgrowth of scientific and scholarly discussions in the emerging field of astral catastrophics. Our initial focus will be on a reconstruction of ancient astral myths and symbols in relation to a new theory of planetary history. Serious readers must allow some time for these radically different ideas to be fleshed out and for the relevant background to be developed. The general tenor of the ideas and information presented in THOTH is supported by the editor and publisher, but there will always be plenty of room for differences of interpretation. We welcome your comments and responses. Michael Armstrong Mikamar Publishing mikamar at e-z.net