Myths of Catastrophism II

In the Americas, catastrophes on a global scale are related in their own way. Below are small excerpts regarding a particular period when the cataclysmic violence was most memorable.

"The traditions of the people of Peru tell that for a period of time, equal to five days and five nights the sun was not in the sky, and then the ocean left the shore and with a terrible din broke over the continent; the entire surface of the earth was changed in this catastrophe.

Manuscript Troano and other documents of the Mayas describe a cosmic catastrophe during which the ocean fell on the continent, and a terrible hurricane swept the earth. The hurricane broke up and carried away all towns and all forests. Exploding volcanoes, tides sweeping over mountains, and impetuous winds threatened to annihilate humankind and actually did annihilate many species of animals. The face of the earth changed, mountains collapsed, other mountains grew and rose over the onrushing cataract of water driven from the oceanic spaces, numberless rivers lost their beds, and a wild tornado moved through the debris descending from the sky.
In the darkness swept by wind, resinous stuff fell from the sky and participated with fire and water in the destruction of the world. For five days, save for the burning naphtha and burning volcanoes, the world was dark, and the sun did not appear."[1]

In another part of the world again;

The Maoris narrate that amid a stupendous catastrophe 'the mighty winds, the fierce squalls, the clouds, dense, dark, fiery, wildly drifting, wildly bursting,' rushed on creation ... and swept away giant forests and lashed the waters into billows whose crests rose high like mountains. 'The earth groaned terribly, and the ocean fled.'

Myths of the sun disappearing for up to ten days, or not setting for as long in other parts of the world, are to be found in almost every culture with an ancient tradition - from the accounts of the biblical Exodus right across to Japan. The extracts I've presented of catastrophic events, particularly those below, are thought to depict a time fairly near to our own.

A time no more distant perhaps than 3,500 years ago.

"Of all the mysterious phenomena which accompanied the Exodus, this mysterious Pillar seems the first to demand explanation." - W. Phythian Adams, The Call of Israel

Pliny's Natural History, reads:

"A terrible comet was seen by the people of Ethiopia and Egypt, to which Typhon, the king of that period, gave his name; it had a fiery appearance and was twisted like a coil, and it was very grim to behold; it was not really a star so much as what it might be called a ball of fire."

Hevelius (1668), using references from a work by Rockenbach, wrote in Cometographica:

"In the year of the world 2453 (1495 B.C.E.) according to certain authorities, a comet was seen in Syria, Babylonia, India, in the sign Jo, in the form of a disc, at the very time when the Israelites were on their march from Egypt to the Promised Land."

Rockenbach (1602) himself has the following to say:

"In the year of the world two thousand four hundred and fifty-three - as many trustworthy authors, on the basis of many conjectures, have determined - a comet appeared which Pliny also mentioned in his second book. It was fiery, of irregular form, with a wrapped head; it was in the shape of a globe and was terrible of aspect. It is said that King Typhon ruled at that time in Egypt ... Certain [authorities] assert that the comet was seen in Syria, Babylonia, India, in the sign of Capricorn, in the form of a disc, at the time when the children of Israel advanced from Egypt toward the Promised Land, led on their way by the pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire at night."

The startling catastrophe that accompanied this period is echoed in the traditions, legends, and mythology of all the peoples of the world. The god - Zeus of the Greeks, Odin of the Icelanders, Ukko of the Finns, Perun of the Russian pagans, Wotan of the Germans, Mazda of the Persians, Marduk of the Bablylonians, Shiva of the Hindus - is pictured with lightning in his hand and described as the god who threw his thunderbolt at the world overwhelmed with water and fire.



Evidence of the catastrophe is readily available in the psalms and other parts of the Scriptures:

"Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken ... He bowed the heavens down also, and came down ... he did fly upon the wings of the wind ... At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire ... and he shot out lightning ... Then the channels of water were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered."

'The Kingdoms were moved; he uttered his voice, the earth melted.' 'The waters saw thee; they were afraid; the depths were also troubled ... the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the universe: the earth trembled and shook' 'Clouds and darkness are about him ... a fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about ... His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.'

It was at this point, at the climax of the cataclysm, that the so-called children of Israel were reaching the shore facing the Egyptian host that had come in their pursuit during the Exodus. Whatever the Pillar of cloud was that they were following, it would have appeared to have been central to the cataclysmic conditions harrying the globe, and named Typhon.

"And the Angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them ... and it was a cloud and darkness but it gave light by night ... And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left ... And the Egyptians pursued ... And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels ... and the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them." [Exodus 14:19]

Amongst the Israelites themselves there were also numerous casualties, as there had been from the fires and the hurricane of cinders. As to the change in the world's poles and the rising sun, the Hebrew Talmud itself bears witness:

"Seven days before the deluge, the Holy One changed the primeval order and the sun rose in the west and set in the east."



The Cashinaua, natives of western Brazil, have a tradition echoing the narrative in the Scriptures:

"The lightnings flashed and then thunders roared terribly and all were afraid. Then the heavens burst and the fragments fell down and killed everything and everybody. Heaven and earth changed places. Nothing that had life was left upon the earth."

'Nothing' perhaps but the few survivors who were able to carry the tradition of this cataclysm to us today. Myths relating to the falling sky may be found amongst not only the Celts, but the Lapps of Finland, Eskimos of Greenland, the ancient peoples of Mexico, China, Tibet, the tribes of Samoa, and those of eastern and western Africa. Obviously not all life that was left on earth perished during this series of cataclysms, but accounts of those who did are plentiful.

A catastrophe of global proportions, something we have not witnessed in the two millennia of our own age, took place in recorded history. These were not isolated disasters in different parts of the world, such as the local flooding of the Yellow River in China, the eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia, or even sporadic meteorite hails - the catastrophe was worldwide, and many cultures describe the events, their sequence, and outcome in the same way.

The catastrophe is recorded in religious traditions, superstitions and the great works of almost every significant culture but remains unacknowledged by the sciences of our own day.

CONTINUE

[Apocalypse Aerie] [The Einstein Connection] [Ancient Maps] [Earth Crust Displacement] [Myths of Catastrophism] [History & Science in Myth] [Egypt; The Call of the Sphinx] [India; A Cradle for Civilization] [America; Fear of the Dark] [World Ocean; Path to Atlantis] [Precession; Warning of the Ancients] [Epilogue & Links]
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[1] I. Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision. Victor Gollancz. 1950.