Secret Sun Weekend Edition: 11/7/09
Two movies open today that we've looked at in the past: The Fourth Kind and The Men Who Stare at Goats. T4k is getting murdered by the critics, which doesn't mean anything, but I'll probably wait for the DVD. Goats is getting OK reviews but I'll wait to rent that too. Interesting conjunction with the Fort Hood situation, in a way.
But something just hit, pertaining to our discussion on Michael Clayton from a while back- I had pointed out that the assassins' hair nets had reminded me of Mithras' liberty cap (also a kind of psychedelic mushroom, btw), but I just realized that one is holding his finger to Arthur's throat, almost like knife blade, and the other with the deadly syringe is between Arthur's legs...
...which both parallel the Tauroctony with the throat being cut and the scorpion lodged between the bull's legs. Given the bizarre nature of the Mithraic liturgy, I've started to wonder if the bull's blood symbolizes a potion made from mushrooms, similar to what is mentioned in the liturgy itself. Interesting how many of these tripped-out gods like Osiris and Dionysus and even Hecate are identified with the bull.
We started the week looking at Norse mythology and the next day, a Heathen-American was elected to the New York City Council, which seems to be an historical first. Strange stirrings are loose in the land, certainly.
Fringe took a beating in the ratings last night, which most observers are chalking up to the after-effect of the World Series. But I had mentioned the Battlestar Galactica ratings in the discussion on V and never-ending serialization, and if you click on the image you can see BSG's ratings history, which is a history of relentless decline. I've watched some eps of the series and enjoyed them, but did find the serial format extremely overwhelming. I'm sure a lot of people agreed with me.
A little easier to handle was Green Lantern: First Flight. An amazing film, even if you aren't familiar with the character's Byzantine backstory. The animation is incredible, and the story is surprisingly hefty with subtext.
I've always seen the Guardians as a sci-fi spin on Alice Bailey's Great White Lodge of Sirius, and if you're thinking of checking out the film, read up on Bailey's theories- which I strongly suspect Green Lantern re-creator John Broome may well have.
Finally, Richard Hoagland has a new article up on the LCROSS mission. Money quote: LCROSS' secret lunar mission turns out to be, in fact, designed -- from the beginning -- as nothing less than "an official, clandestine, NASA multi-sensor search for ... and scientific characterization of ... artificial ruins on the Moon"
Jack Kirby was obsessed with Norse mythology, so much so that he created his own spin on it, with The Fourth World. He was also very close with Frank Zappa, as you can read all about here.
