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Comets, Planets in Chaos and Plasma Mythology

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Thomas Short, writing in the 18th century, chronicled the many calamities that had decimated mankind over four thousand years. Plagues, Earthquakes, drought, pestilence and incredible floods. As you read through his curious book you are struck by the inevitable parallel appearance of bright comets in numbers unmatched by modern experience. They are invariably connected to the major disasters! Up until the 1800s many sources resonate with the fear that humanity held for the “comet”! Chinese records even show the many forms a comet may take. Did they not have a reason? Then the “Age of Reason” struck and curiously the number of visible comets visiting Earth fell dramatically. Eventually by the end of the 20th century it became scientific dogma that comets were harmless dusty snowballs.

Then two stunning events occurred that forced a re-appraisal of this benign scenario. In 1994 the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 split into 23 sections and one by one flash discharged well above the surface of the giant planet Jupiter. The result was devastating! Each discharge area was the size of Earth with the destructive imprints persisting for over a year! For the first time modern man had seen how ruthless the innocent comet could be!

The second surprise was the observation by modern instruments of comets diving into the sun. Immediately afterwards giant Coronal Mass Ejections( CME)were seen blossoming out on the opposite side of the Sun. Wal Thornhill believes this a good indication of the electrical nature of the Sun. These resultant CMEs were even larger than the Sun itself. How could such a puny object be so violently powerful?

comets plasma mythology

Wal Thornhill states, “We don’t really understand comets or their origins”. However new instruments have enabled scientists to question many of their previous notions of the nature of comets. Firstly they are not “dusty snowballs” and in fact are very similar to asteroids being solid bodied concretations. Secondly as Wal explains in the following film, they are negatively charged electrets racing toward a positively charged sun. As they get closer they begin to discharge in what he believes is the familiar “cold cathode discharge”.

But Wal also notes that early man documented the earliest appearance of a comet. This was the proto planet Venus. The Greek Hesiod, writing around 700B.C., notes it sprang fully armed from the head of Jupiter. Whether this is fanciful or fact we will never know but there is no doubt that Venus was described as a mighty comet. Many ancient chronicles note the features, such as its beard, that are classically ascribed to cometry bodies. In this mode it reeked tremendous damage on the human race . Much evidence is presented by, the fiercely denigrated, Immanuel Velikovsky that Venus was in a conflicting erratic orbit in ancient times. This “Skygod” caused tremendous damage to the other planets and humanity. This chaos, Velikovsky believed, resulted in electrical discharges between the planetary bodies including Earth. Velikovsky himself cites chapters out of Homer’s Iliad as an example of such battles between Venus, Mars and the other planetary deities.

Whether we concur with Velikovsky ideas or not there is no doubt that tremendous upheavals occurred on Earth at these times. Egyptian sources such as the Papyrus Ipuwer and the Papyrus Harris testify to these destructive eras. Hard modern day evidence comes from such archaeologists as Claude Schaeffer who showed that six destruction layers separated civilizations from the Bronze Ages down to the Iron Age. And these he believes were worldwide. Not only earthquakes but famine , plague and the movement of races bent on survival. The sudden and dramatic collapse of the early Bronze Age civilizations, around 2200 B.C., has puzzled many an Archaeologist. Highly respected academics such as Kathryn Kenyon and John Garstung have wondered over these unexplained phenomena. The consensus of academic opinion notes not only was it sudden and dramatic but that it was widespread in its geography, spreading from Europe, across Asia Minor to the Indus valley and beyond to China. Further evidence of Velikovsky’s destructive scenarios come from archaeologists Amos Nur and Harvey Weiss. They scientifically measure these tumultuous times replete with earthquakes, soil deposition, famine, ash deposits desertification and abandonment.

Echoes of such cosmic interference continued down through Roman and Greek times. Numerous devastating earthquakes are noted beginning with the Greek Thucydides citing the destruction of Athens by earthquake and plague. If as Wal Thornhill believes, earthquakes are an underground electrical storm then perhaps a comet has the ability to excite the telluric currents beneath the earth. The appearance of comets and subsequent deadly earthquakes is often touched upon in Thomas Shorts chronicles.
Finally we come to the evidence provided by the rock carvings( petro glyphs) of ancient man. It is undoubtedly the realization that the shape of these carvings, such as the “Squatter man” resemble Anthony Peratt’s plasma tube instabilities and computer simulations that revolutionised their interpretation. Since electrical phenomena is scalable It is surmised that these carvings were drawn in admiration of huge plasma instabilities in the sky. Precisely what caused these impressive displays can only be conjecture. Was it Venus? Was it the result of cometry interference? Was it the results of electrical phenomena we haven’t witnessed in recent centuries. We can’t be sure but the realization that electrical effects are cosmically scalable gives us a basis for constructing theories that are rooted in fact not imaginary dusty snowballs! the following filmed discussion with Wal and myself travels a little deeper into this murky subject.

Watch the MUNGOFLIX.com video of Comets, Planets in Chaos and Plasma Mythology

Peter Mungo Jupp

 

Comets in Ancient Cultures

by Noah Goldman 
U. Maryland, College Park Scholars

Comets have inspired dread, fear, and awe in many different cultures and societies around the world and throughout time. They have been branded with such titles as "the Harbinger of Doom" and "the Menace of the Universe." They have been regarded both as omens of disaster and messengers of the gods. Why is it that comets are some of the most feared and venerated objects in the night sky? Why did so many cultures cringe at the sight of a comet?

Types of cometary forms, illustrations from Johannes Hevelius' <i>Cometographia</i> (Danzig, 1668) (Scan of original and caption from Don Yeomans' Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth and Folklore. Used with permission.)
Figure 1

When people living in ancient cultures looked up, comets were the most remarkable objects in the night sky. Comets were unlike any other object in the night sky. Whereas most celestial bodies travel across the skies at regular, predictable intervals, so regular that constellations could be mapped and predicted, comets' movements have always seemed very erratic and unpredictable. This led people in many cultures to believe that the gods dictated their motions and were sending them as a message. What were the gods trying to say? Some cultures read the message by the images that they saw upon looking at the comet. For example, to some cultures the tail of the comet gave it the appearance of the head of a woman, with long flowing hair behind her. This sorrowful symbol of mourning was understood to mean the gods that had sent the comet to earth were displeased. Others thought that the elongated comet looked like a fiery sword blazing across the night sky, a traditional sign of war and death. Such a message from the gods could only mean that their wrath would soon be unleashed onto the people of the land. Such ideas struck fear into those who saw comets dart across the sky. The likeness of the comet, though, was not the only thing that inspired fear. 

Woodcut showing destructive influence of a fourth century comet from Stanilaus Lubienietski's <i>Theatrum Cometicum</i> (Amsterdam, 1668) (scan of original and caption from Don Yeomans' Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth and Folklore. Used with permission.)
Figure 2

Ancient cultural legends also played a hand in inspiring a terrible dread of these celestial nomads. The Roman prophecies, the "Sibylline Oracles," spoke of a "great conflagration from the sky, falling to earth," while the most ancient known mythology, the Babylonian "Epic of Gilgamesh," described fire, brimstone, and flood with the arrival of a comet. Rabbi Moses Ben Nachman, a Jew living in Spain, wrote of God taking two stars from Khima and throwing them at the earth in order to begin the great flood. Yakut legend in ancient Mongolia called comets "the daughter of the devil," and warned of destruction, storm and frost, whenever she approaches the earth. Stories associating comets with such terrible imagery are at the base of so many cultures on Earth, and fuel a dread that followed comet sightings throughout history. 

German broadside showing comets of 1680, 1682 (Halley), and 1683. The illustration shows a view of Augsburg, Germany with the comets of 1680, 1682, and 1683 in the sky. Three horsemen of the Apocalypse are in the foreground. The scene is bordered by a clock face, the numerals of which are made of bones, weapons, and instruments of torture. Each of the four corners outside the dial contains an allegorical figure with an appropriate biblical text. (Scan of original and caption from Don Yeomans' Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth and Folklore. Used with permission. Original provided by Adler Planetarium, Chicago)
Figure 3

Comets' influence on cultures is not limited simply to tales of myth and legend, though. Comets throughout history have been blamed for some of history's darkest times. In Switzerland, Halley's Comet was blamed for earthquakes, illnesses, red rain, and even the births of two-headed animals. The Romans recorded that a fiery comet marked the assassination of Julius Caesar, and another was blamed for the extreme bloodshed during the battle between Pompey and Caesar. In England, Halley's Comet was blamed for bringing the Black Death. The Incas, in South America, even record a comet having foreshadowed Francisco Pizarro's arrival just days before he brutally conquered them. Comets and disaster became so intertwined that Pope Calixtus III even excommunicated Halley's Comet as an instrument of the devil, and a meteorite, from a comet, became enshrined as one of the most venerated objects in all of Islam. Were it not for a Chinese affinity for meticulous record keeping, a true understanding of comets may never have been reached.

The Mawangdui silk, a 'textbook' of cometary forms and the various disasters associated with them, was compiled sometime around 300 B.C., but the knowledge it encompasses is believed to date as far back as 1500 B.C.
Figure 4

Unlike their Western counterparts, Chinese astronomers kept extensive records on the appearances, paths, and disappearances of hundreds of comets. Extensive comet atlases have been found dating back to the Han Dynasty, which describe comets as "long-tailed pheasant stars" or "broom stars" and associate the different cometary forms with different disasters. Although the Chinese also regarded comets as "vile stars," their extensive records allowed later astronomers to determine the true nature of comets.

Although most human beings no longer cringe at the sight of a comet, they still inspire fear everywhere around the globe, from Hollywood to doomsday cults. The United States even set up the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program specifically to guard us from these "divine" dangers. However, although they were once regarded as omens of disaster, and messengers of the god(s), today a scientific approach has helped allay such concerns. It is science and reason that has led the fight against this fear since the days of the ancients. It is science and reason that has emboldened the human spirit enough to venture out and journey to a comet. It is science and reason that will unlock the secrets that they hold.

Image Captions:

Figure 1. Types of cometary forms, illustrations from Johannes Hevelius' Cometographia (Danzig, 1668)
(Scan of original and caption from Don Yeomans' Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth and Folklore. Used with permission.)
(View full size)

Figure 2. Woodcut showing destructive influence of a fourth century comet from Stanilaus Lubienietski's Theatrum Cometicum (Amsterdam, 1668) 
(scan of original and caption from Don Yeomans' Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth and Folklore. Used with permission.) 
(View full size)

Figure 3. German broadside showing comets of 1680, 1682 (Halley), and 1683. The illustration shows a view of Augsburg, Germany with the comets of 1680, 1682, and 1683 in the sky. Three horsemen of the Apocalypse are in the foreground. The scene is bordered by a clock face, the numerals of which are made of bones, weapons, and instruments of torture. Each of the four corners outside the dial contains an allegorical figure with an appropriate biblical text. 
(Scan of original and caption from Don Yeomans' Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth and Folklore. Used with permission. Original provided by Adler Planetarium, Chicago) 
(View full size)

Figure 4. The Mawangdui silk, a 'textbook' of cometary forms and the various disasters associated with them, was compiled sometime around 300 B.C., but the knowledge it encompasses is believed to date as far back as 1500 B.C. 
(View full size)

Bibliography

Neat Links: 
amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/cometmyth/ 
www.arksky.org/thecomets.htm

Noah Goldman Noah Goldman first started working with Deep Impact as a student intern from the College Park Scholars program, a freshman-sophomore living-learning community at the University of Maryland. Noah has continued to work with the project working mostly on analysis but also writing articles for the website.