Beginning with some of the classical
philosophers, scholars have pondered the nature and
origin of mythology for centuries. Yet while respectable
disciplines such as astronomy, physics, geology, biology,
archaeology and linguistics gradually matured, the field
of mythology continued to lack a consensus core of method
and direction. Employing structural, historical and
comparative methods of reconstruction akin to those
applied in linguistics and evolutionary biology, it
is possible to establish a theoretical foundation for
a new direction in this discipline. In this, transient
natural events are recognised as the source of inspiration
for the most salient themes.
The most challenging types of historical
information concerning the cosmos are those that were
traditionally invested with sentiments of sacrality,
reverence, fear or worship, the
principal ingredients of religion. Traditions - especially
myths, rituals and representations - that were 'holy',
'respected' and thought to be true typically concerned
allegedly natural phenomena that are not or rarely seen
today, such as the events of the 'creation' of the world,
the manifestation of deities or encounters with the
numinous. Generally, what is unknown and not understood
tends to be feared, tabooed and explained by deification,
a process known as deux ex machina, from which
even modern scientists have not entirely freed themselves.
Transient natural events thus emerge as a very potent
class of 'mythogenetic' experiences. As a guideline,
whatever induced our distant ancestors to produce the
central themes of myth appears to have been:
(1) |
external to the
human mind in origin, |
(2) |
natural, often
celestial, and |
(3) |
attractive in
character, both because it was |
(3a) |
rare or unusual
in terms of frequency and |
(3b) |
awe-inspiring
or frightening in terms of appearance. |
a listing of transient natural events
The following is a preliminary catalogue
of extraordinary, impressive and often short-lived natural
events experienced by human beings which may have left
traces in the historical record:
geological: |
tribo-electricity,
pyro-electricity and piezo-electricity |
geomagnetic
excursions and jerks |
tsunamis,
meltwater floods and other types of inundation |
methane
burps |
earthquakes |
volcanic
eruptions (magma and lava flows) |
fire
whirls |
dust
devils |
tornadoes,
hurricanes, waterspouts |
impact events (asteroids,
comets) |
blowhole
activity |
landslides |
plasma-generated
spherules |
changes
in telluric currents |
falls
and finds of 'thunderstones' (meteorites, tektites,
fulgurites, fossils and prehistoric implements)
|
instant
formation of rivers, lakes or mountains |
instant
fossilisation |
|
orbital-dynamical: |
geographical pole
shift (wobble and nutation) |
astronomical
pole shift (precession) |
changes in the
earth's volume |
changes in the
earth's distance from the sun |
changes
in the speed of the earth's axial rotation |
|
atmospheric
(tropospheric, stratospheric, mesospheric, ionospheric,
exospheric): |
St.
Elmo's fire |
ball
lightning and 'Gorgons' |
volcanic lightning |
earthquake
lights |
ordinary
lightning |
upper-atmospheric
lightning (megalightning), including 'sprites' and
'elves' |
bolides
(fireballs), meteors and meteor showers |
aurorae |
ion
plumes |
rapid
shifting of the magnetic poles |
cometary
and volcanic dusting |
flux
transfer events (FTEs) |
many
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) or Unidentified
Atmospheric Phenomena (UAPs) |
atmospheric
z-pinch discharges with synchrotron radiation
(Peratt Columns) |
|
atmospheric-optical
(involving diffraction, reflection and scattering
of light): |
zodiacal
light and Gegenschein |
crepuscular
rays |
parhelia
and paraselenae |
solar and lunar haloes |
sun
pillars |
green
sun, blue sun |
green
flash and ray on sun or Venus |
moon
zodiacal light |
rainbows |
mirages
(inferior, superior, and Fata Morgana) |
anthelia |
shifts
in colour and brightness of stars and planets (may
also be celestial) |
|
celestial: |
transient lunar events |
impact events on
the moon and on planets |
planetary
conjunctions and eclipses |
cometary
passages |
coronal
changes, sunspots, solar prominences, flares, coronal
mass ejections (CMEs) and solar proton events (SPEs) |
novae and supernovae |
fluctuations
in the zodiacal light |
visibility
of solar corona |
visibility
of planetary magnetospheres |
|
*
Phenomena coloured grey
are contentious: whereas anecdotal or traditional
evidence for them exists, scientific proof and understanding
of them are either unavailable or insufficient to
convince a majority. |
aephnidio- or 'catastrophist' mythology
It is hard to come up with an effective
short-hand term to describe the theory that myths arise
in response to rare and exciting temporary events in
nature. A neologism such as aephnidiomythology,
derived from Greek aiphnídios ('sudden'), would
be accurate but seems cumbersome. The old notion of
catastrophism adequately covers truly catastrophic
events, such as tsunamis or cosmic impacts, but hardly
seems applicable to non-destructive but still conspicuous
transient events such as eclipses or aurorae - unless
the Greek word katastrophe is understood in its
original, literal sense as an 'overturning' of any kind.
The dialectic between catastrophism and uniformitarianism
involved the sciences as a whole and dominated the past
three centuries. The prevailing view today, with which
humanities scholars still need to catch up, is that
the two poles are not mutually exclusive, but that the
history of the earth, life and the cosmic environment
can be modelled as a punctuated equilibrium with
prolonged periods of stability and ephemeral episodes
of upheaval and accelerated change. The mythological
application of this understanding requires that myths
related to events at the catastrophist end of the spectrum
as well as arresting but harmless events transpiring
during stable episodes.
'catastrophist' mythology as a comprehensive
theory of myth
Within the history of ideas, 'catastrophist'
mythology, with its emphasis on transient natural phenomena,
can be seen as a successor to the 'introspective'
and structuralist psychosociological models preferred
during most of the 20th century, that were
championed by thinkers such as Sigmund Freud,
Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Émile Durkheim,
Georges Dumézil, and Claude Lévi-Strauss.
The exploitation of scientific knowledge of geological,
atmospheric and astronomical events as potentially the
ultimate inspiration for numerous mythical themes can
be regarded as a revival of the old 'nature school'
of mythology, which beginning in the late 19th
century and eventually supplanted by the 'psychosociological'
theories sought to invoke the behaviour of the
sun, the moon, vegetal life, and so forth as the inspirational
source of prominent mythical themes. Yet unlike the
old school, the modern interdisciplinary approach
|
places far less emphasis
on elaborate metaphors and the linguistic aspect
of the names of mythical characters; |
|
concentrates
on short-lived, dramatic events instead of less
'awe-inspiring' spectacles such as the sunrise and
the lunar cycle; |
|
and benefits from the
immensely improved state of geophysics, solar-terrestrial
physics, plasma physics, climatology, and related
scientific disciplines. |
This positive approach to historical information about
the world, including the baffling themes of creation
mythology, does not simply deny or ignore older mythological
theories such as those espoused by Edward Tylor,
Sir James Frazer, Émile Durkheim, Carl
Jung, Mircea Eliade, Georges Dumézil,
and Claude Lévi-Strauss. Instead, while
acknowledging their value, it places them in a different
perspective, provided by a comprehensive, overarching
framework:
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The contention
of the old naturalists that many mythical and other
traditions describe familiar natural phenomena
(symbolic from a modern point of view, often meant
literally in traditional societies) is often correct,
insofar as the comparison of gods and ancestors
to the sun, the moon, the rainbow or a certain plant
or animal can be seen as an adaptation of earlier
narrative material to the present, 'tranquil' condition
of the natural world. |
|
Durkheim's and Dumézil's
assertion that many myths reflect aspects of human
society are on target, although they were not
inspired by those aspects, but acted as models for
them. |
|
Jung's archetypes
and Lévi-Strauss' binary structure of the
mind exist and operate in the mind as suggested,
but illuminate only the psychological, interpretive
dimension of myths, not their naturalistic contents. |
The resulting synthesis claims that mythology is typically
based on experiential or observational evidence, of
two kinds: sensory experiences concern the external
or natural world of the sky, the atmosphere or the landscape
, while spiritual experiences spring from the
internal world of individual minds only, notably
during altered states of consciousness (ASCs). The raw
content of both types stands in a reciprocal relationship
to prevailing psychological, sociological and artistic
conditions, with their respective ethical and aesthetic
values, as it is coloured by them on one hand, but shapes
them on the other, not least in the domain of religion.
In an ongoing project, I develop a methodology to distinguish
between traditions based on external, physical phenomena
and ones based on internal, psychological phenomena.
Global motifs embedded in the cycle of creation myths
and traditional cosmologies generally which are incompatible
with the current state of the environment tend to originate
in unusual collective experiences of the physical world.
More isolated motifs, motifs concerning human souls
and ancestors instead of deities, and motifs that continue
to be experienced by individuals today likely betray
a spiritual source. The remarkable uniformity of many
human traditions owes its origin both to common celestial
or geological causes, such as global aurorae or elevations
of eustatic sea level, and recurrent patterns in spiritual
experiences, such as visions obtained by holy people
or during near-death experiences (NDEs).
geomythology and 'cosmomythology'
In recent decades, the potential of transient events
as a crucial 'key' towards understanding traditional
materials was recognised by a group of scholars representing
the nascent subdiscipline of geomythology. This
field studies geologically relevant information in mythological
and other historical sources, with a stronger emphasis
on transient events than on regular ones. Geomythologists
concentrate on possible mythologised reports of historical
tsunamis or volcanic eruptions and the idea that ancient
discoveries of fossils, such as those of dinosaurs or
Pleistocenic megafauna, contributed to the belief in
fabulous creatures such as dragons. Important names
in this fast-growing area include Adrienne Mayor
and the pairs of Elizabeth & Paul
Barber, Amos Nur & Dawn Burgess,
and Luigi Piccardi & Bruce Masse.
From the earth-based perspective which most human beings
have usually enjoyed, the natural world can conveniently
be divided into a geological and a celestial half, the
first of which is concerned with the lower regions of
the earth and the oceans, the latter with the upper
zones occupied by the atmosphere and the realm of stars
and planets. I have proposed the neologism cosmomythology
to accommodate a study of historical materials pertaining
to the celestial half of the visible cosmos, complementary
to geomythology.
A large number of respectable mythologists, including
Mircea Eliade, Giorgio de Santillana & Hertha
von Dechend, Edwin Krupp and Anthony Aveni,
have explored mythical reflexes of regular and ordinary
proceedings in the sky, such as the precession of the
equinoxes, the shifting relationship of the Milky Way
to the ecliptic band, and the planetary cycles. Other
specialists in the humanities drew attention to short-lived
celestial events, such as the passage and possible impacts
of comets, meteor showers, an enhanced zodiacal light,
historical reports of eclipses and novae, and auroral
observations. Recent contributors to this line of investigation
include Bruce Masse, Derek Allen &
Bernard Delair, Richard Firestone &
Allen West, Victor Clube, William Napier
& Mark Bailey, Duncan Steel, Peter
Bobrowsky & Hans Rickman, and, to a moderate
extent, David Kelley & Eugene Milone.
All of these scholars can conveniently be referred to
as 'cosmomythologists'.
from ordinary to extreme
Another dichotomy which can be applied to mythological
traditions recognises two categories for which I propose
the following terms:
Parontomythology is the mythology concerning
contemporary and relatively common phenomena
in the natural world, typically given in the form of
'proto-scientific' explanations. Examples of parontomyths
are the widespread belief that lightning is produced
by a so-called 'thunderbird' or 'lightning bird', or
the common interpretation of the rainbow or the Milky
Way as a snake or dragon.
Aetiomythology is the mythology concerning the
origin of the present world, including episodes
of creation and destruction. Examples of aetiomyths
are the Greek story of the succession of divine kingship
from Ouranos to Kronos and from Kronos to Zeus or the
Aztec tradition of four past eras or 'suns'. The term
incorporates the notion of 'aetiological myths', which
are traditions accounting for specific aspects of the
present world, such as the existence of a lake or the
colour of a bird.
In many cases, parontomyths can be shown to trace to
aspects of creation myths, but this is not always so
and for methodological purposes the two categories are
best distinguished initially.
The drastic changes in the cosmic environment with which
aetiomythology is concerned, collectively remembered
in traditional societies as 'origin stories', relate
to events which must be extremely uncommon on a human
timescale - transient events assuming dramatic, devastating
and often world-altering proportions, which resonate
most strongly with the classic notion of catastrophism.
not an isolated Earth
The impact of cutting-edge science on the humanities
is especially palpable in the field of astronomy. The
ancient geocentric theory of the universe held that
the earth was at the centre of the cosmos and, comprising
the 'heavy' elements of earth, water and air, exhibited
different physical processes than the spheres of planets
and stars, in which fire and 'aether' prevailed. Until
the Space Age, scientists continued to describe the
solar system as a relatively uneventful 'vacuum', in
which only planets, asteroids and the occasional comet
moved on fixed courses with Aristotelian or Ptolemaic
precision. Scholars in the humanities investigating
the reflections of astronomical concepts in ancient
traditions were very much restricted to the straightjacket
of this limited toolkit.
Although the astronomers of the Renaissance and the
Enlightenment dislodged the earth from its central position,
the belief that it at least operates in isolation from
the rest of space survived much longer, as one of the
last vestiges of the old paradigm. Newton's theory of
gravity required that at least gravity be permitted
to influence the earth as an external factor. Then the
Space Age unleashed a torrent of discoveries which continue
to redefine cosmological theory.
While other bodies first inside and then outside the
solar system were found to undergo various atmospheric
and 'geological' changes, space is no longer viewed
as a vacuum punctuated by isolated bodies on perpetually
stable courses, as defined by the law of gravity. It
is now known to consist for 99.99% of matter in the
plasma state, through which the earth and other
objects in the solar system and beyond are interconnected
in delicate networks spanning across many orders
of magnitude. Plasma is a partially ionised gas regarded
as the 'fourth state of matter', that responds with
great sensitivity to changes in magnetic fields and
becomes visible to the human eye when it is pervaded
by a sufficiently strong electrical current.
The solid rock, the oceans and the lower regions of
the earth's atmosphere belong to the minute segment
of the cosmos that is only very weakly ionised or not
at all. Yet through its upper atmosphere, the earth
bathes in a rich and active electromagnetic environment,
of which the protective geomagnetic field, the aurorae,
thunderstorms and tornadoes are important parts. Electromagnetic
fields from the sun and possibly other celestial objects
are revealed to modulate a growing number of conditions
on Earth. The modern understanding of the solar system
as a highly complex web of combined gravitational and
electromagnetic forces, in which the solar wind interacts
with interplanetary space and planetary magnetospheres,
injects a new lease of life into the obsolete pre-1950
understanding of the solar system, allowing theorists
to account for a much greater variety of traditional
observations at a higher level of intellectual satisfaction.
Electromagnetism is a common denominator
in many of the listed transient events, such as aurorae,
lightning, St. Elmo's fire, telluric currents, solar
flares, ball lightning, earthquake lights, electrophonic
bolides, the 'thunderstone' label traditionally attached
to a variety of objects and the zodiacal light, which
may act as a weak dusty plasma. And many of the most
significant transient events of the past remembered
in human traditions seem to have involved prolonged
and extreme perturbations in the complex web of
solar-terrestrial electromagnetic forces.
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