Appendix 6

Creation of the Zodiac

Mapping and Reading the Skies

People today know of the concept of the Zodiac as an integral part of ancient Greek and Roman mythology. It also appears in some other cultures and still has a following today with those who claim to be able to foretell your personal future. My work on understanding the Venus Comet got me thinking about how the many "characters" in that story were frequently referred to as being "in the house of" one or more of the 12 Zodiac sectors. That prompted this essay to understand the concept of the Zodiac diagram and how it might have had a role in this Venus story.

In my book Venus; The Late-Arriving Planet I discuss the over 50,000 year "reign of terror" of that heavenly body prior to 1200 BCE. It came in the form of a massive comet wrapped around the planet itself. It had a seven year orbit that seems to have taken it in a large elliptical path around our Sun. After each appearance, it disappeared at some point of the sky. Where it went and what it was doing, was unknown. When and where it would reappear was the big question. For sky-watchers of the time, the challenge was to spot the returning speck of reflected light as soon as possible, and then to determine its path and timing. This had to be done every seven years.

Sky Map

A sky map was undoubtedly created to help the ancients locate and track the Venus Comet. It would be drawn like a picture of the night sky, but likely depicted in several views over the multi-year time. The identified star patterns would be included perhaps with lines joining the stars of a recognisable constellation. The map and its accompanying instructions, would show other viewers where to look in the sky for the Destroyer (Venus Comet) or whatever they called it.

In visualizing this sky map, the reader must remember that prior to 1500 CE, the "accepted" view of the sky was Earth-centred. The Christian church dogmatically believed that the Lord had made the Earth the centre of the Universe, and tried to "eliminate" those who dared to disagree. The Earth was in the centre of the sky and did not move in this arrangement. All could see that everything went around us in a circle in the sky, just as we see it today. The Sun had its own path and followed the ecliptic. The Moon was incidental to this map. The reader is directed to such a sky map as shown on page 23 of the Venus Story portion of this book.

The known planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, were considered to "wander" in various paths in the sky. The Venus Comet came near to the Sun, and then moved away off the map and into the darkness. Observers were left to figure out when and where it would return, and to spot it as early as possible.

Meeting Place

What was not depicted in that arrangement of the heavens, was that both the Earth and the Venus Comet, and the other planets, were traveling on the same spacial plane (as in level or flat). That the Earth and the Comet might meet in space, was not only possible but highly likely until after 1184 BCE. Such a meeting occurred only when both orbited the Sun at the same time. (See discussion in the Venus Story and its Appendices). When that happened there could be severe damage by the gravitational and electromagnetic attractions of the two bodies. The author, being focused on Earth events, has no knowledge of interactions between the Venus Comet and any of the other planets. He recognised that the Earth would pass deeply through the cloud of the Comet and suffer a rain of debris of particle-size to mountain-sized chunks.(1) The ancients came to know that not all approaches were dangerous.

Venus Comet / Earth Crossings

The "damage" years appear in the Greenland Ice Freezing Data(2) in cycles of 42, 49, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84 and 91 EARTH years read as summer-winter variances caused by the Earth's passage around the Sun. Those Earth orbits likely had differing numbers of days per year as the size of our orbit changed, requiring more or less time to make that passage. This view is based on the speed of rotation of the Earth's N/S polar axis remaining unchanged when the size of the Earth's orbit changed. Variations in the size of the orbit of the Earth would cause the different cycles of "damage" years. In the 450 years leading up to 1200 BCE, the cycle was 49 years, each with 360 days. The change to our current 365.24+ days per year, took place in 687 BCE when the planet Mars interacted with us.

Every seven years, the Comet, on its orbit, would create another pair of Earth-orbit crossings with a fresh supply of debris. There seems to have been concerns that crossing the Comet orbit, on its first return after the one that caused damage, could leave the Earth shrouded again with cloud and debris. This might result in a cold period with crop failures(3). Based on people's actions in the years that followed, this seems not to have become a problem.

Here I pose a question to the reader !

How did these astronomers and skywatchers pass on this information to future generations yet unborn? Your apprentice, who joins you at age 18, could be taught how you track the Venus Comet on the seven-year passages. Your and his experiences at calculating which passage may hit the Earth, could be very limited. Perhaps you might say :

"History says that every seventh appearance is to be feared. On the last six appearances it did not really come too close. We fear that this next time we may be attacked as was recorded 48 years ago. (7 year cycle multiplied 7 times = 49 years) How bad it may be, we cannot yet predict."

Sky Patterns

Thinking of the star patterns as pictures was an way to describe to another, where the Venus Comet was in the sky at a particular time. More importantly, it could be used to indicate from where it was next expected to appear. Whether the Venus Comet path was totally within one section of the sky map, or whether coming and going extended over multiple sections is not known. The observer would identify the object as being in a specific section of the sky map and then describe its proximity to known constellations and stars. Its movement through the sky, would be traceable to its arrival at the ecliptic (path of the Sun) and then back again. If it crossed the ecliptic and kept coming toward the centre of the sky map, the Earth was in trouble.

Very interesting work by Andis Kaulins(4) equates some of the inscriptions of the Danube Culture of about 5500 - 3500 BCE to star constellations of that time. It appears to be a forerunner of some of the later early-day Grecian and Romanian writings, suggesting that we are really looking at sky drawings rather than text material.

The reason for the later division of the zodiac into 12 sectors is unknown but it may have been based on the infatuation of the Sumerians with the concept of "12". Division of the sky into 12 sectors may have come naturally to the mathematically-inclined Sumerians. Naming each sector for a constellation that was in it would be reasonable. Examination of ancient descriptions shows that various cultures came to use the same pictorial elements in their descriptions of the skies. Later as astrology took hold, these sectors became thought of as "houses" of the Zodiac. A very interesting discussion in "Ancient Wisdom"(5) led me to widen my thinking. See the discussion a few pages following.

Fore-Knowledge

On three occasions that we know of, there was fore-knowledge of a coming threat reported by survivors or shown by the actions of people. Each of those reports were from people who took steps to help their survival. They were the 11,053 BCE catastrophe and the Flood survivors' stories (boat, mountain and hypogeum); the end of the Younger Dryas event in 9585 BCE and the creation of the mound at Göbekli-Tepe in Turkey by that time; and the Israelite Exodus from Egypt in 1446 BCE and its planning as recounted in the Bible. (See Appendix 12 - Red Sea Passage.)

Using present-day logic, we considered that an encounter of the Venus Comet with the Earth, has a limited number of possible outcomes. They are:

1. The two planets physically collide, either head-on or a sideswipe.

2. The planets come close enough to change the orbits of both, but do not touch. Anything that can come loose may fly around or fall, and cause damage and death.

3. The planets are close enough to exchange a huge electrical bolt.

4. The planets remain at a distance that has little effect on our planet other than high tides and scaring its people.

If Outcome 1 comes to pass, your world is destroyed and you with it. If Outcome 3 happens, your proximity to the bolt strike, where ever it occurs, is by chance and could be fatal. In both cases, there is nothing that you could have done in advance that would have made a difference to your survival. Outcome 4 has no problems other than flooding and fearful people trying to harm you.

In Outcome 2 there are possible actions which you might be able to take ahead of time to improve the likelihood of surviving. In this event, large bodies of water will overflow their boundaries and cause flooding, so go high to get out of reach of the water. If you have no high ground, get in something that can float you on high waves in the water. Another plan is to get inside a strong shelter, like a cave, to avoid being hit by debris, provided it is above your high water estimate. In all cases bring your people, animals and foodstuffs along with you.

Logic would recommend that you bet on surviving, so look first to physical survival by going high to avoid a flood, and if possible in a cave. If that is not practical, go the covered boat route. Gather people, foodstuffs and living animals and seeds, and bring them with you. What you can't take with you, should be stored in various elevated locations. If the devastation is not as bad as forecast, you perhaps can use it later. Work quickly to complete your preparations as the available time before the expected catastrophe is only an estimate. Your survival chances are improved by these actions but not guaranteed.

Predicting Outcomes

As for predicting the future with the star map, the author is certain that it would be a natural thing to try to do. Using records, written or oral, the sage may have said something like this:

"The last time that this object was seen in this same place amongst the stars, having followed the same path through the sky, a great calamity destroyed civilisation as our forefathers knew it. Fire and Blasts from above and Destruction tossed down the cities and killed their people. The king and his court did not survive. There were never-ending earthquakes for five days. The waters of the seas fled from the beaches and the harbours, and then returned to overwhelm everything. Darkness settled over all the land for a year and no crops grew. Animals died or were eaten. The people fled the land looking for food to eat. Strangers later came and took over the patrimony of our fathers."

Years later, story tellers would relate that "the sage of those days warned the people to get prepared and to renew their lives as the sky-object was coming to destroy them again. And it happened just as he said it would."

Astrology without Venus

Once the major destructive actions of the Venus Comet came to an end about 1184 BCE, the peoples of the world rejoiced. However the Comet wasn't finished. It and Mars moved through the inner Solar System threatening the other planets and each other. The need to predict their movements was almost continuous. Those who had previously made a living forecasting good or bad based on its history, revised their methods to react to much shorter intervals and lead times. It has been noted that the details of Babylonian astrology proliferated beginning about 800 BCE, which "just happens to be" not long after the Venus Comet was "tamed". These methodologies continued beyond about 700 BCE when those two planets had an encounter that resulted in Venus settling in its current orbit. Mars came at the Earth in 687 BCE and was observed over Jerusalem amongst other places. Our orbit was changed and our year changed to its current number of days.

Astrologers changed to providing personal prophesies based on some association or other of star and planet positions ..... for a fee, of course. They successfully created a "new market" by switching their predictions from "world events" to readings for your personalised gain. Almost all cultures took it up with a vengeance. Should Caesar attack his foe on a specific day? You could learn which day would be an inauspicious one for your opponent, then take advantage of his weakness! The settling of all planets in stable orbits did not inhibit the growth of astrology.

The author examined the question of when the "sky map" was begun and by whom. The belief system of India, prior to the introduction of Buddhism and Hinduism about 600 BCE, spoke against "taking guidance from the stars". It was considered "sinful and only the ignorant did so". This may have applied to personal predictions. The Bible writings seem not to mention anything like astrology being used by the Israelites. Their writings, in both the Old and New Testaments, do castigate the people around them who used astrology. The story of the Wise Men at Christ’s birth is thought to be of Magi (ruling astrologers) from Persia visiting Judea after having “read the heavens”. Their astrological interpretation was a surprise to the Jewish people.

Current predictions by "astrologers" are a part of today's horoscopes. Astronomers, now claiming greater abilities, use telescopes and computers to locate objects in the skies that they think might "attack" the Earth at some date in the future. Nothing the size of the Venus Comet has been reported.

Zodiac and Animals

The term Zodiac is a "relatively recent" term, being derived from Latin zōdiacus, which in its turn comes from the Greek ζoδιακoς κύκλος (zōdiakos kuklos), meaning "circle of animals".(6) It is known that those same "animals" were used in the Sumerian version of the map. The Sumerians called the twelve major zodiacal constellations, the "Shiny Herd". See the following table "Constellations of the Sumerian Zodiac".

Constellations of the Sumerian Zodiac(7)

This grouping was well developed by them before 3000 BCE. Dating is constrained by the fact that very little writing exists on any topic in any culture, that early. Assyrian and Babylonian cultures assimilated it into their astrology, and in fact, continued to use the same creatures, labelled in their own language. Greeks and Romans followed. The same reference mentions that a different type of sky map may have existed by 2800 BCE for use by ships on the Mediterranean Sea.

Nebra Sky Disk

A different device has come to light from Nebra, Saxony, Germany that seems to allow its user to understand some solar and star motions. I include extracts from an article(8) that describes it. It was found in a burial mound dated to at least 1600 BCE, indicating that its last handlers did not comprehend its usefulness. At that time the Venus Comet was still threatening the Earth, and there would be concerns as to whether the Earth was in its path again. This device would be used to determine if the stars and Sun "had shifted out of their places". [Remember that the Earth was the unmovable centre of the universe by the thinking of the day.] (See Appendix 13 - Sphinx, Pyramids and other Alignments - Germany)

The mound was situated on a hill in just such a way so that at every solstice, the sun set behind a high peak in the west called the Brocken. The symbols inscribed upon it were found to be depictions of the sun, moon, and a group of stars thought to be the Pleiades Constellation. When aligned correctly, it was found that the disk could be used to calibrate the solstices and provide accurate representations of the night sky over the course of the year. The golden arcs aligned with these solstices. Using the two arcs on the edges of the disk, it was found that they span an angle of 82°, which accurately indicates the angle between the positions of sunset at summer and winter solstice at the latitude of the Mittelberg. The disk was also able to correctly calculate moon phases and the location of stars in the sky. All in all it was an amazingly accurate tool for its apparent age.

Analysis showed that it indeed seemed to be authentic, dating back to at least 1600 BC, quite likely much older, and likely a creation of the Bronze Age Unetice culture(9). It was also found that it had been modified and tweaked over the centuries, with new holes, crescents, arcs, and bands. Perhaps the creators or users attempted to calibrate it more precisely. It may be the oldest known and most accurate portable astronomical tool in the world for its era, The people who made it had a sophisticated understanding of the cosmos and cycles of the night sky.

This author suggests that perhaps this sky disc became "incorrect" after the interaction of the Venus Comet with the Earth in 1663 BCE (see NOAA Central Greenland Temperature Data Plot as reconstructed by the author with dates) (see also Appendix 1 Dated Events). This was a severe encounter that altered the orbit of the Earth. Additionally the change in calibration mentioned above may have related to earlier severe encounters in 2174 and 2307 BCE, or even earlier. The disc likely was replaced by a new one that was correct. The old one may have been buried with its last master.

In 2013 it was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. The Nebra Sky Disk remains on permanent exhibition at the Halle State Museum of Prehistory (Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte), in Halle, Germany.

And In Conclusion

This author believes that the astronomers of the early Sumerians became successful in predicting the approaches of the Venus Comet. Regardless of what we today think of their methods, they must have been correct more often than wrong. An erroneous prophesy would, at the least, damage or destroy their credibility, and cost them their jobs. To the average person, they "proved" that by observing the planets moving through the stars at night, they could advise the kings and commoners on what might attack the Earth and its people. They could foretell the future! This would have made them very great in everybody's eyes and likely quite wealthy. How they did it, required too much learning and time to be passed on other than to a small group of very capable people.

Others, not so well trained in assessing the skies, saw the money to be garnered. They learned some of the jargon and set up shop to provide "personalised" readings for "select" clients who had money to spend. These people were and are still known as astrologers.

When the Venus Comet ceased to endanger our planet, kings could relax and had no need of learned astronomers, who promptly lost their postings, prestige and pensions. They were no longer needed. Instead the royal households flocked to the astrologers to be plucked by different hands. These astrologers frequently were provided with palace accommodations so that they were readily available to the crown. In many cases, kings sought out the Royal Astrologers regarding decisive matters related to national issues, like war, and which foreign princess to wed.

Today we have astronomers searching the skies for near Earth objects (NEOs) that might fly into the Earth's orbit. Some people have become focused on how we earthlings can divert those objects' flight paths. As the energy requirements of the physics of their proposals are calculated, the ideas wither. Massive as those NEOs are, they have all been too small do much more than slightly disturb an area of the Earth's surface (relatively speaking) and throw dust in the air. Successfully evacuating the area to be affected is very dubious at this time. However If you live in that area, it will be a very bad day.

The Krakatoa volcanic explosion of 1882 or the Tambura one of 1815 would far exceed those effects. Neither were civilisation-ending. The events of 13,003 YA involved two smallish planets - Earth and Venus - of nearly equivalent masses, circling in space.

Yes, the Earth was damaged as described in my book "Venus; The Late-Arriving Planet" and much of its population killed. However the Earth itself was not destroyed. A portion of its peoples re-established civilisation (ie. organised living) in about 1000 years, and went about trying to relearn what they previously knew. Earth's population continued to grow in spite of repeated damages by the other planet for the next 10,000 years.

It was not the end of Earth's people. You and I are living proof of that statement.

(1) Kurt H. Kjær1*, Nicolaj K. Larsen et al, A large impact crater beneath Hiawatha Glacier in northwest Greenland., Science Advances, Research Article, Geology, 14 Nov 2018: Vol. 4, no. 11, eaar8173 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aar8173

(2) Alley, R.B.. 2004. “GISP2 Ice Core Temperature and Accumulation Data.” IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series #2004-013. NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA.

(3) Bible Leviticus 25: 1-22

(4) "Origins of Writing : Danube Scripts led to Pharaonic Egyptian Hieroglyphs : Confirmation by Pottery Comparison" Posted by Andis Kaulins on Ancient.World.Blog.blogspot.com February 06, 2005

(5) Ancient Wisdom "The Origin of the Zodiac: (Astrology)" post Feb. 2011

(6) Ibid

(7) Ibid

(8) "The Mystery of the Nebra Sky Disk" Brent Swancer September 1, 2019 in Mysterious Universe

(9) Únětice culture: considered to be part of a pan-European cultural phenomenon. Dated ca 2300 - 1600 BCE.

Back to: Appendices

A Story of the Planet Venus

Looking For The Planet Venus Prior to 1200 BC

Appendix 6

Creation of the Zodiac

Mapping and Reading the Skies

Contents

Author : John M. Collins, Sarnia, Ont., Canada 2021