Worlds In Collision.pdf

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WORLDS IN COLLISION

IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY

First published in 1950

The author gratefully acknowledges permission to quote from the following books: G. A.

Dorsey, The Pawnee: Mythology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1906; Maimonides: The

Guide for the Perplexed, translated M. Friedlander, E. P. Dutton, Inc., 1928; Clements R.

Markham, The Incas of Peru, E. P. Dutton, Inc., 1910; Sha\untala and other writings of Kalidasa,

transl. A. W. Ryder, Everyman's Library, E. P. Dutton, Inc., 1912; James Moffatt, The Bible: A

New Translation, copyright, 1935, Harper & Brothers; The Loeb Classical Library, Harvard

University Press: Homer, The Iliad, transl. A. T. Murray, 1925; Hesiod, Theogony, transl. H.

Evelyn-White, 1914; Euripides, Electra, transl. A. S. Way, 1919; Plato, Timaeus, transl. R. C.

Bury, 1929, and The Statesman (Politicus), transl. H. N. Fowler, 1925; Apollodorus, The

Library, transl. J. B. Frazer, 1921; Seneca, Thyestes, transl. F. J. Miller, 1917; Virgil, Georgics,

transl. H. R. Fairclough, 1920; Ovid, Metamorphoses, transl. F. L. Miller, 1916; Philo, The

Eternity of the World, transl. F. H. Colson, 1941; Plutarch, Life of Numa, transl. B. Perrin, 1914;

Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, copyright, 1910, 1928, The Jewish Publication

Society of America; L. de Cambrey, Lapland Legends, Yale University Press, 1926; The

Philosophy of Spinoza, ed. J. Ratner, copyright, 1927, Modern Library, Random House, Inc.; R.

A. Daly, Our Mobile Earth, copyright, 1926, Charles Scribner's Sons; Evelyn Stefansson, Here Is

Alaska, copyright, 1943, Charles Scribner's Sons; J. F. Fleming, Terrestrial Magnetism and

Electricity, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1939.

Printed in the United States of America

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PREFACE

Worlds in Collision is a book of wars in the celestial sphere that took place in historical times. In

these wars the planet earth participated too. This book describes two acts of a great drama: one

that occurred thirty-four to thirty-five centuries ago, in the middle of the second millennium

before the present era; the other in the eighth and the beginning of the seventh century before the

present era, twenty-six centuries ago. Accordingly, this volume consists of two parts, preceded

by a prologue.

Harmony or stability in the celestial and terrestrial spheres is the point of departure of the

present-day concept of the world as expressed in the celestial mechanics of Newton and the

theory of evolution of Darwin. If these two men of science are sacrosanct, this book is a heresy.

However, modern physics, of atoms and of the quantum theory, describes dramatic changes in

the microcosm— the atom—the prototype of the solar system; a theory, then, that envisages not

dissimilar events in the macrocosm—the solar system-brings the modern concepts of physics to

the celestial sphere.

This book is written for the instructed and uninstructed alike. No formula and no hieroglyphic

will stand in the way of those who set out to read it. If, occasionally, historical evidence does not

square with formulated laws, it should be remembered that a law is but a deduction from

experience and experiment, and therefore laws must conform with historical facts, not facts with

laws.

The reader is not asked to accept a theory without question. Rather, he is invited to consider for

himself whether he is reading a book of fiction or non-fiction, whether what he is reading is

invention or historical fact. On one point alone, not necessarily decisive for the theory of cosmic

catastrophism, I borrow credence: I use a synchronical scale of Egyptian and Hebrew histories

which is not orthodox.

It was in the spring of 1940 that I came upon the idea that in the days of the Exodus, as evident

from many passages of the Scriptures, there occurred a great physical catastrophe, and that such

an event could serve in determining the time of the Exodus in Egyptian history or in establishing

a synchronical scale for the histories of the peoples concerned. Thus I started Ages in Chaos, a

reconstruction of the history of the ancient world from the middle of the second millennium

before the present era to the advent of Alexander the Great. Already in the fall of that same year,

1940, I felt that I had acquired an understanding of the real nature and extent of that catastrophe,

and for nine years I worked on both projects, the political and the natural histories. Although

Ages in Chaos was finished first, in the order of publication it will follow this work.

Worlds in Collision comprises only the last two acts of the cosmic drama. A few earlier acts—

one of them known as the Deluge—will be the subject of another volume of natural history.

The historical-cosmological story of this book is based on the evidence of historical texts of

many peoples around the globe, on classical literature, on epics of northern races, on sacred

books of the peoples of the Orient and Occident, on traditions and folklore of primitive peoples,

on old astronomical inscriptions and charts, on archaeological finds, and also on geological and

paleontological material.

If cosmic upheavals occurred in the historical past, why does not the human race remember

them, and why was it necessary to carry on research to find out about them? I discuss this

problem in the Section "The Collective Amnesia." The task I had to accomplish was not unlike

that faced by a psychoanalyst who, out of disassociated memories and dreams, reconstructs a

forgotten traumatic experience in the early life of an individual. In an analytical experiment on

mankind, historical inscriptions and legendary motifs often play the same role as recollections

(infantile memories) and dreams in the analysis of a personality.

Can we, out of this polymorphous material, establish actual facts? We shall check one people

against another, one inscription against another, epics against charts, geology against legends,

until we are able to extract the historical facts.

In a few cases it is impossible to say with certainty whether a record or a tradition refers to one

or another catastrophe that took place through the ages; it is also probable that in some traditions

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various elements from different ages are fused together. In the final analysis, however, it is not

so essential to segregate definitively the records of single world catastrophes. More important, it

seems, is to establish (1) that there were physical upheavals of a global character in historical

times; (2) that these catastrophes were caused by extraterrestrial agents; and (3) that these agents

can be identified.

There are many implications that follow from these conclusions. I refer to them in the Epilogue,

so that I can omit reference to them here.

A few readers went over this book in manuscript and made valuable suggestions and remarks. In

chronological order of their reading they are:

Dr. Horace M. Kallen, formerly Dean of the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social

Research, New York; John J. O'Neill, Science Editor of the New York Herald Tribune; James

Putnam, Associate Editor of the Macmillan Company; Clifton Fadiman, literary critic and

commentator; Gordon A. Atwater, Chairman and Curator of the Hayden Planetarium of the

American Museum of Natural History, New York. The last two read the work at their own

request after Mr. O'Neill had discussed it in an article in the Herald Tribune of August 11,1946. I

am indebted to all of them but I alone am responsible for content and form.

Miss Marion Kuhn cleared the manuscript of grammatical weeds and helped in reading the

proofs.

Many an author has dedicated his book to his wife or mentioned her in the preface. I have always

felt this was somewhat ostentatious, but now that this work is being published, I feel I shall be

most ungrateful if I fail to mention that my wife Elisheva spent almost as much time on it at our

desk as I did. I dedicate this book to her.

The years when Ages in Chaos and Worlds in Collision were written were years of a world

catastrophe created by man—of war that was fought on land, on sea, and in the air. During that

time man learned how to take apart a few of the bricks of which the universe is built—the atoms

of uranium. If one day he should solve the problem of the fission and fusion of the atoms of

which the crust of the earth or its water and air are composed, he may perchance, by initiating a

chain reaction, take this planet out of the struggle for survival among the members of the

celestial sphere. New York, September 1949. Immanuel Velikovsky.

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CONTENTS

PAGE

Author's Preface vii

PROLOGUE

Chapter 1 8

In an Immense Universe'The Celestial Harmony-The Origin of the Planetary System • The

Origin of the Comets

Chapter 2 16

The Planet Earth-Ice Ages "The Mammoths-The Ice Age and the Antiquity of Man • The World

Ages • The Sun Ages

PABT I

VENUS

Chapter 1 39

The Most Incredible Story-On the Other Side of the Ocean

Chapter 2 47

Fifty-Two Years Earlier-The Red World-The Hail of Stones • Naphtha • The Darkness •

Earthquake • "13"

Chapter 3 67

The Hurricane • The Tide-The Battle in the Sky-The Comet of Typhon-The Spark-The Collapsed

Sky

Chapter 4 91

Boiling Earth and Sea-Mount Sinai • Theophany • Emperor Yahou

Chapter 5 105

East and West • The Reversed Polarity of the Earth • The Quarters of the World Displaced •

Changes in the Times and the Seasons

Chapter 6 126

The Shadow of Death • Ambrosia • Rivers of Milk and Honey • Jericho

Chapter 7 141

Stones Suspended in the Air • Phaethon • Atlantis • The Floods of Deucalion and Ogyges

Chapter 8 153

The Fifty-Two-Year Period • Jubilee • The Birth of Venus • The Blazing Star • The Four-Planet

System • One of the Planets is a Comet • The Comet Venus

Chapter 9 168

Pallas Athene • Zeus and Athene • Worship of the Morning Star • The Sacred Cow • Baal Zevuv

(Beelzebub) • Venus in the Folklore of the Indians

Chapter 10 194

The Synodical Year of Venus ¦ Venus Moves Irregularly • Venus Becomes the Morning Star

pabt n MARS

Chapter 1 207

Amos • The Year —747 • Isaiah • The Argive Tyrants • Again Isaiah • Maimonides and Spinoza,

the Exegetes

Chapter 2 227

The Year -687 • Ignis e Coelo • March 23rd • The Worship of Mars • Mars Moves the Earth

from Its Pivot

Chapter 3 244

What Caused Venus and Mars to Shift Their Orbits?' When Was the Iliad Created? •

Huitzilopochtli • Tao • Yuddha • The Bundahis • Lucifer Cut Down

Chapter 4 261

Sword-God • Fenris-Wolf • Sword-Time, Wolf-Time • Syn-odos • The Stormer of the Walls

Chapter 5 279

The Steeds of Mars* The Terrible Ones-Samples from the Planets • The Archangels • Planet

Worship in Judea in the Seventh Century

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Chapter 6 298

A Collective Amnesia • Folklore • Of "Preexisting Ideas" in the Souls of Peoples • The Pageants

of the Sky • The Subjective Interpretation of the Events and Their Authenticity

Chapter 7 312

Poles Uprooted • Temples and Obelisks-The Shadow Clock-The Water Clock-A Hemisphere

Travels Southward

Chapter 8 330

The Year of 360 Days • Disarranged Months • Years of Ten Months • The Reforming of the

Calendar

Chapter 9 360

The Moon and Its Craters • The Planet Mars • The Atmosphere of Mars • The Thermal Balance

of Mars • The Gases of Venus • The Thermal Balance of Venus • The End

EPILOGUE Facing Many Problems 379

Index 391

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PROLOGUE

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