On Dragons and Red Dwarves

A long study of myth and iconography beginning from first principles rather than standard interpretations, has led David Talbott and Ev Cochrane and others to a model of the antique system in which Jupiter and Saturn are a small binary system with Mars, Venus, and Earth orbiting this binary system and the whole of the binary system orbiting the sun. At least, this is the state in which the system finds itself at the time of the great mythical systems.

Moreover, the larger of the two super-planets has the other super-planet on one side, and the smaller planets on the other, producing a system in which the bodies walk around the more major super-planet in unison in a system of synchronous or synchronized orbits. This looks like a cane turning on an axis, and produces the alignment which you saw in the image. In other words, the planets remain stacked up overtop of eachother as they turn around the larger super-planet.

Further, the orbits are all fairly circular other than for that of Mars, which is more pronouncedly egg-shaped.

To observers on the Earth, then, since the orbits are synchronous and Mars remains overtop of the Earth, this MUST produce the visual effect of Mars shrinking to a small size and then growing much larger on a regular basis.

Surely references to that could not be lacking in mythologies and early literature.

Ev Cochrane has produced an intriguing study titled "On Dragons and Red Dwarves" in the February 95 issue of Aeon. What he has discovered, is that Mars is referred to not so much as a god, but as a "warrior/hero" in the most ancient mythologies of numerous nations, and that the theme of this warrior/hero regularly changing from a dwarf to a giant and back again is, as the model predicts, archetypal.

Highlights include:


    "A giant tree is also the eclipsing agent
    in a fascinating tale preserved in the Kalevala.

    "There the hero who eventually frees the
    sun, strangely enough, is a homunculus by the
    name of Sampsa. The Finnish account reads as follows:

        'A man rose out of the sea, a hero from
        the waves. He was not the hugest of the huge
        nor yet the smallest of the small: he
        was as big as a man's thumb    Confronted with
        this strange little man, a wiseman [Vainamoinen]
        chides him with the following words:


        "You seem more like a man to me and the
        most contemptible of heroes. You're no
        better than a dead man and a face on you like
        a corpse!"19

        At this point the little man blurts back:

        "I am a man as you see-small, but a mighty
        water-hero.  I have come to fell the
        oak-tree and splinter it to fragments!"
        Vainamoinen, old and wily, scoffed: "Why,
        you haven't the strength, you'll never
        be able to fell the magic oak-tree and splinter it
        to fragments!"

        Scarcely had he said these words when,
        before his eyes, the little man was transformed
        into a giant. He stamped with his feet
        on the earth and his head reached up to the
        clouds; his beard flowed to his knees
        and his hair to his heels. His eyes were fathoms
        wide and his legs fathoms long. .. He
        struck the tree with his axe... Sparks flew from the
        axe and flame from the oak as he tried
        to bend the magic tree to his will. At the third
        stroke the oak-tree was shattered...
        Now that the oak-tree was felled and the proud
        trunk levelled, the sun shone again...

    The sudden growth of Sampsa offers an
    intriguing parallel to the rapid swelling which
    forms such a prominent motive in the
    traditions surrounding Indra and Cuchulainn.20 It
    is a motive that we will encounter again
    and again in the traditions surrounding the
    warrior-hero.


    ...The Maya hero Ez, for example, is said to
    have assumed a tiny form in order to
    gain entrance into the belly of a great dragon.
    Shortly thereafter, "When the serpent
    swallowed him, he cut his way out with the obsidian
    and killed the serpent.  He emerged bigger
    and stronger than before. "42

    As a dragon-slaying dwarf, Ez has numerous
    parallels in the sacred traditions of Pre-
    Columbian Indians from North and South
    America.  Consider, for example, a fascinating
    figure from South America known as Mura,
    the trusty servant of the great god Pura, the
    primal sun.43 Described as a red dwarf
    renowned for his club and giant knife, Mura is
    said to reside upon the World Mountain
    at the center of heaven, together with-but in a
    position subordinate to-the sun-like
    Pura.  Once upon a time, according to Arikena
    tradition, Pura and Mura found themselves
    in the belly of a great serpent and it was only
    with great difficulty that they eventually
    hacked their way out thanks to the
    aforementioned knife.44 It is the possibility
    of relating Mura to the red planet that peaks
    our attention, of course, and thus it
    is tempting to compare the club-bearing red dwarf
    with Heracles, the latter alike being
    renowned for his club and homunculus-like (daktyl)
    form.45


    As is the case with any truly archetypal
    mythical motive, the shape-shifting red dwarf
    can be found throughout the ancient world.
    46 A prominent example can be found in the
    Ramayana, where a trickster-like figure
    by the name of Hanuman finds himself
    confronted by a giant monster:


        Later, a huge form stood in his way and
        said: "Enter my mouth. I have been without
        food for a long time and am eagerly waiting
        for you," and the monster opened wide
        like a cave... Hanuman thought quickly
        and decided what to do.  Step by step he
        made his body grow bigger and bigger.
        The Raakshasa form (the monstrous form
        assumed by Surasa, a Naaga goddess) opened
        its mouth correspondingly wider and
        wider.  When the mouth was thus enormously
        wide, all of a sudden Hanuman
        contracted his body into a speck and,
        darting through the demon's mouth and body,
        came out again and resumed his former normal shape.47

    Hanuman resorts to the same ploy on another
    occasion. This time, however, it is the
    very fact of the hero's assuming a gargantuan
    form that causes the belly of the dragon to
    burst, thereby bringing about its death.
    Jung summarizes the episode as follows: "Once
    more he had recourse to his earlier strategem,
    made himself small, and slipped into her
    body; but scarcely was he inside than
    he swelled up to gigantic size, burst her, and killed
    her, and so made his escape."48

    The fact that Hanuman (or his face) is
    elsewhere said to be ruby-red in color offers a
    striking parallel to the aforementioned
    dwarves from the New World.49 Nor can the
    shape-shifting contortions ascribed to
    Hanuman fail to evoke comparison with the
    grotesque contortions undergone by the
    ruddy-colored heroes Cuchulainn and Indra
    whilst in the throes of their respective "
    furors".50 In Indra's case, it will be remembered,
    he swelled to such an extent that he
    dominated the region between heaven and earth,
    actually threatening to block out the
    light of the sun. Recall again the Vedic description
    of Indra' s epiphany:


        Indra, endowed with all heroic valor.
        Then up he sprang himself, assumed his vesture,
        and filled, as soon as born, the earth
        and heaven.51

    A similar passage is the following: "
    Indra, Impetuous One, hath waxed immensely: he
    with his vastness hath filled earth and heaven."52

    Indra's ability to assume a gigantic
    form is a decided point of emphasis in the Vedic
    hymns, and more than one scholar has
    called attention to the prominent role of the root
    vrdh, "to increase, or swell," in his
    mythus.53 A stock epithet of the god-Pravrddha-
    emphasizes this ability to swell, signifying "
    swollen, enlarged, expanded, increased,
    violent. "54

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AEON is a journal of science devoted to the collection and exploration of archaeo-astronomical traditions and analysis of common patterns in ancient myths from around the world. Articles and abstracts build upon the pioneering work of Immanuel Velikovsky, author of the best selling "Worlds In Collision".