by
Dave Talbott
from
Kronia.com Website
THOTH Newsletter,
VOL V, No 5,
April 15, 2001
In ancient traditions, few images find more vivid expression than
the great thunderbolts of the planetary gods. When the
gods went to
war, the heavens shook. Lightning sped between the planetary
combatants as flaming weapons, with the fate of celestial kings and
kingdoms hanging in the balance.
Again and again, we find sovereign gods relying upon a thunder
weapon to defend cosmic order. Rulers of the sky vanquish chaos
monsters with stupendous, earth-shaking bolts. We see this most
dramatically in the confrontation of the Greek Zeus with
Typhon. But
the thunderbolt is also decisive in the Babylonian
Marduks battle
against the dragon Tiamat and the Hebrew
Yahwehs war against
Leviathan. So too, we see the mythic thunderbolt when Indra engages
Vritra, or Horus battles Set, or
Apollo vanquishes the dragon Python.
It is also noteworthy that great hero-gods alternately hurl
lightning against the chaos dragon, or TAKE THE FORM of the
thunderbolt itself. In the global pattern the hero is often
inseparable from his own arrow, sword, spear, club or axeeven a
tusk in his mythical form as a boarwhile all such symbols merge
as distinct forms of the cosmic lightning. [See Lightning Motif #8
HERE]
A systematic review of lightning themes will make clear that the
regional lightning of later times was but an echo of the vastly more
terrifying bolts which once held the entire world in awe. Consider
the ancient images of the gas-giant Jupiter, whom the Greeks
remembered as the ruler Zeus, the victor in the celestial clash of
the Titans. Jupiter is just a speck of light in our sky, but ancient
races recalled the GOD Jupiter as a heaven-spanning form, employing
lightning as his most effective weapon.
If weve failed to recognize the celestial players, its because the
implied references are PLANETS appearing huge above the ancient
skyworshippers, while our present knowledge of the planets is
constrained by their remote and predictable courses today. We see no
evidence of unstable planetary motions today, and most assuredly we
see no interplanetary lightning arcing between them!
Yet that IS the human memory. In Hesiods Theogony, the poet
describes the god Zeus, when the dragon Typhon threatened to destroy
the world:
From Heaven and from
Olympus he came immediately,
hurling his lightning: the bolts flew thick and fast from his strong
hand together with thunder and lightning, whirling an awesome
flame.
In this overwhelming conflagration there was thunder and
lightning, and ... fire from the monster, and the scorching winds
and blazing thunderbolt. Destroyed by a searing bolt from Zeus, the
world-threatening dragon came to be known as the thunderstricken.
Similarly, Typhons counterpart Enceladus, struck down by
Zeus, was
the lightning-scarred god.
Hebrew tradition recalled the lightning of the gods in similar
terms. Thus Psalm 77 proclaims,
The voice of thy thunder was in the
heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and
shook.
From India, the Mahabarata and
Ramayana describe great
battles in which lightning of the gods filled the heavens like a
rain of fiery arrows. So too, in the texts of ancient Egypt,
Babylon, Scandinavia, China, and
the Americas, myths and legends
describe conflagrations attributed to divine thunderbolts, appearing
in the forms of flaming arrows, darts, lances, and other weapons.
For anyone seeking to comprehend ancient images of the gods, there
can be no greater mistake than to rationalize away the cosmic scale
of the described events. But that WILL be the tendency so long as
scholars demand that present references in nature account for the
ancient depictions.
EVIDENCE FROM MANY FIELDS
This is an interdisciplinary investigation. To expose the roots of
the mythical and symbolic archetypes, we must range across highly
diverse fields of evidence. Archaic images of the thunderbolt will
provide a unifying thread, connecting planetary geology,
plasma
science, and astronomy to a most extraordinary epoch of human
history, anciently remembered as the age of gods and wonders.
In this investigation, the lightning bolts now spanning galaxies
will offer crucial analogies for the remembered thunderbolts of
mythical gods and heroes. Physical scars on solid bodies within the
solar system will become evidence EXPECTED under a new model of
planetary history. And the configurations taken by plasma discharges
in the laboratory will confirm the accuracy of highly enigmatic rock
art and other depictions of the divine thunderbolt. It is the
correlation between the different domains of evidence that provides
the acid test of a hypothesis. For if, as we claim, planets once
waged battles in the sky, then all related fields of inquiry should
support the same conclusion, even if the experts, expecting
something else, have missed the underlying story.
Since plasma science is far from my own field of expertise, I must
emphasize that, in the following discussion of planetary discharges
and plasma environments, I am indebted to the contribution of Wal
Thornhill, my co-author of the forthcoming book,
Thunderbolts of the
Gods. Also, I must credit Amy Acheson for numerous helpful
contributions. (Of course, if Ive failed to accurately paraphrase
either, they are not to be held responsible.)
THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE
In recent decades, the majority of space age surprises could be
listed under a single heading: electromagnetism.
Electrical and
magnetic principles, though never envisioned by the pioneers of
gravitational theory, are evident at all scales of observation, from
comet tails to the most expansive intergalactic structures. But the
accepted models of planetary evolution permit virtually no
discussion of electricity.
When electrons are removed from atoms, the result is an assembly of
charged particles, a plasma. The removed electrons provide the
negative component and the remainder of the atom - called an ion -
the positive. It was Irving Langmuir (1881-1957) who first described
the behavior of plasma as a kind of gas of charged particles, and
it was he who coined the name plasma, due to its similarity to the
biological plasma of the bloodstream. When subjected to electric and
magnetic stimuli, plasma will respond as if alive - and often
unpredictably.
Langmuir describes what happens when a charged object is placed in
plasma. The charges within the plasma adjust their positions to form
a barrier, called a Langmuir sheath. This Langmuir sheath then
shields any object outside it from the introduced charge. Langmuir
sheaths also form around larger bodies immersed in plasma, such as
planets. These planetary sheaths are called
plasmaspheres or
magnetospheres. The charged objects will not see each other
electrically until the sheaths themselves touch.
This unusual effect can be demonstrated with a novelty plasma ball,
perhaps most familiar to us in the old sci-fi movies showing the
laboratories of mad scientists, with strange spheres zapping away
and emitting luminous, filamentary arcs in every direction.
The ball is constructed from a
glass sphere filled with a
low-pressure gas and enclosing an inner conductor, usually a smaller
ball. A high voltage, radio-frequency power source is connected
between the two spheres and ionizes the gas - that is, the components
of the atoms dissociate into charged particles. The resulting plasma
forms glowing, twisting filaments. If you wave your hand through the
air around the ball, the filaments in a plasma ball will be
unaffected. However, when you touch the glass, your hand will
introduce additional charges. The filaments will be drawn toward
your hand and will follow it when you move it along the surface of
the glass.
Similarly, if two electrically charged planets were to approach each
other, neither
would respond to the electrical charge of the other
so long as their plasmaspheres made no contact with each other. If,
however, they moved sufficiently close that their plasmaspheres
touched, a discharge would occur between planets .
DO PLANETS CARRY CHARGE?
To justify an exploration of interplanetary lightning bolts, we must
address the issue of planetary charge. Accepted wisdom in astronomy
states that all bodies in space are electrically neutral; that is,
they must contain equal numbers of positive and negative charges
throughout, with a net charge of zero.
This theoretical assumption, usually stated as fact, stems from a
misunderstanding of the electrical nature of space. The foundation
of astronomical theory, Newtons theory of gravity, was formulated
before the electric light or Maxwells equations - even before
Benjamin Franklin flew his kite. Under the influence of
gravitational doctrines, phenomena that are now better explained
electrically, such as the behavior of cometary ion tails, were
forced into an electrically sterile, gravitational explanation. But
recent decades have seen an explosion of new data challenging all
traditional suppositions. Much of the data comes from space age
tools farther beyond Newtons gravity than electric light-bulbs are
beyond Victorian gas-lights. Of particular significance are the
contributions of plasma experiments, utilizing electrical forces to
replicate many extraordinary and previously unexplained
configurations now observed in deep space.
Space is not empty. It contains atoms and charged particles whizzing
about in intricate patterns - a plasma. But since
plasma is a better
conductor of electricity than copper, astrophysicists (virtually
none of whom are trained in electrical phenomena) supposed that a
plasma environment will not support charge differential. To this
supposition, astronomer Donald Menzel added an exclamation point
with his now-famous statement,
the Sun could not hold enough charge
to run a flashlight for more than a few minutes.
But the statement is false. That
plasma is a very good conductor is
only half the story. Equally crucial is the fact that plasma in
space is extraordinarily tenuous - thinner than the thinnest vacuums
science can produce on Earth. Hence, there are very few charged
particles to carry the currents. If the Sun is electrically charged,
the only sign of it would be an accelerating, tenuous wind
of
charged particles blowing away from it. Of course, that flow of
charged particles is exactly what our modern probes discovered. We
call it the solar wind.
If the Earth is electrically charged, there should be a detectable
electric field at the surface. And there is. In fine weather, this
electric field measures 100 volts per meter as you travel up from
the surface. If the Earth is charged, we should also expect
electrical currents to flow between the Earth and space,
particularly when the Sun is continuously emitting a wind of
charged particles past the Earth. And we do find such currents. Most
obvious are the auroras, now forecast like weather on the
Internet.
But there is another phenomenon so familiar that it may not be
recognized as a planetary electrical discharge. This
phenomenon is
lightning. In recent years it has been found that lightning storms
may be accompanied by strange faint glow discharge phenomena,
playfully called elves, sprites and jets, radiating toward space
above the clouds. This is exactly what we should expect if regional
lightning is part of a continuous exchange between the Earth and the
larger electrical environment through which our planet moves.
If the Earth is charged, it should possess a Langmuir sheath. And it
does. Astronomers call it a magnetosphere, implying that
electricity is not involved. However, this sheath not only traps the
planets magnetic field but the electric field as well. This means
there is a flow of electricity across the plasma of interplanetary
space. Hence, the term plasmasphere would be more fitting.
WHEN PLANETS SPEAK ELECTRICALLY
Evidence from wide-ranging disciplines will enable us to reconstruct
the events accompanying the close encounter of another planet with
the Earth. This evidence will include ancient accounts of
interplanetary thunderbolts, modern day experiments with electric
discharge phenomena, and the scarring patterns on planets and moons.
Taken as a whole, the evidence will permit an interdisciplinary
forensic approach, one that must remain open to the possibility of
extraordinary cosmic events in ancient times.
But before we can discuss the effects of a planetary close
encounter, three major types of electric discharge in plasma need to
be briefly described. The first, noted above, is a wind composed
of neutral atoms being driven by collisions with
ions, or charged
particles, as they are accelerated in an electric field. (By this
mechanism, ionic air fresheners give rise to a gentle breeze that
can be felt.) The second discharge type is more energetic and is
called a glow discharge. It can be seen in auroras and
neon signs,
and is occasionally observed on high-voltage power lines. The third
and most energetic discharge is the electric arc, as illustrated by
terrestrial lightning.
It should also be noted that plasma phenomena are known to be
scalable over at least 12 orders of magnitude. This means that
phenomena seen in the laboratory and recorded in billionths of a
second may span light-years and last for centuries in space. It is
this scalability that enables us to compare laboratory discharge
phenomena with galactic-scale events. It also enables us to compare
similarities between laboratory discharge patterns and ancient
depictions of the sky. In both cases, plasma discharge phenomena
will account for data that have no other explanation in scientific
theory.
We are thus reminded of Immanuel Velikovskys warning many years ago
that science can not afford to ignore the role of electricity in the
evolution of the solar system. Velikovsky pondered the ancient
stories of earth-threatening thunderbolts, envisioning near
collisions of planets and electrical discharges flying between them.
In
Worlds in Collision he wrote:
I became skeptical of the great theories concerning the celestial
motions that were formulated when the historical facts described
here were not known to science. ...The accepted celestial mechanics,
notwithstanding the many calculations that have been carried out to
many decimal places, or verified by celestial motions, stands only
if the sun ... is as a whole an electrically neutral body, and also
if the planets, in their usual orbits, are neutral bodies.
Fundamental principles in celestial mechanics including the law of
gravitation, must come into question if the sun possesses a charge
sufficient to influence the planets in their orbits or the comets in
theirs. In the Newtonian celestial mechanics, based on the theory of
gravitation, electricity and magnetism play no role.
This was written several years before the space age began. But now,
more than fifty years later, the vital role of electricity and
magnetism can no longer be denied. The outcome will be a more
holistic science for the third millennium.
Through our own investigations, weighing ancient evidence against
the revelations of plasma physics, we have come to accept
Velikovskys underlying hypothesis.
We have, however, gone beyond Velikovskys observations to identify
numerous details of an ancient gathering of planets vastly different
from the arrangement observed today. An assembly of planets and
moons, moving close to each other within a plasma sheath, produced a
celestial drama that is unimaginable to astronomers. The most
extraordinary aspect of this hypothesis is the ancient polar
configuration.
It is the mythic thunderbolt that has catalyzed the merging of my
own reconstruction - the polar configuration - with the
electric
universe as summarized by the pioneering work of Wal Thornhill. And
thanks to the voluminous descriptions left by our ancestors, it is
now possible to show in detail that all ancient images of the divine
thunderbolt are nothing else than images of the ancient planetary
forms, as reconstructed over more than a quarter century.
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