

THE

SAMSON

CODE

The Samson Code

Michael V. Moyes

Copyright 2013 by Michael V. Moyes

Smashwords Edition

This book is dedicated to my wife, Michele.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 / A PUZZLING TALE

CHAPTER 2 / ARISTOTLE'S KEY

CHAPTER 3 / TURNING THE KEY

CHAPTER 4 / I FEEL THE POWER GROWING IN MY HAIR

CHAPTER 5 / A PRECURSOR TO HAMLET

CHAPTER 6 / SHAKESPEARE KNEW

CHAPTER 7 / ESCHATOLOGY OR THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

CHAPTER 8 / A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE

CONCLUSION
Introduction

Why should one feel compelled to make a detailed study of an obscure legend involving an immoral and violent "judge" of Israel who was bereft of sound judgment and whose history occupies four short chapters of the Old Testament? Because, as will be illustrated, the story of Samson is not merely an account of a man and his times but an allegory or code designed to preserve cosmic history and corroborate the words of inspired prophets. It is a song by which actual Earth-shaking events of the past are remembered and serves as a warning of similar events to occur in the near future.

An accurate decoding of Samson and Delilah will open your eyes to many ancient mysteries and prepare your heart for the harsh judgments to come upon the entire earth. The mythologies and holy books of all world religions contain very similar accounts to that of Samson the Nazarite and a close examination of the most prominent myths reveals that they are based upon the same celestial events witnessed by all ancient civilizations.

What were these events and how did they affect mankind in the days of Isaiah and the founding of Rome? How will identical events affect civilizations of the 21st century?

CHAPTER 1 / A PUZZLING TALE

A very underrated and misunderstood account from the Bible. Classical Samson (Milton). Religion and film. Hollywood to the rescue. An Old Testament Robin Hood? Modern misinterpretations. Sunday school stabs. Confusion of the jaw and the watery place. A wider perspective adds to the confusion. Samson in Japan, Polynesia, Central America, India and Babylon. Samson on a par with the gods of mythology.
We are drawn to the story like buzzards to a carcass yet we barely understand the reasons why Samson is included in our Bibles. The brief tale

of four chapters includes love, lust, intrigue, scandal, violence, blood, fire and vengeance.....all the stuff required of a successful soap-opera or big

Hollywood production. It certainly holds our interest yet we insist on watering the story down for general consumption or easy digestion for

children. It is not a story likely to be read in its entirety in a Sunday School but, rather, painfully interpreted then discarded for another few years.

A true reading, however, would reveal that Samson disobeyed the commandments, he was not prayerful nor visionary nor even repentant. And yet, he was a great hero of the Bible and we know he mustn't be ignored. He must be dealt with somehow. But how? This gnawing feeling has led to many misinterpretations of the original simple tale of Samson of Zorah of the tribe of Dan from the time of John Milton up to the present day. They are all attempts to wrest from the original story a kernel of moral wisdom or religious fervor that doesn't exist and was never intended to be conveyed.

A simple overview of the narration in Judges chapters 13 through 16 provides us with the following details about Samson:
>His parents are visited by an angel announcing his birth.

>He is declared a Nazarite and a chosen son.

>He is named Samson meaning, "of the sun."

>He seeks marriage outside of Israel.

>His parents travel with him to seek a wife.

>He kills a lion with his bare hands.

>He later eats honey from the lion's carcass.

>He marries a Philistine woman.

>He poses the riddle of honey and the lion.

>He feels cheated when contestants pry the answer from his bride.

>He kills 30 Philistines and robs them of their cloaks to pay the debt, then returns home.

>His bride is given to another man by his father-in-law.

>He burns their fields and orchards with fiery foxes.

>The Philistines kill his wife and father-in-law.

>Samson avenges their deaths with a great slaughter.

>He is captured by his own people for deliverance to the enemy.

>He slays 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass.

>He drinks miraculous water from the jawbone.

>He dwells with a harlot in Gaza.

>He removes the city gates to a high mountain.

>He meets Delilah.

>She betrays him for silver to reveal the source of his strength.

>He breaks loose from the vines, ropes and loom with the beam.
>He reveals his secret, is shorn, captured and blinded.

>He grinds at the millstone and is publicly mocked.

>He topples the pillars of the pagan temple, killing himself along with the enemy scoffers.

John Milton wrestled mightily in his last years with the meaning of Samson and created the epic poem SAMSON AGONISTES in 1671. In this semi-autobiographical work (the author suffered ridicule and blindness in his old age) Milton portrayed Samson as a repentant, Christian soul in a hostile environment who achieved self-mastery through patient suffering. The title, AGONISTES, is the Greek word for an athlete competing for a prize in the public games,

"but the word also had for Milton and his contemporaries spiritual connotations. It suggested the spiritual as well as physical agony or struggle of Christ and of every Christian, Samson being regarded, like so many Old Testament figures, as a prefiguring of Christ and a type of the Christian. The word therefore also refers to the spiritual struggle within Samson."{1}

Since Milton compares Samson to his own struggling soul, he takes upon himself the

{1}MILTON'S DRAMA, A.E. Barker, p. 67 AHM Publishing Corp. Arlington Heights, 1950
justification of the incoherent acts of the brutish hero and, at the same time, rationalizes any further moral weaknesses with the familiar "super-morals for super-heroes" formula.

In the brief poetic narration encompassing the last day of Samson's struggle on Earth we find, for instance, that he is a truly repentant soul who was foolish in ship-wrecking the "vessel" entrusted to him by God. When confronted by a Philistine, who accuses Samson of senselessly slaughtering 30 good men for their garments, he defends his violent deed by explaining that these men were spies who had threatened his bride with death if she did not provide the answer to Samson's mysterious riddle.

Again, the Philistine chides the blind prisoner saying that all of his efforts to alleviate the yoke of bondage set upon Israel were in vain since they remained a nation of slaves. Samson replies that he fulfilled his mission by attempting to spark a movement towards freedom but his nation had been lulled to sleep by the mediocrity of slavery and had lost the will to follow in his wake. It was not his fault that his people chose to bleat as sheep rather than roar like lions. All of his violent deeds were performed to "revive the spirits of just men long oppressed" and were the design of the Almighty. Milton later assures us that, "to Israel honor hath left and freedom," and that the purposes of God are fulfilled through his servant, the Nazarite.
Concerning the tragic hero's living in sin with the temptress Delilah, Milton from start to finish assures us they were legally wed. In order to cover any other incongruence in Samson's moral integrity, Milton creates a dialogue among the Israelites wherein they question his disregard for their customs and especially that of intermarriage within the tribes of Israel. The chorus, however, satisfies itself and excuses Samson with the verses,

As if they would confine th'Interminable, and tie him with his own precepts, Who made our laws to bind us, not himself, and hath full right to exempt whom so it pleases him by choice.{2}

Such is the formula which provides gods and heroes with a super-morality and excuses them from laws which are binding upon the general citizenry (although it is more commonly found in Greek mythology as opposed to the Bible). Milton strives with every verse to prove that Samson is absolved of his peccadilloes through his devout faith in God and his final selfless sacrifice for his God's name and his nation's freedom.

It is fortunate that Milton and later figures come to the rescue of Samson's character because, curiously enough, the Bible never does. In Judges we find

{2}SAMSON AGONISTES, John Milton, 1671
that our hero offered two prayers. Both pleas were self-centered rather than requests for forgiveness or deliverance of his people. His first request of God was to quench his tremendous thirst following the slaughter of 1,000 men and the second request was for the Lord to take vengeance upon the Philistines for the loss of his eyesight. Never is it mentioned that Samson married Delilah or that the 30 men he slew for their garments were guilty of any offense. Neither is it mentioned that the nation of Israel enjoyed any degree of freedom as a result of Samson's heroics.

In more recent times, certain religious groups have taken Milton a few steps further in their filming of GREATEST HEROES OF THE BIBLE. Countless liberties were taken in the script to make Samson appear to young viewers as much a spiritual giant as Daniel. He is first presented as a prayerful and wise judge of the tribe of Dan who routinely quells community disputes. He acknowledges God in all things and offers a solemn prayer at every turn of events.

Only a soul-wrenching tragedy could turn such an upright character from his faith and, accordingly, the scene was provided. It appears that in the act of killing the lion, he had promised deliverance to a young girl. But, in her panic, the girl recklessly stumbles over a cliff and meets her death. This became Samson's great stumbling block as he
begins to doubt God and turns to vices of the flesh as strongly as he had clung to righteousness

beforehand. In order to spare the innocent at heart, Samson's vices are briefly mentioned but never illustrated to any notable extent. All affairs with women before Delilah are avoided and she is portrayed as a semi-virtuous princess herself. All mysterious episodes dealing with riddles and unreasonable slaughter are likewise omitted. At a later period of his life, Samson regains his spirituality and wisdom when requested by his people to return home and resolve civil strife as in the good old days. He promptly restores the peace at home, acknowledging the hand of the Lord every step of the way.

Delilah, however, becomes incensed with his departure and begins to bargain with the Philistines for his betrayal and deliverance. In the final scene, the shorn and blinded hero offers a conciliatory prayer of repentance as well as a request for a restoration of his divine powers. A flash of light descends from the heavens and his hair instantly grows down his back as he leans upon the pillars to destroy the pagan temple.

Only for an instant in this production is Samson portrayed as a worldly character. Even in his betrayal, it is because of his goodness and wisdom rather than his foolishness that Delilah is able to deliver him to his enemies. We can hardly doubt
that with his last repentant breath Samson's soul ascended straight to heaven from the ruins.

It is curious yet refreshing that Cecil B. De Mille's 1949 classic, SAMSON AND DELILAH, stuck much closer to the original script of the Bible than did the organized religious effort. A director would be foolish not to include the gory details seemingly written for Hollywood. The main character, played by Victor Mature, gains our complete sympathy as Samson but, as compared to the book of Judges, there exists a twist in interpretation which turns Samson into none other than a Hebrew Robin Hood. He steals from the caravans of the Philistines to return the wealth to his overtaxed people. In this most famous depiction of the Samson tale, other deviations from the Bible include a royal lion hunt wherein the hero impresses the young Delilah. Nevertheless, Samson only has eyes for her older sister, a Philistine princess whom he marries, thus creating a bitter rivalry which continues even beyond his wife's death.

Delilah next has to compete with a pure Israelite girl who patiently awaits the day when Samson will come to his senses and escape from Delilah's jealous grasp. In Judges, Delilah is not mentioned until the last few verses and Samson only meets her long after his marriage fails and he has lived with harlots. The Bible tells us that Samson's father-in-law gave his wife to his companion because he
supposed he utterly hated her but then offered him the hand of her younger sister. Samson refused the offer but, in Hollywood, the spurned kid-sister became Delilah who vows to bring him down.

De Mille reassures us time after time that the violent deeds of the charismatic Samson are all direct acts of swift retribution upon the heads of the oppressors. In the film, Samson appears justified in robbing the Philistines of their cloaks in order to pay the debt to the cheating contestants who had pried the answer of the riddle from his bride. De Mille apparently did not agree with the Bible or that Samson had the right to kill the 30 men before he robbed them. Such details were omitted to preserve Samson's heroic image and our sympathy for such a lovable character.

The burning fields and orchards of his enemies received light coverage and the Bible account of 300 burning foxes running through the countryside proved too great a task for Hollywood or posed too great a mystery. If Samson was truly incensed toward his enemies over the loss of his wife and losing a bet, why would he spend days or weeks trapping animals and tying fire brands to their tales?(An impossible task in and of itself).

The battle of vengeance wherein Samson, "smote his enemies hip and thigh with a great slaughter," was also dismissed whereas the subsequent battle of
the jawbone in which 1,000 Philistines were slain is performed notably well. However, the mysterious event of Samson quenching his tremendous thirst with water flowing from the jawbone is likewise omitted. We are next left to wonder why the episode in which Samson removes the gates of Gaza to a high hill is overlooked but it may have dimmed our opinion of the hero to see that, in Gaza, he dwelt with a bonafide harlot.

By far, the most disappointing aspect of the film is the manner in which Delilah grovels for Samson's forgiveness after openly betraying him. She suffers tormented dreams, visits Samson in the dungeon as he grinds at the mill and ultimately guides him to the pillars of the temple during the final showdown. In the Bible, she simply takes the money and runs as an unknown lad leads Samson to the pillars. Here, De Mille presents the young Saul as a boy who idolizes Samson and makes a final appearance at the temple of doom but is advised by the hero to depart so that, one day, he may become Israel's first king.

The last, but perhaps not least, departure from the scriptures consists of the miraculous re-growth of Samson's hair. Apparently, in Judges, it was a sudden occurrence because the Philistines were in a frenzy over his recent capture and desired to make immediate sport of him. Hollywood presents unto
us scenes of wheat fields growing from seedlings to fully grown stocks throughout the seasons as Samson's hair slowly recovers. He grinds away at the millstone for many months before it occurs to the Philistines to publicly mock their greatest enemy. Whether or not it was a sudden event or as gradual as growing wheat, Samson's strength was indeed miraculous.

Whether or not Samson was completely fictitious or a true judge of Israel matters little for the purposes of this book. He triumphed to a degree over evil in the end but might not be suitable as a role model for young children (very comparable to our professional athletes of today). The Israelites remained as slaves to the Philistines despite Samson's efforts.

It is entirely possible that a man similar to Samson once existed but that the major events of the story were purposely written to be understood as an allegory and an illustration of greater events. This opinion stems from the fact that, above and beyond any other Bible character, Samson acts in much the same manner as the pagan gods of mythology rather than a human being. Since the Bible passed through the hands of many translators it is also possible we are missing key evidence about the hero and his true place in history.
Bible experts seeking to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding Samson and bring forth his human qualities have postulated that, when Samson quenched his great thirst by drinking from the hollow jawbone, the verse should have read that he drank from a well in Lehi (place name meaning jawbone). Drinking from a bone makes no sense whatsoever unless it possessed some other symbolic meaning. In the following chapters the meaning will become crystal clear just as it was to the ancient storytellers.

Another reason that Samson is considered an allegory of worldwide events is that the same story exists all throughout ancient cultures. As documented by Giorgio De Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend in 1969, tales of pagan deities slaughtering their enemies with jawbones and removing the pillars of houses are quite common in the mythologies of Babylon, Greece, India, Polynesia, Central America and Japan. In fact, some of these myths rival Hollywood as far as their proximity to the Bible account. Here is an outline of just a few examples:

Japan

Susanowo (Brave-Swift-Impetuous-Male) was very rude to his sister, Amaterasu, the Sun-Goddess and flayed alive a pie-bald colt, hurling it into her weaving hall while she was working the loom. Following other rude acts by her brother, such as
hiding his excrement under her palatial seat, Amaterasu fled and hid herself in the Rock-Cave of Heaven, refusing to come out. After much coaxing of the other gods, the Sun-Goddess finally relented and her radiance once again filled the universe. Susanowo was also quite an arsonist as he once shot an arrow into a grassy moor and told the Great-Land-Master to go fetch it. When he was well within the grassy moor, Susanowo set fire to it from all sides. Later, the Great-Land-Master succeeded in capturing Susanowo, tying his hair to the palace rafters. When the Sky-Speaking-Lute struck a tree, causing the earth to resound, Susanowo started from his sleep and destroyed the palace.{3}

Polynesia

The god Maui promised to elongate the days so that his grandmother could more easily dry her tapa cloths in the warm sun. He captured the sun on the horizon with his nets and beat upon him with a jawbone until he promised to slow down, thus making the days longer. The sun was released from the horizon and the days have been longer ever since.{4}

{3}NIHONGI, CHRONICLES OF JAPAN HAMLET'S

{4}HAMLET'S MILL, De Santillana and Von Dechend, p.166, Gambit Inc. Boston, 1969
India

The violent god Indra defeated his enemies with a thunderbolt forged from the horse-headed Dadhyank after it had revealed the secret of madhu or honey.{5}

Central America

The god Zipacna witnessed a large band of youths attempting to erect the center post of a house. He offered to help them in their struggle and

lifted, by himself, the pole that had proved too much of a challenge for the group. They deeply resented this incredible feat and turned upon him. Zipacna toppled the center post, demolishing the house and sent the stars of the Pleiades after the fleeing young men.{6}

Babylon

Bel (the Lord) Marduk was given divine weapons from the gods to battle the dragon, Tiamat, and her cohorts. His weapon was unequaled as it was the net his father, Anu, had given him. With lightning and four fiery horses, Marduk came upon Tiamat with a majestic halo surrounding his head. He captured her in his net then slaughtered her with his lance. Tiamat's host was then captured in the net and Marduk returned to the body of Tiamat

{5}RIG VEDA, 1.16.12/1.84.13

{6}POPOL VUH
"and with his merciless weapon smashed open her skull."{7} (We shall soon prove that the net of Marduk and the jawbone of Samson are synonymous).

There exist many more myths involving gods and rulers being covered by nets and slaughtered and of buildings being toppled or burned by a raging avenger. Samson was certainly not the first. The key to gaining a true understanding of Samson rests in admitting that he is on a par with the pagan gods of mythology as the central character in the Hebrew version of a worldwide epic tale.

Upon close examination of the origins and symbolism of ancient mythology, Samson the Nazarite becomes more real than you could imagine and, as we shall see, his place in the Bible was not only purposeful but well deserved.

{7}SUN SONGS, CREATION MYTHS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, Van Over, pp. 178-179, Meridian, New York, 1973

CHAPTER 2 / ARISTOTLE'S KEY

A scientist discovers the key. All scripture and mythology valuable. Respect for ancient thought. The root of all mythology was the stars. Aristotle's clues. The gods were the planets. The stage was the zodiac. Matching names to stars and planets. Many interchangeable names. Curious numbers. Reluctance of science to accept ancient intelligence. Knowledge possessed, knowledge lost. The origins of astronomy.
Giorgio De Santillana, professor of Philosophy of Science at M.I.T., in conjunction with Hertha Von Dechend, made some amazing discoveries while studying the origins of many of the oldest and most common myths throughout the earth, including the story of Samson and Delilah. Had they trusted in the words of ancient philosophers such as Aristotle from the beginning, however, they would have found the task much easier. The results of their in-depth research are contained in the volume, HAMLET'S MILL, published in 1969.

Driven by the statement of Charles Francois Dupuis that, "Mythology is the work of science; science alone will explain it," the authors searched diligently for a point in history where myth gave birth to scientific thought. Their attempts to decipher obscure mythologies of ancient cultures in hopes of unraveling primitive scientific wisdom appeared fruitless until they conquered their reluctance and crossed the threshold into the realm of "the royal science," that is, astronomy. Once armed with, what was in the far gone past, common knowledge concerning the stars (which today goes almost completely ignored) the ancient myths began to reveal many of their mysteries unto them. Also, they proved thereby that the primitive authors and storytellers of seemingly fabulous events and characters are worthy of the full respect of today's most modern intellectuals.
The first major breakthrough in their research, according to Von Dechend, occurred as they realized that the people of Polynesia, who could follow stars and ocean currents to arrive at a desired speck in the mighty Pacific at will, certainly must have possessed vast knowledge concerning the orbit of the earth, the length of the year, the equinoxes and solstices and the exact latitudes of the earth where these occurred because sacred islands and a curious proliferation of temples happened to lie near what we call today the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, 23 and ½ degrees north and south of the equator. (Necker Island in the north ; Tubuai and Raivavae in the south).

The discovery of ancient time measurement stones (a la Stonehenge) in the thick fauna of the Tongan Islands testifies to the fact that these people of the sea were, at one time, obsessed with the position of the sun throughout the seasons. But this was a common trait of almost all ancient civilizations along with their obsession with the positions of the visible planets, which were seen to roughly follow the same course as the sun throughout the zodiac.

Other remarkable discoveries soon followed for the authors once a respect for ancient astronomical wisdom was established. For example, the same curious number patterns appeared in vastly different cultures but are attributable without dispute to the same heavenly source, i.e., the planets.
Using these "holy numbers" appears to have been the manner in which astronomers of old calculated the almost imperceptible wobble in the earth's rotation known as the precession of the equinoxes. If the earth rotated without a wobble, the sun would rise in the same constellation at the same time of year indefinitely. However, because such a wobble exists, the sun will rise for roughly 2,400 years in one sign of the zodiac during the spring equinox (the customary time of measurement) and then begin to rise in a new constellation for the next 2,400 years. We are now living in the age of Pisces because that is the constellation the sun appears in every March 21st, when day and night are equal in length. In another few hundred years the sun will rise for the first time during the spring equinox in the sign of Aquarius.

With the anticipation of the ushering in of each "new age" many prophecies, fables and myths were born. Thus, the growing "New Age" movement of present times resembling movements of centuries ago with the exception that today's "new agers" know much less concerning the true movements of the heavens as compared to the ancients and, whereas the ancients focused their attention upon the other major planets, today's new agers appear to worship planet Earth or Gaia. Consequently, this allotted 2,400 year period for each age was meticulously measured by counting the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn throughout the
signs of the zodiac. Every twenty years ancient astronomers observed the regular crossing of orbits of these two wandering stars against the background of the fixed constellations and realized that, in order for them to complete a set of conjunctions in all twelve signs of heaven and return to the place of the original conjunction, required a set of 40 crossings and a period of 800 years. Three of these trips around the zodiac, comprising a set of 120 conjunctions, are equal to the duration of a world age or 2,400 years. This knowledge clarifies the significance of such mythical passages from Egypt, found in the legend of Ra and Isis, which state:

The chapter of the divine god, who created himself, who made the heavens and the earth....who is the king of men and gods, the one form, to whom the period of one hundred and twenty years are as single years...{1}

This should make it obvious to the reader that the god Ra is none other than a worshipped planet. Also, meticulously observed, were the number of days of the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn which the ancients calculated for the first to be approximately 12 earth years of 360 days or 4,320 days. For Saturn this was about 30 earth years of 360 days or 10,800 days.

{1}SUN SONGS, Op. Cit., p.279
Jupiter was the main object of worship following Saturn to the ancient pagan religions throughout the globe but Saturn was considered the greatest because it had the greatest orbit of any known planet and was therefore the great keeper of time. Father Time to the Greeks was Kronos, the planet Saturn, from which we derive such time-centered vocabulary as "chronology, chronometer" etc... Quite often the numbers derived from Jupiter and its orbit were multiplied to match the greater standard set by Saturn.

For instance, if you divide the days of a Jupiter year by the 40 conjunctions with Saturn necessary to complete one cycle through the zodiac, it becomes: 4,320 divided by 40 = 108. Then, by doing the same with the Jupiter year and the number 800 (number of years required to complete 40 conjunctions) it becomes: 4,320 divided by 800 = 5.4. Multiply these by 100 to match Saturn's standard and 108 becomes 10,800 (days in a Saturn year), 5.4 becomes 540 and 4,320 becomes 432,000.

Now, here are some reasons why these numbers are so necessary to discuss: The Hindu sacred scriptures known as the Rig Veda contain a total of 432,000 syllables, 10,800 stanzas with 40 syllables per stanza. There are 10,800 bricks required to build the Hindu fire altar called Agnicayana. Ancient rulers of Persia and China held jubilees after 10,800 days of rule in memory of the god of
the golden age, Saturn. According to Censorinus, there are 10,800 years in an Eon. The great Babylonian year is said to last 432,000 years. The Norse creation myths state that Valhalla, paradise of slain warriors, has 540 gates and out of each will appear 800 warriors to fight in the Ragnarok (last battle). This is a total of 432,000 warriors. And finally, the temple of Angkor Thom in the Cambodian jungle was constructed with 5 main gates, a road for each gate branching out like spokes of a wheel. Each road crosses a circular water ditch surrounding the temple which represents the Milky Way and upon each road stands 108 statues of Hindu gods, 54 per side and a total of 540 on all roads. These statues are all involved in a giant tug-of-war as they pull upon the same serpent leading to the middle of the temple, in memory of the wobbling orbit of the earth and the ever changing order of the heavens.{2}

The curious design of deities pulling a serpent which is wound around a central wheeling pole or axis is depicted in the art and architecture of Egypt, Polynesia, Mexico, China and nearly all major civilizations of ancient man. It now adorns every medical office in this country as a symbol of health and is known as the "caduceus."

{2}HAMLET'S MILL, Op. Cit., p. 162
Thus, the major focus of ancient mythology and of pagan religion in general was upon keeping watch of the changing order of heaven. A statement of Aristotle confirms this theory and provides a grand key whereby we may decipher seemingly pointless fables from all lands including those of Greece and Rome. Specifically referring to the gods Kronos, Zeus, Aphrodite and others, Aristotle reveals:

Our forefathers in the most remote ages have handed down to their posterity a tradition in the form of a myth, that these bodies are gods....One must regard this as an inspired utterance....these opinions, with others, have been preserved until the present like relics of the ancient treasure.{3}

This key to interpreting myth was certainly known by other ancient writers such as Lucian who deduced that,

The ludicrous story of Hephaistos surprising his wife Aphrodite in bed with Mars, and pinning down the couple with a net to exhibit their shame to the other gods, was not an idle fancy, but must have referred to a conjunction of Mars and Venus, and it is fair to add, a conjunction in the Pleiades.{4}

{3}METAPHYSICS, Aristotle, Book Lambda, 1074 b

{4}HAMLET'S MILL, Op. Cit., p. 177
Elaborating upon Aristotle's revelation, De Santillana comments,

The real actors on the stage of the universe are very few, if their adventures are many. The most ancient treasure in Aristotle's word that was left to us by our predecessors of the high and far-off times was the idea that the gods are really stars, and that there are no others. The forces reside in the starry heavens, and all the stories, characters and adventures narrated by mythology concentrate on the active powers among the stars, who are the planets.{5}

Eureka! The main characters of myth are the planets with the zodiac and surrounding constellations acting as the stage. Now, if we could only match the proper name or title to the correct planet and recognize the constellations of which they spoke, we could make some progress. But, of course, this is much easier said than done for, although Lucian recognized that the Greek ILIAD was an enormous tale of cosmic conjunctions involving Venus and Mars, there are various names used for these prominent gods throughout the ILIAD not to mention the many titles used for the other planets surrounding them. And then we must become familiar with the many names and characteristics attributed to the constellations

{5} Ibid.
through which they travel. There exist many obscure tales of antiquity at which we can only take our best guess but, the major universal myths become very obvious in meaning to the mind trained to recognize the general pattern.

Planetary characteristics bear remarkable similarities throughout the ancient world with Saturn viewed as the first good king and ruler of the mythical golden age until he was violently overthrown by Jupiter which, in turn, became the main object of worship as Marduk in Babylon and Zeus in Greece. The throne which they occupied was viewed as a "world mountain" which had characteristics and titles of its own although it was not a planet or an earthly mountain. This was Olympus, Mandala or Mount Meru.

Mars was generally conceived to be a god of war and vengeance, often blinded by his rage. Venus was a beautiful yet deceitful love goddess whereas, Mercury, with his rapid orbit about the sun, was often depicted as the swift messenger of the gods. We currently make use of the same planetary names used by the Romans yet we hardly imagine that the stories from antiquity were first derived from these heavenly bodies, preferring instead to assume that the names from mythological characters were pinned upon the planets at a later date.
Unfortunately, we have been falsely conditioned to believe that we are more advanced or more evolved than our predecessors because we happen to benefit from the inventions of geniuses in a free society even though a very small percentage of us had anything to do with such inventions or the formation of such a society. We are so vain and indoctrinated by evolution theory that, upon discovering ancient ruins of an advanced society, we set about to discover the point at which these "cave dwellers" emerged to become city planners. The fact is, however, ancient societies were intelligent from the beginning. As stated by John Anthony West in his treatise of the high wisdom of ancient Egypt:

Every aspect of Egyptian knowledge seems to have been complete from the very beginning. The science, artistic and architectural techniques and the hieroglyphic system show virtually no signs of a period of "development"; indeed, many of the achievements of the early dynasties were never surpassed, or even equaled later on. How does a complex civilization spring full-blown into being? Look at a 1905 automobile and compare it to the modern one. There is no mistaking the process of "development." But in Egypt there are no parallels. Everything is there right at the start.{6}

{6}SERPENT IN THE SKY, THE HIGH WISDOM OF ANCIENT EGYPT, John Anthony West, p. 13, Julian Press, New York, 1979.
We are engulfed in our modern world (which largely ignores the motions of the planets) by the vestiges of a worldwide pagan religion based upon star worship. We might be satisfied to note that our Sundays and Mondays honor the two largest luminaries in the heavens but we fail to realize that every day of the week bears the name of a planetary god. Tuesday for the war god Tiw, Wednesday for the god Woden, Thursday for the god Thor, Friday for the goddess Freya or Frig and, of course, the Sabbath day for the Sabbath star which is Saturn. If our Old English or Teutonic names elude us we can appeal to any other culture for the true identity of our daily gods. Italian or Spanish serve quite well for this purpose: Domingo, day of the Lord, Christianized from the former pagan name, "dies solis" in Latin for the sun. Lunes for the moon; Martes for planet Mars; Miercoles for Mercury; Jueves for Jove who is Jupiter; Viernes the goddess Venus; and Sabado the Sabbath, formerly the Latin "Saturni dies."

We have 12 months for the 12 signs of the zodiac, the first month was formerly March for the red planet Mars. If we look at our very own hands we find that each finger is named for a planet on the palm reader's chart and the origins of our most prominent holidays correspond directly to cosmic events. Many of these pagan celebrations were Christianized at a later date just as the names for the days of the week were sometimes changed.
By "pagan religion" it is meant to describe a form of worship which centers upon the many "gods" of heaven and nature rather than a single Creator as described in the Bible. The fact that the world was once permeated by star worship and that this false form of worship was woven into many present day religions does not mean that this book is seeking to disprove Christianity, Judaism, Islam or any world religion. Nor does the fact that some biblical stories are based upon celestial events witnessed by the entire earth mean that it is not historically accurate.

The overall theory of this book is that the Bible is historically accurate but that stories such as Samson and Delilah are not about people but about stars. The present author has a firm belief in the literal existence of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and Moses. This belief is based on the supporting evidence of many other documents along with the Bible which will be discussed in the last chapter.

The academic world has relegated that which was sacred history to the realm of mythology. We should defend the ancient history of our ancestors as well as the mythology which surrounds it, for many of the myths are merely allegories which preserve the central truths of ancient history. Indeed, it is precisely because the truth has been woven in myth that the literal existence of all the ancient patriarchs is considered highly dubious by those whom we pay to teach us history.
As John Anthony West described Egypt as being intelligent right from the start, others believe in a non-evolutionary world where man was noble and intelligent from the beginning....even literate. The righteous patriarchs received authority directly from God to teach their descendants divine laws enabling them to become as God and dwell in holy cities. When such societies reached a specified degree of collective righteousness, they could no longer be contained upon the earth and were, therefore, removed from the presence of other men. Such was the case with the city of Enoch which may have given rise to the legends of the lost city of Atlantis.

There may have been other such societies besides Enoch's abode which were "taken up" to the bosom of God. Those remaining among the unrighteous chose to follow another order wherein they worshipped the elements of nature and, without any divine guidance, became increasingly degenerate. Still, great patriarchs such as Noah remained upon the earth seeking for generations to save all that would believe in divine authority and law. In the end he was followed only by his wife, his three sons and their wives into the ark as the fountains of the deep were opened wide to flood the earth. In Noah and his sons rested the divine authority but, to the descendants of one son, Ham, this authority was denied. The children of Ham settled and built the cities of Egypt but felt slighted by God and Noah and therefore created a new priesthood of the
Pharaohs. This may have been the earliest man made post-deluvial religion after which all other pagan religions of the world were patterned. The central focus of this religion was upon the stars and especially the planets.

Personalities and human attributes were given to each major star and the Pharaohs claimed direct descent and divine authority from the stars rather than from Adam or Noah. They went so far as to place Adam's name upon their central object of worship, the planet Saturn, calling it Atum Ra (among many other titles). The more accurate their predictions of seasonal and celestial events, the more divine authority they appeared to possess. Thus was born the first astrologically based pagan religion to counter the true priesthood authority of God.

From Egypt most major civilizations adopted their own peculiar forms of the same star worship with many of the same legends and rituals. According to Genesis, they all shared the same language as they spread out through the Middle East for many generations following Noah's descent from Mount Ararat. The earth must have appeared very different than at present for, not only the Bible, but creation myths from all lands attest to a time when men lived for several hundred years and the earth was not yet divided from heaven. Something considered to be heaven or a dwelling place of the
gods, perhaps a body larger than the earth itself, was visible to all mankind standing above the earth in the northernmost region. Indeed, the legends of all ancient peoples speak of many drastic and violent changes to the earth which counters evolution theory to the core.

When mankind, corrupted by pagan beliefs, attempted to erect a tower sufficiently high to reach heaven, in an ever increasing ritualistic manner, very few believers in Noah remained. As a direct result of their wicked rituals accompanying the building of the tower, the Lord confounded the language of every corrupt soul. All knowledge of the most ancient times and pagan star worship was passed on in the form of myth and legend. The general patterns survived, however, and permeated every society up to the present day.

The true knowledge of the creation and the patriarchs was witnessed in vision by holy prophets such as Moses and preserved in writing by their own hands. The great tower fell, heaven was removed from the earth, continents were divided and mankind scattered, their life spans shortened. If a righteous band of humanity remained, they were few. It was following these cataclysmic changes to the earth that Abram sought out and found the true authority of the patriarchs from the hands of Melchizedec, king of Salem. Abram's family was corrupted by the ever prevalent pagan worship as
re-established by the Egyptians and other surrounding civilizations. The temptations to stray were great due to witnessing the violent forces of nature which shaped the new land and the desire to worship those forces.

It was the common origin of star-lore and false religion based on star worship, which began in Egypt, that provided the basis for the most prominent creation myths and common character-istics attributed to stars and constellations through-out the globe. Although the languages were confounded and nations were divided, the stories of the gods remained largely intact and are remarkably similar in all cultures. In describing celestial events beyond the creation, the flood and the falling of the tower, understandably, the later the occurrence, the greater the divergence in stories from one culture to another.

However, that which occurred in the starry skies involving the raging god of war, known as Samson to the Israelites, left such a profound impression upon ancient man that the similarities of the legends from one quarter of the globe to another are hauntingly familiar wherever they are told.

CHAPTER 3 / TURNING THE KEY

Applying Aristotle's key to Samson. Samson not of this world. A raging god of war. Planet Mars. The lion, the beehive and the jawbone. The gates of Gaza. The cosmic loom. The temple of Dagon. The great temptress of heaven, Venus. Gradual occurrences or tales of catastrophe? Why is it included in Judges? Something different in the old world order. Were Venus and Mars always "alright?"
Trusting in the words of Aristotle and comparing Samson to the wandering stars of the zodiac can only lead to one conclusion: The raging, impetuous god of war worshipped by the Romans as "Caeco Marte" or blind Mars is also our hero from Judges. The Romans attributed the very rise of their civilization to the red "stormer of walls" and, accordingly, named the first month of the year, March, after him.

It was Mars whom the Romans used to illustrate the celestial origins of their authority to rule the world. Also known as the "wolf star," Mars was the fabled wolf which nourished Romulus and his brother Remus in their wild infancy. The very name, Rome, derived from Romulus, appears to be yet another tribute to the planet Mars for Romulus was a raging, heroic warrior and direct agent of Mars. As in the most ancient of civilizations, Rome was steeped in planet worship and Mars was foremost on their minds.

For those who yet hesitate to believe that a planetary tale exists in their Bibles, the proof of the matter becomes apparent as we follow Samson (Mars) throughout the zodiac. Indeed, every event in Samson's life occurs in a readily recognizable constellation to the people who lived in biblical times. The stars were as important to ancient man as television or computers are to modern man. Our eyes have been veiled from the celestial origins
behind Samson because we simply do not study the night sky with the same intensity applied while searching for a program to watch in our living rooms. And yet, there he is, Samson, "of the sun," racing through the zodiac like Hercules with his 12 feats of courage. Interestingly enough, both Samson and Hercules began their journeys in the constellation of Leo as described in the episode where Samson slays a young lion with his bare hands as he travels in search of a wife. Coincidentally (or not), Leo is considered to be a sun-sign or region of the sky ruled by the sun. From Leo, however, it appears that Samson and Hercules travel in opposite directions.

The beehive which develops within the lion's mouth and becomes the subject of a complicated riddle is yet another constellation. Praesepe, (the manger), is the ancient name for the faint cloud of stars directly in front of the mouth of Leo which we know today as Nebula M44 within Cancer, but it was also well known as the beehive in many lands due to its appearance as a cluster of bees. As mentioned in chapter 1, the same riddle which Samson posed to his enemies concerning honey in the lion's carcass was also known in ancient India, in absence of any Bible.

For naked-eye observers of the nightly orbital routes of the planets, Mar's westerly movement from Leo into Cancer, a complete backwards
movement from the normal easterly travel through the zodiac, is the reason for the telling of such astronomical riddles. Mars is witnessed doing a double-take like a stumbling blind man. He battles the lion and falls back into the beehive at the lion's mouth. This same "stumble" through other starry backgrounds has given us strange word usage we hear every day yet their origin eludes us. More on that subject when we enter the shoulder of Taurus.

The retrograde motion of the red planet troubled astronomers for centuries yet it is not a backwards movement of Mars but rather a forward movement of Earth which, as it passes Mars on the inside lane of the orbital race track, causes Mars to appear to travel backwards in the zodiac. The story of Samson appears to stretch this retrograde motion beyond a normal loop or stitch between two constellations and continues the westward flow into Gemini. Unless the storytellers are describing multiple year events drawn out over long intervals, this is unusual.

Samson takes revenge upon his enemies by burning their fields and orchards with fiery foxes. Gemini fits the bill of an agricultural field with its four distinct corners and rectangular shape but it is uncertain. Gemini makes a definite appearance, however, when Samson later dwells in the village of Gaza.
Within Taurus there are at least three distinct divisions of stars, some of which comprise their own official asterisms such as the Hyades (the jaw of the bull) and the Pleiades (the shoulder or back). Then there is the bull's eye within the Hyades, which is the bright red star Aldebaran, and the horns which appear to be attacking Orion, the celestial bullfighter.

Taurus has earned more respect than any other constellation throughout the world due to the celestial events seen to occur there. More on this subject will be discussed in following chapters but, stunningly, the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain begins at the first siting of the return of Taurus in the east in late June or early July as the Pleiades rises just before the sun. The entire bullfighting culture is an earthly replica of that which appears to take place between Orion and Taurus in heaven. The very uniforms of the toreros are patterned after the stars of Orion and are called "traje de luces" or "suit of lights." Famed the world over for its destructive powers, it is not surprising then that Samson carries on like a wild man within the stars of Taurus.

When the unarmed hero is surrounded by his enemies in the wilderness, he reaches out and grabs the jawbone of an ass with which he slays 1,000 men. Without doubting that a god-fearing man can miraculously conquer a large army, let us examine
the event in light of the entire story. The jawbone (by now soaked with blood) was next used as a vessel of water, an answer to Samson's prayer to quench his tremendous thirst. Seemingly, the jawbone was hollow and contained a great deal of water or it is a mistranslation owing to the fact that this occurred in Lehi (meaning jawbone) and perhaps Samson drank from a well which was in Lehi. Whether or not he drank from the actual jawbone or a well of water, the direct association of the jawbone as a weapon and source of water still exists.

The jaw of Taurus was the weapon spoken of and was named "Hyades" meaning "watery" by the ancient Greeks. "The rainy Hyades" is a common refrain from ancient times and is repeated by the poet Tennyson. The Arabs referred to the stars of the jawbone as "little camels," carriers of water. Thus, another riddle within the story of Samson is solved by yet another star group whereas, without the added knowledge of the stars as possessed by the ancient storytellers, this and many other tales would remain unsolved riddles to modern man.

The village of Gaza, which serves as Samson's city of refuge, represents an episode of Mars in the constellation of Gemini. Famous in nearly all cultures as "the twins," (formed by the bright stars Castor and Pollux), in earliest Babylonian times these stars of Gemini, known as Etak and Latarak,
together formed Ninurta, the opener of the morning's double gate. They were also known as the guards of the gates of Anu (Sky).{1} To this day a common astrological symbol of Gemini is a gate with two posts. The three verses from Judges 16 concerning Gaza tell us that Samson hid from his enemies until midnight then arose and removed the doors of the city gate along with the posts and brought them to a high hill before Hebron. That is a distance of nearly 40 miles, from the coast to the inland mountains. Certainly, Samson was super-human to accomplish such a task by himself before sunrise.

From Gemini, Samson appears to move back into Taurus as Delilah attempts in vain to snare him with various ropes and a curious web (of a loom) into which his hair is woven. Samson escaped from his pursuers by dragging the pin of the beam with the web out of the house. The Pleiades or shoulder of the bull is the star cluster that appears in the logo of all Subaru automobiles and was commonly referred to as a loom, web or net in ancient cultures due to the weaving motion of Mars through this "tight knit" constellation . Worshipped by the Japanese, Aztecs, Hindus and Incas, they were known as a net for hunting rabbits in Europe and China and a snare for birds in Polynesia. This small net belonged to

{1}OUTER SPACE, Gertrude and James Jobes, p. 179, Scarecrow Press, New York, 1964
the mighty hunter Orion and his other net for larger game was the Hyades. Many are the tales of hero figures snaring or being snared by these nets. Mars and Aphrodite were trapped by a net thrown by her jealous husband who caught them in bed. Ka'ulu of Polynesia cast his nets, the Pleiades and Hyades over the evil goddess before burning down her house. Zipacna of Central America brought down the house upon his enemies then called the stars of the Pleiades after them. In like manner, Susanowo of Japan had his hair bound fast to the palace rafters and arose from his sleep to pull down the palace.

The Pleiades have attracted attention so much greater than mere size and arrangement would warrant, and the attention has been so universal, and extended so far into the past, that it has led to some discussion as to the reason. The idea is generally accepted that this group must have been associated in the distant past with some great event, widespread and cataclysmic.{2}

Although the corroborating stories of the destruction of the house, temple or palace occur within the hunting nets of Orion, or the jawbone and shoulder of Taurus, Samson may have traveled beyond Taurus and into the region of Pisces for his

{2}THE STARS IN MYTH AND FACT, Oral E. Scott, p. 154, Caxton Printers Ltd., Caldwell, ID, 1942
final showdown with the Philistines in the temple of Dagon, the fish-god. If, as it appears, Samson is the same character as Susanowo, Zipacna, Maui, Indra and Mars, his ultimate destructive act occurred within Taurus and there is another motive for Samson destroying the temple of the fish-god. Unless there exists another unrecognizable or missing episode within the constellation of Aries, prior to his death, Samson would be stepping out of the zodiacal order to reach Pisces from Taurus. The pillars of the temple represent something far greater than the symbolic gate of Gemini, which will be explained forthwith. Of interesting note as well, following his capture, Samson is blinded and spends all of his captivity grinding at the mill, a common symbol of a plodding planet, (Mars is the only planet considered to be blind), stumbling his way around the celestial dome.

It is by no coincidence that Samson is in constant search of a female companion unless he happens to be residing with one. He leaves his home in search of a wife, the wedding becomes a disaster and catapults him into battle. He dwells with a harlot in Gaza then finally encounters Delilah, the woman with the loom and the deceptive heart. It is she who betrays him by shearing his hair and turning him over to the enemy thus directly creating the setting of the unforgettable climax to the tale. All of these female characters are in fact one and the same, appearing and reappearing through the signs of the
zodiac with Samson. Although her identity isshrouded in the myths of many lands, she is there in the center of most of them. She is Venus, brightest celestial fire following our sun. This planet was also known and worshipped as Athena in ancient Greece. The temple of Athena is built around her immensely robed figure as is fitting for one so hauntingly beautiful. Her figure is haunting because, slithering from the bottom of her robe, her serpentine tail cannot be hidden. She was no ordinary mother-figure to Athenians but rather a venomous snake-woman.

Following our brief examination of some of the most common ancient characterizations for the stars of the zodiac, we may conclude that, within the Book of Judges of our Bibles, we possess a cosmic tale of epic proportions involving conjunctions of Venus and Mars in several starry settings. Was this some type of gross oversight at the hands of the scribes or was the story of Samson deliberately placed there for our benefit? The agnostic scientific community chooses to use this as an example of the fictional nature of the entire Old Testament by seeing it only as the normal cycles of nature embellished by the vivid imaginations of the ancients. We must ask ourselves if we truly believe in an evolving universe of barely perceptible changes in the solar system over millions of years or if things may have operated differently centuries ago.
If so, are we due for rapid changes in the future? If Samson was written as a description of celestial events, were these common occurrences seen regularly throughout the seasons or did something highly irregular and traumatic give birth to the worldwide legends?

Persistent echoes from the past remind us that, near the time of the founding of Rome, circa 700 B.C., Venus and Mars appeared to wage war in heaven with their most destructive battles fought within the jaw and shoulder of Taurus. A well-known song of the 70's repeats for our ears that which must have been an ongoing concern for the people of that far-gone age:

Red lights, green lights,

Strawberry wine,

A good friend of mine,

Follows the stars,

Venus and Mars are alright tonight.{3}

But, were Venus and Mars always "alright?"

{3}VENUS AND MARS, Paul McCartney, 1975 McCartney Music, Inc./ ATV Music Corp.

CHAPTER 4 / I FEEL THE POWER

GROWING IN MY HAIR

If I had my way in this wicked world I would tear this building down! Evolution is still king. The pride of astronomers. Another scientific path. Velikovsky's postulation. The elements combined and directed by the gods. Isaiah. Lucifer and Mazzaroth. General Custer. Peter's prophecy. The ancients spoke of actual events. Poles removed from their place. The Pleiades. The question mark.
IF I HAD MY WAY (Rev. Gary Davis)

Well we read about Samson

We read about his birth

He was the strongest man

That ever lived on earth

And one day while he was out

Walking all alone

He looked down at the ground

And saw an old jawbone

Well he lifted that old jawbone

High over his head

And when he got to movin'

Ten thousand men were dead

Well Samson and the lion

Got into a tack

And Samson crawled up

Onto the lion's back

We read about that lion

He killed a man with his claw

Samson got his hand

Around the lion's jaw

And he ripped that beast

Until the lion was dead

And the bees made honey

In the lion's head

Delilah was a woman

She was fine and she was fair

She had lovely looks
Lord knows, and coal black hair

Delilah climbed up onto Samson's knee

And said,

Where does your strength lie?

Tell me if you please

She was so fine and she was so fair

Samson said, "Delilah, cut off my hair!"

"Shave my head as clean as your hand

And my strength will be like a natural man's."

(Chorus)

If I had my way

If I had my way in this wicked world

If I had my way

I would tear this building down!

(As rendered by Peter, Paul and Mary and The Grateful Dead)

Of course any downtrodden soul who consoles himself with the verses of this old Negro spiritual immediately understands that the building spoken of is symbolic of society or the entire "wicked world" that oppresses him. Likewise, independent of whether he ever existed as a judge of Israel, we must view the building razed by Samson in Judges as symbolic of the entire world whereby the hinges or poles of the earth were removed from their original place. De Santillana and other erudites would have us believe this was a completely gradual and natural
shifting of the poles due to the barely perceptible precession or wobble in the earth's rotation. But, there exist too many other accounts witnessed by literate men of old, which describe a sudden and abrupt change to the earth's rotation wherein the length of days was altered and old calendars became obsolete.

We ended the last chapter with a question carried by a song from the 70's inquiring as to the status of Venus and Mars. Why does the question even exist if they were always innocuous? The point being; they once posed a great threat to civilization upon this earth in the not so distant past and were, therefore, closely guarded. The theory that counters the dearly held belief that major change in the universe requires billions upon billions of years is called "catastrophism." This theory was widely propagated in the 50's by Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky as a result of his exhaustive research into the literal existence of Moses, the plagues of Egypt and corresponding testimonies of many surrounding civilizations. His WORLDS IN COLLISION caused a firestorm of controversy amongst scientist and Bible scholar alike. He approached his findings in a completely independent manner; free from any religious trappings yet also aloof from the officialdom and censorship of the Astronomers' Union et al. What he discovered was beneficial to both sides yet, he was shunned equally by astronomer and priest while his book became a best
seller. The volume concentrated primarily on ancient custom and mythology to illustrate the absolute uniform belief in celestial disturbances that changed the earth drastically circa 1500 and 700 B.C. The first volume was backed by the geological and scientific testimony contained in EARTH IN UPHEAVAL proving that, within historical times, the earth withstood incredible strain from the close passage of other planets on errant orbits.

Although his ideas were powerful enough to become required reading at several major universities and he gathered many loyal followers among faculties across the United States, by the 21st century his influence has been smothered by the government subsidized gurus of the "big bang." The account of his uphill battle to be published free from censorship is a monumental story in and of itself and is vividly described in STARGAZERS AND GRAVEDIGGERS. We are most fortunate that this volume was published prior to his death in 1979. In the opinion of many, Velikovsky is the American version of Galileo and merits our deepest respect. Galileo looked into the telescope and beheld that Venus circled completely about the sun inside of Earth's orbit and also that the moons of Jupiter freely orbited that planet. These were heretical ideas that proved Earth was not the center of the universe yet he held to the truth despite the consequences and the distrust of telescopes which
existed at the time. Velikovsky collected the testimonies of ancient civilizations concerning global cataclysms and dared to ask if such were possible within historic times. When he scratched the surface of these "myths" he found that everyone pointed their fingers skyward, to the identical celestial bodies concerning the agents of these disasters. Indeed, preserved within our language, we find that the etymology of the word "disaster" means to be ill-starred and some purport it to be actual intervention from the stars.

The notion that destruction from the stars occurred at regular intervals was commonplace until the middle ages but, was it founded upon fact or merely superstition? If Moses truly led the children of Israel through the corridor of the Red Sea, formed between two immense walls of water, following the devastating plagues of Egypt, were not some of these things witnessed by neighboring countries? If, some 50 years later, as recorded in Joshua 10, that the sun and the moon stood still for an entire day while the Lord cast great stones from heaven upon the enemy and "more died from the hailstones that day than from the sword," should we not ask ourselves, What could have possibly disturbed the rotation of the earth and at the same time unleashed such a destructive meteor shower upon mankind? Were these the same type of meteorites which fell upon Egypt with fire running along the ground?
Unfortunately, the translators of the Bible did not believe that stones could fall from the sky and therefore translated what was clearly in Hebrew "hot stones" as "hailstones." If the accounts are true, many things were far different in heaven as well as on Earth when Moses and Joshua walked among men. The apostle Peter foresaw the day when men would utterly deny the literal occurrence of the world-wide flood and other such events in history with these words:

There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this are they willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. (2 Peter 3:3-5)

Have we become "willingly ignorant" of the past, choosing instead to believe "all things continue as they were from the beginning" due to the popularity of false theories trumpeted about in our schools? Likewise, if we consider ourselves to be religious, do we scoff at alternate theories which back our scriptural beliefs simply because they are presented to us by a man who appears to be less religious?
Velikovsky, in attempting to explain the events of the plagues of Egypt, attributes each miniscule detail to natural forces and denies the direct intervention of a supreme being or angelic hosts. His greatest flaw was to state that the final plague wherein the firstborn of Egypt were slain by the destroying angel was, in effect, the death of the "high born," wealthy citizens of Egypt by an earthquake. He believed that only the wealthy died because they dwelt in houses of brick and stone which crushed them to death.

Velikovsky, overlooking God, could not envision a natural force capable of accurately discriminating between different races or classes of men. This belief ignores completely the deep Christian symbolism of the night of the Passover when it is written that all the homes which were painted with the blood of slaughtered lambs without blemish were spared. Only the firstborn of Egypt were smitten. All throughout the chapters of Exodus dealing with the plagues, it is plainly manifested that the Lord sorely vexed the Egyptians while setting the children of Israel apart from the suffering. This clearly implies that an intelligent and caring being who spoke to Moses "face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Exodus 33:11) was in complete command of the situation. It should not seem strange to us, however, that such a being would make full use of every natural law and element within his reach to produce the strategically
placed miracles in the Old Testament and elsewhere. In a chapter of Isaiah filled with references of great cosmic disturbances, the prophet writes,

The Lord of hosts (armies) mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. (Isaiah 13:4-5)

Though Dr. Velikovsky missed the deliberate symbolism of the plagues and other trials of the Israelites, he succeeded in his overall interpretation of the agents (hosts) used by the Lord to accomplish these miracles through the correlated testimonies of hundreds of witnesses. Let us forgive Velikovsky for not being a Christian that we may see the brilliance of his insight into the enigmatic passages of Isaiah chapter 14 and other prophecies. About 700 B.C., Isaiah spoke of the fall of the kingdom of Babylon, comparing it to the fall of Satan from the presence of God but also inserting a third party into the analogy. The name mentioned in verse 12 of chapter 14 is never mentioned again in any other biblical passage but was a common term used for the planet Venus from ancient to near present times. "Lucifer," meaning, "light bearer," is an apt name for the brightest light in the heavens following our sun and moon. The analogy to Satan fits perfectly because, according to the custom of many lands,
Venus entered the solar system within historical times as a blazing comet, first discovered near the planet Jupiter (thereby considered his daughter). So bright was the illuminated body and tail of the "fiery flying serpent" or "cockatrice" that it appeared to rival the sun in glory. It made several close passes to the earth beginning circa 1500 B.C. at the time of Moses and Joshua. It was worshipped in all lands as the queen of heaven, Ashtoreth or Astarte (the source of the word "disaster") and was a major influence upon the Israelites to worship idols instead of a living God.

From its wake fell large stones upon the earth, one of which lies at the center of the Ka'aba in Mecca and is still an object of veneration to loyal Muslims as they circle (orbit) the temple each year and enter to kiss the stone from Venus. The comet followed the other planets throughout the zodiac on an irregular orbit outside of the earth, making periodic close calls with Mars and Earth, keeping star watchers on their toes.

At the time of Isaiah and the founding of Rome, the orbit of Mars was highly disturbed by Venus, and Mars came perilously close to colliding with the earth before reassuming its present orbit. Mars succeeded in taming Venus, however, as the once bright comet was sent into a regular orbit inside that of the earth. In Isaiah's lifetime, the destructive and brilliant queen of heaven or Lucifer, who rivaled the
sun periodically for centuries, became a harmless planet, never again to rise more than 48 degrees in the night sky or to be visible except for a few hours before dawn or after the setting of the sun. For this reason, Venus is famed as the "morning and evening star." Remember that "the sides of the pit" refers to the horizon while contemplating the cosmic references in the verses below, whereas, the other "kings" mentioned are the other planets which are still able to approach the zenith of heaven in their seasons:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as a raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, to go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden underfoot. (Isaiah 14:12-19)

Isaiah continues to explain the extent of this cosmic event as well as the timing thereof and adds a warning to Israel that these destructions from heaven shall come again:

This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him who smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. (Isaiah 14:26,28)

On the day that king Ahaz was buried, the shadow on the sun-dial moved backwards by ten degrees and, some years later, during the reign of his son, Hezekiah, the sun-dial moved forward ten degrees meaning that the poles of the earth were shifted
more than once circa 700 B.C. due to extra-terrestrial forces.

Isaiah possessed a perfect knowledge of what was occurring as he made many allusions to the earth being removed from its place, knocked from its hinges and prophesied that it should reel to and fro like a drunken man. A closer examination of these events in Kings and Chronicles reveals that major disruptions to the earth were occurring at 15 to 16 year intervals. This is particularly pertinent since the highly elliptical (lopsided) orbit of Mars, even today, brings the red planet closest to earth every 15 to 17 years. It can be 250 million miles from Earth one year and approach within 33 million miles of Earth 15 years later.

This pattern is seen in the Old Testament, in the days of Isaiah, when Mars approaches much closer. The earth shock or worldwide movement of our planet in the days of King Uzziah that produced darkness at noon day (Amos 8:9) was followed 16 years later by the moving forward of the sun-dial by ten degrees on the day that King Ahaz was buried. Another 16 years pass and Hezekiah receives a sign of the Lord that his life will be prolonged. The sign is a backwards movement of the sun-dial by ten degrees.

Hezekiah becomes a righteous leader and good example for his son. He repairs the house of the
Lord and restores true temple worship. Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, takes over the kingdom of Judah 14 to 15 years after the sun-dial's reversal and quickly turns to the worst forms of idolatry and human sacrifice to the hosts of heaven. Thus, it appears that the ability to maintain one's faith in the unseen creator is stretched beyond reason for the Israelites during the hyper-perigees of Mars.

The events that led people to worry about the status of Venus and Mars up until the present time have been well recorded yet have been veiled from our understanding. The story of Samson and Delilah reinforces the truth of the earth-shaking disasters that occurred in the days of Isaiah. Samson, the planet Mars, following several spectacular encounters with the comet Venus, (Delilah), was forced from his regular orbit and appeared to be a comet himself with long hair trailing behind him as he approached the earth.

He was perceived to be a menace or possess more strength as long as his "hair" was visible. One college commentary on the Bible denies that there was ever a Hebrew belief that the length of a person's hair had anything to do with their physical strength. However, this is a common belief in most ancient "pagan" cultures and, as late as 1972, songs have been written which attribute strength to the length of someone's hair:
Oh I'm on my way, I know I am

Somewhere not so far from here

All I know is all I feel right now

I feel the power growing in my hair {1}

The artist who penned these verses is a descendent of the Greek culture which built a temple to Athena (Venus) on Mars Hill. This belief was learned by sad experience in ancient times from the raging heavens above for the very word "comet" means hair. The planet Venus, known as the "smoking star" in Mexico, was also the god Quetzalcoatl, the fiery flying serpent of the Aztecs. The plains Indians of North America knew of the tradition of the long hair of Venus to the present century. Upon seeing the long, golden locks of General Custer, they referred to him thereafter as "the son of the morning star."

So close did Mars pass by the earth on several occasions near 700 B.C. that detailed descriptions were recorded of its appearance and the tiny moons which followed. At times they appeared as horses pulling a large chariot and were called the "steeds of Mars." For this reason, the horse became a symbol of the red planet as well as the animal sacrificed to him by the Romans. At other times they trailed behind the planet along with many

{1}SITTING, Cat Stevens, Ackee Music, Inc., A&M Records, 1972
small asteroids and debris and were described by the people of India as Maruts, bright and shining snakes, in the Vedic hymns to the god Indra (Mars). As pointed out by Anthony Larson in AND THE MOON SHALL TURN TO BLOOD, these Vedic hymns to Mars reappear nearly verbatim in the Old Testament book of Joel and the prophet Habakkuk also gives us his firsthand witness of the approach-ing god of war and its effects upon the earth.{2}

In the last close passage of the red planet, while Mars was seen with his hair tangled in the web of the Pleiades, the sun was occulted, the world was plunged into darkness and shook upon its hinges. According to Jewish tradition and the Jerusalem Talmud, this occurred in late March, during the first night of the Passover, when a "blast from heaven" destroyed the invading army of Sennacherib. If this is correct, the sun would have been very near to entering the constellation of Pisces during the equinoctial sunrise which would explain Samson destroying the temple of the fish-god although he remained in Taurus. In other words, while Mars was "hung-up" in the web of the Pleiades, the sun was prevented from rising in the region of Pisces. When the sun finally recovered, the rotation and inclination of the earth had changed forever.

{2}AND THE MOON SHALL TURN TO BLOOD, Anthony E. Larson, Zedek Books, Orem, UT, 1985
The pillars that Samson toppled were the poles of the earth. The North Pole which once sat firm under the stars of the great bear, shifted to its present position, pointing to a new pole star. The previous year of 360 days was expanded to 365 and ¼. Maui had succeeded at elongating the daylight hours. Calendars the world over were revised to reflect the abrupt change. Temples which had been built with their east gates oriented towards the equinoctial rising of the sun, were rebuilt to more accurately measure the seasons. This included the reparation of Solomon's temple which had to be re-oriented (literally, "re-easted") so that the sun would once again cast its first rays through the eastern gate and into the heart of the temple twice a year on the spring and autumnal equinoxes. This reparation was done under the direction of King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah.

In commemoration of this and other tragedies associated directly with Mars and the constellation of Taurus, as well as to honor the numberless victims of the conflagration, celebrations for the dead were held whenever the Pleiades returned to the zenith of the midnight sky each fall. For our culture this has become Halloween whereas, in other lands, it is simply the day of the dead. The Pleiades or loom is considered a portal for the dead to pass into the realm of spirits throughout the world.
The effects of those tragic days have been researched thoroughly by Dr. Velikovsky and others and it is needless to repeat what is already well documented. Unique insights can be derived from direct observation of the actual movements and appearances of the stars, however, to augment the astonishing evidence contained within the heart of cosmic allegories such as Samson and Delilah.

On occasion, while studying the night sky, it may be our privilege to make our own discoveries. For instance, in late June or early July we may be struck by the first appearance of Taurus in the eastern dawn and realize that the loosing of bulls in the streets of Pamplona, Spain at the very same time is no mere coincidence. Likewise, while we admire the circling of the northern stars around Polaris, we may marvel at the similarity of the Big Dipper to an enormous question mark. Could this constellation possibly be the origin of that symbol in our present punctuation? We should ponder upon the great mystery that it represents for at one time (from Roman, Egyptian and Indian sources) it was written that the pole star belonged to the constellation of Ursa Major.

Seneca of Rome described a time when the wain (wagon) or great bear was never immersed in the sea or dipped below the visible northern horizon. This means that the pole star was within Ursa Major. In Thyestes, Seneca was describing an era
of cosmic upheaval and disruption of the poles not a gradual precession or imperceptible wobble of the earth. The description of the same era by the Hindus who wrote the Jaminiya Upanishad Brahmana asserted the same thing as well as Egyptians who said the pole star was in the great bear (Wainright's interpretation of Letopolis).

A sudden shift of the poles of the earth would have created a situation wherein kingdoms might offer rewards to the discoverer of the new pole star just as the Romans and others had contests to discover the true length of the year. Could it be that the period at the end of the modern question mark represents the star Alcaid which is the point of the handle of the Big Dipper and the former pole star? If the curved crook of the dipper along with every other constellation once circled about Alcaid, it would have become a symbol of the ultimate question or mystery throughout the world: "Which is the new pole star?" It is also a symbol of evil when portrayed upside down, especially in connection with the Christian cross.

This mystery may be further preserved within the roots of Latin languages, in words borrowed from the Arabs who named the stars. The Spanish word, "caido" (fallen), from the verb, "caer" (to fall), may have been derived from the Arabic name of the fallen pole star, Alcaid. Although in a shifting of the poles all stars would have appeared to fall at
once to an earthly observer, the ultimate fallen star would have been the guardian of the pole, the pivot of heaven.

The story of Samson and Delilah was written by appointed true scribes and inserted into the book of Judges in order to preserve catastrophic history from the hands of the "willingly ignorant" future scoffers, (as described by the apostle Peter), who might dissect the account beyond recognition if told in straightforward terms. We should be grateful that the story survived for the most part intact. But, however amazing it may seem, this tale is only part of a much greater saga which includes descriptions of the earth's condition shortly following the creation up until the days of the events already discussed.

CHAPTER 5 / A PRECURSOR TO HAMLET

Hamlet tells Earth's history. A portrait of the dawn of creation. The first royal family. Preserved in myth and folklore of all lands. Sun songs; Creation myths from around the world. Grandfather clocks. Father Christmas. The dollar bill. Kronos, corona, crown. Global pyramids. The palm of your hand. Genesis.
We are attracted to the tales of the cosmos without realizing that the stars are the major characters. There is a familiar ring of truth beneath the surface of the absurd that keeps us glued to the actors as the plot unfolds before us. One such immortal, hypnotizing play is Shakespeare's HAMLET which includes its own unique variation of the exploits of Venus and Mars.

HAMLET, however, comprises a much wider scope of cosmic history that can only be fully appreciated after comparing creation myths from around the globe which suggest that heaven and Earth have undergone major cosmic revolutions from the time of man's earliest recollection. When viewed from the correct vantage point, it becomes clear that sources from Egypt, India, Japan, Persia and Oceania to Peru are all telling the same story we find in Genesis concerning the history of the earth following a universal flood. HAMLET explains Earth's history from the era of the creation up until the founding of Rome in a manner which carries the message to the very center of the soul when understood by the same light in which it was written.

It is hoped that this chapter about heavenly characters will render the following chapter on the characters of Shakespeare much more intelligible.
The general descriptions of heaven and earth preserved in scripture and myth of the earliest times tell us of a "golden age" when men lived for hundreds of years and food and wine were plentiful for all. During the golden age, heaven and Earth were not separate but joined by a cosmic umbilical cord in the northern region to a brilliant sphere surrounded by radiant rings.

The thin, winding cord to heaven protruded from an enormous mound formed at the top of the earth by the bulging oceans being held up into a pyramid shaped throne directly below the "lord of the rings." He was the creator of new lands and all life emanated from him as his celestial speech filled the atmosphere in varying audible tones. Depending on the time of day and year, as the sun circled the earth attached to this "heaven," the sun's rays produced various figures from the reflection of the rings and the center.

In winter, when the sun shone more directly from the south, the light show was most spectacular. There were no seasons of inclement weather, however. In summer, the darkened sphere glowed magical shades of blue, the coveted lapis lazuli or royal violet. Throughout most days of the year, the partially illuminated rings, in crescent form, appeared to sail in a circle around the central sun. The celestial womb was perceived to enclose a golden child and therefore, the good king in some
lands was considered to be a woman, perpetually conceiving and giving birth. Periodically the world mountain or support of heaven consisted of two distinct peaks when the crescent was seen underneath the sun-star sitting directly over the "breast of the earth." Some interpreted this as a great "horned fish" sitting upon the primordial ocean.

The central star was known as a sun because it produced its own light, perhaps more so before the days of the flood, when there wasn't such darkness at night and men's lives approached a thousand years. Still, when the orbiting sun's rays hit the sun-star's center just right, four brilliant rivers of golden light burst forth in the form of a perfect cross. At least four distinct beasts guarded the center of heaven, taking turns, one at a time. Each was an apparition of the illuminated rings, the sun-star and a portion of the triangular throne. Each beast had magnificent wings or horns formed by the rings and they became distinct objects of worship.

It was perceived as a great "bull of light" or a large bird with wings and tail fully extended. The beasts were four, the rivers of light were four, but the central god was threefold: Worshipped separately and distinctly were the throne or "world mountain," the rings and the central star or "sky island." Some cultures worshipped the star, the pillar of heaven, the rings and the bulging ocean (throne). In Hawaii
this is Kane, Ku, Lono and Kanaloa, lord of the deep. The god Ku is depicted as a pyramid shaped object and directly correlates to the Egyptian god Nu, a pyramid shaped pillar of ocean life supporting heaven.

The golden age was destined to end in a violent manner, just as it was ushered in. The global flood occurred from a temporary separation of the earth from the sunstar as the mound of oceans rushed southward and "the fountains of the deep were broken up." The rings of heaven contained the enormous quantities of water needed to cover every square inch of dry land. They were perceived to strike the earth and pull up new lands as the floods abated, returning to the rings while the oceans piled high once again in the northern regions.

The final separation of the waters above from the waters below was a most tragic day of Earth's history. Another star, much denser than the first, passed close enough to sever the connecting tissue between the throne and the celestial rings, essentially pulling the sun-star from the throne and banishing him forever to an independent orbit far from Earth. The brilliant rings instead became dull funeral robes as the king was exiled to the furthest edge of darkness. During the struggle for the throne it appeared that a great serpent or dragon writhed and snapped in the north as enormous electrical currents crossed between the orbs. That which once
seemed to support the ruler of the golden age had turned upon him in a cosmic conspiracy. The evil star, which destroyed the throne and caused the continents of the earth to divide, hurled one last bolt of energy earthward and became the new object of worship and reigning monarch.

The earth was left alone, without an evening sun in the north and the lives of men were cut in half. Hymns to the dead cried out in anguish and lament, begging for the good king's return, while giant pyramids were erected in memory of the slain ruler. The builders hoped that he would return from the dead and occupy the thrones built by human hands since the throne of the North or "world mountain" had disappeared. For centuries the new, brutal king was uncontested. No other star could approach the glory of the conqueror, although he did not reside among men as the former good king had done. The day would come, however, that the true heir to the throne would avenge the blood of his father and men would cease to worship the exposed tyrant.

Now, examine these versions of the creation from around the world in light of the paragraphs above, keeping in mind that, quite often the term "sun" may not apply to what we consider to be the ruler of daytime:
Egypt

The most ancient of the gods was Tem or Atmu who created for himself as a dwelling place, the great mass of celestial waters called Nu. When his ideas were formed into words and were spoken, all things were created. Within Nu were the germs of all life. "At the beginning of the world was a waste of water called Nu, and it was the abode of the Great Father. He was Nu for he was the deep, and he gave being unto the sun god who hath said: Lo, I am Khepera at dawn, Ra at high noon, and Tum at eventide.

The god of brightness first appeared as a shining egg which floated upon the water's breast. Now Ra was greater than Nu from whom he arose...mankind were born from his eye." The goddess Isis desired to have power equal with Ra, who was aging. From his saliva she formed a venomous serpent and laid it in his path. After he had been bitten, Isis coaxed him into revealing unto her his secret name (Ran) which held his power. Having been thus deceived, Ra vanished amidst thick darkness.

The sun boat was empty but Isis later made him whole. Ra returned but had aged dramatically and was mocked by men who said, "Aged indeed is king Ra, for now his bones are silvern and his flesh is turned to gold, although his hair is still true lapis lazuli." Ra was angry with the disrespectful and
vowed to destroy men by a flood. Nu advised him, "Let thine eye go forth against the rebels in the kingdom and it shall destroy them utterly. When it cometh down from heaven as Hathor, no human eye can be raised against it." The eye of Hathor went forth. Then Ra repented and he sought to save the remnant of mankind. Hathor saw her own beauteous reflection in the flood and began to drink eagerly of the water then returned unto Ra where she was summoned. The weary Ra departed from his dwelling place on earth unto the heavens where he divided and set in order the stars.{1}

Babylon

(It appears that the Babylonians superimposed celestial events of a later period upon those of the gods of creation. This is understandable in light of the fact that the acts of Venus and Mars mimicked the original struggle between Saturn, the throne and Jupiter. Marduk, though generally considered the planet Jupiter, is here glorified to the point of becoming the creator. In like manner, the Greeks all but forgot the god Kronos in order to better worship Zeus).

"The world was all one sea. At length there was a movement in the sea, and Eridu was erected, Esagila was built; Esagila in the midst of the ocean,

where the god of the glorious abode dwells.

{1}PAPYRUS OF ANI, C. Wallis Budge
Babylon was built, Esagila completed. Marduk created the lesser gods at the same time and made supreme the glorious city, the seat dear to their hearts. Marduk constructed an enclosure around the waters." "Tiamat, the mother of the gods, turned

against them (the upper gods) in hatred with all her force. The mother of the deep, the creator of all, has made in addition invincible weapons, spawning monster serpents, sharp of tooth and unsparing of fang." Tiamat placed her offspring upon the throne until Marduk, the avenger, came to do battle against the dragon. He was victorious and inherited the royal throne, surpassing his father in power as decider and ruler.{2}

Japan

"Of old, heaven and earth were not yet separated and the yin (female) and yang (male) principles not yet divided. They formed a chaotic mass like an egg which was of obscurely defined limits and contained the germs of life. At this time a certain thing was produced between heaven and earth. It was in form like a reed-shoot. Now this became transformed into a god." "In one writing it is said: the gods of heaven addressed He-who-invites and She-who-invites, saying: there is the country Abundant-reed-plain....do ye proceed to bring it into order?

{2}SUN SONGS, CREATION MYTHS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, Van Over, pp. 175-77, Meridian, New York, 1983
They then gave them the jewel-spear of heaven. Hereupon the two gods stood upon the floating bridge of heaven, and plunging down the spear, sought for land." The two gods came and dwelt in the island they created and also established the pillar of heaven.{3}

Tibet

An egg formed of the five precious gems burst open by its own innate force from the celestial womb of the empty sky. The shell became protecting armor, the tegument defending weapons, the white became a strength potion for heroes, the inner tegument became a citadel for them to dwell in. That obscure citadel, the Sky-fort-of-the-waters-of-wrath, it stole the sun's light so bright was it. From the very inner part of the egg came a man of magical powers ...And between his horns which were those of the king of birds, he had a head ornament, a wish-granting gem.{4}

Persia

Ahura Mazda answered, "The fair Yima, the great shepherd, O holy Zarathustra! He was the first mortal, before thee...then I, Ahura Mazda, brought two implements unto him: a golden ring and a poniard inlaid with gold...Then Yima stepped forward, toward the luminous space, southward to

{3}NIHONGI, CHRONICLES OF JAPAN

{4}SUN SONGS, Op. Cit., p. 373
meet the sun, and afterward he pressed the earth with the golden ring, and bored it with the poniard."{5}

India

First an all potent, all pervading sound

Bade flow the waters and the waters flow'd.

Exulting in their measureless abode,

Diffusive, multitudinous, profound

Above, beneath, around;

Then, o'er the vast expanse, primordial wind

breath'd gently, till a lucid bubble rose,

which grew in perfect shape, an egg refined;

Created substance no such luster shows,

Earth no such beauty knows.

Above the warring waves it danc'd elate.{6}

"In the night of Brahma...I beheld the great Narayana, soul of the universe...reclining on the formless waters, supported by the thousand-headed-serpent Infinite...Then Vishnu answered, knowest thou not that I am Narayana, creator, preserver, and destroyer of the worlds...then there appeared before us a glorious shining Lingam, a fiery pillar."

"The fish smiled and revealed to Manu its identity as Brahma. It also predicted the approaching end of the world by a deluge and asked Manu to build an

{5}Ibid. p. 335

{6}Ibid. p. 320
ark to take in it the seven Rishis and all the different seeds enumerated by Brahmins of yore and preserve them carefully. Manu did as he was told, and when the deluge began, he set sail in his ship and fastened the cables of the ship to the horns of the fish."{7}

No sun was there, dividing day from night.

Then was there only, That, resting within himself.

Apart from it, there was not anything.{8}

Malaysia

The Eldest Magician, while yet in the womb of creation, created the earth of the width of a tray and the heavens of the width of an umbrella. God created the pillar of the Ka'aba, which is the Navel of the Earth, whose growth is comparable to a tree...whose branches are four in number.{9}

Peru

It was Viracocha who created the sun and the moon. Although he was a great god he disguised himself and came upon the goddess Cavillaca and left a ripe fruit beside her which made her pregnant. When she realized the father of her child was a beggar, "she fled towards the ocean with the child. Viracocha put on his robes of splendour and hastened after her. Cavillaca had flung herself and

{7}Ibid. p. 321

{8}RIG VEDA X 129

{9}SUN SONGS, Op. Cit., p. 386
her child into the sea and they became rocks. He remained by the sea, mourning their deaths. In the same place, two virgins lived who were guarded by a serpent. One of them fled while the other stayed with Viracocha and showed him a pond where her mother kept all the fishes of the world. Viracocha broke down the walls of the pond and the fishes entered the streams, the lakes and the seas. He lived amongst men and set up a great cross upon the mountain Caravay.{10}

Mexico

"There was nothing standing; only the calm water, the placid sea, alone and tranquil. Nothing existed. Only the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu,Gucumatz and the Forefathers were in the water surrounded with light. They were hidden under green and blue feathers and were therefore called Gucumatz (the feathered serpent). In this manner the sky existed and also the Heart of Heaven, which is the name of God and thus he is called." Tepeu and Gucumatz counseled together and created man by the power of their words, "when the sky was in suspense and the earth was submerged in water."{11}

Polynesia

In these days the heaven lay upon the earth and all was darkness. They had never been separated. The

{10}Ibid. p. 112

{11}POPOL VUH
forest god, Tutenganahau, severed the sinews which united heaven and earth. Tane separated night and day. "Then wailed heaven and exclaimed earth, Wherefore this murder? Why this great sin? Why destroy us?" But Tane pushed and pushed: Rangi was driven far away into the air. They became visible, who had hitherto been concealed between the hollows of their parents' breasts.{12}

Greece

Uranus and Gaia were forcibly separated when Kronos castrated his father, Uranus. From this separation, the Titans were created. Following their divorce, Gaia and Uranus conspired together to protect Zeus from Kronos his father. Zeus exiled Kronos to a cosmic island.

Hesiod recorded the ancient belief in the "five ages of man," describing various stages in Earth's history wherein mankind first prospered exceedingly and lived for several hundred years while "Kronos in heaven dwelt," during the Age of Gold. A change occurred to Earth and man, however, when Zeus took command. The Silver Age was nothing compared to the former age. Man still lived much longer than in subsequent ages but did not reach maturity until after what seemed a hundred years of childhood.

{12}SUN SONGS, Op. Cit., p. 379
The Bronze Age began when Zeus decided to remake mankind but they became murderers and war-mongers. Therefore, he created a "worthier race," a fourth class of humans undenoted by any class of metal. This noble race dwelt apart from men, "by the deep swirled ocean, safe in isles of the blest." (This describes a righteous band which was removed from the earth prior to the flood of Noah, which is precisely what occurred to Enoch and his celestial city). Last, came the Age of Iron, the age in which "children at birth show heads already grown gray," full of toil and strife. Hesiod lamented having been born into this latter age for, compared to previous ages, life ended shortly after it began and only a small minority were civilized beings.{13}

From the Greeks, ancient Rome inherited their gods of mythology but infused different names. The name for Kronos was Saturn and, for Zeus, Jupiter. It should not surprise us then that the Chinese god, Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor or Genie of the Pivot (the north pole) was also the planet Saturn. Ra or Ptah of Egypt, often interpreted as the sun, was in earliest times Saturn as well. From each distinct culture, the respective primordial god of creation was the planet Saturn whether it be Brahma or Viracocha, Yima Xsaeta or Hunracan. The god who dethroned Saturn, often quite violently, was

{13}WORKS AND DAYS, Hesiod
Jupiter. Throughout the world, Saturn was considered the source of heavenly waters which produced the flood of global proportions and took it back up again. The cube shaped temple of the Ka'aba in the desert of Mecca was originally built as a shrine for Hubal, the planet Saturn; the cube being the universal symbol of that planet and representing the base upon which it rested above the earth. It is believed that if the Ka'aba were removed from its place, the earth would be flooded once again from the waters contained below the temple.

Very similar myths concerning the ancient temple in Jerusalem also exist. In a vision of a future temple to be built in Jerusalem in the last days, Ezekiel witnessed a river of pure water flowing out from directly beneath the threshold which reached unto the Dead Sea and cured the waters there. This miraculous appearance of floods from beneath the temple will be taken as a sign of the divinity of the structure itself. (Ezekiel 47)

Regardless of whether we believe that Saturn once sat close enough to the northern pole of the earth to create the scenes described from all of these various lands and religions, we are surrounded by hundreds of reminders of this unimaginable order of heaven wherever we turn. Pull a dollar bill from out of your wallet and there it is; that curious "all seeing eye" of heaven at the summit of an Egyptian
pyramid, of all places. As previously mentioned, Kronos was the keeper of time, therefore, any word related to time includes his name; chronology and synchronize, for example. Kronos is also the origin of the words corona and crown which is remarkable due to the celestial halo worn by Saturn. The design of the hourglass is a replica of two spheres connected at the poles, some of them held together by a series of four heavenly pillars, others by three pillars. Grandfather clocks made to this day are often adorned at the top with curious knob-shaped, ringed figures surrounded on either side by the twin peaks of "Olympus."

Father Time is also, of course, Father Christmas, maybe even Santa Claus, who dwells at the North Pole. The Greek festival to Kronos became the Roman festival to Saturn or "Saturnalia." This was held annually in late December at the time of the winter solstice during the shortest days of the year while the sun was furthest south. This would be the time of year that a star, sitting above the northern pole of the earth would be fully illuminated. The custom of the tree of lights with a star at the top was derived directly from the Saturnalia festival. In other cultures this time of year became a festival of lights such as Channukah.

Then there are religious symbols such as the moon and star of Islam which originally was a symbol for paradise and is not a moon and star at all. It was
meant to portray a star within a crescent or partially illuminated rings and is a drawing of what could be seen with unaided eyes during the Golden Age.

The Hindu symbol for "om," which is the sound heard from heaven during the creation, according to tradition, also depicts a crescent and a star within its circle. Many renditions of the virgin mother of Catholicism are figures of an unusually large triangular shape with a small head at the summit surrounded by a radiant halo.

The medicine wheel of the Plains Indians of the United States is symbolic of the ring of celestial waters which once sat above the earth and, many tribes yet believe the waters of the earth to be sacred owing to their cosmic origin. Many modern illustrations of the medicine wheel clearly depict a central fire or "sun" surrounded by twin mountain peaks or rainbows and is being orbited by the sun, the moon and the major stars. These illustrations are nearly identical to Far Eastern drawings of Mt. Meru and Mandala.

You need look no further than the palm of your hand for another cosmic reminder of the original order of heaven. Palm readers from ancient days to the present regard the middle finger as the planet Saturn and a pyramid shape at the base of the middle finger as "the mountain of Saturn."
As far-fetched as it may seem, Saturn once dwelt near the earth (or vice versa) at a time when the earth may have been much different in size. Although we may utterly reject this notion, we cannot deny that all ancient civilizations described it as such. Jupiter was blamed for the violent removal of the ruler of the Golden Age and the throne of heaven was perceived to conspire against him. The allegiances of men changed in accordance with the planet possessing the most power over the earth. Therefore, Zeus completely overshadowed Kronos in Greece and Marduk is given far more credit than he deserves for the creation in Babylon.

The apostle John was well versed in Greek and Babylonian mythology and sought to win converts by making many analogies to the struggle between Marduk and Tiamat the dragon. His verses were not meant to be mysterious in the slightest yet are today considered the most puzzling of all Christian prophecy in the book of Revelation. An understanding of John's references to ancient Babylonian creation myths as well as the cosmic upheavals he witnessed in visions of the future make his prophecies much less mysterious.

The book of Genesis describes a scene we can more easily recognize now: When God said, "Let there be light," the sun and moon were not the sources. Not until the fourth day were these luminaries seen in the heavens. The original source of light was
from elsewhere. There was an expanse dividing the waters above from the waters below.

Philosophers of the day love to point out the similarities between Eden, Adam and Eve, the serpent and the tree of life to the mythologies of the ancient world in order to prove that these ideas are fictional. They fail to realize the literal truth which is contained in mythology as well as in Genesis. Creation stories from pagan civilizations consist of the supposed cosmic origins of life superimposed by many of the events of Eden. These people were, after all, descendants of Adam, a literal and literate being. Genesis goes on to say that the flood of Noah came upon the earth when "all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened."

Also, at the time of the tower of Babel, built to reach a visible body above the earth, in the days of Peleg, the earth was divided. This great division not only pertained to continents but to the separation of "heaven" from earth. The ancient Chinese symbol of heaven is a golden ring and the god who dwelt there was Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, also known as the Genie of the Pivot (the North Pole). The Lord divided mankind in order to preserve a righteous band apart from the wicked traditions of their predecessors lest the whole earth become corrupted.
The force which divided heaven and earth was cosmic. The Greeks blamed Kronos of successfully castrating Uranus, severing the umbilical cord which proceeded from the throne, then proceeded to worship Zeus who was the usurper of power. Many people the world over pray to God through the name of Zeus to this day not realizing his traitorous acts. In Latin cultures they use the name Dio and Dios. In our culture the word "deity" and "theology" honor the tyrant, Zeus, who stole the throne.

The woman with child was exiled to outer darkness and the kind ruler of the Golden Age was violently overthrown. Would there be no avenger, no justice amongst the stars? Could not the tyrant be overthrown by a rightful heir to the throne? Shakespeare provides for us the most adequate answer to that cosmic question for that is what Hamlet is all about.

CHAPTER 6 / SHAKESPEARE KNEW

Access to ancient records. Gulliver. Curious quotes. King James. The Light Bearer. Amlethus and Brutus. Hamlet, a deliberate tale of the cosmos. The cosmic brothers. Romeo and Juliet. Homer's Odyssey. A universal theme within our own folklore. Paul Bunyan. The Babe. The Lion King. Braveheart. Mardi Gras. Close Encounters. What is the attraction?
Shakespeare was a stargazer, of that there can be no doubt. But, were some of his plays written to illustrate the history of the cosmos or was he only repeating a pattern established centuries before by ancient authors? Some experts believe he was well read in ancient mythology, perhaps having access to sources yet undiscovered such as demonstrated by William Swift in GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. In 1726, Swift described in detail the moons of Mars:

Certain astrologers...have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars, whereof the innermost is distant from the center of the primary planet exactly three of its diameters, and the outermost five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours and the latter in twenty-one and a half...which evidently shews them to be governed by the same law of gravitation, that influences the other heavenly bodies.{1}

Velikovsky adds:

Actually Mars has two satellites, mere rocks, one being as small as about ten miles in diameter and the other only five miles. One travels around Mars in 7 hours and 39 minutes, the other in 30 hours 18 minutes. Their distance from the center of Mars is even less than Swift said it was. They

{1}TRAVELS INTO SEVERAL REMOTE NATIONS OF THE WORLD, Lemuel Gulliver, II, 43, London, 1726.
were discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877. With the optical instruments of the days of Swift, they could not have been seen, and neither Newton nor Halley, the contemporaries of Swift, nor William Herschel in the eighteenth or Leverrier in the nineteenth century suspected their existence {2}

Velikovsky suggests that Swift had access to some unknown text and reminds us that both Homer and Virgil wrote about the two "steeds of Mars."

Shakespeare lived at a momentous time of English history, during the period when King James hired the wisest of the wise to make a new translation of the Holy Scriptures, regarded to this day as "the Authorized Version." Though doubtful that he helped in the translation of biblical verses, Shakespeare was on very good terms with the King and was certainly familiar with the scholars of the day. It would have been no mystery to him that "Lucifer" alluded to a star as well as the devil in Isaiah 14 since Venus, while rising as a morning star in the eastern dawn, was called by that name.

The ancient Jewish scribes used the name Mazzaroth in an obscure verse in Job which was

{2}WORLDS IN COLLISION, Immanuel Velikovsky, pp. 279-280, Doubleday, Garden City, 1950
translated as Lucifer in the Vulgate (Latin) translation. This verse quotes the Lord asking Job, "canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Knowest thou the changes of Heaven?" The Greek translation reads, "Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season and guide the evening star by his long hair?" (Job 38:32-33). There must have been many such verses which spawned debate as to whether the prophets spoke of comets or Venus or if, in fact, Venus was the very comet itself.

Milton, of the same era as Shakespeare, preserved in poetry the true identity of the cosmic Lucifer in PARADISE LOST:

...through the Gate

Wide open and unguarded, Satan pass'd,

And all about found desolate; for those

Appointed to sit there, had left their charge,

Flown to the upper world; the rest were all

Far to the inland retir'd, about the walls

Of Pandemonium, City and proud seat

Of Lucifer, so by allusion call'd,

Of that bright star to Satan paragon'd.{3}

Shakespeare, in the midst of such scholarly sifting of the scriptures, was also an intense student of the stars as reflected in the following verses:

{3}PARADISE LOST, x:418-26, Milton
Mars his true moving, even as in the heavens so

in the earth, to this day is not known.

(1 Hen. IV iii 2:47)

Nine changes of the watery star hath been the

shepherd's note. (W. Tale i 2:1)

Bright star of Venus, fall'n down on the earth.

(1 Hen. VI i 2:144)

We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the

moon, and the stars. (Lear i 2:131)

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

disasters in the sun...(Hamlet i 1:36)

Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury.

(LL Lost i 1:89)

An we might have a good woman born but one

every blazing star, or at an earthquake.

(All's Well i 3:91)

When beggars die, there are no comets seen. (J.Caesar ii 2:30)

Comets, importing change of times and states,

Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky!

(1 Hen. IV iii 2:47)
The weight of astrological reasoning is apparent in these quotes. The stars, appearances of comets and meteors were of constant concern to our ancestors. These portents were especially ominous to aristocratic families, emperors and kings for they believed a comet to signal the death or downfall of the current ruler. From a few years preceding Christ we have records of Roman emperors such as Marius, who suffered death the same year that a bright comet appeared. Before his demise he tortured and murdered any possible aspirer to the throne, believing that the celestial apparition foretold his overthrow.

Months after the murder of Julius Caesar another impressive comet appeared in 44 b.c. In 60 a.d., immediately following the passage of a great comet, people of many lands inquired who was to succeed the Roman emperor, Nero. The emperor was so furious he massacred all aristocrats and nobility and lived beyond the appearance of Halley's comet in 66 a.d. The young Nero committed suicide, however, in the year 68 at 32 years of age. These "superstitions" continued well beyond the age of Shakespeare and even into the 1900's.

Comets and extraordinary meteor showers (such as the Leonid showers of 1866, where thousands of "falling stars" filled the heavens) were blamed for many disastrous events all stemming from the days
of Moses, when Pharaoh was overthrown by the Lord and the hosts of heaven.

Although many of his ideas were borrowed from the ancients, Shakespeare only sought to bring these cosmic legends back to life for a more enlightened" generation just as the ancient authors had done for their respective generations. The story of Hamlet, concerning the history of the creation and subsequent attempts by Mars to avenge the throne of his father, was recorded in the myths of various lands. The predominant versions which gave birth to the Hamlet with whom we are familiar are the tale of Amleth by Saxo Grammaticus (circa 1200 a.d.) and the legend of Lucius Junius Brutus as told by the Roman historian Livy who lived at the time of Christ. The name Hamlet or Amleth as well as Brutus, denotes, "a simpleton, stupid, like unto a dumb animal."{4}

The character, Brutus, becomes the hero of Roman civilization by rescuing the throne from his uncle, King Tarquin. The King saw a terrifying prodigy consisting of a serpent crawling from out of a wooden pillar. In order to receive a satisfactory answer from the gods as to the meaning of this vision, he sent his two sons to the oracle of Delphi in Greece. Along with his sons traveled Brutus, who acted like a complete fool to avoid his uncle's

{4}HAMLET'S MILL, Op. Cit., p. 20
propensity for putting to death all who dared to cross him. At Delphi, Brutus offered unto Apollo a golden staff enclosed in wood. The message received from the cave said that whoever was to first kiss his mother would be the next ruler of Rome. Brutus, in a flash of genius, fell to the ground and kissed the earth.

According to Saxo's history of Denmark, King Orvendel conquered Norway which enfuriated his brother, Fengo. Fengo murdered his brother and took his wife as his own along with the throne. Amleth, son of Orvendel, feigned madness in order to escape the wrath of Fengo and, under this disguise, plotted the revenge of his father's death. Spies were sent to catch him in his astuteness, to see whether he was truly mad or merely acting. He was tempted by damsels and was watched from afar. Always suspecting the paranoia of the King,

Amleth could not be snared. He was brought into a private room with his mother the Queen to see if he would reveal his true mind but the spy hiding in the straw was killed, chopped to bits, cooked and fed to the pigs. Fengo conspired to send Amleth to Britain to be executed according to the secret orders sent with his messengers. Before departing, Amleth advised his mother he would return in a year's time and that she should hang a knotted tapestry throughout the palace on the day of his memorial. In Britain, he succeeds in turning the tables upon
the messengers of Fengo who are executed in his stead. He becomes wealthy but only keeps a portion of gold which he melts and pours into two hollow sticks. Amleth returns exactly a year later to the royal palace of Denmark as the guests and servants are participating in his funeral rite. He serves them all with drink until they can scarcely move then pulls down the knotted tapestry upon their heads and incinerates them. Finally, Fengo is cornered in his chamber and felled by the sword of the avenger.

And now, let us examine the profile of HAMLET and ask ourselves if Shakespeare considered his characters to be human or of an entirely different realm:

The good King of a prosperous Denmark had passed from this mortal existence, going the way of all the earth, and leaving the throne to his dear wife, Gertrude. His son, Prince Hamlet, heir to the throne, considered it very suspicious that his mother the Queen carried on so romantically with his uncle, Claudius, especially so soon after the King's burial. The pure scandal of it all was brought to his attention as the messenger, Horatio, informed the young Hamlet that his father was not resting in peace but had appeared to him as a ghost in torment. Hamlet encountered his father's ghost in a remote part of the castle late one evening and was informed of the treacherous deed performed by
Claudius, his brother, in conjunction with the Queen in order to steal the throne. The King was murdered in his sleep when a vile of poison was poured into his ear.

The prince vowed to avenge the throne of his father and devised a cunning plan: From that night on, Prince Hamlet acted completely mad in everyone's presence while he gathered proof of the evil deed. Since he was the rightful heir to the throne, his madness preserved his life from the hands of his wicked uncle. Meanwhile, the uncle and his mother were married, enabling Claudius to sit in the position of the King. Only Hamlet posed them any sort of threat to be dealt with. He hounded his mother constantly, attempting to prick her heart with guilt and make her confess the crime. In one such instance, the Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, who was also part of the conspiracy and forever examining Hamlet lest he be faking, was hiding behind the curtains in the Queen's chambers as a spy.

The raging Prince detected his presence and thrust him through with his sword. Owing to Hamlet's feigned lunacy and the death of Polonius, her father, Ophelia, the beautiful maiden in love with Hamlet, completely lost her mind and suffered a tragic death by drowning in a river. Her brother, Laertes, once Hamlet's close friend, turned against him. Hamlet was sent to England by the King, his uncle, with
sealed instructions that he be executed. Hamlet, by his craftiness, escaped death and after much time returned to Denmark to exact his vengeance. Laertes, now an agent of Claudius, sought to publicly slay Hamlet before the King, the Queen and their entire court. Hamlet succeeded in exposing his fraudulent uncle using Shakespeare's greatest weapon; the heart rending reenactment of historical events upon the stage. Shortly thereafter, the sword would extinguish all of their lives leaving the faithful servant, Horatio to tell us the tale.

Thus, Shakespeare modified a story of a betrayed King (Saturn), dethroned by an evil brother (Jupiter), in conspiracy with the Queen (the throne of heaven) and Polonius (a derivation of Apollo), in order that he might rule over the earth. The rightful heir (Mars), while acting quite strangely, avenges the throne often accompanied by a brother or close friend (Mercury). A rival brother figure is usually the victim of a violent and gory death. The avenger encounters maidens, brides or prostitutes along his path (Venus).

The avenger and/or the maiden are often destroyed in the final battle or, in Ophelia's case, falls headlong into a river and drowns. This is consistent with worldwide myths concerning a great comet, Venus, burning a path in the sky, creating the celestial river, Eridanus, which flowed from the foot of Orion, surrounding the globe north to south,
reaching unto Scorpio. (That is, the Milky Way). In the celestial battle between Venus and Mars, the maiden fell headlong into the river then lost her former power. The weapons used by the avenger are either jawbones or nets (the Hyades and the Pleiades). The hero, at some point in the tale is in control or in the possession of pillars, center posts or, in the case of Amleth and Brutus, sticks of gold (the poles of the earth). Although Shakespeare's Hamlet did not possess sticks of gold or remove pillars, can we doubt his cosmic role in changing the position of the earth or moving the poles after hearing him utter such immortal lines as:

The time is out of joint

O, cursed spite,

That ever I was born

To set it right!

(Hamlet 1:5/188-9)

The messenger friend of Hamlet is Horatio much as the loyal messenger of Romeo is Mercutio (planet Mercury) in the play ROMEO AND JULIET. The unfortunate death of Mercutio at the hands of Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, is what turns the famed lover into a raging avenger. Romeo's murder of Tybalt capitulates the ruin of both Juliet and himself. The fair maiden loved the hero but led him unto death. She partook of a potion which made her appear as dead, Romeo not realizing it was only temporary. In the cemetery, upon seeing his Juliet still and
cold, Romeo took his own life. Juliet awoke too late to save her love and also ended her life in an attempt to join Romeo beyond the grave.

Shakespeare's usage of the names Montague and Capulet denotes both the cosmic throne of heaven or "pointed mountain" and that which sits upon or above the throne. Romeo's namesake, Romulus, legendary founder of Rome, also had his rival brother Remus. The twins avenged the throne, killing the wicked Amulius to restore the power to Numitor.

After founding their own city, they quarreled over who should rule and Romulus slew Remus. He was taken to the heavens by his father in a fiery chariot and worshipped thereafter as "Quirinus." The three major gods of Rome were Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus, the Quirinalia festival being held each February 17th. Though it seems certain that Shakespeare provides representative characters for the planet Mercury in both HAMLET and ROMEO AND JULIET, (namely the messengers Horatio and Mercutio), the true cosmic identity of the rival brother figures, Laertes and Tybalt, is not so readily apparent. Nevertheless, this character exists in all ancient versions of the same tale.

Zipacna of Central America also had such a brother named Capakran who was killed (poisoned) by the twin demi-urges (Gemini). The epic of Gilgamesh
from Mesopotamia tells us that, in his quest for immortality, Gilgamesh and his rival brother, Enkidu, gave battle to the monster Humbaba, guarding the sacred cedar tree. They killed the monster and cut down the tree. Ishtar was so impressed she desired to be his lover but Gilgamesh refused her advances. Ishtar, offended, convinced her father to punish Gilgamesh with the majestic bull of heaven. The hero and Enkidu destroyed the bull of heaven; Enkidu flinging it into her face. For this act Enkidu was sentenced to death and executed.

The true identity of Quirinus remains a mystery to this day because he was a planet on a par with Mars which no longer exists. Between the planets Jupiter and Mars float the remains of a shattered world where another planet should exist. This is known today simply as the asteroid belt and is comprised of millions of pieces of a destroyed sphere probably similar to Mars. The tragic deaths of Enkidu, Capakran, Remus and many other rival brothers of the avenger were recorded in memory of this slain planet, the companion of Mars. It is now easier to see that Shakespeare correctly interpreted this major figure as Tybalt, cousin of Juliet, and Laertes, brother of Ophelia; characters on a par with Romeo and Hamlet. They are representatives of the shattered planet once worshipped by the Romans as "Quirinus."
One of the earliest versions of the Hamlet story, if not the original, was penned by the Greek poet Homer very near to the time that Mars was witnessed in the heavens as the long awaited avenger of the king of the Golden Age. You may ask yourself if Homer was not himself an eyewitness of these very events, just as Isaiah, as you study the ever familiar plot of THE ODYSSEY.

It is the story of the long lost king Odysseus (Ulysses) and his struggle to regain his kingdom. He is hindered by the god Poseidon, lord of the deep, from returning to his heaven on earth; his home built by his own hands around a great tree on the island of Ithaca. At home awaited his wife and true love, Penelope, and also his loyal son, Telemachus. After many years of separation and Odysseus being presumed dead by nearly everyone, Penelope begins to accept gifts from eligible bachelors who seek to marry the Queen. After many months of competition and debauchery, their home is nearly destroyed. Penelope attempts to delay her marriage by weaving a large tapestry in honor of the lost Odysseus. When the secret of the loom is uncovered, that she had purposely delayed her weaving, the tapestry is destroyed by the evil suitors.

The destruction of the tapestry is immediately followed by the return of Telemachus from across the sea (encouraged by his enemies to go search for
his father in hopes he would be killed), and also the return of the disguised Odysseus. At the final competition for the Queen's hand, Odysseus is the only one to successfully string the bow and shoot an arrow straight through 12 carefully aligned rings. Following this miraculous feat, the chamber is sealed shut as father and son slaughter their enemies and regain their kingdom. Odysseus comments to Penelope that he had been gone but a single day although it had been 20 years. (As we recall, Jupiter and Saturn cross paths regularly at 20 year intervals).

In this very early attempt by Homer to depict the return of Saturn to his rightful throne, the Saturn figure himself is the central character who travels throughout the zodiac, crossing paths with strange women such as the Sirens and Calypso while longing for his dear wife. Mars the avenger, plays a minor role compared to later versions. From the most ancient days mankind composed prayers and formed religions around the hopeful return of the Golden Age of Saturn. They did not know that Mars would act as a raging god of war and become the avenger of Saturn's throne until he was provoked by Venus many centuries later. The great gods of Ithaca were Jupiter (Zeus) and Athena (Venus).

Mars was the champion of other nations such as Troy, their enemies, and newly formed nations such
as Rome. For this reason, little focus was upon Telemachus although other great symbols of the celestial battle are present. The tapestry of the Pleiades was shaken and torn and a battle or competition ensued over who would control the poles of the earth (Odysseus's great tree) and the measurement of time. The Homeric poems merit close examination by we of modern days. They are tales of the stars and planets representing events witnessed by large portions of literate humanity. It is no wonder then that later authors repeated the same patterns.

It is entirely conceivable that Shakespeare held a catastrophic view of the universe although we know that Milton, a few years later, certainly did not. From PARADISE LOST we see that he attributed the changes of the seasons and the inclination of the earth to very gradual processes:

These changes in the Heavn's, though slow, produc'd like change on Sea and Land...{5}

That he believed the earth's inclination shifted at all is heresy to modern science. The actual existence of a Golden Age of continual springtime spoken of in all creation myths is solely attributed to primitive man's extended imagination. However, so

{5}PARADISE LOST, x: 692, Milton
appealing is the tale of the sun changing its original course (the axis of the earth shifting) that we find modern avengers as our heroes in folklore and real life in the 21st century.

It should not be surprising that the greatest American folk-hero, Paul Bunyan, the giant axe-man with his enormous ox Babe, are famous for felling the pillars of the northern woods. Nor should we be astonished that another real life American hero, coincidentally bearing the same name as Paul Bunyan's giant ox, was a brawling, womanizing brute.

Babe Ruth is as close to a Samson as there will ever come. He gained fame as the Sultan of Swat despite his irrational antics on and off the baseball field. Following his heroic career in "the house that Ruth built," (Yankee Stadium), he was ultimately betrayed by his own club which passed him up when it came time to hire new management. The Babe apparently lacked the right judgment to manage a team. From there he became an object of derision, even a circus act, playing for the Boston Braves. He was kept in the line-up solely for the ticket sales as it seemed his former powers had abandoned him.

Then came the fateful day that the Braves faced the Pirates in the newly built colossal stadium known as Forbes Field. It was the most difficult major league
field in which to hit a homerun and no one had ever hit a ball completely out of the park. But something had inspired Ruth on that day of days; maybe it was knowing that Forbes Field had never been properly conquered. Stumbling to the plate amidst jeers and heckling from the crowded stands, suffering from the effects of throat cancer, the Babe swung his club with a mighty force and belted three homeruns that glorious game. His last homerun, number 714, which also happened to be the last hit of his career, sailed completely out of the park, landing over 600 feet from home plate. Babe Ruth truly brought down the house.

Leave it to Disney to serve Hamlet to young children as well as adults with the beautifully animated, (yet lacking in credits to Shakespeare), THE LION KING. If you thought your home was without culture just dig into your children's movies and watch this story again...only this time consider the true identities of Mufasa, the good king of the age of plenty and Scar, the jealous brother who covets the throne. Then there's Simba, the rightful heir of the king who escapes into the jungle following the murder of his father. The ghost of his father finally convinces Simba to end his foolish ways and avenge the throne. Of course, you could also consider Simba's raucous sidekicks as well as the sweet lioness who aided in changing the course of the young prince's life. Thank you very much, Michael Eisner, for providing this generation with a
new reminder of cosmic events. We apparently can't get enough of this particular myth, however now, we know why.

Is it any coincidence that the Samson/Hamlet theme was superimposed upon the raging hero of medieval Scotland, William Wallace, or that the recent film in his honor was voted best picture of 1996? BRAVEHEART, acted by Hamlet himself (Mel Gibson) depicts our warrior hero in many familiar settings: crushing skulls, courting princesses, setting fire to a locked house filled with enemy soldiers, setting entire fields of battle ablaze, being captured by the deception of his own people, thrown into a dungeon, publicly mocked and tortured unto death only to return to the arms of his martyred wife, sparking further rebellions against the wicked King. We continue to repeat the tale and search out raging heroes to guide us through these confusing times.

With these theories new to our minds, perhaps we can pinpoint the true origins of many of our holidays and entire seasons of celebrations such as the 40 days of Lent that commence with the wild and festive Mardi Gras. Although it has adopted a more sacred nature throughout Christian history, it is just plain curious that it evolved from an empire of Mars worshipers and commemorates the slowing down of the earth. And what was the cause of the world turning "más lento," as the Spaniards would
say? Was it the time when Mars came much closer to the earth than ever before circa 700 b.c. and the moons of Mars were plainly visible to the unaided eye? Should we continue to call the day before Lent "fat Tuesday" or should we modify it to the true meaning of Mardi Gras which is "fat Mars day?" It was the day that Mars appeared to the inhabitants of the entire earth as an ominous and enormous red menace to their very existence, helping to overthrow the enemies of the original Romans and thus becoming their supreme god.

Other modern films such as Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND play heavily upon our subconscious memory of the original appearance of the earth during the Golden Age. Anthropologists attribute the strikingly similar creation myths found in widely separate cultures to some nebulous psychological need of primitive man to imagine their world in the same manner. Never do they consider that, perhaps, they all saw the same things. But, why would a modern generation be so attracted to subliminal tales of the cosmos, or, why would a screenwriter, unfamiliar with the catastrophic view of creation, invent scenes in a film where people are possessed to build and paint towers reaching to heaven?

One scene in India shows a massive crowd pointing to heaven as the source of a wondrous celestial sound. Hinduism teaches that the world was
created from the speech of heaven and that speech was the resounding verb, "Om." CLOSE ENCOUNTERS transfers many events of the "gods" of creation to UFO sources but, still, the similarities to the actual conditions of heaven and earth at the dawn of creation are uncanny. The climactic scene of the movie occurs when the mother ship descends with its rings of light upon the "world mountain," (Devil's Tower, Wyoming) and speaks in harmonious musical tones to the enlightened ones who are wise enough to be present.

It is very doubtful that the authors of this 1977 sci-fi story ever considered that Saturn once sat near the earth, yet, the definite symbolism is there...and we are all the more attracted to it for that reason. One theory of this phenomenon is that all truth is radiated from one eternal source to all who will receive it. Another theory suggests that we inherit within our genes the traumatic and shocking experiences witnessed by our predecessors.

Whether or not we lived at anytime near these cosmic, earthshaking events, the truth of the past, present and future still encircles us. Other groups believe we have always existed and that we witnessed many of these events thousands of years before our mortal births. As the Lord inquired of Job:
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding ....When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

(Job 39:1-2)

The creation was a glorious event and, as the Book of Job reveals, we may have been there, all of us, shouting for joy. Might we have also witnessed subsequent events in history involving our future ancestors?

CHAPTER 7 / ESCHATOLOGY or

THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

Nothing new under the sun. Predicting the unpredictable. Wormwood. Strange locusts. Apollyon the destroyer. The abomination of desolation. The mark of the beast. Trial upon trial. Jerusalem surrounded. Increasing celestial activity. Jupiter bombarded. Worship of Earth and Nature. Global Warming? The Greenhouse Effect. A new heaven and a new Earth. The same agents of destruction? Virgil's prophecy. The return of the Golden Age.
A clear understanding of Samson is essential in these perilous times in which we live. Many people are seeking or will soon be seeking signs of the times and wondering if the years following the beginning of the 21st century will be the magical time that will bring an end to the earth as we know it. If Samson truly is a testimony of past destructions upon Earth by heavenly bodies then it is also a warning to this generation that such things can and will happen again. The writer of Ecclesiastes (supposedly Solomon) moaned pessimistically as he considered the history of man and stated:

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun.

(Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Therefore, if we seek to understand the future, we need only to examine the past. That which is prophesied to occur in the last days is that which has already occurred in ancient times. Let us not be surprised then, to find the plagues of Egypt of 1500 b.c. reappear in the Book of Revelation, a vision of the last days. We need not fear the nuclear bomb as much as we should fear the host of heaven. The missiles of mankind are but a thorn in our side compared to the true agents of the last destructions to afflict the human race. Why must we always jump to the conclusion that the apostle John and
other prophets are straining at words to describe the futuristic weaponry of our modern armies and navies when they are only speaking plainly of events that have occurred several times in the past? What deep interpretation is needed to comprehend that the principle agent of destruction is a star when John clearly states:

...there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountain of the waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many died of the waters because they were made bitter. (Revelation 8:10-11)

John describes the many types of plagues caused by the star then continues to describe some very peculiar locusts also directly associated with a star:

...I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the
faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails...And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon... By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths, for their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. (Rev. 9:1-3, 7-10/ Rev. 10:18-19)

We should know by now that the bottomless pit is the horizon of the earth and that a star named Lucifer was confined to the sides of the pit according to Isaiah 14.

The peculiar locusts become more familiar when we read "they had hair as the hair of women," which is the definition of the word "comet." According to John, the star causing all the commotion was well known by name in various ancient cultures as "the destroyer." Is it in fact the same Lucifer of Isaiah which "made the world as a wilderness, and
destroyed the cities thereof?" And we know that the Morning Star of Isaiah was Venus. The Savior himself surely knew of these things when he told his disciples that the entire earth would know of his coming due to the "sign" which would shine from one end of heaven to the other. But, before that sign should appear, the sun and moon shall be darkened, "the stars shall fall from heaven and the heavens shall be shaken." If you imagine for yourself a simple meteor shower causing this effect then think again. Imagine instead the entire field of stars and constellations suddenly dropping as the earth is abruptly moved from its pivot.

The Savior identified the celestial body which should cause this tremendous destruction just as John did. He spoke of a destroyer that must be carefully watched. Just as Isaiah compared Satan to the kingdom of Babylon and the Morning Star, Christ used an image with more than one level of understanding and, therefore, a warning to the hearer is inserted. The "abomination of desolation" is a term first used by Daniel to describe the armies of the enemies of Israel or anytime that Jerusalem is sacked by the enemy host. This abomination occurred during the Babylonian invasion (circa 600 b.c.) and again following Christ's crucifixion at the hands of the Romans about 70 a.d. It is prophesied that the armies of the earth will surround the holy city once again prior to the second coming. The following passage in Mark 13, however, does not
appear to be warning of an earthly army but a celestial body; the destroyer spoken of by John and Isaiah:

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand), then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains....(Mark 13:14)

The Savior in this instance wasn't warning about the Romans; they were already in control of the land and were ever-present. He was speaking of a known menace which would be removed from its usual place. Could the true understanding of this verse be, "when ye shall see Lucifer (Venus) standing where it ought not, (removed from its usual orbit), then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains?" Christ warns his disciples that, at that time, many signs and wonders shall be seen in the heavens that will deceive even the very elect.

One of the wisest men to dwell on the earth, Solomon, left the God of Israel to worship the emblem of a planet, the god Molech, who required the burning of children as a sacrifice. He was deceived by his idolatrous wives and also by the signs and wonders of heavenly bodies in his day. Likewise shall men behave in the very last days as they are drawn into worshipping the elements of nature described as beasts:
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles.

(Rev. 13:13-14)

The great beasts mentioned in Revelation are not men of this world but rather celestial bodies. There will arise powerful men wearing their emblems and forcing their dogma upon others, however. It is interesting that Adolph Hitler did just that when he adopted the swastika as his emblem. The earliest drawings of swastikas were depictions of a strange comet with a swirling tail according to Carl Sagan. He was very surprised, during a visit to India, to find that swastikas were painted everywhere and wondered if it wasn't a cruel hoax. He was informed that it was an ancient symbol of good fortune that was being displayed upon that particular day of festivities.

Investigating further, Sagan discovered it to be practically universal. In all corners of the world, beginning around 2,000 b.c...,the swastika became a symbol for well-being or good fortune and began appearing in thousands of artifacts. The word itself comes from the Sanskrit "svasti" meaning well-being. Chinese astronomical records from 300-400 b.c. actually prove the celestial origin of the symbol.
A comet chart containing drawings of the shapes of several comets in order of appearance looks like this:

Sagan and Druyan deduce that it was a phenomenon created by four symmetrically placed jets (tails) of a rotating nucleus. After making the connection to Hitler and the Nazis, the authors concluded:

A pinwheel of evaporated ice appears in solitary magnificence in the skies of Earth and, 3500 or 4000 years later its form – remembered through all the intervening generations of humans – is still employed to symbolize both good and evil.{1}

Another evil man of our time chose to mark his forehead with the swastika along with his band of demonic followers. This gang, under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs and the devil, believed that

{1}COMET, Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, pp. 181-187, Random House, New York, 1985
the rock group The Beatles instructed them to begin a war between the races in songs from their 1968 "White Album." The nightmarish recording of Revolution #9, which repeats the words, "number 9, number 9"...etcetera, was considered by Charles Manson a signal for him to study chapter 9 of Revelation in the New Testament wherein he imagined himself to be the angel of the bottomless pit. This murderer believed the pit was Death Valley, California, the lowest elevation of the Western Hemisphere, 282 feet below sea level. It was also one of Charlie's favorite hideouts. He also believed that the curious locusts with breastplates of iron and the hair of women were the four Beatles with their long hair and electric guitars.

Paul McCartney was calling the black race to arise, according to Manson, in the song Blackbird. He also denominated the revolution with the name "Helter Skelter," the wildest song of the album. Charlie considered the lyrics of Piggies by George Harrison to call for the murder of the upper-class. His gang, therefore, scrawled the word "pigs" in their victims' homes with their own blood. Their crimes were atrocious and one of the marks upon their foreheads was the swastika. Some of the details of their crimes are mentioned that you may know what to expect in the very last days as many such fanatics will imagine themselves priests of the destructive stars and apply corresponding marks to their bodies.
We must realize that it is foolish to pin a date on the second coming, especially near the year 2000. Though we may be living in dangerous times that are near to the sounding of the trumpet of the first angel as mentioned by John the Revelator, the earth may be subjected to several bouts with the hosts of heaven before the actual appearance of Christ. The occasion is fast approaching but not fully upon us. When the signs begin to occur it will convert the civilized world into utter chaos which may last for many years while families may again live in tribal conditions, fighting wars over food and water.

Two great comets were witnessed by much of the world in the late 90's with the naked eye by people who had never seen such a sight in their lives. One of these was Hale-Bopp which dazzled and bewitched viewers for months with its curious double-tail. Some citizens of our modern society sacrificed their lives to this comet, following the false teachings of self-made prophets of doom. In 1993 a much more spectacular event occurred which rocked the scientific world to the core: The comet Levy-Shoemaker forever made believers out of many skeptic scientists that there are sudden and calamitous changes in the universe, including Earth, by the errant orbits of celestial bodies.

This comet divided into several sections and was witnessed live, via telescope, as at least four great explosions rocked the planet Jupiter, each explosion
many times greater than our entire planet. The universe can no longer be considered a safe place in which to dwell. Fortunately for us, the Apostle John only sees the destruction of one third of life on Earth and the Creator does not allow for the entire destruction of our blue planet. Hollywood has covered the intriguing subject with entertaining delight in the films DEEP IMPACT and ARMAGEDDON until we have become bored with the subject and lulled back to sleep. We are forever seeking after some new thing to excite our senses and ignore the fact that there is "no new thing under the sun." These events may truly come as a thief in the night, wave upon wave, wo upon wo, upon a world embroiled in hundreds of petty civil wars.

The event which will lead the armies of the earth to surround Jerusalem is not yet clear but could unfold as follows: A curse is upon the earth since the approach of a great star and the impacts of many meteors. The earth's surface temperature has risen dramatically. Volcanic dust fills the air from the simultaneous eruptions of many dormant mountains. Earthquakes are strong and frequent. A prolonged drought has depleted most of the fresh water supply of all nations and much of the water is poisoned by atmospheric fallout. Most governments have failed or they are on the brink of collapse.

A strong and persuasive world leader sends the message that gradually covers the globe; all of these calamities are a curse from God or the pagan gods due to the occupation of the Holy Land by the Jews. In order to break the grip of the great curse, the Jews must be removed from Jerusalem and all surrounding areas. The last "desolation of abomination" as spoken of by Daniel the prophet is underway.

According to Ezekiel, this will result in the greatest battle the world has ever known after which the children of Israel will burn the remaining weapons of the enemy for seven years before they are fully consumed and they shall attempt to bury the dead for seven entire months (Ezekiel 39).

Just as in the days of Joshua, the Lord will fight the innumerable hordes of the enemy...

...with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord

(Ezekiel 38:22-23)
Events of the days of Moses and Isaiah shall repeat themselves before the Savior descends in a pillar of light and sets his feet upon the Mount of Olives. Even that glorious event, when the mount is to be divided, is compared to former catastrophes of 700 b.c. when Mars (Samson) removed the pillars of the earth:

Yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled before the

earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah:

and the Lord my God shall come, and all the

saints with thee. (Zechariah 14:5)

The earthquake of Uzziah's era was remembered for centuries because it was felt around the world as the very foundations of the earth were shaken. Such an earthquake will occur again. Thus, the preacher of Ecclesiastes was correct in saying:

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. (Ecc. 1:9)

Presently, men and women seek after signs, believing only a few years remain until the end. Therefore, they greatly err as they grasp at conspiracy theories, accusing everything from the European Common Market to various presidents of the United States of being the anti-Christ, etc... They see the nuclear threat as the chief means of
fulfilling the prophecies of latter-day destructions. They do not see the far more majestic plan held by the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Samson. Be not deceived, but, be prepared. You may be vulnerable to deception if you already worship the planet Earth and buy into false theories of its fragility.

It is logically inconsistent how evolution-minded people can suddenly be overcome with the notion that the earth, having survived for billions of years (according to them) can now be ripe for total ecological breakdown. Many of these feelings were born in the 50's as a result of the explorations of Venus which was once seriously considered to be covered by oceans and to contain human life. Venus was supposed to be just like Earth according to scientists. Then came along Dr. Velikovsky who proposed that, since Venus originally entered the solar system following an erratic cometary orbit, it would be a very hot planet and would rotate in an inordinate manner. Years later, when space probes finally reached "the watery star," they discovered no water, no life, a surface temperature of over 900 degrees Fahrenheit and a backwards rotation.

Dreams and theories were shattered but, instead of admitting they were completely off-base, scientists created the theory of "the greenhouse effect" to explain how a once vibrant planet had become a hot-house of doom. They said that the thick clouds of Venus trapped all the ultraviolet rays of the sun which caused the water to evaporate and the temperature to soar. They could never admit that Venus may have been a comet and validate the outlandish theories of a self-made cosmologist. The clouds of Venus, however, reflect more sunlight than a polished mirror and could never have created the oven that bakes beneath them. The false theory created to cover the truth of Venus was next transferred to planet Earth. The reasoning was that, if Venus was once like Earth and perished, Earth may also perish from the same causes.

The greenhouse effect doesn't exist on Earth and Venus was never a flourishing planet or in any way similar to the earth excepting in size. Global warming and the diminishing ozone layer are yet more false theories spawned from a scientific community with its hands continually reaching into our pockets. There are also outright Earth worshipers who preach that our planet is currently producing disasters and taking human life as revenge upon large scale industry. Each group seeks to acquire power by appearing to possess the essential key to saving the earth from destruction. "Subsidize me, join my group, follow me, put me in your campaign and together, we can save the world." But a thousand Earth Days can't save the planet from the prophesied destructions of the wicked or the enormous changes to come upon sea and land.
All of these repeated destructions by the host of heaven are meant to prepare the earth for the return of the celestial city and good king to his rightful throne. Christ shall reign over the new golden age as all that was removed from the earth is reunited to its proper place. There shall literally appear a new heaven and a new Earth. The Roman poet Virgil looked forward to this day with much anxiousness but thought that these changes would occur near the time of Christ's birth. He was not a Christian nor inclined to follow any prophet or star to the manger in Bethlehem. He worshiped the stars and studied astrology just as everyone around him. The event that he longed for was the appearance of the sun in the sign of Pisces during the Spring equinox for the very first time in history. This would issue in a new world age that would last for 2,400 years. The era surrounding the birth of Christ coincided with the beginning of the age of Pisces which gave rise to the symbol of the fish for Christianity.

Virgil was hailed as a prophetic writer long after his death but was not looking for any earthly Savior. He, as well as astrologers of all nations, hoped that the issuing forth of the new age would also bring a miraculous return of the fabled Golden Age and that Saturn would return to the earth. This future event he called Saturnia Regna or the Reign of Saturn, (circa 40 b.c.):
Now the Virgin returns, the reign of Saturn returns, now a new generation descends from heaven on high. Only do thou, pure Lucina, smile on the birth of the child, under whom the iron-brood shall first cease, and a golden race spring up throughout the world. (Virgil's 4th Eclogue) Of course, Virgil was referring to the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that occurred in the year 6 b.c. (in Pisces) as the "birth of the child," while Virgo (the virgin) marked the autumnal equinox. Virgo rose with the sun in September while Pisces rose with the sun in March. The goddess Lucina is the matron of childbirth and possibly the Moon.

Whether or not the great conjunction occurred in a month when Pisces was clearly visible in the sky or occulted by the sun's rays, these events were known to take place and were charted out centuries in advance. De Santillana suggests that this was the famed star of Bethlehem and that the entire virgin birth of Christ is a myth. But, while science trusts solely in its proven calculations, we should consider the testimony of reputable eyewitnesses to be of much greater value. The star of Bethlehem was a new star, never before witnessed in the heavens, so bright that it made the Western Hemisphere pass through an entire night that seemed as noonday. This star, possibly a super-nova or comet, gave rise to revealing songs that we sing each Christmas:
.....Do you see what I see? A star, a star, shining in the night with a tail as big as a kite, with a tail as big as a kite.

(More on the star of Bethlehem will be discussed in the final chapter). Needless to say, the wishes of Virgil concerning the return of the Golden Age were not fulfilled in the days that ushered in the Age of Pisces, when Christ walked the dusty roads of Palestine with his disciples. The conditions of the millennium, however, will fulfill all the hopes of pagan, Christian and Jew alike.

A new heaven will again be united to an Earth in a state of paradisiacal wonder. War and suffering will cease under the reign of the true king of this Golden Age, He who organizes and commands all of these elements as He chooses in order to fulfill all of His covenants made with the children of men.

CHAPTER 8 / A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE

Other sources of evidence. Speculation or theory? The times and seasons. A curse upon the waters. An ancient catastrophic history of America. The restored words of Moses and Abraham. Kolob and Sirius. The lost tribes of Israel. A modern prophet. Prepare for the inevitable.
The scriptures and creation myths from all lands attest to the many catastrophic events witnessed by literate mankind within historical times. Adding to that testimony are the canonical volumes, considered scripture, of the Mormon Church, formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The truthfulness of these books, like the Bible, is not intended to be proven through scientific examination but requires a phase of personal spiritual conversion. Such conversion is left up to each individual as he or she prayerfully meditates upon their contents.

This chapter, however, is solely interested in pointing out the key passages that prove the theories already mentioned. Members of the Mormon Church have been duly cautioned not to speculate concerning gospel matters but, at the same time, have been directed by revelation to study the history, customs, languages and laws of all lands, and also to read of every good book in order to increase in wisdom. The Doctrine and Covenants, containing a written record of divine revelations to modern day prophets, states plainly:

Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; of things both in heaven and in the
earth and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass. (D.&C. 88:78-79) yr. 1832

This volume presents you with a theory as deduced from comparative mythology and similar tales contained in the scriptures. In order to become "more perfect in theory," it is necessary to first consider certain possibilities. This need not detract from your spirituality as you realize that this is not the meat of the gospel by any means. If nothing else, it is hoped that this book will build your desire to search the scriptures with added zeal.

The revelations contained in the Doctrine and Covenants clearly testify of the cosmic disturbances to come. The Lord in 1839, speaking of the curses that will shortly afflict the wicked, stated:

.....God hath set his hand and seal to change the times and seasons, to blind their minds, that they might not understand his marvelous workings.(D.&C. 121:12)

.....set forth clearly and understandingly the desolation of abomination in the last days. For, with you saith the Lord Almighty, I will rend their kingdoms; I will not only shake the earth, but the starry heavens shall tremble. For, I the Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven; ye cannot see it now, yet a little
while and ye shall see it, and know that I am, and that I will come and reign with my people.

(D.&C. 84:118-119)

For not many days hence and the earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man; and the sun shall hide his face and shall refuse to give light; and the moon shall be bathed in blood; and the stars shall become exceedingly angry, and shall cast themselves down as a fig that falleth from off a fig-tree.

And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people. For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand. And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds. And all things shall be in commotion; and surely men's hearts shall fail them; For fear shall come upon all people.

And angels shall fly through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, sounding the trump of God, saying: Prepare ye, prepare ye, O inhabitants of the earth; for the judgment of our God has come. Behold, and lo, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. And immediately
there shall appear a great sign in heaven, and all people shall see it together. (D.&C. 88:87-93)

As noted by the author of THE PROPHECY TRILOGY, Anthony E. Larson, the prophet Joseph Smith stated that when the grand sign of heaven appears, learned men will exclaim it is a comet, a planet and so forth.{1}

As far as the moon being bathed in blood, this does not refer to it appearing with a reddish hue as is often seen. Nor does it refer to Russians killing Americans on the moon or vice versa. When the heavens are in commotion, the seas will appear to boil, the earth's surface will become hot due to the friction caused by the close passage of a large celestial body. The moon, lacking an atmosphere and oceans, will become incandescent as a hot coal and will glow crimson as a fire brand. But the moon has "melted" before. Not only do impact craters mark its face, but millions of bubbles, some exploded, others not, from earlier encounters that caused its surface to become a sea of boiling lunar mud. When the real signs appear they will not go unrecognized and many hearts will fail as the unprepared are overpowered by fear.

{1}JOSHUA'S LONG DAY, Anthony E. Larson, Zedek Books and Video Productions, Orem, UT, 1988
Another prophecy of the Doctrine and Covenants from 1831 mentions a curious curse upon the waters of the earth and especially upon the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers:

Behold, there are many dangers upon the waters, and more especially hereafter; For I, the Lord, have decreed in mine anger many destructions upon the waters; yea and especially upon these waters. Behold, I, the Lord, in the beginning blessed the waters; but in the last days, by the mouth of my servant John, I cursed the waters. Wherefore, the days will come that no flesh shall be safe upon the waters. And it shall be said in days to come that none is able to go up to the land of Zion upon the waters, but he that is upright in heart. (D.&C. 61:5, 14-15)

The references to a curse upon the waters by John relates to the verses in Revelation 8 wherein the apostle witnesses a star burning as it were a lamp, called Wormwood, which poisoned the waters of the earth. The falling of this star will affect much of the earth but especially the rivers at the center of the United States, according to the added vision as the prophet Joseph Smith and his companions canoed down the Missouri River. This could mean an impact by a meteor in the region of the Gulf of Mexico that would, in turn, send enormous waves, "heaving themselves beyond their bounds," straight up the mighty river valleys and changing the entire
face of the land. I believe we are experiencing many record floods in recent years as a type of friendly warning to vacate this region since much worse is soon to follow. At one point, navigation upon these rivers came to a complete standstill only a few years ago. Fargo, North Dakota was completely gutted in 1997 and has been followed by the complete evacuation of New Orleans in 2005.

Concerning Zion, this will be a settlement established in the center of the United States, near Independence, Missouri, organized as a refuge from a world gone mad:

And it shall come to pass among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor must needs flee to Zion for safety. And there shall be gathered unto it out of every nation under heaven; and it shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another. And it shall be said among the wicked: Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible, wherefore we cannot stand.

(D.&C. 45:69-70)

The people of Zion shall be led there by a prophet even as Moses and shall be protected by pillars of fire if necessary. (D&C 103:16) An ancient American prophet from the Book of Mormon spoke of such occasions:
For the time speedily cometh that the Lord God shall cause a great division among the people, and the wicked he will destroy; and he will spare his people, yea, even if it so be that he must destroy the wicked by fire. (2 Nephi 30:10)

All lovers of freedom and any semblance of law and order will seek out this Zion in the last days no matter what religion they profess. They will be welcomed with open arms while the enemies of freedom will be sorely cursed.

Nephi, an ancient immigrant to the Americas, was the same prophet who desired to explain the full meaning of Isaiah 13 and 14 (chapters of cosmic disruptions) to his people but feared to write the complete interpretation lest his people become as the Jews at Jerusalem, worshipping all manner of false gods. Immediately following his recital of those chapters, Nephi explains:

Yea, my soul delighteth in the words of Isaiah, for I came out from Jerusalem and mine eyes hath beheld the things of the Jews, and I know that the Jews do understand the things of the prophets, and there is none other people that understand the things which were spoken unto the Jews like unto them, save it be that they are taught after the manner of the things of the Jews. But behold, I Nephi, have not taught my children after the manner of the Jews ...nevertheless, in
the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be fulfilled men shall know of a surety, at the times when they shall come to pass...for I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them. (2 Nephi 25:5-8)

We live at a time when a complete under-standing of Isaiah is absolutely essential. Nephi and his brothers were guided from Jerusalem to America around 600 b.c., prior to the Babylonian captivity. Nephi did not wish his children to know of the evil practices of Jerusalem but his older brothers passed this pagan knowledge on to their descendants who became the native Americans we call Indians. Thus, pagan religion based on star worship as practiced in Egypt and Babylon was imported to the Americas near 600 b.c.

The followers of the prophet Nephi separated from the followers of his older brothers and they became great enemies. Residing primarily in and around Central America, this group of Nephites, possessing the scriptures from the old land, awaited the coming of the Messiah. This may be a partial explanation of the spreading of the story of Samson throughout America and Polynesia. This could never explain, however, the same story's existence in Japan and India. Nor can this explain why the pagan descendants, who rejected the scriptures and
became illiterate, hold this account in such high esteem.

Referring to the movements of the earth in the days of Joshua and those which gave rise to the story of Samson, Nephi, son of Helaman, prophesied in the year 7 before Christ:

O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God. Yea, behold at his voice do the hills and the mountains tremble and quake. And by the power of his voice they are broken up, and become smooth, yea, even like unto a valley. Yea, by the power of his voice doth the whole earth shake; yea, and if he say unto the earth – Move – it is moved. Yea, if he say unto the earth – Thou shalt go back, that it lengthen out the day for many hours – it is done; And thus, according to his word the earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold this is so; for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun. (Helaman 12:7-15)

The righteous portion of the ancient Americans looked forward to the signs of Christ's birth as well as the signs of his crucifixion as openly taught by their prophets. The unrighteous threatened to take
the lives of all believers if the signs did not appear. On the eve before this mass murder was to take place, it was recorded:

...behold at the going down of the sun there was no darkness; and the people began to be astonished because there was no darkness when the night came. And there were many, who had not believed the words of the prophets, who fell to the earth and became as if they were dead, for they knew that the great plan of destruction which they had laid for those who believed in the words of the prophets had been frustrated; For the sign which had been given was already at hand.

And they began to know that the Son of God must shortly appear; yea, in fine, all the people upon the face of the whole earth from the west to the east, both in the land north and in the land south, were so exceedingly astonished that they fell to the earth. For they knew that the prophets had testified of these things for many years, and that the sign which had been given was already at hand; and they began to fear because of their iniquity and their unbelief. And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was midday. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be
born, because of the sign which should be given. And it came to pass also that a new star did appear, according to the word. (3 Nephi 1:15-21)

Thus, we see that there was a new star, possibly a comet, possibly a super-nova, more visible in the western hemisphere than in the east. In Matthew it was written that this star came and stood above the place where Christ was born. The wise men were guided by this new star as well as by an angelic light because King Herod was not able to follow the same signs. The moving light that brought the wise men to the exact location of Christ's birth was angelic in nature just as the angel of light who told the shepherds of the Lord's birthplace in Luke.

In America, the wonder of the miraculous daylight throughout an entire night soon diminished among the hardest of heart, the proud and the wise as to the things of men. They shrugged the event off as a perfectly natural occurrence...one they were just not accustomed to seeing. In this manner, the Book of Mormon contains a detailed record of a foreshadowing of the second coming. When the proud and wise of our generation behold the first cosmic disturbances, they will attribute it all to nature and continue to persecute the religious.

We may endure a period of 30 or more years from the time the first "woe" of John the Revelator occurs, when all civilization will be severely
disrupted, until the final event. So awaited the ancient Americans, polarizing themselves completely, the believers from the non-believers, before the great catastrophe finally struck. When Christ was crucified in Palestine, it is written in the Bible that darkness covered the land for several hours in mid-afternoon and an earthquake was felt. This was no ordinary quake, but was felt worldwide with the epicenter on the opposite side of the globe, in Central and South America:

And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year (since the illuminated night), in the first month on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as had never been known in all the land. And there was also a great and terrible tempest; and there was terrible thunder, insomuch that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder. And there were exceedingly sharp lightnings, such as never had been known in all the land. And the city of Zarahemla did take fire. And the city of Moroni did sink into the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof were drowned. And the earth was carried up upon the city of Moronihah, that in the place of the city there became a great mountain.

And there was a great and terrible destruction in the land southward. But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land
northward; for behold, the whole face of the land was changed, because of the tempest and whirlwinds, and the thunderings and the lightnings, and the exceedingly great quaking of the whole earth...all these great and terrible things were done in about the space of three hours – and then behold, there was darkness upon the face of the land.

And it came to pass that there was thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen could feel the vapor of darkness; And there could be no light, because of the darkness, neither candles, neither torches; neither could there be fire kindled with their fine and exceedingly dry wood, so that there could not be any light at all; And there was not any light seen, neither fire, nor glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, for so great were the mists of darkness which were upon the face of the land.(3 Nephi 8)

These conditions of darkness continued for three days as the survivors of the conflagration wailed and mourned. Some months later, a voice was heard from heaven, then a light appeared which grew in brightness until all eyes could see that it was a man descending in a white robe. It was the resurrected Savior who came to usher in a new age of hope.
From the last passage we can prove that Christ was born in the springtime since the Nephites of America reckoned their time from the day of his birth. From the New Testament we know that Christ was crucified during the Passover and the signs of his death in this hemisphere began on the fourth day of the first month of the thirty-fourth year. Therefore, Jesus was born near or at the time of the Passover as well.

The catalyst of such enormous destruction may have been an asteroid or large meteor strike that stirred up millions of tons of dust into the atmosphere. One such meteor impact was recently discovered in 1991 in the province of Cordoba, Argentina. An air force pilot could see from a high altitude what was unnoticeable at close range: A series of giant tear drop shaped impact craters. For this reason they were called, "lagrimas."

When the scientific crews investigated, they concluded that it struck within the last ten thousand years (as recent as they dare to admit possible) and that the native population must have witnessed a spectacular event including many of the disasters mentioned by the Nephites.{2} It was much more than spectacular, however. These impacts were

{2}SKY AND TELESCOPE, April, 1992, p. 387, TEARDROPS ON THE PAMPAS, P.H. Schultz and J.K. Beatty
from meteors larger than the one that caused the mile wide crater near Winslow, Arizona. Other major impact zones have yet to be discovered and may be covered by jungles or oceans. The area surrounding the Yucatan Peninsula has also recently been proven to be a huge impact crater; one of the largest ever discovered on Earth. When the dust finally cleared, the early Americans beheld the towering Andes mountains where once there were valleys. There were cities that had been built in the lowlands that were raised, intact, to tremendous altitudes, causing learned men to marvel down to the present time. Consider the ruins of "the Jewel of the Andes," the deserted city of Machu Picchu at an altitude of 7, 875 feet, fifty miles from Cuzco, Peru, while pondering the prophetic words of Samuel the Lamanite about the destructions to accompany Christ's crucifixion:

...and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great. And many highways shall be broken up, and many cities shall become desolate. (Helaman 14:23-24)

Of course, volcanic eruptions could have figured as a leading cause of the disasters described but it would have taken many volcanoes erupting in unison to be so widespread and to cause an earthquake which was felt in Palestine. Something external would have had to trigger such an event...
an added gravitational tug from an extra-terrestrial force. The explosion of Mt. Saint Helens in 1979 was but a gentle hint of future events. Enormous piles of ash still line the Columbia River many miles from that violent volcano.

The Book of Mormon also contains the record of a destroyed civilization which occupied much of North America from the time immediately following the fall of the Tower of Babel until 600 b.c. Their record, preserved by a prophet named Ether, testifies of the worldwide calamities of 1500 b.c. (the era of Moses) and 700 b.c. (the time of Isaiah). Only two mentions are made of any type of upheaval and they correspond directly to those two eras. The first event is described as such:

And it came to pass that there began to be a great dearth upon the land, and the inhabitants began to be destroyed exceedingly fast because of the dearth, for there was no rain upon the face of the earth. And there came forth poisonous serpents also upon the face of the land, and did poison many people. And it came to pass that their flocks began to flee before the poisonous serpents, towards the land southward.

(Ether 9:30-35)

The serpents came between the flocks and the people and prevented them from recovering their animals for food. When they realized they were
about to perish completely, they repented of their iniquities and the rains returned. The people of Moses were similarly afflicted by many venomous serpents, a symptom of the overheated earth.

At a period which has been calculated near 700 b.c., (approximating the duration of the reigns of various kings and ages of key individuals from the time of the first desolation mentioned), the prophet wrote:

...wherefore there began to be wars and contentions in the land, and also many famines and pestilences, insomuch that there was a great destruction, such an one as never had been known upon the face of the earth. (Ether 11:7)

The Book of Mormon clearly testifies of worldwide catastrophes along with the Bible and the legends of all races of mankind. Their combined voices of warning benefit all who will hearken to their message. Adding further to that message are the lost words of Abraham recovered from a mummy's tomb and the words of Moses as recorded in the volume THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.

Egyptian explorer Antonio Sebolo discovered a curious papyrus among hundreds of mummies in a catacomb near the city of Thebes in 1831. Upon removing several mummies, some artifacts and the papyrus, Mr. Sebolo left Egypt for France. Ten days later he was dead of an unknown disease.
Before dying, however, he willed all of the above articles to his nephew, Michael Chandler, and they were shipped to New York where he recovered them in 1833. He traveled to various eastern cities displaying these Egyptian mummies. Several professors of ancient languages attempted to translate the papyrus but ultimately he was referred to Joseph Smith Jr. for a full translation.

Mr. Chandler brought his historic items to Kirtland, Ohio in 1835 where he met Joseph Smith for the first time. Smith's translation was found to correspond closely to the previous attempts (which he had never seen) by the learned professors of New York and Philadelphia, only, his translation was detailed and complete. The curious Egyptian characters and hieroglyphs were penned by the patriarch Abraham before his death and revealed many valuable details of Abraham's life among the Egyptians as well as a history of the creation and the first settlements of the Middle East.

Abraham confirmed that the original post-deluvial, pagan religion of Egypt was practiced also in the land of Chaldea. The priests of Pharaoh made sacrifices in Chaldea of any person who would not bow down to their gods. In his own words:

Pharaoh signifies king by royal blood. Now the king of Egypt was a descendent from the loins of Ham, and was a partaker of the blood of the
Canaanites by birth. From this descent sprang all the Egyptians, and thus the blood of the Canaanites was preserved in the land. The land of Egypt being first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden;

When this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land. Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal. Pharaoh being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father (grandfather), who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood. Now, Pharaoh belonging to that lineage by which he could not have the right of the Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry. (Abraham 1:20-27)
In his later life, before the birth of his children, Abraham retreated from the land of Canaan with his wife into Egypt to escape a great famine. He states that he had been instructed of the Lord of the true revolutions of the stars and planets and had passed this divine knowledge on to the Pharaoh. It was this specific knowledge of astronomy that allowed Egypt to build such amazing monuments as the pyramids and obelisks. One particularly interesting key to understanding the laws governing our solar system, as taught by Abraham, is the fact that there is a sun to our sun which is called Kolob, nearest to the celestial residence of God. Next to Kolob is another great governing star of lesser magnitude called Oliblish.

This information is astonishing in light of the fact the Egyptians and other advanced societies believed there was indeed a sun greater than our own from which our sun derives its light and power. From the description given in Abraham's papyrus and the curious customs of certain tribes of North Africa, the identity of this governing star nearest to the throne of God is decipherable.

The Dogon, a tribal people of Mali, from some unknown source were aware that Sirius, brightest of all visible stars, was actually a double star, with an invisible Sirius-B orbiting the main star once every fifty years:
The bright star of Sirius is not as important to the Dogon as the tiny Sirius-B, which the Dogon call "po tolo" (tolo meaning star). Po is a cereal grain referred to as "Digitaria," its botanical name. The Dogon also know the actual orbital period of this invisible star, which is fifty years....The most amazing of all the Dogon statements is this, Digitaria is the smallest thing there is. It is the heaviest star. The orbit of Digitaria is...at the center of the world, Digitaria is the axis of the whole world, and without its movement no other star could hold its course.{3}

The knowledge of Sirius-B must have come from Egypt which, in turn, received it from Abraham. This is the "Oliblish" as described in Abraham's papyrus. Ancient sources declared that the Egyptians regarded Sirius as another and greater sun. Modern astronomy reveals that:

Sirius is a double star with one vast low-density half and one smaller, extremely dense half...But its precise cosmic role, as well as its precise role in Egypt, is still a mystery. It is possible that Egypt knew what some modern scholars suspect: that Sirius is the greater sun about which our sun and solar system orbits.{4}

{3}THE SIRIUS MYSTERY, R. Temple, pp. 21-27, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1986

{4}SERPENT IN THE SKY, Op. Cit., p.109
The Mormon hymn, IF YOU COULD HIE TO KOLOB, which describes an eternal universe, where there is no end to creation, states that even if a man could view the universe from Kolob, he would still find an infinite amount of worlds beyond that. This beloved hymn is translated into Spanish as, SI TU AL ASTRO SIRIO, or, IF YOU COULD GO TO SIRIUS.

From the profound words of Abraham, let us come back down to earth and examine a crystalline revelation to the prophet Moses also contained in THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. The Lord revealed these words to Joseph Smith so that we may have a more perfect record of the history contained in Genesis of our first parents and their intelligence. The Genesis account suffered greatly at the hands of various translators but still remains true. This Book of Moses testifies of the enormous catastrophic changes occurring on earth and witnessed by literate men within historic times. The prophet Enoch before the days of Noah:

And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out if their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness: and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him. There also came up a land out of the depth of the sea, and so great was the fear of the enemies of the people of God, that they fled and stood afar off and went upon the land which came up out of the depth of the sea. And the giants of the land, also, stood afar off...And Enoch and all his people walked with God, and he dwelt in the midst of Zion; and it came to pass that Zion was not, for God received it up into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, ZION IS FLED. (Moses 7:13-15,69)

The Book of Moses also testifies of the global flood following a period of 120 years wherein Noah and his sons preached repentance to an utterly wicked and corrupt generation. The city of Enoch was removed from the earth and shall return to the earth. According to the vision of Moses, the Lord will gather his elect in the very last days.

...unto a place which I shall prepare, an holy city, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem. And the Lord said unto Enoch, then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we shall fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we
will kiss each other; and there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest. (Moses 7:62-64)

If such a great division of the earth has occurred once in historical times, should we not consider the possibility that it has occurred twice? Enoch and his city were separated from their place of origin (or we from them) because they lived a higher law and were worthy of God's presence. There existed another such group upon the earth at the time of the cataclysmic events described in the story of Samson and Delilah who had repented of their sins and collectively sought to be worthy of the greater blessings of heaven. We know them as the Lost Tribes of Israel who were carried away captive by the Assyrians circa 720 b.c.

For the most part, the Northern Kingdom of Israel comprised of the descendents of Reuben, Joseph (Ephraim and Mannaseh), Dan, Isaachar, Zebulon, Asher, Simeon, Levi, Gad and Naphtali, were a rebellious and stiffnecked people for which cause they were carried away as prisoners and their kingdom destroyed. But, according to the Book of Esdras, one of the lost books of the Bible, this humiliating event led them unto profound repentance before God wherein covenants were
renewed and a promise of a glorious return to Israel was obtained.

...But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. (2 Esdras 13:40-47)

Thus, they became a renewed people, directed by prophets, guided by the Lord and possessing a clear knowledge of their true identity throughout the ages. The more rebellious souls among them, unable to abide the statutes of the law of Moses, departed and were scattered among the heathen nations of Northern Europe where many evidences of their presence exists in the languages, place names and coats of arms. Perhaps some of these rebellious groups desired to reunite with the prophets only to find they were forever lost unto the world.

Most scriptural references to the Lost Tribes state that they are in the northern regions (which is true) but the main body of the righteous Israelites, possessing the scriptures, led by prophets, visited by Christ following his resurrection, remained separate and distinct from all other nations. According to Esdras, Isaiah and many others, their return to the knowledge of the inhabitants of the earth will be
very miraculous, accompanied by signs and wonders, the ice caps melting in the north and a highway created upon the deep. When this nation of Israelites returns they will still be a distinct and noble people, never having lost their culture or identity, and they will present unto us further scriptures which prove the former ones to be true. Had this nation of Israelites dwindled in unbelief following the visitation of Jesus Christ unto them, (just as the Nephites of the Book of Mormon), and their scriptural accounts had been hidden in the ground, such a miraculous return could not take place.

If they remained upon this earth as a distinct nation, possessing the truths of the gospel and the priesthood, although they be hidden in the northern regions, Joseph Smith Jr. would have had no purpose in restoring the church of Jesus Christ to the world. Therefore, it appears that only one other possibility exists which can fulfill all scriptural references to the Lost Tribes...(curiously enough, it is what Joseph Smith and many early saints believed), the organized body of Israel escaped from the Assyrians, repented of their sins, made covenants with God to live a higher law and were removed from the earth much the same as the city of Enoch. When their small portion of earth was removed, circa 700 b.c., the cataclysmic events of the days of Isaiah occurred. A worldwide earthshock in the days of Uzziah, the changing of
the length of the year more than once, all occasioned by the close passages of the hosts of heaven, namely Venus and Mars. Indeed, Rome was founded in the days when the tribes of Israel were taken up. They departed in glory and shall return in glory:

And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea: and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. (Isaiah 11:15-16)

This millennial event will be considered by Earth's inhabitants to be more miraculous than the parting of the Red Sea in the days of Moses:

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands whither he had driven them. (Jeremiah 16:14-15)

The seed of Israel, sown among the nations of the earth, shall be converted and come to a
recognition of their true identity, one by one, while the organized body of Israelites shall be reunited to the earth and cross over the Egyptian rivers on dry ground, entering in to the lands of their inheritance as a single nation. The Lord knowing full well the tendencies of his children to worship idols and especially the images of heavenly bodies, stars and planets, sees fit only to mention that his "other sheep" are in the north countries. However, Joseph Smith stated:

Peradventure, the Ten Tribes are not on this globe, but a portion of this earth has cleaved off with them and went flying into space, and when the time comes, when the earth reels to and fro like a drunken man and the stars fall from heaven, it will join on again.{5}

He also took the time one evening at the home of brother Benjamin Brown to point out the location of the star he believed the Ten Tribes were on. This event occurred during a discussion of section 133 of the Doctrine and Covenants concerning the miraculous return of those tribes to Earth.{6}

And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord; and their

{5}Remembrances of Bathsheba W. Smith pp. 5-11

{6}THE LAST DAYS, Robert W. Smith, pp. 88-90, Pyramid Press, Salt Lake City, UT 1947
prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep...and the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at their presence. (D.&C. 133:26-31)

All of these testimonies exist to prepare the present generation for a rude awakening. If we don't know what to expect we may succumb to a panic-like state when the signs in the heavens begin to appear. If we are prepared, however, we need not fear. We are counseled at present by living prophets to store enough food and water for our families to survive for an entire year. Without further elaboration, they have said that our obedience to this counsel will prove to be as crucial to our survival in the last days as the boarding of the ark in the days of Noah.{7}

Do we trust in the world or do we prepare for the inevitable? Surely we live in momentous times, immediately preceding the sounding of the trumpet of the first angel as described by John the Revelator. The earth is filled with warning signs for us to prepare our hearts and minds for the trials ahead. It is frightening yet exciting all at once. We must

{7}ENSIGN MAGAZINE, Nov. 1980, p. 33, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Salt Lake City, UT

keep in mind that the suffering leads to victory over evil and that, if we can endure, we will witness the most glorious event of all, as:

There shall be silence in heaven for the space of half an hour; and immediately after shall the curtain of heaven be unfolded, as a scroll is unfolded after it is rolled up, and the face of the Lord shall be unveiled; and the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened and shall be caught up to meet him. And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth, for their graves shall be opened; and they also shall be caught up to meet him; and all this by the voice of the sounding of the trump of the angel of God. (D.&C. 88:95-97)

May we all endure to receive the reward.

THE END
CONCLUSION

We have seen that the world largely misunderstands the story of Samson and Delilah although it is found in many more books than the Bible. It is a mythical description of the unusual movements of Venus and Mars through several constellations of the zodiac. Venus ceases to threaten the earth as a result of the efforts of the impetuous god of war; but, circa 700 b.c., Mars caused the earth to move from its pivot. The pillars that Samson removed were the poles of the earth.

Still, there is a much larger story to unfold when one examines the creation myths of all lands to discover they are, by and large, identical. The avenger of the throne of the good king is Mars (Samson). His story possesses an inexplicable attraction and appears throughout our society in various forms. Hamlet is Samson. Babe Ruth is the great American Samson in the flesh, and our children gobble up Disney's version of Samson as Simba in THE LION KING. The legend which cannot die is propagated by our curious subconscious that tells us there is a great deal of truth involved here.

Science tells us that these drastic changes could never have occurred as we know they have. Do we trust the written testimonies of hundreds of eyewitnesses or do we allow the dogma of evolution
to guide our every thought process? Only a religious type of conversion can shake a person from such thought patterns and is the only proof positive of any human testimony. For every scientific argument in favor of catastrophism there are innumerable arguments produced against it. Do we trust the figures thrown at us or do we simply believe what our ancestors carefully preserved for our benefit?

Will we continue to face each day as the day before or can we sense that history is driving us toward a specified point when life as we have always known it must be rudely interrupted by yet another blazing god of war? Are we prepared to witness the recurrence of these cosmic events?

As much as I have meditated upon future catastrophes, I still find myself in denial that such things can occur. Then I am shaken from my slumber while telling a simple bed-time story to my three year old daughter. The story is age-old; perhaps told in various languages to millions of children every night around the world. Its main character is a hungry wolf chasing around three pesky pigs from house to house and blowing their walls down.

Perhaps the most common name throughout the ancient world used for the planet Mars was "the wolf star," and Homer repeatedly refers to Mars

(Ares) in THE ILIAD as the "the blood stained stormer of walls."{1}

Upon realizing this fact I silently sighed to myself in amazement, saying, "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?"

{1}WORLDS IN COLLISION, Immanuel Velikovsky, Part 2 chapter 4.

For a printed copy of The Samson Code, go to www.cafepress.com/samsoncode.459811100

Author's email address: mvmoyes@gmail.com

