2007 In Review: Saving the Sun

 

 When did they start making Astrophysicists so damn pretty?

2007 In Review: Dragon*Con

The missus and I made the pilgrimage to Dragon*Con for our 20th anniversary and had the frickin' time of our lives. I've been sifting through YouTube vids, but can't seem to be anything that conveys the madness and the scale of the thing. You need an IMAX camera to capture it. As always, Joe was one of the belles of the ball, and the Dawn Look-a-Like Contest was packed to the rafters. Personally, I thought it should have been a cakewalk for the twins, but hey, no one asked me.

The highlight of the show for me? The first night in the Hyatt lobby. It was like a scene from a Star Wars movie come to life. The amazing architecture of that building just added to the otherworldliness of the evening.

The lowlight? The Cruxshadows concert. I kept waiting for Jaz Coleman to leap from the wings with a chainsaw and wreak revenge for his musical concepts being so debased. But this was Dragon*Con, so a lowlight there would be a highlight in day-to-day life. And there are a lot worse things to look at in this world than the Cruxshadows' dancers...

2007 in Review: Know Your Rites

In a provocation seemingly designed to drive symbology buffs and conspiracy theorists to distraction, a giant statue of the death god Anubis sauntered down the Thames on a barge to promote the King Tut exhibit. Note the twin towers in the background that the photos of the stunt seem to showcase.

All the more reason to go to the exhibit...

2007 In Review: Funky Tut

On my birthday the missus and I saw the King Tut exhibit in Philadelphia. It was astonishing. 

2007 in Review: The Departed

 

Scorcese wins a long-overdue Best Director Oscar for The Departed, parts of which were filmed on my old stomping grounds. I can think of any number of other pictures that should have earned Marty the nod, but The Departed is certainly worthy. 

Wahlberg should have gotten Best Supporting though...

2007 in Review: Inland Empire

 

David Lynch struck blows for creative freedom, cinematic quality and the eternal power of the dreaming mind with his latest masterpiece, Inland Empire. Like most other movies these days, I watched it on DVD so I wasn't bothered by the digital video at all. In fact, I felt it gave the film an extremely unsettling feeling of intimacy. 

I'm sure DV will unleash a torrent of awful films, but it will also give the next David Lynch an opportunity he or she wouldn't have with film. There's no reason someone couldn't do a film like Clerks with a camcorder these days. Hell, you could do a film that looks as good as that on your phone these days. The question is can anyone write anymore?

2007- The Year In Review- Fruit Wrinkles

I became a believer in physical reincarnation this year when our beloved Mary returned to us in a new body. She didn't quite get the markings right but they're morphing every day, especially around the eyes. Mary lived to the ripe old age of 19 and a half, but decided she wanted more. Every day with her (we renamed her "Fruit Wrinkles") is a joy.

Britney Spears, Volcano Girl

In the Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, DJ Moores wrote of Jung's theories that scapegoating and ritual sacrifice spring from the ego's inability to deal with its Shadow, the accumulation of negative emotions that all of us struggle with, but that the pious and the devout in particular are unable to accept in themselves:

NineElevenTenThirteen

There are times when art becomes reality. The pilot for X-Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen, which eerily predicted a 9/11 scenario, is perhaps one of the most notorious examples of this.

At the Edge of 17

In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was killed on the 17th day of Athyr, the third month of the ancient calendar. Though not acknowledged, 17 seems to be a very meaningful number in the Mystery traditions, sort of equivalent to the Cross in Christianity. It symbolizes an unjust death and the promise of rebirth. 

2007 in Review: Knights Templar are BACK, Baby!

October saw the 700th anniversary of the public suppression of the Knights Templar. Happily, the Vatican miraculously discovered papers clearing the Templars of the charges against them. 

Of course, the "papers" were "discovered" six years before they were publicized, but, you know, timing is everything.

Mindbomb: Captain Victory, the Secret Sequel

Speaking of androgynous dying/rising savior heroes, Image Comics are reportedly working on a new omnibus for Captain Victory and His Galactic Rangers, Jack Kirby's completely whacked-out series from the early 80's. 

"The Magic of Kirby"

I'm sure most of you out there remember the Crash of '94 and its aftermath. The year began with the passing of Jack Kirby, one of those events that the ancient Romans would have seen as the grimmest of grim portents.

Jerusalem

The altar at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As Above, So Below.

Ten Thirteen: A Dream Dance

Synchronicity is a term that is on everyone's mind lately. It's also a term that I'm not sure is always completely understood. The symbolic link between The X-Files and Rockefeller Center that we looked at yesterday is not synchronistic per se. 

The Winter Bonfires

Mysterious Britain that explores the ancient European celebrations of Yule, from which we've derived many of our modern Christmas rites. Another essay explains how the ancients celebrated the winter solstice with bonfires. 

And a quick googling reveals that the practice of Solstice bonfires seems to be experiencing a bit of a comeback.

AstroGnostic: We Need a Little Mithras

Knowles' Xth Law: When in doubt about a particular esoteric symbol, consult The X-Files. As I wrote about in my X-Files X-Egesis, Chris Carter posited that aliens were the creators not only of humankind, but of our religions as well. 

Masonic Manhattan: The Hierarchy

The Fire/Sun god overlooking the skating rink reminds me of the symbolism Lewis used in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Above Prometheus/Mithras/Horus' head is TGAOTU. I do believe the whole tableau is meant to be seen from that worm eye's view. 

Mithras Presence: Look At It This Way

The closer we get to Christmas, the more I'm thinking about Rockefeller Center. I guess it's a regional thing, but again- anyone even remotely interested in symbolism should at least take a virtual tour of the premises. In many ways, it's the crown jewel of Mithraic Manhattan.

Al-Lex-Luthor Crowley

From a Thelemic website:

Alchemy had three main objects: 1. The transmutation of the base metals into gold, or more generally the conversion of abundant relatively useless material into rare useful substances.

Heru- Heros- Hera- Heracles

My friend David Dodd is currently pursuing his degree in Intellectual Property law, but was previously a Latin teacher at prestigious Newark Academy. Dave is also a serious student of the Classical world and as such is my go-to guy for deep history from that period. 

I'll Be Home for Mithras

I wrote about the panoply of symbolism you see in Manhattan in "Pantheopolis," but the holiday season got me thinking about Mithras, the original reason for the season. I was considering Mithras today since WorldNetDaily linked to a story on the movement among Fundamentalists against Christmas. 

Don't Blow It: Soderbergh's Solaris

More rainy Sunday melancholy: Steven Soderbergh's remake of Solaris is so jam-packed with face-punching symbolism it takes my breath away. 

There's a shot in this scene that caused me not only to reassess this film, but to reassess an entire 180,000-word manuscript I wrote on scifi film. I know I should prefer the Russian version. but I've never been able to sit through it all. 

And technically, this remake should be called the James Cameron/Steven Soderbergh remake, since so many of the concepts put forth in the film belong to Cameron.

Swamp Thing... and The Golden Compass?

One of my favorite all-time comic book characters is yet another alienated outsider: Swamp Thing. DC doesn't seem to know what to do with the character anymore. What's worse, they still haven't gotten around to reprinting the amazing issues written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar and drawn by Phil Hester. 

Suicidenfreude

On the heels of the Viacom debacle, comes news that Geffen and Interscope Records are merging and laying off 60 employees, just in time for Christmas. Them we have the writers strike and falling DVD sales. Media across the board is getting hammered. Hell, the American Dream is being hammered.

Mithras Presence

Fascinating quotes on the Mithraic mysteries, the direct ancestor of the Masonic traditions. Somehow, Led Zeppelin got me thinking about that again. Read up, I've got something coming linking it all up that will blow your mind. 

  "The cult of Mithras had been taken up with great enthusiasm by the Roman legions and had traveled with them from Iran to Rome, to Tunis, to the Rhine and even on to London and Hadrian's Wall. Mithras' cult satisfied many of the same urges that would also attract people to Christianity. It was a brotherhood where rank and mutual obligation were based not upon accepted social codes but on the secret bonds of a closed circle, an underground network of close allegiances operating right across the strong social fabric of the Empire." - John Romer, Testament

The Hammer

Led Zeppelin returns, makes everyone else instantly irrelevant.
Yahoo(with video)

BBC videos

Kentroversy Reports...

By the way, I have it on very good authority that a tour is indeed in the works.

Mindbomb: Worlds Gone Mad

Looking back on my childhood, it actually was not superheroes that I loved most about comics, it was loner antiheroes like Conan and Kamandi.

Secret Star Trek: Meet the New Gods, Same as the Nine Gods

It's well known that Gene Roddenberry had extensive contacts with the Nine as did Jon Povill, who worked on the show Sliders as well as Synchromystic cult fave Total Recall. 

When Mythworlds Collide...

What did ever happen to Britpop?

Simon Reynolds, author of Rip It Up and Start Again reviews the new Britpop collection The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium (Rhino) on Salon.com. 

The Och! Files

Billy Connolly cast in X Files 2....

Family Mythologies

A recent DNA test put some longstanding myths in my family to rest, right in time for the holidays. But it led me to wonder what myths we will organize ourselves along in the future... 

  It's easy to rail against divisions, but the fact is that people have always needed to feel they are part of an in-group. But I've always been more interested in what people have in common than in their differences. The reason I believe we need new mythologies is because this chaotic world of constant creative destruction is going to require new alliances untied to our old ones. 

The center of economic power is shifting to China and India, and they don't care about our ethnic or religious differences, they're much more concerned with their own. The wish-dream that the world will all join hands and live as one is nothing but wanting- to-buy-the-world-a-Coke corporate propaganda...

Manly Man

Sometimes when you study more esoteric topics, you come across thinkers who are as enigmatic as the topics they write about. One of those is Manly Palmer Hall. I've read some of his work and I've read biographical information on the man, but there is something completely elusive about him. 

I think of characters like Apollonius of Tyana or Sir Francis Bacon, who seem to have been too prolific to be real. These individuals seem to nearly disincarnate, like entities that drift into our reality and never leave the impression of reality in their wake.

See if you agree with me. Here is an online version of Hall's magnum opus The Secret Teachings of All Ages, which is sort of a reality based Isis Unveiled. 

Here is biographical sketch by Mitch Horowitz. I've read several like it and I'm still no closer to getting a sense of actuality about the man.

Learning from History

Marvel's new online initiative in many ways draws from lessons learned from the ill-fated comics start-up, CrossGen. 

The Kirby Files

Here's my first major published magazine piece, "The Kirby Files," written back in 1996 for The Jack Kirby Collector.

All is Right in This World...

My Christmas present comes a week from tomorrow when Chris Carter, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson begin filming the new X-Files movie in Vancouver.

There is no greater example of the Modern Myth than The X-Files. There are so many layers upon layers of symbolism, hidden meaning, allegory and in-jokes that an academic could spend his life studying it all. I'll be reposting my X-Egesis on the Mulder-as-Osiris storyline soon, but will also be writing a new one, detailing how the Eleusinian Mysteries are central to the Samantha abduction storyline. Hecate herself even shows up for a cameo!

"The necessity of the story, the myth or the legend in a culture is almost universal. We think of myths as things that entertain or instruct, but their deeper purpose is often to explain, or make fanciful, wishes, desires or behavior that society would otherwise deem unacceptable. Myths often disguise thoughts that are simply too terrible to think about, but because they are conveyed in a wrapping of untruth - the story - these thoughts become harmless fiction. -- Chris Carter

Absolute god-damned genius.

So, Anyway...

 

Well, that was fun. No one said people were just going to sit around and nod politely while you challenge long-standing paradigms. But putting up with a little abuse is the price you pay when you want to get people's attention.