Some may have noticed that I haven’t said much about Earth. Why didn’t they simply migrate here, where the environment was still hospitable? Some did, but there were a couple of reasons why most did not.  For one thing, their physical bodies were adapted to a lower gravity than Earth’s, and that made extended visits somewhat uncomfortable. More importantly, they were already here. Their preferred method of physical manifestation was to inhabit, possess, if you like, the body of a local resident- and there were people here. A human population had existed on Earth since long before the Fall.

Let's take a look at a (gasp!) B&W  image to help illustrate the problem with dating  the connections between Earth and Mars. On top, we have an esa Mars Express image of one of the  more popular target areas for Mars imaging,  Coprates Catena.  The image has been rotated to the right, that is all. Go look at the full size version.  Below, a closer view of one part. At the very least, one can see someone (apparently a girl) in a fur-trimmed hood ,waving. She is therefore dressed rather warmly for the current location of that area, approximately 30S Latitude. This might mean the diorama dates from before Mars shifted polar orientation to its present position. Or it might mean that Mars was already pretty cold when she was there and only latitudes relatively close to the equator were habitable at all. So it provides a number of good clues about Old Mars, but it does not tell us how old, or which Mars cycle is depicted there. Is she a Martian, or part of the imported Earth population? There certainly is no  high technology in view- except for the diorama itself  Speaking of technology, this unenhanced picture should help quiet some of those who have "issues" with my processing. The lower one has a little bit of contrast adjustment- but mostly, they are both softened somewhat by the resizing, which certainly wouldn't introduce anomalous detail. Like I said, go to the esa portal and look at the original.
	esa Mars Express image 126-291004-0438-6-nd-01-CopratesCatena
	How about a better look?

		One more view, to show the three-dimensional construction involved. Click  HERE  for a close-up of her right shoulder.

One  Earth culture, which we may as well call Lemuria, had its own advanced technology, Their science was not reliant upon interdimensional linkages, so they had not been seriously affected by the Fall. But the Solar System still had some ragnarok ‘n roll to play out, and as orbiting debris returned to the inner system, a new impending cycle of asteroid impacts and earth changes threatened the end of that civilization as well. The Martians saw this as an opportunity, and made the Lemurians an offer: they would temporarily  relocate a significant population of the Earthlings to Mars until things settled down here, if those transported would agree to work on the rebuilding of Mars- oh, and allow the Martians to access them as vehicles to oversee the project. Faced with an alternative of utter devastation and surviving a  thousand years of “nuclear winter”, the deal was accepted.

	PSP_1936_1370b1c :  A shaman sits above a really big snake. There is a whole diorama here, but most of it is hard to make out.

So the great  Barsoom phase of Mars was largely the result of the efforts and technology of Earth, and the relationship was mostly amicable. When the next cycle of destruction came around, Mars itself fell victim, and this time, full recovery was not possible. Cities were established beneath the surface, but for all intents and purposes, the Martian civilization was finished.  True to their word, the Martians did indeed return the descendants of the Lemurians to Earth, which brings us back to the remark about “carefully parking” Phobos. The structural integrity of the Solar System was a high priority, part of the Great Plan to recreate the original symmetry,  so every placement and alignment mattered. The returnees were placed on a small continent by themselves, to allow them to re-adapt to Earth life at their own pace. Unfortunately, after a time, another catastrophe, the most recent iteration of those continuing cycles of destruction, shifted the Earth’s crust to place that continent in an untenably Southern location, and we now call it Antarctica. They had named it Atlantis. For one last time, the survivors were forced to relocate, and they spread across the Earth as refugees, Teachers, and sometimes, gods.

	The connection here, between Sumer and Mars, is stylistic. Shown both as positive and negative, it is remarkable how identical the two views are. That sort of dual perspective is a signature of the Old Culture. Try it yourself, if you think it is easy to do. Cylinder seals, used for officially signing the clay wrappers of tablets (like signets would later be used on wax seals), were very small- this little roller is less than two inches long.  The craftsmanship and artwork are quite sophisticated. I found some amazing explanations for the wavy lines behind Enki, including "aura" and "wings", but common sense would suggest that those actually are two rivers indicating the boundary of a kingdom. The fellow with the bird legs is, however, a puzzle.

What was the origin of the Fall, and the subsequent cycles of destruction? You have heard it before. A large orphan planet, not part of the regular family of the Sun, was captured  as our system moved through a region of space along its path around the galactic center. This planet assumed a highly elliptical orbit at an angle to the plane of the ecliptic. Twice each orbit, it passes among the other planets. On any such occasion when it gets near a regular member of the system, the gravitational influence causes problems. When it happened to pass too close to the Mars-Marduk pair, it pulled them apart. Mars, which has no tectonic plates, survived. The other was wracked by quakes until it shattered. If another of the many explanations that have been proposed pleases you more, then choose it instead. Only two more areas need to be covered, then we can move ourselves back to the Conspiracy.

Why not?  Great opportunity to create a customized  worker class. Remove most of that unsightly animal hair, and rebuild the mental wiring to allow the new vessels to function in the purely physical Reality  in a more individualized manner. Replace the innate herd-telepathy with the Martian type. That should make them much more tractable and devoted, since when not being “ridden”, they’d be lacking anything beyond basic animal instincts.

Although the results were at first quite satisfactory,  they had underestimated some of the effects of mixing their own DNA with the local Earth gene pool. After all, this was not something they’d done before either. Rather than being organic automatons, the new humans expressed their enhanced individuality by becoming smarter and more aggressive with each generation. What had been infused as a mental toolkit to be used by the Martian “rider” integrated with a human analytical trait to become a creative spark. The intended vessels became clever. Over time, they became increasingly unmanageable. The Children of the Gods had become unruly Teenagers. You’ve already heard about the urges of the “Angels” for hanky-panky with the local girls, furthering the genetic mixing Some thought this was fine, and that eventually these creatures should be accepted as equals.. Most did not, and various attempts were made to rectify the situation, none with our best interests in mind. All went badly. We won’t cover Religion right now.

What did they do, exactly, to the Earth locals? Hmm. There is a  particular area in the physical brain unique to humans, which deals with facial recognition. Not shapes, but specifically faces. This also happens to be the area involved in most of what are tagged “extrasensory perceptions”. It isn’t just some mechanism provided by Nature to facilitate “fight or flight” response- if it was, it would be commonplace among most species. As genetic mongrels, we lack the innate herd telepathy of other species, so that capability had to be augmented. The Martians were a telepathic race. This is another point at which I will simply stop, since there is so much material available discussing permutations and opinions on our relationship with Martians, ETs and who-knows who else that anything I said would be nothing but a distraction from our subject. This section is meant only as contextual background, so believe what you like on those matters. But the next time you ponder that puzzling Biblical passage about the destruction of the Tower of Babel and the “confusing” of Man’s “speech”, remember the remark about telepathy.

Because the timelines are so telescoped and jumbled, there is undoubtedly some confusion creeping into your thoughts. Let’s fix it. Understand, this whole overview is extremely abbreviated- the periods of time involved span thousands and thousands of years. Although the sudden destruction of that companion-planet (call it Marduk or Vulcan if you want) happened in a day, the results took a little while to unfold. It did not go  KABOOM!  like Krypton or Alderaan so much as fall apart. It cracked into pieces, which drifted apart. Mars simply drifted away, suffering little more than stress-quakes, when its orbit became moot. As Mars got further away, the pieces began to smash into each other, and their vectors altered, some pulled away by Mars and some flung out by centripetal forces. A large piece eventually slammed into Jupiter and caused it to flare, scorching one hemisphere of Iapetus. The outer colonies had anywhere from weeks to months to prepare for possible impacts, and much of the debris went into longer orbits, more to be feared on the return than at the time of the initial catastrophe. But the hyperdimensional disruption was immediate, like a radio tuned off of a channel. The entire basis of their technology started to fail, and just kept getting worse. But even that took some time Thousands of years passed. Many times, factions came to Earth and meddled in human affairs.

Another thing the Martians gave up on was Mars. This will lead us back to the Conspiracy. It was not the initial events that stripped away the Martian atmosphere, nor was that the time when the great scar of the Valles Marinaris was formed. The atmosphere was somewhat attenuated when the planet broke orbit, but it was a later cycle of impacts that did the real damage. The ruins we can see today are of what was built after the planet became irreparably devastated. All remaining habitats were either underground or sealed arcologies.

A local symmetry had been achieved on Earth for a time, and great monuments were built there during the first Age of the Gods, but then that balance was broken by the shift of the crust. That experiment was over.  Mars is our focus here, however. That is where the last expression of the old mental technology occurred. Even a race of gods changes over time, and eventually most moved on. They wanted to leave something, however, for their Earthly offspring to find someday. The last great act played out on Mars itself was to transform it into a memorial.

All that could still be managed was a mental manifestation of what we might call a nanotechnology. It spread across the entire surface of the planet like a spiderweb made of tiny crystalline Lego blocks, subtly nudging here, digging in there. It molded and shaped with a slow and inexorable pressure, adding a storyline to the already balanced harmony of the environment. That which had been built was integrated with that which had been destroyed. Ruined buildings, canyons, exposed former seabed, and mountaintops all became parts of something else- the story of Mars.