When it comes down to tracing your history, from the Big Bang event 13.7 billion years ago up through and including yourself at your address, well the standard model is pretty straight forward. The one factor that tends to be missing from the standard texts however are the influences that other life forms, extraterrestrials, have had on that Big-Bang- to-you big picture. All and sundry ignore this factor; I don't.
ANCIENT they collectively represent a division of godly responsibilities toward that specific culture or geographical area. Each area commands a separate pantheon of gods. For example, the Norse lands (Scandinavia) have Odin, Thor, Loki, etc. They are akin to a parliament where you have a prime minister (head god), a cabinet (senior gods) and backbenchers (minor deities). So you have an agricultural god, a weather god, and so on.
Ancient: The Monotheistic God (but probably just one of the polytheistic gods whose jurisdiction was the Middle East) and clan have become the dominant deity (with associated hangers on) within the western world. Unfortunately, despite Christian propaganda that God is a moral, just, loving deity, His biography, as given in the Biblical Old Testament, is anything but. God is shown to have all the same sorts of emotional attributes as the polytheistic gods had. Translated, God possesses the normal run of emotions and behaviors that not only the gods had but that humans have. In other words, God has all the morals of an alley cat! Further, none of the supernatural powers exhibited by God (or clan, like Jesus Christ or J.C.) are unique to God. Anything God can do, the polytheistic gods can do too.
Ancient: Jesus Christ (J.C.) is one of many minor 'deities' born on Earth and the only known example to the best of my knowledge of a 'god' being executed by humans. So why didn't our supposedly all powerful God-The-Father step in and prevent this execution? God hasn't exactly been shy in interfering in human affairs before this event. That 'God' didn't intervene isn't surprising. A common theme in mythology is the father killing off, or attempting to have eliminated, all male offspring that could down the track prove threatening to dad's own power base. The Greek god Zeus himself nearly suffered this fate but escaped and ultimately got his revenge on dear old daddy.
Ancient: Angels are more minor 'deities' under 'God's' jurisdiction (wings and haloes and harps are human embellishments). Not all 'angels' were happy under, and with 'God's' style of command and thus some staged a mutiny - which failed. There are other examples in mythology of 'gods' revolting against their peers and superiors - turf wars and power struggles were the norm way back when.
Ancient: Fairy-Folk (including elves, etc.) were another extraterrestrial clan whose relationship with the 'gods' isn't entirely clear - colleagues or did they have separate agendas? These beings were later known as the Incubi and Succubi and today are akin to the 'Greys' of UFO abduction lore.
Ancient: Various mythological beasties, associated with the gods and/or God are of two types: There are the half-and-halves (half human - half animal) who are among the end products of ET's genetic engineering experiments. Then there are the dragons and the other non-godlike entities found in all mythologies. I find them akin to human's companion animals. Translated, dragons, etc. were pets of the gods - both being of course extraterrestrial in origin.
Modern: The 'Nordics' a.k.a. the 'Space Brothers' - Of the modern reported UFO entities, these angelic-like near perfect physical specimens appear to be the one group that likes to spread around New Age Hippy-style philosophy. It's not religion per say as much as an appeal to 'cosmic brotherhood'. The 'Nordics' target audience were the 'contactes' (mainly of the 1950's), usually relatively simple folk who often trumped up their limited education by calling themselves 'Professor' or 'Doctor'. Though the contactees were nearly rubbished by anyone with an IQ over 50, the contactees might have had the wool pulled over their eyes as their 'Nordics' could have been that subdivision of the gods known as 'trickster' gods. As the name implies, they like to pull practical jokes, not all of which are funny ha-ha.
Modern: The 'Greys' tend to be associated as the mainstream of UFO occupants, in particular when it comes to alien abduction cases. They are fairly short, thin, with spindly legs and arms, but large heads, small noses, slit-like mouths, overall hairless, but have striking eyes, usually oval which tend to wrap-around the skull to quite elongated degree. The basic image has certainly struck a quite responsive chord with the general public as if it represents an image of a repressed memory - like that of an actual abduction. The 'Greys' seem to have something akin to Star Trek's transporter beam, or beaming technology, and like the 'gods' of old, have the ability to be seen and heard by just those they want to be seen and heard by. That said, descriptions of Ufonauts vary widely, but again, the 'Greys' tend to predominate.
An interesting question as hinted above is whether or not these various alien races/extraterrestrial civilizations are akin to a Star Trek 'Federation' in the sense of working together for the common cause, or working apart; do all and sundry have a collective agenda, or separate agendas, or like human nations, have some common goals but also separate and apart goals.
ANCIENT AND MODERN 'ASTRONAUTS': THEIR TRAITS
The top or high echelon of the 'gods' (including 'God') are usually associated with the sky or space.
They often get around in assorted flying vehicles, like aerial 'chariots'.
The 'gods' and Fairy-Folk live in or come from rather exotic abodes, often termed in mythology, the 'Otherworld'. Even Heaven could be termed an 'Otherworld' (though maybe 'Heaven' was the name given to Captain God's and crew's starship that transported them to here). Mythological 'Otherworlds' are actually extra-solar planets.
From a human perspective, the so-called mythological beings (what I strongly suspect are really flesh-and-blood extraterrestrials) are for all practical purposes immortals. Of course they aren't really immortal, only apparently so when compared to our three score and ten. Lengthy life-spans, whether natural or augmented by ET's advanced technology, are of relevance for it allows our aliens to get from there (those 'Otherworlds' wherever they are in space) to here with no more of a yawn than humans taking the cross-town bus.
One universal trait with respect to the polytheistic 'gods' and the Fairy-Folk is their ability to have selected invisibility to whomever they don't wish to be seen by; conversely they can appear to one individual only, even with that individual existing within a crowded setting. Now either a being reflects light or it doesn't. If it does, then it should be visible to everyone. If that's not the case then the only other viable explanation is some sort of at-a-distance mind-control. If that's not possible then everything crumbles like a deck of cards because the weakest link in the chain has snapped. However, it's such a widely reported happening in mythology and ufology that the truth is out there even if the rational explanation thus far isn't.
The mythology/ufology parallel is that when it comes to alien abductions phenomena, there's obviously some sort of mind control at work since abductees don't tend to fight their abductions and they usually have little or no memory that anything out of the ordinary happened after-the-fact. That would remain the case were it not for that vague (can't quite pin my finger on it) sense of unease, missing time noted, and/or physical evidence like unexplained scars or waking up with your nightclothes on inside-out or back-to-front.
The polytheistic 'gods' apparently have the ability to shape-shift. But then again a seed will shape-shift into a plant; a caterpillar into a butterfly, so it's only the relative matter of degree of shape-shifting ability at stake here.
These god-like extraterrestrials can perform apparent supernatural like miracles, but so could 21st Century humans with 21st Century technology if showed to our ancestors say 8000 to 2000 years ago. Further, these so-called 'miracles' normally associated with God and J.C.; well, let's just say than anything God or J.C. could do, the polytheistic 'gods' could do as well - they even did tricks that would put God and J.C. to shame in any carnival sideshow.
These god-like extraterrestrials are powerful, but hardly all-powerful or invincible.
These god-like extraterrestrials are knowledgeable, without being all-knowing.
These god-like extraterrestrials have moral standards equal to or less than the average human and tend to treat us much like we treat the lesser terrestrial life forms we associate with - they (lesser terrestrial life forms) are property to us; we're property to them - the extraterrestrial 'gods'.
And it doesn't take much knowledge or logic to show that the Biblical monotheistic God of the Old Testament can't be all-powerful, all-knowing, and especially all-loving for His morals rate somewhere south of Hitler, Stalin and any other tyrant you care to name. The proof of that pudding comes direct from the texts of the 'Good' Book itself.
Not only God, but ditto the 'gods', and the Fairy-Folk often interfere in human affairs, and not always to our benefit by any stretch of the imagination.
Some of the 'gods', even the Fairy-Folk, have a sense of humor, albeit not always of the ha-ha kind as hinted at above. These court jesters are collectively called the 'trickster' gods (Loki, for example), and they are found throughout all cultures and their associated mythologies. I suggest that in our modern era, there are still 'trickster gods' around, having fun a human's expense. I suggest they could be behind the puzzling crop circle phenomena; the LDE's (Long Delayed Echoes) enigma where radio/radar pulses sent out are delayed in their return, cause or causes unknown; pulling the wool over the flying saucer related contactees' eyes causing them to honestly relate tales that have absurdity written all over them; and having wicked fun at the expense of SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) scientists by broadcasting brief non-repeating radio signals to their radio telescopes that have the hallmarks of intelligence but leave the scientists frustrated because they can't be decoded (too brief) and the can't be verified because they are one-offs. By the by, the Monotheistic God and hangers on most certainly have no tricksters in their midst - no entity in the Bible has any sense of humor whatsoever!
Science librarian; retired.
