The Matrix: Agents/Angels/Archons/Aliens

These days it’s easy to forget what an astonishing feat of craftsmanship the first Matrix film is, given how it over-exposed and over-discussed it was. 

The technical, thematic and visual force The Matrix packed has yet to be equaled, especially by its own utterly forgettable sequels. The film is so complete, that any sequel seems redundant (just like the first Star Wars).

AstroGnostic: Revelations of the Matrix

The Matrix has any number of pop culture antecedents, but the most significant and by far the most well-known of them as far as the basic plot is concerned is 'The Cage' (aka 'The Menagerie'), the original Star Trek pilot that was reworked as a two-part episode during the original series' first season. 

We have three nearly-omnipotent figures with the power to alter a person's (specifically, an abductee's) perception of the physical world and do so while their subjects are imprisoned.

Christopher Nolan's Memento: The Mirror-Matrix

 

There’s a metatextual sequel to The Matrix that isn't recognized as such. The film in question features two of that blockbuster’s lead characters in prominent and analogous roles, and it tells much the same type of story that The Matrix does. 

Only in reverse.

 

Blue Pill Poppers

This may be hilarious (if I don't say so myself), but the story behind it is no laughing matter. 

Mindbomb: Not of This World

Sometimes I wonder if the ancient Gnostics weren't the first Geeks. Their cosmologies and tautologies were just as complex and overwrought as any superhero fan's, and their Apocalypses and Gospels can seem like fanfic, endlessly reimagining more prominent works and adding layers of sometimes impenetrable jargon and buzzwords.

You'll Be Godlike, Part One

Whoever wins the upcoming US Presidential election is going to find themselves in the unenviable position of being totally despised by one-half of the American electorate, to the extent that the country may in fact become ungovernable. That would be a tough, perhaps untenable, situation for the most talented politician.

That's a description I wouldn't waste on either of the leading Presidential candidates.  Not even close.

Secret Star Trek: Susan Oliver, Sex on Wings

The Outer Limits would inspire - and lend creative personnel -- to two other landmark sci-fi series of the 1960s, series whose numinous power continues to overshadow any of the formulaic bilge that has passed itself off as science fiction in recent years. 

Cyberpunk Reality: Escaping the Prison Planet

The operating philosophy behind my work is that whatever form it may take, pop culture is more resonant when it addresses "spiritual" issues or wields some variety of "spiritual" power.

A Novel Approach

I remember hearing a story on NPR once about how the survival of a language depended on literature, that if a certain tongue didn't produce a substantial corpus of literature it would eventually die out.

Secret Star Trek: Alien Archons

As Star Trek makes its grand re-entry into the forefront of pop culture this year, it's a good time to take a look at the Gnostic themes in the franchise's long history, in particular the astro-Gnostic themes. It seems clear that this meme was hard-wired into the concept from the very beginning, and I'm certainly not the first to say so.

Transformers: The Eternals by Any Other Name...

OK, I finally saw it. In optimal conditions, no pun intended. It was the 10 PM showing on July 4th, so we literally had the theater all to ourselves. Got a parking spot right outside the front door. The environment is usually very important to me when I'm watching a movie - and this was definitely a movie where I wanted to pay close attention - so the absence of NJ knuckleheads was appreciated.

The Present Can Only Be Viewed from the Past

2017 might seem like the hangover after a particularly-nasty meth, glue and Thunderbird bender, but it's actually a year of major anniversaries. 

The Curious Case of John Carter, Warlord of Mars

It's generally a tradition here on The Secret Sun to look at movies long after they've been in the theaters, usually because I like to take the time to analyze them on my computer screen. I also like to be able to post screenshots with captions, since what's being said is often as important as what's being shown. 

Dark City: The Ante/Anti-Matrix

Like the The Matrix a year later, writer/director Alex Proyas’ Dark City offers up his take on Neo-Gnostic savior mythology, but shuns the Wachowskis’ intersectionalist/ queer-theory approach in favor of the fertility symbolism of the ancient Mystery cults.

AstroGnostic: Trapped Here on this Alien World

NOTE: Scroll to bottom of post for important update.

Well, here we are- it's Twilight time again. The Gnostic vampire-superhero phenomenon is about to descend on multiplexes all across the planet, enrapturing tween girls in ways not seen since the glory days of N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys. 

It's Not What You or I Believe, It's What They Believe

I've been rather busy this week trying to stay out of the poorhouse, but I've had two main themes that I've been mulling over, both of which stemmed from my reading.

I felt compelled to re-read the chapter on Jacques Vallee in Jeff Kripal's must-have Authors of the Impossible. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but there was something I had unconsciously remembered from my previous reading (which was a while back now) that I felt needed to be explored. The quote itself? 

Tempest in a Psyop?: The "Roswell Slides" Redux

UFOlogy isn't dead. On the contrary it appears to be stuck in an never-ending adolescence. I don't know exactly why but there's something about the subject that makes middle-aged adults act like 13 year-olds, and the subculture is endlessly locked in the digital equivalent of a schoolyard brawl.

The (Secret) Space Force & the Never-Ending X-Files LARP

Just how weird are these times we are living in? Well, they're so weird that there's a new branch of the military in the works called the "Space Force." Now, I've talked quite a bit about "Starfleet Reality" and the Star Trek timeline but I never thought things would go this far this fast.

And by that I mean I figured all the toys they've been working on out in the Nevada desert would stay in the black until conditions necessitated their unveiling. Goes to show what I know.

Not a lot.

The 2013 Ausurs®: Better Late than Never

Back in 2007 I started blogging about Jack Kirby in the context of synchro/datamysticism, and looking at the almost-unfathomable numinous power his work contained. 

The Ka of Hathor: Hollywood's Royal Kates

Synchromystics will surely know of the Pleaides, the constellation known as the Seven Sisters. Billy Meier's alleged alien friends Semjase and Asket hailed from this constellation, and there's been a lot of speculation concerning the link between the Pleaides and the Stargate.