At a recent SIS study group meeting the Eskimo claim they could hear aurora was discussed, which has recently been verified by scientists. They said it sounded like the gods were treading on ice packed snow, with a sort of 'ch ch' sound, and a connection was made with various gods of old, such as Cuchulainn (Ireland) and Kukulcan (South America) and so on. In the context of the 776AD event there is an interesting parallel. It is generally recognised that in that year, there was a massive injection of C14 into the atmosphere, either from a large CME outburst from the Sun or from a distant supernova. It has also been recognised that meteors or fragments of comets travelling through the atmosphere can be heard as well as being seen as a burst or flash of bright light. Sound cannot travel faster than light and this fact was long disputed. It is now thought, by some, that a meteor causes a plasma sheaf to run before its head – and in so doing sound can occur before the flash of light – or at the same time. Did this happen in 776 – as the Hawaiians date Ku Kani lo ko at around that time, and in Japan, Ku Kai is said to have made an appearance. The similarity in name with the electrophonic sound may or may not be significant. It could also apply to an auroral storm that was seen further south than normally so, or to the arrival of a cosmic object. The problem is there are no records of a meteor crashing through the atmosphere at that date and scientists have since downgraded the energy necessary as far as a CME is concerned. In any event the old gods do appear to have features in common with auroral phenomena. The jury is out.
This ch ch ch sound bite sounds like a bit of nonsense – or over speculation, not something to concern serious scientists. It is intriguing and being realistic it should be the kind of phenomena that may have played an important role in mythology and tales associated with gods. Were they strong and silent – or noisy and quarrelsome? Until more information is available on 776AD there is not a lot to be said but the cock appears in a blog post I was glancing at the other night, at http://heritageofjapan.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/an-examination-of-japane…
The fact that the word cock sounds a bit like ch ch or kuku is what caught my attention – and the fact the cock has a distinct solar connection. That would be obvious of course as cocks are inclined to crow at daybreak (on the appearance of the Sun). What is the etymology of cock. Well, it can also mean to stand up, to be erect, to be prominent – as in the coma of a comet. Perhaps. In this context we also have associated words such as cock-sure, cock a hoop, cocky, and cockalorum (a self important individual). In the opposite sense we have cock shy (an object of ridicule), a cock and bull story (an incredible account) and a cock up (a muddle). What then grabs the attention is the cockatrice, a mythical creature with the head of a cockerel and the body of a serpent. What thus was the link between cock and the comet (assuming the serpent refers to the latter as it may also apply to aurora undulating in the atmosphere, winding like a snake in the grass).
Interpreting myth in a literal sense, or trying to make it comply with natural phenomena (of the unusual variety) is not the consensus view of things – somewhat like rock art, when it has an abstract feel, is thought to be symbolic – with an inner meaning only the anthropologist can tease out. Hence, when reading anything about myth it has to be borne in mind that we have all of us been influenced by this kind of interpretation and it is often rarely such things as images painted or carved on rock or the tales associated with larger than life gods of the ancient world, are thought to reflect anything more than superstition and abstract or drug induced shapes and images dredged out of mind altering addictions. It is also worth bearing in mind that modern secularists are in a complete state of disbelief when it comes to legends and myth, or religious heroes and villains. Not a lot we can do about that – but might they not be missing something.
Catastrophism, as opposed to uniformitarianism, is able to embrace a literal interpretation of legends, folktales, and myth (as well as what is often described as ritual and religion). This doesn't mean catastrophic interpretations are any more likely than the uniformitarian ones – only that they can be looked at through a different lens. In that context, the role of the rooster (cock) in mythic sources is interesting. It's also fun to be a little liberal with the material.
There is one problem here and that is the origins of the word cock, as cock is applied to the woodcock (a male wood pigeon) and to the cock robin (a male robin) as well as the cockerel. The pigeon and the robin also figure rather prominently in myth and folktale, and the cock pheasant with its colourful plumage. Therefore, for the moment, the possibility the word cock has nothing to do with ch ch or kuku will be ignored. What comes across is that your average cockerel is a shadow of the old one, the cock that crowed in the sky at some point in the past, a terrifying apparition that made a commotion in the sky – not unlike a meteor or comet. The modern cockerel is a symbolic representation of the mythic cock (and his doodle doo).
On the blog link above the cock is described as a rooster, the cock that crows at dawn, symbolically victorious over the depths of darkness (the night) and heralding each new fine day. Yet, the rooster has universal connections with the Sun and veneration was widespread – especially in E and SE Asia. It was the tenth of the twelve animal symbols in the Chinese zodiac and the Chinese ideogram for the rooster is qi chi kai – which may or may not be signficant. In Feng Shui the red cock or rooster when painted on the walls of a house symbolised protection from fire – which implies the rooster (or the deity associated with it) was a fire raising object, such as the dragon (or sky serpent). The cockatrice, remember, was a cross between a cockerel and a serpent, and it could fly – as it did in one of the Harry Potter films. The cockatrice was a legendary beast that is usually dismissed as the product of imagination – but equally, it is not a leap of imagination to think it represented something seen in the sky and hastily drawn in the dirt, taking a stylised format over time and repetition.
In Japan the cock or rooster was associated with the noisy behaviour of the deities, in order to coax the Sun Goddess from the cave to which she had fled, in fear of the sky archer, hiding away. In other words, the Sun had disappeared for a spell and the deities were desperate to bring light back on Earth (or that part of the Earth). Rooster's crowing caused her to poke her head out of the cave – what was he crowing about, daybreak had not arrived. However, once she was out of the cave night and day were restored to the normal pattern of the cosmos. Cockerels are allowed to roam at certain Shinto temples – such as the Ise and Isonokani shrines.
It appears that cock fighting, in China, had its origins in a cult – much like bull fighting in Europe. Cock fighting was originally part of spring ritual – but for other reasons was moved to coincide with the Pure Brightness Festival. In Kerala in India erotic and ecstatic dances were associated with such festivals – and fertility is likewise associated with the Sun and its continuing existence in the heavens, source of warmth and sustenance on the surface of the Earth. The fear is expressed in the Japanese myth – where the Sun goddess hides away in a cave, out of sight, to the consternation of gods and humans. The idea of prolonged periods of darkness is not peculiar to East Asia as it appears in various legends and religious traditions – even in the Exodus account, and in Egyptian pyramid texts. The Earth passing through a very dense comet tail may be one interpretation – if a literal interpretation is required, or an object coming between the Earth and the Sun, even perhaps an extreme auroral event. In this context the Han Chinese myth of the divine archer Han-Yi, who shot three sun's out of the sky, or would be suns (meteors or comet fragments) has an interesting connection with the rooster crowing – was it associated with the sun's that died or the real Sun? Was it the meteors that made a noise as they entered the atmosphere? This tale is usually set in the context of the legendary emperor Yao. Paul Dunbavin, in his book Under Ancient Skies (see SIS Book Service) pp77, says the Canon of Yao describes a mythical pair, the brothers Hsi and Ho, who regulate the four cardinal points of the equinoxes and solstices. Each point is associated with a marker star and it may be seen that these do not correspond with the stars that currently mark the Sun's position at those positions in the seasons. Various scholars have suggested the phenomenon of precession can account for this and retrocalculation from this has back dated Yao to around 2400BC. Significantly, various people have suggested there was a major event around 2300BC, involving a meteor or comet debris (see for example Moe Mandelkehr, Marie Agnes Courty, and various papers available at http://cosmictusk.com). There was also a prominent tree ring event at 2350BC.
The cave and cock myth of the Japanese has a parallel among the Miao tribes of E and SE Asia and there is also a link with Japanese mtDNA (presumably post-Jomon). The Miao have a very strong association with caves, their ancestors forced to live in them for a period of time, perhaps in fear of natural phenomena. As such, they have cave festivals – there is even a Chinese Bagpipe Dance in caves. The idea of celebrating the caves is said to honour their ancestors – but the cave would have been an important part of the myth itself they were commemorating. One section of the Miao believe they are actually descendants of Houyi the celestial archer and the mythical marksman who shot down nine suns, leaving only the present one. His actions saved the world from overheating and the drying up of all fresh water. This tale has analogies with the Irish or Celtic myth of Balor, shot with a well aimed sling ball. He too was responsible for causing the vegetation to brown and shrivel and the rivers and lakes to dry up – but that was because he came close to the Earth. Likewise, the legend of the giant Alban or Albion, a similar dry episode was caused – merely by the presence of the giant (in the sky). Alban was a benevolent giant, it seems, as he began to cry for all the upset he had caused – and cry and cry until all the rivers filled up and overflowed and people drowned in the excess water. One interpretation, fanciful or otherwise, might be that moisture was sucked up into the upper atmosphere by a passing cosmic body emitting great heat, and as it passed by the clouds released the moisture – with heavy and persistent rainfall.
The Iban branch of the Dyak people of Borneo have a belief in a supreme deity as well as a cock and a cockfight in relation to the spiritual and religious. Humans mimiced the gods by becoming the fighting cocks of the god. A Dyak festival involves the cock fight as well as the passing of a cock over offerings while asking for blessings. The same cock was sacrificed and its blood became part of the offerings.
This one is something I didn't know. Apparently the Assyro-Babylonian god (of plague and war) Nergal, has the meaning 'a dung hill rooster' (Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Brewer: 1900). Nergal was also represented by Mars – emblem of bloodshed and god of war. In pre-Islamic Arabia bedouin attributed generosity to the cock, an idea bound up with hens laying eggs, pehaps, and this idea seems to have passed into Islam as The Prophet is alleged to claim the white rooster as his friend because it announces the presence of the Angel. This is an interesting concept in itself – as angels could well have been meteors or comets in the pre-Islamic world. The Prophet, of course, lived at the end of the pagan world and the new world ushered in by his religion, and this is not the only theme from the past adopted. Crested helmets worn by ancient warriors, such as the Carians, may have a connection with the prominent crest of the cockerel, and the sacrifice of a cock and a cockfight are said to be part of the Imbolc festival of the Celtic goddess Brigid. A cock was also a specific attribute of Apollo, and when a cock is placed on a church spire it assumes the role of protector (although it is usually associated with a weather vane, and which way the wind is blowing). On the Bayeux Tapestry (1070s) there is a depiction of a man installing a cock on Westminster Abbey, signifying the victory of France over England (in the form of the Normans).
Lots of links and information are provided by the blog author and this is just a selection of what he has to say.