Celestial Wars: 'Worlds In Collision' by Immanuel Velikovsky

Immanuel Velikovsky recedes into memory and few recall controversy first caused by his 1950 book, "Worlds in Collision," (pdf), that discusses literary and mythical records of "Venus" and "Mars" catastrophes.  "The book proposed that around the 15th century BCE, Venus was ejected from Jupiter as a comet or comet-like object, passed near Earth...changed Earth's orbit and axis, causing innumerable catastrophes which were mentioned in early mythologies and religions around the world. Fifty-two years later, it passed close by again, stopping the Earth's rotation for a while and causing more catastrophes. Then, in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, Mars (itself displaced by Venus) made close approaches to the Earth; this incident caused a new round of disturbances and disasters. After that, the current 'celestial order' was established. The courses of the planets stabilized over the centuries and Venus gradually became a "'normal' planet," a brief synopsis of  theory gleaned by Velikovsky from his research, according to Wikipedia.  Velikovsky was marginalized by scientific establishment, but offered his wise view, ancient traditions are best guide to appearance and arrangement of earliest remembered solar system, not computer calculations based upon current knowledge of astronomy.  The above You Tube video is a nice Velikovsky primer in under an hour.  You may learn more at "The Velikovsky Encyclopedia."