and what if he has the cart before the horse? could it be that rising tensions in the world are manifesting in the sun?

http://www.auroraexperience.com/Default.asp?Page=249


For others an omen of doom

However in many other cultures the Aurora Borealis has had more sinister and fearful associations. In ancient Norse mythology, auroral rays were perceived as the reflections of the shields of the Valkyries as they rode across the sky bearing the warriors slain in battle to their heroic resting place in Valhalla.
Sometimes when the aurora is unusually large and extends to more southern latitudes, it takes on a dark red hue. In the past people of southern Europe were terrified by this very rare but highly dramatic night vision and associated it with bloodshed and war. For them it was the harbinger of disaster and calamity. For example just prior to the outbreak of the French Revolution, people in Scotland and England reported hearing the sounds of men fighting, and seeing images of great armies clashing in the skies.

The Lapps of Northern Sweden were fearful of the supernatural powers of the brilliant lights. In order to protect themselves they would remain indoors and chant; or if outside, they would be sure to cover up and so keep out of reach of the rays.

Alaskan Inuit people were similarly suspicious of the lights; they hid their children and even carried sharp knives as protection. Further means of warding off the lights’ threatening powers were to hurl dog excrement or urine at the aurora.

The Inuit people further believe that when the spirits are trying to communicate with people on earth their voices can be heard as the whistling, crackling noise which sometimes accompanies the aurora. The human response should be a whisper also.

Most natives of the North agree that whistling or singing at the aurora is highly dangerous and that doing so will serve only to anger the spirits as they think they are being teased. The enraged spirits may well swoop down to earth where they can blind, paralyse, decapitate or even abduct those mortals who dare insult them. To drive the spirits away one should clap one’s hands.

One popular belief among the Inuit people as to the Northern Lights is that they are the souls of the dead engaged in a boisterous, primitive-type game of football, using the skull of a walrus as a football. The accompanying crackling sound is that of the souls racing across the frozen snow of the heavens. Should one hear this crackling sound, it is enough to whistle back and the aurora will come closer, out of curiosity.

In Iceland it was believed that if a pregnant woman gazed at the northern lights her child would be cross eyed.

In Greenland some Eskimos considered the aurora to be the spirits of stillborn or murdered children. The particular mood of the spirits could be read from the formation and movement of the aurora. When they were happy the lights danced about in the sky, but if they were sad they were still.