Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Ritual Drama: The Beatles and the Sun










You may have tuned into the Grammy Awards the other night and witnessed this tribute to the Beatles by none other than the Cirque Du Soleil (which can be roughly translated into "Sun Disk"). 


I have a feeling this was not put into the program on a whim, and the fact that Da Vinci Code/Apollo 13 star Tom Hanks kicked off the ritual reinforces that suspicion.

The Beatles and the Cirque Du Soleil are a match made in the Heavens, given the classic odes to Sol that the Fab Four unleashed on the world, such as "I'll Follow the Sun," "Good Day Sunshine," "Sun King" and "Here Comes the Sun." I'm puzzled by the placement in this year's Grammies, however, since their Love production is nearly two years old now.

The ostensible connection with late boomer Tom Hanks also escapes me, given the fact that he was seven years old when the Beatles first did the Sullivan Show.


But I'm certain of the Beatles connection to Sun worship, given the fact that they made their bones in a converted Mithraeum called the Cavern Club. The Mithraic Legionnaries- especially strong in Britain thanks to the troublesome Celts and Picts- would worship in cellars, but of course their preference would be for caverns.


Here we see a Solar-looking disco ball phase in and out of a reconstruction of the Cavern Club in Julie Taymor's 2007 film Across the Universe. Remember now that the Mithraists believed that the Sun went into a cavern when it "died" on the Winter Solstice.


This little interpretation of "Happiness is a Warm Gun" caught my eye, for it struck more or less at the heart of my research into the history of the martial Solar cults and their various incarnations throughout history.

double-click image to enlarge

• We see a VA hospital with a group of wounded soldiers attended to by a priest, who is soon vexed and ejected as the song goes on.

• We see a cross in a red circle, familar now to fans of the movie Zeitgeist. This mirrors the Sun's path through the constellations of the Zodiac.

• Then we focus on Max's right eye, which was the eye of Horus representing the Sun.

• In the next shot we see the X cross superimposed over the Eye, a clear parallel to the Mithraic Cross of Light. This makes sense to me since it is my belief that Mithras had little to do with the Zoroastrian Mitra and everything else to do with Horus.

•The cross begins to rotate and a prostrate woman appears on it. Perhaps this might represent the degradation of the sacred feminine in the exoteric Solar traditions, I dunno. But the thing that caught my eye is that it becomes literally a cross of light.

•Then five versions of the exquisite Salma Hayek materialize on the cross, wearing a version of the Hospitaller standard. The Hospitallers merged with many of the Templar leftovers after the big crackdown.

I'm not sure what religious tradition the five Salma Hayeks are meant to represent, but whatever it is, sign me up!

(Note: Joltin' Joe tells me there were supposed to be 12 Salmas, for the 12 soldiers in the room but it was technicaly unfeasible. So that kind of nails the Zodiac thing)


What also fascinates is that the neighborhood that housed the Cavern Club was in a part of Liverpool owned by the Templars. My research has proved to my satisfaction that the Templars were simply the medieval reincarnation of the Mithras warrior cult - something I will be writing about in great detail in the future - so this connection seems perfectly natural. 

So of course the Templars would own real estate housing an old Mithraeum; they probably held it since the days of Hadrian.

Coincidentally, Paul McCartney is seen here performing at Super Bowl XXXIX, where he knocked out a killer take on "Hey Jude," also featured on the Cirque Du Soleil Grammy performance. This was back in the good old days, before the New England Patriots found themselves on the wrong side of the Killing Joke. 

Whether McCartney's little gesture there is in honor of Templar icon Baphomet is beyond my knowledge.