A Pound of Flesh

911 Weather: We’ve had amazingly (stunningly even) gorgeous weather here in Seattle this week (too bad for the Olympics), and today another plane flew into another building.

From Twilight Language:

In response to the crash, the Department of Homeland Security became involved in the investigation of the crash, stating that it did not appear to be linked to terrorism.

Huh. I guess Mr. Stack doesn’t fit the mass market profile, even though he openly stated his hatred of the government, bankers, capitalism, corporations and organized Western religion on his website, and then literally hijacked an airplane into a symbolic target on a suicide mission, fully intending murder and fomenting radical and revolutionary political change:

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

I mean, what does it take? I guess he should have grown a beard and worn a turban. I imagine the gov knows damn well what this is: for once, an actual act of citizen terrorism, and where there is one Mr. Stack, there are legion.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs reaffirmed what Homeland Security said, and that President Barack Obama was being briefed of the incident.

No doubt. See also: Waking Up the Hard Way

Notes:

“A pound of flesh” is a line from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, which is the tale of an outrageous penalty, or “tax” demanded by a Jewish money lender on a Gentile.

Mr. Stack flew a Piper ("paying the piper") CHEROKEE into the tax collectors. I sh*t you not, I had a dream last night that featured "Cherokee People" by Paul Revere and the Raiders!? WTF?

They took the whole Cherokee Nation
And put us on this reservation
Took away our ways of life
The tomahawk and the bow and knife
They took away our native tongue
And taught their English to our young
And all the beads we made by hand
Are nowadays made in Japan China

Cherokee people, Cherokee tribe So proud to live, so proud to die

They took the whole Indian Nation
And locked us on this reservation
And though I wear a shirt and tie
I’m still a red man deep inside

Cherokee people, Cherokee tribe
So proud to live, so proud to die

But maybe someday when they learn
Cherokee Nation will return
Will return
Will return
Will return
Will return...

President George W. Bush and his Skull and Bones Fraternity were infamous for allegedly stealing the skull of Geronimo for use in their frat boy initiation ceremony. Geronimo was Cherokee.

ADMIRE has lots of red men this week.

Grail Racing - Conclusion

Horizon Job

The 33rd America’s Cup is now history. The first race was last Wednesday in Valencia, which had the Horus resonating BMW Oracle trimaran doing a “horizon job” on Swiss defender Alinghi. On Sunday, Feb 14, (Valentine’s Day) BMWO again crossed the finish line first, winning the best of three series, and bringing the cup to San Francisco, home of the Golden Gate Yacht Club. Coincidentally, the Solar Seminar featured this tidbit about Horus, also on Wednesday:

"Rising sun" of course, is Horus in the ancient Egyptian pantheon of gods. "Horus in the HORIZON“ or more literally "Horus-rising," is symbolic of the transformation between the dimensions of life and death. --Christopher Knowles

I’ve done my best to document the semiotics connected to this event, which have exceeded even my highest expectations. We’ve seen the Italian/Swiss defender, billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli take on symbols of the Catholic church - a defender of the faith - and the status quo. But most startling were the multitude of Horus/Shiva signifiers found in the Challenger, check out the previous Grail Racing entries for the gamut.

According to the elaborate Egyptian myth, Osiris was murdered by his jealous brother, Set (sunset?) who hacked his body up into 14 pieces and threw them in different directions, to be eaten by the crocodiles.

The goddess Isis searched and searched, accompanied by seven scorpions who assisted and protected her. Each time she found new pieces she rejoined them to re-form his body. But Isis could only recover thirteen of the pieces. The fourteenth, his penis, had been swallowed by a crab, so she fashioned one from gold and wax. Then inventing the rites of embalming, and speaking some words of magic, Isis brought her husband back to life.

Magically, Isis then conceived a child with Osiris, and gave birth to Horus, who later became the Sun God. Assured that having the infant would now relieve Isis' grief, Osiris was free to descend to become the King of the Underworld, ruling over the dead and the sleeping.

I consider this to be a well embroidered tale of the “splitting” of archetypes (gods/angels) out of the primordial consciousness. And of their “re-assembly“ into a cohesive whole - the ”Body of Christ“, so to speak. Isis is collecting the archetypes, and finding a place for them in the collective consciousness. She was able to find all but one... the phallus. Fascinating that the ”hard wing“ of BMWO vs. the ”soft sail“ of Alinghi instantly became the ”school boy“ joke at sailing websites. The black trident became a phallic weapon.

Racing was delayed for many days due to the Alinghi team’s insistence on sub 15 knot weather, but even that proved to be no shield against the mighty wing of BMWO, which sailed higher and faster even in conditions designed to favor the defender at every turn. As it turns out, the delay to Feb. 14 was semiotically fortuitous, because 14 is a symbol of completion, the final assembly of the Body of Osiris/Christ.

Feb. 14, as already noted, is the feast day of St. Valentine, the Catholic version of Eros. Eros is the ”Patron Saint“ of homosexuals, and now the Cup resides in San Francisco, the one city on earth that most resonates homosexuality. Star Fleet headquarters, BTW.

It makes me wonder. Is Eros the missing archetype? The Prodigal Son? The phallus of Osiris, and the risen Son/Sun.

Below are some pics of the trident yacht that struck a chord:

Improper Dancing

Gotta say, that Electric Six is an enthusiastic channel of the subconscious. From Gay Bar to Dance Commander, they do have the mojo. Here’s a Youtube fan vid from their Improper Dancing - sung with heart by Dick Valentine.

Watching For Snakes

I’ve always been interested in time travel sci-fi and alternate realities. In most time travel fiction, the paradox of meeting yourself is solved by spontaneous destruction - or something similar. Yet in the latest Star Trek, Spock meets his elder self, and lives to tell. Sorry to go on so much about Star Trek, just be glad I haven’t yet seen Avatar!

I find this idea very intriguing. Is there an “older and wiser” version of my self in an alternate universe? Glad you asked! According to Charles Burke:

Physicists and mystics agree that all of time co-exists simultaneously. The way we experience time, with one moment following another moment after another moment, is (they say) an illusion. In reality, all moments of time are hanging around together, and our consciousness is threading its way through and among those moments of time. 

This concept is consistent with the “frozen time block” experience of Salvia Divinorum and Shamanic ritual that engender an “ego-death” experience. Ego-death is the destruction of the illusion created by our experience of individual (egoic) consciousness, which is threading its way through and among the frozen time blocks - like a snake.

They also say that there are an infinite number of variations of each possible moment. That's what they call "parallel universes" in the science fiction movies. As it turns out, those parallel universes are not actually science fiction after all. They're really there-the physicists say so. We just can't usually see them.

Hmmm. My egoic experience appears to be limited to one time block at a time. Sorta like this Apple Cover Flow™ feature on my iMac - here showing one file at a time in a seamless flow from one to the next, sorta like a movie? (hella snake, btw) Curiously, the apple is associated with the snake and the tree of knowledge. Is this “snake” my own ego, navigating (scheming) itself from one time-block to another, always on the look out for an upgrade? Funny how upgrades always cost you money.

This synchs very strongly with the series of events from the infamous Dreams of Future Past, where the middle dream featured a snake-like movie house usher. Perhaps this “movie house” represents the illusion of egoic perception? The downside is that ego consciousness always ends with death... every movie comes to an end. And maybe that’s what the story of Moses and his brazen serpent was all about:

And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Numbers 21:9

In other words, anyone who saw through the illusion of ego, who “watched for snakes”, was saved.

The Yellow Rose Again

Sync Along With Mitch

The Yellow Rose of Texas, Mitch Miller with his Orchestra and Chorus - 1955.

This march is a Texas standard, probably the one song guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye of every red-blooded Texan. It memorialized the state’s founding myth, which according to this Youtube comment was enabled by a certain incident:

 “Little known fact: The Yellow Rose of Texas was a mullet woman, a high yeller in the raciest language of the day, who, in service to the Texas Republic, volunteered to entertain the lecherous Mexican President Santa Anna as Sam Houston’s troops closed in on San Jacinto. The General was literally caught with his pants down.” --caitlan97

Another “virtuous whore” story! I’ve looked at the archetype of the “virtuous whore” before, mostly through the Mary Magdalene mythos, but also through a very old “founding myth” - the Battle of Jericho.

Little known fact: Rahab of Jericho was a prostitute who, in service to the invading Israelites, hid Joshua and his spies in her brothel, allowing the Israelites to scheme undetected, and finally take down the walls. Jericho was a city on edge with fear of invasion by the Israelites, an army that no city-state could defeat because the LORD had blessed them. Rahab had seen the writing on the wall, and decided to aid the invaders, in exchange for leniency. She made Joshua’s spies promise to save her and her family from the coming slaughter, and the Israelites kept their word: Rahab and her kin were the only survivors of the Battle of Jericho.

Was the town of San Jacinto playing the role of "Jericho", with Sam Houston starring as “Joshua” and the Yellow Rose as "Rahab"? A fun question, especially considering the synchs surrounding Texas, the bible belt, Orion and the red star, oil reserves, deserts, and the “killing of the king” ritual from Dallas - 1963.

Who IS this glorified whore? To answer that, I first need to know who is Joshua, and what is Jericho/Jacinto, or for that matter, Jerusalem, AKA the Promised Land?

The Battle of Jericho is yet ANOTHER mythic version of the epic battle between left and right brains - Ego vs. Id. Jericho represents the citadel or ”tower“ of ego-centric awareness, and Joshua is the commander of the invading forces of Id. ”The Promised Land“ is Jericho (ego) under the banner of Id Consciousness - same city-state, but flying a different flag.

Id can only rule when it has torn down every wall and destroyed every enemy - every illusion that ego sits in the center of the Universe. Thus, Joshua/Jesus (same name actually: Yeshua) are always perceived as war-like invaders from the Id by ego. Jericho isn’t so much destroyed as transformed, a transformation brought about by a shift in consciousness - a change of view from egoic to cosmic.

Now, consider the Yellow Rose: she is a secret servant of the Id, something buried within our own egoic consciousness, like a spy in hostile territory. She collaborates, with Id, hides Him, even makes a DEAL with Him!

Could this ”whore“ be our own holy, horny, sexual nature? The ”thorn“ in our side, the ”scarlet letter“, the subconscious drive that overcomes all walls of propriety and ego-imposed morality codes? Is it not my own sexual NATURE that has defined me, and caused me to be defined? I’m a faggot. A burning bush, and sometimes even a flame thrower. I’m the rainbow flag that flutters in the wicked heart of Jericho. I’m a spy, a secret agent of the Id! I’m a yeller rose - a ”halfbreed“. It almost makes me a citizen of another country, as if I were merely traveling through this land of Nod, east of Eden.

Homosexuality is just one side of this amazing subconscious Being, but I hope, if the myths are true, then it is a side of particular affection. Not because our love is any better than any other, but because of what we have endured, just to express it. Id likes being expressed, which sorta makes us a First Press - Extra Virgin.

You may talk about your Clementine and sing of Rosa Lee, but the Yellow Rose of Texas is the only girl for me!

NOTES:

Yellow, besides being a solar color, is associated with cowardice. The ego, being eternally on the edge of death, is truly a coward. The ”sell-out“ of the Yellow Rose to the Id would almost appear virtuous once the odds of egoic success were actually laid out.

The Cowardly Lion - my favorite Wizard of Oz character - and as gay it gets.

Jacinto is Spanish for hyacinth. Hyacinths are sometimes associated with rebirth. The Hyacinth flower is used in the Haftseen table setting for the Persian New Year celebration Norouz held during the Spring Equinox.

Hyacinth was a beautiful youth loved by both the god Apollo and the West Wind, Zephyr. Apollo and Hyacinth took turns at throwing the discus. Hyacinth ran to catch it to impress Apollo, but was struck by the discus as it fell to the ground, and died.[2] A twist in the tale makes the wind god Zephyrus responsible for the death of Hyacinth.[3] The youth's beauty caused a feud between Zephyrus and Apollo. Jealous that Hyacinth preferred the radiant archery god Apollo, Zephyrus blew Apollo's discus off course, so as to injure and kill Hyacinth. Apollo did not allow Hades to claim Hyacinth. Instead, Apollo made a flower, the hyacinth, from Hyacinth's spilled blood.

The San Jacinto Monument. Look familiar?

Embracing Imperfection

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone!

Those who know me know that I have a serious streak of perfectionism. Not in all things, but in certain things. Like boats or websites - every pixel must be spot on. It tends to eventually drive me crazy, that search for perfection, because this mortal world is designed to never allow it. Even the most perfect boat, program, man or plan... has some kind of flaw. Even the new James T. Kirk, Chris Pine, the personification of Dionysus - has bad skin!

Nothing is ever the way it really should be, nothing ever makes the perfection grade. Which used to give me a bit of anxiety, because God seemed to be all about “perfection”, kinda like the Borg Queen. 7 of 9 was always seeking “perfection” - that sinless, zero point that no actual reality number can ever reach. Because as soon as you’re perfect, you’re dead. Like an Archon - never changing, never evolving.

 I guess it took a Groundhog Day to bring that home. That, and a pizza. The Pizza Olympiad! Here we see the perfect, iconic pizza of the Olympian Gods, and next to it, the 3D reality. Not exactly perfect. But I can’t eat the cardboard box, and when I DO eat the pizza, it’s still pretty damn good. So I’m learning to live in a less than perfect world. Ye immortal/dead gods, let them eat cardboard!