The Mythic, Mithraic Mysticism of Michael Clayton

Abstract: Tony Gilroy's 2007 masterpiece Michael Clayton is an ancient myth masquerading as a legal thriller. Consciously drawing upon the symbolism of fantasy literature and pre-Christian religion, Gilroy revives a narrative tradition of ethics and morality wed to Synchronicity and visionary experience.


While preparing this article, I realized that in my somewhat-amorphous Top 20 list of favorite movies from the past 15 years, 4 of them star George Clooney.

Of those 4, only one (Out of Sight) was a true mainstream hit. The other three films are Soderbergh and Cameron's Solaris, Syriana and Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton.* I've written about the deep mythological parallels in Solaris, which you'd expect in a mystical sci-fi film (particularly one involving James Cameron).

But there is as much - if not more - mythic symbolism in Michael Clayton, which you wouldn't expect in a legal thriller of this type. Unless said thriller was written and directed by one of the primary screenwriters in yet another of my top 20 films, The Devil's Advocate.

Gilroy has said that Clayton grew out of his work on Advocate, which saw a scenery-chewing Al Pacino as Satan using a Manhattan law firm as a staging ground for the Apocalypse. The conceit of that film was that the Devil was not a puppeteer, but merely an enabler for humankind's own (limitless) capacity for evil. The Devil's Advocate was pure fantasy; Michael Clayton is much more frightening because the evil it depicts is that much more real.

MYTHOSYNOPSIS

NOTE: We're in for spoilers galore, so if you haven't seen the film and want to be surprised, stop reading now, go rent it and then come back. I'll be still be here when you get back.

First a word about the actors- in a Secret Sun context, it's hard to imagine a more significant lead cast: You have the aforementioned Clooney in the title role. You have Tom Wilkinson (of Eternal Sunshine fame) as the doomed attorney Arthur Edens (more on that name later). You have the late, great Sydney Pollack playing a close variation of his Eyes Wide Shut role as Clayton/Clooney's boss.

And finally you have Tilda Swinton (aka the "One-Woman Synchromystic Factory") as the villian of the piece, corporate attorney Karen Crowder (I'm sorry, I realize using "corporate attorney" and "villain" in same sentence is redundant). Both Clooney and Wilkinson were nominated for Ausurs® for their amazing work in the film and Swinton won Best Supporting Actress.

The plot is that Arthur Edens- a top litigator with a history of mental illness- goes off the deep end when he realizes that U-North, the agro-chemical company his firm is representing, deliberately suppressed evidence during a lawsuit over a carcinogenic weed killer. When Arthur threatens to expose a damning memo, U-North's lead attorney has him murdered by a pair of corporate spies. Clayton is the firm's fixer who discovers what Edens was on to and soon becomes a target himself.


So many of the signifiers we've seen repeated over and over in other films are well-represented in this film. First of all, the story is told in flashback, which is to say reverse time. At the beginning of the film we meet Michael Clayton at a gambling den in Koreatown. His car is parked on 33rd St, staring straight up at the Empire State Building.

From there, Clayton drives to Westchester, to deal with a client involved in a hit-and-run. Driving home as the Sun rises, Clayton stops when he sees three horses on a hilltop. Later we find out the significance of this sighting.

Michael Clayton Clip - The most popular videos are here

Exhausted and distraught, Clayton climbs the hill to connect with the animals. But as he does so, his car explodes. Hmmm- flaming chariot, horses, sunrise...sound familiar?

Here's a hint.


Clayton then throws his wallet and watch and phone into the flaming car. The watch is especially fascinating, given that the Roman sun god, Helios Mithras (aka Sol Invictus, or the "Unconquerable Sun") was known as "the god of Infinite Time."



Doubly fascinating, since following the explosion (and its attendant sun god symbolism), we go back in time, and the first thing we see is this image: the flaming solar disk logo of the film's fantasy franchise, Realm + Conquest, which is sort of a combination of Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and World of Warcraft.

Realm + Conquest is the obsession of Clayton's son Henry, and becomes the linchpin of the entire film. What Gilroy is doing here is telling us that we are now in a mythic realm, so we need to look out for signifiers.


Like this: Clayton is summoned to Milwaukee to deal with a crisis- Arthur freaked out during a deposition with a plaintiff (named "Anna Kysersun"- I kid you not) and stripped naked and ran through the parking lot. Now we are introduced to Karen Crowder in narrative time as she leaves a corporate minivan during a Wisconsin snowstorm. Ring any bells?

Here, does this image help?

We hear Arthur's confession to Clayton during the film's opening credits. What he describes sounds less like a psychotic break, and more like a Philip K. Dick-type visionary experience. After a lifetime of conscience-less litigation, Arthur realizes he himself has become an accomplice to mass murder:

I realize we're standing in the middle of the street, the light's changed, there's this wall of traffic, serious traffic speeding towards us, and I freeze, I can't move, and I'm suddenly consumed with the overwhelming sensation that I'm covered with some sort of film. It's in my hair, my face... it's like a glaze... like a coating, and... at first I thought, oh my god, I know what this is, this is some sort of amniotic - embryonic - fluid. I'm drenched in afterbirth, I've-I've breached the chrysalis, I've been reborn.

But then the traffic, the stampede, the cars, the trucks, the horns, the screaming and I'm thinking no-no-no-no, reset, this is not rebirth, this is some kind of giddy illusion of renewal that happens in the final moment before death. And then I realize no-no-no, this is completely wrong because I look back at the building and I had the most stunning moment of clarity. I realized Michael, that I had emerged not from the doors of Kenner, Bach, and Ledeen, not through the portals of our vast and powerful law firm, but from the asshole of an organism whose sole function is to excrete the... the-the-the poison, the ammo, the defoliant necessary for other, larger, more powerful organisms to destroy the miracle of humanity.

Clayton then meets Karen Crowder and it's hate at first site (this film is kind of a classic Clooney romance picture in reverse). She's one of those denatured, defeminized, dehumanized drones those of you who've worked at certain corporations will be well familiar with. Clayton has Arthur released and is charged with cleaning up his mess. Crowder's minions do background on Clayton, where we hear this voiceover:


You were probably wondering when our magic number was going to show up. Note also the staff of wheat in the flag behind Clayton, which bears a strange resemblance to the golden laurels of Apollo.


After his release from prison, Arthur speaks with Henry, who has called to speak with his absent father. Henry has become a Realm + Conquest evangelist, and Arthur is immediately captivated by the story's premise of heroes being summoned to a great mission by shared, visionary dreams.

Gilroy is giving us the true power of mythology, by placing a myth within his own emotion-laden myth.

Arthur uses the book as direct inspiration for his own quest- to avenge the deaths of the Midwestern farmers killed by U-North's weed killer. He later titles his case against U-North "Summons to Conquest."

Arthur then escapes Clayton's supervision and returns to his New York loft, where U-North's spies are tapping his phone. Clayton then confronts Arthur, who is clutching a large bag of French bread to his chest. We must then wonder- is Arthur actually Ausur? After all, some scholars have traced the Arthurian legends to Egyptian sources.

And I can't help but wonder when I picture this image of Osiris, with wheat growing from his sarcophagus.


The performances in this film are absolutely riveting. As a loose cannon, Wilkinson alternates from child-like mental case to aggressive, razor-sharp litigator without warning throughout the film. Suspicious that the firm wants him committed, Arthur utters this cryptic line, which ties us back to Clayton's sunrise epiphany. His confrontation ends with a withering glare which you could just imagine reducing witnesses to rubble in a courtroom.


From there we see Arthur back in vacant mode, wandering around Times Square (of course) freed of a lifetime of deceit. Note that he is crowned with the oceans of the earth in this shot, again tying back to the Osiris archetype.

But his mood instantly changes when he sees U-North's greenwash bullshit appear on an electronic billboard. Note the juxtaposition of the U-North logo and the Wicked poster- the Wicked Witch of the West identified with Jadis the White Witch in the form of Karen, Tilda Swinton's character.

Genius.

In the mix-and-match language of fantasy literature, Karen could also be Morgan le Fay, perhaps with Arthur and Clayton as the Pendragons.

Note also the explictly Solar Europa Cafe logo- this links us directly to bull symbolism, which we'll see in a moment...


Karen orders Arthur to be killed when he announces his intention to expose their complicity. I couldn't help but see Arthur/Ausur as the Apis bull, the sacrificial god of Taurus seen in the Mithraic Tauroctony. Those surgical caps the killers (named Mr. Verne and Mr. Iker) are wearing remind me of this...

... Mithras' Phrygian cap, which we see in the Tauroctony. The fact that Arthur is poisoned parallels the scorpion and snake in the icon.

Oh, I know- that's stretching it a bit...

...or is it? As we are told, "the man was a bull." This Tauroctony parallel certainly puts the flaming chariot in a whole new context...

...which is foreshadowed when Clayton looks at Arthur's copy of Realm+Conquest (note mark-ups). Gilroy is not only showing us the power of myth, he's showing us classic synchronicity. The symbolism of this myth drove Arthur's own quest and then saved Clayton's life- and signifies his symbolic apotheosis.


Clayton "dies" and is resurrected- Using his police connections (through his brother) Clayton has the story get out that he was killed when Verne and Iker bomb his car. Clutching a rolled-up copy of Arthur's "Summons to Conquest," Clayton confronts Jadis/Morgan after U-North has agreed to a cash settlement with the victims' families.

This confrontation is one of the greatest scenes in the history of cinema. And there we see that magic name- Anna Kysersun ("Inanna Caesar-Sun") - interesting in that Inanna was the direct equivalent of Hathor, consort of sun god Horus. Is Gilroy pointing to this love goddess/sun god relationship when Anna and Clayton meet in a hot-sheet motel-at an airport, no less? (Inanna was identifed with the sky, as was Hathor)

Michael then explicitly takes on the mantle of Arthur's godhood as the NYPD swoop in and arrest Karen and her boss Don Jeffries (brilliantly played by Ken Howard of White Shadow fame).


Clayton then descends an escalator, like Osiris descending to the Underworld to judge the dead, and walks out to the street...


...and hails down a cab (or in Kotzean parlance, a "Checker Chariot"). Note that 7x25=175.

ARTHURIAN

In my opinion what Gilroy has done here is create a modern myth to encapsulate the elemental forces that converge within the daily corruptions of modern corporate practice.

Following the financial meltdown, this mythology seems less subversive (some idiot reviewers accused Gilroy of "anti-captialism") than prescient. It's one of the oldest stories in the book- Arthur is a king who is unjustly killed and Clayton is his son who avenges his death. "Arthur" and "Edens" both point to lost idylls- the Camelot and Round Table of the Arthurian romances and the Garden of Eden in Genesis.

Clayton is an elemental man (who, like the Adamah, is "made" of clay) who dies and is reborn as an avenging sun god, which is signified by the horses and flaming chariot at sunrise - and Arthur's explictly solar totem "Summons to Conquest." Just like in Narnia, the Sun God melts the Ice Queen. This is mythology in its purest form, made relevant for a modern audience. If Michael Clayton was powerful in 2007, today it's foundational.

WHY THE SUN WENT DOWN IN THE WEST

This attitude towards corruption ties back to Mithraism, which imposed a stringent morality upon its followers. Contrary to academic misinformation, this variety of sun worship didn't die because it was elitist- the Emperor Aurelian had established an exoteric solar religion apart from the Mystery cults during his reign. It died because it insisted on a severe morality in business as well as personal matters. And with bone-crushers like Aurelian (nicknamed manu ad ferrum, meaning "Hand on Sword) in its ranks, it had the ability to enforce that morality.

Aurelian was assassinated for opposing corruption, which became a way of life as Rome became increasingly beholden to foreign merchants (we see this paralleled with the NYC-based law firm and the provincial U-North). Likewise, Diocletian opposed profiteering and deceitful business practices.

The last sun-worshipping emperor of Rome, Julian the Apostate, followed Aurelian and Diocletian's rigorous example and publicly chastised his cousins in the Constantine family for their mind-numbing hypocrisy and criminality. He too may have been assassinated for fighting corruption, which slowly strangled the Empire when the Christian emperors regained power.†

Is Gilroy consciously referring back to Mithraism and its stern ethics? Probably not, but he is obviously using mythic elements drawn from that same tradition. Again, perhaps we are looking at a kind of cultural DNA, where you can't separate the mythos from the message. Meaning that through cultural osmosis, we absorb the myths and their meanings, which are reconstructed through the power of the Collective Unconscious.

Clearly and unambiguously we see myth as a motivator, both for Arthur and Clayton. We see Clayton "die" and be reborn at sunrise (which we looked at in the context of a different Clayton recently). We see Tilda Swinton do a real world do-over of her Narnia role. We have symbolism galore, both overt and otherwise, if not always a clear handle on its meaning.

TRANSCENDENT

For reasons I can't explain, I believe that Myth needs to exist in the non-physical realm for it to truly realize its power. Meaning that it loses its power when it is literalized. I think that the Gnostics understood this, I think the philosophers understood this.

Another problem is when people diminish the power of Myth by trying to actualize it. Michael Clayton is powerful exactly because I don't know all of the mundanities of the character's lives or their temporal connections (which too much fannish sci-fi tries to reintroduce, as in the various Stargates or The Dead Zone series). These characters exist outside of temporal restriction, which we see symbolically referenced when Clayton destroys his watch in his flaming chariot.

I think a new understanding of Myth is an integral component in our conscious evolution, and I very much suspect that storytellers like Tony Gilroy agree.



*Clooney also starred in a couple movies in my top 50- Three Kings (about the betrayal of the Kurdish resistance after the Gulf War) and The Perfect Storm (which was set in my old summer stomping grounds, Gloucester aka Innsmouth and co-starred my former neighbor Mark Wahlberg and my teenage lust object, Diane Lane).

† Despite what some apologists would like you to believe, the "Eastern Empire" was a glorified city-state with a geographic buffer that shrank relentlessly before finally surrendering to Islam.

Looking for Satellite(s)

If you haven't been following the action on The Solar Satellite, you've been missing a lot. This blog has been (relatively) quiet while I clear my plate, but its sister has been buzzing with a wide range of stories charting the emergence of our new sci-fi/synchro reality consensus. It's been incredibly liberating; take a break, find a story, link it up and get back to work. I have felt increasingly bogged down by my growing inventory of Secret Sun posts-in-progress, so this has been a very refreshing change of pace.

Aside from the obvious time constraints, I've been looking at it as a way of letting go of this need to package the narratives and letting the stories tell themselves, at least those stories that fit into my personal reality-perception construction. Which is just a pretentious way of saying I'm simply dealing with stories that cover the same themes we look at here. There is so much going on all at once that I'm never lacking for material. As long as the material is out there, the blog will continue at its present pace.

That being said, I'm working today on one of those monster Secret Sun posts. Look for it Monday at 0:00 EST.

The Sci-Fi Americas (UPDATE)

Here's a sci-fi scenario for you: In 2015, the country is split into at two separate entities. The northern and coastal states are incorporated into a new federation with Canada, which is run on technocratic principles and gives rise to cloning farms, genetic engineering, cybernetics and mandatory, lifelong education.

Meanwhile the southern and western states are opened wide for multi-national corporations- relentless drilling, strip-mining, clear-cutting and factory farming have reduced millions of square miles into a moonscape. Unions, minimum wage and OSHA are completely dismantled in this new confederation, as are public education, health care, libraries and other New Deal legacies.

Something out of Firefly or Star Trek?

Maybe not- the shills are revving up the rubes as I write. Huffpost:

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti-tax "tea party" Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states' rights as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, "Secede!"

An animated Perry told the crowd at Austin City Hall -- one of three tea parties he was attending across the state -- that officials in Washington have abandoned the country's founding principles of limited government. He said the federal government is strangling Americans with taxation, spending and debt.

UPDATE: Perry is a Bilderberger, which makes total sense in my little sci-fi scenario. Cheers to Zane for the tip.

UPDATE II: Sci-fi is just sci-fact that hasn't happened yet, dept.: Looks like the shills are onboard- Limbaugh (CFR) and DeLay (CNP) are pushing the meme now. Does anyone still wonder why I don't take politics seriously anymore?

ST:TOS AAT

Some fascinating dialogue in this episode, which aired more than a year before Chariots of the Gods. Click here and here for deep background.

Secret Sun 3.0 is coming (UPDATED)

Guys, things are just getting too crazy right now. My time and attention is at an absolute premium and I really need to concentrate on my real-world responsibilities. I have a lot of very important outside projects coming up that require an even greater amount of time and concentration. Suffice it to say that things are going to be extremely crazy for me well into the near future.

Just a partial list of in-progress future posts for this blog...

But I also have this huge and growing list of in-progress articles for this blog- including some truly heavy, mind-boggling connections - but I'm finding that it's taking longer and longer to sort through it all. Even when I'm not actually writing, some part of my brain is working on this blog all of the time. And that's time I simply don't have right now.

But once things settle down, I plan to launch Secret Sun 3.0, which will feature larger, more in-depth articles on a (probably) twice-weekly format. I think this blog improved exponentially after last year's hiatus (if nothing else, it certainly became more focused), and I'm hoping that lightning can strike twice. Most importantly, I recommend that people take this opportunity to explore the archives.

So for the time being, Secret Sun 2.0 will be on semi-hiatus. Meaning, I will be posting here occasionally, and The Solar Satellite will continue to be updated regularly.

Keep an eye on this space and I'll see you all over at The Solar Satellite.

UPDATE: Thanks for your comments and concern, but make no mistake- this blog is alive and well! I'm simply recharging my batteries here and clearing my inbox on my paying work. The action will be fast and furious on the Satellite, so fasten your seatbelts and put your crash helmets on.

Week in Review: Solar/17

I've written several posts of the increasing use of solar/sun worship imagery in Christian churches, but I must say that this ad was particularly shocking. A storm rages while actors speak about how terrified they all are of same-sex marriage, but the clouds part when a National Organization for Marriage spokesmodel/shill chimes in, and we see a glorious money shot of old Helios Sol Invictus when the NOM logo flashes. This group is the creation of former journalist Maggie Gallagher, who got caught up in a bribery scandal a few years back.

17 YEARS

Speaking of scandals, I'm sure you've read about the Boss being named as the other man in a divorce proceeding:

Businessman Arthur J. Kelly named the Jersey rock 'n' roller as the reason for the breakup of his 17-year marriage to Ann C. Kelly, according to a complaint filed in Superior Court in Monmouth County last month.

This is not the first time Springsteen, who has been married to E-Street Band member Patti Scialfa for 17 years, has been the subject of alleged infidelity.

"YOU'RE NOT 17"

Of course, it was the sightings of strange flying globes over an Obama rally that Springsteen played at in Phila(e)delphia that got me looking into the emerging Sirius symbolism in the media. Those UFOs may or may not be alien, but the magical 65 MPH "balloons" that the two "pranksters" let loose in NJ certainly were not out of this world. We probably won't find out what was really going on that first night (which of their lies are we supposed to believe?) but happily they got off with the lightest-possible slap on the wrist for endangering aircraft at local airports:

On April 1, they published an article and series of videos on the website eSkeptic explaining how and why they created the hoax.

But one day after the expose, Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi held a press conference condemning the hoax, saying the floating balloons posed a potential fire hazard and could have interfered with air traffic at nearby Morristown Airport.

In court Tuesday, Carlucci accepted a plea deal from Rudy and Russo's attorneys to cite the pair for an ordinance violation. He ordered the pair to serve their community service for the Hanover Recreation Commission, working specifically with youth.

"If you were a pair of 17-year-olds, I would tell you to grow up," Carlucci said to the men. "You're not 17."

BUT THEY ARE...

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) puts the number of socialists in the House at 17.

"Some of the men and women I work with in Congress are socialists," Bachus told local government leaders on Thursday, according to the Birmingham News.

Bachus gave the specific number of House socialists when pressed later by a reporter.

Everything that's going on in politics almost leads me to believe that there's a plan afoot to split the country in two in the next few years, which is why we're seeing increasingly radical rhetoric coming from all of the footmen of the GOP. But you know me- I'm crazy. As soon as I saw the red state/blue state map after the 2004 elections, I said to myself "that's how they're going to split the country," something I've been expecting for the past two decades. Then the clear-cutting and strip-mining and coal-burning and drilling and dumping can commence without interference from coastal do-gooders.

Either way, whenever I hear shills in the media talking NWO or UFO, I'm going to ignore them and try to find out what is really going on.

Keep an eye out because I will be responding to comments from the past few days over the weekend. This has been an extremely tough day and week for me, but I don't want your thoughtful and always-helpful comments to go without reply.

Must See TV: Entheogenautics

Here's another fascinating, absolute must-see video- entitled "Ancient Astronauts," it's actually an exploration on the links between shamanism, entheogens, and ancient mysteries, and not so much extraterrestrials. Of course, regular readers of this blog know that I don't separate these phenomena- in fact I believe they are all intimately linked. Figuring out how is becoming my obsession.

As powerful as shamanic and visionary experience is, there are still many questions it leaves unanswered. In my mind, study of the shamanic experience and the alien question are all part of the same continuum, and shouldn't be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. I think that it's visionary experience itself that puts us on the path to discovering greater mysteries outside ourselves (and inside - see Francis Crick) and our biosphere. I also believe that technology and consciousness are not mutually exclusive either, but in fact are straining towards a synthesis.

UPDATE: I posted this on the Solar Satellite (aka Siberia) but check out Aeolus Kephas laying it down with Henrik. The sooner the better...

Childress on American Megaliths

Things are still relentless around here, so I haven't been able to work on any of the 50 or so posts I have in the queue. In the meantime here is a very interesting talk by David Hatcher Childress on megalithic structures in South America. Awesome stuff- one of my goals in life is to visit all of the sites Childress discusses here.



I've watched a million Von Daniken and Hancock documentaries but hadn't picked up on Puma Punku in Bolivia until the recent History Channel AAT thing. This is a mind-bending site that defies conventional explanation. I'll be looking at this site in depth here in the future.

Along with everything else.

In the meantime, don't forget there are tons of interesting headlines on The Solar Satellite.

Aykroyd on UFOs/ETs

Dan Aykroyd seems to be pursuing a second career as a UFO researcher. Or at least a UFO expounder, as Unplugged on UFOs documentary stems from a series of interviews taken by David Sereda, whose own ruminations we looked at a week or so back. Interesting in light of the Sumerian and secret society mythology he wrote into Ghostbusters or the UFO/MIC connections in My Stepmother is an Alien, which Jake talked about here.

Fascinating guy- these little chats are well worth watching whatever your stance of UFO and ETs may be. Aykroyd seems devoid of idealism and Hollywood piety, always a good thing.

Secret Sunny tidbits- Aykroyd costarred in movies with both Mulder (2001's Evolution) and Scully (in House of Mirth). Also appearing in Evolution was Julianne Moore, of The Forgotten fame.

Aykroyd also put in one of his best performances ever as a manic-depressive hitman in Grosse Pointe Blank (which starred John Cusack) in which he recited Revelation 13.

UPDATE: How weird is this? Soapie informs us that Dan Aykroyd was on Martha Stewart today, fixing up some sacrificial Easter lamb.

Astronaut Theology: Shapes of Things to Come?

In one of the earliest posts I did on this blog, I looked at the mission logo for the Constellation program, with its hidden 3/17. What I hadn't seen then was the patch, which is triangular, rather than the usual circle.

The shuttle program has introduced a number of different shapes for the logos/patches, though most seem to have stuck to some variation on the circle or oval or rectangle. This whole triangle thing is quite eye-catching, particularly given NASA's semiotic connections to Egyptian mythology, well documented by Hoagland and Bara, as well as on this blog.

All but one or two of the Apollo patches were circles, including the most famous of them all, Apollo 11. The iconic design has been reworked for a new project...

...that being the Altair lunar landing module. What caught my eye (no pun intended) here was the old "eye-in-triangle" motif, familiar from Masonic iconography. Here the Earth plays the part of the Eye. As far as I know this is a new variation, in that the Eye is usually meant to symbolize the Sun and/or the Moon.

The Orion spacecraft was unveiled on March 30, giving us a tidy reference to 33 and 17 (add the numerals 3302009). And yet there are 13 stars on the patch! This design is much like the Constellation, adding in the all-important stars of Orion's Belt, well familiar to fans of Robert Bauval. Funny how Hoagland used to speculate on NASA's original logo incorporating Orion and here it is now, out in the open. Just like everything else these days.

Dan Brown fans might be amused by the use of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man icon in the EVA Systems patch (EVA is a life-support equipment program for astronauts). Again the triangle and another encoded 13 (possibly a Templar reference, given the Masonic influence in NASA). Note: The Vitruvian Man is also on the Italian Euro dollar coin, which is a whole other topic.


So NASA is using triangles instead of circles now. Big deal, right? However, the thing that got me thinking on all of this was when I was watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind and noticed the folks in the alien/human exchange program were wearing triangular mission patches, which also had that old eye-in-triangle riff on them. And CE3K got me thinking back on the possible origins of the eye-in-the-sky motif.

With all the high weirdness- and the high tech hardware- in the air these days, you can't help but wonder if this new triangular design motif might not have some deeper meaning, other than the usual Masonic connotations. We're getting hit with so much from so many directions that this might not seem all that significant, but given NASA's symbolic fixations, it could be an important clue nonetheless.

It certainly fits in with the tenor of these very strange times we find ourselves in.

NJ UFO BS

Well, the two NJ "pranksters" are facing charges for disorderly conduct. I guess that's the price of manning the barricades of the Enlightenment. Well, that and the outlay for the supplies.

These guys claimed they did all of this themselves- four separate times- with balloons, helium tanks and road flares. Sounds like they spent a bit of money on this little experiment, don't you think? Those flares run about 10 dollars apiece, helium tank rental is what, 50 bucks or so? Those kinds of balloons are probably a couple bucks a pop.

Call me stubborn, but I didn't believe those lights were aliens then and I don't believe that those two "skeptics" were just a couple of lone pranksters now. As I wrote:

I'm not sure if these UFOs are balloons or ETs (my hunch is they're neither, and may be some new mil-tech) but I certainly love the semiotics of it all (Phoenix! Buto! Orion!) And that's all that really matters on The Secret Sun.

So what stinks about these "revelations?" Just this- no one is addressing the basic issue how balloons could travel in a 20 mile arc in less than 18 minutes. Except for one commenter on a skeptic blog:

posted 01/07/2009 11:01:47 AM
healthyskeptic wrote:

Hi everyone. Before I tell my story, I just want to let everyone know I do not believe that extraterrestrial beings have ever visited this planet. With that said, I witnessed these lights on Monday night, and they were not flares. My friend and I were driving in Morris Plains, and these 5 bright red lights flew (at a fast rate of speed) over our car, then climbed into the sky. After hovering for a bit, they made quick descents, (hundreds of feet) then climbed quickly again. They were unison for the most part, but were not following any kind of wind pattern. I refuse to say it was extraterrestrial, but it was NOT flares. It will remain a UFO in my book.

UFO as in unidentified, not necessarily "alien." The reaction of the "skeptics" is helping to cement my longtime suspicion- that they are merely loudmouthed stalking horses and shills for the Cryptocracy, which is extremely well-represented in Central/North NJ.

Masonic Manhattan: Golden Lady

Synchronicity is a funny old thing. I've been knee deep in research this past week for my next book, reading about Cybele and her mind-bogglingly crazy cult. On Friday I had to drag my tired, old, aching carcass into Masonic Manhattan for a documentary interview. The location for the shoot was up in the air, but finally I was called up to the Empire Hotel near Columbus Circle.

The last time I was up in that neck of the woods was last Beltane, which I wrote about here. But coming back from the interview I was stunned by this bizarre alignment- as you come down Broadway, the Trump International globe lines up with the Cybele shrine (also known as the Maine Monument). And in that same northwest orientation we see in the Stairway to Sirius- and the Atlantis Palm.


And as Thuthie wrote recently, this type of globe (modeled on an armillary sphere) is eerily similar to the Stargate in the movie version of Carl Sagan's novel Contact. And just to add even more Synchromystic incestuousness to it all, Loren Coleman had recently asked me about these globes (there is one theory that Baphomet was actually an armillary sphere).


Since I only saw the Cybele shrine from a distance last time, I moseyed over for a closer look. Quite a beautiful piece of neoclassical art. All sorts of gods- Poseidon, Osiris-Dionysus, etc.- are depicted, but right there on the masthead is none other than our old chum Harpocrates, who we recently looked at in relation to U2. Note that U2 are now indelibly inscribed into the Manhattan landscape.


Note how he is situated near the eagle's head, foreshadowing Horus-Apollo (look at another view here). Is that the message of the statue itself? Or could this juxtaposition be identifying Harpocrates with Ganymede, who ascended to heaven on the wings of Zeus and became the celestial water-bearer? (Note: if you haven't already, check out the Ganymede symbolism in The 40 Year-Old Virgin here).

This would makes sense in light of the water/nautical symbolism of the shrine. Is the Magna Mater -the Star of the Sea- steering the godship towards the Aquarian Age, as symbolized by the fountains that lie directly in her path?

The Trump globe is at top, Harpocrates points to the west on the Maine Monument
at right and fountains and point-in-circle obelisk are at center.

I can't help but sense a deeper message- even an agenda- in this enigmatic piece of art and these strange alignments. Particularly given the profoundly significant piece of real estate it sits on. It certainly has nothing to do with the sinking of a battleship, which it was supposed to commemorate. It's interesting to note that the Circle was designed by a Bonesman, William Eno.

Narnia and Solar Symbolism on the Solar Seminar

Get out your reading glasses- there's a gargantuan new post on solar and sun worship symbolism in The Chronicles of Narnia up now on The Solar Seminar. Some of you may have run across some of this information before, but I really wanted to dig into the Mithraic connections, since I have a lot of posts coming up on Helios Mithras in the near future.


Suffice it to say, the more I look at our friend(s) from Phrygia, the crazier it gets...

Barackobamun in Baden-Baden

Barackobamun is in Europe, and the press is alight with prefab stories on "tension" between the US and its NATO allies. Which, of course, automatically means that everyone will be giving each other backrubs and handjobs all week. These stories are for the benefit of the rubes back home.

One of his stops will be in the resort town of Baden Baden, right off of the Autobahn. Just outside of Baden Baden (in fact it's right off the exit for the town) is the not-so-world famous Autobahnkirche, officially known as St. Christophorous.


Yeah, that's it. The pyramid. Because the first thing I think of when I hear the word "church" is a pyramid. But the design is the least strange thing about this house of worship.


The grounds are just as interesting. There are four obelisks, set to the cardinal points and "the Abraham Gate" at the entrance, all done in an architectural style I believe is called "Early Annunaki."


Boy, don't those columns just fill you up with the Holy Spirit? I like the big compass at the top of this one. There's a very interesting figure at the bottom- the church calls him Molech, but I prefer to call him "Optimus Subprime."


It's a giant with the head of an automobile. Someone call Michael Bay. And then call Erich Von Daniken.


The inside is just as interesting. This is the crypt- note the octagonal skylight. Lots more of those Babylon-looking reliefs everywhere as well. Not the least bit creepy.


Then there are some interesting stained glass windows that make the Denver Airport murals look like Norman Rockwell. Fascinating stuff.

Let's keep an eye on the news. It will be fascinating if Barackobamun goes to mass here.

Thanks to an anonymous tipster.

The Holy Fool

The jingling of bells during the dance is meant to frighten evil spirits and the clashing of sticks represent the fight between good and evil. The dancer who weaves in and out of the team of dancers is known as the Fool and whilst his dance seems to be that of a random nature, in fact his is a very intricate dance and represents the naivety of man. A dancer who is dressed as an animal character shows mans reliance on nature. Handkerchiefs emphasise the hand movements during the dance.- Crop Fertility Rituals

The Kalends of April are sacred to Venus, as is the entire month, and this day has been called the Veneralia. Public games, ludi, would be held in honor of the deity. This day was also known as All Fools Day to the Romans, and they would spend the entire day celebrating with comic hilarity, doing things backwards, wearing women's clothes, dancing in the streets, and generally carrying on in the most in the most foolish and congenial manner. This is one of the few Roman holidays that has preserved some of its original character, under the modern name April Fools Day. In Egypt, this day was celebrated as the Birthday of the god Hathor.- (link)

The Anglo-Saxons called April Oster-monath or Eostur-monath, the period sacred to Eostre or Ostara, the pagan Saxon goddess of spring, from whose name is derived the modern Easter.- Wikipedia

It's probably no coincidence that April Fools' Day is celebrated at the same time that two other similar holidays are celebrated. In ancient Rome, the festival of Hilaria was thrown to celebrate the resurrection of the god Attis. Hilaria is probably the base word for hilarity and hilarious, which mean great merriment. Today, Hilaria is also known as Roman Laughing Day. -How Stuff Works

Perhaps the biggest change came from the initiated version of the Tarot that the original Golden Dawn (and its later offshoots) used. In that deck, the Fool is represented as a naked child of indeterminate sex, who is accompanied by a wolf on a leash, who is reaching up for a rose. In Golden Dawn, the Fool represents the god Harpocrates, the Egyptian god Horus as a young child. - Associated Content

"The four magic symbols, the sceptre, the cup, the sword and the pentacle. The fool always carries them, although he has long since forgotten what they mean. Nevertheless they belong to him, even though he does not know their use. The symbols have not lost their power, they retain it in themselves. - P D. Ouspensky

Knowing: Addenda

ITEM: For those of you who haven't seen The Forgotten, here's the trailer. Note that yet again we see aliens connected to memory and amnesia and identity.

ITEM: Spoiler alert: Here is the final scene from The Quiet Earth, for those of you that have seen both Knowing and this film. See if you pick up on the similarity.

ITEM: Here's an interesting story on Nic Cage's now-defunct comic series, Voodoo Child:

There aren't many bigger comic book geeks in Hollywood than Nicolas Cage. After all, the guy has a tattoo of Ghost Rider on his arm. But when executives at Virgin Comics approached the actor about starting his own line of books, Cage shrugged. "I said I didn't have any ideas, but I told them my son might," Cage says.

So Cage and his 16-year-old son, Weston, brainstormed an idea that would become Voodoo Child, a six-issue illustrated series that hits shelves July 11 and marks one of the first launched by an A-list actor. Hollywood directors long have been fans of comic books. Those who have written Marvel and DC stories for years include Kevin Smith, Bryan Singer and Joss Whedon.

Voodoo Child is different because it's "more spiritual than, say, a Superman or a Batman," Cage says. "That's always been more effective because there's more believability to it." The stories will be rooted in some real-world scenarios.

Set in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Voodoo Child tells the story of Gabriel Moore, a child murdered in the antebellum South by secessionist soldiers. Just before dying, the boy puts a voodoo curse on his soul, leaving him in a netherworld to cope with gang violence and abductions in the modern-day city. Weston says he had tinkered with the idea since seeing hurricane damage in New Orleans, where he and his father lived part time for years.

ITEM: I was struck by the synchronicity between the Plymouth Air crash in Knowing and the connection between National Treasure and Flight 1549. Here's the link for the post making those connections.

ITEM: And on the Google alien tip, a fleet of UFOs flying in formation photographed over Bethnal Green.

Knowing and the Alien/Solar Revelation

WARNING: THIS REVIEW IS NOTHING BUT WALL-TO-WALL SPOILERS!


Well, I saw Knowing today, and as I write there is an extremely violent thunderstorm going on outside. I hope the power doesn't go out, because it's certainly an appropriate backdrop to express my thoughts on the film.

I went into the film nursing a preconception, that this was some allegory of personal Gnostic revelation for John Koestler (a tribute to Arthur Koestler, author of The Roots of Coincidence), and that what I would be seeing would feed into this notion. I still see this film as highly symbolic and inherently Gnostic, but by no means pertaining to any individual's personal "awakening." I started to wonder if this is a metaphorical depiction of an ongoing - or oncoming - agenda, as it ties into so many strands of meaning I've been puzzling over for the past several years, and certainly since 9/11.

Though I was surprised by how much I liked it, Knowing is derivative as hell. There is a scene where the Whisper People (the alien angels) show young Caleb Koestler (played by Chandler Canterbury, who also plays the young Benjamin Button) a vision of the oncoming solar apocalypse and it's nearly a shot-for-shot tribute to the alien apocalypse in The X-Files episode, "The Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati. "

The ending of the film- where children are taken from Earth in order to seed a new world- reminded me of the alien Rapture in "Two Fathers/One Son," the mytharc episodes that preceded "The Sixth Extinction." Visually, the scene reminded me of the cult classic film, The Quiet Earth. The climax of the film recalls Deep Impact. And those of you who saw The Day the Earth Stood Still will pick up a lot of that vibe in Knowing, though it's a lot better than that preachy mess.

Reviewers have compared the Whisper People to the Strangers in Dark City, but they reminded me more of the Friendly Man in The Forgotten (a film that was originally set in Boston). Knowing takes a lot of its ominous mood from The Forgotten, which itself borrowed liberally from The X-Files. At the end of the film the Whisper People morph from mopey goths to looking very much like the robots at the end of AI (but also reminded me of the light beings that Tracy Twyman mentioned in our first crossover).


The plane crash scene is pretty tough to watch, and reminded me of two other Ten Thirteen milestones- "Tempus Fugit/Max" from the fourth season of The X-Files, and "The Innocents" from the third season of Millennium (which we looked at in the "Grill Flame") post.

(Real time note: Not only do I hear thunder, now I hear sirens)

I was also struck on a personal level, seeing that the entire film takes place in my old neck of the woods, that being 42º latitude 71º longitude, which we see repeatedly on GPS. I did notice that my old hometown of Braintree was lit up like a Christmas tree in the satellite photos during the opening credits (I wonder how much of that was being generated by the monstrous South Shore Plaza, the mall where the exteriors for Paul Blart: Mall Cop were shot).

The crash of the Plymouth Air jet seemed highly symbolic to me, since it was at Plymouth where corporatist Calvinism was imported into the New World (as were the Knowles family, incidentally). I've written about the strange, counter-intuitive syncs surrounding Plymouth and the Mayflower, and they certainly tied directly into this film.

Easter eggs are pretty redundant in a film like this, but I did catch a few:

• The subway disaster at Lafayette St (an obvious 9/11 allegory) claimed the lives of 170 people, not 81 (that was the plane crash). Check out Loren Coleman's post on Lafayette and "the Fayette factor" for deep background.

• And what's 17 without a 33? The last two disasters were predicted to claim 170 and 33 lives (although 33 wasn't quite accurate).

• Koestler's wife Allison died in a hotel fire in Phoenix. That's the kind of obvious sync we see when they are put in a film intentionally.

• Rose Byrne (Byrne=burn, more fire symbolism) is named Diana and dies in a car crash, as did her royal namesake, who was "England's Rose."
  

• Diana's identification with the Moon draws back to themes explored in Dark City- the lunar, monotheistic traditions battling the Solar, fertility ones. Interesting to note that Diana was going to disobey the aliens and take the children elsewhere, therefore opposing the Solar/alien revelation.

• Most of the action takes place in Lexington, where the American (read: Masonic) Revolution began. Lexington split off from Cambridge in 1713.

• When we meet Koestler's father, he is standing next to a very strange sculpture of a roaring lion, that looks very much like Aion (Deus Leontocephalus) from Mithraic iconography. Given the symbolic thrust of the film I don't think this is accidental. Since we are looking at Synchronicity, it should be noted that Aion was of particular importance to Carl Jung.

• At the end of the film we see the children on their new alien world, merrily skipping through fields of grain with their white rabbits (la la la, everyone on Earth is dead, la la la). Since we're coming up on Easter, it's worth noting that rabbits or hares are sacred to the Magna Mater, whether you call her Eostre or Ishtar or Astarte or Inanna or Isis. More ancient fertility symbolism in sci-fi, where it shouldn't belong.

• As others have noted, Caleb and Abigail (name on loan from National Treasure) run towards the Tree of Life, which we've been looking at in connection to ancient depicitions of the DNA helix. That entire tableau seems entirely symbolic to me.

• Since Sirius/Canis symbolism is becoming almost mandatory these days, it should be noted that Caleb also means "dog" in Hebrew.

• I couldn't help but remember that I had an ear infection when I had my leprechaun hallucination when I saw Caleb's hearing aid, which was a plot point in his own anomalous encounters.

• Exhibit A in Bible UFO literature- the wheels of Ezekiel- show up. Again, this ties into the "Sixth Extinction" storyline in The X-Files, since the quote was a linchpin when the AAT storyline was picked up again in "Providence/Provenance."

So yet again, aliens at the multiplex. I was expecting this film to be an exploitative scare-a-thon, but the world destruction seemed entirely metaphorical to me. I've been puzzling over this strange nexus of Solar symbolism and alien revelation for quite some time now, and I'm still always stunned when I see it play out before my eyes on screen. Maybe more so than if I hadn't been aware of the history and importance of these memes.

Koestler crowned with Sol, while the Green Sun keeps its own counsel

Although it's been reduced to a staid cartoon by scholars and opposition propagandists, the Solar religion is extremely complex, extremely symbolic and incredibly weird. I've been struggling with a post on Mithraism (that I hope to have up soon) that will prove just how alien - in the truest sense of the word- the Solar religions are. Last spring I began to suspect that the Sun in question is not our friendly old Sol, but an alien sun that some people throughout history have believed is of particular importance to human existence.

The giveaway for the symbolic nature of the end of the world scenario was given away for me when Koestler (representing technocratic reductionist materialism) and his pastor father (representing corporate supernaturalism) embrace and then are consumed by the solar flare. It struck me that both our sciences and our religions would be absolutely devastated by alien contact, no matter how hard we may see the priests of these institutions back-peddling in the media lately. Not that they would be destroyed, but they would have to completely start from scratch, just as the biosphere would after the kind of inferno we see depicted in the film.

So what does that mean today, when alien themes dominate in Hollywood like never before, UFO sightings are at an all-time high, and the Vatican and NASA are trying to figure out how humankind would respond to alien contact? This film could be pure fiction (in fact, let's just assume that it is, even though we've seen recent scare stories about solar activity), but if there was any truth behind all of the omens and portents we are all looking at, Knowing is throwing gasoline on this smoldering fire.

But it's almost impossible for me to see this as a literal narrative, given the whimsical, soft-focus ending. Since solar symbolism and aliens seem to be so closely linked in movies, Knowing seems to tell us that large-scale contact would bring humanity to a standstill, and that only the very young would be able to fully adjust to the post-contact paradigm.

All well and good, but why not just make that a movie? Why cloak these themes in a disaster movie scenario? That's the sort of thing that arouses my suspicions. But so does nearly everything we are seeing nowadays. Aliens and disasters are standard fare for big budget movies. But there's something about the way we're seeing these themes play out lately that really makes me wonder.


UPDATE: Speaking of aliens as beings of light, here's a much better shot of that NJ alien that showed up on Google Street View that I wrote about last week.

Thanks to JR for the grabs.

Synchromystic Media Blitz

Lots of audio-visual activity in the Synchrosphere this week....



Jake Kotze does his first video in I don't know how long. This video is not narrated in Jake's inimitable style, but features a song from British pop group All Saints. Here's the synopsis:

Synchromystic video unveiling the emerging human subtle body (see Alex Grey paintings for more details). The vivified and realized, aureola, halo and chakras of the Stars.

Always interesting stuff. Jake has a wonderful knack for catching the icons/triggers in our new ritualized pop culture.

Jake's partner-in-crime Steve Willner has started a new podcast called Balmy Weather, apparently a riposte to Aeolus' Stormy Weather. Steve is a very capable media wizard, so this is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Speaking of Aeolus, he has his last post and podcast up, which I mentioned on the Satellite. I hope people are not concerned- this is a self-induced alchemical transcending, presaging a new birth after a time spent in the purifying waters of the Omniversal Mind. Neil Kramer of The Cleaver fame takes part in the ultimate Storm, and links to it on his own site.

Also, don't forget that Henrik conducted a live show with Michael Tsarion on the ancient Brotherhood network and the second part of the archived show is up now.

I've overbooked myself on a host of different projects (that will be announced in time here) but I may start an occasional podcast or videoblog in the Summer. I don't want the Secret Sun to get stale, so I may pursue something along those lines.

All you Synchromystics and Psychonauts out there, let me know what you're blogging on or reading lately in the comments sections. Don't forget to include hotlinks.

The Age of Horus: Hancock, Part III

This is the long-overdue third part of the Hancock analysis. My apologies for the delay. You can read part one here and part two here if, like me, you totally forgot what the heck was going on in this series.

The original intent of the screenplay that Hancock is based on is that Hancock is Superman. Although the Jason Bateman character was originally named Horus, somewhere along the line he became Ray (Re, Ra). His character's son was a major character in the original screenplay but was not in the film, since the thrust of the script (no pun intended) became about Ray and Hancock's relationship.


Strangely, Hancock is clearly subservient to Ray, to the point of going to prison at his suggestion. This relationship may not make sense in a real-world context, but corresponds to the mythology, as we see in this interesting story:

When Ra reigned as king over Egypt he sailed up the Nile towards Nubia, because his enemies were plotting against him. At Edfu Horus entered the bark of the great god and hailed him as father. Ra greeted the hawk god and entreated him to slay the rebels of Nubia. Then Horus flew up to the sun as a great winged disk, and he was afterwards called "the great god, the lord of the sky". He perceived the enemies of Ra, and went against them as a winged disk. Their eyes were blinded by his brightness, and their ears were made deaf, and in the confusion they slew one another. Not a single conspirator remained alive.

I'm sure no one will be surprised that when I read "great winged disk," I think "flying saucer." And one can almost imagine some sort of sonic and laser weaponry inherent in this narrative. But this little coda to the story still cracks me up:

Ra afterwards visited the battlefield, and, when he saw the dead bodies of his foes, he said: "Life is pleasant."

This story has an interesting parallel in Hancock when the police summon Hancock from prison to take down a heavily armed gang of bank robbers. Ultimately this episode was orchestrated by Ray, who has a similar epiphany to Ra's when his plan to rehabilitate Hancock succeeds.

So this unlikely relationship between Hancock and Ray has its roots in the ancient literature, as does the tension between Hancock and Mary (read Isis-Meri), since Horus reportedly beheaded Isis when she took pity on Set.

Given the relationship to Superman (whose own god is Rao) it's should be noted that we also have a tantalizing Synchromystic link with President-elect Obama, a bonafide geek who has not been shy in identifying with Superman. I didn't catch any obvious alien subtext in Hancock, but he and Mary's longevity is certainly reminiscent of the immense lifespans of the Anunaki in the ancient literature.

HIDDEN HANDS?

So, yet another blizzard of weird correspondences to mull over. And a whole host of questions as to what we are actually looking at. Are these just easter eggs or still more evidence of the power of archetypes to tell their own story once set in motion? It could be a little of both.

There's little trace of any of this in the original Tonight, He Comes screenplay, and it's certainly not Vince Gilligan's style either. However, one thing I've learned is that screenwriting credits don't always mean much, and that there are often other hands on deck, often getting producer credit - or often, no credit at all.

Bat-George covers the bases in Batman and Robin (1997)

One of the producers on Hancock is Akiva Goldsman, who is no stranger to hidden messages and secret symbols, having written the screenplays for The Da Vinci Code and the upcoming Angels and Demons. In the Hancock DVD doc, Goldsman gets a lot more screen-time than Gilligan, and seems a lot more involved with the shaping of the narrative.

Goldsman is no stranger to superheroes either, having served as the credited screenwriter for the Schumacher-era Batman films, Batman Forever and Batman and Robin (the latter starred George Clooney, himself no stranger to sun god symbolism).

Who better to write this very interesting film?

POSTSCRIPT

Ancient space gods and all the rest of it makes me think of Scientology as well. And of course Will Smith is now BFF with Tom Cruise, High Priest of the Church of L-Ron. After wrapping Hancock, Smith even gave the crew gift cards for CoS "personality tests."

Pondering Cruise and the various scandals over some of the more prominent Scientologists reminds me of L Ron Hubbard and Jack Parsons, going off into the desert together in January of 1946 to do a little boundary crossing of their own, the so-called "Babalon Working." Both were members of the OTO at the time (though Hubbard later claimed he was actually spying on the group), though we have no clear record of what degrees Hubbard may have attained.

Hancock paints a giant red heart on the moon for Ray

Regular Secret Sun readers know that this occurred at the exact same time that the US Army was sending radar signals to the Moon from Fort Monmouth, New Jersey with Project Diana, the first known project to make contact with another celestial body (given Parsons and Hubbard's contacts with the MIC, it's possible they coordinated the Working with the radar test).

Interesting then to note that Hancock ends with the image of a giant red heart painted on the moon for Ray by Hancock.

Incidentally, both Parsons and L-Ron were closely associated with Aleister Crowley at the time of the Babalon Working, though I'm not sure how they themselves defined the Eye of Horus, or if that figured somehow into their summoning of the "Scarlet Woman."

How strange that these obscure rituals still reverberate to this day.

David Sereda on NASA, UFOs, Time Travel and Sirius

This is a very long and detailed video but offers some very interesting puzzle pieces for anyone digging into the UFO phenomena. David Sereda talks about the filmed encounters that NASA has had with anomalous objects and then proceeds to lay out his own theories on Stargates, time travel and alien contact. Lots of interesting questions raised and lots of interesting grist for your semiotic mill. I can't speak to the science, obviously, but Sereda certainly hits some very interesting bases in the overall mystery of extraterrestrial contact and its aftershocks.

Again, heavy stuff, often slow-going, but essential for UFOologists and other assorted psychonauts.

Wyrd New Jersey: ET Phone Home

Andre at The Alien Project links to another UFO story in the Telegraph, this time claiming "ET tracked down on Google Street View" with the sub-headline "UFO experts were left baffled after claims that ET was finally tracked down on Google Street View."

A misty shape, bearing a distinct similarity to the movie alien, was captured behind a bush next to a mysterious beam of light. The spooky snap was caught by Google image cameras in the town of Berkeley Heights in New Jersey. Some claim the image could be evidence of life in outer space while others point to a simple trick of the light.

The 'ET' alien was photographed on Diamond Hill Road, a semi-rural location about eight miles from Morristown Municipal Airport, New Jersey and 30 miles from the bright lights of New York City.

Malcolm Robinson, head of the Strange Phenomena Investigations, described the image as "the first of its kind". He said: "On close inspection the similarities with ET are obvious but it's hard to say with any certainty what exactly it is."

"Of added interest is the strange beam of light to the right, which I cannot explain either. "This picture is the first of it's kind, as far as I'm aware, in that its been captured on Google's new Street View technology.

The beam is nothing new to Secret Sun readers, since we've looked at the Heavenly Beam icon in several different posts. And strangely enough the E.T. film came up in Wednesday's post. But the Synchronicity here goes even deeper.

Diamond Hill Road is a very interesting spot for this image to be found because it connects to the entrance for the old Bell Labs compound in adjoining Murray Hill, where the transistor was somewhat mysteriously developed shortly after the Roswell incident in 1947. I know this road well since I used to pick my wife up there when she worked for Bell Labs (don't get excited, she was just a secretary), which became Lucent Technologies and is now Alcatel Lucent (Previously to working at BL/LT she worked at the old AT&T where the giant Mithras statue was located).

How ironic that ET is snapped right near where phone technology is developed. And of course, anyone who listened to my last appearance on Red Ice knows what I think about the whole transistor issue. And I'm not alone in this suspicion:

Much more recently, stories began surfacing about what the Army or Air Force supposedly did with the downed Alien Spacecraft in August, September and October of 1947. Nuclear Powered Engines and Advanced Communications and Computing devices, all of which were a hundred years beyond post-World War II technology, were taken from the Alien wreck and purportedly made their way to The Bell System's "Bell Laboratories", then located in Murray Hill, New Jersey -- it has been alleged. There, they were studied, dissected, microanalyzed and pieces tested. One piece was supposedly found to have unique potential, an Alien switching device composed of Silicon and Arsenic, arranged in a microscopic array much more complicated than even now have been assembled by Humankind, hundreds of years ahead.

The Alien device purportedly became the priority focus object of Bell Labs' and The US Department of Defense's analysis and scientific research. It was discovered by the researchers, that the unusual electronic Alien device could act as both a high speed electronic switch and as an Amplifier. They decided to call it the "Transfer Resistor", because it could be made to resist or accept power flow at much higher or lower currents than were applied to it, depending upon unique application of electron flows.

And all of this is hot on the heels of the UFO and earthquake activity in adjoining Morris County.

Three months ago, police in nearby Morris County, New Jersey, were alerted to a series of unidentified flying objects hovering over the area. Dozens of residents watched on in awe as five flickering red lights moved gently across the night's sky.

Local resident Paul Hurley, a pilot who works at Morristown Airport, said: "I've been in the aviation industry about 20 years, so I knew they weren't airplanes"

Fox Mulder, thou art revenged.

Alien Dreaming and the Widening Gyre

This is yet another post I've been working on for weeks. The connections kept multiplying and I finally had to bring it into focus. And to think it all started as Satellite news story on an upcoming low-budget film...

2009 is the Year of the Alien, innit? Well, at least in the movies. X-Files producer/director Bob Goodwin goes old-school with his tribute to classic BEM sci-fi with Alien Trespass. Goodwin enlists John "Anubis" Doggett (aka T1000, aka Robert Patrick ) and Eric McCormack (Will of Will & Grace fame) for the invasion, as well as the delightful Jenni Baird, who added a bit of smolder to the last season of The 44oo. I'm sure it's not intentional, but the subject matter and the time period make this a nice companion piece to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

X-Files Lexicon has an amazing interview with Goodwin up now. In it Goodwin discusses his time producing the first five (and most essential) seasons of the show. Interviewer Matt Allair also lands an amazing scoop from Goodwin, who reveals that the primary inspiration for The X-Files distinctive look was the Italian wild man/artist Caravaggio:

My biggest role in the beginning was to get a concept based on what Chris had been talking about, and how we wanted to go forward, so we put together the people--the team that were able to do it--and to guide them as to what we wanted. I remember for the look of the show, which in those days was very unique for television, they didn't have shows that had so much dark and light.

One of my favorite artists, a guy named Caravaggio, who was probably one of the most innovative and creative artists ever. He came at a time in the late 16th Century, early 17th Century when most art was colorist or mannerist. He was the first to start using real dramatic source light...So I pulled a number of Caravaggio's, I got reproductions of them and mounted them all on a board, and that's kind of where we started. That was the reference of what we're going to go for, from there, the camera, the cinematographer John Bartley and other people were able to at least move forward with the concept.

Caravaggio was the Keith Moon of the Italian art world. He ran with some pretty interesting crowds, including the Velvet Mafia within the Vatican and the Knights of Malta. He also was accused of murder and had a knack for fisticuffs.

Derek Jarman, the late underground director, directed a kind of biopic on the artist in 1986 that introduced the one-woman Synchromystic factory Tilda Swinton (Orlando, Narnia, Benjamin Button, Michael Clayton) to the world. Amazingly it was also the debut of Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, National Treasure). The artist is portrayed by Nigel Terry, who portrayed King Arthur in the classic 1981 film Excalibur (which is one of Joltin' Joe Linsner's all-time favorite films).

Pan among the padres, from Caravaggio

Swinton became Jarman's muse and would later write an essay on Jarman's second feature film, Jubilee, which had John Dee magically transport Queen Elizabeth forward in time to 1977, just in time for QEII's silver jubilee and the Punk Rock Revolution. Incidentally, this was the first feature film soundtrack for U2 producer Brian Eno who would also write the score (with fellow U2 producer Daniel Lanois) for a film on the Apollo moon landing.



I always pay special attention these "firsts." Jarman's first film work was in Ken Russell's religious phatasmagoria The Devils. Russell would later direct Altered States, based on Paddy Chayefsky's must-read book (even though Chayefsky was so upset with the finished product he asked to take his name off the credits). That film would be the first leading role for William Hurt (of Dark City fame) and Blair Brown, who plays a female version of the Smoking Man in Fringe. Speaking of film firsts, Altered States marked the first appearance of Drew Barrymore, who rose to fame in ET, The Extra-Terrestrial. Bob Balaban of Close Encounters fame is also a major player in the film.

The basic story is that a Harvard professor believes that genetic memory is stored in the DNA and with the use of powerful hallucinogens and isolation tanks he would be able to travel back in time. The subplot was that he was a religious visionary as a child and lost his faith when his father died, and was trying to reconnect to God ever since. These themes are not well-explored in the film as in the book, taking away the character's motivation.



Even if Chayefsky hated it, Altered States is still a must-see. It's fascinating to me that Chayefsky saw fit to write the book after Network, in which he laid bare the depressing reality of the new world order (which isn't really new, seeing that Network came out in 1976- note that it too drinks from Caravaggio's well). In fact, Altered States is the first and only novel Chayefsky ever wrote (which makes him the second most unlikely psychonaut, next to Jack Kirby). He spent two years researching DNA, psychedelics and schizophrenia in order to bring this book to life.

From my standpoint it was time well spent, since that book hit me like a freight train when I read it. I even tried an isolation tank, which was a disaster since I kept getting the damn salt water in my eyes. I still think about getting a tank- a good one- if I ever have a few thousand bucks burning a hole in my pocket. That's how hard that book hit me.

It's interesting to note that like some more recent apocalyptic fiction, Altered States took place in Boston and had a professor as its protagonist. You see echoes of this in the Revelations miniseries (which also starred Secret Sun siren Natacha McElhone), Knowing, and particularly, Fringe.

Fringe creator JJ Abrams (again, the man behind the new Star Trek) has cited States as an inspiration for Fringe, and the Walter Bishop character certainly seems like an older analog of Edward Jessup. And to bring it all full circle, all three of these Altered States analogs were also influenced by The X-Files, which itself was also deeply influenced by Altered States- and Network.



The X-Files delved into themes explored in Altered States in the apocalyptic "Sixth Extinction" storyline. In the first part, "Biogenesis," the alien virus in Mulder's bloodstream is activated by exposure to radiation embedding in the rubbing of an alien spacecraft (that incidentally is an encrypted magic square).

The rubbing was the property of a Dr. Sandoz (heh), highly appropriate since it ultimately activates the deepest recesses of Mulder's brain, making him psychic and immune to the coming viral apocalypse. The storyline also reintroduced the Navajo shaman Albert Hosteen, who had performed the Blessing Way ritual when Mulder was nearly killed in a boxcar filled with alien corpses (in an episode directed by Goodwin). Somewhere, Terrence McKenna is smiling.

I've written on this storyline several times, since not only does it involve shamanism, psychedelic experience and ancient astronauts, it also began the Isis-Osiris symbology that I cut my Synchromystic teeth on. It's also going to be reintroduced to the movie-going public this spring when the next Transformers movie comes out, featuring Indiana Jones, Jr.

It's all too much sometimes. These strands of meaning weave in and out of seemingly-unconnected phenomena and create their own meta-narratives, which in turn reveal deeper levels of meaning to those who bother to pay attention. And the strongest connections always seem to coalesce around the same memes- gods, aliens, and shamanic experience.

Written in Stone: Hancock on Megalithic Structures

Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval don't espouse intervention theory, but to my mind cough up some pretty compelling evidence for it. A lot of the material in this video ties in with the recent Ancient Aliens doc but from a different angle. Either way, it's pretty astonishing once the facts are laid out.

My opinion may not count for much, but I think whoever built these sites did so that future generations would come to realize that only a people with very advanced mechanical tools and knowledge of the cosmos could pull this stuff off. And the increasingly shrill and desperate tone we are hearing from academics on these topics is proof enough that they are feeling the ground of certainty give way beneath their feet.

I truly believe we are on the verge of a complete revision of our ancient past. And these massive stone structures may hold the key to that. If so, it could go a long way in explaining why the iconography of architecture and stonemasonry have always been so compelling to the people within the power structure.

Indiana Jones and The Lost Tracing Boards of Gnosis

At this point, I think I could do an entire blog on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I've written about the film before (here and here) but there are so many layers of symbol and double-meaning, I don't feel like I've even scratched the surface. This post has been several weeks in the making - months really, it was supposed to be part of the WFC series.

It all started a while back when doing the Stairway to Sirius posts, and really got socked in the jaw by the whole angels descending a staircase imagery. I also found a variation on the Third Degree board that just struck me in a funny way. The standard board depicts a closed coffin...

...but this version depicted the coffin as open, and shows us the blazing five-pointed star of Sirius above it. But for some strange reason the image reminded me of this notorious scene from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...

...where Indiana Jones escapes nuclear annihilation by hiding in a refrigerator that then is shot like a cannonball across the desert. Look at the rays emanating from Sirius from the tracing board- very similar to the blast of light from the mushroom cloud. And those evergreen branches you see on both sides of the fridge resemble the branches you see in Third Degree tracing boards (and at Masonic funerals). Looking at this image, it's hard not to see a man rising from his coffin, with some bizarre transmutation of base matter-type theme thrown in.

But what about the other tracing boards? We're starting at the Third Degree, is this yet another example of "reversal of time?" I looked at the Second Degree board. There are different variations on the board but you usually see a waterfall and a staircase.

Which instantly reminded me of the three waterfalls in Crystal Skull, which we see sometime after the atomic refrigerator scene. This too was one of the sequences in the film that put some people off for being too far-fetched.

So there's the waterfall, but what about the staircase? Or the pillars?

Here's another version of the staircase and waterfall. Note also that some Second Degree boards frame the staircase between Boaz and Jachin, the famous pillars of Solomon's Temple.

After Indy and his crew escape the waterfalls, they ascend a staircase towards an obelisk, which unlocks the door to the tomb of the gods (right after entering a chamber where the film's theology is explicitly spelled out, of course). Note the top of the stairway is framed by two columns, similar to the first Second Degree board we looked at. Interesting.


When the adventurers finally enter the tomb of the gods, we see yet more Masonic parallels. Cate Blanchett's character refers to the 13-piece variation on the Trinity, in that they are 13 figures who combine into one when revived. Very strange motif there (and we all know the importance of 13 in the Templar/Masonic tradition). Note also that the alien gods sit atop ziggurats. Stairs seem to be a very important motif in this film.

Cate also refers to them as a "hive mind," which recalls the Masonic beehive icon. These quotes from the 1724 tract, The Craft and Its Symbols, explain that particular symbol:

What Modern Masons call a Lodge was for the above Reasons by Antiquity call'd a HIVE of Free-Masons, and for the same Reasons when a Dissention happens in a Lodge the going off and forming another Lodge is to this Day call'd SWARMING.

The bee definitely is industrious. He works hard and tirelessly, not for himself, but for the swarm. He has a strength and knowledge of materials that cannot be duplicated. He works in complete cooperation, and without dissention, with his fellow bees.

Hmm, so there were two pretty interesting parallels to the tracing boards, some 13 action and the hive. Well, there are a lot of things going on in this movie- could this just be a coincidence? The way "Ox" (read: Serapis) carried around the skull caught my attention, as did the way the guardians of the tomb of the gods venerated it. Right there I'm thinking Templars and Baphomet. But then it got even better...

John the Baptist is a central figure in Freemasonry (the first Grand Lodge was established on the Feast of St John the Baptist in 1717), as well as other esoteric traditions. No less a luminary than Pope Pius IX called the Baptist "the Father of the Gnostics" and identified the Baptist as the messiah of the Templar and Masonic "heresies."

In the Bible, the villainess Salome had the Baptist killed against the wishes of King Herod. And since we are looking for reversal-of-time imagery here, it's fascinating to note that the villainess in Crystal Skull returns the decapitated head of the 13th alien, symbolically reversing an historical trauma.

And even still, this reverse-Salome dies a horrible death for her trouble. Pretty potent stuff here, almost like the payback of a long-held grudge. Interesting how the whole Cold War motif and the crazy action sequences distract people's attention from this blatant symbolism.

So we all know what happens after that, the aliens reconstitute and their ship takes off for the dimensional rift. Now, I suppose Freemasons will see Hope and Faith and Virtue descending to this mortal realm from the spiritual planes, offering enlightenment and awakening and fine feelings and all of that jolly rot, but I still see aliens descending from the solar system of Sirius. I always like to use this version of the board, since it looks like an old 50s sci-fi pulp cover of aliens deplaning off a glowing spaceship.

Once the aliens get ready to split, Indy and his family then ascend a staircase away from them, which really drives home that reversal motif. Note also that water is closely identified with Sirius in the UFO lore.

Veneration of the Alien Osiris, crucified on the Solar Cross

The reversal motif seems to show up a lot in symbolic narratives, but in reversing the Masonic icon-cycle, the message seems to be that the esoteric systems themselves are just a faint echo of the original revelation, which Crystal Skull makes crystal clear was alien contact.

Pretty potent stuff for the multiplex, brought to you by the two most powerful creators in Hollywood. And presented in such an outlandish way as to not be taken seriously by the masses.

Hmm, kind of like the old stories about the Men-in-Black in that regard...


NOTE- I decided to finish this post (I have dozens of posts in one stage of completion at any given point in time) after watching the History Channel's Von Daniken smoochfest, Ancient Aliens. It struck me that as we learn more of all of the megalithic sites - the enormous size of the stones, the incredible construction methods, the celestial knowledge encoded in them- that perhaps these structures were created precisely that future generations would realize that they were indeed built with the aid of an extremely advanced technical culture. How interesting when we then make that connection between these structures and the basic iconography of Masonry, free or otherwise, in this film and so many others.

Witch Mountain: The Dog is a Major Issue

We went to see Race to Witch Mountain on Saturday and were all pleasantly surprised; it's actually a nice little sci-fi romp. I had considered checking out Knowing after reading that it too is alien-themed (isn't everything this year?), but realized the missus wouldn't enjoy the violence and I wouldn't enjoy the cosmology.

I've done quite a few Witch Mountain posts already and don't have all that much more to add, but I was quite struck that Junkyard the dog is a "major" character in the film. After looking at Obama and Sirius during and after the election, it was quite striking to see Dwayne "The Rock Obama" Johnson driving to a UFO convention with Junkyard in the front and Seth and Sara in the back. I couldn't help but think there's some greater meaning there, but won't really be able to tell until I watch it a few more times. Aside from Junkyard, I didn't see much Sirius symbolism in the film at all.

The UFO convention subplot reminded me a lot of my beloved Galaxy Quest, but also reminded me of Dragon*Con and my musings on conventions as the new pilgrimages. I did find it interesting that Hollywood loves to demean and ridicule people who take UFOs seriously (like Whitley Strieber in the film) at the same time they depict aliens as a self-evident reality.

Aside from Johnson, Watchmen and Threshold star Carla Gugino plays Dr. Alex Friedman, who is probably an androgynization of UFO stalwart Stanton Friedman. Note that both Carla and Alex are he/she names, and that Carla literally means "man-woman."

Given that the Roswell crash and the mass sightings over Washington happened in the month of July, it was a kick to see Ciaran Hinds - who was the best Julius Caesar in motion picture history, hands down - playing an MIB. However, I thought there was a bit of a missed opportunity with the character- I thought he should have also been an alien spy looking to sabotage the kids' mission. It's interesting that they changed "the bounty hunter" to "the assassin" since the first trailer. Maybe Chris Carter cried foul.


As to the kids, Alexander Ludwig looks exactly like my cousin Andrew, so my wife and I found that extremely distracting. Things like that can take me out of the story, strange as it may sound. But I must say Annasophia Robb is quite a convincing alien. I kept thinking of the Lily Cole discussion as I looked at her manga-huge eyes.

Robb already has an interesting filmography, having appeared in Witch Mountain, Jumper, Bridge to Terabithia and an odious-looking propaganda-piece called The Reaping, which features Hollywood's most destructive and pernicious cliche, the demonic or demon-possessed child.

The image from the DVD cover caught my eye, since it tied into the classic image of Lilith, whom we've been discussing quite a bit lately. But it also reminded me very much of ancient portrayals of Mithras, whose possible connection to aliens and UFOs is on the verge of becoming a fixation of mine. And of course you gotta love "Anna-Sophia" for hitting both the Inanna and Gnostic memes. Keep an eye on this actress...

Looking at the trailer for The Reaping I wondered how many gifted children the world has lost to religious paranoia. This is why our stories are so important. Going from psychopathic, perverted, misogynistic filth like The Exorcist to pro-child, pro-individuation, pro-evolutionary memes in Witch Mountain, Harry Potter and The X-Men is a very encouraging trend in our pop culture. Hopefully the emerging new myths will inspire us to nurture gifted or otherwise unusual children, rather than the abuse we still see in backward, superstitious parts of the world today.