Hieronimusing 5/10/01

In a series of interviews I conducted on Future Talk, my syndicated radio program, the topic of catastrophism was central. In the case of a discussion with geologist and archeologist Robert Schoch, author of Voices of The Rocks, A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations, it was in part, an examination of the flaws in approaching humanity’s history as though it were linear, because all evidence suggests it is in fact cyclic; a long serial unfoldment of civilizations rising and disappearing. James Perloff’ book Tornado in a Junkyard: The Relentless Myth of Darwinism, made it decidedly clear, that there is little physical evidence to support the theory of evolution as a model for homosapien’s original appearance on earth. With Lynette and Arthur Horn, whose work is entitled: Humanity’s Extraterrestrial Origins: ET Influences on Humankind’s Biological & Cultural Evolution, it was a question of the role other civilizations within or beyond our solar system may have played in jump starting humanity at various points in our history. Astronomer, philosopher and life long student of world mythologies, David Talbott, summarizes the issue of world history, in part, by what he calls the Unified Theory of Mythologies. In essence, Talbott’s Saturn Theory, the result of two decades of research, suggests that the planetary myths from India, Egypt, Asia, and every other corner of the earth are not fantastic parables, or simply imaginary dramas, symbolic journeys, they are in fact stories retelling actual events. They tell of a time when our solar system looked nothing like it does today, and when it was a much more dangerous place to be.

Worlds In Collision
Modern day astronomical technology affords us the unique opportunity to confirm or disprove Talbott’s thesis, proposed in the modern era by Immanuel Velikovsky’s Worlds in Collision, which paints a drastically different solar system in ancient times than we are part of now. The planets in the solar system were in greater proximity to each other, posing serious threats to each planet’s stability. Whether it was pieces of planetary bodies breaking off and smashing into other planetary surfaces, or the ejections of great fields of plasma and other impacting energies and gases, it was not only earth that was hurling through a violent solar space, so was Saturn, and Mars and Venus and all the other planets we have identified.

The field of catastrophism includes many disciplines, from paleontologists, to geologists, archeologists, anthropologists etc., study the history of civilization, and catastrophes play a role. But Talbott’s suggestion is far deeper than simply an acknowledgement of meteorites and comets, devastating floods, famines and wars, it is an attempt to understand why our world’s history, as preserved in ancient mythologies, paints the same picture no matter where one looks on earth.

Paradise and Destruction
There are, as he points out, two overarching concerns evidenced in the ancient Babylonian, Hebrew, Asian, Chinese, Nordic cultures and others, and that is, a longing for a return to a paradisical state and an over arching fear of a great catastrophe. Saturn was once the ruler of our ‘solar system,’ explaining the Saturnine orientation of the Hebrews, the Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese and others, showing a sequence of events; that humanity experienced a paradisical epoch followed by world destroying calamities.

Talbott states, that if we look carefully at the ancient symbol systems, their pictographs and stories, the same themes are expressed throughout humanity’s various high cultures. A concern of threats to the planet from space, and a longing to recreate or to preserve their piece of ‘Eden.’

Considering our current recognition of the threat of near earth objects (NEOs), such as meteorites or comets, and our parallel acknowledgement that we have all the knowledge we need to make earth a sustainable and more perfect planet for all life, are we not expressing these same themes?

Planetary Breathing
Perhaps one could theorize that this polarity, of a world being born in perfection and then later being destroyed, is no different than our own births and mortalities, a sort of planetary breathing. All things born must die and be reborn. Nothing in our known world, is ever extinguished, but rather recycled. According to the Vedic tradition, the world as we know it today is at least 2 billion years old, and that includes the presence of homosapiens. Hardly the more common 3-4 million years of ape like hominids we are taught as the common time line for our presence on earth, in our current genetic and physioloigcal form. Michael Cremo’s Forbidden Archeology, with co-author Richard Thompson, proves that humanity is much older than we are taught and that our civilizations have risen and fallen in ways most moderners would be stunned by, as even 2.3 billion year old round metal grooved spheres suggests metallurgy was practiced on earth, far before the iron age. To put our probable life cycles on earth in perspective Michael Cremo writes this; “What does Krishna mean by the beginning of creation? According to the Puranas (Vedic histories), there have been innumerable creations in the course of cyclical time. The basic unit of Vedic cyclical time is the day of Brahma, which lasts 4.32 billion years. The day of Brahma (also called a kalpa) is followed by a night of Brahma, also lasting 4.32 billion years. The cycle of days and nights of Brahma toes on for Brahma’s lifetime of one hundred years (36,000 nights), equivalent to 311.04 trillion of our human years. During the day of Brahma, life, including human life, is manifest. During the night of Brahma, life is not manifest.” (http://www.mcremo.com)

A Slice of Paradise in My Eye
So, if earth’s indigenous story is essentially, one of a paradiscial age followed by destruction, it should come as no surprise that we are in many ways reflecting these same two expressions of planetary cycles. I have spent a life time preoccupied with both these themes, even telling some people, that I literally have a slice of paradise in my eye. I can peer out at the world and there is always a 1/8 slice of my vision, in which I see things in their perfect state. Whether it’s our relationships to one another, to other sentient beings or to our biosphere. At the same time, I have spent most of my adult life raging vs the machine of our inhumanity. I am not a neo- luddite who might consider all technology bad, rather I acknowledge the forces of nature remain the same. We do no invent new natural forces, we find new ways to exploit them or modify them. What we do with them, determines the good or harm that will follow. Like millions of others, I am concerned we may destroy ourselves and our biosphere.

Cosmic Journey
I have not yet come to any conclusion, about the overwhelming evidence of what are archeological and cosmological realities, only that, I have a sense of belonging to a much larger humanity, now that I see us in all of history, see our concerns and expectations in our civilization’s past. It does not lessen the concern of devastation nor the bliss of attending to the world, but it does, in a subtle way, make more sense of our planetary struggles and our conscious evolution, as witnesses and participants in this mysterious journey; from an ancient paradise to catstrophe, and then from catastrophe to a future paradise.

For more on this topic visit the websites of those mentioned above
Michael L. Cremo http://www.mcremo.com/
James Perloff http://www.khouse.org/articles/2000/283/
Robert Schoch http://robertschoch.homestead.com/
David Talbott http://www.kronia.com

Zoh Hieronimus