The Jeremiah Ring Tone

Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. (Jeremiah 6:10-17)

I swear, my ears are ringing. This is the week of the horn. It started with the Forty Years in the Desert post and finding the image of Joshua (playing the Destroyer) bringing down the walls of Jericho. Meanwhile, Thuth re-emerges from hyperspace - blowing a horn, and even Black Dog Star is all over trumpets, horns, and the mighty wind created by the... blowing of noses?!

Last week I was treated to the sight and sound of a majestic flock of Canadian geese flying overhead, honking away, and for some reason I thought of swans... trumpeter swans.

Swans are actually huge and FIERCE beasts that will intentionally scare the shit out of you in your little canoe. I was attacked by an angry swan once, it almost got my paddle. They are also fantastically gorgeous birds, and I suspect every gay boy's favorite bedtime story was The Ugly Duckling. And there's always the divine Miss Swan:

Swans symbolize cleanliness and beauty, hence Miss Swan's beauty salon, and closer to home, the Kirkland White Swan Car Wash. The beauty is physical, but the symbol is often used to imply sanctity, moral purity and righteousness. I think it's hilarious that Oz has black swans?

Anyway, yesterday Var brings home a bottle of SWAN brand hydrogen peroxide to clean the water cooler, and I stood there for a moment staring at the bottle...

The hydrogen "crop circle" glyph is the symbol found on the forehead of Dr. Manhattan, of the Watchmen.

You can pretty much sum up the book of Jeremiah with this tagline:

In Egyptian mythology, Anubis weighs (judges) the hearts of the dead against the weight of a feather. The feather is a symbol of something extremely light, much like the hydrogen atom.

Update 6/4/09: Varen bought a cooking pot online which came today, and he quickly named it "Horatio". (He names inanimate objects all the time, I have no idea why) Which takes me straight to Horatio Hornblower!

Captain Hornblower was played by Welsh dreamboat Ioan Gruffudd in the BBC television series. Ioan deserves a synchronistic post of his own one day.

Notes:

Today is 06.03.09, synching with the poster above. It's also the hottest June 3rd on record here in Kirkland.

Arrow Dude

The Archer shows the way.

A Moment Well Spent

Britain's Prince Harry spends a moment with 4-year-old Madison Murphy at Ground Zero. Madison's mom, Monica Iken, lost her husband, Michael, on Sept. 11, 2001.

Some powerful symbolism in this tenderly contrived photo-op. Prince Harry (carrier of the "sacred bloodline" of Christ) bonds with (marries) an MM, signifying Mary Magdalene - "the Bride of Christ". Her father was Michael - the archangel/protector of Jerusalem and "He who is like God". New York, via the Hudson/Jordan River, is symbolically Jerusalem, so Michael was also symbolically "killed" on 911.

A little tableau that seems "pregnant" with meaning.

Forty Years in the Desert

Gay consciousness is officially forty years old on June 28: the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Forty years is just busting with symbolic possibility:

In the time of Noah, the rain fell for forty days and nights. Afterwards, the rainbow is given as the sign of the covenant. Genesis 7:12

Joseph embalmed his father Israel for 40 days. Genesis 50:3

Moses stayed in the cloud on the mountain top for 40 days and nights, neither eating or drinking. Exodus 34:28

The nation of Israel, after "coming out" of Egypt, wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, surviving on Manna. Numbers 14:34

A prisoner cannot be flogged for more than forty lashes. Deuteronomy 25:3

Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days and forty nights, being tempted by Satan. Mark 1:3

The number forty seems to be related to a time of trial and testing. I'm not sure why, but I note the number four is related to the four seasons, four elements, four points of a compass, the four major points of a clock face, and yea... the four horsemen. Perhaps, at least in part, it signifies a period of time or a complete rotation, the completion of a passage, or an odyssey. Forty is also the year that a man finally leaves all pretense of youth behind.

Gay consciousness has survived in the "wilderness" for forty years, and we've had our share of testing. I remember sitting in with a group of straight progressive Christians (yes, there are still a few) some years ago, and the subject came up about how to manifest meaningful and effective care for your "brother", and someone mentioned the gay community's response to the AIDS crisis as a positive example, and I thought it was kinda nice to be lumped in with the "good example" for once.

Anyway, the next step is over the River Jordan, and I think the coming year might be pretty amazing. Jericho's walls are building higher and higher:

California Supreme Court upholds Proposition 8, confirming the denial of marriage equality to gays. --SF Gate

Pro-Israel lobbyists declared their intention to threaten government and corporate sponsorship of the annual Toronto Pride Festival unless the organisation banned pro-Palestinian marchers from the parade. --Rabble.ca

But the higher they build, the greater they fall. Where DID I put my old trumpet?

The Emergence of Eros

My antennae have been buzzing on the synch that it is female beauty contestants who cast themselves in the role of the defender of heteroxy, Miss California Carrie Prejean being the latest example. But I'll never forget Anita Bryant, the Miss America orange juice queen who became the voice of the emerging Evangelical Right. Perhaps beauty contestants feel threatened by gay love? Kinda leaves them out of the running.

The masculine equivalent of the beauty pageant is a bodybuilding contest, and in the old days we had Mr. America and Mr. Universe, inviting the obvious comparisons. While female pageants are undeniably straight, the male side has always had a strong homosexual sub-current, as much as Joe Weider always tried to sweep it under the carpet. Dare I say it, but perhaps it is that homosexual subconscious-current that draws in the fans and pays the bills? Apparently homoerotic is fine, as long as it avoids the label. In this respect, erotic male love is STILL "the love that dare not say its name".

Eros is his name, and for the last 2000 years Eros has been "our little secret" - something men do behind closed doors but never, ever discuss in public. Until now, when suddenly Eros is on all the talk shows.

Every archetype needs expression, and perhaps the reason that homosexuality finds itself in the cross hairs of religion and politics is that Eros is demanding to be heard? If an archetype is denied conscious expression, then it will seek subconscious expression. What if... the natural desire of a man for another man was cut off, through social and religious control? Perhaps it would seek covert expression - "perverting" other archetypes in order to express itself.

Naturally drawn to venues where men congregate, it would find subliminal expression there. Gyms and locker rooms, monasteries, soldier's barracks, construction crews - all fertile soil for Eros. But still, an existence in the subconscious margins of a straight world isn't exactly Living. So Eros infiltrates and perverts, and all the other archetypes hate on him for it, but maybe... all Eros really wants is a place to call his own. Like a gay bar is a place to call our own, and a gay neighborhood or even a church. But Eros doesn't want to live in a bar or a church, he wants a place in our consciousness. What if Eros has grown weary of all the sneakin' around, and like the prodigal son, he just wants to come home?

I know it sounds crazy, but what if the integration of Eros into the Collective Consciousness is what is going on right now? And maybe the other archetypes like Aries are angry and afraid, because on some level, they understand that Eros is the secret engine behind much of their success, and if he ever fully comes out of the subconscious closet, that might be the end of their careers.

To the scions of politics and religion, Eros is the Destroyer, and he seems to delight in bringing them down. But to us...

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. --Revelation 3:7-8

Dandelions vs. Grass

Any gardener knows the curse of the dandelion - that spawn of hell. The dandelion is quick to reproduce, difficult to uproot, amazingly engineered, and even almost pretty - at least in its youth. It's also becoming somewhat of a mascot for me, an example of a survivor - come Monsanto or high water.

It all started with The Wizard of Oz. The Cowardly Lion steals the show with 'If I Were King of the Forest' - singing "I'm just a DANDY lion!" I played the gay lion in a high school performance, so I guess the writing was on the wall?

The dandelion is actually one of nature's more beneficial plants, every part is edible and even nutritious - even the stalk! Compared to the environmental disaster of the ornamental lawn (which got its start as a bourgeois aping of English manors) the dandelion is quite virtuous. The dandelion is related to spiritual seeking through the cover art for Peace is Every Step, by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. The forward is unfortunately by H. H. the Dalai Lama, who is to Buddhism as the Pope is to Catholicism - in other words, extremely creepy and probably a CIA black-op.

Be that as it may, dandelions resonate lions, survivors, gayness, the spirit and good eating for me... and it reminds me of Jesus' story of the wheat and the tares. Today I came across this image of a god contemplating a dandelion. Will he spread his seed?

Update from essortment:

The word “dandelion” originated in France. The English translated the French word Dent de Lion to dandelion, which means “lion’s tooth.”

The dandelion’s official name is Taraxacum Officinale. This simply means ‘the official remedy for disorders.’ The whole plant is actually edible.

A weed is just a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered says the late Ralph Waldo Emerson. To many people, a dandelion is a pesty weed that spoils the look of their lawns. Now we know that a dandelion isn’t a pest at all. Spread the word.

Hey! That's the Gosporn tagline!