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THOTH 
A Catastrophics Newsletter 

VOL VI, No 7 
Oct 31, 2002 

EDITOR: Amy Acheson 
PUBLISHER: Michael Armstrong 
LIST MANAGER: Brian Stewart 

CONTENTS 
SPARKING IMAGINATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mel Acheson 
SERPENTS OF CREATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dave Talbott 
ABSORPTION LINES IN STELLAR SPECTRA . . . . . . . . Don Scott 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>-----<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< 

SPARKING IMAGINATION 
By Mel Acheson 

The world of human experience is primarily one of plants, animals, air,
water, and rocks.  Oh, yes, there are those sparkles of light in the
night sky, but for most of human history they have been practically
insignificant. Only in the recent few centuries have we come to
understand that those little sparks represent the overwhelming
constituent of the universe. It's the world of our experience that's
insignificant. 

And only in the recent few decades have we come to understand that the
overwhelming constituent of the universe is composed almost entirely of
plasma, a mixture of gas and electrical charges. We think of those
charges as "particles" because we know from experience that pieces of
rock are "parts" and tiny parts are "particles". When confronted with
things smaller, our imaginations and our languages fail, and we merely
repeat ourselves. Beneath the mathematical metaphors of atomic theory
lies our experience with broken rock. It's not readily imaginable that
electrical charges might be something other than specks of that
experience. 

Having been confined to the Earth until recently in our history, we have
had little experience with plasma. Lightning is about the sum of it, and
that has not received much study. Lightning comes and goes in the blink
of an eye, and if the eye is close enough to get a good look, it's
likely the last thing that eye ever sees. A few theoreticians have
developed models of plasma behavior derived from the assumption that
specks of rock, sufficiently heated, become a special case of really hot
air. A handful of scientists over the past century have found ways to
experiment with low energy plasma. They claim that the theoreticians are
seriously mistaken, that plasma does not behave as do specks of rock and
hot air. 

But few people have taken notice. The overwhelming constituent of the
universe is still of little significance in our practical experience,
where the mechanical properties of rock particles and air temperatures
predominate. And most astronomers are practical people.  Although their
object of study is the realm in which plasma predominates, their
imaginations remain anchored to rocks, water, and air. It is, after all,
human nature to try to explain an unfamiliar phenomenon by relating it
to what is familiar, by adapting what is already known. On one hand, we
are reluctant to admit ignorance. We prefer to repeat ourselves, to hide
from the unknown under a blanket of dogma. On the other hand, our
curiosity prods us to peek from under the blanket at what we can't
imagine. 

Our recent technologically enhanced peeking with space probes has
uncovered an eyeful of previously unimagined sights: axial beams and
equatorial wheels emitting x-rays, invisible bubbles broadcasting radio
noises, lightning-like filaments twisting across space. Our first
response has been to adapt what we know about rocks and water and air.
We've imagined these sights to be meteorological phenomena in the
atmospheres of gravitating bodies, and we've described them in
meteorological terms: stellar winds; magnetospheric shock fronts; rains
of charged particles; and most recently, rivers of hot gas. We know that
somehow wind separates charged particles of water in thunderstorms, and
lightning is the result, restoring a presumed neutral condition. Having
imagined wind among the stars, we find it easier to imagine
lightning-like structures in space. But our imagination is still
circumscribed by our geocentric experience. 

Combining that presumption of initial neutrality with our ignorance and
our experientially bounded imagination predisposes us to disallow a
larger possibility: The wind isn't buffeting ions and separating
charges; separated charges at a larger scale are driving ions to
generate wind. The sights uncovered by our recent peeking may be more
than isolated lightning bolts in the plasma atmospheres of gravitating
bodies. The past century's meager experience with plasma not only raises
the possibility but compels the consideration that individual bodies are
elements in larger circuits that connect the bodies with transmission
lines of plasma. Gravitation is secondary or irrelevant. Motion is not
the inertial remnant of some initial "big bump", an imagined deistic
"creation event" that imparted energy and left the system to run down.
Rather, most phenomena are "driven" by an external power source. It's
the difference between the rotation of an electric motor with the switch
on and the inertial "coasting" after the switch is turned off. Simple
mechanical observation of the motor is unable to tell whether the switch
is on or off: The shaft turns in both cases. 

The difference between imagining cosmic weather and imagining cosmic
circuits is more fundamental than the images. It's a difference of
visions. The first vision looks at things from the bottom up. It thinks
composite phenomena are aggregated from repetition of fundamental
elements. The universe is a collection of isolated bodies built up from
specks of rock and water and air. The second vision looks at things from
the top down. It thinks of phenomena more in terms of relationships or
properties than in terms of bodies or specks. The universe is a tangle
of interacting nested hierarchies. (Perhaps "lower-archies" would better
describe the direction of explanation.) In this case, they are
hierarchies of inductively connected circuits. This top-down vision
presumes an initial non-neutral condition. What we see is a cascade of
sparks at all scales dissipating that energy. 

This vision logically extends to the atomic and subatomic scales. The
"particle" vision looks for fundamental, indivisible building blocks of
the universe. Its expectations for simplicity have been frustrated by
the discovery of a "zoo" of particles with diverse behaviors. The
"non-fundamentalist" vision imagines tiny lightning bolts whose diverse
observed behaviors display the scale-adjusted properties of plasma
discharges at various energy levels. It sees sparks instead of quarks. 

As we gain experience with plasma, we will find it easier to imagine the
universe in terms other than wind and rivers and rocks. We will begin to
understand the structure of the universe, from galaxies to atoms, not as
being like lightning, but as being the archetype which lightning is
like. Our growing experience with sparks at all scales will spark our
imagination to grow out of its geocentric provincialism into a universal
cosmopolitanism. 

Mel Acheson 
thoth at whidbey.com 

************************************************************ 

THE SERPENTS OF CREATION 
By Dave Talbott 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following text is excerpted from a chapter of the
forthcoming THUNDERBOLTS OF THE GODS, by David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill.

ENVISIONING THE ANCIENT SKY 
Were it possible for you, the reader, to stand alongside our early
ancestors, to witness the events that provoked the age of myth-making,
you would see celestial dramas on a scale virtually inconceivable today.
You would see an electric sky filled with luminous clouds, threads of
light, and undulating rivers of fire. And you would see great spheres
joined in a cosmic performance--events seemingly too vast, too
improbable for anything but a dream. Observe this celestial theater, and
your first thought will be, "This could not have happened!" Yet allow
events to unfold, and that first response will give way to a
contradiction--a sense of the eerily familiar: "Where have I seen this
before?" 

Our answer is that you HAVE seen these events before--through their
universal reflection in art and storytelling. These reflections are, in
fact, the core images of the ancient world, recorded on papyrus and
stone, mirrored in the sacred symbols of the great religions, reenacted
in mystery plays, and embodied in monumental construction on every
habitable continent. Once recognized, the images leap out from every
page of world mythology. 

SERPENTS IN THE SKY 
The pervasive role of cosmic "serpents" in world mythology is a mystery
often mentioned in historical and astronomical studies, but never
satisfactorily explained. Frequently adorned with feathers or wings,
sprouting long-flowing hair, or breathing fire, these monsters rank
among the most enigmatic and outrageous cultural icons, invariably
eluding the grasp of the researchers attempting to explain them. Yet
around the world, these biologically absurd serpents reveal numerous
features in common--the clearest indication that the monsters DO have an
explanation. But when investigators, exploring every possibility they can
imagine, still find no answer, it becomes increasingly likely that the
truth is simply "off the map"--outside the limits of current thinking.
The boundaries of perception have excluded a memory so powerful that it
influenced every ancient culture. From the infancy of civilization
through all prior epochs of human history, world-altering serpents were
claimed to have once moved in the heavens. 

In most great mysteries, recurring patterns are the key to discovery. Is
it significant, for example, that wherever the theme of Doomsday or
celestial chaos occurs, a great serpent or dragon (mythic alter ego of
the serpent) presides over the disaster? The connection is as old as the
earliest civilizations. In ancient Egypt, the serpent Apep, whom the
Greeks called Apophis, was the arch-enemy of the creator and of
celestial order. His plotting against the supreme god Ra produced an
earthshaking tempest in the heavens, and numerous Egyptian rites
commemorated the victory of Ra over Apep, whose hideous forms and
terrible roar haunted the Egyptians throughout their history. At the
temple of Ra in Heliopolis the priests ritually trod underfoot images of
Apep to represent his defeat at the hands of Ra. At the temple of Edfu,
a long series of reliefs depict the warrior Horus and his followers
vanquishing Apep or his counterpart Set, cutting to pieces the
monster's companions, the "fiends of darkness." 

Comparative investigation confirms that every well-documented culture
possessed its own names and images of the serpent or dragon of
chaos--the monster whom the Babylonians called Tiamat, the Greeks knew
as Typhon or Python, and the Hindus called Vritra or Ahi. In Australia
it was the Bunyip-monster, sometimes identified as the "Rainbow
Serpent," that once decimated the earth. And in North America remarkably
similar stories were told of the "Great Horned Serpent." 

Hundreds of mythic counterparts to these serpents or dragons could be
named as well. But what useful information do such monsters offer the
modern world? Their contribution lies in a collective memory too
consistent to be denied, including agreement on numerous, highly
improbable details. 

These monsters also provide a bridge connecting mythology to the
tangible world of plasma physics. Until very recently historical
researchers have had no reason to think of PLASMA when considering the
mysteries of the cosmic serpent. Yet, as we shall attempt to
demonstrate, everything known about the serpent-archetype finds a
corollary in the recently documented behavior of electric plasma. And
from this new vantage point, ancient reverence and fear take on
astonishing clarity. 

THE COSMIC SERPENT IN CREATION MYTHOLOGY 
Though serpent images pervade world mythology, few investigators have
realized that the diverse--and always preposterous--mythic claims
about serpents are the echoes of a universal story. The first chapters
of the story trace to the beginnings of human memory, prior to the rise
of the great civilizations. Before there was an "evil" monster--
a serpent or dragon of chaos--there was a serpent that called forth no
moral judgment at all. The myths describe it as prodigious and
awe-inspiring, even frightful in its countenance, but its appearance
occurred before disaster. In fact, the serpent of chaos is but the alter
ego of the serpent of LIFE, a creature well represented around the
world. Chinese serpents and dragon are frequent bearers of the life
elements.  The Mexican "feathered serpent" was the giver of life.  For
the ancient Egyptians, the Uraeus serpent was the soul or "life" of the
creator himself.  The Chaldean word for "serpent" meant also "life." 
And while the Arabic word for "serpent" is el-hayyah, the word for
"life" is el-hayat. Thus, El-Hay, one of the common Arabic names for the
creator (betraying an archaic but unrecognized relationship to the
cosmic serpent), means "the giver of life," or the "principle of life
itself." 

To find the original meaning of the serpent-image in world mythology we
must consider a mythic theme that is profoundly misunderstood today--
the story of "creation." It is in the ancient accounts of creation that
we find the cosmic serpent in both its life-giving and destructive
aspects. But if scholars do not recognize the "serpent of creation," the
reason is that a misperception of vast historic consequence is shared
today by orthodox religious teachers and secular experts alike. All have
failed to see the true meaning of the creation theme, whose origins
predate most modern religious traditions by thousands of years. 

The first creation stories did NOT answer the question--"How did we
get here?" These accounts did not speak of the origin of our earth, the
appearance of the distant stars, or the birth of human beings. In fact,
the creation myth was not "speculation" at all. The described events
WERE NOT IMAGINED. They were WITNESSED by human beings on earth and then
INTERPRETED IMAGINATIVELY. That distinction will prove to be of sweeping
significance. 

It is not an accident that archaic "creator" gods appear as visible
powers. They are seen and they are heard, a fact still evident in the
biblical narrative, with its many references to the frightful
countenance of Yahweh surrounded by cosmic waters. "The voice of thy
thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth
trembled and shook." "The pillars of heaven shook and were astounded at
his roar." Such language is, of course, quite abundant in the biblical
texts, though the modern reader naturally assumes that all references to
the sights and sounds of the creation are metaphorical. 

We see the commotion and upheaval of creation in one religious tradition
after another. The oldest and most comprehensive Greek account, Hesiod's
THEOGONY ("the Origin of the Gods"), tells of earth-disturbing
catastrophe, including the famous attack of the serpent Typhon, when the
world teetered on the edge of complete destruction. The birth of the
gods in the more archaic Babylonian creation epic, ENUMA ELISH, is
accompanied by frightful noise and tumult, as the serpent Tiamat
rebelled against the gods, and chaos overtook the world. The Egyptian
PYRAMID TEXTS recall the terrifying occasion of the great god's birth:
"Hearts were pervaded with fear, hearts were pervaded with terror when I
was born in the abyss." The theme is repeated in the oldest Hindu texts,
the RIG VEDA, in connection with the birth of Indra, most famous for his
defeat of the world-threatening serpent Vritra: "...When thou first wast
born, o Indra, thou struckest terror into all the people." Yet in
popular imagination, the birth of the gods could have nothing to do with
human terror, because human beings had not been "created" yet. 

What, then, was the true subject of the original creation myth? It told
how gods and goddesses, monsters and heroes ruled the world for a time
and then went away. The story described how these powers fashioned a
prodigious dwelling in the heavens, the celebrated home of the
gods. It also recounted how this dwelling was overwhelmed in
a great uprising or revolt led by a monstrous serpent or chaos-power, as
celestial armies fought over the fate of the world, the conflagration
ending in the defeat of the monster, the vanquishing of the rebel. And
finally, the story told how the gods eventually retreated from the world
or were translated into distant stars or planets. 

We offer a radically new perspective on the creation theme. With the
rise of the first civilizations, ALL commemorative activity pointed back
to the events of "creation" and to nothing else. For this striking fact,
no scholarly rationalization will suffice, and the answer can only lie
in intensely experienced events--events of sufficient magnitude to
account for both the global pattern and the extraordinary power over
human imagination. The point was duly emphasized by professor Irving
Wolfe in a recently published compendium of catastrophist inquiry--

"Nature produces Culture and the natural cataclysms which our ancestors
have collectively experienced have influenced and shaped the cultural
artifacts created afterwards. To put it simply, cultures are what they
have gone through. The past determines the present, and the cosmic past
exerts the greatest influence. A culture, if properly interpreted,
therefore becomes a mirror of what preceded it." 

It is in the recurrent details that we find the most compelling clues.
At the core of the creation story is the activity of a cosmic serpent or
dragon, whose biography embraces the mythic age of the gods from start
to finish. The serpent's masks are many, and often the creature will
present itself in unfamiliar garb, only to reappear in its serpentine
aspect. But the creature has a story to tell and it is only necessary
that we trace the theme back to the beginning, when the serpent first
appears as a CONSTRUCTIVE power in the events of creation. 

It is a well-established fact that the great creator-gods of antiquity
possessed serpentine features or serpent companions, and the two notions
often merge. What we shall ask the reader to consider is a new
possibility--that these serpentine associations answer to things once
seen in the heavens. 

In Egyptian sources the creator Atum received his visible "form" from
the serpent Neheb Kau, arising from the cosmic waters. The name means
"Provider of Attributes": the serpent's coils were the god's own
external form or body. "I was encircled in my coils," the god declares,
"one who made a place for himself in the midst of his coils." Muslim
legends recall a brilliant serpent around the throne of the creator
Allah: "Then Allah surrounded it by a serpent ... this serpent wound
itself around the throne." Much the same image occurs in Hebrew
traditions: "And a silver dragon was on the machinery of the throne." 
"... And a silver serpent bore the wheel of the throne." The Orphic
creator Chronos held in his hands a snake which formed a ring by holding
its tail in its mouth. The Hindu great god Vishnu rested upon the coils
of a serpent Ananta, floating on the cosmic waters. 

Australian aboriginal myths celebrate the Rainbow Serpent, Aido Hwedo,
said to have "assisted" in the creation. Natives of the African Sahara
say that God utilized the body of the serpent Minia in the creation. In
numerous Polynesian traditions, the "creator" appears as a serpent or
the "Great Serpent." The male and female aspects of the Chinese creator
were depicted as two human beings--Fu Xi and NĂ* Wa--with entwining
serpentine bodies. And throughout the Americas, from Alaska to Peru,
native traditions portrayed various creator gods as "the Great Serpent"
or insisted that the creator possessed serpentine attributes. 

It is not enough to simply observe that the "serpent of creation" is a
primitive or irrational idea. The mystery arises from the fact that the
archetype is preposterous--simply inconceivable under any assumption
that the biological snake must account for the creature's prominence in
world mythology. No snake on earth will inspire the notion of a primeval
"creator"! Hence, the remarkable fact that EVERY culture honored the
"serpent of creation" demands an explanation far more direct than any
appeal to primitive "speculation" or make believe. 

Moreover, both the life-supporting and destructive aspects of the
serpent require investigation, for enigmatically they stand side by side
as the two great polarities of creation mythology--on the one hand,
the vehicle of an exemplary cosmic order; on the other hand, the agent
of primeval chaos. In fact the two cannot be separated, for a vast
reservoir of evidence makes clear that the chaos serpent was, in fact,
nothing else than the terrible aspect of the life-giving serpent. But
how did such an outrageous polarity take hold around the world? As the
parent of catastrophe, the serpent became the symbol of collective fear
--the Doomsday anxiety--hanging like a cloud over the ancient
cultures. It was within the context of this cultural memory that priests
and poets and philosopher strove for moral clarity, separating the
monster into distinctive personalities, a host of alter egos appearing
as the serpent's good and evil aspects. 

Though the different forms of the mythic serpent can easily mask its
origins, certain conclusions follow inescapably from a cross-cultural
inquiry into the origins of the serpent theme.  As suggested above, when
human memory repeatedly converges on highly specific but "preposterous"
claims, onecan be certain that the convergence is not accidental:
Serpent mythology arose from a common human experience. Though this
conclusion is logically inescapable, it is neither recognized nor
acknowledged by mainstream historians of ancient myth and religion.
While specialists propose countless "explanations" for the different
regional variations, we are really dealing with a single mystery here,
but one having wide-ranging textures and subplots. 

Moreover, to simply observe the cosmic serpent's effect on cultures the
world over is to realize that the cause was far more catastrophic and
fundamentally disturbing than anything surmised in traditional
treatments of the theme. 

THE "LIVING" POWERS OF HEAVEN 
The cosmic serpent was an ancient and powerful symbol of things once
seen in the heavens but no longer present: that is the hypothesis we
intend to support with evidence from wide ranging fields of study. The
serpent was a metaphor filled with meaning, and it must be counted among
the most "logical" and appropriate metaphors in the ancient world.
Moreover, this metaphor points directly to electrical phenomena that can
no longer be ignored. The serpent's every nuance is a feature of PLASMA
DISCHARGE. Without the plasma formations, the mythic serpent is an
effect without a cause. But if such structures once enchanted ancient
observers the world over, the serpent metaphor is redeemed: it will
explain what has been left unexplained through all of human history. 

Since the forms of plasma discharge are now well documented, the
question is susceptible to rigorous investigation, detail by detail.
Plasma science invites us to compare the "serpent of creation" to known
plasma structures, including the violently evolving Peratt
Instabilities (discussed in Chapter II). In following this comparison,
we must proceed from general to specific observations. We propose a
vantage point outside all of modern theory. We are challenging the
accepted history of the solar system and all commonly held ideas about
the origins of human thought in prehistoric and early historic times 

Planets and moons were once seen in the sky close to the earth. Between
these bodies stretched heaven-spanning plasma formations, giving rise to
distinctive, evolving structure--the exclusive subject of the
worldwide creation legends. The fact that the filamentary, spiraling,
twisting, undulating aspects of these plasma configurations were
identified as serpentine is fundamentally reasonable under this
hypothesis. And thus we shall welcome all appropriate tests, while
urging scholarly and scientific review of possibilities never before
considered. 

Certain patterns of ancient belief are so common that scholars rarely
pause to wonder about the cause. How did it happen, for example, that
every ancient tribe on our planet came to see celestial bodies as living
entities? Is there something inherent in the appearance of the Sun or
Moon, or in the character of distant stars, to support the notion that
celestial bodies are alive? Is it the daily or seasonal cycle of the
Sun, perhaps, or the phases of the Moon? Is it the movement of the stars
across the sky? Celestial bodies now seen from Earth offer very little
to suggest animated and intelligent powers--and even less do they
suggest a cosmic serpent, or help to explain the serpent's violent or
raging aspect in worldwide traditions. 

Perhaps it is too easy to suppose that universal beliefs need no
explanation. If we encounter a primitive idea everywhere, we assume it
to be a perfectly "natural" mistake of pre-rational minds. In fact,
precisely such a claim was made by the student of comparative myth and
religion, T. W. Doane, in the nineteenth century: "When a marvelous
occurrence is said to have happened everywhere, we may feel sure that it
never happened anywhere." By such reasoning, the theorist allows himself
to sidestep the obvious challenge: why did every race make the same
irrational mistake? 

An animated, living entity possesses self-organizing, regenerative, and
procreative abilities. As a rule, inert matter does not mimic living
organisms. But as we earlier observed, plasma behavior is a notable
exception. Irving Langmuir borrowed the name "plasma" from physiology
(blood plasma) because, in the presence of electric fields, this state
of matter takes on life-like attributes. 

The analogy is quite fitting. The Greek _plasma_ is akin to _plassein_,
"to form, to mold," a concept that is also fundamental to creation
mythology. Electric plasma produces distinctive structure, and our
contention will be that the plasma configurations of ancient times
implied the presence of animated and intelligent powers in the heavens.
To primitive observers, these powers certainly seemed alive--they
acquired shape, moved with apparent intent, grew to prodigious size,
changed shape, and "intelligently" organized their surroundings, even
reproduced secondary versions of themselves. These life-like powers
emitted unearthly sounds, "spoke" to ancient witnesses in unknown
tongues, and produced celestial harmonies or "music of the spheres." In
the more energetic and unstable phases, monsters in the sky shrieked and
bellowed and roared. They displayed undulating tails or tentacles, their
throats breathed fire, and they raged about the sky with long-flowing
"manes" or flaming "hair." In their presence the earth shook, lightning
blazed in the heavens, and great tempests nearly overwhelmed the world. 

In remarkable agreement with the "animated" qualities of electric
plasma, the mythic serpent typically reveals two complementary ideas.
The monster undergoes metamorphosis--as when a "serpent" becomes a
"lion"--and it incessantly appears as a hybrid form, a composite of
two or more animal types, such as a lion headed serpent. That this
remarkable pattern occurs universally is surely significant, and the
pattern is observed among the earliest civilizations. 

The "contradictory" language is telling. It implies that one-dimensional
symbolism could not capture the range of the experience, the sights and
sounds of the earth-disturbing occurrences. Clues are plentiful,
however. Why, for example, did ancient symbolists so frequently combine
serpent and leonine features in a single monster? We see this
juxtaposition in the Greek Chimera, with the head of a lion and a tail
in the form of a serpent. The Chinese "lion" has the countenance of a
dragon, while the Chinese "dragon" possesses a distinctively leonine
mane. The Egyptian goddess Tefnut appears as the Uraeus serpent, but in
her terrible aspect becomes a giant lion head, with "smoking mane." The
Mesopotamian dragon Labbu was a snake, but its name means "lion". The
Sumerian goddess Inanna was the "lioness" of heaven, but in her rage
became a fire-spitting serpent or dragon devastating the land. In Orphic
theology, the god Phanes was born from an egg as a winged snake, though
he grew the head of lion. "Snake of the Lion" was the name of a Mixtec
creator god. The connection also shows up in the formulations of the
early languages. The Hebrew _nahash_, "serpent," is cognate with
Akkadian _neshu_ "lion," and Ethiopic _arwe_, "serpent," is cognate with
Hebrew _aryeh, _ ari_, "lion." 

Accordingly, it can be shown that the metamorphosing and hybrid forms of
the cosmic serpent include all of the phases of plasma discharging
listed in Chapter II (pages 27-32). Each of the cited discharging phases
lends a distinguishing attribute to the cosmic serpent in the creation
myth-- 

* Plasma FILAMENTATION gave the serpent its "hair" and "beard." 
* The plasma CORKSCREW produced the undulating body of the serpent. 
* The two filaments of the plasma ROPE produced the entwining
serpent-twins. 
* The plasma STRING OF PEARLS was the serpent's treasure, represented 
by gems or beads on a string. 
* And the plasma SPIRAL was the winding tail of the serpent. 

These structures are, of course, abundantly present in the global
symbolism of the serpent, but there is a great deal more. Certain plasma
forms such as the "horns" and the "wings" of the plasma column (phases
of the violently evolving Peratt Instability) lack any obvious
connection to "serpentine" attributes. Yet these forms repeatedly appear
as features of the cosmic serpent, confirming that the inspiration did
not come from any characteristic of a terrestrial snake. To reinforce
this point we list below some of the more prominent features of the
serpent or dragon in the universal tradition, all of them appearing to
mock natural experience. 

THE SERPENT-DRAGON HAS A BEARD. The Greek Typhon was bearded, and even
the universal sovereign Zeus was said to have taken the form of a
"bearded serpent." Numerous Egyptian serpent-powers displayed flowing
beards. The Chinese dragon typically displays long whiskers and tufted
beards. So also the Maya "Great Bearded dragon," the Maya serpent god
Itzamna, the Aztec bearded dragon Xiuhcoatl, and the most famous Aztec
serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, with his "long-flowing beard." 

THE SERPENT-DRAGON HAS LONG-FLOWING HAIR.  The hair of the monster,
typically long and disheveled, is among its most distinctive attributes.
In ceremonial reenactments, this "hair" may be represented by paper
streamers or by other artificial means capturing the effusion of
luminous hair-like filaments. Of the serpent Typhon, Apollodorus writes,
"unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks." In the
Egyptian language, word roots meaning "serpent" typically overlap with
words meaning "hair." Set, the "Egyptian Typhon," is called also Thebeh,
from _theb_, "lock of hair," and the COFFIN TEXTS celebrate the "bright
hair of Set" or the "tuft of hair" on the tail of Set. The name of the
serpent Nebet means 'lock of hair.' The serpent aspect of Atum, the
original sovereign of the sky, is Seshem, while the root _sesh_ also
means "hair" or "lock of hair." A serpent Tcha was also said to have
issued from Atum's alter ego, Ra; one meaning of the word is "hair." The
name of the serpent Nesh, 'terrifier', cannot be separated from _nesh_,
"raised hair". Similarly the Chinese and numerous Oriental variation of
the dragon are commonly presented with streaming hair. The Maya "sky
serpent" displays along the length of its body the sacred lock of hair,
the Caban-curl. Inca chroniclers tell of the horned rattlesnake-god that
descended from the sky, its body "hairy, with a tail of gold."

THE SERPENT-DRAGON IS WINGED OR FEATHERED. The mystery was stated by
Robert Briffault more than 75 years ago. "Snakes have the power to put
forth wings and to become converted into flying dragons." That
preposterous idea is global. Indeed, the winged or feathered serpent is
so familiar that we are easily desensitized to the enigma. Apollodorus
says of the serpent Typhon that "his body was all feathered." The
"feathered serpent" was particularly well known in the Americas.
Quetzalcoatl's name means "feathered serpent." The great serpents and
dragons of Mesopotamia possess wings or wear feathers. In her
terrible aspect, the Sumerian goddess Inanna became a "winged
dragon": "Propelled on your own wings you peck away at the land. With a
roaring storm you roar; with thunder you continually thunder." Upon
their death Egyptian kings expected to meet the winged serpent of
heaven, a serpent frequently depicted in Egyptian books of the
afterworld. Chinese chroniclers recalled the "winged serpent" associated
with immortality. Even the natives of San Cristoval, near the Solomon
Islands, revered the "winged serpent" Hatuibwari. 

THE SERPENT-DRAGON DISPLAYS HORNS. A few of the many examples would
include the Mesopotamian horned serpent Basmu, child of Tiamat, the
Greek horned serpent Ladon, killed by Heracles in his twelfth labor, the
"great horned serpent," "long-horned serpent," "great water serpent," or
"Horned Alligator" remembered across North America, and the Australian
horned Rainbow Serpent. Like so many Native American versions of the
Horned Serpent, the Chinese Dragon, with its reptilian head and
serpentine, scaly neck wears the horns of a stag. Cerastes, the horned
serpent of medieval European tradition, was also called "Hornworm."
British folklore speaks of the "Horned Worm" (derived from the Norse
word for "dragon"), which can be compared to the Kraken, a huge horned
sea monster occurring in the folk tales of Norway and northern
Scandinavia. Monoceros Marinus, a monstrous fish-like being with a
gigantic horn, appears in German and Austrian legend. The famous cosmic
dragon Mushussu of Babylonian myth, had the head and tail of a serpent,
but with horns projecting from its head. Inhabitants of West Malaysia
remember the reptilian dragon Tioman, formerly the daughter of a famous
king, "with horns on her head and a vast swirling tail." 

THE SERPENT-DRAGON IS A TWIN-FORM. Though this theme has far too many
nuances to be adequately presented in a single paragraph, the twin
aspect of the serpent will prove of great significance, pointing
directly to celestial phenomena no longer seen in the heaven. The dragon
Typhon's trunk is two entwined serpent-tails, and the same is either
stated or implied in connection with other Greek monsters and giants. 

DUSTY PLASMA: THE PRIMA MATERIA OF CREATION 
Data from plasma science suggest that the cosmic medium in which the
anciently-recorded formations appeared was a "dusty plasma." In the
interplanetary space through which Earth formerly moved, dissociated
electrons and positively charged ions combined with neutral gases and
dust particles, all subject to electrical forces. In such a plasma, the
dust particles have a strong tendency to capture electrons and become
negatively charged, adding features to plasma configurations that would
not otherwise be present. The particles will tend to space themselves at
equal distances from each other within discrete regions of a plasma
configuration, and this gathered dust can produce light reflecting
characteristics that would not occur in a dust-free discharge formation. 

One must also keep in mind that the analogy in space for the microscopic
"dust" of laboratory plasma experiments could well have included fields
of sand, gravel, ice, or rock. 

Additionally, it bears emphasizing that the formation of the
heaven-spanning configurations requires the presence of charged bodies
in the vicinity of Earth, the anodes and cathodes in discharge
sequences. Based on a comprehensive survey of ancient testimony,
cross-referenced with data from space, we contend that electrical
discharges occurred between celestial bodies moving in close
congregation. This electrical arcing cast huge volumes of material into
surrounding space, ranging in size from microscopic particles to
asteroid-sized rocks. It was this material within the dusty plasma that
gave the celestial configurations their appearance of solidity in
relatively stable phases, including light-reflecting characteristics
that could only emphasize the three-dimensional look of the
configurations. 

When seen from this perspective, the many mysteries of the serpent
become aspects of one mystery: "What was the serpent of creation"?
Plasma science suggests that the creature signified both the RAW
MATERIAL of celestial construction and its evolving FORM. The serpent
was constituted by the medium--a dusty, electric plasma--and its
metamorphosing form could only be the evolving, visible STRUCTURE
resulting from the electrical interaction of charged bodies across a
plasma. As to this identity, ancient sources offer a huge reservoir of
support. 

Virtually all creation mythology speaks of an irreducible RAW MATERIAL
used to fashion the cosmic dwelling, the habitation of the gods. Such
mythic "elements" as water, wind, or fire typically provide this
universal substance, though ancient sources repeatedly bring the
"elements" together in ways that may seem to obscure any concrete
meaning. From ancient Egypt to Mesoamerica, for example, water and fire
frequently appear together as a "sea of flame" or "fire water." But if
we are on the right track, the original subject of the myths DID look
like water and fire. Nor should it surprise us that the sky worshippers
saw in this elementary material the luminous soul-substance of the gods,
their living essence. It ANIMATED the heavens. It was both the gods' own
creative outflow and the medium in which they lived. And it was the raw
"stuff" of creation. We see this meaning, for example, in the early
Egyptian language of the _pautti_ (using Budge's transliteration), the
"primeval matter" fashioned into the dwelling of the gods. It was the
soul-material of the gods themselves, exploding from the creator Atum or
Ra to form a fiery, watery mass. Thousands of years later, the
alchemists named it the _prima materia_, the universal substance from
which all else originated. Mythic images of this raw material--the
wind-blown waters of heaven, the luminous breath of the gods, the
flaming aether--simply drew upon the different ways of seeing the
celestial medium we recognize as dusty plasma. And not surprisingly, the
cosmic serpent is entirely bound up with this stuff of creation. It is
at once the carrier and the form of the "soul-substance." In its root
identity the serpent is elemental. It is water. It is wind. It is fire. 

Surely the most common "element" in creation mythology is water, since
every well-documented culture depicted its creator gods immersed within
a watery abyss or floating upon a primordial sea. That electrified dusty
plasma could create this appearance of cosmic "waters" is certain. And
the inherent tendency of electric plasma to form spiraling and
filamentary configurations cannot be ignored when considering either the
serpentine aspect of the creator gods or the cosmic serpent's own
embodiment of the primordial waters. Additionally, from this unique
vantage point, it is easy to recognize the serpent of creation as the
prototype of the mythic "sea-serpent" or dragon arising from watery
depths to threaten the creation--a theme of universal distribution.

The same can be said of the serpent's identity as wind or life-breath.
Serpents and dragons are the celestial soul-essence, the living "breath"
of the gods, as exemplified by the serpentine pneuma of the Greeks, the
World Soul or divine life-breath, organizing and animating the heavens.
Egyptian texts identify the Uraeus-serpent, the out-breathing of the
gods, as the soul of Ra, whose activity produced the tangible, external
form of Ra in the heavens. Indeed the "souls" of numerous ancient gods
appear in the form of a serpent. The heart-soul of the Aztec
Quetzalcoatl rose in the sky as a fiery serpent. In the Egyptian
Coffin Texts, the deceased travels the sky "by means of this
soul of the horned serpent." And one culture after another declared
that, in its violent aspect, the cosmic serpent was the "stormwind,"
appearing as a tornado or whirlwind assaulting the land of the gods. 

Consider also the serpent's elemental identity as fire. Throughout the
ancient world serpent and flame are inseparably linked archetypes,
despite the outrageous incongruity of the idea. The cosmic serpent's
venom, blood, breath, or spittle is most frequently depicted as fire.
Fire flew from the monster Typhon. The Greek Chimera, Typhon's own
progeny, was a composite of serpent, goat, and lion destroying the land
with its fiery breath. The Egyptian Uraeus-serpent spit fire, appearing
in the sky as "the Great Flame," destroying the enemies of Ra. In
Chinese imagery, "a strange fire plays about the body of the dragon."
The Aztec Xiuhcoatl was a dragon of fire, this "fire-serpent" being
depicted in ritual re-enactments by a fire-breathing mask. The serpent
or dragon form of the Sumerian Inanna spewed fire: "Like a dragon you
have deposited venom on the land...Raining the fanned fire down upon the
nation ..." Of the biblical dragon, Job declares, "Out of his mouth go
burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth
smoke ... His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his
mouth." 

Taken as a whole, the evidence demands a sweeping shift in perception.
The dramas of the myth-making epoch were extraordinary, and they are not
occurring today. Hence, they are not familiar to us. But the analogies
utilized by the myth-makers ARE familiar, and these analogies constitute
the primary language of world mythology. To simply recognize this fact
is to see that a combination of analogies (such as the hybrid or
metamorphosing leonine and serpentine monsters) will often point to the
same phenomenon, each symbol adding vital nuances that would be less
apparent, or not apparent at all, without the others. Together with more
archaic and more literal drawings of things seen in the heavens--all
pointing to an alien sky--the symbolic language of myth is a storehouse
of information, encouraging rigorous cross-cultural comparison. 

Dave Talbott 
************************************************************ 

ABSORPTION LINES IN STELLAR SPECTRA 
By Don Scott 

Although we owe the major credit for originating the Electric Sun (ES)
hypothesis to Ralph Juergens, the late Earl R. Milton, Professor of
Physics, University of Lethbridge, Canada furthered this work in several
areas. In a paper entitled "Stellar Spectra" (Aeon, Vol. V, No. 5, Jan.
2000, p. 37.) Milton reported on research he had performed on spectral
line broadening in 1971 while at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
in Vancouver, British Columbia. This work supplies strong evidence in
support of the Electric Sun model. The following paragraphs are intended
to emphasize how Milton's paper relates to and supports the Electric Sun
model. 

If a relatively cool gas comes between a wide-band light source and an
observer, absorption lines will appear in the light's spectrum. These
lines arise because of the absorption of (light) energy by the atoms of
the gas. Electrons in those atoms jump from lower to higher discrete
quantum energy states--they get the energy to make that jump from the
light (having exactly the frequency that corresponds to that energy gap)
that is passing through the gas. Each element in the gas produces its own
signature pattern of lines. By recognizing the line patterns, we can
identify the gas that is causing those lines. This method is used to
discern what elements and molecules are present in the upper atmospheres
of stars. 

Spectra from the cooler stars (such as types G and K) are dominated by
molecular bands arising from oxides (like ZrO and TiO) and from
compounds of carbon like CH, CN, CO, and C2. Stars like the Sun (type G)
show "metal" lines. In fact the Sun shows the presence of 68 of the
known elements. The spectra of hot O and B type stars show few lines,
and what
lines they do have appear quite blurred or "broadened". There are a few
possible causes of this broadening. 

If the absorbing gas is in a magnetic field, each line may split,
symmetrically, into multiple, closely spaced lines. This is called the
Zeeman effect--named for its discoverer, Pieter Zeeman (1865-1943). 

If the gas is in an electric E-field, then lines split unsymmetrically--
this is called the Stark effect named for Johannes Stark (1874-1957).
These secondary lines are very closely spaced in frequency (wavelength)
and the effect is sometimes called line-broadening or blurring. A most
important property is that thedegree of Stark (electric field)
broadening depends on the atomic mass of the affected gas. The lines of
heavy elements are only slightly broadened whereas those of lighter
atoms and ions are quite smeared out. This effect is not noted in Zeeman
(magnetic field) broadening. 

As we progress from right to left up the "main sequence" in the
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram - from the less electrically stressed stars
toward those experiencing higher current input, we see an increasing
broadening of spectral lines. In fact at the upper left end (O-type
stars) there is so much blurring that we can distinguish very little
structure in the line spectra. Is this caused by the increasing
strengths of the E-fields in the stars' DL tufts as electrical stress
increases? And, is increased E-field strengththe only possible
explanation for this line broadening? Two pieces of evidence suggest
that the answer is yes. 

In highly stressed B-type stars: 
1. A line at 4471.6 Angstroms is accompanied by a "forbidden" partner at
4469.9 Angstroms. It is well known that this latter line can only occur
when an electric field is present. 
2. There is an extreme difference between the degree of broadening of
the lines from hydrogen and helium (light elements) and those arising
from sodium and ionized calcium (heavier elements). This effect is only
noted in Stark effect broadening. 

The usual mainstream explanation of line broadening is that the star
must be rotating rapidly - light from the limb going away from us is
redshifted, and light from the limb coming at us is blue shifted - the
total effect being to smear out the line widths. BUT, if that were the
true explanation, the lines from hydrogen should be no more smeared out
than those from calcium. Both of these observations (1 and 2 above)
strongly suggest that it is the Stark effect that is selectively
broadening the spectral lines in B-type stars. And that indicates the
presence of strong electric fields at the surface of B-type stars. 

There is no simple explanation of these spectral effects via the
(non-electrical) thermonuclear core model. So, let us ask whether this
phenomenon--the existence of spectral absorption lines and their
selective broadening--is consistent with the Electric Sun model. 

In the Electric Sun model it is clear that the photosphere is the site
of a strong plasma arc discharge. This produces the Sun's continuous
visible light spectrum. Immediately above this in the Sun's atmosphere
there is the Double Layer (DL) in which an intense, outwardly directed
electric field resides. It is within this strong E-field that many heavy
elements are created by z-pinch fusion. Recall that the strong E-field
dethermalizes the ions in that region and thus it is the (relatively)
coolest layer of the Sun's atmosphere. Light that originates in the
photosphere passes through the relatively cool, newly formed heavier
elements in the DL. These heavier elements selectively absorb energy
from the light's spectrum and thus the absorption lines are created. In
fact they are created in exactly the place where the Sun's E-field is
strongest. Thus we have the ideal situation for selective broadening of
those lines due to the Stark effect. 

So, once again, we see a stellar phenomenon that is more consistent with
the Electric Sun model than it is with the "fusion core" model in which
no mention is made of electric fields. 

Don Scott 

************************************************************** 

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----------------------------------------------- 

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. 
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