Curiously enough, there was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that deals with disincarnate entities specifically using symbol to alter the very nature of our physical reality. And surprise of surprises, the new reality that is create revolves around a ritual drama centering on the worship of an alien sun.
Read this synopsis of the episode "Masks" taken from an unofficial ST site.
A compass design symbol. OK, gotcha.While an alien archive transforms the U.S.S. Enterprise into its ancient society, Data is taken over by several different personalities from the extinct civilization.Soon after a sensor scan of an 87 million-year-old comet commences, alien artifacts begin appearing around the Enterprise, as well as a mysterious compass-design symbol, and sets of alien-looking icons that are grouped together in the same compass formation. The crew investigates, but the ship's computer is unable to identify the icons. Riker and Geordi realize that some kind of alien information has been downloaded into the ship's main computers from within the comet during the sensor scan. They decide to melt the outer shell of the comet to find out what its core contains. Before they do, however, Data realizes that he somehow has the ability to interpret the unusual symbols.
When Data attends the next sculpture class, Troi notices that he made a mask and asks how he made it. Data tells her he used his imagination and for some reason the image of the mask appeared in his mind....their conversation is interrupted by Eric, who asks them if they can do something about his terminal because it is not working properly, strange symbols are moving around on the screen.
In engineering, Data, Commander Riker and Geordi La Forge begin to investigate the strange symbols which are not listed in the Federation linguistics database. La Forge has found that the strange symbols were downloaded into the Enterprise computer core and are reconfiguring their systems. Further investigation reveals that the sensor array and replicator systems were used to download the symbols.Finally, Picard somehow over-rides the process with this strange invocation: "a line, as the unending horizon; a curve, as the rolling hillside; a point, as a distant bird; a ray, as the rising sun." I'm not up on my Pike; which chapter of Morals and Dogma is that taken from?
In his ready room, Picard is investigating several artifacts when Riker tells him that they have confined the system corruption but the alien symbols are still in their computer systems. Riker believes that the artifacts are primitive and serve no purpose. Picard thinks that they are for ceremonial purposes and are deceptively primitive because only an advanced technological society could have build the object they've encountered. - Memory Alpha
It's a very strange episode and probably has to be seen in a ritual context- a ritual within a ritual- to be understood. But it's also an interesting episode because in many ways what the episode depicts in a fictional setting is happening to our own society. Archaic symbols are being inserted into our own technological matrix and transforming our reality. The more technologically advanced we become, the more these atavistic echoes reverberate.
And, of course, "Masks" was the 17th episode in the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Though my gut tells me this was all some sort of Masonic joke we're not in on, it reflects an ongoing process of revelation that many people are trying to manipulate and harness, but no one yet seems to understand. These aren't just symbols we've been looking at, these are neural triggers that often seem to take on a life of their own once they are set loose in the Memestream.
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