Isis Unveiled in Paris?

(Image from Wikipedia.)

Samuel Liddell "MacGregor" Mathers and his wife Moina (born Mina Bergson) introduced their "Rite of Isis" in Paris in the 1890s. Have we now, to borrow the title from Russian-born mystic Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, seen "Isis Unveiled"?

Pictured: A promotional poster for As Above, So Below, Universal Pictures, 2014. Of course the phrase "as above, so below," traces back to alchemical texts such as the fabled Emerald Tablet. Among other things, it signifies the mystical correspondences that various occultists believe exist between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm.

In his Dans l’ombre des cathedrals,[1] Robert “Ambelain claims that Notre Dame [cathedral] was constructed on the site of an ancient temple to Isis, worshipped by the early settlers, known as the Parisi, and constructed on an alchemical formula for the control of natural forces.”[2]

The 19th-20th c. Ezra Pound associate and modernist poet Hilda Doolittle, writing as “H.D.,” once wrote:

"Isis, Iris, Fleur-de-lis, Bar-Isis is son of Isis,"

"(bar ou ber ou ben, signifiant fils). so Bar-Isis is Par-Isis? Paris, anyway; …"

"why do they punish us? come out, come out of the darkness; will I be burnt to cinders in this heat? …"

"Bar-Isis, Paris; I call Paris, Paris, not to the Greek …"

"This is my new prayer; I pray to you? Paris, Bar-Isis?"

"to Osiris? or to Isis-self, Egyptian flower … out of the sea, over the sand,"

"a symbol, obelisk, no man, Memnon, Bar-Isis, son of Dawn ["Dawn" = "Aurora" - Ed.]."[3]

“H.D. at Yale: photograph of Hilda Doolittle, Norman H. Pearson, and Bryher in front of Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University.”[4]

In wartime London, “…the ‘Lowndes Group’ [after her residence at 49 Lowndes Sqaure, SW1] had begun to form around H.D. …Besides Hilda …, there was Norman Pearson…”.[5] Pearson, by the way, not only penned a foreword to H.D.’s above volume of poetry, but also is credited as the copyright holder.[6]

“In 1942, erstwhile Yale student Donald Downes recruited English professor Norman Holmes Pearson into the OSS [i.e., William Donovan’s wartime spy-shop, the Office of Strategic Services]. …Pearson knew how to read materials ‘as intently as possible for hidden messages’ because the Yale Department of English taught him ‘how to read, really read, closely, without interruption, how to interrogate a manuscript. …’ (After the war, Pearson would resume his scholarly career, which included collaborating with his friend W.H. Auden in the editing of the five-volume anthology ‘Poets of the English Language.’)”[7]

“During the Second World War, [later Central Intelligence Agency counterintelligence chief, James Jesus] Angleton worked at the Office of Special [sic] Services, the CIA’s forerunner. Angleton’s OSS boss Norman Holmes Pearson was another Yale alum. Angleton ran counterintelligence until [investigative journalist] Seymour Hersh laid him low in 1974 with a series of New York Times exposés about the CIA’s involvement in domestic spying.”[8]

Now, a New York Times headline reads: “After Paris Attacks, C.I.A. Director Rekindles Debate Over Surveillance.”[9]

In the 2006 movie The Good Shepherd,[10] British actor Michael Gambon plays the character Dr. Fredericks, who appears to have been modeled upon Norman Holmes Pearson.

[Dr. Fredericks:] "Use your trade craft well. Particularly the use of black propaganda, and the ingredient known as playback - understanding how effectively your own disinformation is actually working on the enemy. It's vital to penetrate the enemy's intelligence services; push them into an unreal world, as it were. The very qualities that make a good intelligence officer - a suspicious mind, a love of complexity in detail - are the very qualities of someone you will be observing. A mental facility to detect conspiracies in betrayal are the same qualities most likely to corrode natural judgment. Everything that seems clear is bent. Everything that seems bent is clear. Trapped in reflections you must learn to recognize when a lie masquerades as a truth, and then deal with it efficiently, dispassionately."[11]

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For crypto-political analysis, see "ISIS: The US/CIA Connection."

Notes:

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[1] Robert Ambelain, Dans l’ombre des cathédrales: étude sur l’ésotérisme architectural et décoratif de Notre-Dame de Paris dans ses rapports avec le symbolisme hermétique, les doctrines secrètes, l’astrologie, la magie et l’alchimie [“In the shadow of Cathedrals: Study on the Architectural and Decorative Esoteric Notre Dame de Paris in Its Relations With the Hermetic Symbolism, Secret Doctrines, Astrology, Magic and Alchemy”], Paris: Ed. Adyar, 1939.

[2] Timothy Materer, Modernist Alchemy: Poetry and the Occult, Ithaca, N.Y. and London: Cornell Univ. Press, 1995, p. 91; archived online at <https://books.google.com/books?id=RAT7RSNRUmQC&pg=PA91>.

[3] H.D., Hermetic Definition, sixth printing, New York: New Directions, 1972, pp. 5ff.

[4] “H.D. at Yale: photograph of Hilda Doolittle, Norman H. Pearson, and Bryher in front of Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University,” Online Exhibits [Yale Univ.], Sept., 1956, <http://exhibits.library.yale.edu/items/show/9090>.

[5] Bryher [Annie Winifred Ellerman], The Days of Mars; A Memoir, 1940-1946, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971; quoted by Michael Howard Holzman, James Jesus Angleton, the CIA, and the Craft of Counterintelligence, Amherst, Mass.: Univ. of Mass. Press, 2008, p. 42; archived online at <https://books.google.com/books?id=H8q_zVR_5EYC&pg=PA42>.

[6] Hermetic Definition, op. cit., front matter.

[7] Jeet Heer, “School for Spies: What the CIA Learned (and Mis-learned) in the Groves of Academe,” Boston Globe [online], Dec. 28, 2003, <http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/12/28/school_for_spies/>.

[8] David Hillel Gelernter, America-Lite: How Imperial Academia Dismantled our Culture (and Ushered in the Obamacrats), New York: Encounter Books, 2012, p. 47; archived online at <https://books.google.com/books?id=BC8uAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT42>.

[9] Scot Shaneov, “After Paris Attacks, C.I.A. Director Rekindles Debate Over Surveillance,” New York Times, Nov. 16, 2015, <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/us/after-paris-attacks-cia-director-rekindles-debate-over-surveillance.html>. On John Brennan’s lies, see Editorial Board, “Mass Surveillance Isn’t the Answer to Fighting Terrorism,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 2015, <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/opinion/mass-surveillance-isnt-the-answer-to-fighting-terrorism.html>. H/t: Michael A. Hoffman, “Top US Security Officials Caught Lying,” Revisionist Review [weblog], Nov. 19, 2015, <http://revisionistreview.blogspot.com/2015/11/top-us-security-officials-caught-lying.html>.

[10] Universal Pictures. Directed by Robert De Niro, it featured an all-star cast, including Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, William Hurt, Angelina Jolie, Joe Pesci and John Turturro.

[11] Transcript at "The Good Shepherd," Eye of the Mind [weblog], Mar. 11, 2010, http://eye-of-enigma.livejournal.com/21466.html.