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 IV, No 10 June 15, 2000 EDITOR: Amy Acheson PUBLISHER: Michael Armstrong LIST MANAGER: Brian Stewart CONTENTS FINDER'S FALLACY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Mel Acheson CRACK IN EINSTEIN'S PEDESTAL . . . . . . . . . by Wal Thornhill PARADIGM PORTRAITS V: EJECTION JET . . . . . . . by Amy Acheson BIGGER BUT NOT BETTER . . . . . . . . . . kroniatalk discussion LABYRINTH AND FORTRESS OF THE GODS . . . . . . .by Dave Talbott >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>-----<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< FINDER'S FALLACY By Mel Acheson The Finder's Fallacy is the downside of the "Eureka!" of discovery. Searching for a needle of explanation in the haystack of data is exhausting, frustrating, often disappointing. Finally to have found a needle, a theory that "works", is cause for celebration. But the enthusiasm for the new-found understanding obscures a fallacious assumption. The desire to rest on success undermines speculation, postpones discovery, and ultimately erects a dogma that suppresses innovation. The Finder's Fallacy is just this assumption that "there is only one, and we've found it." Currently Accepted Theory (CAT)--Newtonian dynamics, Darwinian evolution, etc.--has found one needle and stopped looking. But successful theories have two characteristics: They "work", i.e., they explain or give meaning to certain sets of data. And they have limits, domains of truth, outside of which they "don't work". The Finder's Fallacy is the conceit that _this_ theory's domain is infinite and _this_ data set is complete and incorrigible. Therefore, _this_ theory is the conclusion of a teleological evolution of ideas: There's nothing more to discover. This is the fallacy underlying Horgan's _The End of Science_ and Hawking's "knowing the mind of God." But teleological evolution has drowned in a flood of surprises and novelties. Today, diverse voices contend over the discovery of other needles: the physics of complex systems; electrical plasma phenomena; the several schools of catastrophism. More will be found. There has been a long history of theories that "worked" for the data sets of their times ... and that were thought to be final. It's not that CATs are "wrong"--or "right". They work well for all the things in modern life for which they work well. But there are things--observations, differently arranged sets of data--for which they don't work so well, or not at all: the missing neutrinos in the sun and the missing dark matter in galaxies that may not be missing but may simply not be there; the physical and statistical connections of quasars to active galaxies; the quantization of redshifts; the Mesozoic fossils lying undisturbed in the center of the Chicxulub crater; the global themes of myths. The Finder's Fallacy will laugh at calls to resume the search. It will howl at announcements of further discoveries. Any new theory that does explain currently unexplained or under-explained data will alter the understanding of previously understood data as well. The newly found second needle will not only sew new clothes, it will sew the old clothes into new shapes. The effect will be not just variations on a style but an entirely new fashion. The desire to enjoy one's success quickly becomes a fear for protecting one's turf. The turf of ideas is not easily protected. Modern academia has done a remarkable job of erecting fences around its cherished dogmas. But that has only ensured that new discoveries will come from outside the fence. In time, the fence will enclose not the choicest turf but the junkyard. The Finder's Fallacy is the deadbolt on the door of the mind. Mel Acheson thoth at whidbey.com **************************************************** CRACK IN EINSTEIN'S PEDESTAL By Wal Thornhill It seems the Sheldrake effect is at work. For some years a lone researcher in New York, Ralph Sansbury, has been performing experiments that suggest that the light is a near-instantaneous action-at-a-distance and that the speed of light is merely a measure of the delay in response of the receiver. Now we have the following report from the London Times, June 4 edition: Eureka! Scientists break speed of light Jonathan Leake, Science Editor SCIENTISTS claim they have broken the ultimate speed barrier: the speed of light. In research carried out in the United States, particle physicists have shown that light pulses can be accelerated to up to 300 times their normal velocity of 186,000 miles per second. The implications, like the speed, are mind-boggling. On one interpretation it means that light will arrive at its destination almost before it has started its journey. In effect, it is leaping forward in time. Wal Thornhill comments: If Einstein was wrong about light then there need be no connection between space and time. It is far simpler to discard his old model altogether. If the phenomenon of light is caused by near- instantaneous signalling then there is such a thing as Universal Time, at least in our galaxy, and there can be no time travel. This is an "uncommon-sense" conclusion as well. ... Back to London Times article: Exact details of the findings remain confidential because they have been submitted to Nature, the international scientific journal, for review prior to possible publication. Thornhill: It will be of great interest to see whether the paper is published. Scientists use the peer review system as a very effective way of maintaining the status quo. ... Article: The work was carried out by Dr Lijun Wang, of the NEC research institute in Princeton, who transmitted a pulse of light towards a chamber filled with specially treated caesium gas. Before the pulse had fully entered the chamber it had gone right through it and travelled a further 60ft across the laboratory. In effect it existed in two places at once, a phenomenon that Wang explains by saying it travelled 300 times faster than light. Thornhill: More sensitive tests should show that the effect was even faster, near-instantaneous, and therefore could be detected in two separate places at once. ... Article: The research is already causing controversy among physicists. What bothers them is that if light could travel forward in time it could carry information. This would breach one of the basic principles in physics - causality, which says that a cause must come before an effect. It would also shatter Einstein's theory of relativity since it depends in part on the speed of light being unbreachable. Thornhill: The problem only arises if we cling to Einstein's theory. It is more sensible to suggest that it is not possible to travel in time. That is the situation if light is a near-instantaneous action-at-a-distance and it is our electronic detection methods that introduce the delay we interpret as the speed of light. ... Article: This weekend Wang said he could not give details but confirmed: "Our light pulses did indeed travel faster than the accepted speed of light. I hope it will give us a much better understanding of the nature of light and how it behaves." Thornhill: I have no doubt that it will. But I predict that it will be hard to hear the small voices of sanity above those who will defend Einstein to the death. Article: Dr Raymond Chiao, professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, who is familiar with Wang's work, said he was impressed by the findings. "This is a fascinating experiment," he said. In Italy, another group of physicists has also succeeded in breaking the light speed barrier. In a newly published paper, physicists at the Italian National Research Council described how they propagated microwaves at 25% above normal light speed. The group speculates that it could be possible to transmit information faster than light. Dr Guenter Nimtz, of Cologne University, an expert in the field, agrees. He believes that information can be sent faster than light and last week gave a paper describing how it could be done to a conference in Edinburgh. He believes, however, that this will not breach the principle of causality because the time taken to interpret the signal would fritter away all the savings. Thornhill: Once again, the problem only arises if we cling to Einstein's theory. It is likely that there is a more sensitive way to detect the oscillating near-instantaneous electrostatic force of light than in conventional electronics. There is no suggestion that this would then breach the principle of causality. "The most likely application for this is not in time travel but in speeding up the way signals move through computer circuits," he said. Thornhill: Time travel is a logical absurdity. However, speeding up signalling should be possible. We could do worse than look at how biological systems communicate - as distinct from moving bulk charge around. ... Article: Wang's experiment is the latest and possibly the most important evidence that the physical world may not operate according to any of the accepted conventions. Thornhill: Sansbury has had evidence for some years but could not get his work published. The evidence has also been around for many years in the form of "spooky" action-at-a-distance and quantum "entanglement" (which are both euphemisms for "we don't have a clue what's going on.") ... Article: In the new world that modern science is beginning to perceive, sub-atomic particles can apparently exist in two places at the same time - making no distinction between space and time. Thornhill: If by sub-atomic particles is meant photons, then modern theory, which treats light as a wave one moment and as a particle the next, was never acceptable. Sansbury shows that by simply re-introducing Newton's near-instantaneous action-at-a-distance, light is neither a particle nor a wave, but a force. Therefore, given appropriate detectors, light can be detected simultaneously in two places at different distances from the source. There is no connection between time and space. That was a blind alley we were led into by Einstein's "thought experiments". ... Article: Separate experiments carried out by Chiao illustrate this. He showed that in certain circumstances photons - the particles of which light is made - could apparently jump between two points separated by a barrier in what appears to be zero time. The process, known as tunnelling, has been used to make some of the most sensitive electron microscopes. Thornhill: Tunnelling can be explained simply in the same way by near- instantaneous electrostatic forces between resonant particles. Article: The implications of Wang's experiments will arouse fierce debate. Many will question whether his work can be interpreted as proving that light can exceed its normal speed - suggesting that another mechanism may be at work. Neil Turok, professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University, said he awaited the details with interest, but added: "I doubt this will change our view of the fundamental laws of physics." Thornhill: "Debate" is a polite word for the reaction one can expect when beliefs are being challenged. Turok's initial response is the usual "I'll see it when I believe it" attitude from those in authority. It will not be possible to fudge Einstein's work sensibly to accommodate these results. However, the outcomes from Sansbury's simple new model of light have far-reaching consequences including the "holy grail" of unification of all forces as manifestations of the fundamental electrostatic force. It will change our entire perception of ourselves and our connection to the rest of the universe. It will open up amazing new vistas in science. Article: Wang emphasises that his experiments are relevant only to light and may not apply to other physical entities. But scientists are beginning to accept that man may eventually exploit some of these characteristics for inter-stellar space travel. Thornhill: These experiments support Sansbury's view that light is not a physical entity but a near-instantaneous oscillating electrostatic force. So inter-stellar communications may be possible without ridiculously long delays. And space travel will involve giving up Einstein's warped view of gravity as well. Being an electric force allows the possibility of constructing anti-gravity devices. R.I.P. Einstein! ~Wal Thornhill See the home of The Electric Universe at http://www.holoscience.com ************************************************** PARADIGM PORTRAITS V: EJECTION JET By Amy Acheson On June 5, 2000, the Hubble Telescope published the following photos of a galactic jet: http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/2000/21/content/0021w.jpg The title of the accompanying press release was: Feasting Black Hole Blows Bubbles The article begins: A monstrous black hole's rude table manners include blowing huge bubbles of hot gas into space. At least, that's the gustatory practice followed by the supermassive black hole residing in the hub of the nearby galaxy NGC 4438. Known as a peculiar galaxy because of its unusual shape, NGC 4438 is in the Virgo Cluster, 50 million light-years from Earth. Amy comments: It's more than the shape that defines a peculiar galaxy. In his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, Halton Arp separated the galaxies by type of peculiarity; for example, unusual number of arms, active nucleus, etc. Those numbered 100 through 163 in his catalog are the most active, most explosive, most disrupted galaxies known. This galaxy, NGC 4438, appears in Arp's Atlas as number 120. Article: These extremely hot bubbles are caused by the black hole's voracious eating habits. The eating machine is engorging itself with a banquet of material swirling around it in an accretion disk (the white region below the bright bubble). Some of this material is spewed from the disk in opposite directions. Acting like high- powered garden hoses, these twin jets of matter sweep out material in their paths. The jets eventually slam into a wall of dense, slow-moving gas, which is traveling at less than 223,000 mph (360,000 kph). The collision produces the glowing material. The bubbles will continue to expand and will eventually dissipate. Amy Comments: This is where the distortion of seeing the universe through redshift-colored glasses causes a failure of observation. The jets don't dissipate. If you follow the path of these jets beyond the narrow focus of the Hubble Telescope, you will find an interesting array of high redshift objects. It's here, beyond the ends of the jets of active galaxies that we find quasars, BL Lac objects, and most of the high-redshift galaxy clusters and high redshift young galaxies. They spread from the ends of the galactic jets like sparks from a summer bonfire. I've been collecting a list of phrases for which Don Scott coined the term "electrical euphemisms." These are non-electrical words used to describe phenomena which deserve electric names in an Electric Universe paradigm. Additions to my list from this article include "bubble-blowing phase" for active galaxies with bright, ionized jets and "collision produces glowing material" for electrical discharge. Photo Credit: NASA and Jeffrey Kenney and Elizabeth Yale (Yale University) Amy Acheson ************************************************** BIGGER BUT NOT BETTER A kroniatalk discussion Harold Tresman sent the following: This is an article that appeared this week, (Jonathan Leake, Science Editor, Sunday Times. 04.06.2000) .......Comments ? >From the article: Britons Open Eye on Dawn of Universe BRITISH astronomers are designing the world's ultimate telescope so large it will be able to make direct observations of lifebearing planets in other solar systems. Wal's comment: This assumes that life-bearing planets must be like the Earth in its present circumstance and usually orbit outside a star. The model I have proposed of life-bearing planets within the more favorable envelope of a red star would render them invisible to any telescope, no matter how large. Article: The so-called Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (Owl) will also see across space to the edge of the universe collecting light emitted 11 billion years ago from the first stars formed. The insights it provides, say astronomers, will be stupendous. Sir Martin Rees, the astronomer royal, said the project was "the next big step" in probing the origins of the universe. "It will be looking at more distant and fainter objects than ever before including some that formed close to the big bang," he said. Wal comments: If anyone is interested in the Overwhelmingly Ludicrous decision making that characterizes the astronomical establishment in Britain, they should read Fred Hoyle's autobiography, "Home is Where the Wind Blows". Rees is one who vehemently opposes Arp's work to the extent of indulging in personal attacks (Seeing Red, pages 21-23). He should be the last person to consult on such an expensive project since his involvement is obviously emotional rather than scientific. Article: A telescope capable of such feats has long seemed an astronomer's fantasy. The crucial part of any telescope is its reflector, essentially a mirror, which focuses light into cameras and other instruments. The largest telescope made has a reflector 10 metres in diameter, tiny compared with the 100 metres needed for the Owl. Until now astronomers had not even considered such a project. A 100metre glass mirror is beyond modern technology, would be too heavy to move and would be pointless because of the way light is distorted when it passes through the atmosphere. At Durham University, however, a team of physicists has designed a system that replaces traditional reflectors with hundreds of thin flexible mirrors with just a fraction of the weight. Such mirrors may even be made of fabrics sprayed with reflective coatings. These can be built onto a flexible frame whose shape is computer adjusted thousands of times a minute to counteract the distorting effects of the atmosphere. The result has been to cut the cost of the project to about £800m less than the total cost of the Millennium Dome. . . . Among the most important questions the Owl telescope would resolve is the structure and origin of the universe. Wal comments: No telescope can resolve that question if you bring to it a donkey-load of dogma and don't understand what you are looking at. Amy Acheson adds: An interesting side-conversations of the May seminar took place as Mel and Don and Wal and I tried to track down the answer to Don's question -- "If the velocity of recession equals the redshift (z) times the speed of light, then how can we have z equal to more than 1 without claiming the object has a speed greater than the speed of light?" Lately, NASA announced the newly discovered record-holding quasar at a redshift of 5.8 -- seemingly impossibly by their own standards. So we searched the Internet and found the full equation (v =cz is an approximation that works pretty well on small redshifts.) Sure enough, a redshift of 5.8 is only .97 times the speed of light. Examining the equation closer, we soon realized that there is no way to ever find a redshift over the speed of light. No matter how high the redshift gets -- 100 or 1000 or 953 gazillion -- the solution to the equation will be .99999999+ times the speed of light. There can never be, by definition, a redshift which exceeds the speed of light. Don Scott responds: The equation we found to convert redshift, z, into recessional velocity, v, was (in two steps): x = (1+z), then v = c[(x^2 - 1) / (x^2 + 1)]. I tried to find out where this comes from. All I have been able to find so far is that one writer says that, "From Relativity Theory we have the expression 1+z = sqrt[(1 + v/c) / (1 - v/c)]" Now, where THIS comes from, I still haven't figured out. I DO know that if you solve this last expression for v, you get the first one. And Amy is right - via this expression, the value of v never exceeds c no matter how large z gets. Of course, according to Halton Arp, these high redshift values are primarily due to intrinsic (age related) properties of the object. So, the difference between the (large) measured shift and one of his quantum redshift values always turns out to be small enough that we can use the simple v = cz relationship to find the actual velocity. Mel Acheson adds: Mel retrieves his freshman physics text, blows off the dust, and finds feet of clay on the Doppler god: _Physics_ by Resnick & Halliday, 1964 printing, Ch. 40, Sec. 5, p.914, introducing the Doppler effect for light, recaps the situation for sound waves: For an observer fixed in the medium and a source receding from the observer at velocity u, the frequency f' heard by the observer is f' = f [1/(1+u/v)]. For a source at rest and the observer receding from the source at velocity u: f' = f [1-u/v]. You can assemble these formulas by drawing a picture of the situation and applying the classical principle of addition (or subtraction in this case) of velocities. (The situation in which source and observer are approaching each other is represented by substituting -u for u.) Now I quote from Resnick & Halliday: "We might be tempted to apply [these equations] to light.... For light, as contrasted with sound, however, it has proved impossible to identify a medium of transmission relative to which the source and the observer are moving. This means that 'source receding from observer' and 'observer receding from source' are physically identical situations and must exhibit _exactly the same_ Doppler frequency." [Emphasis in original--but I would like to draw your attention to the use of the term 'must'. Translation: We haven't found a medium yet, so we'll assume none exists. That assumption then requires the introduction of a fudge factor to make the two situations equivalent at high velocities. It turns the speed of light, c, into an asymptotic limit, and all further math dealing with c automatically incorporates that assumption--as Don pointed out above with redshift limits.] So the new, all-purpose, fudge-in-the-face equation is: f' = f [(1-u/c)/sqrt (1-u^2/c^2)] Well, of course physicists didn't stop with the assumption. They tested it, and the experiment (yes, one experiment) showed the new equation was spot-on (given the 2-significant-figure accuracy of the experiment). Resnick & Halliday describe the experiment. Now keep in mind that Resnick & Halliday never mention Hannes Alfven or plasma. "H.E. Ives and G.R. Stilwell carried out such a precision experiment in 1938. They sent a beam of hydrogen atoms, generated in a gas discharge, down a tube at speed u .... They could observe light emitted by these atoms in a direction opposite to u ... using a mirror, and also in a direction parallel to u .... With a precision spectrograph, they could photograph a particular characteristic spectrum line in this light, obtaining, on a frequency scale, [two separated lines]. It is also possible to photograph, on the same photographic plate, a line corresponding to light emitted from _resting_ atoms, [appearing between the other two lines]." R&H present a table of results, showing the 'at rest' line was half as far from the midpoint of the other two as the equations for sound predicted and very close to what the relativistic equation predicted. But then they continue: "Ives and Stilwell did not present their experimental results as evidence for the support of Einstein's theory of relativity but rather gave them an alternative theoretical explanation. Modern observers, looking not only at their excellent experiment but at the whole range of experimental evidence, now give the Ives-Stilwell experiment the interpretation we have described for it above." R&H don't say what Ives' and Stilwell's interpretation was. So the Doppler fudge-formula rests on observations of light generated by hydrogen atoms passing through an electric arc and accelerated in an electric field, interpreted by observers ignorant of plasma effects. This adds historical depth to (and subtracts confidence from!) the old astronomers' response to questions about redshift: "What else but a Doppler effect could it be!" Modern physics stands, not on the shoulders of giants, but on the shoulders of giant assumptions. Back to the Article: What puzzles astronomers is why stars and galaxies are not spread around at random but occur in clusters with huge empty voids in between. More recently it emerged that galaxies often string themselves together into long filaments or form into flat sheets. The limited power of modern telescopes means they cannot provide enough detail to explain such phenomena. Wal comments: Halton Arp has shown why astronomers see the universe in such a distorted fashion. It doesn't require better telescopes. And when it comes to filaments and flat sheets, the plasma cosmologists have better answers. So why give scarce research money to those ill-fitted to use it? The Article: By contrast, the Owl telescope's ability to collect radiation from stars as they looked billions of years ago will allow astronomers to examine what was going on to create such unexpected patterns today. Its huge dish will also enable it to peer through the intergalactic clouds of dust that hide the hearts of galaxies and watch new stars being born. Wal comments: The unstated assumption behind this pronouncement is that we are looking back in time when we look into space. If the speed of light is not the barrier that Einstein made of it (and recent experiments suggest that this is so) then there is no relationship between time and space. The Article: But it is the search for life on other planets that provides the most powerful inspiration for building such telescopes. Designs are being drawn up at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh But Britain's astronomers are not driven only by lofty ideals. In the past few years there has been an increasing sense of frustration as Britain's telescopes have been eclipsed by others. Wal comments: So, it's all about status and bigger is better? If they really want to be in the forefront of astronomy they merely need to listen to Arp rather than build more expensive status symbols. Most of the data already to hand has been misinterpreted. The real breakthroughs in astronomy will come from new laboratory tests and re-examination of old data rather than ever bigger telescopes. Given the dismal track record of astronomical theorists, as portrayed in Koestler's "The Sleepwalkers", Halton Arp's prediction is the most likely - the breakthroughs will come from outside the field. In that case, who has the biggest telescope will be totally irrelevant. Wal Thornhill ***************************************************** FORTRESS AND LABYRINTH By Dave Talbot Amy asks: Humbaba/Huwawa has the ugliest mug I have ever seen, made up of "intestines" twined around a couple of eyes (see Hamlet's Mill, By Georgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, pg. 291). The authors connect the monster's face and name with intestines and with the labyrinth. They also point out similarities to the Aztec Tlaloc, although Tlaloc's face was formed from two snakes rather than intestines. I can imagine that the superstition that you can read a person's fortune in the windings of steaming intestines also came from this image. Where did it come from? Was it part of the polar configuration? Dave responds: Well, I thought I'd take a little time to respond, since I've already stuck my neck out by claiming that, when it comes to the landscape of myths and symbols, all roads lead to the polar configuration. Amy, you're right about the ancient labyrinth and its connection to superstitions regarding entrails and fate. And yes, the labyrinthine "intestines" do have a logical place in the evolution of the polar configuration. The image relates to a rather complex phase, involving the transition from Saturnian to Jovian sovereignty. Here we also meet the terrible goddess (Venus) in her "entangling" aspect, and the legendary perils confronted by the Martian hero. As I've noted previously, I find it difficult to discuss these later sequences without the use of pictures, particularly while so much of the earlier symbolism remains to be presented at a sufficient level of detail. It is the earlier images that give the necessary context to comprehend the later evolution of the configuration. The brief comments here are for those familiar with the basic planetary forms of the polar configuration. The general motif involves these common elements, among others: 1) meandering, "drunken" or "crane"-dance of the hero; 2) winding path of the maze or labyrinth; 3) the cross or swastika, the central celestial source from which the sinuous "paths" arose; 4) "bowels" of the cavern entered by the hero; 5) swallowing of the hero by the chaos monster; 6) disheveled and "entangling" hair of the mother goddess in her threatening aspect; 7) winding or unwinding of intestines; 8) intricate windings of a rope or thread, or an elaborate "knot" which only the hero can undo; and 9) a "riddle" or "paradox" which only the hero can solve--this being the most abstract form in initiation rites, folklore, and later analogies,. In all of these forms we see key sequences in the hero's confrontation with the chaos powers. Though the images are quite diverse and often complex, the root explanation provided by the Saturn model is surprisingly simple. The explanation begins with the planetary alignment of the polar configuration--the juxtaposition of Mars, Venus and Saturn--when four luminous streamers were seen radiating from Venus in the form of an equal-limbed cross. (As I've noted on other occasions, this is the most frequently recorded form of the discharging Venus.) In a phase of intense discharging linked to the onset of instability, these streamers took on a whorl-like appearance, a form that numerous ancient cultures recorded stylistically as the swastika. There is reason to believe that initially the whirling appearance retained its symmetry as the streamers wound up the polar axis. But eventually the displacement of the aligned planets produced an irregular and complex streamer pattern, as Venus and Mars danced around the polar center in awkward motions, due to the visual effects of displacement from the polar axis and the moving position of the observer on a rotating earth. In their labyrinthine windings these streamers acquired the appearance of an impenetrable citadel in the heavens. Fundamentally, that is what the labyrinth means: a great fortress which only the hero, be he Gilgamesh or Theseus, will succeed in entering. There is much more to the ancient imagery of this celestial "stronghold" or "prison". The cavernous "bowels" of the divine habitation, the Gordian Knot, the mythic "cavern" of the hero's initiation or re-birth, and the labyrinth all mean the same thing. Moreover, only a few of the experts have discerned the essential corollary to this theme: the conjunction of the hero and mother goddess. The windings of the labyrinth are, in fact, the very essence of the goddess, and the hero's entry into the labyrinth can not be separated from his conjunction with the great mother. (As I've stated more than once, ALL mythical themes involve the conjunction principle.) Thus, the Saturn model provides a series of acid tests. It identifies specific forms in the sky as the objective references for seemingly incompatible mythical and symbolic images. What appear to be DIFFERENT symbols actually refer to the same external form and to the same sequence of events. The imaginative symbols will appear to have no connection to each other in the absence of the external references. But if you grant the concrete forms in the sky--if only for the sake of the obvious tests--then the connections will be EXPECTED. It is this logical expectation that supports the claimed "predictive power" of the model. The model implies entire complexes of symbolic equations that would not be anticipated under any other theory of the past. Since it will take a sizable volume to detail the labyrinth motif, for now I will simply provide a few random notes-- Many themes relating to the terrible goddess and the ordeal, initiation, or rebirth of the hero occur in association with the first appearance of Jupiter. In one way or another the motifs of swallowing, cavernous hiding place, wrapping or winding, binding, and imprisonment run through all of the accounts relating to Jupiter's emergence as sovereign power. Ideas as to who was doing what to whom, and how badly, will vary according to highly subjective mythical interpretations. A good starting point for confirming the complex of motifs noted above might be Hesiod's Theogony recounting the fate of Kronos and the "birth" of Zeus. But don't expect everything to become immediately clear! Every motif or symbol has a larger context requiring cross-cultural analysis. It is the rigorous comparative approach that enables us to confirm the integrity of the substratum. That a great fortress in the sky would be composed of "intestines" is really quite ridiculous UNTIL one grants something visible in the heavens to prompt the mythical language. In the words of the Babylonians themselves, Humbaba/Huwawa was the guardian of "the fortress of intestines", and more than one specialist has proposed that this mythical fortress was a prototype of the labyrinth. But other crucial associations of the labyrinth are usually overlooked. The swastika at the center of the labyrinth occurs not just in Cretan and Attic art, but among the Hopi Indians as well. The most common centerpiece of the labyrinth, of course, is the equal-limbed cross, from which the swastika itself arose, representing the whirling aspect of the cross. One scholar who did not overlook this connection was A. B. Cook. >From his extensive study of the theme, he concluded [Zeus, Vol 1, p. 478]: "it seems certain that both Attic and Cretan art presuppose the swastika as the earliest ascertainable form of the Labyrinth." So it is simply inconceivable that the labyrinth motif could be illuminated without simultaneous illuminating the cross and swastika (or vice versa). One theme leads inexorably to another, each adding nuances and perspective: intestines, labyrinth, swastika, dance. There can be no doubt, for example, that the swastika is inseparably connected to the whirling dance of the hero and goddess when the world has slipped into chaos. Moreover, this dance is consistently linked to the labyrinthine passage. Indeed, one of the more common dance patterns in ancient times was that of whirling performers, dancing along a path marked by a labyrinth. Cook, for example, relates the pattern simultaneously to a symbolic "imitation of the sun's movements in the sky" and to a pattern of imitative spiraling dance. The word "labyrinth" often MEANS dance, and the archaic roots of the symbol are acknowledged to have given rise to the "Troy dance" and similar children's games. But again, the relationship of the swastika to the dancing form of the hero (in conjunction with the goddess) will virtually always go unnoticed by the specialists, while nothing in familiar experience today will suggest any link to the complex images of "intestines". Yet curiously, from the Americas to Africa to the South Pacific we find recollections of the dancing trickster-hero "unraveling his own intestines". That such ludicrous imagery would recur from one land to another surely requires an explanation! It is important to note that the labyrinthine dance of the hero has its own unique and awkward form, as we should expect. The dance of the warrior Theseus, most famous for his entry into the Cretan Labyrinth, was called the Crane Dance, a very appropriate image for the visual movements of Mars in relation to the origins of the labyrinth motif. Numerous Hindu myths relating to the "dance of Shiva" are suggestive of the same concepts while adding vital associations. The illustrated movement of the dancing hero's arms and legs mimic the whorl/swastika form of the discharge streamers. The warrior Siva holds his consort Sati above his head (again, as we should EXPECT), and in their violent whirling movement, the body or essence of Sati is dispersed in flame-- >From Stella Kramrisch, _The Presence of Shiva_, pp. 319-20: "He danced exceedingly, his arms flailing the regions. The stars were scattered by the swish of his hair. Death, love, and despair syncopated the escalating speed of his Tandava dance; the earth shook while Siva went on dancing in frenzy, his eyes whirling ... As Siva danced on and on, the body of Sati became lighter and lighter, and he saw that limbs and parts had fallen from it." In the end all that was left was the mystic yoni, the core identity of the goddess (the planet Venus, in the Saturn model). A comparative analysis will show that that the god's four arms "flailing the regions" are, beyond any reasonable doubt, the arms of the whirling cross or swastika that mark out the four regions or quarters of the celestial habitation. So too, the comet-like "hair" whirling in the heavens will trace to early images, such as those from Sumer, showing the arms of the swastika as the long- flowing hair of female figures. Hence, the presence of a swastika in the center of the labyrinth is a crucial piece of evidence. It needs to be emphasized here that the identification of Shiva's dance with the famous dance of the Theseus will not be justified by a mere reading of popular summaries. Too much is lost in trivial approaches to myth. How, for example, do we know that the dance of Theseus was in conjunction with a GODDESS, since the usual treatments do not mention such a thing? The builder of the labyrinth of Knosos was Daidalos, who constructed the palace-like fortress to imprison and protect the Minotaur. Though the labyrinth became the ground for the Crane Dance of Theseus, we read in the Iliad that Daidalos "once wrought in Knosos broad a dancing-ground for fair-haired Ariadne". But the real key is the golden "thread" of Ariadne, unraveled by Theseus as he danced through the winding passages. For the comparative approach will confirm that the spiraling thread of life and fate is nothing else than the luminous essence of the goddess herself. The hero's unraveling of the "thread" in his meandering dance is in fact a counterpart to Shiva's whirling dispersal of the essence of Sati. The dance of Theseus is in conjunction with the goddess. This is why, as noted by Cook, the labyrinthine dance was said to be "the first occasion on which men and women danced together." Here, as so often is the case, we see the telltale signature of an archetype, the cosmic "first form" to which all imitative or ritual practices direct our attention. [An aside: in Egypt one of the key images is that of the red ab- heart of Re, the "heart of carnelian" which Egyptian texts identify with such warrior heroes as Shu and Horus (Mars, in our reconstruction). This innermost masculine heart is presented within (i.e., in conjunction with) the feminine hati-heart of Re, The hieroglyphic image shows a male figure in a dancing posture virtually identical to that of Shiva, who similarly stands in conjunction with the Hindu mother goddess. But none of these images seems to be intelligible to Egyptologists or other specialists. Thus, they do not notice that the swastika itself symbolized the whirling, dancing heart of the ancient sun god (Saturn). And until the underlying equations are recognized, such obvious clues as the placement of a swastika on the HEART of Apollo in familiar Greek representations, will mean virtually nothing to them.] As noted above, a symbol linking the winding path of the labyrinth to a winding rope, cord, or string is the "thread of Ariadne". The Greeks claimed that Theseus' way through the labyrinth was MARKED by this very "golden thread" which he unwound as he entered the cavernous path. [Hero unwinding the golden thread = hero unwinding intestines = hero winding through the passages of the labyrinth = dancing hero and goddess] A common association noted by numerous comparative symbolists was that between the labyrinth and symbolic "knots" or elaborate "knotwork", a connection fitting perfectly with the Saturn model's identification of the labyrinthine pathway and the "Gordian Knot". In fact, the symbolic knotwork of Ireland and Scandinavia will often present striking parallels to the labyrinth, and I am fully satisfied that, at root, the two motifs arose from the same experience. Labyrinth and knotwork also overlap in the Chinese image of the p'ang-chang, the "endless knot" or "knot of happiness". Nor can the symbolic "intestines" be separated from this particular theme, for the legends describe the p'ang-chang as a "knot" formed from the INTESTINES of a slain enemy. All of which reminds us again of the "fortress of intestines" to which Humbaba/Huwawa, the enemy slain by Gilgamesh, gave his name. I should hasten to add that the most common association of the labyrinth revealed by cross-cultural comparison was with the mythical cave or cavern entered by the hero (as we should also expect). Thus Dorothy Norman, in The Hero, p. 107, writes: "In those cases where the ritual has been preserved, the labyrinth itself, or a drawing of it, is invariably situated at the entrance of the cave or dwelling". The Saturn model says: labyrinth entered by the hero = cavern of the hero's initiation. In fact all of the predicted symbolic equations or identities noted above can be fully verified by an independent researcher following the keys provided by the Saturn model. The hero untying or finding his way through the "knot", as observed by Chevalier and Gheerbrant, is equivalent to the hero "being swallowed by the monster" -- a universal motif. The disgorging of the hero is simply one more form of the god's victory and release. To untie the knot is to defeat the chaos power. The labyrinth is a "puzzle", a challenge to the hero, and conceptually it is only a short distance to the mythic riddle or paradox, a folklore variant of the same critical juncture in the biography of the hero. When Oedipus answered the riddle of the sphinx correctly, the devouring goddess plunged over the precipice. Among those comparative symbolists who have discerned the essential connections (though certainly not accounted for them), I would list J. C. Cooper, who writes in An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols: "[The labyrinth is] related to the symbolism of the cave and with initiation rites, often held in a cavern or crypt, or with funerary rites, all of which are associated with death and rebirth. It also shares the symbolism of the knot in binding and loosing, restricting but uniting. The labyrinth is also thought to have been concerned with the symbolism of the coiled snake [a globally-recognized form of the devouring goddess] or with patterns of entrails divination and the bowels of the earth. The labyrinth in a square depicts the four cardinal points and the cosmos and may be connected with the swastika." ------------------------------- Perhaps I should mention in closing that we are now looking ahead to a two and a half-day seminar in September, presenting the convergence of the Saturn model and electric universe. This event will include the first public presentation of several key mythical images and their relation to concrete forms seen in the sky. The labyrinth will be among the featured motifs. The tentative date for the event, which will include about eight presenters, is September 22-24, in Portland, Oregon. Look for an announcement shortly. Dave Talbott *********************************************************** PLEASE VISIT THE KRONIA COMMUNICATIONS WEBSITE: http://www.kronia.com Subscriptions to AEON, a journal of myth and science, now with regular features on the Saturn theory and electric universe, may be ordered from this page: 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 http://www.science-frontiers.com 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. ---