Whistling In The Dark

The Moon Cannot Be Stolen

 

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The Moon Cannot Be Stolen

 

 

Dome of the Rock

Beneath the sign of the crescent moon lies the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest shrines, as if in recollection of days when nomads scoured and traversed the arabian sands beneath it's waxing and waning light. Some even claim the name "Allah" (the "High One") was once given to the lunar orb itself.

The concept is puzzling. The sun is the most logical candidate for a cardinal celestial body. Traditionally (or so we suppose), the moon has taken the backseat position of cosmic feminine.

To reconcile this with astronomical knowledge, however, is a task, for, as we now know, while the sun is just a fiery grain of sand on a vast galactic beach, there are few objects in the sky quite so unique as the Earth's moon. It is an extreme astrophysical improbability, plagued with haunting anomalies, presenting conundrums nearly impossible to account for within modern academic cosmology.

In truth: It simply should not be there.

 

Allah, the High One

It should not be so big, nor so close. It should not display many of the properties it has been found to, and, above all else, it should not be able to fit so perfectly over the disc of the sun. This is a statistical improbability that defies all rational explanations, save for one:

The moon is not a natural body, or if it is, it did not come to reside where it does now, in orbit around the only known inhabited planet, by happenstance alone. If anything, it seems virtually designed to attract the attention of Earth's inhabitants, to turn their gaze skyward and, in doing so, deliver a chilling message:

"NONE OF THIS IS HERE BY ACCIDENT"

Perhaps, then, it is not so difficult to suppose that ancient astronomers may have known what modern "scientists" are just now beginning to awaken to: that this ghostly orb above us in the dark is quite possibly the most miraculous thing of all.

 

Buster Crater, Descartes Highlands

 

Quotes about the Moon

NASA:

"Earth is the only planet in the solar system with spectacular solar eclipses. Thanks to an apparently improbable coincidence, the Sun and the Moon are almost exactly the same size as seen from Earth...."

BBC Science & Nature:

"It is an unlikely coincidence that we see total solar eclipses at all. The Moon is about 400 times smaller than the Sun, but also happens to be about 400 times closer..."

Timothy Ferris, Natural History Magazine:

"Earth's moon is a mystery The moon is too big: It's more than a quarter of the diameter of Earth. Only Pluto has a satellite so large in relation to itself. The distinction is sufficiently striking that planetologists classify Earth-Moon and Pluto-Charon as "double planets." Moreover, the moon is made of the wrong stuff. While Earth has a massive iron core, the moon contains virtually no iron. Its density, about 3.3 grams per cubic centimeter, resembles that of Earth's mantle but not Earth's core. Nor does the moon have much in the way of volatiles--like water--with which Earth is well endowed."

Isaac Asimov:

"It's too big to have been captured by the Earth. The chances of such a capture having been effected and the moon then having taken up nearly circular orbit around our Earth are too small to make such an eventuality credible."

"There is no astronomical reason why the moon and the sun should fit so well. It is the sheerest of coincidences, and only the Earth among all the planets is blessed in this fashion."

Lunar Anomalies links

Lunar Anomalies Indicate an Artificial Moon

Strange Moon Facts

Apollo Moon Conversations

FEAST OF FOOLS

Garden2

The Lesson of Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights"

(or "How Paradise Turns Into Hell")

 

Garden1

(The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych)

 

It's a familiar pattern with few exceptions (The penultimately surreal and breathtaking Temptation of St. Anthony being one of the more noteworthy). A simple progression, reading left to right.

Garden3

In the primary vista, beauty and balance dominate soothingly, with only hints of the otherworldly and sinister peering from the shadows or lurking in the distance

Garden4

 (a curious font resembling the structure of human reproductive organs, for example).

 

By the time we reach the conclusive display, though, the entire scene has exploded into a charnel house of torment and depravity.

Garden5

The beginning and end are secondary, however. The real tale is what happens in between:

 

Garden6

In Bosch's "Garden", the transition from aedenic to horriffic is festooned with dramatically increasing numbers of people having their way with animals, the landscape, and each other.

Garden7

 

 

 

The backdrop is dominated by strange fonts and follies mirroring that of the first panel, as if depicting fertility itself as the archonic entity presiding over the slow demise of sanity and serenity.

Natural forms are blended with some strange, almost alien technology...

Garden8

 

 

 

Everything is out of proportion, and the increasing masses go about their blind orgy of indulgence with complete impunity, heedless of what is to follow...

 

 

 

Garden9

For, in the final chapter, the landscape itself has it's own feast day, at the expense of the vast hordes of cowering, suffering humans being herded about mindlessly and devoured like livestock by strange beings (such as the bird-headed monsters which seemingly evoke the infamous garb worn by doctors attendant to the Black Death, hinting at plague and contagion as the true "devourer" of this mass human catastrophe).

Garden0

It's as if, like a thief in the night, Death and Monstrosity had slipped in, turning the tables and making mankind their own tortured playthings.

On the whole, the last act of the cycle suggests not so much some divine retribution as the revenge of the world and fate itself against the blind and senseless folly of man depicted in the center panel.

World1

The triptych is flanked and enfolded within a scene depicting the world itself in it's primordial state, as if, in summation, stating "this is the story of life on Earth" - not a simple incident, but a recurrent cycle that humanity is doomed to re-enact ad nauseum until a simple and fundamental lesson is learned, and it is this:

Unchecked and unquestioned proliferation and consumption are the true seeds of Apocalypse.

A cautionary tale all too appropriate in compulsory times of "feast" and "family".

WARNING: ENTERING THE REALM OF A DYING SUN

 

Marsden1

Interesting little anecdote: the "Realm of a Dying Sun" immortalized in the title of the album "Within the Realm of a Dying Sun" by Dead Can Dance is actually a reference to the pagan belief in the period between Samhain (Halloween) and Yule (Christmas).

Dyingsun1

During this time the Sun God "dies", the world of the living wanes and boundaries between the realms of the living and the dead thin, allowing some to cross between the two worlds. So... If you think the spooky stuff ends after tonight, guess again. According to ancient traditions the world over, the portals of the Underworld are now wide open from tonight until the ringing of the church bells on what we think of as Christmas Eve. Wherever you go, whatever you do, the spirits will be watching and listening, and the next corner you turn could land you in a different paradigm entirely if you're not careful...

Marsden2

(Top and bottom photographs by Sir Simon Marsden)

Reasons why I'd like to kick Dan Brown in the nuts...

Agony & Ecstacy

1.

Pierre Plantard: at best. a schizophrenic, but more likely just a typical french asshole just narcissistic and arrogant enough to believe he should be the King of France, and just slimy and scumbag enough to concoct a whole charade (including a fictional, never-before-heard-of organization and a stack of ridiculously forged documents) in some stupid, half-baked attempt to prove it (and thereby attract throngs of fawning, flattering admirers)

2.

The Secret Gospel of Mark: which, to anyone not in total, utter, out-of-this-world, duckies-and-bunnies, Disneyland denial pretty clearly answers the question of WHY Yeshu Ha Notzri was not married (i.e., to use the Southern colloquialism, he was a "confirmed bachelor", as have been many, many of his followers and ministers of his wisdom, from coptics and cathars, to monastic europe, to Michelangelo and countless other painters and sculptors whose immortal work helped to put a - curiously sensual - face on the "glorified abstract", right down to the 20th century Catholic priesthood). It also identifies fairly clearly and unequivocally the "beloved disciple" (cutting to the chase, in all probability it was Lazarus), with whom the "savior" spent many an unclothed moonlit hour.

 

3.

"M" for "Mary"?? Try "Melusine":

Melusine

Out of the darkness following the collapse of the Roman Empire, she came, black-eyed and ghostly pale, with long, silken tresses the color of flame. Dubbed "the Devil's Daughter" (or "Black Virgin") she is a figure out of European myth and legend. Known by various names (Melusine, Melusina, Mellisande), she was said to be half-human, half... something else. She has adorned regal heraldry throughout Europe since the middle ages, and even today graces the logo of the ubiquitous Starbucks chain. And, it is said, she was the progenitor of many (if not most) of the crowned heads of Europe by a certain point. She is widely held to be the founder of the Lusignan (note: Me-Lusine / Lusign-an) branch of the famed Merovingian dynasty. Although they were indeed reputed to have "miraculous" abilities, they were anything but saintly. Called the "Thaumaturge", or "Sorcerer Kings" and although some attached a more benign role, to many others they were reviled as evil, demonic despots who proclaimed boldly to be descended, not from Christ, but from "the Devil himself" (i.e. the "Father of Lies"). Their ability to wordlessly intimidate and psychologically dominate those around them kept them in power long enough to gain leadership of the Knights Templar (via Guy de Lusignan) and the crusades, as well as intermarry with English and Scottish nobility, before being supplanted by the Carolingians. As for Melusine herself, her death is not recorded, and even centuries later she was said to appear occasionally in the vicinity of the castle of Lusignan.

"Come and play with us..."

"Far-fetched", you say? Let us hope so. One curious thing about the Merovingians which has never been fully explained is that the bee was a sacred animal to them. What is it about bees that they revered exactly? We can make a few projections: bees are diligent workers who function on a collective, or "hive" consciousness (or to put it in biblical terms, "Legion" "...for we are many...") under the direction of an "invisible" or hidden matriarchy (although it's worth noting that James I, who commissioned the "King James" bible via Sir Francis Bacon, was also a descendant of the "accursed" line via the scottish Stuarts).

In any event, the Merovingians, having been, among other things, pathological liars, would have been the last to disparage any popular work that might supposedly link them to some fictional "holy bloodline" (thus fulfilling the ancient tradition of the "divine" right of monarchs to rule - think Egypt, for example). Of course, to achieve such a position of total power, any dissenters or holdouts this "Legion" encountered would likely have to be systematically eliminated (by ephemeral or other means...)

Something to chew on, there...

Shock Me...

Deepdooku

Amidst all this talk of torture, I think it's worth noting that, for a quite a while now, it's been known that the US was the largest manufacturer of electrical torture devices used worldwide:

"Amnesty International lists 100 companies worldwide that produce and sell instruments of torture. Forty-two of these firms are in the United States. This places the U.S. as the leader in the manufacture of stun guns, stun belts, cattle probe-like devices, and other equipment which can cause devastating pain in the hands of torturers..."

During the senior Bush administration, victims of the El Salvador "death squads" reported being subjected to strange, sadistic implements stamped with the familiar corporate logos:

"Various sources have reported the use of U.S.-manufactured torture equipment. Rene Hurtado, for example, explained, "There are some very sophisticated methods...of torture..[like the machine] that looks like a radio, like a transformer; it s about 15 centimeters across, with connecting wires. It says General Electric on it...."

At the time Amnesty International was reporting that such devices were manufactured in Texas and quietly exported to "third world" countries for use on the indigenous populace.

A very old hope...

The Way of the Tao

Wu Wei, the basis for Wei Wu Wei, "Actionless Action", or "how to combat the Evil False God on it's own turf", courtesy of Taoist Alchemy (the closest thing in reality to "Jedi Powers")

The First Crusade

"under the April Skies..."

 

Ever wondered where all the "good", "true" Christians are? Well, this is what happened to them. Surprised?

 

"...And there's one thing I couldn't do: Sacrifice myself to you"

- The Jesus & Mary Chain, "April Skies"

The TRUE Way of the Samurai

The Divine Love

Shudo / Nanshoku