Final call from the Ionosphere: Lighten UP!

Alien face crowned by feathered headdress, with collar and surrounding field of exquisite reflective crop lay like a spider's web, East Kennet July 2011

“All is Number. God is Number. God is in All.”
Pacal Votan, Last Great King of the Maya, AD603-683, Palenque Chiapas Mexico
“The mathematics of Space cannot be used to measure Time. Only the mathematics of Time can fulfill this. This is the fourth dimensional mathematics of the Maya”
Valum Votan, José Argüelles, AD1952-2011

Daniel Pinchbeck said as much. In his acclaimed book ‘2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl‘, (Tarcher hardcover U.S. 2006, released in GB paperback under title ‘Year of the Mayan Prophecy‘, Piatkus 2008) he sums up the quandary posed by our society’s headlong pursuit of Science to the detriment of all our naturally-acquired wisdom, leaving our instincts, our psychic connection with our intuition, our ‘still, small voice within’ lagging and dragging behind and falling by the wayside — where it languishes without love.

Amesbury, Stonehenge: twelvefold crop motif July 13th-- trompe l'oeil effect of sacred geometry, to which the passing crowd seems indifferent

“Science likes to work in paradigms. Because we don’t have explanatory grids for (UFOs, aliens, and) crop circles, they tend to be dismissed automatically and ridiculed. They are events that cross the boundary between the psychic and physical. I like the Jungian perspective that these phenomena are aspects of archetypes that are presently constellating in the collective psyche”
Daniel Pinchbeck, 2012:The Return of Quetzalcoatl

James Clerk Maxwell, (1831-1879) Scots physicist and graduate of Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Cambridge, realized that light, electricity, and magnetism were all aspects of the same phenomenon: one of the great unifications of physics. His mathematical ‘equations’, formulated in 1861, are still considered the basis of much continuing research in the electromagnetic field, and more currently in the field of biomagnetics.

Overton Down, July 18th, 2011 above the Ridgeway. Avebury sacred stone circle lies below, just over the ridge.
Photo Stuart Dike

But Science is struggling to explain the diversity and regularity with which crop circle imprints are created electromagnetically usually at night, but sometimes in daylight in a matter of minutes, leaving an unbruised crop bent but still growing; often with masterful and exquisite layering, and tufted central designs. The July 22nd crop formation at East Kennet (top) is an example. Not only are its ten pyramids symbolic of completion, full cycle, returning to source, but the background motif of a spider’s web implies perfection: that humanity is (perhaps) still on course for a change –a unification– in consciousness. The design has more symbols: enough to satisfy multiple doubting disbelievers. The central head can either be seen as Lord of the Dawn, Quetzalcoatl, the Great God of Central American belief in Number — crowned by his feathered-serpent headdress — or as the almond-shaped ‘Seat of the Soul’,’third eye’of the human body, the pineal gland, located in the middle of the head and source of bodily happiness, whose secretions of the hormone seratonin/melatonin (see below) produce altered states of consciousness.

Crop circle Reprise: crop design at East Kennet, July 22 this year (right) within ten-pointed ziggurat star design; compare Quetzalcoatl headdress within 20-pointed star at Wayland's Smithy, 2005 (left)

Back to the Garden

‘…We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain…and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden…’
Joni Mitchell, 1969

While our ancestors schooled us through millennia of handed-down wisdom –even in the West we had teachers, to whom we gradually turned a deaf ear — with the exploration of America, the Indies, the ‘Colonies’, we became conquerors, achievers, the epitome of current male-oriented culture where science and domination and ‘success’ are valued, with peace, balance and tender care for the Earth seen as weakness. Indigenous cultures were suppressed, EarthFirst beliefs and traditions devalued. They and their ancestral lands were marginalized.

Michael Lindfield, author of The Dance of Change, formerly a 14-year resident of the Intentional Community of Findhorn in NE Scotland, puts this anomalous situation in context:

Etchilhampton, Wiltshire July 25th --one of 3 appearing same day: hexagonal design with higher dimensional central cube motif, reminiscent of last year's Metatron's cube. Farmer David White is giving all visitor donations to charity

“I believe, that in the West, we have worked to hone and perfect the analytical mind. In our scientific research into the meaning of life, we’ve been looking mostly at objects. What we haven’t really paid attention to is the relationships in between. We see that as empty space. The prevailing world-view is it’s just empty space populated by objects.

“I believe space is a living field. Space as an entity in its own right –through its energetic field– makes conscious relationship possible. It’s a ‘vibrant field of conscious connection’ because it allows relationship between objects to exist. As a ‘being’ in its own right, it’s more like a wave than a particle. You have to have both waves and particles to have the whole picture. And I think we’ve just been looking at the particles, trying to put the particles together, and forgetting about the wave.”

July 20th yin-yang symbol at Louth, Lincolnshire, 3rd this season. Louth lies at 0ºW 53ºN, symbolic of zero point in human consciousness, 53 the sacred number for Garden of Eden

Astrophysicist Alan Holt, a NASA space engineer who spends half his life on-planet and half his life off — in orbit on ISS — has the benefit of God’s eye view of the progress of civilization. One of his on-planet obsessions is crop circles. He visited the Wiltshire hub in the summer of 2000 and again this year.

“On the way back to Glastonbury we stopped at the Barge Inn. The Barge Inn is located along one of the many canals (Kennet and Avon, Ed.) crisscrossing England, and is a meeting place and informal headquarters for crop circle researchers and visitors. Photos of the latest crop circles are tacked up on a bulletin board.”
Alan Holt M.S., ISS astronaut

“Since I have for many years used enhanced intuitive capabilities to pick up additional information, I did sit in the crop circle near the Barge Inn (in 2000) and picked up some interesting impressions pertaining to the future. In addition, I put out the thought, somewhat as a test but really a request, that I would like to see a crop pictogram appear which could provide me some insight into the direction I should pursue in my advanced transport/field physics research activities.” Alan Holt July 2000

Space Utilization and Exploration Projects

Crabwood 2002 message in ASCII code: 'beware the bearers of false gifts and broken promises'

“The complexity and form of the crop pictograms continue to be very amazing and insightful. There is a growing focus on, and concern for, the decline of the Earth’s environment; and a growing awareness of the upcoming shifts in the calendars of the Maya, Hopi, and other native groups; and what these shifts (in consciousness?) could mean for human civilization. It would be interesting if any trends in the crop pictograms begin to occur, which more directly and more often address steps to help us avoid the decline in the Earth’s environment, and enhance potential shifts in human consciousness.

Alien oval face Hinton Parva, Wiltshire July 20th, 2011

Alan Holt, astrophysicist

While the space engineer is careful to specify that his opinion is his alone (not associated in any way with his employer, NASA), he also speaks in a forthright manner about space exploration and human consciousness — his two main interests.

‘There is truly an astounding phenomenon unfolding in England and elsewhere in the world. It’s very unfortunate that unscientific thinking, and perhaps deliberate disinformation, of a few individuals have been picked up and accepted by a naïve press worldwide. As a result, millions of people have been deprived of the opportunity to experience a consciousness-expanding phenomenon. It is our civilization’s loss; but fortunately the apparently successful attempt to ridicule or “debunk” crop circles will do nothing to stop what may be a major transformation ahead for humanity.’

‘From my perspective, there is also a warning or “be prepared” message coming through the crop pictograms as well. We have not been very good stewards of the planet on which we are living. We have recklessly depleted resources; contaminated water, air and Earth; threatened the foundation of Earth’s viability with the use and testing of nuclear weapons (and perhaps other exotic technology), and continue to waste at least one-half of what we produce –especially here in the U.S. The Earth can compensate for some of our mistakes, but it too goes through transformations. If our care of our planet is not dramatically improved soon, we may not have many more years to enjoy the beauty and nurturing environment which even now the Earth still provides.’

One might imagine his regular visits to ISS –in addition to his terrestrial work with NASA– give him an ET-eye-view of our blue planet. In May this year he was interviewed by Suzanne Taylor, producer-director of the 2010 movie: What on Earth? He recalled his request eleven years earlier (the intuitively-voiced prayer while in the Barge Inn crop formation) and says:

“It was made clear to me in my first visit to a crop pictogram in 2000, that we may not have many years left to enjoy the verdant Earth as we do now. Hopefully, we have made progress since 2000 to reverse that trend, and we will take additional steps to minimize the Earth’s environmental decline.” Alan Holt update, May 2011

Eleven years ago: Magnetic field in a Wiltshire crop field, July 22, 2000 at Knoll Down, Avebury Trusloe

“The bar magnet crop pattern which appeared during my visit in 2000, did seem to be an answer to the question/request (which I mentally proposed) about the best research approach, in my breakthrough space transport interests. I am now convinced that humanity’s destiny path will lead us to become a very successful, evolved consciousness — a space-exploration species. The crop pictograms may be helping us to take a few key steps down that path.” Alan Holt, Project Manager, NASA Space Exploration, International Space Station (ISS) (personal view).

Roundway (2) July 25th, hard on the heels of its melatonin molecular companion, suggestive of the human 'third eye'-- the pineal ('pine-cone') gland. This glyph was harvested immediately by the farmer

As we know, the Earth acts as a giant magnet, with terminals of the magnetosphere entering, penetrating and exiting through the torus of the north and south poles. Every living creature is affected –from birth until death– by electromagnetic fluctuations generated by this huge dynamo. Most dramatic illustration is the way bees and bats use it. Other higher animals (homing pigeons, gestating whales, migrating turtles and geese) adjust their frequency to home in on their geographical place of birth via genetic/intuitive tuning into Earth’s magnetic field. On a day-to-day level, this magnetic shield — the magnetosphere — is protecting and shielding living beings from (excessive) solar radiation, CMEs and stray emissions from deep space. It is known to affect brain function and therefore can –in some humans– have an influence on health and behavior. It is the invisible energy that drives the Universe.

Windmill Hill-2, Avebury, July 26th: culmination of several consecutive days of crop images, courtesy CircleChasers

Pinchbeck says: ‘We may be at the same place with psychic phenomena and psychic energy today as we were in the mid-18th Century with electricity. We may find that we can tap into psychic energy for purposes of planetary transformation, in the way that we once used to tap into electricity.’

‘Our future as a species may depend upon us developing a more sophisticated awareness of the activities of other forms of intelligent life in the cosmos. We may find that there is a multidimensional multitude of other beings with different agendas and intentions, and we will have to learn to discriminate between psychic realms that are spiritually beneficial for us and others that are dangerous and potentially destructive for us.’

The Spirit Molecule

Roundway crop circle-1 (left) appeared July 23rd: compare it with the 5-MeO-DMT molecule (right), the chemical structure of melatonin or the 'spirit molecule'

ET, having sent a couple of ‘serious’ messages — some feel the alien ‘Gray’ head at Charlbury Hill, Hinton Parva-2 (July 20th) is being ‘scalped’ by one field tramline and its mouth muzzled by the other — two of July’s most recent communications give a clear suggestion to look at the chemical structure of hormone melatonin. The curvacious equation appeared last weekend (July 23rd) next to the ancient Roundway Mound below the Millennium White Horse. Melatonin occurs naturally in the body, is produced by the pineal gland (above) and its chemical constituents (DMT = C12N2H16, melatonin = C13H18N2O) are similar to the family grouping of human DNA, with which it combines easily. Two days later another (Roundway-2) crop design appeared, suggesting the remarkably aesthetic structure of the human ‘third-eye’, the pineal gland which secretes the treasured hormone — ‘spirit-molecule’, DMT in natural form.

Are our off-planet/higher dimensional colleagues/audience encouraging us? Egging us on to access our own natural hormones to create greater bliss? Or merely suggesting we don’t take ourselves quite so seriously, i.e. LIGHTEN UP?

While bigtime media may not recognize this (‘always the last to find out’), there is a growing awareness in the crop circle community and its followers that much new information is being transmitted for our delectation by a ‘multi-dimensional’ source –call it what you will. One focus for this interest in the paranormal, higher dimension perspective –the connection between the waves– is CircleChasers’ annual gathering and discussion at the Coronation Hall, Alton Barnes, Wiltshire, which will be held this year on Wednesday, July 27th –in two days’ time. The speaker will be Andrew Collins. His theme: UFOs, Plasma and the Multidimensional Experience. If you are anywhere near the vicinity, it should be an evening worth your while.

The Wiltshire community, converging on Alton Barnes-Barge Inn-Honey Street-Avebury are, like some of its farmers, a real mix of emotional extremes. There are those who would remove all evidence before it percolates; others who want to share the bounty. It’s an individual thing. But, as our supporters say –astronauts to combine harvester-drivers to microlite photographers– it’s not going to go away. Catch it while you can.

…and the beat goes on…
©2011 Marian Youngblood

The Plasma Universe: our Electric Connection

Gods wielding Thunderbolts: not imaginary mythological tales but formative Earth's memory of her violent past

Plasma braids:
“Thunderbolt that steers the Universe”
Heraclitus, 5th Century B.C.

Our galaxy is not void.

For years we were taught traditional theory of our Universe as ‘space’, a vacuum, inert, orderly with few surprises. It was forever expanding outward from a point of primeval Big Bang, controlled and geared by gravity (the weakest celestial force), full of black holes, with anomalous behavior in comets, meteorites and exploding galaxies explained as the work of anti-matter, ‘dark’ matter or, as in nuclear physics, attributed to ‘unknown’ factors such as quarks, charm, CERN‘s conjectural Higgs-Boson particle or the existence of the ‘weak force’, anti-gravity or String Theory’s multiple dimensions. While physicists had trouble proving their theories (many of the ‘forces’ and particles were hypothetical and had theoreticians predicting ‘mass-less’ entities and the ‘graviton’) they are now swinging to a view of the operation of the Universe via another mode of Being:

As electrically-charged plasma.

Plasma is looked upon as the ‘fourth state of matter’, different from solid, liquid, gas. And as plasma is almost exclusively electromagnetic –a cluster of ionized particles– electrical theory is being unwrapped from the closet and given another airing.

NASA, JPL, CERN and the Los Alamos National Laboratory all give explanations for their switch from traditional space theory to a more generally accepted (and more familiar electromagnetically-driven) plasma physics, whose founding father, Swedish Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén (1908-1995) coined the phrase ‘Plasma Universe’. Originally trained as an electrical power engineer, he researched and taught many years in the field. His plasma theories describe behavior of aurorae, Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, effect of magnetic storms on Earth’s magnetic field, magnetic and electric fields in cosmic plasmas, the terrestrial magnetosphere and dynamics of plasmas within our galaxy.

Because of its unique behavior, (unlike solids, liquids, gas) plasma is seen as the dominant form of matter in the universe. It has been called the ‘fundamental state of matter.’

When a material is heated from solid to liquid to gas phase, and then even hotter, it starts to become ionized, i.e. one or more electrons of an atom become liberated. Plasma is essentially a collection of ionized particles and while in its simplest form it behaves according to basic electromagnetic laws, at its most complex it continues to astonish specialists in its ability to self-organize into cells with different electrical characteristics.

Plasma comes in many forms, all electromagnetically active

Plasmas are not routinely encountered on the Earth’s surface. Natural plasmas, however, do form lightning and aurora, with the cool, man-made version most commonly seen in fluorescent light bulbs. Solar corona and solar flares are good examples of hot plasma. Earth’s magnetosphere contains plasma generated by particles of solar wind interacting with Earth’s own electromagnetic field, liberating ions into the Ionosphere (upper atmosphere).

Aurora borealis, Aurora australis

Aurora on Jupiter, photo courtesy John T Clarke (U.Mich)

Aurora borealis/australis is the result of charged solar wind particles clashing with and becoming trapped within the Van Allen radiation belts, where they hit the ionosphere and fluoresce. Every planet with a magnetic field generates its own plasma, like that around Jupiter and its moon Io. Beyond the solar system, in interstellar space, ions and electrons proliferate everywhere.

Fire in the Sky
A plasma discharge (spontaneous flash of light) is familiar to students of electromagnetism. To our ancestors, however, who must have witnessed many such plasma discharges in the ancient skies and recorded these (frightening) occurrences, they were seen as battles of the gods, sky heroes and god-kings clashing with sky monsters, serpents, ‘smoke-stars’, fire-dragons which, against apparently insuperable odds, they succeeded in overcoming.

As comets enter the inner solar system, a plasma tail often develops (in addition to a non-charged tail of dust), like Shoemaker-Levy 9 (1993-4) and Hale-Bopp (1995, 1997). NASA’s most famous comet-rendezvous program, Deep Impact, confirmed cometary composition (‘dirty snowball’ plus ionized particle tails) in its hit on comet Tempel 1 in July 2005 and flyby of comet Hartley 2 November last year.

Several ancient cultures name fearful comets as ‘smoking stars’ and lightning, with its thunderbolt — often in the shape of axe, jagged staff or flashing sword — was seen as the divine weapon of gods and king-heroes wielded against ‘fiery dragons’ curled inside the earth (volcanoes?) which threatened the populace.

Castor and Pollux —Alpha and Beta Geminorum, the ‘heavenly’ or ‘thunder’ twins — were revered by the Aztec as the first ‘fire sticks’, from which Mankind learned to drill fire. And, interestingly, when the Peruvian Indians became Christian, they chose to call one of those twins Santiago because their missionaries taught them that Christ named James (Santiago) and John the ‘Sons of Thunder’.

In Mesopotamia 4,500 years earlier (4000 BC), Gemini* served as pointers to mark the beginning of the new year by setting with the first new moon of spring, just as Egyptian astronomy’s pointer Dog star Sirius, Sothis signaled annual flooding of the Nile. Classical Greece called them the Dioscuri, the ‘thunder boys’, sons of Zeus.

In the opinion of seminal scholar of world mythology Prof. J. Rendel Harris:

‘Great commentators of the Christian church had missed the meaning. In demythologizing the Bible, they threw out vast sections of primitive culture’s connection to the stars.’ (Boanerges 1913)

Authors Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend of (IMHO) one of the greatest compilations of world mythology, (Hamlet’s Mill 1969, 1977, 2002) call the Bible ‘that most unscientific of records.’

Viewing cosmology in an electromagnetic context, the Mill of the title begins to make sudden sense of millennia of myth. Hamlet is a translation of Finnish/Norse/Icelandic proto-hero Amlodhi whose staff (Yggdrasil, ‘world tree’) spun the mill of the maelstrom, the whirlpool of the cosmos, the vortex, axis mundi — the Earth’s magnetic polar shaft. The Finnish quern/mill Sampo (vault of heaven, from Sanskrit skambha, pillar, pole, axis) ground out Mankind’s deep origins: it was this mill which created ocean, earth, Man. In good times it ground out ‘peace and plenty’, in bad times, salt. And, according to the Finns whose mythology is alive in recitation, it grinds still. It lingers in Vedic tradition in a hymn —Atharva Veda— to the world pillar (skambha):

A great monster in the midst of creation strode in penance on the back of the sea. In it are set what gods there are, like branches of a tree roundabout the trunk. AV 10.7.38

From such fragments of antiquity embedded in folk memory indicating a preoccupation with earth’s magnetic axis, it is tempting to believe that a polar shift, such as predicted by some for our ‘End Times’, may have occurred at least once before.

There seem to have been other cosmic cataclysmic occurrences.

Heliospheric current generates its own electromagnetic field

In an electromagnetic context within interstellar space, plasma spontaneously generates filaments which, like magnetic poles, attract each other at long distances and repel each other at short range. These filaments often braid themselves into ‘ropes’ that act like power transmission lines through space, with virtually unlimited scope in the distances and speeds they can travel.

Following precise magnetic field lines, these braids and ropes are known as Birkeland currents, after Norwegian explorer and physicist Kristian Birkeland who predicted them in 1903 after years of study of aurora in the Arctic.

Space plasma moving through a magnetic field generates its own electric current, and conducts electricity better than metals. Professor Emeritus of the Swedish Alfvén Laboratory, Carl-Gunne Fälthammar wrote (1986):

“A reason why Birkeland currents are particularly interesting is that, in the plasma forced to carry them, they cause a number of physical processes to occur (waves, instabilities, fine structure formation). These in turn lead to consequences such as accelerated charged particles, both positive and negative, and element separation (like preferential ejection of oxygen ions). Both classes of phenomena should be of general astrophysical interest far beyond that of understanding the space environment of our own Earth.”

In the medium of space, strong radial magnetic fields can make a plasma pinch like the hourglass-shaped Ant nebula, left, produce characteristic filaments like the plasma ball (top), and particle beams, as in its dense plasma center.

Filaments leave a magnetic field signature that is recognizable in the observable universe. Astronomers have been aware of these electromagnetic fields, but have historically paid them little attention.

At a most basic level, magnetic fields are produced only by electricity. So with new eyes we observe our Universe as electrically charged, electrically based and electrically-operated.

If stories transmitted through myth in all ancient cultures are taken as genuine records of visual phenomena –plasma bursts in the heavens– we begin to see formative earth peoples experiencing life on a volatile planet among cataclysmic prehistoric events happening in their skies. Our recent past, by comparison, has been a peaceful one. We can imagine how such events must have instilled fear, but faith and belief that their leaders (god-kings in ancient Egypt, China, Babylon) could and did overcome such monsters is not in our makeup. By ignoring the heavens, we have become complacent: we are no longer skywatchers. Because our history relates few cosmic incidents, we are lulled into ignoring our unique connection to our star, its orbiting companions, the Milky Way galaxy which drives us and the great space of infinity beyond.

Yet this is a running theme through all primitive earth culture, myth and art. And while science is beginning to access the bigger picture, we may be seeing a greater whole just in time: as the predicted solar maximum (increased sunspot activity, below) has the potential to return us to such tempestuous celestial activity as our ancestors experienced. Fire in our skies… perhaps eliciting earth’s (volcanic) response…

Astronomers and astrophysicists are beginning to accept that every energetic object in the universe has a plasma associated with it. Plasmas are detected by trace electromagnetic radiation (light, x-rays, radio waves), or in some cases, by the interaction of their ions and electrons with other objects.

Scientists think solar wind has been turned sideways by pressure from interstellar wind from distant stars

Distilling plasma theory down to its simplest form, and with great leaps in astronomical technology (space vehicles like Cassini and Voyager, telescopes like Hubble and SOHO), we can view and photograph from earth beautiful plasma nebulae which, excited by light from nearby stars, display precisely the same formations and explosive patterns seen in electromagnetism produced in the laboratory. It is also synchronous that Voyager is only now hurtling toward interstellar space approximately 10.8 billion miles (17.4 billion kilometers) from the sun on the outer edge of the solar system. Voyager 1 has crossed into an area of deep space where the velocity of hot ionized gas, (plasma) emanating directly outward from the sun as solar wind has slowed to zero.

Voyager 2 confirmed the existence of Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Uranus and Neptune.

As with Earth, the outer planets are affected by solar storms, but Earth’s proximity to her star (93 million miles, 1AU) makes her more susceptible.

Van Allen radiation belts surround Earth's magnetosphere

Energetic particle fluxes (radiation) can increase and decrease dramatically as a consequence of geomagnetic storms, themselves triggered by magnetic field and plasma disturbances produced by the Sun. We moved out of an unusually extended solar minimum last year. It may be in our interest to be (cautiously) more aware of the possibility of increasing solar disturbances during this next eleven-year cycle which will crown at solar maximum, thought to occur 2012.

While solar disruption on the scale of 1859’s Carrington Event may not happen, with our present dependence on electronic media for almost all human activity, we would be wise to have backup systems available, should such a CME-derived blackout occur.

Nobody in living memory knows what to do should a pole reversal occur. Angelic assistance is preferable.

Westbury crop circle July 2010 'Van Allen radiation belts'?

As we know (or rather, as some of us on this weblog community are following), 2009/2010 crop circle seasons were significant in their display of designs and consciousness-triggers alerting us to astrophysical phenomena and Earth’s fragility in its electromagnetic cocoon. Solar flares, plasma ejections (coronal mass ejections, CMEs), sunspot activity have all featured in Wiltshire wheatfields and are on the increase –see blog entries February through October 2010— alongside dimensional and spiritual instruction to prepare us for what may be around the corner.

Earth’s Mythological Past
Meantime, interdisciplinary researchers have not been idle. Given such a wealth of new information from astronomers, mythologists (following the trail begun by Hamlet’s Mill authors) have been working alongside scientists to make sense of thousands of years of transmitted lore, art, ancestral wisdom and belief which attest to hugely violent episodes in our planet’s past related to the heavens. Mythological and cultural archetypes worldwide share language, symbols and a timeframe which suggest a less-than-tranquil formative period in Earth’s evolution than the one traditionally held by astronomers.

Under the umbrella of the Thunderbolts Project of Portland, OR, scientists, authors, mythologists and historians led by Wallace Thornhill, David Talbott and electrical engineer Prof. Donald E. Scott, are cooperating with plasma physicist Dr. Anthony Peratt to interpret petroglyph symbolism used by almost every ancient civilization to depict mythological heroes and events. Peratt has for 30 years run a laboratory using computer-generated electrical activity to predict plasma bursts in celestial forms. Together they are finding remarkable resonance between plasma forms in the lab, those produced in the cosmos, and the rock art of ancient man who drew what he saw in the sky.

On a spiritual and cosmic level, an ‘electric Universe’ — via our planetary umbilical cord to our star; its energetic tie to Galactic Center and through it the galaxy’s electromagnetic relationship with all other galaxies and the most distant stars — can be viewed as a purposeful whole, held together by plasma ropes, braids of light and power transmission lines which do indeed transmit information.

We are only just learning the language of the stars.

*According to pre-Hellenic myth, the Age of Gemini (approx 6000 BC) was considered the ‘Golden Age’, Saturnia regna when Saturn/Kronos ruled. Following the Precession of the Equinoxes, each celestial Age lasts around 2200 years. More detail on successive ages here. In Mongolian myth the Age of Gemini signaled a time when ‘heaven and earth separated’ and fire was born. In other words, before the ecliptic and celestial equator fell apart (and the equinoxes started to precess), there was no fire. It was ‘given by heaven’ in the Golden Age of the Twins. 8000 years on, we entered the Age of Aquarius on February 14, 2009.

2010: Year of the Metal Tiger

Victor Kahn's magical tiger in female clothing

2010 is predicted to be a tumultuous year on many fronts. And, as of Valentine’s Day, it becomes the Year of the Metal Tiger. The Tiger in oriental astrology returns – along with the planet Jupiter – every twelve years. So we are about to have our Jupiter Return. The Tiger is the symbol of courage, inviting bold actions and risk taking. The Metal element will provide steely resolve, fortitude and determination to accomplish goals.

That’s a bold combination for a year which begins, in this era of multi-cultural clashes, with a day of cultural harmony. In terms of celebration at least, half the world will be out making whoopee on Sunday.

Preparations for Sunday's parade in Rio

It is the day of the New Moon (in refined and forward-looking Aquarius, alongside Sun and Mercury); at the center of the Inca world, a solemn dedication to light and Pachamama is held in the Temple of the Priestesses on Titicaca’s Island of the Moon; it is the beginning of Creole and Latin Carnival and Roman Catholic German ‘Fasching’, which lasts until Ash Wednesday next week.

The Tiger ushers in a year of inscrutable Chinese philosophy (possibly even an upsurge in Tai Chi classes); it signals the first day of Tibetan Buddhist Losar and, almost forgotten in the melée and rush to grab a bargain, to feast before the fast of Lent, it is the celebration of the Roman Valentinus who was persecuted for his belief in Christian love: St. Valentine, a politically-incorrect Christian in the last years of pre-Christian emperor Claudius II’s reign, was executed outside Rome’s Flaminian Gate on February 14th AD270. He was brought to trial for aiding Christians who were being persecuted in Claudian Rome; and when he attempted to convert the emperor himself to Christianity, his execution was ordered. The lovers whom he had joined in Christian wedded bliss in earlier illegal ceremonies brought him gifts of flowers while he awaited his fate.

Valentine’s Day floral gifts are today given with little or no knowledge of their original place in the legend of Valentinus. It is not surprising. While Pope Gelasius in AD496 recognized his martyrdom and designated February 14th to honor him, he was never officially canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

Once more, the act of celebrating on the first day of the first New Moon in February is much more heavily laced with pre-Christian countryman (‘pagan’) belief than with any superimposed Church festival. At this time of year, along with the return of the Light – longer hours of sunlight and the movement of the sun’s disk rising higher daily in northern skies, it was a time to celebrate the rising of sap in trees, the first signs of birds pairing and beginning to mate; the appearance of first growth in the Earth. Snowdrops and aconites open; first shoots of daffodil and bluebell leaves appear; the Earth awakens.

This year the Sun appears to be awakening again, too.

THEMIS Satellite group measures auroral activity from orbit

Until December we Earth residents were affected by a trickle of solar wind: the last vestiges of a solar minimum – an eleven-year cycle of minimal solar activity. Apart from a coronal mass ejection (CME) predicted in a couple of Wiltshire crop circles in June last year for the early part of July 2009, we were blessed with no power outages caused by magnetic storms, our annual display of aurora borealis has been relatively undramatic and NASA has had plenty time to observe activity of their THEMIS satellite group (there are five), launched from Cape Canaveral in February 2007 to orbit the earth and study aurora and the planet’s magnetosphere.

Solar magnetic field drapes against Earth's magnetosphere as it drifts by

THEMIS stands for Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms: the study of Aurora, for short.

They’ve had a few surprises.

The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds the Earth and protects us from the Solar Wind.

Earth’s magnetic field carves out a cavity in the sun’s onrushing field. The Earth’s magnetosphere is thus ‘buffeted like a wind sock in gale force winds, fluttering back and forth in the solar wind,’ according to David Sibeck of the THEMIS project at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Solar particles by themselves don’t cause severe space weather, but they get energized when the solar magnetic field becomes oppositely-directed to Earth’s own field and reconnects, rather like a load of iron filings in the proximity of a magnet.

These energized sun particles have a combined force equal in some cases to a CME. They can cause magnetic storms of such magnitude that they overload power lines with excess current, and cause widespread blackouts. One of these events happened in September 1859 when a solar flare lasted nearly a week. Most of Middle America was without power for that period. It is remembered in astronomical and meteorological circles as the Superstorm or the Carrington Event.

Charged solar particles can also cause radiation storms that present hazards to spacecraft in high orbits or to the Space Shuttle with its crew of astronauts passing through a storm on its way to the moon, the ISS or other destinations in the solar system.

But, like Met. Office warnings of bad weather, these Space Weather forecasts can be predicted.

‘The more particles, the more severe the storm,’ says Joachim (Jimmy) Raeder of the University of New Hampshire, who collaborates with NASA. ‘If the solar (magnetic) field has been aligned with the Earth’s for a while, we know Earth’s field is heavily loaded with solar particles and primed for a strong storm. This discovery gives us a basic predictive capability for the severity of solar storms, similar to a hurricane forecaster’s realization that warmer oceans set the stage for more intense hurricanes.’

So far, so good. But Jimmy has a prognostication: He says calmly:

‘In fact, we expect stronger storms in the upcoming solar cycle.’

The solar magnetic field changes direction every cycle, that is, every eleven years, and we have had eleven years of a minimum: relatively calm Space Weather. Not a lot happening in the magnetosphere. Also, with the Sun’s non-alignment with Earth’s magnetic field, the shield is up; fewer particles can get in.

Streams of plasma jet out from the Sun in a recent CME

However, we just entered the doorway to a new cycle. Two new sunspots appeared on the sun’s disk last week, one (1045) described by SOHO as ‘awesome’ and ‘complex’ and the other (1046) – which just appeared around the edge – seems set to outdo its neighbor. Because of the Sun’s altered magnetic orientation in the new cycle, SOHO and THEMIS are expecting fireworks.

Not immediately at first, perhaps. These sunspot occlusions take time to build. Yet, when a sustained CME of plasma bursts from the solar prominences, we should expect something a little different to hit our placid earth shores. The expected clouds of particles ejected from the sun will have a magnetic field which is at first not aligned with Earth’s, but by the time the CME hits, (it takes about three days to travel 93,000,000 miles to us) the solar magnetic field is programmed to react and turn the other cheek. Its magnetic polarity switches to its opposite as the cloud passes by. And our magnetosphere opens its doors to welcome it.

It’s rather like sending a solar invitation to dinner: the earth is at first the reluctant host, but when the package is delivered, the host welcomes the new guest with open arms.

Coronal Mass Ejection crop circle which predicted July 2009 CME

THEMIS is currently pondering a new series of data which suggests that when the two magnetic fields line up, together they create a ‘huge breach, and there’s lots and lots of particles coming in’- David Sibeck’s words.

As they orbited Earth, THEMIS’s five spacecraft were able to estimate the thickness of the band of solar particles getting in through the breach when the fields were aligned — it turned out to be about 20 times the number that got in when the fields were counter-aligned. They measured meticulously as they orbited through the band.

Like one of Saturn’s rings, the band turns out to be one Earth radius thick, or about 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers).

So, when the barriers are down, Earth is vulnerable. In 1859, at the time of the Carrington Event, nobody on Earth had a computer, banking systems and air traffic control were a figment in a futurist’s imagination; weather was something you ‘got through’.

If the data which THEMIS and SOHO are now contemplating becomes crystallized – if the beauty seen in a crop circle last summer becomes a reality: if we have a CME or a particle storm equal to or more powerful than that single event of last July 7th, Earth is in for a rocky ride.

We’ll need all our Tiger and Metal attributes to get us through.

In the meantime, happy Fat Tuesday (pancakes & syrup). Happy Mardi Gras.