The Twin Towers

Since the destruction of the twin towers in 2001, I've become interested in the symbolism surrounding twins, and since we're now in Gemini, I may as well blog about it. As a card-carrying queer, I can't help but notice that towers and pillars are essentially phallic monuments. Men are the builders of skyscrapers, and men build them because they represent pride - a subliminal "fuck you" to their rivals. "My tower is bigger than yours" is a classic competition both in and out of the locker room. As usual, it all revolves around dick - and size DOES matter. Symbolically, twin towers = twin cocks.

Speaking of Two Towers, the Landover Baptist Church had this review of the movie:

Christian Moviegoers Beware! The Two Towers is Homo Slang For Erect Hobbit Penises

...The Two Towers are giant structures built to glorify and honor the aroused genitalia of two of the most powerful evil beings in the movie. The imagery is kept discrete only by the merciful fact that both creatures are uncircumcised – otherwise the shape of two enormous, throbbing purple penis heads would have been staring every moviegoer in the face! The citizens of Middle Earth pick which penis they like best and head toward it. The Two Towers are merely there to show what the macabre genitalia of each Dark Lord looks like from great distances. And as anyone who has been in a men's locker room can attest, it is only the dark ones you can see from clear across the room.

So, I'm not the only one who sees it. :-)

Twins are always showing up in ancient myths: Castor and Pollux, Romulus and Remus, The Sumerian twins Enki and Enlil, the twin Polynesian gods Kanaloa and Lono and many more, even Jesus was rumored to have a twin: Thomas (though I have to chuckle at the idea of the three Magi showing up with gifts for the new born Messiah, and poor Thomas, shoved away in a back stable or something).

The bible has more twins than a Doublemint gum commercial. Twin trees in the Garden of Eden, twin cherubs covering the Ark of the Testament, twin columns of Solomon's temple, two beasts and two witnesses in John's Revelation.

Some say that the twin of Jesus is Satan (or Lucifer, as he was called before his fall from heaven), two brothers who were made to war over the earth, which would echo the Sumerian myth, and also bring about a nice symmetry to our experience of good and evil, yin and yang. Most mystery religions have Enki playing the role of the good, rebellious brother, while Jewish and Christian traditions hold the rebel angel to be the wicked one.

Enki is the bringer of wisdom and knowledge (not to mention music, writing, magick, science, alchemy, metallurgy, medicine, agriculture and money), as well as being the "cornerstone" of every great civilization. You won't find many people dissing Enki or his son 'progress', though the book of Enoch says that every advance in science and knowledge is due to the influence of rebellious Watchers (Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods), and seeing how every advance has brought even greater "knowledge" of evil, I don't doubt it.

For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. --1 John 2:16

There were two trees in the Garden of Eden and the one that Eve "ate" of was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or TKGE. It's a very great tree - all civilization and human achievement is built upon it. Think "black monolith" in Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'. It's also the tree associated with the serpent, Lucifer, Satan, Enki.

The other tree in the garden was the Tree of Life, and it gives immortality. The fruit of THAT tree has been sought as diligently as the other. Mankind has long feasted on the occasionally sweet, often bitter fruit of the TKGE, but that other tree, it has eluded us completely.

In the gay fantasy opus 'Transform' (see Brothers In Arms), when guys are "transformed", they grow two huge perfect cocks, that are able to twine around each other like snakes! Uh oh... snakes, trees, the garden. The only explanation offered is that they've become too masculine for just one cock, so they grow another. Hmmm.

Another insight is from the erotic story 'Pollination', by Absman420. When a father and son are "transformed" into their ideal sexual selves, they appear almost like twins - 19 year old muscle studs - the only difference being in the eyes (the windows of the soul). This makes sense to me... the purpose of children is to "clone" the genes of the father into the son. The reason sons aren't perfect copies of the father is because of two factors; the mother's genes and the passage of time. A true 'Son of God', created perfectly and immortal, would indeed appear perfect and identical to the Father - a chip, or fractal, off the old block!

From an interview of homoerotic cartoonist Josman:

A lot of your stories are dealing with sexual father and son relations. Where did this idea come from?

Josman: Well, I'm fascinated and turned on by incest. I realise that some people may be disgusted by that, but I think the fact that it's such a taboo is probably what pushes my buttons. My biggest turn on though, has to be twins - I mean, come on, who wouldn't like to watch a pair of gorgeous twins getting it on with each other and then joining in for a threesome? That's my idea of homo heaven! Alas, I haven't experienced twins, brothers or father/sons yet, but I live in hope...

So do I Jos, so do I.

Interestingly the root word "homo" can also mean "twin", and in some Native American cultures gay men were known as "twin spirits".

The Caduceus, an ancient symbol associated with the Greek god Hermes (AKA Mercury, The Flash, and Johnny Storm of the Fantastic 4). Note the twin serpents coiling around a winged staff. The caduceus is also symbol of my college fraternity, and I can assure you that there were more than a few trouser snakes rubbing and coiling around each other in the house.

So... what to make of all that, or at least, some of that? If God is perfection, and his preferred state of being is erotic ecstasy, than are twins - two beings of perfect, transcendent and incandescent sexual glory - some kind of erotic ideal? Do twin beings embody the "idea" of sex; giving and receiving, dominating and submitting -- pleasure begetting pleasure, ecstasy begetting ecstasy, in the ultimate cosmic feedback loop?

Maybe the Creator twins himself, because the only thing hotter than himself is TWO of him.

Sex is good, sex is fun, sex is best when it's one on one.

ADDED 6/16

Before the Twin Towers in NYC were destroyed, another pair were built in the East - the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Erected in 1998, these towers were briefly the tallest buildings in the world.

From the Wikipedia entry:

These towers, which were designed by Dawid Tadeusz Mauno, a very talented Norwegian architect who received his inspiration under a spiritual journey...

In an unusual move, a different construction company was hired for each of the towers, and they were made to compete against each other. Eventually the builders of Tower 2, Samsung Constructions (the Construction Division of Samsung Corporation), Kukdong Engineering & Construction (both of South Korea), won the race, despite starting a month behind Tower 1, built by Hazama Corporation.

Like Enki and Enlil, these twins were made to 'war' against each other, and like so many mythic archetypes, it was the younger brother who triumphed. The angels can also be thought of as the 'elder brothers' of mankind.