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Most scholars during the past century-and-a-half gave regarded these questions as settled once and for all. Ever sine Darwin, the great majority of historians, anthropologists, and geologists have assumed that the doctrine of gradual evolution was proven beyond need for further discussion. Today, the tide has turned somewhat. Now school children are taught that the extinction of the dinosaurs was due to the crashing to Earth of a comet or an asteroid sixty million years ago. Astronomers have written books about how asteroid and comet impacts destroyed past civilizations and threaten our present one. Experts in the field of dendrochronology have concluded that tree-ring data show steep environmental downturns within historical times, and that these events seem to be tied to celestial phenomena.
The present work is a summation of Roger Wescottıs thoughts regarding mythology, human prehistory, and catastrophism. Not only are the ideas presented in this work incendiary; they are also educative. But, beyond its considerable value for enlightenment, entertainment, and education, this book is also a tool of therapy. Wescott is, in every possible sense, reminding us of something we have lost and forgotten. As a cultural archaeologist, Wescott unearths and reassembles shards of memory that still persist in our languages, institutions, and myths. What is more, he surveys our prospects for revivifying at least some portion of our primordial wholeness.
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| Table of Contents |
FOREWORD by Richard Heinberg PREFACE: Prehistory and Progress General Considerations CHAPTER 1: ASTER AND DISASTER (An Introduction) Polemic Context Varieties of Exclusionism Uniformism and Catastrophism Eonism Isolationism Quantalism Velikovskians and Meta-Velikovskians Polystrate Fossils and Pleochroic Radio-Haloes Standard Radiometric Dating Logic and Proof Subjectivity and Objectivity Nature-shock, Culture-shock, and Future-shock Behavioral versus Physical Evidence Exclusionary and Exploitive Behavior Linguistic Reinterpretations Further Reinterpretations CHAPTER 2 QUANTALIST INTERPRETATION OF MYTHS Interpreting Myths Re-Defining Myth Responses to Myth Myths, Legends, and Folktales Myth and Ritual The De-Sacralization of Myth Riddles, Proverbs, and Ethics Universal Mythic Themes CHAPTER 3 THE GOLDEN AGE Aurealism Aster The World-Axis The World-Mountain The Aureal Environment The Noble Savage The Matriarchal Tradition CHAPTER 4 THE FALLEN WORLD The Usage of the English Word "Fall" Who or What Fell? Who or What Precipitated the Fall? The Folklore of the Fall Verbal Echoes of the Fall Internalizations of the Fall CHAPTER 5 CATAGENICA: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL Geological Catagenica Paleontological Catagenica Hydrological Catagenica Meteorological Catagenica Botanical Catagenica Animal Catagenica Human Biomedical Catagenica Ecological Catagenica Artifactual Catagenica Economic Catagenica Social Catagenica Emotional Catagenica Intellectual Catagenica | CHAPTER 6 THE RULE OF CORRESPONDENCE As Above, So Below As Without, So Within As at Length, So in Brief As Before, So to Come As in Front, So Behind As on the Right, So on the Left As by Nature, So by Nurture As with Beasts, So with Men As the Female, So the Male As in Body, So in Mind As in Waking, So in Dreams CHAPTER 7 SPLIT LIVING Astronomical Splits Meteorological Splits Calendric Splits Physiological Splits Psychological Splits Intellectual Splits Ecological Splits Social Splits Institutional Splits Expressive Splits Ideological Splits Splits Reviewed CHAPTER 8 RECAPITULATIONS OF THE PAST Aster Recapitulated The World-Mountain Recapitulated The World-Axis recapitulated The Golden Age Recapitulated Catastrophe Recapitulated Involuntary Recapitulations Voluntary Recapitulations CHAPTER 9 PROSPECTS FOR A TROUBLED SPECIES Futurism as Revivalism Sobering Reminders Remedies for Terrestrial Ills Aurealite Atavism? Our Extraterrestrial Habitat Cracks in the Uniformist Monolith Paleocatastrophism vs. Cenocatastrophism Alternative Therapies for a Collective Malady Promotive Medicine? Ethical Considerations The Nice, the Nasty, and the Natural Love and Substitutes for Love Through Unnature to Nature APPENDIX I SELECTED SAYINGS OF HERACLITUS APPENDIX II AEONIC APOTHEGMS A Glossary of Neologisms Select Bibliography of Books Consulted Encyclopedias Most Frequently Consulted Index |
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