No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger

Mark Twain died a hundred years ago this year, and his final novel, No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger, was left unpublished at his death. My friend Bob from NYC recommended I read it, and since we’ve reached the mid-term of the 44th American president, I thought at least the numbers lined up. It also occurred to me that I was 44 years old when my ego “died”.

It’s an action/fantasy/gothic story set in medieval Austria, though with a time traveling wizard, plenty of 19th century America makes it into the tale as well. Twain was attempting to set out his metaphysical views, and it has plenty of fascinating little synchs, such as his Austrian villain was named Father Adolph, who’s character was based upon Twain’s unfavorable impression of Dr. Karl Lueger, leader of the anti-Jewish Christian Socialist Party and Burgermeister of Vienna.

The book contains Twain’s usual criticisms of organized religion and the futility of a dualistic, adversarial approach to reality.

“This version also introduces an idea Twain was toying with at the end of his life involving a duality of the "self", one being the "Waking Self" and the other being the "Dream Self". Twain explores these ideas through the use of "Duplicates", copies of the print shop workers made by No. 44.” --wikipedia

An odd dream of a few weeks ago pre-conditioned me to accept this idea: I had a vivid impression of being a captive patient in a hospital, and the doctors wanted me to go somewhere to get a needed treatment, but I steadfastly refused to go. I remember thinking of this treatment as being like in prison, and they wanted me to go back, and I did NOT want to go back! So they distracted me and suddenly jammed a hypo in my arm, which almost immediately put me to sleep, and as my subconscious self drifted off, my conscious self became awake.

Twain’s “Duplicates” had a very similar idea of the waking state - it was like prison, to be chained inside a rotting body of flesh, when they could be out exploring the galaxy at the speed of thought! According to Twain, I am indeed me, myself and I. (Thanks to the Happy Creatures for recently pointing out 111 symbolism).

In the end, 44 reveals himself to be a Shiva/Satan/Light Bringer character, who’s main purpose was to show August the deceptive illusions of his culture and his own mind, the teachings of the Catholic Church being the most egregious example. 44 teaches August about the dream nature of reality, that in fact there is no thing at the center of every particle and universe, except a mere thought. As August accepts this, even 44 begins to fade away, a creature of his own imagination.

"In a little while you will be alone in shoreless space, to wander its limitless solitudes without friend or comrade forever--for you will remain a thought, the only existent thought, and by your nature inextinguishable, indestructible. But I, your poor servant, have revealed you to yourself and set you free. Dream other dreams, and better!"

As another illusionary election comes to a close, I ponder the nature of duality and bi-partisan politics. How odd that at first the nation saw Obama as their savior, and now many see him as the devil incarnate. In the book, Twain's No. 44 impersonates a third-rate wizard in order to raise the wizard's standing amongst the locals. The wizard dressed the part and seemed to have a kind of mystical aura around him, though he had no actual magical powers, except when 44 was "playing the wizard".

Our own "44" is fond of playing the wizard, though he must privately wonder when something like the Norway Spiral occurs. Has Obama read Twain's dream novel? Does he know that the wizard is likely to be burned at the stake by an angry mob of villagers tea-partiers?

Row row row your boat
gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.

-------------------------

Notes:

The Mysterious Number: "Mark Twain’s rationale for this arresting number-name is not certainly known, though there are some interesting clues, not the least of them being Twain’s early acquaintance with the two Levin boys in Hannibal. They were the first Jews he had ever seen, and they seemed to him ‘clothed invisibly in the damp and cobwebby mould of antiquity’. The youths of Hannibal JOKINGLY nick-named them ‘Twenty-two’, that is, ‘twice Levin’.”

"For Carl Jung, four or a multiple of four symbolized psychic wholeness. “The number forty-four would intensify this significance. (C. G. Jung, Man and His Symbols). Mark Twain’s work of course antedates Jung’s, however, Jung did not claim to have invented the signification of fourness, but only to have elucidated it as an abiding symbol of the whole personality, the greater Self that includes both the conscious and unconscious mind."

Mark Twain made an appearance in STNG - "Time's Arrow" and I recall that he deliberately left a pocket watch of his in the ground, to be found by people in the future. He also explicitly told us to seek him in his books. I wonder... was Samuel Clemens a time traveling shape shifter?

Very curious that I am experiencing difficulties with a 3D file called Orion 2 right now. Orion is the hunter.

A list of 44 meanings at Star Theory (scroll through conspiracy land to bottom).

Two Meanings

'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
--Jimmy Page

Alex Anderson, creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle passed on last week. The Bullwinkle Show is my all-time favorite cartoon (OK, The Bugs Bunny Show was fine, too), and I didn’t really appreciate it until I grew up. I mean, yes, it was fun as a kid, though I liked the gee wiz of Johnny Quest or Space Ghost better. But it was only after growing up that I understood there was a double meaning to the stories. One story for children, and another for adults, and both the same exact story. Now that’s good story telling!

This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” Matthew 13:13

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. --1 Corinthians 13:11

Most religious text is like the Bullwinkle Show: designed to entertain the masses (children) and enlighten the elect (the adults). You can read the bible or the Upanishads literally (like a child) or you can read them like an adult. And like any adult story, it involves plenty of sexual innuendo and wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.

Thanks to Greg at Superversity for the heads up about Alex Anderson.

Masturtation

I had this idea last week that I could meditate with a hard on. Apparently I’m not the first...

Lakulisha, a prominent guru c. 200 B.C

Sexual energy is focused in the lower chakras - the red and golden lions of the loins. (see what I just did there? Synchromystic mirroring. Snap!) Meanwhile, the “traditional” place of meditation is devoted to the higher chakras - the blue and violet realms of enlightenment and non-duality. Seems to me that the lower chakras are the “engine room” of the Kundalini Express, the power that makes the whole bloody thing work. It’s interesting that the heart chakra lies midway between these two polarities - the green mediator?

Dorothy and her friends conducted a crowning ceremony for the Cowardly Lion in the Emerald City, right before they gained access to see the Wizard. Perhaps that scene represents the Scarecrow (brain) and Tin Man (heart) recognizing the power of the Lion - the “fount” or “source” of Kundalini energy. I’ll let you know how it goes. I suppose the next step is meeting the Wizard.

Image via the website of Dr. Loren Roche.

Give Me Back My Ruby Slippers

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s first official “act” in Oz was a murder - the death of the Wicked Witch of the East. Apparently, this witch “dies” when you enter the subconscious, or dreaming mind.

Dorothy’s next crime is to steal the witch’s ruby slippers. These slippers are the “bone of contention” throughout the film, with the Wicked Witch of the West always persuing Dorothy, desiring their magical power:

Give me back my slippers.
I’m the only one that knows how to use them,
They’re of no use to you!
Give them back to me, Give them back!

Note it’s “give them BACK to me”, implying that she and her sister could be the same old girl. The Witch of the West is the subconscious version of the Witch of the East, exactly like Scarecrow is the subconscious version of Hunk, and the Wizard is the subconscious version of Professor Marvel.

Which means the Witch is the subconscious version of one Miss Elvira Gulch.

The Gulch’s own “half the county” and are deathly afraid of little dogs, which are themselves powerful subconscious resonators. Toto is Dorothy’s subconscious, and Miss Gulch wants to have it “destroyed”. Elvira has the force of the law and propriety on her side, and to me she represents the “Powers That Be” - the self-righteous yet corrupt persons and institutions that we dare not go against because of their mighty power of the law, and the threat of violence.

We can’t go against the law, Dorothy. --Aunty Em

If Miss Gulch represents the Powers That Be, then the Witch of the West represents my subconscious “belief” in them. They are one and the SAME THING. The only difference is that “one is even worse than the other one”. My subconscious, being very much like Toto, is easily trained, mostly through repetitive presentation of symbols and ideas:

 “Capitalism gives us all an equal chance to get rich, Communism wants to enslave us; Christianity and Judaism are good, Islam is scary; Killing for American political interests is heroic, resisting those political interests is terrorism; Sex is mostly vile, gay sex immeasurably more so.”

We all know the general memes and we see how artfully they are placed into our nearly defenseless subconscious by a thousand different methods beginning almost immediately after birth. I have an extremely well trained subconscious, I woefully admit.

So I know who the Witch is, but what are the ruby slippers, and why are they so important to her?

Keep tight inside of them. They’re magic must be very powerful, or she wouldn’t want them so badly. --Glinda

Dorothy doesn’t actually know she wears ruby slippers until she enters Oz. Which means the conscious mind cannot even know they are there. Only the subconscious can see them, much less use them.

“I’m the only one that knows how to use them, They’re of no use to you!”

Considering that the slippers grant Dorothy's every wish, I’ll muse that perhaps the ruby slippers represent my personal power of reality creation. My “God-like production”, if you will. This is the creative power that Jung called the Id, and this power is accessed only through the subconscious, dreaming mind. Hmmm. No wonder the Witch wants them so badly!

I’ve been lead to believe that my personal power of creation is a team effort - that I “co-create” my reality, though "co-destroy" would be more accurate. But what if that’s not exactly true? What if the consensus reality is an illusion? What if we, each and every one of us, wear a pair of ruby slippers?

What if you could control everyone else’s slippers, make them dance to your tune? Even convince them that have no slippers. Why, you could control the world.

The Witch of the East (conscious, military power) and the Witch of the West (subconscious, religious power).

Dorothy eventually overcomes both witches. She recruits her friends from the top of the Chakra on down: the Scarecrow, or brain; the Tin Man, or heart; and the Lion, or will. It’s a team effort, after all.

-----------------------

“Well, my pretty, I can cause accidents, too!”

October 13, 2010, was a big day for the witch. Our latest mediated “accident” are the 33 Chilean miners, all rescued safely, thanks to the prayers of the current wearer of the ruby slippers. Given the heavy handed resurrection symbolism surrounding the event, it makes me wonder. The Catholic church slippers are looking a bit tarnished these days, and this event has certainly helped polish them up a bit.

 Jesus was supposedly 33 when he was crucified, and the miner's mountain began to resemble the Great Pyramid with those slanting shafts burrowing into the "king's chamber".  The Phoenix was a popular symbol of both Egyptian and early Christian resurrection, and the "Phoenix car" reminds me of the Ka of the Pharaohs, escaping the underworld. Add in that October 13 is a Masonic holy day, being the day of dissolution of the Knights Templar, and well... let’s just say my spider sense is tingling.

Defying grim predictions about how they would fare after two months trapped underground, many of the Chilean miners came bounding out of their rescue capsule on Wednesday as pictures of energy and health, able not only to walk, but, in one case, to leap around, hug everyone in sight and lead cheers. -NYT

Uh, yea. And notice they all took a vow of secrecy about their underground ordeal. Now we have the Secret Society of Chilean Miners?

Well, true story or not, the Chilean miners win the Pope some ruby slipper points with his base. But for me... not so fast, Witchy Poo. I may have just become conscious of my own ruby slippers, and I’m not giving them up so easily. I’m not giving them back.

Doctor's Orders

This is not a post.

I was out putting the recycling on the curb this afternoon (synchs with junk DNA) and this odd fellow shuffles by with a green and white striped umbrella and engages me in conversation. He was oddly dressed and his teeth were in shockingly ill repair. Nonetheless, he complimented me on my front yard, nodding his approval especially to an enormous patch of overgrown weeds that embarrass me. I think: “OK, this is interesting”.

He offers me landscaping advice for the yard and I can tell he's more than a half a bubble off. I can’t help thinking that the Penguin has stopped by for a chat. He has no respect for “personal space”, I started to eye his umbrella with suspicion (no rain forecast for today). He was waving it wildly about, and I thought if things went from weird to worse, he’d smack me upside the head quicker than I could duck.

After lots of landscaping advice, he shares that he’d recently had a hernia operation and he didn’t take his medicine. His hernia flared up again and the doctor asked him: “Did you take your medicine?” and he said he didn’t. So he’d learned his lesson, which was to ‘always take your medicine’. Then he left.

I'll continue to take my Meds. Thanks for the reminder.

Taking My Meds

I’ve recently made a commitment to meditate every day. Meditating isn’t “fun” for me, but it does bring certain intangible yet noticeable benefits. One benefit is some clarity about priorities. Gosporn has always wavered between a personal blog and God knows what else, mostly it’s just a record of the evolution of my belief system. The Write In Candidate pretty much sums up where I am right now, and I don’t have anything of substance to add to it.

I’ve realized that it’s time for me to stop blogging and time for my ego to shut the fuck up for once. Time to look inwards. In the immortal words of Sherri Ann Cabot from Best in Show:

“I’m just gonna stay here ’til I get another message from myself”