The Infinite and the Alephbet

Greenland ice sheet temperature interpreted with Oxygen-18 isotopic data from 6 ice cores

ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/icecore/greenland/vinther2009greenland.txt

Vinther, B.M., S.L. Buchardt, H.B. Clausen, D. Dahl-Jensen, S.J. Johnsen, D.A. Fisher, R.M. Koerner, D. Raynaud, V. Lipenkov, K.K. Andersen, T. Blunier, S.O. Rasmussen, J.P. Steffensen, and A.M. Svensson. 2009.

Holocene thinning of the Greenland ice sheet. Nature, Vol. 461, pp. 385-388, 17 September 2009. doi:10.1038/nature08355

These glacier-core measurements of temperature proxies end in 1960, so the thick red line drawn in for the increase in temperatures since then is based on the 1 degree rise in global surface temperatures since 1960:

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature

Before the start of this graph, the Sahara was thick with lush greenery, full of wildlife, large lakes, savannah, forests, mangrove marshes, and extensive river systems, from coast to coast to coast. Allepo-pine, cypresses, cedars, ash trees, evergreen oaks, nettle trees, walnuts, alders, myrtle, limes and olives grew where only dry boring sand can now be found. You had happy plump cattle feeding happy plump farmers. Elephants, hungry hungry hippos, crocodiles, water snakes, antelopes, baboons, wild boar, ostriches, lions – the works. Everything we see now in tropical Africa – that’s what the Sahara sported. You even had some creatures which are now extinct in the mix as well. Grumpy camels arrived only 2000 years ago.

At around #1, this is all coming to a proper end. So, what do people do? Of course – they start fighting, right? They start fighting over the last great river of the Sahara: the Nile. Lucky for us, the arrogance of grunting conquerors throughout the ages makes them all want to publish and memorialize their grand victories, and so we get the exquisite Narmer Palette which shows the first unification of power over the Nile. The dating of this carving and Narmer’s reign is somewhere in between 3273–2987 BC, and so 3150 BC is the shorthand that people use. #1 is 3090 BC.

Then, for the next thousand years, all is hunky dory. The dynasties of this 1000 year stretch gave us the pyramids (the good ones). This Old Kingdom thrived between ~3150 BC and 2181 BC. #2 is 2190 BC.

The early dynastic period in Mesopotamia started ~2900 BC. After the Akkadians unified the area in 2334 BC, their rule ended in 2154 BC.

The Liangzhu culture, like the early Egyptian dynasties, also thrived for 1000 years, in roughly the same period – between 3300 BC and 2300 BC.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather live between #2 and #3 than between #3 and #4. Climate between #2 and #3 looks much more stable and warm and cozy to me. The people living between #3 and #4 also preferred to live in between #2 and #3, crying at length about a Golden Age now lost. Between #2 and #3 you get a flat world with interconnected economies, with high-level trade between major civilizations.

From 1200 BC onwards people start preferring to slaughter each other much more efficiently – with Iron instead of Bronze.

After #3, Egypt is no longer Egypt. It is the end of the New Kingdom, the end of temple building (the good ones), the end of the Pharaohs (the good ones), and the end of their control over the southern Levant. Just as their ancestors had trouble holding onto power 4200 years ago (#2), these New Kingdom Egyptians started having trouble holding onto power 3200 years ago, and went properly caput in 1069 BC. #3 is 970 BC.

But, it wasn’t just Egypt. There was a change of guard in every major society (at least of the Mediterranean) in this period, with only a few groups, like the Phoenicians, Philistines, Hebrews and Arameans, with their snazzy common alphabet, coming out on top. With the demise of the Egyptian and Hittite Empires (the Hittites having had control over the north of the Levant) a myriad smaller local centers of power like city-states started governing the Levant in their stead.

#4 is when the Romans are marching all over the place. That spike is centered in what has been termed the Roman Warm period, between 200 BC and 300 AD – 1000 years before the Medieval Warm Period.

#5 – although there was no clear peak of temperatures, there was a regimen of generally warmish temperatures, centered around 1000 AD, but it dips rather than spikes at the turn of that millennium. This period, between 800 and 1300 has been termed The Medieval Warm period.

Between #1 and #1, there is a clear gradual decrease in temperatures culminating in a super-dip (#1), soon before #2. This marks a pattern that can be seen to repeat in somewhat of the same manner for the following millennia.

#2 and #3 are very similar in temperatures. Instead of getting a super-dip, like #1, a gradual decline then a gradual increase in temps is generally visible between #2 and #3. That being said, there was still a clear dip at #2, generally in line with the other numbered dips, although not as severe or long-lasting, and, in this stretch #2 is not the most severe dip. After this, however, the pattern of a super-dip followed by a hot or warmish period, as seen at #1 and #2, becomes clear:

Soon before #4, you see a great winter lasting a couple hundred years: #3. The Tiber river in Italy froze completely in 398 BC, 396 BC, 271 BC and 177 BC, after which flooding is only reported – not freezing.

Soon before #5, you see a great winter lasting a couple hundred years: #4, termed The Late Antique Little Ice Age. Volcanoes made things much worse. The 2 coldest years in the last 2000 were 536 and 541. Great plagues ravaged civilizations.

Soon before #6, you see a great winter lasting a couple hundred years: #5, termed The Little Ice Age. Volcanoes made things much worse. The Thames river froze over well enough to throw a fair upon its solid surface in 1608, 1683–84, 1716, 1739–40, 1789, and 1814; and the last time it froze good was in 1849. Before all these freezings of the Thames river, the frost fair reported previously was all the way back in 695, at the end of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (#4).

The first freezing of the Thames in #5 was in 1608 (the first frost fair reported). This is 392 years before a new millennium.

The first freezing of the Tiber in #3 was in 398 BC. This is 398 years before a new millennium.

The last freezing of the Thames in #5 was in 1849 (150 years before a new millennium) after multiple instances during a couple hundred years.

The last freezing of the Tiber in #3 was in 177 BC (123 years before a new millennium) after multiple instances during a couple hundred years.

So, not only does the earth undergo repeated periods of warmth, on a millennial timescale, so too does it experience repeated periods of cooling, as part of the very same millennial timescale.

The fact that during the absolute peak of the main part of the last cold period (1645-1715) there were much much fewer sunspots and much much fewer aurora – this fact, I am sure, reveals the mechanism: oscillations in the sun’s output is clearly the driving factor in this 1000-year great cycle.

This really shouldn’t be a surprise. It shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that the dominant player affecting climate is the sun. This giant ball of fire, 333000 times the mass of the earth, dominating every aspect of our solar system, with known oscillations on an 11-year timeframe.

What’s with the 500-year-long warm periods and 500-year-long cold periods? We don’t see that in the ice core temperature proxies, so, what gives? Proper dips last maximum 200 years; and proper warm periods last max 200 years in the graph.

If we’ve got clear spikes, and clear dips, then, should not there be periods in between these that behave like the shoulder seasons during our regular year?

Scholars got it right for the Late-Antique Little Ice Age – properly constraining the dates to an actual dip in temperatures visible in the ice cores: 500-700.

As a contrast, consider the most recent Little Ice Age (1300-1800). Well, take a look at the graph again. The real dip – the real freezing temperatures – that only started around 1500 (#5), not 1300. But, at 1300, you do start to see a lot of shitty weather (and wild oscillations in the graph), but not freezingly shitty weather. So, yes, the stable warmish temperatures of the Medieval Warm Period were gone by 1300, but we don’t see deep freezings – we see erratic oscillations. Staring in 1315, it didn’t stop raining for 5 years – no sunshine – just rain rain rain, causing the great European Famine which didn’t let up until 1322. Truly autumn weather. Not winter weather.

Whereas summer and winter can be expected to generally produce consistent temperatures, spring and autumn can be relied upon to be unreliable.

You might have a warm autumn running nearly into winter time one year, and the next year’s autumn is all stormy. You might have a devilishly cold spring after teasing you with a short bout of warmth one year, and the next year the heat just gradually builds up, but then the next year you might get a late frost thrown in.

If you suffer a cold spell during summer, you might start complaining because that’s not fair (that’s not ordinary).

If you enjoy a warm spell during winter, you wouldn’t start complaining, but you’d still say to yourself “well, this just ain’t right” (that’s not natural).

So, if there is a 1000-year climate-cycle, driven by the sun, with clear peaks and clear dips, offset from one another, then dividing the 1000 years into 500-year-long warm and 500-year long cold periods is an approach that doesn’t take into consideration the unpredictable shoulder “seasons” of each 1000-year cycle.

It’s as if we were to take our 12 months and divide them into 2 – so, just 2 seasons:

1) The “hot season” (mid-March, April, May, June, July, August & mid-September.

2) The “cold season” (mid-September, October, November, December, January, February, mid-March).

Ridiculous. No, that’s why we have named 4 seasons, because those shoulder-months (Spring/Autumn) are very different – they are unique and not as stable as the deep continuous warmth of July/August or the deep continuous freeze of January/February. The shoulder seasons have their own unique properties.

By unleashing ourselves from the shackles of the 500-year-warm/500-year-cool cycles date-ranging habit, and instead break each millennium down into a Great Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, the clear millennial pattern emerges:

Populations are large. Nobody has anything better to do than to fight for spiritual salvation by controlling the Holy Land.

Councils and book burnings violently squash non-orthodox (symbolic) views of scripture.

Dark years – literally – some years were actually dark. Particulates (volcanic ash and/or space-rock debris) loaded the atmosphere for long stretches of time, turning the land into “something half alive” in the worst case.

Populations are large again, and just like 1000 years previous, all these people don’t know what to do with themselves other than to fight over the Holy Land.

5 years of continuous rain starting in 1315 inducing The Great Famine of 1320/1321 in Europe. People ate roasted corpses from the graveyard, as well as their children. … In South America, in the “mid 1300s” the Chimu “sacrificed” children at a time when “a very thick layer of clay is found on top of sand, so it’s clear that there was a very strong rain right before this ritual and afterwards.” When you can’t grow crops for 5 years, you might start to make rash decisions.

Inquisitions and book burnings violently squash non-orthodox (symbolic) views of scripture.

“The period between 1645 and 1715 was remarkable for the rarity of aurora borealis and aurora australis, which were reported far less frequently than either before or afterward.”

“Between 1645 and 1708, not a single aurora was observed in London’s skies.”

“Between 1672–1699, telescope observations revealed fewer than 50 sunspots for the whole period.”

“During the Great Frost of 1683–84, the worst frost recorded in England, the Thames river was completely frozen for two months, with the ice reaching a thickness of 11 inches in London. Solid ice was reported extending for miles off the coasts of the southern North Sea (England, France and the Low Countries), causing severe problems for shipping and preventing the use of many harbours. Near Manchester, the ground was frozen to 27 inches. In Somerset, the ground was frozen solid to more than 4 feet!”

“On several occasions between 1695 and 1728, inhabitants of the Orkney Islands off northern Scotland were startled to see an Inuit in his kayak paddling off their coasts.”

Glaciers advanced, and not just in the northern hemisphere – even in Antarctica. This is important because it is claimed that The Little Ice Age was isolated to Europe (so too with the Medieval Warm Period, and even with the Roman Warm Period). One scientist, trying to explain the end of the kingdom of Mapungubwe in South Africa, said “The Little Ice Age swooped down from Europe”. Are you friggin’ kidding me? Europeans truly believe the whole world revolves around Europe, don’t they. Did the Little Ice Age also “swoop down” from Europe to Antarctica then? Is that how things work?

The glacier advance at the onset of the Little Ice Age in the Alps: New evidence from Mont Miné and Morteratsch glaciers

Kurt Nicolussi, Melaine Le Roy, Christian Schlüchter, Markus Stoffel, and Lukas Wacker

During the first few centuries after the start of the common era, you see a number of groups claim that the figures in scripture were not actual people but representations of abstract concepts personified; and they obsess over the symbolism of the words of scripture; and then such movements begin to be squashed during the councils and book burnings which start in 325. The symbolic view of scripture is thus buried for a time.

During the first few centuries after the start of the 2^nd millennium, you see a number of groups obsess over the symbolic nature of scripture again – schools of Kabbalah and Sufi mysticism and groups like the Cathars peak at this very time, many of which were then squashed during the inquisitions and book burnings of the 1200s - 1400s, with the Cathars, after flourishing in the 1100s/1200s, being wiped out by 1325. The symbolic view of scripture is thus buried for a time.

But, now, at the start of our millennium, where are all the brave and intelligent symbolists interpreting scripture in a non-literal manner, this time around, eh? Only the grunting crusaders have shown up so far this round.

If we can behold this millennial climate cycle and understand it better, and come to understand how scripture got all mixed up in it, then we can choose how we want to conduct ourselves during our time of prosperity – we can direct how this pattern will play out during this warm cycle. We can avoid having this pattern turn sour over the course of the remainder of our lives and the remainder of the current warm period of prosperity (as it clearly did in preceding millennia). The hope lies in transcending our modern “educated” notions of scripture and its relation to history; and this gets all mixed up with science, because both science and scripture are cosmological (they both offer a view of the whole universe and how it works).

At the peak of each warm period you have idiots crusading for control of middle-earth, but you also read of classes of people during the same periods of time who knew much better about scripture, and didn’t think conquering the Levant would bring them spiritual rewards. This is the hope. We need these people again.

If you count the serious fight over the Levant around 3000 years ago, then that’s 4 friggin’ turns of millennia in a friggin’ row with conflict over the friggin’ dry Levant, each amidst a period of warmth, which can allow enough general prosperity to build new towns, build up old towns, or fight huge “holy” wars and destroy a whole bunch of towns; while the wild hot climate can also cause ecological problems and induce migrations at times as well.

We have so many blinders on, from our primitive view of how climate works, to “educated” people’s regard of the authors of scripture as being ignorant toothless superstitious morons without any understanding of nature.

Both the writing of scripture and the fighting over scripture is tied up with climate spikes or dips and other very-real natural disasters.

3000 years ago (#3) is the center-point of the setting of the Old Testament. In the few centuries before #3, you get the sort of Egyptians you read about in the Bible – not the pyramid-building Egyptians – the New Kingdom Egyptians. In the couple centuries before #3, Egyptian and Hittite control of the Levant ends, and new societies develop. #3 is the very time-setting of the First Temple – the time of the greatest prosperity in the story – Solomon’s reign. The centuries after #3 are the setting for the remainder of the Old Testament narrative with the later Assyrians and Babylonians.

The Old Testament is a well-intentioned highly-polished composition, with every letter being carefully placed into a cohesive and intricate symbolic tapestry – a work with many levels of meaning imbued – a work that takes history and turns it into elaborations of universal truths and of ethical considerations. This will be the core subject of this website, after historical contexts are outlined in this introduction.

A sister language to Hebrew - Aramaic becomes popular in the centuries that immediately follow #3 – a language which, at least later, becomes the daily language, while Hebrew was relegated to the priestly language – the more obscure language of scripture. The Aramaic, Phoenician, Philistine and Hebrew scripts at this time are essentially indistinguishable from one another.

One millennium later (#4) is the time-setting of the New Testament narrative. People fight over the Holy Land, again, with the Roman Jewish War and the destruction of the Second Temple and then the Romans start to build up the cities in the region with the heaviest stones ever quarried and moved.

Aramaic becomes popular again – the more commonly used sister-language to Hebrew. The first Syriac Aramaic inscription is carved just after the start of the 1^st millennium.

One millennium later (#5), (well, 1095) people started fighting over the Holy Land, yet again, but nobody built anything as massive as the Romans – it was mostly destruction. At this time mystics appeared with fresh perspectives on scripture, and tried to get everybody to calm down, but nobody would listen.

The cryptic mythology of Arthur, first introduced in 1136, includes passages where there’s like an abandoned spooky castle in ruins and an ancient Aramaic inscription can be seen on the stones.

The Irish work Lebor Gabala Erin, which demonstrates clear knowledge of Kabbalistic practise, with a focus on the genealogies of the Bible and of “incantation of letters” – the earliest manuscript appears in 1160, when Kabbalah waxes popular.

One millennium later (#6), people are now fighting over the Holy Land, yet again, very very very predictably, and the level of construction has surpassed that of the Romans, and the level of violence has surpassed that of the Crusades, and there is not a single Jewish, Muslim or Christian mystic around to calm people down and to get them to scrutinize their beliefs – to study scripture – to contemplate it, instead of fighting for salvation by fighting for control of the lands mentioned in cryptic scripture.

#4 (the Late Antique Little Ice Age) is the setting of the Qur’an. Multiple times during #4 our atmosphere was loaded with particulates, dimming both sun and moon, adding to the reduced solar activity. The effects were catastrophic. In the 620s, this sun darkening happened yet again, with yet another plague. The Qur’an mythologizes these events, while drawing heavily upon the work of the Aramaic-speaking Syriac Christians in their neighbourhood. The Qur’an, at its grand climax, beckons the reader to take care of “The Quraysh” (“cold people”) “both in winter and in summer”. Just as with the Old and New Testaments, the Qur’an is very much a well-intentioned work, and packaged a very real ecological disaster (which we can study) into a timeless narrative.

The disasters during #4 were also mythologized by many other cultures with tales of dragons and such, or by packaging it in prophetic (astrological) terms.

Both the writing of scripture and the fighting over scripture is tied up with climate spikes or dips and other very-real natural disasters.

These were well-intentioned authors, warning future generations of ecological mayhem – rare things that happen to earthlife; preserving the details in code, and inspiring masses of people to pass the code down – by simply practising the outward/surface narrative as a daily religion, and meticulously copying the original coded composition in the original source language.

“Rabbi Meir, one of the most important teachers of the Mishnah [early part of the Talmud], relates:

“When I was studying with Rabbi Akiba, I used to put vitriol in the ink and he said nothing. But when I went to Rabbi Ishmael, he asked me: My son, what is your occupation? I answered: I am a scribe [of the Torah]. And he said to me: My son, be careful in your work, for it is the work of God; if you omit a single letter, or write a letter too many, you will destroy the whole world…”

What was fresh in the minds of the generation that gave us the Qur’an – what was the news of the day – the talk of the town – the word on the street – what were freshly printed history scrolls relating concerning the period just before that of the Qur’an’s recitation – what were wise old people warning their children about – what stories were the elders in the time of the Qur’an’s authorship relating to the next generation – what was important to them:

“Flooding from excessive rains, as everybody affirms, because floodwaters were overspread; so great was the calamity, that no one remembers there having been a more serious one for centuries.

A great dragon also descended into the sea by the Tiber in the form of a strong beam ("validae trabis") with an innumerable multitude of serpents; by which the beasts of the sea, being suffocated and cast upon the shore, corrupted the air with putridity.”

“In Italy, a flood occurred beyond the belief of nearly all, after much confusion of affairs there followed the inguinal plague, an unspeakable mortality of men, which first struck Pope Pelagius.”

Let me get this straight. After excessive rains, flooding of the landscape, a “dragon” comes down the river, all the way to the sea, with a multitude of “serpents”, and it suffocates and casts marine life onto the shore, turning the air to putrid? And then the plague hits really hard???

Why is this chronicler describing a dragon as a sort of commonplace / understood / known thing, in a matter-of-fact way? The chronicler seems to assume that the reader will understand what is meant by a dragon?!

“There was an immense deluge by rain, and squalor/filth/muddiness (“inluvies”), and a great mortality followed, in which first Pope Pelagius, then an innumerable number, were extinguished in droves.”

This quote describes the flooded landscapes as covered in eroded/washed-up sediment. Why is this important? Plague-carrying rodents (which are still around today), are drawn out of their hiding places by various kinds of assaults like excessive flooding or excessive drought, so, if the land was smothered with mud, drawing desperate critters out from the woodwork, this might explain the subsequent outbreak of the plague.

To see if there is enough time between the flood and the plague – enough time for plague-carrying rodents to make their way into populated areas, let’s nail down the calendar dates for both the flood and the plague:

“On 16 Kalends November (October 17) a strange flood took place, in that the river Tiber flowed over the walls of the city of Rome, and in the channel of the same river, with a multitude of serpents, a dragon of surprising size descended through the city to the sea.

The inundation was immediately followed by the pestilence called 'inguinal', so that few of the multitude survived, in which the pope Pelagius first died.”

The editor of the above passage gives the calendar date of the death of Pope Pelagius II as February 6. Google says it was February 7, but in 590, even contrary to what Sigeberti writes – 591, which would push the dragon back to October 589.

If the plague started in February, then the above chronicle (Mariani Scotti) has mistakenly combined both the flood (October) and the plague (February) into the same year. This report should span 2 calendar years, as Sigeberti correctly divides it (590 = flood, 591 = plague).

It doesn’t really matter which exact couple years this went down – but, it does matter how long an interval there was between the flood and the plague.

Well, now we know better, the plague didn’t hit immediately – it took between October 17 and February 7 – nearly 4 months, so this guy seems to be exaggerating, maybe because he thought the flood was connected with the plague?

Even Sigeberti is intent on connecting the two – by repeating the account of the flood again in 591 to give context to the death of the Pope.

Those 4 months between the flood and the plague might have allowed enough time for plague-carrying rodents to wander into populated areas, their habitat having been disturbed by flooding and sediment.

“By the profusion of floodwaters, the Tiber grew so much in the city of Rome, that its waters flowed over the walls of the city and occupied large regions in it.

Then, through the channel of the same river, with a great multitude of serpents, a dragon, which was the size of the water (“etiam aquae magnitudine”), passed through the city as far as the sea.

Immediately after this inundation there followed a most severe pestilence, which they call 'inguinal', which devastated the city with such a slaughter of people, that scarcely a few remained of the incalculable multitude. First struck was Pope Pelagius, a venerable man, putting him to death without delay. Then, having killed the shepherd, it spread itself through the population.”

Putting aside the possible connection to the subsequent plague, let’s just focus on the dragon itself. What the heck are we talking about here? Is this a real threat? Should I take out some dragon insurance? Well, it is a very real threat, but it can’t be regular, because we would’ve heard reports in modern times if this were regular. It might be more regular under certain conditions though. Like, if the atmosphere is full of particulates and stormy winds slosh them around, static electric charges might build and release.

If it was stormy on the day of the dragon (no reports say so) then could the dragon be an electrical discharge that is just so off the charts, so rare, that we might never get a chance to study this natural phenomenon? The accompanying serpents might be like filamentary streamers from the main electric beam. Sigeberti did describe this dragon as a “strong beam”. Well, you might be thinking that’s just a tree-trunk or something causing problems. Tree-trunk? The magnitude of the water? With a multitude of serpents? Then this suffocates marine life and casts it upon the shore (even though the beam made it to the sea)? Your tree-trunk alternative is even more magical than my electric bolt idea. I’d love to see an animation of your tree-trunk theory.

Weird and wild events like these can and do inspire mythology and religions. Let’s consider another example of this species of dragon attacking, but packaged in mythological form, in the Enoshima Engi:

“Enoshima Island is located in Sagami Bay (just south of Tokyo), which is bounded by the Miura Peninsula on the east and the Izu Peninsula on the west. (the island sits at the mouth of the Sakai River – which is prone to flooding)

Four (tectonic) plates meet in this area: the Philippines plate, the Eurasian plate, the North American plate and the Pacific plate. This is one of the most seismically active areas on earth, and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common.”

This next account is from a Japanese monk, Kokei, writing in 1047, concerning records compiled in 712 and 720, of spectacular and dreadful wonders beheld at and around the area of Enoshima Island, culminating in the event of 552:

“The island of Enoshima, which is part of the land of Sagami of the Tokaido (Eastern Sea Route) district of Great Japan, was created by deities of the eight classes. This island is sacred to the goddess Benzaiten.

A careful investigation into the antecedents of Enoshima island, reveals that there once was a large lake, with a perimeter of 40 li (~14-23 km), lying between Kamakura and Umitsuki county on the borders between the three lands of Boshu, Musashi, and Sagami. The lake was called Fukasawa (“deep swamp”).

The surrounding hills were reflected in the billowing waters of this body of water. Clouds and mist filled the valleys and wolf-dogs roamed the hills. When a person happened to appear at the lake, dank breezes brushed the treetops and white wolves howled on its banks. Therefore, signs of human presence were absent at its shores.

A fierce, evil dragon, a dragon-king with five heads on one body, frequently made this lake its lair. This dragon had a prominent snout, whiskers on its chin, its eyes emitted piercing rays like the sun at daybreak, and its torso was surrounded by black clouds.

During the seven-hundred-year period from the time of the Emperor Jinmu (traditional dates 660-585 BC) to the time of Emperor Suinin (29 BC-70 AD), the evil dragon, accompanied by the spirit of the wind, demons, mountain spirits, and other spirits, wreaked calamities throughout the land. Mountains and hills crumbled, releasing floods and causing damage resulting in plagues and revolts.

During the 60-year reign of Emperor Keikou (71-130 AD), the 12th emperor, the evil dragon constantly made fire [or torrential rains] and rain descend on the eastern lands [roughly today's Kanto region]. Consequently, the people made their homes in stone caves.

At the time of Emperor Keikou (71-130 AD), the evils caused by the dragon increased. Hailstones fell, killing people. At the time, many people had to hide in stone caverns. It is related that in winter they lived in holes and in summer in trees, like the way people lived in the most ancient times.

At the time of the Emperor Anko (453-456 AD), the 21st emperor, the dragon and its demons relied on Minister En to cause troubles. At the time of the Emperor Buretsu (498-506 AD), the dragon and its demons relied on Minister Kanamura to foment disorder and revolts.

At this time, the five-headed dragon first appeared at the water gate of Tsumura Village in the valley of South Hill (the hill south of the lake) and began to devour children. From that time named this place Hatsukuhisawa ("Swamp Where the Dragon First Began to Devour People") and called the steep hills to the west Eno. This swamp was the water gate to the waters of the lake and an estuary of the Southern Sea [Sagami Bay].

A village elder lived at the base of the valley. He had 16 children, all of whom were swallowed by the poisonous dragon. Grieving and anguishing, he left his old home to move to a location to the west, which was then called "Elder's Mound."

The evil dragon then spread out through the villages, swallowing and devouring children. Terrified, the villagers forsook their homes to move elsewhere. The people of that time named the new location Koshigoe.

By this time the dragon's swallowing of people had taken place throughout the eight lands [of the Kanto region in Eastern Japan]. Children whose parents had been swallowed grieved, and parents whose children had been swallowed lamented. The sounds of weeping and wailing continued without ceasing throughout the villages. Children were left without mothers and husbands without wives.

Thereupon, the people of the eight lands, high-born and low-born, came together to discuss what to do. It was decided to offer a [female] child in sacrifice to the dragon. The wailing and lamentations of the people, high-born and low-born, continued without ceasing.

In the 13th year (552 A.D. by traditional dating) of the reign of Emperor Kinmei, dark clouds covered the sea at the watergate (entrance) to the lake from the estuary of the Southern Sea (Sagami Bay) at Eno. The clouds lasted from around 8:00 pm of the 12th day to 8:00 am of the 23rd day of the fourth month. Large earthquakes shook the earth day and night.

Then the goddess appeared above the clouds, with servants at her left and right. The myriad spirits — dragon-spirits, the spirits of water, fire, thunder, and lightning, as well as mountain spirits, ghosts, spirits of the dead, and demons — made great boulders descend from above the clouds and rocks and sand spurt up from the bottom of the sea. Lightning bolts flashed, and flames flickered amidst the white-tipped waves.

On the 23rd day of the month at the hour of the dragon (around 8:00 am) the clouds disappeared, the haze dispersed, and an island was seen to have emerged in the sea amidst the blue waves — a new mount made by the spirits.

Twelve cormorants descended to perch on the island. This is why it then was also dubbed "Island to Which Cormorants Come".

Displaying her exquisite, brilliant charms, the goddess descended into the Golden Grotto. It was none other than Benzaiten, the third daughter of the dragon-king of Munetsuchi, manifesting herself in the flesh.

Manifesting herself in the flesh, the goddess, the third daughter of the benevolent dragon-king of Munetsuchi, the elder sister of Lord Enma (also Yama), ruler of Hades, the younger sister of [Dragon-]King Baso, descended upon that island. Adorned with a long jade pendant and a blood-red ornament, and making a strumming [or slapping] sound, she shined like the autumn moon enveloped in mist and sparkled like spring flowers dripping with dew.

Upon seeing the charms of the heavenly goddess, the five-headed dragon of the lake wanted to tell her of his deepest desire. Riding the waves, he came to the island and sought to tell her of his love.

The goddess replied, "I have made a pledge of compassion and pity [for all creatures]. But you mercilessly and rapaciously end their lives. In body and heart we are complete opposites. And that is all the more reason that your desire makes no sense!"

The dragon spoke, "I will follow your teachings. From now on, I will refrain forever from harboring a heart set on destruction and from harming living beings. Instead, I ask you to make me compassionate, able to follow and carry out your will."

The goddess then consented. Thereupon, the dragon pledged to follow her teachings and faced south, becoming a large hill. The people of that time named the hill "Tatsu-no-kuchi-yama" (Dragon's Mouth Hill). It was also called "Benevolent Spirit-Guardian of the Dead Children."

This is the island transformed and created by the goddess Benzaiten, using her expedient powers [to lead beings to the truth] in order to save sentient beings from the savagery and evil of the dragon. As a goddess who manifested herself as a savior, she is thus known as the beneficial spirit enshrined at Enoshima.”

For the current study of trying to determine what was the dragon in the Tiber in 590, I would prefer hard facts, but, this mythology is so much more readable and entertaining, isn’t it?

Now, in Italy in 590, we read of the plague that followed a few months later in 591. Well, the above dragon was in the 4^th month, and then:

“A pestilence was rife in the Land, from which the people died prematurely. As time went on it became worse and worse, and there was no remedy.”

There are no mentions of plague-like disease outbreaks in the Nihongi before this.

And, after this, you have to wait until 585 before plague is mentioned again (and much more clearly). The 585 quote does say that the same burning disease with sores was prevalent for years previous, but still, it is only in 552 when such a disease is first reported in the Nihongi, which might mean it was an outbreak to note.

“A great inundation of waters, and filth/squalor/muddiness, thunderbolts and earthquakes, and prodigies followed by plague afflicted Gaul and other provinces.”

“In 579 a black dragon was killed by a red one. Moreover, in the same year there was a fight of a white dragon with a black one, the result of which was that the white one ascended to the sky and the black one fell on the earth and died. As black was the colour of the Later Cheu dynasty, these dragon fights were forebodings of its approaching fall, which actually took place two years later.”

“In AD 553 a dragon was seen ascending near the Imperial Palace, and the next year a huge black serpent rose from the Palace moat to the sky, spreading a dazzling light and followed by a small snake. Calamity was predicted on account of these apparitions, and the Emperor tried to avert the evil by offerings of moneys, magic, Buddhist prayers and philanthropy; but it was all in vain, for at the end of the same year he was killed.”

“In the first year of the T'ai Ts'ing era (547 AD) there was again a dragon fight in the waters of Li cheu. The waves seethed and bubbled up, and clouds and fog assembled from all sides. White dragons were seen running to the South, followed by black dragons. That year Heu King came with troops to submit, and the Emperor accepted his submission without taking precautions. The people of the realm were all frightened, and suddenly rebellion arose. The Emperor in consequence thereof had a sad death".

In June there were fearsome rainstorms and lightning, so that people were injured by lightning while they slept. Among the incidents, part of the column on the Xerolophos was knocked down.”

“In this year there was much terrifying thunder and lightning, so that many were struck by lightning while they slept. On St John's day the thunder and lightning were so terrible that part of the column of the Xerolophos was sliced off, as was the carved capital of the same column.”

“In the 23rd year of Justinian (549) the river at Tarsus rose and flooded the city. In the same period the city of Laodicea with 7,000 on its inhabitants was destroyed in an earthquake. The city of Pompeiopolis (or, Pentapolis) in Mysia sank and its inhabitants, still living, were sucked into the pit. Their cries were heard for days, but no one could help them. In Phoenicia the cities of Tripoli, Byblos (Pilsos), and Trovas sank and all the cities of Galilee. The sea retreated by two mils, and boats became stranded on land.

In these days Petra was captured and fortified by the Persians. When the Byzantines learned about this they went and besieged the city for seven months before retaking it.

In the same period a catastrophic famine took place, to the point that a person might eat five (or, ten) ltrs of bread, swell up, and still be famished. For two years animals were dying of epidemic throughout the country and the labor of oxen fell off. There was also an earthquake in Constantinople which lasted for forty days and many homes became the tombs of their residents. Numerous churches were demolished and a part of Nicomedia was destroyed.”

“A great mortality in which these rested: Finnia moccu Telduib, Colam, descendant of Crimthann, Mac Táil of Cell Cuilinn, Sinchell son of Cenannán, abbot of Cell Achaid Druimfhata, and Colum of Inis Celtra.”

“There appeared a shooting star 300 feet long; it fell in the place of Wou (Wou-kiun).”

“In the northern-Chinese Bei Shi, a major drought is cited for 548, while The History of the Southern Dynasties records extremely serious droughts and subsequent famines in 549 and 550, in which the population was literally reduced to cannibalism in some areas. The accounts say that in the famine of 549 when corpses must have been plentiful ‘people ate each other’ in the great city of Jiujiang (now Jiangzhou) on the south bank of the Yangtze; and in 550 ‘from spring until summer there was a great drought, people ate one another and in the capital [modern Nanjing] it was especially serious’.”

“Until now, historians have come to believe that the end of the Gupta Empire, which reigned over what is now called India’s Golden Age from around AD 300 till about AD 550, was caused by socio-economic factors. The decline of the Guptas also severely impacted a flourishing Buddhism, relegating it to the background for several centuries in the country.

Archaeologist Shanker Sharma has now provided evidence to show that almost every significant archaeological site in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh reveals silt deposits ranging from 0.6 meters to 2.5 meters, suggesting that the area was hit by disastrous floods. Balirajgarh (Madhubani), Kolhua, Raja Vishal Ka Garh and Chechar (Vaishali), Titra (Siwan), Chirand (Saran), Panr (Samastipur), Kumhrar (Patna), Champa (Bhagalpur), Kushinagar and Siddharthnagar (both in Uttar Pradesh) are some of such sites.

“My research picked up pace after I visited Balirajgarh in Madhubani district, a site that has been partially excavated so far by the ASI in 2014. The site had a 7-metre-high fortification without any gap and people in the ancient times accessed it through a ramp. To my surprise, silt had crossed such high ramparts and around 1.7 meters of it was deposited inside. Just imagine how high the floods would have been to cause it and what would have happened to human settlements outside the fortification,” Sharma told The Telegraph.

Similarly, the Kolhua stupa site in Vaishali district shows silt deposits of 1 meter to 1.5 meters, while the Chaumukhi Mahadev site in the same district had silt deposits of 2.5 meters. Panr site in Samastipur had a deposit of over 1 meter. There is evidence of high silt deposits at Kumhrar site in Patna too.

“There was no cultural occupation (proper civilization) at the sites for several hundred years after. The populated areas were deserted. The growth achieved in the second urbanization that had started in this region around 600 BC, centuries after the first urbanization brought by the Harappan civilization, was completely lost,” Sharma said.

The archaeologist also asserted that the deluge dealt “a death blow to the Gupta Empire” that gathered its strength from Bihar region and ruled over a vast stretch from eastern India to northern and western India.

Explaining the sudden decline of Buddhism around that time, Sharma said none of the Buddhist sites such as Kesaria, Lauria Nandangarh, Rampurva, Lauria Areraj and others survived the devastating flood.”

https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/deluge-drowned-mighty-guptas-study/cid/1685500

“There was a large fearsome earthquake in the whole land of Palestine, in Arabia, and in the territory of Mesopotamia, Antioch, and both Coastal Phoenicia and Lebanesia. In this catastrophe, the following cities suffered: Tyre, Sidon, Berytos, Tripolis, Byblos, Botrys, and parts of other cities. Multitudes of people were trapped in them. In Botrys, part of the mountain called Lithoprosopon (Stone-Face), which rose beside the sea, broke off, fell into the sea, and formed a harbor, so that even very large ships could sail into the harbor of the broken-off mountain. This city had not had a harbor in the past.

The King sent money to all the provinces and rebuilt conspicuous parts of the cities.

At the time of the earthquake, the waters withdrew a mile toward the open sea, and many ships were destroyed. By God’s command the sea was restored to its ancient bed.”

“A pestilence was rife in the Land, from which the people died prematurely. As time went on it became worse and worse, and there was no remedy.”

“A star fell in Ou-kiun, capital of the province of Ou (Sou-tcheou-fou).”

“... ... a pestilential disease, falling suddenly, consumed the multitude; and indeed some of them blamed the corruption of the surrounding air, attributing to it the cause of the disease; others, on the other hand, believed that, after continuous wars and long journeys, they had suddenly been transferred to an idle and soft life, causing the disease.

But they clearly did not understand the origin of this evil, which was certainly: injustice along with divine as well as human rights denied; things which inevitably were destined to bring evil.

The leader himself, therefore, was evidently subject to the punishments sent down by God: insanity and evident rage ("rabie"), like those who are taken captive by continual raging ("furere") within the mind, he was restrained, agitated with a great deal of vertigo, and ate with heavy cries, only prostrate, only falling on either side to the ground, and foaming at the mouth; the eyes themselves were also grim, and in a horrible inverted manner; in short, the wretch had become so mad that he could not even refrain from tasting his own members. For he was constantly biting, clinging to his arms, and tearing the flesh with his teeth, tearing them to pieces like some wild beast, licking up the tender flesh, and thus being satiated with his own self, gradually fainting, he perished most miserably.

But all the others were also made completely extinct, nothing completely relinquishing itself to evil, until they all perished; and indeed many were afflicted with fever, yet perished in good health; but some were afflicted with severe apoplexy, others with a heavy headache, and others with delirium.”

“A terrible earthquake took place in Constantinople and in the surrounding cities for 40 days.”

"A terrifying earthquake occurred in the towns of Milan and the surrounding area."

“The last inscription that mentions the great Marib dam is … … dated in the year 668 of the Himyarite era (= 553 A.D.). The authors of the text were again engaged, under great exertion, in removing the mud deposits at the dam.”

“The following report was received at Chinu, in the district of Idzumi, there is heard a voice of Buddhist chants, which re-echoes like the sound of thunder, and a glory shines like the radiance of the sun. In his heart the Emperor wondered at this, and sent Unate no Atahe to go upon the sea to investigate the matter.”

“When we were staying in Paris signs appeared in the sky, namely, twenty rays in the northern part which rose in the east and sped to the west; and one of them was more extended and overtopped the rest and when it had risen to a great height it soon passed away, and likewise the remainder which followed disappeared. I suppose they announced Merovech's death.”

“There appeared a shooting star as large as the moon; it sank to the west while meandering, with noise. Its light illuminated the ground.”

“There appeared a shooting star the size on an egg; it came out of the Ti asterism (a, b, Libra), and sank to the north-west. It had a tail or trace over 10 degrees long; it entered the moon and extinguished.”

“There appeared another shooting star, as large as a bushel, blue in color, and bright enough to illuminate the ground; it came out of Yng-tchi (group of a, Pegasus), touched Pi (the wall, g, Pegasus), and was lost behind the clouds.”

“In A. D. 579 a black dragon was killed by a red one. Moreover, in the same year there was a fight of a white dragon with a black one, the result of which was that the white one ascended to the sky and the black one fell on the earth and died. As black was the colour of the Later Cheu dynasty, these dragon fights were forebodings of its approaching fall, which actually took place two years later.”

“A shooting star, as large as 3 bushels, appeared at the principle port of Thai-wei (between b and h, Virgo), and sank in Y (a, Hydra and Crater). Its colour was bluish-white; its brightness illuminated the ground. A noise was heard like that of flags agitated by the wind.”

“A great inundation of waters, and filth/squalor/muddiness, thunderbolts and earthquakes, and prodigies followed by plague afflicted Gaul and other provinces.”

They can mean either squalor/dirt/filth (a washing/scouring), which might indicate the erosive scouring of the land from the floodwaters; or these terms can mean an “overflowing”/”inundation”.

But, then: “inundatio et illuvies” would be = “Inundation” and “Inundation”???

“A great inundation of waters, and squalor/filth (as a result of washing things away by erosion from flooding),”

In Gaffio’s dictionary, Il/Inluvio was the flooding, whereas Il/Inluvies is strictly the dirt/filth “salete, malproprete”.

“There appeared a great shooting star, which made a noise like a wall crumbling down. Its light illuminated the ground.”

“In king Childebert's (II) seventh year, which was the twenty-first of Chilperic and Gunthram, in the month of January there were rains and heavy thunder and lightning; blossoms appeared on the trees.

The star which I called above the comet, appeared in such a way that there was a great blackness all around it and it was placed as it were in a hole and gleamed in the darkness, sparkling and scattering rays of light. And a ray of wonderful size extended from it which appeared like the smoke of a great fire a long way off. It appeared in the west in the first hour of the night.

At Soissons on the day of holy Easter the heavens were seen to be on fire, and there appeared to be two fires, one greater and the other less. And after the space of two hours they united and formed a great flame and vanished.

In the territory of Paris real blood fell from the clouds and dropped on the garments of many men and so defiled them with gore that they shuddered at their own clothes and put them away from them.

This prodigy appeared in three places in the territory of that city. In the territory of Senlis a certain man's house when he rose in the morning appeared to have been sprinkled with blood from within.

There was a great plague that year among the people. The sickness took various forms and was severe with pimples and tumors which brought death to many. Still many who were careful escaped. We heard that at Narbonne in that year the bubonic plague was very fatal, so that when a man was seized by it he had no time to live.”

"In the sixth month of the fifth year of the P’u t'ung era (524 AD) dragons fought in the pond of the King of K’uh o (?). They went westward as far as Kien ling ch'ing. In the places they passed all the trees were broken. The divination was the same as in the second year of the T'ien kien era (503 AD), namely that their passing Kien ling and the trees being broken indicated that there would be calamity of war for the dynasty, and that it was a sign that the Imperial tombs would be destroyed.

At that time the Emperor considered the holding of discussions to be his only task, and did not think of ploughing. His fighting generals were careless, his soldiers idle, and the Tao of the Ruler was injured. Therefore there was the corresponding fact of the dragons' evil. The Emperor did not at all become conscious (of the danger).”

“During the late Taihe period, beginning about the time of the move to the new capital, rebellions rose up over all of North China and reached a peak in the years 524-525 with the revolt of the men stationed at the six garrison towns on the northern borders of the empire. … After their defeat, a large number of the rebel army, destitute and hungry, were sent together with people from the devastated Pingcheng area to Hebei, a normally rich agricultural area, where there was supposed to be more food. But there was famine in Hebei, and civil unrest spread – to Hebei and farther east to Shangdong.

In 524, when rebellions erupted all over North China, Xiao was sent to quell the uprisings in Guanzhong (the area surrounding Chang’an). There he fought for three years with some initial success. But his army became worn down by incessant action. In 527, he suffered a major defeat and retreated to Chang’an.”

“Emperor Anastasius was struck by lightning from God and perished (9^th July 518), after whom Justinus the Elder reigned for 11 years.”

“Some say that Anastasios, after being struck by a divine thunderbolt, went mad.”

“In the province of Dardany there was a horrible earthquake in so much that 24 Castles were fallen down in one moment by it.

Anastatius the Emperor died (9 July 518) of a sudden and unprovided death of a Thunderbolt which by God’s providence was sent him, for the favour he did bear to the Eutitian Heretics and for persecuting the Catholics.”

“When Severus quitted Antioch (25 September 518), fire fell from heaven and burned the royal palace in that city. Nor did the fire cease for six years. Indeed, it burned the entire city, to the point that it seemed that the fire itself was alive.”

“In this period, the waters of Shiloh vanished for 15 years. In this period too fire fell from the sky and burned the city of Balbek—which Solomon had constructed on Mt. Lebanon—and the palaces located there. However there were three stones which Solomon had placed there to the mystery of the Trinity which were undamaged.”

23 October 522 for the end of the date-range because the text following this event begins with Asclepius being bishop in Edessa.

“There arose in the further parts of the East a terrible star, which they commonly call a Comet, sending down a ray below.

Some asserted that this was Pogonia ("Pogoniam"), whence great terror seized the people.”

Barthold Georg Niebuhr Volume 1 of Chronicon Paschale - Volume 11 in the series 1832

“… a star appeared in the East, a terrifying comet which had a ray extending downward. The astronomers described this as 'bearded'. And there was fear.”

“In this year Dyrrachium, a city of New Epirus in Illyricum, suffered from divine anger (i.e. an earthquake). The emperor provided much money for the restoration of the city. Likewise Corinth, the metropolis of Greece, [suffered] and the emperor showed great generosity towards it.”

“Anazarbos, the metropolis of Second Cilicia, suffered from a most terrifying earthquake, its governor being Kalliopios, son of Eirenaios, and the entire city collapsed. Justin raised it up again and named it Justinoupolis.

In the same year Edessa (modern Sanliurfa), a large and famous city, the metropolis of the province of Osrhoene, was engulfed through divine anger by the waters of its river. For the river Skirtos which passes through the midst of it, provides it with great wealth and enjoyment. At that time, being in full flood like a sea, it dragged away the houses along with their inhabitants and submerged them.

There is a story current among those who were saved that the same river had destroyed the city on other occasions but not to the same degree.

After the floods had ended, a stone tablet was found on the bank of the river inscribed with the following message in hieroglyphic lettering: 'The river Skirtos will skittishly skittle the citizens’. The emperor Justin provided much towards the restoration of both cities.”

“In 836 of the Syrian Era [A.D. 525], Asclepius, a wicked and depraved man, was bishop in Edessa and he harassed the faithful to accept the impious Council [of Chalcedon]. He rounded up 20 wondrous cenobites, tortured them wickedly, and threw them into prison. Now it came about that in the second hour of evening a major flood poured down from the mountains. It clashed against the [city] walls and retreated. The second time it came, it demolished the walls, and coursed over the city, killing man and beast alike by carrying them into the Euphrates River. Asclepius saved himself by fleeing to the city's citadel as did a number of others. They wanted to stone him to death because they knew that he was responsible for this evil, and so he fled to Antioch.

There, his co-sectarian Ephrem, patriarch of Antioch stated: "Behold, brothers, our second Noah has escaped from the flood—which came due to [some people] for the sin of not accepting the Council of Chalcedon." Justin sent a great deal of gold to rebuild Edessa. As they were digging, they found an inscription written on a rock which said: "Three times will a flood visit Edessa." This was written in Chaldean script. Thirty thousand dead [bodies] were recovered from this flood, while the figure given by the city's residents for those known to have been carried away by the waters was 200,000.

Asclepius and Ephrem amused themselves by polluting Antioch with that foul heresy. This visited on the city more of God's anger. A fifth earthquake rocked the entire city and all the buildings, homes, palaces, and churches collapsed.

A completely new phenomenon was observed, for the wind delivered the punishment of Sodom. The river boiled over, and up from the depths came black waters bearing crustaceans, turtles, and the bones of wild animals.

The earth vomited up fire and water. And fatal fumes arose which brought death to man and beast through different ailments.

For some days fire, like rain, coursed down through the air. Everyone could hear the wails [of the injured], but no one dared to approach.

For one and a half months the earthquakes and the fiery rain continued without cease.

The great basilica, which Constantine had built, shook for seven days like a stalk in the wind until it cracked and fire arose to burn the church. Only twelve hundred and fifty souls survived these disasters.

Suddenly there appeared a luminous Cross in the sky which disappeared after three days. And the people cried: "Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy!" The cries of despair from people trapped [under the rubble] could be heard until their last breath.

Asclepius and Ephrem, however, were nowhere to be found. They were sought for to provide advice and prayer. Now some of their intimates claimed that God spared them from this [divine] wrath by taking them up to Heaven. However because of the shaking of the ground they had been hurled into a copper vessel used for making tar. And it was in this vessel that their bodies were later discovered. The flesh had been cooked off their bones and their bodies had been reduced to skeletons, while their heads still were visible outside the vessel. This is how they were identified.

Other areas also were ruined: Syrian Seleucia by the sea, and the city of Daphne, as well as an area of twenty mil about Antioch, and Anazarbus, the metropolis of Cilicia, and Corinth, the metropolis of Greece. Thus were many men and buildings lost during the wicked years of Justin's reign.”

“In the seventh year of his reign, in the month of May, Antioch the Great suffered its fifth calamity from the wrath of God, during the consulship of Olybrius. Great was the fear of God that occurred then, in that those caught in the earth beneath the buildings were incinerated and sparks of fire appeared out of the air and burned anyone they struck like lightning.

The surface of the earth boiled and foundations of buildings were struck by thunderbolts thrown up by the earthquakes and were burned to ashes by fire, so that even those who fled were met by flames.

It was a tremendous and incredible marvel with fire belching out rain, rain falling from tremendous furnaces, flame dissolving into showers, and showers kindling like flames consumed even those in the earth who were crying out.

As a result Antioch became desolate, for nothing remained apart from some buildings beside the mountain. No holy chapel nor monastery nor any other holy place remained which had not been torn apart. Everything had been utterly destroyed. The great church of Antioch, which had been built by the emperor Constantine the Great, stood for seven days after this tremendous threat from God, when everything else had collapsed to the ground during the wrath of God. Then it too was overcome by fire and razed to the ground. Likewise other houses which had not collapsed through the diving calamity were destroyed to their foundations by fire.

In this terror up to 250,000 people perished. For this was the great festival of the Ascension of Christ our God and a great throng of visitors had come to town. During the wrath of God it became clear what a great number of citizens there was. Many of those who had been buried by earth survived to be brought up alive but then died. Some of the citizens who survived gathered whatever of their possessions they could and fled. Peasants attacked them, stole their goods and killed them. But God’s benevolent chastisement of man was revealed even in this, for all those robbers died violently, some by putrefaction, some were blinded and others died under the surgeon’s knife, and after confessing their sins they gave up their souls.

Other mysteries of God’s love for man were also revealed. For pregnant women who had been buried for 20 or even 30 days were brought up from the rubble in good health. Many, who gave birth underground beneath the rubble, were brought up unharmed with their babies and survived together with the children to whom they had given birth. Equally other children were brought out alive after 30 days.

Many even more tremendous things occurred. On the third day after the collapse, the Holy Cross appeared in the sky in the clouds above the northern district of the city, and all who saw it stayed weeping and praying for an hour.

After the collapse of the city many other earthquakes occurred during the next 18 months.”

“ … the portent which had come to the citizens of Antioch in the reign of Anastasius [491 to 518] reached this final fulfilment for them. For at that time a violent wind suddenly fell upon the suburb of Daphne, and some of the cypresses which were there of extraordinary height were overturned from the extremities of their roots and fell to the earth--trees which the law forbade absolutely to be cut down.

[526 AD] Accordingly, a little later, when Justinus was ruling over the Romans, the place was visited by an exceedingly violent earthquake, which shook down the whole city and straightway brought to the ground the most and the finest of the buildings, and it is said that at that time three hundred thousand of the population of Antioch perished. And finally in this capture the whole city, as has been said, was destroyed. Such, then, was the calamity which befell the men of Antioch.”

“In this year in October of the 4th indiction the prelude to God's anger visited the city of Antioch. For a great conflagration arrived unseen in the middle of the city, which foretold the coming threat from God.

The fire was kindled at the martyrium of St Stephen and extended as far as the Praetorium of the magister militum. This was the beginning of anguish. The fires lasted for six months, many houses were burned, and many people perished.

No one was able to discover from where the fire was lit; for it flared up from the rooftiles of five-storey buildings.

By the mediation of the patriarch Euphrasios the emperor granted to the city two centenaria of gold.

On 20 May of the same 4^th indiction, at the seventh hour, while Olybrius was consul in Rome, Antioch, the great city of Syria, suffered inexplicable disaster through God's anger. So great was the wrath of God towards it that almost the entire city collapsed and became a tomb for its inhabitants.

Some of those who were buried and still alive beneath the ground were burned by fire that came out of the earth. Another fire came down out of the air like sparks and burned whomever it touched, like lightning. The earth went on shaking for a year.”

“In this year, while the earthquake continued, Euphrasios, the bishop of Antioch, was engulfed by the earthquake and perished. Every house and church collapsed and the beauty of the city was destroyed. In all the generations no such great anger of God had befallen any other city.”

“On Wednesday 29 November in the third hour, indiction 7, Great Antioch again suffered from divine anger, two years after its first disaster. The great earthquake lasted for one hour and there was a terrifying roar from heaven. All the buildings fell to the ground, even the walls as well; and those old buildings that had not fallen in the first earthquake now collapsed.

All the magnificence with which the city had been invested through acts of generosity by the emperor and through the buildings erected by citizens at their own expense, was all destroyed. When the neighbouring cities heard about it, they held litanies in mourning. 4,870 people perished in the collapse.

The survivors fled to other cities and began living in huts in the mountains. Then came a harsh and very severe winter. Those who remained went on processions in prayer, all of them barefoot, weeping, throwing themselves headlong into the snow and crying out, 'Lord, have mercy!'.”

“… a great fire happened at Antioch, and burned much of what remained from the earthquake; but whence the origin of the fire remains unknown.”

Barthold Georg Niebuhr Volume 1 of Chronicon Paschale - Volume 11 in the series 1832

“There was an earthquake so great that the walls were prostrated, and it continued for a long time, so that no one dared to remain at home, but all fled outside the city, and continued to recite litanies day and night. For there was a great fear, such as had never been seen before.

Some said that a fire had been seen in heaven, whence every year the celebrant of the Litany commemorated the gracious goodness and patience of God, in Triconchus, 8 Ides November (6th November). For in such terrors he brought none to death.”

Barthold Georg Niebuhr Volume 1 of Chronicon Paschale - Volume 11 in the series 1832

“Several walls of the imperial city of Constantinople which had been freshly rebuilt with masonry, and fifty-seven towers collapsed as a result of a violent earthquake which prevailed in various places.”

Based on: Ingram, James, translator. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. London: Everyman Press, 1912.

“Constantinople suffered great damage from an earthquake on the 26^th of the month of Audynaeo (roughly December), by night; from Troadensibus which is called Porticobus ("a Troadensibus ita appelatis Porticibus"?), as far as the bronze Tetrapylon, long enough so that no one dared to remain at home, but all fled outside the city, occupying themselves day and night with litanies.

But the emperor himself, together with the senate and the people and the clergy, made supplications with bare feet for many days: for there was a great terror, such as had never been before.

Some even affirmed that they had seen fire in heaven: hence the annual memory of this supplication is still performed in the Camp as an act of thanksgiving for God's clemency.

Barthold Georg Niebuhr Volume 1 of Chronicon Paschale - Volume 11 in the series 1832

“In the 28th year of the same epoch, the 4th moon, day Yih Maou, a comet was seen in S. D. Maou. In the 6th moon, day Jin Tsze (July 13), it was seen in the middle of Tae Wei, over against Te Tso.”

“When Litorius passed, Theuderedus entered into peace with Romans, and again he entered into open conflict on the Catalaunian plains with the help of Aetius (the Roman commander) against the Huns, who were devastating the provinces of the Gallic lands with savage raiding and destroying very many cities. And there he died as victor in battle. But the Goths, with Thurismundus (the son of King Theuderedus) fighting, fought so bravely, that between the first and final battle almost 300,000 men fell in that struggle.

Many signs of Heaven and Earth preceded in that same time, by whose portents a war so cruel was signified. For, with the frequent earthquakes having occurred, the Moon was obscured from the part of the east, a comet star appeared from the setting of the Sun, and glowed for some time with huge magnitude. The sky grew red in the northern quarter of the sky, as though it became fire or blood, with rather clear lines, and through the fiery reddening the brighter lines were deformed into the appearance of glowing spears. And it was no wonder that so much showing of signs was demonstrated through divine intervention in such a huge mass of slaughtered men.

Now the Huns, having been slaughtered almost to the point of annihilation, abandoned the Gallic lands with their king Attila, and fled to Italy, breaking into a number of cities. And there they perished, partly by hunger, partly by heavenly plagues.”

“Earthquakes are almost constant and very many signs are shown in the sky. In the evening the northern sky became red like fire, and intermixed in this fiery redness were brighter lights like deformed stars.

“There appeared in the south-west a star as large as five bushels; it split into 6 or 7 shards. Noise was heard.”

“A large shooting star illuminated the ground. Repeated noises were heard, many successive strikes.”

“The battle of Luachair gained by Cairbre over the Uí Néill, whereof was said:

Is this poem a coded reference to the events of 525 (“earthquake”, “wind”, “fire from heaven”, “thunderbolts from earthquakes”, “sign of the cross”, etc…)?

The term Findabair is etymologically related to the Welsh name Guinevere, which is central in the Arthurian legends, also written cryptically. Again, the Arthurian legends include Aramaic terms written in as spooky and mysterious in the stories.

This next quote is from Patrick McCafferty and Mike Baillie’s The Celtic Gods – Comets in Irish Mythology, in their chapter on Irish Saints in the Sixth Century:

“The founders of Christianity in Ireland – Saints Patrick, Columcille, Brigid and others – have a much more mythical character than one might expect. Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise given that everything about them tended to be written down well after their lifetimes. Mostly portrayed as ascetic holy men/women, their miraculous powers suggest they were more like demi-gods, with powers reminiscent of characters like Finn and the Druids of old such as Cathbad and Tadg.

To give an example, MacNeil, in collecting stories relating to Lughnasa, was surprised to find that the folk legends about the festival almost never mentioned Lugh. While the legends mostly dealt with a struggle between two characters, these were usually Crom Dubh and St. Patrick. Since Lugh should have been mentioned, fairly obviously

‘One of these … has taken the part of Lugh. There can be no doubt that it was Saint Patrick. Lugh would certainly have had the role of victor, as Saint Patrick has. Saint Patrick must be a latecomer into the mythological legends and must have displaced a former actor. If we restore Lugh to the role taken by Saint Patrick the legends at once acquire a new meaning.’

This then is an overt case where St. Patrick has replaced Lugh in popular consciousness. That this was a quite common occurrence is also hinted at in other ways. St. Columcille (Columba) had a servant called Lugbe. One morning Lugbe went to see his master and found that saint’s face so bright that he went to run away in fright.

It transpired that Columcille had just had a premonition that ‘fire from heaven’ would destroy a city in ‘Italy’ along with thousands of people. Months later, a ship arrives and the sailors are able to confirm that the premonition had been correct.

Two things are interesting about his story. First is the fact that Adamnan (who recorded the miraculous premonition), writing in the seventh century, was aware that ‘fire from heaven’ was something that could be associated with the sixth century. Second is the clear statement of the relationship; Lug(be) is now the servant of the saint. This relationship is echoed again in another story about Columcille. In this story a ‘Loch Ness Monster’ has just killed a man (this is at the River Ness where is leaves Loch Ness in Scotland). The saint and his entourage arrive and he orders one his servants, Lugne Mocumin, to swim across the river to retrieve a boat. The saint then miraculously chases the water-beast that had been intent on attacking the swimmer.

Here we see a clear relationship whereby either the saints replace the Celtic gods or reduce those gods to servant status. There are many other examples: St. Brigit took on many of the attributes of the Celtic fire goddess of the same name; we have seen that the Ballinderry church site was founded by St. Loo, who is clearly a Christianisation of Lugh. The blending of the traditions is also clear in the wider framework of the stories. We read that Columba was born in miraculous circumstances to his mother Eithne. Adamnan tells us that he was put into the care of a priest. At one stage the priest, returning home to where the child was sleeping found the house bathed in bright light and a ball of fire hovering over the child. Here is how this is explained:

‘This has the feel of a Nativity story, but it was probably borrowed from pagan lore, for a countenance lit by an unearthly light suggests legends of heroes such as Lugd (Lugh) of the Long Arm, the ‘Shining One’ …’

Note how both Lugh and Columba were born in Donegal, and how their mothers were Eithlinn and Eithne respectively.”

The main term for lightning in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic is BRQ, meaning also ‘to flash like lightning’, ‘to flash forth’, ‘to gleam’, ‘to dazzle’.

Could the G in Brigit be a replacement of the semitic Q? BRQ -> BRG -> Brigit? Might it be that Brigit was fire from the sky personified, or some other bright glowing display personified like aurorae on steroids?

Along the same lines, if one were to want to arrive at a proper root etymology of the term ‘Dragon’, I am convinced that a similar situation occurred, swapping the Q for a G. DRQN is the Syriac Aramaic term for ‘Dragon’; while they could’ve easily chosen G, which also exists in Aramaic; and while they should’ve chosen K, which also exists in Aramaic, if this term were truly of Greek origin (DRKN), which I highly doubt.

The cryptic medieval Irish work called the Lebor Gabala Erin draws upon the genealogies of the Bible to build up a curious history of Ireland.

Instead of translating the word Gabala as ‘takings’, might this actually be a cryptic reference to the tradition of Hebrew world-play, the Kabbalah (QBLH), which flourished exactly in the period of time when we find the first manuscript of the Lebor Gabala Erin?

The Hebrew/Aramaic/Arabic term Qabbalah (root: QBL) means both ‘taking’ or ‘receiving’ (and, by extension: ‘tradition’).

The Irish term Gabhálach (in the dictionary: Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla - Ó Dónaill, 1977) also means both to ‘take’ and to ‘receive’ (“Taking, catching; receptive; contagious”).

In the Lebor Gabala Erin, there are lines that speak directly to the letter-mysticism of the Qabbalistic tradition:

Those letters form the reverse of the name of YHVH. This Irish author clearly knows of Qabbalah (at the very least). It sounds like this is an accusation of evil – to study the Hebrew terms in reverse. What if the Irish authors not only knew of the Qabbalah, but were also masters at the artform.

And then, in this next passage, as the genealogies are being listed, the authors are directly decoding the names, in the very text of the Lebor Gabala Erin itself:

“Moreover Lamech begat Noah, in the hundred eighty and second year of his age.

This is the interpretation, and the significant sense of the name ‘Noah’: requies, or rest.”

So, the authors are aware of the real meaning of the name of Noah. Why would they want to relate this to you, the reader? What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? This will become very clear in the section on the meaning of names in scripture. The name of Noah is absolutely key in decoding the symbolic meaning of the story of Noah.

Modern scholars deride and ridicule this cryptic Lebor Gabala Erin as a pitiful and sad attempt to form a history of Ireland similar to that of Israel. What if, instead, all these Biblical names were well-understood by the Irish authors to have been cryptic/symbolic in the first place, and were adding upon this framework for their own brand of Qabalah? What if they have one-up on us “smart” people, and understood the clear symbolism in the Bible better than we do today?

Might the very title of the book have a double meaning, like: The Book of the Qabalah of Ireland ?

If these Irish authors had invented new names (names not found in the Bible), then, maybe these were cryptic names – extending the Biblical tradition of word-play with their own symbolic terms. The Lebor Gabalah Erin wraps things up like this:

“Those are the histories of every Taking as they are commemorated in takings and in genealogies and in annals and in chronicles, as Fintan of True Knowledge related, from Cessair to Partholon, from Partholon to Nemed, from Nemed to the Fir Bolg, from the Fir Bolg to the Tuatha De Danann, and from the Tuatha De Danann to the Taking of the sons of Mil. The Assyrians were in the high kingship of the whole world during that time.”

So: the histories of every Taking is commemorated in takings and genealogies? How can a Taking be commemorated in a taking? Maybe this is an indication of the double-meaning of the term Gabalah: “The Takings are commemorated in the Qabalah (letter-play within symbolic words) and genealogies.” And, to mention the “incantation” of the Hebrew letters, precisely in the time-period when Kabbalists are active (1160 is when we first see the Lebor Gabalah Erin in manuscript form), really seals the deal (for me anyways). Most scholars’ heads would explode if asked to even consider this possibility, but I think it is most blatantly obvious.

From the above accounts of the “earthquake” (with fire, wind, lightning bolts, “a diving calamity”, etc..) in 525:

“Many even more tremendous things occurred. On the third day after the collapse, the Holy Cross appeared in the sky in the clouds above the northern district of the city, and all who saw it stayed weeping and praying for an hour.”

Might Brigit’s Cross be shaped in the form of this particular “Holy Cross”?

Note that the poem about Brigit above (“no empty vision”) was not in the ridiculed Lebor Gabala Erin – it was in the generally matter-of-fact Annals of Tigernach, although it was clearly written in cryptic form with code-words.

Bhutan is not called Bhutan, it’s called འབྲུག་ཡུལ ‘brug yul The Land of the Thunder Dragon. Yul means “The Land of”, and ‘brug means The Thunder Dragon. Although Dzongkha is not an “Indo-European” language, might ‘brug have been an import? If this has any connection to the Hebrew/Arabic/Aramaic term for lightning: BRQ, then it would be an example of the transformation of Q into G in a language other than Irish.

So, is Brigit fire in the sky (lightning, aurorae, meteor showers, comet sightings, etc…) personified, just as ‘brug is the “Thunder Dragon”? Do these matching terms show a cultural connection so far east? Christianity made it to China, bringing Aramaic with it – and this was commemorated with an inscribed stone monolith from 781, recounting events as far back as 635, complete with Aramaic footnotes.

“This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter.”

“A very terrible tempest occurred at Cologne, and all the people, owing to great horror, fled into the basilica of St. Peter, and with the standards of the church resounding, unanimously beseeching God's mercy, suddenly an enormous thunderbolt, like a fiery dragon, tore through and penetrated the basilica, and from this multitude, three men in different locations were struck down dead in a single blow, an elder near the altar of St. Peter, a deacon at the altar of St. Denis, a layman at the altar of St. Mary; others, numbering 6 were also brought down by the same assault, remaining as if half-alive, they could scarcely recover.”

The Lebor Qabbalah Erin isn’t the only medieval work to incorporate Biblical genealogies. Beowulf starts out by tracing Grendel’s genealogy through Cain:

The point here being that maybe these texts were part of the same storytelling tradition/style – and maybe it might even have been the case that the authors expected the audience to know the symbolic code being referenced! These might just be the piddly remnants of a huge corpus of work from this time. The symbolic meaning of the names in the Bible might have been widely understood in these times. Maybe this was the “language of the birds”? Maybe medieval people weren’t all just grunting illiterate toothless morons as we enjoy portraying them. Maybe they understood scripture better than we do today.

Ireland may be an island, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was isolated from the rest of the world. The oceans, back then, were the highways. Just ask Bob Quinn. The myriad connections Bob Quinn discovered point to a time when Aramaic-speaking Christians and/or Coptic-speaking Christians influenced Irish culture (at the very least: in writing style and art). He demonstrates similarities in the manner of illuminating manuscripts (decorating manuscripts with pictures and patterns).

The earliest Irish manuscripts have interlacing patterns along with triangular patterns of 3 dots, just as some early Coptic icons and manuscripts were decorated:

Earlier than the above Irish manuscripts, this next icon from Egypt has been dated to the 6^th century:

200 years before the book of Durrow, you find the same interlacing pattern in a Coptic manuscript:

Is this concrete evidence of influence of Aramaic-speaking or Coptic-speaking Christians on Irish culture? Nope. But, it’s pretty tantalizing and pretty pretty.

Where Bob Quinn probably lost the attention of his own people is when he hinted at the possibility of influence from Muslim manuscript decoration! Woah woah woah! Can’t have that! Muslims had influence on early Irish Christians? Yeah right.

Then Quinn interviews a Syrian doctor living in England who still maintains the same tradition of decorating manuscripts, passed down generation after generation. He says he casually learned this from his father who was producing a church book himself, and that his father probably learned from his father or somebody else working on manuscripts in the Church, and so on. Here was how Doctor Lazaar would lay out the design:

Then Quinn goes back to a later Irish book (from 1000 years ago), produced by Irish monks in Lindisfarne, to show the similarity – noting that it has the same Syrian Cross as above:

Another indication that the Irish were writing in code inspired by Semitic terms and passages in Semitic scripture: Mike Baillie (quoted above about the Christianization of the Irish Saints) discovered that in the Annals of the Four Masters there is mention of “Abacuc”, which is not an Irish name. He believes this to be a reference to the book of Habakkuk. But, the Abacuc entry was for the year 539, so let’s take a look at the context of the quote first – let’s get back to the draqons of the 6^th century, continuing after the absolute madness of the “earthquake” of 525:

“In September of this year in the 9th indiction, there appeared an enormous and frightening star in the west. It was a comet that sent upward its flashing rays. People called it The Torch and it continued to shine for twenty days. All over the world riots and murders occurred.”

“A large and fearsome star appeared in the west, sending up a white ray, like lightning. Some called it a torch-bearer. It remained shining for 20 days. Afterwards there were droughts and civic murders in each city, and many other things that fulfilled the threat.”

“Pope Boniface, during the peril of famine, helped nourish the clergy and the poor with food.”

“… there occurred a great movement of stars from evening till dawn. Everyone was terrified and said: 'The stars are falling, and we have never seen such a thing as that before.' ”

Mike Baillie, in Exodus to Arthur, page 130, citing Clube and Napier, dates this to 524

Clube and Napier, in Cosmic Winter, page 295, citing Ernst Klinkerfues, dates this to 524

The edition I used above (Clarendon Press 1997) says that this year was the “Year of the divine Incarnation #524”

What caused terrestrial dust loading and climate downturns between A.D. 533 and 540?

The authors were even open to the possibility that meteor showers had loaded the atmosphere with particulates.

In the reign of Woo Te, the 5^th year of the epoch Chung Ta Tung, 1st moon, day Ke Yew, a tailed star was seen.”

epoch Chung Ta Tung, 528-534: 5th year, 532; 1st moon, day Ke Yew, January 16th.

The descrepancy between January 6^th and the 16^th is copied as is from the source: Observations Of Comets.

This next account, from the Russian Primary Chronicle, is for the year 1065 (1066), but then recounts the above events: the arrival of a comet in first year, and then rains of meteors sometime later, but it starts in 1065 (1066):

“There was a portent in the west in the form of an exceedingly large star with bloody rays, which rose out of the west after sunset. It was visible for a week and appeared with no good presage. Much internal strife occurred thereafter, as well as many barbarian incursions into the land of Rus', for this star appeared as if it were made of blood, and therefore portended bloodshed.

… the sun also suffered alteration, and instead of being bright, became rather like the moon.

… it happened likewise in the reign of the Emperor Justinian that a star emitting rays appeared in the west. Men called it the brilliant star, and it shone forth for twenty days.

Subsequently, a shower of stars fell from evening till dawn, so that all thought that the stars of heaven were falling, and again sun shone without light. This portent presaged rebellions and pestilences, and was fatal to mankind.

Later, during the reign of Constantine the Iconoclast (741 to 775), son of Leo, there was a shower of stars in the sky, and they were cast down upon the earth, so that eyewitnesses thought it was the end of the world. At the same time, the air also was violently perturbed.”

Based on Theophanes, September 530 + 531/532 - this is describing events at least a year apart.

Well, this might actually be a reference to the events of 536/537… 4-5 years later, although it might very well have been an immediate result of the star-showers of 532 as the Russian chronicle implies.

So, the above quote from the Russian Primary chronicle indicates that concurrent with the 1066 comet, there was a loading of the atmosphere with particulates, causing a darkening of the sun and moon. Then the author cites two other time periods – the time of Justinian as well as the time of Constantine the Iconoclast, as examples of when similar events occurred. Let’s jump to the 740s to see what the Russian chronicler was talking about, and then we’ll come back to the 530s.

“In the month of January, for several days the star called Antifer appeared in the west, radiating to the north and middle of the sky, in the time of Pope Gregory.”

“In the year of our Lord 729, two comets appeared about the sun, to the great terror of the beholders. One of them went before the sun in the morning at his rising, the other followed him when he set in the evening, as it were presaging dire disaster to both east and west; or without doubt one was the forerunner of the day, and the other of the night, to signify that mortals were threatened with calamities at both times. They carried their flaming brands towards the north, as it were ready to kindle a conflagration.

They appeared in January, and continued nearly a fortnight. At which time a grievous blight fell upon Gaul, in that it was laid waste by the Saracens with cruel bloodshed; but not long after in that country they received the due reward of their unbelief.”

“The Nihon Shukyo Fuzokushi gives an old tradition explaining the names of three Buddhist temples in Shimosa province:

“In 730 AD, when the priest Shaku-myo, by order of the Emperor, prayed for rain, he had a splendid success, and at the same time a dragon appeared in the air, who cut his own body into three parts and died.

The middle part fell in Imba district, where the temple called Ryufukuji, or "Shrine of the Dragon's Belly", is to be found. The tail came down in Katori district (also in Shimosa), and caused the shrine Ryubiji ("Temple of the Dragon's Tail") to be built, while the head descended on the spot where the aforesaid priest had been praying and where still nowadays the name of the sanctuary - Ryukakuji, or "Temple of the Dragon's Horn" (at Sakai village, Shimohabu district) reminds the believers of the dragon of old.”

“There was a comet in Woo Chay. On the day Kwei Yew (July 9) the comet was in S. D. Peih and Maou.”

“A huge dragon was seen, with great thunder after it, at the end of autumn.”

This is one of only two references to Dragons in The Annals of Ulster, which spans from 431 to 1540

“In the 26th year of the same epoch [Kae Yuen], the 3rd moon, day Ping Tsze, there was a comet in Tsze Kung. It was bright. It passed through Pih Tow Kwei. After 10 days, being obscured by clouds, it was no more seen.”

“Edessa (Sanliurfa) was flooded by its stream on the 28th of the month Peritios. In the same year a violent and fearful earthquake occurred at Constantinople on 26 October, indiction 9, a Wednesday, in the 8th hour. Many churches and monasteries collapsed and many people died. There also fell down the statue of Constantine the Great that stood above the gate of Atalos as well as that of Atalos himself, the statue of Arkadios that stood on the column of the Xerolophos, and the statue of Theodosios the Great above the Golden Gate; furthermore, the land walls of the City, many towns and villages in Thrace, Nicomedia in Bithynia, Prainetos, and Nicaea, where only one church was spared. In some places the sea withdrew from its proper boundaries. The quakes continued for twelve months.”

“Constantinople is greatly burdened by earthquakes throughout the entire year.”

“Signs appeared in the sun, moon, and the stars, and the most sacred ceremony ("ordo") of Easter was disturbed.”

“There was much drought and earthquakes occurred in several places so that mountains were joined to one another in the desert of Saba and villages were swallowed up by the earth. … In the month of June a sign appeared in the sky to the north.

In this year a sign appeared in the north and in some places dust fell down from heaven. There was also an earthquake at the Caspian Gates.”

“Fiery visions were seen in the sky on the first of January, such as no men of that age had ever beheld.”

“In AD 742 orders were given to the great general Kau Lih-sz', to send the five sacred portraits and have them placed in the church, and a gift of a hundred pieces of silk accompanied these pictures of intelligence. Although the dragon's beard was then remote, their bows and swords were still within reach; while the solar horns sent forth their rays, and celestial visages seemed close at hand.

In AD 744 the priest Kih-ho, in the kingdom of Syria, looking toward the star, was attracted by its transforming influence, and observing the sun, came to pay court to the most honorable.”

Nestorian Tablet: Eulogizing the Propagation of the Illustrious Religion in China, with a Preface, composed by a priest of the Syriac Church, 781 A.D.

“This remarkable record of the fact that Christianity flourished in medieval China is a huge stone about ten feet high. Carven dragons and a cross adorn its summit, and its main shaft is completely covered with some two thousand Chinese characters.”

In this edition, the Star is interpreted as meaning China, and the Sun is the Emperor. But, what if the priest in 744 saw signs in the actual sky, to lead him to pay a visit?

Is this is the same event as was recorded (possibly) in the Nestorian tablet in China, in that both saw a “star” in the East? (Syria being East of constantinople – well South-East…)

“A star as large as the moon fell to the south-east. After its fall, noise was heard.”

This again would align with interpreting the Nestorian tablet’s entry for 744 as being a star in the sky instead of a metphorical reference to China – in that general direction.

In other words, was Kih-ho, the Syrian priest mentioned in the tablet, beckoned to visit China by the glowing orb he saw in China’s direction?

“There were seen stars falling from heaven, so that all who beheld them thought that the end of the world was at hand.”

This is one of only two references to Dragons in The Annals of Ulster, which spans from 431 to 1540

“In this period very great signs appeared from the month of March to the end of April. The air was full of dirt and dust to the point that day seemed like night.

Then there appeared in the north three columns of fiery clouds [visible] for three days. These arose and descended.

After this there appeared an unknown star, the size of the moon. Each day it rose in the east and travelled to the west, being visible to people for the entire day. There were flashes of the stars all night which flew against the Milky Way.

After this there was a severe earthquake and, [in places] where the earth was torn asunder, fountains arose, the color of blood.

After this there was a huge churning in the Great Sea [the Mediterranean] with waves rising to the heavens one would think, and [seemingly] boiling down to its depths. Many people and animals near the shores died from the thunderbolts.

A fortress which belonged to the children of Ammon which had been built in the midst of the sea was torn from its foundations. The great tower which had been built with great care by Solomon over a fountain he had discovered in the water collapsed and sank.

Following this there was a great famine and a plague accompanied by sore throats which killed 20,000 people a day in Basra.

It is said that monkeys in the country of the Madianites became enraged and caused great damage by attacking people and animals.

When Caliph Marwan of Damascus, who had moved his capital to Harran, saw all of this he repented, seeing his death before him, and wrote [edicts] to all his realm [urging] repentance.

The ground trembled, tears flowed, and everywhere fasts and prayer vigils were undertaken. For they believed that these numerous strange signs were omens of the coming end of the world. Indeed, extraordinary marvels occurred. For example, there was a village at the foot of Mount Tabor which an earthquake moved from its place and transported two miles distant without disturbing any structures and without losing a single chicken.

A third of the city of Constantinople collapsed, while Nicaea was completely demolished. Moreover, many cities in Bithynia were destroyed.”

“In this year there was a great earthquake in Palestine, by the Jordan and in all of Syria on 18 January, in the 4th hour. Numberless multitudes perished, churches and monasteries collapsed, especially those in the desert of the Holy City.

In the same year a pestilence that had started in Sicily and Calabria travelled like a spreading fire all through the 14th indiction to Monobasia, Hellas, and the adjoining islands, thus scourging in advance the impious Constantine and restraining his fury against the Church and the holy icons, even though he remained unrepentant like Pharaoh of old. This disease of the bubonic plague spread to the Imperial City in the 15th indiction.

All of a sudden, without visible cause, there appeared many oily crosslets upon men's garments, on the altar cloths of churches, and on hangings. The mysteriousness of this presage inspired great sorrow and despondency among the people. Then God's wrath started destroying not only the inhabitants of the City, but also those of all its outskirts.

Many men had hallucinations and, being in ecstasy, imagined to be in the company of certain strangers of terrible aspect who, as it were, addressed in friendly fashion those they met and conversed with them. Taking note of their conversation, they later reported it. They also saw the same men entering houses, killing some of the inmates, and wounding others with the sword. Most of what they said came to pass just as they had seen it.

In the spring of the 1^st indiction the plague intensified and in the summer it flared up all at once so that entire households were completely shut up and there was no one to bury the dead. Because of extreme necessity a way was devised of placing planks upon animals saddled with four paniers each and so removing the dead or piling them likewise one upon the other in carts. When all the urban and suburban cemeteries had been filled as well as empty cisterns and ditches, and many vineyards had been dug up and even the orchards within the old walls to make room for the burial of human bodies, only then was the need satisfied.”

Let’s now return to the 530s to see why the Russian chronicler drew a comparison with the above events in the 740s.

“In the year 848 of the Syrian Era [AD 537] an event occurred that is beyond belief. Had I not known about it from many different writings, I myself would not have included it.

The sun was eclipsed for 18 months. For three hours in the morning it would give light, but a light that resembled neither day nor night. During that year fruit did not reach the point of maturity, and all the land became as though transformed into something half alive, or like someone suffering from a long illness.

An unprecedented plague ensued (541?) which began in Constantinople where the first day 5,000 people died, the next day 10,000, the third 15,000, the fourth 18,000—figures reported by the auditors that the emperor had placed at the gates of the city. They counted up to 300,000 people dead and then left off counting. The epidemic first attacked the poor class of the population, then the merchants (metsatunk') and the nobility including the Imperial Palace.

The trouble began with a wound that formed in the palm of the hand, and progressed until the afflicted one could not take a step. The legs swelled, then the buboes burst and pus came out.

The city began to stink [from the unburied corpses] and so the bodies were thrown into the sea, but the bodies kept resurfacing. The emperor ordered that 40 dahegans be paid to people who would carry a corpse out of town, but often the bearers themselves fell dead in the street. Furthermore, it even happened that someone would enter a deserted house and gather up its treasures to steal, but would end up dying at the door, on the way out.”

“And the earth with all that is upon it quaked; and the sun began to be darkened by day and the moon by night, while ocean was tumultuous with spray (?) from the 24^th of March in this year till the 24^th of June in the following year fifteen.”

“And, as the winter was a severe one, so much so that from the large and unwonted quantity of snow the birds perished and . . . , there was distress . . . among men . . . from the evil things. And ... in various countries . . . From the hill of Singara [in the land] of the Persians they took (?)...”

“The manuscript is here very indistinct, and, as Land's text is very incomplete, I give the text which I follow, conjectural supplements being enclosed in square brackets.”

“Since the world is not governed by chance, but by a Divine Ruler who does not change His purposes at random, men are alarmed, and naturally alarmed, at the extraordinary signs in the heavens, and ask with anxious hearts what events these may portend. The Sun, first of stars, seems to have lost his wonted light, and appears of a bluish colour. We marvel to see no shadows of our bodies at noon, to feel the mighty vigour of his heat wasted into feebleness, and the phenomena which accompany a transitory eclipse prolonged through a whole year.

The Moon too, even when her orb is full, is empty of her natural splendour. Strange has been the course of the year thus far. We have had a winter without storms, a spring without mildness, and a summer without heat. Whence can we look for harvest, since the months which should have been maturing the corn have been chilled by Boreas? How can the blade open if rain, the mother of all fertility, is denied to it? These two influences, prolonged frost and unseasonable drought, must be adverse to all things that grow.

The seasons seem to be all jumbled up together, and the fruits, which were wont to be formed by gentle showers, cannot be looked for from the parched earth. But as last year was one that boasted of an exceptionally abundant harvest, you are to collect all of its fruits that you can, and store them up for the coming months of scarcity, for which it is well able to provide. And that you may not be too much distressed by the signs in the heavens of which I have spoken, return to the consideration of Nature, and apprehend the reason of that which makes the vulgar gape with wonder.

The middle air is thickened by the rigour of snow and rarefied by the beams of the Sun. This is the great Inane [void, empty space], roaming between the heavens and the earth. When it happens to be pure and lighted up by the rays of the sun it opens out its true aspect; but when alien elements are blended with it, it is stretched like a hide across the sky, and suffers neither the true colours of the heavenly bodies to appear nor their proper warmth to penetrate. This often happens in cloudy weather for a time; it is only its extraordinary prolongation which has produced these disastrous effects, causing the reaper to fear a new frost in harvest, making the apples to harden when they should grow ripe, souring the old age of the grape-cluster.

All this, however, though it would be wrong to construe it as an omen of Divine wrath, cannot but have an injurious effect on the fruits of the earth. Let it be your care to see that the scarcity of this one year does not bring ruin on us all. Even thus was it ordained by the first occupant of our present dignity, that the preceding plenty should avail to mitigate the present penury.”

Mike Baillie, dendrochronologist extraordinaire, in Exodus to Arthur has lengthy notes about the dating of this passage. Basically, he thinks it’s 537 instead of 538, but there’s more to it than just that.

“Bread was very scarce this year. Silverius Pope reigned one year, 5 months, and 11 days, and died (2^nd December 537). The nativity of Pope Gregory Nean Bishop died. Pope Vigilius by birth a Romane reigned 17 years & 9 months and 22 days, died (June 7^th, 555) at Siracusa and was buried in via Salaria, as Venerable Beda recounteth.”

“The (Japanese) Emperor (Ankan) made a decree, saying: “Of late, for several successive years, the crops have produced well; there have been no frontier anxieties; the people take pleasure in their husbandry; my black-headed subjects of every calling are free from famine; benign influences extend agreeably over the universe; cries of admiration fill heaven and earth; within and without, serenity is everywhere diffused; the commonwealth is flourishing; Our joy is extreme; let there be a Great Revel for five days to the delight of the Empire.”

“The Emperor (Senkwa), made an edict saying: “Food is the basis of the Empire. Yellow gold and ten thousand strings of cash cannot cure hunger. What avails a thousand boxes of pearls to him who is starving of cold?

Now the province of Tsukushi is a place reached by visitors to our Court from far and near; it is a barrier passed by travellers going and coming. Therefore the countries beyond the sea, awaiting the water of the ocean (the tides), come as our guests: looking up to the clouds of Heaven, they bring us tribute.

From the days of the Emperor in the womb down to Ourselves, grain has been stored up and hoards of provisions accumulated as a distant preparation for evil years, and for the cordial entertainment of our good guests. For the peace of our country there is nothing better than this.

We therefore send Asomo no Kimi to transport thither a further supply of grain from the Miyake of the district of Mamuta in Kahachi.

Let Soga no Oho-omi and Iname no Sukune send Wohari no Muraji to transport grain of the Miyake of the province of Wohari.

Let Arakahi, Mononobe no Ohomuraji send Nihinomi no Muraji to transport grain from the Miyake of Nihinomi.

Let Abe no Omi send Iga no Omi to transport grain from the Miyake of the province of Iga.

Let there be built a government house at Nanotsu no Kuchi. Moreover, the Miyake of the three provinces of Tsukushi, Hi, and Toyo are dispersed and remote: transport is therefore impeded by distance. In the case of an emergency it would be difficult to provide for sudden needs. Let the various districts therefore be charged each severally to transfer (the Miyake), and to erect one jointly at Nanostu no Kuchi, thus making provision against extraordinary occasions, and long preserving the lives of the people.

“At that time the mountain of Vesuvius rumbled, and though it did not break forth in eruption, still because of the rumbling it led people to expect with great certainty that there would be an eruption. And for this reason it came to pass that the inhabitants fell into great terror.”

“In this year Pompeiopolis in Mysia suffered from divine anger. The ground was split by the earthquake, and half the city along with its inhabitants was engulfed. They were beneath the earth and their voices could be heard shouting for mercy. The emperor gave generously towards excavating and assisting them and granted gifts to the survivors.”

“Because of drought, there was an imperial edict, which ordered that in the capital (Chang’ An), and in all the provinces, commanderies and districts, one should bury the corpses.”

“[There was] great drought. [The government] had to provide water at the city gates [of Ch’ang-an] and the hall gates [of the palace] as well as the gates of the government offices.”

“In the north-Chinese ‘provinces of Bian, Si, Zhuo and Jian, hail fell’ and there was ‘a great famine’.”

“… the government had to send special inspectors ‘to investigate [the conditions of] the famished refugees who were roaming around north of the Yellow River’.”

“And in Shaanxi Province, ‘the land within the Passes’, The Annals of the Western Wei in the Bei Shi state that there was ‘a great famine’, and that ‘the people practised cannibalism and 70-80 per cent of the population died’.”

“… because there had been hail and drought in nine provinces, there was a great famine and as the people fled [in search of food], I begged [the Emperor] that the [state] granaries should be open to give relief.”

“… in what is now the province of Shandong, there was a massive flood. The waters rose so high that ‘the toads and frogs were croaking from the trees’.”

“ ‘In July in Qingzhou and [another province] there was a fall of frost’ and ‘in August in Qingzhou there was snow’ which ‘ruined the crops.’ ”

“ ‘Since there had already been deaths from famine,’ there was an amnesty of rents and taxes.”

“The 538 tax amnesty – introduced in 12 provinces because of famine deaths – was repeated in 541, but this time throughout southern China and for a period of five years. [It was renewed for another 3 years in 546, and renewed again in 549, then renewed yet again in 551.]”

“In the 5th year of the epoch Ta Tung, 10th moon, day Sin Chow, a comet appeared in Nan Tow. It was about one cubit in length, pointing to the south-east. It gradually increased to about 10 cubits in length. In the 11th moon, day Yih Maou (December 1), it entered S. D. Lew and disappeared.”

“A great and terrible comet appeared in the sky at evening-time for one hundred days.”

“In the 13^th year of the reign of Justinian, which was the year 850 [539 AD], indiction deutra (the second), a sign like a spear appeared in heaven on the 5th of Tishrin the former (October).”

“At that time also the comet appeared, at first about as long as a tall man, but later much larger. And the end of it was toward the west and its beginning toward the east, and it followed behind the sun itself. For the sun was in Capricorn and it was in Sagittarius.

And some called it "the swordfish" because it was of goodly length and very sharp at the point, and others called it "the bearded star"; it was seen for more than forty days.

Now those who were wise in these matters disagreed utterly with each other, and one announced that one thing, another that another thing was indicated by this star; but I only write what took place and I leave to each one to judge by the outcome as he wishes.”

“Various signs were seen in various parts of France. A comet appeared; on Easter day the sky was seen to be burning; true blood from the cloud flowed on the clothes of men; the house of a certain one appeared sprinkled with blood from within; and various calamities followed, and ill-health with pustules and blisters afflicted the people.”

“There appeared a comet in Gaul, so vast that the whole sky seemed on fire. In the same year, there dropped real blood from the clouds, and a dreadful mortality ensued.”

“It has come to my ears that during the meetings at which Silla and Imna concerted their plans, there were manifested portents of trees and serpents. This is notorious to everybody. Now (ill) luck sent by the Powers of Evil is for the sake of making people correct their conduct; natural catastrophes are given for men’s instruction. It is just in this way that Bright Heaven communicates to us as a lesson tokens of the former spirits. When misfortune has reached a climax, one may have remorse; when ruin has come, one may think of establishing himself again, but what avails it?”

“On 16 August of the same 5^th indiction, a great earthquake occurred in Constantinople, and churches, houses, and the city wall collapsed, especially the part near the Golden Gate. The spear held by the statue which stands in the Forum of the holy Constantine fell down, as well as the right arm of the statue of the Xerolophos. Many died and there was great fear.”

In this year, in October of the 5^th indiction the great plague broke out in Byzantium.”

“During (Justinian’s) rule over the Romans (527-565), many disasters of various kinds occurred: which some said were due to the presence and artifices of the Devil, and others considered were effected by the Divinity, Who, disgusted with the Roman Empire, had turned away from it and given the country up to the Old One. The Scirtus River flooded Edessa (525), creating countless sufferings among the inhabitants, as I have elsewhere written. The Nile, rising as usual, but not subsiding in the customary season, brought terrible calamities to the people there, as I have also previously recounted. The Cydnus inundated Tarsus, covering almost the whole city for many days, and did not subside until it had done irreparable damage.

Earthquakes destroyed Antioch (525-528), the leading city of the East; Seleucia, which is situated nearby; and Anazarbus, most renowned city in Cilicia. Who could number those that perished in these metropoles? Yet one must add also those who lived in Ibora; in Amasea, the chief city of Pontus; in Polybotus in Phrygia, called Polymede by the Pisidians; in Lychnidus in Epirus; and in Corinth: all thickly inhabited cities from of old. All of these were destroyed by earthquakes during this time, with a loss of almost all their inhabitants. And then came the plague (541), which I have previously mentioned, killing half at least of those who had survived the earthquakes. To so many men came their doom, when Justinian first came to direct the Roman state and later possessed the throne of autocracy.”

“The nature of the third levy was briefly as follows: Many losses, especially at this time, were suffered by the cities, whose causes and extents I refrain from describing now, or the tale would be endless. These losses the landowners had to repair, by special assessment on each individual; and their troubles did not even stop there. The pestilence, which had attacked the inhabited world, did not spare the Roman Empire. Most of its farmers had perished of it, so that their lands were deserted; nevertheless Justinian did not exempt the owners of these properties. Their annual taxes were not remitted, and they had to pay not only their own, but their deceased neighbours’ share. And in addition to all of this, these land-poor wretches had to quarter the soldiers in their best rooms, while they themselves during this time existed in the meanest and poorest part of their dwellings.”

“The decapitation of Abacuc at the fair of Tailltin, through the miracles of God and Ciaran; that is, a false oath he took upon the hand of Ciaran, so that a gangrene took him in his neck (i.e. St. Ciaran put his hand upon his neck), so that it cut off his head.”

Here is Mike Baillie and Patrick McCafferty in the PostScript (page 206) of The Celtic Gods:

“By the time the text was finished (by the time their book was ready for the presses), we were sensitised to the issue of biblical metaphor being used by writers in the sixth and seventh centuries – Adomnan, Zachariah and Gildas – to describe catastrophic happenings, especially those around 540. It was only then that the significance of an entry in the Irish Annals, bearing the date of 539, suddenly jumped out at us.

Previously this entry had simply seemed unintelligible – medieval gobbledegook. But the mention of Lugh’s Fair at Tailltin made us take another look. Abacuc is not an Irish name, but here is someone called Abacuc being killed at Lugh’s Fair. Who is Abacuc? He is Habakkuk of the Old Testament. So, what the compiler of the Annals was doing, by saying that Abacuc lost his head in 539, is directing the reader to Chapter III of the Book of Habakkuk:

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

(or, perhaps: “concerning change/transformation”)

LORD, I have heard the report about You [and] I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.

God comes from Teman, And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendor covers the heavens, And the earth is full of His praise.

[His] radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays [flashing] from His hand, And there is the hiding of His power.

Before Him goes pestilence, And plague comes after Him.

He stood and surveyed the earth; He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered, The ancient hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting.

I saw the tents of Cushan under distress, The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.

Did the LORD rage against the rivers, Or [was] Your anger against the rivers, Or [was] Your wrath against the sea, That You rode on Your horses, On Your chariots of salvation?

Your bow was made bare, The rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah. You cleaved the earth with rivers.

The mountains saw You [and] quaked; The downpour of waters swept by. The deep uttered forth its voice, It lifted high its hands.

Sun [and] moon stood in their places; They went away at the light of Your arrows, At the radiance of Your gleaming spear.

In indignation You marched through the earth; In anger You trampled the nations.

You went forth for the salvation of Your people, For the salvation of Your anointed. You struck the head of the house of the evil To lay him open from thigh to neck. Selah.

You pierced with his own spears The head of his throngs. They stormed in to scatter us; Their exultation [was] like those Who devour the oppressed in secret.

You trampled on the sea with Your horses, On the surge of many waters.

I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise [who] will invade us.

Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, [Though] the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds' [feet], And makes me walk on my high places. For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.

So, this chapter is clearly cryptic, and, the passages in the Irish Annals referring to this chapter is clearly cryptic.

Passages from this book had been inscribed all around the base of the Column of Justinian – a huge monument, the remnants of which are scattered around Constantinople today.

"Almost immediately in front of SS. Sergius and Bacchus there is a small postern gate once used by the monastery that was attached to the church, an institution that vanished after the Turkish conquest. The posts of the gateway are carved with a long inscription in Greek, containing a conflation from Habakkuk and Psalms. It seems to be generally agreed that these inscribed doorposts originally formed the base of the celebrated equestrian statue of Justinian that stood in the Augustaeum. This statue was still standing when Gyllius first came to the city, but during his stay he saw it being demolished and carted away, as he writes."

“Later it was considered as a talisman of Byzantine Constantinople. Even during the Ottoman Era, the Greeks of the city viewed it as a protection against the plague.”

“In the year when Ciaran the son of the Carpenter died, the same year when Tuathal Maelgariv was killed and the year when Diarmait the son of Cerrbel became King of all Ireland, the year 538 of our era in short [or possibly 544], it happened that there was a great gathering of the men of Ireland at the Hill of Uisneach in Royal Meath.

In addition to the Council which was being held, there were games and tournaments and brilliant deployments of troops, and universal feastings and enjoyments. The gathering lasted for a week, and on the last day of the week Mongan was moving through the crowd with seven guards, his story-teller Cairidè, and his wife.

It had been a beautiful day, with brilliant sunshine and great sport, but suddenly clouds began to gather in the sky to the west, and others came rushing blackly from the east. When these clouds met the world went dark for a space, and there fell from the sky a shower of hailstones, so large that each man wondered at their size, and so swift and heavy that the women and young people of the host screamed from the pain of the blows they received.

Mongan's men made a roof of their shields, and the hailstones battered on the shields so terribly that even under them they were afraid. They began to move away from the host looking for shelter, and when they had gone apart a little way they turned the edge of a small hill and a knoll of trees, and in the twinkling of an eye they were in fair weather.

One minute they heard the clashing and bashing of the hailstones, the howling of the venomous wind, the screams of women and the uproar of the crowd on the Hill of Uisnach, and the next minute they heard nothing more of those sounds and saw nothing more of these sights, for they had been permitted to go at one step out of the world of men and into the world of Faery.”

These next quotes are from a hard-core astrologer, Varāhamihira, who lived between 505 and 587. Most of the passages in his work are clearly ridiculous (superstitious and without foundation), but, writing in the middle of the 6^th century, some of these quotes are suspiciously similar to actual events occurring then – real-life events packaged up in predictive astrological terms:

“If the moon be of ash colour, dirty reddish, deprived of rays and dark in form and appear broken or shaky, people will suffer from hunger, tumult, pestilence, disease and danger from thieves.”

“When the Sun is dark in colour, there will be danger to crops from insects and reptiles. If the colour be ashy, there will be fear to be apprehended from other kings.

If the Sun, while in the upper regions of the sky be red in colour similar to the blood of the hare, there will be war in the land. If he should appear cool like the Moon without rays, the king will be killed and another will soon occupy his place.

A Sun with a spotless form, clear and not crooked, with bright, abundant, clear and long rays and bearing a natural appearance, colour and features will prove auspicious to the whole mankind.”

“If at the time of a meteor falling are heard the sounds of roaring, clapping hands, instrumental music, songs and loud cries, the country and its ruler will come to grief.

… one that resembles snakes or boars and is accompanied by a wreath of sparks, or is shattered to pieces and attended with noise, proves sinful in effect.”

“There is a Chalaketu or a moveable comet rising in the west. His crest is an inch high and is turned to the south. His length increases the more it goes to the north. After touching the Seven Sages (Great Bear) — Vasishta and others — and also the Pole Star (Dhruva) and the star Abhijit he returns after travelling half the sky and sets in the south. When this comet appears, people in the region beginning from the banks of the Prayag and extending to the town of Ujjain and Pushkara forest will be destroyed. Those living in the north as far as the Devika river and the whole of the middle country will be wiped out. Other countries also will suffer from diseases and famine here and there. These effects will happen in the course of ten months. Others say it will be felt for 18 months.”

That sounds really specific – as if Varāhamihira was repackaging eye-witness accounts into a prophecy – in predictive astrological terms. And for the sun darkening reported for 536, some said it lasted a year, and others: 18 months. (The above verse, however, was describing only the effects of a comet for 18 months, not necessarily sun-darkening for 18 months).

This is from the Record of the World’s Change, by Li Ch’un Feng (602-667), who also seems to be repackaging real events into predictive astrological terms:

Every time they appear in the south, something happens to wipe out the old and establish the new.

In Sung, Ch’i and later Chi’in times, when a comet appeared in the Constellation of the Big Dipper, all soldiers died in chaos…

When a comet appears in the North Star, the emperor is replaced. If it appears in the end of the Big Dipper, everywhere there are uprisings and war continues for several years. If it appears in the bowl of the Dipper, a prince controls the emperor. Gold and gems become worthless. Another explanation: Scoundrels harm nobles. Some leaders appear, causing disturbances. Ministers conspire to rebel against the emperor…

When a comet travels north but points south the country has a major calamity. Western neighbors invade and later there are floods. When a comet travels east and points west, there are uprisings in the east.

When a comet appears in the constellation Virgo, some places are flooded and there is severe famine. People eat each other… If the comet appears in the Constellation Scorpio, there are uprisings, and the emperor in his palace has many worries. The price of rice goes up. People migrate. There is a plague of locusts.

… When a comet appears in the Constellation Andromeda, there are floods and migrations of people. Many rise up and the country is divided by civil war. When a comet appears in the Constellation Pisces there is first drought and later flooding. Rice is expensive. Domesticated animals die and an epidemic strikes the army.

When a comet travels into the Constellation Taurus, in the middle of the double month, blood is shed … dead bodies lie on the ground. Within three years the emperor dies and the country is in chaos. When a comet appears in Orion there are major uprisings. Princes and ministers conspire to become emperor. The emperor has many worries. Everywhere there is disaster by war …

When a comet appears in the Constellation Hydra, there is war and some conspire to overthrow the emperor. Fish and salt are expensive. The emperor dies. Rice also becomes expensive. There is no emperor in the country. The people hate life and don’t even want to speak of it.”

Some have speculated that various medieval middle-Persian works, including this one, were based on a (hypothetical) work called Khwaday-Namag (“Book of Lords”), which would have been written under the reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan (r. 531-579)

“There was a comet in Wan Chang, to the south-east. Its length was from 5 to 6 tenths of a cubit. Its colour was dusky, and its extremity pointed. In the evening it had a waving motion. It went to the north-west. For several days it was in Wan Chang. It went within 4 or 5 tenths of a cubit of Kung, but did not enter that space, and disappeared.”

“A large shooting star like a bushel fell onto the (rebel) Lu Ming-yueh's camp. It destroyed his (wall-attacking tower) and (crushed to death) more than 10 people.”

“A large shooting star fell in the capital of the province of Ou (Ou-kian, actually Sou-tcheou-fou in Kiang-nan); it changed itself into a stone.”

“There was a comet in Tae Wei, near Woo Te Tso. Its colour was a yellowish red. It was from 3 to 4 cubits in length. After several days it disappeared.”

“Yung Shih, same as S. D. Shih, determined by a Pegasi and other stars near.”

“A shooting star, as large as a bushel appeared in the middle of the groups: Wang-Lang (a, b, g, c, Cassiopea) and Ko-Tao (e, n, x, p, Cassiopea); it made a noise similar to a wall crumbling down.”

“There was a major earthquake in August; and there followed a calamity among the people, namely, the smiting of scabs, so that no one could recognize their deceased.”

“There was a great earthquake, and there followed a slaughter of people with scabs, grinding people down into a hideous death, so that the dead could not be recognized.”

“A star fell at Toung-tou (Ho-nan-fou in Ho-nan): noise was heard several times.”

“There was a red appearance in the sky, over a rod in length, and resembling the tail of a fowl in shape.”

And [the Arabs] harassed the Persians and ruled over many lands. [Muhammad] first appeared in the 12th year of Heraclius [622], in 933 of the Syrian Era [622], and in 60 [or, 67] of the Armenian Era [611, 618]. In this period there was a half eclipse of the sun which lasted from the month of Areg in the fall [eighth month] until the month of K'aghots' at the beginning of summer [fifth month]. And people said that the sun would never come out of hiding.

“From spring till autumn there were heavy rains and floods, and the five grains did not reach maturity.”

“In the month of Dystro (roughly February), 2^nd of March ("secundum Romanos, Martio" ???), a most brilliant star appeared towards the west, after the setting of the sun.”

Barthold Georg Niebuhr Volume 1 of Chronicon Paschale - Volume 11 in the series 1832

“There was a comet in the S. D. Wei and Maou. On the day Ting Hae (March 31) the comet was in Keuen She.”

“This year from the 3^rd month to the 7^th month there were continual rains, and great famine in the Empire. The old ate the roots of herbs, and died by the roadside. Infants at the breast died with their mothers. Thieves and robbers sprang up in great numbers, and could not be put down.”

Note that dates between the various Irish Annals differ, so this entry may refer to the same “dark year” as in the above entries for 622, 624 and 625.

“There was a total eclipse of the sun. (4 days later) The Empress’s illness became very grave, and (death) was unmistakably near. So she sent for the Imperial Prince Tamura, and addressed him, saying:

“To ascend to the Celestial Dignity, and therewith to regulate the vast foundation, to direct the manifold machinery of government, and thereby nourish the people – this is not a matter to be lightly spoken of, but one which demands constant and serious attention. Do thou therefore be careful and observant, and let no hasty words escape thee. (the next day) The Empress died at the age of seventy-five.”

“Hail fell, of the size of peaches. (the next day) Hail fell, of the size of plums.”

“The rites of mourning for the Empress began. At this time all the Ministers each pronounced a funeral eulogy at the shrine of the temporary burial place. Before this time the Empress had given her dying injunctions to the Ministers, saying:

“Of late years the five grains have not produced well, and there is great famine among the people. Let there be therefore no costly interment … ”

“A celestial dog (meteor which makes noise) fell in the city of the district of Hia (Ning-hia-fou, latitude 38º, in the northern Chen-si.)”

The Plague of Shiryue, between 627 and 628, took half of the population of Mesopotamia. In Ctesiphon alone it took 100,000 lives.

Then, between 634 and 642, there was another plague outbreak, under the reign of Yazdegerd III.

“Contrary to popular belief, plague is still alive and well in a number of locations on four continents. Over the past ten years at least 20,000 individuals (writing in 2001) have contracted the disease. Four thousand have actually died from it in such places as Peru, Vietnam, China, India, southern Africa and Madagascar.

Millions of wild rodents in central Asia, south-west China, east Africa, the central Andes, the western USA, Brazil and central India still carry the plague bacillus.

Modern research on surviving wild-animal reservoirs of plague – monitored by the Plague Section of the US Center for Disease Control – has concluded that most plague outbreaks are caused by sudden and severe climatic change. Massively excessive rainfall is the most likely cause of plague spread, especially if it follows a drought, although a severe drought followed by normal weather could, theoretically, also spark an outbreak.”

“There was an earthquake, and for thirty days there appeared in the sky a sign in the shape of a sword.”

“A long star was seen in the south. The people of that time called it a besom-star.”

“There was a comet in S. D. Heu and Wei. It passed through Heuen Heaou. On the day Yih Hae (October 3) it was no longer visible.”

Heuen Heaou, one of the 12 kung, answering to our sign Aquarius, and comprising S. D. Neu, Heu, and Wei.”

“This year, there was a great drought, and there was famine throughout the Empire.”

“A great star floated from East to West, and there was noise like that of thunder. The people of that day said that it was the sound of the falling star. Others said that it was earth-thunder. Hereupon the Buddhist Priest Bin said ‘It is not the falling star, but the Celestial Dog, the sound of whose barking is like thunder.’ ”

“A long star appeared in the north-west. Priest Bin said that it was a besom-star. When it appeared, there was famine.”

“There was a comet in Tae Wei. It passed over Lang Wei. In the 7th moon, day Kea Seuh (August 26), it was no longer visible.”

“In the west there appeared a shooting star as large as the moon. It went to the south-west to a length of 30 degrees, and extinguished.”

“In accordance with the teachings of the village hafuri, there have been in some places horses and cattle killed as a sacrifice to the Gods of the various (Shinto) shrines, in others frequent changes of the market-places, or prayers to the River-Gods. None of the practices have had hitherto any good result.”

“The Mahayana Sutra ought to be read by way of extract in the temples, our sins repented of, as Buddha teaches, and thus with humility rain should be prayed for.”

“In the South Court of the Great Temple, the images of Buddha and of the Bosatsu, and the images of the four Heavenly Kings, were magnificently adorned. A multitude of priests, by humble request, read the Mahayana Sutra. On this occasion Soga no Oho-omi held a censer in his hands, and having burnt incense on it, put up a prayer.”

“With prayers for rain being unsuccessful, the reading of the Sutra was discontinued.”

“The Emperor made a progress to the river-source of Minabuchi. Here he knelt down and prayed, worshipping towards the four quarters, and looking up to Heaven. Straightaway there was thunder and a great rain, which eventually fell for five days, and plentifully bedewed the Empire.”

“Hereupon the peasantry throughout the Empire cried with one voice, ‘Bansai’, and said, ‘An Emperor of exceeding virtue!’ ”

“This month summer ordinances were put in force. There was rain without clouds.”

“In the morning, great clouds of five colours covered all the sky, except in the north-east, where they were wanting. A mist of a uniform blue color arose from the earth on all sides.”

“In this month there were wind, thunder, and ice-rain. Winter ordinances were in force.”

“There was a west wind and hail. The weather was cold, and people wore three wadded garments.”

“It was reported from the province of Ohomi that hail had fallen there one inch in diameter.”

“In this month the water of the Mamuta pond stank greatly, and was covered with small grubs, which had black mouths and white bodies.”

“The water of the Mamuta pond changed, and became like indigo juice. Its surface was covered with dead grubs. Moreover the running water in the drains became coagulated to the thickness of three or four inches, and the fishes, both great and small, stank, as when they are scorched to death in summer. They were therefore unfit for food.”

“In this month the water of the Mamuta pond gradually changed, and became white. Moreover, it was no longer ill-smelling.”

“At this time five coloured banners and umbrellas shone in the sky, and descending, hung over the Temple to the sound of various music. Every one looked up with cries of admiration. At length they were pointed out to Iruka, upon which the banners and umbrellas were changed into a black cloud, so that Iruka was unable to see them.”

The entire Japanese Empire was reorganised from top to bottom after these calamitous weather-events, including agricultural reforms.

“A shooting star appeared our of the Toung-pi asterism (g, Pegasus). There was a noise similar to thunder.”

“On mountain peaks, by riversides, or among shrines and temples, there was a something visible afar, and there was heard a humming of monkeys, as it were ten or sometimes twenty together. But when one approached to see what it might be, nothing was visible. There was still heard the sound of crying and screaming, but no one was able to distinguish any bodily form.

The men of that day said ‘These are the messengers of the Great Deity of Ise.’ ”

“The Emperor removed the capital to Toyosaki in Nagara at Naniha. Old people, remarking upon this to one another, said: ‘The movement of rats towards Naniha from spring until summer was an omen of the removal of the capital.”

“In this year the rats of the province of Koshi drew together in troops by night and day, and took their departure towards the East.”

Just as the Old Testament authors mythologized events similar to those of the 6^th century into a cryptic song in the book of Habakkuk,

And just as the Irish mythologized cataclysmic events of ~525 and other events of the 6^th century, such as around 538, into fairy tales or stories of saints with superpowers,

And just as the cryptic Arthurian legends were set in the 6^th century, with Arthur dying in 539 or 542, with the King’s disease being heavily associated with the death of the land – the Dolorous Stroke inducing the Waste Land,

And just as Varāhamihira in the Bṛhat Saṃhitā probably turned a 6^th century comet sighting with associated effects on earth – into an astrological prediction,

And just as Li Ch’un Feng, writing in the 600s, seems to have also repackaged real-world events from the same general period into astrological predictions,

And just as the Chinese mythologized the events of 524 and other events of the 6^th century, like at 503, 553 and 579, with tales of dragons fighting,

And just as the Japanese mythologized the events of 552 into a massive dispute between a serpent-god and a dragon,

And just as the Persian author of The Book of Zoroaster might have been retelling stories passed down from sometime between 531-579, with what seems to be a very good description of an air-burst (a space-rock bursting in the air instead of hitting earth directly),

So too did Arab authors mythologize gloomy events of this period, culminating in the dark years of the 620s. The Qur’an mentions smoke and fire from the sky, and the stars becoming dim, while Muslims are asked to this day to walk around and then kiss a space rock.

Then watch thou for the Day that the sky will bring forth a kind of smoke (or mist) plainly visible, enveloping the people: this will be a Penalty Grievous. (They will say:) “Our Lord! remove the Penalty from us, for we do really believe!”.

On you will be sent a flame of fire and a smoke. No defence will ye have. Then which of the favours of your lord will ye deny? When the sky is rent asunder, and it becomes red like ointment. Then which of the favours of your lord will ye deny?

Then when the stars become dim, when the heaven is cleft asunder, when the mountains are scattered as dust, and when the messengers are appointed a time; for what Day are these (portents) deferred? For the Day of Sorting out. And what will explain to thee what is the Day of Sorting out? … …

Each one of them, that Day, will have enough concern (of his own) to make him indifferent to the others.

(Then) shall each soul know what it hath sent forward and (what it hath) kept back.

Him Who created thee. Fashioned thee in due proportion, and gave thee a just bias;

(It will be) the Day when no soul shall have power (to do) aught for another: For the command, that Day, will be (wholly) with Allah.

The word Quraish appears a single time. Just a single instance of this word, in the entirety of the Arabic Qur’an. In the Yusuf Ali English translation of the Qur’an, however, the word Quraish, in the English, appears 5 times. But, Quraish, in 4 out of these 5 verses, is found within parentheses, meaning that Yusuf Ali inserted those 4 instances of “Quraish” in the English. They are not found in the original Arabic!

The following is the only verse, in the entirety of the Qur’an, in which Quraish is written, in the Arabic. The Sura itself, is called The Quraysh in Yusuf Ali’s translation.

The context of this verse, within the text, is clear, but, let’s go through a probable etymology first:

Words with the root QR in Hebrew and Arabic mean “cold”, and variants of cold.

The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, David J. A. Clines (CLINES), page 400.

Words with the root QRR in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic mean cold and variants of cold, and one entry “violent cold” (qwrr in Aramaic).

Words with the root QRSh in Aramaic are found as “to become cold”, “refrigerate”, “chill”, “frost” and also “to congeal”.

If Quraysh is used to refer to a class of people, in the Qur’an, then they have something to do with “coldness”. Maybe they are simply cold. Maybe it’s as simple as that. People who are cold.

The single context where the term Quraysh is found involves taking care of those in distress, in this case, specifically – providing shelter:

On that Day will men proceed in companies sorted out, to be shown the deeds that they (had done).

The mutual rivalry for piling up (the good things of this world) diverts you (from the more serious things),

Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.

Then did He make them like an empty field of stalks and straw, (of which the corn) has been eaten up.

Who provides them with food against hunger, and with security against fear (of danger).

Celebrate the praises of thy Lord, and pray for His Forgiveness: For He is Oft-Returning (in Grace and Mercy).

From the mischief of the Whisperer (of Evil), who withdraws (after his whisper),-

This “tribe”, the Quraysh, people out in the cold, is ever-present – this need – like taking care of the homeless, whether it be winter or summer – this is not only concerning a people of the Arabian peninsula, having lived in a single point in time, having experienced insane ecological disasters, finding themselves homeless and cold. It is inspired by this, but wrapped in a symbolic cloak for deeper reflection on these ever-recurring calamities (or things like persistent homelessness). In this way, the events mythologized are put into a narrative of recurring, even everpresent needs, enriching the text, raising it to a different level, making it relevant not only in that specific time, but today and tomorrow as well.

When ecological calamities put pressure on people, and people are calling out for help, this will be the true test of one’s inner nature.

When the sky is cleft apart, and fire-balloons fall, devastating the ecological framework in which you exist, and you are left destitute, where would you go, without the help of Allah? Then, your deeds, good or bad, will finally come full circle.

If you have treated others poorly, maybe you will consider just adding fuel to the fire, and calling it quits.

If you have done well, you can proudly call out for help, seeing as you know you deserve it, and you have no bad karma to account for.

Those who have done poorly are quickly sorted out in their camps, like thieves are brought out of the woodworks and can be seen looting.

Those who are altruistic can be clearly seen sorted into their camps, according to their deeds, responding to scenes of disaster, like working to dig people out from the rubble.

The day of sorting out, according to one’s true nature, as judged by all who see you, in your camp, according to your deeds.

Imagine you are standing in the aftermath of a severe earthquake, unlike ones we have seen in our time, something like the insane 525 Antioch earthquake, and you hear multitudes crying out for help under the rubble.

When tending to deep wounds, and the victim is screaming out for relief, in terrible agony,

Generous and kind folk, in this instance, often report “Time stood still, I wasn’t thinking of myself at all, something came over me, I risked it, went for it, broke through, and saved the person from distress…”.