Mercury the Divine Child and Mars of the Exodus

Mercury the Divine Child and Mars of the Exodus

"Various mythologies describe Mercury as the Divine Child, the 
youngest of the gods ? the implication being that he was younger 
even than Venus/Ishtar/Hathor/Athena, whose own birth (from 
Jupiter/Ammon) was said to have been witnessed by mortals.5 But 
Hermes/Mercury was not said to have erupted from Jupiter. He was 
variously believed to have been born in a cave or under the ground 
or in the Pillar/Tower into which his mother had been confined."


George, here is a very interesting article about Mars. Rome would 
have a great interest in destorying any cult that arose around a 
rival Mars, expecially in regards to the religions of the Mideast - 
and their connections with the Celts in Gaul and Britian. Was John 
the Baptist Melkarth/Hurcules/Samson/Ogmois? Surely there would be 
the need of a Champion to throw back the Roman gods. I never 
understood the overthrowing of the money lender's tables until I 
summized they were very heavy, and many Jews all over the world knew 
that when they came to the temple and exchanged foreign coin.

Jon Presco

"http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Post/78122&authorid=6058

http://www.consciousevolution.com/Rennes/venus.htm 

 [1]VENUS OF THE FLOOD, MARS OF THE EXODUS 
  
Introduction 

In his Worlds in Collision (1950) Immanuel Velikovsky used myths, 
legends and traditions from throughout the world to illustrate his 
thesis that between the 15th and 7th centuries BC the earth suffered 
a series of devastating encounters with planetary bodies which were 
recorded by the peoples of the time. Controversially, Velikovsky 
argued that early in the 15th century a gigantic ball of fire, later 
to be the planet Venus, had erupted in a terrific explosion from the 
gas giant Jupiter and that this proto-planet, pulled by the sun's 
gravitation, moved towards the inner solar system, where it came on 
a near-collision course with the earth. This resulted, according to 
Velikovsky, in the series of catastrophes told in the biblical Book 
of Genesis, popularly known as the Ten Plagues of Egypt. 
        In Worlds in Collision Velikovsky argued that his ideas 
would have profound consequences for ancient chronology. He placed 
the dramatic encounter between proto-planet Venus and the earth 
around 1450 BC. Yet Egyptologists, who claimed to know the very 
coronation-date of the pharaoh who sat on the throne at that time, 
insisted that the records of Egypt contained not a hint of this 
terrible event. Velikovsky on the other hand found a series of 
hieroglyphic documents which did indeed allude to events similar to 
those described in Exodus, but these were dated by Egyptologists 
centuries earlier than 1450 BC. 
        Velikovsky divided Worlds in Collision into two parts. Part 
1 dealt with events caused directly by Venus. Part 2 dealt with 
events seven centuries later, beginning in the year 776 BC, when 
Venus disrupted the solar orbit of the planet Mars, a body which 
then itself moved on a collision course with the earth, bringing a 
series of catastrophic upheavals of nature which continued until the 
year 687 BC. 
        The above chronology was based squarely upon biblical 
timescales, which Velikovsky accepted more or less at face value, 
and indeed in Worlds in Collision he promised, in future 
publications, to trace the course of a series of earlier cataclysms 
also referred to in the Bible. The first of these, the Deluge of 
Noah, was believed by Velikovsky (following the Bible) to have 
occurred shortly before 3000 BC and to have been caused, he hinted, 
by a supernova explosion of the planet Saturn.1 A later series of 
calamities, associated with the story of Abraham, were believed by 
him to have occurred around 2000 BC and to have been linked to the 
planets Jupiter and Mercury. He intended, he said, to reconstruct 
the course of these events in a volume to be entitled Saturn of the 
Flood and Jupiter of the Thunderbolt. Although he did in fact do 
much work on this book, it has never been formally published. 
        Perhaps like most of Velikovsky's enthusiastic students I 
had, for a number of years, awaited the above volume (as well as the 
other unpublished titles) with bated breath; and had never really 
doubted that he was right in all his assumptions ? especially with 
regard to his celestial mechanics. The advent of Gunnar Heinsohn's 
stratigraphic work however changed everything. In the pages to 
follow I hope to demonstrate how that material makes a fundamental 
reassessment of Velikovsky's catastrophic chronology absolutely 
essential. In the light of this material I shall be demonstrating 
that the event generally named the Flood or the Deluge had nothing 
whatsoever to do with the planet Saturn, but was in fact the result 
of the activities of proto-planet Venus; an event which however 
occurred sometime near 1300 BC. The upheavals of nature associated 
with the biblical Exodus were also produced by Venus, but these 
occurred near the end of the 9th century ? within a decade of 830 
BC. Using more or less the same material as Velikovsky (though with 
more emphasis on stratigraphy), I want to demonstrate how the course 
taken by these events can be traced directly in the traditions, 
religion, art and iconography of the ancient nations. 
  
        Before proceeding I want to make it clear that I am totally 
at loggerheads here with the so-called "Saturnian" school of 
writers. The Saturnians hold, essentially, that there was a period 
in early human history during which the planet Saturn was the chief 
god. They also suggest, following Velikovsky, that the Flood of Noah 
was caused by this planet. But if Saturn were ever the supreme god, 
it has to be stated here and now that his cult has left no trace 
whatsoever in the art and iconography of the early civilisations. 
True, ancient literature in the Old World (in the form of writings, 
traditions and legends)2 does speak of a time when Saturn or Kronos 
("Old Father Time") was the ruler of the gods: but of this supposed 
epoch there is not a trace in the art recovered by the spades of the 
archaeologists. Quite the contrary, the earliest civilisations 
honour Venus/Ishtar/Hathor/Athena as the destructive and dangerous 
Queen of Heaven who was despatched on a mission by Jupiter 
(Zeus/Amon/Marduk) to annihilate the rebellious and sinful race of 
men. Reference to and illustration of this terrible event is found 
in the texts and iconography of all the early cultures, including 
those of both the Old World and the New. 
        Nevertheless, it is true that many of the ancient 
civilisations honoured Saturn as the original Father of the Gods, 
and speak of a time when he ruled the universe, only to usurped by 
his son Jupiter. How are these traditions to be explained if human 
beings never actually worshipped Saturn? This is a question I intend 
to return to towards the end of the present paper. 
  
  
Cult and Stratigraphy 
  
In order to properly understand both the catastrophic events that 
shaped the early civilisations as well as how these impacted upon 
the belief systems of mankind, it is important and indispensable to 
keep an eye on stratigraphy. For in the ancient inhabited sites we 
have in situ a chronological record not only of the cataclysms as 
they occurred, but of mankind's reaction to those events in terms of 
literature, art and iconography. 
        Perhaps the best and most important stratigraphy in this 
regard is that of Ur, the ancient metropolis of southern Mesopotamia 
excavated by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s. Woolley famously 
uncovered four separate layers of mass destruction at this site, the 
most important of which occurred at the deepest level: this being 
the nine-metre (three of silt/clay and four of `debris') "Flood" 
deposit which preceded the rise of the first literate civilisations. 
Immediately above this was found the first proto-literate culture, 
popularly named Jamdat Nasr, where there occurred the earliest 
temples and cult centres. This epoch too was terminated by 
another "flood" which however left a much smaller silt layer than 
the previous event. Above this second flood was found the Early 
Dynastic culture, characterised by full literacy and a flourishing 
temple cult. This period too was terminated by a flood, which left a 
small layer of silt comparable to that left by the previous one. The 
so-called Second Dynasty of Ur followed this event and was soon 
replaced by the first part of the Third Dynasty (Early Dynastic 3a) 
before it too was destroyed by a fourth flood. Immediately above 
this final catastrophe there was evidence of a brief revival of 
Sumerian culture, which was followed soon by the period of Akkadian 
domination. 
        We need to examine the cultures and cults associated with 
each of these inter-catastrophic and post-catastrophic epochs and, 
importantly, to relate them if possible to the biblical story as 
outlined in Genesis and Exodus, as well as to other ancient 
cultures. By taking a wide interdisciplinary and intercultural 
approach it should be possible to reconstruct, to some degree, both 
the celestial and human events of the time. 
  
  
The Great Flood 
  
The earliest upheaval of nature at Ur, which left the 9-metre deep 
layer of debris, must be, just as Woolley surmised, the Deluge of 
Noah (and of Utnapishtim/Ziusudra). This was a world-wide calamity 
of almost unimaginable dimensions, and elsewhere I have explained in 
detail why the archaeologists could claim to have found no evidence 
of it outside Mesopotamia.1 Briefly, the evidence is there in 
plenty, but excavators dated the catastrophes they discovered 
outside Mesopotamia differently, so that an event which was 
universal and immensely violent, was made to appear relatively small 
and local. 
        The culture destroyed by the Flood in Mesopotamia, 
named `Ubaid after its peculiar hand-made pottery, was contemporary 
with the Early Badarian culture of Egypt, which was also terminated 
by a cataclysmic upheaval of nature.2 But the Early Badarian 
culture, as Petrie noted, was a branch of the Palaeolithic (Old 
Stone Age) culture known in Europe as Magdalenian.3 Early Badarian 
and Magdalenian work is virtually indistinguishable; a fact which 
has extremely important implications. It means, for one, that the 
extinction of the Pleistocene fauna (mammoth, sabre-toothed cat, 
woolly rhino etc), which the Magdalenian folk hunted, was almost 
certainly caused by the same event which terminated the Early 
Badarian epoch in Egypt and left the 9-metre deep layer at Ur. It 
means also that this Deluge ? associated, as we shall see, by the 
ancient peoples with the proto-planet Venus ? was the event which 
initiated star and planet worship amongst early humans. For there is 
not an ounce of evidence, either in the art and culture of the 
Magdalenians of Europe, the Early Badarians of Egypt, or the `Ubaid 
folk of Mesopotamia, that the pre-Flood populations had the 
slightest interest in the heavenly bodies. We possess a great deal 
of the artwork of these peoples and this shows that they performed 
sympathetic magic to help in hunting (they portrayed these animals 
frequently), honoured the spirits of their dead (whom they ritually 
interred) and worshipped a Mother Goddess (whom they portrayed); but 
it shows equally that they had no interest whatsoever in the skies, 
and evidently took the rising and setting of the sun and the 
progression of the seasons, more or less for granted. 
        It was only after the Pleistocene mass extinctions that the 
cult of the Dragon or Cosmic Serpent (the Great Comet), together 
with an obsessive interest in the movements of the planets and other 
heavenly bodies, appears quite suddenly throughout the globe. 
        In Mesopotamia the Jamdat Nasr culture, which appears 
directly above the Flood stratum, displays all the characteristics 
of a post-catastrophic society. The planets and stars appear 
prominently in the iconography, as does the Sky Goddess, variously 
identified as Inanna or Ishtar. Alongside Ishtar is found the image 
of the Tree of Life, or Celestial Tower, or World Axis. Invariably 
this is portrayed with intertwined dragons or serpents. The meaning 
of this symbol shall be dealt with presently. 
        Both the literature and art of the Jamdat Nasr culture leave 
us in no doubt that the Flood had been brought by Inanna/Ishtar, at 
the behest of her father Marduk. Thus for example, in one well-known 
text Utnapishtim describes the Flood to the hero Gilgamesh: 
  
"The [?] land shattered like a [?] pot. 
All day long the South Wind blew [?], 
Blowing fast, submerging the mountain in water, 
Overwhelming the like an attack. 
No one could see his fellow, 
They could not recognise each other in the torrent. 
The gods were frightened by the Flood, 
Retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu. 
The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall. 
Ishtar shrieked like a woman in childbirth, 
The sweet-voiced Mistress of the Gods wailed: 
`The olden days have alas turned to clay, 
because I said evil things in the Assembly of the Gods! 
How could I say evil things in the Assembly of the Gods, 
Ordering a catastrophe to destroy my people?! 
No sooner have I given birth to my dear people 
Than they fill the sea like so many fish!'"4 
  
It was these events which provided the impetus for all that we call 
high civilisation. Thus temple (ziggurat) building is first 
confirmed in the Jamdat Nasr period and is described in the 
literature as the direct consequence of the Flood cataclysm. Thus in 
the Mesopotamian myth Marduk himself (Jupiter) orders the building 
of the first ziggurat: 
  
"I shall make a house to be a luxurious dwelling for myself 
And shall found his [Marduk's] cult centre within it ?"5 
  
In gratitude for saving the universe from Tiamat (the Dragon 
monster), the other gods offer to build Marduk's home for him; at 
which point, 
  
"His face lit up, like daylight. 
`Create Babylon, whose construction you requested! 
Let its mud bricks be moulded, and build high the shrine.'" 
  
In these early temples blood sacrifices were offered to the 
celestial deities upon an altar (Latin altus: `high place'). During 
the space of an entire year the gods manufacture bricks, and by the 
end of the second year they have built the great shrine and ziggurat 
of Esagila. Another well-known Mesopotamian text, "The Deluge", is 
equally specific in connecting the establishment of the cult centres 
(temples) to the aftermath of a cosmic catastrophe; 
  
"My mankind, in its destruction I will ? 
I will return the people to their settlements 
After the ? of kingship had been lowered from heaven, 
After the exalted tiara and the throne of kingship had been lowered 
from heaven, 
He perfected the rites and the exalted divine laws ?, 
Founded the five cities in ? pure places, 
Called their names, apportioned them as cult centres."6 
  
        The Mesopotamian sources therefore connect not only the 
establishment of religious customs, but the very idea of priest-
kingship, to the aftermath of some cataclysmic disaster. The whole 
concept of kingship was everywhere initially inseparable from 
priesthood, and all the early kings were at the same time High 
Priests, one of whose major functions was the offering of blood 
sacrifices on the high altars. This is further emphasised in another 
Mesopotamian text, The Epic of Etana, which states that immediately 
after the Flood; 
  
"The great Annunaki, who decree the fate, 
Sat down, taking counsel about the land. 
They who created the regions, who set up the establishment, 
The Igigi were too lofty for mankind, 
A stated time for mankind they decreed. 
The beclouded people, in all, had not set up a king. 
At that time, no tiara had been tied on, nor crown, 
And no sceptre had been inlaid with lapis; 
The shrines had not been built altogether. 
The seven [Igigi] had barred the gates against the settlers 
[settlements]. 
Sceptre, crown tiara, and [shepherd's] crook 
Lay deposited before the Anu in heaven, 
There being no counselling for its people. 
[Then] kingship descended from heaven."7 
  
        It would appear therefore that the traumatised survivors of 
the Flood sought, by means of ritualised violence, to control events 
over which they had, in reality, no control whatsoever. The gods who 
dwelt in the skies, it seems, delighted in death and destruction. 
What if they were voluntarily offered victims? Perhaps they might 
leave the world in peace! High places, usually on mountain tops, 
were sought out and upon them victims were offered to the Cosmic 
Serpent or Dragon, the Great Comet. When people once again settled 
in the low-lying regions, artificial mountains, or pyramids, upon 
which these sacrifices could be performed, began to be erected. 
        Thus, by quirk of fate, was literate civilisation born. The 
erection of the sacred hills needed organisation; it needed building 
skills; it needed measuring skills; it needed record-keeping skills: 
And the obsessive watch that was kept upon the night skies delivered 
to mankind the science of astronomy. 
  
  
Hermes and the Celestial Tower 
  
The Great Comet, proto-planet Venus, pursued its elliptical and 
dangerous solar orbit for a number of centuries, and (as I argue) 
sometime in the 11th century it caused, either directly or 
indirectly, a further cosmic calamity. In archaeological terms this 
was the event which terminated the Mesopotamian Jamdat Nasr epoch. 
In biblical terms it needs to be associated with the Tower of Babel 
and the story of Abraham, which elsewhere I have shown belongs to 
the epoch which saw the rise of literate civilisation in Egypt.1 
This period is everywhere associated with phallicism/phallus-worship 
and with the closely related myth of the destruction of the 
Celestial Tower. 
        Some explanation is here called for. 
        Consistently, in almost every corner of the globe there is 
preserved the strange report of how in the aftermath of the Great 
Flood men (or demigods or giants) sought to reopen communication 
with heaven by raising a great Tower (or Pillar or Tree) which 
reached the sky. This Tower is sometimes depicted as a crystal 
pillar, sometimes as an enormous tree with branches reaching out to 
the four quarters. Usually it located at the North Pole ? the latter 
name itself being derived from the legend. Around the Pole or Pillar 
a great dragon-serpent was believed to be entwined. This creature 
was known to the Greeks as Ladon or Latone, and to the Phoenicians 
as Lotan (biblical Leviathan).2 Following a cataclysmic 
confrontation between the giants who raised the pillar and the gods, 
the pillar is smashed and destroyed; and communication between earth 
and heaven is brought to a definitive end. The destruction of the 
pillar was said to have been accompanied by chaos in the firmament 
among the planetary deities, as well as by vast upheavals of nature 
on the earth. In the Greek version of the story the rebellious 
titans pile mountains on top of each other, from which vantage point 
they attempt to storm Olympus. In the ensuing battle we are told 
that vast fissures opened in the earth, the sea boiled and vast 
waves came over the land. In the end, the titans are defeated and 
the tower they raised is destroyed when Zeus smashes it with his 
thunderbolt. 
        That this is a tradition every bit as universal as that of 
the Flood itself is apparent from mythologies on every continent. As 
an example, consider the following account from Mexico. After 
narrating the story of the Flood which brought to a close the first 
world age, Ixtlilxochitl described the catastrophe which ended the 
second age or Ehecatonatiuh, the "sun of wind". 
  
"and as men were thereafter multiplying they constructed a very high 
and strong Zacualli, which means `a very high tower' in order to 
protect themselves when again the second world should be destroyed. 
At the crucial moment their languages were changed, and as they did 
not understand one another, they went into different parts of the 
world."3 
  
The same story is recorded in Polynesia. On the island of Hoa, for 
instance, part of the Puamotu islands, it was said that after a 
great Flood the sons of Rata, who had survived the disaster, made an 
attempt to erect a building by which they sought to reach the sky 
and see the creator god Vata, "but the god in anger chased the 
builders away, broke down the building, and changed their language, 
so that they spoke diverse tongues."4 
        In my Genesis of Israel and Egypt (1997), as well as in 
various other publications, I have explored this myth in detail. 
Suffice to note here that the story constitutes a vital element in 
the Abraham myth. The biblical Tower of Babel, which is placed 
immediately before the story of Abraham in Genesis, is the Hebrew 
version of the Celestial Pillar. The phallus cult of Abraham's (and 
Menes') time is a human reaction to the destruction of the Celestial 
Pillar (as is circumcision ? the voluntary mutilation of man's 
own "pillar"). Abraham's nephew Lot is the Phoenician dragon-deity 
Lotan who entwines himself around the Pillar; whilst the crystal 
pillar into which Lot's wife is transformed is the Celestial Pillar 
itself. 
        It was this Pillar, by which the demigods attempted to 
reopen communication with the heavens, with its entwined serpent, 
that gave rise to the symbol of Hermes/Thoth's magic wand, the 
caduceus. The same Pillar is depicted on a thousand artefacts from 
all over the Near East, some of which portray the intertwined 
dragons as long-necked lionesses. This motif was particularly 
popular in Egypt. In time, the serpent-necks of the lionesses 
disappeared, to be replaced simply by a pillar guarded by two 
felines, a motif most famously illustrated in the Lion Gate at 
Mycenae. It should be noted too that these guardian felines are the 
prototype sphinx, the lioness-goddess Sekhmet to whom human beings 
were sacrificed. 
        The Pillar itself, often described as being of a crystal or 
golden colour, is evidently a natural feature; most probably an 
electro-magnetic phenomenon of some sort. This view is reinforced by 
the fact that the structure is frequently located at the north pole. 
It seems that following our planet's initial encounter with the 
Great Comet the earth was in some way or other electro-
magnetically "recharged" (it should be noted in this regard that the 
earth's electro-magnetic field is currently weakening at a fairly 
rapid rate), and the Tower or Pillar was perhaps some form of 
enhanced auro-borealis. 
        The cataclysm which destroyed the Tower was the event which 
at the end of the Jamdat Nasr period propelled the inhabitants of 
Lower Mesopotamia westwards and northwards in search of new homes. 
Once again, it appears, a cosmic body had come dangerously close to 
the earth. Tidal waves, caused both by earthquakes and disturbances 
in the planet's rotation, swept over the landmasses. Showers of 
meteorites bombarded the terrestrial sphere. Our entire planet, torn 
by the gravitational pull of the nearby body, went into gigantic 
tectonic convulsions. In the midst of this devastation, weather 
patterns changed radically, and famines (remembered throughout the 
entire Patriarch period) became widespread. Populations were 
uprooted and whole continents laid waste. 
  
How then do we reconstruct the celestial events which gave rise to 
such destruction? There is, to begin with, no question whatsoever 
that the god Hermes or Mercury was particularly linked to these 
events. His caduceus, with its intertwined serpents, is evidently 
the Tower itself. But what of the planet Mercury? In what way, if 
any, was this body involved? 
        Various mythologies describe Mercury as the Divine Child, 
the youngest of the gods ? the implication being that he was younger 
even than Venus/Ishtar/Hathor/Athena, whose own birth (from 
Jupiter/Ammon) was said to have been witnessed by mortals.5 But 
Hermes/Mercury was not said to have erupted from Jupiter. He was 
variously believed to have been born in a cave or under the ground 
or in the Pillar/Tower into which his mother had been confined. 
This, I would suggest, implies that he came out of the darkness: 
His "birth" was not witnessed by humans. He came perhaps out of the 
dark reaches of the outer solar system, pulled there, I would 
suggest, by comet Venus. Bearing this in mind, it seems to me 
probable that Mercury may originally have been a satellite of 
Jupiter, captured by Venus and drawn by her into the inner solar 
system. Sometime in the 11th century BC the Dragon goddess and her 
Divine Child6 approached the earth. A veritable cosmic "war" ensued, 
during which earth, Venus, Mercury and possibly the Moon, exchanged 
thunderbolts of immense power. 
        I do not pretend to explain here the physics or celestial 
mechanics involved in such a scenario. Suffice to say, the evidence 
suggests that the electro-magnetic "pillar", which had hitherto been 
visible from both the northern and southern terrestrial poles, now 
disappeared; and humanity bewailed the final severing of the link 
between earth and heaven. 
  
Before moving on, I would like to clarify one point. Osiris, a 
classic Dying God (like Mesopotamian Tammuz) is also associated with 
the above events. The "Saturnist" school of writers have further 
associated Osiris and Tammuz with the god Saturn/Kronos, and have 
suggested that all these events (especially the myth relating to the 
Pillar or Tower) took place long before events associated with 
Venus/Ishtar. 
        Before taking another step, I wish to state that the link 
between the gods Osiris/Tammuz and the planet Saturn is spurious; a 
statement which I shall elaborate on towards the end of the present 
paper. The link between Osiris and the World Tree or pillar (or 
phallus) is however very real, and is confirmed in two separate 
ways. Thus we are told that after his murder by Set (the cosmic 
serpent) Osiris' body was washed ashore at Byblos, where it grew 
into the body of a great tree. This was the World Tree itself; the 
Cosmic Tower or Pillar. Afterwards, Osiris' wife Isis tried to 
reconstruct the body of her dead husband, but was unable to locate 
his penis. This "castration" of Osiris has an apparent parallel in 
the castration of Uranus (Ouranos) by Kronos. However, even a 
rudimentary examination of the story reveals that Osiris (a green 
vegetation god) is in fact a re-incarnation of Geb, god of the 
earth, who is repeatedly portrayed lying flat on his back, with 
erect penis, ready to copulate with Nut, goddess of the sky. Osiris 
is in fact simply the dead Geb: the god of the earth who, after 
losing his life-force (his erect penis, namely the Pillar or Tower) 
is reborn in the Underworld as the Lord of the Nether Regions. 
        Aside from the supposedly primeval account of how Kronos 
usurped the divine kingship by castrating his father Ouranos, there 
is in fact no reason whatsoever to place the Osiris/Tammuz myth 
earlier than the Venus Flood. The linking of Kronos/Saturn to a 
castration myth was in fact a late innovation which, as we shall 
see, had nothing whatsoever to do with events observed in the 
cosmos. 
  
  
Seven-Year Famines and Cosmic Wars 
  
The stratigraphic record shows that another major cosmic disturbance 
terminated the Early Dynastic I period in Mesopotamia. In terms of 
biblical history this is right in the middle of the Patriarch period 
and can, I would suggest, be sychronised with the great famine (of 
seven years) which brought the tribes of Israel into Egypt. As I 
have shown at some length elsewhere,1 this event can be fairly 
accurately dated to the beginning of the Egyptian Third Dynasty and 
therefore, from our point of view, to the middle of the 10th century 
BC. Joseph himself (of the coat of many colours) is identifiable 
with the famous Imhotep, greatest of all Egyptian seers and vizier 
to Djoser, second pharaoh of the Third Dynasty. Imhotep was later 
credited with designing the Step Pyramid at Sakkara, the first such 
structure to be raised in stone. 
        That the seven years' famine of this period can be linked to 
the flood which terminated Mesopotamian Early Dynastic 1 is 
suggested by a number of clues. First and foremost, it `fits' 
perfectly with the evidence. The previous Mesopotamian flood, which 
terminated the Jamdat Nasr period, is unquestionably the event which 
preceded a great migration from Mesopotamia to the lands of the 
west, a migration which had a profound impact on the cultures of 
Syria/Palestine, Egypt and Arabia. None of this is denied by the 
archaeologists. Yet the same migration is equally securely linked to 
the Abraham migration. This too started in Mesopotamia, touched 
Egypt, and brought new populations into Syria/Palestine and Arabia 
(though in conventional chronology it is placed a thousand years 
after the migration discovered by archaeology). 
        By the same token, the final flood catastrophe of 
Mesopotamia, which terminated Early Dynastic 3a in that region, is 
equally securely synchronised with the end of the Egyptian Early 
Dynastic epoch, which can in itself be identified with the Israelite 
Exodus. 
        So, coming right in the middle of these two events, the 
catastrophe separating Mesopotamian Early Dynastic 1 and 2 seems 
unquestionably to be one and the same as the biblical famine of 
seven years, a famine which, as we know, was so memorable as to go 
down in legend both in Egypt and in Israel; and which was, 
apparently, so important as to cause some form of change in 
religious beliefs. Thus in both the Hebrew and Egyptian versions the 
famine is alleviated by divine intervention (through dreams) and in 
the Egyptian account temple-building (to Khnum) is part of the 
solution. The building of the stone pyramid too, at Sakkara ? the 
first of its kind ? also speaks of major changes in religious 
practice. Other forms of religious innovation are hinted at in the 
biblical story, which speaks of the land of Egypt changing hands 
(becoming the property of pharaoh) and Joseph himself becoming Hight 
Priest of On (by marrying the daughter of Potiphar). 
        Another hint that the seven years' famine marked an event of 
cosmic dimensions is found in the story's connection with the number 
seven. Seven of course was regarded as a sacred number because of 
the Seven Gods (ie the seven planetary bodies visible to the 
ancients with the naked eye). These are still commemorated in the 
days of the week: Thus, Monday (Day of the Moon); Tuesday (French 
Mardi ? Day of Mars); Wednesday (French Mercredi ? Day of Mercury); 
Thursday (French Jeudi ? Day of Jupiter); Friday (French Vendredi ? 
Day of Venus); Saturday (Day of Saturn); and Sunday (Day of the 
Sun). 
        It is perhaps impossible to reconstruct exactly what 
happened in the skies at this time. Accepting Velikovsky's theory of 
cometary Venus, we cannot doubt that this body's elliptical solar 
orbit made it a continual threat to all the planets of the inner 
solar system ? hanging for centuries like a veritable Sword of 
Damocles above the heads of humanity. We know from the various 
mythologies that on different occasions Venus, as well as other 
planets, were involved in devastating cosmic `battles', some of 
which we conducted far from the earth and had little impact upon 
humans, others of which took place in close proximity to our planet 
and had terrific consequences for its inhabitants. However, in view 
of the fact that the story of the seven years' famine is connected 
with cows (in the Hebrew version) and the horned god Khnum (in the 
Egyptian version), it seems that on this occasion the catastrophe 
was the result of another direct encounter between Venus (the Divine 
Cow) and earth: Not of course as close an encounter as occurred in 
the 13th century, but close enough to cause devastation throughout 
the planet and uproot populations. 






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