by Gary Daniels
11. Younger Dryas Climate Event & the Clovis CometAccording to astronomers, Comet Machholz is a long period comet with a 12,500-year orbital period. The last time Comet Machholz visited Earth was in 10,500 BC. This corresponded to the beginning of the Younger Dryas climate event that saw parts of the world become much cooler. Earth had experienced a global warming that was bringing an end to the Ice Age. Yet something happened in 10,500BC that reversed this global warming trend. A great mass extinction also occurred at this time with the die off of the mega-fauna such as mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, saber toothed tigers and more. The Clovis Culture in North America also ended.[71]
What caused this climate event? It appears that an enormous fresh water lake known as Lake Agassiz existed in the center of North America created from the melt water of the glaciers covering the continent then. This lake covered over 440,000 square miles and was larger than all the Great Lakes combined and held more water than all of today’s lakes combined! Around 10,500 BC an ice dam collapsed and the lake catastrophically drained north into the Arctic Ocean.[72]
This influx of cold water shut down the currents in the Atlantic Ocean that transferred the warm equatorial waters north. This led to a return of Ice Age conditions for much of the northern hemisphere. It also led to immense coastal flooding as sea levels rose hundreds of feet as a result of the melting.
What caused the ice dam to melt? One theory suggests a comet exploded over the ice sheet. Richard Firestone of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory noted, "Our research indicates that a 10-kilometer-wide comet, which may have been composed from the remnants of a supernova explosion, could have hit North America 13,000 years ago. This event was preceded by an intense blast of iron-rich grains that impacted the planet roughly 34,000 years ago."[73]
According to this theory a swarm of comets impacted Earth and/or exploded in the atmosphere with the same destructive power as a nuclear bomb blast. This caused immense fire storms that set much of the world’s forests ablaze. Evidence of this global conflagration can be seen in the geologic record as a ‘black mat’ that appears just before the layer representing the onset of the Younger Dryas climate event. This ‘black mat’ layer has been found in North America, South America and Europe suggesting a worldwide catastrophe.
Meteorites with a lunar origin have also been found on Earth that also date to this time which suggests that the moon was also impacted by comets which resulted in lunar rocks being ejected into space and then falling to Earth. In fact, the Toba tribe in South America claimed a world fire was caused when pieces of the moon broke and struck Earth.[74]
Yet could these forest fires have had an additional cause? Could the sun have erupted with a super solar flare that was intense enough to set forests ablaze?
12. Super Solar FlaresScientists studying Greenland ice cores have noted that the Younger Dryas period is bracketed by two nitrate spikes in the ice record.[75] Scientists have noted that nitrate spikes in more modern ice core samples dating back to 1561 coincide with known solar flare events. The largest such nitrate spike coincides with the 1859 Carrington Event which was the first solar flare ever observed by modern astronomers. It was the result of a Solar Superstorm and it produced auroras as far south as the Caribbean.[76]
The telegraph was the only form of technology that existed in 1859. According to Wikipedia, “Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed in some cases even shocking telegraph operators. Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire. Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.”[77] A study conducted by the National Science Foundation to determine what would happen if a Carrington size solar storm were to occur today concluded the U.S. would be without power for years as a result.
The nitrate spikes bracketing the Younger Dryas period are substantially higher than those produced by the Carrington Event. This suggests the solar storm that produced them was orders of magnitude larger. Can such a storm be powerful enough to set forests on fire?
The answer came when the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon. They discovered small lunar craters that showed signs of glazing on their exposed surfaces. In 1969 astrophysicist Thomas Gold concluded that “radiation intensity on the Moon had reached 100 suns for 10 to 100 seconds…”[78] to produce such glazing.
Humans appear to not only have witnessed such an event but also to have recorded it on petroglyphs around the world. Physicist Anythony Peratt of the Los Alamos National Laboratory noted that literally thousands of petroglyphs around the world showed abstract designs that were nearly identical to patterns made by high-energy plasma discharges in the laboratory.[79]
How could ancient people over 12,000 years ago have created such designs? The only way, theorizes Peratt, is if the sun unleashed a high-energy solar flare orders of magnitude larger than any in recorded history that produced these plasma designs as auroras in the sky. The ancient sky watchers then simply carved into the rock the designs they were seeing in the sky.
One design that appeared in many places around the world was a stick figure man sometimes with a birdlike head. Dr. Peratt was able to reproduce this design with plasma discharges in the laboratory.
13. Thoth, the Egyptian Messenger of the Sun GodInterestingly, the ancient Egyptians had a deity known as Thoth who was represented as a bird-headed man. Thoth shared all the qualities and characteristics of both Quetzalcoatl and Hermes. When the ancient Greeks ruled over Egypt they also noted the similarities between these two deities and considered them to be the same.
Thoth (Courtesy Wikipedia)
Like Hermes and Quetzalcoatl, Thoth was a god of communication and the inventor of hieroglyphic writing as well as responsible for guiding souls to the underworld. He was also depicted as a “dog faced baboon[80],” similar to depictions of Quetzalcoatl’s twin Xolotl.
He was also considered the heart of the sun god Ra. Interestingly, Quetzalcoatl’s wind aspect called Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl or Hurakan was also known as “heart of sky.” In Mayan myth Hurakan is said to have caused the Great Flood.[81] Thoth was also considered not only the heart (or mind) of Ra but also the tongue as well which symbolized he was the means by which Ra’s will was translated into speech[82], i.e., he was a messenger of the Sun.
Interestingly, the hieroglyphs used to write his name included a twin-serpents glyph similar to the caduceus or staff of Hermes and a bird glyph. Thus just like Quetzalcoatl and Hermes he was associated with both twin serpents and wings. Since Thoth (like Quetzalcoatl) was considered the inventor of hieroglyphs and hieroglyphs were known as “the word of the gods”[83], it is interesting that many of the plasma designs recorded on petroglyphs would later be adopted into writing systems around the world including by the Maya and Egyptians. Did this super solar storm not only lead to destruction but also the invention of writing? Is this why these messenger gods were all associated with the invention of writing? As noted in Part 1, chapter 6, “Cosmic Cycles,” there is evidence that human creativity increases during periods of high solar activity thus this might explain the invention of writing at that time.
Thoth also had a female counterpart known as the goddess Seshat. She is usually represented in temple paintings wearing leopard skins. During major solar storms the sun is covered in sun spots thus the leopard skin is an ingenious way to represent a god associated with solar storms.
Seshat (Courtesy Wikipedia)
In one depiction Seshat’s spots were represented as stars suggestive of a meteor shower or storm. Seshat also wore an emblem on her head consisting of a seven-pointed star and a set of inverted cow’s horns meant to represent a crescent moon.[84] (This crescent moon and star symbol appears all over the world associated with this cosmic catastrophe suggesting this configuration existed in the sky at the time of the destruction.)
Thoth is often portrayed with a green ibis head with long green and red feathers that
flow from his head like a comet’s tail.
Thoth, the ibis-headed deity of Egypt.
Thus we see that Quetzalcoatl, Hermes and Thoth seem to be one-and-the-same. Yet Thoth adds an extra layer of meaning since he also is related to sunspots and thus solar flares. As noted previously, in January 2005 when Comet Machholz visited the Pleiades a major solar flare erupted 15 days later with the largest and fastest proton storm ever recorded. Could the previous appearance of the green comet Machholz have also coincided closely in time with a super solar flare hence the symbolism of a green comet associated with sun spots?
For people on Earth, this super solar flare would have appeared as a great flash of light from the sun. Then minutes later the proton storm would have hit Earth’s atmosphere and the high-energy plasma would have created all manner of lighting storms similar to being inside of a plasma globe. These lightning storms would have ignited the world’s forests. According to one version of the Toba Indians’ World Fire myth, the fire was indeed preceded by lightning.[85]
As night fell high-energy auroras would have appeared in the sky as vibrant, neon lights dancing across the sky in various designs including one that looked like a stick man with a bird’s head. Is it any wonder the ancients thought the gods lived in the sky and hurled thunderbolts to destroy humanity?
Ancient myths suggest that not only were the forests ignited but also the water in lakes, ponds and the ocean reached boiling point. People who sought refuge in water were boiled to death except those who buried themselves in mud. On land only people who reached the safety of caves or dug holes in the ground were saved.
Could this be the reason that the great ice dams melted and released a deluge of fresh water into the oceans and a mass extinction occurred at that time? Could this also be the reason Quetzalcoatl, Hermes and Thoth are all associated with guiding souls to the underworld? Does this portion of the myths suggest that caves and tunnels were the only safe places of refuge to escape the solar storm?
Interestingly, caves have recently been found beneath the Great Pyramids of Egypt. The entrance to these caves was concealed behind a temple known as the Tomb of the Birds. It appears to have been a temple dedicated to Thoth since bird mummies were also found in another cemetery related to Thoth near Khemenu, a city dedicated to the worship of Thoth. This cemetery also featured extensive underground passageways.[86]
Also in Mexico archaeologists have recently discovered the entrance to a cave complex in front of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacan, a pre-Columbian pyramid complex that was dedicated to the worship of Quetzalcoatl and his close associate Tlaloc. (Tlaloc is also associated with comets and destruction by a rain of fire.) Teotihuacan’s great Pyramid of the Sun was also built over a cave and Hermes mother Maia gave birth to him in a cave.
Thus a clearer picture is emerging about the message that these ancient myths may encode. They suggest that the sun enters a new highly active period every 12,500 years that coincides with the return of the green comet Machholz as it passes near the Pleiades. During this time the sun, covered in sunspots, emits super solar flares that are dangerous to life on Earth and could melt ice sheets, set forests ablaze and cause the ocean to boil. The only refuge is underground or in caves.
14. The Galactic Center and the Blue Star KachinaThe geologic evidence seems to support that there were both a super solar flare and a comet impact event around 10,500 BC. Yet how could such rare events occur simultaneously? Could both of these events have been caused by a third outside force: a massive eruption from the center of our galaxy? Physicist Paul LaViolette thinks that was precisely the case.
In his 1983 Ph.D. dissertation, Dr. Paul LaViolette argued that the megafaunal extinctions and other changes around the time of the Younger Dryas were caused by an eruption of cosmic rays from the center of our galaxy. This galactic superwave pushed large amounts of “cosmic dust and cometary debris into the solar system and triggered a period of elevated solar flare activity.”[87]
Astronomers have witnessed core explosions known as gamma ray bursts from the centers of many galaxies. They usually appear blue in color. According to Dr. LaViolette the galactic core explosion from our own galaxy would appear to people on Earth as the appearance of a new bright blue star at the galactic center, which is located between the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio. Depending on the intensity of the outburst it could have been visible during the day as well.
Artist depiction of gamma ray burst from galactic center (Courtesy NASA)
The Hopi Indians, who shared the Mesoamerican belief in a series of world ages called Suns, had a legend that the Fourth Sun would end and the Fifth Sun begin once a bright blue star was seen in the heavens. Known as the Blue Star Kachina, this was believed to also bring a “Day of Purification.” Could this be a reference to a galactic core explosion?
Yet according to Aztec belief, the Fourth Sun ended and the Fifth Sun began in 1011 AD. Did something happen in the year 1011 AD that corresponded with Aztec prophecies about how and when the Fourth Sun would end?
In 1011 AD Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a “guest star” in their constellation known as the Rice Ladle. This constellation corresponds to our asterism called the Milk Dipper that is part of the constellation Sagittarius. As noted previously, the galactic center is located between Sagittarius and Scorpio. Thus was this “guest star” a minor eruption from the galactic center or perhaps simply a blue supernova or comet that appeared nearby?
Interestingly, the Aztecs carved the Milk Dipper asterism into the flange of their famous Aztec Calendar Stone or Stone of the Fifth Sun.[88] This strongly suggests they thought this event was significant to the beginning of the Fifth Sun. They also carved a glyph that corresponded to the year 1011 AD as the year the Fifth Sun began. According to Aztec legends, the Fourth Sun ended with a catastrophe that included a flood and the sky falling.
Coincidentally, just three years later in 1014 AD the Anglo Saxon Chronicles describe a tsunami hitting the British Isles:
“On the eve of St. Michael’s day came the great sea-flood, which spread wide over this land, and ran so far up as it never did before, overwhelming many towns, and an innumerable multitude of people.”
Astronomer Dallas Abbott of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University discovered that this tsunami was likely caused by an impact of a comet fragment around the mid-Atlantic ridge and produced tsunamis that reached as far south as the Caribbean and South America. Thus, Aztec stories of the sky falling and a great flood are supported by scientific evidence. The fact that these events occurred so soon after the appearance of a guest star near or in the galactic center is the likely reason the Aztecs believed the Fourth Sun had ended and the Fifth Sun had begun. Yet apparently the Maya and Hopi did not agree that these events were severe enough to represent the end of a world age and continued to await the Fifth Sun.
This serves as a good reminder that the interpretation of ancient prophecies and myths is not simple and errors are quite easy to make. It does appear that the return of the comet Machholz is a good match for the return of Quetzalcoatl as predicted in the Mayan book Chilam Balam of Chumayel. Two other green comets appeared during this period but none passed by the Pleiades nor did their orbital periods coincide with a known disaster in Earth’s history. Thus comet Machholz seems to fit the bill.
Yet we must continue to look for other signs that corroborate these findings to see how well they coincide with the ancient myths. We must study other ancient prophecies and predictions to see if they, too, support these results.
IV. What Happened the Last Time the Calendar Ended?
15. Decoding the Mayan Flood MythIf one accepts the premise that mythology is astronomy in disguise then what are the possible astronomical underpinnings of the Mayan Flood Myth, which includes the decapitation of a cosmic crocodile and resulting flood of blood? If any myth has an astronomical basis then surely it is this myth for it explicitly states that the events it relates all b
egan in the sky.
The Mayan Flood Myth was recorded on a platform in Temple XIX at Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico. The myth was recorded in Mayan glyphs in the year 734 AD and discovered by archaeologists in 1999. According to Mayan scholar David Stuart who partially deciphered these glyphs, “the record of mythical…events recorded in these texts warrants their addition to the select group of highly important religious and historical documents from Palenque.”[89]
The myth began with the date on which the events transpired: March 10, 3309 BC. On this date the myth relates that a deity known as God GI was enthroned in the sky under the supervision of another deity named Yax Naah Itzamnaaj. Eleven years later it recorded that a cosmic caiman or crocodile was decapitated which resulted in a catastrophic flood of blood. Since it was the decapitation event that led to the flood, it is this event that I will decode first and attempt to find an astronomical explanation.
What was the cosmic crocodile?
According to Stuart, the glyphs that represent the cosmic crocodile include “two distinctive and unusual signs: a representation of a ‘hunched’ and seemingly headless human body and, below, a head of the creature [called] the ‘Starry Deer Crocodile,’ who seems a distinctive yet poorly understood aspect of the ‘Celestial Monster’ or ‘Cosmic Serpent.’”[90]
In their 1982 book entitled The Cosmic Serpent, astronomers Bill Napier and Victor Clube argued that ancient references to cosmic serpents and dragons were, in actuality, references to comets.[91] Could Palenque’s Cosmic Caiman or “Starry Deer Crocodile” represent a comet?
