Here Comes the Sun, pt. 4: One and the Same

I think if confronted with the rampant solar symbolism that is now reemerging in Christian symbology, most believers would tell you that Christians "worship the Creator and not the Creation." But in fact that belief is no different than the high initiate pagan tradition in general, or the Mystery tradition in particular. Initiates didn't see pagan symbolism as did the masses- they saw all of the icons and symbols as tools for meditating on higher levels of reality, exactly as Christians were once supposed to. By the same token, today's Evangelicals don't see the Bible as believers once did; a text to be read and understood. The Bible is mainly seen today as a magic totem that can not only do all your thinking for you, it can heal your bunions, make you rich, get you a promotion and a bigger SUV, etc. Whatever.

The more I dig into this history, the more I see men hiding behind curtains that official historians are hoodwinked by. Alternative historians take for granted that the decisions of men like Constantine were actually made by secret priesthoods pulling the strings behind the scenes. Considering that Constantine was the illegitimate son of a tavern whore, it's not all that difficult to believe.

But despite centuries of judicious editing and rewriting, there is still plenty of evidence showing that any substantive difference between Christians and the Solarians was purely a question of rank politicking. Maybe as we enter the Era of Unmasking, those differences will once again fall away. Whatever the case, something is happening. I have absolutely no doubts about that. And it cuts across every denomination. And maybe there's an opportunity in this for a new understanding of the Western traditions. I'll be exploring that possibility in my next exegesis.

Now back to the symbols, with Christian writings as an added bonus:

double-click images to enlarge

For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall.

- Malachi 4:1-2

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;

for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
- Luke 1: 76-79 (NIV)

O splendor of God's glory bright,
O Thou that bringest light from light,
O Light of Light, light's Living Spring,
O Day, all days illumining.
O Thou true Sun, on us
Thy glance let fall in royal radiance,
The Spirit's sanctifying beam upon our earthly senses stream.
- Saint Ambrose

Others of kinder disposition imagine that the sun is the Christian god. They have observed that when we pray, we face to the east and we rejoice on the day of the sun. Do you do anything less than this? Do you not sometimes cause your lips to quiver toward the rising sun as an act of adoration? It is most definitely your preference to single out Sunday, the seventh day from the sequence, to refrain from bathing, at least until evening? This is also your designated day for leisure and festivity. By doing this you depart from your traditional practices in favor of alien religions. The Jewish festivals are the Sabbath and the feast of purification. And the Jews also have the rite of the lamps and of fasting with unleavened bread and prayers at the seashore -- all of which are alien to your gods. Now to return to our subject, you who deride us for sun worship and Sunday worship, see how close you are to us. We are not far removed from your Saturn and your Sabbath. - Tertullian



For the sun is a type of God, and the moon of man. And as the sun far surpasses the moon in power and glory, so far does God surpass man. And as the sun remains ever full, never becoming less, so does God always abide perfect, being full of all power, and understanding, and wisdom, and immortality, and all good. But the moon wanes monthly, and in a manner dies, being a type of man; then it is born again, and is crescent, for a pattern of the future resurrection. - Theophilus

O unjust pagans, how long will you refuse to acknowledge your own merits? In fact how long will you continue to disparage them? There is no real difference between us. We are one and the same. Since you in fact cannot hate what you are, then extend your right hand to us, join kisses with kisses, hold us in your embrace, the bloody with the bloody, the incestuous with the incestuous, the conspirators with the conspirators, the contemptuous and the vacant together with their own kind. We have been partners in insulting the gods; we have been partners in provoking their anger. - Tertullian

The Exegesis: Where Is Your Tribe?

I spent an underwhelming weekend at the Pittsburgh Comic Con (actually held in Monroeville) and got to thinking about the comic book nation and my place in it. Or more accurately, outside of it. Conventions are gatherings of a very specific sect, of which I hold the unenviable position of heretic/ex-communicant. And there's less room for Synchromysticism in the body of this sect than there is in the Southern Baptist Church. I've noticed that a cranky, Randi-like skepticism seems to be the dominant weltanschuang among the fanbase these days.

Our Gods Wear Spandex was very well received in many quarters, but the mainstream of comics fandom was absolutely not one of them. On the whole, active fans loathe anyone analysing what interests people in the genre. The highly personal and intimate nature of the medium tends to create the illusion in the fan that he is at the center of the comics universe, which is one of the reasons you'll see a host of socially-isolated guys in their 30s ignoring one another with all their might on Wednesday evenings at the comics store. But those guys are getting older and are not being replenished by younger fans. And comics sales are once again beginning to fall.

Joltin' Joe Linsner seems to be a locus point for funnybook heretics, and I was able to commune with like-minded folks by sticking close to his orbit. I also followed my golden rule in situations like this and looked for the most individualistic person in the room and had a very nice talk with a charming young punk rock artist named Alexis, who sold me a hilarious t-shirt that my wife and son immediately fought over when I brought it home.

But after two days of wandering around trying to find something that really buttered my toast, I skipped the con and took a detour to the amazing Half-Price Books, which is one of the best book stores I've been to in my life. After wandering through the fading powers of comic and sci-fi nostalgia, I was electrified by the Metaphysical section of HPB. For bargain prices I picked up Suns of God by Acharaya S, The Cosmic Code by Zecharia Sitchin and Gods of Eden by Andrew Collins. I've seen these books online or at Borders, but buying them literally across the street from the convention seemed like a political act.

The best hardcore show I ever went to was held in someone's basement. There were maybe 15 people there and it was one of the most exciting nights of my life. The early days of Boston Hardcore centered around the Media Workshop, a dump of a loft in a soon-to-be condemned building. Once the shows moved to the big clubs, all the jocks and the poseurs showed up and the ritualized violence of early hardcore punk became the everyday violence of the strong preying upon the weak. Counter-cultures all seem to have the same arc- they emerge fighting for survival, then inevitably attract the semi-initiated, or the flat-out uninitiated. At this point, they either mutate into what they started out in opposition to, or they wither and die.

There's a new counter-culture emerging- a tribe, if you will- but it's doing so at such a snail's pace that it seems totally inert. But it may be the slow pace of this evolution that might be its salvation. It may sound insane, but I think something outside of human agency is directing this. Synchromysticism is one manifestation of this process, but is not the only one. We're seeing humanity lumber towards a crisis point, when the basic commodities of modern life are being tapped by more and more of us. Some people might prophesy a Soylent Green type world, but these are usually idealist/liberal types who ignore the basic lesson of history- wars always begin when the granaries begin to run low.

If you believe as I do that all of Creation is essentially a sentient being, and we are component cells of the planet we live on, then it makes sense that this organism is going to activate certain individuals in times like these, in much the same way the immune system activates white blood cells. If you believe all of creation runs on the microcosm/macrocosm principle, then this idea is something that can be easily tested.

What I think is going to emerge is a culture that spreads this message- the Universe is a being, not a machine. Everything is connected, everything works in an unimaginably complex yet laughably simple fashion. Syncronicity, Synchromysticism and all the rest of it are simply amusing object lessons of universal principles in microcosm. The Universe is either generating them or inspiring individuals or groups to generate them to speak to us in a language the entire world has come to understand.

The people whom the Universe uses to express these ideas may well emerge into a new tribe. Or if it all goes wrong, into a priesthood. In my view, this tribe should present itself to the world as curiosities, the roadside attractions of the Information Superhighway. If you choose to answer the call of this tribe, the solemn vow to never take yourself too seriously should your highest calling. The archetype of the Holy Fool should be what you aspire to. Your smile should be your sword. Tell the world about the amazing joke the Universe has been playing on us- sending these trickster demons among us to make us think we're living in a machine, or in some sadistic proving ground. Make fun of the politicians and the preachers and the profiteers, because they're the biggest fools of all.

But just be aware that your lot will be that of all the carnies and actors and fools of history- you'll always be seen as troublemakers and ne'er-do-wells. But the people who move the world forward are usually unloved in their time.

And I'll be there- always the outsider- to egg you on.

Scottish Sunday: Harvest Home

My obsession with Scottish post-punk probably began the first time I heard John McGeoch's guitar, but certainly reached its apotheosis with Big Country. I first heard them in September of 1983 during the height of the New British Invasion/synth pop craze and almost immediately ran out to buy their album The Crossing at the old Quincy Records off the main drag in Quincy Square. I played their album incessantly during the blissful autumn of 1983, giving the poor slab of vinyl respite only to play the Cocteau Twins and Comsat Angels in equally merciless rotation. It was a time when I began pursuing my art career seriously, and it seemed perfectly Synchronistic. Why?

Well, perhaps because Big Country seemed to be a band that emerged fully-formed from my subconscious. I almost couldn't believe that they existed, having come at a point when I was so bitterly disenchanted with most of the New Wave or Glam Metal I was hearing on the radio and disgusted with the developing fascist tendencies of the Hardcore scene. When I first played The Crossing, I vividly remember trembling by the time it was over, it had such an emotional impact on me. Hell, I remember my hands shaking as I flipped the record to the second side. It was like the record I had waited all my life to hear. And The Crossing was just a warm-up to their blisteringly cathartic second album, Steeltown, an album that became the soundtrack to my liberation from the clutches of my unhappy childhood home.

I didn't understand why I was drawn towards Caledonian musicians in particular or Celtic bands in general, it was just instinctual. I've got some Scottish on my mother's side, but that was never really part of my upbringing. I loved plenty of English and American bands too, but there was a poetic, mystical quality to the Scots bands in particular that I identified with, as well as a fiery passion I felt in my gut. It helped that The Crossing came out in the Autumn, and I could play it while the perfume of fallen leaves and woodfires wafted into my window on the chilly night air. For years, I would welcome the first chill of Autumn by opening the window and playing that album.

This is a smoking hot live performance of one of my favorite Big Country songs, "Harvest Home" performed at the Glasgow Barrowlands. The lyrics to the song itself are cryptic but the title comes from Thomas Tryon's 1973 novel, whose themes of a rural remnant of Celtic/fertility rites eerily mirrors the contemporaneous Wicker Man film, and yet is much more akin to LaBute's loathesome Wicker Man remake, with its murderous pagan matriarchy.

The book was made into a 1978 mini-series which featured Bette Davis and a young and nubile Rosanna Arquette, playing who else but a character named Ka-Athyr-Ein.

Big Country never really hit the big time in the US. They were unfairly tagged as a novelty act and concentrated on their music rather than their image, a mortal sin in the 80s. Their third LP, The Seer is worthy, but their fourth, Peace in Our Time, was a tragically misguided attempt at AOR rock. They never were able to recapture the early magic after that. Tragically, Stuart Adamson, lead singer and guitarist, would struggle with alcoholism and commit suicide in 2001.

Weekend Wibble: Queen of Dinosaurs

This piece is up on Ebay if you'd like to enter the Wonderful World of Wibble. Enter your bid here! Here's more info for you fence-sitters, written by the Wizardess of Wibble herself:

It’s pretty much common knowledge that the Parasaurolophi were the true royalty of the dinosaur world (despite the vast amount of propaganda put out by the T-Rex camp in an effort to convince us otherwise). This is a commissioned royal portrait of Parry, who holds not one, not two, but three titles: Queen of Parasaurolophus, Queen of all other Dinosaurs, and (last but certainly not least) best dinosaur ever!

Hardcore Matinee: Johnny 2 Bad 4U

There's the phony multiculturalism manufactured by pressure groups and multinational corporations, and then there's the multiculturalism that happens on the street. The Bad Brains are a product of the real deal. Their story is legend- a Jazz fusion garage band from the DC projects latches on to Hardcore Punk, Rastafarianism and Napoleon Hill and then mutate into the greatest Punk Rock band this country ever produced. In between their blistering, triple-speed rants they throw in some tasty dub jams and help open up some skinhead minds in the process. As befits a band so possessed of undiluted shamanic power, their road has been filled with detours and pitfalls (including a long and fruitless diversion into Funk Metal) but the Beastie Boys got them back together and back on track with last year's epic Build A Nation comeback. I saw these guys in 1982 and it was a nearly-religious experience. As I said, I'm not real interested in their long Metal phase, but can't recommend their first two records enough.

Our Gods Wear Spandex - NYCC panel

Here's the video for the New York Comic Con panel on Our Gods Wear Spandex. Again, I was so stunned by the standing-room only crowd that it took me a while to become fully coherent. But I think I recovered well during the first question by the estimable A. David Lewis.

Here's the full spiel:

Panel at New York Comic Con on April 19, 2008 on the topic of Christopher Knowles' book Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes. Moderated by A. Davis Lewis, panelists include Christopher Knowles, Testament creator Douglas Rushkoff, Cairo author G. Willow Wilson, Virgin Comics writer Saurav Mohapatra and DC Comics legend Denny O'Neil. Panel discusses the archetypes of comic book superheroes, their function in modern culture and the future of the genre. Questions are also taken from the audience.

That's the mighty Kean making a cameo towards the beginning of the presentation.

Programming note: I'll be at the Pittsburgh Comic Con over the weekend and will leave the comments open while I'm away. Posting will carry on as normal (thanks to Blogger in Draft!) so y'all come on back now, y'hear?

The Real Jane's Addiction Reunite

I can't believe I didn't hear about this- the REAL Jane's Addiction, that being the lineup with Eric Avery, reunited for a short set at the NME USA Awards. We should know by now that this is the prelude to a tour, so start saving your shekels now. I have a Jane's-oriented post in the queue- I'll finish it up and slap it up next week. I was distraught by the previous pseudo-Jane's reunions- they lacked the shamanic soul of the original lineup. And without that crucial X-factor, you're faced with a bunch of careerist weirdos who like to wear a lot of mascara and do bad game shows. Avery wrote the bass lines that the classic Jane's material was built around and provided the firm foundation that Perry's off-kilter melodicism and Dave's flash needed to really groove. So Jane's, STP, Killing Joke and the Mighty Zep back in action? Life is good.

Sonshine on My Shoulders

Secret Sun reader 'Just Me' recommended a Google search on "sonshine" in yesterdays comments and I did just that. It's worth noting that most of this imagery is aimed at children. Now, let's be clear about this- there's no reason at all to think the little kiddies are being conditioned to accept this imagery in anticipation of some major new paradigm shift in the years to come. There's no reason to think that this is some sort of subliminal programming meant to make the eventual transition to some new global astrotheology all the smoother.

No reason at all.

Watch Out, People - Here Comes the Sun, Part 3

Gosh- another 20 minutes on Google, another batch of sun-drenched church logos (check out the first batch here). Again, I have no reason at all to believe any of these institutions are not perfectly orthodox in their theology, but the looking at this in light of the links between solar symbolism and ancient astronauts (in 2001: A Space Odyssey, for instance) certainly brings to mind interesting and strange possibilities.

(Double click to enlarge)

I'm not anti-Christian, in fact I have nothing but fond memories of my childhood experiences in church, and attended a local church here for a few years. Actually, it wasn't until I went online and saw the blistering ignorance and hatred that was being spewed by Fundamentalists (primarily towards other Christians who didn't adhere to the Dobson/Falwell/Robertson/Swaggart party line) that I began to seriously question the foundational principles of Christianity. I hadn't seen any contradiction between my counter-culture leanings and Christianity, in fact my interpretation of the New Testament was that of a distinctly counter-cultural movement.

But I was so traumatized by the rancor and verbal violence I saw online that I felt there was something seriously wrong with a belief system that could not only tolerate, but encourage such behavior. I came to realize that there are millions of perfectly decent Christians who have been criminally manipulated by unimaginably powerful political and corporate interests for the past 30 years or so, and there's no reason to believe that that manipulation won't continue indefinitely.

The so-called "culture wars" have framed the division in society into the simplest rhetorical terms- those who have "faith" and those who don't. But surveys repeatedly have shown that most American Christians are biblically illiterate and have only a vague notion of what their religion actually teaches. It's simply become a matter of tribal divisions- to be a Evangelical Christian in America you simply need to vote Republican, loathe secularists and liberals, and refrain from (openly) gay sex. We've seen a huge exodus from traditional churches into megachurches - Stalinist auditoriums where stately hymns are replaced by cheeseball pop songs with vaguely devotional lyrics that you can close your eyes and wave your hands above your head to. 70s cult indoctrination techniques and 80s New Age "self-improvement" horseshit have made a major comeback in these establishments, and yet the number of the unchurched has grown in response to the megachurch phenomenon. The local community churches are in rapid decline, unable to compete with these corporate behemoths.


Ask yourself this- given the centralized, authoritarian structure of these churches, how hard would it be to gradually steer a hyper-politicized and overly-subordinate laity towards a very strange new interpretation of the faith? You wouldn't have to really change a jot or tittle, you simply would immerse your parishoners into a new symbol system and introduce a "bold new interpretation" of scripture. Or even use actual coercion to install this new "revelation." Already, we see believers acting more like militant Mithraists than Christians, and isn't how you behave more important than what you claim to believe?

It's been said that it's easier to steer the believer to a new belief system than to make a believer out of an agnostic or atheist. History is filled with precedent for coercive mass conversion, and if the dividing lines today are simply between "belief" and godless secularism, it seems to me that it wouldn't be hard at all to steer the believers towards a faith that their grandparents would find completely alien.

Aw, heck- this is all just idle speculation. I'm sure we'd never see such a thing.

Right?

The Siren: Brendan Fraser/Elizabeth Fraser

The last great wave of music video revolved around the Techno movement of the late 90s. It was a musical revolution that never really came, but it marked the use of computer technology coming into its own in the service of video spots. Oftentimes, the videos were much more interesting than the songs they accompanied.

This video- "Lifeforms" by the Future Sounds of London- is fascinating for two reasons. First of all, it reflects an aesthetic that reminds me of Synchromystic philosophy in general, and some of the video work that Jake Kotze and Steve Willner have done in particular. It calls to mind the Entheological worldview, something that was certainly compatible with the rave culture that spawned videos such as this.

Second of all, the video itself is yet another piece in a real-life Synchromystic manifestation I've chronicled on the Secret Sun, that being the tragic romance of Elizabeth Fraser and Jeff Buckley, and how the Siren archetype played into that drama. This song came out around the same time Buckley and Fraser began their relationship and hearing her glossolalia accompany yet more underwater imagery on the single version of this song (which can be seen here) is chilling in hindsight. The constant repetition of the Siren archetype in relation to Fraser in general, and to Fraser and Buckley's relationship in particular would almost be ridiculous, had the story's end not been so heartbreaking.



Speaking of Steve Willner, his latest videos touch upon the very rich symbolic strands of Brendan Fraser's career. Brendan Fraser seems to be the symbolic counterpoint to the real-life dramas of Elizabeth Fraser - his eternally resurrecting Osiris to her eternally mourning Isis.

In the above clip from 2001's Monkeybone, Fraser plays a comatose cartoonist named Stu Miley who descends into the underworld after a car accident on a rain soaked street highly reminiscent of Osiris' journey to death on the Nile - or Jeff Buckley's journey to death on the Mississsippi. There Fraser meets Miss Kitty, played by Marilyn Manson's former squeeze (and TV witch) Rose McGowan.

The Bast-resonating Kitty is decked out not only with an ankh, but a revealing top decorated with the falcon form of Horus and his Sun Disk. Extremely strange attire in the context of the story, but a perfect foreshadowing of Stu's resurrection. Stu is the pet form of Stuart, which recalls the Scottish House of Stuart, whose restoration to the British throne was a cause celebre for certain Masonic sects. Almost predictably, Stu's companion/alter ego/Id is a Thoth-resonating primate.

Speaking of water, Irish legend has it that Saint Brendan crossed the Atlantic Ocean with 17 other monks. The name Brendan means "Prince," which of course Horus is. So we have fresh evidence here of Egyptian Mystery symbolism having an influence on the early Celtic church.

I still have to finish up the Eloah-Isis-Beth Fraser series, even though the entire story has been told. If you haven't yet, check out the posts in chronological order. The appearance of archetypes from the ancient dramas makes the heart-rending synchronicity of the story all the more compelling to me. When I lay it all out in bullet point format I hope you guys will agree.

Ritual Androgyny: Carrot Top

Do you remember the old AT&T ads with the painfully thin comedian with the shock of curly crimson hair? Weren't very funny, were they? Well, that comedian has discovered the joys of anabolic steroids, cosmetic surgery and plain old cosmetic cosmetics and has turned into something out of Ted Haggard's worst meth-induced hallucinations. Unfortunately, his trademark squeaky voice has dropped a couple octaves, but that's the least of his agent's worries. Suffice it to say that AT&T won't be calling this character for any ad work in the near future.

Luckily, old CT's got a regular gig in Vegas, and where else could he possibly be playing?



Why at Luxor, of course! I'm not sure what relationship this joint has to any Masonic or quasi-Masonic society, but we've certainly seen the conjunction of androgyny and initiatory symbolism before. We'll be looking at it again in the near future since I've been doing a bit of research of the role of ritual androgyny in ancient religions, particularly Solar religions.

Some of you may have remembered Christopher Lee done up as a Laurie Partridge lookalike in The Wicker Man. It turns out this ancient practice is more extensively documented than I had previously imagined. I'm beginning to develop a suitably outlandish working theory of what this symbolism may really mean, and it very much ties into strands we've been looking at in the past few weeks.



Which casts this advertising campaign in a whole new light. I was a bit gobsmacked by this particular spot, which featured the heads of a bunch of burger-loving bubbbas pasted over a bunch shrieking schoolgirls, obviously meant to evoke Beatlemania. I wonder if this was inspired by old Carrot Top, or if Wendy's founder Dave Thomas' extensive Masonic involvement might have had something to do with it.


Before I forget- did you know that many of the Egyptian nobility were red-haired?

Cheap Trick and the Myth of Young America

Cheap Trick- Self-Titled Debut (1977) - Epic Records
"Dina, can you honestly tell me that you forgot the magnetism of Robin Zander or the charisma of Rick Nielsen?"
"Eh, that's kids' stuff ..."
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, written by Cameron Crowe -1982

The 70's were a terrible time to be an American kid. The late 60's had spread from the cities and crash-landed all over a Suburbia totally unprepared for it. Many kids found themselves torn from a idyllic Leave it to Beaver existence and thrust into a world where their parents had gone quite insane.

Dads went from wearing crewcuts and button-down oxfords to sporting mutton chops and leisure suits. Moms burned their aprons and bras and threw on dashikis and kaftans to match their aviator sunglasses and afro perms. Your neighbors went from spinning Sinatra and sipping martinis to smoking grass and swapping wives. In the midst of this chaos, young kids were left to fend for themselves. Every negative social indicator among adolescents- crime, drug use, pregnancy- skyrocketed.

And if that were not bad enough, To be a kid in the late 70's was to be keenly aware that things were infinitely better for your older siblings, and certainly for your parents. Happy Days, Sha Na Na and Beatlemania only served to drive home the fact that Pop- the irreplaceable currency of American youth- had seen much, much better days. FM radio was spinning a turgid blend of "mellow" Adult Rock- everything from Fleetwood Mac to Steely Dan to Firefall and the post-biker Doobie Brothers. While kids made their own dinners and experimented with sex, their parents were out taking Disco dance lessons.

Even the pop culture pleasures of preadolescence- toys, cartoons, comic books- were shoddy, depressing, and slapdash. To look at a selection of toys or cartoons from the 70's was to be left with the sense that America hated its young. All we had was Star Wars, but even that was nothing but a recombination of earlier movies and comic books. It was no less retro than George Lucas' breakthrough, American Graffiti.

Rockford, Illinois' Cheap Trick came around in 1977, the same year as Star Wars, and they were every bit as nostalgic. And for a brief moment, they were every bit as important to the forgotten children of America.

It's hard to explain how important Cheap Trick were in the late 70's. One would have
to explain how deftly and seamlessly they synthesized "Boy Music" (Hard Rock, Heavy Metal) and "Girl Music" (Top 40 Pop). Any young Rock and Roll fetishist couldn't help but be mesmerized by their brilliant subversion of Rock iconography: two guys so gorgeous they were practically chicks paired with two homely dorks who looked they escaped from a 50's sitcom.

Any Rock gear-head couldn't help but be hypnotized by their dizzying assortment of exotic axes: multi-necked guitars and ten-string basses, all crafted by the then unknown luthiers BC Rich and Hamer. Robin Zander, perhaps the greatest all-around pure singer in Rock history, seemed to channel every great Rock song you heard on Top 40 radio in the arid years of the early 70's. You could easily imagine him singing "Stay With Me" by the Faces or "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet or "Go All the Way" by the Raspberries, or all of the above and more, all at the same time.

Non-fans may not know the songs, but nearly every hardcore Trick fan counts the '77 self-titled debut as their favorite. In fact, It's almost redundant to delve into the individual tracks, because every single note of every single song is absolutely perfect.

There isn't a single song on that album that isn't one of the greatest Rock and Roll songs ever recorded. There isn't a moment on the album where your attention is not fully rapt. Guided by the expert hand of Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas, Cheap Trick would never be so perfect in the studio ever again.

Looking back, it seems like Cheap Trick were God's own answer to America's latchkey kids, all anxiously awaiting their very own Beatles. Drenched as we were in the decadent daze of the Me Generation 70's, little ditties about holding hands were weak tea. Lascivious tracks like "Hot Love" and "He's a Whore" were more in touch with our precocious longings.

But there was also something innocent and romantic about their music as well. We weren't blessed with MTV and its soft-slash-hardcore pornographic Snoop Dogg videos. Corporate America hadn't yet completely colonized our imaginations and our desires.

To a young Rock and Roll true believer, Cheap Trick's music was the sound of our dreams. It was the sound of a Camaro ragtop cruising down a beachside boulevard on a warm and soft summer evening. It was the sound of the wind whipping through your girlfriend's flowing blonde hair as she turned to smile silently at you and then turned back to watch the tail-lights of the endless American highway whip by.

It was the sound of the anticipation of young lovers for forbidden pleasure, but at the same time the sound of the boys out for a night of serious mischief.

If Punk Rock was an expression of British teenage rage and despair, Cheap Trick was the sound of the last days of American teenaged innocence. Cheap Trick was the sound of the longing of even better nights to come.

Cheap Trick peaked artistically with their debut and commercially with their 1979 landmark, At Budokan. They continued to rack up the occasional hit and remain relentless road warriors to this day, but the need for them passed as the Eighties dawned. The latchkey kids of the 70’s became the Punk and Grunge warriors of the 80’s and 90’s. But many of those kids who hit the big time- Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan, to name two- gave Cheap Trick their props for being one of the few bright spots in a very, very dark time.

Sunday Matinee: In Search of Ancient Astronauts

Another Ancient Astronaut documentary, another Secret Sun saint. This legendary 1973 documentary draws heavily on Van Daniken and features the irreplaceable narration of Saint Rodney of Serling. A fascinating artifact from a time when people were expected to question authority and received wisdom. Chris Carter mentioned his impressions of Watergate when he was growing up, and it's stunning to think back on how many films there were that took conspiracies and cover-ups for granted. This was all before the Religious Right and the Reagan Revolution, which in many ways are still with us.

Full House

Holy Standing Room Only, Batman! It was a packed house at the Our Gods Wear Spandex panel! I was so taken aback by the turnout I was actually tongue-tied for my intro. Luckily, I had Mrs. Sun and the mighty Kean there for moral support (check Kean's report here). The panel went off very well indeed, with the estimable A. David Lewis doing an all-pro job moderating. We had the very brilliant Douglas Rushkoff, the legendary Denny O'Neil, writer G. Willow Wilson, and Virgin Comics writer Saurav Mohapatra.

Sadly, due to time constraints and panel format I was unable to give people a taste of what's been cooking in the synchromystic kitchen, but all in good time. I'll be at the con tomorrow, doing some shopping and some signing if anyone would like to come over to Artist's Alley and say hello. The con has been absolutely amazing and if you're east of the Mississippi I'd recommend you check it out next year. In three short years it's become the rival of San Diego.

I'll be getting some video up of this shindig soon.

NY COMICON SPANDEX-A-GO-GO

Anyone going to the con today, come see me and Douglas Rushkoff and some other extremely cool people at the Our Gods Wear Spandex panel at 5:00 PM today. I guarantee you won't be disappointed! Let's just say some folks might be getting a crash course in Synchromysticism...

X Files 2: NY Comicon Panel Video

This was a really amazing experience. I missed WonderCon but in my mind this was a much more informative panel. Chris and Frank seemed rested and relaxed and were very, very funny. See if you can guess which questioner was me.

If vids don't work, go here

Videodrome As Prophecy

I'll be at the New York Comic Con this weekend so I asked Joe Linsner to do a guest spot eleaborating on some interesting points he raised in an email. I think this piece is right up the Synchromystic alley, from the perspective of a guy with a lot of experience in the subconscious mind. This is the kind of stuff Joe and I chat about for hours on end and I wanted you guys out there to get a chance to get Joe's very synchro and very mystic take on art and reality. I'll be out most of the day and will post any comments when I get back tonight.

Hope you guys enjoy this!


Talking to my friend Chris Knowles the other night sparked a chain reaction of associated thoughts in my mind.

He mentioned seeing pictures of people in India living in cardboard boxes while still being hooked up to satellite TV.

He stated that he could personally live anywhere, just so long as he didn’t lose his high speed internet connection (I'm the same way).

He mentioned how popular World Of Warcraft has become. World of Warcraft is currently the most popular MMO ( Massively Multiplayer Online ) interactive game in the United States. It is number three in Korea, and number six in China.

It made me think of a scene from David Cronenberg's Videodrome where the Cathode Ray Mission takes disjointed homeless people and brings them back into society's norms by setting them up in cubicles and giving them a good dose of TV. Television becomes their eyes and shows them the world as the nation’s broadcasters believe it should be -- it replaces their own personal vision with a hand-crafted one.

Cronenberg later explored these concepts further in Existenz, which is about video games and virtual reality. It was inspired by an interview he did with Salmon Rushdie (author of The Satanic Verses) where they batted around the question “can game designers be artists?” Is a creative work that is interactive still art? Or is it only “Art” when it is static, and the information only flows one way?

William S. Burroughs said that when science finally gets to another star, they will find the artists and writers already there waiting for them. The artists and writers are the architects of reality. Nothing ever happens until it already exists on the dream plane.

Joseph Campbell said pretty much the same thing ~~ that poets and artists always lead the way to the future for any society.



This led me to think of David Lynch’s Inland Empire, a poetic masterpiece which works on a myriad of levels, offering a wide spectrum of valid interpretations. In Inland Empire, reality bleeds into and then back out of a number of different modes of perception-- art -vision – dream – television - real life – dream life. All of those facets exist at once, and preference of one facet over another is simply a matter of personal choice. I am sure that the films weird sitcom bunny people tie into that -- Lynch serves the viewer whacko images, and the viewer is then left to digest them however they choose. In this way, it is a very interactive movie. The mark of Lynch’s genius is that the viewer never once gets the feeling that he is being served pure gibberish. It is all spoken in an almost familiar language, one which the viewer just needs to learn in order to keep up.

One of the key points of Videodrome is the externalization of man through technology. It is a two-way flow – it bleeds into us, and we enter into it. Walls come down, and a fusion occurs. In Videodrome, James Woods literally pushes his face through a pulsing and alive television, then later goes on to accept a videotape into his abdomen.

For those people in India living in boxes, their reality goes into and expands outward beyond the literal measurements of their TV sets. Same with us internet junkies. Same with the World of Warcraft junkies. That artificial reality we all know and love, cyberspace, has become just as valid as the cardboard box we may someday live in.

With this in mind, the Harry Potter series is the ultimate metaphor for our age. Just think of the scene in The Order of the Phoenix-- Harry and the magical Weasleys enter a ratty looking tent. Once they enter it, Harry ‘plugs into their virtual enviornment,' and what he sees expands fantastically. Harry exclaims, “I LOVE Magic!”

The ratty exterior of the tent is rubbish, but the magical interior of the tent is ELECTRIC. Those twin realities that young Harry Potter straddle represent both our humdrum daily lives and the lives we live on the dream plain -- just like Dorothy’s real-world Kansas and her dreamland of Oz.

I know that for almost the past 20 years people have been saying that the internet is replacing reality for many people. That is nothing new and has been a cliche for a long time. But I think the skeleton key that will somehow unlock the mystery door is hooked into what Burroughs said ~~

The artists and writers will get there first.

And it was these 2 quotes from Chris’s post about the film 2001: A Space Odyssey which made me remember the William S. Burroughs statement.

“I will say that the God concept is at the heart of 2001-- but not any traditional anthropomorphic image of God. I don’t believe in any of Earth’s monotheistic religions, but I do believe that one can construct an intriguing scientific definition of God.” Stanley Kubrick, Playboy interview, Sept 1968

“Quite early in the game I went around saying, not very loudly, "M-G-M doesn't know this yet, but they're paying for the first $10,000,000 religious movie."
Arthur C. Clarke, Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations, 1972.


I think that 2001 is just as much about inner space as outer space. Walls are coming down left and right, and we are finding ourselves on the dream plain with the artists and writers of the world staring back at us.


Joseph M. Linsner
Apr. 2008

What If They Put On a Clownshow...

...and no one voted?

The Blogosphere is on fire about last night's Democratic debate in Philadelphia and the smear tactics of ABC shill Charles Gibson. The UK Guardian went so far as to call last night's charade "The Dumbest Debate in America." The real story seems to be the piercing of Obama's balloon. Seems there's a glass jaw there after all. Think Gibson will do the same to McCain?

Yeah, me neither.

We're at a fascinating place in this election- it seems that none of the candidates are able to withstand the hyperactive scrutiny of the 2008 media cycle. They all entered this race like souped-up Maserati's and here we are seven months from the election and they all look like junked Yugo's, sitting up on cinder blocks in the backyard of a converted double wide.

We have a 71 year-old "maverick" who no one in his party loves, and whom very many loathe. We have the empty pant suit from Chicago/Little Rock/New York, whose illusion of inevitability was shattered the first time the people and not the media got a chance to vote, and we have a young firebrand who seems like the greatest candidate ever- greatest candidate for Vice President, that is. All three seem exhausted and shell-shocked. And McCain hasn't even faced the real gauntlet yet. We have hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into this box office bomb, and no one but the pundits paying much attention.

I said it before- 2008 is the year the masks come off. And this election is reminding me of that episode of the Twilight Zone where the greedy family waits for the rich father to die on New Year's Eve. The ghoul masks come off and the faces behind them are every bit as grotesque.

Here's a question for my US readers: any of you planning to vote for these clowns?

Yeah, same here.

The question I have- and I'm sure many of you do as well- is what's the real agenda here? FDR said nothing happens in politics by accident, so what are we to learn from this disaster? Is this the Capitol Hill Players doing Rollerball?

Wibbley Wednesday: The Secret of the Sphynx

More secrets can be found here...

Jacques Vallee Interview

Here's an amazing interview with Jacques Vallee, the legendary UFO researcher, courtesy of the fine folks at Paracast. For the record, I don't think the modern UFO phenomenon - the sightings and the abduction reports- is necessarily related to the ancient astronaut scenario. I think we are looking at entirely separate events, entities and phenomena. That being said, I think Vallee's work is as good as it gets when it comes to this difficult and challenging field.

Download Jacques Vallee Interview

Visit The Paracast Website.

Sphynx Gallery

Need a new friend?

Quick! Call Ben Affleck!

BERLIN (AFP) - A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected NASA's estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, a German newspaper reported Tuesday, after spotting the boffins had miscalculated. Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a 1 in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid will collide with Earth, the Potsdamer Neuerster Nachrichten reported. NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right. - Yahoo

1 in 450? I'm not digging those odds...

UPDATE: Phew! Dodged that bullet! See comments for comforting update!

Sphinx Gallery

Did you know that the Sphinx was the symbol of US Army Intelligence from 1923 to 1962? You'll see a fascinating collection of sphinx statues in this gallery, most of them at Masonic installations. Which, of course, puts that lady up there (situated at Army Intel HQ in Arizona) and the decoration on the Luxor Casino in an interesting light...

Happy First Day of Payni!

Today's the first day of Payni in the Ancient Egyptian Calendar. Who is the Netjer of Payni, again? Eye forgot...

2001 Addenda: Optical Illusion

One of the reasons I watch some of these films over and over is that there are always certain details that bother me on a subconscious level, but need to be gone over repeatedly to bring into the daylight. One thing that has always struck me about 2001: A Space Odyssey, particularly as the years progress, is how plausible all the technology looks and how it doesn't ever seem to age ( for instance, the seatback video screens are identical to today's models). Aside from little design details here and there it still looks functional. Ridiculously so in relation to other sci-fi films of the era. But there was something else bothering me, something that I wouldn't even have the capacity to wonder about until the 1990s.

HAL’s memory boards seem to use clear plastic media, very much like today’s forms of optical memory storage, such as CD’s and DVDs. So what, you may ask. Well, consider that 2001 began pre-production in 1964 and that optical storage media wasn’t even invented until the early 1980’s, and wasn’t widely used in computers until the mid-1990’s. At the time 2001 was made, even the most powerful mainframe computers used magnetic tape drives for memory storage, and magnetic media was the dominant form of memory storage until very recently in most home and commercial computers. Until around, oh, 2001 or so...

So, what was all of this technology? A lucky guess? Clear plastic optical storage media is a hell of a lucky guess. If anyone has background on this, let me know.

Astronaut Theology: Exhibit No. 2001

“I will say that the God concept is at the heart of 2001-- but not any traditional anthropomorphic image of God. I don’t believe in any of Earth’s monotheistic religions, but I do believe that one can construct an intriguing scientific definition of God.”
Stanley Kubrick, Playboy interview, Sept 1968

Quite early in the game I went around saying, not very loudly, "M-G-M doesn't know this yet, but they're paying for the first $10,000,000 religious movie."
Arthur C. Clarke, Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations, 1972

When we're looking for semiotic evidence linking ancient astronauts and Sun worship, we need look no further than the all-time heavyweight champion of cinematic ritual drama, 2001: A Space Odyssey. This movie continues to reveal new layers of mystery as time goes on, whereas most of its imitators recede into obscurity. One question we need to ask is why such a princely sum was spent on its making when its commercial prospects were by no means clear.

First, let's be absolutely, positively certain about this- 2001: A Space Odyssey is explicitly about extraterrestrial interference in the evolution of mankind, from "The Dawn of Man" to today. In this light, it needs to reiterated that Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke repeatedly referred to the film as a religious statement. Astounding. What religion is this? Not an Earth-based one, according to Kubrick.

In that light, what we must acknowledge is that this ancient extraterrestrial artifact- a monolith, no less- is linked to the Sun either literally or symbolically every time it appears onscreen. So we have a film, meant as a religious parable, conjoining extraterrestrial involvement in the technical development of the human race and what Kubrick himself called "mystical alignments of the Sun" and the other planetary bodies.

The Monolith first appears among the ape-men at sunrise.

The Monolith is then shot from below as a truncated pyramid with the ‘all-seeing eye’ of the Sun at it’s peak. Atop the Sun is a crescent Moon.

When the Monolith transmits the piercing signal in the pit at Clavius, the earlier pyramidical motif identifying it with the sun is repeated, only this time the crescent is of the Earth.

The Monolith reflects the sunlight while orbiting Jupiter.

The Monolith orbiting Europa is then shown in conjunction with the Sun and Jupiter.

A vertical alignment of Jupiter and its satellites forming a cross is shown just before Dave enters the Stargate, with the monolith appearing as the horizontal beam against it.

This is the last we see of the Monolith, just before the Star Child - an obvious Horus stand-in encased in a solar globe - merges with it.

The White Room also has another hidden layer of meaning. It’s manner of decor is known as ‘Louis XVI style.’ Louis XVI of France was known as ‘Louis the Last,’ and his is queen was the infamous Marie Antoinette (who would be portrayed by Kirsten Dunst of Eternal Sunshine fame).

When the guillotine (invented by a Freemason named Joseph-Ignace Guillotin) crashed down on poor Louis’ neck, another Freemason jumped to the platform from the crowd, dipped his fingers in Louis’ blood, sprinkled it over the onlookers and shouted out “Jacques Demolay, thou art avenged.”

Remember also that piece used in the Stargate sequence is Gyorgy Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" and the process used for the color effects was a form of Solarization. Remember too that the film's poster art was created by NASA artist Robert McCall, whose "symbolic paintings" resemble a Freemason's wet dream.

The mind reels. All of this puts Childhood's End in a different perspective altogether.

Scottish Sunday: Boards of Canada

I guess if I had to explain my strange, unconscious fixation on Scottish musicians, it would come down to their uncanny knack for channeling quantum magic into our reality through the processes of recorded sound, often in the unlikely context of the pop song. It's certainly not a consistent gift, and many of the same artists who can melt your heart early on in their careers can soon succumb to the worst pantomimes of show business (Annie Lennox and Simple Minds, for instance).

Since we are now in the age of accelerated revelation, it makes sense that Collective Unconscious would summon a band like Boards of Canada, who seem to be the distillation of the Scottish gift for musickal magick. I had wanted to do the Scottish Sundays in chronological order, but I stumbled upon this video while browsing around on YouTube and it synchronistically tied into a post I've been working on (and will be posting next week).

This video is absolutely astonishing, depicting a type of manned, high altitude ballooning and sky-diving I could hardly even imagine existed. This video shows Astronaut Joseph Kittinger's unimaginable skydive from 102,000 feet above the Earth, and then segues into some nail-biting surfing footage. The sterility of space is contrasted beautifully with the majesty of the oceans. For some reason, it all reminds me of the Stargate sequence in 2001:A Space Odyssey, a film which we'll be looking at tomorrow. I'm also reminded of the amazing spacewalk scenes in the highly undervalued 2010.

I did two previous posts on these remarkable musicians: here and here.

Bonus factoid: The "Scot" in Scotland comes from Scota, the name of an Egyptian princess.

Perfectibilism

In case some of you guys weren't aware of this, Terry Melanson has written what looks to be the definitive history of the Bavarian Illuminati. I can't wait for this book myself and you can pre-order it here. It's about time a serious work was written on the topic, given all the hysterical nonsense out there.

Astronaut Theology: Kirby Meets Hoagland

That's Orion that Kirby is drawing there...

This is awesome- two of my favorite visionary madmen, Jack Kirby and Richard Hoagland, meet in Cyberspace in Hoagland's exploration of Mars Face symbolism in pop culture, which touches on Kirby's astonishingly prescient Face on Mars story.

Incan Visitation by Jack Kirby (which I have on my wall here!)

A lot of you out there may not realize that Hoagland has done a lot of very interesting work on symbology, alternative history and secret societies (which in my view are all related), as well as work on Mars and UFOs. I'd put his semiotic/conspiracy work up against anyone out there, and you can bet he had a very big influence on researchers like Goro Adachi. A lot of people may consider him a crank, but I consider him a pioneer and a prophet, mapping out the terra incognita every curious mind will be trudging through in the coming years.

Here are some of my favorite Hoagland pieces:

Will X Mark the Date?

The Age of Horus Dawns

The "Lost Tombs" Revisited

Who's the Enemy?

Tetrahedrons, Faces on Mars, Exploding Planets, Hyperdimensional Physics -- and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet?!

Mission to Mars

Astronaut Theology: Following the Followers

Terry Melanson of ConspiracyArchive.com raised this very important issue in the comments to yesterday's posting.

So what you seem to be saying, as far as I can tell, is that these "Followers of Horus," the secret priests of the secret society of Shemsu Hor which, according to Egyptian records, existed before time was recorded, are the real string-pullers even today. They have constructed all the competing hermetic and kabbalistic occult doctrines and have been the real "Unknown Superiors" alluded by the Elus Cohen, the Strict Observance, the Golden and Rosy Cross, and Theosophy. And further, that it is these Shemsu Hor who are behind the pervasiveness of sun symbolism?

My answer is yes, I believe it's certainly a thesis that bears investigating. I had the pleasure to meet Graham Hancock a couple years back and we talked about the Shemsu Hor briefly. Graham is a man who's done more research into the Shemsu Hor and the history of secret societies and historical mysteries than anyone, and he emphatically and unambiguously told me that he believes the Shemsu Hor still exist. I have no way to confirm whether that is true, I can only look at their symbols and their beliefs and see how they are manifesting themselves in the culture today (which they are doing everywhere). As to all of the competing doctrines, it's possible, but I don't think that's necessary. There's always imitation and corruption and schism to explain that.

But let me just draw on this passage from the original manuscript of Our Gods Wear Spandex to show how one group can be behind the formation of other movements. In this passage I talk about how Freemasonry seemed to be the figure behind the curtain with a number of alternative religious movements (and several other civic and fraternal groups that we'll be looking at in the future). Terry himself delves into the role of Freemasons in the creation of Theosophy.

Here on the blog I feel free to speculate, but when I publish I feel obliged to stick to established fact. That being said, it's my opinion that the Freemasons were very, very busy in the 19th Century creating any number of movements for purposes I can only speculate on.

The 19th Century also saw the rise of major alternative religious movements, particularly in America. New England seemed to be a particular hotspot for these movements. Three of the most important movements of that time - Christian Science, Transcendentalism and Mormonism - trace their roots there. And all three had important links to Freemasonry.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

Here's the domed Mother Church. Notice extremely phallic looking skyscraper in back of it.

The Christian Science Church was based on the doctrines presented in Mary Baker Eddy's 1875 opus, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Eddy (1821-1919) taught the virtues of healing through faith, preaching that illness was an illusion. To many adherents, this has led to the disavowal of medical science. Christian Science was essentially mystical, and unlike many denominations allowed their adherents to become Freemasons. In 1921, the Masons paid tribute to Eddy by erecting a 11-foot high pyramid at her New Hampshire birthsite, but the Church's embarrassed directors had it destroyed. (See Mary Baker Eddy Letter no. 7, pg. 11)

Christian Science became a popular religion with the educated and with people involved in the arts. The Church built an enormous ‘Mother Church’ in Boston, and founded the influential newspaper The Christian Science Monitor, as well as several other long-running periodicals. Like Scientology in more recent times, Christian Science was popular in Hollywood, counting Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Henry Fonda, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, and Doris Day in its ranks. Monkee Michael Nesmith and former Batman Val Kilmer are both active and practicing Christian Scientists.

THE MORMONS

The Church of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormons, have their origins in hidden scriptures known as 'The Golden Plates,' allegedly revealed by angel named 'Moroni' to Mormon founder Joseph Smith. The Golden Plates claimed that Jewish tribes emigrated to America following the fall of Jerusalem and that Jesus reappeared to them. Though The Book of Mormon is formatted like the Bible, it's contents bear a strange similarity to the 'boy’s adventure' stories of the time. Mormonism is considered to be a pseudo-Christian cult by most Christian denominations, and preaches a cosmology more akin to Gnosticism. Mormon doctrine teaches that God was once a mortal and that men have the potential to become God's themselves. It was also infamous in its time for encouraging polygamy for its male adherents. The Mormons were extremely unpopular in their early days and traveled west to flee persecution. They settled on the great Salt Lake in Utah and began to spread their faith. Mormons are generally conservative and active in Republican party politics. They tend to abstain from vice and have large families. Every young adult Mormon is required to serve two years as a missionary.

Joseph Smith was initiated as a Master Mason in 1842, and many claim that Mormon rituals are based in Freemasonry. It is also believed that Smith had an Occult teacher named Dr. Luman Walter who tutored him in the rites of ceremonial magic and alchemy. Interestingly, Egyptian themed symbols are common in Salt Lake City, including a statue of the Great Sphinx bearing Joseph Smith's likeness. The Golden Plates were recently adapted into comic form by Mormon comic artist Mike Allred (Madman, X-Factor).

TRANSCENDENTALISM

Transcendentalism was essentially blend of Christianity and Eastern thought, which had a strong influence on Theosophy and is generally regarded as the foundation of today's New Age Movement. The Transcendental movement began in September 1836 when Ralph Waldo Emerson founded the Transcendental Club. In January 1842, the Club announced itself to the world with a lecture read by Emerson at the Masonic Temple in Boston. Emerson read texts like The Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist scripture, as well as the writers of Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, and from them developed a philosophy that taught the unity of Creation, and the virtues of mysticism over rationality and logic. Emerson's circle included novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and philosopher Henry David Thoreau. There was even a Transcendental commune, but it was short-lived (as communes filled with intellectuals usually are).

If that's not enough, I just found evidence of a link between Masonry and Rastafarianism.

It has been suggested that the Rastafarian word for God, Jah, comes from the term Jahbulon. William David Spencer, in his book Dread Jesus (ISBN 0-281-05101-1), proposes that Archibald Dunkley and Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert were among the preachers that inspired the Rastafari movement, and that both were members of the "Ancient Mystic Order of Ethiopia", a fraternal order derived from Prince Hall Freemasonry. Spencer believes that several features of the Rastafari movement derive from this lodge, including the name "Jah", from the word Jah-Bul-On.

But back to Terry's question, could an impossibly ancient society be behind any number of other groups? If so, what power do they have to control so many other powerful individuals and groups? That's really the crux of the matter, isn't it?

The question of compelling force is why so many other conspiracy "master theories" fall apart for me. If 9/11 really was meant as a pretext to institute an American Imperium, why is the dollar dying, why is the Army falling apart and why are huge swathes of the American economy being snapped up at fire sale prices by the Europeans and the Russians and the Chinese? What power do small groups like the Jews or the Jesuits or the British have over a billion plus Chinese, or oil-rich Russia, or the rising powers in the Persian Gulf or industrial giants like Japan? For that matter, what possible power would Freemasonry have? What could be compelling all of these countries to join in this emerging "global community?" (don't you love how the media picked up on that phrase when "New World Order" didn't do well with the focus groups?)

There's something else at work here. Abstractions like nature worship or occultism or fancy aprons cannot possibly be the driving force behind all of this, they just can't. And for me, that's where the work of researchers like Richard Hoagland and Peter Levenda comes in...

Astronaut Theology: Their Sun is Different

Why the Sun, constantly? Why is the Sun such a crucial part of the symbolism we see everywhere? I can't escape the feeling that there's something going on with these symbols that I can't put my finger on. For the past several years that I've been looking into all of this material dealing with the Mysteries and secret societies, I keep coming to the conclusion that the Sun means something different to these people than it means to you or I.

The cultures of Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia and Egypt all raise the sun gods to positions of utmost importance and many of them credit these gods with bringing the arts of civilization to them. Why the Sun? I can't imagine that these peoples would be overly fond of the Sun, which is at its fiercest intensity in these areas. In contrast, the sun gods of the Greco-Roman and Nordic pantheons are certainly important figures but subordinate to the father gods like Jupiter or Wotan. Sol wouldn't rule Rome until the Severan families took control of the Empire and installed their Syrian sun god as supreme diety.
And yet it's the same people who raised the Sun god to the top of their pantheons who seem to be the ones most responsible for the architectural and scientific knowledge whose origin still baffles people who don't susbcribe to Ancient Astronaut theory. We need look no further than the Shemsu Hor, the Solar priests of Heliopolis who wanted to follow Osiris back to the constellation of Orion and return to the time when the gods walked the Earth.

I realize it sounds kind of loopy, but could the Sun the secret societies are actually referring to be a different sun? Could that fact account for this nearly universal symbolism we see today that seems entirely divorced from any real definition of nature worship or animism, rather which seems to fetishize technology and the domination of nature to the point of actually escaping this biosphere and ultimately, this Solar System?

Again, are we looking at occultists, or Illuminists or Freemasons or any other such hobbyists? I don't think so. I think the real secret societies- the ones pulling the strings of those front groups- have an entirely different understanding of the world and an entirely different body of knowledge at their disposal. It's the only way I can explain how this symbolism is so prevalent and so international. I really don't think these guys are sitting around reading each other's Tarot cards or doing Enochian magic. The more I dig into this field of inquiry the more I begin to speculate that there's a much more compelling understanding of reality at work.

The Sun shines on everyone- the entire world- without discrimination. Now ask yourself- why would an self-selecting elite want to worship that? If, as many people have theorized, there's a belief among some of the secret societies that mankind's origins can be traced to another solar system, wouldn't it actually be that sun that is the real object of their adoration? If there is a belief among these people that the extraterrestrial genetic engineers are returning in 2012 to review the results of their experiment, wouldn't that account for all the rising sun imagery we see everywhere?

Whatever the case, this certainly makes the understanding of the symbolism we are bombarded with on a daily basis all the more compelling. It also raises extremely troubling questions about the use of this symbolism in today's Christian churches, a topic I will return to in the near future.

POST SCRIPT: I just found this book cover online, apparently published by the Jehovah's Witnesses sometime in the 1920s. I found its design just a little bit too similar to this...