Aurora Rising (Aurora Consurgens), Part 1

Quæ est ista quæ progreditur quasi aurora consurgens,
pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol,
terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata?

~ Song of Solomon 6:10

Who is she that cometh forth as the dawn rising,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners?

~ Song of Solomon 6:10

Etymology: "cōnsurgēns m, f and n (genitive cōnsurgentis); ... standing or rising up... ambushing".

"Relatives of the Colorado massacre victims laid eyes on suspect James Holmes on Monday and saw a red-haired devil." Source

"'He looks demonic,' said David Sanchez, whose son-in-law was critically wounded in the Aurora ambush. ... The Batman-obsessed gunman, whose curly hair was dyed a shocking red on top, seemed dazed and sleepy during the brief hearing. It’s unclear if his vacant eyes and spaced-out demeanor were a function of medication, mental illness — or just an act." Source

Pictured: "Sarpedon’s body carried by Hypnos and Thanatos (Sleep and Death), while Hermes watches." Source

"The Aurora consurgens is an illuminated manuscript of the 15th century in the Zürich Zentralbibliothek (MS. Rhenoviensis 172). It contains a medieval alchemical treatise, in the past sometimes attributed to Thomas Aquinas, now to a writer called the 'Pseudo-Aquinas'. Unusually for a work of this type, the manuscript contains thirty-eight fine miniatures in watercolour. The illustrations are allegorical representations of alchemical elements depicted in human or animal form. For example, mercury is depicted as a serpent; gold as the Sun and silver as the Moon." Source

Lux lucet in tenebris, et tenebrae non comprehenderunt
~ Aurora Consurgens, Pseudo-Aquinas
("The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend")

"Light shines in the darkness of theater massacre" Source

Century 16:

Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603), "The Faerie Queene" See, for example, Michael Hoffman's Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare

John Dee (13 July 1527–1608 or 1609) "He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy. Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable." Source

Francis Bacon: "Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was one of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology in the period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era." As a "transitional" figure, he is given a sort of liminal character, which is symbolized by the hybrid-conjunction of opposites symbol, the androgyne.

Francis Bacon wrote a work entitled "The New Atlantis" which, some have argued, lays the philosophical foundation for "The American Experiment."

***

Semiramis, Assyrian Queen and wife of King Shamshi-Adad

As one last bit of intriguing Forteana, I note that as I sit writing about "Century 16" and it's symbolic connections to 2012, a British couple allegedly discovered a subterranean "well" under their house.

A Telegraph article notes that "...the well dates back to the 16th century. ... The watercourse was built in the 16th century by Sir Francis Drake to carry water from Dartmoor to Plymouth." And I dare say no Fortean would be surprised to learn that the shaft leading down the well measures "33ft". The opening looks a bit like a wormhole/black hole. In any case, the well is a sort of cavern - a home for many bats, as I understand.

-Matthew Bell

Cf.:

My "The Aurora of the Dark (K)night" & "Fool's Journey", etc.

Michael Hoffman's "Revisionist History Newsletter No. 63", "Predictive Programming", & "Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare"

VISUP's "Sirius Rises"

Loren Coleman's "The Blood Red Movie Massacres", "Red Dawn", The Copycat Effect & Dark Knight Shooting" etc.
###

Miscellaneous Alchemical Symbols in the News

 

 Vénus, Lucifer

"Two-faced cat pics: Venus the chimera cat is not a Photoshop creation" Source

Caveat! It is very important to bear in mind that I am merely saying (to paraphrase William Grimstad) that the presentation of these photographs and words have interest insofar as they are the recreations of hermetic-alchemical symbols. I am not suggesting that the cat "Venus" is the devil or was intentionally named in order to invoke the devil. Similarly, I am not suggesting that Rush Limbaugh ought to be taken seriously, nor that "bath salts" are really somehow to blame in the various face-eating attacks that ushered in the "Summer of the Gun."

"Paul Ryan’s upside-down smile[:] The Republican VP candidate has a way of expressing happiness that kind of looks like sadness. A look at his many frowns." Source

"Batman and politics: The Bane/Bain name game" 

(CBS - July 18, 2012 8:15 AM) Source

"Dangerous drug bath salts surfaces in B.C." Source

"Face-Eating Attack Possibly Prompted by 'Bath Salts,' Authorities Suspect" Source

"Face-Eating Cannibal Attack May Be Latest in String of 'Bath Salts' Incidents" Source

"Latest 'zombie' eating attack: Man under the influence gets naked, bites off chunk of man's arm" Source

 The "Bain-Marie," a double-boiler contraption for working with salt-solutions (among other things): "Bains-marie were originally developed for use in the practice of alchemy..." Source

"Armstrong" (Symbolically-Ostensively Defined)

Top headline for Saturday, August 25, 2012:

"Space legend Neil Armstrong dies"

The word "legend" has just been in the news over the last few days, interestingly connected to both the "Empire State Shooter" and the suicide of Tony Scott. (See, for example, Loren Coleman's post.)

But, let's look at the word "armstrong." In the first place, "Armstrong" is the name of a Scottish clan.

 
"The Armstrongs (sword strong arm) were a powerful Border family who may have descended from Siward Digry, the last Anglo-Danish Earl of Northumberland. Traditionally though the Armstrongs claim descent from Fairbairn, armour bearer to a Scottish king, who rescued his monarch in the midst of battle. The family came to be known as "Armstrong" and received lands in Liddesdale." Source

(The Armstrong clan "seat" is said to be "The Hollows." I have discovered that "The Hollows" also designates a television sci-fi mystery series (with advance apologies to fans because of my minimalist summary) that centers around witches and is premised on the "...the historical investment of Cold War military spending in genetic engineering as opposed to the Space Race...". As William Grimstad once commented, Scotland is very deeply associated with witchcraft. Another US-Scotish-Witchcraft connection is the so-called "Bell Witch.")

The Armstrong clan's motto has been described as follows: "The Armstrong Family Motto appears in several forms, most commonly as Invictus maneo (I remain unvanquished) The complete motto is Vi et armis invictus maneo (Through/by the force of arms I remain unconquered)." This motto might remind one of the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley which, as was reported by Michael Hoffman in his Revisionist History #19 (Summer 2001), was used by Timothy McVeigh as his final statement.

There is a "Scottish Rite" of Freemasonry. And there is a straightforward connection between NASA's Apollo missions and Freemasonry, as Loren Coleman points out. The Scottish Rite has likewise been mentioned recently in association with Tony Scott. (See, e.g., VISUP.)

There is also an "Armstrong Gun." Apparently, it's sort of shaped like a telescope (from "tele-" meaning "distant, far" and "skopeo" or "I look") which is, of course, a tool used (among other things) to make astronomical observations.

"The Armstrong was a large rifled cannon invented by an Englishman, Sir William George Armstrong, in 1854. It's most noticeable feature was the series of graduated coils over a lengthwise tube, causing it to look like a giant collapsible telescope pulled out in overlapping circles. ..." Source

So then we have "Armstrong" in the news during what has been termed "The Summer of the Gun," about which Loren Coleman has written.

Now James Shelby Downard pointed out that Jules Verne anticipated the "rocket trip to the moon" around one hundred years. Since "...Hecate ...[is] the goddess of witchcraft in Greek mythology, but ... hekaton is Greek for 'hundred'," we could say that Jules Verne preceded NASA by a Hecate (we'll have more to say about Hecate elsewhere). In 1865, Jules Verne wrote a story entitled "From the Earth to the Moon." In this story, which includes several references to "Armstrong" and the "Armstrong cannon," gun manufacturers construct a gigantic "Moon Gun" which they use to shoot three astronauts at the Moon.

As a sidebar, and apropos of "The Summer of the Gun" thread, Jules Verne also wrote a story entitled Dr. Ox's Experiment or A Fantasy of Dr Ox in which "A prosperous scientist" - Dr. Ox - conducts a hidden ("occult") "large scale experiment on effect of oxygen on plants, animals and humans. ...causing accelerated growth of plants, excitement and aggressiveness in animals and humans." Fantasy is given as "'illusory appearance,' from O.Fr. fantaisie (14c.) 'vision, imagination,' from L. phantasia, from Gk. phantasia 'appearance, image, perception, imagination,' from phantazesthai 'picture to oneself,' from phantos 'visible,' from phainesthai 'appear,' in late Greek 'to imagine, have visions,' related to phaos, phos 'light,' phainein 'to show, to bring to light' (see phantasm). Sense of 'whimsical notion, illusion' is pre-1400, followed by that of 'imagination,' which is first attested 1530s. Sense of 'day-dream based on desires' is from 1926."

This connection to "light" (phos, photos) is reminiscent of Phanes and the so-called "Orphic Egg" or "Cosmic Egg" which I wrote about in conjunction with Aurora and the Olympic Games (Athena-Nike). Interestingly, that writing also mentions Prometheus - the Pyrphoros ("fire-bringer"). Of course, Ridley and the recently deceased Tony Scott released a movie by that name earlier this year, which movie banner I displayed 5 weeks ago.

"Fantasy" is related, therefore, to the Latin video which can designate "seeing" or "seeming" depending upon whether it is used actively or passively. Of course, a cognate of video is present in the word "television" ("to see distantly" or, perhaps, "to seem distantly") which has been said to have a "hypnotic" or "mesmerizing" effect on people, possibly due to the television operates via "beams of light being fired at the viewer at a high rate". I believe that Marshall McLuhan suggested that moving-light-pictures could have a hypnotic effect, or not, depending on whether the viewer sat passively while the light was beamed at her face (as in television) or whether the light was beamed onto a screen (as in a theater). The American people were shown the Apollo-Artemis ritual via television. But there was an interesting technical difficulty. As David McGowan quotes Reuters: "Because NASA’s equipment was not compatible with TV technology of the day, the original transmissions had to be displayed on a monitor and re-shot by a TV camera for broadcast."

About Jules Verne it has been said that: "...some travelers' stories he wrote for the Musée des familles revealed his true talent: describing delightfully extravagant voyages and adventures with cleverly prepared scientific and geographical details that lent an air of verisimilitude."

Perhaps I can interject bits such as that Noam Chomsky has characterized the "the Pentagon system" as "including the Department of Energy (which produces nuclear weapons) and NASA"; and maybe I should remind readers of things such as that CBS founder William Paley "...served in the psychological warfare branch in the Office of War Information, under General Dwight Eisenhower...[d]uring World War II...". "Richard Salant, president of CBS News at the time, called Apollo 11, '...one of television’s greatest achievements.'" Source Salant is also reputed to have said: "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have."

In any case, Verne is thought of as a "Science-Fiction Prophet": "[Jules Verne] put a man on the Moon in the Victorian Era. ... When Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon in 1969, he credited Jules Verne with inspiring the mission over a century earlier. In From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne not only [prophesied] that man would walk on the lunar surface, he outlined exactly how to do it...from a Florida launch pad to a Pacific Ocean splash down."

NASA writes: "Jules Verne's 1865 science fiction novel 'From the Earth to the Moon' inspired rocketry pioneers like Robert Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolovsky to work out the real mathematics and engineering of space flight. One-hundred-and-four years later, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on the Moon."

"This illustration from one edition of the book shows passengers in Verne's space ship - fired to the Moon from a giant cannon on Earth - enjoying their first taste of weightlessness." (Ibid.)

"A hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a book about a voyage to the Moon. His spaceship, Columbia, took off from Florida and landed in the Pacific Ocean after completing a trip to the Moon. It seems appropriate to us to share with you some of the reflections of the crew as the modern-day Columbia completes its rendezvous with the planet Earth and the same Pacific Ocean tomorrow." ~ Neil Armstrong, [23] July 1969

In Verne's book there were three people shot at the Moon. Encyclopedia Astronautica comments:

"The circumlunar spacecraft would have a crew of three. The names of the crew were Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl (Anders, Borman and Lovell on Apollo 8; Aldrin, Armstrong, Collins on Apollo 11)." (And Verne's story has other parallels to NASA's story. Additionally, last year Buzz Aldrin was in the news regarding a divorce to his third wife of 23 years. Her maiden name is Cannon.)

In general, "The Moon is 'the goddess with three forms': Selene in the sky, Artemis on Earth, and Hecate in the lower world, the world above cloaked in darkness. The Moon’s phases reflect these forms. As the new Moon she is the maiden-goddess Artemis, always new and virginal, reborn and ready for the hunt. As the waxing Moon, increasing in fullness, she is the fertile mother-goddess, pregnant with life. And as she wanes to darkness, she is the wise crone or witch Hecate, knowing the magical arts, with the power to heal or transform." Now Hecate/Hekate is sometimes called the "Triple-Goddess" (Trivia) and she is both a Moon-goddess and a witch-queen: "(Greek mythology) The goddess of the night and crossroads, usually associated with witchcraft and sorcery, as well as ghosts and childbirth. Said to reside in Hades."

The Online Etymology Dictionary associates Hecate and Artemis and gives one of the meanings of "Hecate" as: "hekatos 'far-shooting.'"

In Book XI of Virgil's Aeneid we read about King Metabus, the father of the Warrior-Princess, Camilla. In summary: "Driven from his throne, Metabus and his infant daughter Camilla were chased into the wilderness by armed Volsci. When the river Amasenus blocked his path, he bound her to a spear and promised Diana that Camilla would be her servant if she would safely transported to the opposite bank. He then safely threw her to the other side, and swam across to retrieve her." 

In John Dryden's translation: "A knotty lance of well-boil'd oak he bore | The middle part with cork he cover'd o'er | He clos'd the child within the hollow space | With twigs of bending osier bound the case | Then pois'd the spear, heavy with human weight | And thus invok'd my favor for the freight |'Accept, great goddess of the woods,' he said | 'Sent by her sire, this dedicated maid! | Thro' air she flies a suppliant to thy shrine |And the first weapons that she knows, are thine.' | He said; and with full force the spear he threw | Above the sounding waves Camilla flew. | Then, press'd by foes, he stemm'd the stormy tide | And gain'd, by stress of arms, the farther side."

We see a girl, dedicated to the Moon-Goddes Diana (Artemis) being enclosed "with the hollow space," tied to a spear, and thrown across a flooded, raging river "by stress of arms" or, as we might put it alternatively, by strength of arm - by Armstrong!

(Humorously: "The Moon Pie became a traditional 'throw' (an item thrown from a parade float into the crowd) of Mardi Gras "krewes" (parade participants) in Mobile, Alabama during 1956, ... followed by other communities along the Mississippi Gulf Coast." Source)

Jules Verne's Moon Gun is called the "Columbiad." Michael Hoffman has written that: "The occult name for America is Columbia." Columbia is related to "Columbine" which Hoffman gives as: "...the cutting of America" (Loc. cit.). Of course the "Dark Knight of Aurora" or "Batman Shooter" has parallels with the Columbine Massacre. And both shootings have occult associations with the "Fool" Tarot card (or so I have speculated). Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" was adapted into a comedy in the UK in 1967. It was variously titled "Jules Verne's Rocket Trip to the Moon," "Blast Off!" and "Those Fantastic Flying Fools."

Artemis, sometimes identified with Hecate (as stated), as well as Luna, Diana, Selene, et. al., was a "Greek goddess of the moon, wild animals, hunting, childbirth, etc.; sister of Apollo; her name is of unknown origin."

However Robert Graves, in The Greek Myths, acknowledges that "The meaning of Artemis is doubtful" but he opines that: "...it may be 'strong-limbed', from artemes; or 'she who cuts up', since the Spartans called her Artamis, from artao' or 'the lofty convener', from airo and themis; or the 'therais' syllable may mean 'water', because the moon was regarded as the source of all water."

"Strong-limbed" is arguably very close to something like Armstrong. And "she who cuts up" would link Artemis to Columbine ("America-cutter").

Graves also associates Artemis with the sacred-king and says that "...'Artemis' [is] one more title of the Triple Moon-goddess; and had a right therefore to feed her hinds on trefoil, a symbol of trinity. Her silver bow stood for the new moon. Yet the Olympian Artemis was more than a Maiden. Elsewhere, at Ephesus, for instance, she was worshipped in her second person, as Nymph, an orgiastic Aphrodite with a male consort ..." This "orgiastic" aspect relates to the sexually-charged "Dog Days" of Summer ritualism, as VISUP mentions. (See also here.)

In any case, Arthur Waite associates the Moon with "...Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error. Reversed: Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error." Waite's judgment, here, may have partially to do with the fact that the mythological Gorgons who were "representatives of the Triple-goddess, [and wore] prophylactic masks with scowl, glaring eyes, and protruding tongue between bared teeth [in order] to frighten strangers from [the Moon goddess's] Mysteries." (Graves, op. cit.) Graves adds: "The Gorgons’ names—Stheino (‘strong’), Euryale (‘wide roaming’), and Medusa (‘cunning one’)—are titles of the Moon-goddess; the Orphics called the moon’s face ‘the Gorgon’s head’." (Ibid. "Alcmene (‘strong in wrath’) is another Moon-title.")

The Moon is also linked to water, and we're emerging from a drought (in Alchemy, there are two methods for creating the Philosopher's Stone, the Wet-Method and the Dry-Method. See here.) Graves: "Haliartus, where he had a hero-shrine, was apparently sacred to the ‘White Goddess of Bread’, namely Demeter, for Halia, ‘of the sea’, was a title of the Moon as Leucothea, ‘the White Goddess’ (Diodorus Siculus), and artos means ‘bread’."

And Waite connects this water to the deep-psyche with its animal impulses, perhaps like those exacerbated by Dr. Ox or The Summer of the Gun: The Moon "...illuminates our animal nature, types of which are represented below—the dog, the wolf and that which comes up out of the deeps, the nameless and hideous tendency which is lower than the savage beast. It strives to attain manifestation, symbolized by crawling from the abyss of water to the land, but as a rule it sinks back whence it came."

These sorts of symbol-patterns are always confusing.

"Confuse" (def.) "...as Latin confusus was the pp. of confundere 'to pour together, mix, mingle; to join together;' hence, figuratively, 'to throw into disorder; to trouble, disturb, upset.' ..."

 Such a pattern is as rare as a blue moon.

Tony Scott, etc. [Updated - Bottom Up]

"I function off fear and the most scary thing I do is shooting movies." 

~ Director Tony Scott

"To manipulate the fears of others, you must first learn to master your own..."

~ Henri Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul, Batman Begins

"He ...symbolized Hollywood..." 

~ Producer Paula Wagner, Speaking of Tony Scott

"...as a man I'm flesh and blood I can be ignored I can be destroyed but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting..."

Bruce Wayne/Batman, Batman Begins

Loren Coleman has posted a piece suggesting connections between Tony Scott and the alchemical rite known as the "Killing of the Divine King." Preliminary question: If Tony Scott is a (self-)sacrificed Dog-Days of Summer King, who is his tanist?

"...the king died as soon as the power of the sun, with which he was identified, began to decline in the summer; and another young man, his twin, or supposed twin – a convenient ancient Irish term is ‘tanist’ – then became the Queen’s lover, to be duly sacrificed at midwinter and, as a reward, reincarnated in an oracular serpent" (Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, p. 14).

(Source)

(Source)

Coleman has already begun probing into the question of the "Queen." This talk is reminiscent of Jacqueline "Jackie" Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. "Jackie Kennedy is most often remembered as a beautiful and elegant First Lady with great taste in fashion, the Guinevere in the fable of an American Camelot." Of course, there have been no shortage of comparisons between "Jackie O" and "Michelle O."

As Recluse has mentioned on VISUP, this rite was initially exposited by James Frazer. Subsequently, James Shelby Downard observed numerous "symbol patterns" surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy that fit the alchemical model. Downard communicated these views to Michael A. Hoffman II  and William Grimstad, both in numerous private conversations, and also in the "Sirius Rising" audio recordings of the mid-1970s. Coleman notes that Downard (and Hoffman as well) also published relevant written pieces in Adam Parfrey's Apocalypse Culture anthologies (and in a similar book by Jim Keith). Hoffman has also privately published his own important expansion (viz. Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare) of a sort of broadly Downardian perspective on other high-profile killings besides the JFK assassination, including the Una-Bom.

In any case, Grimstad might have noted features like the embedded "23s": "Officials said that Scott climbed a fence on the south side of the bridge's apex and leapt off "without hesitation" around 12:30 p.m., according to the Breeze" and "Several people called 911 around 12:35 p.m. to report that someone had jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor, according to Los Angeles police Lt. Tim Nordquist" (cf. The Rebirth of Pan, ch. 6, passim.)  This same number crops up again in Scott's "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)". (There was talk of a "24"-movie, but I guess that would have been one too many anyway.)

And Downard, Hoffman, and Grimstad might take notice of the that the Los Angeles Coroner's name was initially misrepresented as "Joe Bell" instead of "Joe Bale" (later corrected): "Los Angeles County Coroner Lt. Joe Bell told TheWrap that investigators had identified the deceased, Anthony David Scott of Beverly Hills, as the director and producer"(cf. Ibid., p. 185). (Note: As of Aug. 22, 2012, even the linked cache of the relevant Chicago Tribune article now reflects the corrected spelling of "Joe Bale." My screen capture - above - dates from Aug., 19, 2012.)

Downard wrote: "Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, just like Alexander Graham Bell, and his favorite teacher in medical school was said to be Dr. Joseph Bell, after whom he is alleged to have patterned Sherlock Holmes. So the names Watson, Holmes, and Bell of telephone association are also associated with Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories" (Carnivals of Life and Death, Independent History and Research Edition, pp. 9-10 (excluding the introductory material) & The Carnivals of Life and Death, Feral House Edition, p. 18).

Coleman lists the movie "Killing Lincoln (2013)" as part of Tony Scott's filmography - and the predicted release date possibly "could be assumed to be 'characteristic' of, or symbolically identical with 23" (The Rebirth of Pan, p. 170). Of course, the killing of JFK has already been mentioned. And the parallels between the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy are legendary. Downard and Hoffman are also known for the monograph "King-Kill-33."

Michael Hoffman has also noted that President Barack Obama's inaugural ceremonies were associated with some weirdness. In the first place, specifically, Hoffman noted that Obama was sworn into office twice. It seemed that Chief Justice Roberts and Obama couldn't quite get the wording of the Presidential oath correct during the initial, public ceremony. Concerning the second rite, Hoffman wrote: "This second-time-around doppelganger oath was the real oath, since the flawed first one, done in the sight of millions and upon the Bible of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln was [in the words of the New York Times article quoted by Hoffman] a 'challenge (to) the legitimacy of his presidency...'" ("THE STRANGE CASE OF BARACK OBAMA'S INAUGURAL OATH OF OFFICE: A Cryptogram from the Cryptocracy?" The Hoffman Wire, Email, Jan. 23, 2009).

Hoffman goes on to note that, during his campaign, Obama himself had been compared to JFK. Hoffman connects some of these dots as follows: "There was no Bible the second time and with Obama having been compared to John F. Kennedy during the campaign, and with all of the macabre parallels between Kennedy and Lincoln ..., I'm not sure that if I were Barack Obama I would have wanted to step into the middle of such a highly charged symbol palimpsest -- unless of course the first inaugural oath-taking was little more more than shadow-play" (Ibid.).

"[T]he second oath was performed in secret: '...the two men [Roberts and Obama] convened in the White House Map Room at 7:35 p.m. for a brief proceeding that was not announced until it was completed...' ... The mysterious man in the portrait who silently presides over the authentic inauguration of Barack Obama as Commander and Chief, is Benjamin Latrobe, the great architect of the U.S. Capitol." (Ibid.)

(The Matrix's Masonic-Hermetic-Gnostic "GAOTU.")

Of course, 2012 is an election year. The election day is set for November 6, 2012. And the winner is slated to be sworn in on January 21, 2013.

2012 is also something of a "panic" year. The word "pan-ic" derives from the ancient Arcadian satyr-deity (half-goat/half-man) Pan (Greek for "All") a cloven "herder of sheep" (or "Sheeple") whose music (via his "pan-pipes") struck terror (i.e., panic) in people "in lonely spots" (like, perhaps, you and me...often in isolated houses, talking to each other only distantly and via electronic mediation?). Aleister Crowley specifically associated Pan with Baphomet, Capricorn, and the Devil.

In any case, the source of the panic - whatever such there be - is the so-called Mayan "Long Count" calendar which, to some commentators, signals something of interest on December 21, 2012. This date could be interesting, according to some, because on that date the world will end; but others disagree. It seems interesting to me mainly because it occurs one month prior to the next Presidential Inauguration Day.

Now Hoffman (and a few other contrarians as well) is on record criticizing the Y2K panic as it was occurring. And he noted, both at the time and subsequently, that as the Y2K panic sort of burned people out and left them psychically drained. And Hoffman has suggested that this drained state left people mentally ill-equipped to critically process the goings on of September 11, 2001 - 9/11.

Hence, it seems prudent to be especially on guard whenever the Cryptocracy trumpets a panic-inducing scenario such as alleged Mayan prognostications of "Apocalypse."

2013 has the makings of being an inauspicious year in any case. For it will mark the 100th birthday (reckoned from from relevant Glass-Owen Bill, and not the prefatory Jekyll Island shenanigans) of The Federal Reserve (which, it has been said, is neither "federal" nor a "reserve"). After the other 23s that we have reviewed, it probably will come as no surprise that the "Fed" was created on December 23, 1913.

Hence, we have a 2012 election year, featuring the reelection campaign of an incumbent President who has been publicly, symbolically linked with two former Presidents - Lincoln and Kennedy - who were both assassinated, Lincoln during the first year of his second term in office. And the next President of the United States, possibly Obama's second term, will be sworn in on Jan. 21, 2013, arguably during what we could term "midwinter" (in Graves' sense) and in something like an anticlimax to what may well be the media's climactic Dec. 21, 2012 Mayan "Doom's Day." Furthermore, the "birthday" of the Fed will roughly occur on Dec. 23, 2013, one year after the symbolically significant Mayan date.  

Lincoln had been sworn in the second time by the fairly newly appointed Chief Justice, Lincoln's former Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase. "The first U.S. federal currency, the greenback demand note, was printed in 1861-1862, during Chase's tenure as Secretary of the Treasury. These greenbacks formed the basis for today's paper currency" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_P._Chase). Both Chase and Lincoln helped tip the balance of power, considered as a tug of war between State and Federal, in the Federal direction.

Grimstad, with his recognition of the strangeness surrounding the /fay/ phoneme (in "fe," "fey," "fay," and cognates), would appreciate that Chase "collaborated with John Purdue, the founder of Lafayette Bank and Purdue University. Eventually, JP Morgan Chase & Co. would purchase Purdue National Corporation of Lafayette, Indiana in 1984" (Ibid.). Furthermore, "The Chase National Bank, a predecessor of Chase Manhattan Bank which is now JPMorgan Chase, was named in his [Salmon P. Chase's] honor, though he had no financial affiliation with it" (Ibid.).

As pictured above, Salmon P. Chase's face is also featured on the obverse of the $10,000 bill. Downard wrote about Alexander Graham Bell allegedly handling "a so-called Million Dollar or Multi-Million Dollar Gold Certificate." (Carnivals of Life and Death, IHR Ed., p. 15). Downard further remarks that "Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) obtained a Copyright on a book in 1892 that is called the 1,000,00[0?] Pound Bank Note and the book tells of how the sight of the Bank Note as well as the reputation that the holder had..., influenced people" (Ibid.).

Interestingly, Downard added: "Alexander Graham Bell had one or more 'look-alikes'. His 'son' looked enough like him to have been his twin and his cousin Chichester A. [B]ell is said to have [been] made up at times to look remarkabl[y] like Alexander Graham Bell" (Ibid., p. 10).

The Chicago-Tribune described Tony Scott as: "...cigar-chomping guy with tow-headed twins, a beautiful wife, a brother who was mentor, partner and friend - leaving that all behind on a bridge - that caught people short."

Graves connects the murder of Twins to the deaths of "the sacred king and his tanist" and notes that "Their punishment in Tartarus...seems to be deduced [sic.] from an ancient calendar symbol showing the twin's heads turned back to back, on either side of a column, as they sit on the Chair of Forgetfulness. The column, on which the Death-in-Life-Goddess perches, marks the height of summer when the sacred king's reign ends and the tanist's begins. In Italy, this same symbol becamse two-headed Janus; but the Italian New Year was in January, not at the heliacal rising of two-headed Sirius..." (The Greek Myths, p. 138).

Adduced "from an ancient calendar", you say? Well, that sounds a bit Mayan. And the "Italian New Year is in January"? Wow, so is Presidential Inauguration Day.

(http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-tonyscott-reflectionbre87k0xe-20120821,0,5110623.story)

"A spacetime singularity is a breakdown in the geometrical structure of space and time. ... Because it is the fundamental geometry that is breaking down, spacetime singularities are often viewed as an end, or 'edge,' of spacetime itself. ... Our current theory of spacetime, general relativity, not only allows for singularities, but tells us that they are unavoidable in some real-life circumstances....Black holes are regions of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. A typical black hole is the result of the gravitational force becoming so strong that one would have to travel faster than light to escape its pull. Such black holes contain a spacetime singularity at their center; thus we cannot fully understand a black hole without also understanding the nature of singularities. ... Singularities are often conceived of metaphorically as akin to a tear in the fabric of spacetime" (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-singularities/).

"Scientists closing in on black hole at center of Milky Way...Though scientists have suspected for a while that a giant black hole lurks at the center of our galaxy, they still can't say for sure it's the explanation for the strange behavior observed there. Now researchers are closer than ever to being able to image this region and probe the physics at work – potentially shedding light on the great conflict between the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics. At the heart of the Milky Way, astronomers see some wacky things. For example, about a dozen stars seem to be orbiting some invisible object" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46968468/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/scientists-closing-black-hole-center-milky-way/).

Some of the "Mayan Apocalypse" notions apparently springs from this: "Part of the 2012 mystique stems from the stars. On the winter solstice in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. This means that 'whatever energy typically streams to Earth from the center of the Milky Way will indeed be disrupted on 12/21/12 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time,' [Journalist Lawrence] Joseph writes" (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-03-27-maya-2012_n.htm).

"'There was a life force pulsating through his movies, and suddenly he's ripped away - how could that be?' asked producer Paula Wagner, who was Tom Cruise's agent during both 'Top Gun' and 'Days of Thunder.' She told TheWrap: 'He so symbolized Hollywood with his passion and energy. He was someone who always seemed on top of things, always positive, so vital'," (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-tonyscott-reflectionbre87k0xe-20120821,0,5110623.story).

As far as I can tell, "Scott Free Films"/"Productions" operates out of: 634 N LA Peer Drive, West Hollywood, CA 90069-5602. There's a "Lapeer, MI" that was recently in the news: "Powerball winner bought ticket at Sunoco in Lapeer". As to the name "Lapeer": "How did Lapeer get its name? Folklore claims Lapeer was derived from the naming of the south branch of the Flint River, which flows northwestward over quite a long distance of rocky bed in Lapeer County. French and Indian traders frequently passed over this section of the county and through the river, ultimately naming our city for the stone that lay at the river bottom. The translation of stone in French is Le Pierre; the English translation of the Canadian French accent of this word is Lapeer. The river was named Flint, synonymous with stone. It is also believed that our first settlers who came from New York State may have brought the name Lapeer from a similarly named city in their home state. A third supposition is that French missionaries named the city Le Pere, meaning The Father."

"But 'scot-free,' as it turns out, has absolutely nothing to do with Scotland or the Scottish people. The "scot" in question comes from the Old English word "sceot," meaning a tax or penalty. As long as there have been taxes there have been tax evaders, and anyone who managed to avoid the tax collector got away "scot-free." Gradually the term came to mean one who escapes any rightly deserved payment or punishment. Speaking of words that sound as if they must have something to do with Scotland but don't, "scotch," meaning "to abruptly deflate or disprove" a rumor or theory, is another. This "scotch" comes from the Old French word "escocher," meaning "to cut." In this case it meant to "cut out" or destroy a rumor." (http://www.word-detective.com/122099.html#scotfree)

Thus, Tony Scott's family "scotched" the brain-cancer rumors.

"Jim Brandon": "Certain European Masonic rituals employ a 'Vault of Reflection' in which the aspirant meditates upon mortality and other solemn topics. The motto V.I.T.R.I.O.L. often displayed in these chambers is another hand-me-down from alchemy. It is an acronym symbolizing the phrase from the famous Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus: [']Visitais interiora terrae rectificando invenies Occultum lapidem veram medicinam['] The translation is 'Visit the interior of the earth by following the right road and find the hidden stone, true medicine'," (The Rebirth of Pan, p. 230).

Aleister Crowley: "In this card, therefore, is foreshadowed the final stage of the Great Work. Behind the figure, its edges tinged with the rainbow, which has now arisen from the twin rainbows forming the cape of the figure, is a glory bearing an inscription, ['] VISITA INTERIORA TERRAE RECTIFICANDO INVENIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM.['] 'Visit the interior parts of the earth: by rectification thou shalt find the hidden stone' Its initials make the word V.I.T.R.I.O.L., the Universal Solvent, to be discussed later. ... This 'hidden stone' is also called the Universal Medicine. It is sometimes described as a stone, sometimes as a powder, sometimes as a tincture. It divides again into two forms, the gold and the silver, the red and the white; but its essence is always the same, and its nature is not to be understood except by experience. It is because the alchemists were dealing with substances on the borderland of “matter” that they are so difficult to understand. The subject-matter of chemistry and physics in modern times is what they would have called the study of dead things; for the real difference between living things and dead is, in the first instance, their behaviour. ... The counsel to 'visit the interior of the earth' is a recapitulation (on a higher plane) of the first formula of the Work which has been the so constant theme of these essays. The important word in the injunction is the central word RECTIFICANDO; it implies the right leading of the new living substance in the path of the True Will. The stone of the Philosophers, the Universal Medicine, is to be a talisman of use in any event, a completely elastic and completely rigid vehicle of the True Will of the alchemists. It is to fertilize and bring to manifested Life the Orphic Egg" (The Book of Thoth, pp. 103-104).

"What does it all mean?" 

~ William Grimstad

I don't know! Relatedly, how will the Federal Reserve celebrate it's "official" birthday in 2(01)3? I don't know that either, I'm afraid. But I am pretty sure that I don't want any part of it.

[Update 22 Aug 2012]

In an article provocatively titled "Texas judge warns of possible 'civil war' if President Obama is re-elected", Yahoo! News reports: "What is it about election years? As if the negative political ads aren't enough, now a county judge in Lubbock, Texas, predicts possible 'civil war' if President Obama is re-elected."

The Yahoo! article quotes from a piece from Lubbock's Fox 34 News that quotes Lubbock County Judge Tom Head as giving one of the possible "contingencies, one that he particularly fears... if President Obama is reelected" in the following words: "I'm thinking the worst. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. And we're not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations, we're talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy."

I think that this shows (if there was any doubt) that the "psychic pressure" (so to speak) in this country is quite intense - and palpable. It's as if things are being pulled apart at the seams, and at the same time presented as being as "American as apple pie...".

[Update: 13 September 2012]

Today, the National Geographic Channel — which is also partially owned by News Corp, the parent of Fox News — announced that the two [Tom Hanks and Bill O’Reilly] will team up to turn O’Reilly’s book, Killing Lincoln, in to a two-hour television event. Hanks will host and narrate the movie, which will feature CGI-enhanced historical reenactments (Billy Campbell will portray Lincoln) interspliced with rare historical documents. 'Only Hanks can add that unique poise, intrigue and dynamism that are his trademark to a film about one of the most significant, life-changing events in America’s young history,' Ridley Scott, whose Free Scott Production will executive produce, said in a statement. 'His mastery always shines through and we can’t wait for viewers to be engrossed in this story.' The film is set to air in early 2013." (Source)

 "hank (n.) late 13c., probably from a Scandinavian source, e.g. O.N. honk, hank "clasp, hank," related to hang (v.)."

[Update: 27 September 2012]

Mitt Romney publicizes the "A-word": "(CBS News) Mitt Romney told CBS News Wednesday that despite calls from conservatives to be more aggressive, he is not going to engage in a campaign of 'character assassination' - despite the Obama campaign's willingness to do so. 'This is a campaign, not about character assassination, even though that's what I think has come from the Obama camp by and large,' Romney told CBS News' Jan Crawford before a rally in Toledo, Ohio. Crawford asked Romney if he was saying the Obama campaign was engaged in character assassination. 'Oh yeah, sure, they try and completely misrepresent my point of view, along with why I'm in this race,' he said. 'But I think fundamentally the American people are interested in who can make their life better. Who can make people get better jobs and better incomes. And I can. He's proven that he does not have the capability to do that.'" (Source)

[Update: 8 October 2012]

Maybe this is a bit of "Trainspotting."

"In the Oct. 3 debate, Obama praised President Abraham Lincoln’s support of the transcontinental railroad as an example of one of those “things we do better together,” reminding us that the Republican Party was once a great champion of railroad subsidies. The Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864, signed into law by Lincoln, provided land grants and government bond financing for the budding rail network." (Source)

(See here.)

Interestingly, "While Obama sees the transcontinental railroad as a symbol of America’s once-great infrastructure, it can just as easily be seen as a forerunner of the corruption and waste that comes with government aid. Congressional rail subsidies led directly to the 1873 Credit Mobilier scandal, which involved a future president, James Garfield, and other legislators." (Source) Garfield, "The twentieth president of the United States[,] gave [a] proof [for] the Pythagorean Theorem." For more on the also-assassinated President Garfield, see here.

Obama's Lincoln-train reference is highly intriguing. As reader John Cole's comment points out: In 2009, "Obama [Took a] Train Ride To History[:] Barack Obama arrived in Washington at the end of a whistle-stop train trip along the frigid mid-Atlantic seaboard that tracked Abraham Lincoln's historic route and brought the president-elect a step closer to inauguration." (Source)

"On the way to his inauguration, President-elect Lincoln met many of his supporters throughout the Union and narrowly avoided an assassination attempt ...In February, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln traveled from Springfield to Washington, visiting his supporters and finding his voice on his way to taking the oath of office on March 4." (Source; See Lincoln's scheduled stops here.)

After his assassination, Lincoln (or, at least, his body) essentially took his inaugural train ride in reverse. "Abraham Lincoln's funeral train left Washington on April 21, 1865.  It would essentially retrace the 1,654 mile route Mr. Lincoln had traveled as president-elect in 1861 (with the deletion of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and the addition of Chicago)." (Source)

The funeral train car was destroyed by fire. For more, see here.

[Update 13 October 2012]

"Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis admit fear drove them toward ‘Lincoln’[:] When it came time to tell the story of the 16th president of the United States on film, both Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis admitted they felt a certain degree of fear. ... 'I require fear in order to run towards something,' Spielberg explained, adding that the feeling of fear in his filmmaking reassures him that he has chosen his project wisely. 'The more frightened I am, the more I have to run into what's scaring me to figure out what it is,' Spielberg said. He concluded, 'The work that I'm proudest of is the work that I'm most afraid of.' ..." (Source)
For more on Lincoln, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and Obama, see here and here.

(Thanks to John Cole for pointing this out; Source)

See also:

"Threats"

"Hue of Lincoln"

"Hercules and His Twin"

"Now is the Time"