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Divining the Meaning of the
Aurora
Jul
03, 2009
Few
natural phenomena have elicited such
deep emotions from human observers
as the polar lights.
Across the centuries, people have
been profoundly moved and inspired
when exposed to the spectacular
dance of plasma filaments across the
night sky. Indeed, witnesses of the
aurorae have not infrequently
confessed to a sense of the
numinous.
Following an unforgettable
manifestation of the lights on
Tuesday, 28th. November 1893, the
Norwegian Arctic explorer, Fridtjof
Nansen (1861-1930), remarked: “There
is the supernatural for you – the
northern lights flashing in
matchless power and beauty over the
sky … If one wants to read mystic
meanings into the phenomena of
nature, here, surely, is the
opportunity.”
Later, during the winter of 1911,
the British explorer, Robert Falcon
Scott (1868-1912), repeatedly
enjoyed the celestial pageant of the
aurora australis while sailing south
towards Antarctica on the Terra
Nova. Reflecting on an outpouring of
auroral activity seen on Sunday,
21st. May of that year, Scott
resorted to the metaphor of life in
his struggle to adequately depict
the event in words. It almost seemed
to him that the aurora was imbued
with a vital force: “There is
infinite suggestion in this
phenomenon, and in that lies its
charm; the suggestion of life, form,
colour, and movement never less than
evanescent, mysterious – no
reality.”
For Scott, seeing the agility, the
versatility and the rapidity that
characterised the majestic
appearance of the southern lights
bordered on a religious experience:
“It is the language of mystic signs
and portents – the inspiration of
the gods – wholly spiritual – divine
signalling. Remindful of
superstition, provocative of
imagination.” Playfully, the pioneer
wondered whether aliens might be
involved: “Might not the inhabitants
of some other world (Mars)
controlling mighty forces thus
surround our globe with fiery
symbols, a golden writing which we
have not the key to decipher?”
Joking aside, the distinct
impression of the aurorae as a
marvellous, almost supernatural
force entrenched itself in the
captain’s mind. Less than a year
before his tragic death, on
Thursday, 22nd. June, the adventurer
was celebrating midwinter with his
party, when he was treated to “the
most vivid and beautiful display
that I had ever seen – fold on fold
the arches and curtains of vibrating
luminosity rose and spread across
the sky, to slowly fade and yet
again spring to glowing life.”
His notes, which were discovered
afterwards in the ice and published
posthumously, offer a glimpse into a
mind that, far from jocular, had
grown ever more stupefied with the
spiritual effect the lights could
exercise on a human being:
“It is impossible to witness such a
beautiful phenomenon without a sense
of awe … the appeal is to the
imagination by the suggestion of
something wholly spiritual,
something instinct with a fluttering
ethereal life, serenely confident
yet restlessly mobile. One wonders
why history does not tell us of
‘aurora’ worshippers, so easily
could the phenomenon be considered
the manifestation of ‘god’ or
‘demon’.”
Why not indeed? Could it be that the
worldwide repository of mythical and
other religious traditions is
actually replete with descriptions
of auroral events that have so far
escaped attention? That universal
beliefs about the nature of the gods
and goddesses, legendary ancestors,
and dragons are really brimful of
references to the lights? That
folklore, traditional dance and
iconography are all heavily charged
with memories of the aurorae so
hoary with age as to go well-nigh
unnoticed? This is, in effect,
precisely what is found.
The growing scientific understanding
of the earth’s electromagnetic
environment has made it possible to
recognise an important substratum of
auroral observations in the
mythological system of virtually
every known culture. Much in the
descriptions of the gods, their
fabulous habitats, their ‘creation’
of this world and their temporary
sojourn on ‘earth’ can be
meaningfully analysed as concealed
reports of near-earth plasmas
developing in glow and arc modes as
the earth’s ionosphere and
magnetosphere experienced
unimaginable disturbances.
The mountain of the gods, the tree
of life, the pillars that supported
the sky, the ladder or arrow-string
to the sky, dragons, thunderbirds,
the turtle that supported the earth,
the tail-biting snake that
surrounded the earth, layered
heavens and underworlds, the
sentinels of the cardinal
directions, the primordial race of
animal-like beings, the stationary
sun or morning star – these and many
others are global motifs belonging
to the so-called ‘age of creation’
or ‘age of the gods’ that can be
explained as symbolic descriptions
of discrete plasma forms seen above
the horizon during episodes of this
prolonged high-energy-density
auroral storm.
If the relatively mundane aurorae
witnessed today can provoke such
distinct visions of spirituality in
the soberminded likes of Fridtjof
Nansen and Robert Scott, how much
more stirring must have been the
highly energetic aurorae
hypothesised to have occurred at the
dawn of civilisation, which is
estimated to have been at least an
order of magnitude more intense?
Scott concluded his diary entry for
that day with the words: “To the
little silent group which stood at
gaze before such enchantment it
seemed profane to return to the
mental and physical atmosphere of
our house.”
It would seem that the Stone Age
ancestors of mankind could not
return to their homes as if nothing
had happened. Instead, they were
induced to institute enduring cults
and rituals, compose lasting sacred
narratives, and design perpetually
hallowed images in commemoration of
the erstwhile presence of the divine
in their midst.
Contributed by Rens Van der Sluijs
www.mythopedia.info
Further Reading:
The Mythology of the World Axis;
Exploring the Role of Plasma in
World Mythology
www.lulu.com/content/1085275
The World Axis as an
Atmospheric Phenomenon
www.lulu.com/content/1305081
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