Hello,
Visiting Gary Gilligans site, it is very clear that he is a true follower of the Velikovski catastrophic ideas of ancient astronomical disasters, build on astronomical knowledge and mythological telling and symbols.
- It is a great idea to compare the mytological telling to modern astronomical and cosmological science! (I do this very much myself) Unfortunately Velikovski was born into a society and a world, where ancient deity names also was given to some of the known planets.
- Originally all the great and supreme deities (from all over the world) were connected specifically to the Milky Way contours, a large white/whitish structure which, in its full figure, is mentioned as a ring/circle around the Earth, often symbolized as a great serpent. (The Gary Gilligans "Debris ring around the Earth"
http://www.gks.uk.com/hathor-isis-egyptian/)
- Ancient people divided their world in two parts: The Upperworld, the one above at day and night and The Underworld, the one in which the sun; moon and stars seemingly dived into.
This division of the northern and the southern day and night sky also holds the two separate supreme and major deities: On the northern hemisphere, The Upperworld, the half crescent Milky Way figure is symbolized a The Greatest God. On the southern hemisphere, The Underworld, the other half crescent Milky Way figure, is symbolized as the The Greatest Goddess because "she" is connected to the Milky Way centre in the star constellation of Sagittarius, where the physical formation of everything in our galaxy takes place.
- Being connected to the Milky Way, these two major (giants) figures also are connected to the Story of Creation, making these deities very important creator deities. Both figures can be observed seeemingly to revolve around the celestial poles on the night sky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_%28mythology%29- In the Velikovski terminology, especially Saturn; Mars and Venus builds up the catastrophic ideas, but originally these names are only connected to the Milky Way mythology and it is very odd that both the attributes and qualities of these ancient superior Milky Way creator deities can be connected to the somewhat inferior forces of planets compared to the forces and creative powers of the Milky Way
- The ancient Saturn is originally the northern Milky Way figure revolving around the north celestial pole - and Venus is originally the southern Milky Way figure. Planet Mars comes into the picture via the term of "Warrior God" symbolizing either the northern Milky Way figure or a star constellation imagined as a man with some kind of weapon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deities#Celestial.2C_Cosmological- When studying the ancient symbols, one has of course to incorporate the Milky Way Mythology(Cosmology/Deities and their attributes and qualities. If Velikovski and followers have done this, the correct Saturn deity would be observed as a concrete revolving white figure around the northern celestial pole - excluding the false idea of planet Saturn once was observable very close to the Earth. And the very same goes for Venus, the Milky Way deity revloving around the celestial pole on the southern hemisphere.
Conclusion: Confusing the Milky Way deities for planetary deities, the ideas of Velikovski and his followers cannot be described as genuine Astronomy or Mythology - giving supreme mythological and cosmological forces to planets can only be described as Astrology in the worst terminology.
Other links:
http://www.native-science.net/MilkyWay.GreatestGod.htmhttp://www.native-science.net/MilkyWay.MotherGoddess.htmhttp://www.native-science.net/MilkyWay.Mytology.Keys.htmKindest
Ivar Nielsen
Natural Philosopher