The Sirens of Titan

A sync review of Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan on 222.

Kurt Vonnegut is one of my sci-fi prophets who’s influence on sync is the equal of P. K. Dick and Paul of Tarsus. The personal reason is because of a dream of Varen’s several years ago:

He was visited by a translucent jellyfish creature who first told him to “Be not afraid”, and then went on to disclose some things about his future, and closed with …”but for now, you are still in Dresden”.

“Sill in Dresden”. That line lead to finding Slaughterhouse Five, and after that I wondered if Var wasn’t contacted by a Tralfamadorian. I was reading "Sirens" during the anniversary of the Slaughter of Dresden on 2/19.

Since then I’ve read Cat’s Cradle and now The Sirens of Titan. If you haven’t read it then I highly recommend it, but you won’t understand much of this post unless you have, and it’s all spoilers from here on down, FYI.

The essential plot is a faked Martian invasion of Earth in order to create a new world religion based upon God the Utterly Indifferent. Opportunities for Vonnegut’s singular brand of humor/pathos abound.

The Pope of this new religion is Winston Niles Rumfoord who was a wealthy Newport aristocrat who was “infundibulated” and turned into a wave energy thought form spanning from Sol to Betelgeuse, who had perfect foreknowledge of events. He’s the one who engineered the Martian invasion. The plot is oddly similar to Alan Moore’s The Watchmen, with Dr. Manhattan as the man who can see his entire future and past in perfect detail. That book also featured a faked attack in order to bring about a global shift in human consciousness - or “new religion”.

On Mars, everyone is a mind controlled soldier with an antennae that causes pain whenever you think something not inline with the “message”. Heavily propagandized, in other words. “UNK”, the mind-wiped former earthling and current Martian soldier, gives himself a secret scroll of “what really happened”. In a way, Kurt Vonnegut is one of those scrolls: The KV Version.

I found out about mind control soon after 9/11, and how difficult it was to find people in meat space who would talk about 9/11 in a way that wasn’t spoon-fed from the media. We are all good soldiers. On Mars, there is a class of citizen who are not mind wiped and who do not have pain antennae installed and who control the other soldiers. They control things via a hidden control box in their pants pocket, and they are a secret class, few of the soldiers know who they are, or that they even exist, though they all take various low-level positions in the army.

The one we meet is named Boaz.

Boaz is one of two columns in the Masonic Temple of Solomon. Boaz is the column of the sun, severity and justice, which also resonates Mars. The other column is Yachin: the moon, mercy, and loving kindness. If Mars is Boaz, then Venus is Yachin. It is also true that the Freemasons are often accused of being a secret influence behind the scenes, much as described by Kurt Vonnegut above.

On Mars though, even the “Masons” don’t know who’s behind it all. They don’t know that Rumfoord is running the whole show. The only place from Sol to Betelgeuse on the entire spiral of the Infundibulated Man’s possible existences, where he is materialized permanently, is a moon of the planet Saturn: Titan. Saturn, Cronus, Chronos, the God of Time. Rumfoord is Satan. His great black dog is named Kazak, a palindrome. The palindrome reminds me of Janus: A Roman god who represented time, because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other.

Janus is often depicted looking both forwards and backwards in time. Also, dog = god, a clever Saturnian pun. Remember that pun, we’ll return to it later.

The Tralfamodorians control humanity as a sort of messaging system to others who can read the symbolic language. The meaning of Stonehenge is “Replacement part being rushed with all possible speed”. The Great Wall of China means “Be patient. We haven’t forgotten about you”. The Moscow Kremlin meant “You will be on your way before you know it.”

So in effect, all of human civilization, culture, religion and monuments large enough to be seen from space, are the result of Tralfamodorian meddling, up to and including even Saturn himself and his secret societies like the Masons. And all of this to get a spare part to a marooned Tralfamodorian on Titan. Apparently mythic messages travel considerably faster than the speed of light.

The conceit of the book is that while absolutely every character in the book is intricately manipulated and controlled, sometimes openly but often secretly, Rumfoord’s new religion is based upon the concept that God is completely indifferent to human concerns, and therefor everything that happens is a random accident. This understanding brings about a new “Golden Age”. "Nothing above us, only sky."

Ironically, I happened to watch Mr. Peabody and Sherman last night, which was about a dog wearing a red bow tie who had a time traveling device named The Way Back Machine, which was a red ball made of hexagon tiles. He’s a master of time. By the end of the film, in a scene eerily similar to the Je Suis Charlie” meme in Paris, everyone is chanting “I’m a dog too!”, or in Illuminati palindrome speak: I’m a god, too!” Kazak returns.

Sync back to Sirens of Titan, Rumfoord’s wavelength spanned from Sol to Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse is the red star on the left shoulder of Orion, the Hunter, which forms a prominent bow tie in the heavens.

As luck would have it, Beetlejuice star Michael Keaton is up for an Academy Award tonight, all dressed up like a blue bird/angel.

A Blue Bird of Titan

In Sirens of Titan, Chrono is the product of an arranged rape/marriage by Rumfoord, and if we take all this Satanic shit as far as it will go, that would make him the “Son" of Satan, or the Antichrist, Rosemary's Baby. Chronos joins the “blue birds of Titan”, and wears a costume made of blue feathers.

I just don’t know what to say… except Fuck You Tralfamodorians!

Fly Like an Eagle

Have you tried to fly lately? Buying a ticket from Expedia is insane...

When you click “Buy Now” you get “We’re sorry, but that ticket is no longer available at this price, the fare has increased by $100. However, if you opt for our credit card, you are instantly eligible for a $100 bonus.” Expedia tell you “only 3 tickets left at this price”, and if you go back the next day, the price goes up and “only 1 ticket left at this price”, but if you delete the cookies in your browser, the price goes back down to what it was and still “only 3 tickets left at this price”.

It’s remarkable to me how, these days, big-time corporations act with all the finesse of small-time hoodlums. I mean, I know that capitalism is all about profit, but back in the day a company had to at least PRETEND it was interested in your well being to get your dollar. These days, the pretending is only in the advertising, and if you spend even one minute trying to actually use the product you quickly get the real picture.

It sort of reminds me of the Bush administration when they figured that the war for the “hearts and minds” of the Iraqi people was really a public relations failure, because they just hadn’t figured out the right advertising message, never considering that the depleted uranium shells and cruise missiles landing on weddings might be sending a pretty clear signal. Obama is much the same, though cleverer.

Today I saw an eagle fly directly overhead with a crow clutched in its talons, and a pack of crows in hot and noisy pursuit! In these parts, eagles are pretty cool. They catch their own fish and they don’t steal from other birds. On the other hand, crows are bullies and thieves, and flocks will often be seen tormenting an eagle in the sky. I always wondered why eagles never seemed to give payback, but apparently even eagles have their limits.

It’s funny because even though the US uses an eagle as the national symbol, I have no doubt he’s just a black bird in disguise. That raven, he’s a trickster.

Bird Flu Three

My little flight of fancy has taken me down quite the rabbit hole - from birdlike “gods” to the elite, from ancient ritual sacrifice to Heath Ledger. Now I’m going to try to dig my way out, beginning with the origin and reason for the most ancient human religious rite - the sin offering.

“Sin” is simply egoic separation from the Id. When human consciousness became self-aware it developed the ego, or “self” consciousness. This awakening is also called the Fall, and while a very cool thing, it had the side-effect of virtually unplugging our individual selves from the Id (Cosmic Consciousness, God). This is when left brain, right brain duality appeared, the split between the egoic, analytical side and the Id-like side of emotion, dreams and intuition. We became “two-headed”, and this may have been the genesis of the double-headed eagle as well as the twin deity motif.

As we lost our conscious connection to the Id (cast out of the garden), it began to manifest in our subconscious dreams and visions, and eventually we required shamans/priests or “dream readers” to decipher the symbols. We elected “Daniels” to tell us the meaning of our dreams, because the right brain “has no British”. Soon the dreaming mind was filled with all manner of faeries, goblins, dragons, demons, hawks and eventually... aliens.

The lack of a conscious connection to the “hive mind” created a sense of duality, morality and right/wrong behavior, which lead to a sense of species-wide guilt - the shame of Adam and Eve. As we all know (and maybe especially gay men know this) living with an all-pervading sense of guilt is debilitating and leads to all manner of craziness. See Catholic Church for Exhibit A.

So this concept of a sin offering was created in order to let the ego “off the hook”. The sin offering symbolically places our sins (actions committed while separated from Id consciousness) on an innocent offering (often a lamb). This lamb becomes your ego, which is ritually slaughtered. This “ego-death” creates an emotional catharsis that, at least for a time, allows the conscious ego to “let-go” of its sense of personal identity enough to connect to the Id, bringing a sense of sin (twin headache) relief - you are “born again”.

The offering is then ritually eaten. This is the "Self" eating the "self" - the ecstatic devouring. You are feeding the bird, but... you ARE the bird. You are the dove being eaten, and the hawk eating the dove, the Phoenix, the Ouroborus. What is really going on is an exchange of energy - a conversion of ego guilt into Id power of forgiveness, which just might be the whole reason your entire ego-centered hide came into being. You are a "transformer".

This is a very powerful ritual, and when done on entheogens is no doubt a life-changing experience. Hell, it changed MY life. That is probably what the “mystery” religions were all about, and that’s why Osiris, Dionysus, Mithras and Jesus all tell a very similar story.

As does the life of Heath Ledger.

As others have noted, the movie for which Heath won his Oscar had Batman playing a modern Templar - who sacrificed his reputation for the sake of Harvey Dent - “Two Face”. Batman is an Osiris/Jesus resonator - the Lord of the Underworld. Two Face is “two headed” - perhaps a stand-in for the dualistic nature of our ego/Id experience. Like Spock, Two Face is “us”.

Was The Dark Knight a veiled explanation of Masonic/Templar methodology, and perhaps even an admission and defense? Did the Templars go “underground” in order to hide a truth of which we aren’t yet ready?

“The truth?” You can’t handle the truth!”

Or, are they hiding a truth that could unlock the doors and set the prisoners free?

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." --John 8:31-32

Bird Flu Two

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Bird Flu

With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. --Revelation 18:2

I often visit Half Price Books with the intention of letting serendipity be my guide. I wander through the dusty shelves, following the synchs. I was thumbing through the “B”s in the sci-fi aisle hoping for an Iain Banks “Culture” novel, but instead found this odd little book by Michael Banks and Dean R. Lambe from 1986. The Odysseus Solution - about a Trojan Horse from the stars.

In the normal course of things, the invention of the matter duplicator would not have proved fatal to human civilization... but the duplicators were NOT invented here; rather they were secretly introduced into an unready culture by aliens bent on conquest and colonization. The Plan was to present themselves at the height of the turmoil as Humanity’s saviors, and the plan worked. By the late 21st century, the aliens ruled Earth with an iron claw.

The Cweom-jik were birdlike creatures - large flightless avians.

After that I wander over to Barnes & Noble to see what’s front and center on the meme pusher's docket, and I’m greeted with 'Angelology' by Danielle Trusonni, and a feathered wing on the dust jacket.

The story follows a nun in New York who unwittingly reignites an ancient war between Angelologists, a group who studies angels, and a race of descendants of angels and humans called the Nephilim. The story blends ancient biblical pericopes, the myth of Orpheus, and the fall of rebel angels.

It’s all very Dan Brown-like (and as usual, paints the very rich - in this case the Rockefellers, as the “good guys”). This novel lead to a real world publishing house bidding war, with the aptly named Viking/PENGUIN winning the rights. Film rights were secured by Columbia Pictures, with Andrea Gianetti and DeVon Franklin (executive producers on The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons) overseeing matters.

The plot is familiar enough to anyone who covers the Xtreme Xtian beat: angels/aliens bred their DNA with humans/apes who’s half-breed descendants were called “giants” or Nephilim:

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:4

Coincidentally, Tom Hanks, our 'Da Vinci Decoder' is on the front cover of Time Magazine this week: “Retelling History” or some such. Intrigued, I picked up the magazine only to find a glowing review of 'Angelology', which caused me to then go back and pick up the book.

Another big seller, 'Maximum Ride', is a series for young adults about genetic crossbreeding of human and bird DNA. I attempted to read one of these and I lasted only one chapter. James Patterson is no J. K. Rowling.

It makes me wonder... were the “Gods” a birdlike race? Is that why Horus is depicted with the head of a falcon, the angels with wings, and Quetzalcoatl with feathers? Perhaps the ancients were being more literal than we thought. I dunno, but if a bird waddles out of that flying saucer in 2012, duck hunting season is OPEN!