Dark Knight Templar

Of course the big story in pop culture this week is the record-breaking opening of The Dark Knight, the second installment in Christopher Nolan's radical re-imagining of the Batman franchise. Being the obsessive-compulsive that I am, 

I can't help but notice that the film was released at the same time of the year that Sirius rose in the night sky in the ancient world. The iconic poster tagline "Why So Serious?" takes on added significance in that light. 

Secret Star Trek: Occult Entrainment Masked as Sci-Fi

OK, last month we were looking at Star Trek in the context of high initiate symbolism and its role in the transformation of our culture. We also puzzled over the phenomenon of a group of strange, disincarnate entities who have supposedly meddled with our dimensional reality. In between all of that, we were looking at the possibility that the sun the Egyptian god Ra represents is not our own.

Jonas Brothers or Oannes Brothers?

Why do they do this to me? Saturday we looked at the weird montage of the starlet and the distant star on Yahoo, which led us to the Oannes Brothers, those squeaky-clean Jersey boys who themselves are superstars with the 'Tween set. The Brothers are a Disney project, which usually means deeper weirdness can be found lurking somewhere in the background. 

 Time and time travel seem to be pressing concerns with the Oannes Brothers. Their first CD, It's About Time, includes titles like "Time for Me to Fly," "One Day at a Time," "6 Minutes," and "7:05." Their first big hit was a cover of "Year 3000" by the UK band, Busted (who themselves also cut a track called "Thunderbirds are Go!")

 

For our purposes, the "Year 3000" could be 3000 BC, the dawning of the Imperial Age in the Middle East and the dynastic eras in both Sumer and Egypt.

 

This stela is of Narmer, the pharaoh believed to have succeeded the Scorpion King somewhere around 3000 BC. Note the classic pose taken from the Constellation of Hercules on the obverse and a strange image of two animals with intertwining necks oddly reminiscent of a DNA helix.

 

Strangely, that same motif is seen at the same time in the seal of the Sumerian king Uruk. Seeing how these animals are not known to have existed, what meaning could they have to two kings hundreds of miles apart? Since these creatures are used to identify kings, what significance is there with these strange animals to the royal bloodlines? 

THE HITS JUST KEEP COMING In "Year 3000" the Jonas Brothers chirpily sing, "I've been to the year 3000/Not much has changed but they lived under water." 

Three guesses who lived under water in 3000 BC...

"(Oannes) was accustomed to pass the day among men; but took no food at that season; and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences, and arts of every kind. He taught them to construct cities, to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. 

He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and shewed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and humanize their lives. 

From that time, nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun had set, this being Oannes, retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the deep; for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes." - Berossus, from Ancient Fragments

The latest Jonas Brothers record shows them "living under water" as it were, in a stylized version of Times Square. Note that they could share their strangely royal JB logo with John the Baptist. We see the crown again over the sign for "The Wykcoff," a reference to their hometown in New Jersey, which is tucked in the crowded area between routes 287 and 17. 

 We see a reference here to the "Love Bug," whose video features another time travel motif, only this time towards the past. As the boys warble, "Called her for the first time yesterday/Finally found the missing part of me/ Felt so close, but you were far away," we travel back in time to the 1940s where we are first confronted with this strange image...

 

The lighthouse is a stand-in for an obelisk, and has the added advantage of the beacon of light ("beacon" is a favorite motif in Barack Obama's speeches), and of course the water sacred to Oannes and his successors. But this lighthouse looks quite odd, nothing like the familiar kind we see a lot in modern Christian iconography. 

Check out Todd Campbells's post on maritime iconography for deep background, no pun intended.

 

It looks a bit more like the famous Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt. Which - as with Barack Obama and the beacon- brings us right back to the Stairway to Sirius imagery we've been looking at lately. Hmm, can we find any imagery of the Oannes Brothers tying back more explicitly to the Stairway to Sirius?

 

This is from the June 21, 2008 issue of Billboard magazine, featuring the boys brooding with their scarves on a stairway. OK then, where's the Sirius? Well, June 21 is the Summer Solstice, and was also the date of the heliacal rising of Sirius in Ancient Egypt. 

BONUS ROUND Speaking of the lighthouse, Alexandria was sacred to Isis, and coins were minted there showing the goddess riding a dog, a reference to Sirius. The Solstice is also the time of year sacred to Ioannes the Baptist. 

 In The Sirius Mystery Robert Temple pointed out the etymological similiarity between "Sirius" and "Siren." 

Like Oannes, the Sirens were half-fish, half human. Just to bring it all full circle, I posted quite a few Siren-related posts here that no one seemed to have read, but incorporate this weird semiotic juncture of pop music, esoteric symbology and UFO theory. All sorts of themes and memes I once thought unconnected become intimately connected when you take the time to trace them back to their roots. 

However, the problem is that it all ties back to some strange event in prehistory that is somehow related to a distant star system. And that's beyond the pale of polite conversation in both mainstream circles and the so-called alternative media, despite all of the tantalizing evidence- semiotic and otherwise- pointing directly to it. 

UPDATE: Michael and Droidy pointed out that in the comments that It's About Time was a show about time-traveling astronauts (read: time-traveling Freemasons) that premiered- wait for it- on September 11, 1966. 

The show was produced by Gilligan's Island creator Sherwood Schwartz, which of course then syncs us back to The X-Files. Which in turn syncs us to Hancock, which then thematically syncs us to The Eternals. Oh, such a small world. 

 UPDATE II: The Oannes Brothers at the White House? (thanks to Astronut for the tip)

The White House, which boasts 55,000 square feet and 132 rooms, is set on 18 acres filled with magnolias, dogwoods and maples. When the Obamas move into the White House, they will primarily use the mansion's second and third floors and have access to a solarium and a movie theater.

For the Obama daughters, birthday parties could include surprise appearances by the Jonas Brothers. And their grandmother, 71-year-old Marian Robinson, a lifelong Chicago resident, is preparing to pick up and move to Washington to help shuttle the girls to soccer games and recitals, according to The Associated Press. -Seattle Times