What is the Winged Disc?
"This symbol...was revered by the Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians and other later empires for thousands of years. Its presence adorned the temples and palaces of gods and kings [think Persepolis, Iran], and is often depicted symbolically hovering over ancient battle scenes."
[Alan Alford, Gods of The New Millennium, London, 1996, pg. 157]This is how Alford introduces [I use the present tense here to indicate a living author] the "winged disc" at the end of the chapter Planet of The Cross. He says it wasn't a solar emblem, but represented Planet X, which he identifies as the Nibiru/Marduk of Mesopotamian mythology. About 13,000 years ago Nibiru, "three times the size of Earth" [Alford], passed "equidistant" between Venus and Earth and a distance of 12.5 million miles. Thus, he argues, the "fly-by" [my term] wasn't Venusian, as "some writers have suggested" [Alford]. No doubt he alludes to Velikovsky here, though the Russian dated [past tense indicates a dead author] his bypass to c.1495 BC and the Exodus. I feel that the Nibiru event, mentioned in Egyptian, Greek, Native American and Mayan mythologies, as well as Revelations, destroyed Atlantis [the Viking Asgard and Midgard]. It is not to be confused with the Venusian event!!
Both events had catastrophic geological and climatic consequences, the one which ended the last Ice Age causing volcanism and possibly the Great Flood [the date and location of this are much debated]. In both cases gravitational and electromagnetic forces unleashed cataclysms. Could the explosive eruption of Thera, traditionally dated to c.1450, together with the destruction of Minoan towns and palaces on Crete [David Rohl in Test of Time: Pharaohs and Kings dates the Exodus to c.1447 BC], have been caused by the Venusian bypass ? Alford said Nibiru caused volcanism. Were the Biblical pillars of cloud and fire volcanic as Velikovsky suggested? However, Velikovsky dismissed as ludicrous the idea that Venus parted the Red Sea [the Reed Sea or Bitter Lakes of the Suez Canal, according to Rohl, citing a mistranslation of the Hebrew Yam-Suf]. And what does one make of Manetho's "blast from God" smiting the Egyptians in the reign of Dudimose [Rohl's Exodus pharaoh]? Or the plague of hail which Artapanus said was accompanied by earthquakes? Rohl mentions mass graves at Avaris, Egypt...
I've noted curious passages in Isaiah 14 referring to Lucifer's fall from Heaven. Lucifer was the name given to Venus as the Morning Star, which Isaiah likened to a fiery flying snake, from whose root another sprang forth.
This beast shook the Earth and made it "as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof" [verse 17]. Although Alford mentions Venusian anomalies, cited by Velikovsky, such as the clockwise rotation, apparent younger age of the planet to the others in our solar system, he doesn't go into depth on them. So why did Mariner 9 detect a cometary tail [the Aztecs called Venus "The Star That Smoked", and connected it with their chief god Quetzalcoatl, "The Plumed/Feathered Serpent"]? I am intrigued by the fact that the disc has feathered wings and a tail. And why did they fear Venus? And why do the Chinese deeply revere dragons? In fact, why were so many ancient cultures obsessed by fiery flying serpents causing global destruction? Now we are getting worried, Hollywood merely fuelling our fears... .
Why did the Israelites exiles, in the mid-15th century BC suddenly begin to worship the deities Astartes/Asheresh [Greek name for Ashtaroth, Supreme Goddess of the Phoenicians; in Babylonian Ishtar, Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus]? It's no coincidence that the chief gods or goddesses of the Assyrians, Aztecs, Persians, Phoenicians were Venusian deities. The Egyptian's was solar, the Greek's and Roman's were Jovian. The latter two are worth noting because Velikovsky claimed that Venus was 'born' out of Jupiter in c.3000-2000 BC, an event commemorated in the myth of Athena [another Venusian deity] being 'born' from Zeus's head.
But if the disc is meant to be symbolic of the Sun or a planet, then why did the Persians and Assyrians, but, strangely, not the Egyptians, depict it as a piloted craft?
"The Persian god Ahura Mazda [Zoroastrianism's eternal creator god], hovers above the king in sculpted representations of that high dignitary, enclosed in a winged wheel...like Ashur, grasping a ring in one hand [a steering wheel?] the other being lifted up as if blessing those who adore him."
[Donald A. Mackenzie, Mythology of the Babylonian People, London, 1996, pg. 347]
Mackenzie noted rings are borne by Shamash [Babylonian Sun god], Ishtar and Egyptian deities. The disc's wings he called "rays", but I think they are indeed representing wings of some type of craft. Comparing disc depictions it seems the wings were folded when the craft landed, while the dome or cockpit [the artist's viewpoint is hard to tell] is open. In flight it is closed, and the wheels folded up over or stowed under the craft. In the centre of some Assyrian discs is a star with or without Mackenzie's "water rays". But is it really a propeller? At Abydos there are strange glyphs of air and waterborne craft.
The most detailed account of close encounters with flying wheels/discs is that of Ezekiel. He mentioned a dome "of dazzling crystal" with creatures within, and sounds coming from it. But what was the "throne of sapphire" [10, v. 1] above it with a man on? And what were "burning coals" collected by the man ordered by God to go between the wheels, and why did he have to "scatter them over the city"? Ezekiel said that the wheels were lifted up on take-off, and that the craft, which "shone like bronze", had wings!! It made a loud noise in flight "like the roar of the sea,... a huge army,... the voice of Almighty God." Maybe Stargate isn't so far fetched after all!!
