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 III, No. 17 Dec 15, 1999 EDITOR: Amy Acheson PUBLISHER: Michael Armstrong LIST MANAGER: Brian Stewart CONTENTS WHAT SCIENCE SAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Mel Acheson THE DEMANDS OF THE SATURNIAN CONFIGURATION THEORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . excerpts from Dwardu Cardona's SIS Silver Jubilee Paper PROGRESS OF "PROGRESS". . . . . . by Karen Josephson and Ted Bond IT HAS TO BE MOONGLOW! . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Wal Thornhill ---------------------------------------------- WHAT SCIENCE SAYS By Mel Acheson It's common to hear people refer to "what science says." The usual assumption is that "what science says" is said indefeasibly. But the term 'science' has two conflicting senses: science as currently-accepted theory (CAT) and science as method. To conclude that method inevitably leads to CAT and, furthermore, that CAT is the end of science is to wallow in hubris. Both the history of science and the nature of cognition contradict such arrogance. The universe is large, and data both accumulate and can be arranged and valued in different ways. The discernment of orderly patterns in these mutable fields of data can result not only in refinements of a theory but in the wholesale replacement of a theory. In pursuing the questions raised by CAT, method is likely to overturn CAT. In the competition between a CAT and its potential replacement, the two senses of science apply opposite standards of evaluation. >From the viewpoint of science as CAT, the standard is conformity with the fundamental principles of the discipline. Any fundamentally-different theory will be seen as a "crackpot" idea: Half a century ago, fitting continents together like a jigsaw puzzle was ridiculous. >From the viewpoint of science as method, the standard is systematic exercise of cognitive skill: the discernment of orderly patterns in domains of experience. The distinction between fundamental and superficial differences is irrelevant: That continents can be fit together like a jigsaw puzzle was a clue to a new theory and recognition of a new phenomenon. In the sense of method, particular theories are just tools, something with which to build a technology, to be replaced when experience and curiosity move on. All theories are "working hypotheses", not Ultimate Truths. I'll use the Saturn Theory for an example. In the standards of CAT, it's ridiculous. Four or five planets stacked one above the other on a common axis is, if not impossible, so far from the familiar and the expected that it's laughable. Gravitational theory has come up with the orbit of SOHO, revolving around an empty spot in space. And Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 stretched out in a line that might have mimicked the Saturnian polar configuration from one of its components. But if gravitational theory alone can't quite say it's impossible, the many interlocking connections with other disciplines makes it extremely unlikely. In the standards of method, however, this is all merely argument from authority. Method is concerned more with process than with product. In the following, I'll compare the method of the Saturn Theory with a list of standards developed by B. J. F. Lonergan in his book, _Insight_. The Canon of Selection requires a theory to involve sensible, observable consequences. In accord with this, the data of the Saturn Theory are the words, written and spoken, of the myths of all cultures, their ritual and cultural contexts, linguistic associations and etymologies, and the associated artistic expressions such as pictographs, ceramics, and architecture. The Canon of Operations involves an accumulation of insights from observations, applications, and experiments. The Saturn Theory verifies the existence of expected themes from one myth and culture to the next. It modifies the generalization of those themes by the comparative removal of local embellishments and addition of common elements. The Canon of Relevance is concerned with the intelligibility immanent in the data. The Saturn Theory derives its model of the polar configuration from the structure of the common themes. The Canon of Parsimony (called Ockham's Razor in its simplistic form) requires that nothing be added to the data except the laws verified in the data. The Saturn Theory is limited to only the structure of common themes in the data. Note here that modifying the theory to make it compatible with theories of other disciplines would be a violation of this canon. Contrary to one's first impulse that Ockham's Razor requires cutting off those parts of the theory that are "added assumptions" to CAT, it instead requires strict independence from CAT. The Canon of Completeness requires a theory to account for all the data. It's precisely the Saturn Theory's method of comparing all the myths of all cultures that reveals the common themes and their interdependent structure. The conclusion is that science says two things. As CAT, it says the Saturn Theory is next to impossible. But as method, it says the Saturn Theory is a viable and valuable insight that presents the opportunity of enlarging the insights of other disciplines. Mel Acheson thoth at whidbey.com ---------------------------------------------- THE DEMANDS OF THE SATURNIAN CONFIGURATION THEORY Excerpts from Dwardu Cardona's SIS Silver Jubilee Paper Summaries by Amy Acheson INTRODUCTION I will make no apologies here for the fact that this theory was constructed on the basis of the mytho-historical record rather than through astrophysical considerations. I will only say in passing that, other than its mythological content, the mytho- historical record also incorporates the world-wide astronomical beliefs of our ancient forefathers, and that these beliefs coincide with their mytho-religious convictions. Ancient astronomical beliefs can therefore be considered together with mythology as a unified whole regardless of the fact that what comes to light in an in-depth research of such subjects ends up describing a Solar System that was entirely alien to the one we now inhabit. Be that as it may, the outlandishness of what my research was uncovering made me disbelieve the entire thing and I must honestly say that it was not until I had read Hamlet's Mill that I finally accepted all that I had unearthed. If, as I reasoned at the time, scholars of the caliber of Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, the authors of Hamlet's Mill, had been able to unearth the same set of bizarre situations, I could not be that far off the mark myself. Amy adds: The full introduction can be found at the following SIS Silver Jubilee website, and the full paper is scheduled to be published early next year by the SIS Review. http://www.knowledge.co.uk/sis/silver/ CARDONA: What do I mean by 'demands'? Theories do not stand, if they are to stand at all, in isolation. They raise certain demands. For instance, the theory concerning the nuclear fueling of the Sun demands that the Sun shed a vast amount of neutrinos. To date, only about one third of the predicted amount have been detected. The theory concerning the Big Bang demands a vast amount of matter that should be there. To date, this so-called dark matter is still being looked for. These two theories should not be allowed to stand, but because science is optimistic in that it will eventually detect both the missing neutrinos and the missing dark matter, they are _allowed_ to stand. Personally, I shall not use similar optimism as a crutch. ... On the contrary, I aim to present a series of demands which this theory raises, both within itself as also through hard science, and how these can be met. The list is not meant to be comprehensive, but it should suffice to illustrate the significance and consequence of the evidence. ... I neither have the space nor the time to deal with all the planets that once constituted the Saturnian configuration. I have therefore decided to concentrate on the two most important bodies of the alignment - namely Saturn and the earth itself. ... THE AGE OF DARKNESS My version of the Saturnian scenario posits that man's earliest memory of the sky above him was one in which the planet Saturn was the only visible celestial body which was seen looming large in the sky in an all-pervading darkness -- an endless night. One of the most persistent of beliefs among the civilizations of the ancient nations ... is that during a time usually remembered as 'the beginning' Earth had been engulfed in darkness. Time and again ... we are told that 'in the beginning' there was no Sun, no Moon, no stars. Amy: Here Cardona supplies a sampling of the enormous number of myths from every continent on earth which support this thesis of a common beginning to all creation stories. He adds that this darkness was primarily in the sky, but that it also affected the earth below, with Saturn radiating feebly above, in the words of the Linga Purana, 'like a glow-worm.' CARDONA: ... keep in mind now that the Saturn theory posits that Saturn and Earth shared the same axis of rotation, so that Saturn, at this time the only luminary visible in the sky, was not seen to rise and set, but remained ever visible, fixed to one spot in Earth's north celestial sphere. Add to this the perpetual night ... and mankind would have been kept from being able to tell the passage of time. This, then, becomes one of the theory's first demands, because, if mankind was not able to tell the passage of time during this period, the mytho-historical record itself should tell us as much. Does it? THE TIMELESS ERA Amy: Cardona recounts many myths which not only explicitly claim that time once did not exist, but others which refer to an era when there was no time, and several in which the terms 'time' and 'year' and 'day' are strangely equivalent. He ends up recounting the Chinese record of an age in which 'the day and night had not yet been divided.' CARDONA: ... the first demand raised by our interpretation of the mytho- historical record is actually met by that same record ... [and] the demand we have just seen being met raises another -- because, since the record does treat of an era during which time did not exist, it should also treat of a following era during which time was recognized as having begun. Do we find such records among the beliefs of the ancients? THE BEGINNING OF TIME Not only do such records exist, but quite a few of them connect the beginning of time directly with Saturn. Amy: Here Cardona reveals a sampling of myths which both make connections between Saturn and time and reveal Saturn as the originator of time. He points out that conventional mythologists have also noticed this connection, and have taken great pains to explain it away. CARDONA: ... as far back as 1875, attempts were being made to justify the phenomenon by appealing to the planet's present lagging orbital pace. ... However, slow as Saturn might move, it _moves_, and, in that respect, it is no different than the other planets. Besides, why would the _beginning_ of time be associated with the planets solely because of its slow pace? Or, better still, why would Saturn's sluggish amble have led to the belief that time _must_ have had a beginning -- that, at one period of the ages, time did not exist? Or why would Saturn have been chosen to represent the year? If any celestial body can presently claim the right to represent the year, it surely would have been the Sun. ... our ancient forebears ... would hardly have even noticed the planet Saturn if it appeared , like now, as nothing but a pin point of light in the night sky, let alone have noticed its slow advance across the night sky. THE SATURNIAN SUN CARDONA: One of the themes I wish to touch upon concerns the model's prediction that Saturn had once shone as a virtual sun. More than that, the model also posits that what past mythologists have identified as a bevy of sun-gods - such as the Assyro-Babylonian Shamash, the Egyptian Ra, the Indic Surya, the Greek Helios - are actually misidentified Saturnian suns. In the case of Shamash, of course, the issue is at once settled by appealing to those very ancients who venerated the god. . . . despite the objection of most modern mythologists, the case is really closed since the Assyro-Babylonians themselves vouched for the identity of Shamash as a name of the planet we call Saturn. Amy: Cardona then discusses the identification of the Egyptian Ra with the sun, an identification he personally found more difficult to accept. CARDONA: And yet, here is precisely where the method I have been expounding proved itself - because, if the theory demanded that Ra was really a personification of Saturn rather than the Sun, it should also demand that the characteristics and motions ascribed to Ra will not be found to fit those of the Sun. Amy: Quoting from Jastrow, Boll, Budge, and the Pyramid texts, CARDONA describes the characteristics and motions of Ra, as a deity that reigned within the Circles, then further identifies this Circle as the "Duat" the "underworld", which, according to Budge, was located "away beyond the earth, probably in the sky." CARDONA: It is thus obvious that, whatever Ra once signified, it was a celestial body that resided within a circle or band or ring - nay, within a nest of concentric circles or bands or rings. As we all know, the Sun does not send forth its rays into a circle; it does not reside in a ring or nest of rings. The planet Saturn, however, does. . . . under certain conditions, the Sun is seen to be surrounded by . . . atmospheric refraction which lends a halo to the solar orb. But not only is this too rare an apparition to have earned Ra his title of 'Governor of the Circle,' it is also a phenomenon which is restricted to the northern regions and hardly, if ever, seen at the latitude of Egypt. But there is more. Amy: Cardona recounts the widespread and unusual belief by many ancient cultures that Saturn was the "night sun" or the "sun of night." Saturn was also remembered as a 'radiant green disk' and Cardona quotes an Egyptian hymn which refer to Saturn's 'beams of emerald light.' CARDONA: Consider further the motions of the celestial object called Ra. In a statement found in one of the Coffin Texts, the deity is addressed with these words: 'You shall go up upon the great West side of the sky and go down upon the great East side of the earth.' Is this not contrary to what the Sun does? Does the Sun 'go up' in the west? Does it 'go down' in the east? Thus Faulkner, who translated this passage, could not help stating that this 'unexpected reversal of the points of the compass is incomprehensible' - and ended up by blaming what to him was an inconsistency on 'a blunder in an early copy which no one has noticed or at least attempted to correct.' This explanation, however, presupposes that there must be other texts which give the rising and setting of Ra correctly. But, as David Talbott has indicated, 'wherever the direction of the [sun] ship's movement is explicitly connected with the phases of morning and evening, the texts always reverse the direction expected by the solar interpretation. More than that, when sailing in his ship, or boat, Ra is said to move down at dawn, and 'upstream' at night contrary to what we see the Sun doing in our sky. How, then, can mythologists continue to perpetuate the lie that the Egyptian Ra was a personification of the Sun? To be continued ... ---------------------------------------------- PROGRESS OF "PROGRESS" By Karen Josephson and Ted Bond Karen Josephson says: I'm taking a class on ancient Judaism taught by a local Jewish scholar. This week something that he said struck me as especially relevant to this thread. He said that the language anciently was the same as symbolism and that every word had more than one meaning. For example, "tikkun" means both "salvation" and "restitution". In ancient times the word always meant both things, whereas now they are separated. "Torah" means "way of life", not "the first five books of the Bible" -- because it's exactly that -- about a way of life. That's partly why there is so much misunderstanding of writings in the Bible, I guess!! Also, their idea of "progress" was quite different from the modern concept. Anciently, progress, to the people, meant that you/we were getting closer to a restoration of what had been in their past. To return to the ways, etc., of the past, is to return/ recall the "truth" (which for them would have been the time of paradise which had been lost and everything connected to it). The change in this philosophy occurred as a part of the "Era of Enlightenment". Since then progress has meant that what's older is less desirable, lower in quality/ value/ technology/ more primitive, etc., etc., and that the present and future are better and better still (respectively) than any thing that ever came before. One is progress toward restoring the past and the other is progress away from the past. . . . He said this philosophy was strengthened by the success of the modern sciences and the Industrial Revolution, and led to the belief that you could combine scientific knowledge and social knowledge. Both of the ideas (ancient and modern) have "heaven on Earth" as their goal, but the ancients were trying to recover what had been, while the modern approach is to throw out the old and make (through science and technology) heaven on Earth yourself. The old outlook was more spiritual, while the modern outlook is more materialistic. Philosophy/ beliefs appear to strongly influence language, and the changes in beliefs over time as we've gotten farther and farther from the causes of/ reasons for the older beliefs, the languages have been altered (as shown by Hebrew) at the same time. Ted Bond adds: Bernard Williams called Cartesian philosophy "the project of pure enquiry". Descartes' method was to doubt everything that could be doubted and to accept, bit by bit, only what was "clear to the light of nature". The only thing we can be certain of (that cannot be doubted) initially is our own existence as a 'thinking thing', and we have to take it from there, beginning with a proof of the existence of God. Anything learned through the senses can be doubted at the beginning of enquiry, for the sensible world could all be an illusion, perhaps a dream! Kant was much more interested in the _limitations of reason_, than in its powers. He argued strongly that in matters of God, freedom and immortality, reason had nothing to say, and would have to yield to faith. His _Critique of Pure Reason_ was in fact on the Roman Catholic Index of Forbidden books because in it Kant denied that God's existence could be proven by reason alone, which is a Catholic dogma of faith. Neither Descartes nor Kant made any contribution to the modern notion of progress, which, as a concept, belongs to the later 19th century, not to the 18th (Kant) or the 17th (Descartes), although the Industrial Revolution did take place in the 18th century, and it was 'progress' in science and industry that produced the materialism and the misguided optimism about the future that has got us into the mess we are in today. Really interesting, though, about ancient Hebrew, although the planet worshippers and human sacrificers, including the Jewish backsliders that the prophets were constantly railing against, were also trying to get back to the days before the Saturn catastrophe! It is just that the Jewish prophets thought that Moses' way was better! ---------------------------------------------- IT HAS TO BE MOONGLOW! By Wal Thornhill The region around the crater Aristarchus . . . has been a focus for observers searching for transient lunar phenomena. See pictures at: http://www.holoscience.com/news/moonglow.htm This past week 700 planetary scientists from around the world gathered in Abano Terme, Italy, to present their latest observations from ground- and space-based instruments. Sky & Telescope's Senior Editor J. Kelly Beatty filed this report from the conference. The week-long meeting [of the American Astronomical Society] featured the first unambiguous confirmation of a spontaneous change in a feature on the Moon. Amateur observers have claimed to witness dozens of transient lunar phenomenon (TLPs) for decades, but most professionals found the reports unconvincing because the events were almost always seen only visually. Now, however, a group led by Bonnie Buratti (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) has found "before" and "after" images from the Clementine spacecraft for an TLP reported last April 23rd. The area in question, the "cobra head" at the beginning of Schröter's Valley near the crater Aristarchus, is covered by relatively young volcanic flows, and it has often been the location of TLP sightings. Buratti says two bright spots along the valley's western wall are distinctly redder in the Clementine "after" images from April 27th, a clear indication that some kind of change took place subsequent to the "before" images taken March 3rd. So now it's official - TLP's are real! Just as astronomers would not believe that stones could fall from the sky, most have baulked at the idea that our long-dead Moon could show signs of life. Yet there have been many reports in the last century from reputable observers of glowing patches, point- like flashes and obscurations on the Moon. Now the Clementine lunar orbiter has confirmed a transient change in redness in a lunar crater. Explanations have involved outgassing, volcanism, raising of moondust, and rock fluorescence under bombardment from solar wind particles. However, the emission of visible light is poorly understood. In this case, remnant vulcanism is thought to be most likely. Rilles are thought to be collapsed lava tubes. But Schröter's Valley is not volcanic. That brilliant engineer, the late Ralph Juergens, showed in the early 1970's that it is a typical scar caused by a massive lightning bolt. If it were volcanic, where is the lava outflow? Where is the collapsed roof of a lava tube? Where do we find lava tubes 7 km wide? How could a flowing liquid of any sort form the tortuous inner channel on the valley floor? Why does that channel become narrower toward its "outflow" end? How do some rilles cross mountains? The Electric Universe model has a simple explanation. All bodies in the solar system are embedded in an electric glow discharge, centred on the Sun. The Moon is subject to some of the electrical input that produces planetary aurorae, lightning on Earth and Venus, planet-wide dust-storms and huge dust-devils on Mars, and "volcanoes" on Io. Because the Moon has no atmosphere, electric discharges are diffuse - creating glows over large areas. Flashes are due to sudden concentration of the discharge at high points, known on Earth as St. Elmo's fire, and the occasional true lightning. Obscuration by dust is due to electrostatic levitation. Whatever made Schröter's Valley a target for lightning in the past is likely to make it a prime target now and well worth watching for further TLP's. Lunar explorers in future should take lightning conductors with them! [Ed. note: For the latest developments in the Electric Universe, visit Wal Thornhill's www.holoscience.com website.] ---------------------------------------------- PLEASE VISIT THE KRONIA COMMUNICATIONS WEBSITE: http://www.kronia.com Subscriptions to AEON, a journal of myth and science with a strong emphasis on the Saturn theory, may be ordered at the I-net address below: http://www.kronia.com/html/sales.html Other suggested Web site URL's for more information about Catastrophics: http://www.knowledge.co.uk/sis/ http://www.flash.net/~cjransom/ http://www.knowledge.co.uk/velikovskian/ http://www.bearfabrique.org http://www.grazian-archive.com/ http://www.holoscience.com http://www.users.uswest.net/~dascott/Cosmology.htm http://www.catastrophism.com/cdrom/index.htm Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered, 10 Pensée Journals may be ordered at the I-net address below: http://www.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 focus is 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. thoth at Whidbey.com New readers are referred to earlier issues of THOTH posted on the Kronia website listed above. Go to the free newsletter page and double click on the image of Thoth, the Egyptian God of Knowledge, to access the back issues. editor of THOTH thoth at whidbey.com --- You are currently subscribed to kroniatalk as: mikamar at e-z.net To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-kroniatalk-36515E at telelists.com