Carl Sagan's Dark Sister and Red Comets

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

I just picked up Carl Sagan's book Comet, and was flipping through it and found this passage:

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The Sun has a Dark Sister.  Long ago, before even great grandmother's time, the two suns danced together in the sky.  But the Dark One was jealous that her sister was so much brighter, and in her rage she cursed us for not loving her, and loosed comets upon the world.  A terrible winter came, and darkness fell and bitter cold, and almost every living thing perished.  After many seasons, the Bright Sister returned to her children, and it was warm and light once more, and life was renewed.  But the Dark Sister is not dead.  She is only hiding.  One day she will return.

This was in a discussion about the possibility of a Dark Star/ dark planet (a "death star" or "Nemesis" or "Shiva the Destroyer") in the solar system that has a very long orbit and would periodically cause mass extinctions by causing gravitational disturbances and sending comets in our direction--and that the Dark Star got turned into a mythological character by primitive humans.  This is a very close parallel to the Long Night/Lion of Night/Lightbringer/Qaartheen moon mythologies.  A dark star ( or black planet) mythologized as a god of death (as with the Stranger, and the Lion of Night, etc) that is accompanied by comets and brings a terrible winter and darkness where everything dies.  The dark star retreated, but will return to bring the Long Night again. 

In chapter 14 "Scattered Fires and Shattered Worlds" there is a poem by Lord Byron about a comet splitting a planet, and a painting of a comet during an eclipse that looks like it is about the hit the eclipsing moon (but the comet shatters).  This parallels the Lightbringer/red comet knocking the dark star out of eclipse, and Lightbringer leaving a crack across the face of the moon, and the Second moon splitting from getting too close to the sun and dragons falling to Earth.  On page 265 a quote is featured from a book called Weir of Hemiston.

 

On page 177 a red comet is mentioned; that if Chiron was thrown out of its current orbit and towards Earth it would be a huge red comet:

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as Chiron approached the Sun.  A very dark comet, perhaps perceptibly red, hundreds of kilometers across, with multiple dust fountains and an immense tail, would be quite a spectacle as it  passed by the Earth . . .

Imagine the sky dominated by a dull, red irregular object, spitting out white canopies, its shimmering, curved fountains, flowing into space, and all the material eventually swept back into a vast tail that extends from horizon to horizon, it would be a memorable event.

Except for an approach to the Earth from an unlikely sector of the sky, the comet would be seen by cultures all over the world.  Surely there would be a mythological framework--sometimes called a world view--into which this apparition would be fitted.  People would naturally think the display held some portent or significance for them.  Some cometary form should therefore have entered the art of the many cultures, perhaps even in a central way.  As time passed, the memory of the true events might fade, and the stories become vaguer, but the cometary form would still be a dominant motif in the art and records of the previous generations.  If we saw such an apparition, and believed it was a message for us, we would not be disposed to ignore it.  After thousands of years pass, the cometary symbol, whatever it was, might be wholly disconnected from its bizarre and awesome origins.  In a prescientific, preliterate society, accounts of an unprecedented occurrence involving uncommon physics must necessarily, after thousands of years, take on lives of their own. 

A huge red and white comet being turned into mythological object, and people forget that it is even a comet that their mythology refers to, Lightbringer is the Red Comet, and the religion of R'hllor is worshiping a comet that ends the Long Night.  In mythology the comet got turned into an literal sword. (chiron means "hand" and he was an immortal centaur in greek mythology that was a child of Cronos--time, and was fostered by the sun god Apollo)  Chiron as a comet would be the Fiery Hand. 

Then on the next page he mentions a comet splitting in half. 

On page 33 it shows a comet passing through constellations, and I have been saying that the 3 forgings of Lightbringer were three comets passing through constellations of the zodiac: Aquarius, Leo, and Virgo, and that they are being launched from Mars, (and I just learned today that in gaelic Mairt means "the god and planet Mars" and Mairtin is how you spell "Martin" in gaelic).  Azor Ahai was a swordsmith, and Mars is the Smith that makes "swords".  Davos prays to the Smith when launching a ship.  The astronomical glyph for Mars is a circle with an arrow pointing away from it--like it is launching something.  The emblem of the Smith is a hammer, and comets/asteroids are "hammers".  Mars is red because it is covered with weirwoods.  In Sagan's imagining, Chiron was a red planet that turned into a comet. 

On page 22 he mentions comets moving through the zodiac, and summarizes Aristotle's views on comets, Aristotle believed that comets and shooting stars originated from Earth--that they were something that got expelled from the surface and burst into flames in the atmosphere--"exhalations from the interior of the Earth rising to the stars."   (and I think Hardhome was a weirwood launch event, the sun rising in the North)

He also talks about trees growing out of comets.  As well as comets bringing life to other worlds in chapter 17.

And on page 19 there are ancient Chinese beliefs about the implications of a comet appearing in different constellations, when a comet is in Virgo "some places are flooded and there is severe famine.  People eat each other."

And on page 84 a comet is shown going through Aquarius.

 

The book has a bunch of old posters about comets, and one of them has the phrase "comet rag" over a comet and one has the word "rag" on Halley's Comet.  "rag" means "song" (as in George's Armageddon Rag, about a song that would bring about the apocalypse).  The rest of the book makes the point that comets are made of ice, but appear to be fire.  The red comet is a song of ice and fire.  And the Robert Frost poem about Ice and Fire are about ways the world could end. 

There are some historical comet depictions and two are red comets, one is a sword, and two look like tentacled things.  Chapter 10 is about what animals comets look like, many of the pictures look like starfish (asteroidea), or seastars and I have been arguing that weirwoods are a form of starfish alien.  One picture has a comet depicted as a woman with a red and white starfish-looking thing on her head. ("under the sea, women wear nennymoans in their hair", and it looks like the sun of Dorne and a comet is a sunspear).  And he talks at length about the world-wide phenomenon of swastikas possibly being inspired by a swastika-shaped comet. 

 

And the notion that comets bring plagues is discussed, and George wrote a story called Plague Star about a long-orbit "star" bringing plagues--but the star was really a massive black spaceship called the Ark. 

LmL thinks the Long Night was a kind of nuclear winter caused by the comet striking a second moon and the debris from that falling to Earth,--which pretty closely parallels the passages above--but I think the Long Night was the Dark Sister/black planet eclipsing the Sun for a generation, and the Long Night only ended when a Red Comet (the Red Sword of Heroes, lady with a monkey's tail, Eldritch shadow-chaser) knocked it out of eclipse formation, and bringing the Dawn (The sword Dawn was forged from the heart of a falling star).  It is only a minor rearranging of the details.  In LmL's theory it doesn't make sense that Lightbringer caused the Long Night, Lightbringer should end the Long Night. 

No natural phenomenon would lead a wandering black planet to be stuck in eclipse formation for a generation, so I think the Dark Star is actually something artificial, like the Ark from Plague Star, and like the black planet Yuggoth from Lovecraft, that is why the Stranger has no gender like the other planets--it is not actually a planet--"that's no moon, that's a space station"--Sagan even called the Dark Sister a "death star".

While we are on the subject of Dark Stars, the Grateful Dead song Dark Star mentions a Dark Star colliding with something, light turning to ash, and things being thrown off their axis, and a nightfall of diamonds: "Dark star crashes, pouring its light into ashes. Reason tatters, the forces tear loose from the axis."--and I think the Dark Star has sent Earth off its normal axis of rotation causing the irregular seasons, and when the Dark Star was struck by the red comet it rained dragonglass on the Earth--causing a nightfall of diamonds.

 

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Big List of black planet/dark star/eclipse imagery in ASOIAF:

Luwin was mapping the "shadow" with star charts and a telescope, and luan means "moon" and "doomsday" in gaelic;

the Stranger in the Faith of the Seven is a black wanderer (planet) from far places, unlike the other gods, ever the outcast, unknown and unknowable, "the face was a black oval, a shadow with stars for eyes";

Jaime's weirwood dream has him as the sun and Brienne as the moon both being hidden in a cave inside a gigantic lion-shaped rock, in that darkness the Others come, they are left to defend themselves with swords that look like the sword Dawn;

In the YiTish legend, a planetary body called the Lion of Night mated with the Sun and produced the God on Earth who founded the Great Empire of the Dawm;

The Bloodstone Emperor usurped his sister and the Lion of Night (the god of death) came forth in all his wroth, and the sun turned her back on the world and the demon army came;

the Bloodstone Emperor founded Church of Starry Wisdom, who worship something in the night sky--the Lion of Night?;

The Black Pearl, Bellegere Otherys, belliger means "war bringing" in Latin--the Black Pearl brings the Others and war (and the God-on-Earth rode around in a pearl);

In Lys they worship Saagael, and in gaelic sgail means "eclipse, shadow" and Saagael is the giver of pain and demands blood sacrifice of children;

one of the gods of death in the House of Black and White is a great stone face, and the Lion of Night sits an ebony throne,--the phrase Lion of Night means "powerful ruler of night"  " Only a few candles burned this evening, flickering like fallen stars. In the darkness all the gods were strangers."

Viserys' death scene has him eclipsing the sun (Drogo) and getting a golden crown--a corona as during an eclipse, and viser means "to shade" and de rogo means "to take away" ;

the Qaartheen moon was in eclipse, and cracked, dragons poured from it, also dragons came from the Shadow.  The second moon was an egg that hatched, "dragons hatching from stone eggs" "One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return."

Dany (the moon) smothers Drogo (sun) to death.  Drogo's funeral pyre has Dany the moon and stone eggs eclipsing the sun and cracking, and dragons hatching.--

"When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone."--the first time dragons woke out of stone was when a moon cracked during eclipse;

Dark Star eclipses the sun, he is of the night, "His eyes seemed black as he sat outlined against the dying sun"

Benerro (a comet is a banner) talks about something exploding the moon and causing "doom" and "darkness"

In Bran's coma dream (comets have comas) he sees The Mountain eclipse the sun (which is Jaime) (also In Bran's coma dream he is a comet plummeting to Earth);

In the fight between Oberyn and the Mountain, the Mountain eclipses the sun then gets stabbed in his belly by a leafy wooden spear by the Red Viper, Oberyn's teeth are "splintered"--like wood;

the maps of Westeros in the world book all have pictures of a mysterious black circle in partial eclipse;

Ghost grass is a metaphor for the Others, and ghost grass lives in the Shadow Lands, and there is a Shadow over Asshai.

Stone Crows and Moon Brothers are mountain clans, the brother of the moon was a black stone?  The map of Dorne in the world book has a planet sized crow casting a shadow over Dorne;

The phrase "The moon was a black hole in the sky." from Bran's weirwood cave chapters.

"The Stranger comes, he comes, he comes, to scourge us for our sins. Prayers cannot stay his wroth, no more than tears can quench the flame of dragons. Only blood can do that. Your blood, my blood, their blood.” Then he raised the stump of his right arm, and pointed at Rhaenys’s Hill behind him, at the Dragonpit black against the stars." (something "black against the stars is called the Stranger, and it is associated with dragons)

"Jon could see the Wall looming high and dark to the south, a great shadow blocking out the stars."--Castles on the wall, Shadow Tower, Castle Black, Nightfort,

"When the long night falls, Edric Storm shall die with the rest, wherever he is hidden. Your own sons as well. Darkness and cold will cover the earth. You meddle in matters you do not understand."

"The wings of the stone dragons cast great black shadows in the light from the nightfire. "

"Certain septons have claimed that the world ends east of Mossovy, giving way to a realm of mists, then a realm of darkness, and finally a realm of storm and chaos where sea and sky become as one. . . .  past islands and continents unknown, uncharted, and undreamed of, where strange peoples worship strange gods beneath stranger stars."

[sweetsunray]

You pointed out interesting connections. Carl Sagan of course was a famous popular science astronomer who wrote many books in a way that was translatable for non astronomers. I can certainly see George having read up on Carl Sagan back in the 70s and 80s for his sci-fi writing. Certainly the character Dark Star appearing in the Dayne family (a cousin, of the minor branch to the main branch), and his envy of the main Dayne branch having the sword Dawn, which is most likely made from an iron meteorite springs to mind here.

I do have to point out a mythology mistake you make. Mars is not a smith god. He is a war god. The Roman smith god was Vulcan, the Latin equivalent of the Greek Hephaistos. The latter was wed to Aphrodite, who had an extra marital affair with the god of war Ares (or Mars in Latin).

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

18 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

You pointed out interesting connections. Carl Sagan of course was a famous popular science astronomer who wrote many books in a way that was translatable for non astronomers. I can certainly see George having read up on Carl Sagan back in the 70s and 80s for his sci-fi writing. Certainly the character Dark Star appearing in the Dayne family (a cousin, of the minor branch to the main branch), and his envy of the main Dayne branch having the sword Dawn, which is most likely made from an iron meteorite springs to mind here.

I do have to point out a mythology mistake you make. Mars is not a smith god. He is a war god. The Roman smith god was Vulcan, the Latin equivalent of the Greek Hephaistos. The latter was wed to Aphrodite, who had an extra marital affair with the god of war Ares (or Mars in Latin).

I meant Mars is the Smith in the Faith of the Seven, "the red wanderer that septons preached was sacred to their Smith up here was called the Thief."  

Dark Star lives in a castle called the High Hermitage.  And I think the name Visenya comes from the Latin phrase "vicina astris"--meaning "in the vicinity of the stars", and her sword is Dark Sister.  

[Lady Fevre Dream]

I found the Carl Sagan excerpts very interesting, as well as your mention of Byron and a poem about comets and 'splitting a planet?'  I didn't look up the Sagan book, but I can tell you Byron's poem Darkness makes an appearance in GRRM's Fevre Dream.  Your post made me take a look at it again, the poem that is although I'm considering a Fevre Dream reread, and I have to say, that poem, George's past use of it, and your Sagan mentions are giving me lots to think about.  Thank you, I think, LOL 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43825/darkness-56d222aeeee1b

[sweetsunray]

5 hours ago, By Odin's Beard said:

I meant Mars is the Smith in the Faith of the Seven, "the red wanderer that septons preached was sacred to their Smith up here was called the Thief."  

Dark Star lives in a castle called the High Hermitage.  And I think the name Visenya comes from the Latin phrase "vicina astris"--meaning "in the vicinity of the stars", and her sword is Dark Sister.  

Thank you for specifying.

And thank you for bringing Carl Sagan's book to our attention. I'm skeptical of this personal launching theory of yours and your interpretation of the Hardhome event (in the Dunk & Egg story a Sworn Sword, a forest fire is also likened to the sun rising), but I like your summary and some of the astrological connections you made.

[Regular John Umber]

This is awesome, thanks.

[Daendrew]

Great catch regarding Dark Sister. You may want to post it in the pinned References and Homages thread

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

Can I get a moment of silence for the 2.5 hours I spent writing a reply to you which the editor then ate?

 

22 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

in the Dunk & Egg story a Sworn Sword, a forest fire is also likened to the sun rising

That's a good one.  Here is another:

"That is not a friendly face, Jon Snow reflected. The faces that the First Men and the children of the forest had carved into the weirwoods in eons past had stern or savage visages more oft than not, but the great oak looked especially angry, as if it were about to tear its roots from the earth and come roaring after them."

An angry tree, tearing its roots from the Earth, and roaring after them--weirwood rocket.

"The tree had been dead a long time, but it seemed to live again in the fire, as fiery dancers woke within each stick of wood to whirl and spin in their glowing gowns of yellow, red, and orange. "

Weirwood trees can live a second life as fiery dancers, with glowing gowns of red. 

 

The Red Priests have a lot of weirwood and Red Comet symbolism applied to them, and they are all named after the comet or described like a comet.  I just realized that Mel's real name is Melony, and in latin melos means "song" and sandyx means "scarlet"--if the red comet is a song, that fits.  I recently wrote posted about several different lines of evidence in support of the weirwood rocket theory, but you are not alone in your skepticism, I think I have converted exactly no-one on this subject so far.

 

But central to this theory is that the Faith of the Seven is like Roman and Greek paganism and that Mars is the Azor Ahai from the Long Night Lightbringer legend, and I sort of glossed over it, so let me lay out the argument a little better.

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the red wanderer that septons preached was sacred to their Smith up here was called the Thief. And when the Thief was in the Moonmaid, that was a propitious time for a man to steal a woman, Ygritte insisted. "Like the night you stole me. The Thief was bright that night."

The wind was in the sails, and to the north Sam could even see a scattering of stars, and the red wanderer the free folk called the Thief. That ought to be my star, Sam thought miserably. I helped to make Jon Lord Commander, and I brought him Gilly and the babe.

Jon glimpsed the red wanderer above, watching them through the leafless branches of great trees as they made their way beneath. The Thief, the free folk called it. The best time to steal a woman was when the Thief was in the Moonmaid, Ygritte had always claimed.

The Red Wanderer is the Thief, and Mars being in the Moonmaid is somehow significant to taking wives, and that to steal a woman is to marry her. 

Mars is on the ecliptic and so passes through the 12 constellations of the zodiac, Virgo "the Maiden" is the largest constellation of the zodiac, so Mars would spend the most time with her, (the moon also passes through Virgo,)  "Virgo is the only female constellation of the zodiac.  It is also one of the oldest constellations and has assumed the identity of just about every important female deity since history has been recorded."

 

I think I figured out why the Wildlings call Mars the Thief—it has to do with Mars’ retrograde orbit, being further out from the sun and with a slower orbit than Earth as we approach Mars and pass by it, it does something odd, viewed over successive nights in the sky it appears to be going one direction, then halts, and reverses direction.  (What the astronomers used to describe as epicycles).  When this happens every 15 years or so with the constellation Virgo, Mars approachs her from the west, changes direction in her constellation and they move off together.  Mars “steals” her.  With the other constellations he looks like a pickpocket, who sneaks up and takes something and then runs away.

To steal a woman is to marry her, Mars is married to Virgo.

The three forgings:

Azor Ahai plunged the first sword into water, Aquarius is the water-bearer, and the Audubon night sky manual says "one of the most ancient constellations . . . It is located in a region of the sky that was known thousands of years ago as 'the Water' or the Sea' " and is surrounded by a bunch of other water-related constellations. 

He plunged the second sword into the heart of a lion, Mars travels through Leo, and Cor Leonis, the "lion's heart" (and the manual says "The Greeks claimed the the figure was the mythological Nemean Lion, which fell from the Moon in the form of a meteor and ravaged the countryside . . . until slain by Heracles" and Sagan's book talks about meteor showers coming from Leo)

He plunged the third sword into the heart of his wife, Mars passes through the chest of Virgo, and by Wildling custom she is his wife. 

The three forgings are Mars launching three comets when in different constellations.  Not only does Mars steal the Moonmaid, he also "steels" her--he gives her the sword--right in her heart.

Lightbringer is a flaming sword, the Red Comet is a flaming sword.  Azor Ahai was a smith, Mars is the Smith, and the Red Comet looked like a sword red-hot from the forge, (and like Ice, and comets are ice).  Mars is the Red Wanderer and the comet is red and it is also a wanderer: " The black brothers had dubbed the wanderer Mormont's Torch,"  (mormont means "wormwood" a comet from the Bible).

 

Virgo is "the Maiden" and is some times depicted as holding the scales of justice of Libra, Virgo is also the Just Maid:

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"Ser Galladon was a champion of such valor that the Maiden herself lost her heart to him. She gave him an enchanted sword as a token of her love. The Just Maid, it was called. No common sword could check her, nor any shield withstand her kiss. Ser Galladon bore the Just Maid proudly, but only thrice did he unsheathe her. He would not use the Maid against a mortal man, for she was so potent as to make any fight unfair."

An enchanted sword that no defense can withstand, that involves "the Maiden" losing her heart (tree), and three appearances of this magical sword. 

This sounds like a garbled account of the Long Night Lightbringer event--if one group of people did not notice Mars was in Virgo, and only saw a comet come from Virgo.  Comets when depicted as swords travel pommel first, so it would look like the Maiden was offering him a sword.  But what if it is "gave him the sword" as in she stabbed him with it--just like Azor gave her the sword? 

Galladon is character from Brandon Sanderson's Elantris, who is totally bald, has dark silvery metallic skin, and can move between the worlds.

In gaelic, gallda means "foreign, strange" and gal means "vapor, steam, smoke, gaseous exhalation" (and Aristotle thought comets were "gaseous exhalations") and gaileadan means "boiler, kettle, voracious eater"

A dark round kettle-like metallic object, that is a voracious eater, and is possibly a stranger?  That sounds like the Dark Sister/Dark Star god of death.

"Once Azor Ahai fought a monster. When he thrust the sword through the belly of the beast, its blood began to boil. Smoke and steam poured from its mouth, its eyes melted and dribbled down its cheeks, and its body burst into flame."  gaileadan mean "boiler"

"Just Maid. He used her once to slay a dragon, they say." (I bet it was a stone dragon)

 

The Maiden shot a heart/sword/comet out of her chest and killed a dragon/round dark silver metallic object.

 

"Ser Galladon of Morne, who was said to wield a sword called the Just Maid given to him by the Seven themselves."  One of the seven "gave him the sword" --the Smith is one of the seven. 

Morne could be a mourn/morn wordplay, as his defeat brought the Dawn.  In gaelic, mornan means "ruin and confusion" and the Mountains of the Morne are the mountains of Asshai, where the Shadow is.  And I have argued that the Dark Star is parked over Asshai and keeping it in permanent eclipse (and is the Mother of Mountains, and the God Kings Palace seen from afar).

 

[sweetsunray]

Just now, By Odin's Beard said:

Can I a moment of silence for the 2.5 hours I spent writing a reply to you which the editor then ate

I feel your pain and you have my utter sympathy. Wordpress app overwrote a 15k nearly finished essay I worked on for 2 weeks on my laptop with the oldest version last Sunday. Support told me the draft was lost

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

On 6/25/2019 at 9:38 AM, sweetsunray said:

I feel your pain and you have my utter sympathy. Wordpress app overwrote a 15k nearly finished essay I worked on for 2 weeks on my laptop with the oldest version last Sunday. Support told me the draft was lost

Brutal.  I lost hundreds of hours of work last year to a hard drive crash, you would think I would've learned my lesson. . .

 

On 6/24/2019 at 5:39 PM, Lady Fevre Dream said:

Byron's poem Darkness makes an appearance in GRRM's Fevre Dream

Wow, that poem is essentially the plots of Dying of the Light, In the House of the Worm, and Tarnhouse--the sun has gone out and we are dwindling to oblivion.

 

 

Speaking of the sun going out and everyone dying:

jachin means "he will establish" and hagar means "wanderer or stranger"--and Jaqen is a member of a death cult, who worship the god of many faces, the manifestations of whom are the Stranger, the Hooded Wayfarer, the Lion of Night, the Great Stone Face.  The faceless men are headquartered in a lightless building, that has weirwood doors (gates?) and chairs (thrones?), filled with skulls, and their motto is "all men must die"

"rorge and biter" is an anagram for "orbiter danger" and they are black and white.  (Biter takes a bite out Brienne (the moon's face) and he gets a spear through the neck from Gendry, the Smith)

The Jaqen's identity is Lorathi, in Lorath they worshipped the Blind God Boash, whose eunuch priests "wore eyeless hoods in honor of their god, as they believed that only in darkness their third eye would open, allowing them to see the 'higher truths' of creation that lay concealed behind the illusions of the material world"

Jaqen wants to summon the Stranger.  jachin and boaz are the black and white pillars of Solomon's temple, where the Ark was kept.  The Stranger is the Ark from Plague Star. (There is a book called The Lion of Boaz-Jachin where Boaz-Jachin awakens a dead stone lion that is impaled on a spear)
 

 

Here's another piece of eclipse/moon-breaking symbolism that relates to that:

 "It ends in blood, as it began," said Lady Nym. "It ends when Casterly Rock is cracked open, so the sun can shine on the maggots and the worms within."

I said above that Casterly Rock is a metaphor for the Lion of Night, and that a giant stone lion eclipses the sun/Jaime in his weirwood dream, and Lady Nym wants to crack it open so the sun can shine.  The phrase "a nimeri" means "to hit the mark" and Nymeria is associated with ships and burning ships, and she is associated with stars/comet symbolism:

“Do you see the white one, Quentyn? That is Nymeria's star, burning bright, and that milky band behind her, those are ten thousand ships.”  (I think she is looking at the star Canopus and the Milky Way, but the way that it is worded sounds comet-like, a bright star with a band behind it.)

A star/comet/ship captain wants to crack open the lion-shaped Rock. (one of the chapters from Comet is "Stars of the Great Captains" and it deals with steering comets, and humans living on tree comets and flying away into space on them--and the chapter before that is called "A Flotilla Rising")

 

And more Casterly Rock/Lion of Night parallels:

@Jova Snow recently brought to my attention that the founder of house Casterly was named Corlos--and Corlos means "hell" from George's story Only Kids are Afraid of the Dark:

"The servants of Saagael ruled supreme on earth, and their dark lord hunted for men’s souls. The gates of Corlos were opened, and a great shadow descended over the land. Not in a thousand generations would it be lifted."

Here is the account of the founding of Casterly Rock:

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Yet by far the greatest lords in the westerlands were the Casterlys of the Rock, who had their seat in a colossal stone that rose beside the Sunset Sea. Legend tells us the first Casterly lord was a huntsman, Corlos son of Caster, who lived in a village near to where Lannisport stands today. When a lion began preying upon the village's sheep, Corlos tracked it back to its den, a cave in the base of the Rock. Armed only with a spear, he slew the lion and his mate but spared her newborn cubs—an act of mercy that so pleased the old gods (for this was long before the Seven came to Westeros) that they sent a sudden shaft of sunlight deep into the cave, and there in the stony walls, Corlos beheld the gleam of yellow gold, a vein as thick as a man's waist.

 

The truth of that tale is lost in the mists of time, but we cannot doubt that Corlos, or some progenitor of what would become House Casterly, found gold inside the Rock and soon began to mine there. To defend his treasure against those who would make off with it, he moved inside the cave and fortified its entrance. As years and centuries passed, his descendants delved deeper and deeper into the earth, following the gold, whilst carving halls and galleries and stairways and tunnels into the Rock itself, transforming the gigantic stone into a mighty fastness that dwarfed every castle in Westeros.

A "lion" who lives in a colossal stone was causing a disturbance and bothering the people, and Corlos (aka hell) killed the "lion" with a spear, there is a "shaft of sunlight" (spears have shafts, a sunspear, a comet?) that shines into the cave, and Corlos took over her den.   Corlos took up residence in a cave.

In gaelic cur means "pit, fountain, well"  cor means "to throw, to cast" and cora means "a weir" lios means a "garth (a weir), a fairy fort, a rath or liss" (Lorath has a black maze to the underworld, and they worship Saagael in Lys) sgail means "shadow, or eclipse" and sgailp means "cave"

Corlos is the son of Caster--someone who casts, as in spearcaster, or as in casts a shadow?  (c)Aster = star.

In gaelic Lann means "scales (as of a fish), a blade of a sword, uncoined gold or silver" and lannair means "a swordsman, a lancer, a gladiator" lannista means "a trainer of gladiators"

The weirwood is the underworld/afterlife and the weirwood is associated with gates--the Gates of Corlos is the weirwood, and Saagael's goal is the Long Night that never ends--he is the Others.  The weirwood killed the "lion" with a spear and took over her den so they can live comfy in the darkness of the Lion's shadow cave of night. 

The weirwood prefers darkness "Never fear the darkness, Bran. . . The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong."  It is in the darkness that your third eye can open.

The Lion of Night is parked over Asshai and the Ghost Grass/Others lives under its Shadow--Stygai the corpse city is in the Heart of Darkness, in the Shadow's Heart and Stygia is hades.   And Stygai is associated with caves and underground rivers.

In Jaime's weirwood dream the Others live under the cave of the Lion-shaped Casterly Rock, and there is a river in the cave.  (there is a weirwood in the Stone Garden--inside the Rock?)  (There is also an underground river in Bloodraven's cave, and a Stygian sunless sea)

The big blue heart in the House of the Undying (Essos weirwood cave) is a dark heart,  Arya is a CoTF stand-in and she is a dark heart, "The Other's servants oft hide black hearts"  Jon has a bastard's black heart.  "Daenerys Targaryen stepped into the hot heart of darkness and stopped at the lip of a deep pit."  A cave where dragons are kept is a heart of darkness.  Bloodraven is a dragon that lives in a cave.   

"The trees were huge and dark, somehow threatening. . .The trees hate us all, deep in their wooden hearts."  

[asongofheresy]

@By Odin's Beard your username is a great exclamation haha you're a great writer. I think it was in Indian mythology that there are both a dark sun and a dark moon that are not observed but these dark equals follow the same orbit of their light equals only in opposite directions that clashes with sun and moon and causing eclipses. They also have a myth of a mountain at the center of arctic maybe this mountain like Ergenekon/Mother of Mountains is where Deities descant and ascend to, they go North to center of Earth as it was known in medieval times. 

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

25 minutes ago, Jova Snow said:

@By Odin's Beard your username is a great exclamation haha you're a great writer. I think it was in Indian mythology that there are both a dark sun and a dark moon that are not observed but these dark equals follow the same orbit of their light equals only in opposite directions that clashes with sun and moon and causing eclipses. They also have a myth of a mountain at the center of arctic maybe this mountain like Ergenekon/Mother of Mountains is where Deities descant and ascend to, they go North to center of Earth as it was known in medieval times. 

Yes, Rahu and Ketu, the dragon's head and the dragon's tail, the Shadow planets. 

There are parallels between Shiva the Destroyer and weirwoods also, Shiva has many faces, a thousand heads, and a thousand eyes, he is blue from drinking poison, has a necklace of skulls, his hair is snakes, he has a flaming bow, "dripping with blood, having a capacious stomach and a vast mouth" and he is accompanied by a sacred milky white bull (Marwyn is described as a white bull with a bloody mouth, and Gerold Hightower is a White Bull, and the Hightower sigil is a white tower with red flames atop)

 

Mt Ararat is shaped like a lion, and it was supposed to be where the Ark landed.  On Armenia's flag, the Ark is perched upon the Mountain.

[asongofheresy]

47 minutes ago, By Odin's Beard said:

Yes, Rahu and Ketu, the dragon's head and the dragon's tail, the Shadow planets. 

There are parallels between Shiva the Destroyer and weirwoods also, Shiva has many faces, a thousand heads, and a thousand eyes, he is blue from drinking poison, has a necklace of skulls, his hair is snakes, he has a flaming bow, "dripping with blood, having a capacious stomach and a vast mouth" and he is accompanied by a sacred milky white bull (Marwyn is described as a white bull with a bloody mouth, and Gerold Hightower is a White Bull, and the Hightower sigil is a white tower with red flames atop)

 

Mt Ararat is shaped like a lion, and it was supposed to be where the Ark landed.  On Armenia's flag, the Ark is perched upon the Mountain.

The ark is part of Qur'an too but it's landed on judi which means mountain, I think Ararat in bible is supposed to be harrat as Torah/Bible was written without vowels. Harrats can be found in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. According to Qur'an the flood was signaled by volcanic eruptions and that's how Noah knew they should abroad the Ark. 

I am fascinated by Hightowers, I think it was @Seams who talked about House Grafton from the Vale has  sigil with burning like Hightower, though they were Andals. Is it possible First Men came from North or west of Westeros, while Andals came through the arm of Dorne? 

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

On 6/26/2019 at 2:48 PM, Jova Snow said:

The ark is part of Qur'an too but it's landed on judi which means mountain, I think Ararat in bible is supposed to be harrat as Torah/Bible was written without vowels. Harrats can be found in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. According to Qur'an the flood was signaled by volcanic eruptions and that's how Noah knew they should abroad the Ark.

Whoa, Harrats are made of a soft volcanic rock/compressed ash called "tuff" and the Ark is the name of Tuf's all-powerful black god ship from Plague Star.  If a harrat is where the Ark landed, the Ark landed on Tuff.  In Dreamsongs, George says that a Tuf sequel was going to be called Tuf Landing. (he says he doesn't remember where the name Tuf came from)

I am reading about the Ark of the Covenant for parallels between Arks because George blended them together for the Ark ship--a huge ship full of animals and a DNA catalogue and it gave him godly powers.  The Ark of the Covenant had godly powers, it was always veiled/hidden in a cave, "When carried, the Ark was always hidden under a large veil made of skins and blue cloth, always carefully concealed, even from the eyes of the  priests," it had a golden crown, it was carried before an advancing army, it made defensive walls collapse, it brought plague and disease. 

The Lion of Night is veiled, it advances before the invasion of the Others and veils the sun for them and gets a golden crown (the Night King's Crown), its arrival will coincide with the Wall collapsing,

 

I just stumbled on this passage which really jumped out at me in light of the galladon = gaileadan = dark kettle:

Quote

"The dark lord brooded high in his tower," Galyeon began, "in a castle as black as the night."

"Black was his hair and black was his soul," the musicians chanted in unison. A flute came in.

"He feasted on bloodlust and envy, and filled his cup full up with spite," sang Galyeon. "My brother once ruled seven kingdoms, he said to his harridan wife. I'll take what was his and make it all mine. Let his son feel the point of my knife."

"A brave young boy with hair of gold , . . The dark lord assembled his legions, they gathered around him like crows.
And thirsty for blood they boarded their ships...

A dark lord of vengeance in an all black/night castle that wants to take over the kingdom and is associated harpies, a legion of crows, and Galyeon (one letter away from sounding like galladon, and a galleon is a ship--so it is a dark kettle ship)--this sounds like a retelling of the Long Night.  "Hair of gold" is eclipse/corona imagery.

 

I was just reading about Bran the Blessed and found this passage:

Quote

Bran, or Bendigeit Vran ("Bran the Blessed"), probably an old pagan title which appropriately enough denotes one who figured later in Christian hagiology, is so huge that no house or ship can hold him. Hence he wades over to Ireland, and as he draws near is thought to be a mountain. This may be an archaic method of expressing his divinity—a gigantic non-natural man like some of the Tuatha Déa and Ossianic heroes. But Bran also appears as the Urdawl Ben, or "Noble Head," which makes time pass to its bearers like a dream, and when buried protects the land from invasion. Both as a giant squatting on a rock and as a head, Bran is equated by Professor Rh[^y]s with Cernunnos, the squatting god, represented also as a head, and also with the Welsh Urien whose attribute was a raven, the supposed meaning of Bran's name. He further equates him with Uthr Ben, "Wonderful Head," the superior bard, harper and piper of a Taliesin poem. Urien, Bran, and Uthr are three forms of a god worshipped by bards, and a "dark" divinity, whose wading over to Ireland signifies crossing to Hades,

Bran is known for his magical cauldron that brought back the dead, a kettle = cauldron = galladon.  The cauldron that brings back the dead is a gigantic floating head or floating mountain, Bran means crow, and later he is a decapitated head, so it is a black floating head, that is associated with Uthr (the Others?).  Bran's cauldron is the Dark Star that brings back the Others.

(Urien and Vran sound like Euron, the Crow's Eye who spys death from afar)

 

A partial answer to @Seams question in another thread, about Myles Toyne.  toin means "other" and mille means "innumerable" and the Toyne sigil is a flying black heart on a field of gold--eclipse imagery--and the Others' servants oft have black hearts.  The golden company are exiles who will return to their homeland and a gilded grinning skull held high on a spear will go before the advancing army, like the Ark and like Bran's cauldron.   

 

 

[asongofheresy]

@By Odin's Beard  a kettle is  galladon what about Kettleblacks? Their sigil mimics Blackfyre one replaced by  cauldron framed with black. And Toyne's live up to their sigil considering they are troublemaker for the Targaryens. More info about Qur'anic ark of Noah then, it was round in shape and Noah in Qur'an only saved his animals as a shepherd and didn't fill it with every animal what so ever, he saved his enam (sheep, goat, and cow) I wonder if any Noah-esque savior of asoiaf will end up saving those who serve him?