Catastrophobia [Paperback]

The pervasive fear of an impending catastrophe is the motivating force, in Ms. Clow's postulation, behind and beneath all of the obsessions having to do with the structure of contemporary earthly civilization: work, human relationships, the economy, the environment and the state, and the search for healing of these structures and ourselves. But whence this anxiety? Why now, and indeed at periodic intervals over the course of recorded history, have we feared a coming catastrophe, a tragedy of such proportions as to snuff out the Earth and all that lives on it?

In this monumental work, Ms. Clow examines legendary cataclysms and delineates how - contrary to prevailing prophecies of dark and deadly times to come - we are truly on the cusp of an era of incredible creative and spiritual growth. The very recent discovery of the remains of ancient villages buried beneath the Black Sea is but the latest in the accumulation of mounting evidence that many of the "mythic" catastrophes of history - the fall of Atlantis, the Biblical flood - were historic events. Ms. Clow ably demonstrates how a series of cataclysmic disasters resulting from a disturbance in the Earth's crust some 11,500 years ago (itself likely caused at least in part by a stellar supernova in the nearby Vela system) "rocked the world" and left humankind's collective psyche deeply scarred and ineradicably traumatized. We are, in her view, "a wounded species," and the unprocessed, until-now indescribable fear passed from generation to generation is responsible for the constant and widespread expectation of a world-ending apocalypse, seen in such instances as the Y2K event to the much-reported end of the Mayan calendar in 2012.

"Catastrophobia" also uncovers in detail the insidious global forces - economic, political and religious - that have used these collective fears to control and manipulate humanity for countless centuries. But Ms. Clow's book offers more than a glimmer of hope. It is the work of an informed, reasonable and persuasive optimist. In the author's view, we are in the midst of a shift in the Earth's 26,000 year precessional cycle, and there is every indication that the changes in consciousness seen over the past forty years are the beginnings of a collective healing from these deep fears from the primeval past, heralding a time to come of great spiritual evolution.

Ms. Clow's monumental research effort in writing this insightful and important book and the scientific efforts underlying that research it are particularly praiseworthy. The reader is advised, for a taste of the foregoing and as a preface to "Catastrophobia," to consult the article by G.R. Brackenridge in Icarus (16:81-93) entitled "Terrestrial Paleoenvironmental Effects of a Late Quarternary Age Supernova."

Every serious student of history (both academic and alternative) has every reason to own this important, incisive and pacesetting volume. It will appeal also to the astrologer and the eschatologist, as well as the scientist willing to approach Ms. Clow's work with an open mind.