Vatican Forgives the Beatles

Vatican forgives The Beatles for 'bigger than Jesus' comment

At the height of their fame The Beatles enraged the Roman Catholic Church by famously declaring they were bigger than Jesus. Their enthusiastic pursuit of the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle also did little to convince the Vatican they were anything other than a thoroughly bad influence. But now in a move sanctioned by Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church has offered the Fab Four its official seal of approval, forgiving them their various excesses and even lauding them as a “precious jewel”.

My sly side thinks the Pope will be forgiving a lot of things about now, hoping for quid pro quo... Next up, Marilyn Manson and Aleister Crowley? I think NOW would be a good time to ask for indulgences of any sort. The upside to St. Peter (the gatekeeper) turning out to be a pedophile sodomite is that he sets the entry standard pitifully low. John must be rolling in his grave.

“I’d never join a club that would have me as a member…” --G. Marx

Witch Doctor Who?

I’m still processing my Easter Service experience, which is looking more and more like black voodoo magic! (And I say that with respect to voodoo practitioners - it actually makes the church much cooler IMHO) This is basically what happened:

1. The Congregation, lead by the Pastor, collectively prayed for (conjured up) an alternative reality (peace, justice, the usual).

2. This focused collective will caused an alternate reality to form in another dimension.

3. Then he invokes Christ, (the collective ego) ritually slaying the congregation via a surrogate (voodoo doll).

4. Then we perform Communion, where we ritually eat the body and blood of the lamb - a sin eating ritual - and the bridge from one dimension to another.

5. And finally we get the Benediction, where we are “born again” into the new reality. The Undead of Christ!

God, no wonder the Christians burned all the witches, they wanted a monopoly on the Witch Doctor franchise!

I suppose that would make a church a kind of stargate, or TARDIS. Or flying haunted mansion if you belong to the Church of Rocky Horror. Actually, my favorite is the time warp castle of Count Duckula, the vegetarian vampire. Show us your palms, Green Man.

Does it work? Well... maybe a little, but not so much. Actual trans-dimensional travel requires a bit more voltage than grape juice and a stylish Easter bonnet. However, in theory....

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. --John 14:2

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. --Matthew 6:20-21

The Witch Doctor - David Seville and the Chip Monks

Pixels

Cool video by Patrick Jean exploring the space-time block as an invasion of NYC by oldschool games.

Gondola Theory

Sugarloaf gondola - from James Bond 'Moonraker'.

The “Frozen Popsicle” Universe is resonating with me again. See Watching For Snakes and The Chronoliths for earlier musings. A block of space-time is said to be “frozen” because it does not change. The universe is essentially made up of these frozen space-time ice cubes of varying sizes - some nesting within others - a Crystalline Entity where everything is possible and yet everything is pre-ordained.

While our egos experience reality as a stream of nearly random, happenstance events, what is actually occurring is that our sense of perception is moving from one immutable block to another. Our progression through these space-time blocks resembles the path of a snake, a river or film strip. This nature of reality is often experienced during an LSD trip: the “strobe effect”.

The strobe light was popularized on the club scene during the 1960s when it was used to reproduce and enhance the effects of LSD trips. Ken Kesey used strobe lighting in coordination with the music of the Grateful Dead during his legendary Acid Tests. --wikipedia

My own Varen had a visionary experience when he was but a wee lad about the “shape of the universe”, which was a series, not of cubes, but of diamond-like (dare I say pyramidal?) blocks of space-time that interlock into a matrix of stunning complexity, beauty and infinity.

Taking the next obvious step, I wonder why MY egoic space-time experience ride is not quite as fun as say... Brad Pitt’s? (who’s big break came in “A River Runs Through It”). We seem to be spirits of egoic “being” trapped in our own little cell blocks. Maybe Hercule Poirot’s “little grey cells” are entirely too accurate a description. I’m calling this the “gondola theory” of egoic space-time experience: we inhabit our little gondolas, all strung together by a thread of ego consciousness. I’ve known some people who are on pretty nice gondola rides, but I also know more than a few who have taken the cancer ride, and worse. In fact, there are so many bad rides available in the theme park called Earth that it makes you really just want to get the fuck off the merry go round and go find a better theme park!

Mats Roger Jensen - Norwegian Speed Skater, via Neverland blog

Which is why I’m rather attracted to the concept of the “ice skater” - someone who, metaphorically speaking, is able to skate from one frozen block of space-time to another. Maybe that’s the reason why Santa drives a sleigh? His presents are frozen space-time blocks of pleasant experience for good little boys and girls. The rest of us get coal.

I’m reminded of the TV series “Sliders” who travel from one time block to another. The Winter Olympics are full of “sliding” sports, and it may be that the slalom skier winding through his “gates”, or the tobogganer flying down his “track” are perfect examples of ego running through a pre-destined series of space-time blocks.

Which is all fine and good, unless maybe you wanted to jump tracks? More to come.

Peter Pumpkinhead

Rarely has the Easter story been told as well as The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, by XTC. XTC's original video is full of allusions to JFK and conspiracy, though lately I'm liking the Crash Test Dummies interpretation better, and since it was made for the film Dumb & Dumber, it seems like The Fool is all over this one.

I attended Easter Service at a little Methodist Church in Ballard today. They are the antithesis of the glitzy mega-church, and the pastor has done an amazing job of shepherding his flock through the last 10 years. I call them the "Charlie Brown Church" - small but sincere. It occurs to me that Linus always faithfully waited in the pumpkin patch for the resurrection of the Great Pumpkin.




Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead - Crash Test Dummies

Etc.

I found this tower of 2012 books at Borders last week, I had to take a pic. The Synch Section is growing.

April Fools was pretty great this year. Google’s “Topeka” joke was cute. It’s like “Joe" names himself “God” and “God” names himself “Joe” in return. Funny how that works. From now on, my name is “FUCK!”

The Dominion Wars appear to be heating up:

Governors Receive Threats From Extremist Group 

WASHINGTON — Governors around the country said Friday that they had received letters from an extremist group warning that they might be forcibly removed from office if they did not step down within three days. Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that they had sent out an intelligence note with information about potential threats to governors from a group calling itself the Guardians of the Free Republics.

I found it mildly interesting that this little NYT front page blurb just gave the Guardians of the Free Republics (plural?) about a zillion hits and Gotfre.com servers are still going strong. I have a feeling that by the time the Dominion is done with us, we’ll be SO ready for a pole shift in 2012. Gotfre... Goatse?

I’ve decided to darken the doorway of a church this Easter, it’s been a while. In fact, the last Easter Service I attended was at Trinity United Methodist in Seattle, which I like because this parish is slightly to the left of Marx, and their pastor was the one I went to after going a bit nuts after the ego-death thing. I WAS thinking about going to a Catholic Mass because I’ve never really experienced one, but in the end I decided I wanted to share a communal rebirth with folks I wouldn’t mind spending eternity with. So I’m going back to TUMS. I do think it’s cool how the Methodists are sort of a conjunction of opposites, being half Calvinist and half Arminian. Half justice and half forgiveness.

For me, Easter is mostly about (sin) eating. We always had the sacrificial pig, but the deviled eggs were damn good, and the asparagus, divine. I'm grooving on how phallic asparagus is, and how it comes in "spears". Call me a sword swallower!

I also think it’s cool that this Easter falls on 4410, which is 144 backwards. Sevas Susej!