Grace—Velikovsky—Moses—Venus—Mars

Grace

Velikovsky — Moses — Venus — Mars

Grace Van Duzen   April 17, 1970

Immanuel Velikovsky psychoanalyzed Freud, and he then began to study Moses; and this is what really led him into all this. I think the beginning of it is rather interesting. So, what he brought forth primarily and vitally are some new viewpoints with respect to science and all these related fields. He brought a new aspect in consideration of these cataclysms into the picture. Colonel James Churchward [The Lost Continent Of Mu and The Children Of Mu] found out a great deal with respect to his translations of old hieroglyphic writings, but he tended to limit it to the earth itself. Something happened in the earth—volcanoes and earthquakes and all of these—but he missed the point with respect to extraterrestrial activity, and this is what Velikovsky brings in with respect to the planetary family. And it does give a whole new picture, so that what we really need to remember is that something happened back there when, as it is put in Genesis, man was driven from the Garden and man found himself functioning in a different state, because of his own actions, than that in which he was created, and the earth underwent many great and violent upheavals. And then again in an earlier age at the time of Noah, and there were other planetary bodies involved.

We have a comet involved, primarily, at the time of Moses. Velikovsky says it's a comet that came into the earth's orbit, and it came very close to the earth, and it was in the process of becoming a planet. It lost its tail. It looked like a great battle going on in the sky between two bodies. And actually it was the fiery globe of the body, and the tail of the body, and great electrical discharges were emitted and these, of course, involved the earth at this time. It could be that this comet had been a planet at one time—and we're not going to speculate; it's not that that is vitally important right now—but it is possible that it was a planet because of the destruction which occurred between the earth and the other planets, way back there in those olden times, that this comet was in the state it was now.

In any case, it was coming into the earth's orbit, and, as Velikovsky shows in some of his later works, there was not a planet called Venus before this; and so he said that the comet became the planet Venus at this time. There isn't time to go into it; you need to read the book “Worlds In Collision” if you want the background of these conclusions. But the planet Venus was very different at this time than as we see it in the heavens now. It was the primary thing after the comet settled down and became this stable body in the heavens; it still was a fiery thing, a very large thing looking at it from the surface of the earth. And then later, about 700 B.C., we will find something else happening; and it was at that time that this body came into its orbit as we know it today, and became just another planet in the sky, viewed from the earth's surface.

Exodus, the 20th verse here, speaks of what we call plagues; there are ten plagues—called plagues in the Bible, they were very mysterious things because a plague is something really which one thinks of as happening slowly; you know, it's contagious and all this. But these were happenings rather than that sort of a plague; this was something that happened very suddenly according to the story; the results were immediate and drastic. And these things happened all over the face of the earth. The 20th verse: “And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell…” And of course throughout you'll have the story sound like it didn't touch one of the Hebrews, but all the Egyptians. Well, I must say, that's just a concept that has entered in here.

However, there were certain conditions, for instance, in the last plague, a great—what shall we call it, for want of another word—a great electrical shock which reached the earth, and there was a great sudden destruction and many, many people killed, and dwellings overturned, and so on. Well, the nature of the Hebrew dwellings, the huts, the very nature of them, saved many of them, and these outer factors were certainly part of the picture, so that the great cities suffered a great deal more than the other places. And another word with respect to the fact that the Egyptians were killed and the Hebrews were not, because, again, there's a truth in this, isn't there? Those who were focalized, or identified, with the power that was working—here you have the same principle as the flood: that which is in the Ark is lifted up by the same force which destroys that which is not. So, actually, that is what is portrayed in that sort of record.

Pharaoh was being good here and he was letting them go. But read it. He said, “Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.” In other words, what he is saying is, stay in Egypt; you can sacrifice to God in Egypt. And that means conformity with the pattern as it is; that means, yes, you can serve the Lord, but you don't have to go all out, do you? And this is Pharaoh speaking, remember; this is the self-active mind. And also, in the overall picture of all this that's happening—the threatened destruction of the whole earth—remember that the only thing that saves deliverance from Pharaoh, is that there is a Body which will come out of subjection to the self-active mind, so that the Lord can do something.

“And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God”—if they stayed in the land. There was a chance for another cycle; something was carried over because of the Presence of Moses, which means the Presence of that which is identified with the Lord. Moses represents all that is thus in tune with Him.

Then in this particular aspect of the cataclysm, it's obvious that this isn't just ordinary hail, is it? When you have hail—ice—there isn't fire running along the ground. These are meteorites and great stones. “So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous”—in other words, hot—“such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.” We'll read a little from “Worlds in Collision”.

The very first manifestation was:

“The red dust, soluble in water, falling from the sky in water drops, does not originate in clouds but must come from volcanic eruptions or from cosmic spaces. The fall of meteorite dust is a phenomenon generally known to take place mainly after the passage of meteorites; this dust is found on the snow of mountains and in polar regions. Following the red dust, a ‘small dust,’ like ‘ashes of the furnace,’ fell ‘in all the land of Egypt’”—he's quoting from Exodus here—“and then a shower of meteorites flew toward the earth. Our planet entered deeper into the tail of the comet. The dust was a forerunner of the gravel. There fell ‘a very grievous hail… Stones of ‘Barad,’ here translated ‘hail,’ is, as in most places where mentioned in the Scriptures, the term for meteorites. We are also informed by Midrashic and Talmudic sources that the stones which fell on Egypt were hot. This fits only meteorites, not a hail of ice.” And then he goes on to say that the thunderings which were heard were more correctly translated “explosions,” “explosion-like noises” or “crashes.” And in this case “they were so ‘mighty’ that, according to the Scriptural narrative, the people in the palace were terrified as much by the din of the falling stones as by the destruction they caused.”

“The red dust had frightened the people, and a warning to keep men and cattle under shelter had been issued: ‘Gather thy cattle…’ Similarly, the Egyptian eye-witness” said, and notice the similarity here with the Biblical record, ‘cattle are left to stray, and there is no one to gather them together. Each man fetches for himself those that are branded with his name.’ Falling stones and fire made the frightened cattle flee. The Egyptian record also says: “‘Trees are destroyed,’ ‘no fruits, no herbs are found,’ ‘grain has perished on every side.’” And then in Exodus it was written that the rye and all the rest was destroyed, remember.

“The description of such a catastrophe is found in … a Buddhist text on world cycles. ‘When a world cycle is destroyed by wind ... there arises a cycle-destroying great cloud’ … and then it gives all these evidences in the same order as we find them in Genesis.” Velikovsky goes into some interesting references with respect to other countries like Mexico and so on. In an ancient epoch it said “the sky ‘rained, not water, but fire and red-hot stones.’” So the similarity is certainly interesting.

Velikovsky had something to say about the darkness here: “The earth entered deeper into the tail of the onrushing comet and approached its body. This approach, if one is to believe the sources, was followed by a disturbance in the rotation of the earth. Terrific hurricanes swept the earth because of the change or reversal of the angular velocity of rotation, and because of the sweeping gases, dust, and cinders of the comet.” In other words, he's saying that the contact here—not of the bodies themselves but their atmospheres, contacting so closely there was this terrific impact. We say electrical discharge, but of course out there it involves a lot more than electricity as we know it, but this mighty thing which was a fantastic shock to the earth and its particular relationship with the other bodies.”

“Numerous rabbinical sources describe the calamity of darkness; the material is collated as follows: An exceedingly strong wind endured seven days. All the time the land was shrouded in darkness. ‘On the fourth, fifth and sixth days, the darkness was so dense that they could not stir from their place.’ ‘The darkness was of such a nature that it could not be dispelled by artificial means. The light of the fire was either extinguished by the violence of storm, or else it was made invisible and swallowed up in the density of the darkness... Nothing could be discerned... None was able to speak or to hear, nor could anyone venture to take food, but they lay themselves down... their outward senses in a trance. Thus they remained, overwhelmed by the affliction.’” This indicates a condition of shock of some kind, doesn't it? “The darkness was of such kind that ‘their eyes were blinded by it and their breath choked’; it was 'not of ordinary earthy kind.’”

“If ‘the Egyptian darkness’ was caused by the earth's stasis or tilting of its axis, and was aggravated by a thin cinder dust from the comet, then the entire globe must have suffered from the effect of these two concurring phenomena; in either the eastern or the western parts of the world there must have been a very extended, gloomy day… Nations and tribes in many places of the globe, to the south, to the north, and to the west of Egypt, have old traditions about a cosmic catastrophe during which the sun did not shine; but in some parts of the world the tradition maintains that the sun did not set for a period of time equal to a few days,” according to where they were located.

“Tribes of the Sudan to the south of Egypt refer in their tales to a time when the night would not come to an end. Kalevala, the epos of the Finns, tells of a time when hailstones of iron fell from the sky, and the sun and the moon disappeared (were stolen from the sky) and did not appear again; in their stead, after a period of darkness, a new sun and a new moon were placed in the sky. Caius Julius Solinus writes that ‘following the deluge which is reported to have occurred in the days Ogyges, a heavy night spread over the globe.” And Velikovsky goes on around the world with these records.

At this point we have the beginning of regulations and it rules with respect to the Passover. And they were to eat it just with their clothes on and everything ready to flee, ready to go; the minute Pharaoh said go, they were ready to go. Pharaoh is beginning to give in here at the point where that would be the end of him. It comes to that, doesn't it? It comes absolutely to giving all, and it's one way or the other—either eliminated or yielding completely. That's really what it is.

Now, with respect to this that's going on in the sky, Velikovsky says: “The earth, forced out of its regular motion, reacted to the close approach of the body of the comet: a major shock convulsed the lithosphere, and the area of the earthquake was the entire globe. Ipuwer [the Egyptian] witnessed and survived this earthquake. [He said] ‘The towns are destroyed. Upper Egypt has become waste... All is ruin.’ ‘The residence [meaning the palace] is overturned in a minute.’ Only an earthquake could have overturned the residence in a minute. The Egyptian word for ‘to overturn’ is used in the sense of ‘to overthrow a wall.’ The reason why the Israelites were more fortunate...” I've mentioned this, that they're living in huts of clay and so on; but of course the meaning behind it is the one in which we are interested.

Now considering the word first-born, Velikovsky says: “In Ages in Chaos (my reconstruction of ancient history), I shall show that ‘first-born’ in the text of the plague is a corruption of ‘chosen.’ All the flower or chosen of Egypt succumbed in the catastrophe,” so that this picture of the first-born, or the oldest in each family, and of all the animals and everything, was killed, does tax one's credulity. But here he shows the difference in these two words. He says, in the translation—of course, this is true of a lot of words that have come down in translation—so that here what should have been “chosen” in the record, he says, came out as “first-born.” In other words, there was no discernment. This is simply the working of the Law, and the chosen of Egypt were taken; very specific reference in the Egyptian record to the son of the Pharaoh, for instance, and this may, of course, have influenced the record; the fact that the son of the Pharaoh actually was killed may certainly have influenced this. But it makes an interesting study with respect to these old words, and how the distortions appeared.

Velikovsky says: “The head of the celestial body approached very close, breaking through the darkness of the gaseous envelope, and according to the Midrashim, the last night in Egypt was as bright as the noon on the day of the summer solstice. The population fled. ‘Men flee... Tents are what they make like the dwellers of hills,’ wrote Ipuwer. The population of a city destroyed by an earthquake usually spends the nights in the fields. The Book of Exodus describes a hurried flight from Egypt on the night of the tenth plague; a ‘mixed multitude’ of non-Israelites left Egypt together with the Israelites...” There were many Egyptians who fled with them. ‘“The lightenings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook... Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.’”

“‘At midnight’ all the houses of Egypt were smitten; ‘there was not a house where there was not one dead.’ This happened on the night of the fourteenth of the month Aviv. This is the night of Passover. It appears that the Israelites originally celebrated Passover on the eve of the fourteenth of Aviv. “[This] is called ‘the first month.’ Thout was the name of the first month of the Egyptians. What, for the Israelites, became a feast, became a day of sadness and fasting for the Egyptians.” Rather interesting, isn't it? Now, he's quoting: “‘The thirteenth day of the month Thout is a very bad day. Thou shalt not do anything on this day. It is the day of the combat which Horus waged with Seth.’”

The thirteenth day of the month. This goes back to 1,500 B.C., and Velikovsky said it very easily could be the origin of this superstition; and whereas the Hebrews have written this up as the great day of deliverance for them, here you have the picture of something identified with what was going on, moving; and the Egyptians who were acted upon have this consciousness of being acted upon. And incidentally it was true of all the records that he found all over the face of the earth, was this Egyptian attitude of “this dreadful thing that happened to us—a most awful thing.” So, it's the only record we have which has this other identification in it. So, the thirteenth day was a very bad day for the Egyptians. It gives us a new attitude with respect to the thirteen, doesn't it?

Now, let's go back in this chapter and look with respect to the Passover here. This is looked upon as a prophecy for what would occur later—using hindsight, of course—go back and see this as a prophecy with respect to what happened to Jesus later, the sacrifice of the Lamb. And yet let's look at really what was here. And the Lamb, remember, is another word, exactly the same symbol, for Jehovah, the expression of God through His means on earth, through human form. This is Jehovah in the First Sacred School or the Old Testament. It has the same meaning as Christ in the New Testament. And then the Lamb is the Word used in Revelation. So you have the First and Second Sacred Schools represented here. The Lamb is another word for the expression of the Christ in the New Testament, or the expression of Jehovah. It's all the same thing. It is the expression of God in human form, or through human form—and that is Life. And there’s no other Life; all other forms die. In other words, it is the very expression of God for this place of creation—specifically through human form. And blood, we know the symbol of Life; so what would you guess might be going on in this symbol?

The blood of, the Life of, the Lamb, then, or the expression of God through human form, is painted on the sides and the top of the door here, or in expression through the human form. Here is the physical substance—the door; and when this is the case, death passed over. And yet, again, it is turned completely around and translated as though this was God's Will, and here is the prophecy that it would happen to His own Son. Always he—Pharaoh—takes these symbols in his mind and turns it around completely; but it's saying that where this is in expression, death passes over that house. It is not the will for that house.

Now, there is reference again to many meanings with respect to that pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. Velikovsky had something to say about that also in his works, again that which was appearing in the heavens—the comet and its tail; and there were many forms given to it. In many lands, this seemed to be the origin of the dragon, and you have the fiery globe, seeming to fight with a serpent, or the tail, which took the appearance of a dragon. And it would change its shape in all this that was going on, so that dragons and something that applied to the different nationalities and their interpretation did come into their religion at this time.

It's interesting that this one history has it as something constructive, meaning that they were identified with the power that was working; and if this isn't true, when something like this happens, then it's all destroyed. It means that this which was occurring was certainly not unrelated to what had happened before at the time of great destruction with Lemuria and Atlantis, and remember that they were all really part of the same thing, over a period of time. But here again was something quite drastic, and it came out, if we take a good long look backward, with a constructive result. We can see that this planet was restored, and something later happened—as I say, we'll come to it about 700 B.C. when there was something else happening in the heavens that came close again, and Mars was involved, when it found its orbit which it has today. But all through these years, Venus, and all the other names for Venus, played a very, very great part in the history of all peoples, because it was such a big thing in the sky. You look in the sky tonight and you wouldn’t pick Venus out particularly; you certainly wouldn't worship it; but through these years, between this time and about 700 B.C. it was doing all these things in the heavens. But at this time it did become a planet, the orb without the tail. But you have all this rain of meteorites, and really a time of very great destruction on the face of the earth.

But the part that Pharaoh plays—the record is perfect here—indicates that he brought this about; it was man's fall; it was the state in which man found himself that all this had happened. The reason for the destruction was there, the same as the destruction that had happened at the other great cataclysmic events, something had been thrown out—and here was an opportunity to correct it, with respect to what was happening in the Cosmic Family, the planetary bodies—and Pharaoh [the self-active mind] was right here on earth.

There had to be something aligned with what was happening in the heavens—with God, they say. They were working with God. It was Moses who did it. Moses stretched out his hand, and this is absolutely vital. Perhaps we think, “Well, that's too much.” It taxes our mind too much to think we would have that kind of a part to play in the whole family, but the whole family is ONE—whether it's planetary, cosmic, universal—made in the image and likeness of God. There must be that in action on earth; and there was that in evidence here symbolized by Moses, and there very definitely must be that now, because we're not talking about something back there. We're talking about this day.

© emissaries of divine light