We now make a bow to the
Bow in the title - a 'Rain
bow'.
Normally they look like this...
But in
July 1985, a firm of French fashion designers (
Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure) created a
hole new look ...
... when they bombed the Rainbow Warrior (twice) in Auckland Harbour.
Their historically accepted
dire-ctive was "
to sink the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet ... to prevent her from interfering in a nuclear test in Moruroa."
From 1966 -1996,
Mururoa Atoll was the
French Nuclear Golf Course of the Pacific. Here they had a thirty year 'blast' attempting to get a hole in one. According to wiki, 41 shots were teed off above ground & 147 from bunkers - giving them a final score of 188.
We return to the scene of the
former crime.
"
The first bomb exploded at 11.38pm, lifting those in the mess off their seats. Davy Edwards rushed into the engine room to find a hole the size of a car, water pouring in. Everyone was ordered off the ship but some went back to grab possessions. Fernando Pereira, the ship's photographer, was one of them, perhaps going after his precious cameras. There was a second explosion and, caught in a rush of water, Pereira drowned."
As with the
Mikhail Lermentov (still 222 days in the future), one ship & one man die.
The name
Pereira translates to
pear which further translates
homophonically to '
pair' - echoing the number of explosions, the similarities of two men who die on two tale telling ships & pre-echoing the man who will die twice,
Mikhail Lermontov.
I really can't see that this smallish nuisance protest vessel, that had seen better sailing days, was ever going to be hard to 'dispose' of. A little nudge, accident or sabotage, somewhere on her travels would have done the
trick nicely.
Instead a team of specialists was freighted in from France to perform open heart surgery on a vessel taking a breather in the
heart of Auckland,
... the largest city in a non aggressive country lying at the end (& the beginning) of the world. Were we to continue our golfing analogy it would have been akin to Mr Woods taking out a full page advert in
'Adulterer's Weekly' prior to his
unravelling. As a covert undercover operation, it made
no(n) sense.
The sensing however, that the
sacrificing of the
Rainbow Warrior was an
occult ritual, really hit home on learning that the
a-bomb-in-able 'incision' was s-p-e-l-l-e-d "
Opération Satanique" (Satanic).
At what part of a ritual does '
fate' kick in? Do the
Fates come calling as the ritual progresses? Or do certain actions have to take place prior to the event in order to summon the sacrificial lamb (or pear) to their allotted destiny?
"
In Greek and Roman mythology, pears are sacred to three goddesses: Hera (Juno to the Romans), Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans), and Pomona, an Italian goddess of gardens and harvests... The ancient Chinese believed that the pear was a symbol of immortality. (Pear trees live for a long time.) In Chinese the word li means both "pear" and "separation".
Now I'd like to take you on a short ramble on a little track I
chanced upon. What seems at first to be disconnected, on second glance has the trappings of some deep forgotten truth. In searching for pear pics I came across the words of a
painting wise woman.
"
And then one fateful night I created — seemingly from nowhere — a painting with three pears. It seemed somewhat odd reflecting on it later, since I had no known connection to this plump little fruit. The pears then started appearing in my work on a very regular basis, still without much thought, but it seemed very natural and comforting to paint them. ... Naturally people began asking “What’s with the pears?” For years I had no enlightened response ... Then, finally a few events fell into place ... One inquiring friend had made the observation that a pear actually resembles the human heart much more than the traditional Valentine version ... I have endured three open heart surgeries, starting at the age of six. The pears were my hearts — my three hearts, my three chances at life. It made sense that I repeated this image, it was my symbol for life. If I didn’t paint pears for a couple of weeks I would get tired, irritated, off balance. It enlivens me to paint pears, to put them out there, to share them, each pear reaffirming my life and the thanks I give for each chance at life."
I heartily recommend the full story here - don't worry it's short & sweet.
And a little foray into the world of art
Madonna of the Pear 1512 (Albrecht Dürer)
"The pear as an attribute of Christ and Maria is not rare in Venetian painting of the Renaissance, and it appears in all Italian painting;... the sweetness of the taste symbolizes the sweetness of mouth and heart, which are, according to Saint Bonaventure, the gifts of the wise." In case you have trouble locating the aforementioned fruit in the above-mentioned painting, look to JC's hand - the babe got peckish.
On checking out
factual descriptions of the human heart, I found many a medical personage agreeing with our
sage artiste -
"
The human heart resembles the shape of an upside down pear"
"
The human heart is a pear-shaped structure"
Something in the lady artists words stirred something in me, something to do with the forgotten
wildness & naturalness of our hearts.
continuing...
The naming of the
Rainbow Warrior is said to come from an American Indian Prophecy;
"
There will come a time when the Earth grows sick and when it does a tribe will gather from all the cultures of the World who believe in deed and not words. They will work to heal it...they will be known as the "Warriors of the Rainbow."
& a little from wiki "
Whether as bridge, messenger, archer's bow or serpent, the rainbow has been pressed into symbolic service for millenia."
The historical blend of
prism &
ship goes back to the greatest ocean going liner of all time. It appeared when the CEO of
Earth Inc made
Noah & Sons Ltd redundant with the wave of a magical rainbow, & promised forthwith not to get into such a foul mood again.
Of course we can't leave the Greeks out ...
"
IRIS was the goddess of the rainbow, the messenger of the Olympian gods. She was often represented as the handmaiden and personal messenger of Hera (aforementioned pear goddess). Iris was a goddess of sea and sky--her father Thaumas "the wondrous" was a marine-god, and her mother Elektra "the amber" a cloud-nymph ... Her name contains a double meaning, being connected both with iris, "the rainbow," and eiris, "messenger."
or the Romans...
"
July 10, 1985. Dishevelled, and numb with shock, the crew of the Rainbow Warrior stood, staring into the dark waters of Marsden Wharf, the smallest of three commercial piers piercing Auckland's Waitemata Harbour. Before them, lying crippled and half submerged in the water was the Warrior - their home and an international symbol of peace"
You know I almost missed the spelling of this place of spells -
Marsden - or the
den of Mars
"scourge of mortals, piercer of shields, the bloodstained one"
"
Mars, the Roman God of War, was one of the most worshipped and revered gods throughout ancient Rome. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno (aka the pear goddess Hera) and according to legend, fathered Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome"
Pertaining to Mars' astrological influence we find - "
In nature it rules heat, fire, earthquakes, violence, war and explosions. The power of psychological fears and phobias fester within the inner darkness until finally it explodes (Mars rules explosions) to the surface."
"
Mars means "bright and burning one"."
Why I wonder was Auckland chosen to be the city
at the end of the rainbow? It is rather interesting that while terrorism was being publicly condemned, the
ending of the rainbow was greeted with silence (license?) by the then reigning emperor of the USA, Ceasar Reagan & by his co-ruler across the waters, Cleo Thatcher. But then perhaps they were busy telling tales of goats to
kiddies at the time.
Almost two & half years later, in December 1987, the corpse of the
Rainbow Warrior is towed to the north east of the North Island of NZ & scuttled "
to serve as a dive wreck and fish sanctuary."
"
Diver Dover Samuels was in the water as the Rainbow Warrior went down. His comments reflect the feelings of many who have since had the experience of diving the Rainbow Warrior. Said Samuels, “To me the Rainbow Warrior is not just a steel structure. It’s a ship with a living heart and the dignity and manna that a warrior’s burial carries with it.”
The ship that was sunk in
'Opération Satanique' presently holds a perfectly aligned death mirror to the
Mikhail Lermontov - both times 1 man
aged 33 died out-
rite, followed by the subsequent deaths of 3 recreational divers.
2003: "A BRITISH woman tourist has died after diving near the wreck of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior off New Zealand...was exploring the underwater wreck ... when the freak accident happened"
February 2005: "The Rainbow Warrior wreck in Northland has been the site of two diver deaths this month, though an instructor and guide says the popular site is not difficult.
Neil John Doherty, 27, died in Auckland Hospital on Thursday after he surfaced in difficulty at the site near Matauri Bay.
On February 10, a 53-year-old English tourist died after she was pulled from the water unconscious."
Now we come to our fourth ship. Well actually I'm being a bit creative here, because this time it is an
air-ship. Nevertheless I'm suggesting that it was a ship that drove it onto the rocks.
The date is 28th November & the year is 1979.
An Air NZ DC10 is on a sightseeing flight to the Antarctic.
"
Collins and Cassin input the coordinates into the plane's computer before they departed at 8.21 am NZDT ... from Auckland International Airport... Unknown to them, the coordinates had been modified earlier that morning to correct the error introduced years previously and undetected until now... the flight crew believed they were flying over McMurdo Sound, well to the west of Mt Erebus and with the Ross Ice Shelf visible on the horizon, when in reality they were flying directly towards the mountain...
...
Despite most of the crew being engaged in identifying visual landmarks at the time, they never perceived the mountain directly in front of them. Approximately six minutes after completing a descent in ... good weather and with visibility out to at least 23 miles ... the Ground Proximity Warning System began sounding a warning that the plane was dangerously close to terrain. Although Collins immediately requested go-around power, there was no time to divert the aircraft and six seconds later the plane collided with the side of Mount Erebus and disintegrated, instantly killing all [257 people]
on board."
"
It was the worst civil disaster in New Zealand's history."
"
The force of the crash, followed by the immediate explosion & fierce fire, made survival impossible and completely demolished the DC10"
As with the three fates already told, this tale too contains elements of strangeness &
otherworldiness. If we translate this event into mythology, then Flight TE901
flew straight into hell.
"
In Greek Mythology "EREBOS (or Erebus) was the Protogenos (primeval god) of darkness... The name Erebos was also used for the dismal, netherworld realm of Haides."
"
Erebus was later depicted as a material region, the lower half of Hades, the underworld. It was where the dead had to pass immediately after dying."
"
Several crevasses had opened up along the path of the wreckage - the edges of these had been red-flagged as danger areas to keep clear of. They seemed to go down interminably as in most cases we could not see the bottoms ... After setting up suitable anchors I abseiled down until it was so dark I could not see any further. We did not have any torches on the site (why would you with 24 hours daylight?) so we were unable to see what was beyond the dark abyss."
Geologically,
this hell is thusly described;
"
Mount Erebus in Antarctica is the southernmost historically active volcano on Earth .. [it] is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which includes over 160 active volcanoes. The volcano has been observed to be continuously active since 1972."
This entry to hell was first opened for tourists in the year
1841 (the year Mikhail Lermontov died for the first time), by the British explorer in the 'title' of
this series -
James Clark Ross.
His JC initials resonating nicely with the
CRoss (either upright '
†' or dangling 'x')...
... While his
15th April birthdate will make history 112 years later as a colossal virgin goes down in infamy.
In January of 1841, JCRoss noted that there was sea & land in Antarctica & named them after himself, thus
Ross Sea &
Ross Island were 'discovered'. Upon the
Isle de Ross, a "
stupendous volcanic mountain in a high state of activity" was also noted (well they couldn't really miss it). This time the Ross-i-crucian name was given a rest.
Lacking a modern compendium of popular names, Cap'n Ross
christ(X)ened the southernmost active volcano of the
(under)world after his hell-ship,
Erebus. Her sister ship on this
seatrek is
Terror & thus it is that Mt Erebus' Xtinct
sister volcano becomes
Mt Terror.
It has always seemed strange to me that such names were used for these ships, when sailors were such superstitious folk.
Four years later these two ships head off on the glorious
Franklin Expedition to discover the North-West Passage for the glorious British Empire...
"
The Franklin Expedition is the worst disaster in the history of British polar exploration. It occurred with the total loss of two naval vessels ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’ and all their crews."
I was rather interested to come across a little snippet about the moons of the
plane-t Mars; "
Hall named them “Phobos” and “Deimos” so that in the heavens, as in the myths and in reality, war is accompanied by fear and terror. "
Returning the 20th century, we recall that Air NZ Flight TE901 was lost with all on board on the slopes of Erebus in 1979. In a book I've been using for research (dated 1994), the claim is made that Erebus was
the worlds most controversial air accident.
Extreme strangeness creeps into this story when on the 29th anniversary of this disaster, it happened again.
This time it was off the coast of France, but
Hades was still on board.
"Five Kiwis and two German pilots were on the Air New Zealand Airbus (come on sound it out - Ere-bus) A320 when it crashed into the Mediterranean, off Perpignan in southeast France."
"The jet plunged into the Mediterranean as it was approaching the Perpignan airport, from which it had taken off on a circular flight an hour earlier ... Witnesses said it appeared low in the sky and seemed to drop into the sea as it began to turn."
First pic
1979: "
there was no time to divert the aircraft and six seconds later the plane collided with the side of Mount Erebus and disintegrated ... Most of the aircraft was smashed into small pieces, with the exception of the empennage (aviation term used to describe the tail section of an aircraft)."
Second pic 2008 "GRAVE MARKER: The tail section of the Air New Zealand Airbus A320 airliner is seen above water in the Mediterranean Sea off France's southwest coast."
"The crash was highly publicised in New Zealand due to a date coincidence with another Air New Zealand crash. Due to differing time zones, the crash of Flight 888T occurred in the morning of 28 November New Zealand time - 29 years to the day after Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 257 onboard."
We started our tale with ships, moved to an airship & then returned full circle to another craft lost at sea.
New Zealand is a small country with a small population (around 4.3 million) & situated at the edge of the world. I think because of this we have felt things that happen to our land & people very strongly. We have perhaps been inclined to regard ourselves as a little outside of this world, not having a great deal of input in what goes on 'out there'.
Yet lately I have wondered if there could be more & so had a play...
What if we looked at NZ as the tugboat of this westernised world?
What if we en
visioned a tapestry of ropes reaching from the great continents to this little country that is shaped like an arrow? Each day she leads the way to the new dawn. Could this be why the Green witch's home is in ground zero?
Insert from future: I've just popped back from the tomorrow of this article because I forgot to mention the tale that makes these fancyings a little less fanciful.
In Maori mythology the North Island of NZ is a great fish (Te Ika-a-Māui) that was hauled to the surface by the demigod, Maui. The South Island (Te waka-a-Maui ) was Maui's waka (canoe), while Stewart Island (Te Punga o Te Waka a Maui) at the very bottom was the anchor stone.
I got a kindly email from Ellis Taylor the other day & he said thus "
NZ has always been regarded as a mirror in many ways of Britain. Even at school I can remember how that was mentioned several times." Thus perhaps, the grasp of the royal grip begins to make more sense - more to come on this.
In investigating my homely country I became concerned over whether it is best to speak out of what I seem to see, albeit in a looney kind of way. If strange & nasty things are afoot do I make them stronger by looking at them? My wonderings on this were also settled by Ellis through a comment I found in his
latest newsletter.
"
Every person who is made aware of this Spell will change the nature of it, the course of it. The Spell will not work in the way they intend if just one person understands, but the more there are that observe it then the more powerful will be our interruption and the more successful will be our operation."
So I write this & will continue to write because NZ is not a pawn to be used by any dark forces - she is a wondrous land that deserves to be home to, & cared for by, goodly people.
Thus this just about wraps up the second part of our tale. We have focused on the loss of four craft (with a fifth mirroring the fourth hellish incident).
I decided to join the dots of these darkly deeds to see what I could see.
Joining those dots left me feeling cross.
(As NZ is very skinny, I have exaggerated the west to east crossing to allow you to get the picture).
Our marking of the spot goes like this:
We've had
Satan in the North &
Hades/Hell in the deep South.
X-rossing this line we've had an
Adam in the West & in the East, lay
Eve, done to death upon a
reef - "
ridge underwater," 1584 ... from O.N. rif "ridge," lit. "
rib". "
(
Looking down over Auckland Harbour, where Satan conducted his Requiem for a Rainbow is my favourite Auckland volcano, Mt Eden).
After all this there was only one way to go.
Up.
As above so below.
Next time we climb up
a pole & head for the stars in what should be the finale of the series.
I leave you with a question.
Does
Ross Island in Antarctica, remind you of anything?
(So far 3 out of 4 people have seen what I see).
Beneath the frosting of this little sphinx lies the pulsing heart of Mt Erebus, the southernmost active volcano in the world.
We'll take this little lion skyward next time too.
A little bit extra & free of charge - a couple of links to two of my earliest articles - one on the
Rainbow Warrior & one on
Erebus
Is there even the remotest possibility
