The Rainbow Warrior was named after a prophesy. A old Cree woman, named 'Eyes of Fire' said that that one day when the Earth was very sick, the Warriors of the Rainbow would come and help to restore beauty & harmony to the world.
I've been having an amazing time following rainbow threads that started with watching the 1992 movie 'The Rainbow Warrior'. This journey has been a constant interweaving of my life & the facts as they have appeared over the past week.
When the Rainbow Warrior was sunk in Auckland in 1985, I was living in the wilds of Australia, and as such it did not touch me in the same way that it would have done had I been there (just how strongly are our emotions frenzied by the media?).
I thought my son might be interested in the story, and the 'official' version is as good a place to start as any. Two things caught my attention in the movie. The first was that the skipper of the Rainbow Warrior was played by Jon Voight. I was rather surprised by this - a 'big name' for a story in a little country. Secondly was the T shirt he wore constantly throughout the movie - it had the phases of the moon across the top and a large winged design underneath - the sort that makes researchers take notice.
I started to ponder if there could have been a symbolic reason for the sinking of this ship.
The Rainbow Warrior was the flagship of the Greenpeace organisation, it was not a NZ ship. The bombing & sinking were however, carried out in Auckland Harbour.
So I went looking for signposts to the significance of this event.
From the NZ end, the official story goes like this. In 1985, NZ began it's stance against nuclear energy, and denied entry to it's ports of any submarines powered by, or carrying nuclear weapons. This annoyed the American Govt. NZ was already pissed off at the French for not only testing nuclear weapons, but doing it in our back yard in the Pacific on Mururoa Atoll (by the time this ended in 1996 they had held over 200 nuclear tests). The Rainbow Warrior was set to stage another protest there.
Two bombs were attached to the hull and were detonated just before midnight on the 10th July 1985. One man was killed. The ship sank. Police quickly rounded up two suspects who turned out to be French agents (DGSE), and over time it was admitted by the French Govt. that they were working under orders. Reparations were paid, the pair were sentenced to 10 years, but were back in France after a couple of years. Twenty years later it was revealed that Francois Mitterand gave the orders. There has been worldwide acceptance of this story.
Now here's the thing. Why?
It was a very public display. A great deal of effort & planning (there were actually several French agents in the country) for a small vessel - 4o metres, that was more of a pain in the arse than anything else. A lot more of the crew could have died that night, which would have only added to it's international notoriety. They say they weren't expecting to get caught, but I think every man & woman and their dog, in NZ, would have looked 'Franceward'.
But was the 'end of the Rainbow' a symbolic event?
As soon as I thought of it thus, I remembered 'Rainbows End', the largest Theme Park in NZ. It opened in Auckland in December 1982. On researching this, I learned that on 10th February 2008 a worker had been killed on a ferris wheel. (I don't follow the news, and hadn't known about this). I recalled Matthew Delooze's article on ferris wheels, which featured in my trip to Japan (see previous post)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10491644
Chasing rainbows across the internet over the last week has led me in many directions. I found another 'end of the rainbow' headline for 1st March. They certainly had to stretch this a bit to get the headline to fit. The effects of a lethal combination of drugs recalls the death of Heath Ledger.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899862,00.html
I also found a book called 'Rainbows End: The crash of 1929' by Maury Klein. (published 2002)The phrase 'end of the rainbow' conjurs up images of the end of a honeymoon period and I wonder if these headlines are indicating upcoming financial upheavals.
Anyway back to the trail.
I remembered that on my visit to Tokyo earlier in February, I had seen an upturned rainbow. The only reason I saw this was that a crow flew low overhead and let out a loud screech which made me look up. In the days since I remembered this, crows have turned up repeatedly, all the more interesting as we don't have any in NZ.
In native American tradition, crow is the keeper of the sacred law, and speaks of the need to do what is necessary to keep this law - which is the work of a rainbow warrior.
The crow has a mixed history in mythology.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/3030/crow2.html
When typing in crow on an internet search, I unknowingly left the word 'rainbow' in the search box, and so found this story about the rainbow crow.
http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/nj7
Following the rainbow threads I also recalled the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo that leads to one of the largest Ferris wheels in the world. A further pont of interest for me was that it is featured in the movie Lost in Translation, which I have only recently watched.
It was also seen in Kill Bill Vol. 1 as the Crazy 88 Gang cross it on the way to the final showdown. A theme reminiscent of Ragnarok in Norse mythology (see below).
The first bridge I came to was Bifrost. In Norse mythology, it is the bridge made by the gods that leads from Asgard (land of the gods) to Midgard (land of the mortals). Some scholars believe that Bifrost may have originally represented the Milky Way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifr%C3%B6st
It is said that this bridge will be destroyed at Ragnarok - the final battle that leads to the destruction of the world followed by its rebirth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k
Norwegian mythology had a strong influence on Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and the bridge of Khazad-dum in the fiery heart of Moria may be a reference to it. The setting for Middle Earth in the movie Lord of the Rings is NZ.
Richard Wagner, much beloved by Hiltler, was also stongly influenced by these myths and wrote an epic 15 hour opera, The Ring of Nibelung, often called 'The Ring' which finishes with the gods traversing the Rainbow Bridge.
I followed the threads to some other Rainbow Bridges.
In Utah, USA, stands the Rainbow Bridge National Monument. An outstanding natural arch that has long been considered sacred by Native Americans. They call it Nonnezoshe or "rainbow turned to stone."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Bridge_National_Monument
Traversing the Niagara River gorge is another Rainbow Bridge. In 1938 the Honeymoon Bridge collapsed. The following year during a royal visit, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth dedicated (claimed) the site, where the new Rainbow Bridge would be erected. A monument with biblical text recalling the great flood was erected. The new bridge was opened on the auspicious date of 1st November 1941. 21 years later an almost identical bridge, The Queenston-Lewiston Bridge was opened on the same date further downstream.
In 1999, a Rainbow Bridge collapsed in China
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/251723.stm
The last thread for this mystical bridge comes in descriptions of the planet Chiron as the Rainbow Bridge between Saturn & Uranus. There is a strong link of synchronicity in this for me, which is why I include it as a thread.
I am not an astrologer, but I had a feeling that 1985 would show some significance to do with this planet. On looking further I found that from 1985, Chiron & Saturn were approximately the same distance as each other from the sun and were locked in opposition for the next 21 years. Strangely, I found a site which saw Chiron as being a factor in the Bob Geldof / Live Aid phenomenon!
Well most of the threads have unravelled now, with a few still dangling.
I feel that some message was conveyed with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, that had nothing to do with threats from a powerful country to a little organisation.
It was an aggressive display of strength & ruthlessness. The end of the rainbow came two years before the Harmonic Convergence, the kick off for the twenty five year countdown to 2012, in the Mayan calendar. The Mayan Goddess of the rainbow is Ixchel, she is the spirit associated with the moon, sexuality, childbirth & medicine - all of which seem to have taken a dive over the last twenty odd years.
So on 10th July 1985 we had the end of the rainbow. To put this into a time frame you are likely to recognise I will point out that three days later the sun rose on the Live Aid concert.
I found out just the other day that the French code name for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior was 'Operation Satanic.'
