The Earth Turned Upside Down

The Papyrus Ipuwer states: "the earth turned upside down" and "the land turns round (over) like a potter's wheel." End of this line 8 and beginning line 9. Right to left.


Graphic 1 from Guide to Velikovsky's Sources Graphic 2 from Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem.
Some have interpreted "the land was turned upside down" to signify social unrest. However, the literal meaning may be what was intended. And PAPYRUS 9:11 "The land is not light". May very well refer to the ninth plague of Exodus, the three days of darkness February 23 1279 BC because the rest of the papyrus corresponds to the Exodus. See The Papyrus Ipuwer. PAPYRUS 2:5-6 "Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere." 7:21 "... there is blood throughout all the land of Egypt." - identifies this papyrus with the 10 plagues of the Exodus. PAPYRUS 2:8 "Forsooth, the land turns round like a potter's wheel." "I show thee the land upside down; it happened that which never had happened". Papyrus 1116b recto, publiched by Gardiner, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 1914 - may refer to the three days of darkness where the sun moved 540° with earth's rotation over the Pacific to keep Egypt in darkness for 3 X 12 hours. Thus the Egyptians would see all the stars of the night sky appear, disappear and reapper and thus feel like the potter's wheel. However earth would not have to shift to keep in the same season. Because the sun must have moved 180° west to set suddenly at noon March 1279 BC then move 540° east to stand still on the opposite side of earth to Egypt for three days of darkness. Even if earth flowed into a reverse orbit of the sun, that is the sun just moved 540°, the shift would be very small because this second last plague of Egypt happened about the time of the vernal equinox. "The sun - it has come to pass it riseth not. The winter is come (instead of) as summer, the months are reversed, and the hours disordered." Papyrus Anastasi IV The 120 day winter season ended March 20 Julian, then the summer season started. The Exodus was April 4 1279 BC. Thus this three days of darkness must have happened just as the summer season began. They would see the stars from the other half of heaven, the winter night sky. They would be cold in the darkness. They would see the zodiac pass in reverse with earth in a reverse orbit. After three days of darkness the hours would seem very disordered. Thus this is rather what seemed upside down. You can read the full account of the Papyrus Ipuwer at Admonitions of Ipuwer.
Isaiah 24:1 "Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof."
24:4 "The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and fades away; heaven fades away together with the earth."
24:7 "the new wine dries up, the oil decays, all the merry makers groan."
Dead Sea Scrolls Bible A climate change in the form of a drought is something to look for in a reverse orbit and we find it here. "heaven fades away" may refer to the stars of the night sky fading away in the sun as the sun moved 180°. Very likely this depicts a shift in earth's axis. If God moved the sun 180° around the earth, other than on the equiox, earth must twist on the ecliptic to keep in the same season. For many reasons they would think earth had "turned upside down". A shift in earth's axis to keep in the same winter or summer season would even more disorienting, the stars would not mark the seasons. Also with earth in a reverse orbit stars would progress in reverse, 1° west to east instead of east to west each night, as earth orbited the sun in reverse.
Aristotle writes On The Heavens Book II 285b14: "Of the poles the one that appears above us is on the lower part, the one invisible to us is on the upper. For we call the 'right' of each thing the part from which the beginning of its local movement derives; now, the starting-point of the revolution of the heavens is the part from which the stars rise, so that this will be the right, and where they set is the left. If, then, it begins from the right and rotates to the right, the invisible pole must be the upper, since, if it is the invisible one, the movement will be to the left, which we deny. Therefore it is clear that the invisible pole is the upper. Those who live on there are in the upper hemisphere and on the right, whereas we are in the lower hemisphere and on the left, which is just the opposite of what the Pythagoreans say; for they put us above and in the right-hand part, but those there below and in the left hand part. Just the opposite, however, turns out to be the case." Perhaps this was a description of a reverse orbit. The stars appearing later each evening in the east. That is, the stars moving west to east as the year progressed, earth still rotating east to west as normal. "the side from which the stars rise" is heaven's right, "and where they set...its left." WIC Also, if earth pivoted 180° on the ecliptic, the pole star would be to the south of where it had just been: "violent shakings of the revolutions of the Soul, a total blocking of the course of the same, shaking of the course of the other, which produced all manner of twistings, and caused in their circles fractures and disruptures of every possible kind, with the result that, as they barely held together one with another, they moved indeed but more irrationally, being at one time reversed, at another oblique, and again upside down."Cf. Bury's comments to Timaeus, notes, pp.72,80.
"I show thee the land upside down; it happened which never had happened." Ermitage Papyrus in Leningrad, pp.28-29; Gardiner, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, I (1914); Cambridge Ancient History, I, 346. The Magical Papyrus Harris: "the south becomes north, and earth turns over." H.O. Lange, "Der Magische Papyrus Harris," K. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab (1927), p.58.

Seneca's play Thyestes depicts earth turning over: "Helius, already in mid career, wrested his chariot about and turned his horses' heads towards the dawn." "The zodiac's falling." Must mean earth flowed into a reverse orbit of the sun. How could they come up with the notion of a falling zodiac if they did not actually experience it? "no more shall the stars mark off summer and autumn". If the sun moved 180° March 21 or September 21, on the spring or autumn equinox, the September night sky would be a March night sky and vice versa. If at any other time the earth would also need to twist on a vertical axis in order to keep the same season on earth and leave no evidence. Then the seasons must also shift up the zodiac. Earth rotates on a 23° tilt / , earth must pivot on a vertical axis | pointing to the ecliptic pole to keep earth in the same season. "the Wain (Ursa Major), which was never washed by the sea, the swathing whirlpool shall engulf." Our circum polar region must drop below the horizon. Therefore earth's axis must have twisted away from Ursa Major. "Into the universal deluge will the Wain descend, which never touched the sea before; the Snake, like a meandering river sliding Between the Bears; and the great Dragon's smaller neighbour, the freezing Cynosura" - the path of precession to the pole star where it was thousands of years before, earth must twist on the ecliptic axis, the north pole pivot back down this path, to keep in the same season. Likewise the The Gilgamesh Epic Tablet VI, the theme of the celestial ceiling of Senmut's tomb, describe the same pole shift. If the earth twisted about on the ecliptic pole in the Dragon, Ursa Major would drop below the circum polar region. The "Wain", that is the wagon of the Big Dipper would drop below the ocean at night if earth twisted near 180° to point to Vega and all the more so given this was about the 30° Latitude, where the pole is only 30° above the horizon.
Seneca's conclusion: "Are we alone of mankind deemed worthy of being overwhelmed by an unhinged universe? Is it upon us the last day has come?" They thought earth hinged on the pole star. They thought it was the end of the world. Wouldn't you?

The Magical Papyrus Harris: "the south becomes north, and the Earth turns over." The Dendera Zodiac is upside down and progresses in reverse seems to represent earth upside down. However, the sun must have moved 180° in December or June for earth to twist 180° to keep in the same season. By twisting your globe on a flat surface you see how God must twist earth to keep it in the same season. The spring sun is depicted in Leo which suggests the sun moved 180° in spring or fall. Likewise the sun in a reverse zodiac appears to rise in the east rather than from the west. However, east and west are reversed: "The first chart startled the investigators because in it west and east are reversed...The zodiac and the heavenly bodies, including Phaethon, rotate anti-clockwise on this diagram as the day advances." S.I.S. In a reverse orbit the spring night sky and fall night sky are reversed not the constellations of east and west. If the sun moved 180° in December or June earth must twist 180° south to keep in the same season. Then what had been north would point south, to the south constellation. Effectively earth would be "upside down" even though its axis pointed to Vega in the northern hemisphere. Then west and east would be reversed. Some have interpreted the sun being depicted in Leo in spring. The sun was last in Leo on the vernal equinox 10,000 years ago. The lion like Sphinx faces east where the sun rises on the spring equinox. The lion shape may depict the sun then being in Leo on the vernal equinox. A possibility is the sun moved 180° from Taurus to Scorpius April 12 3637 BC, the day of Noah's flood. Then 9 days later on the vernal equinox Leo would rise just before the sun. The sun progressing in reverse against the zodiac as earth flowed into a reverse orbit of the sun. Or the sun may have moved 180° from or to Cancer from or to Sagittarius in more recent times, perhaps near 100 BC. Depicted in a nearby zodiac sculpture from the grand temple the rising sun is in Cancer. The severed leg of the bull is depicted in the center of this Dendera Zodiac. This may signify the sun moving 180° other than on the equinoxes and earth shifting on it axis to keep in the same season and pointing to a new pole star, thus the leg severed from the bull of the north pole. "Horus had chopped off one leg of the bull and transferred it to another part of the sky where it could be properly guarded and prevented from ever again running amok." Earth would only need to shift to this severed leg of the bull if the sun moved the 180° other than on the equinoxes. "In Hwang-te's 50th year, in autumn, in the 7th month, on the day Kang-shin [57th of cycle], phoenixes, male and female arrived." This must be September 22 2648 BC, the year Abraham was born. Then earth must shift 40° clockwise to keep in the same season. "In his (emperor Yao's) 70th year (January 26 2287 BC), in the spring, in the first month..phoenixes appeared.." This must be January 26 2287 BC and earth must shift 150° clockwise to keep in the same season. "In his (emperor Ching's) 18th year (1096 BC), in the spring, in the 1st month..Phoenixes made their appearance.." Phoenixes in the Chinese spring signify a sun miracle between January 11 and March. If the sun moved 180° February 1096 BC earth must shift about 60° clockwise. If the sun moved 180° near the winter or summer solstice, earth must shift nearly 180° to keep in the January season. Then the stars would appear upside down because north would point south to Vega. A January 26 2287 sun miracle and earth must shift 150°, 10000 years, in forward precession and north point to Alderamin. Earth very much upside down according to the pole star. Not earth upside down; take a globe and twist the base 180°. You see earth's axis now points south yet still points "up". To sailors who relied on the pole star to point north earth would be upside down and east west.

It was a common belief in the Mediterranean that the world turned over. Plato also wrote of this: "For when the world turned towards the present cycle of generation.." That east and west are reversed in the Denderah Zodiac may mean earth was turned 180°, twisted to point to Vega, "upside down". There were sun miracles recorded almost every century before Christ. There was one indicated by the Chinese because of Jupiter's reverse motion in 103 BC about the time the Denderah Zodiac was made.

See Joshua's Long Day