Monday, May 03, 2010

Secret Sunday: Beltane Edition

 

Well, Saturday was May Day and there was chaos and confusion all across the globe, including an alleged failed IED in Times Square. There were also several protests over the new Arizona immigration law. But you can read about all of that on any old website: let's go to Edinburgh for the yearly Beltane Fire Festival, which drew 12,000 people this year. 

A goodly number of them were nude and smeared in red body paint, I might add.



Here's a panorama shot of the festival, showing you how huge an event it is. From the looks of it, a lot more than 12,000 people showed up this year.
 
Here's this year's May Queen, who was dutifully sprinkled for.


And I can't be sure, but this looks like the May Queen meeting the Green Man. It's a good thing this is neo-paganism, because back in the day the Green Man would be beheaded and drawn and quartered, in order that his body parts could be buried in the fields to bless the harvest. 



  NO WAY JOSE FOR MAY DAY PRAY DAY?

Speaking of atavistic crypto-heathenism, the planned May Day pray-in at the Temple of Zeus, seems to have been a bit of a fizzle. As we discussed here, the plan was to meet at sunrise on May Day at the Lincoln Memorial, which was modeled on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, as is the statue of Lincoln pictured above. 

Tom Horn was pushing the event on Raiders, but it seems to have been a washout. I can't find anything on the web about the event. Was it all an elaborate hoax? 


HERE COMES THE SUN, YET AGAIN 

Could be, but I think it's more likely that Pray Day was overwhelmed by the political passions of the moment, which are running pretty high. But the links on the Pray Day site produced some examples of the Solar symbolism creeping into mainstream Evangelicalism.

Then there's this ad, which has been popping up on Facebook. 

 FROM PYRE TO PYRAMID

Knowles' Law #317 tells us that when a controversy erupts in the news over symbolism, there's usually another symbol hiding lurking in the background, telling us the real story. 

There was a controversy over the logo of the Fort Carson Hospital this past week, presumably over the cross. But falcon-eyed Secret Sun readers see past the obvious, like those strange trio of triangles hiding behind the cross.
 

Help me out, readers- you guys have any theories what they might represent? They look so gosh-darned familiar, but I just can't seem to place them.