The greatest of all mysteries is that of intelligent man's origin: homo sapiens - where and when  did he begin? Giant humans and gods, or semi-humans, dominate the story in myth and legend round the world, in all written records.  Many theories on the subject have been advanced, some of them radical, that is, not at all genuflecting to mainstream academia. With the general decline in traditional religious belief and acceptance has come a more open debate, much of it frankly anti-(conventional)-religious.  Even the thoughts of such as Charles Darwin on the evolution of man who can by no means said to be (in his famous book) conformist, are assailed by radical writers on the origin of the species, man. These writers propound the viewpoint that the history of intelligent man cannot be separated from the history of the earth itself and the fundamental changes it has experienced over aeons of time.

Tiahuanaco

     One of the most intriguing puzzles is that of the city of Tiahuanaco and the nearby lake Titicaca.  It is clear from evidence found in the area that at one time both places were much lower - or sea levels were much higher.  Both propositions are hard to comprehend. Saurat in his book ATLANTIS AND THE GIANTS, claims to know the solution.  His succinct explanation is deserving of quotation.
     "Round the earth there revolved a satellite, in some ways comparable to our present moon (which was not there then) - though smaller than the moon is - at a distance of five to six earth radii. Nowadays the tides rise and fall because our present moon is some sixty times the length of the earth's radius, some two hundred and forty thousand miles away from us and takes a comparatively long time to revolve round the earth.  But the earlier  moon being by then much nearer, revolved much more quickly and the waters attracted by its pull had no time to recede.  A permanent tide kept all the waters of the earth accumulated in a great bulge right round the planet, roughly between the tropics.  In the Andes this bulge was more than twelve thousand feet high - to prove it there is a line of sediment which can be followed for nearly four thousand miles."
 
     As with other famous ancient sites there  remain  roundabout immense blocks of dressed stone, whose transportation alone is mystifying: methods of handling which the ancient  knew and which have subsequently been lost.  The statuary of the site shows a tremendously high degree of skill in its proportions and harmony.  It is hard, gazing at the area, not to believe that giant hands (and minds) were involved in the construction.
     Giant beings existed on earth millenia ago according to a theory advanced by Saurat (and before him by Hans Hoerbiger, a radical writer of great and original importance whom we shall be considering in some detail.)

The Moon - and past ones

     The theory's central tenet is that the present moon is not the first or only moon the earth has had. Predecessors have crashed to earth.  The moon, the theory states, travels round the earth not in a closed ellipse but in a diminishing spiral and this decreasing orbit will in the end [millions of years ahead] cause it to crash in its turn.  In similar fashion, a first, a second and a third moon have already crashed. Eventually the two bodies, planet and satellite, go round together, until the fall of the satellite is accelerated and it finally revolves quicker than the earth: this is Saurat's thesis. At this time, as we have stated, the force of gravity is diminished because of the proximity of the moon, and giantism results.
     Hence it was giant beings who built or directed others to build the gigantic monoliths and statues of Tiahuanaco - on their own scale. The giants eventually disappeared as the world changed, but their monuments and myriad stories of their prowess round the world remain.
     Real giants once walked the earth; a remote civilisation was their source of later ones; cultures evolve and decay: this is the burden so far.  What is unclear is whether we at present are survivors of a very remote civilisation or are at the beginning of a new one. After the crash of a moon gravitation increases and everything has a downward tendency - before the earth captures a new satellite.  Maybe the biblical story of the Fall echoes this time.  The only survivors are those who manage to retain vestiges of the happy time; slowly, humanity begins its ascent again. In ages remote, as the Bible tells, though it never connects the two unambiguously, extreme longevity was the lot of (certain) men at the same time as giants flourished.

Andean culture

     The Andean civilisation created many monoliths which puzzle us today with regard to their purpose and symbolism.  All these monoliths says Saurat, must have been placed and cut by giants - for ordinary men's use? Why  should gigantic statues ever have been set up, he asks, if there had not once been gigantic men? They must have had a purpose - or represented the giants themselves. The skills and arts of living were, according to tradition, taught to mankind by god-kings who were of giant stature.  Some of these skills were undoubtedly directed towards toil - working the land. Huge implements have been found in the Mediterranen area and in northern Africa which could not possibly have been used by ordinary mortals.  The cutting and finish of the tools clearly bespeak a definite utilitarian purpose.
     Returning to the theme of the first two paragraphs of this chapter, it is clear that  a flood catastrophe had occurred in the Andean countries which while destroying most of the population had not destroyed all, and indeed the remnant , probably augmented by migrations from nearby lands, determined to build anew a fresh civilisation, as highly cultured and skilled, if not greater, than that  which had been well-nigh obliterated.   One only has to look at the supreme mastery with which the builders of Tiahuanaco handled and shaped their hard stones. How they cut this tough stone with bronze tools is one of the many mysteries of the site; it seems as if they had the long lost secret of hardening bronze - or had other implements. It does appear that the dwellers of Tiahuanaco, like those of the pyramids, built on such a massive scale with the hardest stone, in order to perpetuate a symbol, a belief, a religion,  - or a sign to others coming after.

A Destructive Flood

      However another inundation occurred which brought to an end this high culture. Just before this sudden flood, a period of great volcanic activity was the catalyst for the pluvial destruction. I say sudden because just as at Easter Isle, the building sites and quarries give the appearance of an almost impulsive abandonment.  (Bellamy gives an explanation for the catastrophe which came upon the Tiahuancoan area in the light of Hoerbiger's cosmic theory: cosmic missiles raining down on earth from the wreckage of the satellite, the then moon.  And then with the satellite's pull gone the sea began to sink! But more about this intriguing theory later.) The climate itself began to change and of course with it flora and fauna.  Eventually these topographical changes, and the accompanying lack of available foodstuffs, the barrenness and the cold  became inimical to life, even to giant life.  Tiahuanaco became abandoned and indeed forgotten for many centuries, millenia would be more accurate.
     Survivors degenerated, without leadership, into a primitive condition, and so they remained until the coming of the Aztecs many, many years later who took little interest in the ruins of the once great city. It is only comparatively recently that an awakening interest has been shown in these great amd mysterious sites.  Who were these builders and their mentors - if not supremely gifted beings?  An intriguing fact has however come to light: discovered portrait heads show beyond doubt that elongation of the skull was practised - or was genetic.  This reminds us of an earlier observation we made regarding large headed beings.  These portrait heads also denote an openess of expression, an energy, a boldness, which can be best described as a clear intelligence.  Their achievements corroborate this impression; the inexplicably high technical development which is seen in the "Calendar" sculpted on the Great Gate of the Sun Temple of Kalasasaya, whose astounding accuracy is proved today.

HOERBIGER AND HIS THEORIES

     Hoerbiger, an Austrian cosmologist, exploded his theories about the earth's past in 1913 on a world which was not ready to receive them. His theories were contained in a book called COSMIC ICE THEORY. Debate still rages as to their acceptability.  He has his devotees among whom are notably Saurat and Bellamy.  An outline of his principal views follows, which as we have adumbrated earlier has a bearing upon the phenomena of giantism.
     According to Hoerbiger," our present moon has not always been the companion of our earth", as Bellamy states in ATLANTIS MYTH (p. 40).  About 15000 years ago our planet had no satellite. There were no tides as a consequence.  Among the planets observed at that time was the strange planet called Luna, which travelled between the orbit of earth and Mars.  At times Luna shone more brightly when it was observed that the sea waters rose above their normal tide lines. This lighter planet, Luna, in time had got into the active gravitational pull of the larger body, earth, and so became earth's satellite.  This happened according to Hoerbiger some 15000 years ago.
     The technical details given by Hoerbiger regarding growingly eccentric orbits and gravitational pulls are too complex to be gone into here, but one of the crucial points made is that at a critical stage the two planets moved side by side with almost identical speeds for quite a long way and consequently  Luna would glide harmlessly nearer.  In the event, Luna was "captured" by the larger planet, earth after something of a cosmic struggle.  This change-over, as Bellamy describes, from the moonless age to the satellite one was accompanied by a world-wide cataclysm.  Luna had become bigger and brighter, and its speed and direction changed.  The gravitational pull of the new satellite "wrenched the globe into a new, slightly flatter shape.  As a result, earthquakes of great violence convulsed the earth". (p. 45)  The greatest change however was the redistribution of the waters of the oceans, which tended mainly to gather around mid earth, that is to say, near the tropical zones. All this naturally had a devastating effect on mankind, wiping out of existence whole nations. Significantly according to Hoerbiger theory, Atlantis was one place that had existed in those lost land areas.
     Hoerbiger adduces that the eventual "rise" of the land out of the sea was only the result of the withdrawal of the waters. "External cosmic causes, the capture of the planet, Luna, and the resulting new system of permanent gravitational stresses, caused tremendous universal changes." (p. 47)   The loss of Atlantis therefore it may be deduced was not, as Bellamy puts it, a mere local occurrence but only one aspect of contemporaneous, sudden geophysical changes. It is central to our (and Bellamy's thesis) that the Atlanteans had sufficient warning to mount a mass evacuation of their homestead and begin a mass migration into other lands.

Links with the Bible story

     It was not, according to our theorists, that men were exterminated  because they had become aggressive by a cataclysm; it was because of the impending cataclysm that they became aggresive.  In an echo of the biblical story, we read of the cross-breeding of the men of divine descent (the Atlanteans) with common mortals, a mingling of races, which occurred when the coastal low-lying areas  were first occupied by the migrants and the upland tribes, the indigenous people, were forcibly "colonised". A strange progeny resulted.
     The Book of Revelation according to John can be read, interpreted, in two ways: either as a religious document of terrifying portent, or as a sort of allegory,  making sense if seen in the light of a cosmic theory such as that of Hoerbiger.  One of Bellamy's books is devoted to this latter view: (THE BOOK OF REVELATION). He is convinced that John's Book is so much more valuable "because it approaches the subject of the loss of Atlantis from a quite different angle" - (from Plato's story). (p. 119).
      The Book of Revelation and others, especially Ezekiel, notably chapter 26, seem to tell of mankind's decline after the flood attendant on the capture of Luna by earth. This post capture world was impoverished. A lapse into primitivism occurred.  Man took ages to rise to rise again. The degeneration encompassed giantism and mankind became smaller. National and international systems, according to the cosmic "capture" theory were greatly impaired (at least) along with political, scientific, and artistic balances.

ORIGINAL THINKERS ABOUT EARTH'S PAST

      Hoerbiger (and Bellamy) had two noteworthy predecessors in cosmic theory encompassing history of the earth.  In 1882 Ignatius Donnelly, an American, published ATLANTIS, THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD, which chose as its starting point Plato's myth of Atlantis.  The book was a great success at the time but as with Hoebiger later, led to no further research on the topic. It was too much before its time. Donnelly implied that giant minds in giant bodies had left ubiquitously monuments to their existence.
      It was half a century later that Donnelly's theme was taken up seriously by Lewis Spence.  In his books, THE PROBLEM OF ATLANTIS and THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIS Spence reasoned cogently for the continent, or island's, existence, while in THE OCCULT SCIENCES OF ATLANTIS, his most valuable study appropriate to our theme, he discusses  some important matters.
      Much of Spence's last named book is concerned with establishing the rationale for the existence of Atlantis and the Atlanteans.  Many references to Greek belief are made and parallels drawn.  This is not our prime concern, but statements are made in his book which are of undoubted relevance to it (our concern).

A Giant Pantheon

      The pantheon of Atlantis, according to Spence, was definitely a Titanic one (the huge creatures of Greek mythology) which bore a specific resemblance to the ancient gigantic pantheon of Britain. Ancient  Gog and Magog are some of the better known giants of Britain; associated with Irish legend we have the giant Fomorians.  Scotland, Cornwall are some of the places where tales or legends about giants originated.
     These stories may be very old - we have no way of dating them accurately - and some of them may be antediluvian, in Spence's opinion, in the time of Atlantis, though the biblical story of the Deluge is at least  three centuries older than Plato's account of Atlantis. The Deluge story (which halted but did not end the giant races) was not originated by the Hebrews but was brought to Palestine and Egypt by the Phoenicians, six centuries before the Deluge story was written down by the Hebrews. By tradition, this Deluge was visited upon mankind because of its wickedness - and the endemic betrayal of "secret" knowledge by the divinely inspired genus to a lower order of men.
     The "gods" of the antediluvian era, we may presume, are the same as the Titans of Greek, or classical myth (about whom more anon) who in turn may be identified with the "Sons of God" of the Bible, and the fallen Angels of Christian literature later.  The Rebel Angels, or the "Sons of God", as Spence tells,  are not only to be identified with the Titans but also with the sons of Seth who was a son of Adam. A key section from THE OCCULT SCIENCES (p. 26) reads:
     "The notion that these apostates from the higher caste were "angels" only makes its appearance in The Book of Enoch and by Josephus [the Jewish historian of the first century AD] who identifies these "angels" with the Titans. This idea was embraced by the early Christian writers ...who gave full currency to it in the myth of the Fallen/Rebel Angels namely, Lucifer and his host. In the Book of Genesis they are only "the Sons of God" and not "angels" in any sense. [They were] identified with the celestial spheres ...and came to be associated with the stars, and the vault of heaven and so the legend arose that they had fallen thence to earth."

Descendants of giant beings

      Probably these giant beings are the "mythical" descendants of earlier antediluvian history, the "gods" or giants worshipped at megalithic centres all over Europe.  For Spence, Atlantean tradition is identical with the antediluvian world; and the story of this lost continent is nothing more than a recension of the biblical record of the fall of man and the attendant circumstances.  All germane sources suggest that mankind before the Flood had a more intimate relationship with the "Lord" which deteriorated but did not disappear after the Flood, as witness Enoch and others "walking with God" and receiving His counsel.
     An ancient gigantic parthenon exists in most literatures world-wide. For example, Poseidon in Greek mythology, was associated with the British giant-god Albion and the Titan Bergio, ancient British deities of whom there are many. War between gods and "Titans" is a frequent universal theme, shown for example in Irish myth and the conflicts between Arthur and his knights with British giants, but especially in Greek legend with which we shall deal more thoroughly later (and of course in biblical accounts).
 
PURPOSE OF THE MEGALITHS

      War, or at least killing, could have been one of the functions, or arenas, of the stone circles and standing stones found around the world.  These mega-and mono-lithic sites could have been also shrines of a cult of the dead, funerary monuments, as Spence adduces, of mighty giant ancestors who appeared to their descendants as being of god-like nature, presiding over the agricultural seasons and fixing the festivals associated with sacrifice.  Stonehenge may have been such a place, but was also the centre of a cult.  It may have been several things, but it is hard not to come to the conclusion that it was  a place built for ritual purposes, a sun or astronomical temple indeed, but basically a place connected with ancestral worship associated with the seasons.
      Unfortunately we have no authentic lore about the origin and purpose of our great monoliths.  We have mythic tales aplenty about giants, their belligerence - and sometimes about their beneficence.  We have mentioned the Irish Fomors, a race of sub-marine people who landed in Ireland, engaging in conflict with the national gods, the Tuatha.  The Fomors were reputed to be deformed giants having the heads of beasts, who came from a sunken land. British. or English, lore  from the distant past tells of ancient battles between invaders and indigenous giants while legend about  King Arthur (a semi-divine being) and his knights (suggested celtic gods) indicates that they believed their main job was to wipe out the giants of Britain.  This genre of story is replete with tales of conflict between giants and cunning mortals who may, alleges Spence, represent ancient gods or demi-gods, whose original names have been lost in antiquity.  In Scottish lore also there are many stories of conflict between giants, gigantic monsters and human mortals. In the Celtic literature and in tradition there are allusions to the biblical Fallen Angels who as we have said, are equated with Titans and with evil antediluvians.  The inference is clear that in most cases the first (or early) possessors of the land (wherever it may be) were giants who were eventually dispersed  by events or driven out by other peoples.
 
Has lore an explanation?

      Most of this lore or mythology can best be explained, says Bellamy, in the light of Hoerbiger's cosmic ice theory. Cosmological myths are seen as nothing less than eye witness reports handed down to us from remote times.  Paraphrasing Bellamy, myths attempt to interpret the forces active behind phenomena of nature.  They seek to explain the origin of things, of the gods, of man.  They are intended to inspire awe and reverence. Myths are not therefore mere exaggerated tales of local happenings but matter-of-fact reports of universal events. Something called a race-memory does appear to exist; Bellamy asks, is there also a much longer species-memory?  Myths certainly seem to tell their tale of cosmic events in a non-direct way, veiled and circuitous.  But it has to be remembered the sage of antiquity was not a scientist and he interpreted things according to the state of knowledge then in existence.  Myths tend not to be simple but rather composite in nature, deriving information from several different sources, some of which will be foreign.
     Much lore and myth, as we have stated, is concerned with war between god/heros and giant/Titans.  In Greek mythology, the fight for supremacy in heaven and earth, as Bellamy puts it, is fought between the Titans, Cyclops and giants on one side, and Olympian gods on the other. Similar themes are encountered in predominantly Germanic, Norse and Icelandic lore.  It needs to be reiterated at this juncture that the warring, gods and giants, and all attendant detail are interpreted, symbolically, by Bellamy in the light of cosmic theory propounded by Hoerbiger. (For a fuller understanding of this line of thought see MOONS, MYTH AND MAN.)

Tall Building

     Tower building legend handed down from antiquity is commonplace; so much so that the conclusion seems inescapable that building towers, high mounds and ziggurats (early pyramids, to simplify) and the occurrence of the great flood are connected. Pyramid building proper happened only much later when some nations, Egyptians, Babylonians, Mexicans attained a high culture.
     The most famous of the tower building stories is that contained in the Bible concerning the so-called Tower of Babel, in or near "Babylon". This we deduce happened soon (comparatively) after the creation of the world.  There are many myths about the creation, all of which appear to be inseparably connected with tales of deluge and destruction.  The story of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, is symbolical of God's power to create harmony, what is only good for His creation: man; it is allegorical because it represents a pure (at first) desirable relationship between man and his helpmate, woman, who is clearly regarded as subject to Adam; denoting a generally accepted inferior role for females. After the Flood, society was reborn and the human race began again. Greek myth has the story of Deukalion and Pyrrha who between them populated the earth anew, (which we shall discuss later in the sections on Greek mythology).

THE ASCENT OF MAN

      In his chapter, "The Rise and Fall of Man" Bellamy writes that man did not rise to manhood  of his own accord; he was urged to assume his shape and to develop his capacities "by the dying satellites of our planet". This is according to strict Hoerbiger theory and it may well be true.  Who is able to DISPROVE it?  Whether this statement is accepted or not, the underlying message is of much importance in view of the cosmological theories, advanced by such as Sitchin (and others)  we shall be looking at in the final section of this book.
     Before his rise to manhood and before indeed the all-encompassing inundation, it appears that man, and his far-seeing leaders, attempted to escape the floods, as we seen, by undertaking huge building works.  One  mystery of some of these sites is how were the immense blocks of stone transported; were they quarried from places near by but now submerged by the sea? Pointing out the lack of great building tradition  exhibited by present indigenous races, Bellamy comes to an important conclusion: "Evidently the builders [of the great monuments] were not the ancestors of the present inhabitants but an extinct prelunar race that was wiped out by the capture cataclysm ..." (p. 274).  The Great Flood occurred several hundred thousand years ago and was occasioned by the breakdown of the earth's then satellite. Much later occurred the capture of Luna by the earth, itself a catastrophe which not only halted mankind but  threw man back almost to his beginnings.  Myth and legend relate how strangers of a different race and stature came eventually to bring culture anew to peoples who had sunk into lethargy and decay.

DARING COSMIC THEORY: ITS PRINCIPLES

      In order to give some idea of a theory that is (or was) so daring, revolutionary and relevant to the present thesis, I can do no better  than give a brief introduction to the first principles of Hoerbiger's Cosmogonic Theory.  I quote (or paraphrase in places) Bellamy's words (on page 16 of his A LIFE HISTORY OF OUR EARTH).
     This history [aeons ago] starts with a huge cold body, a burnt out super-sun  on its lone path through space which happens to trespass into the gravitational realm of one of the vast red-glowing super-giants like Betelgeuse. Pulled out of its path the cold super-star approached and dashed deep into the glowing super-giant - and the energies unchained by that terrific plunge transformed part of the stellar material involved into an atomic or subatomic state.  An immense explosion cloud of this nuclearized material, continues Bellamy,  mushroomed away from the stellar giant and hurled itself out into space with almost inconceivable velocity. An observer in the depths of the universe would have registered this event as the appearance in his heavens of a magnificent super-nova. With the "materialisation" out of the explosion cloud, a new force, gravity, began to form. Numerous bigger and smaller mass centres evolved...round a central mass accumulation...Thus the material of the original chaotic explosion cloud became gathered into a "system" consisting of a central "sun" and a certain number of "planets" swinging round
it.

Earth's satellites

      The satellites therefore according to Hoerbiger played a crucial part in the life history of our planet; without them the earth would never have evolved as it has and would never have been able to sustain life, and later the giant life which developed.  The geological ages of the earth are reckoned, states Hoerbiger, from the capture of one satellite to the capture of the next. Each geological age consists of a satellitic aeon and an aeon without a satellite.
      In his chapter "The Satellites and Life on our Earth", Bellamy points out that in the Carboniferous (about 300 million years ago) and Mesozoic (roughly 200 million years ago) periods, animals and plants grew to an enormous size.  Conventional biology or geology give no reasons for this growth but viewed from the perspective of the Hoebiger theories the phenomenon  becomes intelligible.  Omitting detail, the giant satellite existing at the Devonian period (about 400 million years ago),  speeded up the terrestial rotation so much (a fifteen hour day) that the cells of the then existing plants, already greatly excited by the various other influences, as the theory maintains, responded to the loss of "weight" by growing to a great height. At the end of the Carboniferous era these giant growths became extinct.  However, the Carboniferous satellite continued to speed up the earth's rotation so that the day became even shorter.  As a result, the cells of the existing animals responded with giant growth. Eventually the stresses of the cataclysm at the end of the Mesozoic period brought about the extinction of these huge beasts. A new type, the mammals, the rationale claims, came to the fore and in time became the most important species.  When the satellite of the Tertiary period (about 65 million years ago, which lasted some 63 million years and saw the evolution of primitive mammals and man-like apes) began its quickening rotational influence on the earth with the result that "weight" began to decrease again, the size of the mammals began to increase. Man may have begun to walk upright during this period.
      Bellamy's conclusion to his chapter is worth quoting:
     "The ages of great geomorphological change are also times of great biomorphological mutation; any alteration in the physical make-up of our earth ...would of necessity result in corresponding changes in the plant and animal life it bears".

The Moon - a sister of the Earth

      Our present moon consists of a metal/mineral core surrounded by a glaciosphere about 200 miles thick. This latter fact explains why the moon which is only fifty times smaller than the earth yet is  eighty times lighter. The moon, according to Hoerbiger, is a "sister" of the earth and not a "child". The moon, because of its small size, has no protective "gas coat" as Bellamy puts it, so that its shoreless ocean/s must consist of ice, not water.  This fact has been borne out by very recent investigation, (1999) derived from the Lunar Prospector satellite, which testifies to the presence of billions of tons of ice just under the moon's surface.
     The capture of "Luna", our present moon, led initially to a climatic breakdown, marked by severe cold, which froze the mammoths and caused the waters to freeze over. Eventually however a state of comparative warmth and calm was reached.  According to the theory, the moon approaches all the time (although there is some tenuous evidence to contradict this); eventually in its spiral it will cause great destruction and will finally disintegrate. Cataclysms will sweep over the earth;  and finally the earth will, as Bellamy puts it, settle down again to its final decay, Before this stage is reached though,  a new age of giantism will  appear.

      Giants and monsters are a staple feature of all mythology and folk lore.  The universality of the subject gives us pause and is indicative of a belief rooted in the deepest psyche of humanity throughout the ages. It cannot be mere "myth"; it is something more: a race memory handed down from antiquity. We have tried to present evidence and reasoned argument which may convince - or may not.  Time now to consider the pre-eminent mythology of the Greeks and their  beliefs in giants and gods.
 
© A.B. Finlay Ph.D