image: the Venus of Lespugue, 25,000 years old, found in 1922 France [example of “bird brain”]
David Talbott has a thing; a ponderous, pendulous preoccupation with goddess figurines. As the founder and “muse in chief” of the Thunderbolts Project that’s reimagining our solar system in an Electric Universe, he suggested in 2017 that the ‘venuses’ were, to his mind, representations of gathered planets—our planets—in an age of catastrophic interactions. Somewhere, he believes, in the body of whirled mythology and human memory is a lost history that, if recovered, might provide a “unified theory of myth.” I took notice of Talbott’s similar reference to goddess figurines in a 2012 lecture called “Seeking the Third Story” and sought out more elaboration from newer works. The thing, however, seems not to have advanced by 2017, but he is more specific with the Rotund Goddess idea. And before I quote him, I’ll say that I admire this man and hold his hope that a unified theory is possible.
[minute 17]
“…There are no chronicles –there’s evidence– there’s archeological evidence, there’s pictures carved on stone, but there is no reference historically, no reference archeologically, to give you a fixed marker except dating processes that are themselves subject to a great deal of criticism. But we’re talking before the birth of the first civilizations. [screen image] A very familiar form: the Rotund Goddess. I’ve picked up dates suggested around 3,500 BC [and] pay little attention to variations in dating—I’m just personally satisfied that we’re going to be going through a period of confusion as to how you find reliable…dating. But this goddess figure, it caught my attention… there’s something compelling, and because I was moving into a sense of planetary upheaval, I couldn’t get away from the idea…that this Rotund Goddess figure was actually an earlier, or signified an earlier, phase of planetary alignments, or gathering in the sky…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPN9Cr3km_U
From here, firstly, I’m going to reconstruct a “brain” presentation that I used for a talk, showing the goddess figurines as anatomical brains that share sets of features across a wide swath of time-bound, geographic, and cultural differences. In general, the older specimens, like the Venus of Willendorf in Talbott’s talk (said to be 30,000 years old), appear to be gross anatomy bird brains, but as the dating moves forward into recognizable civilizations, and the range of figurine finds increases over continents, special features like “twins” appear, and may be the brains of humans and other species. The inspiration to follow this topic came during Corona down-time with a fresh-eyed look at the landscape “brain” in the core of Washington D.C., our congress of crows, and since incorporated into Corona the Crow (part three), the goddess within made more visible with my scribbly outline in the recent post Ocean of Laws, See of Souls (part one). https://jenniferlake.wordpress.com/2023/01/02/corona-the-crow-part-three/
In the meantime, enjoy a Thunderbolts documentary: “Symbols of an Alien Sky” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7EAlTcZFwY/
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Gross anatomy…
The BIRDS
Prehistoric goddess figurines, either photographed or catalogued, are said to number about 200 samples in all with very few of one type available for comparison to other types. It’s in the aggregate of samples and quantity of references to known objects –brain graphs mostly– that permits a remarkable influence from unknown cultures to communicate across time, and perhaps they have always done so, seen in the context of continuous development.
In the montage above, the oldest ‘venus’ is the headless 2-angle view Venus of Hohle Fels, lower left, at 42,000 years old. Willendorf, center in hand, is next at 30,000 y-o, and Venus of Lespugue at c.25,000 y-o, matching the top left cone-headed Venus of Savignano for age. The top right museum piece has bird characteristics but obvious damage where it counts, found without any reference to age and origin. The ‘one-off’ in this group is top center, by far the youngest from Egyptian Bronze Age (3,500 BC) and most comparable to other Egyptian figurines displaying a cultural type.
Compare gross anatomy shapes of the older lower tier figures with actual photo anatomy from birds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_brain
Lower left image source of enhanced (cgi) CT scan of an albatross skull: https://phys.org/news/2013-07-bird-brains-predate-birds-flight-ready.html#google_vignette
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The BIRDS within
These delightful venus figurines originate from the island of Cyprus where it seems to have been a cottage industry at the end of the Bronze Age—latecomers all, the group on the left speaks loud and clear to the concept of the bird brain within. In particular, a mother and ‘baby’ at the place of the pineal gland inspires me to think ‘mother of invention and child of imagination.’ The Madonna display also suggests to me that the religious transition taking place was one of a personal god, perhaps thousands of years in the making. The two-headed twin may or may not be a product of the same culture –found in Syria—but having the distinct characteristic of mammals with a diencephalon thalamus.
“Marija Gimbutas called these Bird Goddesses–Terracotta statuettes of women with bird face. Late Cypriot II c. 1450-1200 B.C. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/559572322462638853/ ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marija_Gimbutas
Sumerian/Ubaid ‘Lizard Mother’ predates the Cypriot madonna birds by approx. 3,000 years
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The TWINS within
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There is one more general category I can use to describe the brain figurines and this one is out of the ‘bird’ box, humanoid, resistant to timestamping, and controversial as to being substantially human-made. Among the last of this kind, perhaps, are the distinctively humanoid figurines found at Gobekli and Karahan tepes. I’m unable to distinguish bird features in these except for the twin on the right with the ‘owl’ faces.
Photo credit https://www.youtube.com/@RobertEFuller
The Moroccan Venus of Tan Tan, found in an ancient river bank at 40 foot depth, is shown on the upper left as two distinctly separate views, separately sourced; the greenish blob ‘front’ from Wikipedia and the stone artifact ‘rear’ (?) from the University of Chicago (with a centimeter gauge indicating a height of less than 3 inches.) Tan Tan is notable for its possible age of 300,000 to 500,000 years old. My eyes tell me obviously that the front-and-back (or two front) photos are not of the same object, nevertheless they still have features of brain matter that refer to several species of figurines that entirely slip the category of goddesses. Neither Gobekli tepe (photo 3) nor Karahan tepe (photo 4) have shown any goddess figures that I can find – they’re dominantly ‘male’ or genderless– but intriguingly continue to contribute to my bird-brain theory of the figurines.
Revisiting this subject today, and dropping the goddess language for the search as contemporary archaeologists do, opens a flood of new information and specimens. In the last few years, hundreds of images and resources have been published to the web. A hundred thousand or more figurines have been documented and described from the Mediterranean region alone. One tiny item in particular, found on the surface of Gobekli Tepe in 2017 (shown below near actual size), is inspiring a new thought about these objects as a kind of coin-of-the-realm, after a fashion, analogous to old Roman coins littering the grounds of ancient settlements wherever the Legions encamped.
See the August 9, 2017 article “A Short Note on a New Figurine Type from Gobekli Tepe” [the seated figurines] https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-telegrams/tag/sculptures/
Even the Paleolithic ancestors of Tepe culture may have used their mammoth ivory ‘birds’ as chits –payments, passports, and messengers– but further elaboration will have to wait for another day as more of them come to light.
Mammoth ivory bird goddess, new find in 2017, image source: http://archaeofeed.com/2017/04/a-23000-year-old-venus-figurine-found/ — “A 5-centimetre high Palaeolithic Venus figurine was discovered at the Khotylyovo-2 site in Bryansk Oblast, Russian Federation. Radiocarbon analysis suggests tribes of hunters and gatherers lived there between 21000-24000 years ago.”
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Among the paleolithic hunter-gatherers of 20,000+ years ago is another type of figurine — the simple and skinny type. All but one (3rd photo from left) were found at settlement ruins near Lake Baikal called Mal’ta (or Mal’ta-Buret). My first impression about these ‘brains’ was to associate them with fish, but in a greater continuity with type, I see them just as likely to be representations of mammalian fetal brains in the first weeks of life. Note the shapes of the developing human brain at 4 and 5 weeks.
The 28-figurine composite image is borrowed from the net but more than half of them bear the characteristics of the embryonic serpentine brain, common to all vertebrates and even visible to the naked eye growing on the yolk of a bird egg.
Image composite of paleolithic mammoth ivory figurines from Siberia
Stone Age hunter-gatherers had an apparently sophisticated understanding of embryonic brain development, displaying stages of growth over time as well as mature ‘final’ features (i.e. ‘hood’, ‘arms’) — perhaps artistic flourish defining and identifying the species type. Hooded heads and cabled arms on brain figurines seem to always refer to mammals if one goes by anatomical correctness (showing the corpus callosum and optic nerve tract, respectively).
It’s the optic tract mid-brain cables (with pretectum and superior colliculus attached), as in the brain graph, that convinced me of the DC Capitol Hill SOG (Seat of Government) depicting a brain –appropos!
Among my favorite SOG-brain comparisons is an actual royal costume worn by England’s Elizabeth I. Her skirt pattern and even her jewelry corresponds to this textbook graph.
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Seat of Government
Leopard throne and various seats from Catal hoyuk (Turkey),c. 6000 BCE
The 8,000 yr-old ‘Mother Goddess’ and her leopards, shown front (l) and back (c), suggests a hybrid bird motif to me—made by flipping over a bird brain so her ‘front’ displays the inward/underside of the brain. See the corresponding raven’s brain, below.
Imagine if you will….
Raven brain image source – https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fig-S2-Brain-dissection-and-labeling-of-neurons-and-nonneuronal-cells-A-and-B-Brain_fig4_303949504
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Do you see what EYE see?
The Eye of RA-Ven (Ra and Venus)
“The Eye of Ra or Eye of Re, usually depicted as sun disk or right wedjat-eye (paired with the Eye of Horus, left wedjat-eye), is an entity in ancient Egyptian mythology that functions as an extension of the sun god Ra‘s power, equated with the disk of the sun, but it often behaves as an independent goddess, a feminine counterpart to Ra and a violent force that subdues his enemies. This goddess, also known with the theonym Wedjat, can be equated with several particular deities, including Hathor, Sekhmet, Bastet, Raet-Tawy, Menhit, Tefnut, and Mut. The eye goddess acts as mother, sibling, consort, and daughter of the sun god. She is his partner in the creative cycle… The eye’s violent aspect defends Ra against the agents of disorder that threaten his rule. This dangerous aspect of the eye goddess is often represented by a lioness or by the uraeus, or cobra, a symbol of protection and royal authority. The disastrous fury and rampages of the eye goddess and the efforts of the gods to appease her are a prominent motif in Egyptian mythology.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Ra
We’re in Thunderbolts territory now. Hopefully I’ve guided my Bird here with success and the real experts can takeover a narrative. I believe, as David Talbott and his colleagues believe, that human witnesses recorded their experiences with an accuracy equal to their understanding and ability. According to Ev Cochrane, The Eye is Venus; Ra’s counterpart Hathor/Sekhmet is Venus –once a blinding and terrible comet that rained fire, stone, ash and death over the earth on her way to a new home near the sun, our Sun and not the other (Saturn).
Bronze Age Northmen left this message:
Image source: Norway, rock carvings https://www.arild-hauge.com/helleristngbild.htm
The oldest Norwegian petroglyphs were made by the indigenous Sami who still hold territory in former Lapland (Finnmark) and may have migrated there over land from Siberia (using sledges and sleds) many thousands of years earlier. The design content of similar sites is full of antlered deer/elk, odd stick-men, ‘sun crosses’ and boxy hash markings. These reindeer herding people could be imagining their own ancient exodus from peril and not that of the Raven-bearing sea folk who brought “Thought” and “Memory” –Odin’s ravens—into our western cultural lore. Their language is derived from the Uralic group. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languages; rare antique photos of nordic Sami https://www.vintag.es/2016/02/40-rare-and-interesting-photos-of.html
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In Thunderbolts video: ‘Remembering the End of the World’ (full documentary), listen for the first sounds of nature in the film –from Kronia Commuications—and you will hear rain on water and a call of the raven. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oophJNlP-fk&list=PLwOAYhBuU3UfvhvcT1lZA6KbSdh0K2EpH&index=4
Image sources: sleeping goddess of Malta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC1KEFTuIos; cgi bird brain https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/12/1/34
I have one astronomical detail to add at present:“Corvus is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its name means “crow” in Latin… In the Babylonian star catalogues dating from at least 1100 BCE, what later became known as Corvus was called the Raven (MUL.UGA.MUSHEN). As with more familiar Classical astronomy, it was placed sitting on the tail of the Serpent (Greek Hydra). The Babylonian constellation was sacred to Adad, the god of rain and storm; in the second Millennium BCE it would have risen just before the autumnal rainy season… Corvus is associated with the myth of Apollo and his lover Coronis the Lapith… Two established meteor showers originate from within Corvus’ boundaries. German astronomer Cuno Hoffmeister discovered and named the Corvids in 1937, after observing them between June 25 and July 2… The shower has been tentatively linked with [comet/asteroid] 4015 Wilson–Harrington.[76] In January 2013, the MO Video Meteor Network published the discovery of the Eta Corvids, assigning some 300 meteors seen between January 20 and 26.[77] Their existence was confirmed by data analysis later that year… In Action Comics #14 (January 2013), which was published 7 November 2012, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson appears in the story, in which he determines that Superman‘s home planet, Krypton, orbited the red dwarf LHS 2520 in the constellation Corvus, 27.1 light-years from Earth. Tyson assisted DC Comics in selecting a real-life star that would be an appropriate parent star to Krypton, and picked the star in Corvus,[80][81] the mascot of Superman’s high school, the Smallville Crows.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvus_(constellation)
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