Part of the Casswiki article series Books
The Cosmic Serpent is a book by Victor Clube, published in 1982 in collaboration with astronomer Bill Napier. It runs for roughly 280 pages and eleven chapters. This book was followed by The Cosmic Winter.
This work addresses the origins of the comets, historical cometary impacts, and the origins of mythology in the history of cometary interactions.
The first part of the book deals with an interesting perspective of our galaxy’s involvement in the cosmic processes and how other stars can possibly deflect or “knock” the comets in the direction of the Sun, as well a look at the question of where the comets come from. Then, the authors go on to discuss the question of impacts and the role of cometary bombardment in mass extinctions and the Earth changes, including that of the ice ages.
The last part of the book focuses on the examination of ancient history, archeology, and mythology where the comets were seen. The authors then point out that originally, the comets were the principal mythological sky gods, such as Zeus of the Greek mythology and Osiris of the Egyptian mythology. But, having passed into history as mythological “gods,” they tend to be dismissed and seen as “meaningless” in the eyes of the modern scientific community – their very concrete origins ignored. Chapter Nine of this book focuses on the battle of Zeus and Typhon, which may have taken place in 1369 BC, and the question of clues in the myths as to cosmic events. The authors make a strong case for the comets being seen a number of times in our prehistoric skies, and for their depiction in our mythology and biblical accounts.
Clube and Napier also point out that the scientific community has overlooked the seriousness of so-called short-period comets in our past and dismissed the possibility of comets being remembered as mythological sky gods. It is not just the mythologies that point towards cometary events having occurred in the past, but physical evidence of catastrophic events, such as the Tunguska event, and the craters on the Moon, Mars, and Earth.
This book is required reading for those who wish to understand the origins of religion in our ancient past.