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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Once and Future Comets, September 28, 2006
Patrick McCafferty & Mike Baillie
The Celtic Gods:
Comets in Irish Mythology
(Tempus Pub., Stroud, UK) 2005
Paperback, 224 pages
ISBN 0-7524-3444-6
Critiqued by Victor DeMattei
David Keys published "Catastrophe," based in part on the dendrochronological research of Mike Baillie, which highlighted a catastrophic climatic downturn in the sixth century of our era that led to a collapse of all the "classical" ancient civilizations across the globe; namely, the Greco-Roman culture in the Mediterranean and Western Europe, the Maya in Mesoamerica, and Asiatic cultures in the Eastern World, ushering in what has be¬come known as the "Dark Ages." Keys' explanation for the trigger event for this collapse was a massive eruption of ancient Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra about 535 AD, which released an enormous dust cloud that spread around the world and fomented a Fimbul winter throughout the northern hemisphere.
Coincidentally, this was at the same moment in time that the last native Latin-speaking Eastern Roman emperor based in Constantinople, Justinian, was trying to reconquer the former Roman heartland in Italy from the Germanic Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths). This war was recorded by both Procopius of Caesarea, who was private secretary to the Roman general, Belisarius, and by Cassiodorus Senator, who was in effect the prime minister of the enemy Gothic king, Theodorick, who died just a the outbreak of the conflict. Procopius noted a massive plague that wiped out at least a third of the empire population. However, according to contemporary scholarship, disease and the course of the war reduced the population of Italy by some two-thirds, from an estimated six million down to two million, while disease-infected Rome was reduced from a million to some thirty thousand. Rome changed hands four times between 540 and 554 AD, and according to Procopius was even deserted for some six weeks. The fall of Italy in 540 AD to Torila the Ostrogoth was the actual, albeit argumentative, end of the imperial Roman Empire, and can be compared to the contemporaneous collapse of Mesoamerican civilizations.
Dendrochronologist Baillie and engineer/archeologist McCafferty both disagree with Keys' assessment that a volcanic origin for the disease-ridden climatic decline was the cause, and posit their own hypothesis of a trigger mechanism. Their disagreement is based on Greenland ice core samplings that show no more volcanic dust than normal during the sixth century, and opt for another putative cause, drawing largely on the work of astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier that cometary fragments were more likely trigger events.
They distinguish between long and short period comets, where the former are relatively unlikely to impact the Earth, whereas fragments from short period comets, such as Enke's or Halley's, are more probable. As comets orbiting within our solar system break up and are strung out they can potentially impact the Earth with devastating effect. The Tunguska explosion over the Siberian taiga in 1908 is thought to be a fragment of Enke's Comet.
McCafferty and Baillie point out that spasmodic if not periodic civilization collapses in the 25th century BC, the 12th century BC (about the time of the Trojan War), and the one that concern us here in the 6th century AD, are due to Comet Enke. They also present historical and mythological descriptions from China and Japan that fortify their conclusions.
This finally brings us to their main argument that Celtic mythology, such as the Cuchulainnian and Arthurian Cycles are coded accounts of such cometary strikes. (As a side issue, Cuchulainn [pronounced ku-ka'-lin] bears a linguistic relationship to the Mesoamerican Kukulcan.) The same goes for the Beowulf Saga and that of the legendary sixth century Irish saints. In Appendix IV of their book they graphically lay out the links in these stories that point to a cometary connection and the concomitant source of the action and danger in the skies above.
In "Playing with Catastrophic Links" the authors note, for example, that the Celtic hero Lugh kills his grandfather Balor, and if he hadn't Ireland would have been burned in a flash, and that the Irish prelate Mobhi dies in the plague that kills one-third of the people of Ireland. Also, recall Procopius, the 6th century Byzantine historian, who records a plague that killed one-third of the Mediterranean world. Again, in Irish myth, the prelate "Moling confused with Suibne foretells Fal's wheel that would destroy three-quarters of Europe."
Cuchulainn in his `frenzy' kills or injures two-thirds of the people of Ireland. Lugh's spear causes the Dolorous Blow that destroys three kingdoms. And, St. Patrick has a vision of Ireland being covered in flames. The boar Twrch Trwyth, pursued by Arthur and finally driven into the sea off Cornwall, laid waste to a third part of Ireland.
To reiterate, underlining these reported catastrophes: 1) Ireland would have been burned in a flash, 2) plagues that kill one-third of the people of Ireland, 3) Fal's wheel (consisting of paddles or oars) would destroy three-quarters of Europe, 4) frenzy of the gods that kills or injures two-thirds of the people of Ireland, 5) the Arthurian Dolorous Blow that destroys three kingdoms, 6) Ireland being covered in flames, 7) Twrch Trwyth laid waste a third part of Ireland.
Baillie points out that what we know from dendrochronology around 540 AD, there was a global tree-ring downturn. We know from history (Procopius, first of all) that around 540-542 plagues erupted in Europe and killed one third of the population, while the Roman Empire was making a last gasp to recover Italy from the Goths.
It seems from Baillie's research that the Earth periodically encounters comet swarms that cause considerable damage. Further, McCafferty and Baillie note, "there are, however, reasons for believing that at periods around 4500 and 1500 years ago, due to orbital changes, close passes may have taken place. Changes in the relationship between the orbits of the Earth and short-period comets meant that the orbits crossed, and for centuries there could have been repeated close encounters."
Current astronomical theory posits that the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto as the home of most cometary matter and perhaps many more as yet undiscovered planetesimals. The only viable orbital changes would be for the cometary matter, so these would be the most likely culprits for these catastrophic close encounters.
But, what is also interesting is the association of plagues with these events. This would seem to lend credence to the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe theory of panspermia, i.e., bringing in extraterrestrial microorganisms, but admittedly this may be pushing the envelope. More prosaically, one of the effects of multiple cometary incursions into the atmosphere would be an increased dust load and s collateral cooling effect--much as happened in 1815 with the eruption of Tambora leading to the so-called year without a summer of 1816. This in turn would lead to crop failures, famine, and diseases associated with deprivation, as peoples' immune systems would be compromised.
In brief, the whole thrust of McCafferty and Baillie's thesis is that Celtic mythology is largely a symbolic account of these catastrophic events. They also add what may be the most important point of all, for if they are right the security of our planet and the life it harbors could depend on it, which is a call for an interdisciplinary effort on the part of scholars in both the hard and soft sciences to study this problem together and see if the data fit. Then we could take counter measures that might save our planet and ourselves.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Irish stars, September 28, 2006
I picked this book up the last time I was in Ulster; I remember being slightly taken back by the title so much so that it initiated my purchase. Nevertheless, however, writing as a layman and as someone who takes great cultural pride in our Celtic hero Cuchulainn. I remember being slightly dismayed at thinking he might have been a Comet, then again, I have read that he might be a magic mushroom which isn't very charming either. In both cases matter is reified into the plane of psychological symbolism, now I wonder... Seeing that I have softened my scepticism, I must recommend this book as a great primer on so many interdisciplinary subjects, and whatever these guys have it is great skill at delivery. Imagine in the next 1000 years from now, folks will be saying George Best, was the reincarnation of that that particular famous comet. Well you can never know?
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Only two reviews so far ? ? ?, March 26, 2009
There is a current resurgence of willingness in the scientific community to consider cosmic causes for disasters as long ago as the Permian and as recent as the Holocene. The story of astronomical disasters apparently does not end there, some 11,000 years ago. It continues right through the earliest written histories of man, through the Bronze Age and into the Christian era. The Celtic Gods zooms in and tightly concentrates its attention in the sixth century AD, expertly wringing signal out of the noise of history and restoring messages that might otherwise have remained hidden.
I consider this book is one of the five most important books I own. If I could inspire or bribe my children to read one book at the intersection between astronomy and history, this would be that book. The authors have put together a work that is carefully reasoned, beautifully written and extremely important. The publishers have dignified the content with the some of the finest paperback craft I have seen.
I am sorry that I do not have the time or ability to write a more extensive or inspiring review. But the fact that there were only two reviews of this important work motivated me to add my two cents.
If you are new to this subject and acquire a taste for more, here is a short list:
The Cosmic Winter by Clube and Napier
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Winter-Victor-Clube/dp/0631169539/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238127760&sr=1-1
Natural Catastrophes during Bronze Age Civilisations
http://www.sis-group.org.uk/cambconf.htm
Ragnarok by Ignatius Donnelly
http://www.amazon.com/Ragnarok-Fire-Gravel-Ignatius-Donnelly/dp/1404356320/ref=sr_oe_14_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238127686&sr=1-14
(This last suggestion is a case where one should avoid judging a book; either by it's cover, or by the title assigned it by the publisher....)
Another book by Mike Baillie:
Exodus to Arthur
http://www.amazon.com/Exodus-Arthur-Catastrophic-Encounters-Comets/dp/0713486813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238128539&sr=8-1
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by Carl Sagan
![Seek Solid Archaeoastronomy Links to Occult Politics? [2/2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QAkIjHO5L._AA60_.jpg)
