UFOs aren’t anything new. In fact, if my premise is correct, that the polytheistic gods (including the monotheistic God) were not deities but extraterrestrials (‘ancient astronauts’) then their aerial and sometimes fiery chariots so often referred to in mythology were nothing but shuttlecraft out of their mother-ships or star-ships – what we might now term UFOs. We’re all familiar with the ‘Wheels of Ezekiel’ story, but mythology coughs up several more possibilities, Biblical and otherwise. I’ll continue the ball rolling with a tale from Native American mythology which might have something to do with UFOs.
Mythologies are full of events that could be interpreted, if they happened instead within the last six plus decades, as a UFO event. The ‘Star of Bethlehem’ or ‘Wheel of Ezekiel” are cases in point from our Biblical mythology. Many of the mythological ‘gods’ or characters rode around in aerial or fiery chariots, but what about flying rocks or big birds transporting people around? A UFO chariot by any other name is still a UFO chariot.
Chariots seem to be associated with the ‘gods’ because of the popularity of Erich von Daniken’s book title (when translated into English) “Chariots of the Gods”. But there’s no actual index entry for “chariots” in that book. So, did the ‘gods’ and maybe their passengers ride in aerial chariots or equivalent? A quick scan of the mythological literature says “yes”! A partial list of the Greek ‘gods’ or demigods (or demi goddesses) who rode in (UFO) chariots (or equivalent) include Zeus, Hercules, Helios, Apollo, Hades, Triptolemus, and Medea. From Norse mythology, we have Thor and Freyja riding along in their chariots. Aerial chariots figure prominently in Indo-Iranian mythology, and they also play an important part in Hindu and Persian mythology as well, with most of the gods of their pantheon portrayed as riding in them. In ancient times what were aerial chariots pulled by various beasties with the ‘gods’ as pilots or passengers, are, in modern times, UFOs with their extraterrestrial pilots and crew. The American Indian culture, the Navajos may not have a UFO chariot per say, but they do have a UFO “rock with wings”.
Ship Rock (or Shiprock, also called in native Navajo ‘Tse Bit’a’i’ or the ‘Rock with Wings’ aka ‘winged rock’) is a 12 million year old standalone monolithic mountain, an eroded volcanic plume, situated in New Mexico close to the four corners area where NW New Mexico, NE Arizona, SE Utah, and SW Colorado touch. While it’s nearly 7,200 feet above sea level (peak elevation), from the ground up (standing on a high desert plain), it’s nearly 1,600 feet high. It’s situated on Native American Navajo land, situated in the bullseye of the ancient Pueblo peoples that prehistoric Native American culture are often referred to as the Anasazi. The Navajo’s have high historical and religious reverence for the mountain. It features prominently in their traditional religious and mythological culture, and as a sacred site, the natives have, since 1970, closed the mountain off to the public which used to be popular with rock climbers, etc.
The main belief of the Navajos centring around Ship Rock (and it looks a bit like an old Clipper sailing ship of yore but sailing in a sea of sand) is that it’s what’s left, the remains, of their ‘great bird of deliverance’. According to their legends, once upon a time, a long time ago, their ancestors were facing a hostile tribe further north, and not wishing to go head-to-head with these warmongers, their high priest(s), or shaman(s), asked their Great Spirit in the sky for assistance. The Great Spirit sent down this great bird which took them southwards to what Americans today call Ship Rock. The Navajos were saved from their enemies, and they lived long and prospered – well prospered as well as any Native American tribe could be expected under the thumb of the European invaders.
Now if the Navajo were forced to flee and migrate southwards from hostile forces, you’d think their mythology would be something akin to the ancient Greek’s “Odyssey” or the quest for the Golden Fleece – a tale of a long journey, elusive goals, many dangers and hardships, and eventual success – not flying through the air without a care in the world. Or, if they didn’t have any migration south at all, then there’s no need for such a ‘winged rock’ tale, rather some other ‘how did we get to Ship Rock’ origin myth, like the Great Spirit breathing life into some of the rocks or moulding cacti or tumbleweeds into human beings – the Navajo. But if your Great Spirit is a ‘god’ that’s really an extraterrestrial; and your ‘rock with wings’ what we’d call today a UFO, or in ancient astronaut terminology a ‘flying chariot’, then the myth, as related, has some logical foundation in reality. And if you are a rather unsophisticated Native American when it comes to extraterrestrial technology, what else are you going to call a UFO but a ‘flying rock’ or a ‘rock with wings’ or a ‘winged rock’ or a ‘big bird’? The Navajos, in other legends, have associated Ship Rock with the presence of ‘Bird Monsters’ that feed on human flesh. I wonder if that could be a garbled tale of UFO abduction.
Now presumably this travelogue tale isn’t the fabrication of one person, shaman or otherwise, since there were many native Navajos who must have been alleged participants in the journey who could contradict the myth – if it was a myth of course. That fact that the Navajo consider Ship Rock a sacred site, off-limits to rock climbers and tourists, well they clearly consider this part of their mythology to be a Big Deal. In fact the mountain is a place of pilgrimage for their peoples, especially young men on quests for solitary ‘visions’ that’s part of their traditional culture.
So, here are your options: 1) Supernatural God (the Great Spirit) works a miracle and allows a whole lot of Navajos to fly south on a rock to escape their enemies; 2) There was no such event and Navajo shamans were smoking a bit too much of the good stuff - the option any sane betting person would take; 3) the story has some sort of foundation, in which case the violation of basic physics – rocks don’t fly - was only apparent and had to have been something else.
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