The Birth of Noah

The children in The Midwich Cuckoos novel reminds me of the creepy oft-quoted passage about the birth of Noah (of Ark fame).

From the Book of Enoch or Book of Noah, depending on which source you read (I find it all a bit confusing):

Baby Noah is described as having skin as white as snow and as red as a rose. His hair is white and like wool and his eyes glow like the sun.

His disturbed father Lamech says, “I have begotten a strange son, diverse from and unlike man, and resembling the sons of the God of heaven; and his nature is different and he is not like us and his eyes are as the rays of the sun…And it seems to me that he is not sprung from me but from the angels…”

Lamech ponders whether his wife Bathenosh has been “lying with the angels”.

Some people interpret these angels as being aliens.

Other people are merely perplexed that angels are being perceived by Lamech as beings of flesh and blood with the ability to have intercourse with humans.

And some people think the passage means that the suspicious (but modest) Lamech is just shocked that he has sired a beautiful child.

As with all things, it all depends on how you look at it.

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Village of the Damned

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Village of the Damned

In the recent episode of Doctor Who, the eponymous friendly alien begat a warrior daughter with two hearts just like himself, but who looked like your usual blonde gun-toting earthling heroine.

The concept of the humanoid alien or of genetic hybridisation between humans and aliens seems to hold a deeply rooted fascination (or fear) in the collective psyche or imagination.

The idea of aliens as cuckoos who leave their eggs in human nests is vividly brought to life in the movie(s) Village of the Damned based on the 1957 novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham.

And God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam...

At the start of the Village of the Damned (1960 version), time stands still and everyone in the village loses consciousness like in the fairytale Sleeping Beauty.

Upon awakening, twelve women of child-bearing age eventually discover that they are now carrying a little visitor - all of them are pregnant, including a perplexed virgin.

They all give birth to white haired spooky eyed children who keep to their own elite clique, harbouring a disdain for everybody else. As this reviewer writes, "the Ghastly Progeny turn out to be...straight out of a Nazi eugenicist’s wet dream."

Similar blonde-haired pale-faced children are reproduced at the same time by women in other places on Earth including an indigenous community in Canada and in the Soviet Union.

The Midwich children look human but they grow and learn at an accelerated rate, they read minds, control people’s behaviour, their eyes glow and they appear to be without conscience and to have global domination in their sights.

Dodgy wigs aside, the ‘… of the Damned’ movies are creepy old films.

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Dr Who and the Breath of Life

Doctor Who and the Breath of Life

Continuing the look at creation myths and stories, here's one from last Saturday's episode of Doctor Who entitled The Doctor's Daughter.

"In the Beginning, the Great One breathed life into the universe. And then She looked at what She'd done and She sighed...That Sigh [was called]... the Beginning of Time and was kept as the Source...Whoever holds the Source controls the destiny of this planet."

The Source was mystically known as the Breath of Life. But the Doctor (in a scientific rant) labelled it a Bubble of Gases.

The episode was set on a planet where the inhabitants had "mythologised their entire history" and where a war, which they said had been waging for generations, had only been waging for seven days.

"Your whole history is just Chinese whispers getting more and more distorted as it is passed on," said the Doctor - before releasing the Breath of Life and creating a Whole New World, in his usual breezy manner.

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Lucifer Lost (in Translation)

Lucifer, a Latin name which originally meant 'light bringer' (Lux - light Ferous - carry) became a synonym for the Devil or Satan, apparently through a translation error.

Lucifer makes a rare appearance in the Old Testament in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 14, Verse 12 in the Latin version of the Bible.

In the New Jerusalem Bible, this phrase is now translated as: "How did you come to fall from the heavens, Daystar, son of Dawn?"

So how did the Star come to be known as the Devil, a being that is believed to have existed from the Beginning of Time and who is often equated with the Serpent in the Garden of Eden ?

The Isaiah text refers to the death of a king of Babylon and the Daystar was a metaphor for the downfall of this king. The Christian concept of the Devil did not exist at the time that the Isaiah text was composed.

In the 4th century St Jerome translated the phrase 'Daystar, son of the Dawn' as 'Lucifer' for the Vulgate (the Latin version of the Bible).

The translators for the King James version of the Bible based some of their revisions on St Jerome's Vulgate rather than on the original Hebrew texts.

The Isaiah verse is apparently the seed for the legend about the rebellious angel in Paradise Lost who was cast out of heaven and whose name became synonymous with darkness instead of light.

The expression Daystar or Star of the Morning pops up in the Bible a few times more, for example in the Book of Revelation. On these occasions, the translators have decided that Lucifer is a reference to Jesus Christ rather than the Devil.

To confuse matters further, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11:14, "...even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."

Those who choose to believe that the Bible is the literal infallible word of God and not metaphorical or astrological teachings, must surely concede that even if the Biblical Word of God is literal and infallible, his translators are probably not.

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The Lucifer Connection

Some thoughts on Eve, the Marys and Venus:

The name ‘Lucifer’ means ‘light bringer’ or ‘light bearer’ and was the alternative name of Venus, the Morning Star.




The Morning Star was called the Light Bringer because it heralded the arrival of the sun at dawn, the sun being the ultimate source of Light and Life.

For some reason, the Light Bringer and Knowledge became equated with Evil and “Lucifer” was also the name that has been given to the rebellious fallen angel who defied God in some traditions.



In the previous post, I discussed Edgar Cayce’s interpretation of the Garden of Eden story.

If you interpret his story symbolically rather than literally, it can be viewed as a reference to feminine intuition and wisdom where the Light Bringer shows Eve how to gain access to knowledge and her divine identity.

In Cayce’s version of the story, Eve is a soul who incarnated many times. Cayce believed that her last incarnation was that of Mary, the mother of Jesus.




The figure of Mary, whether it is the Immaculate Conception, (virgin) or the Magdalene (whore), is often linked with that of the goddess Isis, also known as the Black Madonna (mother).





And Isis is sometimes equated with the goddess Venus.

The goddess Venus was believed to be a powerful female creational force, a source of light and love. (Although as with all things, she also had a dark side or negative aspect) However, in this context, Lucifer/Venus, the Light Bringer is a source of enlightenment, universal love and illumination.



Throughout history, Lucifer, women, knowledge and the serpent (the symbol of wisdom) have all, at one time or another, become equated with Evil in the collective unconscious and suppressed in order to be replaced with the darkness and violent mysteries of the patriarchal religions.

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Legends of the Fall - Part Two

Continuing with the look at different stories and myths about the creation of humanity and evil, an interesting version of events is provided by Edgar Cayce a.k.a. the sleeping prophet.

According to Cayce, God, together with a collection of Souls and an assortment of angels collaborated to create the universe.

Fallen Angels

The Souls were given the gift of Free Will which made some of the angels jealous, among them the one that eventually become known as "Lucifer", who allegedly stormed off in a huff to do his own thing.

With the gift of Free Will, some of the Souls began to experiment with matter and energy projecting themselves onto the physical plane and creating many hybrid creatures.

These creatures remain in our collective unconscious as half-memories and are apparently the source of legends about centaurs or mermaids etc.

Some of the Souls descended into matter and became so entranced that they couldn't return to the realm of energy and forgot where they really came from.

Amilius and the Master Plan

One of the unfallen Souls called Amilius (apparently the first Soul that God created) volunteered to descend to the Earth and bring the Fallen Souls back.

God agreed but also devised a plan which involved reincarnation, forgiveness and karma which meant that the Souls had to earn their way back home.

Amilius incarnated on the physical plane as Adam and the twin soul Eve. These were the first humans who were part energy and part matter.

But descending (or falling) into physical matter meant that they too could not remember their true origins.

Forbidden Fruit

However Lucifer was apparently skulking in the wings ready to thwart God’s plan to release the souls from Earth. So he disguised himself as a serpent and told Eve that she could save the fallen souls much faster if she would only eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because then they would be like God.

Adam wanted to play the long game but Eve eventually persuaded him to eat the fruit so that they could take a shortcut and redeem the souls faster.

The rest is as in the Book of Genesis with Adam and Eve getting found out by God and banished.

Many Lives, Many Masters

But then, according to Cayce, Adam (and Eve) continued to incarnate on Earth for many more lifetimes to continue their attempts to bring the Souls back to the realm of energy.

Some of these Adam-personalities are well-known figures from the Bible like Joshua and Enoch. Others are less well-known or completely unknown figures from the past.

The most well-known figure who was an incarnation of the first man Adam (according to Cayce) was that of Jesus Christ, hence titles given to Jesus such as the ‘First Born’, ‘Son of God’ or ‘only begotten Son of the Father’.

And the most well-known figure who was an incarnation of the first woman Eve was Mary as the Mother of Jesus.

An account of Cayce’s theory about the incarnations of Jesus can be found in the book Lives of the Master.

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Blog Soup

It's occurred to me that this blog, although very young, is becoming a bit too eclectic. I feel as though I've been concocting a very confused soup made up of bizarre ingredients.

So I think I may split it into two or three blogs.

This blog will focus on more metaphysical, mythological, astrological topics while still drawing upon themes from literature and cinema.

Then I might create another blog which will focus on modern mysteries, conspiracy theories, alternative media and history etc.

I'll think it over.

I might decide it's a crazy idea and just stick to bunging everything into this blog. It's hard enough trying to keep up with one blog, never mind trying to write two or three. I'll see how it goes.

The Last Enemy

I only just saw the conclusion of the TV drama The Last Enemy yesterday evening.

In a case of art imitating life, The Last Enemy presented a disturbing vision of Britain which is looming close around the corner.

In the drama, ID cards were issued to the general public following a terrorist incident at Victoria station which killed over 200 people.

The ID cards were said to be issued as a means of increasing security and fighting terror but they were really being used to control and suppress the general public.

The ID cards were linked to a database called TIA which had detailed information about an individual's health, finances, biometric data, genes, education, job, underwear, what they had for breakfast etc.

Along with the Big-Brother-gone-mad scenario, there was also assassinated microbiologists, suicide and genetic tagging. It was more like a fly-on-the-wall documentary than a television drama, and so all the more chilling.

Perhaps because the UK media appears to be somewhat gagged by the Government of late, the BBC are resorting to sneaking the real news into their television dramas.

Or maybe the Powers That Be (whoever they might be) are preparing us for our bleak future through the medium of television drama.

In any case, The Last Enemy appears to be us.

As stated in the documentary, Ludicrous Diversion (2006), “they are using our fear for our safety to restrict our liberty. And they are using their false promises of security to erode our privacy...The terrorists cannot take away our freedom or change our way of life. Only our own elected leaders can do that. And they are.”

Related Link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/lastenemy/

Diana Inquest: Faux's Claims

The belated and pointless inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales continued with bodyguard Michael Faux (interesting name) claiming that Paul Burrell had said he had removed a friendship ring from Diana's body and that he could prove it was hers because it had her blood on it.

Faux also claimed that he had seen Burrell burning Buckingham Palace documents.

According to the Burrell's statement in the BBC article, he doesn't actually deny that he had removed the ring. He just denied talking to Mr Faux or anybody else about it and said that he didn't have it in his possession. Somebody's telling porkies anyway.

Related Link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7301023.stm

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Legends of the Fall

The Garden of Eden is one of those stories that can be interpreted on several different levels.

It’s often said that parents never forgive their children for growing up.

The Garden of Eden is often viewed as a metaphor for childhood. Adam and Eve exist in an idyllic paradise. Their parent is an all-powerful, infallible loving being that gives them everything they want.

However there are conditions to the parent’s love. They must keep the one ground rule and not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

In other words, they must never grow up. And they must remain in a state of unquestioning obedience.

Eve is tempted by the Serpent (peer pressure, curiosity, self awareness, hormones) to eat of the fruit of the Forbidden Tree. “…you will be like gods, knowing good from evil.”

The adolescent is eager to become an adult, thinking that they will be all-powerful, all-knowing and that they can do whatever they want.

Once Adam and Eve eat of the fruit, “the eyes of both of them were opened and they discovered they were naked”. In other words, they discover sexuality, free will and rebellion. They discover that their choices can have far-reaching consequences. They also see their parent as the Man Behind the Curtain.

Once they discover the facts of life, they can never return to an innocent idyllic state and are banished from the Garden. The banishment represents the exchange of childhood for the harsh reality and grim responsibilities of everyday life – hard work, childbirth and domestic unbliss.

The “great winged creatures” and the “fiery flashing sword” barring the way back to the Garden of Eden can represent the idea that once you leave childhood, you can never really return.

As you grow older, you look back on the garden of childhood with the forgiving eyes of nostalgia, perhaps believing that it was better than it really was.

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Panspermia

“Panspermia is the hypothesis that "seeds" of life exist already all over the Universe, that life on Earth may have originated through these "seeds"…”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

These seeds refer to organisms such as bacteria and other life forms.

Panspermia comes from the Greek meaning 'mixture of all seeds' (pan meaning all – and Spermia seeds).

Extraterrestrial Interpretation

Panspermia is often confused with exogenesis.

In these theories, human life originated on another planet, such as Mars, and was then transferred to planet Earth either by Nature or by alien intervention.

Metaphysical Interpretation

Panspermia can be interpreted as the seeds of the Divine (the great all), the spark of life from the Universal Creator that is within every living creature on Earth, within our cells which are often called the Building Blocks of Life.

Mythical Interpretation

Then we have the god Pan, who is sometimes depicted with an erect phallus and sometimes associated with the incubus, sowing his wild oats everywhere.

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Readers and Writers

Do books belong to readers or their writers? It's difficult to say.

A good story, film, myth or piece of art can be interpreted in many ways, on many different levels which may or may not be in tune with the author's original intention.

Sometimes authors can get irritated if readers are seeing things in their work which was not part of their own vision. In many cases, a reader's interpretation can be completely at odds with what the author had been trying to say.

Something can resonate deeply and in a different way for the reader because of their own personal experiences and background.

Of course, the author's intention colours the work and is the dominant force in determining and influencing how readers accept their work.

But at some point, I think when any artist gives birth to a work and sends it out into the world, in a sense, the work now exists independently of the author. And how people choose to interpret the work is not a reflection of the author, but more a reflection of the reader.

Saturn's Children

The mythical figure Saturn is also known as the Lord of Karma, Dweller on the Threshold, the “Grim Reaper” and Old Father Time.

In astrology, Saturn corresponds to father or authority figures.

According to the Gnostics, the biblical concept of the patriarchal God or Jehovah came from the image of the tyrannical Saturn.

Saturn and Jupiter

In mythology, the god Saturn became the ruler of the Universe after he castrated his father with a sickle (?!).

Saturn received a prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his sons. So each time his wife Rhea gave birth to a child, he would eat them to avert the threat.

Saturn managed to eat five of his offspring. But Rhea swapped the sixth child, Zeus, for a stone and wrapped the stone in “swaddling clothes”. Saturn ate the stone and Jupiter was spirited to safety.

Saturn was eventually overthrown by his son Jupiter who is known as Zeus in Greek mythology. Zeus started off as a kind of saviour/Jesus type when he overthrew his tyrannical father and ushered in a new order.

Saturn has Lunch

Francisco Goya aptly painted his famous picture of ‘Saturn devouring one of his sons’ directly onto his dining room wall.

In Goya's painting, Saturn has a look of terror in his eyes as he eats his child. He seems to be horrified by what he is doing but compelled to do it anyway.

Saturn Figures in the Bible

The child-eating Saturn myth can be likened to the paranoid babykilling kings that feature in the Bible.

In the Old Testament and the story of baby Moses, the Pharoah was afraid that the Hebrews would one day take over Egypt so ordered that all newborn Hebrew males be drowned in the River Nile.

Similarly in the New Testament, there is the Slaughter of the Innocents when King Herod received the prophecy about the newborn Messiah and ordered that all boys under the age of two be killed.

There is also the idea of fathers sacrificing their sons. Abraham is prepared to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, because God has commanded him to.

In the New Testament, God sacrifices his own son Jesus who cries out during his crucifixion, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

To return to astrology, as Saturn’s children, the physical bodies of the people of the Earth are consumed by Time and then eventually by Death. And on that cheerful note…

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