The word flu is short for influenza. It comes from the Italian word for 'influence' and has meant 'epidemic' since at least 1504. Both the Italian and English words are ultimately derived from the Latin influere, meaning 'to flow in.' Ancient and Medieval minds believed that an ethereal liquid flowed from the stars and affected the destiny of humans, and thus the belief that the stars influence the course of disease is an old and pervasive one. But could there be a grain of truth in this ancient perception?Last August I posted an article that revealed how ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, and Mesoamerican cultures described Venus Morningstar as a evil sign and portend of disease and destruction.
I believe its cycles may be used to look at pandemic patterns. I became curious if Venus cycles may hold some mathematical model for mutation of viruses as its 8 year pentagonal orbit pointed to a Fibonacci sequence or 5 element phase transition discussed in Chinese Medical models.
I did find other research that explored similar themes. However, the causative factor that these researchers suggested was very literal: that viruses exist in Venus' upper atmosphere without hosts and migrate to earth during certainly planetary lineups.
So you may ask, why doesn't the harsh radiation environment between Venus and Earth destroy in transit? Their answer: Venusian cloud-colony bacteria may serve as the viral hosts and, when clumped together, as radiation shielding viral spacecraft. But before you start laughing, check out this article posted by Space.com. Could the ethereal liquid described by ancient seers actually be a plasma burst that pushes viral clouds into the earth's atmosphere?
Since then I have found other research that points to another astronomical connection of influenza patterns with the 11 year sunspot cycles. This line of research intrigued me on a personal level because I have noticed a shift in my own health that corresponds to solar flare activity. I actually feel physically stronger and more awake when a CME (coronal mass ejection) showers the earth with charged protons. This feeling is actually what got me interested in space weather several years ago.
In 2004 John W.K. Yeung hypothesized that sunspot numbers can detect pandemic influenza A between 1700 and 2000 A.D. in this fascinating study.
This type of sunspot research has shown surprising correlations between sunspot activity and human health (and behavior). Historically mutations in the influenza virus, and subsequent flu pandemics, correlate to sunspot peaks. During no less than 17 of the last solar cycles, sunspot peaks precede increased flu activity, including the 1918-19 "Spanish Flu" pandemic which followed a sunspot peak in 1917. During at least five of these periods, the Influenza-A virus underwent antigenic shifts that allowed the virus to bypass built-up immunity in the population. Could those five periods relate at all to one of the 5 inferior conjunctions of Venus?
Research conducted by Bio-meteorological Research Center in the Netherlands proposes that solar activity causes lowered human immunity in a 30 year study using 740,000 male subjects which demonstrated that blood sedimentation rates and resulting albumin and gamma globulin rates—changes with the sunspot cycle. However, this does not concur with my own experience of feeling stronger under increased activity, as though the Lyme's spirochete in my own body are dissolved by the increased photon activity. In my own case, my immunity 'feels' stronger, not weaker, when the KP index rises above 4. Now I'm wondering if it is the Lyme spirochetes or my own cells that are mutating and transforming under this solar activity.
According to historical records nearly all past flu pandemics coincided with Solar Maximums. However, in 2008 we began to enter what appears to be a deep solar minimum.
During this strange Solar Minimum NASA recorded no sunspots on 266 days in 2008 - a level of inactivity not seen since 1913 - and 2009 may be even quieter. And Sunspot Cycle 24 has been a little slow taking off triggering fevered debate among scientists about what it means for Earth's climate.Ah, here's the problem with the sunspot theory in relationship to the H1N1 outbreak: we are no where near Solar Maximum and thus lack the high solar radiation that appears to have mutated the virus in the past.
So what else could have contributed to the mutation of H1N1? Although the sun has been quiet, cosmic rays have increased.
According to Linda Moulton Howe at earthfiles.com:
The number of cosmic rays reaching Earth are lower when the sun is active and has a strong, turbulent magnetic field that interferes with cosmic ray travel. But when the sun is not active, more cosmic rays reach Earth. The sun is supposed to be in an increasingly active period of Solar Cycle 24 with a solar maximum originally expected in 2011 to 2012. But the sun has been abnormally quiet. Scientists have not seen such a persistently low sunspot number for at least a century. Further, the magnetic field of the sun is at the lowest strength measured in at least 50 years.
Beginning six months ago, ACE satellite data showed a rise in cosmic rays reaching Earth from the Milky Way galaxy. By now, cosmic ray intensity has increased 19% because our sun is so quiet that its reduced magnetic field isn’t deflecting cosmic rays like it has the past few decades. If our sun remains quiet, there could be a 30% increase in cosmic rays reaching Earth in the next year or so – an intensity not seen since 1960. Increased cosmic rays can damage electronic systems and even DNA in living creatures.
So cosmic rays can also damage and mutate DNA, and perhaps lower our immunity making us more susceptible. But there is also evidence to the contrary: that cosmic rays may trigger evolutionary shifts? There is evidence that gamma ray bursts in the past may have triggered evolutionary shifts in humans. Andrew Collin's Cygnus Mystery is a fascinating study of archeological and geological evidence that points to this stellar influence on human evolution and consciousness.
Collins writes:
Moreover, I feel sure that at least a proportion of the cosmic rays that arguably caused mutagenic changes in DNA during Palaeolithic times came from the direction of Cygnus [the Swan], the location searched originally both by anthropological writer Denis Montgomery and ex-NASA scientist and astronomer Aden Meinel for a source of cosmic rays hitting the Earth.
Such an intrusion into human consciousness from a deep space object in the Cygnus region might well explain why the cosmic bird [swan] has been at the heart of religious beliefs and practices since Palaeolithic times. Worldwide, there is a tradition concerning a sky-bird that either lays a cosmic egg which then becomes the universe, or gives forth a honk, or call, that brings the universe into manifestation. It is present in India, Egypt and even in the Pacific South Seas, and in each instance the bird is said to be represented by the stars of Cygnus.
The bird symbolism of Cygnus has a synchronistic connection to A-H1N1. The solar flare theory suggestions that Influenza A comes from birds whose migratory paths are effected by shifts in the magnetic fields that occur with CMEs.
Antigenic shift of influenza occurs is a result of genetic reassortment between animal and human influenza A viruses. It is suggested the viruses spread from the migratory birds to other avian species such as chicken or ducks along their migratory pathways. Solar activity has an influence on terrestrial climate in terms of temperature, rainfall, storms and finally the biological systems. It was shown that the arrival dates of some migratory birds were delayed with increased sunspot numbers. This delay arrival may be associated with increased contacts with other susceptible birds in their migratory routes that facilitate genetic reassortment of the circulating influenza viruses.
Whether local (solar) or galactic (cosmic), bursts of radiation appear to be shifting and altering life on a cellular level. There is even evidence that viruses have themselves triggered changes in human evolution. For example, when the mapping of the human genome was completed in 2003, researchers discovered a shocking fact: our bodies are littered with the shards of retroviruses, fragments of the chemical code from which all genetic material is made. Virus may have contributed to our own evolution.
So if this round of influenza was not triggered by solar flares of an active sun, or even cosmic rays, what else may have mutated H1N1? Conspiracy circles certainly have suggested that this virus was bio-engineered, and the pandemic a man-made event. As this article suggests,the truth is probably more prosaic: the virus is far more likely to be a product of our lust for bacon than of a hatred for humanity.
Certainly there is plenty of evidence that inhumane farming practices have created breeding grounds for mutant strains of influenza. But I have to say the re-framing of the 'Swine Flu' as A-H1N1 may allay some pork eaters fears, but does create grist for the cynics mill.
Once again I return to my Venus Morningstar theory. Last Spring when Venus was at her inferior conjunction with the sun, she was retrograde in the sign of her exaltation, Pisces, which reverses and creates a debilitation. Moreover, she was conjunct a debilitated Mercury in Pisces. Astrologically this line up indicates that the asuras, ie viruses, were no longer kept in line. Astronomically the sun was quiet, but had we experienced a solar flare, perhaps the virus would have been more virulent. This fall Venus was temporarily debilitated again and the numbers of cases of H1N1 increased, but were far below the numbers predicted by the WHO. Again, perhaps we are avoiding a bullet by experiencing this deep solar minimum.
Venus will make her superior conjunction on January 13, 2010 and return to her sweet position as evening star, goddess of love for 10 months. She will continue to dance between the earth and sun as morningstar and eveningstar, as she has done since the beginning of human time.
In Hindu mythology Venus is called Shukra, the son of the great seer Bhrigu who was an astrologer that taught Venus all of the spiritual sciences and scriptures. According to Vedic tradition Venus is the preceptor, or teacher, of the asuras, demons or lost souls. The word asura is derived from the root Asu, meaning 'to breath' or 'to be'. According to the Bhagavad Gita (16.6), all beings in the Universe partake either of the divine qualities (Daivi Sampad = suras) or the demonic qualities (Asuri Sampad = asuras). Perhaps Venus is not a harbinger of plagues, but a gate keeper who watches over shifts of consciousness and evolutionary change of both suras and asuras alike.
Namaste!
UPDATE:
One last thought on Venus Morningstar and Solar Flares: Perhaps the reason Venus Morningstar was described as a disease-producing position is that the planet Venus would rise with the sun and therefore be more susceptible to solar flare activity than Venus Evening star, whose position would be away from the sun? Could a Venusian-viral cloud truly be carried by a CME? This may explain why the Maya tracked both Venus and the Sun in their calendar systems. It would make a fascinating research project to check the solar flare data with Venus cycles, anyone?
