Mythology: Ancient Astronauts: An Outline: Part Four

Denying the reality of the gods (including God) by attributing to them only mythological (fictional) status is easy. Much harder is to try to accept their reality while stripping them of their supernatural (deity) status. That’s what I try to do here. If that however can’t be done, well the fairy tales involving the ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek, etc. gods or the Biblical God still make for interesting bedtime stories.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

Unresolved Questions:

*One ultra-super-major question arises – if we can’t crossbreed with even our closest living terrestrial evolutionary relations, and I know of no even short-term viable union between human and other primate gametes (i.e. – there are no gorilla-human or chimpanzee hybrids in even just the earliest of embryo stages) then how can we breed with the ‘gods’? We’re terrestrial; they’re extraterrestrial – a goldfish should have a higher probability of successful mating with a petunia since their both terrestrial species. Well, I can only conclude that the ‘gods’, in their artificial selection program to create humans for their own purposes (including sexual) had the ability in advanced genetic engineering techniques to make successful mating viable. Clearly from their point of view, human-‘god’ offspring would result in better overall stock than just human-human breeding. The potential proof of that pudding is that modern humans went from hunter-gathering on Earth to hunter-gathering on the Moon, not in millions of years or hundreds of thousands of years, but in less than ten thousand years. No other species on this planet has accomplished so much so fast. That’s in view of the fact that overall there’s apparently no real natural evolutionary pressure towards higher intelligence. Will a smarter cat catch more mice, or will a faster cat and/or one with sharper vision and better reflexes catch more mice?

*One interesting question is that are all the motley collection of ‘gods’ (including ‘God’) and associated ‘pets’ and the ‘half-and- halves’ all one genetically-related race (like all terrestrial life-forms are), or many? If one takes concepts like “Star Trek”, “Star Wars”, “Stargate”, etc. at face value, the galaxy is teeming with many races many at similar technological levels. Given the diversity already mentioned I’m inclined to go with the ‘gods’ (including ‘God’) representing more of a (in “Star Trek” terms) a Federation.

*This Federation of extraterrestrials is further postulated by yet another range of apparently mythological beings – the wee folk, or in general the fairy folk. Tales of elves, fairies, leprechauns, sprites, etc. are also quite commonplace throughout the world’s culture. Were it not for the UFO greys, I might dismiss them, but modern UFO occupants show a diversity akin to that of ‘ancient astronauts’ (the ‘gods’ and ‘God’ and ‘pets”) and presumed ‘ancient astronauts’ – the wee fairy folk. 

*Another question needs to be asked, could the polytheistic ‘gods’ and ‘ancient astronauts’ be two entirely different things? IMHO, the answer is “no”. If you remove the polytheistic ‘gods’ as being part and parcel of any ‘ancient astronaut’ consideration, and that’s including God from the ancient astronaut equation, then there’s no remaining suggestive evidence for ‘ancient astronauts’.

*Yet another reasonable question is that is the ‘ancient astronaut’ gods (including God) mythology one general overall story with many differing cultural variations in the telling, or are there many actual differing tales unique to differing cultures? That distinction probably remains to be worked out in detail yet; it’s probably a bit of both. Overall, because there are so many common (creation, paradise, sky being, etc.) themes between cultures, I’m inclined to endorse the former. However, many individual cultures probably have some myth or two or twenty that’s pretty much exclusive to them.

*Translated, with respect to similarities vs. differences, can one reasonably suggest that An or Enlil (Mesopotamia) = Zeus (Greek) = God (Christianity) = Jupiter (Roman) = Indra or Brahma (India) = Odin (Norse) = Fuxi (Chinese) = Quetzalcoatl (Aztec) = Viracocha (Inca), and so on and so on down the line, or are they all different ‘gods’ ruling different kingdoms? The same applies to ‘lesser’ gods – does Eros = Cupid or are they two separate beings? Is Ares (Greek) the same person as Mars (Roman)?

Rival Ideas:

*Highest Probability: That the gods (including God) really existed or still do exist in some cases, but are really flesh-and-blood extraterrestrials as outlined above.

*Next Highest Probability: That the gods (including God) never existed and never had any sort of physical reality. This might imply that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations with interstellar spaceflight capacities don’t exist; they exist but somehow missed our planet; or found it uninteresting and moved on.

*Lowest Probability: That the gods (including God) really existed and still exist as supernatural deities.

Conclusions:

*If technologically advanced extraterrestrials arrived on Planet Earth, say some six to eight thousand years ago, you could be pretty certain that…

*Humans would come up with legends of ‘sky gods’.

*Humans would interpret technology as magic or the supernatural.

*Humans would deify the beings as ‘gods’.

*The ‘gods’ would in reality be our modern concept of ‘ancient astronauts’.

*Lastly, regardless of the speculations, it’s not going to be 100% possible to totally separate out reality from mythology. Even if the ‘gods’ (including ‘God’) were flesh-and-blood extraterrestrials, many of the tales surrounding them will still have some mythological elements to them. Currently scholars will argue that its 0% reality; 100% mythology as far as the polytheistic ‘gods’ are concerned. Enthusiastic and fundamentalist-oriented monotheistic believers have 100% reality for ‘God’; 100% mythology for the ‘gods’ – what they think of ‘ancient astronauts’ probably varies from disbelief to high probability, as long as it doesn’t involve ‘God’. I put my money on 75% reality for the ‘gods’ + ‘God’ = ‘ancient astronauts’; 25% that the ‘gods’ and ‘God’ are total mythological.   

Summation:

Several hundreds of thousands of years ago, a technologically advanced race of alien beings landed on Planet Earth, perhaps with the idea of colonization. They selected the most highly suitable ‘intellects’ on the planet, the primates, in order to genetically engineer an intelligent enough species to basically be their subjects, if not downright slaves to do all the hard work. This was pretty much accomplished by about 8000 years ago, when said aliens began to educate the now intellectually sufficiently race of Homo sapiens. The transition from unsophisticated primitives to sophisticated urbanites had begun. The alien race became the gods (in modern terminology, ‘ancient astronauts’); human’s dealings with them our mythologies. Perhaps we were too much of a good thing, for ultimately they withdrew from our obvious presence, however still maintaining down through our modern era a presence via the phenomenon we call the UFO (and associated baggage).   

Glossary:

*Ancient Astronauts: The gods (including God) and associated beings (like angels, etc.) who came to Earth multi-thousands of years ago from a place or places unknown.

*Demigods: Offspring resulting from the mating between a god and/or goddess and a human.

*God: One of thousands of (falsely presumed) deities albeit in the top echelon and who briefly assumed Top Dog status before His demise.

*The gods: The combined officers and crew of a fleet of interstellar starships who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. The gods includes God within those ranks.

*Half and Halves: The apparent outward appearance of some mythological beings that reflects a part-human/part-animal hybrid. Some gods are also half-and-halves (i.e. – the ancient Egyptian gods tend to have animals heads).

*Jesus Christ: The Son of God, but now a dead ancient astronaut, executed by humans.

*Paradise: Planet Earth.

*Shape-Shifting: The apparent ability of the gods (or at least many of them) to alter their outside appearance when it suits their purpose(s).

*Starship Asgard: Captain Odin’s spaceship and command, which includes an accompanying battle-fleet including the Starship Valhalla.

*Starship Heaven: Captain God’s spaceship and the ship under His command.

Further readings on which much of this is based:

Allan, Tony; The Mythic Bestiary: The Illustrated Guide to the World’s Most Fantastical Creatures; Duncan Baird Publishers, London; 2008:

Bierlein, J.F.; Parallel Myths; Ballantine Books, New York; 1994:

Brown, Nathan Robert & Smith, Evans Lansing; The Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Mythology; Alpha Books/Penguin Group, New York; 2007:

Burgess, Dana L. & Osborn, Kevin; The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Classical Mythology; Second Edition; Alpha Books/Penguin Group, New York; 2004:

Crossley-Holland, Kevin; The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings; Penguin Books, 1980:

Davidson, H.R. Ellis; Gods and Myths of Northern Europe; Penguin Books, London; 1964:

Ferguson, Diana; Hamlyn History: Myths Retold; Reed Consumer Books, London; 1998:

Hathaway, Nancy; The Friendly Guide to Mythology: A Mortal’s Companion to the Fantastical Realm of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters and Heroes; Penguin Books, New York; 2001:

Impelluso, Lucia; Myths: Tales of the Grek and Roman Gods; Abrams, New York; 2008:

Ions, Veronica; Hamlyn History: Mythology; Reed International Books, London; 1997:

Leeming, David; The Oxford Companion to World Mythology; Oxford University Press, Oxford; 2005:

National Geographic Society; Essential Visual History of World Mythology; National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.; 2008:

Ryan, Donald P.; The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ancient Egypt; Alpha Books, New York; 2002:

Tyldesley, Joyce; Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt; Allan Lane/Penguin Books, London; 2010:

Various authors; The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology; Chancellor Press, London; 1996:

Mythology: Ancient Astronauts: An Outline: Part Two

Denying the reality of the gods (including God) by attributing to them only mythological (fictional) status is easy. Much harder is to try to accept their reality while stripping them of their supernatural (deity) status. That’s what I try to do here. If that however can’t be done, well the fairy tales involving the ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek, etc. gods or the Biblical God still make for interesting bedtime stories.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

The Outer Space Connection:

*Mythology is full of references to ‘sky beings’ like Zeus (Jupiter), God (our father who art in heaven), Horus, Odin, Uranus as well as all manner of related Moon (Nanna) and Sun (Re, Apollo) ‘deities’.

*Many ‘gods’ are identified with specific stars and/or constellations (i.e. – the Egyptian goddess Isis is linked with Sirius).

*That there are many thousands of ‘gods’ makes sense – you’d need a large crew to man (alien?) their starships.

*This also accounts for the division of labour and differing areas of responsibilities the ‘gods’ have.

*Many more ‘gods’ and demigods  were born and assumed various rolls and responsibilities after Earth-fall, sometimes to replace other ‘gods’ who had been in those roles but met some sort of fatal fate or other.  That major deities created minor deities should come as no surprise seeing as how the ‘gods’ are often portrayed as sex machines. Any examination of the mythological ‘gods’ will reveal whole genealogies. 

Godly Attributes:

*The ‘gods’, including ‘God’, do not serve as good role models. They tend to be rather hyper-emotional.  The ‘gods’ were a rather - well actually extreme - dysfunctional bunch, spending a lot of time fighting for power and dominance and in general just endlessly feuding among themselves. There have been several, even numerous ‘wars in heaven’ between the ‘gods’. These warring factions fight for supreme dominance over Earth and humanity.

*The ‘gods’ also spent a lot of time screwing each other and us humans. The sexual exploits of the ‘gods’ (especially the Greek ‘gods’) would put modern swinging and swingers to shame. The ‘gods’ were really quite a randy lot and not just the male ‘gods’ but a fair few of the fairer sex ‘goddesses’ as well. We’re well acquainted with Eros (Cupid) and Aphrodite (Venus) as to their job descriptions.

The Monotheistic ‘God’ and His Place in the Cosmic Scheme of Things:

*The monotheistic ‘God’ is just one of the polytheistic ‘gods’. ‘God’ is but one of thousands of ‘gods’, albeit one of the higher ranking ones who in fact may have ultimately achieved Top Dog status. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was also one of the many ‘gods’ humanity has recording in various historical texts.

*For a brief time ‘God’ became supreme ruler, but either abdicated because He was fed up trying to govern the rest of the motley collection of ‘gods’ as well as a rebellious humanity; or ‘God’ was recalled back to home base and stripped on His command for committing Old Testament atrocities on Earth and to earthlings; or was ganged up on by the other ‘gods’ and given His marching orders. Regardless, ‘God’ has left the building.

*’Captain God’, of the Starship Heaven, was a real Captain Bligh character. ‘God’ suffered His own mutiny, but unlike Bligh, prevailed, casting several officers (i.e. – Satan) and crew out on their ear, perhaps exiled back to their home world. However, as Yogi Berra is fond of saying, ‘it ain’t over till it’s over’ and so Round Two (probably the postulated Armageddon or apocalypse of ‘Revelation’) is or was apparently on the cards. However, that should have already happened (a real life ‘Star Wars’) and the net result was that perhaps the rest of the gods banished this entire lot of troublemakers back to where they came from. Again, regardless, ‘God’ has left the building. Unfortunately, no one bothered to inform the natives.

*One ‘god’, Jesus Christ (J.C.), Son of God, was ultimately executed by humans.

*J.C. might have been a representative of a minority of the extraterrestrials, yet a representation that might resurface as those presenting themselves to the 1950’s ‘flying saucer’ contactees. The contactees might have in turn help spawn the 1960’s Hippy movement.

*Aspects of the polytheistic ‘gods’ do appear in the monotheistic Bible (i.e. Hades/Tartarus – part of the Greek polytheistic underworld)

Physiology and Appearances:

*The ‘gods’ are, as far as we’re concerned, as close to immortal as makes no odds so they had no trouble getting from there to here.

*However, the ‘gods’ do age, and they can be hurt and killed. They are not invincible, nor invulnerable. J.C.’s execution is proof of that.

*One trait, apart from quasi-immortality the ‘gods’ have is shape-shifting abilities.

*Is shape-shifting even possible? While it’s a common concept and ability within the pages and images of science fiction, it’s not exactly an ability you have. How often have we wished to be the proverbial ‘fly on the wall’? Yet, a newborn infant looks quite different from an 80 year old; a flounder undergoes a shape-shift to having both eyes on one side of the head; a caterpillar looks quite different than a moth or butterfly; an egg doesn’t resemble a chicken; a tadpole doesn’t look like a frog; a plant doesn’t resemble the seed from which it came, our embryo undergoes quite a shift in forms between fertilization and birth; a chameleon can undergo some drastic changes in appearance too. Then too, a human female of 18 has shape-shifted considerably from that of a human female of 8 – much to the appreciation of most males! Finally, baby faces in nearly all mammals are shaped differently (cuter?) than their adult counterparts. We’re attracted more to baby faces across the mammalian kingdom. So, no, I couldn’t rule out shape-shifting as an alien ability, especially if it might have been artificially augmented.

*Another puzzling feature regarding the ‘gods’ and related tales, or even tails is the half-and-halves.

*Most of the Egyptian ‘gods’ tend to have an animal head but a human body. Then you have the harpies (half human; half bird); centaurs (half human; half horse), the Minotaur (half human; half bull), satyrs (half human, half goat), the sphinx (half human; half lion), mermaids (half human; half fish). With no fossil evidence of any such hybrids, perhaps this is where mythology overrides reality. Perhaps it is just a natural pondering to wonder ‘what if’ human abilities could be combined with some other animal’s abilities.

*Half-and-halves are common throughout nearly all cultural mythologies, not just European and Egyptian ones, and other combinations have been realized.

*Are the ‘half-and-halves’ further evidence of shape-shifting? That’s probably unlikely. Perhaps they are further evidence of genetic and bioengineering experiments by the ‘gods’, the ‘gods’ own version of “The Island of Dr Moreau”.  There are some accounts in mythology of half-and-halves involving the pairing of two differing animals.

*If the physical appearance of the ‘gods’, or at least one representative ‘god’ can not be reconciled with that of any living thing known to man, then that alone is suggestive of something not-of-this-Earth; an extraterrestrial in other words, or the catch phrase, an ‘ancient astronaut’. Let’s take as an example…

The Ancient Egyptian God Seth (Set):

*Speaking of strange non-terrestrial appearances of the ‘gods’ take the ancient Egyptian ‘god’ Seth (or Set). Here’s how various mythology texts describe him: “He was often depicted as a tall beast – perhaps a jackal or donkey – with a long muzzle”. (National Geographic Society)

*”In art Seth (Set) was mostly depicted as a fabulous creature, referred to by Egyptologists as the Set animal or Typhonic beast, known as a Typhon, with a curved snout, square ears, forked tail, and canine body, or sometimes as a human with only the head of the Set animal. It has no complete resemblance to any known creature, although it could be seen as a composite of an aardvark, a donkey, a jackal. Some early Egyptologists proposed that it was a stylized representation of the giraffe due to the large flat-topped 'horns' which correspond to a giraffe's ossicones, but the Egyptians themselves distinguished between the giraffe and the Set animal. In the late period Set is depicted as an ass or with the head of an ass”. (Wikipedia)

*”When depicted in animal form, the god Seth is a very odd creature, with a long snout, short ears, and a pointy, upright tail. There have been many attempts to try to identify this creature with a known animal. The possibility remains that it is purely a mythological creature. To Egyptologists, it is known as ‘the Seth-animal.’” (Ryan)

*[Seth is] “depicted with floppy ears and an erect and divided tail”. (Leeming)

*”Set is represented as having the features of a fantastic beast with a thin, curved snout, straight, square-cut ears and a stiff forked tail. This creature cannot with certainty be identified and is commonly called the ‘Typhonian animal’. Sometimes Set is depicted as a man with the head of this strange quadruped.” (Larousse)

*”Seth’s bizarre appearance reflects his confusing nature. His human-form body is topped by a head that appears to combine the rounded snout of an aardvark (unknown to the ancient Egyptians) with curious, straight, flat-topped donkey ears. When represented in fully animal, four-legged form, he also displays a long neck, a dog-like body and an erect, curiously forked tail. It seems highly likely that this fantastic appearance is deliberately chaotic; composite deities such as Taweret might display a selection of body-parts culled from different species, but they are the recognizable parts of known animals, not of invented creatures. Nevertheless, Egyptologists have struggled valiantly to identify Seth’s component features: there is not enough space here to list all the suggestions, but the more imaginative include camel, long-nosed mouse, hare, antelope, pig, giraffe and boar.” (Tyldesley)

*If Seth (Set) was an ‘ancient astronaut’, by implication all his kin were too and by implication so were all the ancient Egyptian ‘gods’, and by implication the whole lot of the polytheistic ‘gods’  

To be continued…